#because at the end of the day he’s a Catholic fundamentalist who doesn’t believe anyone should have recreational sex

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

god the world must be so beautiful from behind rose colored glasses so thick you can excuse genocide abroad, violence and inhumane treatment of immigrants at home, a somehow even WORSE policy for COVID that lead to thousands more deaths, did NOTHING about the overturning of Roe v. Wade even though it happened TWO YEARS AGO already, and an increase in police violence and brutality towards black people.

Aw, but guys, guys look peepaw forgave the student loan debt of like ten people, so all that’s fine. Who cares how many black and brown people died under him, he forgave a debt here and there so it’s fine.

I mean, who cares that he’s so far into senility he needs visual aids to study so he knows how to leave a podium? Who cares if he barely has any awareness that he’s the president right now? I mean sure he called Lewinsky “President putin” and didn’t notice trump doing the fast part of rap god in that debate to get as many lies out as possible, guys it’s ok! Biden expanded NATO! Aren’t you happy? Don’t you feel safe? Come on, we can trust the weird hair sniffing pervert who can only hold on a coherent conversation about golf at this point, but hey! He’s not trump so no matter how many policies he shares with trump and how severely they are implemented, his name is Biden so it’s ok!

Who wouldn’t trust Biden? I mean, sure he said in 2020 he would be a single-term President and pass the torch to another democrat for the next term and all, but hey!

Who cares if he lies through his teeth, he’s just a politician he can’t help that!

Me, too! And you can't convince me otherwise.

[unsureofreligionname]

This was meant to be me venting, but accidentally became a history of my relationship with religion instead.

Alright. So.

Came here to talk about religion because I have no outlet. If you don't want to hear it, just block me. I'm not trying to convert anyone, I'm just explaining things to see if anyone has a feckin name for my damn belief system, because I really want to avoid accidentally starting a religion or something and pissing everyone off more.

People who got pissy last time got on my ass about how I probably wasn't even ethnically jewish, so here's the whole story.

I was raised by a mother who was raised by a non-practicing jewish mother, both of whom converted to christianity in the late nineties, shortly before I was born. They're ethnically jewish, or so I'm told.

Not super related, but, in case it comes up later, I was raised with the belief that my mother's family is a long line of very careful psychics, which roughly means "a lot of the family is sensitive to spirit shit but avoids it like the plague because it's scary."

I was raised by a father who is, as far as I know, not ethnically jewish. He's of mixed asian heritage, so i guess maybe, but I'm going to assume he's not. His parents, however, were both religiously Jewish; my grandmother was adopted and raised Jewish, and my grandfather converted sometime between meeting and marrying my grandmother. They are reform. My father wasn't the most religious guy in the world, but, if you asked, he'd probably either make a joke about ohio state football or say that he was jewish.

I was raised by my father and mother together until I was seven. We didn't always consistently go to church in early childhood, but my mother did take me to two or three for months or years at a time during the 2-5 period. We celebrated christmas and easter, and i had an illustrated children's bible that, if I remember right, was split into two parts: the first was marketed to christian and jewish kids, and the latter- new testament- to christian kids. Guessing the marketing from the publishing organizations. I think I had a few other religious books and videotapes directed towards kids, both jewish and christian. I specifically remember one that illustrated mana as vanilla wafers for some reason. At seven, my parents divorced, and I primarily lived with my dad.

My dad didn't take me anywhere on the regular, but when I visited his parents for the full weekend, they'd take me to the synagogue. This was every couple of weeks. We celebrated major jewish holidays, but smaller festivals only really got a mention. When I was ten, my dad and stepmother married. She wasn't really religious, but her parents were christian, so christmas was back on our roster then, too.

I started going to hebrew school in 6th grade, but I didn't actually have a bar mitzvah because I ended up getting kicked out at around the time I turned 13 due to a whole thing about me going trick or treating when I was "too old" or whatever, shitty parents, so I ended up having to go live with my mom after that.

At this point, my mom was studying to become a youth pastor, and enrolled me into a local christian school with about a hundred students. Unfortunately, this ended up being a weird fundamentalist cult with its own textbooks and teachings, including that bacteria was not real, AIDS was a summoned by The Gays™ to kill all the christians, evolution was a conspiracy meant to dissuade people from religion, et cetera. It was fucking bizarre, at one point they called several of us posessed for being autistic and otherwise neurodivergent, and they categorized us students into the groups wise, fools, simple, and scorners. (I was a fool, by the way.) It was really not ideal, and the weird punishments were pretty traumatic. There was some weird brainwashy type word repetition involved with lookatthepersonsayokayanddothetask over and over and over, and it sucked.

So, I was at that school for about 18 months before they kicked me out for refusing to stand on one foot for an extended period of time after tapping my foot in class which caused a student who disliked me to complain.

At the same time, my mother was working at a small church out of town that wasn't exactly a cult, but I think the pastor kind of wanted it to be? It was like he wanted the cult aesthetic™ and devoted followers and shit, but only had the skill to make a really sketchy and toxic small town church with a lot of people sitting on blankets on the floor instead. That church honestly wasn't a big part of my life the way the fucked cult was, I just sort of went most weeks. I went to a confirmation class there- I'm pretty sure it was a methodist church- and got confirmed into it shortly before my mother left because the administration was weird in like an asshole way, and that was the last I knew of it.

I was homeschooled for a while during the end of this period due to all of the school stuff. Religiously, by this point in my life, I'd developed some of my own beliefs. I believed in most of the new testament and most of the torah, but I didn't have much exposure to the talmud or much of a comprehensive education in any religion. I think I read a bible cover to cover at least once as a kid, including some shitty commentary (it was a preteen bible) that gave me some internalized homophobia issues for actual years. I was also super curious about the paranormal but terrified of possession- remember the cult?- and I was curious about the idea of some people being reincarnated if they were needed on earth again. Not sure where exactly that idea came from, but it was there. People told me from a lot of sides that those with the wrong religion would go to hell, and the cult tried to teach us all to convert people at any opportunity, but, after leaving, the whole situation just made me massively uncomfortable. I did continue to practice the jewish traditions I knew how to do on my own- like hannukah and a weird private sort of passover- and my mother would support this by getting me what I needed for it, even though she didn't participate and I didn't go to any place of worship during holidays.

After getting kicked out of school not that long after adjusting to not seeing my dad or siblings on his side, we moved. My dad lost custody at some point and we no longer had to live close, so we moved and tried to find a better school. It was a Catholic grade school this time, and I was there for about six months, if I had to guess. It was actually a pretty good school, but I had some issues at the time, so I didn't enjoy it much. I was scared of teachers and administration by then, and I had trouble going the entire school day without panicking or not being able to work. There was a period of a week or two in which I didn't speak at school at all. We ended up settling on half days, and, after that, I did well.

The religion class was awkward. The other kids seemed to know more than me even though I'd thought I had a good grasp on religion at that point, and the little information we shared I'd been taught from a very different perspective. Everyone was very nice to me, but I definitely stood out as the kid who wasn't catholic at that point.

Chapel was even weirder. We had to go every wednesday during school, and catholic churches had so many traditions I didn't know about, and the stuff I knew about from either my jewish grandparents or protestant churches had a different name for some reason.

I'm looking at you, sacraments.

Anyway.

I don't think I got much out of the chapel, but religion classes were kind of cool. I liked learning about stuff I hadn't heard before, and the things that were the same were a comfort.

Soon, though, I was graduating eighth grade. I ended up going to a catholic high school. I was still out of place, but I at least had a basic idea of what to do during the mass this school had monthly.

I liked the religion classes here more, how they were an open discussion of everyone's opinions and experiences, and I liked that both of the most recent schools I'd gone to had actual textbooks with facts and studies in them. There were more kids there who weren't catholic, and I felt more comfortable to actually explore religious topics with people. I had a better understanding of catholic beliefs, a decent idea of their traditions, and could recognize at least a few of their holidays I couldn't have before.

