#many christian denominations have been struggling with this recently and good

[not-so-superheroine]

pope francis goes, maybe lgbtq+ catholics should have some rights, and conservative catholics lose it.

liberation theology is great actually. i wouldn't know about it without conservative catholics insulting the pope about it. anyway, adopted it into my personal theology. thank you jesuits and people who are upset about them.

also, its still discriminatory. he also says very non-affirming things. yet it's still too much "acceptance" in some people's mind. what happened to loving your neighbor as yourself?

i am happy for lgbtq+ catholics, small steps, i understand. but if it makes you more comfortable in expressing your faith and being included in it, i love that for you.

a lot of people don't get why lgbtq+ persons may stay, and think it's to attract lgbtq+ persons to a non-affirming institution, but i think that's simplistic.

i think people fail to realize that it may be for lgbtq+ persons who are staying. some won't leave bc of their faith, and they should be treated well, you know?

some people simply will not leave because of their beliefs at the end of the day, so progress must be made and is a good thing. this is what i have learned through my conversion elsewhere.

[dailyupdatestoday]

Understanding the Significance of Good Friday: A Day of Reflection and Remembrance

The Historical and Spiritual Importance of the Day, its Observances and Traditions

Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday or Black Friday, is a day of solemn reflection and remembrance in the Christian calendar, marking the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. It falls on the Friday before Easter Sunday, and is observed as a public holiday in many countries around the world.

The significance of Good Friday is both historical and spiritual. It commemorates the sacrifice that Jesus made for humanity, as he willingly endured immense suffering and death on the cross in order to save the souls of all believers. This selfless act of love and redemption is at the heart of the Christian faith, and is why Good Friday is considered one of the most important events in the Christian calendar.

The historical context of Good Friday can be traced back to the early years of Christianity. According to the New Testament, Jesus was arrested by the Roman authorities after being betrayed by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot. He was then subjected to a series of trials, during which he was accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death by crucifixion. He was then forced to carry his own cross to the site of his execution, a hill called Golgotha, where he was nailed to the cross and left to die.

For Christians, the crucifixion of Jesus represents the ultimate act of sacrifice and love. By willingly accepting death on the cross, Jesus took on the sins of humanity and offered a path to salvation and eternal life. His death and resurrection, which is celebrated on Easter Sunday, is seen as the ultimate triumph over death and evil.

The observances and traditions associated with Good Friday vary among different Christian denominations and cultures. In some countries, such as the Philippines and Mexico, there are elaborate processions and reenactments of the crucifixion, with participants carrying crosses and wearing robes and crowns of thorns. In many churches, there are special services and ceremonies, such as the Stations of the Cross, which involve meditating on the events of Jesus' final hours.

Another common tradition associated with Good Friday is fasting and abstinence. Many Christians choose to abstain from meat and other foods, as a way of honoring the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Some also choose to fast, by eating only one full meal and two smaller meals, as a way of purifying the body and focusing on spiritual contemplation.

In recent years, there has been a growing movement to observe Good Friday as a day of social justice and activism, particularly in the context of issues such as poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. Some Christian organizations and churches have organized events and campaigns to raise awareness about these issues, and to encourage believers to take action in their communities.

Regardless of how it is observed, Good Friday remains a day of deep significance and meaning for Christians around the world. It is a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made for humanity, and to remember the power of love and redemption that lies at the heart of the Christian faith. As we contemplate the events of that fateful day on Golgotha, let us strive to embody the same selfless spirit of love and compassion that Jesus exemplified, and to work towards a world that reflects his teachings and values.

The message of Good Friday is one of hope and renewal, even in the midst of great suffering and darkness. It reminds us that no matter how dire our circumstances may seem, there is always a path to redemption and salvation. It is a time to remember that even in the face of overwhelming adversity, we can find strength and courage in our faith and in the love of our fellow human beings.

As we reflect on the significance of Good Friday, it is important to also consider the challenges and struggles that we face in the modern world. In many ways, we are still grappling with the same issues of poverty, inequality, and injustice that Jesus and his disciples confronted two thousand years ago. We are still searching for ways to create a more just and compassionate society, one that reflects the values of love, forgiveness, and peace that Jesus embodied.

In this context, the observance of Good Friday takes on a renewed sense of urgency and relevance. It reminds us that the struggle for social justice and equality is ongoing, and that we must never lose sight of the need to fight for a better world. It challenges us to be more compassionate and empathetic towards those who are suffering, and to work towards building a more just and equitable society for all.

At the same time, Good Friday is also a day of personal reflection and spiritual contemplation. It is an opportunity to examine our own lives, and to consider how we can live more fully in accordance with the teachings of Jesus. It calls on us to be more humble, more forgiving, and more loving towards ourselves and others, and to strive towards a deeper connection with the divine.

In this way, the observance of Good Friday is both a communal and a personal experience. It brings us together as a global community of believers, united in our reverence for Jesus and his sacrifice. And it also invites us to embark on a personal journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth, as we seek to live our lives in accordance with the values and teachings of our faith.

In conclusion, Good Friday is a day of profound significance and meaning for Christians around the world. It is a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made for humanity, and to remember the power of love and redemption that lies at the heart of our faith. It challenges us to confront the injustices and struggles of our time, and to work towards building a more just and compassionate world. And it invites us to embark on a personal journey of spiritual growth and self-discovery, as we strive to live our lives in accordance with the values and teachings of our faith.

[peaceofthespirit]

Dr. Chrissy Stroop (an ex-evangelical atheist writer I follow on twitter) often makes such great points about how we can't just say "oh those people aren't real christians!!!" when fundies do something regressive in the name of Jesus. Those people have arguments that still use the bible and Christian tradition, whether we like it or not.

Melissa Florer-Bixler, a Mennonite pastor and writer, also recently brought up that "Christian" is pretty much a broad sociological category unified only through members' self-identification.

I've been thinking about all this a lot. One thing I went through as I began deconstructing was my relationship to the Bible and Christian tradition. In some ways, tradition didn't matter for me as much, since I grew up non-denominational in a church that wanted to get rid of "idolatrous" traditions and get back to the spirit of the "early church." But when it came to scripture, there was apparently no valid questioning of it in their eyes (which is hilarious considering that the biblical canon didn't exist in the early church?) Anyways, after I began to read the Bible more critically (and keeping in mind historical or cultural context/differences), I began to realize that I sometimes just didn't like what it was saying. I typically have never felt that way when I read teachings ascribed to Jesus (at least in terms of the basic meanings), but other parts of the new testament? Sometimes I just disagree (same goes for the old testament too but I'm talking about the explicitly Christian texts here). And many critical, biblical scholars assert that a lot of the new testament disagrees with itself in many places anyway (letters and texts written by different people who probably didn't agree on every detail?? hello??). So for me, I continue to identify as Christian because I see myself as a follower/disciple of Jesus, or at least someone in constant dialogue with his teachings (not to say one can't ever go further or find new insights). But while the evangelicals I grew up with claim that they are Christians because they affirm specific things about the person, death, and "resurrection" of Jesus, their Christianity is more than just that. No matter how much they love to claim that you don't need "works" for salvation (that's a whole other can of worms), they still follow so many rules and take the whole Bible extremely seriously/literally (at least their specific interpretations) and refuse to "disagree" with the canon texts.

So I then I see people say stuff like "how can I stay Christian? Especially when Christians are so terrible?" Well first of all, what matters first and foremost is your actions and well-being. If you don't want to engage with Christian texts or traditions anymore, or don't want to call yourself a Christian, that's totally valid. In fact, I think that Jesus himself would totally understand. Just go be a good person and take care of yourself.

However, I personally have no issue identifying as a Christian, largely because what I believe is so different from what the fundies believe. Maybe I would struggle if I was still holding the text in a similar regard to them and sticking to fairly "orthodox" church teachings/canons/etc. Because while one can be progressive and still take the Bible somewhat literally, you get the same issues of how tightly you are holding on to certain interpretations, presuppositions, historical pictures, and etc. You see how someone who has a strong allegiance to a specific church/understanding in a way that parallels your own convictions can turn out to be so un-progressive.

So what I say to that is, let go of certainty, and hold on to what you love about Christianity (which is typically the essence of Jesus's messages). Don't be afraid to be someone who others wouldn't really consider "Christian" because you are willing to eschew the hierarchies that have made their way into the church and traditional theologies.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Hey! We're protestant so my family doesn't really celebrate Lent. I know you're supposed to like, give up something important to you, but the only things I can give up right now are technology things and then I'll have nothing else to do in quarantine. How do you celebrate Lent?

Hi there! I’m excited to see you’re interested in Lent! (Btw, some Protestant denominations do observe Lent, even while some don’t.) It’s a powerful season of the year in which we reflect on God’s ultimate solidarity with the most disenfranchised of humanity through the Person of God who is Jesus’s ministry, wilderness wandering, and crucifixion. In pondering Jesus’ solidarity, we are moved to gratitude and seeking deeper relationship with God, and also to solidarity with the oppressed ourselves. 

Many people do give up something as part of their Lenten observance. It’s supposed to be something you feel is somehow inhibiting your relationship with God (perhaps excess tv time or alcohol), or else something you give up to cultivate compassion for those in the world who are without that thing (such as engaging in healthy forms of fasting; this compassion should eventually lead to action). 

(Unfortunately, Lent is sometimes used almost as a “New Year’s Resolutions: Part 2″ instead of a religious observance -- a chance to start up a diet instead of a chance to nourish one’s spiritual life. But at its best, giving up things for Lent follows what I said in the previous paragraph.)

However, Lent is about far more than giving things up. In fact, this year, when so much has already been stripped away because of the pandemic, many Christian leaders are advising not using this Lent to further deprive yourself. In this time that is so full of trauma and worry and isolation, no one should “give up” anything that is helping them get through it!!  

So yeah friend, don’t give up the technology that helps you find a little joy in your day, and lets you connect to others in the midst of quarantine. Instead, you might add something on to your life -- 

an extra moment of meditation or prayer each day; 

or picking a spiritual book you’ll read a little bit of each day (or a podcast if you don’t like books; or an online devotional, etc.). 

Or you might commit to performing several intentional acts of kindness each week; 

or offering money (if you are financially able to) to good causes;

or educating yourself about how to be in solidarity with a marginalized group to which you don’t belong.

You might also commit to finally doing something that you need to do but have been putting off -- such as finally getting a therapist, or finally getting help for a problem you’ve been keeping secret, or finally setting boundaries or letting go of a harmful relationship -- actions that take so much courage, but will help set you free to pursue the abundance that God wills for you.

_____

I offer some suggestions for reading materials and other Lenten resources in this recent post. 

I especially recommend the article “The Unintended Consequences of Spiritual Discipline” by Emmy Kegler for commentary on the risks involved in viewing Lent solely as a time for self denial or “giving things up,” especially for particularly vulnerable groups. Please keep in mind that God does not call us into the kind of self-denial that manifests as self-hate or meaningless suffering -- God longs for abundant life for every one of us!! Take care of yourself <3 

I’ve read a few good books already in the past couple weeks that would also make good Lenten reading (reading a lot of books is my own commitment this Lent):

The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler -- argues that to die well we must live well; and we don’t have to let go of any fear of death, but we do have to be willing to accept that death will come one day and let that knowledge motivate us to pursue purpose and community so that we will feel fulfilled at death. Since one important aspect of Lent is memento mori, but this past year we’ve been so inundated with death and grief that being told to fixate even more on our own mortality seems like a cruel joke, this is a particularly good book for this Lent -- because it helps us face the death we’re already surrounded with. It does share some pretty intense hospital death scenes, however, so if that’s not something you’re in a good place to be reading about, you might instead try.... .

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler -- this book also faces the prospect of death head on, through the point of view of a woman with stage four cancer. Kate Bowler explores where God is (and is not) in the midst of suffering and death; even has a chapter specifically about Lent. And if you aren’t a big book person, Bowler’s podcast Everything Happens is even better than the book! She interviews all sorts of different people about God and suffering. .

Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor is a book that also explores in accessible and warm language what faith can look like in moments when God seems absent. .

The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglass (I recommend the 25th Anniversary Edition because I like its introduction but if you can get another version cheaper for free that’s great too) -- a wonderful introduction into Black theologians’ views on Christ as Black, as one who identifies wholly with those who are oppressed by racism but also by other forms of oppression; it’s a fairly quick and easy-to-understand read, so it’s perfect for non-academics who are interested in this topic but struggle with the heavier texts. .

Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh is what I’m working on now and I’m already in love.

Finally, I’m super pumped about this new disability-centered devotional with readings for every Sunday of Lent plus every day of Holy Week (the final week of Lent, leading up to Easter). 

Please let me know if you have more questions! I pray you encounter God in life-giving ways this Lenten season <3

[rotationalsymmetry]

A brief history of Unitarian Universalism (casual, with swears, have not fact checked as such but I think it’s correct): In New England back before US independence, there was Calvinism -- you know, that predestination thing, you’re already going to go to heaven or hell, but you should be good anyways so people will think you’re going to heaven, or something like that. Then there wasn’t. Then there was Congregationalism. Which was a lot more chill, but still very “fuck Catholicism”. And around this time, deism was on the rise: the idea that maybe God created the universe, then fucked off, and hasn’t been actively involved with anything since. Then, some people who were actually reading the Bible, because you can’t look down on Catholicism unless you actually read the Bible, were like... wait, maybe Jesus isn’t all that. You know -- the Savior, the Son of God, one third of the Trinity, all that. Maybe he was just, like... a prophet, or some guy who said some interesting things. A teacher. And other congregationalists were like: uh, what, no, Jesus has to be all that. If you don’t think Jesus is all that, how can you even call yourself a Christian? And they decided they couldn’t really be around each other any more. So the first group, which was mostly in Boston, started calling themselves Unitarians (because they rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and instead believed in a one part God), and incidentally at some point also stopped calling themselves Christians because the other guys had a point, and the others called themselves the United Church of Christ (UCC.) Emerson and Thorough -- sorry, Thoreau -- were both Unitarians, as were John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and pretty much everyone else from Boston in early US history. (We like to claim Jefferson, because his beliefs were kindasorta similar to Unitarian beliefs at the time, but as I understand it he was never actually part of a Unitarian congregation.) (Btw: if you’re lgbtq+ and Christian, they’re a pretty friendly denomination. If you’re lgbtq+ and Christian and you think the UCC is too liberal (in the religious sense) or you want a majority-lgbtq+ congregation, consider MCC, which is otherwise unconnected to all this. If you’re not Christian and are lgbtq+ -- atheist/agnostic, or maybe something else if you’re down with worshipping with people that aren’t specifically your thing -- Unitarian Universalism tends to be pretty good. As in: we have a bunch of gay/lesbian ministers and other religious leaders, and a few transgender ones. (Knowledge of less mainstream lgbtq+ identities can vary a lot between congregations and generations -- the younger generations tend to be more aware than the gen x’ers.) I’ve been involved with Church of the Larger Fellowship for most of the past year, which did zoom worship before it got cool and serves people around the world, and people like me who live a mile from a UU brick and mortar congregation but still can’t get their disabled ass over there anyways. Anyways, CLF has more POC on the worship team than most UU congregations (the denomination does tend to run pretty white), is very social justice oriented even by UU standards, and is somewhat more cool about general weirdness than most congregations, which again for UU congregations is saying something.) Then, at some point (sadly, I’m significantly more familiar with the history of the first U than the second) there was this other protestant denomination in the South (as in, the US South) where people decided that God was too nice to send people to hell for all eternity, so they started calling themselves the Universalists, as in Universal Salvation. All dogs go to heaven. Well, time passed, each denomination evolved in its own way. (In particular, Unitarianism caught humanism pretty hard -- the joke was the Unitarians believe in one God at most.) In the -- ok, I’ll look this one up -- in 1961, there was a big old merger, creating Unitarian Universalism, and in the process, everyone got together and was all...wait, so what are our official beliefs about God and stuff? Should we even have official beliefs about God? Maybe we can unify around some ideas around how people should treat each other instead. So they did: they drafted a set of Principles (broad-strokes guidelines on how people should act -- peace is good, truth is good, people have value, stuff like that) and a set of Sources (where UU’s get their ideas about God and morality and so on from, starting with direct experience) and left everything else up to the individual. And then a little while later, the tree-huggers got a seventh Principle and a sixth Source added in -- respect for the environment and Earth-centered religions, respectively -- so now the joke is that UU’s believe in one God, more or less. Currently there’s a movement on to add an 8th Principal that explicitly names racial equality and fighting oppression as something we value, since while the current Principles mention justice and equality, they don’t specifically name race, and the people of color who have stuck with the predominantly white denomination figure Unitarian Universalism can and should be doing better on that front. Unitarian Universalism runs religiously liberal (ie, decentralized, individualistic, non-authoritarian, non-dogmatic, inclined to believe science over the Bible) and politically progressive. Unitarian Universalist congregations tend to be very politically active and concerned with social justice, mostly in a well-educated middle class kind of way: committees, Robert’s Rules of Order, donating to non-profits, Get Out the Vote, inviting in speakers and asking “questions” that aren’t really questions, forming partnerships with other congregations and community organizations, etc. Many UU congregations have put a Black Lives Matter sign out (and when necessary keep putting it out when it gets torn down or vandalized), shown up for the protests, opposed the weird immigration BS that’s been going on in the US recently, etc. In addition to more charity style work, like food pantries and homeless shelters.

Point is: yeah it’s got flaws (don’t even get me started on Unitarian Universalism’s flaws) but if you’re a social justice person and want to meet other social justice people who are doing things, Unitarian Universalism can be a good place to look for that. You get more done in groups.

You’re less likely to burn out, too. With marginalization, it’s complicated, right? Again, for LGBTQ+ people, it’s going to be better than most religious organizations. For people a little bit on the autism spectrum, you probably won’t be the only one. (If you’re unmistakeably autistic, people might be weird/ableist; it might depend on the congregation.) If you’re from a working class background or are currently kinda broke, you might run into some frustrations or feel like you don’t fit in; if you’re a poc or if you’re disabled (or your kid is) or you want a lot of personal support, you might struggle more -- this really might vary a lot, but at least the congregations I’m used to tend to assume congregants can mostly stand on their own feet, metaphorically speaking, and have some extra time/money/skills/whatever that can be directed out into the wider world. It can be a good place for pagans and Buddhists and other people who don’t want a church but are having trouble finding a church-like religious community where you can hang out with people on the same spiritual path. (Uh, for a while UU congregations were emphatically not churches and some officially still aren’t; others gave up and were all “eh, it looks like a church, whatever, we’re just a weird church.) Some congregations are more atheist-dominated than others -- many avoid Jesus language most of the time, some avoid God language most of the time (UU’s who believe in God tend to believe in God in a relatively abstract/metaphorical way), some I hear are pagan-heavy, others do use Christian language a lot more. In all honesty you don’t have to go to Sunday worship if you don’t want to, and really a lot of UU’s don’t; if you want to be heavily involved in the congregation but don’t want to go to Sunday worship and don’t want to deal with pressure to, one way out is to teach RE (religious education -- basically “Sunday school”) the RE curricula are amazing, just absolutely astounding, and if you’re teaching it you get a ton of leeway with adjusting anything you don’t like. (Which could happen -- a lot of this stuff was developed before the idea that cultural appropriation is a big problem became mainstream in social justice circles.) What adult worship is like has basically zero correlation (perhaps negative correlation) to what RE is like. (Which sucks for young adults coming of age in a UU congregation, like I said don’t get me started on UU’s flaws.) Finally: for people who care about sex positivity and sex ed, Unitarian Universalists (in partnership with UCC) developed Our Whole Lives, a sex ed curriculum that, well, it’s not abstinence based education. You wouldn’t expect sex ed coming from a religious org to be better than the sex ed in schools, would you? And yet. Comprehensive sex ed that acknowledges gay bi and trans people and that disabled people have sex too and teaches about birth control and masturbation and abuse and consent and boundaries and bullying and internet safety and abortion. It’s good stuff. The course aimed at teens is most popular of course, but there’s actually (age-appropriate) OWL curricula for all stages of life: young kids, adults, older adults, everyone. And it’s versatile enough to be taught in secular contexts (after school programs etc). Given the direction that unfortunately a lot of school districts in the US have been going in in terms of sex ed, it’s a really important program.

[adventures-in-asexuality]

1, 2, 3, 18, 26

Fanfic asks!

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!)

God, I mean - on what scale? Out of everything I’ve read - maybe three? I’ve read a lot of writing better than mine and a lot of writing worse than mine - but that’s always going to be the case, and the more I read by better writers the better my writing will be, so - I feel like you’re always going to end up middle of the scale here.

2. Why do you write fanfiction? 

Philosophically? I suppose because I have some thoughts and questions and things to say, and fanfiction is a mode of communicating these that suits me quite well. But that’s the same for any kind of creation, I think.

Rather than original fiction? Honestly, a lot of it is the community aspect here - I can write and know that other people will read my writing; I can beta other people’s work and they beta mine; I can contribute to the massive, sprawling conversations that make up fandoms. You know how long I’ve spent writing original stuff, off and on, and never really sticking with it, partly because that communal, conversational atmosphere is, it turns out, pretty important to me. It’s been not quite two years of fanfic, and my skills have expanded so far beyond anything I expected or anywhere I’d previously gotten. (And even into professional stuff, which is useful - I’ve been writing scripts for training videos, and got 3k+ of scripts written over a couple of afternoons recently, which would’ve been unthinkable a couple of years ago.)

Why the specific fandoms or pairings or ideas? I’m very much of the mindset of writing fanfic to explore things that aren’t in the original canon - I’m not concise enough for missing scene fanfic (though good missing scene fanfic is very good!), but I think fandoms like JJBA or TGCF have so much space around the margins in which a thousand other stories could flourish, and - well, why not write whichever of those stories gets its teeth into me? (I feel like the Locked Tomb trilogy, conversely, is so tightly wound together that I couldn’t really poke at it until Alecto comes out, because there are so many questions I either want to know the answer to, or want to know that there is no answer before messing with them.)

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? 

You’re just out here trying to make me write a cover letter, hm?

I feel like, to a large extent, this is something that readers could better answer; my reading of my work is always coloured by everything I intended, whether or not it actually made it into the piece in a way that other people would recognise. (But then again everyone will read something differently, etc etc etc, you can cite this better me.)

I guess... what feels like a Rowan Fic to me is something that’s got plenty of pain and despair, but that’s still funny; something that plumbs the horror of... whatever the piece is about, and then takes a moment at the worst possible point to make a pun about it. (nowhere to go always feels like a particular example of this to me - so much of the emotional backdrop of it is about the desperate and doomed struggle for the freedom you once feel yourself to have had and the terror of relying on other people whom you know will let you down, but it’s also about Denominational Opinions Hour and bad jokes and last-gasp clutches for any joy we can wring out of life before it leaves us.)

I’d like to say that gentleness and hope also fit in there somewhere, even if there’s nothing to hope for beyond the present moment - but that’s probably more aspirational than anything else.

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? 

GOOD NEWS, I’M CURRENTLY WRITING BEEFLEAF FAKE DATING.

If it’s got to be something I’ve written and published - probably this love; Sugawara no Michizane AU is not a recognised tag for a reason, and mixing ghosts up so tightly with Stands is definitely a choice that was made (although Araki also made it; don’t think I haven’t thought about that for hours on end!), but, well. It came out better than I thought it might.

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? 

Hm - mostly, I think, specific aspects of relationship- or sex-based stuff, for different reasons. I’d really like to write more about queerplatonic or otherwise non-normative but still significant partnerships, but I do worry about how people will take that (and also how to tag it, as I’ve complained before). I’ll almost certainly end up doing so anyway - and a fair few of the relationships I have written skew, well, less than normative romantic, just because it’s me writing them - but I’ve never dug into that as much as I’d like to.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m really wary of writing much physical touch stuff; I have no real desire to write sex, but I do end up walking back from or rewriting touches or interludes that could be read as something even vaguely approaching sexual because I’m not sure how other people would read it, and whether I want to risk their interpretations. (Mostly this irritates me when I think of a really good joke, and on rereading it I’m like ‘yeah but do I want strangers to read this? am I comfortable with their assumptions?’)

Honourable mention to horrible ex-Christianity fic, which I’m less afraid of writing and more haven’t yet found the place for - but I’m sure that once I do find a home for it, I will be afraid; it’s going to be a lot of messy feelings. (I’m still so mad that a Saturday Night Live MDZS AU has one of the best ex-Christian phrases I’ve ever seen. >:[[[[)

[leonbloder]

The Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

I was talking to a recent Presbyterian seminary graduate the other day, and she related to me how her seminary experienced had changed her.  

"I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church," she told me.  "Before I went to seminary, I never knew there was such a thing as female pastors, and then I was studying to become one if I wanted to."  

If you are flummoxed by this, let me explain...

The official stance of the Southern Baptist Convention is that women cannot become pastors, and also ought not to "teach a man," according to some of the much-disputed and terribly interpreted words of the Apostle Paul.  

To be fair, Southern Baptists don't have a corner on the market when it comes to patriarchal and misogynistic structures, and they sure as heck don't own the title of doing violence to the Scriptures.  

There's plenty of that kind of stuff abounding in all kinds of Christian denominations and churches.  

Also, I should add that the times they are a-changin' in the Southern Baptist Convention.  Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Southern California (the largest church in the SBC) just ordained three women pastors.  

But this all begs the question, "What do you do when your own common sense, your understanding of God's grace, and Jesus' own message of love, mercy, and inclusion conflict with your tightly held traditions?"

Maybe you have experienced this in your own life of faith.  

You thought the Bible said something clearly, but then discovered over time it wasn't that clear.  Or you realize that the narrow view of your faith tradition on social issues suddenly seems out of step with your own.  

I'm going to share something with you from my own experience:  Once you see it, you can't unsee it, no matter what you choose to do from that point forward.  

It's like the iconic scene from the Matrix when Morpheus offers Neo two pills--a red one and a blue one.  He tells him:

This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

The interesting thing about this moment is that Neo really can't go back entirely to his old life---at least not without some kind of memory of what he's already seen.

The choice of which pill to take is really a test of whether Neo is willing to choose which reality to embrace no matter what he knows to be true.  

There's also this...  Sometimes following the path toward a new reality can be disorienting at first because it might mean leaving behind what you knew, what you were holding on to... and even the faith community you have been a part of.  

Patrick Borland writes about why so many of us struggle when we begin to wake up to new ways of expressing faith:  

Regardless of our background, religious not, if we have spent a lot of time in environments that don’t value the exploration of different perspectives, a new idea can seem like a potential threat.

It can be disorienting when your faith community, family, or friends no longer share your beliefs about God.  It can be frightening to realize that if you publicly state what you see in Scripture, or what you think about Jesus, you might find yourself on the outs with all of them.  

This is why lots of people choose the blue pill.  They choose to go back to sleep, so to speak, in spite of what they've begun to see.  Sometimes they do so angrily, becoming more intractable, and bent on defending the old as they try to forget the new.

It has long been my desire to develop and foster the kind of faith community where different perspectives, ideas, and spiritual awakenings are not seen as a threat, but as a gift, not only to the one who is experiencing them but also to the community itself.

I also want to be a safe place to land for anyone who is starting to see their faith differently.  So if this resonated with you at all today, do me a favor.  Don't take the blue pill.  

Instead, message me, email me, let me know what you are struggling with.  Or if you have someone in your life that you trust, reach out to them.  It will do you a world of good to be able to process it out loud with someone.

I also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'll realize a couple of things when you do:  

1) You're not alone.  There are a lot of us out here.  

2) There's a way forward that is life-giving and bright.  

May you find your way forward today and every day from this day.  May you feel the presence of Christ guiding you as you go.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.  

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 89

Healing and Faith: Part 2

Dr. Harold Koenig

Among the pioneers of the study of faith's healing potential is Harold Koenig, an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality, and Health at Duke University Medical Center. Koenig first noticed the significance of faith as a factor in medical recovery when he was a young family doctor. He was consulted about a patient who had been hospitalized for a month after hip surgery. Her husband had died of a sudden stroke, and she had slipped on ice at his funeral and fractured her hip. The surgeon warned him that she was emotionally vulnerable. Indeed, she had experienced events that normally would trigger clinical depression and thus undermine her recovery.

He was therefore surprised to find the old lady cheerful when he entered her room. She said: "What can I do for you, Doctor?" Koenig's search for obvious signs of depression-fatigue, darkened or tear-reddened eyes, difficulty concentrating-indicated nothing. Upon further conversation, he discovered that she maintained her cheerful mood by reading the Bible. She told him: "If I wake up alone or afraid, I read my Bible or talk to God. He is always there, even when my loved ones are not. It's the most important thing that keeps me going."

Koenig was impressed. When she recovered with few complications, he felt compelled to study further the medical significance of such deep faith. Since that event, numerous patients have told him how their faith helped them cope, thus speeding their physical healing. His research team, which has studied thousands of Americans since 1984, has compiled powerful evidence that religious faith not only promotes overall good health, but also helps patients recover from serious illness.

"By praying to God, patients acquire an indirect form of control over their illness." They believe they are not alone in their struggle, and that God is personally interested in them. This safeguards them against the psychological isolation that batters so many seriously ill people. In a study of 455 elderly hospital patients, Koenig found that people who attended church more than once a week averaged about four days in the hospital. People who never or rarely attended church spent about ten to twelve days of hospitalization.

Dr. Dale Matthews

Dale Matthews is an associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. As a young internist in the early 1980s, he met a patient with strong faith who would make a lasting impact on his life. The man said: "I am a devout Christian. If you're going to be my doctor, I want you to pray with me" before allowing Matthews to treat him. Matthews had never shared his own faith with his patients, so at first he was reluctant. But nevertheless he joined hands with the man, who he hoped would keep quiet and keep the matter secret. After all, he did not want to be labeled "unscientific." He was alarmed when the man's booming voice filled the examination room. But Matthews had a crucial realization that day: His patient was a whole person, not a composite of symptoms and tests forming a "case." This led him to become sensitive to signals indicating that religion is important to a patient. If someone says: "I hope from God that nothing bad shows up in these tests," Matthews will say: "Tell me your thoughts about God." He declares: "We cannot prove scientifically that God heals, but I believe we can prove that belief in God has a beneficial effect." In his recently published book The Faith Factor, he incorporates religious wisdom, scientific research, and patients' stories to make a case for the faith-health connection.

Statistical Findings

Health care institutions are beginning to pay attention to the faith-health connection. Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, and the AAAS have sponsored conferences on spirituality and health. Nearly half of all American medical schools now offer courses on the topic. Below we give findings of some published studies on the topic.

