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Religious Language and Symbols in Welcome Home, continued

“Do you know who I am” has several links to Christianity. 

“God forgive them, for they know not what they do”  i.e. they don’t know who I am

Peter denying Jesus three times

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me,” this concept that God knows us down to the very bottom, he can see directly into your mind and/or soul

"Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Jesus’s story has a lot of knowing him and not knowing him.  Also, people who preach at strangers phrase it that way, “do you know Jesus?”  I have been on the receiving end of that one more than once.  It is a metaphor for the BC version of a commitment to God. 

The “let me in” phrase is also echoed quite a bit in BC. 

Let Jesus into your heart is something I heard a lot.  The way to achieve this, is to remember your ABC’s (Ask for forgiveness, Believe in God, Confess your sins)

It’s enough of a theme to warrant a meme

Also common is the idea that (Jesus) is your best friend:

He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). Maybe leading to the whole “Jesus is my Homeboy” thing.  Lots of listings about Jesus being a friend/best friend, including children’s songs. 

There is a whole hymn about Jesus being your friend, “What a Friend I Have in Jesus”

Jesus tells his disciples they are his friends, not his servants

Neighbor:  Used in the bible as a term for people other than yourself

Love thy neighbor as you love thyself

Don’t covet neighbor’s stuff

Show hospitality

Share God’s truth with neighbors

A few other ideas about religious symbols--

Eyes: 

Evil eye:  creating damage by looking at someone

A higher power that sees and knows all

Wisdom (eastern cultures)

Inner depth (European literature)

Gateway to the soul:  people can see your true nature through your eyes

Protection:  to warn off bad vibes

Clairvoyance

“His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.”

Spiral:

One of the world’s oldest symbols

Growth of a soul toward eternal life (Christian)

The Trinity, spiral shaped god, intertwined with living

Rebirth

The sun

Potential crosses: 

on the back of Sally’s curtain

Apple

garden of eden, original sin, the snake, knowledge

The phrase “a bad apple spoils the bunch” has religious connections

Greek tale of the golden apples

Letters

The word

Some bible books are letter format (epistles)

News

“Have you heard” on the News Page, related to the religious phrase “have you heard the good news”

The New Testament is sometimes also called “The Good News”

Tidings is a synonym for news, also on the News page

Love

Somewhat related to the concept of heart, but used a bunch in Christianity

God’s Love

Jesus Loves You

God so loved humanity, he gave his only son

Homewarming

Is an allegory for Christmas, which has taken over the pagan winter celebrations

The focus is on Home, which seems to indicate a focus on Home as Jesus, or a physical manifestation of God’s presence

Evangelical

Big hair

Cardigan

“Wave up high” seems to be a reference to the Evangelical/Protestant phenomenon of “praise/raised hands” or similar names for this gesture:

In my experience, one hand is the more common gesture, and two hands means you are really into it, also, generally there is swaying going on because people are affected by “the spirit.” The gesture seems more common in non-denominational services or more radical sects.  Speaking in tongues sometimes happens with it in the more radical sects.  I keep expecting to see something similar to speaking in tongues in WH.

Rainbows:  Rainbows represent god’s promise not to kill everyone in a flood again, but also peace, hope, god’s love.

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Religious Language and Symbols in Welcome Home

Edit: i have posted all or some if this under the post "wally is my homeboy." I couldn't find it when i searched, but found it later.

I am going to be pulling from personal experience on this one.  My experience growing up was with a Baptist church, so be aware that this is the flavor of religion I will be discussing.  I’m not religious, and I don’t care to insert myself in another person’s religious life or beliefs.  But:  thinking about how we got the cross cufflink, I started thinking about the religious language that is used in the Baptist tradition. 

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get here, but there is a lot of language that is used in Welcome Home that is also used in Christianity. 

THE CALL

I am going to start abbreviating Baptist Christianity to “BC.”  So, in BC, God gives you a calling.  A calling is some message, verbal or non-verbal, sometimes even just a feeling, that lets you know what God would like you to do.  In particular, people are called to be a preacher or a preacher’s wife, or deacons, etc.  I can’t imagine the numbers of people who have attempted to receive a clear message from God.  I never felt any kind of calling, though I did know people who have had that experience.

