Does PTSD change people's views on religion? Or does religion change people's views about trauma? I know trauma can turn your world upside down--Loosing faith; thinking you have a short life to live.
Yes and yes from this quarter too. Reconciling the existence of evil and pain with the reality of God is super tricky stuff. "Very Advanced Practice" as my meditation teacher would say.
I think Alby's long post on the previous page is worth reading several times - and (at the risk of being pushy) might have a lot to offer you, fairywings, in your quest to regain strength etc.
Reality checking and rejecting over-generalizations (as cognitive distortions) is an essential life skill for PTSD sufferers in a way that it is not (quite) for "normal" people. The issue of cops is a particularly difficult one, I think, since they are *supposed* to be "the good guys" and yet, they are merely human.:cry: The cop in the movie "Crash" is a perfect illustration of what I am thinking about here. (I come from a family full of cops, so am well aware of their flawed-ness.) Giving up the "good guys/bad guys" master narrative is a challenging thing to do - and worth it, none the less. It is also, IMHO, at the heart of all Christian (and other mono-theistic and most other spiritual) traditions. It is harder to live in a world where there are not good guys and bad guys tho.
At the same time, I'd chime in to say the church communities, like all other sorts of communities and families, exist along a spectrum of functional and dysfunctional. It happens that sometimes people find themselves among "traveling companions" who are not well suited to their place in the journey.
Anecdote: My best friend's church was most unhelpful to her with her marriage and divorce - it was a very traditional church and shunned her when she opted for divorce (after many years,) although having to deal with her ex without her 'covering for' and 'running interference' for him has changed several people's view of the matter. He turns out to be a much less congenial person when he has to actually take responsibility for himself (which he doesn't.) I'm afraid her experience with these people injured her relationship with God (kind of like gossip can ruin relationships between individuals). She spent YEARS waiting for *the hammer to fall*. And she didn't talk to God for a long time.:( I finally convinced her that maybe they were wrong about God and the whole marriage thing (Long story) by suggesting that if we started with the premise that God was at least as compassionate and forgiving as her mother (who is not very) who had been quite upset with her at first, and had, over a year of dealing with the ex directly, shifted to a position of not being able to quite fathom how she'd stayed married to THAT for so many years... maybe God might not be so put out with her. (Sorry for the run on sentence). Assuming that God was better than her mom, He must approve. Contrary to her ex-church's doctrine? Yup. But who made them God?
Anyway, from where I sit, reconciling trauma and evil with the existence of a loving God requires a conception of God that is neither simplistic nor "narrow" and that takes MOST seriously our limitations as "knowers."
I hope any of this made sense.
