The threat of being left behind during an end-times event is a powerful, traumatizing tool used to control congregants and ensure loyalty.

“This is a threat of not just being disappeared by God. This is if you get left behind, you're denied all resources. You're completely locked out of society.”

Religious doctrines were used by her father as a manipulative tool to excuse abuse and maintain control over her family.

“The abuse that we got we didn't know it was abuse because it was wrapped up in uh parental duties you know the blue the blueness of the womb sort of thing so that's um it's the parents job to teach the kid and this is how we teach the kid by beating the [ __ ] out of you”

She claims that conservative Christian church leadership failed to protect her family from her father's abuse because they prioritized institutional image and patriarchal norms over the well-being of

“It's a very patriarchal community and they don't want to say or do anything that will make a husband look bad, especially to his wife and his family.”

The teachings of Bill Gothard encouraged people-pleasing and suppressing one's own voice, which she eventually identified as harmful and sought to break free from.

“growing up in the teachings of Bill goth we are supposed to keep our husbands happy and just doing whatever they want us to do it was terrifying for me to be able to speak up against that”

The psychological captivity experienced within evangelical and cult-like structures, which restricts information and uses shame to enforce compliance, is a form of abuse.

“And I absolutely I think that that is definitely abusive, you know, I tried to kill myself many times as a teenager and um and that even that in of itself was also shamed. It wasn't recognized as a symptom of my environment. Instead, it was understood as a symptom of me”

Religious trauma syndrome is a valid, diagnosable condition that arises from deep-seated indoctrination and the pressure exerted by fundamentalist religious environments.

“And you know, religious trauma syndrome or RTS is actually a diagnosis now in the DSM. It's it's just kind of new in the forefront of therapy and psychology.”

Religious dogmas that shame sexuality and equate it with sin are destructive, particularly when they contradict the potential for sexual energy to be a pathway to divine connection.

“How if I say my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, am I saying that it's dirty, it's wrong, it's shameful, it's sinful. The church doesn't even talk about sex. You can't talk about sex. There's no sexual education anywhere other than the sexual education you get in school.”

She claims that rigid, black-and-white religious thinking can lead to spiritual oppression and prevent personal freedom.

“And I was like, wow, this is this is what the black and white thinking can do, and this is also what can happen if you're under spiritual oppression. So, one of the things I totally believe in is is spiritual freedom.”

Religious trauma can lead individuals to have psychotic breaks, which are sometimes misunderstood as primarily genetic conditions rather than reactions to extreme environmental stress.

“And I feel like that's something that you don't really hear enough about. And I think people jump to the conclusion, myself included, that when you go somewhere, you know, whether it's just on a specific, you know, unit of a hospital or a mental hospital, that most of the time people are getting dia”

Forcing religion on children without fostering critical thinking creates internal conflict and identity struggles rather than genuine belief.

“Whenever you have beliefs that were given to you or forced upon you and deep down inside you don't believe them, but you feel forced because of social pressure or identity or whatever it is and you just can't let go of those beliefs, that's what you will struggle with.”