Hi! I am KimiFloyd Reisch
For over a decade, I worked with faith communities guiding them through a process to declare that they were affirming to LGBTQIA+ people and their families. Sometimes it worked and those communities learned to thrive in a new way, recognizing the gifts that same-gender-loving (SGL) and gender expansive people brought to their communities..
But far too often, it didn't happen that way.
I started to realize that there needed to be a better way. We have been trying to change churches - to make them safer for LGBTQIA+ people - but too many people are/were still surrounded by churches that put out welcome signs, only to pull them back when the wrong people tried to enter the pew. What was needed was not a change to the bylaws, but a change in commitments.
Individuals need tools to explore and nurture the commitment to change and live intentionally - seeking to leave the world a better place for our children, and all future generations.
Aigne is my commitment to help provide those tools.
The Transformative Power of Love
People matter.
And people are being wounded by the world.
My spiritual journey has led from membership in a conservative, evangelical, protestant church to an awakening realization that I had read about Jesus, but not studied his lessons. I had read the Bible, but failed to grasp the profound human life lessons for how we are to live in community. What claimed to be a religion in Christ's name, was too often one he would not recognize. It was an awakening realization that any religious tradition that focuses on personal salvation after death, rather than how we love the world while among the living, is not listening to the incredible wisdom shared by the ancestors.
Jesus said we were to love. It is a simple phrase, but living in love has been bogged down by the very thing Jesus told us to avoid - judgement of one another. Nowhere is this more evident than in how protestant churches and denominations, have judged, condemned, and driven out lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other people who are not cisgender and heterosexual; and in the centuries of religious complicity in the establishment and perpetuation of white supremacy, colonization, and slavery. Watching the continuing trauma being inflicted on my communities, I realized that I was no longer interested in redeeming something that had deviated so far into a system of harm. In that instant, I committed to humanism and quit focusing on the wisdom of a single teacher.
As a humanist, I believe that humans have a moral and ethical responsibility to care for this planet and one another. My focus is not on personal salvation and getting into heaven, but on how we transform our human world.
I hold a Master of Divinity with a Certificate in Social Transformation from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and will graduate with a Doctor of Divinity in Public Theology in May of 2023. My undergraduate work was in Ethnic and Gender Studies, with a minor in history. I spent the past three years working as the Program Minister for the Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ (and eight years before that as a volunteer and ONA consultant).
I believe that Jesus wanted to transform the world, and that means that our focus should not be entirely on organized religion that exists for the sole purpose of individual salvation after death. Religion that focuses only on what happens to us as individuals after we leave our world cannot transform.
Now, I am done trying to change churches. That does not mean there are not some good churches or religious centers out there. It means that my call is to be religious-adjacent, but fully humanist in the work I do. I am focused on helping the individual connect with their spirituality. Part of that will be healing. Healing from trauma - all trauma, including religious trauma.
Our symbol is the dragonfly. Dragonflies have been on earth since the dinosaurs roamed. The dragonfly is an agent of transformation, resilience, and willingness to adapt. These commitments will be nurtured in all the work we do, along with having a changeable heart and mind. Look for the dragonfly on most of the items in my shop.
If you have any questions, or if there is content you would like to see each week, please drop me a message below.
Much love to each of you! May we come together in the spirit to transform.
KimiFloyd