#30days30posts

[shannontlkearns]

I apologize for bringing this up, but my conscience wouldn't give me peace. Are you familiar with the Bible? If you follow Christianity and are condemning Churches in their lack of response to the transgender agenda, I'm not so sure you have read the Bible cover to cover. Transgenders need Jesus just as much as the rest of us. However, you cannot ask Churches to accept and condone a lifestyle that does not agree with the Bible. This is a very dangerous thing you ask, instead pray for enlightment

Oh boy! A fun one to start 30 days of posting!

Yes. I am very familiar with the Bible. I have read it a couple of times cover to cover and sections of it countless other times. I have parts of it memorized.  I have studied the Bible both for private devotion and for school for years. I have a Master of Divinity from one of the best theological seminaries in the world. So yes. Familiar is an understatement.

And it is precisely that familiarity that leads me to advocate for transgender inclusion in the church. Because I see in Scripture an entire arc of justice; from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation I see a movement of God toward inclusion, toward justice, and toward equity. It’s not just in the story of Jesus (though it’s maybe most blunt there), it is throughout both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

And I see a particular thread of inclusion for transgender people: from eunuchs being the salvation of Esther, to them being assured of their inclusion in Isaiah, to one of the first Christian converts being the Ethiopian Eunuch in the book of Acts. 

I have prayed for enlightenment and I found it in the acceptance of myself and in the demand of God to work for justice for all people in the church. 

I believe that the Kingdom of God is among transgender people and that if the Gospel is to be “good news” it must always be good news for the most marginalized first. 

[gkindshivani]

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1/3rd mark achieved! #Staction made it all possible. #30days30posts on #LinkedIn make a sense of achievement. 100 is not far away. #Staction is the first step towards achievement. A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. The Cycle of Completion says "Decide - Plan - Start - Continue - Don't stop - Achieve" There's nothing you can't achieve. Things seem difficult before you start, easier at mid and fabulous at the end. MY Sincere #gratitude to Pratik Thakker Parul Parmar Stewart Huckett🤔 for being the inspiration behind. Also tagging some challenging co-creators who walked along this wonderful journey. Yash Thakkar Chika Olayoole🗣✍ Vijaya Kunder Chandan Jaiswal 💻 Mac Laubscher Rishabh Bahuguna Aditya Nigam Siddharth Puri Vedaang Singh Ankur Mehta Anilkumar B Ankur Vaid Jigar Thakker #insidea #thinkovation #gkindshivani #mindset #productivity #station #100dayschallenge #linkedinittowinit #linkedininfluencer #linkedinfam #30daysofthankfulness #ahievement #learningeveryday #inspiration What valuable thoughts would you like to add to the post? I would love to read. https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8vhCshAuE/?utm_medium=tumblr

[talesbytalz]

Such an apt quote... always do a #SWOT on yourself...when you shine from within it reflects on your stride...!! #talesbytalz #taleha #radiopalrjtalz #ohhsomeblog #motivation #quotes #shine #blogger #delhi #september #SepTALember #30days30posts (at Delhi NCR) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnTbohHAGyl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mrra4yt7ky00

[azizdogdu]

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[shannontlkearns]

Yesterday I posted a screenshot of a message I got that basically said homosexuality is wrong. The content doesn’t really matter because the posts are almost always the same (including the terrible spelling, punctuation, and grammar). Normally I delete and ignore and move on, but the reality is that I can do that because I’ve done my personal work to get healthy, to be secure in my identity, and to know what I believe. These folks who come for me don’t get much of a rise out of me.

But I worry about the other people they come for. The youth who are still living at home with unaffirming families. The ones who hear those hateful messages week after week in their churches. 

And make no mistake about it, these messages are hateful. They are theological hate speech and the people who continue to preach and teach them have blood on their hands. 

So if you’re a straight/cis person, when you see me post about another hateful message I’ve received, I don’t want you to say that you’re sorry it happens, or try to comfort me, or tell me that I’m doing good work. I want you to get your straight/cisgender folks in order. I want you to call them out. I want you to tell them that hate speech is unacceptable. I want you to confront them. I want you to leave your evangelical churches. I want you to stop giving money to churches that won’t affirm queer and trans people.

I want you to provide financial resources for queer and trans youth to go to affirming camps, find therapists, have books that reflect them in their school libraries.

I want you to DO SOMETHING to make the world better for queer and trans kids.  

[shannontlkearns]

I did my masters in theology and I feel like the more I learned, the less faith I had. We humans constantly create and recreate God in our own image (funnily enough, I started using Ze pronouns for God in my grad school papers a few years before I even realized I was nonbinary) and either reflecting or rebelling against existing social power structure. I'm stuck in that "I want to believe; Lord, help my unbelief" place. Any thoughts to share?

I feel you!! 

It’s interesting, I grew up a fundamentalist evangelical in a church that really worried about education. Probably because of what you’re mentioning here; that learning about the faith somehow kills it. 

But I think, instead, that learning about the faith kills an immature and fear driven understanding of the Bible and who God is. Meaning, once I went to seminary and really understood Scripture; understood the historical context in which it was written, understood the ways that the books in the Bible were in conversation with one another, understood the ways that they were critiques of what was happening in history, understood issues of translation and interpretation; there was no way I could still be a fundamentalist evangelical. And I think that terrified the church that I grew up in because I think they knew that. And they knew that educated people can’t be controlled.

So for a while for me my faith was super intellectual. It was about reason and logic and history and for me that was a vital antidote to the purely emotional faith I had grown up on. But it definitely left me feeling kind of cold at times and like I had no real “spiritual life” anymore.

But what I came to realize is that there ARE ways to engage your heart spiritually without abandoning your head! Faith became life-giving again when I was finally able to do that. When I could worship without having to abandon what I know about how the Bible was written. And in fact worship became a lot more rich and healthy and led me toward wholeness when I was able to bring my whole self to the table. When I didn’t have to be afraid of my intellect, of scholarship, of learning more. 

Because the Bible is actually a really kick ass collection of texts that speaks about justice, and centering the marginalized and the oppressed, and fighting empire. It speaks about how much our bodies matter (not just our souls). It speaks about breaking down boundaries between people and breaking down boundaries with God. It speaks about all of these juicy and radical and powerful things and I missed all of that when I read it as a literal history book (which it was never meant to be read as!). 

The best advice I can give for where you are is to keep going. Keep digging into the text more deeply. Keep learning and growing. And try to find some spiritual practices that allow you to engage both head and heart. Whether that’s blackout poetry or meditation or writing “first person theology”. Do what you need to do to bring it all together.

Some resources that might help:

For an example of first person theology see my ebook Walking Toward Resurrection: A Transgender Passion Narrative

For deconstructing fundamentalist faith and find a faith that is life-giving see Resurrecting Faith and lots more resources @queertheology

For more on how to read the Bible read Rob Bell’s “What Is The Bible?” and this post.

[shannontlkearns]

Hi! I was curious about your thoughts on modesty and how it is talked about within the Christian community. It has been incredibly frustrating as a woman growing up in the church. Thanks! :)

I grew up in a fundamentalist evangelical church and here’s basically what I was taught about modesty:

Men are so horny and incapable of controlling themselves that it falls to women to cover up so as not to lead men astray. 

But also, men are so incredibly horny that they find linoleum sexy (actual quote). 

So really it kind of boiled down to this idea that men were so unable to control themselves AND that they needed to take no responsibility for controlling themselves. But also that even if women DID all the heavy lifting and like wore a burlap sack men would still find them sexy. 

But there’s another piece to this, too, because as someone who everyone assumed was female I was, by all standards, very modest. I wore long shorts and baggy t-shirts in the summer that hid my chest. In the winter I wore XL hoodies and baggy jeans. AND YET because I wasn’t “appropriately feminine” I was considered to be violating modesty standards. 

So basically cover up yourself entirely but still be feminine and besides nothing you do will ever be good enough to keep men from lusting.

(This of course also assumes that everyone is straight and wants to have sex. Which we know isn’t true.)

Modesty rules are all sorts of effed up and basically come down to controlling women, shaming sexuality (especially of women), and put restrictions on women/female bodied people.

so here’s what I say: wear what you want, wear what makes you feel good, wear what you are comfortable in and let people be responsible for their own reactions and actions. 

[shannontlkearns]

Today is one of those days that really shows the various skills needed to be a priest. 

This afternoon I’ll officiate a funeral. My role there is simply to be a comforting presence and to speak words of hope. I hold space for feel to feel whatever they are feeling. I try to name the feelings in the room and give permission to them. 

Then I will drive across town and change out of my clericals into shorts and a t-shirt and lead a summer peace camp for kiddos ages 3 to 5th grade. It will consist of singing and dancing and story time and crafts. In that space I am the fun leader, the energy booster, the teacher. My job is to create space, leave nuggets of information for kids to grab on to, and help them be and feel safe.

Two totally different contexts. All ministry. 