I spent my last year of high school at a public career center to start working towards a medical career.

Now, my current beliefs. If you don't want to read it, then just don't.

I haven't been to any place of worship since my school required it, but I do have strong beliefs. I believe in one God (which I generally write all the way out after a billion essays for religion class) who created everything and watches over humans, which he made in his image, etc etc etc. I believe the old stories from the tanakh/old testament/don't care what you call it and the new- yes, including the key messiah bit- though I do think it wasn't all translated perfectly and that it was written by humans who made mistakes and poor decisions sometimes in their writing. I believe people's salvation comes through their intention, not through a piece of knowledge or a creed or good deeds or a tradition, and I believe different people worshipping in different ways is how it should be, because different people NEED different styles of worship. I believe that if someone is genuinely mistaken and incorrect in who or what they believe in, it doesn't MATTER because it's the intention to strive to do good and not harm fellow people that counts. I'm a little guarded about sharing my own beliefs, hence why I made an anonymous tumblr account, but I'm generally very curious to hear about what other people believe. I find that, for me, celebrating Jewish holidays and traditions helps me get closer to God, and I'd like to find a place of worship one day, but churches fucking terrify me now. I worship best by sitting and discussing beliefs, but I have no place to do it now that I've graduated school. I also developed some of my less related beliefs now: I believe in a lot of old stories that have popped up around the world, like fairies of various places, different creatures and entities and things that have become the subject of curiosity or worship, spirits and things, etc. I think many of these creatures exist, just that they may be different from us in the nature of how they interact with the world and matter and that, and I don't think they're deities or anything. I believe in ghosts of humans in some cases, too, though I believe sometimes other things mimic them. I don't find the idea of God having someone reincarnated if he wants the same soul to play many parts in the world unlikely at all, though that's really just me speculating. I still believe in demons, and I still don't want anything to do with them.

A lot of my understanding of things comes from Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant teaching in a strange mishmosh of culture and religion.

I relate to a lot of things directed at Jewish people, and I understand what's directed at Catholic people. Things directed at Protestant people are both understood and, unfortunately, make me instinctively wary due to weird cult trauma (that in no way reflects on actual protestant people, i love you guys some people just suck and twist religion) so are hard to interact with.

In a lot of ways, I'd consider myself Jewish. Culturally, at least, if my religious beliefs aren't "validly jewish" or whatever.

I have literally zero actual connections to any Catholic church, but I almost feel like a weird half-catholic. That's not a thing, but it's how it feels. I believe a lot of it, and I'm interested in all of it, even if I have my disagreements, plus I understand the environments and culture of it, even if I'm a bit of an outsider.

A year- or maybe two years, idk- ago, I mentioned some upcoming holiday or smth in a post and tagged it messianic. That's the closest name I could find for my experience, but apparently some organizations who use the term suck or something. I ended up getting a bunch of asks calling me a predatory fake jew or a fundamentalist christian trying to appropriate judaism or other weird shit that I'm NOT DOING. Because of my experiences in the past, those comments still weigh so damn heavy on my that I broke my resolve and made this stupid account to complain about it.

I don't have a name for what I am. I don't know where to go to talk about my beliefs with people, or what environment I could find to actually practice whatever weird faith I've dreamt up with other people in a way that isn't just picking part of what I believe and leaving the rest to rot. I feel closer to God and more spiritually fulfilled practicing the festivals that call back to what the Jewish people of old went through, but I also believe in the messiah of the new testament, and I like to read the pope's opinion on things, even though I think no human is perfect or infallible. I want to talk about old writings with people and discuss what they mean, from my religion or others, and I don't want to give any of what's right for me spiritually up.

I don't know what this post is for.

