#my brother in kentucky fried christ
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gege akutami was like yeah these guys break up in front of a kfc which is what everyone eats on christmas eve in japan and christmas eve in japan can also be a romantic holiday and one of the guys is forced to kill the other guy on christmas eve when they meet again after 10 years and he calls him his one and only and then a year later an evil sorcerer possesses his dead beloved’s body and he arranges a fight with him on christmas eve the romantic holiday and anniversary of having to kill his beloved and then he DIES HIMSELF and the first thing he sees in the afterlife on CHRISTMAS EVE THE ROMANTIC HOLIDAY IN JAPAN is his beloved’s face and tells him he is satisfied with his life except that he would’ve wanted him there and people are like “yeah its just queercoding or theyre just friends” my brother in kentucky fried christ thats not coding thats just gay and you cant READ
#original post#satosugu#jujutsu kaisen spoilers#jjk spoilers#jjk#jujutsu kaisen#satoru gojo#suguru geto#gojo satoru#geto suguru#sugusato#goge#stsg#jjk manga spoilers
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Today in "LP fell into a random research hole" -
Why do we use the possessive "'s"?
Is it a contraction? If so, what of?
Oh neat, the one that puts the apostrophe at the end of an existing S has a name. Sometimes.
"Saxon genitive." Hm. What the fuck is a genitive.
"Grammatical construction used to express a relation between two nouns such as the possession of one by another." Okay so basically what it said on the tin lol.
So this is apparently Old English in origin, but why.
Oh heyyyyyy found it. I think.
An inflectional suffix what in the Kentucky fried fuck is that lmao
Me with my whole ass English degree: I have never seen these words before in my life.
"A suffix that changes the grammatical properties of the root word it's attached to." Excuse me what.
... OH. Plurals, verb tense, and degree. That... makes sense.
[tfw you forget that grammar is a broad term]
Ohhhh interesting it used to be an "es" suffix for... [squint] whatever the fuck a declension noun is.
... This some Latin shit.
Declension = inflection of nouns, so therefore relates to the inflectional suffix mentioned above.
This is a lot, so uh
Makes sense for my purposes.
Used to only use "es" for strong declension nouns (idk why they were strong but w/e not today satan.)
Was eventually used for all nouns, but in many cases the E fell silent.
French printers apparently used an apostrophe in place of the letter E? And the English just. Adopted this practice? And used it for not only possessive but plural forms
Because the plurals used the "as" suffix
My brother in christ are you trying to tell me that the sentence "I visited several church's" was actually canon for a brief period in time
That hurt to write.
Okay so apparently Middle English kind of got its shit together and changed the "as" words to "es" in the world's weirdest twist, and extended it to all plural and not just the super cool strong declensions.
There was a 40 year period in which English speakers were collectively smoking crack and spelled the possessive as "his." As in "James his cloak." Which like FAIR but also I hate it.
-- looping back around to this I don't know how many weeks later, and I've completely forgotten why I fell down this hole (random intrusive thought probably) but man this was fun to read back on in my drafts so HERE YOU GO.
#lp talks#more like rambles#lp does Wikipedia#lp let the intrusive thoughts win#language#English what are you doing
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Badger’s Best of 2022 sentence starters
* FEEL FREE TO SHARE AS YOU PLEASE, NO CREDIT NEEDED. CHANGE PRONOUNS OR ANYTHING ELSE AS DESIRED.
* All lines are from this video made by content creator TheRussianBadger.
“I didn’t come here to fuckin’ read!”
“I will carpet bomb your house.”
“No, we’re not going in the direction of ranch.”
“I don’t want to see another video of [name] killing a wasp with ranch dressing.”
“Fuck you, you’re going to the ranch dimension.”
“It’s Ezekiel torn, the Lord is coming back for us. Take me, God!”
“What alcohol do you think [name] would drink? 100% malt liquor.”
“Pass me that travel size Jack Daniels.”
“Yeah, I cleared the house. Off the fucking map.”
“Doctor tried to give me Tylenol instead of percs so I punched him in his fuckin’ face.��
“Your voice is so bassy that my subwoofer keeps shaking my entire fucking wall and I’m scared.”
“You smell like fuckin’ beans, dog.”
“What did I just hear? That doesn’t even sound like an insult.”
“Hey, fall over, break your neck. It’ll be funny.”
“You deserve a bullet.”
“How about you immerse yourself in a shower, bro?”
“I might be 29 years old with dementia, ‘cuz I forgot entirely what the fuck I was gonna say!”
“You did not find your jaw under your bed.”
“The tooth fairy should give you a Dodge Charger if you put your jaw under your bed.”
“Kentucky is literally just farming coal, fried chicken, and horses.”
“Physics wasn’t lying, that particle can exist upon observation.”
“If I hear another ‘swas’, I will fire my Kar 98k into oncoming traffic.”
“I’m showing these mortals what’s good.”
“Even your exhale was autotuned.”
“You sound like a Decepticon charging up.”
“That’s not the pitch moving, that’s just me existing.”
“Yeah, this is going great. Suck my fucking dick.”
“The ocean is a soup. Well, it’s filled with microplastics, so I hope you’re hungry.”
“I hit critical mass, bro. My computer just died.”
“I don’t see how you can hate from outside of the club. You can’t even get in.”
“Michael Jordan’s classic punchline when he sunk it from three: Shabingus.”
“What the dog doing? Literally crushing an entire metropolis.”
“My wife is the greatest, I really love her. First thing I hear? ‘Cringe’.”
“Parry this, you stupid fuckin’ lizard.”
“I land an 86-hit combo, he hits one haymaker and I just fuckin’ DIE?”
“Go left, you fuckin’ rat.”
“Why are you giggling like a goblin?”
“The rule of God is incoming.”
“Now I know what you meant by ‘the blast radius is YES’.”
“I rob literally everyone I know on purpose.”
“You can’t call me mommy either. You guys are fucking weird.”
“I’m not even shooting that guy, that was so impressive.”
“My brother in Christ, you are witnessing our extinction.”
“That’s him, officer, he wasn’t using the Wii wrist strap.”
“That is, like, the ultimate form of spawn camping.”
“Yeah, because we can barely fuckin’ hear you. Shut the fuck up.”
“That shit was actually giving me a headache a little bit.”
“You are blind in your left eye, don’t talk to us about not having RGB.”
“I’m blind in both eyes, don’t feel bad.”
“Your cat stole your radiator? How does a cat steal a radiator?”
“Nah, bro, he do be certified in HVAC.”
“If you don’t like the dollar fifty hot dog at Costco, you belong in a jail cell. I have nothing else to say to you.”
“I pour the milk, I pour the cereal, and then I get out the bowl.”
“It don’t really matter which one’s first. The bowl is last. Everybody knows that.”
“Blunt force trauma to the head is what killed the very hungry caterpillar?”
“You just made me uncontrollably sneeze.”
“I did not stand a chance. The game was rigged from the start.”
“The fucking brain on this kid!”
“When vehicles are the only thing tethering you to the earth.”
“This silence got me fucked up.”
“Damn, that’s sad as hell. You gotta light up your dinner with a BIC?”
“Nah, it’s been going good these last few months, I got a fourth lighter.”
“I take some chicken noodle Campbell’s soup with me, right? I stick it in the fire and I let the ash get in the soup, and you mix it around, and, I swear to God, it makes it taste better.”
“You know what I do? Not fucking that.”
“That just woke me out of my nap, bro. That brought me to reality.”
“Turn that bullshit channel off, bro, I’m trying to go back to bed.”
“I will fucking kill you if you change the hot dog.”
“It’s really funny when you have to explain what Hamburger Helper is to your wife. She does not understand what it is.”
“Y’all be eating? Shit, I’m over here just breathing, that’s all I get. Good old bowl of air soup.”
“I’m pretty sure [name] had to pay his rent with beans this month.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna go drink a gallon of rat poison, I’ll be right back.”
“I’m about to turn you into a fucking Hot Pocket.”
“That lizard took one sip of the McDonald’s Sprite and I was DONE.”
“Why do you laugh like a fucking hyena?”
“Did someone just say unemployment rate falls to zero when you commit genocide on a fucking planet?”
“You can’t glass a fucking planet and say ‘I did it because it solved the unemployment problem’.”
“I now understand why he’s so pissed, bro. That motherfucking bird was outrunning his ass for YEARS.”
“I would be so pissed if all I heard every day: ‘MEEP MEEP’.”
“Make it make sense, dude.”
“Y’all gonna kill me the way y’all talking, bruh.”
“What about that... Mother-motherfucker 43?”
“Ah yes, the ultimate trait in a sniper rifle: A glaring lack of accuracy.”
“You zigged when you should have zagged, my boy.”
“Head empty, only bullet.”
“Give me all the flash grenades you have.”
“Bitch, I’m back out my coma.”
“I am not accepting that reality.”
“Google’s gonna call you an idiot like the fucking computer from Courage.”
“Why am I getting in trouble for speaking the truth?”
“He’s already in jail for second rate shaboingery.”
“Are you talking about the kid that actually went to jail for shaboingery?”
“Imagine being brought in on felony tomfoolery charges.”
“I will admit I was fully aware and cognizant of what I was doing. This was not an accident.”
“You know [name]? He’s allergic to water, dumbass was a fisher for eight years.”
“He’s allergic to water? How? He IS water!”
“Damn, that’s pretty hydrophobic of you. Why would you say that?”
“I need you to put ONE BALL in the hole and you couldn’t land shit!”
“Y’all the type to put fifty dollars down for that stuffed animal, huh?”
“For a second there, I became that meme of that dude sitting in a fast food restaurant just glowing orange.”
“You can’t say the word ‘hamster’ without laughing. ‘Hamster’ is a real word.”
“You’re going to heaven, big boy.”
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I posted 5,075 times in 2022
That's 5,075 more posts than 2021!
1,056 posts created (21%)
4,019 posts reblogged (79%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@curious-georg
@kentucky-fried-thea
@dear-mimi-marquez
@mattwife-mattnipulate-mattsplain
@himbos-hotline
I tagged 1,883 of my posts in 2022
#moth gets off topic - 417 posts
#moth's friembs - 187 posts
#tonys with moth - 83 posts
#shut the fuck up moth - 71 posts
#a frog a day until i forget - 65 posts
#moth loves curious georg - 63 posts
#moth's camp thoughts - 52 posts
#secret spirit - 31 posts
#moth loves mattwife mattnipulate mattsplain - 30 posts
#newsies - 29 posts
Longest Tag: 139 characters
#rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat rat
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
trans people I am folding you an origami frog
143 notes - Posted September 19, 2022
#4
it is ridiculous how expensive shoelaces are in the tumblr store looks like I'm gonna have to steal them. who should i steal them from
214 notes - Posted August 31, 2022
#3
I used to think that life was just a jawbreaker, yeah you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you suck and you-
221 notes - Posted September 29, 2022
#2
"just got word that our buddies is hurtin-" My brother in christ you've known for a while now
356 notes - Posted March 9, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
hey haiku bot, will this increase my chances of you reblogging me?
384 notes - Posted April 26, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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The Old Salem Post
Our Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays Contact: [email protected] Distributed to local businesses, town hall and library. Volume 6 Issue 36 Week of September 12, 2022 https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog Lynne Martin Publishing
EDITOR: I enjoyed a week off from The Old Salem Post, although I did miss it and had several of my readers tell me they missed it as well. I am honored to help share happenings in our beautiful northern Tamassee-Salem areas of Oconee. We are a community of good folks, doing good works. Thurman Coward is taking another load of goods to the Kentucky flood victims this week on the 15th. You may donate warm clothes, coats and more. There is a benefit concert at the Eagles Nest Art Center on Saturday with silent auction items. Our community comes together to help each other, as well others we do not even know. 1 John 3:17 speaks that when we see our brothers and sisters in need, we can show the love of Christ by sharing. Love grows here! LRM
TOWN OF SALEM: Downtown Market every Sat. 8am-12pm. Cars, Jeeps, Motorcycles Show this Saturday the 17th, at 5pm due to the rain out last week. It will be our Toys for Tots collections day as well. Please bring toys so we can start early to meet our goal to help our children have a wonderful Christmas. SALEM LIBRARY open: 10am-6pm, Tues-Friday: 9am -5pm. Closed 12-1. 864-944-0912
Jocassee Valley Brewing Company (JVBC), 13412 N Hwy 11 Open Wed-Sat, 8am-9pm Events: Fri: Food: BARRIOS Music: DOG DAY BLUE JAY Sat: Food: LOBSTER DOGS Music: CANNON and COHEN Sunday 2pm-7pm Food: WORLEYs CAROLINA BBQ Music: STRINGS ATTACHED
COFFEE SHOP Wed-Saturday 8am-9pm. Serving Martha’s Marvelous Munchies! Coffee Club will meet to discuss Educated by Tara Westover. Sept 22, 10am + ASHTON RECALLS+ By Ashton Hester . .
Here are two brief "feel good" stories I came across involving Salem residents.
