Sunday, March 17, 2019

Religious Trauma Syndrome.


Religious Trauma Syndrome: A New Crisis of Faith
Literature Review
            The way that cults and fundamentalist religions interact with politics, abuse children, marginalize minority groups, attract narcissistic leaders, and spawn disorganized attachments in their members requires intervention from the government. It is a difficult topic in our nation because we do want to have all of our citizens practicing religion in the way that they see fit. In the case of Catholic church sex abuse, the answer is simple, imprison the guilty priests after a trial has proven their guilt. What isn’t clear is when parents spank their kids, brainwash them using fear of hell and threats of getting shunned, or churches demanding that their members be allowed to discriminate against homosexuals because gays are bad, we passively give our approval. Because we tacitly deal with these issues, these fundamentalists are getting into positions of political power and protecting their own beliefs instead of representing all Americans. This was brought into sharp relief when Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana and reframed and ratified the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in a way that made it ok to discriminate against the LGBTQIA+ community. (Godde, 2016) Mike Pence is now our vice president. Ever since he was elected, the LGBTQIA+ community has been watching on alert.
            Mike Pence is what we call a narcissistic leader. There isn’t a necessarily a diagnosis of narcissism there, but what it means to be a narcissistic leader is that the leader functions in much the same way a narcissist does. In one article, the author focuses on one type of leader, one that achieves “symbolic status.” This is a psychological phenomenon where followers come to see the leaders as parent-like. This tendency becomes even more evident in charismatic leaders. (Sankowsky, 1995) Places where leaders achieve symbolic status include work situations and churches. Abuse of power can pervasively and profoundly negatively impact the followers’ psychological wellbeing. (Sankowsky, 1995) Stein goes on to say that the damage takes the form of disorganized attachment. (2017) The boss or pastor hands out directives, expects them to be obeyed without question, hands out rewards and punishments, and handles excommunications or firings, respectively. These are the very conditions that create this parent attachment. In some cases, this power goes awry, and the leaders start flat out abusing and making excuses. (Sankowsky, 1995) A normal leader sets reasonable expectations and tasks and goes over outcomes in a way that best correlates with the quality of the outcomes. Everything is handled in a fair way and the leader and follower or employee walk away happy with how things turned out. The narcissistic leader sets unrealistic goals, quickly praises their team for being miracle workers and just amazing; and then punishes harshly when they could not make the unattainable a reality. (Sankowsky, 1995) The damage this causes leads to confusion, depression, anxiety, and if carried on long enough unchecked, PTSD. These types of leaders keep followers questioning and on their toes. Praise is doled out just enough to keep them coming back again and again for more abuse. When we think of this in terms of adults, it is pretty creepy. When we see that this is what parents are doing with their children in the name of their gods, it gets horrifying. Let’s take a closer look at disorganized attachment.
            The best way to accomplish this is to isolate the followers as best as possible in a unique way. In cults and in churches around America, totalitarian denominations are popping up. The goal of a totalitarian religion or cult is to isolate the follower, make the leaders seem like the keepers of good knowledge and truly unique or blessed especially by the divine, consume the followers lives and calendars, and forbid close friendships with those who do not believe the same ways. (Stein, 2017) This is achieved by making the follower feel specially chosen and uniquely included in a really loving family. Membership contracts require followers to agree to act in a certain way and to understand they are joining a community of like-minded people with keys to secret and special information. Not only that, this community is truly loving. They take meals to each other during times of crisis, pray for each other, and do most all of the socializing they do with each other. In fact, it seems the cult or church completely takes over the lives of the individuals they have. Members are afraid to leave because they will not be able to make friends as close as these on the “outside” or in the “secular” world. Stein calls this a totalitarian system. All aspects of life and personal philosophy are now wrapped up in the church. (2017) Once that fear of the outside has set in, members are taken on a yo-yo ride of being in the inner circle of favorites to being in the lower lever peons. All members want to be in the inner circle. Getting closer to the leader is the goal of all members. (Stein, 2017) Being useful to the pastor is a special place. This inner hierarchy is used like a weapon. One day you are in, the next you are out. The desperate need for validation, the continued rejection, and emotional abuse cause the follower great times of pain and confusion. In this state, they press in harder to the thing causing them the most pain, the religion itself. Leaders define the rules of approved holiness. Rules in churches where women wore only dresses, where families just had mountains of kids, where poverty was the key to holiness, keep believers uniform and together. Each cult or church has its own secret in road to holiness. The ones that can follow the rules the best are the most holy. If the people putting up with this were all adults, we would not have to get involved. But parents internalize this sort of odd love and pass it right on to their kids. (Cooper, 2012)
