#interpret as you want etc etc but jesus christ let the man KILL

[chuuyanakaahara]

how many of you can acknowledge that chuuya is not like, a pillar of morality. dude was killing people at 15 and prior. he has no qualms with it. finds it exciting to improve his skills and show off.

chuuya would make a very, very violent detective.

[nijjhar]

Rumi Forum - The Scriptures are dead letters argued by the super-dead Un... Rumi Forum - The Scriptures are dead letters argued by the super-dead University Professors whilst the living in the holy spirit, which is common sense possessed by the illiterate shepherds think through logical reasoning to brew "Logo". Religious fanatics will burn and kill each other. https://youtu.be/nzoLc-Otqho Participation in this forum is available both in person and virtually. I could not go on Forum even though, I was registered. Scriptural Reasoning (SR) is a practice where Christians, Jews, and Muslims study each other’s sacred texts. SR participants meet once a month to read short passages from their respective scriptures on a certain topic. Facilitated by a study leader, each session is an opportunity to listen and share various perspectives. SR sessions help participants reflect on a curious list of topics within the Abrahamic tradition. The result is often a deeper understanding of others and one’s own scriptures, as well as the development of strong bonds across faith communities. You can find this month's themed text pack here. We would like to thank Rose Castle Foundation for their permission to use www.scripturalreasoning.org content. This Month's Study Leader The Rev. A. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D. became the Director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) on July 1, 2021. She has served the Anglican Communion for some twenty years in many roles, on the of Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission (IATDC) and the Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO), among others. Dr. Grieb received a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion at Hollins University, a J.D. from Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, an M.Div. at Virginia Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. with Distinction in Theology at Yale University, and an LL.M. in Canon Law at Cardiff University in Wales. She taught full-time at Virginia Theological Seminary as a Professor of Biblical Interpretation and New Testament from 1994 to 2021 and continues to teach part-time. She is teaching Biblical Greek and New Testament Interpretation from 2022-23. Her book, The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness (Westminster John Knox, 2002) is widely used in seminaries. Dr. Grieb is one of the Six Preachers, chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral. She has written extensively about preaching and has preached at Episcopal parishes in the United States and at Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral. She has no knowledge why John, the Baptist, and Prophet Elijah never baptised a woman, Gentile or Samaritan. If anyone else knows, let me know, please. These University Professors of Theology teach the dead letters of the Scriptures to produce the super-blind Matt. 12v43-45 hireling Dog-Collared  Priests to work in the Mammon infested Churches such as the COE Headed by King Charles III in which the soldiers and Vice Roys who looted and killed people are proclaimed as if they have glorified our loving and merciful Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. A rich man who wanted to be Perfect was told by Christ Jesus, "Go and give away your wealth to the poor that have cheated and come back to me,", pulled a long face and went away. How much long face did King Charles III would pull? Reason logically and you will reach the Door of our Supernatural Father of our "souls" and He will let you or would become your Teacher sitting in your heart and He would be with you on your death and no questions asked. Look what the greatest War Criminals and Blasphemers, Tony Blair and Bush have done worshipping in the COE? The greatest Blasphemer War Criminals Blair and Bush will be punished by the tribal Son of Man Putin https://youtu.be/KxZKis6Hr_o Our Father God lives in His Temple if you are an honest person cheating not the simple-minded people. Even in your law, it is written that the testimony of two men, me and my Father, can be verified. I testify on my behalf because I speak logically that not a single Jew died during the Holocaust but the tribal people were misled by their Blind Guides, the Rabbis and so does the Father who sent me as Son is Omnipotent Ambassador of Father. That is why when Jesus declared in the Temple, Hitler and the British killed the Antisemitic sinner Jews outwardly unfaithful to Abraham and Yahweh whilst Super Hitler Putin will deal with Blasphemer sons of Satan who destroyed Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. https://youtu.be/GBbQAAj3l60 SOME FACTS WERE TWISTED BY THE JEWS. For the full article www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Twisted.htm My ebook has been published by Kindle. ASIN: B01AVLC9WO For a full description, my website:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Rest.htm I need IT Graphic help to finish my Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf and in Punjabi KAKHH OHLAE LAKHH:-  www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pdbook.pdf John's baptism:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf Trinity:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

[extasiswings]

Kay first of all you didn't need to go that hard on your answer jesus christ lord THE CATHOLIC IN YOU DESTROYED EVERYTHING IN ME IM GONNA BE WEEPING FOR DAYS OVER THAT BLOOD ANALOGY. and second I wanted to ask because I'm new to the Fandom and everyone and i mean EVERYONE is so so confident about canon buddie and LIKE I've been played before dude I've been through this hell hole man YOU CANT GIVE ME HOPE NOW GUYS ITS NOT NICE TO PLAY WITH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS so like how certain are we that they're gonna make them actually be together? (By the way i love love love your tumblr and your WRITING DUDEEEE ITS SO PRETTY IT MADE ME WEEP)

Well, a) I've still seen a lot of pessimism, so I wouldn't go so far as to say that everyone is super confident (however, I would say that the types of people who are confident about it is more relevant which brings me to...), b) ...look, here's the thing and I've said it at least once before so I hope that this doesn't come off as harsh or offensive in any way, but:

I've shipped a lot of ships in my time, and yes, some of those were slash ships. I've been actively queerbaited exactly twice (in the real, original meaning of the term, the ship being actively used for marketing and teasing and promotional purposes with zero intention of follow-through, not the nonsense that term has been twisted into now where people throw it around to mean "any time I personally thought these two characters should kiss and they didn't"), I've had ships that I shipped but never expected anything from because I was very aware of the fact that my desire to explore a certain dynamic did not mean that the writers were deliberately writing a queer story, and I've had ships that occupied a technically canon space (as in, actively kissed and had sex on screen and had confessions of feelings) but where characters were killed off before there could be legitimate follow-through and where the dynamic was retconned by word of God. The GREAT MAJORITY of the time when people online talk about being baited or let down by something not going canon and I go to the source material, I end up sitting there thinking "...okay, but this is at most a relationship (either between friends or enemies) with occasional garden-variety homoeroticism that people could read as queer subtext if they really wanted to, but it was clearly not intentional and was never going to be anything more than that." [This also applies to instances of, say, if a network or a show has zero queer characters, especially zero queer main characters, and/or if queerness within the show or on the network has never been handled well, there is no reason to believe that they are suddenly going to do an about face and make their main characters queer and in love, context matters].

Again, I'm not trying to be harsh, but I think that there used to be a much clearer divide between fandoms and creators and a much more prevalent attitude and recognition within fandom space that we can take crumbs and build castles (the given an inch, take a mile perspective) but ALSO that those crumbs are not necessarily representative of the reality of everything the writers or actors or producers of a particular piece of media were ever doing or intending. And I've noticed a big shift where it seems like now, as that divide has broken down, that has turned into, essentially "because I have these crumbs and they can be viewed this way, therefore that is 100% what was intended here, it was deliberate, it is the One True Correct Interpretation, and any attempt by the writers/actors/etc to clarify (or even pulling the gentle 'that wasn't what we meant but you are free to view it however you want') is a conspiracy against queer viewers." And that's just...not it.

All of that to say, I am personally confident in this particular ship going canon because I am reading the room and the very specific choices that have been made surrounding the development of these characters and of their relationship. As much as I like having fun and being a clown, I tend to be pretty realistic when it comes to when I am reading into things only what I want to see and ignoring everything that could contradict that and when the writing is on the wall and in this case...the writing is on the wall as far as I'm concerned. It's about the way they have never, since the beginning of S3, given any other path a legitimate chance. It's about the way they've doubled down at every opportunity they had to walk away from this. It's about the specific ways they chose to handle the demise of Eddie's relationship with Ana (from the implication in "make sure you're following your heart" that his heart was already somewhere else, to the shooting, to the guardianship scene, to having honest-to-god panic attacks over the thought of a future with this woman, to the specific language choice of her being the first woman that he's wanted anything to do with since Shannon), it's about the centering of Buck and of their relationship in at least one scene in every single episode since the shooting, even in an episode like 5x3 where there was very little time for it. Idk what to say, really, this just...feels different and there's only one logical place this leads and I trust the writers to follow that thread to its conclusion. Could I be wrong? Sure, I could be. But at least for right now, I don't think I am.

[And THANK YOU!]

[captainjimothycarter]

A very unfortunate Marvel comic states that where Steve is, the Avengers will form. So even when he was trapped in 1587, the Avengers sort of came to being. they just appear. So Steve, 1940s time travel, changing the timeline, and the realization that the Avengers are just sort of coming into being. Natasha with the comics origin of a 1920s birth, WWII fighter, Clint the runaway carny kid, Maximoff twins the children of holocaust victims etc. Steve changes the world, and they still stay.

I fail to see how that’s an unfortunate comic because I am in love with that idea? Steve is like hopping through time because he wants privacy. He gets maybe a day before POOF there’s Tony whose naked and clearly was in a shower beside him and just as confused. It just becomes a ridiculous thing then. But let’s go with this idea that Steve doesn’t know this? This is gonna be butchered and my own interpretations and I am so sorry OP.

Steve went back to 1946. Shortly after the events of S2 where Peggy went back to the SSR in Brooklyn.

--

The question of time travel had come up quite a few times when the dust had settled. Steve couldn’t tell you how many hours he spent discussing things with Bruce. Maybe the man had known what Steve would do, but he didn’t exactly say anything when they’d embraced and the man held on for a fraction of a second too long.  

There was no explanation for this, then. Well, there was. Peggy had told Steve he was a carer, nurturer and it stemmed from the fact of growing up sick and wanting to do more. Even when he wanted to rest, he had to do something. Even when Steve was playing her househusband, he was doing something. Even when Steve pulled the mask back on for a mission here under her insistence, he was changing some events in time. In their timeline, that is. [Not that Peggy understood much of this time travel business.]

That being said, she had to admit this was quite off. She knew the name of Steve’s team. Of his family, his friends. Tony, who was Howard’s son [something she struggled to wrap her head around.] Clint, a guy who grew up in the circus and fought with a bow and arrow? Natasha, a product of the red room and being kidnapped. [She knew about that and with Steve’s help, had already started to get involved with searching.] Then there was Bruce? A man who was part...monster and part human? Thor, who was a God.  

Not that Peggy didn’t believe Steve, it was just...hard to think of all this insane stuff so many years in the future, but that was Steve. Her Steve, coming home with an insane story she had no choice but to believe.

And the evidence was right before her.

Before both of them. Natasha Romanoff. The name had crossed Peggy’s desk in some small memo, something she almost overlooked. The second she’d read it, she called Steve to come to her office, damn the SSR, and what they thought.

Steve was there, shield and all despite how he insisted he was putting it down, but he was ready to fight. Rather than was Jack or Kirby or a Hydra bastard who won’t go down.  

Side eyeing the few agents just staring at him, Steve frowned at the paper that Peggy pushed towards him. He read the sentence. A document, a birth certificate that had been recovered from what they thought used to be an old Red Room facility.  

The question was, were they meant to find it, or was it placed there on purpose?

Regardless -  

“I’m going,” Steve told her, sitting down heavily, the chair creaking as he stared at the name on the paper, unblinking. Natasha’s last words echoed in his head. He could do it. He could give her a better life.  

“Go where exactly, Steve? The SSR has accommodated the building. There’s nothing left.” Peggy was trying to be understanding of a situation she didn’t quite understand, but she also knew her Steve. He had that look that told her he wasn’t going to listen to reason.  

“I know them too. I know her. I have to try something. See something the agents won’t,” he insisted, rubbing at his temples. “Bucky, then Natasha. The Maximoff twins...” He muttered off a series of names Peggy didn’t fully understand either.

“Okay, I’m going too.” Steve wouldn’t have it any other way.

There was something. Natasha. The familiar redhead curled under a floorboard, skin, and bones, and sickly. So sickly, it made a childhood Steve look healthy. She’d heard the SSR coming and hid under the floorboards. The agents, the idiots had missed everything. Peggy quietly chewed them out while Steve and Bucky had pulled Natasha out and got her warm and boarding the plane. Least the agents had something to look sheepish about.

“She has no family,” Steve said, looking at the sleeping Natasha in the hospital bed. “Her parents were killed. If we put her in the system, they’ll find her. She has things to unlearn.”

Peggy stood beside him, holding his hand and let Steve speak. “I’m aware. I read the reports. I’ve dealt with them before.” She paused and squeezed his hand. “We’ll take her in. We have no other choice.”

That’s how Natasha came back into Steve’s life, from a scared child who refused to sleep or eat without orders, to a happy, bouncing kid within a few months time.

--

It was Peggy’s turn to wake her fiance up at 2 in the morning, whispering in his ear as she settled on the bed.

Steve had rolled over, frowning. Peggy was still dressed for work. She’d just gotten home. She looked exhausted. No, it looked like she’d been crying.

“Pegs? What’s wrong? Darling.” He sat up and turned the light on, bundling Peggy into his arms. Seeing one of the strongest people in his life breakdown like this just practically broke his heart.  

Peggy held him close, a reminder that Steve was alive, he was here, he was hers. She couldn’t risk affording to fall apart. “I got a call from Dugan right before I was leaving...” She told him about the call. How Dugan told her about their recent patrols had lead to finding kid’s footprints everywhere. How it took them weeks to find the kids. Kids, Pegs. Kids! Kids with weird powers. Speed and...telekinesis. They called themselves Wanda and Pietro.

She recognized the name almost at once, whispering their surname because Steve had told her so much. They were victims of being in a camp and forgotten about when everyone got out. The system missed them because they were kids. They’d been barely surviving these last year or so on their own. The Howling Commandos were flying in now.  

There was no question about it. They were taking them in. They were going to raise them with Natasha. They were going to do the right thing, even if it was hard.

They’d have to move, get a bigger place. And if Steve thought what was happening was going to happen, they’d damn well need a farm.  

Maybe he could get Peggy a fuzzy cow. She always laughed at those...

--

It was unnerving to watch the people you once considered family sitting across you as kids, calling you dad. Dad. He liked that name. The sediment warmed his heart. Bucky had to move in just to help with the kids: Wanda, Pietro, and Natasha. Peggy was busy full time at Shield and Steve always was there for her and how busy she was.  

They did wound up moving to a good section of land in the country side. It was a bit longer trip to the city, but it fit their lifestyle. It was perfect.

Until Howard barged into their home, one Sunday morning, Peggy was sitting on the counter, watching Steve cook breakfast and nursing her coffee in the early slumbering morning. The kids had yet to get up yet.  

“Jesus Christ,” Peggy cursed, nearly dropping her coffee when her best friend barged in, a wild look in his eyes. He looked frantic, in tears. “Howard, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Where’s Jarvis?”

She sat the man down and kneeled before him, Steve putting the omlettes aside to kneel on Howard’s other side.

The man opened and closed his mouth several times before he could speak. “I have a son.”

Steve’s eyes widened, sharing a look with Peggy. No. Tony wasn’t supposed to be born for – god a damn good while. But far as he knew Tony was Howard’s only child.

“You have a son?” Peggy whispered, running her hand through Howard’s thick hair to keep him calm. “How did you find out? Did she call?”

Howard’s head shook. “No. I-I-I...She dropped him off this morning with a note. Said she didn’t want to be a mother. I left him with Jarvis. I-I didn’t know what else to do. I-I don’t know what to do.”

“I think you know what you need to do,” Steve said gentle as possible, clapping his friend on the shoulder. Howard’s cheeks burned a bright pink. “You need to step up. You can’t let Jarvis care for this kid. We’ll help you. What’s his name?”

