chiaroscuro.
If you’ve been disheartened by recent events in certain denominations of the Church… If your stomach churns over certain goings-on in the political sphere (often involving people who claim some affiliation with the Church)… If you’re shocked, disgusted, and grieved when the proverbial seedy underbelly rolls its rot up towards the exposing light… If you have had your voice and/or your choice taken away (or your discernment flares have fired off as you’ve watched it happen to someone else)… This one’s for you. And this one’s for me. (And actually, if your heart is tender enough to feel the weight of the Holy Spirit’s conviction in this area, this one’s for you, too.) Over the past few years, I have struggled on and off with recurring instances of different variations of this same essential issue: People using their position of power to control. The most heartbreaking, gut wrenching, existential-crisis-causing part is how easy it is to start projecting the motives and actions and mistakes...