DEFEATING THE DEMONS

I want to highlight a blog on the sidebar. Defeating the Dragons is authored by an incredibly courageous young woman. I encourage you to work your way from the beginning, Easter is (for believers) the story of hope out of no hope. Unfortunately there are some groups who have twisted that message of hope into a culture of control and abuse. Both physical and spiritual. Her stories of a pastor who was (and probably still is) a "narcissistic sociopath" are bone chilling. Her four years at Pensacola Christian College were slightly better. But not by much.

What is totally scary is how deep the "programming" in this culture goes. Members reach a point where  they can't even imagine another way to act. Fortunately she had a fairly normal childhood up to the age of about ten when her parents joined a small IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) congregation. I want to stress what she has stressed. She was not abused by her parents beyond the programming they got through the church, but the pastor sounds like a real piece of work.

Not long after they joined she came home to find her dad taking a hammer to their CD collection. "What's going on?" "We're getting rid of all the bad music." Ouch, I have whole library of "bad" music and I can't stand most so called Christian music.

Note on the Christian college she graduated from. At the time she attended Pensacola was not accredited. By anyone. So, if you got kicked out for any of a long list of reasons (anything to do with sex was on the top of the list) your chances of finishing your education at say, Oregon State were pretty close to zero.  It's not like credits from a Biology Department that teaches young earth creationism are going to count anywhere beyond say Bob Jones University. And as she points out in several entries the fundies have really "original" ideas about the field of psychology. IE it doesn't exist. It's a tool of the devil.

The school is accredited with Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The organization is recognized by the Department of Education but I'm not sure how much ice that cuts with more mainline schools. Not much, I suspect.

Please, please, please take the time to read this remarkable young woman's work. Some of it will break your heart. Just for the record she survived. She got out. She finished her education. She finally found a wonderful husband. She calls him 'Handsome" and he sounds like a keeper.