#adventist girl

[queenlucythevaliant]

My first time getting a visit from the JWs. Idk why, but it's always so funny interacting with the various Christian cults?

[iscariotapologist]

to be quite honest i'm not entirely over having my teenage body scrutinized and deemed overly scandalous and inappropriate at various times by insane staff and faculty in evangelical high school for existing in leggings or a dress. just things i'm thinking upon and getting enraged over this nye. imagine having a normal body image

[irisjaxx665]

I saw a post of yours recently with a tag saying "religious trauma" or something to that effect. I was wondering what you meant by that and how it affected you?

well, growing up raised by my foster folks who were extremely Christian (seventhday adventists), i got all the fun traumatiziation that comes feom that.

told that i was supposed to be willing to die for that faith. that christians were oppressed through the ages and hunted daily.

that i would have to be willing to die to show my devotion

that i was automatically in the wrong for things i had never done and never been involved with. that i was always guilty, and if i wasnt then i was blaspheming and lying

that is would be punished for my actions and for others

that i had to remain pure and untouched for someone i was destined to (so long as they shared the faith) or i would be worthless to them and to anyone else. crumpled paper, a torn up flower, tape without its sticky. being told constantly to obey without question because that was my place as a girl and as a child.

that my worth was my ability to serve and be of service

because i didnt have a say in anything. because i was inherently property. to their god. then to the clergy. then to my father and brothers. and then to my husband if i could earn one.

that is was expected to follow orders given by any man, because they were all superior to me.

some trauma turned into kink, as a way to take control back over those aspects of myself. some just turned into anger. some parts are mere irritation about that faith and those who decide its more important than anything else.

my foster mother, in face of anything, would always tell me to pray and that i would be answered. but when i genuinely needed help and prayed to her god, there was no answer for me. just ignorance.

while young, i was so devout. i believed everything my foster parents said as though they were all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-caring. they said theyd let nothing hurt me. and to be totally fair to them, when they discovered their son had been molesting me, it did stop. but they let him stay living with us. let him keep threating me. let me keep living in fear that it would start again. that didnt stop.

and praying did nothing when i got addicted to heroin.

praying did nothing when i was lured, stabbed, and raped by a cop within an inch of my life.

praying did nothing when i gave birth while i was a child.

and then as i grew older, and my life changed, i became more aware of the world. i learned about other religions, and found the one that makes the most sense to me, and makes me feel strong. like i can be who i am and im worthy of equal respect because i’ve survived and i’ve suffered and im here.

i am willing to die to show my devotion to my Husband. and i am just as willing, to live for Him. i am only punished for my actions when they are truly wrong, and those actions are discussed on an open and honest basis. my worth is more than my willingness and ability to serve, but He is grateful that i desire to serve Him and in turn He serves me. i have the power to gift Him my submission and He graciously accepted, giving me orders and tasks to please Him and to better our lives together and our home. my Dominant knows that i worship Him. and He in turn worships me.

my body is a temple, and i am the goddess to whom it is dedicated and by whom it is designed. i decorate it as i see fit to please the goddess that inhabits it. i am also the only priestess that devotes her life to the worship of my god. the temple made and kept by her hands is His own to change as He chooses.

un-kinkily, my religion is Pagan. Norse, Hellenic, and Khemetic. i pay homage to the old gods and keep their ways. i follow the faith of my ancestors, and that i share with my real brother.

[turntabless]

🔮 honey - samia 🔮

welcome! to! the! first! installment! of! turntable takes!!! that’s a working title i think it’s cute. idk <3 to start this off i took a request from my wife @missnoirr herself <3 thanks tiana i love you !!! this is not going to be well written or concise and i also don’t know much about the specifics of music theory. sorry guys

genre: pop, indie rock

kill her freak out

ooooooh this is good. keys throughout the beginning are insanely thematic and fit really well with her beautiful voice! the layering is gorgeous! the lyrics hurt me and are very filmcore to me, fitting perfectly with the music <3 the little distortion bits about halfway through are so tasteful. yummy. the layering growing and the volume getting louder? love. chiming strings are lovely. atmosphere insane !!!! warbling keys at the end i owe my life to you <3

charm you

immediately struck by the acoustic guitar and the layered vocals. beautiful. bass and drums pick up and it’s a vibe !! oooooooooh god falsetto in the background fucks! he lil upticks at the end of some phrases are mesmerizing. lyrics are fun! and so earnest at parts! two tracks in samia already has a gorgeous voice.

pink balloon

stripped down piano and vocals immediately i’m in love. jesus these lyrics are. something else and presented in a way that captures the emotion of the song. feels kinda nostalgic and youthful which absolutely adds to it. jesusssssss the heartbreak the reality of it. the ending phrases are going to

murder me.

mad at me (featuring papa mbye)

OOOO fun lil intro with a good beat and keys!! voice is so effortless this is insane. loving the distortion and the CRACKLY GUITAR. so nice. goooood!!!! all of these lyrics so far are incredibly real and feel so coming of age and youthful. papa mbye has such a smooth voice it’s so pleasing to me? and it works insanely well with samia’s???also love the interplay between the two with the lyrics. lovely

sea lions

screaming “porn kills love outside your window with the adventists” was a fun sexy lil starting line and immediately endeared me. cause yeah. also starting the phrase with just her voice then adding the bass-heavy keys is such a good choice. also this is just painting such a picture of a nasty breakup with someone you still care for and it’s killing me right now! beautiful. samia QUEEN OF LAYERING. WOAH. DISTORTION BREAKDOWN INTO SOME DRUM BEATS AND SYNTH. this is so funky but the chiming keys still feel sooooo youthful and hopeful !!! very intrigued at what the spoken parts near the end mean and might look into it further but samia’s voice is beautiful on top of it. probably one of my favourites on the album so far.

to me it was

ohhhhhhh fade in from the last song with some pretty acoustic guitar. this feels like a story or letter adressed to someone and gives very much the impression of anxiety and coming into one’s own with someone else by your side. beautiful. very emotionally evocative with some beachy guitar and fun slides. this one might be the realest one i think. ALTO HARMONY JESUS that was nice. more layering and harmonies and it feels so nostalgic and so hopeful!!!! this is beautiful. a little spoken part that gives a slice of life that transitions into another language!!!

breathing song

ooooooo. separated synthy parts at the beginning and her vocals (autotuned but so tastefully!) shine so beautifully. twinkling notes mixing beautifully with the bass-heavy synths then the piano picks up on top of that? raindrops! these lyrics….. very evocative and make me think of an unhealthy relationship and working through the mental health aspect of it. OH instrumental cuts out and samia belts so desperately…. gorgeous. ABRUPT CUT ??? queen

honey

so lovely. acoustic guitar strumming pretty quick and light and the lyrics are VERY night out with the girls after a long week and the world just falls away. so hopeful but at the same time there’s… a note of melancholy that i can’t help but feel? layered harmony and drums kicking in, this is so feel-good. BASS BASS BASS. GOD YUM? cute lil riff underneath? oooooooh. male harmony underneath transitioning into what sounds like a choir. beautiful beautiful beautiful. this is truly like. 2am at a party you don’t want to stop!

nanana

ohhhhhh god. the lyrics on this one…. starts out hurting lots!!! “trying not to cry while the choir sings bleak midwinter cause they believe in something” ohhhhhh. sweet little guitar plucking with the slightest bit of feedback/electricity filtering through. feels like a bit of a lullaby. PICKING UP WITH SOME BASS AGAIN i love this !!! still feels very ethereal and honestly like looking out of the window during winter and watching the snowflakes fall, contemplative and depressed and can’t look away. WHISPERS IN THE BACKGROUND and instruments and vocals harmonizing with her voice. CUTE MALE CHOIR MOMENT with a soft “hey boys” introduction, and i love that their voices aren’t as polished.

