#ex evangelicals rise up

[evenwhenihadnothingihad-stucky]

Hey stucky fic writers just so you know, getting told “oh it’s ok to be gay now and it’s legal” is not enough to get rid of internalized homophobia. That shit takes years to unlearn.

They’re still gonna have that deep down instinct that what they’re doing, what they’re feeling is wrong. It takes time to heal from that. Because they were taught their whole lives it was wrong and disgusting. It’s engrained in their mind. Being told it’s fine now won’t magically undo all that trauma.

As someone who was raised evangelical I still struggle talking about gay stuff in real life (I haven’t even been a Christian for years). Plus Steve and Bucky had it worse; they were taught being gay was a disease!

People think of queer history and they think of people going to gay bars and being unafraid of who they were regardless of society’s standards but that’s survivors bias. Those are just the ones that got recorded in history. Most queer people back then lived in the shadows and brought it with them to their graves, possibly praying to God that he’d take their ‘perversion’ away. Or they were just in such deep denial they didn’t even question why they seemed a little different.

Unfortunately being gay is a big fucking deal in our society and it’s not treated the same as being straight. And it sucks. Steve and Bucky’s relationship would’ve looked much different than a straight couple because of the fear, the shame, and the expectations.

And it ain’t fair but that’s the truth.

(And if you are queer, and you don’t understand or relate to this post? Be grateful 😭🙏)

[meandmybigmouth]

How fear of 'critical thinking' drives Christian nationalists’ 'rising authoritarianism': ex-evangelical

How fear of 'critical thinking' drives Christian nationalists’ 'rising authoritarianism': ex-evangelical

J. Dylan Sandifer is now a sociology professor at the University of the District of Columbia, but Sandifer didn't grow up in the U.S. capitol. Sandier was raised in East Texas and had a strict evangelical fundamentalist upbringing — and now rejects that ideology.

In a biting think piece published by The New Republic on January 13, Sandifer emphasizes that one of most troubling characteristics of far-right evangelical Christian fundamentalists is their disdain for "critical thinking." And that disdain, Sandifer warns, poses a threat to democracy itself.

[angeltreasure]

Ok it’s the ex evangelical guy again

If you can pray directly to god why also ask angels/saints to pray for you? I mean, I’m sure it’s nice for them to be remembered, but like

Also sorry people are going a bit far.

Hello again! Thank you for the questions. You’re always welcome to reach out.

As Catholics, we believe in two types of prayer: direct prayer and intercessory prayer. Direct prayer is received directly to God. Intercessory prayer is petition we send to saints and angels, who then pray for us, and send the intention up to God. There are no gods and goddesses. Even Mary is not a goddess, she is human. Saints and angels do not take the place of God and never can. To answer your question of why Catholics can go to the saints and angels is the very same as when you ask a dear friend on earth to pray for you for a specific intention. It is that very same concept. You go to your friend and ask them to pray for you for a certain thing. A good friend will accept the request and send that prayer up to God for you. When we pray for the living and for the dead, it is an act of mercy and a chance to show love to our neighbors no matter the physical distance. We believe there is an afterlife so the saints and angels are never far away. You just cannot see them because of the veil that separates our world and the next. Each person has their very own guardian angel who never leaves your side in this life. Angels were created all at once by God and are purely spirits. Angels of all nine choirs act the same as saints in that they can be reached in intercessory prayer. Here is my favorite photo to demonstrate the two types of main prayer.

This is not the first time that some person/people have sent me death threats on anon and off anon. It is shocking for any passing person to witness, but it is something Jesus said would happen if we live our faith. I take the threats and snarky comments as opportunity to pray for those people and have God bless them, as Jesus teaches.

It is written in the Word of God////

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” - Matthew 5:3-12

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” - Matthew 5:43-48

“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.” - Luke 21:12-19

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” - John 15:15-21

[monsooninn]

Berakhot 8a:9. "The Hasid."

The Mishnah says the Shule is an event horizon, there is one way up, into the blue, and no way back. It calls a Jewish person desirous of a one way ticket a Hasid, "a righteous person."

When the Mashiach comes, in order for the marriage to take place, the Rab says all grievances must be left behind the moment the fare for the flight to the other side of the sea is purchased.

In the matchmaking profession, the ability to leave the past behind. This includes stress due to one's parents, children, exes, past and current job woes, addictions, any kind of personal problems have to be excised in favor of "love, identity, and ideals."

9. "For this, let every Hasid pray to you at the time of finding", said Rabbi Hanina: "at the time of finding" this is a wife, as it is said: "finding a wife is a good finding".

The Number is 7458, ז‎דה‎ח‎, zadeh=

The masculine noun שדי (saday), meaning cultivated field (Jeremiah 12:12) or wild land and home of wild beasts (Joshua 2:22). This noun is a poetic synonym of the following noun.

The masculine noun שדה (sadeh), meaning open field or pasture land (Genesis 29:2) or home of wild beasts (Genesis 4:8, Jeremiah 14:5).

It is possible to go into the field and grab a bull by the horns so long as the handler realizes at least person in the relationship has to be the picture perfect portrait of stability. The Jewish people are going to have to likewise grasp the concept of Malchut if they are to evangelize Mashiach.

Unlike a human marriage, this marriage between the Jewish people and the rest of the human race cannot divorce and get together again. Fusion between the two is critical. Fortunately, everyone on earth knows of or has read the Torah, who wrote it and why. The Torah has always the bedrock for peace on earth and this will never change.

If we treat the Torah as the dowry and the God of Israel and the matchmaker between men, then global clemency is all that remains for the Mashiach to take place. The sovereignty of Israel, the cause of so much conflict and violence, is therefore the most important moment in human history.

The final creation of Israel must however be treated a heartbeat that works with other functioning organ systems, which is why I suggested a passing the flag of Mashiach to a superpower that can graduate the human race to Mashiach in Israel's name. Freeing and stabilizing Russia will bring prosperity to all of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Not one person who has ever sued for the peace stopped along the way for sightseeing. We cannot devastate Eastern Europe in search of global harmony.

The Torah is much more of a prophecy than a record. In it, and especially in the Gematria, Ha Shem says time must slow down before it can go forward again. We must not wait to see if the flood waters rise, more scoundrels will obtain state power, or if another disease will take advantage of our ailing climate and overpopulation problems.

The Most High is signaling, He is inviting everyone on this planet who wants something good to look forward to to follow the Mishnah to another destiny. If it is to materialize, the grievances between the Russian people, the people of Israel, and the rest of the world must end.

[the-hem]

"Benefits of Religion." From the Maha Upanishad, the Exploration of the Mysteries of the Atman.

III-1-15. A lad, Nidagha, "warmth" prince of seers and enlightened, permitted by his father to go on a pilgrimage, had ablution in three and a half Crores of sacred places, then told Ribhu "prudence" about himself. ‘After bathing in so many places an enquiry (question) has arisen there in my mind:

 The world is born only to die and dies only to be reborn – all the actions of the moving and unmoving things are ephemeral;

Things such are sources of splendour are sinful and give place to all calamities; unconnected with each other, like iron-stakes, they come together, only by mental fancy.

I have lost taste in various things, like a traveler in deserts my mind is tormented as to how this suffering will die down; riches please me not but give only cycles of worries just as houses with children and women cause danger.

This (material) glory in the world is delicate, cause only delusion, does not give happiness. Life is unsteady like a drop of water hanging on to the top of a tender leaf; like an insane person it goes away, leaving the body suddenly.

Life causes strain to those whose mind is shattered by contact with the poison from the snake of worldly objects and who lack mature discrimination of the self. It is (possible) reasonable to envelop wind and to cut into (empty) space, to string together watery waves but not give up attachment to (worldly) life. (In contrast) by attaining Brahman, what is to be got is got, which causes no grief; it is the place of highest joy.

 Even trees live, so do animals and birds – only he (really) lives, whose mind is sustained by contemplation; the others who have no (spiritual) rebirth are only old donkeys.

Shastra (scripture) is a burden to one who lacks (spiritual) discrimination, knowledge is a burden to one attached (to life); mind is a burden to one without security, body is a burden to one ignorant of the self.

Studies suggest relgious beliefs and practices are helpful rather than detrimental:

"The headlines regarding American religion have not been great of late — from sexual abuse to financial scandal. From liberal academics to ex-evangelicals, we’ve been getting many stories of “religious trauma” telling us that religious institutions have promulgated a culture of judgment and shame through their rigid moral structure, repression of female sexuality, legitimization of the “patriarchy” and failure to foster warm and welcoming environments.

