#the privilege of suffering for god

[digglesgiggless]

Sonya Massey, a black woman was shot three times, one being a fatal headshot in her own home for holding a pot of hot water, when she had called in the police for a prowler outside of her house.

she was shot. in. her. house. for saying "i rebuke you in the name of jesus". that's all. it took less than five seconds for Sean Grayson to whip out his pistol. said attackers partner offered first aid but he refused it because "it's a headshot, she's dead".

because no one can testify against you if they're dead.

the cops name is Sean Grayson, and he should never be able to leave prison.

this was not an "incident". this was a murder. do NOT let people forget her name.

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

tw below for gunfire. the death however is off camera and not visible.

[terrence-silver]

Do you have any insights into Valek that you'd like to share? We know so little about his character in that movie.

---

Well, I think, as a human, he lived a sheltered life to the point that in a way, there's not much to know, if that makes sense. By that I mean that it wasn't an existence fraught with controversies.

He was a medieval Bohemian. Undoubtedly dedicated his life to the cloth very early on (might've come from a numerous family too, with many siblings and relatives to the point having one son dedicate himself to the cloth exclusively was a sacrifice (and privilege) this household could very well make or maybe even had to, for reasons of practicality and to have one less mouth to feed; something that was also a thing people commonly practiced back then and part of me wouldn't be surprised if Jan himself volunteered for the duty to alleviate the burden from his parents because he just has this odd streak of nobility to him) --- doing so as young as an adolescent or even as a child, perhaps, going from the apprenticeship of being an Altar boy to Priesthood with nothing in between because this was always the way it was always intended to be for him and it was a quiet way to be alive. One of prayer. Servitude. Piety. Temperance. Honor. Certainty. Life back then moved slower. Was infinitely simpler. Years and years could pass without change. Without ups and downs. I think Jan Valek took great joy in being a priest, or at least, to phrase myself better, he took profound solace in the duty. I think he took profound solace in the duty of helping his flock. Helping his congregation. Those in need. People in general.

I think he genuinely took the tenants of Catholicism to heart in very legitimate sense.

How do I know this?

Well, we're told that somehow, this man ended up being the leader of a Bohemian peasant's uprising at one point in time, which can only lead me to believe that he not only took the tenants of Catholicism and the whole 'help and love thyne neighbor' fully to heart, but that his continued dedication to said creed possibly amassed a following so large that he either ended up being placed at the head of this revolution or simply poised himself as a leader personally. Which means, somewhere along the way, his helpful and perhaps kind, justice loving nature in the face of inequality, poverty, abuses and aiding the 'downtrodden who would inherit heaven' has been inspirational enough to a large quantity of people that they all looked for Father Valek for guidance in their cause --- as such, I imagine that as a priest, in his human life, it is reasonable to assume he was very charitable. Something of a local patriot and the champion of the unchampioned. Feeding the poor. Helping those without help. Giving voice to the voiceless. Doing so continually and purely because he felt that's what Christianity is all about. Being kind enough to the point where it might've started becoming a thorn in the eye of the higher ups in the very church he was serving. Thing is, Father Valek was here emboldening the serfs to stand up to their god ordained lords and masters --- an idea that was, when push came to shove, extremely modern and extremely threatening considering the time period. I think this idea set the Bohemian countryside ablaze, literally and figuratively and that Jan Valek, becoming somewhat legendary among the small folk of the land, had to be pegged down a notch to avoid massive civil unrest.

Which is how this story ends.

With his execution.

Tried and burned for heresy (under what I consider are extremely trumped up, fraudulent charges and more a political tactical move to quickly and very messily silence opposition and kill the morale of the uprising than anything heretical or truly transgressive) Jan Valek found himself betrayed by the very church he sought to serve with the very tenants he was idealistically and full heartedly upholding --- namely, helping those in need. Which is exactly what led to his downfall. Ironically, if Jan was a worse man, he might've had a long and prosperous human life. And to add insult to injury he wasn't just betrayed in any ordinary fashion. He was undoubtedly imprisoned, paraded, made an example of, humiliated, abused for months, deemed to be possessed by evil spirits and demons to appeal to the superstitious mentality of the era, stripped of all his honors, subjugated to an exorcism (which is really just elaborate torture) and only then, finally, executed in an extremely and unbelievably painful way in the town of Berziers where his trial was observed, so everyone who previously followed him would see that this is what happens when you neglect your god-ordained lot in life and play revolution.

The echo of this message whimpered across Europe.

In the aftermath of his horrible treatment, his body remained destroyed, charred, mutilated, broken and massacred --- possibly even displayed somewhere publically, to drill the point home. Both fortunately and unfortunately, though, the incident led to the opposite effect the church intended and all they achieved was making Jan Valek into both a literal and metaphorical martyr who died for a cause, which only made his teachings stronger and more alluring until they grew into something of a sect. A cult germinating larger and larger around the scope of sadism Father Valek suffered and continued suffering, even as his posthumous remains were mishandled.

Jan went from a once-upon-a-time Bohemian priest of unusual kindness, a helper of the disenfranchised, someone teaching and encouraging the said disenfranchised to stand up to their oppressors because that's exactly what Christ himself taught too, to the enemy of the established order, to someone accused and trial as a criminal to a near saintly figure in the local folklores of the neighboring peoples. The Catholic church made Jan Valek into a priest and a man of the cloth. Then they've made and assigned him a traitor when he led a people's rebellion against the Holy Seat's and the local aristocracy's interests. They've made him into a criminal. A martyr when they've condemned, botched his exorcism and executed him. And then ironically, a saint when they canonized the very man they've had killed (possibly to cover up, for the lack of a better word, the scale of their cruel screw up). They've also made him a Vampire with a failed exorcism. Everything he is because the church itself has made him so. Perhaps, the first thing Jan Valek had agency in making himself was when he became the Father of all Vampires, taking on everyone who was ever like him a creating a great many all on his own, forming a new community as a reflection of his old congregations. No wonder he is so protective of his brood and children. They're the extension of a divinely given free will that persists even into his unlife.

The severity of the betrayal the church, though, and by extension, a God he felt abandoned him all those centuries ago in his hour of dire need when all he did was serve his community the way God himself ordained it was grand enough to not grant him peace, ensuring he rises from the brutal condition of his death and wonder the land like a blight for six centuries, feeding and making himself strong, draining others and infecting a great many, creating his own new community, following --- coven, if you will --- becoming what he is now. A Vampire. Accursed. Forsaken. Soulless. When that was the very opposite of everything Jan Valek initially was. He was simply a kind man who had good principles. Who got embroidered in a cause greater than himself because he wanted to help people --- truly and genuinely --- paying the ultimate price for it and ending up unjustly and unfairly punished for it forevermore.

[theicarusconstellation]

how to not hate who you are no borax no glue

[mutalune]

really wish there was a tag that separated “I’m having Big Angry and/or Angsty Opinions about Star Wars” from “I’m goofing off with Star Wars I’m playing in the sandbox none of this is real so yes I will make my blorbo and this random glub shitto go on an adventure that makes no logical sense” posts because there’s too much of the former and not enough of the latter for my current mental state

[magnoliamyrrh]

one of the sadest things ive heard lately tbh

i reached out to an old friend of mine whose mexican-american to catch up but also to tell him man i dont remember if you have any family left in armenia i just wanted to say hope theyre safe and im sorry for everything thats happening

.... it has been weeks since it escalated. he thanked me and said it meant a lot bc im the first and only person to say anything to him abt it :((((

[no27-autonation-honda]

man if i had a nickel for every time some fucking overconfident weirdo decided to position themselves as an authority on a historical topic and then proceeded to not just do bad history but then PEDDLE LITERAL FUCKING CRANK SHIT AND MISINFORMATION i would have like. a quarter.

[rosicheeks]

Unfortunately relatable. I grew up in the church and have a lot of Christian trauma from that. I show up for special occasions for my parents… sometimes. But it’s uncomfortable from the moment I step through the door. Bigoted pastor, the self-righteousness disguising the prejudice, the political comments from the altar. Shots at young people left right and center as if the hell on earth wasn’t caused by the same older generation 90% of the congregation belongs to..

I miss being young in the choir and the youth groups and not struggling with it. It’s wild to look back at the younger version of me who was unshakeable in his faith and honestly just saddening.

I was texting my sister today about it and she said

“I 100% think ALL of us have a ton of religious trauma and everyone else in the family just doesn’t realize it cause they’re still drinking the kool-aid.”

I ran out of tag room and didn’t want to delete any 😭 seriously not lying I could write a book about all my thoughts and experiences

[tomurakii]

I truly apologise but I've never found a character more irritating than Ruby Rocks. It is severely impacting my ability to watch a crown of candy because this bratty literally-the-embodiment-of-the-status-quo bitter bastard child won't stop sulking and being shitty to the only good surviving member of this royal bloodline (Saccharina).

The immediate Rocks family in general is so unsympathetic, I'm sorry but if you want me to feel bad over your personal growth journey you can't ALSO be a monarch who has absolute power over an entire nation-state. If you had literally the best education of everyone in your country and you're still an idiot I don't know what to tell you except that you're a resource hoarding pig who has not earned an iota of the power or luxury you have. They have SERVANTS and all they do is complain about going to class or doing their job. Hey if it sucks so bad demolish the state and redistribute your wealth <3 you won't <3

[skyguyed]

me struggling to queue star wars shit when Gaza is consistently under attack and people are dying

[2024skin]

Sorry but if you think "8:30 am is not that early" I literally imagine your gorey death every time I see you

[aidenwaites]

Thinking about him (Sir dinadin)

[alskyllhasarrived]

That moment when you set your phone to block Tiktok after two hours of using the app so you can minimize how much you're on Tiktok and for the most part have adjusted to only having two hours on Tiktok, and usually saving the last five minutes for right before bed, so you can watch Tiktoks people send you and then watch some right before bed, and it makes you get bored enough to go write, but then you get a bloody nose while watching Tiktok and leave the app open while you run to try to fix the nose problem and when you come back your time is up and you didn't even get to watch your before bed Tiktoks

[joycrispy]

Awhile ago @ouidamforeman made this post:

This shot through my brain like a chain of firecrackers, so, without derailing the original post, I have some THOUGHTS to add about why this concept is not only hilarious (because it is), but also...

It. It kind of fucks. Severely.

And in a delightfully Pratchett-y way, I'd dare to suggest.

I'll explain:

As inferred above, both Crowley AND Aziraphale have canonical Biblical counterparts. Not by name, no, but by function.

Crowley, of course, is the serpent of Eden.

(note on the serpent of Eden: In Genesis 3:1-15, at least, the serpent is not identified as anything other than a serpent, albeit one that can talk. Later, it will be variously interpreted as a traitorous agent of Hell, as a demon, as a guise of Satan himself, etc. In Good Omens --as a slinky ginger who walks funny)

Lesser known, at least so far as I can tell, is the flaming sword. It, too, appears in Genesis 3, in the very last line:

"So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." --Genesis 3:24, KJV

Thanks to translation ambiguity, there is some debate concerning the nature of the flaming sword --is it a divine weapon given unto one of the Cherubim (if so, why only one)? Or is it an independent entity, which takes the form of a sword (as other angelic beings take the form of wheels and such)? For our purposes, I don't think the distinction matters. The guard at the gate of Eden, whether an angel wielding the sword or an angel who IS the sword, is Aziraphale.

(note on the flaming sword: in some traditions --Eastern Orthodox, for example-- it is held that upon Christ's death and resurrection, the flaming sword gave up it's post and vanished from Eden for good. By these sensibilities, the removal of the sword signifies the redemption and salvation of man.

...Put a pin in that. We're coming back to it.)

So, we have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword, introduced at the beginning and the end (ha) of the very same chapter of Genesis.

But here's the important bit, the bit that's not immediately obvious, the bit that nonetheless encapsulates one of the central themes, if not THE central theme, of Good Omens:

The Sword was never intended to guard Eden while Adam and Eve were still in it.

Do you understand?

The Sword's function was never to protect them. It doesn't even appear until after they've already fallen. No... it was to usher Adam and Eve from the garden, and then keep them out. It was a threat. It was a punishment.

The flaming sword was given to be used against them.

So. Again. We have our pair. The Serpent and the Sword: the inception and the consequence of original sin, personified. They are the one-two punch that launches mankind from paradise, after Hell lures it to destruction and Heaven condemns it for being destroyed. Which is to say that despite being, supposedly, hereditary enemies on two different sides of a celestial cold war, they are actually unified by one purpose, one pivotal role to play in the Divine Plan: completely fucking humanity over.

That's how it's supposed to go. It is written.

...But, in Good Omens, they're not just the Serpent and the Sword.

They're Crowley and Aziraphale.

(author begins to go insane from emotion under the cut)

In Good Omens, humanity is handed it's salvation (pin!) scarcely half an hour after losing it. Instead of looming over God's empty garden, the sword protects a very sad, very scared and very pregnant girl. And no, not because a blameless martyr suffered and died for the privilege, either.

It was just that she'd had such a bad day. And there were vicious animals out there. And Aziraphale worried she would be cold.

...I need to impress upon you how much this is NOT just a matter of being careless with company property. With this one act of kindness, Aziraphale is undermining the whole entire POINT of the expulsion from Eden. God Herself confronts him about it, and he lies. To God.

