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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months

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MLK at 95.

January 15, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born 95 years ago on January 15, 1929. As a Baptist minister, he advocated non-violence while promoting civil rights. He spoke for the poor, the oppressed, and the disenfranchised. While he was imprisoned in a Birmingham jail for protesting segregation, he responded to eight white ministers who had criticized him for participating in protests that they described as “unwise and untimely.”

Dr. King’s famous reply to the white ministers explained why he traveled to Birmingham from Atlanta to protest:

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.

While Dr. King was keenly aware of the racism that served as the understructure of the Christian church in the old South, he would be shocked by the virulent, mean-spirited, anti-Christian message that animates many (not all) evangelical congregations in America today. They form the backbone of Donald Trump's support in Iowa and beyond. They have adopted Trump's message that treats the poor, oppressed, and disenfranchised as “outsiders” and “others” who do not belong in America.

Over the last several days, we have learned that members of the Texas National Guard physically blocked federal Border Patrol agents from responding to reports of immigrants in distress in the Rio Grande. The bodies of a mother and two children were later recovered from the river in the area where immigrants were reported to be in distress.

Texas, of course, denies that its cruel actions caused the drownings—a denial that should be viewed skeptically from a state whose governor—Greg Abbott—recently commented Texas troopers could not shoot immigrants crossing the border because the troopers would be charged with murder by the Biden administration. Texas governor criticized after comment about shooting migrants | The Texas Tribune.

Similar animus underlies the recent comments of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, who withdrew Mississippi from a federal program to provide food to school children during summer breaks. Governor Reeves said Mississippi withdrew from the program to fight “attempts to expand the welfare state.”

Blocking efforts to rescue a drowning mother and her children? Regretting the inability to shoot immigrants because it would be murder? Denying food to poor children out of spite? Who are these people? How do they look at themselves in the mirror?

Ninety-five years after Dr. King’s birth and fifty-five years after his death, it is difficult to believe that people who identify as upstanding members of the Christian church can support such actions.

Another section from Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is relevant to this moment in our nation’s history:

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.

Dr. King’s words were prophetic. See Pew Research (10/17/19) In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.

And, of course, as Dr. King recognized, “there are some notable exceptions” among church leaders who supported his work—just as there are exceptions today. Several readers have recommended Faithful America as an antidote to Christian nationalism. The organization’s helpful FAQ page explains why “Christian nationalism” is not Christian. See Resisting Christian Nationalism: FAQ + Resources | Faithful America.

On this day commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth, we can see how far we have come—and how much further we must go. He didn’t despair. Neither should we.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

#MLK #David Horsey #political cartoons #Martin Luther King Jr #justice #equality #economic equality #Robert B. Hubbell #Robert b. Hubbell newsletter

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 15 days

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you’re thoughts on teaching younger children sex ed are so correct. do you think it has to do with the Christian like “purity culture” that seems so deeply ingrained into our society or some other factors too? I’ve noticed ppl only think teens can be abstinent, so much so that conversations around teen shows always seem to involve how if the characters are having sex, they could have been aged up or not included those types of things, leading to this whole “puriteen” phenomenon. But I’ve always thought it was realistic to show it, cause it happens.

okay lotta ideas here let me chunk these up

do you think it has to do with the Christian like “purity culture” that seems so deeply ingrained into our society or some other factors too?

if by "our society" you mean the United States then yeah absolutely. this country has a deep and pervasive vein conservative Christianity in our culture that's soaked into everything from politics to education to art and entertainment (which are not things that can be meaningfully disentangled from each other anyway). sex education in schools used to be a fairly bipartisan issue in the earlier half of the 20th century, but the modern backlash largely stems from the republican party adopting abortion and sexual conservatism as the party standard in order to align with evangelical Christians (this is, of course, a very streamlined version of events). which is not to say that only republicans have been complicit in defanging sex education; notably it was Bill Clinton who incentivized abstinence only education during his presidency and fired his surgeon general appointee Joycelyn Elders for stating that she believed children should be taught about masturbation in schools. (look up Joycelyne Elders, she's incredible.)

I’ve noticed ppl only think teens can be abstinent, so much so that conversations around teen shows always seem to involve how if the characters are having sex, they could have been aged up or not included those types of things, leading to this whole “puriteen” phenomenon. But I’ve always thought it was realistic to show it, cause it happens.

I don't think it's, like, an inherently sex negative act to be unimpressed with the overabundance of TV shows about teens getting naked and fucking each other senseless. there's a pretty wide gap between wanting real actual teens to have information and opportunity to safely explore their sexuality and the TV and film industry profiting from the fantasy of promiscuous teens played by 20-sometthings. like, I don't think anyone who cranked it to the girls from Riverdale is a child abuser or whatever, because those were in no way real children and anyone with eyes can see that, but given how rife the entertainment industry is with sexual violence and abuse towards real child and teen actors I do think it gets like. extremely skeezy.

like to be clear I DO agree that people who are surprised when teens are anything but 100% abstinent are clowns, especially because this attitude hurts no one so much as teens who are made to feel like there's something wrong with them for being horny during the Being Horn period of their hormonal development. and I do agree that we're seeing ramifications of this backlash against sexuality showing up in young people who are worryingly squeamish about sex and intimacy. but I don't think the expectation that teens are supposed to be abstinent is the sole factor behind people criticizing hypersexual teen shows. most things aren't just one thing.

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fdelopera · 6 months

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A Jewish Analysis of Moon Knight Online as We Approach Hanukkah

So, I am a Jew. I am a Moon Knight fan. And I need to address an elephant in the room.

Over the past month on Tumblr, I have seen people making some of the most blatant antisemitic statements I’ve ever seen in all my life.

And I say this as a Jew who lived through a Nazi mass shooting on my Jewish community back in 2018. I say this as a Jew who used to have Evangelical Christians call me “Christ-killer” when I was younger. I say this as a Jew who grew up in the Midwest near a chapter of the KKK. The KKK would hold regular rallies against Jews, only a few miles from my house.

So when I tell you the antisemitism online has been bad, I’m saying it’s as bad as what the KKK does during their rallies.

Unfortunately, some of the antisemitism I’ve seen online has come from some people who are in the Moon Knight fandom, a community built around celebrating a Jewish system.

And as a Jew, I need to address this directly, especially as we approach Hanukkah.

I am putting this next section under a Read More, with a Trigger Warning for antisemitic language and mentions of SA.

This may be painful to read. But I am asking you to please read it.

Let me preface what I am about to say by reminding you that antisemitism is NEVER okay. Full stop. No matter the situation, no matter the conflict, antisemitism is NEVER justified. Antisemitism solves nothing. All it does is gets Jews harassed, attacked, and killed. If your response to any conflict is to respond with Jew-hatred, all you are doing is exposing yourself as an antisemite and a bigot.

