Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn, Jack Felton
Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn, Jack FeltonExperiencing Healing from Painful Spiritual Abuse
When religion becomes a means to avoid or control life, it becomes toxic. Those who possess a toxic faith have stepped across the line from a balanced perspective of God to an unbalanced faith in a weak, powerless or uncaring God. They seek a God to fix every mess, prevent every hurt, and mend every conflict.
Toxic Faith distinguishes between a healthy faith and a misguided religiosity that traps believers in an addictive practice of religion. It shows how unbalanced ministries, misguided churches, and unscrupulous leaders can lead their followers away from God and into a desolate experience of religion that drives many to despair. Toxic Faith shows readers how to find hope for a return to genuine, healthy faith that can add meaning to life. In the words of the author, “I want to help you throw out that toxic faith and bring you back to the real thing.”
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you need to read this book
- Where is the balance between an ungodly independence that leaves a person overwhelmed from the need to be self-sufficient and a ungodly passivity that leaves someone doing nothing unless “God has spoken” with audible, personal direction?
- Where is the line between conviction to help people out of a love for God and addiction to compulsive work and striving to please God?
- What is the difference between giving money to honor God and giving to buy God’s favor?
- When does growing in faith become a futile attempt to be perfect?
- When does dependence on God become a cop-out, a way to avoid dealing with tough life situations?
- At what point does faith turn into something ugly, void of a loving God, toxic to the believer, and toxic to those who are near?
- How can a person determine when it is right to follow a leader and when it is dangerous?
- How does one recover from a toxic faith to grow in the grace and knowledge of God?
If you are curious about these topics, you need to read this book
- The Extremes of Toxic Faith
- What Are Toxic Faith and Religious Addiction?
- Twenty-One Beliefs of a Toxic Faith
- When Religion Becomes an Addiction
- Religious Addiction: The Progression
- Ten Characteristics of a Toxic-Faith System
- The Five Roles in a Toxic-Faith System
- Ten Rules of a Toxic-Faith System
- Treatment and Recovery
- Seventeen Characteristics of a Healthy Faith
Good and Bad Spirituality
If I were asked for a yardstick to discern good from bad spirituality, I would suggest three criteria to be detached from: material gain, self-importance, and the urge to dominate others. Unfortunately, much of what is labeled spirituality in America today moves in the opposite direction. It means using the names of God and Christ to promote one’s own importance, material gain, and right to oppress others.–Rosermary Radfor Ruether, Professor of Theology
Stephen Arterburn is the creator of Women of Faith conferences, which have been attended by more than one million women. He is also the founder and chairman of New Life Ministries and hosts the New Life Live! radio program. A nationally known speaker and a licenses minister, he is the best-selling author of more than fifty books, including More Jesus, Less Religion; and the coauthor of several titles in the acclaimed Every Man Series. He resides in Laguna Beach, California, and can be reached at sarterburn@newlife.com.
Jack Felton is a licensed therapist, an ordained minister at New Hope Christian Counseling Center, and president and founder of Compassion Move Ministries. Felton is a frequent lecturer in the southern California area and has numerous local and national television and radio appearances to his credit. He and his wife, Robin, and their children, Jack III and Christy, live in Huntington Beach, California. He can be reached at jackfelton@excite.com.