CLASSIFIED AD LED TO RETURN OF LOST WATCH IN 1962 - (The following story was in the August 22, 1962 issue of the Keowee Courier). . .A classified ad in The Courier last week brought happy results for Miss Ruth King of Walhalla, and she once again has her watch to prove it!. . .Miss King, along with some relatives and friends, drove up to view Whitewater Falls the preceding Sunday, and upon returning home she discovered she had lost her watch. . .When The Courier went out last Wednesday it carried her "lost" ad in the classified section. Mrs. Oscar Wigington read it when her paper arrived in Salem Thursday morning, and she recalled she had heard a neighbor, Mrs. J.C. Nicholson, speak of finding a watch at the falls. . .She contacted Mrs. Nicholson, who phoned Miss King with the good news, and the lost watch found its way back home again. SALEM WOMAN IS OCONEE'S OLDEST PLANT WORKER - (This story was in the August 22, 1984 Keowee Courier). . .Seventy-five-year-old Beulah Littleton, an employee of Grow Industries, Inc., of Salem, has been determined to be Oconee County's oldest industrial plant worker. . .As such, her name has been forwarded to the South Carolina Department of Labor for inclusion in its search for the state's oldest industrial plant worker
Homecoming at Calvary Baptist Church on Sun., Oct. 9th You are invited to come join Calvary Baptist Church in downtown Salem on Sunday, October 9th for our Homecoming Service. Our Southern Gospel Singing will begin at 10 am featuring Chris Perdue from Nashville, Tennessee. Our Worship Service will begin at 11 am with Pastor O.K. Jones. Everyone who attends will be blessed when praising and worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quote of the Day: "It is better to have one person working with you than three people working for you." — Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lessons Learned from the Queen: Queen Elizabeth II- (1926 - 2022) 1) She maintained calmness of spirit while problems within her family and government would have unraveled a lesser woman. 2) She counted on advice from wise experts. 3) At age 23, she made a promise to cherish and guide the Commonwealth, no matter what the future held. She kept her promise. 4) She upheld traditions and good manners-- lessons that all women need to review and apply. 5) Frequently when she spoke to her subjects, she repeated this theme: We Are Only Here on Planet Earth for a Brief Moment in Time. Now she belongs to the ages... An inquiring reader asked, "What is Lutefisk, and why would my husband invite me out to dinner when I defrost it?" Dear Reader: LUTEFISK: My Norwegian granny soaked dried cod in LYE to tenderize it. Then she boiled it to remove skin and bones. She mixed the gelatinous goo with a box of Kraft mac & cheese. Then she froze it until ice crystals appeared. Granny Nora never ruled a commonwealth, but she knew how to rule Grampa Olaf!
Eagles Nest Art Center a 501c Nonprofit Located 4 Eagle Lane, Salem
ENAC UPCOMING EVENTS: Sept 17, 2022 Fundraising Benefit for Scott Martin, who has been battling major medical problems, by the Whitewater Heathens, made up of duo Randall Martin and Austin Grant. Tickets are $20 presale, contact Tina Martin 864- 973-1039 or $25 day of the show. Oct 15, 2022 RalphII and The Clinch Mountain Boys. Tickets $25 presale, $30 at the door on the day of the show available at the Town of Salem and on Eventbrite. Nov 19, 2022 Malpass Brothers Performance at 7pm are artists who promote true country classic music while creating new music hits. They have performed with legend Merle Haggard, on the Grand Old Opry, and more. Dec 3, 2022 at 7pm a Christmas Performance by Darin and Brooke Aldridge. Call 864-280-1258. Help us make ENAC a success in your community! Sponsor an event, share news of our show listings, sell tickets, or volunteer in many other ways. Volunteer to head up a community play on the 2023 calendar. FUTURE SCHOOL: ENAC hopes to host a charter school, private school, or home school coop. Parents and children need a small school choice. Not everyone can thrive in large public schools, where it seems the goal is to institutionalize and indoctrinate. Mothers are sharing stories with us of how their children are not being given the tools nor support they need. We want to help. We need your help too. Please contact Lynne Martin 864-280-1258. ENAC has a new website: Check out Eaglesnestartcenter.org and an email! You may purchase tickets. We are growing slowly a volunteer staff of a few and we need you to help as well. Our next scheduled meeting will be Oct.4 at 5pm at the ENAC.
Another reason for Good Stewards of our Water: Making it Grow with Amanda McNulty of the Clemson Extension shared a firefly adventure, sharing the different firefly twinkles that we see. Fireflies need damp leaves, ponds, and ground water in nature. If you want your grandchildren to see fireflies, we need preservation of our aquifers. Time to plan and prepare the fall garden!
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INSIGHT INTO BIBLE TRUTH #272
WHICH CHURCH?
by David Vaughn Elliott
Suppose I didn't like the name of Walmart. Is it in my power to change the name to Bestmart? What if I bought a McDonald's franchise and called it McHenry's? Would McDonald's say, "That's fine. McDonald's by any other name is just as good"? Absurd! When the owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to KFC, they had the authority to do it.
All this is so simple, so basic that everybody knows it without even thinking about it. No argument. No discussion – until it comes to religion. Somehow in religion we can disregard the obvious.
Whose Church Is It?
Who does the church belong to? Who is the Head? Who bought the church with His own blood? Jesus said, "On this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). Paul added, "which he purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). The Holy Spirit said that God "put all things in subjection under his [Jesus'] feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the church" (Eph. 1:22).
What business is it of mine to put whatever name I want on Jesus' church? Who gave me the right to say, "I don't like 'church of God' (1 Cor. 1:2). I don't like 'body of Christ' (1 Cor. 12:27). I don't like 'churches of Christ' (Rom. 16:16). I don't like 'house of God' (1 Tim. 3:15). I'm going to invent my own name: Community Church, Evangelical Church, New Light Church, Graham's Church, Spirit-Filled Church, New Testament Church, Peter & Paul's Church.
Most of the time, Scripture just says "church" with no further identification, unless it be location. Some brothers make the point that the church does not even have a name; rather, it has an owner. That's a thought worthy of consideration. In any case, be it "name" or "owner," it should be all about Jesus. The church is His, not mine.
Divisiveness in Corinth
Many things were out of order in the church at Corinth. Not least among their childish, unspiritual ways was their divisiveness: "Every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?... I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ... while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (1 Cor. 1:12-13; 3:1,4).
Brethren in Corinth were grouping along party lines. The names of many churches today are following the bad example of the carnal babes in Corinth. They declare "I am of..." a particular person, a leading doctrine, an organizational type, a chosen headquarters, or whatever. As important as any of these issues might be, they pale in comparison to the importance of Jesus. There is no doctrine or practice in Christianity that is more important than Christ Himself. Jesus' church may and should teach holiness but that doesn't make it a Holiness Church. God's church may and should teach the Second Coming, but it is not the Second Coming Church. The church is Jesus' church. As Paul asked, "Is Christ divided?" Does He have a Holiness Church and a Second Coming Church? Or does He just have His Church?
In the list of divisive factions in Corinth, we find those who were "of Christ." Were they in the wrong? That depends. Of the other three persons mentioned, two were apostles and one was a preacher: all good men. What if those "of Christ" were rejecting these good men? What if they were like some today who say they accept whatever Jesus says, but not what Paul says? If that was the attitude of those who were "of Christ," then they were just as much in the wrong as the others.
On the other hand, what if those "of Christ" respected the other three as good men of God but wanted to make it clear that they were followers of Jesus, not of any man? Indeed, when Paul questioned the Corinthians, he brought to their attention who they were baptized into and who was crucified for them: Christ Jesus.
Speaking as the Holy Spirit Speaks
Any church which uses a name other than those given by God in the Bible is acting on its own authority. Just as Burger King is not McDonald's, even though the food is quite similar, even so the MyName Church is saying up front that the Bible is not its only basis for belief and practice.
Of course, just because some church calls itself Church of God or Church of Christ is not proof that that church really is of God and Christ. There is more than just the term. But the term does tell us something about the church.
Two important texts come to my attention: "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches... If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God" (1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Peter 4:11). We need to be filled with God's Word. We need to accept that we are not in charge. We need to understand that the church is a divine, not a human, institution. Christ said, "I will build my church." It's His, not mine.
