The Wounds We Carry: Faith After Religious Trauma - Detangling IHOPKC - Jed Hartley - Episode 314

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Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:
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John and Jed discuss the complex emotional and spiritual journey of recovering from high-control religious environments. John opens up about avoiding the topic of what he believes after leaving the group, explaining that attempts to share his personal faith journey were often hijacked by others with agendas. Jed shares his parallel experience leaving a prophetic movement, highlighting the pain of being labeled bitter for asking hard questions. Both reflect on the toxic expectations within their former communities that dictated how people were allowed to process pain, and how those expectations often forced people to suppress their questions or leave entirely.

Together, they explore the difficulty of finding community after leaving, the discomfort of joining new religious spaces, and the realization that many expressions of faith still carry exclusionary tendencies. Jed reflects on how certain Bible stories, once seen as acts of faith, now carry a very different weight due to personal experiences. John shares his journey into early church history and ancient writings in a search for understanding outside of denominational boxes. They conclude by affirming that healing requires space for doubt, sadness, and unresolved questions—and that real growth happens when those experiences are not dismissed but embraced with compassion.

00:00 Introduction
01:03 Why John Avoided the Question About His Faith
04:50 The Pressure to Explain Pain Without an Agenda
10:13 The Struggle of Rebuilding Faith in a New Context
16:04 Experimenting With Church Life and Denominations
23:33 Core Beliefs, Tradition, and the Question of Truth
29:18 Realizing How Belief Systems Shape Exclusion
36:07 Jed’s Divorce and the Intersection of Faith and Grief
43:01 The Ongoing Impact of Spiritual Trauma
49:51 Two Types of Christianity and the Difficulty of Belonging
56:10 The Need for Honesty, Sadness, and Healing in Spiritual Life
1:01:17 Final Reflections on the Journey of Belief
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