She was eight years old when she walked, almost ran, down the aisle of a little Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas. For well over an hour, she listened to a sweaty man in a wrinkled, brown suit yelling and waving his arms. Like a small-town carnival barker, he tantalized the crowd with a story of epic proportions, complete with scenes of terror and promised escape…for those who would listen.
After spending dozens of hours absorbing Carlile’s music, interviews, memoir and lyrics, an undeniable theme emerged that I call a Theology of Belonging. It’s a theology that is concerned with real life experiences, and causes us to make room for others.
This project examines the connection between Christian fundamentalism’s strict model of womanhood and Complex-PTSD, which misshapes personal identity, atrophies agency and stunts the imagination.
Religion is largely recognized as being beneficial to the lives of humans. It can help us make sense of the world by answering the big questions of life. Religion can also bring comfort, healing and a sense of safety from a traumatic world. So…what happens when it’s religion itself that is the source of distress and trauma?
