Usually when I’ve shared “Things I’ve Read” here, I’m sharing horrifying or angering articles I’ve read that are usually connected with religion, or I’m sharing a recommendation for a book or article that is critical of Christian Science.
Today, I share with you an article I came across thanks to an item that was posted in one of the ex-Christian Scientist Facebook groups I’m in. The author of this article talks in her piece about those of us who’ve left religion behind, and the lingering effects we all deal with. Since leaving Christian Science, I’ve struggled with what my “spiritual” identity is. In many ways, I’m agnostic; sometimes I think of myself as “spiritual, not religious”. Both tags are accurate for me. However, as she points out, many who identify with these or other non-religious tags (like atheist, humanist, etc.), are of no previous religious faith at all, so there are life experiences people such as myself and other “refugees from an obscure religion” (as I refer to myself and others who’ve left Christian Science as) share, that those who’ve never been of any religious faith at all do not share, and therefore would not fully understand. The author of this article posits that we should have our own identity, and she chooses the accurate term “Reclaimer”. We’re reclaiming our lives from our religious past.
Emerging Gently 