I do not know Noah Kahan or his exact experience with religion. I have seen interviews that imply faith has played a complicated role in his personal journey. What I do know is that he is able to write songs with lyrics that resonate strongly with many who have experienced religious trauma.

Not long ago, I was leading a support group in processing their healing journey from sacred scars. I asked them to name a song that had helped give them hope after leaving harmful faith spaces, communities, or relationships. The majority of the answers that night were songs from Kahan that we named again and again:

• Growing Sideways

• Orange Juice

• The Great Divide

As a progressive, open/affirming, liberal Pastor, the lyrics of each of those songs (and others) connect with my deep sense of call to walk beside those who have experienced hurts rooted in faith or lost relationships due to rejection/judgment. They also connect with my own religious trauma, family estrangement, and grief and have been high on my own playlists.

Ron Borczon, the former director of the California State University, Northridge Music Therapy Wellness Clinic said this of the power of music:

“I find going into the community — after all the cameras have gone and the people are left still sitting with the trauma three to four weeks later — and working with them, getting them to process the trauma through music and to express it is helping them look to the future,” he said. “You know, it might be hard, but there’s value to being in the moment with others and with the music, getting them to express what’s happened to them.

“When you listen to a piece of music, your brain is firing in a lot of different ways than when you just hear someone speak,” he continued. “It’s processed differently when you create music. The brain is lighting up all over the place, it’s both hemispheres talking to one another. There’s this thing called neuroplasticity in the brain, where music can help the brain heal by making different connections that were previously not there.”1

Monday night, my 21-year-old daughter and I had the privilege to be in attendance at Noah’s show in Seattle to close out the North American leg of his Great Divide tour.

To say that it was a magical night does not do justice to the power of that place… it was the perfect End of August. Also as Borczon noted above… singing/screaming while dancing with 40,000 strangers was powerful and felt empowering and healing for both of us.

Noah played 4/5 of his songs that have most resonated with me on my own journey of religious trauma. The words and the sentiment that they stir up for me feel sacred and holy. I want to take a few moments to share them with you and explain why each has been impactful for me, because some of you may be struggling with similar feelings/experiences.

1. American Cars

   This song talks about the family fixer, the one who always comes back to help and to save the day when things get hard. As an eldest daughter, I have felt the weight of that role in my life. As a pastor, I have also struggled with being the fixer, not only for my family but for many families, individuals, and entire communities. Being the one always expected to show up and solve the problem. For people with religious trauma, obligation is a heavy burden to bear. We are conditioned to believe that being a good ______ (fill in the blank with your religious affiliation) means having an obligation to always show up and help… even if it comes at a cost to ourselves, our health, or our relationships. We are the ones that everyone looks to, but when we are in need ourselves, there is no one to call.
   

2. Dashboard

   Two years ago, my family and I packed up everything and moved from the midwest to Central Washington state. A large factor in that move was how unhealthy ministry had become for me. I was working 60 hours a week (on an easy week) running an outreach center, doing street outreach, running respite homes, and organizing hundreds of volunteers. I was exhausted and it was time for a change. I quickly discovered that the best way to find out who the people are that really care about who you are… not just what you do is to move across the country. I can count on one hand the number of people who have reached out since we left. Leaving was a step towards health and healing for me… but many in our community were angry that I left. The chorus that says,

   “Just when you think that the road's straight ahead
   Is when the devil shows up on your dashboard again
   Look at you go, crossin' state lines with your shadow
   Tryna run away
   Change your zipcode
   Turns out that you're still an asshole”
   
   The inner critic in me says similar things every day. Many people who are working to heal from religious trauma struggle with the inner critic, self doubt, and the assumption of how other people must view them. It is a hard and long-lasting aspect of experiencing weaponized shame, judgement, and guilt for so much of your life.

3. The Great Divide
   If religious trauma has a theme song… this is it.
   
   As a faith leader, everytime I listen to the chorus of this song I see the face of someone that I have sat with and held space for as they shared their unique religious trauma story. The hurt, grief, and anger that I have felt for each of them. The hope that their deconstruction and healing would be gentle with them.
   
   This song sums up so much of why I do what I do… helping people understand that religious trauma is real and the scars it leaves last a lifetime and the journey to heal is hard, especially if people around you do not understand.

4. Willing and Able
   Oooofffff. This one hits my soul in a very tender still healing spot.
   
   I have been estranged my father for much of the last decade, due to a mixture of rejections, much of it rooted in religion.

   
   Years ago, I wrote him a letter laying it all on the table and telling him what I needed from him. I was willing. He was not able.
   
   I know that I am not alone.

   As long as I live, I will always be profoundly dissapointed at the “Pro-Life/Family Values” platform’s high rate of rejecting, disowning, estranging, and disfellowshiping their own children for identities or ideals that differ from their own. Parents who take those actions are often celebrated for upholding a standard of holiness in their home… while their children are left to create found family to support them as they heal from the rejection. It is one of the greatest distortians of the gospels.

It was a great night; however, trauma triggers do not turn off just because you are having a good time. Both my daughter and I have talked about how there were moments that dancing with our hands up… reminded us of previous worship services we were a part of. We each processed that trigger differently because we each experienced it differently. However, that is WHOLE can of worms for another post in the future.

For now, I want to leave you with a question: What song(s) have been impactful for your own journey from religious trauma? Share in a comment below. I have a playlist that I call my “Deconstructed Soundtrack” and I am always looking for new music to add to it.

I teach and train that there are six sources of religious trauma. One of those six is what I label as “culture”. In a previous post, I defined it this way: “There are religious overtones to many aspects of our wider Western culture, especially Catholic and Protestant influences. When faith mixes with politics and/or public policy, many people affected by program outcomes or restrictions can be harmed in deeply painful ways. In addition, the rhetoric, debates, and public discourse that occur when church and state become intertwined create additional harm to individuals and affinity groups.”

In our world today, one of the largest ways that people are exposed to religious trauma through culture is through exposure to Christian Nationalist ideology. It is almost impossible to avoid seeing, hearing, or experiencing these teachings because they are currently infused into American public policy, statements from conservative faith leaders and politicians, and flooding social media.

The organization Christians against Christian Nationalism defines this unique expression of faith as “a political ideology that seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy.”1

It is important to note that Christian Nationalism is not new. Christanity has always been an influential force on the growth and development of the United States since it’s inception. I maintain a published a Timeline of Historical Harms as sources of cultural religious trauma that you can explore to see that this ideology has undergirded many concerning aspects of American history.

Our current presentation of Christian Nationalism, is unique due to the promionate role that this ideology has had in the election of our current administration and how it is shaping many national conversations, executive orders, and public policies.

For many who have left an expression of Christianity that taught and promoted Christian Nationalism, hearing it centered and platformed so publicly under our current administration can be incredibly upsetting due to two unique and nuanced aspects of the teaching:

• Adversarial language.

  For many who grew up exposed to this type of ideology, there was intentional use of vocabulary to portray an “us (believers)” vs. “them (the world)” structure. In Christian Nationalism, adversarial language is not only used to identify seperation, but also to villianize those who are different and frame them as a threat or as the cause of any struggles or problems.

  Our news stories are full of quotes that use this adversarial language; here are just a few as examples. You can click on the images to go to the full story that featured these statements.

  

  

  

  Many, especially those in marginalized groups, have experienced the adversial language and the hatred and judgement directly. These experiences can be individual and directed at them in personal relationships or they can be corportate and leveled generally at an affinity group that they may belong to. This is especially true in our current political climate for: The LGBTQIA+ community (especially trans individuals), Immigrants, Women, those without stable shelter, and those who practice faiths other than Christianity (especially those who practice Islam).

  Hearing and reading public statements from leaders on national, state, and local levels can undermine feelings of safety and increase experiences of anxiety and depression. There is also the impacts of being in a prolonged state of stress due to not only troubling statements and sentiments, but also efforts to create public policies that strive to limit their rights. Here are a a few examples of many concernining policy conversations that are rooted in Christian Nationalism:
  
  You can click on the images to go to the full story that featured these statements.

  

  

• Warfare Themes

  Building on the persistent use of adversial language, is added language that uses warfare overtones. Fundemental Christianity has a long history of using this type of vocabulary in both adult and children’s faith programs. Examples include:

  • Terms like spiritual warfare that are used often in sermons, devotionals, books, and teachings.

  • Hymns like Onward Christian Soldier

  • Kid’s songs like I’m in the Lord’s Army

  • Kid’s and Youth indocrination into these worldviews are the subject of a disturbing but important documentary called J.E.S.U.S.A.

  • Many modern day Christian worship songs use war or battle language. You can explore many in this Spotify playlist called “Christian War Battle Songs”.

  • In addition, many young adults who were in school at the time of or after the tragic shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 remember a heavy emphasis in the years after on preparing to be a martyr for their faith. You can learn more about this connection by reading this journal article.

Christian Nationalism is full of warfare imigary and we see the influence of this ideology shaping the views, practices, and policies of the Department of War under the leadership of Christian Nationalist Pete Hegseth. CNN did a in-depth exploration of how thse views have reshaped what was previously known as the Defense Department.

For people who are “othered” within Christian Nationalism, this heavy emphasis on warfare and battles is unsettling. There is a chronic feeling of concern and defensiveness when you know that your rights are being targeted with the weaponization of sacred texts and teachings.

One of the key aspects of Christian Nationalism that makes it a complicated and deeply harmful source of relgious trauma is that in our current culture, it unavoidable. There is no sense of consent or autonomy with Chrsitian Nationalsim. People do not have the ability to filter out it’s harmful rehtoric or avoid the ways that it is shaping the policies and practices in the United States, many Republican-led states, and countless local governments and school boards.

This is a double-edge sword, harming many who may have not had previous exposure to these previously fringe views while also triggering many who chose to leave faith communities where these teachings were centered.

For those working hard to heal from the impacts of relgious trauma, our current version of Christian Nationalism is like swimming through rubbing alchol with thousands of still tender cuts and wounds.

I would be curious to hear from you:

Call to Worship:

For some of us, it takes courage to come back into a sacred space, especially if you experienced hurt in the past. If showing up here today was hard, triggering, or created anxiety for you, we are proud of the work it took in yourself to get here.

We honor your courage in this space.

For some of us, the path to get to this place was paved with hard choices to step away from other places that no longer felt safe, welcoming, or open to critical conversations. It takes courage to ask questions, explore possibilities, consider other perspectives, and expand your understanding. Growing and learning are both acts of courage and resistance.

We support your courage in this space.

It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone, use your voice, serve your community, meet new people, get involved in new things, and work to make the world a better place for everyone. Your courage has the potential to create ripple effects that extend far beyond what you realize.

We welcome your courage in this space.

Unison Prayer

Holy one, we ask you to help us cultivate courage in ourselves and in our faith community. May we have the courage to stand up for what is right, just, and loving- even if we stand alone. Amen.

Several years ago, my friend Holly Madden and I began compiling a glossary of established trauma terms to share when working with faith spaces as they strove to create trauma-informed ministry spaces. I am sharing these resources today in hopes that they are helpful to others who are starting or looking to deepen their practices. (The citations for each source are listed with their definations/explanations for further exploration).

Terms Last Updated: August 14, 2026.

4 R’s

“SAMHSA differentiates the trauma-informed approach from trauma-specific services. The trauma-informed approach is guided four assumptions, known as the “Four R’s”: Realization about trauma and how it can affect people and groups, recognizing the signs of trauma, having a system which can respond to trauma, and resisting re-traumatization.”

““SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma .” “SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach.” https://www.nchv.org/images/uploads/Research_Brief_61_-_SAMHSA_Trauma_Care.pdf.

5 Finger Breathing

“A multisensory breathing technique can bring you peace, calm, and even pain relief. The practice is to trace all 5 fingers starting at the thumb. As you trace your thumb and then each finger up slowly, you breathe in; as you trace your thumb and then each finger down slowly, you exhale.”

Cleveland Clinic. “How Five-Finger Breathing Can Bring on Deep Relaxation.” Cleveland Clinic, March 19, 2024. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/five-finger-breathing.

5 Senses

“Engaging all 5 of our senses is an incredibly helpful method to ground us to one to the present space and time. This grounding technique can be especially helpful to work through anxious thoughts, panic attacks, or feeling overwhelmed. The 5 senses practice is noticing 5 things you see, 4 things you are touching, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.”

“5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique for Anxiety.” University of Rochester Medical Center. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/behavioral-health-partners/bhp-blog/april-2018/5-4-3-2-1-coping-technique-for-anxiety.aspx.

7 Domains of Trauma

“The 7 domains are a way to bring consistency to trauma-informed care. These domains are: 1) Early Screening and Comprehensive Assessment, 2) Consumer Driven Care and Services, 3) Trauma-Informed, Educated and Responsive Workforce 4) Trauma-Informed, Evidence-Based, and Emerging Best Practices 5) Safe and Secure Environments, 6) Community Outreach and Partnership Building 7) Ongoing Performance Improvement and Evaluation.”

National Council: Seven domains of trauma-informed care. https://www.tristatetraumanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/National-Council-Seven-Domains-of-Trauma-Informed-Care.pdf.

Abandonment Trauma

“Abandonment issues often arise when an individual has experienced being abandoned in the past and lives the rest of their life afraid of losing someone close. Fear of abandonment is a form of anxiety and often begins in childhood due to traumatic loss. Abandonment issues can also significantly affect a person’s life and relationships. Fear of abandonment is not considered a mental health condition like depression but is a form of anxiety. People living with abandonment issues often experience problems with their relationships in that they are terrified the other person will leave them. There are other signs and symptoms in adults, including: people pleasing, inability to trust others, being codependent, avoiding others in relationship, sabotaging relationships, needing to control others, unable to express emotional intimacy, and the inability to form and maintain healthy relationships.”

Davis, Shirley. Living as I do among the corn and bean fields of Illinois (USA). “The Agony of Abandonment.” CPTSDfoundationorg. https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/08/29/the-agony-of-abandonment/.

ACES’s

“The CDC-Kaiser Permanente adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and household challenges and later-life health and well-being. The original ACE study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 with two waves of data collection. Over 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization members from Southern California receiving physical exams completed confidential surveys regarding their childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors. A questionnaire about adverse childhood experiences was mailed to 13,494 adults who had completed a standardized medical evaluation at a large HMO; 9,508 (70.5%) responded. Seven categories of adverse childhood experiences were studied: psychological, physical, or sexual abuse; violence against mother; or living with household members who were substance abusers, mentally ill or suicidal, or ever imprisoned. The number of categories of these adverse childhood experiences was then compared to measures of adult risk behavior, health status, and disease. Logistic regression was used to adjust for effects of demographic factors on the association between the cumulative number of categories of childhood exposures (range: 0–7) and risk factors for the leading causes of death in adult life. The study concluded that there was a direct link to trauma in childhood and leading factors of struggle and death in adults.”

“About the CDC-Kaiser Ace Study |Violence Prevention|injury Center|CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 6, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html.

Activation

“Activation is a word similar to dysregulation that involves the sympathetic nervous system being active during a time of stress. A state of activation means that the heart rate is higher, and that the dominant brain is the reptilian brain, which is focused on survival instead of on logic and reasoning. Individuals who are activated are more likely to be experienced as scared, aggressive, reactive, defensive, and not trusting.”

“Apa Dictionary of Psychology.”Activation. https://dictionary.apa.org/activation

Affinity Groups

“An affinity group shares similar lived experience, so the data associated with their experience is measured together and assessed for impacts as a collective unit.”

Love, Christie. “Negative Religious Experiences: A Case Study”. 2024. https://www.proquest.com/docview/3062334717

Alexithymia

“An inability to express, describe, or distinguish among one’s emotions. It may occur in a variety of disorders, especially psychosomatic and some substance use disorders, or following repeated exposure to a traumatic stressor. It also may be a disorder in its own right.”

“Apa Dictionary of Psychology.” Alexithymia. https://dictionary.apa.org/alexithymia

Anxious Attachment

“Anxious attachment (or preoccupied) can often be identified in people who essentially have an extra-sensitive nervous system. These individuals may struggle with hyperactivation of emotions, as well as hypervigilance for something going wrong. The scariest thing they can imagine is being abandoned by their loved ones. Most likely, their attachment anxiety stems from an inconsistent parent who would be attentive at times yet misattuned at other times. The main signs of Anxious Attachment are: catastrophic thinking, a positive view of others but a negative view of themselves, putting great effort into relationships to the extent of self-sacrifice, and immense difficulty with receiving criticism and rejection.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/.

Art Therapy

“Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Especially when people are struggling, facing a challenge, or even a health crisis —their own words or language fails them. During these times, an art therapist can help clients express themselves in ways beyond words or language. Art therapists are trained in art and psychological theory and can help clients integrate nonverbal cues and metaphors that are often expressed through the creative process.”

“What Is Art Therapy?” American Art Therapy Association, January 17, 2024. https://arttherapy.org/what-is-art-therapy/.

Attachment injury / Attachment Disorder

“Especially when people are struggling, facing a challenge, or even a health crisis —their own words or language fails them. During these times, an art therapist can help clients express themselves in ways beyond words or language. Art therapists are trained in art and psychological theory and can help clients integrate nonverbal cues and metaphors that are often expressed through the creative process.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/.

Attachment Theory

“Bowlby’s attachment theory posits that attachment bonds are innate [1]. When a child’s immediate need for a secure attachment bond is not met, the child feels threatened and will react accordingly, such as by crying or calling out for their caregiver. Moreover, if the need for a stable bond is not met consistently, the infant can develop social, emotional, and even cognitive problems. This need for attachment has catalyzed our understanding of human nature; belongingness is an essential human need, much like shelter or water. Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) – considered to be the second founder of the field of attachment – furthered the development of Bowlby’s theory. Ainsworth crucially contributed to attachment theory with the concept of a secure base [1]. In her view, a child needs an established secure base, or dependence, with their caregivers before venturing into the exploration of the world around them.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/.

Attunement

“The matching of affect between infant and parent or caregiver to create emotional synchrony. The parent’s response can take the form of mirroring (e.g., returning an infant’s smile) or be cross-modal (e.g., a vocal response “uh oh” to the infant’s dropping cereal on the floor). Attunement communicates to the infant that the parent can understand and share the infant’s feelings. Attunement begins in infancy and is critical throughout development.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Attunement. https://dictionary.apa.org/attunement

Avoidant Attachment

“Avoidant attachment (or dismissive) is often present in individuals who tend to downplay their emotions or dismiss them completely. These people are typically highly independent and self-reliant, and their greatest fear is usually intimacy and vulnerability. This attachment style tends to develop when caregivers were not emotionally attuned to their child or who were generally emotionally distant. Main signs of Avoidant Attachment are difficulty seeking support and admitting they need help, extreme self-reliance and independence, a tendency to have a positive self-view yet a negative or critical view of others, and maintaining or increasing distance when others try to connect emotionally.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/

Avoidance/ Withdrawing

“Any act or series of actions that enables an individual to avoid or anticipate unpleasant or painful situations, stimuli, or events, including conditioned aversive stimuli.”

“Apa Dictionary of Psychology.” Avoidance. https://dictionary.apa.org/avoidance

Betrayal Trauma/ Betrayal Trauma Theory

“A conceptual model for explaining why some children are unable to access memories of prior sexual or physical abuse. According to the theory, this sort of repression occurs when the perpetrator of the abuse is an adult on whom the child is emotionally dependent, and it develops out of the child’s need to preserve the attachment bond; hence the child is unable to access the stored memories of the abuse while the need for attachment is still strong.”

“Apa Dictionary of Psychology.” Betrayal Trauma Theory. https://dictionary.apa.org/betrayal-trauma-theory

Big T and little t trauma

“The main difference between big T and little t trauma, according to the standard definitions, is the event that catalyzed the traumatic response. Big T Trauma is generally related to a life-threatening event or situation. This could be a natural disaster, a violent crime, a school shooting, or a serious car accident. In addition, acute psychological traumas, such as the death of a parent, are part of the big T trauma definition. Chronic (ongoing) trauma, such as repeated abuse, can also qualify as big T trauma. Little t trauma refers to events that typically don’t involve violence or disaster, but do create significant distress. For young adults, examples of small trauma might be a breakup, the death of a pet, losing a job, getting bullied, or being rejected by a friend group. While these incidents don’t threaten a young adult’s physical safety, they can produce the same trauma responses in adults and children as big T trauma does. In fact, there is now evidence that repeated exposure to little t trauma can cause more emotional harm than exposure to one big T traumatic event.”

Weinstein, Tresca. “Big T vs. Little t Trauma in Young Adults: Is There a Difference?” Newport Institute, February 9, 2024. https://www.newportinstitute.com/resources/mental-health/big-t-little-t-trauma/.

Body Dysmorphia

“Body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance — a flaw that appears minor or can’t be seen by others. But you may feel so embarrassed, ashamed, and anxious that you may avoid many social situations. BDD is not a trauma disorder, but it can be linked to survivors of trauma, especially sexual trauma.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Body Dysmorphia. https://dictionary.apa.org/body-dysmorphia

Boundaries

“Boundaries are the framework we set for ourselves on how we want to be treated by others and how we treat other people. It’s setting up how you want to be treated; it promotes physical and emotional well-being, and it respects your needs and the other person’s needs in a relationship.”

Cleveland Clinic. “How to Set Healthy Boundaries in Relationships.” Cleveland Clinic, March 19, 2024. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-set-boundaries.

Box Breathing

“Box Breathing is a yogic form of breathing that helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system to relax and to balance. Box breathing looks like: Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, breathe out for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds. The pattern is often found in a box. Other names for this is 4-4-4-4 breathing, Square Breathing, 4 Square Breathing.”

Cleveland Clinic. “How Box Breathing Can Help You Destress.” Cleveland Clinic, April 12, 2024. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/box-breathing-benefits.

Bubble Breathing

“There are multiple versions of bubble breathing; one of those is through actually blowing bubbles using a bubble wand and bubble solution, which teaches slow breathing without much effort. Another version of this is to put your hands on your head and as you breathe in, raise your hands to form a bubble over your head, and as you breathe out, deflate the bubble by lowering your hands to your head.”

“Bubble Breathing.” Discover SCIENCE with Dr. Bear, February 9, 2021. https://doctorbearscience.com/bubble-breathing/.

Burnout

“Physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others. It results from performing at a high level until stress and tension, especially from extreme and prolonged physical or mental exertion or an overburdening workload, take their toll. The word was first used in this sense in 1975 by U.S. psychologist Herbert J. Freudenberger (1926–1999) in referring to workers in clinics with heavy caseloads. Burnout is most often observed in professionals who work in service-oriented vocations (e.g., social workers, teachers, correctional officers) and experience chronic high levels of stress. It can be particularly acute in therapists or counselors doing trauma work, who feel overwhelmed by the cumulative secondary trauma of witnessing the effects. Burnout is also experienced by athletes when continually exposed to stress associated with performance without commensurate rewards or rest.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Burnout. https://dictionary.apa.org/burnout

Bystander Effect

“A phenomenon in which people fail to offer needed help in emergencies, especially when other people are present in the same setting. Studies of this tendency, initially described in response to well-publicized failures of bystanders to render aid in emergencies, have identified a number of psychological and interpersonal processes that inhibit helping, including misinterpreting other people’s lack of response as an indication that help is not needed, confusion of responsibility, and diffusion of responsibility.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Bystander Effect. https://dictionary.apa.org/bystander-effect

CBT [Cognitive Behavior Therapy]

“A form of psychotherapy that integrates theories of cognition and learning with treatment techniques derived from cognitive therapy and behavior therapy. CBT assumes that cognitive, emotional, and behavioral variables are functionally interrelated. Treatment is aimed at identifying and modifying the client’s maladaptive thought processes and problematic behaviors through cognitive restructuring and behavioral techniques to achieve change.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Cognitive Behavior Theory. https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-behavior-therapy

Climate Change Trauma

“An emerging disorder that includes traumatic experiences by those who have been directly impacted by climate change.

Dodds, Joseph. “The Psychology of Climate Anxiety.” BJPsych bulletin, August 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499625/.

Co-Dependency

“Co-dependency is a learned behavior that can be passed down from one generation to another, or is a response to trauma due to attachment injury. It is an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as “relationship addiction” because people with codependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive and/or abusive. The disorder was first identified about ten years ago as the result of years of studying interpersonal relationships in families of alcoholics. Co-dependent behavior is learned by watching and imitating other family members who display this type of behavior.”

“Co-Dependency.” Mental Health America. https://www.mhanational.org/co-dependency.

Co-occurance

“A relation between two or more phenomena (objects or events) such that they tend to occur together.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Co-Occurence. https://dictionary.apa.org/co-occurrence

Co-regulation

“Co-regulation is the interactive process by which caring adults (1) provide warm supportive relationships, (2) promote self-regulation through coaching, modeling, and feedback, and (3) structure supportive environments (Co-Regulation From Birth Through Young Adulthood: A Practice Brief; Murray et al., 2019). Co-regulation is optimized when these supportive processes are adapted to match age groups, flexible to situational demands, and responsive to the values and goals of individuals and communities. For example, parents provide co-regulation support to their toddlers when they help them get organized to head out the door for preschool in the morning; program staff provide co-regulation support to program participants when they foster positive group norms that encourage inclusive engagement; supervisors provide co-regulation support for staff when they provide opportunities for self-care during times of high stress; and participants provide co-regulation support to their peers when they listen and help each other find solutions for reaching each others’ goals.”

“Co-Regulation in Human Services.” The Administration for Children and Families. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/co-regulation-human-services#:~:text=Co%2Dregulation%20is%20the%20interactive,et%20al.%2C%202019).

Collective Apathy

“Apathy is lack of motivation or goal-directed behavior and indifference to one’s surroundings. Apathy is commonly associated with severe depression or schizophrenia, but it also is a major behavioral symptom in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders. Collective apathy is apathy felt and experienced on a macro level in the community.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Apathy. https://dictionary.apa.org/apathy

Collective Trauma/ Community Trauma

“Collective trauma is a shared psychological and emotional reaction to a catastrophic event affecting a very large number of people. The people surviving these terrible experiences not only have bad memories but also suffer by trying to make sense of them through mental reconstructions of the traumatic events. This includes mass shootings, natural disasters, pandemics, terroist attacks, wars, and economic recessions.”

Team, Meridian. “Collective Trauma: Meaning & Implications.” Meridian University, November 3, 2022. https://meridianuniversity.edu/content/collective-trauma-meaning-and-implications.

Comfort Zone, Panic Zone, Stretch Zone

“Ryan and Markova developed a theory concerning learning processes. Within learning processes we can discriminate 3 different zones: the comfort zone, the stretch zone and the panic (or stress) zone. The comfort zone is the zone in which an individual feels comfortable. There is no fear or discomfort.The person feels at home, comfortable and safe. All things are familiar. Within this zone there are no challenges to start a learning process. There is little reflection or learning in the safe zone as individuals are unchallenged. Things stay the same, often unquestioned. In the panic zone a challenge is so far away from the zone in which we feel comfortable, that it becomes overwhelming.

In this zone we experience stress, fear and challenge in a way that learning is impossible (for instance our fight or flight reaction). All our energy is spent on managing and controlling our fear and panic. When a person stays too long in this zone there is the possibility that they cease to explore their boundaries and instead prefer to stay within their comfort zone. The stretch zone is the zone in between the previous zones. In this zone things (activities, situations,…) feel somehow awkward and unfamiliar. In this zone learning can occur. It is the zone where you can enhance your possibilities, where you can work towards your personal development, where you can explore your boundaries. When a person feels he cannot control or handle the situation, he can retreat to the comfort zone. However, operating in and learning in this zone can expand your comfort zone, becoming familiar with new situations, activities.”

The comfort, stretch, panic- model. https://www.amsterdamuas.com/binaries/content/assets/subsites/safe/lecturers/background-for-teachers/the-comfort-stretch-panic-model.pdf.

Compassion Fatigue

“The burnout and stress-related symptoms experienced by caregivers and other helping professionals in reaction to working with traumatized people over an extended period of time.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Compassion Fatigue. https://dictionary.apa.org/compassion-fatigue

Complex Trauma/ Developmental Trauma Disorder

“A new diagnosis for children who have been exposed in early life to multiple adverse interpersonal events, such as sexual or physical abuse, parental substance abuse, domestic or community violence, neglect, and abandonment. These experiences, termed complex trauma, have a pervasive and long-range influence on children’s emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and psychobiological functioning that many clinicians believe is not adequately captured by posttraumatic stress disorder or any other existing diagnosis. Six domains of potential impairment related to complex trauma exposure have been delineated: (a) affect regulation, including difficulty modulating anger and self-destructiveness; (b) information processing, including difficulties with attention, concentration, learning, and consciousness (e.g., amnesias and dissociation); (c) self-concept, including guilt and shame; (d) behavioral control, including aggression and substance abuse; (e) interpersonal relationships, including problems with trust and intimacy; and (f) biological processes, including somatization and delayed sensorimotor development. This multifaceted dysregulation can disrupt typical maturation, potentially leading to wide-ranging developmental delays and to persistently altered attributions and expectancies about the self, relationships, and others.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Developmental Trauma Disorder. https://dictionary.apa.org/developmental-trauma-disorder

Complex PTSD and PTSD

“Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) can result from experiencing chronic trauma, such as prolonged child abuse or domestic violence. It’s closely related to PTSD and borderline personality disorder. The main differences between PTSD and CPTSD are the length of trauma and the symptoms. Traditionally, experts thought PTSD generally developed from short-term trauma, such as a vehicle accident or a natural disaster. With research, they realized that people who experience long-term, repeated trauma tend to have other symptoms in addition to the symptoms of PTSD. Both CPTSD and PTSD involve symptoms of psychological and behavioral stress responses, such as flashbacks, hypervigilance and efforts to avoid distressing reminders of the traumatic event(s).People with CPTSD typically have additional symptoms, including chronic and extensive issues with: Emotion regulation, Identity and sense of self, and Relationships.”

Cleveland Clinic medical. “Complex PTSD.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24881-cptsd-complex-ptsd.

Consent

“Voluntary assent or approval given by an individual: specifically, permission granted by an individual for medical or psychological treatment, participation in research, or both. Individuals should be fully informed about the treatment or study and its risks and potential benefits.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Consent. https://dictionary.apa.org/consent

Coping

“The use of cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage the demands of a situation when these are appraised as taxing or exceeding one’s resources or to reduce the negative emotions and conflict caused by stress.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Coping. https://dictionary.apa.org/coping

Culture of Safety

“An environment that is safe for people: where there is no assault, challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience, of learning, living and working together with dignity and truly listening.”

Trauma Informed Care Glossary. http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/ovp/docs/Trauma%20Informed%20Care/07132022TIC_Glossary.pdf.

De-Escalation

Verbal and nonverbal steps taken when interacting someone who is activated or stress-response to help ground them to the present moment, help them integrate their brown so they can think and respond rationally, and ultimately to protect both the activated individual, yourself and everyone around you. It is a form of conflict managament and trauma-informed care.

Flipped Table Collective. 2024.

Defense Mechanism

“In classical psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious reaction pattern employed by the ego to protect itself from the anxiety that arises from psychic conflict. Such mechanisms range from mature to immature, depending on how much they distort reality: Denial is very immature because it negates reality, whereas sublimation is one of the most mature forms of defense because it allows indirect satisfaction of a true wish. In more recent psychological theories, defense mechanisms are seen as normal means of coping with everyday problems and external threats, but excessive use of any one, or the use of immature defenses (e.g., displacement or repression), is still considered pathological. Also called escape mechanism.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Defense Mechanism. https://dictionary.apa.org/defense-mechanism

Depersonalization

“A state of mind in which the self appears unreal. Individuals feel estranged from themselves and usually from the external world, and thoughts and experiences have a distant, dreamlike character. In its persistent form, depersonalization is observed in such disorders as depression, hypochondriasis, dissociative states, temporal lobe epilepsy, and early schizophrenia. It also often occurs as a result of a traumatic experience. The extreme form is called depersonalization syndrome.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Depersonalization. https://dictionary.apa.org/depersonalization

Derealization

“A state characterized by a diminished feeling of reality; that is, an alteration in the perception or cognitive characterization of external reality so that it seems strange or unreal (“This can’t be happening”), often due to trauma or stress. It may also occur as a feature of schizophrenia or of dissociative disorders.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Derealization. https://dictionary.apa.org/derealization

Desensitization

“A reduction in emotional or physical reactivity to stimuli that is achieved by such means as deconditioning techniques.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Desensitization. https://dictionary.apa.org/desensitization

Developmental Trauma/ Developmental Trauma Disorder

“A new diagnosis for children who have been exposed in early life to multiple adverse interpersonal events, such as sexual or physical abuse, parental substance abuse, domestic or community violence, neglect, and abandonment. These experiences, termed complex trauma, have a pervasive and long-range influence on children’s emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and psychobiological functioning that many clinicians believe is not adequately captured by posttraumatic stress disorder or any other existing diagnosis. Six domains of potential impairment related to complex trauma exposure have been delineated: (a) affect regulation, including difficulty modulating anger and self-destructiveness; (b) information processing, including difficulties with attention, concentration, learning, and consciousness (e.g., amnesias and dissociation); (c) self-concept, including guilt and shame; (d) behavioral control, including aggression and substance abuse; (e) interpersonal relationships, including problems with trust and intimacy; and (f) biological processes, including somatization and delayed sensorimotor development. This multifaceted dysregulation can disrupt typical maturation, potentially leading to wide-ranging developmental delays and to persistently altered attributions and expectancies about the self, relationships, and others.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Developmental Trauma Disorder. https://dictionary.apa.org/developmental-trauma-disorder

Disassociation

“Psychotherapist, Dr. Peter A. Levine, describes dissociation as “one of the most classic and subtle symptoms of trauma…in its mildest forms, it manifests as a kind of spaciness. At the other end of the spectrum, it can develop into a so-called multiple personality syndrome. Because dissociation is a breakdown in the continuity of a person’s felt sense, it almost always includes distortions of time and perception.”

Levine, Peter A., and Ann Frederick. Walking the tiger healing trauma: The innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. Berkeley, Calif: North Atlantic Books, 1997.

Disembodied

“Defined as, “no body is needed, just language.” When talking about technology, this refers to relationships and interactions people have with Artificial Intelligence AI, technology that is replacing human-to-human interaction.”

Haidt, Jonathan. The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. New York: Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024.

Disorganized Attachment

“Disorganized attachment (or fearful-avoidant) is typically identified in individuals who have experienced childhood trauma or abuse. [8]. The disorganized attachment style is characterized by demonstrating inconsistent behaviors and having a hard time trusting others. This style develops in children whose caregivers were a source of perceived fear, instead of safety and connection. Main signs of disorganized attachment are inconsistency or unpredictability, oscillating between avoidant and anxious behaviors, their caregiver or their main source of safety as infants was also their main source of fear.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

“A dissociative disorder characterized by the presence in one individual of two or more distinct identities or personality states that each recurrently take control of the individual’s behavior. It is believed to be associated with severe physical and sexual abuse, especially during childhood. Despite an increase in reported cases in the United States since the 1970s, DID remains the subject of considerable controversy, with many disputing its validity as a diagnosis and citing the incidences of childhood abuse reported by diagnosed individuals or their therapists as cases of false memory. DID is still commonly known as multiple personality disorder, a coinage usually attributed to U.S. physician Morton Prince (1854–1929), whose case history of his patient “Miss Beauchamp” (with personalities called Christine, Sally, and “the Idiot,” among other names) was one of the first in-depth examinations of the phenomenon, published in The Dissociation of Personality in 1906. Subsequent case histories, especially the books The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and Sybil (1973) and their film adaptations, contributed to popularizing—some say sensationalizing—the phenomenon during the late 20th century.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Dissociative Identity Disorder. https://dictionary.apa.org/dissociative-identity-disorder

DSM (all versions)

“The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the handbook used by health care professionals in the United States and much of the world as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. DSM contains descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. These manuals are updated regularly to expand as science and research expands.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” DSM-5. https://dictionary.apa.org/dsm-5

Dysregulation

“Any excessive or otherwise poorly managed mechanism or response. For example, emotional dysregulation is an extreme or inappropriate emotional response to a situation (e.g., temper outbursts, deliberate self-harm); it may be associated with bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorder, psychological trauma, or brain injury.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Dysregulation. https://dictionary.apa.org/dysregulation

Eco Anxiety

“An emerging disorder characterized by anxiety around the environment, especially related to the future of climate change.”

Dodds, Joseph. “The Psychology of Climate Anxiety.” BJPsych Bulletin, August 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8499625/.

EcoTherapy

“A type of therapy that connects people with the healing properties found in nature.”

“Bringing Nature into Treatment.” Monitor on Psychology. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nature-sidebar.

Efficacy

“Competence in behavioral performance, especially with reference to a person’s perception of their performance capabilities, or perceived self-efficacy.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Efficacy. https://dictionary.apa.org/efficacy

Embodiment

“The act of expanding one’s self-awareness to include the felt experience of the body, such as sensory, sensational, emotional and physical experiences, and incorporating that information into one’s overall conception and conduct of themselves, their identity, beliefs, behaviors, and ways of being. // Using embodiment, she was able to realize that her short-tempered outburst had nothing to do with her child asking for more snacks, but because she felt physically trapped and overwhelmed.”

Kimble, Stephanie. “Defining Embodiment.” Trauma Research Foundation, October 21, 2022. https://traumaresearchfoundation.org/defining-embodiment/.

EMDR

“Abbreviation for Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - a treatment methodology used to reduce the emotional impact of trauma-based symptoms such as anxiety, nightmares, flashbacks, or intrusive thought processes. The therapy incorporates simultaneous visualization of the traumatic event while concentrating on the rapid lateral movements of a therapist’s finger. [Developed in the late 1980s by U.S. psychologist Francine Shapiro].”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). https://dictionary.apa.org/eye-movement-desensitization-and-reprocessing

Empathy vs. Sympathy

“Sympathy is the experience of feeling for someone while Empathy is the experience of feeling with someone by feeling what they are feeling.”

“Brené Brown on Empathy vs Sympathy.” YouTube, April 1, 2016.

Epigenetics

“The study of heritable chemical modifications to DNA that alter gene activity without changing nucleotide sequence. Such modifications instead typically involve the attachment of additional material to the DNA molecule itself (DNA methylation) or the structural alteration of its associated proteins (chromatin remodeling), which disrupt the normal development and functioning of cells by influencing gene activation, deactivation, transcription, and so forth. Epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as the means by which environmental and psychosocial factors such as toxins and early childhood experiences interact with physiology: They affect neural function through changes in gene expression that lead to individual differences in cognition and behavior (e.g., learning, memory, aggression, affect). Research also suggests that some epigenetic changes of an individual can be passed down to more than one generation of descendants. Additionally, epigenetic abnormalities have been linked to the etiology of many diseases and mental disorders, including autoimmune disturbances, cancer, heart disease, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, depression, intellectual developmental disorder, schizophrenia, and substance use.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Epigenetics. https://dictionary.apa.org/epigenetics

Equine Therapy

“A form of therapy that uses interactions with horses to heal trauma.”

White-Lewis, Sharon. “Equine-Assisted Therapies Using Horses as Healers: A Concept Analysis.” Nursing open, September 27, 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6917924/.

Executive Function

“Higher-level cognitive processes of planning, decision making, problem solving, action sequencing, task assignment and organization, effortful and persistent goal pursuit, inhibition of competing impulses, flexibility in goal selection, and goal-conflict resolution. These often involve the use of language, judgment, abstraction and concept formation, and logic and reasoning. They are frequently associated with neural networks that include the frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex. Deficits in executive functioning are seen in various disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. In the latter, for example, selection and maintenance of goals may be impaired, as may the ability to exclude distractions. Also called central processes; higher order processes.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Executive Function. https://dictionary.apa.org/executive-functions

Exposure Therapy

“A form of behavior therapy that is effective in treating anxiety disorders. It involves systematic and repeated confrontation with a feared stimulus, either in vivo (live) or in the imagination, and may encompass any of a number of behavioral interventions, including desensitization, flooding, implosive therapy, and extinction-based techniques. It works by (a) habituation, in which repeated exposure reduces anxiety over time by a process of extinction; (b) disconfirming fearful predictions; and (c) increasing feelings of self-efficacy and mastery.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Exposure Therapy. https://dictionary.apa.org/exposure-therapy

False Memory

“False memory occurs when a vulnerable patient with a history of overcompliant or highly suggestible behavior is unwittingly coached by a respected authority figure to create, as if in memory, an experience that never actually occurred.”

Lego, Suzanne. “Repressed Memory and False Memory.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 10, no. 2 (April 1996): 110–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9417(96)80073-2.

Fight/Flight/ Freeze/Fawn “fake”

“A pattern of physiological changes elicited by activity of the sympathetic nervous system in response to threatening or otherwise stressful situations that leads to mobilization of energy for physical activity (e.g., attacking or avoiding the offending stimulus), either directly or by inhibiting physiological activity that does not contribute to energy mobilization. Specific sympathetic responses involved in the response include increased heart rate, respiratory rate, and sweat gland activity; elevated blood pressure; decreased digestive activity; pupil dilation; and a routing of blood flow to skeletal muscles. In some theories, such changes are the basis of all human emotions. Also called emergency reaction; emergency syndrome. Individuals in this resonse either want to fight back, run away (flight), freeze (often occurs when fight or flight do not occur) or fawn (also known as “fake” which is a response to people please and mirror expectations in order to avoid conflict and protect oneself.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Fight-or-Flight Response. https://dictionary.apa.org/fight-or-flight-response

Flashbacks

“The reliving of a traumatic event after at least some initial adjustment to the trauma appears to have been made. Memories may be triggered by words, sounds, smells, or scenes that are reminiscent of the original trauma (as in a backfiring car triggering a flashback to being in combat). Flashbacks may be associated with posttraumatic stress disorder.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Flashbacks. https://dictionary.apa.org/flashback

Gaslighting

“To manipulate another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events. The term once referred to manipulation so extreme as to induce mental illness or to justify commitment of the gaslighted person to a psychiatric institution but is now used more generally. It is usually considered a colloquialism, though occasionally it is seen in clinical literature, referring, for example, to the manipulative tactics associated with antisocial personality disorder.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Gaslight. https://dictionary.apa.org/gaslight

Gender Dysphoria

“One overarching diagnostic class that replaces gender identity disorder and shifts clinical emphasis from cross-gender identification itself to a focus on the possible distress arising from a sense of mismatch, or incongruence, that one may have about one’s experienced gender versus one’s assigned gender. Separate developmentally appropriate criteria are included for gender dysphoria in children and gender dysphoria in adolescents and adults. Diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria in children include significant distress or impairment due to marked gender incongruence, such as a strong desire to be—or a belief that one is—the other gender, preference for the toys, games, roles, and activities stereotypically associated with the other gender, and a strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Gender Dysphoria. https://dictionary.apa.org/gender-dysphoria

Generational Cycles

“Repetition of trauma experiences (like domestic violence or addiction) do both to genetic predispositions as well as exposure.”

“It Didn’t Start with You.” Mark Wolynn, April 18, 2023. https://markwolynn.com/it-didnt-start-with-you/.

Generational Trauma/ Inherited Family Trauma

“The science around trauma impacts and memory being passed down through generations.”

“It Didn’t Start with You.” Mark Wolynn, April 18, 2023. https://markwolynn.com/it-didnt-start-with-you/.

Grounding

“Grounding or Earthing is the practice of reconnecting to the earth and to the present moment. Physical grounding is the art of standing outside barefoot or any connection to the eart that engages the senses to the earth which has physically and emotionally healing properties. Grounding can also be practices that ground to the present moment through 5 sense engagement and deep breathing.”

Oschman, James L, Gaétan Chevalier, and Richard Brown. “The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Inflammation, the Immune Response, Wound Healing, and Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Inflammatory and Autoimmune Diseases.” Journal of inflammation research, March 24, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378297/.

Healing Trauma

“Healing trauma is the practice of engaging in therapeutic and consistent approaches to rewire the brain neural connections and to release trapped energy from the body in order to experience balance physically and emotionally.”

A., Van der Kolk Bessel. The body keeps the score: Mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. UK: Penguin Books, 2015.

Health Disparities

“Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.”

“Health Disparities.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 31, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/aging/disparities/index.htm#:~:text=Health%20disparities%20are%20preventable%20differences,other%20population%20groups%2C%20and%20communities.

Health Impact Assessment

“A combination of procedures, methods, and tools by which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those effects within the population.”

“Health Impact Assessment.” World Health Organization. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-impact-assessment#tab=tab_1.

Hyper-Arousal

“One of three sets of criteria used to diagnose posttraumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. Symptoms of hyperarousal include exaggerated startle response, disturbed sleep, difficulty in concentrating or remembering, and excessive vigilance.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Hyperarousal. https://dictionary.apa.org/hyperarousal.

Hypervigilance

“A heightened state of awareness. It’s your brain’s way of protecting you by scanning the environment for signs of danger and being extremely aware of your surroundings.”

“Always on Alert: Causes and Examples of Hypervigilance.” Hypervigilance, March 19, 2024. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/hypervigilance.

Hypo-Arousal

“If we are hypoaroused, our parasympathetic nervous system takes over to shut us down. This happens when we face too much stress or “charge” in the body, and our nervous system protects us from overwhelm by shutting us down. Hypoarousal occurs on a spectrum. A person may have mild experiences of feeling foggy, disconnected, and fatigued or may have a complete freeze response (become immobilized and can’t move), as can happen in the context of extreme trauma.”

Neff, Megan Anna. “Hypoarousal and Hyperarousal.” Insights of a Neurodivergent Clinician, September 8, 2023. https://neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/hypoarousal-hyperarousal.

Impulsivity

“Describing or displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences of an action, particularly one that involves taking risks.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Impulsive. https://dictionary.apa.org/impulsive

Integration

“The left side of our brain helps one think logically and organize thoughts into sentences, it is logical, linguistic (words) and linear. The right side of the brain helps one experience emotions and nonverbal cues, it is nonverbal and is emotional, relational, and creative. The reptile part of the brain (brainstem and limbic system) allows you to act instinctually and make split-second survival decisions (this is the lower half of the brain). This part of the brain is responsible for basic functions like blinking, breathing, for activation responses (fight or flight), and survival emotions like intense fear or anger. And the mammalian brain (cerebral cortex and middle prefrontal cortex) leads you to connection and relationships (maternal). This part of the brain allows you to plan, think, imagine, feel empathy, gain control over emotions or body, understand and process morality. Integration takes the distinct parts of your brain and helps them work together as a whole. Individuals with trauma struggle to integrate, and thus are more likely to experience dysregulation, tantrums, anger outbursts, aggression, shutting down or withdrawing.”

Siegel, Daniel J., and Tina Payne Bryson. The yes brain: How to cultivate courage, curiosity, and Resilience in your child. New York: Bantam, 2018.

Intersectionality

“Intersectionality is an analytical framework used to study how societies treat people based on their various social and political identities, such as their gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Depending on those identities, a person may be privileged or oppressed.”

Soken-Huberty, Emmaline. “Intersectionality 101: Definition, Facts and Examples.” Human Rights Careers, November 3, 2023.https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/intersectionality-101-definition-facts-and-examples/..

Intimate Partner Violence

“Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship. “Intimate partner” refers to both current and former spouses and dating partners.”

“Fast Facts: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 11, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/fastfact.html.

Learned Helplessness

“A phenomenon in which repeated exposure to uncontrollable stressors results in individuals failing to use any control options that may later become available. Essentially, individuals are said to learn that they lack behavioral control over environmental events, which, in turn, undermines the motivation to make changes or attempt to alter situations.”

“Apa Dictionary of Psychology.” Learned Helplessness. https://dictionary.apa.org/learned-helplessness.

Limbic System

“A loosely defined, widespread group of brain nuclei that innervate each other to form a network that is involved in autonomic and visceral processes and mechanisms of emotion, memory, and learning. It includes portions of the cerebral cortex (see limbic lobe), thalamus, and certain cortical and subcortical structures, such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and septal area"

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Limbic System. https://dictionary.apa.org/limbic-system

Lived Experience

“Knowledge based on someone’s perspective, personal identities, and history, beyond their professional or educational experience.”

What is Lived Experience? https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/5840f2f3645ae485c268a2784e1132c5/What-Is-Lived-Experience.pdf.

Masking

“Masking, as a coping mechanism, involves concealing one’s true emotions, thoughts, or struggles as a way to navigate social situations or cope with internal difficulties. Masking is common as a mechanism of coping or protection in instances of mental health, neurodiversity, or trauma.”

Team, Charlie Health Editorial. “What Is Masking?” Charlie Health, November 10, 2023. https://www.charliehealth.com/post/what-is-masking.

Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs

“Maslow studied both human and animal behavior, allowing him insight into both complex and very basic needs. In creating his hierarchy, Maslow (1943, 1954) first divided human needs into five categories: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. He then proposed that these needs could be ranked by how important or basic to human functioning they were (see the pyramid below). Finally, Maslow proposed that our ability to have these needs met would impact our psychological health. Specifically, he thought that our psychological health would be most negatively impacted by not being able to meet the more fundamental needs towards the bottom of the pyramid.

The needs can be ranked (with the bottom of the pyramid first:)

I. Physiological Needs. These are the things that most, if not all, organisms need to survive, such as the ability to breathe, stay warm enough or cool enough, get sleep when we need it, and have enough food and water to survive.

II. Safety and Security. The second set of needs provides for our safety and security. This includes being physically healthy and having the physical and interpersonal resources we need to survive, such as a home to live in. For children, this means having a reliable caregiver that keeps them healthy and provides for their physiological needs.

III. Love and Belonging. Once safety and security are established, we focus on feeling connected to others, such as having a romantic partner and friends in our lives.

IV. Self-Esteem. Nearing the top of the hierarchy, our needs become centered on feeling good about ourselves. Are we recognized and respected for our contributions? Do people seem to like us for who we are or what we’re good at? We take these cues from other people and use them to support our positive beliefs about ourselves.