Maybe I'm just venting, but I do want to know if this is a thing or if I'm the only one with this belief system. I'm sick of getting shit for the actions of people who I'm not affiliated with, so apparently calling myself messianic doesn't cut it. I can't call myself "spiritual but not religious" either, because I'm very religious, it's just very personal and not something I shove at people, and "christian" doesn't describe a solid half of what I believe. Off and on again I've considered converting to Catholicism, but I think that's kind of grasping at the closest thing that won't piss off tumblr anons as much. (And yeah, the larger Catholic church can suck, but I honestly think I'm gonna get that with any religion with a large following)

Rambling aside:

I want to find a short description that hits the major points of what I believe in order to help me find a place or group of worship that actually matches my spiritual needs without compromising the cultures that I grew up with and making me feel like shit.

(Also don't try to change my beliefs thanks)

I'll be tagging this with anything I've mentioned or vaguely heard of that might be related so relax ok

[janiedean]

what do you think of new atheism?

tldr: they have a right to exist same as any other confession on earth even if they aren’t religious.

long answer: I honestly don’t even know why it’s a debate. they’re atheists (and half of them don’t consider themselves *new* anyway) and there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t agree when people who are *new atheists* are also altright and stuff but guess what I don’t agree because they’re altright, not because they’re atheists - there are atheist assholes and nice atheists same as there’s religious assholes and nice religious people.

but like the thing is, people hate new atheists because they’re actually outspoken about their atheism and while I don’t agree with 80% of their methods - ie I don’t believe in telling religious people off or treating them like they’re stupid for buying into it or being that clear cut about it, and I generally don’t believe in preaching anything, if people want to believe in stuff or don’t want to you shouldn’t have anyone convincing you of the contrary (unless we’re talking like scientology but that’s a scam X°D). so like, same as I wouldn’t want a jehova’s witness to come to my door and try to convert me I wouldn’t go to someone religious and try to change their mind. but the fact that everyone seems to be generally okay with the idea of religious people from any religion (bar scientology but even scientology has spaces) doing proselytism and trying to convert people but at the same time new atheists are scum and should keep their mouth shut is ridiculous to me. if people can preach whichever religion then dawkins can go around tell people that he thinks religion is a fairytale and saying that he shouldn’t is hypocritical af.

and like this ties back with what I was saying before ie that a lot of people seem to think that being atheist is okay as long as you keep your mouth shut about it and don’t contradict other people and don’t say it because we have to keep that hidden and since most of the outspoken people in the new atheist movement happen to be men then everyone has decided that atheists are all fedora-wearing mras and like.

fuck that? sorry but I hate this idea that we’re okay until we don’t talk about it. I mean fuck’s sake there’s places in the world where you get murdered for being atheist, in some US states people can’t have government jobs if they don’t swear on the bible, actually if the last poll I read is still valid in the US a majority of people wouldn’t trust an openly atheist president, I’ve got people assuming that I have no morals when I said I was atheist then proceeding to ask invasive questions about why I was and then ‘AH BUT YOU’RE OFFENDING ME’, in any fucking piece of media in existence (okay, nine on ten) we’re the fucking hollywood atheist which is one of the most offensive tropes in existence but guess why NO ONE EVER THINKS ABOUT THAT or considers that offensive but hey, depicting us as assholes who are terrible whenever touching the religion topic and only deserve sympathy if we apologize or convert is okay, and that’s like the tip of the iceberg re shitty attitude that people have towards atheists to this day.... when on top of that accepting atheism is a relatively new thing (bc in the 19th century in the UK you couldn’t be sworn into parliament if you didn’t belong to a church just to say one, nvm that john locke founded the modern concept of freedom of religion but ATHEISTS WERE THE ONLY CATEGORY NOT INCLUDED guess why) and people go around complaining about richard dawkins or hitchens? (who btw has written illuminating stuff about mother theresa to say one but pfffff of course no one outside his readership read that...) like, forreal?

