#exvangelical — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #exvangelical, aggregated by home.social.
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I was particularly offended at the funeral when the #evangelical preacher anticipated that some present would not share their belief. He actually said, "Some of you don't believe that, because you've never been quiet enough to hear what the still small voice of God is trying to say to you."
Fuck you, pastor, I spent twenty years of my adult life sincerely believing in Christianity, and it was proven to be false. I tried it; it failed. But pastor must slander to maintain "faith."
#exvangelical -
Religious people often think that religion helps people grieve. But let me tell you that #evangelical funerals are god-awful! I just attended one of a more distant family member, whom I hadn't seen in probably ten years, and it was all about the necessity of submitting to God to go to heaven. Readers, I literally never heard this man mention God, not once, in decades.
If dead men tell to tales, it's amazing how many words can be put in their mouths!
#exvangelical -
[Edit*]An older but ever-relevant of ICSA Today with articles on recovering from sexual abuse in cults, how to communicate with loved ones inside cults, the spread of conspiracy theories in France, and multi-generational cult survivors.
https://library.internationalculticstudies.org/24n7ceh/
[The issue is from 2021, but they emailed around an article from it recently.]
#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #ICSA
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CW: Dark humor from an EXvangelical
Jesus loves you, but he thinks trump is the ANTI-Christ and vance fucks couches.
Only one of those is forgivable.
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The ICSA has a journal article about how career counseling can help protect vulnerable kids from trafficking and cults.
Surprise! Poverty increases risk. Having a solid sense of identity helps prevent risk.
Abstract: 'Human trafficking is a rapidly expanding global criminal industry that frequently targets children and adolescents by preying on their vulnerabilities. This article presents research identifying seven categories of susceptibility in Generation Z, with a specific focus on how poverty and low personal achievement increase the risk of being trafficked. The authors propose that career counseling can serve as a vital preventive measure by building self-sufficiency, motivation, and a long-term “career self-concept” that helps youth reject the immediate gratification offered by predators.'
(Sorry, it's Substack.)
https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/could-career-counseling-help-protect
#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical
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TFW you realize that your parents used "The Strong-Willed Child" by James Dobson as their primary parenting text.
😬 -
Christianity primed white people to feel guilty when certain Pavlovian bells ring.
Accused? Wrongdoing even subtly implied? Guilt! Shame!
Then, if it's a respected authority doing the implying (be it parent or priest), we're primed to submit.
If we don't respect the authority of the "accuser," well, were primed to see them as the enemy in the all-or-nothing good vs evil war. "My authorities haven't called that a sin so who is this person anyway??" And we lash out. At women, POC, queers, disabled, and often, even ourselves.
What, you're white but never were Christian? Sorry, but you were programmed this way, too. (If you feel mad at me, that's the programming.)
Christianity's way out from guilt and shame is impossible. It doesn't work. It's designed to make you feel forever ashamed and in debt to Jesus — or rather, the religious authorities who represent him. That's how they get you.
We aren't allowed to emotionally mature to know how to handle our own feelings when we've done wrong. We're forever dependent children on the religion. We go to confession, do the penitence, feel a few days of relief, then go back to feeling guilty. No matter how well-meaning any particular clergy, this is by design.
Now suddenly here's these people I don't respect out of unexamined implicit bias dumping more crap on me.
Aren't I bad enough? Haven't I submitted enough? What am I supposed to do about it?
I'm hamstringed. My white brain has been lobotomized wrt how to handle this. But also, I've been told by trusted authorities that I'm not a racist, so I'm not!!! Out comes the Karen.
Colonialism=Christianity=Corporatism
It's all the same system.
Freeing ourselves from this system means freeing those whose oppression we enable.
Because it's all the same thing.
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #antiracism #antifa
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In Mormon news, BYU tried to make an indigenous student cut his braids. So fuck them.
Thankfully, they responded to pushback and now will not make him do that, but I'm sure they will continue to get away with all of their other attempts to control the hairstyles and harmless behaviors of literally everyone else.
(Which is why this issue is a "white" cause as much as it is anyone else's. My Celtic and Germanic ancestors wore long hair in all sorts of styles, and so did yours. Whiteness restricts all of our freedoms.)
