Catholic. Subject of the Pope of Rome. Post-liberal politics.
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Lent is almost here. Was fun spending a little time on this site. But reminds me also of why I was basically gone for years. Hope everyone has a fruitful lent.
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Would you work 40 hours a week in a grocery store for no money?

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The perfection of humility is to bear false accusations with joy. If you are truly merciful, do not grieve inwardly when you are unjustly deprived of something you possess, and do not tell others of your loss. Nay rather, let the loss you suffer from others be swallowed up by your mercy, as the sharp edge of wine is swallowed up by much water.
St. Isaac the Syrian
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My friend, luxuries are nice but the point of life isn't to consume luxuries.
Regardless, if people are simply given not only everything they need to survive but also the things that they merely want, not a few would think "why bother to work at all?" Of course, if a lot of people decide not to work, a lot of the goods and services we all enjoy won't get produced in the first place.
And while some people have had extraordinarily bad luck, quite a few people do choose to be poor. No, they didn't check a box that said "I want to be poor" but they made the choice in incremental steps throughout their life. They goofed off in class, they didn't do their homework, they started taking drugs, they scoffed at the trades and picked some goofy major like pop culture or gender studies, they partied too hard at school and had to drop out, they didn't respect their bosses or do what was asked of them at work, they alienated friends and family would would have been able to help them, they make little to no effort to improve their situation, etc.
Plenty of fast food places are paying $15/hr now. If you're married or have a roommate both working full time at the fast food joint at that wage you'd gross about $60,000/yr between the two of you before taxes. Now $60k isn't what it was fifteen years ago, but you'd be able treat yourself to steak and a new Xbox game every now and then.

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That is true, but do not take that fact to mean that you have license to do anything you wish. Please keep in mind this, from St. Paul in 1 Corithians 6:
The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Note the says earlier in the same letter:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
You are made in the image of God.
Yes, this includes queer people--gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, nonbinary, asexual, aromantic, intersex, and all who fall under the LGBTQ umbrella.
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The poor are absolutely allowed to have luxuries but should generally earn the money to pay for those luxuries themselves as everyone else must. Here I speak of those who are poor yet able bodied, the disabled should be provided with greater accommodation.
I see no justification for the idea that the public should provide not only what is necessary for basic human needs of the poor, but also ought to provide them with luxuries, except perhaps on rare occasions of public celebration (e.g. Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc).

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St. Paul told the Corinithians in 1 Corinthians 5 to excommunicate sexually immoral people (among others):
It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But rather I wrote to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”
Now this does not mean those merely who suffer from same sex attraction but do not act on it. For he draws a distinction between those who were homosexuals or adulterers (among other things again) and those are currently are those things.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
The term "intrinsic disorder" with respect to homosexuality is used by the Cathecism (2357). This is merely a descriptive term, "intrinsic" meaning inherent to the act itself (i.e. the situational context is irrelevant) and "disorder" meaning contrary to the order of nature in which the sexual act is aimed first and primarily at the generation of children. This is not some bugbear of conservatives but the constant teaching of the church.
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
That being said, the Catechism also teaches this:
The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
To call attention to these facts is not necessarily an example of being puffed up. Rather, the preoccupation with homosexuality might merely reflect that the secular world is massively propagandizing people that homosexual acts aren't sins at all, in fact something to celebrate, when in fact homosexual sexual acts are grave matter, and thus potentially mortal sins.
being a queer Christian and ALSO being really into historical Christianity can be really strange, but not for the reason you think. For me, the weirdest thing is that I know for a FACT that many of the saints of the early Church, particularly early monastics, did not waste their time obsessing over people's sexual sins. Like, not even close to the amount of writing conservatives do today. What they were concerned about, however, was when their fellow Christians were judgemental and thought they were superior to their siblings in Christ (the term Saint Benedict uses is "puffed up," which is pretty funny). So, by the standards of the early Church, Christians who spend their time judging and putting down other Christians, instead of working on themselves, are committing the really problematic behavior.
So, because I love historical Christianity, every time I see a conservative rail against the "inherent sin" and "intrinsic disorder" of gay people, all the while holding themselves as the true ideal of a Christian? All I can think is "the Desert Fathers would HATE this."
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Y’all… as of 8:30 this morning I am CATHOLIC!!! I received confirmation and my first communion during the same mass and I am honestly lost for words, it was the most beautiful thing. I’m just bursting with gratitude and wanted to share :]
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And yet how many of those who quote this approvingly would also willingly turn down a raise, or the opportunity to take a job which pays more money? Economic growth is what results when, in the aggregate, a sufficient number of people have succeeded in improving their own economic condition.
Growth isn't merely for the sake of growth, at the individual level growth improves personal economic fortune as we have seen, and at the societal level, greater production aids in allowing the state to provide public goods and to furnish a military which can protect the state and its people from other states.

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Yet things got a lot better for the average worker under American capitalism from, say, 1913-1973.

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The surge of inflation which was most severe in 2021-2023 but is lingering even to this day.
People on the right felt under siege, that their jobs and livelihoods were under threat because of their political opinions or not wanting to have to take the vaccine. People make comments about how you aren't free to express yourselves in repressive dictatorships and need to watch what you say, people on the right in America felt that for the last several years.
People on the right saw the LGBT movement morph from 'what is done in our bedrooms doesn't affect you' to becoming a de facto civic religion, with our government putting pride flags outside public buildings. This started in the 2010s but was especially severe under the Biden Administration.
There was also the knowledge for white people that the government and many private businesses were being intentionally being racist against them.
Religious people saw the government deployed against them, with Catholics being monitored by the DOJ as potential terrorists, and pro-life activists committing crimes so serious that local authorities didn't charge them with anything facing morning SWAT raids from the FBI with guns drawn in front of their family.
So while the left may have woken up without a sense of existential dread, the right experienced that existential dread powerfully for years.

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Ongoing inflation has been a feature of American life for about a century now, as a direct result (in America) of the central bank established by Progressives in 1913. Now a central bank doesn't have to create ongoing inflation, but since 1933 this one has allowed consistent inflation, and today targets 2% inflation but in practice allows that inflation to be higher for extended periods (2021-present).
Likewise we've been in a capitalist society for a very long time, though admittedly in a less religious society it has pressed more firmly into our lives (e.g. Sunday is now just another day for economic activity for many, not a time for rest, relationship and worship).
Climate change is something we're really only aware of through the mass collection of data, weather is so variable that without scientists it isn't something we'd be able to pick up on our own. Perhaps exaggerations (the planet is boiling alive) may cause anxiety though.
What are bigger issues?
The mass embracing of weird sexual stuff. In 1825, for example, the idea that a man could become a woman by wishing it would be absurd. It wasn't in the air or the culture, and very few people would even have the idea presented to them, and without the idea they wouldn't worry about it. Even in 1995 the idea that people could be transgender just really wasn't on the radar for most young people. With transgender people in particular, there is a huge increase in mental health issues. The idea that people should seek pleasure with whoever in temporary relationships is also contrary to human flourishing - many men find themselves incels, and many women find themselves unable to find commitment.
Progressive political views are strongly associated with mental health challenges especially in women, particularly white women. Hard to say exactly why this is, perhaps the general utopianism of leftist thought which tries to make the case that life would be perfect if we had all the right policies, whereas the right philosophically believes that no utopia on Earth is possible and so people on the right are less frustrated by the inability to realize their goals.
The general decline in religious faith, which is detrimental to a person's sense of meaning and purpose. Even if people haven't thought all the way through it, life on a secular perspective is meaningless, and we all in some sense understand it even if some secularists to repeat mantras about meaning so as to ward off this unhappy fact.
This may be the biggest point in terms of impact, smartphones and social media. There is a strong association between mental health challenges for young people and the rise of iPhones and social media. Why exactly? Again I'm not certain, but it allows people to be more isolated from real people and friends, which is likely negative for mental health, and exposes people continually to bad news (lots of news today is based on trying to create engagement through shocking those of a particular political view).

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Science is a tool like a hammer. It can do good things, like give you a smart phone or medical treatment, or it can turn your city into a nuclear inferno or destroy the entire planet’s climate.
But it has not saved a single soul.

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Manufacturing jobs returning, sir.

Look, I’m no Biden fan. He’s as inspiring as a warm glass of milk. But people need to stop acting like he was the devil on wheels and we were struggling to get through.
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To be precise, they have “temporary protected status” from an earthquake that happened 15 years ago.
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If you want to know who is a Nazi, check with the ADL. They are a bit jumpy about that sort of thing.
https://x.com/ADL/status/1881474892022919403?lang=en

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
- George Orwell, 1984.
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