#anti messianic

[gay-jewish-bucky]

ughhhhh i've started getting those messie ads targeted at jews again 🙄🙄🙄

(got this + a pre-roll ad for it on the same video)

[straynoahide]

Jewish Deicide and Supersessionism are two trashy ideas responsible for so much violence against the Jewish People. Forever a stain in the history of Christianity. Hopefully not in its future. Step by step towards Judeo-Christian reconciliation.

[straynoahide]

towards a post supersessionist theology and judeo-christian reconciliation

I'm writing this post as a way to set in order my own theological and spiritual beliefs, fully knowing that 1) the topic is controversial, 2) there isn't and has never been a single doctrinal interpretation within Christianity, 3) the consensus or lack of consensus Christians reach regarding the Old Covenant determines how we relate to Judaism and living Jews as a people and community.

I want to offer more than anything my own interpretations, but heavily influenced by the Hebrew Catholic perspective and tradition, in so far as "Hebrew Catholicism" is not a denomination but a set of liturgies and cultural traditions that are observed with varying degrees of personal or familial commitment, varying interpretation in themselves; it is not an unified theology.

What it is, however, is a metaphorical and literal place of both Jewish and gentile coreligionaries that, I think, makes us within the church have a singular perspective and relation to Am Yisrael, which can be used for the positive, where in the beginning of the Church, the Jewish Christians of the I Century and first Gentile Christians, these relations became volatile and led to a lot of grief. In the XXI century, however, the challenges are different- we have different factions within the Catholic Church, some still politically antisemitic, some still spiritually antisemitic, and that is worth standing against with both historical insight and conceptual-moral clarity, in the light of the Gospel and its Message of universal love.

Index of topics I want to cover.

PHILOSEMITISM

SUPERSESSIONISM

INTERFAITH AND CHURCH WORK

ON PHILOSEMITISM

Last clarification- I am not a philosemitic Christian. I am a philosemitic person, who is a Christian of a Hebrew-speaking tradition. I am only a philosemite in the etymological sense, like I can be regarded as a Philhellene because I admire Greek culture, speak Greek and participate in Greek cultural institutions. I can't be swayed by reticence or suspicion into throwing away this characterization just because other Christians have been assholes to Jews while stating their doctrine regards Jews as especial souls, or want to trigger a doomsday prophecy instead of fighting for justice.

What I see is a world where the "normal to Jews" has been disproportionate antisemitism, with a singular form of tyranny from Europeans, Islamics, etc, making specifically targeted crimes against humanity. Being "neutral" to Jews is not enough politically, that's why I am proudly philosemitic. You can't make justice by being colorblind, you can't jump to a postracial society without seeing racialized reality. You can't make justice towards Israel and Jews by being neutral about antisemitism, while not rejecting political antizionism as a proxy for current jihadism and holocaust continuism.

This is lost to many here because their entire activism is performative and not materially significant, but you need to actually love the people you are defending, in this as in any endeavor in life. You are a shitty activist if you say you defend a group but don't actually have personal relationships and positive affects towards those people.

Hebrew Catholics by definition cannot be "philosemitic Christians". Hebrew Catholics who are Jewish have a relationship of identity with Jewishness. Therefore, some Hebrew Catholics are literally, "Jewish Christians", and many identify as Christian Jews too, although obviously that is a point of controversy from people observant to Judaism that includes cultural beliefs about an ethnoreligious identity (and less controversial to more secular Diaspora Jews who don't share these cultural beliefs about Jewishness so strongly, and dissociate Judaism and Jewishness in themselves more easily).

Hebrew Catholics who are gentiles, like me, have a relationship of kinship with Jews, although not identity. A philo-whatever is a foreign admirer. I am not a foreigner to my own people- my own here meaning the Hebrew Catholics. We also, having our own worldview, make no ethnic or national distinctions. A gentile, Peruvian, Spanish, Israeli, Jewish or non-Jewish Hebrew Catholic is equally a Hebrew Catholic so long as they share the tradition and spirituality.

The Hebrew tradition is not a "foreign tradition" in the Church either, it is intrinsic, because Jewish Christians have existed since the religious doctrine was established, and could not have been established without ancient Israelite religion from which it sprang just like Rabbinic Judaism from the Pharisaic doctrines. Jewish heritage is both its basis and the substrate from which many of the polemics of Christ against what came before make sense, and cannot ever be dissociated from any doctrinal analysis.

