The ICSA has a journal article about how career counseling can help protect vulnerable kids from trafficking and cults.

Surprise! Poverty increases risk. Having a solid sense of identity helps prevent risk.

Abstract: 'Human trafficking is a rapidly expanding global criminal industry that frequently targets children and adolescents by preying on their vulnerabilities. This article presents research identifying seven categories of susceptibility in Generation Z, with a specific focus on how poverty and low personal achievement increase the risk of being trafficked. The authors propose that career counseling can serve as a vital preventive measure by building self-sufficiency, motivation, and a long-term “career self-concept” that helps youth reject the immediate gratification offered by predators.'

(Sorry, it's Substack.)

https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/could-career-counseling-help-protect

#ReligiousTrauma #cult #cults #exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical

Natasha Helfer on developments in Utah with the LDS church supporting rollbacks of discrimination protections for transgender people. 10 minutes.

https://youtu.be/n1qSxDd3iNc

#ReligiousTrauma #UTPol #exmo #exmormon #LGBTQ #Sexcommunicated

Christians and defenders of Christianity who haven't thought it through like to point to the New Testament as where God finally decided to be a nice guy. (Which is antisemitic, btw. But that aside.)

Sometimes I revisit various stories from the New Testament and realize what an asshole Jesus was.

Today my feed reminded me of the walking on water story, in which Jesus was particularly dickish. It goes like this:

Jesus sends his pals out in a boat and he's like, "You go on boys I'll catch you up later." And he goes on a mountain to pray for the rest of the day because he's SO HOLY. When he's done, he heads back to the ship, which by now is way out to sea. So he just walks out there as if states of matter are nothing to him.

The dudes on the ship, they're like holy shit boys, there's a ghooost! (idk why but everybody was always mistaking The Christ for a ghost back then.)

Jesus is like "hey guys, lol naw it's just me, walking on water!! Check this out!"

Peter is like "I don't fucking believe you, SCARY GHOST! If it IS you, then tell me to come out there and get you!" (wtf Pete??)

So The Christ is like, "ok bru, come on out here."

Peter is like "boys, hold my beer, don't you go drinking it Judas, it's my last one!" and he jumps out of the boat and is walking on water, just like his buddy Jesus!!

But it's a bit windy and this one huge wave is like "ooooohhh I'm the ghost now! Boo!" and Peter is thinking "Shit this was really stupid, I'm way too drunk for this." So Peter starts sinking, right?

Then Jesus, god what a dick, he goes, "Pete you motherfucker, you didn't have enough faith and now I've got to save your ass AGAIN!" And he saved Peter from drowning, even though this whole thing was a setup from the beginning to make him look like some sort of savior.

And just to prove it, the weather calms right back down when Jesus gets into the boat, and they all has a good laugh.

Just kidding. What really happened is, in fact, everyone started worshiping him then and there with his smug-ass grin.

The version they tell in Sunday school has all of these same beats, but is told in a different tone, where Jesus is awesome and Peter should be ashamed of himself for not believing hard enough that he could only walk *a little way* on stormy water.

That, my friends, is what I call #AbuseCulture and why you should decolonize your mind.

#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #decolonization

The scientist in this video, at the end, asks why scientists are so quick to assume animals don't have language, and my immediate answer was, "colonization."

My ancestors knew animals could speak. They used a spiritual model to convey this idea, that animals and humans aren't different, and that everything has a spirit. They told stories about things animals had said to them and others.

This type of religious view is known as "animism," which is shared by many pre-colonized societies, including my own European pre-colonized ancestors.

But both Christian and scientific colonizers labeled these people "primitives" and their ways as "backward." Then they systematically obliterated these cultures wherever they found them until this idea became a religious element, taken on faith, within science.

Strict categorization is a tool of colonizers. These researchers concluded that language exists on a spectrum. Spectrum-thinking is decolonization. As the scientific method decolonizes, the scientific model becomes closer to understanding reality.

And if you want some tears, read some of the animal interaction stories in the comments. I've been learning to talk to animals and it is incredibly rewarding.

https://youtu.be/xZllWiKKPHk

#AbuseCulture #decolonization #rewilding #ReligiousTrauma

https://icsatoday.substack.com/p/religion-and-state-authority-what

#ReligiousTrauma #cults

Anyway, time to stop making fun of Easter and get back to suffering in terrible guilt that Jesus suffered in terrible pain so that anyone who obeys the father won't have to suffer but everyone else is a terrible bad person who gets to suffer for eternity! Yippie! What a joyous, wonderful time of the year!

#ReligiousTrauma #DeathCult #GodOfSuffering

Gay dad has a forceful response to a 7-year-old who called gay people ‘the devil’

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/gay-dad-response-to-hateful-kid-ex1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gay-dad-response-to-hateful-kid-ex1

"Iran did not need to blockade the Strait of Hormuz; capitalism did it for them. The market looked at the risk, did the math, & shut the door using actuarial science - The Devil's Math"

I've missed Step Back. Today's history/CE lesson :
https://nebula.tv/videos/stepback-whats-happening-in-iran-is-so-much-worse-than-you-think/

Also on shite site youtube, if you must

#Nebula #Iran #warcrimes #DeadBirds #TrumpWar #CapitalismKills #capitalism #religiousTrauma

#Immaculate is one of those #movies that you should watch this #EasterWeek.

Nice practical effects (like the old times) and good #BodyHorror.
IDK how it does to capture the essence of the #CatholicChurch in a so #exquisite way.

Easily a 10 of 10.

#movie #streaming #cinema #HBO #HBOMAX #Horror #HolyWeek #ReligiousTrauma