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #exvie #exvangelical #antiracism #deconstruction #BYU #LDS #Mormon
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I'm watching a horror movie in a purity culture setting called Pure. It's fairly good, really liking how they're handling the themes. I feel like it's personal for the director, who's a woman.
It's not a perfect movie. Feels like the director doesn't have much experience with the horror genre. But there's strong talent, just a little raw on the skills, small things that would have made it better.
I still haven't seen the ending. There are some ways I want this to go, and some ways I really hope it doesn't go.
(Previous twoot is not a direct quote, but sums up a speech the pastor is giving.)
[edit: ok that ending was super powerful. We need what happened there to become a recurring motif.]
[Director is Hannah McPherson. She didn't experience purity culture, but is real mad about it. https://deadline.com/2019/09/pure-director-if-youre-not-pissed-off-you-may-be-a-lost-cause-1202742568/ ]
#movieReview #horror #ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #feminism
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CW: SA within cult contexts, Epstein, Rome
Further, I recently watched bible scholar Dan McClellan talk about homosexuality in biblical times. It' a subject I have seen him and others talk about before, and I've read about it. (But I am not an expert on ancient history – I'm just repeating.)
Fact: In Roman society and before, when Leviticus was being written, they didn't have any concept of "sexual orientation" the way we do today. They didn't have the concept of consent. They centered sexual mores around the hierarchy of power. Anyone up on the chain was expected to take the penetrative role; anyone below them was expected to take the receptive role. Anyone who violated these hierarchies was sexually immoral.
Free men with status? Top of the chain. Boys or men of low status? Below that. Women, at the very, very bottom, always. The sin was in penetrating someone who was supposed to, themselves, be in the penetrative role.
The Sodom and Gomorrah story was about a people who had been taught to care for strangers who instead wanted to rape a (male) guest to death. Which violated two mores: Hospitality and the chain of status wrt to the penetrative role. That's why it was perfectly ok for Lot to offer his daughters, and why the gang didn't want *girls*. They wanted to demonstrate their power by taking on men of station.
What does this mean in this context? It means that sexual domination has long been a part of how power works in human civilizations, at least in these cultures that descend from that place in those times.
We, here today, with our consent norms and our idea of love and equality in relationships, we're the odd ones. We've bucked the norms. (A tremendous accomplishment that took thousands of years.) And those norms *still exist.* They exist within toxic masculinity, pro-patriarchy religions, and abusive relationships.
It is hard for me to believe that the Epstein Class of today is somehow worse than the Fat Cats of the 1920s, or the aristocracy of the Renaissance, or the lords and monks of the Middle Ages.
We're really not that far descended from Rome. The path to liberation has been carved against these longstanding traditions.
We have only to look at the world billionaires are trying to create, to see what their values and expectations are.
And why they admire Rome so much.
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical
#abuseCulture
#SexualAssault -
CW: SA within cult contexts, Epstein
I've recently commented on Epstein probably not being the first of his kind, that his market for sex victims already existed, and that the sexual abuse of minors and the marginalized as a recreational activity for the rich and powerful likely goes way, way back. And I got a little bit of pushback.
But this is my world, this cult stuff. And if this has been going on in new sex cults like NXIVM, and secretly in old established religions like Catholicism, in Mormonism, in evangelicalism (it is), the why the hell wouldn't the richest, most powerful people in the world have done this going back across time?
Why are we holding dead billionaires to an idealized image? Why are we defending them? Why are we *still* bending over backwards to suspend disbelief that the worst people in the world in every other regard are somehow pure when it comes to sexual abuse?
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical #AbuseCulture #SexualAssault -
CW: SA within cult contexts, kink
New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped. This article sums up the paper for a lay audience.
https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/dominance-and-submission-the-psychosexual
I am so relieved that highly respected cult researchers are finally backing up conclusions I suspected early in my own research:
- C-PTSD isn't just about trauma, it's about conditioned reactions and beliefs.
- Oppressive high-demand religious institutions condition followers to accept sexual abuse, or be the one to dish it out.
- Religious control of sexual bodies doesn't just prime one for abuse. It is itself a form of sexual abuse. It is at least as bad to manipulate a person into having children she doesn't want as it is to traditionally abuse her.
- What I say next may be controversial, but this research implies it, and I've suspected this since I joined the kink scene of my own free will first thing after leaving Mormonism: Sexual submissiveness can be a result of being reared in a high-demand religious environment, even if as adults we joyously consent as bottoms outside of the original religious framework. (I also think Dom/sub alignment is partly biological.)
Excerpts:
"This article is foundational because it frames sexual exploitation as structurally embedded in coercive systems, not merely the misconduct of individual leaders."
...
"Cult leaders quickly recognize that controlling the sexual and intimate lives of their followers provides a massive source of power. In Lalich’s analysis, sexual domination is not merely one abuse among many — it is the final stage of objectification within an authoritarian system.
"This exploitation ranges from strict rules regarding marriage and procreation to more overt abuses like arranged marriages and forced sexual activity. By controlling the most intimate aspects of life, the leader ensures there is no private sphere beyond his reach."
...
"One of Lalich’s most important contributions is her direct challenge to the notion of consent within cult environments. Because cults are structured around extreme power imbalances, genuine consent cannot exist. Members are conditioned through fear of expulsion, spiritual threats, peer pressure, and dependency on the leader for identity and belonging."
...“Because of the power imbalance between leader and followers, sexual contact is never truly consensual and is likely to have damaging consequences for the follower.”
...
"Shame, guilt, and self-blame persist long after exit. The leader’s ideology continues to shape the survivor’s internal narrative. Recovery therefore requires dismantling both the sexual trauma and the ideological manipulation that sustained it."
...
"At one post-cult recovery workshop, 40% of women present reported having been sexually abused in their cult (p. 7). Lalich suggests this number likely underestimates the true prevalence based on her own clinical observations. The silence surrounding sexual exploitation, she argues, is itself part of the problem."
–
I believe this is true even in (especially in) sex-negative environments. We pointed this out in the book I just wrote. If sex is shrouded in secrecy and shame, victims are unable to understand what they are going through, and unable to report it.🧵 ?
#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #PTSD #cults #exvie #exvangelical #abuseCulture #SexualAssault
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My name is Laura, but y'all feel free to call me Lala if you like. Or Tink. Or Ishe. I'm here for {in no special order}:
#bulletjournaling
#dogs
#Caturday
#crochet
#Appalachia
#AppalachianHistory
#actualadoptee
#bookwyrm
#wolves
#phonephotography
#Irishlanguage
#pizza
#art
#StardewValley
#music
#stationery
#witchy
#drawing
#buckdance
#donorconceived
#notparentexpected
#formerfosteryouth
#exvangelical
#AuDHD
#Bridgerton
#DerryGirls
#FruitsBasketanime
#manga
#anime
#humor
#yallmeansall 🌈
#tattoosPlease boost, if you'd like. I may edit this in the future. If you've a similar list, I'm happy to boost in return.
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My name is Laura, but y'all feel free to call me Lala if you like. Or Tink. Or Ishe. I'm here for {in no special order}:
#bulletjournaling
#dogs
#Caturday
#crochet
#Appalachia
#AppalachianHistory
#actualadoptee
#bookwyrm
#wolves
#phonephotography
#Irishlanguage
#pizza
#art
#StardewValley
#music
#stationery
#witchy
#drawing
#buckdance
#donorconceived
#notparentexpected
#formerfosteryouth
#exvangelical
#AuDHD
#Bridgerton
#DerryGirls
#FruitsBasketanime
#manga
#anime
#humor
#yallmeansall 🌈
#tattoosPlease boost, if you'd like. I may edit this in the future. If you've a similar list, I'm happy to boost in return.
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My name is Laura, but y'all feel free to call me Lala if you like. Or Tink. Or Ishe. I'm here for {in no special order}:
#bulletjournaling
#dogs
#Caturday
#crochet
#Appalachia
#AppalachianHistory
#actualadoptee
#bookwyrm
#wolves
#phonephotography
#Irishlanguage
#pizza
#art
#StardewValley
#music
#stationery
#witchy
#drawing
#buckdance
#donorconceived
#notparentexpected
#formerfosteryouth
#exvangelical
#AuDHD
#Bridgerton
#DerryGirls
#FruitsBasketanime
#manga
#anime
#humor
#yallmeansall 🌈
#tattoosPlease boost, if you'd like. I may edit this in the future. If you've a similar list, I'm happy to boost in return.
