January 2023 - Assertive Spirituality

a folder labeled "top secret" to introduce an article on classified documents and sin-leveling

On Sin-Leveling and Classified Documents

January 28, 2023 DS Leiter Comments 3 comments

Wow, we’ve been hearing a lot about classified documents in the US news lately. If you’re not paying attention to the rhetoric closely enough, it seems like it’s suddenly this huge problem that EVERYONE in government has. AND, significantly, like everyone ON ALL SIDES of US government is equally guilty of mishandling classified documents. In this piece I plan to unwrap why that simply isn’t so, and how this kind of largely right-wing rhetoric mirrors nature and the effects of…

When Shame–Er, Purity Culture—Becomes a God Term

January 14, 2023 DS Leiter Comments 0 Comment

So this week I had the strange experience of re-reading the book Pure by Linda Kay Klein when an article came out suggesting that Evangelical missionary, martyr, and purity culture icon Jim Elliot seems to have longed for death at the end of his life because of struggle against something unspecified that he deemed a (sexual) sin. Considering Pure is an ethnographic study of the damage and trauma caused by the Evangelical purity culture movement that was in part pioneered…

How to Respond When the Bullies (Seem to) Win

January 7, 2023 DS Leiter Comments 1 comment

I don’t know about you, but there are times in weeks like this past one when it just feels so much like however much progress we make, like the systems in place are just too flawed, and allow the bad guys—you know, the bullies and abusers—to win much much too often. In today’s piece I want to unwrap some of the dynamics of these issues and how to understand and healthily respond when things seem like this. (This is going…

Assertive Spirituality

Because Sometimes We Stay Lost if We Stay Quiet

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Month: January 2023