[shannontlkearns]

There’s been a lot on my schedule lately, especially this past week. Leading a camp at church, officiating a funeral, meetings, etc. But this weekend my partner is out of town and yesterday I had the entire day to myself. 

I slept in, cleaned the apartment, did a lot of reading. I watched some documentaries and cooked some food. I didn’t talk to anyone (except via text).

And as the day went on I was able to hear my heart speaking. Nudging me toward what’s next, offering course corrections, saying “hey, you need to listen to me more.”

I try to. I try to really pay attention. But sometimes, when things get too scheduled and even when I have down time I am not alone or checked in, I can miss the messages I’m receiving. 

This was a good reminder to make sure to take time for silence. To be totally alone. To tune in and really listen. 

[shannontlkearns]

Hello!

Lots of new followers here lately and so I thought it might be fun to do a little intro post!

Things about me:

I am a transgender man.

I am a playwright.

I am one of the co-founders of @queertheology

I am an ordained priest in the Old Catholic Church (for real. I have a Master Of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and everything).

I run Uprising Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

I have two cats, Berrigan and Charlotte (but we call her Chuck).

I have an amazing partner named Ashley.

I work for a Lutheran Church as the Director of Faith Formation.

I read a lot (100 books a year).

I’ve just started meditating and I really dig it. 

I’m theology who spends most of his time writing queer and trans theology.

My inbox is open for questions!

(photo credit Jill Harms Photography)

[shannontlkearns]

This is the last of my 30 posts in 30 days postings! I can’t believe it. Honestly the 30 days have flown by. I’ve really enjoyed just chatting here with all of you and hope to be around more often. I’m going to continue this posting every day thing on my “official” website. I really like the discipline of it, the practice of it, and connecting with others. 

For today’s actual thoughts:

I’m reading this book about peak performance; how to perform best without burning out. A lot of it is information I’ve read in other places so this is just reinforcement, but one of the things that is standing out when reading it put together this way is that so much of our lives depends on our mindset. Particularly the idea that we do have control over things in our lives. We can get better (even at creative tasks). We can learn and grow and change. 

I see so many people who expect people to educate them on LGBTQ issues but they won’t put in any work themselves. Or they want a church/pastor to fix their faith but they only bother to show up once every three months. Or they say they want to get better at their art but they don’t actually ever make art. 

You have to put in the work. You have to believe that you are capable and then put in the work.

One of the greatest gifts in my life is the fact that I believe that I can figure it out. Whatever it is, I can figure it out. I will learn how to do it. I will make it to the next step. I will work it out. And I believe that because it’s true. Because anything life has thrown at me I have been able to figure it out. I have failed a ton. It’s been messy. It’s been hard and depressing sometimes. But I’ve figured it out.

So if it matters to you? Figure it out. 

[shannontlkearns]

The playwriting world is a little weird. You labor for hours/days/months/years on a piece and then you’re done. But it’s not really done until it gets a production because theatre, while often text based, isn’t only text. It’s lights and sound and bodies on stage and bodies in seats. It’s all of the elements coming together to make something amazing. 

But the way the system works, unless you produce your work yourself, there is a good chance your script won’t get to completion. And it definitely won’t get there quickly.

I have a spreadsheet of places that I have submitted scripts to. I’m up to 33 places and frankly I submit a lot less than other people. The usual turnaround time for a submission? 6 months. It can sometimes take a year to hear back. Sometimes you find out you got rejected because you went to the website and saw a list of the people who got accepted. Sometimes you don’t even hear that. 

It’s a strange thing to be so dependent on other people to bring your work to completion. To be so out of control of the process. To just simply be waiting. 

I’m in the waiting season and it’s hard sometimes. But I keep going because this work matters to me. 

[shannontlkearns]

In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen multiple posts on social media by clergy bemoaning the fact that people have chosen to do other things than go to church on Sunday morning. One person was upset that folks were sharing their Sunday morning activities on Facebook during the time that church was happening. Another said that even though people were encountering God on their hikes or whatever that it still wasn’t church.

Listen, I know how hard it is to be a clergy person (because I am one). I know how much it sucks to invest a ton of time creating what you hope will be a meaningful worship experience only to have very few people show up. I know how hard it is when something that you find super meaningful simply isn’t to other people.

And yet. 

In all of these posts there is something glaring missing: never once are these people asking WHY someone might choose to do something other than go to church. Or WHY they might be encountering God on their hikes and brunches. 