V. Self-Actualization. The most advanced need Maslow describes is that of being engaged in meaningful activities that align with our values and express who we are. Imagine a highly-paid and successful lawyer who does not find her work personally meaningful or believe in its purpose. Although all her other needs might be met, she likely would not feel she is self-actualized.”

“Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Definition, Examples & Explanation.” The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.html.

Medical Trauma

“Medical trauma is the experience of traumatic stress as a result of interactions with the medical system, which may include procedures (i.e., surgeries), new diagnoses (i.e., cancer), and professionals in healthcare settings. These healthcare settings may include primary care clinics, general hospitals, and specialty medical clinics, among others.”

Medical Trauma: Dealing with Psychological Responses to Medical Events, July 12, 2023. https://www.pcom.edu/academics/programs-and-degrees/mental-health-counseling/news/what-is-medical-trauma.html#:~:text=Medical%20trauma%20is%20the%20experience,and%20professionals%20in%20healthcare%20settings.

Mental Disorders

“Any condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, impaired functioning, or any combination of these. Such disorders cannot be accounted for solely by environmental circumstances and may involve physiological, genetic, chemical, social, and other factors.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Mental Disorder. https://dictionary.apa.org/mental-disorder

Mindfulness

“Mindfulness is awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them. Mindfulness is used in several therapeutic interventions, including mindfulness-based cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and mindfulness meditation.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Mindfulness. https://dictionary.apa.org/mindfulness

Mirroring

“Reflecting or emulating speech, affect, behavior, or other qualities in psychotherapeutic contexts. A therapist may adopt the movements, speech style, or locutions of a client, and vice versa, to indicate comprehension of what is being said or to reflect bonding, either nonconsciously or with the intent of empathizing.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Mirroring. https://dictionary.apa.org/mirroring

Mitigating Trauma

“to make [the impacts of trauma] less severe or painful”

Mitigate definition & meaning. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mitigate.

Moral Injury

“Moral injury refers to the psychological, social and spiritual impact of events involving betrayal or transgression of one’s own deeply held moral beliefs and values occurring in high-stakes situations. Moral injury is not a recognized mental health disorder in itself, but may be associated with PTSD or depression.”

“Moral Injury.” Open Arms. https://www.openarms.gov.au/signs-symptoms/moral-injury#:~:text=Moral%20injury%20refers%20to%20the,associated%20with%20PTSD%20or%20depression

Movement (healing)

“Movement therapy refers to a broad range of Eastern and Western mindful movement-based practices used to treat the mind, body, and spirit concurrently. Forms of movement practice are universal across human culture and exist in ancient history. Research demonstrates forms of movement therapy, such as dance, existed in the common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees, approximately 6 million years ago. Movement-based therapies innately promote health and wellness by encouraging proactive participation in one’s own health, creating community support and accountability, and so building a foundation for successful, permanent, positive change.”

Phuphanich, Melissa E., Jonathan Droessler, Lisa Altman, and Blessen C. Eapen. “Movement-Based Therapies in Rehabilitation.” Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America 31, no. 4 (November 2020): 577–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmr.2020.07.002.

Movement/Rhythmic Movement (healing)

“Rhythmic Movement Training is a movement-based, primitive (infant or neo-natal) reflex integration program that uses developmental movements, gentle isometric pressure and self-awareness to rebuild the foundations necessary to help overcome learning, sensory, emotional and behavioral challenges for children and adults.”

“Rhythmic Movement Training International.” Rhythmic Movement Training International (RMTI). https://rhythmicmovement.org/.

Negative Religious Experiences (NRE)

Ten negative religious experiences (NREs) which when they are a chronic and catalytic part of someone’s faith journey can contribute to the development of religious trauma:

1. Forced high moral or ethical standards.

2. The inability to question or express doubts.

3. Controlling caregivers.

4. Weaponized scripture/theological concepts.

5. The use of guilt or shame.

6. Patriarchy.

7. Corporal punishment/physical abuse.

8. Toxic faith community/leader experience.

9. Not being able to be their authentic selves.

10. Estrangement from family.

Love, Christie. “Negative Religious Experiences: A Case Study”. 2024. https://www.proquest.com/docview/3062334717

Neurobiology

“A branch of biology that studies the structures and processes of the nervous system.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Neurobiology. https://dictionary.apa.org/neurobiology

Neurofeedback

“Neurofeedback is a kind of biofeedback, which teaches self-control of brain functions to subjects by measuring brain waves and providing a feedback signal. Neurofeedback usually provides the audio and or video feedback. Positive or negative feedback is produced for desirable or undesirable brain activities, respectively.”

Marzbani, H., H. Marateb, and M. Mansourian. “Neurofeedback: A Comprehensive Review on System Design, Methodology and Clinical Applications.” Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Journal 7, no. 2 (2016). https://doi.org/10.15412/j.bcn.03070208.

Numbing

“Emotional numbing in PTSD has been defined in different ways but typically consists of the following symptoms: a diminished interest or participation in activities, detachment or estrangement from others, and a restricted range of affect (now called persistent inability to experience positive emotions).”

Emotional Numbing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/emotional-numbing#:~:text=Emotional%20numbing%20in%20PTSD%20has,inability%20to%20experience%20positive%20emotions).

ODD

“A frequent and ongoing pattern of anger, irritability, arguing, and defiance toward parents and other authority figures. ODD also includes being spiteful and seeking revenge, a behavior called vindictiveness.”

“Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/oppositional-defiant-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20375831.

Out-of-body experience

“Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are defined as experiences in which a person seems to be awake and sees his body and the world from a location outside his physical body.”

Bünning, Silvia, and Olaf Blanke. “The Out-Of Body Experience: Precipitating Factors and Neural Correlates.” Progress in Brain Research, 2005, 331–606. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0079-6123(05)50024-4.

Overstimulated

“To cause (someone or something) to become too active or excited: to stimulate (someone or something) too much.”

Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/overstimulate#:~:text=Britannica%20Dictionary%20definition%20of%20OVERSTIMULATE,an%20overstimulated%20child.

Panic Attacks

“A sudden onset of intense apprehension and fearfulness in the absence of actual danger, accompanied by the presence of such physical symptoms as heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, sweating, and dizziness. The attack occurs in a discrete period of time and often involves fears of going crazy, losing control, or dying. Attacks may occur in the context of any of the anxiety disorders as well as in other mental disorders (e.g., mood disorders, substance-related disorders) and in some general medical conditions (e.g., hyperthyroidism).”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Panic Attacks. https://dictionary.apa.org/panic-attack

Parasympathetic Nervous System

“Your parasympathetic nervous system is part of your autonomic nervous system. It could be called your “automatic” nervous system, as it’s responsible for many functions that you don’t have to think about to control. This can include control of your heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, and sweating, among other functions.”

“Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS): What It Is & Function.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23266-parasympathetic-nervous-system-psns.

Parentification

“Parentification is often referred to as growing up too fast. Typically, it occurs when a child takes on parental responsibility for their siblings or even their parents, taking care of a sibling or parent physically, mentally, or emotionally. This can damage a child’s mental well-being and lead to long-term mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.”

What is Parentification? https://www.webmd.com/parenting/what-is-parentification.

Parts Work- Internal Family Systems Model

“Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an approach to psychotherapy that identifies and addresses multiple sub-personalities or families within each person’s mental system. These sub-personalities consist of wounded parts and painful emotions such as anger and shame, and parts that try to control and protect the person from the pain of the wounded parts.”

“Internal Family Systems Therapy.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/internal-family-systems-therapy.

Plant/Horticulture/Gardening Therapy

“A therapeutic approach that taps into the healing properties of growing and tending to plants, flowers, and vegetables. This can be done in a garden setting or in a home with house plants.”

Siu, Andrew M H, Michael Kam, and Ide Mok. “Horticultural Therapy Program for People with Mental Illness: A Mixed-Method Evaluation.” International journal of environmental research and public health, January 22, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7037774/.

Play Therapy

“Play Therapy is defined by APT as “the systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process wherein trained Play Therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development.”

Association for Play Therapy. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.a4pt.org/.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

“A term coined by internationally renowned researcher Joy DeGruy, PhD, to describe the multigenerational trauma and injustices experienced by African Americans — from the dawn of slavery to the recent deaths of Black citizens at the hands of police.”

Hinton, Monica. “What Is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome?: Sharp Healthcare.” What Is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome? , June 19, 2023. https://www.sharp.com/health-news/understanding-post-traumatic-slave-syndrome.

Projecting

“Projection is a defense mechanism by which an individual unconsciously attributes their behaviors, emotions, impulses, undesirable characteristics, and thoughts to others.2 It is a way of taking our internal dialogue and turning it into an external exchange, as if our own beliefs or behaviors belong to someone else.”

Dexter, Geralyn. What does it mean to project your emotions?, May 22, 2023. https://www.verywellhealth.com/projecting-7481323.

PTSD

“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.”

“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).” Mayo Clinic, December 13, 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967.

Racial Trauma

“Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes. Any individual that has experienced an emotionally painful, sudden, and uncontrollable racist encounter is at risk of suffering from a race-based traumatic stress injury. In the U.S., Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) are most vulnerable due to living under a system of white supremacy.”

“Racial Trauma.” Mental Health America. https://www.mhanational.org/racial-trauma.

Rational Thinking

“Thinking according to logical rules, which is considered by many theorists to be a central part of intelligence.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Rational Thinking. https://dictionary.apa.org/rational-thinking

Reactive Attachment Disorder

“Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a condition where a child doesn’t form healthy emotional bonds with their caretakers (parental figures), often because of emotional neglect or abuse at an early age. Children with RAD have trouble managing their emotions.”

“Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): Causes, Symptoms & Treatment.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17904-reactive-attachment-disorder.

Regulation

“It refers to the ability to experience intense positive and negative “affects” or moods, without having our feelings become hijacked, becoming overwhelmed or employing protective strategies such as numbing, dissociation, alcohol/drugs, or other defenses.”

“Affect Regulation.” Trauma and Beyond Center, March 18, 2023. https://www.traumaandbeyondcenter.com/what-we-treat/affect-regulation/#:~:text=It%20refers%20to%20the%20ability,%2Fdrugs%2C%20or%20other%20defenses

Religious Trauma

“Religious trauma is the short- and long-term effects of negative religious experiences on an individual or a group’s faith, health, relationships, and quality of life.”

Love, Christie. “Negative Religious Experiences: A Case Study”. 2024. https://www.proquest.com/docview/3062334717

Religious Trauma Syndrome

“Religious Trauma Syndrome is the condition experienced by people who are struggling with leaving an authoritarian, dogmatic religion and coping with the damage of indoctrination. They may be going through the shattering of a personally meaningful faith and/or breaking away and deconstructing from a controlling community and lifestyle. RTS is a function of both the chronic abuses of harmful religion and the impact of severing one’s connection with one’s faith. It can be compared to a combination of PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD).”

Winell, Marlene. “Religious Trauma Syndrome.” Journey Free, January 4, 2024. https://www.journeyfree.org/rts/.

Repressed Memories

“Repressed memory occurs when trauma is too severe to be kept in conscious memory, and is removed by repression or dissociation or both. At some later time it may be recalled, often under innocuous circumstances, and reappears in conscious memory.”

Lego, Suzanne. “Repressed Memory and False Memory.” Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 10, no. 2 (April 1996): 110–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9417(96)80073-2.

ReTraumatization

“Retraumatization is what happens when a recovering PTSD sufferer is exposed to people, incidents, or environments that cause them to relive their previous trauma, almost as if it were all occurring again.”

BrightQuest Treatment Centers. https://www.brightquest.com/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/retraumatization/.

Scaffolding

“A process through which humans readily integrate incoming information with extant knowledge structures. Scaffolding processes can have diverse effects upon human judgment and behavior. Scaffolding refers to the passive, natural process through which new concepts are formed, especially in early childhood.”

Williams, Lawrence E., Julie Y. Huang, and John A. Bargh. “The Scaffolded Mind: Higher Mental Processes Are Grounded in Early Experience of the Physical World.” European Journal of Social Psychology 39, no. 7 (November 13, 2009): 1257–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.665.

Secondary Trauma

“Compassion fatigue, or secondary traumatic stress disorder, is a natural but disruptive by-product of working with traumatized clients. It is a set of observable reactions to working with people who have been traumatized and mirrors the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

“Secondary Traumatic Stress.” Administration for Children & Families. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/trauma-toolkit/secondary-traumatic-stress.

Secure Attachment

“Secure attachment is characteristic of people who easily trust others. These individuals are attuned to their own emotions and can easily attune to those of others. They are comfortable with intimacy and can easily communicate their thoughts and feelings. Secure Attachment is characterized by the ability to handle conflict calmly, feel comfortable both in relationships and on your own, differentiate thoughts from feelings, and maintain a balanced sense of self and confidence.”

“Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory and Stages.” Attachment Project, December 8, 2023. https://www.attachmentproject.com/attachment-theory/.

Self-Compassion

“Self-compassion involves being kind to oneself when confronting personal inadequacies or situational difficulties, framing the imperfection of life in terms of common humanity, and being mindful of negative emotions so that one neither suppresses nor ruminates on them.”

Neff, K., &Beretvas, S. (2012, April). The Role of Self-Compassion in Romantic Relationships. Self and Identity.

Self-Soothing

“Self-soothing” refers to any behavior an individual uses to regulate their emotional state by themselves. Self-soothing behaviors are identifiable across the lifespan. Often, self-soothing behaviors develop in the early stages of life, and it is not uncommon for adolescents and adults to continue to engage in self-soothing behaviors developed during childhood. Self-soothing behaviors are commonly seen in individuals with diagnoses such as Anxiety, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Depression, and Complex Trauma, among many others.”

Lord, Janine. “Self-Soothing: What Is It? Why Do They Do It? Is There an Alternative?” Shoalhaven Psychology, March 3, 2021. https://shoalhavenpsychology.com.au/self-soothing-what-is-it-why-do-they-do-it-is-there-an-alternative/.

Sexual Trauma

“Sexual trauma refers to the physical and psychological challenges endured by survivors of sexual assault.”

Plumptre, Elizabeth. “How to Manage and Navigate Sexual Trauma.” Verywell Mind, July 7, 2023. https://www.verywellmind.com/sexual-trauma-causes-symptoms-consequences-and-treatments-5217579.

Shell-Shock

“The term “shell shock” was coined by the soldiers themselves. Symptoms included fatigue, tremor, confusion, nightmares and impaired sight and hearing. It was often diagnosed when a soldier was unable to function and no obvious cause could be identified. Because many of the symptoms were physical, it bore little overt resemblance to the modern diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder.”

Jones, Dr. Edgar. “Shell Shocked.” Monitor on Psychology, June 2012. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/shell-shocked.

Somatic Experiencing/Therapy

“Dr. Peter Levine’s research centered around animals who existed in states of stress but who did not show trauma symptoms do their physiological response to shake there body following a fight or flight response in order to move the energy out of their body. This form of therapy centers around releasing traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. It offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. SE provides effective skills appropriate to a variety of healing professions including mental health, medicine, physical and occupational therapies, bodywork, addiction treatment, first response, education, and others.”

Levine , Peter. “What Is Somatic Experiencing .” Somatic Experiencing® International, February 20, 2024. https://traumahealing.org/se-101/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoa2xBhACEiwA1sb1BEcqHai077dmEOMCslXMDXoypBlPDN2BedGOEuLU0okCrx9J1CgZuRoCdTkQAvD_BwE.

Stress Hormones

“When we experience stress, our bodies release hormones like epinephrine (adrenaline), cortisol, and norepinephrine. These hormones are designed to help us deal with stressful situations by increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. However, chronic stress can take a toll on our bodies and minds over time.”

Johnson, Elijah. What are Stress Hormones and how Do They Impact You?, April 27, 2024. https://www.bodylogicmd.com/blog/what-are-stress-hormones/.

Survival Mode

“Survival mode is another term for continuous, unresolved stress, also known as chronic stress. All human beings have experienced stress at one point or another, but in survival mode, stress has been prolonged to a degree where a person feels unable to relax. Parts of the brain associated with fear are overactive.”

Pickett, Robin. “Are You in ‘Survival Mode’?” Accelerated Resolution Therapy, September 28, 2022. https://acceleratedresolutiontherapy.com/are-you-in-survival-mode/#:~:text=Survival%20mode%20is%20another%20term,associated%20with%20fear%20are%20overactive.

Syanpses

“A synapse is a small gap at the end of a neuron that allows a signal to pass from one neuron to the next. Neurons are cells that transmit information between your brain and other parts of the central nervous system. Synapses are found where neurons connect with other neurons. Synapses are key to the brain’s function, especially when it comes to memory.”

Cherry, Kendra. Synapses in the Nervous System, September 11, 2022. https://www.verywellhealth.com/synapse-anatomy-2795867.

Sympathetic Nervous System

“Your sympathetic nervous system is part of your autonomic nervous system. It could be called your “automatic” nervous system, as it is responsible for many functions that you don’t have to think about to control. This can include control of your heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination and sweating, among other functions. Your sympathetic nervous system is best known for its role in responding to dangerous or stressful situations. In these situations, your sympathetic nervous system activates to speed up your heart rate, and deliver more blood to areas of your body that need more oxygen or other responses to help your get out of danger.”

“Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): What It Is & Function.” Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23262-sympathetic-nervous-system-sns-fight-or-flight.

Synchronous

“Experiences are “happening at the same time, with subtle cues about timing and turn taking.”

Haidt, Jonathan. The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. New York: Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024.

Tapping Technique

“Tapping, or EFT, is a mind-body therapy that draws on the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice of acupuncture, and it is used today as a self-help approach in modern psychology. It involves tapping key acupressure points (acupoints) on the hands, face, and body with your fingertips while focusing on uncomfortable feelings or concerns, and using positive affirmations to neutralize those feelings...Research suggests that EFT tapping can relieve stress, diminish cravings, improve performance, and even help relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

Migala, Jessica, Nicole Kwan, Angela Haupt, Elizabeth Millard, Hilary Macht, Becky Upham, Moira Lawler, Beth Levine, and Lauren Bedosky. “EFT Tapping: What Is Emotional Freedom Technique?” EverydayHealth.com. https://www.everydayhealth.com/wellness/eft-tapping/guide/.

Tertiary

“Tertiary interventions include attempts to minimize negative effects, prevent further disease or disorder related to complications, prevent relapse, and restore the highest physical or psychological functioning possible.”

“APA Dictionary of Psychology.” Tertiary Care. https://dictionary.apa.org/tertiary-care

Toxic Stress

“Stress that is prolonged, severe, or chronic can cause significant problems with health and development. Such stress, that itself creates additional challenges for a person’s functioning, is toxic stress.”

“Toxic Stress.” Administration for Children & Families. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/trauma-toolkit/toxic-stress#:~:text=However%2C%20stress%20that%20is%20prolonged,the%20Developing%20Child%2C%20n.d.).

Transfer Trust

The ability for an individual who has developed a positive connection with a person in need works to break down barriers in their situation by helping to navigate systems and make connections with service providers in such a manner that it deepens the original connection and helps to transfer some of the trust to the new connections.

Love, Christie. Flipped Table Collective. 2024.

Trauma

“Trauma is the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a person’s sense of safety, sense of self, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. Long after the traumatic event occurs, people with trauma can often feel shame, helplessness, powerlessness and intense fear...Trauma is a term used to describe the challenging emotional consequences that living through a distressing event can have for an individual. Traumatic events can be difficult to define because the same event may be more traumatic for some people than for others.”

“Trauma.” CAMH. https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/trauma.

Trauma Informed Care (TIC)

“Trauma-Informed Care understands and considers the pervasive nature of trauma and promotes environments of healing and recovery rather than practices and services that may inadvertently re-traumatize.”

“What Is Trauma-Informed Care?” University at Buffalo School of Social Work - University at Buffalo, October 20, 2023. https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/what-is-trauma-informed-care.html.

Trauma Prevention

“Interventions to reduce assaultive violence include educational programs, strengthening of community-based support services, laws limiting access to firearms, and attempts to improve the identification of victims of violence by medical personnel to prevent further victimization (Rosenberg et al, 1998). Strategies to prevent trauma include universal measures and selective measures (such as those targeting low socio-economic status families).”

Howlett, Jonathon R, and Murray B Stein. “Prevention of Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders: A Review.” Neuropsychopharmacology 41, no. 1 (August 28, 2015): 357–69. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2015.261.

Triggers

“A trigger, sometimes referred to as a stressor, is an action or situation that can lead to an adverse emotional reaction. In the context of mental illness, referring to triggers usually means something that has brought on or worsened symptoms... Triggers are individualized experiences that vary widely from person to person. For example, a trigger may elicit a physical reaction, such as heavy breathing or sweating. A trigger can also spur an emotional reaction, like thinking “I am being attacked, blamed, controlled, disrespected, hurt and judged.” After experiencing a trigger, a person may feel overwhelmed, powerless, scared, unloved and weak, among many other feelings. These feelings can be very difficult to address and quite detrimental to mental health.”

“Understanding Mental Health Triggers.” NAMI, February 7, 2024. https://www.nami.org/recovery/understanding-mental-illness-triggers/.

Vagal Nerve

“The vagal nerves carry signals between your brain, heart, and digestive system. They’re a key part of your parasympathetic nervous system.”

“Vagus Nerve: What It Is, Function, Location & Conditions.” Cleveland Clinic. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22279-vagus-nerve.

Vestibular System

“The sensory system regulates one’s sense of balance, stability and self-location, or groundedness to where one is located in space. When the vestibular system is responsive in a healthy manner, it supports one’s ability to feel secure and confident in their body and movements. Change in the position or movement of the head evokes vestibular input and has an impact on arousal level. Vestibular input can be utilized for upregulation (e.g. spinning, bouncing) or downregulation (e.g. rhythmic rocking, head inversion).”

“Vestibular System.” Complex Trauma Resources, July 6, 2020. https://www.complextrauma.org/glossary/vestibular-system/.

Vicarious Trauma

“Vicarious trauma is an occupational challenge for people working and volunteering in the fields of victim services, law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire services, and other allied professions, due to their continuous exposure to victims of trauma and violence. This work-related trauma exposure can occur from such experiences as listening to individual clients recount their victimization; looking at videos of exploited children; reviewing case files; hearing about or responding to the aftermath of violence and other traumatic events day after day; and responding to mass violence incidents that have resulted in numerous injuries and deaths.”

“What Is Vicarious Trauma?: The Vicarious Trauma Toolkit: OVC.” Office for Victims of Crime. Accessed April 26, 2024. https://ovc.ojp.gov/program/vtt/what-is-vicarious-trauma.

Window of Tolerance

“The window of tolerance is a concept originally developed by Dr. Dan Siegel, MD to describe the optimal zone of “arousal” for a person to function in everyday life. When a person is operating within this zone or window, they can effectively manage and cope with their emotions.”

Buczynski, Ruth. How to help your clients understand their window of tolerance, November 21, 2022. https://www.nicabm.com/trauma-how-to-help-your-clients-understand-their-window-of-tolerance/.

Do you have a term that you feel should be included in this list? Leave me a comment with a source to research and cite, and it could be included in future updates of this glossary.

Call to Worship:

You are welcome to bring all of you to this space. The parts of you that are whole, easy to identify, and able to be named, as well as the parts and pieces of you that feel disconnected, disjointed, and difficult to carry.

All of you is welcome in this space.

Those parts and pieces are precious aspects of you, and they matter. The pieces of a broken heart or broken dreams matter. The parts of your story or experience that you often feel that you have to hide or cover up. The pieces of your life that often feel that you need to tone down, mask, or pretend are not there. The parts of you that struggle with your emotions and your fears.

We hope this space feels safe for all the parts of you.

You are not alone in the parts and pieces of you that you carry. In some way or another, we are all fragmented people trying to navigate a world full of divisions, conflicts, tension, and stress. We have all been wounded, bent, or broken by the harsh realities of our world at some point. None of us is perfect. None of us has all the answers. None of us has it all together at all times.

Let us agree to be authentic in this space and resist the pressure to perform or project perfection here.

Unison Prayer:

Holy one, remind us that the best place to bring the parts and pieces of our hearts, our lives, our dreams, our prayers, our emotions, and our relationships is to you. May you construct, out of our honest offerings, a beautiful mosaic of healing, strength, resilience, and grace. Amen.

Prayer is meant to be a personal connection between an individual and the divine; however, when it is used as a tool of gossip, judgment, dismissal, guilt, or shame, it can inflict a unique type of religious trauma that I call Prayer Trauma.

For more than ten years, I have listened to stories of individuals who have shared how weaponized prayer added an extra level of pain and suffering to their religious trauma experience. Think of it as an infection developing inside of an existing wound; it is a different type of pain from a unique source, but the infection and the injury are inseparable from one another.

Prayer trauma shows up in the narratives of religious trauma survivors with enough regularity that I strongly feel it deserves to be named and acknowledged as a cumulative trauma that can be experienced. I have identified two different sources/presentations for prayer trauma, and I will share about both to help you understand the differences between the struggles, triggers, and challenges that individuals may experience.

