#religious wank

[electric-sympathy]

@deanisdarkness​ I’m not reblogging that post because God damn why are these people inconsiderate enough to use headline font for an entire post, but anyway...

I don’t get it either. People in this fandom are stupid enough to believe Sam’s a good person because they’re told to. It was too much to hope that they would be smart enough to smell blasphemy in its depiction of their own fucking religion.

And of course there is the fact that many Westerners used to seeing Abrahamic religion as “the good guy” despite having no connection with it are literally posting to Supernatural confession blogs saying that they’re using SPN to learn about Christianity. The stupidity is truly overwhelming.

Supernatural’s portrayal of Christianity has been wrong since the first moment it was fully introduced in Season 4. (Even according to fringe Christian mysticism that believes in physical demons it was wrong even before then.) Eric Kripke is not a Christian-- he outright dislikes the religion. He opposed its inclusion in the show for a long time until it became clear to him that he couldn’t bust Dean out of Hell without its help. His big epiphany for how to include it on the show “properly” necessitated it being turned into a weird creepy nega-verison of Christianity, in order to fit into the dystopia he had created. The effects of this are so virulent as to make me even beginning to explain what it gets wrong seem like a Herculean task.

Remember that the show went out of its way to call the Bible bullshit as fast as it could after introducing angels.

Chuck’s portrayal has always been wrong, but his S11+ characterization is as far from Christian as it is possible to be. A deity behaving in such a way as to rape its creations and torment them for no reason besides their own amusement was, aside from heresy, the reason early Christians sought to destroy Pagan religions so utterly. Worshipping such deities that do this like in the Roman pantheon was seen as deeply morally corruptive. The Judeo-Christian God is seen not as simply the Creator but the origin and embodiment of goodness/morality. To conflate Christianity and the Greco-Roman Paganism it is diametrically opposed to like this is beyond words.

There are religions that are influenced by Christianity that believe in a God that is an “absentee Dad”, such as particular strains of Deism, the religion practiced by many of America’s founding fathers, but no attempts have been made by the show to incorporate these so as to make their universe sensical or even inline with itself. The “religious” aspect of Dabbernatural is as incompetent as everything else it does.

95% of Supernatural’s “Christian” material is outright blasphemy. Stanning for Chuck on the basis of being religious isn’t just irrelevant to you-- it’s offensive to any real Christian. It’s the sanctuary of the braindead.

[void-tiger]

Stay woke, continue to awaken, but embrace the absurd. And above all, choose kindness and hope.

[void-tiger]

Living in a conservative-christian subculture is just “santa and the easter bunny and cupid and halloween are EVIL! OF THE DEVIL!!” …and just feeling like… “…not really??” and being A Okay with Santa ‘cause it’s surviving Yuletide traditions/aspects of the Always Duality Always Has holiday that nonChristians can still enjoy…

[void-tiger]

The dysphoria of “it quite literally doesn’t have to be this way and Look, here’s evidence of them using critical thinking about it” and “...but that’s how it Is—at least culturally—and they’ll never change because they don’t Want to change.”

[void-tiger]

Being able to at least finally admit it and name at least some of my inner turmoil as Grief is a bit of a relief, but it’s no less lonely.

[void-tiger]

When your song choice for special music is legit the exact opposite of the predictably “status quo” sermon. Twice in a row. And literally nobody notices. They just hear “pretty singing.”

HA! Musical rebellion using YOUR hymnal.

(...it keeps me somewhat sane, anyway.)

[void-tiger]

how do you go from mangoes to christianity? not hating I'm just baffled

Non-Neurotypical brain wiring, anon. It’s a trip xD

But it also has to do with all the schools I attended were private christian ones, with even hearing about mangos at all being thanks to a filipina classmate constantly talking about foods, and fruits in particular. Mango, lychee, and durian were the usual ones, which got me curious enough to try fresh mango over warm sticky rice when the manager at a local thai restaraunt was eager for my family to try it.

Then in college—still a private christian institution (but with my denomination worshiping on saturdays vs sunday, and more or less keeping Jewish Sabbath Hours, my schooling options were kinda limited with the whole weekend thing)—there were A LOT of international students from all over the globe, and honestly the chillest atmosphere faith-wise I’d ever experienced. (and while the “official policy” for the university had to keep to the GC’s queerphobic stance, many students felt safe enough to be out of the closet and one transman even held the position of Student Chaplain, with his name vs deadname being the subtitle when the university put up slides for assemblies and chapels and vespers and even livestreaming the church service every saturday.)

Unfortunately, the cafeteria was own by Bon Appetit, so the food was often terrible and overpriced as an extra insult (and treated their mostly international students staff like shit.) Sometimes the international students’ foods were served, but it was almost always americanized in some way, which of course further upsetted that portion of the student population (and us States students either being quite frankly clueless or feeling insensed on their behalf. It honestly depended on how Woke we were after having our first tastes of individuality and exposure to other cultures, worldviews, and gender/sexual/romantic identities + finally a general absense of slutshaming regarding female dress and sexuality.)

But one food universally missed and basically NEVER served even as the cubed and frozen stuff: Mangos.

So, that’s the background.

Then for one Friday Night Vespers we had a guest speaker (not sure if he was a seminary student or not, it’s been several years) had the sermon. And he spent his introduction talking about mangos. And I kid you not; the collective Vibe from the audience was Relief and Nostalgia. (And since we had to get so many chapel/vespers credits per semester or wind up in trouble with the university—again, technically a christian institution, with the area’s conference down the road, so even with the atmosphere being Moderate/Liberal, there’s still that line to toe—the international students from several different nations were attending.)

So, after going on about missing mangos for a bit and the audience collectively agreeing with him, he then made the statement that the gospel reminded him of mangos, and proceeded to produce a mango as his prop, then called a student onto stage to help him cut it. The sermon after that was a List Of Five format, but two things stuck out:

-every culture or household has their own way of cutting mangos. None of them are wrong. It’s all still mango. (Then compared to different worships styles all still being Fine vs “unholy”. Something Conservative White churches often forget and spend an entire sermon ranting about, not just congregational grumbling. It’s something I did NOT miss during my 3-year stint in college.)

-sometimes when cutting mangos, people get cut. And sometimes there’s no fault involved. (Compared to differences of opinion then taken too far into what actually DOES actively hurt people, and one case in Acts where a difference of opinions literally resulted in two former associates going their seperate ways, but it turned out to be a good thing for the Early Church’s growth.)

...and it was just a really neat and gentle sermon that celebrates differences vs trying to shove everyone into the same conservative mold for the sake of “unity” that...is an entire rant.

But...I now can’t really think of mangos without remembering the cultures who introduced me to them (and their ongoing struggles, especially outside of a religious setting), or this guy’s simple and brilliant sermon xD

[void-tiger]

You cannot make healthy relationships in a place that forces you to fawn, become small, bite your tongue.

I will not miss this church. I have no illusions the other church will be any better but. I will not miss this one.