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mikkeneko · 1 year

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I decided to make this its own post for two reasons: one, I didn't want to derail a post that is about Judaism with a discussion of a different faith and two, it was really only one of several posts I've seen recently that stuck out to me as being "man, this is way off-base."

This is not so much about "people are saying mean things about this religion and it hurts my feelings!" but it is definitely about "people are making statements that represent a wildly skewed and inaccurate picture of the reality, and I can't tell whether they're being hyperbolic on purpose or think they're genuinely telling the truth." This is not a question of whether any given church is good or bad; this is a question of whether there is or can be a distinct entity that serves as a single unified church or faith in American Christian tradition (spoiler: No.)

Here's the basic message: Any discussion of "the Christian god" or "the Christian faith" or "American Christianity" needs to be taken with a big honking asterisk that there is no single portrayal of God, or Christianity, or spirituality and faith that conveys accurate information about the entire breadth of American Christianity.

There is no single American Christian Church. None. The single biggest branch of American Christianity, Southern Evangelical Baptist, makes up at its broadest 30% of all American Christians (12% of the overall population.) The rest are split between Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Adventist, Congregationalist, and a dozen other even tinier branches, before you even get into the more far-out variants that people have ongoing arguments as to whether they even really count as "Christian." (LDS, Unitarians, and possibly Mennonites fall into this category.) Most of the major branches share a lot of common ground, but there's an enormous amount of variation -- they disagree widely on concepts such as the existence or nonexistence of Hell; the mechanics of conversion or salvation; the requirements of baptism or confirmation; whether prostylezation is required, encouraged or even permitted; what kind of sexualities are or are not accepted; God as an active or non-active role in the world; how 'sin' works or if it's even a thing; the existence or not of saints; the divinity or not of Christ; or even the idea of an anthropomorphic God at all. Some are progressive, some are fundamentalist, some are fundamentalist in ways that are completely at odds with the popular perception of what those fundaments are. I personally know one Methodist pastor who also believes and teaches about God as a "oneness of the universe" and have met others who conceive of God as "that which spans the space between the limits of our understanding and the limits of our universe." You cannot categorically state that all American Christians share a common notion on any of these topics.

Other statements I've seen recently that just made me go "what? no?"

That the USA was founded by religious extremists and That's Why America is Like That. Only one or two of the original settlements were founded for this purpose. Some were founded with an explicit purpose of total freedom of (or from) religion; others were entrepreneurial ventures with nothing to say on the topic of religion at all. When the guiding documents of the American state were put together the clause of freedom of religion was included front and center precisely because they didn't want religious extremists to be steering the ship.

That the majority of USAmericans are in cults and don't even realize they're in cults. This requires both an extremely broad definition of “cult” (to encompass pretty much any branch of Christianity, not only the more extremely evangelical ones) and severely over-estimates how many people in the US are practicing Christians (less than half.)

That the "Christian God" is intended to function as a "Great Uniter" into which other faiths can be folded; This is not a Protestant thing. Most Protestant faiths are not syncretic to the degree Catholicism is (or at all,) since there wasn't a motivating political entity backing their creeds to make them so. Again: Not all branches of American Protestantism require, encourage, or even permit prostylezation.

On that note: Not all Christians are Catholic. This isn't news, right? People know this, right? This is one of those things that I always assumed was very common knowledge, and was very surprised to run into people who were not aware of this (who either think that all Christians or Catholic, or else that Catholics are not Christian at all, depending on which side of the equation they're approaching from.) Protestant and Catholic Christianity are very very distinct entities both spiritually and politically, and in the USA, Catholic Christianity is a minority religion and is mostly (though not exclusively) practiced in minority demographic communities. Of 46 presidents so far only one has been Catholic, and a lot of the opposition to JFK's appointment was people being suspicious of his Catholicism since it was thought that his loyalty to the Church might supersede his loyalty to the US. American Christianity is mostly Protestant, not Catholic, and Protestant Christianity does not function at all the way Catholicism does. We had a whole Reformation about this. Any take that refers to "The Church" in America as a single united entity that dictates theology to its outreaching branches is... off-base.

What certainly is true is that a number of individual churches in the US have organized around the aim of consolidating social and political power, have worked at advancing their members to positions of power in order to protect and promote their interests, and thus are over-represented and have outsized influence on the political sphere. The ones that do this, as well as the ones that put emphasis on proselytizing and on money-making, tend to self-select for being the most visible and infamous because their business model is expansive by nature. That's certainly the case for the SEB in the American South, or the LDS in Utah. I really get the feeling when people use these broad terms that they are thinking either of the SEB (again, not even a majority among American Protestants!) or of the Catholic church (even less so!) But not only do not all Americans agree with those beliefs, they don't even agree with each other.

#politics shitshow 2023 #christianity #american christianity

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catholic-character-tournament · 10 months

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Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

firestar art by @kudossi

Propaganda below ⬇️

Firestar

NOTE: I have to note that Firestar is kitty Anglican NOT kitty Catholic

Kitty jesus, he believes in starclan which is the kitty version of heaven/god and yea. All the warrior cats characters except those outside the clans or those that are atheist believe in the kitty heaven and would irl be bri-ish and christian as hell so. The authors are all older british christian women and so the way starclan is written is like undoubtedly that.

The main religion in the series is extremely catholic coded. Most clan cats believe in Starclan and the Dark Forest(or heaven and hell). There is a set of rule they must uphold and follow, where following them leads to heaven and breaking them leads to hell. Their religious leaders are sworn to celibacy, and the punishments that "code breakers"(or cats who break the rules) face are extremely similar to situations people with religious trauma have gone through.

OP notes: apparently converted to avoid getting his balls cut?? Idk. The discord yet wild for firestar so I had to include him because it's hilarious hehehe

OP new notes: I have learned so much about warrior cats. Do yourself a favor and go down this tag and see the Firestar discourse.

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

Anti-propaganda (spoilers)

I love the Locked Tomb series but Harrowhark has daddy issues with God, had a childhood crush on God's cryogenic partner, and is in love with God's daughter, not to mention that she's essentially a bone-bender. The religion on her home planet exists in a way that is technically against the will of the canon in-universe God, even. All of this to say, Harrowhark is heretical at minimum if not an outright witch. Terrible Catholic. Burn her.

#harrowhawk #harrowhark nonasigmus #tlt #the locked tomb #cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #polls #r3 #firestar #warriors #warrior cats

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im-not-a-l0ser · 3 months

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I’ve seen a couple posts of yours pop up on my dash, and (absolutely no hate here) I’m getting the impression that you don’t really like Grace? Now, I am incredibly new to the Hatchetfield community (as in, I watched early Starkid, fell out of it because Darren Criss left, and am just now returning), so I’m not sure what all has happened in all multiverses.

With characters like Grace, maybe I tend to project a little bit of my old high school self onto them, because I used to exude an air of moral superiority since I was vocally and unapologetically Protestant in a classical Catholic school. I find ultra-religious characters interesting to play around with, especially in predominantly queer spaces like Starkid, since I was that ultra-religious kid (who is now vocally and unapologetically queer).