BC uses phone language into their own discussions of religious experience to describe “the call”, like: 

Jesus is calling, will you answer?

Answer the call

Jesus calling, how well are you listening?

There are also biblical references of God calling people to him. 

When we think about this in the context of WH, we are literally being called.  We have had multiple phone calls from Wally, and maybe even one from home (if the one audio clip counts as a call.)  Wally can call and talk to us, and share his thoughts, but we are unable to talk to him.  We have seen others who are getting the call, but can’t pick up.  Q, and presumably The Question Answerer, do answer the call, though we get the feeling that they considered it either foolish or a big mistake.  They are constantly hearing the ringing of Wally’s call. 

As for us, the audience us, Wally is pretty consistently reaching out to us.  He talks to us when others can’t hear him, which in this metaphor makes us on the level of a prophet.  We have special access to his communications.  Q and QA also have special access, but we seem to have an even stronger connection, hearing text that they are either ignoring or can’t legitimately hear.  We also seem to have caught on to Wally’s attempts to communicate through the website much earlier.  Q has asked or mentioned before that we can hear it, too—but we have seemed to be in regular contact with Wally before Q managed to figure out that something was happening on the website.  Could be denial, I suppose. 

Q and QA hold a special position with Wally that we don’t, however.  They get direct contact from WH’s reality (whatever we are calling that—area, dimension) while we only have access to what Q shares with us.  There are multiple references to documents and/or artifacts that we don’t have access to, such as additional books and records.  The only other person so far that has had access to these materials is QA, and they were quickly driven insane by the contact.  Well, according to Q they were insane.  I always thought that what happened there is that QA, as an archivist, is documenting the strangeness that has taken over the exhibit space, but there are clues that point toward QA starting to doubt that they are experiencing reality anymore. 

It is possible that insane is not the correct terminology here, because prophets are often considered to be experiencing things on a plane that normal people can’t comprehend.  History is full of stories of prophets and people driven mad through exposure to the full experience of god’s form or voice.  Fiction is full of characters who face the consequences of experiencing the full power of a supreme being:  mortal Semele asks Zeus to see his true form and is vaporized, Paula sees Castiel’s true form and her eyes are burned out in Supernatural, Christian God tells Moses seeing him in his glory would kill him.  (for just some random examples)

Our favorite, TV Tropes, has a lot of examples of this concept of going mad due to exposure to truth, whether it be from God, a god, or an eldritch horror:  “Go mad from the Revelation.” We have definitely seen this in the form of QA’s breakdown, which Q somehow pretends not to understand, despite being in the same position (but with somewhat different results).  Q says they aren’t sure what breaks QA, but at the same time, describes sitting in front of a TV for 3 months, not realizing that it was longer than a day.  It seems like Q and QA are both existing in a spectrum between religious fervor and Lovecraftian horror.  Wally doesn’t appear to be God at this point, but it doesn’t mean he is full Lovecraftian horror either.  It’s like we haven’t landed in one place yet, so multiple possibilities are open. 

Wally signs off, “always know that I love you, very much.”  That language is very reminiscent of descriptions of God’s love (New Testament God, anyway.)  Closely related to this idea is that Christians generally believe that Jesus lives in their hearts.  There appears to be textual references to this, but interpretations are different.  Some take it more literally, like you have a personal, physical connection to God through the spirit, heart, chest.  Some think of it more like a metaphor, God is your heart, a kind of emotional connection, as we consider the heart the seat of love.  There are a wide variety of references to Jesus/God in the heart:

Accept Jesus into your heart (this is the saying for being “saved” in the Protestant tradition)

God’s home in your heart (straight up comparison there)

Home is where the heart is (is actually related to the bible)

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love". 

“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.” “if a man loves me…we will come unto him and make our abode with him.”

