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love-and-books320 · 3 months

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I see what you are saying but I feel like you aren’t taking actual decolonization initiatives into accounts.

I want to preface this by saying, I am against violence. I always believe there is a peaceful solution, but I am not in the shoes of the Palestinians and therefore have no right to comment on how they fight their violent oppressors. I think that is a really important thing to note here, which you do to some degree, is that they are oppressed and this is how they are trying to get out of that oppression. Hamas has done horrible things but things like the beheaded baby’s have been proven false, unlike Israel actually doing that. Also, and this is the most important, most Palestinian civilians aren’t Hamas. Yet they still fight for their land everyday. Notice the March of Return.

Now to decolonization initiatives. Indigenous Americans have actually been really vocal about what we can do for decolonization efforts and what they want. They don’t want to kick everyone out but instead want to become stewards of the land. Which is why it’s called Land Back. It returning the land to the native people. This along with reparations will go a long way for indigenous American. Notice it doesn’t involve just kicking everyone out.

Which is what most decolonization initiatives say. For example a lot of Palestinian Activists I talk to over in the states, many of whom want to return to a free Palestine, say they want Palestine to get its Land back and Self-Govern. Not kick out all of the Jewish people/ Non-Palestinians. Giving Palestine its land back doesn’t mean Jewish people have to leave. It just means the oppressive Israeli state is abolished. Would this take work? Yes. Is it worth it to return people to their homes and create a better world for EVERYONE? Yes.

So is it really that you want the state of Israel to continue existing (because you would believe Jewish people deserve an Ethnostate. Which many Orthodox Jews believe goes against the Jewish religion) Or do you just believe the Jewish people shouldn’t be displaced? Because you can have one without the other and I think that’s important to note when you discuss Palestinian freedom.

I don’t want the Jewish people kicked out either but also, and I say this so kindly, no theocratic ethnostate is ethical and especially not the one that hinges on taking the homes of the indigenous people. If Jewish people decide to leave after Palestinian liberation that would be their choice (which does happen after most liberation movements. The oppressive class leaves of their own free will. Take India, or even South Africa had a large number of white citizens leave after apartheid ended)

Anyway I highly suggest you talk to your local activists. ❤️ (Also, I don’t hate people. At least not over the internet. I think most people believe they are doing the right thing. Kindness, clearly cause it started this convo, usually works better. At this point I think you are a bit naive, which is fine. You seem young. Maybe I’m off the mark though. Naivety can be a blessing. I would argue Naivety is what drives revolutionary thought. If you are young though I want to give you advice: Talk to your community about these issues. Not your family or friends but your community. You meet people who have been there first hand. I met a Jewish Pro-Palestine activist that was in Israel when Hamas attacked, their thoughts on the war changed my perspective. You meet people who know more than you. You also build community and have more conversations like this one. That’s just two cents from an old fudy dudy)

Hi anon! Sorry I didn’t respond right away I’ve been crazy busy and wanted to take time to give this the response it deserves bc you clearly put a lot of work into it. I appreciate that so much bc I feel that discussions like these, with everyone striving for the best possible outcome for everyone, are the most productive. There’s too much hate in the world already lmao

I want to thank you for informing me about a lot of this stuff because I don’t know all of it before. We all have something to learn, another reason to have informative discussions!

I 100% agree with that Palestinian people are good people and Hamas is NOT them. Personally I do condone. Hamas for what they have done, as they have also committed war crimes and violated human rights. That’s not okay no matter what the justification is. The White House did confirm that Hamas beheaded babies, though the numbers given for that as well as all Israeli deaths weren’t as high as rumored.

as for decolonization efforts, I do support them but not if it means tearing down existing governments because I don’t see how that could be peaceful. But, I’m happy to learn more about it and possibly have my opinion changed.

in this case, like I said before, true decolonization would return land to the Jews, similarly to Indigenous people. But I believe that no one group should have control of the land. However, if a Palestinian state took over the land and let everyone stay peacefully, as you suggested, I would be fine with that. But right now Jews aren’t allowed there at all, they have long been targeted for just existing in some Arab countries. And right now Palestine has no government. Hamas is a terrorist group that wants the death of ALL Jews, especially Israeli’s killed. That’s not peaceful. That’s also genocide. I’m not going to go into more in this post, but I want to thank you again for reaching out and being so kind. We all have something to learn and love to share. Your advice about community was really good and I plan to take it. Learning from others and sharing experiences is so so crucial. Thank you again ❤️

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rudjedet · 3 years

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Hey, I got an Egypt question, hopefully this isn't weird? So I'm Jewish, and growing up when we did sedars, my grandparents always told me the Jews were enslaved to build the pyramids, and I was always kinda believed it, but recently a friend told me that's not true? I guess my question is 1, did Jewish people build the pyramids, and 2, if you know, and they didn't build them, where did this misconception come from?

No worries if you don't wanna answer, I'll try looking elsewhere if I don't hear back :)

It's not weird, but it is a bit of a loaded question for reasons I'm sure you're well aware of! The Hebrew/Jewish presence in Egypt and its exact nature is tricky to determine exactly, and the earliest known evidence for it is fairly late in Egyptian history at any rate - we know that there was an enclave of Hebrew settlers at around 500 BC., but that's about the extent of it. The first known Egyptian mention of Israel comes from the reign of Merenptah (successor of Ramses II) and it's clear from this particular stela that the relationship wasn't very friendly, as it says that Israel "is laid waste, bare of seed". In this case as well, we don't know an awful lot more than that. I can answer your question without going into historicity or making any claims about the nature of Exodus as a story (though if you were curious, we've talked about archaeological before and if you search my blog for "Hebrew" you should find the posts). Bear in mind, this post is not making any claims about whether it happened or how it should be interpreted. We're simply going to look at Exodus and what Exodus says.

The text of Exodus mentions that the Hebrews "toiled and made mud bricks for pharaoh", and that they worked on the building of two cities, one of which is named as Piramesse. Now mud brick was the main building material for non-monumental projects such as cities and the palaces of rulers, though sometimes it is used for larger scale/monumental work too. Making mud brick would make more sense than them building pyramids, because based on the description of Egypt given in Exodus, the events as they are described are set far too late in Egyptian history for pyramid building to still be a thing. General consensus is that the Hebrew presence as it is described would have been late in or even after the New Kingdom. The golden age of pyramid building was in the Old Kingdom, roughly two millennia earlier. Pyramids were also largely built with quarried stone as opposed to handmade mud bricks. But again, based on what the text itself says, they weren't involved in pyramid building. Exodus never once mentions pyramids.

A sidenote here that slavery in Egypt wasn't quite what we now imagine when the term crops up, either. It was more like an indentured servitude, and a person we would call a slave didn't belong to another person, but rather to an estate such as a temple or granary. Prisoners of war were often conscripted to work on royal building works for an X number of years before they were let go to either stay in Egypt or move back to their homeland. So the concept of non-Egyptian people being made to work on pharaoh's cities is not without precedent. Certainly there could've been prisoners of war who built on pyramids, but the majority of workers were just native workers. Because Egypt functioned on a non-monetary market economy any wages were paid out in sustenance products like bread and beer, and this wouldn't be much different for eg. a prisoner of war.

The basis of the idea that the Jewish people built the pyramids comes from the early historian Josephus, who wrote this down in roughly 100 AD. This then found its way into many traditions/the public perception of Jewish slavery in ancient Egypt.

Hope that's what you were looking for!

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princesselise · 4 years

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tell me abt ur jewish aa hcs please please please

TUMBLR ATE MY RESPONSE TO THIS LIKE A MONTH AGO SO. TAKE TWO I GUESS

ok focusing on aa4 characters here!!

starting w trucy. its... complicated. being raised in troup grammarye she was more just kinda. culturally xtian in the way a lot of nine year olds are. but then she gets adopted by phoenix and shit gets messy, because he is very much in a bad place and putting in the effort to help a literal child convert is definitely not his top priority, especially since shes old enough that they can't just change things without her noticing but she also isnt old enough to fully understand it.

i imagine by the time trucy is in middle school phoenix has been able to reestablish connections w miles, and he's involved in trucy'd upbringing to a certain extent.* i havent thought abt exact details but they do yk. talk to her abt it and phoenix does try to integrate a little more jewishness into their home life. and by the events of aa4 trucys like >:P jew tiem

*see also: auntie franzi coming over for rosh hashanah with the fucking motherlode of food like you are safe now my sweet child

now uh. ah ha. Apollo. given what we know of apollos upbringing (as of aa4. get that 3d shit out of here) id say same as trucy, he was brought up culturally xtian but without any real strong beliefs. hes more just like fuck it we ball life is constantly happening. but unlike trucy that continues into adulthood for apollo. ofc he knows of judaism like cmon guys hes seen fuckin sesame street. but he didnt rlly have any personal interaction or draw until ... 😏

as we said.

he gets involved with the absolute mess that is phoenix wright and his veritable armada of jewish lawyers and associates. and yk at first theres the sense of "ah shit i dont belong here" but he does eventually become more comfortable w it and does kind of build a sense of family there?

honestly phoenix mightve assumed hes jewish already bc like. i mean he came to shabbat dinner he has to know whats going on right (he doesnt)

but yeah um. after getting kinda settled in that community, he decides to seek out conversion. and like. i dont rlly think hed ask phoenix abt it, and its a little too complicated for him to expect trucy to know more abt so he moreso has to do it for himself. but he reaches out and he does start studying and everyones v supportive :>

also in my head i have the image of the interaction of apollo being like hey mr wright uhh can i leave early i have a meeting w my rabbi at 5 and phoenix is like your fucking what

ok who else. klavier fucking gavin come here bud. oh i have so many thoughts

unfortunately those thoughts do involve kristoph but whatever. ok so like. they were both born n raised jewish, but their family wasnt v observant and they also absorbed more culturally xtian stuff like yk they did the whole xmas shebang n shit. and kristoph takes it one step further n hes like :) we are going to assimilate so hard :) what the fuck is a synagogue never heard of it :)

and klavier follows, to a degree. its not like hes actively trying to push it out of his life but no one's working to push it in, either. so with no family or community to encourage those traditions, it kinda just falls out of his life as he gets older.

and then ✨ aa4 happens. ✨ or more accurately, apollo justice happens.

its not immediate, especially considering the progression of apollos own journey, but after the events of aa4 they are friends, yk? and as they get closer and apollo moves forward w his own conversion, ofc hes gonna tell klavier abt it. n then klaviers like hold up.

