Thank you to my Christian friends.

[nabil]

I wanted to say thank you to my Christian friends who have been helping me as I struggle with the anti-Christian feelings that have come up for me after Dr. Tiller's murder.

Thank you especially to goodbadgirl-- you are such a good person, and I appreciate you so much-- the compassion you brought to my question, your willingness to tell your stories, to speak kindly in the face of my anger and aggression and defensiveness, and the bravery and honor you always show-- I just can't thank you enough. I love you. I so desperately hope that things improve for you soon.

Thank you also for the reminder that Dr Tiller was Christian; that he was, in fact, murdered in his church. The more I read about him, the more I honor and respect his ethics, compassion, and life. He risked his own life to help women in the most desperate circumstances. I must assume that his life and his choices were intertwined in his own Christian faith.

xoxo

Nabil

Comments

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they were there. I'm sorry I was elsewhere; this has been one crazy week. Salaam, friend.

[goodbadgirl.livejournal.com]

Beautiful,

I hope with every inch of my capacity to hope that it is clear that I am struggling with my anger over this as well.

We struggle together in that, for sure.

And we share a deep and profound desire for a better tomorrow, and the willingness to work for that.

Love you too.

xoxoxo,

F

(I have to say that I don't refer to myself as a Christian, but being raised Catholic has distinctly shaped my life. And, I'm a big fan of the historical Jesus. And I frequently felt that the work I did in the clinic's was god's work for sure. Of course, my "God" doesn't hate people for being queer or making decisions about their health, I could go on and on....but for me the work was immensely spiritual and I was frequently honored to be a part of that space with those brave women.)

xo

[marialuminous.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty angry with many aspects of Christianity too. I recently read a book called "Christianity, Patriarchy and Abuse" which made me a lot angrier, too. It is such a struggle to face that anger without saying "fuck you!" to everything and everyone who is Christian (including myself) -- thank you, goodbadgirl, for voicing what I couldn't say. Sometimes my justified anger with certain aspects of Christianity warps itself into an ugly self-hatred, because how can I respect and love myself, and be a Christian, if this evil stuff is what Christians do?

And thank you, Nabil, for listening and being willing to hear alternate points of view. I love that about you.

[srl.livejournal.com]

Did you see Frank Schaeffer's apology (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/how-i-and-other-pro-life_b_209747.html)? He's representative, I think, of a larger-than-might-be-obvious group of Christians who are backpedaling from the political right on lots of issues--- particularly the social right's focus on sexuality-related "morality" that excludes issues of poverty (which Jesus said a lot more about).