Photo: Image by eloigomez from Pixabay By Rebekah Palmer I remember when I was a little kid playing with my sibling and our friends, either our perspective of family life or using Barbies and dolls to act out family life by calling it “playing house,” I announced that I probably wouldn’t have sex until IContinueContinue reading “Being female in the IFB: wife and mother”
Category Archives: Survivor Stories
What Purity Culture Didn’t Teach Me
Photo: Image by Heiko Stein from Pixabay By Eric Skwarczynski I know what you’re thinking… “Oh great, another guy offering his unsolicited takes on purity culture. Just what the world needs.” You’re probably not off-base for feeling like that. The staggering amount of opinions swirling around the internet right now in the wake of theContinueContinue reading “What Purity Culture Didn’t Teach Me”
Too Many Tulips
Photo: Image by Pexels from Pixabay Editorial Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Ida’s blog. It was originally published on June 30, 2023. By Ida Growing up, I was introduced to Calvinism. A theological belief system within Christianity, Calvinism was founded by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer. Calvin’s teachings can be summed up in theContinueContinue reading “Too Many Tulips”
They Told Me I Would Never Be Happy. They Lied.
Photo: Image by phfilipposarci from Pixabay Editorial Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Laura Launderville’s blog. It was originally published on July 31, 2023. By Laura Launderville I recently attended a workshop that the nonprofit that I volunteer with hosted. It was a writing workshop and I had never done one before. So I didn’tContinueContinue reading “They Told Me I Would Never Be Happy. They Lied.”
Racism: IFB Style
Photo: Image by LeoNeoBoy from Pixabay Content note: Descriptions of homophobic and racist situations the author was present for during their coming of age years in two Independent Fundamental Baptist churches and their associated schools. By Rebekah Palmer In my childhood church, we used to bring in an evangelist who would preach that anytime aContinueContinue reading “Racism: IFB Style”
It’s Not Fair: Living with Chronic Illness
Photo: Image by StockSnap from Pixabay Editorial Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Laura Launderville’s blog. It was originally published on June 25, 2023. By Laura Launderville One of the things I feel that has helped me with my own battle with facial pain is helping others. I volunteer with a nonprofit that supports patientsContinueContinue reading “It’s Not Fair: Living with Chronic Illness”
How churches use DARVO to condemn LGBTQ people to hell without explicitly saying it
Photo: Image by Christel from Pixabay Content note: homophobia, religious and spiritual abuse By Elora Dodd As homophobia falls out of vogue in the wider culture, Christians may find themselves scrambling to preserve their sense of self as the “Light of the World,” while still condemning the more-than-ever-accepted “homosexuals.” While I was still embroiled inContinueContinue reading “How churches use DARVO to condemn LGBTQ people to hell without explicitly saying it”
Why do you say you left fundamentalism?
A Bob Jones University van in the parking lot of Grace Bible Church in Colorado Springs in spring 2013 | Photo: Eleanor Skelton Editorial Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Eleanor Skelton’s blog. It was originally published on January 15, 2015. By Eleanor Skelton The biggest question that surfaced during the series on why I left fundamentalistContinueContinue reading “Why do you say you left fundamentalism?”
I Survived but Many Don’t: Homophobia Kills
Image: Pixabay Content note: homophobia, religious and spiritual abuse By Elora Dodd Growing up in a staunchly conservative Christian home, my parents would demand the remote the instant a gay person came on television. If I lagged a second too long, my parents would unleash an angry lecture about how dangerous it was to “normalizeContinueContinue reading “I Survived but Many Don’t: Homophobia Kills”
From Trauma to Triumph: Coming out and being expelled from Bob Jones University
Photo: Image by Michaela from Pixabay By Andrew Pledger Have you ever felt like you don’t belong in your own family? Like you are different from everyone else and no one understands you? That’s how I felt for most of my life. I always felt like an outsider, a misfit, a stranger in my ownContinueContinue reading “From Trauma to Triumph: Coming out and being expelled from Bob Jones University”
The Vashti Initiative 