I am reading a great article on ritual. I have realized that I have actually gone through an initiation and ritual in the traditional sense of isolation and separation, being stripped of clothes, and all the other elements of ancient ritual by being involuntarily hospitalized. This is in keeping with shamans and others who go through ornate rituals in indigenous societies. Because sacred knowledge and spiritual insight are seen as aberrant in our society, and visions are criminalized, there is no receiving community for this experience. This makes me so happy to see what I have been through is an ancient practice, though the initiation was led by incompetent mental health frameworks for this ancient tradition of spirit vision.
Involuntary Hospitalization as a Spiritual Initiation
About Christian Minus Christianity
Christian Minus Christianity is a budding community created to challenge imperialism, nationalism, and racism in many forms of US-American Christianity. It is a work of contextual theology created from the perspective of a white Christian of conscience.
Palestinian theologian Dr. Yousef Kamal AlKhouri, academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, wrote about this project:
“I do think it’s important to dismantle imperial Christianity in a form, and for the reign of God to liberate the oppressed and God’s entire creation from systems of supremacy, exploitation, and destruction. I also believe that every theologian and Christian are doing theology from their own context, wherever they are. All theologies are contextual.”
Christian Minus Christianity 