Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley

Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome is the report of her year long journey and her powerful reactions: mental, emotional, physical and deeply spiritual.įor me a personal connection was that one of her first visits was to my own home United Methodist Church in Columbus which, by her depiction, has changed considerably since I was baptized and religiously formed there six decades ago. Everything was fair game: main-line to cult, Christian or non-Christian, Western or Eastern. The 30 X 30 project was born -participating in 30 different worship services or practices by her 30th birthday. On her 29th birthday she finds herself adrift on the spiritual sea, rudderless and anchorless. The author was raised in a very religiously conservative Cincinnati family, educated at an evangelical school (Where her mother taught) and studied at Focus on the Family Institute.

This is a recently published intriguing book with a very catchy title. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome takes you by the hand and reminds you that sometimes you first have to be lost in order to be found.Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: A Memoir of Humor and Healing By Reba Riley During her spiritual sojourn, Riley: -Was interrogated about her sex life by Amish grandmothers -Disco danced in a Buddhist temple -Fasted for thirty days without food-or wine -Washed her lady parts in a mosque bathroom -Was audited by Scientologists -Learned to meditate with an urban monk -Snuck into a Yom Kippur service with a fake grandpa in tow -And finally discovered she didn't have to choose a religion to choose God In a debut memoir that is funny and earnest, Riley invites questioners, doubters, misfits, and curious believers to participate in the universal search to heal what life has broken. And thus she embarked on a year-long quest to experience thirty religions by her thirtieth birthday. She uttered a desperate prayer, and then the idea came to her-thirty by thirty. And she was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. In actuality, she was slumped on the floor sobbing about everything from the meaning of life to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome is for questioners, doubters, misfits, and seekers of all faiths, and tackles the universal struggle to heal what life has broken.On her twenty-ninth birthday, while guests were arriving downstairs, Reba Riley was supposedly upstairs getting dressed. Written with humor and personality, this debut memoir recounts a woman's spiritual quest of experiencing thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday.

Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley