E le sauaina tatou tagata matutua: Re-examining abuse through cultural lens of the fonofale model

Introduction Cultural paradigms are emerging as the appropriate way to examine Samoans’ life experiences. In this study, it proposes to employ the fonofale model to explore and examine the notion of abuse among Pacific elders main from a Samoan lens. Methodology In framing this study, the talanoa approach was deemed culturally appropriate. Twelve Samoan tagata matutua (elderly people) were asked to talanoa (discuss) their experiences of what abuse means to them. Findings suggest that, initially, abuse of Samoan elders was at first contested. That it is not the fa’asamoa(Samoan way). However, as the talanoa gathered mafana (warmth) and malie (maintained good social relationships), most agreed that physical abuse was uncommon within an aiga (familial) context, but other forms of abuse were apparent. Conclusion For these tagata matutua, six different forms of abuse were identified; with particular emphasis on cultural and spiritual abuse. Following the fonofale paradigm, which reflects the Samoan worldview, this article informs the perception of spiritual abuse for Samoan elders and is relevant within the wider Pacific context.

The Secularization of the Church

The aim of this paper is to explore a few factors that contribute to the tendency towards secularization in the evangelical churches in Central and Eastern Europe. It further suggests theological remedies to address the causes of secularization. The thesis of this paper is that there are three causes for the tendency towards secularization. First is the secularization of theological education, second is the crisis of ecclesial identity, and third is the secularization of leadership. The first proposal of this paper is that the remedy for the secularization of theological education is redefining theology as communion, theological education as transformation, and theological formation as discipleship. Second, the remedy for the crisis of ecclesial identity that leads to negative identity markers is the replacement of the external conformation model of Christian life (which leads to social isolation, subculturality, and spiritual abuse) with the internal transformation model, which leads to a healthy spirituality and a meaningful theology of mission. Third and finally, the remedy for the secularization of leadership is the rediscovery of the kenotic model of Christian life and ministry.

The Dual Use of Religious-Faith in Intimate Partner Abuse Perpetration: Perspectives of Latino Men in a Parish-based Intervention Program

Little is known about the role that religious-faith plays in the lives of men who have acted abusively against an intimate partner. Studies report mixed findings about the relationship between religious-faith and intimate partner violence/abuse (IPV/A) perpetration. This study explored the perceptions of Latino men involved in a parish-based partner abuse intervention program (PAIP). Two focus groups were conducted with members of the PAIP (N=18). Two major themes emerged. Participants reported using religious-faith as a mechanism for ending violence. However, participants also reported past misuse of religion in order to gain control over intimate partners. These apparently conflicting roles of religion were further elucidated in several sub-themes. Religious-faith is complex. This study offers insight into how faith may serve as both a risk and protective factor for IPV/A perpetration. Implications for how intervention programs may address participants’ religious-faith during treatment and how religio-spiritual abuse is measured are discussed.

Defining and Enabling ‘Justice’ for Victims/Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse

The article is based on a qualitative field study of how justice (in its wider sense) is understood by practitioners and religious leaders from Judaism, Islam and Christianity, who work with victims of domestic violence and abuse. The article focuses on two key questions: a) how do practitioners from the three faith communities conceptualise justice in relation to domestic violence and abuse (DVA)? b) how far do these practitioners believe that victims of DVA have access to justice within their respective faith communities? The findings suggest that the concept of structural spiritual abuse should be given more attention by the DVA literature and also by those who are working with women of faith.

Lost Saints

Mushrooms containing psilocybin have been used in Indigenous healing ceremonies in Mesoamerica since at least the sixteenth century. However, the sacramental use of mushrooms was only discovered by Westerners in the early to mid-twentieth century. Most notably, the meeting between amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson and Mazatec curandera María Sabina in 1955 resulted in the widespread popularization of ingesting “magic mushrooms” in the West. To Sabina and the Mazatec people, psilocybin mushrooms were sacred and only to be used for healing. However, Western “hippies” viewed mushrooms as psychedelic drugs which they consumed with little regard for cultural sensitivities, rendering the mushrooms desacralized. This article argues that the desacralization of psilocybin mushrooms constitutes a form of spiritual abuse that has had far-reaching and long-lasting consequences at individual, local and global levels. Further, acknowledging and understanding the desacralization of psilocybin mushrooms as spiritual abuse has important implications for restorative justice and the understanding of psilocybin as a sacred medicine.

Spiritual Abuse: A Critical Analysis of Ali and Brentons Iranian Nights

The current research is a critical study of the play Iranian Nights (1989) and it has been tried to explain how certain religious fanatics use religion as their weapon to safeguard their interests. Perspectives of different prominent thinkers like Hughes (2015), Shulman (2016), Schultz (2016), and Black (2015), regarding spiritual abuse, religious intolerance, extremism, and sectarianism, etc. provided the necessary conceptual framework for the research in hand. The data was analyzed keeping in view the parameters of narrative analysis which enabled the researchers to interpret meanings beyond the textual fabrication of narration. It was concluded that spiritual abuse was the result of the narrowmindedness and intolerant behavior of the religious fanatics in the shape of Caliphs, Mullahs, and Kazis. These characters manipulated religious ideals and defamed the religion of Islam in the name of reformation.

Distorting Concepts, Obscured Experiences: Hermeneutical Injustice in Religious Trauma and Spiritual Violence

This article explores the relationship between hermeneutical injustice in religious settings and religious trauma (RT) and spiritual violence (SV). In it I characterize a form of hermeneutical injustice (HI) that arises when experiences are obscured from collective understanding by normatively laden concepts, and I argue that this form of HI often plays a central role in cases of religious trauma and spiritual violence, even those involving children. In section I, I introduce the reader to the phenomena of religious trauma and spiritual violence. In section II, I describe the role normatively laden concepts play in shaping our social experience. I then elucidate how they can contribute to HI. In section III, I provide a brief overview of the history of some significant identity prejudices in the history of Christianity and argue that children can properly be understood as victims of HI within some religious communities. I then return in section IV to the examples of religious trauma and spiritual violence offered throughout the article and demonstrate that HI plays an important causal role in each of them. HIs sometimes constitute spiritual and religious harms; at other times they create an epistemic environment conducive to spiritual abuse.