Saturday, May 22, 2010

Three Years!

This June will mark my third year out of a cult. My journey has been packed with searching, blogging, and discovering that there are so many people on this journey with me!

Spiritual abuse is, in my opinion, an epidemic that needs to be acknowledged the faith community. No more sweeping victims under the rug! Spiritual abuse survivors need acknowledgement and validation to continue the healing process.

I want to celebrate my third anniversary by inviting readers to comment and link back their own stories of survival and escape. Know a good post about healing spiritual abuse? Please link it to this blog (If I can get Mr. Link to work :)

First step: Type the name of the post and add the URL to the actual post in Mr. Linky below.
Second step: spread the word by linking this post's URL in a post on your blog. It will give your readers a chance to add their stories.
I'll start off by adding my recent post from 'Coffin Proclivity'.

I've told my story- I want to hear yours.

picture by ccyrx18 in photobucket

16 comments:

john john said...

I am going on two years myself, and am glad to have met you and others!

The Cult Next Door said...

@ JunkerJorge -That is awesome! I would be honored if you would be a guest poster on my blog in June...e-mail me @ toxicsheepnomore@yahoo.com if it's something you might consider...

The Cult Next Door said...

Hopefully the Mr. Linky works for everybody

Anonymous said...

I am very happy for your success!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog. Although I am not a fundamentalist, I have experienced the same type of thing in an extremist Catholic sect.

The Cult Next Door said...

@ the Watcher: Thank you so much! Freedom is a lovely thing.

The Cult Next Door said...

@ LLMom: so sorry to hear of your experience...thanks for linking your site! I will enjoy reading it the next few days.

Anonymous said...

Just linked a page to your blog, thanks for the heads up!

Eric P. said...

It's not exactly a biographical story, but I've blogged quite a bit about what I've learned in and out of spiritually abusive churches. I linked to the most popular post, but some of the others cover many different aspects.

http://www.ericpazdziora.com/tag/spiritual-abuse/

Congrats, and great idea!

Provender said...

Here is the healing post: http://chris-thebereans.blogspot.com/2010/01/judgment-has-come.html

from a South African brother out of his church. Not sure I did this right. Anyway, today (it's been just over 3 years here, too) I learned that all but one family from our former spiritually abusive church is out, and the remaining family knows the score and is just gathering courage and conviction to get out. I've been singing "Ding, dong, the witch is dead" all day! There is a newer couple and another woman left besides this family, and that's IT! It's just about over. I am ecstatic! Thank you Cult Next Door for all the support over these years! Thanks for telling your stories. It is so helpful to hear them. Now to post a link on Provender to your three years link thing here. Thanks much.

Joe Blackmon said...

It's been a little less than a year for me. It was the single hardest decision I have ever made. I remember how my children would cry as we would drive by the church. What they did to me I can let slide without too much problem but when I think about how it hurt my kids I seriously want to go jack somebody's jaw, for real.

The Cult Next Door said...

I also added another personal account from my ex-cult "Blinded by False Love"...

Anonymous said...

I have been working on updating my story and did not want to post the link until it was completed. I provided a link to the short summary on the About page of my site, but if you want a full version of my story you can read it at http://restoringtheheart.wordpress.com/my-story/

Congratulations to all of you who are seeking to heal, recover, and find hope. It took a long time before I found it, but now that I have I want others to know that healing and restoring is possible! Keep talking, keep seeking, keep crying out for faith during your darkest times. God is there!

Sherie

The Cult Next Door said...

@Provender-Thanks so much for the link! I am going to e-mail you in the next couple of days...
SO glad to hear about the South Africian family and their freedom...WOW! It's so great to hear of people escaping spiritual abuse...

The Cult Next Door said...

@restoring the heart...thank you so much for the link! And thank you, thank you for featuring "Grace is For Sinners" blog...It has BLESSED me SO MUCH!!!

Aimee said...

My link just shared a snippet of my cult and out-of-a-cult journey...I left 5 years ago in May and always find it refreshing to find bloggers who talk about and have been where I have been. Can't wait to peek around your blog more!