Leaving The Fold

This will interest some here:

Leaving the Fold, by Dr. Marlene Winell Ph.D.

May 10, 2011 By Mriana 2 Comments

Dr. Marlene Winell is a psychologist and author of Leaving the Fold: A guide for former fundamentalists and other leaving their religion.  This book is an excellent resource for those leaving or wanting to leave religion, especially if they have had traumatic experiences and are trying to recover from them.

She divides the book into three parts.  In the first part, she not only shares her story, but also gives some brief glimpses of others who have left and are struggling with the trauma of religious indoctrination.  She also explains the five phases of recovery and provides various checklists concerning the impact of religion, benefits, manipulations, and family background in the first half of her book.

In the second half of her book, she deals with the healing process and provides exercises in which to help people heal from their experiences.  The inner child is discussed, as well as exercises in which to get in touch with one’s inner child.  She also deals with the inner adult and building a new relationship with the two concepts.  These two concepts are basically the emotional and rational or thinking side of the individual.  The emotional side of a person is one area that religion seems to suppress and sometimes the more rational side of the person can be stunted also. The exercises help to develop a balance between the two in which to have a positive relationship within the self.  In a sense, the inner adult takes the parent role and “parents the inner child”.

However, there can be some problems with old mental tapes, which she calls the Idea Monster, and it needs to be overcome in the process of recovery.  In the chapter concerning “the Idea Monster”, she provides various exercises to at least tame such thoughts stemming from one’s traumatic experiences.  Most of these exercises deal with creating new and more positive messages to replace the old ones.  They also deal with emotional recovery after leaving harmful religious teachings and ideology.  The religious sect one left or is leaving does not have to be Evangelical Fundamentalist for the book to be helpful.  This book can be useful for one leaving almost any sect.

The rest of the article is here: Leaving the Fold

Death By God: Thoughts On Faith vs Medicine

A couple of years ago this article was on God Discussion.  It is as timely today as ever since people continue to die in PCG and LCG because of it's rejection of doctors (unless of course you are the fearless leader and then no expense is spared.)

Years ago, my brother almost died because of a ruptured appendix. This was not the fault of the local physicians. It was the fault of the Worldwide Church of God, which at that time was headed by Herbert W. Armstrong. Because of the church's stronghold on my parents' intellectual reasoning, they and the minister prayed over my sick brother for months, putting stupid little "anointing cloths" and oil described in the bible on him. He became sicker and sicker, wasting away to nothing except for a grossly bloated stomach. He was so weak he could not walk.   He suffered tremendously.

 Fortunately, my parents allowed reason, love and compassion to prevail and took him to the emergency room, despite the instructions of the church. They did so in the nick of time. The appendix had ruptured and my brother hovered near death. My parents felt guilty about this for the rest of their lives. In fact, my mother manifested appendicitis in her late 50s.Death by God