#holy discourse batman

[corroded-cofffin]

I saw a post about provider by sleep token and I regret looking it up. Lots of negativity in this fanbase imma stay in my lil corner lmao

[piratefalls]

i don't even hate the ship, there is just not a single bone in my body that cares

[fromdove]

HOW I THINK SOCIAL MEDIA IS LIKE IN ㅤㅤㅤㅤ GOTHAM CITY

tiktoks where people are like “day 54 of trying to get batman to notice me by looking helpless and holding a brick outside of wayne tower.” and then like. a day later they upload another one like “guys it worked. i threw the brick at a window and he SWOOPED DOWN AND YELLED AT ME. i think we’re engaged now.”

BATMAN FAN ACCOUNTS. “batm4nslut6969: yall i saw him last night and his thighs were THIGHING. i can’t.” “i want him to run me over with the batmobile. respectfully.” “what does it say about ME that i’m in love with a man who beats people up in alleys.” “he punched my cousin and now my cousin’s life is on track. king.”

you’ll see a tiktok like “get ready with me to testify against the penguin 😘” and they’re curling their lashes like “trial’s at 10 i’m wearing valentino. hope the DA is hot.”

facebook moms in gotham be like “hi!! anyone else’s toddler develop shadow powers after playing near the narrows??? normal or???”

“guys u wont believe what just happened i was literally just tryna get a tuna sandwich and then scarecrow gassed the 6 train again 💀” followed by: “ok but like did anyone else get lowkey productive on fear toxin bc same”

and like imagine those "what's in my bag" videos but it’s like “what’s in my gotham emergency kit” and they pull out like mace, an inhaler, one (1) batarang they found in an alley, a granola bar, and a tiny bottle of holy water just in case it’s some demon this time.

every batman chase has like. three angles. one guy from his apartment, one guy hiding in a dumpster, and one guy who just happened to be doing a GRWM video when batman crashed through the laundromat window behind him like a medieval poltergeist in kevlar.

there’s also that one tiktoker who’s like. always posting “day in the life as a gothamite 🥰” and it’s literally her dodging debris from a police chase while trying to get a matcha. like she’s got wireless earbuds in while the riddler is detonating something in the background. caption: “when i said i wanted chaos i meant eyeliner not explosives 😭😭😭😭”

people be going live from literal crime scenes. like “hey besties so i’m outside ACE chemicals rn and idk what’s going on but i just saw a clown sprint past. anyone know what’s happening???” and everyone’s commenting like “GIRL GO HOME” and “go inside nowwwwww” and “live laugh leave gotham.”

you'd see youtube videos like “i lived in gotham for 2 days and here’s why i left” and it’s just footage of a man watching fire rain from the sky while eating a pretzel in pure silence.

twitter’s a HELLHOLE. people tweeting like “batman knocked over my hotdog stand again. this is the third time. i’m filing a restraining order” and “why does bruce wayne look like he hasn’t slept since 2003” and “if the joker had a podcast i’d listen. just being honest.”

ALSO fancams of villains??? OF COURSE. edits of scarecrow like “your mental health isn’t scary but he is 😍🔥” and joker fan edits with lana del rey playing over it like “he slayed literally. like a bunch of ppl.”

there’s discourse about EVERYTHING. “does batman exploit underage sidekicks??” vs “no they CHOSE to be there 🙄”

imagine gotham love confession tiktoks like “i met him in an alley while harley quinn was robbing a jewelry store” and the comments are like “literally gotham's version of a meet cute 💘💘💘💘💘💘💘”

theres podcasts like “the ethics of vigilante justice” and then they go off topic and start debating if bruce wayne and batman have ever been in the same room and one of the hosts is like “they have different jawlines 🙄”

the gentrification discourse?? YEAH. “just moved to crime alley!! rent was SO cheap!! the vibes are kind of ✨✨ except for the screaming at night. also someone left a human tooth in my mailbox. i think that means i’m accepted into the neighborhood??”

and of course. OF COURSE. the joker thirst edits. like i wish i was kidding. i wish. but someone posts “what if he kidnapped me actually. like what if i let him.” and it’s a picture of him looking crazy with 15 different filters and a caption that says “he’s literally me (i need therapy).”

and GOTHAM INFLUENCERS. OH MY GOD. the way they would be the WORST. “hey guys today i’m doing a billionaire morning routine <3” cue 6 am ice bath in the wayne building gym someone does a house tour and people in the comments are like “i think that’s *insert famous rich socialites name's* old penthouse????”

homeless ppl getting filmed for fake charity clout. omg. “today we’re giving a makeover to this unhoused gotham citizen 🥺”

gotham meme culture is top tier. like they’re actually so funny. because they have to be. it’s trauma response meets terminal irony meets "oh the joker blew up a costco again time to live tweet." they have memes like: “you vs the guy she told you not to worry about” - it’s a pic of bruce wayne (or some rich socialite) in a suit and then batman looking like roadkill in a cape or something like “just got mugged by harley quinn and she said i have bad taste in shoes. kinda valid tbh.” or “why is scarecrow hot now. like when did that happen.” “penguin looked at me sideways in the club. should i press charges or kiss him idk.”

some of them are rich rich. and also literally host giveaways with captions like: “win a week in my tower penthouse if you repost and comment ur favourite crime i’ve survived 💋”

the drama is UNREAL. like gotham reddit?? a cesspool. like there’s this one post every week like : “AMA: i dated bruce wayne for 3 weeks in 2018 and he ghosted me after i found a batarang under his couch.” and then batman side of reddit is like “this guy tried to sell me fake kryptonite at a gas station AMA” and the replies are like “was it the guy in the trenchcoat outside the CVS?? i knew he was shady.” oh and you know there’s a gotham reddit thread called r/gothamCitizenSupport and it’s just “does anyone know how to get joker gas out of your vents” “batman smashed my windshield again how do i file an insurance claim” “my roommate joined a cult and now she glows in the dark?? normal or should i move out?”

you know the “hot takes” girlies?? yeah they’re deranged. “ok but like… what does batman really do for the economy.” or “i’m just saying gotham has more billionaires than public libraries and i feel like that’s not a coincidence???” or “why is no one talking about the gentrification of *xyz place name* just because ivy turned a building into a forest resort spa”

the comments are always fighting for their lives like: “he saved my life leave him alone??” or “girl i got evicted because catwoman turned my apartment into a goth club shut up”

ALSOOOO there are entire sides of gotham tiktok like:

“batman sighting alerts”

“gotham thrift hauls (featuring actual riddler merch)”

“bruce wayne conspiracy theory corner”

“citizen thirst traps featuring blurry robins”

“updates from people who work at arkham: the podcast”

and every time a villain escapes it’s like “uhhh guys. just saw mr. freeze at the bodega. he said he wants vengeance.

"guys...my parents just told me we're moving to gotham because its cheaper...help me what should i expect?"

OH AND BATMAN WOULD HATE IT. and there are so many compilations like “BATMAN GETTING FED UP WITH CITIZENS PART 7” where it’s just clips of him looking pissed af. dramatically because someone asked for a selfie mid-chase or tried to ask him to do fit check in their video.

[underwaterspiderbird]

the jedi’s whole schtick is “be like me and believe what i believe or else you’re an evil abomination that needs to be killed immediately”. don’t even start weirdo.

tell me you glance over real genocides at the hands of organized religion & cry genocide when the real genocide survivors finally have enough and destroy the industries responsible for their attempted genocide without telling me.

order 66 was NOT a genocide. you can only genocide people & cultures, you can’t genocide a systemically deified super-religion that wants everyone in existence to either agree with them & exist their way or burn in hell for eternity. any decent ppl who went down with the purge forfeit their lives down the drain along with their family, home & very sense of self. they. had. it. fucking. coming.

from an indigenous person, fuck y’all for even comparing order 66 to genocide & talking all over survivors of real genocides to save face for your evangelical faith & the people you think are good guys. you are not about to disrespect the continent-sized OCEANS of blood that make up our ancestors & loved ones who were lost to real genocide. fuck off.

[doberbutts]

So, yeah, now that I've literally seen you reblog a post where people clearly consider terf and trf to be equivalent terms of identical validity, I guess it's time to use your blog as a blocklist, good luck getting better

Holy bad faith bingo, Batman!

Did you mean this post which has both trans fems and trans mascs having a discussion about a commonly sore topic, while doing their best to work past their individual hurts to come to a mutual understanding? Where a single trans fem uses TERF and TRF in the same post but different paragraphs, and the term TRF does not come up a second time? Where it is discussed the realities of the various childhoods of the people speaking, and also how these experiences are used as a weapon of transphobia against them? That post?

I just don't know anymore. You're looking for a reason to be gleefully horrible to someone for the crime of having an inherently messy conversation about how transphobia manifests. That's just weird. How are we supposed to come together to talk about our struggles as a community with people waiting in the wings to do this?

What is your goal here, coming in to break up a discussion about a complicated and nuanced topic because a trans fem used a messy acronym?

[britts-galaxy-brain]

It actually makes me sad to see people have gotten so deep into the Tumblr discourse spiral that they're sincerely trying to argue that someone being black and 17 means they, what, can't be rude? Can't not be rude? Like holy infantilization, Batman. How is it not more racist to act like he's just a little kid who can't understand or be held responsible for throwing around names and jeering at people in a clear attempt to rile them?

^^^^

[olderthannetfic]

One of the “funny” things about anti discourse is that it usually doesn’t hit “classic” literature. Sure you have one or two antis that go the extra mile but most are fine with it. I know antis are selective but holy smokes Batman! Plus I can absolutely make cases for most famous authors of yesteryear to go onto the list of no-no books. Even books I don’t particularly like or agree with should be read. I think Ayn Rand’s books are fundamentally flawed/broken. That does not mean I don’t want people to have access to them. It really is about access.

--

Many antis consider anything like that to be obviously beyond the pale in the first place for being old and establishment-y, even before you get to Rand's content.

[shrimpmandan]

no malice meant here but like. hey. sometimes when someone makes a joke about something publicly, it is actually not about you/the person you're imagining is the victim of the joke. when trans girls talk about eggs, they're not talking about "men who are feminine" or "men who should identify as women actually" or "men we want to pressure". like that's why people get upset or laugh at you when you equivalate the two. it's seeing someone talk about their own life experience and assuming they are talking about someone else entirely, and then getting mad at them for being so mean to that someone else. and more importantly (the motive for my call) the reason trans women are so bothered by the modern condemnation of "egg jokes" is because people condemning them (like you) are equating a joke about lived experience to an active malicious effort. like yeah are some people gonna make a joke of this genre that's in poor taste? maybe. but people attack trans women for these jokes way harder than they would anyone else for making a bad joke. it's making a mountain out of a molehill and frames all trans women as malicious, just for talking about their own experiences (as so-called eggs) in a way that may be relatable to others. a woman saying "haha liking X thing is so eggy/doing X things means you're trans!!" is simply NOT pressure to transition. it is NOT saying that men can't be feminine. it is NOT telling the reader of the joke to /do/ anything. when you see a woman making an egg joke and respond with "umm don't pressure men to transition!" you are, frankly, accusing that woman of something she is not doing, whether you meant to or not, and quieting her when she attempted to talk to a group of likeminded people about herself. It discourages other women to talk about their own lives and makes a lot of the transfemme community feel as if they must walk on egg shells if they dare crack a joke in public. even if you believe the joke was in poor taste or implies something you disagree with about gender, there is a need to meter your response according to the severity of the situation. is an egg joke, made by trans people for trans people to see, actually worth a public negative response? particularly a response that implies that trans women are manipulating, sinister people who want to convert you and laugh about it? even if someone thinks the jokes or one specific egg joke was bad, you can see how the severity of backlash to it (ie current egg discourse) might be disproportionate to the offense. how trans women might feel that they're being punished too much for something that was very obviously not meant to be taken that way. if you think egg jokes are "the same as conversion therapy" in any way at all, youre asserting that trans women have ***any*** realistic intent to "forcibly convert" men to transition. you know that's not true right? like, think about what you imply by interpreting so MANY women like this. would you assert this about trans men who make jokes about seeing signs of their transness in their past? or men who wishfully entertain the idea of an afab celebrity being trans masc? that's what these jokes are, it's really not malicious, I promise. Again sorry for dropping in here I'm not trying to be mean or angry or anything at you, just informative bc I think a lot of people really don't understand how shitty it feels to be on the other end of this. Have a good day!