Paired with recent scandals, these messages have undoubtedly played a hand in the rising number of young adults who have left behind the faith of their mothers and fathers and embraced a religious identity of “none” as adults. But do today’s headlines provide us with a fair assessment of the influence of religion on Americans’ lives?

If the claims above are fundamentally true, one would expect to see that religiosity has, on average, a negative effect on happiness and other mental health outcomes. Instead, in study after study, what we find is that religiously devout adults are happier, less depressed and more involved in their communities than those who attend services less frequently."

Even still, one must practice meditation and maintain ritual purity in the mind to prevent the recurrence of sin and hold the line on the expectation society will do the same.

[dukeofriven]

The topic of Jewish conversion (and the far-rarer proselytization) is a complex one, it differs greatly in time and place, often was not an easy process, and never really looks like the kind of white-missionary-in-Africa conversion that is most people's deeply ahistorical understanding of what missionary 'work' looked like through most of history. But in a time in which Jews are expressly struggling with rising tides of anti-Semitism, with their own complex feelings on the nature of ethno-religious and ethno-nationalist identities, saying something so cloyingly patronizing, so ‘oh-you’re-one-of-the-good-ones,’ so fundamentally untrue as "Judaism requires a Jewish mother" while you’re bitching about Christianity (largely through a lens of yet more ignorance of historical reality)—well that’s well and truly vile.

Don’t tell lies about Judaism to make rhetorical points, you fucking piece of shit.

[As for the rest, its the usual nonsense in which Christianity is somehow uniquely violent a religion because the writer is profoundly, comically ignorant of other religions, cultures, history, and so on, (and is usually some kind of bitter American ex-Evangelical who treats their own narrow experience and really, really shoddy education as some kind of universal lens that they can apply to all of history.) The kind of people who un-ironically use the term “Dark Ages,’ a complete fabrication of Petrarchian historiography that no modern historian would ever use because it’s made-up, and didn’t happen. Or, here’s a fun one: you know who the ‘colonizing’ Crusaders fought when they showed up in the First Crusade? That’s right, the Seljuk Empire, the people who conquered and colonized the area a mere generation prior and were also no more ’native’ to the region than the ‘invading’ Crusaders—never mind that framing the crusades as an act of colonization utterly misunderstands the idea of Europe as a modern construct and the degree to which the Levant, Anatolia, and the whole Mediterranean world were connected by generations of history and cross-culture interplay, ignores the previous centuries of Arab Conquest (because the writers to actually know nothing at all about Muslim history and can’t tell a Sunni from a Shiite much less a Moor from a Turk), has never heard of Andalusia, and on the main treats a 21st century lens of modern national power dynamics and 18th/19th colonialism as being just as relevant centuries prior—because, again, they don’t know actually know anything and don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m not here to defend Christianity, far from it, but I a, sick to death of this self-flagellating posturing of fellow leftists who’ve decided to treat it as somehow the ne-plus-ultra of violent doctrine because its the inheritance of their own cultural group—as though humanity needed the name of Jesus on their lips before they ever went around conquering, enslaving, subjugating, torturing, and brutalizing their fellow human beings. Christianity has no monopoly on violence, self-righteousness, or hypocrisy. Go study history.)

Constantine realized he could be the head of the Roman state and the head of the church, combining the wealth and consolidating the power.

Converting all your prisoners of war to Christianity was an easy way to gain money and power.

By contrast, Juadaism requires a jewish mother. Christians just wanted the power and the money and would convert anyone.

The violence never ended. Dark Ages, Crusades, Inquisitions, Missionaries, colonizers, monarchs.

[whatisonthemoon]

Korean Evangelism (1974)

Korean Evangelism By Jonathan Marshall Pacific Research, 5 (September-October 1974), 1-5

