INTERVIEW WITH DR. MONICA LARSON (Part 1)
Updated: Dec 19, 2022
Dr. Monica Larson: I just wanted to ask you a few questions about your upbringing. Did you attend church or was church later on in your life?
Warrior Richardson: Church was 24/7 all my life as a child. My father was a pastor. My grandpa was a pastor. My uncle was a pastor and my brother became a pastor. We were in church almost seven days a week.
Dr. Monica Larson: Wow. So you came from a family of pastors and with you being in the church 24/7 did you embrace it as a child or did it seem more like a chore? How did it feel when you were a child.
Warrior Richardson: I hated it with a passion. I didn't like it at all.
Dr. Monica Larson: Well, at least you're being honest. I appreciate your honesty. At what point did it change. Did it change in your adult life or did it change as a teen.
Warrior Richardson: It changed when I was 33. I hated it for 33 years.
Dr. Monica Larson: And what part of it did you hate? What was it about church life that just was really egregious to you?
Warrior Richardson: Well, it was pretty anti-intellectual. You weren't supposed to ask questions. You were just supposed to say, "Yes, I agree, and I believe;" and I was always asking questions. And the older I got the more I studied it; but I studied it for the purpose of disproving it because I was angry and they still wouldn't answer my questions. You were just supposed to believe. It was pretty anti-intellectual. I wouldn't say these were bad people. It's just that they were simple people and they didn't ask questions; they just said they accept it. I believe they were genuinely born again. Some weren't; but I think there's a good number who were; but I had questions and got no answer and I was a kid and so it angered me as a kid and even as an adult. As an adult I simply rejected it and walked away from it until I was 33.
Dr. Monica Larson: So you were met with resistance or just this is the way it is and accept it.
Warrior Richardson: Well, because I was told not to do this, but I must do this but never told why; so I was like "OK you need to explain why" and then I actually studied the Bible better than most of them did; so I would deliberately trip them up in the scriptures. So, yeah, I was pretty angry about the whole thing. I resented it a great deal.
Dr. Monica Larson: So, during that time period, prior to age 33 did you move, relocate, were
you working? What type of work were you doing before the age of 33?--and we'll get to that? So what happened during that transition period?
Warrior Richardson: I graduated from high school in 1976 and went to college. I graduated in Omaha, Nebraska and got accepted in the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York; and when I got accepted I noticed that the majority of the students were atheists and I said, "Wow! My kind of place;" so I got excited about going there. So, I met plenty of atheistic people. I got lots of atheist friends and I terrorized the Christians and tripped them up in the scriptures and, you know, it's pretty sadistic and everything; then I transferred from there, went to Howard University and graduated from there and became an economist, then came back home to Omaha NE; and that's when I was born again in 1991.
To be continued...
Dr. Monica Larson Purpose Statement:
To serve, love and touch the hurting through performing and writing to restore items lost through low self-worth, validation insecurity,
mistreatment by others and self-deprecation.
To build up through performing, writing and speaking to beauty. Teaching that although marred, they are masterpieces.
To be a witness for Christ through the entertainment industry.
To teach despite life's challenges, obstacles and setbacks, we can and we will finish the good race.
We are a work of art
We are all masterpieces from the painter's palette.
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In this blog I take a close look at a wide variety of topics using the Bible as my lens. When we look at the world through the lens of scripture we discover life-changing truth that transforms us. We discover our
identity, purpose and worth. We find answers to life's most pressing questions. “If you don't know where you're going any road will take you there.” But when we look at the world through the lens of scripture we find the "way, the truth and the life;" then we live life to the fullest.
The Scarlet Thread LLC is a Christian media production company that produces e-books, audio books, podcasts, explainer videos, animations and comic books in an effort to help skeptics overcome intellectual and emotional barriers to faith.
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