“Tony.”

Steve stilled, feeling Peggy’s eyes on him. Impossible. The Avengers were slowly forming together.

--

Two years.

That’s how long it took for the circus to come into town, something Steve had been waiting for, in the back of his mind. In those two years, he’d started home schooling the kids with Bucky’s help. They’d built a beautiful farm with two fluffy cows, a herd of goats under Bucky’s insistence, and a large garden that Steve shared with the neighborhood.

When he’d first saw the flyer and a flash of blonde and ginger hair running through town putting them up, Steve had his suspicions. It wasn’t until he snuck into the camp sight that he saw them. Sure enough there were the Barton Brothers. They were practically kids. He’d never met Barney beforehand, but he knew how important Barney was to Clint, even if he insisted they were bad for each other.

“So what are you going to do?” Peggy asked, sipping on a red wine when Steve told her about who he saw. “We can’t leave them there obviously. Not when it’s gonna end bad for them.”

Steve paused and considered it, sharing a look with Bucky who shrugged. He watched Natasha trade a card with Wanda, listening to Pietro pouting about losing at poker. Damn Howard for teaching them. Speaking of – Howard was somewhere in their house putting a baby Tony to bed. The man had stayed far too late again.

“I’m gonna kidnap them.”

All Peggy could do was smirk at Steve. She expected nothing less than the dramatics.

Turns out, kidnapping the Barton brothers were easier said than done. There was fights, scuffing. Steve wounded up with a broken nose from Barney’s elbow and Peggy had bite marks on her wrist from Clint. And the kids learned a new series of curse words.  

It wasn’t until Clint saw it was Captain America saving him, did he comply. Because the circus life sucked, but they were better off anywhere than here.  

“I told you he’d save us!” Clint told Barney smugly as they sat in the back of the car. Peggy and Steve’s smile were hidden in the dark as they drove without their lights on.  

“Gotta say...I didn’t think it happen. You’re still wrong. He didn’t save us. You agreed to go with him.” Barney pointed out and Clint huffed.

“You can just get out. I’m staying with them.”

“And let you have all the fun? No way.”

--

Legally, on paper, Howard and Peggy had worked so that it said that they were the adopted parents of the Maximoff Twins, Natasha, and now the Barton Brothers. A full house on a chaotic day. Unofficially, they were Tony’s godparents under the Jarvis’ of course.  

Steve was still trying to figure this out as the years melted by and his and Peggy’s work as Director [unoffical for Steve], piled on. The Avengers were together, to a point. They were coming to him. They were finding him. He got to make due with his promise of giving them a better life.  

Even if it was an insane life.  

The last he expected was to literally run into Bruce.  

That is to say a toddler Bruce Banner who had a series of bruises that looked like a handprint on his sides and wearing only a diaper.  

“What the hell?” Steve breathed, kneeling down to pick up Bruce. He couldn’t explain how, but he knew that this was Bruce Banner. Maybe it was the eyes. It was late at night, Peggy had gone home an hour ago. He’d told her he needed to finish up some report for Phillips, then he’d be home.

“Where did you come from, hm?” Steve asked the crying toddler, rubbing over his back and rocking him side to side. He wrapped the toddler in his jacket and cradled him, frowning as he came down to the labs to find a man passed out, a bottle in hand. He could smell the alcohol from here. Hearing Bruce’s whimper from under his jacket told Steve all he needed to know.

Peggy wasn’t fond of being woken up at 2 in the morning but for this, she’d give it an excuse. Howard and her met Steve at HQ, where he sat locked in her office, bouncing the sleepy Bruce. She met Steve with clothes and a bottle for Bruce, courtesy of Howard. Howard had gone straight to the labs to ‘discuss’ things with their newest scientist.

“I found her,” Peggy mused, flipping a page over to show Steve. “That’s his wife. This little one’s mother.” Her tone said all. And Steve’s heart clenched. His mother had been in the same situation.

“Pegs, its...Bruce.” Was all he whispered as the toddler guzzled the bottle down, like it was his last meal and knowing his situation, God knows when he’d eaten last.  

“Your...friend? The...?” She eyed Bruce, skeptical.

“Not now, but later he will be. Or would be. There’s an accident, attempting to recreate my serum but I-I won’t...allow it. We can’t allow him to go back. The systems messed up...”

Peggy just wore a fond smile, kissing her husband on the lips. “What’s one more, Steven? He needs our help and we’re not going to let him go into a system that will hurt him. Well, come here, Brucey.”

--

There was one more.

Just one more and Steve was on edge. Thor. How would he show up? How would they come together?  

Wanda and Pietro had been growing in their powers and gotten ahold of them. Natasha's skills from the Red Room had proved useful in many situations but she never used them for selfish needs. Clint and Barney were as siblings went, bickering, but a new love for each other was there and appreciation. Their relationship forever changed. Plus, Clint’s obvious crush on Natasha was adorable. Bruce and Tony took to one another like fish to water. Tony was obsessed with his new friend and wanted to show him everything. Often, they’d find the pair curled up in the farm house, amongst the hay, asleep.  

Howard, as Steve had seen was an amazing parent. Steve had made sure of it. He wasn’t going to abuse this Tony and ruin him. Howard had even given up alcohol. Not only given it up, but Stark Industries focused on the enviornment, not selling weapons. Steve was sure Peggy had nothing to do with that.

They were all together, another family, but in a new sense. Just the question was...where was Thor?

The avengers was incomplete without him.

The answer came one winter night. There was a storm outside, thunder and lightenign clashing across the sky. There was something odd about it. That made Steve’s hair stand on end. He’d sent the kids to bed early, his tone telling them not to question him. He refused to move away from the window, holding a coffee mug and staring at the flashing clouds.

“Is that him?” Peggy asked, layin a hand on the small of his back, rubbing in small circles. “Is his arrival always so...much?”

Steve laughed, unable to help himself. “You have no idea.” He kissed her head, stroking her newly graying hair away from her face. “And yes. That’s him. I’m sure of it. We just don’t know...how he will -”

Steve’s answer came with a lightning strike that blew out the side of the barn. Bright lightning filled the sky and he had to cover his eyes, cursing. Grabbing at his shield, he ran out to the smoldering barn, trying not to think about how he just finished painting it.

Peggy was right behind him, her nightgown fluttering in the wind. She gasped at the...teenager passed out amongst the burning hay. Clearly, something different about him was a god. The hammer that he so carried laid beside him. Steve tensed before picking it up, feeling a shiver run down his spine at the power pulsing through him.  

“Here,” he whispered to Peggy without thinking, passing it to him. “Don’t let the kids find that or Shield. We have to keep this under wraps. We don’t know how he’ll be.”  

Not hearing Peggy speak, he turned around to see Peggy holding the manner with a confused look, it only grew at Steve’s bright smile as he hoisted the God in his arms.

“What? It’s just a hammer.”

“No, no darling it’s far from just a hammer. Only those worthy can hold it. I knew it.”  

Peggy wanted to be annoyed at Steve for not telling her but instead, she laughed.

--

Steve can’t say he was surprised when a familiar figure appeared in his bedroom where Thor laid asleep. He’d just stepped out to check on the kids and Peggy [who was now asleep on the pull out couch], stopping to grab a wet cloth to dab at Thor’s skin.

“Frigga.” He whispered, pausing at the sight of her. She smiled, as if greeting a friend before hugging him tightly as one would.

“My Captain,” she breathed, cupping his face as they pulled away. “Do not look surprise. Of course, I remember you and know what you have done and will be and what you are doing now.” That didn’t surprise Steve, the blonde just shaking his head. “Thank you for looking after my son. We are...unsure of what happened, not quite yet.”

She sat on the bed and held Thor’s hand, Steve sitting beside the bed. He looked up to see a sleepy Peggy in the doorway. Standing up, he brought her inside and sat her down. “Peggy, this is Frigga. Thor’s mother.”

“I’m starting to wonder if I’m not the one that was frozen and this is all an illusion,” she murmured, still accepting the hug from Frigga.

“The great Carter. You are as great as a warrior as time as whispered about. Lady Sif has spoken of great things about you and how she was with you during the War.” At their confusion, Frigga did not elaborate. “Can I ask a favor of you Great Carter and Captain Rogers? There is...There are situations going place in Asgard. Situations I do not need my son getting involved in. He will be safe here, on Midgard for some time. He will have access to his powers, to his divinity, but he will be safe. Heimdall will watch him. But I do wish for him to be under your eye. You will protect him and he can learn lots from you.”

How could they say no to her? That was...a sin, if you asked Steve. How could he say no? Thor needed their help. They were going to help.

No matter what it took.

“Of course,” Peggy whispered. “He’ll be safe here.”

--

They were together. The Avengers. Their makeshift family was together and growing, and changing time. The circumstances were different, but Steve promised himself he’d give them a good life. He just didn’t think it be like this.

Where he was their parental figure, where he was with Peggy, the love of his life, owning a farm, helping Peggy with SHIELD, helping raise a family.

They were together. The Avengers would have the life each one deserved that didn’t mean a life of harship and recovery.

[tigerdrop]

ngl but you are legitimately one of my fav blogs around here i love your thoughts where are the 3 paragraphs you spared about benrey and gordons relationship unless u dont want to share it its ok anyway i just wanted to come on here to compliment you thats all

eheh ok well. heres an insane amount of words about Funy Half Life Characters

i mean like the thing i think about the most is how exactly they deal with, like, everything that Happened between them. like its benreys fault he got his arm cut off, man. even if (theoretically, in my personal headcanon) benrey doesnt exactly Grasp a lot of the shit he did that pissed gordon off (like ok taking the whole “what happened to your arm???” thing at face value, instead of as the (obvious) joke that it is? it makes me feel like he didnt understand the consequences of his actions as much as.....like.....somebody who Gets human shit would), they still gotta like talk about that shit eventually if they wanna get to know each other as anything more than enemies, or frenemies, or “dudes with a fragile detente in place who sometimes play video games and fuck”

and like.....i feel like the way benrey doesnt Get things isnt necessarily, like, entirely in good faith either......if that makes sense.....he seems like he deliberately doesnt Get things, and he can be kind of malicious about what he decides to wrap his head around and what he doesnt. like, hes deliberately obtuse, bu then sometimes hes actually obtuse, and i think that can be difficult to deal with as like......a real trait, instead of just a “haha funny improv character” trait.

his method of just completely dropping a topic if he doesnt know how to riff off it/make it funny (as an improv thing) is also something that is not super conducive to building a Real Relationship if you go full “death of the author” and interpret it as, just, not giving a shit about topics that dont interest him/are emotionally difficult

and gordon is like. Neurotic. hes anxious, hes depressed, hes got PTSD, hes graying at 27, etc. (okay like 2 of those things are just headcanons but whatever, they fit.) he probably isnt coping well with jack shit after black mesa! (and thats, yknow, how i write him.) before he can handle, like, a capital r-Relationship, he really needs to work on his own shit instead of fucking a dude with a massive crush on him. but, uhhh, too late, lmao. you work with what youve got. and, like, theres a lot of......working around each other that they would need to learn how to do if they ever wanted to be anything more than “friends with benefits who sometimes feel a certain way about each other”.

benreys got like that distinctly non-normative way of viewing the world and interacting with people (and, you know, i know that this is just a personal interpretation of an amalgam of behaviors primarily intended to be funny, but im already in this deep so why pretend like im not taking this a little seriously) and he also seems like he just gets a kick out of fucking with gordon.

and gordon thinks his off-beat behavior is so fucking funny, which is like, the foundation of why he likes benrey so much (and come on. weve all watched the same shit. weve all seen how much hes like “its not like im worried about benrey or anything but also oh god where the fuck is benrey”), but again, when theyre not, like, forced to be around each other by circumstance, that means that theyve actually gotta........learn to bend around each other. theyve gotta tear down whatever stupid acts theyre putting on and figure out how to just be Genuine with each other

and thats why i think it would take a good long while post-canon for them to figure each other out and really develop solid Feelings-feelings for each other. that shits hard. they clearly both like each other a lot but they also clearly love getting under each others skin (which is what i, personally, love about them). i like writing shit where theyre committing to the bit, right? putting on an act, playing the game.

being vulnerable is a lot fucking harder and thats why im starting that shit with benrey and gordon getting crossfaded and gordons Massive Emotional Repression being torn down and just letting all the bad feelings out. its gotta get worse before it gets better. benrey tried to kill him man. even if it may not have meant the same thing to benrey that it did to gordon, they still gotta, like, deal with it, man

anyway jesus christ im sorry this is way too long and probably doesnt even make sense but (shrug)

[graciousheaven]

WHAT DOES FEAR DO TO US

Fear is a feeling we all experience in life. It usually streams from the uncertainty that gnaws our minds whenever we face a difficult situation or when there is a threat to our wellbeing and safety. Fear can also be induced by worry about the potential consequences our choices or decisions may have on our future - this is the fear of the unknown, triggered by the fact that we do not see the future, and no one knows what tomorrow has in store. Although human beings can make projections and plans, one can never affirm with certitude that everything will turn out exactly as planned. For the Lord alone rules over all He made - as the Scripture says, "You may make plans, but God directs your actions." (Proverbs 16:9).��We never know what tomorrow will look like. But the one thing we do know is that every day brings its load of troubles.

Although suffering and hardship are part of our life, just the thought of these often fills people with fear and anxiety. But many people are unaware of the dangerous consequences fear can have on their lives. Knowing the damage that fear can cause to us, our Lord commands us not to let fear be part of our lives but to instead trust in Him. The Lord says in Isaiah 41:10, “Do not be afraid – I am with you! I am your God – let nothing terrify you! I will make you strong and help you; I will protect you and save you.”

Depending on their situations, people may experience different types of fear: fear of failing, fear of being criticized, fear of reprisal, fear of getting hurt, fear of rejection or persecution, fear of losing someone or something etc. Every type of fear can have a dangerous effect on our spiritual life. Sometimes people do things that violate the will of God by fear of others. It is usually the case when there is certain dominance and oppression going on: the oppressed does not have the freedom to do what is right because at any time they may get hurt either emotionally or physically by their oppressors. They fear for their lives and so choose to satisfy the will of these instead of obeying God's commands.

The Lord says in Matthew 10:28, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell."

We can also experience fear when exposed to a new environment. This is where uncertainty kicks in and fills our brain with fear – fear of the unknown - because we are concerned about the view other people may have of our person. The thought that our actions can be misunderstood by them or that they may not like us makes us tremble with fear. Do everything for God's glory and trust Him in all you do. Never be afraid of losing your face when you seek God's glory in what you are called to do. Psalms 25:12 tells us: “Those who have reverence for the Lord will learn from Him the path they should follow.” "Reverence for the Lord gives confidence and security to a man and his family. [...] Reverence for the Lord is a fountain of life." (Proverbs 14:26-27)

 There are also circumstances where, although the environment is not new to us, we may not be sure how others are going to interpret our actions; we have no clue how they are going to react towards us and fear surrounds us. This type of fear can sometimes lead us into wrongdoing. It is very important for us to always seek to do the will of the Lord and to trust ourselves to Him in order to avoid being caught in sinful actions. The Scripture says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way.” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “With faithfulness and love He leads all who keep his covenant and obey his commands.” (Psalms 25:10)

One can experience fear - fear of death- when diagnosed with an incurable or deadly disease. Oftentimes, people give up fighting. No matter what you are suffering from, never give up the fight. The Scripture tells us: "Your will to live can sustain you when you are sick, but if you lose it, your last hope is gone." (Proverbs 18:14). People also experience fear when their beliefs or opinions are seen by others differently. Some people do not have the courage, for example, to affirm their faith in Christ because of fear of being rejected, insulted or persecuted. But as Christians, you should not let fear win you hearts. "For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, 'Father! my Father!' God's spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for his people, and we will also posses with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory." (Romans 8:15-17). We should always look up to Christ our Lord - in Him we find peace and assurance, in Him we find joy and safety. Christ is the Hope of all glory. He tells us in John 14:27, "Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid."

