Christianity is the most factionalized religion on the planet. Nothing else even comes close, and this splintering continues apace. It is a situation people have grown used to and seldom stop to think about how strange it is to worship a God who supposedly willed the universe into existence, but when it came to the most important message imaginable, couldn't make himself understood. Personally, I don't care what the SBC does just as long as they stay out of government, and away from me. Left in the hands of religious conservatives, the steam engine would be a distant dream.
Up vote if I could. That factionalization is not a benign thing either. Attempting to sort out who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian has spilled enough blood to float the Navy. You would think a divine being would have been able to anticipate that problem, and do a better job of making himself clear.
Christianity has been factionalized from the get go. Paul had to be having his tiff with the 'Jerusalem Church' in the early, to mid 40s... and he complains about false preachers and 'Christ Mongers"... The factionalization, I think, points to christianity being a lot older than the 'time of Christ' The bible didn't help. It is filled to overflowing with mutually incompatible verses and preachers are willing to form their own sect based on one of these verses as opposed to the other.
How about virtual warfare, fought with computers? Give all these frothing-at-the-mouth evangelical leaders special computers that would allow them to send virtual attack drones after their theological enemies -- who would also have had to sign on to this in order to be a legitimate player/target. If a virtual drone (programmed to be ineffective against the general population) scores a virtual hit, the designated casualty would have 24 hours to get their affairs in order and report to a disintegration, er, "Heavenly Transport" chamber. Eminiar VII and Vendikar kept this up for what, 500 years? But I would bet, in short order, that these gospel warriors, if they don't kill each other off in the first week, will suddenly decide that discretion is the better part of virtue, Thus Saith the Lord, and call the whole thing off.
If you really feel like breaking your brain sometime, try and determine which parts of Paul's teachings actually match up with Jesus's. I recommend having your preferred alcohol handy.
And Paul should have been the best biographical witness for Jesus there was. If he wasn't in Jerusalem at the 'time of Jesus', he was there shortly thereafter. He should have bumped into lots of people who knew, saw and listened to Jesus - yet he is silent.
He was the heir apparent who now occupied the supreme leadership role, and he wasn't about to share the spotlight with a dead guy.
One thing I've always felt when hearing stories about the Apostle Paul, was that this guy had a huge problem with pride and wanting to control everything. Even as a middle schooler, that was the vibe I always got. He reminded me of church people I knew IRL who were like that.
When I was in Ancient Ephesus, in Turkey, the local guide tells a story about how Paul was such a fanatic , and an asshole, who wouldn't leave people alone, disturbing them at their worship ceremonies etc. that in order to keep the peace, they threw him out of town, and told him, to never to come back. I thought it was a shame they didn't martyr him as it would have saved so many lives later on.
Yes, organized religion requires lack of critical thinking and an adherence to silly, nonsensical, (such as no women in the pulpit) dogma. The only part that makes any sense is the (supposed) J-dude's words (most of the time, given some of the poor translations) but the fascists use his words of love to hurt, maim, and kill.
It'd be nice if everything "J" said was all sweetness and light, but when he says, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you," in one breath, and in the next says, "But mine enemies, who would not have me rule over them, bring them hither and slay them before me," well ... let's just say I have a problem with that!
Yeah, that is gross for sure, and entirely the opinion of the author, as is it all. Most authors, (and translators) really loved the idea of vengence through their smity god of the OT it would be interesting to compare which gospels portray nice hippie J-dude with vengeful asshole J-dude. Not that I think there really was a J-dude. I think they just combined the better rabbis messages to create the character, and that is why sometimes he is an asshole and mostly not.
Ultimately, I think the whole thing – the gospels – is a construction job, made up of various stories and tall tales that were circulating in that day and coalesced over time.
I strongly suspect that the Jesus of the bible never existed.
So what did we learn? Mostly that the Southern Baptist Convention is a load of misogynistic assholes who don't like oversight as it comes to their behavior out of the pulpit, particularly of a sexual nature. Clearly, they've taken 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:35-36 to heart, not EVER having a woman in authority over a man. Worse, they are so enamored of the life of a collection of inchoate cells that In Vitro Fertilization has been declared anathema to them, which will fly in the face of Baptist couples struggling to have a child. Oh, and if Reverend Hotpants has been getting a little on the side with one of his congregants? Just look the other way. Nothing to see here, folks, move on, move on.
We learned, all right ... that the SBC is an atavistic organization, determined to root itself in the 19th century, while the rest of us live in the 21st.
