#cw religion and cults

[bunnysuitconman]

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf #glitchtrap #tiktok #self insert #cw religion and cults #please remember preisttrap does not make sense

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 171

Danny would like everyone to know it was a complete accident. Look, normally he was really good at not altering the timeline! He was! 

But the dude was definitely not in the right Time, and he had to get his trust which took so long, like damn he thought he had anxiety. Seriously though, kevlar in the 1700s? Yeah that wasn’t right, and Peepaw always complained about the messes that the speedsters caused, so he was trying to prevent a mess by tugging the dude away and helping him out. 

Falling in love maybe a little, was not in the plan. But honestly the man had a worse sense of self preservation than he did as a teen and was also straight up adorable, in a wet cat  who could kill you sort of way. 

So maybe he helped the dude grab a child that was going to be drowned. It wasn’t like anyone else saw them! Even if similar situations might’ve happened a few different times. 

Still, no one saw them! 

So why is there now a small cult who worships the Shadowed one and Radiant one, aka his companion (who would not give his name save for B, which, fair, probably didn’t want to accidentally wreck the timeline either) and well, him?! At least they worship them as guardians of children, but uh. Should he maybe, perhaps, fix this…? 

#dcxdp #dpxdc #prompts #Spirit Halloween #Danny is in fact an Adult in this #He helps CW out with time stuff & getting stuff that fell through natural portals back to the Zone #Does Danny ever mention his affection for Bruce during their travels together? No. #Was it obvious to literally everyone else who was not Bruce? Yes #Danny is inwardly dying while learning about the cult he accidentally made because they decided that the Radiant One & Shadowed One are lov #Tim has a way easier time proving Bruce is in the past when he stumbles across one of the organization’s meetings #The cult-isn’t-exactly-a-cult and more like a minor religion focusing on the protection of children #Bruce is going to have a headache when he gets back to modern day #Hey he at least still has that cloak of shadows that his travelling companion (Call me D then.) gave him to help hide his not time appropri #League: Batman is dead #RR barging in: Batman is alive & in the past & definitely met some sort of higher being or spirit or something #League: Who the fuck are you-

[rununcal]

Honestly I did not know it was Trans Visibility Day but now that I do know, I made something for the occasion! I heart this insane middle-aged guy and headcannon his trans-ness as basically just an evil and fucked up version of his previous male identity. He’s a guy but goopy and scary now.!!

(Image ID: Ink Sammy Lawrence stands over the corpse of human Sammy Lawrence. His human form is laying in a lake of black ink with various compositions scattered around him. His hair is unkept and falls into the pools. His ink form seems to have emerged from this human corpse, and stands confidently with his hands crossed as if in a coffin. His mask is tilted to the side of his head and he grins a large toothy smile. Behind him is a dripping trans flag in the shape of Bendy, and behind that is a small room with the shadows of outstretched hands all over the wooden walls. End ID.)

Very unorganized rang about how he relates to gender identity (cause I thought it would be fun) under the cut!

SAMMY LAWRENCE GENDER RANT WEE

This artwork is related to Sammy and whatever I headcannon his identity to be, yes, but it is also related to me! Sammy’s definitely one of the guys that falls under the gender umbrella for me, and so I’m using him here as a sort of expression of how I feel about my own transness. A big part of my identity is body horror and metamorphosis. What is horrific to most is still horrific, but also beautiful, to me. I would love nothing better than to literally crawl out of my own skin sometimes and live life as some freaky creature. I don’t really understand it, with me just beginning my journey and all, but I can’t deny it permeates a lot of my dreams and ambitions.

Sammy reflects a lot of that for me, as you could probably figure out. I know he hates his body in cannon, but to me it just feels so much more logical that he’d love his new body as it was given to him by Bendy himself.

Keeping that change in-mind, and also keeping in mind the undertones I’m giving him, I really like how his change into his new identity is handled. It’s no smooth sailing. I mean, he gains the new identity by hitting bedrock and going insane. But somehow, it leads him to a place filled with more fervor for life than before. Despite how low a place he’s in now, he has never felt more alive. (I’m not trying to romanticize this type of sadness by the way, I just mean that a big realization about my identity came in a dark time). I think that relates to a lot of feelings I have personally about my identity, though I cannot say for others. I just think it’s real neat.

Anyways, rant over. I just wanted to try and get my thoughts out on paper besides just saying that he’s gender. Ty for reading!

#body horror #tw body horror #rununcart #cw body horror #gore #cw gore #tw gore #corpse #cw corpse #cw religion #cw cults #tw cults #tw religion #tw corpse #sammy lawrence #batim fanart #batim #bendy and the ink machine #batim sammy #trans visibility #uhm #gender

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

“Four disappearances, all students from the same college... and the police found nothing. Perhaps we should go undercover...”

@onabikaa sent me a message asking for more stuff on my “cult in a boarding school” idea! I was considering making a full post for it and your ask finally pushed me over to do it.

Story details under the Read More! This is already a long post. There’s some pretty dark themes so please let me know if you wish me to tag anything, cw for mentions of death, religion and cults:

This is one of the first cases Chang helps out with since coming over to Belgium. Four students from the same Catholic boy’s college go missing and the police are seemingly reluctant to investigate. They enrol into the school under false names to go undercover. Haddock has a lot of fun mocking the weird upper class culture that looked down upon him before he became wealthy, posing as their aristocratic father.

Tintin initially finds it easy to blend in, as this school is very similar to the one he attended as a child. However, these similarities start bringing back some deep childhood and religious traumas, which he first tries to push aside to focus on the case.

Chang immediately stands out, being one of the only non white students. He is quickly targeted. Tintin stands up for him, quickly leading to the school separating them. 

The school tries to drive a wedge between them. Despite the school’s efforts they manage to meet at night, exchanging new information and making plans. With Chang’s encouragement, Tintin starts to open up about his own school trauma and touches on his past. 

Chang later discovers documents detailing sales of precious metals - he is caught and captured by some students, who are all secretly a part of a cult. The cult is headed by the school administration who are exploiting their labour to mine metals in the deposits that were discovered around the school grounds.

I had the idea that the cult is broken up through empathy and compassion, leading to the surviving boys working together to escape the underground mine and reporting the school administration. I wanted to explore stuff like power structures and how they are maintained - basically I was thinking this would be a situation Tintin can’t punch his way out of, and a way to showcase Chang’s strengths as a character.

#tintin #Adventures of Tintin #animation #2d animation #Chang #milou #snowy #captain haddock #archibald haddock #gif #gifset #school #boarding school #religion cw #cult cw #st benezet's basement #i went insane making this i hate perspective #my stories

[victoriadallonfan]

I don't agree with a lot of Sanderson's politics - and they aren't, in fact, based in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints doctrine, but rather Utah culture - but it also makes me pretty uncomfortable to hear you badmouthing the church I'm part of?

I badmouth religious organizations in general, Catholic Church included (in which I was raised) because they tend to be overwhelmingly corrupt and abusive towards their own church members (and especially towards people outside of them)

Mormonism in particular is especially bad for how being part of the church requires “tithings” from paychecks plus their treatment of women, minorities, and even men in ways that are almost so explicitly manipulative and cultish that it feels like it comes out of parody.

(For example, I simply declared, “I am no longer catholic” and that was it. Done. You cannot generally do the same in LDS without incredible backlash and slander by its members)

And it’s very obvious when it shows up in fictional books by a lot of Mormon writers, because it’s so conservative that it’s a step or two behind the times.

It’s not as bad as Westeros Westboro Baptist Church or Scientology, but that’s not a high bar to clear.

If your time in the church was different, I’m happy for you, because it means you likely avoided the worst parts of their abuse.

Still, if you have the time, I’d suggest watching these videos (in no particular order):

Why I Left Mormonism - Video covering the creation of the channel “Cults to Consciousness” and her abusive home life under the church

The BITE Model - Simple PowerPoint explaining the reoccurring factors of cults

Ex-Mormon Cast Reacts to Mormon Debates -Cast of ex-Mormon members react to a Mormon debate and highlight various lies and falsehoods presented, as well talk about teachings/history Mormon Church does not want revealed publicly

How the Mormon Church ‘Help Line’ Hid Child Abuse - Exactly what it says. Survivors speak out and the church has done nothing for them or worse.

If you don’t want to watch these videos, if you can’t stomach the testimonies, ask yourself and others these questions:

- How often are you allowed to preach about Heavenly Mother?

- How often do you see women in power within the church, as in, deciding doctrine and not just playing piano or making food for the men?

- How often do you see minorities in power within the church, as in, deciding doctrine or being treated as a token?

- How often does your church talk about the incredibly high suicide rates for children and how it’s associated with its practices?

- How come when a racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic etc Prophet speaks its “the word of God” and doctrine, but then another Prophet can simply claim it was mere “policy”. Was ‘God’ lying to the prophets? Were the prophets lying about God? How can you trust what is their words and what is God?

- How come the church hid $30 Billion dollars from the public and even its own lower members?

- How come the founder lied about what was on the Egyptian papyrus, claiming it was a translation from God, but people who can actually read Egyptian pointed out he was lying?

- How come you get treated differently for asking these supposedly easy to answer questions?

I do not go after Brandon or you because you happen to be religious. I think belief in a higher power is one’s own choice and prerogative.

I instead care far more about the religious system that is using well-intended people like pawns for goals that pretty much boil down to money and power.

#rant #religion #cw: religious trauma #religious trauma #mormonism #Mormon #church of latter day saints #lds church #cults to consciousness #ex mormon #ex Mormon podcast #brandon sanderson #utah

[condemnhim]

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I was legitimately raised in a fucking cult. Baptisms for the dead? Secret rituals done in specially set apart grounds to unite families for eternity? Forcing children to make a decision that will impact the rest of their lives when they're eight years old and indoctrinated? What the fuck even was that?

#exmo #exmormon #ex mormon #ex lds #religion cw #religious trauma #ex cult #that shit is wack #condemnhim rambles

[ink-incorporated-official]

why is sammy not well liked? he's so silly billy!! look at his big ol anime eyes!

You haven’t met him

- Allison

#bbib #bendy back in business #bendy au #sammy lawrence #batim au #henry stein #searchers #cw religion #cw cults #religion #tw religion #panel

[robo-milky]

[Context for Reverend Rook]

Ended up turning this into a lighthearted meme but damn- the brainrot hitting hard… My headache suddenly stopped after I finished this, so I think it’s a miracle???

Either way— to that one niche community of Reverend or Nun! Rook enjoyers— ily and me too <3

#think I might change up cult leader! rook’s design #twisted wonderland #twst #cat scribblez 🌸 #rook hunt #twst rook #cw religious imagery #cw religious mention #cw religious themes #cw religion #tw religious mention #tw religious themes #tw religious imagery #tw religion #cw christianity #tw christianity #twst meme #twst memes #twst art #twisted wonderland art #ルーク・ハント

[bendysinitiation]

Dude your au seems very cool! Tell me more about your chapter 4, you write homoherotic tension, so you must elaborate!

Completely fair

Of course, all this is subject to change, but for now, Chapter Four is literally “darkest hour” where Henry is dropped into the darkest part of the studio. This unfathomably large place hosts, among other things, a cult run by Mr. Prophet himself!

The entirety of this chapter is trying not to get brutally murdered and sacrificed to the ink demon, as well as a lore dump. Henry is in constant surveillance, so it is important to be sneaky.

Sammy gets an upgrade in this chapter, as you could probably guess. He’s now officially 7 feet tall and has taken and covered himself in countless of his followers’ bones. His role is the same as his role in normal Chapter 2 (to sacrifice Henry), but just in a bit of a different place, and he’s much more threatening.

Besides that, he has much more screen time whether you decide to talk with him or not: As said before, you have to sneak around, and one of the people that can find you is Sammy, which leads to an instant game over.

As for the homoerotic tension, that’s mostly because he wants your blood and has even more time to wax poetic about his lord and savior in your face.

#bendy au #batim #ootim #out of the ink machine #body horror #cw body horror #tw body horror #sammy lawrence #Henry stein #info dump #batim au #cult mention #cw cults #religion #cw religion #image description in alt #image description

[amaribelt]

malleus draconia and the pipe organ and why i love it

so. this is going to be a long post and thats because i have to basically tell you the entire history of the pipe organ and how this relates to malleus 'very scary' draconia. i am extreamly sorry but their will be a summary at the end if you just dont care but it would mean alot if you listen to this ramble of mine

CW: lots of mentions of religion churches and cathedrals one cult mention and some book 7 spoilers

-PART ONE TOCCATA AND FUGE IN D MINOR

Pipe organs are everywhere, from weddings and baseball games but one of the most common places to hear an organ is horror movie scoring, from youtube videos of creepy organ music to its first use in a movie doctor jeckle and mr hyde and other arrangements in things like phantom of the opera pipe organs have almost become one with fear dread and horror witch is quite odd with its religious connotations that we will get to in a second.

the pipe organ originated from greece its earliest predecessors are from the 3RD CENTURY BC, these things are quite quite old and required a lot of man power to play before technology. a pipe organ is a piano on steroids it has a bunch of connecting pipes and all of these pipes have different stuff in them to give it a variation of sound sometimes their are reeds like in woodwind instruments and sometimes their are those cut outs from things on recorders. whenever an organist plays a key wind goes through the pipes to make a sound, back in the day air was supplied though enslaved people but now we have electric moters attached to our pipe organs but because of how big pipe organs are it would take many people to get all the air needed to play these things, the Winchester cathedral organ took 2 people to play it and 70 men to blow air into it and the sound from said organ can be heard from throughout the city.

pipe organs are not small and dainty these are MASSIVE instruments that construction has to bend around to make space for all of the organs equipment their are rooms whose sole purpious is for the function and upkeep, organs are an absolute monster of an instrument not only in volume but in the sound they make some of these tones cant be picked up by *human ears* the atlantic city convention hall has a pipe that is 64 feet (19.5072 meters) and that is FOUR AND A HALF STORIES TALL.

-PART 2 BACH, CHURCHES AND HOW ORGANS WORK

not only are these things massive their are petals on the bottom that organists have to PLAY their is music solely for the foot keys their are 3 rows of manuals (keys) and stops (things you pull out to control a selection of pipes and thats where 'pulling out all the stops' came from you are going to 100 percent) and so their is a lot of skill that goes into playing an organ. so unless your like an octopus and have 8 arms or your just insane (just kidding i love you organists) playing the organ was hard

NOW THIS IS WHERE BACH COMES IN, basically one day bach watches into a church with their organ takes a prewritten melody and improvise an 8 part harmony so for non music nerds he went up to an organ started playing the pre written music and off the TOP OF HIS HEAD created 7 other melodies that he had to play with both his HANDS AND FEET. and you wanna know why this is so damn cool, it was almost impossible for organists to practice as theirs nothing that sounds quite like an organ and pianos werent invented yet so if you wanted to practice your organ playing then you were going to need a team of people just to get the air to play and then your scales are going to be heard by everyone in the town. so anyone who could play the organ were hyper privlaged music genius types, because no one would hear them practice on an organ let alone a harpsichord they just show up one day and start playing. thats the kind of person an organist is

those glorified harmonicas that were portable organs werent what people were playing on they would be playing on the organs that were so big they had to be built around by architechs, this is where the church comes in. the fact that you couldnt move them made them great for churches cathedrals and religious establishments and because of how big these were churches were the only ones with the money to fund these organs. theirs a phycology behind it too because these instruments are so big so powerful that the only person that could fulle these endeavors are god himself. so if you could play the organ you were some loner freak of nature who is one of the only people who could handle this machine

-PART 3 JECKLE HYDE AND JESUS

sooo way back at the top i mentioned its first use in jeckle and hyde were picking up that thread again because this is where this comes into play, so in the opening credits of the movie they played toccata and fuege in D minor. (the song i linked in the very top) but following that we get a scene of jeckle playing another peice by Bach  Ich ruf zu dir Herr Jesu Christ (i call to you lord jesus christ) Herr Jesu Christ is originally in F minor but they transposed it to be in the same key as tocatta and feuge they did this not only to show they put thought and care into how these two peices would sound back to back on screen but they did it as musical shorthand

they are using a religious peice of music and instrument to show what kind of character this is, these are gigantic powerful pieces of instruments with heavy religious connotations, i swear we are getting malleus i just need to keep explaining a little more just keep this all in your mind and compare it to what we know about malleus and what other people VIEW the being that is malleus draconia. 3 years after the film jeckle and hyde we get toccata and fuege in another horror movie the black cat, this time played on an actual organ this movie follows a cult leader who plays an organ notably the track that is now associated with villainous characters due to its use in jeckle and hyde. throughout the black cat we hear other organ pieces throughout the film we are no longer looking at religious organ music in the pure and fluffy way it was originally used in churches now we are hearing a sick and twisted use of the organ being used to celebrate satanic cults all of the religious imagery has been corrupted it has had a quite literal fall from grace.

in carnival of souls our main character is in a sort of purgatory and throughout the film she plays guess what an organ for the church. over time shes not able to keep up with the holy and religious music the church expects her to play as her playing goes into something erie and haunting that upsets the minister, as she looses her connection to the living world she cant play the religious music on the organ and thats haunting to the people around her. it isnt the organ thats scary but whos playing it. this man has channeled the power of god in the power of his own home to play this holy instrument and because of the nature of the organ organists have to spend lots of time alone and praticing multiples times a week so they dont sound awful think of this with a religious background all of the power of a god but not pure intentions

-PART 4 MALLEUS DRACONIA

ohh boy we finally made it to malleus draconia this essay of a tumblr post is quite latterly lagging down my laptop but i have a LOT to say. i feel like a lot of people misinterpret malleus as a character due to the fact that hes been a shadow looming over us in the main story although its implied that the character Yuu knows malleus on a much deeper and its implied they spend lots of time together its important to know that we as the audience and the reader dont get to see that, we are purposely being withheld information about him and that adds to the ominous aura he gives off to not only students in NRC but also us as the viewer, we *know* theirs a different side to malleus that we can see in vignettes but thats only a sneak piece into the multilayered cake that is malleus draconia.

somewhere it was revealed that malleus' threateneing aura was a blessing and i dont remember where i saw it but i swear i saw it on a chapter 7 translation so if anyone knows what im talking about please let me know, because of this he has been 'cursed' to be feared by all humans and respected by all fae to the point they treat him and anyone in the draconia family as a GOD. (see heres that religious mention again) i don't want to say malleus has a god or superiority complex but the people around him certainly do see him as superior due to his family heritage and the fact that hes one of the top 5 mages at such a 'young' age (for fae standards) and due to his magical status and what his family has done for the biar valley other are not only put off by him he has that intimidating aura curse thing that makes other people who arent fae put off and avoid him. something that was ment as a blessing has only caused more sorrow for malleus as people isolate him, he has so few opprotunities to have a social life.

its heavily implied (i swear it said it somewhere im just tierd its 11:55 at night as of writing) that music is an important part of fae culture, lilia has a tallent for multiple instuments and can supposedly sooth crying infants. malleus' humming is overlayed durring his spell when he overblots and in lilias dream we hear his mom singing so its all heavily implied that music is important to fae in twisted wonderland just like it is in our real life folklore.

we see malleus play the organ at the end of the endless halloween event and although theirs one line that suggest that malleus has a bit of trouble not everyone is able to improv on an organ like bach did, we still see him play in the twistune although we dont hear it but its implied that malleus can play the organ(we hear like one bit of the opening but we dont hear it during the song but the like 3 seconds are good so)

it makes perfect sense for malleus to play the organ its an instrument that requires alot of isolation and dedication to master lest you have the whole city know you cant play, the godfearing loyalty of fae in the briar valley who treat the draconia family like gods and the humans so afraid of them they avoid them like the plague. the religious connotations of the organ with the twisting of that religious imagery all line up so well with malleus draconia as a character. the twisting of a once holy instrument into something horrid and demonic just fits with malleus so well i wish it was all intentional but i know im giving too much credit where its not due as this is just the unhindged hyper fixated ramblings of a teenager.

-TLDR </333

the pipe organ has lot of religious connotations and has often flipped those one its head to give a spookey vibe in horror movies witch is why pipe organs have become a holy wood go to for a evil character. these instruments are so expensive and require to much work to put into them characters associated are offten high class and loners preferring to keep to themselves, sometimes their is a religious aspect to the character and that correlates with their playing of the organ. malleus draconia is viewed by many as a god has a terrifying aura to him and is prown to isolation by his peers.

giving the twst devs to much credit is the name of my game as i see too much symbolism in things where theirs not

thank you for reading especially if you read all of it i love you alot<333333333333333333333333333333333333333

#cw religion #cw religious themes #cw religious imagery #tw religion #twst book 7 #book 7 spoilers #malleus draconia #musical instruments #disney twst #twisted wonderland #twst analysis #malleus draconia analysis #CEO of giving to much credit where its not due #tw cult #cw cults #Youtube #amari analysis

[nepentheisms]

Trigun Bookclub: Some Very Long-Winded Final Thoughts (for now)

So what's my takeaway after all this discussion about the allusions to religious concepts and narratives in Trigun? What conclusions does the story draw about faith? And are there any theological ramifications to its message?

From my perspective, the belief system Trigun promotes is a broadly defined humanism that isn't bound by any religious tradition. Declarations of faith in this story are more often directed at individual people or humanity as a whole than toward a god or metaphysical concept. Trigun says that the purest and most fundamental faith is our belief in one another and in our collective capacity for good, and the specifics of any one person's faith are worth pursuing so long as it keeps them in the business of living and engaging compassionately with other sentient beings.

In Trigun's larger thesis on faith, there's also a notable emphasis on the drive for continued life and hope for a future that can be built in the present world as opposed to glorifying death in the service of grandiose ideals, especially if those ideals center on seeing the world as irredeemable and in need of destruction. And it's through this message of continued striving in the here and now that I think Trigun brings up its own point of contention against a particular theological perspective. What we have in Trigun is a firm rejection of apocalypticism.

According to the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, apocalypticism is the "belief in the impending or possible destruction of the world itself or physical global catastrophe, and/or the destruction or radical transformation of the existing social, political, or religious order of human society—often referred to as the apocalypse." In Christianity, this perspective is clearly seen in futurist interpretations of the book of Revelation (the Greek root word for apocalypse - apokalypsis, means revelation or unveiling). This eschatological approach treats the text as a prophetic outline of the end of the world in which God brings judgment through a series of cataclysms and then secures an everlasting paradise for the faithful.

Revelation 21:1-4 (NRSV):

(1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (2) And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them: they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; (4) he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

As we all know, Knives loves to position himself as a bringer of divine judgment in the same vein as the Abrahamic God.

To Knives, humans are a source of evil that have to be purged from his world; salvation for his chosen people (plants - the higher beings) can only come through mass death. The realization of Knives' apocalypse is doomsday for humankind. No surprise then that in his followers (some of whom revere him like a deity), we see the sentiments of a doomsday cult. To Legato, service to the supreme being is his sole purpose in life; if Knives commands him to die, then he'll die gladly. For Elendira, the most glorious service to the supreme being is to facilitate his vision for the end of the world, and she wants nothing more than to see it happen. And in Chapel, we see the cruelty and cynicism promoted by the apocalyptic mindset: If the end is inevitable, then all efforts to protect what we have in this world are futile, so what value is there in choosing to be merciful?

The immense harm dealt by real religious groups that hold similar beliefs to these is difficult to overstate. So long as any atrocity in the temporal world can be justified when committed in deference to what are taught to be higher spiritual principles, there are no ethical boundaries these groups won't transgress. Japanese society in recent history has, in fact, had significant experiences with violent apocalyptic fanaticism. The most well-known of these occurred on March 20, 1995, in which the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo carried out its deadly sarin gas attack in the Tokyo Metro subway system. An act of religious terrorism left many dead and thousands injured, all because some people were convinced the world was ending, and it was to their benefit and everyone else's benefit if they could make it end faster.

The doctrine of Aum Shinrikyo was a mishmash of Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian concepts, and Christian eschatological views on Armageddon were especially influential to cult leader Shoko Asahara's prophecies in the time leading up to the attack. Common threads in books of the Christian Bible with apocalyptic elements include emphasis on the corrupting nature of the present world and promises of eternal unity with God after a final war in which Christ emerges victorious against all evil. These ideas are also disconcertingly influential in mainstream American Evangelical Protestant Christianity. Even in the most nonviolent Christians who would never dream of associating with extremists, it's not hard to find an underlying cynicism and detachment with regard to living life in the present. There's the notion that the world is fundamentally broken and sinful, and believers should look forward to God's destruction and remaking of it, because perfect happiness can only come in the thereafter.

1 John 2:15-17 (NRSV):

(15) Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world, (16) for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. (17) And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God abide forever.

From such a perspective, hope is primarily oriented toward some indefinite point in the future that will come to pass via the eradication of every imperfection that marks the present. What happens in the story of Trigun, however, is an overturning of the apocalyptic narrative. The climax of Trigun Maximum invokes the fantastical imagery of Revelation, creating the impression of a stage set for the definitive final battle between the embodiments of good and evil, but then the story pushes back against the narrative conventions of apocalypticism. There is no end of days, no destruction and re-creation of the world, because it was averted by radical human hope for compassionate understanding in the here and now. And there is no ultimate triumph of Good over Evil in which Satan is cast into the lake of fire. In fact, there may not even be a "Satan" in this story at all.

When Knives collects his sisters into an amalgamated body, his form and theirs take on a draconic appearance, bringing to mind the red dragon of Revelation (that is, Satan). In Knives' own mind, however, he's God pouring out his divine wrath on the humans who've sinned against him, and there are angelic elements to his design as well to reflect this. Ultimately, his form doesn't hold. Vash and his human allies manage a breakthrough in communicating with the collective body of dependent plants, and when Knives is cast to the earth (in another departure from Revelation, this doesn't occur as the outcome of heavenly forces battling against him), he faces Vash one last time as just a man - Vash's brother who's lashing out because he never processed his extreme childhood trauma. Because maybe in the end these forces of absolute good and absolute evil don't exist; maybe our willingness to imagine God and the Devil was always the product of our own messy, conflicted humanity in all its potential for good and evil.

The resolution, then, happens not through one brother killing the other, but through connection and understanding, a little push toward a kinder existence for everyone. Knives ends up having to place his trust in the very humans he hated in order to save his brother's life, and his faith is rewarded. For Vash and the rest of humanity, life goes on; it goes on in an imperfect present, but it's a present where there's plenty of joy to be found nonetheless. So the story closes out under a bright blue sky with the assurance that the song of humanity still sang. There's no looming threat of doomsday, just a path forward toward more life.

#trigunbookclub #trigun #trigun maximum #ow my brain I need a break from writing #trigun meta #Guns&God meta #religion mention #christianity mention #cults cw #terrorism cw #long post

[sammylux]

someone who cares...!

#my art #illustration #biskup ♡ arlo's oc ♡ #dark fantasy #horror art #cws: #religion #cult

[amethystsoda]

my parents are talking about “prophecies are being fulfilled” and it’s giving me so much end times prepper anxiety 😭

#my mom was HAPPY WEEPY. saying it’s happening with this astonished voice #i suffered through enough rapture propaganda as a kid #thr zi0nist evang3lical conserv4tive beliefs are like celebrating that they quote might take the temple back bc of end times prophecy #they want an antichrist soooooo bad they’re like desesperate for it #i hate this. so much. #i hate that the fear is still hardwired into me #religion cw #rapture cult

[fictionkinfessions]

lowkey missin' the cult i mean church .

i said church .

d

#cults cw #religion cw #mod party cat #fictionkinfessions #fictionkin

[brainwashboy]

Sex cult in practice 👎👎👎👎🍅🍅🍅👎👎

Sex cult in theory or kinky roleplay: 😍🥰🫦❤️‍🩹🫀💕💓🩷❤️👀👀👀👅❤️‍🔥💋💋💋♥️❣️❤️‍🩹💕💓💗🩷🩷🩷🩷

#heirophilia #puppy borks! #tw cult #tw religious themes #tw religious trauma #tw religion #tw religious imagery #cw cults #cw religion #cw religious imagery #cw religious themes #cw religious trauma #yes i know i tag cw and tw a lot but better safe than sorry 🫶

[theoneandonlythorn]

quick TW before we begin for religious trauma, homophobia from church leaders and swearing.

Ugh......

So, I was raised Mormon; my family's been in the "religion" for generations. (Tracing back to the main man, Joseph Smith, himself) I'm also demifluid and most certainly not straight.

When I came out to my church leader, he...wasn't very happy. TL;DR, I'm banned from the religion's holy place, my job in the church ward and basically banned from church altogether. My mom was there during the whole shitshow and she agreed that I didn't have to go to church if I didn't want to.

Of course I didn't wanna go back!! Who would??? My family and I moved last week, meaning hooray, a ~new church congregation~ The people are...nice. I guess. They could always be worse, after all. But I've been hurt an ungodsly amount of times. I've begged my mom to not make me go to church, but she said "I should give it a try."

I've been trying for YEARS. Fucking years. When you're a kid, you're told you'll feel a "warm fuzzy feeling" when the "spirit" is near. I never felt that. I've never had a moment of "spiritual revelation", but believe me, I've fucking tried.

I have autism, so I've always been literal. If I can see something, I'll believe it. Baby Thorne always thought that one day when the world is ending, I'd feel it and have a huge "Oh my gods, heaven is real!" (Side note, the idea of the "Second Coming" always gave me so much anxiety as a kid. Like, from an early age you're told that the world is ending at some point in your life because it's "the eNd TiMeS!")

Anyway, I have an awesome therapist who's helping me with gender dysphoria and also good old ~religious trauma~ When you're growing up, you're told that church is the most wonderful place ever and you'll never be hurt. Ha ha ha.

no.

I was bullied at church by all the other kids from the ages of eleven to thirteen-fourteen. As you can imagine, that kind of fucks you up.

My therapist gave me a pass from church on the basis that "If I had a spiritual experience, I'd probably have a complete breakdown due to cognitive dissonance."

...but according to my mom, she knows better. I've begged my mom to stop forcing me to church, but no luck. I need to ask him (my therapist) if he'll tell my mom that I really truly shouldn't go to church.

So, long story short, does anyone know how to get excommunicated from the Mormon church? (Personally, I don't want to murder someone in order to get out of this shitty cult, but most other ideas are free game)

The rest of my family is in this church (cult, more like), so telling my siblings that I've lost my faith (never had it in the first place) is kind of out of the question.

#cw mormonism #cw religion #cw religious themes #cw religious homophobia #any help is appreciated #mormonism #any idea how to get banned from church? #thornerambles #mormon cult #lds church #ex mormon #ex lds