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shadoedseptmbr · 16 hours ago

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aedan doesn't really do holidays, but here's a little story i wrote a while back (advent stories for space cadets)

winter prompts

this one was for candles and it ties back to the story distractions and alternatives. Aedan Shepard has been toting around an old style sniper rifle since just after she joined the Alliance. It’s the only thing she owns that isn’t Alliance or Cerberus (or Kasumi) issued and it was sort of her good luck charm. She’s been known to tuck small tokens in the case along with it.

Candles

o-o-o-o-o

Now that she’d hauled it out of the harsh light of Alchera, the gun case was definitely worse for wear.

It took a prybar borrowed from the shuttle bay to split the edges that had melted, a combo of liquid nitrogen and aerosolized graphite and oil to crack the fused latches.

She wasn’t expecting much when she’d finally coaxed the lid open but it was a miracle to have found it at all, tucked safely in the hull of the MAKO.

But there it was, the old style sniper rifle she’d won from that jarhead on Luna, a lifetime ago. The engraving of mountains on the stock just visible through the fine haze of rust.

She wrinkled her nose as she drew her finger across the rough surface, starting to pit in places. It was going to take hours to get it back in shape. No time for it just now. Aedan started to slide her fingers under the forestock only to have the velvet covering of the molded casing crumble under the faint pressure.

There was a black wool roll under the remnants of the velvet. Frowning, Aedan tugged it out. She didn’t recall leaving her tool kit…

Oh. She could feel the tell tale slender objects. Nothing else felt like that. How on …

Tugging the latch and hook closure open, she revealed 8 pale green candles, slightly misshapen, none of them longer than her pinkie finger and barely a half centimeter wide. The tips burned down to almost the wax. One still had a crumble of chocolate frosting on the end.

Ash’s candles. Aedan had filched them from the shipping box when they’d cleaned out her locker. Never had quite known *why.* Just…seemed like the thing to do. Her family would never have missed them.

You know why, Skipper.

“Well, maybe.”

“Commander?”

“Nothin’ EDI, just talking to myself. Never mind. Uh…wait. Um. Do you know what day it is?” She shook her head as EDI rolled off the galactic date. “Uh, no. On Earth, Northern Hemisphere, West of Greenwich? What’s the day…month. Whatever.”

“It is Sunday, November 30th.”

Oh. Okay. “Thanks EDI. Uh. Hey, what are the protocols for, uh, burning materials aboard ship?”

“Is this an emergency, I have not detected…”

“No, no. Just. Wondering if I lit a match would anyone care.”

“I can…” Aedan can almost hear the AI’s processors grind, trashing another Cerberus protocol. “I can circumvent the safety protocol for a short time, Shepard.

She fiddled with the roll of candles and then tugged one free.

Waiting was what Advent was about. Waiting, preparing. She remembered that much.

“Do it.”

In her thigh pack, there was a firesteel, part of an emergency kit Anderson…they’d always told her to carry. Just in case. It had saved her life once during N training and she’d replaced it as soon as she thought about it, coming back.

A flick of the metal tongue against the stone and she had one of the tiny candles flickering in her cupped hand.

She sat down on the bed, still sheltering the fragile flame in one hand as she scootched back.. It dripped quickly and someone smarter would’ve probably stuck it to a plate or something. All she had was a data pad.

Probably shouldn’t use that.

It didn’t really hurt, though- little drips down her fingers. A little sting was all. She leaned back on one elbow and lifted the feeble light up to reflect off the view port, to dance with all the stars streaking by.

She remembered the prayer. She’d been able to recite it the second time she’d heard it. She had the saints memorized by the time she was six, since the nuns gave sweets to anyone who could name more than four.

And tiny pictures. And bookmarks. She’d memorized a lot.

She couldn’t feel less like praying to a saint.

“Hey, Ash. I don’t know if you can hear me. I know you’d laugh but I don’t know. Seems right.

Things are gonna get grim if I screw this up. I’ve done everything I can think of. I…can you believe that I’ve got a geth on board? Tali freaked. You’d have freaked. Flashlight heads, right? But he’s a damned good shot, you know?

We’re making the jump in the morning. I …think I stopped them invading a week ago but I’ve still got to make this jump tonight.

No one’s ever come back.

