Rich Merritt

Marine who was in gay adult videos, got sober & became a lawyer for the underdog

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Imagine getting arrested for something you didn’t do. Your public defender has 300 other clients and 12 minutes for your file.
Watch what CA does next.
#publicdefender #criminaljusticereform #indigentdefense #knowyourrights

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

The moment that stayed with me was not just the politics. It was the hypocrisy. The same institution that preached moral certainty could bend itself into knots when power was involved. That was one of the first things I couldn’t unsee.

Follow for the stories behind the books.

#BobJonesUniversity #ReligiousTrauma

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

When I was the platoon scribe in boot camp, my senior DI gave me a piece of advice I never forgot: "You’re officer material."
A year later, I was broke, ashamed, and just kicked out of college. I had zero belief in myself. But his voice became the shield against my own fear. Because of him, I called a recruiter and became a Mustang officer.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Coming of age inside spiritual abuse means you don’t just have to find yourself. You have to unlearn the version of yourself they built to keep you obedient. That takes time. It also takes mercy.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

https://t.co/yiTetTj0DU

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

I grew up inside Bob Jones University. At 10, I heard the president sneer the first slur for what I was. At 13, his father told us a new disease was God's vengeance against people like me.
The school is still standing. But I survived.
To the kid trapped there now: Don't believe them. Get out. Find your people.
#BJU #ReligiousTrauma #ExFundie #LGBTQ

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

My Christian school taught me God buried fake dinosaur bones to test my faith. So I asked: how do we know God didn't make the universe five minutes ago with our memories already loaded? They sent me to the principal's office. 😅
🔗👆👇
#religioustrauma

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Anger can be fuel, but it makes a lousy home. The work is learning how to use it without letting it use you. That’s where peace begins: not in pretending nothing hurt, but in refusing to let the hurt run the whole show.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

America has two modes for anything that makes us sick: sell it, or cage the people who use it. Either way, someone’s buying a yacht. That’s the reality of how the system handles addiction. If you want genuine recovery motivation instead of generic sober quotes, this is the truth about recovery, a real sober lifestyle, and sustainable sober living

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

One of the unexpected gifts of surviving my own chaos is that sometimes my experience can help someone else. Not because I have all the answers. Because I know what it feels like to be standing in the wreckage, looking for one usable piece of truth.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

I deleted real people from my memoir. I couldn't cut her. ✂️ I thought I wasn't smart enough to be anyone. Then a speech professor handed me permission to actually feel something. I went off about a Marine spy case, the room went quiet, and she asked if I'd ever thought about law school.
She said it like it was obvious. 25 years later, she’s still in the book

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Out right now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Hit the link below to get yours, read it, and tell me which character you saw yourself https://t.co/BO0W6pQtUB

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Spiritual probation—a real punishment for the condition of your soul. I got caught listening to Madonna and earned mine.
I couldn't let the phrase go, so I made it a novel. Spiritual Probation follows a kid inside a high-control religious world, figuring out which parts of himself he gets to keep.
in.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

https://t.co/RM4RV9gzTG

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

They never put the real reason on the sign—they just called it a Christian education. Now a new federal voucher program starts January 2027, and Treasury says states can't put guardrails on it. Same school they built in 1968, now funded by your taxes.
🔗 Info in comments.
#SegregationAcademies #SchoolVouchers #PublicSchools #ChurchAndState #SchoolChoice

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

Acceptance is the answer to most of my problems. Not all of them. Sometimes the right spiritual response is: no, I’m not accepting this. Not when the powerful are exploiting the vulnerable and calling it business.

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

more about surviving homophobia, spiritual abuse and the Florida Orange Juice commission at https://t.co/2VUORqU7pG

[Rich Merritt @RMerrittAuthor]

History keeps recycling the same anti-gay grift, from Anita Bryant to Brett Cooper. The playbook stays exactly the same—only the faces change. But the tide always turns, and we're going to make damn sure history remembers exactly what they were.
👇 Let's talk in the comments.