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Book launch
Changing Paths will be published by 1000 Volt Press in April 2023. The Changing Paths Book Launch will be on Zoom, on 16 April 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time, 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time, and 7:00 pm British Summer Time.
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Tattoos, anti-Semitism, and sexual abuse
The Walrus has a new article about the Meeting House, a Canadian mega church. Personally I find even the name triggering, as that’s what the Plymouth Brethren call their churches. So it’s kind of ironic that this one was meant to rise above the scandals of conventional churches.
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Benefits of religious practices
Altruism is good for you. Caring for and about other people is good for you. Loneliness is stressful, and can give rise to those self-critical thought spirals as you lie awake at 4am. The solution? Spend more time creating connection and meaning.
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I’d rather be “left behind”
There’s a good article in The Guardian today about the nasty psychological effects of being exposed to constant propaganda about the rapture and being “left behind”. Trigger warning if you’ve been exposed to that kind of bad theology. Thankfully I left the evangelical nonsense before the trend for making these movies happened.
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Rise of the Nones
Interesting article by Adam Gabbatt in The Guardian exploring how the pandemic has accelerated a trend of church closures in the US: Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline“As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by Covid”
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“a little bit of a weird outcome”
From six-year-old Tibetan monk to teenage Ibiza raver: a Spanish boy’s incredible journey. Osel Hita Torres joined a monastery after the Dalai Lama declared him a reincarnated spiritual leader, but at 18 he broke free and moved to Ibiza. A new TV series tells his story. Ashifa Kassam
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Leaving the Mormons
An in-depth resource on leaving the Mormons: Recovering Agency: Lifting the veil of Mormon mind control. Luna Lindsey Corbden was born into the LDS Church and left the faith in 2001, at age 26. They live in Washington State and write about topics of interest, including psychology, mind control, culture, and autism. They also write…
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De-baptism
There’s been a discussion on the internet recently about de-baptism. Here’s an excellent article about it from John Beckett over at Patheos: Debaptism: You Probably Don’t Need It, But It Can Be Done …you can’t unpour water. The baptism happened and we can’t pretend it didn’t.But we can reverse its effects. John Beckett Further thoughts…
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Old Maps No Longer Work
A poem about maps and paths and stars that was shared in a thread on Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s Substack, Life is a sacred text.
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Escape from Scientology
TW: Scientology, religious trauma. ‘At 52, I abandoned everything, every friend, every family member’: the top official who escaped Scientology (The Guardian) When he was certain that he wasn’t being followed, he caught the tube to the National Portrait Gallery, where he sat on the grass outside and let his heart rate slow to its…
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Repost: My spiritual journey
I came to terms with being gay in 1996. At the time I was an evangelical Christian and tried to keep my faith for two and a half years. It didn’t work. I realized that even if I accepted I was gay, my upbringing had taught me to hate myself and see myself as worthless…
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A change of perspective
There was a guy in one of my classes — let’s call him Jonathan — who was openly gay. I had never knowingly interacted with, or even seen, anyone gay before. … He just stood and sang, a capella. It was honestly beautiful in its own right — Jonathan has a great voice. But, as…
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Review: Cultish
This book is an excellent overview of the languages of cults, and what attracts people to them.
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Reblog: Marking the seasons
A really nice post about discovering that you can enjoy the cycles of the seasons without needing to believe in the gods: you can be an AtheoPagan. I realized I could do anything that I wanted to do. For someone raised in an oppressive religion, this thought is life changing. And what did I want…
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Orange Shirt Day
Today is Orange Shirt Day, the day for remembering Indigenous children who died in residential schools and honouring the survivors. It was organized by grassroots Indigenous activists for many years before it was officially adopted as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Continue reading at Dowsing for Divinity →
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Knocking on doors
Fascinating article in The Guardian about two guys who started out atheist comedians and ended up becoming Christians with a priestly vocation. I’m including it here because it shows how changing paths is a very gradual process, not usually a sudden change, and that sometimes these changes are quite insidious and hard to resist. I…
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Double standards
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Ways of talking about faith
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Tenth anniversary edition of All acts
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Meditation is powerful
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DARVO
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Do you fear death?
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Discerning good theology
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Red flags
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Rapping about the rapture
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Unpacking religious baggage
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Deprogramming with Gillian Jenkinson
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Debunking clobber verses
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Pagan Roots — available now
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