I’ve…told everyone to tell me if they want off, we can drop them off at Omega before we hit the relay. But they’re all staying. I should go and eat with them. I …it’s a lot. But they’ve got the crew. We have to go.

Kaidan sent me a letter awhile back. I…haven’t opened it, yet. Hey…if we don’t. Even if we do…but if we don’t come back…look after him, okay? I’m gonna assume if I don’t come back I’m just gonna end up wherever it was I was before. But …you. You look out for…” Fuck, ow.”

The flame had eaten through the wax like ryncol through stomach lining. It singed the tips of her fingers before she could shake it out.

She chuckled at herself, smiling at the smudge of soot as she rubbed it away. If they could just make it through the Relay. If they could do that…then whatever on the other side was just another fight.

Hope. Hope was the other thing. Waiting, preparing. And hope in the growing darkness. She remembered that much. And maybe that was all anyone could ask for. A little flicker of hope as the stars streamed by.

#sept writes #aedan shepard #advent stories for space cadets

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occasionally-sketchy · 6 years ago

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🚀👽THE GIRLS ARE BACK IN TOWN!👽🚀

Finally, after an eternity, I got to work on these two cuties’ story, “Fauna”! It’s pretty refreshing!

Other than some slight adjustments to space cadet Nia Adesina(left) and a redesign of the alternate form of alien princess Mira Ignolustris (right), their story is still pretty much the same! More on them under the cut! Do Not Repost

Ever since the year 2028, the universe, and even Earth has grappled with a steadily-growing, but dangerous group simply known the “Control”. Over a course of several years, they’ve been taking control of the galaxy through forcing various populaces to submit to them, primarily by turning their own people against them with the use of a strange cybernetic virus that transforms anybody into various types of mutated, powerful monsters completely under the organization’s control. Eventually, this dastardly group battled with Earth, and emerged victorious. Nia Adesina and Mason Chandrakant’s lives, as being some of the survivors who escaped the ravaged plant, had never been the same since. This advent which claimed the lives of Mason’s parents and Nia’s father was enough to spur the latter to urge the former to join the Intergalactic Siege Resistance, or better known as the “Resistance”, in an effort to prevent something like what had forever altered their futures ever again. Some years pass, and it seems like there is no hope to stopping the Control...until one day. On what seemed like a routine mission, Nia comes across an amazing discovery-she had encountered what she thought was a monster and had tried to eliminate it as she thought she heard a survivor denizen of the planet, an “Estellian”. As it turns out, the voice was coming from the strange, goat-like alien dressed in tattered clothing and equipped with psychic abilites that had walked out of the rubble. It was Mira Ignolustris, the alien princess of the planet’s kingdom. While she appeared vastly different from her true form, as described by Nia’s higher-ups, and very much like a stereotypical “soldier” alien led by the Control, Mira retained her individual sentience and sanity, as well as many others of her kingdom, including her mother, the Queen. Nia was at a crossroads soon after spending more time helping Mira and her people: she was distraught and sympathetic to Mira’s plight, as well as began to feel things for her as she learned more about her, but bringing her to her ship could be dangerous, as the others would be less likely to buy Mira’s immunity. Still, she had to try. This story, “Fauna”, follows a band of unlikely friends, Nia, Mason, and Mira, and two mentors, Andrea Carmine, a hardened veteran, and Cecilia Acacia, an allied alien mediator, as they travel the galaxy to help others and hopefully find a cure for the Control’s disease... BONUS, UNSHADED:

#art #illustration #artists on tumblr #monster girl #alien #my art #oc #ocs #my ocs #do not repost #nia #mira

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radiantmists · 8 years ago

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countdown (chapter 6)

first | previous

Read on AO3

T - 28:46:34

Pidge's stomach twists when the door opens.

It's been a while since Hunk left; she doesn't have a clock, but if she had to guess, she'd say it's been at least an hour. Of course, it might just seem longer because she's spent the whole time worrying.

One alien ship had been threatening enough, but the arrival of another has driven home what Pidge should have already realized; whatever Voltron was, the Galra really wanted it, and they wouldn't leave the Earth alone until they had it.

It's something of a wake-up call; though she still refuses to let Shiro or Voltron be handed over if she can help it, Pidge is forced to acknowledge that she's going to have to change her approach. Whatever her personal feelings are, humanity has to work together if they want to survive.

By the time Parisot and Lance enter her room, she's twitchy with concern. She has to talk to them, but how much can she trust them with?

