#original Christianity

[oxytocinatrocities]

A comic I drew about leaving the Mormon church.

Can also apply to other things. Ex. constitutional originalism in the US

[biblenewsprophecy]

[vmkhoneyy]

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

[basalt-havic]

the opposite if mwah is hawm. fucking bite you.

[mentalisttraceur-long]

*taking notes* coincidentally (God? is that Your hand in this? haha jk... unless...?) I've been thinking since around the start of the year... what corrective ideas a genuinely good, loving God would want to mix into current culture, and into Christian culture/memes in particular? Because it has clearly gone so off-the-rails in its most dominant or at least vocal forms that they can't even see the rails anymore.

And I love this, because these are perfect examples of that. We can do more to reclaim Christianity, to help course-correct it back on a beneficial track where it becomes a great cultural force for good.

Look, I get that it's super popular nowadays to uncritically reduce the history and influence of Christianity to this view where it has only ever spread swordpoint conversions, horrible persecutions, torture (both overt and an awful, distributed, subtle and silent kind of torture), and provided rationalizations for the worst excesses of colonialism, slavery, authoritarian/fascist/etc governments, and countless other bad things. And all of that is true minus, crucially, the "only". Throughout its complicated history, Christianity has done so much more, and it has done much good.

I say this as someone who became an atheist early on in my life, and anti-Christian (and generally against many or even all religions, though some more than others, in proportion to their harmfulness). For a long time I was one of those pushy atheists aggro'd by any mention of religious belief. And I only stopped being that because I realized it was socially unintelligent, uncouth, and just kinda more toxic and shitty and hurtful than necessary. But I never wavered on my belief that religion, and the fundamental flaw of reaching conclusions from beliefs on faith, was a necessary condition for myriad truly awful problems, harms, and cruelties. It seemed to me until fairly recently in my life that to fix the bad parts of religion you necessarily needed to improve cognition in ways that would cause you to have nothing religious left. I still basically "am" an atheist. As of very recently, I have started to have brief bursts, like while making this post, where I use my cognitive skills to genuinely flip on some kind of religious/spiritual belief-on-faith in a God (because I decided some time ago that this was mental terrain that is important for me to explore anew/more), but so far on any given random moment I am an atheist, still often a religion-hostile/rejecting/judging one.

But people forget that, for example, long before Christianity was used to rationalize the worst excesses of the last vestiges of large-scale slavery, it systematically protected people from slavery (when slavery was far more common-place across Europe and northern Africa) - there was a time when it was so unacceptable for Christians to enslave other Christians that producing minimal evidence of being a Christian was sometimes enough to be released by slavers on the spot, or not be taken in the first place. Or that long before it was the dominant religion and thus coopted and corrupted by the machinations of power, capitalism, and so on, it was less of a torture cult and more of the kind religion described above, which helped move the Overton Window towards kindness, compassion, good treatment of others, and altruism/charity.

So like... Christianity can be a profound force for good. If you can't see that, then go away, I don't care, I don't care to convince you right now, and I don't care to hear your disagreement on the issue (and I will probably just block you if you insist on trying to make me).

And to the extent that it is bad or a force for bad.... Well, yes, it is that too, and you're welcome to be part of the staunch opposition or memetic immune response of rational culture against it. Those are valuable contributions! Probably necessary contributions to the whole picture. But I think it's wishful thinking to the point of delusion to think that you'll just beat Christianity any time soon. It's far too powerful of a memetic organism (or really a set of symbiotic memetic and cognetic organisms, with some of the latter being probably inherent and inevitable in at least some human minds). The solution to the bad effects and aspects of Christianity in its current form must be multi-pronged, and I am certain that one of the prongs is reclamation.

Make Christianity Kind Again (I'm picturing a blue hat). Maybe "Gentle" or "Loving" instead of "Kind"? Idk I'm sure God will make sure the right version wins out I don't need to worry about it. I do want to caution against calling it "Kind Christianity" or whatever. The whole point is this is a return to what it always was! This isn't Christianity, made Kind. This is Original Christianity we're talking about, which is and always was Kind, and we're reminding people to bring it back to that.

A religion of compassion and caring for the oppressed and the downtrodden, the most unfortunate and outcast, those who are on the receiving end of unjust hurt, harm, and exploitation. Of altruism and helping whenever you are able. And yes, on occasion, righteously getting angry and acting to defend those people who cannot defend themselves. Which means... well, let's start at a minimum with more focus on basics like meaningfully opposing and working to reduce and punish rape and mistreatment of strangers like the Sodom story actually says and less of modern bullshit like projecting ignorant human intuitions on early-stage fetuses (God obviously wouldn't put souls into a fetus until it has developed enough brain and body to host a mind of such rich complexity! I mean c'mon, think about it! it wouldn't even make sense now would it? what's a human soul gonna do in a six-week fetus? That would be torture, the soul would just be shackled to this clump of cells that it can't yet move, can't yet feel anything through, that would be months of solitary confinement in a sensory deprivation chamber for fuck's sake! - God wouldn't do that, and I have complete Faith that God has ensured that the Bible very clearly says as much now that you know to recognize this idea that a soul doesn't enter a fetus until much closer to birth than to conception).

Anyway, this series of posts is clearly part of how. This is like, basic pop theology of recovering the original kinder Christianity, one which remembers to put focus on the good and loving God and the compassionate and selfless treatment of others which Jesus taught and which God still wants. A Christianity starting to shed the latest buildup of trauma influences and cooptation which have distorted it over recent generations.

Another part is people passionately preaching this stuff. We need more preachers telling the story of Sodom in its proper interpretation, for example.

To those of you who believe that God exists, whether it's the Christian God or any truly good and loving God, you know this would be part of God's desire and God's plan - Christianity would get course-corrections, since the effects of fallible and imperfect humans and other factors would slowly jostle humanity's understanding of Christianity off course. And maybe this is all part of that. I'd like to think so, anyway.

I full understand that it is not appropriate as response to talking about the various roles of christianity in colonialism and Christofascism,

However as its own thing, I think its an interesting subject how the Bible is supposed to be the fundamental source of Christian doctrine, BUT most of the "traditional values" of christian conservatives and ideas that are powerfully associated with christianity...just Are Not In There, or are only mentioned as brief, isolated side notes amidst much longer and more detailed passages discussing something different

Whereas many ideas that are emphasized HUGELY in the Bible are just totally and completely ignored by these rightwing political folks 

Much of Christianity is not actually based on the Bible, but instead on a bunch of traditions and later writers, but protestants have problems with admitting that.

And as someone who was raised very "sola scriptura" i don't even get why church tradition matters for anyone. Who cares what Augustine thought about abortion. He was literally just a guy

[vulpixelates]

i know it will never happen but i so desperately desire an origins-type playable backstory thing in all games but especially veilguard. i feel like it added so much depth to origins and made you feel instantly connected to your character in a way that gets lost in games like inquisition where you fill in the blanks as you go except for the bare basics. like, i do enjoy the freedom to willy nilly decide where a character was before the events of the story from a creative perspective, but the playable origins were just so good! especially when you go back to where your warden is from and can engage differently with the arcs there

[throesofincreasingwonder]

You know what? I want a whole post for this:

Sex Repulsion is not the same thing as, or an excuse for, Sex Negativity

non-negotiable!

I am a sex-repulsed asexual. This means that I am uncomfortable and repulsed by the idea of engaging in sexual acts. This does not mean that I have an excuse to be repulsed by other people's sexual attraction or the right to police how other people engage in or express sexual acts or attraction.

Young queer people need to learn the difference between sex repulsion and sex negativity, and actively work to unlearn sex-negative attitudes. Asexuality, even sex-repulsed asexuality, is and should be fully compatible with sex positivity.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of other people feeling sexual attraction or engaging in sexual acts that do not involve you in any way, that is not sex repulsion it is the cultural Christianity and you need to seriously work on that.

[ya-nje-znayu]

First Light

Last Light

[perfectfeelings]

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.

Christian D. Larson

[christianfrederiksen]

Duck Taking Flight, 2023 Chalk pastel on illustration board. 8 x 6 in. Prints available for $10: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/cfrederiksen/duck-taking-flight/ Original SOLD. Testing out some energetic pastel hatching on this photo of a duck I took in Confederation Park a while ago.

[isaacsapphire]

Seeing posts saying that insurance companies are inherently bad and adversarial, and I need to point out that insurance companies telling organizations and companies that they’re doing something stupid and at risk of hurting people or the environment and they need to stop or the insurance company will either charge them a lot of money or even stop covering them at all is often the only reason why any precautions are taken.

Torts are where the steel is legally on these types of things, but the insurance companies are how the implications of tort law is communicated.

Like, the church I grew up in only took any precautions against children being molested on site after the insurance company insisted. It’s a bit hard for me to see insurance collectively as all bad all the time after seeing that, when I can point on the doll to where I wasn’t harmed because of insurance.

[cheergoodtimes]

downloaded om! again to jog my memory, i wont him so bad

[cephalosaur]

Hebrews 10:1 "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."

Colossians 2:17 "These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

"Do you know why I named you 'Shadow'? Because without light there's only darkness, but a shadow will show you where to find the light. Do you understand?" (Maria Robotnik, Sonic X Shadow Generations)

1 John 1:5 "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."

[atlantic-riona]

wow you made organized religion the villain of your story. should we throw a party? should we invite the pope

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

you open yourself up to the devil by celebrating Halloween in the same way you open yourself up to the devil by celebrating St. Paddy's or Mardi Gras.

if you play ouija or try voodoo, you open yourself up to the devil. if you dress in a slutty costume or take psychedelics in a cemetery, you open yourself up to the devil.

likewise, if you get wasted on Guinness in downtown Savannah, you open yourself up to the devil.

if you twerk half-naked for plastic beads on Bourbon Street, you open yourself up to the devil.

these kinds of bacchanalia are by no means inherent to the holidays in question, and in fact, are extremely recent perversions of traditions which go back centuries. Centuries of Christian history.

[wandering-italy]

Mosaic covered alcove.

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. 5th century

Ravenna

Jan 2017