amelia

keys!!!! soft vocals with a bit of rasp filtering through is scratching my brain quite nicely !!! OOOOO !!! fun drum beats and layering with some pretty guitar! her voice kinda phasing in and out is so nice! another really exciting song that feels like FUN. samia’s higher register is my favourite thing that’s insane !!!! lower guitar riffing hidden in the background provides such a nice harmony there. PULSATING SYNTHY BURST. WHEW.

dream song

ooooooo. pretty pretty lower guitar mixing so well with her voice, transitioning into an ascending little riff that goes back down. layered harmonies get me INSANE!!!! this song sounds like feeling on top of the world with someone no matter how impulsive or reckless it is. beautiful contemplative lyrics <3

thoughts: beautiful beautiful album perfect for coming of age movies, breakups and scream-crying about!!! i love the way samia uses layering and the keys, and the way the song progresses and gets more complex and deeper/bassier! fun poppy indie mix!!! samia’s lyrics go so hard and they’re subtle sometimes in that you hear it, take a quick second to process it and feel your heart drop a little <33

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

hope you’re faring ok, thank you for introducing me to Blowfly Girl’s blog via your substack

hey anonymous; to blowfly girl: you:re welcome! i think she:s a really cool person -- not-so-much because of the 'pains' she ends up in, but more-so because she doesn:t hide her heart at all (in her writing, real life: who knows!).

to me: i:ll blog a little, but roughly i:m doing 'OK;' i just finished reading my 4th book this month (scientology: a new slant on life, people like us, boogiepop vs imaginator part 1, boogiepop vs imaginator part 2); i bought my mom chairs for our porch, and a blender since she was dropping hints (the chairs were what led me to reading again -- i don:t spend as much time online anymore since i started leaning heavily into my disconnection policy, so i started replacing that time with reading outdoors / unhealthy amounts of exercise); i:ve been slowly exploring leesburg after memorizing most of the roads/stores via google maps, and an old online friend from ~8 years ago has been helping me with going out every few weeks; reconnecting with leesburg/lawn-chairs made me feel 'in alignment' with yuko (chainsaw man yuko), and incidentally exploring leesburg led me to a conversation about faygo (@ a dollar tree) which led me to discovering i really like insane clown posse and have been having fun going through their albums (riddle box is my favorite); i returned to the SDA church on a whim and haven:t freaked out yet (i:m not a christian, but i just feel like it:s important for me to enmesh with the adventists, a little) -- incidentally, i feel closer to chiral faith than ever; i think i might be over a lot of my anger towards my ex, too; --so: overall, i:m doing ok; my life is simple, and dull (i:m basically a housekeeper), and i don:t really make art anymore, but i:ve been pretty ok lately.

there:s still some bad; i:m struggling with a few things, but i don:t want to share them; those are thoughts i only want to offer to boogiepop and my prayers.

thanks for the message, anonymous, and make as many mistakes as you want in life -- you:d be surprised how high the threshold is, ok?

[sonia-nicole-levi]

#book #release #buy #amazon #barnes #noble #Spiritual #Growth #Faith #Transformation #Journey #Interfaith #Dialogue #Personal #Development #Understanding #Authenticity #Diversity #Questioning #Mysticism #Kabbalah #Zohar #Bible #Wisdom #Beauty #Perspective #Exploration #Awakening #Islam #Judaism #Christianity #Spirit #Experience #Beliefs #Perspectives #Research #Encounter #Tradition #Resource #Reader #Question #Fulfillment #Traditions #Contemplation #Reflection #AdventistChurch #Adventist cult #African #Akasha #Allah #anointed #Apsu #Archons #Asherah #Astaphanos #Azazel #Baptist #believe #bi-racial #Bible #biblical #blessing #body #born #Cain #called #Christ #Christianity #consciousness #cortisol #created #creator #Cronos #culture #death #deity #demons #devil #divine #dragon #earth #Ein Sof #Elishcreationstory #EllenG #EnumaElish #existence #faith #fallenangel #Genesis #girl #Gnostic

"Leaving the Seventh Day Adventist Church: The Spiritual Reality of Judaism and Modern Christianity" is a captivating book by Sonia Nicole Levi that explores the connection between faith, spirituality, and personal growth. Through her own experiences and spiritual awakening, Levi shares a journey in this thought-provoking work. Drawing from her podcast, "What Do You Know?” The author discusses the three Abrahamic religions of Islam, Judaism, and modern Christianity, revealing the rich and diverse spiritual landscapes that exist outside a single religious tradition.

With engaging storytelling and insightful analysis, Levi challenges readers to question their beliefs and expand their spiritual perspectives. Backed by thorough research and personal encounters, the author explores the beauty, wisdom, and potential of Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah, the Zohar, and the Bible, offering readers a fresh and profound understanding of contemporary faith traditions.

Key Themes Explored in this Work Include:

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Spirituality beyond Dogma: Embrace the idea that spirituality flourishes not only within the confines of a specific religious structure but also beyond them. The book encourages individuals to forge their own unique spiritual paths, fostering a sense of authenticity and personal fulfillment.

"Leaving the Seventh Day Adventist Church" is a valuable resource that explores spirituality, interfaith dialogue, and personal growth. It caters to readers from various religious backgrounds and those questioning their faith traditions. The book is available on Amazon.com and BN.com, and it will be released in other major bookstores soon.

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Registration will be available at https://sonia-nicole-levi.ticketleap.com/virtual-book-launch/

[bookishphysicsgirl]

So, story time, apparently, because my insurance hasn't come through yet which means I am yet to schedule therapy and as such am about to severely overshare and expose myself publicly on the internet for the sake of feeling a little less lonely I guess. Go grab a seat and some popcorn 'cause this one is gonna be a long one - very very long.

This is about my sexuality (aroace) and how I came to terms with it and where I am now.

TW: mentions of bullying (I guess,I don't really see it as bullying but I was told it was bullying so there), aphobia, masturbation (you have no idea how long it took me to just straight up write that word), periods, and general aro ace queer confusion.

But why not just talk to some ace people near you, if you are in such need of understanding you'd turn to strangers on the internet ? Well, there aren't that many ace or aro people around me and the few that I know are not that great to talk to, not because of their sexuality, mind you, but because they make very uncomfortable jokes and are all cis boys which normally wouldn't be a problem except that I grew up around no men and am kind of akward - especially considering I am one of the very few girls in our major, so internet strangers and possible exposure it is.

Therefore, our story begins when I was about nine and going to Adventist school - because it was cheap and the closest to my house, not because I myself was Adventist - when children started talking about dating and kissing, mostly for jokes but still sometimes seriously. When one of the girls had her period before anyone else and got caught with socks on her bra it was a pure scandal.

I couldn't understand it. I mean I understood why people would want to date and be with significant others more than the typical child that age, since I read a lot and I read anything I could get my hands on, and not always necessarily age appropriate books since adults tend to believe all books are inheritenly good for their children without checking the content.

What I couldn't understand is why would anyone be so worried about things like that so early. In all the stories I saw and the books I read the characters were at least teenagers before they started being interested. That coupled with adults around me saying repeatedly that children were being oversexualized and that it'd be better if they just focus on their studies led me to make a bet with my friends that I would never date or kiss anyone until I was sixteen. Best decision I ever made.

