Happy Snow > Recent Status Updates

"The oppressive uses of the Bible are real, but unless you learn to understand that there are other readings possible, the Bible will, indeed, simply continue to be a source of oppression for you, and not a source of inspiration, liberation, creation, and even exultation as you understand it anew for yourself, at a deeper and less literal level."

Great statement!

"Understand that it is reasonable to feel triggered in religious contexts of your wonds come from religous sources. With time and work, you can begin to release the hold they have on you."

Then I will wait for the power of time...

"At one time or another, we have been the abuser, the person so certain of our truth that we would mock and demean any other variation. At one time or anothet, we have been the abused, diminished and negated for speaking or being our own truth. We all need healing and penance. "

she knows what i feel!

I can feel the heart of the author: it was once deeply hurt, and thus became extremely sensitive to the source of harm. I know it because the same heart is pumping in my chest...

When I read this book, sometimes I feel the author's view is too pessimistic. But I understand where she came from. It was a traumatic reaction.

“Unspoken resentment. Lost. Death. Fear. The walls of the history still fresh and breathing there in the pew of that small church. Everything is political. I won’t and I will worship. Do you want our face to transcend the political, we can only do that when we exist in stainless.”

This teacher was assigned to teach a different class the day before the semester, I immediately feel my being assigned to teach this class a week ago is a much nicer story, haha.

It is actually really impressive to see this article is written in a way that’s like a research paper. It has models and case studies. Four dimensions of energy sources are emotions physical spiritual and something else... and so energy comes from the fact that you are fully engaged with your deepest value in a mission beyond your immediate interest.

"Perception of the miraculous requires no faith or assumptions. It is
simply a matter of paying full and close attention to the givens of life, i.e., to what is so ever-present that it is usually taken for granted. "

"Is it possible that the path of spiritual
growth leads first out of superstition into agnosticism and
then out of agnosticism to-ward an accurate knowledge of
God? "

I am in tears after I read the story of Theodore. In a way, I'm experiencing a similar loss of enthusiasm as Theodore did. "Having worked through the pain”, the book described this process easily. Yet I have not. My brain associates institutional religion and missionaries with danger and intense pain. But I can't deny the fact that deep in me I am attracted to Christianity. Thus I'm in the middle going back and forth

"one of you says, I follow Paul, another, I follow Apollos, another, I follow Cephas, still another, I follow Christ."
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

The book God Land talks about the author's experiences of getting disappointed by multiple churches. I echoed, a lot. But I think this is Bible's answer to me today. It is not about Churches, not about pastors.

"It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survive, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved -even though only as one escaping through the flames"

"There's no such thing as good hand-me-down religion. To be vital, to be the best of which we are capable, our religion must be a wholly personal one, forged entirely through the fire of our questioning and doubting in the crucifiable of our own experience of reality."

"the sacrifice of faith is to constantly feel the blisters of the ill-fitting religion"

She put what I feel into words!

The balance of religious fear and hope and love...

"the consumer aspect of American Christianity is a kind of a feel-good cop-out of deeper truths. But for those who have been hurt by the church, or who have witnessed other's pain perpetuated by religion, it is nothing of the sort. It's actually freedom."

Agree. Agree.