External Prayer Trauma

The first type of prayer trauma is external prayer trauma. This occurs when someone is harmed by the prayer behavior, language of prayer, or prayer practices of another person or group.

Prayer requests

Often this involves experiencing your personal, private information being shared in a public space without your consent by a friend, family member, or acquaintance.

I have heard stories of people sharing someone’s medical diagnosis as a prayer request before they had let their close circles know. I have listened to stories about painful relationship struggles such as affairs or separations being announced to groups as a need for prayer. People have shared how their struggles with addictions were broadcast with prayers for sobriety. Individuals have told me how their private financial struggles were shared in detail with groups for prayer and support.

Having your privacy violated in this manner in the name of someone else’s faith practices can lead to trust issues with opening up to people and with organized practices of religion.

“I will pray for you” (Dismissive)

For many years, I ran an outreach center in the heart of the Bible Belt that worked primarily with people navigating a lack of stable shelter. A frustration I heard voiced countless times was when someone ran into a person of faith and had them say, in the midst of their suffering, “I will pray for you.” The frustration was often because that pious promise was very seldom accompanied by any act of compassion or kindness to help them. No bus pass given, no water offered, or no blanket shared. The statement felt like an obligatory display of the person’s faith while ignoring the call of Matthew 25: " What you do to the least of these, you also do unto me.

Imagine how having that as the most common response you experienced over the course of your week from people who crossed your path shapes your view of churches and people of faith. It is one of the reasons that I name Outreach Situations as one of the six sources of religious trauma.

It is not just the unsheltered who I have heard share stories of having someone dismiss their emotions, struggle, or pain with a promise of prayer was harmful. I have heard it from single parents who are struggling alone, those who are navigating mental health challenges, individuals with a loved one incarcerated, people who are struggling with custody issues, assault victims, families navigating a health challenge, and countless other painful circumstances. When someone is brave and vulnerable and willing to be honest about their struggle and need for support, and they are met with promises of prayers rather than practical supportive actions, it feels dismissive.

Many people that I have worked with often become quickly frustrated and resentful at the mention of prayer because of the way that it has been used to downplay their situations in the past.

This use of the wording is often a practice of intended compassion for a large number of faith communities whose members are taught to use this language without any conversations about how it can be painful or undermine a person’s personal faith or future engagement with faith spaces.

Thoughts and Prayers (Public Response)

Similarly, a common faith-based response when public tragedies occur is often to comment or post on social media channels “Thoughts and Prayers.” It is important to recognize this as a corporate manifestation of prayer trauma. This response can often feel dismissive and/or performative, and it can seem to use the sentiment of prayer to avoid getting directly involved in helping those who have been impacted by tragedy.

Comments like these can also be received as aloof, disconnected, or out of touch with the emotion and needs of the moment. Often in the face of tragedy, action is needed: donations, support, outreach, advocacy, and working for long-term policy changes. Therefore, when one of the most common responses from the faith community is a promise of prayer rather than active involvement and organizing, it can create a sense of animosity toward that phrase and sentiment.

It is also important to note that reading these repetitive comments in the wake of a difficult event can be triggering to those who have personal experience of having their struggle avoided with a promise of prayer.

“I will pray for you” (Weaponized)

Another way that the language of promising to pray for someone can be a form of prayer trauma is when it is said in a weaponized manner. Allow me to give some examples that I have had shared with me over the years:

• Numerous trans individuals have shared that they have frequently had the experience where people would come up to them and make hateful/judgmental comments about them and would end it with the phrase I will be praying for you. Often it felt more like a threatening exclamation point on the interaction that was received more like: I will be praying that you change!

• A young queer person was at a large box store in the month of June looking at a display of pride items. An older man walked up to them and told them, “If you are one of those gays- I will be praying that you find Jesus.” Then walked off. The teen left the store in tears and with little interest in having anything to do with church.

• I had a young teen mother share with me once how people would look at her and make comments about how they would be praying for her in a tone that made her feel shame. She said that one woman even went so far as to tell her that she would be praying for her child in a way that made the young mother feel that they thought the child was suffering because of her young age.

• I met a man who had spent much of his life struggling with addiction, crime, and mental health. He was a larger man with multiple tattoos on his face and neck. He shared with me how he was in a park once and an older man came up and told him that he would be praying for him to get his life straight. As the man was telling me the story, he smiled and shook his head as he explained that he was sober, almost off of parole, working full-time, and was on his lunch hour that day when that man approached him. He talked about how the man made assumptions about him based on his appearance but had no idea how hard he had been working to get ahead in his life.

Making assumptions about others and then using prayer for someone as a way of asserting moral superiority or trying to make someone feel shame over their choices or circumstances is an abomination to the divine design of prayer. It leaves a painful wound that often undermines a desire to explore or connect with faith in supportive and meaningful ways.

Internal Prayer Trauma

A second presentation of prayer trauma that I have observed in many people’s experiences is unanswered prayers.

Prayer is such an intimate act of trust, faith, and hope. When someone engages regularly in prayer over a specific area or need in their life, it can lead to a crisis of faith when their prayers feel ignored.

• Parents struggling with infertility praying to have a child.

• Loved ones praying for healing from an illness.

• Seeking justice in the aftermath of an injustice.

• Praying for provision for a financial need.

• Someone who is single who longs to find a partner to share life with.

• For someone to notice and stop the abuse that they are experiencing.

• That an estranged parent/child would be willing to reconnect.

• That a parent who lost custody of their child would get to see them again.

These are only a handful of the countless examples of unanswered prayers that have led to prayer trauma for people. Pouring your heart and soul into a prayer that is never answered can be a deeply painful trauma that leaves people questioning faith and the existence of the divine.

Supporting People with Prayer Trauma

In these circumstances, prayer is often one of the many traumatic layers people have experienced; however, in the work of healing, it is crucial to support them in naming the various ways prayer has felt like a source of hurt and pain. Since prayer is such a vulnerable experience, opening up and sharing how it has been hurtful requires a strong trust. It is important to make a safe space for someone to share without judgment or shame.

It is also critical that when someone is sharing an experience of prayer trauma, you never try to use that as a “faith-building” moment to try to justify what someone said or attempt to spiritualize their experiences. It is vital to remember that their pain is not your platform to preach at them.

Let them take the lead regarding prayer. If they bring it up or request it, then you can engage in further conversations. If not, respect the experiences that they have had and be considerate in your own language with them and around them regarding prayer. Consider using other alternative phrases instead of promises of prayer. Examples of alternatives to consider include:

• I am sending you love.

• I am holding you in my mind and heart today.

• How can I hold space for you?

• What is the best way that I can support you right now?

Scholars estimate that since Jesus lived and taught in and around ancient Galilee, in what is now Palestine and Israel, billions of individuals have striven to follow his teachings about love, peace, forgiveness, helping others, and faith.

Our journey of following Jesus has brought us here today to this faith community.

Jesus not only taught people how to love and live; he also challenged the religious leaders of the day for their strict adherence to the rules and rituals of the past rather than to care and kindness toward their neighbors and strangers.

May we follow the example of Jesus and always put people first.

Jesus was radical in the way that he held systems of power accountable, ignored patriarchal protocols, widened the sacred welcome, and instructed people on how to connect with the divine and display their faith through acts of justice, love, and compassion. His legacy was not only a change in his community of context but also a challenge that has echoed throughout history and shaped events around the world.

May our Jesus-inspired actions continue to impact our community, our nation, and our world.

Unison Prayer:

We come into this place today seeking to deepen our understanding of who Jesus was, what he taught, and how to apply it to our lives. Grant us wisdom and courage to hear and respond in ways that improve the lives of others around us today and all the days to come. Amen.

Understanding religious trauma requires exploring not only the events that are happening in real-time, but also understanding the history of how religion has been used and weaponized throughout history.

Five years ago, I began a project to look at history through the lens of religious trauma. I began to create a document in which I name the event and date, and cite religious language used during the event or ways experts have identified the unique roles religion played in the event.

Please note that I update the document regularly as new events are identified or unfold.

I invite you to explore this research tool, and if you have suggestions of events that should be added, feel free to leave a comment.

**** Trigger Warning: This post contains disturbing quotations that document racism, homophobia, and hatred that has been connected to Christianity. Please be careful when engaging with these documented statements. The statements are shared as examples of historical harms and rhetoric, they do not reflect my personal views but are important to capture for research purposes. ****

Date of last update: August 10, 2026

1095-1291: The Crusades were fought.

“They [The Crusades] were wars fought by Western European Christians against Muslim control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land of Palestine. They began in 1095, when Pope Urban II summoned the knights of Christendom to undertake a war that would earn its warriors a heavenly reward for fighting and killing. They lasted until 1291, when Acre, the last crusader stronghold on the mainland of the Levant, fell to the armies of the Sultan of Egypt. In the intervening centuries, Western European settlers, proto-colonists, driven by a toxic blend of religious intolerance, credulous enthusiasm and material greed, violated the sophisticated civilization of Islam, carving out transient principalities, building formidable castles that still dominate the landscape and profiting greatly from commodities and commerce.”1

1493: Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after visiting the Americas.

“To fully understand the deep roots of today’s white Christian nationalism, we need to go back at least to 1493—not the year Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue,” but the year in which he returned to a hero’s welcome in Spain, bringing with him gold, brightly colored parrots, and nearly a dozen captive Indigenous people. It was also the year he was commissioned to return to the Americas with a much larger fleet of 17 ships, nearly 1,500 men, and more than a dozen priests to speed the conversion of Indigenous people who inhabited what he, along with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, still believed were Asian shores.”2

1493: The Doctrine of Discovery was issued in a bull from Pope Alexander XI.

“The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be “discovered,” claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that “the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.” This “Doctrine of Discovery” became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion”3

1517: Martin Luther posts his Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg, Germany.

“In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment—called “indulgences”—for the forgiveness of sins.”4

1517-1648: The Protestant Reformation

“Broadly speaking, most of the challenges to the Catholic Church revolved around one core idea. It was the notion that individual believers should be less dependent on the Catholic Church, and its pope and priests, for spiritual guidance and salvation. Instead, Protestants believed people should be independent in their relationship with God, taking personal responsibility for their faith and referring directly to the Bible, the Christian holy book, for spiritual wisdom.”5

1526-1867: The Atlantic Slave Trade

“Starting in the 15th century, when European powers initiated contact and commercial activity with Sub-Saharan Africa, and continuing throughout the following centuries, organized religion played a leading role in developing, supporting, and legislating the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Rooted in a belief that their duty to spread Christianity justified their actions, religious organizations did not only embrace human trafficking and the enslavement of millions of Africans—they actively participated.”6

1560-1630: The Great Hunt in Europe.

“Between 1560 and 1630, there was a surge in the number of accusations of witchcraft and witch trials called “the Great Hunt”. During this time, 80,000 people were accused of witchcraft and, of them, 40,000 were killed as punishment…Colder, harsher weather of the Little Ice Age caused a series of crises, including poor crop harvests, the Great Famine and the Black Death in Europe. People looked for any explanation for the struggles they were facing, and often blamed witches, sometimes at the encouragement of religious leaders.”7

1620: The Mayflower lands at Plymouth, MA, bringing religious pilgrims seeking religious freedom.

The Mayflower Compact that was signed before they left for America stated, “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick…”8

1634: In Salem, MA, Pastor Roger Williams was exiled.

“Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible, for it required people to interpret God’s law, and people would inevitably err. He therefore concluded that government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God. A society built on the principles Massachusetts espoused would lead at best to hypocrisy, because forced worship, he wrote, “stinks in God’s nostrils.” At worst, such a society would lead to a foul corruption—not of the state, which was already corrupt, but of the church…. He concluded that God’s will was better discerned by individuals than by institutions.”9

1636: Anne Hutchinson was punished by jail for preaching.

Anne Hutchinson was a midwife who began hosting groups in her home to discuss the weekly sermons preached in her community. Both men and women attended these meetings, and discussions challenged the Puritan teachings. Historians note, “The real issue to those in power was that she dared to overstep her place as a woman, and they feared she would likewise inspire other women to rebel. They said she had “rather been a Husband than a Wife and a preacher than a Hearer; and a Magistrate than a Subject.” In asserting her rights, Hutchinson miscalculated when she told the court that she had received a direct revelation from God and that she could interpret the scriptures for herself. The assertion sealed her fate. In March, 1638, Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished from the colony.”10

1692-1693: Salem Witch Trials

“Over the course of several months in 1692, a total of between 144 and 185 women, children, and men were accused of witchcraft, and 19 were executed after local courts found them guilty…the Puritans’ societal structure remained firmly in place when the Salem witch trials began. “The Puritan colony was a very patriarchal and hierarchical place,” Scott says, noting that this included the view that people, particularly women, who stepped outside of their prescribed roles in society were looked upon with suspicion.”11

1730-1770: First Great Awakening

“The First Great Awakening was the most significant religious movement of the Colonial Era, sparking an increase in Protestant denominations, including Methodists and Baptists, as well as the establishment of educational institutions like Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Rutgers. It also fueled the ideology of the American Revolution by emphasizing the power of the individual over the power of the clergymen or monarchs..”12

The most famous sermon of this time was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Johnathan Edwards. In which he said, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: ‘Tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell: You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”13

1775-1783: Revolutionary War

“Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British--an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God. As a recent scholar has observed, “by turning colonial resistance into a righteous cause, and by crying the message to all ranks in all parts of the colonies, ministers did the work of secular radicalism and did it better.” Ministers served the American cause in many capacities during the Revolution: as military chaplains, as penmen for committees of correspondence, and as members of state legislatures, constitutional conventions, and the national Congress. Some even took up arms, leading Continental troops in battle.”14

1787: The Three-Fifths compromise was passed by the Constitutional Convention.

“Instead of acknowledging the full humanity and citizenship of black slaves, political leaders determined that each slave would count as three-fifths of a white citizen…. If there is one concept that helps unlock the twisted logic of American slavery better than almost any other, it is the chattel principle. The chattel principle is the social alchemy that transformed a human being made in the image of God into a piece of property.”15

1795-1835: The Second Great Awakening

“The term [Second Great Awakening] usually includes monumental changes such as the “break-up of Calvinism,” an event which, like the thawing of northern rivers in the spring, heralded a new burst of creativity, energy and warmth. The Awakening is also understood as a conservative assertion of a new mode of religious authority by ministers who, fearful of losing their traditional role in New England society, tried to tame the rising democracy. It provided new channels not only for social control, but also for social service, which some scholars have said was but a manifestation of the former. It burned in white-hot emotionalism in Kentucky, spreading along the frontier like a prairie fire, sweeping even beyond the backfires set by cautious seaboard ecclesiastics who had hoped to control it. It was an expansion of religious feeling unknown in American history.”16

1802: Thomas Jefferson writes a letter about the separation of church and state.

The letter to the Danbury Baptist association stated in part, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State…”17

1803: Westward Expansion began in the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase

“... Missionary outreach to Indians complicated these intercultural dynamics. Missionary women often looked down on sentimental culture and tended to think of sentimental women and their pursuits as frivolous. But these differences may only have compounded the powerful sense of American destiny that gripped them both and contributed to the American overtaking of the continent. A terrible sense of providential doom surrounded nineteenth-century missionary efforts on the Great Plains, and Indians felt it, too. “It is too soon to send missionaries among us,” a Pawnee chief told some church people who approached him in 1817. “We are not starving yet. We wish to enjoy hunting until the wild animals are extinct. Let us use up the wild animals before you make us work and spoil our happiness.” Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries were zealous on behalf of Indian welfare, and they were often outspoken against the seizure of Indian lands and the blatant manipulation of treaties, economic provisions, and government agreements that so frequently occurred. But missionary efforts to facilitate Indian welfare in the nineteenth century were not very successful.”18

1823: Johnson v. McIntosh Court Case challenged the Doctrine of Discovery

“In the US Supreme Court in the 1823 case Johnson v. McIntosh, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in the unanimous decision held “that the principle of discovery gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands.” In essence, American Indians had only a right of occupancy, which could be abolished.”19

August, 1931: Nate Turner Rebellion

“Nat Turner believed he was called by God to deliver his people from slavery. Turner used preaching to convince people to join his revolt. On August 21, 1831, at 2:00 a.m., Turner and his followers started at his master’s house and killed the entire family. They marched throughout Southampton County in Virginia, killing at least 55 people until white authorities crushed the revolt. Turner avoided capture for nearly two months before he was caught. He was tried in the Southampton County Court and was sentenced to be hung on November 11th.”20

“In response to Mr. Turner’s revolt, at least nine states—Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee—passed laws targeting enslaved and free Black people and limiting their mobility. These laws prohibited Black people from assembling freely, conducting independent religious services, or preaching to a crowd of more than five people. Some states passed laws criminalizing the education of Black people, prohibiting Black people from learning to read or write. Some states also passed laws barring free Black people from living in the state.”21

1837: Presbyterians split

The Gardiner Spring Resolutions called all Presbyterians to pledge their allegiance to the federal government and, by implication, to its stance on slavery. These were proposed as conditions of Presbyterian membership. According to one historian, “In the 1860s the issue centered on the question of Christ and Caesar, and whether or not the Church could require allegiance to any particular nation as a term of communion.”’ Given this ultimatum, Presbyterians in the South viewed separation as the only option available to them. They formed the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America (PCCS), which later changed its name to the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PUS).22

1844: The Methodist Episcopal Church split to form the Methodist Episcopal church, South over the issue of bishops owning slaves.

“James Andrew’s status as both an enslaver of human beings and a bishop in the church became the focus of the 1844 General Conference. Split largely down sectional lines, the antislavery advocates had the ecclesiastical advantage, and in a 110-69 vote, they resolved to censure the bishop as long as he continued to hold slaves. Refusing to give up his church duties, Andrew and his allies split from the MEC to form the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS), and they allowed their clergy to practice slavery.”23

1845: The term “Manifest Destiny” is first used to describe the westward expansion of the U.S.

“During this crucial period, the United States pursued a policy of expansion based on “manifest destiny,” the ideology that Americans were in fact destined to extend their nation across the continent.” This concept was later depicted in a painting by John Gast.24

1845: The Southern Baptist Convention was formed

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed when Southern pastors split from the Northern Baptists over the differences in beliefs about slave owners serving as missionaries.

“…some 293 representatives of Baptist missionary agencies, churches, and seminaries met in Augusta, Georgia to organize the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)...The disagreement over slave-holding had disrupted effective evangelizing, giving rise to the SBC, which would organize “a plan for eliciting, combining and directing the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort, for the propagation of the gospel…The “Southern” in Southern Baptist Convention was more than simply a description of where the overwhelming majority of SBC churches were located. The SBC remained closely tied to white Southern cultural, racial, and political identity until the mid-20th century. At the SBC’s annual convention in 1861, the denomination pledged its support to the Confederacy, substituting the words “Southern States of North America” for “United States” in its constitution. As historian Walter Shurden notes, “In the 19th century, Baptists of the South became Southern Baptists.”25

1851: The U.S. Government passes the Indian Appropriations Act.

“In 1851, Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act, which created the Indian reservation system and provided funds to move Indian tribes onto farming reservations and hopefully keep them under control… Indians were encouraged to wear non-Indian clothes and learn to read and write English, sew, and raise livestock. Missionaries attempted to convert them to Christianity and give up their spiritual beliefs.”26

1853: Antoinette Brown Blackwell becomes the first woman ordained in the US in the Congregationalist Church.

1854: Orphan Trains began to move poor children from urban areas out west.

“The confused and often frightened children lost contact with their families back in their hometowns and, those who were old enough, were encouraged to make a complete break with their past. When the children arrived in the new area where they were to live, there was no formal process to place them with new families. There were only handbills announcing the distribution of groups of needy children, which brought crowds of prospective parents to view and choose children. Although the Children’s Aid Society made a point of emphasizing the success stories of children who were well cared for and loved, the outcome of the placements in general was mixed. Some of the farming families saw the children only as cheap labor; there was also evidence that some children experienced abuse in their new homes.”27

1861-1865: American Civil War

“The battles of the Civil War did not just happen in places like Shiloh and Gettysburg. The Bible itself became a battleground. With the onset of the Civil War, the nation faced not only a political and economic crisis but a theological one as well.”28

1863: January 1st, Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

”Having gained their freedom, former slaves were eager to be taught by and preached to by ministers who could relate to their own life experiences. In search of such a religious experience, they left southern…white-controlled denominations in large numbers. Having by this time recognized the implications of the gospel that white clergy had preached to them while in bondage and no longer bound by the social controls imposed on them by participation in their churches, they set up their own independent Baptist and Methodist churches. With the freedom of choice to worship God as they felt led, they perhaps saw this as a ripe opportunity to achieve freedom from the values of their former masters who had gone to war to uphold the brutal system of slavery under which they had suffered.”29

1865: President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

The last entry from the journal of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, reads in part, “Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment…”30

1865: June 19th (Juneteenth) Union Troops came to Galveston Bay, TX to let slaves know of their status as free citizens.

“When the enslaved community in Galveston, Texas, learned on June 19, 1865, that they’d been freed, they went to their church and prayed. They understood that President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had ordered their freedom, but they believed God had made it possible, said Lisa Fields, founder of the Jude 3 Project.”31

1865: Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, TN

“On December 24, 1865, a group of former Confederate soldiers established what would become the first chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, in Pulaski, Tennessee. Named for the Greek word “kyklos,” which means circle, the KKK was devoted to white supremacy and to ending Reconstruction in the South. The Klan’s first leader, called a Grand Wizard, was former Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest.32

1868: James Bannerman published The Church of Christ.

In this 900-page examination of church structure and polity, James Bannerman used the terms “spiritual tyranny” and “spiritual oppression” as terms for pastors who abuse their authority.

He writes, “Church power is limited by the subjects of it, or by the rights, privileges, and liberty of the Christian people. This fourth limitation more especially prevents Church power from becoming the instrument of spiritual oppression and tyranny as directed against the members of the Church, and shields from violence and wrong the liberty wherewith Christ has made His people free. Beneath the shelter of such a limitation, the conscience has a sanctuary which is blessed and sanctified by Christian freedom within, and over the threshold of which authority, even the authority of the Church, cannot pass. Within that sanctuary none but the Lord of the conscience may enter; and because it is His dwelling-place and home, His presence protects the conscience from the intrusion of the Church. The right of Church power is limited by the rights of conscience…”33

1882: Passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the Federal government.

“Anti-Chinese hate took vicious and violent forms. Again, religion was at the heart of it. In a February 1873 speech, Father James Buchard, a Catholic priest, referred to the Chinese as “these pagan, these vicious, these immoral creatures” and claimed that they were “incapable of rising to the virtue that is inculcated by the religion of Jesus Christ… The Great Omission reveals an abiding impulse to exclude or eradicate “threats” to white American identity. The Christian case against Chinese immigration set a precedent for later white Christian nationalists that exclusion — whether carried out through law or extrajudicial violence — could be an appropriate response to the presence of people they believed to threaten their way of life.”34

1896: Plessy v. Ferguson Ruling by U.S. Supreme Court upheld “Separate but Equal” ideology.

“Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Supreme Court ruled that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional. As a result, restrictive Jim Crow legislation and separate public accommodations based on race became commonplace.”35

“After the decision, state legislatures enacted segregation statutes that extended to schools, churches, housing, jobs, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, orphanages, prisons, virtually all forms of public transportation, and sports and recreation.”36

1890-1910: Jim Crow laws were passed in the South.

“White religious institutions in the post-bellum South were intimately involved in maintaining the existing racial hierarchy. Indeed, the predominant Christian organizations disseminated a theology rooted in white superiority, and providing ideological justification for separation of the races became a primary function of white religious groups. Christianity was used to support slavery based on biblical and evangelistic reasons. Most local and national religious organizations were racially segregated, and to the extent that blacks were incorporated into white-controlled denominations, they were typically relegated to separate congregations, or separate areas of the church in mixed-race congregations…during our period of study, lynching was not a furtive act nor generally regarded as a shameful affair. Rather, lynching served as a public spectacle that often took on carnival-like characteristics – “festivals of violence”, as aptly put it. Not only did large crowds often gather to murder the victims but also assembled to view the corpse, to mangle further or disfigure it in highly ritualized fashion, to pose for photographs, and to enjoy musical performances and orations…” 37

“... according to the closest students of lynching, devout Protestants were among the participants at these modern Golgothas. These authorities found an unhappy correlation between Protestantism and mob violence. They further disclosed that servants of the Lord frequently encouraged or silently acquiesced in lynchings. “It is no accident,” believes a distinguished Negro leader, “that in these states with the greatest number of lynchings to their discredit ... the great majority of the church members are Protestants and of the evangelical wing of Protestantism as well.”38

1912: The US Children’s Bureau is created.

“As the perception of childhood began to shift, children were seen as innocent and in need of protection rather than as prospective laborers. Social reformers emphasized the importance of family life versus institutionalized care. Years of national campaigns eventually led to the White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children of 1909 (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1967). This symposium was instrumental in bringing the issue of child welfare to national attention and in the creation of the Children’s Bureau in 1912. The new government agency supported programs and initiatives that helped reduce the need for orphan trains.”39

1914: The Assemblies of God USA is founded after splitting with the Church of God in Christ.