So as the years passed my friends and everyone else arround me started freaking out more and more about crushes and who had kissed who and when they asked me all I had to do was remind them of that bet and they'd leave it alone. Sometimes a few kids would ask me things like whether I wanted to be a nun or why was I actually trying to keep that bet, but mostly I could just completely forget about it.

However as I started getting older - at about 14 - my relatives started noticing and though at first when I told them about my no-dating-until-16 plans they thought I was very smart and concentrating on the right things soon enough I'd catch my aunt and my mom having conversations about how "something must be wrong with that kid" and "you should take her to see a doctor". My aunt suggested I might need hormone therapy.

My friends kept telling me about people who they thought had crushes on me - which usually made me panic because I didn't know how to reject anyone if they were right, kids at my school started asking me increasingly invasive and mean questions ( " have you really never kissed anyone?", "are you just in love with yourself?", "were you abused?", "are you afraid of sex?", "do you even know what a penis looks like?") and my mom kept trying to make me interested in someone.

She would try to make me look at scenes that made me uncomfortable in movies and TV, tell me stories about her sex life, show me pictures of famous people and point at random people on the street and say "aren't they cute?", anytime anyone showed even the slightest bit of interest she would practically throw me in their direction. She asked me if I wanted therapy, if I thought I needed hormonal treatments, if I was a lesbian - totally cute of her but a little off the mark - at one point she even took the whole sapiosexual thing that was going around facebook and convinced me that the reason I hadn't been interested in anyone was because I hadn't met anyone who was intellectually stimulating enough.

At about 15 she asked me if maybe I could be asexual. I think she meant it as a joke but I looked it up anyway and lo and behold there was the answer all along. I pretty much came out immediately to my family and my closest friends and was met with the usual "you'll find someone some day", "it's just a phase", "maybe you should just try it, just to check" but eventually that started to die out and they started to accept it.

I guess part of it was that they thought things would change by the time I got to college and to be honest I was still pretty unsure, but when people asked me inconvenient questions about why I never went out with anyone now I had an actual answer which, of course, led to even more invasive questions from my classmates but I tended to be pretty good at taking it in stride.

I think it was meant to be a joke of sorts, go ask uncomfortable questions to the innocent nerd and see how she squirms so we can laugh about it later, kind of how some boys will make fake crushes and pretend to ask girls they think are ugly out or keep ironically complimenting them to make fun of them, because if they believe it it's funny she was gullible and if she doesn't she can't do much because they can just say they were trying to be nice.

But I pretty much had a policy to always smile and be nice to people and answer them honestly even when you knew they were being purposefully hurtful unless you were in a dangerous situation, because a lot of the joke got lost then, specially when it was obvious I knew what their intentions were and tried to dialog anyway. And though the questions never stopped while I was in High School the jokes did. And I kind of even became sort of friends with some of those boys? They asked me to tutor them, we were nice to each other, we talked about tv shows so I suppose things got better.

At 16, even already wearing the label ace, I was finally without the bet excuse for not dating and without it to hide behind I was forced to really confront my feelings. My friends mostly seemed pretty ok with my identity and didn't pressure me much but they did keep trying to get me to "be mature" and say or do things that made me uncomfortable - but then again these things weren't always related to sex, sometimes they were just trying to get me to swear - or making dirty jokes that I didn't want to hear. At that point my mom had moved on to trying to convince me to at least try to touch myself and telling me how good sex felt and that I'd really be missing out.

But even though I now didn't have my self-imposed silly rule and a very close friend who I really liked was actually interested I still felt no need to be intimate with anybody. There was not a lick of desire anywhere in my body, but I was still pretty conflicted. I knew I had never had a crush or felt lust for anybody but I had always loved romance books and movies and I squealed when two characters got together and I loved cheering for my friends in their love lifes and going to weddings - I could go to a wedding every weekend honestly - and I had always generally been a hopless romantic "in love with love" type of person.

At 17 we had to make a seminar about minorities and since my friend group had the only queer people in the entirety of the school so naturally we were assigned the LGBTQIA+ community. That was the first time I ever read about the distinction of romantic and sexual and platonic attractions and I swear it was like suddenly the entire world clicked in my brain and everything made sense. My friend's ears were probably bleeding by the time I finally stopped talking about it but I could be at least a little more grounded in my asexuality. At least I knew I could maybe still have those things I liked so much in fiction, I could still maybe one day not be alone and have someone to raise a family with, someone to decorate for Christmas with, who would help me in the bad days and who I could share good days with. Who could grow old with me so I didn't have to retire alone and helpless.

After that I was pretty confident, I was in no hurry to find romantic love and just kept thinking that if was going to happen it would just happen. But it did get me thinking about my limits. What would I be willing to do if I ever did get a romantic partner? Would I be willing to do it with anyone who wasn't a romantic partner?

I think it is worth it to note that I was reading smut since I was 13yo. This wasn't exactly because I went out seeking for it, in fact the first few times I came across it I was a bit disturbed, I'm not going to lie, but I was desperate to read new things, kindle had free things to read and sometimes those things had undisclosed smut. At first I skipped it, then I realized I was missing plot and started skimming it and eventually I was just reading it just like you'd read anything else. So despite my friends repeatedly attempting to make me more mature and teaching me the lingo I am 60% sure I was far more educated at that point (when no one had actually done anything more than kissing) than they could have possibly been.

So I did know about things and how the plumbing worked, I just didn't know if I'd ever be willing to test mine. One beautiful day, when no one was home and I was 18 and reading I wondered "maybe I could just try doing it myself, just to see if I even feel anything." And I thought I'd done it wrong, because I didn't scream or pant or do any of the things that the media usually describe, so I tried again that night,and the next day.

Soon I found that not only did it help me relax enough to sleep, something that had evaded me for years on end, I had a pretty high libido because I suddenly could recognize what before I couldn't identify as arousal, and it happened a lot, at random times, but one thing I noticed was that it never had to do with anyone. It mostly happened whenever I started worrying or thinking about sex and sexuality itself but never because of an actual person. I dealt with it pretty often, never thinking about scenarios with myself or things like that, just shadows, or colors, or movements or reading something.

But the fact that I was doing it and that I was doing it so often suddenly put my sexuality into doubt, could I really be ace with what I did alone at night? The fact that I was doubting it so much and that I had over the years built so much of my self within the fact that I am ace made it so I was too scared to even tell anyone about my libido just in case telling them would make them doubt me again, make them invalidate me or tell me I would eventually just magically wake up allo. To this day I have only ever told one person I know personally, and that was on a really bad day.

But I did do something similar to this I'm doing now and posted to AVEN and after very big welcome cakes and assurances that everything I was going through was completely normal and that it didn't make me any less ace, which felt like a balm on an open wound, I calmed down a little.

So, this one day there was a kareoke pizza party at my uni and this guy sings Moana and I sing Moana and we start talking about the merits of the translation and he ends up asking me if I wanna see a movie that night after the party (it was an in-campus party so it didn't end too late) and I as the clueless dork that I am started going around asking if anybody else wanted to come with.

Nobody did which I thought was strange but ok and so we went to the 24h room of the library to watch it and for about 2/3 of the movie I was completely immersed, not even noticing what was happening around me. However, suddenly I got the strange notion that maybe he was getting a bit too close. Like he was trying to do something. Weird.

