Spiritual Abuse 12 question checklist

This following survey was taken from here
I adjusted the original language into more easily understood Witness-speak. Abuse is abuse is abuse. It needs to get more attention.


Here is a questionnaire to determine just how healthy your local church is. To find out how well your church ranks, answer "yes" or "no" to the following 12 questions:

1) Does the faithful and discreet slave tightly control the flow of information within its ranks?

2) Does the faithful and discreet slave use public shaming as a method to gain the compliance of followers?

3) Is the faithful and discreet slave intolerant of questions or critical inquiry?

4) Is the faithful and discreet slave the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation?

5) Does the faithful and discreet slave have unreasonable fears about the outside world such as evil conspiracies or persecutions?

6) Are you discouraged to associate with disassociated or disfellowshipped members, being warned that they are "evil" or "defiling"?

7) Is leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses to join a church equal to leaving God?

8) Does the surrounding community view your Kingdom Hall as a cult?

9) Does the faithful and discreet slave consider it evil persecution when criticized or questioned?

10) Do the goals of the faithful and discreet slave seem to supersede any personal goals or individual interests?

11) Do you fear being rebuked, shunned, ignored, or brought into a judicial meeting for expressing a different opinion?

12) Do former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances?

If you answered "no" to all of the above 12 questions, your church is very healthy. If you answered "yes" to three or more, your church is showing signs of being unhealthy. If you answered "yes" to six or more, your church is very unhealthy. If you answered "yes" to eight or more, your church is more than likely a full-blown authoritarian cult.