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My name is Laura, but y'all feel free to call me Lala if you like. Or Tink. Or Ishe. I'm here for {in no special order}:
#bulletjournaling
#dogs
#Caturday
#crochet
#Appalachia
#AppalachianHistory
#actualadoptee
#bookwyrm
#wolves
#phonephotography
#Irishlanguage
#pizza
#art
#StardewValley
#music
#stationery
#witchy
#drawing
#buckdance
#donorconceived
#notparentexpected
#formerfosteryouth
#exvangelical
#AuDHD
#Bridgerton
#DerryGirls
#FruitsBasketanime
#manga
#anime
#humor
#yallmeansall 🌈
#tattoosPlease boost, if you'd like. I may edit this in the future. If you've a similar list, I'm happy to boost in return.
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My name is Laura, but y'all feel free to call me Lala if you like. Or Tink. Or Ishe. I'm here for {in no special order}:
#bulletjournaling
#dogs
#Caturday
#crochet
#Appalachia
#AppalachianHistory
#actualadoptee
#bookwyrm
#wolves
#phonephotography
#Irishlanguage
#pizza
#art
#StardewValley
#music
#stationery
#witchy
#drawing
#buckdance
#donorconceived
#notparentexpected
#formerfosteryouth
#exvangelical
#AuDHD
#Bridgerton
#DerryGirls
#FruitsBasketanime
#manga
#anime
#humor
#yallmeansall 🌈
#tattoosPlease boost, if you'd like. I may edit this in the future. If you've a similar list, I'm happy to boost in return.
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🎶freedom's just another word
for nothing left to lose🎶#solarpunk #exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #exvie #exvangelical #USPol #Antifa #resist #humanism #atheism
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There definitely seems to be a vibe shift. From powerlessness and helplessness to empowerment and determination
I'm not the only one. And it's not just here on Mastodon.
Nothing is forever. No trend continues ever upward. We're learning the skills and fortitude we need. We're self-organizing against the shape that collective trauma has forced us into.
This too shall pass.
Then imagine the world we'll be able to build with the momentum.
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #exvie #exvangelical #USPol #Antifa #resist #humanism #atheism
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CW: Christianity - Deconstruction Story
I've decided to add "exvangelical" to my identity cocktail. I grew up as a Christian in the Assemblies of God. I'm fortunate that the church I grew up in specifically wasn't nearly as batshit insane as more mainline Evangelical branches, and to be fair I definitely benefited some.
But the Christianity I knew died with my childhood pastor. And the religion still caused me harm with nightmares of the Rapture, always neurotically looking for signs of the end, hearing some loud noise I couldn't identify and needing to check that my parents were still there; that I wasn't "left behind."
I wasn't quite as afraid of hell as I was fascinated with it, which tracks for me; I've always had a grotesque interest in Cosmic Horror. It felt more distant than the rapture which allowed for that detached fascination.
I was also a worse person for being a Christian. Of course it was wrapped up in Conservative politics too, so I was, for the longest time, a "concerned" transphobe (ironic that I now identify as nonbinary). I of course thought abortion was murder and I talked like a fucking idiot because I was propagandized from Day 1.
What finally broke me was learning I'm queer. From age 15, I struggled with the Christian stance on queerness, and tried to justify it with the mistranslation excuse or the fallibility of the men who wrote the Bible. But by the age of 19, I had to come to terms with the fact that no matter what the Bible says, CHRISTIANS overwhelmingly do not support queer people, and the majority of them are hostile to us.
Which lead me to question: did I even believe in God? What conviction did I have? And I recalled Revelations 3:15-16:
"I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. 16 So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth."
And that was the final straw, the passage that finally extinguished my dwindling faith. In my younger years, I was passionate and "on fire" as they'd say. I couldn't get enough, I wanted to know more, I wanted to know God, but despite my fervor, I had not a shred nor scrap of an experience that I could definitively say was God and could not be anything else. And so my conviction died, and to me, that passage told me it was Biblically correct to stand before God Almighty as an honest Atheist than a lukewarm Christian. And I left.
