[Monty_girl]

These are just my thoughts. I've not come in this forum for months. Religious talk is very triggering for me due to me feeling abused by my religious leader. At the age of 11 I came to by religous leader for help. I told him how I was being abused at home and I wanted him to help me. What I got in return was how I was to do as my parents told me and bible verses about how I should obey my parents. So my religious leader sends me home to be sexually/ physically and emotional abused for several more years. For years I've not been able to even talk about this. This was a spiritual abuse of my being. This is something I've even had to really try and deal with in therapy. I have a wonderful T that's treaded lightly on this subject with me. It will take many more years I think for me to be spiritually well.

I just wanted people to know that the rules and guildlines we have here at PC are for a reason. The rules aren't made to hurt anyone. But they are here to also protect people like myself who need the extra support of the rules so that we can heal in our own time.

Thank You for hearing me out.
Lisa

[nowheretorun]

hi MontyGirl... suffering of any kind is intolerable imo.... i hope you can find sanctuary and support with all the good people of PC...

[KathyM]

((Montygirl))

Thank you for sharing your story with us. I hope and pray you'll be able to heal and feel whole again soon.

[Rhapsody]

<font color="purple"> ((((((( HUGS ))))))) ~ ~ ~ ~ ((((((( HUGS ))))))) </font>

Thanks for sharing a very painful memory with us all and Thanks for reminding people that the rules are not about taking from any one - But rather about PROTECTING...... some thing some of us never had as a child.

[Rapunzel]

(((((((((((( Lisa ))))))))))))))

I am so sorry that you had that experience. IMO, that religious leader was very wrong, and should have helped you. If you come from a background where the leaders are less trained, they might not have really known how to help. I think that changes have been made to increase training and awareness so that leaders can deal with requests for help better now. Your story is, unfortunately, by no means the first one like that that I have heard, and it is tragic that children have been hurt that way. It's not the religion though, it's individuals who did the wrong thing.

I have a very similar issue with school counselors because there were several of them who knew how depressed and hurt I was and they failed me by doing nothing to help or to tell me that I had something that there was help for. I could have had a much different life if I had known. I tend to hold it against the entire profession, or at least I have, when really it was a mistake made by a few people, and now they are trained better.

[Monty_girl]

There have been a lot of changes, and a lot of arrest as well for sexual abuse in the church it's self. But it's a big trust issue for me. I just haven't gotten past that.

[KathyM]

Montygirl

I can imagine. It's no different from a woman being sexually abused by a male stranger on the street. Almost seems like too much to ask to request that woman continue trusting male strangers, and chalk up her experience to the ignorance of that particular male. Bad guys (and gals) aren't always ugly - some of them can be quite attractive and charming.

Again, I'm so sorry this has happened to you. It makes me furious - I continue to pray for you.