#like i don't think i'm religious?

[deservedgrace]

The lack of understanding and empathy for cult survivors is really alienating. Because the same people that (rightfully) get upset hearing domestic violence jokes or rape jokes will make jokes about starting a cult.

#i logically understand that people actually mean commune or group or something innocuous #emotionally... all i can hear is 'i have a desire to abuse/harm a group of people' #and like. the same people that would balk at any other abuse joke don't think of it like that when it comes to cults #cults are not just a silly little group with weird beliefs teehee #they do actual harm #and I'm sick of people joking about subjecting others to the same trauma i went through #and i *logically know that people are just not educated* #it still deals psychic damage to see #ex cult #religious trauma #rape ment #i just #nobody feels safe when my trauma is free game to joke about

[utilitycaster]

Ok I'm probably going to regret reinventing 17th century European religious philosophy here but:

Ludinus's issue with the gods as stated to Imogen and Fearne (and I will state right now that we know he was lying or deliberately misleading at points in that conversation so I don't exactly take him at his word, but let's assume he does mean this) is that they did not prevent the Calamity. I have the following questions.

Does he have any loyalty/feelings about the Titans given that they would have killed all the people in the era of the Schism, ie, the gods averted that Calamity? My guess is no, which means that whole avenue of discussing the Titans was something of a dead end.

How should Calamity have been averted? The Prime Deities during the Age of Arcanum largely let people do what they wanted, which is what led to one of those mortals releasing the Betrayer Gods. Should the gods have struck down Vespin Chloras before he actually did anything, Minority Report style? Can the gods even predict based on the actions of a single individual or small group, because my guess is they can't, particularly since within the current stream of gameplay they absolutely cannot [ie, the reason the Changebringer can't tell FCG to stay or run is because Matt Mercer is the Changebringer and he doesn't know how people will roll; you do need to consider the medium here]. But if they could: so you think they should strike down mortals on the basis of thoughtcrimes? Or control them? In that case, why is Aeor a problem? There's a lot you can argue is justified once you permit the gods to override free will and kill people over mere potential for catastrophe.

On that note, Laerryn both was an unwitting architect of the Calamity (shorted on energy and then killed the Tree of Names, which served as a core planar defense system) but also averted the worst of it. Did the lives she saved by preventing the rise of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort outweigh the lives she took by destroying the Tree of Names? How should the gods have reacted?

Should, perhaps, the gods have all sealed themselves away earlier - perhaps post-Schism? If so, then the issue isn't the Divine Gate, now is it? Should the gods intervene or not intervene? Should they remove themselves or no? It feels like the issue isn't that they distanced themselves so that they can do less in the world, particularly if you wish to kill them, but that you really want to fucking kill them and they made that somewhat more difficult.

How do we know the gods (for example) didn't save Laudna? She was hanged and she's still alive; Morri would probably count this as saving her and I don't see the same desire to wipe out all Archfey. [real talk I find most discussion of Laudna specifically to be...incomprehensibly ignorant in its refusal to acknowledge that everything about it is player agency related, whether it's the story that the cast played out for Vox Machina or the decisions Marisha specifically made in creating the character, ie, do you think Matt should have said "well you can't play a Hollow One because that would mean the gods didn't save you" not to mention the fact that again, we are playing this within a game system where the existence Deus Ex Machina would in fact fucking suck ass; but even setting aside those reasons why this argument is stupid, it's still stupid. It's like a layer cake of stupid.] Again: do you want more intervention or less? Killing them guarantees less.

I'm assuming the problem with the Calamity is the vast loss of life, in which case, what's the math on how many people have been killed by the Vanguard or Imperium in the pursuit of unleashing Predathos? How many more will die?

If the release of Predathos doesn't result in the immediate demise of all the gods, and the Divine Gate is down, why isn't this a recipe for Calamity 2? What was the motivation for killing the gods again?

Should we kill mortal diviners who do not do all within their power to stop terrible things that may come to pass? If the issue is that some people have power without working for it, why haven't we killed all the sorcerers?

Should we be listening to a single word from someone who consumes random fey to live longer, and that's just the start of the CVS receipt of atrocities?

Is there a point where one's deeply held beliefs due to one's own personal trauma become invalidated due to one's actions as a result of that trauma? If so, why is the limit for Orym "is okay with killing people who are trying, directly, to kill you (which, frankly, isn't even a trauma response, that's just called not wanting to die, which I highly recommend as a personal philosophy), and gets upset when people defend those knowingly collaborating with his family's murderers" and the limit for Vanguard generals "family abandonment/just. buckets of murder of innocents./child soldier recruitment in multiple different contexts/eating fey as biohacking/destroying an entire city and the surrounding forest for hundreds of years (ongoing)/imperialism in multiple different contexts/I was going to make a gallows humor joke about how while neither exist in-world they've violated the Geneva Convention AND the IRB for testing on human subjects multiple times over but actually those both are in fact written in a lot of the same blood/probably some others that I'm forgetting"

#i feel ultimately a lot of this fandom debate boils down to yes this is obviously fiction #but like within the fiction can you sketch out the implications of your argument or is it just a lot of abstract ideals that can't coexist #I don't actually expect answers to these; obviously the point is if you think there is an easy one there isn't #anyway i'm like if an enlightenment era polymath were a religiously observant agnostic who used the phrase fucking suck ass #cr spoilers #cr tag

[blujayonthewing]

#I've played with irl atheists and catholics and everything in between #but it rarely feels like faith is a real factor for anyone-- DM or player #outside of‚ again‚ divine spellcasters and Big Epic Plot Things #I mean there are a couple of 'RAAAHGH FUCK THE GODS >:C' edgy backstory types but #no one is just Normally Culturally Religious and it's WEIRD #like it's not even a matter of faith in dnd! the gods are LITERALLY OBJECTIVELY PROVABLY REAL #so what does that MEAN for the average person! how does it shape language? business? culture? #where are the people wearing holy symbols like amulets-- or the way modern christians very casually wear crosses? #blessings over meals? prayers before bed? burnt offerings? #and like I enjoy thinking about world and culture building but I know that's A Whole Thing but even just like... #it doesn't feel like anyone believes in gods at all except clerics and paladins #like they DO because they factually exist but in the same way I 'believe in' like. the president of france. #like yeah he exists and is important to some people but has no bearing on my life whatsoever #that's such a fucking weird approach to the DIVINE in a polytheist world where those gods are YOUR CULTURE'S GODS?? #I am bad at this myself but I'm not religious so it's harder for me to remember what Being Religious All The Time Casually is like lol #funny enough my character with the most intentionally religious background in this sense #is one of my ones who's ended up wrapped up in Big Plot God Things lmao #'aubree starts the campaign with a holy symbol of yondalla because of course she does why wouldn't she' #'oh okay well she's gonna get deeply and personally entangled with a bunch of death gods immediately' fdkjghkdf oh!! welp #you don't really pray to urogalan unless you're breaking ground for a new building or someone just died so it's STILL weird for her lol #but at least I had the framework there of 'oh yeah the gods exist and matter to me and my everyday life and culture' in general #about me #posts from twitter

[gxlden-angels]

Bro I hate fundamentalists and culturally-fundie parents they'll say shit like "spare the rod spoil the child am I right haha yea my parents used to have to beat my ass with a switch almost everyday but I sure did learn my lesson" but like??? no you didn't??? you were hit multiple times for something you very obviously did not, in fact, learn

Like studies about how harmful even lightly spanking children is aside, you're literally contradicting yourself?? Some even admitted they got worse as they got older cause they wanted to see how far they could push their parents before they got punished

And studies not aside, you're gonna get child raising advice from the same book that tells you to stone your wife if her hymen doesn't break on your wedding night instead of the decades of research we have now?? Just say you're a bad parent and move on my guy. Skill issue

