#it's the commitment of sharing the bigger ideas that are very susceptible to error that makes them so spooky

[asheanon]

While the Ethereal Genome concept has yet to be tidied up, I would like to take the time to finally write out that aforementioned "little something" regarding Terra, Garland and Ethereals.

(The one perk to this having taken this long is I actually have even more to write here! That being said, this one is pretty sizeable. I highly advise not clicking that little "read more"/"keep reading" bit unless you're fully committed!)

To begin, we'll start with talking Terra. Terra, on its universal pursuit for answers as well as other planets and their crystals, making use of their magical "fusion" art to try to elude the "decay" all the while, acquired energy sources as needed along the way to fuel their travels. One of these energy sources happened to be Etherealism - namely, remnants of it. As novel as I make Etherealism out to be, honestly, you can find it in various shapes and sizes all throughout the cosmos. And because they are comprised of energy (and are spectral entities as well, which have more or less been confirmed as an energy source in various Final Fantasy worlds. Shout out to fantastical fossil fuels!) these remnants proved quite successful as fuel.

However, they weren't merely reduced to fuel as they did in fact prove quite fascinating (and they were looking for answers to their crisis any and everywhere, of course!) They were initially taken in as a subject of study as well, but their research only really boomed when more complex forms of Etherealism (something more than these inexplicable fragments of light, ions and mysterious soul-like matter just floating around like space debris) were encountered.

Now, as for why I decided Terra shares some notable history with Etherealism in this story, there are quite a few reasons for that...

▫️ The Desert Palace

Look, it's the room I constantly keep forgetting about! Therapeutically forcing myself to acknowledge its existence today. 😎

Once I realized the likelihood of Kuja kidnapping any number of the "main cast" at one point or another for any duration of time throughout this story was notable, I knew I was going to have to better arm him as well as the palace itself to hold them hostage.

Why do that? Well, I have a story to write and it lends itself to the storytelling! Look, they'll be fine.

As the plot currently stands, there's at least one Ethereal in the party and detaining them is no easy task. Not only can they spook their way around a little bit here and there, but they're dangerous and have the potential to just destroy everything if things get heated (quite literally) and they feel threatened. Now, you could argue that they might hesitate when it comes to being destructive, given other lifeforms being present and not wanting to harm them - plus, even in the case of going ghost mode, they couldn't help out their friends that way. However, spoiler alert: at least one of those Ethereals may not care about saving friends, so... playing on their emotions isn't enough to keep them all in, sadly. It'd work on only one of them. Which isn't enough for me..!

So, I felt Ethereal countermeasures should be considered - and I figured these countermeasures could be made possible if Ethereal research had already been integrated into Terra's history - at least enough to where, to some extent, they knew how to contain it and subdue it. The more I thought about it, I realized it actually was more than possible for them to encounter Etherealism during their cosmic travels of yore. So, I decided to roll with the idea!

Seriously, they'll be fine. Trust me!

▫️ The Ethereal Genome

So... with every cosmic horror comes the horror element, right? And Ethereals easily fall into a cosmic horror category!

If there's anything we've learned from the genre, making use of an alien body in any capacity can prove volatile, yielding both grand discoveries and tragic consequences... (Once again, I'll make an FFVII comparison: they essentially did this with Jenova; just imagine the Terrans did something similar with Ethereals in this particular story. Kind of.)

Among the consequences of handling Etherealism was one of its most toxic traits: Ethereal radiation...

Countless Terrans were lost to this silent, but deadly long term killer before a more viable safety protocol was established. Protocol that was able to be passed on to Garland once he was created, who would proceed to elaborate upon it himself. For many - and I mean m a n y - years, Garland was successful when it came to working with Etherealism. However, there was still room for error. Particularly when the creation of Genomes began. One singular Genome, one singular encounter with improperly contained Etherealism and a whole lot of luck (or lack thereof) later... rather than the discovery of a lesser Genome slowly expiring, one would be made of one slowly being "infected" by Etherealism.

This lesser Genome became a harbinger of many future Genome deaths. She grew to eventually be a source of this Ethereal radiation, a contaminant allowed to walk free, unknowingly poisoning her own kind as they just as unknowingly allowed themselves to be - until those radiation levels were detectable/detected by the systems in place and their source able to be singled out.

When Garland finally became aware of this, rather than doing what some may consider reasonable (such as attempting to terminate her and/or casting her out of Terra) he decided to do what any of the more scientifically-driven or the cliché "mad scientist" sort would do: cut his losses for the sake of the learning opportunity at hand. There was no way he could literally throw that away. And so, he contained this Genome as he would any other Ethereal remnant.

In containment, she remained for a very long time as well. For study and for safety. While containment method was the same, the study was a little more complex than what would be applied to your "average" Ethereal remnant. (A bit like keeping a venomous snake, studying its venom, hoping to develop an antivenom, etc. That and things of the like.)

One day, however, after Kuja has his "little" meltdown in the main FFIX storyline and destroys Terra, she would finally be freed from containment. Cast from a state stasis, essentially - energy deprivation - and no explanation just to be immediately subjected to all this radiation and energy from the overly-abundant use of Ultima and the chain effect of the Iifa Tree going haywire (remember the mist tangent and me talking about how wild of a ride it can be for Ethereals to encounter and especially intake? Keep that in mind) this makes for a very Not Great™��� experience for this little Genome gal.

Despite the chaos of it all, however, she does manage to make it out! To the Shimmering Isle, where she hardly makes it beyond the now dead portal, huddling up, curling into a little ball somewhere amidst its edifices. Tormented and traumatized (even more.)

While this Genome bears the usual stoic to be expected from her kind, because of her Etherealism, she did actually have time to grow a little bit, in a way - or at least the Ethereal part of her did - just enough to grant her the ability to think and feel things outside of the usual lesser Genome range. Just enough to be troubled by the things that happened to her, on some level. 🥲

I would like to note one little detail here: I've taken a bit of a lore dive with Terra and Genomes, yes, but nothing too dreadfully deep, so... I will confess, I'm not actually all that sure if the lesser Genomes would have names! They were essentially vessels without souls - once given a soul, they would be given an identity by extension. In that respect, I formulated the headcanon that these guys have no identity until that transpires.

If that is incorrect, I'll be more than willing to make that correction. 💙 Until then, though, that is the lore!

The Ethereal Genome technically bears no name until later in the story, having earned it outside of Terran means. She eventually is named "Yoko." (Given that Mikoto's name is Japanese in origin, I thought I'd play off of that and have Yoko's name also share some Japanese roots! One of "Yoko's" various meanings translates to "sun child" or "child of the sun," which I thought was more than appropriate for an Ethereal kid.) ☀️

▫️ The Treasure Map

(God bless "treasure map" stock imagery. I didn't need an image, but I wanted one since the other two had some... hahaha!)

Lastly, but not least-ly! Has a little bit to do with that silly little map and the treasure hunt escapade it forges as well. There is Terran symbology and Ethereal reference alike made among the many associated puzzles and clues.

Why exactly this is, I'm still admittedly brainstorming, so I can't quite go into too much detail with this point yet. However, the connection in cryptography is definitely there. I still feel it's worth mentioning, in that respect! It could very well be a point I return to and elaborate upon someday in the future as I have the previous ones. 🤔

(Of which, I will say that's how Kuja got sucked into the whole thing and what ultimately leads to taking the main gang hostage too! I'll leave the full story for later or for an actual bit of story that may be written in the future, though.)

[earthroll22-blog]

How did Gothard dupe so many?

Greetings! I haven’t posted as much in the past few weeks because life is getting pretty busy, and probably won’t slow down until…who am I kidding? It won’t ever slow down. But I’m trying to keep to a at-least-once-a-week schedule anyway!

After posting last week’s blog, I kept feeling like I had missed something important. Sure enough, my friend Craig pointed out another problem.

Is there another dangerous unstated insinuation by the testimony that you highlighted? If this woman’s morning sickness was cured when she repented then, MORNING SICKNESS IS CAUSED BY SIN. If you can figure out what that sin is and repent your morning sickness will depart. Or if the husband can point out the sin that is causing the morning sickness and get his wife to repent, then he to can “conquer his wife’s morning sickness.” What a disgusting anti-gospel message.

In other news, Throwing Out the Bath Water was featured on Recovering Grace, which was pretty cool. Recovering Grace also recently linked to a blog post about Gothard’s teachings on giving up rights, which I highly recommend that you read. I had several major “ah-ha!” moments when reading it, and it’s going to take me a while to process through it all.

Today I want to look at a supplemental material that apparently comes from a seminar on church ministry. This book is going to take a little time to get through, because there is so much to be discussed.

Some of these statements seem rather benign, even if they are a tad simplistic. But I want to take a moment to talk about it, because these few sentences show very clearly how Gothard works, and, to a large extent, answers the question, “how could Gothard manage to dupe so many people?”

He starts with a statement that seems to be undeniably true, yet is extremely over simplified. He also commits a major logical error, arguing that because weak families result in weak churches, any church that is weak must have weak families. Weak families do cause weak churches, but not all weak churches are weak because of weak families. To put it in different terms, termites cause structural damage to a building, but not all structural damage is caused by termites.

The next statement commits the same error, although it’s not quite as egregious, considering how much influence the father and mother have in the family. Nonetheless, there are still things beyond the control of the mother or father that can weaken a family. Illness, employment, abuse by an uncle, a neighbor selling drugs; all of these things can also weaken families. Life is not always as clear cut or straight forward as Gothard would have us believe.

And finally, we get the kicker: all it takes to strengthen families and churches (two excellent goals!) is to have somebody personally explain responsibilities. It’s just that simple. Gothard has the magic ingredient to fix these problems. He has the information for this “forgotten fundamental” for every church.

Now stop for a minute, and put this into normal-people language. Gothard, for all of his talk of “faithful women” and “dynamic potential,” is actually proposing that churches implement a women’s discipleship program. That’s his “forgotten fundamental.” It’s not forgotten at all: there are literally thousands of resources available for these types of ministries, and hundreds of thousands of people involved in these ministries. They’re not new, they’re not unusual, and they’re certainly not “forgotten.”

So why does Gothard try to paint a women’s discipleship program in this light? Simple. He wants to be seen as the only source of wisdom on this topic. He doesn’t want to compete with other writers or speakers who have spoken on the subject. So he wraps it in strange terminology and claims everyone else has “forgotten” about it in the hopes that nobody will go shopping elsewhere.

This is how Gothard dupes people: simplify a problem that people want desperately to fix, and then claim he is the only one who knows how to quickly and easily fix that problem.

Next, Gothard lists ten benefits of training faithful women. Some of them are very interesting. 

Ok, cool. I have no issue with this reason. It’s good for younger women (and younger men and older men and older women too…) to have people they can look up to and emulate. But then we get a list of women in “God’s hall of fame” and it gets a little strange.

Several of these really jump off the page here. Deborah, a woman of discernment? Really? What about leadership? Bravery? Kick-ass-ed-ness? Or Priscilla, a helpmeet? Priscilla was an industrious craftswoman (a tent maker, like Paul) who was an important evangelist and church planter. Priscilla even functioned as a 1st century talent scout, seeing and nurturing the potential in Apollos (someone who Scriptures says “was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.”) All her ministry boils down to “a helpmeet”?

Some of these make sense; Hannah, a woman of prayer, or Esther, a woman of courage. But honestly, this lists seems to cheapen them; it seems to convey that the great works and examples of these women were simply the result of working really hard on one of Gothard’s 49 favorite words. Maybe I’m being too picky here….but it still bothers me.

Reason number 2:

“The danger of…wrong attitudes or behavior of wives” is not clearly stated in Scripture. People are all capable of corrupting doctrinal truth; there is no particular sub-set of people who are more likely than others to corrupt. We do need to be aware of the danger of corruption coming from wives, but also from husbands, and from youth group leaders and song writers and from blacksmiths and computer technicians and U.S congressmen. Particularly singling out wives as a dangerous source of corruption paints them as time-bombs in our churches, rather than people loved by God.

The Scripture quoted here does not support the claim made by Gothard either. Briefly summarized, it tells us that young women should develop the character of Christ in their daily life (which, for those young women in Titus’s church and cultural setting, meant particular things), so that God’s word would not be spoken evil of.

Wow, every single one of them? Man.That’s tough. I wonder if men ever violate truth…

Now I’m confused. We need older women to teach women how to ask their husbands to teach them things? Wouldn’t it be a whole lot more efficient to just have the men teach their wives about this? And since women are so susceptible to doctrinal error, whose crazy idea was it to put them in charge of training other women?

I’m not going to address the quote from 1 Tim. 2, because, bluntly, I’m still very confused by that chapter, and I really don’t think I can speak with any authority on that passage. Perhaps some of my readers would care to share their thoughts?

“When a women pours out her problems to a minister, she exposes him to the strong temptation of becoming inappropriately involved with her in his emotions.” And loving her as a sister in Christ isn’t an option here? Weeping with those who weep isn’t a good idea? Sharing your struggles with someone who is charged with your spiritual welfare should be discouraged? And if a women sharing her problems with her pastor causes him to become “inappropriately involved” with her, is the real problem with her sharing, or with the pastor?

This tendency (that can be seen through IBLP material and at all IBLP sponsored functions) to build walls between the sexes is disturbing for multiple reasons.

It over-sexualizes all interactions and prevents real, solid friendships and real fellowship from happening. I remember not being allowed to eat at the same table as my sister when doing CharacterFirst! work in Memphis. (There were about 9 of us in the basement of a large church, and we literally sat on opposite ends of the fellowship hall.) Rather than speaking to a person, you find yourself speaking to a gender. It’s institutionalized objectification.

It divides the body of Christ, and prevents members from loving their brothers and sisters in Christ. (How can I “do good unto…the body of believers” if I am not allowed to even talk to a significant portion of them?)

Walls that prevent communication serve to protect abusers. If a women is not able to speak to her pastor about an abusive husband, that is one more door that is closed to her. And if we are to take all this talk about ladies speaking only to their husbands about their problems seriously, it does not take much imagination to picture a pastor telling a wife to talk to her husband about these issues!

“When a women seeks regular personal counseling from a pastor, she will usually cause signals of caution or alarm in the pastor’s wife.” Wow, there is so much more  wrong with this pastor’s marriage than a counseling session with a church member if the wife is getting signals of caution or alarm! There is an obvious lack of trust and understanding between the couple. At the very least this couple needs to have an open discussion about what they are comfortable with, and what type of boundaries they should put in place to protect their relationship. And if this alarm becomes “seeds of contention” that damage the marriage…well, again, there’s a bigger issue here that is causing the damage. A pastor counseling a church member does not destroy a marriage.

Side note: how insulting is this to pastors? Do we think male pastors (because female pastors are never addressed) are unable to handle a situation like this? If a pastor can’t manage to deal with the temptation of talking to church members about their problems, is this guy qualified to be a pastor? And if this pastor is honestly that weak, will preventing these conversations actually prevent problems at your church? Rather than giving advice on how to “pastor proof” your church, wouldn’t it be far better to put out a booklet titled Kick That Guy Out and Hire A God-Fearing Professional?

Finally, notice who is to blame for broken marriages and sex scandals in the church: women who try to seduce pastors. Those poor pastors! Those poor, passive pastors! Why, they had no more choice in the matter than you or I; these evil women seduced them.

No. This thinking is wrong. It’s disrespectful to women and to pastors. It paints women as the bad guys and men as innocent victims. It erects walls between members of the body of Christ. It excused the sins of pastors who abuse women in counseling.

Final note: Isn’t it interesting how Gothard carried on private counseling sessions with multiple young girls for literally years and yet had the audacity to teach this?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On a personal note, tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the passing of my son. My wife and I would appreciate your prayers.

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Source: https://throwingoutbathwater.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/139/