Powerfully written, Jenn. I think of my own time growing up in the fundamentalist bubble and really just the ironclad certainty that “We’re doing the right thing,” as if there is no nuance or complexity in the world at all ever, as if the extent of your moral imagination should be submitting totally and unquestioningly to patriarchal authority and institutional power without developing your own conscience or discernment at all ever. And so we see the consequences playing out today.
Thanks, Max. It’s wild to me that we were children so the black and white of it all made sense. And yet, now I see so much more of this in those who are decidedly not children.
yep. incapable of nuance, moral children who will accept scapegoating and cheer when the latest scapegoat is tortured, derided, etc for being sub-human. Unfortunately, the ascendant power grabbing faction has seemingly forgotten Solzhenitsyn- "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts"
Thanks for writing this, Jenn - it's very powerful
This is so very good and needed. After three elections of being encouraged to vote for Trump, being told that Trump is the most prolife president ever, told that our children may be martyred in the streets if the wrong candidate won, that gay marriage is the cause for divorces in heterosexual marriages, that immigration issues are "complicated" and therefore it was too difficult to denounce what Vance said about Haitians (we are in Ohio)...I finally left the church. There's only one parish in our rural area, and I couldn't handle a faith that only seemed to mesh with Fox News and EWTN and anti-Francis voices. Within that setting, somehow it seemed virtuous to listen to Matt Walsh but not virtuous to care for immigrants. As a mom of three boys, I felt the message being preached was dangerous to their faith. For now, I'm bouncing between the presbyterian and episcopal churches in our area. I'm not sure when it will feel ok to return.
Thank you for writing this, Jenn. While my experience in my upbringing was different in some of the details, much of the substance was the same. A close girlfriend and I who were raised in the same Southern Baptist church by parents with similar values have lamented together that those parents who taught us to love our neighbour, welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and care for those in need have so utterly abandoned those ideals to support a man and administration that is the complete antithesis of this. Like you, much of what I accepted as a child was a black and white view of the world, but there was always wheat (donate to the school food drive) amongst the chaff (welfare queens). The problem is that when I harvested the wheat, I left the chaff behind to be burned. My parents and many other adults I trusted and who formed me in the Christian faith, have embraced a chaff ravenous man who delights in cruelty and evil. It is heartbreaking in a way that I find difficult to articulate.
Dear friends, the "pro life" movement was never once about saving babies or sanctity of life. It was about control, especially of the private lives of women and their medical decisions. That's it. That's all.
Powerfully written, Jenn. I think of my own time growing up in the fundamentalist bubble and really just the ironclad certainty that “We’re doing the right thing,” as if there is no nuance or complexity in the world at all ever, as if the extent of your moral imagination should be submitting totally and unquestioningly to patriarchal authority and institutional power without developing your own conscience or discernment at all ever. And so we see the consequences playing out today.
Thanks, Max. It’s wild to me that we were children so the black and white of it all made sense. And yet, now I see so much more of this in those who are decidedly not children.
yep. incapable of nuance, moral children who will accept scapegoating and cheer when the latest scapegoat is tortured, derided, etc for being sub-human. Unfortunately, the ascendant power grabbing faction has seemingly forgotten Solzhenitsyn- "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts"
Thanks for writing this, Jenn - it's very powerful
Jenn - this is so important and so well said. The disconnect is astonishing and very disingenuous. And dangerous.
That picture of him is a gut punch.
it is.
Amen.
This is my experience, too. The experience of so many of us. Thank you for putting it into words so well.
This is so very good and needed. After three elections of being encouraged to vote for Trump, being told that Trump is the most prolife president ever, told that our children may be martyred in the streets if the wrong candidate won, that gay marriage is the cause for divorces in heterosexual marriages, that immigration issues are "complicated" and therefore it was too difficult to denounce what Vance said about Haitians (we are in Ohio)...I finally left the church. There's only one parish in our rural area, and I couldn't handle a faith that only seemed to mesh with Fox News and EWTN and anti-Francis voices. Within that setting, somehow it seemed virtuous to listen to Matt Walsh but not virtuous to care for immigrants. As a mom of three boys, I felt the message being preached was dangerous to their faith. For now, I'm bouncing between the presbyterian and episcopal churches in our area. I'm not sure when it will feel ok to return.
Thank you for writing this, Jenn. While my experience in my upbringing was different in some of the details, much of the substance was the same. A close girlfriend and I who were raised in the same Southern Baptist church by parents with similar values have lamented together that those parents who taught us to love our neighbour, welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and care for those in need have so utterly abandoned those ideals to support a man and administration that is the complete antithesis of this. Like you, much of what I accepted as a child was a black and white view of the world, but there was always wheat (donate to the school food drive) amongst the chaff (welfare queens). The problem is that when I harvested the wheat, I left the chaff behind to be burned. My parents and many other adults I trusted and who formed me in the Christian faith, have embraced a chaff ravenous man who delights in cruelty and evil. It is heartbreaking in a way that I find difficult to articulate.
Wow, Valerie - yes. So much of this. That wheat/chaff thing. Woof.
Dear friends, the "pro life" movement was never once about saving babies or sanctity of life. It was about control, especially of the private lives of women and their medical decisions. That's it. That's all.