On MLK Jr Day and Christian Nationalism: Turning Enemies into Friends
On this Martin Luther King Jr day in the United States, I am reading a brilliant book, A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I highly recommend this book…
Immigrant Anniversary Blog
June 17th 2025 Today I have been living in the United States for four whole years. That feels substantial. Four years is a presidential term. Four years is the length of time it takes to…
Sexual Assault, Reiki, Healing Touch and Hypnotherapy
*TRIGGER WARNING* I have been experimenting with some “holistic medicine” or alternative practices that I was discouraged from using as an Evangelical Christian. I want to share my experience with you, not because it was…
Remembering Rachel Held Evans
One of the writers who has had the greatest impact on my spiritual life, my deconstruction journey, and has been deeply inspirational in my writing career is Rachel (Grace) Held Evans. RHE was born June…
Recommended Reading: Deconstruction
If you are just embarking on your deconstruction journey, I highly recommend these books as a guide:
Reconstructing Empathy
I was recently interviewed by Bold Journey and they asked me about qualities that have been impactful on my journey. The first thing that came to me was empathy (you can read my interview here:…
MLK Day and Anti-racism 2025
Born and raised in Australia, we didn’t exactly have American history classes in Australian school. We had Australian history and basic world history education. I was aware of the Civil Rights Movement here in the…
Recommended Reading: Abortion
I went to my local library a couple of weeks ago and requested a copy of the book Abortion by Jessica Valenti. I got an interesting response from the librarian. She thought the patrons of the library…
A Letter to my Mother on her Birthday
Dear Mum, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! When are you hopping on a plane and coming for a visit? The kids miss you and so do I. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cold Christmas for once?…
Pondering Grace, Shame and Ethics
I am pondering something… Does shame have any place or validity in our lives? About 20-24 years ago I was clinically depressed, a failed perfectionist, trapped in legalism and self-hatred. I was also very much…
We need Empathy informed Ethics
I’m super curious, what do you believe about “right” and “wrong” on your deconstruction journey? I grew up deeply concerned about reading the Bible every day, not swearing, abstaining from sex, being polite and kind…
Love has no Enemies
Jesus challenged people to love their enemies. I now interpret this as Jesus telling us to stop seeing others as our enemies. If you’re a Democrat, the Republicans are not your enemies. If you’re a…
Love trumps the Bible
Even though I respect the Bible, I believe that love trumps the Bible: As a teenager, there were other Christians in my life pointing out that Jonah is an allegory, there was no person literally…
Deconstructing Fleeces
Has anyone else had to deconstruct fleeces? You know, the sheep’s fleece from the book of Judges? Gideon lays out a sheepskin “fleece” and says to God (I’m paraphrasing), “If it’s wet in the morning…
Why I am Gender Egalitarian
I have been thinking a lot about sexism recently. I listened to the The New Evangelicals podcast critique on Harrison Butker’s controversial speech in which he specifically addressed women who were about to graduate from…
This Mother’s Day: How my Mother and Motherhood Impacted my Deconstruction Journey
For many years, the month of May has symbolized mothers, motherhood, birth, and death, at least for me personally. Not only is Mother’s Day in the month of May, but I gave birth to my…
Good grief
Today is my husband’s grandmother’s “memorial service.” I don’t know what’s so bad about calling it a funeral. I have been to so many funerals in my 41years of life. My great grandfather when I…
God and Science are Not Incompatible
I attended a Pentecostal church for my nephew and niece’s dedication today. I was out of the room for most of the sermon (looking after my kids) but I heard the pastor say something about…
