Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister
    The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister
    The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister
    Ebook80 pages2 hours

    The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister

    By A. J. Sieling

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In this series of essays, exvangelical A. J. Sieling takes us on a deeply personal journey out of the darkness of a religion that could never see her. Drawing from the Parable of the Prodigal Son, she shares her story—not as the celebrated youngest son, nor as the begrudging elder brother, but as the sister: invisible, overlooked, and ultimately liberated.

     

    Weaving through the pain of being unseen and taken for granted in a community that preached unconditional love, these essays explore resentment, trauma, and the path to healing. With candid reflections, marked by raw honesty and bold choices, Sieling maps out the emotional landscape of leaving behind a world where she was always present but never acknowledged.

     

    This book isn't about proving points or winning arguments. It's about tracing feelings back to their roots and finding freedom in the realization that sometimes, invisibility can be a gift — the very thing that allows you to walk away, to heal, and to find happiness, with or without religion. 

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAriele Sieling
    Release dateMar 31, 2024
    ISBN9798224613151
    The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister

    Read more from A. J. Sieling

    Related to The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister

    Related ebooks

    Religion & Spirituality For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      May 19, 2023

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Love That Forgives

      Jul 25, 2023

      A Love That Forgives
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sally Quinn

      Sep 16, 2017

      The Washington journalist and hostess talks about her new memoir Finding Magic, her late husband Ben Bradlee and locating the spirit world

      2 min read

    • Article

      God & Me magic Mushrooms

      Oct 5, 2023

      God & Me magic Mushrooms
      22 min read

    • Article

      A Marriage Made in Heaven

      May 19, 2020

      A Marriage Made in Heaven
      8 min read

    • Article

      My Life as a ‘None’ and Other Tales from the Ranks of the Unaffiliated and the Agnostic

      Sep 26, 2016

      LIKE A LOT OF WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, I’VE TAKEN UP yoga. And because I don’t go halfway on my clichés, I’ve done immersion yoga weekends, learned the Sanskrit names for various ways of being upside down and at least once referred to “my practice.” S

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sins Of Submission

      Aug 10, 2018

      Sins Of Submission
      7 min read

    • Article

      Extreme Beliefs

      Feb 8, 2024

      Extreme Beliefs
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      May 20, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 19, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      8 min read

    • Article

      Closer to Heaven

      Mar 26, 2022

      Closer to Heaven
      5 min read

    • Article

      The List

      Jul 30, 2021

      The List
      6 min read

    • Article

      Everybody Has A Story

      Feb 2, 2020

      Everybody Has A Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Sep 4, 2020

      In your July issue, JOY asked the question whether readers think that abortion is justifiable after a woman has been raped and has fallen pregnant. My answer is that I do not believe it is justifiable under any circumstances. The child did not commit

      6 min read

    • Article

      Final Determination

      May 10, 2023

      Living people get a lot wrong about the After Life. It isn’t binary Heaven or Hell but a spectrum where most people end up somewhere better than their Earthly life. There’s also a state of Abeyance where you stay if you have unfinished business. For

      12 min read

    • Article

      Longing To Fill The Emptiness Of My Life, I Traded My Body For Money

      Sep 23, 2022

      People ask me why I am so crazy about a God I can’t see. I attended church since young and knew of a God who is holy, but I did not understand how people could serve and obey Him with such fire. I would only find out for myself many years later. Alth

      5 min read

    • Article

      From WITCHCRAFT To Worship

      Jun 24, 2022

      From WITCHCRAFT To Worship
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Grandpa Taught Me

      May 27, 2022

      What Grandpa Taught Me
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Path to Redemption

      Mar 26, 2022

      My Path to Redemption
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Prodigal Son's Less Famous Sister - A. J. Sieling

      Introduction: The Prodigal Sister

      There’s a parable we learned in Sunday school, called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In it, a wealthy father has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance, and upon receiving it, goes out and wastes it all until he is reduced to working for a pig farmer. When he finally eats his pride and comes home, his father welcomes him with open arms and a party.

      The older son, however, becomes jealous of the younger son, who received his inheritance, got to live life wildly, and wasted every cent, but was still welcomed by their father. The older son grows angry, and says, You never gave me shit, despite the fact that I stayed home, did everything you said, and was the child you wanted me to be. The father tells him to be grateful his brother has returned home.

      My Sunday school teachers taught me that this parable was primarily about god’s unconditional love. It was about how anyone who returned to him, despite their sins and misbehavior, would be welcomed with open arms.

      And of course, christians believe that everyone sins, so everyone needs to know about this unconditional love, right?

      But even as a kid, I felt bad for the older son.

      This father, who is representative of god, and who supposedly is showing unconditional love for his wayward son, is certainly not showing unconditional love toward the older son.

      Because here’s the thing: the older son’s complaints are absolutely valid!

      Many retellings of the story I heard, framed the interaction as though the older son was complaining about the party and food. But what he’s really saying is: Dad, it feels like you love him more than me.

      And his feelings are valid. Sure, everything the father has might also belong to the older son, but that’s not the same thing as being shown that you are loved, valued, and cared for.

      In every version of this story I read, I got the same impression: the father took his older son’s love and loyalty for granted, invalidated his feelings, and focused on the younger son.

      That is not unconditional love.

      But this parable still hits home for me, albeit in a different way.

      Because when I was a christian, that was the kind of love I felt from the church. The conditional kind.

      The church cared about everyone else, but not me. They cared about the sinners and the saints; they cared about the sick and the needy; they cared about those who had lots of money and those who didn’t.

      But not me.

      The one who was there every Sunday and multiple days during the week, working my ass off, volunteering, going on missions trips, and playing music in various bands (youth group, worship service, etc.). I set up chairs and took them down, carried equipment, set a good example for my peers, led bible study—hell, I even vacuumed the fricking rugs sometimes!

      But as long as I kept doing what they told me to do, no one seemed to notice me.

      It wasn’t just my church either. As I got older, moved out, and went to college, I went to dozens of churches, a few of which I worked hard to become involved with. But it was always the same story.

      No one cared about me. They wanted a body in the pew, sure. They wanted my tithe. They wanted my free labor.

      But ultimately, that’s all I was. Free labor and a few more dollars in the coffers.

      When I left, no one came after me.

      No one hunted me down.

      No one asked how I was doing.

      No one emailed me to say, Hey, I noticed you haven’t been in church lately.

      I was invisible. And I always had been. So when I disappeared, no one noticed. Not my peers, not my Sunday school teachers, not my friends’ parents or my Sunday school teachers, or my pastors.

      Once invisible, always invisible.

      The main argument I’ve heard in defense of this criticism is, Well, christians are only human. They can’t be perfect. Sometimes people fall through the cracks.

      Which means that out of the 2 billion christians in the world, and out of the thousand of them who went to my high school church, god didn’t call a single one of them to check in on me?

      So who fucked up? christians? Or their god?

      Or perhaps, it’s all just a big story someone made up, and more people added chapters to, and more people adopted as a belief system.

      All I know is that I took my inheritance—primarily trauma and my secret creative self—and walked away. And I haven’t looked back.

      The parable of the prodigal son talks about the older brother and the younger brother. But it never mentions the sister.

      Because she was invisible. To the brothers, to the father, and to god (if such a being exists).

      Being invisible hurt at first, but eventually I realized that perhaps my invisibility was really a gift. Because it made it much easier to turn my back and walk away.

      THE ESSAYS IN THIS book are explorations of feelings. That’s it.

      I’m not trying to prove a point and I’m

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1