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joylaprade.bsky.social
Late to the party, but I’m here. Reader, writer, reconstructing my faith. joylaprade.substack.com
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Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context theonion.com/trump-s...

submitted 4 days ago • 67 comments

"Everybody calm down and send us twenty dollars" 😂😂

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

When I volunteered to run a special dinner at our new church, I expected a long night. I'd recruited a few cleanup volunteers, but with over 100 at the meal, we had a mess to take care of. I couldn't believe what happened instead. Before I told anyone what to do, I noticed a couple guys already 1/

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

‘You Can’t Let This Happen,’ Says Fundraising Email From Sitting U.S. Congressperson

submitted 12 days ago • 309 comments

Most of us have used Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation & we can thank Gladys West for creating the foundation for GPS. She used her mathematical & programming expertise to invent an accurate model of the Earth. She was inducted into the US Air Force Hall of Fame.

submitted 12 days ago • 201 comments

How can you know if a church is safe? I’ve been asking this for the last few years, ever since I was “run out of town” by the pastor & church family I trusted. We recently moved & started looking for a new church to attend. So you can imagine how I felt when I saw THIS on Sunday 👇 1/

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

It only took 50 years to acknowledge Susan Foh’s interpretation of Genesis was flawed. www.esv.org/about/2025-u...

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

The Church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Mary Magdalene wasn’t really preaching,” was an argument I heard in my complementarian days. The risen Jesus sent her to the disciples, they would say, but that didn’t mean women could be pastors. “She was just relaying information.” Today, I don't know how I missed it... 1/

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

A pastor recently asked me a question I’m still thinking about. What are reasonable guidelines for a youth pastor that are NOT the Billy Graham Rule? I don’t believe in the BGR for adults, but age/power dynamic between teenager & pastor is another level of complexity anyone seen this done well?

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

One of the most confusing & painful parts of my church abuse was watching friend after friend turn their back on me. One by one, the people who initially spoke up for me slowly but surely disappeared from my life. Standing with me was too costly. New post: joylaprade.substack.com/p/what-price...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

This man is one of Marco Rubio's newest hires at the State Department. It's hard to even comprehend the mindset that says that he's qualified to represent the United States in any capacity at all.

submitted 21 days ago • 73 comments

WRITING TIP: if you get stuck, try making the font really really big. This will remind you of being a baby, when you only knew twelve words and didn't know about death

submitted 20 days ago • 62 comments

He saw something wasn’t working in our shared public space. He had the power to fix it. He went and fixed it. wapo.st/4hyxNf6

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

“As a self-confident young man, I was delighted to learn that God had given “headship”/leadership to men. I enthusiastically became a “complementarian,” to use a term of more recent origin. I remained so for nearly ten years until, after months of careful study, /1

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

I honestly don’t want to post something every time the administration does something like this, tapping Darren Beattie to be acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. But what does it say to my black sons who are now in the workforce and about to turn 18 +

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Three years ago today I sat in a windowless room with a pastor I trusted, who had called me a dear friend. I listened in shock as he read a list of “charges” against me. I was being removed from my volunteer role as a deacon & leader of our women’s ministry. I had no warning this was coming, 1/

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

You belong before you believe

submitted 25 days ago • 5 comments

As someone who sat through far too many pathetic and boring sermons from 28-year-old youth pastors--two of whom went on to groom and abuse youth group members--I concur. Especially when so many gifted women were in the pews!

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments

The day our new 29-year-old elder gave his first sermon was the day I stopped believing only men should be pastors. open.substack.com/pub/joylapra...

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

I believe one reason the evangelical church is in such bad shape is the “gospel” of penal substitutionary atonement is actually not good news.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

(This is about church abuse and deconstruction.) Imagine a new type of kitchen gadget is invented, allowing people to cook more quickly & efficiently than ever. It sells by the millions, but there’s a slight design flaw — occasionally it will overheat & catch fire. Only a small group of users 1/

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment