Sherry

“The status quo illusion is so glaringly offensive because it is incapable of empathy toward those who have suffered this kind of trauma and loss. And two, speaking the reality of such experiences is not irrelevant to the many who have never experienced such things. The common rebuttal to stories of trauma or abuse in the church is that these are exceptions, bound to produce disgruntled believers or ex-believers, but irrelevant to the discussion of larger issues, like doctrine, belief, and practice or the phenomenon of religious decline. They’d say that these experiences color people’s perspectives so that they don’t see clearly. But I think the opposite is often true: experiences of severe Christian authoritarianism or abuse can, when there has been significant time to process them, produce a sharper eye for the ways empire business is harming the church.”
― Zach Hoag, The Light Is Winning: Why Religion Just Might Bring Us Back to Life