Queer Cross
I found this altar cross at Goodwill and was stoked about it. Someone had broken off the rod used to carry it down the church aisle and screwed in hooks to hang it on the wall. It is big- 28x18- and heavy and I immediately knew I’d take it home and cover it with punch needle.
After the election I needed to make something that addressed my understanding about exactly how this happened (I was 0% surprised which isn’t me being smug) with some kind of statement about religion. I grew up as anyone who has been on this account for any amount of time knows in a rural conservative area in Maine. Everyone was religious of one sort or another; as a Franco American that generally meant Catholic in my family circles. My step mother was (is? I’m sure but I haven’t talked to her in years) Catholic and the things she said to me as a child were major factors in not coming out until I was an adult, not having an abortion when I got pregnant, etc. When I got to Yale in 2009 I could NOT believe there were religious people who were radical, esp Catholics. I knew about the antiwar radicalism of some Catholics during Vietnam but that was the extent of my imagining that religion could in any way shape or form be any kind of force for good.
I don’t feel much different now- if anything I am more certain than ever of the threat organized religion poses to the wellbeing of people. When I got sober I had to come to believe in a loving higher power but for me, that meant a group of drunks (community) taking care of each other. I still believe that. Anyone who gives money to the Catholic Church is out of my life and that’s that.
I found this altar cross at Goodwill and was stoked about it. Someone had broken off the rod used to carry it down the church aisle and screwed in hooks to hang it on the wall. It is big- 28x18- and heavy and I immediately knew I’d take it home and cover it with punch needle.
After the election I needed to make something that addressed my understanding about exactly how this happened (I was 0% surprised which isn’t me being smug) with some kind of statement about religion. I grew up as anyone who has been on this account for any amount of time knows in a rural conservative area in Maine. Everyone was religious of one sort or another; as a Franco American that generally meant Catholic in my family circles. My step mother was (is? I’m sure but I haven’t talked to her in years) Catholic and the things she said to me as a child were major factors in not coming out until I was an adult, not having an abortion when I got pregnant, etc. When I got to Yale in 2009 I could NOT believe there were religious people who were radical, esp Catholics. I knew about the antiwar radicalism of some Catholics during Vietnam but that was the extent of my imagining that religion could in any way shape or form be any kind of force for good.
I don’t feel much different now- if anything I am more certain than ever of the threat organized religion poses to the wellbeing of people. When I got sober I had to come to believe in a loving higher power but for me, that meant a group of drunks (community) taking care of each other. I still believe that. Anyone who gives money to the Catholic Church is out of my life and that’s that.