#bro I had a coworker go 'unpopular opinion I think some kids really do need beatings' and I'm like???? #unprompted???? what's going on there???? #well anyways I ended up going 'yea so I plan on specializing in play therapy with autistic children so I've been learning about talking #to children and the ways their parents and environment affects them' #and they're like hmmm but beating this kid with a stick after they broke something or I upset them to the point of yelling is good actually #had a boss say it taught him and his kids respect cause they were hard-headed #and I'm like?? that's fear not respect! they fear punishment! they do not act out of respect for you! #he's a conservative christian black man tho so he's like 'But Authority!' like bro I don't even respect you what are you on about #'You don't respect police and their authority?' Nope! I fear them! I do not respect cops and every cop/cop-adjacent person I personally know #has reinforced that for me #'We'll agree to disagree' Cool! Doesn't mean you're not wrong! I could believe trees aren't real but that is in fact incorrect #then he pulled out the bible verse and I was like ah okay I forgot you like 'here's how to treat slaves' book you're so right bestie #I'm totally wrong now and so sorry for doubting you and your 2000+ year old book I don't believe in <3 #They'd go 'well I turned out fine!' then say something that directly contradicts that #anyways I need christians to get their grubby little hands off the current state of Child Protection and Rights in the U.S. #So we can actually start working on helping kids without the force of christian hands suffocating them #cause homeschooling and child raising by evangelicals are so fucked up bro I'm tired of this shit #I'd only stay in my current state to help children get out of that cycle since I'm in the bible belt #ex christian #religious trauma #child abuse tw

[sisterdivinium]

You know, for a show with so many female characters that so many of us love given how they all get time in the spotlight one way or another and they fill that time up rather wonderfully since they are deeper and more developed than what we're used to seeing in general media, it is peculiar (to say the least) to see so few "alternative" ships to the main one.

I'm not saying the canon ship doesn't deserve its attention -- I'm wondering instead why the canon ship and it alone seem to guide the WN fans who just so happen to enjoy writing/reading fic or fanart or whatever.

You'd think all these cool women would inspire more ships or combinations thereof, but those of us who aren't invested in avatrice just... Float along, around one another, ignored (and, yes, mostly undisturbed too; being unpopular does have its advantages and that includes a lot less weirdos leaving you strange or awkward messages -- it does not, however, shield us from people flooding our goddamn tags on AO3 with fic that has nothing to do with our little ships and I do wish such negligence of the pairing itself meant we didn't have to deal with this spam...)

I am also not saying that fandom activity should be based solely on shipping (and recently someone on Reddit was rather confused by the fact that a lot of it is, which is quite an interesting topic to discuss in itself -- after all, there is more to fan creativity than shippy fic... Or there used to be), merely that, here, it appears that a canon relationship can outshine interest in the other, non-canon ones. It's already there and it was doubtless well-done by the show, so it's natural that it should claim people's attention, sure. It's just that being canon was never the parameter for whether people were interested in these or those two (or more) characters maybe being involved and trying to explore what that could mean through fanwork.

There has always been a complaint haunting fandom spaces concerning the minuscule amounts of f/f fic, art, discussion, w/e based on how few (interesting or sympathetic or relatable) female characters there are in media at large. So what I'm curious about is why fan creations made around WN -- a show that finally gives us a whole cast of female characters that are what we have been craving for decades -- don't also reflect its diversity.

There are alternative ships (I'm here, all happy in my tiny Doctor Superion bubble, and I know there are Camila/Lilith, Ava/Lilith, Mary/Shannon, Mary/Lilith shippers out there, so a warm hello to you if you're reading this), but go on AO3 and compare the numbers of things tagged with these proper pairings to the grand total of WN stories. Better (or worse) still, do so with the "otp: true" trick or simply by excluding avatrice from the search to see how many are left.

It's... A considerable difference. And a mystery, at least to me.

#tagging this as #warrior nun #simply because i'd like to talk about this and maybe some of you have thoughts or theories about it #i just ask you engage in good faith if you do. i'm not pointing fingers at avatrice people i think they're fine and dandy #i'm just -- to reiterate -- surprised at how little interest there is in other ships when the potential is all there #(is it because they're nuns? that never stopped avatrice so why should it stop others...) #(besides lilith is hardly still a nun after s2. bea left. mary didn't really take vows did she? you really thought i was a nun she says...) #meta fandom talk i guess #then again about the nun thing... i have noticed a lot of people just go for aus. i can't recall ever being in a fandom with SO many aus #is the religious aspect an issue by any chance? i also recall someone commenting on how little a part religion played in these aus #curious. very curious. #i imagine some of you are wondering why i care when i don't even read fic but -- #-- to quote jillian salvius herself i am a curious person and well you are a curiosity lol

[carry-on-my-wayward-gays]

Sausage sitting in a pew in his cathedral, hands clasped together tightly with a sunflower rosary between his palms.

He's not praying, not actively, but sitting in his church gives him comfort. There's actually no thoughts swimming around his mind for once. His head is an empty echo chamber with no sound to echo.

