I spent 20 years in the United Pentecostal Church cult, and the right-wing of the Republican Party. What that was like, how I got out, and my take on what's going on with the Christian Right today.
I grew up 30 minutes from The Cove, the “Training Center” in Asheville, NC where Billy Graham and his family lived. I have relatives that live off the same 1-40 exit you take to get there. My paternal grandparents were the type of Southern Baptists Graham spent his lifetime trying […]
I woke up this morning to the new trending hashtag #MeAt14 on Twitter. Many of the tweets are just images of girls at 14, who are obviously too young to be in any kind of sexual situation with a man in his 30’s such as Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. […]
CW: Non-consensual physical contact, emotional abuse. It could begin over anything. Sometimes it was over some youthful indiscretion on my part. Sometimes, my dad would even be laughing and joking one minute, and the next minute it was as if a switch had flipped and he was full of […]
If I had $1 for every Christian who, since I left the church, has said to me some version of, “You were hurt by people because you were following traditions/ false doctrines/ human error.. I know better because I know the REAL Jesus…” I’d be Joel Osteen. This morning on […]
So here we are again. The “largest mass shooting in modern American history,” (at least since the last one). And yes, it’s maddening, heartbreaking, tragic, and horrific. Again. It’s also frustrating to see the nonstop barrage of “thoughts and prayers” for the victims offered by many of the leaders who, […]
In a dream, I was in a primitive cabin, possibly in the mountains where I grew up. A woman named Molly was sitting in a rocking chair near the hearth, where there was a blazing fire. Molly was clearly a wise woman, and she had something to share with me. […]
I am the child of racists. Growing up, I took a lot of heat from my parents for not being racist enough. I was told that it’s morally wrong for white people and black people to be friends, to visit each other’s homes. I should not be too friendly with […]
Eight years ago, I was a right-wing political junkie. A daily Limbaugh listener, nightly Focus on the Family listener, and I wouldn’t watch CNN if you paid me. I was convinced that Barack Obama was a socialist who would do horrible damage to this country due to his radical liberal […]
In less than 48 hours since the election of Donald Trump, people all over the country have experienced racial aggression and harassment not seen in years. After a campaign that stoked the worst in America – going past dog whistles to outright embracing racism – it was no surprise that […]
Today I feel as though the air has been punched right out of my body. A man that embodies racism, homophobia, and the vilest misogyny has been elected president of the United States. Already he has cost me, personally, the tenuous peace that existed between myself and my emotionally abusive […]
So, my dad is a big Trump supporter. He’s also a huge Duke fan, so clearly he has issues with judgement. But to be quite honest, (again, thanks to that anonymity I’ve got mostly going around here) he’s always been a racist. I repeatedly got in trouble as a kid […]
So while we’re on the subject of my past trauma, let me recount a story for you. At the age of 14 I went to a concert. The adult relative who took me stayed in our assigned seats while I went down to the front to join the crush of […]
