Inauguration

There's a lot of fighting going on in this country right now.

Blue states. Red states. Talk about walls, gays, vaccines, immigrants, refugees, "disabled" vs. "lazy." "U.S.A. First and Only" vs. "World Citizenship." America is angry, and when our nation gets angry, we often get mean. Really mean.

A website like this could look very mean-spirited to American Evangelical Christians. Conversely, to those who are furious with American Evangelicals, it could look like the perfect spot to let the vitriol fly. To the best of my ability, though, I don't intend for it to be either. I want openness, honesty, even when it's painful. I want people to think for themselves and when they decide what they think, to speak up for it. What I want most of all, though, is universal compassion. Anybody is genuinely free to believe anything. I may, indeed, "wholly disapprove of [everything] you say," but truly will "defend to the death your right to say it" (Evelyn Beatrice Hall). I expect no less from everyone who leaves comments here.

We will not conquer hatred and prejudice without understanding each other, and I hope I can facilitate understanding of what I knew first--the American Evangelicalism that my father preached and my mother taught me at her knee--to those in the wider American culture. I may be an Episcopalian now, an out gay woman who has traveled some of the world and sampled a lot of different philosophies and beliefs, but our first lessons never truly leave us. For people who find Fundamentalist Christian behavior inexplicable, I hope I can offer a compassionate glimpse into such an unknown viewpoint. To American Evangelicals, I can only say that I love you, no matter what, and I pray to God I can truthfully say that to everyone I ever meet.