ON SUPERSESSIONISM

To anyone less familiar with the formal definition, Supersessionism is the idea that the Mosaic Covenant, giving the moral laws of Judaism, was "replaced" by the New Covenant during the time of Christ, the Mitzvah Hadashah or New Commandment; that the Chosen People were replaced by all of humanity in God's eyes. Everything in Christianity is "New" and it can be perceived as pejorative to the "Old", but in terms of communities, the Old and the New have become contemporaneously different and cohabitate.

A lot of evil has come from the fallout and appropriation of Supersessionist beliefs by non-Jewish Christians since the times of the Roman Empire. It reduced Jews to a charicature, either to become an exemplary minority or a stained minority, but in both cases reduced to a role imposed by an external entity and ignoring the self-development of their own ancestral worldview into Judaism in the Diaspora.

The response to that fall-out has also rarely been good. One polemic against Supersessionism is that of the Messianics, which is nihilistic of Judaism, and appropriative: "Everyone is a Jew" - obviously false, even Christ made conceptual distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, he just did not make distinctions of dignity and spiritual kinship. Another response, from the resonation of captivity and exilic narratives with people who have been under the yoke of slavery, is the Black Hebrew Israelite response, which is also appropriative: "we were the Jews". Again, obviously false.

I think supersessionism has three components you can analyze separately but flow together: the spiritual component, the identitary component, and the political component.

Political supersessionism is when a usually theocratic Christian society makes supersessionist doctrine a point of argument into what Jews, in that society, are supposed to be or to be allowed to do. From forced conversions, to ghettos, to Nuremberg laws emanate from this relationship of, fundamentally, racial supremacy. Political supersessionism has no place in liberal democracy or the modern Church, that has embraced Christian Democracy over theocracy when dealing with modern society.

The identitary and spiritual components are harder to dissociate but I think this is precisely where we should imagine and build a post supersessionist theology and not fall into the previously mentioned pitfalls. I think the message of the Gospel is universal and this is not a bad thing. But the God of History in the biblical narrative, is a national God, because so far History is a History of national narratives, and Jesus Christ was a Jewish man in Judea. Jews still exist, living Jews. It is their nation. And the nation needs true allies, not condescension.

These are two spiritual truths that exist in complement and not in opposition to one another. God's Israel is Israel, the Israelites, the Jewish People, Israeli Jews and Diaspora, in biblical times as today. But he is also the King of the Universe (Adonai Elohim, Melech HaOlam), HaShem governs us all, and thus is also our Father.

This is compatible in Judaism and it is compatible in Christianity, which does share a lot with Jewish thought still. Spiritual universalism, universal values, and the national identity are not incompatible beliefs. Justice must acknowledge both. We must acknowledge Jewish indigeneity, Jewish self-determined security, and Jewish right to a national existence; not from religious beliefs, not because of supersession, but because it is the right thing to do, because this is what our world is like right now, and also, because Jewish humanity should be, WAS, the main acknowledgement of the Gospel, nothing more, and nothing less; it was a Jewish story, setin a Jewish society, with real Jewish people, and as every humanity, contains all the good and all the bad.

ON INTERFAITH AND CHURCH WORK

Dual-Covenant theology itself is another attempt to escape the supersessionist fallout which has its problems. It states that the Mosaic Covenant is still binding to Jews but that the New Covenant only applies to Gentiles. Hebrew Catholicism perhaps exposes the problems with this the best: it creates a tiered distinction of Christians, with different obligations and relationship to God depending on your ethnic origin. That is deeply unchristlike.

Hebrew Catholic congregations allow the celebration of Mosaic traditions voluntarily, depending on each personal or family's tradition, but as cultural practices and not as practices of religious observance. Some families sit Seders, others don't. It is unrelated to ethnic or national background. Instead of trying to fit Judaism into the Christian worldview, it allows Jewishness to exist, unerased, at ease and without tension, inside a Christian spiritual life. All liturgy, all rites are Catholic. It is not schismatic nor heretical.

I really think this is the best and the only way, perhaps. Everyone, every community is entitled to our own worldviews and beliefs, which include beliefs about our culture, beliefs about other people- but what we are not allowed to is imposing that on others, or dictating to others what their culture and religion and rites' significance are.

Hebrew Catholicism bridges the distance between Jews and Christians better than any other ideology, even secular ones I think, because Judaism is centric to Jewishness even to most secular Jews (Diaspora or Israeli hilonim). The way to make that bridge, is by aiming for a post-supersessionist theology and lifestyle.

