#like the fact that most of the people in the bible fandom are atheist is just so cool

[nadia-cannot-think-straight]

People who hiperfixate on Epic of Gilgamesh, Iliad/Oddysey and The Bible are actually the coolest mfs out there. Like yess pleasee draw more Gilgamesh x Enkidu fanart, write more Achilles angst, call Jesus of Nazareth your babygirl, nothing makes me happier.

[helpful-hierophant]

Pagan Religion in Media

@phemonoi​​ wanted to discuss:

I would like to discuss our exposure in media and pagan integration to society. To be more concise, I would like people to know we exist.

***(key points if you have no spoons to read it all are in bold!)*** 

This topic has been discussed many times among almost all pagan groups. One way or another we have all been portrayed in films or movies or books. But while trying not to repeat many conversations before mine, I also want to go into how it is GOOD that we are in the media, and why it is BAD.

Almost always the portrayal has been either completely disrespectful, or using our gods or stories as dark villains or just completely false. We see this in examples such as Supernatural; with many Native American figures being used as monsters; Marvel using Norse gods like Loki, Thor, Hela, etc.. We also know that Marvel will be bringing Hercules into the MCU very soon as well  (forgive me my true love in life is Marvel and I recognize the hypocrisy. Ultimately I want to see change in the media when talking about pagan faith not just complaining about these media). But to bring the conversation to the Hellenic side of portrayals, i think we all know of the Percy Jackson series and Heroes of Olympus or Wonder Woman and the….far more disgusting media that's popular right now I will not name. 

The biggest issue with all of these are the exact same, and ties into the second part of the discussion of pagan integration into society. Christianity has fought and enforced the pressure and  normality of our society on their terms. being pagan, you see it more than a christian or even an atheist would, as the damage done to pagan history and culture is completely different to that of atheism. Since the crusades the church has basically forced subconscious actions into our society top to bottom. And when you point out these things, people scoff and say you're reading into it, or there's nothing that bad about it and you shouldn't be so sensitive. This attitude is aimed towards minority religions, because we as religions aren't taken seriously. Think of why it's even called MYTHology. It’s to enforce the idea that our stories and faith aren’t anything more than just make believe. You don’t call it Bible myths do you? Or Christian mythology. No, you call it stories. Even our vocabulary and language is formed around what the church has formulated over centuries of control. Let me be clear that I love and support Christianity as a faith, but things like this can not go under the rug and by not talking about it; avoiding this and other history of the church is to let it go without correction, especially because it is within the subconscious of society. 

So what the hell does this have to do with my movies and books? Well, with this mindset, that these gods are simply fictional characters, content creators aren't thinking about it being disrespectful at all. And even ones that have been forced to acknowledge us, oftentimes won't change the behavior just because ‘well i'm just using them for entertainment not the actual gods.’ you're forcing lions into a circus and you're not the ringleader, you're a clown. Straight out. I think it’s very different when we as Hellenics make our own content vs. other people. This is not including artists, as artwork is mostly alright! When media goes over the line is taking our gods and using them as a black and white villain, or creating a ‘personality’ and treating them as dumb, just a plot point, mindless, stupid, etc. The issue is HOW you portray the gods, not the inclusion of the gods.

 As this pushes others to believe in this narrative and also pushes the fiction belief of these gods. One could argue that even the stories we have of ancient times was like the fanfics of the ancient Greeks about the gods, as most of the myths are not actually what happened, aside from translation issues. 

So to change the direction of this post with that last bit being said; I mentioned above how it could also be GOOD. Now after that speech of how terrible it is, how can I give you a reason it could be good also? Well there's only one reason that I can find in it all that I can say is good. I always think something good can come from anything, even if you can’t see it in the moment. I think pagan religions being used in the media help the community by helping others find their way to pagan religions. I know a lot of gate-keeping elitists get all huffy if anyone dares finds the religion through such a source. I can promise you so many Hellenics can testify that they found the religion through talking to people about the books or maybe they just really like it and look into Greek stories more and are like ‘wow!! I really connect with this!” I think the big issue these gatekeepers have with people who are exposed to the religion this way is they think that these people take the media as truth, thinking that just because you were exposed to the faith through media, that you haven’t done any research and that all your knowledge of the gods is from a fandom. How sad to think they think so little of their fellow Hellenics. I have met many people who have found Hellenism through fandom outlets and are diligent in their studies. The media, for a pagan heart, is nothing more than a door to the faith, it is not the box anyone serious about the religion is taking as real information. But the treatment of people coming in this way is not only terrible but damages their connection to the Hellenic community and ultimately their feelings of being comfortable reaching out for assistance in learning how to practice. The issue is non Hellenics taking this as fact, and certain media with the gods that are not at all okay, and vile treatment of the gods. 

I think I will make a part two to cover the pagan integration, as that in itself is quite the box. This was just my thoughts typed out as I thought them. I am in no way a perfect source, this is simply from the perspective of someone who's been a hellenic for 3 years and loves discussing topics with others to grow! I hope this gave some insight and, to remind everyone, this is an open discussion! Not a debate thread or discourse invitation. For the sake of everyone being comfortable please refrain from naming L**e Olympus as it is very triggering for most Hellenics and I avoid saying its name when I can. We are here to grow and who knows, maybe my mind will be changed by one of your thoughts! Let me know, hail the gods!

[foodfantasyimagines]

I followed some Obey Me blogs myself because I think the characters are kinda cool and I need something to fill the void that is also known as the lack of consistent Food Fantasy content(it’s been my hyperfixation for almost three years and I’m not ready to let go yet). Don’t really care too much for the main story but I like the cast for the most part and MC is a fun little ball of sass(though not nearly comparable to Master Attendant in FF’s main storyline)

I really only enjoy the lore of the game and the characters, I only really play to keep up to learn more about the characters. I don’t really like the actual plot, also don’t really like the fandom. No offense to the good fans, some of them scare me because they get offended about everything.