And yet, I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom reblog and say the most horrific, antisemitic things about Jewish people.

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom say that Jewish people deserve to be raped and murdered, specifically because we are Jewish. .

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom say that they think we Jews are like Nazis. This is called Holocaust-inversion. It is an antisemitic canard that started with the KKK (one of the major white supremacist hate groups in the US), and it is a form of Jew-taunting. Antisemites find the thing that is the most hurtful to Jewish people, and then they compare Jews to that. The Holocaust is our greatest tragedy. So by comparing us Jews to Nazis, you are intentionally degrading us. .

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom call Jews slurs that originated with the KKK and Neo-Nazis. Some people in the MK fandom have called Jewish people “Zios,” “Zio scum,” and “Zio rats” (among other slurs). These are antisemitic slurs from white supremacists. .

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom harassing me and other Jews to demand, “Are you a Zionist?” This is the “Good Jew/Bad Jew” antisemitic canard (or more accurately "Useful Jew/Bad Jew"), most notably used by the Nazis. You are sorting Jews into camps of “Good Jews” and “Bad Jews,” which puts ALL Jews in danger of attack. Antisemites use the "Good Jews" to attack other Jews, and then eventually antisemites label ALL Jews "Bad Jews" to justify attacking and even murdering us. This is what happened in my Jewish community in Pittsburgh, where a Nazi murdered eleven of us. He barged into Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire on two different congregations of Jews who were there for Shabbat. .

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom desecrating the Magen David and comparing it to a swastika. Again, this is another form of antisemitic Holocaust-inversion and Jew-taunting. You are comparing one of our most sacred symbols (the Magen David, or Star of David) to the swastika, the symbol of the Nazis. .

I have seen people in the Moon Knight fandom say that they want millions of Jews to die.

Let me put this clearly. If in some hypothetical scenario, you met Steven Grant on the street, would you go up to him and say, “Fucking die, you Zio rat!" or "Hitler should've killed more of you!” or “You’re a fucking Nazi!” Of course you wouldn’t. So don’t say this to REAL LIFE Jewish people, either.

If you are treating a FICTIONAL Jewish character with more respect and care than REAL LIFE Jewish people, you need to do some serious soul searching.

There is a term for the act of obsessing over a fictional Jew while at the same time disrespecting and harassing actual Jewish people: It’s called fetishizing Jewish people.

Here’s the thing that you maybe fail to understand. This is a VITAL lesson we Jews learned from the Holocaust: If you are a Jew, you are a Jew. Our fates are linked. It doesn’t matter what country we were born in. It doesn’t matter if we are Orthodox or non-practicing. It doesn’t matter what our political stance is on anything. Antisemites don’t care. They want us all dead.

There are only 16 million of us in the entire world. We’re 0.2% of the world’s population, and we were nearly all murdered several decades ago by the Nazi Holocaust in Europe and widespread ethnic cleansing by Arabs in the Middle East. Not to mention widespread pogroms in Eastern Europe a generation before (that is when my family came to America). And the 2000 years of antisemitic persecution and mass murder before that.

An attack on one Jew is an attack on all Jews. This is why Jews collectively mourn the eleven Jews who were murdered by a Nazi in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Jews across the US and around the world say Mourner’s Kaddish for them.

And if you say you want Jews thousands of miles away to be mass murdered, you are saying that about me, too. You are telling me that you want me to be killed in the most brutal, vile, degrading way possible.

And now, Hanukkah is coming up. And there is about to be #MKCember (an art challenge like Inktober) within the Moon Knight community. And some of the art prompts relate to Hanukkah and to Shabbat.

And I think I’m one of the only Jews still involved in any capacity within the Moon Knight fandom on Tumblr.

Most of you in the Moon Knight fandom are gentiles (people who are not Jews). And you are about to create art that will relate to a Jewish holiday about Jewish perseverance in the face of annihilation. Hanukkah celebrates Jewish hope when all seems lost.

You are about to create art that relates to the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, after Jews fought a bloody war for Jerusalem against the Seleucid Greek Empire. The Seleucids had defiled the Jewish Temple by slaughtering pigs on the altar, so the Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, had to purify the Temple. That is where the origin of the Hanukkah tradition comes from.

You are about to create art that relates to the Hanukkah Miracle, the Miracle of the Oil, that is recorded in the Talmud, one of our most sacred texts.

Hanukkah is NOT a communal holiday. It is NOT a gentile holiday. Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday. It is for Jewish people. Gentiles can participate, but only if you are respectful. And some people in the Moon Knight fandom have been horribly disrespectful to Jewish people.

And I remember last year, when many gentile artists created weird, culturally insensitive approximations of Hanukkah. Things like the hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah) having the wrong number of branches, and being lit incorrectly. Things like MK System being dressed up in a Christmas sweater. Things like the Magen David (Star of David) having 5 points instead of 6.

Last year, I could laugh it off as people being ignorant.

But this year, after seeing the barrage of antisemitism that has come from some people in the Moon Knight fandom, this kind of poorly researched Hanukkah art will feel like a slap in the face.

So, what are some things that you can do if you are a Moon Knight artist, and you want to draw Hanukkah-related Moon Knight art for this challenge?

Here are 5 very strong recommendations:

NUMBER 1:

FIRST AND FOREMOST. If you are NOT going to be respectful of Jewish holidays, culture, and traditions, DO NOT make ANY art that depicts Hanukkah, or any Jewish holiday.

If you cannot respect Jewish people, you are NOT QUALIFIED to make art that relates to Jewish people.

I do NOT want to see someone posting Moon Knight art they’ve drawn next to a post comparing Jews to Nazis. In the words of Gene Wilder, a Jewish actor, “You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.”

Draw something else.

And if I see any antisemitic art posted online by supposed Moon Knight fans, you best believe I will be calling you out, and so will other Moon Knight fans.

NUMBER 2:

If you are prepared to be respectful of Jewish people and Jewish traditions, DO YOUR RESEARCH. For instance, there are lots of videos on YouTube where Jewish people show you how to light a hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah).

MyJewishLearning.com, for example, has an explanation of Hanukkah candle lighting: click here.

These are two simple tutorials of how to light the hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah): click here, and here.

This is an artistic example from last year of how to draw MK System lighting Hanukkah candles: click here.

Since there are also artistic prompts relating to Shabbat, this is a page that describes the blessings and customs for Shabbat: click here.

NUMBER 3:

Don’t depict Moon Knight using Christian symbology. Don’t depict MK System as a Catholic knight. Don’t depict MK System wearing a Christmas sweater, or opening presents from under a Christmas tree. This is antisemitic. It is Jewish erasure.

