#idk if they have individual biographies

[and-her-saints]

Hey sorry idk if you'd know this but I quite literally don't know where to turn about this so I'm sending this ask to every queer+catholic blog I can find

Are there *any* resources out there for queer/trans Catholics that go beyond affirmation and show how to pursue a religious life that goes beyond the laity (e.g. priesthood, joining a convent/monastery, something similar) without having to brush your queerness aside. I feel like if I don't find something soon I might go insane

years ago, i attended a Zoom event with Fr. James Alison as a keynote speaker, and something he said has been glued to my brain ever since. he said it in Spanish, so i'll try to remember, paraphrase and translate: "while they try to get us to stop being queer, what we must try to do is to be better queers."

i love what you said about "beyond affirmation" and that is precisely why i got reminded of the quote and WHY this quote resonated with me to begin with.

imho, there is a fundamental issue with a lot of queer theology and it's that it doesn't go beyond apologetics. it's not pragmatic nor does it seem to engage critically with the material conditions that work with or against queerness. and it's truly such a shame, because living "religiously" to me, as a queer catholic, it's infinitely more a matter of coherence, love, devotion and solidarity, than learning how to "reconcile" gayness/transness with the Bible.

it's a journey, of course. the apologetics were and are necessary for many of us to unlearn the hatred that might've been instilled in us through religious education and upbringing. however, here are some resources that, in my opinion, show how to pursue queer-religious-life.

💌 catholic/christian resources:

[book] The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day. Unlike larger collections and biographies, which cover her radical views, exceptional deeds, and amazing life story, this book focuses on a more personal dimension of her life: Where did she receive strength to stay true to her God-given calling despite her own doubts and inadequacies and the demands of an activist life? What was the unquenchable wellspring of her deep faith and her love for humanity?

[book & account] Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human by Cole Arthur Riley. Black Liturgies is a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body. In this book, she brings together hundreds of new prayers, along with letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scriptures, and the writings of Black literary ancestors to offer forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or as a community.

[book] Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor by Leonardo Boff. Focusing on the threated Amazon of his native Brazil, Boff traces the economic and metaphysical ties that bind the fate of the rain forests with the fate of the indigenous peoples and the poor of the land. He shows how liberation theology must join with ecology in reclaiming the dignity of the earth and our sense of a common community, part of God's creation. To illustrate the possibilities, Boff turns to resources in Christian spirituality both ancient and modern, from the vision of St. Francis of Assisi to cosmic christology.

[book] Undoing Theology: Life Stories from Non-normative Christians by Chris Greenough. The fundamental issue with ‘queer’ research is it cannot exist in any definable form, as the purpose of queer is to disrupt and disturb. Undoing Doing generates a process of ‘undoing’ as central to queer research enquiries. Aiming to engage in a process which breaks free from traditional academic norms, the text explores three life stories

[podcast] The Magnificast. "A weekly podcast about Christianity and leftist politics. The Magnificast is hosted by Dean Dettloff and Matt Bernico. Each week's episode focuses on a unique or under-realized aspect of territory between Christianity and politics that no one taught you about in sunday school."

💌 non-christian but still excellent resources:

[book] Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. A memoir by a butch hijabi that follows the experiences of the author through stories and figures from the Qur'an.

[book] Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care by Lynne Segal. Questions of care, intimacy, education, meaningful work, and social engagement lie at the core of our ability to understand the world and its possibilities for human flourishing. In Lean On Me feminist thinker Lynne Segal goes in search of hope in her own life and in the world around her. She finds it entwined in our intimate commitments to each other and our shared collective endeavours.

i don't think these are precisely what you were looking for. but i hope these resources bring you as much peace and hope as they have brought me.

[bunniesandbeheadings]

Not to start discourse but I really love how when I was a teenager I read about Robespierre and I thought that was interesting so then I read about Danton and Camille Desmoulins and Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and Louis XVII and Louis XVIII and then I wanted more so I taught myself French and about the Marquis de Sade and Napoleon and and and

And also all these books about the culture and the history and the art and the individual people who we don’t have enough data for a biography but who still mattered and felt so strongly and did so much

Idk. It’s just fun, to me, to reach a point where any time I see a historical figure in the 18-19th century I can be like “I know that guy!!”

[thevagueambition]

1, 9, & 13 for the historical ask game!

1: Favourite historical person

I'll probably have to go with Magnus Hirschfeld. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the work he did, both his advocacy for gay and trans rights and the pioneering of trans surgeries. I have yet to read a biography of him or anything like that, but the things I do know about his personal life are rather endearing (and amusing) too.

A lot of people around him seem to have described him as the "dad" of the found family around the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. He was enough a part of the gay scene in Berlin to have had a nickname within it -- Tante Magnesia (Aunt Magnesia). He was in a long term relation with a man called Karl Giese who also worked with him at the institute and iirc whose mother was present at a drag party they hosted (see image below, the elderly lady to the far left).

While on his world tour, though, he began a relationship with his Chinese translator, medical student Li Shiu Tong (nicknamed Tao Li by Hirschfeld and known by that name with his European friends). He never went back to Germany from his world tour due to the Nazis destroying his institute, so he and Li Shiu Tong went to Paris where Karl Giese joined them. They ended up as a throuple lol.

9: Favourite Historical Film

Hmm, probably either 1917 for how it uses its cinematography to convey the misery of the trenches or Portrait of a Lady on Fire for being an excellent lesbian romance with characters who think and act in a way that seems plausible to the setting. Most of my favourite historical fiction is in the form of tv shows, though.

13: Something random about some random historical person in a random era

Heh, I kind of already did that with Hirschfeld! To be honest, my interest in history is much more based on broad trends and ideas or groups of people rather than individuals, so idk...