“The formation of the Assemblies of God in 1914 brought an end to the interracial focus of the Pentecostal movement that characterized the revival from its inception in Los Angeles, California, at an abandoned warehouse on Azusa Street in 1906. Dr. Newman utilizes the extensive archival holdings of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, housed in the international headquarters of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri, to support his contention that Assemblies of God leaders deliberately engaged in racist efforts to prevent African American participation in Assemblies of God activities because the denominational leaders feared the reaction of its ministers and congregations in the American South. In addition, a concerted effort to refer African Americans interested in the Assemblies of God to African American groups, such as the Church of God in Christ, was approved at the highest levels of Assemblies of God leadership. Ultimately, efforts to exclude African Americans from the denomination led to official decisions to refuse them ordination and approved resolutions to support the establishment of a separate, unrelated Pentecostal denomination specifically for African Americans.”40

1920: White Women are granted the right to vote in the United States.

“… a Georgia antisuffrage pamphlet stated bluntly that woman suffrage “would eventually lead to the ruin of American homelife; the destruction of our moral code; the lowering of woman’s power and influence; and the final undoing of our government. The women who ask for it are simply the unconscious agents of God’s worst enemies.” Opponents of suffrage believed they had only to bring God’s judgment upon the apostates. For them, gender was an insuperable barrier. The vote was not only inimical to woman’s performance of her God-ordained role but also destructive of southern society. Giving women the ballot would result in social disintegration as a consequence of disobedience to God. Yet despite their shrill predictions of the downfall of Christianity, antisuffragists did not arouse widespread support with scriptural arguments.”41

1921: The Ku Klux Klan organized more formally in Atlanta, GA

From the founding documents of the KKK, “...That we are dedicated to the sublime duty of amid fortune and misfortune in the effulgent light of life and amid the stable shadows of death; and to the exalted privilege of demonstrating the practical utility of the great (yet most neglected), doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man as a vital force in the lives and affairs of men. We invite all men who can qualify to become citizens of the Invisible Empire to approach the portal of our beneficent domain, join us in our noble work of extending its boundaries, and in disseminating the gospel of “Klankraft,” thereby encouraging, con-serving, fattening in the fringe of the honorable clannishness; to share with us the glory of performing the sacred duty of protecting womanhood; to maintain forever the God-given supremacy of the white race; to commemorate the holy and chivalric achievements of our fathers; to safeguard the sacred rights, privileges and institutions of our Civil Government…”42

1924: The Federal Immigration Act

“By 1924, laws severely restricting immigration, especially immigrants who were from countries that were predominantly Catholic (e.g., southern and eastern Europe), or who were Jewish (e.g., from Poland/Russian), or were from non-Christian societies (e.g., China, Japan).”43

1941-1945: The Holocaust.

“Not surprisingly, Hitler was much preoccupied with Christianity and the Catholic and Protestant churches in Germany. Weikart takes to task scholars, most notably Richard Steigmann-Gall, who, in part based on Hitler’s early conciliatory tone toward the churches, concluded that Hitler was “a sincere Christian, at least until 1937” (p. 71). Weikart instead contends that “the evidence is preponderant against Hitler embracing any form of Christianity for most of his adult life” (p. 105). Aside from his vicious private condemnation of the churches and “Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness,” a careful reading of Hitler’s speeches that are often cited as proof of his Christian faith reveals such a distorted conception of Christianity that few would recognize it as such (p. 96). Hitler endorsed a kind of Kampfchristentum (Christianity of the sword) that cast Jesus as “a pugnacious antiSemite” in order to persuade Christians to join in his persecution of Jews (p. 77).”44

1948: Israel Founded as a Nation

… Jews in America looked to their fellow citizens, including Christian leaders and church organizations, for forthright positions on Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign state, her right to free passage through the international waters of the Gulf of Aqaba, and the obligation of the United States to honor its commitments to Israel – preferably through the United Nations, and in concert with other major powers, if this were possible, but unilaterally if necessary.45

1948-1994: Apartheid in South Africa

“The decades-long pro-apartheid regime in South Africa was heavily supported by Christian denominations, specifically the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC)...the DRC attempted to explain why they believed racial separation was a practical and successful model for society. Apartheid was not simply a policy created overnight – it had been in the works for decades both within and outside of the church. The DRC wrote, “As a result of a natural process of growth, separate churches were established amongst the various population groups. The progress of these churches was so blessed, and the results so positive, that this method has had a considerable influence on later political thinking and developments.”8 According to the standards of the leaders of the DRC, racially separate churches succeeded in allowing these different races to flourish and grow more in their faith by worshiping separately. They interpreted this success as a blessing of God and reasoned that the blessing should extend beyond the walls of the church into wider society. More importantly, the church leadership viewed apartheid as a method of success that evolved naturally within the church to encourage its own flourishing. By displaying how successful apartheid was within the church, the DRC amplified the values of those members who already agreed with apartheid so that they would be more willing to implement it more broadly. Since apartheid succeeded within the church, the DRC determined God gave the church a duty to spread this system outside of the church as well.”46

1953: The First National Prayer Breakfast is held in Washington, DC

“Abraham Vereide started the first iteration of the Fellowship in Seattle in 1935 when he hosted 19 business leaders with the aim of crushing organized labor. However, using the Prayer Breakfast as a discreet Christian recruiting platform was perfected under longtime leader Doug Coe, who was considered one of the most powerful influencers in the Beltway before his death in 2017.”47

Watch episode 3 of The Family on Netflix for a full history of the National Prayer Breakfast.48

1954: Brown vs. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court Case.

An example of the responses of some white clergy can be best seen in G.T. Gillespie’s sermon Christian View of Segregation, in which he uses numerous Biblical passages to justify support of segregation: “While the Bible contains no clear mandate for or against segregation as between the white and negro races, it does furnish considerable data from which valid inferences may be drawn in support of the general principle of segregation as an important feature of the Divine purpose and Providence throughout the ages… Ample evidence is available to show beyond reasonable doubt that segregation represents the best thinking of representative American leadership, and as a time-tested national policy rests upon moral and ethical principles and not upon blind and unreasoning prejudice, as has been frequently and loudly charged by some of its latter-day critics.” 49

1957: Little Rock, AR schools were desegregated.

“Historians have concluded that most white religious leaders in Little Rock either opposed integration or stayed silent during the Little Rock Crisis and other civil rights struggles. Those who supported integration and voiced their support for the Little Rock Nine were a minority. “50

1961: The Freedom Riders movement

“He [Dr. King] lobbied, uselessly, for five years in the South. Meanwhile, northern congregations responded to his call. During the Albany Movement, northern ministers and congregations flooded the South. Several theologians and church leaders participated in the freedom rides. Still, southern clergymen opposed the movement and called for the restoration of law and order. In 1961, in Birmingham, a council of white ministers, including bishops in the Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist churches, a Jewish rabbi, and a Baptist pastor, labeled King “an outsider and an extremist.”51

1961: Bill Gothard launches the Institute in Basic Life Principles.

“According to the lawsuit, IBLP developed an extravagantly detailed “purity culture” that provided guidelines on “marriage, women, children, medicine, and ways to take back and fix the nation.” Its philosophy included everything from the general (what children should study, from kindergarten through high school) to the granular (exactly how young men and women should dress, style their hair, and comport themselves to avoid attracting sinful attention). ATI’s homeschooling curriculum consists of 54 “wisdom booklets,” which teach subjects including geography, math, science, law, and government, tying each lesson to Gothard’s interpretation of a corresponding biblical passage. Virtually all of IBLP’s teachings are viewed through the prism of male superiority and female obedience. In marriage, for example, the husband is the undisputed leader of the family and his word is final. Elsewhere, women defer to men in almost every circumstance, on almost every level, including in the workplace. This belief system, the lawsuit says, “considers women to primarily exist for the purposes of producing children, caring for the men, and rearing the children. Females in the patriarchal movement are discouraged from attaining higher education of any kind and are told that their sole purpose is to marry a man within the movement.”52

1962: James Meredith was the first black man admitted to the University of Mississippi.

Meredith spoke to NBC News in 2018, reflecting on his experiences and sharing about his new ministry endeavors: “I’ve been in the God business all my life,” Meredith says. “Ole Miss to me was nothing but a mission from God. The Meredith March Against Fear was my most important mission from God, until this one coming up right now: Raising the moral character up, and making people aware of their duty to follow God’s plan and the teachings of Jesus Christ.”53

1963: Dr. King writes Letters from a Birmingham Jail

“I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: “Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.” In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.”54

1964: Civil Rights Act Passed

Church Historian Jemar Tisby writes of the dual responses to the passing of the Civil Rights Act, “ Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference stood at the center of the prominent events of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. King understood the price this piece of legislation had cost him and his fellow activists. After Congress approved the Civil Rights Act, King asserted that the law would “bring practical relief to the Negro in the South, and will give the Negro in the North a psychological boost that he sorely needs.” To King and his allies in the struggle, the Civil Rights Act and similar legislation represented significant steps toward his dream of racial equality. King recognized the necessity of changing the laws to ensure the rights of all citizens, and he did not shy away from direct action that caused constructive conflict in his efforts to bring about change. By contrast, when we look at Billy Graham and the moderate Christians he represented, we see they took a more subdued stance toward the Civil Rights Act. Graham helped start and was intimately involved with the publication of Christianity Today, the de facto voice of white evangelicalism. The magazine refused to endorse the act, largely because it was not in keeping with the magazine’s evangelical belief that social change came best through personal conversion. A black journalist reflecting on Graham’s position on legislation like the Civil Rights Act remarked that Graham did not “walk with protestors or call for open housing or desegregated churches” because “he’s too busy praying.” While Graham did not denounce the civil rights legislation, he did not put forth much effort to commend it either.”55

1965: Bloody Sunday where peaceful protestors for voting rights were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL

The Late John Lewis was part of the group that was attacked and beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on what came to be known as Bloody Sunday. He was asked in an interview in 2004, “Lewis paid a price for his convictions. He was jailed 40 times, and repeatedly beaten by mobs and police. One of the most devastating incidents took place on March 7, 1965 — Bloody Sunday. Twenty-five-year-old Lewis, in a tan trench coat and black backpack, led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. State troopers attacked. Lewis was one of the first to fall. He was beaten unconscious, and nearly died. Today, Lewis is welcomed as a hero when he visits Alabama. Local police, many of them black, escort him around town.(to Rep. Lewis): You went through so much. How did you move beyond it without being paralyzed by hate?

Rep. LEWIS: At a very early stage of the movement, I accepted the teaching of Jesus, the way of love, the way of nonviolence, the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. The idea that hate is too heavy a burden to bear. I don’t want to go down that road. I’ve seen too much hate, seen too much violence. And I know love is a better way.”56

“Dr. King immediately called for a second march, issuing a call to clergy and others around the country to participate. One who responded was Unitarian Universalist Rev. James Reeb. Another religious leader who answered the call was the Conservative Jewish Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who had escaped the Holocaust just before World War II and was a long-time ally of the Civil Rights Movement. On March 9, 2,500 people were present to repeat the march—but again, they only reached the Edmund Pettis Bridge. A judge had temporarily forbidden marching until the state troopers’ role could be examined in court, and SCLC organizers decided to temporarily obey. The marchers returned to Selma to prepare for a third attempt. That night, Rev. Reeb and Unitarian Universalist ministers Clark Olson and Orloff Miller had dinner at an integrated restaurant (one that welcomed blacks and whites). As they were leaving, they were easily identified as outsiders, and therefore Civil Rights marchers, by some angry local men, who attacked the ministers with clubs. Rev. James Reeb’s skull was cracked, and he died. The death of a white man brought a level of national outrage among other whites that Jimmy Lee Jackson’s death had not inspired. Protests were held around the country.”57

1965: Voting Rights Act Passed

Women of color were given the right to vote, making them the last group of citizens to be legally allowed to vote in the United States.

1965: Urban Riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles

Jemar Tisby highlights the difference in responses between Billy Graham and Dr. King to this event in his book The Color of Compromise:

“The following six days of urban uprisings in the Watts neighbor. hood of Los Angeles resulted in 34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries, 534 million in damages, and nearly 4,000 arrests. The violence, damage. and vocal opposition to calls for civility contrasted with the peaceful marches and freedom songs of the civil rights movement in the South. Christians, like the rest of America, watched the events unfold with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.

When Billy Graham learned of the unrest in Watts, he flew to the site to personally survey the scene. Graham strapped on a bulletproof vest and boarded a helicopter to hover above the devastation and destruction. Graham was appalled. He saw in Watts the unraveling of the fabric of the nation. “It cannot be overlooked that this kind of disturbance is being used by those whose ultimate end is to overthrow the American government.” He called it a “dress rehearsal for a revolution.” Graham said that the nation needed “tough laws” to crack down on such flagrant disregard for authority.” This “law-and-order” rhetoric resonated with white evangelicals as well, and it led many to be critical of civil rights activists in general. These Christians were not denying that blacks were discriminated against or that conditions in the inner city were troublesome. But they believed the solution to the problem was to trust the system. Christian moderates insisted on obeying the law, working through the courts, and patiently waiting for transformation.

King and other activists took a different view. King understood that the chaos of Watts did not emerge from a single incident. While not excusing the violence or the indiscriminate lawlessness, he also knew that the black residents of Watts had witnessed the nearly all-white police force repeatedly brutalizing their neighbors. The people living in this South Central Los Angeles neighborhood felt trapped by the forces of poverty, incarceration, failing schools, and racism. Though activists had been working for change over the course of many years, the cries of the people went largely unheard. As an alternative to gradual change through the system, which was frequently ineffective”58

1968: Dr. King is assassinated in Memphis, TN

To mark the 50th anniversary of the murder of Dr King, The New York Times published a collection of people’s responses at the time of King’s death. Here is a sample of responses59

As a young white woman living in the South when Dr. King was assassinated, I saw glee, satisfaction, and weeping in equal parts. He caused my blind eyes to see. — Ina McDonald, Houston

I was a freshman and in the Phi Mu sorority suite at Memphis State when I heard it on the radio. Some girls walked into the room talking and laughing about it. I remember cars honking and a general feeling of celebration around me. I felt bad but was too stupid and gutless to speak up. — Martha Asbury Wilson, Memphis

I was at my parents’ house in Chicago. We heard the news that night on TV. My white parents still owned and cared for buildings in our home community on Chicago’s West Side, which by 1968 was about 95 percent black. On April 5, a tenant called. “Don’t come down here,” she said. “They’re turning over white people’s cars.” My childhood neighborhood, the places where I’d shopped, was in flames. My parents went there anyway on April 6 to take care of a furnace problem. No riots were going to keep them from their duty. — Linda Gartz, Evanston, Ill.

I was 13, living in Carmichael, Calif., a predominantly white suburb of Sacramento. At school the day after the assassination, three of us walked to the flagpole and asked the custodian to lower the flag. Pointing to the office, he said he couldn’t unless someone from there told him to. The vice principal came out to see what was going on and said he would meet with just one of us to calmly discuss it. We agreed that Melanie would be our spokeswoman. After her meeting, she told us he fed her a pile of administrative platitudes: “It’s out of my hands. There are protocols to make a decision like this. Blah, blah, blah.” We couldn’t get them to lower the flag, but we tried. — Dawn McCarron, Carmichael, Calif.

Today I understand the fury many blacks felt at Dr. King’s murder. — Linda Gartz, Evanston, Ill.

I was born 15 years after Dr. King was assassinated. I wonder, 50 years after his assassination, how would Christianity itself be lived and perceived differently if he had lived? — Daniel Luna, Goleta, Calif.

1968: The Poor People’s March takes place in Washington, DC, despite the murder of Dr. King.

“In addition to the diversity of regions and races represented by the movement, the Poor People’s Campaign rallied support from various religious denominations. The Council of Churches of the Greater Washington Area, the Catholic Archdiocese, and the Jewish Community Council each offered critical resources. With more than 600 local congregations between them, each organization helped rally volunteers, housing, food, clothing, and other support…”60

1969: Stonewall Riots in NYC

NPR notes that many religious groups at the time were quiet on the events of Stonewall: “At first, the religious right ignored the LGBTQ civil rights movement as a blip that would never break into the mainstream, Faderman said — until it started making progress. As the gay movement succeeded and as various cities began to pass gay-rights ordinances usually to incorporate the term ‘sexual and affectional preference’ in existing nondiscrimination ordinances,” Faderman said, “I think that woke the religious right up to begin to push back. The real beginning, I think, of the culture wars in earnest was in 1977.”61

1971: IRS Implements a Policy to Deny Tax-Exempt Status to Institutions that practice Racial Segregation

“Generally, the IRS provides a tax exemption to institutions organized exclusively for religious or charitable purposes. In 1971, the IRS created a policy denying such tax exemptions to institutions that practice racial discrimination. In this case, both Bob Jones University and another institution, Goldsboro Christian Schools, had racially discriminatory admissions policies, which the schools claimed were based on sincerely held religious beliefs. The IRS denied both schools their tax exemptions because of their racially discriminatory policies. The schools appealed that decision on the grounds that the denial violated their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion, and also violated the Establishment Clause by preferring religions that do not include racially discriminatory tenets over those that do. The Court concluded that the IRS acted properly in denying the schools their tax exemption. First, the government may place limits on the free exercise of religion if such limits are designed to further a substantial government interest. The Court found that the government’s interest in ending racial discrimination was substantial and outweighed any burden the denial of the tax exemption created. Second, the Court held that the IRS policy was based on a neutral, secular purpose and was not designed to prefer one religion over another. Thus, the policy did not violate the Free Exercise Clause or the Establishment Clause.”62

1973: Roe vs. Wade decision by U.S. Supreme Court protected a woman’s right to choose.

“A 1970 poll by the Baptist Sunday School board found that a majority of Southern Baptist pastors supported abortion in a number of instances, including when the woman’s mental or physical health was at risk or in the case of rape or fetal deformity. The SBC passed its first resolution on abortion two years before the Roe decision. While the Convention never supported the right of a woman to have an abortion at her request for any reason, the resolution did acknowledge the need for legislation that would allow for some exceptions. In fact, many Southern Baptists saw the Roe decision as drawing a needed line between church and state on matters of morality and state regulation. A Baptist Press article, just days after the decision, called it an advancement of religious liberty, human equality, and justice. The Convention affirmed this resolution in 1974 after Roe was decided. A 1976 resolution condemned abortion as “a means of birth control” but still insisted the decision ultimately remained between a woman and her doctor. A 1977 resolution clarified the Convention’s position, reaffirming its “strong opposition to abortion on demand.” However, it also reaffirmed the Convention’s views about the limited role of government and the right of pregnant women to medical services and counseling. This resolution was affirmed again in 1979.”63

1973: APA Depathologizes Homosexuality out of the DSM- no longer listing it as a Mental Health Disorder

Christianity Today notes a connection between the 1973 APA decision and the rise in Christian conversion therapy programming in the United States. “Since the American Psychological Association (APA) took homosexuality off the books as a psychological disorder in 1973, the debate over reparative therapy—an attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation to heterosexuality—has continued with little rigorous research. In 2009, the APA adopted a resolution stating that mental health professionals should avoid telling clients that they can change their sexual orientation. Many question the ethics of treating someone for a condition which is not considered a disorder and posit that reparative therapy risks traumatizing the patient.”64

1973: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Founded

Paul Wyerick was one of the founding members and served as their first Director. Weyrich left no doubt that his intention in founding ALEC and similar groups was to overturn the progressing sociopolitical order. What he and others were doing was “different from previous generations of conservatives,” he told an audience. “We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country.” He later elaborated on his fundamentalist counter-revolutionary philosophy to his long-time conservative evangelical associate, Richard Viguerie, that what he was engaged in was war. He said, “it may not be with bullets, and it may not be with rockets and missiles, but it is a war, nonetheless. It is a war of ideology, it’s a war of ideas, it’s a war about our way of life. And it has to be fought with the same intensity, I think, and dedication as you would fight a shooting war.” Such was Weyrich’s zeal that when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich reflected on the history of modern conservatism, he noted “no single person other than Ronald Reagan has done more to create the modern conservative movement than Paul Weyrich." 65

1973: The Heritage Foundation is started.

Again, Paul Weyrich is at the center of organizing this group whose mission is, “Heritage’s mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” 66 Their website states, “Some will say that Christians shouldn’t be active in politics—that we should simply focus on the life of the church. Others will argue that Christians can’t be active in politics—that the so-called separation of church and state prevents people of faith from participating in the political process. Both of these arguments are false. Christians have a moral obligation to be faithful citizens. Patriotism and service to our nation are hallmarks of the Christian calling, so long as duty to God is not compromised… People of faith can and must help revitalize our nation. Pastors have a vital role to play. They are free to help their congregants understand and embrace the role they must play as active and faithful citizens in our republic. Pastors also are free to encourage registering to vote, becoming informed, showing up on Election Day and casting votes that protect our liberties and support godly values. Organizations such as the Family Research Council, The Heritage Foundation, Liberty Counsel and Alliance Defending Freedom, among other groups, offer particularly helpful resources to equip pastors and others to address these issues. It is no exaggeration to say that Christian engagement in America’s political realm is essential if we are to restore the luster to this “shining city on a hill.”67

1974: Billy Graham organized the Lausanne Conference for religious leaders

“More than 2,700 million people, which is more than two-thirds of all humanity, have yet to be evangelized. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected; it is a standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however, in many parts of the world, an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in an evangelized country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the national church’s growth in self-reliance and to release resources for unevangelized areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and to all six continents in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and at the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to hear, to understand, and to receive the good news. “68

1976: Exodus International is founded

Exodus International led more than 400 ministries worldwide using conversion therapy strategies and lobbying against LGBTQ rights.

“In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a bible study to help each other leave the “homosexual lifestyle.” They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalized as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organization in the world…But leaders struggled with a secret: their own “same-sex attractions” never went away. After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. PRAY AWAY chronicles that movement’s rise to power, persistent influence, and the harm it causes.” 69A description from the award-winning film Pray Away about Exodus International and the role that it played in harming thousands of people.

1977: Dr. James Dobson launches Focus on the Family.

Founded on six pillars: Evangelism, The Permanence of Marriage, The value of children, The Sanctity of Human Life, The Importance of Social Responsibility, and The Value of Male and Female.70

The Human Rights Campaign published concerns about the Focus on the Family Organization, stating in part, “Focus On The Family has raised over $515 Million over the past five years, making it one of the most well-funded anti-LGBT organizations in America. They invest in public education campaigns against LGBT equality, while their related organization CitizenLink supports radical anti-LGBT candidates who work against basic civil rights and legal protections. Focus On The Family promotes the harmful and discredited practice of “conversion therapy,” claiming, “just as there are many paths that may lead a person to experience same-sex attractions, there are likewise multiple ways out.” For years, they were behind Love Won Out, a national tour preaching that same-sex attraction is ‘preventable and treatable.’”71

1977: Anita Bryant forms Save Our Children, the first anti-gay organization in Florida

“Born-again singer Anita Bryant campaigns to overturn an anti-discrimination law protecting gay men and lesbians in Dade County, Fla. Inspired by her victory, Bryant founds the first national anti-gay group, Save Our Children, drawing unprecedented attention to gay issues and motivating gay groups to organize in response.”72

1979: Jerry Falwell Sr. leads the efforts to found the Moral Majority

_ The time for action is now; we dare not wait for someone else to take up the banner of righteousness in our generation. We have already waited too long....Right living must be re-established as an American way of life. We as American citizens must recommit ourselves to the faith of our fathers and to the premises and moral foundations upon which this country was established. Now is the time to begin calling America back to God, back to the Bible, back to morality! We must be willing to live by the moral convictions that we claim to believe. There is no way that we will ever be willing to die for something for which we are not willing to live. The authority of Bible morality must once again be recognized as the legitimate guiding principle of our nation. Our love for our fellow man must ever be grounded in the truth and never be allowed to blind us from the truth that is the basis of our love for our fellow man. As a pastor and as a parent, I am calling my fellow American citizens to unite in a moral crusade for righteousness in our generation. It is time to call America back to her moral roots. It is time to call America back to God. We need a revival of righteous living based on a proper confession.”73

1979-1990: Nicaraguan Contra War and Congressional Investigation

Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez writes of this event, “From 1981 until 1988, the war between the Sandinistas and US-backed Contras devastated the Central American country. Both sides committed brutal atrocities, and tens of thousands of Nicaraguans died. The war was not primarily a religious war, but in the United States it was framed as such… In America, Conservative Christian organizations mobilized on behalf of the Contras. Framing the conflict as a matter of religious liberty and the global persecution of Christians…” She goes on to say of Oliver North, the National Security Council deputy director for political and military affairs (an Evangelical Christian) who was convicted on sixteen felony counts related to misdealings associated with the conflict, “In 1990, North’s convictions were reversed on a technicality. The following year, North was a featured speaker at the Southern Baptist Convention, the first where moderates were not expected to challenge the conservative majority. Oliver North had become a hero of the Christian right.”74

1981: The Moral Majority proposes the “Family Protection Act”.

