#reject false doctrine

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

Serving with Honor

All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honor, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited. Those who have believing masters should not show disrespect because they are brothers, but should serve them all the more, since those receiving their good service are beloved believers. Teach and encourage these principles.

If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and semantics, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.

Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession in His testimony before Pontius Pilate: Keep this commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the blessed and only Sovereign One—the King of kings and Lord of lords—will bring about in His own time. He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share, treasuring up for themselves a firm foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,” which some have professed and thus swerved away from the faith.

Grace be with you all. — 1 Timothy 6 | The Reader’s Bible (BRB) The Reader’s Bible © 2020 by Bible Hub and Berean.Bible. All rights Reserved. Cross References: Genesis 28:20; Exodus 33:20; Deuteronomy 10:17; Joshua 7:21; Job 1:21; Psalm 62:10; Proverbs 15:16; Proverbs 15:19; Proverbs 15:27; Ecclesiastes 11:2; Matthew 6:20; Matthew 27:2; Acts 1:15; Acts 16:1; Acts 18:15; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 9:25; Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Timothy 4:7-8; 2 Timothy 2:18; 2 Peter 2:21

#instructions for servants #reject false doctrine #contentment in Godliness #fight the good fight #a charge to the wealthy #1 Timothy 6 #The Epistle of First Timothy #New Testament #BRB #The Reader's Bible #Bible Hub #Berean Bible

[merthwyn]

The rule in your life is abuse, toxicity, rejection, abandonment, loneliness, fake friends and people who "care".

And various times you meet people who are kind and loving, who smile at you without faking it, who are caring and supportive and enjoy your company.

And this feels awkward. Strange. Abnormal. Odd. As if something is not right. And sometimes it even feels dangerous. Not to mention the false doctrine that even God should not be like this.

And it shouldn't feel like that.

IT SHOULDN'T F****** FELL LIKE THAT.

#mental health #trauma #trauma recovery #abuse #rejection #loneliness #abandonment #false doctrine

[prokopetz]

Hazbin Hotel!Adam: "YOU SHOULD BE WORSHIPPING ME!" Me: "Dave, what Heresy is that one?"

Mormonism, oddly enough.

(To be clear, the Adam-God theory was only a thing in Mormonism very early on, and is rejected as false doctrine by the modern Church of Latter-Day Saints, giving it the amusing distinction of being considered heretical by both Catholic and Mormon standards.)

#religion #christianity #catholicism #mormonism #lds #heresy

[heresylog]

do u have like. a list of heresies? it was neat to read ur lil explanations

I used wikipedia primarily.

[wealmostaneckbeard]

Writing Horror

On Genres:

Gothic Horror asks the question "What if Christian doctrine was wrong?" The werewolf calls into question our alleged divine supremacy over beasts. The vampire is one who rejects many tenets of the faith and is perversely rewarded with power and immortality. The ghost is evidence that the soul is real but that it can be cruelly waylaid.

Eldritch-Folk Horror asks the question "What if primitive superstitions and myths were our first recordings of something that is real and we still can't identify?" It is modern elaboration upon old stories. Resurrection of suppressed cultures. Bloody revenge upon dismissive imperialists and rationalists.

Cosmic horror asks the question "what if the universe doesn't want to be understood?" For every question there is an answer but contained within it is a punishment for the inquirer. Ignorance is bliss. Things that go bump in the night should not be investigated unless one wants to join them.

Sci-Fi Horror asks the question "what if understanding the universe only yielded problems that far surpassed our capacity for survival?" Cost/Benefit analysis, psychological and physiological surveys, resource management plans. Systems of measurement like these are cold tools wielded ineptly to lead poor fools towards lethal forces that don't care about petty things like profitability or physics.

On Conditioning and Communication:

The human mind breaks down the environment around itself into signals and noise. A signal tells you something important and noise does not. A good horror story, regardless of genre or medium, fucks with this fundamental process of perception.

Right at the start of the narrative, the storyteller must establish a subtextual vocabulary of signal and noise. They must be able to tell the audience "this is a threat" or "this is safe." These messages can be labeled Terms and they come in a variety of forms, such as the presence of a character or audio cue. The storyteller must never betray the trust of the audience but they are allowed to introduce new terms such as "This appears to be harmless but is actually dangerous," or "That was a false alarm, the true threat is elsewhere." Before a term is used, a signal should be displayed, letting the audience know if they are about to see a new or old term.

Ideally, by the end of a story, an audience should be looking back at the entire story with a deeper understanding thanks to a complete glossary of terms.

#horror #writing #creepy #werewolf #vampire #ghost #folk horror #eldritch horror #cosmic horror #scifi horror #psychology #gothic horror

[muzzleroars]

You seem to know a lot about Christian mythology/ or atleast are quite passionate about it have you ever thought about discussing it in general? If yes i'd like to ask about the Antichrist and its many interpretations, i see like a billion of them in a lot of Media so i'm really confused on what it is

i don't mind discussing it in general at all! i will say i'm absolutely not an expert in any capacity, christian mythology has just been a big interest of mine since i was a kid (i was that guy....) and i have actually read the bible (only once all the way through and my memory is. well. bad). and while i haven't looked much into the history of the antichrist in general, i can tell you about its appearance in original text! the antichrist is really interesting from a mythology perspective because this is a case where culture and many, many sources outside of scripture have highly impacted the figure into something not much like their appearance in the bible itself. the actual word "antichrist" appears only in john's epistles, and this was in reference to the splintering of christianity at the time - basically the author was warning christians against "false" christians (early gnostics in this case) as they didn't believe in the second coming of christ in the flesh. they are even referred to in the plural here as basically this author used "antichrist" as a term for anyone claiming to believe in christianity but rejecting certain (core) doctrines, and therefore able to lead people into what he believed to be a "false" faith considering christianity's then lack of central leadership (and so people not being sure on what all the teachings really even are). the term "pseudochrist" is used similarly elsewhere to warn against false believers, but essentially the anxiety is still the same.

revelation is the book that introduces the singular figure often associated with the antichrist but not named as such - the thirteenth chapter describes the "second beast", which is a creature that looks like a lamb but speaks with a dragon's voice, causes many terrifying signs to happen, and famously marks its followers with the number 666. it wields the power of the first beast, which represents the general evil attacking the church and is ultimately satan's presence on earth made manifest. honestly, there's nothing inherently wrong with labeling this figure as "the antichrist", as it is a metaphorical being representing all false prophets in the latter days, but this is purely meant to condense down what would be a massive movement - it is not truly just going to be one guy, but a whole flood of fake messiahs that will come claiming to be christ or to be sent by god.

for what all this means/is, i'm definitely of the opinion that revelation was never meant to be taken literally and is a book written entirely about the roman empire of the time. 666 is nero's number and great harlot is rome (as places in the bible were always depicted as women when personified), with revelation meant to give the christians living through a terrible time of oppression and persecution hope for the future. in this way, the antichrist is representative of the people christians will encounter who will attempt to tear down their faith, who will attempt to make them worship rome or a false, romanized version of christianity (and thereby make them heretics) and are meant to represent a more tangible, real world threat than satan would be to the average person. there are many, many calls to faith in the bible, both in the old and new testaments, and i believe revelation to simply be a very big, very wild refrain of the same sentiment: we know it's bad, we know it's scary, but one day we will be saved and safe forever. i will say as an aside gabriel also reveals an antichrist adjacent figure to daniel, telling the prophet about one who gains power and wealth through deceit to take over the throne and rule in infamy. his defeat by michael brings about the end days, but again this was largely a projection of history and based on the current tensions at the time. IN ANY CASE it's interesting how the figure has become the actual child of the devil, something introduced by later theologians but still usually not literal. i think a lot of it comes from the nebulous nature of the antichrist in general but also because the name just evokes that idea - christ is the child of god, so the antichrist is the child of satan. i can't speak too in depth about the history outside of that, but i hope this answered your question ok!!

#the bible i read (rsvce) does note the context of revelation in the footnotes #and i have done a little reading outside of that to understand that history a bit better #but i don't actually know much about the antichrist as a cultural figure #and how it evolved throughout history #tbh being THAT KID my reading was mostly about satan himself ToT #cake answers #ALSO im not christian and i look much more at all of this with an interest in the mythology and cultural histories #coming from a big catholic family just made sure i got trapped here forever

[fancifulplaguerat]

Going through the Bachelor Route again and something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is Daniil’s relationship to the Capital; I like the idea of him being born and raised in the city firstly since I think he’d relish the gravitas of attending a big-city university and all the laurels that come with a fancy Capital lab, but also would enjoy the intellectual opportunities that cities offer—the chance to converse with academics from other countries/disciplines and exchange ideas. 

But also because I’m emotional about cities and how full of humanity they are and how that connects with Daniil, because I really do think that he truly cares about humanity and believes in it; that’s something that underlies his being a Utopian. Rather than an abstract desire for miracles like Eva or the Kains’ general fuckery, his motivations rest in curing humanity of its collective inevitable fate; he even describes himself as fighting inevitability, and given his resilience I imagine he’d also believe in humanity’s capacity to endure. It just gets to me in how he talks about the Utopian ending. In his own route he says that the Polyhedron “allows us hope of a possibility that some false-truths of our ill-fated epoch might be overthrown” and though I view Patho’s setting as anachronistic rather than factual history, such lines make me consider the context of war in the background. That is, when I first read that (in particular the ‘ill-fated epoch’ line) I was reminded of the sentiment surrounding the advent of total war, the feeling that the world was ending and that humanity was doomed to destroy itself, which also reminds me of Georgiy saying “If people keep saying we’re doomed, they might well bring about our extinction,” a self-fulfilling prophecy that Daniil seems to reject and even be defiant towards. In Clara’s route, when describing the Utopian ending, Daniil says that the winner will be “Mere humanity. Any kind of it—even malicious, and yet still a living one,” and that “malicious but living” sentiment echoes him telling Artemy that even if the Polyhedron causes evil “Does this mean, however, that we—all of us, the humanity, I mean—should abandon our attempts, efforts, and search?” which in context I take as referring to the attempt to continue going forward. Daniil sees the Polyhedron as the "sprout of humanity’s future” and Andrey/Peter consistently describe it as for people, for humanity, and I think that sentiment bleeds over into Daniil as well in the above lines. 

And I’m probably reading too much into when Daniil tells Clara that “We win and you lose here, you see?” but this is a Tumblr post about a plague simulator so that’s my right: I find it delicious if Daniil is saying “here humanity triumphs over nature” given that Clara can represent earth/natural law if she’s to be interpreted as the plague incarnate, i.e. and instrument of the Law (as Aglaya says). And the centre of Daniil’s doctrine is humanity triumphing over nature; as he says, “I am challenging the forces of nature” when he describes his research. 

He’s just. He’s just so. I feel that despite his capacity to be a downright prick Daniil does have fierce hope in humanity and insistence in its capacity to endure, even if he’s overzealous and unrealistic about what that endurance looks like which is why I’m just yes put that impassioned dandy in the big city so he can cavort with scholars and be in the whirl and rush of humanity !!!

#the city is for daniil dankovsky enrichment #pathologic #daniil dankovsky #war cw #patho.txt

[purlty23]

Yeah! and Ghost's lyrics resonate with me a lot and make me feel safe or empowered at times too. Specifically Kaisarion, Griftwood, and Respite on The Spitalfields when it comes to faith based empowerment. Life Eternal is soothing to me and I listen to it when I do my T shot sometimes lol. I think of it as a melancholy romantic song, personally.

Oh, about the Baphomet thing, it only came about when I wanted to look up who or what is was and saw that there was some underlying phobias going on there.

