#catholic university in usa

[tuskaloosa]

My campus on film (Assumption University, Worcester, Massachusetts)

[a-typical]

Gallup began measuring Americans’ views of human origins using this question in 1982 and has intermittently tracked opinions since then. Belief in creationism and God-guided evolution reached their peaks of 47% and 40%, respectively, in 1999 and have since trended downward. Meanwhile, support for evolution without divine intervention has nearly tripled since 1999.

[likirahub99outfitstees]

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[lovethroughdelusions]

Fascinating! I figured Jewish people weren't big fans of his, but really wanted to understand the difference in perspectives on why they view him as not being the messiah. I figured that phrase wasn't exactly a compliment, but since, as you mentioned, it really is only used for two people historically I couldn't find further information on what it exactly meant beyond "we don't like you."

Thank you for the in depth answer! This will give me some more things to research into!

I've been enraptured with reading about the evolution of the Jewish religion and culture over time. I'm slowly working my way through "The Wars of the Jews" by Josephus. It is dense but very interesting, with many parallels to how to world still runs today as far as international issues and wars go.

Sorry for gushing 😅 I'm really glad I stumbled across your blog! It should give me quite a few places to continue my research both in sources and in topics. Thank you, again, for taking the time to answer my question. (I may have more for you later as I continue to delve....)

Hi! I've been doing reading on about how Judaism feels about Jesus and I keep coming across the phrase, "may his bones be ground into dust". I searched online and couldn't find anything except stuff about like. From dust you were made to dust you shall return and similar phrases. Are you familiar with the phrase?

(I did do a search on your blog to see if you answered this before, but Tumblr search is garbage 😅)

Thank you and have a great day ❤️

Yes, I am familiar with this phrase. It is a curse, similar to Yimakh Shemo ("May his name be erased," "May his name and memory be erased"), which is the strongest curse in Judaism. It is not a literal magical curse, more like an emphasis on how much we don't like you.

That phrase appears in reference to Jesus in Maimonides' letters to Yemenite Jews who were experiencing persecution at the hands of Shia Muslims, heresy, and apostacy over a man who was claiming to be the messiah. The man who was claiming to be the messiah had the goal of combining Islam and Judaism into one faith, with himself at the center, claiming that the Torah had foretold of his arrival. Maimonides, in these letters, reminded the Yemenite Jewish population of Jesus, stating:

The first one to have adopted this plan was Jesus the Nazarene, may his bones be ground to dust. 

And later, in another letter:

You know that the Christians falsely ascribe marvelous powers to Jesus the Nazarene, may his bones be ground to dust, such as the resurrection of the dead and other miracles. Even if we would grant them for the sake of argument, we should not be convinced by their reasoning that Jesus is the Messiah. For we can bring a thousand proofs or so from the Scripture that it is not so even from their point of view. Indeed, will anyone arrogate this rank to himself unless he wishes to make himself a laughing stock?

Jesus caused a lot of harm to the Jewish people, directly and indirectly. This curse is reserved in historical writings in reference to only him and Hadrian, a Roman emperor who banned circumcision, destroyed Jerusalem, established Aelia Capitolina on top of it, including a temple to Jupiter on top of the ruins of our Holy Temple, which ultimately lead to the Bar Kokhba revolt.

So yes, historically we are not big fans. Modern Jewish views regarding Jesus range anywhere from "He was just a dude" to "He has caused unforgivable damage to the Jewish people and apostate Jews are traitors." Each Jew will have their own stance.

[itspheenixbaby]

MUSUTAFU in my mha dr

now playing...black list - hime

AKA; the devils resort

GEOGRAPHY

"when i hear that song, i wanna be with you"

musutafu (MST) prefecture is an island off the southern coast of japan located in the phillipine sea. its about 500-800km away from honshu, has 25,000 mi of land and is home to 35.3 million people. MST houses the most biodiverse tropical rainforest in japan (and one of the three most biodiverse in asia) which covers the entire island. MST has mild winters and minimal snow. it rarely reaches under 60/50 degrees F (10/15C?). both summer and spring are extremely humid.

HISTORY

"buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta"

i never script colonialism clean out, i just make it different. because im always like wait if we dont have colonialism why tf are so many people speaking european languages? makes no sense right? anyways heres how it worked (in all of my DR's btw); europeans had very little power & money compared to locals who integrated with the culture (including locals of european descent) and it was more of a "leader in name" thing. in actuality, colonialism was more similar to a trade partner agreement with colonies, and colonies themselves were very hard to keep--and usually made more money and had more clout than their european counterparts. MST had this situation with spain, england and portugal. as it was an island (and a rather big one) it was already very cut of from japan culturally, economically & socially. so when the mainland went in seclusion for the meiji restoration, the europeans had already gotten full access to MST.

