tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625933059656458366.post3749500103163219569..comments2023-09-19T09:47:58.673-04:00Comments on Womanist Biblical Scholar Reflections: Part 4, My Coming Out: “I am a Survivor” ~ God is a wonderful counselor!WomanistNTProfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07337799446266529107noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625933059656458366.post-90319160922164852602011-07-10T21:57:20.131-04:002011-07-10T21:57:20.131-04:00Thank you for your prayers and your voice. The lov...Thank you for your prayers and your voice. The love is received and returned.Tracyhttp://tracygmjames.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625933059656458366.post-87323716379676720372011-07-09T08:33:50.081-04:002011-07-09T08:33:50.081-04:00Tracy, I pray that your family realizes the ways i...Tracy, I pray that your family realizes the ways in which they have contributed to your scars before while life remains. A FB friend suggested I see St Louis Blues with Eartha Kitt yesterday. I watched it before I went to bed. Very powerfully shows how very wrong we can get God and the pain we cause others in the process.WomanistNTProfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07337799446266529107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625933059656458366.post-43145212237015697622011-07-09T08:30:57.534-04:002011-07-09T08:30:57.534-04:00Tracy, thank you for sharing. Even though we have ...Tracy, thank you for sharing. Even though we have taken different paths, I could not disagree with much, if not all, that you have said about the church. In my opinion God, has not called us to have faith in the church, but in God. We are all imperfect and damaged in ways we don't even realize. And sometimes the rhetoric of the church, the doctrines of the church encourage a false sense of superiority, a blind ignorance, an inability to be compassionately vulnerable or in touch with our own vulnerability and the needs of others, and a social club mentality. My mother taught me early, I believe, what God looked like in terms of relations with other people and their needs and pains (lessons I'm still trying to digest and walk in). She always quoted to me that verse that says greater is he that is within you than he that is within the world. Now I know that means something different in the context of I John where the people who left the community were cursed. But I know what she was saying to me as she quoted that verse. She was telling me that God is within me and that the God within me is able to give me strength, courage, etc. Yes, God created a world and before a world there was God. So God is wherever God chooses to be and we have no control over God. We cannot say he is in the church and not in the world around us. Just because we call a place the house of God does not mean that God always shows up there in the way we treat other, the things we say and expect of each other, or in our negligence toward the least of these. And God has many people who will never set foot in a church doing the will of God. But I hope that wherever I go, because God, I believe, chooses to dwell in me and I welcome her, that God is there. And that where you go, because God is in you and you welcome her, God is there. Even so I do not always say or do the right thing. Yet, God and I struggle together. And because I realize that God gives me a lot of rope, I have to be willing to do the same for others (in a nutshell). And Just because some preachers and some church members believe they have constructed the ultimate box for God does not make it so. We have to remain humble because only God is God. Love you sister Tracy for reading, listening, journeying, and loving God and God's children.WomanistNTProfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07337799446266529107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625933059656458366.post-67769712863799879402011-07-09T07:56:10.994-04:002011-07-09T07:56:10.994-04:00When I made the comment on twitter, " the chu...When I made the comment on twitter, " the church is for the feeble minded ..." I attributed those words to the church being a breeding ground for negativity's vultures. More than a few of those who are ordained and of high influence prey on those seeking guidance in their most vulnerable moments. I've visited the church religiously to achieve some sense of reprieve and I did not receive that. All that was handed to me was more confusion, betrayal and anger atop of the scars I already possessed. My family is catholic and they are the source of many of my ugly hurts and deepest pains. And each time they fail to accept responsibility for what they have caused, they use the bible as a defense tool. I've come to dislike the church and bible handlers. I've learned that god is not in a building, in a book or in the sky-- god is within me.<br /><br />I really appreciate our different paths and you sharing your story. However, although different we've come to same conclusion: we are the ones responsible for taking care of ourselves now. Your words have given me great understanding and I commend you for continuing up this path despite your past experiences-- it is a testament of your faith. Thank you.Tracyhttp://tracygmjames.comnoreply@blogger.com