#Protestant Reformations

[nando161mando]

Rehabilitation, not Devastation. Fuck The Police.

[curtwilde]

Bangladesh Protests: Latest Updates

- The death toll from the student protests in Bangladesh has risen to 114, with thousands more injured.

- Tanks have been deployed in Dhaka.

- A curfew was imposed on Saturday, which was relaxed for two hours on the same day to allow people to shop for supplies.

- A near-total internet blackout has been imposed in Bangladesh since Thursday, with text message services and overseas telephone calls remaining disrupted.

Edit: Post was made on 21 July 2024. Check reblogs for updates since then.

[thatdeshigirl]

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN BANGLADESH?

Students of college, universities and even high schools in Bangladesh have taken to the streets in a mass movement named the "Bangla Blockade" demanding the eradication of the quota system. The quota system reserves a massive percentage of the government jobs for specific groups of people. These jobs are earned by sitting for the Bangladesh Civil Service exams.

Effectively, only 46% of the jobs are left to be contested by merit.

The biggest quota sectors are NOT for the disabled, or indigenous people or for women.

THIRTY PERCENT of the jobs are reserved for children and grandchildren of registered freedom fighters.

The police and political wings are using violence on the protesters. Images of armed men beating up women with sticks and rods are going viral. Spread the word. We need more people talking about this.

Link to an Instagram post with information that you can share.

[wafflehouseyuri]

Armand and Daniel being mutually embarrassed by their real/perceived age gap is so important to me like they’re both mortified to have a post divorce boy toy

[thoughts-of-caly]

protestants the entire month of october:

[pangaeaseas]

The Problem of Religion in Harry Potter (or, what is Wizard God?)

tl; dr: I wish more hp fics did something with religion and the wizarding world

so to state my credentials up front: I've read a lot of hp fanfiction, a little on the Reformation and religious history--like, I have probably more background knowledge than the average person but I am very emphatically not an expert and have never actually taken a class specifically on any kind of religious history, and I'm an ex-Catholic who did ten ish years of religion classes. There are probably a LOT more people more qualified to talk about this than me but whatever I've never actually seen very much meta written out on this specific issue so I'm giving it a try. (if you have written or read such meta, please send me recs)

ahh the Problem of Religion one of the great unsolved mysteries of the hp world building (similar issues include What the Fuck is Going on with Ireland, How Does the Ministry Actually Work, What is the Population, etc) and I call it 'unsolved' because the fandom has no massively popular solution (like Lordships for the Problem of the Wizengamot) and in general tends to just not think about it, much like JKR originally did. Now IMO she probably intended most wizards to be, like, generically Church of England or whatever without much investment--basically copying the Muggle equivalent whenever it isn't spelled out how the two worlds differ, which is I think a lot of her un-filled-out world building is meant to be. Which. OK. You can do that, but, you know, religion is a very very important aspect of worldbuilding and in my opinion ignoring it and expecting it to be just the same as 1990s Muggle Britain is uninteresting and lazy.

This (wizards are meant to be some kind of Christian and probably Church of England just for simplicity's sake) is evidenced by things like Hogwarts having Christmas and Easter breaks, James and Lily having a Bible quote picked out by Dumbledore on their tombstone, and Draco Malfoy, most emblematically wizard of wizard characters who can be taken as a potential baseline, automatically saying things like 'Good God'. Which, you know, implies that the idea of a single God, and probably the Judaeo-Christian God because that's the same cultural background as the rest of Britain, is taken for granted by wizarding society. It doesn't necessarily imply anything about Draco's or even the Malfoys' personal beliefs, and of course you have other characters saying things like 'Oh my Merlin' and "Morgana" and things like that. Which in my opinion wasn't meant to be indications of some kind of Merlin or Morgana worship but more quirky and fun flavor things of the kind jkr loves to include without thinking out the implications. But you absolutely can take those statements that way--this post is absolutely not meant to dictate how people want to headcanon and I am absolutely here for giving wizards a well thought out pagan or Non-Christian religion, I just don't think that was the author's intent. There's also plenty of other things that imply Wizarding cultural Christianity that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

And, of course, much better writers than me have extensively discussed all the Christian themes in HP. Of course, themes don't need to affect how people worldbuild in fanfic.

So: with HP canon, we are looking at a society that is probably culturally Christian and probably (key word) intended to be Church of England. But, because JKR wasn't putting much thought into it and basically just took a Chrisitian bedrock of society for granted, the implications of this are not really explored at all. So what I'm interested in is how fandom deals with it.

Mostly, that is...not at all, either taking cultural Christianity in the Wizarding World for granted the way JKR does or by ind of handwaving that wizards have evolved beyond the need for religion and that's just how it is. And that's perfectly fine! Not everyone wants to come up with a full, working, wizard society, and even if they are trying to worldbuild some aspects of wizarding society religion is often ignored, because people don't want to deal with it for often valid reasons (religious trauma, just disinterest, grew up agnostic, not Christian but thinks wizards probably are etc, etc, etc, ) Personally I wish more fics delved into what wizarding religious belief actually is, but to put it bluntly, that's just me. And I have never dealt with religion in my own fics. So don't takethis as judgement at all.

But there are interesting headcanons when people do choose to try and worldbuild religion in HP.

Fom what I've seen, one of the major ways to deal with religion in HP (aside from not dealing with it at all) is to give wizards, often pureblood wizards, some kind of pagan, often Celtic-inspired, religion. And this is quite defensible! Sometimes this is badly executed and/or turned into Death Eater apologia, but the idea of wizards having a different religion is really interesting and a good deal more interesting (IMO of course) than just not mentioning religion at all. Most fics that I've seen don't delve too deeply into, like the actual history and theology of these religions, but there are definitely some that do. (Also if you know any PLEASE send me recs). So if handled well, this is a great way to add some religion worldbuilding in the world of Harry Potter.

However, my personal favorite set of possibilities--obviously I have some personal bias as a history nerd with a long standing if never as deeply researched as I would like to interest in the history of Christianity and as an ex-Catholic--is that, well, we know the statute of secrecy started..when, exactly? 1690. So this much is obviously a result of JKR's Hollywood understanding of witch hunts (a subject for another time and someone far more qualified). For interested wrodlbuilders, we can take this as a guideline at best, as personally I think it would have taken a good deal longer than one year to agree on and implement something like the Statute and I tend to take 1690 as an end date, not a start. I also tend to take the Statue as a largely European phenomenon, at least at first. But, uh, what was happening in Britain at the time..oh, right...the Glorious Revolution....what was happening that created the conditions for the Glorious Revolution...oh, the English Civil War...which was because of...oh yeah, and what was also happening on the continent, maybe it involved, wait, thirty years..oooh, the Thirty Years War...wait weren't there a whole bunch of massive social shifts happening in Europe at this point in time isn't that funny but surely the stature of secrecy could be considered a part of these massive social shifts...all of which was heavily influenced by...you guessed it, the Protestant Reformation.

Wait. So. Maybe, the separation of Wizards from Muggles, at least in Britain, wasn't actually about Muggles hating wizards or wizards hating Muggles. Maybe it was about religion. Now personally I find this ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. The possibilities, the possibilities...

Wizards had a massive religious civil war that created the blood status system in its modern form? Particular families have wildly different denominations? Excellent. Religion both in terms of level of religiosity and in terms of denomination is a blood status marker? Excellent. Purebloods are all Catholic (what does this do to both Catholic and not Muggleborns?) Excellent. Purebloods are all Puritans? Weird, but if you can pull it off excellent. Purebloods are all one of the wacky new denominations that sprung up after the Reformation and then either died out or conquered the world? Excellent. Pure bloods are all Lutherans who really hated Henry VIII? Excellent. One of my favoirite ways to create a wizarding religion was someone who had most pure bloods follow a denomination that split off from Catholicism in the Great Schism and then a small minority being Catholic, with the worlds splitting around the Reformation. Even the paganism headcanons can be incorporated: the Reformation could conceivably have made it much more difficult to keep practicing wizard paganism causing separation of the worlds.

