Hope Should Be Hopeful (No Offense?)

Dear Internauts,

I promise I do still make and write about music. In fact there are some really cool things coming up that I am wicked excited to share with you. Soon. Soon. I promise :)

Still there are certain other subjects on which I feel inspired of late to write. The following is one of those where my opinions are still changing, as they have been my entire life.

Raised from birth in the American Christian Protestant tradition, specifically the Church of the Nazarene, I realize my specific experiences are solely my own as with any other kind of life story. Still, I know the issues which have shaped and scarred me are not in even the least bit uncommon. If I must offer credentials, let me just say I've served in a local youth group to a multi-state and even temporarily national level of various leadership roles, being set in front of and above others since before I could even do my multiplication tables. I don't say that to brag. Probably the exact opposite. As the son of a professional minister whose pretty much every other family member as far as I know is an involved and devoted member of a local congregation, I also write the following out an overwhelming amount of love and inner struggle.

Due to my upbringing, most people I've met in my life have been practicing Christians. I could only write what I do coming from a place of understanding and a desire for positive change. What has been a deeply unhealthy way of life for me--one with which I am still trying to come to terms--I think and hope for others has been a balanced and fulfilling life course.

With that said...

I'm so done with a philosophy of perpetual guilt, being measured against an unquestionably perfect and ultimately powerful abstraction who sits in blameless separation, and somehow being compelled to weigh this distance and burden as a loving relationship for which I should not only be grateful but eternally indebted and bigotedly loyal to a politically, economically, and abusively manipulative institution whose entire basic tenets and history hinge on self-destruction, anti-intellectualism, hateful prejudices, the violent suppression of dissenting thoughts and voices, and ignoring contradictions in an ancient, worshipped collection of superstition as interpreted by the self-appointed arbiters of universal justice and timeless wisdom.

After nearly two and a half decades of never being good enough, I'm finally realizing it hasn't been me that doesn't add up. So you do you and I hope it helps ya sleep at night, but I can't let this bullshit own me anymore. Further, I hereby declare a stand against any and all acts of abuse against any person, especially children in the name of your faith. Even if you claim the indoctrination is out of love, even if you can't see how harmful you're being. No one should have to grow up under the heel of what I and countless others faced all because of your gods and your precious church.

If you have been or are being abused or know someone who is by a religious group, family, mentor, institution or whatever, please know I stand by you and encourage you to break out if you can. Message me if you need to talk about it. You're not alone.

Those who preach love yet live hate should not be allowed to destroy young lives anymore. Nor should the voices of those too long bowed low by their oppression be silenced.

Hope should be hopeful.

Yours,
Odist