"Morning, Miss Holt," Parisot greets.

"General," Pidge acknowledges. She turns her head. "Hello, Lance."

He glares at her. Well, let him sulk then.

Parisot continues when he doesn't respond. "I'm told Cadet Garett told you about our newest visitors."

"Yeah," Pidge responds.

"Then I hope you see that it's vital we find the 'Voltron lion' as soon as possible," Parisot says. "Any information you have could be vital."

Pidge bites back her first response, and her second. She takes a deep breath and speaks as evenly as possible. "I won't help you find Voltron if you're just going to hand it over."

Parisot frowns. "Your mistrust of me and the FSU aside, these Galra are clearly quite powerful. Can't you see the benefits of having a peaceful first contact interaction?"

"Peaceful? They threatened to destroy the Earth!"

"Yes," Parisot says, "but if they were so willing to destroy everyone, they could have simply conquered us. The fact that they bothered to give the ultimatum means we have a chance."

"And have they given you any promises about leaving the Earth alone?" Pidge smirks at the downward twist of Parisot's mouth; it's as good as a denial. "What's to say they won't just destroy the planet anyway? Or enslave humanity, or something?"

"You have no reason to think they would do that."

Pidge gapes. "What do you mean, no reason? They kidnapped and tortured Shiro, and maybe the whole Kerberos mission!"

Lance flinches at the word 'torture'. Good. At least someone here has a heart.

Parisot just frowns harder. "What makes you think he's been tortured? He arrived in one of their ships, and they clearly built a very advanced prosthetic for them. That doesn't seem like the treatment of a prisoner."

Pidge recalls Shiro's panic at Sendak's voice, or the desperate wildness in Shiro's eyes as he'd fought his way out of Keith's cabin. "They definitely did something to him."

Parisot sighs. "And I'm supposed to just trust your word, no?"

Pidge doesn't respond. Parisot nods, looking thoughtful, and tired.

After a moment, she leans forward. "At the very least, you can tell me this, if you know: what is Voltron?"

Pidge looks her in the eyes. "Dangerous."

Parisot nods.

Suddenly, the door opens. A guard pokes his head in and says, "General, Sergeant Cho says he found something, and that you'd want to know right away."

The general rises quickly, then turns back and takes something from her pocket, placing it on the chair. "When you have solid information we can act on, call the office."

She strides out. Lance follows her to the door, turns back, opens his mouth. Pidge waits.

"Bye, Pidge," he says finally, and is gone.

That's helpful. Pidge refuses to look at the pager, slumping back on the bed instead.

She thinks back to the few seconds she'd had to whisper in Hunk's ear, and hopes he makes the right decision.

She wishes she even knew what that was, anymore.

T - 28:27:08

If Lance hadn't had long legs, he wouldn't have been able to keep up with Parisot as they made their way up to the command center.

As it is, by the time the doors swish open in front of them, he's breathing heavily. The general isn't winded, and though they ran all the way up here, not a hair strays from her neatly-pinned bun. His mind is still reeling from their conversation with Pidge, and he's lost all sense of direction, but Parisot seems to scan the room less to get her bearings and more to check on everyone else.

She strides forward, stopping before the man who'd been researching blue lion legends.

"What did you find?" she asks.

Cho turns to look at her. "There's a story of a water god falling from the sky," he says. "It matches the mythology surrounding the blue lion, and from what I can tell it originated in this desert."

Lance can't see the general's expression, but her tone sounds exasperated. "This desert is enormous, Sergeant."

"Yes, I know," he grumbles. "But there's another part of the legend we're going to use to narrow it down."

"Continue," Parisot prods.

"Apparently, when the god fell, it broke through the ground and was trapped under the earth, where there was no water. So it pulled a river through the rock."

"So you're going to look for caves in this desert, especially ones that have rivers nearby," Parisot guesses.

Cho grunts affirmatively. Lance studies the bags under his eyes and feels a deep sense of pity; this man is obviously not used to functioning without sleep. "I have a program set to flag likely sites. But with just my computer, it will take at least twenty-four hours."

Parisot nods. "Randhawa!"

The young communications specialist makes her way over.

"Can you divert the spare computers in this complex to run Cho's program?"

"Yes, ma'am," Randhawa answers, sitting down at Cho's terminal.