We are not to fear the world or its threats and violence against us. Otherwise we may find ourselves seeking to please it and trying to conform ourselves to its standards. We must submit ourselves to the will of God and do what pleases Him even if that costs us our lives. Our goal is not to please the world but to live as God's commands us to; we are to seek his glory. So do not let fear steal your peace and drive you away from the right path. Be hopeful in the Lord at all times and trust yourself to Him and do not be discouraged by the way people treat you. The Lord our Saviour says through his Apostle Peter: “Even if you should suffer for doing what is right, how happy you are! Do not be afraid of anyone, and do not worry. But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honour Him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are insulted, those who speak evil of your good conduct as followers of Christ will be ashamed of what they say. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if this should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3:13-17). Our Lord also says in Matthew 10:38-39, "Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples. Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it."

There are also circumstances where people experience the fear of being abused or disgraced and accept to do things that defile God's commands. People who struggle to counter the waves of emotional abuse that they constantly face for example experience fear in their lives; they are filled with anxiety. People also experience fear when facing a situation where there is a risk that things could escalate and potentially expose them to harm. This happens for example when there is instability where we live. We all experience fear many times in life, although our Lord told us not to worry. People often worry about their belongings or their lives. Our belongings cannot save us - we are not to depend on them or to envy anything that belongs to the world. Our Lord commands us in Philippians 4:8, "Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable." For "the world and everything in it that people see and want is passing away. but those who do the will of God live for ever." (1 John 2:17). And there is nothing one can do to change the number of days allotted to them by the Lord. No one can oppose God's plans, whether these bring them suffering or rejoicement. Our destiny was set by the Lord our God long time before time even began. Fear can never make a change to it; it instead adds to our load of troubles. Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: "Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking Him with a thankful heart. And God's peace, which is beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7)

It is always dangerous to let fear fill our heart: when people are afraid to stand for their rights for example, they let others stand in their way and sometimes accept to do things that contradict God's will. Take for instance someone in an abusive relationship - in this situation the choices of the abused are narrowed down and restricted to the sole expectations laid upon them by their abuser. In order to satisfy this, the abused may do things that violate God's commands. If you are a victim of bully, persecution or any form of abuse, remember what the Lord says. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

The Lord Almighty is the one to be feared. But the one thing many people fail to understand is what it means to fear the Lord.

When we talk about fear of the Lord, we need to understand that it is a healthy fear, not in the same sense that we fear a danger. It is about having reverence for the Lord, to honour Him by making sure that all we do, our thoughts and lifestyle are acceptable to God. It means to stand in awe of the Lord, to obey his teachings, to worship only Him, to honour his Holy name, to live for his glory because the Lord alone is God; He is holy and He created us for this purpose - to bring glory to his holy name.

Fear of the Lord keeps us in obedience to God's commands - as the Scripture says, "Whoever fears the Lord walks upright, but those who despise Him are devious in their ways." (Proverbs 14:2). A God-fearing person strives to please the Lord in all they do; they put their trust in the Lord and remain faithful to Him. They do not think up evil; instead, they align their actions, their deeds and thoughts with what the Lord requires of them. They avoid to do things that can stir up the Lord’s anger. They are confident and hopeful in the Lord; fear does not subdue their hearts.

The Lord knows what we are made of and what impact fear can have on our lives. He told us not to let anything terrify us and not to fear human beings like us. In John 14:27 the Lord says: “Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.”

Unfortunately, we often let fear overwhelm our hearts. There are times where we do not make good decisions because of fear. Fear influences our judgement and often leads us into wrongdoing. This happens for example when people worry about what others might say or think about them being in a specific situation: they do not want others to see their failure or their inability to afford something; they do not want to be judged or despised. As a result, they succumb to the temptation while trying to make things look attractive in the sight of others. The Scripture tells us: "It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe." (Proverbs 29:25)

Fear can also divert people from the path of life. We see people for example who are more concerned about their career or business that they have no time for Christ. People chase their dreams and spend zero time with God because they worry about tomorrow.

The Lord says in Matthew 12:34, "Do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings." Trust in the Lord at all times; seek his guidance and wisdom. 

Fear can restrain us or push us too early into action: there are moments where we act too early because of fear and mess things up and the impact is irreversible. Because of fear king Saul acted foolishly and sinned against God when the Philistines assembled to fight the Israelites at Michmash. Samuel had instructed Saul: "You will go ahead of me to Gilgal, where I will meet you and offer burnt sacrifices and fellowship sacrifices. Wait there until I come and tell you what to do." (1 Samuel 10:8)

"Saul was still at Gilgal, and the people with him were trembling with fear. He waited seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him to do, but Samuel still had not come to Gilgal. The people began to desert Saul, so he said to them, 'Bring me the burnt sacrifices and the fellowship sacrifices.' He offered a burnt sacrifice, and just as he was finishing, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him and welcome him, but Samuel said, 'What have you done?' Saul answered, 'The people were deserting me, and you had not come when you said you would; besides that the Philistines are gathering at Michmash. So I thought, 'The Philistines are going to attack me here at Gilgal, and I have not tried to win the Lord's favour.' So I felt I had to offer a sacrifice.' 'That was a foolish thing to do,' Samuel answered. 'You have not obeyed the command the Lord your God gave you. If you had obeyed, He would have let you and your descendants rule over Israel for ever. But now your rule will not continue. Because you have disobeyed Him, the Lord will find the kind of man He wants and make him ruler of his people." (1 Samuel 13:7-14)

Many people experience a similar fate in their lives; not that of a dethroned king, but that of someone who rushes to find a rapid solution when troubles rush in. They do not have the patience to wait for the Lord to fight for them because they are afraid to lose. And by doing so they sin against the Lord and ruin all what God has in store for them. It is important for us to always draw a clear line between our fear and our judgment. What we see or think may not necessarily concord with the reality. We need to rely on the Lord for help whenever we face trouble; we should not let fear lead us to sin. One thing we must know is that the Devil likes to fill our minds with lies that strike our hearts with such feelings as fear, doubt and worry in order to make us lose faith in Christ.

The Lord says in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvellous things that you know nothing about.” What a promise!

There are also moments where we take action to deal with a situation, but we do not choose the right time to act all because of fear. We steer the wheel to turn right or left way before we reach the turning point, which simply means the fear causes us to act too early, but later on when real troubles emerge we are unable to counter them.

Fear can also lead to passiveness in the face of a danger, which often has a painful outcome. We ought to know that even if our life is as stake we should never violate God's commands by remaining passive. When we abstain from doing the right thing because we want to remain alive, we sin against God. As the Scripture says, "Those who do not do the good they know they should do are guilty of sin." (James 4:17) And our Lord also tells us in Matthew 16:25, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

There is passiveness when people abstain from taking action, although they are aware it would be the right thing to do. Passiveness in certain circumstances can be reinforced by the fear that any attempt to conform ourselves to the will of God may encourage our enemy to harm us. It is the case for example in any relationship where someone is in emotional distress because of the abuse they face, but are unwilling to take action because they may risk their life or that of their loved ones. They are afraid to do what is right in God's sight because they have been threatened or blackmailed by their abuser.

This situation also applies to any given circumstances where a person is forced to do unlawful tasks for someone else's benefit. The threats they receive increase the fear they experience. The abuser, knowing the vulnerability of their victim expose them to more harm and force them to do things that violate God's commands.

Whatever situation you face in life, always obey God's commands, keep your hopes in the Lord and trust in Him. Do not let fear lead you into damnation. As the Bible tells us, "Obey the Lord, and you will live longer. The wicked die before their time. The hopes of good people lead to joy, but wicked people can look forward to nothing." (Proverbs 10:27-28) "Happy is the person who honours the Lord, who takes pleasure in obeying his commands." (Psalms 112:1)

Fear can do us more harm than we think. We should never let the Devil strike our minds with his lies. Such lies fill our hearts with fear. We always need to remember what the Lord our God told us. There is no other remedy for fear but Christ - nothing in this life, no human being can dissipate our fear. Only in Christ can one find safety and comfort. Turn to Him for safety. The Lord our God says: “Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

The Lord rules supreme over all creation. The wicked may grow strong but the Lord destroys them all; no one is above his power. The Lord is constantly there to help us when we call to Him. When we put our trust in God, our fears dash away; they do not have a hold on us because our Lord surrounds us with his own peace. The Lord says: "Call to Me in times of troubles; I will save you, and you will praise Me." (Psalms 50:15) The Lord is our refuge. We need not fear any danger. Every day of our life brings its own challenges and it is only by trusting our Lord that we can overcome fear. Christ alone is our strength – when we are weak the Lord is strong; He fights our battles. He never lets us down – from his throne in Heaven, the Lord constantly watches over us. He knows our worries and all what we go through. When we humble ourselves and let his mighty hands guide us in life, the Lord Almighty drowns our fears and walks us through oceans waves; He fills us with confidence, hope, strength and happiness and surrounds us with peace.

Whether you are in a situation of uncertainty or there is a change required to reshape your life but you are filled with fear and anxiety; whether you are going through episodes of emotional distress, coupled with threats to your life and that of your loved ones; whatever trial you face in life, do not be afraid! Trust yourself to the Lord and He will always be with you – "The Lord is with you as long as you are with Him. If you look for Him, He will let you find Him, but if you turn away, He will abandon you." (2 Chronicles 15:2)

The Lord promised to always be with us if we honour Him and obey his commands. What a treasure!

As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “If God is with us, who can be against us? Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below – there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31, 35, 38-39)

Never let people use you against your will to do dirty things because you are scared to lose your life. Have reverence for the Lord. Do not let fear imprison you and bring damnation upon your soul because you want to please men. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot afterwards do anything worse." Says the Lord in Luke 12:4

Trust yourself to the Lord, honour Him and be faithful to Him. Seek Him, cry out to Him.

"Whoever goes to the Lord for safety, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty, can say to Him, 'You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in You I trust.' He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care; his faithfulness will protect and defend you. You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kill in daylight. A thousand may fall dead beside you, ten thousand all round you, but you will not be harmed. You will look and see how the wicked are punished." (Psalms91:1-8)

“Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that He will lift you up in his own time. Leave all your worries with Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

[makeste]

killing is not so easy as the innocent believe

or, some follow-up thoughts on Hawks, and chapter 265.

you guys this chapter has got people in some kind of way though. myself included lol.

it’s never a good thing when I get an ask like this on a Wednesday. and SURE ENOUGH, lmao. hang in there anon we’re in this together.

I love how all three of these asks seem to be implying that Hawks is basically toast. death certificate all but signed and notarized. which is reasonable to be fair!

regarding Machia though, after giving it some thought, the fact that he was mentioned when he didn’t have to be leads me to believe that Fatgum is correct, and he will not be making an appearance. it’s possible this is just the manga attempting to catch us off guard, but if Horikoshi wanted to do that, he could have just as easily bided his time and made no mention of him at all until he suddenly came barging out of his hidden basement room at an inopportune moment. going out of his way to say “hey remember Gigantomachia? yes well he is in sleep mode at the moment so not to worry” is kind of a waste of time unless it really is true. could be wrong on this though!

regarding the voice recorder/communication/mystery device thing, I now have a brand new ridiculous theory on that thanks to a chat with @blessedgirthma​, but more on that shortly. 

now then, let’s talk a bit more (or, to be honest, a lot more) about Hawks.

lol y’all I am being called out. but in seriousness, this is honestly one of my favorite things about doing the recaps though. the fact that my reactions are recorded for posterity for better or worse. the thing is, when I’m actually reading the chapter for the first time, it’s a complete rollercoaster lol. it’s just whiplash reactions to stuff (which is why 90% of it is dumb jokes because that is my honest instinctive reaction to 90% of everything) and speculating wildly on the spot. and a lot of times it is way off.

one of the things that particularly impressed me about this latest chapter is the fact that Horikoshi was genuinely able to manipulate my emotions so effectively and make me so anxious about the fates of both of these characters in the heat of the moment. not every writer can do that! in fact it’s pretty rare for a shounen manga in particular to actually get me to really start doubting and wondering whether a character is actually going to die. because let’s be real guys, it’s a rarity. especially with this particular series. and even when people do die, they come back as OFA ghosts, or they’re brought back to life as Kurogiri, or they never died to begin with and they’re currently trying to kill Hawks, etc. so on top of the shounen manga tropes, we also have comic book “no one is ever truly dead” tropes. so yeah.

so the point I’m leading up to here is that I don’t think Hawks is actually going to die. I know it’s ridiculous; I know he was just set on fire and isn’t looking too hot (ha) right now, but again. it’s a shounen manga. other characters have survived (1) breaking their arms a dozen times, (2) having holes of all shapes and sizes pierced through their lungs, (3) everything All Might and AFO did to each other at Kamino jesus christ, (4) having their entrails spilled out, (5) being crushed by a water tower, (6) pissing Todoroki off during the climax of Heroes Rising, (6) being blown up from the inside out by a quirk, and (7) having their eye sliced open and being blasted through a building and falling fifty feet from the sky onto the hood of a car while on fire. and this is far from an exhaustive list. this is an off-the-top-of-my-head list. yeah. so neither Hawks nor Twice is actually dying if this is anything to go by.

now then. I said I was going to talk about Hawks, so let’s talk. first off, I just want to make it clear that I’m not part of the pro-Hawks faction, or the pro-Villains faction, or whatever. I’m in neither of those factions, or both of them. or whatever you want to call it. basically I love Twice and I love Dabi and I love Hawks. and recent events have not changed this at all, except perhaps to make me love them even more. but anyway, just wanted to put that on the record. and yes, I told Dabi to set Hawks on fire, and I would say it again too, because Dabi setting Hawks on fire potentially saved both Hawks and Twice, so yeah. homicidal though it may have been, it was good timing all the same, Dabi.

so Hawks! let’s talk about what actually happened in this chapter. “um Hawks tried to kill Twice, is what happened.” well, not quite! what actually happened is that Hawks said he was going to kill Twice. and then... he didn’t.

lol, yeah. eyeroll-inducing technicality there, I know. wishful thinking, naive, willfully disregarding what we actually saw in favor of trying to support my own interpretation of the character. absolutely that’s what it is! but since we all acknowledge that, might as well continue down this line of thinking and see where it leads. so indulge me if you will.

so. three things:

(1) Hawks is a spy. he lies. he lies all the time. when Horikoshi wants us to know what he’s actually thinking, he shows us.

so naturally the reason I bring this up is just to point out the fact that throughout all of chapters 263, 264, and 265, we have not actually seen a single one of Hawks’s thoughts (assuming Caleb is correct in his translation of 264). he’s making speeches, he’s trying to plead his case to Jin, and we see a ton of Jin’s thoughts. but none of Hawks’s. not so much as an ‘I was afraid of this...’ or ‘his quirk is too dangerous, I can’t let a single one of the clones slip through’ or any of your typical run-of-the-mill fight narration we might normally expect to see for a scene like this. there’s nothing. and what this tells me is that Hawks’s words may not in fact line up with what he’s actually thinking.

