Image by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay Editorial Note: The following is reprinted with permission from Amber Schultz’s blog. It was originally published on December 25, 2022. By Amber Schultz It’s the most wonderful time of the year. At least that is what we are told. I remember very few Christmases. Ones I remember are not the best times.ContinueContinue reading “Blue Christmas: Breaking generational abuse patterns during the holidays”
Tag Archives: family
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”
This Is Me: Disability and Spiritual Abuse
Image by Lily from Pixabay By Rebekah Palmer This essay was first accepted to be included in a story collection supporting National Organization of Rare Disorders, Inc. (NORD), a project titled Kaleidoscope Rare Disease Stories Told by the people who live them, edited by Kerry Wong. This collection will be released in 2024. NORD wasContinueContinue reading “This Is Me: Disability and Spiritual Abuse”
How Religious Abuse Harmed My Mental Health and How I Healed
Photo: Image by Pexels from Pixabay By Lydia Joy Launderville “I have mental illness” is a phrase that was very, very hard for me to say out loud to another living soul. Even acknowledging and accepting it was so hard. There were a few reasons for this. The first being that I was very traumatizedContinueContinue reading “How Religious Abuse Harmed My Mental Health and How I Healed”
Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 4
Photo: Image by Melissa from Pixabay Content note: child sexual abuse, domestic violence, homophobia, conversion therapy attempts, forcing someone to not be gay, religious and spiritual abuse By Whiltierna Wolfe Continued from Part 3 During my childhood and teen years, my baby brother was tortured by my cruel, selfish father in the Independent Fundamental BaptistContinueContinue reading “Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 4”
Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 3
Photo: Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay Content note: child abuse, homophobia, Christian Nationalism, religious and spiritual abuse By Whiltierna Wolfe Continued from Part 2 Just because my brother is a gay man, he has been outed, shamed, manipulated, physically beaten up, shunned, abandoned, humiliated, cheated, gossiped about, kept from serving musically in an Independent FundamentalContinueContinue reading “Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 3”
Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 2
Photo: Pixabay Content note: child abuse, homophobia, conversion therapy attempts, forcing someone to not be gay, suicidal ideation, religious and spiritual abuse By Whiltierna Wolfe Continued from Part 1 The next person to try to “fix” my baby brother was our IFB grandmother, when she was told about my brother’s “problem.” She is our father’sContinueContinue reading “Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 2”
The Vashti Initiative 