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Here go some #Exvangeical shit:
It’s interesting talking about the levels to the spiritual abuse w my girlfriend. She’s Jewish ethnically and culturally—she studied medieval religion in college but her understanding of current Christianity is very much third party because
It’s interesting talking about the levels to the spiritual abuse w my girlfriend. She’s Jewish ethnically and culturally—she studied medieval religion in college but her understanding of current Christianity is very much third party because
Half her family isn’t from the US and both sides of her family were pretty entrenched in Jewish communities for the most part. I say all this to point out a curiosity that I don’t often encounter with casually Christian or irreligious people who grew up casually Christian
There’s an overall Christian Culture in the US. Even if one isn’t Christian, you get bombarded with Christian dogma all the time. You get Christian holidays off school, if you say you’re a religious person people generally assume you’re Christian until told otherwise
My gf lived in Scandinavia for a while as a kid. Because of this and the fact that the family she has the most contact with aren’t Christian, she’s been spared a lot of the bombardment that we tend to internalize and not think about till it’s pointed out to us
When I talk about the spiritual abuse I’ve gone through; a lot of “casually Christian/irreligious Christian” people tend to not really Get it. I can say “I had to go to church three times a week and twice on Sunday” and I usually get a “oh man that sucks my parents dragged me to
Church every Sunday too” like they’re not quite getting it and thinking it’s hyperbole or the worst thing that was happening was being bored to tears. I can say “I vividly remember having full scale panic attacks from as young as five just from forgetting to say grace over
Everything I ate and worrying that I’d lost my salvation” or “I had obsessive rituals about doing the Sinners Prayer just in case I’d sinned in a way to lose salvation but I hadn’t noticed and would have panic attacks about missing a ritual” and I usually get “oh wow that’s super
Weird and messed up” without a clear understanding of that level of abuse. Honestly, a lot of my religious trauma gets relegated to “funny stories” because in a casually Christian society, things like that are taken hyperbolically and it feels like only other people who’ve
Escaped that kind of abuse can really understand where you’re coming from—and that’s honestly no fault of any individual but it’s been interesting talking to my girlfriend about it because she doesn’t react the same way people typically do when I tell my “funny” exorcism stories
Or my “funny” childhood church experiences. Some time ago, she’d seen an article about movies to give you the heebiejeebies and Jesus Camp was on it. I mentioned that I really wanted her to see it because I would love to see her reaction to it. The things I described going
Through up to that point had largely been bits and pieces and kind of nebulous at times. I had actually never detailed my first and most traumatic exorcism out loud to anyone until my therapist and I started talking about it a few weeks ago. Religious abuse can be very difficult
To talk about because of the nature of trauma of course and also because there’s a level of brushing off that happens when your socio-cultural mores are saturated in the thing that’s connected to your trauma
Anyway, last I was at her place abt a week ago; & we watched Jesus Camp
Anyway, last I was at her place abt a week ago; & we watched Jesus Camp
I’ve watched it with other people before; it’s a p good introduction to Scenes From My Childhood and I’m sure other exvangelicals relate. Most of the time, when the documentary starts, people think it’s kinda funny. Weird, unrealistic, a pocket of showy conservatism. But funny
My girlfriend was horrified the whole way through in a way that was interesting because she was very much outside looking in. Outside evangelicalism, outside Christianity in general, partially outside the over saturation of general Christendom at the levels the US has
It was...weirdly validating for me honestly. I felt like she understood the level of abuse pretty quickly and more sincerely that a lot of people I speak to don’t reach (again, through no fault of their own on an individual level)
I’m often saying that I grew up on a cult and I always have to add that I don’t mean that hyperbolically. People tend to be interested in that up to the point where they find out “oh it’s just a brand of Christianity” because of the aforementioned over saturation in our society
Victims of this flavour of religious abuse are often ignored and brushed off in this manner without anyone really examining the very real and very lasting harm done to people growing up in that environment and it was just so, I don’t wanna say refreshing, but it was kinda to
Have someone look at that and not laugh and not just say “oh that’s weird lmao.” I felt very Seen and acknowledged in a way I don’t typically unless I’m talking to someone who’s been through the same flavour of religious abuse
I guess, I don’t really have a specific point outside it would be great if people would really examine their joke responses to the kind of blatant abuse that goes on in evangelical circles just because they think it’s “goofy”
And also I love and cherish my supportive girlfriend
And also I love and cherish my supportive girlfriend
