Eurovision winner Nemo gets hero's welcome in Swiss hometown

Biel (Switzerland) (AFP) – Eurovision winner Nemo received a hero's welcome on Monday as they took to the stage to give their Swiss hometown of Biel a celebratory rendition of the highly personal song "The Code".

 18/06/2024 - 

Nemo took to the stage in a giant pink fur hat

 © STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

The 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden's Malmo was watched by 163 million viewers, and winning the glitzy annual television extravaganza rocketed Nemo to international stardom.

Five weeks on the 24-year-old was back in Biel for a special ceremony laid on by the town -- which now hopes to host next year's Eurovision.

Around 2,000 locals were in Biel's main square -- which Nemo used to walk through on the way to school -- to see the artist receive a trophy and a giant bouquet of flowers, and perform "The Code".

The Eurovision-winning song encapsulates Nemo's journey towards realising their non-binary gender identity, and combines rap, drum and bass and opera. Nemo dedicated their victory to the "entire LGBTQIA+ community".

To screams and a sea of camera phones, Nemo appeared on stage in a oversized pink fluffy hat and blew kisses to the crowd, which chanted their name.

"Thank you, everyone. I want to say it's a great honour to be here, and I love you, Biel," the singer said.

'The right message'

The artist then signed autographs and posed for pictures with the crowd, many of whom voiced their pride in the singer's journey to the top.

"He spreads out love and I think this is such a good thing. I want to support this," said Gerlinka Neumayer.

Nemo won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'The Code' 

© STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

"He is at the right time at the right place, with the right message. And he opens up many doors," said Suzanne Castleberg.

Marie Schueppen also said Nemo "gives a positive message, and this is important for me".

Now living in Berlin, Nemo sang "The Code" at the Zurich Pride Festival on Friday, in a first performance since winning Eurovision.

"The last few weeks have been completely crazy, everything has happened very quickly," the singer told journalists before going on stage Monday.

Known by both its German and French names, Biel/Bienne in northwest Switzerland is the largest bilingual city in the country and the heart of the Alpine nation's watchmaking industry.

"The spirit of tonight is Biel meets Nemo; Nemo meets Biel," the town's mayor Erich Fehr told AFP.

"Nemo's victory is very important for our city because everybody in the whole of Europe is talking about Biel.

"We are very, very proud."

Battle for Eurovision 2025

Nemo is Switzerland's third Eurovision winner after victories in 1956 and 1988. As per tradition, the Swiss will now host next year's song contest.

Biel, in the canton of Bern, is looking at potentially co-hosting the event with the nation's capital, though bigger cities like Zurich or Geneva might get chosen.

Nemo was given a civic reception

 © STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

"We don't have large enough infrastructure and we don't have hotel capacities," admitted Fehr.

"But Bern and Biel together, that will work -- and that much's more interesting than Geneva, which is only French, or Zurich, that's only German," he said, referring to the languages spoken.

"But Biel and Bern, German and French: that's Switzerland."

Dominique Buhler, president of the Bern canton's parliament, said the region had a compelling case to offer the multi-lingual TV spectacular.

She told AFP that Nemo's victory was "incredible and it shows that anything is possible".

"You just have to follow your dreams, dream big... it's definitely inspiring for all of us."

Young fans held up drawings depicting Nemo as Biel celebrated the Eurovision winner in the old town's Burgplatz 

© STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

Nemo last week announced a 24-date, 17-country European concert tour entitled "Break The Code", for March and April next year.

The tour includes shows in London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Vienna -- a far cry from the Burgplatz square in Biel.

© 2024 AFP

Thai senate set to approve same-sex marriage

Bangkok (AFP) – Thai lawmakers will vote Tuesday on legalising same-sex marriage, putting the kingdom on the cusp of becoming the first Southeast Asian nation to recognise marriage equality.

17/06/2024

People take part in a Pride march in the Thai city of Chiang Mai last month. The country's senate votes on a marriage equality bill Tuesday © Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP

The senate upper house is expected to approve the legislation, after which it will go to King Maha Vajiralongkorn for royal assent and come into force 120 days after publication in the official Royal Gazette.

Thailand would become only the third place in Asia where same-sex couples can tie the knot, after Taiwan and Nepal, and activists are hoping the first weddings could be celebrated as early as October.

"I am confident that the bill will pass," LGBTQ activist Siritata Ninlapruek told AFP.

"I believe that parliament members will realise the importance of equal rights and the family institution. This topic is too big to fail."