Lance can already feel himself sagging in relief. They're going to find Voltron, and everything will be fine.

What's to say they won't just destroy the planet anyway? Or enslave humanity, or something?

Lance shoves Pidge's words out of his mind. This has to be the right decision, because it's the only one they have.

T - 27:35:59

Hunk hands Kirit a cup of coffee. Her eyes don't leave her screen even as she brings the mug to her lips, saying something in a language Hunk can't decipher.

"You're welcome," he says. She doesn't respond.

Next to her, Cho is slumped over his desk, fast asleep. Hunk has been bringing him decaf for the last hour.

As he sets down another coffeecup, Hunk casually picks up Cho's tablet and wanders over to the window. It's midmorning, but heat is already radiating from the glass pane. A lot of the other cadets had hated the constant heat of the desert, but for Hunk it made him feel at home, comfortable and safe, even if it was much less humid than he was used to.

It's a comfort even now, so he sits on the sill with his back to the glass, taking a deep breath. He opens the tablet. Cho's search is about to finish, and Hunk hurriedly mutes the alarm. There are fifteen possible sites flagged.

There's a rock formation, Pidge had said.

It takes him about a minute of refining search parameters to find the rock formation; there's a note in the Garrison geological survey marking it as a possible holy site for native peoples and barring development there. It's been left alone ever since.

It has these carvings of lions, and of... other things.

Hunk pulls out Pidge's diary, carefully copies the map and the route he'll need to get there. Then, squashing his feelings of guilt, Hunk erases the search results.

After casually putting the tablet back, Hunk walks by Kirit's desk again. She's had about half the coffee; the rest sits next to her computer, apparently forgotten.

She's a genius, too; it's been just over twelve hours, and she's already made incredible strides understanding Pidge's translation program. Hunk knows how hard it can be to understand someone else's code, and he's had the advantage of the original author as a reference, plus a lot more sleep.

But Kirit still hasn't been able to add anything to the program; she's undoubtedly close to a breakthrough, but in this sort of revolutionary work 'close' could mean anything from a few minutes to a few months.

The Galra are evil. But really powerful.

This won't be enough.

Hunk walks by the next scientist– Taft. His monitor is covered in images of the Galra ships. He's calculating size, speed, anything that he can. Next to him, someone is trying to identify subsystems: they think they've found engines, some kind of cannon. How the engines work, what the cannons shoot, is a mystery.

There's a man on the phone.

"Listen, Mr. President, we know you have nuclear weapons on your moon base. It's no use denying it. We need to commandeer them. Yes, I understand that that's unusual. No, sir, of course, they won't be fired on the planet. There's a representative who's been sent to brief you, he should be arriving by helicopter in the next half hour, but-"

The doors close behind Hunk, cutting off the sound of a soldier attempting to navigate bureaucracy.

The advent of the United Space Fleet had been one of the final symptoms of a relatively stable world peace that allowed students, engineers, pilots, astronauts and soldiers from all over the globe to work together.

People are incredibly hopeful, nowadays. Science programs are being funded, and the benefits are obvious. Even backlash from the failed Kerberos mission is barely a drop in the bucket of public opinion. That might be because of the USF pinning it on pilot error, but Hunk thinks it's at least as much due to all the other strides being made: diseases were being cured all the time, hoverbikes had become relatively common, the world literacy rate had reached 95%.

Weapons research had been the last thing on anyone's mind. Earth was on its way to utopia, and who needed killing machines in a perfect world?

They've destroyed worlds before.

Hunk enters their room just as Lance is leaving. The place is split carefully down the middle; Lance isn't quite a neat freak, but like most people he takes issue with the way everything Hunk touches ends up covered in machine oil.

Reaching under the bed, Hunk retrieves the large rucksack he carries on hiking trips. It's still packed with his extra toothbrush and other essentials; he leaves it on the bed and turns to his desk.

Hunk is his own sort of genius. Everyone at the Garrison is exceptional, and Hunk, like Lance and Pidge, is at the bottom of his class. But that has less to do with actual ability and more with anxiety: most of the time, when he's not being tested, working with machines feels like a conversation with his grandfather, not always completely straightforward but never too hard to understand.

When the Voltron radiation detector is done, he checks his watch and is surprised to find that the whole thing took him less than an hour. So he carefully wraps it and places it at the top of his bag.

