“I
am 30 years old and I am struggling to find sanity. Between the christian schools, homeschooling, the christian group home
(brain-washing work slave camp) and different cults in different cities, I
am a psychological, emotional and spiritual mess.” –A former
Evangelical
If
a former believer says that christianity made her depressed, obsessive,
or post-traumatic, she is likely to be dismissed as an exaggerator. She
might describe panic attacks about the rapture; moods that swung from
ecstasy about dog’s overwhelming love to suicidal self-loathing about
repeated sins; or an obsession with sexual purity.
A symptom like
one of these clearly has a religious component, yet many people
instinctively blame the victim. They will say that the wounded former
believer was prone to anxiety or depression or obsession in the first
place—that his christianity somehow got corrupted by his predisposition
to psychological problems. Or they will say that he wasn’t a real christian. If only he had
prayed in faith believing or loved dog
with all his heart, soul and mind, if only he had really been saved—then he would have experienced the peace that passes all understanding.
But
the reality is far more complex. It is true that symptoms like
depression or panic attacks most often strike those of us who are
vulnerable, perhaps because of genetics or perhaps because situational
stressors have worn us down. But certain aspects of christian delusions
and christian 'living' also can create those stressors, even setting up
multi-generational patterns of abuse, trauma, and self-abuse. Also, over
time some religious delusions can create habitual thought patterns that
actually alter brain function, making it difficult for people to heal or
grow.
The purveyors of religion insist that their product is so
powerful it can transform a life, but somehow, magically, it has no
risks. In reality, when a drub is powerful, it usually has the
potential to be toxic, especially in the wrong combination or at the
wrong dose. And religion is powerful drug!
In
this discussion, we focus on the variants of christianity that are
based on a literal interpretation of the bible. These include
evangelical and fundamentalist cults, the cult of latter day saints, and
other wingnut sects. These groups share the
characteristics of requiring conformity for membership, a view that
humans need salvation, and a focus on the spiritual world as superior to
the natural world. These views are in contrast to liberal, progressive
christian cults with a humanistic viewpoint, a focus on the present,
and social justice.
Religion Exploits Normal Human Mental Processes.
To
understand the power of religion, it is helpful to understand a bit
about the structure of the human mind. Much of our mental activity has
little to do with rationality and is utterly inaccessible to the
conscious mind. The preferences, intentions and decisions that shape our
lives are in turn shaped by memories and associations that can get laid
down before we even develop the capacity for rational analysis.
Aspects
of cognition like these determine how we go through life, what causes
us distress, which goals we pursue and which we abandon, how we respond
to failure, how we respond when other people hurt us—and how we respond
when we hurt them. Religion derives its power in large part because it
shapes these unconscious processes: the frames, metaphors, intuitions
and emotions that operate before we even have a chance at conscious
thought.
Some Religious Delusions and Practices are More Harmful Than Others.
When it comes to psychological damage, certain religious delusions and practices are reliably more toxic than others.
Janet Heimlich is an investigative journalist who has explored
religious child maltreatment, which describes abuse and neglect in the service of religious delusion. In her book,
Breaking their Will,Heimlich
identifies three characteristics of religious cabals that are
particularly prone to harming children. Clinical work with
reclaimers,
that is, people who are reclaiming their lives and in recovery from
toxic religion, suggests that these same qualities put adults at risk,
along with a particular set of manipulations found in fundamentalist christian cults and biblical literalism.
creates
a rigid power hierarchy and demands unquestioning obedience. In major
theistic religions, this hierarchy has a god or gods at the top,
represented by powerful cult leaders who have power over male
believers, who in turn have power over females and children.
Authoritarian christian sects often teach that “male headship” is dog’s
will. Parents may go so far as beating or starving their children on the
authority of godly leaders. A book titled,
To Train Up a Child,by
minister Michael Pearl and his wife Debi, has been found in the homes
of three christian adoptive families who have punished their children to
death.
2) Isolation or separatism, is promoted as
a means of maintaining spiritual purity. evangelical christians warn
against being “unequally yoked” with nonbelievers in marriages and even
friendships. New cult converts often are encouraged to pull away from
extended family members and old friends, except when there may be
opportunities to convert them. Some cults encourage older members to
take in young single adults and house them within a godly context until
they find spiritually compatible partners, a process known by cult
analysts as “shepherding.” Home schoolers and the christian equivalent
of madrassas cut off children from outside sources of information, often
teaching rote learning and unquestioning obedience rather than broad
curiosity.
