#Christena Cleveland

[marigoldpine]

My first Winter Solstice, 2022

Today is the first time I have ever celebrated the Winter Solstice. Since I’ve shifted away from my religion of origin, a colonized version of Christianity, I have continued to seek meaning and understanding of the world through other ways such as the cycles of nature. I have turned to indigenous practices such as full and new moon cycles. This has not been a consistent practice but has been growing after following the work of Dr. Rocio Rosales Meza, one of my teachers and guides. I have been seeking a spirituality that seeks to cause less harm to self, less harm to others, and less harm to the earth. Dr. Rocio has led many folks, including white bodied students of the decolonial movement in meditations during the full moon and offerings to help us  decolonize our minds, teaching us how to bring offerings to Mother Earth, and begin learning how to connect to our precolonial and healed ancestors. Prior to this, I began decolonizing my spirituality by following the work of Dr. Christena Cleveland who helps us to “dethrone whitemalegod” and connect to the dark divine feminine (read her book God is a Black Woman). All these things have been healing for me. Dr. Rocio has encouraged us, as white bodied folks, to learn about our ancestors who were people of the earth, aka the precolonial and healed ancestors. This brought me to a woman named Tara Wild who holds space for folks learning their Irish and British spirituality and practices. I attended a Winter Solstice ceremony today which was part education and part embodied practice. It was beautiful. I have been trying to embody the dark time of the season this year and harness it as a time of rest, renewal, reflection, and rebirth into who I am becoming. I have begun journaling to reflect on my year 2022, as Juliet Diaz encouraged us to do and am trying to wait thinking about the new year goals and such. I have had some trouble focusing on this discipline and even me writing this is putting off the journaling reflections as it feels hard to do however I do see the value in it and would rather release some of the things of this year now instead of taking it with me into 2023. I have many hopes and dreams and have radically been shifting in who I am and want to continue that momentum forward, but not without pausing to reflect and release and grieve old ways and habits so that I can make room for the new. I am cherishing this space in the darkness of winter, on this Winter Solstice, to have and create space for this.

#decolonize #winter solstice #createspace #reflection #unlearning #ancestors

[stanfave8-1-17]

Was Jesus A Man of Color?

[markdigitalcr]

ANÁLISIS | ¿Por qué el debate sobre el color de la piel de Jesús importa hoy más que nunca?

(CNN) — Christena Cleveland pasó gran parte de su infancia en una iglesia evangélica rodeada de imágenes tradicionales de un Jesús de piel de porcelana y de pelo rubio. Pero un día se topó con una representación de Cristo tan sorprendente que se quedó boquiabierta. Era un cuadro de un Jesús resucitado rodeado de sus…ANÁLISIS | ¿Por qué el debate sobre el color de la piel de Jesús importa hoy más…

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[sutrala]

(CNN) -- Christena Cleveland spent much of her childhood in an evangelical church surrounded by traditional images of a porcelain-skinned and flaxen-haired Jesus. But one day she came across a portrayal of Christ that was so astonishing that she gasped. It was a painting of a...

[blackrosebooks]

[nadiasindi]

[bookwyrrm]

“No matter the gender, the more a person fits the mold of a needless “self-made man,” the more they are celebrated. If you look at who sits atop the social ladder - in the corporate world, among a group of caregivers at the playground, within a spiritual community, on social media - you will find it is the people who excel at hiding their need.  We worship those who seem to have it all together and make it “look easy.” Everyone else is viewed as a liability and shamed for being one.”

- Quote from God Is A Black Woman by Christena Cleveland.

[lostlit101]

