This is my body - broken with you

he colonial tool that is theology. Devaluing & abusing bodies. Embedding male entitlement.



"Globally, it is estimated that 30% of the world's population experiences chronic pain.

I’m one of them. This is my body.



This type of pain affects more women than men.

I’m one of them.  Broken with you.



Academically I am a theologian and the reason I decided on this particular title for this article – which is a play on eucharistic and biblical phrase “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me” – is because those of us who were raised in the Christian tradition will have heard a variation of these words and no doubt have pondered what they actually mean.



Inevitably, through these words we have been ‘programmed’, to some extent, that our body is to be ‘given away’ or ‘sacrificed’ to intense suffering, for the sake of and to ‘feed another’ and/or ‘God’, and that pain and suffering are an acceptable exchange, in God’s view, for redemption.



This ‘programme’ layers on top of other Christian conditioning we have received around the body being sinful and ‘base’"



An extract from my piece 'This is my Body. Broken with You' which was published in the @girlgodbooks Pain Perspectives: Finding Meaning in the Fire Anthology, and which can also be read in full now on @girlgodbooks Patreon page 👇



CLICK HERE TO READ



#thinksystemically