an unconfirmed lutheran

Culturally Lutheran, never confirmed in my church (I have been excommunicated from my place of baptism). I believe that if there is to be a government it should facilitate the helping of people. I try hard to over come the biases inherent in myself though in doing so I must recognize I will fail more than I succeed. I believe in the communion of saints, the resurrection of the dead, life everlasting, and that the word of God was not meant to be read in English. 

[poetrylesbian]

obviously dietary requirements aren't a joke but my grandma sometimes runs errands for her church and i asked her what she's up to today and she said extremely seriously "ive got to track down the body of the gluten free christ, julia"

[odinsblog]

Republican “priorities”

[powerbottombrucespringsteen]

I really cannot stress enough that this lady did NOT design wedding websites, nobody asked her to do so, and furthermore nobody accused her of violating the law in question and the state took no legal action against her. She had had no injury to speak of and had no standing to sue, not that that matters to the supreme court I guess

[demilypyro]

I wonder how rich christians keep themselves convinced that they're not, like, the super villains of real life

[demilypyro]

"it's god's will that I make everything as shitty and lame as possible for everyone everywhere" ???

[demilypyro]

wasn't the whole premise of christianity supposed to be that if you do shitty things that you very much are judged

[because-im-freaking-greed]

So there was a dude named Calvin who decided that whether you go to heaven or not was decided at the start of time, based on your actions in life, and modern Christians in sects that follow that idea (all the major American ones) decided that meant the things Good Christians do are always good and deserving of heaven

[gandalfsbignaturals]

when good people do bad things, its actually good, because theyre good people who are definitely going to heaven, which means they cant do bad things.

when bad people do good things, its actually bad, because theyre bad people who are going to hell, which means they cant do good things.

also, if you werent a good person, you wouldnt be rich, you would be poor. the simple fact that you are rich is proof that god loves you more than all the dirty poors, which means youre a good person and none of the things you do are ever bad.

any attempts to make life better for other people are actually bad because if they were righteous their lives would already be good, and the only reason their lives are bad is because they are bad people. if you do good things for those people, who are bad, then youre actually doing bad things, because youre encouraging them to keep being bad. if they want to be good and have a good life like you, they just need to start being good and get a job and make lots of money, and then theyll be a good person.

american christianity is not built on any actual, reasonable interpretation of their religious text, nor is it founded on any sort of consistent or legible moral code. it is founded on the idea that good people are born good and bad people are born bad and good things only happen to good people and bad things only happen to bad people, and any mental gymnastics necessary to make that philosophy work are justified because the alternative would mean actually doing some introspection and changing ones behavior, which is actually the devil talking to you and telling you to stop being good.

the point of it all is not to encourage evil people to be good. its to convince evil people theyre already good and thus deserve all the nice things they have, and to convince good people theyre already bad and thus deserve all the bad things that happen to them.

[luckyladylily]

This is also why American conservatives apply their morals in a completely detached way to their leadership. It does not matter that trump broke and continues to break every concept of sexual morality that they hold, because he is on the Right Side, and is thus a Good Man, and any appearance of evil is by definition fleeting and unimportant. By definition, nothing Trump can do is evil to them.

On the other hand, no matter how good someone on the left may seem, they are categorically evil so what good they do must be a trick designed to make you trust them, or secretly evil somehow (giving the starving food makes them lazy!! Is that what Jesus would want!?)

Now where you might think this breaks down is when a conservative is poor and thus by just world theory deserves it. But how they actually think is that they are poor because of all the evil leftists doing the will of Satan and ruining everything. Because in their religion god can be overpowered by satanic forces of [insert here things their leaders tell them to hate, like gay people]. Think of how many articles conservatives run about gays people killing god and such. And that is why bad things happen to good people.

It is a world view completely detached from reality and the supposed texts of their religion that runs on hate and resentment of the other as a source of religious fervor. People are racist and homophobic or otherwise hateful so hard they have a religious experience about it, and that is where much of american christianity is at.

[sadiebwrites]

So a lot of this has some truth to it, but it's lumping a few different theologies together. For starters, there are a LOT of conservative, Trump-loving bigoted Christians who absolutely hate the Prosperity Gospel and call people like Joel Osteen "false prophets," so to say that "American Christianity is people thinking they're good because they're rich" is a bit reductionist.

Also, the explanation of Calvinism isn't quite accurate... that theology has nothing to do with a person's actions, but the idea that some people are the "elect" and pre-destined to go to Heaven while others are just born doomed to Hell. From my experience, you mostly find modern Calvinism in (some) Southern Baptist churches, and if you ever talk to a dude that calls himself a "Reformed" Christian, RUN. Also, anyone who is a fan of John Piper is probably a Calvinist. Don't look up John Piper if you value your blood pressure.

[putting a read more tag here because I talk too much, lol]

So, I'm a former Southern Baptist. I'm talking "at church 2-3 times a week for over 30 years and taught Sunday School" kind of Baptist. I had a LOT of arguments with my pastor about Calvinism, and to sum up his sticking points, he believed that nothing but "predestination" could be possible because to doubt that we are predestined is to doubt the all-knowing sovereignty and power of God (If I believed in Free Will, he said, I believed that God was not "All Knowing." Which is stupid, but that's a whole other discussion). In Calvinism nothing we do actually matters--all things good and bad are fated to happen no matter what we do.

Prosperity gospel, on the other hand, treats riches, good health, blessings etc., as promised to Believers. So therefore, if you are ill, poor, etc., you're cursed because you did something bad or haven't had enough faith (usually it's all about how much "Faith" you have). Also, Calvinism is pretty much "everyone is horrible" (Doctrine of Total Depravity) some are saved and others are just shit out of luck, while Prosperity Gospel says "if you have enough faith you have access to God's power to make good things happen." Faith healers are a part of this too. "Name it and claim it," the Word of Faith movement, etc.

I just think it's important to understand these two distinctions because it sort of shows the two different sides to how conservative Christians (rich and otherwise) can skew their thinking into going against the actual teachings of Jesus. I mean, it's not likely that you'll be able to reason with these people, but hey, the more you know, right?

So on the one hand, you have Prosperity Gospel which, like the posts above say, think that riches/good health are the result of moral goodness, which is just fucked up.

On the other, you have Calvinists/Reformed/SBC who honestly are a lot more complicated because the whole predestination vs free will theological debate has been going on for hundreds of years and honestly still hurts my brain. But basically, if you look at someone like my former pastor, he would say that Trump (or other people with wealth and power) and say "yes they're horrible, but God chose them to be in leadership" or "we're supposed to forgive because we're all terrible, and look Trump says he's a believer so he's One of Us." I heard all of this in 2016 shortly before I left my church.

Also, yeah, they do a lot of mental gymnastics to justify all of this, but you also have to consider the absolute clusterfuck combination of misinformation, anti-intellectualism, and lack of information literacy skills. Being taught that doubting or questioning is a sign of a lack of faith or a sin. The fear of something you don't understand. The influence of white supremacy.

And one other thing that I honestly thinks makes up the biggest reason conservative Christians can be so fucking selfish/bigoted/etc., and that's Individualism. It's why they balk at the idea of systemic racism, or "government handouts," or affirmative action. They as an individual are responsible for being not-racist, being charitable, for their own achievements. The whole American Dream, meritocracy, "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality that sees a lack of wealth as a lack of initiative or ambition. There's no such thing as a broken system because it's all about the individual. And American Individualism is the fault of more than one philosophy... Puritanism and Social Darwinism, to name a couple.

...okay, I didn't mean to type all that much lol. But this is something I've been thinking a lot about, and boy howdy, can I tell y'all stories from my experiences as an "Ex-vangelical."

[mysharona1987]

[aqueerkettleofish]

This is a very powerful life hack.

[sloth-lady-s]

look, IM TRYING BUT THEN GRANDMA PULLS OUT THE “IM GOING TO DIE SOON” SO WHAT CAN I DO

[aqueerkettleofish]

[ferrousferrule]

@sloth-lady-s you ask grandma why she doesn't tell the others to shut up with the "im going to die soon" and why she raised such terrible children

[slothful-rabbit]

I laughed so fucking hard at this

[paint-lady]

[girlactionfigure]

An American soldier at the first Rosh Hashanah services in Berlin after the war, 1945.

Photo by Robert Capa

History Bites

[driedrosy]

Don't sabotage your identity trying to name it. Let it be undefined, permeable, mixed, peculiar, unapologetically authentic. Be in peace with being unprecedented, with not fitting anywhere, with being adrift. Before flight, there's a free fall.

