#religious nationalism

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Hindu nationalists: I can excuse designing the atomic bomb but I draw the line at reading scripture before sex.

#oppenheimer #bjp #india #religious nationalism

[redshift-13]

Forces of global humanity united in common interest above the particulars of place and religious confession seem weak right now.

Religious belief becomes political belief. Imagined national communities become salvational, and out of their supportive ideologies fictional identities and narratives bloom. Intransigent lies become sacred national truths. The angels are here and the devils are there, as always. More is invested in the afterlives of old prejudices than in the lives of the currently living. Reason is marched out of its freedom and told what to say, sometimes on penalty of death. Authority is vested in some externality like culture or history or race or religious belief, all the while masking its actual interior origin. The past doesn't suit our present ideological needs so we make one up. The surge toward pure identity and cultural superiority necessarily rests on mutilations of both. A myth of innocence in need of protection almost inevitably produces the atrocities it believes the Others have in store for them.

At the moment we seem chained to a long middle period of history in which these us and them cycles of mythology and consequent violence are repeated ad nauseam almost like ineluctable computer code. We can't help ourselves but we're the only ones who can help us.

Christian nationalists in the US and the Trumpite MAGAs who want to deport millions; Putinesque fascism and its genocidal campaign against Urkaine; the AfD in Germany and its recent plans come to light of a hoped for deportation of millions; the brutish Israeli regime's crimes against humanity - body and soul humanity is sick with afflictions that can't yet be overcome with a strong enough countervailing force.

Inhuman nature is a long-casting shadow on the earth, but I hope that those of us who hope for a better world don't despair.

Anyway, here's India, clearly sliding into democratic decay. Another illusory euphoria built on a unity that can only exist through devision.

sup.org/books/title/?id=34425

#ashoka mody #india #global democracy #the scourge of nationalism #religious nationalism

[odinsblog]

This is what taking Alabama’s asinine ruling on embryos to its natural conclusion looks like

#politics #alabama #republicans #embryos #christian nationalism #abortion #reproductive rights #jay mitchell #religious reich #reproductive justice #healthcare #roe v wade #fetal personhood #justice jay mitchell #embrionics #ivf #criminalizing ivf #ivf treatment #christofascism #in vitro fertilization

[lionofchaeronea]

Angel, Tadeusz Popiel (1863-1913)

#art #art history #Tadeusz Popiel #religious art #Christian art #Christianity #angel #angels #Polish art #19th century art #oil on canvas #National Museum in Warsaw

[probablyasocialecologist]

“Under His wings,” one lobbyist wrote in an email. “The Devil never sleeps,” another person sent in an email chain about the distinction between gender and sex. “I pray for the 2nd coming more and more.”

These missives are part of a trove of leaked emails between South Dakota GOP Rep. Fred Deutsch, anti-trans lobbyists, and other state lawmakers about anti-trans policies that are filled with language so deeply religious that, at times, the communications read like scripts from The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s the language, one expert told VICE News, of Christian nationalists who believe they’re engaging in a holy war.

The emails, which are available online for journalists and others to read and were first reported on by Mother Jones, include revelations about some of the ways that anti-trans lobbyists—and elected Republicans like Deutsch and Idaho Rep. Julianne Young—collaborate and strategize to write and endorse policies that directly target trans people on a national scale.

The repeated notes about “blessings” and “prayers,” as well as sign-offs like “God bless you” and “Under His wings,” proliferate throughout the emails, which frequently reference explicit religious motivations for targeting trans people.

[...]

“It is the language of Christian nationalism,” Thomas Lecaque, an associate professor of history at Grand View University focusing on apocalyptic religion and political violence. “It is the language of people who very much believe they are doing God’s will, and it is the language of people who very much believe that they are engaged in a holy war.”

#lgbt #transgender #transphobia #christian nationalism #religious extremism

[shinobicyrus]

This week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel "goes on expensive fishing trips with republican megadonors" Alito decided to use an official Supreme Court order to once again rail against same-sex marriage and the entire concept of safeguarding queer rights.