If you are going to depict MK System in a holiday-related context, honor their Jewishness.

This is an artistic example from last year of how to depict MK System festively, without erasing their Jewishness: click here.

NUMBER 4:

If you are friends with a Jewish person, you might have the idea to ask them to review your art. BUT. Big caveat here. We Jews have just been through a month of utter HELL. Judging at least from my inbox, each of us has likely received dozens of death threats and hateful messages from antisemites over the past few weeks, just because we are Jewish. We are EXHAUSTED. So if you are friends with a Jewish person, do not be offended if they tell you that no, they don’t have the spoons to help you. And really, it’s best to just do your own research, and not ask Jews to do any more emotional labor than we already are doing.

NUMBER 5:

MOST IMPORTANT. Again, Be respectful. If you are a gentile, Hanukkah is not a holiday that belongs to you. It belongs to Jewish people. It celebrates thousands of years of Jewish perseverance. It celebrates all the times Jewish people were driven to the brink, but managed to hold on by the skin of our teeth. It reminds us that we are still here. It tells us that we will survive.

Respect Jews. Respect our holidays. Respect our culture. Respect our traditions.

Thank you.

#moon knight #marc spector #steven grant #jake lockley #mcu moon knight #moon knight comics #mkcember2023 #antisemitism tw #NOTE: I block and report antisemites. If any antisemites comment on this post you will be reported and blocked. You have been warned.

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socialjusticeinamerica · 5 months

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The old dude with his finger pointing to the air is Rafael Cruz (Sr), wait for it…..Ted’s father.

He’s been a major player in the RepubliKKKlan party since working to get Reagan elected. He’s been a liaison between the Republicans and the evangelical community. He’s highly paid and popular on the right-wing speaking circuit.

Ok atheists, wait for it….he’s one of the leading DOMINIONISTS in the country.

He openly lies to his audiences telling them fantasies about forced transgender conversion surgeries in public schools and other similar anti-LGBT propaganda. Much of his hateful rhetoric on the subject is disseminated through various MAGA Congressmen, most notably Marjorie Trailer Queen.

It’s a brief article and well worth the read. Here’s a snippet;

“Nevertheless, when Rafael Cruz — a pastor and the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas — preached on the subject in April at a church-based rally for conservative school board candidates in McKinney, Texas, he falsely claimed that students were being forced to change genders and being “mutilated” inside public schools. (The elder Cruz did not respond to interview requests.)The moral downturn began six decades ago, Cruz told his followers, when the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory prayer and Bible readings from schools. To do that, Cruz said, “we need to make sure that we have strong, committed Christians in every position in every school board in America.”

👆

#Rafael Cruz Sr #dominionist #republican assholes #Republican lgbt hatred #Republican transphobia #Republican homophobia

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g00ngala · 1 year

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hopefully this is the last long post i will ever have to make about hit disney show the owl house but I am so sick of people posting paragraphs of lukewarm takes on philip's death so. one last rant for the road, i suppose.

belos's death wasn't unsatisfying, nor was it purely physical. first of all, philip is a representation of greater societal problems (which are notably still there, remember, there's people who want to reestablish his order for their own gain). he is a plague and parasite on the world and a demonstration of humanity's worst cruelties, and his pathetic death by boiling rain and stomping as the most true and good character, who does her best to do right by everyone and believes in second chances, in the entire show, looks at him with no emotion in a way that directly parallels the way caleb's ghost looks down upon him, and he claws at her feet in a desperate attempt to use another person's good nature once again to get what he wants, and fails and dies, is INCREDIBLY symbolic.

and TWO. the point ISN'T that philip is an Evil Liar Who Lies and his backstory is being shafted for simple evil, he is an incredibly realistic depiction of how many people are consumed by their fear of what they don't understand and their hatred, let it fester into a desire to harm, and then elaborate lies to not only manipulate others but trick themselves by their own rhetoric so they don't have to feel bad for it

throughout the show philip is paralleled to cult leaders and militaristic dictators, and he is LITERALLY a puritan colonizer. philip is white man ego in its purest form. yes, the awful society is 75% the fault of Just One Guy, but this is a cartoon. he represents every man who has tried to build a world like this, who burns what he doesn't understand and makes up lies to justify it and trick his own guilt into not eating him alive.

people keep bitching that philip didn't truly face his own lies and realize how awful he was before he died, or that he wasn't given any chance to change, but philip has run the fuck out of chances. the point is he will never learn because he chooses not to. philip had to die because he'd rather lie and rot and take everyone down with him than EVER admit he's wrong. he killed his brother because he tricked himself into believing that caleb betrayed him, romanticized the idea of Caleb in his head and delusionally convinced himself that he tried to save him, while his knife hangs over his brother's ghost eternally, symbolizing the shoved down guilt he'll never truly outrun.

he made hunter believe it was his fault that philip repeatedly harmed him, he told the people of the isles after slaughtering them over and over that it's better if he rules them because he is better than them, he eternally victimizes himself over and over because he is an abuser. his lies are not just to others but to himself. he makes himself believe that the ends justify the means, when the ends are nonsensical rhetoric and the means are horrific violence. because philip is a person who may have had the capacity for good, but he chooses to live in his own hatred and rot everything around him, taking advantage of hunger for power and good natured kindness in the same breath, and he chooses to turn away from the mirror every time, to refuse to acknowledge the monster he's become because he's a coward.

the titan said it themself. his motives aren't genuine, not because he's evil for evil's sake but because he'd do anything to continue to live in his own delusion of heroism and perpetual victimhood. philip is someone you can find in the behaviors of dictators and colonists and evangelical christians and run of the mill abusers all throughout history. this doesn't make him a cookie cutter villain, it makes him a REALISTIC villain, or as realistic as you can get in a cartoon on the disney channel. he wants power and he wants admiration and he wants death and suffering to the people he's scared of, and he'd rather kill himself and take everyone down with him than ever face who he is.

not all villains need a redemption arc to be complex. he doesn't love to rub his hands together cartoonishly and watch the world burn, but some people do actually enjoy harming others. but the realism comes from how he lies to himself and others about it.

sometimes someone can be truly evil, not because they were born that way, but because they choose to be, and because they choose to live in denial about it until they're rotting in the ground.

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #philip wittebane #emperor belos #hannah.txt #hopefully the last toh rant ill ever post. goodbye owl house its been fun!

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kemetic-dreams · 5 months

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All Abrahamic religions claim to be monotheistic, worshiping an exclusive God, although one who is known by different names. Each of these religions preaches that God creates, is one, rules, reveals, loves, judges, punishes, and forgives.

However, although Christianity does not profess to believe in three gods—but rather in three persons, or hypostases, united in one essence—the Trinitarian doctrine, a fundamental of faith for the vast majority of Christian denominations, conflicts with Jewish and Muslim concepts of monotheism.

Since the conception of a divine Trinity is not amenable to tawhid, the Islamic doctrine of monotheism, Islam regards Christianity as variously polytheistic.

Judaism and Islam have strict dietary laws, with permitted food known as kosher in Judaism, and halal in Islam. These two religions prohibit the consumption of pork; Islam prohibits the consumption of alcoholic beverages of any kind. Halal restrictions can be seen as a modification of the kashrut dietary laws, so many kosher foods are considered halal; especially in the case of meat, which Islam prescribes must be slaughtered in the name of God. Hence, in many places, Muslims used to consume kosher food. However, some foods not considered kosher are considered halal in Islam.

With rare exceptions, Christians do not consider the Old Testament's strict food laws as relevant for today's church; see also Biblical law in Christianity. Most Protestants have no set food laws, but there are minority exceptions

The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) embraces numerous Old Testament rules and regulations such as tithing, Sabbath observance, and Jewish food laws. Therefore, they do not eat pork, shellfish, or other foods considered unclean under the Old Covenant. The "Fundamental Beliefs" of the SDA state that their members "are to adopt the most healthful diet possible and abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures".

Proselytism

Judaism accepts converts, but has had no explicit missionaries since the end of the Second Temple era.

Judaism states that non-Jews can achieve righteousness by following Noahide Laws, a set of moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God[k] as a binding set of laws for the "children of Noah"—that is, all of humanity. It is believed that as much as ten percent of the Roman Empire followed Judaism either as fully ritually obligated Jews or the simpler rituals required of non-Jewish members of that faith.

Christianity encourages evangelism. Many Christian organizations, especially Protestant churches, send missionaries to non-Christian communities throughout the world. See also Great Commission. Forced conversions to Catholicism have been alleged at various points throughout history. The most prominently cited allegations are the conversions of the pagans after Constantine; of Muslims, Jews and Eastern Orthodox during the Crusades; of Jews and Muslims during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, where they were offered the choice of exile, conversion or death; and of the Aztecs by Hernán Cortés. Forced conversions to Protestantism may have occurred as well, notably during the Reformation, especially in England and Ireland

#kemetic dreams #islam #jews #judaism #talmud #christians #christmas #christianity #jesus christ #christian broadcasting network

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mariacallous · 8 days

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Editor's note: This is an adapted excerpt from “The Contemporary Black Church: The New Dynamics of African American Religion,” which will be published by New York University Press in August 2024. Data cited in this article is from the cumulative file of the 1972-2022 General Social Survey.

In recent decades, we have witnessed major structural transformations and cultural developments that have profoundly impacted the Black Church, and these changes have strongly influenced political attitudes and political affiliations among African Americans. Today’s Black Church is primarily comprised of four traditions: Baptists, Methodists, Holiness/Pentecostals, and non-denominational Protestants. Some quick religious history and demographic information sets the tone for understanding changing politics among African Americans; the former traditions were established more than a century ago, while non-denominationals (i.e., nondenoms) were nearly nonexistent but have multiplied their flock several times over since the late 1980s.

Data from the 1972-2022 General Social Survey (GSS) indicates that Baptists comprise the largest Christian tradition in Black America by far at 43%, and they along with Methodists (five percent) help to comprise the “mainline” branch of the Black Church’s denominational family tree. Conversely, Holiness/Pentecostals (six percent) and nondenoms (12%) comprise the “evangelical” branch of the tree. It’s also worth mentioning that the percentage of religious nonaffiliates (or African Americans who do not claim to follow any particular faith) has sharply risen to 20%. In today’s world, religious “nones” are now the second largest religious classification of Black America, and it continues to grow as mainliners (in particular) lose members.

African American political alignments have changed along with their religious affiliations, and this helps to explain a burgeoning diversity within Black America. Black America is not the political monolith that many people inaccurately believe that it is. For example, recent GSS data shows that there has been a double-digit decline—by as much as 43%—in the percentage of self-described political “liberals” among Baptists, Holiness/Pentecostals, nondenoms, and religious nonaffiliates. Most of these ideological switchers now describe themselves as political “moderates.” Furthermore, there has been a double-digit increase in the percentage of African Americans who claim to be political “conservatives” among nondenoms, Black followers of historically white evangelical traditions, Catholics, and religious “nones.” Indeed, only 13% of Black nondenoms claimed to be politically “conservative” in the early 1980s. However, at least 25% do so today, and there is no reason to believe that this slow but steady trend will reverse course any time soon due to changing ideological alignments among African Americans overall.

A driving assumption in the study of U.S. politics is that African Americans overwhelmingly identify as Democrats and consistently vote for Democratic candidates when exercising their right to vote. However, these expectations—like those for Blacks’ political ideologies—can no longer be accepted at face value. It is true that nearly 70% of African Americans across most religious classifications align themselves with the Democratic Party. However, there are some notable exceptions. No less than 77% of Methodists and 74% of Baptists think of themselves as “Democrats,” while only 60% of nondenominational Protestants do so. Moreover, one-third of nondenoms view themselves as “independents,” while more than half of religious nonaffiliates do so. These latter findings are especially important considering that nondenoms and “nones” are the two fastest-growing religious categories among African Americans in the post-Civil Rights era.

To be sure, the strength of African Americans’ affiliation with the Democratic Party has substantially weakened over the decades. In the early 1970s, 78% of Baptists viewed themselves as Democrats. However, only 68% do so now. Nondenoms and Catholics also experienced double-digit declines in alignments with the Democratic Party, while Holiness/Pentecostals, Baptists, and “nones” experienced double-digit increases among members who view themselves as independents. Although a whopping 90% of Methodists affiliate with the Democratic Party today, only 43% of religious nonaffiliates do so. This is by far the lowest percentage for any religious classification in Black America.

It is important to note that while many African Americans are moving away from the Democratic Party, they are not moving towards the Republican Party in any meaningful way. The percentage of Black Catholics who view themselves as Republicans increased by nine percent, while nondenoms and “nones” respectively increased by four percent and three percent. A multifaceted explanation for this boils down to the fact that many African Americans still don’t “trust” the Republican Party to address persistent racial discrimination and inequality. Nevertheless, Blacks’ commitment to social conservativism on various issues (such as homosexuality, for example) remains resolute, and affluent African Americans increasingly believe that they personally stand to benefit from conservative Republicans’ attention to lower taxes and other financial incentives that enhance their earning power. Thus, there is strong reason to believe that Black support for the Republican Party could expand with the passage of time.

What does all of this mean for the upcoming 2024 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump? In short, we cannot presume that the Black vote will automatically go to President Biden. In an election that will likely be decided at the margins, Biden will have to work to garner segments of the Black vote—particularly nondenominational Protestants and religious nonaffiliates. For instance, (1) Baptists and Methodists are statistically more likely to vote in presidential elections, and when they do vote, they do so overwhelmingly for Democrats. This is primarily because clergy within these mainline denominations led the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s (remember, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was Baptist). However, (2) nondenominational Protestants are significantly less likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Baptists and Methodists and are twice as likely to vote for Republicans. And finally, (3) while religious “nones” tend to vote for Democrats, they don’t turn out to vote nearly as consistently as Baptists and Methodists. Thus, if the Democratic Party wants to garner the support of these different blocs in Black America, it must figure out a way to bridge a gap between believers who comprise the backbone of the Black vote and nonaffiliates who require an additional layer of motivation to cast their vote since they consider themselves to be “independents.”

So, while President Biden has some work to do, there is room for former President Trump to make gains among the fastest-growing Christian tradition within the contemporary Black Church—those nondenominational Protestant voters who identify as “conservative” and/or might vote for Republicans on the basis of their privileged pocketbook rather than what could seemingly be beneficial for Blacks in general. Trump must also hope that the “nones” sit out this election cycle.

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beazt · 8 months

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ok I’ve put together a list of disability-focused books for me read while I have the Seattle library ebook card. I’m not sure what order I’m going to read them in, yet. and obviously this list is non exhaustive, it’s just what I could find & deem worth reading from a surface level glance at the blurbs right now, while I have a migraine. i fully intend to explore other topics and revisit other titles im unsure about/prioritizing lower, I have them tagged separately on Libby.

if anyone would like to join me on this journey— be it by reading/listening to the books yourself at your own pace or just following my own posts about what I read— I’m going to come up with a tag for this journey. suggestions for that are welcome, I just want it to be a near-unique tag because tumblr search is awful

(most of the titles I have selected for this list at least make a notable effort to be inclusive and intersectional, if you’re worried about that. however, I have not read any of these yet, I cannot confirm anything about their actual content. I guarantee there will be excerpts worth critique from books on this list. part of exploring these heavy social topics is critical thinking.)

my current list is as follows, in no particular order:

Fat Girls Hiking by Summer Michaud-Skug — I’m interested particularly in modifying hiking (and other outdoor activities) to be more accessible for myself, as I love hiking but find it very difficult nowadays, the book seems to be at least decently disability-informed

The Future Is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha — disability justice for a better future that emphasizes the value of disabled folks. overall interested to see the perspectives and rhetoric presented in this book, along with:

Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha — I don’t think I can do this one justice in a couple lines of tumblr text. read its blurb yourself, it includes: “a toolkit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind.”

My Body Is Not A Prayer Request by Amy Kenny — appeals to my experience living as disabled and intersex in a rural part of the Bible Belt in an evangelical household

Disability Pride by Ben Mattlin — gonna be honest, I threw this one in without reading its blurb. regardless of its quality, I believe I should read it based off title

Crip Kinship by Shayda Kafai — this book is based around an art activism project called Sins Invalid, exploring some of the messaging of it in a disability justice framework

Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew — from what I can gather, this book touches a lot on the social model of disability

Decarcerating Disability by Liat Ben-Moshe — prison abolition and decarceration with a disability focus

QDA by Raymond Luczak — QDA stands for queer disability anthology, also threw this one in based on the title

#disability #disabled #chronic illness #chronically ill #disability justice #disabled activism #intersectionality #disability studies #theory #idk what else to tag it in terms of actual search tags sorry #if you can’t access a copy of these books for any reason let me know I’ll see what I can do #I may go back and add better descriptions of these books when I don’t have a migraine #it’s not a massive pain migraine it’s more of a dizzy cognitive fog migraine #will create a better version of this list at some point anyway #lous clues

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gayleviticus · 7 months

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i finished reading damascus by christos tsiolkias (his novel about the apostle paul and early christianity) and was very pleasantly surprised by how it manages to be such a nuanced and complex look at such a controversial figure without descending into the saccharine preachiness of Christian fiction (and in fact, being written by someone who is not a Christian and also filled with enough shits, fucks, cunts, and reference to arse-fucking to instantly kill the average Christian fiction writer)

he manages to balance contrasts very effectively; a cruel, profane world of crucifixion and rape with a genuinely subversive religion of love and solidarity; a Paul flowing with genuine kindness and faith but also struggles with streaks of pride and jealousy.

but what impresses me most of all is the way the novel holds both Paul's apocalyptic gospel of resurrection in a world to come and its radical rejection of the injustice of this world with Thomas' naturalistic gospel that the kingdom has come and is among us already in Jesus' teaching. especially the way Tsiolkias acknowledges that even as Paul's gospel sits awkwardly with our modern scepticism it has heirs in any revolutionary tradition that wishes to change the world; it is this gospel that stands in condemnation of the systems of the world as they stand, and that spread the teachings of Jesus to the entire world (notably Damascus takes the interpretation that none of the other apostles bar Paul would fellowship with Gentiles). it would have been very easy to tap into the zeitgeist of scepticism and write a novel where Paul is a charlatan or crazy fundamentalist, and the gospel of Thomas marginalised and ignored as heretical and Gnostic is rather the true faith buried by orthodoxy. Paul is a very acceptable scapegoat to bash; if we can blame all the uncomfortable bits of the Bible on him (or the bloodthirsty and primitive Old Testament) we can maintain an unsullied image of pure Christianity. [and i don't mean to say this is entirely unjustified, especially given the way evangelicalism in particular loves to deploy isolated verses rather than entire texts! When your primary mode of engagement with him is not actually reading his epistles as works of literature, but throwing Romans 1.27 at gay people to convince them to stop being gay 100 times, that is naturally going to deeply warp your perspective of how much of his corpus is actually problematic (which, imo, when we account for 1) cultural norms re homosexuality and pederasty 2) the fact about 3-6 'Pauline' epistles were probably not written by him and 3) some verses possibly being interpolations, is really not that much).] But such a novel purporting to expose Paul as a fundamentalist charlatan would be just as didactic and simplistic as pious Christian fiction where Paul can do no wrong and harbour no doubts and is a direct mouthpiece for 21st-century evangelical doctrine. And so I very much appreciate the thought and empathy Tsolkias puts into this novel to understand Paul, rather than taking a few soundbites as an excuse to dismiss the man entirely. His Paul is flawed - a man who falls victim to jealousy, who sometimes makes his heart stone to avoid doubt - but also a man who believes in friendship and love across barriers of male and female, slave and free, Jew and Greek, one who hopes that this world mired in empire and oppression and crucifixion need not be the only way. and also a man who has a homoerotic relationship with Timothy that also has v queer-coded parallels in him bringing home an uncircumcised Gentile to the apostles in Jerusalem who he fears will reject this pagan. which is cool imo

#st paul #paul the apostle #christian #queer christian #christianity #religion #damascus tsiolkias

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 9 days

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By: Ryan Burge

Published: May 8, 2024

I've always been a bit fascinated by people who live with inherent tensions in their lives. For example, I reside in a small, rural town that will likely vote overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024—probably by forty points or more. Yet, there are some hardcore liberals here. I know a few of them. They advocate strongly for their beliefs, aware that their efforts might not significantly sway the majority. Many spend considerable time in St. Louis, about an hour's drive away, seeking a cultural environment more aligned with their values.