This is from Wiki and I am sure there are better scholarly articles out there but I have to focus on a history paper I'm writing rn lmao:

Modern scholars agree that the name of Baphomet was an Old French corruption of the name "Mohammed",[3] with the interpretation being that some of the Templars, through their long military occupation of the Outremer, had begun incorporating Islamic ideas into their belief system, and that this was seen and documented by the Inquisitors as heresy.[29] Alain Demurger, however, rejects the idea that the Templars could have adopted the doctrines of their enemies.[30] Helen Nicholson writes that the charges were essentially "manipulative"—the Templars "were accused of becoming fairy-tale Muslims".[30] Medieval Christians believed that Muslims were idolatrous and worshipped Muhammad as a god,[3] with mahomet becoming mammet in English, meaning an idol or false god[31]

Life Eternal is probably my favorite, or at least top three favorite Ghost songs ever. I totally agree with it being their most comforting song, its so sweet that you use it to help with your injections!

Now. Now I have to start looking into this more. I have a big issue of starting to read up on one topic, seeing a referenced source and then reading THAT source, and it just goes on and on. I’ve managed to neglect Baphomet for long enough. I’m sure there are a bunch of sources out there to dig through! If I ever find any I can certainly shar with you, friend

#answers #Cw religion

[saras-devotionals]

Quite Time 2/28

What am I feeling today?

I just wish I had gone to bed earlier. I’m very tired and know I have a long day ahead of me. I also didn’t finish all my work so I’m stressed about a couple of those deadlines🥲

Sermon: The Lord Declares War! (Part 3/3)

Exodus 5:22 NIV

“Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?”

we can relate to Moses here (why would God send us to do His work when it doesn't turn out the way we planned?) We can get discouraged and in our own head about it but keep reminding yourself that God’s plan is far greater than we can ever imagine for ourselves.

2) God Declares War on Counterfeit Imitations of the Truth!

ask yourself: am I fighting God in in any way? In what este/areas of my life and I resisting Him? Is there still something I’m holding on to?

I can get moody and distant. I can let how I’m feeling take control of me instead of being in control of my emotions.

Exodus 7:1-7 NIV

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.”

This plagues were meant to humble the Egyptians (leading the question of whether we declare war on false doctrines - bc they had their many gods) not that many people want to be entertained and not saved.

Lastly, I do wonder why it says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. I believe it’s been explained to me but I don’t remember and wonder why? Why do that? Since He had the power to harden, why didn’t He choose to soften? Or would that just not have worked in the grand scheme of things?

1 Timothy 1:3-8 NIV

“As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.”

The law is good if we know how to use it properly! No false teachings! There are some people that claim to teach of Jesus and Christianity but it is not biblically sound and therefore is a false teaching.

2 Timothy 3:7-9 NIV

“always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”

With those In sin, we are meant to call them out (in love) and even here is an example of calling out people by name.

Romans 8:1-4 NIV

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Communion: what does the cross mean to [……]?

To him it meant liberation!

#bible #quiet time #bible quote #bible scripture #bible study #bible verse #christian blog #christian faith #christian living #christianity #devo #daily devotional #disciple of christ #devotional #discipleship #faith in jesus #faith in god #faith #jesus saves #jesus #saras devotionals #2/28

[unwelcome-ozian]

Do you know anything about the Watchtower society (Jehovah's Witnesses). Do you know what kind of programming they would use.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are considered a cult and use cult/high control abuse/methods with their indoctrination.

Some methods used in cults/high control groups are:

Behavior Control

1. Regulate individual’s physical reality 2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates 3. When, how and with whom the member has sex 4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles 5. Regulate diet - food and drink, hunger and/or fasting 6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep 7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence 8. Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time 9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet 10. Permission required for major decisions 11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors 12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviours, both positive and negative 13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think 14. Impose rigid rules and regulations 15. Instil dependency and obedience 16. Threaten harm to family and friends 17. Force individual to rape or be raped 18. Instil dependency and obedience 19. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment

Information Control/Deception:

 a. Deliberately withhold information

 b. Distort information to make it more acceptable

 c. Systematically lie to the cult member

2. Minimise or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:

 a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media

 b.Critical information

 c. Former members

 d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate

 e. Control through cell phone with texting, calls, internet tracking

3. Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

 a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible

 b.Control information at different levels and missions within group

 c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when

4. Encourage spying on other members

 a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member

 b.Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership

 c. Ensure that individual behaviour is monitored by group

5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:

 a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media

 b.Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession

 a. Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries

 b. Withholding forgiveness or absolution

 c. Manipulation of memory, possible false memories

Thought Control. Require members to internalise the group’s doctrine as truth

 a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality

 b. Instil black and white thinking

 c. Decide between good vs. evil

 d. Organise people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

2.Change person’s name and identity

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words

4. Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts

5. Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member

6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created

7. Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:

 a. Denial, rationalisation, justification, wishful thinking

 b. Chanting

 c. Meditating

 d. Praying

 e. Speaking in tongues

 f. Singing or humming

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism

9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed

10. Labelling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful

Emotional Control. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish

2. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as

 a. Identity guilt

 b. You are not living up to your potential

 c. Your family is deficient

 d. Your past is suspect

 e. Your affiliations are unwise

 f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish

 g. Social guilt

 h. Historical guilt

5. Instil fear, such as fear of:

 a. Thinking independently

 b. The outside world

 c. Enemies

 d. Losing one’s salvation

 e. Leaving or being shunned by the group

 f. Other’s disapproval

6. Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment and then declaring you are horrible sinner

7. Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority

 a. No happiness or fulfilment possible outside of the group

 b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc.

 c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family

 d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counsellor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll

 e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family

Oz

#answers to questions #jehovah witness #cults #high control groups #behavior control

[nerdygaymormon]

Lunch with the Renlunds

I had the opportunity to meet Elder & Sister Renlund. We gathered in his office at the Church Administration building and they presented me a gift, a book written by both of them titled The Melchizedek Priesthood: Understanding the Doctrine, Living the Principles.

