Exploring the F-word in religion at the intersection of scholarship, activism, and community.
This midwinter has been a time of sadness so far. Two major deaths in the family, and two baby losses, the grief has come thick and fast for me and my kin this season. At a time when we are usually all gathering to celebrate the rebirth of the light in the dark, my spiritual practice is all at sea, leaving me wondering how I can call on Goddess, on Mother of God, at this time.
Then I remember Branwen.
Continue reading “Branwen, Goddess of Grief by Kelle ban Dea”
It is well documented by conservative science how a human being deals with trauma.
Trauma first overwhelms and then destroys the body’s nervous system.
It affects cognitive ability –
the ability to translate experience into meaning –
it steals the ability to imagine a different way of being in the world.*
Trauma affects memory creating blanks – holes in the fabric that cannot be recovered except perhaps through dreams visions, sensing, intuiting, having experiences with Nature that the rational mind does its best to resist.
Continue reading “Archive of Silence by Sara Wright”
The collision of the 2023 Christian liturgical season of Advent with American reproductive politics has been jarring. Feminist religious critique and transformative activism are imperative.
With the Texas Supreme Court decision on a dire abortion case, alongside increasing criminalization of women having miscarriages, we are witnessing the principle of patriarchal dominance of female reproductive capacity and the denigration of women’s full, equal personhood pushed to the extreme. In part, this barbarity is perpetuated by Christianity. Even though this tradition often challenges social systems of injustice, and it does not actually support their hollow theology of “life at conception,” misogynist oppressors have plenty of Christian religiosity to stand on.
Continue reading “Can Feminist Christians Hasten the Advent of Reproductive Liberation? by Elizabeth M. Freese, PhD”
I have just recently taken on debt with the divine feminine app. I made the decision to go to the Parliament of World Religions. We added a weekly email feature and an affiliate program. I have been investing in some other features in an attempt to make the app sustainable. I find myself $13,000 in debt.
And I’m not done. Both the Operating System that the app is built on and the smartphone apps need to be updated. In technological terms, they are ancient, and we are starting to have different issues pop up with them.
If I am lucky and continue to work without a paycheck as I have the past ten years and with the company in India who is about 1/8 the cost of doing this state side, this will cost us about $7,000.
In other words, I need $20,000.
I ask myself, is it worth it?
Yes.
Continue reading “Better Than a Rainy Norwegian Cruise: the Divine Feminine App Comes to Another Fork in the Road by Caryn MacGrandle”
Today, I embark on my retelling of the biblical story of Jacob, the section usually referred to Jacob’s ladder or Jacob’s pillow. The entire story-arc of Jacob is filled with mystery and a sense of shamanic-style questing. What is the goal of a shamanic quest? There are many but the foundation is to open gateways to travel amidst thresholds. It is through these passages that we can gain knowledge of ourselves, have ecstatic experiences, do healing work, divination . .
I believe this is a feminist issue because when we look at Jacob’s story more holistically, we can strip away the patriarchal assumptions inherent in the tale as it’s come down to us. For example, in my retelling, there is no male grand deity standing above, judging and dictating human actions and interactions.
Continue reading “Jacob’s Ladder, A Feminist Perspective by Janet Maika’i Rudolph”
I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the phrase ‘the earth is our mother’ used by so many westerners.
Indigenous peoples have been in an intimate relationship with the earth since the beginning of time so for them calling the earth “Mother” makes perfect sense (they know how to treat her with respect).
In my way of thinking westerners who appropriate the Native perspective, co -opting the sentiment to make it their own feels inauthentic and inappropriate.
The most glaring difference between the two perspectives is that Indigenous peoples consider all living beings their relatives, treating them with deep respect, honoring their individual and collective gifts and by NEVER taking more than they need, be it medicines, trees, animals, or plants for food.
Continue reading “THE EARTH AS GRANDMOTHER by Sara Wright”Dear FAR community,
Two and a half years ago, our beloved friend and mentor Carol P. Christ passed to the realm of the ancestors. It’s been wonderful to read her archive posts every week as well as so many posts remembering and referencing her brilliant work. The FAR community was so important to her: as Carol herself pointed out, she not only offered her own posts each Monday, she also read and responded to every post, every day. I also cherish the daily connection to our FAR ‘family’, and find profound comfort for the loss of such a tremendous presence through this daily connection with others who knew her and miss her as as I do.
Continue reading “Carol P. Christ and the Pilgrimage to the Goddess: Online Memorial Gathering, December 20, 2023”
In an essay called Sister, You Can Be Anything God Desires You to Be,[1] Kara Triboulet recalls a discussion in her theology class at her Christian college. When the professor opened up the floor and invited students to express their views on women in leadership, these are some of the things her classmates said:
“I believe women can be in leadership, just not as pastors.”
“Allowing women to teach other women and children isn’t limiting. At least they have a place to serve.”
“Women can be directors, but not pastors.”
“The Bible is very clear . . . women can’t teach or lead men because men were created first. It’s just the way God ordained it, and we all just need to accept that.”
Continue reading “What “Can” Women Do? – An Excerpt from Nice Churchy Patriarchy by Liz Cooledge Jenkins”
Prayer to Justice
Justice, we call you into the center of our hearts, our minds, our spirits.
May the fire of your being inspire us to believe your beauty can shine forth in our world.
May the flow of your being purify and release us from wounds that come from the places where You are violated.
May the breath of your being pass through us and form on the lips of all words of wisdom.
May the endurance of your being aid us to persist in serving You.
May we hear your truth. May we know your balance. May we gather your wisdom.
Justice, guide us.
Justice seems so far away, obscured by terror, purposely ignored in these days of war and season of darkness. How can we invite Her back? What will bring Her renewal?
Continue reading “Embracing the Shadow Woman of Justice in Dark Times by Carolyn A. Cushing”
The other day I wrote on the Mother Well feed section of my app my disappointment about the new House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Mike has proposed and supported bigoted and racist filled legislation. He is against same sex marriage, abortions and even was accused of making changes to legislation to allow clergy to refuse to perform marriage for interracial couples.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Yes, this is 2023.
Continue reading “The Dying Throes of Patriarchy in the House of the United States by Caryn MacGrandle”
Feminism and Religion 