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”
Tag Archives: spiritual abuse
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”
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”
The IFB Movement and LGBTQIA Rights: A Clash with Christian Love
Photo: Image by Marybeth from Pixabay By Jonathan Grisham The Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement, with its deep roots and complex history, often stirs up debates on intolerance, hatred, and abusive practices. Notably, the IFB’s contentious relationship with the LGBTQI community is a prime example of its extremist ideologies. The History of the IFB andContinueContinue reading “The IFB Movement and LGBTQIA Rights: A Clash with Christian Love”
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”
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”
Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 1
Photo Credit: Image by Dmytro from Pixabay Content note: child abuse, homophobia, forced outing, suicidal ideation, religious and spiritual abuse By Whiltierna Wolfe It’s June again. This past Pride Month in 2022, I wrote this about my brother. Now more than ever, I feel it’s imperative to humanize the LGBTQIA community after so much hate.ContinueContinue reading “Deconstructing from fundamentalism finally allowed me to authentically love my brother who is gay: Part 1”
The Vashti Initiative 