An Open Letter from a Secular Student of Religion

An Open Letter from a Secular Student of Religion May 7, 2014
Hey, we’ve (probably) never met, but there’s something that I’d like to get off my chest: I’m a secular student of religion. Maybe that doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, but it certainly feels like a big confession to make in a forum about religion. That said, let me explain why I think it matters that feminist seculars like myself study in seminaries and theological schools and what these non-secular institutions can do to help foster our growth within their walls.
You may be wondering why I’m bringing this up. Let me continue in my confessional spirit while it lasts: I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what it means to be non-religious and to choose to study religion in a theological setting (i.e. obsessing over it). In that hectic combination of post-Easter break haze and an ever-increasing mountain of end of semester work, I have found many odd moments of reflection that key me into the fact that I’ve changed a lot in the four years since I’ve begun my theological studies.
For example, on Easter Sunday I had found myself giving a fairly rousing interpretation of the two endings of the gospel of Mark to my parents, neither of whom asked for it (weren’t they surprised!). Four years ago, I couldn’t even tell someone what the four gospels were, never mind their individual content. In my youth, the bible was merely a confusing amalgamation of stories and letters that were not meant for me. Before coming to a theological education, that text was simply a tool for others to condemn me, as well as a means to deny myself agency (“I don’t understand this. How can my ‘friend’ tell me I am going to hell? What did I do wrong? Maybe I will never understand.”). 
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