#he seems very concerned about the spread of christianity

[canisalbus]

Nervous Machete from my class notes!

we were learning about the spread of christianity.

.

[perseidlion]

I'm new to the KAOS fandom, and I honestly love the way the show is riffing off myth.

I've seen some rumblings of some people thinking they're changing too much. But, uhhh, the show definitely never promised they'd be sticking close to myth by its whole *gestures broadly* deal. Also like...WHICH version of the myths? There are so many and they changed, sometimes drastically over time. KAOS is just really continuing the tradition of remixing these characters and the stories.

I feel like the people who are saying this takes it too far probably have a superficial understanding of Greek and Roman mythology. Cause if you really dig into it, these stories are weird, contradictory, raunchy, violent and tragic.

I was a Classics major for two years (before I decided I couldn't learn Latin or Greek which was required to study primary sources, so I switched majors.) And let me tell you, KAOS is VERY accurate to certain portrayals of the gods. Not all, of course, but many.

Zeus is absolutely a horndog dick who sleeps with all sorts of people and spreads his seed everywhere. I mean, he straight-up disguised himself as other people to have sex with their partners. Animals, too!

Hera is incredibly petty and vindictive and transforms people into all sorts of things as punishment. She was especially hard on any of Zeus' lovers she caught, or his kids from different mothers.

Everyone was doing adultery all the time.

Hades wasn't a meek corporate type, but he also wasn't a devil analogue as he often gets interpreted as in pop culture. He's definitely a big ole grump and doesn't seem to have a soft side, but he's not often portrayed as evil. Zeus is not God and Hades is not Satan. That's really applying a Judeo-Christian framework to Greek mythology.

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice was always more about grief and not being able to let go than about the power of true love.

The gods gained obedience and worship through fear. They absolutely punished people who didn't worship they way they wanted them to.

The gods were a giant, powerful, highly dysfunctional family with lots of petty grievances and grudges.

The Greeks had no concept of gay or straight. They conceptualized sex and sexuality as acts, not an identity. They were more concerned about who was the passive person in a sexual encounter (for reasons of class and manliness) rather than what gender their partner was. So it makes sense that this modern retelling would have a similiarly open an undefined concept of sex and sexuality.

Greek myth is full of people who change genders or who swap back and forth through magic or prayer, or were both male and female at the same time. Caeneus in the show, is based on a real myth of someone AFAB who wished to become a man.

(sidenote: Misia Butler is so damned charming and handsome.)

It's also important to remember that the religion of the ancient Greeks lasted a very long time and changed over that time. There was also this really interesting dichotomy between the gods of plays and myths and the gods they worshipped in a religious context. That was one thing that is really hard to wrap your head around when you're studying Greek and Roman myth, especially when you're studying it alongside plays and epic poetry.

The gods of the stories who were being vengeful and petty and the gods they sacrificed to and worshipped were not the same - and they were. Sort of imagine it like Christian peoples' perceptions of Jesus vs Jesus in pop culture. Like, if you studied Dogma or Good Omens or something alongside the Bible and didn't distinguish between religion and pop culture, you'd definitely be confused.

So there are all these competing stores, some benevolent and holy, some raucous and scandalous. KAOS very ably continues in that tradition by remixing and recontextualizing the source material for a new audience.

They do some reaaalll weird thing with timelines, though! They squish together myth and pick and choose different versions and inspiration. But honestly that doesn't bother me because it's all done deliberately and not out of ignorance. They're changing what they've changed to serve the story.

Plus it's great fun. It's one of the most creative shows I've seen in ages. Go and watch it! As a bonus, it's also hella queer.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

Into My Arms

Pairing: Osferth x f!reader Warnings: Canon typical violence, smut, fluff. Word count: ~1.4k

Summary: Osferth is tired of her underestimating him, of being seen as nothing more than "Baby Monk", so goes out of his way to prove to her that he is so much more than that. A little birthday treat for @doomwhathouwilt - based on this request.

Author's note: I don't have a tag list - please follow @fics-by-ewanmitchellcrumbs and turn on post notifications. Community labels are for cops.

She points the tip of her sword to her opponent’s chest, dragging him closer by the shoulder as it plunges forward to the hilt, before sliding it back and watching him crumple in a heap before her, his lifeless eyes staring up towards a gray sky. She cannot hear the screams of pain, the cries of triumph around her over the roar of the blood in her ears.

Her body aches with exertion, the arrows in her quiver are long spent, meaning she has to use her blade to defend herself. As the fighting dies down she is left only with the hammering of her heart, panting for breath as the world swims back into focus, and she is greeted by the coppery smell of viscera and the rancid stench of shit. She feels like crying, the adrenaline that courses through her is beginning to subside as she watches what little remains of their opponents flee, the majority of their forces having been cut down.

There is rarely a dull moment on the road with Uhtred and his men; she's been with him since he parted ways with Brida, accompanying him and Leofric on their travels. She enjoys never settling anywhere for long, drinking ale and sharing stories beneath the stars. It keeps her skills as an archer sharp, their battles are frequent, though lately she finds herself tiring of them, there is little joy to be found in taking the life of another.

She longs to give up, to declare she can take no more, but as her weary eyes look up, taking in the aftermath of the battle, she is met with the very reason why she continues on. Osferth’s eyes, vividly blue and wide with fright remain fixed ahead, his grip on his weapon so tight his knuckles are blanched with the force of it. Though he fights courageously, there is fear in his heart and she worries about what will happen to him if she simply walks away from all of this. They all give him a hard time; he is a Christian, always seems to say the wrong thing and has no qualms with passing judgment on their behaviours that he deems inappropriate. Despite all of this, he is steadfast in his loyalty to the group, and so she along with the rest of them would gladly lay down her life for him.

They sit around the campfire, tending to the minor injuries they’ve sustained, cuts and scrapes alike. She bats away Sihtric’s attempts to dab at her temple with a moistened rag.

“It’s a scratch, leave it be,” She says with resignation. Her eyelids feel heavy as she stares ahead into the flames, she longs for sleep.

“I think this calls for ale and women!” Finan declares, slapping his thighs and standing up.

“And prayer,” Osferth adds, with a hopeful smile.

“Yes, but in that order,” Finan counters with a grin.

She remains seated as the four of them head towards the village, she has no desire to join in with their festivities.

Osferth glances over his shoulder, pausing and allowing the group to move ahead when he notices she remains where she is.

“Are you not joining us, my lady?” He asks, brows pinched together with concern.

“Not tonight, no,” She says quietly. “I’m not in the mood.”

He nods, returning to the fire and seating himself next to her. “Then I shall stay with you and keep you company.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“I don’t. But I want to.”

She looks at him, a warm smile spreading across her face as she sees the sincerity in his eyes.

“There’ll be women waiting for you in the village,” She teases.

The tips of his ears turn pink. “I’m not interested,” He tells her with a shy grin.

“I doubt you’d know what to do with them anyway, Baby Monk,” She chuckles lightly.

“I do, actually,” His voice is stern, his expression hardened and she worries she’s offended him.

“I was only jo–”

Her words are cut off as Osferth leans in, pressing his mouth to hers. His lips are soft yet firm against her own and the kiss steals her breath away. He keeps their foreheads pressed close, his thumb tracing lightly over her cheek as he pulls back.

Her heart flutters wildly as her breaths come shakily. “Y-your blood still runs hot from battle, Baby Monk, we should not do this.”

“I am tired of waiting for you to see me as I see you,” He whispers. “Let me show you how much I desire you.”

This time when his lips capture hers, she returns the gesture with equal enthusiasm, allowing herself to get lost in the basic primal urge of feeling wanted.

Deft hands exchange caresses across each other’s bodies, each pass of their fingers serving to remove an item of clothing until the two of them lay bare beneath the night sky. Her flesh prickles against the chill of the air, but she barely notices as her eyes drink in the sight of the man before her.

She looks appreciatively, silently cursing the robes that have been swamping the hard planes of muscle of Osferth’s torso. Her breath hitches at the sight of his hardened length, it’s thick and long, flushed pink at the tip, it appears that he is full of surprises.

“You are beautiful,” He declares softly, taking his time to gaze upon her own form, and she feels her skin grow heated at his compliment.

As he moves his body to cover hers, his mouth travels a path from her neck to her chest, leaving a trail of wet, opened mouthed caresses. He suckles on the hardened peaks of her breasts and she arches against him, a soft moan escaping her at the jolt of arousal that rushes through her.

She halts Osferth’s movements when he attempts to move lower, the ache between her thighs is unbearable and she is certain she needs no further preparation. “Please,” She whispers. “I want you.”

He inhales sharply at this, pupils blown wide with lust and hovers over her as she spreads her legs further to accommodate him. The gentle stretch as he pushes slowly inside is exquisite torture and causes her to gasp.

He pauses for a moment, softly stroking her hair. “Am I hurting you?”

“No, it feels good,” She reassures him. “Please don’t stop.”

He kisses her deeply as he bottoms out, allowing her a moment to adjust before he begins to rock his hips. His strokes are sure and even, and she finds herself wondering if this is practiced or purely instinctual. She had expected Osferth to be clumsy and inexperienced, yet every thrust of his hips finds a spot inside her that leaves her crying out as her toes curl involuntarily.

“I have wanted you for so long,” He whispers into her ear, as his hips snap against hers with more urgency. “You feel better than I have ever dreamed.”

She feels her eyes grow misty with emotion at this, the combination of his soft confessions and the pleasure she is experiencing becoming too much, until the tightly wound coil within her lower belly finally snaps, and she falls apart, clenching ceaselessly around him, as her cries of ecstasy are offered up to the stars above them.

Osferth shudders, pulling out of her with a strangled groan, stroking frantically at himself as he paints her upper thighs with his spend before collapsing beside her.

As the euphoria begins to wear off, she becomes aware of the tickle of the damp grass against her back, the coolness that licks against her sweaty skin.

He gently tugs her to his chest and she goes willingly, draping herself across him, listening to the rapid thud of his heartbeat.

“Are you alright, my lady?”

“Just fine, Baby Monk.”

“Could you…could you just call me Osferth? Simply Osferth.” He asks gently.

She lifts her head from his chest, raising a questioning eyebrow at him and he smiles fondly down at her.

“It seems more fitting for you to call me by name if you’re to be my woman.”

“Your woman?” She feels her stomach flutter.

“Yes, my woman,” He gives her a squeeze. “If that’s agreeable to you.”

She squeezes him back. Nothing has ever sounded better.

[kickinganddriving]

I Can See You - CP10

notes: a lil quick comeback to puliblr and a lil birthday present to my bbg @10vnderhaze ilysm babes!

song suggestion: I Can See You (from the vault) (Taylors version)- Taylor Swift

pairing: Christian Pulisic x reader

Warnings: A lil steamy, some mutal workplace pining, closets.

wc: 1.6k

"You should come over tonight," he whispers in your ear as he passes you in the hallway, his voice low and seductive. You know you shouldn't, but everything about him gives you butterflies in your stomach. It's the way he walks, the way he talks, the way he casually refers to you as "sweetheart" in conversation. You know you really shouldn't, but… you really want to.

The shivers down your spine are saying yes, but your mind is saying no.

Rushing to your desk, you can feel the warmth spreading to your face as you spin around in your swivel chair, imagining what might happen if you do go over tonight. Your body starts tingling as your brain wanders to the potential future.

His hands intertwine with your hair, and your bodies and lips move in sync as you rise up and down in his lap. His other hand moves to your hip to guide your body at a sensual pace. You feel his tongue hook through your lips into your mouth after you break the kiss to breathe, quickly being cut off again by Christian.

The room is a mess, with clothes and bed sheets scattered across the room. The air is thick, humid, and smells of sex. Your hands explore his body a little bit more after every time you kiss. Light moans and gasps escape both of your lips as you hear a string of praise and expletives coming from his lips.

As your lips leave his mouth and move south to the region of his neck, you hear him whisper, "Have you finished making the press statement yet?" You quickly open your eyes to realize that you are neck-deep in the middle of a very hot daydream, but you seem to forget the fact that you have work and a job that needs to be completed.

"No, sorry!" you quickly reply back, smoothing out the skirt you are wearing and fixing your hair.

"It's due tonight, get to it," your supervisor replies as he taps your desk and turns around.

Opening your laptop, all you can think about is the very eventful daydream you had just before and the probability of it occurring if you do go over tonight. After quickly finishing your work, you decide it's time to get coffee, as it's only 1 o'clock, and you are yawning. Walking out of the little maze of cubicles, you bump into one Christian Pulisic.

"Have you thought about my offer from earlier?" You hear him say.

"I want to, but you know we shouldn't," you say lightly, placing your hand on his chest, if only he wasn't wearing that stupid shirt.

"Why can't we?" He responds as he places both of his hands on your waist and takes a step closer to you.

"Christian, we can't," you say with a hitch in your breath. "I know that, but why? I want this, and you want this, so why can't we do this?" He says, lowering his face so close that you could feel his presence.

"Because people are going to find out, and either way, it's going to make things more complicated than they already are."

"Why do you of all people care about what other people think? Just let it happen, sweetheart," he begs as he presses a few kisses to your cheek and neck.

"Christian, unlike you, my chance of getting a job if this gets out and I get fired is way lower than yours." You can practically hear his groan as he pulls himself off of you.

You sigh, trying to gather your thoughts amidst the swirling emotions inside you. Christian's persistence is tempting, and a part of you desperately wants to give in to the desire you both feel. But you know the potential consequences of acting on these feelings and it scares you.

"Look, it's not just about what others think," you say, trying to explain your position. "It's about what might happen after the fact.” Christian runs a hand through his hair in frustration, but he seems to understand your concern.

"I get it, I really do," he says, his voice softer now. "But what if we keep it a secret? Nobody has to know. Just you and me.”

As much as you wish you could believe it could work, you know deep down that secrets have a way of coming out eventually. And if it does, it could ruin not only your job but also Christian's reputation.

"I know you think we can keep this under wraps, but we both know how difficult that can be," you reply, trying to hold your ground. "It's risky, and I don't want either of us to regret our decision later."

Christian looks conflicted, torn between his desire for you and his understanding of the potential consequences. "Can't we at least give it a try? I promise I'll do everything in my power to make sure nobody knows until we want them to know.”

You bite your lip, considering his proposal for a moment. The attraction between you is undeniable, and the thought of exploring this connection with him is intoxicating. But you also know that your career is important to you, and you can't afford to jeopardize it. His hand makes its way to your cheeks, as he angles your head to be face-to-face with him you shake your head no as you respond "I get it. I really do. I just wish it didn't have to be this complicated."

"Me too," he replies softly, as you reach out to touch his cheek gently. Something clicks in your head and you press your lips onto his, your bodies connecting and working with each other. He realizes that both of you are in plain sight, and discreetly guides both of your bodies into the nearest room he could find.

Pulling away for air, you realized where you were, in a fucking broom closet. Then you realized what you were doing. But he’s never looked prettier than how he looked at that moment, his hair messed up, from your hands running through it. Your lipstick smudged on his face, leaving a light tint of pink on them. His eyes were wide, and full of lust. Your heart wanted to go back for seconds, but you knew that you had to go back to work.

“Chris… we shouldn’t… I should go.” You say stuttering as you feel the same warmth from earlier creeping up your face.

“Alright yeah, we can talk about this later.” He says simultaneously flustered with you. The tension between you is palpable as you both retreat to your separate tasks for the rest of the day. The sexual tension that once seemed exciting now feels undone and needs to be completed.

Later in the evening, as you're leaving work late, you receive a text from Christian. "Can we talk?"

You hesitate for a moment before replying, "Sure."

You meet him outside the office building, and it's clear that he's been waiting for you. The streetlights cast a soft glow around him, making him look even more alluring.

"I missed you," he says, his voice filled with love and lust.

You laugh to yourself while peering into his eyes "Christian, it's been 5 hours, you can’t miss me that much.”

"I can't stop thinking about you," he admits, taking a step closer. "I tried, but it's impossible."

Your heart races as you look into his eyes, feeling the pull of the connection between you. "I can't stop thinking about you either, but we need to be rational about this."

"I know, and I hate it," he says, frustration evident in his tone. "But I can't help how I feel."

"I know it's not easy," you reply, your voice softening.

He reaches out to touch your hand, and you can feel the warmth of his touch travel through your entire body. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

"Me too," you whisper, torn between your heart and your mind. For a moment, you both stand there in silence, the weight of unspoken emotions hanging heavily in the air.

“Just kiss me now.” You blurt out.

“What?” He asks with confusion at your sudden statement.

“You wanna kiss me, I really want to kiss you, and you are giving me puppy eyes and I can’t take it anymore! So just kiss me before I regret saying that you could!” You blurted out and as soon as you knew it his hands were on your face, he was gently pushing you against the brick wall of the building, and diving in for the most intoxicating kiss you could have ever imagined. You might’ve forgotten what air was during that kiss, tongues moving with each other. Bodies moving closer to the other, deepening the kiss each second.

You were practically suffocating when he pulled away from you, but you didn’t care, you were in love.

“Holy hell,” You say, catching your breath, and leaning your head against the brick wall. You can feel his hands place themselves on your waist.

“I want more.” He says as he places his lips back on your neck.

“This is the farthest we can go without HR getting involved Chris.”

“Fuck HR baby, they don’t need to know” His words slowly turning you over to his side of the argument.

“Then we better take this back to my house…”

taglist: @pulisicsgirl@noeesd19​ @she-lives-in-her-dreams​ @jayrami3​ @brkic​ @girlmeetsposts @ruby4ever4 @lizzypotter14@neverinadream​ @kepamount​ @christian-pulisic​ @thoseboysinblue​ @breakablehcaven​ @julianalvarez9@femgawd

just comment to be added to the taglist!

[contemplatingoutlander]

As The New Republic reports, “Alito is complaining that people who oppose homosexuality were being unfairly branded as bigots, despite that being a dictionary definition of bigotry.” On Tuesday, agreeing the Court should not take a case, Alito wrote he is “concerned” that a lower court’s reasoning “may spread.” He notes that the lower court “reasoned that a person who still holds traditional religious views on questions of sexual morality is presumptively unfit to serve on a jury in a case involving a party who is a lesbian.” In that case, several jurors who acknowledged they held anti-LGBTQ views were released from serving on the trial. “That holding exemplifies the danger that I anticipated in 'Obergefell v. Hodges' … namely, that Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homosexual conduct will be ‘labeled as bigots and treated as such’ by the government.'” Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern writes, “Alito suggests that a trial court violates the free exercise and equal protection clauses when it allows an attorney who represents a gay client to strike potential jurors because they express overt bigotry against gay people.” [...] Attorney Max Kennerly posits, “If we followed Alito’s reasoning that religious beliefs can never serve as a basis to strike a juror, we’d instantly run into a collision with jurors who believe, on religious grounds, the death penalty is wrong. Any guesses how Alito would rule on that? Yeah, exactly.”

Why the condemnation of homosexual behavior by some (NOT all) religious conservatives might legitimately raise questions of bigotry

It seems to me that Alito is acting as if "traditional religious views" about homosexuality are uniform.

Alito doesn't seem to acknowledge (or perhaps is not fully aware) that there are some interpretations of scripture that do not support the condemnation of homosexual behavior or even of same-sex unions. In fact there are some mainstream Christian denominations that allow for blessings of same-sex couples (including recently the very "traditional" Roman Catholic Church). Furthermore, Reconstructionist, Reform and Conservative Jewish sects also allow the blessing of same-sex unions.

Given all of the above, one might reasonably wonder why some (not all) conservative Christians or Jews seem to prefer to accept anti-LGBTQ+ translations/ interpretations of scripture, when other translations/ interpretations that are more sympathetic to homosexual behavior are available.

Of course the primary group of religious people in the U.S. that condemns homosexual behavior consists of some (not all) right-wing "Christians" from various denominations. But one also might wonder why these same right-wing "Christians" DON'T seem to want to pass laws banning divorce, adultery, usury, lying, etc., but they DO want to pass anti-LGBTQ+ legislation? After all, behaviors like divorce, adultery, usury, and lying are clearly condemned in various parts of the Bible.

One might also ask, why do some of these same right-wing "Christians" who think it is okay to condemn the LGBTQ+ community, not also condemn a prominent politician like Trump, who has been divorced multiple times, committed adultery multiple times, and who lies almost every time he opens his mouth?

It is the picking and choosing of what to condemn, and the hyperfocus on using the law to allow those with certain "religious views" to deny the rights of the LGBTQ+ community (while not choosing to deny the rights of other kinds of so-called "sinners"--NOT that I support that either) that suggests it might be legitimate to question whether some on the religious right use religion as an excuse to hold bigoted beliefs about and/or to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.

[edited]

[devizakura]

PENNYLOUVERSE - CANON EVENTS AND FANON CONSEQUENCES

I've realized that some people who like my Pennylou comics may not have watched the show and as such, some blanks normally filled in by canon might escape them.

As such, here's a list of canon events you might want to know (in black) and headcanoned continuations/consequences of said events (in red) as a lot of them are left uncertain for now. BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Exterminations:

a special group of angels called “exorcists” (sometimes “exterminators”) descend to Hell once a year to kill sinners with angelic weapons (the only type of weapon able to kill permanently - when killed by other means, sinners just regenerate/respawn) to prevent overpopulation and a potential uprising.

As we later find out, until the trial in episode 6 where Charlie, the princess of Hell, tries to present the case that sinners can be redeemed, only the exorcists (including Adam - the first man - and Lute at the top of their hierarchy) and Sera, the High Seraph (currently the highest rank in Heaven’s hierarchy that we know of - Lucifer could've been above them going by Christian lore but seeing as Hazbin lore differs in some ways, we don't really know for now) know of the exterminations. Sera is very insistent on keeping it that way as to not disturb the peace in Heaven.

After the truth comes out during that trial, many other angels, including Emily, learn of the exterminations. Emily is horrified, while other angels’ opinions seem to be split.

In my timeline, all the angels present at the trial have sworn under oath to keep the information confidential. However, that doesn’t stop rumors from spreading within some circles, especially after Adam seemingly disappears (having been killed in the battle for the Hotel) and Lute comes back lacking an arm. These rumors don’t reach Betty since she prefers to keep to her own and not stick her nose into matters that don’t concern her unless she can directly help someone, so she remains rather oblivious until told directly by Pentious who's lived through it.

Pentious as the first redeemed soul:

During the last extermination in which Adam's legion targets the hotel specifically, Pentious dies protecting it. Normally, this would result in a perma-death (and as such everyone who knew him believes he is in fact gone for good), but for reasons currently quite unknown, he ascends to Heaven instead.

In the Pennylou timeline, after Pentious arrives to Heaven in front of Sera and Emily, he is assigned a place to stay and allowed to roam free (under some degree of supervision for at least the first few weeks) but is advised not to reveal to the public that sinners can be redeemed as Sera feels the need to assess the situation first. For the same reason, he is not allowed to contact anyone in Hell to let them know redemption works until it is deemed safe to do so.

The "ex":

Back in Hell, Sir Pentious had a crush on Cherri Bomb, his archnemesis. They don’t end up together, but Sir Pentious does manage to confess his love and kiss her right before sacrificing himself.

While she does warm up to him by the end, in the Pennylou timeline (and true to Cherri’s character), she moves on rather quickly as they were never really together and she quite literally saw him die. Pentious, however, still misses her for quite some time. This gives Betty the wrongful impression that there was at least a bit more between them and she refers to Cherri as his “ex” rather than a crush.

What Pentious told Betty about after “Off my chest”:

The exterminations and how he died a second time

The hotel and redeeming sinners, as well as the friendships he’s made and how he misses Cherri and his Egg Boiz

He does not disclose much about his life before the hotel until much later if at all, as he doesn't feel particularly proud of his past.

[just-jae]

Hazbin Hoetl 5-6

Spoiler warning!

Not gonna lie, at first I was cringing a bit at Lucifer. I was expecting him the have, like, grace and baddie energy. but he's talking to himself pretending to show off rubber ducks to a crowd.

And of all the potential dynamics he and Al could have had, competing father figures was NOT on my mind at all dude. Al? Dad?

But, I watched these last two episodes a couple (okay maybe several) times over and, it's really growing on me. It was definitely the predeveloped impressions getting in the way of really enjoying these characters. Even the irks I had about Alastor aren't really irks anymore, especially with "Dad beat Dad having much better animation and a banger number for Al (seriously wtf he's horrific in this episode)--

"Could you butt out of my song?"

"Your song? I started this!"

"I'm singing it, I'll finish it!"

Before, I was seeing it as how well they pull off my (and arguably the long simmering fandom's) idea of these characters instead of how well the characters as they actually are are told. So many people thought this show would be a super serious deep dive on Christianity and commentary on religion itself. But at this point, it really feels like Heavan and Hell are metaphores. They focus a lot more on personal issues like relationships, coping mechanisms, flaws like nievety, displaced senses of self worth, etc.

Charlie's idea of what "gets people into heaven" is naive and brochure-like. Adam gave a literal list of three items that seemed overly simplistic (and turned out to be wrong).

But at least they had some idea about it. The higher angels themselves had no clue whatsoever, their only concern was preserving the status quo. And even when things are called to question they fall back to old ways just bc they're scared to change anything. Sera didn't have any malice toward Hell, she just doesn't want to make things worse, having Angels fall, have Hell attack Earth or Heaven, have more evil spread, by changing things.

Getting a better idea of what all of this is about makes it so much easier to appreciate things I initially was put off by. It just has a context that it fits into now.

Lucifer being this disillusioned depressed dork with "yeaaaah, No." energy fits into what we've seen of heavenly culture (uncanny innocence, annoying teen pop-culture energy, being perfectionist yet blind to their own flaws)

And The "Hell's Great Dad" song really broke the ice, especially when Mimzy busted in singing ITS MEEEEEEE-- like

Love her. I wasn't expecting to see Mimzy AT ALL since she was removed from the main cast. And after seeing people talk about her and how they were wondering about her, it definitely felt like popping in the way she did was a response to that. Even I was wondering bc you don't just drop a former love interest for a character like Alastor, but still have them show up in the pilot-- I wanted to see Mimzy lol.

like literally:

"It's MEEE, It's MEEE,

I know you were all waiting for MEEEE!

I'm Here, what a GAAAS,

Took a while but I'm here at LAAST"

Like, im sorry but I felt like she was pointing at me personally, not the other characters, and that was hilarious.

It's so random but doesn't feel out of place at all somehow. The tensions were already super high, so a random screaming woman busting in with even higher energy is like-- wtf?? :'D??

She was a blast the entire time tho, and actually tied into the reoccurring theme of only reaching out to someone so they can do something for you.

It also definitely pinched a side of Alastor, irritating that he does apparently NEED to be there, there's some obligation he actually has to the hotel, or at the very least some stakes to not holding things together, not bc he defended the hotel but bc he specifically says "I can't have that here" , he also doesn't refute the claims Mimzy makes about him. Al clearly adores her and isn't surprised by her antics at all yet still tells her to leave. With the mention of Alastor's "leash" in the same episode BC of Mimzy was just such a great way to use her character. A fun entrance, thematic relevance, and a great plot device to reveal more about Alastor's situation and motives.

Like I said, at first the food tasted cold. I was thinking to myself "Eh, nothing really that crazy ig" but the more I watch the episodes and get over whatever my expectations were, the more I enjoy what's there.

Like, at first I was thinking, "Oh no Lucy's another akward dork, a normie, a loooooserr" (not that being an akward dork or a normie is bad but those were the vibes I was giving off, I'm sorry)

But I keep watching "Hell's Greatest Dad" and NOW it's like

LOOK AT HIM< LOOK AT HIM GO

Like, he's fugghing adorable with the "WAP BAP BOOM"

the puppets and the circus imagery, and just the innocent unmalicious enthusiasm. He's stumbling around over barely knowing his daughter and is now sprinting to make up for being so absent-- and even that absence is implied to be due to chronic depression and pining, missing heaven and having to live in hell forever, not only being the one who supposedly created it by accident, but tried and failed to fix it, even having his own theme park ripped off by a deadly Sin. The show calls it out bluntly, but despite his cheery tone and, yeaaah, no, yeaaah, no" attitude, they did a great job showing that his depression manifested in detachment and disinterest. It sucks for the people it effects but it also sucks to be the one who dropped the ropes in your relationships.

So seeing him brjghtenup and glow over just helping his Charlie put her hotel together was great. He feels useful and wanted again. And imo it's a double edge sword as well if Lucy feels like he has to be useful to be a decent dad.

So, idk. I guess I do want to see how he handles trying to be in Charlie's life again, especially since, at this point Alastor knows and has supported her more than he ever has-- despite the rough beginning and the mockery. (Also Lilith's face being faded out was sus af)

I'm convinced that in Al's case it's definitely not from a genuine place, at least, we still have no reason to believe it is. He was glaring at Lucy as soon as he walked in, and the nearly every comment on how great his relationship with Charlie is was also a jab to piss off Lucy instead of a genuine expression.

A performance, in short.

Still, the fact that someone who's only just met Charlie has a better relationship with her than her father has got to suck to realize if you're the father.

Also-- the scene at the club-- I was pretty mixed about it, like, doing drugs, itself isn't bad-- it can be unhealthy and it can put others at risk if you're resigning your cognizance and self control for the sake of coping with stress-- so it can very easily enable bad things, especially if you become addicted, so,imo is pretty wreckless and definitely a vice. But it doesn't make you a bad person.

But then again angels also seem to think premarital sex and promiscuity is bad too. (Promiscuity puts you at risk for disease, and like drugs can be driven by vices, but, again, the thing itself isn't bad and can still be a healthy practice when it comes from a healthy place)

I'm genuinely proud of Angel for actually growing though, seeing him take care of Nifty and protect her from Val got me on the "Fuck em up" energy. It's always great to see a group of friends watching out for eachother when they know there's a danger to what they're doing-- ESPECIALLY when one of them is new to it all. That's why if you ARE going to do drugs or drink or whatever, definitely don't do it alone or without someone you trust with your safety.

And also never feel like you have to do those things to maintain relationships, some people feel like it would be an insult to imply they dont trust someone or just for being disinterested in their offer. And, frankly there are people who will prey on that.

That was just a great scene. It had some flaws, but was still great.

Also--

PENTIOUS

I HATE

BROTHERMAN MADE ALL THE MISTAKES.

"Bc I'M HAVING SEX WITH EVERY--"

THATS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY YOU FUCK

Also, not gonna lie but Sera's got me like

Its been a while since I've been down bad for a femenine character.

She is beauty, she is grace~

[peachyygoblin]

Isaac and Flower ramble!!💐✒️

Isaac and Flowers' similarities , and why they would make a good dynamic for more interaction because I love them ARGHHH !! 🌼🦅

Flower and Isaac are similar in ways many would not see at first eye, which is what sets them up to be viewed as an unlikely duo, until these reasons as to why they are the same would come into light!

For one: they both struggle with intimacy. Isaac with more physical and Flower with more emotional, although they both struggle with the other aspect too. This is something we have seen them tackle on their own without ever seeming to realise they are both similar in that way!!

I feel that once they understand that they are alike in this way, they may become closer and try to help each other out, especially considering their boyfriends are friends too! While Thor and Nigel watch ants, an unlikely friendship could be found with Flower as they could both talk about their respective partners and what its like to be in a relationship after many years of being caught up feeling the shared guilt or loss that they have both experienced in their last relationships in life! They both hold these complex feelings with love and how they emotionally regulate these feelings! Being similar in this way despite being hundreds of years apart could be something the both of them could share talking about together🌼🦅!!

Second Point: They have both been viewed as strange/socially outcasted in their life/death!! ARGH this is something I'm passionate about the both of them! Through Flowers life after she subjected to her more hippie life and no longer subjected to what was viewed as ''socially acceptable'' , the was viewed as being strange or off-putting in a way that she never fully understood, especially considering the only thing she wanted to do was to spread peace, love and music, PLUS she is thought to have been raised in an extremely strict/religious household as according to Sheilas' views on her, so this being considered into the fact that she derived from the pressures she faced from not only her family but also outside factors such as the general views of the time perfectly align with Isaacs also!! Isaac while alive had his curly hair and odd clothing which never had seem to fit in entirely with the fashions at the time, Which is why he straightened his hair to try and 'fit in with the cool kids' as BSJ once describes (Which, again, is something Flower did when she went by as Susan, straightening her hair to fit in with the high societal standards for her at the time) shows perfectly how he was also viewed as odd, but those are only physical aspects, Isaac never seemed to say anything right and was awkward socially, making him seem odd and off-putting in the same way that Flower would have been viewed as in her time!! We see it more with the Flower we know today also, where she blurts out and interrupts and says things of concern, whereas Isaac is more reserved, due to his era where the only thing he knew was to bury his true self and his feelings, something which Flower used to do until after she would have left the cult, but still not fully allowing herself to show weakness and vulnerability in the same way which Isaac does!!

This shared oddness which they both have is once again another way in which Isaac and Flower could see that they are more alike than once thought, especially considering that they *BOTH!!!* would have been brought up religiously (most likely Christian) and how that affected them and what was expected of them, even more so because they are both queer characters and what that part of their identity means to them. Isaacs mother was nosy, most likely questioning and wondering her son constantly, while Flower was in a strict household where once again, she could not be herself!! Its very likely she only went to law school to please her parents and their high expectations which they had of her. We know she never truly cared for it, as she constantly skipped classes to hang out with her partner, even though we know she was smart and capable enough to get into the school.

This expectation of pleasing and living up to parental expectations can once again be linked to Isaac and his expectations to marry for wealth or closing a deal, many marriages in his era were not for love, but rather for economy or business, its probable that his marriage with Beatrice was arranged, as they slept in separate rooms and beds, while he was lucky to have found a friend in Beatrice, it sill most likely would have been a marriage to please Isaacs' parents and their expectations of him to marry well to maintain a good reputation in his family, similar to Flower to maintain a good reputation of her household name too by going to law school!! Something which still was viewed as odd for women at the time, as they were still expected to be housewives or a mother tending to her children, but if she *was* to still subvert and be odd, may as well have her job be something respectable, right? 🌼🦅

Another smaller point: they both have a deeper caring and love for things which they do not show as often. This is due to all the years they both have had to suppress actual feelings in trade of being viewed as 'the perfect child', or societally acceptable, So when we see them both serious, we understand how much they truly care for the things which are important to them!!! If Isaac and Flower interacted more, we could truly get to see this shared dynamic in which they understand each other deeply, the way they changed themself, the way they both had crippling pressure applied to the both of them to be viewed as perfect, yet never truly achieving it due to the fact that no matter how hard they both tried, people found them weird or strange, another mini note, both of these characters seem to be written very neurodivergent coded, they both struggle with societal situations, have a hard time with tone and sarcasm, both stim a lot physically and have a strong sense of justice amongst many other things, i think it would be wonderful if they both actually were and it could be another thing that they could share in common, an understanding between the two that they are both different and that is a wonderful and beautiful thing to share, to be weird and for that to be and incredible thing, as it makes them, well, *them*! Maybe this is me reading into it too hard because I myself am ND but oh well teehee, I think that Isaac and Flower are more alike than what most people think, and for them to interact more and have that shared experience interacting together could be a wonderful thing to see on screen!! like hello they would be so silly together

BUT YEAH!! that was my long thread about Isaac and Flower and why they are so similar, there's bound to be more, but these points were the only things I could think about at the top of my head, thank you for reading all of this if you actually did!! I think that they're neat you guys I love them a lot🌼🦅💕

[subzeromoron]

Tatsumayo fic: Locks (Between My Fingertips)

General audiences, fluff, mentions of Christianity (Tatsumi)

~1.3k words

Summary:

"Would you like me to dry your hair?" Tatsumi suddenly offers. He himself is surprised at the words.

"N-no, I am capable of doing it myself-! I don’t want to get my filth on you!"

Tatsumi lets out another awkward chuckle, his brow wrinkling. "Mayoi-san, I want to." He truly does, he realizes. Mayoi's hair is very silky and smooth, it's evident that he takes good care of it.

"I, um..." Mayoi fidgets with more fervor now. "I g-guess you may..."

--

Tatsumi stops by Mayoi's dorm to try to ease him into interacting with him.

You can it read below the cut or on ao3 !!

Tatsumi had always found Mayoi to be a gorgeous person, even when he had merely caught slight glimpses of his face. But as he got the opportunity to interact with him more, he started to notice less obvious things, such as the way his cheekbones flush a wonderfully rosy pink as he denies a compliment he thinks he doesn't deserve and the way his face lights up around his juniors.