also: we’re not all men, we’re not all white and we’re not a hivemind - we exist and we’re not generally assholes and this idea that we’re okay or to be accepted just as long as we keep our mouth shut to me is revolting and offensive af tbqh so while I don’t generally agree with a lot of the new atheism attitude and I don’t agree with some of them about specifics things they said (I mean dawkins said a lot of things I disagree with, doesn’t mean we aren’t both atheist) they have all the rights to be out in the world being outspoken about it and people who don’t like it can swallows the frog and think that two centuries ago if atheists were outspoken about it they ended up in prison and since today we’re past that point in this part of the world (again in pakistan some people got killed for it and I think in bangladesh others were hacked to death or people proposed it for them because they posted atheism-related stuff on their blog) they have all the right to say whatever the fuck they like same as the pope has any right to preach or jehova’s witnesses have the right to knock and my door and so on. and anyway if someone’s religious and they’re convinced of it then it won’t be dawkins changing their mind, and if dawkins does then they most likely had doubts already. anyway tldr I don’t necessarily agree with them but I’m fine with them existing and they have all the rights to do their thing. religious people (IN GENERAL) have done the exact same for years and if during the protestant schism there could be a damned war in switzerland that lasted five years because luther and calvin couldn’t agree on how many sacraments they were going to allow in a joined protestantism that then never happened then new atheists have all the right to a platform, since they also aren’t killing anyone. I’ve said my piece.

also, DISCLAIMER: again, I have absolutely nothing against religious people (of ANY religion) who aren’t radicals/fundamentalists (categories that I loathe in any circumstance), I have a problem with religious influence on secular laws and I can’t stand anymore this idea that the only good atheist is the one that keeps his mouth shut and is grateful that the state lets him exist when one century ago it wasn’t guaranteed. sorry but that’s complete bullshit and that’s also why I don’t really like it when people go like EW BUT DAWKINS IS SHIT I DON’T AGREE HE’S THE BAD APPLE because like, if catholics who don’t agree with the church’s ban on divorce don’t have to excuse themselves all over to be taken seriously then you shouldn’t need to disown dawkins and go like AH BUT THAT’S NOT HOW ONE SHOULD DO IT in order to be taken seriously. I’m atheist, dawkins & co are, I don’t necessarily agree with them a lot of the time but they have a right to exist same as every other preacher has had the right to exist in the centuries. peace.

[roidespd-blog]

Chapter Twenty-Five : THE EQUALITY ACT

I bet that if you are a french citizen with no instincts to get news from the other side of the Atlantic (other than “Orange Cheeto almost starts war with Iran”), you have no idea what the Equality Act is. Don’t worry, I got it cover for you.

The Equality Act is a bill put together for the U.S. Congress that would put an amendment on the Civil Rights Act and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in areas as varied as education, employment, housing, credit and federal funding. On the contrary to numerous laws acted state by state, the Equality Act protects every Queer Americans from discrimination nationwide.

Why am I talking in the present tense ? I don’t know, because that law hasn’t passed yet. But bish, we close. And it’s been a 45-year fight to get there.

I DREAMED A DREAM

The first Equality Act was conceived in 1974 by Democratic U.S. Representatives Bella Abzug and Ed Koch. Same basics, plus the right to marry — something that was obtained in June 2015. It followed the path of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, theoretically pulling the plug on racial segregations and unequal application of voter registration requirements. Also following in the footsteps of, those of the Gay Liberation Movement that started in 1969 after the Stonewall Riots (That article is going to be lit!). Anyway, a bill was offered to the House Committee which decided not to proceed to a vote in the full House of Representatives.

No more concrete tries were made until 20 years later, in 1994, when a revised version of the law called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced to the House. Not as ambitious as its predecessor, it only focused on the hiring and employment situations of LGBTQ+ people based on sexual orientation by employers with at least 15 employees. Narrow shit. Basically, there were conflicts with the inclusion of transgender people in the bill and it never came to fruition. It was presented in every Congress cycle (two years) from 1994 until this year (except between 2005 and 2007, weirdly). BTW, gender identity was added to the proposal in 2007 only. But as I’ve said earlier in my June 21st article, Bush Jr. wasn’t thrilled to see such laws and was ready to veto the cunt out of it. Another version of the ENDA passed the Senate in 2013 but didn’t survive the House.

