#for the record and i speak the same way against christianity

[voxpraxis]

lately i've been... idk if you can really call it "debating" but i've been interacting with some muslims in the comments of an instagram reel in which a young girl was speaking to a young boy (i want to emphasize that they are both children) and telling him that she wasn't allowed to speak to boys until she was married, because her parents and her religion said so. the boy was sad but replied with something like "oh, alright" and the caption & comments were all talking about how "sweet" the situation was. i commented that i didn't think it was sweet, and actually that's a horrible thing to put in a child's mind. the post never directly mentioned islam and neither did i, but everyone who's been replying to me is proselytizing islam, so. anyway, these are the points that have been thrown at me so far:

it's not wrong because both genders are forced apart from each other

in response to me saying it still enforces an extreme divide between genders and encourages them to see each other as opposites rather than equals: the separation is necessary to prevent rape

there is no rape in islam because of the separation between men and women, rape only occurs in western society because men and women are not separated (...because apparently we cannot expect men to not rape women unless they're physically kept away from them at all times)

rape does not happen between family members, it's just not a real thing, ever (incest doesn't exist?)

if you're interested in a girl you should marry her immediately, because dating leads to cheating

men and women cannot be just friends because "islam and science and psychology says so." one guy said it's because "women can't talk about cars and sports"

(i also got called a simp for saying i have female friends. can't make this shit up)

in response to me pointing out that what the girl is saying implies that she won't have any say in who her husband is: arranged marriages are better because they always work out and unlike western marriages, they never end in divorce! (i'll give you one guess why that is.)

similarly, single parent families and suicide are solely western problems

men and women are NOT equal

i need to shut up and respect it because that's their religion

islam cannot be questioned because islam says islam is true

and that's not including all the personal insults and threats i've received, in just a few days.

i will say this is one of the least challenging "debates" i've ever had, in the sense that almost no point brought against me has any logical foundation and is easily refutable. but it's one of the most frustrating because the problem is that they won't hear me at all, because islam teaches its followers to never consider anything else. it teaches them to accept exactly what they are spoon-fed as the ultimate truth. and this is by no means a problem exclusive to islam, but islam does this kind of control better than any other religion i know. people raised into islam are not taught to think in any logical terms - in fact, they're deliberately taught to avoid thinking logically. logical fallacies are the rule. so not only can they barely form a coherent argument in favour of their beliefs, but they have absolutely no clue how illogical they sound sometimes. when i point out a lapse in logic in something they've said, the response i get is "no, that's true because islam says it's true." no other explanation required. at least, i've sometimes heard people of other religions attempt to use logic or science to prove their beliefs, but with the muslims in these comments, those are unnecessary things to be absolutely avoided - it's like they don't even understand why i'd bother to use them. you can't use logic to get through to them because they've been taught to avoid logic and cling to the mantra of islam-is-true-because-islam-says-so.

[wilwheaton]

Clooney wrote of the "profound moment" the country is currently in, noting how just last month he hosted the "single largest fundraiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden's re-election." "I love Joe Biden," Clooney wrote. "As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced." "But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time," he continued. "None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F—ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate." Regarding the debate, in which the 81-year-old President stumbled continually, Clooney wrote that "our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw." "We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question," he wrote.

George Clooney calls on Biden to drop out to "save democracy" — just weeks after hosting fundraiser

George Clooney has nothing to gain and everything to lose, by telling the truth right now. Politicians and their supporters hold grudges for eternity. He’s speaking up and saying this now, knowing exactly what the stakes are for him, and for our country.

This is what I’ve been wanting to know. This is what the campaign has been hiding from us: WE all saw that President Biden had a bad night. The question the demands an answer is: was it a bad night? Or has time and age caught up with the president? Are we going to believe our lying eyes, or clap louder?

We don’t vote for just a president; we vote for an administration. For the most part, this administration has been fantastic, more progressive than I ever dreamed, to say nothing of rebuilding a nation out of the wreckage of four years of Trump.

And all of that is going to be burned to ash if President Biden can’t mount an effective campaign to defeat fascism and its leader. Since the debate, the campaign has kept him behind teleprompters and away from unscripted interactions. That’s alarming, and a tacit admission that he can’t fight like he once did, that the person we saw at the debate is the person he is most of the time.

If we lose this election, America will be plunged into decades of authoritarian, theocratic, christian nationalist fascism. The stakes will never be higher, and President Biden and his team need to do what is best for the country.

We will not win this election by clapping louder and gaslighting ourselves. We need — this crisis demands — a candidate who can clearly and easily refute Trump’s lies, and simply and clearly explain to voters what the stakes of this election are. The 2020 Joe Biden could do that; the 2024 Joe Biden doesn't seem to be capable of that, anymore, and that puts our entire nation and way of life at risk. George Clooney is telling us that he literally just saw, privately, what we all saw in public, and it was not a one-off. He also reveals that every single elected Democrat he talks to agrees with him, but they are too afraid to speak up. That’s horrifying, and I desperately hope it isn’t true.

But if George Clooney is telling us a hard truth, risking the wrath of countless powerful political players, and we should listen to him; not because he is rich and famous, but because he was literally in a room with President Biden and his supporters, and is now on the record that the President Biden we saw at the debate is not a guy with a cold or whatever, and now journalists can follow up with other people who were there to confirm or deny George Clooney’s observations.

These are tough questions that demand answers, now, because we are four months out and this shouldn’t be close, at all. America hates Trump, and he has lost every election since 2018 as a result.

President Biden and the Democrats need to run up huge margins in Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and Ohio, to overcome the inevitable MAGA fuckery. We need a candidate who is fifteen points ahead of Trump, not someone who has been in the margin of error for his entire presidency -- which is fucking insane when you look at all of Trump’s felonies, judgments, impending trials, and all of his corrupt criminality that the SCOTUS MAGA Majority twisted itself into knots to protect.

This should be a landslide against Trump and MAGA. It’s close because the candidate running against him isn’t -- likely can’t -- be out there, every day, banging the podium and forcing a change in the narrative. 

Did you see my governor after the debate disaster? He was on fire. That guy would destroy Trump in a debate. Vice President Harris would be laser focused on prosecuting the case against him. President Biden is the only candidate who Trump could drag into a fucking dick waving contest about golf scores when the fucking future of American Democracy is at stake. There is not a single other credible candidate who would take that bait. My god.

President Biden has done so much more than I ever thought possible. He doesn’t get credit for all his progressive achievements, for pulling America out of a economic calamity (caused by Trump and his allies), forgiving student debt, his appointments to the FCC, FTC, and other regulatory agencies that had been captured by industry during the Trump regime.

All of that will be wiped out in a matter of days, if Trump seizes power again.

George Clooney is warning us that President Biden doesn’t have the stamina and focus to win reelection and secure not just his legacy but the future of our country. He is saying out loud and as publicly as possible that we are not crazy, that we really did see what we saw.

This is DEFCON 1 for Democracy. This isn’t politics as usual. This is a moment of tremendous existential danger that only gets worse with each passing day. IF President Biden remains the candidate, I will vote for him, obviously. But I hope that he will fire everyone involved in preparing him for the debate, because they failed him, they failed America, and if Biden is going to take the fight to Trump and MAGA the way he needs to, it he needs a team who understand who they are fighting against, how to punch Trump in the nose, and what the stakes are.

[omegalomania]

ok listen obviously like everyone else i am Fucking Devastated but the fucking sHRIMPLICATIONS here are KILLING me.

the two last "new" songs we got before the hiatus were alpha dog and from now on we are enemies (equally fucked up song btw) and pete namedrops alpha dog as the last song they wrote before the hiatus and it's such a. it's SUCH a fucking. augh.

like it's so painfully and clearly a farewell. the lyrics all telegraph it. your time has passed. never means forever. walk off into the sunset. the discussion of how much effort is required to maintain this life and how they already feel burned out, past their prime when they were all in their mid-twenties and early thirties. and the sheer fucking POETRY of the way it was the last song they recorded - tell rock and roll i'm alone again - until they announced their triumphant return with save rock and roll in 2013. welcome to the new déjà vu.

and oh yeah the last word issued in the song's studio version is the word "abracadabra," which pete cites as the word that christian bales character in the film “the prestige” says he will utter before he disappears from prison. "abracadabra" was a key word in the viral ARG-esque marketing campaign leading up to the release of believers never die...right before fall out boy seemingly vanished off the very face of the earth.

and, OH YEAH, the first shows they played after reuniting involved a multi-song medley spanning all the stages of their career, with one of those songs being the first time they ever played alpha dog, albeit partially.

the notion of the wizard through the curtain speaking to a sense of bitterness (at least if pete's ten year old genius annotation is anything to go by) which is the exact same phrasing to the way joe would later talk about the band's fraught, strained feelings leading up to the hiatus in a podcast with kerrang while promoting his book.

many people have pointed out the parallels between flu game and alpha dog - the way they both discuss the exhaustion of being so visible and constantly putting yourself out there and how taxing that is, especially when you're simultaneously trying to cover up how hard it is. how isolating it is, when the whole world is squinting against the starlight feathering off you. it's worth noting that these parallels are not merely implicit, either. "flu game" is in and of itself an explicit reference to a famous game michael jordan played while sick in which he claimed that he didn't want to give up, no matter how sick and tired he was. and how did pete annotate a specific couplet, ten years ago?

we must make it hard to look so easy doing something so hard

another explicit reference to michael jordan, years and years prior.

and this is the first time they've ever played alpha dog in full. nearly 15 full years after the hiatus started. by now, fall out boy have been together for far longer than they've ever been apart. by now, fall out boy has been in their "posthiatus" era for longer than they have their "prehiatus" one.

i dont really have a conclusion to this. just, i dunno man. something about the repeated lyric "never means forever" on a greatest hits compilation titled "believers never die." something about i'm a star vs. so much for stardust vs. no more stardust. something about motifs that span decades, that span years of hurt and cracked-open wounds that have now been poured over with liquid gold, mending them anew. something about reclaiming old scars and ugly histories and reforging them into something filled with streaming starlight and sun-drenched smiles.

abracadabra.

[mithliya]

the idea that jewish people have no other homes and have only israel to back them serves (& served) antisemites quite a lot. it plays into the idea that hitler was right, german jewish ppl did not belong in germany and were from some other foreign land, that theyre outsiders to germany. this isn't true. german jewish people have every right, the same as any german, to be in their home (germany). it plays into the idea that all jewish people worldwide actually do not have the right to their homelands nor the right to demand a place within their homelands, because their real homeland is israel (historically known as palestine).

when zionism first came to exist as an ideology, it was a fringe ideology that most jewish people opposed for this exact reason: because it hinges on the idea that jewish people do not belong in their home countries, but rather are eternal immigrants or some sort of invaders. from 1882, georg jellinek:

The Jews have sent out their best men to fight for their recognition and equality in the European states and they have marshalled their intellectual resources in numerous writings, on the speaker's platform and in the pulpit for the lofty goal of emancipation. Have they done all this in order to abandon, in this year of 1882, everything they have achieved, to give up all they have fought for and won, to declare that they are aliens, people without a homeland or a fatherland - or, as you put it, vagrants - and, the wanderer's staff in hand, to set out for an uncertain new fatherland? No! That would mean to accept the view of our implacable foes who deny that we have any true patriotic feelings for Europe. In fact, we are not even capable of doing this. We are at home in Europe and regard ourselves as children of the lands in which we were born and raised, whose languages we speak, and whose cultures make up our intellectual substance. We are Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Magyars, Italians and so forth, with every fiber of our being. We have long ceased to be true, thoroughbred Semites, and we have long ago lost the sense of Hebrew nationality.

edwin montagu in 1917, calling the balfour declaration & zionism antisemitic:

I wish to place on record my view that the policy of His Majesty's Government is anti-Semitic in result will prove a rallying ground for Anti-Semites in every country in the world... it seems to be inconceivable that Zionism should be officially recognised by the British Government, and that Mr. Balfour should be authorized to say that Palestine was to be reconstituted as the "national home of the Jewish people". I do not know what this involves, but I assume that it means... that Turks and other Mahommedans in Palestine will be regarded as foreigners, just in the same way as Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine... I assert that there is not a Jewish nation... It is no more true to say that a Jewish Englishman and a Jewish Moor are of the same nation than it is to say that a Christian Englishman and a Christian Frenchman are of the same nation: of the same race, perhaps, traced back through the centuries - through centuries of the history of a peculiarly adaptable race... When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens... I claim that the lives that British Jews have led, that the aims that they have had before them, that the part that they have played in our public life and our public institutions, have entitled them to be regarded, not as British Jews, but as Jewish Britons. I would willingly disfranchise every Zionist. I would be almost tempted to proscribe the Zionist organisation as illegal and against the national interest. But I would ask of a British Government sufficient tolerance to refuse a conclusion which makes aliens and foreigners by implication, if not at once by law, of all their Jewish fellow-citizens.... I feel that the Government are asked to be the instrument for carrying out the wishes of a Zionist organisation largely run, as my information goes, at any rate in the past, by men of enemy descent or birth, and by this means have dealt a severe blow to the liberties, position and opportunities of service of their Jewish fellow-countrymen.

balfour himself said in 1919 that zionism is

"a serious endeavor to mitigate the age-long miseries created for Western civilization by the presence in its midst of a Body [Jewish people] which it too long regarded as alien and even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or to absorb."

and therefore even the justification for zionism in the west was about the desire to get rid of their jewish populations, and to have a place to expel their jewish populations to.

robert gessner in 1935 even went as far as equating prominent zionists to nazis & hitler:

The Nationalist Socialists on the other hand are the Revisionists, or the Brown Nazis of Palestine. They believe in the Jewish State 100 percent, with their own Jewish army and even, I might add, a Jewish navy on the Dead Sea! The Fuehrer of the Brown Nazis in Palestine is Vladimir Jabotinsky... Today the young, sternfaced legionnaires of Jabotinsky march through the streets and wear shirts, like their nordic brothers in Germany. In Poland I had seen them marching through the streets (side streets in the ghettoes) singing "Poland for Pilsudski, Germany for Hitler. Palestine for Jews-" The Fuehrer of the Brown Shirted Legions of Judaism is in America because "Revisionism is the genuinest proletarian movement in the world in that it is the poorest." In America about one percent of the Jews are Zionists. What fraction of another one percent will donate money to the Jewish Hitler?

rabbi elmer berger in 1943:

I oppose Zionism because I deny that Jews are a nation …since the Dispersion we have not been a nation. We have belonged to every nation in the world. We have mixed our blood with all peoples. Jewish nationalism is a fabrication woven from the thinnest kinds of threads and strengthened only in those eras of human history in which reaction has been dominant and anti-Semitism in full cry.

rabbi elmer berger also outlined in his work “the jewish dilemma” how zionists held quite antisemitic views.

bevin, another british politician, said in 1946:

"There has been agitation in the United States, and particularly in New York, for 100,000 Jews to be put in Palestine. I hope I will not be misunderstood in America if I say that this was proposed by the purest of motives. They did not want too many Jews in New York."

zionism was also specifically a european, right-wing ideology. left-wing european jews did not believe in it and vehemently opposed it.

so basically, historically, zionism was a far-right ideology that was deemed antisemitic and was equatable to nazism to many jewish people, particularly leftist & communist jewish people. jewish people and non-jewish zionists alike viewed zionism as a means of removing jewish people from their countries.

its baffling that today, the argument is that opposing zionism is hating jewish people, because jewish people themselves overwhelmingly opposed zionism and saw it as antisemitic. to this day jewish anti-zionists continue to exist, yet they face extreme hatred for being against zionism, treated as self-hating traitors.

[thedreadvampy]

legitimately insane how to some people, "we should wipe out this ethnic group that we've violently constrained to a ghetto because they're just genetically more violent and dangerous" is a reasonable and justifiable statement but it's Nazi Rhetoric to say something like, "it's bad that Israeli civilians are being killed but acknowledging that as tragic includes acknowledging that the almost daily state-sanctioned murder of civilians by the Israeli government is also tragic and unacceptable"

btw guys speaking of Nazi shit - can we check in, alongside what's been done to Palestinians in the last 75 years, what's the Israeli government's take on the Azerbaijani government's newest round of ethnic cleansing of Armenians? oh are the Israeli government's actions maybe not determined by Jewish identity, but by a commitment to colonial supremacy which puts them on the same page as other violently genocidal states like Azerbaijan, the US, and the UK? god can you Even Imagine?

(framing speaking against Israeli war crimes as inherently antisemitic requires understanding the Israeli state as representing all Jewish people, when it doesn't even represent all Israelis.

framing Israeli war crimes as synonymous with Jewish identity is pretty fucked up if we're being honest. I don't think that controlling water and power and movement for a captive population and shooting children dead for throwing stones is an inherent value of Judaism, any more than I think the torture carried out at Guantanamo Bay is an inherent value of Christianity - in both cases they're atrocities carried out by a far right genocidal government using religious identity as a shield.

Calling statements like "Israel is committing genocide against the people it's displaced" inherently antisemitic is doing more to further the idea that all Jewish people are associated with Israel than saying "the Israeli government is doing war crimes," which is a statement of fact about a country that exists and does war crimes. Is criticism of Israel as a nation often used as cover for antisemitism? Absolutely. Does that mean the Israeli government isn't doing literal war crimes repeatedly, on record, while talking publicly about scrubbing an ethnic group off the map? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well in the last 48 hours they've definitely cut off water and power to almost 600,000 civilians and allegedly used white phosphorus against civilians so in an extremely factual and unambiguous way yeah man those are Literal War Crimes whoever does them.)

[haggishlyhagging]

[Christine de Pizan] began [The Book of the City of the Ladies] with a marvelous account of her own transformation of consciousness. Sitting in her study reading one of the many misogynist tracts of the day, she began to wonder "how it happened that so many different men. . . are so inclined to express . . . so many wicked insults about women . . . It seems that they all speak from one and the same mouth." She examined herself and her experience and could find no evidence to support the claims of these men. Yet, she bowed to the authority of the male experts. "And so I relied more on the judgement of others than on what I myself felt and knew." Here, for the first time in the written record, we have a woman defining the tension every thinking woman has experienced—between male authority denying her equality as a person and her own experience. Christine was deeply depressed by this recognition, when, as in a vision, three ladies appeared to her to comfort her and to bring her out of the ignorance which had blinded her intellect. Lady Reason explained to her that she had been selected to "vanquish from the world the same error into which you had fallen" and that she was entrusted with the task of building a city of ladies in which all valiant women might find refuge from attacks and slander. The other two ladies, Rectitude and Justice, would help her in this task. Awed and elated, Christine asked the three women to explain to her why men had so universally attacked and slandered women. The ladies offered various explanations: men were motivated by greed, envy, impotence and thwarted desire. The ensuing long dialogue with the three spiritual guides allowed Christine de Pizan to develop her historical argument and to illustrate by exempla the virtues of women.

This allegorical framework, which assumes that the patriarchal explanatory system is built on error, structures the book. It determines also the way in which she uses her sources. Where Boccaccio, with a few exceptions, followed a roughly chronological outline, Christine de Pizan arranged her list to follow a series of themes and arguments. She also used different criteria of selection. She wished to write a universal History of women and their achievements, therefore she included women of Antiquity, the Christian era and even her contemporaries. She reinterpreted the lives of the women on her list in a significant way, since her aim was different from that of Boccaccio, who simply wanted to prove that there had been illustrious women in Antiquity. Christine de Pizan wrote in defense of women against what she considered the misogynist attacks of men, and she wrote from an entirely woman-centered point of view. In revising Boccaccio's list therefore not only did she exclude all evil women, but she often reinterpreted the stories of women with a bad reputation so as to present them in a positive light. This is most obvious in her treatment of Medea, who is cited under the heading "The Faithfulness of Women in Love" without any reference to her murdering her children. Boccaccio's story of Medea abounds in condemnation of her treachery, her witchcraft, her cruelty. He described her murder of her brother, her theft of her father's wealth, her winning of Jason by sorcery and finally her murder of his children out of jealousy. Christine ignored all these crimes. Instead, she credited Medea with the wisdom and magic skill which she used to help Jason win the Golden Fleece on the condition that he would make her his wife and be faithful to her. "However, Jason lied about his promise, for after everything went just as he wanted, he left Medea, for another woman." At this, Christine tells us, Medea turned despondent, and thus she ends Medea's story. . . .

Neither Boccacio nor Christine could meet the standards of objectivity demanded of professional historians nearly 600 years later, and one cannot expect that they should. The changing of evidence to make a point or impart a didactic message was a well-established convention in the Middle Ages. What is remarkable is Christine's consistent insistence on her right, as a woman, to interpret the past from a point of view sympathetic to women, and her speaking as their advocate.

After questioning the truth of the historical tradition by pointing out the male bias of selection, Christine attempted to answer every commonplace prejudice voiced against women. Men had charged that women governed unwisely when they had power. Christine refuted this argument by citing a long list of exempla of women who governed wisely and well. She answered the charge of women's intellectual inferiority by citing a long list of women who excelled in learning, in poetry, in science and in philosophy. Here, as elsewhere, she freely mixed historical figures with allegorical and mythological persons. She also attempted to show female superiority in sensibility and caring by citing a long list of virtuous wives and mothers, chaste virgins and self-sacrificing women. All of this material evidence allegorically built the city of the ladies. When it was finished, the Queen of Heaven was invited to be its first inhabitant, attended by a large number of female saints.

Having thus completed the city, Christine dedicated it to "ladies from the past as well as from the present and future," urged all ladies to take refuge in it and to defend and guard it against enemies and assailants. She explicitly defined men "who accuse you of so many vices in everything" as the enemies and urged women to flee from male slanders and entrapment, "to cultivate virtue, to increase and multiply our City, and to rejoice and act well."

The allegorical city of the ladies, filled with heroines of worth and valor, represents the first consistent effort by a woman at constructing Women's History as a means of creating collective consciousness. Her attempt at creating a unifying ideology is deliberately broadly based; she speaks at various points of “all women—whether noble, bourgeois, or lower-class,” and even her seeming distinction between the virtuous and others is not to be taken too seriously since in her various lists she manages freely to include wicked and even sinful women. Her essential contribution was not only to attempt to rebut misogynist arguments by means of historical evidence but to insist that patriarchal generalizations and dicta would have to be evaluated and tested in light of the female experience, past and present. What Christine de Pizan had to offer to women was the insight that women must look to other women for their defense and that the collective past of women could be a source of strength to them in their struggle for justice.

-Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness

[nerdygaymormon]

I like when you post about scriptures, but I'm wondering how you respond when people use the clobber passages? They seem so clear and specific and anti-queer

Many people pull a verse from the scriptures and use it as proof for their viewpoint. When they do this with the clobber verses it puts the onus on the marginalized person to argue the verse was mistranslated or there's historical context that needs to be considered, and so on. That kind of interaction cedes power because the assumption is the other person is correct unless we can prove why it should be interpreted another way.

This kind of approach ignores that these verses are part of a long story arc. For example, in Deuteronomy it says men with damaged testicles can't worship with everyone else or be included in the temple, presumably this is referencing people who were made eunuchs in Egypt. Some people will pull out this chestnut and claim that any trans person who's had bottom surgery can't go to the temple or even be allowed to be baptized and join this church.

But to use the verse in Deuteronomy that way is to ignore that Isaiah later wrote that eunuchs would be welcomed and honored. It ignores the story of Daniel. It ignores what Jesus said about eunuchs and marriage. It ignores the eunuch who was the first gentile convert to Christianity. Seeing the story of the eunuchs across the Bible is important as they go from being excluded to being included. To only use the verse in Deuteronomy is to teach the wrong lesson.

When we look at the scriptures as a whole, there is an arc towards more inclusion, more justice, more room at the table. Whatever scriptures people pull out to condemn whole groups of folks doesn't stand up when we read the scriptures as a whole.

The scriptures are a record of people trying to make sense of what is happening in their lives. They are trying to make sense of their place in the world and what it means to be in relationship with the Divine and what it means to be in community with others. The scriptures include a lot of messiness and complications.

We can learn from their wrestle with these important questions. We can learn from how their answers evolved. We can engage in the same wrestle today.

What does it mean for me as a a queer individual to be in a relationship with God? What does it mean to live ethically under capitalism? What does it mean to be part of an empire (the United States)? What does it mean to be a good neighbor? What does it mean to live our faith in a world that has people of many faiths and of no faith? What does it mean to be in relationship with others in my religious community?

There are all sorts of ways in which scripture stories can continue to speak to us today. When I read the story of someone who was an outsider and then Jesus does not treat them as an outsider, I can relate with that. I don't feel incompatible with God, but there are some issues of compatibility when it comes to my church because I'm queer.

I think when people who are marginalized read the scriptures they will pull different messages compared to those who read from a place of comfort and privilege. Liberation theology, Black theology, womanist theology, and queer theology are all closer to the heart of texts which talk about being dominated by empires or being in exile.

This was a long answer to say when someone pulls out a particular verse as a weapon against me, I know when looking at the whole there is a beautiful story of growing acceptance and God values the marginalized

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Daily Devotionals for October 22, 2024

  Proverbs: God's Wisdom for Daily Living

Devotional Scripture:

Proverbs 26:24-26 (KJV): 24 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; 25 When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. 26 Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. Proverbs 26:24-26 (AMP): 24 He who hates pretends with his lips but stores up deceit within himself. 25 When he speaks kindly, do not trust him, for seven abominations are in his heart. 26 Though his hatred covers itself with guile, his wickedness shall be shown openly before the assembly.

Thought for the Day

Verses 24-25 - Cunning people often practice guile; pretending to be friendly to those they hate to find a way to hurt them. There are many Biblical accounts of such deceit. Abel's murder probably is one of those, for Cain, after becoming angry, "...talked to Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him" (Genesis 4:8). Genesis 34 records the deceit enacted by Jacob's sons, who in vengeance for their sister Dinah, feigned friendship with Shechem and his family so that they could easily kill them.

We ought to be cautious in making new friends and should certainly beware if anyone who has previously hated us suddenly becomes friendly. Verse 25 says that there are seven abominations in the heart of one who poses as a friend. These abominations may be the ones listed in Proverbs 6:16-19: "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."

We will recall that Jesus said that he who hates anyone commits murder in his heart, and that he who looks at a woman with lust commits adultery in his heart. In the same way, these seven sins can be present in the hearts of those who pretend friendship. We should be careful to befriend only those of proven good character. This does not mean we are to shun people in the world, as we should witness to them through our godly actions, but we should not make friends with sinners.

Verse 26 - A cunning person may successfully conceal his hatred, but regardless of how many people he deceives, his wickedness will eventually be exposed. There may be a public exposure on earth or exposure before the church on Judgment Day, when Christ separates those who think themselves to be Christians from those who really are (Matthew 7:21-23). Sooner or later, sins concealed by guile will be revealed. "...Ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23b).

Prayer Devotional for the Day

Dear heavenly Father, we are grateful that You are a merciful God and we appreciate Your love toward us when we fail You. Lord, set us free from any trace of guile, and forgive those who have used treacherous words against us. Lord, warn us when people are trying to deceive us with smooth words so that we are not tricked into any agreements that are not of You. Have mercy on those whose sins are exposed before all and cause their shame to turn them back to You in repentance. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. From: Steven P. Miller, @ParkermillerQ, gatekeeperwatchman.org  TM ‎Founder and Administrator of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups. #GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO.

[victusinveritas]

(A great takedown of an asshat on the shaman-to-fascist pipeline. ) -Below the Cut-

I don’t take pleasure in calling people out, but occasionally it has to be done, especially when the person being called out is actively engaging in harmful, hateful things.  Even when it’s proper and righteous to do so, some people find it hard, especially if the person they’re calling out has a large following or if there are political, financial, or safety reasons at play.  Everyone has their own concerns they need to take stock of, and for that reason, not everyone who deserves a call-out gets one.

A few days ago on Twitter, I did my part to call out Gordon White of Rune Soup, around which the Rune Soup Premium Membership (RSPM) is focused.  This was several years late by my reckoning (for which I apologize), but I saw an opportune moment to do so, and decided that something like this is better late than never.  To that end, if you read Gordon’s blog and see his (hilariously awkward and infantile attempts of) attacks at me, this is why; he’s lashing out because someone dared to speak up against him (although I’m far from the only one to do so).  He is not someone to take seriously, much less take classes from; he is a far and sad cry from being any sort of champion of chaos magic, instead descending to little more than anti-vax right-wing grifting.

For those who aren’t on Twitter or have made the choice to ignore it, indulge me if you will.  For recordkeeping’s sake, I’ll list the relevant Twitter threads I made below for you to read at your leisure:

In which I call out Gordon White and Rune Soup for being involved in violent and anti-vax rhetoric while drumming up a personality cult around him

In which I make fun of his subsequent (and hilariously clumsy) attack on me from a blog post he made in response to the above thread

In which I call out his hypocrisy in trying to pillory me for my employment

Ditto, this time him trying to lambast me for being involved in an ATR while employed as I am

In which I share a screenshot of Gordon saying that the COVID vaccines “literally cause AIDS”

In which I share a screenshot of Gordon sharing extremist, partisan, conspiracy “news sources” that engage in evangelical Christian end-of-the-world conspiracies (think Cain, Satan, nuclear war, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, etc.)

In which I make fun of another attack on me for my employment and priesthood (see thread #4 above)

I encourage you all to read the posts above if you can; if nothing else, they should be fairly entertaining, and there’s plenty of commentary from myself and others in the many replies thereof.  I’ll be referring to them and screenshots shared there, since I’m going to go against my usual practice and instead refrain from linking at all to Gordon’s blog or Twitter feed (he doesn’t deserve the traffic from my site).  I may, however, link to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine records of his website, however, depending on the need.  As opposed to tweets and tweetthreads in older posts I’ve made, since I say the same things in the post below, I won’t bother with transcripts.

Oh, and yeah, him saying that COVID vaccines cause AIDS thing is very much real.  Let’s just get that out of the way first while we’re here.  Below is a screenshot of something he said in his private RSPM groups, and it’s far from the only such thing he’s said (alongside the tired variants on how vaccines cause autism, etc.).  Those who’ve been following Rune Soup know that Gordon has said some awful stuff in general when it comes to medicine, healthcare, and the vulnerable, but he says so much worse stuff behind closed doors.  And, as an out gay man himself (and myself, I should note!), I feel like he should have at least some sort of shame about invoking the HIV/AIDS crisis in this horrific, self-serving way.

Anyway, let me share my original statement regarding Gordon White.  It built off of a quote-tweet by Marco Visconti, in which he asked “Are we all still ok with the fake permaculture shaman to keep on serving virulent anti-vaxxer rhetoric alongside his abysmal rune soup?”.  I know I wasn’t and hadn’t been for some time, so I decided to let my thoughts be known clearly:

The only place for Rune Soup, honestly, is down the drain. It’d been bad for a while, and I really don’t know what else to tell people except to stay away from Gordon White’s stuff at this point, given all the hubristic, hateful, and violent ranting coming from him and his blog. I used to like him, I was a supporter of his stuff, I joined in on his classes, and it was great while it lasted, but…well, as it turned out, GW/RS is a fine example of spirituality mingling with conspiracy to make conspirituality—which is as much a con as anything else. It’s not just me that’s picked up on this; I tuned out of GW/RS’s stuff a good while back after he gladly invited some unfortunate people on his show, but others’ve kept up and have better receipts. https://sublunar.space/2021-04-drinking-the-kool-soup.html https://codexastarte.substack.com/p/waiter-theres-a-fly-in-my-rune-soup https://codexastarte.substack.com/p/waiter-theres-a-fly-in-my-rune-soup-f5a

Twitter being what it is, something like this spread quickly.  Now, going into this, I knew that this was going to hit a lot of people in different ways, and I know that I have many people I consider friends or colleagues who are or were part of RSPM or who are otherwise fans of Gordon.  Although it shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone who pays attention to the things I say when it comes to politics or science, I know my own silence regarding Gordon specifically may have led some into some false sense of alliance between my and Gordon’s views, which I’ve since publicly rebuked and repudiated as being repulsive and vile.  By speaking out, I knew I was gonna make at least some people upset.

And, predictably (given how he’s reacted in the past to other people who’ve called him out along similar lines), Gordon wrote a post of his own on his website in a matter of hours attempting to pillory me.  A screenshot of the post in question:

A transcript:

I’m sure you all remember my pompous, Tory, cokehead little stalker still hopping mad that he isn’t -and never will be- me. From memory, Sam is some kind of federal IT bureaucrat so I guess he knows where his bread is buttered. Only a personality who could endure such a job could also be responsible for the unremittingly boring and lengthy blog posts that always fail to distinguish between what hermetic texts actually say versus the words they contain. The only magic in them is a cure for insomnia. All of this is to say I guess his dumb little take is not very surprising. Anyway, this is what I have the distinct pleasure of dealing with while I go about my fake permaculturing and my fake shamaning. (Including bringing the work of Indigenous elders from around the world to public attention for the first time.) Apparently that’s ‘hate’, according to Sam. Apparently his grumpy little Tory cokehead friend’s repeated instances of misogyny and homophobia isn’t ‘hate’. (Fun bonus fact: Sam is gay.)

I find it comical how he described me and my blog in literally the exact opposite terms in his interview with me from September 2017, but so it goes, I suppose.  As for whatever insults he has for Marco, that’s a whole thing that’s its own debacle unto itself; Gordon likes to cry about being bullied while throwing insults like this, even to the point of making up identities for him to play his own brand of identity politics with, and it goes well beyond just Marco.  It all just blends into background noise after a point when you go through his blog archives.

The rest of his post isn’t worth the read; it’s just so much him whining about how misunderstood he is (despite his ample writing over the years that make abundantly clear what he believes) and how his followers should take the moral high road when it comes to haters (though I doubt they’d do well at that by following his example).  In this specific blurb riddled with ad-homimems, however, Gordon not only attempts to dox me (name, employer, and sexuality—none of which I’ve ever kept a secret, but it’s still a class act of him lashing out) but also makes a pathetic attempt at insulting me and my writing, to which I have two things to say:

Sorry not sorry that my blog posts can get a bit long so that I can produce things of substance instead of mere content, or that I don’t just copy-paste other people’s half-read opinions and share them as some sort of deep truth of my own like some people do.

Sorry not sorry that I use textual criticism because I care about getting things right for real implementation instead of following hucksters who call for harm against people doing meaningful work.

There’s also the “white savior” complex he brings into this, too; it shouldn’t be forgotten that Gordon has made a huge hubbub in recent years about his “shaman certification” that he received (after paying something around $10k for) from Alberto Villoldo, a Cuban psychologist who developed a form of neo-shamanism based on Peruvian and other South American practices, though not without controversy of his own regarding the (severe) impropriety of him doing so, which casts doubt on the very legitimacy of what Gordon inflates and reminds people of constantly.  Although, let’s be honest, it’s not like figuring out how legitimate such a “shamanic healing” practice would be given how Gordon himself talks about and markets it:

In addition to what he said about me on his blog, he also said a few unfortunate things about me on his Twitter, trying to shame me for my employment as a low-level software engineer for the United States federal government.  I’ve never kept this a secret, although I don’t bring up which specific agency beyond saying that it’s one of the calmer apolitical ones in existence.  I know what my job consists of and how it impacts people (and Gordon by his own admission doesn’t, I should note), but I don’t bring it up because nothing I say online or on this blog is ever said from the perspective of a federal employee.  To be sure, the United States as a whole has caused atrocious horrors the whole world over; I’d never deny that.  However, for Gordon (who has built so much of his blogging career on talking about elaborate non-systems and how so many things supposedly interconnect and interrelate to the point of outright unfounded conspiracy theories), there is no nuance here; I am paid by the government, and therefore I am among the worst of archons all unto myself.  Specifically, he now holds me to be responsible for “the most dangerous organisation on earth, that literally turns brown children to paste” and also “responsible for Latin America’s disadvantaged condition, as well as the death of about a million Latins”.  Sure, the US government is to blame for that, yet to impugn me as specifically responsible for this is just puerile, ungrounded, and unhinged finger-pointing on his end.  He also seems to take a special, sick joy in also attacking my initiation as a priest in La Regla de Ocha Lucumí (aka Santería, an Afro-Caribbean orisha religion) which he somehow finds ironic in this context, I guess, all the while woefully ignorant of its history and context. (At least I can trace my priesthood by name back to my forebears with others to attest to its legitimacy, something Gordon can’t with his “shamanic certification”.)

What he’s trying to do (though inexpertly) is shame me for my privilege in how I am so obviously and intimately tied up in the reckless destruction of human life across the world generally and Latin America specifically—all the while boasting about his own descent from British colonial administrators in the Pacific and using that to his lifelong advantage, working for global media companies and immersing himself in the active pushing of government-sanctioned/-directed propaganda to influence people the whole world over, and running in the same circles as actual royalty of colonialist empires and actual billionaires.  He says so right on his own website’s About page, and I swear by the gods above and below that I am not making this up (with the important and rather telling-on-oneself bits bolded by myself):

Australian by birth, Gordon White’s family has strong connections to the wider South Pacific thanks to his grandfather’s experience in colonial administration in Nauru and New Guinea. He spent much of his early years exploring and diving in Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. […] After moving to London, he held senior data and analytics positions in global media companies, as well as starting a chaos magic blog and podcast called Rune Soup… which ultimately led to the publication of his first three books, The Chaos Protocols, Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits and Pieces of Eight. […] Fun trivia about Gordon:

I think it’s clear to say that Gordon White isn’t some sort of Joe Six-Pack, some sort of common man that disempowered people should relate to.  He is very much a product of the same old money and colonialist regimes that he instead tries to pillory me (and others!) for.  Rather than responsibly accounting for his own privilege, he instead builds his whole career on his privilege being a predicate for everything he’s done, up to and including buying his own farm (which he struggles with) to live out some sort of prepper’s dream to deal with his own midlife crisis.  Rather than making use of his privilege and his experience with the self-same archons that he developed his whole “archonology” theorycrafting about to actually help people, he’s more inclined to perpetuate and propagate those same tendencies and strengths to bend people around him to stoop to his insanity even more.

I could go on, but if you take a look at what I linked to above and Marco Visconti’s original tweet (and all the replies from the many other people to it), you’ll see so much more of this in tired abundance.  Between the non-ironic shares of “news articles” from extremist/conspiracy rags like Expose News or Rebel News, the calls for violence against healthcare workers, the piles of anti-vax rhetoric that he only ever doubles down on (and now seems to be making his whole brand), the extremely improper “medical advice” he gives for people to deal with the vaccine (including talking about turpentine enemas to extract toxins)…it’s not great.  But this is who he is; this is what he does. (Click to embiggen if you want to read some real swill.)

While Gordon has definitely and publicly gone off the rails in the COVID-19 pandemic and how traumatized he was by not being able to travel so freely anymore (quelle horreur!), it’s not like his right-wing extremism is a new thing.  He’s shown tendencies towards New Right ideology in posts dating back at least to 2015, invoking the likes of Ernst Jünger for the sake of rebellion against multiculturalism.  Taking a page out of his own conspiracy/archonology playbook, if there’s one thing Gordon is good at, it’s using, twisting, and adapting language to suit his own self-serving needs—although anyone with a head on their shoulders and their eyes open can see clearly what it is he’s doing.  (The irony of him using Mark Twain’s quote in his recent posts of “it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled” would be so satisfying if it weren’t so nauseating in this context.)

This blogpost of mine is not intended to be something like Fr. Pera’s documentation of the Nazi occultist Georgina Rose aka Da’at Darling; I’m not tracking all of the awful things Gordon has said or encouraged people to do over the years, as that’s a far greater endeavor than I have the time or energy for, especially when I’ve spent the past few years content with just ignoring him.  However, at this point, the harm he’s causing through his violent rhetoric (all the while couched in feel-good holistic woo and Ursula Le Guin quotes) is simply too much to keep silent on, and so I refuse to any longer.  This is why I spoke out several days ago on Twitter, and is why I’m speaking out now on my blog (which I hope, dear reader, hasn’t been “unremittingly boring” for you).  I simply share what I have at hand about why I’m saying these things, all to make this point: Gordon White is not someone to follow, learn from, or give one’s money to.  I am simply letting people know what he’s actually doing and saying behind his cultivated online presence.

A call-out like this is not going to make me many friends, or so I assume; I’ve already had some (albeit happily not many) people distance themselves from me, calling me an “unhinged tweet spree hate message spreader” or just simply “scum” (for real).  And, yanno what?  It’s honestly no skin off my nose for being called names for calling out someone who seems to want to start a cult around himself.  Unlike Gordon, I’m not trying to corner some market, cultivate some personality cult, or take advantage of people with an obvious grift that preys on people’s enflamed emotions and vulnerability with far-right propaganda-bot-fueled talking points during a global pandemic (and worse).  I’m just here doing my thing, and that’s all I care about; to that end, I just want to make sure that people are well-prepared with the knowledge they need regarding one of the bigger (and more harmful) names in the modern occult community today.  Hence, this blog post, which I hope will be the only one I ever have to write about him, since I’d like to get back to my habit of not having to think about him or reluctantly visit his website/Twitter when someone tells me about some new odious thing he wrote with my name on it.  Since I’ve solidly earned a place on his shitlist, I fully anticipate that he’ll continue ranting and whining about me with bungled attempts at defaming me or shaming me while ignoring the breathtaking hypocrisy or outright ignorance involved in him doing so; I don’t care.

While I don’t expect to deconvert anyone already stuck on Gordon’s bullshit (though hope springs eternal!), I do want to spread the awareness of his bullshit all the same, to let others know who have been picking up on some of these rancid smells that it’s not just them, to let people know that there are those willing to speak out against him despite his following, and to offer an explanation of why my name is coming out of his execrable mouth.  Despite his holier-than-thou railing against people with hate in their hearts, I’m not someone so full of hate like Gordon is in this; I am only (in the words of the Headless Rite) someone “who hates the fact that unjust deeds are done in the world”.  The Rune Soup really is rotten, and the sooner we dump it, the better off we’ll all be.

PS: I am uninterested in reading defenses of bloviating, conspiracy-addled, rage-spreading hucksters, despite what you might have learned from them or how good a friend they might be to you; they can defend and redeem themselves by changing their own apparent behavior and character. And yanno what? I’d love for these kinds of people to do just that! I’m not about playing a game of tit-for-tat to garner support or leverage social media engagement; I just want us all to do better. So please, if you’ve got something to share in support of Gordon or similar people, just save your breath and keystrokes, and instead let them show who they are by their own words and works.

[madamlaydebug]

Books Destroyed to Control Knowledge......

By Moe Bedard and William Blades - Since man could write, books have been some of the most Burning books prized possessions in all the world. Men would travel the globe, and spend vast fortunes in order to acquire the knowledge written on pages to fill their massive libraries.

Just as fast as they could build their limestone storehouses of wisdom, they were destroyed. There are many forces of nature that have caused the destruction of millions of original one of a kind books over the course of the last few thousands years. But no force has been so destructive as that of man.

Almost every race, country, religion, king and dictator has the ash of burnt books on their hands.

There are many stories over the last few thousand-years about the destruction of these libraries, and books being lost forever. There was the Library of the Serapeum in ancient Egypt that was set ablaze by the orders of Theophilus of Alexandria, who was so ordered by Theodosius I. There was the burning of the Great Library at Alexandria in 391 AD, and the Maya codices of the Yucatán were tossed to the flames by the Spanish conquistadors and Catholic monks.

The burning of the Imperial Library of Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire by the Templar Crusaders in 1204 AD. The House of Wisdom in Baghdad Iraq was destroyed in 1258 AD by the Mongol Invaders. The destruction of the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. by Troops of the British Army in 1814 AD.

This list of destroyed books, and libraries can go on and on.

Book-Burning-Christian THE HISTORY OF DESTROYED LIBRARIES AND BOOKS

One of the earliest records of the destruction of books is told to us by St. Luke, when, after the preaching of Paul, many of the Ephesians "which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it 50,000 pieces of silver" (Acts xix, 19).

There were books and what they called little scrolls that were said to be based on gnosis, alchemy, and magic. The little scrolls had short magic sentences on them and were in high demand. They had written on them various prayers and spells as protection against such things as the "evil eye," and evil demons.

One of the greatest ancient libraries mentioned above was built by the dynasty of the Greco-burning library Alexandria Egyptian Ptolemies who had built two in Alexandria. These ancient books of early ages were written on sheets of parchment, having a wooden roller at each end so that the reader needed only to unroll a portion at a time. The libraries were burnt to the ground on multiple occasions; once during Caesar's Alexandrian War in 48 BC, and again in 640 AD when it was burnt by the Saracens.

The great Phoenician city of antiquity, Carthage fell to the Romans in 146 B.C. during the final Punic Wars, and approximately a half a million volumes of one of a kind Phoenician books and manuscripts were burnt.

The followers of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Mohammedans reason for destroying books were said;"If they contain what is in the Koran they are superfluous, and if they contain anything opposed to it they are immoral." In the 15th century the great library of the Emperor Constantine, containing 120,000 Manuscripts, and all the Christian churches were looted of their books and thrown into the sea upon the orders of Mohammed II.

At Cremona, in 1569, 12,000 books printed in Hebrew were publicly burnt as heretical, simply on account of their language; and Cardinal Ximenes, at the capture of Granada, treated 5,000 copies of the Koran in the same way.

At the time of the Reformation in England a great destruction of books took place. The antiquarian Bale, writing in 1587, thus speaks of the shameful fate of the Monastic libraries:

At the Great Fire of London in 1666, the number of books burnt was enormous. Not only in private houses and Corporate and Church libraries were priceless collections reduced to cinders, but an immense stock of books removed from Paternoster Row by the Stationers for safety was burnt to ashes in the vaults of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Friars, an Order which was at constant war with the illiterate secular Clergy. It runs thus:—" In the year 1439, two Minorite friars who had all their lives collected books, died. In accordance with popular belief, they were at once conducted before the heavenly tribunal to hear their doom, taking with them two asses laden with books.

At Heaven's gate the porter demanded, 'Whence came ye?'

The Minorities replied 'From a monastery of St. Francis.' 'Oh!' said the porter, 'then St. Francis shall be your judge.' So that saint was summoned, and at sight of the friars and their burden demanded who they were, and why they had brought so many books with them. 'We are Minorities,' they humbly replied, 'and we have brought these few books with us as a solatium in the new Jerusalem.' 'And you, when on earth, practised the good they teach?' sternly demanded the saint, who read their characters at a glance.

Their faltering reply was sufficient, and the blessed saint at once passed judgment as follows:—' Insomuch as, seduced by a foolish vanity, and against your vows of poverty, you have amassed this multitude of books and thereby and therefore have neglected the duties and broken the rules of your Order, you are now sentenced to read your books for ever and ever in the fires of Hell.' Immediately, a roaring noise filled the air, and a flaming chasm opened in which friars, and asses and books were suddenly engulfed."

"Their pages mangled, burnt and torn,

The loss was his alone;

But ages yet to come shall mourn

The burning of his own."

The second poem commences with the following doggerel:—

"When Wit and Genius meet their doom

In all-devouring Flame,

They tell us of the Fate of Rome

And bid us fear the same."

SOURCES: The Enemies of Books By William Blades

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Living His Word

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" — Revelation 2:7

Our verse for today is part of the message that the Apostle John gave to the "angel of the church in Ephesus" (Revelation 2:1), one of the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1:4). Each of the angels of the seven churches received a message from John, as recorded in Revelation 2-3. The word "angel," which means "messenger," refers to the pastor of the church. John received these messages from the Spirit of God speaking through the risen and glorified Jesus Christ.

As parts of the Bible, the messages speak to every church of every age, not just to the seven. The messages are words of commendation and encouragement, but also rebuke and warning. In the message to Ephesus, for example, Jesus says, '"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first"' (Revelation 2:4). At the end of each message, Jesus speaks the same words as those of our verse for today: '"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

The verse means that pastors and their churches should take to heart what the Spirit says because it is important. It is important not just because there are bad consequences for failing to listen (see, e.g., Revelation 2:5), but also because there are rewards for listening. The church at Ephesus, for example, was specifically promised the right to eat from the "tree of life" located in the "paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7).

The Spirit, of course, still speaks to pastors and their churches. He speaks to us primarily through the authority of the Bible, but also in many other ways. In order to hear the messages, however, we must have "an ear." That is, our sensing faculties must be made ready to receive the messages of the Spirit by the Spirit Himself. John, for example, was able to receive the messages for the seven churches because he was "in the Spirit" on the day they were sent (Revelation 1:10). He was, in other words, flowing in the power of the Spirit instead of in his own power.

Receiving messages from the Holy Spirit is one of the most important parts of life as a Christian. Let us then, like John, flow in the Spirit so that we will always be ready for them.

© 2016 by Bible League International

[magpigment]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR GENLOSS: THE SPIRIT

i’ve recorded my general opinions and thoughts throughout the course of the generation loss episode the spirit. this is not really my analysis or anything, just my reactions to things as they happened. it will probably not make sense to anybody else but it might be funny, so here!

LMAO THE FACT RANBOO IS LIKE AS TALL AS ALL THE DOORS IN THE CABIN LMAO

ok the editing on this is pretty dope actually ngl

ALSO the thing on the back of their mask has the show fall media logo on it i think? like against the back of his head. that’s really really cool and also the mask looks dope

lmao the hauntometer in the corner 

oop bye bye urn

the fact that the show fall media guys name is squiggles, that’s pretty funny 

also genuinely what is up w the mask ranboo is wearing. as soon as it glowed red they were able to actually speak? and it happened as soon as he touched the ashes from the broken urn?? probably unrelated to the urn but strange nonetheless 

also the hauntometer is gone rip

weird painting??? in reference to the fourth wall or are they able to like. somewhat SEE the audience in some capacity? 

i like the interactive interface style it’s for going on, very point and click video game esque which is probably the point lmao

‘knowledge can be painful’ ???? foreshadowing perchance? 

why is he just picking up the ashes from the urn 😂 

THE GUY THE GUY THE GUY I MISS YOU ALREAYD WHERE IS HE ooooo the spirit i’m so excited 

dr jekyll and mr hyde is an interesting choice of book to have been brought up hmmm. very interesting and a neat way to subtly set the tone if it ends up being at all relevant 

ranboo keeps mentioning their head hurting which might just be a callback to the books falling on them but who knows!!

oooooooh that’s a cool setting for the door to take them to

why did he just shove sand in their pocket 😭 

‘pocket sand is useful in almost any situation’ shut your fucking mouth squiggles no one asked. i see past your little tricks you goddamn WEASEL. GET OUT OF MY SIGHT

why is there a musical instrument recorder there. what is this, a middle school

and also bats

i like how he’s just gutting a bat lmao

‘BOO BITCH’ YES YES YES MY BOY IS HERE!!!

‘oh my gosh is that slimecicle’ based, squiggles

slimecicle has been here for like two seconds and he’s already doing mouth to mouth on a bat. on brand 

‘RICHARD NOOOO’ agreed squiggles

it is so funny how ranboo is just absolutely TOWERING over the spirit. this is fantastic lmao

noooo not christian hell XD

i fucking love the voice charlie chose for the spirit, this is great. i am genuinely having a blast right now

it’s so funny that the spirit keeps getting stuck to himself 

the pinky promises lmao

RUMBISH 😂 

‘A NICE CHAIR, I WILL THOROUGHLY SOIL IT’ charlie please

‘how do i feel about this contestant? the same way i feel about everything- WET.’ CHARLIE PLEASE

‘goo goobie!’ you have redeemed yourself, slimecicle. for now

why does slimecicle want ranboo to degrade his fucking sandwich 

spagwebbi :3

the audience interactive element that keeps being brought up is actually pretty cool, can’t wait for it to bring me ceaseless agony later ^u^

the random unscripted person in the cupboard was fantastic

NOT THE MUSHROOM NOOO

i like the way squiggles capitalizes the word Loss, that’s pretty cool

i adore slimecicles little catchphrases he is so silly

that sure was a ritual yep

what the hell is charlie even saying 😂 

why’d he just throw an apple at ranboo 😂 😂 

WHYS HE THROWINF MORE APPLES AT RANBOO 😂 

why are there only five blueberries in that container 

ok jesus christ those are some massive fucking pickles that is absolutely ratchet 

is that medicinal mint jelly???? is regular mint jelly an actual thing????? 

‘*spits out cereal* no way’ mood squiggles

i like the different names slimecicle is coming up for ranboo 

watching charlie trying not to laugh at his own jokes is so funny 

i admire charlie’s dedication to the bit and also his role because my god i would have broken character a lot

also please PLEASE tell me charlie isn’t actually going to eat that slime

oh god

i’m pretty sure none of that actually made it into his mouth but jesus christ

THE FUCKING REMNANTS OF SLIME ON THE FLOOR FROM WHEN CHARLIE GOT STUCK 😂 

the symbol on the back of the mask is the show fall symbol!

also what the hell is up w hacker dude or whatever 

he was in a basement?? 

well we found the basement XD

also did showfall wipe his memory?? 

lmao idiot shone himself in the eye w a flashlight get rekt /j

we stan. teeth? 

WHY DID HE SHINE HIMSELF IN THE EYES W A FLASHLIGHT /AGAIN/????

sneegsnag ????

why is my man’s in a cage 

does ranboo not know how to unlock a lock??? 

‘LEAVE FRANK ALONE!’ lmao

i like how slimecicle just put sneeg in a cage

has charlie been in that box that entire time 😭 

ew grody

that slime was wildly unnecessary 

CHARLIE WAS HIDING IN A SHOWFALL MEDIA MERCH BOX 😂 

‘SEETHE?? COPE??’ charlie is so funny

’oh my gosh stab each otherrrr’ 

all the jello in slimecicles bedroom 😂 

is charlie under the bed??? that’d be literally so funny

also why is there a portrait of charlie

i wonder if the chat was actually the ones participating in the polls or not cuz if so that’d be so funny

LMAO CHARLIE IS IN THE WALL 

this is so funny 

sneegs fucking side eye 😂 

jesus fucking christ why are they throwing it back XD

welp. bye sneeg

charlie laughing in the background 😂 

i think it would’ve been really funny if the pocket sand had given charlie more hp because it ‘added even more weird shit to his outer shell’ 

‘you magnum BITCH!!’ charlie is so funny

i like the inane combat system. the meta they’ve developed is so funny lmao

ok genuinely what the hell is charlie even throwing here. what is that. 

‘what’s going on..?’ what IS going on???

why’d the rats dose him up lmao

[riearchivistfornow]

Conduct. How do you live?

Teens Xcite 2015.11.25

Conduct. How do you live?

A revolution is a sudden or complete or marked change in something. If we are true Christians, we shouls always seek drastic change so that our lives may please the Lord.

A true revival meams nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldiness and selfishness, and making God and His Holiness triumph in the heart and in your life.

1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Conduct. It refers to the way you live. Would you see that your life is reflecting that Jesus is in yiur heart?

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

If you are in Christ, you are to be a new person. There must be this transformation.

When you say that you are something, you have to be able to prove it. If you say you are the top student, you have to prove it with a report card. Similarly, if you say that you are a Christian, you have to be able to prove that you are. Imagine if Christianity is made illegal, would you have enough evidence that shows that you are a Christian?

L.I.F.E.

1) Love

As Christians, we have to demonstrate that we have love. A deep love for God and a selfless love for others.

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

These are the two commandments that Jesus reminds us of. Whether or not we have love in our lives, is an indicator that proves that you are a Christian.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

You can do anything you want, be anyone you want, but if you do not have love you are nothing.

God Himself is Love.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world…

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Can you say that you have this kind of love in your life in relation to God and the people around you? Are you patient and kind? Are you jealous? Are you boastful or proud? Are you rude? Are you demanding in your own way? All these and more are very clear ways to tell if you have love in your life or not.

We need God to transform us from the inside out. If you really love God, when was the last time you prayed or worshiped God?

John 16:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

Be a family. Love one another dearly. Christianity is not about what you can get but about what you can give.

2) Integrity

We need to live a life of integrity. Integrity: honesty or the state of being whole and undivided.

We cannot live double lives.

James 1:8 He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Your loyalty cannot be divided between the Lord and the world.

Revelations 3 says that because are lukewarm, He will spit us out of his mouth. That He would rather us be completely against or completely all for him.

We need to have the integrity to be united in your own life. You have to life the same life and the same actions and the same thoughts in church, at home, at work or at school. We need to have this integrity in our lives.

Do you have a double life or do you live a single life? The Lord is calling you to choose to pive for God or live for the world.

3) Faith

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11 talks all about faith.

Faith is the very essence of God, it is the very nature of God. Jesus was always imparting faith into the people.

Luke 17:6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Excpect great things when you attempt great things.

Do you demonstrate faith in your life? Is your first response prayer? We need to understand what it means to live by faith.

Mark 4:40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

That is how important living by faith means. Whether or not you are a true Christian or not.

Daily living by faith in Christ is what makes the difference between the sickly and healthy Christian, between the defeated and the victorious Christian.

Can you honestly say that you are a healthy Christian?

4) Example

We are called to be examples. To other christians and to the world.

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

We are called to be an example to the rest of the world. The rest of the world should be looking towards us.

To be an example means that your behaviour is worthy of being followed and a point of reference to be looked up to.

Are you at a place where people look to you and wish to live the life that you are living.

When the world reacts with hate, you need to react with love. When the world reacts with fear, you need to react with faith.

Are you reacting in love and faith or are you reacting with the world?

Jesus uses salt because it is used to change the taste of your food. So of what use is salt if it is never salty?

We are called to be the change. We have to be Christians that are an example for the rest of the world. However, it is not because of our freatness but because we have Christ in us.

1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Love, Faith, Integrity, Example. How we should live our L.I.F.E. . How would you score?

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

1 Peter 2:13-14 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

It is all about the reason behind it.

Look at your own life, are you willing to love God over every other thing in your life? What matters more to you, living for God or living for your own self?

Mark 7 Acts 10

[99900000000000119]

(Jeffery Barmann) There are countless righteous souls that belong to all major religions of the world, which include Christianity. My writings when I challenge religions do not speak about their followers, those with pure hearts that serve Almighty God, but instead speak against the corruption in the church and what we’ve been told are truths. The father of lies has always needed to deceive, and religion and governments have always been the primary way to deal with as many souls as possible. So instead of believing what we’ve been told what holy scripture means, we should as discerning Christians look to God’s Word instead of blindly following what the church (Vatican) demands we believe.  Jesus foretold for us, most of mankind will not understand what’s happening during these days.“For the coming of the son of man will be just like it was in the days of Noah— just like in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the Ark—and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away [Luke: “destroyed them all”]. The coming of the son of man will be just like that.” (Matt 24:37–39) What did Jesus mean when he told us: Unless you become as a little child you can in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? (Matt: 18: 2-5.)  What do all small children do? They all without exception “question everything.” Jesus tried to warn mankind again and again that we were being oppressed and deceived, even naming the controller of the world as the “Father of Lies.” (John 8:44.)* This claim was made against the prevailing religion of the time. A religion later incorporated into the Christian Holy Bible. Keeping in mind for deception to be effective it is always used in the midst of Universal Truths. Jesus told us that we will do everything he has done and even more! (John: 14-12.) There has been a misunderstanding of what Christians call “The Rapture.” (Corinthians 15: 51-53.) What has been revealed to me is this so-called Rapture actually speaks of the “Ascension” of earthly souls, the “evolution” of mankind; even though these souls will remain on earth. Jesus was the first human to die and raise from death to physically “ascend” to the higher dimension we know as Heaven. This was the mission of Jesus upon earth. There is no reason why we should not believe that we too as followers of Jesus will not do the same and ascend to Heaven in our physical bodies. This also involves the warning Jesus gave us concerning the separation of the Wheat from the Chaff. (Matt: 3-12.) When speaking of: “Then two men will be in a field: one will be seized and one will be released. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be seized and one will be released.” The “Ascension” also known by Christians as “The Rapture” involves this separation and the “meek” inheriting the earth. “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Psalm 37:11.). We evolve, but we remain on the planet. God's universe is teeming with friendly life. The evil ones exist only in lower dimensions, but our planet is evolving too. Over a period of 30 years or more I studied all religions and all beliefs and determined during the early 1990s what we could expect to happen. That is why I understand more than most people. Also, I learned in the early 1990s how to access God’s Book of Remembrance. Which Eastern Religions call the Akashic Records. We all should rejoice about being alive in these times. God never punishes and never judges, so those who are not ready to evolve to Heaven will go on to live the experiences that will allow them to eventually evolve. God loves us all the same. All I ask of believers is to embrace unconditional love, non-judgment and service to our fellow human beings. In these no wrong is found. We all have our own paths to follow and evolve, and there are NO wrong choices. God is Love. Peace & Love*The Bible has many names for Satan to describe his true nature, including “ruler of this world” (John 12:31), “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), “tempter” (1 Thessalonians 3:5), “deceiver” (Revelation 12:9), “Beelzebub” (literally, “lord of the flies,” the ruler of demons, in Matthew 10:25), and “Belial,” meaning “wicked” (2 Corinthians 6:15). —Jeff

[barbaramoorersm]

March 3, 2024

March 3, 2024

Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20: 1-17

Moses shares God’s law with the Jews.

Psalm 19

The psalmist praises God’s Law.

First Corinthians 1: 22-25

Paul speaks of the weakness and foolishness of God

John 2: 13-25

John shares his account of the cleansing of the Temple and Jesus states that his body is a temple that will be destroyed but raised up in three days.

In our first reading from Exodus, Moses shares God’s law with the people. And as you listen to its content, God and neighbor are central to the Law and commandments. All the people are called to the same responsibilities no matter their age, status, or income.  But by Jesus day some 613 laws and rules had evolved regarding these commandments.  Depending on one’s income and status there were levels of obedience to these rules that one was able to observe.

The “cleansing of the temple” is recorded by all the Gospel writers.  John’s Gospel shares the story in a very early chapter of his work and the others tell the story later in Jesus’ ministry. Of all the Gospels, John’s work contains the longest description of the event. 

John’s Gospel composed later that the other three, is written to a faith community.  They had decade to reflect on the life and resurrection of Jesus and John’s Gospel is the only one that has Jesus during this event, compare himself to the Temple that would be destroyed, and that he would be raised.  John’s community knew that statement to be true.

John’s Gospel is calling for a change of behavior.  The Passover is near and hundreds travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.  And for convenience and other’s profit, they can secure in that holy place the animals necessary for sacrifice.  That need involves the exchange of coins and I am sure some difficult decisions for Jews.  Roman coins probably made their way to the Temple ‘s money changes and they presented problems for Orthodox Jews.  The Emperor’s face was on them.  Moses’ law as presented in the first reading states, “You shall not crave idols for yourself in the shape of anything….”

But perhaps the deeper issue is the growth and gradual reconstitution of the Temple by Herod that brought so many to Jerusalem and there were those who would take advantage of people.  It is difficult to envision Jesus with a whip driving out money changers, buyers, and sellers.  But today he does!

I have mentioned before the new book by Tim Alberta entitled, “The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory” which describes the ways in which some churches in recent history have been captured by the dollar and taken advantage of faithful people.   As I read it, I found myself thinking that we are in some cases, again in the Temple, where Jeus took a stand against many, taking advantage of poor and the purpose of that holy place.  Imagine the impact Jesus’ gesture creates all around him.   Perhaps some felt fear as they watched him and yet, John indicates that,” many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.”  And so, we have the law given to the ancient Jews through Moses and we have Jesus indicating that the law’s meaning was being violated by Temple practices.

How do these two readings speak to us as modern Christians.  Tim Alberta offers us one path to take.  He urges Christians to be aware of churches that lose their original call and resort to practices that take advantage of people.   Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians offers us another piece of advice.  Like his first century audience, Paul offers Corinthians and us an important message.  Christ is foolish to some and a stumbling block to others because of the basic message he shares with all of us.  “Love God and our neighbor as ourselves.”  Some see this statement as impossible and perhaps too simple and foolish.  But Paul shares that God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”  That statement says volumes.   We value human strength and avoid weakness but God’s and God’s ways turn these realities upside down.  Love which appears as weakness for many is now the solution God shares as we try to live out our daily lives.

In the coming months solutions to the Ukraine war and the war between Israel and the Palestine will occupy our minds and hearts as well the intensity of upcoming elections. 

As we listen, pray, study the issues, and reflect on possible solutions, may the “foolishness of God and the weakness of God” be our model.  For in the foolishness and weakness of God we will find the wisdom and strength to make good and life-giving decisions because God’s actions flow from love, care for the vulnerable and a call for peace and justice.

[former-leftist-jew]

The Arab League was formed in 1945, three years before Israel even declared independence, and it spanned the entire rest of the Middle East and North Africa from Day 1.

And given how huge North Africa really is...

And given how tiny Israel really is...

The idea that the Arab world, roughly the size of NORTH AMERICA...

Needed to form a "defense league" against a nation-state the size of NEW JERSEY...

Is patently absurd. It's the Arab Muslim version of that American Christian "Help! We're being oppressed!" meme.

By the way, did you wonder why there are so many Arabic-majority countries outside the Arabian Peninsula?? For the same reason there are more white English speaking countries outside the English Isles.

It's no coincidence that most lands conquered by Islamic Arab warlords in centuries past are part of the Arab League today.

And the Arab League wasn't a "defense league" formed in response to violent military encroachment by da joos, it was largely in response to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during WWI, and the next best thing to the "unified Arab kingdom" (Albert Londres, 1929) that the European Allies failed to restore by WWII.

The aims of the league in 1945 were to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.

In other words: To promote Arab Muslim supremacy and interests.

Because you'd better believe they weren't willing to share with the ethnic and religious groups they colonized. (Such as the Armenians, Kurds, Druze, etc.)

After all, ethnic and religious minorities living in Islam majority countries (called "dhimmi") were as much subjugated minorities as non-whites in the Antebellum South.

I can go on and on, but I'm just going to end by saying: The UN is a fucking joke. It's rotten to the core and its rot keeps spreading: it's corrupt, incompetent, hypocritical, and useless.

The UN has more mass-murdering dictators on its "Human Rights Council" than it has UNWRA employees that aided Hamas in the Oct 7 atrocities and kidnappings: That is to say, A LOT.

The UN showed more sympathy for the (accidental) death of the Butcher of Tehran than the hundreds of kids burned and butchered alive on Oct 7th.

Anyone who still holds the UN as any kind of moral authority is woefully uninformed at best.