His eyes are wide and his whole body is shaking. He's crying as well, a steady stream of hot tears run down his cheeks and drip from his beard.

There's no way he just met Santa Pearla. His Saint Pearl. And she's a janitor?

The lady in a silky soft green dress - blooming with fresh sunflowers and vines - looked so much like her. Saint Pearl. But this lady from a foreign world insisted she was not a god. She said she handled trash all day, cleaned floors with a mop and a dirty pair of overalls.

Sausage sobbed, bowing his head behind his clasped hands.

Her name was Pearl though. Just not his Pearl. She looked so much like Santa Pearla, she sounds like her too. The resemblance was uncanny, terrifyingly so.

When she stood at the head of the church, in the sunlight, she looked beautiful. She was breathtaking with her crown of sunflowers catching the light and illuminating the petals like a halo, and the way her hair fell around her face and practically shimmered in the light.

Sausage had fallen to his knees and wept over her beauty - or maybe it was because he had convinced himself she was his god. That he was seeing his god in his church, speaking to her.

What a foolish thing to believe.

Sausage's hands fell. He curled in on himself in the pew. His rosary fell to the ground, around his feet.

Were his beliefs founded upon a false god? Had he somehow convinced himself such a woman was worth worshipping? Was everything a lie? Had he been praying to, believing in, raving about a lie? Was his church built for a lie?

He was going to puke if he didn't stop thinking. He needed a distraction he needed to talk to someone he-

He needed his religion. He needed his Saint. He couldn't lose his faith. What - or who - would he have left then?

Sausage leaned down and picked up his rosary, still shaking, and held it between his palms once again.

And he prayed.

#i don't think a lot of ppl are thinking ab the test sausage's faith is taking w this crossover #like satan below it's such good material #also let it be known i'm and atheistic satanist #never believed in any religion ever #so if this feels weird that's why #sorry religious ppl #mythicalsausage #pearlescentmoon #empires x hermitcraft #religion #empires smp #mythical sausage #saint pearl #and sorry if I spelled her name wrong #shadow's scribing again

[agentark]

whatever you do, don't imagine a young J Corvin waiting every day at the end of their drive, hoping today is the day the mail carrier finally brings a letter from their very best friend

#i'm personally about to start sobbing #how many letters do they try sending #how long does that sweet gentle soul wait - I actually don't want to know #little too close to home frankly lmao #grandpa i don't CARE that something evil lives in fernweh and wants to eat me or control me or whatever - that's my bestie!! #I just did James's route and this part hurt so much worse #fernweh saga #like J is SO scared to ask MC if they can write this time & they're trying to be SO supportive-- #--of the fact that the last time they tried MC was going through an incredibly difficult time in their life #but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt so badly #and like it's obviously not MC's fault bc they never even got the letters in the first place #but now I want to cry thinking about how my MC hugs James at the police station when they meet again and how he's probably like ??? #my MC missed him and James is like 'weird reaction for someone who couldn't be bothered to write back' #'and shattered my little fifteen year old heart into pieces' #i'm making wild assumptions about the inner workings of J's mind here but anyway #j corvin #all i'm saying is if my best friend was ripped out of my life and I tried writing them I would be religiously checking the mailbox #probably far longer than I should but still trying to hold out hope

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Something something about Buck and learning and or teaching.

Something something about Buck teaching when he really needed to be learning.

I just keep thinking about how the show has increasingly - especially last season - put Buck into the role of 'teacher' - including his coma dream. (i'm using teacher for the lack of a better term!) and how in the aftermath of the coma dream - he's been trying to teach but it hasn't worked - instead he's been learning.

I've been musing on the fact that even back in season 1 Buck has been in a teacher role -

Abby learning to chose herself and go for her happiness,

Bobby learning to let people in and Buck being a major part of that because of their developing father-son type relationship

'teaching' Eddie that he could rely on other people for help

Maddie learning at Bucks hand that she didn't need to keep running, that she could lean on him for support and build a new life for herself

Ravi being tutored by Buck in the fire house

even Lucy being given advice by Buck - teaching her through his own experiences in dumb luck

Buck making himself into a teacher in his coma dream and the idea that all these people he has helped teach teaching him that he has a place with them and that he is important

and so many more examples through the seasons that I won't list or I'd be here forever!

Because there has been a lot of emphasis on teaching and learning since Buck woke up from his coma - he learnt he was good at maths, but then wasn't allowed to help Chris with his maths homework because it would be cheating.

used his maths skills to win at Poker - but got taught lessons even in victory - rather than teaching others lessons (whatever they might have been)

Natalia being interested in him because he could teach her about death and things going south pretty quickly when it became evident that Buck needed to learn how to live again rather than be stuck in death

And now we've had several mentions by Tommy of him teaching Buck things - teaching him to fly, teaching him Mauy Thai, all the way to him being his bi awakening is teaching him about a part of himself he didn't know. Things are turned on their head - Buck is the student not the master now

Even with Eddie this season, we've seen him teaching Buck things - rather than Eddie learning from him - Eddie handing over this really important thing going on with Chris - Eddie knowing that Buck would be a better option - that Chris would open up to him more - is teaching Buck about his importance in the Diaz family - re-enforcing that he is part of their life. Its also Eddie who has had the good advice for Buck this time rather than the other way round.

Something something about 'you like to be the guy with the answers' to Buck becoming the guy with the (maths) answers - only for it to fade away and now he's having to learn

Something something about the tie to Buck and death and the resurrection and how Christ was the teacher up to and immediately after his death and resurrection when he left others on earth to spread his teachings and he ascended to learn at the right hand of god

Something something about how that is the key to happiness and that is what Buck has figured out and that is why his journey to figuring that out has had him wearing the bright blue - because in Christianity - that shade of blue is the colour of the kingdom of heaven (because it is the colour of the sky!) so putting Buck in it at all these key markers of his journey is showing him as being on the road to ascension.

This post is a mess - I don't even know what it is any more! I started with one idea about teaching and Tommy and then more kept coming and we ended up here!!!!

#I know technically that they all teach and learn from each other and that others were also involved in these scenes #but I'm just interested in the fact that the tables have now been turned on Buck specifically and he is now the student #I think thats interesting as a character study - Buck who learnt to survive on his own and teach himself now getting to go back to learning #look here I am - atheist me blabbering on about religious symbolism around Buck once again!!! #Im fascinated in it though - especially in relation to Eddies catholic guilt and the way that the show is using much more #scientific symbolism around him - hearts and guts and the mind - all working organs (or groups of organs) #that have these metaphorical and intuitive attributes attached to them #but all have important real world functions that a human need to survive #and the fact that we've got Buck to this point of 'ascension' and Eddie effectively working on the last of the three - the gut #well I think that is pretty telling - once Eddie has his gut under control/ worked out (catholic guilt) then he will be in a position to #'ascend' as well. #and don't even get me started on the triangle symbolisim within all of this - the holy trinity and the trifecta of heart mind and gut #because they are playing into the triangles this season - literally every where!!! #I feel like at this point if they put Buck in purple (esp if hes wearing it when buddie go canon) - the holiest of colours and #one associated with magic -then I will be the one ascending - because that would be the ultimate #this show is insane!! #it makes me insane - I'm insane!! #evan buckley #eddie diaz #911 abc #911 meta

[theoryofwhatnow]

crafting the game

(this has been in my drafts for ages)

#i've been thinking about the boys game a lot. #the event at the end of the movie that most of us first recognized as the cycle #(or at least most of whom i've interacted with after first finishing the film) #I'm gonna be honest this all started because i was making an edit #but that's neither here nor there. #Essentially i was confused about *the game* #and was wondering whether nigel won or lost before i realized i was looking at it all wrong #duh #Nigel was talking about the creation of the game that he would contribute to #not how it's played #which only became glaringly obvious to me after i'd sat there with my thoughts for almost a half hour #(give me a break i'm not stupid i've just had a rough few weeks) #Everybody played their part perfectly the schools order begins to fall apart #(alex headmaster's son leaves. nigel grandmaster's son dead alongside his parents. etc.) #the valiant hero forsakes the religious organization (McKenzie) #and everyone else takes their place unknowingly simply through existing. #Alex finds another boy and so it begins. #Finally out of death grief suffering and ruined sanity; the game starts but we don't ever see it. #start with a Jack and then fabricate the game #like minds #nigel colbie #alex forbes #murderous intent

[iscariotapologist]

yesterday my therapist suggested i become a nun or otherwise live in a religious community (again) after i was bitching about capitalism and i mentioned this to my friend (who sees the same therapist) and she was like "what really! i would never have put you and nun in the same sentence" darling if you only knew

#like multiple people have told me this even #it's so funny #unless i go out of my way to talk about it people in real life never think i'm religiously inclined given the rest of my life #but i think about the order of julian of norwich like once a week #i don't mind! it's very much preferable to how it's been the rest of my life where i've been the freak heretic lmao #anyway if you're reading this pray for me because my friend gave me half a burrito last night and now there is some kind of bacteria war #happening in my guts and i am supposed to go to thanksgiving dinner at my therapists house (yes this is weird but also not the first time #he's done this it's not just me) and well this situation needs to improve before i can go anywhere lmao #me

[deservedgrace]

So much of what bothers me about the "idk what kind of Christians YOU were around but I've never seen anything like that in MY church" is that it has this implied "it's your fault for surrounding yourself by bad Christians" when so many of us are victims of child indoctrination and had literally no choice in who we were to be in community with. It's also fucking wild to blame a child for trusting the people they were told they had to trust in order to avoid eternal torment, especially when even other versions of xtianity were demonized and could send you to hell. Victim blaming is shitty regardless but it's an especially low blow when it's a child who literally could not have known any better.

#not even mentioning that they probably DO have people like that in their church #or they ARE that person #and are just ignorant or don't think it's that bad #cannot tell you how many times my mom has been like “that wasn't what we were taught” when we literally went to the same church #i didn't pull these beliefs out of my ass! #I'm mad about things in my personal life that i can't do anything about so I'm yelling about the church what's new #ex christian #religious trauma #ex cult #child indoctrination

[butwhypants]

I have a question and I’m not trying to be annoying. I just want to understand because I feel like I have been misunderstanding how Zionism should work.

Obviously, Zionism is the belief that a Jewish state should exist in Israel. The thing I’ve been misunderstanding is how this can be achieved while protecting the Muslim arabs.

What I mean is, there are a lot of Arabs in West Bank and Gaza, and if Israel gave full citizenship to these people, they would outnumber Israeli jews, and this it would no longer be a Jewish state.

How, realistically, would the Jewish state, protect the rights of the Arabs while remaining fundamentally Jewish?

The main solution I have seen is a two-state solution, but I feel like that would force Jews to leave their homes in the West Bank.

I understand if you aren’t comfortable answering this - I’d just like to try to understand both sides. It’s hard to get unbiased info from the news.

Thanks for the polite question.

The problem with the question I think here is twofold, first Zionism is a very specific word. Zion is the name for the hill that Jerusalem is built on, and was used by the Israeli people when we were taken as slaves to Babylon in the 5th century BC. Zionism isn't inherently about a Jewish state existing, but about the right of the Israelite people to return to Zion, now known as Jerusalem.

The second problem, and I don't mean this with any disrespect, is that you've fallen for the Great Replacement theory as espoused by Ben Shapiro and Elon Musk. It's a very common and very insidious idea, which is based on the idea that if "foreign" cultures were allowed to come in to a society that they would outnumber and overthrow the people currently there. That's not true, and in fact a majority of the Palestinian people ARE Israeli citizens, with full legal and voting rights. Israel is not a theocracy (significantly more religious diversity then the US has for example), and maintaining a religious majority should not and can not be our goal. Allowing the Jewish people self determination in our homeland does not have to correlate with oppression or discrimination against the Palestinian people who also live there.

This current war betrays the fact that there is a long history of cooperation and conflict between all these groups - Eretz Israel is the most contentiously fought over piece of land in the history of the world, and this current war isn't even in the top one hundred most deadly. On the other hand though, cooperation has happened before and it will happen again. Muslims and Jews are not automatically enemies - we've both been willing to make sacrifices on hardline religious interpretations for the sake of peace before, and I hope we can do so again.

Fundamentally, the Jewish people have a long history of living in Israel and we have the right to live there safe and free. However, the Palestinian people ALSO have a long history of living in Israel and have the right to live there safe and free. There is no solution here that will create a mono-state of any culture or religion, and especially not when it is the most important place to 4 billion disparate people.

#I'm not a politician and I won't pretend I can solve a millennia old conflict #but I truly feel that Gaza needs a central leadership that can be interacted with and can take responsibility for its own actions #like Israel and Jordan have #we have all been living here for millennia and we will all be living here for millennia more #I don't think a two-state solution will work because of the depths of the religious conflict #Hamas will always hate Israel. Houthi will always hate Jews. The Likud will always oppose Palestinian sovereignty. #An end to this conflict will come from internal political changes on both sides #but my understanding of the history of the region does not give me an answer for the future I'm sorry #Jumblr #I ramble

[liesmyth]

that one post I rb'd earlier about France and laicité and Macron celebrating Chanukah is still making me made just thinking about it. That came in the same week as Masha Gessen being almost stripped of the Hannah Arendt prize because they wrote an essay about Gaza (incidentally, Gessen is Jewish). I'm just really, massively tired of the current climate in Western Europe where political and civil authorities pay lip service to diversity and pluralism but actually actively suppress diverse voices. Case in point, lots of framing Judaism = Israel while actively making life harder for their Jewish communities.

I'm not eloquent enough to word this properly, but it's infuriating to witness. It's not a new attitude by any means, but it's rooted in racism and xenophobia and I hate that it's getting so much fresh mileage lately. I wish more people (& local press) called it out for what it is.

#As an Italian: I can't even begin to explain how shitty our current right-wing government is #They love to push on the `cultural wars` and `great replacement` angle #they rely on catholicism for electoral purposes + give no shits about the rampant antisemitism + the blatant fascism within their ranks #& are openly racist and Islamophobic #But they looove Netanyahu — as a fellow right-winger #& as a fellow racist fearmonger about scary Arabs #and they're the kind of conservative western christians #who love the idea of a Jewish state just so they can send all Jews there and keep Italy catholic #also thinking about Biden who just last week said #`Without Israel there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who is safe` like he isn't the leader of a country with a significant Jewish populatio #whose saftey should maye be HIS concern? also like. Dual loyalty? In 2023? More likely than you think #I don't really have A point here I'm just blathering but that post made my fucking blood boil #it just shows how much western european gvts like to weaponise 'religious freedom' #picking and choosing what is the unremarkable default #and they're nearly always fucking racist about it #sorry if im not making sense lmao. i'm tired #current events #european blogging

[the-busy-ghost]

Alright uninformed rant time. It kind of bugs me that, when studying the Middle Ages, specifically in western Europe, it doesn’t seem to be a pre-requisite that you have to take some kind of “Basics of Mediaeval Catholic Doctrine in Everyday Practise” class. 

Obviously you can’t cover everything- we don’t necessarily need to understand the ins and outs of obscure theological arguments (just as your average mediaeval churchgoer probably didn’t need to), or the inner workings of the Great Schism(s), nor how apparently simple theological disputes could be influenced by political and social factors, and of course the Official Line From The Vatican has changed over the centuries (which is why I’ve seen even modern Catholics getting mixed up about something that happened eight centuries ago). And naturally there are going to be misconceptions no matter how much you try to clarify things for people, and regional/class/temporal variations on how people’s actual everyday beliefs were influenced by the church’s rules. 

But it would help if historians studying the Middle Ages, especially western Christendom, were all given a broadly similar training in a) what the official doctrine was at various points on certain important issues and b) how this might translate to what the average layman believed. Because it feels like you’re supposed to pick that up as you go along and even where there are books on the subject they’re not always entirely reliable either (for example, people citing books about how things worked specifically in England to apply to the whole of Europe) and you can’t ask a book a question if you’re confused about any particular point. 

I mean I don’t expect to be spoonfed but somehow I don’t think that I’m supposed to accumulate a half-assed religious education from, say, a 15th century nobleman who was probably more interested in translating chivalric romances and rebelling against the Crown than religion; an angry 16th century Protestant; a 12th century nun from some forgotten valley in the Alps; some footnotes spread out over half a dozen modern political histories of Scotland; and an episode of ‘In Our Time’ from 2009. 

But equally if you’re not a specialist in church history or theology, I’m not sure that it’s necessary to probe the murky depths of every minor theological point ever, and once you’ve started where does it end? 

Anyway this entirely uninformed rant brought to you by my encounter with a sixteenth century bishop who was supposedly writing a completely orthodox book to re-evangelise his flock and tempt them away from Protestantism, but who described the baptismal rite in a way that sounds decidedly sketchy, if not heretical. And rather than being able to engage with the text properly and get what I needed from it, I was instead left sitting there like:

And frankly I didn’t have the time to go down the rabbit hole that would inevitably open up if I tried to find out

#This is a problem which is magnified in Britain I think as we also have to deal with the Hangover from Protestantism #As seen even in some folk who were raised Catholic but still imbibed certain ideas about the Middle Ages from culturally Protestant schools #And it isn't helped when we're hit with all these popular history tv documentaries #If I have to see one more person whose speciality is writing sensational paperbacks about Henry VIII's court #Being asked to explain for the British public What The Pope Thought I shall scream #Which is not even getting into some of England's super special common law get out clauses #Though having recently listened to some stuff in French I'm beginning to think misconceptions are not limited to Great Britain #Anyway I did take some realy interesting classes at uni on things like marriage and religious orders and so on #But it was definitely patchy and I definitely do not have a good handle on how it all basically hung together #As evidenced by the fact that I've probably made a tonne of mistakes in this post #Books aren't entirely helpful though because you can't ask them questions and sometimes the author is just plain wrong #I mean I will take book recommendations but they are not entirely helpful; and we also haven't all read the same stuff #So one person's idea of what the basics of being baptised involved are going to radically differ from another's based on what they read #Which if you are primarily a political historian interested in the Hundred Years' War doesn't seem important eonugh to quibble over #But it would help if everyone was given some kind of similar introductory training and then they could probe further if needed/wanted #So that one historian's elementary mistake about baptism doesn't affect generations of specialists in the Hundred Years' War #Because they have enough basic knowledge to know that they can just discount that tiny irrelevant bit #This is why seminars are important folks you get to ASK QUESTIONS AND FIGURE OUT BITS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND #And as I say there is a bit of a habit in this country of producing books about say religion in mediaeval England #And then you're expected to work out for yourself which bits you can extrapolate and assume were true outwith England #Or France or Scotland or wherever it may be though the English and the French are particularly bad for assuming #that whatever was true for them was obviously true for everyone else so why should they specify that they're only talking about France #Alright rant over #Beginning to come to the conclusion that nobody knows how Christianity works but would like certain historians to stop pretending they do #Edit: I sort of made up the examples of the historical people who gave me my religious education above #But I'm now enamoured with the idea of who actually did give me my weird ideas about mediaeval Catholicism #Who were my historical godparents so to speak #Do I have an idea of mediaeval religion that was jointly shaped by some professor from the 1970s and a 6th century saint? #Does Cardinal Campeggio know he's responsible for some much later human being's catechism? #Fake examples again but I'm going to be thinking about that today

[gxlden-angels]

On today's episode of Holy Shit My Childhood Was Not Normal:

Kurtis Conner being thrown off by the girls'/boys' bibles with the random "Dream Girl" and "Grossology" passages and shit like that in them

#I didn't have that exact one but I had a girls' bible with the lil dream girl passages in them #mine was purple and green #There was a specific one I read over and over because it was about thinking about your best friend #and I thought about my best friend that way #except it wasn't actually in a friend way I flat out just had a crush on them lol #I later went on to id as a lesbian and that specific story made helped me realize it #so maybe that bible was good for something #I'm now a lil bi boy who might be ace but still #Im 21 now actually Im a Man in the U.S. /j #it's just #always so funny watching people remind me that I grew up Not Normally #like I genuinely got so into reading those lil bible dream girl passages #but I also preferred the gross out shit of the boys' one #cause I was one of those cartoon network poop fart joke funny tweenagers #I loved gaming stunts and all things gross or whatever #I wasn't allowed to actually do that because I was a lil lady so I enjoy it now #I tell people I'm going to shit their pants if they don't leave me alone and think I'm the funniest human alive #anyways go watch kurtis's new video about gendered products it's good #ex christian #religious trauma

[wakanai]

I can't be the only one on tumblr uncomfortable with the whole fyosus thing..

#and it's not even because I'm christian it's just #religious appropriation? insensitive? #like you have all these people believing in XX #and a fandom goes and treats it like their own fictional plaything to be used for whatever purposes.. #Like #idk it just irks me #if this was any other religion like let's say Islam or Judaism I don't think people would be as lenient as they are rn... #random #controversial topic #thoughts