“What does a decent society do with people who hurt themselves because they’re human? With people who eat too much, smoke too much, drive carelessly, don’t have safe sex – we don’t put them out to pasture to die because they’ve done a human thing.” – How to Survive a Plague I grew…
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Church
The Religious Right: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 3
So where were the Christians? In the midst of all of this death and isolation, when people were the most vulnerable, when there was so much stigma and fear and people were begging for an ounce of compassion and love – where were the people who were supposed to be known for that? “Since…
Fear and Silence: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 2
If you were a conservative Christian girl in the 90s, you probably know the phrase ‘screaming silver-blue eyes’. The Christy Miller Series was almost mandatory reading for our little sub-culture generation. And we tried to emulate this role model of holy femininity. So when Christy journaled, we journaled, and when Christy wrote letters to…
My Story: Gays, AIDS, and the Church, Part 1
The public junior high was nothing but a hotbed of sin. Or so my fundamentalist parent thought. So instead of moving on with my friends, in 6th grade I was inserted into a small church school, where everyone had grown up together. Being the outsider made for a rough year, so in 7th grade…
A Resurrected Faith
Emotional Pacifism – Laying Down My Weapons
“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting…” I read this verse in John during Holy Week and realized I fight for Jesus. I need to lay down my weapons. I need to stop fighting for him. Need to stop fighting for what people…
Did I Think About Staying?
give me the heart of an archeologist, that I may dig until I prove that I exist. a subterranean cathedral in my midst, where echoes come to rest. where echoes come to rest. is this where echoes come to rest? -Sleeping At Last A year ago I said leaving Evangelicalism probably wasn’t the answer…
The Lectionary and a Legacy; A Letter To Myself
“Maybe it’s true that we are all descended from the restless, the nervous, the criminals, the arguers and brawlers, but also the brave and independent and generous.” – Steinbeck The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany What gaping wounds have you inherited? What stories have been scabbed over? What secrets do the scars hold?…
A Tender Thaw
I’m guest posting for my friend Kelly today on coming alive and how painful it can be. Here’s a little snippet (and also why I bawled through Frozen). Be honest. Be vulnerable. It’s home group, small group, community group, so it’s safe here. This is how you build strong friendships. Real community, the…
How IHOP Made Me Hate God
It’s all so tangled. It’s the bordering on financial ruin, the taking ‘handouts’ from the state, but being ignored by the church. It’s a marriage flirting with collapse and being told not to discuss it. It’s so hard to sort out what is human incompetence, personality differences, normal conflicts in relationships, and spiritual abuse, damaging…