But I thought that before and it was nothing, and I thought it was nothing when it was something so clearly I am not the best at reading signs from people. And like he was pretty cool, wonderful person really, so he offered to take me to my door and I said yes because I am terrified of walking alone at night and in the middle of the way he did a real movie move and kind of went bumping his hand with mine until he could kind of naturally hold it? That's when my brain went "oh crap."

I had until we got to the door to make a decision. I did like him. But the more I thought about the idea of actually kissing someone the more icky I felt but maybe I should just try it and see what happens? Like everyone keeps telling me to do?

So we get in front of my building and he turns towards me and I look up and I can hear my heart pounding and I just go "sorry, I'm ace." And run as fast as I can towards the door. Yup. Left him cold and did a dash and hide. Not my greatest moment.

Anyway I felt very embarrassed and kind of sorry so I sent an apology text and explained and he said that actually he was totally cool with it and if I wanted to he would love to date without needing the whole physical part. And that seemed like a good idea.

I hated it. Every single minute. Again it wasn't him. I like him, we are friends as much as we can be friends without me akwardly wandering whether I'm leading him on all the time. But the situation, it was just the worse. I just couldn't think of ever doing it again. With anyone.

So, yeah, probably Aromantic too. Which was a surprise.

But the funny thing is that if she wanted to I would marry my best friend in an instant. Not to go on dates, or kiss or for physical intimacy but just so we could officially be there for each other. So I guess my platonic attraction is pretty strong. And there are people I see that I just really like the look of, so aesthetic attraction is also present. And I usually know just by looking at someone that I really want to be friends with them.

But sometimes I still stop and go "is what I'm feeling for this person actually romantic? How do I know?". But I guess that is what being aro or ace or really just queer in general in a world that wasn't really made for you is, constantly second guessing yourself. We just need to learn that that's ok and it doesn't make us any less who we are.

Anyway, hope this helped anyone struggling in their own journey or let people who've already been through this know that they are not alone. Because you are not. We are in this together.

Ok, love you all, bye!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Rio Veradonir

As most of us understand it, social justice is a good thing. Definitions vary, but the common thread is a belief that society should actively work to expand access to social goods for all people, regardless of race, sex, or other immutable characteristics. Like all decent people, I support that noble goal. So it worries me that a vocal minority of extremists with dangerous ideas and toxic tactics have abused the concept in recent years, throwing it into disrepute. A cadre of activists today push a radical ideology in the name of “social justice,” one with none of its liberal principles. Because its proponents intentionally manipulate language to evade criticism, I will use the terms Liberal Social Justice (LSJ) and Critical Social Justice (CSJ) to distinguish between the original version and the new one.

Growing up in a Cult

My elementary and high school education took place at a private religious school, Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) to be exact. The SDA Church is a fundamentalist, Protestant Christian denomination that began in the United States in the mid-19th century — an era during which many separatist cult-like movements sprang forth out of American Christianity, the most famous being Mormonism. The SDA Church was born out of the Millerite movement whose early believers predicted, based upon an esoteric reading of the Bible, that the world would end on October 22nd, 1844. When that day passed, offshoots of the movement formed based upon one or another justification for the miscalculation. To this day, SDA Church doctrine states that we are living in “The End Times.” I was instructed by teachers who had no qualms informing students that Armageddon would probably come “during our lifetime.” Despite that certainty, some of those elders have since passed away without the pleasure of experiencing the end of the world.

Apart from being a bit kooky, that kind of eccentricity seems harmless enough. But beliefs invariably influence other beliefs. I was taught Young-Earth creationism — in Science class no less — and that anyone who tried to persuade us otherwise, even with credible evidence, was a tool of Satan sent to damn our souls. My early schooling was about two years ahead of public school in some subjects — but 200+ years behind in science.

Some of the indoctrination inevitably took root. I was a skeptical but otherwise upstanding SDA kid. I had no objections when my friends casually stated that they would never marry outside the Church. We were discouraged from even associating with non-Adventist kids. I remember taking an odd pride in that, like outsiders were beneath me. This went on well into my teens. Then something changed.

Escaping the Cult

My sexuality was pivotal to my relationship with the SDA church. I was aware from early adolescence that I was attracted to both boys and girls. At first, I thought little of it, but over time it began to cause cognitive dissonance. The Bible, as we were taught it, stated explicitly that homosexuality (and by extension bisexuality) is a sin. Did this mean I was supposed to resist temptation and just marry a nice SDA girl when I grew up? Perhaps. We were also supposed to follow other strict rules, such as not engaging in “secular activities” on Saturday. The truly devout would never eat pork or shellfish. Many were even vegetarian. In that context, everything seemed equally arbitrary — as illustrated by the common answer adults gave to pesky questions: “Because God says so.” By sixteen, I had outgrown it. I’d had enough of the hypocrisy and the dismissal of my skepticism. So, I tested out of high school early and started college.

Most of my SDA friends went to private Adventist universities where their indoctrination continued unabated, but I dove headlong into the belly of the beast: public community college, then a public state university. I flourished in that new environment. Whereas my skepticism and curiosity had been frowned upon by religious instructors, outside it was welcomed — even encouraged. For the first time, I felt free to fully explore the world of ideas, unconstrained by dogma. I quickly realized I’d been led astray not only in science, but in history, and even the arts, where only the most Christian-friendly material was covered. My intellectual experience had been filtered through the lens of a single subculture. It was a pedagogy built upon circular reasoning with the goal of reinforcing faith in SDA doctrine.

To compensate, I spent the next ten years immersing myself in a broad education — changing majors four times. In contrast to my prior schooling, these public institutions were founded on Enlightenment values — where critical thinking, logic, and evidence ruled — not blind faith. It’s not that tradition was disrespected; I was exposed to philosophical and religious traditions from all over the world. It was a breath of fresh air — life-giving. I appreciated my newfound intellectual freedom all the more because I knew firsthand what it was like to be arbitrarily constrained. My experience had fine-tuned my dogma-radar, and when secular education institutions began falling to a different but equally stultifying set of dogmas, red flags went off.

Warning Signs

It was in an advanced literature course in the late 2000s that I was first exposed to a school of thought called Critical Theory, which we used as an approach to literary criticism. I remember the professor saying, “The author’s intent doesn’t matter,” which meant that it was considered acceptable to attribute meanings to a work even if the author had explicitly stated that they never intended such. That rubbed me the wrong way. It begged the question “By what standard can we judge which interpretations are correct, or is it just anything goes?”

As the semester wore on, however, I gained a new insight: that language is an imperfect tool for communication, because “signifiers” (such as words) can only be defined by other signifiers. There is no way to directly access the “signifieds,” which are different for each speaker and listener because they are informed by our different experiences. In other words, it is never possible to ascertain exactly what the speaker means, only an interpretation of it, because we all have different associations with each word or phrase. That collectively adds up to substantially different readings of a given work.

I was mesmerized. It made sense. Applied to art, it resulted in more dynamic and interesting criticism. Besides, this was just one perspective out of many I studied at a school that had earned my trust by exposing me to a variety of differing perspectives. Little did I know, Critical Theory would escape its confines and expand well beyond literary criticism.

Queer Liberation

Southern Oregon University, the last school I attended, has repeatedly been recognized as one of the most LGBT-friendly colleges in the US. Still, I remember anxiously walking into the campus’s Queer Resource Center (QRC). Anybody who saw me might assume I was gay. What if people looked at me funny? I wasn’t ashamed of my bisexuality, but the fear of being judged by my new peers brought back latent insecurities from my childhood. The girl at the help desk was kind — and cute! After some flirtatious pleasantries, I asked her, “How do I meet other LGBT people around here? I’d really like to find a circle of bi folks.” She invited me to a dance put on by the QRC. I went, and I had a great time. Everybody was friendly and supportive. Nobody had anything to hide. It was another world, a freer one, compared to the insular and judgmental atmosphere of my youth.