As of 2019, The United States is one of the few Western nations not to outlaw anti-LGBT discrimination in employment nationally. Only 21 states and Washington D.C. have comprehensive laws prohibiting discrimination. In the rest of them, you can can fired for being gay, evicted for being trans and starved for being a lesbian. Seems hopeless, doesn’t it ? Well.

YOU LIVE. YOU DIE. YOU LIVE AGAIN.

What a strange time to be interested in American Politics. It seems like everything is Hell and beyond and then you get exciting news like this. I’m getting ahead of myself. As I’ve said, the law was introduced every single cycle of Congress except one for the past 25 years. In 2015, it died in committee. In 2017 well… It died in committee.

On March 13th 2019, Democratic Representative David Cicilline introduced the Equality Act of 2019 in the House of Representatives. The bill was sponsored by a total of 240 Representatives (up from 178 in 2015 and 198 in 2017), including 3 Republicans. On May 1st 2019 and on a vote of 22–10, the bill passed the House Judiciary Committee for the first time ever. By the time the bill was introduced a final time to a full vote, 8 Republicans voted in favor of the bill with absolutely no opposition from Democrats.

Now, it seems that it’s up to the Senate. When the bill was introduced, it was sponsored by 43 Democrats, 2 Independents and 1 Republican.

The Equality Act is supported across the board by non-profit organizations, Medical and Professional Associations, over 180 American Businesses, the Chamber of Commerce and countless celebrities.

TAYLOR SWIFT.

I shouldn’t even have to say anything else to convince you. TAYLOR MOTHERFUCKIN SWIFT is supporting the bill and PROMOTING it at the end of her newest music video, You Need to Calm Down (#2 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100) That alone should be a done deal. LISTEN TO HER ! RESPECT. HER. AUTHORITY !

“Shade never made anybody less gay so Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh-Oh… You need to calm down… You’re being too loud.. And I’m just like Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh…” Oops. Sorry. Where was I ? Allies ? Yes. Well, I’ve covered most of them.

SAURON’S ARMY (CUE THE HORN AND VIOLON MUSIC)

You know where this is going. Who hates the Queers more ? Straight women. No, kidding. Jesus Freaks (here we go again)

Numerous religious leaders oppose the bill for multiple reasons, first and foremost claims that it will infringe on religious liberties.

I’ll give you a fine example if there isn’t one. In July 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins visited a bakery named Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. The were looking for the perfect wedding cake, you see. Well, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeship, refused to provide a cake for the special occasion. The baker said his Christian faith forbids him to make wedding cakes for gay couples and he used his First Amendment right that guarantees free speech and religious exercise in his life and business. Craig and Mullins filed a complaint and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission found the baker in clear violation of the anti-discrimination law that is still implemented in this particular state. Then Jack Phillips, on the advice of his lawyer, decided that his cake making business was more on the lines of artistic expression and not directly business-related and the case went straight to the Supreme Court. Well, fuck my drag, right ?

In July 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker, 7–2. Phillips’ first amendment right was protected but Craig and Mullins’ discrimination case was left unpunished. Although the court did not address the wider principle of whether businesses can refuse to serve gay people, it is clear that sooner or later, a case will come into their hands and might change for the worst the fate of Queer people in the United States. What you need to know in this situation is that the entire judicial system is being shaped by Donald Trump at the moment (and by that bitch Mitch McConnell). Since he took office, he was able to appoint two new justices to the Supreme Court. Neil Gorsuch became a member of the Court after the death of Justice Scalia — thanks to Bitch McConnell who blocked every Obama appointee until he left office) while the terrible, horrible, no good for nothing Brett Kavanaugh was appointed in 2017 to replace Justice Kennedy, even after the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford in the case of sexual assault in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee. Justices are appointed for life. Clarence Thomas has been there since 1991. Goddess Ruth Bader Ginsburg since 1993. Right now, there’s a 5–4 conservative force on the Court. If Ginsburg dies while Trump is still President, the Equality Act might never see the light of day. Bye bye to Roe v Wade as well.