As the years went by, I began to realize all the ways that Christianity still colored my worldview. I began to dump everything I was ever told and reevaluate my every stance and opinion, piece by piece, brick by brick, deconstructing the worldview of my former religion. I felt like I was seeing upside down despite knowing that, for the very first time in my life, I was finally seeing clearly.
1/2 #exvangelical #deconstruction -
And about a year, (I'll have to do some birthday math) I will have been out of the Mormon church for as long as I was in.
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I have finished my final draft of Sexcommunicated!
This is, oddly, within two days of my 25th anniversary of deciding to be done with the LDS Church for good, on Jan 26th 2001.
Natasha Helfer, my client, has lined up a publisher! Her and the publisher will do the final edits. It should be a printed book within a year or two. I will have co-byline.
That's about all the details I'm authorized to release.
Sexcommunicated tells the story of Natasha's life, her journey towards becoming a sex therapist, the splash she made in the Mormon world with her therapy blog in 2012, and the events that led to her excommunication in 2021.
I will keep you updated on publishing news as the manuscript rolls through the process.
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500 witnesses saw . . . WHAT?? #Apologists should read #Paul again!!
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The ICSA has been working hard to better support former cult members and those who have loved ones stuck in cults. Here's their newsletter recapping their updated website and revamped services.
I've been an ICSA member for many years. It's a very small academic organization that also welcome lay people who have had life experiences with cults. They've been around (under various names) for many decades, originally the publishers of Cultic Studies Journal, which is now split across several publications under various names. I've spoken about Mormonism at their conferences and met people with all kinds of backgrounds.
Their resources include: an academic journal, a magazine for lay people, conferences, a directory of helping professionals, and a back catalogue of all their past publications.
I'm glad to see them becoming more active and increasing their outreach.
#cults #ReligiousTrauma #ICSA #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical
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CW: Personal journey: trauma, medical injustice, and poverty
I carry many traumas, religious conditioning, family abuse, and the weight of workplace injustice. For years, I feared my own queerness, trapped by a world that told me who to be.
It took a near fatal illness to break that shell. Facing death did not just change my health, it shifted my soul. It moved me from a world of self-concern to one of deep empathy. I went back to school, unlearned old patterns, and found my voice.
I have known the cruelty of a "wallet biopsy" and the sting of being judged by doctors who didn’t see my humanity. I have stood in line for expired food and felt the bone deep cold of poverty. I know that poverty is a trauma that kills, I have lived it.
But today, I am no longer afraid. I will shout in the face of the oppressors. I will continue to speak truth to power.
#Queer #Survivor #MutualAid #SocialJustice #PovertyAwareness #MedicalJustice #PovertyTrauma #SpeakTruthtoPower #ReligiousTrauma #QueerJoy #MedicalTrauma #PovertyTrauma #SocialJustice #Resilience #ClassWar #EatTheRich #EconomicJustice #LivedExperience #Deconstruction #Exvangelical #PostReligious #PoliticalEvolution #LateBloomerQueer #Pride #LGBT #LGBTQIA #UniversalHealthcare #HealthcareIaHumanRight
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CW: Personal journey: trauma, medical injustice, and poverty
I carry many traumas, religious conditioning, family abuse, and the weight of workplace injustice. For years, I feared my own queerness, trapped by a world that told me who to be.
It took a near fatal illness to break that shell. Facing death did not just change my health, it shifted my soul. It moved me from a world of self-concern to one of deep empathy. I went back to school, unlearned old patterns, and found my voice.
I have known the cruelty of a "wallet biopsy" and the sting of being judged by doctors who didn’t see my humanity. I have stood in line for expired food and felt the bone deep cold of poverty. I know that poverty is a trauma that kills, I have lived it.
But today, I am no longer afraid. I will shout in the face of the oppressors. I will continue to speak truth to power.
#Queer #Survivor #MutualAid #SocialJustice #PovertyAwareness #MedicalJustice #PovertyTrauma #SpeakTruthtoPower #ReligiousTrauma #QueerJoy #MedicalTrauma #PovertyTrauma #SocialJustice #Resilience #ClassWar #EatTheRich #EconomicJustice #LivedExperience #Deconstruction #Exvangelical #PostReligious #PoliticalEvolution #LateBloomerQueer #Pride #LGBT #LGBTQIA #UniversalHealthcare #HealthcareIaHumanRight
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CW: Personal journey: trauma, medical injustice, and poverty
I carry many traumas, religious conditioning, family abuse, and the weight of workplace injustice. For years, I feared my own queerness, trapped by a world that told me who to be.