God’s home is the church language

Wally is also strongly associated with the heart.  He has hearts on his shoes, and Home has a heart underneath.  (Barnaby also has heart paw pads, but not sure this is relevant at this point. Julie has been shown to have heart pads of her feet, too, I think.)  Wally is consistently telling us that he loves us and that we are important to him.    

In the Homewarming record, Howdy says “ It’s about warmin’ the home through their heart!” which is a pretty 1 for 1 reference.  You find Wally’s recording about not being able to see you despite us drawing his eyes by clicking the 3 heart drawings. (And there are several doodled hearts around.)  A drawn heart takes us to the sound clip of “you-1.”   “Can you see me? That’s okay if you can’t. Don’t worry, I know you’re there. You know I’m here too. I will talk to you.”  We have a picture of Wally painting Barnaby’s heart pad. 

On r/welcomehomeneighbor, u/irrelevant_advices suggests that maybe the heart marks those who are possessed/influenced by Home.  This is the best theory for that drawing that I think I have seen.  He is painting it blue, which would make it harder to see.  Maybe it is a reference to joining the religion or cult, with the heart being Wally’s home/Home’s home.  The reference to Wally living in Home seems less random when thinking of it in this religious way.

On r/welcomhomearg, u/Lunami714 posts Wally’s hidden phone clip, and we know that this clip has a heartbeat throughout, louder and fainter. 

Wally says “on this funny phone of mine,” funny because it is a direct line to us, we get the call

Wally tells us he knows us and sees us. 

The phrase “let me in”

(to be continued)

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This au still rules over a decade later

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Happy new year :)

I don’t have anything special prepared but I did draw the triangle

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Nintendogs Golden Retriever + Ants

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‼️Please don’t skip taking a look 🍉🇵🇸

I am Lina from Gaza, 25 years old. I have been married for 4 years. I have a son named Saif, who is 2 years old, and a daughter named Sidra, who was born in the October War, who is 3 months old. They were born by caesarean section. Help me and my children evacuate Gaza. I need your help to evacuate my family from Gaza. I hope you and your loved ones find you safe and sound. I am coming to you with a very urgent and time-sensitive appeal. We face a constant and imminent threat of death, injury and disease, even during the so-called “truce”. My home has been bombed and destroyed beyond repair. My family’s home. We have been under occupation all our lives, and none of us have experienced anything like what is happening now. There is now an opportunity to get the entire family out of Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing. We do not know how long this opportunity will last, which makes it imperative that we raise the necessary funds as soon as possible. The longer it takes, the more vulnerable they will be. No one knows how long the bombing of Gaza will continue. It will continue, regardless of the cost in human lives. For my family’s future, your help is essential. I am deeply concerned about my children.

The money you contribute will: Cover the enormous costs of safe passage to Egypt. The vast majority of the money will be used for this purpose.

Provide temporary housing for the family in Egypt while the best way forward is determined for them.

Cover some of their initial living expenses while they are in Egypt. We hope to provide them with at least two months’ worth of money. They need time and space to breathe after being gassed during this genocide.

Once all of this is done, additional funds will be used to help me move past my current situation so that I can provide more support to my family. I have taken on the responsibility of caring for them during this critical and uncertain time and into the future.

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Hello everyone, I hope you share the post so that it reaches the donors to help my family get out of the hell and war of Gaza. I also hope you put a heart on the post and I hope that you do not ignore this and donate to those who can. Thank you.

Donate here.

We are now living in a very torn tent that lets rain in. Please donate so we can buy a new tent.🫶

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you guys ever hear about KNUCKLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Credit: Yup That Exists@yup.that.exists

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Sorry I do not post much on here... Here's OC art from twt.....!!!!!! You guys don't know them as well but that's okay :0).

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Still working on it?

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Posting this now in case I don’t finish it but felt like I need to draw this. I headcanon that Fake Peppino likes horror slasher movies and is a big fan of Jason

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Stupid pillar chase ll fan game

Horrific slaughter house

CHARACTERS:

legion

JJ

Scp 049

Fake peppino