Lenin may have exaggerated when he charged that “religion is the opiate of the people,” but his words have long had a ring of truth for Asia. From the days when Christian missionaries were sent to China and Korea to open up new markets for American manufacturers, to the more recent efforts of the American CIA to finance anti-communist religious minority groups in Southeast Asia, the West has consistently used religion as a spearhead of cultural and economic penetration in the Orient. Since World War II, America’s politico-religious programs have been chiefly aimed at stirring up anti-communist sentiment around the world to promote the containment or rollback of leftist regimes. Thus the CIA has at various times backed everything from Asian Buddhist monks to reactionary Russian orthodox churches catering to Eastern European émigrés, to Pope Paul’s Italian anti-communist youth movements.1 Most anti-communist religious fronts, however, are supported by wealthy right-wing individuals or foreign governments, but all have similar ends. Many of these “religious” groups are now affiliated with worldwide anti-communist organizations, especially the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League (formed by Chiang Kai-shek and Korean President Syngman Rhee, in 1954) and its umbrella organization, the World Anti-Communist League. These two groups, although confined largely to propaganda activities . (APACL’s role in the 1954, CIA-organized Vietnam refugee resettlement is one of several exceptions), help coordinate the activities of the world’s leading anti-communists and of regional organizations such as the irredentist Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, the European Freedom Council, and the Free Pacific Association. Also associated with APACL is the International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture headed by an ex-Foreign Minister under Spain’s Franco, and composed of former German Abwehr agents, Ukrainian Catholic activists, professional American anti-Semites, John Birch Society spokesmen, and a former advisor to Syngman Rhee, James Cromwell. Other religious groups represented in APACL/WACL conventions include the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade (American), the Asian Lay-Christian Association (South Korean), and the Asian Christian Anti-Communist Association. All are dedicated to winning the hearts and minds of the world’s many non-Christians and turning them away from the lure of communism.2 South Korea has long been a center of anti-communist Christian agitation in Asia because of its large Christian population (one out of eight South Koreans is Christian, and the number is rising rapidly) and because of the highly favorable political climate offered first by Syngman Rhee and now by General Park, who have subsidized right-wing Christian groups and promoted a “Christianizing” campaign in the military. Evangelists who consider the Third World to be of great “strategic significance” point out that South Korea now boasts over 8,500 seminary and Bible school students. And South Korea has another advantage for Christian activists -- a convenient enemy. During Billy Graham’s famous Crusade to South Korea in mid-1973, which drew over two million people (thanks to some official pressure), chants like “Fifty million for Christ” were instigated to agitate for a roll back of Communism and unification of the Korean Peninsula’s fifty million inhabitants. Thus it was fitting that Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was the home of the first All-Asia Mission Consultation, a meeting of Asian missionaries to plan the evangelization of Asia’s 98 percent non-Christians.3 One American evangelical organization has been quick to exploit the opportunities provided by South Korea: Campus Crusade for Christ International. Founded by ex-California businessman William R. Bright in 1951, Campus Crusade is headquartered in a multimillion dollar luxury hotel located on a 1,735 acre estate at Arrowhead Springs, near San Bernardino. With a full-time staff of over 3,009 people in fifty countries and an annual budget over $15 million, Bright’s organization is dedicated to sparking off a “spiritual explosion across America and around the world” which will Christianize the world in the next decade.4 Campus Crusade experienced a remarkable growth in the past five years through the use of sophisticated computerized marketing techniques and an almost embarrassingly oversimplified set of theological principles. It has, however, met with some opposition from established Christian organizations thanks to its conservative fundamentalist principles and resistance to social change. Campus Crusade speakers typically cite the “great red dragon” of Revelation 12 to warn of the threat of Chinese Communism, and the group’s film, “Berkeley -- A New Kind of Revolution” portrays Martin Luther King and the peace movement, tinted red, as examples of what is wrong with America. The evangelist organ Christianity Today reports that at EXPLO ’72, a student congress on evangelism sponsored by Campus Crusade in Dallas (featuring Billy Graham), “The Peoples’ Christian Coalition, an anti-war group.., kept Crusade officials hopping to head off leafleting and pint-sized demonstrations. Two dozen Coalition members and Mennonites one night in the Cotton Bowl held up a large banner reading ‘Cross or flag, God or country?’ and chanted ’Stop the war’ but were promptly shushed by the crowd.” Indeed, the atmosphere of Campus Crusade’s EXPLO ’72 seemed best described by the popular chant, “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All who’re for Jesus, stand up and holler!’’5 Even as EXPLO ’72 was ending, Bill Bright began planning Campus Crusade’s next and even more ambitious venture -- EXPLO ’74 in South Korea. Slated to cost $1.5 million, EXPLO ’74 was planned for an attendance conservatively estimated at 300,000, well over three times the draw of its 1972 predecessor. Campus Crusade got a big boost when Billy Graham plugged his friend’s project during his 1973 expedition to Seoul. Campus Crusade’s high-rise headquarters in central Seoul (on land donated by the government after a battle in 1968 to remove squatters) was mobilized to prepare for the event. And Campus Crusade’s chief representative in Seoul, Joon Gon Kim, drawing upon the organization’s experience in fighting communism in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand, as well as the strong encouragement of his government, directed the entire project.6 Bright suffered a temporary set-back last year when the Korean National Council of Churches officially expressed its “lack of concern” about the evangelical crusade, according to the Washington Post, for “fear it would be used as a tool in the government’s struggle with church groups over social policy, political freedoms and human rights.” Sophisticated Koreans viewed the Graham/Bright efforts as simply a further extension of the government’s program of “undermining strongly anti-government mobilizations among the country’s four million Christians,” writes an informed Japanese journalist.7 Since then, probably to Bright’s embarrassment, the Park regime has greatly stepped up this “struggle,” not only against Church groups, but also to crush students, lawyers, and dissident intellectuals. Since Park suspended the Constitution and promulgated his Emergency Decrees last January, his government has convicted by military tribunal almost two hundred suspected political dissenters and interrogated -- often by torture -- hundreds more. Korea’s only living ex-President was arrested and convicted under the Decrees. Sentences ranging from five years to death have been meted out by these tribunals to large numbers of Protestant clergymen, a famous Catholic bishop, the country’s best known poet, South Korea’s foremost expert on Abraham Lincoln (and Boston University Ph. D.), a dean of theology at a major Korean University, who graduated from Union Theological Seminary, a civil liberties lawyer from Yale University, and many others whose exposure to Western political, values brought them only trouble. Thousands of Korean Catholics (at great personal risk) have attended mass rallies and vigils to protest the jailing of Bishop Daniel Chi Hak Soun. Korea’s Protestant National Council of Churches recently denounced the repression under Park. Christian groups around the world, including the American Jesuit Missions Conference and the World Council of Churches have joined in the protest against the American-backed regime.8 None of this, of course, disturbs veteran anti-communist Bill Bright, whose EXPLO ’74, with government backing, attracted several hundred thousand South Koreans last August. “In no country in the world, including the U.S., is there more freedom to talk about Jesus Christ than in South Korea,” he explains by way of justification. “There is no religious repression here. It is only political, and I believe it is for a good cause.” Bright says that “those in prison” -- presumably including his fellow Christians -- “are involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in.” The slightest expression of dissent, he feels, may cause North Korea to instantly “pounce upon the republic.” He accuses the U.S. press as well as the jailed Korean critics of slandering the Park regime and claims, “Those who oppose the regime are militant in their attack on anything that speaks of God, and if they had their way every Christian in South Korea today would be slaughtered.” Joon Gon Kim, executive director of EXPLO ’74, is no less outspoken in his defense of Campus Crusade’s holy mission against world communism: “When the Korean church becomes aflame with the Holy Spirit God can rend the iron curtain of North Korea, China, Russia and Eastern Europe and the walls will collapse so that the Gospel can be preached.’’9 William Bright in the service of General Park’s dictatorship might seem an extreme case, but his allies, especially those in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, are no less fervent or dedicated. Just as Bright claims that General Park is working in the service of God by crushing his opponents, so did Bright’s ally and Korean counterpart, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, achieve notoriety when he announced last year in full page newspaper advertisements across the United States that President Nixon had been put into office by God and could be removed only by His will. Sun Myung Moon’s National Prayer and Fast Committee stuck by Nixon to the bitter end. (Thus did Moon inevitably meet Rabbi Korff, who then obligingly spoke before a Moon-affiliated organization on “The Fact of Communism and America’s Future.” 10 The Reverend Moon is a new phenomenon in America, but not in Asia where his following now totals nearly a million people, concentrated in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Moon found his calling back in 1936 when Jesus Christ approached him on a mountainside and asked him to devote himself to God’s service as an evangelist. Moon waited until 1954, however, before organizing a new world religion, the Genri Undo, or Unification Church, formerly called the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. (Detractors claim he got off to a slow start because of three arrests for sexual offenses.)11 Despite his wide following in Asia, and his whirlwind American tour last year, Moon has not attracted a wide following in the United States, where he can claim only about 25,000 supporters. Now that he can no longer lead the campaign to save President Nixon, Sun Myung Moon has fallen back on more traditional approaches. Recently he spent $350,000 on radio, TV, and other advertising to promote a major evangelical rally at Madison Square Garden to stimulate new support in the East. The event was held September 18 and attracted a large crowd of curious onlookers, hostile fundamentalists, leftist demonstrators, policemen, and atheists.12 Once described as a “Korean-style Elmer Gantry” but preferring the title, “God’s Hope for America,” the Reverend Moon preaches about the many dangers of communism along with his personal interpretations of the Bible. One Japanese source describes his movement as “less a religion than an anti-communist front group.” Rabbi Mark Tannenbaum of the American Jewish Committee observes that “Moon seems to be exploiting the emotional power of religion in order to indoctrinate his anti-communist ideology. The tragedy is that so many young people respond to this emotional appeal.” And he has predictably drawn fire from concerned clergymen, in the words of one, for his “seemingly cozy relationships with the dictatorial Park Chung Hee regime in South Korea.” In reply to these charges a Moon spokesman insists, “Many religions acknowledge the threat of Communism.”13 Sun Myung Moon can afford to lavishly finance his propaganda activities. Time estimated his personal fortune at $15 million, derived from investments in a tea company, titanium mines, retreat ranches, pharmaceutical firms, and shot gun manufacturers. Recently his Unification Church purchased several estates and an old seminary in New York for about $3 million. The question remains: is this vast international effort just a personal undertaking?14 Moon and his close associates are predictably silent, but disturbing evidence is emerging of his church’s close ties to anti-communist political organizations with less spiritual ends. For example, Moon’s closest associate and English interpreter, Colonel Bo Hi Pak (“God’s Colonel”), formerly a Korean military attaché, has strong links to both Korean intelligence and the American CIA. He heads the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) which operates “Radio Free Asia,” possibly an outgrowth of a project by the American organization, Committee for a Free Asia (now the Asia Foundation), funded by the CIA. KCFF also conducts propaganda operations in Vietnam. Its legal counsel is none other than Robert Amory, Jr., former deputy director of the CIA. In 1962 Amory almost became head of the Asia Foundation (he was turned down to avoid blowing the CIA cover); now he is a law partner in Corcoran, Roley, Youngman & Rowe, a firm which has long handled the legal work for CIA proprietaries.15 The possibility of CIA involvement with a right-wing movement now entering the United States is frightening enough. But just as troubling are the close financial ties of Moon’s church to the world of wealthy neo-fascist Japanese capitalists, who seek not only a rollback of Communism but a new “Greater Asia” under the Emperor, based on the integration of Korea and Formosa into the Japanese orbit. In Japan, the chief financial backer and organizer of the Genri Undo is Sasagawa Ryoichi, the 75 year old former Class A war criminal. Back in 1931, with the notorious Kodama Yoshio, he formed a chauvinist patriotic party and intelligence organization that siphoned off enormous wealth from China during the Japanese occupation and ultimately provided much of the postwar financial backing for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In 1939 he set in motion the negotiations leading to the ’Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany, and Italy; three years later he was elected to the Diet on an ultranationalist platform of southward expansion. His stint in the Sagumo Prison after World War II for suspected war crimes set back his career only a short while, for he and fellow inmates like Kodama Yoshio and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke used their influence and time to plan the resurrection of the postwar Japanese Right.16 Both Sasagawa and Kodama still exercise enormous influence in Japan, and are described as “kuromaku” -- powers behind the throne. The New York Times description of Kodama applies identically to Sasagawa: “Yoshio Kodama is among the most powerful men in Japan. He was instrumental in founding the nation’s governing party, he has had a hand in naming several Premiers, he has settled dozens of disputes among top businessmen. He also commands the allegiance of Japan’s ultra-right wing and has strong influence over the yakuza, or gangsters, of the underworld here.”17 Both are dedicated to restoring the power of the Emperor and crushing opposition to the Right. Sasagawa, as president of the Japan-Indonesia Association and Japan-Philippine Association, both reminiscent of the prewar imperialist South Seas Association, has helped to spearhead the southward Japanese commercial advance in Asia. He funded the anti-Sukarno forces which organized the Indonesian coup d’état of September 30, 1965; he likewise supported the Lon Nol faction which overthrew King Sihanouk in Cambodia in 1970, and arranged for Japanese economic aid to prop up the new government. Currently he is active in strengthening Japanese ties with the strategic Arabian peninsula, through his Japan-Oman Association. Most significantly, Sasagawa has long been a leading light in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, and was behind the recent organization of the World Anti-Communist League. With his vast fortune acquired from shipbuilding, gambling, and organized crime, Sasagawa not only influences the Japanese government but acts as a powerful force in all of “Greater Asia.” His support of Moon’s Unification Church is thus just one of many elements in the constellation of interlocking activities surrounding the Japanese, Asian, and world right-wing movements which still thrive in many forms. American “Bible Belt” fundamentalism has long been known as a source of the most extreme conservatism and almost fanatic anti-communism. Evangelical movements from this tradition,, refined and directed by sophisticated “religious entrepreneurs” with modern marketing techniques and lavish funding, are “going international” on a larger scale than ever before in the service of established right-wing governments and organizations. Linked to old and well established anti-communist fronts composed of Eastern European émigrés, embittered Cuban refugees, and Nationalist Chinese officials, these popular new evangelical movements are the forefront of a new wave of political propaganda, disguised as religion and designed to distract Third World peoples from their more pressing social needs and concerns. Whether this theology of anti-communism will have any appeal to the masses of Asia is doubtful, but it does represent a new level of struggle in the cold war that is still with us. SIDEBAR: CHRISTIAN ANTI-COMMUNIST CRUSADE The Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, although affiliated with APACL, specializes in rooting Communists out of Latin America. Headed by “the amazing Aussie Communist-hunter” Fred Schwartz, CACC is based in southern California at Long Beach, where it draws financial support from such right-wingers as Walter Knott (Knott’s Berry Farm) and Patrick J. Frawley (Schick, Eversharp). Its $350,000 annual income supports many activities, including a Latin American literature project. Back in 1961, Schwartz’s Crusade worked With the U.S. Information Agency (and the CIA) to defeat Marxist candidate Cheddi Jagan in British Guyana’s presidential election. Schwartz admitted spending $76,0.00 to influence the election in favor of the right-wing United Force party. The Crusade’s money allegedly helped finance anti-Jagan street gangs and rioters to discredit his government. Shortly thereafter the CIA began a major campaign to undermine Jagan by infiltrating Guyana’s powerful black labor unions with the help of the CIA-funded American Institute for Free Labor Development. Though no one has ever proven any connection between Schwartz and the US government, his activities closely parallel those of the CIA. US embassy officials have never questioned his work. If he is not a CIA man, he ought to be.

