#I’m supposed to be finding books I’m donating to charity but instead I’m finding ‘Mary & Jesus in the Quran’ by ‘Abdullah Yūsuf ‘Alī

[tuulikki]

One of the most astonishing things about the Quran is how it inherits beliefs that were bouncing around apocryphal traditions. Look at the Surah Maryam (the Surah about the Virgin Mary):

This is Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew content! Somehow this folktale about the Virgin Mary was in such significant circulation that it ended up all over the place! And it was so strongly present in popular culture that it actually ended up in the Quran.

And when I say it’s astonishing that this ended up in the Quran, what I really mean is that it seems odd that popular discourse on religion don’t talk about these obvious proofs of a dynamic, creative cultural exchange between Christian apocryphal traditions and the imaginative multicultural context that produced Islam. People are out here inventing weird shit about Jesus being based on Osiris or whatever 🙄 when the actual connections are so much cooler and frankly beautiful?

And those of you raised in or adjacent to Christianity may recognise The Cherry Tree Carol, albeit starring a more Levantine-probable tree. (@hymnsofheresy, @linnealurks, @beggars-opera, & @voluptuarian I’m tagging you because I think I’ve seen you all Cherry Tree Carol posting over the years? But I have no sense at all if the broad context is well-known.)

[queerchristianaffirmations]

Hi! I am lesbian and I go to an Anglican church atm but I’m curious about other denominations because I find my views don’t often align with my church. If possible could you summarise the differences between denominations in what they teach (lgbt related or otherwise) to help a girl out? your page is awesome btw keep it up :)

I only feel comfortable telling about the Catholic church’s teachings, since I feel like I am far from understanding much about any other church (except maybe Lutherenism or Calvinism), so I invite the other mods, as well as anyone else who wants to add to this to add to this

The Catholic Church, first of all, supports, for the most part, the LGBT+ community. They do have a few views I can’t quite allign myself with, but they *are* pretty supportive. We believe that the Eucharist *becomes* Christ, instead of representing him. We believe in the Trinity being one God with three parts, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes from The Father’s and Son’s love for each other. We have a kinda complex system of priests, which (I think) goes, deacons (who can marry), priests (can’t), bishop (can’t... all the rest cannot), archbishop, cardinal, pope (who is infallible). I am pretty sure that’s the right order. The Catholic church has more books in the Bible, not because we added them, but because they are part of the original canon. Catholics are allowed to believe in evolution, as long as we know that it was guided by God. We have special days that you are supposed to go to church on, such as some of the Maryan days, Ash Wednesday, Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, and maybe another one, though mass is encouraged every week. People in the church tend to lean more to the conservative side on most issues, but are more liberal too, since the Catholic Church loves social justice. We have a lot of charities, and donating our time (which most value above money)/money to charity is really pushed. We have devotions to the saints and to Mary, but contrary to popular belief, we don’t hold them as gods, because they are not God. We believe that anyone can be a saint, as long as they are in Heaven, but you can only be made a saint if you have 3 (or 2?) proven miracles. We believe in Hell, which is total separation from God, purgatury, which I have a hard time exlaining, but it’s a place where your soul is cleansed before you go to Heaven, Heaven is total communion with God. We believe in the Ressurection of the Body, which is at the end of times, where every soul is reunited with their body.

Those are the differences they have between the other churches, though obviously some probably overlap. I probably missed a few points, but thats the general idea. Once again, anyone is free to add information about their own denomination, if they;d like!

-mod Jude