+ also as they get closer klavier does get dragged into Phoenix Wright's Circle of Nonsense and with that comes the judaism.

so hes like. hey fuck kristoph actually, this is important to the ppl in my life and part of my culture and i want to learn more and reconnect

in conclusion truct complicated apollo converting and klavier reconnecting. and im so tired tumblr please dont eat this again

#ask #mutuals #remdyke #d slur #matt #aa #klavier #trucy #apollo #phoenix #theres also kl@pollo thoughts but its 3 amcn thid was alrrady getting long

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nifflersgelt · 4 years

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ok i know this discourse is years old and that it was never even really discourse so much as me ranting at everyone, but

yknow how people are like “the goldsteins aren’t portrayed as jewish bc there’s no religion in hp” i’m not going to unpack all of that bc i already have, but what i will say is, there is such a thing as nonreligious jewishness! jews in 1920s nyc would have spoken yiddish. they would have had jewish friends. they would have lived in jewish neighborhoods and eaten jewish foods. picture old lower east side, pickle stands, etc.

also, while i don’t know enough about the history of judaica (jewish ritual objects) in america to say, it seems reasonable to me that they would have some? as orphans they would have inherited their parents’ stuff, so if their parents were even given, say, a kiddush cup as a wedding gift, the girls would have it.

i’m not even gonna get into the whole thing with the dinner scene being on chanukah bc i truly don’t believe jkr can keep track of dates well enough for that even to have been an oversight.

“but they’re witches so it’s totally different.” like, maybe! clearly the goldsteins are more integrated into non-jewish society than other jews were at the time -- they have jobs at macusa rather than at a jewish business, for instance. but liiiiike tbh, that’s more of a factor of the author not even having thought about this question, yknow?

and what does magic use look like in within an ethnic neighborhood? do we assume that every magic user from any minority ethnic background leaves their neighborhood and culture and community to assimilate into white goyish wizarding culture? like maybe we do assume that! but that’s problematic on its own, you?

the goldsteins are most likely immigrants or the kids of immigrants. possible that they’re from an older group of german jews who got to the US in the 1860s, but there was such a huge Jewish immigration wave at the turn of the century that it’s way more likely they’re part of that. to take a brief detour into OP’s family history, here’s a real quick breakdown of how my folks on my dad’s side closest in age to the Goldsteins were vibing in 1926 (based on 1920 and 1930 census data, immigration records, birth records, family memory, etc) Grandpa Samuel (40), having immigrated alone as a young adult in 1905, was living in Brooklyn with Grandma Irene (36), having immigrated with her parents as a toddler in 1891. They had two kids by then, both born in America (in 1915 and 1920).

Grandpa Bill (28), having immigrated as young child with his mom and siblings in 1901, was living in Philadelphia with Grandma Sadie (28), who was born in America in 1898 but whose parents immigrated in 1887. They had one kid by then (born in 1923).

obviously the plural of anecdote is not data, but this is a pretty normal. sooooo they goldstein girls (born 1901 and unclear but maybe 1903ish?) could reasonably have been born in either america in the old country. their parents, though, probably were immigrants.

whiiiiiiich leads us to: what does it mean to be a jewish magic user in a small town in eastern europe? how does the assumption that you’ll assimilate into the non-jewish norm hold up? maybe your town is half-jewish, in which case there is really is no non-jewish norm. but let’s say it’s mostly, idk, ukrainian. or polish. do you assimilate into that, when your community has its own set of customs and vibes? why would you? and even if you do... when you get to america, you still would be bringing some other cultural situation with you -- maybe polish or ukrainian or russian. do we assume that polish wizards who come to america immediately assimilate too? if so, why? like, i’m not saying they wouldn’t, but what’s the mechanism by which this happens? forced isolation from their communities because of Rappoport’s Law? that feels solid (if traumatic - let’s explore that!) - but that assumes that there aren’t enough people from your country to have a little mini-community of polish wizards or jewish wizards or whatever. side note, it’s fascinating how jacob actually bucks the trend of everyone-assimilates-into-british-or-american-whiteness with his pazckis! this could lend evidence to the wizards-assimilate-and-no-majs don’t theory, or it could just be a coincidence. i suspect the latter.

anyway. what’s my point? i forgot already. but i think it’s worth noting that there isn’t a pan-wizarding culture because there do actually seem to be differences between american and british wizards. buuuuut it’s sure ~fascinating~ that those cultures are allowed not to assimilate into each other, but cultures like jewish are. which... is really reading too much into it. the truth is that jkr just didn’t bother or care about this. or she thinks judaism is a “faith” and doesn’t know jewishness is a culture. oh, right, that was the point of this post.

anyway, a post-script. there was an article before the first fb movie came out about the fb team going to the tenement museum in NY. having been, i know one of the apartments they show is that of a jewish family, and the docents talk about it. actually, in the cover pic *of that article* there’s a set of shabbos candlesticks on the mantel. but then in the goldstein dinner scene there’s... candlesticks... but they’re mismatched, not next to each, and being used as dinner lighting. oh and it’s the middle of the week. clearly not shabbos candles. so like. they looked at them, heard the docents talking about jewishness, and just decided “meh let’s edit that out but candles are a nice aesthetic.” like, they did make a choice on purpose to de-jewish-ify these characters. and like, it’s not like i expect better. but i do have the right to critique the impulse to assimilate everybody into what’s comfortable for you.

#fantastic beasts #tina goldstein #queenie goldstein

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marxsgrandson · 5 years

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“You’re not Russian, you’re just American with some Russian blood”- my Israeli PS professor (who is neither Russian nor American nor knows anything about me)

Long post ahead: read it if you’d like but mostly just hoping there’s someone else who can relate to the feelings I’m about to express. So here goes:

Had an unbelievably shitty day today.

I’m in this one political science class. It always ends up somehow ruining my mood. It’s the one with the shitty German men who confronted me in a group after class accusing me of being uncritical towards the Soviet Union, being an antisemite (lol these aryan guys were calling me an antisemite. Like they’re confirmed non-Jewish) and being a dumbass for not idk sucking Gorbachev’s dick personally would be the next leap there. Idk if I posted that here, but it’s necessary context.

Anyways today we were talking about Russia’s motive in x place and just jumping around to every unrelated topic about something about Russia because our class always gets sidetracked and never finishes the lesson we were supposed to do. And of course the Europeans were being pieces of shit.

And the prof said something like “I wish we had Russians in the class to offer maybe a Russian perspective too... like gosh that would be nice. Do we have any Russians?” And I sort of tentatively raised my hand half way because I’m half Russian and when she was looking around the room and didn’t see me, I said “I’m half Russian and this is actually something I heard and talked a lot about growing up, I could take a try at it”

“You’re not Russian, you’re just American with a little Russian blood” she said, dismissing me entirely as the class laughed like it was the funniest thing they’ve ever heard. I now realize what it means when people say they feel stung. I was paralyzed by those words and I don’t really know why. What makes it hurt more is that starting two seconds later she called on a series of five German douchebags to try and explain Russia’s motives and says “huh that’s an interesting idea” after each of them say something painfully obviously wrong. And I felt frozen.

If given the chance to unfreeze myself, I wish I said what I was feeling but didn’t have words for: “Hey. That’s not true. Russian was the language I said my first words in. It’s the language of my childhood and my soul. It connected me to something I felt distant from during the school day. I taught myself to read this language as soon as my mom taught me the alphabet as a little kid. I went to Russian school on the weekends when I was young. I worked hard to keep up this language even though I went through shit from my peers for it. I was the only speaker of this language I knew that was my age after the age of 10. The only other time I’d hear it was when my mom criticized me, wanted to manipulate me (because I told her she sounded sweeter in Russian so she used that to her advantage in making my life hell) bc my brother stopped speaking at a young age.

The only reason I have this connection is because I’ve never worked harder for anything else in my life. I took years of Russian lit courses (in Russian) at the local uni when I was in high school. Until then I’d only done math and reading (just for fun not for school) in Russian. Having learning and sight disabilities and being expected to keep up with both college and high school class and workloads was overwhelming at times. Like I was 14, this wasn’t an “easy A” as my friends joked, it was a college level literature course. But I loved it like nothing else. It was an oasis of peace during my adolesence just getting to hear my dearest language spoken by both native speakers and those who adopted it just because of their love for it. It was the first time I realized that this aspect of me isn’t shameful. Plus, the college kids treated me like I was such a hotshot because I grew up speaking the language and I was like a tiny 14 year old in a russia Olympic jacket and a bowl cut so that made my life. Just getting to be around places where for once, I understood everything that was being said in the exact emotion it was intended, having my cultural touchstones be the norm and that I got to interact with instantly more people in this language was really special.

Maybe what pissed me off so much is not only that I think it’s wrong, but that I think she’s right. My experience is different from a Russian experience, which is why I never claimed to be Russian even when I was the most Russian person in that classroom. My experience of being Russian (Jewish) (Italian)American is as much a story of love and connection as it is of shame and disconnection. It is the story of pain feeling inadequate to everyone, always. When I was six, kids were already refusing to play with me because their parents told them I was a spy or an enemy (which wtf who parents their kid like that) just because I talked about visiting my family in the summer (which is a normal thing to do) and gd forbid they live in RUSSIA. The bullshit hasn’t stopped since. My entire childhood, my mom was vigilant about who I was allowed to tell about being Russian because of it. I thought Russian a really important language to people here. I thought they cared about us. I thought someone else who didn’t have to care about us, fucking cared about us Russian Jews. How can a fellow Jew, an academic, not understand the inherent pluralism of Jewish and Russian experiences when she’s lived in this country surrounded by Russian Jews her whole life?

