I’m thankful that I was not brought up with the nonsense about the rapture (which is weird because I grew up in the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren until the age of 9, and it was apparently the founder of the Plymouth Brethren, JN Darby, who popularized the concept of the rapture, along with dispensationalist theology). But I recognize that it is still traumatic to think about for a lot of people.
Continue readingfundamentalism
Dealing with door knockers
My best ever riposte to some doorstep evangelists was when they asked me “who do you believe is the ruler of this Earth?” And I replied “I don’t believe the Earth can be ruled, I believe that she’s a goddess in her own right”. The doorstep evangelists practically ran away down the front path. The reason I had this riposte ready was because a colleague had asked me the same question two weeks earlier.
Continue readingState funding removed from Norwegian JWs
In Norway, subject to rules about not being coercive or oppressive, all religious groups can apply for state funding.
Due to the JWs’ practice of disfellowshipping and shunning people who leave, including children, the Norwegian government has removed their funding.
Friendly Atheist: Norwegian court upholds ban on state funding of Jehovah’s Witnesses
What’s your focus?
Esoteric versus exoteric religions
Esoteric religions are ones that locate the primary source of religious or spiritual authority in the human heart, the conscience, or the higher self. Teachers are seen more as guides than as authority figures. They are only an authority on the topic of the particular path, as they are further along that path. Starhawk and the Quakers characterize this approach as “power from within” for the individual and “power-with” to describe the power-sharing approach of this type of group.
Exoteric religions are ones that locate the source of religious or spiritual authority outside the self, in religious texts which are often said to be divinely revealed. These texts are often interpreted by leaders within these religions, and those leaders tend to be given a lot of authority over their “flock”. Starhawk and the Quakers characterize this approach as “power-over”.
Continue readingReligious trauma workbook
I’m excited to see that Gillian Jenkinson’s book is out! Gillian Jenkinson is a therapist with extensive experience in helping people break free of harmful beliefs dinned into them by cults. I quoted her work in Changing Paths (my book) and I’ve been looking forward to her book coming out.
It’s also very reasonably priced, presumably to make it accessible to those who need it.
Continue readingEvangelicals harming uncontacted tribes
Sign the petition: pledge to support uncontacted tribes
Religions evolve
Oh dear: the evangelicals are spouting rubbish about Paganism again — ably debunked by John Beckett.
The idea of evangelicals claiming that Paganisms don’t have continuity with ancient paganisms is hilarious when you consider the lack of continuity between evangelical Christianity and early Christianity.
Paul (2011)
One of my favourite movies — it’s nerdy, it’s cute, it’s hilarious and a fundamentalist Christian gets exposed to the vastness of the universe and learns to swear.
Continue readingReligion should be joyful
Theological questions
Readers of Changing Paths may wonder why I chose not to address theological questions like the existence of God, what happens in the afterlife, and related questions.
The first part of the book is aimed at people seeking to leave a variety of high-control traditions, which could be anything including fundamentalist Christianity, fundamentalist Islam, high-control new religions such as Scientology, and even high-control versions of Paganism.
For each of these traditions, the theological arguments are different, so rather than devote a large amount of space to them in the book, or write yet another book about why a supreme creator deity does not exist, I wanted to write about extricating yourself psychologically from harmful religious traditions.
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Changing Paths 