I digress a bit. I was talking about Jesus freaks (who are supporting Donald Trump.. ENOUGH, ALEX. ENOUGH).

The American Family Association published an April 2019 article written by fundamentalist and social commentator Bryan Fischer denouncing the Equality Act, describing the bill as the “Homosexual Supremacy Act” and writing that discrimination against the Queer community is a “social good” and “what public policy is all about”. Here’s a fuller statement :

“There is no equality in this bill for anyone who believes that homosexuality is non-normative sexual behavior and something that should not be promoted, subsidized and celebrated, especially in our schools (…). Children will be condemned to the psychological torment of this dissonance until the day they commit suicide… which 41% of transgenders do.” Let’s just not vote and elect Bryan Fischer as this year’s Asshole Supreme, kay ? Done. Fuck off, now.

I could keep going with examples of oppositions from religious groups (The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints, Conference of Catholic Bishops, that cunt Cindy Jacobs etc, etc), the point is as with France, the separation of Church and State in the United States of America is only theoretical. Yes, not everyone is governed by their religious beliefs. But that minority is so strong it is able to oppress the rest of the population just by sheer conviction and impressive lobbying. Fucking Jesus Freaks.

WHAT… NOW ?

Now that the Equality Act passed the House, it is still waiting to be brought up for a vote in the Senate where Majority Leader Bitch McConnell is King and the King considers the Senate as a “graveyard for progressive measures”. That’s where we’re at. Blocked by a man with no chin and way too much cheekbones. The Republicans control the Senate and there’s not much Americans can do about it. 

A poll from Reuters/Ipsos revealed that 45% of respondents incorrectly believed that federal protections for Queer people in America was already in place. Another poll from Gallup put the beliefs for new legislation at 53%.

As an American citizen (and I am not so I’m fucking powerless), there’s not much you can do but :

Sign a petition, either Taylor Swift’s on Change.org (close to 400,000 signatures have been collected as of the writing of the article) or the Human Rights Campaign petition. I signed them both and shared it on my social media. Go do that too.

Call your representatives, especially if they’re Republicans. E-mail your Senators. Lobby hard. Pressure is key to success. Politicians are worst sissies than Zaza.

Come November 2020, do not vote for Orange Cheeto. That’s ludicrous behavior, on the verge of self-sadistic.

All that to say to non-American readers, U.S politics is compelling. It’s a shit show like no other, but at least keep an eye on this Equality Act. I have atheist faith in it. Which is rational hopes on a brighter future.

“Oh Oh (Oh Oh) Oh Oh (Oh Oh) You need to just stop, Can you just not stepping on our gowns You need to calm down” - Taylor Swift, 2019.

[brianwestchest]

Day 718- Test The Spirits

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world

Parents and friends contact me all the time asking me about signs and communicating with their departed loved ones. Just a couple of days ago a friend contacted me because she’s had a few signs from her brother who has crossed over, but she wanted to know how to better have a two way communication. I sent some resources to her that I will link to later in this post.    

Yesterday, as I was cutting the grass, I listened to a podcast from a (Christian) philosopher and thinker.  I was really impressed with his takedown of scientism ( the religious like belief in materialism), materialism, and the closely related atheism.  I was particularly impacted by the problem that materialists have with the very fundamental problem of identity. What is it that makes me me?  It’s clear to any conscious human being that I am me. But, what does that mean exactly?  For most of us it’s not a problem. We know who we are intuitively and we accept our personal experience of ourselves. From a materialistic, “show it it to me or it doesn’t exist” point of view, what can I point to and identify as me?  Is it my body?  Well, my body is very different now than it was when I was five years old.  None of the same molecules are even present.  My worldview has changed. My brain is different.  Yet, we all know, intuitively and experientially, that the Brian that was five year old Brian is still Brian at 56, even though I have changed.  Materially though, there is nothing I can point to though that identifies me as me which creates a crisis for materialists. Some have gone so far as to say no self exists, similar to the kook who said that consciousness isn’t real since he couldn’t explain how it arises from matter. Since there is no explanation for how physical materials could develop consciousness, in at least an attempt to be intellectually honest, this guy said “Well, I must not be conscious then. And, you aren’t conscious either since there is no such thing as consciousness.  It’s all an illusion.” 

