YouTube Movie Diary and Story Time
Please Note: The movies shown here are for educational purposes only and does not in any form take precedence over instructions from a certified physician, counselor, therapist, or religious teaching. Please seek help immediately if you are threatened for your safety or someone you know.
Love Yourself
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"[Spiritual abuse] makes you think that everything bad that happens to you is your fault and that those bad things wouldn’t have happened if you had been more devout. I have managed to rid myself of these thoughts, but it has led a friend of mine to blame her miscarriage on herself due to the lapse of faith she had at the time." Anonymous
"I was in a relationship with an agnostic who grew up in a similar Christian background as me. He constantly would recommend books or articles because he felt I wasn’t 'thinking well' about my beliefs, [and] my theology didn’t line up with his intellectual understanding of what it meant to be Christian. It took years for me to overcome the insecurity I have around theology and understanding Scripture because of the ways he controlled what I consumed in the spiritual world."
"I gave him too much power, but he also rocked my faith to its core, almost intentionally. We broke up because our ideas about faith didn’t align, but the damage was done. I have decided not to date outside of my faith simply because I know I am liable to give in to people I love despite my strongly held convictions."
—Anonymous
"My ex-boyfriend abused me in every way you could think possible and even ways in which I had never considered before. I was raised as a Muslim, but since moving away from home, I developed my own sense of religious identity. My ex knew I was more spiritual than religious. There’s a great amount of controversy regarding Islamic gender roles in the Western world, and the religion is incorrectly perceived as being inherently sexist."
"Even though he knew I was no longer practicing, he would tell me that I should be accustomed to the idea of him being with other women because of polygamy being accepted in Islam. He would also tell me that it was his right to oppress me as the man and as the head of the household according to the Qur'an. We didn’t have a household, I lived on my own, and he was a proudly self-proclaimed atheist. He asked me what the point of me praying was if I had a demon inside of me. In times of great distress, usually after a long session of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, I would pray to anyone that was listening, to which his response was no one cared about me but him, especially not God."
—Anonymous