“Moral Majority allies in Congress propose the Family Protection Act, which would bar giving federal funds to “any organization that suggests that homosexuality can be an acceptable alternative lifestyle.” Despite President Reagan’s endorsement, the bill is defeated.”75 It failed but set the foundation for the anti-gay lobby.

1981: The Council for National Policy begins meeting

“The Council for National Policy, a highly secretive club of America’s most powerful far-right religious activists, begins meeting quarterly at undisclosed locations. Among the members will be R.J. Rushdoony, who calls for the death penalty for homosexuals, and anti-gay crusaders James Dobson, Beverly and Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins and Phyllis Schlafly. George W. Bush will meet with the Council during his first campaign for president.”76

1983: Pat Buchanan, Communications Director for Reagan’s public comments on the AIDS crisis.

“Pat Buchanan, communications director for President Ronald Reagan, calls AIDS, first identified in 1981, “nature’s revenge on gay men.”77

1984: Southern Baptist Convention stops ordaining women.

“WHEREAS, Women are held in high honor for their unique and significant contribution to the advancement of Christ’s kingdom, and the building of godly homes should be esteemed for its vital contribution to developing personal Christian character and Christlike concern for others. Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That we not decide concerns of Christians doctrine and practice by modern cultural, sociological, and ecclesiastical trends or by emotional factors; that we remind ourselves of the dearly bought Baptist principle of the final authority of Scripture in matters of faith and conduct; and that we encourage the service of women in all aspects of church life and work other than pastoral functions and leadership roles entailing ordination.”78

1984: Southern Baptist Convention passes a resolution that changes its stance on abortion.

The resolution read in part, “... Therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, June 12-14, 1984, encourage all of its institutions, cooperating churches, and members to work diligently to provide counseling, housing, and adoption placement services for unwed mothers with the specific intent of bringing them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and/or a sense of Christian responsibility; and Be it further RESOLVED, That we deplore the practice of performing abortions, as well as dispensing to minors without parental consent or even notification, contraceptive medications which have potentially dangerous side effects, and deplore also the use of tax funds for such activities; and Be it further RESOLVED, That we call upon all Southern Baptists to renew their commitment to support and work for legislation and/or constitutional amendment which will prohibit abortion except to save the physical life of the mother;...”79

1984: The Coalition on Revival is Founded

“The Coalition on Revival is founded to promote “Christian government” in the U.S. and to agree on theological tenets — including anti-gay principles — that fundamentalists can rally around. Board members include Tim LaHaye, D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association. Founder Jay Grimstead later tells The Advocate, “Homosexuality makes God vomit.”80

1985: Address at the Conservative Political Action Conference

“Addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Paul Cameron uses the AIDS crisis to suggest that “the extermination of homosexuals” might become necessary. The following year, Colorado’s Summit Ministries will publish Special Report: AIDS. Co-authored by Cameron, the popular pamphlet blames gay men for the epidemic and calls for a national crackdown on homosexuals.”81

1986: Dr. Donald E. Sloat published The Dangers of Growing up in a Christian Home.

“I have also concluded that for certain personalities, growing up in a Christian home can be dangerous because there are many subtle obstacles at work in the home and the church that make it difficult for these people to develop meaningful adult Christian lives. In all my years of church attendance, I have not heard this problem and its dangers discussed. I am convinced that there are many halfhearted, struggling, reluctant Christians whose needs are not being acknowledged or met by the church, but they are afraid to voice their concerns because no one has brought these issues into the open for discussion. Not all Christians will be able to identify with the theme of this book, and that is expected. But if my observations strike a chord in you and you find yourself agreeing with what I am saying, you are the person to whom I am writing. If you are a sensitive, struggling Christian who has often felt alone with your feelings, wondering why your Christian life is not as great as the examples you hear from the pulpit, I have good news for you. You are not alone, and it doesn’t mean you are a bad Christian because you struggle.”82

1990: The Promise Keepers are Founded.

“University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney founds Promise Keepers, which holds all-male stadium revivals promoting “traditional masculinity” throughout the 1990s. McCartney calls homosexuals “a group of people who don’t reproduce, yet want to be compared with people who do reproduce,” and says, “Homosexuality is an abomination of Almighty God.”83

“Moreover, depending on where any given man was coming from, “soft patriarchy” and “servant leadership” might be a significant improvement over harsher authoritarian tendencies, whether religious or secular in origin. In some families, these concepts functioned in a way that could “reform machismo” by reattaching men to their families.® Despite talk of sacrifice, tenderness, and servanthood, however, it was hard to ignore language like that of Tony Evans in Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper, the organization’s best-selling book. Men shouldn’t ask for their leadership role back, Evans insisted; they needed to take it back: “There can be no compromise here.” Men must lead for the sake of families, “and the survival of our culture.” (On the very rare occasion when a woman was invited to address a Promise Keepers event, Holly Phillips, wife of president Randy Phillips, asked men to forgive women for their lack of respect, for “the demeaning and belittling words we have uttered,” and “for the ways we have coddled and smothered yos with our protectiveness, thereby emasculating you.”) To critics, Promise Keepers simply marketed “male supremacy with a beatific smile.” In their view, servant leadership helped salvage a patriarchal order even as men no longer served as providers. By promising intimacy in exchange for power, servant leadership passed off authority as humility, ensuring the patriarchal authority would endure even in the midst of changing times.”84

1990: Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS begins protesting at gay events and gatherings.

“The group is basically a family-based cult of personality built around its patriarch, Fred Phelps. Typified by its slogan, “God Hates F---,” WBC is known for its harsh anti-gay beliefs and the crude signs its members carry at their frequent protests.”85

1991: ACLJ Founded

“Pat Robertson founds the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), run by Christian Right attorney Jay Sekulow. ACLJ will be instrumental in fighting gay marriage, calling it a cancerous “perversion” that “directly attacks the family, which is the most vital cell in society.”86

1992: 700 Club airs “The Gay Agenda”

“The Gay Agenda,” a 20-minute video featuring racy scenes filmed at gay-pride marches, is released by Ty and Jeannette Beeson of the Antelope Valley Springs of Life church in Lancaster, Calif. Aired by Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club,” it will become one of the most widely viewed pieces of anti-gay propaganda.87

1992: Pat Buchanan RNC speech

At the Republican National Convention in Houston, Pat Buchanan famously declares in a prime time speech, “There is a culture war going on in our country for the soul of America.” Cheering audience members wave signs reading “Family Rights Forever, ‘Gay’ Rights Never.”88

1994: The U.S. military implemented DADT as official policy.

“Though the U.S. military did not officially exclude LGBTQ service members from its ranks before the mid-20th century, “homosexual acts” were grounds for discharge as far back as the Revolutionary War. In the aftermath of World War I, the military made the act of sodomy a crime subject to punishment by a court-martial… In 1993, when President Bill Clinton signed the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into law, it represented a compromise between those who wanted to end the longstanding ban on gays serving in the U.S. military and those who felt having openly gay troops would hurt morale and cause problems within military ranks. Under the new policy, gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans could serve their country, as long as they kept their sexual identity under wraps.”89

1994: Fundamentalist Colorado Summit

More than 40 fundamentalist groups, led by Focus on the Family, hold a summit in Colorado to coordinate a “special rights” argument to oppose gay rights. This strategy is also promoted by the Traditional Values Coalition’s “Gay Rights, Special Rights,” a 40-minute video claiming gay rights will erode the civil rights of African Americans.”90

1995: Southern Baptist Convention issues an apology for their historical stance on slavery.

“Our relationship to African-Americans has been hindered from the beginning by the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention; many of our Southern Baptist forbears defended the right to own slaves, and either participated in, supported, or acquiesced in the particularly inhumane nature of American slavery; and in later years Southern Baptists failed, in many cases, to support, and in some cases opposed, legitimate initiatives to secure the civil rights of African-Americans.”91

1995: Release of the Pink Swastika supported by the Family Research Council.

The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, by fundamentalist activists Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, claims gays weren’t victimized in the Holocaust, but instead helped mastermind the extermination of Jews. Repudiated by credible historians, the book is nevertheless praised by the Family Research Council and sold by several anti-gay organizations.92

1996: National Pro-Family Forum

“The National Pro-Family Forum, dedicated to “one man-one woman” marriage, holds its first secret meeting in a Memphis church cellar with representatives from more than 20 major anti-gay groups. Before the end of the year, forum members successfully push the Defense of Marriage Act, a symbolic measure defining marriage as between a man and a woman, through Congress.”93

1996: Southern Baptists boycott Disney

“The Southern Baptist Convention announces a boycott of Disney parks and products because the company gives insurance benefits to partners of gay workers and allows “Gay Days” at its theme parks. “Beware of the Magic Kingdom,” Focus on the Family advises parents. Gay Day protests become a staple of the anti-gay movement.”94

1998: Matthew Shepard a gay college student is killed in a hate crime in Wyoming.

“The horrific events that took place shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998 would become one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history and spawned an activist movement that, more than a decade later, would result in passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law against bias crimes directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people. Two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, abducted Matt and drove him to a remote area east of Laramie, Wyoming. He was tied to a split-rail fence where the two men severely assaulted him with the butt of a pistol. He was beaten and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18 hours later, he was found by a bicyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Matt died on October 12 at 12:53 a.m. at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his family by his side. His memorial service was attended by friends and family from around the world and garnered immense media attention that brought Matt’s story to the forefront of the fight against bigotry and hate. The life and death of Matthew Shepard changed the way we talk about and deal with hate in America. Since his death, Matt’s legacy has challenged and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in all its forms. Although Matt’s life was short, his story continues to have a great impact on young and old alike. His legacy lives on in thousands of people who actively fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.”95

Westboro Baptist Church protested at his funeral.

“Reverend Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church and his flock, who included children, held placards daubed with homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that the dead student was burning in hell. Dennis Shepard, 69, remembers law enforcement making him wear a bulletproof vest to step outside the Episcopal church, which had been scoured by bomb-sniffing dogs.”96

1998: Truth in Love Advertising Campaign

“A coalition of fundamentalist groups led by Coral Ridge Ministries sponsors “Truth in Love,” a million-dollar advertising campaign promoting “ex-gay ministries,” which use discredited psychological methods to “cure” gay people. One day before a second round of “Truth in Love” ads is released, gay college student Matthew Shepard dies after being savagely beaten and left tied to a fence in Wyoming. The murder spurs a national debate about the connection between anti-gay rhetoric and hate crimes.”97

1998: Trent Lott’s Comments Praised by Christian Leader James Dobson

“In a TV interview, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) compares gay people to alcoholics and “kleptomaniacs,” earning praise from anti-gay activists. “Leaders willing to be set apart and stand solidly in the truth are rare in today’s permissive culture,” says James Dobson.”98

2001: September 11th Terrorist Attack and the discrimination of Muslims and Arab individuals in the U.S.

“ The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, are without question the defining moment of the 21st century to date. In the wake of this national tragedy, many people exhibited renewed religious commitment. According to Gallup polls, religious attendance on the first weekend after the attacks was up 6% from the weekend before. Religious pundits proclaimed the last months of 2001 to be a time of unprecedented religious and spiritual revival in the United States. But not everyone bought into this appraisal of the situation. Indeed, by November, polls already indicated that church attendance had returned to normal levels.99

“IN THE EARLY 2000s, white evangelicals were enthusiastic supporters of a military response to the September 11 attacks, but they weren’t alone. In October 2001, eight in ten Americans supported a ground war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq, however, was a harder sell. Connections between Saddam Hussein’s regime and America’s national security remained sketchy, and many religious groups in the country resisted the administration’s efforts to drum up support for another war. The National Council of Churches urged the president to refrain from a preemptive strike; the Vatican warned that preemptive war would be “a crime against peace.” Conservative evangelicals begged to differ.”100

“The Rev Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set off a minor explosion of their own when they asserted on US television that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American Civil Liberties Union.”101 Watch the video of this conversation here.

“The Civil Rights Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and United States Attorneys’ offices have investigated over 800 incidents since 9/11 involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against Arab-Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, South-Asian Americans and other individuals perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin. The incidents have consisted of telephone, internet, mail, and face-to-face threats; minor assaults as well as assaults with dangerous weapons and assaults resulting in serious injury and death; and vandalism, shootings, arson and bombings directed at homes, businesses, and places of worship.”102

2003: Gallup Research reports that 42% of Americans attend religious services weekly. (Three-year aggregate)

“Roughly 6 in 10 Americans say that religion is very important in their personal lives. An additional 24% say that religion is fairly important, and 15% say it is not very important. The importance of religion to Americans has remained quite stable over the past decade, with a low of 57% saying religion was very important in 1996 and a high of 61% saying it was very important in 1998. Religion is more important to older Americans than it is to younger Americans. Seventy-three percent of adults aged 65 and older say religion is very important, compared with 65% of 50- to 64-year-olds, 59% of 30- to 49-year-olds, and 48% of 18- to 29-year-olds. Religion is also more important for women than men, by a margin of 69% to 51%. Roughly two-thirds of Republicans say religion is very important, and a similar percentage of Democrats (63%) offer this response. Fifty-four percent of independents feel religion is very important to their lives.”103

2003: The Homosexual Agenda published.

Alan Sears, head of the Alliance Defense Fund, co-authors The Homosexual Agenda, a book that asserts gay activists’ ultimate goal is “silencing” conservative Christians. Sears also accuses cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants of being gay.

2004: Mel Gibson releases Passion of the Christ.

“The Passion, an earnest retelling of the final days in the life of Jesus, was attacked in some quarters for its alleged antisemitism and lurid violence – the venerable critic Roger Ebert deemed it “the most violent film I have ever seen” – and disputed its historical accuracy. Gibson’s antisemitic soundbites and battery charge since the film’s release seem to validate that criticism – and viewed today, it’s a problematic exercise in unpleasantness, rooted in one man’s particular faith.”104

2004: Mayday for Marriage Rallies Held

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Action organizes “Mayday for Marriage” rallies in six major cities to promote anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives in 11 states. An estimated 150,000 turn out for Oct. 15 protest in Washington, D.C., where Dobson declares, “[E]verything we care about is on the line. It’s now or never.”105

2004: The Catholic Church releases a report that detailed more than 4,000 cases of sexual abuse by priests over 50 years.

In part, the report reads, “A paramount concern for all involved with the study has been the determination of the prevalence of the problem in the Catholic Church in the United States. The survey responses make it clear that the problem was indeed widespread and affected more than 95% of dioceses and approximately 60% of religious communities. Of the 195 dioceses and eparchies that participated in the study, all but seven have reported that allegations of sexual abuse of youths under the age of 18 have been made against at least one priest serving in ecclesiastical ministry in that diocese or eparchy. Of the 140 religious communities that submitted surveys, all but 30 reported at least one allegation against a religious priest who was a member of that community.” 106

2005: Dr. Kristen Leslie from Yale Divinity School released a report on concerns of evangelism at U.S. Air Force Academy.

“...Our written report commented on several examples of good and caring pastoral work in this governmentally controlled public arena. Our report also named our concerns about the lack of tolerance we heard about and saw in the name of Christianity. We were told of faculty members in uniform opening class sessions with an invitation to join them at church on Sunday. We learned that because attendance at football games is considered “mission essential” and therefore mandatory, those for whom Saturday is Sabbath have to request permission to skip the game and attend their services. Missing more than one football game pegs a cadet as a problem. No mission essential events are ever scheduled on Sunday morning. We learned that during public assemblies, the Commandant of Cadets (the officer in charge of military training) would regularly signal his cadets with the hand signal J (as in Jesus). The entire assembly of 4,000 cadets knew that in unison they were to respond “Rock” (as in, “Jesus is the Rock”*). In this environment, it should not have surprised our Yale team that the majority of the Christian chaplains understood their pastoral role to be that of Christian evangelist. With the exception of the ELCA chaplain (who would later speak out and then feel compelled to resign her com-mission), the Orthodox Rabbi (who was busy trying to negotiate the dietary needs of the Jewish cadets), and two Roman Catholic priests, the pastoral team understood this military setting to be their mission field Cadets who did not attend one of the many weekly worship services during basic training were marched around as the “Heathen Flight.” One chaplain who had recently returned from deployment in Baghdad told stories of baptizing American service members in what had been Saddam Hussein’s swimming pool. The triumph of Christianity over Islam was lost on no one. During a general Protestant worship service, a chaplain admonished the 600 cadets in attendance to return to their tents and proselytize their bunkmates, reminding them that those who were not “born again will bum in the fires of hell.”107

2006: Focus on the Family launches their Adoption and Orphan Care Awareness Program

“Focus on the Family” President Jim Daly wrote supporters that he hopes the orphan-care effort “will not only equip God’s people to help meet the physical needs of orphans worldwide, but will ultimately introduce them to the eternal hope that is found in Jesus Christ.”108

2008: Barack Obama elected the 44th President of the United States.

“The election of America’s first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters’ comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama’s election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element… “We’re not looking at a race war or anything close to it, but ... what we are seeing now is undeniably a fairly major backlash by some subset of the white population,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report in Montgomery, Ala. “Many whites feel that the country their forefathers built has been ... stolen from them, so there’s in some places a real boiling rage, and that can only become worse as more people lose jobs.”109

“White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens have seen a flood of interest from possible new members since the landmark election of the first black president in U.S. history.”110

“God is the author of racism. God is the One who divided mankind into different types. ... Mixing the races is rebelliousness against God.”111 Council of Conservative Citizens website.

2008: TLC releases a reality show about the Duggar family from Arkansas.

“Barefoot and pregnant” lost cachet decades ago, but in the world of the conservative Christian movement Quiverfull, the adage is alive and well. Nowhere is the image of a barefoot and pregnant wife more prevalent than on The Learning Channel’s (TLC) reality television show 19 Kids and Counting,’ which brings viewers into the home of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their nineteen children. Due to the popularity of their show, the Duggars have become the unofficial spokespeople for the Quiverfull movement. Since the show premiered in 2008, the Duggars have published two books, The Duggars! 20 and Counting and A Love That Multiplies.’ They average thirty speaking engagements a year,’ including appearances at Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs and on the radio program Focus on the Family Daily. While the Duggars regularly quote Psalm 127 (the Quiverfull theme Bible verse), support the Christian patriarchy organization Vision Forum, and espouse the virtues of having mega-sized families, they still refuse to classify themselves as “Quiverfull,” denying the title in their latest book, A Love That Multiplies, and in numerous People magazine interviews.®

Although they refuse to claim the label, the Duggars’ theology leaves little doubt that they are the nation’s most popular Quiverfull family. The Duggar family’s ideology is most prevalent in the show’s first season, where they introduce themselves and their beliefs to the American public. In subsequent seasons, their religious beliefs are downplayed in the opening sequence as the show shifts its focus to the daily difficulties of managing the family’s large size. Little of the warlike Quiverfull rhetoric is at the forefront. On the contrary, the Duggars paint a serene picture of life, their devotion to the family unit captivating both secular and Christian audiences. Yet subtle, disturbing messages emerge that many viewers easily overlook. Conformity and a rigid male leadership hierarchy often place women associated with the Quiverfull movement in subservient roles. 19 Kids and Counting provides a platform for the Quiverfull movement to gain legitimacy by attempting to highlight the idyllic notions of the movement while downplaying patriarchal gender roles and strict family conformity.”112

The Duggars, their connection to Bill Gothard’s IBLP, and the Quiverfull movement are the focus of the 2023 Amazon Documentary Series Shiny Happy People.

2009: The Tea Party is Founded.

“The Tea Party movement clearly played a role in rejuvenating the Republican Party in 2010, helping the GOP take control of the House and make gains in the Senate. Tea Party supporters made up 41% of the electorate on Nov. 2, and 86% of them voted for Republican House candidates, according to exit polls… Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that Tea Party supporters tend to have conservative opinions not just about economic matters, but also about social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In addition, they are much more likely than registered voters as a whole to say that their religion is the most important factor in determining their opinions on these social issues. And they draw disproportionate support from the ranks of white evangelical Protestants.”113

2010: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is repealed by President Barack Obama

“A Pentagon study released last fall showed that a majority of US forces, 70 percent, said that serving with gays or lesbians would have no negative effect on them. But there was a very different response from forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fifty-eight percent of combat Marines said they would prefer not to serve with gays. Another group that has voiced concerns about the repeal are chaplains. Of the 3,000 active-duty chaplains, a majority are conservative Christians. Brigadier General Douglas Lee has served for over 31 years as both a reserve and active-duty chaplain and now heads the joint commission that represents Presbyterian and Reformed chaplains. He is one of 66 retired chaplains who wrote a letter to President Obama and Secretary of Defense Gates urging them not to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Homosexuality is one of a multitude of sins. Chaplains essentially help people wrestle with the sins that beset them in their lives and try to give them encouragement and hope and a way out of all that, and for the Christian the way out is Jesus Christ. For another religion it might be some other means. The problem with this repeal is that this particular sin is being legitimized as being normal and okay…”114

2012: Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. 20 students and 6 adult staff were killed in this attack.

In the wake of the catastrophe, people want explanations, and as news spread of the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, some religious conservatives were ready with an answer: the exclusion of God from public schools and the embrace of liberal social policies.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is ordained as a minister in the Southern Baptist Church, said Friday on Fox News that “we’ve systematically removed God from our schools.”

“Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?” he asked.

James Dobson, the evangelical founder of the powerful organization Focus on the Family, said on his radio show, “Family Talk,” that because “we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty, I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that’s what’s going on.”

Dobson blamed two issues in particular: abortion and gay marriage.

“I mean, millions of people have decided that God doesn’t exist or he’s irrelevant to me, and we have killed 54 million babies, and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences, too.”115

2012: Turning Point USA Founded

“It [Turning Point USA] was set up as a non-profit organization in the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election to educate more young people about conservative politics and encourage others to spread the word…. [Charlie] Kirk co-founded TPUSA the day after he finished high school with the help of ultra-conservative Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery, who convinced him to abandon his plans to go to university after hearing him speak. It is funded largely by conservative donors.”116

“Turning Point USA’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize Americans to champion the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. Charlie Kirk built Turning Point USA for one purpose: to win the American Culture War by instilling a love for conservatism, faith, family, and America in the hearts of the youth. Turning Point USA continues to build the most organized, active, and powerful grassroots activist network in America. We are inspiring and equipping civically engaged patriots to defend constitutional values, advocate for limited government, and protect the principles that make America free and prosperous.”117

2013: Trayvon Martin’s killer is acquitted, leading to the start of the Black Lives Matter movement

“#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.

We are expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front.

We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.”118

2013: Gallup Research reports that 38% of Americans attend religious services weekly. (Three-year aggregate)

“The yearly average for once-a-week church attendance in 2013 is 39%, which Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport says is comparable to what it was in the 1930s and ‘40s.”119

2013: Exodus International announces it is shutting down operations.

“The Orlando, Fla., based Exodus International, which calls itself the oldest and largest Christian ministry dealing with faith and homosexuality, announced Thursday that it would cease its operations. The group’s president, Alan Chambers, said in a statement that he wanted to apologize to the gay community “for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole.”120

I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents. I am sorry that there were times I didn’t stand up to people publicly “on my side” who called you names like sodomite—or worse. I am sorry that I, knowing some of you so well, failed to share publicly that the gay and lesbian people I know were every bit as capable of being amazing parents as the straight people that I know. I am sorry that when I celebrated a person coming to Christ and surrendering their sexuality to Him that I callously celebrated the end of relationships that broke your heart. I am sorry that I have communicated that you and your families are less than me and mine.More than anything, I am sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God’s rejection. I am profoundly sorry that many have walked away from their faith and that some have chosen to end their lives. For the rest of my life I will proclaim nothing but the whole truth of the Gospel, one of grace, mercy and open invitation to all to enter into an inseverable relationship with almighty God.”121

2014: Open Letter published about the harm of conversion therapy through Born Perfect.

A letter from nine former ex-gay movement leaders“ At one time, we were not only deeply involved in these “ex-gay” programs, we were the founders, the leaders, and the promoters. Together we represent more than half a century of experience, so few people are more knowledgeable about the ineffectiveness and harm of conversion therapy. We know first-hand the terrible emotional and spiritual damage it can cause, especially for LGBT youth. We once believed that there was something morally wrong and psychologically “broken” about being LGBT. We know better now. We once believed that sexual orientation or gender identity were somehow chosen or could be changed. We know better now.”122

2014: Mark Driscoll resigns from Mars Hill Church after allegations of plagiarism and code of conduct violations.

A summary of the podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill observed, “Though he wasn’t raised Christian, Driscoll joined the faith after meeting his wife Grace Driscoll, a pastor’s daughter. By his early 20s, Driscoll started talking about founding a church despite the fact that he’d never been a member of one or received any seminary training. On paper, Mars Hill was a cross between complementarianism — where men and women have equal dignity but different roles in the home and at church — and patriarchy, Cosper says. But in reality, the church was top-down and patriarchal…At the same time, many former Mars Hill members in Seattle were so shattered by their experience they left Christianity altogether, while others found new churches. In the podcast, Diane Langberg, a Christian psychologist who works with trauma survivors and clergy, says that American Christians are forgetting to be like Christ and serve the “least of these.”123

2014: Ferguson, MO, protests after the murder of Michael Brown by a police officer.

