Millions of people every year are abused and traumatized by Christianity. Toxic Christianity often negatively impacts those who are members of the religion and those who experience this religion in their communities due to Christian-influenced community norms and legislation being forced upon them.

White et al. (2021) talked about the purpose of religious transmission in creating unity among people. Yet, they also pointed out that religion also makes an “other,” the group with which the religious group competes. To that end, Christianity itself can create an us-against-them dynamic that has the propensity to result in the abuse of large swaths of our American populace. 

Children then learn from their mom, dad, and other important people to express Christianity in a way acceptable to their community (Downie, 2022; Ellis et al., 2022, Pew Research Center, 2022). The problem is, however, that when children learn that normal and acceptable behavior is to silence women, act with hostility toward the LGBTGEQIAP+ community, or consider BIPOC bodies to be less than White bodies, they are taught to be victimizers by the same people who victimize them (Ellis et al., 2022).

The trauma associated with toxic Christianity is gradual. You might not even recognize it in your experience. Many of us don’t because it seems normal. Everyone around us experienced something similar. But, if you look back on your experiences of Toxic Christianity, you might see yourself in some of the telltale characteristics of Christian-based religious trauma, such as (Ellis et al., 2022):

• Your Christian leader was all-powerful and made sure you knew it.

• You were required to be submissive, obey, and do what was expected.

• You were forced to follow the rules. 

• Your allegiance to the church was before all others…even God. 

• Your religious community was secretive. 

As hard as it is to recognize, those who experience religious trauma are often anxious, depressed, or demonstrate behaviors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (Ellis et al., 2022). However, there is help. Christian-based religious trauma can be treated. How, you ask? 

Well, here are a few things we do in therapy to set you on your healing journey:

• Name it: First, we work to become aware of what happened to you.

• Acknowledge it: Instead of avoiding thoughts and feelings about the abuse you experienced, you can develop skills to manage and let go of the discomfort. 

• Re-author it: By carefully examining the abuse and trauma in an intentionally designed way not to retraumatize you, you can re-author your story so that the thoughts and feelings that create anxiety or depression no longer get in your way.  

• Define your path forward: You can identify and define your values and behaviors to provide a clear path forward.   

If you are ready to work through your toxic Christianity experiences, take a seat. Let’s talk. 

References

Downie, A. (2022). Christian shame and religious trauma. Religions, 13(10), 925. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100925

Ellis, H. M., Hook, J. N., Zuniga, S., Hodge, A. S., Ford, K. M., Davis, D. E., & Van Tongeren, D. R. (2022). Religious/spiritual abuse and trauma: A systematic review of the empirical literature. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 9(4), 213–231. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000301

Pew Research Center. (2022, September 13). Modeling the future of religion in America. Retrieved on August 3, 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/modeling-the-future-of-religion-in-america/ 

White, C. J., Baimel, A., & Norenzayan, A. (2021). How cultural learning and cognitive biases shape religious beliefs. Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 34-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.07.033