cobalttungsten

[cobalttungsten]

Hey all, wife here! First time really being on here, but I also wanted to kind of throw my two cents this way because I was mentioned! So, to put it plainly yes, I 100% agree with what Mod Led says here, but what I would like to add is that most of this pervasiveness came in around the time of Brigham Young. Yes, Prophets are people, but they have to be sustained by the overall body of the church itself.

I believe that where there was tons of white-washing back in the day, I don't know if I'd call it intentional racism by Joseph Smith Jr., but that doesn't mean it wasn't, just not malicious. Now, Mr. Young was EXTREMELY maliciously racist, making it so Black members couldn't hold the Priesthood (When they could at inception), and that gay folk couldn't be part of the church (When they could be at inception), and then turned the white-washing into VERY racist and homophobic views.

I believe the scriptures, both BOM and Bible (Pronounced BOMB and Bibble in this house), some things are straightforward but not well understood. Like, in a day in age where you don't know the cause of disease or what causes the ground to go fallow, of COURSE you're going to assume it's a curse from God. When you don't know melanin is a thing in your skin that changes both from lineage and sunlight of COURSE you're going to assume God is the one doing it. I believe they literally didn't have the science to understand a great many things, and thusly had to say things in a more metaphorical way.

And when there was no explanation, the easiest person/thing to blame is an Almighty God. Your people have a good harvest? Couldn't be because you settled in an area that's GOOD for farming, God did it. Your enemies starving and their food is rotten? Couldn't be because there was an unfortunate MITE infestation, noooo, it was the Almighty God judging them.

I won't spoil things, but in the end, let's just say the Nephites aren't exactly the "Good Guys" anymore. It goes to show how a lack of perspective and sympathy is looked upon by God. Just saying.

WHAT is This in 2 Néfi 5:21? broooo 💀💀💀💀💀

I've delayed answering this ask for a little bit because I wanted to be thoughtful with it, even though your ask itself honestly says most of my opinion 🤣 It is an insane verse!! Shock and cringe are absolutely the correct response to it!!

Church scholars have discussed this verse and the surrounding sections at LENGTH. Apologists have tried to downplay or deny how obviously racist it is; some people I've talked with will instead distance it from the Church's current viewpoints. When I was in high school, my seminary teachers emphasized that the "cursing because of their iniquity" and the "skin of blackness" were separate occurrences: the Lamanites were cursed by being cut off from God's presence, and then, as a separate thing from a curse, they were marked in a way that would make the Nephites avoid them. God isn't a racist, but Nephite society might have been racist. When i was in college at BYU, my Book of Mormon professors talked about the possibility that Nephi himself held racist views, and/or that Joseph Smith Jr. did, and those opinions affected the way they wrote. Again, the point they held was that God is not racist and that black skin is not a curse--but that God's prophets, being imperfect mortal humans, might have thought so.

My wife, who is proudly American Indian and a staunch member of the Church (and has the most beautiful skin of brownness in the world), has a different opinion of this verse: she interprets the talk of white and black skin to be less about literal skin color and more about health and wellbeing. "Fair and delightsome" can refer to a skin that is bright, well-hydrated, vitalized, and soft. On the other hand, when someone is dirty, malnourished, and unhappy, their skin can get grey and sallow. This interpretation recognizes that people all descended from the same bloodline will probably all have the same general amount of melanin, and God is not going to magically change that based on how good or bad they are. The visual difference between the Nephites and the Lamanites would instead be a natural consequence of their different lifestyles and values.

Unfortunately, the idea that Good Nephites Are White and Bad Lamanites Are Black was so disgustingly pervasive throughout the Church that it saturates almost all the spiritual art we grew up with. Book of Mormon heroes were consistently portrayed as pale Europeans by cartoons, comics, novels, and iconic paintings, not just in their skin tone but in their features and even their clothing. In those same media, Lamanites--the villains and the outsiders--were dark-complexioned Mesoamericans wearing loincloths and feathers. Shock and cringe are the correct response to this!!!

Here at Book of Mormon Memes, we recognize that neither the Nephites nor the Lamanites fit into our modern definitions of White or Black. Lehi's family came from the Middle East, and later populations in the Book of Mormon lived in Central America and integrated with the indigenous people there. Realistically, they should look like people from Palestine and Lebanon and Mexico and Guatemala. They should not look like this pasty travesty that somehow became a cornerstone of our religious culture holy crap

I might actually scream thinking about this colossal embarrassment

[cobalttungsten]

YouTube!!

So, I'm not overly big on the whole "Give me attention" thing, it's always felt very... eugh. Although! I have recently gotten back into the Narration-gig on YouTube. I've somehow managed to get 16 more subs in the last month, which is amazing to me, and hopefully I'll be able to carry on strong with it!

If you like mystery, spooky, or chill stories to vibe to, come check out my channel!

[cobalttungsten]

This is just... It. This gets me more than nearly everything else in my life has. I’m happy I found it.

[cobalttungsten]

Working my hand to the bone trying to attain the level of art I want. I legitimately won't give up until I get there.

[cobalttungsten]

Honestly, fairly proud of this one. Currently the culmination of all my efforts. Also represents my most recent identity crisis. Go figure.

[cobalttungsten]

The picture is self-explanatory, just a mushy night for me. Plus was having a hard time sleeping so I wanted to make something worthwhile.

@thelilliellama

[cobalttungsten]

So, my gf is getting ready to run a horror-style D&D campaign, and I’ve been obsessing over it. This is the character I’m going to be playing, this is just the rough-draft of the pic. 

Character’s name is Melissa Hargrave, she’s a Dhampir, Cleric - War Priest so she’s very fight-y but her healing is top-notch. Trust me... I went through literally creating 3 characters BEFORE I made Melissa, creating a different Prime Material Plane, an evil God (With Religion, Symbols, even Hierarchy), and each of those 3 characters back-stories... AS backstories for Melissa here. I went 200% on this, because I want my gf to have an awesome experience with a player who has a fleshed out character. Plus I’m excited and it’s kind of my shtick.

I won’t get into the backstory because it’s literally pages on pages of stuff just so I could understand how this character came to exist. What I will say is that if you decide to do something actually super evil, she will eat you in a lasagna while sipping some red wine and listening to Blue Bayou. And yes... she is the “Nice” one. 

[cobalttungsten]

Some dumb but good news

Might sound dumb, but might not be. 

Pre-hormones was 5′6″ tall

Today I measured 5′5″ tall

I’m not entirely surprised.

Thing is, what sparked me to even question what my height was is actually one of the dumbest but funnest things ever: Bgf comparison. See, I was originally like 2/3 inches taller than my Bgf, and (It’s horn-tooting time) neither me nor my Bgf lack in the chest department, so when we’d hug my chest is a bit above theirs. Plus, I always felt like I was huge (I’m not, it’s just me being self-conscious about my height) and usually leaned down a touch to give them hugs.

Well, today was a heavy, introspective day and I was going over everything in my head, and it dawned on me that I haven’t really been noticing much of a height difference. That and our hugs seem more even all around. 

It’s dumb for some people, but you know something? I like it. Personally, if I ended up anywhere around 5′5/4″ I’d be happy.

[cobalttungsten]

Pokemon Go is outing peeps

[cobalttungsten]

I don’t know who did the 4th picture, my gf sent it to me because I thought it was hilarious and awesome. Although yesterday the 4th picture called out to my desire to draw better, and I began using it as a reference. Learning layering, how to do eyes, face structure, coloring, shading, you name it. The 4th picture has been more help than anything else.

Whoever drew it, you have an AMAZING sense of humor and your art is wonderful. Thank you for the very real Art lessons these last few days, they’ve been absolutely invaluable.

[cobalttungsten]

I’d be more proud but this literally took HOURS. I decided I wanted to punch-up at a less cartoony style, and everything was a struggle. The eyes were a pain to get right, lighting was something I’d never done before, hair texture is different... I could go on but truth is 6 hours into force-learning a new style and I had to call it a night. 

[cobalttungsten]

This is always embarrassing. Sometimes I just feel like something SHOULD be funny, but it just isn’t, and it sucks when everyone else starts laughing but I’m completely unsure why it was funny.

[cobalttungsten]

I’m Trans, I’m a Lesbian, I’m an Autist. I just want to love everyone. This is how I get to do it.

[cobalttungsten]

Words are tough at the best of times. When they’re even more tough, sometimes it pays to just be able to not worry about saying anything.

[cobalttungsten]

I really don’t know why she puts up with me.

[cobalttungsten]

Lover let me use her computer to draw... takes some getting used to but I love it. Thank you hon!

[cobalttungsten]

So, I just watched two movies this evening, one with my lover and one alone.

First was the new movie Freaky, and I loved every moment of it. If ever a director could send a love letter to another one, Freaky was to Sam Raimi. It felt so true to the Horror-Comedy genre, was one of the best movies I've seen in a LONG time. Honestly, the moment the first comedic part to come into the movie immediately made me think of Army of Darkness, which is, in my opinion, a great thing. I honestly don't think I could think of AoD without thinking of Freaky from here on. If any of you are holding out seeing it, don't! Redboxed it and did not regret it.

Second was Willy's Wonderland. I knew 2 things going into this movie:

1. It's a Nick Cage movie (Don't get me wrong, I love plenty of his movies... But he's been less than picky with his gigs lately)

2. It's rooted heavily in the Five Nights at Freddy's genre (Which I dig so hardcore, but I'm a gamer so I'm biased)

Coming in with hopeful expectations I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. Granted, it in no way tried to punch above its class and just does it's own thing, but it does it in that way where you can tell it was made for the fun of it in the best ways. Don't watch it if you're looking for a movie with unexpected twists, because it's a simple movie that tells a simple story, and personally after watching it it's easily become another Nick Cage favorite of mine.

Both movies 5/5, would have gone to them in the theater if it was open, possibly will buy them.