#''progressive evangelicals''

[christianity-crucible]

Here is "progressive evangelical" Kristin Du Mez's "clear as mud" statement about her relationship to evangelical LGBTQphobia.

She is a very good writer. That I am not able to discern what her own evangelical conception of LGBTQ people's status should be within and outside "the Church" is probably intentional on her part.

I post this because this is completely typical of "progressive evangelicals". They describe some other evangelicals as homophobic, but don't say what they themselves think about the "clobber passages" in the Bible.

"Progressive evangelicals" are a new thing since I came out and was involved in gay activism decades ago. Back in the day, they were all straight up homophobes. There was not this current "nuance"/evasiveness.

I have more feelings and hopefully more to say about these people.

[chelledoggo]

so i just found out about that "the devil can scrap, but the Lord has won" trend on tiktok.

basically people post old photos of themselves when they were openly queer, wore alt fashion, did cosplay, etc... captioned "the devil can scrap," followed by current pictures of them wearing the most basic, milquetoast clothes ever captioned "but the Lord has won"

it's basically giving the message that you have to give up your identity and individuality completely in order to truly be a Christian.

this honestly breaks my heart. like... i'm not exaggerating.

as someone who's always been a bit of an outcast, and is a nerdy, progressive, queer Christian, i don't believe people should have to surrender what makes them unique or happy in order to "please God."

did we forget that Jesus was the ultimate outcast? did we forget how he hung out with the "undesirables" of society?

if you're a queer, nerdy, alt-fashion, etc. person of faith, and you're wondering whether or not your identity is pleasing to God... please erase any doubts from your mind right now.

God knows your heart, and God loves you as you are. please continue to be the wonderful and unique individual that God made you to be. 💖

[eviefrie]

hello locked tomb fans. have i got a book (books) for you.

more archive undying propaganda, if this wasn't enough to convince you:

(but also if you've decided to read the archive undying, i don't know if i would recommend the libby edition? i have my libby set to "legible" and there are some font changes in the print version that did NOT show up in the ebook. obv i liked reading the ebook enough to buy the text, but as @urban-sith put it, he was lost and i was in jumanji)

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Okay this is really irritating so i need this to stop happening: "Oh I am a Christian but I don't believe in like the bible or anything; I just follow the teaching of Jesus. But like, whether Jesus was God or rose from the dead or was even real at all, doesn't really-" Stop.

STOP. This is not Christianity. You are not Christian. Christian comes from "Christ" and it is the Christian belief that for Jesus to be the Christ and the Ben Adam (Son of Man/Humanity) is form him to be both human and divine. If you think he was just some moral teacher you're a fool whatever, that's fine, it's fine. BUT DON'T CALL YOURSELF CHRISTIAN!!! There is a separate thing: Jesusism or something like that. Call yourself a Jesusist (not Jesuit) or whatever. Not. Christian.

You are not Christian if you disregard the Tanakh, or Paul, or if you cannot affirm the Nicene Creed. I am not an elitist, just a gatekeeper :). Leave my religion alone.

ALSO. If you are a hater, a supporter of oppression, or otherwise concerned with controlling people's lives, also STOP CALLING YOURSELF CHRISTIAN!!! We have words for those things now. Words like "patriarchy" and "white supremacy". And if you think your Christian because "I am American! And Christianity is the religion of America!" No. No no no no no. America is Babylon. Actually do some study into Christian Political Ethics and you will find (in both the first and second testaments) criticism of many of America's policies. A country that murders innocent people cannot be called the country of Christ. It can be called the City Where Our Lord Was Slain. Stop just being a racist and misogynist and a nationalist and then claiming it's because you're religious. Cause you're not.

I will go Frederick Douglas on you so quickly do not freaking try me (Frederick Douglass wrote an awesome piece on the religion of America and how it was not the religion of Christ. #new favorite prophet)

[finalgirlgretchen]

if one more person tries to claim that the oh hellos are no longer christian i am going to lose my shit

[brown-little-robin]

okay, I'm crowdsourcing advice for a minute, so bear with me and please lend some words if you have any:

I want to get out of the house more. Like, on a regular basis. Weekly, maybe. Preferably, I would like to be interacting with people—the same people—every time, for... like... accountability, but also because I am hoping to put myself out there as the 21st century's most neurotic platonic Casanova. Uh. Making a friend or more out of this would be desirable. But I think if I go out with the intention of making a friend, I will be disappointed.

So. I want to go do something, for that something's own sake. I don't want to go be fake once a week hoping to get a friend out of it.

However, the beautiful state of Iowa is a bit cultureless, and I am too introverted and easily overwhelmed for this world (e.g. going to bars is probably not gonna be my thing). So.... I guess.... any suggestions? opinions? thoughts on making friends in general, or finding good activities as an introverted adult, in general?

oh yeah, also: I am poor. that's a factor. so. signing up a class or similar is not a great option right now.

what the heck, I'll add a silly poll for fun:

[anarchotolkienist]

This is very petty but I get really annoyed at people using "evangelical" and "politically conservative Christian" synonymously.

