Permission To Speak Freely

Susan Isaacs November 8th, 2010

I'm out on a mini tour with author Anne Jackson and musician Solveig Leithaug to support Anne's new book, "Permission to Speak Freely." Her book was borne out of a question she posted on her blog a couple years ago: "What is the one thing you feel you can't say in church?" Within a week she had over 500 responses. People wrote about their addictions to porn, alcohol and food. They were afraid to talk about poverty because their church was wealthy. They were afraid to talk about social justice, because some gonzo TV personality called it heretical. (Never trust your theology to a TV personality). One woman wrote that she couldn't tell anyone her daughter was gay. A man said after his wife divorced him, his church rejected him too.

The response to Anne's blog was so tremendous that CNN picked up the story. (Apparently it's news to the world that church people don't feel safe in church. Is it news to you?)

It got her thinking more deeply, and so she decided to turn it into a book. She asked readers to send those secrets on cards, art, however they felt led. And so her book, Permission to Speak Freely, became a compilation of original art, poetry and stories. Not just Anne's stories but those who wrote in.

And now we are on the road, turning that groundswell into a live event. In the first half, Anne, Solveig and I share our dirty little secrets: sexual abuse, spouse's addictions; alcohol, porn and food addictions; divorce and depression. The longer we hid, the sicker we got. But when we got honest, we began to heal. In the second half we hold a Q & A for the audience to ask questions or share if they want.

We've only had two events so far: one at a modest church in a working class town, another at a wealthy church in an über-rich suburb. But inner lives of the people are the same. I know because of what they've shared during Q and A. One teenage girl said her cousins had stolen her 'innocence' and she wanted it back. A woman shared how, when her husband abandoned her, she went on a sex-spree to numb out. Four young women from a 12-step program showed up, including a 23-year old who had been a prostitute to support her meth habit. A man told the crowd he was the abusive, addict spouse we'd talked about. Another man shared he was in recovery from porn, but it had cost him his marriage. It was astounding to hear people open up and get free. It's a privilege to witness it, but I pray it becomes commonplace in church.

But why isn't it? Why don't we feel safe in church? I doubt we are afraid of telling God our secrets: he already knows them. Maybe we are afraid of other people: those people who show up to church all scrubbed-holy and put-together. Maybe they do have it all together; maybe we just think they do. It's easy to measure their outsides to our insides, and think, "if they knew the real me, they'd reject me." It's not just our own fear that hides us, sometimes it's the truth. Read Anne's blog and you'll discover a lot of people who did tell the truth and got rejected.

But church, of all places, should be the one safe place where we can own the sick truth about ourselves. Jesus said he came to heal the sick, not the healthy.

I learned a phrase in 12-step meetings: "you're only as sick as your secrets." In other words, if you can admit your secrets to someone, you can heal from them. Wouldn't it be great if church looked like one big S.A. Meeting? Sinners Anonymous? I don't mean we should lie around, wallowing in our brokenness and using it as an excuse not to get better. (I've been to that church). We need to move on from that and become productive members of society. But it starts with bringing those secrets into the light.

I also learned another thing in the 12 steps: don't share your secrets with someone who doesn't understand them. You share your dirty laundry with someone who's already admitted to theirs. They don't lord it over you. They're more likely to respond with, "oh yes, I did that too."

Last Sunday our church had a 12-step forum after the service. We talked about what we got out of our 12-step programs and how it differed from church. For me, it wasn't enough to confess my sins and expect to be zapped holy. I had to walk that out in my life and my behavior. I liken it to this: you want to lose 15 pounds. What works better? Telling yourself you're fat, or making up a food plan that you can follow? That's how the 12 steps have worked for me. I work with a sponsor who suffers from my same illness. She's been there ahead of me, and she helps me work through the program on how to get better. However, I can't go to a 12-step meeting and expect them to believe what I believe or practice how I practice. I go to program for program. I go to church for church. I need both.

So could we speak freely and openly at church? Yes and no. I don't think the Sunday morning service would work as a communal confessional. The Sunday service is about turning our focus on God, not on ourselves. But that doesn't mean we can't create that kind of safe place for people to open up and share. Our church does have a midweek healing service that is intimate, safe, and we have a time to share with each other. Many churches have adopted the "Celebrate Recovery" program, which is a Christian-based program for people with addictions. I can't comment on it because I haven't done it. I like the twelve steps, and I like interacting with people of all kinds of faiths. But I imagine many might prefer the Christian-based program.

In any event, the Church needs to make church a safe place to speak freely. We need to allow people to come: dirty or clean, healthy or sick, holy or massively messed up. It's the sick that need a physician, not those who are well and scrubbed up.

"A bruised read he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out."

For more information on the Permission to Speak Freely tour, contact Jim Chaffee at Chaffee Management (jchaffee@chaffeemanagement.com)

Susan Isaacs is a writer, actor, and comedienne with TV and film credits including Planes Trains & Automobiles, Scrooged, Seinfeld, The Drew Carey Show, My Name Is Earl and more. She is an alumnus of The Groundlings Sunday Company and the author of Angry Conversations With God: A Snarky But Authentic Spiritual Memoir.

Click here to listen to Susan's most recent appearance on SBE.

|

This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2010 at 11:51 am and is filed under Angry Conversations with God, Christianity, Church, Culture, Permission to Speak Freely, Religion and Spirituality, Susan Isaacs, SusanIsaacs.net. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.