Groundbreaking survey and ‘Spiritual Safety Scale’ for faith communities

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An article recently published in the Journal of Religion and Health details the development of a practical tool to help individuals and religious communities identify, address, and prevent spiritual abuse.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — An extensive study involving more than 800 individual survey participants has made possible a Spiritual Safety Scale (S-SAFE) and corresponding survey to help individuals and religious communities measure the spiritual safety of their environments.

Coauthored by Lianna Chong and Leanne Tortez and published recently in the Journal of Religion and Health (July 2026), this research will inform a forthcoming book titled Building a Safer Church: How to Spot Spiritual Abuse, Assess Your Community’s Health, and Create a Culture Where People Flourish (NavPress, April 2027), written by Chong with Abram Kielsmeier-Jones.

The original paper, “Development and Psychometric Validation of the Spiritual Safety Scale (S-SAFE): A Measure for Psychological Safety and Spiritual Abuse in North American Christian Communities,” details the methodology and peer-review process involved in creating the scale. The study sought to identify positive and negative behaviors of a given religious community or authority figure, then rate these behaviors to answer the question, “Is this group (or leader) spiritually safe?”

After her church community experienced conflict and division over questions of spiritual abuse, Chong saw a need for objective assessment methods to evaluate spiritual safety. “I watched people from my church try to convey their experiences of harm, only for others to minimize or misinterpret the dynamics,” said Chong. “I realized that sometimes, stories aren’t enough. Having a quantitative measure that captures spiritual safety–or a lack thereof–can help people see through the ambiguity of spiritual abuse, and identify when harm has occurred in their community.”

In their upcoming spring 2027 release, Building a Safer Church, Chong and Kielsmeier-Jones draw on the Spiritual Safety Scale to offer practical structural, systemic, and cultural safeguards that churches and spiritual leaders can implement to create safer communities.

To access Chong and Tortez’s article, visit the Journal of Religion and Health online. For more information about Building a Safer Church, visit NavPress.com.

The Spiritual Safety Center, Inc., is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. NavPress is a business ministry of The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. NavPress and the NavPress logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO.

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Contact:
Lianna Chong
Spiritual Safety Center
info@spiritualsafetycenter.org

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.