Author: Leslie De La Cruz (Page 4 of 7)

Research Question: How can religious trauma impact the trajectory of familial relationships?

Search Terms Used: 

• Religious trauma
• religion
• family issues
• family relationships

Bibliographic Citations: 

• Performance by Brittany Broski, Why I Left the Christian Church, 19 Sept. 2023, https://youtu.be/UiusO8_HdfE?si=CVirStBruwJHqEMp . Accessed 23 Sept. 2023.
• Oppelland, Dorothea. “Religious Conflicts in Families: The Etymology and How to Solve Them?” Marriage.Com, 19 Apr. 2023, www.marriage.com/advice/relationship/religious-conflicts-in-families/.

Source Summary: 

The Broski Report is a podcast conducted by Brittany Broski, it’s a very diverse podcast and in this particular episode, she talked about the discography of a musical album, “Preacher’s Daughter” by Ethel Cain. Brittany talks about the album and how it goes into detail about family relationships and how religion had a negative impact on those relationships. I personally haven’t hear this album but it does sound interesting in the way that it creates a narrative and shows the negatives of faith and religion. As the podcast continues Brittany gives her own personal anecdotes and how religion impacted the relationships she had with her family and she stated, “a household blinded by the doctrines of an Antiquated religion how that inhibits you from forming really intimate relations with you with your family members” (Broski 27:20). This goes to show how on a certain level family members are often blinded by religion and often oversee how it affects them personally and those around them. 

For my research I want to write about the hardships of being forced into a religion that a child doesn’t necessarily relate to therefore enduring religious trauma. I can definitely relate to this and I can personally say that it had caused a huge gap between my parents and me. Once I was old enough to sit in the service on Sunday mornings I often found myself disagreeing with most of the things being said and thinking to myself that I was a horrible person for defying “God’s will.” The teachings never truly aligned with my personal beliefs and I would think to myself how disconnected I was from the church I grew up in. Often being told by the preachers to get into the “presence of God” but I never quite did, I didn’t know how, and therefore it led to me not wanting to go anymore. In my research, I want to truly dig into the religious trauma that can often lead to the breaking off of families and the irony of religion and how it’s supposed to unite families through faith.  Although I want to write about this I’m not so sure how to go about it and what specifically to focus on (what my research question may entail) because it’s such a controversial and diverse topic to talk about. There are many religions that can probably prove me wrong and defy how religions break apart families, I’m sure that for some it can actually be the one thing that does bring families together instead of breaking them apart. I’m still not sure where I stand when it comes to religion personally but I can say that leaving that environment has impacted the relationships I have with my parents now, it feels like taking a break from that part of our lives made us bond more than ever before and encouraged us to actually talk for once without the fear of being punished for it.

Growing up I was always interested and mainly scared of natural disaster movies. My dad and I would always watch movies about natural disasters and since they were movies, a lot of special effects made them look extremely real to little me. I remember watching Sharknado and being so terrified of it happening here. I would think about where I would hide and what I could do if that ever happens, but ultimately I learned that it wasn’t exactly something that could happen in real life at least not like in the movie. Curiosity eventually led me to want to learn more about the weather and climate change in general. During hurricanes I would expect things to get bad like in the movies but they never did, and to this day I still joke with my parents and how they sent me to school during Hurricane Sandy. Schools closed but during the first announcement of the hurricane I was still able to go and my dad walked little 7 year old me to school on the windiest day that I could still vividly remember. I was the one shopping with my dad for food in order to stock up as news anchors advised, I remember being so scared of something like the movie San Andreas happening. This led to the natural curiosity of learning about climate change and how it would impact me living in New York. It sparked a specific interest about extreme natural disasters which aren’t prone to happening in New York, but younger me wanted to stay alert just in case. It still interests me now but not as much as before when I was easily influenced by movies but climate change is still something that concerns me as it does impact my life in the long run.