CULTURE

"90 degress inna the shade, temperature tun up"

linguistics the standard language is a portuguese-spanish-tagalog-japanese fusion? and more japanese dominant. no fucking clue how thatll sound.

diversity MST is very racially & ethnically diverse, with a steady flow of immigrants from all over the world. a few prominent origin points include ; south east asia, central america, the carribbean, usa, western europe, south america, taiwan and india. but of course there are many more. the natives are pretty racially diverse as well, about half of the japanese population is "afro-japanese" which is genetically similar to aetas or melanesians.

motorsports drag racing is fully decriminalized and extremely normal. so much so that entire tournaments and elaborate race tracks are built to encourage it. (partially because of the tourism it brings) but before you can do any drag racing you need a permit or license. its very normal for celebrities and heroes to drag race, theres even a yearly competition for celebrities.

lifestyle lazy, indulgent and leisurely. days are spent relaxing at a beach, vibing at a local cookout or shopping. were very friendly, open and relaxed. its a city with very big & bold personalities. most people are ambiverts and its cartoonishly easy to make friends. unfortunately the culture can be a little shallow at times.

beauty standard few are fussy on beauty standards but a visible sun tan is universally preferred. however theres two big rules: no fake tanning under any circumstance & never tan more than two shades darker. in terms of body types, both men & women with toned bodies and "nice" asses are attractive--but for women the addition of being curvy is preferred.

religion among the japanese population the most practiced religion is catholism. this branch of catholism is very heavily mixed with shintoism & buddhism though.

mardi gras/carnaval the prefectures biggest holiday. its both the best and the worst. the sense of community is a focal point, millions of people celebrating and having fun (including the sizable portion of non-christians). everywhere is packed, music is blasting and half the city is drunk and/or high. by night everyone forgets how to act. surely the busiest day for MST based heroes.

MUSUTAFU CITY DISTRICTS (16 total but im only writing for 4)

"on an island in the sun, we'll be playing and having fun"

the beach durrr the city has a ton of beaches, but this one is the most iconic, large and populated. its right in front of the cities biggest shopping center (what is basically our equivalent of times square...but not as dirty or ghetto). theres always people at this beach, hanging out, on a work break or at a cookout.

the ghetto about 2-3 districts are classified as ghettos. they have an extremely high crime rate, but low quality of life, income & rent. expect seas of street vendors, houses stacked on eachother, music playing all through the night and walls panted with street art. (urarakas district 😍)

the islands a fifteen island archipelago off of the cities coast. considered middle class or lower middle class. life in the islands is slow and easy going. many people work in agriculture or fishing so its known for food & open air markets. the islands have a fun nightlife scene but its generally more laid back. (my district)

rural district the largest district in the city. known for its rich traditional japanese culture, the abundance of natural marijuana and nature. the district is very sparsely industrialized, especially compared to the rest of the city, so its mostly jungle/rainforest. theres also so much wildlife there! and disturbingly large roaches. something cool about it is this biiig ass gate surrounding the whole district! (todoroki family's district)

all districts have a fair share of mongrels / stray dogs. many people take them in to "guard" the house, or just to care for them

people from the islands like to have cute lil sea animal mailboxes!

KNOWN FOR

"as i recall i know you love to show off"

love for sports. soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball & surfing are extremely popular (among both genders)

lots of the population has a shopping addiction

elaborate heists.

trashy reality tv.

big film / tv industry.

high crime rate.

musutafuans want to go to the beach like every fucking day.

really good music.

clubs, casinos, nightlife in general.

beautiful beaches. white sand & clear blue water.

POP CULTURE

"aserejé, ja, dejé"

GTA game based on MST

love & hip hop: MST

brazilian funk, rnb, afro beats, amapiano, dancehall, reggae, dembow, reggaeton and rap are really popular. way more than non japanese/latin pop music

real housewives of MST

we have golden crust, jollibee, mama empanada, and kfc but no mcdonalds 😬

havianas are really trendy.

im actually considering scripting my version of MST in some of my other DR's (idol dr especially) but im on the fence.

if any of this inspired you your free to include some for you dr <3

[camisoledadparis]

In the USA, Pope Francis appoints an "anti-Trump" and "pro-LGBT" cardinal to head the Archdiocese of Washington! Chosen by the sovereign pontiff on Monday, January 6, 2025 to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, Robert McElroy, 70, has issued several criticisms in recent years regarding the future American president's migration program and his treatment of LGBTQ people!

A symbolic decision. Pope Francis on Monday appointed a Catholic cardinal who is very critical of Donald Trump's political program as the new head of the Catholic Church in Washington, a few days before the billionaire's inauguration as President of the United States, and on the fourth anniversary of the attack on the United States Capitol, January 6, 2021!

Robert McElroy, 70, already made a cardinal by Francis in 2022, has been Bishop of San Diego since 2015! He is particularly known for his public anti-Trump stances… During the Republican leader's first term, Bishop McElroy strongly criticized his plans to launch a mass deportation campaign targeting millions of immigrants living in the United States! He called on Americans to "disrupt" these plans in a 2017 speech and later told a Catholic magazine that Catholics "simply cannot stand by and watch (migrants) be deported"! A bold move: Robert McElroy is also an outspoken ally of Francis among the American Catholic bishops, who are widely divided over the Pope's pastoral agenda! He has taken progressive positions on issues such as welcoming LGBTQ Catholics and calling for the ordination of priests… Before arriving at the head of the archdiocese, the cardinal had a classic career path: holding a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, as is customary for Catholic prelates, he also earned a doctorate in politics from Stanford University, where his thesis focused on American foreign policy!