They were cute. Elder Renlund said something, then his wife didn’t exactly correct him, but pointed out his words could mean this or that. I commented it’s obvious she’s a talented lawyer. She looked amused and he said it’s true.

Sister Renlund apologized and said we were going to eat in a little cafeteria, and the food is fine but nothing to write home about. It’s a place we can go without being constantly interrupted. I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Are we about to eat in the Church Administration cafeteria? The most exclusive spot in town?!!” What I said was, “It doesn’t matter so much where we eat as much as the company we’re with.”

As we walked into the cafeteria, Elder Gong was walking out. During the course of the meal, several other people sat down at other tables and ate, including Elder Ballard, I think Elder Rasband (I was seeing the back of him, so can’t be sure), and Elder Oaks.

When we sat down, I reminded them that when we met several years ago in Brandon, Florida, we took a picture together and the stake president called out, “Every General Authority who takes a picture with David offers to take him to lunch when he goes to Utah.” And here we are, having lunch! We laughed at that.

I noted that when I first met Elder Renlund and disclosed that I’m gay, his immediate response was “Same-sex attraction isn’t a sin, but bullying people over it is.” This reply was unexpected but meaningful to me because it indicated you understand that is part of the experience. People make comments and do things that convey very rejecting messages. They may or may not intend it that way, but it’s this one, and that one, and another one. It may seem like no big deal to them, but I’m the one receiving such messages over and over and over.

He responded that we are to love everyone. It’s not our place to judge.

Sister Renlund said it’s true for many people, including those who are single and those who are disabled, they deal with many judgmental comments. We need to love and not judge.

I brought up the panel I’m going to be on at the Affirmation conference. Parents of LGBTQ children can ask questions to those of us on the panel. I’m thinking that what I’d like to convey is these are your children, love them. The children are the ones who have to make difficult choices and to live with the consequences. Parents shouldn’t make their relationship & love another tough choice. The Renlunds agreed. 

Elder Renlund commented that too often parents think they have to choose between their LGBT child or their church. So often they think of their choices as a binary, either choice A or choice B. He added that limiting our vision to A or B presents a false dichotomy, we can do both. Sister Renlund stated there’s usually a choice C if they will look for it, and choice C is always the right choice.

Then Elder Renlund added, “If a parent has a gay child who is getting married, some church members think they can’t go to that wedding. No, that’s wrong. You go and support your children, be there for the important milestones in their life.”

I replied, “To me, it would be like if a friend invited me to the christening of their child. Even though Moroni teaches strongly against this, that’s my belief, not theirs. I can be there to show I love and support them in this important moment for this family. They are making the best choices for themselves, and I make different choices for my life, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love and support each other.”

Elder Renlund concurred. “That’s exactly right. We have many non-member friends and when they come to Salt Lake City, we take them to a little restaurant that serves wine so that our friends can choose to have some with dinner. Our choice is not to have wine. I don’t lecture them about their choice to drink wine. I accept it is their choice and I get to make my choice.

I can go to a gay marriage to show I love and support them. I’m not there to participate in that choice, I’m not marrying a man, he is. I am going to show up as my authentic self and I expect them to be their authentic self. I prefer to meet with people who are being authentic and not pretending to be someone they aren’t.”

Lunch went on and I asked Sister Renlund if she usually travels with her husband when he goes on an assignment. Indeed she does. Elder Renlund stated that he likes having her speak. If it’s a priesthood leadership meeting of only men, then she probably won’t, but otherwise he wants her to speak. They are aware of how it looks for it to be mostly men speaking at a meeting and they try to counter that. If the meeting is to mostly or only women, then he may choose not to speak and let’s her do the talking for both of them. On a more practical matter, a husband & wife traveling together helps custom officials believe he isn’t there for business activities, which they will likely suspect if he were showing up alone dressed in a suit despite what his visa indicates.

I honestly don’t remember what caused Elder Renlund to say this, we probably were talking about queer youth who reach out to me, but I will always remember him pausing, looking right at me, and proclaiming, “You’re a hero.” I’m sure I blushed at that comment, it feels over the top, I was surprised he would say that. I’m just an ordinary gay guy trying his best to make things work in this space.

As lunch was winding down, I asked if I could share about our meeting and discussion on my blog, it’s a place where I write & share about my feelings, experiences, thoughts, and frustrations as a gay member of this church. They said to please do. 

Sister Renlund suggested we should take a picture to put with the blog post.

They expressed that they really enjoyed their time with me and invited me to get together again when I come to Utah. 

I sent a thank you note to the secretary who set this up and she responded, “Elder and Sister Renlund each gave glowing positive reports of your lunch together. I think it is safe they are in your fan club.” 😊

I’ve been in their fan club since the first time I met them in 2018.

#dale g renlund #ruth l renlund #be your authentic self #queerstake #tumblrstake #I'm still thinking about this encounter

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Eva Kurilova

Published: Jan 15, 2024

In 1943, C.S. Lewis delivered a series of lectures at King’s College that warned about the erosion of moral values and the rise of relativism, which he believed would lead to humanity’s ruin. These thought-provoking lectures were later compiled into The Abolition of Man, a book that has since been acknowledged as one of the most significant and influential works of the 20th century.

Today, I believe society has reached the very crossroads Lewis forewarned—an era of subjectivism where concepts of “right” and “wrong” have lost their objective anchor and are instead dictated by personal whims and desires. A striking manifestation of this shift is evident in the construction of an oppression hierarchy. This hierarchy asserts that moral judgements in any given situation is not determined by external, consistent values for judging behavior, but rather by the fluctuating perceptions of who is deemed “privileged” and who is deemed “oppressed.”

In his lectures, Lewis emphasized the importance of universal virtues in guiding our morality. He referred to these virtues, which he believed to be found universally across humanity, as the “Tao.” Originating from Chinese philosophy, the Tao represents a way of life in harmony with the world. Discerning the right way to live, according to Lewis, requires wisdom and character. He describes the Tao as “the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.”

