Shannon Dingle

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Shannon Dingle
BornShannon Saunders
(1982-06-10) June 10, 1982 (age 41)
Occupation
  • Writer
  • Speaker
  • Activist
NationalityAmerican
GenreChristian
Website
shannondingle.com

Shannon Dingle (née Shannon Saunders; born June 10, 1982) is an American Christian writer and activist. Her writings on life, race, and disability first garnered widespread attention leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. She is a contributor to USA Today,[1][2] Teen Vogue[3] and the Washington Post.[4]

Life and education[edit]

Dingle grew up in Brandon, Florida. She was sexually abused as a child, becoming pregnant at 12 years old.[5] She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning the Edward Kidder Graham Award in 2003 for her leadership as a senior in Lutheran Campus Ministry and interfaith activities.[6]

Career[edit]

Dingle joined Teach For America after college.[clarification needed] She was profiled in the organisation's book Teaching as Leadership for success in teaching special education writing at Ringgold Middle School in Rio Grande City, Texas and earning the National Education Association's Foundation for the Improvement of Education. After her time at Ringgold, she taught high school in Raleigh, NC and then worked for Teach For America designing professional development training materials for special education corps members for Teach For America.[7]

In June 2016, Christianity Today featured an interview with her, calling her "one of the voices at the forefront of the evangelical adoption movement." The article focused on her work with churches to include children with disabilities and children who are in adoptive or foster placements in the life of the church.[8] At the time, she was working for the Christian non-profit organization Key Ministry as the Director of Education and Training, teaching churches how to welcome people with disabilities in their church and meaningfully include them in faith communities.[9] As an expert in the field of disability ministry, she is profiled in the books Champion by Craig Johnson and Joel Osteen[10] and Real Families, Real Needs by Joni Eareckson Tada[11]

She wrote a viral article on opposing abortion rights and voting for Hillary Clinton in August 2016, which was reported in Slate,[12] Daily Kos,[13] HuffPost,[14] and Sojourners.[15] Her story as a Christian conservative woman rejecting Donald Trump as a candidate prior to the election, primarily due to his remarks on sexual assault, was profiled in The Wall Street Journal.[16] She lost her job at Key Ministry due these events, being forced to resign because of her progressive politics and theology.[17] Her activism lead to harassment from people self-identifying as part of the alt-right movement, which she discussed on the podcast Break It Down with guitarist Matt Carter from the band Emery.[18][better source needed]

As part of her advocacy work, she joined 31 other Christian women writers, speakers, and activists on the Ruby Woo Pilgrimage. These evangelical Christian woman — all wearing Ruby Woo, a shade of bright red lipstick from MAC Cosmetics — took a four-day journey to landmarks in women's and African-American history, culminating in visits with key lawmakers in DC on the final day.[further explanation needed][19][better source needed]

Family[edit]

Dingle has six children, by birth and adoption, with her husband Lee, who died in a freak wave accident in 2019.[20] Their family's perspectives on faith and finances were included in part of a series on NPR's All Things Considered, interviewed by Robert Siegel.[21] Pictures and the story of their first adoption from Taiwan were included in a piece from the Huffington Post, which also mentioned their second adoption of three siblings from Uganda, one of them living with HIV.[22] Their family's experiences with HIV discrimination was central to an article by The Today Show.[23] More recently, Good Morning America featured their family in a back-to-school special featuring products for families.[24]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dingle, Shannon. "Our Friends Supported Our Kids' Adoptions But Not Lives". USA Today. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  2. ^ Dingle, Shannon. "I Was 12 Years Old and Pregnnt". USA Today. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Shannon Dingle". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  4. ^ Dingle, Shannon (28 July 2017). "This is why disabled people were so devastated by the Christian silence on health care". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  5. ^ "At 12 years old, I was raped and pregnant - USA TODAY, 5/17/2019".
  6. ^ McNichol, Beth. "They Have The Tools". Carolina Alumni Review. UNC General Alumni Association. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  7. ^ Farr, Steven (6 January 2010). Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass. pp. 94, 132, 154, 174, 191, 209. ISBN 978-0470432860.
  8. ^ Darling, Dan (10 June 2016). "Being a Pro-Life Church Is Messier Than You Think". Christianity Today. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  9. ^ Green, Emma (11 February 2017). "These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  10. ^ Johnson, Johnson; Osteen, Joel (April 2018). Champion: How One Boy's Miraculous Journey Through Autism Is Changing the World. Thomas Nelson. pp. 25–29, 59–60. ISBN 978-0785218401.
  11. ^ Eareckson Tada, Joni (September 2017). Real Families, Real Needs: A Compassionate Guide for Families Living with Disability. Focus on the Family. pp. Chapter 20. ISBN 978-1589979253.
  12. ^ Strauss, Elissa (2 August 2016). "Here's a Really Good Pro-Life Argument for Hillary Clinton". Slate. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  13. ^ Salzillo, Leslie (5 August 2016). "Christian 'pro-life' speaker pens brave and profound op-ed: I'm voting for Hillary. Here's why". Daily Kos. Kos Media. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  14. ^ Blumberg, Antonia (5 October 2016). "Why Some Christians Say The Clinton-Kaine Ticket Is More 'Pro-Life'". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  15. ^ Wallis, Jim (27 October 2016). "Read This Before You Cast a 'Supreme Court' Vote". Sojourners. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  16. ^ Lovett, Ian (26 October 2016). "Conservative Christian Women Turn Away From Donald Trump". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  17. ^ Green, Emma (11 February 2017). "These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  18. ^ Carter, Matt. "Writer Shannon Dingle, the Alt-Right, and Raising Daughters". Break It Down podcast. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  19. ^ Miller, Emily. "Evangelical Christian women make a #RubyWooPilgrimage". Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  20. ^ @ShannonDingle (July 20, 2019). "My partner, my love, and my home died today after a freak accident" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. ^ Siegel, Robert (30 October 2012). "Paid In America: The Road To The Middle". NPR. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  22. ^ Samakow, Jessica (24 February 2015). "27 Breathtaking Photos Of Adoptive Families Uniting". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  23. ^ Urist, Jacoba (13 May 2014). "HIV discrimination against children feels like a 'punch in the gut' for parents". TODAY. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  24. ^ "'GMA' Deals and Steals on Big Name Brands". Good Morning America. ABC News. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
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