Recently I was asked why I remain interested in Laestadianism, with the implication that I should have "moved on" from my quirky upbringing, as it has so little relevance to my life now. I found this TED video relevant to that question. It is by forging meaning out of our struggles that we make sense of our lives, and by telling our stories that we give permission to others to live authentically.
"Oppression breeds the power to oppose it, and I gradually understood that as the cornerstone of identity."
"It took identity to rescue me from sadness. The gay rights movement posits a world in which my aberrances are a victory. Identity politics always works on two fronts: to give pride to people who have a given condition or characteristic, and to cause the outside world to treat such people more gently and more kindly. Those are two totally separate enterprises, but progress in each sphere reverberates in the other. Identity politics can be narcissistic.People extol a difference only because it's theirs. People narrow the world and function in discrete groups without empathy for one another. But properly understood and wisely practiced, identity politics should expand our idea of what it is to be human. Identity itself should be not a smug label or a gold medal but a revolution."
From a therapy standpoint, giving voice to our stories includes "naming the demons" so to speak. The whole idea of naming something takes away it's power over you. To admit that the idea of being an unbeliever and going to hell causes fear after being told that for 20 years or 40 years or whatever, takes away some of the power. I am an ex-laestadian. I am an "unbeliever". That takes some of the power to hurt away...by claiming our own voice.
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