Regrettably, Lewis observed a decline in such wisdom and integrity among the youth of his era, leading to what he termed “men without chests”—individuals devoid of honor and virtue. His critique was not about dictating the specifics of what is “right,” “moral,” and “good.” Rather, Lewis lamented that we have lost any sense that the right, moral, and good exist at all, writing: “Until quite modern times all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional reactions on our part could be either congruous or incongruous to it.”

To illustrate his point, Lewis began his first lecture with an anecdote about the English poet Samuel Coleridge. Coleridge was once gazing at his favorite waterfall when two tourists came along, one calling the waterfall “sublime” and the other as merely “pretty.” Coleridge approved the former judgment and rejected the latter.

Lewis’ intention was not to dictate perceptions of waterfalls. His concern was that, when the story was referenced in a “little book on English” for schoolchildren that he called The Green Book, the authors declared that the tourist who called the waterfall “sublime” was merely making a statement about his own feelings. This, according to Lewis, exemplified a troubling shift away from recognizing objective beauty and value.

This sly inward turn toward subjectivity, and away from the belief that certain emotional responses can be congruous or incongruous with reality, deeply troubled Lewis. He feared this trend would lead to “men without chests.” He posited that we would demand from such men qualities like drive and self-sacrifice while relegating virtues like honor and patriotism to mere feeling and opinion. He uses the example of a Roman father telling his son that it is a “sweet and seemly thing to die for his country.” The authors of The Green Book, however, would feel the need to debunk this sentiment the same way they debunked the idea that the sublime nature of the waterfall has any reality outside of the tourist’s own feelings.

Lewis further illustrated his point using a humorous example of himself and his attitude toward children. He admitted, “I myself do not enjoy the society of small children: because I speak from within the Tao I recognize this as a defect in myself—just as a man may have to recognize that he is tone deaf or colour blind.”

Rather than trying to justify the fact that he doesn’t enjoy the company of children by forcing the rest of society to see it as a virtue, Lewis acknowledged it as a personal shortcoming, recognizing that we should value spending time with children. However, it often seems today that people do the opposite: they argue that what they personally like is valuable and what they personally dislike is not. And this is exactly what Lewis saw coming.

When we move away from the Tao and the idea that certain attitudes toward the world are really true and good, we risk evaluating the world solely through the lens of desire and emotional impulses. “When all that says ‘It is good’ has been debunked,” says Lewis, “what says ‘I want’ remains.” He further remarks: “Those who stand outside all judgements of value cannot have any ground for preferring one of their own impulses to another except the emotional strength of that impulse.”

I believe Lewis correctly predicted humanity’s moral trajectory, which is highly concerning considering where he said it would lead. What I don’t think he could have predicted, however, was that one of the major ways that subjective and relativistic morality would manifest was through the oppression hierarchy.

Based on identity characteristics like race, sex, sexuality, and “gender identity,” the oppression hierarchy slots individuals into a stack that ranges from most privileged to most oppressed. At the top, you will invariably find “cis” straight white men. At the bottom, you will likely find black “trans” women, often bearing additional marginalized identities like “disabled.”

The morality underpinning this hierarchy is inherently relativistic. It contends that those lower in the stack are incapable of wrongdoing toward those above. For example, you might have heard that non-white people can’t be racist against white people because they are more oppressed as a group on the basis of race. It is also reflected in the idea that there is no such thing as misandry because under patriarchy men as a class oppress women as a class. This ideology further manifests in attitudes that trivialize or even endorse acts like shoplifting, justified by the belief that capitalism is an “oppressive” system.

Gone is the traditional notion of treating others equally and recognizing antisocial behaviors like theft as inherently wrong. According to this new moral framework, any attitude or action directed against an “oppressor”–be it an individual or a system–is deemed justifiable.

This new morality and its value calculus is also prevalent in contemporary gender ideology. It becomes particularly apparent in how trans-identifying individuals demand privileges that clash with the rights of women. Gender self-identification is a disaster for women’s sports, women’s prisons, and women’s private spaces, but it doesn’t matter because “trans” people are considered oppressed, and “cis” people the oppressors. As a result, trans-identified men can therefore demand anything at the expense of women’s rights, and women who refuse or fail to swiftly comply with every demand are branded as hateful.

Oppression stack-based morality is why trans rights activists feel entitled to call for violence, rape, and death against so-called “transphobes” who disagree with them, and why they receive no real pushback from within their communities. It’s why they feel emboldened enough to hold up signs that say “decapitate TERFs” and to show up at women’s rights events with fake guillotines. It’s why they regularly jump to the defense of male pedophiles, rapists, and murderers who seek transfer to women’s prisons. Critics of such transfers are often accused of bigotry and “misgendering.”

No matter what, the “trans” person in any scenario is viewed as inherently oppressed and incapable of wrongdoing, especially against those deemed as oppressors.

A case in point is Audrey Hale, a mass shooter who killed three adults and three nine-year-old children at a private Christian school in Tennessee. Because she identified as a transgender man, activists quickly slammed media outlets for “misgendering” Hale by referring to her using female pronouns. CNN and The New York Times even issued “corrections,” essentially capitulating to the preferences of a mass child killer. Prominent transgender activist Eli Erlick even called the school a “right-wing institution” and asserted, without evidence, that Hale had been “abused” there.

However, perhaps the most striking illustration of this new morality at play was seen in the response to the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. Despite the heinous nature of the atrocities committed on that day, a disturbing number of people praised the actions of the terrorists. The moral calculus has been grim. The terrorists were rebranded as oppressed freedom fighters. Consequently, their actions, regardless of how morally reprehensible, were often rationalized or justified because they were perceived as acts against “oppressors.” In this context, the conventional condemnation of acts like mass rape and murder has become contingent on the relative privilege of the perpetrator and the victim. Then, a terrorist attack is no longer a terrorist attack.

