GCRR Conference on Religious Trauma

[Robert_Tulip]

The Global Center for Religious Research will hold the second annual e-conference on Religious Trauma on March 26-27, 2022. The online event will  bring together specialists, psychiatrists, and researchers from all over the world to discuss the causes of religious trauma, as well as its manifestations and treatment options for those afflicted with the often adverse and disruptive effects associated with religion.

 

Link https://www.gcrr.org/religioustraumaconference2022

 

I will share the emails I have received from the organiser, deconverted Baptist Minister Darren Slade, head of GCRR.

[Robert_Tulip]

Here is the first email from Darren Slade of GCRR introducing this conference. https://www.gcrr.org/so/88NwsuzBd#/main

How I Lost Everything in 2020: Part I

In my former life, I was a baptist minister. Having converted to the faith when I was 18, I became enraptured by what conservative, evangelical Christianity offered me. I went to seminary in 2010 and acquired two degrees in Theology and Divinity. But my professional ministry was short-lived. By the end of 2015, I had deconverted from the faith.   How did I find myself in the span of 5 years going from one ideology to a completely different one?   Through my educational journey, I found myself with more doubt than faith. More questions than answers. I saw behind the curtain, the corruption and deception from the inner workings of the religious world. People who called themselves “Christians” were really no different from the rest of the world. Indeed, in many cases, church folk and pastors were worse than nonbelievers. There were too many holes and discrepancies between what we knew to be true and what our doctrine said was true. I was curious, so I went searching for verifiable answers. I started looking into my faith from the other side, academically, outside of what the seminary was teaching me. What I discovered brought me to a point of no return.     When I revealed that I was walking away from the church in 2019, I lost everything.   The faith community that I had relied on failed me. My family and support system abandoned me. The way they saw it, I had committed spiritual betrayal of the most horrendous kind. I immediately became “the enemy.” There was no room for compassion, understanding, or acceptance of what I had gone through or what I was experiencing losing my worldview. And worse of all, after 12 incredible years, my wife rejected me and our 2 year-old-daughter. Faith before family.   Learn More About Religious Trauma     I didn’t have any community or family outside of the church, and the people who I had commited my life to didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I was on my own. A single father. Abandoned, lost, confused, frightened. The people who were supposed to show me love and grace showed me nothing but spite and retribution. I had to start my life over entirely at ground zero. I had lost my home, my marriage, my job, my family, my community, and my very identity.   Help Others Suffering From Religious Trauma   So where did I go from here? Well, oddly enough... I started the Global Center for Religious Research and its research into religious trauma.

[Robert_Tulip]

Darren's journey from conservative, evangelical Christianity with seminary degrees in Theology and Divinity to deconversion and establishment of the Global Center for Religious Research has much in common with members of ex-Christian.net.  Darren has told me he plans to post here to discuss his forthcoming conference on religious trauma.  I find this concept of how religion traumatises people immensely important.  The basic problem is hypocrisy, that religion says one thing but means another.  Religion says the truth will make you free, but then systematically avoids analysis of truth.  People try to take religious claims at face value, but then find the church is unable to engage in coherent debate.  

[Robert_Tulip]

I have been discussing the problem of religious trauma with church friends, although it is something most in the church prefer not to discuss.  At https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1923898567812256&id=100005763949039&comment_id=1924024121133034 I recently made the following comment: "A false and corrupted theology based on the Christendom model of the unity of church and state continues to infect the church. Lingering symptoms include a view that faith brings a certainty in propositions that are in conflict with scientific knowledge, a reliance on the comfort of mythological emotional fantasy, a refusal to engage in open dialogue, and a lack of humility about the status of Christian dogma. All these factors can be quite traumatising for people who do not share the traditional belief system."

[Robert_Tulip]

Here is the second email on religious trauma from Darren Slade of GCRR

 

How I Lost Everything in 2020: Part II

As I discussed in my last posting, I used to be a baptist minister. Having converted to the faith when I was 18, I became enraptured by what conservative, evangelical Christianity offered me. I went to seminary in 2010 and acquired two degrees in Theology and Divinity. But my professional ministry was short-lived. By the end of 2015, I had deconverted and left the church.   The faith community that I had relied on failed me. My family and support system abandoned me. The way they saw it, I had committed spiritual betrayal of the most horrendous kind. I immediately became “the enemy.” I was on my own. A single father. Abandoned, lost, confused, frightened. I had lost my home, my marriage, my job, my family, my community, and my very identity.   So where did I go from here?

