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They told me to care about something bigger than myself. So I decided to care about. Whales.

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Wow. I'm so sorry. Something for r/pointlessly gendered.

normalise making bible study accessible to everyone and not based on gender

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Time to read The Song of Songs again... ^^

On Christianity, Sexuality, and the Ethics of Care

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how Christianity approaches sexuality — and how I, as someone trying to live in alignment with the love-centered teachings of Christ, fit into that narrative. I’ve been taught within Christian circles, both implicitly and explicitly, that sexual feelings must be restrained or hidden, that expressing them is shameful or sinful, and that any deviation from a strict framework of marriage-centered purity is a failure of faith. But as I continue to study scripture, ask questions, and live in community with others, I’m starting to question whether those ideas are truly what Christ calls us to uphold — or if they’re more about human control and fear than divine wisdom.

Let me be clear: I don’t hate the idea of sexual ethics. I don’t think we should approach intimacy without care, reflection, or responsibility. In fact, that’s why I do believe in boundaries — like the idea that bringing children into the world should be done with stability, intention, and mutual commitment. But that belief for me more comes less from religion and more from a sense of justice. From a desire to protect the vulnerable, to support healthy growth, and to make sure that no one is left behind due to decisions made without full understanding. It’s less about sin, more about stewardship.

What I do reject, however, is the shame that surrounds so many conversations about sex and desire within Christian spaces. Purity culture doesn’t just ask people to wait; it asks them to fear themselves. It teaches that your body, your urges, your identity — even your thoughts — can make you dirty. That feeling attraction or wanting connection is somehow a threat to your spiritual integrity. That’s not love. That’s not Christ.

In the gospels, Jesus doesn’t condemn people for their desires. He calls out exploitation. He calls out harm. He defends the dignity of people who have been publicly shamed. He sees the whole person — not just what they’ve done, or what society says they’ve done wrong. Jesus teaches responsibility, not repression. Integrity, not purity.

So where does that leave me? I don’t believe that being intimate with someone you care for is inherently sinful. I believe that hurting others, using them, violating their consent, or disregarding their emotional well-being — that’s where harm enters in. That’s what we’re called to avoid. I believe that sexuality, like any form of human expression, can be sacred when it’s grounded in love, respect, and mutual care. And I believe that shame only distances us from God — not because God is ashamed of us, but because shame makes it harder for us to be honest, present, and whole.

I’m still unpacking the messages that told me my desires make me less holy. But I know this much: I do not believe in a God who shames us for being human. I believe in a God who meets us in our full humanity, and walks with us as we figure it out.

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Where is bible study based on gender?????

normalise making bible study accessible to everyone and not based on gender

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On Reconciling Alternative Culture with Christian Faith

There’s a narrative I’ve seen repeated across Christian spaces — spoken outright or subtly implied — that alternative culture is inherently sinful. That punk music, tattoos, piercings, dyed hair, heavy metal, and protest-driven art somehow disqualify someone from being “Christlike” or “good.” That to be devoted to God, you must look a certain way. It’s a view that assumes reverence can only come from traditional expressions.

But my boyfriend challenges that idea every day. (Side note: I want to make clear that he’s not Christian or even really religious or spiritual in any way. I might make a diff post about that and inter-religious love because I find that fascinating too).

He’s deeply immersed in alternative culture. He’s a bassist in an alt band, has a closet full of band tees, and attends shows where the music is loud, the emotions are raw, and the crowd is nothing short of electric. And through his world, I’ve met people who are not only creative and expressive but profoundly kind, inclusive, thoughtful, and community-oriented. I’ve also come to see that the rejection of “the norm” in alternative spaces often stems from a longing for authenticity — something Jesus himself modeled again and again.

Alternative culture doesn’t reject morality or compassion — it rejects performative conformity. It’s a refusal to uphold systems that shame people for being different. And isn’t that exactly what Jesus did?

Jesus walked alongside the marginalized. He healed the demonized. He touched the untouchables. He flipped tables in the temple. He defied cultural expectations. And he never once asked someone to look a certain way before being worthy of love.

To say that alt culture is inherently un-Christlike because of its aesthetic or intensity is to confuse Christ’s message with cultural conservatism. Holiness is not found in buttoned shirts and acoustic guitars — it’s found in justice, love, and mercy. It’s found in expressing the sacred through art, through anger at injustice, through communities that embrace the ones the rest of the world cast aside.

Punk is about resistance. So was Jesus.

Metal is about expressing pain and channeling it into art. So was Jesus.

Alt fashion is about claiming your identity boldly. So was Jesus.

What matters is not whether someone listens to hardcore or hymns. What matters is how they treat others, how they show up for their people, how they care for the world around them.

I’ve learned from my boyfriend that rebellion can be holy, that self-expression can be sacred, and that sometimes, the loudest voice in the room is crying out for truth in a way a quiet one never could.

Let’s not gatekeep. Jesus based on subculture. The Kingdom of God is not limited to the pews.

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So, my take on this is a bit of a Kirk-Spock-Situation.

See, Lomelli says he has "a reputation" for being cold. Not that he actually is cold. Which implies to me that Lomelli knows Bellini to have emotions, maybe even quite strong ones. Also the "Lomelli had never seen him show emotion". -> Lomelli knows him well enough that he can tell something is clearly wrong if Bellini starts to express these emotions in a more typical way, is what I read from it. So like Spock, where Kirk knows better than anyone that Spock has emotions and that they can run quite deeply, but everytime he shows them in a more typical way, Kirk and Bones are shocked because something is clearly wrong, this is not how Spock operates.

Same could go for the kissing situation. Bellini often grabs him by the arm as they walk somewhere and this is never questioned. But if Bellini has a reputation for coldness, he may not be the most touchy person, either. It also makes sense in a queer reading to me, as a way to show that Bellini may have feelings for Lomelli that he can't express, so he draws boundaries earlier than other people around physical touch. But in this emotionally charged evening, it breaks out and he seeks the closeness that he actually desires.

This would explain why he immediately turns around and doesn't look back. Because he cannot fully face what he may still feel ashamed about.

Also, the fact that Bellini is completel, unfazed about Lomelli knocking at his door at 3am. That alone implies a lot.

Ultimately, I feel Bellini and Lomelli as incredibly close in the book because it is entirely in Lomelli's POV. So we only know sooo much about Bellini because Lomelli knows so much about him.

Anyway, thought-inducing post, anyway! Have a day~

i Love lawrellini/lomellini but i don't they were super close friends before the conclave. or at least it's a quiet friendship that relies on proximity and rarely expresses itself.

here's the thing. if lawrellini are always that affectionate, why is lawrence/lomeli surprised? there are other hints of less-than-bff:

"Suddenly Bellini’s eyes filled with tears. He had a reputation for coldness— the aloof and bloodless intellectual. Lomeli had never seen him show emotion. It shocked him."

okay clearly there are emotional boundaries that have never been crossed. but this makes the Kiss so interesting. why this gesture out of the blue? later bellini says:

"In the first ballot I voted for Vandroogenbroek—the greatest theologian of the age, in my opinion—even though of course he never stood a chance. In the last four ballots, Jacopo, I have voted for you.”

when did he decide this? well. it's night 1 of conclave and after weeks of his name being tossed around, things look uncertain. he says: "If that is the case—and I pray that it is—I can only hope that it passes to you." he says: "Who knows where we’ll be this time tomorrow?"

i can only conclude that he's thinking about his intention to vote for lawrence, and it's a joyful thought, to be absolutely sure about someone, when you've become so cynical about the church as a whole. but he doesn't tell lawrence this. he gives him a kiss on both cheeks as a gesture of faith.

and lawrence, wrapped up in his own unworthiness, has no clue.

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Dear Americans,

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEARN THAT "PROTESTANTS" ARE NOT A MONOLITH AND THAT THIS WORDS MEAN VERY DIFFERENT THINGS IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE WORLD.

Evangelicals count as "Protestant", but so do Lutherans and Reformed Protestants. Episcopalian is put wherever people feel like and Anglicans... were founded so that a King could get a divorce. (There are still thousands of other denominations that are sometimes called "Protestants" because some people call everything Protestant that's not Catholic)

Here in Germany for example, Lutherans and Reformed Protestants are the ones who you see at pride parades and protests, they care about the environment and women have quite prominent positions. (Though sometimes, they use this majority to sweep under the rock that even they have pretty conservative areas and people). There is a reason Pope Francis, when asked what to do about the Roman-Catholics in Germany who keep protesting for (and already doing in some places) same-sex- and re-marriage-blessings, woman in the clergy and synodal structures, he answered "They just want to become Protestants".

In general, over-generalising religious groups is not a good idea. That's all

I am wondering what do you guys think when they say that the cardinals are acting too protestant in fanfics. From my experience, the protestants are usually even more conservative than catholics. They preach loudly that homosexuality is a sin and all that crap about "protect the children". There are several scandals in my country of pastors who cheat on their spouses and then go to their church and claim they were possessed by the devil to make themselves look like victims. (These are just my impressions from someone who is not protestant)

I always thought that fanfics do seem to make the cardinals take their vows like they never really cared about it and don't really focus on the religious aspect of it, but I can't really understand the comparison to protestantism

~

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Oh, you know what's interesting about this? The first Christian congregation were actually just people meeting at someone's house, celebrating the last supper as an actual supper and then, someone would prophesise or someone would recount a tale of Jesus, or read scripture, etc. or just discussing their faith together. And then along came Constantine who made Christianity an official religion of the Roman Empire... and as such, Christian Churches were built and those were, in fact, modeled after Roman Theatres! So, this connection is actually not far-fetched. ^^

Too many hot cool people who love ritual and extravagant aesthetic beauty have been lost to Catholicism. You just need to get into theatre.

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I actually recommended it to a roman-catholic priest friend of mine who did not know yet the end plot twist.. for this exact reason ^^

“My thoughts are questions,” Fiennes quips. “Did he enjoy it? Did he just shrug his shoulders and say halfway through, ‘This is rubbish’? Or did he get something from it? I'd like to know what he thought. I'm sure there are many people in the church and many cardinals who've looked at it and thought it was nothing like reality.”

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Oh, definitely.

i hate how conservative catholics shit on conclave bc it’s NOT an anti-catholic movie, you just can’t handle criticism

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I.... have no words left. Everything I could say seems to little to describe this atrocity caused by the US-healthcare-system.

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Yesterday, my mother called me homeless. It did come from a place of honest concern about my spiritual well-being. Almost a year and a half ago, I decided to take a break from my denomination, the New-Apostolic Church. It was not an easy decision for this Church had been my life for the majority of my conscious existence. I sang in every choir. I read the Bible vividly. I went to service every Wednesday and Sunday with little exception. When it was announced two and a half years ago that women could now be ordained in our denomination, everyone in my family was excited that my wish, my calling as I felt it at that time, could become true. And then, it didn't happen. Granted, I am young and I am not the most financially stable person since I still receive government's student funding. Still, over the span of a year, I felt more and more the question arise in me: If someone would ask me today, would I say yes? Could I say yes to this Church that went through so many dark times? Due to therapy, it came to pass me how much my church had actually hurt me. I was always quick to "forgive" others, swallowed everything down, yet for myself I had only contempt for the slightest of faults. I didn't expect to live past 20 because I was sure that Jesus would return before and that freaked me out. In elementary school, I told everyone that they would fall and stay behind for a terrible time if they didn't turn to Jesus. (You can imagine how many friends I had in that class). In a weird way, I was also ragingly homophobic in that time as well because my church gave you the impression that your life can never be fulfilled outside of a heterosexual marriage. (Which made coming to terms with me being bisexual quite interesting...) And come december 2023, I couldn't do it anymore. I had to leave before I would follow myself down back the path of self-destruction I worked so hard in therapy to overcome. So, I told everyone I would take a break.

I went because I knew that God would be with me. And that is true to this day. In a way, it was because I believed and encountered a God that loves all people regardless of what they are or do that I was able to leave my own extremism. And to a certain extent, I am "homeless" by choice right now. Because I want to find my own faith outside of indoctrination, outside of peer pressure and outside of prejudice. I want to believe for the sake of it and nothing else. Sadly, my intrusive thoughts are not as understanding. And currently, they sway between two opposites: Either I feel the old and known fear of proving by that choice that I am not a good devout Christian because I am not humble enough to succumb my own opinion to "the true faith" (TM) or I fear that everything I ever experienced spiritually and every relationship I still have with Christians is actually just indoctrination and actually, I am just a sell-out who cannot fully commit to leaving because I still believe ~some~ ideas from my church. And that I am actually just someone who profits off of other's hurt and I'm just a spineless centrist who cannot take a stand for anything.

And that is something I cannot really talk about with anyone. So, a long Tumblr post it is.

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Look, Lomeli. Sweetie. My brother in Christ. I'm going to hold your hand while saying this... but "the single Universal Church" hasn't been a thing for at least 500 years, possibly longer (depending on how you define "schism"), no matter what your club tells you Greetings from a protestant-ish sister.

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— Although we Sisters are supposed to be invisible...

Textless ver. below:

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SAVE ME LAWRELLINI/LOMELLINI CASUAL PHYSICAL TOUCH AS A FORM OF ASSURANCE COMFORT AND COMPANIONSHIP SAVE ME