Purity culture within religion is problematic. Reflecting on my time as a Christian, this is one of the fundamental parts of it that still makes me angry, and its ghost still lingers. Today, I consider myself empowered, liberated and sex positive - yet I know I'm still affected by what I was taught by the… Continue reading Confronting Sexual Purity Culture
The older I get, the more I realise that identity is extraordinary complex. In my own context, I have a lot of questions of myself, my friends, my whānau, and the communities I am involved in. Shock horror - Abby has more questions? Such is the life of a philosophy major, a poet, a writer,… Continue reading Navigating Identity: Being Pākehā in Aotearoa
What an absolute whirlwind of a term...and a year in fact. On the whole, I think 2018 has been very good to me - I suppose I've tried to be good to her also. I am celebrating the completion of second year, and also the much loved return of my circadian rhythms. I think I've… Continue reading Insomnia: How to Not Fall Asleep
Unlike most Christians (and ex-Christians), I grew up in a secular household. I now thank Ranginui, Māori god of the sky, that this was the case. In my opinion, what drew me to the Christian faith in the first place (for eight years) was my innate need for spiritual exploration, influence via Christian extended family members,… Continue reading Addressing My Internalised Homophobia
Art humanises and grounds absolutely any political issue or conflict ever. People are moved by music, tears, poetry, photographs, paintings, novels and by sculpture. People are not emotionally affected by spreadsheets, statistics or mathematical equations (okay except maybe this guy*). When you marry the hard facts with the stuff that effects a person's kare-ā-roto, their… Continue reading Why We Need Art
I don't know where I want to go with this post, but that's ultimately how most of my blog updates go, so we're doing good. I went on a Philosophy field trip last weekend and it was an absolute whale of a time. I met heaps of wonderfully weird humans akin to myself, had phantastic… Continue reading Philosophy, Sexuality, and Christian Me
This site has recently been morphing into bimonthly brain dump, but I'm letting it evolve into whatever it wants to be. Little old me has been doing some thoughtful healing/processing/living in the last few months. It's a weird time when you realise the year is over two thirds through and you look back at your… Continue reading Colours
I'd like to interrupt my blogging hiatus once again. It has taken me a while to figure out how to do it. It has been less about writer's block and more about how much information is too much information - but I think I can trust myself to be reasonable in how I exhibit my… Continue reading Bruised Egos
This is probably the most public I've ever been about my loss of faith; I suppose you can't get any more public than the internet. While my first post on this blog, God is Good?, has a grumpy, cynical tone towards religion, that is not an accurate depiction of how I view the subject at all. Fairly well-known… Continue reading The Beauty of Religion
While travelling overseas during the last few months, I got a message from my housemate. They asked how I was, which was nice. They themself had just returned from a holiday to France. While chatting they happened to bring up the recent Nice massacre tragedy: originally they had planned to spend Bastille Day in Nice.… Continue reading God is Good?
bohemianhumanist.com 