It was endearing, really. Tatsumi had grown up being taught that every living being was fearfully and wonderfully made, and Mayoi's unfortunate inferiority complex was a chance to spread this teaching. However, it was proving difficult to get him to believe it despite the constant flow of reassurances made towards him. Mayoi remains skittish, even now.

Mayoi refuses to accept compliments and sees himself as an unholy creature. Tatsumi wants to fix this, which means that he must devote time to spend with him. Not that he minds at all. Part of him is desperate to be around Mayoi, for reasons he can't quite place.

The perfect situation has arisen, though, after the members of ALKALOID were moved to separate dorms: Mayoi's roommate, Tomoya Mashiro was out for some event that Ra*bits was performing at. This allows Tatsumi to interact with Mayoi outside of practice while not disturbing his peers (though Mayoi has mentioned a lack of interaction with his roommate, it seems to Tatsumi that the both of them are too awkward to try to work things out.)

The only problem is that Mayoi did not know that Tatsumi plans to visit. This becomes evident when he knocks on the door, earning a high-pitched yelp of surprise from inside the dorm. Tatsumi lets out a concerned laugh, then speaks. "Mayoi-san? It's just me, Tatsumi," he reassures softly, yet with enough volume to be heard. "May I come in?"

After several drawn-out seconds of fumbling on the inside, a very disheveled-looking Mayoi peeks through the crack of the door with wide, questioning eyes. His long, damp hair was hastily tied in a messy bun. The little locks of hair dripped water on his dark grey v-neck, indicating that Tatsumi had most likely walked in while Mayoi was drying off. Mayoi's sputtering draws Tatsumi out of his train of thought. "T-Tatsumi-san! I am so sorry for appearing so indecent, I-"

"No need to worry about it, you are not indecent." Tatsumi offers him a warm smile.

Mayoi opens the door, then takes a few hesitant steps back to allow Tatsumi to enter the dorm after removing his shoes. He mumbles a few incoherent things before looking back at Tatsumi, then shrinks away from the eye contact he had accidentally made.

"Would you like me to dry your hair?" Tatsumi suddenly offers. He himself is surprised at the words.

"N-no, I am capable of doing it myself-! I don’t want to get my filth on you!"

Tatsumi lets out another awkward chuckle, his brow wrinkling. "Mayoi-san, I want to." He truly does, he realizes. Mayoi's hair is very silky and smooth, it's evident that he takes good care of it.

"I, um..." Mayoi fidgets with more fervor now. "I g-guess you may..."

Tatsumi smiles, placing his hand on the small of Mayoi's back, and guides him to his bed. Mayoi's bed was made neatly, and the red and gold embroidered blanket draped smoothly over the mattress. "I know where the hair dryer is kept, please sit down." Mayoi offers him a hesitant nod before watching tatsumi walk off.

All the Seishou Hall dorms were structured similarly, and Tatsumi assumed that the hairdryer in this dorm would have been stored in the same place as it was in his own dorm that he shared with Koga Ogami. He was correct, fortunately. He pulls the hair dryer out of the drawer, the cord neatly coiled about the handle.

Tatsumi finds Mayoi still perched on the bed, perking up upon seeing Tatsumi. After plugging the cord into the outlet, he kneels on the bed behind Mayoi and unclips his bun, allowing the damp hair to cascade down his back. Tatsumi then turns the dryer on warm so that he won't burn Mayoi's scalp or ears.

Mayoi relaxes into the warm air, letting out an audible sigh of euphoria. Tatsumi gently threads his fingers through his hair, which causes a slight jolt from Mayoi accompanied by a soft whimper. "Relax, Mayoi-san, you know I don't intend to harm you."

"S-sorry."

After Mayoi's body relaxes again, Tatsumi resumes gently combing out his hair with his fingers, separating out thin layers to dry it more efficiently.

Tatsumi turns the hair dryer off after gently finishing the roots. He notices the sleek deep gray ribbon on the nightstand, prompting him to ask about it. 

“I assume you would braid your hair to protect it from breaking, yes?”

“Yes, and to keep it out of my face,” Mayoi replies softly. “Is there a reason you asked?” He looks back at Tatsumi, still visibly nervous. The angle accentuates the mole under his lower lip. Tatsumi wonders how Mayoi might react to it being touched. He flushes as he realizes that he ought not to be having these kinds of thoughts.

“Well, I was curious,” Tatsumi chuckles, reaching for the ribbon. “Would you allow me to try it?”

“I think it’s fine if you do…” The hesitation in Mayoi’s voice is subtle, but Tatsumi doesn’t comment on it. He figures that Mayoi is still adjusting to the sensation of being touched. This will be good for him.

Tatsumi begins to detangle Mayoi’s hair, and now that it’s dry, he can feel just how soft and healthy it is. He separates it into 3 sections and then begins to intertwine them through his fingers. Mayoi’s eyes flutter shut as he does so, seemingly finding comfort in the sensation. Tatsumi can’t stop the smile that tugs at the corners of his mouth upon noticing this.

Tatsumi then finishes the braid, which is loose but still neat. He secures it with the ribbon tied in a little bow, then pats Mayoi’s shoulders to signal that he’s done.

Mayoi turns to face him. “T-thank you, Tatsumi-san.” Mayoi’s slender fingers trace the braid, letting it fall over his right shoulder. His eyes sparkle slightly with a sense of flusteredness.

“It’s no problem, I enjoyed spending time with you.” Tatsumi rises to his feet. “Well, it’s getting late, so I ought to let you rest.” He begins to walk away.

But Mayoi grabs his hand. He pulls Tatsumi a little closer, then suddenly presses a hasty and brief peck to his lips. Upon realizing what he’s done, Mayoi nearly trips as he shuffles backward, letting out some incoherent apologies that Tatsumi isn’t processing due to his shock.

“I’m sorry! You must hate me, this goes against your religion, doesn’t it?! Aah, I’m such a horrid, filthy bug!”

“I-It’s quite alright…I’m not upset,” Tatsumi stammers. He doesn’t know what to do. He’d grown up being taught that such an act would be a sin, but he didn’t feel upset. In fact, Tatsumi quite liked it.

But this didn’t mean Mayoi was any less distraught. He takes his hands, his thumbs gently gliding over the back of them. Mayoi gives him a wide-eyed stare.  “I’m not angry,” he reassures. “Listen to me, okay?” Tatsumi’s tone is soft and comforting. “While I need some time to process, I’m not outright rejecting you. I do not think God would want his followers to reject anyone because they are different.”

“Okay,” Mayoi replies breathily. He’s no longer trembling, which gladdens Tatsumi.

“And I would love to do this again. I find comfort in taking care of you.”

Mayoi blushes more than he already was. Tatsumi loves seeing this, the color brilliantly compliments Mayoi’s eye color. It makes him look delicate.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at practice.” An impulsive kiss is pressed to Mayoi’s forehead, which causes another bout of sputtering to erupt behind Tatsumi as he departs with a smile.

[partisan-by-default]

White supremacist movements are rising worldwide, and they come with heightened bigotry against many groups. While full of hatred, white supremacy also thrives on fear about birth rates of white people and the weakening or “pollution” of the white race. This concern is one reason that white supremacy isn’t just about race, it also manifests itself through bigotry against gay and trans people who are cast as sexual deviants polluting the white race and eschewing their duty to continue natural white reproduction.

This narrative fuels the “great replacement” theory, which is a conspiracy that Jewish people are trying to lower the birth rate of white people so Black and other nonwhite groups can take over and usher in the extinction of the white race. While this may seem convoluted to those of us who aren’t bigoted transphobes, linking antisemitism and transphobia unfortunately makes perfect sense to those who are.

At its core, transphobia is a conspiracy theory—and so is antisemitism. Both Jews and trans people make up a miniscule number of the population but constitute an outsized threat in the minds of white Christians. Non-Jewish white people are convinced Jews are making white people trans to lower the white birth rate. Obviously, we know trans people can easily have children, but transphobes and antisemites aren’t big on accurate science.

Those who know very little about the process of gender reassignment, or trans people in general, connect taking hormones and gender reassignment surgery to preventing trans people from reproducing. These people claim Jewish doctors are pushing “gender ideology” as a plot by the ​​“transgender-industrial complex” to encourage white people to be trans and lower the white birth rate. Antisemitic flyers blaming six Jewish individuals for the “rise in transgenderism” have been distributed in Atlanta. Elon Musk is so concerned with birth rates and a supposed population crisis that he reportedly donated $10 million to fertility research and links his concerns about fertility to other far right causes, like eradicating abortion care and transphobia. Musk has also been accused of allowing antisemitism to spread on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and for sharing antisemitic posts himself.

[konmarkimageswords]

Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was the kind of science-fiction writer who is read and praised by people who don’t like science fiction. His fame moved beyond the genre’s ghetto after some of his novels and short stories were turned into movies—Blade Runner (1982),  Minority Report (2002), and A Scanner Darkly (2006), to name a few. He is sometimes compared to Jorge Luis Borges, one of the finest short-story writers, and his work has influenced many authors (genre-bending Jonathan Lethem, for example) and filmmakers (the Wachowski brothers, directors of The Matrix).

