sekritly a social justice radical

Last Tuesday night I was at a visioning session [and yes, I would like a less ableist term for that] for a group I've been involved with for much of this year, and I repeatedly said that social justice isn't where my passion is. And just about every time I said it, I felt a little twinge like I was lying -- because fat pol and disability pol and mental health pol ... these are all issues that have become very important to me. But they're not issues where people are going to say, "Yes, I'm totally on board with that -- or at least as a good liberal I feel like I 'should' be."

And so I frequently don't speak up and advocate for these things I care about, because I am, contrary to how I may appear, frequently a risk-averse confrontation-avoidant person. (Reasons I don't self-identify as an activist.)

So I am owning the things I care about.

( Read more... )

continuing in posts without punchlines

In the SANS program book, Iliff (where Laci went) had taken out a full-page ad. Their offering of online courses caught my eye.

2011-2012 course listings begin on page 78 of this PDF (or you can read the smaller PDF that is the Masters Course List here). They won my affection early on with

BT 3441 Disability & Difference: Theological & Ethical Perspectives
4 credits
This course will introduce disability studies as a lens for theology and ethics, and will consider options for theory and praxis that are authentic to the full diversity of human embodiment.

I keep saying that if I do div school, I'm doing EDS because I wanna take basically all their classes except I would do Methodist polity at BU STH, but Iliff is inspiring similar feelings and they have "Denominational History, Polity and Doctrine" UMC classes.

(I also learned that Deborah Creamer attends a United Methodist church.)

I still don't want to pursue ordination, though. (And yes, I know I could do div school/seminary without being ordination track.)

At least 3-5 people I know from the Internet are considering a path to ordination. I have mixed feelings about this.