This “good Christian girl” is a woman now
I was a “good Christian girl” until well into middle age. Then, God led me where I did not want to go, to show me what I desperately needed to see.
I was a “good Christian girl” until well into middle age. Then, God led me where I did not want to go, to show me what I desperately needed to see.
A true story from the past it seems important to tell. Four questions about the present it seems important to ask.
Ultimately, collectively, the church quenched the Spirit’s voice in order to embrace the society’s values. The church began to preach - and to try to live - a righteousness unencumbered with justice. But. God.
What one bewildered, battered woman found, and dared to write, before patterns from the past began to replay in the present in such a visible, alarming way.
Choosing to go with God where my church culture had forbidden, I had no clue how much seeing and grieving lay ahead. And how very much love and life.
Abuse had begun to open my eyes to evils in my church culture. Then, God took me on a pilgrimage into the past, to show me what is happening now.
Shame that’s exposed hurts like hell. But only – only – when brought out into the light can shame be dealt with and sent away.
Mini-post: Thought-provoking quote from We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church
Much as we may try to do so, we cannot buy ourselves “a pass from American history,” nor from the racist fallout still occurring today.
In April 2011 and again in April 2014 – on the date when the most state celebrations of the former Confederacy converged – major storms spawned deadly tornadoes and record-breaking…