And I get it. I’m not technically Russian. I don’t have a Russian passport. I didn’t grow up in Russia and that still means there’s always someone more qualified to answer certain questions. But I didn’t think it was going to be some goyische fucking German. Cuz at least I saw saturated with these types of discussions about Russian politics, not being allowed to voice my opinion bc these are Russian jewish middle aged and older people lol kids don’t have valid opinions to them, but listening intently since infancy. I watched Russian news and tv shows (we didn’t have money for both English and Russian language tv so my mom chose the Russian tv channels) on the rare occasion I sat in front of the tv. I hung around Russian speakers more than English speakers (of my parent’s age and older) for most of my childhood until this year. And it’s not just the language, it’s the culture too. It’s the fact that no one around me shared these cultural touchstones growing up. and I didn’t share their American ones even though I grew up in the US.

But trips to Russia didn’t make me feel understood in the ways I craved it would. My family always commented on how amazingly I spoke Russian «просто без акцента!» (without an accent) *insert kisses from relatives you don’t even know who they are but they know everything about you* so I was always kind of aware that I couldn’t seamlessly fit in there either. Especially when in my mom’s small town, children who played with me had literally never seen someone with my color of skin and told me I looked “dirty” which catalyzed my whole washing my hands till my arms got dry and peeled and being frightened that I wasn’t getting “cleaner” and then getting diagnosed with my second subset of OCD at the age of seven. I had so many fond memories of my mom’s hometown. So much nostalgia. But I also have memories which pain me, like the many times I was chased out of stores or once in a doctor’s office because the person assumed I was Roma because of my appearance (like I said, small town). Things got even worse when the school I went to summer camp/summer classes in my mom’s hometown found out I was JEWISH. Oof. My mom convinced me that I was betraying my culture and my ancestors and alienating myself from my grandmother when I came out to her at 11, when I cut my hair after three years of her daily verbal harassment in my mother tongue (she knew it hurts more like that). She said if I wanted to continue “on this path” I would lose all connection to Russia.... “and you don’t want that, do you?” Suffice it to say, I got the message pretty young that I don’t belong in Russia either.

My whole life I’ve been translating half of my world to the other half of my world. And within each of these worlds I must translate my contexts many fold times more. (My Babushka still doesn’t know why I’m putting “poison” in my body for what she sees as a character flaw because she just doesn’t have the context for what ADHD is and the way I was taught to translate it in Russian is «дефицит внимание» or “deficit of attention/carefulness” which as far as she’s concerned is just an American invention for what could really be solved if I just sat more still.) And this has made my world so much richer to be lucky enough to have two native languages in which I learned how to express myself and gave me two whole realms through which to intimately understand the world and all of its nuances. You gain a family when you speak a language. It’s unlike anything else! It was even more special that I got to add Arabic at 12 and now Hebrew. I’m so lucky. But an inherent downside of being taught world views that conflict with each other in some very fundamental ways is really hard when you’re autistic and have ADHD because you have to juggle not just one set of social cues and norms, but two (or more, shout out to the multilinguals from childhood). It’s hard but it’s important and I’m so lucky that this was my birthright. I just wish people would take two seconds to try and understand. Or at least think about if something they said might make someone else feel like this, especially if they’re jewish. Like to ya it’s not a new thing to be torn in many directions. Even here where it’s the dominant culture, I expected her as someone who lives here and is an academic, she’d be better.

#jewish #class #school #study abroad #russian #russian jewish #queer #trans #russian jew #jew #adhd #autism #diaspora tag

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auckie · 5 years

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just curious, why/what do you love about goblins so much?

this is such a long answer i didnt mean to type out but anyways its under the cut bc its an essay! sorry!

yknow, ive always liked them a bit but over the past year ive just been nutso about them and im not sure why. i used to hate fantasy! i definitely cycle through SPINs but its hard for me to remember when this one started or like, when i last had it. anyways, i think theyre neat for a lotta reasons!

so there’s definitely a lot to be said about the fact that they have been used in incredibly antisemetic ways! as a jew, i have always had a fascination with the stereotypes used to make characters like shylock and svengali, two infamous, classic portrayals of greedy and devious jews. it’s this weird drive i have to take the bones of these characters (or just the tropes themselves) and craft them into a full, three dimensional person. I like to do this in the abstract with a lot of things and i refer to it as ‘applying physics to the absurd’. it’s the reason im so invested in side characters and humor in narratives, and probably why i am so into who framed roger rabbit! that movie literally takes absurdity, the very concept of it, and asks ‘what if we were to apply real world logic to this?’ Mixing cartoons and murder and then playing it out to the logical end makes for a very interesting and unique mood; it’s a funny but sort of dark movie that a lot of people remember seeing only as a kid, and being vaguely afraid of it. i LOVE that.

wow goblins are a great example of the fucked up jew trope. they try and sorta divert it to a jersey thing, but its pretty blatant what with their greed, obsession with banking and being referred to in canon as ‘grease balls’ and often having the whole jewface thing going on what with the foreheads and balding and noses. thankfully they dont have straight up yiddish accents but yknow, ny/jersey accents are heavily associated with jews so. im not making a stretch here believe me.

theyre not given a lotta attention in the narrative either, used mostly as little plot devices (need a trash mob? need a reason the horde has out of place tech? a quick way to get the player character into some stupid giant robot that will make this quest of killing 100 enemies go a lot quicker?) and for humor. but! they are SO funny and even if not major characters, theres a handful of good ones present in the lore.

so, theyre throwaway jokes, bad stereotypes, and side characters? the PERFECT storm of traits to apply gravity to, in my opinion!

outside of wow, its still pretty much the same. in fantasy, goblins are generally just trash mobs or occasionally big bad guys, which is all fine and fun, but i like when characters, who by no means should be the focus of a story, happens to be the protagonist. its so refreshing and relatable and more interesting to me! its very rare to find media that uses them as an integral part of the story for any reason, let alone a positive one.

ive never been too good at projecting onto main characters. im jewish, latino, probably trans and gay, and like, also just a weird person in general i think, so growing up there wasn’t a ton of media i saw myself in. i was never able to relate to female leads, and male leads were always just standard white dudes so there wasn’t too much luck there. it was easier with cartoons featuring less realistic characters but even then! seeing a sort of…’minority’ group, especially one usually negatively depicted with either racist characteristics or just run of the mill fantasy logic (”these non human, somewhat poc coded creatures are inherently evil! theyre born that way and theyre too stupid to know better and throw spears and live like nomadic indigenous peoples and are bad to the civilized, white eurocentric human and elf populations! go kill them for gold before the pillage and plunder!) is just. its like HEY YEAH OK! its good! i love seeing it! love seeing the little guy represented! its like when the sidekick finally gets his own arch or episode, its always so much more interesting than the hero’s story! even if it’s short and lighthearted. not everything always has to be grave and intense!

but i also hate cheesy over the top soft shit yknow? theres this anime called ‘that time i was reincarnated as a slime’ or some shit, and ive seen pics of how they do goblins and i HATE it so much. i LIKE when goblins are little nasty green men with big noses and ears and no eyebrows who cant read and are twitchy and paranoid and eat rats raw. take THAT and give it weight! what if this gross little man were to get a whiff of the good life, huh? to see human society, and compare it to how he’s lived for all of 8 years in a dank cave where his da got his head smashed in with a rock yesterday– what would that do to this little goblin?

but yknow, i could also just sum this up with the fact that i think theyre really cool and funny and neat. i also GENUINELY think they are so adorable. like, night goblins and skaven from warhammer, goblins from wow, any goblin or little gross dude really– i just honestly think they are so so cute and idk why. the sharp teeth! the green skin and slit pupils! the ears and noses and claws! i think the way people feel about baby monkeys and puppies is how i react to stupid little green dudes. i especially love when theyre like, mischievous and mean and like ready to jump at you and bite you bc that’s how i always feel. like that comic of the guy driving and then he thinks ‘penis’ and hunches his shoulders and smiles REAL nasty.

also, ever since i was little, whenever a character on a cartoon or in a movie was: short, green/blue, had a jersey/NY accent, i just. fucking IMMEDIATELY loved them. i have nooo idea why but i can think of like ten characters who fit at least two of these criteria off the top of my head who i was obsessed with as a kid. snap from chalkzone, bloo from fosters home for imaginary friends, zim, stitch!

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lunasaturnine · 4 years

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Vienna and cultural trauma

WOW so cool to sign into tumblr and see 99+ notifications, and think “oh a post got some attention,” but it’s actually just general attention!

My astro blog is ready for some action! Or maybe ppl are just bored bc of the quarantine. Either way, it would be cool to write.

I want to write about VIENNA.

I just took a course about somatic healing of trauma and it gave me a good overview of how trauma recovery works. Chapter 1 of trauma recovery is gathering resources. Chapter 2 is dipping or oscillating back into the memory, whether it’s a clear memory or just something held hidden in your body, with your new resources, and allowing circles to complete. Chapter 3 is being bigger bigger brighter in the world !!! (It’s a nice course, it’s on somatopia.com, it costs $40 if you have that to throw around, it’s like 2 hours of videos of a nice man talking in a soothing voice in intelligent language about healing from trauma)

Now I’m thinking about cultural trauma and Vienna. I have long felt that helping to heal the Hitler wound of Vienna is one of my soul’s major dharmic thrusts. So I googled “healing cultural trauma” and most resources out there talk about the trauma of the victim culture. That kind of trauma is totally different, because it recommends amplifying the traditions and greatnesses of the culture, and when you’re a cultural perpetrator of violence, amplifying the greatness of your culture is a trigger because cultural superiority is what lead your culture to be violent. But there are still a lot of resources with a lot of valuable information. I’ve only skimmed a couple things so far and it seems like one thing people emphasize in cultural healing is human connectedness.

The internet is a little hard to navigate on this topic, but I found an NYT editorial called “I loved my grandmother but she was a Nazi.” The author’s sweet grandma was literally a Nazi but she was a nice person who didn’t hate Jews. When the author talked to her about it, she would deflect. “He said a lot of things, I didn’t listen to them all” and “I was caught up in my own life” etc. The author says, that’s bullshit, there’s something she’s avoiding, and I can’t understand what it is or why she’s doing it, and I’m hesitant to say this because it might seem like I’m trying to forgive Naziism but I’m really just trying to understand who I look at when I look at my grandmother. It’s the most direct address of the West’s Nazi wound that I’ve found in my two and a half minutes of searching on google and I think it’s on the nose.

In the readmore are my more concrete thoughts on potential resources for Western/German/Viennese healing, and thoughts about what working through phase 2 would look like for a perpetrator culture.

Resources

On this reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/5nfqwp/my_grandmother_grew_up_in_nazi_germany/

there are some resources. First of all, 1. there are people from diverse backgrounds respective to WWII, coming together and talking as equals in the same kind of “room.” The descendants of the persecuted and the persecutors are together and they are not enemies. The knowledge, and SOMATIC FEELING EXPERIENCE, of that, can be a resource. I am typing over this brusquely and that’s Mercury magic for you and you should know that I just burst into sobs. That in just a couple of generations, the grandsons and daughters of enemies can be together and not hate each other and even love each other is an immense resource and can be leaned into at any point. There is a vast well of cultural relief available here. My tears are thankful, grateful tears, tears of relief. I am thinking of the parks in vienna that are holocaust memorial parks. I am thinking of that horrible statue out in front of the Albertina that is a memorial to cultural violence but at the same time, also represents the trapped soul of the Perpetrator culture, since we are all One. In the same way that a piece of music which opens with a terrifying chord represents both the terror experienced by the terrorized, and the menace of the terrorizer, AND THE FEELINGS IN THE terrorizer that caused them to generate this chord... off on a tangent, and I’m not sobbing anymore! That was crazy. I have a tendency to lock my feelings up, but being alone in this house and in this quarantine, I can open up locked wells of feeling like that.

That resource is IMMENSE, and it’s RIGHT in front of our faces all the time. I took a class on 20th century germany in undergrad, and the professor was a young guy with a Nazi grandfather, well I’m not sure if he was a Nazi but he was a German soldier, and he remarked on it. And I think at the time I thought “how lovely” but if you sit with that feeling, it’s deep as hell. And if you sit with it from the perspective of a penitent perpetrator, it’s REALLY FUCKING DEEP.

So that’s available. Im gonna post this real quick as a way of saving the draft but I have more ideas.

Okay. Continuing,

Resource 2 also from reddit post

The top respondent says his German POW uncle had a British GF. That’s similar to the first resource, but more immediate. I’m sure there are lots of stories like that. Intercultural experience that nullifies certain tensions

Resource 3 also from reddit post

The stories of people who did do the right thing... maybe. I dont know. I’ll get off this post soon but it’s interesting. Idk if this counts as a resource, it’s kind of a tangent, but the more I learn about karma and trans-life inheritance of it, the more it seems true that it really is better to die living in line with your beliefs than to live safely. Like the person in Pweuy’s post. That father died but his karma was pristine as far as this was concerned and perpetrator trauma did not cling to him.

ok jesus this is an interesting post... the girl skipping over the river of blood as it trickled out of the asylum... the hitler youth boy befriending a lamb and the nazis slaughtering it in front of him... the russian soldier who guarded the german girl because she reminded him of her daughter...

Okay. Before I go on, I want to clarify that I am not specifically talking about people who held Nazi beliefs in their core. There is a special type of perpetrator injury that is specific to that kind of thing, true villains and terrorists. I’m talking more about “ordinary Germans” who didn’t think very hard and got swept along, moderate supporters to moderate resisters. As a culture, they were moved by the tides into Naziism. They have culpability, but not the exact same kind of culpability as perpetrator people. The culture moved to perpetrate these crimes, and they were a part of that culture. That’s the specific kind of wound I’m interested in healing. There is a poster on that page whose grandma really loved Hitler...

Ok! I spent a lot of my energy in that page, now its 10PM and I still have veggies to prepare. I need energy for this next thing I was going to talk about.

Resource 4 - this one specific coffee shop

I’m putting *s in its name because I like this blog anonymous. P*****n is a coffee shop in Vienna that is the only happy place I went. There were places that were ok... and fine... maybe pleasant... but this place was American levels of happy. Waiters danced around and were actually relaxed and happy. P*****n’s theme is intergenerational communication. It hires grandmothers to work behind the counter, and make pies, and you’re supposed to buy a slice of their pie and talk to them a bit. And then the waiters are young, and they communicate with the Omas. And the Omas are maybe not old enough to have been Nazis but their parents were.

They also include a bit in all their menus about intergenerational dialogue and wondering what more they can do and how they can be more of a space for it.

I had MANY genuinely pleasant little experiences there... and I think that little space that some person with a vision made, is a blossoming flowerpot with lots of healing energy where true dialogue could happen. So that could be a resource too. The happiness of that place. In fact, these conversations could happen there.

But I wouldn’t want to break the space. The course I just took talked about titration, which is just accessing a TINY part of the traumatic memory, so you don’t get overwhelmed. This is a very icy fucked up conversation for a lot of people. My Viennese friend told me to talk more quietly about it than I was. Actually I did talk about it there with some people! The German girl was surprised that I thought Vienna had a wound. So was the Irish girl actually. For other people it’s really evident. My Viennese friend. D**n. Rf: “it’s ALL I feel when I am there.” ME. God that conversation was sooo gentle and sweet and light. The Irish girl was wondering if she should move to Vienna or stay in Barcelona, and the three of us talked about Vienna nd it was SOOOOO LOVELY, holy BALLS.

But even if we don’t hold conversations there exactly, that could be a really good place for conversation to start. I could reach out to the people who run the shop to ask them about it. And then maybe conversations could happen in other places (don’t want to spoil the sweetness of the shop).

Resource 5 - personal as I investigate maybe not really a resource - but yes maybe it is a resource: Grounded, comfortable people who are Viennese, and who understand the goals and also understand the sensitivities of Viennese people more than I do;

Resource 6 - people who are experts at cultural healing in victim cultures

Resource 7 - fostering dialogue between those two parties, also me.

Again I’m really playing fast and loose with the idea of resources. Maybe. We’re starting to move into phase 2, also, because with this dialogue, I want to open up some scripts for how to TITRATE sensitively.

phase 2

For instance, notice that I didn’t say something like “Remembering Vienna’s amazing heritage of incredible music that has the power to redeem and heal equal to and more accessibly than religions.” I think it’s true that Viennese music is a major healing resource (BEETHOVENSCHUBERTMOZARSKLTBSLJRTHBLEWSKJNS:OFDFD), but since it is bound up in Viennese identity, that notion is complex. Also, it’s not only that Viennese identity is nasty because it’s nazi and therefore that gives Schubert etc a dark tint, but also, the grand things that Vienna has contributed to western culture are now a part of Vienna’s current wound of degradation, cheapification, and humiliation by TOURISM. although I will say that I think Resource 8 should be MY OWN deep internalization of the healing power of Viennese music. Posting again to save...

...not only does that music help me be healed, but it also helps me understand healing process in the specific language of the culture i’m interested in

okay. Phase 2.

A picture of what I think sorta needs to happen

I think Omas that say “It was just a lot of talk, we ignored it” and “I was busy in my life”... I think what needs to happen for a perp culture is for them to actually own their part in the villainy, to claim it and stand in it and feel the pain, and say “I’m SORRY, this was HORRIBLE, I AM SORRY.” THIS WILL ALLOW THEM TO BECOME NEW!!!!!!!

That’s a v different healing process from like native american healing etc.

I really think somatic approach is a better road in than cognitive because, god, imagine cognizing all of this HORRIBLE SIN bit by bit knowing your culture perpetrated it and not having anyone to blame it on. Jesus.

How might the process of getting there look?

This is vague especially now that I don’t have that burst of energy. Conversations...

Here’s a question. After resource gathering.

“Knowing that bells rang for Hitler in Vienna, how does it feel to be Viennese?” IN YOUR BODY?

Damn THAT’S GOOD! THAT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION. How does it feel to be Viennese? The goal is for it to feel OK.

Um, speaking specifically about Wiener trauma and their welcoming of Hitler, a few years ago, I read this in some guidebook, Vienna’s government acknowledged that they welcomed Hitler and that they were wrong, and investigating that is important for my mission. It’s cool because 1. it’s a Big Ol Step and 2. it lays groundwork for all of this.

Step 3 is really beautiful to think about. In the course I took, it’s where the instructor got out of his soothing calm neutral demeanor and started speaking passionately and bursting with smiles.

In addition to being able to be more firmly grounded in their own individual and cultural identities...

Okay, so, I’m drawn to this because I’m drawn to it, punkt. That’s all. But also, and I think I’m really late on the uptake here, I think I was due in Vienna many years ago, I think that whatever work I do in Vienna is helpful for the echoes of Naziism in today’s world, such as Trumpism (which does not...exactly... have the same kinds of premises but uses a lot of the same kinds of mecahnisms) and actual brazen nationalism, white supremicism, and far right movements. Hitler is a LOUD and REVERBERANT figure in our history for this kind of energy, and if we can do healing surrounding him, re-discovering resilience in the moderates, helping them go through the emotional journey they need to go through, they will be a beautiful resonant horn call from the past, a solid core of NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that will strengthen the culture of the entire FUCKING world.

Music will be a part of it.

I have always loved Vienna, and I can’t really analyze it. I love it like a girlfriend. I know she’s problematic. And she can be really really horrible.

The wound is deep. The horribleness, the life negating quality not only of the FUCKING WRETCHED SHOP CLERKS, but also of the WAY -- THINGS -- HAPPEN, of the overall weird ass SPIRIT in Vienna, is... God DAMN WHY do I like that city so much? It’s bizarre. It’s very pervasive. I don’t enjoy experiencing it, I don’t think it’s attractive, I don’t like it. I love Vienna THROUGH that wound. I REALLY LOVE Vienna. That’s one of the clearest things that I know in my heart. I love Vienna... and that’s the whole story. It’s one of the easiest things for me to say.

