One of the lousiest parts of my depressive periods is that I forget how fucking amazing running makes me feel. I let a week elapse between runs! Never again!
when the calf pain fades and the wind picks up and it's just you and music, it's ecstasy, even at my crawling pace.
Needless to say the ongoing research for this series is not easy. I have to remind myself that running is not optional. It's maintenace for the machine!
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Here is the piece I have dedicated every waking hour to recently. It is about corporal punishment in evangelical households. 150 people reached out to me to share their stories. I did my best to honor their trust and candor. theswordandthesandwich.substack.com/p/ministry-of-…
It meant more than I can say to be trusted in this way. With the help of @kkdumez, I wrote about the "biblical parenting" movement as a part of evangelical political identity. I wrote about obedience training and what it does. I wrote about wooden spoons. theswordandthesandwich.substack.com/p/ministry-of-…
This was deeply emotional work, full of sorrow and anger. It would mean a lot to me - and more, I think, to the people who dredged up painful memories to spare others future pain - if you read it. theswordandthesandwich.substack.com/p/ministry-of-…
damn im kinda close to 3,000 substack subscribers in 3 weeks hell yea. come join! tomorrow we take on the evangelical parenting-industrial complex. theswordandthesandwich.substack.com
not to be flip it's a piece that has gutted me inside and out researching and tbh i'd like people to feel their voices are being heard.
This is my favorite Substack piece so far. My general ethos is to explore the American right (in this case the anti-vaxx movement) with a combination of longitudinal, historical views and contemporary research that incorporates social media and science. theswordandthesandwich.substack.com/p/apocalypse-n…
i cannot overemphasize enough that james dobson's most famous parenting book opens with him beating the crap out of a 12 pound dachshund with a belt for sleeping near a heater, and millions of parents bought the book and used it as a daily parenting guide
I am reading the Dobson book The Strong Willed Child (and I have several more lined up: To Train Up A Child, Raising Godly Tomatoes, Shepherding A Child's Heart) for this series. It is very difficult to read these. Just a very alien worldview focused on "breaking children's will"
P.S. No wonder these kids hate you James you absolute carbuncle
So. As my tweets on Michael and Debi Pearl and James Dobson et al might have indicated, I'm writing about Christian disciplinarian parenting. If you are a person whose childhood was shaped by this, and want to talk about it, please reach out at talialavinwrites @ gmail.
I promise to the best of my ability to treat your stories with care. I have my own experiences with trauma and faith that shape my interest in this topic. I hope to offer an informed historical and contemporary perspective on the drive for Godly corporal punishment.
I can offer pseudonymity to those who want it. I'd love to hear your perspective on how Christian-inflected corporal punishment has affected you, as a child and as an adult. If you feel so moved, please reach out: talialavinwrites @ gmail. ❤️
i ran for 40 minutes straight!!! (and then 2m walking and 10min more running). thats the longest yet!!!! only 4 more runs left in the program (although i am pretty far from running 6 miles as i am v slow). i love these stupid badges
at my current pace it will take 85 minutes of running straight to hit 6 miles. fml