Christa and Sarah discuss Dr. Marlene Winell’s three articles on Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS), the term which she coined ( https://www.journeyfree.org/articles-manual/). They discuss the very real impacts that leaving a high-demand religion has on a person - socially, somatically, emotionally, and cognitively - and some of the related symptoms that manifest both while coping within rigid belief systems and when attempting to leave. Often framed by the fear of ultimate loss of community and rejection by God, people questioning their faith have extreme difficulty navigating what lies beyond due to the lack of tools and deep fear of getting it all wrong.

Christa and Sarah discuss intergenerational trauma and the difficulty of addressing harmful interpretations and applications of scripture. When God is never changing, people can misapply His constancy as meaning that their human interpretations of the Bible ought not to change as well. When better approaches are dismissed for the sake of keeping the doctrine and community borders static and clearcut, God becomes tiny but manageable. However, this tiny God and rigid interpretations of Him ensure that harmful and traumatic applications are perpetuated.

Christa and Sarah give a “brief” overview of their lives. They discuss personal experiences, stories, key events, and throw in a few theological quandaries they had along the way.

In a Part 1&2 combo, Christa and Sarah discuss Christa’s ‘deconstruction’ blogpost that she wrote and posted during the pandemic. They discuss the problem of institutions v. individuals, and how difficult it can be to address systemic issues when there is a gap between good intentions and actual result.

Christa and Sarah continue the conversation around the C-PTSD response of “fawning”. They discuss the shame cycle built into the theology of being born a depraved sinner, how difficult it is to question ideas when the standard you’re handed as a child is divine and infallible, and learning to regain a sense of self in whatever space available that allows for open discussion and honesty.

Sarah and Christa discuss the Fawn response – one of the complex post traumatic stress disorder reactions that is largely unaddressed, especially in comparison to the more dramatic C-PTSD responses of Fight and Flight. Often referred to as ‘people-pleasing’, this response encapsulates the deep fear of stepping out of place, anticipation of needs, failing perfection, and subsequently worrying about being outside of the church community’s acceptance or, ultimately, God’s salvation.

Christa and Sarah talk about marriage, biblical interpretation, and harmful sexual messages perpetuated by the church. In the context of health, they touch on two research papers that discuss abstinence and pleasure and talk about the mixed messages they received around their bodies and women’s sexuality.

Christa and Sarah continue their discussion of deconstruction: unpacking closed boxes, the formulaic Christian to-dos meant to prevent doom, and rejection of the ‘good enough’ baseline. They delve into Job, God’s “divine plans”, and how the church places human suffering in an end-justifies-the-means framework that disallows proper discussion and marginalizes those suffering. Towards the end, they muse about what post-evangelical spaces might look like, and some factors that prevent structural change.

Christa and Sarah talk about some origin points that led to questioning the religious frameworks they had accepted and fully believed, from profound loss and divine absence, to just plain failure of “truths” about the nature of God. This episode marks the start of their discussions around learning to ask questions, trusting their paths, and being unafraid to wander into the areas they had always thought doomed.