"If You Have Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome, You Are Not Alone"

[LongTomH]

I wonder how many people on this forum can relate to this article: Dear Katy Perry: If You Have Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome, You Are Not Alone. Apparently, some Christians are reacting to Perry's half-time performance at the Super Bowl with accusations ranging from lewdness to witchcraft. Patheos blogger Reba Riley empathizes with Katy Perry's journey from evangelical Christianity to......whatever:

Katy: I know you are a former Evangelical Poster Child who, like many of my readers, no longer claims Christianity. I know you’re a pastor’s kid, and that you’ve had to field questions about religion and faith more publically than anyone should. I know you’ve been criticized and damned to hell and felt religious whiplash; I’m pretty darn sure you’ve crashed into religion when you went looking for God, and I know you’ve been judged within an inch of your life.

//..........snip

I’m writing as a friend– a fellow survivor, a wayfarer on the journey, to tell you that you are not alone. There are millions of us suffering from spiritual injuries who are walking our own paths to truth.

Though our stories are different– and only one of us was riding a bad-ass lion in front of the whole world last Sunday!—we have one thing in common: the crashing into religion has left us with spiritual whiplash, broken bones, bruises, welts and lacerations.

I termed these injuries Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome (#PTCS), and I have a teensy, tiny inkling that you know exactly what that phrase means before I even define it.

...........and perhaps some of us have a good idea as well. Here's the video where Reba defines that term with both humor and insight:

Wherever you are on the path today; it is okay. It is enough. You are enough. (Not something we were told very often, right?) Faith is a journey, and the Godiverse will meet you, me—all of us—exactly where we are or aren’t.

I can relate: My grandmother handled my religious upbringing in (shudder!!!!!) the Assembly of God, the same church that Jim and Tammy Bakker belong too. I escaped in my teens, and I've long since forgiven Grandma; but the scars remain. I tell people: "I had my head fucked up by experts!" You would have to have encountered the Assembly of God or similar pentecostal / evangelical churches to understand.

The only time I've attended church in recent decades was with my late sweetheart, Jeanne, who was a devout, if liberal, child of the Catholic church. I actually felt comfortable in church when I was with her; but, I haven't been to church since she died. I really don't think my spiritual path lies with organized religion; although I may accept a friend's invitation to attend a Unitarian / Universalist church.

[Chemisse]

1. My mother used to bring me to meetings of a group of Jesus Freaks, back in the '70s.

In the hopes that they would convert me, and that I would no longer be a rebellious teen. (Plus she thought the leader was cute).

It was really traumatic! They would stand over me, put their hands on my shoulders or head, and pray that I 'find Jesus'. I felt like they were trying to steal my soul! It was a spiritual battle!

This was decades ago and it still creeps me out when people pray in public or at an event.

[cbayer]

14. Hey Chemisse!

I had a similar experience with a group of people who were into primal screaming. They had built a room to replicate a womb and would simulate being born and all the trauma that went along with it.

It scared the daylights out of me.

[Chemisse]

19. Greetings, cbayer!

That sounds funny, but I can imagine how it would be creepy, and even terrifying.

It makes you wonder why some events become just bad memories and others haunt you in such a way that they reverberate throughout your life. I guess it's just a matter of severity; a Jesus Freak experience produces a minor semi-phobia, but something more horrible or intense triggers crippling PTSD.

[cbayer]

20. Good question as to why some events are traumatic

and others are not, as well as why the same event may or may not be traumatic for different individuals.

FWIW, I did not develop PTSD after being exposed to the primal scream people, but I did develop the symptom of avoiding them in the future.

Hope you are well.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. A hell of a lot of people have that.

It's similar to PTSD, in that there is a lot of stress and bad memories to deal with. I used to see kids who were in very strict homes and wonder how they were coping and how it was going to affect them in adulthood.

[cbayer]

5. PTSD is a defined illness with clear criteria.

One could, of course, be traumatized by an experience related to religion, but they would have PTSD, not this made up thing the author is pushing.

She, like all self-help authors, has invented an illness she thinks she has and wants to find others that have it as well (so they will buy the book).

[LongTomH]

15. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome does have some pretty well-defined symptoms!

It's Called Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome, And It's Real:

PTCS presents as a severe, negative — almost allergic — reaction to inflexible doctrine, outright abuse of spiritual power, dogma and (often) praise bands and preachers. Internal symptoms include but are not limited to: withdrawal from all things religious, failure to believe in anything, depression, anxiety, anger, grief, loss of identity, despair, moral confusion, and, most notably, the loss of desire/inability to darken the door of a place of worship.

The physical symptoms of PTCS — which may or may not be present — include: cold sweats, hives, nausea, vomiting, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbance, rashes, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure — oh, to heck with it. The symptoms are as varied as the people who suffer them.

PTCS may not be in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) yet; but it does have real symptoms. I've experienced and struggled with some of them over the decades.

[cbayer]

16. It's completely made up and not a recognized syndrome by any legitimate

organization.

The article you link to is by the same author as this OP. She is selling a syndrome and has no data or really anything but anecdote to support her conclusions.