Senators will meet from 9:30 am (0230 GMT), with a final vote expected in the afternoon.

The new legislation changes references to "men", "women", "husbands" and "wives" in marriage laws to gender-neutral terms.

It also gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual ones when it comes to adoption and inheritance.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who has been vocal in his support for the LGBTQ community and the bill, will open his official residence to activists and supporters for celebrations after the vote on Tuesday.

Activists will later hold a rally, featuring a drag show, in central Bangkok, where giant shopping malls have been flying the rainbow flag in a show of support since the start of Pride Month in June.

Long struggle

Thailand has long enjoyed a reputation for tolerance of the LGBTQ community, and opinion polls reported in local media show overwhelming public support for equal marriage.

More than 30 countries around the world have legalised marriage for all since the Netherlands became the first to celebrate same-sex unions in 2001.

But in Asia only Taiwan and Nepal recognise marriage equality. India came close in October, but the Supreme Court referred the decision back to parliament.

"I am so happy to see how far we have come," said Chotika Hlengpeng, a participant in the Pride march that drew thousands of enthusiasts in Bangkok early in June.

Tuesday's vote is the culmination of years of campaigning and thwarted attempts to pass equal marriage laws.

While the move enjoys popular support, much of Buddhist-majority Thailand still retains traditional and conservative values.

LGBTQ people, while highly visible, say they still face barriers and discrimination in everyday life.

And some activists have criticised the new laws for failing to recognise transgender and non-binary people, who will still not be allowed to change their gender on official identity documents.

© 2024 AFP

Hundreds gather in Kyiv for war-shrouded Pride march


Issued on: 17/06/2024 

01:39

Under the pouring rain and overshadowed by war, Diana Ivanova joined the few hundred who gathered in Kyiv on Sunday for the Ukrainian capital's first Pride march since the Russian invasion, guarded by a heavy police presence. Shortly after Ivanova and other participants dispersed after a brief rally that took place behind a police cordon, nationalist militants set off for a counter-demonstration through the streets of Kyiv where they shouted homophobic slurs.

 

‘In seventh heaven’, says Swede freed in Iran prisoner swap


By AFP
June 16, 2024

Johan Floderus (R) is greeted by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson upon his arrival at Arlanda airport on Saturday - Copyright TT News Agency/AFP Tom SAMUELSSON

A Swede freed in a prisoner swap with Iran, 33-year-old EU diplomat Johan Floderus, said in his first words since his release that he was “in seventh heaven”, in a video published Sunday.

In the video obtained by AFP from the Swedish government, Floderus can be heard speaking to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson by satellite phone while on a flight home from Iran on Saturday.

“I’m in the sky and I feel emotionally like I’m in seventh heaven. I’ve been waiting for this for almost 800 days,” an audibly exhilarated Floderus told a smiling Kristersson.

“I’ve dreamt of this day so many times,” he said, adding: “It’s beginning to sink in that I’ve left Iran’s airspace and am on my way home.”

Floderus could later be seen hugging his family members at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport after he landed, in images released by the Swedish government.

Floderus was arrested in Iran as he was about to return home from a holiday in April 2022. He was accused of espionage, for which he risked a death sentence.

He and another Swedish national, Saeed Azizi, were released on Saturday in exchange for Hamid Noury, a 63-year-old Iranian former prisons official handed a life sentence in Sweden in 2022 for his role in mass killings in Iranian jails in 1988.

A Swedish court had convicted Noury of “grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder”. He had said he was on leave during the period in question.

Swedish officials have defended their decision to issue a pardon for Noury, amid criticism from exiled Iranians in Sweden, among others.

“Under normal circumstances, Hamid Noury should have served his prison sentence,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters late Saturday.

“On the other hand, we had an exceptional situation, with two Swedish citizens detained in Iran on arbitrary grounds, with the risk of a death sentence in one of the cases.”

“This was a difficult decision, but one the government had to take,” Strommer said.

Another Swede, dual national and academic Ahmad Reza Jalali, has been on death row in Iran since 2017 after being convicted of espionage.

His wife has criticised the Swedish government for not including him in the prisoner swap.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said Stockholm had tried to secure his release, but Tehran refused to discuss his case as it does not recognise dual nationality.

“Unfortunately, Iran refuses to recognise him as a Swedish citizen,” Billstrom said.

Shareholders OK with soaring executive pay in US

AFP

June 16, 2024


Executive salaries at major US corporations are soaring — but shareholders happy with stock prices and greater transparency over remuneration are not pushing back.

