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How Spiritual Teachings Can Interfere With Justice


In this week’s LOVE SCHOOL, one of our students raised her hand and asked for help letting go of the rage she felt towards her ex. She’d been looping stories of how she’d been victimized by her ex and was terrified of even thinking of getting into another relationship. When she told me her story, I asked what she’d done to pursue justice for her hurt parts. A light bulb went off, not just in her, but in others who responded in the chat. “OMG, that’s why I can’t let go and move on. There’s been no justice.”

Sometimes we try to get justice, and it eludes us. Maybe we try to hold someone accountable in hopes that they will confess to wrongdoing and participate in relational repair, but they only gaslight us and hurt us more, rather than making apologies and amends. Maybe we seek help from law enforcement or lawyers, but those systems fail to restore justice for our parts. Or maybe we allow religious or spiritual teachings to suppress justice-seeking impulses, which causes us to either enable ongoing abuse or interferes with healing, letting go, and moving on.

We’ll be unpacking what to do when you can’t let go because you haven’t gotten justice in my new Internal Family Systems course The Path To Inner Justice. It’s for anyone who either hasn’t tried to get relational justice because they don’t know how, or you can’t let go of harm done by an unjust relationship because the perpetrator will never cooperate with pursuing justice, or you tried to get justice and justice failed to happen and now you don’t know what to do. If you can’t let go, if healing, letting go, and moving on forever evades you, if you’re still hung up on someone who hurt you ages ago, if you’re still looping your story, no matter how much therapy you’ve done, this course will support your IFS parts work in very practical ways. 

Learn more and register for The Path To Inner Justice here. 

Spiritual teachings often get in the way of pursuing justice. They teach us to forgive and forget, to let God handle justice, to trust that karma will handle things, that it’s a sin not to extend compassion to those who hurt you. I suspect whoever thought up these teachings did so to make sure faithful followers of corrupt religious leaders or New Age cult leaders never sought justice with their abusive spiritual leaders. But you don’t have to carry those beliefs with you forever. Once you see how religious and spiritual belief systems lock in oppression and interfere with self-protection for oppressed victims, you’ll never be able to unsee it again.

Until we go deeper in the six week Zoom workshop, let’s unpack the kinds of belief systems that may interfere with justice-seeking parts and how religious or spiritual teachings can get in the way of protecting your parts and helping them restore justice.

Both traditional religious texts and many New Age teachings can discourage faithful followers from pursuing justice when they are harmed, often under the guise of spiritual maturity, surrender, forgiveness, karma, or transcendence. While these teachings may be well-intentioned or aimed at cultivating peace, they can have the unintended effect of silencing legitimate anger, bypassing trauma, enabling abuse, and suppressing justice-seeking parts.

New Age Spiritual Teachings That Discourage Pursuing Justice

-”Get out of your victim story”

Shaming victims who have not gotten justice, experienced accountability, or participated in relational repair with their perpetrators is just plain mean and utterly lacking in empathy. While there is a time for letting go and moving on, shaming someone for not being ready yet is just cruel.

-Toxic positivity

The emphasis on “love and light,” high vibrations, and “staying positive” often dismisses anger, grief, and righteous indignation as “low vibe” or unenlightened.

-Law of Attraction

Victims may be blamed for “attracting” harm through negative thinking, fear, or unconscious beliefs, rather than holding perpetrators accountable. “You create your own reality” can shift the burden onto the victim to fix their inner state, often invalidating the systemic or interpersonal harm done to them.

-“Everything happens for a reason” or “Your soul chose this”

These beliefs can suggest that suffering is spiritually orchestrated or preordained, which may dissuade people from resisting or seeking justice, excusing perpetrators because they’ve believed to be soul family recruited to teach life lessons.

-Focus on forgiveness as healing

While forgiveness can be freeing, it’s often presented as a prerequisite to healing, even when the wound is still open or the perpetrator unrepentant.

-Guru worship and authoritarianism

In some spiritual communities, challenging the leader is considered egoic, polarizing, “not non-dual,” unfaithful, or spiritually regressive, which silences whistleblowers and protects abusers.

