#exploration of faith

[bc-maq24]

“Lead me to the cross…” 🎶

God, I do want to be led to the cross, and I do belong to You, but You made me, all my flaws and faults made in Your glory, and I don’t want to be rid of myself. I’m finally finding myself, and starting to genuinely love me, and grow. I do belong to you, but you made my individuality to shine bright in this world and be a beacon to others for your love. So guide me, please, guide my steps and words and works, but let me keep some individuality. Like Chad said last week, there’s no reconciliation for “Thy will be done” and the gift of free will. I still think You wrote every word on every page of my story, including the missteps, which you work with me to get past.

I still believe there’s a cooperation of sorts between God and His son Lucifer and Lucifer may have some influence in our stories but God will always prevail (more so for believers).

[potato-lord-but-not]

sorrryyyy I needed to draw these guys having half decent communication skills or I would’ve fallen ill

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - The Caribbean

[dollya-robinprotector]

British schoolboys assemble!

Reference from this fantastic post of @fraternum-momentum. Thank you so much, Fura-san, for letting me use the concept!! Portraits only under the cut:

And of course, a little bonus for Kylar because the social anxiety boy hid his face too good

[fictionadventurer]

For all the talk about bad Christian fiction, I've seen several different ways that Christianity can be well-integrated into the story.

The story is about something unrelated to Christianity, but the characters are Christian and their faith affects their outlook and daily life. I recently stumbled across Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr, which is a light, fairly forgettable cozy fantasy that happens to do this really well. The story is about a woman who learns that dragons exist around her family's estate, but as the daughter of a rector, she often mentions prayer, sings religious songs, or thinks of Bible verses that relate to things she experiences. The Christianity feels organic to the character, and thus enhances the story rather than distracting from it.

The world is a Christian world where Christian beliefs are shown to be the correct framework through which to view the world. This happens in good Christian fantasy, like Lewis and Tolkien, but there are plenty of real-world stories where the themes line up with Christian truths, and this can make a story Christian whether or not religion is explicitly practiced by characters within the story.

The characters wrestle with how to apply their faith in their daily lives. Regina Doman's Fairy Tale Novels often feature this, as the characters struggle to deal with plot problems while living out their faith. Amy Lynn Green's work often features this as well--characters hold certain values (like, for instance, a Quaker pacifist) and have to figure out how they apply or don't apply to specific situations, especially when they conflict with other values, or they have to figure out how to live out their values (such as forgiveness) in moments where it seems impossible or even ill-advised. Charlotte Yonge's best works (specifically, what I've read of The Three Brides) do this as well--instead of preaching the one right answer, you have characters trying to figure out what the best answer is as they figure out what's right or wrong in this specific situation.

Characters face the revelation that there's a spiritual world that exists beyond our ordinary world, which can cause terror, but also provide comfort and hope. Elizabeth Goudge's novels often exist in this space, with very internal stories of characters coming to embrace the truths that come with living in a spiritual world. To a lesser extent, I'd say Amanda Dykes' work often fits here, with characters ultimately find comfort and hope from philosophies that line up with Christian truth. In less-cozy works, there's also the possibility of stories where an entirely secular person encounters God and has to figure out what that means for their life.

So our options are Christianity as character, Christianity as setting, Christianity as theme, or Christianity as plot. The ways this is integrated most seamlessly is when Christianity (or the ways they struggle with it) is a vital part of the character, so the plot that arises from it lines up with a Christian worldview. It also works well for the characters to just exist within a world where Christian truths are the way the world works. It doesn't even necessarily require the characters to be explicitly religious. Truth is something that everyone is searching for, and stories that honestly showcase truth or the search for it are going to resonate with a wide audience, even if they aren't Christian themselves.

[hauntedorpheum]

ok but we seriously needed more episodes about versions of the main characters as vampires. Vampire Cordelia could have been so much fun! Vampire Tara would have been sooo tragic and terrifying. Vampire Giles would have been a good way to explore more Ripper Giles. Vampire Faith trying to turn Buffy. Vampire Dawn!!!!!!!

[maesonc-artistic-adventures]

The flip of a coin.

[bonyassfish]

It should be illegal for Christians to cover Leonard Cohen songs

[maliciousalice]

A commission for @cjmeerkat of their OC Wesson having a chat with Janeway while they wait on a vessel at drydock.

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine if you were a gay or bi man who tried a certain firefighter show because of all the attention it was getting for one of its mains having a later in life bi awakening.....and between seasons you ventured into its fandom in search of material to tide you over til the next one. And you're greeted by a deluge of posts and fics that are just cheerfully homophobic towards one half of the newly out bi character's canon relationship on the basis of 'well he's not the RIGHT gay guy' and pushing the idea that actually its fine to cheat on him because Reasons and he's sexually predacious based on......behind the scenes implications people have divined like they're reading fucking tea leaves.

But don't get it twisted....this fandom, like all fandoms, really cares about representation!

Sorry not sorry, but we really need to kill this idea that fandoms are welcoming and inviting and inherently progressive when they're frequently insular and reductive as fuck. Every single fandom I've been in has had major trends of people doubling down on their own headcanons and fanon interpretations of the characters and willfully enacting trends aimed at running off people who like the 'wrong' characters (usually characters marginalized along one or multiple axes), like the characters in the 'wrong ways' or other bullshit.

Scott is a Bad Friend fics overtaking Teen Wolf fandom was not incidental, it was a FEATURE of the fandom, because the vast majority of that fandom did not want to share its space with anyone who had the nerve to like its main character. Survivors complaining about or criticizing the prevalance of rape fics in a certain fandom has in my experience always led to a reactionary UPTICK in those fics, with gems like 'this character can, will, must be raped' in the tags making it crystal clear that some of these fics exist because how fucking DARE anyone try and push forth a narrative not agreed upon by Fandom Main.

I could cite examples for so many other fandoms, with the commonalities always being that vast majorities in these fandoms are explicitly reacting defensively to being asked to be more mindful of fandom trends revolving around or exacerbating racism, homophobia, transphobia, rape or abuse apologia, ableism, etc....

With the most prolific fucking rallying cry across countless fandoms being "No the fuck we will NOT be doing that," because lolololol.....

Fandom is an inherently progressive space, didn't you hear?

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Thinking about step 9 and the whole concept of forgiveness of one’s self and others and it bringing healing and how bobby and Eddie have been paralleled a fair amount and the idea that Eddie started this process back at the end of s5 with his forgiveness and acceptance of his father but how he hasn’t yet gone anywhere near his mother and their relationship .

How his catholic guilt storyline seems more likely to play on his reltionship with his mother than his father (if his father wasn’t around that much it would’ve been Helena taking him to church etc each week) so the idea of an Eddie - Helena storyline that plays on catholic guilt and potentially his queerness in relation to that has me chewing on glass - it could be so epically good

[awfullydxpeched]

anton doing a photoshoot with depeche for songs of faith and devotion

[fruifruit]

updated designs for my eos team + new name for partner!! if you saw me accidentally post this on my main no you didnt <3

[jurygarroth]

ok so here is my vision.

[vvitchering]

I think maybe everyone should cool it with the “weird cult” comments regarding the covert, honestly. It wasn’t that funny to begin with but now that it’s the popular describer it’s starting to become a little uncomfy. No one is forced to join, no one is forced to stay. There’s a ton of parallels between them and real world cultures and religions and I just think MAYBE we need to be a little more aware of what message we’re sending when we say “haha that group of people who are in hiding because their lives were/are at stake and who practice anonymity to survive and follow certain rules that I don’t personally understand or like are a weird cult”.

[y-rhywbeth2]

To Durge Bhaal is like several things at once: their parent, their god, and also technically their own self/original self. I feel like there's a couple of different ways of exploring that and think it's interesting to think about.

Like does your Durge view this relationship purely as a parent-child one with an atypical form of birth/conception, where the worship is just tacked on? Or is 'Father' a simplification of their connection? Does faith take prescedence, and you are a servant of Death, your sole reason for existence, first and foremost? Or do they actually view themself as the deity on some level, possibly owed the same reverence? Is it no different from a mage cutting off their finger to create a copy of themselves with magic*? How much of a division is there between deity and spawn? Are they anything more than a phantom limb? Which relationship (parent-child, god-worshipper, original-fragment/clone) is prioritised, if you put them in a hierarchy?

*...wait, did Bhaal cast some kind of modified version of the spell clone to make Durge?