It took a near fatal illness to break that shell. Facing death did not just change my health, it shifted my soul. It moved me from a world of self-concern to one of deep empathy. I went back to school, unlearned old patterns, and found my voice.
I have known the cruelty of a "wallet biopsy" and the sting of being judged by doctors who didn’t see my humanity. I have stood in line for expired food and felt the bone deep cold of poverty. I know that poverty is a trauma that kills, I have lived it.
But today, I am no longer afraid. I will shout in the face of the oppressors. I will continue to speak truth to power.
#Queer #Survivor #MutualAid #SocialJustice #PovertyAwareness #MedicalJustice #PovertyTrauma #SpeakTruthtoPower #ReligiousTrauma #QueerJoy #MedicalTrauma #PovertyTrauma #SocialJustice #Resilience #ClassWar #EatTheRich #EconomicJustice #LivedExperience #Deconstruction #Exvangelical #PostReligious #PoliticalEvolution #LateBloomerQueer #Pride #LGBT #LGBTQIA #UniversalHealthcare #HealthcareIaHumanRight
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The International Cultic Studies Association has an article this week with tips to help those who have families in cults, or who are affected by religious trauma over the holidays.
https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/a-message-for-those-affected-by-cults
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TheThinking #Atheist
Kayse Melone is an #exvangelical turned #secular #humanist #activist, and she has much to say about her former #faith, women in activist spaces, and #political #indoctrination.
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#PodcastRecc “Should Christians Be Defined by The Culture Wars? with J.D. Greear” on “ Confronting Christianity with Rebecca McLaughlin”
https://pca.st/episode/8f46e6b2-7597-4bc9-b33d-42e37d1824e4#dw4jc #exvangelical #ChristianNationalism #CultureWar #ConCW #HealOurCulture #politics
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I prefer an approach to spirituality that is based in both gnosis and high-level critical thinking and analogue insight—not fear-based superstition. You’ll find all that in Book 2 of THE GRAND ILLUSION (and some snippets on my Subst@ck).
Leave a 📕 if you'd like to be first to know when it's available.
---
#RTS #religioustraumasyndrome #ReligiousTrauma #Deconstructing #Exvangelical #FaithDeconstruction #ReligiousHarm #SpiritualAbuse #ChurchHurt #DogmaFree #RecoveringFromReligion #salvationism -
The international Cultic Studies Association has added a new service provider directory for helping professionals who work in fields related to cult recovery and religious trauma, worldwide.
It doesn't seem like there are too many providers (that's how it was when I was seeking therapy for cult recovery in the 00s, which is one reason I wrote Recovering Agency), so if you are a helping professional specializing in cult recovery or religious trauma recovery, consider joining! The ICSA is a great resource all around.
And if you're in need of recovery services, give it a search.
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The Woman at the Well Wasn't a Sinner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sIiA9e5b-k
#biblestudy #exvangelical #deconstruction #reconstruction #jesus
For generations, the #Samaritan woman in #John4 has been misrepresented as an #adulteress — a “fallen” woman that Jesus had to shame before saving. But what if we’ve been reading it wrong?
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The #Violent #Hypocrisy of #American #Christianity
#KayseMelone
#exchristian #exvangelical #christiannationalismChristianity has long been framed as the ultimate path to #morality, #familyvalues, and #goodliving. But #history tells a much darker story. From #missionaries who dismantled indigenous cultures to the role of Christianity in #colonization, #conquest, and modern Christian nationalism, the truth is clear:
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More in this article, from the personal perspective of someone who experienced abuse by parents influenced by Dobson. By Piper Bly @piper
https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/james-dobson-rest-in-piss
#JamesDobson #AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #exvangelical #exvie #exmo #exmormon
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Hemant Mehta’s obituary for James #Dobson is 🧑🍳💋
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/james-dobson-an-architect-of-evangelical
My parents had his books, and we listened to his radio program in the 80s.
“His legacy can be found in estranged families, the self-loathing of those who survived his teachings, and in a political landscape warped by his toxic theology.”