I’ve written about this before - people who are just in a weird situation. Most notable, I put together a paper about people who both identify as lesbian/gay/bisexual but also say that they are evangelicals on surveys. It was published with the title, “To be of one mind?: integrating an LGB orientation with evangelical beliefs” at Politics, Groups, and Identities. Long story short - these folks are more religious than other LGB people but not quite as active as non-LGB evangelicals.

We have a term for this in political science, it’s called being cross pressured. I consider this piece by Diana Mutz to be one of the foundational works in understanding the concept. The field of religion and politics presents me with a whole bunch of combinations of folks who would clearly fall into this cross pressured category. I wanted to focus on one today that may be the most incongruent - people who identify as atheist or agnostic on the religion question but then say that they are Republicans.

I don’t think I need to provide a huge theoretical justification for why this is a weird combination of factors. The Republican party is basically 85% Christians right now. So to be an atheist who also identifies with the GOP puts you in a really small subset of the population. Let me start by just showing you that - this is the share of Democrats and Republicans who identify as atheist/agnostic over the last several election cycles.

Even back in 2008, atheists and agnostics were much more at home in the Democratic coalition than with the GOP. Twelve percent of all Democrats were atheist/agnostic compared to only 3% of Republicans. Over time, both numbers have increased but the trajectory is completely different. For Democrats, that percentage has risen from 12% to 21% between 2008 and 2022. For Republicans, it’s much more modest - from 3% to 5%. One in twenty Republicans are atheists or agnostics. It’s one in five Democrats. There are four Democrat atheist/agnostics for every Republican.

I think part of the reason for this finding is not the fact that Republicans are just a whole lot more religious than Democrats, it’s that Republicans just don’t like that atheist/agnostic label that much. So, they may be functionally non-religious but they would never want to call themselves a term that they believe to be repugnant like atheist or agnostic. The empirical evidence for that is pretty clear when you limit the sample to people who report their religious attendance as seldom or never and then calculate the religious composition of those low attenders.

For Democrats who attend less than once a year, a majority are nones - 35% are atheists/agnostics and nearly the same share are nothing in particular. That percentage has grown by about ten percentage points since 2008. Only 27% of never/seldom attending Democrats say that they are Protestant or Catholic today.

However, those same figures for Republicans who are low attenders are much different. Among those who are seldom/never attenders, 56% of them say that they are Protestant or Catholic - that’s twice the share as the Democrats. Meanwhile, only 11% of low attending Republicans are atheist/agnostic - compared to 35% of Democrats. Pretty strong evidence here that when Democrats are far from religion, they have little hesitancy in embracing the atheist/agnostic label. Not so for Republicans.

But let me take that a step further and add another question to the mix - religious importance. I calculated the share of Democrats and Republicans who said that they were atheist/agnostic broken down by level of religious attendance and religious importance. This is where my thinking crystallizes quite a bit.

Obviously there’s not much happening in the top right of these heatmaps - those are folks who score both high on religious importance and religious attendance. Almost none of them say that they are atheist/agnostic. The real action is happening on the left side of the graph and the color coding tells a lot of the story. Look at the bottom left square, specifically. Those are people who never attend religious services and say that religion is not at all important. Among Republicans, 33% of those in this box are atheist/agnostic, it’s 58% of Democrats.

Those huge gaps are evident across a number of combinations of importance and attendance. For instance, among those Democrats who say that they seldom attend religious services and religion is not at all important - 40% are atheists/agnostics. It’s only 24% of Republicans in that same square. In fact, there’s not a single combination of these two factors in which a Republican is more likely than a Democrat to identify as atheist/agnostic.

Okay - I think it’s pretty well established that even if you control for other questions related to religion, a Republican is just less likely to identify as an atheist or agnostic compared to a Democrat. There’s some clear hesitancy there. But I was curious about something else - are Republican atheists/agnostics that different politically than the Republican party as a whole? And, just for the fun of it, I did the same thing for the Democrats. The area of inquiry was questions about abortion. That seems like a topic that could be deeply impacted by religious convictions, so I wanted to see if an atheist Republican was less conservative than the average member of the GOP.

The data on this is pretty convincing, atheist/agnostic Republicans are more moderate on abortion across a variety of scenarios. For instance, while only 30% of all Republicans would favor a woman having access to an abortion for any reason, that share rises to 51% of atheist/agnostic Republicans. Only ten percent of the latter group favors a complete ban on abortion, compared to 25% of Republicans in general. On the bottom two abortion questions, there’s a thirteen point gap. Atheist/agnostic Republicans are less willing to support a ban on late term abortions and less willing to favor a prohibition on federal funds for abortion.

There are gaps among the Democrats, too, by the way. Atheist/agnostics here are consistently more pro-choice than the party as a whole. You can see that especially on the question about late term abortions. About a third of all Democrats would support a ban after 20 weeks of gestation, it was only 13% of atheist/agnostic Democrats. My guess is that a lot of Black Protestants and Hispanic Catholics in the larger Democratic sample are skewing the numbers a bit there.

But do atheist/agnostic Republicans actually vote any differently than Republicans as a whole? Yeah, they do. That’s what is coming through when I calculated the vote choice of those two groups over the last four presidential elections. The gaps aren’t huge, but they are certainly noticeable.

For instance, McCain only got 82% of the atheist/agnostic Republican vote in 2008. But, Romney did a whole lot better in 2012. His percentage jumped up to 89%. However, Trump did really poorly with this group in his first campaign in 2016. He only got 80% of Republicans who identified as atheist/agnostic. It’s interesting that the remaining 20% was fairly evenly split between Clinton (12%) and third party candidates (8%). However, in 2020, Trump did much better with this group - getting back to near Romney levels. This may have something to do with the fact that third party candidates were not as viable in that election cycle.

Here’s what I know - there are going to be more atheist/agnostics who identify as Republicans in the future. It’s almost inevitable at this point. A group like the nones can’t get to 30% of the population by just drawing from the same segments of society over and over again. It will have to get more politically diverse in order for it to grow. How can the GOP be hospitable to this group, while still remaining the party of a whole of evangelicals? Time will tell.

I do think that Trump’s posturing on abortion is probably a good strategy in this regard, for what it’s worth. Making it a state’s rights issue is a way to sidestep the larger moral questions at the federal level and letting voters decide in those states is probably a pathway forward that doesn’t turn off many Christian conservatives and likely doesn’t repel the growing number of Republican nones.

#Ryan Burge #atheism #agnosticism #no religion #irreligion #Republican Party #GOP #rise of the nones #decline of religion #leaving religion #Democratic Party #religion #religion is a mental illness

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blogtruenorth · 7 months

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🟢 Hamas publishes a memorandum in English, republished below (1/2):

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Refuting the “Israeli” Claims Regarding Evading their responsibility for the Massacre of the Gaza Baptist Hospital

Today, the “Israeli” Occupation Entity is trying to evade their responsibility for the crime of bombarding the “Baptist” Arab National Hospital in Gaza City, which the “Israeli” Occupation Forces (IOF) committed on the evening of Tuesday, 17 October 2023. This heinous crime was committed against innocent Palestinian civilians while taking the hospital as a shelter from the flames of the “Israeli” brutal aggression, which left nowhere safe in the besieged enclave. It is necessary to affirm that, the Baptist Hospital belongs to the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, and was built before the occupation of Palestine.

It is obvious that the “Israeli” enemy has been spreading lies since the very beginning of his destructive war on our people, when he with no single evidence claimed that the Palestinian resistance killed children, cut off heads and raped women. In continuation of this series of lies, they tried to evade their crime, attributing it to one of the resistance factions. Accordingly, we present some of the conclusive evidence to prove the “Israeli” Occupation Entity responsible for this heinous crime:

1) It is no secret that the IOF, several days ago, threatened several hospitals in the Gaza Strip, contacting each hospital separately and requesting their evacuation and holding the hospitals directors responsible for the consequences of neglecting the threats. In fact, there are dozens of clear statements from the IOF spokespersons in this regard.

2) Since the beginning of the ongoing aggression, the “Israeli” army has ignored the principle of distinguishing between civilian and military targets. Thus, the bombardment has systematically targeted emergency services, ambulances, civil defense facilities, schools, mosques, and churches.

3) The IOF contacted the directors of 21 hospitals in the Gaza Strip, especially those are located in the Gaza and the North of Gaza governorates, most notably: (Al-Awda, the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan, the Kuwaiti, Al-Quds, and Al-Mamadani), asking them to evacuate immediately, given that the hospitals are located within the geographical scope of “Israeli” military operations. In this regard, the official spokespersons for the IOF plus a number of hospital directors conducted interviews live on Al Jazeera, revealing the premeditated intention of the IOF to target hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

4) On 14 October, 2023, at 20:30, the IOF fired two shells towards the Baptist Hospital, and the next morning they called the hospital director, Dr. Maher Ayyad, saying to him: “We warned you last evening with two shells, so why have you not evacuated the hospital until this moment?!” Following that call, The hospital director contacted the bishop of the Evangelical Church in Britain and informed him of the incident, who in turn contacted international organizations before sending the hospital a message reassuring them that they could remain in the hospital. Yet with no warning, the IOF airstrikes returned, on Tuesday evening, to carry out the massacre against the hospital and the shelter-seekers of the displaced innocent Palestinian civilians.

5) Immediately after the massacre, the IOF spokesperson quickly published a statement on his page on the “X” and “Telegram” platforms at 21:17, which stated, “We had warned the evacuation of the Baptist Hospital and five other hospitals so that the Hamas terrorist organization would not take as a safe haven”. That statement is a clear claim of this massacre, and it is documented with a “screenshot” image attached to his page on Telegram, but he quickly deleted the post after seeing the massive scale of the massacre for the large number of victims, and the angry responses of the Arab, regional and international communities. Later on, he disavowed it, publish another statement denying that he had issued the first statement.

🟢 Hamas publishes a memorandum in English, republished below (2/2):

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6) Before and during the event, the resistance factions did not fire any missiles at the occupied territories, the “Israeli” sirens did not activate, and the Iron Dome missiles were not launched. Moreover, dozens of reconnaissance drones do not leave the sky of the Gaza Strip (365 km2), photographing and monitoring every inch around the clock. If the massacre was due to the resistance’s missiles, as the “Israeli” Occupation Entity falsely claim, why would not they show one picture their claims?!

7) The “Israeli” Occupation Entity claimed that this massacre was caused by a missile launched by the Islamic Jihad. However, we would wonder how they could identify and distinguish between the missiles of the resistance factions immediately after they were launched?!

8) The IOF military system documents and records all their operations by day, hour, minute and second, and in all previous times their media outlets came out to announce or deny much less severe massacres than this massacre, so what made them wait more than 4 hours before declaring their irresponsibility other than weaving scenarios of falsification, lies and deception?!

9) It is obviously known that the resistance’s missiles are somewhat “primitive” and do not have the destructive power that kills hundreds at one time. And throughout the history of previous confrontations and the current confrontation, no resistance missile has caused a tenth of this number of “Israeli” deaths.

10) The only video scene documenting the moment of the explosion reveals that the mass of flame and the sound of the explosion are identical to other “Israeli” bombs throughout the days of the ongoing aggression, which with no doubt proves that the “Israeli” origin of the missile.

The deliberate attack on hospitals is a war crime, stipulated in Article (8, 2, b, 9) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. Accordingly, Hamas officially calls on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into this crime, which falls within the framework of a genocidal war, in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of the Basic Law. These bloody acts are also based on the policy of denial pursued by the “Israeli” Occupation Entity, as they deny the existence of the Palestinian people.

There is no doubt that impunity fuels crime, and investigating crimes is a way to protect people. Furthermore, if a legal and judicial response is necessary, it is above all that the response to this crime must be humanitarian and global. Such actions must shock the conscience of the world, or else there would no longer be a reliable international community if the “Israeli” Occupation government free to decide to bomb hospitals!

In conclusion, we are facing a genocidal massacre committed by IOF against children, women, and the elderly. The “Israeli” Occupation Entity is the only responsible for the crime, no matter how much they try to weave lies and fabrications to get away with it, as they always do.

