Oppression is an easier word to digest than abuse, all we have to do is try to promote this message on social media and it gets flagged for being offensive. Yet, the mere idea of abuse is offensive, especially to anyone who has suffered from it during childhood development. My journey is peppered with a myriad of examples where ministries and counselors oppressed me with dogma and jargon that caused further suffering because they had not yet reached a place of inner healing in their own lives. Due to our own need for constant healing throughout life, it would behoove us all to remain humble in our teachings and guidance because we can mature and then make amends to those we harmed in our narcissistic moments where we wounded others. Child rearing is a difficult task and many religious mindsets become the crux of children turning away from what they were taught in adulthood, especially if abuse was a by-product. The symptomatic problems which emerge in an individual who has related to God through strict rule, often plays out through the pursuit of a surrogate family in another community. Codependent Christianity plays out through the hopes of “godly behavior” to re-create a story from childhood with a happy ending.