As he winds his way down to the lower levels of the Garrison, Hunk feels like, for the first time in the last day, he can see the halls of the place he's inhabited home for the last few months. It's less imposing than it had been when he walked into orientation as a scared freshman. Now, instead of faceless soldiers and the threat of failing out, he associates this place with Lance's smiles and Professor Montgomery's jokes and the memorable time that Pidge had come out of isolation to put a decisive end to the first-year's prank war.

The people he passes feel less all-powerful, now; perhaps it's a symptom of how tired they all look, or maybe Hunk's simply getting older, growing wiser.

Giving in won't save humanity.

Hunk's first memory is a lullaby.

Not a gentle melody as he's tucked into his soft bed, though there had been plenty of those. No, Hunk's lullaby had been his mother's work song, punctuated by the turning of her wrench as he fell asleep in the driver's seat of the car she was repairing.

He's been driving since his feet could reach the pedals– and Hunk has always been tall. But even before that he'd known cars, had understood how to drive a stickshift before he learned long division, known how to hotwire before he was allowed to walk to the store alone.

Hunk has never driven an ATV before, has certainly never been under the hood of one. But it's still a conversation, and cars all speak the same language, even if this one has an odd accent. It's not too much trouble to find what's out of place: the tracking device. The keys are on the dashboard; no one can just walk into the Garrison, after all.

A few soldiers nod at him as he drives out, assuming he must have some errand; Hunk is still in the cadet uniform, after all.

Somewhere, Mom is wiping her forehead and only managing to spread the grease around. Mama is laughing and handing her a cloth. They, and everyone like them, are counting on Hunk, Lance, Parisot, these soldiers to protect them.

Hunk can see the fear in the soldier's eyes, because they know they won't be enough.

But Voltron can defend us.

Find it.

#countdown #voltron #pidge #lance #hunk #writing #my writing

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automatismoateo · 5 years ago

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The United States Military is being taken over by evangelical Christians who are more loyal to their religion than the constitution. Are you as concerned as I am about this? via /r/atheism

Submitted February 03, 2020 at 12:03AM by Israel-is-Fascist (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2ucsakx) The United States Military is being taken over by evangelical Christians who are more loyal to their religion than the constitution. Are you as concerned as I am about this?

The military is being increasingly influenced and in some areas dominated by Evangelical Christians..”.

Some of these Evangelicals believe in a fascist like supremacist vision.

Many Evangelicals openly subscribe to a Dominion theology which are a group of Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians based on their understandings of biblical law.

Evangelicals are also known for commonly being very focused on eschatology to the point of being apocalyptic. Some of them even believe in taking actions to help accelerate the advent of the apocalypse.

There is immense pressure in particular at all the military academies to practice and profess adherence to Evangelical beliefs as well as in parts of the Air Force.

Non-Evangelical military cadets are being pervasively discriminated against, even Christian cadets from other denominations are facing discrimination.

More than 60% of military chaplains are evangelicals at least, with some estimates as high as 80%.

In many instances Evangelical chaplains have used their majority influence in the military chaplaincy to sideline chaplains from other faiths and to promote policies that favor them in terms of access to military personnel, the types of programs being run, and the hiring process for new chaplains.

Another characteristic or even tenet of most Evangelicalism is proselytizing. Most Evangelicals believe that it is their duty to convert others to their faith and many have decided that they will proselytize their fellow military personnel as much as possible even if that means using methods that clearly violate the military code of conduct and infringe on other soldiers’ constitutional rights.

Evangelical Officers have taken the cue from their Evangelical chaplains and are proselytizing their subordinates in violation of the military code of conduct.

This is a serious issue that has been increasingly getting worse for at least two decades but the Trump era has accelerated it to an alarming degree.

Statistics showed in 2005 that at least 40% of active duty personnel were evangelicals and due to the military’s lack of adequate categories for reporting the actual percentage was probably higher. The percentage is also higher among officers than it is among the enlisted.

Trump is a controversial President who acts far outside of the norm in many areas. He has overtly threatened violence against his political rivals on several occasions and has now been impeached.

Many Evangelicals inside and outside of the military support him not only as the President and the Commander in Chief but also as a leader sent by God.

If Trump is removed from office or loses the next election and goads his supporters towards violence, either implicitly or explicitly, his Evangelical supporters in the military could represent a significant threat to democracy should they refuse to peacefully accept the results.