“Some clad in clerical collars and others in flowing robes, religious leaders have descended on Ferguson, Missouri, to help end nearly two weeks of violence sparked by the police killing of an unarmed black teenager… The contingent of mostly Christian but also Jewish and Muslim religious leaders have come to Ferguson from as far as Philadelphia, Denver, and Washington to try to turn the chaos to calm. They march with protesters, fall on their knees to pray and talk to the community to heal wounds… U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, who is also a Methodist pastor in Kansas City, saw other clergy leaders Wednesday before meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about the Brown case. “What the shooting did was uncover a sad reality ... that Ferguson was a neglected stepchild of racial progress. The clergy members realize that,” Cleaver said. “Now the hard work begins. The clergy will be leading the way.”124

Transcript from an NPR All Things Considered Interview about the faith response in Ferguson:

“Rickey Bevington (host, All Things Considered): What is the role of a faith community in what’s happening in Ferguson?

Léonce Crump, Jr. (pastor, Renovation Church): Well, I think the role of the faith community is primarily to see the injustice and connect this injustice to the gospel, and realize that every word that Jesus spoke and even the actions that he did when he walked this earth were not just to get us to heaven, but to give us a preview of the reality that should be. The reality that should be is never one where a teenager can be gunned down in the street despite what he did. We’re a nation of laws, and those laws are meant to protect us.

Rickey Bevington: I know that you’ve been very involved in keeping tabs on what’s happening in Ferguson, but how is the faith community doing in your assessment two weeks into this?

Léonce Crump, Jr.: Well, honestly, I’ve been a little disappointed. Everyone is waiting for someone else to speak up, waiting for someone else to form their opinion when there are enough facts that are out to stand up and say this is not congruent with who we say we are and what we say we believe. Sadly, it’s mostly been evangelicals that have been largely silent. I had a good brother of mine (who’s) a conservative, Baptist pastor, African American man who said (on Twitter) it’s sad to me that I’ve had to get all my news on this from liberals. So, that tells you where the faith community has been in this.”125

2016: Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, FL

“Forty-nine people died at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando after suspected gunman Omar Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Fla., engaged in a shoot-out with police. An additional 53 people were injured. Mateen was killed by police. A recording of the sermon, given by Pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, was posted to YouTube on Monday, the day after the tragedy. In the video, Jimenez preached to his congregation that they should not be grieving the homosexual victims of the shootings, comparing those killed to pedophiles.’Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?” asked Jimenez. “Um no. I think that’s great. I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida, is a little safer tonight. The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die. The tragedy is I’m kind of upset he didn’t finish the job — because these people are predators. They are abusers.’”126

Conservative Christian Pat Robertson, who hosted The 700 Club, said of the tragedy, “The left is having a dilemma of major proportions, and I think for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves,” said Robertson.”127

“The deadly attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando last weekend is a “symptom” of the United States becoming a “godless nation,” the Rev. Franklin Graham said Wednesday in Madison. Graham’s prayer rally on the Capitol Square — the 28th stop on his “Decision America” tour — drew about 5,600 people, according to event organizers. That number was likely bolstered by those who came to protest the event, including secular activists and LGBT advocates.”128

2016: Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, with 81% of Evangelicals voting for him.

“November 8, 2016, 81% of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump, 1 mobilized in part by Falwell’s son, Jerry Falwell Jr. It was the highest evangelical margin for a Republican candidate since 2004, and exit polls suggest that the voting populace is reflective of broader demographics in America where evangelicals continue to make up 25% of the population… Mr. Trump did not exactly fit the typical mold of an evangelical.” The frame that accompanied Trump’s courtship of the evangelical vote underscored the contradiction between a religious voting bloc and an immoral, decadent, and vitriolic political figure. This established a media frame emphasizing the impossibility of a unified evangelical vote for Trump. The same refrain is repeated in nearly every story covering the evangelical vote, casting doubt on a strong or unified voting bloc in November: as a thrice-married, non-churchgoing Presbyterian, avowed sinner and lewd public figure, Donald Trump presents a moral contradiction for values voters…By the fall of 2016, mainstream news outlets verified that Trump would cause an irreconcilable schism within evangelical communities… The white evangelical vote for Trump - and against Clinton - must be understood in the context of perceived declining rights for evangelicals who once held a privileged position in the American political sphere.”129

2017: Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA took place from August 11-12

”White people, mostly college-aged men clad in khakis and some women, were streaming onto the campus of the University of Virginia by the hundreds, carrying blazing tiki torches and chanting: White lives matter! White lives matter!.. You will not replace us! You will not replace us!. Whose Streets? Our Streets! Whose Streets? Our Streets! Blood and Soil! Blood and Soil!... Jews will not replace us! jews will not replace us!... Death to Antifa! Death to Antifa. One people, One nation, End Immigration! One people, One nation, End Immigration!”130

“The tiki-torch-wielding marchers who shouted, “Jews will not replace us!” were an extreme manifestation of white Christian nationalism, a political ideology that implies one must be a Christian to be a “true” American and that the growing presences of non-whites and non-Christians are a threat to “traditional” values. People who espouse this ideology believe “real” Americans are Christians who have a specific policy perspective; they feel the need to “take back” their country from those who they believe threaten it.”131

President Donald Trump said of the event, “You also had some very fine people on both sides,” Trump said in 2017. “You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name. You had people -- and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists; they should be condemned totally -- you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”132

2018: Bill Hybels resigns from Willow Creek Community Church after allegations of sexual misconduct.

An independent organization investigated the claims against Hybels. They published their findings in a 17-page report that stated:

1. Allegations of sexually inappropriate words and actions by Bill Hybels in the context of his ministry and leadership of Willow Creek Community Church and the Willow Creek Association are credible.

2. The credibility of the allegations is not based on any one accusation or accuser but on the collective testimony and context of the allegations.

3. The credibility of the allegations would have been sufficient for Willow Creek Community Church to initiate disciplinary action if Bill Hybels had continued as pastor of the church.

4. Bill Hybels verbally and emotionally intimidated both female and male employees.

5. Over multiple decades, the Willow Creek Community Church boards were unable to provide effective oversight of Bill Hybels.

6. The Willow Creek Association board delegated their responsibility to investigate Bill Hybels, noting that he was an employee of Willow Creek Community Church. However, as their chief contract employee and the face of the Global Leadership Summit, they should have taken greater responsibility to understand the nature and context of the allegations.133

2018: Dr. William Barber II revives the Poor People’s Campaign on the 50th anniversary of the first gathering.

“Organizers of the 2018 campaign said they wanted to use the 50th anniversary of the 1968 effort to restart conversations around the struggles that poor people continue to face, especially since the U.S. poverty rate is roughly back to around 13 percent…In addition, Barber said many Christians have ignored the plight of the poor since megachurches regularly focus on the “prosperity gospel.” Others have been focused solely on abortion and fighting gay rights, he said. Barber said the multifaith campaign seeks to reaffirm messages that religious figures like Jesus were primarily concerned about helping the poor and that the country has a moral obligation to tackle poverty.”134

2018: Southern Theological Seminary releases report on their history of racism and white supremacy.

“The founding fathers of this school — all four of them — were deeply involved in slavery and deeply complicit in the defense of slavery,” school President R. Albert Mohler Jr. wrote in a letter accompanying the report. “Many of their successors on this faculty, throughout the period of Reconstruction and well into the 20th century, advocated the inferiority of African-Americans and openly embraced the ideology of the Lost Cause of southern slavery.”135

2020: COVID-19 Worldwide pandemic

Rhetoric from some leading conservative Protestants in the U.S. has underplayed the threat of the pandemic and may have contributed to unhealthy pandemic behaviors within this faith tradition…Some of these distinctive views were leveraged into widespread skepticism and, at times, outright disinformation expressed by nationally renowned conservative Christians (e.g., Eric Metaxas) about COVID-19 and vaccinations…These worship protests, singing “all about Jesus” with intentional disregard for pandemic safety measures, gathered support largely from thousands of fundamentalist Christians and some conservative Roman Catholics who felt their religious freedom was “under attack” by state-mandated closures of houses of worship…some religious leaders have been known to persuade their congregants to engage in risky health-related behaviors using narratives of unshakable faith, skepticism toward science, and the endorsement of specious claims, including those promoted by politicians with whom they sympathize…While our study cannot address this wide range of factors, Christian nationalism has been documented as a dominant influence among elected officials’ pandemic-related actions, particularly where resistance to public health guidance is concerned. Local officials with strongly religious nationalist views were vocal in prioritizing personal and religious freedom from government “intrusion” while also, in somewhat of a paradox, enthusiastically endorsing the robust presence of religion in government.136

2020: George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, MN by a white police officer.

“George Floyd’s death has triggered a groundswell of outrage and activism by religious leaders and faith-based groups across the United States, reminiscent of what occurred during the civil rights movement in the 1960s…Conservative and mainstream religious leaders are joining with Black churches, progressive Catholics and Protestants, Jewish synagogues and other faith groups in calling for police reforms and efforts to dismantle racism…More than 1,000 rabbis, pastors, imams and other religious leaders held an online conference last week to brainstorm ways to address systemic violence against African Americans.”137

2020: “All Lives Matter” counter movement as #BlackLivesMatter movement grows.

“the All Lives Matter (ALM) movement swiftly emerged as an oppositional response to BLM…Supporters of ALM claim that their colour-blind position is more inclusive, seemingly interpreting ‘Black Lives Matter’ as ‘Only Black Lives Matter’. Former President Donald Trump and several other high-level Republican representatives have described BLM as racist and divisive, and expressed a clear preference for terms like All Lives Matter…”138

“Consequently, while nearly all true Evangelicals affirm that “Black lives matter” as a subset of “all human lives are sacred,” we must separate ourselves emphatically from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which espouses beliefs that are antithetical to basic foundational tenets of the Christian faith. The BLM organization espouses an anti-biblical definition of love, freedom, and justice, as well as opposing the nuclear family and promoting same-sex and transgender ideologies, and is a self-admittedly Marxist organization. Along with fellow Evangelical ministries such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the American Family Association, SES has grave, fundamental disagreements with BLM’s moral, cultural, and political agenda. Consequently, Evangelicals should not mouth the mantra “black lives matter,” lest we be misunderstood as supporting their godless agenda.”139

2020: Jerry Falwell, Jr. resigns as the President of Liberty University after sexual misconduct allegations.

“In the summer of 2020, the evangelical world was rocked by scandal when two of its central arbiters of moral righteousness were accused of having engaged in a sexual relationship with another man. Evangelical power player Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becki, had reportedly engaged in an affair with Giancarlo Granda, a young pool attendant, whom they met on vacation at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Although he denied any involvement in the affair, Falwell, the son and scion of televangelist and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell Sr., was forced to resign from his position as chancellor of Liberty University.”140

This scandal was the focus of the 2022 Hulu documentary God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty.

2020: Brian Houston fires Carl Lentz from Hillsong New York

Vanity Fair broke the news of Carl Lentz’s downfall with an article that contained this description of an affair he had: “On November 9, Ranin Karim, a 34-year-old jewelry designer and actor with a septum piercing and her own sleeves of tattoos, described a months-long tequila-drenched love affair with Lentz in interviews with The Sun, the New York Post, and others. She said Lentz introduced himself as a sports agent in Williamsburg’s Domino Park and called her his “Middle Eastern unicorn woman.” Laura Lentz discovered the affair after a Hillsong staffer saw Lentz’s messages on his office computer. With the tabloids feasting on his humiliation, Lentz’s new P.R. advisers believed his return began with three months out of public view, followed by a news cycle dominating mea maxima culpa—perhaps, as suggested for a time, in this magazine.”141

This was not the only issue that Lentz’s leadership experienced while at the helm in NYC. FX produced The Secrets of Hillsong, which is streaming on Hulu.

2020: Post-Election protests break out after Donald Trump loses reelection to Joe Biden

“One of the first post-election rallies in Washington, D.C., took place on November 14 in Freedom Plaza. Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who also promotes Christian nationalism, urged them to march to the Supreme Court, just as Trump urged them to march on the Capitol on January 6. They marched — they called it the “Million MAGA March” — down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Supreme Court for more speeches. They marched with crosses, images of the Virgin Mary, “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President” flags, “An Appeal to Heaven” flags, and a red flag that proclaimed “JESUS IS LORD.” An RV bedecked in Trump paraphernalia declared, “PRAY FOR 45.” At the Supreme Court, they erected a massive white Christian cross. They carried yellow “Jesus Saves” signs and handwritten signs that said, “Jesus Saves, Trump Leads,” “Thank God for Trump,” “Jesus is King, Trump is president,” and “Ex: 28 vs. 11-19 [sic] It’s been done. My feet are on the ROCK,” which can be seen as someone preaches over a loudspeaker that “in the end, God has already won the victory.” One woman in a QAnon T-shirt carried two signs “WE LOVE TRUMP” and “WE LOVE AMERICA, GOD & BABIES.”

Another protester held two signs on a pole; the top said, “Isaiah 45” (alluding to Trump as King Cyrus), and the bottom, “True Believer in Christ 4 Trump.” He also carried the “Proud American Christian” flag featuring a red, white, and blue ichthys, which is an image of a fish used as a symbol of Christianity, sometimes called a “Jesus fish.”… These marches will culminate on December 12 with a ‘Let The Church ROAR’ national march on Washington, D.C. … This is our battle of Jericho for people of faith and patriots from all across America. … We believe in a great and powerful God who can move mountains, expose corruption, and restore justice. We believe in a God of miracles. … Share. March. Pray. Donate. Hold the line. And expect a miracle.” Jericho March accustomed people to marching on the halls of power, just as they did on November 14 and as they would on January 6. In another promotional video for “Let the Church ROAR,” Grossu explained, “For the march, we are going to simultaneously go around the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, and Department of Justice, after we do that … we will gather onto the National Mall to hear some wonderful talks and prayers by faith leaders, political leaders, and also be led in praise and worship … .”

The biblical allusion made violence the implicit goal of the march. In the Bible, Joshua’s army marched around Jericho for several days; the insurrectionists marched in multiple locations across the span of several weeks. Both culminated in violence…142

2021: Chaplain Margaret Gibben becomes the first female Chaplain to the US House of Representatives.

According to NBC News, “The chaplain is responsible for opening all House proceedings with a prayer, as is required by House rules. The chaplain also provides members of Congress and their staffs with spiritual counsel, maintains the Congressional Prayer Room — a private place for members to pray — coordinates the scheduling of guest chaplains and arranges memorial services for the House.”143

2021: January 6: Christian Nationalists storm the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

“Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., has been credibly accused of helping Stop the Steal organizers (along with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.), an allegation Brooks denies.14 Wearing body armor under his clothing in anticipation of violence that day (Brooks said he was “warned” about “risks” but did not say who warned him, what those risks were, or why he didn’t tell others), Brooks took the stage between White and Trump to preach Christian nationalist-inspired talking points. He claimed that America was straying from its godly foundations and is therefore in danger…The crowd was at a fever pitch when Trump took the stage.

Photos and video show that, amid a sea of maskless faces and red hats, there were American flags, Trump flags, “Don’t Tread on Me” flags (also known as Gadsden flags), and Confederate flags (including one with an AR-15 and the words “COME AND TAKE IT”), accompanied by a mixture of Christian and patriotic imagery and messages, including Christian flags, “An Appeal to Heaven” flags, “Faith over Fear” flags, flags that read “Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President,” a cross made of PVC pipe, and a sign that simply said, “I am with you. —God.” One sign proclaimed, “JESUS HAS THE THRONE.” One woman listening to Trump had a makeshift shield — a metal trash can lid — that she painted red and on which she wrote “JESUS RULES,” hoisting the shield after Trump concluded his speech, “God Bless America.” Trump told the crowd “we’re gonna walk down” to Congress to convince them “to confront this egregious assault on our democracy ... And I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down,” and explained that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing … The scene in the Senate chamber at the insurrection is the best physical description of the phenomenon. Their prayer in the chamber — in which they began “Jesus Christ, we invoke your name”

1 — hints at the rot at the core of religious nationalism: the assumption that Christ is at the core of efforts to establish and promote white protestant Christianity in the service of white male autocratic authority. More recently, the assertion by General Michael Flynn that “[i]f we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have to have one religion.” He continued, “One nation under God, and one religion under God.”2 One nation under God and one religion under God is another example of how white Christian nationalism operates. The one religion is Christianity.144

You can see more pictures, videos, documents, and other recorded aspects of January 6, 2021 that explore the faith connection of the events of that day at https://uncivilreligion.org/home/index

2022: Brian Houston resigns from Hillsong church that he founded after accusations of sexual misconduct and separate allegations that he covered up his father’s sexual abuse decades earlier.

According to NBC News reports, “Australia’s biggest evangelical church said on Wednesday its founder had resigned after acting inappropriately toward two women, another blow to an influential organization already reeling from charges the leader had covered up sex abuse. Hillsong Church said an internal investigation into complaints from two women had found that its global senior pastor, Brian Houston, had breached worshippers’ trust.”145

The documentary Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed was released in 2022 about other issues at Hillsong- it was released the same week as Houston’s resignation.

2022: The Florida Legislature passed HB 1557, the Don’t Say Gay Bill.

The bill, entitled Parental Rights in Education, was summarized as follows: “The bill prohibits a school district from maintaining procedures that require school district personnel to withhold from a parent, or encourage a student to withhold, information related to a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being. School district procedures may authorize school district personnel to withhold information only for a reasonable belief that disclosure would subject the student to abuse, abandonment, or neglect. The bill prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”146

The Williams Institute at UCLA expressed the concern, “This bill prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity before the 4th grade and requires such instruction to be “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” thereafter. Many are concerned that the bill will not only result in restricted or nonexistent education about the existence of diverse sexual and gender identities, but it will result in a chilly or hostile school climate for LGBTQ educators, students, and families because it suggests that something is wrong with LGBTQ identities.”147

2022: Independent Investigators release report on Southern Baptist Sexual Abuse scandal

“For almost two decades, survivors of abuse and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention (“SBC”) Executive Committee (“EC”) to report child molesters and other abusers who were in the pulpit or employed as church staff. They made phone calls, mailed letters, sent emails, appeared at SBC and EC meetings, held rallies, and contacted the press…only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC. Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC’s response to these reports of abuse. They closely guarded information about abuse allegations and lawsuits, which were not shared with EC Trustees, and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC to the exclusion of other considerations. In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation.”148 The full report can be accessed here.

2022: The U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Staff at Cornell University’s Sociology department wrote of the Supreme Court’s draft decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, “The very idea that life starts at conception—which runs throughout the document—is rooted in Christian beliefs about an immortal soul that suggest life starts even before conception. The many appeals to ‘tradition’ in the draft are simply pointing back to old policies rooted in religious beliefs, and the draft even draws directly on a biblical idea but attributes them to tradition, such as when it appeals to a ‘13th-century treatise’ written by a Catholic cleric which (the draft opinion fails to mention) is really just a restating of Exodus 21:22-24.”149

The full text of the SCOTUS decision can be read here.

2022: The Watchmen’s Decree is Published

This document was published and distributed through Christian fundamentalist networks. It can be read here.

2023: The Southern Baptist Convention votes to remove churches for having women as pastors.

“Delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting affirmed a decision to expel two Southern Baptist churches, including Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, because they employed women as pastors. The churches had appealed to the meeting, the denomination’s ruling body, to be allowed to remain. Both churches were denied by a strong majority of the delegates, known as messengers…R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argued against keeping either Saddleback or Fern Creek within the Southern Baptist fold. He said the idea of women pastors “is an issue of fundamental biblical authority that does violate both the doctrine and the order of the Southern Baptist Convention.’...But Warren criticized the move for its shortsightedness. “It’s not really smart when you are losing half a million members a year to kick out people who want to fellowship with you,” he said.”150

2023: 22 states began the process of restricting gender-affirming health care for minors and, in some states, adults.

“The sudden flood of state-level efforts to restrict transgender rights is being fueled by many of the Christian and conservative groups that led the charge against Roe v. Wade. Why it matters: Groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel and the American Principles Project are behind a multimillion-dollar effort targeting LGBTQ rights through “parents’ rights” bills. The groups have provided templates and support for similarly worded bills that seek to ban minors from attending drag shows, prevent trans youths from receiving gender-affirming care, and restrict their participation in high school sports…Travis Weber, the Family Research Council’s vice president for policy and government affairs, said Christian activists aren’t seeking to impose their beliefs on others — they’re fighting against beliefs being imposed on them… They want to preserve their vision of a white, Christian America (and) they’re willing to embrace all sorts of anti-democratic means to protect it,” said Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a nonpartisan group that examines religion and policy.”151

April 2023: The Heritage Foundation Publishes “Project 2025”

“The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is a “presidential transition project” created as a blueprint for recruitment and indoctrination should Donald J. Trump become the next president. The plan calls for establishing a government that would be imbued with “biblical principles” and run by a president who holds sweeping executive powers.”152

2023: Gallup Research reports that 30% of Americans attend religious services weekly. (Three-year aggregate)

“On any given weekend, about three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services, down from 42% two decades ago. Church attendance will likely continue to decline in the future, given younger Americans’ weaker attachments to religion.”153

March 2024: Former President Trump begins selling God Bless the USA Bibles while running for reelection.

“Former President Donald Trump is bringing together church and state in a gilded package for his latest venture, a $60 “God Bless The USA” Bible complete with copies of the nation’s founding documents.”154

May 2024: Former President Donald J. Trump is convicted in New York of 37 felony counts related to falsifying business records.

Days after the convictions were announced, a pro-Trump rally was held in Las Vegas, NV. A reporter said this of the tone of the event: “The MAGA speakers who preceded Donald Trump at his Las Vegas rally evoked religious language to describe their leader. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared Trump to Jesus, saying that the messiah was also “a convicted felon.”...“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon,’” the congresswoman told the crowd. “Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.”155

June 2024: Louisiana’s law (House Bill 71) requires all public K-12 and state university classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

“Every public school classroom in Louisiana has been ordered to display a poster of the Ten Commandments - a move that civil liberties groups say they will challenge…Christians see the Ten Commandments as key rules from God on how to live. The new law describes them as “foundational” to state and national governance. But opponents say the law breaks America’s separation of church and state.”156

July 13, 2024: Former President Donald J. Trump survives a shooting at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

“Donald Trump told a Fox News host that he thinks God believes he will “straighten out” the country after he survived an assassination attempt in July at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. “I think you think like, if you believe in God, you believe in God more. And somebody said like, why? And I’d like to think that God thinks that I’m going to straighten out our country,” Trump told Mark Levin on Life, Liberty & Levin after the host asked him if the shooting on 13 July had strengthened his belief in the almighty.”157

July 2024

July 2024: Trump Tells Christians if elected they will not have to vote again

“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Christians on Friday that if they vote for him this November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”158

November 2024: Donald J. Trump elected as President of the United States for the second time.

Remarks from his acceptance speech on election night, ““That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make our country better than it ever has been. They said that many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness. And now we are going to fulfill that mission together. We’re gonna fulfill that mission. The task before us will not be easy, but I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit, and fight that I have in my soul, to the job that you’ve entrusted to me.”159

“It was a fitting coda to an election in which Trump once again won the support of about 8 in 10 white evangelical Christian voters, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters. That level of support — among a group that represented about 20% of the total electorate — repeats similarly staggering evangelical support that Trump received in 2020.”160

November 2024: Pete Hegseth nominated for Secretary of Defense in the second Trump Administration

“Extremism experts are sounding the alarm about Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, whose writings and online presence reveal someone immersed in a culture of right-wing Christianity, political extremism and violent ideation.”161 Read more of the explanation of these concerns here.

January 21, 2025: Trump Ends Immigration Enforcement Protections in Sensitive areas like hospitals, schools, and churches.

“Officers enforcing immigration laws will now be able to arrest migrants at sensitive locations like schools and churches after the Trump administration threw out policies limiting where those arrests could happen as the new president seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations. The move announced Tuesday reverses guidance that for over a decade has restricted two key federal immigration agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — from carrying out immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.”162

2025: Immigration Enforcement Begins under Trump

Immigration Enforcement under Trump’s second administration has used many controversial tactics, including community surges, lack of due process, using force and violence, and allowing officers to conceal their identities. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, “Strong majorities of Christian nationalism Adherents (70%) and Sympathizers (60%) view Trump’s handling of immigration favorably, compared with one-third of Skeptics (32%), and just 8% of Rejecters.”163

July 2025: IRS changes regulations lifting restrictions on Churches not endorsing political candidates

“In a break with decades of tradition, the Internal Revenue Service says it will allow houses of worship to endorse candidates for political office without losing their tax-exempt status. The surprise announcement came in a court document. Since 1954, a provision in the tax code called the Johnson Amendment says that churches and other nonprofit organizations could lose their tax-exempt status if they participate in, or intervene in “any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”164

July 2025: Restrictions on Federal Employees praying or preaching in the workplace lifted

Federal employees can preach in the workplace under new guidelines issued Monday by the Trump administration that have alarmed advocates for the separation of church and state. The guidelines, outlined in a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, allow public employees to pray and discuss religion, including efforts to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,” but do not endorse a specific faith. Supervisors are also allowed to encourage workers to engage in expressions of faith, including prayer.”165

September 2025: Trump Asks for Donations to Get to Heaven

“President Donald Trump has sent a campaign fundraising email with the subject line “I want to try and get to Heaven”. The email framed his political survival and legal battles as evidence of divine purpose and asked supporters to contribute $15 during a “24-HOUR TRUMP FUNDRAISING BLITZ.”166

September 2025: Charlie Kirk Killed at Campus Rally

Charlie Kirk, a podcast host and Founder of the organization Turning Point known for his strong support of Donald Trump and his Christian Nationalism ideology, was killed during a debate event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Following his death, there was a large public outcry among conservative Christians who believed that he was a martyr. You can read this brief by the Soufan Center about how the nation was divided in its reaction to this event.