⚠️warning this is my own opinion and it will probably get me lit up if the obey me! Fandom finds this⚠️

I didn’t like the fact that MC was related to the brothers, I don’t care if Lilith was reborn as a human and technically MC is Thousands of generations breed out, it’s still really strange to me. Also after everything that happens when they find out MC is “Human Lilith”,because after they find out they literally for a while just act like she is ACTUALLY LILITH. It kinda makes me uncomfortable,just a litttleeee bit.

Also the fact that technically, on a dna level, non of the brothers are related, the closes one but still isn’t dna related would be Lucifer and Satan just do to the fact that Lucifer “gave birth” to him because Satan was made from his own emotion and manifested into a physical body. Or maybe Beel and Belp,but still they where only made at the same time, they arnt actually blood.

They are not technically related, they just have a family/brotherly upbringing to where they all see one another as brothers.

If anything it’s some kind of non-sexual brother complex?

⚠️This is the part where the fandom murders me for having a opinion or thought about this⚠️

I hate religion related shit because I grow up with a religious up being and there for have a good knowledge of the Bible, even though I don’t care for religion in general as a adult. I’m not atheist, I’m just not apart of ANY religion and would like to stay that way. I like to learn about other religions and beliefs, just not be apart of one myself.

I’m going to say it, I could careless about the whole brother shipping in the fandom, and people have literally gotten cused out,harassed and even doxxed for just saying they didn’t have a opinion or didn’t care all that much about it. Honestly the main point I can give for not caring that much about the topic is below.

(Also I want people to understand, this is a Japanese game,it’s from Japan, you see where anime/manga/games come from when it comes to family relationships. A lot of times they put this stuff in not understanding or caring that is kinda sus. Also, bruh they technically come from the Bible,they are literally demons/fallen angels,they technically wouldn’t care about this stuff. We all know that the Bible is fucked up. There for,we should all have a open mind and even thought people, it’s gross content in the fandom, it’s based on some actual fucked up shit in the first place, you should kind of expect it going into fandom that people are goin to make that content.)

(Not fighting the fact that Asmo literally try’s to see his “brothers” naked and makes sexual comments and even try’s to get them to do sexual stuff with them, #PleasedontletBeelnearAsmoBeelisbaby)

⚠️end of crap I don’t like to talk about when it comes to the games plot & strange lore⚠️

I really like the characters, that’s the only reason why I play the game. I would love to start a blog like this one on it but low-key I’m afraid I might get hate for having a neutral opinion on stuff in the plot and also what others make in the fandom.

My favorite characters are Mammon and Beel.☺️

[theexistentiallyqueer]

"but he murdered people”

This is a post about Goro Akechi, murder, its aftermath, trauma, and two things that are in real short fucking supply around here: critical thinking and empathy.

Listen, I’m a veteran of the Dragon Age fandom. If you want to talk about toxic fandoms, they’re your Bible. As far as your Judas Iscariots and Nebuchadnezzars go, I was one of them. I’ve seen it, I’ve done it, and I’m done with it. It’s exhausting to carry that much rage inside of you, to live it actively every second of every day, and to inflict it on other people and laugh about it. So I’ve been disengaged, largely, for a few years. 

And now I’m in the Persona 5 fandom and find myself enthusiastically appreciating Goro Akechi, because who doesn’t love complex, morally flawed, ambiguously gay-coded characters? Shit, maybe you’re not on board, but I’ll sign right up. I’m a relative newcomer, despite being a longtime Persona fan and playing P5 around when it came out, because I didn’t engage with the fandom then. I jumped back in with the Royal announcement and absolutely saturated myself in this vibrant fan space. Invested in the idea of Akechi being explored as a fully fleshed-out character, I find myself following Goroboys. Which is great! Because so far, they’re all great! Nicest bunch of people you could ever hope to meet!

Except there’s Discourse. There’s always been Discourse, I find, but this is my first exposure to it in this fandom. This weekend was my first week of seeing Goro antis active, seeing people I follow, people I like and appreciate and some I considering genuine friends, actively attacked and harassed because they like a fictional teenage character who killed some other fictional people in a fictional world where you, playing as the main character, have the ability to perform a metaphysical lobotomy on people who literally can’t consent. Here I thought the only people who hated Akechi were white cishet men who saw his rage against a parent and said, “Nah, too bitchy for me,” because they’re too afraid to look in a mirror and see Masayoshi Shido’s fascist, misogynistic mug staring back. 

Are you awake yet? Have I woken you up to the fact that Persona 5′s premise is a wish-fulfillment fantasy of “what if I could make the person who took advantage of me when I was a teenager apologize in front of the entire world by using an alternate fantasy dimension to completely violate their brain”?

I see my friends saying, “Wow, it’s amazing how people who hate Akechi can’t leave people who like Akechi alone,” and within an hour they have replies saying MURDER IS MURDER as if they know what murder actually is.

We’re about to get real personal up in here because maybe, only then, will some of you people take the hint that your behavior borders on actively bullying other people on the internet over a fictional character.

Ready? Here goes.

Murder is your mom picking you up from summer camp three weeks after your ninth birthday, driving you to your grandparents’ house, and telling you that when daddy was at work today, someone tried to steal the money, and they had a gun. Daddy was brave and Daddy died.

Murder is blacking out when you’re nine years old and coming to to yourself two houses away on a neighbor’s swing set with crickets chirping in your ears and the crushing reality of never seeing your father again turning your brain into static.

Murder is asking your mother if she asked for the death penalty, and your mother telling you, in a pleading voice, that she didn’t because he was mentally ill and it didn’t feel right. Murder is feeling angry afterwards because you feel like something was taken away from you, and something should be exchanged for that. Because that’s how fairness works, right? If you steal candy from the store, you have to give up your allowance for the next five months.

Murder is realizing you’re an atheist at fourteen and driving past the cemetery where your father’s remains are interred, and having the gut-punching, soul-suffocating realization of what never ever ever actually means. Murder is building an internal cosmology where forever means my atoms and yours, creating new life in perpetuity as the comfort you drag out of the west’s cold, uncaring atheism that never found its own poetry.

Murder is your first two years in college, when you discover social justice and realize the world is bigger than your own life experiences, and that violence at the bottom is a reactionary symptom against violence at the top. Murder is understanding the fact that the man who killed your father was himself a victim of a racist, ableist, capitalist society with a morally bankrupt healthcare system, and that every single one of those things is in and of itself is more hateful than the act of your father bleeding out in the parking lot, in the ambulance, on the operating table.

Murder is your mother confessing to you in college that your father was physically abusive of her and that she had threatened him, only weeks before he was killed, that she would leave and take her daughters with her if he didn’t change. Murder is knowing that your father ran after an armed robber because he was raised by a Sicilian father in a household overflowing with toxic masculinity, and what killed your father wasn’t a man with a gun: what killed your father was the patriarchy whispering in his ear, This theft emasculates you. 

Murder is looking your own mother in the eye and telling her that one day you want to visit the man who killed your father and open your heart to him, because all you can think is, He didn’t plan this. He can’t have wanted this. What must it feel like to kill someone without intending to and then have to live with that for the rest of your life with no one to help you? Murder is the sound of betrayal in your mother’s voice when she responds, disbelieving.

Murder is spending years wanting to at least write to him, and then forgetting, and then going back, because you are a fluid, impermanent, imperfect person with your own flaws and failures and mental issues that hold you back from being the paragon you want to be. Murder is throwing yourself into the left and embracing prison abolition so hard it hurts, because you know that if the state can lock up someone who doesn’t “matter,” the state can lock up anyone. 

Murder is throwing away or selling every childhood thing you ever possessed because you are not by nature a sentimental person, but never giving up that doll you were gifted, the doll you coveted and wanted more than anything else, three weeks before your father was shot and killed. You have no pictures, no mementos, no nothing, but she sits at the top of your bookshelf to this day, a weighty child goddess, the symbol of your torn and labyrinthine childhood.

Murder is having to see a bunch of petty-ass people using actual trauma that real life people have experienced and continue to experience to directly and repeatedly harass your friends online (and yourself, indirectly, by tagging their hateful shit) because you and your friends like a fictional fucking character who, by nature of being fictional, did not actually murder any real existing people.

Murder is building your entire identity around how you sympathize, deeply, with the person who killed your own father, because that takes hard work and deep empathy and the ability to see past a lot of bullshit just to get to that point, and having some fuck-ass anons act like none of that matters because there is (apparently, I must assume) some omnipotent god of justice saying “Fuck you and everything you’ve been through” that apparently only these bullies can hear.

Murder is seeing fandom moralizers talk about murder like they understand it. Like they’ve read this, plus the last ten-plus paragraphs, and decided they know best anyway because mommy and daddy always told them Criminals Are Bad and walked wide-eyed and innocent into a social network overrun with TERFs, exclusionists, and a rotten segment of the political left that acts like some extras straight out of The Crucible.

I have never once been triggered by anything relating to my father’s murder. I cried at the Resurrection Stone scene in The Deathly Hallows, I cried when I completed when I completed the DA2 DLC Legacy after the end of act 2. When I see a parent die, I have an emotional reaction, because it’s familiar.

But the Akechi antis who all say “but he killed people!”, The Akechi antis who say “murder is still murder”?

The murder of my father is still murder. The man who killed him, his murderer, is still regardless a human being, the man who killed him deserves sympathy and compassion and understanding and respect and, above all, a chance.

I am a living example of what’s left behind when someone is murdered. You can walk into the mausoleum where my father is interred, face his headstone, and let the earth open up beneath you and drop you into hell.

So most sincerely, from someone who lost their father to gun violence, to armed robbery, to murder: Stop fucking using our lived experiences as your justification to harass and bully people online for committing the Grave Moral Sin of just liking a video game character.

Between the fact that the American government is keeping real people in concentration camps and a bunch of strangers on the internet liking a twiggy teenage anime boy who used a fantasy world to kill people who don’t exist, which one is actually important to deserve your moral outrage?

You’ll die eventually; fascism won’t kill itself.

[clarabosswald]

okay so someone on twitter dug up this absolutely outstanding uhhh “”article”” on his dark materials in general and the golden compass movie specifically by one david j stewart and i just. i HAVE to break down at least some of it because it’s an absolute gem

(this is a bit long - there is a LOT of stupidity to cover here)

first of all, the url

i could honestly just end the post here because that line right there is a masterpiece by itself. screw eurovision, hellivision is the next hot thing

There is no movie any more evil than THE GOLDEN COMPASS.

that’s the first line of the article. what a first line. the most amazing thing is that in an entirely different context i can kind of agree with this claim

Philip Pullman is a sinfully proud, God-hating, militant atheist.

militant! oh wow. is the hdm fandom actually pullman’s secret army? like dumbledore’s army in hp? do we have secret meetings? i want in

The movie has been dumbed down

yet again i find myself agreeing with mr stewart

in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please.

people having free will? good lord, the horror. 

The movie is indescribably evil.

damn dude yet again you’re right but you’re kinda preaching to the choir here at this point

The word "demon" is repeated several dozen times throughout the movie, as each child has it's own lovable demon. 

this is the first time in the article that mr david j stewart stubbornly refuses to understand that there’s this thing called “concept” and “artistic license” and that in the context of the hdm world, pullman used his artistic license to change the common meaning of the word d(a)emon.  NOT TO MENTION that pullman hardly made up the concept of a daemon as a positive creature - “originally referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit”, literally the first line in the wikipedia article about the classical concept of daemons. but yeah i’m unfairly expecting mr dave to do his research so i guess that’s kinda mean of me.

Witches by the hundreds are featured in the movie, and are portrayed as being good, helpful and rescuers.

for a moment i wondered what mr dave’s opinion on harry potter is like, but i can imagine it quite vividly.