While Lewis couldn’t have foreseen the specific outcomes of a shift towards subjective morality, nor the intricate oppression hierarchy that now informs societal judgments of “right” and “wrong,” he was nevertheless correct in identifying that it would be based on nothing more than personal desires and emotional impulses. The supposed objectivity of the oppression hierarchy is, in reality, a façade. The allocation of characteristics within this hierarchy, and the corresponding levels of privilege or disadvantage they confer, are seldom reflective of real-life circumstances. Instead, they are dictated by prevailing social and political trends, and the caprices of those in power. The clearest evidence of this is that a straight man instantly plummets from a position of unrivaled privilege to one of significant oppression simply by donning a dress and wig.

But what implications does this perspective have for society? Lewis wasn’t optimistic. He argued that discarding traditional values in favor of self-crafted ones, based on whims and impulses, does not lead to emancipation. On the contrary, it subjects us to what he termed “Conditioners”—those who “cut out all posterity in what shape they please.” These Conditioners are, in my opinion, analogous to those making the decisions about where individuals sit on the oppression hierarchy. “They produce conscience,” Lewis says, “and decide what kind of conscience they will produce.” In this manner, the Conditioners effectively conquer human nature. However:

At the moment, then, of Man’s victory over Nature, we find the whole human race subjected to some individual men, and those individuals subjected to that in themselves which is purely ‘natural’—to their irrational impulses. Nature, untrammelled by values, rules the Conditioners and, through them, all humanity. Man’s conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature’s conquest of Man.

Lewis feared that a shift toward subjective and relativistic morality might inexorably lead to totalitarianism, with those in power guided by their basest instincts. Reflecting on the latter part of the 20th century, it appears his fears were not unfounded. At the time of his observations, such moral perspectives were already shaping the ideologies of fascism and communism. Despite his cautionary words and the unfolding of events that mirrored his warnings, this new morality continued to proliferate throughout society and it is now the guiding star of radical progressives.

While I favor Lewis’ view, I’m not arguing that everyone must necessarily agree with the concept of objective morality. I’m sure many lively debates could spring up around his words, and no doubt many have. I know numerous people with strong morals and values who might insist that they came to those values rationally, that we don’t need to rely on tradition, and that morals aren’t necessarily objective. I also know that some would say evolutionary biology has played a significant role in shaping moral attitudes, a view I accept, though I believe is not the sole factor at play.

Yet, I hope we can collectively recognize the dangers inherent in the other view—that right and wrong should be judged only according to the emotional intensity of a given impulse. This new morality has created an oppression hierarchy, where the moral standing of an action hinges entirely on the relative oppression or privilege of the involved parties. This perspective has led us to a precipice where, alarmingly, an act as heinous as cold-blooded murder might not be deemed wrong if perpetrated by someone from an oppressed group against an individual from a perceived oppressor group.

Do not let yourself become conditioned to accept this.

#Eva Kurilova #moral relativism #woke activism #wokeness #cult of woke #wokeism #wokeness as religion #woke #gender ideology #queer theory #oppression olympics #oppression stack #oppressed #oppressor #morality #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #antisemitism #hamas supporters #terrorism supporters #hamas #exterminate hamas #identity politics #subjectivism #subjective reality #religion is a mental illness

[natequarter]

frankly the idea that putting services into english was for "the good of the people" and that medieval people did not understand religion due to the use of latin feels rather insulting; it seems to suggest that the christianity of the (protestant) educated elite was the correct form of worship and that a more popular [in the sense of 'of the people'] form of (at least in medieval and tudor england) catholicism was a wrong of the uneducated that needed to be righted - despite the fact that the average medieval/tudor person would not exactly have been unaware of the religion that pervaded their life. there were other ways to reinforce the messages of christ to an illiterate or monolingual populace beyond translating scripture into english: mystery plays; paintings; preaching; parables; holy days; literature; pilgrimage; and, of course, more. particularly in england this tends to be an aspect of a protestant narrative of history - that protestantism's return to scripture and vernacular bibles would encourage a better, personal understanding of faith, and that being able to understand the bible and communion was for the good of the people. yet if the western rising was anything to go by, many people actually objected to the intrusion of english worship on latin as the liturgical language of the church - part of this may have been due to cornish being the native of language of many of the rebels and therefore making english an incomprehensible intrusion as much as if not more so than latin, but the fact remains that plenty of ostensibly uneducated and illiterate people saw the possibility of worship in a language they understood (the rebellion was centred in cornwall and devon, so many rebels would have spoken english) and rejected it.

the idea of translation and returning to scripture was also not the sole property of protestants - renaissance humanism was the domain of many catholics as well, including the famous erasmus and thomas more, who also saw the virtues of returning to the latin and original greek! the new testament was even translated into english by catholics in 1582 - less than fifty years after the first complete bible in english was published in england, itself hardly renowned for being protestant despite being heavily influenced by william tyndale's translations. one of the problems lies in the fact that henry viii's faith was largely idiosyncratic and doctrinally conservative despite his genuine interest in reform; the second lies in the fact that before the second half of the sixteenth century, catholic and protestant were not coherently defined ideologies or positions, and in fact the words catholic and protestant did not exist. the history of vernacular translations and its relationship with the catholic church and heresy is complicated, but there exist translations of the four gospels as early back as the tenth century; alfred the great ordered the translation of the ten commandments and the laws from exodus; richard rolle translated the psalms into english in the 1340s. the suggestion that the catholic church forbade vernacular translation throughout its history first of all rather misses the point - at the point that the vulgate bible was written, latin was a vernacular language. this is why the latin bible is known as the vulgate - vulgate comes from latin vulgātus, and literally means 'broadcast, published, having been made known among the people[/common]'. it also ties into the idea that the medieval catholic church was a backwards institute which wished to repress... every form of learning? which is obviously false - the catholic church wished to condemn and repress heresy, as it indeed did when john wycliffe produced the wycliffe bible, notorious both for being an early translation of the bible into english and for wycliffe's association with 'proto-protestant' ideas. medieval and catholic are not synoymous with backwards!

