01/05/2024
"If you cannot afford a lamb, one will be appointed to you."
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JOKE-OGRAPHY:
1. Joseph continues reading about Jewish law from his brochure (continued from last week's cartoon). In Jewish tradition, the sacrifice for a newborn boy was typically one yearling lamb (for the sin offering) and one turtledove (for the burnt offering). As Mary and Joseph discuss this, the Holy Spirit (a dove, but not for sacrifice) shows up to give a knowing glance at Baby Jesus. You see, Jesus is called the "Lamb of God," and His mission is to be sacrificed for our sins, so it's ironic that His parents are required to sacrifice a lamb for HIM under Jewish law.
2. A few commenters last week were concerned about Mary and Joseph sleeping too close together in their blanket fort, as it challenges the perpetual virginity of Mary (a core Catholic belief). I argue that Mary and Joseph are a poor married couple sleeping in a barn that's open to the cold and creatures of nature, so the chaste and honorable Joseph would probably stay near his Holy Family for their protection, instead of sleeping apart and leaving them vulnerable. No scandal here!
3. A few commenters last week argued about the perpetual virginity of Mary (the belief that she remained a virgin after Jesus's birth; a belief held by the early Church even before the Bible was canonized). I just wanted to say that I'm thrilled and honored that my comics appeal to people of all religions, including other Christian denominations. It moves me every time I get a comment from someone who isn't Catholic but loves my work. That said, I AM Catholic, so please understand that my comics follow the canon of Catholicism when I can help it. No hard feelings. Of course, you're all welcome to continue giving me suggestions and debating in the comments (good-naturedly, of course). I've learned so much by listening and looking into your apologetics.
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I love getting validated on small things that I didn't even consider like it's always a treat and this time it's Gender
The Fundie Baby Voice™️ has been popping up a lot in ex-christian spaces lately and I actually had one in middle school and part of high school! I learned when and where to use it and how to turn up my southern accent just enough. I can still do it but it sounds weird after 3 years on T. The main place I used it was at church cause it made me sound sweet and polite. I used it for old ladies when I worked at a grocery store too. My family didn't like it when we were just all together cause they said it sounded like baby talk, but loved it when I used it at church cause everyone would tell them how sweet and soft-spoken I was
My therapist said it actively made him feel uncomfortable when I used that voice. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it made him uncomfortable (other than him only knowing me on T) but he very much did not like it and he's so so right for that
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also just in case anyone only heard about the protest at the synagogue in LA but not about the fact that the synagogue was being used to host a real estate event that illegally sold land in the occupied west bank (and in fact referred to selling land in the "best anglo neighborhoods in israel" which... oof), and THAT was what the protesters were there for. to protest the illegal sale of occupied land (both domestically and internationally illegal btw. domestically illegal because these sales are racially discriminatory, and internationally because they are the sales of illegally occupied territories) not because it's a synagogue and they are antisemitic.
because while the optics of protesting a synagogue are never good, the story was so fucking disgustingly misrepresented and no doubt fucking terrified jewish ppl in los angeles because it was being referred to as a pogrom.
you can read ifnotnow LA's excellent statement on this here.
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"real jewish people stand with palestinians and support a free palestine." - look, i agree with this entire post, but unless you're jewish yourself (if you are, disregard this), please don't speak about good jews, bad jews, real jews, fake jews. my zionist relatives are just as jewish as my staunchly anti-zionist acquaintances.
i am jewish. and i have zero respect for jewish people who are zionists. just as i have zero respect for non-jewish people who are zionists. just as i have zero respect for my jewish family members who are zionists
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can i ask about your experience as a quaker (or growing up as one? i just saw you mention bein one in some tags)
i jus don't know much about them
so i was not raised quaker, i was raised baptist. which was. 0/10, do not recommend. all the guilt of catholicism with none of the stained glass lmaooo
like, i did resinate with the idea of there being some sort of higher power and i liked the idea of getting together with other believers to discuss spiritual matters but as i got older and started thinking for myself i realized i really didn't like a lot of things about the church. i hated the bigoted beliefs of its members. i hated the emphasis on blind obedience to authority. i didn't believe that the whole literal truth could be found within one book, specifically one group's interpretation of said book. and the idea that people were born inherently bad and sinful and that a supposedly kind and just god would condemn people to eternal suffering just for not believing the "right" things just did not sit well with me at all
when i went off to college i decided to try out a few different churches around town. i ended up settling on a progressive presbyterian church. the community was great and very accepting of queer people. i had some minor qualms with the theology but it wasn't like with my parents' church where every sermon made me feel increasingly nauseous, and i generally felt *good* during and after the services
and then covid hit and while they did stream their sermons, i lost that sense of community and just kinda... fell away
throughout all this i was researching different faiths online, both christian and non-christian. and one faith that kept popping up a lot that i liked the sound of was quakerism. like at one point i remember taking some online quiz of like "what religion do your values most align with" and quakerism was very in the lead. (before this, i'd only really been exposed to quakerism in history textbooks and assumed the religion died out alongside puritanism)
in the end what got me really interested was actually a video by a youtuber i liked, a queer/disability advocate and historical fashion enjoyer who also happened to be quaker
and after looking more into it, i decided to try attending a quaker meeting. which was easier due to covid cuz i could find a church online (located physically hundreds of miles from me) that did their sunday services over zoom
and so i attended and the people there were great and were doing actual good in their communities. and the way services were run, and their beliefs about what god *was* and all of that just hit me with an intense feeling of like. holy shit this is what i've always wanted from religion.
the video explains the sort of core beliefs and practices of quakerism better than i can but the main belief is that like. every person is godly. as such, it's our job to treat all living people as equally and kindly as possible. additionally, since we all have god inside of us, we need to look inwards and come to our own conclusions about our own religious beliefs and practices (and generally respect other people's religious beliefs even if they differ from our own, so long as they're not causing real tangible harm)
i haven't attended any meetings in a while, due to that group going back to semi in person (they still stream it out but it feels more like being a spectator than a member) and there being no quaker meetinghouses in the tiny town i currently live in, coinciding with me being too depressed to regularly attend anything. but i'm planning to start attending quaker meetings again once i move to a real city
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I have more followers than I did this time last year, so a seasonal reminder from your slightly curmudgeonly neighborhood Jew that Christian "seders" are cultural appropriation and entirely inappropriate to put on
(if you're not Jewish and your Jewish friend invites you to their seder, that's fine and I hope you have a good time! Fresh fruit is usually a safe bet re: contributing food)
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it always feels strange saying that i had a shitty childhood because like. i did. but whenever i phrase it like that people always assume parental abuse or neglect and then i have to be like “oh no my parents were great it was just literally every other influence in my life that sucked” and we all just sit there silently for a minute while they freak out about accusing my parents of emotional neglect and i freak out because i said more than an off handed joke about my shitty childhood which is much too vulnerable and none of us enjoy it. so like what am i supposed to say then
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