            The absolute worst of this is the sexual molestation abuse of Catholic children at the hands of priests. The literature on this is heart breaking. The swath of devastation left by the church will take decades to clean up. One of the most devastating articles brings up the fact that fornication is considered a sin in the Catholic church. Victims take on enormous amounts of shame. First, they were seen as special by priests. They were chosen for retreats and to serve as alter boys. They were groomed for a reason. In the grooming process, the priest assess shame levels and understanding of sin. (McGraw, 2019) During and after the rapes take place, the victims are placed in a horrible level of despair and shame. In their eyes they have sinned, but the one that can absolve them did it to them. Many of them don’t speak fearing the repercussions and blame they will face for tainting the priest this way. (McGraw, 2019) This article goes on to say that PTSD is a big worry for these victims. Added to all of the crushing symptoms of PTSD, shame, guilt, fear of hell and excommunication loom large. Cognitive dissonance and disbelief cause lasting damage and completely obliterate childhoods. Later the victimization continues as parents and community friends just refuse to believe the victims. (McGraw, 2019) After all, how could our beloved minister and friend do this to us? These victims are at danger for drug abuse and fear of life long isolation.         (Cutajara, Mullena, Ogloffa, Thomasa Wellsh, & Spataroc. 2010) As stated in the abstract the solution is a bit more straight forward for this grouping because the American government can arrest perpetrators that break the law and we need to. They need to serve prison sentences for their crimes.
            Surprisingly, similar outcomes await those victimized by brainwashing, indoctrination, and emotional abuse. Chase Cooper in his work “Confronting Religiously Motivated Psychological Maltreatment or Children; A Framework for Policy Reform,” tells a tale of a toddler who refused to obey. After being told twice to do what was told of him, the toddler, not quite two, was taken in a back bedroom, beaten, and returned expectantly to obey. The toddler did not. He was taken out of the room and spank beaten again. He was brought back and told to obey again. A third repetition happened while all the adults in the room prayed for the toddler’s deliverance to obedience. He was returned and this time obeyed smiling. The religion members in the room thanked Jesus. The toddler was then comforted by the abuser and praised. They explained to an observing Cooper that this is how they “train up a child.” They said that incidents like this were daily and unavoidable because of the sinfulness of the human heart. (2012) In churches across America, very young children are being threatened with hell for sins as small as taking one of the church pens home with them. All children in conservative churches watch the truly wicked get cast out. The psychological fear of being kicked into the street keeps youth closeted. They have watched their gay friends be disowned and kicked out in large numbers. (Roe, 2017) If they aren’t afraid of hell, they are afraid of homelessness. The abject fear of knowing that there was something that could be done that would forever make your family turn their backs is deeply scarring. Is it abuse? Kenneth Adams writes from his observations that the patriarchal system set up in these must be obeyed churches, “fosters misopedia, the hatred of children, as wells as misogyny. Males and male interests are prioritized, and others are a means to an end. Children represent the antithesis of patriarchal manhood—subordination, lack of control, dependence on females, and weakness. In the Bible, children’s interests are never the primary concern.” (2019) Children being raised in this setting are shattered. They are broken down to always obey, always be religious and always, more than anything, “don’t be yourself especially if that is gay.” This clearly leads to lifelong confusion and mental anguish. Which leads to drug use and disorders with a lot of the alphabet in them. (Simonic, Mendelj, & Novask. 2013) It also leads to political manipulation and marginalization of minorities.
            When you look at the doctrines that these people are forcibly putting into their children’s minds, you see that a lesson in fear and hatred. They are telling their children that abortion at any stage for any reason is murder. Psalms 139:13-14 In their world, if they accept the LGBTQIA+ community as legitimate the entire world will be destroyed, Genesis 19, Romans 1:26-27. These groups seek to protect their own and push out those that are different. At its very core, fundamentalism excludes. The GOP in our nation is looking to push out immigrants, remove rights from women, and re-marginalize the LGBTQIA+ by taking away marriage rights, (Groppe, 2016) This only pushes the trauma of these beliefs out onto other communities of believers who believe differently, non-Christian believers, atheists, and all of those sub-headings that are LGBTQIA_ or immigrants. (Sowe, Taylor, & Brown. 2017) Children who internalize these messages grow up either wholesale buying into them or living through PTSD and needing very careful and affirming therapy. (Simonic, & et. al. 2013) Those that grow up buying in completely become the voters and parents. We are seeing the results of these organized voters and the stronghold of their beliefs and they try to take away freedoms from those they deem ungodly. Other nations are starting to call us the “Christian Talliban.”
            In conclusion, we are faced with hard choices about the well being of not only our children but our nation. If these religious beliefs only were held by those 18 or older, the harm they inflict would be chosen by the one believing it. Not only are these beliefs forced on children before they are not able to fully understand the implications of what they are learning, the rest of us must cope with the toll they are taking on our minorities and vulnerable groups. What can we do to protect children? There has been loud noise about taxation of churches that refuse to respect separation of church and state. A growing number of the populace are completely fed up with having to clean up after their messes. LGBTQIA+ youth are more than twice as likely to face homelessness than their straight peers and charities have been stepping up for years to care for the homeless teens. (Voices of Youth Count, 2019) States have anti-maltreatment clauses, strangely enough, they exempt religious groups. (Cooper, 2012) We need to do away with religious exemptions for maltreatment. There is no reason for it. Maltreatment for religious reasons is maltreatment and should be fully considered abuse. In many states, it is legal to spank beat children because of the Bible verse, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” Spanking should be made illegal. (Miller, 2000) Many adults were spanked as children and pass the damage on, and spank their children from a Christian perspective. These protections allow bullies and abusers to use religion as a shield for their abuse and lazy parenting. (Cooper, 2012) What becomes really a grey area, is the fear instilled in the children as they lie awake in the night terrified of hell and filled with questions about “what if I did something that would make my parents stop loving me.” Legally in America there is nothing we can do without infringing on the religious beliefs of the parents. Right now, the best course of action is just shining the light on all the harm fundamentalist religion causes to the individual and in the whole society.