Between 2017 and 2023 the average annual compensation for a CEO at an S&P 500 company rose nearly 40 percent to $16.3 million, according to the consulting firm Equilar.

That compares to a 27 percent increase for the average US worker.

But shareholders do not seem to mind. Only twice this year — or 0.5 percent of the time — did they vote down executive pay packages proposed at annual meetings, said the business consulting firm ISS-Corporate.

In 2021 and 2022, a string of big Wall Street firms were hit with flak over juicy executive compensation, including Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase, Intel and General Electric.

“Investors are finally pushing back on massive CEO pay hikes,” Time magazine wrote in June 2022. But this angry sentiment vanished as quickly as it had popped up.

“Shareholders tend to vote down plans after a poor performance or stock price performance in particular,” said Kevin Murphy, a finance professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in executive pay.

The coronavirus pandemic hit the US economy and financial markets hard.

“That was sort of a funny year because we obviously had the big drop in March of 2020, the stock market crash during pandemic and for the most part, stock prices rebounded but it wasn’t even across all firms,” he said.

But in today’s market, with stocks hitting record after record, shareholders are not in a rebellious mood.

Just last week Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package for Elon Musk of just under $50 billion.

Under the so called Dodd-Frank Act that came out of the financial crisis of 2008, companies have to submit their executive pay packages to a shareholder vote at least every three years, a practice known as “say on pay.”

The votes are non-binding, but in most cases when a pay package is rejected, corporate boards back down and trim them.

The idea of “say on pay” has introduced transparency in the business world.

“So in terms of the worst practices, a lot of them have been limited. A lot of the more extreme ones,” said Rosanna Landis Weaver of the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow.

“There are very few cases in recent memory in which a CEO was dismissed but walked away with an outrageously large pay package,” said David Yermack, a professor of finance at New York University.

– Follow the pack –

The Dodd-Frank law also forces companies to disclose the ratio between their top executive’s compensation and the median salary.

In 2023, that ratio rose to 196 times, compared to 158 times five years earlier, according to Equilar.

A study published this week by Bentley University and pollster Gallup said that 82 percent of Americans feel it is important to avoid a major pay gap between CEOs and average employees.

“The CEO-employee pay gap is a controversial issue. While high CEO salaries can attract top talent, they can also be seen as excessive,” Kristina Minnick, a professor of finance at Bentley University, said as part of this study.

Still, advocates of limiting CEO pay are the minority in the broader American electorate.

Bills to this effect that were proposed in recent months by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders, prominent figures of the American left, have gone nowhere in the US House of Representatives.

The idea of “say on pay” has prompted many companies to turn to consulting firms to guide them on CEO pay and use benchmarks to compare their packages to those of other companies.

These advisory firms are paid by companies to which they make recommendations on whether to approve or reject CEO pay before a yearly shareholder meeting. The best known ones are Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis.

“So the combination of having say on pay and having ISS seem so influential as a proxy advisor, has been that over the last 10 years, compensation programs have become more similar,” said Marc Hodak of Farient Advisors.

Sums up Kevin Murphy, “the easiest way to not make waves is to do what everybody else is doing.”

Illegal gold mining eats into Peruvian Amazon

By AFP
June 16, 2024

As the international price of gold soared in recent years to reach an all-time high in May, appetite for the precious metal has only increased in Peru -- the world's tenth biggest producer and second in Latin America - Copyright AFP Ernesto BENAVIDES
Hector Velasco

On the banks of the Madre de Dios river, dredges work day and night in search of gold, part of a scourge of illegal mining that is slowly devouring the Peruvian Amazon.

This mega-diverse region of southeast Peru has lost on average 21,000 hectares (52,000 acres) of rain forest — an area twice the size of Paris — every year since 2017 despite policing efforts locals say are insufficient.

Where trees used to stand there are now deep sinkholes flooded with brown water where dredges sift through mountains of rubble for the valuable particles.

“The community can no longer plant their corn, their bananas, their cassava, because this land is practically dead,” Jaime Vargas, a 47-year-old Shipibo Indigenous leader and reforestation activist, told AFP.

Although mining is prohibited in their territories, Indigenous people have no choice but to coexist with invading gold prospectors in the Madre de Dios department of some 180,000 inhabitants near Peru’s borders with Brazil and Bolivia.

Some even end up working for them.

As the international price of gold soared in recent years to reach an all-time high in May, the hunt for the precious metal has only increased in Peru — the world’s tenth biggest producer and second in Latin America, according to the US Geological Survey.


