#christian critical

[sociallyanxiousdragon]

I think I need to follow more atheist blogs again

Like it's super important to point out the antisemitism and other bigotry a lot of white online atheists are perpetrating

But also when I told my dad (who I didn't think was a very religious person) that I was an atheist, he told me old people would just kill themselves if they were atheist because what would be the point of living

And my mom took me being an atheist worse than me being bi or pagan (when I was)

And I've had coworkers avoid me when they found out I was atheist and classmates in high school talk about how they needed to pray for my soul

And a woman I gave money to at a gas station insist I couldn't be an atheist because I was generous and prayed at me that God was working through me

And the instructor of a class on the new testament at a community college straight up deny atheists even exist and mock people who say they are

And like I'm not saying these anecdotes are as bad as shit other marginalized groups go through or that these people would have treated me better if I was Jewish or Muslim or something

But it's not *nothing* like even my psych needed clarification on what I meant by "atheist" like there are situations in which I do need to think about if I'm going to go into my beliefs (or lack thereof) or just nod my way through a conversation and there are absolutely still places in the US especially in the Bible Belt that will get you socially ostracized for it

Again, not trying to say atheists as a whole have it as bad as much less worse than anyone else and discussions about and criticisms of antisemitic and otherwise bigoted atheists are important!

But fuck I think I need more posts talking about experiences similar to mine and discussing ex-Christian trauma

#jax yacks #atheism #christian critical #christianity critical #ex-christian #personal

[rotationalsymmetry]

Gonna be big-time Unitarian Universalist on main for a bit.

Having been on this site for, what, two and a half years now? I have noticed a thing. Which is a scary amount of y’all think that 1. Some people are categorically, absolutely, bad people and 2. Bad people suffering is a good thing.

This is appalling and antithetical to everything I believe, which is that people are just people, that everybody is capable of doing harmful things, and that suffering is bad regardless of who is doing the suffering.

Going to introduce the second theme of this post and then tie both together in just a minute.

When I was growing up and figuring out my religious identity, I considered the concept of Hell (in the literal sense, not in any sort of figurative or purely metaphorical sense, as a place sinners’ souls go to when they die to be punished for their sins for all eternity, in contrast to Heaven where the good people get rewarded for all eternity) and firmly rejected the idea. I saw no point in believing in an unjust God, and Hell could not be just. People only have finite lifespans, even if it made sense to punish wrongdoing (which it doesn’t, the causes of harmful behaviors are more complicated than “people do bad things because they willfully choose mayhem”, and that’s not even getting into the idea that it might make sense to punish someone for all eternity for the entirely morally neutral state of not being a Christian) people can only do a finite amount of harm in one lifetime, and it can’t be just to punish finite harm with infinite suffering.

And it also occurred to me that it sure is easier to commit atrocities like the Inquisition and forced conversions and baby snatching and the residential schools bs, if you’re weighing that against the state of someone’s eternal soul. Some people do absolutely appalling things because they believe that bad people get punished.

I think these two are connected. I’m not sure exactly how much causality runs in which direction, whether a childhood of being preached hellfire and damnation primes some people to believe that there’s such thing as irredeemable sinners (even if they walk away from the religion they were raised in), or whether people who already have all or nothing attitudes towards other people’s goodness are more likely to be OK with believing in Hell, or some of both. But I do think there’s a connection there and I don’t like it.

A third thread: sometimes an inclination to see people as all good or all bad with no in between, can be linked to trauma and mental illness, a thing called “splitting”, how much of all this nonsense is just trauma response piled on trauma response and codified into religious doctrine?

Maybe I need to go back and actually finish reading Saving Paradise.

#Christian critical

[idolomantises]

I’ve said this before, but I always found stories that frame heaven as “evil” and hell as “good” (or less bad) to be genuinely boring. I like more nuanced approaches to each realm.

I understand that for a lot of people, Christianity is a religion they like to criticize and mock, but I feel like if you don’t even understand the fundamentals of the religion, why even attempt to critique it?

#txt #an Angel wouldn’t be happy with mass genocide or abuse unless they convinced themselves there was a righteous reason for it #and more importantly. forgiveness and redemption is a huge part of Christianity #like as a queer person myself I get annoyed when queer writers pull the ‘well Christian’s oppressed us so we can do what we want’ card like #alright man. if you want to criticize the religion I am completely behind you #but if you’re going to heavily mischaracterized christianity to make it a black and white ‘evil’ religion. you look dumb

[twinklestarss]

Christian!😭💛

#cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #critical role #bells hells #fcg #frida #LoveLetters #christian navarro

[craycraybluejay]

I also heavily resent the ever-present implication in mainstream media that at all touches on trauma that we cannot have any sympathy for Bad Victims. That it's evil to write a sympathetic Bad Victim. Hell, that it's bad to portray one at all at times. Writing a victim of trauma who's an addict or self-destructive is already an edge case-- writing trauma survivors who end up actually hurting someone else, being chronically "treatment"-resistant or having inconvenient ptsd, perpetuate the cycle, or are just kind of a total dick is considered an evil move. Instead of like. An actually complex and interesting artistic choice.

Idk. It pisses me off a lot how often Bad Victims[TM] are brushed under the rug and if you dare to speak of them/make art of them, let alone SYMPATHIZE with them you're an irredeemable monster. And that's just fictional characters. Don't even get me started on the way people treat actual people who have ptsd in a way that's at all inconvenient and problematic in their opinion.

#bad victims #trauma #purity culture #cultural christianity #cycle of abuse #the invisible victims #trauma survivor #ptsd #purity wank #freedom of expression #dark topics #media criticism #trauma in media #please can i get one traumatized blorbo that isnt purity poisoned #like you're not writing a moral guidebook for small children. you're allowed to write anything at all forever

[harveyguillensource]

Harvey slaying his 2024 red carpet debut in Christian Siriano at the Critics' Choice Awards!