It is hilarious that even thoughtful, well meaning, and inclusive people still argue about the minutiae of scraps of writing from two thousand years ago.
At the same time, it's educational, as Dan has studied the bible in Hebrew and Aramaic and knows more about the bible than 99% of the Christians I know.
And, let's pretend for a moment that the bible never existed - and someone handed out copies today..... people would laugh..... Immaculate conception, Garden of eden, Noah's ark, Resurrection........ but yet they blindly accept these scraps of writings from 2,000 years ago, clearly written by many who suffered delusion and mental illness...... at a time when they thought the world only within say 400 mile radius was the whole thing. So absurd- and humans think they're so smart - my dogs would never fall victim to the bible.
You might be right, and way down deep they realize it - but they've invested so much time and energy and themselves into the story that their brains' failsafe kicks in to save the ego/personality from immolation.
Two thoughts: First, by saying IVF is bad will further reduce their membership. Second, I don’t recall any images of Jesus wearing a three piece Brooks Brothers suit.
When they changed the dress code in my senior year of high school, the assembly we had explaining it led to the principal saying something so stupid, I still remember it from 1969. "Sandals without socks leads to marijuana smoking." Yeah. He actually said that, adding to my crumbling respect to authority figures.
Okay, an exception to the crucifixion rule: every student of good conscious may (and indeed, is encouraged to) wear socks in sandals in school, if their Principal has told them it leads to drug use.
In the early 90s, I went to the Florida Region PTK convention in Orlando; one of the contests was for Tacky Tourists. Black socks with sandals were necessary if you hoped to win. These days, I see this all the time.
That's because every image of Jesus, if it ever existed a person like that, was painted a long time after his death. Paul's camera didn't work so the painters had to use their fantacy.
And the European artists like Albrecht Dürer did a self portrait as Christ.
"In the year 1500 Albrecht Dürer painted his self-portrait as Christ. It is one of the few portraits of Christ up to that time so readily identifiable as a self-portrait. Yet he was not alone. As I have shown elsewhere, in the same year or close to it, both Mantegna and Perugino portrayed Christ with their own features and many artists did so subsequently including Titian, Rembrandt and Van Dyck.
Every month fertile women expel blood from their bodies. Along with that blood can be the product of recent sexual activity, which can include fertilized eggs. My question to the SBC is: When are you going to prohibit the "rhythm method" of pregnancy prevention? Or, are you going to try and prevent women from having a healthy menstrual cycle? I ask these questions with the fact in mind that women have been expelling fertile eggs ever since we crawled out of the seas. If you believe God poofed women into being then you believe God killed more fertilized eggs than IVF ever will.
Don't encourage them. Conservatives already occasionally prosecute women for miscarriages; yes they would absolutely go down the road of criminalizing menstruation for sexually active, unmarried women, as a way to effectively make sex out of wedlock illegal. They only need to figure out a legal way to discriminate against non-Christians and/or non-conservatives.
From my experiences with SBC churches, they really do want to go back to the Antebellum South and all the moral atrocities that entails. This was every bit the predictable result of that attitude, because if there's anything SBC churches can't stand it's uppity women and freed slaves. Anytime the SBC is mentioned, you can safely look forward to more of the same because as a group they have zero interest in anything that might be termed 'progressive.' Honestly, it's just one episode of "As The Stomach Churns" after another with them anyway.
You go by the parents of course. Are they immigrants? Swarthy? Went to Smith? Then clearly the embryo isn't a person. Wears a MAGA hat? Has a "don't tread on me" license plate (but is not from Vermont)? Then clearly the embryo is a person.
I haven't stopped yet. I am reading them for the first time. Bujold recommend new readers to read them in their internal chronology. I finished Cryoburn yeasterday.
Today I will start reading Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
Are you telling me that the organization that has always chosen the wrong side of every important moral issue in the history of the United States is choosing the wrong side of more moral issues?
Seen on FB, and it fits perfectly here with these hate mongering goddamned kkkristers.
=================
To the church of my youth,
What the hell did you expect me to do?
You told me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied.
You told me to love people, consider others as more important than myself.
You taught me to sing "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."
We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”.
You told me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You told me to never "hate" anyone and to always find ways to encourage people.
You told me it's better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate.
You told me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You told me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You told me to be accepting and forgiving.
So I payed attention.
I took in every lesson.
And I did what you told me.
But now, you call me a libtard. A queer-lover. You call me "woke." A backslider. You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help.
You say I’m a child of the devil.
You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I thought you were serious, but apparently not.
You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I'm trying to see a way forward, but it's hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence.