(2) Hawks is hesitating. we know how fast he is. hell, even if we didn’t, this chapter would be all the evidence we need. but we do in fact have plenty of other evidence.

these things are deadly. each one is solid and we’ve seen he’s capable of using them like bladed weapons. if he wanted to, he could stab Twice through the heart in the blink of an eye. look at the precision he used to tear his mask open (to distinguish the real Twice from the clones) without actually harming him. he wouldn’t even have to move. but he is deliberately holding back and trying to stop Twice in other ways -- by pleading with him (“I don’t want to fight you”), hitting him with a disabling blow, and finally by pinning him down and trying to intimidate him.

but then he just sits there.

saying he has no choice. holding the feather knife above him. but he doesn’t actually do it. and okay, maybe it’s because he truly is fond of Twice, as we know, and so he’s giving him the chance to say his last words or something. but what was it he said just a few pages before this one, though? “we eliminate villains with haste”? I don’t know about you, but I for one sure wasn’t seeing any haste in those last few pages. the man who goes too fast, huh. I’m just saying.

but maybe he was just psyching himself up to do it. maybe he would have gone through with it on the very next page if Dabi hadn’t intervened. maybe. but you know what though? that hesitance -- the fact that he was so conflicted despite supposedly believing that he’s doing the right thing, and despite being groomed by the shadier elements of hero society since childhood to make this precisely kind of decision -- to me, that does indicate that Hawks is not a killer by nature. he’s battling with himself right now. he’s desperate. he doesn’t want to go through with it; he resists the act; and then crucially, right at the decisive moment, Horikoshi prevents us from seeing whether or not he actually would have done it.

(3) and what about that? it’s interesting that this question is one which has come up over and over ever since the disappearance of Best Jeanist, isn’t it? the question of just how far Hawks is actually willing to go. the question of whether or not, when push comes to shove, he will make the cutthroat decision. will Hawks kill for the greater good? Horikoshi poses this question again and again, and yet he still refuses to give us an actual answer.

(oh hey, that’s a nice flashback you’re having. sure would be a shame if it were to... cut off right there so that we never find out what actually happened past this point!!)

(“whether this is really him” -- really?? you actually go and show what is by all accounts and appearances Jeanist’s actual dead body stuffed in a bag, and yet you still cast doubt on it? why? at this point you’re just fucking with us. and also, actually, the fact that it’s a dead body is not, in fact, proof that he killed someone, because morgues exist. and appearance-altering quirks. and clones. and all sorts of other conspiracy-theory-fueling shit. so yeah.)

isn’t that strange? well no, actually, it’s not strange at all, because you only need to take one glance at the fandom (or my own indecisive recaps) to see that this refusal to confirm this one crucial fact about Hawks’s nature is having precisely its intended effect. when you write a story, you want the readers to care. you want them to be invested in what’s happening. you want to keep them in suspense. and so in Hawks’s case, the fact that we just don’t know for sure makes him an insanely compelling character to watch, because will he actually do it?? will he kill Twice?? is he a killer??

and still we don’t know. even now, Horikoshi refuses to lift the veil for certain. and all I have to say about that is this: maybe he is. but if he is, if the answer to this lingering and drawn-out mystery ultimately turns out to be a simple “yes”, then that would be a bit anticlimactic to say the least.

so those are my thoughts! oh, except that I did say I was going to talk about this thing though:

so we don’t know what this is, or why Hawks pulled it out at such a strange moment. I’ve read a few theories, but I have to give @blessedgirthma​ credit because this one is my new favorite omfg:

like. guys. guys. I know it’s absurd and it’s not going to happen lol. but can you just imagine, though. Dabi’s standing there with the crazy eyes, talking about how heroes are all scum, and how he never trusted Hawks, and the fact that Hawks was even willing to kill a fellow hero to gain their trust only to betray them is yet more proof of how hypocritical and disgusting these so-called heroes are. and then, just as he’s about to deal the final blow, HIS OWN CLOTHES TURN ON HIM and he’s all “?!” and IN BURSTS BEST FUCKING JEANIST oh snap, whaaat, HE LIVED, BITCH.

don’t look at me like that. let me have this. all I’m saying is it could happen.

so that’s it! those are all my current thoughts about Hawks and about this contentious chapter which is tearing fandoms and loved ones apart. in my perfect world Hawks lives and Twice lives and Best Jeanist lives and Dabi lives but gets captured maybe so as to have Endeavor angst along with some fucking flashbacks at goddamn last. as of today March 22nd 2020 all of these are still possible outcomes, so I’m gonna embrace it.

and lastly, getting back to the real mystery of this chapter,

WE CAN ONLY HOPE.

[creepingsharia]

Muslim Brotherhood group gets Joe Biden to quote hadith calling for jihad against unbelievers (e.g., America)

We noted this the day it occured in the tweet shown below that refrenced Creeping Sharia posts here:

Multiple sources have recently validated that Joe Biden did, in fact, quote a jihad verse. Excerpts from each below.

Trying to Appease Muslims, Biden Inadvertently Calls for Jihad

Biden then quoted a section of the Koran.

“Hadith from the prophet Muhammad, instructs, “Whomever among you sees wrong, let him change it with his hand. If he is not able, then with his tongue. If he is not able, then with his heart.”

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, explained the significance of this verse to Muslims.

“This hadith talks about correcting anything that is against Islam,” Dr. Kedar explained. “If there is a democracy, a Muslim needs to correct it, since it is incompatible with Islam. If there is a  republic, like the US, a Muslim needs to alter it, to correct it. The country must have Islamic rule, be governed according to Sharia Islamic law. When a Muslim hears Biden, a non-Muslim, say this verse from the Koran, he will laugh at him. Biden is displaying absolute ignorance of what he is speaking. But it’s okay because Muslims are very used to such useful idiots. They now know that if they demand it, he will kneel down and lick their shoes.”

Dr. Kedar noted that Islam is usually perceived incorrectly in the west.

“Muslims keep saying that Islam is the religion of peace because of the proximity of the word Islam to the word Salaam (peace). This is very well-known even among non-Muslims. Islam means to accept the religion of Islam peacefully. When all non-Muslims submit to Allah, this is the Islamic peace, when they peacefully convert to Islam.”

Dr. Kedaar also noted that many speakers at the Emgage virtual summit referred to taking down the “fascist regime.”

“Muslims do not understand fascist in the same manner as non-Muslims,” Dr. Kedar explained. “We consider Qatar, Syria, Afghanistan as fascist. The Muslims at that summit do not condemn Trump because of his policies. They condemn him as ‘fascist for standing against Islamic rule. During the Obama administration, Islam had direct access to the White House and this was clear in the policies. They do not have the same access to Trump.”

David Wood, an American evangelical apologist and the head of Acts 17 Apologetics Ministry, also interpreted Biden’s speech. 

“Unfortunately, we’ve got a man running for President of the United States of America quoting Mohammad without having the slightest clue what the verse actually means,” Wood says, prefacing his analysis.

Wood made a personal study of Islam and has participated in numerous public debates with Muslims and atheists. In his video, he noted that the verse Biden quoted was Sahi Muslim 177. This concept is basically repeated in the next two verses but verse 179  is slightly different.

“Who among you sees strives against it with his hand is a believer. Whoever strives against it with his tongue is a believer. Whoever strives against it with his heart is a believer.”

Wood points out that the opponent, or enemy, Mohammad is calling to strive against are the unbelievers, i.e. the non-Muslims. The ‘word’ that the believers are striving to bring about is Sharia, Islamic law universally enforced. Wood also points out that the Arabic word for ‘strive’ used in verse 179 is “jihad”, a holy war. 

“Mohammad brought sharia and his followers have to establish and enforce it,” Wood said. “There’s the jihad of the hand, establishing sharia through fighting and carrying out the legal punishments; think ISIS. There’s the jihad of the tongue: preaching and condemning [non-Muslims] and calling for Sharia. And there’s Jihad of the heart: hating the evil around you and longing for the day it will be destroyed.”

Wood explained how a Muslim familiar with the Koran would understand the verse quoteed by Biden. 

“The United States of America is in rebellion against the Prophet Mohammad, so wage whatever form of jihad you can against it because if you don’t you’re not a real Muslim,” Wood explained. “It’s probably not what Biden intended but that is what informed Muslims just heard him say.”

Wood suggests that the speech might have been composed by a non-Muslim in which case the implications of the quote were inadvertent. 

“A more disturbing possibility is that an informed Muslim wrote that speech for Biden,” Wood suggested. “And that was a coded message to other informed Muslims. The message would be something like, ‘This guy will say whatever we tell him to say. To prove it, we’ll have him call for Jihad against his own country. Vote for him because he is ours now.’”

As noted in prior posts, Biden was speaking at a Muslim Brotherhood-linked event by a group that scrutinizes and grants approval for every word regarding Islam spoken by government officials, so the chances the hadith was randomly selected and therefore inadvertent is impossible.

Next.

Biden Vows to Stamp Out 'Islamicphobia' - That means more Islamic proselytizing is coming to American public schools.

Digging even deeper, Biden declared: “A hadith from the Prophet Muhammad instructs, ‘Whomever among you sees a wrong, let him change it with his hand. If he is not able, then with his tongue. If he is not able, then with his heart.’”[8]

The hadith Biden is quoting is this one: “On the authority of Abu Sa`eed al-Khudree (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, ‘Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.'” (Nawawi 34)

What might Muhammad, or whoever put this saying into his mouth, have meant by changing a wrong with one’s hand? One of the hazards of analysis of statements of jihad terrorists is that in an Islamic context, words seldom, if ever, mean what they are taken for granted as meaning by Westerners. This fools mainstream counterterror analysts on a daily basis: when Muslim leaders speak about wanting to establish justice, they think they’re ready to set up free societies, when actually they mean they want to impose Sharia.

So it is with Biden’s favored saying. Fighting and killing infidels is repeatedly commanded in the Qur’an (cf. 2:191. 4:89, 9:5, 9:289, 47:4, etc.), not because Islam is committed to mayhem for its own sake, but because the society of the unbelievers must be swept aside in favor of the rule of Islamic law. The twentieth-century Pakistani political leader and Islamic scholar Syed Abul A’la Maududi taught that Muslims must fight until non-Muslims were not be entrusted with the responsibilities of governing a state – any state. He declared that non-Muslims have “absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines. For if they are given such an opportunity, corruption and mischief will ensue. In such a situation the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life.”[9]

This is the highest activity in which a Muslim can engage: another hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44)

Biden’s hadith, therefore, was not some Islamic Hallmark card; it was a command to wage war against unbelievers.

Note also Biden’s reference to “the Prophet Muhammad.” It’s standard journalistic practice today to assume that everyone is a Muslim and believes Muhammad is a prophet, so Biden is just following along with the crowd and pandering to his constituency, but it’s still a manifestation of Islamic supremacism. Biden’s handlers would never, ever give him a statement that referred to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” But Islam is the Left’s preferred religion, and Islamopandering is the order of the day, so Biden refers without hesitation to “the prophet.”

-------------------------

Next.

Joe Biden Accidentally Calls for Jihad against America

Presidential candidate Joe Biden, addressing Emgage Action's Million Muslim Votes Summit, just shared a hadith in which Muhammad told his followers to strive against evil with the hand, with the tongue, or with the heart. The problem is that, in context, Muhammad was encouraging Muslims to wage various types of jihad (jihad of the hand, jihad of the tongue, and jihad of the heart) against anyone who is in rebellion against Sharia (Islamic Law).

Hence, former Vice President of the United States of America Joe Biden accidentally called for jihad against his own country. David Wood discusses the issue.

Again, it was no accident.

[dailyaudiobible]

12/23/2020 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 4:1-5:11, Revelation 14:1-20, Psalms 142:1-7, Proverbs 30:21-23

Today is the 23rd day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it's great to be here with you on Christmas eve eve. Man, this is it and the Christmas holiday is upon us. We are reaching the end of the Advent season. Of course, Advent is the season of…of…of longing, basically of longing, of putting…putting ourselves in the position of those before Jesus came, before the Savior came who were longing for His arrival, which is what Advent means. And, so, we continue with that in our hearts, a longing, a longing for God, a longing for Christ's return, His second Advent. And we get this point in the season where maybe we’ve been thinking about it, maybe we have an Advent calendar or whatever to focus us, to remember, to put ourselves in that position and…and…and contemplate it as we move through the season, or maybe you just don't even know what or pay attention to Advent, then that's fine too. It’s just that the season is coming to an end, which means that the wait is almost over and then we get to midnight tomorrow night and it’s like joy around the world. And, so, I am overjoyed that we can be here together around the Global Campfire just kind of all snuggled up and longing and waiting and excited. And since we’re here let's take the next step forward in the Scriptures. We've been reading from the New English Translation this week, which is what we’ll continue to do. Zechariah chapters 4 and 5.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’re reading in the Old Testament from the book of Zechariah. We’re reading in the New Testament from the book of Revelation. They are far spread out in time, at least at the time of the writing and yet they sound, they sound familiar. There…there's an incredible amount of symbolism involved in these texts. They come from the same genre, apocalyptic literature. And we've talked about apocalyptic literature in the past. It's highly symbolic. So, it's interesting when we read some of these visions that are happening in Zechariah or continuing forward with the book of Revelation. It's interesting to just observe ourselves in a number of ways. One, we can be like, “what? What does that mean? Like, how…how…how is that supposed to go” because of all the different symbolism and creatures and this doing that. So, it's interesting to look at ourselves and go, “what am taking literally? What do I understand is a symbol? Do I understand the symbolism? Where is this leading me?” And that's good and that's fine. And yeah, we can…we can get on the Internet or we can just look back into history and understand that interpretations of this literature are wide and varying and have been for thousands of years because other brothers and sisters have wrestled with the same thing in their time wondering what it means for them in their time. But when we hear the word apocalyptic or apocalypse, you know, it just sounds ominous, it's an ominous word. And yeah, I mean an apocalypse, is a…it's a…it’s a destruction, it's a cat…it’s a catastrophe. But the word of apocalypses in Greek at its core means Revelation. In other words, although this may be highly symbolic it was written down to reveal something that has yet to be revealed. And out of that literature today from the book of Zechariah we read something very famous, “it's not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven's armies.” Or maybe more famously quoted, “not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit's says the Lord of hosts.” If there were something that we should carry forward into the future into the next few days as we observe and celebrate Christmas but the next week as we move to the end of the year and all of the days of our lives it would be this, “it is not by our might. It is not by our power. It will be by the Spirit that we are led forward.” So, we can just apply that to the next like…just…just the Christmas celebrations that we will be involved in. We talked about that yesterday, how quickly things can go into interesting directions as the family dynamics of our childhoods like reassert themselves and we become little kids again even though we may have families of our own. I mean, we can take this, “it's not by might and put in our back pocket and reach in our back pocket any time we feel that anxiety or whatever rising up with…within and just remind ourselves, “it's not by might, it’s not by power, it's by the Spirit of the living God” that I can move forward. Or from the Psalms today, “even when my strength leaves me you watch my footsteps. I cry out to you oh Lord, I say you are my shelter, my security in the land of the living.” So, I mean we’re gonna receive gifts probably, we’re going to give gifts probably. No matter what is under that tree. No matter how beautifully wrapped it is it's not gonna be able to shelter your very soul. And, so, maybe his cheesy, you know, restate the clichés, “Jesus is the reason for the season, etc. etc.” but we should understand that there is a gift given to us, a Savior who is a shelter for our sole. And again, we’re out in front of us so we’re not tearing paper and figuring out what…how many garbage bags its gonna take to fill up all this paper. We’re out in front of it. Let's remember this gift. Like, you know, I don't know how to say it without sounding kind of cliché because we have all these little sayings to say, but if we would understand, like slowdown and understand what we’re saying it could be profoundly meaningful to us. A gift was given to us by God and all are welcome to have this gift. And this gift was that God came in person to inaugurate, to institute a personal relationship with us. That is a…that is a gift that there is no way to really adequately describe, that the most-high, the most-high God, the Creator of all things would like to give himself to you if you would give yourself back.

Prayer:

Father we…we meditate on that today, we contemplate that, we invite Your Holy Spirit to allow us to be reminded to consider this today as we run around trying to get all the little things done and keep ourselves safe and keep our family safe and all of the things that are going on. Help us to remember that You gave Yourself as a gift to us. There is no gift like that. And, so, come Holy Spirit, as we meditate upon it today. May we feel the joy of our salvation we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it's the website, it’s where you find out what's going on around here. It's Christmas Eve Eve so that's kind of what's going on around you. Can you guys believe tomorrow is Christmas eve? That is…that is amazing. We have made it this far and I'm gonna…I’m gonna celebrate in my heart, with all my heart, the arrival of the Savior this season. We need the arrival of the Savior more than anything and this year has made us more aware of it than anything. So, let's…let’s just enjoy where we are.

There’s a couple of Christmas things that you could get involved in, the Family Christmas album that is sort of our Global Campfire soundtrack to the season, you can stream that wherever you stream music, or download it wherever you download music as well as the Christmas single that we released this year, O, Holy Night with Jill singing beautifully. So, you can do the same. You can stream that wherever you stream music or download that wherever you download music. So, check those out as we move right into the heart of…I mean this is the whole purpose of the season is to arrive at these days where we really, really, rejoice - joy to the world, the Lord has come. So, yeah, those resources are available. Tomorrow Jill will be virtually performing O Holy Night at a candlelight service. We will post up the links to that tomorrow in case like if you can’t I mean there's just a lot of things that have been switched around and switched up this year. A lot of us can't go to candlelight services while others of us can. So, if you have to attend a virtual candlelight service then we’ll post a link to where we will be virtually. So, we’ll post a link for that on social media tomorrow.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these remaining days of this unforgettable year that we have been navigating together in community day by day step-by-step then thank you. If what's been going on around here bringing the spoken word of God read fresh every day for anybody to listen to it anywhere any time and to keep building community around that rhythm, if that makes a difference then thank you for your partnership. There's a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, which is the…which is the Hotline button in the app, the little red button up at the top that looks like a hotline button. You can press that or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

…and you’re wanting to be with Jesus, you’re wanting to die. I get that. I mean we probably all do, we probably all know that feeling, the pain of this world and then the goodness of God, the serenity we can feel in worship and the anguish we feel in struggles in life and the wickedness and sin of life. I want to encourage you, do not kill yourself. That is schemes and attacks of the evil one. Paul felt it in Scripture I’ve felt it, we’ve all felt it in different ways. Do not kill yourself. But yeah, like you are doing, give it to the Lord. If He wants to take you, have you die in some way and be with Him in life forever, Amen. If He has you here for a purpose, you know, what’s our purpose as a Christian? To share who He is, to evangelize so the rest of the world of people we know and love and see all the time when they die too they will not die forever in hell, they will live with Christ, with Yahweh. So, I want to encourage you. Don’t kill yourself. Don’t do it. But surrender your life to Him and evangelize. Don’t be some crazy old lady. I mean, you can be. The prophets were crazy. But, you know, just be a lady of love and a daughter of love and a wife of love. Alright, love you. Bye. Mike from New York.

Hello good morning, I just listened to your prayer request from my sister quiet confidence from Virginia and I’m so touched I have to call him right now. And the song and the prayer I said because your soul is overwhelmed the father will lead you to the rock that is __ than you right now. Even though you are asking for the Lord to take you home may the father that knows what is best for the children I pray that He will step into you matter and do what is best for you. This I ask in Jesus name, that the Lord will touch your body, your spirit and your soul and do what is best for you for his name’s sake in Jesus’ name. And I pray for as many of our brethren, brothers and sisters suffering one thing or the other that the spirit of the Lord will touch them, the balm of Gilead will heal you, and the hand of the Lord will touch you wherever you are in Jesus’ name. For skis the Lord that He led us, He sent His word and His __. Shalom __ this is your sister Addie from London. Bye.

I’m calling in for Quiet Confidence in Virginia. Sister I just want you to know that God is with you and He has never left you. He’s promised never to leave us or forsake us. And I won’t begin to say that I understand why and how it is that His children can suffer like you are. I know that in my life there’ve been times I’ve asked the Lord to go ahead and take me and remove me from whatever pain I was going through but I want to encourage you to lean on the Lord, to let Him love on you and…and also want to tell you that that is a lie of the accuser of our soul, that we are not saved. God has promised that He will hear the cry of repentance and that He will forgive you and He said that He sent Christ into this world so that we could be saved. That is his greatest joy, for you to call on Him as your heavenly Gather. So, Lord I pray across these miles for my sister who is tormented today, and I ask You by the Holy Spirit to strengthen her mind soul body and spirit and to raise her up and give her new joy and new peace in the midst of her pain Lord, to work a miracle in her life as only You can do and give her joy in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning everyone this is Danny from Southern Oregon. Brian I just listened to Jill’s O Holy Night song and…O…was brought to tears. O my gosh she did such an absolutely phenomenal job. So, definitely gonna listen to that one over and over and over. And I just got my Klean Kanteen in the mail. I’m so excited to give that to my husband for Christmas. So, just wanted to say thank you for all…everything you do Brian just to enrich our lives every single day not only with the word but all these other things that you bring into the mix. So, thank you and God bless you and your family.

Dear Quiet Confidence this is Susan from Canada God’s Yellow Flower calling and I just want to encourage you my dear, sweetheart that God is not finished with you yet. I have been in that pit where there’s no sunlight, there’s only darkness. I have been suicidal and it’s only by the grace of God that it didn’t work out. And I just persevered with medication, with counseling and in prayer. Sometimes I would just lay on my bed and just pray the Lord’s prayer because I just did not know what to do. But He’s not finished with you yet my sweet. And once you rise out of this and into the light you will have an awesome testimony where you can encourage and help others as I hope I am doing for you. God will use you in this situation to help others. And, you know, I’ve been so blessed. And, oh my, I can’t even explain it. I’ve been so blessed with…with work at God has wanted me to do that I would have missed if He would have answered my prayer to end my life and take me home. Don’t forget, God is always with you. He’s walking you through this and you will be victorious as I have been victorious. It’s difficult…so hard. It’s not easy but hang in there, sweetheart. I’m praying for you and I love you. God bless.

Yes this is Lady T from Tennessee I would love to pray for the young lady that called in. She go by the name of Quiet Confidence from Virginia. I just lift her up. Father I pray for a sound mind over her. She’s asking God day take…take her home. Father I just pray that You restore the joy back in her in the name of Jesus, that she is made whole in Jesus’ holy name.

[meanwhileinthebroomcloset]

Mhm...  This post was meant to be much shorter, honestly. Not to mention it got super personal, which was not my intention. It actually made me a bit teary-eyed and I’m usually an emotional constipated dumbass. 

Am I ready for the potential backlash this is going to cause? Eh, probably not. Am I going to engage in the discourse this can cause? Ah, you wished. I have more to waste my energy on. I didn’t write this post to argument with anyone, anyway. 

Gonna risk it, still.

-----------------------------------------

Isn’t it kind of ironic that it was witchcraft that made me fully return to Catholicism?

I mean, I kind of never left, hence the ‘’fully’’ in that sentence. But now I really know who I am. Although I don’t think Catholicism is the most accurate label (Christo-pagan, perhaps?) it’s the one I grew up with, and the one that comes more naturally to me.

Studying the beginning of it all, the commentaries of Pagans and Jewish writers at the time are just so fascinating and honestly beautiful.

Then everybody started chasing and killing each order, and it sure wasn’t fascinating anymore.... ‘’Stop being murderous revenge-driven assholes’’ I angrily mutter into my book, while frying my brains for High Middle Ages exams.

And then it split into Catholicism and Arianism (not that Arianism! The no-holy-trinity-on-my-watch one), and that was a totally different can of worms. Then Rome got pissy and the Orthodox Church officially became a thing that existed.

Man, why is religion so messy?

Faith is such a strange thing. So much power, so much potential for good and evil and everything in between. I started losing mine some years ago. 

Contrary to some horror stories you may hear, especially from people who are now no longer Christian, I was raised in a pretty open environment.

‘’Don’t be mean, have faith, give second chances... Here are the commandments. They’re perfectly acceptable, see?’’

‘’Yes, there are different religions, but you should always respect them and the people that believe in them. Remember, Jesus was Jewish. Here’s some historical context... ‘’

‘’What the hell kid, nobody here is going to hell. Also, you’re five, there are no children in hell. No, the cops also won’t... Lord give me patience... Are you sorry? Did you apologize? Are you going to try to not repeat it? Great! Then it’s all fine and dandy!’’

‘‘Man, we are definitely all going to hell... At least since we’re all gonna be there, we could form a basketball team. The devil can be the referee. He will be an awful one, but hey, we’re in hell’‘

‘’I know the bible says the earth was created in seven days, but when that story was written, people didn’t know dinosaurs were a thing. Science is cool, and we are not in the middle ages. ‘’

‘’Blind faith is dangerous, kid.’’

‘’Thinking thoughts and acting upon them are two very different things.’’

‘’Yes, the second mom in that Solomon story was willing to see another kid die for the sake of an argument... sometimes people are that bad.’’

‘’God is perfect. People aren’t. That’s the world we live in and it’s okay.’’

‘’There are people who do terrible things in name of religion or say they’re doing it because the bible says so. Don’t believe them. There’s no excuse for murder and abuse.’’

‘’Yeah, Portugal is very enthusiastic when it comes to Catholicism... ’’

Pretty good summary of religion in my childhood.

Still, I found my faith waning. I didn’t really know why and I’m still a bit iffy talking about that.

‘’What did witchcraft do, then?’’

 Well for once, it reinforced my ideas on how faith worked, and how strangely powerful it can be. Being skeptical is healthy but completely closing yourself off because something isn’t completely clear is too radical and you're just doing the equivalent of closing your eyes to the less brighter lights.

My god, I can hear the hardcore atheists coming...

Can I remind you there are more things in life that will not provide the proof you want, but that won’t mean they aren’t there? Relationships. Relationships are too complicated to have straight answers, a lot of the times. People hide their feelings, they fake them, express them and react to them differently. There are so many things we don’t understand or know about yet, like space and organisms that live on this Earth.

Sometimes what you need is a different approach to see they exist! It’s one of the things I learned with witchcraft.

There was also the religion itself. As I worked on my magic, I started seeing magic around me again. Not just with gods I had never considered and the one I was leaving behind, but with the faith I had always known.

The affection when someone says ‘’Our Lady’’ when talking about the Virgin Mary, my family calling upon Saint Barbara when thunder comes, children screeching excitedly because the Compasso has arrived to give us the news that Jesus has come to life again in Easter, the marble cemeteries, the comforting prayers, the masses I couldn’t ear because the local church’s echo is terrible, those boring long-ass weddings (oh my god, how many blessings do two people need?!), the loving dedication I see in every saint carved, my church's priest’s good humor... I never owned a rosary, but I always like the ones my aunts and grandparents keep.

I found Christian and Catholic witches on this site and I finally got to my conclusion. It’s really there. I just needed a different approach to it!

These things made me believe again, but also in new things.

‘‘But you can’t do that! You can’t combine magic and christianity’‘ 

Oh, watch me. And also watch the centuries of cunning women and witches in European history and those still alive today. The women that make ‘’mezinhas’’ and other types of favors in Portugal sure as hell are doing witchcraft, but you can bet your ass they don’t think they’re any less Catholic than anyone else. They don’t care about your opinions and I will hopefully do the same.

Relationships with deities are personal, and my relationship with God, Jesus and all of them is no different in that regard. I am a witch, I am human, I am catholic. I’m a follower, not a fucking mindless sheep.

You know what? I always compared God to Aslan. The lion wasn’t always there for Narnia, he wanted his people to solve their problems on their own. Get their independence, as a good parent does. They both don’t come up all mighty, that’s a posture reserved for evil and people who need a good slap in the face. They come to your level. God may come through one of the less eldritch abomination looking angels, though...

‘‘Well, if you have god, you shouldn’t need anything more. He's everthing. Why are you also a witch?’‘

Excuse me, do I look like a goddamned saint to you?! What part of human did you not understand?

And before you bitterly start quoting the Old Testament, let me remind you that it’s Old for a reason. Christ came to this earth to give us new rules since he technically saved us and things became different. That’s why Jewish people follow the Old Testament, for them, the messiah hasn’t arrived yet. Not to mention that to them that testament is not Old, it’s just the Torah.

You can keep quoting the bible to me all you want. But in my short twenty years of life, I was thankfully able to learn a few things. One of them is that the world isn’t black and white. Yes, I know this sounds obvious but there are some really dumb people out there. Also, this is the hellscape that we call tumblr.

Anyway, as I have mentioned several times before, I’m a never-ending knowledge seeker I found the world beneath my feet is not pure myth and I want to explore it. Look at me go.

I keep a critical mind with everything. Faith and religion are not an exception. I’m not overly skeptic about faith itself, but I am of its writings, interpretations, translations and etc... I study history, it’s a skill you naturally develop.

And there’s quite a few plot-holes, characterization differences and much more. It was written by humans that couldn’t do a cohesive collaboration even if their lives depended on it. Godphones sometimes don’t get a good reception. There’s a ton of cultural context to unpack. I hear people saying all the time that taking the bible’s words literally is one of the most stupid things you can do.

And when I say people, I mean priests, clergy, theology students, etc... I didn’t hear this from my drug dealer in the street corner..

...... I don’t have a drug dealer.....

Anyway...

There are many problems with the catholic church. There are many problems with a ton of catholic and christians out there. I will never deny that. Shit needs to get fixed and maybe even chucked into the trash.

But I still believe in God, I still believe in the saints but I also still believe there are more gods and spirits out there. And those things are separate.

I have no interest in converting you. I’m just yelling into the void.

If you are one of those that no longer is a christian, or catholic because some dipshits banged self-hate onto your head, I’m really sorry. I hope you heal well and get the help you need in your new faith or lack of it. Banging the ten commandments back onto their heads repetiedly and tell them to actually read the damn book is optional, though.

In the end, if you are (or are trying) to be good, you deserve respect and freedom to worship whoever or whatever you want. You don’t need to be perfect, you can just strive to be the best you can be in your situation.

--------------------------------------------

And now back to our schedueled programing.

[maisquedesastre]

Elisabeth das Musical as concert 5.07.19 & my opinion about it

I must let my feelings out about this concert so I wrote this chaotic post (maybe even someone will be interested in it).

First of all, this was absolutely amazing. (But I'd be more satisfied if someone didn't spoil my humor before and after the concert, sigh). It was my first time seeing Elisabeth live (before it I only saw recorded versions). Seeing it was one of my dreams. I had to travel a couple of hours by train to Vienna to see it but I definitely don't regret it. I was waiting for this for 10 months, now it's over and I feel weird...

Well, I was sitting in the sector B5, it was something like a 34th row. But I quite good saw scene (I had only a small problem 'cause of the man with protruding ears sitting in front of me) and there were also big screens on which concert was projected. I was focused more on the scene than on the screens, I don't know, it was more comfortable for me.

