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	Local Conference Addresses Religious Abuse and Offers Aid to Victims The Theosophical Society Will Host Healing Our Religious Wounds to Be Held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glen Ellyn, Illinois on April 23-25, 2010. The Keynote Speaker Will Be Dr. John Shelby Spong. i-Newswire February 9, 2010 http://www.i-newswire.com/local-conference-addresses-religious/21473 ILLINOIS -- Upcoming conference offers relief to those who have suffered psychological and spiritual wounding at the hands of spiritual leaders or religious institutions as well as an opportunity to recover from the damage. The Theosophical Society will host Healing Our Religious Wounds to be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glen Ellyn, Illinois on April 23-25, 2010. The keynote speaker will be John Shelby Spong, who served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey for twenty-four years until his retirement in 2001. Dr. Spong is considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both inside and outside the Christian church. His best-selling books include Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World, Why Christianity Must Change or Die. His most recent book is Eternal Life: A New Vision. He will speak on the topics "Religious Wounds: The Power of Guilt" and "Religious Healing: The Power of Wholeness." The form of religious abuse to gain most attention of late is sexual molestation by Roman Catholic priests. According to a 2002 report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, nearly 4400 priests—4 percent of all those who had served in the previous fifty years—faced some kind of sexual abuse allegation. But religious abuse can take many other forms as well. Sometimes it involves the misuse of spiritual authority to humiliate and manipulate people, or to extract money or sexual favors from them (adults are susceptible to this as well as children). In extreme cases, such as the Jonestown and Heaven's Gate debacles, dozens of people have been driven to suicide. All these forms of abuse are, sadly, both familiar and obvious. Today we may need to ask if religious wounding extends still further. Is it abusive to expose children to lurid images of hell and the devil, to tell them that they risk eternal damnation for the smallest of sins, to force them to live in terror of a vindictive and sadistic God? Many women feel that religion has inculcated a sense of inferiority and even sinfulness in them simply because of their gender. Still others have been ostracized because of their sexual orientation. To these cases we can add religious wounding in a milder form—when it is not a matter of victimization but of loss of faith, of disillusionment with spirituality as a whole. If all human beings have a spiritual aspect to their natures, this disillusionment amounts to an alienation from a profound and essential part of oneself. Whether or not they recognize it, these individuals too have suffered religious wounds. Other speakers at the conference will include spiritual counselor Maurice Proulx, a former Catholic priest who himself suffered sexual abuse by a priest when he was a child. Christopher Bamford, senior editor of Parabola and author of The Voice of the Eagle, will also speak. Richard Smoley, one of the world's most distinguished authorities on the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilization and author of many books including his most recent, The Dice Game of Shiva, will moderate the event. John Guarrine of the Chicago area organization Play for Peace will begin morning sessions with gentle movement practices to help participants ground and balance themselves. The conference will include one-on-one and small-group discussions in which participants will be able to share and discuss their own experiences and to move toward healing. The organizers of Healing Our Religious Wounds intend neither to restore religious faith nor to destroy it. They seek to heal some of the psychological damage, whether mild or severe, that may have come from religious backgrounds and to help people move toward greater wholeness and integration. For those who do not feel that they have been damaged by religion, the conference will offer ways of avoiding spiritual pitfalls and deepening their understanding of the truths that underlie all faiths. About Quest Books: A division of the Theosophical Society in America: Quest Books is the imprint of the Theosophical Publishing House, the publishing arm of the Theosophical Society in America. This organization, with 150 branches nationwide, is part of the International Theosophical Society founded in New York in 1875 with present headquarters in Adyar, Madras, India. Located at the national Society's headquarters in Wheaton, IL, Quest Books is dedicated to publishing works compatible with the aims of the parent organization: To promote fellowship among all peoples of the world and to encourage the study of religion, philosophy, and science, so that we may better understand ourselves and our place in the Universe. The Society stands for complete freedom of individual search and belief. Since 1965, Quest has sold over 4 million books by leading cultural thinkers on such increasingly popular subjects as transpersonal psychology, comparative religion, deep ecology, spiritual growth, the development of creativity, and alternative health practices. Through our distributor, Publishers Group West, we offer a backlist of approximately 300 titles, including audio and video tapes, and we release approximately 12 new books each year. In addition, Quest is the sole agent for the Theosophical Publishing Houses in India and the Philippines. The Theosophical Society's elegant forty-acre estate in Wheaton also maintains a fine library and sponsors a variety of educational seminars open to the public. The Quest Bookstore, which specializes in religious, psychological, and spiritual titles, is open seven days a week. Membership offers reduced fees for events and bookstore purchases and a complimentary subscription to the Society's distinguished bi-monthly journal, The Quest. The Quest is also available through paid subscription.
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