I edited thus and now most disappeared. Again, just in case.
To the church of my youth,
What the hell did you expect me to do?
You told me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied.
You told me to love people, consider others as more important than myself.
You taught me to sing "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."
We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”.
You told me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You told me to never "hate" anyone and to always find ways to encourage people.
You told me it's better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate.
You told me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You told me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You told me to be accepting and forgiving.
So I payed attention.
I took in every lesson.
And I did what you told me.
But now, you call me a libtard. A queer-lover. You call me "woke." A backslider. You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help.
You say I’m a child of the devil.
You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I thought you were serious, but apparently not.
You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I'm trying to see a way forward, but it's hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence.
Southern Bastards, the pro-slave misogynists who are trying to remove a speck of dust out of the eyes of others while they have big-ass logs in their own eyes. Jesus called believers like them hypocrites.
So, nothing’s really changed except for a few that think woman are a-ok as pastors but LGBTQ aren’t. I stood up for a friend’s civil union when marriage wasn’t allowed and the couple was married by a lesbian rabbi. SBC heads would have exploded.
My parents – for some reason – put on a wedding for a "mixed" couple that couldn't get approval from their families to get married. I can't even remember what the denominations were it was that long ago, and I don't know if they lived happily ever after or not, but I always thought they deserved a crack at it.
Article says the fight isn't over, though. Let's face it: Pro-forced birthers will continue to stomp and scream and hold their breaths to get their way. Let them try. They will be opposed at every turn.
It's Tim Gill all over again, with his apt observation that the battle is never over. Until and if this aberrant brand of Christianity can be rendered irrelevant (a possibility which I doubt mightily), the fight just goes on.
It was judicial self-interest, and Alito basically admitted it when he wrote the decision. If the the court had decided for the plaintiffs, then the court system would've been flooded with thousands (millions?) of cases by people wanting to challenge governmental laws simply because they didn't like them. So the court said (reminded, really, because this has always been the case), that to challenge a law a citizen has to have more standing than just "it upsets me that the law lets someone else do something I don't like".
I was locked out for about an hour. The doors here use keycards, and mine didn't work. So off to the office I went to get the guy to reset it. It still didn't work. A different keycard programmed for my door didn't work. So he tried using an old-style master key, which didn't work. Eventually, he pried the hinges out and was finally able to get the door open. The problem, you ask? The battery pack had died. That's what I get for taking out the trash.
Ævv and ouch. Not fun. And guess what? Me and husband totally agree on never ever have a door lock that depends on batteries or el. power to work. Never.
Apparently our parent organization came through one weekend and changed the master lock on some of our storerooms without informing anyone, including our facilities manager. Nor did they bother to leave new keys. If the power goes out we're locked out of those rooms.
I am always shocked at how perverted the words of Jesus have become with today's "Christians". Jesus said there was no difference between men and women, neighbor or stranger, we are to love each other as ourselves. I guess these SBs don't like themselves because they are awful with other people. Also, IVF has helped thousands of couples have children that they could not have before, so much for Pro-Life.
Yes, they hijacked it for sure. Their jesus could float down on a cloud and they would murder him with an AK.
Based on what I was taught as a kid about jesus - he was the wokiest man ever (along with Bernie Sanders)..... and jesus would vote for Universal Health Care and Universal education if he were here today in Congress.
Exactly! I was brought up Catholic and we had Hippie nuns and priests who played guitars and taught us to love one another. Now the Catholic Church is all about yelling at anyone different and "Pro Life" no matter what.
Quite apart from how schadenfreudelicious all of this is, I have two points. Just two.
"They were proud to be part of a historically racist and currently anti-LGBTQ organization, but punishing churches that have women in leadership was a dealbreaker? Got it. (Someone make that make sense.)
It makes absolute sense. This is all about the misogyny, the desire to keep White and allegedly heterosexual men KKKhristian men firmly in charge of everything and everybody. In short it's about what it's always about, power, money, and dominion, and in the age of Trump, with a (un)healthy dollop of revenge on anyone who challenges that idea. But before the racism, before everything else, there is simply the misogyny. "the woman who you gave to me gave me of the fruit of the tree, and I did eat." Because it's all about the Temptations that the Bible obsesses over: sex, lust, and who's entitled to what.
What causes it to make sense is what appears to underline most of hyper conservative motivations. "If something happens to someone else, they probably deserve it. God, you know. But if it happens to me, I will care about it." Remember Senator Rob Portman, who very much cared about gay marriage and keeping gay people from participating fully in society? Until it turned out that his own son was a big queer and wanted to get married?
