Spiritual Abuse From Toxic Christianity.

[BloomInWinter]

Ugh. This Christian radio host buys children and tortures them. I give kudos to the station for firing him, but if they didn't allow him to rant intolerance, he'd have never amassed such a huge following. I'm sure his co-workers must feel terrible.

This man has been a celebrated guest host all over the Midwest. His ranting against homosexuals, liberals, feminists, and marriage equality is his typical ranting screeds.

He was also in the sheriff's reserve.

Feds say he had a torture toolkit in his vehicle when taken into custody at one of the largest Chritian music festivals in the US.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/06/wcsg_radio_personality_was_at.html

 

[BloomInWinter]

Here's a site tracking the payouts to victims the Catholic Church must pay to literally hordes of victims. Why do people give money to that church?

Link Removed

 

[xena21]

I don't understand it in literal terms. I grew up with a hyper vigilant aunt who was the type that was against rock music because it was all satanic if it had any beat. She thought all girls needed skirts and not pants...too bad for her, my Mom knew I was a Tom boy and that wasn't working. I would have died instead. She ended up at Bob Jones University with her kids...go figure...and if you couldn't guess none of her kids talk to her now.

Of course one of her kids should burn in hell for abusing me, but the other three have left her just like you'd think they would after living that life. She lives near me now, and still preaches the same thing. I am so shocked she hasn't figured it out yet.

 

[BloomInWinter]

There is a growing body of evidence that extreme, rigid religious fundamentalism - no matter the religion - actually may be a mental illness which can be treatable and cured. As a paramedic, I went into many, many homes in a 4 county area.

The fundamentalist homes were very different, and not in a good way. There tended to be a patriarch who seemed to have to give permission to every single word allowed to be said by the wife and children. There was often obvious neglect, and the children showed signs of anxiety and fear differently than other kids who are at the scene of an illness or injury. Healthy kids get upset, and they show it, and they seek and receive comfort from the adults around them. Healthy kids would look away from the gore, being self-protective of their psyches.

Not so in these homes. The children appeared disconnected, and now I know what I was seeing was dissociation. They would stare, rigid and mute, and now I feel horrible because had I know they likely were in a freeze state and couldn't look away. I know this was what happened in my home, several times. I think now that the rigidity of the behaviors considered acceptable disconnected my self-protective instincts and caused me a lot worse psychological harm.

If I could do my paramedic years again, with this knowledge, I would have ensured children were always taken out of the room and not let the patriarch dictate everything even to the harm of the patient and the family. I would have assured them we were going to fix the problem. I *think* I tried to comfort kids generally, but I'd be far more cognizant of that.

"Leading Oxford University neurologist Kathleen Taylor has posited in her new book The Brain Supremacy that religious fundamentalism may soon be an identifiable "mental disorder” — and curable as an illness.

Discussing the positive developments she anticipated in neuroscience in the coming years, Taylor predicted that radicalized ideologies may soon divert from the category of personal choice or free will, and be recognized as the mental disturbance they truly are. She didn’t limit her scope to fundamentalist Islam or cults, but included outlier credences as well, like the belief that beating your children is acceptable.

She hopes to fully understand how certain people devote themselves so counter-intuitively to beliefs that cause such massive social harm. That said, Taylor recognizes the potential moral hazards of developing technologies that enter the mind and manipulate the brain: "They cannot be morally neutral, these world-shaping tools; when the aspect of the world in question is a human being, morality inevitably rears its hydra heads … Technologies which profoundly change our relationship with the world around us cannot simply be tools, to be used for good or evil, if they alter our basic perception of what good and evil are."

Source: http://mic.com/articles/45811/religious-fundamentalism-is-a-mental-illness-that-could-soon-be-cured

 

[BloomInWinter]

Yet another from my neck of the woods, and Presbyterian.

There's six different religious leaders arrested in Illinois over the past week. Imagine how many victims that is.

"A minister was charged with sexual abuse this week after his alleged victim, now 19, remembered while training to become a camp counselor that he had been attacked years ago, authorities said Friday.

