YOU LIED TO ME ABOUT GOD

A spiritual memoir that does not shy away from abuse, queerness, or the multifaceted character of God.

Marich, an acclaimed therapist and author of several books, grew up between religions—her mother’s Catholicism and the Evangelicalism to which her father converted when she was young. In the confusion bred by her opposing yet equally devout parents, Marich learned to hate her body and fear hell, symptoms faced by many survivors of spiritual abuse. “Not only did they lie to me about God,” Marich writes, reckoning with the long-lasting effects of her childhood. “They lied to me about me. My body. My sexuality. My essence as a person.” As Marich became an adult and continued her own spiritual searching, she uncovered those lies and began the spiritual healing journey that would allow her to engage in the therapeutic and activist work she does to help many other survivors like herself. With tender honesty, Marich writes about the abuse she experienced from her parents, especially her father, as well as all the people who have helped her through addiction recovery, in learning to embrace her queerness and restore her faith. This faith, placed in a queer, feminine divine constructed from several traditions, has given Marich the love and belonging she never found in the narrow, fear-filled faiths of her childhood and early adulthood. Though readers who did not grow up religious may struggle to relate with Marich’s spiritual story, it will likely resonate with readers of any faith, past or present. At the end of each chapter, “expressive arts” prompts invite readers to engage in the work of examining their relationship to spirituality by constructing their own spiritual memoirs.

An intimate and important memoir of deconstructing and reconstructing faith after abuse.