I always remember an episode of designing women, were Julia wants to be a minister in her Baptist Church, and the male power structure firmly tells her that this is not going to happen. The minister who delivers the final, nasty below to Julia, tell her that it is simply God's will, or as I like to call it...
Godswill.
He says to her: "I hope you're not disappointed in God." And Julia responds in true sugar Baker fashion: "no, Pastor. I'm disappointed in you."
I simply can't understand why any woman would be a member of an organization like this, or allow her children to be indoctrinated with this toxic view of gender roles. Also, what business is it of a church or a pastor how a couple goes about having a baby? It would serve the SBC right if churches started walking out the door - and taking their sweet, sweet collection plates with them.
Christianity is the most factionalized religion on the planet. Nothing else even comes close, and this splintering continues apace. It is a situation people have grown used to and seldom stop to think about how strange it is to worship a God who supposedly willed the universe into existence, but when it came to the most important message imaginable, couldn't make himself understood. Personally, I don't care what the SBC does just as long as they stay out of government, and away from me. Left in the hands of religious conservatives, the steam engine would be a distant dream.
"Factionalized," indeed, with over 40,000 separate denominations, worldwide. You'd think one of them would look at that fact and wonder why.
Sadly, most of them aren't that thoughtful.
Up vote if I could. That factionalization is not a benign thing either. Attempting to sort out who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian has spilled enough blood to float the Navy. You would think a divine being would have been able to anticipate that problem, and do a better job of making himself clear.
He should have taken a communications class in college, before designing a universe for his 6th grade science fair.
LOL
Stealing this!
They don't intend to be that thoughtful. They know exactly what happens if people start to think without help from pastors etc.
🎯
Christianity has been factionalized from the get go. Paul had to be having his tiff with the 'Jerusalem Church' in the early, to mid 40s... and he complains about false preachers and 'Christ Mongers"... The factionalization, I think, points to christianity being a lot older than the 'time of Christ' The bible didn't help. It is filled to overflowing with mutually incompatible verses and preachers are willing to form their own sect based on one of these verses as opposed to the other.
Metaphorical warfare. The one with the most likes wins.
How about virtual warfare, fought with computers? Give all these frothing-at-the-mouth evangelical leaders special computers that would allow them to send virtual attack drones after their theological enemies -- who would also have had to sign on to this in order to be a legitimate player/target. If a virtual drone (programmed to be ineffective against the general population) scores a virtual hit, the designated casualty would have 24 hours to get their affairs in order and report to a disintegration, er, "Heavenly Transport" chamber. Eminiar VII and Vendikar kept this up for what, 500 years? But I would bet, in short order, that these gospel warriors, if they don't kill each other off in the first week, will suddenly decide that discretion is the better part of virtue, Thus Saith the Lord, and call the whole thing off.
Survival of the flitest drones.
Shades of 𝘓𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘯'𝘴 𝘙𝘶𝘯.
See: streeet preachers in "Life of Brien".
If you really feel like breaking your brain sometime, try and determine which parts of Paul's teachings actually match up with Jesus's. I recommend having your preferred alcohol handy.
And Paul should have been the best biographical witness for Jesus there was. If he wasn't in Jerusalem at the 'time of Jesus', he was there shortly thereafter. He should have bumped into lots of people who knew, saw and listened to Jesus - yet he is silent.
He was the heir apparent who now occupied the supreme leadership role, and he wasn't about to share the spotlight with a dead guy.
One thing I've always felt when hearing stories about the Apostle Paul, was that this guy had a huge problem with pride and wanting to control everything. Even as a middle schooler, that was the vibe I always got. He reminded me of church people I knew IRL who were like that.
When I was in Ancient Ephesus, in Turkey, the local guide tells a story about how Paul was such a fanatic , and an asshole, who wouldn't leave people alone, disturbing them at their worship ceremonies etc. that in order to keep the peace, they threw him out of town, and told him, to never to come back. I thought it was a shame they didn't martyr him as it would have saved so many lives later on.
That's easy...none!
David Fitzgerald's 'Nailed' and the sequels 'Jesus - Mything in Action' go into detail about the war going on in early christianity.
Not to be confused with 𝘔.𝘠.𝘛.𝘏. 𝘐𝘯𝘤. 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/148206.M_Y_T_H_Inc_in_Action
[TS smiles, remembering...] I knew Bob Asprin when he was "Yang, the Nauseating," of the Society for Creative Anachronism!
Yes, organized religion requires lack of critical thinking and an adherence to silly, nonsensical, (such as no women in the pulpit) dogma. The only part that makes any sense is the (supposed) J-dude's words (most of the time, given some of the poor translations) but the fascists use his words of love to hurt, maim, and kill.
It'd be nice if everything "J" said was all sweetness and light, but when he says, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you," in one breath, and in the next says, "But mine enemies, who would not have me rule over them, bring them hither and slay them before me," well ... let's just say I have a problem with that!
Yeah, that is gross for sure, and entirely the opinion of the author, as is it all. Most authors, (and translators) really loved the idea of vengence through their smity god of the OT it would be interesting to compare which gospels portray nice hippie J-dude with vengeful asshole J-dude. Not that I think there really was a J-dude. I think they just combined the better rabbis messages to create the character, and that is why sometimes he is an asshole and mostly not.
Ultimately, I think the whole thing – the gospels – is a construction job, made up of various stories and tall tales that were circulating in that day and coalesced over time.
I strongly suspect that the Jesus of the bible never existed.
Agree.
Project 2025 has sections on being a "true Christian", where "fake Christians" are locked up. I wonder if that would include women preachers?
That whole Project 2025 thing is absolutely terrifying.
Edit for typo.
Your last sentence is spot on. We'd still be pulling out bad teeth with rusty pliers in a barber shop.
Also fictionalized.
When orthodoxy is in conflict with reality, schisms occur.
It has been ever thus. There is a message there, but the true believer will never get it.
Not surprisingly, they are the ones who need it the most.
So what did we learn? Mostly that the Southern Baptist Convention is a load of misogynistic assholes who don't like oversight as it comes to their behavior out of the pulpit, particularly of a sexual nature. Clearly, they've taken 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:35-36 to heart, not EVER having a woman in authority over a man. Worse, they are so enamored of the life of a collection of inchoate cells that In Vitro Fertilization has been declared anathema to them, which will fly in the face of Baptist couples struggling to have a child. Oh, and if Reverend Hotpants has been getting a little on the side with one of his congregants? Just look the other way. Nothing to see here, folks, move on, move on.
We learned, all right ... that the SBC is an atavistic organization, determined to root itself in the 19th century, while the rest of us live in the 21st.
More often than not, when a man gets religion one of the first things he does is claim a right to control women.
It's their favorite part.
I expect it works the other way just as often; some man wants to claim a right to control women....hey, this religion sounds pretty good to me...
Bingo!
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯That is why they get religion, to have a harem. It's a massive cult perk.
LOL
I couldn't do it, more than two is too much of a good thing, but then I care about my girlfriends.
A biblical scholar on TikTok, Dan McClellan, breaks down the "women can't be preachers" segments here:
https://www.tiktok.com/@maklelan/video/7379289405623717150?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7260847475069830698
It is hilarious that even thoughtful, well meaning, and inclusive people still argue about the minutiae of scraps of writing from two thousand years ago.
At the same time, it's educational, as Dan has studied the bible in Hebrew and Aramaic and knows more about the bible than 99% of the Christians I know.
And, let's pretend for a moment that the bible never existed - and someone handed out copies today..... people would laugh..... Immaculate conception, Garden of eden, Noah's ark, Resurrection........ but yet they blindly accept these scraps of writings from 2,000 years ago, clearly written by many who suffered delusion and mental illness...... at a time when they thought the world only within say 400 mile radius was the whole thing. So absurd- and humans think they're so smart - my dogs would never fall victim to the bible.
Most of those people never went further than 25 miles of their home during their entire lifetime.
I would think they'd be more like, yup, a story. Written badly. So badly that Ayn Rand's novel would be considered better.
It's damned embarrassing is what it is.
You might be right, and way down deep they realize it - but they've invested so much time and energy and themselves into the story that their brains' failsafe kicks in to save the ego/personality from immolation.
You give them too much credit about wanting to take us back to only the 19th century.....
Fourth century is their goal.
More like the stone age.
I sense no lie, in your most excellent summation.
𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑒, 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎!
Prego.
Two thoughts: First, by saying IVF is bad will further reduce their membership. Second, I don’t recall any images of Jesus wearing a three piece Brooks Brothers suit.
Heh. Imagine the confusing furor if parishioners started showing up in robes and sandals.
SANDALS! THE HORROR!
Sandals okay. Socks *in* sandals requires crucifixion.
When they changed the dress code in my senior year of high school, the assembly we had explaining it led to the principal saying something so stupid, I still remember it from 1969. "Sandals without socks leads to marijuana smoking." Yeah. He actually said that, adding to my crumbling respect to authority figures.