The star character, a little girl named Lyra Belacqua, loves her demon (who takes various animal forms), and she has named him "Pan" (short for Pantalaimon)

somewhere inside of me, my inner hdm myth fanatic is screaming in rage at all the gross misunderstanding of the basic plot of hdm, but well we’ve got more serious problems here

Pan is the pagan god of sexual rape, lust and fertility.  Statues of Pan are often displayed showing him with an erection.

you know what’s EXTREMELY ironic here? pantalaimon isn’t named after that pan. he’s actually named after the greek saint pantaleon.  (mr dave now provides a link to his rage fest over narnia. good to know he’s against even blatantly pro-christian fiction.)

NOTE: Pullman uses the word "daemon." A "daemon" is just another term for "demon."

...no, honey, they really don’t, but we already know you didn’t do your research.

In the movie THE GOLDEN COMPASS, there are at least 50 references to a child's "DEMON."

imagine this grown up dude sitting in a movie theater watching a kids’ movie and counting the number of times the word “daemon” is said dkgsdaoighs

In one part of the movie, a missing boy (Roger Parslow) is found, but he is out of his mind and looks distraught because his DEMON has been taken away from him. Talk about twisting the truth around. The little girl who stars in the movie, Lyra, vows to find and return the boy's demon.

aslkdghsaodigho yeah this guy was definitely too busy to count “daemons” to actually pay attention to the plot

Pullman is hoping that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie

no i actually think that at this point pullman didn’t want anything to do with the movie

The title for the trilogy comes from a line in John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Pullman views his trilogy as a re-telling of Milton’s poem (which means that His Dark Materials is in reality Pullman’s re-telling of the Genesis story in fantasy form)

no, not really, not as literal as that, but artistic subtleties seem to escape you quite frequently, my dear dave

In the trilogy, a young girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle against a nefarious [extremely wicked] Church known as the "Magisterium."

iooisadhgosdiahgosa i LOVE how dave made the EFFORT to explain the meaning of “nefarious” to the reader

Pullman's books are a work of darkness that every Christian needs to diligently expose (Ephesians 5:11)

damn dude can you believe hdm got so popular it’s referenced in the bible

America was founded upon faith in God, and the Communists are trying to rob it from our children

kefhsaoidgsdoh COMMUNISM CONFIRMED 

at this point in the article mr dave finally decides it’s time to talk about the story of the golden compass in mere two paragraphs. spoiler: the first paragraph is yet again dedicated to anti-pullman ranting. so much for that plot summary.

In the books, Pullman represents God as a decrepit and perverse angel who captures the dead in a “prison camp” afterlife.

damn the dude says he’s gonna talk about the plot of the golden compass and then goes ahead and spoils the amber spyglass just like that. where are your internet manners, dave

The story centers on Lyra, a young girl living at Jordan College in the Oxford of an alternate world where everyone is accompanied by a daemon, a physical representation of their soul in animal form.

this is the ONE time dave refers to daemons as what they ACTUALLY are. but i suspect he just copy-pasted this bit without actually reading what is said in it. 

One morning, Lyra's school Master

yet again someone was too busy counting words then remembering the plot/characters

Lyra then finds herself in a world where she must fight against evil, and here lies the controversy. Lyra is the "chosen child" who must do battle with evil. But in this story, the things that are good are evil (the church is the Magisterium, the bad group trying to gain control of all) and evil is good (daemons and witches are allies.)

it’s almost...... as if......... it’s somewhat........... symbolic.......... you know, that artistic device? symbolism? yeah? no...?

our darling dave then links to this piece as the source of his info on the plot of tgc and god that’s a whole nest of wasps i can’t even begin to deal with here. but it’s p entertaining how in only briefly reading the thing i can already recognize whole sentences who got copy-pasted by dave for his own magnificent piece of critique

Satan's Bid for Your Child

oh, WHAT a title for the next segment of the article. i’m hooked

Even though the books are strongly anti-God and anti-church, they’re getting a strong push in the godless public school system as curriculum resources.  First the God-hating Communists introduced the lies of Evolution into the public school system.  Then they kicked God's Word and prayer out of the public schools in 1962 and 1963.  Now they want to teach our children homosexuality and witchcraft.

communism! evolution! homosexuality! witchcraft! god, i’m trembling

dave goes on for a while without mentioning the movie again, just ranting against the world in general. parts of it are still amusing, though:

Evolution is in fact a religion, as is humanism, witchcraft and Satanism.

yeah man i miss it when in school we used to pray to darwin every morning before class started :(

It requires faith to believe Evolution because there is NO proof, or even evidences to permit study. It is tragic that young people today are being taught a theory that has NO proof whatsoever.  In sharp contrast, the Word of God is supported by an overwhelming abundance of scientific, historical, archeological and astronomical evidence.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OH MY GOD. WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Public school children are being taught religion; but it's the religions of Humanism (i.e., man is his own god), Evolution, New Age and now Demonism.

are daemians aware that daemonism is being taught in public schools as a whole ass religion??? damn

With the rise of the New World Order since the 911 attacks

holy shit dude dave is diving deep into the waters of conspiracy at this point

Surely Satan is already panicking, knowing that he must accomplish much in a very short time frame.  This explains why we see a flood of demonism, witchcraft and apostasy sweeping the world in an effort to destroy Christianity.  Have you heard about the new FLY Pentop COMPUTER for kids, which features witchcraft?  Did you know that Toys-R-Us sells a VooDooz doll for children?  It comes complete with a spell book, and pins to stab your VooDooz doll with.  I was at Barnes and Noble bookstore and saw a Teenage Witchcraft Kit.

THIS DUDE IS FUCKING WILD i imagine he started yelling at some poor employee for having witchcraft in that store

Doesn't anyone love God anymore?

this is sad.