– ‘No production record’ –


Illegal gold mining, which happens alongside legal, government-regulated extraction, is a major source of financing for organized crime in places like La Pampa, a lawless enclave in Madre de Dios.

“Illegal miners are invading us from all sides,” resident Lucio Quispe, 40, told AFP with more resignation than anger.

With his two brothers, Quispe runs a 200-hectare concession granted by the state.

Just hours before the interview, his brothers were brutally attacked by machete-wielding men in a region where clashes over mining spots often turn violent.

A process has been underway since 2016 to issue licences to informal but sanctioned miners such as the Quispes.

In 2022, official data showed Peru produced 96 tons of gold — but exported about 180 tons to Canada, India, Switzerland and the United States.

“Forty-five percent of exports have no production record,” according to an official body tasked with overseeing Peruvian banks and combating money laundering.

Independent studies have named Peru as the largest exporter of illegal gold in South America, with 44 percent of the total, ahead of Colombia with 25 percent and Bolivia with 12 percent, according to the Peruvian Institute of Economics, a think tank.


– ‘Sacrificing the forest’ –


Trying to get a grip on the problem and protect nature reserves in Madre de Dios, Peru in 2010 demarcated a corridor of 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) where informal miners will be allowed to operate until the end of this year.

Of the 9,000 informal miners registered by the 2019 cutoff date, only about 200 have obtained a licence to date, according to Augusto Villegas, regional director of energy and mines for Madre de Dios.

In the corridor, every 100 cubic meters of soil dredged yields about 10 to 15 grams (0.35 to 0.53 ounces) of alluvial gold, which today fetches a price of about $63 per gram.

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs; you can’t mine in Madre de Dios without sacrificing the forest,” said Villegas.

Many miners also continue to use toxic mercury to separate gold from the sediment, despite Peru signing an international agreement to scale down its use, and banning imports in 2015.

As the price of mercury exploded, some small-scale miners decided to take a bet on “ecological gold.”

Lucila Huanco, 54, said she stopped using mercury three years ago on her 3,000-hectare concession, instead using a gravitational technique to release the gold.

At first, her gold fetched a lower price for its appearance, different to gold mined using mercury. But then she reached an agreement with a buyer in Lima who pays her about $70 per gram.

“Honestly,” Huanco said, “I don’t want us to be known as polluters anymore.”

Renault’s digital transformation continues with autonomous picking robots

By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
June 16, 2024

Renault Group x Exotec robots. Image Crochez / Exotec, with permission.

The Renault Group has sought to position itself further at the forefront of innovation in automotive logistics by partnering with the company Exotec. This arrangement is part of the continuing digital transformation journey of the French car group and the arrangement sees an expansion in robotics in the car industry.

Renault Group has selected Exotec to automate the site of the Villeroy Parts and Accessories Logistics Department. This includes the use of 191 Skypod® robots that will automate the flow of parts from receipt to shipment, thus dividing the processing time of customer orders by a factor of six.

Exotec is a French firm that designs “goods-to-person” robotic solutions for the warehouses. The robots can travel at speeds up to 4 metres per second.

Exotec’s robots are autonomous and equipped with advanced navigation and handling capabilities. The robots have a compact design and they have also been designed for considerable agility, allowing them to move quickly and efficiently in complex logistics environments where each robots can move in three dimensions without the need for complicated infrastructure.

Agility is also twinned with safety so that the robots can move around other equipment and workers. In addition, the robots can operate in both chilled and ambient temperature environments.

The main functions of the robots are:

Injection

Here pallets for storage in the facility are automatically injected into 60-litre trays. These are then transported by a robot that places them in the storage racks.

Picking

When customer orders are received, picking tasks are assigned to picking stations. A robot then collects the reference of the items ordered to bring them to the picking stations. This operation is repeated for each item ordered.

Shipping

Once the items are prepared, the packages are transported to the shipping area where they are sealed and routed to the shipping docks to be loaded onto the trucks.

Combined, the preparation time of an order (from the beginning to the delivery of the package to shipments) has been reduced down to 20 minutes. Previously, this operation was carried out in 2 hours.

In addition, this so-called “good to men” solution aims to improve the working conditions of employees.

The move also makes it possible to reduce the Villeroy site’s energy consumption by 30 percent compared to the traditional solution.

