July 2021 - Assertive Spirituality

Trauma center (Hospital) image, introducing an article on churchy exceptionalism and spiritual trauma

Churchy Exceptionalism Part 2: Or, Hearing the Critiques from Spiritual Trauma

July 24, 2021 DS Leiter Comments 3 comments

So this week I posted a meme on the AS Facebook page, in concert with last week’s article introducing the concept of churchy exceptionalism, stating the ways some people find the term “blessed” distasteful as used in some contexts. In light of last week’s article, I found the virulence of some of the defensive responses extremely ironic and illustrative. Someone even suggested that the the project was “deny[ing] God” by posting the meme. <insert horrified face emoji here> So yeah,…

Churchy Exceptionalism Part 1; Or, When Church Becomes a God Term

July 17, 2021 DS Leiter Comments 2 comments

This blog post extends my previous series on “god terms” (things to be defended at all costs) and “devil terms” (things to be fought at all costs)—a series which started here. In this piece I plan to extend this analysis by directly looking at subtle ways in which church too often becomes a “god term” to be defended at all costs, even by more spiritually healthy Christians, and how that can lead to the problems of what I’m about to…

The Problem with the GOP’s “Viewpoint Neutrality” Doctrine in K-12

July 10, 2021 DS Leiter Comments 1 comment

The GOP’s been pushing “viewpoint neutrality” A LOT lately in education, including both K-12 education and higher ed, if you hadn’t noticed. This is the language that shows up in a lot of the bills that are demonizing the place of “critical race theory” in classrooms, often where it’s not being taught in the first place. These bills often are requiring “equal time” to all viewpoints on history, especially racial history, even if some are false and downright damaging. Not…

Assertive Spirituality

Because Sometimes We Stay Lost if We Stay Quiet

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Month: July 2021