Holy mother of text wall batman, but I'll try to parse this.

My biggest thing is I did not read the OP as being ABOUT jokes, or as being a joke in and of itself. Whatsoever. I was taking it as a criticism of anti-egg culture as a whole. There is a non-insignificant amount of people who do genuinely attempt to pressure GNC people into identifying in a way that they simple do not, in either direction. The long and the short of it really is just that I was not taking it as being referring to jokes or memes. I was taking the post at face value, especially since it was also directly comparing "men can be feminine" to 1-to-1 conversion therapy rhetoric, when that is extremely contextual.

Also, any trans person can participate in the harmful side of egg culture. The friend I was talking about was a cis dude being badgered by a trans man. He was outright harassed by that person actually simply for asserting that he himself did not identify as trans just for being a crossdresser. I think it's fucked up to pressure people to identify in a way that they do not, no matter who's doing it and for what ends. I don't want cis people telling me, a tranny, how to identify. We shouldn't tell cis people how to identify either. I do not think of shitty Reddit memes or trans people talking about their childhoods when I think of egg culture. I think of people I know personally who have been harassed by people who take it upon themselves to 'crack eggs', so to speak.

TL;DR: I did not interpret the post as being about what it was later (albeit rudely, not by you) clarified to be about. People seem to be taking my response (which said that it is bad to say "but men can be feminine!!!" to trans women/amab NBs) as me having an issue with Reddit trans memes about personal discovery, when that's just not what I equate egg culture with. It's also extremely condescending to act like this is coming out of a place of "oh, the evil trans women are going to convert the cissies into trannies!" when I, 1) am trans, and 2) do not associate egg culture exclusively with trans women by a landslide.

[eclipsecrowned]

danae disc horse summary: SHE GETS IN THE WAY OF CHR*SKER WEEEEEEEEEHHHHH // anonymous

so. exc*lla. it'd be the same shit they deal on exc*lla. judge not the oc on the merits of her own moral ambiguity (in danae's case) or outright villainy (in the case of the canon), but on the merits of 'this woman is in the way of two conventionally attractive white men who hate each other fucking.'

(and don't get me wrong, i ship the ship. i ship it HARD. i actively hold myself back from lobbing my chris at any of his arch-nemeses who cross his path, i'm a good kadi, i only go in with shippy intent with my darling ax, i get it. and honestly tumblr fandom doesn't seem to be as bad as i jest. other sites though holy misogyny and biphobia masquerading as allyship batman--)

ALSO AN ASIDE NOT TECHNICALLY TIED TO THE MEME BUT LIKE... a lady (or even lady-passing) oc doesn't even need to be hypothetically canon for this discourse. i had some freak on my old hel blog that was personally offended and kept saying i 'devalued' a podcast's canon queer rep... by having my high femme oc (that all of maybe five people in fandom knew about) ship with a canonically bisexual protagonist as played by a totally consenting friend. because my totally derivative fanwritten au in the conext of a collaborative hobby somehow got in the way of canonical mlm rep. people are truly wild and mad on the internet, not even about canon ladies, but ocs that might breathe the same air as a male fav.

[githjanken]

hate reading a post on fl and holy fishtacos batman, this thread’s got it all.

leftist infighting. a couple who habitually gang up on others to prove they are more ideologically purer than you*. guys who call themselves primal predator daddy hunters who think “hey, this was a racist thing” was mean and rude and cancel culture and are throwing a fit about it. 2013 tumblr style self flagellation**. viking hair discourse. “this festival is problematic because the 17thC castle on the (rented) terrain was built by a coloniser***”

* will not actually answer questions on how to be better, just call you out. may include rant by the cis man about how transphobic [random trans commenter] is.

** despite the platform, not in a sexy way, about not having read up on the history of china’s feminist movement.

*** as were many things that age in the netherlands

[johnhardinsawyer]

Going and Coming

John Sawyer

Bedford Presbyterian Church

5 / 25 / 25 – Sixth Sunday of Easter[1]/Memorial Day Sunday

John 14:23-29

Acts 16:9-15

“Going and Coming”

(Peregrination in Pneuma)

This past week on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon and his guest, Tom Cruise, were playing a game.  They took turns, with their back to a curtain, and tried to guess what was behind the curtain when it opened.  The curtain would open, and some weird – hard-to-guess – thing would be back there:  three Bruce Springsteens on surfboards in Paris, Lady Gaga and Batman trying to assemble Ikea furniture. . . silly stuff like that.  

But then the game changed, because Jimmy and Tom (yes, we are on a first-name basis) went out into the audience and picked a woman – seemingly at random – to come play the game with them.  The woman, Shontavia, lives in Buffalo, New York, and works in a community health center.  And when Jimmy asked Shontavia if she had any kids, she said, “Yes,” she has a son who is in the military – stationed in Europe.  She told Jimmy that she hadn’t seen her son in two years.  And so, Shontavia turned her back to the curtain, and the curtain opened, and – lo, and behold – standing behind the curtain was her son.  When she realized who it was, Shontavia was absolutely speechless, and she began to weep.  Her handsome son in Navy whites shed a tear or two, which his mother wiped away.[2]  And I, watching the whole thing on YouTube on my phone, joined them, wiping away a tear, myself.

The whole thing was just so heartwarming.  It was one of those feel-good stories that doesn’t often get covered, in this day and age.  The thing that got me all misty wasn’t just the fact that her surprise was so genuine and her reunion with her son was so sweet.  It was that her love for her son was so palpable.  

Now, I don’t know Shontavia, but she struck me as the kind of mom whose love could span oceans – holding her son in the light of her love wherever he goes.  Shontavia might not always be physically close to her son, but she is close to him.  Because her love for him makes this so.  

We believe in a God whose love for us is this direct and all-encompassing.  

In the church, we will often say that God is with us, wherever we go.  We see this time, and time again, in scripture.  In the Book of Exodus, God travels with God’s people through the wilderness.  In the Book of Psalms, we are told that there is nowhere we can go where God is not:

Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there;  if I make may bed in Sheol, you are there.   If I take the wings of the morning  and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,  even there your hand shall lead me  and your right hand shall hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)

In the Book of Romans, Paul reminds us that nothing “. . . will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)  And in Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus gives the Great Commission, he says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) 

In today’s reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus – in his last supper and final discourse with his disciples – clearly states that he is about to leave them.  “I am going away. . .” he tells them. (John 14:28)  But he follows this up, by saying a strange-sounding thing.  He says, “I am going away [comma,] and I am coming to you.” (14:28)

Now, I’ve heard people sometimes say, “I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. . .” as a sign that they are so distracted, or busy, or confused.  But I’m not under the impression that Jesus – even though he has a lot on his mind and heart, in the moment captured in today’s reading – is confused.  Instead, Jesus says that even if he is going away to be with God, the Father, he will be coming to be with the disciples in and through the Holy Spirit.  

Just prior to today’s reading, Jesus tells his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth. . . whom you know because the Spirit abides with you, and the Spirit will be in you.” (14:15-17)[3]

And, just a few verses later – in today’s reading – Jesus says, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (14:25-26)  Jesus is physically going away, but the Holy Spirit will be God’s spiritual presence in the physical world – and in our own lives, too. . . our minds, and hearts, and bodies, and spirits.  

To be clear, God’s spiritual presence with us might not always be clear to us.  When John Calvin writes about this, he says, basically, if we do not immediately see and experience the help and consolation we have received in Jesus Christ, “. . . be of good courage, until the Holy Spirit, who is the inward Teacher, [speaks] the same things [that Jesus has taught us] into our hearts.”[4]  In other words, God is always going to be with us, but in ways that might be more inward, than outward – more spiritual than physical.  Of course, we believe that God is at work in the physical world and in our physical bodies,but the work that God is doing is the spiritual work of the Holy Spirit.  

So, even though Jesus is both going away and coming to us, God isn’t going anywhere, at all, because the Holy Spirit is still with us.  And Calvin encourages us “to always be satisfied with this kind of presence.”[5] The Holy Spirit is always with us in all of our goings and comings, and comings and goings.  We see the Spirit working in this way in today’s reading from the Book of Acts.  

Now, anyone who has read the Book of Acts would probably tell you that it is a book about the movement of the Holy Spirit – from a small gathering of disciples in Jerusalem, out into the wider world – across land and sea, from person to person, from community to community.  The Spirit is on the move and God’s people are on the move in the Book of Acts.  Last week, we heard the story of Peter traveling out from Jerusalem to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea – to Joppa and Caesarea Maritima.  But Peter isn’t the only one on the road.  An apostle named Paul goes even farther – setting sail from Caesarea Maritima and carrying the gospel to present-day Turkey, Greece, and even Italy. . . all the way to Rome.   

To an outside observer, Paul’s journeys from place to place might seem kind of random.  And yet, there seems to be something Holy, guiding him along the way.  In today’s reading, we find Paul and his companions standing at the edge of one continent, looking across the water at another continent.  They are on the west coast of present-day Turkey, not far from the ancient city of Troy.  And, as the story goes, one evening while they are there, Paul has a vision. . . a dream, of sorts.  In the dream, Paul sees a man from Macedonia – across the Aegean Sea – in present-day Greece, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9)  And, as the author of today’s story writes, “When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.” (16:10)

Now, I don’t know the last time you took travel advice from someone you saw in a dream, but there are many stories in the Bible of people who have dreams and visions in which they are told to go certain places and do certain things.  And when they follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, somehow God blesses their faithfulness.  To be clear, the road ahead, the passage across the sea, the wandering through the wilderness is not always easy, but it is blessed.  In today’s story, we see Paul and his friends blessed by the hospitality of a woman named Lydia.  In the story, they are gathered outside the city of Philippi, sitting on the banks of the river, and in this group is a woman named Lydia.  And, while Paul and his friends are speaking – talking about Jesus – as the story goes, Lydia is listening to them and “the Lord [opens] Lydia’s heart to listen eagerly to what [is] said by Paul.”  (16:14)

In the original language, when Lydia’s heart is opened, she is granted a “fullness of intelligent understanding.”[6]  And, immediately, she invites Paul and his friends to come and stay in her home.  

When Jesus tells us that he is sending the Holy Spirit to be with us in all times and places – in all of our own comings and goings – he is inviting us to understand that just as we are being led by the Holy Spirit through our own hearts and minds, we are also being led to the Holy Spirit in other people and places.  Paul is led by the Spirit to Macedonia – to a riverbank outside the city of Philippi – and there he encounters this woman named Lydia, whose heart has been fully opened by the Spirit.  

But this phenomenon is not limited to stories from the Bible or tales from long ago.  If you were to think of your own life, and all of the paths that led you to this very moment, and all of the people you have encountered along the way, I hope that you might be able to pinpoint some blessed moments of Holy connection – times in which your life intersected with the life of another person and you both were blessed. 

We are at a time in the life of the world in which there is great upheaval – between nations and cultures, even religions.  And a lot of this might be seen as negative.  A lot of it is.  And yet, if our hearts are open, somehow the sacred – the spiritual, the Holy – just keeps showing up.  We might even be living in a new era – the Age of the Spirit, as some scholars call it.  As Harvey Cox writes, the transformation of religion that we are seeing is one of the most momentous transformations since its transition “. . . from what had begun as a tiny Jewish sect into the religious identity of the Roman Empire. . . Christianity [is moving] awkwardly but irreversibly into a new phase in its history.”[7]  

Now, I will freely admit that, sometimes, at this awkward phase in history, recognizing the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart of another person can be a challenge.  There are sharp divisions and surface distinctions that we make between one another.  And yet, the Holy Spirit has a loving and life-changing power which spans the divides of geography, and language, culture, and politics.

Perhaps, one of the keys of bridging the divide is remembering that we are all on one pilgrimage or another – going and coming – from and to and in God.  And so is everyone else. . .  

This pilgrimage – this peregrination – is a spiritual journey that begins and ends in God and is blessed and surrounded by the Spirit, all along the way.  No one’s pilgrimage is without difficulty or hardship and yet everyone’s pilgrimage is blessed, for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.  

The Holy Spirit is not hiding behind a curtain, waiting for us to guess if God is with us.  The curtain has been torn in two and the Holy Spirit is on the loose – out in the world and in our lives.  

May we trust in the presence of the Holy Spirit – with us and in us and surrounding us – through all of our goings and comings.  

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

-------

[1] Year C, 6th Sunday of Easter.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIWohtuFVUM.

[3] Paraphrased, JHS.

[4] John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries – Vol. XVIII – John 12-21, Acts 1-13 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009) 100.

[5] John Calvin, 102.

[6] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) 187.

[7] Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2009) 2, 19.

[unzan]

they literally deleted their blog over this wtf

[theotherjax]

So I’ve been Considering the Coconuts extensively for a while now, and think I want to get some of it out into words, because Moana is personally important to me in a way no Disney film has ever come close to being. Close enough to write meta about it, which is a thing I basically never do. But I cannot stop my gushing thinky love and particularly about how this movie nuances (I don’t think subverts is the correct word) the Campbellian Hero’s Journey, in a way that I think is extremely interesting for what it says about the stories we tell, and have the potential to tell, about girls’ coming of age. Now my academic hat is off so this isn’t going to be Rigorous but. Here are Coconut Thoughts. Below the cut: on the inflection of two (and a half) Campbellian moments in Moana.

The first nuance I’m thinking of is Moana’s call to adventure/refusal of the call. On the one hand, these stages are present; the call is right there in the song. At first I thought, though, that there is no refusal - Moana attempts to follow her own inner call to adventure even before the external instigating incident happens to her. But actually what’s really interesting here is that the refusal, as well, comes from Moana herself, and does so in a unique way. Moana is the only Disney heroine I can think of who is embedded in her community. Her most significant relationships are with her immediate family, but she has meaningful interactions with others in her village that reflect her place and, as another song goes, the possibility of happiness in it. And for once, the possibility of happiness is a real one! Unlike Belle, Moana isn’t looking for “more than this provincial life” - she is a girl who loves her island. While the “Where You Are”/”How Far I’ll Go” sequence might seem to mirror the “Under the Sea”/”Part of Your World” combination, it is clear that Ariel sings out of a deep sense of being an outsider and oppressed by her family’s society’s expectations - “bet they don’t reprimand their daughters” - while Moana sings about how “I’ll be satisfied if I play along”.

It makes sense that while a hero would have a refusal of the call, a heroine might not: the refusal indicates the possibility, the desire for personal fulfillment without a quest, which, in a patriarchal context, is present for the hero but out of reach of the heroine. But while there are some shades of this for Moana, who is certainly torn between duty and expectations and personal fulfillment, for her the refusal is mostly about loving her community and wanting to play her part in it. And that makes her story one not of overcoming, but of reconciliation. Not of stepping out, but of taking in.

Which is even further pushed by how Moana’s pivotal moment of triumph is not an Atonement with the Father: it is, most properly, a Reconciliation with the Mother. While the Campbellian stage is about a confrontation, the shattering of ego, and eventual overcoming and ascendancy, Moana instead transforms and restores Te Fiti. It’s actually interesting to compare this to Star Wars, where Luke’s confrontation/reconciliation with Darth Vader is in fact far more true to the model than the many many many derivative stories in which the confrontation with the villain father ends in the hero’s physical victory in the interest of overcoming the shadow of the parent. Moana and Luke both “win” by an act of healing, Moana specifically by saying “you know who you are” - applying the lessons she had learned in the act of reconciliation, and again, reaffirming her role not as someone who overcomes but as someone who takes in. Moana saves her world not by rising above anyone in her self-fulfillment - just as her desire for self-fulfillment is not coached in terms of rising above her community - but by recognizing and creating connection. The fact that this connection is with a mother figure is I think also very meaningful, especially considering how Moana’s bonds with her grandmother and mother enable her quest. While, Moana has to prove herself to her father (and to Maui), women’s kinship and solidarity is absolute, and it is the root of mutual faith and community.

Which brings me to the “half”. I call it that because it is the one stage where what’s fascinating is not how it’s inflected, but that it exists at all. And that is Moana’s return to her village as “Mistress of the Two Worlds” - the island and the sea - whose quest has not only fulfilled her, but allowed her to change her community. And that’s frankly amazing. You see girls do it in other stories,but the only other Disney heroine I can think about whose quest is meaningful to anyone but herself is Merida (who lacks Moana’s crucial communal embeddedness). Ariel gains her wish and goes off to live with her prince and... that’s it. No other merperson or human cares. Mulan comes back home a war heroine, but her grandmother really just cares about her finding a potential husband. Elsa becomes queen aaaaaaand... status quo. But Moana’s change is huge, it is visible, it is central stage with the shell on top of the stones. She reconciles her conflicting sides; she reconciles the goddess and the world; and now she reconciles herself and her community by creating a new order that allows her to belong in it fully. 

And honestly, that’s incredible. It validates communal belonging. It severs the “not like other girls” trope at the knee. It utterly destroys the home/quest binary that positions the hero as reviled-to-elevated outsider who is both better than their society and cannot belong in it, and all the cringey messianic undertones that comes with that. It shows a girl who doesn’t have to escape, but can come home and change it. It is, chiefly, a film about the possibility of reconciliation, and in it both change and acceptance. And to me that makes it hella empowering. Like. Wow.

Also coconuts. Consider!

[edenfenixblogs]

Thank you @strkid

Thank you for being the living example of the literal exact type of person I am condemning the most.

I am known pretty unanimously around here for being measured and kind and sympathetic. I have many people who have not agreed with me and who I have patiently worked with to help find common ground. What I am about to say is not indicative of my online presence typically. It is a unique reaction to you and your absolute and total audacity.

So thank you. Thank you for proving what I am talking about:

You absolutely unhinged, violently antisemitic monster.

First off, if I didn’t have more to get to in this post and if you deserved better (which you do not) I would say the following more tactfully. But I can tell already that you are incapable of looking inward and choosing to better yourself or mend your relationship with Jewish people or unpack your own biases. So, sorry not sorry, you get the most blunt statements I have ever spoken to anyone. Again, I cannot be clear enough that this is about you specifically and a reaction to your specific, gaslighting, audacious sense of entitlement.

What were you expecting from me after leaving your comment. I replied asking you to explain further, because it seemed from your comment like you were saying that you cannot be antisemitic because in the past people you know stood up to Nazis—you know, the literal bare minimum for any activist. I must have misunderstood. That’s like saying you can’t be racist because you have black friends.

I was also confused because…how was there a Nazi at your encampment stabbing the poor wee baby protestors if you don’t allow Nazis at your encampments? And what are you doing in your encampments that supports the Jewish right to exist anywhere as per your comment? I genuinely found this quite confusing.

Surely that couldn’t be what you were saying, I thought. So I asked you to elaborate further. You failed to reply. So I had a little looksie at your blog.

And I gotta say…

Holy Jew-hatred, Batman!

I wanna be very clear. There are a lot of good people who think they are well informed on this topic and that they are helping Palestinians and being measured in their critiques of Israel. A lot of these people routinely miss the mark and make life harder for Jews inside and outside of Israel with their rhetoric. But these people are ok with me. These are people with empathetic hearts who are honestly trying to help and are open to growing when they realize they are causing harm instead.

I remain eternally grateful for @stephobrien and @jellymarbles and @noneedforbloodpressure and others for remaining extremely committed to Palestinian safety and justice while also learning how to identify when their activism tends toward antisemitism and curtailing it.

You are not like them. You are just an antisemite who cares much, much more about your own personal image as A Good Person™️ than you ever did about Jews or Palestinians.

You do have the same garden variety antisemitism that is prevalent on most pro-Palestine blogs, that is true.

For example, you post things reducing the war to a fandom-like discourse.

As if Taylor Swift is a pawn you can “win” for your side or as if a single musical artist could change the future of a region entrenched in literally thousands of years of conflict.

Not to mention the fact that Taylor HAS gone to an event supporting Anera, an organization that provides aid to Gaza that I wholeheartedly support and have even promoted on my own blog several times.

What Taylor has NOT done is speak out on behalf of Jews, 10/7, or against Hamas in any way. And guess what? SHE DOESNT HAVE TO. Would I like it if she did anything to show she gives a shit about Jews? Sure! But it’s not her job.

And I appreciate her staying in her lane and, when she did publicly support aid for Palestine, it was for a well-vetted charity. It’s kind of alarming that you not only haven’t bothered to educate yourself about the long history of conflict in the region outside of your own narrow viewpoint. (That’s par for the course in terms of public engagement with this cause right now and is annoying but ultimately correctable and forgivable) But you haven’t even bothered to educate yourself about the specific people you are talking about and how they’ve behaved over the past seven months.

How on earth am I supposed to trust you to be a reliable source of information on people you oppose in a centuries-long struggle when you can’t even be reliable about high-profile figures who are acting for the cause you supposedly support??? It is the lowest hanging fruit there is.

But ok. Maybe that was a one off. Maybe that was one misjudged post. It happens. I’ve certainly not been perfect in judging every single post, although I do make a point to at least try to always use basic media literacy and vet my sources and information appropriately. A good way to see how someone actually thinks and speaks about Jews is to just…search for it. Hmmmmm… let’s see how you feel about Jews.

Well, you certainly love to tokenize us—elevating only the voices of Jews who support your cause, especially when they criticize other Jews. Because that way you get to make blanket statements about Jews by proxy without actually saying the thing yourself.

