Laura E Anderson

By their fruits ye shall know them.

Thus Jesus spoke about the false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20, yet it represents the truth about any group, institution, or person. What results come from what is believed and practiced, and how those beliefs were put into practice?

It has become abundantly apparent how much of the fruit of conservative Christendom writ large over the past couple of generations has, for many, presented rotten fruit. It has not well reflected the ways of Jesus the Christ.

Such is, no doubt, because much of conservative Christendom elected to pursue a more high control, authoritarian posture as they cultivated their own subculture since the 1960s.

Granted, many have enjoyed it and would even claim to thrive in it. Yet for many others, their experience in such high control religion, especially within conservative Christendom, has been quite traumatic.

In When Religion Hurts You: Healing From Religious Trauma and the Impact of High Control Religion (affiliate link; galley received as part of early review program), Dr. Laura Anderson tells her own story of spending much of her youth and early adulthood in a high control Reformed environment, how she left that environment and pursued her career in psychiatry, and presents the results of her work in applying what has been learned about trauma and C-PTSD to those who have experienced religious trauma, especially in her own journey of healing.

The author is commended in her field because she has personal experience with Christianity and religious abuse/trauma, but does not automatically recommend or suggest for clients to abandon their faith or religious practice. She seems to continue to believe in Jesus but no longer associates with a church.

The author explores definitions of religious abuse and adverse religious experiences. She describes the human nervous system, how it functions, how it processes traumatic experiences, and thus why it responds as it does when it thinks it is about to endure another traumatic experience, and how to work to stabilize it. She considers how people can rebuild their lives and identity after having been part of something which defined so much of their lives. She encourages those who have thus suffered to better appreciate and live in their bodies. She considers how people can establish appropriate boundaries for themselves; she is quite conscious of how those who leave fundamentalism are tempted to go to excess in indulgence or manifest fundamentalism in their new perspectives and beliefs. She recognized leaving a high control religious environment will cause grief, both for the loss of relationships and associations and also for no longer having the positive things which they had enjoyed, and how to grieve them. She considers “reclaiming” sexuality and pleasure and re-establishing connections and relationships outside the high control religious context. And she is sanguine about how there will never be complete escape, and encourages people in how to endure and live well after religiously traumatic experiences.

There is much to commend in terms of helping people process religious abuse and trauma and live well afterward. Most of what she has to say would not go against what God has made known in Christ except in terms of matters of sexuality and pleasure, in which the author simply manifests the modern secular consensus of liberty as long as all can and do consent.

It’s unfortunate the book has to exist, but there has indeed been way too much authoritarianism and high-control environments in many churches professing Jesus. There has been too much fearmongering and attempts to control other people’s decisions. There has not been sufficient instruction about the distinction between maintaining firm convictions for ourselves and how we treat others. Much has been made of condemning sin, but not nearly enough has been made of condemning harsh, judgmental attitudes and spirits, the baptism of certain cultural standards and the expectation all others will comply with them, and way too much meddling in the lives of others. Likewise, the volunteer demands placed on many in churches is obscene. Laborers are worthy of their wages. Jesus is Lord, not the preacher or “pastor.” “Authority” needs to better framed in terms of shepherding, serving, and by example, and less by dictate and bluster.

There’s no reason why Christianity has to be practiced in a high-control environment or manner. The fruit of high-control Christianity has proven rotten. We do better to reflect the fruit of the Spirit in how we treat one another and better reflect Jesus. Then, perhaps, far fewer will experience religious abuse and trauma.… (plus d'informations)

This book is absolutely incredible. Anderson does a great job of sharing her own life story and making it accessible and understandable but not overwhelming. In addition, she writes in a way that offers compassionate understanding and steps for how to discuss this with a trained professional.

In addition, I was glad to see she references others' work and provides resources for readers. She has truly done her research.

This book is a tough one to get through because of the topic, but well worth the read. Be prepared for introspection.… (plus d'informations)

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Original review can be found here.

I finished reading a library copy of When Religion Hurts You by Dr. Laura Anderson on a Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon, I had already picked up a physical copy from a local bookstore for my personal library. It is one of the best books I have read this year. I highly recommend it for anyone who has spent time in a high control or spiritually abusive religious environment.

This book was so validating and encouraging. I could relate to a lot of what the author described when she was discussing her own experiences and those of her clients, and I have already talked to my therapist about some of the things I want to explore more as a result of this book. As I read it, I would often turn to my husband and read portions to him, amazed at how some of the things she presented were written word-for-word the way I have described my own experiences in recent months and years.

Dr. Laura presents an abundance of helpful information throughout the book, as well as strategies the reader can implement to aid their own healing process and find safety within their own body again. Some of the things she covers in the book include:

- what spiritual abuse and religious trauma can look like,

- how they can manifest in the body and impact people long after they have left the harmful environment,

- how the nervous system works,

- how purity culture and hierarchical systems play into abusive environments,

- how patriarchy is so frequently “the foundation of oppression,” and

- rebuilding identity after leaving such environments and / or deconstructing.

She also made some really interesting connections between nervous system dysregulation and fundamentalism, which I found both fascinating and enlightening.

Overall, I found it to be a very healing read and have already recommended it to several people. You can read a story about an interesting experience I navigated whilst purchasing this book here if you are so inclined.… (plus d'informations)

This really wasn't for me. I had the idea that this would be a general discussion of religious trauma and how it impacts people and communities. I did not expect the majority of the book to focus on promoting one therapeutic modality. A more accurate title would have been "how the author used somatic therapy to heal from religious trauma, and how the reader can also use the same methods to cure their trauma." While the book warns those who have left fundamentalism to avoid other forms of extremism, it seems to present somatic therapy as a religion that can't be questioned. In my opinion, some of the assumptions of this brand of therapy, such as seeing happiness and peace as a reward for thinking the right thoughts, even if it means ignoring reality, resemble those of fundamentalism. In such a setting, "compassion" and "insight" can actually be veiled contempt and invalidation.

For those who have experienced moral injury due to the real world consequences of fundamentalism, this book may be unhelpful in that it minimizes anything other than individual feelings and sensations. Real world dangers and risks are dismissed due to the assumption that listening to your body will always keep you safe, and that people and the world are inherently trustworthy as long as the individual approaches them with the correct beliefs and values. Having said that, many people seem to be finding this book helpful, so maybe I'm just not the intended audience.… (plus d'informations)