bell hooks has done much to challenge and futher my thinking and emboding of God’s domination-free dream for creation. Here is a quote from bell hooks about her own spiritual journey:

“Underlying fundamentalist insistence on following laws and rules was always the threat of domination. Resisting the power of patriarchy to distort the Divine, shaped my feminist politics from girlhood on. I refused to let go my belief in Divine Spirit or to subjugate that believe to patriarchal thought. The aspect of my religious faith that I cherish was the mystical dimension. The focus on love and union with the Divine Spirit. Anytime we work to end domination we are doing the work of Love. A vision of redemptive love helped me as a child to sustain my hope in self recovery in the midst of family dysfunction and trauma. I struggle to survive and heal the traumas of a troubled childhood because I believed whole heartedly that by finding my way to love, I could become heart whole.”