Not a Fairy Tale
My Deliverance Diaries
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
They (the proverbial authorities on living life well) say that the first step in overcoming a problem is admitting that you have one. Well, I have had many, some admitted and others not so much until they were revealed to me by God or someone else. You know the whole exchange that David had with Nathan in 2 Samuel 12? Such was me on a few occasions. My fairy tale dreams have consistently been demolished by my own erroneous thought processes. Instead of elevating God to the place he deserved, I often elevated other things, and in the process destroyed my life. Idolatry was a frequent sin, and a consistent stronghold that eagerly sought to destroy my relationship with my Lord and Savior. Just as I have learned to see the inner me in the Bible, I have also to identify and recognize the inner me in the fairy tale. Every story has a lesson.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Such was I.
Past tense. The apostle Paul used it on purpose when he told the Corinthians to remember who they used to be. I have built a whole theology on the word were.
The woman who wrote this book in 2015 believed what she was handed. A theology of a god who required a substitute sacrifice. A bride of christ waiting for a groom. A body she had to crucify to be loved. She was not lying. She believed it.
Eleven years later, the body refused to be crucified. The groom did not come. The bride became a queer Black femme hoodoo scholar with a tradition to reckon with.
Eleven fairy tales. Eleven pharisees I used to be. Eleven resurrections. This is what the last decade cost me and what it gave me back.
Such was I. Such am I. Such shall I be.
Selah.
About the Author
Autem Nicole Clay is an educator, scholar, and cultural critic writing at the intersection of Black womanist theology, deconstructed decolonial spirituality, and queer Black femme embodiment. Under the name RICH$AUNTIE, she teaches, preaches, and theologizes in public. You can find her musing and building community at Church Girl Hoodoo: The Sanctuary, an ongoing Patreon practice of reclamation offering monthly liturgies, ancestral prompts, and seasonal deep-dives for Black church folx who are landing, deconstructing, and remembering.
She is an Ed.D. candidate, where her dissertation uses counterstory methodology to examine the discipline gap in K-12 school leadership. Not a Fairy Tale: My Deliverance Diaries is her first book.
She lives in Atlanta. Readers can find her at churchgirlhoodoo.com.