Our congregation’s Safe Space group had a booth at Galesburg Pride this month. We heard a lot of stories of painful encounters between people and their [former] congregations. Our congregation is a place committed to helping people heal from the painful experiences. “Adverse Religious Experiences” are what we call them. If you pile up the effects of adverse religious experiences, the result is Religious Trauma.
My doctoral thesis highlighted the liberating nature of God – from Egypt to Exodus and to the end of time. I wanted to read deeply and study God as liberator because the predominant message of Christianity in the US is anything BUT “Good news for the poor and excluded.” Once you start reading scripture through this lens, it is difficult to do otherwise.
The following is a picture I created for people to share. Any message you hear about Jesus that shames people who have already been pushed to the edges of society [often by other Christians] or that doesn’t speak of Jesus as a healer, liberator, or One who loves unconditionally, may be a religious message, but it is not about Jesus – the light, the life, the living water, the Savior, the bread of life, living God, teacher, redeemer, and much more.
RDP WRITES 