Once she believed that it was her fault they came on to her, that she owed them something… They owned her? Secretly the girl was pleased because any kind of attention was better than none, or being so “different” –… Read More ›
Abuse of Power
Vote, Vote, Please Vote! American Democracy Is at Stake by Carol P. Christ
Like many of you, I am weary this election season. In the early part of the Democratic primaries I was enthused. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and also Kamala Harris, and sometimes Amy Klobochar were articulating progressive political positions with which… Read More ›
Poem: In These United States- The Court Supreme By Marie Cartier
We have nine justices usually but one of our most beloved, and notorious, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, RBG, has gone to the Summerland, across the Rainbow Bridge, to the afterlife—wherever that is for her, she’s gone there. May her memory be… Read More ›
Matriarchal Manifesta by Heide Goettner-Abendroth
What is the STATUS of WOMEN today? To cite a brief summary of the 1980 UN Report: WOMEN make up half of the world population, work nearly two thirds of all hours worked, receive one tenth of worldwide income, and… Read More ›
The Silence of the Girls: A Reflection on War by Carol P. Christ
Suppose, suppose just once, once in all these centuries, the slippery gods keep their word and Achilles is granted eternal glory for his early death under the walls of Troy. . .? What will they make of us, the people… Read More ›
“This World Is Not My Home” by Esther Nelson
I’ve been puzzled for a long time why people, especially conservative Christian people who seem to be decent human beings, enthusiastically support Donald Trump, our current president. My thinking stems from my own experience of being brought up in an… Read More ›
Dear Cousin: Can We Talk about Structural Racism? by Carol P. Christ
,A few years ago, I visited the family farm founded by ancestors from Germany in the Pokonos with a newly discovered cousin. The woman I met was delightful: warm and friendly and very much connected to family still living in… Read More ›
Matriarchal Politics: The Vision of an Egalitarian Society (Part 1) by Heide Goettner-Abendroth
Matriarchies are not just a reversal of patriarchy, with women ruling over men – as the usual misinterpretation would have it. Matriarchies are mother-centered societies: they are based on maternal values: care-taking, nurturing, motherliness, mutual support, peace keeping and building… Read More ›
Last Will and Testament by Carol P. Christ
Just over a month ago and shortly before Greece went into Coronavirus lockdown, I signed the contract on my new apartment in Crete (after waiting 6 months for the owner to submit his paperwork). Though I did not realize it… Read More ›
Women’s Circles Need Well-Established Structures to Ensure that Everyone’s Voice Is Heard by Carol P. Christ
In a recent blog on Feminism and Religion, “Insights on Sisterhood,” Eirini Delaki opened a dialogue about problems that arise in women’s circles. According to her, many of us are reacting against the poisonous pedagogy of control which is all… Read More ›
“And a Rich Old White Man Shall Lead Them”? by Carol P. Christ
“And a rich old white man shall lead them.” Is this saying found in the Bible or any other collection of sacred texts that those committed to social justice admire? If not, then why are liberal pundits (and even some… Read More ›
Mis(sing)Understanding: Kobe, Pompeo, and a Paper Towel by Marcia Mount Shoop
Who knows when each of us first learns that sensation—the sensation of being misunderstood. My hunch is that it comes early on in our lives, maybe even before our brains are making narrative memory, maybe even before we have begun… Read More ›
I’m Getting Triggered by the Impeachment Trial and I Bet I’m Not Alone by Janet Maika’i Rudolph
This process is rattling my bones and aching my heart. How often have we seen angry men (and sometimes women) abusing women, abusing the earth, abusing the vulnerable, abusing immigrants, abusing power? And yet the pattern never seems to end…. Read More ›
Quaker Ancestor Buys 6 Year-Old Indian Captive by Carol P. Christ
When I wrote about Anne Hutchinson as America’s first feminist theologian a few years ago, I mentioned that I had a Sackett ancestor living in Boston at the time, who might well have been a follower of Hutchinson. That branch… Read More ›
Woke Men, Stop Shitting On Women by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Woke Man is often a Leader of some kind, someone Well Respected for his Work in some sort of Important Progressive Cause. Woke Man may, understandably, think pretty Highly of himself. He’s got quite a Clever Sense of Humor, you… Read More ›