So, I guess what I mean to ask is: What is your opinion of Grace, and why? You seem to know a lot about this universe, so I’m hoping to grasp at the general attitude of this fandom towards women before I jump back in.

Oh, so you're... you're going to make it about gender then.

I actually had a whole thing typed up about why I don't like Grace and people's perception of her, but I suppose I'll just post it separately. Maybe I'll link back to this idk. Good base for a post I was already planning on making.

So here's the thing. I don't hate Grace because she's a woman, I hate Grace because she's a fucking psychotic bigot who people need to stop perceiving as something she's not.

I've gone on a whole rant already specifically about this. But there are spoilers in it, so if you haven't seen NPMD bc you're waiting to get a grasp on the vibe of the fandom, you shouldn't read it. Or you should at least watch NPMD first.

So, just a rundown. I hate Grace because she is hyper-religious and I have religious trauma. I hate that people don't see her religion as a core part of her identity, making her fundamentally for and against some things, but still joke about her being christian.

And, before someone get's at me about how I still like Mark. I really didn't, but Curt Mega posted this, which made him a much more complex character in my eyes. I'm sure he was joking, but Mark being gay and having a double life that causes him guilt in both directions is forever embedded in my head.

And sure, Grace is a complex character, she really is. But parts of the problem are 1, people don't pay much attention to her actual complexities, and 2, she's seriously psychotic. And that's not me being like 'women be crazy,' that's me watching the show and thinking... 'oh my god, she's fucking insane' at the end of act one, and at the end of Virginity Camp.

But Grace is really the only girl character in Hatchetfield that I dislike, especially so passionately. I like Emma and Steph and Becky, although Linda I'm not really a fan of actually. But y'know, another "she's a fundamentally bad person" thing there. I even like Ruth, who I initially didn't (I'm asexual and her whole thing made me really uncomfy watching it). Jeri's a weird case, but mainly because both her and Jerry are fucking stupid. Like... just get married! Just get married, you two have liked each other for over a decade, just get married!

So, if you want my attitude on women, there it is. I like good characters and I dislike bad characters. I dislike characters who are against things that I stand for, like being queer, and... idk, not starting cults.

#im probably gonna reblog with more so if there are notes maybe check #nerdy prudes must die #grace chasity #starkid #grace chastity #hatchetfeild #nightmare time #hatchetfield #idk how to spell it

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redditreceipts · 3 months

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as a preface, i’m a trans guy (ftm) so i don’t know much about the things that go on in the mtf side of things.

i just wanted to say i really appreciate that you are a radfem that acknowledges that dysphoria is real. it’s honestly been devastating that so many non-dysphoric “trans people” have decided that science doesn’t matter and that you can decide that you’re trans.

dysphoria is so painful, yet so many people think dressing up and being a permanent victim is fun and that “euphoria” is all that matters.

the “gender isn’t real” idea has turned so many against us. there’s no home/community for trans people like me. it’s taken over by people who decide you’re a cis bootlicker or some other insult of the week that makes them feel powerful over minorities with a medical condition.

i guess this is just my way of saying, even though we don’t agree on everything, i really appreciate your critical thinking and that you recognize that there really are regular people who just have a brain condition :’)

thank you!!! and yeah, you're super welcome here, even if you only agree with one percent of what I say.

I also really like listening to trans medicalist voices (for example, I really like Buck Angel - I agree with about 99 percent with what he's saying), more than anything because they seem to care about actually bringing forth arguments and logical explanations and not just affirming each other endlessly. Most transmeds also argue less about validation and identity, but try to find practical solutions to practical problems and try bringing society forwards, instead of just making everything about how they're the victim.

and the exact thing you are saying is why I hate Philosophy Tube so much. he (and yes, I'm going to use male pronouns, because he doesn't even try to pretend to be trans) made this entire fucking rant about how dysphoria is not real and about how cis people get dysphoria too etc.

and for the "you're just a bootlicker to [outgroup]"-argument - that's literally so stupid. it's just cult rhetoric. it's the exact same that the Catholic church responds to a Catholic saying that maybe we should allow abortions in certain cases.

but well, just know that you're welcome! even though this blog is not really a safe space, but is rather designed for catharsis, and if you're having a bad day, i recommend you rather look into something else haha

anyways, I wish you all the best! 💕

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tybaltsjuliet · 2 years

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must see horror movies?

the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920). the first cult film. the first horror film. the sets! the somnambulist! the cultural debts we owe this movie will never be repaid.

häxan (1922). a folk-horror fantasia. i've been thinking a lot lately about that teju cole quote about how fiction and nonfiction is not a natural way to split up narrative experiences, and this is a wonderful example of that.

frankenstein (1931). and, really, all of the universal horror movies. but to get your foot in the door at the monster mash, this one is the way to go.

the night of the hunter (1955). robert mitchum as the most sinister of ministers. you can argue that this isn't a horror film per se, but i'll argue harder. one of my favorite pieces of southern gothic, too.

(horror of) dracula (1958). the best of all dracula films and the place to begin with hammer horror. (the sequels get mad campy. but no less entertaining.)

psycho (1960). you don't need me to recommend psycho but i'm doing it anyway and i am doing it for anthony perkins, who deserved a goddamn oscar for this.

night of the living dead (1968). dawn and day are equally worthy for different reasons but nothing beats the locked-down nightmare that started it all.

ganja & hess (1973). this is the only gothic vampire romance that matters. like so much great horror (see: the night of the hunter, above), and especially great horror by marginalized creators, this was rightfully vindicated by history and yet still deserves to be vindicated harder.

the wicker man (1973). summerisle's got everything: christopher lee; bawdy folk songs; phallic maypoles; the battle between christian law and order and the old ways' rights and rites; A CHILD. if you've gotten this far in life without knowing the ending, go watch this immediately before that can change. not only the best folk horror movie of all time, but possibly one of the best movies of all time, period.

the texas chain saw massacre (1974). i didn't see this till 2020, somehow. i thought i was desensitized to whatever it might throw at me after spending my adolescence bragging about getting through a serbian film and thinking house of 1000 corpses was the funniest thing i ever saw. i was dead fucking wrong and i'm so glad i was. every now and then you come across a movie, new or new to you, that reminds you why you're so in love with a genre and revitalizes your passion for it. texas chain saw did that for me.

the omen (1976). my favorite religious horror movie of all time, even more so than the exorcist. also has what i personally consider the scariest scene in any horror movie (the graveyard sequence). gregory peck having been a lifelong devout catholic really adds a certain je ne sais quoi to his performance as the father.

halloween (1978). what is horror without the slasher, and what is the slasher without halloween? i really don't care about your freddys and your jasons. michael myers is where it's at.

hellraiser (1987). like texas chain saw, one of the classics that really puts the horror back in horror. a complete fucking nightmare from start to finish, and the cenobites aren't even the worst of it.

event horizon (1997). yes, see alien. yes, see annihilation. but don't neglect this (literal) hellscape of an outer space horror movie. it is neither glossy nor groundbreaking but it is deeply committed to being horrifying and it succeeds.

el laberinto del fauno (2006). nothing like a fairy tale about a princess of the underworld set against the backdrop of franco's spain to remind you that no one is doing the blending of fantastic horrors and very, very real horrors like guillermo del toro. not to mention that the creature designs in this movie are off the charts - the faun is the most beautiful being i have ever seen.

over the garden wall (2014). (not technically a movie but watched all together it's only about two hours and this is my list, so.) don't let the cutesy old-fashioned cartoon style and jaunty songs fool you. what starts off as charming, if unsettling, folksy quirkiness quickly gives way to another terrific fantasy horror. i watch this annually at halloween and it fucks me up every year.

last night in soho (2021). i hesitate to put something with a plot pretty much entirely revolving around rape and SA on a "must-see" list, but if that is subject matter you're not highly sensitive to, this is a terrific angle on the rape revenge horror movie. not as crass as the, uh, classics of the subgenre, but not defanged to the opposite end of offensiveness like a certain other blonde-led "revenge" movie i won't name. another one of my personal favorites.

#i suspect this is a very eccentric list but i hope it gives you some watchlist material anon!#;ask me your questions and get some answers.#;we have such sights to show you.

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leofrith · 1 year

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i am late but... din djarin for character asks? (i just want to know what fan takes are the worst asjksjks)

oh GODDDDDDDD never in my life have i wanted a character i love to get killed off so badly. jesus christ 💔

a song that reminds me of them: lonely feelings by love supreme

what they smell like: sweat and gunpowder. or whatever the star wars blaster equivalent of gunpowder is lmao

an otp: luke and omera!!! also boba is neat

a notp: i never want to see mayfeld on my screen ever again, love and light. also i've already talked about it but bo-katan could have been good if it had been executed with the bare minimum amount of care. but it wasn't. so when it inevitably happens in the finale this week i will not be coping.

favorite platonic/familial relationships: grogurt!!!! also the armorer and big brother paz. rip king gone too soon. also the din and ahsoka friendship that exists in my head. ❤️

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with: girl....... so many. the way a ton of people in this fandom reduce his character to some vaguely sexist, hypermasculine badass who is aggressive all the time for no reason is so irritating. the sheer amount of fics that portray him as some kind of daddy dom or spicy latin lover stereotype is gross and it makes me actually insane. at worst, it's just fucking racist and at best, it's an extremely reductive way of looking at an otherwise very interesting character. there is a truly staggering amount of fic that is obvious, thinly-veiled p*dro pascal rpf that is only using the vague idea of din's character as proof that it's not actually rpf. and the fact that there is no way to reliably filter any of it because people refuse to tag their shit accordingly just makes it worse. this certainly isn't to say that this is an issue confined solely to x reader spaces. i know for a fact that a ton of dinluke writers do this too, which is why i rarely interact with the fandom anymore. also, the lack of nuance when people talk about din's faith is truly awe inspiring. people will see din's clan say "this is the way" and religiously cover their faces and will call it cult behaviour without a hint of critical thought. ah yes, cults, which are famous for letting their members come and go as they please and also teaching their members to be self sufficient. those cults. sure. anyway... i could go on for ages. but i'll finish this off with the fact that yesterday i saw someone say that din in a modern au would be a casually homophobic catholic, which aged me 10 years. do not watch star wars. never ever watch star wars.

the position they sleep in: canonically sleeps in a tiny ball in full armour to fit into his tiny bed on the razor crest (rip razor crest), in the pilot's seat with his arms crossed like a dad falling asleep in his recliner after dinner, or on his back like this:🧍‍♂️ that man has back problems i know he does.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in: i think that din and eivor would get along very well if they existed in the same universe. something about the shared sense of honour and their inability to pass by random people in need. but din as an assassin could also be very fun. me putting assassin's creed characters in star wars aus 🤝 me putting star wars characters in assassin's creed aus. i love bad media <3

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn: he only has one!!! actually that's a lie, there was the stormtrooper disguise on morak (episode of all time) and the two iterations of his armor. i'm gonna go with his beskar armour but specifically when he has his helmet off while saying goodbye to grogu in the s2 finale. we could have had at least half a season of him looking like this while separated from his son. pathetic wet cat looking man. look at what they took from us.

send me a character and i will answer these questions!

#reiver you're making me say things that will have the x/reader stans hunting me for sport are you happy now? ARE you?#anyway i wrote another response to the headcanons question that was probably worded better and then tumblr nuked it all #i hope this website blows up actually <3 #thank you darling!! 💖#answer #reiverreturns #ask games

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catholic-character-tournament · 11 months

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Round 2 - Side B

John Gaius art cred @exmakina

Propaganda below ⬇️

Harrowhark

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

John

book quote from the chapters where he's relating how he got necromantic powers and people freaked out!! this is pre-apocalypse and resurrection so it's implied he took a lot of inspiration from this incident . He said, Then we took off. Thread after thread on message board after message board. People wanting proof. People asking what the fuck it meant. People talking about the LUCIFER telescope and saying we were aliens. People calling me the Antichrist, which was a trip. People writing up these long posts on how the trick was done, how I got the meat into the pie. Was I fake? Was I real? If I was real, what did it mean? Suddenly there were hundreds of people, all there at our front door. They came in caravans, they were sleeping in their cars or putting up tents. A hell of a lot of them had flown out internationally. He said, Some of them wanted to see the miracle. Some of them wanted my help, like, Oh, you’re the magical death man, can you do something about my body? Can you fix my fibromyalgia? Thing was, I could. That surprised me. I could take out their tumours. I could fix their macular degeneration. Big damage was easy, unless they’d actually lost the limb or whatever. Couldn’t grow those back. But I spent hours and hours a day playing Jesus. That was nice, those were some of the nicest hours I got to spend. He said, But when you’re doing the whole Go, my child, your knee cartilage is fixed, you’re going to get a lot of visitors. I had to turn people away because I had to eat, I had to sleep, even though I didn’t want to. M— had brought in her best friend, the nun, and I was worried I was going to get the Antichrist bit from her too, but she was just like: stop doing this! Read your Bible! This was Christ’s whole problem! I was like, What are you talking about, Jesus cured the lepers and everyone was all, Hooray, thanks man. M—’s nun was all, Are you kidding, Christ never said no and never asked anyone to pay and got way too much attention and brought the heat down on everybody. Christ didn’t keep to office hours, she said. Don’t do that. He said, So we limited Jesus stuff to one hour a day, and I always had to eat breakfast. But by then the whole world was on our doorstep.

look this is kind of weird but he is the only survivor after nuclear bombs destroy the earth and he has weird necromancy powers so he revives his friends and a few other people to be his subjects and basically makes himself a god to them. there's a lot of layers since he's literally the only character in the entire series who remembers the world before and has a concept of the religion he's copying for his own. he treats the other characters like toys he can push around for his own amusement and everything is a joke but he does this world-weary act that somehow gets the reader to kind of feel for him even when he's being atrocious. and he's the only one who remembers memes. which is a torture all of its own.

I said "yes" but to be more clear: he was canonically Catholic when he was still mortal, but that was 10,000 years ago and he kind of killed everybody on the planet. Just slightly. Some of them got better. Now he's the Emperor Undying and his empire is very Catholic-coded.