Hospital hackings surge, putting patient data and safety at risk


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
June 16, 2024

UK hospital bosses say they may be forced to cut services this winter due to soaring energy prices - Copyright AFP Frederic J. BROWN

Cyberattacks on hospital systems are rising, putting patient data —and safety — at risk. Steven McKeon, founder and CEO of MacguyverTech and MacNerd, has explained why he is advocating for more robust efforts to update old technology in our healthcare systems, improve cybersecurity measures and compel governments to get involved.

McKeon was recently interviewed by ABC in the U.S., outlining his take on security concerns.

McKeon focuses on enhancing cybersecurity practices. Unlike traditional approaches, he emphasizes layered security, which deters hackers by increasing the effort needed to breach defences. With the rising cyber threats, his mission is to protect and educate others about security.

One of the reasons for the rise in health sector cybercrime is because the same technology that makes it convenient for patients to request prescription refills, view test results and schedule appointments with physicians has also made it easier for hackers to launch crippling cyberattacks on hospitals and healthcare systems.

“These cyberattacks on our hospital infrastructures here and abroad only highlight the very urgent need for improved cybersecurity in healthcare overall,” states McKeon.

In 2023, the healthcare and public health sector was the most targeted in the United States by ransomware attackers, according to a new FBI report, far surpassing other critical services like transportation and energy.

According to McKeon, cybercriminals launch these very intricate and damaging ransomware attacks to lock up critical computer systems and steal data as a means of extortion.

Why is healthcare such an easy target? McKeon also raises the issue of ageing technology.

“Our company’s experience and its increasing demand to fix outdated technology that is in some cases more than a decade old is quite alarming,” McKeon points out.

“With 1 in 3 Americans impacted by data breaches, modernizing these systems and enhancing cybersecurity measures are essential in protecting patient data and ensuring safety and continuity of care.”

In particular, McKeon thinks, the healthcare system needs help. He recommends this happens in the form of increased federal funding and enforcement of required cybersecurity practices and enhancements.

“Collaborative efforts between governments and the healthcare industries are vital to tackling these threats and securing these systems for the long haul,” McKeon advises.

Put tobacco-style warnings on social media: US health official


By AFP
June 17, 2024


US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for Congress to pass mandates on social media to protect young Americans' mental health - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN

Social media platforms should feature tobacco-style health warnings for adolescents, a top US government health official said Monday.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in an essay published by The New York Times, called social media “an important contributor” to a sweeping mental health crisis among young people.

“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,” he wrote.

Murthy said spending more than three hours a day on social media doubles the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms for adolescents — and that the daily average use in the summer of 2023 was nearly five hours.

“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” he wrote.

“Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.”

Murthy pointed to previous actions by lawmakers to address high vehicle-related deaths, including mandates requiring seatbelts, airbags and crash testing to make cars safer.

Labels warning of the health impact from tobacco first appeared on US cigarettes after a federal government mandate in 1965.

In 2023, Murthy issued a health advisory warning that social media presents a “profound risk” to children and advising that 13 is too young to join apps.

The surgeon general on Monday also called on schools nationwide to “ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.”

He also said parents should wait until after middle school before giving their children access to social media, and to create “phone-free zones around bedtime, meals and social gatherings.”

U.S. governor pardons 175,000 marijuana convictions

Agence France-Presse
June 17, 2024 

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (Andrew Harnik/AFP)

The governor of the U.S. state of Maryland issued a mass pardon of drug offenses on Monday, in a far-reaching move forgiving 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions across multiple decades.

Democrat Wes Moore said his act -- "the most sweeping state-level pardon" in American history -- was aimed at addressing social and economic injustices disproportionately impacting tens of thousands of Black people.

Moore, the eastern state's first Black governor, said he intended to right the "decades of harm" wrought by drug policy that had disproportionately targeted African Americans, depriving them of access to housing, education and employment.

Nearly half of all state drug arrests during the early 2000s were for cannabis, he said, with Black Marylanders three times more likely to be detained over cannabis-related charges than white residents.

And while the state's population of six million is 33 percent Black, more than 70 percent of Maryland's male incarcerated population is Black.

"Today, we take a big step enacting the kinds of policies that can reverse the harm of the past and to help us to work together to build a brighter future," Moore said as he signed the pardons into law in a ceremony in the capital Annapolis.

"This is a big deal. This is a really big deal."

He said the scope of the pardons -- affecting some 100,000 people -- amounted to a "sweeping and unapologetic" executive action by officials looking to erase criminal justice inequities as more states nationwide ease marijuana laws.

