the Empathy List #57: A House Divided

The drama of a divided house is one I know personally.

Hey friend, Liz here.

Obviously, I’m struggling with Evangelicalism. And I’m not the only Millennial to be having doubts about America’s cultural religion. Take the Joyner kids for example, who you can read about below. All five of them are loud, activist democrats. Meanwhile, their dad is Rick Joyner—the civil war-inciting, Trump-loving, climate-denying preacher.

Um, can you imagine those awkward family dinners? I can’t decide if I’d want to watch it all play out—a theatrical family drama played out in real time—or if I’d rather run in the opposite direction.

Is there any way to mend these relationships? To ignore what’s been unearthed? To go back to “how things used to be”?

Some will say that yes, of course, we can wend our way home. There’s got to be a way through the rubble. But I am not one of those people.

I broke ranks with my own dysfunctional family-of-origin at 29, and I have maintained that separation, despite the pain it has caused me. I believe it is neither healthy nor prof…