Quotes from Susan Campbell

Shoulds keep you from owning your power to create the life you want. They keep you in denial about your actual feelings and situation.

Can't we look to Mary Magdalene as simply an early church leader whose rightful place next to Christ should have been acknowledged? There are no Scriptures to place her anywhere but right next to Jesus. Even a cursory reading of the Bible shows her to be a godly woman responding wholeheartedly to a message that must have appealed to her greatly. But the fastest way to rob a woman of her power is to make her a sexual suspect. It certainly has worked all these years for MM.

H]istorically, the coast is where new ideas are first collected, from people who arrive here from other places. Flux lives on the coasts. Fashion starts in the East and moves west. Spiritual movements start in the West and move east. And bedrock faith rests in the middle.

I wish I could just believe that God loves women, but the indoctrination I endured at the hands of well-meaning (or so I assume) Christians is difficult to erase. So I must search for believable (and scholarly) counterpoints because I don't quite trust myself. And until I can dissuade myself of the notion that God plays favorites, I cannot honestly sing or pray. Nor can I turn loose of this anger.

I]t is helpful to remind ourselves that the church - and its writings - did not come into existence until forty years after Jesus' resurrection. Things got lost. Things got whispered down the lane. Original meaning could have been abandoned completely in favor of a less egalitarian faith. What else did we lose in the interim between Jesus and the recordings? And will we ever get it back?

I don't worry much about offending. I have long since learned that my approach to religion will offend someone; I just don't want to hurt anyone.

Busting out of your comfort zone might be the most fun thing you ever did — after you get over the idea that you have to be safe, appropriate, perfect, right — or that you have to be anything.