JILL DERMYER - Why does religion turn from beauty into beast? // MICHAEL EDWARDS - Will the left ever get religion? // CHITRA NAGARAJAN - Put away the scriptures and follow justice
Comfort, guidance,
support, solace and inspiration—religion offers all of these things in the best
and worst of times. Yet religion also has a brutal and abusive face. I’m not
just talking about the rampant sexual abuse that has taken place within the Catholic
Church, but about all the other traumatic experiences that occur every day
in religious communities. As a psychotherapist who specializes in religious and
sexual traumas, I’ve worked with people who’ve suffered this kind of abuse for
the past eight years, so what is it that turns religion from ‘beauty into
beast?’
Although the doctrines
that underlie toxic belief systems, abusive practices, and brainwashing or
mind-control techniques vary across religions, the core issues
are usually the same. First, in many faiths obedience is valued above all
else. Religious authorities can ensure obedience by tapping into people’s
primal fears of abandonment. Followers are taught that if they disobey or show
dissent, not only will they lose their faith community but also the love of God
or another higher power.
Relationships with
these higher powers and the hierarchies of religious authority are based on
dominance and submission, a dynamic that often paves the way for abuses of
power and position. The pervasiveness of harmful practices such as sexual abuse
or expulsion from the faith helps to normalize these practices, which in turn
inhibits the urge to show dissent or speak out when they occur. ‘Don’t think,
don’t feel’ is a common mantra when followers are taught to surrender
free-thinking to religious leaders. Critical thinking and emotional
intelligence are frowned on.
This presents major
difficulties when a person chooses to leave the religious fold, because
independent living in the secular world requires more of these qualities not
less, including trust in oneself to make the right decisions for one’s life.
That’s why many individuals report feeling indecisive and frightened after
leaving their faith, which often leads to isolation and an increasing sense
that they don’t belong in this new, secular world.
Secondly, these same
authoritarian tendencies can reinforce negative and harmful messages about the
Self and the secular world. The core teaching that the ‘Self is bad’ is common
to many religious beliefs. In Christian teachings, followers are taught that
God created human beings in his perfect image, an image which is polluted or
destroyed by human sin—like same-sex marriage. The constant reiteration of the
message that ‘we are bad’ establishes negative conditioning, and if
internalized this can lead to depression and self-hatred, and on to suicidal
thoughts and behaviors.
Individuals that have
been abused in relationships are often asked why they didn’t leave their
partner, a question that’s also asked of ex-cult members. In both cases the
answer is the same—the dominant or abusive party will capitalize on the
following kinds of behavior to ensure that the submissive party remains devoted
to them: coercion and threats, economic abuse, intimidation, emotional abuse,
male privilege, the use of children as leverage, and the act of minimizing or
denying abusive practices—or blaming them on the victim.
Thirdly, leaving one’s
faith involves a lot more than a shift in thinking and beliefs. It might also
mean losing your interpersonal support system, namely your friends and family
members. This is most commonly seen among the ex-Jehovah Witness community,
whose members may be expelled for ‘unrepentant
sin.’ Once someone has been expelled, members of the church are forbidden
from keeping their company, and it is not uncommon for a mother to cut all ties
with her ‘disfellow-shipped’ child, a traumatic interpersonal loss
that can lead to feelings of abandonment, grief and depression.
Intrapersonal losses are also common, because many
aspects of faith can offer adaptive coping mechanisms during times of stress.
When someone feels lost or discouraged, prayer or religious attendance can
offer valuable support and guidance, so the loss of these coping strategies can
result in the use of practices which are even more harmful.
A common theme I’ve
come across in my clinical work is that individuals who have left their faith
experience a sense of desperation that comes from the loss of belief in a
pre-determined destiny, or the sense that ‘everything is in God’s hands.’ The
realization that one’s life is no longer following a pre-determined path can
contribute to feelings of insignificance, and a crisis of identity. In an
attempt to take control of their own destinies, people report seeking
gratification and a sense of purpose from high-risk behaviors such as anonymous
sex and substance abuse.
If the choice to leave
is voluntary, individuals generally experience acute relief followed by
multiple triggers that can induce psychological distress. But even if it isn’t
voluntary, the shift to the secular world can lead to difficulties in many
areas of functioning such as work and school. Social and cultural losses such
as the rupture of families and social networks, employment issues, and/or
financial stress can all contribute to problems of acculturation into a new,
secular life. Individuals may experience difficulty with decision making and
critical thinking, as well as identity confusion.
Also common are anxiety,
depression and grief; concerns about death and the afterlife; a sense of shame;
changes in sleep patterns and nightmares; substance abuse, and/or sexual
dysfunction. Many of these problems
are common to non-religious situations too, but there are some aspects of
stress that make faith-based trauma unique, particularly the pressure that
exists to return to the perpetrators. When someone suffers abuse at the
hands of a religious elder, they are sometimes told to return
to their church and ‘pray on it.’ This happened to a former client of
mine whose husband sexually abused members of their congregation. When she
sought support for her considerable psychological distress, she was met instead
with the following message: “Strengthen your relationship with God, and all
will be well.”
Her primary method of
coping was recognized, but her pain was ignored. In cases like these, people
are told that everything will be ok if they simply increase their faith, pray
harder, or seek religious guidance, when in actuality what they need is
non-secular support to address the realities of their psychological suffering. Consider
how the same family members would react in the wake of a sexual assault outside the
church. No parent would ever tell their child to seek out the perpetrator and
ask forgiveness for their sin. A unique aspect of religious trauma is that it
is often not recognized as a traumatic event, and this is what makes such
events so dangerous.
