History, when sanitized, becomes complicity. Religious trauma is neither an isolated nor modern phenomenon, but centuries-old inheritance, passed down like ancient scripture. Wearing many robes, from colonial missionary, charismatic preacher, silent bishop, and of course, devout parent. Different garments of the same ghost.

Inquisitions tortured the “Faithless” into compliance. Boarding schools dressed genocide in hymns. Plantation sermons used Paul’s epistles to keep shackles tight – while to this very day, pulpits reverberate with commands to submit and obey – or else! Roots of spiritual abuse are far from shallow. They’re anchored in patriarchal tradition, political entanglement, and theologies that demanded death to self – but not their systems.

This section is a portal into documented case studies exposing such roots. You’ll find the architecture of religious harm laid bare – from mass cover-ups of the Catholic Church, to Jehovah’s Witness disfellowshipping and silent suicides, to the spiritual disfigurement of youth in conversion camps. Each case is a testament not just to what happened, but how it was allowed to happen, under sacred pretence.

These aren’t stories of individual bad actors, but patterns of institutional protection, where image was more important than innocence, and “God’s will” used to silence dissent. We examine how doctrine morphed to defence, guilt transitioned to governance, and faith fused with fear to become weaponized. 

Understand this history is not abandoning belief, but severing rot from root systems in that new growth might be purified. Healing requires context. Reform, courage. As for justice? That begins and ends with the gavel of remembrance – lest we forget. 

– ReLOVution