#and then i see more anti mormon stuff

[everydayyoulovemeless]

Hello! I hope youre doing well and you're having a good day! I had quite a request but I'm not sure if you write stuff like that, What do you think of Joshua Graham with a male courier?

Considering Joshua is a mormon (We don't exacly know how christianity looks like in the wasteland or if its even simular to how it works now.) you whould Imagine he whould be more reserved(?) about it, or maybe even be somewhat against it. But then as strict as the legion was with homosexuality they still allowed it as long as the men in the relationship had children otherwise they whould be punished.

I'm interested what's your opinion on the matter or if you have any headcanons for it, whould Joshua be somewhat ashamed and maybe even slightly hide his relationship from people back in New Caanan (If he even returns there? Not sure) or whould he simply not care and maybe even base it slightly on his legion views that he claims he abandoned even if you can see in his actions in game that well he hasn't.

So sorry this ask is so long and I'm not too good at speaking english since it's not my first language, I'm always just really curious on this subject since everyone has a diffrent opinion on it!

Joshua Graham With A M!Courier

➼ Word Count » 0.7k ➼ Warnings » slight homophobia? ➼ Genre » Romantic ➼ A/N » This was so fun to write! Thank you for requesting it!

He definitely has some hesitance toward it. He was one of the ones who helped invent the anti-homosexuality rule in the Legion and still has a strong inner feeling of it being culturally wrong, although, he can't deny what he feels toward you.

It'll take him some time to warm up the idea. You'll notice that he goes off on his own a lot more than he usually would. It's mainly just so he can think as he walks around Zion, wanting to be alone in these moments of self-reflection.

Joshua is angry that he doesn't know how to feel about the matter. He wants to go against everything Ceasar used to preach about, but he's not sure how his family and the other natives would take it. Does God find it just? Would any of his loved ones agree with it? Does he even agree with it?

It won't take long before he makes his way straight to Daniel, with questions he never thought he'd have to ask.

Daniel would be a bit more forthcoming with his opinion, telling him that "the Lord only takes issue with those who harm his land and people".

He'd be a lot more private about your relationship than he would've been if you were a female. He doesn't mean for it to be rude, he's still just not entirely sure how he's religiously supposed to feel about the entire thing. No one in New Canan has ever explored the idea, so he's got no role model to follow in terms of what's expected of him in a situation like this.

One of his biggest qualms is deciding who does what. Joshua has always had the idea of a traditional marriage, but what's he supposed to do with a husband? Do you both provide? Or does one of you play the role of the "wife"? It's one of the things he'll want to work out with you as you both move forward.

Communication is big with him. He genuinely does want to try and make this work, but sometimes it feels like he's just stumbling in the dark. If you have any advice for him on how to feel less awkward around you romantically, please tell him, he wants to show he cares about you, but he can't if you don't tell him how.

Although he might not show very much PDA, you'll notice him being way more affectionate behind closed doors. Holding his hands over yours as you pray, rubbing circles into your shoulders, and even leaving small kisses over the palms of your hands. He tries not to do anything that would undermine you being a man, but he also desperately wants to show that he cares.

Religion will always play a big role in his life, nothing about that will ever change. Being new to this type of relationship, he wants to know more about your thoughts on Mormonism or how the two of you can better understand one another. Honesty is huge with him, just be upfront and tell him what you're looking for.

There'll be times when he refers to you as his 'friend' instead of his 'boyfriend', but it's mainly due to him still getting used to being open about your relationship. It scares him to think others might look down on him because of who he loves, and he doesn't want people to think any less of him than they might already.

He also might be a little pushier with you being a part of his religion, wanting you to get baptized as soon as possible if you're not already.

His heart races a lot when he and you are alone together. He always remembers the Legion and what they'd do to him if they ever found out. It makes your entire affair feel more exciting. Being with you makes him feel rebellious, a foreign feeling that he'll only accept for this particular situation.

If you both manage to make it to see your one-year anniversary, he'll carve a wooden cross out for you to wear as a necklace. (again, a little pushy with his religion, but he means well).

He ends up going to Daniel a lot for direction throughout the whole ordeal. He's constantly checking in to make sure God would be accepting of what he's doing, and Daniel's always there to reassure and talk him through it.

Out of a hatred for the Legion, and want to change, he'd be willing to try the relationship out and hope that God will lead him down his intended path. He prays for guidance in figuring out what is right for him and his future.

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fnv #courier six #courier 6 #fnv joshua #joshua fnv #fnv joshua graham #joshua graham fnv #joshua graham #joshua graham headcanons #joshua graham x courier 6 #joshua graham x courier six #m!reader #male!reader #male reader #fnv headcanons #fallout new vegas headcanons

[tanadrin]

went back and listened to the episodes on david bokovoy's personal experience with religion, and man, it's funny just how different the stuff that people twig on in their experience of faith is--for bokovoy, even as a scholar of biblical criticism, it really isn't the truth claims of the LDS church that were ever a problem for him. like his academic career definitely primed him to move from a more orthodox, small-c conservative theology to a more expansive one (and he remains a pretty spiritual guy in general from the sound of it), but the thing that really started to fuck him up was the church's insistence on beating the anti-gay-marriage drum, starting with proposition 8, and culminating in the 2015 declaration about the children of gay parents not being welcome in the church unless they denounced them.

and it's a little infuriating to listen to him talk about how he feels about the LDS church after all of that--this whole "the leadership are good people deep down, i just disagree with them on this." like, come on, dude. i get that you're a straight guy whose experiences with mormonism have been generally very positive, but you are also self-aware enough to talk with compassion about LGBT people, about the experience of having a gay daughter, about the way in which people raised in Mormonism who are gay or even just a little bit nonconformist in some aspect of their life can have a really brutal time of it, and yet you cling to this idea of the organization as having some noble core, some inherently good quality that is only failing in its ultimate expression. he even talks about the experience of watching a movie that dramatizes the way different faith leaders came together during the civil rights movement, and having a moment of acute discomfort remembering that at the same time the leadership of the LDS church was still racist as hell in its teachings and policy

like, you should not be afraid to admit that the LDS church fucking sucks! it's always fucking sucked! most organized religion fucking sucks, and the organized religion that doesn't fucking suck has mostly gotten there by virtue of progressives splintering off and forming organizations that retain only a general flavor of the awful bullshit they grew up with and none of the core dogmas. i don't know of a human organization from the beginning of time that rigidly patrols boundaries of identity politics and creates structures of authority based on spirituality that didn't rapidly collapse into tyranny, a grift, or both, except the ones that were already that from the beginning.

and this, i suppose, is my disappointment with even the very open-minded progressives that John Dehlin interviews, which is that they want to redeem an organization that i think is fundamentally unredeemable. no particular shade to mormonism here--I think the Catholic church is also fundamentally unredeemable. hell, if i knew more about tibetan buddhism, i'd probably think that whole hierarchy was fundamentally unredeemable as well. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints cannot become progressive on LGBT issues and honestly pursue truth and cease to misrepresent its history and spend its money on helping the poor and needy instead of conservative political campaigns and exploiting eighteen year olds to do morally questionable missionary work in third world countries without ceasing to be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and its leadership knows this. for the exact same reason the Roman Catholic church can't go "lol you know what, our bad, this Pope guy isn't all that he's cracked up to be" and remain the Roman Catholic church.

i mean ultimately bokovoy doesn't go to church anymore; he says that the 2015 declaration was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, and even if it was revoked tomorrow, it's not like he'd start going back. i assume he's not tithing anymore either. and he seems like a generally very gentle soul who wants to see the best in people, and i don't want to get on his case too much about that, because i admire that. but man, i think it's kind of disappointing to watch someone as apparently smart and compassionate as he is work himself into knots to excuse the behavior of the leadership of an organization like that when the simplest explanation is just that these people are assholes on a fundamental level and always have been.

#there is a very funny moment he describes #where he and his wife came out of a movie where one of the previews beforehand was brokeback mountain #and his wife said something very generically of the form “it's awful when people who love each other can't be together” #and he recalls being viscerally upset that hollywood's gay agenda had gotten to her #like christ how do you go from thinking the gay agenda is a real thing that exists in the world #to being a socially progressive staunch lgbt ally #and can we bottle this and disperse it via airplane over the rest of utah

[pawnshopsouls]

//Heyyyy folks, not to be that guy but if you could tag your anti Mormon posts, I would appreciate it.

//I know a lot of people really hate religion and base a lot of their talking points on negative experiences by members and non members. But EVERY religion has that, from Christianity to Judaism to Islam to every other religion out there.

//I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we’re trying to be better, kinder and more Christ-like every day. From our leaders to our families, we’re trying to to be like Jesus and love others as he did. We don’t get it right all the time, heck some of us don’t get it right at all thanks to man-made cultural tradition that isn’t really based in scripture or doctrine.

//But we’re trying.

//so if you would, please stop comparing world religions you don’t like (specifically Christian ones —very specifically my religion— since those are the ones I’m seeing recently) to dangerous cults, I would appreciate it.

//because Everyone has the right to choose the religion that works for them and brings them closer to God (whoever that is to you) and it’s not anyone’s responsibility to take that away from them and force them into what you think is right. God doesn’t work like that, faith doesn’t work like that. We can share our religions with each other but never force them.

//so please stop banging on other religions you disagree with and leave us be, ok?

//If you all would like to see for yourself what LDS folks are like (especially outside of Utah) I definitely encourage you to watch these guys and make the decision for yourself on if we are as bad as everyone says.

— Pastor Jeff, a non-denominational Christian pastor fighting criticism with curiosity as he explores the doctrine, culture, and history of the LDS church on HelloSaints — https://youtube.com/@HelloSaints

— LDS YouTubers talking about faith, doctrine, and culture in the LDS Church on SaintsUnscripted — https://youtube.com/@SaintsUnscripted

— and two teachers making in depth YouTube videos for folks studying the scriptures—Bible (old & New Testament), Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, & Pearl of Great Price.

—And finally our church website where you can look at all of our stuff — scriptures, doctrine, standards, conferences (where our leaders talk to us as a church)—

//none of you have to look at these, but before you go off and write us LDS folks off as a cult, take a look at who we are and decide if we’re really abusive cultish monsters or if we’re just people making our way in the world according to the values we already hold, and making mistakes along the way.

