The Vashti Initiative

"I feel that it is one of the most human experiences, to feel that something like a disease, or health struggle is not fair. You know why, because it is not fair. Especially if you have been through a hell of a lot already."

Read more of Laura Launderville's story here: https://vashtiinitiative.org/2023/07/24/its-not-fair/

"Life only exists now and never later in my mind."

"The father of the teenage male who sexually abused me is the stand-in youth pastor until my church and school hires someone else. And his son is in the youth group. They keep coming to sing to me in my hospital room and I can't even focus on songs meant to encourage me when they're all in the room with me."

"Anytime I report abuse, I am put under a microscope and the accused is given excuses as to why they hurt me this way. I lived like this for ten years after my cancer went into remission.

Read more of Rebekah Palmer's story here: https://vashtiinitiative.org/2023/06/12/this-is-me/

"The reality is that I was a depressed child. I was an anxious child. I was a traumatized child."

"And spiritual abuse only added to those symptoms, if not being the root cause all along. I battled and suffered such crippling fear of hell, of the devil, of losing my family, of not being good enough, of being unworthy, of being a sinner, and never adding up to what I was taught a Christian should be."

From The Desk of Lydia Joy talks about her journey to healing from spiritual abuse.

READ MORE: https://vashtiinitiative.org/2023/05/05/how-religious-abuse-harmed-my-mental-health-and-how-i-healed/

"When you say one person belongs to another, you immediately put in a power imbalance. This power imbalance in the wrong hands can and usually does become abusive to some degree."

Read more of Amber Schultz's story here: https://vashtiinitiative.org/2023/11/21/sorry-paul-my-body-belongs-to-no-one/