How Conservative Christians Can Support Queer People

This week I’ve been thinking about how there’s so much more space for middle ground than we sometimes acknowledge. I don’t mean to say that being in the center or remaining neutral on important issues is superior, but I think even while different communities hold opposing views strongly, there’s still a lot of room to … Continue reading How Conservative Christians Can Support Queer People →

Trans Day of Visibility – Stealing Easter?

Conservative feathers were ruffled by Trans Day of Visibility falling on the same day as Easter, but for me, it was a plus.

Trans Day of Visibility

As well as being Easter Sunday, today is International Trans Day of Visibility. To celebrate this, I wanted to honour a number of trans people whose lives have impacted me in a personal way (whether they’re aware of it or not).

Creating Safe Churches

After the last few posts exploring the harm trauma survivors experience in the church, I wanted to start painting a positive vision for what cultivating trauma-safe churches might look like. This is likely to be one of those topics that perpetually has more to be said about it, so I suspect it’ll be a topic … Continue reading Creating Safe Churches →

Presumption of Safety

In my last post I used the phrase ‘presumption of safety’ and promised to say more about it soon. This is a phrase that (to my knowledge) I’ve coined in order to finally put into words an experience that has caused me such extensive isolation and pain. The phenomenon it describes came to my awareness … Continue reading Presumption of Safety →

Heavy Burdens: Book Review

Dear readers, It's been a few months! A number of you have been quietly nagging me to do some more writing, and while I can't make any promises for the future, I do hope I'll be in a position to share more of my writing soon. I have a lot of things I'd like to put into words and many feelings I'd like to share, but the truth is, I can't. Not right now. There are a few reasons for this, but most of all I'm just so emotionally depleted.

Christian Leadership, Risk Absorption, and Conversion Therapy

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash A few years ago I had to stay overnight with my younger sister on suicide watch. She was in a pretty vulnerable place and at a high risk of harm, and since I was in town it just made sense for me to support her by being present and … Continue reading Christian Leadership, Risk Absorption, and Conversion Therapy →

I Want to be Held

I've been thinking a lot about what it means for humans to be embodied people--not just spirits, but people made of physical bodies who relate to each other in embodied ways. I am someone who deeply craves physical touch, and it's been a weird year to think about this stuff during 2020 while touching other people has suddenly gained a whole lot more baggage than usual.

Belonging

A few weeks ago I was on a late an evening walk through the park talking to a dear friend on the phone about how lockdown and social distancing have affected us this year. Both of us are people that have always been good at long-distance friendships, and we’ve both managed to stay closely connected to our friends this year through phone calls, video calls, 1-1 catchups and small group gatherings. But something was missing.

Book Review: A War of Loves

“To survive, you must tell stories.” - Umberto Eco. I love reading. Books have been a safe haven where I can explore bold stories from the comfort of my bedroom. Long before I felt safe enough to start speaking openly about my sexuality with people, I was devouring books that introduced me to stories of other people like me.