Being gaily religious and religiously gay: Blogging freestyle for chapter 3 of “Changing Paths.”
This week, I want to blog about chapter three of Changing Paths by Yvonne Aburrow…
My relationship with my sexuality when I was an evangelical Christian was a complete mess, and not solely because I was gay. For those who may not be familiar with evangelical culture, purity culture is often a huge part of that, and my upbringing was no exception.
Continue reading: Being gaily religious and religiously gay: Blogging freestyle for chapter 3 of “Changing Paths.”
other people’s journeys
Repost: Should I stay or should I go?
Should I stay or should I go? Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 2 of “Changing Paths”
Excellent post from Jarred reflecting on one of the journal prompts from Changing Paths.
Hello dear readers! It’s Friday morning so that means once again exploring a journal prompt from the wonderful book, Changing Paths…
Should I stay or should I go? Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 2 of “Changing Paths”
Liberty for some
Sarah Zang hoped to escape her highly controlled home life in 2006.
— John Verner
She enrolled as a student at Liberty University in Virginia. She looked forward to making her own decisions, free of her parents’ strict rules. Liberty University, a Christian college, seemed like the perfect haven, promising safety and a community that shared her values.
Read the rest of the article on Substack (content note: sexual assault trauma and white evangelicals being obnoxious)
Reverting to your old path
A helpful article from John Beckett on the type of people who revert out of Pagan traditions and back to their original path.
John urges compassion and empathy for people who leave Pagan paths for another religion, and offers suggestions for deepening your understanding of Pagan ideas so that you can avoid reverting.
Continue readingReligious trauma workbook
I’m excited to see that Gillian Jenkinson’s book is out! Gillian Jenkinson is a therapist with extensive experience in helping people break free of harmful beliefs dinned into them by cults. I quoted her work in Changing Paths (my book) and I’ve been looking forward to her book coming out.
It’s also very reasonably priced, presumably to make it accessible to those who need it.
Continue readingFolk witches and dual faith
Polish Folk Witch (on instagram and Patreon) has an excellent article on dual faith practice and syncretism among folk witches: Dual Faith: the elephant in the room of the witchcraft community.
The topic of dual faith keeps returning on a regular basis in the broader witchcraft community online, especially on the intersection of folk magic, paganism and christian occultism.
Folk witches often practice some form of dual faith, developed based on the mixture their cultural background, religious background, as well as bioregional features and animistic immersion in the world around them. Each folk witch’s exact praxis will therefore vary.
—Joanna Wiedźma (Polish folk witch)
This reminded me of my articles on dual faith practice based on an essay I wrote for my masters degree.
Dual-faith practice (part 1 of 4)
Dual-faith practice (part 2 of 4)
Dual-faith practice (part 3 of 4)
Dual-faith practice (part 4 of 4)
And this article that I wrote about my personal experiences of practising more than one religion (not the same as syncretic practices):
And here’s one that I wrote about my spiritual wobbles, which was the start of the process that gave rise to the book (Changing Paths):
Emotional vocabulary
A really helpful resource for processing and naming the emotions you feel in response to your life experiences.
Anger is valid
I said that anger is valid because it helps to propel us out of dangerous and abusive situations in Changing Paths (the book).
I love that Jo Luehmann has talked about the neurological aspects of processing your anger in this post, and most importantly talking about it—absolutely brilliant. I think that if you turn anger inwards, it becomes stress and depression.
Continue readingInterfaith relationships
Great new post from John Beckett on interfaith relationships.
Our wider society tends to assume that couples will follow the same religion, and generally they do. But interfaith marriages have been a thing for a very long time, whether between Christians and Jews, Protestants and Catholics, or any other combination – including Pagans and people of other religions, or of no religion.
John Beckett, Pagans in interfaith relationships
Stories
Changing Paths challenge day 16 — stories.
The power of stories to change and challenge a person’s worldview is immense. My worldview was definitely informed by reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Writing on the Hearth by Cynthia Harnett (now sadly forgotten by most people), Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. And of course the Narnia series by CS Lewis, and many other books depicting a magical mythopoeic worldview. Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction was and remains extremely important to me.
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Changing Paths 