Friedrich Engels pretended to his rich bourgeois family that he'd left his radical politics behind to get a job in the family business so he could fund Marx's writing. When Engels wanted to publish an article, he had it published in Marx's name so his family wouldn't know and this is why there are some texts where it's not 100% clear who of them wrote it.

__

Thanks for asking!

[pub-lius]

What in your opinion makes a good/well written history book? Can you give some examples?

i miiiight have talked about this before like 6 months ago so you might be able to find more info from me on this but idk. to answer this, im just sitting on the floor in front of my bookshelf HEJWBW

So contrary to popular belief, there are just as many factors that go into a non fiction book as a fiction book, and they all have their different styles. to make the comparisons im making, im gonna keep it between Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Jay Dolin, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman, and John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey and George Washington’s Indispensable Men by Arthur S. Lefkowitz, just referring to them by their author(s)’ last name. these are all books i have on hand that ive fully read and annotated

Most history books will be in a biographical or chronological style, where they retell events relating to a person or period in order, and others will take a more narrative style, like what Kilmeade and Yaeger have done, but this is often used to enhance understanding by not constantly referring back to previous events. neither one of this is better or worse, but they open different opportunities for how the author will broach certain subjects.

this is where we get into the author. just like in fiction, the author’s opinions, biases, and preferences alter the way the book is written, mainly because they will highlight certain information that they personally believe is important, and their historical reasoning will reflect their personal biases.

the two authors that i think are most different in this respect are Feldman and Chernow. as we all know, i really don’t like Chernow, for the primary reason that his evidence is contradictory and his theories tend to be misogynistic. the contradictions in his book make it hard to take anything he says at face value and it eliminates all chance of his book being easy to read, along with the fact that he is very wordy.

when it comes to Feldman, his biography of James Madison is a lot shorter than anything Chernow has ever touched with a pen, even though Madison lived a great deal longer than Hamilton. this is because Feldman utilizes brevity more in his writing. the thesis of his book is in the title: that Madison’s life can be broken down into three sections, and he spends the book proving that while also describing his life. this book is therefore more academically reliable, but also easier to read and more trustworthy. he also uses sources for each one of his claims and chernow just pulls things out of his ass but thats neither here nor there.

speaking of sources, when you’re buying a book, flip through the index and see if they have both primary and secondary sources listed. they almost always do, but it’s important to make sure. don’t trust a book with no primary sources. there also should be a LARGE index, like enough that when you separate it from the rest of the book you’re like “oh! i dont have as much to read as i thought i did!” not only does this give you hope that you might have a life outside of this book, it shows that the book has been thoroughly and adequately researched

another factor is how much information is in the book. this has less to do with how long it is and more about the subject matter along with the length. for example, Dolin’s book is about pirates, which are largely very obscure historical figures, so you can infer that the book will be less about the individuals and more about the time period, being the Golden Age of Priacy. and it is! and there’s nothing wrong with that, its just going to give you less information on the individuals.

now when it comes to a book like Massey’s, it seems like an adequate length for a biography of one person. however i think a larger issue with Massey’s book is that he doesn’t give you the full picture of a lot of things, and that is my biggest gripe with this book. he doesn’t give the reader a lot of wiggle room when it comes to making their own theories, because he tends to state his opinion first and give minimal evidence afterwards.

im always on here ranting and raving about how good of a job Lefkowitz did, but he doesn’t really fit the criteria ive mentioned here. his book isn’t in formal writing (which isn’t a requirement but i prefer it), he leaves out a lot of details, and his book is pretty lengthy. however i think he can really be praised for just easiness to read. the truth is, history is boring, and its hard to find authors who don’t make it worse. Lefkowiz’s book is well sourced and well written and does give a really good picture of the time period and a good starting point for further research, and that is how you become my favorite book and my most frequent recommendation

its always gonna depend on your personal preferences and biases. studying history isn’t about getting rid of your biases, and more of using them as a tool or at the very least factoring them into your research. my biggest tip: just keep reading! find what you like and what you don’t bc im still doing that. get nitpicky. get funky with it. GO TO THE LIBRARY‼️

and remember kids, Ron Chernow meets his maker when he encounters me in the Denny’s Parking lot, bare fisted and ready to throw down. you can’t outrun destiny, Ron.

(for legal reasons, that’s a joke)

[teal-skull]

Hate my Leonardo da Vinci obsession.

I went to wikipedia to find a specific crude sketch from Leonardo's journals to make a meme and suddenly I found my way into Salai's italian wikipedia article and now I'm going the rabbit hole about Luigi Pulci's Il Morgante to confirm a footnote in Walter Isaacson's biography of Leonardo da Vinci. According to it, Salai's (who was Leonardo's apprentice/servant/model/lover depending on your opinion) nickname (his real name was Gian Giacomo Caprotti, and he used alias Andrea Salai sometimes) means "little devil" and the term "salai" is derivative from Tuscan dialect mening "The devil's foot/leg" (I think the expression was "Il Salaino or something??) , But then he adds that the name comes from a DEMON in the epic Morgante. I took this to mean that there is a demon character in the novel (sometimes I realized as false only later)

(another fact about Salai's name is that sometimes it's spelled as Salaí, so it becomes Sa-la-i, instead of Sa-lai)

A detail I want to point out is that Leonardo had Il Morgante in his library, and it's included in his list of books he owns. So yes it's very possible Leonardo would've taken the name from there.

The funny this is that I have already went down this rabbit hole like year prior, but it ended abruptly without conclusion because I'm that type if person who starts something and then abandons it.

HOWEVER what I did find last time was that the only named demon character I've been able to find is Astarotte. So I was growing skeptical about the "salai's nickname comes from Il Morgnte" as a whole. No matter where I looked, there was no mention of a character named Salai.