And in the second paragraph you quote here, it appears that she knows she is making it up. At least she has a sense of humor.

You may have a PTSD due to your experiences with religion, but there is really no need to make up a whole new diagnosis. I have symptoms due to having been through a hurricane. Should we now have a diagnosis call Post-traumatic Katrina Syndrome?

[LongTomH]

17. I know it's by the same author!

I started this thread because I see some relevance to my own experience in what she says, and I do know she's not a professional therapist.

I'm going to continue to recommend her posts and probably, buy her book.

[cbayer]

18. If you can relate to her experience, that's great.

If her writings are helpful to you, that's great, too.

I just have a generally negative reaction to self-help. I think some people figure out what is wrong with them and then write a book. That book is then bought by people that hope it will explain what is wrong with them, and are generally disappointed because their problems are unique to them.

Still, support and knowing you are not alone is not a bad thing.

I do, however, object to her using KP in this context, as she really doesn't meet her "criteria" at all.

[Brettongarcia]

3. look at the actions of "zealots"

To get an idea how bad it is

[cbayer]

4. I don't know where this author is getting her information about Katy Perry.

There are all kinds of stories about how she prayed before her performance and how she claims she got a message of encouragement from god.

Maybe the author wants KP to be just like her, but I think the has completely reinvented her. Reba Riley is selling a book.

[edhopper]

6. quote

"I don't believe in a heaven or a hell or an old man sitting on a throne. I believe in a higher power bigger than me because that keeps me accountable. Accountability is rare to find, especially with people like myself, because nobody wants to tell you something you don't want to hear. I actually don't trust people who start to turn on me because they get scared of telling me the truth. I'm not Buddhist, I'm not Hindu, I'm not Christian, but I still feel like I have a deep connection with God. I pray all the time—for self-control, for humility. There's a lot of gratitude in it. Just saying 'thank you' sometimes is better than asking for things."

http://perezhilton.com/2013-12-12-katy-perry-speaks-religion-not-believing-in-heaven-hell

[cbayer]

7. Does that sound like someone with "Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome"?

This is just another self-help author selling her own personal "illness".

Bookshelves bend under the weight of this nonsense.

[edhopper]

8. I take it you couldn't see the video.

[cbayer]

9. No, no video for me.

[edhopper]

10. You would see that she is doing this with

a good bit of humor and not seriously saying it is a real illness.

[cbayer]

11. Ok, that's good to know. I still think she is using KP to promote

her cause and probably should have used someone else…..

[edhopper]

12. No

she is using Katy perry because it's topical since she came under fire from "Christian" groups for her Super Bowl performance.

[cbayer]

13. I'm skeptical about that part as well.

She doesn't link to anything at all and I am unable to find anything to support that claim in a google search, other than one very obscure Minnesota radio show by what appears to be a couple of nut jobs.

Have you seen anything?

If I were KP (and I am very glad that I am not), I wouldn't be particularly happy about being used in this way.

[LongTomH]

21. Oh, Really!!!!

Linda Harvey: Katy Perry's 'Firework' Promotes Satanism. Halftime Show Pushed 'Homosexual Agenda.'

It seems that Linda Harvey of the anti-LGBT group Mission America was not a fan of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, writing in BarbWire yesterday that Katy Perry’s song “Dark Horse” may be an “invitation to demonic possession.”

She also criticized “I Kissed A Girl,” unsurprisingly, by claiming that the song (not to mention Perry's “suggestive twerking with Lenny Kravitz”) is promoting the “homosexual agenda.”

“Just like her flirtation with Satan, she’s merely joining and providing theme music for a movement that long pre-dates her,” Harvey wrote.

But according to Harvey, these two songs aren’t the most troubling aspect of Perry's performance. The Religious Right activist thinks that Perry’s “Firework” may actually be a tool to trick people into following Satan rather than God, proving once again that Perry has “become a glamorous huckster of destruction to her millions of followers.”

And, oh, this.......

It’s tragic that a former Christian has left the faith she allegedly once knew to become a glamorous huckster of destruction to her millions of followers. Even her closing song of the evening, “Firework” suggests finding hope not in an eternal Christ before Whom every knee will bow, but in a spark that already exists inside each of us.

[cbayer]

22. Ok, you win.. It's Linda Harvey, whoever she is, and an obscure radio show.

I still think the author of this piece really chose the wrong subject. I wonder how KP would respond to this article.

[LongTomH]

23. OK, try this one: From an obscure tabloid called the L.A. Times

NFL's latest conspiracy? It's Katy Perry!:

If you ask Mark Dice, a conservative author-activist from San Diego, the biggest problem facing the NFL heading into Sunday's Super Bowl isn't under-inflated footballs. It's halftime performer Katy Perry, who Dice insists is a "Satanic Witch," and her affiliation with a shadow government bent on world domination.

Try doing a Google on "Katy Perry Satan" It seems Ms. Perry does get a lot of flack from various fundy whackjobs.

[cbayer]

24. I said you win. She takes some heat.

My initial point was that she doesn't fit the criteria for this made syndrome. IMO, she's apparently being used both by those on the right and by this author to further their own agendas.