References
Adams, K.A. (2019) Traumatic Fundamemtalist Childhood and Trump. Journal of             Psychohistory. (3)
Cooper, C. (2012). Confronting Religiously Motivated Psychological Maltreatment of Children:         A Framework for Policy Reform. Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law20(1), 1–       11

Groppe, M. (2016). “Mike Pence in His Own Words.” The Indy Star. Online edition.
Miller, A. (2000). Against Spanking. Tikkun15(2), 17
Roe, S. (2017). “Family Support Would Have Been Like Amazing”: LGBTQ Youth Experiences    With Parental and Family Support. The Family Journal25(1), 55–62. 
Sankowsky, D. (1995). The Charismatic Leader as Narcissist: Understanding the Abuse of         Power. Organizational Dynamics23(4), 57–71. 
Simonic, B. Mandelj, T. and Novsak, R. (2013) Religious-Related Abuse in the Family. Journal            of Family Violence 28:339-349
Sowe, B. J., Taylor, A. J., & Brown, J. (2017). Religious anti-gay prejudice as a predictor of     mental health, abuse, and substance use. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry87(6),          690–703.
Stein, A. (2017). Terror, Love, and Brainwashing: Attachments in Cults and Totalitarian     Systems.

Waller, G., Quinton, S. & Watson D. (1995) “Dissociation and the Processing of Threat-Related            Information.” Dissociation volume 8.2.

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