What Does it Mean to Live-Between?

This is a blog about living in the in-between.

Here, we’ve pitched our tents in that messy middle-ground that doesn’t really belong to any camp. It’s not that we dislike the camps, and the tribes that inhabit them— it’s just that we don’t quite fit there. Maybe we agree with ideology from two opposing camps, and so find ourselves caught in the crossfire between the two. Maybe we find ourselves identifying with multiple opposing community narratives, and are struggling to figure out where we belong. Or, maybe we just don’t quite “click” with the cliques. Whatever the case, we’ve come here because we’ve discovered that in a world being pushed to greater and greater polarization, we just don’t quite fit anywhere.

So rather than try to dig a trench with a camp that doesn’t fit well, we’ve decided to set-up shop in no-man’s land. Does this mean we’ll take fire from all sides? Probably. But taking fire on the open field is better than dying the death of a thousand cuts from friends who mean well, but don’t understand our full selves. Here, we are open and vulnerable— and while that does indeed leave us open to fire both friendly and malicious, it also allows us to see, accept, and love each other as the complete human beings we were made to be.

If you feel like you’ve been left out, marginalized, or just don’t fit in anywhere, welcome! Whether you’re here to pitch your own tent or just stopping by on your way from one camp to another, we welcome all kinds here. And we don’t throw stones.

So now that you’re here, you’re probably wondering: who’s blog is this anyway? And why is he so interested in living in-between?

Hi. My name is Drake McDonald, and I’m an in-betweener. Specifically, I find myself caught in the middle ground between Christianity and queerness. I believe the basic tenets of christianity: Jesus’ divinity, His death and resurrection, God is triune, etc.; and I’m bisexual. There’s a wide range of christian responses to queerness, from full denial to complete affirmation, and for the majority of my life I’ve lived in a community whose responses run the narrower range from rejection to silent disapproval. On the other hand, there’s a wide range of queer responses to Christianity, from deep hurt and hatred to great joy and love. As for me, I’m somewhere in the middle. And the middle is a tense place to live— but so is a camp you don’t entirely belong to.

So I’ve decided to embrace the tension of living in-between. I might never be queer enough, or christian enough, or straight enough, or gay enough, or [insert attribute here] enough to fit into any of camps our world divides itself into; but the battleground between is well-tilled and fertile. I’ll pitch my tent here, and plant some seeds; and maybe one day this battlefield will be a garden.