Marissa Franks Burt Profile picture
Storybound & Stardust series | The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Gen of Eva Families (2025) | Also find me @lectionaryhome
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Feb 17 13 tweets 3 min read
As always, it's a good idea for ACNA ppl to read through @ArlieColes' meticulous documentation.

You may think this is a non-issue, but Title IV impacts how allegations against *bishops* will be adjudicated, so here's how I see it mattering, but I'd love to hear from others too🧵 I always encourage ppl to review their *diocesan* canons b/c that is where you are going to find info re: training your clergy receives & how concerns in your parish will be handled.

This advice still holds. Find out if your diocese cares about a trauma-informed framework.+
Feb 17 14 tweets 4 min read
Glad to see this panel @The_ACNA

Cancel-culture efforts & demands for apologies leave me wondering: is the goal to get any initiative that tackles sexism/misogyny cancelled?

B/c if ppl can't even hear those words w/out melting down, it only shows how much we need this panel🧵 Over the yrs, countless people have contacted Bp Dobbs about the online behavior of Fr. Matt Kennedy.

I myself have done it publicly in the past. ⬇️

And I'm doing it again today, b/c I hope the province won't bend to cancel culture. 2/

Jan 3 17 tweets 3 min read
Another round of the worst @The_ACNA question game: is it episcopal incompetency, bishops behaving badly, or some combo of the two?

Seems like leaders being “above reproach” should be more important in a denomination that claims to value biblical authority 🧵 I’ve already seen knee jerk defenses: This-isn’t-true-Bp-Dobbs-denies-it or I-know-he’s-a-good-guy or ppl-making-claims-are-bad.

I’ll take them each in turn but, guys, can we reflect: Why is it so hard to find ACNA leaders w/unquestionable integrity? +
Dec 23, 2025 19 tweets 4 min read
How is this not a conflict of interest?

I find it impossible to believe Bp Hawkins never tried to shape Weber's opinion.

Why? B/c Alan DMed me, a random layperson, disclosed confidential things over the course of 4 phone calls, & was displeased when I did not comply. 🧵 I began writing publicly about this in summer 2021. After my first FB post, Bp Alan DMed me w/reassurances & an invitation to talk.

I was surprised—I didn't know Bp Alan but wanted to use what access I had to advocate for the province to call in qualified external help. 2/
Dec 20, 2025 7 tweets 6 min read
Y'all, I am not a fan of AI. But I wanted to know the percentage of words devoted to Ruch's actions, narrative capture, provincial processes, and witness testimony.

It broke it down for me & offered some interesting prompts. Make of it what you will. 🧵 Image
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Here's the breakdown: structure of the document is procedurally dominated, which AI suggests has implications of institutional protection & desire to emphasize procedural correctness. 2/ Image
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Dec 20, 2025 4 tweets 2 min read
It is mind-boggling to me that anyone would read these charges & be like, you know what, I think it's really important to tell the victims & those pastorally tending them that their online jokes are in poor taste. 🧵 Image
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Worrying about offending somebody w/my tone would not even make the very last page of my very long list of things to care about if a trusted leader at my church had abused my 9YO or groomed my teen or raped my friend or anything adjacent to these allegations. 2/
Dec 19, 2025 29 tweets 6 min read
"Spiritual orphans. Exvangelicals. Estranged children of the church. I can think of many descriptors for the displaced and hurting Christians who are navigating moral injury, church betrayal, and the institutional inability to hold errant leaders accountable." 🧵 Image This week, my denomination, the Anglican Church in North America, after bungling a 4+ years investigatory process into allegations against a bishop, released a summary of their ruling of “not guilty on all counts.” 2/
Dec 18, 2025 29 tweets 5 min read
Some ppl seem to want to tell me why I'm angry about the @The_ACNA ecclesiastical trial

Guys, I've been angry for years. Question is: why aren't you angry?

I am *embarrassed* and *scandalized* at the incompetence on display w/the trial & I'll tell you some reasons why 🧵 The trial court scolded advocates & ppl bringing presentments; that supercilious framing resembles the leadership immaturity that has categorized the @The_ACNA every step of the way.

It's the point of the trial to investigate.
Dec 17, 2025 43 tweets 13 min read
Organizing my thoughts/observations in this thread.

In short: this reads like the perhaps predictable church family system version of "but we did the best we could," where parents/leaders want to be judged by their good intentions rather than the harmful impact.

🧵 I perceive a lot of "mistakes were made" vibes, e.g. the structures were in formation, there wasn't standardization, things were growing, etc.

Okay and also: that is a failure of leadership. That is the building the plane while flying it ethos writ large. Who will own this? 2/
Oct 28, 2025 6 tweets 2 min read
New excuse incoming⬇️

Imagine being on Twitter & not recognizing humor.

ACNA ppl: It's okay to tell the truth. When news about Ruch first dropped, most ACNA insiders didn't want to believe it. I know I didn't.

Easier to blame survivors & ppl calling for accountability. 🧵 Image It's laughable to watch the anti-tone police crew fault @acnatoo for telling wry jokes on twitter.

Insiders also weighed advocates up on the scales of ideological purity tests & found them wanting.

Not pure enough to do the advocacy work insiders didn't care to prioritize.
2/
Oct 28, 2025 8 tweets 4 min read
I will give this attention.

ACNA clerics maligned ACNAtoo starting in 2021 in their facebook group.

@ACNAtoo didn't release a statement on serving LGBTQ+ survivors until 2023.

