Andrew Pledger is a religious trauma survivor who was raised in fundamentalist Christianity. He has been homeschooled his entire life for the purpose of indoctrination. His parents would only pay for a Christian university, and he chose Bob Jones University. Andrew kept his sexuality a secret until his mental health declined due to repressing emotions, sexuality, and religious trauma. For his last year of college, he created a photo series that depicted religious trauma. To bring awareness to religious trauma; he appeared on Josh Harris’s IGTV show to talk about his photo series. Bob Jones was made aware of the video, and he was expelled the last semester of his college career. These experiences have inspired him to pursue psychology to help religious trauma survivors. He is now on a mission of using social media to share his story and bring awareness to religious trauma.
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In this intimate and revealing conversation Andrew shares with Rachel his journey of leaving Christian fundamentalism explaining how the deeply embedded religious trauma caused undue suffering and eventually forced him to leave the church. Throughout the discussion, Rachel provides insights from a psychological perspective pointing out experiences commonly shared by recent survivors of religious trauma and coercive control.
Before You Go: In this unique outro segment, Rachel is once again joined by Andrew who shares some life updates and explains how the recent Supreme Court rulings have soured his recent escape from Christian fundamentalist control.
You can learn more about Andrew's projects and advocacy work here:
https://liinks.co/4ndrewpledger
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