What Church work could accomplish this? First, the very existence of Hebrew-speaking congregations in Israel where you show instead of telling. Just like the Druze are full members of Israeli society, we have to show that so are Christians, who to many are still associated only with antizionist Palestinians. Second, the doctrinal things I am mentioning. It is in this kind of manner that you get things like Nostra Aetate, which rebuked Jewish Deicide. Perhaps not in a decade, perhaps not under this Pope- perhaps not even in my lifetime, but I see it clearly and it is my hope that post-supersessionist interfaith relations between Jews and Christians are possible.

The descendants of Bnei Anusim, more than anyone, deserve a world in which their national, communitarian and religious identities are not at tension because of the more parochial or narrower perspectives of others. PD: whether you are a monolingual Jew or a gentile Christian, speaking to HaShem in Hebrew is beautiful. I'm not just speaking of prayer. Learn a random sentence, try it at least once! Maybe you will feel the רוח הקודש renewed.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I hate searching my own blog unsuccessfully for my own posts that I've tagged properly and everything, that I will honestly try to compile a masterpost or two of all of my gender feels posts and theology posts so that I don't perpetually lose them. 🙄

But like. After Tisha b'Av, lol.

[kakashihasibs]

I got my testosterone labs done today and had my 1st anti-choice protester interaction which was whatever. Just some old dude i ignored but he had a big wood cross with the flag of Israel on it ????

[immaculatasknight]

Weaponized obfuscation

[mindfulldsliving]

Unveiling the Deceptive Critique of Prophet Joseph Smith's Teachings

The post at Life After Ministries attempts to critique Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), by comparing his actions with those of Old Testament prophets.

Joseph Smith Preaching – Teacher of God’s Truth Introduction The question of whether Joseph Smith bore the infirmities of others is one that appears to bare significant amount of misrepresentation from a critic of the LDS faith. This recent example comes from Michelle, an active contributor at the Life After Ministries blog, who published a post concerning a quote taken from the “Discourses of…

[lizardsfromspace]

Why would anyone want to block Youtube ads when they have such hits as

anti-trans documentary

a second anti-trans documentary

Messianic Judaism

The newspaper run by the cult that does Shen Yun

alternative medicine scam

crypto scam

NFT scam

AI scam

That PSA for Sandy Hook Promise that only runs when a new mass shooting happened

a third anti-trans documentary

I stg at one point Youtube ads were primarily like, there's a sale down at the Office Depot! And not...this

[girlactionfigure]

Druze and Judaism, a thread 🧵(remastered)

🟥The Druze venerate many Jewish figures as sages, including Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Reuben, Benjamin, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel... Solomon and Jethro are highlighted as manifestations of the Universal Mind.

🟥 The Hexagram or six pointed star is very significant to Druze as well, and is often portrayed in books of Exegesis. It is understood as the Seal of Solomon, but also for its pre-Judaic ancient symbolism, as a symbol of the Union of Opposites.

🟥Druze shrines in Carmel and Galilee echo the ancient Jewish shrine tradition, i.e. natural stone mound. Some are architecturally Jewish tombs, with descending staircases into caves.  A Sheikh's striped cloak and the multicolored flag are said to resemble the coat of Joseph.

🟥Esoteric Judaism, or Kabballah, is most similar to Druze esotericism. Especially in its Neoplatonism, Gematria, Belief in Reincarnation(gilgul), Ein Sof. The Hasidic sect also stresses on Ascetism. Their highest soul Yechidah is akin to Tawheed. Batin Al Batin, their Chassidut.

🟥Druze and Jews have lived relatively harmoniously with circumstantial conflicts like the Safed Rebellion being exceptions.  Jews in Druze areas were among the nobles in Prince Fakhreddin's entourage. Their Synagogues thrived in Bhamdoun and Aleyh without persecution.

🟥 Jewish communities in Deir al Qamar and Barouk were also rich land owners.  The "blood bond" between Jews and Druze of Israel is one of the strongest the Druze have done with any another sect. Has been strong for 80 years. Agreed to regardless if one is Zionist or not.

🟥 Druze Sheikh Daoud Bessis who was imprisoned with the British Army while fighting the Nazis and sent to Germany, would smuggle food to Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust with his fellow Druze Prisoners.