But then after like.... Months into this thing plaquing me, and "researching" it on and off, I found this:

XXI 47 7 (Canto Ventunesimo) 

I don't speak italian besides individual words so obviously I had no idea what the context was. However, at this point I realized to check my university library for any edition of Il Morgnte, and I managed to find a very fancy Italian edition. However I was bumped when I google translated the paragraph and it seemed that Salai did not refer to any particular character in the novel, rather, it's just a comparison "as does Salai in the fall" I guess there is a Salai named demon in the epic but like .. it's not a character technically.

TODAY i digged up these again because I was reminded of this, and saw that there was a footnore about "salay" in this page I had taken a picture of like over a year ago. Before the footnote had gone unnoticed for me, oh the regret is hitting...

According to machine translation that footnote 7. Explains that Salay refers to "other infernal power" and fallen angels (so demons at least)

WHICH IS FUNNY because I started to go down this rabit hole again because the Italian wikipedia article of Salai also mentions Salai's name coming from Il Morgante, but there it's said that: "the expression is used to evoke an infernal power" (Nell'opera L'espressione è impiegata oer evocare una potenza infernale)

So um.... I've wasted many hours of my finite life to confirm this little nuget of information. Idk where I'm going anymore.

Thanks for reading about my decent into insanity I guess

If any Italian speakers have anything they'd like to add or point out, please tell me!

[striveattemptfail]

does anyone have tips on how to make a book collection ✨Look Pretty✨ when all the books are radically different sizes, genres, and designs?

this is the best i got and I'm Upset bc it doesn't look like anything i see on pinterest* LMAO

for reference: this is soooo far from all the books i own. this is probably 15% of my collection—if that. i have artbooks, biographies, magazines, newspapers, fanzines, manga, graphic novels, individual comic issues, children's picture books, regular paperback novels, and so. much. more. i have the space to house them—i just dunno how to fit em all on a shelf

what i've done in the past is sort by height and it was an awful system to maintain bc adding to my collection meant i kept shifting books everywhere trying to keep a virtually unachievable pattern. it also was a horrible organizational system bc all subject matter was mixed up and trying to find a specific book only happened if i actually remembered the exact place i put it

(spoiler alert: i never remembered where anything was. i'd just pull out books and hope it was the one i needed lol)

this time around, i've actually sorted my non-fiction stuff by category/genre, but the above photos are what i ended up with and I'm Unsatisfied by these results. i'm also planning to sort my fictional stuff by author, so maybe that'll go better? but idk y'all (=_=)

if anyone wants to reply/reblog this post with any tips (or photos!) of your own book collection, pls feel free bc i'm pulling at straws here tryna figure out wth i should do we these books. my dms are also open if you'd rather not reply publicly~!

* disclaimer: i'm well aware nothing i do will make my shelves looking like something off pinterest simply due to my own personal aesthetic preferences. that said, it'd be nice to display my books in a better way than "make em all fit on a shelf somehow" /o\

[whatiwillsay]

From the TS subreddit:

The Dewey decimal number for the book is 920, which is collective biographies and 921 is individual. And they think it’s more likely BTS.

Personally I saw a Tiktok from a bookseller that said the comparisons to Matthew Perry and Prince Harry suggested a male author based on her experience with book publishing descriptions

I also personally have noticed Taylor likes to milk to each project for all it’s worth, I have a hard time seeing her release another project so close to Speak Now TV. Idk just my thoughts, I would love be wrong but sadly I personally don’t think the book is hers.

the comparison to spare and matthew perry’s books were sales comps alone NOT any kind of content based comparison but the dewey decimal number is definitely interesting and makes me think it’s bts as well

[goedel-rhymes-with-turtle]

Math ask game: 51

51: Favorite casual math book?

Hmm, I don't read a ton of casual math stuff (so I'm not snubbing Jordan Ellenberg or Eugenia Cheng, I just legitimately have not read them) so take this with a grain of salt.

I read e: The Story of a Number in high school (importantly, after taking calculus), and it was very exciting to me. Definitely had a vibe of arcane knowledge and cool to see how Everything Is Connected. I think it still holds up even if you already know each chapter individually. Idk though, I loaned my copy to a friend and never got it back so I can't check. (untrue, I think there's a pdf online)

More casual: The Woman Who Smashed Codes (Elizebeth Friedman biography) was mostly interesting (bc the story is bonkers) but didn't have much math (and, you know, the 20th century misogyny also dampens the mood). I didn't finish this one before it was due back at the library :/ but what I did read was good!

[colexharper]

Hey, look! It’s COLE HARPER at OASIS. Did you know they WORK there as a BARTENDER? I guess they’re from SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, CALIFORNIA and have been in town for FIVE YEARS, living in SUTHERLAND PARK. I also heard they’re a little SELF-CRITICAL, but also very STREET SMART which definitely makes sense. 

basic information:

full name: cole jeremy harper

nickname(s): idk give him some!

age: twenty-eight

date of birth: april 26th

place of birth: san fernando valley, california

ethnicity: caucasian

nationality: american

gender: cis-male

pronouns: he/him

orientation: unlabelled, though is definitely a slave to compulsory hetereonormativity and attracted to femme presenting individuals

language(s) spoken: english, spanish (intermediate)

accent: american, specific to the LA region

family ties:

mother: margaret ‘maggie’ harper (deceased)

grandmother: katherine ‘kitty’ harper (deceased)

father: unknown

siblings: older brother nick harper (deceased)

spouse / partner: n/a

children: n/a

pets: n/a

occupational information:

occupation: bartender at oasis & drug dealer

physical appearance:

face claim: josh hutcherson

hair color: dark brown 

eye color: hazel

height: 5ft 7

weight: 75kgs

build: lean

tattoos: has a few black patch work tattoos in a traditional style on mostly his arms  example here. 

piercings: n/a

clothing style: clean, kinda old school with doc martens, dickies work pants (with a silver chain), plain white t-shirts and utility jackets  example here.

