I am an almost 52 year old woman and I remember as a teenager the rhetoric from watching the Shiny Happy People season 2. We were told that we were warriors for Christ…
I heard about Teen Mania (couldn’t afford it) but I still remember the youth conferences at our church. I also remember as I started college and was on my own, I needed help with my electric bill. The pastors of my church (who lived in the richest party of town) told me that I needed to quit college and to get a full time job. They then said they were washing their hands of me.
So much [of the documentary] rang true for me… I was told because I was sexually abused as a child that I couldn’t work in the nursery because I would probably abuse the children. They gave me a total of $40 to help with my electric bill then acted like I owed my life to them.
I remember wearing WWJD bracelets and thinking to myself “But the Bible doesn’t say to do the things that the church is telling me to do, so what would Jesus do? He wouldn’t do these things.” I was so conflicted. I too went through depression and I was suicidal. I was being told that my depression was just me not having faith, that I wasn’t trusting God, and I didn’t know where to turn. I understand if you don’t publish my story. I just wanted to let you know that there are others out there who didn’t go through the Honor Academy who feel the exact same way.
I thought until now I was alone in this. October 26th 1996 I had a suicide attempt and I don’t really about this. But I did. Thank you for bringing your stories forward Like I said a lot of it rings true. It just stuck with the Teen Mania and it floated into the churches.
