For those of you who've experienced trauma of any kind, this might be a particularly

triggering episode for you to listen to. So take care, consider the things that you need to do

before you listen to this to keep yourself safe. And remember that you don't have to listen to this

and you don't have to continue listening to this. If you have trauma, it may be useful for you to

listen to this episode with somebody who knows about your story, so that if anything gets stirred up

that you have a safe place to talk about it. Most people who listen to the liturgist podcast are

people who are interested in spiritual conversation, but maybe not fully at home in the religious

contexts that they come from. For some, this is simply because they've outgrown the small

mindedness of their tribe. There's this poem by the Sufi mystic, Huffees, that one of the lines

that says, the great religions are the ships, poets, the lifeboats. Every sane person I know has

jumped overboard. I think that's very funny, but there's also people who have jumped ship in some way

or another not simply because of growth in hope, faith or love, but simply out of the need to survive.

Let's face it, the most beautiful and awful human endeavors are often done in the name of God.

In the name of God, countless hungry people have been fed. The poor have been clothed, the

hopeless have been comforted. But also in the name of God, blood has been shed. The poor have been

taken advantage of. The name of God, oppression, racism, patriarchy, and every kind of abuse imaginable

has thrived. And a lot of us are people who have experienced both sides of this blade.

Many of us have found comfort in our faith, but also despair. We found both shelter and a storm.

The evil perpetuated in the name of God is often the darkest sort of evil because the most

perverse things are always a perversion of the most beautiful. One of the most disturbing stories

I've ever heard was of this father who would molest his daughter at night while singing worship

songs. While many of our stories probably don't sound as extreme as this,

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