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”
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Discovering My Gender and Sexual Identity in a Cult Through Books
Photo: Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay By Alex Kenderdine The Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) cult that I grew up in had insanely strict rules and regulations for what we were allowed to read. Most books I read were classics because they deemed those safe. However, it was through the classics that I discovered partsContinueContinue reading “Discovering My Gender and Sexual Identity in a Cult Through Books”
Whispers of Resistance: Nothing taught me to be different the way fundamentalism did
Photo: Image by Hello Cdd20 from Pixabay By Evan Jones My entire life I’ve been told to submit. My earliest memory of singing is me belting out the OBEDIENCE song in Sunday School. As a youth and young adult, I took high school and college courses on submission and a woman’s purpose. I’ve heard demandsContinueContinue reading “Whispers of Resistance: Nothing taught me to be different the way fundamentalism did”
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”
An ‘Unrivaled’ Education: Educational Neglect in Adverse Spiritual Environments
Creative Commons Image by Nino Carè from Pixabay. By Evan Jones I remember staring at the young man in front of me as he chuckled while reviewing my college transcript and then quickly caught himself when he saw my face. This was a real transcript made up of four years worth of hard earned collegeContinueContinue reading “An ‘Unrivaled’ Education: Educational Neglect in Adverse Spiritual Environments”
You Are Not Your Own: And Other Lies Evangelicalism Taught Me
Creative commons courtesy of Pixabay, Patrizia08. By Ryan Stollar “You best learn to live while you’re alive.” — Cloud Cult Healing from any trauma, but especially religious trauma, is like an onion: many-layered and often tear-inducing. Tear-inducing comes with the territory of trauma. But the many-layered aspect is the tricky and often surprising part. YouContinueContinue reading “You Are Not Your Own: And Other Lies Evangelicalism Taught Me”
Finding purpose in PTSD
Creative Commons image courtesy of Pixabay, geralt. By Megan Benninger I’ve experienced so much spiritual abuse in my lifetime! Seriously, I’m a spiritual abuse poster child. I was raised in a very controlling, legalistic church and Christian school. After being thoroughly primed to submit to and obey my authorities without question, I moved on toContinueContinue reading “Finding purpose in PTSD”
The Vashti Initiative 