🟥 During the recent Anti-Jewish pogroms in Amsterdam. A Druze man tried his best to save the Jews and conceal them from their pursuers. Highlighting the willingness of both communities to protect each other.

🟥 Druze have no occupied territory in Israel, or any encroached on Holy Land or Site. Therefore enmity to the Jews is not justified except on Islamist grounds or leftist brainwashing. Israeli Druze are much better off socially and economically than their peers in Arab countries

🟥 Druze ultimately derive their idea of the Messiah from the Jews and also the Messianic Era. Psalm 37's "The meek will inherit the Earth". Therefore they've avoided belief in Heaven and Hell and Rapture, and taken a reward/punishment in this realm approach, similar to Jews.

🟥 Druze Founder Imam Hamza Ibn Ali, had written in the Epistle to the Israelites, that 2 and a half of the 12 Jewish tribes(Asbat Al Haq) had accepted the Druze faith. This explains the genetic similarity, as Druze tend to cluster next to Ashkenazi and Persian/Kurdish Jews.

🟥 The Return of the Jews is foretold in Druze Scripture as one of the first signs of the end times. Druze 15th century scholar Al Amir Al Sayyed Al Tanukhi expounds that ownership would return to the children of Israel. Thus the creation of Israel lies within Druze Prophecy.

🟥 In the Druze description of Judgment Day in the Epistles of Wisdom, it is said the Druze Five Bound Army will be joined by the lost tribes of Israel. The named tribes are the "Pure of Al Benjamin and Al Naphtali". 

🟥 Druze grievances with the State of Israel are bureaucratic, such as the Kaminitz law in civil development, or the nation state law which lacks a Druze exception. Which we hope are settled. Unlike with other central states, like Lebanon & Syria where grievances are existential.

🟥 The current violent tapestry of the Middle East presents Druze and Jews as natural allies. With Political Armed Islam being the common enemy of both. To come out of manufactured Arabist identity, is to embrace the tribal nature of the Middle East. And the need to save oneself

Druze Founder Baha'ldeen Al Muqtana** 

Link

[straynoahide]

Dignity in the face of thanklessness

Earlier this month, Bogdanovskyi's mother visited his grave in Haifa and found that his headstone had been covered in a black cloth at the same time as a ceremony was taking place for those killed on October 7, Ynet reported. "I don't have words to describe the humiliation I felt," she told the Israeli news source. In a post she uploaded to Facebook, she wrote, "David loved the country from the bottom of his heart. The cross engraved on his tombstone is part of his personal identity and the faith he grew up in."

"I thought that my David, who gave his life to the country, who loved the country with all his heart for nine years since his aliyah, who joined the IDF to defend me, his family, and all of us, is no different than any of the others. He is not a second-class citizen. I stood there and cried with anger, frustration, and without understanding," she said.  "I feel that the army and the state betrayed David's memory," KAN quoted David's father, Vadim. "I don't understand, and there is no one to help me except his friends, who try and fail," Vadim added. A friend of the family spoke to N12, stating, "The parents are devastated. We are not clear about the reason since there are other graves with crosses on them. Why should David's be removed?" He also said that if the headstone is not removed, the grave will be moved entirely.

Israeli society still has a long way to go in mending judeo-christian relations from its side too... this is heartbreaking. The cross will always have its place in the Jewish democracy, as do Christian Jews.

The presence of a cross does not exist in opposition to anyone else's identity and he deserves respect as a Christian Israeli and as a person, and he did not get that because of religious fundamentalism

"IDF Chief Rabbi that states that the holiness of the Jewish cemetery is harmed by the cross.".

Great spiritual leader right there... exactly the way to handle this, exactly the way the Christian soul can be daunted too. The youth is being corrupted am I right? sighs

RIP, David In hoc signo vinces Am Yisrael Chai

[evilwickedme]

I'm going to preface this with you absolutely don't have to answer if you don't want to/don't have the emotional energy - but I was wondering if you had sources for JVP being "not really Jewish"? I ask because as someone who usually says I'm Jewish for simplicity's sake despite my conversion being still in progress, I've definitely been told I'm "not really Jewish" (I recognize that halachically I'm not til I immerse in the mikveh, that isn't what I mean here, I hope it makes sense.) I also have a lot of friends who have been told they "aren't really Jewish" by other Jews because they converted or are patrilineal Jews or follow a different observance level or even because they're anti-Zionists. And since I happen to have a lot of friends and local community members who I know are JVP members and I also know are Jewish, I'm always really confused when I see claims the organization isn't Jewish - bc the folks I know in it are. Like, I personally know 5 members of their rabbinical council, one of the members is even my advising rabbi for my conversion. So I'm trying to determine if my local JVP is just *vastly* different from the rest of the org or if I'm right to immediately be on edge by "not really Jewish" claims and wonder if the person making them will start questioning the sincerity of my desire to convert (or once complete, validity of my conversion) next.

