Overwhelmed Much?!?!

Dear Friends,

This week we had a decision to make. Do we continue funding LoveMoreLessFear.com, or do we say goodbye? Well, since you are getting this – Love More Less Fear continues for now!

This was our pic on July 4th

First, I want to tell you that I have been posting almost daily and sometimes multiple times a day on Facebook: Love More Less Fear page. (Please visit.) However, my writing has been relegated to my work in Clinical Pastoral Education units where I am currently employed as a Chaplain Resident. I have been here since September of 2024. But now, I am a full-time employee with benefits for a whole year from June 2025-June 2026 upon which time I will be looking for another job. But I WILL be qualified to search for chaplaincy jobs all over the country with 4 units of CPE under my belt. Yahoo!!! Basically, what this means is that I am working full time at the hospital including 2-12 hour shifts every other weekend (Did I tell you I am in my 60’s?), go to class 8 hours per week, and then I write papers, read, etc… So, writing blogs and getting the podcasts recorded have been difficult at best.

These are the types of posts being shared on Social.

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Next, I want to tell you that Ken is continuing his chaplaincy job at a hospital across town. He works 3-12’s in a week and then rounds out the 40 hour week with a half day. Ken is also involved in reading, writing, and meeting online with his professors, as he is working toward his goal of another Master’s degree (and possibly his doctorate? We will see…) in order to apply for board certification.

Opening screen on my phone...I love this man!

As a result, I can honestly tell you that I have never been more tired in my life. Whereas I could push through just about anything 20 years ago, there are moments that I wonder if I can keep up. I have been having some physical stuff going on – but overall we are pretty healthy and putting one foot in front of the other! We see our goals in plain sight. But sometimes LMLF gets the shuffle.

Finally, I want to address the “why” of LoveMoreLessFear.com – again.

There are so many of our friends, families, and others who are searching for hope in the midst of so much struggle. We will not tell peoples’ stories for them, but what we will say is this: there are many young people, young adults and beyond who wonder if God loves them and who live in fear of being forgotten, targeted, or detained. Fear has been running rampant as we listen/read or discuss legitimate news sources and friends’ actual experiences as gay, lesbian, transgender, intersex, non-binary, people of color, documented and undocumented human beings.

The fact that we, as Love More Less Fear creators would be the target of hate, judgment from the religious, disclaimers of the reality of the situations in our country and more, pales in comparison to what these people and more are literally experiencing every single day. The fact that ICE is wearing masks, are in unmarked cars, and are engaging in unprecedented attacks on black and brown people at the bidding of leadership, while we watch the unfolding insanity of “The Epstein Files” saga, and so much more have lit a fire in my heart!  But these things also have made me feel as if I have been sedated with overwhelm and allostatic load.

At out core Love More Less Fear exists to be a buffer to fear, an informer of LOVE over fear, and a platform that speaks truth to power, but most importantly speaks LOVE TO ALL! We want to blanket the despairing with hope and help carry the load for those who feel paralyzed with uncertainty, sadness and lack of peace.

We want to promote love in families when someone is sharing their need for understanding and acceptance. We want to help inform those who have been raised in fear of hell, fear of satan, fear of EVERYTHING, that there is another way – the way of LOVE. This is the way of Jesus. To do this, we try to provide materials, our own personal stories as well as the stories and resources of others that help us unlearn, learn, and grow together in solidarity. This can be so difficult in a society that is literally cut in half, yelling at each other, and trying to convince one another that they are right and the other is wrong. And this includes Christians yelling at Christians, judging others in unconscionable ways.

We believe that to support the people we began this website for we must advocate, speak up, and work for yes DIVERSITY, EQUITY and INCLUSIVITY! (YEP! I HAVE BEEN AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORK FOR THIS!) We will lead with compassion and empathy. For, it is PRIVILEGE that can remain silent in the midst of another’s incredible pain just because of their existence.

In this post, I am hoping that you will take a look at some of the resources that are helpful to Ken and me. I will include them at the bottom of the post. I just want you to be exposed to the “whys,”  the “hows,” the “Scripturally informed,” the “committed civil and human rights activists” that continue to challenge us and invite us into freedom, hope, love and activisim for freedom for all! For if the GOOD NEWS is not GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE – it isn’t good news! If FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL is not FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL it isn’t FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!!!

PLEASE HEAR OUR HEARTS! PLEASE HEAR OUR INTENTION!

We desire to bring LOVE to the forefront, and sometimes it takes extreme courage and sheer grit to just sit down at a computer and write! We do not tolerate hate or anger as this is RE-TRAUMATIZING to those for which we are trying to provide safe spaces. So please know that your comments will be removed if we detect anything other than an honest attempt at understanding or are bereft of kindness and human decency.

We are here. And we have been contacted by many of you who desire to follow Jesus and those of you who do not trust God in the least or those who are in between these two points.

Thanks so much for welcoming us.

Thanks so much for your prayers, love, good vibes and your FRIENDSHIP!

God be with us!

And, as always, LOVE MORE LESS FEAR!!!

Resources, Podcasts, Books, Email Newsletters, etc...

*Sunday Morning Emails:

Maria Shriver's SUNDAY PAPER,Benjamin R. Cremer ben@benjaminrcremer.com

Into the Gray podcasts/blogs/books; Diana Butler Bass: The Cottage; Center for Action and Contemplation Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations, Book: A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations; Thomas J. Oord books: God Can't, Pluriform Love, Open and Relational Theology; John Hawthorne-Excerpts from The Fearless Christian University-Sociologist/Researcher; Church Anew (the late Walter Brueggemann) - so good.

There are many more. But that is it for now.

This next book is one that was suggested by one of my friends. I just got it, and I have not read it yet. "The Children Are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-Sex Relationships" by Rev. Jeff Miner and Rev. John Tyler Connoley.

Movie: we ask each of you to consider watching.

1946: the mistranslation that shifted a culture