{"id":17,"date":"2025-09-08T13:44:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2025-10-06T01:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T01:02:36","slug":"story-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/story-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve Steps to Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Churches as third places, hmm? My experience parallels that, but not exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve learned spiritual principles in church basements. My third place for the last 4 decades has been in the halls of Overeaters Anonymous (OA). I have had an eating disorder for many decades. For the first half of my life, I dealt with it alone, using occasional therapists who were well-meaning but largely without any answers for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not nor was I ever obese. My disease manifested as obsession with food: eating quantities in private. The shame I felt on the few occasions I was caught was devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One therapist referred me to Overeaters Anonymous, for which I will be forever grateful. Finding others who did the same things with food that I did, helped me realize I was no longer alone. The shame of being an overeater was replaced by hope that I was not doomed to a life of solitary, self-destructive eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on, I learned tools that helped stop the compulsion to overeat. I learned this from the stories of others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And telling my story is one of the most therapeutic tools I have discovered. Connection to others is an invaluable part of who I am today.  Entering into another\u2019s suffering, in hope that that act will have redemptive value, is essential and life-giving. OA showed me the stairway that led upstairs from the basement and into the sanctuary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Marianne Dalton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Third place Stories List<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Home<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories Churches as third places, hmm? My experience parallels that, but not exactly. I\u2019ve learned spiritual principles in church basements. My third place for the last 4 decades has been in the halls of Overeaters Anonymous (OA). I have had an eating disorder for many decades. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}