fbpx

Liss Amyah – The Evolving Creative

Who is Liss?

Liss has a few decades experience in a variety of church traditions, 2/3 of a theology degree and spent a good chunk of that time married to a youth pastor. Liss has six incredible offspring and recently married the absolute love of their life; who also happens to be a Burlesque performer.

A small business owner who began sharing hand lettered bible verses online in 2014 before pivoting to teaching iPad Calligraphy, Liss is a multi-passionate creative who tends to ask lots of questions, dive deep into topics that excite them, and share what they’ve found with anyone who will listen.

My thoughts…

Liss was the first person that I recorded with. I’m so grateful for the warmth and humour they brought to the episode. Their story and their strength is both amazing and admirable. This episode will serve as a reminder of the connection between domestic abuse and high control religion.

Episode Summary

  • Liss shares about the complexities of social media and the difficulty of navigating shifting beliefs with a large following.
  • We explore the world of deconstruction and Liss shares the first experience of leaving a faith community.
  • Liss explains going from a preacher’s wife to packing her children and leaving in full survival mode.
  • We discuss the high control religion that they were a part of, and the tactics of coercive control, isolation, and abuse.
  • I ask Liss about navigating spirituality with 5 children leaving a high control religion and their own shifting beliefs.
  • Liss shares what it is like having Trans and Gender Diverse children with their Transphobic and Christian father.
  • We explore the connection between detangling their own faith and their Queerness.
  • Liss shares their experience of being in a domestic abuse relationship and how the church pushed biblical counselling and how spiritual bypassing in this context is dangerous.
  • We discuss the lack of internal trust and discouragement of questions and the impact that has when you leave the church community.
  • We explore the fear around progressive theology and falling into another fundamental space.
  • Liss shares the different ways they saw the bible and concepts like surrendering weaponised to cause harm.
  • Liss shares what brings them joy and peace.
  • Finally, Liss answers the question “what would you say to someone fresh in their deconstruction?”