I’ve always known I was weird. An entire table of public school kids crowded around me in driving school, peppering me with questions. I was one of two homeschooled kids in the classroom. Elsie, the other girl, and I later became friends. We both felt like outsiders, but I told my mom later that I feltContinueContinue reading “Why the little purple alien in ‘Home’ is me”
Tag Archives: faith
Internalization, boundaries, and me
Communication is amazing, when it actually happens. It’s cliche, but both sides have to be willing to exchange and receive information. I’m trying to talk to my parents again. This is a choice I have made, not out of obligation. I’m told that I’m naïve, but there’s this little flicker of optimism inside me that refuses toContinueContinue reading “Internalization, boundaries, and me”
You don’t have to look: Revisiting how we tell the Easter story
I have problems with Easter. My church attendance has been irregular since I left fundamentalism, which I’ve been told is normal for people who have suffered spiritual abuse. This year, I tried to go to church on Easter Sunday. I drove to the parking lot. Panic rose in my stomach until I thought I mightContinueContinue reading “You don’t have to look: Revisiting how we tell the Easter story”
Deprogramming: documentaries and movies about cults and fundamentalist Christian subculture
Some people asked us what life was like after we left when I posted the UnBoxing Project series, how we handled leaving the sects of fundamentalist Christianity we were raised in. My friends and I went through a period of deprogramming, which is still ongoing. We’d been told what to think our whole lives, what isContinueContinue reading “Deprogramming: documentaries and movies about cults and fundamentalist Christian subculture”
The UnBoxing Project: Surviving and thriving on the outside
Although I had very little when I was kicked out of the cult and moved out of my family’s house, I came from an upper middle class, well-educated family. I grew up privileged. I moved out as a college student with a couple of on-campus jobs after my parents emptied my savings account. Many ofContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: Surviving and thriving on the outside”
Eleanor Skelton 