Because it sucks to think that people might be encountering God more fully at brunch with their friends than they do sitting through your worship service. And a realization like that, if you take it seriously, is going to cost you something. It might mean that you have to take a hard look at what you’re doing and *gasp* change some things! You might have to own up to the fact that your worship experiences have become dry and stale. 

Look, people attend what they prioritize. And if no one is attending your church then maybe it’s time to ask yourself why? Why isn’t it a priority for them? What is it about your church that makes it unappealing? Or what is it about the way that you’ve done faith formation that people don’t see the church as something they need to prioritize? What needs are being met other places that aren’t being met in your church? And if there are needs that aren’t being met other places but that could be met in your church do people know that? Have you articulated it in a way that people can understand?

Instead of getting on social media shaming people for not being in church on a Sunday morning (which is really gonna make them wanna come by the way...) maybe use your hurt as a moment of reflection to see what can be done differently. 

[shannontlkearns]

My Artist’s Date

Today I took myself on an Artist’s Date to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  

I love it! It’s super close to my house so I can walk there, it’s always free, and the exhibits are interesting. 

I found three pieces that really captured my attention today:

I love the blues and greens in this, how they shine. 

This funeral torch is just awesome. The notecard said “Images of life and death dance together”. It’s just such a striking piece and holds the tension of death and resurrection.

Then there was this piece by @kehinde-wiley-blr:

It’s called: “SANTOS DUMONT- THE FATHER OF AVIATION II, 2009″ and it’s stunning. It’s a massive piece and MiA had it in the midst of all of this medieval and Renaissance art. I had to get home and look up his website and see more of his work. It’s beautiful and such an important commentary. Please go check it out. 

And take yourself on an Artist’s Date as soon as you can. 

[shannontlkearns]

As Uprising prepares to present “The Laramie Cycle” in honor of the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder several members of the creative team were talking about how old they were when it happened.

I was a freshman in college. My 18th birthday was October 7. The day that Matthew lay in the hospital between life and death. But I didn’t hear about him until years later. See, I went to an evangelical college that later that spring would kick two women out for being lesbians. I wouldn’t hear about Matthew until years later, when I finally had the courage to come out myself. 

This conversation also made me think of the other events that happened while I was in college; the spring of my freshman year the shootings at Columbine happened. The fall of my senior year was the attacks  of September 11. 

Right now it seems like horrendous things happen every day; every hour. But back then it seemed that catastrophes were more spread out and yet, at the same time, increasing in number. Whether that’s because of the rise of media (meaning we heard about things faster than we did before) or because the world really was on the brink of getting worse I’m not entirely sure.

But I do know that being in college as these things happened shaped me. And yet I wonder now why there were certain things I heard about and others I didn’t. Matthew’s death was obviously huge news. Did I not hear about it because I didn’t have access to much news as a college freshman? Was it not mentioned because my college probably thought he deserved it? Or was I so deeply closeted that I did hear about it but shut it out of my mind?

And it makes me think about what other stories I don’t hear because someone deems them not important or not news-worthy or not innocent enough. 

The stories we hear matter. Who tells the stories matters. 

[shannontlkearns]

My Meditation Practice

What good does it do to just sit and pay attention to your breath? I could be using that time more productively. Or I should be using that time to pray. Or read Scripture. Or generate ideas. Or basically anything other than sitting and paying attention to my breath. 

This is the internal monologue I had for years when it came to mediation. And yet I kept reading books in which creative people swore by their meditation practice. I read about how they said it made them MORE creative, MORE productive, MORE whatever. 

So I figured what that hell? Couldn’t hurt to try it. I could do it for 5 minutes for a while and if it sucked I could quit and it would be fine. 

So I tried 5 minutes for a couple of days. Just sitting and focusing on my breath. And I kind of liked how I felt. So I increased to 10 minutes. 

It didn’t feel like a chore or like something I needed to force myself to do so that was good. But I felt like it wasn’t helping me to generate ideas and I wanted that so I decided that I would add in another 10 minutes where I just wrote down everything I was thinking.

Now my meditation practice looks like this: 10 minutes focusing on my breath. I count the out breaths because it helps me to pay attention better. (And I use the “breathe” app on my Apple Watch which also helps). Then I set a timer for ten minutes and sit with a marker and a giant sketch pad and I make a mind map of whatever comes into my head. Some days it’s stuff I’m worried about or need to do. Other days it’s actual actionable ideas.

I’ve been doing this for several weeks now and I really like it. I’m not sure it’s changing my life but it feels good to do and it doesn’t feel like a chore. 

I’m interested in reading more books about meditation (as I’ve heard that can be helpful) and seeing where this practice takes me.