pro·fane (adjective) :
1. relating or devoted to that which is “not sacred or biblical”; secular rather than religious.
2. (of a person or their behavior) not respectful of orthodox religious practice; irreverent.

I think profanity is holy. I find divinity in the small moments, the castaways, the ordinary. Queers, people who use drugs, sex workers, working class people, harm reductionists, and organizers, these are the people who taught me about the sacred. Thank God. 

My faith and my queerness are about liberation. Both connect me to a long lineage of people who have fought to honor God’s promise to them and God’s beauty within them. Both teach me that the voice of the empire is not the voice of God. My worth, your worth, our worth, is not up for debate. We are beloved by God and we deserve access to spiritual care that lifts us up, knows us deeply, and affirms our dignity. 

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Folks I Get To Work With

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Bio

Minister Blyth Barnow is a preacher, harm reductionist, writer, and community organizer. She serves as the Director of HEAL Ohio, where she works to bring clergy and people who use drugs together to end the racist war on drugs. For the past decade she has offered spiritual care and ritual support through her ministry, Femminary. She loves putting bowties on her dog Birdy, finding new recipes for cabbage, and creating sacred rituals for others. Her writing appears in Beyond Survival, Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement (Edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha), The Care We Dream Of, Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health (Edited by Zena Sharman), and The Book of Radical Answers: Real Questions from Real Kids Just Like You (by Sonya Renee Taylor). Blyth is a certified Amherst Writers & Artists affiliate and serves on the National Leadership Team for Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), as well as the Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention Ministries of the United Church of Christ. Blyth graduated from Pacific School Of Religion where she received a Master of Divinity and the Paul Wesley Yinger preaching award.