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Everyone who grew up in the Midland area has experienced religious trauma: a thread (but probably mostly just about my experiences that you may relate to)
We start real early with kids repeating things said by their parents. In first grade a fellow 6-year-old told me that my mom was a baby killer because she had a John Kerry bumper sticker on her car.
One year later, another girl stopped playing with me at recess. We used to play pretend that we were fairies like Tinkerbell. Her mom told her she couldn’t hang out with me anymore because pretending to do magic is satanic.
Btw both of these girls went to the same church. Yes that one. They created a feeling in me very early that I was doomed/somehow untouchable because I didn’t go to their church.
Jump to middle school bc I’d really like to talk about JAM lock-ins. I thought it would be the coolest thing ever to spend the night in the community center hanging out with my friends.
My mom didn’t let me go. Bless her for that one, because I later realized it was a terrifying way for church leaders to target kids at a formative age. Serious conversion coercion starts at age 11 in Midland I guess!
Around this age I also started seeing my friends going to purity events and wearing rings. I wasn’t interested in boys, so. Easy for me to stay pure I guess!
Not so much for other kids though. I believe purity culture in Midland was especially cruel, I remember seriously awful rumors that were spread about girls in particular, and especially girls who weren’t white.
Also in middle school, my friend attempted suicide because he believed his evangelical foster parents would disown him if they found out he was gay. At least 3 of my other classmates would attempt for the same reason in high school.
I’m very lucky my own coming out story wasn’t as traumatic. I had a supportive family, but a classmate did write me a 5 page color-coded letter on why I was going to hell and what I could do to repent. She taped it to my locker.
I also got a long Facebook message from a boy I’d never met who told me that he was gay and depressed until his parents helped him be saved by Jesus at AGE SEVEN. He suggested I do the same.
Around this time I joined my hs journalism class. The interviews I did with adult “experts” would REALLY open my eyes to the shitshow.
In 2014 we did a package on gay marriage. I interviewed an E-free church leader, who told me that “the only thing worse than gay parents is a single mother.” I was just coming out, and raised by the strongest woman I know. I cried in the car afterwards.
I also interviewed a guest speaker from health class. She worked at the Pregnancy Resource Center, which presented itself as a safe space to evaluate pregnancy options, but was actually a Christian organization that shamed women for coming in with questions about abortion.
This woman literally told me that she loves teaching at MPS because they “let her teach God’s design for sex.” She then asked me not to put that in print. She also shared personal info about students while making fun of their sexual questions/actions.
I also had an opinion column in the paper, where I shared some political/religious views. These prompted whole ass adults to come up to me in public (stores, restaurants, etc) and confront me about what I wrote. Remember I was 15-17 when I published these :)
In 2015, a trans woman was harassed at Planet Fitness for using the women’s locker room. I want to be careful not to share the private experiences of trans Midlanders but I know at least one E-free church leader who accused them of being sexual predators in wake of the incident.
Again, not my place to share other people’s stories. But I have plenty more about Midland “Christians” being violently homophobic, abusing their own kids, and being creepy with other people’s children.
Re: being creepy with other people’s children, this includes teachers at MPS who used “Bible study” as an excuse to get close with young girls.
I could go on (mission trips, evangelical’s love affair with ethnocentrism) but this is probably enough for one day! Tl;dr no matter the church your family went to, religious trauma was inescapable in Midland. Would love to hear your stories if you want to share.