Lots of people love a city. We do it for reasons. I think our hearts are drawn where they are drawn because we are attracted to healing the specific karmas of places. The karma of my hometown is mainly racial, with native american underneath. The coffee shop that is equivalent to P*****n serves often as a place of racial conversation and healing. It is actually pretty amazing. And once there was a white supremacist with a gun there and he stood up on a table and let people see his gun. He didn’t yell or anything. But that vital thing happened there in that coffee shop.

Excuse me I also love coffee shops and Vienna is the land of coffee shops.

Okay. I love Vienna! I literally love Vienna, with my heart. I love Vienna.

One last thing. I’m saving then editing...

The postscript: A major resource, and it kinda sidesteps some things, is language. It will be much better if German is spoken in these conversations. When I went to Vienna last, I didn’t prepare my German because when I went to Vienna first, everyone spoke English and it was simply easier to speak English all the time, so I figured I wouldn’t try to give the illusion and disappoint. But lo... the native people really, really resent it if you don’t even try to speak German. They actually seem to experience it as an injury. It is wild, if you’re not expecting it.

ALL OVER VIENNA I saw the Graffiti stamp/brand, “Tourism is terrorism.”

When I was in the airport and the cute customs dudes asked me the purpose of my visit, I said “TOURISM” and they laughed. That was fun. But it was a lie. I was a pilgrim. I... know I was a tourist, technically. But I felt such hatred for the tourists standing like apes in front of the Schubert statue in the Stadtpark. Their wretched selfie smiles plastered on top of the emptiness of their experience. My purpose in Vienna had nothing in common with theirs. And I claim that I didn’t do a lot of the tourist things - not many museums or concerts or whatever.

One of my more pleasant memories was going into a used book shop and asking about a book in the window, a German-language edition of the tao te ching from 1923 (a very strange time). I asked in English. The clerk was confused and asked if I spoke German, and I answered in German that I spoke some German, but was learning, and knew the TTC very well, and that it’s simply usually easier to speak in English. I might have used imperfect German, but I felt dignified and natural doing it.

Ok, not only the German language, but the quiet Viennese demeanor of Scorpiness. Scorpscorpscorpscorp. Quiet, observant, emotional, and responsive to gentle tenderness and consideration, and traumatized by brashness.

Both the spoken language, and the language of the demeanor, I think are somatic approaches that sidestep cognitive...things and make the culture feel unconsciously accepted and open.

On my first trip I learned howwwwww AMERICAN I was, and then on my second trip I opened myself up to my inner Wiener and was quiet and scorpy, and I felt warmth emerge from the people and city in response. It felt really right, and it felt like i was honoring...her, and it felt um sort of romantic. ha

#Vienna #Wien

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askagenderfluidandgenderflux · 7 years

Text

God loves gay people

Ok, we’ve had several asks about the proof for God not caring that you’re gay, so I compiled a thingy and it’s long but it’s worth it for those of you that are interested. It primarily goes over the ‘clobber verses’- those verses commonly used to tell queer people that we’re not cool in the eyes of God.

ok, here it is!

So in order to understand and think about the views that we're gonna talk about here, it's first important to look at the two ways that someone can view the Bible: the inerrant view and the infallible view. The inerrant view says that the Bible was thoroughly inspired, and as translations happened and blah blah blah what was intended to be said never got screwed up because of humans. This also follows the view that the world was truly created in seven days and stuff like that.

The infallible view is what we're going to use, though; because that says that the Bible yes, was thoroughly inspired by God and that God told certain humans to write certain things and et cetera, but it creates room for human error to have stepped in and fucked up what God had intended to say. For instance, in cases of translation, in cases of science proving stuff (like how old the Earth is), et cetera.

So, with that in mind, let's dig in.

So the first passage generally used to clobber us queer people that we're going to look at is Genesis 1:27, where it talks about God having made people in His own image; "male and female He created them" right?

Well, if we fast-forward a little to Jesus times, over in Galatians 3:28, we get that handy little verse that says we don't need that dichotomy anymore! "neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free" et cetera. So, in the beginning there was a dichotomy of male and female, and when Jesus came and died for our sins he basically said 'yeah, ya don't need that anymore!'

So what exact argument does this thing pertain to? The procreation argument. While in the beginning, God only made two people, procreation to make more lil babies was necessary- so we only needed male and female as genders. Now, the earth is uh plenty populated, so we don't really need that anymore. This argument also works in favor of people with uteri who don't want to have kids.

ok next one

So this is the one that I have personally had used against me the most: Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.

So if you recall that story, God was having his dude look for just One Righteous Person in the entirety of the town, right? And (Lot, I think his name was) had brought his daughters and his wife along with him to stay in the town. Well, again recall how some angels came and Lot was like 'ok i'll house you here's some food and a place to sleep!!' and then dudes from the town came and were like 'hey those angel-dudes are hot how about you give them to us so that we can do things with them' and Lot was like 'uhhhh nope!!! Have my daughters instead!!!' (which is A Whole Other Thing like Damn)

If we again, look at the New Testament, there are several verses (Matthew 10 and Luke 10) that talk about the inhospitality of that town. So, that particular story doesn't have enough evidence for it to be about being gay- it's most likely speaking about how rape, inhospitality, and stuff like that is wrong.

alright next one

and I can't quite read my handwriting on this one but I think it's Leviticus 18:22/20:13??

and that one is the one where its like 'it's an abomination for a man to lie with man as he lies with a woman'

and that one has to be looked at in context with Jewish Law at the time- which said that a man was not allowed to lie in the same bed (literally, lay in the same bed) as another man's wife

it also could be a mistranslation- the second man 'a man shall not like with a man' may have meant boy instead so it could be about pedophilia.

plus, this verse doesn't even talk about a loving relationship between two people- the type of intercourse here was used as worship of other gods, which God had already said "HEY!! NO!! JUST ME!!" to so there's also that

okay next one

Romans 1:26-27

this is the passage where Paul(?) was writing to the Romans when they were having a TON of sex with all kinds of people and he was like 'ummmmmm stop'. Likely, this was actually talking about either overflow of lust or ignoring how God had made that individual person, allow me to elaborate

so with the overflow of lust part, it's about how people were having orgies or cheating on their partners or other things that were either not safe or explicitly stated elsewhere in the Bible that that is wrong

and with the other bit: God makes some people gay, some people straight, some people some other variation- it's possible Paul was talking about how guys who were created straight were doing gay shit (i.e. brojobs?) and God was like 'c'mon man, ya like girls stop fucking around with dudes' or vice versa

and this passage also doesn't mention queer relationships as loving with fidelity and commitment, so we have no context there

and the next one: 1 Corinthians 6:9, "nor men who practice homosexuality"

this verse is almost certainly a mistranslation

the word that we use for homosexuality today (which is really long and I'm not going to type it out) isn't necessarily a good translation for the Greek word used there. That particular Greek word is dead, and we don't know how it was used in context. All we know for sure about that word is that it meant 'soft'. It could mean soft of heart (so like, easily tempted) and in older translations of the Bible, it was used to mean masturbation, so like, not a good translation/???

Again, all we know is that it meant 'soft'

and then there's 1 Timothy 1:8-11

it's pretty much the same thing as a couple of other ones: it's either a mistranslation of a word we don't know for sure how they used, or it's referring actually to pedophilia.

and then we can look at what Jesus himself said: nothing

and also Jesus was likely bi/pan bc uhhh "had all kinds of temptation" can we say it's canon??

plus, it's really important to remember that Jesus hung out with prostitutes, with liars, with tax evaders, and a bunch of sinners, if he didn't care about that shit, do you really think he'd care if you were gay? He's so Big and Infinite and Wonderful, and honestly, in my many conversations with Him all I ever get is love. I personally believe that as long as you're doing your best to love on the people around you and show them God's love, then you'll be okay.

If you want some books to read, I also have a list of those from the friend who did all this research.

i really hope that helps you on your journey- I know growing up in the church and being taught that God hates gays is fucking awful and has long term effects. I hope this helps to begin a healing process for you as it did me.

If any of you have any more questions, please feel free to give me a shout.

~Rowan

#asks #christianity #explanation #god loves gay people #proof #clobber verses #rowan

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robertspatts · 7 years

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hiii pls write a fluffy af stozier fic pls

The Card- Stanley Uris x Richie Tozier

AN: Wasn’t sure if this was in reference to platonic or romantic stozier but I wrote platonic bc I feel that shit in my soul

I am so bad at writing dialogue so sorry the ending is so messy

I AM SO SORRY THIS ENDED UP WAY MORE ANGSTY THAN FLUFFY I’LL TRY A MORE FLUFFY ONE NEXT TIME

TW: child abuse/neglect, verbal abuse, domestic violence

Word Count: 1.3k

The echoes of screams bounced off the wall in Richie’s bedroom, as his stepdad shoved his mother, for what he could only guess had been the 10th time tonight. She had been drinking again, Richie knew that, he had stopped trying to wake his mother in the mornings to take him to school, knowing that if he did, her eyes would be glassed-over and dismissive, like she wasn’t even there at all. Richie tried to drown out the noise with a ‘The Cure’ record spinning in the background. It was one of the albums Bill had told him to check out, just as he was leaving for his winter trip…

“GET HIM THE FUCK OUT.” His attention was suddenly snapped back to the screaming occurring downstairs. Richie knew all too well what this meant, his mother had yet again blamed him for her drinking, just to keep that cocksucker around. Richie jolted upwards, looking at the drainpipe outside his window wondering if the pain of climbing down it would hurt more or less than his stepdad slapping him across the cheek. Over the past year, Richie had realised that each slap got more painful, each one reminded him that his mother had chosen this bastard over her only son. Richie grabbed his backpack swiftly, stuffed in a few dirty clothes that he had lying on the ground and climbed out the window, just as he heard the sounds of pounding footsteps coming up the stairs.

