Christians, we gotta get better at acknowledging and being gentle about religious trauma. I’m serious. The amount of people who call my self-hatred and terror that has resulted from religious trauma “conviction from the holy spirit” is horrible. We gotta do better. I am begging y’all.
100% this.
PTSD isn’t “the Holy Spirit trying to turn you back to God.” Self-loathing because a person internalized abuse isn’t a gentle nudge from God.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Friendly reminder that RTS (religious trauma syndrome) is a very real thing and is starting to become recognized and diagnoseable on a professional level, and is a form of Complex Trauma and also PTSD.
Spiritual abuse is extremely subtle and powerful and it’s something that churches, faith based organizations and religious circles need to address and become aware of and we need to learn how to care and help for people without using the Bible or Christianese as a lame excuse for a crutch, because those can be very intense triggers for people and its very insensitive to their pain.
this youtuber’s channel is specifically dedicated to examining spiritual abuse: https://www.youtube.com/user/truthinmotionstudios
also the beginning of this series from a teacher and counselor who is very learned and experience in the area of Complex Trauma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PU8c-fzNwo
and his series on the basics of Complex Trauma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IxEwPMqB-c
there are books such as The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by Johnson Van Vonderan; You Are Your Own by Jamie Lee Finch; The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson. So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore by Dave Coleman and Wayne Jacobsen
tons of podcasts and channels like God is Grey she focuses more on the aspects of the abuse of purity culture and the sexual abuse that it’s given the church and so many of it’s people
Head to Heart podcast by Christa Black Gifford, she is also more focused on trauma and the healing and recovery from it
Dirty Rotten Church Kids podcast, where they’ve reached out to their followers and listeners and get their stories and perspectives as they deconstruct the destructive aspects of the church, and in a way have developed a support group for the deconstructing Christian.
There are other people such as William Paul Young and his incredible journey and testimony of healing and recovery.
Pastors and Theologians like C. Baxter Kruger and Bradley Jersak, who delve into and take on the corrupted views and translations of the Bible and Christian belief systems and how twisted and abusive they have become through skewed human perspectives and pain over time. Bradley Jersak is also an author and has books on the theology of Hell called: Her Gates Will Never Be Shut and one on the theology of God called A more Christ-like God
those are just the beginning of some of the materials that came to my mind.
It is not blasphemy to take a critical view of the church and bible, in fact I believe that God encourages it. It’s not a coincidence that the deconstructing Christian is the fastest growing movement in the world right now. (I think it’s somewhere around 1,000 people are leaving the church in America alone everyday? I could be wrong in that) But it shows that something in the system is deeply broken and no longer working, and it needs to be challenged and called out for what it is.
Thank you for continuing the discussion on this. It’s very important.


