And the Serpent--

(Crowley, that is, who wonders what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil anyway; who thinks that maybe he did a GOOD thing when he tempted Eve with the apple; who objects that God is over-reacting to a first offense; who knows what it is to fall but not what it is to be comforted after the fact...)

--just goes ahead and falls in love with him about it.

As for Crowley --I barely need to explain him, right? People have been making the 'didn't the serpent actually do us a solid?' argument for centuries. But if I'm going to quote one of them, it may as well be the one Neil Gaiman wrote ficlet about:

"If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization." --Robert G. Ingersoll

The first to ask questions.

Even beyond flattering literary interpretation, we know that Crowley is, so often, discreetly running damage control on the machinations of Heaven and Hell. When he can get away with it. Occasionally, when he can't (1827).

And Aziraphale loves him for it, too. Loves him back.

And so this romance plays out over millennia, where they fall in love with each other but also the world, because of each other and because of the world. But it begins in Eden. Where, instead of acting as the first Earthly example of Divine/Diabolical collusion and callousness--

(other examples --the flood; the bet with Satan; the back channels; the exchange of Holy Water and Hellfire; and on and on...)

--they refuse. Without even necessarily knowing they're doing it, they just refuse. Refuse to trivialize human life, and refuse to hate each other.

To write a story about the Serpent and the Sword falling in love is to write a story about transgression.

Not just in the sense that they are a demon and an angel, and it's ~forbidden. That's part of it, yeah, but the greater part of it is that they are THIS demon and angel, in particular. From The Real Bible's Book of Genesis, in the chapter where man falls.

It's the sort of thing you write and laugh. And then you look at it. And you think. And then you frown, and you sit up a little straighter. And you think.

And then you keep writing.

And what emerges hits you like a goddamn truck.

(...A lot of Pratchett reads that way. I believe Gaiman when he says Pratchett would have been happy with the romance, by the way. I really really do).

It's a story about transgression, about love as transgression. They break the rules by loving each other, by loving creation, and by rejecting the hatred and hypocrisy that would have triangulated them as a unified blow against humanity, before humanity had even really got started. And yeah, hell, it's a queer romance too, just to really drive the point home (oh, that!!! THAT!!!)

...I could spend a long time wildly gesturing at this and never be satisfied. Instead of watching me do that (I'll spare you), please look at this gif:

I love this shot so much.

Look at Eve and Crowley moving, at the same time in the same direction, towards their respective wielders of the flaming sword. Adam reaches out and takes her hand; Aziraphale reaches out and covers him with a wing.

You know what a shot like that establishes? Likeness. Commonality. Kinship.

"Our side" was never just Crowley and Aziraphale. Crowley says as much at the end of season 1 ("--all of us against all of them."). From the beginning, "our side" was Crowley, Aziraphale, and every single human being. Lately that's around 8 billion, but once upon a time it was just two other people. Another couple. The primeval mother and father.

But Adam and Eve die, eventually. Humanity grows without them. It's Crowley and Aziraphale who remain, and who protect it. Who...oversee it's upbringing.

Godfathers. Sort of.

[swallowtail-ageha]

The way i cant even listen to Specialz anymore because Dafne made me fucking hate it 💀💀💀

[lilgynt]

what gets me about the genocide in gaza is we can see the atrocities in real time like point blank that’s just. i can’t wrap my head around the fact we are literally watching people being blown to smithereens children with limbs and heads blown off in real time and the world is just going on as normal.

[desertdragon]

This shit got me heated and reminded me why I stay away from people who also play this game but it also made me think again about Why the Ga/lean section of E/W was just more tone deaf apologism for me (and as I've learned, many others)

Also I am seeing people in the quotes using having a lot of empathy as an excuse to frame themselves as superior to others and implying ableism against those that have low empathy so that's another thing where I'm like shut the fuck up you're literally fucking arrogant for making that equivalency anyway- empathy level does NOT equal a person's value or moral value/humanity and ironically thinking it does shows you dehumanize others on prejudice, which you claim not to be doing because you're empathetic-

Like I don't like this person actually I have them blocked on here and I forgot they were even on Twitter until I saw the people "dragging" this post but I agree with the essence of what op is saying- if you are ACTIVELY still being a piece of shit (And even if you're NOT because forgiveness is never OWED) No it is not an obligation on anyone to forgive you or suck your dick and not care how hurtful you're still being; it's dehumanizing, entitled, and victim blaming to tell someone they cannot be allowed to their feelings or defending themselves when met with prejudiced hate and violence

