Find some pine treesand a wide rock in the sun.Settle down and feel gratitudecurl around your shoulders.Listen to the windsense that there is sorrow tooin this place,deep and old,threaded through thelines of sunslices of shadows.It tells of what has been… Read More ›
American History
From the Archives: I Believe Anita! by Marie Cartier
This was originally posted on April 7, 2014 During the past week I attended a Los Angeles premiere of a new documentary Anita: Speaking Truth to Power (Dir: Freida Lee Mock USA, 2013). The screening was sold out and I… Read More ›
From the Archives: Preserving the Complete History: Remembering Japanese Internment Camps
This was originally posted on May 28, 2017 A couple of months ago I did a day trip to visit the historical site of one of the 10 internment camps which were formed due to Executive Order 9066 issued on… Read More ›
From the Archives: America’s Two National Goddesses by Barbara Ardinger
Moderator’s note: This marvelous FAR site has been running for 10 years and has had more than 3,600 posts in that time. There are so many treasures that have been posted in this decade that they tend to get lost… Read More ›
From the Archives: Beyond Clenched Teeth: Reflections on Forgiveness by Elizabeth Cunningham
Moderator’s note: This marvelous FAR site has been running for 10 years and has had more than 3,600 posts in that time. There are so many treasures that have been posted in this decade that they tend to get lost… Read More ›
We Are Not Oppressed Because We Remember pt. 3: Sowing Seeds and Braiding Hair by Chasity Jones
Today, once again, I got to touch the earth! While planting and constructing my indoor container garden, I thought about how my ancestors put seeds into their children’s hair so that in case they were taken away to live and… Read More ›
On This Fourth of July by Natalie Weaver
I woke up this morning with a terrible itch in my mind. I want to sue the government. I’m not a lawyer, at least not yet, and I know that governments have sovereign immunity that typically prevents them from being… 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 ›
Forgive Me My Ancestor(s) by Elizabeth Cunningham
When I was a child in the 1950s we often played cowboys and Indians. There is a photograph of my brother and me in no doubt inauthentic costume complete with feathered headdress. In kindergarten I named myself Morning Star. (I… Read More ›
Charity Is Not Enough by Susan de Gaia
Gift giving is an important focus this time of year, along with reflection, reconciliation, and renewal. This spirit of charity is needed now more than ever. And yet, charity is not enough. Thousands of women, maybe even millions, re-experienced the… Read More ›
Poem: Make America Kind Again by Marie Cartier
Make America Kind Again was my favorite poster slogan of every Women’s March. We’ve had three and will have a fourth soon, January 18. I’ll be there and hope I see this sign again. It’s a sign that maybe it… Read More ›
The Feast of Santo Tomas by Sara Wright
This morning I went up to the village plaza in Abiquiu to watch the dancers parade around the church with their saint who is also honored at this village festival held every year at the end of November. This is… Read More ›
Archy and Mehitabel by Barbara Ardinger
Archy the Cockroach and Mehitabel the Cat were introduced to the world in 1916 by Don Marquis, a columnist for the New York Evening Sun. Marquis was more than a mere columnist; he was a social commentator and satirist admired… Read More ›
Poem: She Works Hard for the Money and a Working Class Dream by Marie Cartier
My neighbor gets up at 2 a.m. and is at work by 3:30 a.m. Six days a week. She works hard for the money* She works at a grocery store. She has two dogs and I have two dogs. Our… 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 ›
Blinded by the White by Marcia Mount Shoop
White supremacy culture is on full display day in and day out in America. You don’t have to strain to see it—the President’s recent comparison of the impeachment proceedings to a lynching is the latest example. Of course, even such… Read More ›
Pro-Choice and Christian: Reconciling Faith, Politics, and Justice BOOK REVIEW by Katie M. Deaver
In 2015 Kira Schlesinger wrote piece for Ministry Matters about how her own pro-choice stance on abortion had become more complicated the more she explored the issue of abortion. The article was widely read and shared, as well as hotly… Read More ›
“Go Back to your Country!” OK. But … I’m From San Francisco! by Karen Leslie Hernandez
On December 15, 2018, at 10:22PM, I received a call and a voicemail from someone I didn’t know. The charming message left for me? “Hello, Karen. You fat, disgusting slob. Go back to your country. I hope your new year’s… Read More ›
Photo Essay–Long Beach, California by Marie Cartier
Long Beach Pride 2019 50 YEARS OF PRIDE CELEBRATING THE STONEWALL REBELLION of 1969! **All photos by: Marie Cartier** See the photo essay from last year’s Pride week-end here. And the photo essay from Pride 2017 here.
Marianne Williamson. . . I’m Sacredly Smitten by Elisabeth S.
I caution myself to be critical and nuanced. I’m sorry, folks. I just haven’t had such dazzling hope or remote interest in politics since. . . well, since I was a puppet junior high evangelist for an independent candidate my… Read More ›
A Letter to Senator Feinstein by Sarah Robinson-Bertoni
Dear Senator Feinstein, I distinctly remember celebrating the 1992 historic victory when you and Barbara Boxer were elected as the first female Senatorial duo from any state in the union. My father brought my sister and me to an election… Read More ›
Find Your Warrior Archetype, Sisters: We are in the Fight of our Lives by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
I read a news story this week about dozens of children sex trafficked at an auto show in Detroit. I read about a young man getting no jail time for sexually assaulting a six year old girl… sex traffickers targeting… Read More ›
The Hate U Give by Esther Nelson
These days I live in a perpetual state of simmering outrage given the popular support of the “goings on” and happenings within our current administration. The lies, the deceit, the xenophobia, the racism, the misogyny, the homophobia, the anti-intellectualism—things that… Read More ›
Just Show Up by Katie M. Deaver
Happy Midterm Election Day 2018!! The first article I ever wrote for Feminism and Religion, (“I Never Thought That I Would Need to Be a Part of History,”) ran just a couple of weeks after the inauguration of the current… Read More ›
What to do with Trump? by Barbara Ardinger
The United States used to get some respect. But now, except for the most gullible Trumpeters, people all over the world are seeing the damage the Troll-in-Chief is doing to our nation with his narcissism and corruption. What can a… Read More ›
The Cost by John Erickson
Brett Kavanaugh is a piece of shit.
Vengeance Is Mine, Saith the Holy: Fear, Faith, and Divine Wisdom by Tallessyn Zawn Grenfell-Lee
Be afraid. Be very afraid. That seems to be the refrain these days, particularly in politics. The more you terrify people, the more likely they are to vote, protest, and otherwise engage in political activism. Well, maybe not. Apparently, hammering… Read More ›
It’s All About Control by Vibha Shetiya
When I first moved to America, I was shocked to learn of the high rate of domestic violence here. Surely, American men weren’t like that. Besides, American women were strong – they would never take BS from their husbands, fathers… Read More ›
Will Donald Trump Go to Heaven? by Gina Messina
Having seen the image of a toddler crying while law enforcement questioned her mother, my daughter was filled with fear, anxiety, and confusion. After tearfully asking if she would be taken away from me, my nine year old followed up… Read More ›
America’s Two National Goddesses by Barbara Ardinger
I bet almost no one knows this secret: the United States is being watched over by two goddesses! One of them stands on top of the Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. The other stands on an island in New York… Read More ›