My First Pride We woke early on Saturday morning and traveled to Omaha to attend the Heartland Pride festival. We were intentional this year about attending Pride, but during June, it just didn’t work out, so we drove about 70 miles to Omaha, Nebraska. My best-laid plans didn’t work out because we got there an hour early in downtown Omaha, packed with people. I admit it: I underestimated how big it was going to be. After a few minutes of... Read more
An Open Letter to Christians RE: Deconstruction Dear Christian, Some of you may just be realizing that many of us are deconstructing our faith. We noticed that you seem to be confused by this, so I thought I would clarify a couple of points around the usual statements I hear from those in organized religion. Misconception 1 – Deconstructionists want to sin more. I understand why you think this way, especially when everything that you disagree with is considered a... Read more
Yesterday, I spoke at the funeral of an old friend of mine, Mark. It was the first one I had done probably in about 10 years. It was actually just a graveside, so it wasn’t that complicated and was fairly short. I forgot about all the things like the uneven ground at this cemetery and the challenges this posed because my mobility was limited. I also forgot that temperatures and weather at a cemetery seem to be either scorching hot,... Read more
Recommended Reading for the Times We Live In We decided to set the month of July aside to interview authors on The Desert Sanctuary that we found interesting and compelling in one way or another. Some of these were recommendations from other people, but we were extremely pleased with the final eight that made the cut. Once most of them were recorded, I could look at them as a whole and realize some consistency, even though they are all quite... Read more
Parenting in the Desert – Part 2 (From our new book, Evolving From Religious Trauma. June 4th) Listen to this blog – AI-Generated Laura Validating Our Child’s Emotions I started teaching later in life, but I have refined my classroom management skills, so I always feel like I am in control and moving towards valuable objectives. I teach second grade at a rural elementary school, and even though the challenges are varied, they are predictable. I can usually guess what children... Read more
A Prescription for Healing When we decide to question our beliefs and explore what’s beyond Christianity or our established worldview, it can seem like we are wandering out into the desert. To make matters worse, sometimes we experience PTSD from the trauma we experienced earlier in life, and it didn’t get better in organized religion. What we need is to take a step back and honestly evaluate organized religion in the 21st century. Do we really need it anymore? Is... Read more
Parenting in the Desert – Part 1 (From our new book, Evolving From Religious Trauma. June 4th) Listen to this blog – AI-Generated Karl Parenting is a daunting endeavor. I always felt like it was the most monumental task I ever attempted, yet I had the least training of anything else. There were classes and books available, but they were all over the place regarding theories and practices. To make it worse, I grew up during the Dr. Spock era, and... Read more
Thriving Outside Religion (From our new book, Evolving From Religious Trauma. June 4th) Listen to this blog – AI-Generated I went to church for most of my life. Much of that was in conservative, evangelical congregations. There were some positive aspects of being in a community with loving people. But I also understand that there are deep, systemic problems with religious organizations. In addition to trauma-related issues, organizations struggle with exclusion, othering, fear, and control. The trouble with reform is that... Read more
Why Taylor is Better than Trump In this enlightened age, most of us would probably hope that we don’t have to follow anyone. We are enlightened and empowered, and we can make our own decisions, so we assume that we are independent and don’t need leaders anymore. A couple of days ago, we interviewed Derek Webb, less than a week after we interviewed a drag queen named Flamy Grant and our friends at Freed Hearts, Susan and Rob Cottrell. In... Read more
Darkness and Shadow – Part 2 (From our new book, Evolving From Religious Trauma. June 4th)) Listen to Audio – AI-Generated Laura Leaving organized religion has opened many opportunities to heal that were not encouraged inside the church. Do not get me wrong, when I was hurting inside the church, people offered some ideas to help relieve my suffering, such as praying more, reading my Bible more, fasting, or seeking Christian counseling. I tried all the above. The thing about trauma,... Read more
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