Because it's important
Hi. I'm Tanwyn and I'm an adult survivor of religiously motivated child abuse. My biological parents were members of a cult, and I essentially grew up in the cult. My memories of abuse didn't just suddenly appear in my head one day after a therapist suggested that I might have been abused. My memories of abuse didn't just spring up fully formed after a visit to a hypnotist. I've always had a lot of my memories of abuse, and while I don't remember everything due to the affects of dissociative amnesia and because I was very young when the abuse started, I do remember enough to have a rough timeline of when I was abused and by whom. My point is, my memories of religiously motivated childhood abuse are real, and even if they are not completely accurate they have such a deep impact on me that it impairs my ability to function in a clinically significant manner.
Religiously motivated childhood abuse occurs every day in a variety of settings. There is not a religious group in existance that is entirely immune to at least the possibility of abuse. Just because someone's memories of abuse include an element of religious motivation or even an element of abuse in a ritualized fashion and setting does not mean that that person's memories must be implanted or inaccurate memories. More importantly, even if those memories *are* inaccurate or implanted that does not necessarily make them "false memories". Any memory that someone has that is capable of affecting them either positively or negatively is a real memory to that person, even if the events remembered are substantively untrue. Content doesn't matter nearly as much the continuing impact a memory has on an individual.
So, where am I going with all this? I am sick of seeing the experiences of survivors discounted because the contents of the memories of those survivors happen to contain religious or ritualized elements. Just because of the "satanic panic" in the... 1970s I think... I see time and again individuals finally being brave enough to speak out about their experiences as survivors of religiously motivated childhood abuse get accused of lying or attention seeking. You wouldn't discount the experiences of someone who says that they were raped just because their memory of the event happens to include the victim having been wearing a skirt at the time (or at least I would certainly hope not). By the same token, you shouldn't discount the experiences of someone who remembers being abused as a child just because they happen to remember there being a religious motivation or context.
If you do happen to be someone who tends to dismiss memories of childhood abuse for any reason, this probably isn't the journal for you.
Religiously motivated childhood abuse occurs every day in a variety of settings. There is not a religious group in existance that is entirely immune to at least the possibility of abuse. Just because someone's memories of abuse include an element of religious motivation or even an element of abuse in a ritualized fashion and setting does not mean that that person's memories must be implanted or inaccurate memories. More importantly, even if those memories *are* inaccurate or implanted that does not necessarily make them "false memories". Any memory that someone has that is capable of affecting them either positively or negatively is a real memory to that person, even if the events remembered are substantively untrue. Content doesn't matter nearly as much the continuing impact a memory has on an individual.
So, where am I going with all this? I am sick of seeing the experiences of survivors discounted because the contents of the memories of those survivors happen to contain religious or ritualized elements. Just because of the "satanic panic" in the... 1970s I think... I see time and again individuals finally being brave enough to speak out about their experiences as survivors of religiously motivated childhood abuse get accused of lying or attention seeking. You wouldn't discount the experiences of someone who says that they were raped just because their memory of the event happens to include the victim having been wearing a skirt at the time (or at least I would certainly hope not). By the same token, you shouldn't discount the experiences of someone who remembers being abused as a child just because they happen to remember there being a religious motivation or context.
If you do happen to be someone who tends to dismiss memories of childhood abuse for any reason, this probably isn't the journal for you.