"This is a bold move," Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic who has closely followed Francis' papacy, said of RobertMcElroy's appointment! He will replace Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who has led the Archdiocese of Washington since 2019 and is retiring… Gregory was the first African-American leader of the Catholic Church in Washington and the first black cardinal in the United States!

[2sgf]

Solstice ☀️ Sol ☀️ Sunny

he/him ⭐ they/them ⭐ she/her

28 years old ; tme two-spirit first nations wo/man

@mermen is my moonlight 🌙

★ minors do not follow or interact thank you

☆ white supremacists, transmisogynists, sex bioessentiallists, TERFs, and anyone who follow these kinds of beliefs will be blocked

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★ disabled, neurodivergent polyfrag system

☆ remade on july 18th 2024

art blog: @solsunbeam

more about under the cut! ^^ not necessary to read

☀ my socio-political beliefs: land back, pro palestine, anti-colonization, harm reductionist, anti-canada and anti-usa, anti capitalism, defund & dismantle the police, prison abolitionist, anti child family services, pro family reunification, better funding for social services, pro universal healthcare (including mental health resources, optometry, AND dentistry), antipsychiatry, pro universal basic income, decriminalize drugs, sex bioessentialism is rooted in white supremacy, and may all the catholic churches burn down thank you

☼ i don't 'debate' any of the above with anon asks. if you want more info on why i hold these beliefs, you can ask me privately via message. though, i may block you if your vibes are bad. if you deeply disagree with the above, then i rather you block me than try to convince me otherwise. i'll save us both the time and just block you.

☀ in general i block whenever i feel i need to

☼ i occasionally post about the above, but this blog will also contain a mish-mash of my interests, personal posts, fashion pictures, nature pics, and like.... idk whatever ✌🏽

☀ mutuals this is your sign to ASK FOR MY DISCORD! come. enter my dms. let me send you pictures of my cats.

☼ interests: poetry, art, films, fashion, video games, animation, plants, comics, child welfare, trauma recovery, disability rights, tarot, witchcraft, the occult, linguistics, lolita fashion, and all kinds of other stuff

☀ video games: kingdom hearts, fire emblem, legend of zelda, animal crossing, final fantasy, supergiant's hades, minecraft, mario bros, pokemon (mostly gens 1-5), sonic the hedgehog, undertale, deltarune, // anime/manga: witch hat atelier, dungeon meshi, sailor moon, revolutionary girl utena, yugioh duel monsters, card captor sakura, madoka magica, hunter x hunter, ghibli movies, and other stuff lol

☼ alters may or might not tag their posts as [alter name].txt feel free to refer to them as their name! but we all respond to the collective name as well <3

☀ my final message...... peas and lov on planet erth....... goodnight

[mikkeneko]

I decided to make this its own post for two reasons: one, I didn't want to derail a post that is about Judaism with a discussion of a different faith and two, it was really only one of several posts I've seen recently that stuck out to me as being "man, this is way off-base."

This is not so much about "people are saying mean things about this religion and it hurts my feelings!" but it is definitely about "people are making statements that represent a wildly skewed and inaccurate picture of the reality, and I can't tell whether they're being hyperbolic on purpose or think they're genuinely telling the truth." This is not a question of whether any given church is good or bad; this is a question of whether there is or can be a distinct entity that serves as a single unified church or faith in American Christian tradition (spoiler: No.)

Here's the basic message: Any discussion of "the Christian god" or "the Christian faith" or "American Christianity" needs to be taken with a big honking asterisk that there is no single portrayal of God, or Christianity, or spirituality and faith that conveys accurate information about the entire breadth of American Christianity.

There is no single American Christian Church. None. The single biggest branch of American Christianity, Southern Evangelical Baptist, makes up at its broadest 30% of all American Christians (12% of the overall population.) The rest are split between Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Adventist, Congregationalist, and a dozen other even tinier branches, before you even get into the more far-out variants that people have ongoing arguments as to whether they even really count as "Christian." (LDS, Unitarians, and possibly Mennonites fall into this category.) Most of the major branches share a lot of common ground, but there's an enormous amount of variation -- they disagree widely on concepts such as the existence or nonexistence of Hell; the mechanics of conversion or salvation; the requirements of baptism or confirmation; whether prostylezation is required, encouraged or even permitted; what kind of sexualities are or are not accepted; God as an active or non-active role in the world; how 'sin' works or if it's even a thing; the existence or not of saints; the divinity or not of Christ; or even the idea of an anthropomorphic God at all. Some are progressive, some are fundamentalist, some are fundamentalist in ways that are completely at odds with the popular perception of what those fundaments are. I personally know one Methodist pastor who also believes and teaches about God as a "oneness of the universe" and have met others who conceive of God as "that which spans the space between the limits of our understanding and the limits of our universe." You cannot categorically state that all American Christians share a common notion on any of these topics.

Other statements I've seen recently that just made me go "what? no?"

That the USA was founded by religious extremists and That's Why America is Like That. Only one or two of the original settlements were founded for this purpose. Some were founded with an explicit purpose of total freedom of (or from) religion; others were entrepreneurial ventures with nothing to say on the topic of religion at all. When the guiding documents of the American state were put together the clause of freedom of religion was included front and center precisely because they didn't want religious extremists to be steering the ship.

That the majority of USAmericans are in cults and don't even realize they're in cults. This requires both an extremely broad definition of “cult” (to encompass pretty much any branch of Christianity, not only the more extremely evangelical ones) and severely over-estimates how many people in the US are practicing Christians (less than half.)

That the "Christian God" is intended to function as a "Great Uniter" into which other faiths can be folded; This is not a Protestant thing. Most Protestant faiths are not syncretic to the degree Catholicism is (or at all,) since there wasn't a motivating political entity backing their creeds to make them so. Again: Not all branches of American Protestantism require, encourage, or even permit prostylezation.

On that note: Not all Christians are Catholic. This isn't news, right? People know this, right? This is one of those things that I always assumed was very common knowledge, and was very surprised to run into people who were not aware of this (who either think that all Christians or Catholic, or else that Catholics are not Christian at all, depending on which side of the equation they're approaching from.) Protestant and Catholic Christianity are very very distinct entities both spiritually and politically, and in the USA, Catholic Christianity is a minority religion and is mostly (though not exclusively) practiced in minority demographic communities. Of 46 presidents so far only one has been Catholic, and a lot of the opposition to JFK's appointment was people being suspicious of his Catholicism since it was thought that his loyalty to the Church might supersede his loyalty to the US. American Christianity is mostly Protestant, not Catholic, and Protestant Christianity does not function at all the way Catholicism does. We had a whole Reformation about this. Any take that refers to "The Church" in America as a single united entity that dictates theology to its outreaching branches is... off-base.

What certainly is true is that a number of individual churches in the US have organized around the aim of consolidating social and political power, have worked at advancing their members to positions of power in order to protect and promote their interests, and thus are over-represented and have outsized influence on the political sphere. The ones that do this, as well as the ones that put emphasis on proselytizing and on money-making, tend to self-select for being the most visible and infamous because their business model is expansive by nature. That's certainly the case for the SEB in the American South, or the LDS in Utah. I really get the feeling when people use these broad terms that they are thinking either of the SEB (again, not even a majority among American Protestants!) or of the Catholic church (even less so!)  But not only do not all Americans agree with those beliefs, they don't even agree with each other.

[sutekimar]

A Sagittarius Sun Observation

I have a few family members, friends and people I know with a Sagittarius Sun, and I’ve noticed some patterns regarding their father figure.

Before I begin, it’s important to note that the Sun is typically associated with the father in a natal chart, while the Moon represents the mother. Saturn is also seen as a representation of the father figure. However, I believe that Jupiter can symbolize the father figure as well, especially in a woman’s chart. This is because, as females, we often look for traits of our fathers in our husbands, and Jupiter represents the husband in our charts. This perspective leads me to think that the 9th house is more indicative of the father, rather than the 10th—though that’s just my opinion, and it doesn’t have to be universally applicable.

On the other hand the 9th House which is ruled by Sagittarius and Jupiter represent: higher mind, expansion, international and long-distance travel, foreign languages, inspiration, optimism, publishing, broadcasting, universities and higher education, luck, risk, adventure, gambling, religion, philosophy, morals and ethics.

Observations

Mother:

Her mother and father are the same age, but they come from different religious backgrounds. My grandmother was Catholic, while my grandfather was Protestant. As a result, all my aunts and uncles have two sets of godparents—one from the Catholic side and one from the Protestant side.

Niece:

My niece's father and mother are also around the same age, but there’s a cultural difference: her mother was born in the USA, while her father was born in Puerto Rico. Her mother has Puerto Rican heritage. Interestingly, my brother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and while he speaks English, he doesn't speak it as fluently as his younger siblings. This is partly because he was out of school when my mother moved us here.

An Old friend:

As far as I know, his Father was older than his Mother. Because of what he told me once his dad was Half puertorican half African American, Not only that he was born in United States while his mom was born and raised in Puerto Rico, she moved him as a baby to Puerto Rico and he grew up over there.

My Mexican Friend:

Regarding my Mexican friend, I don’t remember if she mentioned whether her dad is older than her mom, but I do know she wasn’t born in Mexico. Her mom crossed the border and gave birth to her in the USA, then crossed back to raise her in Mexico. Interestingly, she has her Sun in the 4th house and currently lives in the USA.

