CW: Child SA

So. I linked to a post about a pastor that confessed to repeated sexual contact in his 20s with a 12 yo girl & said ‘this is why we’re deconstructing’ and now my mentions are full of Christians saying we can’t judge God by the actions of humans. Let’s be clear. 1/ I’m not deconstructing because one pastor committed a crime. That wasn’t even the point of my post. I’m deconstructing because evangelicalism upholds systems of power & supremacy that leaves wide open spaces for hatred, bigotry, abuse, & yes, even sexual crimes against minors. 2/

This thing happens in #deconstruction where we start by rage reading and learning all the things and rage tweeting all the things too but then it gets deeper and deeper and claws its way into every aspect of your being and becomes personal. 1/ I used to talk to a lot more people on all sides about deconstruction. But the more I spent time in community with the folx that have been hurt by evangelicalism, the less I can have conversations from all the sides and angles when people fail to recognize power and privilege. 2/

Hrmph. The internet in my house isn’t working and I tried to change the router and that isn’t working either which means my kids are going to wake me up at 6am asking me what is happening. Also I really think this “live agent” is NOT a live agent

On public education. 🧵

Someone asked me recently how I felt about being a professor in a field where I’m equipping college students to do the job that I left. Here’s the thing. I left teaching, but I still love and support education. 1/ When I left it was the end of a pandemic school year & I live in SW Washington along the Columbia River that separates OR & WA. Oregon waited for teachers to be vaccinated before sending them back. Washington didn’t. We had no COVID data to open except “it was time.” 2/

🧵

TW/CW: real sex talk

we're talking about sex and #purityculture today folks so pull up a chair. I need to spill a couple of things that have been going through my brain the last couple of days... 1/? 1. let's talk about "virginity loss shame" bc after all the purity messaging, did anyone else open the sex door and then go, "well, i've already fallen to the pit of hell by doing the worst thing ever & there's no way to undo that so I might as well just go wild" (my mid 20s) 2/?

I've been getting a lot of requests for book recommendations to read in #deconstruction. Let's start a thread. I would love for you to recommend a book that has been helpful for you in your journey. Bonus if you say why. Double bonus if it's not a repeat! Ok GO. 👇👇👇 I'll get us started with these...

A note on humanity.

This thing happened where I tweeted something out and realized later that it was accidentally word for word a tweet that had been shared by @newvangelicals so I reached out to apologize and he was so kind about it.

That kind of thing happens on Twitter. 1/ But while I was there I asked Tim a few questions about some assumptions I had about their account and what they're doing and it turned into scheduling a Zoom call this morning and we sat down to sort through. So often, even in the #deconstruction space, we categorize people. 2/

A woman stopped by yesterday campaigning for city council on the platform of “how dare they build a drug treatment center so close to an elementary school.” Her husband is the lawyer that the neighborhood GoFundMe is paying to fight this. “I support the center actually” I said... And I heard the response I always hear. “Oh me too of course! Just not near a SCHOOL.” The fear this campaign has spread about what will happen to our children if we let [insert dehumanizing words for folks in recovery] live near us has been next level.