Sources and footnotes below

(Sources: William Turner, Power Out the Right (Berkeley: Ramparts Press, 1971); Jane Kramer, “Letter From Guyana,” New Yorker (September 16, 1974), pp. 100-128; Cheddi Japan, The West on Trial (London, 1966), p. 307). FOOTNOTES 1. Stanley Karnow, “The CIA in Flux,” New Republic, December 8, 1973. Between 1961 and 1963 CIA foundations gave $142,500 to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church outside of Russia. 2. Peter Dale Scott, “Watergate, Cuba, and the China-Vietnam Lobby” (unpublished manuscript); APACL, All Roads Lead to Freedom: First Report (Taipei, 1955); APACL, Proceedings of the First WACL Conference; APACL, Proceedings of the Third WACL Conference. 3. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17; Christianity Today, August 16, 1974, pp. 28-9; June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; September 28, 1973, pp. 52-3. 4. Christianity Today, January 1, 1971, p. 43; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-9; Christian Century, December 24, 1969, pp. 1650-1651. Despite its name, Campus Crusade is “not a student-led program” but is controlled by Bright’s central staff. (Christianity Today, April 12, 1968, p. 4O.} 5. Christian Century, May 10, 1972, pp. 549-51; July 19, 1972, pp. 778-80; Christianity Today, July 7, 1972, pp. 31-2. 6, AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 16; Christianity Today, June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-39. Campus Crusade actually has staff members at work in over fifty countries, where, as in the United States, its chief target group is students. 7. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17. 8. The American press, especially the Washington Post and the New York Times, provided extensive coverage of the growing repression in Korea during the summer of 1974. 9. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; New York Times, August 19, 1974. 10. On Korff’s close relationship to Moon, see Washington Post, July 25, 1974; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Rabbi Korff’s latest project is to force Congress to impose severe curbs on the media, which he blames for President Nixon’s downfall (Washington Post, August 17, 1974). 11. Daily News (New York), September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, September 16, 1974; Village Voice, September 12, 1974. Estimates vary as to the size of Moon’s worldwide following; Moon’s chief associate put the figure at over two million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 12. New York Times, September 16, 1974 (including full-page advertisement on p. 40); Daily News, September 13, 1974; New York Times, September 19, 1974; UPI dispatch, September 19, 1974; Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974. 13. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Moon’s organization has created a number of secular anti-communist front groups including the ]nfernationai Federation for Victory over Communism, the World Freedom Institute, and the Freedom Leadership Foundation. The South Korean Government sends its civil servants to an anti-communist indoctrination center in Seoul operated by the Church (Village Voice, September 12, 1974; New York Times, September 17, 1974). 14. Time, October 15, 1973, pp. 129-30; Daily News, September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02. Moon’s church is worth “far more” than Moon’s personal $15 million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 15. Village Voice, September 12, 1974; Steve Weissman and John Shoch, “CIAsia Foundation,” Pacific Research, September~October, 1972. One of Corcoran’s earliest projects for the CIA was representing Chennault’s Civil Air Transport, now Air America. CIA officials deny any ties to Moon’s Unification Church, but funding of the Church remains mysterious (Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974). 16. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, July 2, 1974; Don Kurzman, Kishi and Japan (Astor-Honor). 17. New York Times, July 2, 1974. Sasagawa has been implicated in recent Japanese election irregularities. See Far Eastern Economic Review, September 6, 1974, p. 28. 18. AMPO, Winter, 1974, pp. 43-5.

[ramrodd]

How does Ex Machina further develop ideas in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?

COMMENTARY: 

Frankenstein reflects the electric effect the American Revolution, generally, and Benjamin Franklin, in particular, had on the collective imagination of Britain and the Continent especially within the context of the intellectual displacement caused by Newton, Kant and Hegel. The title, “Frankenstein” is a homage to Franklin and his lightening rod which served to launch the challenge to Deus Ex Machina that rises to its apogee with Darwin and Nietzsche's “God Is Dead!” triumph of Heroic Romantic Narcissism.

Newtown, Kant and Hegel created a crack in the Cartesian Cosmos that has come down to the existential struggle between Liz Cheney’s version of January 6 and Tucker Carlson’s version of January 6. The woke voters are going for Liz Cheney’s version in 2024 and the white supremacists/KKK voters are going with Tucker.

As a woman, Mary Shelley was challenging the misogamy of Moses, Peter and Calvin as the voice of Mary Magdalene. William F. Buckley identified with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley Heroic Romanticism and the David and goliath battle of the American Revolution. If you are a female woke voter, yon need to listen to the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and read a little bit of Mary Eddy Baker’s Christian Science

St. Peter had a very proprietary attitude to Jesus. like Tom Parker with Elvis. He had bet the ranch (they all had) on Jesus and the coming of His Kingdom on Earth. Jesus sold them something of a pig in the poke, which is why Peter is so outraged at the idea that Jesus might end up crucified. Jesus was a means to an end to everyone around Him except Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene. Ever Mary, Co-Redemptrix, considered Him part of the family wedding catering business. Changing water into wine is a clever business model. Mary, Co-Redemptrix, gave a family friend of John Mark’s mother, Mary of Jerusalem, 120 gallons of primo Mogan David as a wedding gift. Mary Co-Redemptrix, was comfortably Bourgeoise by the time Jesus begins His ministry. It is useful to see Jesus and His 12 Disciples as a Green Beret A Team from the perspective of Cornelius, the centurion featured in Acts X. And, from the Jewish point of view, Gideon and 12 of his 300 preparing an ambush for the Hittites that the Zealots reprise against a Roman legion in 66 to launch the Jewish Wars. Joseph and Mary, mother of Jesus, received as substantial dowry with the gold, frankincense and myrrh. The post-modern historical deconstruction of the dialectical Marxism of the 60s cultural wars that Jesus was a poor peripatetic preacher is not accurate. It is important to remember that the prayer of all the Jewish men, especially Peter, first thing in the morning was “Thank you, Lord, that I was born not a Gentile, nor a slave, nor a woman:: It probably sounds better Hebrew.

