The Mother Wound. It’s the Mother of all wounds. It’s the absence of “mothering”—of tenderness, nurturance, connectedness — that I see in the traditional, patriarchal evangelical church. I’ve become keenly aware of this as I blog to the LGBTQ community of faith, because I’ve had to take a cold, hard look at the problems in the mainstream (evangelical) church. What I see is exclusiveness instead of a welcoming open-arms inclusiveness, homophobia instead of affirmation, and male-domination while obliterating the feminine.
I see all of these as effects of the Mother Wound, and I begin our exploration by way of the story of my own Mother Wound.
My mother died when I was nine, taking with her all maternal influence in our family. My father was present but not maternal. My older sister was maternal but married and rarely present. My stepmother was present but was so non-maternal that she served best as a reminder of what I’d lost.
I was a delightfully creative and smart little girl, eager to discover the mysteries of this life, but hobbled by my deep need to be nurtured…
This is from an article I wrote for Christian Feminism Today. If you would like to read the rest of the article, just click here. I hope you do. Thanks! – Susan : )
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