The following podcast contains some graphic descriptions of child abuse and may be difficult to listen to.

Please take care as you listen.

The church should be a place of healing and comfort, but for too many, it's a place where they were abused and harmed.

Ryan George is one of those. He was profoundly hurt in his

childhood church by his father, a fundamentalist pastor. But in this hope-filled podcast, you'll hear

Ryan's redemptive story of being not just hurt by the church, but healed by it as well.

Welcome to the Roy's Report, a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church.

I'm Julie Roy's. And I'm so excited to bring you this podcast with Ryan George,

author of a new book called Hurt and Healed by the Church. This is such a redemptive story,

exposing both the worst and the best that the church can be. Ryan grew up, the son of a pastor, in an independent, fundamental Baptist church.

And though Ryan's dad would preach about love and forgiveness,

he physically, verbally, and spiritually abused Ryan.

And as Ryan would find out when he left his father's home,

his father also sexually molested girls.

This left deep wounds in Ryan and profoundly distorted his view of God and the church. But then he decided to break from his

fundamentalist background, and he began attending a church that was nothing like the churches he had

known. At this church, the leaders welcomed questions and invited people to experience Jesus, not just obey as rules. In this church, the leaders welcomed questions and invited people to experience Jesus,

not just obey his rules. In this church, Ryan developed a relationship with Jesus that he never

knew was possible, and he began to heal. I love Ryan's story, and I think you will too,

and we'll get to that in just a moment. But first, I'd like to thank the sponsors

of this podcast, Judson University, and Mark Orta Barrington. Judson University is a top-ranked

Christian University providing a caring community and an excellent college experience. Plus, the

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