Just as critics dub certain writers’ visions of the world “Orwellian” or “Kafkaesque,” some now use the awkward term “Dickian.” Dick’s paranoid vision is a unique, sad, funny, and—in its strange and sometimes very moving manner—even ennobling way to think about what we are meant to be as humans. In his later work, Dick’s outlook became deeply, even explicitly, informed by a Gnostic sense of the struggle to be fully human. Ancient Gnosticism was, among other things, concerned with the dilemma of humanity trapped in delusion, imprisoned in a world ruled by malign and unseen forces—a recurrent theme in Dick’s work.

What does science fiction have to say about human nature? For many serious readers, this is GeekCity, a corner of genre fiction inhabited by sad and lonely people who go to Star Trek conventions and collect action figures. The science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon is credited with what has entered the wider critical discourse as “Sturgeon’s Law.” When it was said of science fiction that “90 percent of it is crap,” his answer was, “90 percent of everything is crap.” Who can disagree? Serious science-fiction criticism finds examples of imagined alternatives that illuminate our own world in Plato’s description of Atlantis in the Timaeus, in his vision of an ideal society in The Republic, and in Thomas More’s imaginary society in Utopia. Some writers prefer another name for the genre, “speculative fiction,” since much science fiction has little to do with science. Whatever term you choose, the best examples show that one way to see our situation clearly is to imagine another, very different one. This can be done by placing a story in the remote past, an alternative present, or a near or far future. Philip K. Dick was the writer who did it best.

The animating idea behind Dick’s fiction—hardly original in itself—is that things are not as they seem. This is, of course, a major part of any religious insight—and as an Episcopalian, Dick understood this. Walker Percy’s essay “The Message in the Bottle,” for example, describes an island (this could be the beginning of a sci-fi plot) where everything is pleasant. Life seems good for all its inhabitants; then someone walking along a beach finds a bottle with the message, “Don’t despair, help is on the way.” This is what the Christian gospel says to a complacent, obtuse world, and it is not unlike one of Dick’s plots. In many of his stories, as in Gnostic theology, the world is depicted as not merely asleep, but deliberately deceived. Any remedy or salvation will therefore have to include a battle against powers that not only seem insane, but are evil. Overcoming the ruse requires special insight or special revelation that is shared by only a few.

This theme of widespread deception is woven throughout several of his plots. In The Simulacra (1964), the U.S. president is an android, but the citizenry has no idea. In The Penultimate Truth (1964), World War III starts with a fight between two superpowers. The battle begins on Mars, spreads to Earth, and is fought by robots. Humans are forced to live and work underground in huge shelters. The war ends, but the people are told that the battle rages above them on an uninhabitable surface. Meanwhile, the authorities continue to generate false war stories while they themselves live a bucolic life on the earth above. In The Zap Gun (1967), two great superpowers are at peace, and citizens of both nations are reassured that they are secure because of their side’s superior arsenal—but the weapons are designed not to function. Weapon design is, in effect, a kind of conceptual art, although the fact that the weapons do not work is kept from the masses. This is what keeps the world truly disarmed. When aliens threaten the earth, the weapon designers have to come up with something that really functions. There is an implicit Gnosticism here: only a select few know what is going on; most of humanity is sleepwalking.

This isn’t a happy point of view, to be sure. Yet what’s missing from the film adaptations of Dick’s work (of which the best are Minority Report and the director’s cut of Blade Runner) is Dick’s humor. Even his darkest stories are laced with funny moments. Another quality missing in the movies is Dick’s enduring compassion for the sadness of ordinary, confused human existence. His stories usually take place in a future, or in an alternate reality, where paranoia reigns, where appearances cannot be trusted, where people may be androids—robots made to resemble humans—and androids may be whatever human beings are, where the world we are presented with is a lie.

Dick’s life was messy. (Lawrence Sutin has written a good biography, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, Carrol & Graf, 2005.) He was born inChicago in 1928 and died in 1982; his twin sister died in infancy. Dick’s parents moved toCalifornia and divorced. He lived with his mother until he matriculated at UC Berkeley for a short time, majoring in German. He was fascinated by German culture. After dropping out of college, he worked in a record store, and music plays an important part in much of his work. He was married and divorced five times, used drugs, was convinced at various points that the FBI was after him, feared for his sanity, and hoped for spiritual deliverance.

At the same time, Dick felt a keen loyalty to many friends, whose lives were often as complicated as his own. His novels are full of regular people with ordinary, often dull jobs; they struggle for decency, sometimes fail, sometimes succeed. There is always something sad, frustrating, and funny about their struggles, and I can’t think of another science-fiction writer who comes close to describing this sort of ordinary life with such compassion. The science-fiction novelist Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote that Dick’s characters reminded her of Dickens’s; sometimes you remember one and can’t place which novel he or she appears in, but the humanity remains vivid. Dick drew from his own life, sometimes quite directly, in writing his novels. A Scanner Darkly is about drug use—based in large part on his own experience—and it’s scary. It begins, “Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair.” It contains the only funny suicide scene I’ve ever read, and at the end of the novel Dick uncharacteristically explains what he has just written:

This is a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed—run over, maimed, destroyed—but they continued to play anyhow…. Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error, a lifestyle. In this particular lifestyle the motto is “Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,” but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory. It is, then, only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence. It is not different from your lifestyle, it is only faster.

Before movies made him known beyond science-fiction circles, Dick’s best-known work was The Man in the High Castle. It won the Hugo award (science fiction’s highest) in 1962. It describes an alternative 1962 America, in which the Nazis and the Japanese won World War II. There are some nicely imagined touches (Americans forge Wild West artifacts to sell to wealthy Japanese collectors; Germans fly rapidly around the world not in jets, but in passenger rockets), but at the center of the novel is a search for the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, an alternative-world tale in which Germany and Japan were defeated. This alternative world is not the one we know, the one that really followed from the defeat of Hitler; and finally, it is suggested that the world the protagonists live in isn’t real either. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese text, figures in the book’s plot, and Dick apparently used its chance-based methods of divination in composing the story. Although Dick never alluded to it, this sense of not being able to know what reality really is reminded me of the Taoist sage Chuang Tsu’s dream that he was a butterfly: it wasn’t clear to him whether he was Chuang Tsu dreaming that he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang Tsu.

In 1978, Dick delivered a lecture, “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.” In it, he said: “The two basic topics that fascinate me are ‘What is reality?’ and ‘What constitutes the authentic human being?’” This fascination went back to his first published story, “Roog,” which “had to do with a dog who imagined that the garbage men who came every Friday morning were stealing valuable food that the family had carefully stored away in a safe metal container. Every day, members of the family carried out paper sacks of nice ripe food, stuffed them into the metal container, shut the lid tightly—and when the container was full, these dreadful-looking creatures came and stole everything but the can… [T]he dog’s extrapolation was in a sense logical, given the facts at his disposal.”

Dick’s approach was not always so light. In an angry short story about abortion, “The Pre-Persons,” he wrote of a future in which the courts had decided that a person was a real human being only when capable of doing algebra. Children not yet old enough to grasp algebraic concepts lived in dread of extermination trucks that could come and take them away. Dick’s antiabortion stance led the feminist science-fiction writer Joanna Russ to send Dick a letter, “the nastiest letter I’ve ever received.” Although he later apologized for any hurt feelings, he said, “for the pre-persons’ sake, I am not sorry.”

If Dick’s early work sometimes had an implicitly Gnostic aspect, that quality became more explicit in his later writing. In 1974, Dick, recovering from minor surgery, answered his door for a delivery of painkillers. The young woman delivering the medication was wearing a fish pendant, and when he asked what it was, she told him that it was a sign worn by the early Christians. In “How to Build a Universe,” he writes,

I suddenly experienced what I later learned is called anamnesis—a Greek word meaning, literally, “loss of forgetfulness.” I remembered who I was and where I was. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, it all came back to me. And not only could I remember it but I could see it. The girl was a secret Christian and so was I. We lived in fear of detection by the Romans. We had to communicate with secret signs. She had just told me all this, and it was true.

For a short time, as hard as this is to believe or explain, I saw fading into view the black, prison-like contours of hatefulRome. But, of much more importance, I remembered Jesus, who had just recently been with us, and had gone temporarily away, and would very soon return. My emotion was one of joy. We were secretly preparing to welcome him back. It would not be long. And the Romans did not know. They thought he was dead, forever dead. That was our great secret, our joyous knowledge. Despite all appearances, Christ was going to return, and our delight and anticipation was boundless.

Dick was never entirely clear about what that experience meant. But he was convinced that something of great significance had happened to him, and wrote at length about his encounters with what he called “the cosmic Christ” in a free-form journal called “The Exegesis,” in which he understood Christ as part of a continuity which included Ikhnaton, Zoroaster, and Hephaestus. This syncretism is typical of Gnosticism. Dick’s efforts to explain what all this meant are less interesting than the work that came from the experience, his final three novels.

Dick’s visions and dreams coalesced in the VALIS trilogy—VALIS being an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, or God (of a sort). The most tangled, complicated, and autobiographical is the first, VALIS (1981). It is the least successful of the three, but worth reading because of its seriousness and its painful closeness to Dick’s own life. The plot of VALIS contains not only autobiographical fragments, but a movie with a secret meaning and a rock-star couple whose daughter, Sophia, is thought by some to be the returned Savior. The novel wrestles with the first question that haunted Dick—“What is reality?”—and it suggests one good answer, based on a real incident in Dick’s life. When a student asked him during a lecture for a simple definition of reality, he answered, “Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, it doesn’t go away.” Toward the end of the book Dick writes, “I lack Kevin’s faith and Fat’s madness…. I don’t know what to think. Maybe I am not required to think anything, or to have faith, or to have madness; maybe all that I need to do—all that is asked of me—is to wait. To wait and to stay awake.”