insert conclusion here about how patronising it is to assume that all working class english catholics were simply ignorant to the truth and discovering protestantism would instantly make sense to them and how frustrating it is when people conflate commonly held protestant ideals with Things Catholics Never Do. the end

#🗡️ #i drafted this one like a week ago

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

Hi Mara- This is a broad question, but I was wondering what you consider sacred and profane. Is there the possibility of redemption for people who commit profane acts? Do these things matter? Can the sacred and profane border each other very closely? Just wanted to hear your thoughts. Have a good one!

hi anonymous, good evening -- for this i:m mostly just going to be repeating most of everything i:ve said about chirality and what-ever i said in the "do people deserve second chances" question from ~a week ago;

the right-handed will be spared a second death and their souls guaranteed subsumation in-to the abstract heavenly body;

the left-handed will be delivered their second death and their souls will evaporate and become dust in their kilns through final annihilation, rendered to pure earthy material;

both of these are millennium promises to correct mistakes of confusion: to separate the earthy blood from the pure airs of heaven; the body visible will return to its blood; the nerves invisible will return to its heaven.

there also is the answer of profanity and sacredity (?): profane is the domain of that lost to material, and under-that are the left-hand and the related confusions imposed upon the righteous; the sacred are the domain of heaven and those living bodies of godly Word here, and their related confusions imposed upon the sinister.

within server, and illusory confusions of act->response that are prompted by the invisible arbiters (those nervous insects) are webs of context to be kept bound by and have little merit in influence for redemption: what is there to redeem or to condemn? the blood is promised and the nerve is promised each in kind; the sins of server are all irrelevant context, as-is the confusion of emotion imparted upon the observer here: imagine the christian scientist and their relationship to a spirit untouchable by confusions of Earth; imagine the scientologist and their relationship to immortal thetan driven solely to SURVIVE! the adventists, with exclusionary doctrine and belief that the covenant is free'd to be chosen and sin (and how it manifests by, example, eating unclean foods against the covenant and false observance of Sabbath) manifests not as 'the act itself' but by the decision to commit the act as rejection of that covenant. the practice of chiral segregation and qlippeuratoniceuritcal is just-so to observe the separate culture separate of the nervous act->response context and abiding in-kind by the laws of the greater garden underneathe: the mistaken soul of the left-handed will not be spared annihilation and return as ash to the grave underground;

still: there is no reason to not live cleanly and goodly and in striving for grace whether fate be immortality or annihilation: the spirit lost is one confused and the time spent in confusion within server material-illusion need not suffer and need not stew, ferment, and rot within to be little more than fuel for those invisible arbiters (those nervous insects) and desire to molest pointless tortures from-inside, to-outside;

take care, anonymous; i drew this tonight (i haven:t drawn for awhile)

#faith

[lesewut]

Claudius Ptolemy (100 - 170) King of Astrologers and his famous work “Tetrábiblos” (Four Books) also known as Apotelematika (~ On the effects). The main key-question of Ptolemy can be summarized in one question: To what extent do changes in the world correspond to the positions of the stars?

Over ten centuries this work influenced the astrology of the occident. In critical processing Ptolemy is reconditioning Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Greek astrology by collecting the astrological knowledge and by "cleansing" the systems of (religious) mythology. It was discussed for centuries, if Ptolemy is the original writer, as it was common to publish under famous pseudonyms. Today we have evidences to locate the time of origin between 139 - 161. Ptolemy is particularly critical against all indefinite claims, where he shows the spririt of the real scientist, by emphasizing, that all astrological knowledge is based on hypthothesis, as it will stay impossible to conisider and know of all the influences, effecting on the galaxy, the planets and the region, the human-being lives in. The Bible of Astrology by the so said Pharao and Priest Nechepso and Petosiris, can be considered as a negative example: Boundless interpreting of fixed stars, predictions used for sensation, motivated by lucrative and therefore false means. Ptolemy also rejected the Doctrine of Decane as 'tangled rhapsody'. Astrology is not an evidence-based science, but similiar to laws of nature, the researcher can built principles by observing and translating the phenomenon into a formula.

The main works of Ptolemy Megale Syntaxis and Constructio mathematica are known under the Arabic title Almagest. Camerius was the first book binder, who published the first flawless translation of the Tetrabiblos syntaxis in 1533. Melanchthon writes 1300 years after the publicition to Erasmus Ebner about the Tetrábiblos and is praising the scientific significance behind the astrological work of Ptolemy and with regard to Plato, underlining that we can (re-)find God in the most multifarious and mellifluous ways and that God has given the human-beings science and retained it also in the creation, so it can still shine through the manifold circulation of being.