Okay, an exception to the crucifixion rule: every student of good conscious may (and indeed, is encouraged to) wear socks in sandals in school, if their Principal has told them it leads to drug use.
you hippy, you! 💙💙💙
I've never worn sandals. Platform saddle shoes were my gateway.
In the early 90s, I went to the Florida Region PTK convention in Orlando; one of the contests was for Tacky Tourists. Black socks with sandals were necessary if you hoped to win. These days, I see this all the time.
Jepp, absolutely true.
I have diabetic socks, apparently the result of too much sugar in my shoes. I like 'sweet feet'!
But if course. After tearing of their eyelid hairs one by one.
That's right... even if those sandals are Birkenstocks....
😝
Thank you! UGH, I hated when the porn men all wore socks, so not sexy!
It's okay as long as the women's ankles can't be seen.
The epitome of what a priest should wear can be construed from Exodus 20: 26
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
I.e. the priest is expected to wear a short skirt/robe and no underpants.
Incidentally, all those altars on steps or platforms: tut tut.
That's because every image of Jesus, if it ever existed a person like that, was painted a long time after his death. Paul's camera didn't work so the painters had to use their fantacy.
Yes, after the death of the only white man with blue eyes in the Middle East 2,000 years ago.....
That's what he gets for using a 110.
And the European artists like Albrecht Dürer did a self portrait as Christ.
"In the year 1500 Albrecht Dürer painted his self-portrait as Christ. It is one of the few portraits of Christ up to that time so readily identifiable as a self-portrait. Yet he was not alone. As I have shown elsewhere, in the same year or close to it, both Mantegna and Perugino portrayed Christ with their own features and many artists did so subsequently including Titian, Rembrandt and Van Dyck.
https://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/duerers_self-portrait_as_christ_15001
Every month fertile women expel blood from their bodies. Along with that blood can be the product of recent sexual activity, which can include fertilized eggs. My question to the SBC is: When are you going to prohibit the "rhythm method" of pregnancy prevention? Or, are you going to try and prevent women from having a healthy menstrual cycle? I ask these questions with the fact in mind that women have been expelling fertile eggs ever since we crawled out of the seas. If you believe God poofed women into being then you believe God killed more fertilized eggs than IVF ever will.
Don't encourage them. Conservatives already occasionally prosecute women for miscarriages; yes they would absolutely go down the road of criminalizing menstruation for sexually active, unmarried women, as a way to effectively make sex out of wedlock illegal. They only need to figure out a legal way to discriminate against non-Christians and/or non-conservatives.
*cue southern accent* It's okay if gawd does it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ies3DkRbe-Q
The Little Drummer Boy introduced Baby Jesus to Neil Peart
https://youtu.be/s5V_sH2YC3g
"Safari" to Caravan" to "Wipeout" will stop any drummer.
Oh please don’t try to explain basic biology to them, their brains will explode. ( on second thoughts..)
From my experiences with SBC churches, they really do want to go back to the Antebellum South and all the moral atrocities that entails. This was every bit the predictable result of that attitude, because if there's anything SBC churches can't stand it's uppity women and freed slaves. Anytime the SBC is mentioned, you can safely look forward to more of the same because as a group they have zero interest in anything that might be termed 'progressive.' Honestly, it's just one episode of "As The Stomach Churns" after another with them anyway.
Questions no one has asked, but I will ask any way.
Can an embryo that has been cryogenically frozen for 21 years legally drink alcohol?
Dunno, but you can bet the GOP would let them vote Republican.
Well, that poses an awful conundrum Republicans. How can you know if someone is supposed to be able to vote, if they haven't even developed skin?
Ha!
You go by the parents of course. Are they immigrants? Swarthy? Went to Smith? Then clearly the embryo isn't a person. Wears a MAGA hat? Has a "don't tread on me" license plate (but is not from Vermont)? Then clearly the embryo is a person.
What if the mother is brown and the father was a white IFB preacher?
With a parent that is a preacher, there is very little hope for the offspring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJStTqPmcMY
It took me a while but I got it. Good one!
No, but you can put them in your drink.
Ask Miles or Mark Vorkosigan.
Wasn't Miles frozen adult to save his life ?
Yes. As far as I remember.
Where did you stop ?
Miles and Ekaterina opened two special cans in the last book I read.
I haven't stopped yet. I am reading them for the first time. Bujold recommend new readers to read them in their internal chronology. I finished Cryoburn yeasterday.
Today I will start reading Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
Are you telling me that the organization that has always chosen the wrong side of every important moral issue in the history of the United States is choosing the wrong side of more moral issues?