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READ MORE SAT>>>. steve-finnell.blogspot.com
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On Progress and Allyship
When I started "Everybody's Lovely Muddy Dixie Whistlin' Press," in 2005, it was a school project. I needed to invent a " publishing house" to print my chapbooks of poetry under. Wanting to call back to my roots as a country bastard who has deep ties to the Mississippi River valley, I chose the name as a fun play on the theme. As I have grown, learned, and matured, the term "Dixie" had begun to hold less of an exhalted space in my heart, as its true nature is as a word used to romanticize the chattel slavery of the South, and the white supremacists who kidnapped, raped, and tortured Blacks. I chose, then, to attempt to clean up this mistake by "pulling a Kentucky Fried Chicken" and simply going by the shorthand "ELMDWP." But that "D" still stood for "Dixie," and, given these times especially, I cannot, in good conscience, continue with that word in, or a placeholder for that word, to represent me or my poetry and photography. My art comes from a deep-rooted sense of abolition in the name of Jesus Christ, and of justice and freedom from tyranny for ALL of God's children. With that being the case, today, I am dropping the words "Dixie Whistlin'" from my poetry label, and it shall be known simply as "Everybody's Lovely, Muddy Press" or "ELMP," for short. This, finally, brings the title of my label firmly in-line with my personal beliefs, and my life's mission, which is to upset the systemically racist oligarchy, and stand with, beside, and for, every single one of my Brothers and Sisters, red and yellow, black and white, for truly, we are all BEAUTIFUL children of God, and until there is EQUAL justice under the law for BLACK children of God, then there is no justice at all in this world.
#Excelsior#On Progress and Allyship#Black Lives Matter#All Lives Do Not Matter Until BLACK Lives Matter#Brendan MF James#Faded#ELMP#Everybody's Lovely Muddy Press
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Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the first official observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day as a national holiday in the United States, and on this day I felt it important to tell the stories of “othering” in our own personal family trees.
I was raised in a community where the “others” were often those of different religions. I grew up in Utah as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or “Mormons”). I wasn’t necessarily taught this othering at home, but I saw it and learned it from the discourse around me: at school, in social gatherings, in the workplace, and at church. Many Utah LDS families inherited a deep distrust of outsiders from their ancestors who experienced persecution and intense harassment leading to an official extermination order from the state of Missouri and their eventual exodus from Illinois to what was then Mexican Territory. Terms like prejudice and racism never entered the conversation, and I was well into adulthood before I learned to put a name to the fear that governed that public discourse. The name is xenophobia, an intense and irrational fear of aliens. I’m not talking about little green guys with antennae growing out of their heads coming from distant planets; I am talking about human beings coming into our communities from different places, cultures, and religions. Here in the United States, that can be anyone.
Before I get started, let me make a disclaimer. In no way do I intend to downplay the significance of discrimination experienced by Americans of African descent. There can be no excuse made for the maltreatment of Black Americans today and in the history of the United States. It’s just that today seems like the best time to focus on xenophobia in my own family history. Not that it matters to me, but there is no evidence of African blood in my DNA, and I have simply not found any such stories to tell. Not yet anyway.
Dad’s Story
So I begin with a simple story from my father’s childhood. Dad was born in Olean, New York and lived there until he was thirteen. During the 1940s, attended Olean Public School no. 7 there. As Dad tells it, there were two doors serving students in the school, the main door on the East, and a side door on the South. The side door had been claimed by a large group of Italian students, and when teachers weren’t looking, they patrolled the door for encroachments upon their self-proclaimed territory. The “Italian” door was closer to Dad’s route home, so one day he decided to leave through that door. As he heard the door latch behind him, he knew he was in trouble. There was a group of kids waiting at the bottom of the steps. Dad took off at a run and managed to escape, but looking back at that day, Dad said, “I learned to run real fast.”
Public School no.2 in Olean.
Public School no 10 in Olean. Both photos are as they probably appeared in the years when Dad attended Public School no. 7 in the 1940s
Even though many Italian Americans share similar physical features, their mostly fair skin and European facial features keep them firmly entrenched in white-American society. The only way those schoolchildren truly know whether one came from one European background or another, was to be well aware of families in the neighborhood and the other students attending their school. So when the Hawaiian Kwiatkowskis came to stay with family following their mother’s death in 1952, their unfamiliar faces and tanned complexions immediately identified them as alien.
Tod and Ski’s Story
Being the youngest of the Hawaiian clan, Ski doesn’t remember much about his trip to New York in 1952, and he does acknowledge that there are many reasons why resettling in New York didn’t work for Leo Kwiatkowski and his five children. However, the one obstacle to the widowed father and his family that Ski remembers well is the othering of himself and his siblings by New Yorkers who could not accept mixed marriages. As Ski put it,
It was almost scandalous that a white man from New York was marrying a dark skinned Hawaiian woman. But it was not at all as scandalous as some might have thought as a lot of us newer generation Hawaiians are mostly of mixed blood, so inter racial marriages started way back in Hawaii, where there really is no racial bias or prejudice. The only bias, if one could call it that, was a form of reverse discrimination where the Hawaiians were very wary of any white man and how he would fit into “our” society. Our society is very, very different from that of the mainland U.S. The most glaring difference is the mixture of races and the harmony in which we all live. Japanese, Caucasian, Negro, Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and the list goes on with as many ethnic groupings as the earth holds.
Tod remembers that time as “a tragic and confusing time for five children, ages 14 to 5, and a single Father with no job, and no income.” Although both brothers admit that racism was just a part of the issues facing the young Hawaiians in New York, xenophobia often has the effect of further alienating families from the very places where they go to seek refuge, just as it did for this family.
Mom’s Story
The Jews of Europe know that story well. Those who survived the Holocaust and chose to return to their European homes faced an uphill battle to reclaim their ravaged property and maintain an uneasy peace among many of their neighbors. Their numbers are significantly reduced from pre-Holocaust days. Those who chose to seek asylum in the reformed nation of Israel have yet to find peace. Still others who scattered to the Americas denied their identity as a form of protection to their progeny. Such was my mother’s case, as she was in her early twenties when her mother finally revealed her Jewish identity.
I grew up believing that racism and cultural bias did not exist in my Utah home. It wasn’t until I returned to Utah after living in California for two years that I could truly see the extent of xenophobia in my beloved mountain home. Although that’s another story for another time (and maybe a different blog), the most profound example came when my empty-nester parents moved into a typical Utah suburban home. One neighbor who came to welcome them into the neighborhood, exclaimed to my mother, “Thank goodness you are not blacks or Jews!” I’m sure she explained her reasoning that neither group could be trusted to my mother, but by that time, Mom was no longer listening and had firmly decided to look elsewhere for new friends.
Tony’s story
Our engagement photo taken by Denise de la Foye, 2009.
I have a confession to make. I am in a bi-racial marriage. Mine is not the first. It won’t be the last, but when we find such a thing among our ancestors it is not only a talking point, but often a source of contention. My husband was born in Hong Kong, China and came to the United States when he was just three months old. He grew up in the near suburbs of Chicago, and when people ask him where he comes from, his answer is always the same, “The United States.” He grew up here. He knows nothing else, but unlike European Americans, his skin color and distinct facial features belie the fact that he was not born here. He goes by the distinctly Western name of Anthony, so when I tell people who have never met him that my husband is an immigrant and his name is Anthony (“Tony”), they nearly always say, “Oh, he’s Italian, right?” No.
It seems pretty common for Chinese immigrants to take on an “American” identity when they come here. Most I have met go by names like David, Catherine, Alexander, and Marie. On his birth certificate, his name is Sai Fung, but on his naturalization papers, social security card, and other official documents, he has always been Anthony. We didn’t think anything of it until he brought his Illinois driver’s license into a Utah DMV to exchange for a new one. I was able to exchange mine within a matter of minutes. For Tony, it was a matter of months. Six years and a move to Kentucky later, all of his legal documents identify him by a name no one but his siblings recognize. I blame xenophobia cloaked in our Patriot Act signed into law on my 36th birthday.
As Tony was nearing the end of his legal paperwork nightmare, a casual encounter with a drunk man at a bus station revealed a side to Tony’s life that I had not yet seen or understood. The drunk man approached my husband, and said, “Fried rice on the side?” Giggling to himself, the man staggered off. It was not the first time my husband had encountered such ignorance, but it sure helped me understand Tony’s lament, “Sometimes I wish I was white.”
We can’t deny that xenophobia exists all around us, and it would take willful blindness to claim that there is no racism in the midst of our families and ancestors. But we have to face it as it happens, and learn to acknowledge it. It is so easy to claim superiority based on the color of our skin and country of origin, but we must be wary as it happens to us. To be clear, my surname is Kwiatkowski, an obviously Polish name. As happened with the Italians in my father’s grade school, it would be just as easy to group together and claim racial superiority based on pure Polish blood. That is, until one encounters another who has had different experiences and sees life from a different narrowly appointed point of view.
My dear cousin Bernie illustrated this point in a Facebook Post quoting Thomas E. Watson, an American politician from Georgia. As Bernie points out, Watson is “Talking about [our mutual] ancestors from some hole* in Eastern Europe.
*That would be Poland.”
So here it is, the quote by Thomas E Watson in 1912:
“The scum of creation has been dumped on us. Some of our principal cities are more foreign than American. The most dangerous and corrupting horde of the Old World have invaded us. The vice and crime they planted in our midst are sickening and terrifying.” Thomas E. Watson, 1912
It has not been my intent to preach or to politicize my family history. I simply want to create awareness. After events such as those in Charlottesville, West Virginia, last summer, I have become hyper-aware that xenophobia in the United States seethes barely beneath our surface. We need a new way of looking at things. As my cousin Ski explains, “Hang loose is an expression we use to say “Just chill, take it easy, there’s no need to rush” and it befits the island lifestyle.” We could learn a few things from the Hawaiians.
Family Xenophobia Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the first official observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day as a national holiday in the United States, and on this day I felt it important to tell the stories of "othering" in our own personal family trees.
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INSIGHT INTO BIBLE TRUTH #272
WHICH CHURCH?
by David Vaughn Elliott
Suppose I didn't like the name of Walmart. Is it in my power to change the name to Bestmart? What if I bought a McDonald's franchise and called it McHenry's? Would McDonald's say, "That's fine. McDonald's by any other name is just as good"? Absurd! When the owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to KFC, they had the authority to do it.
All this is so simple, so basic that everybody knows it without even thinking about it. No argument. No discussion – until it comes to religion. Somehow in religion we can disregard the obvious.
Whose Church Is It?
Who does the church belong to? Who is the Head? Who bought the church with His own blood? Jesus said, "On this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). Paul added, "which he purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). The Holy Spirit said that God "put all things in subjection under his [Jesus'] feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the church" (Eph. 1:22).
What business is it of mine to put whatever name I want on Jesus' church? Who gave me the right to say, "I don't like 'church of God' (1 Cor. 1:2). I don't like 'body of Christ' (1 Cor. 12:27). I don't like 'churches of Christ' (Rom. 16:16). I don't like 'house of God' (1 Tim. 3:15). I'm going to invent my own name: Community Church, Evangelical Church, New Light Church, Graham's Church, Spirit-Filled Church, New Testament Church, Peter & Paul's Church.
Most of the time, Scripture just says "church" with no further identification, unless it be location. Some brothers make the point that the church does not even have a name; rather, it has an owner. That's a thought worthy of consideration. In any case, be it "name" or "owner," it should be all about Jesus. The church is His, not mine.
Divisiveness in Corinth
Many things were out of order in the church at Corinth. Not least among their childish, unspiritual ways was their divisiveness: "Every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?... I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ... while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (1 Cor. 1:12-13; 3:1,4).
Brethren in Corinth were grouping along party lines. The names of many churches today are following the bad example of the carnal babes in Corinth. They declare "I am of..." a particular person, a leading doctrine, an organizational type, a chosen headquarters, or whatever. As important as any of these issues might be, they pale in comparison to the importance of Jesus. There is no doctrine or practice in Christianity that is more important than Christ Himself. Jesus' church may and should teach holiness but that doesn't make it a Holiness Church. God's church may and should teach the Second Coming, but it is not the Second Coming Church. The church is Jesus' church. As Paul asked, "Is Christ divided?" Does He have a Holiness Church and a Second Coming Church? Or does He just have His Church?
In the list of divisive factions in Corinth, we find those who were "of Christ." Were they in the wrong? That depends. Of the other three persons mentioned, two were apostles and one was a preacher: all good men. What if those "of Christ" were rejecting these good men? What if they were like some today who say they accept whatever Jesus says, but not what Paul says? If that was the attitude of those who were "of Christ," then they were just as much in the wrong as the others.
On the other hand, what if those "of Christ" respected the other three as good men of God but wanted to make it clear that they were followers of Jesus, not of any man? Indeed, when Paul questioned the Corinthians, he brought to their attention who they were baptized into and who was crucified for them: Christ Jesus.
Speaking as the Holy Spirit Speaks
Any church which uses a name other than those given by God in the Bible is acting on its own authority. Just as Burger King is not McDonald's, even though the food is quite similar, even so the MyName Church is saying up front that the Bible is not its only basis for belief and practice.
Of course, just because some church calls itself Church of God or Church of Christ is not proof that that church really is of God and Christ. There is more than just the term. But the term does tell us something about the church.
Two important texts come to my attention: "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches... If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God" (1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Peter 4:11). We need to be filled with God's Word. We need to accept that we are not in charge. We need to understand that the church is a divine, not a human, institution. Christ said, "I will build my church." It's His, not mine.
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READ MORE AT>>>. steve-finnell.blogspot.com
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