The project explored the role and function of sacred texts, both in facilitating and in resisting abuse in religious contexts. This was done through a series of workshops and research days which explored the relationship between abuse and sacred texts across a range of religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism as well as texts and traditions associated with yoga. By looking at issues across a range of religious traditions, the project sought to support new areas of enquiry to supplement the substantial writing on scriptures and abuse that has already developed in relation to Christianity and Judaism and which is very helpfully summarised here by the Shiloh Project. Participants in these workshops included researchers with particular experience of traditions and uses of sacred texts in particular religious communities, victim-survivors and people involved in community and advocacy work with victim-survivors in particular faith traditions. Three key themes emerged across these workshops.
First, there was a shared awareness of cases in which sacred texts had been used to justify and enable abuse across these faith communities, particularly by male leaders who have claimed authority to know how best to interpret a sacred text and who had used this authority in exploitative ways. Participants recognised the depth of harm that spiritual abuse does to a person of faith and saw this as a particular form of harm experienced by victim-survivors which can overlap or co-occur with harms associated with, for example, sexual or domestic abuse or coercive control. Gender-based violence (particularly as perpetrated by men against women and girls) was a phenomenon recognised across all of these traditions. As a consequence, feminist approaches were often found to be at the forefront of resistance to spiritual abuse – although a number of activists in religious contexts did not like to use the label ‘feminist’ of themselves.
Second, whilst participants identified numerous cases in which sacred texts had been used exploitatively, there was also a shared understanding amongst them that sacred texts could also be a vital resources in challenging and addressing abuse. This included being able to use sacred texts as a source of authority to challenge harmful attitudes and behaviours – including the exploitative use of power – in faith communities as well as a resource that could help victim-survivors with the impact of abuse on their lives and faith. For some involved in supporting victim-survivors or working to promote healthier cultures in their faith community, sacred texts were also important in giving them a sense of emotional, moral and spiritual strength for what could be challenging work.
Third, for many participants, it was essential to maintain a sense of the sacrality and authority of these scriptures and some discomfort could be experienced at critical approaches which appeared to undermine this sacrality or challenge their fundamental authority. A distinction was also made by some between harmful uses of sacred texts (which were seen as arising from exploitative individuals or cultural misunderstandings and misuses of scriptures) and the positive effects of sacred texts (which were seen as correct expressions of the truth and goodness inherent in these texts). In the context of findings from other studies in this project, this emphasis on the inherent sacrality of these texts could be seen as having potentially ambivalent consequences. On the one hand, being able to lay claim to the authority of a sacred text is important for those challenging abuse and supporting victim-survivors in their own faith communities, both in sustaining and giving legitimacy to their work. To remain part of a faith community typically means maintaining fundamental respect for the sacrality of the text around which the group is formed. On the other hand, though, such respect for a sacred text could also place limits on what kinds of critical questions could be asked about it – including whether the sacred text itself had elements that were inherently harmful. Such limits on what could be asked or thought about sacred texts could be less helpful for victim-survivors who want to ask more challenging questions about how abuse might be tied into the teachings, practices and texts of their faith community.
For more on this study, see the Project Publications listed below for more details about the two books, edited by Johanna Stiebert, on Abuse in World Religions that emerged from these workshops as well as the webinar ‘Abuse in Religious Contexts: The Role of Scripture’.