More attention needs to be paid to this issue and more reporting needs to be done on it. The next President who isn’t Trump will need to take decisive and widespread action in order to turn back the tide on this.

The Evangelical Christian Takeover of the Military

https://www.alternet.org/2007/11/the_evangelical_christian_takeover_of_the_military/amp/

U.S. Military being used as Government-Paid Missionaries

https://youtu.be/SB1UifGIqaw

Too much religion at military academies? West Point cadet revives charge.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/1207/Too-much-religion-at-military-academies-West-Point-cadet-revives-charge

Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/us/evangelicals-are-a-growing-force-in-the-military-chaplain-corps.html

Evangelical Chaplains Test Bounds of Faith in Military

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4772331

TRUMP EFFECT INSPIRES RADICAL CHRISTIANS IN MILITARY

https://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-national-security-threat-613428

Inside the Military's Campaign to Make Its Soldiers Christian [First of a three part series]

https://www.mic.com/articles/61629/inside-the-military-s-campaign-to-make-its-soldiers-christian

EVANGELICAL U.S. AIR FORCE GENERAL HAS SECRETLY BEEN RUNNING A CHRISTIAN ONLINE MINISTRY IN POSSIBLE VIOLATION OF RULES: EXCLUSIVE

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-evangelicals-god-prayer-air-force-secret-christian-online-ministry-1070772

U.S. Air Force: Swear to God—or Get Out

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-air-force-swear-to-godor-get-out

Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html

Chaplains Wanted For Atheists In Foxholes

https://www.npr.org/2011/12/04/143057431/chaplains-wanted-for-atheists-in-foxholes

The Christian [Evangelical] Takeover of the U.S. Military

https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2018/3/29/christian-takeover-us-military

Onward Christian soldiers: Fundamentalist faith is proclaimed, and contested, in America’s forces [If anyone can find an archived version of this please link it]

https://www.economist.com/erasmus/2019/05/25/onward-christian-soldiers

Fundamentalist Forces?: New Report Highlights Ongoing Church-State Problems In America’s Military

https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fundamentalist-forces-new-report-highlights-ongoing-church-state-problems

FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGION RAMPANT IN U.S. ARMED FORCES, SAYS NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT

https://centerforinquiry.org/press_releases/fundamentalist_religion_rampant_in_u-s-_armed_forces_says_national_security/

Army Base Can’t Coerce Soldiers In Missouri To Attend Evangelistic Services [They are still doing it]

https://www.au.org/church-state/september-2008-church-state/people-events/army-base-can-t-coerce-soldiers-in-missouri

Misguided Military Maneuver: Army’s ‘Spiritual Fitness’ Program Improperly Proselytizes

https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/misguided-military-maneuver-army-s-spiritual-fitness-program-improperly

Meet the man who's trying to purge evangelical Christianity from the Pentagon.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/05/25/mikey-weinsteins-crusade/

Backward Christian Soldiers: Jesus Not Only Saves, He Shoots

https://observer.com/2012/12/backward-christian-soldiers-jesus-not-only-saves-he-shoots/

A Refuge For Powerful Lawmakers

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130070569

Why the US Military Wants Fewer Generic Christians [Why the military’s categories for self reporting religious affiliation have left evangelicals underreported]

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/may/why-us-military-fewer-generic-christians-216-religions.html

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) condemned the blessing of an "official Bible" for the swearing-in of commanders of the newly created Space Force.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/478049-group-criticizes-space-force-for-blessing-official-bible-for-new-military

Help get this issue on the radar of your representatives in Congress and your state governor by emailing them and calling them.

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

A good organization to get info and support from is the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF):

https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/

Not being a member of a major Christian denomination can apparently be a lonely experience in the military.

The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers is a community for atheists, humanists, and other nontheists in the military.

http://militaryatheists.org/

An organization dedicated to advancing the separation of religion and government in all walks of life is Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

https://www.au.org/

Evangelical Influence in Other Parts of the Government

Evangelicals have attained positions of influence within other parts of the government outside of the military as well.

Critiques of the unconstitutional and potentially dangerous infiltration of the US military by Evangelical forces need not rely on or even make any reference to the issues that arise from the influence of Evangelicals in other parts of the government but I include this additional information because it is related.

The influence of Evangelicals in the US government is partly to blame for the push to go to war in Iraq. Evangelical figures held a lot of influence within the Bush administration.

Evangelical lawmakers, administration officials, and policy wonks joined forces with the Israel lobby, as they often do, to cheerlead for that war.

Evangelicals and the Israel lobby have shared reasons as well as their own separate reasons for pushing for war in the Middle East.

Bush and Evangelicals

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/evangelicals/bushand.html

Profile: Silent Evangelical Support Of Bush's Proposed War Against Iraq

https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/transcripts/2003/feb/030226.hagerty.html

Evangelicals Flock Into Iraq on a Mission of Faith

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-mar-18-fg-missionary18-story.html

Looking Back at Conservative Evangelicals Support for the Iraq War

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/faith/2007/08/07/looking-back-at-conservative-evangelicals-support-for-the-iraq-war/

Bush’s Evangelical Politics

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/03/the-bush-tragedy-bushs-evangelical-politics.html

Most Evangelical Leaders Still Support Iraq War [from 2008, five years into the war after almost everyone else had recognized it as a disastrous mistake]

https://www.christianpost.com/news/most-evangelical-leaders-still-support-iraq-war.html

AIPAC and Iraq

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/10/aipac-and-iraq/46561/

The Iraq war coverup: What did AIPAC do and when did it do it?

https://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/the-iraq-war-coverup-what-did-aipac-do-and-when-did-it-do-it/

I don’t mean to say I told you so, but…

https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/02/08/i-dont-mean-to-say-i-told-you-so-but/

Now Evangelicals and the Israel lobby have joined forces once again and are again cheerleading for war, this time with Iran.

They have almost unanimously been praising Trump’s decisions to blow up the Iran Deal and to assassinate Iran’s leading general Solemanni.

They are also unanimous in their praise for Trump moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and in his recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of Them Is Especially Terrifying...End Times.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/01/evangelicals-are-anticipating-the-end-of-the-world-and-trump-is-listening/

The Rapture and the Real World: Mike Pompeo Blends Beliefs and Policy

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/us/politics/pompeo-christian-policy.amp.html

What the Christian Right Sowed, Trump Reaped

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/what-the-christian-right-sowed-trump-reaped.html

Why Evangelicals Love Israel

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-evangelicals-love-israel

Why do US evangelicals support Trump's Jerusalem policy?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42402350

Trump, With Netanyahu, Formally Recognizes Israel’s Authority Over Golan Heights

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/us/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-donald-trump-meeting.html

Jerusalem Embassy Is a Victory for Trump, and a Complication for Middle East Peace

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/trump-jerusalem-embassy-middle-east-peace.html

Listen to WSJ’s Bret Stephens Secretly Plot With “Pro-Israel” Evangelical Group Against Iran Deal

https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/listen-wsjs-bret-stephens-secretely-plot-pro-israel-evangelicals-killing-iran-deal/

Amid Debate and Violence, Trump Delivers Embassy Victory to Christian [Evangelical] Base

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/us/politics/jerusalem-embassy-trump-evangelicals.html

Explainer: Trump and the politics of the Messiah

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/explainer-trump-and-politics-messiah

‘Brought to Jesus’: the evangelical grip on the Trump administration

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/11/trump-administration-evangelical-influence-support

President Trump promises support to military, evangelicals at Fourth of July event

https://www.deseret.com/2017/7/3/20615203/president-trump-promises-support-to-military-evangelicals-at-fourth-of-july-event

Trump’s foreign policy looks a lot like Rapture Christians’ plan to welcome the apocalypse

https://qz.com/1270516/jerusalem-embassy-trumps-foreign-policy-looks-like-rapture-christians-plan-to-trigger-apocalypse/

Apocalyptic Christianity Returns to U.S. Foreign Policy

https://ips-dc.org/apocalyptic-christianity-returns-u-s-foreign-policy/

Trump launches evangelical coalition after strike on Iranian military leader

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-marks-launch-of-evangelicals-for-trump-in-miami-today-2020-01-03-live-stream/

The Evangelicals Who Pray for War With Iran

https://newrepublic.com/article/156166/pence-pompeo-evanglicals-war-iran-christian-zionism

Any criticism of Israel and the Israel lobby is bound to receive intense pushback and false accusations of anti-semitism just as any criticism of Evangelicals is sure bring on false and patently ridiculous accusations of religious discrimination.