I joined a support group for people who are thinking about or have left their religious views. As I developed new friendships and heard the stories of my peers, I started realizing just how many people were genuinely traumatized by their religious experiences. I had been oblivious to the depths of damage that have been caused by religion to so many people for so long. I always presented religion as life-saving, but I had no idea the extent of how it was also life-shattering.

As an academic, I learned that religious trauma (as a professional field of study) is still burgeoning and in its infancy. Under-recognized and minimally researched. I recognized the vast need for more awareness and more investigation into the causes, manifestations, and treatment options for those suffering from religious trauma.

I’ve rebuilt a life for myself that has genuine purpose and truly serves the greater good. As I developed the Global Center for Religious Research, it was vitally important to me that it be a safe and accessible place to explore all aspects of religion from an academic perspective.   Learn More About Religious Trauma     The Religious Trauma research project and accompanying conferences are my contribution to what will become a massive safety-net of awareness, education, clinical research, and treatment options for those, like me, who have had to come to terms with the upheaval that a life after religion can lead to.    Help Others Suffering From Religious Trauma

I hope you will join me virtually as we host the 2nd Annual International eConference on Religious Trauma this coming March, which will bring together specialists, psychiatrists, and researchers from all over the world to discuss the causes of religious trauma, as well as its manifestations and treatment options for those afflicted with the often adverse and disruptive effects associated with religion.

Learn More

[Robert_Tulip]

Nope, Causes of Religious Trauma Don't Need to be Extreme or Predatory

One of our GCRR family members shared the following story with us (**and is being shared here with their permission**): "I'm a mennonite, and was baptized into the Mennonite Brethren church (not in the US) when I was 13. At the time, ideas from southern US mega churches were very common in my church, and my peers and I embraced purity culture and other such notions. I've only recently discovered the term "religious trauma", and it very closely describes my experience, and explains the numerous trauma responses I carry with me, including chronic mental health issues and physical health issues related to an overactive nervous system. "My experience is different from many I've seen described in that while I was practicing, I regarded my faith as very positive - I felt loved, secure and safe. What I think has caused the trauma is leaving religion, as I was raised from birth to believe I am nothing but a sinner without the redemption that comes from belief in Jesus, and that the only way to achieve fulfillment and joy in this life and the next is to believe in the very specific dogma I was raised to believe. "I was taught you're either all in or all out (god hates lukewarm, they say), so when I found that my questioning led to an inability to be all in, I couldn't see any other way but to leave behind everything. This led to a very long period of rebuilding my entire worldview from scratch, while trying to pretend to my family that everything was fine because I didn't want them to worry about my eternal salvation."

And that's the thing about trauma ... there's no telling what or how somebody's nervous system will respond to certain events. That's why we need to respond in grace, compassion, and empathy whenever we hear that someone is affected by things that we personally don't understand. In the story above, a simple theological doctrine like original sin affected this person at the core of his being (as it has so many others), despite the fact that this same doctrine likely does not affect millions of others.

The point, however, is not to say that religions need to change their theologies or that religious leaders need to revise their sermons.   **though, let's face it; a lot of religions and a lot of preachers need to change their message** Historically speaking, there's no denying that the doctrine of original sin is an essential teaching of orthodox Christianity. Rather, the point is to highlight Step #1 in trauma healing, which is a very basic (no duh) awareness that our words and actions can have lasting adverse effects on people's mental and physical health.   And just as human beings... whether you're a faith leader, an atheist, a clinician, or a patient... we can start taking care of each other with just this simple awareness. Now, obviously there are some extreme and predatory religious practices that need to end ... immediately: Female circumcision, child brides, molestation, and so on. But religious trauma doesn't need to stem from things like sex assault and human trafficking. And there's no shame in realizing that you might suffer from religious trauma because of so-called "less extreme" events in your life.

Become empowered through next-level, trauma-informed teachings on this lesser known source of trauma.     View presentations from specialists, psychiatrists, and researchers from all over the world to discuss the causes of religious trauma, as well as its manifestations and treatment options for those afflicted with the often adverse and disruptive effects associated with religion.   Learn More Home Page https://www.gcrr.org/ One minute video summary https://www.gcrr.org/so/2bNyVZqZ-?languageTag=en&cid=809c672d-95ff-4f0a-b8e3-3dac6084839c&region=3f472f29-9456-4210-96d1-51fe5dfc98bc#/main

[◊ Weezer ◊]

Thanks for posting that information.  The Mennonites experience was very similar to mine.  I don't know what I would have done if my wife and kids and family had left me or copletely shunned me.  But it is obvious that some do not regard me in the same light as before.

 

Strange coincidence.  I had changed my "signature" just before reading this thread.