Andrew Pledger was raised in a fundamentalist Christian cult and realized in his youth that he was gay. He attended Bob Jones University, which is a fundamentalist Christian college with a chilling history of abuse. While there, Andrew was bullied, harassed, tailed by college employees, and subjected to conversion therapy. In his junior year Andrew was expelled from BJU for publicly denouncing fundamentalism. Andrew is healing and working hard to spread awareness of religious abuse. His new podcast, "Surviving Bob Jones University: A Christian Cult" is exposing BJU's racist and abusive legacy. Andrew's story is of learning to honor your inner voice and follow your intuition, even when everything and everyone around you is telling you it's wrong. Andrew and I had a wonderful talk which I'll be sharing in two parts. This episode is focused on Andrew's experience of being raised in a Christian cult (IFB), the effect indoctrination had on his mental health, and his time at BJU up until the pandemic. The rest of his story will air next week.

Andrew's Website: https://andrewpledger.mypixieset.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4ndrewpledger/
Links: https://andrewpledger.mypixieset.com/links

Andrew's Podcasts-

Surviving Bob Jones University: A Christian Cult: https://open.spotify.com/show/6zpFerrBjOuNACq1oklIU6
Speaking Up: Surviving Religions and Cults: https://shows.acast.com/speaking-up-with-andrew-pledger

Subjects that came up in discussion-

Family Research Council:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Research_Council
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/family-research-council

Institute in Basic Life Principles & Bill Gothard:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_in_Basic_Life_Principles
https://people.com/who-is-bill-gothard-the-institute-in-basic-life-principles-founder-7506014

Umbrella of Authority:
https://www.recoveringgrace.org/2014/05/umbrella-of-oppression/

Focus on the Family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_on_the_Family

GRACE Reports: https://www.netgrace.org/investigation-archive

The Trevor Project - Crisis Hotline for LGBTQ+ youth:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

Finding OK website: https://www.finding-ok.com/

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