#harvey guillén #harvey guillen #christian siriano #critics' choice awards #critics choice awards #wwdits #what we do in the shadows #guillermo de la cruz #red carpet #january 2024 #bow

[acebender]

#Christian Navarro #loveletters #critical role #frida #f.r.i.d.a. #far ranging integrated defense aeormaton #fcg #fresh cut grass #faithful caregiver #sam riegel #cr spoilers #c3e91

[bixbiboom]

💛🩵 Aeor is for Lovers 💚🧡

#sam riegel #christian navarro #critical role

[counterspelling]

Endless Bells Hells

#aabria iyengar #christian navarro #travis willingham #sam riegel #matt mercer #laura bailey #ashley johnson #critteredit #critical role #cr3 #bells hells #cr spoilers #cr3e52 #criticalroleedit #critroleedit #myedit #endless bells hells

[olessan]

#HIDETHEPAINHAROLD.JPG #cr spoilers #critical role #c3e91 #christian navarro #sam riegel

[sociallyanxiousdragon]

I saw a post a while ago that pointed out that there's a section of Tumblr goyim that have a habit of viewing Judaism as this one cohesive whole and romanticizing this specific Western leftist utopian version of it. I might have explained that badly and I wish I had the post on hand to reference, but the general vibe of "you are seeing the form of Judaism you want and exaggerating if not completely warping the things you like about it and in the process are ignoring the various denominations that exist and how they differ and all the parts you *don't* like" has really stuck with me as a thing to watch out for.

Especially since a few years before I saw that, I was personally called out (neutral) on how I talked about how I wish I had grown up Jewish because I, again, seemed to be romanticizing the idea of being Jewish without taking into account any of the realities of it.

And long time followers might know I've been on and off about wanting to convert for years and years now. I went to a single shabbat service and then anxiety stopped me from going back (even though everyone was very nice and the rabbi even gave me a book on Judaism!). I even paid to take a conversion class over zoom a few years ago, but dropped because I had a hard time listening to other student's positive experiences with Christianity and comparing what we were learning to Christianity and just coming to things from a Christian lens which like I know logically is fine when you're learning and starting from 0 and it's fine and good that not *everyone* interested in learning about Judaism is fucking traumatized by Christianity and I should have just talked to the rabbis running it but I got too in my head about it and dropped.

And you know maybe *I'm* the one viewing Judaism through the lens of Christianity in a way that warps it. Like I want to rip out all my Christianity-induced trauma and lay Judaism on those old wounds like it's going to fix me rather than as something to appreciate on its own merits.

I don't know.

Maybe I should look up if there's any discussions on this sort of thing -- of ex-Christians being exposed to actual Judaism for the first time, seeing a religion that encourages questions and criticisms and complaints and disagreements and real actual study and understanding of their religious texts and go "Oh shit. It can be like that?" And then end up with this warped perception of things and start talking about it in ways that feel alien to actual Jews.

Or maybe it's not as common as I'm thinking; I don't know.

#jax yacks #christian critical #christianity critical #not jewish #i hope i haven't completely butchered the point of that post i vaguely remember #let me know if i need to add tags

[rotationalsymmetry]

One time I attended several sessions of a Catholic Bible study group, don’t ask, and it was mostly fine but one time I got into an argument with someone who was utterly convinced that Christianity primarily functioned to make people more ethical, compassionate, etc, and that for any given horrible thing Christians had actually done somehow things would be even worse if Christianity had never existed. And I just…well, fuck, I mean I can get that if you’re a member of a religion and it’s part of your identity and all, you really want to think of your identity-thing as being basically good, so it was hard to argue against it without feeling like I was kicking a puppy. And yet.

And yet, not arguing would feel like going “oh yeah, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms, European colonization of more or less everywhere else, residential schools, baby snatching…yeah all that was (is) no big deal.” And in fact, “sure, forced conversion is fine, after all Christianity is a better religion than any other!”

I just…the thing with Christianity is the idea that Christianity is better than other religions is fairly intrinsic to Christianity, it’s hard to be Christian and not believe that on some level. And the horrors that that belief justifies…

#christian critical

[idolomantises]

i'll be real, i always hated it whenever media tries to "critique" Christianity while portraying all Christians as bigoted, misogynistic and irredeemable. its why it matters a lot to me that my own angels have some nuances to them.

Sera is very puritanical and obsessed with showing her devotion to God, but she's still a caring and well-meaning angel.

#txt #and i dont like how people get weirdly uppity about this #'oh youre saying i cant criticize christianity even though christians--' christians literally colonized my country im not saying #you cant critique them. im saying that is flat out childish to depict all christians as immoral and irredeemable in your attempt at critiqu #an angel wouldn't be anti redemption. a lot of christians are feminist and queer friendly. you have to understand the nuances #before you attempt to critique them this like. basic writing. #a really good example of this is moral orel which is a show i adore.

[frankensteins-mt-dew]

just imagining aabria pulling up to Christians place like "get in loser, we're going to resurrect your robit partner"

#critical role #aabria iyengar #christian navarro #cr spoilers #Deanna critical role #FRIDA critical role

[laurasbailey]

Campaign 3 guests pushing the Imodna agenda

#critteredit #criticalroleedit #imodna #imogen temult #laudna #laura bailey #marisha ray #aabria iyengar #erika ishii #utkarsh ambudkar #christian navarro #critical role #c3 #~ #they all understood the assignment! #1k

[sea-buns]

christian in chat representing critters everywhere lmao?

#im just idly glancing at chat watching the clock #wonder if aabria is suffering with us tonight too #critical role #cr spoilers #cr lb #c3e91 #christian navarro