-Peace as the highest goal

Conflict is often seen as spiritual failure, leading to suppression of necessary anger and avoidance of justice-seeking behaviors.

-“Don’t judge” or “everyone is doing their best”

These seemingly compassionate teachings can erase accountability, discourage discernment, and allow patterns of abuse to continue unchecked.

-Shaming of boundaries as “That’s your ego” or “You’re being divisive”

New Age circles sometimes spiritualize permeability and glorify porous boundarylessness, discouraging healthy boundaries as being “in the ego” or “not open-hearted.”

Organized Religious Teachings That Discourage Pursuing Justice

It’s not just New Age spirituality that discourages justice. Many religions, especially Christianity, come right out and condemn justice-seeking impulses and spiritualize conflict avoidance and lack of accountability as saintly martyrdom.

-”We are all one” non-duality (Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Taoism, mystical Christianity, Sufism, Sikhism, New Age)

Teachings that say ‘there’s no separation between us” or “everything is an illusion” or “we are all one” or “There’s no such thing as a separate self” can gaslight victims, minimize the reality of trauma and injustice, discouraging taking concrete action and spiritualizing conflict avoidance and suppression of justice seeking impulses.

-“Turn the other cheek” (Christianity)

Matthew 5:39 is often interpreted to mean that victims should endure harm without resistance, discouraging self-protection, justice, or accountability for perpetrators.

-“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Christianity)

Romans 12:19 discourages taking any action to seek justice, placing all responsibility in divine hands.

-Glorification of martyrdom and suffering as redemptive (Christianity)

Christians are taught to be like Jesus on the cross, to find spiritual growth through martyrdom and suffering, which can romanticize enduring injustice rather than confronting it.

-“Blessed are the meek” (Christianity)

Matthew 5:5 can idealize and spiritualize passivity and compliance, discouraging assertiveness in the face of harm. While humility is definitely a helpful teaching for those who go “one up” and are high on the narcissism spectrum, those who are “one down” victims of narcissistic behavior need assertiveness more so than humility in order to share power equally and participate in equal relationships.

-Karma as cosmic justice (Hinduism, Buddhism)

The belief that wrongdoers will face karmic consequences in the future may lead to inaction, encouraging victims to wait for universal balance rather than taking legal or social recourse.

-It’s a sin not to forgive (Christianity, Islam)

Forgiving the perpetrator is often framed as a moral or spiritual duty, putting the burden of forgiveness on the victim rather than putting the burden of relational repair on the perpetrator. Even if the harm is ongoing or unaddressed, faithful followers may judge themselves or fear spiritual consequences if they don’t forgive quickly. 

-Exaggerated emphasis on compassion for the wrongdoer, rather than the one harmed (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam)

Teachings often stress understanding the pain or ignorance of the one who harms, which can undermine empathy for oneself and diminish the urgency of halting injustices and restoring justice.

-Patriarchal religious structures discourage challenge to authority (Christianity, Islam, Orthodox Judaism)

Victims of abuse within families, churches, or spiritual communities may be told it is ungodly to question or expose leaders.

-Avoiding lawsuits or civil disputes (Christianity)

In 1 Corinthians 6:1-7, Paul discourages Christians from taking legal action against other believers, which can trap victims in communities where abuse is concealed.

-“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Christianity)

Luke 23:34 is often used when someone knows someone is an abuser but they’re still willing to bypass justice and accountability in order to keep up appearances and be accepting, like Jesus would. This can be misused as a way to avoid conflict while looking like you’re being the “one up” more spiritual person.

Seeking justice can help victims heal, let go, and move on. If relational repair is possible, real forgiveness is often a natural side effect that liberates both the victim and the perpetrator after apologies and amends are made. If relational repair is not possible, either because the perpetrator won’t admit wrongdoing or the perpetrator is dead, there are still ways to get justice for our justice-seeking parts. We’ll be talking about both- how to make a request for relational repair that will help you figure out whether your perpetrator is up for it and how to get justice for your parts and forgive yourself if that’s not possible.

Save $100 if you join us now for The Path To Inner Justice here.





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