Stellenbosch Theological Journal 2022, Vol 8, No 1, 1–28 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2022.v8n1.a17 Online ISSN 2226-2385 | Print ISSN 0028-2006 2022 © The Author(s) Te abuse of spiritual authority among some African Neo-Pentecostals and its impact on human rights Daniel Orogun University of Pretoria, South Africa arcorogun2@gmail.com Jerry Pillay University of Pretoria, South Africa jerry.pillay@up.ac.za Abstract As a part of the newer versions of the Pentecostal movement that evolved from the 1980s to date, the African Neo-Pentecostals (ANP) are characterised by the practice of spiritual authority (SA). Trough the explanatory sequential model of mixed research method which involves juxtaposing a few qualitative pieces of evidence with quantitative empirical results from 414 respondents, this article investigated the existence of human rights violations among the ANP. Te quantitative result showed that 82% of the total respondents on all questions agree that human rights abuse exists among the ANP. Subsequently, the article critiqued the practices using New Testament Teology and related human rights treatises on religious freedom. It then opined that when spiritual authority is misappropriated, spiritual authoritarianism becomes the practice, and the abuse of human rights is inevitable. In the end, recommendations were made for the sustainability of human rights irrespective of religious afliation. Key words Spiritual authority; authoritarianism; human rights; African Neo-Pentecostalism