Old Men Get Away with It: Why? by Carol P. Christ
A few days ago, a friend told me she had just learned that she had a 2x great-aunt who was a beloved and honored single white teacher in the US south in the first half of the twentieth century. The… Read More ›
A Predator by Sheree La Puma
“Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.” ― Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence Now I tell myself that I’m street smart. I did the Jack Kerouac “On the Road” trip when I was 18, driving cross… Read More ›
Metamorphosis and a Press Conference: A Kafkaesque and Shakespearean Fantasy about an Unreal Individual by Barbara Ardinger
Donald wakes up too early. Feeling confused and disoriented, he looks around the room. His bed has disappeared! He seems to be lying on the floor. Why? he asks himself, how’d I fall off my king-size bed? The floor (uncarpeted??)… Read More ›
Ant Hill by Sara Wright
Yesterday I gave a poetry reading at a local library beginning and ending with thoughts about how Climate Change is affecting all living things. I am a naturalist who holds the radical belief that all living things are sentient. I… Read More ›
Climate Change, the Generations and Religion’s Bad Rap by Susan de Gaia
As I reflect on my experience at the climate strike on September 20, 2019, I see a connection between climate change and the bad rap that religion has today. When asked what they think about religion, many are quick to… Read More ›
A Blinding Light? by Sara Wright
Nature is a Living Being. Animals and plants have souls, and a spirit. Each species is unique, and yet we are all interconnected, human and non – human species alike. This is more than a both and perspective; its multi-dimensional…. Read More ›
I’m That Trump Voter You Hate by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
There are people in my family who believe Christianity to be so inherently oppressive and harmful, that anyone who identifies as Christian is culpable for all of the harm done by all imperial colonization by Christian empires and nations, all… Read More ›
“Ursula Niebuhr, Ursula Niebuhr”: Unacknowledged Co-author of Great Works of Theology? by Carol P. Christ
A few days ago while watching the movie The Wife, I kept hearing the words “Ursula Niebuhr, Ursula Niebuhr,” in my mind. I knew the reason was Ursula’s unacknowledged collaboration on the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, which I discovered while… Read More ›
On Believing Things That Are Not True by Carol P. Christ
Anyone who is following American politics these days knows that the American President and his acolytes have little respect for what the rest of us consider to be the truth—or at least the best approximation of the truth that we… Read More ›
The Devil’s Bargain: “If You Can Convince a White Woman” by Carol P. Christ
This week’s news from America. Where to begin? When will it end? The President of the United States is a racist who incites racist violence. Republicans have been slow to condemn the President and are not likely to pass a… Read More ›
Gentle Moments in a Violent World by Marcia Mount Shoop
“Be gentle with yourself.” It may be some of the most redemptive guidance I have ever received. And I share that invitation daily with people in painful situations. “Be gentle with yourself.” In a world seemingly hell bent on self-destruction,… Read More ›
What to Do About Bullies by Deanne Quarrie
I could probably go on and on about this topic, so in the interest of education I offer the following information gathered in my own recovery. Why would I write about bullying at all? Are we not Goddess lovers, one… Read More ›
Patriotism Reconsidered by Carol P. Christ
Originally published on July 8, 2013 on FAR under the title “What Is Patriotism?,” this blog asks questions that seem even more important today, when tanks have been paraded in front of the Lincoln Memorial and children are held in… Read More ›
We Won’t Go Back by John Erickson
Bottom line: abortion is healthcare. Nearly a fourth of women in America will have an abortion by age 45. Every day, people across the United States make deeply personal decisions about their pregnancies. Those decisions deserve respect.
Women’s Bodies and the Bible by Janet Maika’i Rudolph
Trigger Alert: The bible on its face is quite violent to women. Amidst the ugliness that is American politics in general and abortion politics specifically, I began to look for guidance to understand what is happening. I ended up pulling… Read More ›
