An online conference for academics and practitioners who care about the needs of apostates. The theme of the Apostasy Conference 2024 is 'The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse.'

At Faith to Faithless, we have decades of experience between us with supporting those who have left high-control religions. However, there is still so much we have to learn. The Apostasy Conference is an important part of Faith to Faithless’ strategic aim to raise awareness of the issues so-called apostates face in the UK. The conference aims to dig deeper into one or two of the issues apostates commonly face. It is an opportunity for Faith to Faithless and Humanists UK to learn from the academic and therapeutic community, and it is also a space for professionals working on these issues to come together, network, and share ideas and research.

For the conference this year, the overarching theme will be on the systemic nature of religious abuse. Abuse happens in all areas of society, not just within religious contexts. However, the use of religious texts and doctrines, enforced by religious leaders and followers, and the religious patriarchy, means many religious systems create a culture for abuse to happen, they create the abuse itself, they promote the abuse as morally right, and they cover up abuse where they wants to avoid blame or shame or accountability.

The conference will have two halves, the first half will have the theme of how religions create rape culture and how this impacts apostates. And the second half will talk about how the UK state facilitates or ignores religious abuses (all forms of religious abuse, not just sexual) and how this impacts apostates.

We warmly welcome academics and practioners working on these topics to submit abstracts to Terri at info@faithtofaithless.com.