Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/07\/tumblr_mqojcuSyQc1rsigjso1_500.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"637\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/\",\"name\":\"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\"},\"description\":\"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\",\"name\":\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\",\"description\":\"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\",\"name\":\"Zack Hunt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zack Hunt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask","description":"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask","og_description":"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/","og_site_name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","article_published_time":"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":637,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/07\/tumblr_mqojcuSyQc1rsigjso1_500.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zack Hunt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zack Hunt","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/","name":"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-29T18:28:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226"},"description":"My friend over at Christian Nightmares shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too. His new project,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/","name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","description":"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226","name":"Zack Hunt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Zack Hunt"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":10304,"date":"2013-07-29T13:28:58","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T18:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=10304"},"modified":"2013-07-29T13:28:58","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T18:28:58","slug":"christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2013\/07\/christian-nightmares-a-glimpse-behind-the-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Nightmares: A Glimpse Behind The Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My friend over at Christian Nightmares<\/a> shared this heartbreaking story with my today from his new blog Christian Nightmares Too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His new project, Christian Nightmares Too, is a collection of stories and interviews with people who have been hurt by the church. For those of us still in the church, I think his work should be a powerful reminder to all of us of the pain we can and do inflict when we fail to be the people of God we claim to be.<\/p>\n

What makes this story stick out in particular is that it is a personal story from the man behind Christian Nightmares, a glimpse behind the mask, so to speak, and a look at part of his own story of leaving the church.<\/p>\n

I really hope you\u2019ll take the time to read it and more importantly, that it might in some small way help you to become more sensitive to any spiritual abuse that might be taking place in your own community of faith and embolden you to act if it is.<\/p>\n

$\"tumblr_mqojcuSyQc1rsigjso1_500\"$ <\/a>What hiding the truth from church members cost one Christian man<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know Kevin that well. The truth is, I didn\u2019t know anyone at my church that well. Church is where I learned to wear a mask, to hide my true thoughts and beliefs. It was a fire and brimstone Baptist church.\u00a0\u201cWhere the Old-Fashioned Gospel Is Preached,\u201d the bulletin boasted each week. The pastor regularly yelled, \u201cGod said it, I believe, that settles it!\u201d from the pulpit to a roaring round of Amens. Throughout my childhood, I spent several hours a week there. So did Kevin.<\/p>\n

Kevin\u2019s mother sang in the choir, had lots of friends at church, was on committees, and hosted dinners at her house on a regular basis. She was an extreme germaphobe. Houseguests were always required to leave their shoes on her walkway outside before entering\u2014even in the dead of winter. Both children and adults had to wash their hands before coming to the table. And if, say, your dinner roll accidentally slipped from your plate and onto her bleached-white tablecloth, she\u2019d quickly snatch it up and drop it in the trash like a dead rat. She also rarely paid attention to what anyone else was saying and was the queen of nonsequitors. Someone might remark, \u201cSo the doctor put me on these new pills for my heart condition.\u201d To which she\u2019d reply, \u201cDid anyone else notice that Ron and Betty Wilson weren\u2019t sitting together at church this past Sunday?\u201d\u00a0Her husband, Kevin\u2019s father, never said much. He traveled a lot for work, which seemed to be the secret to their marriage. Kevin never uttered much around his mother either, but he always sat close to her and seemed to long for her recognition, which he rarely got. He was always well groomed and would nod earnestly at her remarks. \u201cFinish your meal, Kevin,\u201d she\u2019d say. \u201cYou\u2019ve barely touched\u00a0anything<\/em>\u00a0on your plate.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"