Posts Tagged ‘Spiritual Abuse’
Open The Locks With Love
My hope is that by being openly-transgender, people will see our truths more clearly. How sad that any young person would not be able to believe they can be their authentic self. My heart is broken but my resolve is re-doubled again. I hate the ignorance and the religious intolerance that precipitates actions like the…
Read MoreReflection On A Brief, Authentic Life
“We don’t support that, religiously.”- Carla Alcorn (remark from an interview following the suicide death of her seventeen-year-old transgender daughter) People sometimes ask me why I “came out” as a transgender man and United Methodist clergy. There is more than one answer, but today the quote above from the mother of a seventeen-year-old transgender daughter…
Read MoreChristian Parents Reject Their Gay Son: What Can We Do?
A video making its way through the internet depicts one of the worst coming out experiences one can have. In it, we hear a mother start with “I love you,” and move quickly to kicking her son out of her home, then to attacking and beating him. The video is painful to watch (listen to, actually,…
Read MoreWhy I Love My Job As A Therapist
One of the most frequently asked questions people ask me about my job is whether I get depressed at work. As a web-based therapist, I specialize in primarily seeing three different types of people—those who need a safe place to figure out if they are gay and how to reconcile that with their faith, people…
Read MoreA Brother’s Pledge: Standing Up For Love
I remember sitting in church and hearing the sermons about what it meant to be a Christian—the commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself—and thinking that this just didn’t apply to me; I was unworthy. As I came of age I realized that my sexual orientation wasn’t a choice I had made, but…
Read MoreEffects Of Abusive Theology: Depression In The Same Gender Loving Community
Over the past couple of months, several young, same gender loving, successful, driven, caring and religious men have begun sharing with me their mental health statuses. In this process I have come to understand that same gender loving men (i.e. Black gay men) are dealing with an epidemic that our religious communities, as well as…
Read MoreEncountering Psychosis: Mental Health, Religiosity & Queer Identity
Trigger Warning: Depictions of violence and self-harm In April 2012, while working as a Chaplain Resident at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA, I was startled by the information presented at the interdisciplinary team meeting on my surgery unit. It was reported by the social worker that Joseph Christian (name changed due to matters of…
Read MoreMy God Is Not A Bully
The project began in 2011 at a meeting in Tucson, where the national Coordinating Team of the Church Within A Church Movement (CWACM) brainstormed for ways to share the message that God is Love, not hate. After launching at the Church Within A Church Movement’s 10th anniversary celebration, the video legacy project became a reality during Pride…
Read MoreFinding Myself Through Therapy
When I think about being a therapist and my past feelings about therapy, a big smile appears on my face. I smile because I still cannot believe how misdirected my personal feelings about therapy once were. I used to think that therapy was only for “messed up” people—you know, those who could not deal with…
Read MoreExodus International: Harm Repackaged Is Still Harm
What a wild ride the last 24 hours have been. Actually, it started about two weeks ago for me. I’m a member of an online group for survivors of ex-gay therapy. We’ve been getting ready for the Lisa Ling Our America special that aired last night, June 20, 2013. We knew some of the people invited to…
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