The second book of the trilogy, The Divine Invasion (1981), tells of an exiled or absent God—another Gnostic theme—trying to return to earth, which has been held captive by Belial, a fallen angel, since the fall of Masada. The novel involves a virgin birth, which perplexes the Catholic woman who is pregnant with a divine child. She says remotely, “Catholic doctrine, I never thought it would apply to me personally.” The child must struggle to awaken to his own identity. As in classic Gnostic teaching, a perverse power holds the world in its grasp, and it is represented by both the established church (the Christian-Islamic Church) and the imperial political establishment, whose members are uncomfortably but profitably allied. The Divine Invasion is an amazing story of parallel realities, redemption, and the war between good and evil, with a wonderful ending.

The final novel in the trilogy, the last Dick completed, is The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982). The author based Bishop Timothy Archer on Episcopalian Bishop James Pike, who went on an odd pilgrimage into the Judean desert with too little preparation and died of exposure. So does Timothy Archer, in search of the truth about Gnostic scroll fragments. Archer is a complicated character: brilliant and selfish, genuinely insightful and clueless. The novel is narrated by Archer’s daughter-in-law, Angel Archer. In Dick’s novels, the point of view frequently shifts from person to person; but here Angel is the sole narrator, and her voice carries the novel, which contains serious arguments about Gnosticism and a few genuinely funny and politically incorrect jokes.

In these and his other stories, Dick creates characters who struggle not only for salvation, for ultimate truths, but sometimes merely to be decent human beings—and the two struggles are really one. What reality is and what it means to be authentically human are intrinsically linked. Dick’s answers, such as they are, range randomly from new-age nonsense, through his own episodes of delusion and paranoia, to a Gnostic Christianity that contains more of the pain and compassion of real Christianity than most Gnostic visions. Many Gnostic writings advance an elitism that delights in being among the chosen in whom the divine light resides. Dick saw glimmers of the shattered divine light in many confused and struggling people, and he found something of cosmic significance there, both in the light and in the struggle. His finest novel, The Divine Invasion, for example, ends with the fall of Belial, the angelic dark force that held the good God at bay. Belial “lay broken everywhere, vast and lovely and destroyed. In pieces, like damaged light.”

“This is how he was once,” Linda said. “Originally. Before he fell. This was his original shape. We called him the Moth. The Moth that fell slowly, over thousands of years, intersecting the earth, like a geometrical shape descending stage by stage until nothing remained of its shape.”

Herb Asher said, “He was very beautiful.”

“He was the morning star,” Linda said. “The brightest star in the heavens. And now nothing remains of him but this….”

“Will he ever be as he once was?” Herb Asher said.

“Perhaps,” she said. “Perhaps we all may be.” And then she sang for Herb Asher one of the Dowland songs…. The most tender, the most haunting song that she had adapted from John Dowland’s lute books:

When the poor cripple by the pool did lie Full many years in misery and pain, No sooner he on Christ had set his eye, But he was well, and comfort came again.

Philip K. Dick’s fiction—perhaps because most of it was written in a genre known for conceptual risk-taking—dealt in an unembarrassed way with questions involving the ultimate meaning of our lives in a tone that was compassionate, often funny, and at some unexpected moments very moving.

[barbaramoorersm]

July 28, 2024

July 28,2024

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Book of Kings 4: 42-44

In this text, we are reminded of the multiplication of the loaves and fish story in today’s Gospel.

Psalm 145

We are promised food in “due season.”

Ephesians 4: 1-6

The author encourages us how to live the Christian life.

John 6: 1-15

John shares an account of the multiplication of the loaves and fish.

All four Gospels share a version of this miracle and the feeding of thousands of men, women and my guess is children.  This fact tells us of the importance and acceptance of this powerful story.

There are characteristics in all four Gospels that are similar.  Jesus seems to want to get away and it may be as John tells, that the feast of the Passover is near and many are coming to Jesus.  You remember that food is a central part of the feast of Passover celebrations.

All four Gospels show a concern for the thousands of folks gathering and the disciples’ concerns for their heath and nourishment.  Jesus, in John’s Gospel appears worried and is  asking,” Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”  The other three texts indicate his disciples were concerned for the crowd, and Jesus tells them to “Give them something to eat.”    He challenges them to work together to help solve a problem.

All four texts indicate that the only amount of food available or that was found is very small; five loaves and two fish.  Perhaps others hide the lunches they brought.  The authors also agree that thousands are present and after the miracle, there were twelves baskets of left overs.

Miracles of this nature are hard to find these days and some folks speculate that the miracle was the fact that the folks who brought food shared it.  Maybe they did but the text does not say this.  And who are we to deny the power that Jesus had?

What messages might be present in this story?  Jesus did not stop them from gathering around him.  He was open to their presence and to the disciple’s concerns for the welfare of the crowd.  I find it interesting that in all four Gospels, Jesus instructs folks to sit in smaller groups before they were fed.  Was he aware that even a large small group was better way to build some conversation in community?  They ate their fill but they must have been musing about the amount of food and the messages Jesus was sharing.  They also must have seen him “give thanks and bless’ the small amount of food and distribute it among the thousands.  The term Eucharist means to “give thanks.” This is what he did that day.  Note John tells us, “They had their fill.”  Jesus seems aware that the left overs could benefit others and they gathered twelve baskets. Is that number symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel?

Obviously, the early Church saw this event as a powerful miracle and John tells us that the crowd reacted and began to call him a prophet.  But there are other messages within these texts that speak to us these days. 

The dangerous work that volunteers do to produce meals for starving Gazans must seem like a miracle to them.  The generosity of Jesus is so obvious and his concern was for all, not just those who perhaps had more power in the crowd.

John’s 6th chapter also contains the story of Jesus’ familiar statement. “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” and he continues speaking about his coming gift of the Eucharist, his presence among us.  And let us not forget the power of a simple act of generosity can spread and help others.

What aspect of this story speaks to you about Jesus, as well as your concerns and hopes for the future?

[hewholivesinhisname]

The Bigger Problem

Trump and his movement is a pretty big problem. and I am pretty sure that Trump is responsible for the Coronavirus Pandemic.

-Trump was brought up in the military and may have been higher than Bush during the 9/11 incident.

-The Coronavirus happened under Trump showing that he at least did not stop it.

-Q is very Trump positive showing that Marika is secretly behind him.

-Trump is NOT dumb showing that he knew what had happened AT THE VERY LEAST

-Baron Trump looks like Princess Diana indicating that she is alive and hooked up with Trump.

-There are pictures of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein indicating he knew exactly what was happening there.

-The military under Trump DEFINITELY developed the vaccines and spread them to the corporations: RFK Jr: COVID Jabs Are Bioweapons Developed by U.S. Military (rumble.com)

-He maybe was behind AIDs too.... I mean someone was and it stands to reason that the people behind it would be in bed with each other and behind other viruses too.

-More importantly Trump appointed Dr.

-He also put anti-free speech measures in place.

-Most concerning of course is that he eliminated all of his political opposition. The Executed Khazarians & Illuminati (rumble.com)

-He created an entire organization to stifle free speech: HR VS MNC 60sec V2 (youtube.com)

-I'll just put this here too: Orange Man Indeed Bad: 100 Years of Trump - SOME MORE NEWS (youtube.com)

So, his role is controlled opposition. He's opposing Marika doing all the wrong things. Being overly nationalistic, militaristic, talking about god a lot. But of course he is none of these things. He is a rich lying predator.

I love Marika too much. This is her game, get someone to love her and then use emotions to blind them to the truth. A person has to be in control of their emotions and see things as they really are. She's responsible for all the problems and I should be going full boom-boom against her. a lot of trump supporters are too, but its hard to know what to do because because they are generally awful people in other ways. They are intolerant of women being anything except tradwives. They would be intolerant of any sort of weirdness whatsoever. If they had their way the white people might just go and genocide everyone else and then there would be a war to see who was "more white." and of course it would be Trump who decided and it would be anyone descended from Trump and no one else. What would happen if the dude died and he reincarnated into an "impure" bloodline I have no idea. They would be too dumb to figure out its him.

Fuck they are too dumb to figure out anything. they aren't true christians.

trump upholds a vision of manhood which Daniel wants to hold on to, but which is ultimately the wrong one. I keep telling him over and over we need to protect children from this coronavirus madness, but he refuses to listen. Trump is obviously responsible for it happening or even if you think that Trump is somehow just stupid and fauci killed him.

When I showed him all the kids that Trump put in cages, Daniel just....he looked away. He fucking looked away and said "o, that's nothing". and of course this is the kind of shit that happens when you have people "defending the border. families try to cross and they separate them from their families. it was a policy that Obama started, but Trump upheld.

It seems that nothing that Trump does, no matter how egregious is going to be seen by Daniel. He won't even look into the criticism of Trump, but even when he sees Trump doing shit that is totally not okay whatsoever, he excuses it in one way or another. Talk about blind obedience.

