Relevant Magazine, Hugo Schwyzer, and a thing called grace

April 16, 2012 By Sarah Moon

Trigger warnings for rape, abuse, stalking I believe in a thing called grace. Really, I do. I believe people can change, and when people change, I believe in giving those people a second chance. But here’s the thing. Life’s complicated. Because, sometimes, showing “grace” to one person means denying grace from another. Here’s an example: You have a child molester who has raped and abused young children. This child molester meets Jesus. Jesus changes said child molester. Great! But what... Read more

Never going back

April 6, 2012 By Sarah Moon

Trigger Warning for Abuse I used to be in an abusive relationship. Once, I broke up with him, and he threatened to kill me for it. I was in his car, and I told him I didn’t want to be with him anymore. He decided that if I wouldn’t be with him, I couldn’t be with anyone. So he gave me the choice: Change my mind and stay with him, or he would crash the car into a telephone pole.... Read more

Why I’m not signing a petition against Mark Driscoll

April 5, 2012 By Sarah Moon

*Trigger Warning for rape and spiritual abuse (but don’t worry–if you get upset, just click on any mention of Driscoll’s name for an adorable fluffy bunny)* In case you’re not as obsessed with the Christian blogosphere as I am, there’s been a petition going around asking Liberty University to keep Mark Driscoll from speaking there. When I saw the petition being circulated by several progressive bloggers, you know this radical feminist had to check it out. So, I clicked, and... Read more

Mega-church Feminism

April 3, 2012 By Sarah Moon

Feminism has always been a spiritual experience for me. It is my “church,” my means of building the kingdom of heaven, my way of worshiping and fellowshipping. But, like all spiritual experiences, not all feminisms “work” for me. This weekend, I went to the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. and felt like I was in a mega-church. Now, I know many people (like the wonderful Alise Wright!) who have found God in the mega-church, but I’ve never... Read more

What I’ve been up to…

March 30, 2012 By Sarah Moon

My blogging has been horribly irregular lately, folks. I apologize for that. I miss it like crazy, but life’s been so full. Lately I’ve been spending all my time reading and writing papers for classes, and I’ve got some awesome potential blog material from that, and if you’ll all be patient with me, I’ll be sure to have it up soon! Also, this week, the “Cemetery for the Innocent” (if you don’t know what that is, google it. But, trigger warning if... Read more

Our Mother who art in heaven…

March 22, 2012 By Sarah Moon

I’m trying this new thing where I don’t just think of God as a man. Where I get this image out of my head that God is an old man that looks like Gandalf and has Morgan Freeman’s voice. Where I let God out of this box of masculinity that God’s been confined to. It’s difficult. The images of God that we focus on in the Bible are all quite masculine. God is a Father. God is a King. God as... Read more

When I can

March 20, 2012 By Sarah Moon

People assume that healing from abuse is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint – it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly… time-y wimey… stuff. Doctor Who quotes aside, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “It’s been years. Why don’t you just let it go?” I can’t always get a hold of it, for one. Pain is like a greased pig–I can’t even get a grip on it in... Read more

Joseph Kony is famous. Trayvon Martin is not.

March 17, 2012 By Sarah Moon

White Evangelical Christians love African children. Two years at Grace College (a predominantly white Grace Brethren college in small town Indiana) taught me that. Students went on missions trips in which it was mandatory to return with at least one picture of you surrounded by African children, or perhaps holding an African baby. Then, of course, there was Invisible Children. Middle class white guys “giving voices” to black children in Uganda. Grace College was all over that. And I include... Read more

I Did Not Report

March 13, 2012 By Sarah Moon

Trigger Warning for rape and sexual abuse Social media can be powerful. Yesterday, a Twitter trending topic reminded me of that. On #IDidNotReport, people explain why they didn’t report rape or sexual abuse. The results are a strong reminder that we still live in a rape culture. I encourage you all to check out this trend. Here are a few tweets: #ididnotreport because she was female, smaller than me, & we were at a club. The fact was I felt... Read more

Happy International Women’s Day and Feminist Coming Out Day!

March 8, 2012 By Sarah Moon

March 8th is an exciting day! First of all, it’s my wonderful partner’s 28th birthday (Happy Birthday, Abe!). Second, it’s National Colon Cleansing Day (Remember! A clean colon is a happy colon). And then, it’s International Women’s Day and Feminist Coming Out Day! As much as I love Abe and colons, this post is going to focus on the latter two. When I first “came out” as a feminist about a year ago, I got a lot of responses. Some... Read more