The Bible condemns all forms of witchcraft—Voodoo, charms, spells, divination, incantations, palm readings, Ouija boards, psychics, witchery, sorcery, wizards, magic, potions, good luck charms, astrology, necromancy, spiritism, magic candles, mesmerism, hypnosis, astral projection, levitation, and anything else that invokes the power of Satan.

he actually............went through the trouble of listing all of that. from memory, no doubt

WE’RE BACK TO THE GOLDEN COMPASS AT LAST LADS

Instead of presenting the trailer on the homepage, The Golden Compass website uses audio to introduce the characters of the film and their respective demons, and then provides a prompt to "Meet Your Demon."  Twenty questions are presented which promise to reveal "your true character and the form of your demon."  Once you complete the questionnaire, you can send your resulting demon to your friends, presumably to build a community of young demons who will all later commune at the theater.  This is pure Satanism and it's being directed at our children.  Satan wants your child.  The Golden Compass series glorifies demonism, witchcraft and divination; while blaspheming God Almighty.

Satan Wants Your Child

In the movie THE GOLDEN COMPASS, children are being kidnapped by a mysterious group called the Gobblers and taken "to the North" where they are tortured by having their daemons separated from them.  This is the Satanic garbage that film producers and book publishers are vomiting upon our children.  Towards the end of the film, the starring little girl deliberately destroys the machine that was robbing children of their daemons.  Literally, the movie portrays the little girl as a hero for ensuring that all the other children can continue to be daemon possessed.  This is one sick movie, straight out of the pits of Hell.

it’s fucking ASTOUNDING how this paragraph could straight up pass as magisterium propaganda

How about you?  Our time on earth is short my friend.  This life will be over before we know it.  Is your heart right with God?  Are you saved?  Have your sins been washed away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ?

this dude got so fucking emotional over one bad movie he grossly misunderstood i am INSPIRED

our dearly beloved dave now goes on to quote yet another highly reputable source on the evil of the golden compass

"His Dark Materials" by atheist Philip Pullman

is “atheist” a title at this point? now that pullman is a sir, do they call him “atheist sir pullman” or “sir atheist pullman”?

Unsaved Heathens and Apostates Praise Pullman's Works of Darkness

do i get to officially call myself “unsaved heathen and apostate” because that’s one rad fucking title

Satan truly is the god of this world (2nd Corinthians 4:4), and he has many servants.

this is such a confusing fucking statement. how can satan be the god of this world if there is only one god? or two, because there is god and there’s also jesus? god i don’t know christianity never made any sense so this statement isn’t actually that surprising

Why would any professed "Christian" support Pullman's works of darkness, which he admittedly calls HIS DARK MATERIALS?

esteemed article writer dave is unaware of the existence of the concept of “references”

Sadly, ChristianityToday magazine promotes this vile filth, giving it a rating of 2 1/2 out of a potential 4 stars.  I give the movie a ZERO rating, and so should you if you love the Lord Jesus Christ!

yeah guys! we must purify this dirty world by giving bad ratings to hollywood movies! this is the only way to show jesus our love and devotion! 

Movie writer-director Chris Weitz has said he wants to make the next films more "iconoclastic," so consider this bit of sacrilege a taste of what is yet to come.  The word "iconoclastic" means "Characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions."  In other words, the sequels to The Golden Compass are going to blaspheme God and attack Christianity much worse than the first movie.

man.... chris had good intentions. too bad new line fucked him over with how bad they butchered the movie in post-prod.

If we don't complain, then who will... the atheists?

this line is so confusing and meaningless and yet so timeless and iconic. wow

The Golden Compass is a Sicko Movie

i can’t breathe this sounds like an early 2000s compliment coming from a middle school bad boy who does tubular tricks on his skateboard

For Pullman, sexual experience is an essential part of becoming a full-grown human, despite the confusion and pain it can cause.

HOW IN THE FUCK IS THIS CONTROVERSIAL OR WRONG FOR NON-ACE PEOPLE KADSH;GOIDAGSDKJG

Children Using Divination to Confirm Guidance from Demons? "Lyra tries to consult the alethiometer to see if the daemons are right.”

Things Taking Wildly Out Of Context Making No Sense?

Kill God?

after reading this torturous rant? yes absolutely. next

Of course the idea in a trilogy is to read the second and third books, and not just the first.  Naturally Scholastic is selling nicely packaged boxes of the trilogy.

i love how dave felt the need to explain to us how trilogies and bookselling work. what a sweetheart

Blasphemy!  Children are being taught that killing God is quite a desirable thing to do.

will anyone ever understand that WILL AND LYRA NEVER INTENDED TO KILL GOD, AND WHEN GOD DIED IT WAS BY MISTAKE AND MADE THEM UPSET AND SAD? i mean this guy won’t, but people who actually read the books???

God and the Church Are Awful and Pathetic?

dave at this point in reading your rant i hate the whole of christianity. yes. next

Summoning Witches? “Serafina and her witches decide that they need to summon other witch clans....”

Mr Dave Is Unaware That The Word “Summon” Has Got Several Meanings

“He is so weak and old that he blows to bits with the first breeze, but his dissolution comes as a relief. It is as though God does not want the burden of leadership. In the end, Will and Lyra don’t kill God. Instead, they free him, and he becomes one with the universe again. The fact that God dissolves just like the newly freed ghosts suggests that perhaps God is simply the spirit of the living.”

i love how dave quotes this whole bit - ACTUAL GOOD ANALYSIS OF GOD’S DEATH IN HDM - without absolving any of its meaning

Conclusion The Golden Compass is evil.

i love this

children today are being challenged to hate Christianity, and are being invited to join ranks with the Devil's army.

damn i totally missed that bit about joining satan’s army in hdm

All we hear about nowadays is how religion throughout the ages has caused wars and suppressed people's rights.

it’s almost as if it’s true!

Increasingly, children today are being brainwashed to view Christianity as a power-hungry "MAGISTERIUM" (i.e., the evil organization in The Golden Compass), which seeks to suppress the rights of homosexuals, Wiccan witches, Evolutionists, abortionists, feminists and other degenerates of society.

WHAT a sentence!!!!!

