could you please never mention your rights again?

I kind of hate Facebook.

I feel like this isn’t my first time mentioning. It’s probably worth mentioning again.

It provides so many great opportunities for community and ways to connect that have never been available before. But so often when I go on I leave feeling angry. I leave feeling frustrated and questioning so much of who I am.

I realize that seems a little much but it’ll make sense.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked people in my life “why do I go on Facebook?”

While I don’t like all of the “look at me” posts or attempts to cultivate some kind of image that may not be our true self, it’s not those that bother most. They may bring out my more judgmental side, but they don’t make me feel angry or question who I am.

I had been pondering what it was exactly and this election has made it crystal clear.

Facebook makes me not what to be a Christian. I want to follow Jesus and go to church and be in a community but Facebook makes me not want to identify myself as “Christian.”

pro-life, pro-choice, or pro-love?

Considering my enjoyment of controversial ideas and a desire to reflect on all things assumed, it struck me as odd when I realized I’ve never written on abortion.

Just seems like it should have come up.

It comes up in my Facebook and Twitter feed all the time.

A disclaimer of sorts to start. I refuse to talk about this on the fringes. By that I mean I will not define each side at their worst. It’s not fair and the fact that many of us chose to discuss important topics in that way is a major reason there is such disunity. Few feel it’s fair to be branded the same Christians as members of West Burrow Baptist. In the same way many Muslims would say that seeing them and ISIS as the same is wildly unfair.

So I will not fall into dehumanizing rhetoric. No expecting and then choosing to see the worst in the other side. I will not see myself as noble and the other as monstrous. It’s never the easy and rarely that clear.

privilege, homosexuality and the church

Opinions are nothing new to me.

I have one or two. You may have even heard some of them.

The reality however is that I have a load of opinions, like most people, that I don’t share. I keep them to myself. Some are long held, some new and emerging, but ultimately there are few that I share widely.

I choose not to for a whole host of reasons.

A question my mother would often ask me, “to what end?” comes up a lot. Why would I share this opinion? Why would I engage with this person? Best case scenario what happens? What’s likely to happen?

Does me getting into an argument help at all?

That’s why I keep the vast majority of my opinions to myself. It’s just an argument waiting to happen and frankly, I don’t like arguing. I LOVE discussing, but as we all know arguing and discussion are profoundly different. I love to be pushed and to be challenged, but only if it’s a two way street. I have little interest in getting yelled at.

A good friend of mine brought forward and interesting idea this weekend that I haven’t been able to shake. In part because he’s right and I was wrong. I REALLLLLLLLLY hate being wrong. But also because it shows within me how much more growth I need. How, despite all I’ve tried to learn, I’m still so wildly unprepared, uneducated and unware.