I hope that all makes sense? I'm operating on very little sleep this morning so I apologize if anything isn't clear or something. (Also, I would be happy to talk about my experience with my local JVP, which is rather limited beyond knowing they exist and knowing a lot of members, but I do have some knowledge of the work beyond JVP folks in this area who are members are doing.)

They're not Jewish cause they're run by goyim lmao

Here's a doc on their antisemitic history which has lots and lots of sources in it for every claim

Also, this:

A quick search for jvp or Jewish voices for peace in my blog should come up with half a dozen other sources

I feel like I've been pretty clear in my pro-convert stance, and that I think converts are real Jews (I once made a post making fun of that saying "reblog if you think born Jews are real Jews" that unfortunately didn't land or gain traction, but I maintain hilarity). That doesn't mean that everyone who claims to be Jewish is in fact Jewish or that every org that claims to represent Jewish people does in fact represent Jewish people. Jvp is about as Jewish as messianics are - there's certainly some real Jews working with them, but nobody in charge seems to be, and overall they do lots of antisemitic shit.

[chanaleah]

Anti-zionism is almost always antisemitism.

Zionism is the belief that Jewish people deserve self-determination in our ancestral homeland, no more, no less. In fact, this is a human right for all peoples according to the UN.

Zionism doesn't necessarily mean support of the Israeli government's policies or actions, and zionism doesn't preclude a Palestinian state also existing.

Thus, anti-zionism means that you oppose Jewish people having the right to self-determination. If you believe that other groups are deserving of a human right as guaranteed by the UN, but not Jews, that is antisemitic in nature.

However, I can think of only two examples when anti-zionism is not antisemitism

1) If you oppose Israel on a theological basis.

This is often the case with ultra-orthodox Jews. They don’t have any opposition to Jews living in the land of Israel, but they don’t believe that a state should be established there on the basis of some sort of biblical thing having to do with the messianic age.

2) If you are against the existence of all states.

But if this is you, why target the only Jewish state in the world first? If you’re equally advocating for the destruction of all states, that’s fine. We might not agree, but that’s not antisemitic. But if you claim to advocate equally for the destruction of all states, but focus your energy solely on the one Jewish state, then that is antisemitic.

However, that's not to say all self-identified anti-zionists are actually antisemitic. And that is because most people don't really understand the meaning of zionism, because words like this have had their meanings warped over time to fit specific agendas. If you truly are an anti-zionist - you oppose Jewish people having a state, not on the basis of either of the two reasons above, then you are antisemitic.

But if your gripe with Israel is not its existence, but its actions, then you're not anti-zionist. And while you might still be antisemitic because of other reasons, this specifically doesn't make you antisemitic.

[carsonjonesfiance]

Anti-voting is just exposing itself as being all about "I want all the benefits of democracy without any of the responsibilities or emotional burden of having to reckon with the fact that all societies that allow for voting involved horribly flawed political parties, who nonetheless have to be worked if you want to make any real progress because there isn't any easy magical solution that will do it unless you literally want to risk you and everyone you love being slaughtered" at this point.

Like, other people in other countries have killed and fought just to be able to create a system where voting can still matter, and the whiny little piss-ants keep on taking it as a privilege that they can just discard with no consequences or care.

Hundreds of thousands of people before them have been part of the "revolutions" they crave, and more often than not it sucked unless you were part of the lucky few or the really privileged who could sit back and avoid being killed, before swooping in and inevitably becoming the replacement tyrants they opposed. Unless they're stupid enough to think that they'll be part of that privileged group...

They want a singular end all solution which is simply not attainable in a constantly evolving world. It’s like a mirror image of Constitutional Literalism where the Founding Fathers’ Immaculate Will is replaced with a nebulous idea of The Coming Revolution. There’s an almost messianic hope for a singular person or group who will put right all wrongs and set up a society with no flaws and no moral compromises. In that way, I think many of these people have not grown up past seeing the Hunger Games for the first time.