Lo Que Pasó, Pasó:

Now, about this man: his father was born in Puerto Rico, and as far as I know, his mother was born in the USA but has Puerto Rican heritage, similar to my niece's mom. His dad is fluent in Spanish, as is his family, but he doesn’t speak Spanish, and as far as he told me, neither does his mom.

Interestingly enough, I know (because I’m worse than the FBI) that his two sisters also have their Suns in Sagittarius. His oldest sister is his father's daughter, while his other sister is from someone else, but based on her last name, I know her dad can’t be Puerto Rican. As for his younger brothers, one is a Cancer and the other is a Pisces, but I don’t have enough birth data to know all their positions.

Another detail about his parents' relationship is that they met in high school.

El Dominicano's Daughter:

This man has four kids; out of those, two are mixed. I don't have much information about the last child, but the baby girl is a Sagittarius Sun. Her mom is Puerto Rican, and her dad is Dominican. That's all I have to say.

Honorable Mentions:

Ex-Husband:

He is a Leo Sun with his Sun in the 9th house and a Sagittarius rising. His father is 14 years older than his mother, and he met her when she was in high school while he was a grown man of 30. (If I had known this story before we got married, I would have canceled the wedding.)

PLEASE IF YOU ARE A SAG SUN OR HAVE THE SUN IN THE 9TH HOUSE LET ME KNOW IF YOU SEE ANY OF THIS PATTERNS IN YOUR LIFE.

PS: I don't own the right for the image used in this post.

[gracie-bird]

Princess Grace at Mr and Mrs Amb. Peter K. Murphy's living room in Arlington Virginia in March 1978. "Unbeknownst to us, our 7 years old son, Marc, asked Her to pose and he snapped this photo with his little Brownie camera just before we left for the Catholic University of America where the Princess and Richard Pasco performed a poetry and prose reading entitled Birds, Beasts and Flowers. The same program was a smashing success - later that same month at Princetown University and Harvard University during that unique tour of the USA" - Amb. Peter K. Murphy.

[thebroccolination]

TICKET TO HEAVEN THOUGHTS

When I was growing up in the States in the nineties, most—if not all—of the queer media I watched was centered around Christian homophobia. Like, I still can’t see the term “gay panic” as a cutesy fandom term because I know it as a defense used by homophobes on trial for murdering queer people. A defense that worked.

Most of the queer-centric TV shows and movies I watched when I was growing up had some flavor of, “Hello! I am gay and ashamed because of Christian people specifically! I will probably die at the end of this!” and as a result I am tiiiired.

I also went to Catholic schools for my entire education, including university, so when I say I’ve spent half of my life so far submerged in the Vat of Christian Homophobia, I’m not being hyperbolic. As a personal rule, I avoid Christian homophobia in stories. Writing it, reading it, consuming it in any form. I’ve experienced what feels like every possible angle of “I’m gay” “nAUUUU but GOD” and I don’t know if I have it in me to try out another one.

So it may not be surprising to you at this point to hear that when I saw the teaser for GeminiFourth’s upcoming project, I felt a visceral revulsion to it.

I am intrigued because it’s not American Christian homophobia, but as we all know, colonialism pushed that shit globally, so it was often present even in the international media I watched for a long time. A big, big part of what appeals so strongly to me about Thai queer media is that it’s an escape from Christian bigotry. (It’s also part of what made living in Japan feel so safe to me. Homophobia is alive and well there, but the source is more nebulous and less laser-focused on God and Hell and all that noise.)

It’s going to be interesting to see how younger people born in the States react to Ticket to Heaven, because a lot of U.S. Americans in interfandom who were born after the I Killed Him Because His Icky Gayness Made Me Go Temporarily Insane Your Honor days won’t have the same type of deep-seated trauma I do. Like, those born in the Obama era grew up with a very different USA than the one I did, and got to experience the passing of marriage equality in their early youth. They probably aren’t as exhausted to screaming of sinister, hostile Christian homophobia in queer media as I am.

All this to say, I’m less interested in the actual story than I am in Aof’s personal experiences with this brand of homophobia and people’s reactions to the series once it’s on air. It’s an impressively impactful series to get so early on, and I’m sure Gemini and Fourth will do a fantastic job with it.

I may end up watching it after it’s finished, but as of now, the thought of reliving the bigotry of my formative years couldn’t be less appealing.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Fine that the Francoist dictatorship authorities made the director of Sant Jordi choir pay for having sung an unauthorized Catalan song on April 23rd 1964. This fine is kept as a historical document in the archive of the University of Barcelona.

General Francisco Franco's fascist dictatorship of Spain (1939-1975) banned and persecuted the use of the Catalan language for many years, allowing it towards the end of the dictatorship only in certain settings and under strict supervision of the police and censorship authorities. The dictatorship had the objective of eliminating the Catalan language, culture, and identity, and making all Catalan people become Spanish people. Cultural elements of Catalan culture were forbidden, such as certain songs, dances, and celebrations of traditional holidays, and people were imprisoned, tortured, and even sentenced to death for defending the right to exist of the Catalan people. The same persecution was suffered by the other nationalities under Spanish rule (mostly Basques and Galicians).

