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Jo Luehmann

4 Apr, 9 tweets, 2 min read

I don’t believe Jesus the man came back from the dead. I think they argued for that years after he died because without Jesus’ literal resurrection, then Jesus the historical man couldn’t be the messiah. The messiah was supposed to end oppression for his people, Jesus didn’t.

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Now if Jesus literally resurrected so that he could end oppression in the afterlife, then people got to still believe he was the messiah; and oppression here was unavoidable. I believe such notions reduce Christianity to hell avoidance, and make it shallow and prone to abuse.

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Spirituality (not religion or dogma) has always intended to serve a much beautiful and wider purpose than to ensure a ticket to “heaven.” It’s always been about wholeness and harmony with oneself, our communities, and the earth around us. It’s about Shalom here, now.

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I don’t see how Jesus, the historical man, coming back from the dead achieves any of that. If anything, history shows us that the effects of atonement theories; and physical resurrection narratives to be able to make it to heaven; are the opposite of harmony and wholeness.

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Now, I do love spiritual resurrections, or what some call awakening. I love the invitation of the Christ to bring back to life the one we were created to be; the one drowned under societal expectations, religion, systemic abuse, the trauma of living in an unhealthy society.

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I love the idea of awakening to the ways in which our true self has been tortured to fit into a world that says we are not good or enough.

I love resurrection as healing, expanding, knowing our true selves, showing up as divinity embodied: whole, free, aware, conscious.

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I don’t believe the historical Jesus literally came back from the dead. I do know that such an idea has often been useless; and what’s most concerning, it has been harmful. I also know it has stolen from a bigger, deeper, more comprehensive message of being the Christ:

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when we heal in order to be able to show up as our true selves, the ones we were created to be; then we transcend our existence in the way we were meant to. We leave for our descendants healing, wholeness, and a society that’s closer to heaven on earth. That’s immortality.

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And that is the only kind of resurrection, and immortality I’m interested in. Resurrecting after religion tried to bury me. Coming to myself after Christianity tried to destroy me.

Happy Easter, may we all come back to life and rise in spite of religion.

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More from @JoLuehmann

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

29 Mar

We have normalized calling parenting what really is child abuse (Christianity played a big role in making this the case). Spankings, manipulating, silencing, removing agency, infusing shame, using guilt and fear as motivators... it is all child abuse, not parenting.

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Children who often feel unsafe in the presence of their caregivers are not being parented, they are being abused and groomed.

While child abuse may result in obedience, that isn’t a goal we should we pursuing when it comes to equipping people to become healthy adults.

2/

Obedience doesn’t give us tools to be the healthiest version of ourselves, instead it tells us to fit into other’s expectations of us. The idea that if you practice child abuse, then you are parenting and your children will be well and grateful to you later on is fallacious.

3/

Read 10 tweets

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

27 Mar

When I say that so long as nobody is being harmed people’s decisions, choices, and actions are always acceptable and should be respected; conservative Christians often ask me: but who decides what harm is?

1/

They do this to invalidate ‘harm,’ because if we can obscure the notion of harm, and they can decide that people going to hell is really the harm we should be worried about; then they are justified in crossing every possible boundary to keep people from hell.

2/

They are “helping,” “saving,” not really harming.

That’s one of the main ways in which the concept of sin is weaponized against people; because they decide what sin is, which is what will send us to hell (except not because all we have to do is repent and then we are safe).

3/

Read 10 tweets

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

19 Mar

Christians talking about a sexually explicit performance being evil don’t realize they are telling on themselves. Evil is something profoundly immoral that causes harm and destruction. Not simply something you disapprove of or dislike.

1/

When Christians say that two women of color being sexual in their own time, without requiring them to watch or engage with what are putting out there is evil, they are saying our sexuality is evil. So women of color being sexual, causes them harm or destruction.

2/

And how can they not see the connection between that narrative and the reality of a Christian man driving to massage parlors to shoot Asian women because they "tempted" him? How can they not see their narrative blames women, especially women of color, for their own response?

3/

Read 6 tweets

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

18 Mar

Sex work ≠ sex trafficking.

Equating them harms sex workers and sex trafficking victims. Listen to sex workers and victims, stop making decisions for them.

The problem has never been sex work, instead it has been for a long time the white supremacist cis-hetero patriarchy.

1/

Making this conversation about sex trafficking when nobody even has all the facts on whether there was sex trafficking continues to take the focus away from the facts.

A white Christian man decided that instead of dealing w/the traumatic effects of purity culture in healthy

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ways, or instead of finding support, asking for help... he was going to murder Asian women because they “tempted him.” Ending his temptation to make him “pure” was a bigger priority that the lives of these women. Because he was taught the world revolves around white men,

3/

Read 10 tweets

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

15 Mar

Christians often say “not all churches,” which yes, agreed. However, here are some signs of abusive churches.

A thread:

Obedience is demanded - coercing people into obedience and focusing a lot on behavior control and discipline as ways to evidence your godliness.

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Isolation - a tendency to demonize anything that is not the version of Christianity they approves of. Secular info is rendered as dangerous, a door to “backsliding.” This also extends to demonizing people with messages that don’t line up with to their narrow doctrinal beliefs.
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Belonging hinges on agreement - dualistic thinking is the norm, and rules of belonging are set with that mentality. You are with us, you believe what we believe, you behave how we behave; or you are against us, and obviously wrong. You belong if you agree only!

3/

Read 11 tweets

Jo Luehmann

@JoLuehmann

14 Mar

All theology is made up. It’s all frameworks to explain/communicate things we can’t explain/communicate otherwise.

The question: is this theology true? Is irrelevant. The more important question: is this theology moving us toward a healthier version of ourselves? is helpful.

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“True” when it comes to theology can be reduced to “that which the most powerful have agreed upon.” Not necessarily that which is verifiable, fact or reality. Because nobody can prove that the Canaanite god El is ≠ than the Israelite Elohim, or the same as the Christian God.

2/

Theology evolves. The more information we have about humanity and cosmology; the more theology changes. While some frameworks were adequate for ancient people, and led them toward a healthier version of themselves; they are rather inadequate today, and toxic theology now.

3/

Read 5 tweets

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