What do progressive faith metaphors of a wide open table and a tent for everyone actually mean? If we take that call seriously, who are we compelled to let in and how does that break the “purity” of progressivism we often like to maintain? As a delegate to this year’s General Synod of the United… Continue reading UCC General Synod Resolution 8 and the Need for Church to not Mimic the World’s Polarization
Category: Essays, Criticism, and Analyses
Reclaiming By Erasing: A Guest Post By Lest I Know Your Weakness Author Taylor Ramage
Holy Week & Bethlehem, WV
Lent never fails to challenge me, even when my life is filled with blessings and I’m not in the mental place I’m usually in where I can truly sit in the solemnity of the season. I spent many years there, so perhaps my recent joys are God giving me a little break. For that, I’m… Continue reading Holy Week & Bethlehem, WV
Forgive Us Our Trespasses UMC response
Every time the major church denominations increase their corruption or marginalization of certain groups of people, all churches feel the fallout. The combination of harmful doctrine with a largely unchurched public means that to the average person, what happens in the Catholic church or the United Methodist Church might as well be true of the… Continue reading Forgive Us Our Trespasses UMC response
Personal Apocalypse in Revolutionary Girl Utena
Recently, I sat with my pastors and a few other congregants after church as we had one of many ongoing discussions about the #MeToo movement. We based our discussion on an article by Nadia Bolz-Weber called “We’re in the midst of an apocalypse. And that’s a good thing” published in The Washington Post. If you’re… Continue reading Personal Apocalypse in Revolutionary Girl Utena
Anorexia/Nervosa: 10 Years Later
In high school and college, I had a tight circle of friends that gushed about Christian hardcore music. These bands weren’t the contemporary praise and worship groups we heard in church. They screamed, they had odd vocal styles, and they spun some of the most creative and disturbing lyrics I’d yet heard in religious music.… Continue reading Anorexia/Nervosa: 10 Years Later
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Where’s The LGBTQ Rep?
At last, I’ve caught up on season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I thoroughly enjoyed the dips into Equestria’s ancient past and the character development of non-Mane Six ponies. I still thoroughly ship Rarijack and enjoyed the bread crumbs sprinkled upon us this season. Because that’s all we got of any LGBTQ… Continue reading My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Where’s The LGBTQ Rep?
I’ve Been Staring at the Edge of the Divine: Feminist Theology in Moana
Moana is Disney’s latest adventure that follows its new pattern of spinning narratives of female empowerment that appeal to growing mainstream feminist thought. We have a film without a single white person that tells the story of a young woman whose goal in life in no way, shape, or form includes romance with a man.… Continue reading I’ve Been Staring at the Edge of the Divine: Feminist Theology in Moana
The Tunes Behind “Forgive Us Our Trespasses”
Music is a huge influence for my writing. The songs and bands I listen to every day seep into my subconscious and work their way into my projects. This is especially true for my fiction–I have playlists in my iPod for several different projects. While creating the poems in Forgive Us Our Trespasses, I often… Continue reading The Tunes Behind “Forgive Us Our Trespasses”
Memories of “Trespasses”
I first heard the Lord’s Prayer in the Catholic church my mother brought me to every week when I was in elementary school. Sometimes, I liked going. The lady who usually sat in the pew in front of us always smiled and waved at me. I liked trotting up to the marble altar at the… Continue reading Memories of “Trespasses”