This is there problem with dogmatic, fundamentalist thinking. Of course, we all have a paradigm that informs how we view the world. But, we must remain flexible, aware of what the paradigm is, and ready to change based on the evidence. If your worldview tells you that you don't exist or that you’re not conscious, it’s time to change your worldview. Otherwise, you end up believing some pure nonsense.

So, today I’m finishing up the two hour podcast and hear the host ask this guest what he thinks about a person who claims to have channeled the spirit of Stephen the Martyr.  The fascinating thing is this came through several occasions over a number of years.  The channeler was examined by an 88 year old Anglican priest who researched not only the philosophy of the messages, but the channeler spoke in ancient Greek and used terminology particular to a very small region and a particular sect that Stephen the Martyr was in.  The priest was skeptical at first, but because convinced over the years.  All in all, it’s a pretty impressive case. Without knowing any more about it than what I just said here, the Christian philosopher rejected it out of hand saying it was contradictory to what the Bible taught him, that Stephen the Martyr could never be channeled, and “Why would anyone believe anything a spirit says?  Because spirits lie.”  

I was flabbergasted. Here is this guy who speaks so eloquently, who has studied philosophy, who just spent an hour condemning materialists for their rigid dogmatic views, and he was saying that this phenomenon that had been summarized in a description to him that took no more than two minutes was “impossible” based on his understanding of the Bible.  He wanted to hear no more about it. 

Well, to answer his question about why would we believe anything a spirit has to say, there is 1 John 4:1 as a start. Why would John tell us to test the sports if they all lie?  There is the fact that there is a rich tradition in Judaism and Christianity of men being visited by angels (spirit beings, guy).  I guess it’s a good thing Mary didn’t say all spirits lie when the angel told her she was going to have a baby, or Joseph when the angel told him to take Mary as his wife.  Then, there’s this little known thing in Christianity called the “Holy Spirit”  The Holy Spirit is a spirit. Does the Holy Spirit lie?  Does the Bible really say all spirits lie?  Clearly not.

This is some dogmatic nonsense that I don’t have time for.  So, as promised.  Here are some resources. 1.) Christine Duminiak has a group on Facebook called After Death Communications and Prayer Wave .  Christine is a Christian (Catholic) who has written a book about how to recognize and encourage signs. The people in the group (almost 3,600 right now), will help you look for signs and will pray with you to receive signs. Christine believes that signs are allowed by God. So, it’s important to pray for them.

2.) Mark Pitstick has a audio available on his website that will help you learn how to connect with loved ones in spirit.  His Facilitated After Death Communication audio has helped many people connect with loved ones in spirit.

3.) R. Craig Hogan has on his site a (free) self-guided afterlife communications course.  After each module, you provide feedback to him, he gives you feedback on your results and you move to the next module.  He also has links to a guided afterlife communication technique developed by Rochelle Wright.  http://afterlifeconnections.org/craig.htm

4.) Susanne Wilson is one of the best mediums there is and she says that we can all learn to communicate with our own loved ones who have crossed over. In her book Soul Smart she gives details on how to do this and even provides scripts for meditations you can do to help you make this connection.

Back to the identity crisis I spoke of above. I know what makes me, me.  It’s not my brain. It’s not my body.  It’s my spirit.  I don’t have a spirit. I am a spirit.  When this body drops, my spirit is free, but it’s still me.  If you can talk to me while I’m in the body. Why should you not be able to talk to me when I’m out of the body? I guess that  it’s only forbidden until you drop your body, too. Then, us spirits can talk to each other. (I hope).  I am a spirit. Why should I be forbidden from talking to spirits just because they are no longer in meat suits?