[sepublic]

Haha we meme on Stilgar as the funny "LISAN AL-GAIB" man but tbh I think there's a lot of nuance towards his character arc in how he doesn't really start off that way? In the context of Part 2, I mean. Because I think of how early in the film he approaches Jessica about becoming Reverend Mother, and he pretty blatantly acknowledges that Paul isn't necessarily the Lisan al-Gaib; The way Stilgar has to basically strong arm Jessica into agreeing doesn't come across as a fanatical worshipper appealing to his gods. He knows he holds power over these outsiders and he's blunt about it behind closed doors, more or less admitting that he isn't 100% sure but this Lisan al-Gaib figure is very useful for helping the Fremen overthrow their oppressors, so that's where Stilgar is throwing his lot.

It reminds me of a lot of the discussion regarding the Catholic church, particularly in regards to stuff like Galileo. I remember a lot of the mainstream assumption being that the Pope and his followers were superstitious guys who were genuinely afraid of deviating from the Bible, but then actual historians came around and painted a more realistic picture; In the end, it wasn't that they necessarily thought the sun went around the earth. It was that by challenging what the church decreed, Galileo challenged their authority and made them seem weaker; And so they had to double down on their geocentric understanding of the universe to defend that. Similarly, King James I didn't necessarily believe in witches, but they did provide a handy boogeyman to rally his people against, and make himself seem like a more legitimate leader.

That's how I see Stilgar, as he starts off; He doesn't necessarily worship the Lisan al-Gaib, but he believes that a messianic figure is just the kick the Fremen need to rally together and defeat their colonizers. Everybody loves a martyr, after all. He might chant about the Mahdi, but his priority has always been the Fremen people, and he is their true leader, with Paul being the puppet face he's pushing everyone into paying attention to.

The scene where Paul denies being the Mahdi, only for Stilgar to be like "Omg the Mahdi is so humble that means he is the Mahdi!!!" feels less like he actually thinks this, and more like... He's bullshitting his way into interpreting whatever Paul does, even if it seems fairly anti-Mahdi, as proof that he's the guy the Fremen need. Paul denouncing the idea was pretty inconvenient but Stilgar found a way to make it work; I guess it’s like how Jessica is also trying to push an unwilling Paul to embrace his role, but for different reasons. And Paul and Stilgar seem much more in tune with one another over how far they’ll go, because they’re much more in agreement about this being for the sake of the Fremen; Indeed, before he drinks the Water of Life, Paul seems to begrudgingly go along because he’s been convinced that it will help these people that he realizes he cares about too, which leads to his outburst at his mother when he feels her motives are insincere (unlike Stilgar’s).

So Stilgar is, for a while, the actual leader of the Fremen, and he is knowingly using Paul and Jessica for his people's freedom, without being aware that he's falling for the Bene Gesserit's propaganda to begin with. He thinks it can't be that bad, he's got a handle on it, but Chani knows better. And I should clarify that I don't blame Stilgar for this, he is an indigenous leader fighting back against colonization who desperately needs what he can get, and Paul and Jessica do end up colonizing the Fremen themselves.

Plus, he's still fairly decent to Paul himself, because even if Stilgar doesn't necessarily consider him the messiah, he still views Paul as an ally that can help the Fremen; That's how he becomes a friend to Paul. When Stilgar pulls Paul over and reassures him not to get a Sandworm too big, everyone already believes in him, it feels like they’re both in on the mutual secret that Paul isn’t necessarily the messiah but he IS a rallying figure for the Fremen, so they both play into that for the sake of the Fremen, right? There’s still enough of a level field that Stilgar can pull over the Mahdi for a private conversation away from the others about something potentially scandalous, rather than the other way around.

But then that friendship is ruined, because somewhere along the way Stilgar sees Paul's achievements rack up, and get closer and closer, in an uncanny way, to the prophecy; And Stilgar begins to think, Oh hey that's actually just like what was written. Okay that's only what a Lisan al-Gaib could do. Holy shit I think he might actually, literally, be a magical chosen one. And now Stilgar is willing to eat his own shit for Paul if the Lisan al-Gaib told him to. And that's why Paul mourns their lost friendship, because you can't have a real friendship with such an inherent power imbalance between worshipper and their God.

