By Janice Selbie, RPC I had no personal experience with divorce until I was 35 years old, when my mother called with an overdue, but shocking, announcement: After 43 years of marriage, my parents were splitting up. While uncomfortable, her announcement was also liberating. If my saintly mother could make Read more…
I am recently back from Stockholm, Sweden where the long-awaited film “Leaving Jesus” was released at last, after 6 years of both working on the film and going through a pandemic delay. This is a documentary made by the renowned Swedish filmmaker Ellen Fisk about my Journey Free retreats. It Read more…
On “Good Friday,” I’m thinking about how little was good about it. The atonement is a Christian doctrine that is both absurd and horrible. The cross is a symbol of execution and represents Christianity. Iconic images of our country’s major religion are violent and unjust: A powerful male outsider forcibly Read more…
On the existential crisis part of religious trauma recovery Recently in our online Release & Reclaim support group (which has multiple monthly meetings over Zoom as well as a large community of deconstructing folks in our forums) we had a conversation about existential panic. One member posed this simple Read more…
We can probably agree we don’t like the commercialism of Christmas, the stress, or the holiday angst. Yet at the center of it all there is a powerful image that speaks to all of us – the Child. It’s fascinating to me that once a year so many people stop Read more…
After going through your own deconstruction of religious belief, it can feel like a challenge to reveal your change to your religious parents. You might have a lot of fear about their reaction – anger, hurt, disappointment in you, and so on. You might fear being disowned. This is a common concern because Read more…
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the term “secondary wounding,” used to describe the pain – and sometimes further trauma – inflicted when someone denies or dismisses your experience. Have you ever felt worse after telling someone about the trauma of your religious experience? You are far from alone. Read more…
Religious Trauma Syndrome: a Summary of a talk given May 11, 2021, at the Conference on Religious Trauma By Marlene Winell If you want to respond to this article, you can email me at journeyfree.org@gmail.com To begin, let me give you a brief definition of Religious Trauma Syndrome. RTS is Read more…
As we heal from the religious message of being basically bad, questions arise about how we view ourselves now. One important process is to get in touch with the inner resources that we really do have – inner strength, wisdom, and love. We are not empty or untrustworthy regarding leadership Read more…
One of our support group members was concerned about her children getting indoctrinated when they get exposed to religion. A concept that I came across years ago and applied to my own parenting is “mediating.” Put simply, it means discussing things thoroughly with your children when they are exposed to Read more…