He even is excusing Trump for raping women. i mean, it's getting kind of clear that he is probably one of those guys that takes it too far with women and then doesn't take responsibility. The women are intiitally attracted to him and say yes, but that doesn't always mean that

Man, Daniel has been up to a lot of evil, but like a lot of evil people he is in denial that he's been doing it. He won't study or look at the other side and even has a hatred of intellectuals who have different opinions on him. Even after being raped over and over and over again in the secret societies he still excuses all the secrecy, at the very least you would think he would be against secrecy. Even after knowing i am 1 he hasn't figured out I am god. Boy is this one dumb motherfucker and proud of it too.

Dumb and PROUD of it.

Closeminded and PROUD of it.

Bigoted and PROUD of it.

forcing others to try to live like he does without regard to consent and PROUD of it.

I try to talk to him about it and it goes in one ear and right out the other. He just doesn't care. He seems to have a natural intelligence, but he like just does not respect smart people. Lord.

Arrogant and Proud of it.

ane when other people don't go along with his bullshit he exhibits WRATH. Wrath that instead of hiding their sexuality they exhibit it openly because God forbid that anyone should ever, ever express themselves openly in public for consensual activity. And then he talks about them going after children (which is true) but like, most of them aren't. the majority of gay people at pride just want to be openly gay. They just want to be accepted.

"the child not accepted by the village will burn it down"

These fucks like Daniel will make sure that everything has to be secret, then he'll be victimized and it will be like "why didn't anyone protect me" and the answer is "Everything is secret you dumb fuck" you said it had to be this way.

In the past Daniel definitely was a part of the secret societies and promoted this secrecy shit. That's why he was born in a secret society.

Anyway, while Daniel is fighting the anarchists and gays and internationalists and Jews which I'm sure he will. Marika and her witches are making out like bandits here profiting from all the chaos disorder, fighting etc. etc. She needed an evil to figth so she created it and that evil is Trump and his genociders.

Too bad feminism is also a dead end because there isn't enough children. But hey, she has a solution to that with the artificial wombs I am sure. Marika could fucking kill and stop this guy. She won't though. She should but she won't. After all the evil he has done she won't fucking kill him.

Why Marika? Why?

that fucking Q phrase "if you know you know" is not true. it just isn't. I mean, it's kind of true but a lot of people think they know things that are not true and a lot of people can be educated. But I guess this is who these secret societies etc. have operated all throughout the ages with those with "secret knowledge" feeling superior to those who don't.

[e-devotion]

more from Paul

Paul wrote much of the New Testament, and his testimony is one that inspires us and others.  He violently opposed any one who followed Jesus and even had the backing of officials before he met Jesus.  But that day, the day he met Jesus, changed everything for Paul.

He went from killing Christians to spreading the news about Jesus all the time and with even greater passion.  His work starting churches and increasing faith around the world reminds us of what we are to be doing.

In my faith journey Paul’s teaching has become very important.  Several Bible promises have come alive for me in the five decades I have been alive, but the one that sticks closest to my heart is the one we speak about today.

Philippians 4:6-7  NLT  

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I remember when God gave me those verses.  I was in my early 20’s, and I had just begun to pastor my first church while I was in college.  Life was changing rapidly although back then it felt like things moved slow.  God got hold of my heart by teaching me how to deal with the situations of life that were in His control and not mine, how His plan for me for strong and good, and it was my goal, beginning at that time, to trust Him completely.

Doing away with worry was one of the biggest battles.  Paul said it well.  “Don’t worry about anything… pray about everything.”  Profound.  And true.

Hard to do but always right to stop worrying.  It seems like the motivation to be changed, to look at life differently and to put a stop to what was taking me in the wrong direction.

But it didn’t stop there.  The outcome for not worrying was and is the peace of God.  He will supply peace that is more than we will ever understand, and that peace only comes when we stop worrying and trust God.  He will guard our hearts and minds with His peace when we pray more than we worry.

Tied to that peace is being thankful and staying connected to God in prayer.  You might beed to re-read those verses today.  Memorize them.  I quote those often.  Sometimes daily those verses come up in conversations.

Try it.  Trust God.  Stop worrying and watch His peace change your life!

I am grateful for what Paul gave us in Philippians 4, and tomorrow we will go even further in to this powerful letter.

Prayer List:

Amanda Hutchinson and unborn baby as Amanda has some health concerns, Timmy Howell, Helen Joyce as she is in Rocky Mount hospital, Dionna Cameron, Lauren Whorley, Marge Bumstead, Darrell Peters, Jenny Biggs, Jeremy Shanker, Bonny Burnett, Roger Marsh, Ricky Burnett, Angel Robertson, Joan Norman, Anita Martin, David Smith, Raye Anne Thore, Lloyd and Senga, Danny and Kathy Wilson, Steve Bradshaw, Felecia Watkins, Ron Harris and Jon Morris.

[papirouge]

Let me know when your slacktivism gets you the ceasefire you’re demanding. It seems like the only thing stopping the IDF is the release of hostages. Caring about Palestine is as trendy as the BLM protests. This conflict has gone on for years snd y’all wake up October 8th and decide to start chanting Islamist battle cries conveniently after the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust. I don’t love Genocide I love the thought of Israel seeking Justice and defending their homeland.

"let me know when your slacktivism gets you the ceasefire you're demanding" have been living under a rock? There's always been a ceasefire. And I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have happened if worldwide citizens didn't protest on their respective country against this war. Politicians aren't stupid : if they realize supporting this war might jeopardize their mandate renewal, they may reconsider their stance. Which is already happened. I'm from France and Macron eventually stated that Israel had to stop bombing civilians in Gaza🙃

Of course Israel has been pressuring him to "clarify his position" but he still didn't flinch on that take. Macron wouldn't bother risking France relationship with Israel if kt wasn't for French citizens to protest against our country foreign policy regarding this conflict.

You're just a manipulative ghouls trying to gaslight us that resistance is futile... NOT TODAY SATAN. You will never be able to destroy the bond between humanity. You wouldn't get bc you're very demonic.

"the only thing stopping the IDF is releasing the hostages" if that was true than the IDF wouldn't bomb Cisjordania (where's not the Hamas) or Lebanon... Also if releasing hostage was Israel main goal, they wouldn't carpet bomb Gaza where said hostages are most likely to die along the Hamas and Gaza Palestianians. Like- it's insane how none of you barely has any self awareness to realize this brutal military intervention will have repercussions on Israeli hostages too. But you're soo blinded by your blood thirsty revenge "eye for an eye" paradigms that you don't realize that. Maybe that's bc I'm Christian but this type of ideology is absolutely awful, destructive and counterproductive.

"islamist battle cries" LMAO the way you guys clutch your pearls at "from the river to the sea" sang by protesters (who aren't even Muslim so) while not flinching a bit at actual Israli politicians straight up calling for the murder/eradication of Palestianians removes any credibility to your fake concern. You guys are endorsing terrorists/genocide apologist while being shook at some (allegedly) terrorist chant. What's the problem? You think genocide is a prerogative of westerners (you know, the actual people who genocided Jews) or Israel, and becomes a problem only when it's from Muslims ? Scared of having a tease of your own medicine?

"caring about Palestine is as trendy as BLM"

Jokes on you bc I've been talking about palestine for years now. People have been talking about DECADES. But with social medias, the world awareness of what's going on Gaza skyrocketed and humanity is rightfully shocked.

But even if people talk about Palestine just now? How is that problem? Why are u mad at people educating themselves and realizing the shit fest that's Israel treatment of Palestianians ? We're in 2023, mass communication and social medias make possible to spread information like there's never been before. Why do you think causes people hardly talked before get suddenly so much exposure? (Armenia, Congo, Uighurs, etc.) I'm from Republic of Congo and it wouldn't come to my mind to get mad at people who never talked about my brothers from the Democratic Republic of Congo before who suddenly go hard for it. Better late than never. The only reason you HATE people talking about Palestine is bc it paints Israel in a bad mood and you cannot stand it 🙃 that's right: YOU'RE JUST CRANKY FOR BEING EXPOSED. The righteous doesn't fear being known - only the guilty one. That's why you're SEETHING at the simple idea of people talking about palestine, get triggered whenever you see the #palestine hashtag trend anywhere and that even the IDF is shaking and tries to pull out copium conspiracy theories abt how this massive support of Palestianians is a psy-op lmao

[bouyei]

May 19 - He Has Appeared Once

Hebrews 9:26b But now, at the end of the ages, he has appeared once to remove sin by his sacrifice.

daaus ndeeul [dao dayoo]: once, one time

“All you should eat every day is 100 grams (3½ ounces) of rice,” Sai’s uncle told him. “That’s what the prophet says.” The prophet was a man from northern China who claimed to have been given revelations as a new prophet of the Christian God. This leader claimed to be a stand-in or representative of God and later, the Christ come again to earth. This returned Christ gathered a group of 12 disciples, and the thousands that ended up following them in this homemade pseudo-Christian religion were called Disciples. Locals referred to the religion as Erliang Liang (one hundred grams of grain).

Several of Sai’s family members had become adherents of Erliang Liang, and the belief was spreading rapidly through the rural areas where few had the education or religious background to counter its teachings. Sai had heard little of Christianity himself, but the practices and teachings of Erliang Liang seemed strange to him. The authorities were very concerned about the spread of the religious group. Just to be sure, they increased the pressure on the more orthodox Christians as well.

Our good Father, crush the destructive influence of cults which advocate false teaching about Christ. Allow Christians to share the truth openly and stand firm.