After a state-wide referendum, Maryland legalized cannabis for adults and retail sales of the drug in 2023.

The governor said the pardons would extend to anyone with a misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana or paraphernalia.

- 'Modern day shackles' -

"The data shows the deeply rooted bias in drug-related arrests and sentencing. Cannabis convictions for hundreds of thousands of people here in Maryland were Scarlet Letters, modern day shackles," added Maryland's Attorney General Anthony Brown.

"This morning, I can almost hear the clanging of those shackles falling to the floor."

The pardons will not result in anyone being released from jail, the governor's office said.

The action was cheered by criminal justice reform activists including Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, who recounted being arrested at 16 for cannabis possession.

"I was thrown out of school, denied access to my high school education, ripped from my family and my friends, and had to endure two years of isolation for a simple cannabis possession charge," he said.

"The Last Prisoner Project applauds Governor Moore (and) his administration's actions to rectify the historic racial disparities caused by cannabis prohibition... Today is literally the most powerful day in cannabis justice history for the entire nation. That's an incredible thing."

Heather Warnken, executive director at the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore Law School, called the action a "win for thousands of Marylanders getting a fresh start," but also a victory for the legitimacy of the justice system itself.

"We have a lot of work to do, but for this moment here today, we celebrate this first step," she said.

"We celebrate the justice and dignity and restoration that it represents and, filled with that momentum, tomorrow, we keep forging ahead."

Religious Trauma Syndrome: Here's how some beliefs lead to mental health problems

Valerie Tarico
June 17, 2024 



At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister. "If you ask anything in faith, believing," they said. "It will be done." I knew they were quoting the Word of God. We prayed together, and I went home confident that God had heard my prayers.

But my horrible compulsions didn't go away. By the fall of my sophomore year in college, I was desperate and depressed enough that I made a suicide attempt. The problem wasn't just the bulimia. I was convinced by then that I was a complete spiritual failure. My college counseling department had offered to get me real help (which they later did). But to my mind, at that point, such help couldn't fix the core problem: I was a failure in the eyes of God. It would be years before I understood that my inability to heal bulimia through the mechanisms offered by biblical Christianity was not a function of my own spiritual deficiency but deficiencies in Evangelical religion itself.

Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Area. She is also the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries. This combination has given her work an unusual focus. For the past twenty years she has counseled men and women in recovery from various forms of fundamentalist religion including the Assemblies of God denomination in which she was raised. Winell is the author of Leaving the Fold – A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, written during her years of private practice in psychology. Over the years, Winell has provided assistance to clients whose religious experiences were even more damaging than mine. Some of them are people whose psychological symptoms weren't just exacerbated by their religion, but actually caused by it.

Two years ago, Winell made waves by formally labeling what she calls "Religious Trauma Syndrome" (RTS) and beginning to write and speak on the subject for professional audiences. When the British Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologists published a series of articles on the topic, members of a Christian counseling association protested what they called excessive attention to a "relatively niche topic." One commenter said, "A religion, faith or book cannot be abuse but the people interpreting can make anything abusive."

Is toxic religion simply misinterpretation? What is religious trauma? Why does Winell believe religious trauma merits its own diagnostic label? I asked her.

Let's start this interview with the basics. What exactly is religious trauma syndrome?


Winell: Religious trauma syndrome (RTS) is a set of symptoms and characteristics that tend to go together and which are related to harmful experiences with religion. They are the result of two things: immersion in a controlling religion and the secondary impact of leaving a religious group. The RTS label provides a name and description that affected people often recognize immediately. Many other people are surprised by the idea of RTS, because in our culture it is generally assumed that religion is benign or good for you. Just like telling kids about Santa Claus and letting them work out their beliefs later, people see no harm in teaching religion to children.

But in reality, religious teachings and practices sometimes cause serious mental health damage. The public is somewhat familiar with sexual and physical abuse in a religious context. As Journalist Janet Heimlich has documented in, Breaking Their Will, Bible-based religious groups that emphasize patriarchal authority in family structure and use harsh parenting methods can be destructive.

But the problem isn't just physical and sexual abuse. Emotional and mental treatment in authoritarian religious groups also can be damaging because of 1) toxic teachings like eternal damnation or original sin 2) religious practices or mindset, such as punishment, black and white thinking, or sexual guilt, and 3) neglect that prevents a person from having the information or opportunities to develop normally.


Can you give me an example of RTS from your consulting practice?