#¢::passin'gossip::¢ #ooc #¢::outofspooks::¢ #//there has been a lot if anti Mormon stuff going on and I’m really not ok with it. #religion #cw religion #//gonna tag these bc I know some people aren’t comfortable with it #//but please know that this is beginning to become an issue and I’m not ok with it.

[im-a-secret-to-everyone]

hello 👋

you can call me sonia, my pronouns are she/they.

i made this blog because i need a space where i can be honest (and vent) without my mutuals seeing. a lot of them are mormon and i'm not. i've only known them for a few months but they're the only friends i have and i can't lose them. obviously their beliefs are irrelevant to our relationships but i know that it would be a very bad idea to start reblogging "lds is a cult" type stuff on my main.

so i'm here because:

i want to learn more and share my thoughts without the risk of losing my friends.

i want to know if there's a way to gently introduce ideas of deconversion, and how to do it if so. if not, i just want people to talk to.

i want to find a support system for the next year while my friend is on a mission. my mental health tanks every time i get their weekly message and i just can't continue like this while the rest of my friend group is happy and blindly supportive of everything the church is making them do (and not letting them do).

a few disclaimers:

i'm a lifelong atheist and my entire education on mormonism has come from the exmo tags over the last few weeks. i don't pretend to completely understand the struggles that everybody involved is going through, but i hope that it's ok for me to share my empathy.

i don't assign any blame to people who were born and raised in the cult and continue to be a part of it. my strategy to combat abuse and manipulation is to be available for an honest conversation and show what the other side is like. i believe that so many of my generation will figure it out and change things for the better.

i'm trying my best to be respectful and imitate the language that i've observed but if i misword anything, please tell me and i'll fix it.

i'm not anti-religion. i have a lot of mixed feelings about religion but for the sake of right now, i'm anti-cult only.

and some brief rules:

since this is mostly a safe space for me to sort out my thoughts, and because i don't have the same experiences, please don't send me traumadumps. there's lots of blogs who are way more qualified than me. however, i'm always willing to send hugs if you need one.

nasty anons get deleted.

don't suggest anything along the lines of cutting my friends out.

i'm going to try my best to keep this separate from my main but if i slip up in any way (like a post, reblog to the wrong blog, reveal too much), please either quietly point it out or keep it to yourself depending on the severity. as i said before, i really don't want to jeopardize my relationships with my friends.

i know they don't belong to me, but i'm tagging this post for visibility since it's better than choosing random people and sending them asks or something. i'll be here in my corner if anybody is willing to talk to me <3

#exmo #exmormon #ex mormon #exlds

[demigodofhoolemere]

Can I just say how much I appreciate your faith. I'm also a member of the church, and it's just so nice to see someone else on this app who believes the same I do.

I'm not super vocal about my religion on my blog, namely because my mutuals on this app have posted a few anti church stuff, and I genuinely have cherished friendships with a lott of them.

Basically what I'm saying is that I am grateful for your outspoken-ness and love for the church. I hope one day I'll be able to do the same on this crazy space.

Thank you for saying that! Honestly it’s just as much for myself as wanting to share with others, I find it helps me keep these things in my mind better if I’m taking the time to post about it. It’s been a help to me spiritually (and mentally, because my brain stinks and can’t retain squat) to reaffirm and remind myself of my beliefs by writing them and speaking them or reblogging what others have put out there.

For what it’s worth, it took me years to start being open about posting my faith on this site, and still years after to be as willing as I am now to just regularly post as much as I want without worrying about whether I’m bothering anyone. There are plenty of people who clearly don’t like what I post, considering I often lose as many followers as I gain and it’s almost always right after I’ve been sharing my faith, and I’ve had friends question me or not believe my corrections of their ideas about the church if they’ve reblogged something misleading about us that I tried to dispel, but with time you learn to ignore it. I can’t control whether people want to stop following me, but friends generally stick around regardless, I find. I don’t think I’ve actually lost any over my beliefs, it’s more a matter of learning who not to talk about it with. I’ve been here for over a decade now and I have mutuals who have stuck with me for many years or even the whole time because they still like me no matter what they may not agree with; people who are understanding and care won’t make it a point of contention. I think if one day you choose to ease yourself into sharing your faith a bit more on your blog, it may not have the impact on relationships that you fear it would, and friends always have the option to block tags if they don’t want to see it. What you choose to do is completely up to you but I hope some of that fear is able to be calmed with time, whether or not you do open up more. I know it can be scary.

Thank you again, I really do love this gospel and I try not to be afraid to share the goodness of it, and to do it in a way that hopefully isn’t beating anyone over the head. I just like to put good things out there, partly for myself but if it also resonates with and rings true to anyone whether they’re a member or not, I’m thrilled. I have actually had an interesting number of non-members reblog scriptures I’ve posted from the Book of Mormon or quotes I’ve shared from conference talks. It makes me happy to see people recognize something good and want to share it like I did even if they don’t come from the same faith background. Any time I can give someone a boost with something I’ve posted of my faith it gives me a boost, too. I’m really glad that it’s meant anything to you, too.

#this was so sweet! thank you again. i don’t generally get messages like this. #religion #asks #anon

[khodorkovskaya]

23.07.23

AHHHHH IM GOING TO SKATING CAMP TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!!

it feels im 8 yrs old again and it's the last day of school and tomorrow im going to montenegro for 3 months. like i am so excited you guys!!!

im getting the train at 6am tomorrow and lucien is meeting me there. his plan was for me to go today and spend the night at his parents' but they don't want me at their house cos im not family lol. he said im gonna meet them nevertheless. but they're old money. like actually old western european conservative money. and ive never met people like that before.

im very excited to meet his parents bc i need to know his origin story! like why is he the way he is??? apparently he had a very strict upbringing. and his parents are mega rich. and i feel like now the term "old money" has been tied to the whole aesthetic trend on tiktok, so it kinda lost its original meaning. but his parents are basically, yeah... conservative, protestant, very secretive life style, probably brought their children up with like super strict table manners like what fork is used for what, etc.

they're very cold too. like i was brought up with more eastern values. and even though my family isn't super traditional in that sense, i was still taught that hospitality is important and that you have to bring a gift every time you go to someone's house and stuff like that. whereas conservative western mentality isn't really like that. and his parents are in their 80s so yeah, they're a whole different breed i feel.

have you guys ever met like actual old money people? what was that like? and i don't mean just "rich people who aren't flashy". but like actual generational wealth people.

also panda has a theory that lucien's parents are in a cult lol. like mormons or jehovah's witnesses or sth.

when lucien was trying to convince his parents to let me stay over he was like "yeah, she's anti-alcohol and she doesn't drink and she's very very religious and modest". lolllll

speaking of being religious, church today was so good! my church crush handed me the music sheet and looked into my eyes and i said thank you and that was the highlight of my day lol. i still don't know his name. but it's fun, you know? to have a little crush i look forward to seeing every sunday. and honestly i don't really want to get to know him because he comes off as very arrogant and intellectual and snobby and i don't think we'd vibe. like at some point he sat down and man-spread and went on his phone. likeeeee. but then i see that after every service he goes up to all the icons to kiss them and lights candles and every time he does the cross thing he bows down to touch the ground (which i never do btw). but yeah im enjoying having this little crush a lot and i want it to stay that way.

maybe he's a reddit orthodox kind of guy, now that i think about it...? like i watched one video about orthodoxy cos i wanted to see who bishop irinei was and now my youtube recommended is full of these orthodox chad memes like "little dark age" that kind of stuff yknow. maybe my crush is the kind of guy who watches these things. cos like what else would a guy my age be doing at a church choir? likeeee

anyway, yeah! super stoked for tomorrow! idk if i'll post much about skating camp cos im gonna be hanging out with lucien and skating 24/7. but i promise i'll post a pic or two! <3

#july

[nerdygaymormon]

Hi!

I'm a closeted heterosexual uranic demisexual she/they demigirlflux (a lot of labels, sorry) who is an active member of the church, and I just wanted to say that I appreciate you existing as a middle ground between queer people and mormons!

My parents are highly anti-LBGTQ+, which is why I'm still closeted, however I have been more open online bc I feel it's easier to be understood, but unfortunately I could almost never find any Christians of any kind who were queer, which meant I felt a bit torn about whether or not I was right to be queer.

I have never been able to find stuff about being anything but transgender in the Gospel Library and places like that, so I'm just rolling with it and hoping that I'm not making a huge mistake.

I have also had a lot of internalised queerphobia because of my parents and their active stance of 'all gays should burn and the other transsexuals should too', especially since they have threatened to kick me out and disown me should they find i'm anything but cishet.

Basically, I'm just happy to find someone who I hope I could talk to since we're both mormon and queer in some way shape or form.

Feel free to talk to me if you want!

~ Katsura

I'm sorry that your parents have such strong anti-LGBTQ+ views, I know that makes things stressful for you.

As far as finding things in the Gospel Library on queer topics, you'll find same-sex attraction (lesbian, gay & bi) and transgender. The church doesn't seem to be aware that there's any other identities out there.

For learning about queer topics, Tumblr is a good place to land, it's the queerest place on the internet with 25% of users identifying as LGBTQ. It's been the place where a some of queer identities were labeled and defined, and where several Pride flags were created.

Internalized queerphobia is rough. We heard all those rejecting messages and internalized them, and now that we understand ourselves to be queer those messages in our head are rejecting us. While you're in the closet, the advice I have is to find other queer people to hang around, even if it's online. Queer members especially will get you in a way others don't. If you aren't on the Queerstake Discord, message me and I'll get you an invite

And when you hear a rejecting message, push back against it. You may not be able to speak up against the messages, but at least in your head say something positive.

Another way you can affirm yourself is get a few things in Pride flags. The Uranic, Demisexual, and the Demigirlflux Pride flags are beautiful and most people will not recognize what they are. You could get 3 bracelets, one for each with those colors, or little pins of those flags to have mixed in with other pins on your backpack.

One thing we learn at church is to "liken the scriptures unto ourselves." I try to look at the scriptures with my queer eyes and it makes a difference, I can find principles and lessons for me, basically queerifying the scriptures. I sometimes make posts about them. Here's a link to several and you can choose to read them if you want:

Genesis 16 - Hagar : We may still be required to deal with difficult situations, but we have a God who hears us, a God who knows us

1 Samuel 16:7 - The Lord Looketh on the Heart : Gender & orientation are matters of the heart and God knows us for who we are

Galatians 3:28 - Ye Are All One in Christ Jesus : The scriptures say that all our diversity is welcome by Christ

2 Nephi 26:33 - All are Alike Unto God : When will the Church embrace all people?

Moses 6:31 - Enoch doesn’t See Himself as God Does : When queer people accept ourselves it opens 1000 doors of possibility

Katsura, feel free to DM me whenever you want

-David

[atbussysparks]

About Me!

Cw: professional HATERISM

What IS this guy? 🫵🏼

Transgender man, who's into drag! He/it

To be wildly specific, aetheriumflux

Pansexual, but I'm not interested in any online relationship besides FRIENDSHIP!!

Rabies punk. I hate political labels but that pretty much sums it up

From the south. I don't live there anymore, but Ive got lots of stories from growing up poor

I live for fish! Talk to me about fish

And I love cats!! They're so silly and goofy 🐅🐆🐈🐱🐾🧶😻 Garfield

I have pots syndrome and unidentified joint issues. The joint shit will probably go away though! Plus I naturally love salt so we'll be fine

I am polyamorous (not to be confused with polygamist or Mormon)

I love music so much! Talk to me about music and stuff! Music influences me greatly

AUDHD

Half Mexican, 1/8th Korean. Although it is a significant amount and affects my life! I love being both these things

My niece on the other hand is only 1/16 and I have revoked her Asian privileges

I love horror movies! My favorites are The Thing (1982,) It (1990,) Emesis Blue, scream 1,2, and 3, tusk, Akira?? (Does that count?) the descent, terrifier 1&2, bucket of blood, American psycho, Carrie, basket case, killer klowns from outer space, all quiet on the western front (1930,) and more

Eraserhead baby biggest fan🐤🍼👶

All mature posts, such as gore art and sensual stuff is tagged or marked mature, because my friends are age regressors and I would like them to not have to see that

My favorite color is green! 💚🐸👕🟢🟩

DNI: "proshippers" (pedos and incestuous fellers,) zoophiles, radfems, proana, people who don't like fishing, nsfw age-regressors, Nazis, "furry hunters," classists, racists, ableists, people who don't like tusk (2014), cop lovers and bigots in general.

Free to interact:

Sfw age-regressors, "anti proshippers" (ppl with common sense,) furries, disabled fellers, LGBT fellers, fishing enthusiasts, POC, artists, and such people.

Things I like:

Not in any order

Astro boy, Tf2, Star trek, King of the hill, MLP, The riddler, SpongeBob SquarePants, JJBA, Garfield, invader zim, Breaking bad, South park, Jerma985, Detroit become human, Dan vs, TMNT, Marine biology, Fraggle rock, Luigi, Bojack horseman, Castle crashers, Clowns, Beavis and Butt-Head, Marvin the martian, octonauts, horrid Henry, lupin III, medical science, sex history, unicorn wars, metalocalypse moral Orel,

Notable tags

Thoughts (and prayers 💀)

Used to mark my trazodone induced ideas

Punk fuck

Punk shit obv

Sparking list

Very long posts, mainly lists bc I love making lists

Spark plug

Talking about my fascination and hyperfixation on... drugs.

Hypergore sparks

Pertaining to gore, body horror, and violence. Heavy warning for suicide, overstimulation, revenge, murder, and healing. I don't like real gore very much unless it's like, raw meat. I do like prop gore, art, poetry... needlessly violent sensual shit.

[dumbestthingiveeverheard]

Dumbest Thing I've Ever Heard: 8/3/2023

Fifth place: Twitter user @eyeskewer

This is a little older than the stuff I normally cover on this blog, but I feel like this is worth highlighting as it perfectly shows my issue when many who make conspiratorial claims about transgender medical care:

my "informed consent" was my doctor I had just met handing me papers telling me my voice would drop soon, I could freeze my eggs, I might get acne, and whatever else. I probably didn't even hear everything she said, I just told her I wanted the shot. so I got it. I just turned 18

So you were told you wanted something medical done to you, were told about the risks and consequences, and then got it. I really don't see what the big deal is here.

Fourth Place: Marco Rubio

Elon Musk's time as CEO of Twitter has been far from perfect, but easily the best addition he has made is the community notes feature. For just one example, here is a Tweet from Marco Rubio:

Also, those claims about the 2016 Presidential Election were never proven to be fake--just wanted to add that real quick.

Third Place: Scott Lively

The deranged homophobe who wrote an entire book blaming the Nazis on homosexuality wrote a column a couple of days back with the headline "Leftist lawfare and the abuse of power." A decent chunk of it is spent defending Russian President Vladimir Putin, but here are some highlights:

In all my years of watching corporate U.S. news about Russia and Putin, I have never seen a single counter-argument ever being offered in defense of President Putin (coverage of him is even worse than that of Trump). It's been more than a decade since Obama restarted the Cold War to punish the Russians for banning "gay" propaganda to children, when every story began to paint him as a "brutal monster" – to the point that even many conservatives (who have zero reason to trust that same media on anything) seem to agree.

The hatred of Putin on an international scale has nothing to do with the anti-homosexuality laws he has put in place while President of Russia--although, don't get me wrong, that didn't help matters, but several countries with anti-homosexuality laws are still seen in a positive light by the international community (wrongfully so, in my opinion). It was more his imperial ambitions--starting with his invasion of Georgia in 2008--that caused the international community to move away from him.

Second Place: Abby Johnson

I've mostly been ignoring the story about a handful of far-right Christians refusing to support the fringe Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy because of his Hinduism, however given Abby Johnson was sold to us a few years back as a a reasonable anti-abortion activist--an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. And she has decided to take a stance against a Hindu President, saying:

Do not be a victim of Satan’s confusion right now. This is an important time for us to have clarity of mind as we are going into an election cycle. So please discern. Please use discernment right now because God hates those who are willing to put up idols over him, and he will not be mocked.

All I wish to say is that if you really want a President that's a dedicated Christian--can I recommend you a guy named Joe Biden? Oh who am I kidding, if Ramaswamy does get the nomination it's going to be just like when Billy Graham took Mormonism off his list of cults so he and his followers could vote for Mitt Romney in 2012.

Winner: Ben Shapiro

This man, considered by many to be serious political commentator, does not know the difference between eating and drinking:

[Trump] would face a whopping 641 years in prison. Which I assume means he would not survive prison. Although he is 70% preservatives at this point because he eats so much McDonalds and Diet Coke.

He eats Diet Coke? Ben, do you know how Diet Coke works?

Ben Shapiro you've said the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

#eyeskewer #marco rubio #scott lively #abby johnson #ben shapiro

[neutral-ship-culture]

Neutralship culture is knowing that a lot of the drama and discourse runs deeper than just shipping or liking a character, the bullying and threats or accusations of horrible things and much more but also seeing it from the outside and understanding why lots of people just see what appears to be a bunch of weirdos being way too over the top over cartoons

Like antis will be screaming pedo this and that and proships will be calling antis cultists and I’ll just be sitting here thinking “ all this over someone shipping naruto and sasuke or whatever ship of the week??”

And I know it’s deeper like I said but at the end of the day it’s people shoving deeper issues on something that shouldn’t have them, we’re meant to be having fun, watching silly cartoons, making anime characters smooch, look at sexy nsfw art on Twitter and that’s what fandom should be and was until recently

I personally think everyone with a chip on their shoulder needs to leave fandom and calm down from both sides, it’s all gotten way too much

Antis think they’re doing the right thing while hurting people and Proships have this weird superiority complex like they’re above it all and are overly defensive and aggressive to anyone that might think the topic of their art is a bit gross

And if you say that to either of them you get accused of being on the opposite team

Here’s an idea maybe you both suck? And you can both preach that your ideals are all good and pure but that doesn’t make the people who identify as such any less rude or annoying

Sorry this became a rant I’ve dealt with too many bad people on both sides, they’re both fandom Mormons holy shit

This was a long ask, so sorry if I don't address everything /gen.

Yeah, this is what drove me into being neutralship. I've tried being anti and felt uncomfortable whenever I watch anime. I've tried being pro and immediately left because some of them didn't like tagging their stuff and making it a big deal. And that's not even getting into their beliefs.

I think they need to reevaluate the moment and realize that the world doesn't necessarily cares about the latest ship because it has other shit to worry about.

#long post #petals #neutralship culture #neutralship #neutral ship

[ranseur]

just fyi in case you weren't aware - brandon sanderson has talked about still being a practicing member of the mormon church despite the homophobia/human rights stuff the church supports

hi anon i wasn't aware of this! i'm surprised actually because his portrayals of queer characters in his books didn't give me the impression he was homophobic or against human rights, himself.

looking into it more- i see that he addressed his relationship w the LDS church in a recent AMA on reddit. to summarize, it seems like he's saying that he is pro-lgbtq+, that while he is still learning how to be better, he stays with LDS with the hopes that the community's stance on lgbtq+ people will change. and how he contributes to that shift is that many members of LDS read his books (i guess because he is a member) and through his books they see his nuanced portrayals of lgbtq+ characters. (https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/vtua7m/comment/ifa50ab/) that said, it does make me uncomfortable to learn his tithes potentially go towards harmful things that I am against. though it seems that based on his comments the homophobia is something he genuinely wrestles with, and openly denounces. I think if someone chooses not to read his books due to his faith, that's a very fair choice. on the other hand I respect Sanderson for admitting that his faith and political beliefs don't always align and for learning the progressive beliefs that he currently holds. i'm atheist and ex-christian; so i can sympathize with people who have complex relationships with their spiritual leaders and their personal faith. (personally I chose to leave and never look back) granted i haven't had a lot of time to think about this; but i'm wondering, and hoping this is fair to ask: if Sanderson's personal beliefs don't align with what other mormons believe, would it be fair to hold their beliefs against him by association? and if it is fair, then would I have to start holding every religious person accountable for any uncouth things that their religious text says or their leaders are responsible for? or could a person denounce those things, and be left to practice their faith in their own way? this is not an easy conversation to have- so its very fair if you won't agree with me but i hope i didn't come across as unfair. i think Sanderson isn't malicious, unlike Rowling who sucks, and i don't think he specifically supports or ignores the homophobia and anti-human rights that the church supports. also, sorry if this was long- im not good at being succinct.

#anon #sorry this is a very long response #tldr; i didn't know that; i don't necessarily think Sanderson is homophobic or bigoted based on his portrayals of queer chars #one of my fave characters is ace-coded and gender fluid; and there's trans characters too who are really awesome #and these traits of theirs don't make their whole personality- they're well rounded and complex #but i know just listing these examples doesn't really mean much by themselves

[tanadrin]

Does Dan McClellan ever explain how he's a Mormon? I started listening to Data Over Dogma the other day, thanks your regular comments about it, and I'm absolutely boggled that this dude can say this shit and then go to church on Sunday.

he talked about his biography in his Mormon Stories appearance. he converted as an adult, around 19 or 20--he describes himself as feeling kind of aimless in life, having social connections through friends and family members to the mormon church, and being drawn to it that way. inferring a little bit from the context, he seems to have landed within a pocket of mormons that were either pretty pro-lgbt or not strenuously anti-lgbt--enough that that didn't put him off, given his agnostic and not particularly conservative background.

he's an interesting case, for sure! he explicitly avoids talking about his personal beliefs, so i can only guess what his exact though process was. but the impression i get is someone who 1) was strongly drawn to the social aspects of organized religion (and mormonism is very tight-knit socially), 2) was willing to suspend judgement on the more out-there elements of doctrine (the really off-the-wall historical stuff), and 3) isn't too pressed about the truth claims element of religion, or doesn't personally find that the most important part of religious experience and feeling.

and yet it is still kind of strange to me to listen to someone who is very thoughtful about the cognitive science of religion, who deeply understands the textual history of religious scripture, and who understands why you can't use faith-based arguments as part of any coherent methodology in the analysis of that scripture, to try to mount a defense of religiosity in general. i mean plainly people can do it. but i can't imagine how, unless there is some deep cognitive dissonance at work. i think that even if the truth claims of religion aren't the most important part of religion to you, they're plainly incredibly important when it comes to, like, how religious traditions are differentiated--if the truth claims don't matter, there's much less reason to be mormon vs episcopalian vs baptist.

i could see salvaging out of all that some kind of general moral therapeutic deism, or ultra-reformed judaism, or other spiritual-but-not-dogmatically-religious worldview--but belonging to an avowedly dogmatic, hierarchically organized religious institution, with the kind of internal discipline that means members like dan are (let us be charitable) less than entirely open with their criticisms less they face larger-scale social consequences--a problem not even modern Catholics face--and one which is nonetheless built on an unusually recent, and unusually disprovable set of truth claims like mormonism is--like, idk. it's really hard to imagine someone who knew all the stuff he knows about biblical history being drawn to mormonism if he had learned that stuff first. and if that's true that feels kind of like an indictment of the religion? like it really is mostly contingent features we don't care about in any deep way.

that makes more sense for ethnoreligions like judaism, and out of all american religions, mormonism is probably closest to being an ethnoreligion itself. it's pretty culturally insular compared to mainline protestantism. even most flavors of fundamentalist evangelicalism. the closest analogue is maybe the primitive baptists? and they're a tiny denomination. but if it was really a self-sustaining culture it probably wouldn't need a centralized hierarchy that excommunicated dissenters who got too big a public profile for criticizing the church.

[noyoucannotpushthevoid]

The Raven Cycle as Things Me and My Friends have Said

I saw someone do this with the Foxhole Court and since I have a huge backlog of inane quotes, I figured I'd do one myself Sorry in advance cause it's looooooooooong

Gansey at every opportunity: "Speaking of immortal people" Stiefvater hinting Noah was a ghost: "You see him fade a little behind" Declan: "[He]'s not a top or a bottom, he's in the corner" Adam at Harvard: "Apparently plugging in my laptop makes it shit itself" Ronan @ Blue: "It's goblin time" Gansey: "He's standing there...politely" The boys waiting to pick up Blue: "We're all hanging out outside. As friends" Gansey when his family friendly quest turns out to not be so pleasant: “I signed up for Mothman, not cannibalism!” Ronan: “My brain is an OSHA violation.” The Raven Cycle Series in general: “Maybe the book was the friends we made along the way” Noah : “420 fate it (Not that Ronan would but) Gansey @ Ronan about Chainsaw: “No nose piercing for the bird” Blue and Ronan @ Gansey when he shows an ankle: “He is the whore” Blue: “Imagine if one day, I just turned around and went ‘Sorry, I was domestic on main.’" Ronan teaching people how to handle Chainsaw: “No choking the chicken” Gansey and cargo short supremacy: “Pro-shoe, anti-pants” Gansey @ Adam: “You’re going to have friends and you’re going to like it” Henry: “Wrestlers are just drag queens for straight people” About Ronan: “Funny in a cosmic sense. Not a ha ha sense” Noah: “Their influence stretches beyond their mortal form” Declan making a profit off the stuff his dad dreamed: “He’s basically fantasy getting the bread” Ronan: (Said at least seven times in fifteen minutes) “I have a terrible idea” Ronan: “He’s got the book of mormon and he’s blasphemying all over this motherfucker” Ronan @ Noah: “Snitches get thrown in the microwave” Ronan serving either Declan or Adam, take your pick and therefore level of sarcasm: "Does sleeping beauty want his fucking pancake" (in the uwu voice) Ronan listening to EDM: “Mental breakdown? More like man, I can break down to this music”

#the raven cycle #quotes #ronan lynch #adam parrish #blue sargent #gansey #henry cheng #i think my friends are kinda funny. so have the dumb little things we say when put in the same room #the braincell leaves

[cervidaedalus]

I have to go to a different Planned Parenthood for my HRT consultation and I guess this one gets a lot more protesters than the other one up the road from me. Even on Google maps, you can see an anti-abortion ad on the bus stop right outside. So you know, Planned Parenthood is my PCP. My Primary Care. The place where I will not only be getting my HRT, but have gotten ALL my referrals to blood tests, physical therapy, a cardiologist, dentist, and optometrist. The place that thus far has had the nicest, most compassionate and understanding doctors. And like I'm standing there trying to read stuff on my phone while this fuckin white boy is shouting at me "You don't have to go through with it! Jesus loves you! Get away from that place!" and some other illegible nonsense about abortion because clearly the ONLY reason I was there was to get an abortion. The sheer amount of brainwashing these people undergo to have the boldness and confidence to stand outside of a building and sexually harass (because yes, that's what shouting at someone about reproductive choices SHOULD be considered) some random stranger with absolutely zero nuance or critical thought. Like your entire platform is to "save a life" right? I chose not to engage because these people are often way too far gone for ANY reasoning but I really wanted to ask him what he thought I'd gone there for today. Presumably he'd take it as the opoortunity to continue telling me I don't need to abort this imaginary baby he thinks I have. Then I could tell him that no, this is my primary care office and I'm here for life-saving care for my cardiac issues and genetic predisposition to cancer. Then I would ask him again, "Do you care about life? Because presently you're trying to steer me away from a place that's saving mine." And either his brain would have started sparking and sputtering, or he'd just packpedal or go off about some nonsense that just SUPPORTING that place was bad. And that's how it goes. When I lived with my friend Sierra, there were a couple of Mormon boys who went door to door. Sierra and her husband invited them in, listened to them, asked questions, occasionally the questions did fall into the realm of challenging their belief system. The whole point was to build a dialogue and an air of friendliness and compassion. Cult experts will tell you that the hostility and aggression and competitiveness often executed against these people is used to further indoctrinate them. "See! The outside world hates you! They're all tainted by [insert boogeyman concept here]! But WE love you and JESUS loves you." Almost always they'll send out the young guys to do this sort of work, too, in order to push them deeper into that hole whenever they inevitably are met with backlash. I'm kind of like, alright, I think your platform is dumb as fuck and yes, you're some cis dude telling me (and whomever else that day) what to do with our bodies, but also I feel genuinely bad for you because you've basically been manipulated your whole life to believe such things and essentially forced into the narrow ideaology that whatever you're told is inherently right because its told to you by the only people who love you, and everything else is inherently wrong because they're ideals help by the people who "hate" you.

[hewholivesinhisname]

How Kabballists think

Like, why post anything?   The only thing you probably should be posting is anti-semitic conspiracy theories since, of course, they are true.  Or, you know, at least for some Jews.   Taking this androgyny stuff that is ambiguous at the beginning of the bible and ignoring the part later on when it says men cannot wear women’s clothing.   So, when you get this it’s pretty clear that they take all that “iniquity” language in the bible to refer to gender iniquity rather than economic iniquity.   then they probably have additional texts and stuff talking about how high and mighty and special they are above other humans. Maimonides doesn’t help of course since he says god does not have a body and leaves out the part about not confusing men and women’s clothing.  

I definitely know where this comes from which is that you need to come up with a way of stopping elite overpopulation and inducting a bunch of the elite into some genderless cult or other is a definite way of stopping them from having large families and letting those families just stomp all over the place, however this is clearly the wrong technique as these guys think they are “lights to the world” meaning that they are promoting it all over the place.  

So, birthrates of the world are plummetting, both due to the mass poisoning, radiation, but also just due to the changes in women’s rights and the promotion of birth control aborition, transgenderism and homosexuality.  Financially people cannot afford families and the men especially are disempowered in any number of ways.  We are living through an ongoing mass genocide perpetuated by a “super-secret” elitist branch of judaism.  

I would not be surprised if there is some level of judaism run by lesbians that has beliefs exactly like that of what is posted in the protocols of the elders of zion. they seem to be runnning off that might is right script after all and Learned Elders of Zion is abbreviated Lez, so this is the Lezzies talking.  Also in the “higher” realms of Judaism there is a lot more Shekhina worship going on, replacing god essentially with the goddess and in all those old goddess worshipping religions they said that the God was mortal but the goddess was immortal. 

So, with all this going on, you can see how I think things like the White horse prophecy of the mormons is going to come true.  That is, if anyone except a few bots collecting data on me read this. 

[advxnturer]

I am begging you guys to stop being rude about my religion. If you want to insult Smeyer there are plenty of ways to. My religion is not why shes a shitty person; shes a shitty person just because she is one. I cant go into the twilight tags these days without seeing stuff bashing mormons bc of her and that is deeply hurtful because she's bad. My religion is not.

#the twilight saga #twilight renaissance #smeyer #bella swan #edward cullen #jasper hale #rosalie hale #alice cullen #emmett cullen #i literally adore this fandom and thats why this shit hurts #because it feels like such a positive space where everyone encourages each other #and then i see more anti mormon stuff #and it feels bad #like im not welcome #vent post #tw religion