Of course, religion
can offer positive and helpful support in certain situations too—as in the case
of another client who experienced one of the worst traumatic events I’ve ever
encountered at the hands of his previous religious community after showing open
support for his transgender son. After fleeing this community he only found
solace when he discovered another church that openly accepted his and his
family as their authentic and genuine selves. But in general, secular, evidence-based,
psychological sciences such as cognitive-behavioral therapy,
psychodynamic theory and emotion-focused therapies show that effective support
can be offered to those suffering from traumatic stress in ways that
faith-based treatments cannot.
Religion and faith can
be beautiful things, and they can be brutal. Religious freedom is rightly
valued in democratic societies, but the ways in which religious culture can
foster the abuse and exploitation of individuals are real. At their core, the
mainstream religions share the same beliefs: be kind, be good, and love your
neighbor. But these beliefs must be practiced in community, and in communities
power is often appropriated and misused by leaders.
If psychology has
taught us anything, it is that influential people can shape how people view and
think of themselves, of others, and of the wider world in which they live.
Religious leaders have the choice of imparting values and behaviors that are
true to their teachings, or translating those messages in ways that heighten
their own sense of power and importance and provide a cover for abuse.
Can there
ever be a truly successful, secular revolution?
Why does religion
drive so many people nuts? That’s the
question that opensand closes our
debate on religion and social change. On the surface the answer is obvious,
at least for progressives—it’s because of the damage that’s been done by
religion to the causes they hold dear: independence
and equality for women, gay
marriage and LGBTQ rights, peace
and protection from zealots and fanatics, and safety in the face of sexual
abuse. How come the ineffable being is always a bloke with a beard who
privileges others who look the same as him? Religion has become the mother-lode
of patriarchy, stupidity, homophobia and all things conservative.
But the opposite is
also true: religion gives tremendous strength and staying power to the struggle
for equality and social justice. It’s a force that makes people go
to jail for their beliefs, break into nuclear weapons facilities and daub
biblical slogans on the walls, found
social movements that change society, organize workers to
stand up for their rights, and confront dictators at
the cost of their own lives. Religious groups are also the mainstays of health,
education, social welfare and community-level conflict prevention in
many countries. For Dorothy
Day, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Oscar
Romero and many others, religion isn’t incidental to social change,
it’s pivotal—it’s the reason whythey are willing to give so much to
the cause.
Faced by these
contradictory realities, what’s the best response for those committed to
radical transformation? Ignoring, belittling or actively opposing religion all
have their supporters, but active,
open and critical engagement is likely to be much more effective, for
at least three reasons.
First, the
world is increasingly religious, and is likely to continue along this path.
According to data from the Pew
Center for Research on Religion, 84
per cent of adults in their global surveys said they were affiliated to one
religion or another in 2010, a figure that’s projected to rise to 87 per cent
by 2050—if for no other reason than the demographic growth of the Islamic
population, which accounts for much of this extrapolated expansion.
But Christianity,
Hinduism, Judaism and what Pew calls “folk religions” like traditional African
and Native American faiths are also set to grow. The exception is Buddhism—the
result, perhaps, of too much meditation and not enough procreation along the
spiritual path. Intriguingly, the trends are different among members of
the millennial generation in the West, who are deserting established
religions in favor of “unaffiliated
spirituality.” In a new report called “How we
Gather,” authors Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile write that
“millennials are flocking to a host of new organizations that deepen community
in ways that are powerful, surprising, and perhaps even religious,” but not
defined along the lines or hierarchies of existing faiths.
Against this
background, ignoring, insulting or attempting to eradicate religion can’t be
viable options for anyone concerned with social transformation, since large
parts of the required constituency for radical action will be marginalized as a
result—far better to negotiate a democratic settlement between secular rights
and religious freedoms. But this requires abandoning the absolutism that’s
often the hallmark of enthusiasts on both sides of the debate—an attitude that
leaves no room for forward movement except on terms that are unacceptable to
the other. France’s ban
on the wearing of the veil is one example.
Unfortunately such
liberal-democratic settlements won’t work precisely where they’re most
needed—the Islamic State for example, or Zionism, or the core of conservative
Christian fundamentalism, but perhaps religion isn’t the key to any of these
cases: if both conservative and progressive forces are at work in religion,
then religion itself can’t be the deciding factor. So problems of ‘religious’
violence and discrimination may have less to do with religion versus secularity
than with forces that stretch across and underneath this divide—like the urge
to dominate and destroy, to accumulate more power for our tribe, to turn our
fears outwards into the oppression of someone else, or to refuse to negotiate
or to bend.
Fundamentalism of any
kind is a threat to democracy and equal rights, but it springs from a
generalized desire for hegemony and control. Is neo-liberalism more or less
damaging than Catholicism? Is religious violence worse or better than the
secular variety? Religion is a mask of convenience for those who need an extra
dose of legitimacy as a cover for their sins, but there are many other, secular
disguises waiting in the wings… read more:
During a visit to Bayelsa state in
Southern Nigeria last year, I was taken aback to hear a male Christian leader quote Karl Marx to
describe how trust in God reduces the potential for struggle and mobilisation:
“religion is an opiate of the masses.” Belief in the divine can stop people
from acting when those with power are seen as favoured, regardless of their
corruption, crimes and human rights abuses. All too often, inequality is seen
as God’s will.… read more:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/chitra-nagarajan/put-away-scriptures-and-follow-justice