Today is We Love Memoirs Day so I thought I'd share one of my favorites. God Is a Black Woman is theologian, and social psychologist Christena Cleveland's personal journey to dismantle of the white male God. She does this by going on a trek across Europe to find ancient shrines to the black Madonna statues and connect to the Sacred Black Feminine. She introduces the idea of a black female God that black women can pray to for strength and liberation. 🖤 Until I read I hadn't known about the Black Madonna's in Europe. I had some knowledge of the Divine Feminine but had never thought of her being a black woman. I found Cleveland's determination inspiring. She talks a lot about her career as a theologian writing for Christian magazines and organizations and their censorship of her articles about racial injustice. As social psychologist she also employed to help companies with their diversity training and the absurdities she was forced trying to teach people how to not be racist. And finally she talks about her journey out of a toxic relationship with the "god" she'd been raised to believe in. I loved this book and would recommend to anyone curious about how they relate to their god. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #bookstagram #books #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookreader #welovememoirsday #memoir #memoirs #divinefeminine #divinefeminineenergy #theology #bookish #reading #readersofinstagram #readersofig #bookreviews #bookreviewsofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch7IDXoLLdb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#bookstagram #books #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookreader #welovememoirsday #memoir #memoirs #divinefeminine #divinefeminineenergy #theology #bookish #reading #readersofinstagram #readersofig #bookreviews #bookreviewsofinstagram

[evan84q]

Download PDF God Is a Black Woman EBOOK -- Christena Cleveland

Download Or Read PDF God Is a Black Woman - Christena Cleveland Free Full Pages Online With Audiobook.

  [*] Download PDF Here => God Is a Black Woman

[*] Read PDF Here => God Is a Black Woman

[durrell47]

[uraynoro]

Read God Is a Black Woman PDF -- Christena Cleveland

Read PDF God Is a Black Woman Ebook Online PDF Download and Download PDF God Is a Black Woman Ebook Online PDF Download.

God Is a Black Woman

By : Christena Cleveland

  DOWNLOAD Read Online

 DESCRIPTION : In this timely, much-needed book, theologian, social psychologist, and activist Christena Cleveland recounts her personal journey to dismantle the cultural "whitemalegod" and uncover the Sacred Black Feminine, introducing a Black Female God who imbues us with hope, healing, and liberating presence.For years, Christena Cleveland spoke about racial reconciliation to congregations, justice organizations, and colleges. But she increasingly felt she could no longer trust in the God she'd been implicitly taught to worship--a white male God who preferentially empowered white men despite his claim to love all people. A God who clearly did not relate to, advocate for, or affirm a Black woman like Christena.Her crisis of faith sent her on an intellectual and spiritual journey through history and across France, on a 400-mile walking pilgrimage to the ancient shrines of Black Madonnas to find healing in the Sacred Black Feminine. God Is a Black Woman is the chronicle of her liberating

[revmeg]

Christian mystics throughout the centuries have savored the feminine in Christ and have affirmed it as the Divine Mother working within the person of Jesus Christ.... ...thirteenth-century French nun Marguerite of Oingt spoke ecstatically of Christ's mothering: 'Are you not my mother and more than my mother? The mother who bore me labored in delivering me for one day or one night, but You, my sweet and lovely Lord, labored for me than thirty years.' And in the twelfth-century, St. Bernard de Clairvaux made a most magical and graphic invitation into the Divine Mothering of Christ when he wrote: 'Suck not so much the wounds as the breasts of the Crucified.'

from God Is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland, p. 30-31

#God Is a Black Woman #Christena Cleveland #theology #Christianity #mysticism #divine feminine #feminist theology

[onceuponawildflower]

As a privileged person, it's an option to feel hopeless.

Christena Cleveland

#christena cleveland #privilege #social justice #psychology

[jesseturri]

Your Freedom Is In Being Last: Even More Thoughts on Freedom and Free Speech

“Then he punctuates the story with one of his most theologically challenging statements: ‘Thus the last will be first and the first will be last.’ And the privileged people who worked a full day are irate. They can’t believe it! They were expecting equality. They were expecting to get paid more than the people who worked less than a full day. What they didn’t know is that Jesus isn’t interested in equality; Jesus is interested in equity.”

The above passage comes from a great blog post written by social psychologist, Christena Cleveland, titled How to be last: Towards a practical theology for privileged people. I recently re-read the post because my friend shared it again on Facebook. I’m thankful to have re-read Christena’s post because it really helped me solidify some connections on two closely related subjects that I’ve been been thinking and blogging a lot about lately: “freedom” and “free speech.” (Obviously, these subjects have also been primary in our larger societal consciousness as well.)