*********

It wasn’t the first time that Richie had run away from home, but it was the first time he truly felt he had nowhere to go:

Bill was away on holidays. Beverly never let anyone come over. Ben was busy studying for the SAT’s even though they were more than 6 months away. Mike had scored an internship at a museum in Portland. He couldn’t go to Eddie because… he was afraid of what could come out, if he was that emotionally vulnerable in front of Eddie Kaspbrak, his best friend, that was all he was… Richie constantly tried to remind himself of this.

Then there was Stan, the only one of the Losers who noticed the bruises appearing on Richie’s face about a year ago. He pulled him away quietly and told him that his home was always open, if he needed it. Even though Richie played it off as a joke, telling Stan “I don’t wanna come over and fucking worship the Torah with you”, he appreciated Stanley Uris more than he could ever know.

But he couldn’t go there. The last time he did, Richie stupidly was himself and let out an F-bomb in front of Stan’s mother. Stan hurriedly shushed him as his mother beckoned him to the kitchen. Stan spoke in a hushed voice but Andrea Uris’ voice was as clear as day.

“Do I raise you to hang out with people like… him? His mother drinks herself silly and you can’t walk past that house without hearing yelling, no wonder his father left them. I’m just trying to protect you Stanley, I don’t want you hanging around the wrong sort” Andrea sounded disgusted, which Richie completely understood, his family disgusted him just as much. Richie snuck out of the house while Stan was trying to plead his case to his mother, vowing never to visit Stan’s house again, because the thought of causing an uprising in the Uris household was far too much for him to bear.

Richie came to a stop in the middle of an intersection, realising his train of thought had brought him to the street just before Stanley’s. He cursed his subconscious for dragging him to the one place he promised to never go, but he supposed he needed somewhere to stay and maybe it would be okay, because Stan’s parents would be asleep. He could be gone by morning and his presence wouldn’t bring destruction as it did to every other place he went.

He knocked tentatively on Stan’s door, fearing that Stan wouldn’t want to see him either, after the last incident at his house. Stan swung open the door and immediately pulled him into a hug. Richie hadn’t realised that his cheeks were stained with tears, Stan had always been the most observant of each of the Losers emotions. Richie hadn’t been hugged by Stan since they were in preschool, when they had had a fight over the toys in the sandpit and the teacher demanded they mended it by physical contact. The feeling of Stan’s arms around his tiny body (Stan had an incredible growth spurt over the last year, much to the rest of the Losers’ dismay) caused him to completely break down and sob into his best friend’s chest.

“Oh fuck, Richie,” Stan said, his arms tightening around the boy who called himself trashmouth, watching him empty his soul onto his pyjama shirt.

“I’m sorry,” Richie sniffed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here, I’m such a fuck up Stan, nobody wants me, I’m going to go, I’m sorry.”

“Richie there’s no way I’m letting you stay outside in the cold, you better come inside or…” Stan paused, trying to think of a way to coax Richie inside. “…or I’ll get all the Losers here to help me comfort you,” he finished, knowing that Richie would rather die than have the rest of the Losers worry about him.

Stan took Richie inside and brought him up to his room, set up a mattress beside his bed and once Richie was comfortable, sat beside him and gave him the cup of hot cocoa he had just made for himself. He tentatively wrapped his arms around his best friend, not knowing what to say just yet. He wanted to be there for him more than anything, but he had been learning something about triggers in his psychology class, and he was feeling more cautious around Richie than he ever had been.

“Am I a bad person Stan?” Richie asked emotionlessly. “I feel like I’m a bad person. All the bad things that happen to me, they must happen for a reason, they must happen because I’m a terrible person, right?”

Stan felt his heart sink. He always prided himself on being the caring friend, the one who people could turn to when they were feeling down, but with Richie, he felt completely lost for words.

“Rich…” Stan paused. “I’ve looked up to you since we were in preschool, when you stood up to Belch Huggins and told him off for stealing my sandwich. You’ve always been the strongest one out of all of us Losers. You don’t always have to be strong, you know that right?”

Stan got up and grabbed a small card from the corner of his dresser.

‘Dear Stan, Thank u for being my bestest friend in the world. I like u because u make me laugh and even though u r a nerd its ok’

Richie laughed, “God, how old was I when I wrote this shit, it’s terrible.”

Stan smiled, “I think it was just before 2nd grade, anyways, I kept it here in my room because I love being your best friend Rich. You can stay here as long as you want okay, it’ll be like an all year sleepover, we can play video games and shit, everything is going to be okay.”

Richie nodded. “Thanks Stanley, you fucking Jew,” he teased.

Stanley rolled his eyes at his trashmouth friend. “Please go to sleep Richie, you look exhausted.”

Stan hopped into bed and looked down at his sleeping friend below him and he noticed that for the first time in a long time, Richie looked at ease. Stan hoped he had given him a place where he was truly wanted.

Taglist: @january-emb3rs @denbruhh @toshitophchan @richiietozierr @goshdarndiddlyheck @birdbabestan @httpsalien @ri-chietozier

#it2017 #it1990 #stozier #stanley uris #richie tozier #stanley x richie #fanfic #writing #mine #the losers club #why is everything i write angsty

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dieinct · 7 years

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mecholah replied to your post: i wanna try writing something for a bigger fandom...

What are your HP rare pairs?

oh boy okay. uh. its mostly shit poly ships because thats how I As An Individual Roll. LONG, i put this under a cut

in GENERAL i want canon-gen pairings to be a little more Upsetting or at the very least genuinely played straight for drama than canon because animorphs spoiled me and everyone here should have ptsd by second year at the LATEST and while i love hjp i would like More exploration of that, as, a ptsd.

nextgen ships should be very lighthearted over a solid core of generational trauma.

marauder-era fic should be either HEART-SHATTERINGLY filled with dramatic irony OR completely, radically au (generally still Upsetting because This Isn’t A Coffeeshop Au Brenda) but on a political level rather than a, war gore and violence level.

i have a fair amount of feelings about the draco-luna-ginny-neville-harry Constellation and i’ll ship anything from in there i guess. assuming it’s given real weight and consideration and isn’t Exessively Heterosexist.

dracy/luna/harry, draco/ginny/harry, neville/harry, neville/harry/ginny, neville/ginny/luna,

like i’ve never read & enjoyed draco/ginny fic bc its like... bad. but i sometimes like the version of it that exists in my head, where they’re on opposite sites of a political issue, and a moral one, but at the same time theyre both purebloods and they have more in common than they don’t - there’s a reason the weasleys have been pureblooded for so long even despte arthur weasley’s muggle fascination; they’re not bad people, but they do have values (i think they to a certain extent struggle with ‘well there’s nothing wrong with muggleborns but you wouldn’t want your kid marrying one’ stuff; they’ve got a muggle/squib family member and Completely shut him out).

the weasleys are good people but they’re purebloods. and both of them have - you know, connections 2 voldemort that they wish they didn’t have. and also they’re both obsessed with harry potter. you know how it goes. ginny stole draco’s impersonations and made em a little less mean and made friends with harry and there you go. i am interested in a ginny who’s a little less nice, and a draco who’s a little less drawling bad boy. this isn’t necessarily something i’d WRITE but i Would Read It if it existed! tell me about uncomfortable pureblood hypocrisies and people for whom the political is personal but maybe on a house level; she’s a pureblood gryffindor so of course she’s on this side of the issue and he’s on the other. i’m interested in wizarding society being nasty!

neville/harry feels obvious to me as does neville/ginny & neville/ginny/harry. nevlle’s harry’s shadow, hs also-ran; he’s also the one who’s Around for ginny during the war while harry put her aside.

ginny/voldemort. is that a rarepair? do we not talk about it? i feel like every fic writer back in the day had at least the ONE angsty ginny/tom fic.

hermione/krum. krum/ron, krum/ron/hermione, i wrote a ficlet about that one.

hermione/the weasley twins but only under circumstances where the twins are horrible bullies and hermione is her coldest most terrifying self. hermione/fleur, honestly.

anthony goldstein/there being any other jews at hogwarts. sometimes hermione sometimes harry, because they are both jewish OBVIOUSLY.

cedric/harry (!!!!), cedric/krum/fleur(/harry). accidental goblet-related magical bonds. Come On.

i wrote large chunks of a harry/hermione bodyswap gender issues time travel fic that Came To Me In A Dream once; i haven’t genuinely shipped that in like over a decade but honestly i’ll ship almost anything given sufficiently au circumstances and i do feel like this qualified.

sirius/james, sirius/lily/james are big ones. sometimes remus/sirius/tonks when i’m interested in Deeply Tragic but broadly speaking i am not really into remus/sirius barring the occasional, genuinely excellent fic. i genuinely kind of enjoy remus/tonks as a fucked up wartime wedding. uh, remus/lily, faintly.

occasionally in sufficiently au circumstances (i.e. voldemort was never a thing; he was never a death eater) i’m able to ship sn*pe with people (not ever lily).

nextgen i’m into literally anything but albus/scorpius. sorry. but literally anything would be preferable.

also unrelatedly FUCK all the people who make tonks or teddy genderfluid just because they can shapeshift for some reason it’s a fucking RAVENING berserk button for me.

