9 Comments

My story is similar. I grew up in the 70’s, came out at 21. I had to leave God, for a bit, as I thought my choice was between happiness or IT. I was experiencing a lot of difficulty in relationships, due to my very dysfunctional upbringing and another relationship was imploding because of ME. My very earliest experience of God was warm and loving, prior to my complete indoctrination, so it was my earliest experience I was yearning for, and I needed it so much! I deconstructed everything, and began to slowly rebuild. Today, I’m an Omnist...? I went to an interfaith seminary in New York, and studied several of the major religious traditions. I love them all, particularly Buddhism, Hinduism. I highly recommend Rob Bells books, like Love Wins. He has reclaimed scripture for me and brought it into its historical context, corrected some mistranslations. I still have issues, but far fewer. Thanks so much for sharing your stories. 🙏❤️

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You are an amazing human and a wonderful young man with a sense of self and respect for humanity. Let no man separate you from Gods love.

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That was powerful Joshua. I’ve heard you speak often about being brought up in the church. I am so sorry that you still have these ambiguous feeling. Trust me God loves You just as you are. I understand your need to get into a community where you feel god is present. He’s right inside of you.

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I can relate to the pain you have experienced in your daily attempt to be a good “Christian “ and live an authentic life. I appreciate your candor and look forward to future insights. Keep up the great work, hope you’re enjoying your new surroundings! Relocation is difficult.

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I learned early on that the religion I was being raised in didn't approve of me, so when I left home, I also left it behind. I believe you don't need to "belong" to a religion to be spiritual. It can be whatever you want it to be, wherever you want it to be.....

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I don’t know, but now that you’re coming back out on Substack (no pun intended)

I am hopeful that you will also spend a minute pulling back the curtain for us on your personal experience in the media environment as a trusted journalist, and how hard remaining trustworthy in media can be!

It feels like the same story in reverse.

I trust you.

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This breaks my heart. As a devout Roman Catholic, who lost a sizeable part of my community to AIDS, back when it was still called Slims disease, before HIV had even been identified, and participated in the public health field work to sort out what was causing actually causing those deaths, there is so much I wish I could tell you about what my church actually teaches and about how the devout life is constructed in our view. I am afraid to do so in a general, public way, however. The facile bombs that are thrown by both sides of the political agenda owners make it impossible, I think, to talk other than with greater vulnerability than on-line comments countenance.

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The capacity to love another human, flawed, complex, and beautiful, simply cannot be a sin. And Proverbs 13:24 is about guidance, not abuse. The term rod refers to a herding crook.

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