This is my shocked face.
I don't see your shocked face. Am I going blind? Jesus, heal me!
Sure can. Get healed now!!!! 😇 ❣️ 👹
Seen on FB, and it fits perfectly here with these hate mongering goddamned kkkristers.
=================
To the church of my youth,
What the hell did you expect me to do?
You told me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied.
You told me to love people, consider others as more important than myself.
You taught me to sing "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."
We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”.
You told me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You told me to never "hate" anyone and to always find ways to encourage people.
You told me it's better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate.
You told me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You told me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You told me to be accepting and forgiving.
So I payed attention.
I took in every lesson.
And I did what you told me.
But now, you call me a libtard. A queer-lover. You call me "woke." A backslider. You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help.
You say I’m a child of the devil.
You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I thought you were serious, but apparently not.
You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I'm trying to see a way forward, but it's hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I believed it all the way.
I'm still believing it all the way.
Which leaves me wondering, what happened to you?
(author unknown)
I edited thus and now most disappeared. Again, just in case.
To the church of my youth,
What the hell did you expect me to do?
You told me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied.
You told me to love people, consider others as more important than myself.
You taught me to sing "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight."
We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”.
You told me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You told me to never "hate" anyone and to always find ways to encourage people.
You told me it's better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate.
You told me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You told me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You told me to be accepting and forgiving.
So I payed attention.
I took in every lesson.
And I did what you told me.
But now, you call me a libtard. A queer-lover. You call me "woke." A backslider. You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help.
You say I’m a child of the devil.
You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I thought you were serious, but apparently not.
You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I'm trying to see a way forward, but it's hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence.
What the hell did you expect me to do?
I believed it all the way.
I'm still believing it all the way.
Which leaves me wondering, what happened to you?
(author unknown)
I was wondering why the upvotes (mine included) for this were only showing up in my Activity but not on the article page itself.
Now they DID show up.
Southern Bastards, the pro-slave misogynists who are trying to remove a speck of dust out of the eyes of others while they have big-ass logs in their own eyes. Jesus called believers like them hypocrites.
Jeans in the pulpit will cause a schism.
Or at least some very nasty chafing.
That's what the cornstarch is for.
Cornstarch causes chafing, dammit!
Well, if you’re not allergic to fragrance, you can use the superior talcum powder. I’m stuck with cornstarch.
According to last night's news, talc can cause cancer. I'm kinda skeptical but certainly willing to listen to the victims' stories.
AIUI Until the 70s it used to be contaminated with bits of asbestos.
That's why you wear a big belt buckle.
So, nothing’s really changed except for a few that think woman are a-ok as pastors but LGBTQ aren’t. I stood up for a friend’s civil union when marriage wasn’t allowed and the couple was married by a lesbian rabbi. SBC heads would have exploded.
My parents – for some reason – put on a wedding for a "mixed" couple that couldn't get approval from their families to get married. I can't even remember what the denominations were it was that long ago, and I don't know if they lived happily ever after or not, but I always thought they deserved a crack at it.
Love this. Everyone deserves that opportunity.
As long as all parties are of sound mind and of age (whatever that means, sometimes I think it should be 25)
Lol, agreed, but even at 35, people can make big mistakes (from one who knows, unfortunately).
❤️Lesbian rabbi sounds cool.
She was great.
OT - Breaking News: The Supreme Court maintains access to abortion pill mifepristone:
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/supreme-court-abortion-pill-decision-06-13-24/index.html
About time we had some GOOD news coming out of SCOTUS! Edit: the decision was UNANIMOUS!!!
Article says the fight isn't over, though. Let's face it: Pro-forced birthers will continue to stomp and scream and hold their breaths to get their way. Let them try. They will be opposed at every turn.
It's Tim Gill all over again, with his apt observation that the battle is never over. Until and if this aberrant brand of Christianity can be rendered irrelevant (a possibility which I doubt mightily), the fight just goes on.
It'll burn on and on and on and on... We didn't start the fire. We didn't start it but we tried to fight it.
This?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
Yes. Though I didn’t quote it accurately. Should have listened to it again.
Yes.
The fight will continue until these enemies of humanity are extinct.
Okay, who summoned demons to posses Alito and Thomas? And WTF didn't you do it sooner?
Stopped clock moment.
Check their bank accounts in a fiscal paradise.
Ahh… a yacht ride with hot, blonde pharmaceutical reps. (And a stash of little blue pills) That might explain it.
