PinnedWhat My Life in a Cult Says About AmericaI emerged from a cult and into the real world at the age of 23, a destitute mother of three children. I was 14 years old when I went into the cult, but my childhood years before that had been anything but normal. My mother’s mission to ensure my salvation…Systemic Racism15 min readSystemic Racism15 min read
Aug 27Member-onlyStop Body Shaming Donald TrumpThe use of Donald Trump’s bodily characteristics to reinforce and indulge in feelings of disgust toward him is nothing new. But as he reported for booking at Fulton County Jail, social media exploded with speculation about whether his processing would finally reveal his accurate height and weight. Would Trump still…Body Image6 min readBody Image6 min read
Jul 5My Charming July 4th Gone Horribly WrongFifteen or more years ago, soon after I fled the cult in Kansas and years before I became an artist, I lived with my second (now ex) husband and three children in a densely populated suburban housing complex in Baltimore County. Our home was one of the hundreds of townhomes…Racism6 min readRacism6 min read
Jul 2What the Supreme Court’s Recent Rulings Really MeanAffirmative action is dead. Anti-black racism–or, more broadly, the favorable bias toward Whiteness–has been woven into the fabric of our society since America’s very conception. I’m aware that how I interpret affirmative action might be somewhat idealistic juxtaposed with my conviction that most of what appears to be progress is…Racism5 min readRacism5 min read
Jun 4Member-onlyLet Me Shove My Sexuality Down Your ThroatUntil now, at the age of 46, I believed that I was a straight cisgender woman. I’m not. Why do you need to hear about it? Because it reveals a significant problem with our society. Over 20 years ago, I escaped the cult that brainwashed me from early childhood with…Systemic Racism10 min readSystemic Racism10 min read
Jan 6The People Who Found Pope Benedict Too LiberalWhen I heard that Cardinal Ratzinger had died, I thought, “Wow. First, the former Pope falls gravely ill, and now Cardinal Ratzinger dies? Are they all trying to get out before 2023?” I’d heard the name “Ratzinger” frequently growing up in an extremist conservative Catholic family, and it was never…Pope2 min readPope2 min read
Jan 1Member-onlyRugged Handsome in a Cult: a New Year’s Heartbreak“Are you going to watch the ball drop?” Steve called out to me jovially from the other end of the long basement hallway between the boys’ and girls’ cafeterias. This story takes place mid-way through my cult years in Saint Marys, Kansas, a day or two before the New Year’s…This Happened To Me6 min readThis Happened To Me6 min read
Jan 1A Shooting Star and a Wish Against Hate for 2023On the cold Thursday morning of December 29th at 6:34 AM, I stood on a hill over the Gunpowder River valley. I looked up at the Western sky over this Susquehannock land, this historic land where enslaved Africans labored, died, and broke free. A brilliant white ball of flame, its…Racism2 min readRacism2 min read
Nov 14, 2022Member-onlyMy White Grandfather and the Black Dissent of Kyrie IrvingMy grandfather was a Holocaust denier. From my childhood years to my early teens, my mother would leave my Protestant father to watch TV in his armchair and take my siblings and me for a day trip to her parents’ severely Catholic home. It was a central meeting place where…Racism6 min readRacism6 min read
Aug 14, 2022Pope Francis’ White Non-Apology TourAs a survivor of a fundamentalist Catholic cult, I’d like to put the core issues with Pope Francis’ Canadian “apology tour” into plain terms. I was 14 when my mother took my sisters and me to the rural town of Saint Marys, Kansas, to sequester us in a space safe…Racism14 min readRacism14 min read