“During the training, the victim learned about how to respond if he were to learn of the sexual abuse of a child,” prosecutors said in court documents. “This triggered the victim's memory and he immediately (told) his parents.”

Sure sounds like PTSD to me.

Source: http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80651172/

 

[Deleted member 12723]

The sexual abuse in my community was rampant and I finally began to understand why the victims all remained so silent. It just sickened me to see so much that was vile and corrupt there. Two men killed their wives there and were supported by the so called pillars of society there. I am so glad we finally moved so far away from there. I feel so sorry for all of the victims that were so isolated and silenced. That church drove one poor woman to suicide and it was just forget about it and move on.

Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil is the cardinal rule of that little town. I am so glad we all survived it to live to tell the tale.

 

[xena21]

"The person who supposedly counseled me told me if I reported (another fundamentalist Christian) to the police, I was damaging the cause of Christ, and I would be responsible for the abuser going to hell"

This is the quote from a student from Bob Jones University who was abused and tried to report the abuse. Obviously there's a problem here. The University is bias and doesn't want things to get out. How many do you think are abusers? Just like the Catholic Church...They hide in plain site.

It's disgusting. They should be prosecuted to the full extent but they will get off because they intimidate those around them. It's so sad.

Like I said before, my cousin went to Bob Jones and I was so disgusted by that place. They are like a cult and hate women. Why would anyone send people there? I know why. They are influenced in such a pathetic way and I wish I could stop it. I can't. At least my cousin broke free. That makes me so happy. She is so free an d away from those freaks.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Xena, thank you for saying she is freed and away from those freaks. I have tears in my eyes now. I applied that to me and feel so much better now.

They hate being called or confronted and I am appalled at how they close ranks and harm the true victims of their predatory acts.

 

[billie]

I am truly glad you are out now @gizmo. Those people are nothing but through preditors. I am sorry you went through this.

 

[Laura 2]

"The person who supposedly counseled me told me if I reported (another fundamentalist Christian) to the police, I was damaging the cause of Christ, and I would be responsible for the abuser going to hell"

Pure evil.

But that's what I was told - in more secular words - when I went to the headteacher of my son's school after he told me that boys were drug dealing. i.e. I could go to the police but that would ruin the school's reputation and I'd be responsible for the boys getting criminal records. Plus my son 'might' take some flak....It was a church school. (But you guessed that already...)

 

[aka]

I have been watching this thread for awhile know I want to add my own experience with toxic religion. My family when I was young was pretty religious dad was the church treasurer mom played the organ etc. My parents thought I would get a better education at the church school then in the public schools but they were so wrong. The school was run in my opinion by idiots who were so oblivious to everything that went on around them. They teacher had no time to help every student even me who they new was struggle to learn. Hell they had my parent get me tested by the public schools to see what was wrong with me. They did not check to make sure we did our school work. Some days I got away with doing no school work I just pretended I was done and played games on the computers. But when it came to the religion curriculum they would become more demanding. One time they found out I had not memorized my bible versus and sent me to the aid (a mean older lady who had no patience for my learning difficulties) and told me I had to stay with her until I memorized and recited all the passages. One of the passages was the entire content of the ten commandments which is extremely long and I was like ten years old. To this day I hate memorizing Bible passages because of this moment.

When allegations of under supervision and mishandling of students came out against the church( not to mention all the sexual abuse allegations against one of the students at the school) the church did not react well. My parents and another family went to the police and man did not sit well with the church. I remember my parents getting some nasty emails and phone calls. The church members basically held the belief that what happens in the church community should be handled my the church community not by the police. I not even going to go into the fact that the church blackmailed my parents to get them to drop the law suite against them.

I could go on but I am going to end my rant at this point.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

aka I am so sorry this was your experience with the toxic church and toxic members. It just makes me feel so very sad that you had to suffer and endure that.

I am at a loss of words but so glad you vented here to get it out. I have been there too.

I found it ate up so many years of my life trying to heal and recover from my bad experiences.

I have done so much studying the dynamics and how it all works.

You were a child and forced to go through that experience. I imagine that you are now free of it and you did not say that you were.

It destroys and devastates so many peoples lives. You are not alone. Big hugs.