February 2026: Hegseth invites Doug Wilson to preach at the Pentagon

According to CNN Reporting, “A controversial pastor who supports repealing women’s right to vote and believes homosexuality should be a crime led a worship service at the Pentagon this week, saying he was invited by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.”167

Citations

Responsive Reading

This country was founded 250 years ago on the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Over the course of these two and a half centuries, we have experienced events of beauty and brokenness. We have seen the best and worst of humanity. We have witnessed great gains and grieved loss and injustice. In the spirit of the prophet Jeremiah…

We still dare to hope.

We still hold on to the hope of the ideals of justice and peace for all people. We still hold on to the hope of people being valued over profit. We still hold on to the hope of the equality and beloved community that Dr. King dreamed about. We still hold onto the hope that all people will be valued and given the chance to succeed and thrive.

We still hope for healing in our nation now and in the future.

May we, as individual followers of the teachings of Jesus and collectively as a faith community, commit ourselves to carrying hope forward through our words and our actions. May we embody the values of loving our neighbors well. May we never grow weary of doing good, speaking truth in love, and working for peace.

We gather today with hope and commitment to work to make our community and our country a better place for all who call it home.

Corporate Prayer

God of Hope, guide our work to challenge barriers to belonging in our nation. Give us the courage to do what is right and what is needed in this present time and for the generations to come. Amen.

In a previous post, I shared my research data about the impact that religious trauma has on the LGBTQIA+ community. If you have not read that information, I encourage you to click here to explore it first.

One of the data points that I shared in the previous post looked at self-reported instances of suicidal ideation. Here are the numbers that I shared based on my 2024 SW Missouri Case Study:

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Suicidal Ideation

• 73% of LGBTQIA+

• 33% of Trans Women

• 89% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 67% Trans Men

• 100% of Gender Fluid Individuals

Faith Spaces need to be aware of this increased connection and proactive in implementing supportive practices to help individuals who may be struggling with mental health and thoughts of self-harm.

Pronouns as a Trauma-Informed Practice

One of the easiest practices a faith leader and faith community can adopt is to understand the importance of using and honoring personal pronouns. While it can be challenging to expand your language and incorporate pronouns, it is a practice that can have a huge identity-affirming, life-saving impact. According to The Trevor Project, the correct use of a person’s preferred pronouns has been shown to reduce personal attempts at ending one’s life by 31%.

If you are new to using and understanding personal pronouns, there are lots of great resources available to help you learn about proper ways to use them. For example, the chart below is from PFLAG, which has some excellent information.

Other Resources to Explore:

• Understanding Pronouns from the LGBT Foundation

• Pronouns and Inclusive Language from LGBTQIA Resource Center

• TED Talk on Why Gender Pronouns Matter

• Pronouns in Practice by NYU

Pronouns as a Ministry Practice

Incorporating personal pronouns into your ministry practice is an important way to honor the Imago Dei in each person with whom you connect. It is a way of showing that you honor the unique and sacred way that they feel most represented in who they were created to be.

Here are some simple steps to get started using this trauma-informed practice in your ministry context:

• Host a pronoun panel. Ask community members who use a variety of different pronouns to come and share with your faith community. Have them share personal experiences, discuss the impact of having their pronouns honored on their mental health, and answer questions people have about how to use pronouns correctly.

Trauma-Informed Tip: Do not livestream this panel publicly on your social media pages to honor the privacy of the speakers sharing. Consider offering a private Zoom link and sharing it by request to protect the integrity of the space that you are creating.

• Give the option to place pronouns on nametags and encourage all leaders to list their pronouns. This can be done by making buttons or stickers available to add to an existing nametag, or by reprinting nametags.

• Include a preferred pronoun question on forms and welcome cards that new people fill out when connecting to your faith community. If you use a church database system, add a custom field to record pronoun preferences so you can reference requests later and ensure you address people respectfully.

• Model using pronouns in your introductions, email signatures, business cards, Zoom name, etc. It is also important to model the use of correct pronouns when talking to, referring to, or introducing people to one another. Modeling helps create a culture in which these practices become normalized and more widely used by everyone.

These practices can help create a trauma-informed environment that values the identity, dignity, and worth of all people who connect to your faith community. Being honored in this important way in a sacred space can offer hope and be part of the healing journey for a gender-nonconforming individual.

Related Past Posts to Explore

Call to Worship (Responsive Reading)

The divine does not build walls of exclusion but rather sets inclusive tables and invites everyone to find a space and a place where they are welcomed.

God’s welcome is wide.

The divine does not view people in a hierarchy of power, privilege, or purpose- through the lens of eternal love, every person is valuable, worthy, and wanted.

God’s love is for all.

The divine does not seek to divide but to unite people in the common pursuits of love, mercy, kindness, compassion, justice, and peace.

God’s work connects us and guides us.

Corporate Prayer

Holy One, help us to follow the teachings of Jesus to help our neighbors, care for the strangers, and love our enemies as we do ourselves. Bring us together in these pursuits and help us to work together to make the greater good a reality in our divided world.

Amen.

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Call to Worship (Responsive Reading)

The eternal spirit who affirms the value of people because all people carry the image of the divine gathers us in this space today to experience a beloved community that strives to be grounded in justice, inclusion, faith, and love.

May we each find belonging in the shared values and mutual respect of this faith community.

The sacred presence that honors the holiness of each person gathers us here this morning to create relationships that reflect care, compassion, and curiosity.

May we each find belonging in opportunities for connections and conversations.

The divine force of love has brought us together in this space today. Though we come from different age groups, life circumstances, and journeys of faith, we gather to deepen our exploration and experience of the sacred.

May we each find belonging in our connection with the divine.

Unison Prayer

Gathering God, we are each here today in response to a need for connection with what is eternal, sacred, and holy. May we find belonging in your love and our collective work for wholeness in our world.

Amen.

If you are new to my Substack, let me provide some important foundational context for this post. (If you are not new, jump down to the start of today’s post).

I am an ordained open and affirming Disciples of Christ pastor who completed my Doctor of Ministry at Eden Theological Seminary in 2024. My DMin project focused on religious trauma and on developing a research system called Negative Religious Experiences. I published the findings of a case study that explored the responses of 508 individuals in SW Missouri and am currently working to collect data on a national level to further explore the relationships between high negative religious experiences and outcomes in the areas of physical health, mental health, addictions, socio-economic situations, and faith experiences. You can read more about this work in this overview post, which also includes a link to the national survey I am currently working on to collect responses.

I invite you to connect with this platform by subscribing so you can stay engaged with the information and conversations created here about religious trauma and trauma-informed ministry practices.

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Negative Religious Experiences in the LGBTQIA+ Community

The 508 participants in my original Negative Religious Experiences Case Study identified themselves in the following ways with regard to sexuality:

Heterosexual: 58.9% (299 participants)

Bisexual: 19.7% (100 participants)

Gay/Queer: 13.6% (69 participants)

Gender Fluid: 3.7% (19 participants)

Questioning: 2.2% (11 participants)

Asexual: 1.6% (8 participants)

Closeted: 0.4% (2 participants)

Cis-Female: 63.6% (323 participants)

Cis-Male: 23% (117 participants)

Trans Female: 1.2% (6 participants)

Trans Male: 1.8% (9 participants)

Non-Binary: 8.9% (45 participants)

Gender Fluid: 1.6% (8 participants)

According to a 2026 Gallup Poll, “Gallup finds 9.0% of U.S. adults identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight or heterosexual in 2025. The percentage has more than doubled since Gallup first measured LGBTQ+ identification in 2012.”1

In comparison, I would consider the LGBTQIA+ representation in this study to be strong and a solid source to help establish patterns and explore the relationship between negative religious experiences and individuals in the queer community.

The remainder of this article will share the findings of my SW Missouri Case Study to highlight the hypervulnerability of the LGBTQIA+ community to having negative religious experiences and how participants reported the way that they have been impacted by them.

Overall Negative Religious Experience Score

This research model allows each participant to rate their experiences across the ten negative religious experiences on a scale of 1-4, providing a more accurate record of their experiences than a yes-or-no binary.

In exploring the data, I grouped participants into affinity groups based on similar responses to different questions to examine collective impacts. Below are some of the notable NRE scores for the LGBTQIA+ affinity groups:

LGBTQIA+ Experience in each of the 10 Negative Religious Experiences

The negative religious experience research model measures ten different experiences. Below are the average scores for different LGBTQIA+ affinity groups:

LGBTQIA+ affinity groups made up the top three highest scores for the experiences of:

• Being unable to be their authentic selves

• Estrangement from family

• Toxic faith community or faith leader experience

• Weaponized Scripture

Medical and Mental Health Outcomes for the LGBTQIA+ Community

There was a high outcome pattern in the areas of medical and mental health for the LGBTQIA+ participants in the SW Missouri case study.

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Anxiety

• 96% of LGBTQIA+

• 83% of Trans Women

• 98% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 100% Trans Men

• 100% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Depression

• 75% of LGBTQIA+

• 100% of Trans Women

• 100% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 89% Trans Men

• 100% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Self-Harm

• 52% of LGBTQIA+

• 33% of Trans Women

• 67% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 56% Trans Men

• 75% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Eating Disorders

• 54% of LGBTQIA+

• 17% of Trans Women

• 53% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 67% Trans Men

• 88% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Suicidal Ideation

• 73% of LGBTQIA+

• 33% of Trans Women

• 89% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 67% Trans Men

• 100% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing High Blood Pressure

• 36% of LGBTQIA+

• 83% of Trans Women

• 36% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 33% Trans Men

• 50% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing a Disability

• 44% of LGBTQIA+

• 33% of Trans Women

• 64% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 44% Trans Men

• 50% of Gender Fluid Individuals

SocioEconomic Outcomes for the LGBTQIA+ Community

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Poverty

• 61% of LGBTQIA+

• 67% of Trans Women

• 67% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 56% Trans Men

• 88% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Homelessness

• 25% of LGBTQIA+

• 33% of Trans Women

• 29% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 11% Trans Men

• 38% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Unemployment

• 42% of LGBTQIA+

• 67% of Trans Women

• 60% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 33% Trans Men

• 63% of Gender Fluid Individuals

% of Participants Who Reported Experiencing Domestic Violence

• 38% of LGBTQIA+

• 17% of Trans Women

• 58% of Non-Binary Individuals

• 11% Trans Men

• 38% of Gender Fluid Individuals

Faith Outcomes for the LGBTQIA+ Community

It is not surprising to see the data that for many LGBTQIA+ participants, sacred connections and practices are low. When faith and sacred texts have been used to condemn, harm, and justify hatred towards individuals, it is understandable that those places and practices feel unsafe and triggering.

What is important to note is that there are many individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community who have a high degree of faith in the divine/sacred, but their ways of connecting with that may look very different from traditional methods.

Of the 209 participants in the Springfield, Missouri, case study who identified as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, 79% identified as spiritual. Naming practices such as art, music, nature, community organizing, volunteering, reading, and rituals as some of their most frequent sacred practices.

This is important information for open and affirming faith communities to understand so that they can be intentional in integrating into their ministry praxis to ensure they offer inclusive practices that extend beyond typical liturgical services.

Summary

The Springfield, MO, Case Study showed a strong connection between negative religious experiences and the LGBTQIA+ community and displayed important patterns in our outcomes that have lifelong implications for those whose lives have been impacted.

Consistently, participants from the LGBTQIA+ community had some of the highest scores, which indicate a high and extreme presence of religious trauma. In addition, the LGBTQIA+ participants had some of the highest outcome concentrations across all measured areas in this case study.

Clearly, the more data that we have, the better we can explore these trends on a larger, national scale. Which is why the new national study I am now collecting responses for is vital.

If you have not already participated, please click here to complete your survey and help ensure your lived experience is represented in this data, so we can show the impact that religious trauma has on individuals and groups. It is my hope that strong data in these areas can shape training for faith leaders and faith communities to engage in more trauma-informed practices and to help make sacred spaces safer and healthier for all who connect.

Call to Worship

There is much to be angry about in our world today. Injustice. Oppression. Christian Nationalism. Greed. Violence. Racism. Homophobia. Homelessness. We invite you to take a moment to name in yourself some of the things that you feel angry about this morning.

Moment of Silence

Your anger is welcome in this space today.

There is much in our world to be afraid of today. Rising costs of living. War. Climate Change. Gun violence. The future of our community, our state, our country, and the world. We invite you to take a moment to name in yourself some of the things you feel fearful about this morning.

Moment of Silence

Your fear is welcome in this space today.

There is much in this world to feel sad about today. Polarization. Estranged relationships. Separated families. Trauma. The way people are being treated. The suffering of many in our country and around the world. We invite you to take a moment to name in yourself some of the things you feel sad about this morning.

Moment of Silence

Your sadness is welcome in this space today.

These are heavy, hard, and complicated emotions. We know that they are not the only emotions being experienced this morning. No matter how you feel today, please know that all your emotions are welcome in this space.

Corporate Prayer

Divine parent,

May all of our emotions pull us closer to you. Help us to embrace all of our feelings, no matter how complicated. May we reframe our feelings as gifts we have been given to better experience this life and this world. Amen.

Researchers with Kaiser Permanente began to collect data in the mid-nineties that sought to explore the connection between abusive experiences in childhood and the impact that they could have on participants throughout their lifetime. They called this the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, and its findings have been instrumental in the development of trauma-informed practices across law enforcement, medicine, education, social services, and mental health care.

I have been familiar with this research for more than a decade and frequently use it in my work in trauma-informed ministry. However, early on, I made an interesting observation: I would regularly meet individuals who had lower ACE scores but still experienced significant outcomes in their lives; the one thing that they all shared in common was experiences with religious trauma.

I knew from conversations, support groups, and listening to people’s stories that the effects of sacred wounds could be long-lasting and life-changing. I felt a strong burden to find a way to capture these correlations AND compare them to the ACES model. I developed the Negative Religious Experiences (NRE) research model, which is built on the question: By seeking to quantify religious trauma experiences into a numerical score, can we compare exposures, experiences, and outcomes with the ACES data to look for relationships and patterns that reflect the role of religion in the lives of individuals and affinity groups?

ACE Exposures

To explore a correlation between ACE scores and negative religious experiences, participants in the 2023 Springfield, MO NRE Case Study that I completed for my DMin Project at Eden Theological Seminary were asked ten questions (based on the Kaiser questionnaire) to assess their ACE score. I am reflecting the summary of all 508 participants’ answers in the table below, separating responses by whether they had the experience of growing up in a faith-filled household, to compare the difference in ACE exposures:

This case study seems to indicate that faith values and involvement in faith communities did not statistically reduce (5% or less difference) the instances of emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and poverty between those who were exposed to faith while growing up and those who were not.

Furthermore, there is only a slight statistical difference (6-10% difference) in the areas of physical abuse, parents who were separated or divorced, mental health history, and domestic violence between those who were raised in a faith-filled home and those who were not.

It is important to highlight that this study found only the ACE metric with significant statistical differences between those who grew up in a faith-filled home and those who did not, which was addictions with a 19% differential.

Overall ACE Scores

It is important to note that, in this first case study, the ACE scores of those who grew up in a faith-filled home differed only slightly from those of those who did not.

Furthermore, although the ACE Score was slightly lower for those who grew up in a faith-filled household, their Negative Religious Experience Score (NRE) was higher.

In the NRE framework, participants can score themselves 1-4 on each of the 10 negative religious experience exposures. This leads to a score category breakdown of:

10-11: Trace Religious Trauma

12-15: Low Religious Trauma

16-22: Medium Religious Trauma

23-30: High Religious Trauma

31-40: Extreme Religious Trauma

Impact on Outcomes

A couple of weeks ago, I shared a post highlighting the mental health outcomes measured in this case study.

Why does this matter?

This data shows that more research is needed to further explore the relationship between these two models. There is evidence to suggest that individuals with lower ACE scores could have higher NRE scores, which could still have short and long-term impacts on an individual’s physical health, mental health, addictions, and socio-economic experiences.

You can be involved in this work in three important ways:

1. Take the Negative Religious Experience survey online.

2. After you have finished, share the survey link with others and ask them to participate as well.

3. Learn about my Research Captain program and consider participating.

I invite you to stay connected to my Substack for more posts related to religious trauma, trauma-informed ministry, trauma-aware liturgy, and new data from future research.

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If you have ever had a mental health struggle dismissed in a holy space with instructions to pray more, read scripture more, or change your behavior:

We are sorry you had that experience. Your struggle matters to the sacred.

If you have ever had a mental health diagnosis judged in a holy space as the result of a lack of faith, behavior, or some kind of divine punishment:

We are sorry you had that experience. Mental health should not be a source of shame or spiritual manipulation.

If you have felt the need to hide your feelings or wear a mask in sacred spaces:

We are sorry you had that experience. You do not have to pretend to be okay in this space; all your emotions are welcome here.

Divine Creator,

May we be gentle with one another and the wounds and triggers that we bring into this space today. May each of us feel your holy love and sacred acceptance of who we are and how we feel. Amen.

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Humanity was divinely created with the capacity to feel. We were intentionally wired to experience a broad range of emotions.

All of your emotions are holy and valid.

If you have experienced guilt or shame in sacred spaces because of your emotions or mental health, we are sorry. In this faith community, we want you to feel free to be your authentic self and never be pressured to hide or downplay your emotions or struggles.

You do not have to pretend to be okay in this space; you are welcome as you are.

As we gather today, we hold space for all the emotions that are represented here this morning. No matter if you are happy, sad, angry, anxious, scared, worried, exhausted, surprised, elated, proud, embarrassed, joyful, bitter, hurt, excited, depressed, or something else, we are glad that you are here.

You and any emotion you have are welcome in this space today.

Divine designer,

You gifted us with emotions so we can experience this life more deeply. Help us understand and appreciate how you have wired our hearts and minds to connect with one another and with you through our feelings. Amen.

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In 2024, I finished conducting a 508-person case study that sought to document the connection between negative religious experiences (NREs) and short and long-term mental health, physical health, addictions, and socioeconomic outcomes.

In honor of the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, I am sharing this summary of the mental health outcomes that were documented in that study as a way of raising awareness for the strong link between religious trauma and mental health.

Anxiety

This case study found that 7% of participants with a low negative religious experience (NRE) score reported experiencing anxiety. In comparison, 37% of participants with a high NRE score and 33% of those with an extreme NRE score reported experiencing anxiety.

When anxiety was examined by affinity groups, which were participants who reported shared life experiences, the following groups had the highest level of anxiety reported:1

Depression

When asked about experiences with depression, 6% of participants with low NRE scores said they had struggled personally. Contrasted with 23% of participants with a medium NRE score, 37% with a high NRE score, and 34% with an extreme NRE score.

The affinity groups that reported the highest rates of depression in this case study are outlined in the chart below2:

Another interesting finding emerged through the data of this case study: participants who reported having a religious upbringing reported higher rates of depression than those who were not raised with religion.3

Self-Harming Behaviors

Participants were asked to answer yes or no to a question about whether they had ever engaged in self-harming behaviors. Yes responses by level of negative religious experience scores were: low NRE=3%, medium NRE=15%, high NRE=41%, extreme NRE=41%.

The affinity groups with the highest rates of affirmative reports of self-harm behaviors in this study were:

Suicidal Ideation

In response to a yes or no question about having ever experienced suicidal ideation, the responses by score category were: low NRE= 3%, medium NRE= 20%, high NRE= 38%, and extreme NRE= 39%.

Two interesting patterns emerged in this data that are critical to highlight as discussion points for faith leaders and mental health professionals.

First, while there has been well-documented evidence that higher ACE scores often equate to higher risks of suicidal ideation, this case study also indicates that NRE scores had a greater differential in the experience of suicidal ideation.

Those with an extreme NRE score were thirteen times more likely to have experienced thoughts of ending their lives than those with low NRE scores. However, it is interesting to note that the difference in average ACE score between low NRE and extreme NRE scores was only 1.5 points.4

The second interesting finding of note is that religious upbringing did not seem to greatly reduce participants' suicidal thoughts. This is important to highlight because religion is often thought to reduce suicidal ideation. For example, Carl Enomoto, Theophilus Djaba, and Sajid Noor, in The Journal of Philosophy, Culture and Religion, reported that “… those who are religious are less likely to suffer from depression and less likely to commit suicide.”5

However, in this case study, the reduction of reports of suicidal ideation was only marginally lower in those with a religious upbringing; however, the reduction was not significant enough to feel that being raised in a faith-filled home provided sufficient protection for individuals.6

The affinity groups in this case study who reported the highest rates of suicidal ideation are shown in the table below:7

Ongoing Research

While this case study has made some important discoveries about the role that religious trauma has in outcomes that individuals experience throughout their lives, more data is needed. Currently, I am conducting a national study to capture 5,000 responses and explore whether the trends noted in this case study continue in a larger, more diverse participant sample.

I invite you to learn more about partnering with me in this data collection effort by becoming a research captain for your local geographic area.

As new data becomes available, I will share it here on this platform, so be sure to subscribe so that you do not miss future updates and ongoing information on religious trauma, trauma-informed ministry, and more.

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We gather together in this place today to connect with one another in relationship, to explore our connection with what is sacred, and to come together as a faith community to make a positive difference in the world around us.

We welcome all into this space, no matter where you are on your personal faith journey.

A sense of holy discontent unites many in this place today. We carry heavy hearts because of the injustice in our world. We do not agree with the ways that many weaponize scripture to justify the hatred and harm of others. We long for a world, a country, a community where all people are safe and have their needs met.

For these things, we grieve and pray.

May we never stop at grieving and praying. Guide us to action as well. Let us be active in meeting the needs of our neighbors, bold in speaking up against injustice, compassionate to the suffering of those in our midst, and committed to doing what we can each day to love out loud.

May we be the change that we want to see in the world.

Unison Prayer

Holy Force of Love, use us to feed the hungry, provide relief to the thirsty, offer hospitality to the stranger, care for the vulnerable, and build relationships with the lonely. Use us to improve the quality of life for our neighbors through our love and compassion.

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I started facilitating peer-led religious trauma support groups about five years ago. The purpose of these groups is to offer a space for people to come together and process similar emotions, triggers, and outcomes. Over the years, I have developed more than 80 conversation starters, activities, and discussion guides based on my research and experience in this area. Most of these groups have been in-person and focused on the communities where I have been leading. Currently, that is at Englewood Christian Church in Yakima, WA.

Recently, I have had more requests to open an online group to improve access to support for individuals outside the Central Washington area. I am a strong advocate for the importance of community and relationships in supporting an individual’s healing journey. It is my hope that responding to this request and opening up an online group will improve access to this critical component of regulating after negative religious experiences.

Starting this May, I will offer an online connection opportunity on Mondays at 4:30 PM PST (5:30 MST, 6:30 CST, 7:30 EST).

This group will meet each Monday for an hour via Google Meet.

There are ground rules for this online meeting space to protect the safety and privacy of all who will connect:

1. No recordings, screenshots, or pictures of the group meetings are allowed. We use the Vegas Rule… what is shared in the group stays in the group. Anyone who violates another group member's privacy will not be able to continue connecting with the group.

2. This group is meant to be conversational and connective. We use dialogues, not monologues, to ensure that everyone has time to share during our time together.

3. Respect is critical. All group members are asked to speak respectfully to one another and to respect each other’s unique beliefs, emotions, experiences, and healing journey. Bullying, racism, homophobia, and proselytizing will not be tolerated in this space.

I will never post the group link online to protect the space's safety. Therefore, if you are interested in participating, you must email me to request to join this group.

Disclaimer:

I am not a licensed mental health practitioner. This group (or any peer support group) should not replace work with a professional counselor. I do not diagnose or offer treatment advice during meetings.

As an ordained minister with a Doctorate in Ministry who specializes in the study of Religious Trauma, I use my experience, research, and knowledge to facilitate sharing and processing. I am passionately open and affirming, with experience supporting LGBTQIA+ individuals in processing their sacred scars. I respect the faith backgrounds and current beliefs of all people. I do not seek to change or challenge any individual’s spiritual framework, and I do not use scripture or prayer during support groups.

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