jkirkendall
More About Me
My Tagline:
A Post Modern Evangelical Buddhist
My Interests:
Meditation, Interfaith issues, Politics, Holistic living, Recovery, Tarot, Shamanisim, Dreams, Symbols, Psychotherapy, Meditation, working with anxiety, 12 Steps, American Sign Language, knitting, pottery.
My Favorite Books, Authors, Musicians, Movies, Preachers, TV shows, etc:
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa, Pema Chodron, Brother Roger, M.I.A., De/Vision, Goldfrapp, Dixie Chicks, Dr. Who, Torchwood, Desperate Housewives
Who Inspires Me:
My partner, my father
My organizations and affiliations:
Shambhala, American Mental Health Counselors Association, Naropa University, Brookland Pastoral Center, Catholic Worker
My favorite spiritual activities:
sitting meditation
Who I'm praying for:
George Bush: Holy Mother of God...
What is your current spiritual mood?:
Grateful
What's your spiritual type?:
Spiritual Straddler - I have one foot in traditional religion, one foot in free-form spirituality.
About Me
The son of Baptist missionaries, my faith journey began in Beirut, Lebanon. There, I was brought up amongst evangelicals, and surrounded by Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Maronites, and Drews. As a teenager in India, I visited Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh temples. I have deep and abiding love for interfaith dialog, and after college, spent a year with the Community of Taize, in France. When I returned to the States, I ended up living in a Catholic Worker community in Washington DC for six years.
As a gay man though, I found it increasingly difficult to remain committed to the institutional church. While at the Worker, literally housing the homeless and feeding the hungry, I was told I was a sinner, "intrinsically disordered."
I left the church at that time, and began sitting meditation as a student at Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in 1991. I have since found a real spiritual home in the Shambhala community, but as I grow older, I find myself drawn once again to the church. I often find hymns coming to mind that I haven't sung in years (so, I belt them out, much to my partner's dismay!!!). I have a real soft spot in my heart for progressive evangelicals, or "post-evangelicals," or post-modern Christians, who are actively re-evaluating how the message of Christ became so exclusionary.
My father, a Baptist missionary for 25 years, once told me "It's more important to make friends than to make converts." It's in that spirit that I wish to live my life.
My Basics
Location: Washington, DC
Gender: Male
Occupation: psychotherapist and potter
Relationship Status: In a Relationship
Faiths:
Buddhist
Faith Description: Shambhala Buddhist
jkirkendall's Journal
Posted: Jan 1, 2008 9:52 PM
In honor of the New Year, and to get back on track after the busy holidays, I did a three card, past - present - future reading. ... (more)
Posted: Dec 21, 2007 10:44 PM
Alright, so clearly December may not have been the best time in the world to try to start a daily card reading!!! Today's cards... (more)
Posted: Dec 19, 2007 9:50 AM
Today's 3 Card Draw: Three of Double Vajras (cups) The Corpse (Death - yes, AGAIN) Karma/Justice I realized yesterday as I... (more)
My Photos
Audio/Video
jkirkendall's Friends
My Groups
Feeds
Guest Book