personality:

mbti: infp - the mediator

element: earth

western zodiac: taurus

chinese zodiac: horse

personality: cole is resourceful, kind-natured, internal and introverted, as much as he would like to be trusting he’s not and that has led him to be incredibly careful of who he does trust if at all.

positive traits: patient, skilled communicator, kind, quick witted, grounded

negative traits: introverted, self-critical, defensive, evasive 

hobbies: reading, listening to podcasts, learning mechanics and fixing up old cars

character inspiration: wolfgang (sense8), fez (euphoria), carmy (the bear), jesse pinkman (breaking bad)

biography: content warnings for terminal illness, suicide and drug affiliations

cole never knew who his father was and his mother died when he was seven years old. he was raised alongside his older brother by his grandmother, kitty

kitty was a badass woman who did what she had to to take care of and raise nick and cole. while his family life was always dysfunctional and he struggled to make friends growing up, always being the ‘weirdo’ kid who got picked, on cole had his older brother and grandmother and that was all he needed

unfortunately, kitty was diagnosed with a terminal illness when cole was just sixteen

his brother then died by suicide when he was eighteen leaving him to take care of his grandmother and her medical bills

shortly after the death of his brother, cole had to find a way to make money to support his grandmother, this is when cole found himself working a bunch of different jobs but primarily at a mechanic and car wash business in LA

this businesses ended up being a front for money laundering through a drug ring and within a few months cole was recruited as a ‘drug runner’, and so long as the money was coming in and cole could take care of his grandmother, he didn’t care what he had to do

since he was eighteen, cole worked closely within this drug ring, selling, running and pushing drugs to pay for his grandmother's medical bills and keep her alive

his grandmother died when cole was twenty-three, but he was too deep in the drug business to be able to get out, retirement wasn’t an option.

cole had to get out of LA, and the most appealing part about vermont for cole was that it's on the other side of the country so he packed up and moved trying his best to disappear from the life he led before

it's been five years in east haven and old habits die hard. he's struggled to form interpersonal relationships and his grief weighs heavy on him even now. he got a job at oasis as a bartender but even that was a stretch to cover his rent. it wasn't long before he was in contact with a supplier again, dealing drugs being one of the only life skills he really felt he had to fall back on

this time around he's smarter, working for himself and only dealing in small quantities of coke or mdma, selling out the back of oasis or when he took trips down to new york. none of the hard shit like fentanyl that he had to push back in LA

but still, he hates that he does it and he hates himself for it, cole has a lot of shit to work through before he can even begin to trust himself and let himself move beyond the limbo he exists in now

possible connections:

people who often visit oasis or coworkers

people he deals/has dealt drugs to

acquaintances

i'm open to most things!

[ducavalentinos]

Opinion on relationship between Tiberius and Germanicus?

Hm, I don’t have many thoughts about them tbh. I mean full disclosure: everything I've read about Germanicus, or Tiberius, were all in connection to Augustus, Livia Drusilla and Agrippina Minor, so I'm not intimate with their individual historical literature, anon. My impression is that it's actually complicated to know how was their relationship. I'm not convinced by Tacitus' writings about it. His implications/claims of hostility between Tiberius and Germanicus, and the narrative attached to Germanicus, like his father, having republican sympathies to the point of wanting to end the imperial system and bring back the Republic, seems like a myth. I find Barrett's point of view reasonable here, (although he does seem to have a bias against Germanicus, for some reason djsdjsds):

Tacitus brings in the lengthy description of Germanicus' campaigns almost as a as a digression, to emphasise his loyal devotion to Tiberius in spite of the jealousy and hostility of the princeps and his mother. The historian insists that the mutual antipathy between Livia and her son was put aside in their common cause of opposition to Germanicus, who, he claims, felt harassed (anxius) by a hatred that was both unfair and irrational. The reason given for their enmity was the suspicion that Germanicus had inherited the republican tendencies of his father and wanted to see an end to the imperial system (libertatem red-diturus). Tacitus revives this theme later, when we learn of Germanicus’ final illness and the resentment it ignited in Rome. He cites a belief that both father and son, Drusus and Germanicus, had been cut down because they desired to restore libertas. Germanicus no doubt did inherit his father’s popularity, but nothing he did even hinted at an interest in restoring the republican system (and the same is true of Drusus). In fact, Germanicus’ rapidly accelerated career suggests a privileged representative of the imperial system and not a champion of the old republic. - Anthony A. Barrett, Livia: First Lady of Imperial Rome.

So, you know, I think while it’s possible it might have been a tricky relationship, with its ups and downs, given the political circusmtances they were inserted in, the suggestions of a bad relationship, or an outright enmity between Germanicus and Tiberius and his mother, Livia, seems pure speculation based on rumors, manufactured by contemporary sources who were antagonistic of Tiberius and Livia, and/or public opinion. The evidence, as far as I've seen it, shows Germanicus remained loyal to Tiberius as emperor, and Tiberius' behavior towards Germanicus was fine, for the most part. There's also various sources stating Livia and Tiberius were devoted to Germanicus' father, and that there were close bonds of friendship between Germanicus and Tiberius’ son, Drusus Caesar. Moreover, contrary to what Tacitus makes out of Tiberius, as a master of deception, he actually always come across to me as having been a transparent, sincere individual. He didn't want to be emperor, and he let it known. He didn't want to divorce his wife, whom he very much loved, and he let it known, and his sadness over it gave rise to anecdotes. He was annoyed by Livia's interference in imperial affairs, and that was also known. So in my mind, if he had a serious problem with Germanicus, he would have let it slip or he would have let it known like he did in these other instances, and even considering all the political motives for it, I don't think he would have adopted Germanicus if he was someone he detested and who he saw as his rival. And also, I think we would have had more evidence on Germanicus’ part if he had a problem with Tiberius or if he was plotting against him and Livia, which we don’t, as far as I know. Maybe I'm wrong, again, I'm not an expert on their literature, so this is definitely a superficial reading on my part, and of course there is the Piso' situation, which it's incredibly messy and there's a lot we will never know, I don't ignore the possibility of Tiberius' active involvement against Germanicus there, nor the influence Sejanus had with him, which might have played a role there if he was "in league with Piso to trick Germanicus", too, but I never saw any real evidence for it, overall I see their relationship as okay, with occasional problems, sure, but nothing like Tiberius' relationship with Augustus, for example, or Augustus' relationship with Mark Antony, those relationships show themselves to have been relationships with a lot of open clashing and tension, and a terrible incompatibility on both sides.

[papirouge]

https://thisisformygarbage.tumblr.com/post/674739449751552000/you-know-who-actually-did-that-nazis-their

Here is the post! Beware of cringe!

(Keep in mind the OP is also weird because they think radfems are going to commit a genocide against Christians. Literally every type of crazy is on this tumblr post lmao)

"Nazis. Their movement was Christian, led by a Christian leader"

Yeahhhh Nazism was sooo Christian that when Nazi tried to appropriate Christianism in Germany, they faced a BACKLASH from the German church to distance itself from the Nazi regime, and that Hitler was seeking to tokenize Christian theology + considered the Church as a rival for masses indoctrination

Within the German Evangelical Church the pro-Nazi “German Christian” (Deutsche Christen) movement emerged in the early 1930s. It attempted to fuse Christianity and National Socialism and promoted a “racially-pure” church by attacking Jewish influences on Christianity. This attempt to nazify the primary Protestant church provoked a backlash, leading to the formation of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) in 1934. Both the Confessing and the “German Christian” movements remained part of the German Evangelical Church. The Confessing Church movement condemned Nazified theology and the attempt to nationalize the church, but it limited its protest to maintaining the theological integrity and autonomy of the Protestant churches—not protesting the legitimacy of the Nazi state itself. Although there were individual resisters, many mainstream Protestant and Catholic church leaders made numerous compromises with Nazi authorities and supported many of the Nazi measures throughout the period.

(x)

If anything, Christians had to bear the subjugation of Nazism, not the other way around. Some Christians sided with the Nazi (the leaders of course, otherwise they wouldn't have reached such position) but others resisted. Christianism has NEVER been a leverage for Nazism.

As for Hitler being Christian, please....

“In Hitler’s eyes Christianity was a religion fit only for slaves,” wrote Alan Bullock “Hitler, A Study in Tyranny,” a seminal biography. “Its teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by struggle of the fittest.”(...) Though Hitler was impressed and inspired by the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, he grew to view its spiritual teachings, Redlich wrote, with an “impotent rage” because of the church’s “formidable power, which he was unable to replace by what he called science and reason.”

Bullock, in describing Hitler as a “rationalist and materialist,” quotes him in a wartime conversation with aides as saying:

The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science ... Gradually the myths crumble. All that is left to prove that nature there is no frontier between the organic and inorganic. When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light, but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity. By 1942, Hitler vowed, according to Bullock, to “root out and destroy the influence of the Christian Churches,” describing them as “the evil that is gnawing our vitals.”

(x)

So yea, IDK what crack this radfem is smoking but arguing that Hitler was Christian is a flat out LIE. Hilarious to see her talk about "Christian persecution complex" when radfem culture capitalizes on female victimhood...

It's also baffling she seemingly conflates (forced) conversion with actual "genocide", like...?? conversion has no point if we end up killing the people we're seeking to convert. Genocide literally means erasing entire ethnicities/race by purpose (the "gen" of genocide stands for "GENetics"), it's not the same are colonization or forced conversion which affected different countries or races. That's also why the idea of "Christian genocide" is absurd because there isn't a 'Christian race'💀

Like the Nazi, colonizers WEAPONIZED Christianism for subjugation, it doesn't mean that the Bible commands for such prescriptions. Any Christian with a proper grasp on Jesus teaching would never defend colonization, forced conversion or religious imperialism. The Bible actually commends us to NOT force our way onto people refusing to hear the Gospel (Matthew 10:14-16)

If Christians are collectively responsible for the mischief people claiming that title did, so are every non Christians for all the persecutions Christians have to deal with right now -not decades, or centuries ago-, in non-Christian countries, such as in the Middle East, North Korea, China, etc…

Fascinating how in the mind of these people, whenever bad stuff is made by a handful of people claiming to be Christians, it's the whole Christian community who's guilty by association, but when entire Christian communities are deported, persecuted or killed, and that we, as member of the Christian body, speak out about it, suddenly it's "Christian persecution complex" and shouldn't be affected by it on an individual level 🤔

[faunawoodsart]

R6S OC Bio

Nav

Side: Defense

Role: Intel gatherer, Anchor, Secure

Health                   Speed                Difficulty

⬜⬜⬜                   ⬜                    ⬜⬜⬜

Unique Abilities and Playstyle

        SMD (SONAR Mapping Device) Is a small computer-like system that can be easily carried by the individual.  The device is connected to an antenna that sends out sonar signals that the individual triggers to map an area where the individual is at. The sonar can also ping friendly items. The computer is hooked up to cameras, whenever an enemy is pinged, the area or room where the enemy was at will highlight in red. The more vivid the color, the more people have been pinged in that area. If an area has not been sonar beforehand, the area will not highlight when an enemy is pinged. Friendlies can see the map in cams. The map can be hacked by Dokkaebi and be used by the enemy team to ping defense, these will also show up highlighted. The computer will act like phones and must be destroyed after death so it will not be hacked.

Load Out

HK33 (assault rifle)          

Ruger SR1911 (pistol)                   

Colt 9mm SMG                                                      

Razor wire

Impact grenade

Biography

Real name:  Elizabeth Schierer                           

 Date of Birth: March (idk what day yet)

Age: 36

  Place of Birth: Wisconsin, United states

“ Know your surroundings like the back of your hand, not knowing will end up in failure”

Elizabeth Schierer was born to a semi-catholic military family. From a young age she excelled at geography and had a passion for environmental studies as well as language. In high school she managed to learn both German and French. She ended up being accepted to the University of Toronto after highschool where she majored in Geography and Wildlife Management and minored in anthropology. Elizabeth ended up getting a job as a National Park ranger at Wood Buffalo park Moving to the Northwest territory in Canada. While there she learned the local indigenous language Chipewyan and became familiar with droning. After being a ranger for a number of years, she quit and pursued her new sought out passion which involved learning from indigenous peoples. This led her to learn two more languages: Russian and Japanese. Her new found passions led her to travel from Canada, to Alaska, Okinawa, Hokkaido, and to Northern Russia. While working odd jobs from individuals to get by, she worked on the one she had and found out how to modify it so that it would work with sonar. Due to a severe error it ended up mapping instead of doing what she wanted it to do. Unable to fix the error, she gave up on the device but did not get rid of it. Due to lack of funds Elizabeth knew she could do something better with herself and joined a humanitarian organization. Even though she had a lack of knowledge within the field, she proved herself to be extremely useful due to her background as a ranger: being able to track people down in a fast and timely manner and coming up with quick and easy solutions to problems. It was during a time when she was sent down to the Caucasus during the later 2010s where her broken drone became useful again. She ended up taking apart the drone so only the circuitry and whatever was sending out the sonar signals was left. The new contraption made it so Elizabeth could map out the interiors of buildings without the use of massive equipment that would be seen as suspicious and too bulky to carry. During her time in the Caucasus, Elizabeth was found by operator Lera “Finka“ Melnikova and was later recruited into Rainbow,

Psychological Report

The most surprising thing when meeting specialist Elizabeth “Nav” Schierer is her ability  to be kind to everyone, always being someone you can rely on in any situation. It is surprising due to the fact that she is extremely quiet and almost seems terrified of talking to those she works with that she doesn’t know well. Despite that she seems to be able to talk to civilians easily. I tried asking her why this is but even she did not have an answer.  [...] I did try and talk to her about her time as a park ranger but she didn’t have much to say besides that she tracked animals and had to keep a sharp eye on people. She mentioned that she has seen things she wishes she never had. When I asked her what she meant she refused to clarify.[...]

        Schierer has many notes and writings about her experiences with indigenous peoples and the stories they have told her. She told me the reason she even began to do it is because of a woman, that she lovingly calls “auntie”, that she got food from every day at the Wood Buffalo Reservation before going to work. She says that the woman had a major impact on her as a whole, always keeping Schierer on the right path when things got too tough. Schierer told me that she sees the woman like a second mother to her. [...] I also noticed the many beaded key chains on her bag. I asked her about them and she told me with great excitement that she was gifted some of them from indigenous people from the places she has visited, others she bought from indigenous owned shops. The first one she got was gifted to her by the woman who she holds very dear to herself. I can tell that keeping people’s stories and culture alive and thriving means the world to her, it’s nice to see that. [...]

 I also noticed that Schierer is someone that can mess something up so bad that it somehow works in a way that she didn’t know could be helpful. I realized this when she was explaining to me how she messed up the coding for her drone. When asking what program she used, she seemed to get embarrassed and confessed it was pirated software. She also confessed to not knowing how to code let alone code a drone. It was remarkable she was able to do what she did. She now goes to her fellow operators for help instead of doing it herself in fear of breaking her new ability. Even if it seems to chip away at her slight ego. [...]

         Trivia

In all Nav can speak 5 languages fluently. ( French, German, Russian, Japanese, and Chipewyan )

Epitome of “doing something the wrong way and ended up getting the right answer” when it comes to working with technology

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

What are you thoughts on the statement that Paul always says he doesn’t think John was gay? Do you think he hid his thoughts or did he really not know about that?

This is something I go back and forth on a lot. My instinct is to believe people most of the time, but I see how that's not necessarily the most consistent with the facts here. (I don't tend to believe any theory makes perfect sense though)

I think that if Paul is mostly telling the truth, he's not considering (or is afraid to consider) how deeply ashamed John might've felt and how much he might've hidden his interest in men from Paul specifically. His "he would've made a pass at me" comment is kind of stupid, but when he says he just thinks he would've picked up on it, IDK that's not crazy to me. I think John was an individual who dealt with a lot more insecurity and doubt than the average person, and even the average non-straight person. At the same time, he was very confident in some respects. And I think Paul refers to that confidence he had (or also his "no-filter" talking) when he says he thinks John would've made it known in one way or another.

I do note that over the years, he appears to have softened his stance a bit it seems (not sure of the exact dates though), or even within an interview he'll go back and mention that he can't speak with authority on John in the 70s or that he genuinely doesn't know what happened on the Spain trip, he just has his own theory about it. (This is one of the reasons I theorize that John did next to nothing with men during the touring years, scared off by the Spain trip disaster, sudden public scrutiny and "distracted" by groupies; it would largely explain Paul's POV)

So, I do think there's a chance that Paul may've changed his mind, perhaps having looked into the evidence himself and maybe having recontextualized memories and experiences with John for himself. (Though it makes complete sense to me that Paul would feel inherent distrust in this theory, if he associates this theory with Goldman's biography, which Paul must have identified several blinding inaccuracies in and is I believe the first major publication to speculate on John's sexuality) .

I think Paul has every reason to not want to open that can of worms, and I think after living most of his life in a society that was mostly negative towards gay and bi people, it's hard for him to feel like the world would be kind to his dead best friend, should they find out the truth about him. Of course, he also wants to deflect any speculation about his sexuality, which is understandable.

The issue is it's nearly impossible to ask him about this, so that he feels it's in good faith. And even if one interviewer was asking, not for the shock value but out of a genuine wish to understand John better, Paul would be aware that other publications would lap up what he said and regurgitate it in the most sensationalist light. Someone would have to catch him in private, Hunter Davies-style.

I really wish I could have a deep, non-judgemental conversation with him, asking him for example about his usage of marriage metaphors with reference to him and John. Not to gotcha him into any admission, just to get a fuller picture of what these two people meant to each other.

I could probably write a novel about this, so I'll stop here. I'd like to add that, though I'm prone to take Paul at his word most of the time, I read the thoughts and analyses of people who believe Paul is lying or had some type of sexual relationship with John regularly, and though I don't draw the same conclusions, I understand their points of view as well. If one day some bombshell revelation states Paul is definitely bi, then so be it. If you have any specific questions about any of this, feel free to ask! :)

[blueskywater-happiness]

Unpopular opinion and headcanon in regards to Phil and his relations with Alfred and Tonio

I can actually see Spain and America relationship to Philippines as a toxic PARENTAL (not lovers, can not ship them sorry) type. And that he still sees them, mostly America, as "dad" even in modern era.

Hear me out, I am a Filipino from Panay... We have a family oriented culture. No matter HOW abusive, how TOXIC a parent can be, we are always told by our peers, relatives and even strangers that we should forgive them, because they are our parents.

Some actually do forgive and somehow it is a happily ever after sweeping up the bad shit under the rug and forget who made those mental scars, physical scars and even emotional. (Watch some mmk documentaries, it is a drama biography series that reenacts stories from those living here in the Philippines).

Filial piety is important here in Asia after all... And to be honest, I can see an analogy of the US-PH relations as a toxic parent and child, which the child develops some sort of stockholm dependency to cope and to survive.

You have to admit we have colonial mentality.

Idk what Hima plans but I prefer parental type like Emil and Sadiq... Even though the relations for Iceland and Turkey is base on those pirates kidnapping Icelandic people. *shrug*

In some (idk other countries but I see this culture even abroad) Asian cultures :/ it is the kid who has to forgive the parents, not the parents who has to apologize.

I can see Hetalia America is a good guy in his pov, unaware his actions is too toxic and Philippines at first is mad but goes "but he never excludes me from learning his language, getting new stuff etc unlike what he did" and tries to rationalize that Alfred is really a good "parent" and trying to forget what had happened.

Not helping the fact Alfred meddles in his affairs like a copter parent.

Edit: Salamat @asitrita for pointing that yes there is a compulsory public education in the Philippines during Spanish Colonial times although it is inefficient af :T and not as effective as the American, plus:

From wikipedia

Initially, the stance of the Roman Catholic Church and its missionaries was to preach to the natives in local languages, not in Spanish. The priests learned the native languages and sometimes employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as Ladinos. Before the 19th century, few natives were taught Spanish. However, there were notable bilingual individuals such as poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén. Gaspar produced Christian devotional poetry written in the Roman script in Tagalog. Pasyon is a narrative of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ begun by Gaspar Aquino de Belén, which has circulated in many versions.

Edit 2: Okay I was wrong to compare 19th century education to 20th century education of Spain vs USA and that Spain actually tried to educate the country (and in that era, their education would be considered better and equal to those in the homeland though I have doubts because of biases :/ not sure who is being truthful), I am just trying point out WHY pinas would rationalize himself as to why Alfred is a better parent, trying to gaslight and convince himself, erasing the good points.

It is kinda hard to strike as there are bias education books throughout the schools I went to, not to mention even International Philippine school abroad.

BUT the crux of the matter is that Pinas is trying to RATIONALIZE how Alfred is better. Gaslight, stockholm etc.

I mean, how does one translate the whole Colonial Mentality and the Well done dad trope to country personifcations.

Fyi tho :/ I am not sure even if Spain was better tbh, because of the whole rose tinted glasses and let us not forget about that bs Magellan and Elcano movie.

Edit 3: Geezus christ that feeling when a lot of people from said colonizing country is scolding you for being ignorant... WELL GIVE US BACK OUR MYTHOLOGY THEN?! DO I LOOK LIKE PRO USA?! I LITERALLY POINTED OUT HOW TOXIC ALFRED IS!

[coquesne]

For the ask game: 1, 2, 4, 5, 19, 24 (sorry if it's a lot but they're all so interesting!)

Thank you for asking all that! This got really long so it’s under the cut

1. Historical figure you used to like before you learned more about

Idk if I ever really liked a historical figure, like as a person, but I would probably have to say John Laurens based on what I thought about him from the Hamilton musical fandom’s interpretation of him (soft uwu turtle boi. just. no.) and then when I read his actual biography and learned more about him as a person. Not saying that I don’t like him anymore or think that he was a bad person (certainly not if we’re comparing him to other South Carolinians of the time) but he’s definitely a complex person to figure out (and honestly? that’s what I love about learning about him and practically all other historical figures) and at times made some questionable moral decisions.

2. Historical figure you love to hate

Ooh! Marquis de Sade! He was a truly fucked up individual but intensely interesting. Absolutely insane that he spent a total of 32 years in prison and just kept writing really violent porn throughout it. I think that he was Not a good person and I can’t ethically agree with most of his philosophies, but I think that he deserves to be seen as a philosopher in his own right like all those other guys you probably know more than me about because (and now we’re just going straight into philosophy instead of history) those are some really interesting ideas. Basically I hate him personally, but I love him as a historical figure.

4. Historical figure everyone should collectively stop talking about

This one’s hard. Henry VIII? Maybe I’m just saying this because my mom watched The Tudors a few too many times and now brings Henry VIII up whenever I talk about history (and my kind of history is never related to late medieval English monarchy (ok except for the fact that under Henry VIII England made buggery a crime and that does actually relate to what I study))

5. Historical figure we should talk more about

OH BOY let me introduce you to a person named George/Mary/Charles Hamilton because they actually used all three of these names (no relation to the other Hamilton). He was born Mary Hamilton in England, and then at fourteen dressed as a boy and under the name George and began training to be a doctor. Later in life, he ended up actually marrying a woman, but a few months later the woman reported George and since there was no actual crime on the books befitting what George did, they charged him with fraud, for supposedly tricking the woman into marrying them. We don’t know if there was a trick, or if the woman knew she was marrying a biological woman and just got angry enough for some other reason to tell the authorities, but George ended up being whipped for fraud. Henry Fielding, Just Some Guy™ , wrote a fictionalized version of Hamilton’s life and story under the title The Female Husband, popularizing this version of events in which George married 14 different women and defrauded them (this did not happen). This was in 1746, and Hamilton drops off the radar in England. Then, a couple decades later in Philadelphia I think it was, there’s a man named Charles Hamilton going around doctoring and I think may have been living with another woman (I can find the source for this if you want me to I’m just lazy). There’s no direct link that George and Charles Hamilton were the same person, but the timeline lands right and everything is a very perfect coincidence if that’s what it actually was. The Wikipedia page for Mary Hamilton is in my opinion trash and unnecessarily disparaging and that’s probably due to the fact that the most cited source in it was written in the 50s. I’m sure you can imagine why that’s not ideal. But anyway, one of the most interesting life stories i think and no one knows about it.

19. Which historical kingmaker / hand behind the throne kinda person would you gladly be a puppet of?

Ooh this is a hard one. I don’t actually know that much about stuff like this. I’d maybe say Ivarr, Ubba, and Halfdan Ragnarsson? They did a bunch of stuff with the Great Heathen Army in the 800s and were pretty cool. Like all of the kings of England were just paying them and saying ‘please don’t attack us look money and horses.’ Idk much about them except from what I learned playing Assassins Creed Valhalla

24. What made you fall in love with history?

*no one get mad at me please* Hamilton. Fucking Hamilton. Don’t worry, now I think that it was objectively bad and the fandom is absolutely toxic and just plain weird (looking at you, hatsune miku jefferson binder). But yeah. I listened to Hamilton, I thought, wait, this guy sounds cool, I read the Chernow biography, I thought, wait, this guy is just a Hamilton fanboy I don’t wanna read this. At this point in time I’ve read tons about Hamilton the person and though I still think that he has an objectively cool story, he’s very hyped and I can’t think about Alexander Hamilton without remembering being 14 and fangirling over the musical version of him and cringing. But I got introduced to the wacky world of 18th century queer history through him and Laurens and the rest is history (that was a horrible pun i’m so sorry). Yeah. Now I’m a history major and it’s all thanks to Lin Manuel Miranda I hate it too.

[haylorinthewoods]

This is just a question and I hope nobody attacks me because after all at the end of the day, these are all theories. But do you think you’ll 100% be ok if one day Harry or Taylor write their biography and every theory is debunked. We know 1989 and Two Ghost are confirmed haylor, but if they say that’s it. HS1 or mmith, woman, only angel and ftdt are about some else. They didn’t hookup after and just remained friends unlike speculation. part 1

I used to be a hardcore haylor, a bit of a tinhat you may say. Like I really believed they were secretly together 2016. After that I try to distance myself and try to take in different perspectives of the relationship. Overall I just find haylor interesting and I’m trash for it, but I do try to prepare myself that maybe one day they’ll reveal it wasn’t as grand or long as we theorize. Do you think you’ll also readily accept that if ever? This isn’t a shade, just really curious part 2

Yeah, I’m positive I’ll be 100% okay.  In fact, I think I’d be less okay if we found out that all these theories were true.  I would literally pass out and idk, it would fuck my life up if Harry or Taylor confirmed their relationship was as tumultuous and extensive as the fandom believes.  Anyways yes, there have been times where I’ve been completely wrapped up in haylor theories, but I always make sure I know that they are just theories.  I’ve speculated A LOT about HS1 but I’ve always been pretty firm with my followers about the fact that I don’t know for sure who these songs are about, with the exception of Two Ghosts. Same with Taylor’s albums post 1989.  I’ve speculated a lot about Reputation, I’ve made lyric parallels etc, but really, for me, it’s just for fun.  There are blogs out there that will tell you 100% that New Year’s Day is about Harry, which is RIDUCLOUS.  That literally makes no sense to me.  Same with people trying to say with complete confidence that The Lakes is about Harry.  It’s just not true.  Sure, I can make arguments about how So It Goes... is about Harry, but like.................IDK MAN.  It’s all speculation, and I’m not the kind of person to lay my life on the line for a ship involving real people.  I look at larries and it’s like, why are they doing this to themselves???  It literally hurts my brain trying to understand the mind of an actual tinhat conspiracy theorist.  I don’t ever want to be like that.  It can be difficult when you’re so immersed in a fandom and you only ever see one side.  I’m glad you were able to give yourself a little distance and get some perspective.    

At the end of the day, Harry and Taylor are my faves.  I love them individually, I love their music, and I love who they are as people.  So yeah, I’m gonna continue to tag photos of Harry with lyrics from Call It What You Want, but that doesn’t mean that I think the song is about him.  The lyric just WORKS right????  Because he IS fit like a daydream, and he IS fly like a jet stream, high above the whole scene.  Basically what you said, “overall I just find haylor interesting and I’m trash for it.”  Which is exactly why I will tell you that I truly (probably/maybe/fully) believe that haylor was a lot more complex than a 3 month fling back in 2012 😇