Leaving Fundamentalism w/ Andrew Pledger

IndoctriNation

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 566 Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2022

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Andrew Pledger is a religious trauma survivor who was raised in fundamentalist Christianity. He has been homeschooled his entire life for the purpose of indoctrination. His parents would only pay for a Christian university, and he chose Bob Jones University. Andrew kept his sexuality a secret until his mental health declined due to repressing emotions, sexuality, and religious trauma. For his last year of college, he created a photo series that depicted religious trauma. To bring awareness to religious trauma; he appeared on Josh Harris’s IGTV show to talk about his photo series. Bob Jones was made aware of the video, and he was expelled the last semester of his college career. These experiences have inspired him to pursue psychology to help religious trauma survivors. He is now on a mission of using social media to share his story and bring awareness to religious trauma. ----------------------Content Warning: Discussion of Suicidal Ideation--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this intimate and revealing conversation Andrew shares with Rachel his journey of leaving Christian fundamentalism explaining how the deeply embedded religious trauma caused undue suffering and eventually forced him to leave the church. Throughout the discussion, Rachel provides insights from a psychological perspective pointing out experiences commonly shared by recent survivors of religious trauma and coercive control. Before You Go: In this unique outro segment, Rachel is once again joined by Andrew who shares some life updates and explains how the recent Supreme Court rulings have soured his recent escape from Christian fundamentalist control. You can learn more about Andrew's projects and advocacy work here: https://liinks.co/4ndrewpledger Thanks to all of our newest Patreon supporters: Kirsten Cole, ShaSha, Allison Yena, Becca Upshaw, Vibeke J. Gardsten, Jeff Nelson, Trish Gratson, Jessica Mitchell, Jodi Springberg, Bonni Howard, and, Sarah Hinds To help support the show monthly and get bonus episodes, shirts, and tote bags, please visit: www.patreon.com/indoctrination Prefer to support the IndoctriNation show with a one-time donation? Use this link: www.paypal.me/indoctrination You can help the show for free by leaving a rating on Spotify or Apple/ iTunes. It really helps the visibility of the show! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to indoctrination, a weekly conversation series about protecting yourself from systems of control.
0:11.1	I'm your host, Rachel Bernstein.
0:13.5	Hi, everybody.
0:15.0	I am very happy to have you here, Andrew Pledger, on our show this week.
0:20.3	He has now become part of the podcast team,
0:24.4	and there's going to be a special outro, the one more thing before you go, after my conversation
0:30.8	with him, a unique way of doing it, and you'll find out what it is at the end of the show.
0:40.9	Andrew Pleggler. And you'll find out what it is at the end of the show. Andrew Pledger is a religious trauma survivor who was raised in fundamentalist Christianity.
0:47.5	He was homeschooled his entire life for the purpose, he says, of indoctrination.
0:52.5	His parents would only pay for a Christian university,
0:56.1	and he chose Bob Jones University. Andrew kept his sexuality a secret, until his mental health
1:02.7	declined due to repressing emotions, sexuality, and religious trauma. For his last year of college,
1:09.7	he created a photo series that depicted religious trauma. It his last year of college, he created a photo series that depicted
1:12.1	religious trauma. It was to bring awareness to religious trauma, and he appeared on Josh Harris's
1:18.6	IGTV show to talk about his photo series. Bob Jones University was made aware of the video,
1:25.5	and he was expelled his last semester of his college career.
1:30.8	These experiences have inspired him to pursue psychology to help religious trauma survivors,
1:36.9	and he is now on a mission of his own, using social media to share his story and bring
1:43.4	awareness to religious trauma. Here is Andrew now.
1:51.2	I cannot tell you how happy I am to have Andrew on the podcast today.
2:03.0	So I would love for you to take a few moments and introduce yourself to the people listening so they have a sense of who you are and also what brings you to the show.
2:13.6	So my name is Andrew Fletcher and I grew up in an independent fundamental Baptist church.
	...

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