Mary Shelley was dealing with this legacy of the ten Commandments. woman as property. The idea of a woman writing serious literature should remind English Majors everywhere of the anecdote of Dr. Johnson, being asked by a fellow spectator, if the dog sidnlt dance well on its two hind legs, replied “The question isn’t how well he dances, but why!”

The Pro-Life Evangelical solo scriptura interpretation of the Gospel of Mark is an engine of Fascist disinformation organic to the white supremacist agenda of the core cadre of the January 6 insurgency. Campus Crusade for Christ is a major generator of this Pro-Life dialectical Marxist Calvinism. The Pro-Life Chaplains in the miliary are preaching this shit and, as a consequence, creating the culture sexual assault in the military community and a major driver of the suicide rate among combat veterans and white males who identify with Kurt Cobain.

So, what Mary Shelley was in the middle of was pretty much the same culture the MAGA nation is trying to preserve by electing Trump and all the white supremacists they elect with Gym Jordan and James Comer and Lindsey Graham and Cancun Ted Cruz and teh 118 January 6 Republicans who are tryin g to hold the debt ceiling hostage to get their way, including overturning the 2020 election.

The issue isn’t that Kant’s Categorical Imperative represents a schematic of the cognitive organization of the psyche but that it is a schematic of the cognitive organization of the male and female ego in an “all men are created equal” kind of way. Frankenstein is an allegory that explores the significance of Jesus’s affirmation that women should become as men.

Mary Shelley represents everything the January 6 Republicans are trying to prevent, going back to William F. Buckley and his on-campus Brown Shirts, the Young Americans for Freedom. Deus Ex Machina ceased to be an issue with the English Civil War. It should have ceased to be an issue with Jean d”Arc, but, then Sam Alito still hasn’t read the memo about the 19th Amendment.

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

I’ve been thinking about the religious-imagery / Christian-cult overtones of the Galactic Horde lately.  Something came up on my feed about it tonight, a reblog of something from someone I watch, but I was thinking about it earlier.   Specifically, I was thinking about how I *can’t* talk about it much? Like, it’d probably be awkward because I don’t think anyone would want to read what I’d want to write about it?  Like, I don’t know - I think most of Spop fandom just wants a clear cut “Main villain is Christianity-coded, sending a clear message that Christianity is evil,” while I’m over here with a Christian theology-interest and experiences with different forms and deconstructions of Christianity.  I’m, personally, an ex-evangelical (”exvangelical”) who still *marginally* identifies as Christian because I retain a few core-beliefs, although I’m severely Leftist, non-Hell, non-churchgoing, it’s a personal-psychology-bound thing, I’m decently agnostic, etc.  (I’ve essentially accepted that my personal spirituality is a lot like my asexuality - difficult to explain and most people will not think it it even exists).   I just get a little personal needle-scratch whenever other fans whole-hog equate Prime with “Christianity” flat-out, as if there weren’t a gagillion different types of Christianities (many of which have been at war with each other at different points in history) and my heretical ass wants to pick apart how Prime equates to *some* aspects, but not others, and to specify exactly which sects and or cults his rhetoric resembles, contrasting with those that have the exact opposite theology.   And then I’m sure most of Spop fandom would just be “shut up” at me, because they’d rather have a more generalized villain that represents the evils of religion rather than to have someone with it as a special interest going “Well, actually” at them with an essay about How Horde Prime embodies Calvinism with loads of pedantic links and citations of a book on the rise of theocracy in U.S. politics.   Shut up, Freed. Watch your cartoons.  

[traumacatholic]

For the early Christians, the cross was a favorite symbol and badge of their faith in Christ. From the writings of St. Gregory the Great (540-604), we know that St. Benedict had a deep faith in the Cross and worked miracles with the sign of the cross. This faith in, and special devotion to, the Cross was passed on to succeeding generations of Benedictines. Devotion to the Cross of Christ also gave rise to the striking of medals that bore the image of St. Benedict holding a cross aloft in his right hand and his Rule for Monasteries in the other hand. Thus, the Cross has always been closely associated with the Medal of St. Benedict, which is often referred to as the Medal-Cross of St. Benedict.

In the course of time, other additions were made, such as the Latin petition on the margin of the medal, asking that by St. Benedict’s presence, we may be strengthened in the hour of death, as will be explained later.

We do not know just when the first medal of St. Benedict was struck. At some point in history a series of capital letters was placed around the large figure of the cross on the reverse side of the medal. For a long time the meaning of these letters was unknown, but in 1647 a manuscript dating back to 1415 was found at the Abbey of Metten in Bavaria, giving an explanation of the letters. They are the initial letters of a Latin prayer of exorcism against Satan, as will be explained below.

On the face of the medal is the image of Saint Benedict. In his right hand (purple dot) he holds the cross, the Christian’s symbol of salvation. The cross reminds us of the zealous work of Benedictine monks and nuns evangelizing and civilizing England and Europe, especially for the sixth to the ninth/tenth centuries.

In St. Benedict’s left hand (small blue dot) is his Rule for Monasteries that could well be summed up in the words of the Prolog exhorting us to “walk in God’s ways, with the Gospel as our guide.”

On a pedestal to the right (right yellow dot) of St. Benedict is the poisoned cup, shattered when he made the sign of the cross over it. On a pedestal to the left (left yellow dot) is a raven about to carry away a loaf of poisoned bread that a jealous enemy had sent to St. Benedict.

Above the cup and the raven are the Latin words: Crux s. patris Benedicti (The Cross of our holy father Benedict) (two purple dots).

On the margin of the medal (yellow border), encircling the figure of Benedict, are the Latin words: Eius in obitu nostro praesentia muniamur! (May we be strengthened by his presence in the hour of our death!). Benedictines have always regarded St. Benedict as a special patron of a happy death. He himself died in the chapel at Montecassino while standing with his arms raised up to heaven, supported by the brothers of the monastery, shortly after St. Benedict had received Holy Communion.

Below Benedict (large blue dot) we read: ex SM Casino MDCCCLXXX (from holy Monte Cassino, 1880). This is the medal struck to commemorate the 1400th anniversary of the birth of Saint Benedict.

On the back of the medal (blue cross), the cross is dominant. On the arms of the cross are the initial letters of a rhythmic Latin prayer: Crux sacra sit mihi lux! Nunquam draco sit mihi dux! (May the holy cross be my light! May the dragon never be my guide!).

In the angles of the cross (four purple dots), the letters C S P B stand for Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti (The cross of our holy father Benedict).

Above the cross (top blue dot) is the word pax (peace), that has been a Benedictine motto for centuries.

Around the margin of the back of the medal (green border), the letters V R S N S M V – S M Q L I V B are the initial letters, as mentioned above, of a Latin prayer of exorcism against Satan: Vade retro Satana! Nunquam suade mihi vana! Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas! (Begone Satan! Never tempt me with your vanities! What you offer me is evil. Drink the poison yourself!)

The medal is a prayer of exorcism against Satan, a prayer for strength in time of temptation, a prayer for peace among ourselves and among the nations of the world, a prayer that the Cross of Christ be our light and guide, a prayer of firm rejection of all that is evil, a prayer of petition that we may with Christian courage “walk in God’s ways, with the Gospel as our guide,” as St. Benedict urges us.

The above features were finally incorporated in a newly designed medal struck in 1880 under the supervision of the monks of Montecassino, Italy, to mark the 1400th anniversary of the birth of St. Benedict. The design of this medal was produced at St. Martin’s Archabbey, Beuron, Germany, at the request of the prior of Montecassino, Very Rev. Boniface Krug OSB (1838-1909). Prior Boniface was originally a monk of St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, until he was chosen to become prior and latter archabbot of Montecassino. Since that time, the Jubilee Medal of 1880 has proven to be more popular throughout the Christian world than any other medal ever struck to honor St. Benedict.

Because the Jubilee Medal of 1880 has all the important features ever associated with the Medal of St. Benedict, the following description of this medal can serve to make clear the nature and intent of any medal of St. Benedict, no matter what shape or design it may legitimately have.

[jackawful]

I'm bad at articulating it because I want to be respectful & understanding but as an ex-evangelical who focuses most of my political work on opposing christofascist dominionists, cultural christianity discourse really makes me want to scream sometimes. instead I take a deep breath and remind myself that the people engaging in this discourse are some of my biggest potential allies against the rising tide of christian nationalism, but also...is it really that hard to stop claiming that the upbringing that traumatized me is somehow a privilege because I really think you're setting up the christians/everyone else privilege/oppression axis up slightly wrong in ur analysis

[phynali]

Canonization and Fandom Purity Culture

I wrote a 1k-word twitter thread (as proof that I am Not made for Twitter and it’s goddamn 240-character limit) and am pasting it here with edits and updates (it’s now 2k words). 

I have thoughts to share (which I know have been stated more eloquently before by others) about this trend of demanding/obsessing that certain ships become "canon" and how it overlaps with the rise of fandom purity culture.

Under the cut.

Here in 2021 there is a seemingly large and certainly loud and active contingent of online fandoms who desire (or even demand) "canon validation" for a given interpretation of a source material. This is more true with shipping than anywhere else.

First, it is important to note that the trend is not limited to queer ships or to any single fandom. In the past few years I've seen it for Riverdale, Voltron, Supernatural (perhaps most extreme?), The 100, etc., and less recent with the MCU, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, Hawaii 5-0, etc. It is a broad trend across ships, fandoms, and mediums.

So if it is more common for queer ships, it is hardly unique to them. Similarly, pretending that it is about queer representation is a clever misdirect to disguise the fact that it is most often about ships and shipping wars. If you ever need proof of that, consider that a character can be queer without being in a given relationship or reciprocating another character's affections. Thus a call for more/better queer rep itself is very different than a call for specific ships to be made canon.

Also note that when audiences frame it as wanting to recognize a specific *character* as queer, it is almost always in the context of a ship. Litmus test: would making that character queer but having them *explicitly reject* the other half of the ship be seen as a betrayal?

(Note: none or this is to say we shouldn't push for more queer rep and more *quality and well-written* queer rep! Just that that isn't what I'm talking about here, and not what seeking canon validation for a specific interpretation or a specific ship is almost ever about.)

Why does this matter?

the language of representation and social justice should not be co-opted to prop up ship wars

it is reciprocal with a trend toward increasing toxicity in transformative fandom spaces

Number 1 here is self-explanatory (I hope). Let's chat about 2.

Demands for canon validation correlate with a rise in fanpol / fandom purity culture. What is fandom purity culture (and fandom policing)? This toxic mentality is about justifying one's shipping preferences and aiming to be pure (non-problematic) in your fictional appetites regarding romance and sex.

Note that this purity culture is so named as it arises linearly from American Protestantism, conservative puritanical anxiety around thought crimes, and overlaps in many ways with terf ideologies and regressively anti-kink paradigms.

It goes like this: problematic content is "gross" and therefore morally reprehensible. Much like how queer sex/relationships get labelled as "gross" (Other) and thus morally sinful, or how kink gets labelled as "harmful" and thus morally wrong. The Problematic label is applied by fanpol to ships with offset age or power dynamics, complicated histories, and anything they choose to label as "harmful". As such, they would decry my comparison here to queerphobia itself as also being harmful, because their (completely fictional) targets are ~actually~ evil.

(The irony of this is completely lost on them).

This mode of interacting with creative works leaves no room to explore dark or erotic themes or dynamics which may exist in fiction but not healthily in reality. Gothic romance is verboten. Even breathe the word incest and you will be labelled a monster (nevermind Greek tragedy or GoT).

As with most puritanical bullshit, fanpol ideology only applies these beliefs to sex and never to violence/murder/etc, proving what lies at its core. It also demands its American-based values be applied to all fictional periods and places as the One True Moral Standard. It evangelizes – look no further than how these people try to recruit others to their cause, aim to elevate themselves as righteous, and try to persuade (‘save’) others from their degenerate ways of thinking. 

“See the light” they promise “here are our callouts and blog posts to convince you. Decry your past sins of problematic shipping, be baptized by our in-group adulation and welcome, and then go forth and send hate to others until they too see the light.” In many ways “get therapy” by the antis is akin to “I’ll pray for you” by the Christian-right (and ultimately ironic).

(Although it has been pointed out to me that these fans are likely not themselves specifically ex-evangelicals, but rather those who have brushed up with evangelical norms and modes of thinking without specifically being victims of it. In many ways they are more simply conservative Christian in temperament and attitude without necessarily being raised into religion by belief).

What this has to do with canon validation is that these fans look to canon for approval, for Truth. On the one hand, if it is in the canon then it must be good / pure or at least acceptable. The authority (canon) has deemed it thus. It is safe and acceptable to discuss and to enjoy watching or consuming. In this way, validation from canon means a measure of safety from being Bad and Problematic. 

For example, where a GoT fan could discuss Cersei/Jaime's (toxic, interesting) dynamic in depth as it related to the canon, fans who shipped Jon/Sansa (healthy, interesting) were Gross and Bad. The canon as Truth provided a safety net, a launch point. "It's GRRM, not me, who is problematic." It wasn’t okay to ship the problematic bad gross incest ship, but it being in the canon material meant it was open for discussion, for nuance, for “this adds an interesting layer to the story” which is denied to all non-canon ships labelled as problematic.

(Note: there are of course people who have zero interest in watching GoT for a whole slew of very valid reasons, including but not limited to the incest. That’s a different to this trend. A less charged example might be The Umbrella Academy, where a brother canonically is in love with his sister and antis still praise the show, but if you dare to ship any of the potential incest ships then you are the one who is disgusting).

On the other hand, a very interesting alternate (or additional) explanation for this phenomenon was raised to me on twitter. (These ideas aren’t mine originally, but I wholly endorse them as a big part of what is likely going on): Namely, as with authoritarian individuals in general, they see themselves as right and correct, but the canon (which has not yet validated their ship) is not correct, and is in fact problematic, and so they can save the canon from itself.

As mentioned, these fanpol types see their interpretation as Good and Pure. So if they can push (demand, bully) the canon into conforming to their worldview and validating their interpretation, then they have shown the (sinful) creators the light and led them to the righteous path. This only works if the canon allows itself to saved though, otherwise the creators remain Evil for spurning them.

How is this different from fans simply hoping for their ship to be canon?

For a second here, let’s rewind to the 90s (since Whedon has been in the news recently). This “I want it to be canon” thing isn’t 100% new, of course. We saw this trend then for the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it was different then. At the time, fans who hoped for a ship to be canon might have been cheering for a problematic one to begin with (Buffy/Spike). So shipping was still present, minus vocal fanpol.

(And Buffy fans learned that canon validation...can leave a lot to be desired. A heavy lesson was learned about the ways that fan desires can play out horrifically in canon, and how some things are best left out of the hands of canon-writers).

These days, this is still largely true. Many fans hope for their ships to go canon, as they always have. There are tropes like “will they/won’t they” that TV shows may even be designed around, which a certain narrative anticipation and a very deliberate build up to that.

But while shipping *hopes* occur for many fans, almost all ships fans that *demand* to go canon and obsess over are now the ones deemed as Unproblematic, or as Less Problematic. I’m talking here about the ships that aren’t necessarily an explicit will/won’t they dynamic but do have some canon dynamic that leads them to being shipped, but which the creators aren’t necessarily deliberately teasing and building up a romantic end-game for.

These ships often have fans who are happy to stick to fandom, but there has also been a huge uptick in the portion of fans who are approaching shipping with an explicit lens of “will they go canon?” and “don’t you want them to be canon?” and now even “they have to go canon” and “the canon is wrong if they don’t make this ship canon”, to a final end-point of “if the ship doesn’t go canon, the source material is Wrong and Bad.”

These latter opinions are the one we see more by extreme fans (‘stans’), hardcore shippers, but especially by fanpol-types, the ones who embrace fandom purity culture at least to some extent.

Why them?

In pushing for canon validation, fanpol types seek to elevate their (pure) interpretation of canon. As mentioned above, it’s validation of their authority, a safety-net, and a way to save the canon from itself if only they can bully the canon into validating their right and good interpretation. 

There’s also another reason, which is that canon validation is a tool to bludgeon those seen as problematic. They can use it to denounce other (problematic) ships as Not Being Canon and therefore highlight their own as Right and Good, because it is represented in the True Meaning of the Work.

Canon validation then is a cudgel sought by virtuous crusaders to wield against their unclean enemies. It is an ideological pursuit. It is organised around identity and in groups sometimes as insular as cults.

How does this happen?

Fanpol tend to be younger or more vulnerable fans, susceptible to authoritarian manipulators. As many have highlighted before, authoritarian groups and exclusionary ideologies like terfs are very good at using websites like tumblr to mobilize others around their organizing beliefs. Fanpol tend to feel legitimate discomfort, but instead of taking responsibility for their media engagement, ringleaders stoke and help them direct their discomfort as anger onto others; “I feel ashamed and uncomfortable, and therefore you should be held accountable for my emotions.” Authoritarian communities endorse social dominance orientations, deference to ringleaders, and obedient faith to the principles those ringleaders endorse.

As these fans attach more and more of their identity to a given media (or ship), and derive more and more validation and more of their belongingness needs from this fanpol community, they also become more and more anxious about being excluding from this group. This is because such communities have rigid rules and very conditional bases for social acceptance. Question or "betray" the organizing ideology and be punished or excommunicated. If that is all you have, you are left with nothing. Being labelled problematic then is a social death.

What this means is that these fans cannot accept all interpretations of a media as equally valid: to do so Betrays the ideology. It promises exclusion. And, in line with a perspective around ‘saving’ canon and leading others into the light – forcing and bending the canon to their will is what will make it Good (and therefore acceptable to enjoy, and therefore proof of them as righteous by having saved others). As was also pointed out to me on twitter, endorsement from canon or its creators also satiates that deep need they have for authority figures to approve of them.

Due to all of this, these fans come to obsess over canon validation of their own interpretation. In a way, they have no other option but to do so. They need this validation -- as their weapon, as their authority, as their safety net, as their approval, as their evangelical mission of saviorship.

Canon validation is proof: I am Good. I am Right(eous). I am Safe.

(In many ways, I do ache for some of these people, so wrapped up in toxic communities and mindsets and so afraid to step out of line for fear of swift retribution, policing their own thoughts and art against the encroaching possibility that anything be less than pure. It’s not healthy, it’s never going to be healthy.)

In the end, people are going to write their own stories. You are well within your rights to critique those stories, to hate them, to interpret them how you will, but you can never control their story (it's theirs).

Some final notes:

This trend may be partially to do with queer ships now being *able* to go canon where before so no such expectation would exist. Similarly, social media has made this easier to vocalize. Still, who makes these demands and the underlying reasons are telling. There are also many legitimate critiques of censorship, queerbaiting (nebulous discussions to be had here), and homophobia in media to be had, and which may front specific ships in their critique. But critique is distinct from asking that canon validate one's own interpretation.

[hobbitsetal]

how do you share the gospel with people our age/young adults? saying "Jesus loves you and wants a relationship with you" is probably just going to make them laugh and roll their eyes. how in the world do you evangelize nowadays?

Honestly? You evangelize by addressing problems with theology and by being part of their lives.

Let’s talk about theology first. What are the problems young adults are grappling with? We face uncertainty in every aspect of our lives, we face global injustice in a variety of ways and places, we face systemic racism and hatred. What does the gospel offer? What does God offer?

For one thing, He wrote the history of the world before the world existed. What is uncertainty to a God Who predicted major world events centuries before they happened? What is uncertainty to a God Who knows humanity inside and out? The Bible depicts people, and the stories, commands, and poetry resonate as much today as when they were written.

He is a God of justice, and He is a God Who does not look on the outside. Over and over through the Bible, the Lord subverts human expectations and customs. Over and over, He fights for the marginalized, the oppressed, the shunned. The weak--the women, children, disabled--are His special concern, and He makes them our special concern.

That’s powerful. I cannot think of any other god that can claim to know humanity so intimately, so compassionately, so perfectly, and so justly. And He became one of us! He does not merely look down from on high, He joined us. He can say “yeah, I know what hunger feels like. I know loneliness, depression, anxiety, fear, joy, sorrow. I have felt them Myself.”

The gospel is not “Jesus loves you.” The gospel is “Jesus is the rightful King of the universe, Who proved His immense worth and justice and mercy and love by living among us perfectly, dying sinlessly, and rising from the dead to reign at the right hand of the Father.

~~~

But how do you get to the point of discussing these problems? And what about the personal problems: the messy family dynamics, the personal insecurities, the ups and downs of life?

Relationships.

Movie nights, dinners, hiking trips, grabbing groceries for each other. Life. When you make people part of your life, they make you part of theirs. When you’re (forgive the buzzword) real with each other, you have opportunities that surface-level street preaching doesn’t afford.

I’m not knocking street preaching at all! It can be a wonderful conversation starter! But discipleship and gospel living is a day in and day out thing.

This idea isn’t mine. I picked it up from Rosaria Butterfield’s “The Gospel Comes with a House Key,” in which she advocates sharing life with neighbors as the most practical way to live out the gospel. I can attest personally to the worth of this mindset.

My neighbor is gay. She knows we believe that’s a sin, she accepts our point of view, yet we’re friends. She barges into my apartment when she wants chocolate, we walk her dogs for her, she takes me out for coffee and bookshop dates...and she talks about philosophical problems and spiritual questions with me and my husband. We have so many opportunities to talk about the practical implications of the gospel with her because we’re friends. I know about the woman she loves; she spent last Christmas with my family.

I don’t know if she’ll be saved. I’m praying she will. But that’s between her and God. In the meantime, I’m evangelizing every time I say, “Hey, come over for dinner.”

~~~

While 1 Peter 3 is talking overall about how to conduct ourselves under persecution, I think verse 15 is applicable to life overall: “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...”

Why do I love my neighbor? Why am I invested in BLM and the state of the world? Why am I still friends with my sister’s ex? Because Christ died for me. Because Christ is the King of the Universe and He commands me to live with love.

Because God is love, and I am the child of God.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and body, and...love your neighbor as yourself.”

Be friends. Speak truth. Cry with them, laugh with them, watch movies with them. And when you don’t have an answer, say that, and then study up on their questions. Be invested.

Christ lived 33 years answering questions and sharing life. I think it’s a pretty good evangelistic model.

[thelarriefics]

ANGST FIC REC: Below you’ll find a collection of angst fics. Since some deal with heavy topics, please be sure to read the tags!

📖 Cocaine for Breakfast by @harryeatsburger​ (291k)

Louis Tomlinson is a drug addict, sent away from his beloved party-scene to recover. There, he discovers that small towns have just as much access to drugs as London did, plus something even better that he just can’t get enough of. That something is a boy with green eyes and bouncy curls named Harry Styles.

📖 Take My Breath Away by @realitybetterthanfiction (153k)

A Top Gun AU. 

📖 Own the Scars by @crinkle-eyed-boo (144k)

Louis has never felt like he was good enough: for his stepdad, for his life-long best friend, for the life he’s supposed to want. After an accident that nearly costs him his life, Louis’ parents send him to rehab where he’s forced to face his demons. On the long and difficult road to recovery, Louis must confront the truths he’s been avoiding about his future, his relationships, and his sense of self-worth. Because before he can love anyone else, he’s got to learn how to love himself first.

📖 Unbelievers by @isthatyoularry (136k)

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

📖 red hands by @dystopianharry (132k)

a dystopian au in which harry, an ex-soldier who’s escaped from his government run camp, accidentally stumbles across the biggest rebel movement in the country, and louis, one of the rebellion’s mysterious leaders who appears to hate him, seems to simultaneously have an obsession with keeping him alive. or: harry is wanted for treason, niall hasn’t changed in four years, liam is always smiling, and louis is angry. like, really angry.

📖 For As Long As I Can Remember (It’s Been December) by @greenfeelings (128k)

After recovering from a severe accident that causes Harry to lose his memory of three years, he moves to London to start his life over as a star chef. Little does he know that when he falls in love with Louis at first sight, it’s not the first time they meet.

Featuring an unintentional game of hot and cold, Harry chasing memories that won’t come back, Louis burying himself in work to try and forget what he can’t forget, Liam being torn between two of his best friends, Zayn as a moral compass and Niall saving the day with good music and brutal honesty.

📖 got the sunshine on my shoulders by @hattalove (124k)

five years ago, harry styles left his tiny home town to make it big as a recording artist. he didn’t have much regard for what he left behind - a life, a family, and a husband, who woke up one morning to find him gone.

now, harry has everything he could possibly want: he’s rich, famous, and adored by everyone he meets, including his boyfriend. but when said boyfriend proposes to him, he’s forced to face the uncomfortable facts of his past - and louis, who’s spent the last five years returning every set of divorce papers harry sent him.

(or, an au based on the movie sweet home alabama.)

📖 Promise in the Sky by @hazzabeeforlou ​(99k)

AU in which Harry Styles, a naïve, repressed, socially awkward Midwestern highschooler tries to navigate his fundamentalist evangelical parents and radically progressive older sister. He’s doing an okay job of this until the Tomlinson family starts attending Lakeside Baptist Church and a boy named Louis changes everything. Harry is forced to come to grips with his true self when Louis becomes more than just his best friend; but their relationship opens a can of worms and sends them on the most painful, heartbreaking journey of their young lives. They risk everything and nearly lose, and Harry learns that perhaps only one Bible verse is true: that perfect love casteth out fear.

📖 The Road Less Travelled By by @freetheankles (98k)

Louis is a widowed lumberjack, and Harry isn’t someone he needs to fall in love with. 

📖 For Reasons Wretched and Divine by @indiaalphawhiskey (94k)

Ten years ago, Harry Styles was just a nerdy kid with one friend and a debilitating crush on the captain of his school’s football team. He thought the stars were smiling down on him the day he and Louis Tomlinson were paired for their end-of-term Literature project. But because Harry’s life is decidedly not a fairytale, the budding friendship quickly leads to the least happy ending of all time.

Now, Harry Styles is a household name. Barely twenty-seven with two Grammy nominations to his name, the singer-songwriter is poised to take the music industry by storm with his highly anticipated third album. So, what happens when the best producer in the business is also the only person Harry’s vowed never to speak to again?

📖 (Take Me Home) Country Roads by @a-writerwrites (86k)

a Northern Exposure AU featuring Louis as the big city doctor, Harry as a natural healer, Niall as a secretive barkeep, Liam and Zayn head over heels for each other but they don’t know it and a lot of hurt, comfort and moonshine in between.

📖 Yellow by @13ways-of-looking (84k)

The city of Gotham turns blood red with a new, mysterious criminal element, a beautiful woman named the Blind Cupid. She threatens to tear the fabric of the city apart, aided by her deadly protégé, the Cat. Can Batman stop them? Will he resist the bewitching allures of the Cat? A Batman/ Catwoman AU.

📖 Chasing Empty Spaces by @domestic-harry (79k)

The year is 1934 and Harry Styles was to inherent the largest tobacco firm in the south. His parents have picked out the “perfect” girl for him to marry and he has the privilege of receiving the highest education possible. The problem was, Harry hadn’t realized he didn’t actually want any part of that future until he met a mechanic named, Louis Tomlinson.

📖 Far Away. by @dimpled-halo​ (57k)

Harry returns to London after five years. Stuck in the past with “what ifs” and “what might have beens”, he sees that his friends and ex (and possible love of his life) Louis have all moved on with their lives while he finds himself questioning his own life choices, past and present.

📖 The Second Hand Unwinds by @fullonlarrie (51k)

Louis Tomlinson is one of the first members of NASA’s top secret Chrono Exploration Program. When things go wrong and he’s sent further back in time than planned, he has no other option than to show up on his ex-boyfriend’s doorstep.

📖 Looking Through You by @allwaswell16 (41k)

Just as Louis and Liam were starting out in the music industry, writing and producing for up and coming artists, a fateful meeting with new pop singer Harry Styles changes everything. Four years later, just as Harry is set to embark on his next world tour, a drunken confession causes a rift between once inseparable friends. As Harry tries to make sense of his feelings for Louis, he begins writing his next album to express them as it may be the only way to break through the walls that Louis has built between them.

📖 Gracious Goes the Ghost of You by @haloeverlasting (25k)

Harry is a ghost who comes to visit. Louis feels like a ghost, himself. In forgiveness, they find their way back to life.

📖 We’ll Rise Up by @suddenclarityharry (18k)

Louis is a Pastor with no church and a heart filled with uncertainty. Pastor Payne is more than willing to give Louis a new place to work, but it’s Music Director Harry that helps him rebuild his faith.

📖 Escape (The Piña Colada AU) by @avocadolouie (10k)

Louis writes to escape. Harry answers to join him.

📖 A Year (and then some) by @bringmetheharry (6k)

Harry breaks and it takes a year of ups and downs for he and Louis to put themselves back together.

[theficpusher]

Ex Cathedra by haztobegood | M | 4435 Harry nodded. “Yeah, but if the Church doesn’t accept me, how am I supposed to worship God?” “Remember what Father Paul said?” Louis asked. “He said that while the church is a building where we gather to worship, your faith is your Church and no one can take that away from you. And besides, we do have a church.”

And If God Called Me a Sinner (I Wish I'd Listened) by musiclily88 | T | 7172 Schoolboys tease each other, don’t they? So Liam shouldn’t feel guilty about it, or the fact that he can’t stop his cheeks from flaring pink every time Louis so much as looks at him. Right?

you're stumbling like the nazarene by sarcasticfluentry | E | 13213 Harry hasn't had an orgasm in six weeks since he gave them up for Lent. On Easter Day, he has five.

We'll Rise Up by FallingLikeThis | nr | 18696 “So,” Liam begins with a smile, “you were the associate pastor at your last church?” “Yes,” Louis can already feel himself scrunching down in his seat, shrinking against even the reminder of the church he was forced from. “Was that a good experience for you?” Liam steeples his hands in front of him as he leans his elbows on the desk in interest. “It was for a while but, to be honest, things ended rather badly,” Louis leans forward too, he needs to get this out and he wants to tell Liam everything, have everything on the table. Leaning forward even more, Liam seems to be looking for the same thing, “What happened?” Louis can feel the trembles in his hands again, so he sits on them, biting his lip before admitting, “They found out I’m gay.” In the hallway, there’s a terribly loud thump and then a grunt of pain and Louis twists around to see Harry, sprawled out on the ground just outside the doorway. Or Louis is a Pastor with no church and a heart filled with uncertainty. Pastor Payne is more than willing to give Louis a new place to work, but it's Music Director Harry that helps him rebuild his faith.

Pray Till I Go Blind by el_em_en_oh_pee | E | 18988 Louis is (kind of) a preacher. Harry is (probably) a demon. Of course, nothing's as simple as that. This is not a love story.

Yet in Thy Dark Streets Shineth by juliusschmidt | M | 57730 Louis’ life has become the very thing he’s always dreaded: routine. His job is steady, his bills are paid, his friends are preoccupied, his siblings are mostly old enough not to need him, and his mom keeps pestering him about attending church. Apparently, the new minister pulls rainbows and unicorns out of his robes. Advent arrives three months into Harry’s first call as associate pastor at St. Andrews. Life is… not perfect. He’s still figuring out how do his job and the holidays bring a whole bundle of extra stress. On top of which, he has no friends or family nearby with whom he can decompress. Louis Tomlinson shows up to worship in the nick of time.

Neither Can Floods Drown by el_em_en_oh_pee | E | 58218 Louis has built a pretty decent life for himself in his hometown. He has his work, he has his best friends, he has his family, he has his church. Over the past three years, he's learned to live with heartbreak. Things are going well. That's when he gets the news that He Who Must Not Be Named is coming back to town. That's when the flood comes, crashing in over the valley. That's when everything changes. It may not be the apocalypse, but Louis's world still feels like it's ending.

Promise in the Sky by Throwthemflowers | E | 99208 AU in which Harry Styles, a naïve, repressed, socially awkward Midwestern highschooler tries to navigate his fundamentalist evangelical parents and radically progressive older sister. He’s doing an okay job of this until the Tomlinson family starts attending Lakeside Baptist Church and a boy named Louis changes everything. Harry is forced to come to grips with his true self when Louis becomes more than just his best friend; but their relationship opens a can of worms and sends them on the most painful, heartbreaking journey of their young lives. They risk everything and nearly lose, and Harry learns that perhaps only one Bible verse is true: that perfect love casteth out fear.