OP note: I got some replies saying he's not actually canonically catholic and this is "as Catholic" as he gets

#harrowhawk #harrowhark nonasigmus #john gauis #tlt #the locked tomb #cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls #polls #r2sb

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doyouthinkimenjoyingthis · 3 months

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Sept 19, 2015

My mom's mission when I was in elementary was to find me friends. She would enroll me in academies, befriend mother who has the same kids same age as mine. She'd encourage me to go to Sunday schools and is actually a cult and the church leader Apollo Quiboloy is a shady, trafficking guy. Didn't meet the guy but my friend Frances Jean and her family watches the channel. I couldn't stand even 10 minutes of the program. I am catholic and I like the whole sacramental processes of the mass. The Sunday school went on only for a year. It was fun it wasn't like we are indoctrinated to do some religious shit it's just normal catholic shit. But we weren't allowed to carry a rosary. I have a rosary with me which was a gift that I've gotten from a nun when I was christened at 6.

LIn the morning, there's a morning mass. The kids are separate as not to disturb the adults. All the adults are inside this hall in Lucban Elementary School. They don't come out until five. While we kids, we have all the fun. The rides are free so mom didn't bother driving or dropping me off.

My friend Frances and I have this closer relationship. She has a unique condition. For her age, she has white hair. I just searched about it and it's Vitiligo according to google. Didn't read much. She was bullied for it off course and being called a grandma but I guess she wasn't bothered anymore by it or she just got used to it. Because she seems really strong or resilient. I'm a sensitive child, I wouldnt last that.

Anyway, in this church, I've known kids who have very troubled childhood like we only discuss those in abnormal psychology kind of troubled. One of them, I went to school with her younger brother.

She told us her story about how she is abused by her father.

DSWD has taken actions already but I felt weird about that because I don't refute it's true. Sometimes I can't help compare myself to that girl. We all live in the same neighborhood, we just live a little bit above. And when I come out of my house, I look at every person living their lif , acting nicely, smiling--unknown to me thy have nasty little sins. Unforgivable. Inhumane.

And you know whats the funniest part is itcan be someone closer to me. The worst part is you could have stopped it. You actually have the right tools and connections to do so but you can't because you didn't know enough.

Frances lives in the same neighborhood as me. Yes in a subdivision too but not all subdivision are bougie. Frances and her family of 5 children, her mom works in a government agency Department of Something-- a professional but like she gets pregnant every year. The father not sure he seems normal. But he was kinda funny weird especially during my glow and grow as a teen.

All men except my father and brother in laws are funny weird to me while growing. I know why and it's giving me hibby jibbies .

I've been hanging out with them since I was a kid. But they all live in this one bedroom apartment basement in the in law's building. I didn't think of it as weird back then. I didn't think I was lucky that I got my own room and that my parents are very particular about personal space and privacy.

It has no windows. My dad didn't want me hanging out with them because he doesn't want me to pick up "squatter habits" as he points out. I don't think he's being matapobre but what he meant is he doesn't want me to pick habits that they have like imagine being in the slums-- noisy and stuff, swearing and fighting, drugs, alcohol.

Frances would tell me things that would hint that something is wrong in the family.

Living in a one bedroom apartment is already one of them. I told you about my father's job and he says that small houses am with no privacy encourages child abuse.

I still sleep beside my parents up until I was 5. I had my own room but when Roxanne and Ronaliza was adopted I shared the room with all fourofnus. As family especially stormy seasons, we still like to sleep in one bed, sharing body heat and scary stories. But we all have our rooms. I had to share mine with Roxy and Ronnie when my sister Sally movrd out because dad says she's already 16 and needs her own privacy. The three of us 9 year olds are stuck in a bunk bed and one bed.

I mean what sthe point of that segue as that I can't imagine being that many in that four walls that is too small. Our room is even bigger than that. I mean we do that we sleep altogether occasionally I just can't imagine me being in her situation.

We have a big house with the rest rooms. My parents have their own bathroom.

We have a wide space so we don't get to look at each other the whole time. Imagine being that many and wherever you go whatever you do you you will see them in every angle tests sick

One time Frances told me that her mother was so angry that she made her sleep outside. It was February. She slept in a 5 inch wide bench just enough to accommodate her very thin body.

It was a punishment.

One time when I was 13, I slept outside to punish my parents. Make them feel guilty.

I would see these purple marks around her neck and wrists but she would hide it.

I shared food with her because she wasn't fed. She has no lunch and her lunch money was 20 pesos which wasn't going to buy a decent one.

So I tell my mom to put more and my mother is more than happy too. Until she learned about it because the teacher said that I'm very nice girl because I share my lunch.

Mom was mad and told the kid directly notto ask food from me and thinks Frances is using me.

She made her under the list of friends I am bit allowed t hangout with. So she enrolled me in a judo class Soni won't go to Sunday school.

I remained friends with Frances against my mother's wish which is funnily against her wish to because she wanted me to be friends with her in the first place since we are neighbors, goes to the same school, loves cartoons and books, and that her grandma is a doctor. Frances grandma is also our kagawad and we often come along for the campaigns.

So anyway, until we were in Grade 5, I still hear about this mini abuses of her mother. By that time we've got our menses. I had mine in January 2006 and she got hears before we started Grade 5.

I would hear how his father is weirdly affectionate of her. But I've never thought of it as something bad which afain--irony.

By Grade 6 I had other friends-- the kind of friends my mother wanted for me. Come from a nice family, middle to upper class, high achievers and plays ay least one musical instrument.

W ehave kind of separated but we hangout when watching anime together at 5:00.

By the end of our elementary, she was given money and pleaded me t hang out before we separate schools. I didn't want to because her life is so tragic and i dont want to hear anymore of the abuses or grooming she is getting from her parents.

So we went out chaperoned by her creepy dad to the cinema and watched a very traumatic movie Bridge to Tabitha. Then had some buttered chicken after.

She has gone into special sports program IN city high Andi went into special sciences in UB. I was friends with Jimmy then, and she couldn't understand why I'm friends with her.

I'm friends with the people my mother dislikes. And I'm enemies with people my mother likes and I had to endure.

Maybe I really am a trashy person. I'm not supposed to be well adjusted Buti know now the reason why. I'm queer and I'm into different and more interesting people.

So anyway we were talking the three of us while I learn how to sortmy laundry in our laundry space upstairs.

Frances is helping me how because I don't know how to do laundry.

She said she's going to her aunt and she's going to Davao to serve Christ.

I know that Frances has once dreamed being a nun. She was just like me who has the kind of devoton to God except that I am abit skewed and she's not.

Whenever reproductive system comes up, she tells us that she'll enter the sisterhood not the kind of sisterhood in travelling pants.

Our science teacher would point out that girls would say that off course due to fear of sex, pregnancy and childbirth. On a side note, she claims that we are just saying that now that most of us will be mothers.

Just one of us will become a mother superior.

But in Christian sectz, there's no vocation such as being a priest and a nun.

I was confused and it's not even a real church. Because Apollo Quiboloy is a big fatliar I know.

Because my soeciall talent is sniffing bullshit.

So it was our goodbye.

"Paano volleyball mo?"

I asked

She said she'll still fo volleyball.

I've learned years later the truth from a neighbor, DVD auntie (because she hoards DVDs and we borrow from her) about what is happening

It devastated me because she's been telling me but i didn't help her. At first I didn't know why I was so angry hut I realized it's because of that.

I think that these has just been stories to me just like how my father's cases ee just cases. They are just stories. It's like you cant feel sorry for a movie because it's not real.

And I theorize that swhy bad things happen a lot and worse it gets normalized because good people doesn't do anything.

After Frances left with no contact whatsoever, I moved to different schools. I encounter many of these shocking stories that people are supposed to be in jail for.

But you know when you get thisnkun of stories you don't think about going to the police station to report it. You listen and thinks having this secret or knowingsomethign illegal is cool.

So I stay away and notform attachments so I don't need to know.

Should I have reported it or done something. I have no power or energy.

I stepped into the City High and the students' stories are heartbreaking. The you hear more stories involving even adults who are supposed to protect you because we still are children and are powerless. So when a friend told me this story about her cousin involved with an elderly teacher we were both about to puke. But did we do anything? No. We just stood there in disgust and gossip. At least she didn't laugh about it because I neighborhoods thats what I hear they will year you down spread gossip but won't do anything about it.

But we didn't. We talked about it at night (she was my nanny) and express disgust. Because,the man is 50 something and we sorta mock and imagine the kind of sex they are having. Like imagine fucking a grandpa.

It's awful and disgusting. My mom if you know that Tv5 program SE likeswatching it because of this unbelievable drama that are so trashy squatter like and happens to most Filipinos. She sees the struggle of others as entertainment. Lives of Filipinos are really juicy. And gossip is one real serotonin trigger.

But what Ive learned from my friend Frances shit happens to everyone.

Evil things happens not only in certain communities, classes, educational or socio cononomicak backgrounds. It can happen to the closest ones.

I've closed my doors to any other human attachments and that was a tme I struggle with faith. I stopped being friends with these bougie friends.

I remained a few I share interests with but not too close. It's almost out of duty.

And speaking of Faith that how things changed for me.

Another person to the list my mom don't want me to be friends with.

When I grew out going to academies, dad starts bringing me sports clubs like tennis, golf and squash to enhance my physiquenand social skills but it's actually where you can find a suitable boyfriend and potential rich husband. Someone's who's already rich.

My mother said "never marry for potential."

I believed her. All my sister's did believe that and that's why they delayed dating until they are established and went from dating to marry and snagged decent husbands. Five of my sister's married youngmen actually so it's not applicable.

Julie married her own student. That's classic grooming.

Now I'm going to exit for a while-- I used to go to this DEPED school near our house because most of my friends in the neighborhood go there.

But in just a year of staying there, many shit happened. Child abuses, drama, suicide, spirit possessions and mean teachers. So my mom was horrified and found a nicer school.

Yes just a year. I also entered a local quiz completion hosted by RPn. Can't remember anyway.

She stopped setting me up with friend when I was 13. She realized I'm having my own personality and that I will choose my own friends noatter how she hates it. She was healing from surgery.

Jimmy was my only friend and Eunice.

We spend time watching DVDs and singing and dancing to Britney Spears. Their moms are cool. My mom wasn't and doesnt like it but it's what I wanted.

When I transferred to City High when I was 14, I cried because my friend is going back t Manila. A really good friend turned out she's my crush.

She gave me money so I can join in the goodbye party.

She doesn't get angry when I'm drunk. But she breathes in and out. She knew I was having problem with my faith and she's really worried about me going the bad wayn

I continue to have bad friends bit it barely turned me bad.

I told you-- I'm more of an observer. A voyeur. It's like watching Tv.

My mom since then met all my friends even those from the church service off course and she was glad that I'm in touch with spirituality.

And Constant is there but then he died.

My mother told me that life is an elevator. Whether you go down or up, people leave.

I never thought it has affected me. Because the following years creating new bonds became really different.

It's like I cant anymore.

When I turned in college since I'm not a cool girl, I asked my mother a lot of money for books and a laptop. That's all I've been doing. No friendships except for Hollmae and a few.

She met them and is satisfied that's found my own tribe. I think my mom is a successful parent through med. S e made me trust her. She made me be the rgin anymore. And when I told her whom I lost it, she's not even half surprised. She got hurt off course but she accepted it.

Parents usually look at their kids as still their little angel who is innocent and they think they can't do antyhing that seems bad.

Mom never looked at me as if I don't deserve to be treated like a baby anymore.

Nothing d

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tetraquad3prosequi · 3 months

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Alright

So the two Cattle Mutilation Theories that are the most viable in my mind:

Let's first explore cults --

1. Cults/indigenous occult practices, many are hell-bent on claiming it's a type of witchcraft from Latin America, known as brujería.

This is a very long running practice that blends indigenous, African, and European influences, since the 1500's I believe. These cultures have spiritual practices centered around nature and healing. So I don't think it's all "demonic" however the catholic church expelled them for such reasons.

It's a very tempting theory and possibly the most believable for me, apart from the space creature theory.

Compelling enough that it almost got me... but the problems I have with it are as follows:

Ok. Sure. It might be SOME cultists committing these acts, simultaneously -- so the alien attacks are separate incidents altogether. The main issue I have with the cult scenario is that somebody, somewhere, would have caught these people already... like seen them at least, on video or in the flesh.

So you mean to tell me this very long running, well coordinated group of people has been brutalizing cows since the 1600's and nobody has seen them or gathered any evidence of them being there??? It doesn't make any sense LOL.

Added to that, with every attack, there are never any footprints. And if this is a stealthy group who doesn't want to get caught, why flash tons of lights at night??? Many farmers/people have seen bright lights flashing at night.

The government would not go and flash lights out in the field either it's just silly. Like it's beyond silly and weird if you think about it.

_______________

2. Of course I've juggled the notion of "intentional government conspiracies" around in my head for a while. But I really struggle with it. There are too many open ended questions and the attacks on these cows is too brutal, excessive and barbaric.

Yes. I'm aware that people have spotted helicopters at the scene, before and after and they're often silent..

But if you think about it logically, yes, there WOULD be helicopters around... because it's probably the CIA or investigators in their stealth copters -- trying to figure out what the hell is going on (especially if they know the area is dangerous, they would have to be in a high tech copter 🚁)

That's what makes sense to me.

It just isn't logical any other way in my mind.

And it isn't logical to think that such an organized CULT has been going out and attacking these animals in such high quantities, in such a ritualistic way, since the 1600's.

If it's been happening since the 1600's (which we have verifiable truth of) the CIA didn't even exist back then. So that's immediately out.

Then that just leaves cults.

And the cult scenario is very shaky to me. Very very shaky... just not strong enough to hold its own as a theory.

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crossdreamers · 3 years

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What the TV series “It’s a Sin” tells us about the tactics of anti-trans activists today

Over at Twitter Owen Jones reflects on the way the history of bigotry is repeating. The new British TV series It’s a Sin reminds him of how the tactics once used against gay and lesbian people is now used against trans and nonbinary folks.

Owen Peter Jones is a British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist and political activist.

It's a Sin is a British television drama serial written and created by Russell T Davies. It is about the queer community in the 1980′s London.

Owen writes:

One of the most important themes in 'It's A Sin' was about gay/bi people and shame - caused by growing up in a society that saw gay/bi people as would-be sexual predators, violators of biological reality, threats to children, immoral, deviants, and generally undesirable.

While HIV rates remain significantly higher among gay and bisexual men, treatments now allow those with HIV to live healthy lives. Alcohol and drug abuse as a response to shame and trauma caused by homophobia is today a bigger problem in Western nations.

It's important to make this point because the evidence suggests that mental distress is even more acute amongst trans people, who are today the most marginalised and oppressed part of the LGBTQ+ world.

Anti-trans activists use the same arguments as the homophobes

Today, anti-trans activists play the exact same songs about trans people: that they are would-be sexual predators, violators of biological reality, threats to children, immoral, deviants, and generally undesirable.

Some of those anti-trans activists responded viscerally to being called out for enjoying It's A Sin. They are furious at being compared to the monsters who victimised gay people, even as they obsessively target trans people in the same papers that obsessively targeted gay people.

Some of them point to their past association with pro-gay struggles, or in some cases simply that they have been to gay bars before, as though any of this gives them a lifetime freedom pass to say whatever they like about other minorities.

But as It's A Sin shows, a society which made gay people feel unwelcome - as burdens at best and as menaces at worst - inflicts terrible damage on gay people. The same is being done to trans people.

However those who, in some cases, spend a genuinely huge amount of their lives talking about trans people as would-be predators or threats to children justify it to themselves, they are inflicting the same injuries on trans people as It's A Sin underlined is done to gay people.

The quadrupling of transphobic hate crimes, the 48% of trans people who fear using public toilets, the trans people discriminated against at work, the quarter who've suffered homelessness, all of this is erased from the "conversation", such as it is.

Even the focus on contexts which don't affect 99.9% of trans people - but which are used to attack all of them - namely prisons and sports deliberately excludes questions like 'Why are there no trans Olympic medallists?' or 'How do we stop trans prisoners being assaulted?'

Inflicting the same damage

The hounders of trans people may hate It's A Sin being used to hand them a mirror. But the anti-trans faction, who operate strikingly like a cult, are not only singing the same tunes - they are inflicting the exact same damage on trans people as gay people have long suffered.

oh and I've set this so only people who follow me can reply because, although anti-trans activists have made a conscious decision to relentlessly and obsessively target me, and I can live with that, I don't want trans people to have to sift through their bile.

“Gender critical” parents who are harming their kids

Some other thoughts.

One of the most powerful themes towards the end of It's A Sin is Ritchie's mother being confronted by Jill for the damage she inflicted on her gay son, suggesting that the shame she instilled in him helped drive behaviour that led to his infection with HIV.

"Actually it is your fault, Mrs Tozer," says Jill. "All of this is your fault." Jill adds: "The wards are full of men who think they deserve it."

She was right. So many of the gay and bisexual men who died often lonely deaths in hospital wards were traumatised by their parents.

Today, most gay people have gay friends who have mental trauma which often leads to alcohol and drug abuse with absolutely catastrophic consequences. Many, all too many, have had friends who've died from suicide. The culprits? Society in general but often parents in particular.

It's A Sin showcased the LGBTQ family, of other LGBTQ friends filling a vacuum left by the absence of a loving family. A big role of that 'family' is to pick up the pieces because of the damage inflicted by parents on their children.

When parents refuse to properly accept their LGBTQ children for who they are, they insert ticking time bombs in many of them. That bomb may detonate in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, who knows, maybe in their 50s or 60s. But in many of them, it will detonate.

This is why there is a genuine horror watching self-described "gender critical" parents ranting about trans people on the internet. Because I can't help but think, oh god, what if they have trans children. What damage will be inflicted upon them.

In some cases, the bigotry of anti-trans activists - often radicalised by newspaper columnists, online rabbit holes, and somewhat perversely, Mumsnet - will collide with reality. Read this about an ex-'gender critical' activist and their trans nephew.

But in other cases, transphobic parents will stick determinedly to their guns and inflict the same damage on their trans children as homophobic parents have always inflicted on their gay children. We should be clear: homophobia and transphobia are forms of child abuse.

Hiding behind the argument of protecting their children

Both traditional homophobes and contemporary transphobes claimed they were protecting the welfare of children. As anti-gay campaigner Anita Bryant declared: "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children".

Today's anti-trans activists use the language of 'safeguarding' and often suggest that parents know what's best for their children. This is clearly not always the case. Lots of children need to be protected from their parents. That includes many LGBTQ children.

So when this Times journalist attacked Mermaids, a charity supporting young trans people, for including an 'exit button', suggesting it was 'a major safeguarding breach'. Many LGBTQ children don't have supportive parents and need to hide their identity away from them.

Anti-trans rhetoric echoes anti-gay arguments

Anti-gay rights campaigners long focused on the danger posed by predatory gay men to vulnerable children, and pointed to scandals in, for example, the Scouts and the Catholic Church as evidence. Today, anti-trans activists similarly extrapolate extreme cases to make their case.

In the 1980s, it was claimed an all-powerful gay lobby was putting political correctness ahead of people's well-being. The same language is used about the objectively marginalised trans minority today. The second screenshot is from this weekend's Times newspaper.

That's why so many gay people stand up for trans people. Trans people, of course, are in our shared LGBTQ spaces, and their experiences do differ in important ways - but we see them going through the exact same things we've gone through.

It is, frankly, grotesque that gay people who for very obvious reasons stand with their trans siblings are then vilified as misogynists, or have obvious homophobic tropes about wanting to endanger children's safety thrown at them.

It's also perverse that many of the same people publicly cooing over It's A Sin are the same people trying to hound the LGBTQ allies of trans people out of the media (they can't really do this to trans people because there are very few trans people in the media).

LGB people attacking trans people

As for the LGB people who participate in the hounding of trans people. There have long been examples of oppressed groups who participate in oppression, often against themselves: women against the Equal Rights Amendment and feminism, right-wing black Republicans, and so on.

These anti-trans LGB activists are not only completely unrepresentative of LGBTQ people: many queer bars and spaces bar people who express their bigoted opinions for very obvious reasons: to ensure they're safe spaces for the whole LGBTQ rainbow.

Watching straight people try and foment a civil war within the LGBTQ world by platforming these completely marginal bigoted zealots is actually completely and utterly grotesque.

Finally (!) in the 1980s, almost the whole media was anti-gay, and public opinion was overwhelmingly anti-gay. Today, almost the whole media is anti-trans, but while transphobia is rampant, anti-trans sentiment is not as widespread as anti-gay sentiment back then. There's hope!

But it takes huge courage to speak out in support of trans people in Britain in 2021. One day, there will be TV programmes about the onslaught against trans people. Those who victimised trans people today will be portrayed in them. They'll go down in history as hate figures.

Sadly, it's too late to save all too many LGBTQ people who had ticking time bombs inserted into them both by society and by their homophobic and transphobic parents. They detonated. But we can save others from that fate. So speak up.

Read the whole thread with other comments here!

Read also Michael Cashman: Loss and anger raged in me after watching It’s a Sin – the stigma we faced in the 1980s is now being directed at trans people

Photo of Owen Jones: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

youtube

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtqa #transphobia #homophobia #terf #terfs #gender critical #lgb alliance

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script-a-world · 3 years

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Via Google Form: i recently just learned about the concept of closed cultures and religions.

Via Google Form: i recently just learned about the concept of closed cultures and religions. does this mean that if something like native american culture or wicca were closed cultures/religions, i absolutely cannot include them in my stories no matter what? out of curiosity, would anyone happen to have a list of all of them that i can reference before i think of writing them in my stories? -mabwry

sorry, i nearly forgot but, in addition to my previous question, if a culture or religion is closed, does that mean we cannot even include a fictionalized version of it in our stories or anything inspired by them in any way? -mabwry

Feral: We’re going to have to clear the air on a few things before we can have a real discussion.

First, I am a white, atheist, raised-Christian USian. So, what do I know about closed religions? Nothing. I don’t know anything. Because they’re closed. You don’t know anything either unless you’re a part of the community with that practice, in which case you would probably not be asking me for my permission. Anything you think you know about a closed religion was a glimpse without context stolen by an outsider or wholesale made up bullshit.

Second, there is not one, monolithic Native American culture. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribes within the United States, each with their own culture. (the “federally recognized” part of that statement is fraught with implications that I am not qualified to address, but suffice it to say that there have been and are many more individual indigenous cultures.) Each of these cultures will have their own practices, religious and otherwise, but these practices are generally understood to be for people within that tribe and only people within that tribe, so unless members of a specific nation issue you a specific invitation to learn more, err on leaving them alone.

Third, Wicca is not a closed religion; there are initiation levels, which we will get to, but the religion itself is not closed; it is, in fact, highly publicized by practicing Wiccans. Also, even if Wicca was a completely closed religion, it makes me more than a little uncomfortable to talk about Native American religious practices in the same breath as Wicca, and this is because of the following:

Now, that we’ve gotten those clarifications out of the way we can get into why various Native American cultural and religious practices, and those of similar groups like the Romani, are closed, and it’s genocide. The actual massacre of the peoples, the extreme oppression and persecution they face and have faced, the systemic stripping away of cultural identity, and the forced assimilation into the white, European(-descent) cultures they have no choice but to exist beside. In many cases, you’ll find that closed religious practices had to go underground, essentially, to survive. And even in the time-and-space pockets where the peoples are not actively in physical danger, opening their sacred practices puts those practices in danger of ugly caricature and stereotyping and vile appropriation.

Now, there are levels. Closed communities exist on a spectrum as many things do. So, let’s talk about another level or type of closed community, that of the self-separated closed community. (note: using self-separated here to distinguish it from segregation.) Hasidic Jewish communities exist in this kind of self-separation (in the modern US; can’t speak for other places or times); they’re Jewish so it’s pretty easy to get the gist of their religious beliefs and practices, but the actual inner-workings, the politics, all that social interaction are kept closed off from the outside world. Now, with any Jewish sects, there is still a long, horrific history of genocide, but as a whole, the Jewish religion has not become closed; there isn’t an active search for converts but conversion isn’t forbidden. Still, let’s move away from genocide and talk about the Amish. They’re a Christian sect, so their general beliefs are not at all unknown, and they aren’t really cagey about what beliefs separate them from mainstream Christianity. The Amish just don’t want outsiders inside their community, messing in their affairs, and introducing unwanted influences, so their community is considered closed. Hasidic communities, the Amish, they show up in a lot of fiction, so does that make it okay despite their “closed” status? I cannot possibly answer how members of those communities feel about their portrayals in fiction across the board (I do have a guess at a few types of the portrayals, and that is appalled). What I can say is that you do not have an insider’s perspective - again, if you did, I would consider it very unlikely for you to have come to ask this question - so, thinking you can write an insider’s perspective is ludicrous.

In their* response to an ask on Native American religion, Lesya offers some advice on the portrayal of religious practices in fiction, which to me reads as “mention they exist but don’t try to describe them,” and also to take the advice of sensitivity readers who belong to the exact group you are trying to portray respectfully.

*I apologize, but I do not know Lesya’s pronouns and have erred on the side of gender neutrality.

Respect is key in all of this, and frankly, your asks tell me that you do not yet have a mature enough understanding of the issue at hand to have the respect necessary. You ask if you can create a fictional religion or culture based on one of these closed religions or entire cultures, and my question to you is how can you base a religion or culture on a religion or culture that you don’t know anything about? All you would be doing is making up more bullshit - bullshit that has often led to further persecution because of widespread belief in it by outsiders - or profiting off parts of stolen culture.

Finally, I want to touch on the concept of initiate levels, and the only reason I’m harping on Wicca specifically is because you brought it up and I can only assume you did so because it matters to you. So, Wicca has initiate levels (sometimes, depends on sect and denomination and all sorts of things; plenty of Wiccan sects do not have initiate levels and are completely open regarding their beliefs and practices.), which makes sense because it was manufactured from a lot of other belief systems, including a sort-of best-guess at the belief systems of ancient mystery cults. Wicca is certainly not the only religion to include the concept of requiring certain initiation rituals before one can gain the full knowledge contained within the religion. What this does though is creates a division within the religion itself so that all insiders are not completely inside, so to speak. So, even for a religion that is otherwise open, those specific practices are going to be closed and you won’t know what is going on inside. Why this is done is going to vary significantly by religion and will run the spectrum from benign to nefarious when you get into modern cults, but generally one can understand that in a religion that purports to have secret knowledge or to offer special interaction with a deity or even to provide supernatural powers, having initiation rites ensures that only the true believers or the cream of the crop or the ones with the inherent gifts will get access.

From your second ask, it seems clear to me that you want a rich diversity of religious worldbuilding, not just another cut-and-paste fake Catholic Church or Greco-Roman pantheon, and that’s admirable. But even when you’re working with religions that are not closed, when you’re not practicing that religion, it becomes tricky to get it right. Instead of just trying to base a fake religion on a real religion, study religion and spirituality. Read up on how religions are classified. If you understand the sociology, you can create distinct, nuanced religions for your secondary world.

I do not know of any list of all closed cultures and religions. I have included several in this response, but I would recommend just ensuring that you are always going to actual members and current practitioners as your sources for information - and to be clear, start with the written record before addressing people directly - , and if those members and current practitioners are categorically not sharing with an outsider, then it’s safe to assume that is closed.

#google submitted #culture #religion #closed culture #closed religion

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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The devout and observant Christian is undoubtedly aware of the precarious state of the faith in our modern world and is becoming increasingly open to out-of-the-box solutions. One such possible solution is to take a cue from our bearded Amish neighbors and form rule-based religious communities—but maybe without the horse and buggy.

A brief peak at the current state of American Christianity should disabuse anybody of the notion that this is unnecessarily drastic.

America’s traditional Mainline Protestant denominations are bleeding out so quickly they will likely be gone within 20 years. That is not my prediction, but their own. The ELCA (the main Lutheran branch) projects they’ll only have 16,000 worshippers by 2041; the PCUSA (the main Presbyterian branch) lost almost 40% of their members in the last decade, causing one analyst to note, “At its current rate of shrinkage the PC(USA) will not exist in about 20 years;” and data for the Episcopal Church shows the same 20-year timeline until the denomination runs out of people in the pews.

More conservative denominations used to chuckle at these headlines and say, “If only they preached the Gospel instead of liberal activism, they’d be growing like us.” But they don’t say that anymore. The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest of the Evangelical churches, has lost 14% of their members since 2006; the Methodists are losing members while in the middle of a brutal split; and for Catholics, according to Bishop Robert Barron while speaking at the 2019 bishops’ annual conference, “Half the kids that we baptized and confirmed in the last 30 years are now ex-Catholics or unaffiliated.”

There is one major exception, though: the Amish—a mustard seed that is growing into a large tree in front of our eyes. The Amish arrived in the United States shortly after their founder, Jakob Ammann, split with the Mennonites in 1693 for being too lax on enforcing their communal rules, as laid out in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith. For the next 200 years, the Amish were just a few eccentric families in Pennsylvania that spoke an archaic Swiss German. By 1920, these few families had grown to 5,000 people and since then have doubled about every 15 to 20 years, including between 2000 and 2020 when they doubled to 351,000.

Unless something changes drastically within their culture, this doubling is projected to continue. One demographer, Lyman Stone, showed that at their current rate of growth, they will easily make up a majority of the United States in 200 years. This means the current moment may mark the halfway point between them arriving as a small band of friends and their inheriting the most powerful nation on the planet. They may seem like a backwards remnant of the past, but in reality, they will almost certainly play a major role in the future. This will become more evident after they soon dwarf more well-known churches like the Episcopalians and Lutherans.

…

So, when virtually all other Christian groups are seeing plummeting, or at best stagnant, numbers, why are the Amish seeing growth like this? The answers people typically give are that they have a very high birth rate and an over 90% retention rate. But that’s like saying someone is wealthy because they made a lot of money and then saved most of it. It begs the question—how? How do they have such large families—with 6 or 7 children per woman—while the country at large has a below-replacement rate of 1.6 children? And how are they able to keep all those children within their communities?

I believe it all comes down to one thing—the Code—or as the Amish call it, the Ordnung.

The Amish Ordnung is different in each community, but if it strays too far, other communities will no longer associate with that community; so there are limits. While outside observers will just see strict rules about hats and beards and technology use, the Amish see the glue that holds them together as a people.

It’s very important to realize that each rule is chosen as a group and with the goal of strengthening individual virtue (especially humility), family and community ties, and their faith.

As an example, most Amish communities don’t allow phones in their homes, but it’s not because they think phones are inherently evil and ban them completely. They often have shared phone booths at the end of the street to use when necessary and at their places of work. They just don’t have phones in the home because they believe it will take away from the purposes of a home—things like family bonding, chores, and recreation. Nobody who has sat in a room of family and friends all silently swiping at their phones can tell me their concern isn’t warranted.

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The success of this model was discussed by Eric Kaufmann, a political-demography scholar at the University of London, in his provocative 2010 book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-first Century. Kaufmann noted the growth of groups like the Amish and the Haredi Jews (often called the Ultra-Orthodox) and attributed it to their birth rates and strong communities. Haredi Jews, for example, who also live by strict community codes, were only a few percentage points of the Israeli schools in 1960 but are now about a third of students, and he predicts they will very soon eclipse secular Jews. Haredi growth in Brooklyn, New York, is seeing similar growth, with high birth rates and retention.

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Laurence R. Iannaccone’s 1994 study “Why Strict Churches Are Strong,” which has been frequently cited and confirmed since, gives more detail on the success of certain community codes.

Iannaconne found that groups can be strict on items as long as they provide a “close substitute.” Think, for example, of banning social media but then providing a lot of new in-person social opportunities to make up for that sacrifice.

“Strictness works,” he says, but the rules can’t be so strict they make people miserable and drive them away, or as Iannaconne says, “Arbitrary strictness will fail just as surely as excessive strictness.” The rules do have to be strong enough, though, to keep “free-riders” from claiming the benefits of the community without participating. He called these rules “costly signals,” like the sacrifices the Amish make by limiting their clothing styles and technology use. A person would be very unlikely to go through all of those costly steps for community benefits they could get more easily elsewhere. By eliminating free-riders—whose “mere presence dilutes a group’s resources, reducing the average level of participation, enthusiasm, energy, and the like”—they see the reverse, very high levels of participation, enthusiasm, and energy.

It’s not just Amish and Haredi Jews that have seen success with following a community code beyond the laws of the state—think of the monastics who survived in far-flung places relying on The Rule of St. Benedict; knights that followed the Codes of Chivalry; bands of cowboys on the American frontier who stuck close to the Code of the West, which gave detailed guidance on passing strangers on the trail, when to tip your hat, and with which hand you should hold your whiskey; and the tribes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border who have followed the Pashtunwali code since pre-Islamic times.

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Modern Christians interested in starting a rule-based community would need to create some real benefits that are harder to come by in society at large. I’d suggest the basic benefits of a traditional community (help with childcare and schooling, coherent customs on dating and marriage, providing purpose and companionship to the elderly, cultural celebrations and gatherings, friendship, and assistance during hardship) would be plenty.

Then, they could agree together on some basic rules that are costly enough to separate the serious from the free-riders while not being arbitrary or unnecessarily strict. Targeting the rules toward areas that are particular downfalls for modern Americans (promiscuity, pornography, social media, screen-addiction, substance abuse) would be a good start. Agreeing to forego these in this time and culture would almost certainly be a costly enough signal.

Also, many of the rules should take into account issues like abuse of power, cults of personality, convenient personal revelations from God, sexual abuse, and a host of other issues inherent to tight-knit communities (and larger ones for that matter). The ability for a trusted leader to turn out to be an evil psychopath should never be underestimated, so rules should take that likelihood as a given and guard against it. The Amish, for example, draw straws to choose their leaders to avoid jockeying for power.

One last consideration is to what extent “walling yourself off from the modern world,” as Kaufmann said, is appropriate. Kaufmann said that was the best strategy for growth, but growth is not the only thing to weigh. There are also things like loving your neighbors, having an influence on the greater culture, and not stifling curiosity and creativity. Some walls are necessary, like between a teen boy and pornographic websites or between a child and an activist teacher, but a balance between walls and open spaces should be carefully pursued as a group. For example, language is used as a wall for the Amish (who speak Pennsylvania Dutch) and the Haredi Jews (who largely speak Yiddish), but that would likely be a step too far for most communities, as would their highly-detailed clothing restrictions.

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Out-of-the-box? Sure. But with the exponential growth of the Amish and similar rule-based communities (and our own failure to find a workable model for modern Christian life) it may be a paradigm to consider. Even without our participation, it will certainly be how a fair amount of future Christians will live.

#david larson #crisis magazine #amish #maybe the amish are right #haredim

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