Like to the extent that there is ideological influence from the Christian Right on classical terf ideology it's through Catholic conservatives like Mary Daly, not evangelicals. What the evangelicals have done is provide the organising framework to connect transphobes from different traditions and bring transphobia to the forefront of politics, but they really have not been coming up with the ideological substance. That stuff comes from the Catholic right, transphobic feminisms, and conspiracism.

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

screaming crying coughing up blood every time i have to fucking defend genocide joe bc ppl wanna lie and say he isn't responsible for most of the best domestic policy we've seen in decades

his foreign policy is dogshit, yes, and he should rightly be called on it and primaried out, but we can criticize the shit he's actually done wrong instead of making shit up about him ~not doing anything good~

[echoingredemption]

a lot of the time, i find myself trying to explain to other Christians in real life why i hold a vastly different view on acceptance (through loving others) to other Christians, because normally it isn't even primarily the queerness speaking.

every time i encounter someone who lives differently from me, i approach them thinking of what my (earthly) dad taught me about emulating Christ, which is to remember 1 Corinthians 13:13; "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

love is such an important thing to me as a Christian because it is something i was personally denied as a queer person. another thing that motivates me to love first is something my past youth leader told me about a year or so ago, which went along the lines of "if you want something for yourself, give it to someone else". and that really stuck out to me because yeah, i want really want love, so i would rather give love to everyone else than demand it for myself.

[chelledoggo]

can i just say how much i HATE when evangelicals shame people who have hobbies that are even remotely secular?

like look at this shit:

"does the hobby exalt God?"

MY HOBBIES ARE ACTS OF SELF LOVE

WHEN YOU LOVE YOURSELF YOU LOVE GOD

BECAUSE YOU ARE MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

The Evening Descends • Midnight Vignette • Skeleton Man • Stoned Again • Party Crashin' • Snowflakes • How Do You Sleep? • Bellawood • Paperback Suicide • Here In The Deadlights • Bloodstream

Spotify ♪ Youtube

[bleeding-star-heart]

Christian "persecution": an essay in two memes

[personal-blog243]

Thoughts on a particular brand of Christian interpretation of the Bible that grooms them to support authoritarianism…

(Disclaimer: I am not an expert please don’t use me as your only source on this topic)

in my experience most Christians have an extremely hyper-literal interpretation of the Bible that I don’t necessarily agree with, particularly not when combined with the doctrine that the Bible is completely 100% inerrant and infallible and is the absolute highest authority and is the one and only completely true word of God in a very strict literal sense.

It’s a very brutally honest “facts don’t care about your feelings” way to view God and the violence of the Old Testament.

This means that most Christians really DO believe that all of the rape, slavery, war, genocide, etc. in the Bible is totally 100% genuinely perfectly fine with God and that that must be what God himself actually wants to this day in a modern context as well!

Your personal morals be damned. Your feelings about all of this are irrelevant because it is what the book says. Most Christians really believe that if you want to identity as a Christian or a follower of Jesus in any way, you must accept and be perfectly okay with all of the bad things in the Old Testament as well. It’s all or nothing, take it or leave it. You can’t pick and choose. Facts don’t care about your feelings. This is what it means to be a real Christian whether you like it or not.

If you don’t like hearing any of that, or interpret the Bible differently, you clearly disagree with God himself about rape, slavery, homophobia, and genocide and that is all your fault. If you’ve got a problem with God then that’s on you. Surely God believes that you are wrong about these things and you are the problem. Do you think you are smarter than God???? Who are you to complain and question?

Christians are used to hearing these bad things and putting aside their own feelings and basic morals for the sake of the truth (or what they believe is true whether they like it or not 🤷🏼‍♀️). They are used to doing this for the sake of respecting tradition and authority and thinking their emotions and ethical philosophy doesn’t matter when there is a higher authority.

Just keep in mind that this is how most conservative Christians view both the Bible AND the U.S. Constitution! 😳! They are authoritative texts that can’t and shouldn’t be changed and to have an ethical philosophy that is different from the men who wrote these texts is an attack on the abstract concept of truth and authority itself.

This is why they are primed for authoritarianism. They think that having a different understanding of the role of these texts and how to interpret them means you think you are smarter or better than the the founding fathers (in the case of the constitution) and of God himself (in the case of the Bible).

Obviously not ALL Christians necessarily think this way I’m just cautioning against this mentality of having to accept terrible things in the name of truth and authority.

[thebeautifulfantastic]

catholic* mutuals... if i as an ex-vangelical am interested in beginning to understand catholic theology, what would you recommend that i read or watch to start? going off the assumption that i know next to nothing (i went to mass twice, and both times were over ten years ago)

*i don't know if i have any episcopal or methodist mutuals, but i'm also interested in learning more about these tenets of christianity

[pastormike1976]

Quote from Susan Cottrell on the difference between what we believe and Jesus' call to love.

[spriteforgirls]

Very interesting how op blocked me as soon as I pointed out that anti-american stereotypes also hurt indigenous people...

Maybe don't make hating USAmericans your entire praxis next time. Maybe you should have a principled critique of Western imperialism instead of just taking it out on human beings who are also suffering under it. Maybe you should work to dismantle oppressive power structures instead of perpetuating them just because you think it's "funny"...