It was judicial self-interest, and Alito basically admitted it when he wrote the decision. If the the court had decided for the plaintiffs, then the court system would've been flooded with thousands (millions?) of cases by people wanting to challenge governmental laws simply because they didn't like them. So the court said (reminded, really, because this has always been the case), that to challenge a law a citizen has to have more standing than just "it upsets me that the law lets someone else do something I don't like".
In other words, find us a plaintiff with better standing!
We may have passed through a portal when that decision was made.....
I'll bet you anything they left that door open, though.
OT - Well that was fun 😠
I was locked out for about an hour. The doors here use keycards, and mine didn't work. So off to the office I went to get the guy to reset it. It still didn't work. A different keycard programmed for my door didn't work. So he tried using an old-style master key, which didn't work. Eventually, he pried the hinges out and was finally able to get the door open. The problem, you ask? The battery pack had died. That's what I get for taking out the trash.
Was this your reaction to that dead battery pack?
https://imgur.com/gallery/doh-0RMCR
Dead battery pack? Luckily, there were no sharks around.
Ævv and ouch. Not fun. And guess what? Me and husband totally agree on never ever have a door lock that depends on batteries or el. power to work. Never.
Unfortunately, nobody asks for my input before these decisions are made.
You lock your doors?
This ain't Iowa.
When I am leaving the estate. Not when I am at home, in the garden or in the neighbourhood.
Nobody at the office uses our keycards if they can help it. There’s an override remote is favoured 90% of the time.
Apparently our parent organization came through one weekend and changed the master lock on some of our storerooms without informing anyone, including our facilities manager. Nor did they bother to leave new keys. If the power goes out we're locked out of those rooms.
I am always shocked at how perverted the words of Jesus have become with today's "Christians". Jesus said there was no difference between men and women, neighbor or stranger, we are to love each other as ourselves. I guess these SBs don't like themselves because they are awful with other people. Also, IVF has helped thousands of couples have children that they could not have before, so much for Pro-Life.
Yes, they hijacked it for sure. Their jesus could float down on a cloud and they would murder him with an AK.
Based on what I was taught as a kid about jesus - he was the wokiest man ever (along with Bernie Sanders)..... and jesus would vote for Universal Health Care and Universal education if he were here today in Congress.
Exactly! I was brought up Catholic and we had Hippie nuns and priests who played guitars and taught us to love one another. Now the Catholic Church is all about yelling at anyone different and "Pro Life" no matter what.
And he was a brown, woke, rabbi, they would shoot him for that alone.
HELP is a four-letter word among kkkristers. Superstition is evolving and also evolving is their own self-destruction.
Quite apart from how schadenfreudelicious all of this is, I have two points. Just two.
"They were proud to be part of a historically racist and currently anti-LGBTQ organization, but punishing churches that have women in leadership was a dealbreaker? Got it. (Someone make that make sense.)
It makes absolute sense. This is all about the misogyny, the desire to keep White and allegedly heterosexual men KKKhristian men firmly in charge of everything and everybody. In short it's about what it's always about, power, money, and dominion, and in the age of Trump, with a (un)healthy dollop of revenge on anyone who challenges that idea. But before the racism, before everything else, there is simply the misogyny. "the woman who you gave to me gave me of the fruit of the tree, and I did eat." Because it's all about the Temptations that the Bible obsesses over: sex, lust, and who's entitled to what.
What causes it to make sense is what appears to underline most of hyper conservative motivations. "If something happens to someone else, they probably deserve it. God, you know. But if it happens to me, I will care about it." Remember Senator Rob Portman, who very much cared about gay marriage and keeping gay people from participating fully in society? Until it turned out that his own son was a big queer and wanted to get married?
I always remember an episode of designing women, were Julia wants to be a minister in her Baptist Church, and the male power structure firmly tells her that this is not going to happen. The minister who delivers the final, nasty below to Julia, tell her that it is simply God's will, or as I like to call it...
Godswill.
He says to her: "I hope you're not disappointed in God." And Julia responds in true sugar Baker fashion: "no, Pastor. I'm disappointed in you."
Straight White Angry Male Protestants are the only ones deserving rights in churches (and their murka)
Great acronym for that group: S.W.A.M.P.
Didn't somebody promise to drain the S.W.A.M.P?
I like O.W.C.A.
I simply can't understand why any woman would be a member of an organization like this, or allow her children to be indoctrinated with this toxic view of gender roles. Also, what business is it of a church or a pastor how a couple goes about having a baby? It would serve the SBC right if churches started walking out the door - and taking their sweet, sweet collection plates with them.