POST TRAUMATIC CHURCH SYNDROME

Reba Riley is the debut author of Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor & Healing In 30 Religions, the founder of the Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome community online, and a blogger at Patheos.com

Reba grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home where the wallpaper & dinner napkins featured Bible verses, & the Smurfs were considered demonic.  She told her kindergarten class the letters of Santa's name could be arranged to "Satan."  Reba’s 10,000 hours of education included evangelical  schools, Christian  college followed by a stint at the Focus of the Family Institute with Dr. James Dobson, and an intensive ministry training program at a megachurch in Colorado Springs—a program that swiftly kicked her out when she shared her religious doubts with the leadership. Reba lost everything - including herself. Enter Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome.

Reba got sick. Really sick. With a near-debilitating chronic mystery illness doctors couldn’t diagnose or treat. At 29, the illness made her vulnerable enough that she finally had to face the fact she’d avoided for the better part of a decade: her spirit was sicker than her body.  Reba decided to undertake a spiritual recovery program: she would visit thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday—not to find a religion, but to find peace.

Through her adventures, Reba realized she didn’t have to choose religion to choose God…or good. She discovered sometimes we have to get lost to get found. Two years after completing her thirty religions project and eighteen  months  after recovering from her illness, Reba is here to share dispatches from her journey of healing.

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