The grave danger of Harry Potter and The Golden Compass

that sounds like one hell of an au

Christians are commanded not to associate with any professed Christian who is a drunkard, chases women, lives for money or lives in unrepentant sin.

and yet donald trump is president of the united states! go figure, davey

Public school children are being taught that the sin of homosexuality should be accepted; BUT, God says "No."  Now you know why homosexuals hate God's Word so much.

we’re almost at the end of the rant and dave didn’t reference balthamos and baruch even once and i feel ROBBED

Women in the 1960's embraced feminism, because they were told (just as Eve) that the higher powers were trying to suppress their rights.  Satan lied to Eve, thus creating a sinful power-struggle between her and God.

damn why won’t women just understand that men are like god :\\\

Satan is recruiting.  Satan has a bid for your child mom and dad, and he will stop at nothing to recruit your child's soul.

gotta admire the determination there

Again, The Golden Compass is evil.  It is not just a fantasy for children.  The author of the series (Philip Pullman) is a militant, God-hating atheist who has openly stated that his goal is to "undermine the basis of Christian belief" in the mind's of children.

dave decided that the best way to end his rant is to quote a line that already appeared in the text at least 2 times before. man, if you ever think you’re a bad writer, remember that at least you’re not as bad as this dude.

moral of the story is: dave probably needs some sleep. and professional help

[a-woman-apart]

Don’t Go Alone

I’ve been thinking about Ecclesiastes recently. Yes, the “Vanities of vanities, all is vanity” and “there is nothing new under the sun” Ecclesiastes. Pretty much the most nihilistic book in the entire Bible, even though it tries to redeem itself in the end by saying that obeying God and keeping His commandments is “the entire duty of man.”

There are a lot of interesting concepts presented in the book, though. I will go ahead and quote some passages here from the 4th chapter (emphasis added by me).

Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun: 

There is one alone, without companion: He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, nor is his eye satisfied with riches. But he never asks, "For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?" This also is vanity and a grave misfortune. 

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.  Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12)

While it is true that you remain the person primarily responsible for your own life, that self-love is important, and that when it comes down to the quality of your life, your choices matter the most, there is a reason why human beings have a general tendency towards forming groups. Human babies who were deprived of human touch can experience poor health outcomes and even death. Even if many of us need far less interaction than others (i.e. introverts), we still need to bond and connect with other human beings on some level.

We live in a highly individualistic society that is ruled by capitalism. Profit—and by extension, individual productivity—is prized above all else. This fosters a spirit of unhealthy competition that can often drive a wedge between us and our peers. Our worth is based on our physical, academic, or corporate achievement. We are expected to sacrifice our health, time, and current desires in order to one day earn the right to lead our own lives. This right—known for many years as “retirement”— has grown further and further out of reach for most Americans. This isn’t that one bicycle-riding-electricity-generating episode of Black Mirror, but sometimes it really feels like it.

What I am starting to realize, is that without a sense of togetherness and belonging—regardless of whether it is experienced in a small community or a big one— life quickly begins to lose its luster. It’s great to keep yourself as no. 1, but in the end, we all need to depend on others for support. It doesn’t matter if that support is financial, emotional, or physical.

Also, let’s talk about the Happiness dilemma. It feels like the more your try to pursue things that make you happy, the more elusive happiness becomes. Mark Manson discusses this at length in “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”. He came to the conclusion that Happiness is not something that you “arrive” at through achievement or by acquiring a predetermined number of things or a specific assortment of relationships, but rather happiness is in the small moments. You feel happy when you are having ice cream with your kids, feel the wind on your face in autumn, or you’re allowed to leave work early. It isn’t a destination that can be reached through pure effort. It comes effortlessly. You just have to enjoy it while it is there and then be prepared to move on from it. It is temporary and fleeting, but it is tangible. You know it when you feel it.

Learning to recognize and embrace the joy in small moments helps make the long stretches of sadness and mediocrity more bearable. When I look back at my own life, I see how many of those moments were shared with other people. I remember my brothers and I making dumb jokes out of serious movie quotes, playing video games with my sisters, family movie nights, etc. My childhood was far from ideal, but, if I look back there are still joyful things to remember. There are highlights. Getting my first drivers’ license, passing the GED, and so on; these were things that would’ve been much harder without the support of my parents.

We live in an imperfect world with imperfect people. Until we can learn to accept the imperfections in others—and in ourselves—we may find ourselves feeling incredibly isolated from other people.

Even as I emphasize the importance of human relationships, I am aware that throughout history there have been those who have sought to isolate themselves for others for religious or spiritual reasons. Even many of these people, however, still interacted with other humans on some level. In fact, I would almost venture to say that the stereotypical view of hermits who stayed in caves and did not interact with anyone else for the remainder of their lives, is somewhat of a mythological concept. Even the most strictly disciplined monks and nuns of varying religions still form groups or look to the outside world for support. Their stories demonstrate to us that even when we are deprived of most of the material pleasures of life, we can still find meaning through sharing a spiritual practice with others.

As an atheist—who is also wrestling with whether or not to have a spiritual practice—I have found myself feeling incredibly othered by my peers. While around 22.8% of the U.S. is “religiously unaffiliated”, only 3% of that group call themselves atheists, with another 4% claiming agnosticism. The world as a whole is only 16% “nones” (religiously non-affiliated) with an unknown—but lower—number being full atheists (Stats from “Irreligion in the United States” and “Demographics of Atheism” on Wikipedia). I am already in a very small minority, but it is further complicated by the fact that my atheism still involves some belief in unseen forces (e.g. chi or some other inexplicable life-giving force in the universe).

My saving grace is being able to absorb some atheist content on YouTube, talking to atheist and agnostic friends and family members, and the increasing openness of [some] religious people to at least consider the concept of a world without God. Sadly, though, I haven’t been able to find a community as wide as the community I had when I was an actively practicing Evangelical Christian. I am, however, learning to compromise and practice gratitude for the equally strong—albeit smaller—community that I have now. I have people in my life who love, accept, and support me, and every single one of them matters to me.