#mecholah #bad post op!!!#hp #alf.txt

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clumsyclifford · 4 years

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hihi! no thank you for calling me baby a. i love it so much b. it reminded me that i needed to respond to you hjadladha im that type of texter that either responds within 3 seconds or not for like 3 weeks so yikes for me i guess anyway this is a two-fold message bc 1. songs and 2. high holidays so first! i have the jane bordeaux playlist made i just need to go through and add songs but i have no time bc classes so itll happen eventually i guess??? i really just need to put it on my to-do (1/?)

list to constantly remind myself abt it. ha'ahava is gorgeous and i just saved the rest of the album to make sure that i listen later but yes static and ben-el wrote fabulous from hsm im sorry im just here to tell you the facts their music is just so good and upbeat and catchy ur right we deserve a whole album and you are also right they do have some bad songs but i cant believe you didnt mention broke ass millionaire the english version of silsulim that is a whole new song and also dumb (2/?)

but i will say the dumb/weird-ness of their songs is a big part of the appeal for me anyway i have a whole youtube playlist of mostly old hebrew songs that i need to try and remake in spotify but catch me putting the entire static/ben-el discography in it. i am pretty much always feelin some type of jewish so! here i am! i think it was you (or maybe another jewish 5sos blog??? i barely look at urls ahjkdasld) that tagged some picture of 5sos with like baruch hashem or something (3/?)

n i laughed my ass off for a very long time and then was very excited about another jewish person here in 5sos-land. i actually have like 12 tabs worth of rosh hashanah themed coloring pages open rn bc im planning my schools RH program this year and i love arts and crafts so good timing haha on actual RH im driving to go see a friend i havent seen in like 4 mos so ill probably just find a live stream for erev RH services and try to find a circular challah on the day and have that be it :) (4/?)

i do usually fast on yom kippur and ill probably find a stream for kol nidre and YK day theres some pretty interesting ones out i do usually fast on yom kippur and ill probably find a stream for kol nidre and YK day theres some pretty interesting ones out there but im also a fan of the good ol traditional (5/?)

im not living with any other jews this semester but my colleges jewish community is doing a pretty good job of staying connected remotely but i also love making random jewish connections everywhere (and playing jewish geography ajdas) there are no questions in this so pls liveblog ur reactions and all of ur thots (6/6) - שירים

ps wow sorry this got long i think its the longest message ive ever sent wowie :)))) (7/6)

omg okay i cant believe i actually summoned you im gonna put answers under the cut because u know i am a respectful blog runner

i am also one of those texters algkjdfgkdj so i am flattered that you got back to me so promptly!! very excited for the jane bordeaux playlist i hope you will share it with me or at least tell me what’s on it so i can make it myself not trying to manipulate you into revealing your identity i promise

AHHH tell me what you think of the ivri album god im so excited ive been listening to it quite a lot lately LOVING קר קר unsurprisingly dkfjgkdfjg LOOK i didnt mention broke ass millionaire because (1) it’s just a bad new version of silsulim so i feel like the existence of silsulim negates it and (2) i repressed it and am pretending it doesnt exist. but you’re RIGHT ok that song is garbage

JDFKLGLFDGJ EXTREMELY bold of u to assume there are other Very Jewish 5sos Blogs im pretty sure it was me who tagged it baruch hashem god i wish i could find what post it was but it sounds like something i would do

oh thats so cute !! omg rosh hashanah coloring pages......charming honestly i love that. and that sounds like a really nice plan tbh

wondering if your 4th message got cut off somehow?? but anyway yeah i also fast had to email my profs for the classes i have that day and tell them im not coming to class :))) love not getting YK off :)))) but at any rate i don’t know what im planning to do about services i really Don’t Like services especially not on yom kippur but it is nice to do in a way but also i don’t wanna do services on zoom that sucks so like......we’ll see. we will just have to see

oh my god i LOVE jewish geography you know what shirim anon i bet we could play it. where are you from where do you live

#i am from maryland so that is my contribution to the jewish geography game #did you do any jewish youth groups or anything like that #usy...........#thank you for indulging me and being jewish w me on main #<3 #shirim anon #anonymous #ask #answered

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christsbride · 4 years

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COVID-19 and Closing Churches

With the spread of the flu-like Covid-19 virus, government orders to close, and the community in fear of getting sick; at what point should a church close its doors and temporarily end meeting? To get clear guidance, we must seek God's Word, and not our feelings or thoughts from our fragile emotional state. What did Jesus and The Apostles do? What did the early church do? What does Holy Scripture say?

What Did Jesus Do Around Sickness?

John 4:46-53 is interesting, not only is it a sickness healing, but Jesus brings up a interesting point.

46 Then He went again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. 48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 49 “Sir,” the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!” 50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. 51 While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.

Now, it doesn't say WHAT the boy was sick with except the fact he was sick and was going to die. There is something interesting to note. Jesus didn't travel to the sick boy's house. Instead, healed the boy from the a distance. Right here, some people may use this as an example was to why self-isolation is acceptable for the church because God heals from a distance. BUT, that is a failure to see the REAL reason for this sort of RARE "distance" healing. Verse 51 would be completely irrelevant. That's the point. The time and distance PROVES Jesus has divine healing powers. THAT's the point. Not the distance. So, this is actually a poor example for self-isolation and God's healing of the COVID-19. Now, there was a very important point to be made, by Jesus. Jesus REBUKES the people, including the royal official. He literally says "you people," referring to the crowds that follow him to see what he does and don't really ponder what he says. He generally rebukes them for not believing in HIM as the living WORD and trusting the WORDS that he says as coming from God himself. Instead, these doubters need to see miracles for themselves in order to give some sort of self satisfying credence to his words. There is a natural thing inside humans that if it tickles our senses, it feels more satisfyingly credible. This is also true for fellowship. If you meet people in person, or see people in person, and hear a pastor speak in person, and sing your favorite worship song in person; how much greater of the a feeling do you have than if you just watched it online. There is a natural and massive difference. Keep that in mind (1). LUKE 4:38-40, a high fever

38 After He left the synagogue, He entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him about her. 39 So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them. 40 When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them, He would heal them.

Peter's wife's mother had "a high fever." In this day, a fever of 101 would almost just feel like a hard days work. So for them to note, at this time, she had a "high" fever, means she was in bad shape. But look at Jesus, he "stood over her." Jesus didn't maintain any sort of "social distancing." But it gets better, "all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them..." They were physically bringing their sick, possible with viruses, to Jesus. And Jesus would literally, physically touch them. No gloves, no masks, no protective gear; just faith. These people would have NEVER had an encounter with CHRIST JESUS, if "social distancing" was enforced legally and or culturally. Keep that in mind (2). LUKE 5:12-14, Leprosy

12 While He was in one of the towns, a man was there who had a serious skin disease [leprosy] all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged Him: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 13 Reaching out His hand, He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the disease left him. 14 Then He ordered him to tell no one: “But go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses prescribed for your cleansing as a testimony to them.”

Though this translation does not specifically say "leprosy," other early writings and translations do. It is a contagious bacterial infection that gets ugly quick. Jesus, in his human body, that gets tired, needs food and hydration, reached out his hand and literally, physically, touched him. There is a symbolic concept here too. This would, according to Pharisaic additional laws and jewish ceremonial laws, would make Jesus unclean. But, we know that Jesus is far from unclean, in fact, he is the exact, perfect opposite, he is perfectly sinlessly holy. BUT he TOUCHED an unclean, infectious person. He did not avoid them. He did not maintain social distancing. There are countless more examples in Holy Scripture but the point is, Jesus and the Apostles didn't shy away from infectious people: Matthew 14:34-36; Luke 17:11-19. Here, people will make the argument "But Jesus was God, we are not." Seems like a valid point. So, let's look at the healing that the Apostles did AFTER Jesus had ascended to heaven.

The Apostles and Sickness

Acts 5:16

"Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed."

Their faith and desire for God's healing superseded their feeling to stay away from sick people. In fact, all the sick people and their friends and family were coming together. Remember, Jesus had already left at this point. This is just the first and early churches, after Pentecost. A mass sickness party was being held by the Apostles, and by faith, they were all being healed. This would have never happened if the early church avoided meeting and maintained social distancing from all those who were sick. Act 19:11-12

"And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."

Acts 28:8-9

"And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him. After this had happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured."

Again, no social distancing and avoiding meeting here. So, we see that even the Apostles were not afraid of coming down with any of these diseases. They didn't tell these people to say home and NOT bring their sick friends and family to them. They did NOT close their doors wherever they were at to avoid contamination. They WERE without Jesus, physically, and were on their own continuing his works.

Israel and The Church's Historical Reaction to Epidemics and Pandemics

The 142 BC Epidemic In 412 BC, there was an epidemic of an unknown disease, but it is often identified as influenza due to the described symptoms. It was reported in Northern Greece by Hippocrates and in Rome by Livy. It caused a food shortage in the Roman, and a famine was only prevented with food relief from Sicily and Etruria, and via trade missions to the "peoples round about who dwelt on the Tuscan sea or by the Tiber." In other words, it spread. In 520 BC Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple in 515 BC, but did not allow the restoration of the kingdom. During the time of the epidemic, Persia was in control of Israel; and Persia traded with the Roman Republic until they were conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Israel did not stop conducting their ceremonies, worship services, and religious festivals even though there was a epidemic spreading from Rome. The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD This was an pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. Scholars have suspected it to have been either smallpox or measles; deadly and highly contagious. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius (155–235), causing up to 2,000 deaths a day in Rome, one quarter of those who were affected, giving the disease a mortality rate of about 25%. The total deaths have been estimated at 5 million, and the disease killed as much as one-third of the population in some areas and devastated the Roman army. The plague may have also broken out in Eastern Han China before 166 AD, given notices of plagues in Chinese records. The church was in the dead center of this pandemic. It was a monster of a plague. COVID-19 looks like a small cold compared to this one. So, what did the early church do during this extremely dangerous plague? Irenaeus, who was about 30 years old at the time and was a pastor at the Church of Lyon during the plague. He was indirectly a disciple of Polycarp, who was an actual disciple of John. He never paused his mission work. He didn't stop meeting and fellowship. He even discussed his conversations and debates with Gnostics; which lead him to write Against Heresies. Any sort of social distancing was not mentioned by him whatsoever. The thought of closing his church doors and stopping his ministry work during the plague was not an idea he had. The Bubonic Plague, 1485–1551 Just about all of Martin Luther's life ran congruent to the Sweating Sickness that spread throughout Europe. As a pastor and professor, he did not close his church doors and theological school. During the spreading sickness, he revolutionized organized and formal worship services that changed history. But it gets better. The Elector of Saxony, John the Steadfast, ordered Martin Luther, to leave. He refused. Along with his pregnant wife Katharina, Luther stayed in Wittenberg, opening his house as a ward for the sick. Someone literally asked him if it is wrong for a Christian to flee the cities that are infected, you can read Martin Luther's letter here. The 1563 London plague Church leaders gathered to address some issues and iron out what the orthodox biblical faith teaches in 1563 AD and 1567AD, and drafted what is known as the Heidelberg Catechism and Belgic Confession. All the while the 1563 London plague was raging. Social distancing and closing churches did not happen. The 1663-1668 Plagues of Netherlands, England, and France While the "Great Plague of London" was spreading, from the Netherlands, and to France, the church gathered in London and drafted the The Westminster Confession of Faith in 1664AD. An extremely important document that helped shape modern Church orthodoxy and maintain biblical reliance and understanding. Social distancing and closing churches did not happen. The Spanish Flu, 1920s The Christian Reformed Church convened at the Synod of Kalamazoo and drafted the understanding of God's common grace in 1924. The Spanish Flu was raging, world wide. They did not close down their churches or cancel their synod. The churches in America, as a whole, did not close down or stop meeting. Influenza A virus subtype H3N2, 1970s

The outbreak and discovery of the H3N2 virus, predominate pastors from around America met in Chicago and drafted The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy. Also, during this time, in the 70s, the churches did not close during the spread of H3N2.