The choir Coral Sant Jordi, named after Catalonia's patron saint (Saint George), was founded in 1947 by Oriol Martorell. Its objective was to sing choir music with a focus on traditional Catalan music. The choir toured around Catalonia singing these songs with a great vocal quality, and became a symbol of cultural resistance against the dictatorship's attempt of ethnocide.

In the 1960s, the dictatorship wanted to become a normalized part of Europe and the international community. The regime opened Spain's borders to survive as a fascist stronghold, and thanks to the help from the USA (who was promoting fascist governments around the world), fascist Spain was accepted in the UN, normalized its relations with many countries, and opened its borders to tourism. To look more acceptable, it did some reforms among which they allowed speaking the local languages (Catalan, Aranese Occitan, Basque, Galician, etc) in public in some acts, as long as the person who was going to do it applied for official permission and turned in everything they were going to say or, in the case of a concert, the track list of all the songs that they were going to sing and all their lyrics as well as if they were going to speak between songs. The censorship authorities could accept or deny this application, and very often they censored parts of what was going to be said or sung, or whole songs.

On April 23rd 1964, the choir Sant Jordi sang in a fundraising event to raise money for a church. Like all Catholic churches, this church is under the title of a saint, virgin, or similar. In this case, the church is dedicated to Saint George, who their choir is also named after. In the concert, the choir sang an extra song that wasn't on the tracklist that they had submitted to be approved by the censorship authorities. This extra song was the "Goigs de Sant Jordi" (goigs are a traditional Catalan music genre of songs dedicated to exalting a particular saint or Virgin). This is a goigs song composed in the year 1885 in the Catalan language, which explains the saint's story and asks: "patron of knighthood, watch over my homeland and for its rebirth".

For having sung this, the Spanish government made Oriol Martorell (conductor of the choir) pay a fine of 10,000 pesetas, a huge amount at the time. Oriol appealed the resolution many times, even reaching the Supreme Court, but as was expected they did not repeal it, and he (with support from the rest of the choir) had to pay the fine.

Under the cut I've included the whole lyrics of the unauthorized song translated to English.

This is a print of goigs song they sang. This one is from an act in 1990, kept in the archive of Jaume I University. These are the translated lyrics:

GOIGS OF SAINT GEORGE. Patron saint of Catalonia.

Since the heaven entrusted you the most excellent mission: Patron of knighthood, watch over my homeland and for its rebirth.

Art, history, and legend have embroidered your mantle and have given you the best offering with the quill and the chisel. From the north to the south, from the east to the west: Patron...

You were born in Cappadocia of a palatial lineage, honoured patrician, you were Diocletian’s knight; your illustrious hierarchy gave you great demeanour: Patron...

You follow the blessed law of crucified Jesus, which was persecuted in Rome as the most depraved crime. You, with all the courage, resolutely embrace it: Patron...

Like a willow, if it’s stripped off its branches, it grows more branches and lushness, new Christians aren’t missing either when there’s more rigour for them. One day you spoke in the council and they destined you to torment: Patron…

You were tied to a wheel, your flesh teared out; when they left you for dead, they found you well healed. Such a miracle soon converted many people: Patron…

The emperor, then, wants to convince you, sweetly, and gives you seductive offers, but he doesn’t get anything from you. Refusing idolatry you defect the Caesar: Patron…

He doesn’t receive the affront freely and immediately orders you be beheaded; seven gold-winged angels take you up to heaven. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary welcome you smiling: Patron…

Up in heaven they proclaim you patron of the good knights; the sword they gave you there is Lucifer’s fright. On your Shield was printed the red cross on a silver field: Patron…

There was a gentle princess, stealer of love, and a ferocious monster wants to capture her, traitor; but you, with bravery, turn up to attack: Patron…

On the first lance stroke the monster falls down pierced; the virgin, already released, takes him away well tied up; all the town, with happiness, branches and palms beat: Patron…

Clovis’s wife builds sumptuous temples for you, and you have pious altars from Calp to the Pyrenees; Sir Ramir also erected for you a monument near Viana: Patron…

You help, near Girona, the undefeated emperor, and you give back the golden sceptre to Borrell of Barcelona; your shining image used to appear to king Peter: Patron…

When April comes and is crowned with the roses from the gardens, Barcelona celebrates you more than all the paladins. People of all hierarchies sings to you devoutly: Patron…

Look over the loved homeland, for its freedom, for the well-rooted faith, for the holy brotherhood. And if the great day came to save it in combat: Patron of knighthood, watch over my homeland and for its rebirth.

Since the heaven entrusted you to free the good believer: Patron of knighthood, watch over my homeland and for its rebirth.

[eaglesnick]

"The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it." – Carl Sagan

A common theme that runs throughout the USA and European political hard right is their professed belief in traditional Judeo-Christian values.