Winell: I can give you many. One of the symptom clusters is around fear and anxiety. People indoctrinated into fundamentalist Christianity as small children sometimes have memories of being terrified by images of hell and apocalypse before their brains could begin to make sense of such ideas. Some survivors, who I prefer to call "reclaimers," have flashbacks, panic attacks, or nightmares in adulthood even when they intellectually no longer believe the theology. One client of mine, who during the day functioned well as a professional, struggled with intense fear many nights. She said,
I was afraid I was going to hell. I was afraid I was doing something really wrong. I was completely out of control. I sometimes would wake up in the night and start screaming, thrashing my arms, trying to rid myself of what I was feeling. I'd walk around the house trying to think and calm myself down, in the middle of the night, trying to do some self-talk, but I felt like it was just something that – the fear and anxiety was taking over my life.



Or consider this comment, which refers to a film used by Evangelicals to warn about the horrors of the "end times" for nonbelievers.
I was taken to see the film "A Thief In The Night". WOW. I am in shock to learn that many other people suffered the same traumas I lived with because of this film. A few days or weeks after the film viewing, I came into the house and mom wasn't there. I stood there screaming in terror. When I stopped screaming, I began making my plan: Who my Christian neighbors were, who's house to break into to get money and food. I was 12 yrs old and was preparing for Armageddon alone.


In addition to anxiety, RTS can include depression, cognitive difficulties, and problems with social functioning. In fundamentalist Christianity, the individual is considered depraved and in need of salvation. A core message is "You are bad and wrong and deserve to die." (The wages of sin is death.) This gets taught to millions of children through organizations like Child Evangelism Fellowship, and there is a group organized to oppose their incursion into public schools. I've had clients who remember being distraught when given a vivid bloody image of Jesus paying the ultimate price for their sins. Decades later they sit telling me that they can't manage to find any self-worth.

After twenty-seven years of trying to live a perfect life, I failed. . . I was ashamed of myself all day long. My mind battling with itself with no relief. . . I always believed everything that I was taught but I thought that I was not approved by God. I thought that basically I, too, would die at Armageddon.
I've spent literally years injuring myself, cutting and burning my arms, taking overdoses and starving myself, to punish myself so that God doesn't have to punish me. It's taken me years to feel deserving of anything good.


Born-again Christianity and devout Catholicism tell people they are weak and dependent, calling on phrases like "lean not unto your own understanding" or "trust and obey." People who internalize these messages can suffer from learned helplessness. I'll give you an example from a client who had little decision-making ability after living his entire life devoted to following the "will of God." The words here don't convey the depth of his despair.

I have an awful time making decisions in general. Like I can't, you know, wake up in the morning, "What am I going to do today? Like I don't even know where to start. You know all the things I thought I might be doing are gone and I'm not sure I should even try to have a career; essentially I babysit my four-year-old all day.


Authoritarian religious groups are subcultures where conformity is required in order to belong. Thus if you dare to leave the religion, you risk losing your entire support system as well.

I lost all my friends. I lost my close ties to family. Now I'm losing my country. I've lost so much because of this malignant religion and I am angry and sad to my very core. . . I have tried hard to make new friends, but I have failed miserably. . . I am very lonely.


Leaving a religion, after total immersion, can cause a complete upheaval of a person's construction of reality, including the self, other people, life, and the future. People unfamiliar with this situation, including therapists, have trouble appreciating the sheer terror it can create.
My form of religion was very strongly entrenched and anchored deeply in my heart. It is hard to describe how fully my religion informed, infused, and influenced my entire worldview. My first steps out of fundamentalism were profoundly frightening and I had frequent thoughts of suicide. Now I'm way past that but I still haven't quite found "my place in the universe.



Even for a person who was not so entrenched, leaving one's religion can be a stressful and significant transition.

Many people seem to walk away from their religion easily, without really looking back. What is different about the clientele you work with?

Winell: Religious groups that are highly controlling, teach fear about the world, and keep members sheltered and ill-equipped to function in society are harder to leave easily. The difficulty seems to be greater if the person was born and raised in the religion rather than joining as an adult convert. This is because they have no frame of reference – no other "self" or way of "being in the world." A common personality type is a person who is deeply emotional and thoughtful and who tends to throw themselves wholeheartedly into their endeavors. "True believers" who then lose their faith feel more anger and depression and grief than those who simply went to church on Sunday.


Aren't these just people who would be depressed, anxious, or obsessive anyways?