See timestamps in Audrey's thread & a few more in mine.⬇️ Image
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Much of the vitriol stemmed from pre-existing hatred for C4S0.

This dynamic continues to this day even though in 2021 every diocese scrambled to learn from C4S0, one of the only dioceses to have safeguarding/response policies in place. 2/ Image
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Oct 23, 2025 12 tweets 3 min read
I am upset that @The_ACNA seems incapable of taking integrity & accountability in its leaders seriously.

The College of Bishops have been so undiscerning as to elect a man whose clergy & staff had raised serious concerns.

How is that even possible? 🧵 Is it that bishops can’t envision their colleagues disqualifying themselves?

Is it that they don’t bother to talk to the clergy under a candidate’s care before electing him?

(See my concerns about secret conclave LARPing back in 6/24) 2/ Image
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Aug 11, 2025 9 tweets 3 min read
I've read scores of eva parenting books over the past 2 yrs, & so many of them carry theological role-plays involving PSA & "liturgized" spanking.

One reason I think Christians have such a death grip on "spanking" is b/c of distorted theologies & fear of losing them. 🧵 This can look like: seeing children as "vipers in diapers," beliefs that a diagnosing all misbehavior via a sin lens is "shepherding a child's heart," & telling parents to spank "on faith" b/c God wants them to.

It's so 💔b/c it often leads to shipwrecked faith. 2/ Image
Jul 26, 2025 13 tweets 3 min read
Maybe I will say a bit more b/c it is not right or wise the way chaotic episcopal supervision (or its lack) combined e/ a push for church in “Anglican 1000” & “Always Forward”🧵 An obvious example of how irresponsible & dangerous this is: the catalyzing event for the Ruch trial.

A poorly supervised church plant w/irregular lay catechists, clergy who had no clue how to respond to abuse disclosures & inadequate safeguarding. 2/
Jul 25, 2025 5 tweets 2 min read
Seeing chatter about @The_ACNA stances on women's ordination. ACNA constitution allows for dioceses (groups of parishes under leadership of a bishop) to decide this.

Here are latest numbers from annual congregational reporting. 🧵/5 docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… In short: a small number (7 dioceses/18k members) do not allow women as deacons or priests, and a vast majority (21 dioceses/85k members) ordain women to diaconate.

Of those, 11 dioceses/74k members (so slight majority in province) ordain women to priesthood. 2/
Jul 25, 2025 20 tweets 4 min read
Let's also talk about the theology hidden here: "no fussing" is huge in some corners of Christianity& reveals a view of a detached & disinterested God.

Sleep-training, blanket training, insta-obedience all reinforce this idea of expected cheerful compliance.🧵 Doug Wilson recommends letting infants cry alone to learn "man is born to trouble."

Gary Ezzo cites "My God, My God why have you forsaken me" as justification for cry-it-out sleep training: "Praise God that the Father did not intervene when His son cried out on the cross." 2/
Jul 21, 2025 11 tweets 4 min read
"Witnesses from the US & Canada have voluntarily provided testimony & others were scheduled to do so had this trial continued. Hundreds of hours have been spent by both parties, witnesses & the Court to see that justice prevails..." Provincial Prosecutor Runyan.
💔tallying.
🧵 The witnesses & ppl on the court, join survivors, advocates & countless other volunteers who wait for functional processes.

Their work has once again been displaced by Bp Ruch being "focused on information about the investigative process" (from Runyan's letter). 2/ Image
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Jul 18, 2025 11 tweets 3 min read
Saw a post where @DennyBurk incidentally dehumanizes two children in his ire at Chip & Joanna.

Moralistic litmus tests are revealing.

I’ve never seen Christian concern re: normalization of consumption, discontentment & greed on display in home reno shows. 🧵 I’ve not seen discussion of how this forms idolatrous souls to expect luxury when so many go without food & clothing.

Disappointed fans seem capable of overlooking that as well as the fact that many unmarried couples on the show were cohabitating. 2/
Jun 5, 2025 34 tweets 8 min read
“God hit me upside the head with a 2X4.” I’ve heard this sentiment, accompanied by commiserating laughter, in numerous sermons, often delivered with self-deprecating humor, much like its cousins: “Sometimes God needs to give us a spanking!” or “Jesus took my licking for me. 🧵 Image The idea seems to be: God deals that way with His children, so surely human parents should as well. But is that true? Is that the way God deals with His children? 2/
Jan 22, 2025 41 tweets 10 min read
Tripp's book "Shepherding A Child's Heart" is full of problematic theology & the prosperity gospel parenting promises @ostrachan decried in yesterday's post

Yet it is STILL recommended widely to parents. I've done a chpt by chpt deep dive youtube.com/watch?v=34aOPG…

But let's 🧐
🧵 x.com/ostrachan/stat… Titular thesis of SACH rests on parental responsibility & presumed ability to go deeper than shaping behaviors & into a godlike rearrangement of a child’s heart.

Stowaway anthropological & theological claims rest on a primary & ever-present theme: children are full of sin. 2/
Jan 6, 2025 40 tweets 7 min read
This went viral right before Christmas & had me thinking how evangelical expectations re: family relationships set the stage for future disappointment.

Holidays where ppl are left asking: Why is this so difficult? How did things turn out this way? 🧵 Image .@kkramermcginnis & I explore some of these dynamics in our forthcoming book The Myth of Good Christian Parenting, but here I want to consider the implications of the so-common-we-barely-notice-it framing that parenting can secure spiritual & even eternal outcomes. 2/