For example, Giorgia Meloni of Italy's Brothers of Italy party and Poland's Law and Justice party (PiS) are known for their Christian-conservative stances. Viktor Orban, the far-right leader of Hungary, has emphasised Christian values, and even Marine  Le Pen, the hard right leader of the French  National  Rally party, expresses support for Christian values in order to secure  Roman Catholic votes.

Across the Atlantic in America Donald Trump preaches the same doctrine and has just signed an executive order to protect Christian values and to:

 “..fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.” (PBS NEWS: 07/02/25)

He is also setting up a White House Faith Office, and has pardoned Christian anti-abortion activists, some of them violent, who were convicted of breaching the law in regard to blockading abortion clinics.

The enemies of Christianity according to Trump are, secularists and atheists, Liberal politicians, anyone left wing, the LBGTQ+ community, certain media outlets, and even some of America’s own Federal Agencies.  All of this religious-political paranoia conjures up dark images of The Handmaid’s Tale.

In America, and in religious mainland Europe, it makes political sense to play the Christian-values card but not so here in Britain. A massive 72% of mainland Europeans identify as Christian, while In the USA this figure is 67%. In Britain less than half the population identify as Christian while 37.2% of us confess to having no faith at all.

This fact is Nigel Farages Achilles heel.

Whatever your opinion of Nigel Farage, it is true to say he regards Donald Trump as both friend and mentor. Only seven weeks ago he said:

“The guy has got guts, the guys got balls – he stands up and fights for the right values."  (uk.news.Yahoo.com: Fact Check, 20/12/24.

These "values” are traditional Judeo- Christian in origin and to be fair to Farage he has supported these values for a long time now so cannot be accused of simply jumping on the Christian values bandwagon.  As long ago as 2015 he was arguing for:

"a much more muscular defence of our Christian heritage and our Christian Constitution". (Christian Today: 28/04/2015)

Seven years later he was still preaching the same message:

“My country is a Judeo-Christian country. So we’ve got to actually start standing up for our values.”  (Conservative Political Action Conference on August 6th, 2022.)

He also believes that Britain is:

“… under attack!.  The threat is not external! The biggest threat we face is from within. The biggest threat we face is the fifth column …that is attempting to destroy the family unit, Judeo-Christian Culture…"

These attackers include the universities and the political left, who he named, but presumably also the   LBGTQ+ communities, secularists, humanists and all those “others” that Trump has also designated the “enemy” of Christianity.

To help counter this so-called “attack” on British traditional Christian values Forage has teamed up with the American based group, Alliance Defending Freedom. This is a Christian organisation described as “a hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and as “an extreme anti-abortion Christian legacy advocacy group” by the Byline Times. (BYLINE TIMES: 29/11/24)

It remains to be seen how far down the religious rabbit hole Farage will continue to travel but if he goes too deep he is in danger of losing his way as the British people do not take kindly to being told how to behave or what to believe.

What is more, neither the Roman Catholic Church nor the Church of England have an exemplary record when it comes to morality and values - child abuse, sexual assaults, attitudes towards single mothers, cruelty to orphans and subsequent cover-ups, etc.

Only 25% of the British public in England, Scotland and Wales view the Church of England favourably and only 46.2 % of the population identified as Christian, while 37.2% of us profess no faith at all.

Given Farage’s friend and mentor Donald Trump sees atheists and non-Christians as as enemies of traditional Christian values, is Farage really expecting the British people to do the same? Is he really saying that over a third of the British population is “the enemy” simply because they do not believe in a god?

If he is then he is no better than the Islamic extremists who also view atheists as enemies and subject them to persecution, discrimination and even violence.

What the British public know, and what politicians like Farage and Trump seem not to realise, is that politics and religion are a lethal combination leading to religious dictatorship.  We had that once under Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. The British people rejected it then and they will reject it now.

[caassette]

one interesting thing in programming is the prevalence of scripting languages, which refer to programming languages that are built around "scripts" which are interpreted at run-time rather than other types of programs which are compiled into machine code and then executed. The important distinction here is that with scripting languages, you write your code and run it, with no in-between compilation step (which often can take a while).

as the name implies, scripting languages are really good for "scripting" things! so if you have a certain set of steps you want to execute every time you log in to your computer (i.e. turn on my vpn, adjust my timezone, deactivate my webcam) you'll use something like Bash to write that script, rather than an ahead-of-time compiled language like C.

The most common (by far, like it's not even close) scripting language is javascript, which you may know from the internet. But another popular scripting language, especially for videogames, is Lua.

There's a few cool things about Lua, but one of my favorites is that it's Brazilian! Nearly every programming language in widespread use was developed in the USA, but Lua was developed at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, which is where it is still developed to this day!

While made famous by roblox, which uses Lua for scripting the games you can make within it, manh other games also use Lua, such as:

Garry's Mod

BeamNG.Drive

Civilization V & VI

Don't Starve

The Elder Scrolls Online

Factorio

Grim Fandango

Payday: The Heist & 2

Powder Toy

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Saints Row 2, The Third, and IV

SimCity 4

Star Wars: Battlefront I & II (the originals)

Tap Tap Revenge

The Witcher

World of Warcraft

and more!

