Seven Ways to Overcome Religious Trauma Syndrome.

Religious Trauma is a real thing. I know it. I feel it. I see it in others. And there is official recognition these days! A few years ago, I interviewed Teresa Mateus. Our Skype connection did not work so I had my computer record the squeaky voice that came through the speaker of my iPhone 4s. It worked. As I spoke to her, Teresa seemed to discuss people who have undergone serious abuse in the church. I did realize that such abuse happens in many different forms and intensities. I suppose in the back of my mind I even realized that I was affected too but I was mainly thinking about people other than myself.

But I began to notice something over the past few years, before and after the interview — something that other people noticed as well and did not appreciate much — is that I have been very angry at the evangelical movement. I’ve been outright unfriendly at times, if not rude. Yes, rude! Instead of this anger getting less over time, it has intensified over time. Initially, I contributed this anger, in a typical move of a glorious mechanism called self-justification, to a source outside myself. “My” evangelicals had elected en masse an obviously dangerous man to become the president of the United States, thereby endangering the world and making themselves odious in the eyes of every living non-evangelical. As they persisted in their support for Trump over…