After school, I got engaged and moved to Los Angeles with my fiancé, now my wife, so she could pursue her master’s at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in — notably — Critical Studies. We got involved with a wonderful social club for bi people called amBi. I’d finally found that bi circle! It was healing to be surrounded by tolerant, open-minded people — yet another liberating chapter in my life. Before long, we made a name for ourselves as event organizers, and then as volunteers at Pride parades and festivals. In time, I was invited to work for a nonprofit called The American Institute of Bisexuality. I readily accepted.

The organization, also called The Bi Foundation, shares the liberal Enlightenment values that helped me escape the indoctrination of my youth. But as it turns out, they are something of an outlier. The vast majority of LGBT orgs now take a different, illiberal, counter-Enlightenment approach. I would soon discover that the world of contemporary queer activism could not be more different from the liberal arts education I received in the 2000s or from the carefree bi social club I had since come to love. Instead, it was much more like the repressive environment in which I had grown up back in the 90s. It came to remind me of a fundamentalist cult, with a lot of the same qualities.

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

The first bi-related conference I attended was BECAUSE (Bisexual Empowerment Conference: A Uniting, Supportive Experience), in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. It began as a way for bi activists to network with one another. Upon checking in, I was asked to put on a name tag with my pronouns. I didn’t think much of it. I was asked to fill out a survey with questions about my personal history, including my preferred label to describe my “bi+ and gender identities.” That felt a little strange. Regardless, the conference was a positive networking experience with engaging speakers. There were early warning signs, though. The discussion groups were rife with virtue signaling. It reminded me of the religious one-upmanship of my SDA days, and the pride in perceived victimhood.

In 2016 I attended an LGBT event in DC hosted by the Obama administration as an invited bi activist. I didn’t know what to expect. I was hoping for something productive. What I witnessed was anything but. There was virtually no discussion of policy ideas that might make a real material difference in the lives of bi people. It was nothing but grandstanding. Panelists were competing in the Oppression Olympics, obnoxiously vying to portray themselves as both the most virtuous and beleaguered. Every speech began with a recitation of the speaker’s intersecting oppressed identities. The more intersectionality points, the more street cred. Poor chaps who had the misfortune of being born white, male, and/or heterosexual (and who weren’t trans) were admonished to “Check their privilege,” which meant that their opinions were worthless. The quality of one’s ideas didn’t matter, not that anything concrete was being discussed anyway. Instead, the political strategy amounted to nothing but endless shouting about how American society was irredeemably awful and needed to be torn down. It felt like the White House invited us so we would feel listened to, even though it served no other practical purpose. Of course Obama was not in attendance — I’m sure he had more important things to do — but I wondered what he would make of the weird, illiberal theater I’d witnessed. I thought back on his speech, delivered after attacks on his association with the radical Reverend Jeremiah Wright:

“… We’ve heard my former pastor ... use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; … they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country — a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America...”

No, President Obama would not have approved. He is a liberal, like me, who shares Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of inclusion as a pathway to integration and treating people the same, regardless of any immutable trait. I got into LGBT activism in service of that dream. Isn’t the whole point to bring about a future where everybody is treated as an individual, rather than stereotyped on the basis of superficial qualities? Shouldn’t we be working to break down barriers, instead of fomenting perpetual divisions for tribal warfare? Why were these activists, among the most privileged people in society, so full of disdain for the Enlightenment values that rest at the foundation of all that is good about this country and for the liberal values that made LGBT rights possible? Didn’t they understand that replacing one form of bigotry with another was not real progress? I reassured myself that this was probably just an eccentric group. It was just one day, after all. Surely most LGBT activists shared my liberal values. They had to, right?

I returned to DC to attend training sessions with a leading expert on social media strategy. A friend and colleague, who happened to be a cis white male, committed the cardinal sin: stating an opinion contrary to the Critical “Social Justice” (CSJ) dogma. When asked explicitly to give feedback, he expressed sympathy and understanding for the ideas presented, but dared convey concern that some of the more extreme language being used might alienate allies. He was brutally pilloried by several fellow students in the class, who claimed that his words had triggered them and amounted to “actual violence”, and demanded that he rescind his statement or be expelled. I was flabbergasted, and my friend was fighting back tears, which only elicited more yelling and taunting. We’d made real sacrifices to be there. It felt wrong.

Over the following years, we attended many more progressive conferences, including Netroots Nation (attended every year by Democratic lawmakers). They all had the same toxic culture — and it got worse by the year, especially after Trump took office. Eventually, almost every discussion group, presentation, or speech seemed narrowly focused on this emerging, illiberal ideology. With it, came more obnoxious behavior. Attendees who spoke up in defense of traditional liberal values were protested, shouted down, and disinvited. I witnessed outright racism against white people, sexism against men, and cisheterophobia — all coming from the movement that was supposed to be standing for equality and human rights. Even SSSS (the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality) eventually succumbed to the dogma. They were pressured into releasing embarrassing statements denying biological sex, reinforcing the irrational worldview of CSJ and undermining their scientific mission. There had to be an explanation. I needed to understand the motivations behind this trend.

The Cult of “Social Justice”

I looked to my better half for support. With her MA in Critical Studies, which was somehow related to this convoluted landscape, I knew my wife Talia could help me decode this riddle. She explained that Critical Theory, the obscure academic philosophy I encountered in a literature course, had expanded to become the dominant political principle and epistemology of modern progressive politics.

Madness! How did a single perspective of limited practical application come to capture half of Western political thought — and so quickly?! It wasn’t just the US Democratic Party — it had spread to the global left. I needed to research it further. I compiled a reading list of figures influential in cultural-left thought, including Hegel, Marx, The Frankfurt School, various postmodernists, and their contemporary successors. The common thread was a mode of thought much less grounded in rationality than the analytical, pro-Enlightenment thinkers I preferred. It was like going back to religious school all over again!

Religion, like social justice, is hard to define. Superficially plausible descriptions such as “A belief in god(s)” fall short, because not all religions have such beliefs. Scholars tend to prefer broader, less parochial definitions like “A particular system of faith and worship” or “A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.” Contemporary thinkers have argued in all seriousness that some apparently secular ideologies can be regarded as religions. In “Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World”, theologian Tara Isabella Burton argues that the “social justice” phenomenon has all the key components of a religion: it provides believers with an all-encompassing worldview, meaning and purpose, clearly defined communal boundaries, and powerful self-actualizing rituals. Linguist John McWhorter’s “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America” maintains that a blind faith in systemic oppression (despite evidence of unprecedented progress) is a kind of fallen creation myth. Cisgender, heterosexual, white, and/or male people are “born in sin” and can never purge themselves of it — they can only endlessly atone by saying the right words and performing the right self-flagellations. Biologist Richard Dawkins, a notorious critic of religion, has come under fire for making similar invidious comparisons in his attempts to defend his own scientific field from related gender essentialism and science denial. Political Theory Professor Joshua Mitchell has argued that the boundaries between politics and religion are breaking down, and that CSJ has strong structural parallels with Christianity. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, in his book “Woke Inc.”, wrote that CSJ beliefs arguably “Meet the legal definition of a religion” and thus employers would be well-advised not to force these views upon their employees. Among others, CSJ shares with religions the qualities of blind faith, circular epistemology, self-referential exegeses, cynical apologetics, sacred testimony, indoctrination, authoritarianism, holier-than-thou attitudes, hostility to science and rationality, and the persecution and excommunication of heretics.

In Christian school, “faith” was the convenient get-out-of-jail-free-card for authorities who had no real answer to valid questions. Every dogma is reducible to an article of faith, which means that it requires no evidence to back it up. If there was evidence, then there’d be no need for faith. What matters is that we prove our loyalty to God and the Church by choosing to believe despite the dearth of evidence. The less evidence, the more faith is required, and the more noble and virtuous it is to believe. This creates a self-reinforcing, perpetual motion machine of irrationality. It would be harmless enough if people were content to keep those beliefs to themselves, but a great many religious people see it as their calling to force those beliefs onto others through indoctrination and even legislation. The Cult of CSJ is no exception. If someone asks heretic but otherwise perfectly reasonable questions calling for evidence-based answers, they are told that logic and science are tools of the oppressor. It is a symptom of our privilege (sin) that we have these doubts. In other words, we are supposed to take the central tenets of CSJ on faith.

Of course, that doesn’t mean proponents never attempt to offer logical reasons or evidence for their ideas. They often do, but it comes in the form of pseudo-evidence that is reducible to faith. In Adventist school, appeals to science and reason were selectively made only when the apparent facts aligned with the dogma. Any argument or evidence that did not was conveniently ignored or explained away as the devil trying to deceive us. But that isn’t how rationality and science work; you don’t get to pick and choose when their standards apply. Without consistent and universally applied principles, appeals to logic and science are insincere. Does this argument or data point seem superficially compatible with my cherished belief? If yes, then it is true. If no, then it is false. It’s just confirmation bias. Years of working in CSJ-dominated spaces have made it quite clear that this kind of dishonesty is baked into the ideology.

The same circular standard applies to sacred texts: At Christian school, it was the Bible, among other SDA writings. In CSJ circles, it’s the approved canon of scholarship. Religious schools teach a process called exegesis, whereby the sacred text is interpreted. You start with the assumption that the text is the infallible word of God (or one of his prophets), and you proceed from there. If something about the text seems inaccurate or incoherent, you must be misreading the text. After all, you’re a fallible human being — so who are you to judge God’s word? Any apparent failings of the text are thus explained away as user (reader) error. This is exactly how believers in CSJ defend their own core canon. If critics point to logical errors, claims contrary to evidence, or self-contradictions, CSJ defenders are quick to accuse you of “misunderstanding” the material. There’s nothing wrong with Theory — only you’re too dense to comprehend its wisdom. It’s the same tactic.

In religious traditions, apologetics is a discipline where practitioners known as apologists devote their lives to making excuses for the irrationality and immorality of their chosen faith. Is your church engaging in the systematic cover-up of child rape? No problem — put out a ten-thousand-word essay explaining why Catholic tradition is blameless nevertheless. CSJ apologists include academics with pro-CSJ dissertations that lay out the philosophical basis for the practice, and journalists or public intellectuals who apply them in defense of the faith. The underlying principle is blind devotion to the dogma. It’s easy to excuse bad behavior done in its name (or deny that it happens at all), because CSJ is The Truth. If you’ve felt gaslit by people telling you that your concerns are totally misplaced, that cancel culture isn’t real (or it’s a good thing), or that rioting, looting, and arson in the name of CSJ is justified, you’ve been in the company of a religious apologist.

Another form of “proof” used by the religious is sacred testimony. In my Christian school, much fanfare accompanied the testimonies of the “born again.” The testifier would recount negative life experiences such as drug addiction, criminality, or sexual deviance, and how coming to faith in the salvation of Jesus Christ our Lord saved them from a miserable, meaningless existence. Of course stories such as my own, where escaping the church was the liberating experience, were not allowed to be discussed. CSJ’s “lived experience” is the same thing as sacred testimony. We are told we must respect the lived experiences of oppressed groups, and that only oppressed bodies are qualified to discuss issues related to their oppression — which as it turns out, conveniently encompasses all issues. If the “lived experience” in question is compatible with CSJ dogma, it must be believed, and any skepticism is pure bigotry. But if the lived experience does not reinforce CSJ dogma, into the trash they go (even if the speaker is a member of the oppressed group). My experience as a bi person, triggered by the cult-like behavior that brings back childhood traumas doesn’t count for anything at all — because it makes CSJ look bad. Similarly, the lived experiences of black critics of CSJ, like John McWhorter, are also rejected. There are no real principles here.

Just as with religion, people are not born believing dogmatic ideologies. They are indoctrinated into these beliefs. In my childhood, that was accomplished by a curated revisionist history and science curriculum. The CSJ cult uses taxpayer-funded public schools. Every subject must be reworked to ensure students are only permitted to see the issue through a CSJ lens. Ideologues always prefer indoctrination to genuine education that teaches students how to think instead of what to think, because critical thinking, rationality, skepticism, debate, and free speech are the tools that dismantle nonsense. By contrast, dogmatic belief systems shut down criticism by punishing the critics and silencing free speech. Liberalism, with its preference for open and universal inquiry, is seen as dangerous because it steers people away from the virtuous path. According to “social justice” pedagogy, not only are there ‘stupid questions,' there are evil ones. The very act of questioning CSJ is “literal violence” that must be shut down — by punishing the student (or teacher) who does so.

This ideology is consuming every academic subject. It began in the humanities, but it is now infecting even the hard sciences and mathematics. Universal, objective standards for success in these fields are derided as oppressive. Science and mathematics are now “One way of knowing,” no better than any other, and perhaps even inferior — since they are the preferred tools of Western culture. Those who disagree with its tenets are pressured, intimidated, silenced, or exiled as heretics. Professors like former Portland State University professor Peter Boghossian and even administrators like former Harvard President Lawrence Summers are run out of academia; employees like former Google engineer James Damore and even executives like former Roivant CEO Vivek Ramaswamy are forced out of corporations, and in the nonprofit world I’ve seen the same play out over and over again — especially in progressive spaces like LGBT activism.

Give Me that Old-Time Religion

Religion satisfies a deep need for many people, and it is not my place to take it away from anyone. But religion has boundaries. The world’s first liberal democracy was founded by Enlightenment thinkers who understood that the best way to respect religious freedom was to separate church from state. The establishment clause of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution was devised to serve that purpose, as eloquently explained by Thomas Jefferson in his Letter to the Danbury Baptists:

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”

That wall must apply to all religions, theistic or otherwise. Believers of Critical Social Justice have every right to hold their beliefs. But the freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. Just as they must be free to believe as they wish, we must be free from having their beliefs forced down our throats. Taxpayer-funded schools should not teach the tenets of CSJ, and their ideas should not be applied to the pedagogy or curriculum of public schools. Corporations and nonprofits should have no more right to discriminate against employees based on CSJ beliefs than upon traditional (religious) ones. A liberal society should tolerate differences of opinion and allow ideas to compete fairly in the marketplace of ideas. CSJ cannot be granted special status, because that road leads to totalitarianism. The debate over CSJ isn’t likely to be settled any time soon, but we should be able to come to a consensus about its place in the public sphere. We need only choose between the liberty afforded by secularism or the tyranny imposed by theocracy. I know which I prefer. As a bi man who was liberated from religiously-induced self-loathing by exposure to a more secular environment, I can attest that liberalism and Enlightenment ideals are the path forward for our movement. Tethering ourselves to illiberal ideologies like CSJ is not.

“Social Justice” is Not Just

At the outset, I explained that I distinguish between two conceptions of Social Justice: the liberal one (LSJ) and a newly ascendant illiberal one (CSJ). Liberal Social Justice is the vision that has given us the progress we’ve made on civil rights; it is one based on the liberal principle of equal treatment for all individuals regardless of their membership in any identity group. It’s what was championed by the original feminists, LGBT activists, and anti-racist leaders. By contrast, Critical Social Justice, in the name of Neo-Marxist “equity” (equal outcomes), advocates for intentional systemic discrimination against historically “oppressive” groups. This is because you cannot have that kind of “equity” without violating the liberal principle of equality. The most informed and honest of its adherents will admit this if pressed.

A collectivist conception of “justice” breeds tribal warfare and tyranny. CSJ proponents are correct that there is a history of oppression against marginalized groups. But that oppression wasn’t in the name of liberalism; it was in the name of different illiberal ideologies: pre-liberal feudalism, mercantilist slavery, theocratic homophobia, and fascism. For a group that claims to value nuanced critiques of issues, CSJ proponents seem to miss a key fact about the West: we are not and never have been perfectly liberal. Progress has happened gradually, always slowed and sometimes reversed by various illiberal alternatives that have animated segments of our society all along. And, yes, the early liberal and Enlightenment thinkers were not perfect exemplars of their ideals. Nobody ever is. But this is to be expected. Utopia isn’t possible, which is why we channel inevitable human conflicts in productive directions through institutions like capitalism and democracy. Beware the cult that sells you a utopia, because any dictatorial action can be justified by such a false vision.

It wasn’t Critical Social Justice that liberated me as a bi person. It was Liberal Social Justice. For any individual to be liberated, they need a conception of justice that values individual liberty. CSJ proponents aren’t going to liberate anyone. They are merely justifying a new kind of prejudice by appealing to an old one. This is why they must deny that we’ve made progress on civil rights in the West. If they were to admit it, they’d lose their excuse for that power grab. Liberals should not be taken in by this con. CSJ isn’t the new frontier of civil rights. It’s just one of liberalism’s old enemies resurfacing and rebranded with a trendy 21st-century pseudo-woke veneer — one of many illiberal ideologies vying for the power to tear society down and seize control for itself. Given liberalism’s proven track record of progress on civil rights, we’d be unwise to ally, even temporarily, with a movement that opposes those ideals. We need an awakening, but a liberal one — which celebrates real progress and views collective action as voluntary arrangements between individuals. We need a new Enlightenment, not just another deluded cult. It’s time liberals wake up to the fact that Critical Social Justice is an oxymoron, a mockery, and a Trojan horse. CSJ might just as well stand for “The Cult of ‘Social Justice.’”

[linndrum]

me trying to impress my girl at dinner with her seventh-day adventist family: Ok but your granny's mustard pickles go hard af though 🤯 annnnnd she just got raptured.

[automatismoateo]

Parents upset that kids don’t stay Christian after attending Christian school. via /r/atheism

Parents upset that kids don’t stay Christian after attending Christian school.

I attended a denominational (seventh Day Adventist) Christian school from 4th grade to 8th, and many other children did also. It was your typical Christian school. No piercings, nail polish, listening to secular music, and cafeteria food was disgusting vegetarian mush. There was also a hefty nepotism there as pastor’s kids were given special treatment. Unsurprisingly enough, almost all of the kids who graduated there have either left the church, become secular, and are just enjoying their lives as teens and young adults. My very religious mom saw one of my ex-classmates wearing makeup and jewelry and went ballistic. She began complaining about how the school didn’t do a good job at indoctrinating the girl (she’s not part of the denomination), and she still became a “jezebel.” She spent maybe 10 minutes complaining about the girl (who is a sweet, polite girl that graduated top of the class), and how she’s ruined and far gone since she doesn’t observe the religious practices of her sect. I’m so disgusted, so I decided to blow off some steam here.

Submitted August 23, 2022 at 05:50PM by annabeelongx (From Reddit https://ift.tt/4t8MYLE)

[shilika-c]

"Never let an owl stay" : A review of The Mourning Bird by Mubanga Kalimamukwento.

 A gut-wrenching tale of hardship set in Lusaka, Zambia, The Mourning Bird by Mubanga Kalimamukwento offers a glimpse into the struggles faced by one of the most vulnerable groups in society – street kids. The novel is told from the perspective of an idealistic young girl named Chimuka. She is somewhat rebellious, opting to play outside with her brother, Ali and friends rather than fulfil the expectations of a daughter in an African home. This puts Chimuka at odds with her mother, who is a staunch Seventh Day Adventist and authoritarian. On the other hand, Chimuka idolizes her father. Chimuka’s father is a secondary school English teacher - whom she thinks is the smartest man in the world. She delights in his use of ‘big words’ and the stories he tells her and her brother. However, her father is not without fault.

The Mourning Bird by Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Although Chimuka does not realize this, her father is an alcoholic and a womanizer. He is unable to control his vices and this leads to his untimely death. As a result of his womanizing, Chimuka’s mother contracts HIV/AIDS and her youngest brother Kufe is also born with the disease. Her father’s death sets off a series of unfortunate events that leads to Chimuka and Ali becoming street kids.

Kalimamukwento won the 2019 Kalemba Prize , was shortlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and won the 2022 Poetry Chapbook Prize.

Aside from Kalimamukwento’s prolific writing in this novel, the story she assembles is one that tugs at the heartstrings. In The Mourning Bird, harsh truths about the lives that Lusaka street kids live are put on display – from sexual exploitation to exploitation by NGO’s and ‘good Samaritans.’ Kalimamukwento poises this narrative in a way that asks fundamental questions about societal morality as well as individual morality. Perhaps one of the most jarring aspects of the novel is the visceral reaction that people have towards Chimuka, Ali and the other street kids.  Passersby recoil at the sight of them, sometimes in fear of being robbed or with disgust at the children’s dirtiness. Kalimamukwento’s tale highlights the helplessness of these children. She shows how they are forced into the streets and have to fend for themselves, which often leads to them resorting to crime.  Kalimamukwento tactfully juxtaposes the vulnerability of the children with how they are ignored and exploited with people in society. In effect, this invites the reader to question the attitudes that they may have towards street kids.

The variation in experiences that Chimuka and Ali gives attention to the ways in which gender affects how street children navigate lives on the street. Although they both face some form of sexual exploitation, Chimuka experiences it to an extent that her brother does not. At some point in the novel, Ali points this out to Chimuka – which leaves her feeling uncomfortable. Whether Kalimamukwento was intentional about this or not, this variation serves as an interesting point of departure into a discussion of gendered exploitation and the ways in which vulnerable people operate within this exploitation. The Mourning Bird is a novel filled with necessary truths and uncomfortable realizations, definitely a must-read book.

Read 'Inswa' here Read 'A DOCTOR, LAWYER OR SHAME TO THE FAMILY' here Buy The Mourning Bird here

[fillejondrette]

i think any small insular religious society (amish/mennonites [women talking was based on a true story], seventh-day adventists in pitcairn islands, etc.) tends to lead to huge amounts of sexual abuse of women and girls (often incestuous). i came across this case where a young amish woman was able to testify against her brothers, who molested her. they were convicted but the judge declined to send them to prison, because, you know, the poor amish boys would have a very hard time there.

[iscariotapologist]

starting to think being the prized asset in sabbath school bible games for my encyclopedic biblical knowledge as a kid gave me some kind of complex besides the kind that comes from being the type of kid who has encyclopedic biblical knowledge

[geulahgal710]

Personal Short Story

I need a laugh, my online journal land. SO done with the political bickering. Remembering things like this gives me a little chuckle.

So, yes, After 57 years of life, I'm embarking on a personal Jewish journey, but I was raised a 7th Day Adventist Christian, which was weird enough in the area we lived at the time. Mid to late 70s, early 80s. But I digress.

That church has a campground on the Lake of the Ozarks called Camp Heritage which is currently being managed by my youngest sister and her husband (my younger brother is a 7th Day Adventist pastor. MmHM!) One summer I attended camp for a week. I was maybe 15 or 16?? And was lucky to get into the horseback riding class. Yay! I was stoked!

One thing. I had never been on a horse, pony, or anything without someone holding a rope guiding the horse and even that was one time only. So, they started me out on a slow old nag.

Yawn! It was ok for starters, but I was jealous watching younger girls trot and gallop along on their young energetic steeds. I made up my mind. I would have MY turn on one of those faster horses. Yee haw! And I got it.

I swung up onto the horse's back and nudged it and it started at nice, slow, easy pace. I nudged again and it moved a bit faster, and so on until I got it up to a brisk canter and was handling that pretty well. So I nudged horsey one more time...

And it was as if horsey thought... Alrighty then, sistuh, you want fast, you GOT fast! And he bolted! I wasn't handling that well.

I was bouncing hard up and down, sliding from side to side in the saddle because my legs couldn't hold on and all instructions went right out the window. I pulled on the reigns, I said "Whoa!" And horsey said, No! Then I started yelling, "Stop! Stop!" In between trying to keep myself in the saddle. LOL 😆😂

It was like a scene from an old Don Knotts comedy movie. Maybe you had to be there. LOL I know it was a hilarious sight because I overheard some fellow campers laughing about it.

[sylvia-lydia-morelos-baby-2023]

January 25, 2024...2:49 p.m.

*wink. :)

Bye bye MOMMA PEUTA!!!! FYI!!!!-->

/S./ USA & ALLIES!!!!

This is for my brother Robert & Bobby & Daddy (you RAPED THEM BITCH!!!! on more than 1 OCCASION!!!! This is also for my CHILDREN, all 9 of them you BASTARDA!!!! OUR GRANDMOTHER WAS *BEAUTIFUL*, YOU HAD HER RAPED & TORTURED/BEATEN, +++ TOO!!! WE ARE BEAUTIFUL! THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE YOU FUCKIN MONSTER!!!! This is for all the innocent children & families & MILITARY & all others, THAT YOU RAPED, TORTURED, MURDERED YOU COLD-BLOODED BITCH!!!!

FYI!!!!-->

JAMES ZELLERBACH, dob 07 30 71, from SAN PEDRO,CA, 7th Day ADVENTIST LIGHTHOUSE CHURCH CAME AFTER ME BECAUSE OF YOU, IN 1995, *AFTER YOUR EPISODE WITH MY PREGNANCY THAT YOU GOT MONEY FOR TOO??!?!??! COME TO FIND Out (thX usa & allies!!!!XOXO) (PATRICK RODRIGUEZ 1994, DID YOU FUCK HIM TOO?) greedy, envious slut, PERVERT that you are!!!! you and yours. This is a DEMOCRACY. IT WILL *NEVER CHANGE*. YOU PRETENDED TO *DIE? HOW DARE YOU!!!! Our grandmother is beautiful, YOU ARE NOT AND WILL NEVER BE.

EXECUTION ONLY. YOU GOT THE DEATH PENALTY!!!! YIPPEE!!!! this is personal? YOU MADE IT THAT WAY: LEGAL TOO.

C-ya.

ADMIRAL SYLVIA LYDIA MORELOS (*CHIVIS)

IA, INTELLIGENCE AGENT, FBI, CIA, DHS, DOD, DOJ, MAYOR, SENATOR, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, MY BROTHER VICE-PRESIDENT, xoxo ETC. YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT!!!! WE THE PEOPLE: WE ARE HONORED!!!!

we love you, our TROOPS: USA & ALLIES!!!!

OUR CHILDREN ADORE YOU TOO!!!!

DADDY, MY BROTHERS ROBERT & BOBBY and our 9 BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN & i ADORE YOU!!!! Thx.

"WE HAVE RIGHTS!!!! STATUTORY RAPE-RAPE OF MINORS, CHILDREN, IS AGAINST THE LAW AND IT WILL ALWAYS BE."

FYI!!!-->

please visit my blog at:

sylvialydiamorelosbaby2023che.weebly.com

and my other blogs too online, social media,etc.

also visit my pictures with more info on FLICKR at:

(*CLICK DIRECTLY ON LINK (IMAGE) BELOW:)

i.e. UPTOWN GIRL FROM MY MOMMA!!!! GAWD!!!!:

do the math!!!! (Thx, USA & ALLIES; i got your message, from my beloved country (LET ME E UN CIA TE: USA) and BF (UNITED NATIONS, ALLIES): "WHO HURT YOU, SYLVIA?")

/S./

Glad to be of service, daily. A sus ordenes.

ADMIRAL SYLVIA LYDIA MORELOS (CHIVIS)

IA, INTELLIGENCE AGENT, FBI, DHS...etc. please forward to my agencies.

/S./

[yupitsi]

Random activities this week...

Sunday, as planned, we headed to Bulacan to visit papsie and mamsie. They are our ninong and ninang in our weddings--both kuya's and mine. We are blessed to share this afternoon with them over delicious meryenda and nourishing talks of life and health. We are also blessed to be able to pray for them as they go through this trial. Claiming God's healing for papsie!

Monday night, XY invited Clark to play basketball in Cabuyao. So we took it an opportunity for PE night. Kiaree and Aianna ran a lot, so did daddy. As usual, I just took photos and videos. Ahaha!

Tuesday, I did something at the bank and we went for a little shopping at Ace Hardware.

Wednesday, we finally just stayed home the whole day. It's really a happy day staying home. I'm such a home buddy like that, I don't even go out of our house. Ahahaha!

Thursday, we just stayed home as well and slept from 3 to 7PM. Haha! So when Jonna and Stef said they'll come visit us, we said sure! They arrived past 11PM and we're still wide awake. Hihi, grateful for these girls and the pizza they brought. hehe

Friday, we took turns sleeping during siesta. So Aianna and I slept after lunch, and dad and Kiaree slept from 3PM to 5PM. So while they were upstairs, Aianna and I started braiding and baking the Challah bread that Kiaree and I kneaded earlier. Always a joy and blessing to work with the kids. I praise the Lord for activities that build character. Around 6:30 PM, we headed to Woodhills, at the Hoyumpa's residence where we had our vesper discussing Adventist Home. We're now on chapter 44, and it was again another blessed, meaningful, discussion. I praise God for NWC. After our worship, we had a really sumptuous late dinner! Grabe and sarap. Praise God for the spiritual and physical manna He so abundantly provides.

What a great week! I'm also so happy that Kiaree diligently practiced her piano pieces that she will perform on the 30th! Excitedly praying for God's leading in this little girl's piano journey and how this example will inspire little Aianna to venture on her own passions. God is so good! I'm also so thankful to my loving husband who so lovingly cooked most meals this week--and most meals are vegetarian, even vegan! We're so happy to be practicing this for almost 3 weeks now, and we pray for God's transforming power in our lives. God is really really really so so good!