ash wednesday

i started carrying the sign the day after thanksgiving, at tafts corners.

WILLISTON FEDERATED CHURCH COVERS UP SEXUAL ASSAULT

once or twice a week i would go.

but it is ash wednesday and this evening i begin daily protests.

i do not know if i will be able to carry through the full forty days, but before i got kicked out of the church i used to have a lenten project.

truth telling is my new lenten project.

i am calling on the people of the williston federated church to face the truth and examine your souls.

if you were part of the coverup, you were guilty of it. if you stood by and let it happen because doing anything "makes people uncomfortable", you are guilty of it. if you sit in church and listen to the pastor talk about radical welcome while i am not allowed to come in or talk about taking responsibility while looking the other way, you are guilty of it.

how will you come to your lenten study and ask to be forgiven sins you are still in the commission of?

do you accept the joys and costs of following jesus?

you all stood and said you did.

i made promises when i joined the church. you did, too.

but now i'm on the outside, always on the outside.

i learned it from you: there is no forgiveness, no resurrection. there is humiliation and ostracism. we turn people away. we blame the victims.

and we wish to have the ashes imposed and have a gentle time of candles and a show of piety and we wish to feel good about it but we will not look at those we have used up and cast away.