Nina

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Name: Nina

Birthplace: Chicago

What type of work have you done?

I have owned a business for the past 29 years but I have also worked with kids,  given parenting courses,  facilitated restorative justice circles and have worked with several non-profit groups.

How would you identify yourself in terms of religion/spirituality?
Human

What are some of your reasons for joining KASHA?
I had been living in a place which prided itself in being some sort of alternative spiritual belly button. It was hard to attend any sort of function where people weren’t extorting the virtues of being unvaccinated and taking homeopathic sugar pills for cancer. Joining KASHA was a method of creating skeptical and irreverent safe space.

Are there any books or movies that have had a big impact on you?

HOW JESUS BECAME GOD: THE EXALTATION OF A JEWISH PREACHER FROM GALILEE

I found this book particularly fascinating as I had just been to Rome and visited the House of Lies (Vatican)

The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz

There is a myth in our culture that associates things with happiness. This book debunks the abundance myth.

Guns, Germs and Steel – The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

History, evolution and anthropology – how could I not like the book.

What were some of the defining moments that led you to the point where you are now, in a religious/spiritual sense?

My mother forced me and my sisters to pray and go to church. I never could sit still or feel the power of what I was supposed to feel. I think I was seven and in church brainwashing school when the Sunday school teacher cut up some bananas and apples and claimed that the seeds were put in the fruit by god. I just looked at her and knew she was delusional. I planned escape early on.

I broke free from the religious madness when I was in my teens. I remain unscathed from those early church experiences, but continue to have traumatizing nightmares from the alternative anti-science navel gazers.