Toxic Faith

1.  INTRODUCTION

A.  The following is a summary of the book Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn & Jack Felton (Oliver-Nelson, 1991)

B.  I wrote this during the most trying time of my life when the issues raised by Arterburn and Felton came as a godsend to me.  They apply the insights of family systems theory and religious addiction to life in the church.  I helped to father a church in Indianapolis that had aspects of toxicity and these principles and truths enabled me to understand and explain much of my history in both my family of origin and the church