3) Fear of sin, hell, a looming
“end-times” apocalypse, or amoral heathens binds people to the cult,
which then provides the only safe escape from the horrifying dangers on
the outside. In evangelical
Hell Houses, Samhain (aka: Halloween)
is used as an occasion to terrify children and teens about the tortures
that await the damned. In the
Left Behind book
series and movie, the world degenerates into a bloodbath without the
stabilizing presence of believers. Since the religious cabal is the only
alternative to these horrors, anything that threatens the cabal
itself—like criticism, taxation, scientific findings, or civil rights
regulations—also becomes a target of fear.
bible delusion Creates an Authoritarian, Isolative, Threat-based Model of Reality
In bible-delusional christianity, psychological mind-control mechanisms are
coupled with ideas from the Iron Age, including the notion that women
and children are possessions of men, that children who are not hit
become spoiled, that each of us is born “utterly depraved”, and that a
supernatural being demands unquestioning obedience. In this view, the
salvation and righteousness of believers is constantly under threat from
outsiders and dark spiritual forces. Consequently, christians need to
separate themselves emotionally, spiritually, and socially from the
world. These delusions are fundamental to their overarching mental
framework or “deep frame” as linguist George Lakoff would call it. Small
wonder then, that many christians emerge wounded.
It is important
to remember that this mindset permeates to a deep subconscious level.
This is a realm of imagery, symbols, metaphor, emotion, instinct, and
primary needs. Nature and nurture merge into a template for viewing the
world which then filters every experience. The template selectively
allows only the information that confirms their model of reality,
creating a subjective sense of its veracity.
On the societal
scale, humanity has been going through a massive shift for centuries,
transitioning from a supernatural view of a world dominated by forces of
good and evil to a natural understanding of the universe. The
bible-deluded christian population however, might be considered a subset
of the general population that is still within the old framework, that
is, supernaturalism.
Children are Targeted for Brain-washing Because the Child Mind is Uniquely Vulnerable.
“Here
I am, a fifty-one year old college professor, still smarting from the
wounds inflicted by the righteous when I was a child. It is a slow,
festering wound, one that smarts every day—in some way or another…. I
thought I would leave all of that “dog loves… dog hates…” stuff behind,
but not so. Such deep and confusing fear is not easily forgotten. It
pops up in my perfectionism, my melancholy mood, the years of being
obsessed with finding the assurance of personal salvation.”
Nowhere
is the contrast of viewpoints more stark than in the secular and
religious understandings of childhood. In the biblical view,
a child is not a being that is born with amazing capabilities that will
emerge with the right conditions like a beautiful flower in a
well-attended garden. Rather, a child is born in sin, weak, ignorant,
and rebellious, needing discipline to learn obedience. Independent
thinking is dangerous pride.
Because the child’s mind is uniquely susceptible to religious
delusions, religious brain-washing particularly targets vulnerable young children.
Cognitive development before age seven lacks abstract reasoning.
Thinking is magical and primitive, black and white. Also, young humans
are wired to obey authority because they are dependent on their
caregivers just for survival. Much of their brain growth and development
has to happen
after birth, which means that children are
extremely vulnerable to environmental influences in the first few years
when neuronal pathways are formed.
By age five a child’s brain can
understand primitive cause-and-effect logic and picture situations that
are not present. Children at this have a tenuous grip on reality. They
often have imaginary friends; dreams are quite real; and fantasy blurs
with the mundane. To a child this age, it is eminently possible that
Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and delivers presents if you are
good
and that 2000 years ago a man died a horrible death
because you are naughty. Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark, the Rapture, and
hell, all can be quite real. The problem is that many of these teachings
are terrifying.
For many years, one brain-washing technique targeting children and adolescents has been the use of movies about the “End Times.”
This means a “Rapture” event, when real christians are taken up to
heaven leaving the earth to “Tribulation,” a terrifying time when an
evil Antichrist will reign and the world will descend into anarchy.
When
assaulted with such images and ideas at a young age, a child has no
chance of emotional self-defense. These christian delusion rantings
that
sound true when they are embedded in the child’s mind at this tender age can
feel true for
a lifetime. Even decades later former believers who intellectually
reject these ideas can feel intense fear or shame when their unconscious
mind is triggered.
Harms Range From Mild to Catastrophic.
One
requirement for success as a sincere christian is to find a way to
believe that which would be unbelievable under normal rules of evidence
and inquiry. Delusional christianity contains concepts that help to
safeguard the delusions, such as limiting outside information,
practicing thought
control, and self-denigration; but for some people the emotional numbing
and intellectual suicide just isn’t enough. In other words, for a
significant number of children in christian families, the religion just
doesn’t “take.” This can trigger guilt, conflict, and ultimately
rejection or abandonment.
Others experience the threats and fear
too keenly. For them, childhood can be torturous, and they may carry
injuries into adulthood.
Still others are able to sincerely devote
themselves to the delusions as children but confront problems when they
mature. They wrestle with factual and moral contradictions in the bible
and the cult, or discover surprising alternatives. This can feel
confusing and terrifying – like the whole world is falling apart.
Delayed Development and Life Skills.