A lot of people find their community online. There are people in fandom communities, online gaming communities, etc., who have found lifelong friends and even spouses by participating in online communities. Hell, I found some of my closest friends—two of whom I am still in touch with—on sites like Fanfiction.net, Fictionpess.com, and Gaia Online. Yes, it was years ago, and yes, those sites aren’t what they used to be, but without those friends I would not have made it through my teenage years.

Your communities can form around literally anything—games, knitting, quilting, coffee, whatever. You just need to go out there and find your tribe. You may even have an online tribe already, and while there is no substitute for face-to-face conversation, your tribe is valid.

Anything that gets you outside of yourself—as long as it isn’t hurting anyone—is good. While having people physically near you is ideal, sometimes just having them be a part of your day remotely is a big help. My best friend and I live thousands of miles apart, but something as simple as being able to text him a screenshot of something I think is funny or rolling my eyes when he sends another YouTube video to me in the middle of the day, really makes my day much easier. Same goes for going with my family’s group chat; we post some pretty cringey memes on there and it’s life.

Look into yourself and see how you feel when you’re participating with others. If you’re happy, that’s good. If there’s another emotion going on there, it may be something to look at. You may not be receiving the support you really need.

P.S. If you’re tired of living alone, but you don’t know anyone who you can move with, there are still options for you. Lots of millennials have been moving into rooms that are rented out by older homeowners, and while this sounds like a net loss, the relationships that form in these kinds of situations can be beneficial. The millennial has an affordable place to live and someone to share meals with, and the senior has someone to help with chores and keep them company.

Also, more and more cohousing communities are popping up throughout the country. They allow families to live together in a close-knit community. There are also other communal living situations in which one rather large home is rented out room by room. Each person has their own bedroom and shares bathrooms with a limited number of fellow housemates, but the living areas and kitchen are shared by everyone. These “non-college dorms” allow people to support each other socially and financially and live together affordably.

Of course, safety first! Do your due diligence and make sure that the place you are moving to is safe and that your rights are being respected.

Happy hunting!

[thecosywinteremo]

Reasons why being queer, Christian, and part of fandom culture is a strange frickin' experience

1. The majority of the LGTB+ community despises Christianity. This is understandable in a way, but also kinda depressing because it means they've either been personally attacked by some bigot who pays too much attention to Leviticus (I think it's Leviticus? Either way it's one of the particularly unreliable parts), or they've come away with the impression that the eleventh commandment is 'Thou shalt live a heteronormative life'. That or they're atheist*. Anyway, the point is: with seemingly the whole queer community coming to the consensus that they hate Christianity, it kinda feels like a betrayal to actually BE Christian, which makes you feel even more isolated because you feel like the LGBT community views you as a turncoat while Christians may be bigoted (related or unrelated to misinterpretation of the Bible) and therefore view you as a turncoat and basically...you don't fully fit in with either lot, apart from other religious LGTB+ people and they're hard to find because [see above]. 2. If you tell people you're religious, the majority of young people immediately assume you're a bigoted arsehole who probably molests children and/or you've been brainwashed into joining a cult and are thus lacking in the integrity of an individual. This is counterproductive when trying to hold a conversation, and results in you having to either a) give a theological lecture on which parts of the Bible are reliable and which parts were added by people with agendas, or b) just straight up come out. Usually both. This isn't ideal when you're in the situation outlined by point 1, and also forces you into treating two parts of what makes you you as oil and water when in reality they actually just combine to make a really nice baked good. 2a. People also assume you hate Muslims and Jewish people. I'd like to go on record and say I really don't understand why anyone would hate Jews (if that's not a nice way to say Jewish people in this context please say) or Muslims if they were a Christian because they are literally different flavours of the same core beliefs with variable Jesus content. But that's another diatribe.... 3. The fandom part: I think we're all agreed that one of the main functions of fandom is self-help, so naturally you'd look to fanfiction to deal with the whole confusing ('scuse my language) clusterfuck of being LGTB+, young, and religious. Great. Except fanfiction is meant to be accessible to lots of people, many of whom are closeted and reading it to escape their own clusterfuck of being LGTB+, young, and disaffected by religion. Great for them, but awkward when the two motives meet. As a result most fanworks- like most mainstream media- avoid discussion of religion entirely, only use religion as a minor (or major!) plot device if the religion is particularly marginalised by western society (e.g Jewish Bucky Barnes) which is entirely understandable and something I support wholeheartedly, or use the character's journey away from religion as part of their journey towards accepting their LGTB+ selves (again, from my point of view sad but very understandable). This poses a problem if you want to use fanfiction as a way to help marry the queer and religious parts of yourself, because there are only a few fics in which characters retain religion while realising they're LGTB+, and even fewer where religion takes an active part in their lives as it would in reality. So, write some then? That's fair enough, you probably have to think up some pretty unique tags ('actively religious character' and 'discussions of God') but it's do-able. The question is, do you stick to canon-confirmed religious characters (like Steve Rogers, who is an Irish Catholic which isn't very helpful for an English Non-conformist Protestant who knows barely anything about the particulars involved in Catholicism) or can you just pick a character, decide they're Christian, and roll with it? Because obviously you can do that for oppressed religions in western society, but although there's definitely a marked hostility towards Christianity amongst the non-religious young (seriously the amount of times I've heard people go "ugh, I hate Christians" and "religion should be banned!1!1!1" is kinda really demoralising) Christianity is by no means an oppressed religion in the west. So is it kinda like colonialism by proxy to treat a character as Christian if they aren't in canon (obviously if they haven't been assigned any other religion you'd have to be a bigoted dick to take a Muslim or someone and strip them of their identity) ? Or is it like taking a non-LGTB+ character and making them so? And will people take issue with it anyway, because people- for some reason- seem to get really offended if people mention their religion in the same way homophobes get offended if LGTB+ people exist? 4. IN CONCLUSION: because of all of the above, as a queer Christian in fandom, it's hard to find anything you can actually relate to fully, you're hesitant to make it, and because you can rarely talk about both halves of your identity at the same time and not have to defend either one of them you end up dedicating a lot of mental energy (and prayer) to trying to feel like you are in fact one person and not leading two double lives, one of which is being a traitor to your generation by partaking in what a vast many see as an institution of the past. *I'm not saying you're either Christian or not, I just don't think an LGTB+ person would hate Christianity on account of following a different religion

