Bethany Lynn

MSc Psychology of Coercive Control, Cult and Coercive Control Consultant

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

I recently got the chance to present some of my research at The International Coercive Control Conference in NYC. In my presentation, I focused on how theology can be weaponized as a form of spiritualized coercive control against women. I looked at how religious language and doctrine can be used to legitimize male control and entitlement and enforce compliance.
Coercive control is nuanced and personalized to the victim, making it difficult to detect. My question to attendees was how much harder is it to see coercive control when it’s cloaked in spiritual language and given theological justification?

There’s still a long way to go in terms of language, recognition, and response but conferences like this, where researchers, survivors, clinicians, and legal professionals are in conversation, feel like part of an important shift. It was so encouraging getting to connect with others doing this work and I’m grateful to be part of this community.

@TheCCCIntl

#coercivecontrol #cults #domesticabuse #highcontrol #workplacecoercivecontrol #christianmarriage

[Kaeley Triller @KaeleyT]

Megan Basham publicly cast doubt on Jennifer Lyell’s abuse account within the SBC while privately communicating with and advising David Sills, the man accused of abusing her. That relationship was not disclosed. Readers were led to believe they were getting independent analysis when they were not.

That is advocacy masquerading as commentary. It distorts the public record, shields power, and further isolates the already vulnerable. When Christian media plays defense for the accused while interrogating the abused, it repeats the very patterns that made abuse possible in the first place.

The church can choose a different way. We can tell the truth plainly, reject games of influence, and center, believe, and protect the abused, not as a slogan, but as a moral obligation.

https://t.co/AqsVAZnWft

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

"All people—including women—deserve more than systems that demand their compliance and unquestioning sacrifice. Our faith communities should protect our autonomy and personhood, not undermine them. We should be free to express our doubts, our questions, and our feelings without risking our belonging.

Healthy faith communities will strive to recognize the God-given value in each person, not weaponize fear and shame to control. Safe communities welcome us for all that we are, not for how well we conform."

From "Cults, Coercive Persuasion, and Patriarchy" @CBEInt

https://t.co/xFxVhyMuac

#cults #spiritualabuse #christianity #christianmarriage #marriage #coercivecontrol #patriarchy #faith

[Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86]

Conspiracy theorist Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed QAnon "Queen of Canada", has been arrested by police in a village, where she's been leading a cult of followers for two years.

https://t.co/krdxDXuA7K

[Keshav Das @keshavuvacha]

This @BBCWorld news report details Romana Didulo’s arrest.

@DrSarteschi the eminent professor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, USA and expert on extremism and the sovereign citizen movement, is quoted in the report.

#QAnon

https://t.co/oHh3csV3wO

[CBE International @CBEInt]

Why do women stay in harmful systems? Bethany Jantzi shows how coercive tactics—like fear, shame & “protection”—mirror cult behavior in some church spaces.💡📖 Read now: https://t.co/FWVYGgdiVo

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

🎉I wrote an article for Mutuality (@CBEInt) & it just came in the mail!

Theme: Why Her? Understanding the Subjugation of Women in Cults and Controlling Religious Groups

In "Cults, Coercive Persuasion, and Patriarchy", I explore some of the powerful psychological techniques that cults use to enforce compliance and maintain control, like loaded language, undermining autonomy, and conditioning compliance.

"All people—including women—deserve more than systems that demand their compliance and unquestioning sacrifice. Our faith communities should protect our autonomy and personhood, not undermine them. We should be free to express our doubts, our questions, and our feelings without risking our belonging. Healthy faith communities will strive to recognize the God-given value in each person, not weaponize fear and shame to control. Safe communities welcome us for all that we are, not for how well we conform."

https://t.co/9DL6Q94xts

#cults #coercivecontrol #faith #spirituality #Christianity

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

Powerful thread on the betrayal and inaction of SBC leadership.
"Take to the Convention floor one more time, to herald Christic manhood and how men are designed to protect. Write another article. Record another podcast. Start another organization. Tell me one more time."

[Rachael Denhollander @R_Denhollander]

You know who doesn't get to just "look to the future?" Duane Rollins and Jen Lyell. Because they're dead.

Tiffany Thigpen, and Christa Brown, because the wounds, especially of betrayal, are poured out every day, and again today.

https://t.co/CkqY88ygDT

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

If you cannot grapple objectively with the reality in Gaza, it really makes me doubt your intellectual honesty.
By your logic, starvation is not an issue in our world, because I had three meals today. You cannot singularly define other people's reality according to your own.

You understand and use nuance and empathy when it comes to other issues, like your advocacy for survivors of abuse and grooming in faith communities. But with this, you can't even acknowledge basic facts and that is very telling.

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

@BBCWorld Who is shooting them @BBCWorld?

[Aura Freedom @AuraFreedom]

#Femicide most often occurs behind the very doors meant to keep women & girls safe –the doors of their own home.

@CAN_Femicide reports 77% of women & girls killed in 2024 were killed in a private location, such as their own home, home of the accused, or the home they shared.

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[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

@OrthodoxBarbie Thank you for sharing my interview with @sheilagregoire I just had an article published by @CBEInt around these themes: how complementarianism reduces wives to a training ground for their husbands' spiritual and leadership development. https://t.co/P6JJtsCZNV

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

@PWHL_Toronto What a goal!!

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

While religion is often a protective factor for our mental health and most faith communities genuinely seek to care well for those they shepherd, there are specific dynamics and traits that can lead to harm. There will be some leaders who wield their power in ways that are destructive and tend to foster a cult-like and high control environment.

🎧Have a listen! Randal and I delve into the ways that coercion and control can show up in evangelicalism and how we can increase protective factors and create safety. It's on us to educate ourselves and develop awareness around how these dynamics show up and how we can create non-coercive religious community. If you are a congregant, and you recognize some of these dynamics in your church, please reach out.

Every person deserves to a have a faith journey that is free from coercion, manipulation, and abuse.

LINK: https://t.co/za7CQDG6dY

#spiritualabuse #psychology #coercivecontrol #evangelicalism #church #faith #Christianity

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

It doesn’t seem to matter what type of abuse a victim has experienced. Whether it’s cultic abuse, coercive control, grooming, emotional abuse, or adult clergy sexual abuse, it is there.

The victim is haunted by it.

It is part of what keeps them trapped for so long.

It is what often drives their shame and self-blame.

It is confusion.

“Why didn’t I say anything?”

“Why didn’t I tell them no?”

“Why did I keep their secret?”

“Why did I go along with it?”

“Why couldn’t I see what was happening?”

“I just don’t UNDERSTAND.”

This confusion is a primary tool of the abuser.

Abusers intentionally cultivate confusion in their victims as a key tactic for maintaining and entrenching their control.

I talk about what this can look like over on my blog: https://t.co/1YUJDWVHFQ

#coercivecontrol #spiritualabuse #domesticviolence #cults #abuse

[Bethany Lynn @bethanylynnjay]

"The abuser's most skillful trick is to make his abuse invisible."

-Investigative journalist Jess Hill, from her brilliant and sobering book:

See What You Made Me Do: The Dangers of Domestic Abuse That We Ignore, Explain Away, or Refuse to See

#abuse #coercivecontrol #domesticviolence #psychologicalabuse #intimateterrorism #brainwashing #psychology #survivor