Kyndall Rae Rothaus > Quotes

“I cannot think of a single time in my life when I have stood up to abuse and not been vilified, questioned, or critiqued for doing it. Women have a hard time setting boundaries not just because we were taught not to but also because we are punished, stalked, or maligned when we do. How a woman responds to abuse is often more harshly criticized than the abuse itself. I think this is because women are expected to bear crosses and bear them silently. It is a shock to the system when we set them down, name them as unjust, and refuse to carry them.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul

“It is worth noting that in the book of Samuel, a king is not God's idea; it is the people who demand a king. God tries to warn them through the prophet Samuel that kings will be greedy and will take, take, take, but the people do not listen. When times are chaotic and painful, we crave order, crave authority, crave simplicity. Fear told the people they needed a savior in the form of a warrior, a king, a fighter.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul

“That the Christ had power equal to God but did not consider it something to be exploited but rather emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, is remarkably countercultural to the patriarchy. If Christ as a woman had done the same thing, she would simply have been doing what had been expected of her all along — that she lay down her life for everyone else. When I think about the scene of the crucifixion, I find a male image of Christ compelling because only the willing death of a male-presenting God could topple the power structures of the time. The death of a female-presenting God would scarcely have raised an eyebrow.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul

“To trust yourself, to be yourself, to become yourself is neither narcissistic nor prideful. It is mature faith. It is discovering who you were meant to be as the fullest expression of honoring the One who created you.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Preacher Breath: Sermons & Essays by Kyndall Rae Rothaus

“We cannot pretend the Bible is secretly a feminist document. The women who show up in Scripture as strong and independent often do so in spite of the religion that would otherwise hold them down, not because of it. We have to own this harrowing part of our narrative, our history, our legacy, or we simply cannot heal. That which remains suppressed and obscured can never be tended, amended, or transformed.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul

“Any form of feminism that doesn't address the interior landscape doesn't go deep enough. That isn't to say that are not external structures to be dismantled and toppled, but if we do not also address the inner forces at work to suppress our truest selves, then external change will be temporary at best — insincere and even dangerous at worst.”
― Kyndall Rae Rothaus, Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul