This Conference Will Help People Trying to Escape Insular Religious Communities

[NeoGreen]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/10/08/this-conference-will-help-people-trying-to-escape-insular-religious-communities/

This Conference Will Help People Trying to Escape Insular Religious Communities
By Hemant Mehta, October 8, 2019

Religious extremism is often viewed as a global issue. Yet there is little — if any desire — to challenge the beliefs and practices of our own country’s most insular religious communities.

We have adopted an attitude of “live and let live” and don’t really question how this approach affects the lives and choices of individuals raised in these communities. As a nation we devote few, if any, resources to assist individuals who seek to leave and join the mainstream culture. Would more people reject fundamentalist beliefs and venture out of close-knit religious communities if they had some basic support?

In 2000, when I was 19 years old, I left an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn where I was raised. With very limited exposure to the world I was entering, I felt as though I was free-falling without a safety net to catch me. There was no address for me to turn to as I grappled with how to navigate a new reality — where the norms of what I would do, when I would get married, how many children I would have, and what to wear and eat were not as defined.

Insert note from webpage:

This is a guest post by Malkie Schwartz. She’s the founder of Footsteps, an organization that helps people leaving the ultra-Orthodox community, and co-organizer of “When Rights and Religions Collide,” a conference in New York City on October 19.
https://www.footstepsorg.org/

And, a timely and apropos podcast from Sam Harris:

https://samharris.org/podcasts/171-escaping-christian-cult/

#171 - Escaping a Christian Cult
October 8, 2019

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Megan Phelps-Roper about her book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

Megan Phelps-Roper is a writer, educator, and former member of the Westboro Baptist Church. After leaving the church in 2012, Megan began writing and speaking about her experience within the church and decision to defect. As an educator, she covers topics related to extremism and communication across ideological lines.

[Cartoonist]

1. What about the Amish?

I never met one.
I know nothing about them.

I enjoy using my android to play music via my Bluetooth speaker while utilizing my vape pen. Would I be welcome in their world?

[Major Nikon]

2. When people who leave are treated like a pariah, then it's a pretty safe bet you are in a cult.