It's frustrating however seeing people turn how SE handled this into black and white self righteousness or obnoxious selfishness because I don't think anyone actually remembers how badly once again the ball was fumbled despite starting from a reasonable place, this is how I feel about it from what I remember explicitly because it made me angry to see a good thing ruined again by centrist ignorant nonsense:

It is legitimately a good thing to help the helpless! It is and that is a noble first instinct to have and not everyone has to agree with it as Lyse says if the helpless at that moment was once or still is your oppressor! But people who rush to suck SE's corporate cock stop it at that fact, at the Idea That Is Included and refuse to examine The Execution of That Idea. Any idea can be included in anything, it's been done forever, but how you describe and show that idea is what speaks. And the execution on this serious topic as with others was deeply flawed and one sided. You cannot insist that people motivated by dehumanizing fascist hatred, giving themselves wholely to the duty of extermination for national interest and personal pride, to commit countless atrocities they don't even reflect on when it's given back to Them, who see anyone not of the Perfect Chosen Civilization/Race as animals, are simply misguided and misunderstood. People coming to you purposefully in bad faith, still being entitled to absolute forgiveness and acceptance.

The few people who are welcoming to you in Ga/lemald and those who just want to move on and not hate after the dust clears, who are not actively hateful and who are repentant, should be taken care of imo. And I appreciate that they were included. And I do find it disturbing in the thought exercise it represents to insist on slaughtering destitute people who want to break the cycle. Because they come in good faith. But looking at the actual campaign and dialogue it cannot CANNOT be denied that this same lens of acceptance/pity/woobying is also extended to those who continue to only see themselves as true human beings worthy of life. It cannot be ignored how quickly the implications and weight of the evil function of a soldier for an imperialist fascist empire is ignored with zero self reflection for the military's conquered victims. Particularly represented by the character of Julius, which I have seen other people rightfully call out as well, even some of his sympathizers. Instead the story suggests you must be a doormat for everyone no matter how they treat you without any dignity for yourself and others who are targeted. That we don't need to hold those who commit evil as accountable for what they did without blaming it on something else, some outside influence having total control rather than the fact of them choosing to be an inhumane instrument. That ignorance literally happens everyday in real life, just look at how many people truly trust in the idea of authority figures or soldiers and glamorize it. Often times hateful people in real life don't move out of or detach from one of their hateful groups because of a true change of heart, but rather out of convenience for their image, or because the hate group targeted them for some different part of their identity. But it doesn't nessesarily change that they still mindlessly hate X Population for baseless reasons.

These nuances are lost, the conversation in the game refuses to engage with the detail work and instead paints using a wide brush. Because it needs to appeal to making money. And also I saw someone in the Twitter thread saying "Well the girls who run away from you because you're a dirty savage to them (which they explicitly stated) were just scared, so you can't not feel bad when they die by their own actions." This is rhetoric I have seen white people use to defend the killing or harm of people of color in real cases. You don't call someone a slur, tell them they're subhuman, that you'd rather die than get help from an animal- and then brush it off as you being scared (how many cops/bigot gun owners shoot for no fucking reason at ALL and then say Well I had to take the shot they were threatening me, I was scared, they were endangering Me when they tried to get away or ask I stop or they were scared; how many times have Whites or other hateful strangers ever called you a slur or treated you unfairly because you're not White too or not part of their group and that makes them feel threatened, because you did nothing but exist, how many times do you experience discrimination and it gets turned around/used to gaslight you with Well you were scaring me so abusing you was justified etc). You see how the jump between this prejudiced rhetoric being justified in fictional thought experiments can mirror the same logic as a takeaway real already prejudiced people have viewing the story.

So no, under no circumstances do I find calling the Ga/lemald section of EW amazingly written something I can agree with, in fact I find it incredibly ignorant and then turning it into a soapbox to target dissenters as if they're inhuman for not getting it and using ableist language as well to help do so is appalling; nor do I agree with its most extremist of detractors, who deny it any positives simply for suggesting people want to help those who suffer even if they once wronged you. This is yet another case of the SE writer's room having no fucking idea how to write anything more complex than a toddler book about shapes or focused character stories with an actual nuanced sense of perspective. How every time they have a great or decent starting point on a broad heavy topic they can't find where to address the lines within it. And the rare times they do succeed at it it still amounts to clean corns in a big picture that's a pile of diarrhea shit. And they keep getting away with it because nobody wants to lift their head instead of indulging the rat race that is fighting each other.