And it's all pretty sad to me, that Stilgar started off as a dude basically entertaining what he acknowledges may be a white lie, for the sake of his people... Only to find himself realizing this 'white lie' might be the real deal, and being so caught up in that revelation that before he knows it, he now prioritizes the Lisan al-Gaib over the Fremen this guy was supposed to be for. I think of how Stilgar kneels to sacrifice himself so Paul can become leader, as tradition; But then Paul says no, and Stilgar defies his own Fremen tradition because the Lisan al-Gaib told him to.

He lost sight of who this was supposed to be about, and that's why Stilgar sees nothing wrong with leading his fellow Fremen off of their homeworld to die fighting a bunch of strangers on foreign worlds. He doesn't object to Paul holding hostage their own way of life. He wasn't exactly superstitious, or at least Stilgar had people he prioritized over those beliefs; But when you see so many miracles, you begin to fear the divine and hold it above all else. Stilgar and Paul both felt the need to push this Lisan al-Gaib idea as a necessary evil, the only way to help the Fremen out of their dilemma, only to become fanatical mad men by the end of it. Maybe the idea of a Messiah seemed an easy lie, a safer and more practical way out of colonialism; But it ended up being colonialism but with a different, unrecognizable face. Because despite the promise to liberate Arrakis from the Harkonnens, the Fremen ended up worshipping a Harkonnen.

[creature-wizard]

I have a question that if you cannot answer, I understand. I’ve been lurking on your page for quite a bit and I’ve read most of your FAQ + Newbie orientation and I’ve come to the realisation that a lot of my beliefs, both as a witch who used to believe in manifestation and starseeds and as a former extreme evangelical Christian (now agnostic) who grew up in that environment and is still in it, were actually extremely antisemitic.

From the manifestation and starseeds shit to the way my family and other evangelicals were taught about and thought about Jewish people, culture, and religion (as if Jewish folk are people that need to be “saved” and converted into Christianity and are basically pawns to ship to Israel in order to bring on the rapture/revelations, the concept of Messianic Jews, viewing Jewish people as simultaneously superior as well as inferior, superior in the sense that they are the true people of Jesus, inferior in the sense that they didn’t/don’t believe in and accept Jesus Christ as a messiah and aren’t Christian, viewing Jewish people as the “elites”, etc), I’m very deeply disgusted with these beliefs and values, but they’ve been instilled in me since I was born, I don’t even know how to get rid of them.

Is it even possible to rid yourself of an implicit bias? How would one even go about that? I don’t wanna think this way forever. I don’t want to hurt anyone.

You gotta learn critical thinking skills, and study and learn from reliable sources as much as you can. It won't stop you from fucking up all the time, but it'll make it less like you fuck up. Here's some posts that might help:

Recognizing the difference between real history and pseudohistory

Beginner Witch Tip: Remember The Five W’s!

Critical thinking in witchy spaces, using the fae as an example

Vetting Witchcraft Books: a Brief Guide

How to talk about cultural appropriation in an effective way

List of red flags and safety tips

Another post about red flags

Beyond dogwhistles – racists have a new rhetorical trick

Learn to moderate your assumptions

How conspiracy peddlers and cult recruiters make you feel like you're "thinking for yourself" when you're actually not.

How to be properly critical of science rather than anti-science

How to think critically about a scientific report

For deconstructing Christian beliefs in particular, I recommend Bart D. Ehrman. He's got published books, and you can also find him on the Misquoting Jesus podcast. Justin Sledge, who runs ESOTERICA on YouTube, is a great source of esoteric and religious history in general.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The crisis of neoliberalism for working people—debt, wage stagnation, rising costs of living, and downward mobility—is weaponized by far-right forces who position themselves as anti-establishment. But far-right leaders prescribe a messianic rescue, not actual redistribution, from the upheavals of neoliberalism. Anticommunist demagogues may agitate the masses, but their rescue route involves uprooting class from material relations and, instead, overlaying it with projections of who rightfully constitutes the nation-state. The far right constructs threats to the working class across ethnic or racial lines, leading to the intensification of vicious ethnonationalism while maintaining an elitist status quo. Charleston shooter Dylann Roof was infatuated with white racial purity and Black enslavement as the means of class uplift and social belonging. For Roof and others, the indictment is not of poverty in general but of poverty as unfittingly experienced by white men. Their perceived loss of status does not necessarily correlate with a loss of economic security but, rather, with a loss of social privilege, an anxiety of so-called racial inferiors being treated as equals, and their revanchist belief that globalization results in the waning power of white males.

Harsha Walia, Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism