Religious trauma drastically impacts queer community
It took me almost 20 years to figure out I’d been in a pseudo religious cult. Born female, I wasn’t allowed to cut my hair or wear pants and there was that one time when I was nine years old that I’d heard our pastor scolding my father about being more careful I didn’t “turn out to be a lesbian.” Spoiler alert: He was unsuccessful.
Now as a full-time therapist in private practice in Arlington, Va., I’ve begun to notice that, since peak pandemic, religious trauma has become the mental health buzzword of the year.
Defined by the Global Center for Religious Research, religious trauma results from an event, series of events, relationships, or circumstances within or connected to religious beliefs, practices, or structures that is experienced by an individual as overwhelming or disruptive and has lasting adverse effects on a person’s physical, mental, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.
Before we had an official term for it, people often referred to the concept as “church hurt” or “temple torment” and other more colloquial expressions to indicate the same thing—the source of their pain lies in the foundation of religion and religious people.
