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tinyshe · 4 years ago

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Witchcraft 101

by Michelle Arnold • 7/1/2008 Catholic Answers

What springs to mind when someone mentions “witchcraft“? Three hags sitting about a cauldron chanting “Double, double, toil and trouble”? A pretty housewife turning someone into a toad at the twitch of her nose? Or perhaps you think of Wicca and figure that it is witchcraft hidden beneath a politically correct neologism.

Witchcraft has become a hot topic in recent years. From J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books to self-described witches agitating for political and social parity with mainstream religious traditions, Christians have had to re-examine witchcraft and formulate a modern apologetic approach to it.

In an age of science and skepticism, it may be difficult to understand why intelligent people would be drawn to witchcraft, which encompasses both a methodology of casting spells and invoking spirits and an ideology that encourages finding gods and goddesses both in nature and within the self. In her “conversion story,” self-described Wiccan high priestess Phyllis Curott, an Ivy League-educated lawyer who was raised by agnostics, describes her journey from secular materialism to Wicca as a rejection of the idea that humans are made for mammon alone:

I discovered the answers . . . to questions buried at the center of my soul . . . How are we to find our lost souls? How can we rediscover the sacred from which we have been separated for thousands of years? How can we live free of fear and filled with divine love and compassion? . . . How can we restore and protect this Eden, which is our fragile planet? (Curott, Book of Shadows, xii)

These are indeed important questions that deserve answers, answers that can be found in their fullness in Christ and in his Church. In a homily then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave at the Mass just before his election to the papacy, he famously observed:

How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves—flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth.

Witchcraft has been around for centuries, perhaps even millennia, but is emerging once more from the shadows as one answer to skepticism, to materialism, even to self-absorption. It is, so to speak, the wrong answer to the right questions; it is, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “gravely contrary to the virtue of religion” (CCC 2117). Catholics should not discourage these questions but must be prepared to offer the only answer: Christ and his Church.

Witchcraft’s apologists like to claim that they are the misunderstood victims of centuries of religious prejudice. Unfortunately, all too many Christians make such claims credible when they misunderstand witchcraft and craft their rebuttals of it based upon those misconceptions. If someone you know is dabbling in witchcraft, here are five things you should know before starting a conversation with him.

Witches do not believe in Satan.

If there is one belief common to witches everywhere, it is that they do not believe in Satan and that they do not practice Satanism. Witchcraft’s apologists are quick to point this out.

Denise Zimmermann and her co-authors of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft emphasize, “Witches don’t believe in Satan! . . . The all-evil Satan is a Christian concept that plays no part in the Wiccan religion . . . Witches do not believe that negativity or evil is an organized force. . . . Neither do Wiccans believe there is a place (hell) where the damned or the evil languish and suffer” (13).

Christian apologists should acknowledge that witches do not consciously worship Satan and that they do not believe he exists. But this does not mean that Satan needs to be left entirely out of the conversation. A Christian apologist should point out that belief in someone does not determine that person’s actual reality.

One way to demonstrate this is to ask the witch if she believes in the pope. “No,” she’s likely to answer. “The pope is a Christian figure.” True, you concede. But there is a man in Rome who holds the office of the papacy, right? Your belief or disbelief in the papacy does not determine whether or not the papacy exists. Put that way, a person will have to acknowledge that something or someone can exist independently of belief in its reality. That’s when you can make the case that Satan exists and that he does not require belief to determine his reality or his action in someone’s life. In fact, disbelief in him can make it easier for him to accomplish his ends.

In the preface to The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis notes that “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

While it is true that witches do not directly worship Satan or practice Satanism, their occult practices, such as divination, and their worship of false gods and of each other and themselves—which they explain as worshipping the “goddess within”—can open them to demonic activity. To make the case though, it is imperative to present it in a manner that won’t be dismissed out of hand.

Witchcraft and Wicca are not synonyms.

Wicca, originally spelled Wica, is the name given to a subset of witchcraft by its founder Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Although some claim the word Wicca means “wise,” in her book Drawing Down the Moon, Margot Adler states that it “derive[s] from a root wic, or weik, which has to do with religion and magic” (40). Adler also says that the word witch originates with wicce and wicca. Marian Singer explains the difference between Wicca and witchcraft this way: “Witchcraft implies a methodology . . . whereas the word Wiccan refers to a person who has adopted a specific religious philosophy” (The Everything Wicca and Witchcraft Book, 4).

Because witchcraft is often defined as a methodology and Wicca as an ideology, a person who considers himself a witch but not a Wiccan may participate in many of the same practices as a Wiccan, such as casting spells, divining the future, perhaps even banding together with others to form a coven. This can make it easy for an outsider to presume that both the witch and the Wiccan share the same beliefs. But, if someone tells you he is not a Wiccan, it is only courteous to accept that. The Christian case against witchcraft does not depend on a witch identifying himself as a Wiccan. (There are also Wiccans who reject the label “witch,” but this is often a distinction without a difference. Even so, use the preferred term to avoid alienating the person with whom you are speaking.)

Several strands of Wicca attract followings, including: Gardnerian, Alexandrian, and Georgian, which are named for their founders; Seax, which patterns itself on Saxon folklore; Black Forest, which is an eclectic hodgepodge of Wiccan traditions; and the feminist branch known as Dianic Wicca after the Roman goddess Diana. Knowing the distinctions among these traditions may not be important for the Christian apologist, but he should keep in mind that there are distinctions and that he should not make statements that start out with “Wiccans believe . . .” Rather, allow the other person to explain what he believes and then build a Christian apologetic tailored to that person’s needs.

Witches question authority.

When dealing with self-identified witches, remember that no two witches will agree with each other on just about anything. Witches are non-dogmatic to the extreme, with one witch apologist suggesting “[s]ending dogma to the doghouse” and claiming that “[r]eligious dogma and authority relieve a person of the responsibility of deciding on his or her own actions” (Diane Smith, Wicca & Witchcraft for Dummies, 32).

Generally speaking, witches prefer to give authority to their own personal experiences. Phyllis Curott, author of a book titled Witch Crafting, puts it this way: “Witches, whether we are women or men, experience the Goddess within us and in the world all around us. I love what Starhawk [witch and popular speaker and writer] said about this: ‘People often ask me if I believe in the Goddess. I reply, Do you believe in rocks?’” (121, emphasis in original). In other words, witches know “the Goddess” exists because they can experience her by at least one of their five senses. Faith in such a material deity calls to mind the demon Screwtape’s longing for hell’s “perfect work—the Materialist Magician” (Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 31).

Throwing a bucket of cold water on a witch’s “personal experiences” will not be easy, particularly since one of the frightening.aspects of witchcraft is that some witches do have, and blithely report, extraordinary preternatural experiences. Incidents that could and should scare away many dabblers from playing with forces beyond their control are recounted by witchcraft’s apologists as affirmative of their path. Curott tells of a man who once dreamed of “being prey” of a monstrous creature; ultimately, in the dream, he was captured by the creature. Rather than taking this as a sign he should reconsider the path down which he was heading, he awoke “deeply transformed” by the dream’s ending because he believed “tremendous love” was felt for him by the creature. He eventually became a Wiccan priest (Witch Crafting, 154–155).

How can a Christian argue against a belief like that?

Ultimately, it may be that a Damascus-road moment might be necessary to sway someone that deeply entrenched in traffic with preternatural creatures. To those who are not as enmeshed, a Christian can point out that sometimes apologists for the occult have warned their readers not to be taken in by their experiences with spirits.

In a section of his book titled “Practicing Safe Spirituality,” author Carl McColman gives a checklist of “some common-sense precautions” occultists should be aware of “while meditating, doing ritual, reflecting on your dreams, or doing any other spiritual work that may involve contact with spirits.” The first item on the list is “Don’t automatically believe everything you hear. Just because a spirit says something doesn’t make it so” (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism, 129).

Witchcraft is an inversion of Catholicism.

Observers of witchcraft have claimed that it is remarkably similar to Catholicism. Catholic journalist and medievalist Sandra Miesel called it “Catholicism without Christ” (“The Witches Next Door,” Crisis, June 2002). Writer and editor Charlotte Allen noted that “Practicing Wicca is a way to have Christianity without, well, the burdens of Christianity” (“The Scholars and the Goddess,” The Atlantic, January 2001).

It’s easy to see why the assertion is made. Allen notes that as witchcraft cycles through its “liturgical year,” many of its adherents honor a goddess who births a god believed to live, die, and rise again. Fraternization with apparently friendly preternatural spirits is encouraged and eagerly sought. The rituals of witchcraft call to mind Catholic liturgies, particularly the libation and blessing ritual alternately known as “Cakes and Wine” and “Cakes and Ale.” Like Catholics collecting rosaries, scapulars, statues, and prayer books, witches have their own “potions, notions, and tools” as Curott calls them —some of which include jewelry, statues and dolls, and spell books and journals.

But to say that witchcraft has uncanny similarities to Catholicism is to understate the matter. Witchcraft is an inversion of Catholicism: Catholicism emptied of Christ and stood on its head. This is most readily seen in witchcraft’s approach to authority.

In his book Rome Sweet Home, Scott Hahn compares authority in the Church to a hierarchical pyramid with the pope at the top, with all of the members, including the pope, reaching upward toward God (46–47). With its antipathy to authority and its reach inward to the self and downward to preternatural spirits, witchcraft could also be illustrated with a triangle—every adherent poised at the top as his own authority and pointed down in the sort of “Lower Command” structure envisioned by Lewis’s Screwtape.

Witchcraft is dangerous.

In my work as an apologist, I have read a number of introductory books to various non-Catholic and non-Christian religions. Never before my investigation into witchcraft had I seen introductory books on a religion that warn you about the dangers involved in practicing it. The dangers that witch apologists warn newcomers about are both corporal and spiritual.

In her book, Diane Smith includes a chapter titled “Ten Warning Signs of a Scam or Inappropriate Behavior” (Wicca & Witchcraft for Dummies, chapter 23). Her top-10 list includes “Inflicting Harm,” “Charging Inappropriate Fees or Demanding Undue Money,” “Engaging in Sexual Manipulation,” “Using Illicit Drugs or Excessive Amounts of Alcohol in Spiritual Practice,” and “Breeding Paranoia.” Smith claims that such a need to be wary is common to religion: “[U]nscrupulous or unstable people sometimes perpetrate scams or other manipulations under the guise of religion, and this situation is as true for Wicca as for other religious groups” (317).

However true it may be that there can be “unscrupulous or unstable people” involved in traditional religions, most practitioners—Christian or otherwise—do not experience problems with these behaviors to such an extent that religious apologists see the need to issue caveats to proselytes. That Smith does so suggests that these problems are far more widespread in witchcraft than in traditional religion.

We noted one paganism apologist who warned his readers to “practice safe spirituality.” McColman goes on to caution that the “advice” of spirits “must be in accordance with your own intuition for it to be truly useful.” He goes on to say, “You remain responsible for your own decisions. Remember that spirit guides make mistakes like everybody else!” (Paganism, 128).

Catholics concerned about loved ones involved with witchcraft may not be attracted to witchcraft themselves, but there is danger for them in pursuing dabblers down the road to the occult in hopes of drawing them back. In preparing themselves to answer the claims of witchcraft, they may feel the need to read books like those mentioned in this article. If they are not fully educated and firm in their own faith, such Catholics may find their own faith under attack. Three suggestions are in order.

Not all are called to be apologists. If you are not intellectually and spiritually prepared to answer the claims of witchcraft, leave such work to others. Search out knowledgeable Catholics with whom your loved one can speak.

Prepare yourself. Common sense indicates that if you are about to rappel down a cliff, you do so with safety ropes firmly attached and in the presence of someone you trust who can help you if you are in danger. Don’t even think of rappelling down a spiritual cliff without seeking to fortify yourself intellectually and spiritually—particularly spiritually. Inform your confessor or spiritual director of your plans to study and answer the claims of witchcraft. Ask trusted Catholic friends to pray for your work. Regularly receive the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist. If you need to stop or take a break from this area of apologetics, by all means do so. And, most importantly:

Pray. Whether or not you are called to personally minister to those involved in witchcraft, the most fundamental thing you can do to help witches and other dabblers in the occult is to pray.

Saints whose intercession you can seek include Bl. Bartholomew Longo, the repentant former satanic priest who returned to the Church and spent the rest of his life promoting the rosary; St. Benedict, who battled pagans and whose medal is often worn in protection against the devil; St. Michael the Archangel (Jude 1:9), invoked especially by the prayer for his intercession commonly attributed to Pope Leo XIII. And, of course, there’s St. Paul, who reminds us: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39).

SIDEBARS

The Catechism on Witchcraft

There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (CCC 1852)

God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. (CCC 2115)

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (CCC 2116)

All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others—even if this were for the sake of restoring their health—are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (CCC 2117)

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Further Reading

Charlotte Allen, “The Scholars and the Goddess,” The Atlantic, January 2001 (Available online: www.theatlantic.com)

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (HarperCollins)

Sandra Miesel, “Who Burned the Witches?” Crisis, October 2001 (Available online: www.catholiceducation.org)

Sandra Miesel, “The Witches Next Door,” Crisis, June 2002

Catherine Edwards Sanders, Wicca’s Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality (Shaw Books, 2005)

Donna Steichen, Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism (Ignatius, 1991)

Alois Wiesinger, O.C.S.O, Occult Phenomena in the Light of Theology (Roman Catholic Books)

#catholicanswers #catholic answers

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tackypies · 6 years ago

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cw and tw list for agartha

the next epic of remnant will be agartha. agartha is the black sheep even with the JPN fandom because of the questionable handling of its themes, its subject matter, and etc. this is a section-by-section list detailing the potentially upsetting and triggering content, to ensure that you have a safe experience

if you are uncomfortable with rape and transphobic themes, i strongly suggest you read this list beneath the cut.

what’s wrong with agartha? it’s a misogynistic “women enslave men/women take revenge on men” storyline written from a highly fetishistic perspective and has the most transphobic scenes in the game

what’s the deal with the sudden shift in tone? E.O.R was a chance for a single writer on the f/go writing team to handle an entire “singularity” by themselves. they were responsible for writing all the scenes, with the details run by nasu to ensure that nothing contradicted the worldbuilding. save for the CCC event, which was written by nasu, we don’t know the specific writer behind each E.O.R., so we can’t say for certain who was behind agartha’s. i, for one, don’t take any of the characterization of beginning-/mid-agartha as canon bc fuck that noise

i’ve received some information from @the-grand-order that indicates minase was likely involved in the writing. please see the note at the bottom of the cut for an updated version of this post to reblog.

does agartha’s writing predict fgo’s future handling of these issues? no. no other event or chapter focuses on gender and sex so heavily. (save for the ooku event, but that event handles the topic of sex WAY better than agartha.) in fact, the writers have been careful to try and redeem characterizations from agartha, as seen by caster of nightless city’s interlude. it wasn’t a very well-received storyline overall :/

how accurate is this list? i’m going off of detailed summaries of the story, so this may not be perfect. this is an overview of the most egregious parts of the story and things may be changed with the NA translation. i don’t have high hopes. consider this a general guideline and, if in doubt, please ask a capable friend to check for you

if i’ve made any mistakes or have left anything out, please let me know and i’ll update it accordingly!

cw and tw list beneath the cut. warning for rape, transphobia, sexual harrassment, misgendering, pedophilia, suicidal ideation

Another Note: i’ve removed the warnings stating that astolfo is misgendered as he/she due to the fact that astolfo uses he/she/they freely as his pronouns. please see this reblog for more information. thank you

Section One: -transphobic comment by guda, referring to d’eon as “male”

Section Three: -explicit discussion of sexual slavery and gangrape throughout the section

Section Four: -reference to sexual slavery throughout the section

Section Five: -sexual harassment and threats of rape throughout the section -explicit references of sexual slavery and rape throughout the section -extreme transphobia towards d’eon and astolfo, where the pirates fetishize their nb identities -astolfo makes a sexual comment towards young fergus

Section Six: -explicit rape scene at the beginning of the section -torture and physical abuse of slaves -discussion of raping a slave -reference to sexual slavery -astolfo makes a sexual comment towards young fergus -dahut threatens to rape guda -assassin of nightless city makes a sexual comment towards guda (”Oh, or perhaps you would prefer being called Onii-chan like before?“)

Section Eight: -guda makes a comment about not minding if astolfo and d’eon stripped in front of them (idk what category this falls under but it’s kinda ick) -transphobic scene where mash asks guda if they’ve checked for d’eon’s “real” gender, and the camera zooms in on d’eon’s chest -da vinci, guda, and mash make sexual jokes about fergus in front of young fergus -guda makes a pedophilia joke -reference to sexual slavery and rape

Section Nine: -da vinci makes a rape joke -caster of nightless city implies she would perform sex on young fergus to survive

Section Ten: -berserker of el dorado explicitly discusses sexual slavery and threatens to sexually enslave the men throughout the section Section Eleven: -mash implies that astolfo may sexually harass/molest guda

Section Twelve: -dahut makes sexual advances towards guda and co.

Section Fourteen: -long discussion of slavery, frequent references to slavery (not sexual this time, thank god) and of colonization

Section Fifteen: -reference to fergus raping women -reference to caster of nightless city’s sexual abuse

Section Sixteen: -suicidal ideation is expressed -mention of slavery/colonization -young fergus makes sexual comments/advances towards caster of nightless city throughout the section -this isn’t really a trigger warning, just a general warning that young fergus’ entire damn speech is full of cringy gender essentialist comments like “Fergus says that if [Caster of Nightless City] had a nice man whom she fell in love with by her side, along with a beloved child, perhaps she would have no time for fearing death at all. He thinks that she can’t deny it.”

UPDATE: i’ve been informed that it’s highly likely that minase, one of the writers of prisma illya, was the writer. his name is credited as the creator of four main characters in agartha. again, a big thank you to @the-grand-order for their help!

i strongly recommend that you separate the content from the author when it comes to berserker of el dorado, caster of nightless city, rider of resistance and assassin of nightless city. all of them have received interludes written by different authors since agartha’s release, and caster of nightless city as well as berserker of el dorado have been included in various events to be given better characterization. if you wind up loving the characters, go ahead and love them. they’re your children now. fuck minase :^)

please reblog the updated version here.

#long post #fate grand order #fgo #agartha

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queermediastudies · 6 years ago

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Everybody Cried

The movie Boys Don’t Cry is a film released in 1999 by director Kimberly Perice following Brandon Teena, a transgender male-to-female facing a “sexual identity crisis”. It follows him on his journey from his hometown, after his ex-girlfriend finds out his true biological sex, through to Falls City, Nebraska where he begins his new love affair with a girl named Lana Tisdel. However, he gets into more trouble than he could’ve ever imagined when his lies, his crimes, and, for the second time, his true sex all come out.

This film is based on the tragic true story of a transgender male by the same name as was commended for its being real and emotional without being edgy or betting on stereotypes. Brandon’s character is not particularly stereotypical and is complex. His character made this movie into a “breakout text” as it was one of the first films to represent male-to-female transgendered people in a real and believable way.

Image source:https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/boys-dont-cry-1999

There is a huge part of the film that focuses on sexual violence and hate crimes against transgender people. As discussed in class, transgendered people, especially of color, face so much criminal and sexual violence. Transgender people are faced with “violence such as harassment, stalking, vandalism, and physical and sexual assault”(Office for Victims of Crime). The movie’s portrayal of rape and assault, followed by manipulation and, in the end, murder is exactly the fear amongst the transgender and queer communities. Brandon is raped and murdered by John Lotter, an ex-convict and Lana’s friend, who murder’s Brandon because he is a “dyke” and reported the rape. While the scene’s are raw and sometimes uncomfortable, it is a reality that plagues the trans community with fear. However, like every movie, it is not perfect and Boys Don’t Cry in particular has strong critics that believe the representation in the film has its downfalls.

Hilary Swank who plays Brandon Teena is a cis female playing a transgender man and many critics disagree with the casting choice. Regardless of her performance in the role, many people believe that Brandon should have been played by a transgender man and fight back against the choice to cast Swank. Because Hilary is not a trans man, she naturally casts heteronormativity on Brandon’s role, preventing a real transgender man from representing the character. There was even a protest regarding Swank’s role in the movie (Dry, Jude). Though this is not Hilary’s fault, many still argue her casting was not the right choice. This roots back to the discourse of “best actor” as discussed in class from Dr. Martin’s piece The Queer Business of Casting Gay Characters on U.S. Television, where directors justify not hiring minorities for roles they represent in favor of a better actor who is almost always does not identify with the minority role they are playing. However, I don’t think this is a case of best actor. 1999, when the movie was released, was a different time than today and Hilary Swank was taking a risk taking the role at all. Her performance in the role does not glorify what trans people go through nor does her playing the role invite any discrimination to others who may have tried for Brandon’s role.

Image source: http://www.dvdexotica.com/2015/06/the-european-cut-of-boys-dont-cry-is.html

I have also noted that Boys Don’t Cry focuses on a completely white cast. This could be potentially problematic as white becomes the only representation in the movie. There are no people of color throughout the movie or, at least, no people of color as main characters. Some argue that this is because the movie takes place in Nebraska and that the state does not have a large racial diversity to begin with. Others argue that including other races in the story where they were not present would be creating false representation and muddy the biographical qualities of the story instead. Counter-arguments state that the movie could’ve at least included some racial diversity amongst the background characters as it wouldn’t have taken away from the biographical integrity of changing the main characters races for the sake of equal representation. I do agree with the argument that there could have been some more racial diversity in the Nebraskan setting but I think casting a black character for the main roles could have proven dangerous for more social discourse. None of the characters in the film are particularly “good” people, maybe with the exception of Lana in the end. If a black actor had been cast as John or Tom Nissen, his friend and a colluder in Brandon’s murder, it could because a misunderstanding as to representing people or color as being associated with crime or as murderers. If a person of color was cast as Lana’s mother or her friends it could be misinterpreted as a social commentary on people of color being drunks or druggies. There are many ways casting could miscontrew the message but I don’t believe it is right to turn a movie focusing on trans issues into a movie half-tackling and half-creating race issues in addition to tackling trans issues.

Image source: http://ravepad.com/page/boys-dont-cry/images/view/1302188/Download-wallpaper-Boys-Do-not-Cry-Boys-Don-t-Cry-film-movies-fr

Overall, I agree that the movie has its flaws as all films do. Some of the criticism lies in the right place and some, I believe, is left to unreasonable expectations or overanalyzations. People and critics of today need to understand that the film comes from a different time, almost two decades from today and, at the time, this film was nothing short of taboo. From its open and believable representation of trans people and the violence and prejudice they still face today, Boys Don’t Cry is a breakout film for a reason. It’s telling of Brandon Teena’s story did something many films were afraid to do: starting a conversation about transgender people as people and not objects or the mentally deranged. This is why I believe Boys Don’t Cry is a great breakout text for it’s time, critics and all, and should be used to further the representation of the transgender community of today through the representation the community had in the past.

References:

Dry, J. (2016, December 14). 'Boys Don't Cry' Protests: Why We Should Listen to Trans Activists Criticizing The Milestone Film - Editorial. Retrieved from https://www.indiewire.com/2016/12/kimberly-peirce-boys-dont-cry-reed-transgender-1201757549/

Martin, A. L. (2018). The Queer Business of Casting Gay Characters on U.S. Television. Communication, Culture and Critique, 11(2), 282-297. doi:10.1093/ccc/tcy005

Peirce, K. (Director). (1999). Boys Don't Cry [Video file]. United States: Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ovc.gov/pubs/forge/sexual_numbers.html

#queer media #boys don't cry #brandonteena #lanatisdel #transgender film

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kylieinwashington · 6 years ago

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Monuments & Memorials

OK - I was toooooo tired to finish this last night - so here it is a day late.

Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018

It is almost 11:00 PM and we have been home less than 30 minutes. We topped 20,000 steps in our quest to see and understand most of the Monuments and Memorials that ring the Mall and/or live close by.

During breakfast this morning the girls - who knows who started it - began singing songs from Hamilton. It was so cute and went on and on. Finally we had to began our day so we headed out about 8:45. We had talked about the amazing gift James Smithson gave to the United States so of course our first outing this AM was to the Smithsonian Castle and James Smithson’s tomb - which looks a lot like a bathtub...

There are currently 17 Smithsonian Museums dedicated to science, history, art and culture and each one more fabulous than the next and free to everyone. The weather today was glorious. Sunshine and temps in the high 50 -maybe even the in 60! - had us shedding our coats and enjoying the two meals we shared outdoors today. (More on our rather crazy outside dinner later!)

From the Smithsonian Castle we walked to the Washington Monument when Charlotte was our teacher. Prior to our trip, I assigned all the kids the job of learning about a specific monument and being our teacher. They were all very excited to take the teacher role - and today was the day. Charlotte was well prepared and excited to present and she carefully positioned us to view the beautiful monument and hear her lecture.

The 555 foot Washington Monument is closed currently - and indefinitely, according to the sign - while they try to repair or replace the elevator that has not worked with enough regularity to open it to the public since the 2011 earthquake. It was open 3 years ago when I was here with Colin but closed again shortly after our visit. Charlotte was a font of information and had our deepest attention. She was very proud of her “speech” and so were we.

From there we walked to the World War II Memorial. We prepped the kids with lots of talk of World War II and sent them to speak to one of the many volunteers about several subjects.

They had much work to do in their notebooks and moved around the monuments identifying one feature after another and understanding the symbolism it possessed.

From there we went to Signer’s island, a sweet little island that has the signature of all the 58 signers of the Declaration of Independence. We talked about the risks these men were taking by signing the document as the action truly was high treason punishable by death. I asked the kids to make rubbings of several of the signatures and as we did that we talked about who among us would have had the bravery to sign that document.

The answer was simple - NONE of us. Yes, if it had been left to the 6 of us, we would still be subjects of England. Hmmmmm...

A picnic lunch was next and we sat in the magnificent sunshine and ate our lunch we had packed earlier in the day. Perhaps the most interesting part of lunch were the very friendly Washington DC squirrels.

Those little suckers KNEW we had food and they saw no reason why we couldn’t just share. (But we didn’t.)

After lunch and squirrel shooing we headed to the Viet Nam War Memorial. I CANNOT get through this without tears - no matter how many times I have been there. We started at the Nurses Memorial statue (which was strewn with long stem roses) and the kids did not disappoint to look, think, reflect and try to understand. I assured them that however they interpret any sculpture is correct but we pushed them to look deeper and think harder. They saw the dedication, fear and exhaustion in the eyes of the nurses. They identified the sandbags but didn’t know why they were there and when we told them they were horrified. I KNOW these kids got more out of the statue than 99% of all adults who view it.

Next we looked up the names of soldiers on The Wall, one from Ann Arbor, Saline and Boulder, CO and then went to find them. Moving.

We talked about the design of the monument and the designer. But nothing is more impactful that walking that wall and getting deeper and deeper into the list of dead and then actually seeing the name you are searching for - right before your eyes.

We finished this Memorial by visiting the Soldier’s Statues. Again the kids were very insightful and willing to be pushed pass what you see on the first pass. I love it.

Next up was The Korean War Memorial. Here we talked about the United Nations Coalition and the very clever way in which the designer of the monument used the 19 soldiers and the reflective black marble to tell us about the 38th parallel that still divides the Korean Peninsula. I was born during this hot mess and I am always struck with how long this has continued. Sadly hate has a long shelf life. :(

We walked right through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial because we have big plans for that tonight but I could not miss taking this amazing pic!

Next we walked to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. I love the way the designer uses water to represent the mood/health of the nation. I will forever be grateful for all the benefits of the CCC and the WPA. Brilliant. We talked about the soup kitchens and the “fireside chats” but mostly we focused on the quotes. Every single quote holds true today and I wish the leaders of our country would embrace his caring empathic thoughts.

I truly enjoyed discussing these quotes with these brilliant young minds and I have hope that maybe their generation can clean up the mess we are are making. Sigh....

Eleanor Roosevelt was next and we talked about “walking the walk.” She was the perfect example of this.

Next up was the beautiful Thomas Jefferson Memorial with teacher Kylie.

She was so excited and did a wonderful job - although she did have us move from the top to the bottom and right back up (our legs were sooooo tired) . The climbing, however was completely relevant and necessary because how else could we see the beautiful and significant frieze on the portico? Well done!

This ended our major walking tour and all we had to do was jump on the Circulator bus and head to Union Station for dinner and our tour to see the remaining significant monuments. But we missed the bus by about 3 minutes and had to wait for 27 minutes for the next one. Then it was the slow roll to Union Station. Gwynn read that restaurants in Union Station close at 6:00 on Sunday and our tour was a 6:30 and as the bus creeped down the roads the time ticked away. To make things more stressful the inside lights of the bus stayed on which meant NO ONE could see outside and IF the driver was announcing the stop he was doing it in a tiny whisper - so we had no idea where we were and when we needed to get off. I kept looking out of the window only to see myself which was NOT helpful. I had a map but I needed just ONE POINT OF REFERENCE - (just like the astronauts in Apollo 13!) - and finally Dylan said - Hey there is the Washington Monument!” Bingo!!!!

We FINALLY arrived at Union Station at 6:01. The kids are hungry - but not quite HANGRY - but it couldn’t be too far behind. BUT the food places were open although people were already lining up for our tour we grabbed some food and went outside to wait. We got food ASAP and headed outside where we ate on something that worked as a table but was NOT a table.

We boarded the bus to this view:

We spent 30 minutes at the MLK Jr Memorial and the kids used every second filling in their books and talking about the amazing quote on the walls surrounding the Memorial. This makes my heart sing!

We spent an additional 30 minutes at the Lincoln Memorial and believe me that it was NOT enough time. But what a wonderful time.

Finally, teacher Dylan was up for the Marine Corps Memorial - Iwo Jima. He was prepared and fabulous. I was very proud of all of our teachers today - and so were they.

Finally we boarded the Metro and headed “home.” To say we were tired would be an understatement.

But I can say we had a day filled with education, thoughtful discussion and discovery - and THAT my friends is a day well done.

Stay tuned.

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thewahookid · 3 years ago

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One of the greatest blessings we have as Catholics is the Mother of the Church, the Virgin Mary. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, Mary is your spiritual mother, the queen of heaven and earth. While this is simple for many of us to understand, it can also be challenging for many Christians to grasp, both Catholics and Protestants. I want to use today’s post to shed some light on what the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us about praying to the Virgin Mary, as well as what the Bible tells us about her.

Let’s clear the air before getting started for any of our Protestant brothers and sisters who might be reading along. No, Catholics do not worship the Virgin Mary. Just the idea of that is nonsense. We worship a triune God, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That being said, we honor Mary, the mother of our Lord and Savior.

Many people honor people who are no longer living on this earth every day. We honor family members, military veterans, and many other people who have made a difference in the world we live in. We love them. They have a special place in our hearts. This is no different than how Catholics view Mary. Let’s look at what the CCC tells us in paragraph 2674.

“Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son ‘who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties.’ Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she ‘shows the way,’ and is herself ‘the Sign’ of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.”

We go on to read in paragraph 2679:

“Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.”

There is much more the CCC tells us about praying to the Virgin Mary in paragraphs 2673 – 2679. I encourage you to read them this week before my next post. I want to use the rest of what I am writing today to look at giving Mary a place in our hearts, following a biblical example, and following Mary’s lead. Let’s get started.

Giving the Virgin Mary a Place in our Hearts

I need to be very clear again. No, I am not telling anyone to worship Mary. That being said, the mother of God needs to have a special place in our hearts. She set an example of obedience each of us needs to follow. She was obedient to death, the death of her Son.

Because God is sovereign, I’m sure He would have figured something out if Mary wouldn’t have gone along. Still, God didn’t have to. The Virgin Mary took on whatever role God had for her to play. This would have been much more difficult than we realize. She was betrothed to be married. Becoming pregnant all of a sudden would have thrown a wrench in the bag.

Related: Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Mary’s “Yes”

She was younger than a lot of people realize. The majority of biblical scholars and commentators put her between the ages of 13 – 15 at the time of the Annunciation. Think about this for just a second. God used a young teenage girl to play a significant part in changing the history of the world. The Virgin Mary played a role in salvation for every one of us. Yes, she deserves a very special place in our hearts. Right next to her Son.

Not a place of worship, but one of great honor and love. The majority of grown men today couldn’t go through half of what she did before 30. Mary carried the Son of God, gave birth to Him, raised Jesus, and then watched Him be killed. Yes, this is someone we honor.

A Biblical Example

One of the many beliefs that Catholics and Protestants have in common is that we take the Bible as the written Word of God. Scripture is both a history to learn from and a knowledge to be growing towards. The Bible isn’t just a book or novel we read to our children. It is to be applied in our daily lives. Let’s look at what the Bible tells us about the Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke 1:46 – 49:

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”

Just for the record, that comes from the ESV, a Bible translation with both a Catholic and Protestant version. Just a heads up, the current generation is part of “all generations.” We are to call her blessed.

The majority of people who will tell you that Catholics make too much of the Virgin Mary will also tell you the Word of God is their final authority. I can’t think of too many other women in the Bible that Scripture tells us “all generations will call me blessed.” Yes, the mother of God deserves our honor and our love.

Following Mary’s Lead

One of my favorite New Testament verses will always be Luke 1:38.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

As I mentioned earlier, the passage this verse comes from asked a lot of the Virgin Mary. Everything about her life was getting ready to change. Gabriel was informing her that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. If it had been me in a similar situation, I would have had many questions, to say the least. God would have had to provide me with some answers before I was willing to get on board. But, as frightened as Mary might have been, she allowed her faith, trust, and obedience to affect her circumstances instead of letting her fear dictate her response. That’s a lesson each of us can learn from, especially us Christian men.

Related: 5 Facts about the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

Many Christians, Catholics and Protestants alike, are quick to refer to Abraham as the father of our faith because of his faithfulness towards God. If we can be so quick to give him this label, why is it such a struggle for many to recognize the Virgin Mary as the mother of God?

I want anyone who displays the faithfulness Mary did to be a part of my prayers. Regardless if I’m praying with or to her, I want the mother of God to play a role while I’m praying. I’ll leave you with this. We know that Jesus created every single person since the start of time. I want to believe that there was something special involved when He was knitting the Virgin Mary in her mother’s womb. God would have known Mary’s role in the salvation of the world.

While each of us is created equally, with the same amount of God’s love, I want to believe something special went into creating her. So, yes, I pray to the mother of Jesus. Because He is a great Son, no, I don’t believe He takes that as me disrespecting Him. On the contrary, I think it means something to Jesus. I think it makes Him smile.

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thessaliah · 7 years ago

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What are favorite and least favorite portrayal of Servants in Fate?

Uhh, there’s a lot? I’ll assume with portrayals, you mean how legends or historical backgrounds were adapted and reinvented and if I like them? Keep in mind there are a lot I like and a lot I’m lukewarm I don’t mention here. Some get me more passionate than others.

Favorites (in no particular order).- Arturia, Merlin and most Round Table. You can tell that Nasu adores Arthuriana stuff and knows it deeply to come out with twists that make sense. Arturia and Mordred are one of the few genderbends who aren’t inherently lazy in Type Moon (unlike others made to just cash in Arturia’s design popularity and get no effort to explain why nobody thought they were women or ignored this - note, this doesn’t mean I dislike them, because I’m fond of Nero and the rest too, but it’s a strike down when you want to talk about this subject). Camelot is, to date, my favorite thing Nasu wrote next to Garden of Avalon because he has such grasp in these characters to make them unique, flawed and tragic. He isn’t afraid to make his female characters here in the wrong, something I deeply appreciate because makes them more sympathetic. The Lion-King was a gift. Yes, sure sometimes isn’t perfect (the characterization switch of Saber Alter from cooly angry tyrant to kuudere), but he usually takes a great care about their portrayal in a serious manner.- Oda siblings, Nobunaga and Nobuyuki: Guda Guda 2 was so good to turn Nobunaga from a joke character to a serious one with layers, she along with Arturia and her son, became the third serious genderbent, where she suffered the consequences of being a woman and it explains her ascension to power as damyo through Nobuyuki’s sacrifice who she found out later, in the event, never rebelled against her but was trying to expose her detractors and with his sacrifice, he was showing nobody should defy his sister. They hurt my heart.- Solomon: He’s a departure of the Judeo-Christian Solomon, but because a lot of him seems taken off the Islamic version (where he’s literally the world most perfect ruler ever, literally Godsent to build an ideal kingdom which would only last as he lived). He follows Nasu’s most complex king character of the recent years (I like Nero but she lacks ‘something’ for me to see her as a ruler character) to stand next to Arturia and classics, addressing old Fate questions about rulership, humanity, and heroism. I appreciate that, just like Arturia, Nasu obviously knew what he was doing and only adapted his background to Nasuverse to keep it creative but fresh.- Asterios: This is how you write a classic mythological monster and keep him sympathetic without erasing what he was, just give an explanation, and not try to portray the hero who slain him as a ‘loser’. Theseus was the first one who saw Asterios as a human being in his short published backstory and tried to comfort him when he died. - Leonardo Da Vinci: Her portrayal isn’t perfect, but it’s refreshing to see old theories come to life about Da Vinci (homosexuality, transsexuality). Da Vinci has the honor of being one of the few characters who actually has a love life that doesn’t involve sucking up to the main character or their love interest in life, goals that don’t involve the main character as the center of their lives, and has an exploration of her issues with loneliness and isolated she feels without involving the main character in her interlude (it’s a monologue). In other words, she’s allowed to be more than just Servant arm candy which is rare for a FGO original.- Florence Nightingale: I absolutely love Nightingale portrayal as Berserker, not so much without ME (we see her in Dantes event), but this asexual, aromantic, completely madwoman, in a good and bad sense, who is focused, intense and eloquent when she wants, intimidating men and women with her one-track mind mission to heal and purify, shows a bit how war takes the sanity of even the most saintly of people and yet they still remain themselves to the core.- Edmond Dantes: Nasu told everyone to watch Gankutsuou one day and said “come up with a Count of Monte Cristo who is nothing like that one”, and they did it. They did it and managed to make him iconic in portrayal too, without the stigma of having to compete with the Gonzo show classic. Against all odds, like poor publicity, limited event, Daganrompa design, he became one of FGO’s most popular originals, because they explored his entire personality and issues in a character-focused event, plus his backstory fits in with Nasuverse, expanding on the character without erasing any of his classic elements.- Most Victoriana characters: Sherlock Holmes, James Moriarty, Frankenstein, Nursery Rhyme, Jekyll&Hyde, Helena, etc. I’m putting them in the same bag because they got a creative twist for Nasuverse characterization that was well handled, IMO, and were changed for setting purposes and to explore a concept rather than pander a fetish.- Lobo: Great adaptation and portrayal. A literal wolf got more development and introspection than the majority of Epic of Remnants appearing characters. This will never cease to be funny.- Tomoe Gozen: I don’t care much about her character, but gets a honorable mention because they actually keep her true to her legend and background instead of removing it to make her a pure sword waifu who loves the protagonist as they did with a number of characters.

Least favorite (controversial talk and triggers ahead):- Sherezade: I can’t even bring myself to explain how much they botched her and how much I absolutely loathe her. Any other characters in this list annoy me or irk me at very worst, but this one makes me angry. Her entire character is so offensive I can’t articulate it now or this would become far too long. She was one of my favorite childhood heroines, so it makes me extra salty. Let’s just say that they took one of world’s most memorable feminism icons as a nerves of steel creative woman who earned her happy ending and got everything in life to portray her as a mix of broken coward (and a joke after Agartha) full of misandry and internalized misogyny, who kidnapped and brainwashed people, including women, to be murderers and rapists to live her twisted fantasy, but wait, she was ‘cured’ by a good man’s spinning rainbow giant drill while she was told her purpose in life was to make babies. And her happy ending was the result of that man’s wish. Yes, she could have been a take of a broken pedestal who actually overcame her issues and became heroic after a growing up process (even if I disliked that interpretation), but instead of that, she was saved by boy Fergus, and this action is even referred on her profile: her happy ending has resulted of his wish. This is a thing that happened. I have no words to say how utterly crushed I feel regarding her. How they destroyed the core of her character appeal, twisted it and didn’t even allowed her the agency to earn her happy ending.- Altera: Or how to take a fairly interesting warlord and historical figure, remove everything that makes him Attila the Hun to pretend a bland robotic alien weapon waifu was him, even though all her struggle and ‘arc’ isn’t even focused on it, it just becomes an excuse to make her a Servant. Imagine if Arturia’s struggle in Fate wasn’t about her King Arthur related stuff and Camelot fall but about “oh my I’m a dragon hybrid who sided with humans in the end of the age of mystery, Shirou!”, something Nasu could have done since it’s also an aspect of her character, but had the good sense to focus on the fact she’s bloody King Arthur. That her arc is a literally a rehash of “robotic waifu becomes a person, goes against her program” which was already done by Sakura and BB (and Arc a decade before them) masterfully not so long ago, in Fate/Extra CCC, but they were actually well written (in comparison to Extella) so it makes her look extra bad. She was also inserted into the story out nowhere, just like this Velber thing which it’s not even mentioned once in all Extra (the Beasts were, ironically!) and stole the spotlight of characters who were your allies and Servants before, like Gilgamesh and Archer. When Sakura and Gilgamesh got added in CCC, Nasu never removed the focus on the three originals, rather he worked to give everyone their own routes. Extella was a reminder of those fanfics that retcon previously established canon to warp the plot focused on a new OC Mary Sue character who is more special than others with the entire plot orbiting around them, and you can’t escape this. Fortunately, she underperformed so badly as a main heroine of Fate in Japan that Nasu might think twice about pulling this again.- Medusa: I have a hate/love thing with Medusa, because as a character on her own, she started ok, beyond the gross sexual assault thing they never acknowledge as bad and irks me (but this is common in most female characters of TM, and some male ones like Shiki). I like her in FHA, her relationship and devotion to Sakura. However, yeah, she’s Medusa my all-time favorite Greek figure whom I adored since I was a child and her portrayal as a version of Medusa leaves a lot to be desired: removing her sexual relationship with Poseidon (which some versions involve rape, but in most of them they were lovers) to make her ‘pure’ and then portray her as ‘seductive’ was the worst decision Nasu could take in FHA when she was meant to parallel with Sakura’s domestic and sexual abuse, in FSN, so the character became kind of confusing to me. It just feels her character was overwritten to appeal purity-waifu lovers and twisted a bit. Her design (the BDSM outfit) is just ridiculous too. I can’t forgive there weren’t snakes, but with the appearance of Gorgon, this is salvaged that a bit (enemy gorgon is better looking than the playable one too, fff). Gorgon is what I wanted Medusa to be, but sadly that kitty-hood wearing “Ana” comes along with Gorgon (with her dog collar!). I don’t hate her, I have some kind of complicated relationship because my standards for Medusa are higher than usual and her character got overwritten as much as Gilgamesh with the years so it gets confusing (but without giving the attention Gilgamesh got too, so makes it harder to grasp what Nasu is doing now). The Perseus-bashing stuff also get me because, like Medusa’s portrayal, isn’t consistent. See, Medusa was originally Perseus, Nasu just genderbent him in FSN because he needed more girls. Their personalities are extremely alike based on what we see him in Prototype and he’s called like Shinji in FHA when he wasn’t at all (just to make her more sympathetic than the hero who actually killed her was ‘bad’ See why Asterios is a good example and why Medusa isn’t about how to handle this, it’s like she was a test run, IMO)? But in leaked FGO lines reveals Medusa is fine with Perseus now, except for Gorgon who wants to kill him, but she wants to kill everyone even the protagonist. This “characterization marches on” makes it all muddy and confusing. Gilgamesh has a similar problem, but I wasn’t attached to him, so I don’t care much.-Artemis (and Orion): Does this need an explanation?-Fionn and most Irish heroes, but Fionn is the main offender: From a mix of Irish King Arthur and Merlin in legends to a complete joke character whose entire kit and powers get stolen by you know who. Fionn is a disgrace to his legendary counterpart. Diarmuid was ok in Zero (not in FGO tho), Cu is fine (and even gets his noncon old habits called out in FHA!), Medb is one of the few female villains who don’t get whitewashed (though she loses a lot of layers of her mythical counterpart), the rest is… eh. -Kiyohime: Not the worst offender, but becomes a proof how the obsession with “pure” waifu-ideal for insecure otaku ruins a potentially interesting character and makes her super gross and problematic without owning up what she is by the fandom and, sometimes, canon. In legend, Kiyohime was a scorned woman whose lover, a monk Anchin, abandoned her after he regretted their relationship (which includes sex, several times). That’s the thing: they were in a relationship with a promise to stick together and he dumps her and runs off. She becomes enraged by his actions that become a serpent who chases him, but she was the one wronged, even if his death was extreme, it portrays her as a tragic character who lost it after a real betrayal. What does FGO does? Oh boy, FGO Kiyohime is just a crazy stalker creepy yandere who killed a monk (who was gay, by the way) who rejected her when she nightcrawled to his room (in case this gets lost in translation, google what is “nightcrawling” to get the extra disgusting implication), but because she insisted as the creepy obsessive woman she is, he promised her to meet her again to get her off his neck and escape, even though he had already made clear he wasn’t into her (or women) at all. She gets offended when he, the victim, runs away, chases and kills him. Now imagine if Kiyohime was a creepy stalker guy who slipped into a lesbian nun’s room when she sleeps to demand sex and a relationship and she tells him to sod off, but he doesn’t get the memo and chases after she escapes and burns her to death when she’s hiding because he was jilted. Now you get why her character is beyond gross. I shouldn’t even need to genderflip the story, but it seems some fans are too easily mislead by a cute waifu antics teehee. It’s fine to like her as long as you’re aware of her a problematic character and not a “cinnamon roll”. She rubs me wrong because it’s obviously an attempt to cash in with yandere-fans by twisting a story of a scorned woman who is lost in grief and anger which causes a tragedy. But it seems that otaku would take a gay man-burning crazy stalker over a nonvirgin. On the other hand, I REALLY love her design. It feels like a complete and absolutely tragedy of a waste character because I love her VA, her Art and classy design (summer and normal version) and NP, but the change made to her character was really appalling. -Beowulf: I don’t have strong feelings about him, but he’s one of the most world-famous heroes and yet he’s a footnote whose appearances consist on lose the fight to some of Nasu’s favorites (Li Shu Wen and Martha). He feels less than a character and more “That guy Nasu uses to show off how tough his favorites are in a fist fight”. Also his design sucks, his art is good but I just dislike the ‘modern’ look unless you’re going all hammy about it like Kintoki.-Caligula: He’s not a character, he’s just Nero’s accessory and blind worshipper for no reason. If they bothered to keep up with his historical background, he’ll be more into his horse and Iskandar, and, maybe, Iskandar’s horse. He has no real personality beyond NERO NERO NERO. Kind of a shame because his design is ok, and he is potentially interesting as a gross unhinged emperor.-Siegfried: Siegfried is… a good boy, but he became an unfunny joke that I can’t longer take seriously as a character thanks to FGO. He’s in serious need of a makeover. Introducing Kiemhild and Hagen could be a good start, he’s savagable, just not so fond of what he is now.-Elizabeth Bathory-Carmilla: Not so much that I dislike them as characters, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way the one that should be an older woman with a torture fetish is portrayed as a dragon idol while Carmilla, the one immortalized as a young girl by Le Fanu, is the older woman. If they switched designs, and made Carmilla a catgirl instead of a dragon girl, preferably, but I don’t mind them at all, just this kind of irks me because they kind of switched their usual thing? It’s not dislike, just confusion.- Mephistopheles: Or let’s take a famous devil in a classic to make him a murderous clown. What could go wrong? What’s even the point of this character, really? I love his artist and his VA, but this takes the cake of the most wasted character in FGO and has zero to do with his portrayal. I mean, I get the adaptation about homunculus stuff, but it was kind of too jarring switch because none of his traits are like Mephistopheles, like AT ALL. Erik was kind of wasted and made a bishie cosplaying Freddy Krueger, but at least he keeps the Christine stuff and a mask, to say “Oh right this is the Phantom of the Opera.” Nothing about Mephistopheles makes me think “This is Mephistopheles!” It’s like Nasu and his boys were talking about character concepts and one was “Hey, guys, I just rented It, and I want to add an evil clown in FGO!”, “Sounds great, but who can be? We can’t just steal Pennywise, he’s copyrighted.” “I know, let’s make him Mephistopheles!” “Why?” “Er, it sounds like how a devilish clown would call himself” and boom. Something like that.

#fate grand order #fate series #favorite and least favorite portrayals #opinion #angra mainyu is my favorite servant #but I can't put him there #I think

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tradcatmaria · 8 years ago

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Hello, I am confused about something. I don't understand whether we should follow the Old or the New Testament? Some say that Jesus "erased" the laws of the Old testament (for example we no longer have to follow Leviticus), while in the New testament He says He is not here to remove the old laws (Matthew 5:17). It also applies to other things that were given/said to us in the OT and NT. Do you know anything about this? It would really help me clear things up. God bless you :)

Hello!

We are not bound by everything in the Old Law. Catholic Answers wrote about this:

Old Testament law, as such, is not binding on Christians. It never has been. In fact, it was only ever binding on those to whom it was delivered—the Jews (Israelites). That said, some of that law contains elements of a law that is binding on all people of every place and time. Jesus and Paul provide evidence of this in the New Testament.

It is important to point our here that the obligation to worship is something all people of every place and time can know simply through the use of reason. It is knowledge built into the human conscience as part of what is called the "natural law." Paul makes note of such law when discussing those of his own time who were never bound by Old Testament law: "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts . . ." (Rom. 2:14-15a).The Ten Commandments are often cited as examples of the natural law. Christians are obliged to follow the laws cited in the Ten Commandments not because they are cited in the Ten Commandments—part of Old Testament law—but because they are part of the natural law—for the most part.

So, to answer the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance and the Eternal Gospel Church, Christians are bound to the law of Christ which, of course, includes the natural law.Old Testament law contains elements of natural law—e.g., the condemnation of homosexual activity—to which Christians are bound for that reason, not because of their inclusion in the Old Testament. Christians do not have liberty on these issues.

Jesus came to fulfill and perfect the law. Elements of natural law are binding on Christians today, but not just because they are also in the Old Testament. There are also things that we can figure out from reason that are part of the natural law.

The Old Law also set the stage for Christ’s teachings:

Old Testament law included many dietary regulations which were instituted as a preparation for his teaching on the moral law. Jesus discussed these laws:

"Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) (Mark 7:14-19)

The Catechism explains, "Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation . . . What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts . . ." (CCC 582). Paul taught similarly concerning other Old Testament law:

[L]et no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon . . . These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ . . . Why do you submit to regulations, "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh. (Col. 2:16-17; 20-23)

In this passage we can see that Paul recognized that much of the Old Testament law was instituted to set the stage for the new law that Christ would usher in. Much of the old law’s value could be viewed in this regard.

I hope this helps! Thank you!

God bless!

Ad Jesum per Mariam,

María de Fátima

#Anonymous

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anastpaul · 8 years ago

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Solemnity of Pentecost – 4 June 2017 – Wishing you all a Holy, Blessed and inspired Pentecost! The Solemnity of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church:

The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the “dispensation of the mystery” the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of His Church, “until he comes.” (CCC, #1076)

Pentecost is not just an isolated feast of the Holy Spirit but an integral feast of the Easter season. Pentecost is also an elementary feast — not as in getting to back to the basics or beginnings of the Catholic Church but can be described elementary as in the four elements of Aristotle: earth, wind, fire and water.

Red Easter: Pentecost closes the Easter season and not in an anticlimactic fashion but in a grand finale. We so often tend to look at this feast as a separate entity for the Holy Spirit but the Church integrates this feast into the Easter season as a whole. there is significance in the number of days and weeks during the Easter season and in the eyes of the Church, the 50 days are viewed as “one feast day.” The Italian name for Pentecost, Pasqua rossa (Red Easter) is a great reminder of this connection.

22. The fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one “great Sunday.” These are the days above all others in which the Alleluia is sung.

23. The Sundays of this time of year are considered to be Sundays of Easter and are called, after Easter Sunday itself, the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Sundays of Easter. This sacred period of fifty days concludes with Pentecost Sunday. (From the General Norms of the Liturgical Year and Calendar).

The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is closely linked to the feast of the Resurrection, our Passover Feast:

On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance. On that day, the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #731-732)

In reading the account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, there is very pronounced imagery. It is easy to recognise the wind and fire but all four classic elements of Greek philosopher, Aristotle, are present at Pentecost, earth, wind, fire and water.

Wind

First in the account of Pentecost from Acts 2:1-11 came the wind: “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.”

Most Biblical renderings of the God or the Holy Spirit is through a gentle breath, such as Jesus breathing on the Apostles in the Resurrection appearance in the Upper Room. At Pentecost it is the same room, but here the Holy Spirit comes as wind of strength and power.

There is nothing subtler than the wind, which manages to penetrate everywhere, even to reach inanimate bodies and give them a life of their own. The rushing wind of the day of Pentecost expresses the new force with which divine love invades the Church and souls (p. 592, In Conversation with God, Volume 2, by Francis Fernandez).

Fire

Next came the fire: “Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.” It is this combination of wind and fire that is the gift of tongues. One of the optional readings for Pentecost is the story of the Tower of Babel. Pius Parsch, as quoted on the Catholic Culture’s Pentecost page, explains that is was the sin of pride that separated and divided those at Babel. The Holy Spirit brings unity and love, which allows those languages to be spoken and understood by all.

The liturgical color for Pentecost is red, the color of fire and blood and the symbol of love. The last time we have seen red vestments outside of the feasts of martyrs or apostles is Palm Sunday and Good Friday. The red for those days recalled the blood of Christ. Today the red recalls the tongues of fire and we ask the Holy Spirit to ignite our hearts, just as we pray:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy Faithful; and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love….

“In medieval times, many churches had a “Holy Ghost Hole”, a small circular opening in the ceiling of the church. The holes would be decorated on Pentecost, with various items symbolising the Holy Spirit lowered through the hole. This practice calls to mind the elements of wind and fire. Father Francis Weiser describes the tradition (emphasis mine):

In medieval times the figure of a dove was widely used to enact in a dramatic way the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. When the priest had arrived at the sequence, he sang the first words in a loud and solemn voice: Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Ghost). Immediately there arose in the church a sound “as of a violent wind blowing” (Acts 2, 2). This noise was produced in some countries, like France, by the blowing of trumpets; in others by the choir boys, who hissed, hummed, pressed windbags, and rattled the benches. All eyes turned toward the ceiling of the church where from an opening called the “Holy Ghost Hole” there appeared a disc the size of a cart wheel, which slowly descended in horizontal position, swinging in ever-widening circles. Upon a blue background, broken by bundles of golden rays, it bore on its underside the figure of a white dove.

Meanwhile the choir sang the sequence. At its conclusion the dove came to rest, hanging suspended in the middle of the church. There followed a “rain” of flowers indicating the gifts of the Holy Spirit and of water symbolizing baptism. In some towns of central Europe people even went so far as to drop pieces of burning wick or straw from the Holy Ghost Hole, to represent the flaming tongues of Pentecost. This practice, however, was eventually stopped because it tended to put the people on fire externally, instead of internally as the Holy Spirit had done at Jerusalem. In the thirteenth century in many cathedrals of France real white pigeons were released during the singing of the sequence and new around in the church while roses were dropped from the Holy Ghost Hole (Weiser, Holyday Book).

Except for the burning bits, some of these practices have been revived in these older churches. In parts of Italy and Sicily, red rose petals are dropped through the hole. This is an especially spectacular sight in the church in Rome dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs that was formerly the Pantheon. There is an opening in the dome and the rose petals are dropped, filling the church and covering the floor.

Red and fire are the dominant images used in Pentecost celebrations. In many places of the Northern Hemisphere, this is height of strawberry season and the red fruits shapes like tongues of fire seem perfect for the feast day that falls in the warmer months.”

Earth

The earth element doesn’t seem to be as obvious with the connection more as it relates to God’s creation. Pentecost, which means “Fiftieth Day” in Greek, was a Jewish festival marking the 7 weeks or 50 days after the Passover. It was a harvest festival, offering the first fruits in thanksgiving to God. Later the feast also commemorated the giving of the Law or Ten Commandments to Moses at Sinai. Our civilization has become less agrarian but this “earth element” should be a universal reminder to us as respect and thanksgiving for creation. Pope Benedict explains and elaborates:

“From its earliest prehistory [Pentecost] has been a feast of harvest. In Palestine the crops were ripe in May; Pentecost was the thanksgiving for the grain harvest. Man sees the fruitfulness which results from the interplay of heaven and earth as the miracle by which he lives and he acknowledges that gratitude is the appropriate response to this miracle….Has this become meaningless today? If we think of “Holy Spirit” only in terms of Christian inwardness and of “harvest” only in terms of technology and commerce, our view of the world has become schizophrenic. At Pentecost the church prays a verse from the psalms which runs: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth. Initially this refers to the creative Spirit which has called the world into being and maintains it in being. It is important to have a new reality of this at Pentecost: the Holy Spirit who came down upon the apostles is the same Spirit who fashioned the world….”

Against this background we must also understand that, in Israel, Pentecost was the remembrance of the arrival at Sinai and the celebration of the Covenant which had set out a path for Israel to travel in the form of the law. Christians have always seen their Pentecost as a continuation of this idea: the New Law is love, breaking down barriers and uniting people in the New Covenant. Love, too, is not formless or arbitrary; it is a formation from within, a wakefulness of the heart which takes up the rhythm of creation and perfects it. (Seek That Which is Above, 79-81)”

Water

The final element, water, is not an image of the Holy Spirit but a direct result of the coming of the Paraclete upon the Disciples. After they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they left the Upper Room and began to proclaim the Gospel. And on hearing their words, 3000 were baptised that day. The matter of baptism is water.

From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism. Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching: “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

26. The apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in Jesus: Jews, the God-fearing, pagans. 27 Always, Baptism is seen as connected with faith: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household,” St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi. And the narrative continues, the jailer “was baptised at once, with all his family” (CCC, #1226)

With every baptism comes the reminders of the first Pentecost. Today is also a good feast to celebrate our reception of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. ( Jennifer Gregory Miller)

Come O Holy Spirit!

#pentecost #june4pentecost #june42017pentecostsunday #catholic #catholicism #birthdayofthechurch #catholicchurch

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oliverxmn-blog · 5 years ago

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live4thelord · 5 years ago

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Learning to Preach Christ, and Him Crucified ( Part I)

By Pamela Mandela on May 31, 2020 02:00 am

Part 1: What do we Preach?

Preaching Christ, and Him crucified was a theme that was developed by St. Paul. In 1 Corinthians 1:23, he writes that “we preach Christ crucified”. But in the verse before this, he decries the attitudes of Jews and Greeks alike, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom”! He first tackles the Jews, who demand proof in the form of miracles and signs. And why? Because they cite Moses, whose miracles it is lost to them, that these were totally overshadowed by the good works that the Lord Jesus did while He lived amongst men as the God-man. Paul, who became all things to all men so that by all possible means he might save some (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23), puts his foot down on this matter. He emphatically states that no matter what others may do, we must preach Christ. We do not dare to modulate; we cannot tone down; and, we will not modify or adjust the great subject matter for which we were commissioned to go out to preach. This matter is the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Then there were the Corinthian Greeks, who looked for what they esteemed to be wisdom. But theirs is the wisdom of the world, not the Wisdom of God which Paul preached. The Greeks also much-valued memories of the articulateness of famous public speakers and thought that true wisdom surely must come from such skilful vocalizations. To these, St. Paul writes that he determined to know nothing amongst them except the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Adding that he even came amongst them in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. And it is for this very reason that his message and preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. They were but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that their (our) faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the Power of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:2-5).

Is This Theme Relevant Today?

There are some in the world today, who behave like the Jews and Greeks of Paul’s time. For them, this Jesus remains a stumbling block and utter foolishness. They would rather prefer that Christ crucified is not preached. They advocate for intellectual preaching to be at the forefront, even though neither the heavens nor they themselves can understand this kind of preaching which takes no reference to the Bible. These are the sort of people who chase after so-called eloquent preachers, whose sermons require you to have a dictionary at hand! Yet we know that some of these intellectual indulgences have led many to a downfall; for such preaching is not blessed by God for the salvation of souls.

But to the faithful believers, those whom the Lord God has called, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (cf. verse 24). We learn from St. Paul that the foolishness of God is far much wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is so much stronger than human strength (cf. verse 25). This is why the Christian must endeavour to preach Christ, and Him crucified even when others endorse worldly philosophies and arguments. This Christ who died for sinners, the people’s Christ, will be preached in simple language and plain speech so that the common people can also understand.

What do We Preach?

The preaching we do should be modelled to St. Paul, the model for all preachers who says, “we preach Christ crucified” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23). If we are to preach the gospel fully, we must have a very clear description of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ:

We preach Christ as God

For us, the Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true Man (CCC, 464). His Incarnation does not make Him part God and part man; neither does it imply that he is the result of some form of a mixture of the divine and the human. We preach that He became truly man while remaining truly God. As the early Church did, we too must defend and clarify this truth of the faith against any heresies that falsify it.

Thus, we preach not a man-made into God, nor God degraded to the level of a man, nor something that is in between a man and God. We preach the Absolute God; the Creator of Heaven and Earth; the Triune God Himself. He who is one with God the Father in every attribute. He who is eternal, and without beginning of days or end of life (cf. Revelation 22:13). He who is all-present, all-powerful and all-knowing. He who knows all things from eternity. Him who is the great Creator, the Preserver, and the Judge of all. He who is in all things equal and exact in the image of the invisible God (cf. Colossians 1:15).

The preaching shall not err on the Deity of Christ – we shall preach a Divine Saviour upon whom our souls are trusting. We identify that it is only the shoulders of the almighty God which can carry the enormous weight of human guilt and human need. We preach Jesus Christ the Son of Mary and the reputed Son of Joseph, who worked in the carpenter’s shop, all the while being the God who made the heavens and the earth.

We preach Christ, who had no place to lay his head. Him who was despised and rejected by men, but who is nonetheless the Eternal God, and Lord of the Universe (cf. Psalm 145:1-7). We preach Christ who was nailed to the cross, bleeding from every pore, and dying on the cross; yet in spite of everything, living forever. We preach the Christ who suffers indescribable agonies, yet all together being the God at whose right hand are the eternal pleasures.

We preach Christ who was man and therefore could sympathize with us so He could suffer in place of us. In order to be the covenant head, He had to have been made in every way like the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve (except that He was without sin). With this one exception, he was bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; nevertheless, He was as truly God as He was man. The very one of whom Isaiah prophesied to be called the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (cf. Isaiah 9:6). So, as we preach Christ crucified, we preach the glory of heaven in union with the beauty of the earth. We preach the perfection of humanity unified with the glory and dignity of Deity.

We preach Christ as the Messiah

We preach Christ as the One sent from God. We preach Jesus of Nazareth who was that promised Deliverer of whom it was written in both the law and the prophets. We preach the great Deliverer who would come as a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel. We preach Him who was sent from God to be the Saviour of sinners. We preach Him who took this responsibility on himself without authority, that He could truly declare, “Here I am, I come to do your will, O God” (cf. Hebrews 10:9 and Psalm 40:7-8).

We preach He, who became the Substitute for sinners by divine decree because “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (cf. Isaiah 53:6b). We preach our great High Priest, who was divinely anointed; we preach our matchless Prophet, who was sent to us from God; we preach the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is rightly ruling as the eternal Son of the eternal Father.

We preach this truth which should bring hope and comfort. We preach God’s Anointed Christ, who does what He does by God’s appointment. We preach Him who speaks for his Father as well as for Himself, who has the authorization of the Eternal to support His declaration. We, therefore, must come confidently to him, putting our trust in him. This should lay a firm foundation of whom we preach so that we can then preach what He does.

We preach the Work of Christ

The Lord God made this everlasting covenant with humanity, in which the Lord Jesus Christ stood as the Security and Representative of His people. It was in the fulness of time that He came down from the heavenly Throne, and was dressed in the flesh. First, He produced active righteousness by the perfect obedience of his daily life. In the end, He provided passive righteousness by His sufferings and death on the cross. Right from the Incarnation, to the Suffering and Death, to the Resurrection, and the Ascension; now in the Intercession before the Father’s Throne, and looking forward to His glorious second coming. Here is a theme that the angels might yearn for; a theme that could awaken hope in my sinful heart. But we preach Christ crucified, whose wounds and bruises remind us to tell how “He was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed” (cf. Isaiah 53:5). Salvation is to be found at Calvary, where the Lord Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit; where He defeated the powers of darkness and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Every true servant of Christ must be able to speak very distinctly about the Lord Jesus Christ standing in the place of sinners, and being numbered with the transgressors not because of His own, but of their transgressions; Christ paying our debts and discharging all our liabilities (cf. Isaiah 53:12). A truth we can only preach if we can take the place of the Lord Jesus as He took ours, so that we are beloved, accepted, made heirs of God. And we believe that in due time we will be glorified with Christ forever (cf. Romans 8:17). Those who hear the preaching must always clearly recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ is a divine and all-sufficient substitute for the sinner. Everyone who puts their trust in Him will be eternally saved (cf. John 3:15).

We preach Christ’s offices.

In His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ carried out three functions – Priest, Prophet and King (cf. Hebrews 1:1-3). In baptism, we are We appreciate and preach the Lord Jesus Christ as the one great High Priest, who always lives to make intercession for us (cf. Hebrews 7:25). We recognize and must preach him as the Prophet whose words are divine, which come to us with an authority that cannot be repealed. We acknowledge and remember to always preach Him as King. The preaching must put the crown of praise on His royal head, claim from His people the unfaltering allegiance and loyalty of their hearts, and assert the undivided service of their lives.

We must preach the qualifications of Christ for these offices. His love and tenderness; His patience, power, and perseverance; His self-giving sacrificial love. His ability to save completely those who come to the Lord God through Him; His gentleness that will not break the bruised reed, nor snuff out the smouldering wick (cf. Isaiah 42:3). We must delight to preach Christ who bends over the broken-hearted and wraps up the wounded (cf. Psalm 147:3); who readily hears the cry of a contrite spirit (cf. Psalm 34:18).

The preaching must bring out the magnetic character of the Lord Jesus which attracts sinners to Himself (cf. John 4 & Matthew 9). His glorious nature, excellence and charm (cf. Revelation 5) preached should make sinners fall in love with Him and trust Him to save them. He sure is the sinner’s only hope. He is the remedy for the diseases of the soul (sins) – from the raging fever of lust, to the shivering fever of doubts and fears, and the cruel infection of despair. We preach the Lord Jesus who heals them all – from the blind eye to the deaf ear; the hardened heart of stone to the dull and seared conscience. We preach how He is the mighty one who will save (cf. Zephaniah 3:17). The preaching must tell the sinner clearly that there is no other hope, but in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).

The Lord Jesus Christ is to preach as the Christian’s only joy. When we were sinking in the waves of sin, He was the life preserver. Now that He has brought us safely to land, we must have Him for our food and drink. When we were sick in our sins, He was our medicine; now that He has restored our souls, we want Him as our continuous sustenance. The Lord Jesus Christ supplies our every need in giving Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist. All we need to do is take all of Him and enjoy Him to our heart’s contentment. All that He is, and all that He has, He has given to us (cf.2 Peter 1:3).

We must hold onto the Cross of the Lord Jesus as our only confidence; we must look for light to the Sun of righteousness; we must crucify our whole beings with the Lord Jesus (cf. Galatians 2:20 & 5:24) so as to be taken up to Heaven to live and reign with Him for eternity (cf. 2 Timothy 2:12). We preach Christ as such.

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dripfeednation · 5 years ago

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Blast Off in the SERPs With These 10 Tips for Building PBNs

A Private Blog Network (or PBN) can be an endless source of high-powered backlinks to rank virtually any site you own—if you build them right. If you make mistakes, though, you could end up wasting months of work and thousands of dollars only to be slapped with a penalty from Google. So in this post, we want to show you Dripfeed Nation’s 10 tips for building PBNs that work.

#1 Use The Right Metrics to Filter Your Domain Search

The backbone of your PBNs are your domains. Whether you’re buying them at auction or picking up expired domains, you’ve got to find domains that will give your PBNs some actual punch. Otherwise, you’ll just be building links that don’t actually improve rankings.

The problem is that there are literally millions of domains for you to choose from. How do you find the diamonds in the rough? Whatever platform you’re using to sift through potential domains should let you filter them based on various metrics. Here are the absolute minimum metrics that Dripfeed Nation uses when acquiring new domains for PBNs:

Domain Authority 17+

Page Authority 20+

Trust Flow 17+

Citation Flow 17+

Referring Domains 10+

#2 Check the Domain’s Link Profile

Unfortunately, filtering by metrics only gets the job started. From their, you’ve got a few important things to check to make sure that your domain is actually going to be helpful. Metrics alone won’t move ranking.

Next, you want to use a tool like Majestic to examine the backlinks that are pointing at your potential PBN domain. They should be relevant, spam-free sites. Plenty of domains with so-called “good metrics” have a backlink profile made up of spammy link wheels or directory listings. The best backlinks are contextual links from real websites.

#3 Check For a Bad History

You also want to run the domain through the Wayback Machine to make sure it doesn’t have a questionable past. If it looks like it was used for a PBN by a previous owner, it’s probably not worth the investment. They let it go for a reason, after all. Likewise, if it was used as a burner ecom or affiliate site, exercise caution. Basically, you want a domain that doesn’t look like it was owned by another SEO in the past. Likewise, avoid domains that were previously used in high-risk industries like pornography, gambling, CBD, or pharmaceuticals.

#4 Choose Safe and Smart Hosting

Once you’ve finally got a powerful, relevant, spam-free domain picked out, you’ll have to find hosting. However, when you’re building a PBN, you have to keep in mind that you are trying to maintain a low profile. You are building 10, 20, maybe 100 sites or more! You don’t want to leave any hosting footprints that will help Google catch on to what you’re doing.

At Dripfeed Nation, we use a wide variety of different hosts to ensure that there is no connection between one site in our network and another. You can use everything from Amazon S3 to HostGator to GoDaddy. As you grow your network, try to use hosts from a variety of geographical regions and ensure that they all have unique C-level IP addresses (that’s the third set of numbers in the IP address: AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD).

#5 Create a Real Looking Website

Once you’ve got your website hosted, you’ve got to actually flesh out the content. Do everything your can to make this look like a real website. Invest five bucks in a logo, create a persona, build an about us page, and so on.

One of the really important things to consider is your content. It doesn’t have to be award-winning, but it should be human readable. Typos are okay, but it shouldn’t be a dumpster fire that was obviously written by a robot.

#6 Use Niche Relevant Content

While the best PBN you can find will have previously been built in the niche you’re targeting and have a backlink profile that follows suit, you won’t always be able to get that lucky. But, one thing that you do have control over is the topic of the content you’ll be publishing on your PBNs.

As much as possible, develop content that is highly relevant to the niche of the money sites you will be linking out to. Above any other type of link, Google values highly relevant contextual links. So if you are trying to rank a plumbing website, pump your PBN full of plumbing content.

#7 Build Links Naturally

Remember, your PBN is just like any other blog or website. So you want it to look as realistic as possible. In fact, you should simply treat it like a real site for most purposes. One of the important ways is natural link building.

Most links from websites come from blog posts and inner pages. It is really unnatural for 90% of a website’s outbound links to come from the home page, for example. A good way to structure your links is to set your home page up as a full text blog roll, but then build the actual links within the blog posts. Now you’ve got the home page link juice but still a natural divide of your link placement.

Of course, if every site in your PBN looks like this, it could raise flags during a manual review. That’s one reason that Dripfeed Nation chooses themes and site structures a bit randomly to avoid any recognizable patterns.

#8 One Link Per PBN Per Money Site

While the same site in your PBN can link to multiple different money sites, you never want to power up the same money site with more than one link from the same PBN. For starters, it’s inefficient because every link you add to a PBN dilutes the power a little bit more. But it also just looks fishy.

#9 Be Careful About How Many Links You Send Out

Every link that you send out from your PBN waters down the power of all of them a little bit. For this reason, you want to limit the number of outbound links to your money sites. Too much link building too quickly can also be a red flag that your site is violating Google’s policies.

At the same time, every site is a little bit different. It all comes down to looking natural. At Dripfeed Nation, most of our PBN sites top out at around 40 to 60 posts meant for link building. These aren’t all on the home page at the same time, of course, and they are published over a number of months.

#10 Maintain Your PBN Monthly

Finally, you want to add every site in your network to a routine maintenance schedule. On a monthly basis (or at least every-other-month), you should add a new post to keep the site relevant. Likewise, check that your PBN is still indexed to ensure that it’s still worth building links from. You should also check on the PBN’s backlink profile. If the powerful sites are expiring or removing your links, your PBN won’t pack the same punch anymore.

Building a PBN That Works Is Tough

As you can see, there is a LOT that goes into a PBN that actually moves the needle and avoids detection. It is absolutely worth the effort if you want to build a sustainable source of high-quality links.

However, if you would rather spend your time focusing on the bigger aspects of your business, Dripfeed Nation has got you covered. SEO agencies love our white label link building services because they provide a trustworthy means of acquiring backlinks that work. They are ideal for SEOs who realize that building out their own PBNs would probably cost more and be less effective than having a professional do it for them. If that sounds like what you’re looking for, check out our white label link building today.