Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations. Listener discretion is advised.

You are listening to the Preacher Boys podcast, a podcast shedding light on decades of mental, physical, and sexual abuse within the independent fundamental Baptist movement.

The testimonies shared on this podcast are told from the personal experience and perspective

of the survivors.

Not all legal outcomes are known or final.

Any suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.

Now, here is your host, Eric Squarsinski.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show. Lauren, thank you so much for joining me on today's

episode. Thank you for having me, Eric. I'm really excited about this conversation. And also

thank you for the opportunity in being here today. Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you. And

before we recorded, you sent over, like,

just a breakdown of your journey or path. And it's like, you crossed every box of every

notable person or location. But take me back to the very beginning. You mentioned that your

dad was on staff at the church that you started in the IFB.

And is it safe to assume you don't remember anything prior to being in the IFB and sitting in Pughes Sunday morning?

Yeah, I was pretty much born and raised in the IFB from the time I was weeks old.

And so I grew up at Gospiteite Baptist Church in Walker Town, North Carolina.

And yeah, my dad was on staff at the Spanish. He was a Spanish pastor at Gospelight.

And yeah, from the time I was little, every time we had conferences, revivals, I went to

the Christian school from the time I was three until graduated. We were pretty much

there. Every single service, every single meeting. I always like joke that it's like it was my

second home, like being at the church. Yeah. Yeah, I relate to that. I always feel like my time was

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