Personally I would love to see a world that used the history of the Protestant Reformation super well, but it's not the only way to relate a Wizarding religion or a Wizarding religious history. I just wish more people tried to do that at all. Let wizards be religious! Or let them be irreligious but have thought about it, instead of just ignoring religion at all as something that might conceivably have influenced human societies. Maybe Wizarding Britain has state sponsored atheism. Just say that outright!

Another thing I'd like to see more fic doing is theology: how does having magic impact people's religious doctrine? Does every major religion essentially have a wizarding branch with its own theology because magic impacts their view of the world so much, or do most wizards simply follow the majority Muggle religion in their country with no modifications? if so, why? Do some wizards disagree, potentially violently, over how to incorporate magic into their religion? Do some people refuse to use magic because they think it goes against their religion? Etc etc etc you could go on forever. I've seen fic, which randomly enough was about Regulus Black, do this pretty well (or I thought so as a non-Jew) for Judaism, and I'd love it if done with other religions.

Anyway. Now I have to figure out how the hell religion works in the Wizarding Britain of my own headcanon.

[wardensantoineandevka]

when someone on this website negatively calls a mentality or a philosophical framework or something "very Catholic", like 7 out of 10 times it's actually something antithetical to Catholic philosophy and doctrine and is actually very Protestant

[famousinuniverse]

St. Paul's Church, Strasbourg, France: The St. Paul's Church of Strasbourg is a major Gothic Revival architecture building and one of the landmarks of the city of Strasbourg, in Alsace, France. Wikipedia

[protestantworkthatethic]

*autumn draws nearer*

[[PROTESTANTISM INTENSIFIES]]

[firefistjaigio]

I have genuinely only been able to think about Bangladesh rn the fear I have is so immense and I have no idea if people there are ok rn, idk if my family is ok rn. I have no clue what violence is occurring there rn and I have only seen previous examples like tanks on the streets and police sniping student protestors from rooftops and news of many people like a 7th grader being killed and it burns me to see barely anyone fucking talk about it or share anything about it, besides the diaspora rn and some good folks, does the world even fucking care when people are suffering

[apenitentialprayer]

Bro

You're using Catholic iconography in both pictures

[khush-chronicles]

When the sky bleeds along with its people

[leviraaaaaa]

They shut all our social media again. The internet is so slow its practically useless.

I went outside today. Saw a bunch of BSL (Student League) kids with sticks and sharp things. They blocked of a road and shit so I had to take the long way round. Another massacre will happen today. That's why they shut off communication. Can't have people alerting each other, can they?

International community, we're reaching out to you. Every word counts. Every reblog counts. Every small step you take could save someone's life. Talk about it. Speak up. They've taken away our voice and now only you can shout for us. Save lives. Stop a genocide.

[passing-through-bd]

STUDENT PROTESTS IN BANGLADESH

Injuries and casualties are rising!!! Thousands injured. Children dead.

Are you aware of the ongoing student protests in Bangladesh? All schools and universities have been shut down. Even the primary schools in cities. It has led to violence. There have been casualties. All because the students (18-25/26 year olds) wanted an equal foot in the job market.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/asia/bangladesh-protests-quote-intl-latam/index.html This is a CNN article on this topic. But casualties are rising. We need international support if we are to have any chance at a better future.

https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/lecture-halls-the-streets-universities-submerged-dual-protests-3651751 Here is a local newspaper's coverage.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/bangladesh-witness-testimony-video-and-photographic-analysis-confirm-police-used-unlawful-force-against-protesters/ Amnesty International's article.

https://x.com/UNHumanRights/status/1813553026357162061 UN Human Rights also commented on this subject.

The network is being impacted.

#savebangladeshistudents

[curtwilde]

The main gate of Begum Rokeya University has been unofficially renamed Shahid Abu Sayeed gate by the protesting students, after Abu Sayeed who was murdered by the police in the ongoing student protests in Bangladesh.

[thatdeshigirl]

JULY 18TH

Students have organised a nationwide blockade. There are talks of the BSL (the student wing of the ruling political party) planning to engage in violent clashes with the students joining the protests. The students are from high schools, colleges and universities.

When locals joined the protest yesterday in support of the students, shots were fired at them at a place called Shonir Akhra, including at a two-year old child.