This wonderful velvet edition is the rare version of Camerius, provided by Melanchthon. It is huge luck in historico-cultural way, that Ptolemy could have saved those testimonies from the fires in Alexendria, as he has, similiar to Euclid, the special merit to have collected and preserved knowledge, that would have got lost. The book is, as the title assumes, divided into four parts. The first book deals with the basics of astrology, describing the system of general predicitions, conditions of the stars and the movements of planetary orbits. In the second book Ptolemy is presenting the geographical astrology and the meteorology, here we learn the different constellations and their influence on earth. Similiar to the calculation of the nativity, it is necessary to set the region of preditional purpose into relation to deduce the astrological devination into forecast. It is exciting how geometry is used to calculate under which planet and stars the region is reigned. The Method of Angular House (in German Eckhäuser, in Greek Kentra) is also used in the system of Cabbala. In all likelihood, those methods came from Egypt, through Alexander the Great and the expansive work and travelling of the Priest of Marduk and Belus named Berossos (~ 280 BC), who is not only the most significant beholder of Babylonian history, but also an astrologist, who gave birth to the Hellenistic Astrology. It is likely, that due to the long period of astrological research in Babylon and India, that the knowledge wandered slowly into the European continent/culture under the mass migration. Small reference to King Sulgi (* 2092 BC), it is written that after "death" and the Ascension [!], he has become the Star of Sulgi: "Shepherd I am, may they praise me in prayer like a star." In astrological history it is generally said, that the Ancient Egyptians are the Masters of Trigones (relativeness between planets and the sign of zodiac, equal distances between right angles to the tropic point = Equinox) and the Chaldean (who where also living in the Mesopotamian region, but seem to have "dissapeared") are considered as the Masters of Angular Houses. This whole calculation could take books of explanation, it will not be possible to establish a holistic examination of this huge theme. But this system of calculation is the basis for white and black magic aswell. The hylegialic points of the Angular house give signs about the descendent spirit, later Paracelsus is defining the punctum ascemdens as the rising point of the ecliptic. Those methods are obligatory for the next book, because in the books three and four the astrology of birth is the main topic. Ptolemy underdraws the two sides of being: There are effects of necessity, which can not be changed (Laws of Nature) and there are effects of convertibility (diseases by unhealthy lifestyle). Ptolemy is comparing the aim behind predicitions in the prohibition of bad events, he takes the Egyptians as an example for connecting astrology with medicine. Actually the system of astrology is prioritising the moment of cenception for a 'valid' prediction of future, as we have the tendency to rather not know the circumstances of our procreation, the interpretation of our fate is scheduled in our natal hour. It is believed that all crafts in heaven have an impact on earth (just think of the moon and its effects on earth, the sun as life-giver) and that the constellation in the galaxy is also forming the seed and therefore the skills and handicaps. All regions are under the influence of different planets, each planet has different characteristics and therefore effects on our earth, ultimately on the single individual. By interpreting the sublunary basic elements and putting them into the context of natural origin in the cosmos, it is possible to set up a thesis for henceforth forecasting.

Just as a reminder: There is no solid knowledge, errors can not be prohibited. Until this time, parts of astrological prediction are used in weather forecasts, but we all made the empirical experience, that the weather can break rapidly, when the winds, who are also the impulses of reigning planets, are changing. Empirical it is also indisputable, that the region, we are born in, has a massive impact on our personality, on our physical development, on our chances for mobility and education. The relevance of the first moments and years, after our birth, are getting more and more attention due to neuro-physiological findings. As there is much for which our power is limited, there is enough to upheave ourselves, to find new forms of break-throughs, when we are chained, to nurture the hope to carry on and bring sense into our life. And if it is just a little twinkling star far faaar away from our stretched out arm, as we live in this symphony of creation, we should strive to bring all those different wonderful tones into accordance, after every single one was able to find harmony within himself.

#world literature #antiquarian book #literature #Astrology #astrological work #ancient astrology #Ptolemy #Babylonian astrology #Hellenic astrology #Egyptian astrology #ancient #ancient culture #book about astrology #astrological studies #zodic signs

[ausetkmt]

Ryan Stokes’ mother Narene Crosby, delivers remarks on the steps of KCPD headquarters on the 10th anniversary of her son’s death.

Key Points

Mother of unarmed Black man shot by KCPD still seeking justice 10 years later

Ryan Stokes’ killing by police was ruled as ‘justified’ due to qualified immunity

The family and Real Justice Network are pushing to end qualified immunity in Missouri

On the 10-year anniversary of her son dying at the hands of a KCPD Officer, Narene Crosby stood on the steps of police headquarters still searching for justice. 

“We are here to remind the city, the state, and the country that we are still here fighting for Ryan, and we’ll keep fighting as long as it takes,” says Crosby. 

Ryan Stokes was shot in the back by a Kansas City police officer 10 years ago. Despite Stokes being unarmed, his killing was ruled as ‘justified’ by a court due to the officer “fearing for his life.” 

“He was the soul of our family, he was the glue,” says Crosby. “His loss was truly profound not just for our family, they took away a business leader, a community leader, a father and a son.”

Over the past decade the family of Ryan Stokes, including his mother and daughter, have sued in order to seek restitution. Their case seemed to have the facts on their side: Ryan Stokes was unarmed, Officer William Thompson shot him in the back within ten seconds of arriving on the scene, and the KCPD even made a false report stating that they saw Stokes with a gun. 

The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court, but the Stokes family has been denied the justice they seek.  They keep running into the same issue: qualified immunity.  

What is Qualified Immunity

The family of Ryan Stokes gathers each year to honor him, but this year they are also pushing to end police qualified immunity. 

“Qualified immunity has allowed police officers to go unchecked for far too long,” says Justice Gatson, director of the Real Justice Network.

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects government employees from being sued. In effect, qualified immunity makes it nearly impossible to hold police officers accountable. If an officer says they ‘feared for their life,’ their actions are then deemed justifiable even when unconscionable. 

The officer in the Ryan Stokes case said he believed that Stokes had a gun, that belief—even though it was inaccurate—coupled with a fear for his life was enough for qualified immunity to protect the officer from repercussions. 

The US Supreme Court decided not to hear Stokes’ case in July, which upholds the lower court’s ruling that the officer who shot Stokes was justified. Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave a blistering dissent to the court’s decision to not hear the case. 

Real Justice Network Director Justice Gatson says they are committed to ending qualified immunity.

State Level Law Changes Sought

Gatson says that after the case was rejected by the Supreme Court, the group is exploring ways to end qualified immunity at least in the state of Missouri. There are four states that have at least limited qualified immunity, and they hope to make Missouri the fifth. 

The Stokes family and Real Justice Network are pressuring the state legislature to end the practice, and to make police officers carry  insurance, so that if an officer unjustly kills a citizen, the insurance policy would cover a payout instead of public tax dollars. 

They also want officers who’ve faced discipline and been fired for cause to not be able to work as an officer in another city or as prison guards. 

While the conservative super-majority in the Missouri legislature may be a challenge, the group says they are also exploring a ballot initiative to put qualified immunity to a vote. For more information visit therealjusticenetwork.org or see the free film screening of “Who is Ryan Stokes?” at the Bluford Library at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26. 

#Family of Ryan Stokes Fights to End Police “Qualified Immunity” #end qualified immunity #Ryan Stokes