Trigger warning. This podcast contains descriptions of various abusive situations.

Listener discretion is advised. My name is Eric Skrinski. As a former religious fundamentalist,

I'm shedding light on the dark side of the church, from the pulpit to the pews. But I'm not

doing it alone. Each week, I'm sitting down with survivors,

advocates, authors, and more to uncover the inner workings of these abusive religious groups

to give tactical tips on how to escape and to find out what we can do to take them down.

You're listening to The Bridge Boys podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Bridge

Boys podcast. Today, I am sitting down with Dr. Diane Langberg, a psychologist with more

than 50 years of experience. When Dr. Langberg first entered this field, post-traumatic stress

disorder had not even been discovered yet. Just to give you a sense of how long she's been

at this work and how much the field has changed over the last several decades. Dr. Langberg

recently wrote a new book called When the Church Harms God's People and Brazos Press. My friends

over at that publisher were kind enough to send me a free copy to check out for myself.

And I'm really excited about this conversation for two reasons. One, I'm excited to talk to Dr.

Langberg and really pull from her experience of over five decades in the field of psychology,

her understanding of perpetrators and of how trauma affects victims in sexual abuse cases.

But I'm also really excited to have her on the show because she is still coming at this from

a Christian perspective. As someone who is relatively agnostic at this point and doesn't hold

to any particular faith tradition, sometimes I know that the advice I give can fall on deaf ears when it comes to clergy or people in ministry or even some people in the pews. And so I'm glad she can bring her theological perspective and a Christian approach that is more likely to be heard by pastors, clergy, ministry leaders, and, again, individuals in the pew. And she brings

just a lot of wisdom. And so if you're somebody who doesn't regularly listen to the show,

but you're tuning in, I really appreciate it. If you are a pastor, someone who's running a

ministry or an organization, please take the time to listen to this episode.

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