We see, that historically, and during much worse pandemics and plagues, the church did not close their doors and stop meeting. They, in fact, become part of the help and aid to all those who were sick; just like the Apostles before them. But what does other parts of the the Bible say about how to better address this issue?

God's Word

Aside from Jesus' example, and the Apostles' example in Holy Scripture, we can find assistance in coming to a biblical response in other truths made in scripture.

Psalm 41:1

"Happy is one who cares for the poor; the LORD will save him in a day of adversity."

There are two ways to look at this; is avoiding contact with the poor, caring for the poor? Is this being merciful and loving in that you care for their health enough to avoid them in the hopes of preventing getting them sick?

Here's a problem. If you know you are not sick, then avoiding them is actually SELFISHNESS and UNLOVING to the poor. Because you are actually more worried about your self and your own health than to serve the Lord, willing to risk yourself for his Glory and their greater good. Making this argument, knowing your are not sick, exposes your selfishness, weak faith, and doubt in God's protection. So, if you are not sick, but yet you avoid taking care of the poor when given the opportunity, you are actually IN SIN. You don't trust the Lord's protection. You don't believe in his divine healing. And you care more about your own life than the person you claim to love.

James 4:17

"So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn't do it. "

Helping someone in need, is what is good. Physically caring for someone in need, is what is good. Caring for someone in physical or emotional need, is what is good. Avoiding all these, to keep yourself from getting sick, is not doing what is good; it's selfish, non-sacrificial, lacking in faith, thus sin.

Mark 16:17-20

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Now, this is huge. Jesus said these things "WILL accompany those who believe." They can touch deadly things, even receive into their bodies deadly things, and yet, "WILL NOT hurt them at all." and then right after that he said "they WILL place their hands ON SICK PEOPLE." Again, all these "will accompany those who believe." Think about the gravity of this. WHY are you scared to touch sick people? The REAL question is, why do you NOT believe Jesus' word here? To simplify it; Why do you not fully trust God? Do you not trust God will/can heal them? Do you not trust God will/can protect you? Peter could walk on water! but, because of his weak faith, he almost drowned (Matthew 14:30). If Peter walked on water, why can't you minister to sick people? If it is fear, Jesus directly addresses you: Matthew 10:28

28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The "who" could be a "what" or another noun; person, place, or thing. That "thing" can also be COVID-19. COVID-19 has killed people, but it only kills this temporary body. Jesus flat out commands us to "NOT BE AFRAID" of COVID-19... Is your lack of faith leading you to disobedience?

John 10:11

"A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep but the hireling sees the wolf coming and flees"

This is a brutal revelation about pastors, elders, and church leaders. The wolf, is anything worldly that scares the weak and scatters the flock. This is exactly what COVID-19 is doing; has scared the flock and scattered it. Sadly, it appears that most pastors are just hirelings and not good shepherds, because they too have gone into hiding. Martin Luther said "For when people are dying, they most need a spiritual ministry which strengthens and comforts their consciences by word and sacrament and in faith overcomes death."

1 Timothy 5:8

"8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, that is his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Now this is a very important COMMAND. YOU have a duty, a divine responsibility to take care of your household and family. Maintaining social distancing and avoiding contact with family and members of your household is in direct violation to this command. The things that are to be provided are care, love, fellowship, not just physical resources. Obligated to provide physical and emotional support and care. Even Bond-servant Masters are to care for their bond-servants as members of their household (Eph 6:5-9). So, this isn't just limited to immediate blood-family.

Matthew 25:41-46

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now THIS is condemning. Social Isolation and avoiding fellowship risks THIS! Social Isolation and avoiding fellowship does not feed the hungry, hydrate the thirsty, not welcome the lonely and strangers, does not clothe the poor, and cold, OR VISIT THE SICK! Jesus literally says "sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Closing the church, stopping fellowship and corporate worship directly conflicts with what Jesus is getting at here.

The church, by closing and avoiding worship and fellowship, is neglecting those in need. And dumping the duties to try to care for the local church community violates what The Holy Spirit prescribes in 1 Cor. 12:21-26.

1 John 3:16-17

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

What does that look like now? You see people in need, or know of a friend, family, or community in need; you have the resources to address that need and have been part of that community assisting in helping that need before; then suddenly, stopping, no longer helping because of fear of getting sick. You are not willing to lay down your life for the brothers and sisters in your community. All of these raise the question:

Is risking infection unloving to your household?

It can't be. The Apostles risked getting sick by healing people every day, Peter was married. Was he risking getting infected and then infecting his wife? No, it wasn't a risk because God is soverign. In the eyes of the weak in spirit, yes, it seemed like he was risking getting infected and bringing the bug back home to his wife. But the element of a sovereign God is unfaithfully absent with that idea.

Is it then unloving for missionaries to take their families to dangerous parts of the world for mission work? Of course not. Is it a risk of danger, maybe. But is the fear of risk the problem? Yes.

The fear is being poor in faith. The fear is immaturity in faith. Peter feared drowning once he saw he was walking on water. What, is it selfish and unloving of him to risk widowing his wife to walk on water with Jesus? Is it selfish of Peter to lay hands on the sick, and risk being infected and taking the sickness back home to his wife? No. Peter was not in the wrong or acting in sin.

What Does The Bible Say About Quarantine?

So what happens when we become sick? Well, we should be quarantined; but not neglected.

Leviticus 13:4-8

the priest is to isolate the affected person for seven days. 5 On the seventh day the priest is to examine them, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not spread in the skin, he is to isolate them for another seven days. 6 On the seventh day the priest is to examine them again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce them clean; it is only a rash. They must wash their clothes, and they will be clean. 7 But if the rash does spread in their skin after they have shown themselves to the priest to be pronounced clean, they must appear before the priest again. 8 The priest is to examine that person, and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce them unclean; it is a defiling skin disease.

Here we see "The Lord said to Moses and Aaron" and laid out this process of a sort of quarantine. This skin disease spoken about is a bacterial infection of Leprosy, which is contagious. This is about those who HAVE symptoms or ARE sick. This is NOT about people who DO NOT have symptoms of any contagious sickness. The context can not be used to justify quarantining healthy people. Because, then how could the priest examine the person and determine their cleanliness or uncleanliness. If, your sick, stay at home. If you are NOT sick, YOU HAVE A DUTY TO SERVE THE LORD STILL. But, what if the government orders the churches to close?

Government Orders to Close Churches

Romans 13:1-7

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

This comes up a lot too, by pastors who close their churches at the orders of the state. They justify this action with the use of this verse. A major problem though. This verse applies to governing authorities that conduct what is good. And "good" is defined by God. That means, if the governing authorities do NOT do what is good but, in fact, impose authority that which only God is owed, they they are not to be respected and honored because they are NOT the one whom the respected and honor is owed. Give Caesar what is Caesar's and give God what is God's (Mark 12:17). Worship and praise is God's, he owns it, and expects it, commands it; it is our duty before God himself. ANY governing authority that interferes with it, is due no respect or honor in regards to it.

Watching your church serve form a life video feed is not corporate fellowship and worship. You have no interaction with the pastor or fellow believers. It is no different from you watching any other video instead.

Corporate Worship and Fellowship

Acts 2:42, 46

"devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts"

Closing church doors and doing live video feeds of worship services is NOT being "devoted to... fellowship, to breaking of bread..." It is just not possible. You can not break bread from a live Facebook feed. Fellowship is neglected, period. The early church was so on fire for Christ, they met every day! DESPITE Roman authorities AND Jewish authorities persecuting them.

The early church defied the Roman authority. The early church defied the Jewish authorities. The early church RISKED death, arrest, breaking the law, jail, prison, and diseases; yet, still were devoted to fellowship and meeting in their homes.

Hebrews 10:25

25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

As mentioned above, the early church was dealing with governing authorities, such as Rome and the Jewish authorities, ordering them not to meet. They risked legal issues, fines, jail time, prison, and violence. Yet, the author of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, directly and absolutely states "NOT GIVING UP MEETING TOGETHER".

Conclusion

We see that Jesus went to the sick and physically touched them and heal them. We see that the Apostles went to the sick and physically touched them to heal them. We see that the early church, and the church all throughout history did NOT close their doors (willingly) for government authorities and plagues. We see throughout scripture the duty and responsibility for believers to care for the sick, physically. We see God commanding the church to NOT give up meeting, but to remain devoted to meeting together; no matter what the governing authorities impose or what worldly sickness is around. That closing churches and not meeting together, in fact, reveals a lack of faith and fear of worldly pressures over the duty of what God is owed; obedience and worship.

It is made clear through Holy Scripture and church history, that churches who close their doors and stop meeting together, are in sin.

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