OK, a striking visual lionizing your cause. Fine. I have my issues with how this is couched,especially how it seems to celebrate western college students wearing Palestinian ethnicity, personal loss, and culture as a costume.

But hey. Don’t judge a book by its cover right?

What is the text beneath it?

Oh I see. Jews are really terrified constantly, but for no reason! You guys it’s fine! Good news, fellow Jews! We’re just overreacting! It’s not as if we’ve been living in an era of well documented antisemitism! It’s not like Jews on college campuses are being attacked by their teachers and fellow students or made to fear for their safety! It’s not like this wave of antisemitism kicked off with a literal massacre of our people while others justified and celebrated it! We’re just babies who want attention! Good! Look! This user even found a Jew to cite who says this stuff.

Surely if you can find someone who is Jewish to agree with you, the opinions and feelings of the vast majority of Jews who disagree with that view can be discounted! Just like how Candace Owen’s speaks for all Black people and JK Rowling speaks for all feminists! That’s how it works, right? That’s activism, right???? And anyone who disagrees is just a conservative in leftist clothing! (In case you have the same amount of basic critical thinking skills as @strkid, I want to state explicitly that this paragraph and the previous one is full of sarcasm and the linked sources elaborate on how all the statements in it are false)

Surely this is an isolated incident? Right? One instance of such behavior is terrifyingly irresponsible. But like… nobody’s perfect, right?

Surely they don’t just look at someone and say, “That one there! That’s a Jew! Free pass to spout bullshit and no further source evaluations are necessary!” Surely they don’t promote extremely small religious extremist groups who are widely condemned by the vast majority of the Jewish community worldwide, right?

Oh, wait, no. They do exactly that.

Jesus Christ, dude. Really? Do you even know how to do a google search? Have you looked into what a majority of Jews actually think or feel about anyrhing? I’m going to guess no. I think that’s a pretty safe guess.

But ok. Fine. This user has a problem with identifying a legitimate representative of the Jewish experience. There are worse sins. This, I could still forgive. This could be unlearned.

At least they respect Jewish trauma enough not to weaponize it against us—wait never mind. They absolutely do not.

Look. Of course, as I have stated repeatedly, I do not and will never condone the circumstances in Gaza at this time. But you have to know this is wrong, right? You do understand that the tragedy facing Palestinian civilians is unconscionable and a humanitarian outrage. But you also must understand that The Holocaust was about more than just shoving starving people into overcrowded bunks, right? You understand that the Holocaust is a source of permanent and ongoing generational trauma that impacts every single Jew in the world, right? You understand that what made the Holocaust horrible was the slow descent of the society around us into a horde of hateful enemies who used our literal bodies as livestock and forced us to work building and seeing weapons and clothes for our abusers who worked us until our bodies gave out. And then they used the silver and gold fillings from our teeth, and the metal from our glasses, and the skin and fat from our bodies to make soap and weapons and leather and jewelry, right? You get how that’s something that is dangerous to misuse and reference as an outsider who lacks any sense of the weight of that trauma.

Because I’m not getting the sense you do actually understand this.

@strkid only gives a shit about Jews when they can use us a literal human shield, not unlike Hamas itself. “Don’t punish us for making college campuses demonstrably unsafe for Jewish students! You might hurt Jews too! Just like in that one time they did in a totally different protest several decades ago! All protests are exactly the same!” (Again, this is sarcasm)

You’re like the fucking Wizard of Oz begging us not to look behind the curtain so we don’t see you for the charlatan that you are. But I see right behind that curtain.

You’re not good enough at slight-of-hand to pull off the magic trick you’re attempting. You want us to care about dead Jews from several decades ago at the expense of Jewish people living through modern day antisemitism—that you are perpetuating! Because Jews who are currently alive today are telling you en masse that you are the exact kind of person who is causing the most harm to our community. Not because you support Palestine, but because you hate us.

The thing about people like @strkid is that they are perfectly ok referencing the Holocaust. They just don’t like it when we do it.

You’re a textbook example of how non-Jews use our deaths to support their own causes yet refuse to listen to us while we are alive. You are the exact person that People Love Dead Jews was written for.

I’m so disgusted by you that I don’t have time to unpack this one. And before you come at me for dismissing the Nakba, I have said before and will say again that the Nakba was an inexcusable tragedy that I condemn as much as the ongoing bombing of Gaza and Rafah.

But you want to talk about decontextualizing history? How about the Jewish exodus from the Muslim world that occurred at the exact same time as the Nakba, only three years after the Holocaust? Seems like some textbook propaganda and misinformation and one-sided sourcing and narratives to me.

Do you think that might have anything to do with why Jews at the time were so desperate to hold on to Israel? Do you think being murdered out of Europe and expelled/cleansed from the rest of SWANA/MENA might have a little something to do with the choice of fight in the ongoing Jewish calculus of fight or flight.

It certainly wasn’t a first resort. It’s not like there was an abundance of choices left in the “flight” column.

But fine. Even now, you might claim this user hasn’t really defended Hamas or acts of terror against Jews or even tried to minimize or erase Jewish relationship to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.

You’re just another fucking Hitler-loving Nazi. And for you to imply that I owe you one iota of respect or gratitude is among the most offensive things I can imagine.

2 am rant cuz I can’t sleep:

I’ve stated repeatedly that I’m pro-Palestine and pro-peace, so I obviously want a two sided, negotiated ceasefire and permanent peace for all. I’ve repeatedly stated that I do not condone the degree of heavy bombing taking place in Gaza.

But it’s currently 2:15 in the morning and I am haunted. I’m haunted by the fact that the world saw the brutal attack on Jews and celebrated. I’m haunted by the number of high l-profile celebrities who felt moved to speak out for Palestine — wearing flags and pins and signing demands for Israel to stop bombing, but who said nothing about the dead and tortured and kidnapped Jews.

Yes, what is happening in Palestine is and continues to be a tragedy.

But apparently what happened and is happening to Jews worldwide and Israelis of all religions simply isn’t. At least not enough of one. Not enough of one to move these high-profile folks to speak out for us. Not enough of a tragedy to say the names of the hostages, including one forced to give birth while kidnapped by terrorists. Not enough of a tragedy to condemn the violence happening against Jews. Not enough to speak out on behalf of a 20-year-old singer made to fear for her life because she dared to be from Israel and sing about her own trauma instead of, idk, bursting into flame or shutting up or whatever the mob wanted her to do.

No. What happens to us isn’t a tragedy. It’s a nuisance. It’s a nuisance to have to care about Jews. It gets in the way of everyone else feeling good about their “radical activism” and self-aggrandizing bravery. People of all levels and types of fame. All of whom say they only want peace and an end to pain. Yet when they mention pain, it’s always and only the Palestinian flag. When they want a ceasefire, it’s always an only in reference to Palestine. But they wouldn’t be caught dead asking for an end to Hamas or Hezbollah bombs or even acknowledging that they exist. All calls for peace involve asking Israel to lay down arms but no call for anyone attack Israel, Israelis, or Jews worldwide to do the same.

From large creators to small creators to people in day to day life, non-Jews around the world have made clear that it would be more convenient for them if we Jews just died. If we stopped ever defending ourselves or speaking up or being sad in public.

The vast majority of people speaking out would or will view this post as a justification of violence. But it’s not. It’s a condemnation of complicity from people who claim to care about peace. It is a condemnation of those who claim to be against antisemitism yet refuse to listen when Jews point out how they are contributing to and spreading more antisemitism. People and institutions worldwide have failed Jews everywhere.

Cats Blanchett

Mark Ruffalo

Billie Eilish

Viola Davis

Lena Heady

Susan Sarandon

Ava DuVernay

Hozier

Sara Ramirez

Annie Lennox

Cynthia Nixon

Angelina Jolie

Multiple UN groups and resolutions

College students and professors across the world

Friends I’ve had for 8 years who don’t even respond to messages that I have moved out of state or even spoken to me in at least five months

So many people who are so eager to read every bit of pro-Palestine news that exists and condemn every action from Israel.

And yet…

Before the bombings. Before the reprisals. Before all the violence from Israel: where were they? All these people who so desperately beg for peace (as defined by the end of Israeli aggression only): where were they when it was just dead Jews? Where were the Instagram posts and educational content and in depth analyses of Israeli trauma and history? Where were the condemnations of Hamas? Where were those who are moved to speak for anyone and everyone but Jews?

Are we really supposed to believe any of you actually want peace? When you chant for the globalization of terror tactics that traumatized a generation of Israeli Jews? When you fail to acknowledge Jewish history in any way except to minimize it?

Before the bombing campaign, where were the red carpet statement pins and gowns featuring Jewish stars?

How are we Jews anywhere in the world literally ever supposed to believe that you’re not actively cheering for our deaths? Maybe not in front of our faces, but certainly behind our backs. We know. We know you’re afraid to be less than tactful in front of us, but that you describe our rapes and murders and social exclusion and kidnappings as “unfortunate but necessary.”

I’m reminded of when Israel was first created. At a time where every Jew on earth was traumatized directly because the Holocaust firsthand, Britain left the territory of mandatory Palestine and the UN allowed for the creation of a Jewish state. And then proceeded to heckle the traumatized survivors for handling its creation poorly. The Nakba is a tragedy and an outrage and I’ll never deny that.

But…y’all are no different from the people who stood on the sidelines as Israel was first created. Why was it up to an actively traumatized people who had very recently (and after a continuous 2,000 year period of expulsions and pogroms and murders) been slaughtered on an industrial scale to somehow create a perfect and stable government in a land where people despised them?

The world needs to own up to the fact that everything that ever went wrong in Israel’s creation is a direct result of the continuous and still ongoing contempt for Jews by all the other countries that could have stepped in to help and provide Jews with a guarantee of safety at any time in the last 2,000 years in general but also since 1934 specifically. And you didn’t. Your great grandparents and grandparents and parents all didn’t do jack shit. And you are following in their footsteps. You are all doing just as they did: standing on the sidelines and heckling the Jews you don’t like for fighting back too aggressively.

But what exactly have you or anyone else done to help Jews in your communities or in Israel to not feel like caged animals forced to fight for survival? Like wild beasts you let loose for slaughter in a coliseum for your own enjoyment? At what point have you worked to provide Jews with other options? How have you made the Jews in your life feel safe or seen during this time? How have you started to deconstruct the harmful anti-Jewish bias you inherited from the people you love?

Is it ok that Netanyahu and the Likud government is bombing Palestine to the extent it is currently doing? Of course not. And I’ll never say otherwise.

But aside from yelling “hey stop it!” at Israel or “you’re complicit!” at Jews who fail to join your chanting, what exactly have you done at any point since this started to make the world safer for any of us?

Because from what I can see, the vast majority of you have done nothing. And every Jew I’ve spoken to in the last half a year has seen the exact same nothing.

Too many of you are too concerned with being on the right side of history. Most of you aren’t famous actors or musicians or whatever. Most of you are just people. History won’t remember you individually. Who knows what history will say about the movements of which you were a part? My guess is that you’ll be called passionate and outraged and sympathetic, but ultimately disorganized and misguided.

But you know who will remember you? Every Jew you’ve encountered since 10/7. We will remember each individual we saw who celebrated our death or ghosted us or made us feel unwelcome in our own lives.

We will remember you forever. And not fondly.

[cryptid-called-ash]

Discourse on the fypage got me like