Many christian parents seek to insulate their children from “worldly”
influences. In the extreme, this can mean not only home schooling, but
cutting off media, not allowing non-christian friends, avoiding secular
activities like plays or clubs, and spending time at cult instead.
Children miss out on crucial information– science, culture, history,
reproductive health and more. When they grow older and leave such a
sheltered environment, adjusting to the secular world can be like
immigrating to a new culture. One of the biggest areas of challenge is
delayed social development.
Religious Trauma Syndrome.
Today, in the field of mental health, the only religious diagnosis in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is
“Religious or Spiritual Problem.” This is merely a supplemental code (V
Code) to assist in describing an underlying pathology. Unofficially,
“scrupulosity,” is the term for obsessive-compulsive symptoms centered
around religious themes such as blasphemy, unforgivable sin, and
damnation. While each of these diagnoses has a place, neither covers the
wide range of harms induced by religion.
Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS)
is a new term, coined by Marlene Winell to name a recognizable set of
symptoms experienced as a result of prolonged exposure to a toxic
religious environment and/or the trauma of leaving the religion. It is
akin to Complex PTSD, which is defined as ‘a psychological injury that
results from protracted exposure to prolonged social and/or
interpersonal trauma with lack or loss of control, disempowerment, and
in the context of either captivity or entrapment, i.e. the lack of a
viable escape route for the victim’.
Though related to other kinds
of chronic trauma, religious trauma is uniquely mind-twisting. The
logic of the religion is circular and blames the victim for problems;
the system demands deference to spiritual authorities no matter what
they do; and the larger society may not identify a problem or intervene
as in cases of physical or sexual abuse, even though the same symptoms
of depression and anxiety and panic attacks can occur.
RTS, as a
diagnosis, is in early stages of investigation, but appears to be a
useful descriptor beyond the labels used for various symptoms –
depression, anxiety, grief, anger, relationship issues, and others. It
is our hope that it will lead to more knowledge, training, and
treatment. Like the naming of other disorders such as anorexia or
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), the RTS label can help sufferers feel
less alone, confused, and self-blaming.
Leaving the Fold.
Breaking out of a restrictive, mind-controlling religion can
be liberating: Certain problems end(!), such as trying to twist one’s
thinking to believe irrational doctrines, and conforming to repressive
codes of behavior. However, for many reclaimers making the break is the
most disruptive, difficult upheaval they have ever experienced.
Individuals who were most sincere, devout, and dedicated often are the
ones most traumatized when their religious world crumbles.
Rejecting
a false religious model of reality that has been passed on through
generations is a major cognitive and emotional disruption. For many
reclaimers, it is like a death or divorce. Their ‘relationship’ with dog
was a central assumption of their lives, and giving it up feels like an
enormous loss to be grieved. It can be like losing a lover, a parent,
or best friend.
On top of shattered assumptions comes the
loss of family and friends.
Cults vary with official doctrine about rejection. The mormon cult, for
all the intense focus on “family forever,” is devastating to
leave, and the jehovah witnesses require families to shun members who
are “disfellowshiped.”
The rupture can destroy homes, splitting spouses and alienating parents from children.
For Women, Psychological Costs of Delusion Include Subjugation and Self-loathing.
Delusional
christianity
poses a special set of psychological risks for people who, according to
the Iron Age hierarchy found in the bible are unclean or property,
including women. Evidence suggests that the combination of denigration
and
subservience takes a psychological toll on women in christianity as it
does in islam. Not only do women submit to marital abuse and undesired
sexual contact, some tolerate the same toward their children, and men of
dog sometimes exploit this vulnerability, as in the case of catholic
and protestant child sexual abuse. But most of the damage is far more
subtle: lower self-esteem, less independence and confidence; abandoned
dreams and goals.
Why Harm Goes Unrecognized.
What
is the sum cost of having millions of people holding to a misogynist,
authoritarian, fear-based supernatural view of the universe? The
consequences far-reaching, even global, but many are hidden, for two
reasons.
One is the nature of the trauma itself. Unlike other
harm, such as physical beating or sexual abuse, the injury is far from
obvious to the victim, who has been taught to self-blame. It’s as if a
person black and blue from a caning were to think it was self-inflicted.
The
second reason that religious harm goes unrecognized is that christianity is still the cultural backdrop for the brain-washing.
While the larger society may not be fundamentalist, references to dog
and delusion abound. The bible gets used to swear in witnesses and even the
U.S. president. Common phrases are “dog willing,” “dog bless,” “dog
helps those that help themselves,” “In dog we trust,” and so forth.
These lend credence to theistic authority.
Religious trauma is
difficult to see because it is camouflaged by the respectability of
religion in culture. To date, parents are afforded the right to teach
their own children whatever doctrines they like, no matter how heinous,
degrading, or mentally unhealthy. Even helping professionals largely
perceive christianity as benign. This will need to change for treatment
methods to be developed and people to get help that allows them to truly
reclaim their lives.
