Why I do What I do

So, Dartmouth is continuously on my mind today. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it meant to me the first time I heard a professor say, “You can be a feminist and a Christian!” For me, I really struggled with my faith and spirituality once high school hit. It was so hard to see people using Christianity to spread hate. I think as a whole we see people on television holding up signs that say “Gays are going to hell” and we see that as extreme. But whenever I hear anyone saying, “It’s fine to be gay…just not for my kid!” that’s spreading hate. It’s an underlying more subtle hate but I tend to think it’s the same message.
A lot of the people I’ve met over the years are good people who have just been taught that tolerance is evil. When I was in youth group and heard my youth pastor say, “There is such a thing as being too open minded”, it crushed me.
So after hearing these types of messages and at the same time seeing my parents as the only Christians in the world (that’s how it felt at the time) who truly loved people for who they were, I just thought Christianity was the problem. To learn that the Bible doesn’t actually say what people claim it does, is the most freeing experience.
I imagine it’s very similar for all religions. I’m so tired of hearing “Muslims believe this, Christians believe this, Democrats believe this, etc.” Why do we all have to be in a box? I want to identify as Christian but that doesn’t mean it is my sole identity. A lot of factors go into my ideals. For instance, when I was five and learned that some of my friends couldn’t go to the doctor for check ups like I could, that goes through my head… saying I was starving and my dad taking me to a homeless shelter soon after…that goes through my head. Every second of my life has mattered, does matter, will matter. Even if it’s the worst mistake ever and I’ve forgotten it and moved forward…at the time, it mattered.
It’s why I can be a feminist and a Christian.