Blog Posts
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Dear Nice White People – Part 2
After reading the recently posted article Dear Nice White People by Austin Channing Brown, I started thinking about my fears and my failures (no toxic shame- only deep rooting through a North Star lens) in living out an external praxis in Anti-Racism. In a moment, I will share a very recent example of where I…
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‘Expediency’ and ‘Efficiency’ – Are We Asking the Right Questions?
People are talking a lot about ‘expediency’ and ‘efficiency’. So we should too. There is a great deal of almost unwitting candor in this admission. MN wanted to get this right; and by ‘right’ I mean get it as ‘clean’ as possible. As fast as possible, and to that end, they got it right. Less…
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Dear Nice White People – Part 1
I have been using “niceness” as a cover for upholding my own comfort from a very young age. We have all heard (and internalized, however unconsciously) the adage: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. We hear this and gladly embrace it as if silence is a way to…
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How Much (community? time? resources?) is Too Much?
I wrote this in response to Julie’s recent April Ask where she asked “How do you think anxiously awaiting final numbers each month feels for Lace?” I know a piece of how it feels for Lace each month because she tells us. She tells us it feels like an indictment on her when the numbers…
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Racism is America’s Accent
“Ope, let me just scooch past you!” I exclaimed, brushing past someone on the path as I hiked with my family. Sometimes, I recognize my Midwest upbringing sneaking back in to my language. I have only been in Colorado for three months, after all. Certainly, not long enough to significantly shift my go-to language or…
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Early April Ask
Those of you who know me know I am…er…oh, let’s just call a thing a thing! I’m bald! Or, more accurately, bald-ing. Or bald-ish. All y’all know that because of alopecia I wear wigs, and sometimes also (off camera) wraps, and turbans, and caps, and scarves, and hats. Not to hide. It’s pretty evident that…
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Early April Ask
From our own Julie Helwege-Eberts: What’s not to love about April? Spring is here, flowers are blooming and the birds and the bees – ahem, I heard a rumor that April was named after Aphrodite. In addition, April birthdays get diamonds for presents (Sigh, April isn’t the month of my birth – I’m disappointed; my…
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April Pre-Ask
This is a (only slightly edited) response to a community member on one of the more recent threads. I thought it deserved to be featured and not buried in a subthread. It’s important. I know that we talk a lot about issues people twitch about and clench hard over; most importantly for these purposes, we…
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Deconstructing this Tired Accusation
I feel like maybe this is a good opportunity for me to tease out some of the things I’ve been thinking since the first “cult leader” accusation started flying around. Why the heck do people keep saying this about cultishness? If you truly think it’s a cult, why are you here? Or are you worried…
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I Stand with a Woman of Integrity and Honor
I feel that I have to say this first, and state is strongly. In no way am I comparing myself to Beth Moore. Not her influence, not her reach, not her talents. But as I followed her split from the Southern Baptist convention oh, I have had many feelings. To be out of alignment with…