[lizardsfromspace]

The Supreme Court had a bad opinion on school prayer & people are going "oh, they wouldn't allow it if the school was leading kids in another religion's prayer, would they" and like...yeah, and they wouldn't, and they don't see that as hypocritical

Some conservatives openly believe that "freedom of religion" only means "freedom to choose a Christian denomination", and many more quietly believe it. They also believe that only Christianity really counts. Like, recently Reason argued that Judaism isn't really a religion & thus can't claim ethical stances like defending abortion, since it's not Christian enough in structure. They literally don't see those other religions as religions at all

But also like. They think coerced Christian prayer is good bc they want to force everyone to be Christian. Both bc they're Christofascists & because they see it as part of fulfilling the ancient end times prophecy some guy invented in 1970. And since there are Christian denominations that don't support coerced prayer, or even public prayer as a concept, and most of these people have Christian denominations they believe are heretical & "don't count", they also want to force people to be their form of Christian. That's the only philosophy underlying any of this & people who cheer this decision would support campaigns to ban Muslim or Jewish prayer in schools without batting an eye

[odinsblog]

This is rare 1920s footage of Greenwood, an African-American enclave in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood’s abundance of Black-owned businesses and its prosperity earned it the nickname “Black Wall Street.” But 100 years ago, angry white mobs burned it to the ground.

“...but the racist systems, policies, and practices that have harmed black Tulsans over decades are not unique. In many ways, Tulsa is a microcosm of the US.”

Today, Tulsa, Oklahoma is a case study in abusive, overly aggressive policing in the US.

[didyoumeanxianity]

If you interpret “religion” as meaning “belief” or “faith”…

If you think all religions have a dualistic afterlife, such as the duality of “heaven” and “hell”…

If you believe that someone’s intentions or internal feelings are more important than their actions…

If you think that religious texts are to be taken literally, are unchanging, and are authoritative…

If you believe that you have an obligation to make all others believe like you or think like you, or that you must protect others from believing in the wrong thing…

If you believe culture and religion are severable…

If you believe Christmas or Easter is a secular holiday…

…you might have some internalized Christian hegemony to examine.

[hotvampireadjacent]

https://twitter.com/johnniejae/status/1556401942523351041?s=21&t=L2NSt8zJ8y4ASvYvADMw-Q

If you liked the prey (2022) movie why not consider donating to help support the revival and learning effort of the Comanche language. I donated the price of my movie ticket. The movie released on Hulu if you want to watch first.

Direct link to GFM https://www.gofundme.com/f/CLCPC?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Help us to support our community of learners!, organized by Kathryn Pewenofkit Briner

If you enjoyed watching Prey, then join us in making a differ… Kathryn Pewenofkit Briner needs your support for Help us to support our comm

[odinsblog]

“Oh, Elizabeth Warren is, you know, clearly one of the smartest people in the Senate. She is a true progressive. I’ve known Elizabeth for many, many years. She is doing a great job, and understands fully the issues facing the middle class and working class in this country. She is a very strong proponent in defending the working families in this country.”

—Bernie (I was never close personal friends with Harvey Weinstein or Jeffrey Epstein, unlike some people) Sanders

[afloweroutofstone]

Wait holy shit what

Florida apparently has a law on the books which seems to be aimed at banning Jewish wedding traditions

[odinsblog]

In a similar vein, I worry when I hear people crusading in the name of their kids. The most explosive social issues in recent years, such as abortion, pornography and busing, have been debated according to their impact on kids- or at least what people claim will be their impact on kids. "I can handle pornography myself," you'll hear the parent say, "but I don't want my kid exposed to it." That's the voice of someone who's about to attack somebody else's freedom.

People have persecuted homosexuals for eons in the name of God and kids. Homosexuals, it's claimed, are vampires who replenish their ranks by preying on youth. "We have to protect our children!" is the cry. But homosexuals are our children, and we should treat them so; as adults they deserve the full respect given heterosexuals. I have my own fears and insecurities about sex, but I don't think it's my right to impose them on the world, or to hide things from my children; I have too much respect for them to do so. My duty to them is to love them and to help them interpret the world so that they will be able to make free choices and act on them. I worry a great deal about my children, but the best medicine for those worries is in their strength and independence, not in their ignorance.

—Bill Russell, from his 1979 memoir SECOND WIND.

[sphynxestrel]

So there's a scam/bot spam going around. Almost fooled me, but I got the same exact message on two seperate accounts.

I haven't put in the link into anything just in case. So yeah, be aware lads.

[gameside]

I got the msg and filled out the forum not knowing it was a scam, if anything happens I'll say it here. I've changed all my emails from the one I used in the forum

Edit: Oh god it doesnt matter if you change the email it still attacks- It deleted all the msges you can't msg anyone and they don't appear

Edit 2: OKAY so if you change the email and password right away everything goes back to normal and no damage is done! This is very important!

[dieanywhereelseblog]

got one of these today. reblog to spread awareness.