In addition to false accusations and pushback by establishment forces any criticism of Israel and its lobby is also sure to attract actual anti-Semitic forces who will try and and latch onto such critiques in order to gain legitimacy.

Unlike the ridiculous charges of religious discrimination from Evangelicals that can simply be ignored, those critiquing Israel and its lobby must forcefully push back against these anti-Semitic forces and denounce them.

Ferment Over the ‘Israel Lobby’

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/ferment-over-israel-lobby/

Ilhan Omar’s Criticism Raises the Question: Is Aipac Too Powerful?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/aipac-congress-democrats.html

#reddit

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shadoedseptmbr · 4 years ago

Text

winter prompts

Candles

o-o-o-o-o

Now that she’d hauled it out of the harsh light of Alchera, the gun case was definitely worse for wear.

It took a prybar borrowed from the shuttle bay to split the edges that had melted, a combo of liquid nitrogen and aerosolized graphite and oil to crack the fused latches.

She wasn’t expecting much when she’d finally coaxed the lid open but it was a miracle to have found it at all, tucked safely in the hull of the MAKO.

But there it was, the old style sniper rifle she’d won from that jarhead on Luna, a lifetime ago. The engraving of mountains on the stock just visible through the fine haze of rust.

There was a black wool roll under the remnants of the velvet. Frowning, Aedan tugged it out. She didn’t recall leaving her tool kit…

Oh. She could feel the tell tale slender objects. Nothing else felt like that. How on …

Ash’s candles. Aedan had filched them from the shipping box when they’d cleaned out her locker. Never had quite known *why.* Just...seemed like the thing to do. Her family would never have missed them.

You know why, Skipper.

“Well, maybe.”

“Commander?”

“Nothin’ EDI, just talking to myself. Never mind. Uh...wait. Um. Do you know what day it is?” She shook her head as EDI rolled off the galactic date. “Uh, no. On Earth, Northern Hemisphere, West of Greenwich? What’s the day...month. Whatever.”

“It is Sunday, November 30th.”

Oh. Okay. “Thanks EDI. Uh. Hey, what are the protocols for, uh, burning materials aboard ship?”

“Is this an emergency, I have not detected…”

“No, no. Just. Wondering if I lit a match would anyone care.”

“I can…” Aedan can almost hear the AI’s processors grind, trashing another Cerberus protocol. “I can circumvent the safety protocol for a short time, Shepard.

She fiddled with the roll of candles and then tugged one free.

Waiting was what Advent was about. Waiting, preparing. She remembered that much.

“Do it.”

In her thigh pack, there was a firesteel, part of an emergency kit Anderson...they’d always told her to carry. Just in case. It had saved her life once during N training and she’d replaced it as soon as she thought about it, coming back.

A flick of the metal tongue against the stone and she had one of the tiny candles flickering in her cupped hand.

Probably shouldn’t use that.

And tiny pictures. And bookmarks. She’d memorized a lot.

She couldn’t feel less like praying to a saint.

“Hey, Ash. I don’t know if you can hear me. I know you’d laugh but I don’t know. Seems right.

Things are gonna get grim if I screw this up. I’ve done everything I can think of. I...can you believe that I’ve got a geth on board? Tali freaked. You’d have freaked. Flashlight heads, right? But he’s a damned good shot, you know?

We’re making the jump in the morning. I ...think I stopped them invading a week ago but I’ve still got to make this jump tonight.

No one’s ever come back.

I’ve...told everyone to tell me if they want off, we can drop them off at Omega before we hit the relay. But they’re all staying. I should go and eat with them. I ...it’s a lot. But they’ve got the crew. We have to go.

Kaidan sent me a letter awhile back. I...haven’t opened it, yet. Hey...if we don’t. Even if we do...but if we don’t come back...look after him, okay? I’m gonna assume if I don’t come back I’m just gonna end up wherever it was I was before. But ...you. You look out for…” Fuck, ow.”

The flame had eaten through the wax like ryncol through stomach lining. It singed the tips of her fingers before she could shake it out.

She chuckled at herself, smiling at the smudge of soot as she rubbed it away. If they could just make it through the Relay. If they could do that...then whatever on the other side was just another fight.

#sept writes #winter prompts #aedan shepard #ashley williams #advent stories for space cadets

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