You don't owe them an explanation

or access to your thought process

Dear Fellow religious trauma survivor,

I used to feel that anytime anyone asked me a question about my deconstruction process, faith, trauma, or spirituality, that they deserved a thoughtful, articulate explanation.

“What’s deconstruction?” they might ask, as if I were a human Google.

“Why do you say your religious experience was traumatic?”

To be fair,…