#progressive catholicism

[czortofbaldmountain]

There is no such thing as progressive Roman Catholicism.

I see people acting like you can be a Roman Catholic and, for example, a queer ally, but those things are in conflict with eachother. In the end, you have to choose what ethics do you follow.

Your spirituality is yours, but the Church is an organisation with its own ideology and practices. No matter if you agree, its official doctrine is bigoted in many ways. No matter how appalled you are, the covering up of pedophilia is systemic. By aligning yourself with the Roman Catholic Church you are supporting the organisation doing all of that and more, and it's no longer a matter of your personal religious life. For the priests' services you're trading the lives of your most vulnerable neighbours.

I know it can be extremely hard, even terrifying, to leave after being indoctrinated. But some things are beyond repair. You can practice some form of Christianity in ways that don't harm other people. If you are not a bigot, you are likely already a heretic anyway by the Vatican's standards.

Only when the Church will loose lay people's support it can lose its power to destroy lives.

#ex catholic #ex christian #deconversion #deconvert #apostasy #apostate #catholicism #roman catholicism #progressive catholicism #czortposting

[divinebeloved]

the Ecological Lord's Prayer

Cláudio Carvalhaes, Ritual at World's End

Our God, who art in pluriverses, the skies and the earth,

Blessed be Your name: Life. May Your pulsing life come to be seen, heard, touched, and felt through the oceans, the forest, in the rocks, in the life of plants, and in the sounds of animals and singing birds.

Give us this day our daily bread, through a variety of seeds and grains and leaves, without pesticides, without monocultures, from local farms, and from agro-biodiverse-cultures.

Forgive us our plundering of the earth, our total lack of relation and reciprocity with the earth and more than human beings; as cells, mycelium, fungi, and infinite processes of symbiosis, forgive us daily by giving back life when we destroy it.

Lead us not into consumerism and the devouring of the earth, but deliver us from the apathy that says nothing can be changed.

For Life is kinship, relationality, and reciprocity.

Now and forever.

Amen.

#divinebeloved #theology #catholic #christian #lord's prayer #christianity #prayer #environment #environmentalism #ecotheology #ecoprayer #ritual #ecological #progressive catholic #progressive catholicism #catholicism #praying #pray #christ jesus #environmental prayer #eco theology

[spokanefavs]

#progressive Catholicism #liberal christianity #Catholicism #Catholic #progressive #liberal

[hymnofthecherubim]

AAAAHHHHH I LOVE BEING ANGLO-CATHOLIC I LOVE LITURGY I LOVE SACRAMENTS I LOVE THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER I LOVE INCENSE AND CANDLES AND PSALMS AND HYMNS AND THE ORGAN AND ROSARIES AND QUEERNESS AND GOD GOOD LORD!!!!!!

#having a normal one #it's insane how liberating it feels finding a path that just. fits. it works. #christianity #progressive christian #progressive christianity #christian #episcopal #episcopalian #lgbt christian #anglo catholic #anglo catholicism #anglo-catholic #anglo-catholicism

[molsno]

ok now that I've seen an episode of dungeon meshi I understand what everyone means by "it's not horny" but you're actually revealing some pretty sinister biases when you say that.

dungeon meshi is not sexually objectifying. that's what you mean. the women are not reduced to sexual objects but are instead humanized and treated with respect. that's a good thing and I enjoy that about it too.

when you say that you like dungeon meshi because "it's not horny" that reveals that you harbor some sex-negative beliefs, and further is wrapped up in the implication that japanese media, especially anime, is "horny" by default, which is a presumption rooted in racist stereotypes about japanese people. you don't treat western media like it's "horny" by default, even though the sexual objectification of women is just as if not more prominent in it.

#txt #dungeon meshi #I wish people actually knew anything about feminism instead of repurposing catholicism to make it sound progressive

[tortiefrancis]

actually God blessed me with queerness

#religion #religion tw #should this go in my sideblog? #yeah. do i care? not really #queer christian #christian #christianity #progressive christianity #queer catholic #catholic #catholicism #christopagan #christopaganism #sam.txt #sam.queer

[farahwaygod]

hey, I'd like suggestion for (christian) prayers for Palestine, either for Palestine specifically or for protection, health, justice, peace and safety. I've seen a few but I'd like to see if there are other options, and I'm not knowledgeable on prayers yet.

also, if anyone has prayers for Lebanon too, I'd deeply appreciate it, as my family is lebanese and I'm very scared for them as well.

#far.txt #prayer #christianity #catholicism #progressive christianity #progressive christian #arab christian #maronite #lebanon #palestine #free palestine #religion #spirituality #faith

[saintmachina]

One million dollar question: is it true that the Bible condems homosexuality? I had a discussion with two conservatives who sent me some verses that seem to confirm that but i don't know much about the context although i know this is important too

Let’s start here: why is this the million dollar question? Why does it matter what the Bible has to say about sex, or love, or human relationships? At the end of the day, it’s just a book, right?

Oceans of ink (and blood) have been spilled over not only what the Bible says, but what it does, how it functions. The course of empires, nations, and families have been shaped by the contents of this book, and from a historical and cultural perspective, it holds a lot of weight. But you didn’t ask about the sociological, you asked about the theological, so let’s explore. 

Different Christian traditions vary in their approach to scripture. For example: some Protestant denominations believe that the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. In this paradigm, God is the ultimate author of scripture working through human hands, and the resulting text is both without error and in no way deceptive or mistaken. Similarly, The Second Vatican Council decreed that “the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.” When a member of the clergy is ordained into the Episcopal Church they swear that they “do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation.”

Can you see how many of these points of doctrine overlap yet seek to distinguish themselves from one another? Theologians have spent lifetimes arguing over definitions, and even when they manage to settle on solid teachings, the way that the teaching is interpreted by the clergy and incorporated into the lives of the laity varies WIDELY. As much as systematic theology may try, humans aren’t systematic beings. We’re highly contextual: we only exist in relation to others, to history, to circumstance, and to the divine. We simply cannot call up God to confirm church teaching, and I think a lot of people cling excessively to the Bible as a result of the ache (dare I even say trauma) of being separated from God via space and time in the way we currently are.

God is here, but God is not here. God is within us, God is within the beloved, God is within the sea and sky and land, and yet we cannot grasp God to our bodies in the way we long to. In this earthly lifetime, we are forever enmeshed in God, yet forever distinct, and that is our great joy and our great tragedy.

So barring a direct spiritual experience or the actual second coming, we're left to sort through these things ourselves. And because humans are flawed, our interpretations will always be flawed. Even with the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives guiding us.

When engaging with any sort of Biblical debate, it is essential that you have a strong understanding of what the Bible means to you, an an embodied individual living a brief little awful and wonderful life on Earth. Otherwise it's easy to get pushed around by other people’s convincing-sounding arguments and sound bites.

Here’s where I show my hand. As a confirmed Episcopalian I believe that reason, tradition, and scripture form the “three-legged stool” upon which the church stands, interdependent and interrelational to each other, but I’ve also like, lived a life outside of books. I’ve met God in grimy alleyways and frigid ocean waters and in bed with my lovers. So my stool is actually four-legged, because I think it’s essential to incorporate one’s personal experience of God into the mix as well. (I did not invent this: it’s called the Wesleyan quadrilateral, but the official Wesleyan quadrilateral insists that scripture must trump all other legs of the table in the case of a conflict which...*cynical noises*)

Please do not interpret this answer as me doing a hand-wavey "it's all vibes, man, we're all equally right and equally wrong", but I do absolutely think we have a responsibility as creatures to weigh the suffering and/or flourishing of our fellow creatures against teachings handed down through oral tradition, schisms, imperial takeover of faith, and translation and mistranslation. Do I believe the Bible is sacred, supernatural even, and that it contains all things necessary to find one's way to God, if that is the way God chooses to manifest to an individual in a given lifetime? Absolutely. Do I believe it is a priceless work of art and human achievement that captures ancient truths and the hopes of a people (as well as a record of their atrocities) through symbols, stories, and signs? Unto my death, I do.

However, I am wary of making an object of human creation, God-breathed though it may be, into an idol, and trapping God in its pages like God is some sort of exotic bug we can pin down with a sewing needle.

Finally, we have reached the homosexuality debate. One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is Matthew 5: 15-17: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit." In other words: look at what religious teachings have wrought in the world. When I look at homophobic interpretations of the Bible, I see destruction, abuse, suffering, neglect, alienation, spiritual decay, and death. When I look at theology that affirms the holiness of LGBTQ+ relationships, I see joy, laughter, community building, thoughtful care, blooming families, creativity, resilience, and compassion. I see the love of Christ at work in the world. I see the hands of a God who chose under no duress to take up residence in a human body, to drink wine with tax collectors and break bread with sex workers and carry urchin children around on his shoulders. That's my limited little pet interpretation, but hey, that's all any of us really have, at the end of the day.

So, I am absolutely happy to do a play-by-play breakdown of why those passages you were given (we queer Christians often call them "clobber passages" or "texts of terror") don't hold water in a theological, historical, and cultural context. We can talk about Jesus blessing the eunuch and the institution of Greek pederasty and Levitical purity laws and Paul because I've done that reading. I've spent my nights crying in self-hatred and leafing through doctrine books and arguing with my pastors and writing long grad school essays on the subjects. Send me the verses, if you can remember them, and I'll take a look. But it's worth noting that out of the entire Bible, I believe there are only six that explicitly condemn homosexuality AND I'm being generous and including Sodom and Gommorah here, which is a willful and ignorant misreading if I've ever seen one.

In the meantime, I recommend books by people smarter than me! Try Outside The Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith by Mihee Kim-Kort, or Does Jesus Really Love Me by Jeff Chu, or Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke!

And take a breath, dear one. Breathe in God, in the droplets of water in the air and in the wind from the south. Breathe in the gift of life, and know that you are loved, now and unto the end of the age and even beyond then.

#I'm sorry this answer is the length of a Victor Hugo novel but I've been mulling on it for days and it unlocked the theology gremlin #who lives in my brain #theology #christianty #queer christianity #progressive christianity #religionposting #catholicism #episcopalian #lgbtq community

[transienttheologyproject]

If you’re a genderqueer Christian, if you know & love a genderqueer Christian, or if you’re simply interested in learning more about how Christianity and transness intersect with one another rather than contradict each other, then consider checking out the Transient Theology Zine! Digital copy out now, and physical copies are open for preorder through 9/15!

#trans christian #transgender christian #nonbinary christian #enby christian #genderqueer christian #queer christian #progressive christianity #progressive clergy #trans theology #transgender theology #transgender #trans #christianity #christian #trans people of faith #genderqueer #catholic #catholicism #queer catholic #trans catholic

[socialjusticeinamerica]

Burke has publicly challenged the liberal Pope’s outreach to the divorced, civilly remarried, and lgbt members of the faith. The Pope wants to keep those members in the fold but backwards Burke thinks he knows better and just got smacked down for his small-mindedness.

#catholicism #Pope Francis #Cardinal Raymond Burke #liberal progress

[seraphimfall]

Holy Dogs— Catholic Folk Saints

catholicism has an insanely diverse history and culture. with more than 1 billion adherents across the world, there’s bound to be variance in worship and commemoration. one of the best examples of this is catholic folk saints.

simply put, folk saints are saints of the people. they are holy figures who are honored as patrons by a local population, but not officially canonized in the vatican.

some are legends. some were old gods from polytheistic religions. some were real people. and some, believe it or not, were dogs.

that’s right! a good boy can sometimes be so good, they’re saintly.

St. Guinefort of Lyon

feast day— august 22nd

patronage— infants

st. guinefort was a greyhound who was said to live in 13th-century france. according to legend, guinefort was a loyal companion for a knight who lived near the city of lyon. one day, the knight went out to hunt. he left his infant son at his house, under the watchful eye of guinefort. when the knight returned, he found the infant’s room in chaos— the cradle was overturned and blankets were torn. the son was nowhere to be seen, and guinefort was sitting in the corner with bloody jaws.

under the belief that his son was eaten by guinefort, the knight drew his sword and killed the dog. only then did he hear his son crying. turning over the cradle, the knight realized his son was alive and well. lying next to him was the body of a viper, covered in dog bites. guinefort had killed the snake to protect the infant, making a mess of the nursery in the process.

the knight, grieving his mistake, took guinefort’s body and dropped it down a well. he constructed a shrine out of the well to honor him. when the townsfolk heard of the dog’s martyrdom, he was venerated as a patron of infants. mothers would often visit his shrine if their children were sick, praying for his protection.

Negro Matapacos (Black Cop-Killer)

feast day— august 26th

patronage— protestors, street dogs

negro matapacos was a stray dog who lived in the streets of santiago, chile. he would most notably hang around university campuses. he didn’t technically have an owner, but he was cared for by a woman named maría campos. she would feed him and give him a place to sleep. every morning before he left, she would tie a red handkerchief around his neck and bless him.

from 2011 to 2013, nationwide student protests rocked the country. as the demonstrations persisted, police began to turn to violent forms of crowd control. to the student’s surprise, there was soon a stray black dog protesting alongside them. he would lash out aggressively at approaching police, but was kind and protective towards the civilian protestors.

he soon earned the name negro matapacos, which translates to “black cop-killer” in english. it was a title that reflected his job perfectly.

during his participation in the protests, he showed absolute resilience against police violence. he would accompany protestors into tear gas, and even endured getting hit with water cannons. as the protesting continued, matapacos never retreated.

remarkably, he survived the demonstrations. the black dog gained media attention, and was honored as a hero and revolutionary icon. matapacos went on to live a happy life. he died on august 26th, 2017, attended by his caregiver and vet staff. according to various sources, the canine sired 32 pups before his death.

in 2019, protesting once again erupted in chile. although matapacos was not able to be there, he certainly was in spirit. his image was drawn on countless signs, and he was the subject of street art by revolutionary artists. he was a patron saint for the working class of chile, and is honored as such to this day.

#the goodest boy #negro matapacos #exvangelical #ex catholic #ex christian #catholic witch #apostate #catholic guilt #santiago chile #chile protests #religious trauma #catholic paganism #saint guinefort #leftism #french history #lyon france #catholic witchcraft #folk saints #folk catholicism #progressive politics #catholic history #christian spirituality

[forth3loveofgod]

What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They claim to follow the Greek Gods, they support abortion, they follow gay Pagan Gods and they’re the largest Pagan group in the world.

i read through the website and it seems like BS in my opinion. they make several claims (ie: "satanism predates Judaism and Christianity") but they don't have any evidence of it, they just keep saying it over and over. to me it seems like a group of non-christians who wanted to create a fake religion to disprove christianity but they have no real claims.

they also make several anti-semitic claims, like dishonoring judaism as an ancient religion. But in the "Exposing Christianity" section where they talk about the Old Testament they quote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is an insane anti-semitic text which fueled anti-semitism in Europe during the WWI- WWII era they claim in this section that "Demons are the Gods of the gentiles" which.... i don't even know what to say about that.

i could go further into their website but i honestly don't want to right now. I might go back sometime if i need a laugh or if I need a reason to be mad.

please do not think that this website is a legit religion, nor that they know what they are talking about.

#christianity #progressive christianity #asks open #catholic #catholicism #christopagan #asks #joysofsatan.org #satanism is fake

[hymnofthecherubim]

Don't know if that esoteric longing in my soul is for magic or for mysticism.

#mine #christianity #progressive christianity #progressive christian #episcopal #episcopalian #christian #lgbt christian #mysticism #christian witch #folk catholic #catholic witch #folk catholicism

[supermarine-silvally]

Portada Thought #4,235

Ace and Yara are so fucking funny to me in terms of how they present to the world vs. how they actually are. They’re basically complete inverses of each other. Ace on one hand comes across as this nice, polite, courteous, sensible young man who is so much more mature than his rubber lunatic of a little brother, but in reality, he’s a feral jungle cat in a human body who probably has no qualms about devouring raw meat from some wild animal he took down with his bare hands and has, I’m sure, bitten people (affectionate or otherwise) on more than one occasion— because that’s how he was raised, in an eat-or-be-eaten world, and despite whatever manners he’s managed to pick up, that’s who he’ll always be deep down.

Meanwhile Yara tries to act all rough and feral as if she isn’t a prissy little Cabernet Sauvignon-sipping, ruffled clothes-wearing Dracule; an ex-Catholic schoolgirl who reads Latin poetry and has perfect posture when sitting in a chair and gets visibly stressed out when she’s running low on her preferred vanilla-scented skincare products. She doesn’t like dirt and will outright refuse to go near anyone who hasn’t bathed in the last 48 hours.

#i need to be working on my 6 month progress report but i can't stop thinking about Them #also idk if they have catholicism in one piece but whatever the world equivalent of it is i guess #oc: bravada yara #ship: portada #otp: i'd burn the world for you #i keep seeing wonderful posts about feral ace and they have given me some food for thought #ace is sort of like a wolf with a dog's collar on #and yara is the pomeranian barking at the mailman like she's gonna rip his throat out

[farahwaygod]

i made a drawing of St. George! i'm a bit tired at the lack of representation with saint art, specially with St. George, so i decided to fix that problem myself!

[ ID: A digital, stylized drawing of St. George against a transparent background, a halo behind him and a small crescent moon on the top left and bottom right corners. He's a man with medium tone skin, brown eyes, short, wavy, dark brown hair, a thin beard and a large, pointy nose. He wears a silver armor and a red cape. He holds a spear and looks to the right, smiling slightly. /End ID ]

#far.art #christianity #catholicism #st. george #art #artblr #krita #digital art #digital artist #artists on tumblr #artists of tumblr #catholic art #christian art #progressive christian #progressive christianity

[ariesbilly]

i was talking to my friend earlier whos a teacher (we’re in florida) and i was complaining about all the bullshit laws and bannings that have been going on re: dont say gay bill + the mess going on with in classroom libraries and she said the most buckwild shit to me i hadnt even considered, which is that she works at a catholic school, so ironically none of these legislation apply to them. so like yeah its a catholic school its not like being gay or trans is being openly discussed but also shes not at risk of losing her job for not outing kids lmfao absolute insane behavior!

#its just a view i hadnt considered and now that im thinking about it its like damn... that is fucked up when catholicism is coming out on #top lmao #and like dont get me wrong im sure theres fuckery going on over there about what can and cant be taught etc etc #but like ultimately lets pretend theres progressive people running that school.... they could in theory bypass all these stupid laws because #theyre a religiously run school #and thats crazy to me