I often hear people who claim to be in the center (or who think they’re above political discourse all together) conclude that both sides, the left and the right, are effectively trying to control speech. To some degree I think this is accurate to say; I mean we can cite examples all day of recent leftist protests attempting to silence right-wing hate speech and crazy left-leaning liberals attempting to force people to provide trigger warnings, as well as examples of right-wing groups attempting to control women’s bodies, control who can use bathrooms, and even limit protesting all together. However, I think there is a crucial difference between the left and the right with regard to their desire to control speech/people’s actions, and the discerning questions we can ask here are: what type of speech/actions are each group trying to limit, and who is this controversial speech/action coming from?

Generally, it’s my experience and understanding that the right’s attempts to control free-speech and/or free-action generally come from a place of wanting to maintain some sort of anxious sheltered protection, i.e. the intent is to perpetuate some sort of perceived, established norm or status quo. And more often than not this established norm is a hierarchy where some people are just inherently more superior/powerful than others and, therefore, more deserving to rule. So, the controversial speech/actions that bug conservatives generally come from below, thus they oppose abortion, which gives women more freedom/rights over their own bodies; they oppose economic welfare policies that would grant disadvantaged poor people greater opportunities and freedom; they oppose “anti-American” college professors; and of course gender-neutral bathrooms.

Conversely, like Christena says above regarding good old JC, It’s my experience that the left is more interested in equity, meaning the speech and freedoms the left is interested in “restricting” are those that belong to the powerful and privileged, effectively making more room for voices from below. For me personally, attempting to cultivate an attitude of omni-sensitivity isn’t done out of a contemptuous, vindictive effort to denigrate or shame anyone (although I’m sure some people on the left are all about shaming racists and bigots ((and I honestly can’t blame them…))), it’s out of an effort to create a more equitable society for all people. So although it may seem like a window closing when a powerful, privileged person  is no longer able to do whatever they wish with complete impunity it is also, simultaneously, a door opening for a person who could never get that damned door opened before. Once this is done hopefully the privileged person can one day understand that that window was actually letting in really cold air and, yeah, it’s way better for everyone to have that window closed…

Ultimately, the results of giving up ones power and siding with the powerless are summed well by Christena in her post: “If you’re a privileged person…When you inhabit your role as last, you play a crucial part in forging and maintaining the equitable balance of the kin-dom of heaven. Furthermore, your freedom is in being last. Your pathway to a more just world is in being last. Your liberation from the shackles, alienation and dehumanization of privilege is in being last. Your freedom from the stronghold of power and consumerism is in being last. Your pathway to mutuality and kinship with the people of this world is in being last. Your pathway to the kin-dom of heaven is in being last. Your pathway to resurrection is in being last.”

Amen.

Your Freedom Is In Being Last: Even More Thoughts on Freedom and Free Speech was originally published on TURRI

#Christena Cleveland #conservatism #free speech #freedom #Jesus #kindom of god #omni-sensitivity

[rubencueva93]

Right Christian, Wrong Christian

For the past several years I have viewed Victory Outreach pastors and leaders as “wrong Christians”. Although I attended and served at Victory Outreach until I was 24 years old, I finally left after experiencing spiritual abuse from the pastors and leaders of this church on numerous occasions. Many of these experiences left me bitter, wounded, angry and confused. Perhaps the most difficult component of these experiences is that I felt like I would never receive justice for their actions. As a result, I began to view every pastor and leader in Victory Outreach as uneducated, annoying, threatening, embarrassing, less important to God and ultimately, “wrong Christians”. These experiences also informed my definition of “right Christians”. “Right Christians” are those who lead and pastor with care, are educated, supporting, held accountable for their actions, valued by God and not affiliated with Victory Outreach. Because I had such a negative and painful experience at Victory Outreach, my definition of a “right Christian” is essentially the exact opposite of my definition of a “wrong Christian”. However, through Christena Cleveland’s writings on “right Christians” and “wrong Christians” I have begun to reconsider these definitions and view “wrong Christians” as equal and valuable to God.

#Ruben Cueva #Christena Cleveland #APU

[nowhere-herenow]

The primary problem is that our identities are too small. We tend to rely most on our smaller, cultural identities and ignore our larger, common identity as members of the body of Christ. . . . Indeed, adopting a common identity is the key to tearing down cultural divisions and working toward reconciliation. —Christena Cleveland 

#love #spirituality #religion #god #peace #quotes #positive vibes #life #community #unity #common ground