The Islamic Resistance Movement

HAMAS-Palestine

Wednesday, 18 October 2023

#palestine #genocide #israeli terrorism

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ludinusdaleth · 22 days

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I'm half hoping the Hells run into some devout kryn, because it'd be interesting to see them deal with the parallels with the predathos followers of "all the gods are shit except this thing" and the doomsday goal where they could destroy the planet like mercer pointed out. Not to mention their method of lite immortality and reincarnation into people's children running against Ludinus's deal.

talking about the luxon is hard because my thoughts on it are wreathed in layers of meta like nothin else.... let's just say first off we're definitely getting that pov, as the kryn have aeor encircled (as we know from both the c2 aeor arc/frida & deanna during the c3 molaesmyr arc), and the discovery of ashton would be.... heresy? ascension? to them.

i think the luxon, in all its parralels to predathos and its domain of space & time, is kind of.... the answer to all this? the kryn are incorrect in their belief that the luxon was discovered by them, but i dont think theyre wrong about it in other ways. frankly i, someone who people think is a god hater for my analysis of the pantheon's actions, trust it. it has been used & abused throughout history whilst not even fully formed. where the pantheon & betrayers have had entire lives to make choices the luxon is a fetus who has been able to make none. as we understand it, it came to exandria because it was lonely and hungry to learn, to experience, to feel. it allegedly started life on exandria as folk worry predathos will end it. i presently think predathos & the luxon are both ancient, cosmic entities of higher power than the exandrian gods; one has lived and been beaten like an animal. one has seen eons of mortal history through an egg sac lens.

i think the kryn they can be extreme in how they wish others to join their faith, and i dont know how much of that counts as (for lack of a very non christian word) evangelizing; though ill say notably they ask others and try to win faith through mighty feats, over bulldozing & building temples with brute strength as vasselheim does. and frankly, while both wish for their cosmic entity to be free, the kryn certainly arent on the vanguard's levels; they want to understand the luxon and nurture it til it's ready to Become. the vanguard wishes for predathos to Wake and will rend the universe apart to watch it Devour. i think it is worth noting how beaten xhorhas is by wynandir; the society headed by a man who wants predathos freed does not sympathize with the luxon but despises it for being seen as a person and abuses it himself. ludinus, i think, sees predathos as a caged beast he can use or at least watch burn his worst enemies, and the luxon as a younger kind of it to force into service. the kryn see the luxon as a person-to-be like them. and maybe thats the key. understanding that even this galactic entity should feel care & grief & love right beside mortals. as if it's their child, even if they're by all means a parent to every living thing. as if it's one of Us. i think the real question i have isnt necessarily about the kryn parralels to the vanguard now, but rather the parralels in how they treat predathos when they learn of it; will they see it as alive and as worthy of care as the luxon? as well as the parralels of what actions the luxon will take compared to predathos; because i think, as predathos rages, the luxon will choose love.

#i dont know if ANY of this made sense but i am a dam of luxon thoughts waiting to break at all hours #long post #asks #van speaks #critical role #critical role meta #the luxon #predathos #ludinus da'leth #ashton greymoore

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 3 months

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It Happened Today in Christian History

February 13, 1985: Death of Ji Zhiwen, who had conducted a notable evangelistic work in China. He established the Bethel Evangelistic Band in Shanghai, followed by the Chinese Evangelization Society and an orphanage (also in Shanghai), and, when driven from mainland China, founded churches in Taiwan. He had extended his ministry to Southeast Asia, founding kindergartens, orphanages and day care centers, and had developed a Christian press before retiring to Los Angeles.

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truthdogg · 1 year

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This article is from 2018, but it’s extremely relevant today, because of how influential David Barton has been over the past five years since it was written. The change in tone from the right has shifted in that time as more and more of Barton’s followers have taken office and implemented his ideas.

One of the key elements of his phony mythology, for starters, is that the founders were divinely inspired evangelicals, and that they cannot be criticized whatsoever. From the article:

“It's also telling that so much of this revisionist American history is about blending Christianity with a very specific form of American (usually white) nationalism. Figures like Barton blend the idea that America is a "Christian country" with the idea that the only critiques of the Founding Fathers - that, say, they owned slaves or contributed to racial inequality - come from "politically correct" historians seeking to discredit America's great history for political ends.

“The founders double as hero-saints to Barton. Central to the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation is the idea that America was founded unproblematically; that only a return to this mythologized past will somehow solve perceived problems of structural inequality. "Real" America, in other words, is above criticism.”

This is the entire basis of DeSantis and others’ “anti-woke” and “anti-CRT” philosophy.

Further, watch out for any elected official claiming the US Constitution is divinely inspired. Whenever you hear it, you’re hearing a Barton-following Dominionist who should not hold political office.

And here the article explains just why so many Republicans are no longer hiding their complete & utter disdain for democracy itself:

“…Barton is among those who believe the ultimate goal for American government should be a Christian theocratic state, which is necessary to properly usher in the apocalyptic End Times. Dominionism takes many forms, …(n)evertheless, its fundamental principle is the same: Christians must work toward a theocratic state in which Christians are in control. Or, as current congressional candidate (and fellow Barton enthusiast) Rick Saccone said in an interview last year with Pastors Network of America, God wants Christians “who will rule with the fear of God in them, to rule over us.” ”

If you don’t recall, Saccone fortunately lost that election as well as the one after. (Thank you, Pennsylvania!) But others like him continue to win. Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz are notable Dominionists, and even Donald Trump has publicly embraced these ideas. This worldview they share isn’t undermining their support; it’s why they have any. Republicans’ strongest supporters are with them because of these views, while so-called moderates like Mitt Romney, Adam Kinziger & others continue to lose party support. This is exactly why influential pastors like Robert Jeffress and David Jeremiah are such avid Trump campaigners, because they believe in Christian authoritarianism and believe that Trump can (and will) make it happen.

We need to be very clear about this. Today’s Republicans are mostly Barton-inspired fanatics at all levels, especially locally. This is why after Tennessee Republicans ejected Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, they were caught on tape claiming that they were personally at the forefront of a “war” for control of the nation.

Base Republicans believe this nonsense. That’s why the very next thing the Tennessee legislature did after that recording was made was vote to allow unlicensed concealed carry, because they want their soldiers armed if and when they are voted out of office. If you look at the collateral damage of their war—our now-daily mass murders—it’s easy to see what impact their belief is having. The fear and distrust these killings create serve their goals as well, as those are critical ingredients for any authoritarian regime.

If we don’t start paying attention to this poisonous religious & racist rhetoric, we will not be able to stop not only our daily violence, but the coming violence as well. January 6th is going to look like the tourist visit Republicans claim it was. This is urgent. The change in right-wing rhetoric from this 2018 article to today’s full-throated endorsement and implementation of its ideas should make that very clear.

#us politics #republicans #dominionism #white nationalists #Christian nationalists #woke #ron desantis

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