It lasted 2,5 hours (with the applause and the pause). They removed some songs like Éljen and also they removed one verse of some songs like Hass, Die fröchliche Apokalypse, Wir oder Sie, etc.

Pia as always played Elisabeth wonderful. She was so cute. She doesn't aged. In So wie man plant und denkt Pia stole the conductor's baton and conducted the orchestra for a while! And Sylvester Levay came specially to conduct one song - Ich gehör nur mir. Jesus, it was aofjwmgkwkgjw. Pia is a queen.

I always found that absolute silence after Hass so impressive(?), I don't know which word perfectly describes my feelings, just w o a h.

The orchestra did own version of music in Sie ist verrückt what was great.

Milch. Wogjejjwj, so so so good. So wonderful. I loved it.

And little Rudolf was so sweeeeet. Little Rudolf is the only kid in the world who can sweeten me.

I love Lukas, really, his Rudolf is great. But in my opinion, something was lacking in his performance, I don't know.

Mark was flawless as always. AND YOU KNOW WHAT. Mark caught the necklace from Pia! T h a t was impressive. We know he has sometimes a problem with catching things...

They changed so many things in Die Schatten werden länger. Really, I don't know even how to properly interpret itXD Mark was using a whip(¿) like he was on the imaginary cart, I don't know. I mean, it wasn't bad or something like that but I was kinda confused. But they did quite nice Mayerling waltz. There was no kiss (unfortunately) but it was quite similar to theater versions - Lukas was trying to catch the pistol. But I think that because of lack of kiss some people could think at the end that Death and Elisabeth kissed for only a romantic purpose, not that Death kill people by a kiss.

DAVID JAKOBS AS LUCHENI WAS SO FUCKING MARAVELOUS. I didn't suspect he is t h a t amazing. I was definitely surprised and impressed. I doubted before but after the show, I'm convinced he fits perfectly in this role.

Franz Joseph. To be honest, I thought Viktor is a little younger. In my sector, everyone was laughing at him. I mean, his facial expressions were funnyXD I won’t forget his happy face during So wie man plant und denkt. But Jesus, at the beginning on Boote in der Nacht people started to laugh when he just said "Sissi" and I was like: "pjahshshsa leave this poor old man alone, stop". But besides this, I think that Viktor was veeeeery good.

After the show, Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay appeared on the scene and JESUS CHRIST SYLVESTER IS SO SWEET AND AMUSING. He thanked in 6 languages (if I counted right, of course; German, English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Italian). He said during his little speech something about the lack of time but my German sucks so I don't want to paraphrase his words improperly. And also, he pointed at his watch during going down from the scene to hurry up us 'cause there is no time.

To sum this chaotic post up, it was truly marvelous. (Even if the prices was so fucking exaggerated tbh). It was a really unforgettable experience after all. If I could afford then I for sure went there in the next year. (If someone doesn't know yet, from tomorrow (8th July) from 12:00 you can buy tickets for the concert in the next year (25th-27th June.)

Such a pity that it's over.

[nijjhar]

Breast Plate of the Temple High Priest has nothing to do with the 12 tri... Breast Plate of the Temple High Priest has nothing to do with the 12 tribes of Israel but with Matt 13v52 - : "And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe, the moral teacher such as the Temple High Priest and of the Synagogues who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven in Law and Order (John, the Baptist was the Last Prophet; Luke 16v16 - Law and Prophets were till John, the Baptist. No law, no transgression and no "sin") is like a master, Cohen/Brahmin, of a house, the Synagogue who brings out of his treasure what is new, the Root of the Scriptures, the Oral Torah = His Word that you learn through logical reasoning done over your own heart and what is old, the written Torah that is subject to corruption - Old Cloth full of holes good for nothing. That is why we needed Christ Jesus to Preach to us through logical reasoning His Word, the Very Root of the Scriptures in fullness that lacks nothing so that the "Tree of our Life" becomes green and living like those of the generation of the faithful son of Jacob Joseph whom the other 11 crook liar and murderer brothers wanted to kill, the Samaritans who earned their reputation by performing the philanthropic deeds like picking up the wounded person and looking after him. The Rabbis and Sadducees with no knowledge of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc., or the Tree of Life dry of mercy dead, let him to die as he did not belong to them but was a stranger. Or they exercised "eros" whilst the Samaritan man of the holy spirit, common sense,  exercised "Agape", the unconditional divine Love of our Supernatural Father of our souls. ”" https://youtu.be/Onbw3kRADhs BRITISH GREEN PARTY M.P.:- Grim American Jewish Reaper waving sickle to kill more in Venezuela; did in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, etc. If you want Peace, expose these American Jews by making Posters and Banners of this Cartoon, please. www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/GrimReaper.htm Brethren in Christ = Satguru Jesus, East European people have a much better understanding of the Gospel than the Western or the Americans who are dead in the Letters of the Holy Books with no understanding of the Gospel Truth hidden underneath the Parables. “When Messiah comes, he will explain to us everything from the “Roots of the Scriptures”". She was Saint Photina. Such people are “Super Donkeys” carrying Holy Books possessing One Talent only. Thus, any interest in the Gospel = Butter = "Perceived" hidden in the Scriptures = Milk that is seen? An illiterate Shepherd, New Skin like the Born-Blind young man of John 9, tending his sheep knows the Gospel whilst the University theologians of the dead letters, old skin holding the Scriptures, are super donkeys carrying holy books. In Jesus, we give to the Church of God headed by Christ Jesus and not “STEAL” money from the Church Purse as Judas Iscariot was doing and Jesus rejected him for the Royal Kingdom of God where He washed the feet of the “ELEVEN” to welcome them, which the Pharisee Simon didn’t but Mary Magdalene did by her tears of EXTREME LOVE. Those “THIEVES” who steal money from the Church Purse, they have already been rewarded by Mammon, cannot get the interpretations of the Parables, the “GOSPEL TRUTH” but just ply the dead letters of the Holy Books for their living in Mammon. You cannot serve Mammon and Mammon-Free God. That is why, people sold their worldly possessions to form the First Church of God, One Fold, headed by One Shepherd Christ Jesus. Church of England headed by Queen is a typical example of the Church of Mammon. Salvation Army, people of God proclaimed that they died for King and country. FOR THE SAKE OF OUR ANOINTED ELDER BROTHER/BRIDEGROOM CHRIST JESUS, PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. Here is the full article: - www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JChrist.htm If you read John 4 in-depth, you will know that the Samaritans were very glad to receive Jesus in their village whereas the “Saltless sons of Satan”, the Jews outwardly instead of “Inwardly” as the Samaritans were, then you will appreciate the difference between the people of “Salt”, faithful to Abraham and Yahweh “Wheat Plants” and the “Saltless” Temple Priests unfaithful to Abraham and Yahweh, the “Tares” – Matt 13v24-30 is being fulfilled today. Here is something for you to ponder over From Judaism born of water + 7 to Christianity born of the holy spirit + 5 = 12 TANN (Physical tribal body = 7) + MUNN (Mind, Nafs, etc. = 5) = 12 Purified (Nirmall) As what applies to the flesh, Tit-for-Tat, water, the opposite applies to spirit, Blood, so the Water and the Blood came out separate. In Yahweh, his heavenly father (Yahshua = Yah = Yahweh and Shua = Shiva, the Primordial Adam), Jesus made a whip whilst in His Supernatural Father Elohim, the Christ, He presented the other cheek https://youtu.be/zNtyGuUbwuA www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Rest.htm ONE GOD ONE FAITH www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf John's baptism www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf Trinity www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

[lecherouswritings]

I was asked recently the relationship between Rat, Peter, and Grandfather so here’s my sloppy attempt to put that together. TW for sexism and child abuse and drug abuse and murder, that stuff.

One thing I have to note is that with this interconnected plot, I like to leave things open enough for people to derive multiple meanings. The wolf, for example, could be: A literal wolf, something being interpreted as a wolf but isn’t, Satan, a metaphor for evil, a hallucination, or just an homage to Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, Peter & The Wolf, and other old tales! That being said, I do like having one set line to follow for the purpose of wrapping up a story, but it’d be fun to see what people get out of it. So just keep in mind that sometimes, something could mean A, and I’ll say it means A, but if you wanna read it as B that’s fine by me too. Or C, D, etc... To relate the connection I have to start from the source: Hito! Hito is an old God. All of my stories revolve around Hito. All of them! I’ll probably state this fact with all my explanations because it’s super important. Hito had some believers who roamed this ghost town of NM. Mr. Bradley, the wealthy son ( of four ) of an old tycoon in TX, decided to go on some holy crusade to the desert and “live off the grid”, back to them Simpler Times. He was also shunned from the family for being too wildly religious and just generally an unreasonable person, very controlling and quick to anger. Comes off as a conman than a business man like his brothers. So Bradley and some like-minded men and women set out for this desert land, killing the natives that lived there. Keep in mind the setting is late 1800s, not that that is to justify anything. The people who lived there were Hitotians, people who dedicated their lives to worshipping Hito. Kiling a Hitotian is an unforgivable act, as is desecrating land of hers, which Bradley and his bunch did both. The 3 pioneers and their wives set up temporary homes, they had all the building equipment brought over and they were going to start constructing the town now that the natives were gone, building a church and homes and fixing up whatever’s been torn down. That night they each had a respective home outside the village limits: one home made of bales of straw, another of wood, and Bradley’s made of stone blocks and brick. The 3 men starts seeing things at night but chalked it up to their exhaustion from working. Then one night, soon after their arrival and building had begun, and keep in mind there’s no electricity so it’s pitch black save for oil lamps and natural light, so Bradley’s woken up by the sound of feet pounding against the desert earth, hay being knocked asunder and the other two men getting ripped apart. Their wives and children are spared -- for now -- but up comes Bradley, who is visited inside his stone home by a creature with black arms and legs and long hair. The idiot opens the door to his home after some loud knocking persists and hey it’s Hitotian demons and they’re Madder than Hell. Bradley, who begs to be spared, is confronted by these creatures. Hito’s there but unseen, but Hito is always accompanied by vizier-types that translate English words to her, and they communicate with humans. If Bradley wants to live, then he’s going to have to make a deal with Hito. His wishes were to continue building the town and to live there, for a son to carry on his name, and upon seeing the dark-limbed creature’s teeth, he asked to have his wolf teeth. Hito gives him what he asks for, in return, he has to carry out human sacrifices on her hallowed ground til the day he dies, and discourage procreation. Hito’s whole schtick is to elimate humans from the Earth, so making more is kind of dumb, right? So he agrees and they leave him. He’d made the mistake of staring into the black-limbed creatures eyes, which made his eyes SUPER light sensitive at all times, hence the sunglasses. Even the darkness is too much. The black-limbed creature with the wolf features is supposed to be Rat, but how and why Rat’s story starts in 1962 Florida as an 8 year old boy isn’t supposed to be answered, I want people to try and figure that out with clues ;) it’s a multiple choice answer! I know the answer but I’m choosing to keep it quiet. Bradley conceives Peter, but it’s with a prostitute and not within the confines of marriage, so it’s something he’s ashamed of. He slept with most of the women in the village but none of them ever became pregnant. He kept tabs on the prostitute, then she gave birth and he took Peter and killed her, bringing her back to the village for a woman Gretchen, one of the wives of the 3 original men who founded the land, to care for him. As Peter got older, so did Bradley, and he was getting lazy with keeping his bargain to Hito. Killing people became tiresome. Torture was fine, tormenting the orphans in the home he helped run with some of the women whose husbands were sacrificed for Hito in the past. Hito will accept torture but it’s no substitute for rital sacrifice and he knows this. He’s threatened that if he does not comply. they’re going to take something from him, and he doesn’t take the threat seriously. That’s when the black-limbed spirit begins to roam the dusty land, fouling crops, killing livestock, disturbing the inhabitants. Bradley uses the wolf metaphor for sin, and how they need to appease God with more sacrifices. Again, he gets lazy, no one dies, so the spirit starts visiting young Peter at night. Peter is fascinated with the creature that he sees as a giant wolf and wants to befriend him. A running theme with my stories is that Hitotian demons will prey on children because they’re impressionable and easy targets. At first he’s delighted with how strange the wolf is, but things go south fast. The wolf starts showing him disturbing visions of death and destruction and Peter wants none of that. The hauntings begin, the hallucinations, the nightly visits. Bradley, who has convinced Peter that he’s his grandfather and not his father because of the shameful secret of conceiving him with a prostitute, exacerbates things by telling him his parents were eaten by a wolf, and plays up the theme for his sermons and how if you don’t wanna get eaten by the wolf, you gotta be good. Peter, who just minds his own business and is being assaulted nightly by this creature, starts losing his mind, so his grandfather, who’s already a child abuser at the orphanage, decides to take manners into his own hands. Peter is to be tied and gagged to his bed until he “stops with the wolf business”, thinking he’s making it up at first being a fantastical child, then he thinks his son is “broken in the head” and decides Peter is too much trouble to keep around, he’s so fearful and sad and has to remain sheltered so he doesn’t incite the village into panic, or to make rumors spread. Bradley tries to conceive another child with the women in the village but again, none of them get pregnant, so he has to keep Peter around to carry on his bloodline, which Bradley thinks is So Important. With Peter tied to his bed through most of his childhood, he feeds Peter twice a day and indoctrinates him. If he misbehaves, he injects him with “medicine” which is heroin, causing him to hallucinate and get very sick. ( Keep in mind, Bradley gave drugs to the orphans as well, just to see what would happen and to see if he could give them to Peter when he misbehaves ) Eventually, Peter learns the way of the Lord as his grandfather taught him, and the visions of the wolf stop. Not completely, but enough to sleep at night. Because of this, Bradley decides to take him outside more often, or when the sun comes out. Because of the cursed land, Hito has a blanket of overcast to prevent growth of crops to punish the people. If Bradley makes a sacrifice, the sun will come out. Peter has prophetic visions of what he perceives as Christ ( It’s Rat! ) killing everyone and seeking revenge from the sinners of the village. Peter’s got it in his head that God is wrathful, hateful, and black and white ( which is why I use a b&w motif as Peter’s BG in some pics ) and becomes a raving fanatic for Christ. Bradley has pretty much given up on his son at this point, and eventually plans on overdosing him, leaving the village, and trying again with another son with a woman outside the village. He’s kept all his thoughts and secrets down in a journal he hides in his room that Peter later discovers. Bradley starts giving sermons about love, God is love, we all need to love each other and procreate. Going against Hito’s wishes intentionally thinking it’ll “reverse the curse” and with his son no longer holding value to him, or the village really, he doesn’t have anything to lose. Peter becomes outraged by his grandfather’s changing of tune and his desire to get Peter to give him a grandson ( hey it’s another bloodline option to fall back on! ) but Peter doesn’t want to follow his orders anymore. Peter wants to preach and set everyone straight in the town with the Lord, to keep the wolf away and to bring Jesus into everyone’s lives, whatever it takes, so by some luck he manages to lock Bradley into the room he was held captive in for most of his youth and torture him, putting him through interrogation, breaking open his head to let the Lord in, to fix his sinful ways. To be fair, Bradley did raise Peter to believe this stuff, but it was also a mix of the child abuse, the drugs, and the Proto Rat spirit. Flash forward many years later, Rat’s an adult and comes across a murderer at an active crime scene and pursues him when he runs. There’s a sequence I want to draw of Peter trying to get away from Rat in a Florida swamp and Rat tormenting him in a similar fashion to how young Peter was being tormented as a child, causing his regression fear. The encounter, up close and personal with Rat, tells Peter that this thing, whatever Rat is, is linked to his past with the wolf. He doesn’t know how or why, but it’s something inside of him that he can’t deny, just as strong as his devotion to God. Throughout the journey with Rat and his group with Peter there as a pack member, they have talks to try and dig and see where the two are linked, why they’re linked, and ultimately what they’re looking for with each other’s company. Amy is constantly trying to get in-between them because she thinks Peter is trying to harm Rat and break up the group with his religious presence, despite his participation with the murders and ritual activities. She’s also extremely protective of Rat and very immature. I’ve been asked too about Peter’s religiousness and the Hitotian aspect. If he joins with Rat and the ritual chain of command is Hito - Rat - Pack, but he’s this cultist Baptist, how does that work? WELL, Hito’s wormed into other religions as well, and a lot of times she’ll speak to people “as Jesus” to do murders for her, which plays on actual crimes of people murdering others because “God told them to” and in this case, Peter didn’t know any better and really thought God was telling him to do these acts. At the end it dawns on him that Hito was using him for sacrifices and it causes an internal breakdown that he either needs to go head-first into obeying Rat and Hito or turn away and find redemption. Rat is manipulative as all Hell and uses Peter’s trauma to dominate him into a submissive follower, like the other Pack members, conditioning him, using his flesh-realness as proof, not some invisible God, and illustrates supernatural power to him, much like the Devil would in a biblical tale to convert a holy man. Rat keeps what he knows about Peter and Bradley fairly secret too, not wanting to reveal his hand. The affliction that Bradley has with the sentient meat, hooked up to the medical machines is residual Hitotian energy leaking into the real world through suffering. Torture and suffering causes a dimensional “gateway” to open, bringing Hito closer and closer to resurrection, and one thing you need to know about Hito is when she retreated from Earth to regroup for a take over, something happened in her transition into a parallel dimension and it turned her inside out, so instead of her being a singular being in a world, she BECAME the dimension, insides and guts and blood and the air, her memories, everything. Something she hopes to fix once enough people have been sacrificed. Bradley’s gone mental from being forced to remain alive with his brain rotting. Both him and Rat have seen into the dimension and it’s a thing where once you see it you’re never the same. For Rat, his body calls to the alien dimension and starts to rot, preparing for a new body with new cells and genetic coding. Bradley’s human body is soft and weak and unfit for transition, so it drives him mad. He thinks if he eats Rat he will become as powerful as he is. Peter doesn’t know about any of this, just that his father ( he learns he’s his father from the secret journal ) is a horrifying meat monster, and that Rat is definitely not human but linked to his past. Denial of Rat is almost like obeying his father Bradley, so maybe his following of Rat is rebellion of his father’s ways, how we all rebel against our parents wishes? Maybe it’s Rat’s real presence, and not an invisible one? Is it the proof he provides? Is it a need to really give into evil and be one’s trueself without shame or remorse, or will human morality trump our animal minds? Learned behaviour versus the heart’s desires? Lots of questions arise! I want to show how the wheels turn for each member of the Pack ( I know y’all mostly see Peter lately, but all the Pack members sans Ryan have very deep links to Rat and why they follow him! ) I hope this answers the question more or less, I love keeping things open to interpretation because it’s fun to see what people think up if they get invested, but I do have a storyline I’m going for as well. I use musical inspiration as well as classic kids tale elements, biblical elements, coming of age, brutality of man, the idea of transforming onesself, etc etc... But I gotta have that horror element in everything :) if anyone has any questions please feel free! I answer them anonymously unless requested otherwise.

[maximuswolf]

My encounter with a Homophobic Christian. via /r/atheism

My encounter with a Homophobic Christian.

When me and my friends were chatting about theology online, a homophobic prick came in to ruin our experience. The reason for this is because one of my friends is gay, and has mentioned some comments about God several times, now I admittedly don't remember what he said that triggered this christian loony, but I do remember what he said. He goes on by saying this:

"The Bible never denies that they are affections. What it says is that they are unnatural. It never denies that they are "real", it just says that they are not natural. “Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” - Romans 1:31 “Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,” - 2nd Timothy 3:3

There are several places in the New Testament where it refers to it as an unnatural affection. Then the Atheists come out of the woodwork saying "It is natural though! It is observed in multiple species!" Let me draw a long *sigh*..... It is "natural" in a manner of speaking. It is natural in the sense that we are inclined to do that which we want to do. Homosexuality is no more and no less natural than a foot fetish. A guy who likes feet can't help his attraction any more than a homosexual. That is simply a fact rather you like it or not . Our desire to kill is also natural. We find something we hate, and we want to destroy it. That is natural. It is natural for us to want to steal or to take things that don't belong to us. And why should you not do it if there is no God? Why should you stop me from doing anything I want to do? Are YOU my god? And if you say you AREN'T, then I would say "Alright? Then GO AWAY." If you want to tell me that I am objectively wrong about anything, then you'd better keep quiet when I tell you that YOU are wrong. Unless of course the title of "Hypocrite" doesn't bother you any. Then go ahead. The Bible is pretty clear: Our sinful desires ARE natural. They are natural to our flesh. We have a natural inclination to do that which we want to do. We want sex, we want to steal, we want to hurt things, etc. We are evil, and we are naturally inclined to do evil. But, undoubtedly, when the Bible addresses "natural sexuality", it is obviously referring to heterosexuality. Not just heterosexuality though (because many heterosexuals are perverts too), but more specifically vaginal intercourse. This is natural because it is the only means by which children are made. And this (child bearing) is WHY we have sex to begin with. That is its function. You plug a cord into a receptacle and the lamp turns on. It just works. Clearly, the penis is MEANT to be placed in the vagina. These two things were designed to be compatible on purpose. The receptacle was designed for the cord. It wasn't designed for anything else. You stick a fork or a knife in it and you get zapped. Its purpose is for one thing. Perhaps not the most charming analogy, but fitting nonetheless. "

I responded with "Keep in mind that your "objective morality" is saying inequality and discrimination are moral. If that is considered moral, then I don't want any part of your moral system. The fact is that all morality is subjective. Your "objective morality" originates from your God's subjective opinion. I believe empathy should play a main role in morality, and your system disregards the feeling of others. So, that is why I disagree with your moral system. Why would I want a system that doesn't take my feeling or the feelings of others into account?"

He than said this:

But that is your subjective opinion. Right now, you are telling me I'm wrong (or at least suggesting or making an inference that my way of thinking isn't right and/or is flawed). Why? Even if I am telling you that what I believe is objective, it doesn't matter because in your worldview, everything is subjective. Of course this "subjective morality" thing falls apart really fast for Atheists when you do something they disagree with. They start telling you that you "can't do this" or you "can't do that". Or? You "shouldn't do this" or you "shouldn't do that". I would say "Excuse me?" What do you mean I shouldn't steal? What do you mean I shouldn't punch this person in the face and ruin their day? I thought life is what we make it? I thought everything was all up to interpretation? Well I say that me punching this person and stealing is perfectly okay. And who are YOU to say otherwise? Now the burden of proof falls on YOU. And why? Because if you are going to tell me that what I've done is immoral or wrong, then you have to be able to explain why. Of course, explaining why would inherently come from a place of OBJECTIVE REASONING. But you CAN'T do that and maintain any kind of integrity because moments ago you JUST SAID that it was all subjective. So you either condemn yourself by being a hypocrite, or you concede defeat and realize that there is no reconciling these two contradicting opinions and viewpoints. This is one of those things in life that has no "grey area". Morality cannot be BOTH objective AND subjective. You can't have it both ways without looking like a fool. And then Atheists want to go the route of "consensus". That is the idea that the "majority rules". Essentially, we base our beliefs of right and wrong on the "consensus", or the agreement that a thing is right or wrong. But even if (and ESPECIALLY if) you took THAT route, you'd STILL lose. Why? Because isn't it Atheists who say "There are over 1 billion Christians in the world"? And that there are billions of other religious/spiritual people? If that is the case, then the "consensus" would be that homosexuality IS A SIN. You see, even if I were to use YOUR OWN reasoning, I'd STILL be correct. If I debate this from a Christian perspective, it's a sin. If I debate this using an Atheist's "consensus" angle, then it's STILL a sin because there are supposedly more Christians and religious persons than there are you.

My friend came in and said:

Again, using a God doesn't make morality any more Objective. Morality still originates from God's subjective opinion. It seems like you are using God as a way to escape the consequences of your own actions. "It's not my morality. It's God's morality." "God made me do it." Etc.

The argument got us no where with this dude, he keeps blabbering nonsense in order to make him self look like the bad guy here, pulling so many logical fallacy's outta his ass that it's not even funny.

It kept on going until we just decided to give up on the matter, but HE wouldn't, he wanted to give out the last stupid word by saying this.

The purpose in telling people about your sins is so that they understand that you "get it". I understand being human. They on the other hand DON'T understand what it is to be a Christian. Being a man is easy to understand because I am one. Wanting sex? Who doesn't? Getting drunk? Been there, done that. I've drank more alcohol in 10 years than some men will drink in their entire lives. Drugs? I've smoked weed, done coke a few times, and popped pills, yes. What you all seem to not understand is that calling oneself a Christian is an admission of guilt in itself. "What?" You may ask. Isn't it obvious? Let me break it down for you: If I call myself a Christian, that means I believe in Jesus. If I believe in Jesus, that means I believe he died for my sins. If I believe he died for my sins, then I thereby confess and admit that I am a sinner. It is "in the name". If I call myself a Christian, I thereby confess that I am a sinner. It is inherent. Believing on Christ means believing that you are a sinner. And I am a sinner. This I know. The only thing I've exposed is that I'm only a Man. An imperfect and flawed Man with a past like anyone else. And will you judge me for that? Will you judge me for my sins and simultaneously make the claim that I am the judgmental one? I have told Atheists before: "I will humble myself before you and openly confess my sins. And watch as you YOU judge ME." I don't just go around talking about all of my sins. I typically "tell my story" when it seems appropriate. In my experience, Atheists (and others) assume a lot of things about Christians and Christianity. They assume a lot of these things in arrogance and ignorance, and not in truth. The simple fact is that THEY don't understand. I understand very well what it is to "be human". They don't understand AT ALL what it is to be Christian. They tell me I don't understand. I don't understand what it's like to be flawed? To be damaged? To have a checkered past? To have a dysfunctional family? I don't know what it's like to be depressed? Or to wonder "Why am I alive"? I don't know what it's like to have a "colourful sexuality"? I don't know what it's like to be hated or to be bullied? I am a Man - I'm human. I understand ALL OF THAT. I am very acquainted with grief and with sadness. I know what it means to be an outsider and to feel like nobody cares about you. The ones who lack an understanding here are the Atheists and pagans, assuming they know ANYTHING about being a Christian. You don't understand AT ALL. The ones who are arrogant, and smug, and self important, and high and mighty, and ignorant seem to be them. They seem to be everything they claim Christians are. I understand. They don't.

His words, his grammar, all his stupidity, I can't believe monster's like him exist. Like I never really hated Christian's that much, but this one right here almost made me hate Christianity as whole.

So what are your thoughts on this? What are your arguments against this homophobic piece of filth? Again, if your able too, give a lengthy response, I kinda need help with debating skills anyway, and I'm curious.

Submitted January 30, 2021 at 05:30PM by Aromaster4 via reddit https://ift.tt/3j4ugYw

[almasidaliano]

Here’s the thing about Religion:

so i'm not religious. i am spiritual. to each's own, whatever you believe in, im simply happy you believe in something.

i grew up christian, i guess. uh baptist, ame, and non denominational. resonated most with non demoninational, even gave sermon when i was 15. and i loved it, truly. church is what threw me for a loop the most in religion, and members of the congregation. it's like hard to want to follow something when followers aren't people you would imagine when you think "Christ-like" you know?

i have always been skeptical about christianity. about religion in general really. so you talk to god and he hears you and he gets back to you with a signal or sign, a blessing or a lesson etc. very seldom people go through these experiences where they have truly heard the voice of God or seen some silohuette or something. its all about faith. and that wasn't the issue. "walk by faith not by sight" right? okay. it was the discrimination. the way people take it upon themselves to condemn others. the amount of sins people commit by simply having a judgemental conversation in a holy building is beyond me. the way the pastors feed off of the congregation. churches should be tax exempt meaning they are getting plenty to sustain their building from the government. why is the congregation dropping money in collection plates?

tides and offerings. paying dues. what about buying food for someone who was hungry? or simply giving some money to someone in need? why is it you go through your week being christ like giving tides and offerings selfishly whole heartedly, just to come to church and twice maybe three times a collection plate goes around while the pastor giving some motivational speech about how he know you got it; knowing you probably don't so to speak.

the most repetitive thing in the bible is not to judge and christians have got to be some of the most judgemental people i have ever known. when it comes to religion so many believers want to passively play god. they want to decide who is worth saving and who is condemned, who is living right, and what they need to be doing with their life. and that is not their job nor their place. you love thy neighbor. it never said unless xyz. no. simply love thy neighbor. it means be kind. love can be passive. it's treating humans like humans and not animals. common decency; which like common sense is less than common.

each religion has like its commandments you know those clear set of rules. i personally never thought these were things that needed to be clarified on the do not do list, however society. when you really break it down though, it is simple. be a good person. don't steal, don't kill. don't commit adultry (being loyal and faithful). etc. there are hundreds of stories in the bible. each open for each individual's interpretation.

if the title of the Creator is God then God is a woman. male and female exist yes i just think there is a little bit left off to the story. if there's a battle of the sexes women are the superior. first, there's father time and mother nature. time is a construct, it does not actually exist. ashes to ashes dust to dust. we all come from the earth.

see how the white man created a male god and sent his male son to save us all. "this is a man's world" (the Devil is a white man. and God is a black woman.) that is true, why? because Earth is the Devil's playground. what is so crazy is that the devil is this symbol of desire and guilty pleasures, rebellion and such and here we have the power to choose. life is about experiences. thinking for yourself doesn't make you a menace, how else do you learn? self knowledge is the best knowledge.

the Nation of Islam, is the prominent black religion. Catholicism and Scientology are the most prominent white religions. Catholicism enables sodomy and pedophilia. Scientology is a tax exempt cult, pretty much controlling the media and lowkey the United States. the Nation partnered with them and have been getting some heat from it, however i think they are trying to take it down. as time has progressed, everyone has gotten smarter. talk about a trojan horse.

