About Carolyn Carter
“It’s important to give the older generations a voice along side their younger counterparts. We can have a conversation when we all speak the same language. It’s our job to teach them what that language is. It’s their job to be open to learning. Jesus wanted us to live as equals and love as equals. We all have to be equally part of the solution.”
Carolyn was raised in an evangelical family, and was “saved” and baptized in 2018–but not without many challenges and questions. Those challenges led her to deconstruct her faith and move away from the baptist church in 2020 amid growing social justice concerns and the rise of political polarization.
In 2022, Carolyn reclaimed her baptism and her faith, becoming an official member of the United Church of Christ. Her love of God was never something she questioned nor did she question God’s love for her. Because of this, she has dedicated the rest of her spiritual journey to making sure everyone feels welcome in God’s kingdom as well as educating those willing to listen in on important topics regarding our LGBTQIA+ siblings.
Within her role as the chair of the Open Affirming and Reconciling committee of her prior church, Carolyn created programs as a form of fellowship to educate her (primarily senior) congregation on said topics, in order to build bridges of communication within generations.
In March of 2023, Carolyn became ordained through the Universal Life Church. She created Holy Pest Ministries in hopes to educate on worldly issues, open discussion, inspire activism for human rights, celebrate Gods love and create a community for those who were turned away from other houses of God.
The name “Holy Pest” was a title given to Carolyn by a past mentor, who encouraged not only her questions to Faith leaders, but also gave her blessing for Carolyn to “ruffle some feathers”. Believing that a pest, with a holy nature, is one that helps our faith to grow with a healthy amount of being shaken up.
Jesus was usually the odd man out. He was a weirdo in his day. He didn’t fall in line, he was the line. He had one rule–love. When people tried to manipulate that, he got angry. He used his voice. He flipped tables.
At Holy Pest, we’re going to follow Jesus’ example and be the ones who flip the tables.