It’s hard to imagine a short newspaper feature containing more pain than The Washington Post story that ran the other day with this headline: “How a D.C. sex worker became the face of a city report on drug treatment failures.”
The lede could not have been more blunt: “Alice Carter worked D.C.’s streets — and got worked over by them.”
So why discuss this tragedy at GetReligion? Read the following summary material carefully and you will see a brief reference to the religion-angle in this story:
She was a poet, addict, sex worker, parent, friend, assailant, schemer and source of inspiration to her faith community and those who loved her — when she wasn’t frustrating their exhaustive, exhausting efforts to make sure she was safe.
Those efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. On Dec. 17, Carter died of alcohol intoxication at Howard University Hospital after being found unresponsive at a Dupont Circle McDonald’s. Last month, the well-known fixture on D.C. streets became the face of a city auditor’s report that warned the District is doing too little to help those struggling with chronic addiction.
Note that nod to Carter’s “faith community.”
That’s a very vague reference to the fact that this trans female street walker was active in one of the most famous liberal Christian congregations in Washington, D.C. Theoretically, on any given Sunday morning during the past decade or more, Alice Carter could have shared a pew with Hillary Clinton, among other United Methodist Beltway politicos and insiders.
Would the story have been stronger if, right up top, the Post team had mentioned that she “attended services” at the Foundry United Methodist Church? Was she a member? Had she made a profession of Christian faith there?
It would also have been crucial to have known more about the ways that Christians — liberal or otherwise — played a major role in Carter’s attempts to escape addiction and poverty. Click here for what the Post called the “excruciating” details of this case study in addiction, crime and various forms of mental distress.
The second hint that there is a religion angle to this drama appears in this biographical material:
She was born in Maryland before her family moved to Ohio. Her parents divorced when her father was convicted of rape; they remarried after his release, then divorced again.
Carter, bullied because she was transgender, began using drugs as a teenager. She had a child with a girlfriend and survived a suicide attempt at 19 before joining a religious group that led her to Detroit and, eventually, to the D.C. area.
Was that any particular kind of “religious group”?
If this faith group “led her” to Detroit and then to D.C., the implication is that she was a member and perhaps even a staff member of some kind. Then again, it’s also possible that this generic “religious group” was providing some kind of treatment or support to Carter and those ties were linked to these moves.
In the city’s case study, Carter simply says: “The Church didn’t agree with my ways.”
Why not ask a few questions about that missing detail?
Anyway, Carter ends up identifying with a form of Christianity that tried to help her, attending a congregation that attempted to affirm her, and some of her choices, in every way that it could. The following material at the end of the story raises more questions than it answers, in my opinion.
Foundry United Methodist Church, where Carter attended services, held a memorial for her in February. Speaking to an audience of about 100 people, including Carter’s mother, the Rev. Ben Roberts recalled her as unpredictable. Once, when he wasn’t in the mood to give a sermon, she cheered him up by presenting him with a “Where’s Waldo?” book.
“She gave us a chance to be compassionate,” he said. “We are less than complete without her voice.”
Deborah Smith, Carter’s mother, said her daughter struggled her entire life — with attention-deficit disorder, with substance abuse, with her gender identity. Ultimately, Smith said, “she did what she wanted to do, and you couldn’t do any different.” …
Smith had one request for anyone telling the story of her daughter’s life.
“Just please say she was loved,” she said.
Foundry United Methodist is not just another generic church in any old town. Foundry is a high-profile congregation for liberal Christians in the nation’s capital. Would anyone else like to know more about that chapter in Carter’s life?
Just saying.
FIRST IMAGE: Screenshot from Ravenovah YouTube channel.
ybvdadminuser
