The Shiloh Podcast

This guest episode of the Shiloh podcast comes from four University of Leeds students as part of a project called ‘Investigating Spiritual Abuse in Church Settings’. The project aims to destigmatise and spread awareness of spiritual abuse through its engagement with the local community and campus.

Rosie's guest on this episode is Professor Lisa Oakley, one of the country's leading experts on spiritual abuse. What is spiritual abuse? Why is it important to recognise it as a distinct category of abuse? And how does she ensure that the research she carries out is trauma informed and survivor-focused? Lisa was talking to Rosie as she prepared to give her inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Chester.

The Abuse in Religious Contexts project looks at the peculiar factors which allow abuse to take place within religious settings. In this episode Amy Langenberg, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Eckerd college Florida, and Ann Gleig, Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at University of Central Florida, discuss their work on abuse in convert Buddhist communities.

The Abuse in Religious Contexts project looks at the peculiar factors which allow abuse to take place within religious settings. Rosie's guests in this episode are Dr Rahmanara Chowdhury, senior lecturer in forensic psychology at Nottingham Trent University and Farooq Mullah, chaplain for Nottingham health trust. Please be aware that this episode contains disclosures of sexual abuse, The AIRC project has an information and resource service which you can contact on airs@kent.ac.uk

The Abuse in Religious Contexts project looks at the peculiar factors which allow abuse to take place within religious settings. Today we hear about one such setting – the 3H0( Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) founded by Yogi Bhajan who introduced Kundalini yoga to the United States. After his death in 2004 scores of his female followers came forward to say they had been sexually and spiritually abused by him. The story is told to Rosie here by Los Angeles journalist and essayist, Stacie Stukin and Philip DeSlippe, an academic researcher and historian of yoga based at University of California, Santa Barbara.

This is the third webinar-podcast from “Abuse in Religious Contexts,” an AHRC-funded research project, which explores the ways cultures and structures of a wide variety of faith communities cause, facilitate, legitimate, justify, and hide abuse. Speakers in this episode include; - Richard Scorer, a lawyer specialising in child and vulnerable adult abuse, human rights and public inquiries law at Slater and Gordon Lawyers (UK). - Yehudis Fletcher an Independent Sexual Violence Adviser and co-founder of Nahamu which combats culturally specific harms in the Jewish community. - Yasmin Rehman, a feminist, human rights activist and researcher and the CEO of Juno Women's Aid.

The Abuse in Religious Contexts project is happy to be engaging with Nell Hardy, an actor and theatre director, who has written a play which tackles issues around spiritual and other intersectional faith-based abuses. It will be premiered in London on October 30th - listen for details! Over the summer Nell has been holding a series of workshops with survivors to design the show so that it communicates the experiences of survivors in a way that is as safe as possible for them to engage with. Rosie went along to one of them.....

Abusing God; Reading the bible in the #MeToo age is an AHRC funded project which held its second colloquium in Manchester on the topic of hypermasculinity. Rosie Dawson gathered some reflections from participants Abi, Jo, Charlotte Thomas, Sarah Molyneux-Hetherington, Andy Boyake and Will Moore.

This is the second webinar-podcast from “Abuse in Religious Contexts,” an AHRC-funded research project, which explores the ways cultures and structures of a wide variety of faith communities cause, facilitate, legitimate, justify, and hide abuse. In this episode - about the role of Scripture in justifying or challenging abuse - Dr Rahmanara Chowdhury, Dr Holly Morse and Professor Johanna Stiebert talk about their work. You will also hear contributions and responses from webinar participants, including those who support survivors and those with lived experience of abuse in religious contexts.

Dr Kirsi Cobb, lecturer in Biblical studies at Cliff College in Derbyshire and Dr Holly Morse, senior lecturer in Bible, Gender and culture at the University of Manchester talk to Rosie about their AHRC funded project Abusing God: Reading the Bible in the #MeToo age.

This documentary offers audio snapshots of a recent workshop at the University of Leeds, hosted by Shiloh Project co-director Johanna Stiebert. Activities were led by Ann Gleig (Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Central Florida) and Amy Langenberg (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Eckerd College, Florida). Listen to how Ann and Amy, together with participants, consider the strengths and limitations of their disciplines when it comes to researching abuse. They also examine the different ways religious texts justify or challenge abuse, as well as the usefulness of cult studies for understanding the experience of survivors. “Abuse in Religious Contexts” is an AHRC-funded research project, which explores the ways cultures and structures of a wide variety of faith communities cause, facilitate, legitimate, justify, and hide abuse.

“Abuse in Religious Contexts” is an AHRC-funded research project, which explores the ways cultures and structures of a wide variety of faith communities cause, facilitate, legitimate, justify, and hide abuse. This webinar-podcast features Professor Gordon Lynch and Professor Linda Woodhead, two of the project's key investigators, as they discuss how the intersections of power have impact on, direct and determine abuse in religious contexts.

Richard Newton , Assistant Professor of Religious studies at the University of Alabama, took part in the recent Bible and Activism day in Leeds. In this conversation with Rosie he suggests that the language of pandemic and disease can help us understand the different contexts which inform people's reading of Scripture.

Here is just a taste of what happened when local Otley residents and fourteen international biblical scholars came together to discuss biblical texts, events and history, and why they matter. The event was the brainchild of Professor Johanna Stiebert and generously hosted by Rev Jason McCullagh and Otley United Reformed Church.

Emily Colgan and Rosie discuss Jeremiah’s representation of the land as female, and the violence perpetrated against her.

Eve Parker and Rosie discuss the experience and hybrid religiosity of South Indian Devadasi women.

Ericka Dunbar talks to Rosie about sex trafficking, collective trauma and horror in the book of Esther.

David Tombs tells Rosie how engaging with Liberation Theology and the experience of tortured people in Central America led him to consider the evidence that Jesus was a victim of sexual abuse.

Karen O'Donnell argues that Mary’s response to the trauma of unexpected pregnancy can provide comfort and a model for other trauma survivors. Karen’s book Broken Bodies is available – with a 20% discount – from https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/ until 17December

Caroline Blyth and Rosie discuss how Teen Bibles cast God in the role of a Coercive Abuser who humiliates, demeans and gaslights teenage girls.