• In a survey of 269 doctors at the 1996 meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians, 99 percent said they thought religious beliefs could contribute to healing. When asked about their personal experiences, 63 percent of doctors said God intervened to improve their own medical conditions. Their patients agree even more enthusiastically that prayer is a powerful tool in healing. Polls by Time/CNN and USA Weekend show that about 80 percent of Americans believe spiritual faith or prayer can help people recover from illness or injury, and more than 60 percent think doctors should talk to patients about faith and even pray with those who request it.

• According to researchers at Columbia University, children whose religiously committed mothers are less likely to suffer from depression later in life. In their study, 60 mothers and 151 children were followed over 10 years to determine if there was any relationship between a mother's religious commitment and resulting depression in her children. The study found that daughters, but not sons, of women who considered religion to be highly important were 60 percent less likely to have a major depressive disorder at the 10-year followup. A second important factor linked with less depression was the degree to which the children embraced their mother's religion. When the mother and child were members of the same religious denomination at the followup, daughters were 71 percent less likely to suffer from a major depressive disorder while sons were 84 percent less likely.

• Another significant finding of the study was that highly religious mothers were less likely to be depressed themselves. Women for whom religion was highly important were 81 percent less likely to have major depression at the 10-year followup. This finding is consistent with other studies showing an inverse relationship between religiosity and depression. Several possible explanations exist for these findings. According to the researchers, highly religious mothers also were less likely to be divorced or exhibit poor social functioning—-both of which could contribute to depression in children. Another potential explanation comes from a recent study at the Medical College of Virginia, which found that religion can protect people from depression by buffering them against stressful life events.

• A Dartmouth Medical School study found that heart patients were 14 times more likely to die following surgery if they did not participate in group activities and did not find comfort in religion. Within six months of surgery 21 patients died, but there were no deaths among 37 people who said they were "deeply religious."

• A Yale University study of 2,812 elderly people found that those who never or rarely attended church had nearly twice the stroke rate of weekly church-goers.

• A survey of 5,286 Californians found that church members have lower death rates than nonmembers—regardless of such risk factors as smoking, drinking, obesity, and inactivity.

• Those with a religious commitment had fewer symptoms or had better health outcomes in seven out of eight cancer studies, four out of five blood pressure studies, four out of six heart disease studies, and four out of five general health studies. According to one research analysis, people with a strong religious commitment seem to be less prone to depression, suicide, alcoholism, and other addictions.

• Can others' prayers help? In a 1988 study by cardiologists Randolph Byrd, 393 heart patients in San Francisco General Hospital Medical center were divided into two groups. One was prayed for by people around the country; the other did not receive any prayers from study participants. Patients did not know to which group they belonged. The group that was prayed for experienced fewer complications, fewer cases of pneumonia, fewer cardiac arrests, less congestive heart failure, and needed fewer antibiotics.

• Researchers studying a sample population of 2,730 drawn from the Alameda County Study—a long-term research project of health and mortality—found that people who both attend religious services and participate in other activities through their place of worship receive protection from the stress of financial burdens, health issues, and other problems.

• In a study of nearly 600 severely ill hospital patients aged 55 and older, researchers measured 47 ways of coping. They discovered that patients who sought a connection with a benevolent God as well as support from clergy and church members were less depressed and rated their quality of life as higher, even after taking into account the severity of their diagnosis. Researchers also found that patients who gave spiritual support to others by praying for them or encouraging their faith also faired better emotionally.

• Another recent study conducted at Duke University revealed more striking results. In the first study to examine the role of religion in recovering from depression, researchers followed 87 patients aged 60 or older who were diagnosed with depressive disorder after being admitted to the hospital for a physical illness. They discovered that religion can help people recover from depression. In fact, the more spiritual the patient, the more quickly he or she recovered.

Conclusion

Can faith really heal? According to some researchers, the answer is a definite yes. The study of the link between religious faith and physical healing is very young. But there are important signs that faith can have significant positive impact on health, complementing such conventional medical practices as pharmaceuticals and surgery. Increasingly, professionals from respected institutions are looking into the relationship of faith and healing via scientific methods. Once considered a taboo, studying the healing powers of faith is now taken seriously in scientific circles. Regardless of its results, the very existence of this effort promises to expand the possibilities of cooperation between science and faith, and lead to a better understanding of human nature. *Fight or Flight Response: Stress has been defined as the perception of threat or danger that requires behavioral change. Stress results in various bodily changes, including increased metabolism, and increases in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and blood flow to the muscles. These internal physiological changes prepare us to fight or run away, and thus stress reaction has been named the "fight or flight" response. The fight or flight response was first described by Harvard physiologist Dr. Walter B. Cannon. It is mediated by the increased release of adrenaline and noradrenalin (epinephrine and norepinephrine) into the blood stream.

[progressivejudaism]

Heya! So, I am writing a story where there are many characters who celebrate Christmas and only one Jewish character. For those who have been in similar situations irl, is there any way to "mix" the two traditions? What is something that the goyim characters can do to celebrate with the Jewish character without being 'offensive' and not leaving her alone? (By this ofc I don't mean that she has to actually celebrate Christmas. it would be quite nonsensical)

Hi there friend,

Thanks so much for reaching out.  My name is Josh (he/him/his) and I’m a student rabbi living in NYC. 

Hanukkah is the celebration of a battle fought against the Greek army in c 200 BCE to fight against their desire to assimilate the Jews into Greek culture.  With Christmas beyond the dominant holiday this season being celebrated by the dominate culture in most places where Jews celebrate Hanukkah- most Jews hold that it would be inappropriate to “mix” these two traditions.  With that, I cannot think of very many Jewish and Christian traditions that could be “mixed” together.

In my reading of your message, I read that you might not be Jewish -- but a well-meaning person who seeks to include Jews in your story.  That is fantastic and amazing. Thank you for thinking of the Jewish People-- and what is often our struggle this time of year.  It can be incredibly painful for many Jews to have no one to celebrate Hanukkah with this time of year-- and to see Christmas decorations everywhere!

Please know that the following paragraph comes out of full admiration and thankfulness of your project -- and out of respect to you (via my assumption- and I fully apologize if my assumption is wrong here) and out of respect of your integrity as a writer.  (This message is also for similar writers in similar situations)

I tend to argue that non-Jews should avoid writing main Jewish characters because frequently I have seen so many misrepresentations of Jews and Judaism.  Some folks argue that this depictions are antisemitic, some just become very sad at these depictions.  From issues of theology (Jewish theology is far from Christian theology), Peoplehood/Nationhood/Zionism/Jewish Togetherness (whatever you want to call it), Jewish ethnicity (as an example, recently Disney has come under fire for a challenge related to this), the character’s assimilated identity, denominational, “secularness,” their connection with Israel and the Holocaust, etc to issues of the fact that it is really hard to accurately write about a culture that one is not a part of.  All of these factors and others affect how Jews act in the world.   In my experience as a rabbinical student, Jewish Educator, and professional Jew, I believe that the only non-Jews who could really accurately portray a Jewish person are spouses, children, parents, and close friends of Jewish people who are semi-active or active in the Jewish community.  I can pinpoint several people-- congregants, friend’s parents, and family-- who are not Jewish but who probably could write a pretty convincing Jewish character.  That is because they have lived Judaism through the eyes of their loved ones for so many years.  I just want to caution all well-meaning beautiful non-Jewish souls out there who want to engage in this writing style - to do so with caution.   I would HATE for you to go into a project with the full intention of being respectful and wonderful, only for you to get something wrong-- or really wrong.  Subtle nuances in tone, theology, and practice can be a writer’s downfall in this mode. And I would hate for someone to call you antisemitic or xenophobic for missing the mark on something that you had such good intentions wish.  That would make me very sad.

Just as a final note, there are many activities that Jews and Christians can do this time of year to be together in their celebrations!  One example is simply when a Christian attends a Hanukkah party-- or when they are present when their Jewish family and friends light their Hanukiot (plural for Hanukiah- the Hanukkah Menorah).  Another example is when a Jewish person might eat Christmas dinner with their Christian friends or family-- or even attend Midnight Mass with their loved ones.  In a lot of Jewish communities, everyone gathers on the first or last night of Hanukkah to celebrate together-- and in several they gather on Shabbat for a special Hanukkah meal, candle lighting, Kabbalat Shabbat Hanukkah-style service, and games!  This would be another perfect opportunity for Christian loved ones to come and be present with their Jewish loved ones.  Another great option for Jews hoping to celebrate Christmas with and for their Christian loved ones is on Christmas morning-- how fun would it be to wake up in your loved ones home to celebrate Christmas morning together!  There are also plenty of classic Hanukkah and classic Christmas movies that friends and family can watch together-- and so much music!

I hope that this helps!  Please let me know if you’d like to chat about anything else- I’m all ears!

I hope that your holiday celebrations have been warm and bright,

l’shalom,

Josh

[secretariatess]

God is not a male.

           Before I can go any farther, I know that I have to first address the arguments that are certainly coming to people’s heads. I am not advocating that God should be called a female, be referenced by female pronouns, or be called the Mother. But being called the Father and using male pronouns are not actually establishments of Him being male.  The Bible claims that God is Spirit.  As a Spirit, He does not have a body to claim as either male or female. I’m not looking to uproot the uses of these words.  But God is not male.

           God created man in His image.  This is not “man” as in the male gender, but rather “man” as in humankind.  God created man, male and female, in His own image.  While we hopefully understand that this means both genders are of His image and were lovingly created by Him, I think we should consider the other side of what that means.  Just as God has qualities we recognize as male, He also has female qualities.

           I feel like this is important to point out because we can get lost in the “God the Father” and using “He” as pronouns, which then becomes difficult to relate Him to the female gender.  I’m concerned about the attitude it then generates. And the things it can justify.

           This topic came about because of two reasons. Firstly, it came about because of a long internal struggle with myself about the value of being a woman when the Bible and even the Church seems to so heavily favor the value of men. Secondly, earlier this week a small, seemingly insignificant event brought around a revelation of a reaction God Himself might have, just as I had.  Specifically, a reaction typically female.

           Now I know that many would probably have words of encouragement regarding my struggle.  I know that many would point me to all the wonderful stories of the Biblical and Godfearing women.  Or talk about the wonders of motherhood and the blessings God bestows on mothers.  I also know that the doctrine of my own denomination is rather egalitarian despite the controversy, and I know the context and meaning behind many texts in the Bible regarding women than probably better than most Christians.  (I’m not saying that as “Look at how awesome I am,” but rather an acknowledgement that not everyone has such a deeply Biblically literate mother who also knows Biblical Hebrew and Greek. It’s Mother’s Day, so I’m not going to apologize for bragging about my mom.)  And it’s not that I didn’t know that women were valued by God.  Rather, the struggle was trying to see the value of a woman outside of a marriage and motherhood, especially compared to a man, and especially when God was so celebrated in His masculinity.  In fact, it seemed that His more feminine qualities were praised as Him just being a good father.  To say that He is also a mother is offensive, and sometimes can get you called heretical.

           And in that struggle, I could see why there are those who would insist on calling God a female in some way.  Again, not that I agree with it, but I could see it. Here we are, being told that everyone is created in God’s image, but where is woman in God’s image?  How can a woman relate to Him when everything is an indication that He is male? What encouragement is there in being a woman when the consideration of God having female qualities or even genderless in some cases is offensive?  Instead of getting upset and righteously angered at those who want to refer to God as female, I felt actually compassionate.  It’s hard, and can hurt.  And it’s a struggle I wouldn’t wish on any others.  For the women who don’t think so much on it or are comfortable where they are, my goal isn’t to stir up some revolution or demand for action.

           The insistence of viewing God as male or mostly male is a human thing, however, and a result of a broken world.  See, there are even instances in the Bible where God relates Himself to a mother.  In Isaiah 66:13, He relates Himself to a mother comforting her child.  In Luke 13:34, Jesus relates His longing to gather Jerusalem’s children together like that of a hen’s.  The nature of mothers didn’t come from the fact that children needed it, but rather because it was in fact a nature of God Himself.  And while the comparisons are of mothers, you can find many women with those mothering instincts even though they don’t have children of their own.  How else does God relate to a woman?  When God calls her a “helper” in Genesis, the word is also something He uses for Himself.

           Comforter.  Nurturer. Helper.  Honestly, the part of the Trinity that comes to mind when hearing those words related to God is that of the Holy Spirit.  

           Originally writing this out I had planned on pulling out Biblical passages where God acts more as a mother would, or more feminine. Possibly because I wanted to show more Biblical proof for my point.  However, this felt like it should be more of a personal testimony.

           My struggle with the whole issue has been mostly resolved, with what’s left being final acceptance.   But what sparked the topic in my mind most recently was the event I mentioned earlier. My friends and I had gone for a walk down a trail here in my hometown.  After our walk we settled on a bench at the start of the trail and watched people go on and off the trail as we talked about various things.  One sight we witnessed was of a father hugging his young daughter after she fell down and cried.  The sight elicited the same reaction in all of us: Awwwwww.  It warmed us to see a father caring so much about his daughter.  What I realized was that this was typically a female response, seeing that kind of thing.  Not that men couldn’t find it cute, but consider that a common thing women find attractive is a guy being a dad.  Stereotyping? Yes.  But it is one for good reason.

           What does this have to do with God?  While many can see the comparison of God in the father hugging his daughter, it occurred to me that one could also be made with the reaction my friends and I had.  That He would look on the pair and have a reaction like ours at seeing a father being a father.  Those feminine aspects that women experience- they are not aspects known only to them. Those aspects are part of God’s nature.

           Sometimes in the church, even with words of “It’s okay to be feminine,” it can feel upsetting or on the outs when seeing God referred to so much as a male.  You can know that God made women equal or the Bible stands out against its culture when talking about women, yet still feel not as important as a man, or not finding the relation to God as easily. Maybe we try to brush it aside because that’s not what our focus should be on.  But the reality is that it’s there and that it does affect some of the sisters in Christ.  It can’t always just be resolved with, “That’s not the important thing.”  

           Sometimes we need to take a moment to remember that we’re not just daughters of God.  We were created in His image as well.  Our feminine traits are not separate from God.  They weren’t created to complement men’s.  We have them because, once again, we were created in God’s image.

           This isn’t to say guys can’t have feminine qualities, or women masculine ones.  This is a recognition that the qualities –not vices- of both genders can be found in God. That it is not unbiblical to find God with feminine qualities, nor should it be offensive to say that He does.

           Mother’s Day is a day we celebrate mothers, or women who have been a mother in some way to us or others.  Many churches celebrate motherhood.  But in our celebration, I think we need to also pause and celebrate where the nature of mothers came from.

           For those who cannot relate to what I’m talking about and/or find it offensive that I would claim a more feminine side of God, I would ask why?  Not that I want the answer, but perhaps more of a question to ask yourself.  Why is it so offensive for God to be relatable to women?

[lestudio1-bernardbujold]

TIFFANY AND LOUIS VUITTON

Tiffany & Co. has received a takeover approach from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (Bernard Arnault), which is seeking to add the iconic U.S. jeweler to its portfolio of upscale brands.

The French company sent Tiffany officials a letter in the past couple of weeks outlining an all-cash takeover bid of roughly $120 a share, according to people familiar with the matter. That would value Tiffany at close to $14.5 billion.

The companies aren’t in talks but Tiffany is expected to work quickly on a response, some of the people said. Even though the bid represents a premium of 30% or more to where Tiffany traded when the offer was made, according to one of the people, LVMH is expected to have to pay up even more if it wants to clinch the deal. Shares of New York-based Tiffany closed Friday at $98.55, giving it a market value of nearly $12 billion. The stock reached nearly $140 a share during the summer of 2018.

LVMH has a market value of €193 billion ($214 billion). Bloomberg earlier reported on LVMH’s interest in Tiffany.

Buying Tiffany would increase Paris-based LVMH’s exposure to jewelry, one of the fastest-growing businesses in the luxury sector. In 2018, the global market grew 7% and was worth about €18 billion, according to Bain & Co. Tiffany, with more than 300 stores globally, is one of the world’s largest jewelers, along with Cartier and LVMH-owned Bulgari, but it has been unable to keep pace with European rivals.

Tiffany, which has about $4 billion in annual revenue, has struggled with lackluster sales growth for years. The 182-year-old brand has been trying to rebuild its business after ousting its chief executive two years ago amid pressure from an activist investor. The stock, which had slumped near $60 in 2016, has been hovering around $100 for much of the past year.

Under CEO Alessandro Bogliolo, the jeweler has pushed an expansion into China, with plans to open flagship stores in several major cities. The chain, which relies heavily on tourist spending in the U.S. market, also has been renovating its flagship New York store on Fifth Avenue.

Tiffany also has tried to broaden its appeal with marketing that includes more minorities and same-sex couples, added new products for younger shoppers and introduced a jewelry line for men.

But in recent quarters sales have slipped both in the U.S. and Asia. Excluding currency swings, comparable sales have declined from a year earlier for two straight quarters. In August, executives cautioned that the protests in Hong Kong and a macroeconomic slowdown could damp profits for the rest of the year.

Luxury-goods companies have been pressured by fears of an economic slowdown in China, where shoppers account for roughly one-third of luxury-goods purchases world-wide. Escalating trade tensions also have played a part in waning consumer confidence in China.

Tiffany would be one of the biggest acquisitions yet by Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chief executive and controlling shareholder. Mr. Arnault paid €12 billion in 2017 to unite the storied fashion house Christian Dior with LVMH.

LVMH, which has roughly $50 billion in annual revenue, also relies on Chinese shoppers for a chunk of its sales. But the conglomerate is so large and has so many brands—from Louis Vuitton to Dom Pérignon—that it has fared better than Tiffany in recent years. Revenue jumped in its latest quarter, showing little impact from the Hong Kong protests or the U.S.-China trade tensions.

LVMH could use its deep pockets to develop product lines where Tiffany is weak. In addition to Bulgari, LVMH owns luxury watchmakers Hublot and TAG Heuer.

“Tiffany has yet to express its full potential—for example in design jewelry and watches,” says Bernstein & Co. analyst Luca Solca.

The deal would significantly expand LVMH’s presence in the U.S., giving it more exposure to U.S. dollar-denominated revenue and reducing foreign-exchange risk, Mr. Solca says.

Tiffany’s Mr. Bogliolo is familiar with LVMH; he spent 16 years at Bulgari before LVMH took control of the company in 2011 and then served as North American operating chief at LVMH’s Sephora unit for a little more than a year. Before joining Tiffany, he was CEO of Italian apparel company Diesel SpA.

—Matthew Dalton contributed to this article. oct 27, 2019

[anniegrace810-blog]

Lately I’ve seen countless posts about the uselessness of short term mission trips. Many arguments have floated onto my Facebook feed, Instagram, and even Direct Messages. I’ve heard comments such as: Christians only “use black babies for Instagram likes” or “go on short term mission trips to fulfill a spiritual status”. Short term missions are turning into an American joke.

In light of these comments, I’d like to share what God has led me to believe about these types of trips.

-As Christians, we have been commanded to go

Christianity, in today’s day and age, has been diluted down to people who go to church every Sunday, participate in a small group, pray before dinner, and proclaim they are members of the church. The true spirit and definition of a Christian has been lost in traditions, denominations, arguments, opinions, and political status.

Being a Christian, to me, is simply believing in Jesus Christ. Believing in His word, following his gospel, and realizing that He is Lord. All of the ridiculous reasons we separate every Sunday hold no weight to the power of the gospel and the story of Jesus Christ.

That being said, every Christian, no matter the denomination or political stance, has already been called to preach the gospel to ALL the nations. Matthew 28:19 states, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” As Christians, we like to write “if” into that verse. Go “if” you can afford it, or “if” it’s convenient, or “if” you have time, or “if” you have been called. Don’t wait for God to call you to do something He has already commanded in His word.

I don’t believe God calls us all to full time missions across the globe. However, I do believe each Christian is called somewhere. That place could be across the world, across the street, across the state, or each of these. I believe the power of God is not limited to a place or a feeling, but Christians willing to be bold wherever they are.

-One week is enough

The main argument I have heard against short term missions is the simple fact that they are “short-term”. How can God accomplish all that He needs to in just a week? How can you say that you are building relationships when you meet people for a week and never speak to them again?

In June, one thing my team was able to do was sit down with a group of around 40 women and open up a discussion of fear. We asked: What is your biggest fear? What are you most afraid of? We saw many responses, from the violence with Haiti’s government to not being able to accomplish their dreams due to being a woman in that society. The conversation led to this:

Woman: Why do you, as Americans come here to our country?

Amy: Because we believe in the power of Jesus and his story, and we want to share his love with you. We love this country and all the relationships we have built.

Woman: Why, when you have everything you could want in America, do you love us? Do you even think about us when you go home?

Amy: All the time. I’ve never had a day in America that I don’t think about you and pray for you.

The look on that woman’s face was priceless. One of her biggest fears was being forgotten. To know she was being thought about, being prayed over, and being loved from across the globe was life-changing to her.

Friends, is it that hard to imagine what simple acts of love can do for the gospel? Is it that hard to realize that God can move through a smile? A conversation? A hug?

One evening in Haiti, someone brought up this idea. How do we see the gospel change lives and work miracles in Haiti, but fail to see this in America? The answer was simple: Because Christians act like Christians. It’s time we woke up and realized that the power of God is NOT ordinary, or scheduled, or timely. The power of God can work through any constrict that the world tells us is impossible to break when Christians believe and act upon the love of God. 

-Finally, short term mission trips stay with Christians

I realize this is also a huge argument against short term mission trips. There will always be those who go on mission trips for the wrong reason. One of my friends recently told me, “You can always tell who is there for the Instagram post and who is there for the country”. Unfortunately, short term mission trips are appealing to luke-warm Christians. It’s not too hard to give up cell service or live without air conditioning for a week, so it seems “doable” to a lot of people. It makes you feel like a good person, having given up something precious for a week.

This, I agree, is wrong. Short term missions are much more than giving up comforts for a week. Christians who go on mission trips and allow themselves to be changed by what they have seen are truly blessed by the trip. I have been going on trips to Haiti with the same group of girls for 5 or 6 years now, and we each consider it a second home. I’ve seen each of them step out of their comfort zone, pray for the people with tears in their eyes, and build relationships that grow each time we go back. I’ve watched them get back on the airplane to go home sobbing because they want to stay. That, my friends, I believe is God’s calling for short term mission trips.

.

.

.

Sure, I don’t live in Haiti. I don’t realize all the struggles the people face. I haven’t been exposed to all the hardships. I can’t care for every need. I can’t love on every kid, but I do have a heart for them. I can love on them for a week at a time. I can pass out food and help families survive that week. I can pray with them for their needs. I can hug that child and tell them they are so loved by me and a Heavenly Father. I can revisit them a few months later and pick up right where I left off.

Somehow, I can’t shake the feeling that God is loving enough, powerful enough, and good enough to have His heart all over short term trips.

[questions-for-christians]

a few months ago, I hit a really difficult bump in my faith that just made day to day life unbearable -- until I just stopped caring. I've dealt with body image and confidence issues for as long as I can remember, and as soon as I stopped caring about God, I started to be as confident as I've ever been. I look at myself in the mirror and love what I see. I love everything about myself. If my happiness is supposed to come from Christ, why did I suddenly become happy as soon as I stopped caring?

That is an excellent and insightful question. Exactly the kind of question that I like. Not to mention that this could so easily be a question from my younger self. You don’t happen to have a time machine by any chance?

While I cannot hope to perfectly answer, I can perhaps offer a follow-up question. As you have shared a little from your life, would it be okay if I shared something from mine too?

There is a question here but I am going to start with a story. If you don’t fancy reading the story, skip down to “the question” - no one will know.

Another thing it took me ages to learn

One of the many things that it took me a long time to figure out was this - many of my issues about God were actually issues with His people. 

The church is excellent at adding so much extra heaviness to the light burden of Christ that it is a wonder we can still even recognise it. I shall illustrate that with the story I promised you.

Personal story time

I suffer from varying degrees of anxiety and depression. I have done all my life. I am (I have recently discovered) dyslexic, dyspraxic, depressive, and probably a lot more besides. Like you, I looked at myself and hated what I saw. 

I was a (mostly) open-minded (mostly) cis (totally) white male with long hair that liked alternative music - not a good fit for the churches I was going to. I’m still like that today but a lot more chill and I like myself.

My early years were spent in a church that actually taught that depression was caused by not having enough faith that Jesus loved you. I knew that was false but I could not explain why. 

I started to have questions. Questions, cause trouble. It was not the questions that made me leave but seeing the true face of the “in-group” and the way I was seen as utterly unworthy and would, at best, be merely tolerated. 

After I left, I found myself in a similar church where (just like the first) being a Christian seemed to get harder and harder. The truth is, I had failed to learn anything and was going to repeat my mistakes a while longer - with the same results.

Two groups theory

It was while I was in this second very similar church, that I started to notice that there were two groups of people. One group had mastered the invisible extra rules. The “good” group got to speak at the front, lead things, and were offered all sorts of church support. They were the minority that seemed to have it all together and were the example the rest of us failed to live up to.

The others were still struggling to “be spiritual” and were told to be more committed. I was well and truly in the “failure” group.

Questions lead to anger, apparently

Eventually, I questioned the leadership too much and got my head bitten off. I was shouted at by two men who should have know better and not even for a deeply probing or controversial question. Just expressing doubts in the people themselves based on my past experience. It was humiliating and silly. 

Not for the first time, the mask was off. I had again seen the true face of the elite. It was not pretty. The example of the “spiritual group” was not as flawless as they claimed. They were just as broken as the failures but with the added twist that no one could see it.

I refused to go back and - if I am honest - they probably did not want me to. 

If you have read my Tumblr before you could probably see this plot twist coming. I still ask a lot of questions.

The ah-ha moment

For the first time ever I was churchless. Like you, I was less stressed and more productive. Out from under those extra rules, life was easier. 

That was when I started to investigate the Bible for myself. I still had questions and the only way to get answers now was to go looking for them. The “ah-ha” moment was when I first started to discover whole passages of scripture that are the exact opposite of what I had been taught in two mainstream denominations.

I started to see that the reason being a Christian was hard was that I was trying to be something other than Christ-like - I was trying to be a middle-class white cis neurotypical extrovert team-member while I was actually far too punk, anxious, introverted, needy, and nerdy to do half of that.

The discovery

That was when I start to notice how alternative (and nice) Jesus was.

Jesus taught - care about people and let Me take care of the rest. 

The Church taught - turn up on time, dress the right way, pray the right way, put your hands in the air the requisite amount during worship, dance from time to time if the music is suitable (charismatic church culture is weird), attend the extracurricular activities, volunteer for things… If you performed to a minimal level then you could advance in the club. Demonstrate you are spiritual and you can get promoted. 

None of that nonsense was in the Bible. Jesus picked a set of neurotic, working class, failures who between them had exactly no qualities for leadership or spiritual behaviour. 

The disciples repeatedly failed to understand, questioned the wrong things, doubted what they saw, forgot lessons, got uptight about stuff that did not matter, panicked, stressed, stole, lied, cheated, and bickered among themselves about who was the favourite. 

Jesus choice of follower was the “failure” group. I was in the “failure” group.

For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 51:16-17 [Berean Study Bible]

The church had it backwards

Slowly, I came to understand that the church had things backwards. There were two groups in Jesus time too. The “failure” group which He loved to spend time with and the group that were sure they had it all together with which He argued and offended and generally made look pretty silly by knowing the scriptures better.

Somehow the churches I was in had “accidentally” put the people Jesus would not have liked so much in charge of teaching His message and sidelined the people He would have chosen to do the job.

Being a Chrisitan was not hard - pretending to be one of the “religious elite” was! Ah, now it all made sense.

Happy ending (of sorts)

Like you, anon, I went from a dedicated follower to having no more time for God. I did not stop there, however, and once I had seen it was His “wife” I could not get on with, I realised that God was actually quite nice. (Not “wife” technically, the group that thinks of itself as His bride. I’m being a bit facetious here.) 

I joined a group of rebels who met without permission on a Monday. Like me, they had grown tired of the church too. Together, we formed a new church like group with a single rule that everyone should be able to contribute (and then take questions).

Today, following God is easy. I just do my best to accept and care for everyone and let Him take care of the rest. I see that we are all probably wrong about some part of doctrine and so ask questions of myself frequently. I will probably always be wrong about something and not that is okay. The whole point of Grace is that it is fine to be wrong so long as I am kind. I’m still learning to be kind but that’s another story.

The question

We finally get to the question I promised you. Is it possible that once all the pressure to conform to church norms was gone, the source of your anxiety was gone too? If so, could it be that Christ is okay, but many of his fan club are demanding jerks?

The reason I ask is that this was what I found to be the case. It took me a few repeated bumps in the road to figure that out because I can be a slow learner. 

The Jesus I read about - especially with some historical and cultural context to back it up - was all about gender, racial, and socio-economic equality. He did not care if you were a traitor (tax collector), prostitute, working-class ignoramus, or outcast - he had time for everyone. Well, except stuck up religious leaders - those He gave a hard time too.

Some general advice

Nothing crushes your spirit quite like trying to be someone you are not. I had to learn that the hard way. It took me until my 30s to even get a clue about that one. I suspect that the reason you are enjoying being you, for a change, is that you also stopped trying to be what you were told is a “good Christian”. 

If I can teach you anything from my failures, I hope it is this - the “good Christian” that many churches teach us to be is a lie - no one can be that. The ones that seem to be “making it” are a mix of outright fakes and exhausted people trying too hard. Take it from another person with body shame issues - that stuff is bad for you.

I pretty certain that God will not mind if you take as long as you need to do some self-care. I’m convinced that He loves you and wants you to be mentally healthy. I might offend some church leadership types by saying this but take as long as you need to love yourself like He does. 

There may be no need to go back and join the fake-it-till-you-make-it club. Honesty is good for you. On that front, I have found that church groups for and by the marginalised often have much more authenticity due mostly to having to fend off the mainstream nonsense that condemns them. There’s no hurry though. For me, staying away from Christians for a while was actually helpful.

Above all else, is this advice which Shakspere said best.

This above all: to thine own self be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.

I’m not sure I have answered your question but I do hope that I have raised some questions that can help you find your own answers. Please do check back in with me to let me know how you are getting on. I’d like to know.

[jmlongworth78]

Stand and Be Counted

It was my honor to stand alongside these Gospel co-workers, Lenny Duncan (our organizer), Kwame Pitts, Emily Scott, Clint Schnekloth, Amanda Gerken-Nelson, Aubrey Thonvold and Eric Worringer (not pictured because his daughter Addie needed a nap). With the help of friends, family, and chosen family, we had all made our way to the Churchwide offices of the ELCA to ensure that the written testimony of over 150 colleagues, and our own witness to the impact of Visions & Expectations and its proposed replacement Trustworthy Servants of the People of God.

Our team represented a variety of theological, ecclesial, and spiritual viewpoints, but we agreed that the church we love shouldn’t be in the business of prayerful discernment in secret, especially when it comes to the emotional, physical, financial, and relational well being of its rostered ministers and the people they serve. Secrets can promote unhealthy decisions when it comes to the most sensitive and personal parts of our lives. Printed below is the statement that was delivered as written testimony from our whole group, a message that mirrored concerns submitted by the ELCA ethnic associations. In addition, we offered individual testimony to help the council members understand our concerns.

I am deeply grateful that a direct action which could have been a fool’s errand was actually representative of the kind of prayerful discernment I long for in the church I serve. Council members (big thanks to Emma Wagner & Peder Johansen) using their voice to give us voice, both as witnesses and offering guidance for the eventual motion.

It does not escape me that this coming weekend, we will be reading one of the foundational texts of public witness and prophetic sign-action in the Gospels, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Let us cry out once more “Hosanna” that is, “please save us!”

With much gratitude to The Rev. Emily Scott of Dreams and Visions in Baltimore, MD for drafting this statement and incorporating the feedback of the team:

Statement Regarding “Trustworthy Servants” for the Church Council of the ELCA April 5, 2019

Good morning members of the Church Council.

This is the day that God has made. We rejoice and are glad to be here with you, the leaders who provide prayerful guidance and leadership of our beloved ELCA.

We are here today because we love this church. As ELCA rostered leaders, we care deeply about the health of this body. We know that the leadership of a denomination is no easy task, and we are grateful for each council member, each bishop, each staff person who moves our church toward the waiting future.

Sometimes, there are bumpy moments along the way. That is part of being a church together. We are present at this meeting today to share our perspectives and concerns, so that we can move forward together.

It’s impossible to do this without acknowledging that for us and a large number of our colleagues, the process around Trustworthy Servants has significantly eroded our trust. If you are not familiar with the history of the document, “Vision and Expectations,” you may not know that it was originally written to exclude LGBTQ folks from serving as rostered leaders in this church. Even after the document was revised to include gay couples, the document and its expectations around sexuality and marriage has been used to press candidates for ministry into marriage earlier than they would choose, creating situations that are ultimately not life-giving. This has created a painful landscape of secrecy and distrust around issues of sexuality in our Church. While our cohort is represents a variety of perspectives and opinions regarding this document, all of us agree that secrecy, fear, and worry are an unhealthy pairing with human sexuality.

In addition, we know that life is more complicated than this document, or its recent revision represents. Our church is made up of single folks, divorced folks, people who are widowed, people who have endured abusive marriages and are therefore hesitant to enter marriage again. “Vision and Expectations” and it’s revision, “Trustworthy Servants,” casts anyone who does not fit the assumed “norm” of marriage, an aberration. And being an aberration creates feelings of shame.

In addition to concerns about sexuality, Trustworthy Servants falls short in other areas. Most notably, it is not a document that communicates grace. It sets expectations for people in recovery

that do not reflect the reality of a recovery process. The expectations around financial debt do not reflect the realities of the student debt leaders are asked to take on, the current economic conditions younger leaders face, or the constrictions created by living in poverty. The difficult and common realites of abuse within marital relationships are not addressed at all.

Many in our church deeply desire to have a rich and nuanced conversation about what it means to be a trustworthy leader. We want to write ethics that include those from a wide range of life experiences. We desire to live trustworthy lives. We simply ask that the Church work with us in creating the guidelines that will govern our common life.

We also ask that those with power in the church - bishops, staff, and candidacy committees - commit to trustworthy expectations as well, and that their conduct be included in these guidelines.

In short, we are asking that the process to replace “Vision and Expectations” be as trustworthy as we are called to be as rostered leaders.

As it turns out, this is a perfect moment to respond to the urging of the spirit, and sing a new song. You, the Church Council, are in a position to take positive action to rebuild trust, to facilitate a productive conversation, and to build an inclusive process around the replacement of this document.

We suggest the following process:

● First, if you have not done so already, read the comments that were submitted by rostered leaders on “Trustworthy Servants.” Our leaders took time and energy to write them, and they deserve to be reviewed carefully. Reconciling Works has also collected anonymous comments that Pastor Lenny will present.

● Second, decline to adopt Trustworthy Servants today, and set the path for a drafting process that is wide and inclusive.

● We suggest calling for the creation of a task force to carry out the work of revision. This task force should be composed of half women, at least 25% LGBTQIA people, 20% people of color, people with disabilities, deacons, pastors, and lay people, and include a wide range of age (including team members under 40) and marital status. We also would also suggest the inclusion of theologians and scholars who specialize in human sexuality, and experts on abuse and sexual abuse, to inform our work.

● Third, invite this task force to lead a Church-wide listening campaign, holding sessions with a variety of rostered leaders and lay people, open to the entire Church. These

sessions must be designed to promote honest feedback. The data drawn from these sessions should be anonymized, and the leaders of the sessions must not hold a position of power over those participating in these sessions.

● Fourth, be transparent about the process surrounding this document, by posting the process and progress on our ELCA website. A feeling of secrecy about the documents the govern our common lives does not contribute to a culture of trust.

At this point, you might be thinking, “that sounds like a lot of work.” And yes, it is a lot of work. We believe that it is worth it. You don't have to look far to see Christian denominations struggling with issues of sexuality. From fights around LGBTQ inclusion to rampant sex abuse in some denominations, it’s clear that this is hard and difficult work. The Church too often falls short in this area, out of fear and unhealthy power dynamics. The results are devastating.

We have the opportunity today to tell a different story. To become the denomination that’s getting it right — having open and honest conversations about sexuality, as well as what it means to live ethical lives of integrity as justice seekers in our world, discerning God’s call to live in life-giving, life-affirming ways that honor ourselves, our families, our congregants, and all those around us.

Signed,

“Trustworthy Servants” Public Witness Team

You can read the official motions adopted by the council below the break.

To thank the Domestic Mission unit, the Conference of Bishops and all the people who have shared their perspectives regarding the document “Trustworthy Servants of the People of God;”

To decline to consider the document "Trustworthy Servants of the People of God;”

To refer the document “Trustworthy Servants of the People of God” back to the Domestic Mission unit for further review and redrafting that is governed by this church's social teaching documents (i.e., Freed in Christ, Care for Creation, Sexuality, etc.). Such further consideration shall include a roadmap that consists of a process that intentionally includes diverse voices especially of those who have been most harmed by the misuse of Vision and Expectations;

To address, within the review, the current process of development and the faithful and just use of a policy document as a guide for this church;

To affirm the pastoral message regarding Vision and Expectations from the Conference of Bishops and support the conference in living into their commitment to apply the church’s standards for ministry with equity and compassion, to listen and take seriously the concerns of all our leaders—particularly those who historically have been marginalized—and to treat with dignity all those seeking to lead in our church; and

To request the Domestic Mission unit provide quarterly reports on the process to the Church Council and a draft for consideration by fall 2020 meeting.

[spiritroots]

Hi Yejide. Recently, I've been feeling a calling to explore root workin' and ancestral veneration. I've been raised Baptist and still maintain a relationship with Christ, but lately I've just been feeling this internal pull to honor my ancestors. I don't know exactly how or where to start. My entire life, I've been raised to believe that doing any kind of root work is witchcraft and inherently evil. How did you decolonize your mind and break out of that fear?

Hi anon (: Welcome to the struggle! I’m happy for you that you’re feeling the ancestral call, and I hope some of this very long response (+1.4k words, I counted lmao) is helpful in one way or another. 

First off, I want to emphasize a couple different things. For one, hoodoo/rootwork is NOT the same as witchcraft at all. It can be overlapped with witchcraft and/or it can be referred to as a form of witchcraft by black folks who wish to call it that, which is a perfectly valid, personal terminology choice. However, historically, rootwork/hoodoo derives from the various ATRs (African traditional religions) that were practiced by black slaves brought to the US. 

ATRs are not witchcraft either, they are traditional religions practiced by peoples indigenous to Africa that deserve the same amount of respect as any other religion in the world. The negative stereotypes about them are based on racism and attempts to dehumanize African peoples and their descendants in the diaspora who practiced their ancestral traditions. Any time you start to slip into that way of thinking about ATRs, remind yourself that they are religions as deserving of respect as any other religion.

Most African slaves in the US were forced to practice various denominations of Protestant Christianity and abandon their traditional religions or face severe punishments - even death. Hoodoo/rootwork is largely the result of many different practices and beliefs from ATRs combined together and syncretized with Christianity. It is a folk magic tradition that was developed not only during slavery but also largely within the black church. The ties between hoodoo and Christianity are very deep. You don’t have to be Christian to practice rootwork, but it’s not at all un-Christian to practice it either if that’s something you’re interested in doing. (Since you mentioned you still maintain a relationship with Jesus, I figured that might be something you’d wanna look into.)

The majority of traditional rootworkers in the US have always been and still are Protestant Christian. It’s traditional in hoodoo to pray to Jesus during workings, and it’s said that Moses himself was the very first rootworker in history. Why? Because the original Christian rootworkers viewed rootwork as powerful prayers, asking for the help of God to heal, protect, and sometimes issue divine judgment. Hoodoo wasn’t traditionally seen as witchcraft at all, and in fact, has long been used as a method for fighting against witchcraft. Many of the most respected and famous rootworkers in history were also preachers and pastors. Some consider being a good church-going Christian as a pre-requisite to being a rootworker. The Bible itself, especially the Book of Psalms, is traditionally viewed as a powerful source of hoodoo magic.

Now, I’m not sure if you were already aware of any of this or if this information is helpful to you, but I think it’s important for anyone studying hoodoo to understand this side of its history whether you want to connect with these aspects of it or not. If you’re curious at all about my personal journeys of dealing with Christian views on witchcraft and also decolonization within my magic and religious practices, see the mini-novel I ended up writing at 3 am for this ask under the read more line below 😂😂😂

[ Ask me anything ] [ Buy me a coffee ] [ Spirit Roots Shop ] [ About Me ]

It took me about a solid ten years to get to where I am now with decolonizing my mind and breaking out of Christianity-related fears around magic practices. I’ll still always be in the process of decolonization for the rest of my life, but within the past few years, I’ve made some big strides that I’m very proud of for myself. As I hope most of my followers know, I’m not a witch and don’t identify as one for personal and historical + cultural reasons within the context of Africana traditions. BUT that being said, for much of my life I did identify as a witch and actively study witchcraft for a very long time.

I declared myself a Wiccan at the age of thirteen, which was inspired by watching Charmed, yes, but that didn’t lessen the seriousness of it for me as being an actual religious path and practice I wanted to commit myself to. Being an only child who told my very liberal parents everything, I quickly confessed this to them expecting acceptance and happiness for me. Unfortunately, their Christian knee-jerk reaction alongside concerns about a thirteen-year-old learning about witchcraft, fertility rites, and sex-related rituals was enough for them to give me an ultimatum to stop being both a Wiccan and a witch.

That sent me deep into secrecy about it for around a solid 8 years or so - essentially all the way through high school until I had more independence in college. During that whole time, I always felt like I was genuinely a witch and Wiccan and no other religion fit me, but I was too scared to practice because of my parents’ reaction and them having “banned” it. I remember that constant longing mixed with fear of being a witch in my heart while feeling like it would never actually be accepted by anyone in my life.

During college, I finally realized that I could practice it more actively without worrying about my parents anymore. I remember going through all the stages of testing the waters with that, the ex-Christian pangs of guilt and intrigue, the concerns about what Drew and my friends would think and then being the cool and edgy witchy friend after finally mustering the courage to tell them. It was like I could finally be who I always knew that I was inside, but it had required a long process of unraveling the shame and the guilt and the fear, too.

Now, to be totally honest with you, I wouldn’t consider ANY of that decolonization. That was really just my journey of breaking away from a mostly Christian upbringing (my Jewish roots didn’t really play an anti-witchcraft role at all tbh) and finding the freedom to more openly be a witch and deepen my practice of witchcraft and of Wicca. Beginning to decolonize for me was a whole other journey that started soon afterward.

Fast forward to after I started studying Wicca in enough depth as a college student that I realized it really wasn’t for me and ended up converting to Buddhism instead. In a roundabout way, it was converting to Buddhism that sent me down a very different path. I was and still am a very devout Buddhist, but even though the buddha dharma is universal, Buddhism as a religion is deeply rooted in Asian cultures which is not a part of my heritage. As my Buddhist practice deepened over time, so did my longing for ancestral traditions and practices. This is what got me started with ancestor work and studying hoodoo, which is what eventually led me to an interest in ATRs and Ifá in particular. Even reconnecting with my Jewish heritage and identity was a part of this journey to tap back into my ancestral practices and spirituality.

The more I learned about these Africana traditions, the further away I got from Eurocentric ways of thinking about spirituality and magic. Converting to Buddhism from Wicca began my big push away from Eurocentric frameworks, and getting involved with hoodoo and Ifá only cemented that even further for me. Yes, witchcraft can be defined in whatever way one wants so I’m not saying people can’t practice completely non-Eurocentric witchcraft - some people absolutely do that. But for me personally, leaving the concept of “witchcraft” and the identity of “witch” behind completely was even more liberating than reconnecting with it in the first place had ever been. This was a huge part of my personal decolonization process for many different reasons.

That’s all a very long story and explanation, but that’s essentially my point. It can literally take decades to undergo the personal journeys necessary for unraveling and growing beyond what you were raised to believe and what society impresses upon you. Growing up in a very Christian household and in a Western society that enmeshes you in Eurocentric ways of thinking makes it extremely difficult because that’s all your surrounded by for most of your life. 

Unfortunately, there’s no handbook or manual guide for all this. It’s very challenging and difficult. One thing I wish I had had more of through all of it was support from role models and mentors to understand better where I was going and where I wanted to end up. Maybe if I had, these journeys might have been a bit shorter and smoother. If you can, find communities and mentors who can help you grow, but also always listen to your instincts and your own intuition. I wish you the best of luck on your way

[torreygazette]

Regarding Partiality

A major theme throughout the Bible, especially the New Testament, is the rejection of partiality. For centuries, the Jewish community relished their status as the chosen people and created ethnic divides without understanding the purpose of Old Testament instruction. During Christ’s life and after His accession the topic was thrust again into the spotlight. But in light of the cross there was a different conclusion—a unanimous decree that there is no room for partiality in the Christian faith (Ephesians 2:15-18).

In the gospel of John we see one of the earliest examples of this in Christ's engagement with the woman at the well:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:7-9)

The lady was shocked that a Jewish man would speak to her. In this encounter, Jesus flies in the face of the cultural norms. This interaction exemplifies the context of the time and reveals how controversial the parable of the Good Samaritan would have been.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus is asked, “who is my neighbor?” In order to answer, He tells the now-familiar story about a man who fell among robbers and was stripped, beaten, and left half dead. A Jewish priest and a Levite walked by and crossed to the other side of the street and continued on their way. Finally, a Samaritan came by and helped the guy. Not only did he bandage the beaten Jew; but he took him to safety and paid for his lodging until he recovered. Ultimately, Jesus ends the parable by asking the questioner a pointed question:

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

This parable teaches that partiality based on race (i.e. “the chosen people”) is not okay. Jesus was speaking out against the most confirmed cultural norm. The parable of the Good Samaritan is like the ‘you are the father’ episode of the Maury Show in its level of shock value when viewed in its context.

Another detail revealed by Jesus’s conversation with the lady at the well is that the Samaritan’s believed in the one true God:

“Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:12)

Identifying as part of Jacob’s lineage establishes that Samaritans knew about the One true God. And so we see how the teaching against partiality is important even within the body of Christ. There are many believers who do not have it all correct—they are still your brother or sister and should be viewed as full-fledged members in the body of Christ.

The book of James also comments forcefully on the topic of partiality. Unlike the partiality by race, James speaks out against partiality between social classes:

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4)

This type of partiality is subtly done and typically not thought twice about. An example I recently heard concerns a denominational convention. Each church has to pay for its member to attend which can be costly. This creates a dynamic where only the "haves" can attend and influence the direction of the denomination. (By no means am I saying I have all the answers, but an issue is an issue.)

Another example is the cost of seminary. Are only kids from well-off families called to ministry? The steep cost is essentially an invitation only to the upper middle class to upper class—unless a guy is willing to mortgage his future. These examples do not mirror the examples that James explains, but it is similar. James makes it abundantly clear that preferences based upon money or status are sin and not acceptable in the church. In a capitalistic society, the quest to increase revenue masks the favoritism provided to the wealthy in contrast to other segments of society.

Another type of partiality discussed in Scripture is between the self-perceived pious and a known sinner:

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:39)

This statement occurs as Jesus is eating at a Pharisee's house. A lady with a questionable track record approached Jesus (Luke 7:36-50) and washed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil and tears. This moment in the life of Jesus shows that the self-righteous and the one struggling are both loved by our Lord. The fact of the matter is that Jesus came for sinners:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

Scripture does not argue that rejecting partiality makes obedience unimportant. Rather, from the most pious to the addict struggling, we all need Jesus and there is no partiality in that. To that point, much of the book of Acts is centered on reconciliation and the realization that Jesus is Christ for everyone.

Many people attempt to make the main theme of Acts be things like tongues, healing, or just a history tracing the early church—all of these are themes in the book of Acts—but the major consistent theme throughout the book is reconciliation and removing partiality in the body of Christ. An early example of this is Peter's revelation after God gave him a vision:

“You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Peter’s eyes were opened by God to realize this beautiful truth that had been lost among the brethren—God is the God of all, not just the God of a certain people group. Later in the same chapter, Peter flushes out the premise even more:

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35)

To drill the point home, the Holy Spirit revealed to Peter the purpose of the sign of tongues (displayed three times in the book of Acts). The Apostle Peter does not conclude that the people who have spoken in tongues have a special anointing or that they are temporarily more filled with the Holy Spirit than another believer. No! The Apostle Peter concludes:

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized. (Acts 10:45-48)

The statement “who can withhold baptism” establishes equality in the body of Christ. After this Peter proclaimed this truth at the first Church Council which affirmed partiality was not to be tolerated. Unlike many Protestant traditions that view baptism as a minor thing or symbol, the historic church viewed it as God literally washing sins away and God applying Christ’s finish works to the person. Therefore, this statement by Peter is no minor thing. It also makes the Apostle Peter being rebuked for partiality a huge thing.

In the book a Galatians, the Apostle Paul rebukes the Apostle Peter for showing partiality to the Jewish believers. One of the most interesting parts of this exchange between the two Apostles is that Paul established that this is a gospel issue:

To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (Gal 2:5)

 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14)

As discussed earlier, there was no civility between Samaritans and Jewish people. This attitude was little different towards Gentiles for the most part. To break bread with a Gentile was not acceptable. You couldn't even step into their house. (Even our Lord and Savior referred to a Gentile as a Gentile dog (Matthew 15:25-28)—the people not of Hebrew lineage were viewed as inferior for the most part.)

The examples of partiality being addressed are numerous in the New Testament. Many Christians attempt to ignore the issues of partiality which impact modern society by placing their freedom in Christ against the biblical narrative to seek justice, care for the less fortunate, and fight for oppressed. Instead of just stating how unScriptural this is I’ll provide a Bible passage:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow’s cause. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

Jesus is the key to salvation, but that does not remove commands for believers. Having no concern for the poor, the helpless, the oppressed is a serious matter:

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)

We may disagree on solutions, but partiality that leads to disdain or lack of empathy for our neighbor is not a Christian posture. We are called to love the rich, poor, and middle class. We are called to care about the widows and the orphans. We are called to relieve the oppressed. This is how we are to be salt and light to the world. Showing partiality based on prestige, social status, or ethnicity is not ok. In practice, a person will never be able to address, help, or even be aware of all societal ills in the world. But when one of the ills is at your door you should care. God has placed each of us in certain regions, certain communities, and we can make an impact there.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory…But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:1, 9)

Love, Mercy, Peace,

Lex