Update
Awkward Saints YouTube Channel
Visualising the Invisible: Why Awkward Saints is Moving to Video
Support This website discusses coercive and abusive behaviours in faith spaces, which some readers may find distressing. Take breaks if needed and seek support if you recognise these patterns.
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Action on Spiritual Abuse (UK)
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The Move to Video
For a long time, this project has lived in text. Long-form articles are the bread and butter of Awkward Saints because the systems we investigate—coercive control, authority laundering, and spiritual abuse—are complex. They require patience to dismantle.
However, some mechanisms of control are structural. They are about shapes, networks, and flows of influence that are difficult to describe on a page but immediately obvious when you see them mapped out.
That is why I am launching the Awkward Saints YouTube channel.
Video opens up new ways of communicating these ideas. An animated diagram allows me to explain in ten seconds what might take hundreds of words to parse in text. It allows us to visualise the invisible machinery operating inside our churches.
The Disconnection Machine
The first video is now live: The Disconnection Machine.
This film examines the hidden social mechanics used to re-wire parish churches for “scale.” It visualises exactly how a congregation is sorted, how influence is mapped, and how natural human connection is often sacrificed for a replicable system.
If you have ever felt the temperature drop in a room because you didn’t fit a specific profile, or watched a warm community divide into “insiders” and “outsiders,” this video explains the mechanics behind that experience.
Link to watch directly on YouTube: The Disconnection Machine
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