Cautiously Optimistic
It may be too soon to say anything, but I'm going to anyway.
It appears that the Dianics are interested in my proposal!
I sent them a bunch of documentation regarding what is on my mind, and they are now going to send me a bunch of documentation about their non-profit so that we can see if we can meet in the middle with our common goals.
This makes me feel very hopeful, because all of the research that I did not only about the ancient Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, but also about the modern Dianic tradition and how it fits into the American religious landscape as a whole points to this being exactly the right thing to happen at exactly this moment. The whole thing kind of gives me chills.
Hardly anyone here even know that there is such a thing as a "Dianic Tradition", and if they do, all they know is that it is "those women that won't let transexuals in." This whole transexual thing has completely dominated the Dianic public image, which is frustrating, because transwomen are NOT the focus of the Dianics.... but I digress.
I wrote a thing the other night for my Non-profit class where I (accurately) described the Dianic Tradition as a "liberation theology with a hermeneutic of suspicion". This is the language of the school, and it places the Dianic Tradition within a framework that others here can understand.
But, the goal of liberation theologies, suspicious or not (and most of them are) focus on LIBERATION. That is what I am trying to bring (more of) to the Dianics. This is my gift... new strategies of liberation that perhaps have not yet been explored. Strategies that I learned here from other liberation theologies. Of course, there is the whole suspicion thing. But, the way I see it, not everything that we learn from outside is bad. After all, the reason why I changed my name to what I did when I was initiated in 1983 was because I heard a speech by Malcolm X. Black liberation inspires me, even if most traditionally African-American churches are not only patriarchal but homophobic. Nonetheless, they are amazing.
So, I am fully willing to take whatever I can use to get the job done. I am looking after Her women and Her children and Her animals, and I will do whatever I have to do and go wherever I have to go to do that.
It appears that the Dianics are interested in my proposal!
I sent them a bunch of documentation regarding what is on my mind, and they are now going to send me a bunch of documentation about their non-profit so that we can see if we can meet in the middle with our common goals.
This makes me feel very hopeful, because all of the research that I did not only about the ancient Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, but also about the modern Dianic tradition and how it fits into the American religious landscape as a whole points to this being exactly the right thing to happen at exactly this moment. The whole thing kind of gives me chills.
Hardly anyone here even know that there is such a thing as a "Dianic Tradition", and if they do, all they know is that it is "those women that won't let transexuals in." This whole transexual thing has completely dominated the Dianic public image, which is frustrating, because transwomen are NOT the focus of the Dianics.... but I digress.
I wrote a thing the other night for my Non-profit class where I (accurately) described the Dianic Tradition as a "liberation theology with a hermeneutic of suspicion". This is the language of the school, and it places the Dianic Tradition within a framework that others here can understand.
But, the goal of liberation theologies, suspicious or not (and most of them are) focus on LIBERATION. That is what I am trying to bring (more of) to the Dianics. This is my gift... new strategies of liberation that perhaps have not yet been explored. Strategies that I learned here from other liberation theologies. Of course, there is the whole suspicion thing. But, the way I see it, not everything that we learn from outside is bad. After all, the reason why I changed my name to what I did when I was initiated in 1983 was because I heard a speech by Malcolm X. Black liberation inspires me, even if most traditionally African-American churches are not only patriarchal but homophobic. Nonetheless, they are amazing.
So, I am fully willing to take whatever I can use to get the job done. I am looking after Her women and Her children and Her animals, and I will do whatever I have to do and go wherever I have to go to do that.