Scientology and Catholicism kind of rule the country. all the many branch religions from catholicism just get ranked under that, however those two mainly. Scientology is a full blown brainwashing cult. they are the abusive partner in a domestic violence situation. most religion is. it's like religion or life. religion or family. religion or you know? more division. Scientology is more extreme in the sense that they really have policies and such enforced behind the rules and expectations. However, the same dynamic is kind of true for other religions. people get shunned and become estranged from their families frequently due to religious disagreements. it is truly disheartening because if someone is supposedly lost and you are their loved one, or simply a member of the following, why wouldnt you keep supporting them in the sense of like love companionship an ear to listen. instead, they force people to choose between trusting themselves and trusting their religion.

if your religion makes you question yourself take a look at it. you may be fucking up, you may not. however, blind trust will lead you off a cliff. almost all if not all religions talk about Jesus in one way or the other. there is truth in everything see? the Bible says its blasphemy to read another holy text. i want to find a Bible in the original script before people came with their intentions and made it what they wanted.

let's talk homosexuality for a moment. now i dont know how other religions work, however in christianity, christians love to condemn a homosexual. first thing, WHAT DOES WHO SOMEONE ELSE LOVES HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ANY OUTSIDER? nothing. nothing at all. it has never been anyone's place to tell someone who they can and cannot love. there are scriptures, however they talk about pedetry and sodomy, rape, and male prostitution. crazy thing, it speaks a lot about males not committing homosexual acts but im pretty sure only comes up once about women and the topic was still men.

here's what i think: like i said god is a woman. so if the stories still hold true, humans were created right? so male and man have prefixes. these are word parts that come before. adding these prefixes creates woman and female. in that, i feel as though women were here first. (probably considering all babies start as females and then whilst developing testes drop or don't.) men cannot carry children, they don't have the nutrients in their bodies, they too have nipples however they don't produce milk. men were created as a tool. like a whole ass donor or carrier. men do not like to be "second in command". they feel like in order to be a man and wear the pants, they must do all the providing while a woman does the nurturing. whereas women are multifaceted and great at multitasking. men are constantly thinking like squirrels trying to get nuts. that's all they are here for lol. women could rule the world.

toats just a random theory: what if eve eating the apple and gaining knowledge was the knowledge of true love. like what if shorty realized she aint love dude they were just made for each other lmao. like men are here for reproduction. and to help when a woman's hand are full. i mean like they are in the garden and shit all happy and shit then shorty eat the apple give it to dude and they like oh no we naked. so they go find bushes and leaves and make some lil clothes or coverings. its the knowledge of good and evil so what if their union was evil lol in the sense of bad. like they get caste out stay together have two sons and one kill the other on some hateful envious shit. men provoke violence and evil. they are so prideful. so its like men love women, because they were made to help repopulate and to some extent protect. that's why men think with their dick heads. maybe that's why homosexuality is a "sin" or they try and press the issue; because of rape and sodomy. also, in effort to keep women unhappy since men were too. like it says man and man shouldn't be together, blatantly. not woman. man. because it was unconsensual, and they are here for reproduction so they kinda wasting product getting off elsewhere if you know get what i am saying. lol its a loose theory just popped in my head. however, it kind of makes sense. this lifetime we learning and experiencing things. at the beginning of the lifetime there was woman and then male was created with the tools needed to procreate. as life progressed, there are now ways for same sex female couples to have children. currently only girls can be born due to the lack of "Y" chromosome, however in due time. it is still presently possible for a child have two birth mothers in the present. that is what life is for, the condension of One Sound Consciousness (basically the big bang except not how they described it.). the condension of the Consciousness means when the Creator decided on this lifetime and created every single thing in it us included in order to experience each and every part of their creation. the Creator knows all, can create all, however has not experienced all; that is what lifetimes are for. the experience. the knowledge gained.

always trust the vibes. energy never lies. your body is a radar. you must protect your peace. meditation is like prayer, except broader. in my opinion you let go of so much weight and you gain so much clarity. do not stop believing. always believe in something. mainly yourself. if nothing else. the things that you eat matter too.  there are religions against eating pork, all slaves had was pig parts and pig's food. personally, i think it strengthened our bodies against more diseases and such like made us immune.

religion is simply something to believe in. spirituality is actuality. energy is undeniable. you can feel vibrations. and if you can't open your third eye because you are sleep and we need to be woke. we are superhuman. we have superpowers. for centuries, we have been under a curse of mental slavery. (sound familiar? this is why our ancestors laid down and took it. this is why my melanated friends still laying down and taking it.

having faith supposed to make you stop being afraid to die. so do yall not actually believe in something? because i get (ish) in general not wanting to die if you can help it. however, what part of the life you living is worth living truly? if you sat down and looked at the cards you were dealt, could you honestly say "nah im good, it could be worse ima ride it out." or some shit? would you truly rather live this life than fight for the life you want, the life you deserve and maybe die in the process? so what if they gone kill you anyway?

you know they out to kill us anyway. this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. you gotta be brave to be free. we caged or running the streets. "Ye though I walk throw the valley of the shadow of death i shall fear no evil-" trust yourself and give it to the universe.

We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail.

your God already knows your heart, learn yourself and fight like hell for peace, equality, and harmony.

-Almasi

[inkbucket]

On Civil Disobedience

A good friend of mine sent me this article the other day as a summary of what he believed about civil disobedience, and I disagreed with that position strongly enough to write a fairly lengthy (ok, an absurdly long) response.  This is not an abstract philosophical question in my particular community right now because many Christians are actively protesting the mask and social distancing orders, which they believe to be unconstitutional and un-American, by intentionally breaking the law right in front of police officers.  When the officers attempted to cite them, they refused to show ID and/or argued with the police long enough to apparently count as resisting and obstructing justice and were led away in handcuffs, which caused a bit of a national media scene.  So here we go:

If I had to summarize the article, it would be “Romans 13 No Longer Applies Because ‘Murica.” The first thing this article does is create a straw man and knock it around a bit - as far as I’m aware, no major Christian thinker has ever taught that obeying the magistrate is absolute and extends even to the point where Christians must commit murder or other sins when commanded by the magistrate. The position of the church has always been that when asked to sin by a magistrate, Christians must obey God rather than man. I can’t think of anyone who has ever taught that the fact that Christians are supposed to obey the magistrate morally justifies the magistrate’s actions, either (e.g. Joseph Stalin’s purges). The author is a historian, so it’s a bit surprising that he apparently doesn’t know the historic position of the church.

His next point is to argue that because America was founded as a constitutional republic, if the powers that be violate that constitution then Christians have no moral obligation to obey them. This is interesting because Paul wrote Romans under Nero, and the gradual failure of the roman republic was recent enough that the conspiracy that would later “trigger” Nero and start all the craziness had members who wanted to get rid of emperors and restore the republic. Augustus and Tiberius went to great lengths to keep up the fiction that Rome was still a republic, though that had tapered off by the time of Nero. So the emperors had gradually swallowed all the power and destroyed Rome’s historic form of republican government. But the Christians Paul and Peter wrote to were still supposed to obey and even honor them:

The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. (Romans 13)

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2)

So if Trump were to fulfill the liberals’ worst nightmares and declare himself Emperor Trump and an American Emperor eventually became the status quo, at some point we’d be called to believe that the Trump dynasty was established by God and submit to their authority. And a Christian who tried to assassinate emperor Trumpius IV and restore the constitution would be in the wrong. Right now, however, the constitution is the highest law of the land and receives at least lip service from the powers that be, so I agree with the author that it’s a fine way to call authorities to account - but it’s not a magic document and if it ever becomes clear that the constitution has been overthrown, our duty of civil obedience would eventually transfer to whoever did the overthrowing.

But in the messy period OF the overthrowing, who would we owe obedience to? That’s a good segway to his next argument, which is that because in America the power has been distributed between three branches of government, there will be conflicting commands and hence Romans 13 doesn’t apply. His opinion seems to be that America is special, as if never before in the history of the world have there been different magistrates stepping on each others’ toes. This argument can be disproved by pretty much any history book you pick up - communication was expensive in the ancient world and governors of far-flung provinces often had lots of leeway and not a lot of oversight and sometimes rebelled against the central government. Even in the trial of Jesus (and later of Paul) we see the tension and power balance between the judeo-hellenistic heredity kings (the Herods) and the roman-appointed governor (Pilate). Then you have tribunes and centurions carrying out their orders more-or-less accurately on the ground, with the result that, even though there was a single Emperor far away, I’m betting actual enforcement of law was far more arbitrary and less monolithic than today.

So choosing which magistrate to obey has always been necessary, and the apostles’ audience would have had to try to make wise decisions in the messy, tumultuous age they lived in (just as we do now). This article’s argument that it’s impossible to obey Romans 13 at all if you have more than one legitimate authority is ridiculous. As far as choosing which to obey, Peter is careful to rank civic authority so in general I think we should seek the highest authority in the sphere under question to obey.  

In the case of a successful Chinese invasion or coup, etc, I think God would allow us the benefit of the doubt in the messy transition period until a clear winner emerged, and until then I certainly hope we’d be shooting invaders/coupers with AR-15s.

But who’s in charge isn’t the issue right now - I think we’d all agree that we have legitimate local, state and federal governments. As far as the “problem of federalism” argument: choosing whether to obey Trump’s tweets or legitimately passed state and local legislation doesn’t require much wisdom, I think. And in cases like Kootenai where the sheriff says you don’t have to mask up even if your city tells you that you to, it’s also pretty obvious (given that he outranks city law enforcement and there’s no state-wide mask law above him to consider).

Now his next claim “Michigan courts needed private citizens and businesses to challenge Whitmer’s orders before they could act. Citizens had to go first.” requires a bit of research: here and here.

Unless I’m missing something, none of the plaintiffs in that document actually broke the law. There was a man who wanted a knee surgery and some doctors who wanted to do it for him but couldn’t legally. So they sued and won, and I 100% support their action. Christians aren’t supposed to sue one another, but our government allows lawsuits against the government as a form of redress and there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of that right that comes along with our citizenship.

So, given that the lawsuit that actually broke the governor’s seizure of power didn’t actually require civil disobedience, his claim about it being absolutely necessary seems pretty hollow.  

Civil disobedience shows up in scripture as the nuclear option - like the people of Israel refusing to let a deranged Saul kill Jonathan for no good reason. If someone is about to be murdered in front of you, then that’s an excellent time to consider civil disobedience.

But that’s not happening yet, and in our case we have multiple avenues of recourse - lawsuits, referendums, recalls, state laws, etc - we have many ways to seek justice while working within the law and without rebelling against any authority that God’s set over us. By using the term “right to protest”, the article attempts to conflate “right to peacefully assemble” with “right to ignore laws we believe are illegal based on higher laws”, but the latter is never guaranteed by the constitution or anywhere else. If a law is really illegal, then prove it in the courts! Sometimes we’ll be right (like Michigan), and sometimes (as in the very disappointing Supreme Court decision against the church in Nevada) we’ll be wrong, and something that sure seems like it should be illegal is ruled legal.

At that point, do we decide that our private interpretation of the constitution outranks that of the Supreme Court and disobey anyway? Or do we take the injustice as Christ calling us to suffer, and do our best to suck it up and suffer joyfully? “But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:18)

That’s the end of the article, but since this has turned into a novel anyway, I’d like to throw in seven additional random musings about this situation:

First, we expect a child to obey their parents when said parents ask them to do something dumb but not immoral. We expect a wife to obey her husband when he asks her to do something dumb but not immoral. So why is it that when as citizens we’re asked to do something dumb but not immoral, we fly off the handle and start getting pretty theatrical? It’s like submission is all well and good as long as it’s someone else who’s being called to do the submitting.

Second, in the case of Daniel refusing to obey the blatantly immoral command of Nebuchadnezzar to pray to no one else, how does he go about it? Daniel 6 gives quite a bit of detail - he went to his upstairs room where the windows faced Jerusalem and continued to do exactly what he did before. Presumably the windows were still open, so he wasn’t embarrassed about what he was doing. But he did exactly what he had done before… he didn’t march into the throne room and start praying in public right before the king to make a statement, and then get very offended when he was led away in handcuffs. So if a swat team enters through an open church door on Sunday and arrests us all singing psalms, that seems like the proper way to get arrested.

Third, and on that note, we are commanded to meet together with other Christians outside our immediate household, so if the government really prevents that for an extended period then we’re required to disobey. And I believe that if they did sneaky things like requiring us to file a Request to Worship form with a 6-month waiting period before we’re allowed to interact with another Christian face-to-face, that would count as preventing worship. But I don’t believe that the existing fire codes which regulate a church building’s maximum occupancy are preventing worship, even though they are examples of the government controlling how many of us can worship together under one roof. So somewhere between those extremes is the point where we start disobeying, and that’s a question for careful thought and prayer.  If we need to split up and worship in groups of 20 for a few years in individual houses, might not God use that for good?  Under persecution Christians have done that sort of thing for thousands of years and the Church has often thrived in those circumstances.

Fourth, I’m pretty sure the devil giggles every time he hears the phrase “flexing my muscles” or “tip of the spear” being used. Those catchphrases seem an awful lot like excuses to not believe the best about other folks as loving your neighbor requires (since magistrates are people too). As long as there’s a reasonable chance that they’re going to leave us alone (like if the police get called to our churches multiple times but refuse to enter, for example), that seems like a great opportunity to believe the best about them… that maybe they’ll continue to leave us alone. Arguments supporting aggressive red-pill Christianity are mostly pragmatic - the bad things that will happen if we don’t do such-and-such RIGHT NOW and get the jump on the bad guys… but it’s important to remember that we’re responsible for our actions and not the the outcome of our actions: our job is just to obey God, and let Him worry about the outcome.

Fifth, because of our actions, the reputation of our local police department has been unjustly savaged in the national media.  I ran into the wife of a police officer the other day and asked her how her husband was doing - she said he’d spent the week after the protest getting yelled at by angry people calling in from all over the country.  As far as I can tell, though, the police didn’t actually do anything wrong - they calmly and professionally enforced a law on the books.  I certainly hope that this particular law will get shut down soon through lawsuit or referendum, etc - but it hasn’t yet, and whether it will be eventually ruled unjust and nullified is an open question.  If we allow misconceptions about what actually happened to exist unchallenged, then we’re complicit in the damage done to our police department’s reputation.

Sixth, the current arguments in favor of civil disobedience go against the teaching of Augustine, Luther and Calvin, and whenever those three guys agree on anything, we’d best pay attention. The Lutheran position is the best developed and makes allowances for lesser magistrates to interpose themselves against higher magistrates and then for individual Christians to choose to follow the lesser magistrate instead of the greater (but all this only justified in pretty extreme cases). But the Lutheran position never allows people as individuals to judge the law and refuse to obey it (unless, of course, the law requires them to sin).

Seventh, civil disobedience in the current circumstances has been framed as being a disagreement over whether a particular tactic was used wisely or not, and thus subject to Christian liberty. To me, it’s more akin to the issue of whether we should have female pastors or allow homosexuality in the church - it’s a question of “do you believe the plain reading of the Scriptures, or do you play the not-culturally-relevant card and nullify the commandment of God with the tradition of men?” So I think it’s important we work through this together and sort this stuff out.

On that note, I firmly believe that every time you unfriend another Christian on Facebook, the devil wins. Cutting people out of your life entirely is the world’s current therapy for dealing with disagreement, but it’s diametrically opposed to the Christian “love your enemy”, which treats even your enemy as another person, made in the image of God, and desires their good. And if we’re supposed to love our enemies, how much more our brothers and sisters in Christ!  However, loving someone sometimes means speaking hard words to them - to use an extreme case, loving a meth addict or an alcoholic will often be offensive (to them) and a messy business for everyone.  But that’s the sort of good mess we’re called to.  

When other Christians are believing and teaching things that are clearly in error when held up to the word of God, being silent sometimes isn’t loving them (e.g. Paul rebuking Peter).  Though sometimes, being silent in the face of error is exactly what we’re called to (e.g. the Christian wife with an unbelieving husband). So your relationship to the other person does matter and define what is and isn’t appropriate.  But remember, changing people’s hearts is a job for the Holy Spirt and the Scriptures, not dependent on our arguments or cleverness.  Doing our best to please God in the way we interact with other people (whether speaking out or staying silent), and trusting Him for the outcome, lets us avoid the strident, angry tone that’s so common out there right now.  

I’ll leave you with another passage from 1 Peter - this is what we’re shooting for in our interaction with the world.  We need to conform to the examples we’ve been given in order to be able to say with a clean conscience “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” (John 10:32) and “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.” (Acts 25:8).  

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled." But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3)