#Recovering from Religion

[thishazeleyeddemon]

Hi! I'm fundraising for my club again!

We need to raise

500$

In order to be able to host a speaker, Darrel Ray of Recovering From Religion at Sacramento State!

On October 12, 2023 we will be hosting Dr. Darrel Ray from Recovering From Religion! This is our chapter's first event and we would love to have Dr. Ray visit our campus and discuss his work at Recovering From Religion and the psychological implications of religious trauma.

Dr. Darrel W. Ray is author of four books, two on organizational team issues, The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture which explores the social-psychology of religion and his latest book, Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality. He has been a psychologist for over 30 years, practicing counseling and clinical psychology for 10 years then moved into organizational psychology and consulting. He has been a student of religion most of his life and holds a MA degree in religion as well as a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and a Doctorate in psychology. You can learn more about this movement at www.recoveringfromreligion.com.

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/secular-student-alliance/help-csu-sacramento-ssa-host-dr-darrel-ray

If you are interested in donating, you can follow this link or the QR code below to donate!

[churchofsatannews]

History of Roman Catholic Exorcism with the Satanic Skeptic on RfRx

Warlock JD Sword, the Satanic Skeptic, discusses the history of exorcism within the Catholic Church on Recovering from Religion (RfRx).

[deconstructingbitch]

I used to be grossed out by gay ppl kissing on TV. Then i realized no i was grossed out by all people kissing regardless of TV or in real life and that we truly do not use enough fade to black in TV. Like, leave some mystery and privacy for the happy couple and get back to the plot. We get it, they do the icky sticky. Yay.

And that's how you go from being worried you're homophobic to realizing just how far you're on the ace spectrum.

To be clear I think the right to sexual freedom (including not feeling sexual attraction or wanting to engage in sex) is one of the most fundamental rights that we have to protect with everything we have and I also think if you’re grossed out by gay sex you’re homophobic. Love and light

[janedroid]

Easter, eh?

Easter, a time of remembrance or celebration, or a good excuse for a few days off and go bush before the real winter sets in. TL;DR Who knows? You do you. Go in peace. My past is a bit of a mixture of different Christian traditions with some Hinduism and Buddhism tacked on. Early years in Catholic schools featured a mostly naked figure bleeding on a cross. Following school the…

[ben-her]

I love hearing church bells

when i know the song

and i forgot the words

[gxlden-angels]

I've had this account now for 5ish years now. I've been in therapy for years, not exclusively for religious trauma but it's a major part. I've gotten better. I have a lot of content here I could reflect on, but I don't think I want to. I like knowing I progressed. I don't like looking at what from. Usually religious trauma comes up in therapy as an "oh yea...." instead of by name now. It's indirect. Enmeshment. Parentification. Vaginismus. Scrupulous and Harm OCD. Alexithymia. Derealization and Depersonalization. Paranoia.

I'm like, a real adult now I guess. I have a bachelor's degree now. I walk this upcoming weekend. I live in a house and I'm renting out a room with my own money. It has a backyard my cat likes to run around in. I had a job interview in my chosen field today. It went well

Then I'll go back to my family for the weekend and I find out they're spiraling into AI generated christian conspiracy theory videos. Their pastor is preaching about Trump being the anti-christ, and any non-Trump or Conspiracy message is the same thing he's said for the past decade, sometimes word for word. My uncle is convinced he's a prophet. He tells a story about a girl that was paralyzed after not listening to his message. My grandfather is convinced us black people are the true Israelites and chosen people. I thought I was the only one medically neglected by my aunt who's a doctor. I was not. I show her my emotions chart app. She tells me it's good so I can recognize when I feel bad and remember Jesus's love until I'm happy again. It's not normal for your joints to pop out of place apparently. We all learned this at the same time. It's Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. That explains a lot. My grandfather fell asleep to a video about the Ethiopian bible and how other bibles were made to take out miracles by Jesus and angels again. The remote is lodged in his hand so we can't change it

Then I talk about plants and food with my dad and my grandmother. My dad jokingly complains about his mom making him garden with her all day half a century ago. I give her a little kiss on her forehead before I go. My dad sends me home with leftover peach cobbler he made. I eat it with my lunch at my job. I answer phone calls at a front desk. I paid real taxes for the first time this year. I go to therapy and I talk about everything from my sex life to my graduate school plans to my opinions about generative AI (I hate it). I'm like, a real, breathing adult that has autonomy I guess. I'm not even claimed as a dependent anymore. I built my own desk that I bought from Big Lots.

