A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts
The Subtle, Insidious Nature of Spiritual Abuse and Life on the Other Side
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Believers who've been harmed by church communities will find strength and understanding." -Publishers Weekly
"Katherine Spearing is an important voice on the issue of spiritual abuse in the American evangelical church." -Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts is an arresting dive beneath the glossy surface of American evangelicalism, exposing the often-invisible trauma of spiritual abuse. Drawing on her upbringing in the Christian Patriarchy Movement, her former role as a ministry leader, and the work of her nonprofit Tears of Eden, Katherine Spearing offers an unflinching look at the wounds that religious institutions cause, and helps you name and understand those wounds.
The book's title evokes the nature of these injuries: small, subtle, and nefarious cuts that bleed out over time. With helpful insights and a voice both tender and fierce, Spearing unpacks the power imbalances, spiritual gaslighting, and the silent corrosion of autonomy under abusive systems. She writes about how leaders collect followers like trophies, how to replace bad traumaversaries with good ones, and how creativity is life-giving.
Essential reading for anyone deconstructing harmful faith or supporting survivors, A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts exposes what happens when spirituality is used as a weapon and shows the maturity it takes to walk away. With moments of wit, clarity, and compassion, this survivor-centered narrative doesn't just name the abuse; it helps you dare to imagine a life moving forward.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist Spearing (Hartfords) shares a heartrending account of her recovery from religious trauma. Raised in a patriarchal evangelical Christianity that viewed men as heads of the home, mothers as "helpmeets," and girls as future caretakers who were to remain in their father's household until married, the author grew up starved of freedom and conditioned to "align my desires with the Lord's." Doubts were seeded slowly in her mind and reached a breaking point at age 25 when she accepted a job at a different church without her father's permission, and was told to leave the house. Spearing shares the ups and downs of her healing process, which involved somatic (body-based) therapy; learning to feel emotions—like anger—that women are expressly forbidden to show in restrictive, "high-control Christianity"; finding language for the abuse she'd endured (like a "thousand tiny paper cuts" that may heal but will leave scars); and founding Tears of Eden, a nonprofit support group for survivors of spiritual abuse. The author is eloquent and precise in her critiques of high-control Christianity—the most damaging elements of which, she notes, seep into less extreme versions of the faith—while acknowledging the legitimate needs that give rise to it and religion in general, a "heart cry of people who are searching for comfort, for a way to explain the unexplainable." Believers who've been harmed by church communities will find strength and understanding.
