Abuser begins with A

1)  Acting the charming philanthropist (Dr Jekyll) in public  (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)

2)  Affective deception (feigned emotions)

3)  Attitude of entitlement

4)  Arrogance (Ahab)

5)  Always About the Abuser

6)  Accusation and Arraignment of victim (blame shifting)

7)  Aggression (covert and overt)

8)  Apathetic about his need for repentance and sanctification

9)  Actively resists any demand that he take responsibility for his sins

10)  Anti-husband in place of a real husband (like antichrist in place of  Christ)

11)  Airbrushing the truth (re-writing history)

12)  Against separation and divorce

13)  Ally recruitment

14)  Assiduously monitors and stalks the victim

15)  Amplifies the abuse around the time of separation

And finally, a little joke from Jeff Crippen to wind this up:

Appropriate announcement in many churches: “To balance the 15 point sermon of last Sunday, today’s sermon will be pointless.”


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19 thoughts on “Abuser begins with A”

    1. Ida Mae, we have to be real careful about letting Barbara engage in too much alliteration! Just like they have to put a muzzle on me when I tell too many puns…

      Actually, it would be interesting to go through the entire alphabet this way, though I wonder what she would come up with for X and Z!

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  1. That was great!

    I would change #8
    8. Apathetic about his need for repentance and sanctification
    to
    ‘Appearances” of interest in his need for repentance, toward people who have heard of his sin, with Apathy in his action in that direction, toward the abused. (The only real judge, besides God, of his ‘actual repentance)

    I never get jokes…what am i missing in this one?

    ” Appropriate announcement in many churches: “To balance the 15 point sermon of last Sunday, today’s sermon will be pointless.””

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    1. Thanks MrsMom, I think your #8 is an improvement on mine. :)

      And the joke, sorry, it may have been too out of left field.
      My list had 15 points. … that is the connection. We were chatting on the back of the blog about how so many sermons are written according to the forumula they teach in seminary (craft your sermon to have three main points). And how that formula can make a sermon flat, dull, and simply a list of logical propositions without any spirit or heart. So I mildly mocked my own list of 15 points, inferring it was kinda pointless — and at the same time was making a sly dig at the sermonizers whose sermons are often full of hot air.

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      1. How about:
        Zaps the poor victim with vicious, unexpected attacks.
        Zips around verbally, changing the subject anytime someone gets close to exposing his abusive patterns.

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  2. Really nice list, Barbara! I think many of us can recognize each of these in our abuser. It just amazes me over and over how similar the patterns are in abuse. It’s like a disease with really obvious symptoms.

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  3. Barb,
    After reading this post my pastor’s wife (she and her husband know my situation in depth) sent me an email which said, “Does this describe your X or what?? Couldn’t believe how well Barbara used the letter A to very accurately describe an abuser.” And I couldn’t agree with her more.

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