I’ve been thinking a lot about how the whole “in the world but not of it” really impacted my worldview and concept of reality.
We were very sheltered from pop culture, and very in-depth in scripture and Christian media. I never could relate to my peers in school or the neighborhood, and I don’t know if that was intentional on the part of RAP methods or just a byproduct, but it became such a barrier to friendships with others outside our little enclave.
this definitely fits, Marlene Winell (author of Leaving the Fold) talks about how being cut off from the outside world can create a developmental delay!
This absolutely impacted me too 😭 it was already hard for me as an autistic to keep connecting with people in relationships. So being sheltered so much really made it difficult for me when i finally transitioned from homeschooling to public school in 10th grade. I felt like an alien
I have thought about this often as well. "In the world not of it" was drilled into me not so much by my parents as it was part of the evanglical milieu they shoved me into and later the safe Christian college bubble I insulated myself in. While there was some silliness to it (i.e., taking a stand for Jesus by performatively throwing away all my secular music) it also had massive consequences for my social, educational, and in turn professional development. It's very seductive for insecure, striving young people to be told you're special and somehow live on this elevated plane above the rest of the degenerate world around us. (A college chapel speaker once likened us to Professor Xavier's gifted mutant pupils, I shit you not.) It's a poor substitue for self-esteem and self-worth and it's devastating when this image of self crumbles.
I'm looking forward to exploring the neurodivergent component as well. My wife and I are both autistic cult survivors, and we have a theory that cults/high control groups attract neuro-spicy folks because of all the rules and the scripts. Super fascinating, super sad.
I'd also love to learn more about how RAP represses sexuality of any kind, but especially non-heterosexuality. I know it has been mentioned several times, and I think it deserves its own chapter {or two}.
FWIW, my wife is a therapist specializing in neurodivergence, religious trauma, and Queer folks. As she likes to say, "the Venn diagram is a circle."
such a good point, and in my experience with neurodivergent folks, its often both/and... often a natural resistance to hierarchy and can at other times be easily manipulated. Also, we talked a little bit about this in our interview with I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist - I think we did, I remember thinking about it, how even stuff like struggling with building allistic friendships, and how church can solve problems like that because it creates a clear structure of friendship through small groups, etc.
I would be interested in this too. I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about how this kind of parenting hurt me as an autistic person and it prepped me to come to some harmful beliefs about myself within American Evangelical Christianity.
I’m also this kind of neurodivergent where I’m too gullible and trust people too easily without thinking critically. The obedience first parenting my parents employed overrode my critical thinking brain and it still is a problem for me when someone authoritatively tells me what to do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the whole “in the world but not of it” really impacted my worldview and concept of reality.
We were very sheltered from pop culture, and very in-depth in scripture and Christian media. I never could relate to my peers in school or the neighborhood, and I don’t know if that was intentional on the part of RAP methods or just a byproduct, but it became such a barrier to friendships with others outside our little enclave.
this definitely fits, Marlene Winell (author of Leaving the Fold) talks about how being cut off from the outside world can create a developmental delay!
This absolutely impacted me too 😭 it was already hard for me as an autistic to keep connecting with people in relationships. So being sheltered so much really made it difficult for me when i finally transitioned from homeschooling to public school in 10th grade. I felt like an alien
I have thought about this often as well. "In the world not of it" was drilled into me not so much by my parents as it was part of the evanglical milieu they shoved me into and later the safe Christian college bubble I insulated myself in. While there was some silliness to it (i.e., taking a stand for Jesus by performatively throwing away all my secular music) it also had massive consequences for my social, educational, and in turn professional development. It's very seductive for insecure, striving young people to be told you're special and somehow live on this elevated plane above the rest of the degenerate world around us. (A college chapel speaker once likened us to Professor Xavier's gifted mutant pupils, I shit you not.) It's a poor substitue for self-esteem and self-worth and it's devastating when this image of self crumbles.
I'm looking forward to exploring the neurodivergent component as well. My wife and I are both autistic cult survivors, and we have a theory that cults/high control groups attract neuro-spicy folks because of all the rules and the scripts. Super fascinating, super sad.
I'd also love to learn more about how RAP represses sexuality of any kind, but especially non-heterosexuality. I know it has been mentioned several times, and I think it deserves its own chapter {or two}.
FWIW, my wife is a therapist specializing in neurodivergence, religious trauma, and Queer folks. As she likes to say, "the Venn diagram is a circle."
such a good point, and in my experience with neurodivergent folks, its often both/and... often a natural resistance to hierarchy and can at other times be easily manipulated. Also, we talked a little bit about this in our interview with I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist - I think we did, I remember thinking about it, how even stuff like struggling with building allistic friendships, and how church can solve problems like that because it creates a clear structure of friendship through small groups, etc.
I would be interested in this too. I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about how this kind of parenting hurt me as an autistic person and it prepped me to come to some harmful beliefs about myself within American Evangelical Christianity.
I’m also this kind of neurodivergent where I’m too gullible and trust people too easily without thinking critically. The obedience first parenting my parents employed overrode my critical thinking brain and it still is a problem for me when someone authoritatively tells me what to do.