BEYOND THE PARENTHESES
Your Journey to Transcend Religious Trauma, Seek Truth, and Embrace Love
About The Book
Whether you believe in God but have questions, used to believe but don’t anymore, or want to believe but feel like you can’t, author Susan Ford can relate.
Susan grew up in a church where others’ understandings of God were forced upon her as irrefutable facts. Raised as a fundamentalist Baptist, she felt trapped and hopeless until she set out to pursue the truth with all her heart.
In Beyond the Parentheses, Susan shares her personal story and invites you to embark on a powerful journey where you will realize how you too can:
- Recognize, confront, and resolve lingering religious trauma
- Seek and pursue truth wherever it leads
- Boldly embrace love and discover reconciliation
ARE THE ECHOES OF YOUR RELIGIOUS PAST HOLDING YOUR SPIRITUAL FUTURE HOSTAGE?
What’s inside
Living Under Legalism
Leaving Fundamentalism
Looking for Truth
Latching Onto Love
Laying Down Ego
Letting Go of Perfectionism
Chapter 1
We each have distinct barriers to personal faith.
For me, these first spiritual roadblocks took the shape of the legalistic fundamentalist Baptist church in which I was raised from the time I was eight years old.
Its unique paradigm permeated and shaped my spiritual worldview in lasting ways.
I was born on a Thursday, and three days later, on that very first Sunday, I was in church.
I know this because growing up, my parents often told me the story. They spoke of it as though it were a badge of honor and pride—like having the county’s first New Year’s baby or something.
It was their very first act as Christian parents. At not even a week old, they had begun to “train up their child in the way she should go,” just as Proverbs 22:6 instructed.
Three days old, and figuratively speaking, my butt was already in the pew, to use one of my dad’s favorite phrases.
My freshly diapered butt was actually strapped in a car seat placed underneath the pew, but still, I was there, hearing the Word.
Starting that day, through the first eighteen years of my life, I can count on both hands the number of Sundays we missed church.
Even when we were traveling on vacation, there was no problem. Simply pick a Baptist church from the handy local phone book found in the hotel nightstand next to the Gideon Bible.
On any given Sunday, we were there, butts in our unofficially reserved pew, for both Sunday school and church service. There was also a Sunday evening service, but we never attended it.
As I understood it, that service seemed to be reserved for the pastor’s family, who had no choice but to attend, and for elderly parishioners who had nowhere to be early the following morning.
We had school, and Dad had work, so apparently, God forgave our absence.
Chapters
Awards
Pages
Formats
2023 Gold Medal Winner Illumination Christian Book Awards
2023 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award Finalist
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For many of us who were raised in legalistic, fundamentalist churches, our religious environment became a barrier to personal faith.
Whether through church hurt or more intense religious trauma, these childhood experiences shaped and molded our understandings of both God and ourselves.
Once we became adults, we finally had a choice. We were free to ask questions and think for ourselves.
We could continue in the beliefs we had been trained in or step out on a quest to transcend our religious trauma and seek truth.
Along the way, we may even find a love we had given up all hope of experiencing.
Are you ready?
It is time.
AbouT THE AUTHOR
Welcome! I am so glad you’re here.
Whether you believe in God but have questions, used to believe but don’t anymore, or want to believe but feel like you can’t, I can relate.
Like many of you, I grew up in a legalistic church where others’ understandings of God were forced upon me as irrefutable facts.
Raised as a fundamentalist Baptist, I felt trapped, hopeless, and depressed until I set out to pursue the truth with all my heart, soul, and mind.
In my new book, Beyond the Parentheses, I’m sharing my personal story while inviting you to embark on a powerful journey of your own.
Join me as together we break through the barriers of religious baggage and trauma, seek truth, and reclaim our spirituality.
Susan Ford
Beyond the Parentheses
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Kindle, Paperback, & Hardcover available now. Audio book coming soon!