Overlooked Signs of Religious Trauma

Guest Blogger: Jeremy Schumacher

One of the most insidious ways that organized religions are doing regular harm is by teaching people not to trust their bodies. Sex is bad. Pleasure is wrong. Experimenting isn’t learning, but rather a slippery slope. But convincing people not to trust their own bodies, and its innate warning system in the central nervous system, opens those same people to ignoring signs that abuse and harm are happening. Overlay this with a rigid hierarchy or dogmatic teaching about what is right and what is sinful, this inability to check our own internal systems leaves us open to manipulation. You can’t trust yourself, but you can trust this leader, he was appointed by a miraculous sign!