[gothicprep]

i have a little bit of time off, and i want to use it to catch up on award season movies. the problem is, of course, that the golden globes is sort of a fake award show. the people who vote on these awards aren’t part of a guild or anything. they’re just guys and dudes. the other problem is that a lot of the nominations don’t hit wide release until well after the awards air.

this is an aside but I love how they have a “cinematic box office achievement” category that’s just shit like alien: romulous, beetlejuice beetlejuice, deadpool & wolverine, gladiator 2, inside out 2, the wild robot, twisters, and wicked pt 1. it’s like saying “we will give a movie you actually watched some laurels so you can tolerate three hours of us giving awards to anora and the brutalist.”

a couple of thoughts outside of that:

I’m happy that the substance has gotten as many nominations as it has. the main issue I had with it when I first saw it was that it was just… so french while ostensibly being commentary on hollywood usa. I’m not going to spoil anything, but near the end of the movie, there’s a nye party that includes a topless kickline. this is DISTRACTINGLY FRENCH. we’re too prudish for that over here! but, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I love how deliberate the camera work is in it. it deserves a best cinematography or best director oscar nom for this. it isn’t coralie fargeat’s fault that she’s french and this carries into her work. she has a very clear vision and is able to execute it well.

I don’t love conclave getting a best drama nomination. there are very few movies that I watch and think to myself, “this would have worked better as a miniseries”. this was one of them. I don’t know how to talk about this one without spoiling the ending, but the last 15 minutes of it are so cheesy. it’s a slab of brie for dinner. i saw some people compare a speech at the end to aaron sorkin’s writing, but i walked out being a bit offended on sorkin’s behalf.

my wife (theology nut) saw this with my friends and me, and she went off on how disinterested it was in its catholic universe. it hints at a divide between cardinals in the global north and global south, but it doesn’t do much with this. it doesn’t address doctrinal beef at all. and the ending really skates over what the implications would be for the Catholic Church. someone in the theater we all saw this in loudly said “WHAT?” during the last scene. adrienne suggested that it was a bizarrely nested Trump thing because of how negligent it was in this aspect. a relatively progressive pope dies, and there’s a power struggle involved. liberal cardinals are going against an italian who longs for a pope who speaks latin, makes an event of being racist towards the african cardinal, and rails against muslims during the subplot of this movie where bombs are going off outside the church. this is a real thing in the movie that is never explained. i sort of see what she’s getting at. trump has been an inescapable anti-muse in art and it’s really difficult to not interpret this stuff through that lens. the more I thought about this one, the more of a mess i thought it was.

anyway, those are some golden globes hot takes. I don’t know what else to do with my time right now.

[anamericangirl]

I've already graduated long time ago but I was wondering what is the relationship between schools and religion in your country?

I've heard about a thing in the USA called a Sunday School but I don't know how it works. Where I'm from, Poland, we have a class called ''Religion'' where we are taught Roman Catholic religion, the most prevalent religion in Poland. There would be sometimes lessons about other religions but they usually boiled down to ''Be nice to others and let's all get along.'' We would talk about other religions in history class. Ancient Greece? Greek Gods! Ottoman Empire? Islam. Poland before its Christening? (Yes, Poland ''becomes Christian'' when our ruler, prince Mieszko I, got baptized in 966. And yes ruler of the country doesn't have to be a king. We had few rulers who's never been technically crowned.) Slavic Gods!

What about kids who aren't Christian or who are but whose parents don't want them to be taught religion in school for some reason? They go to ''ethics'' class which boils down to ''Don't kill because it's a sin bad thing.'' etc.

Perfectly serviceable, right?

But even though it's not mandatory there are still people who think religion should not be in school at all. Because in their opinion there's already enough going on in school and religion class just keeps their kids in school an extra hour (In Poland classes are only 45 minutes and breaks are only 5 - 10 minutes long, with one long one, 15 minutes.).

Most people like or at least acknowledge that it's far more convenient that way.

It's not some small village where an entire school would fit in one room. How would the priest ask and grade an entire building's worth of children? (''Religion'' isn't taught by priests, nuns or catechists. (I think that's how you translate it.) We would get grades for reciting the prayers and other stuff, our notebooks and participation during class.)

But it might be because my school is religious even by Polish standards. Our Patreon is John Paul the Second. We have his bust in front of the school, almost every class has a cross and his picture. We have some pictures and drawings (made by previous students) of him in the hallways.

What do you think?

Thanks for the message! It was interesting to read about how things are done in Poland. I think for the most part it is the same here. Publics schools here can't promote or practice a particular religion, but they can teach about different religions (which mostly would occur in a history class and there wouldn't be a whole class on religion itself. That can be the case in college/university though).

However, there are private christian/catholic schools here as well and those schools can practice/promote religion and provide religious classes.

Sunday School is not an actual school that's just what we call church for children basically lol. During Sunday church services kids are usually dismissed to go to Sunday school which is just a class that takes place during church where they go over bible stories/lessons in more kid-friendly ways.