Laurie Larson Caesar
My blogs
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Lutheran minister |
| Introduction | When I left Libby, Montana, for college at Stanford, I shook off the embarassments of my Norwegian-American Lutheran heritage. I initially embraced fundamentalist Christianity, which I fled as I began to understand how deeply the sexism and homophobia are interwoven with the grace and the hope. Friends were lost, but my voice retained. The campus rabbi, Ari, was patient with me sophomore year as I would bike to his tiny cluttered office just off White Plaza He finally said, "I'm supposed to discourage a potential convert three times, but I will discourage you more times than that. I just don't think," he smiled, "that Judaism is your destiny, Laurie Larson." Native American spirituality captured my heart for a while, the earth and the truths, until my beloved agnostic professor friend, Dennis, asked, "Do you think, Laurie, that you are actually appropriating something that doesn't belong to you? Might there be a truth or two in your own tradition worth holding?" Brilliant, dammit! That's been my life journey ever since -- to find the treasures in the rubble, and to dare to live them! |
| Interests | WNBA basketball, bluegrass, blues, gospel and clawhammer banjo music, feminist, liberation, and creation theology, Salmon Nation ponderings, Benedictine and Buddhist spiritualities |
| Favorite Music | David Carter and Tracy Grammar, Gillian Welch, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline |