I’m by no means an expert in political thought. I’ve never studied politics, up until recently (Brexit, Trump, the mindfuckery of Theresa May’s wheat fuelled political suicide otherwise known as the snap election) politics has never really affected my life. I think that’s why, lately, I’ve been relatively quiet on the blog front. Since I stopped identifying with Christianity and ‘completed’ my deconstruction, I’ve had no real need to post about theology. Philosophy and ‘radical theology’ have interested me, but again, since God died, I’ve not many ideas interesting enough to blog about. Politics is something which I’ve had a growing interest in, and have touched on a couple of times in my blog but, most of the time, I’ve not felt confident enough in my understanding of politics to contribute anything meaningful.
I started writing ‘faithandfaders’ as a blog about my faith, as I was attending a ‘Preaching and Pastoral Leadership College’ at my church. I was also heavily involved in the sound engineering and music production world (hence, ‘faithandFADERS’). As time went on, I began thinking about potentially becoming a priest, before going through a period of intense doubt in my faith. I decided to become more open and vulnerable about my doubts, and documented my deconstruction as I pulled apart the faith I was once so certain in.
But now I’m on the other side of all of that, I’ve got through the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ and what has emerged is an entirely different person to the one who started ‘faithandfaders’. I’m now living in Manchester with my best friend, in love with an utterly incredible person, working for Amnesty International as a team leader for their face to face fundraising section and a paid-up member of the Labour Party. I’m a new person. The way I view the world is radically different from what it was, the issues I care about have shifted and the areas that I want to discuss are new.
Working for a charity, particularly one which deals with human rights, means that I am talking about dark and depressing things on a daily basis. I talk to people every single day about issues that are going on all over the world, whether it is the Human Rights Act in this country, political prisoners all over the world who are locked up and tortured for literally being themselves or having an opinion, or female genital mutilation. My job is to inspire people to give to the charity and play a part in standing against those things. I show people that they have a voice in this world and give them the opportunity to use it. Most of the people I talk to do not sign up. There are many reasons, of course, some people can’t afford it, some don’t like doing things in the street or would prefer to think about it before making a decision, all of which are absolutely valid. But I suspect there are a lot of people that just don’t think that it will make much of a difference. People feel this in politics as well, I’ve heard people say ’one vote won’t make a difference’, ‘whoever is in power, nothing will change’. At the end of the day, what difference can one person make?
Most of the time, I feel that too, I’m just one person. What real difference can I make? I’m by no means an expert in politics, and despite working for a human rights charity, I’m certainly not an expert in that either. But then again, I wasn’t an expert in theology or philosophy. I blogged about them because there were things I was going through, things that effected me and my blog was largely a response to that and the reading I did along the way. And I know, from the response I got, that writing about my experiences helped both me and other people in similar positions to myself. Somehow, me using my voice to discuss faith, doubt and the death of god resonated with people. So I want to start writing again. I want to use my voice to talk about how politics, human rights and everything I’m experiencing now is affecting my life. Whether it is purely just a journey of self-discovery, or whether others connect with what I write, I don’t know. But it’s time for a new start, a fresh page to write on. I’ve got a new blog, a new site, and some really exciting ideas about what I want to say on this new platform. All my previous posts are still there, so if you liked what I had to say before then head to faithandfaders.com. But I’m really looking forward to this new chapter, and hope that you’ll join me!
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