[headbangingsappho]

so i was thinking about that brilliant haus memes post the check please fandom compiled and i realized that man. les amis memes must be absolutely fucking incredible too

- saying “thats my first name actually” after random things

éponine: i just dont understand white people, like who would name their own child, their own flesh and blood something like McKhynleigh feuilly: thats my first name actually

grantaire, seductively: whatcha thinking about enjolras: brexit grantaire: hmmm interesting.... did you know that thats my first name actually

- sometimes they play dnd together (combeferre is the dm) and they constantly bring up things that happened in game in irl arguments

cosette: hi courf do you maybe happen to know who ended up shedding glitter all over my apartment courfeyrac: i dont know cosette do you happen to know who watched my DEATh in COLD BLOOD and then proceeded to LOOT MY CORPSE for vALUABLES

joly: im just not sure if i can trust you after you cheated on me with that barmaid last night bossuet: babe that wasnt me that was my alterego countess boochie flagrante

- they also have a thing for alignments

bahorel: *throws textbook against the wall* fuck the law feuilly: chaotic neutral

marius: *too busy daydreaming abt cosette to watch his step, trips falls and knocks down a garbage can* courf: chaotic stupid

azelma thénardier: so i told this dude that all lesbians are in a telepathic connection with each other right? and he was like “oh rly.... then whats ellen degeneres doing right now”. and i told him that she was eating her morning cereal, yknow, bc of the time difference between france and the u.s. then he was like “oh rly.... what kind of cereal” and my brain just shut down and i swear to god i couldnt have thought of a single american cereal brand if my life had depended on it so i just said “crunchster munchster” and you know what... he bought it. he asked me if i could check if this one girl he has a crush on was a lesbian and i said “ye dude, for ten euros”. and i thought that was it but i shit you not the next day he walked up to me with a list of twenty names and asked me if he could pay by credit card. rey from star wars was on the list. like not even daisy ridley, straight up “rey from star wars”, except misspelled as “rei”. i told him she was a lesbian éponine: .........chaotic gay

- combeferre is the jack zimmermann of les amis. his “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and on behalf the entire debate team id like to sincerely apologize” is legendary among teachers and students alike

*bahorel gets in a fistfight with someone* “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and on behalf the entire debate team id like to sincerely apologize” *joly and cosette watch cute animal videos on a school computer and end up loudly sobbing in the middle of the library* “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and on behalf of the entire...” *éponine smuggles gavroche’s pet tarantulas in and scares the shit out of an entire class* “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and...”

ferre is a total hypocrite about it tho. *almost blows up the whole chemistry lab bc he had a great idea for an experiment he wanted to try* “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and on behalf of the entire debate team...” *arrives at class late with nothing but a laptop and a pack of monster energy drinks, wearing his doctor who themed pajama pants* “im combeferre, vice president of the college debate club, and on behalf...”

- musichetta is a muslim, joly is a buddhist and bossuet is an atheist so christianity in general is kind of like a weird relationship meme for them

courf and ferre: *came over to the jxbxm apartment, lowkey cuddling on the couch* musichetta: um guys noah fence but this is a good christian household where we always leave some room for our lord and savior jesus christ

bahorel, in one of their shared law classes: are seriously telling me you havent read any of the compulsory readings for today bossuet: bahorel my guy you know damn well that the only book ive ever read and im ever going to read is the holy bible amen

- every time anyone complains abt any minor annoyance or rudeness they suffered from someone éponines advice is to kill them, and she often adds that she knows a guy if they know what she means, which would be funny if it wasnt for the fact that they all know that éponine is best friends with a major drug dealer and through montparnasse she most certainly could find someone whod kill a dude for money and they have no idea whether shes kidding or not

- you know how artists always get asked if their work is anime.... grantaire gets ahead of that and names all of his pieces, like every single one, even the abstract ones that are literally just him splashing some shitty cheap wine on the canvas, he titles all of them “neon genesis evangelion fanart #x”

the numbers are not in order but have some logic to them, like he painted a portrait of jehan once and named it neon genesis evangelion fanart #420, or his portrait of joly was titled neon genesis evangelion fanart #6x10^23

once he drew an actual piece of neon genesis evangelion fanart and he named it homestuck fanart #69

[enjolras voice] i just dont understand modern art

- speaking of R and nge, he has a ramiel shirt and once when he was wearing it enjolras walked up to him and said “nice octahedron” and grantaire, who hates maths with the burning passion of a thousand suns, just went “how dare you speak that word to me” and walked away. enjolras was like ???? i just wanted to be nice but the others thought it was hilarious

marius, studying latin words: hey jehan whats the gender of- jehan: how dare you speak that word to me

musichetta: yo courf remember last new years eve when you did all those jägerbombs and- courfeyrac: how dare you speak that word to me

bahorel still has this reaction to “law” in spite of hearing it approximately fifty times per day

- every single member of les amis is 100% convinced that gavroche is their son

cosette: gavroche, my sweet child whom i birthed and raised myself,

gav: *is wearing crocs* bahorel: son i did not carry you in my womb for nine months for you to disrespect me like this

- they also like to act as if jean valjean is their father which is kinda really weird bc at least half of the amis have a crush on him

courf once called jvj “daddy” to his face. no ones letting him ever forget that

- anyone who tells a longer story ends it with “in conclusion, death to the bourgeoisie and a happy hanukkah to y’all” after a memorable speech grantaire held in their debate club once

please feel free to reblog with more quality les amis memes, im always here to discuss them