You get where I'm going with this right? I'm not cured or healed by any means. Far from it in fact. I still get a pang of anxiety using the lord's name in vain and a chill down my spine when manifesting feels too close to confessing. It's harder making a personal post about religious trauma now though. It's not necessarily that I'm cured, it's just so engrained that I've created atheistic excuses to stay stuck in my religious trauma. I can pinpoint the source of it if I think about it long enough, so I don't think about it long enough

I'm not afraid to think lustful thoughts because holding lust in your heart is a sin, it's because I feel like a creep. I'm not worried I'll be sent to hell if I make mistakes that take me further from Jesus, I just think making mistakes would make me a bad person and an asshole. These beliefs popped out of nowhere, of course. They aren't influenced by the religious trauma so deeply buried in my head that taking it out would feel like taking out the gray matter of my brain itself. I'm schrodingers's man where I'm only a human when I'm observed. It used to be a deity but then it was you. I'm observed by you and that proved I'm human just long enough to get by when I most needed it. I still have that problem, but I'm seen outside of here. I see myself more often too

I don't want this post to seem like a good-bye, because it's not. I'm just currently in a period of limbo and I feel like the next generation of religious trauma bloggers are rising. I'm too busy arguing with my therapist about why I'm a bad person in a way that doesn't just boil down to "I'm a sinner in need of redemption" in a desperately-secular way. I'm self-aware enough to know that's what I'm doing, but not progressing enough to stop yet. I think what will happen is I'll eventually get frustrated enough to give up on the secular origins of my mental distress. I think a lot of you are in a similar place. You're out long enough that it feels like it should be over. You don't live in the bible-thumping, belt-wielding, gay-bashing, hellscape you once did. You might even be no-contact. You pay taxes now in your apartment. But it's not over. It's still there. It's just harder to say it's Jesus's fault I'm like this. It feels like it's been too long to still blame the bible.

It's not. It's buried in your synapses and neurons and muscles and bones and skin and hair and teeth and it's hard to remember that after 5 years. It's not oozing out into your bloodstream and filling you with enough cortisol and adrenaline to fuel an elephant anymore. It trickles though like a leaky faucet. I think I've lost the plot at this point, but you get it

Like I said, not a goodbye despite what it seems like. I just have to remember that a leaky faucet is still a concern

[river-of-wine]

If it’s meant to be, then it will be

[hidekomoon]

tagged by @hitmewithlghtning - List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material! thank youuu

We Are Lady Parts

Pre-Raphaelite art

the representation of witches from the Malleus Maleficarum to today

Paramore (both the music and the behind the scenes drama)

The Handmaiden

tagging: @micamicster @gayjomarch @shesnake @elletao @tvmilfs @userparamore

[box-dwelling]

As someone who went to Germany and spent like 70% of the time in churches, Von karma sibling growing up Christian head canons is so fucking personal to me

[streetfarterturdstrike]

It would be one thing if it was just a popular headcanon but I’m so tired of fans acting like it’s actually official canon that Ryu is asexual which not only has Capcom has never stated that but there are numerous examples of Ryu fighting off his urdges because he’s trying to save his dick for Buddha

[churchofsatannews]

RfRx Talks: J.D. Sword on Exorcism in the Catholic Church

March 11 8 PM Eastern Satanic Skeptic JD Sword will join RfRx to discuss the history of exorcism in the Catholic Church as well as some of the most famous cases of alleged demonic possession including the case of Annelise Michel (which inspired the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose), and the case of Ronald Hunkeler (which inspired The Exorcist). He encourages you to join him for some devilment and…

[wormieapple]

destiel with religious under/overtones is so close to me, which is insane because i grew up religious and have since denounced it. but it makes me understand what was always wrong and lost on me because loving is holy, it is worship and sin, and it is devine devotion.

[froegs]

augghhh I’m hitting such a wall in my life and have been spiraling so so so so so so so much my meds are barely doing anything and when I start to spiral and freak out and worry that I’m not doing enough I think of Shigeo kageyama. And life is ok.

[cantyouseeimtrying]

INTRO PAGE PLEASE READ

Hello and welcome to my new and super cool blog! You can call me star and I generally use he/him pronouns. I'm in high school so please be aware of my immaturity. This super cool and awesome blog is for my self improvement journey! It's also dedicated to Lord Ares.

Why am I going on a self-improvement journey? Because I feel like ✨shit✨. That and I am currently grieving and trying to move on from a very unhealthy crush I have had on a friend. It was borderline obsessive and wasn't healthy for me or them. I think I've been really obsessed with relationships recently, which would usually be considered normal for teenagers, but mine has been, as I said before, obsessive and unhealthy for me and everyone involved.

So this blog is for me to work on myself and record my progress, and then hopefully, someday in the future, I can look back on this blog and see how far I've improved! It's a really exciting idea :)

I am going to do my absolute hardest to tag everything appropriately and put warnings at the top of every post if I think there is something there that could harm someone.

Now the less fun part: rules

This is my blog and account. I am in charge of the content I see and interact with. If you do not agree with the things I like or the things I post, then block me.

Any hate, bigotry, or bullying will be tolerated. I will delete things, I will block people. You get one chance to not be an asshole before you are gone.

DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS BLOG IF

You are over the age of 25, you post p0rn, you are pro @n@, you are transphobic or homophobic, you post purposefully triggering content, you are unaccepting of other people's religions, and you lack critical thinking skills.

PLEASE INTERACT AND BE MY FRIEND IF

you are under 25, you are also on a self-improvement journey, you are a cool little queer person, you are interested in theatre or classics, you are a Hellenic polytheist, you are kind!

My tags cause that's a really cool thing I see people do!

Star reflects -> my super awesome reflections on myself, my life, and my beliefs. These may be sad, they may be happy! That's the joy of reflections :)

Star motivation -> motivation for me or you to live your best life

Star is funny -> my silly little posts/reposts that I found funny and want to share with you ;)

Okay, that's all love you bye!

[bonusdispatch]

that one video of lundell has changed me