Winell: Not at all. If my observation is correct, these are people who are intense and involved and caring. They hang on to the religion longer than those who simply "walk away" because they try to make it work even when they have doubts. Sometime this is out of fear, but often it is out of devotion. These are people for whom ethics, integrity and compassion matter a great deal. I find that when they get better and rebuild their lives, they are wonderfully creative and energetic about new things.

In your mind, how is RTS different from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?


Winell: RTS is a specific set of symptoms and characteristics that are connected with harmful religious experience, not just any trauma. This is crucial to understanding the condition and any kind of self-help or treatment. (More details about this can be found on my Journey Free website and discussed in my talk at the Texas Freethought Convention.)

Another difference is the social context, which is extremely different from other traumas or forms of abuse. When someone is recovering from domestic abuse, for example, other people understand and support the need to leave and recover. They don't question it as a matter of interpretation, and they don't send the person back for more. But this is exactly what happens to many former believers who seek counseling. If a provider doesn't understand the source of the symptoms, he or she may send a client for pastoral counseling, or to AA, or even to another church. One reclaimer expressed her frustration this way:
Include physically-abusive parents who quote "Spare the rod and spoil the child" as literally as you can imagine and you have one fucked-up soul: an unloved, rejected, traumatized toddler in the body of an adult. I'm simply a broken spirit in an empty shell. But wait…That's not enough!? There's also the expectation by everyone in society that we victims should celebrate this with our perpetrators every Christmas and Easter!!


Just like disorders such as autism or bulimia, giving RTS a real name has important advantages. People who are suffering find that having a label for their experience helps them feel less alone and guilty. Some have written to me to express their relief:
There's actually a name for it! I was brainwashed from birth and wasted 25 years of my life serving Him! I've since been out of my religion for several years now, but i cannot shake the haunting fear of hell and feel absolutely doomed. I'm now socially inept, unemployable, and the only way i can have sex is to pay for it.


Labeling RTS encourages professionals to study it more carefully, develop treatments, and offer training. Hopefully, we can even work on prevention.

What do you see as the difference between religion that causes trauma and religion that doesn't?

Winell: Religion causes trauma when it is highly controlling and prevents people from thinking for themselves and trusting their own feelings. Groups that demand obedience and conformity produce fear, not love and growth. With constant judgment of self and others, people become alienated from themselves, each other, and the world. Religion in its worst forms causes separation.

Conversely, groups that connect people and promote self-knowledge and personal growth can be said to be healthy. The book, Healthy Religion, describes these traits. Such groups put high value on respecting differences, and members feel empowered as individuals. They provide social support, a place for events and rites of passage, exchange of ideas, inspiration, opportunities for service, and connection to social causes. They encourage spiritual practices that promote health like meditation or principles for living like the golden rule. More and more, nontheists are asking how they can create similar spiritual communities without the supernaturalism. An atheist congregation in London launched this year and has received over 200 inquiries from people wanting to replicate their model.

Some people say that terms like "recovery from religion" and "religious trauma syndrome" are just atheist attempts to pathologize religious belief.

Winell: Mental health professionals have enough to do without going out looking for new pathology. I never set out looking for a "niche topic," and certainly not religious trauma syndrome. I originally wrote a paper for a conference of the American Psychological Association and thought that would be the end of it. Since then, I have tried to move on to other things several times, but this work has simply grown.

In my opinion, we are simply, as a culture, becoming aware of religious trauma. More and more people are leaving religion, as seen by polls showing that the "religiously unaffiliated" have increased in the last five years from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. It's no wonder the internet is exploding with websites for former believers from all religions, providing forums for people to support each other. The huge population of people "leaving the fold" includes a subset at risk for RTS, and more people are talking about it and seeking help. For example, there are thousands of former Mormons, and I was asked to speak about RTS at an Exmormon Foundation conference. I facilitate an international support group online called Release and Reclaim which has monthly conference calls. An organization called Recovery from Religion, helps people start self-help meet-up groups

Saying that someone is trying to pathologize authoritarian religion is like saying someone pathologized eating disorders by naming them. Before that, they were healthy? No, before that we weren't noticing. People were suffering, thought they were alone, and blamed themselves. Professionals had no awareness or training. This is the situation of RTS today. Authoritarian religion is already pathological, and leaving a high-control group can be traumatic. People are already suffering. They need to be recognized and helped.

—- Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of Leaving the Fold – A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion. More information about Marlene Winell and resources for getting help with RTS may be found at Journey Free. Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light and Deas and Other Imaginings, and the founder of www.WisdomCommons.org. Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.