My name is L.K. Louise. I am a 23 year old Texan woman who remembers a high school experience of Baptist churches, abstinence rallies, and hearing phrases like “gender appropriate expression”. I attended a Bapist University and studied religion, the only field that had ever interested me as a career choice. After college, I started working at a conservative Christian Rock radio station and ministry in Dallas, TX.
There was always a part of me that wanted to defend the rights of others. Religiously, I saw myself as defending the dignity God gave to all people. I still see things through a religious lense. At some point, I realized what we were calling “Blessings” were a way for us to deny that our privilege required a response to the world.
And I quit. And became an activist for peace and the poor. I found myself missing everything I had ever seen in my life. I’m starting seminary to become a Baptist preacher, and it’s terrifying. I feel as if God has thrown me in the desert outside of the only faith tradition that makes me feel safe, and I’m trying to be obedient in this desert.