#online faith community

[artofthechristianninja]

A First Responder's Story of Tragedy and Trauma - Stream Stories

As a digital pastor with a livestream, I often find myself suddenly hearing stories full of real, raw human emotion—that leave a deep impact on both me and my community. Recently, a police officer opened up during one of my streams, sharing the heart-wrenching account of a tragic day on the job. Her story stuck with me, and it’s one I believe others need to hear. A Day That Changed…

[goldkirk]

I don’t know how to explain any more clearly that it doesn’t MATTER if it seems legitimate to you. You have got to fact check every single headline and post and claim on the left just like you need to do on the right.

The left is NOT immune to misinformation and rushed reporting. And the more emotionally polarizing or shocking the talking points, sound bytes, and headlines are, the worse it is and more frequently it happens.

Learn to verify through multiple independent sources. If you can’t do that, you can’t trust it.

If you have to wait extra hours for the real information to come through vetted channels—NOT just one individual somewhere everyone links to, and not just one single media source either, EVEN if it’s a major news network—thats just how it has to be. What news outside of genuine local disasters near you TRULY needs your outrage and post-sharing in the next hour specifically?

Misinformation works best by not seeming like misinformation and by fitting in with the rest of what you already expect to see. It doesn’t help anyone to not be able to recognize and avoid the stuff.

[partyinthemysterymachine]

Hey just so you know vinecoveredgarden is a propara (pro paraphilia) pro-transID radqueer

jesus christ this was a word fucking salad. can you guys please fucking relax. did you know i can agree with a post's message without knowing the OP or following the OP nor agreeing with everything OP believes in. did you know that was possible.

[virtue-boy]

Went on a transandrophobia truther blog and instantly saw this ..

1) love the slight of hand where he says "being trans" instead of actually identifying any positionality or god forbid mentioning WOMANHOOD as a type of positionality in his post which allows him to call trans women men and completely disregard the experience of the closested trans WOMAN. Telling that your argument hinges on "after transitioning to a man I am exactly the same as a woman undercover as a man"

2) just say you're not on T and you don't know anyone who is. Like as someone who's passed as male on an off for my whole life and now fully passes as male all the time thanks to T I low key snorted reading this... Liiike let's be for real here passing as a man (and doubly so if u are binary and have the pronouns to match) and passing gives you privilege out the fucking wazoo and I literally think about it every time I leave the house, meet new people, take blue collar jobs, interact w people on public transit, walk around at night, go to gay clubs, bond w male overseers, look for roommates, etc. This is obviously extremely racialized as much as it is gendered, but there is literally not a single "privilege" I had as a girl (that was assumed to be a guy 50-70% of the time) that I lost as a guy.

3) Also how do trans men "inherently defy patriarchal manhood" I literally know a trans guy who went to jail for domestic violence against a woman like trans men are incredibly capable of accessing and enacting patriarchy and thinking ourselves justified in accessing patriarchal homosociality. Like we are literally becoming men and we don't just magically exit the patriarchal society because we aren't the men at the top of the make food chain.... a la R.W. Connel. Being trans men means we lose some for being trans but we win some because we are men. Like gay men are frequently denied their masculinity but it would be dodo brained to act like gay men have no male homosociality they can access or that no gay man has ever accessed male homosociality. Like if u believe that you actually don't know any gay history Attttt Alllllll 😭 like genuinely. We also earn more money per dollar than women in our same gender modality, that doesn't sound like "inherently defying patriarchal manhood" to me that sounds actually like a pretty typical social positionality for oppressed and marginalized men. Like in my own friend groups, at school, and in my music and promotions scene being an (openly trans) man actually has granted me actually a lot of homosociality that I can draw on.

[notasapleasure]

Here's a bit of history! The British PM told a female opposition MP to 'calm down, dear'. That's a fact, and so is the divided response to his words. Some felt it meant nothing; others thought it was an indication of what a patronising wankstain David Cameron was.

We all have our narratives of this little moment, but I must say I fall into the camp who thought it was indicative of a club of insecure posh boys telling jokes about the yucky girls. Aka 'bitches', as this lovely historian who I have now blocked puts it :)

[chemicaljacketslut]

okay random but. what ACTUALLY scares y’all?? i’m about to run a ten candles (tragic horror ttrpg) anthology series thang at my college and i am soo nervous tbh lol i want to make it actually scary and a good experience. me personally im scared of the ocean (vast unknown… giant thangs swimming under u while u can’t see them and are totally out of your element and can’t escape quickly) also shit like that one creepypasta about the goatman thing that kept sneaking into the group without them knowing (this one). i’m also thinking body horror a la junji ito. any other ideas for like actually chilling material? + any experienced GMs feel free to give tips lol

[odysseys-blood]

im not gonna hijack that post but theres such an odd fixation i feel in general on the idea that you HAVE to argue and clap back and debate with every single person you see online (even knowing most of them do this in bad faith) and its so. are you not tired. do you know that when ur arguing out in the open like thst ESPECIALLY if you're not part of the group being targeted ur likely just exposing the people you know who ARE part of these minority groups to more vitrol that theyre likely already experiencing more than enough of and would like to avoid as much as possible. please block and move on more often.

edit: idk why this is getting attention all of a sudden but please dont be a clown in my tags or replies.

[northern-passage]

Genuine thought as a fellow trans dude, I’ve seen a lot of (obviously non-serious) questions on other blogs about characters’ genitals such as “how does it look like?” and similar, and I think we all know & understand that such questions are extremely inappropriate to ask and (I hope) no one would actually go around asking these questions irl. Idk, I think we should treat trans characters just like cis ones, without any special “precautions”, so to normalise them and not make cis people treat them like fragile boxes, a thing which happens to a lot of us irl. Hope this doesn’t come off as an attack or anything lol.

no worries, i didn't take this as an attack at all. i actually agree with you, that's why i mentioned feeling conflicted about it and also mentioned that i've changed my stance on how i felt about handling Noel and Clementine in game and in explicit intimate scenes.

however, for me the problem comes from the fact that people... don't ask these kinds of questions about cis characters? i suppose people do get cheeky "who is the biggest 🤪" asks but i would hardly compare the two. to be a bit crude, no one is going to be asking if a cis character has a dick or not, or "what does it look like". of course it's natural for people to be curious, and i honestly encourage the open discussion and am happy to see trans bodies being talked about more in a positive way, but not everyone is going to be comfortable with it due to the inescapable transphobia online and in the community. sending me that kind of ask is like sending out an invitation for a debate or a discussion that i don't necessarily want to have. i also just don't think people should default to asking a random IF author on tumblr dot com to describe what bottom growth looks like.

and with most of these asks typically coming from someone who is anonymous, i have no way of truly knowing what the tone is, what their intentions are or why this is being asked - is it another trans person? or maybe someone who is just genuinely curious? or, more likely in my experience, is it someone who is going to immediately follow up this message with something transphobic after i answer? do i want to roll the dice and find out?

so while i agree with what you're saying, it's important to consider the context and the reality we live in. the IF community is not kind to trans people or trans characters. and as a trans person, my first priority is protecting myself and my mental health. so what i mean when i say "precautions," is that those precautions are for me, because i've had to deal with transphobic harassment here for years now, and i try to mitigate it as much as i can. it's also for my personal comfort - again, to be blunt, i'm simply just not comfortable discussing a trans character's genitals with anonymous strangers on the internet. it makes me feel vulnerable.

also i do want to say i didn't mean for any of that to come across as a dig at other authors - if you're comfortable answering those kinds of questions, that's really only something you can decide for yourself. like i said, this is just coming from my own experiences in IF and for my own personal comfort - i have previously talked a lot about trans stuff and gender and sexuality here, when i'm feeling up to it, but it is something that is very draining for me and can also be very upsetting.

basically: i do agree that it's important not to other trans characters or treat them any differently than cis characters, but i also think there are ways to do it that don't require me answering invasive questions or questions that i don't feel comfortable with as a real life trans person, you know what i mean?

[effervescentdragon]

nah fuck it im done

[hexastitchimera]

I think I understand now why I'm honest to Stars nervous every time I interact with online communities like the animation meme one, the furry one, etc.

It's for the exact reason why I'm terrified of talking to former classmates who entered nursing school.

A huge majority of the vocal minority never left behind their grade school bully mentality. I'm not kidding, throwing insults, or even calling anyone childish. This is as big of a problem as it is in nursing, and it takes lives in the exact same way. I'll explain.

Having had family who were in the medical field, I have heard utter horror stories about one side of nursing. Not even in a medical malpractice sense. But how some of them can have the sweetest, "empath" mask on when they are around you, but will smear your name behind your back at the very least, try to get you disciplined/fired (especially if you're a "rival" nurse/student) at unfortunately common worst.

Now, because I am a firm believer in nuance, I have to state that for as many malpracticing nurses there are, there are just as many nurses who put their patients before their ego always. I myself have had several nurse family members who didn't have even the slightest infraction to their records, and retired late despite how their patients AND fellow MPs yearned for them to stay.

But, it has to be said: It only takes one to kill. One word, one intentional slip-up, one accidental pill too many. The side of the accuser only need speak, while the side of the victim has to frantically fight for their right to the role- to the life- they worked so hard for.

Why? Well, because it's easier to destroy the perceived enemy than it is to build your own self up. Destroying the competition has been a tale as old as time, and it can ALWAYS be for the pettiest of reasons.

If you want more of your supervisor's attention for better odds at better pay, intimidate and belittle nurses of your standing or lower so they're demotivated, demoralized, and struggling in comparison.

Hell, if you just don't like another nurse, watch their every move, and rat on the few, harmless, honest mistakes they made!

Who cares how many patients die, either because of a growing lack of nurses, or because of straight up nurse-on-nurse sabotage!

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Do you see how people can put the grandstanding of their own ego above entire LIVES?

The near-homeless artist whose callout you are mindlessly reblogging, what of their life?

The kinky trans woman?

The genderqueer person with neopronouns and "conflicting" labels?

The literal teenager who doesn't- and CANNOT- know better because of their horrifically bigoted family? Not without external guidance, of which they can only have through the online, and are immediately shunned from?

You all want an easy answer.

There are none here.

There never will be.

The only answer is to practice media literacy, to wait until both sides have come out with their sides of the story, and to understand a very rarely spoken of Golden Rule:

If it isn't hurting anyone nor contributing to harm period, mind your own business.

Otherwise, if still hard pressed:

What do YOU get out of ending the life of someone as they know it?

If it's the same sense of satisfaction a cop would get, I don't know what to tell you.

All I know is that you cannot, AND SHOULD NOT, be doing their "job" for them.

And if you do, wipe that ACAB off of your bio.

We do not use the weapons of the oppressor on our own. ESPECIALLY on our youth.

[elialys]

i'm starting to receive submisssions for the Anna Torv fanbook i'm trying to put together, and not gonna lie, it's hitting me in the feels

[chiwhorei]

Hey don’t say shitty things in the comments/reblogs of someone’s writing I’m so sick of u ppl is2g

[starryoak]

It really sucks to comment on a post in a mildly joking or even entirely sincere manner and immediately get blocked. I absolutely realize people block other people on this website at the drop of a hat, but as an autistic person with scrupulosity my immediate reaction is that I would like to be able to tell someone I’m sorry for dropping the hat in the first place and that I didn’t mean to be rude.

Like, I’m not even saying it because I feel the need to be unblocked! I just need to tell them that it wasn’t meant to be annoying or rude, and I don’t hate them or anything. I mean, I can’t say it’s healthy that my OCD compels me to want to be unblocked and absolved for all my ‘sins’, but I can live with it and I’m fine with just feeling a little pang of sadness when I’m unable to like a post. I’m working on not having that happen either, but it’s very hard work, unlearning everything your brain as it was naturally made says you should feel.

And it’s just frustrating to me because it shows that even after near meteoric improvement in my social skills as I’ve gotten older (and also medicine), that it’s still hard for me to successfully assess social situations and comedy on a website where being rude is taken as funny over 75% of the time but there’s that other 25%… I often do literally add “(I am exaggerating for comedic effect”) as to make it more clear that this is intended as comedy, and… I guess it’s odd to me that’s treated as suspicious or something? Like, that nobody takes anyone else in good faith? I understand it’s a fools effort online, but I do genuinely try to be entirely sincere in my interactions online.

Like the automatic assumption that I’m not engaging sincerely when I’m trying to signal the exact opposite is both understandable and completely frustrating,

Just.. it’s like. People mock you if you engage with something sincerely, they mock you if you try to fit in, they mock you if you’re too rude, too nice, it feels frustrating when it feels like no matter what I do or whether I point out I am making a joke and not serious or play it straight, that I can’t get it right.

It’s not even about being blocked, really, (I’m lying my OCD hates it), it just hurts being confronted with the fact I’m almost two and a half decades into life and I still fail at basic social interaction despite my best efforts and despite the fact that I really am trying.

[vermillioncrown]

[+] my revision of formulation for the whole study & thesis was majorly approved, ppl can no longer pretend to or actually be lost

[+] minion² was contained, showed up in person and got the sense that no one was going to take his nonsense

[+] no major disagreement between the supes, all subteams understand their tasks

[-] back-to-back-to-back meetings w advisors, integrators, external working groups, and study lead in the next two weeks

[-] i have to finish reading... 15+ papers and compile their data

[-] fix a data structure implementation in my optimization model that i had promised since... nov last year lol (it wasn't entirely necessary. until now)

we'll see if i'm in the mood for stress relief writing instead of just stress relief daydreaming... there's a lot of stuff for every fic but it's all over the place. tpac hyperfixation is still holding strong (esp when compared to all other wips, it is second place for most concrete ending + actual epilogue)

(first place is larb bc every chapter is outlined and scoped; just haven't felt like writing it)

(not saying the other fics don't have planned endings but besides their plot i don't have the context for the endings yet. the shape of the ending scenes are very much informed by the long, in-between chapters)

[artofthechristianninja]

Spiritual Warfare, Marriage, Pornography, and How to Get Motivated (Wednesday Check-In Topics)

This week’s Wednesday Check-In focused on powerful themes: spiritual warfare, marriage, pornography, and struggling with motivation.

This week’s Wednesday Check-In focused on powerful themes: spiritual warfare, marriage, pornography, and struggling with motivation. Below, I’ve summarized the highlights, retaining the pastoral insights and key moments of interaction that make digital ministry impactful. Spiritual Warfare: Recognizing the Battle We Face Understanding Spiritual WarfareSpiritual warfare is not merely an ancient…

[featureenvyproductions]

I don't know who needs to hear this but the response to having rights isn't to fucking have this "I got mine so fuck off and fend for yourself" attitude. Fuck that maybe that's why I don't fucking get along with other trans people anymore.