Spiritual Abuse, PTSD, Recovery, Beaverton Grace Bible Church, Chuck O'Neal *** When someone deals with spiritual abuse, it can have lasting consequences. One popular response is making the decision to no longer go an institutional church. I get that. I'm pretty sure I relayed the story either in a post, or in comments, that one… Continue reading Spiritual Abuse, PTSD, and the Aftermath
Category: Julie Anne’s Personal Stories
Doctrine, Debates, and Salvation. Will the real Christian please stand?
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 There has been heaviness for me this week, and it has wiped my writing mojo. But I have been thinking about a lot… Continue reading Doctrine, Debates, and Salvation. Will the real Christian please stand?
Blog Series: Spiritual Abuse in the Church: A Guide to Recognition and Recovery by Pastor Ken Garrett, Wk 2
Spiritual Abuse, Pastor Ken Garrett, Spiritual Abuse in the church: A Guide to Recognition and Recovery *** Ok, here we go, plowing through Pastor Ken Garret's dissertation about spiritual abuse. I used the word plowing intentionally. For some of us, it will be work. It is not enjoyable to be reminded about difficult experiences. However,… Continue reading Blog Series: Spiritual Abuse in the Church: A Guide to Recognition and Recovery by Pastor Ken Garrett, Wk 2
I’m Alive
Hey friends, I'm still alive. I'm just swamped. Welcome to my world. Feel free to continue discussion on any post. I am checking in and responding to pressing e-mails. I'll get a post up soon. Thank you for your patience!
Spiritual Sounding Board: Updating the Legacy – Year 5
* * * * * * * Boy, oh boy, it's been FIVE years today since the beginning of my blogs, and tomorrow marks five years since being served with the lawsuit by my ex-pastor Chuck O'Neal of Beaverton Grace Bible Church. It's a good milestone moment to update the legacy. Here was my profile… Continue reading Spiritual Sounding Board: Updating the Legacy – Year 5
Personal Update
*** I'm sure you have noticed the sporadic blog posts these past few weeks. After taking off last term to recovery from a hysterectomy, I have gone back to school with a full load this term. I'm still not at 100% and require more sleep/rest than normal. All of the women who told me that… Continue reading Personal Update
Julie Anne’s Intruder, Softball, and Issues
*** I promised an update on me and so here goes. It seems that my generation and older seems to squirm about personal issues, but frankly, I'm tired of that. So, I'm posting what's been happening with me because more often than not, when I do post on something personal, several people will usually e-mail… Continue reading Julie Anne’s Intruder, Softball, and Issues
What Happened Last Week?
*** Last week, I went to a memorial service in Portland and met someone I've been wanting to meet for a long time, Brad Sargent. As long-time readers know, Brad has been a great help to me during my defamation lawsuit and on the blog for quite some time. Brad spent hundreds of hours writing… Continue reading What Happened Last Week?
How our Pastor’s Biblical Interpretation Can Affect Our Understanding of Scripture and God
*** This is a very insightful statement from C.J. Mahaney. https://twitter.com/CJMahaney/status/739414015546404864 When a pastor preaches, he is leading his congregation in his interpretation of Scripture. It may or may not be correct. I know from reading many personal stories of those who were Mahaney's church that his teachings caused spiritual harm. I don't think… Continue reading How our Pastor’s Biblical Interpretation Can Affect Our Understanding of Scripture and God
Help! My Family Member or Close Friend is Trapped in a High-Controlling Church or Cult. How Can I Encourage Them to Leave?
How to help a family member or friend leave a high-controlling church group or cult: spiritual abuse, trapped, thought reform, mind control, freedom “Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral… Continue reading Help! My Family Member or Close Friend is Trapped in a High-Controlling Church or Cult. How Can I Encourage Them to Leave?
A Brief Blog Respite and JA’s Back
Update from Julie Anne Well, I didn't intend to be away for so long or I would have posted something. Truth be told, every day I planned on posting something "tomorrow," but as I followed my gut, that "tomorrow" didn't happen, so obviously it wasn't meant to be. I guess I needed the down time.… Continue reading A Brief Blog Respite and JA’s Back
The Challenge of Dealing with the Effects of Sexual Addiction, Pornography, Pedophilia by Family Members or Friends
Sexual addictions, pornography, pedophiles, family and friends of sexual addicts, S-Anon *** Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves… Continue reading The Challenge of Dealing with the Effects of Sexual Addiction, Pornography, Pedophilia by Family Members or Friends
The Bully: Familiar Feelings, Completely Different Environment
Spiritual abuse, bullies, connections, gaslighting *** A few weeks ago, I started Spring term at college. The professor has a PhD in her field, and told us she's been teaching from high school level to grad school since the 80s. READ: she's no spring chicken and has a lot of classroom experience. As the days… Continue reading The Bully: Familiar Feelings, Completely Different Environment
JA’s Spring Break Happenings
*** I've been kind of out of blogging commission lately, except for commenting and moderating for the last few days. On Friday, I took my boys to the Oregon Coast and then spent Sunday through Tuesday in Portland and stayed at the parsonage of the 2nd oldest church in Portland - my friend, Pastor… Continue reading JA’s Spring Break Happenings
JA has put herself in blog time-out
So, yesterday I read a tweet that left me reeling. It made it difficult to concentrate on my school work, and got me thinking and emoting quite a bit. I've tried numerous times to put up a blog post today and yesterday and realize that I just need to let my emotions simmer… Continue reading JA has put herself in blog time-out
Spiritual Sounding Board: The Legacy That a Defamation Lawsuit Left to the Survivor Community
A guest post by brad/futuristguy. Today marks the four-year anniversary of what turned into a five-plus-month lawsuit by Charles O’Neal and Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) against Julie Anne Smith and four other defendants. He alleged defamation (in part because Julie Anne posted negative online reviews of him and his church), he wanted a jury… Continue reading Spiritual Sounding Board: The Legacy That a Defamation Lawsuit Left to the Survivor Community
The Fallout of Spiritual Abuse on Our Children
Children Harmed by Spiritual Abuse Yesterday, I was talking with my programming language tutor and mentioned that I had a blog. He asked what my blog was about and I told him the long story. He was absolutely dumbfounded by what he was hearing and kept shaking his head, not wanting to believe it, even… Continue reading The Fallout of Spiritual Abuse on Our Children
Spiritual Abuse: What Was the Last Straw That Caused You to Leave Your Abusive Church?
Spiritual Abuse - What finally made you realize you had to leave your church? *** *** I had already told my husband that I had to leave BGBC, with or without him, but I was hoping that he would come to the same conclusion without my influence. That finally happened after our close friend who was… Continue reading Spiritual Abuse: What Was the Last Straw That Caused You to Leave Your Abusive Church?
MIA
*** *** Sorry I've been MIA. It seems I get to publicly thank CON once again. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have the skills that I have now to help my childhood community, Anderson Springs, which was nearly destroyed in the "Valley Fire" in California. My great-grandmother and grandparents bought the cabin probably in… Continue reading MIA
Piper’s New Glasses and Seeing Clearly after Wearing Distorted Lenses of Spiritual Abuse
*** Seeing Clearly Again after Spiritual Abuse *** Have you seen this video which has been spreading around? It is the cutest thing ever and shows a precious baby, Piper, who does not want her mama to put on her new glasses. But after she gets her new glasses on, Piper's face lights up as she hears… Continue reading Piper’s New Glasses and Seeing Clearly after Wearing Distorted Lenses of Spiritual Abuse
Spiritual Sounding Board 