He screwed up a lot of people and is the reason many of us don’t talk to our parents anymore. #JamesDobson #Exvangelical
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For more information, if you can stomach it, the book Breaking Their Will by Janet Heimlich gets into it. (I was unable to finish it.)
Fuck James Dobson.
#JamesDobson #AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #exvangelical #exvie #exmo #exmormon
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Not hiding this because folks need to see this, but CW for child abuse and the evils of American Christfascism. And speaking ill of the dead, which I will gladly do. I can't speak ill enough of him.
James Dobson is a major reason why *this*. Even his evangelical friends and radio cohosts thought he was too cruel. I'm glad he died before he could see his creation of Cristofascism come to fruition. He's one of the worst human beings to ever live.
Not content to let trauma-informed culture break the cycle of domestic abuse, he perpetuated child abuse by teaching millions of parents *how*. He even sold a device for beating children called "The Rod." (As in "spare the rod, spoil the child.") He advocated for what was known as "blanket training," used to break the will of children starting in infancy. The goal was to create a mindless being who would not cry when beaten, who would jump to with a "Yes sir!" on *any* command.
The core cruelties of white American evangelicalism in 2025 can be traced to many men, but this man was its face and kindly voice on the radio. When I speak of #AbuseCulture, this is what I mean. Dobson is the black hole which emitted its unholy light even as the revelations of science and open culture attempted to eliminate childhood trauma — Dobson raised its banner and pulled millions of Christians in, not just evangelicals, but anyone who trusted a figure promoting "Family Values," parents who would not on their own be able or even willing to enact such cruelties upon their own children, but under Dobson's manipulations, broke the will of their children...
...children who grew up and abused their own children, who are now pastors and sheriffs and senators and ICE thugs who want to make this reality for all of us.
That is the legacy of this horrible, horrible man.
I don't wish eternal hell on anyone, but I wouldn't mind if this particular creature experienced every pain he caused.
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Why do so many #evangelical leaders end up being… creeps?
"In this video, I explore the disturbing pattern of #abuse, manipulation, and scandal among #Christian leaders — from #prosperitygospel #televangelists to #culturewar #preachers. This isn’t just about a few bad apples. These #ministries attract creeps, protect them, and often reward them for their worst behavior."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfaBXYEQLA
#Deconstruction #spiritualabuse #Cult #agnosticism #atheism #Exvangelical #sundayschool
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Why do so many #evangelical leaders end up being… creeps?
"In this video, I explore the disturbing pattern of #abuse, manipulation, and scandal among #Christian leaders — from #prosperitygospel #televangelists to #culturewar #preachers. This isn’t just about a few bad apples. These #ministries attract creeps, protect them, and often reward them for their worst behavior."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfaBXYEQLA
#Deconstruction #spiritualabuse #Cult #agnosticism #atheism #Exvangelical #sundayschool
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Why do so many #evangelical leaders end up being… creeps?
"In this video, I explore the disturbing pattern of #abuse, manipulation, and scandal among #Christian leaders — from #prosperitygospel #televangelists to #culturewar #preachers. This isn’t just about a few bad apples. These #ministries attract creeps, protect them, and often reward them for their worst behavior."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfaBXYEQLA
#Deconstruction #spiritualabuse #Cult #agnosticism #atheism #Exvangelical #sundayschool
-
Why do so many #evangelical leaders end up being… creeps?
"In this video, I explore the disturbing pattern of #abuse, manipulation, and scandal among #Christian leaders — from #prosperitygospel #televangelists to #culturewar #preachers. This isn’t just about a few bad apples. These #ministries attract creeps, protect them, and often reward them for their worst behavior."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfaBXYEQLA
#Deconstruction #spiritualabuse #Cult #agnosticism #atheism #Exvangelical #sundayschool
-
Why do so many #evangelical leaders end up being… creeps?
"In this video, I explore the disturbing pattern of #abuse, manipulation, and scandal among #Christian leaders — from #prosperitygospel #televangelists to #culturewar #preachers. This isn’t just about a few bad apples. These #ministries attract creeps, protect them, and often reward them for their worst behavior."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfaBXYEQLA
#Deconstruction #spiritualabuse #Cult #agnosticism #atheism #Exvangelical #sundayschool