It was all in response to a case the Supreme Court declined to hear involving the dismissal of 3 potential jurors who claimed that they had been unfairly passed over (yes they're complaining about not being selected for jury duty) due to their religious beliefs. The case involved a woman who was suing her employer for sexual discrimination and retaliation after she started dating the ex-girlfriend of a male coworker. The 3 potential jurors that had not been selected had stated a belief to the court that homosexuality is a sin.

Rather than commenting on the obvious bias three potential jurors had against a party in the case, Alito instead spent five pages ranting about the sheer injustice that had been done to them. The case, he said, fully exemplified the "danger" that he'd predicted back in 2015, when the Supreme Court had legalized same sex marriage nationwide (in a slim 5-4 vote, I will remind):

"Namely, that Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homo-sexual conduct will be labeled as bigots and treated as such by the government."

Again this was a case in which a court ultimately decided that maybe people who believed that homosexuals were sinful shouldn't sit on a case in which one of the parties was one such "sinner." That sounds pretty fair to me; they didn't call them bigots, or evil, or throw them in jail. The court just decided that maybe they weren't a good fit for that particular case. For that particular plaintiff.

But no, a Supreme Court Justice, someone who is supposed to be a scholar of law, turned it in his mind into a government assault against "people of good will."

Never forget how narrow that marriage equality decision had been. Never forget Alito and Thomas are still salty about it 9 years later and have stated in public multiple times they want to revisit this decision. Just like Roe, just like Miranda Rights, just like the Voting Rights Act - they will gut civil rights and established precedent on the altar of their Originalism and make us beholden to the tenets of their personal Gods.

And they're doing it in public too, so they can signal to everyone who thinks like them to keep trying, you have friends here. You have a sure chance of victory.

At the very least, the lesbian with mad game won her case.

#Samuel Alito is still an Originalist Piece of Shit #Supreme Court #US Supreme Court #Homophobia #Religious Liberty #is just just draping your beliefs with a cloak of righteousness #where are court cases against cities that make it illegal to feed the hungry and homeless? #where are the court cases against Texas or Florida about the dignity of refugees? #why does ''Religious Liberty'' always mean ''My right to treat people like Less Because God Says So'' #and nothing about values Jesus actually talked about? #all they want the law to do is protect themselves and THEIR interests - and bind everyone else #Christian Nationalism #Originalism

[arschbiene]

did rome ever see germania with his kids?

#hws prusisa #hws germania #hws rome #hetalia #storybooklings #some people would argue that no he wouldn't #but they're not delusional like i am #i just think it'd be funny if religious change gave nations the runs #anyway children will keep you humble #aph prussia #aph rome #aph germania #i tried resizing this to not be blurry but it won't so click for big and crisp

[marbledew]

Do you condemn the murder of children? Or is it complicated when it’s middle eastern children? When it’s brown children? When it’s Muslim children? Is it complicated when they don’t speak English? When you can’t understand their cries for help? Is it complicated when the news tells you it is? When they lie? Is it complicated because you can’t let go of the idea that your friends and your politicians know everything, or is it complicated because you don’t care for the lives dying in this genocide?

The evidence is undeniable by anybody with a shred of morals and a brain at all. Only the uneducated, stupid, ignorant, or evil continue to support the Israeli government’s war crimes, genocide, and apartheid state. It isn’t antisemetic to support Palestine, it’s the intellectually and morally correct stance. Free Palestine, fuck Israel.

#also not all Palestinians are Muslim #which wasn’t something I was intending to say there #and I hold no hate in my heart for Judaism #the state of Israel does not represent Judaism or the religious nation of israel #genocide #this is genocide #end the genocide #stop the genocide #gaza genocide #stop genocide #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #palestine #gaza strip #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #israel is a terrorist state #palestine will be free

[gael-garcia]

Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), dir. Elia Suleiman

On the one hand, there is a man sitting in front of the Holy Land. I am there, as part of the scene, as part of the place, but I'm there with a sense of alienation. I'm stagnating. For me this is what it is like to be in a ghetto. I wanted to convey that sense that nothing is happening, nothing is moving. Nazareth has that air. Now on the other hand there is the Biblical sense of the place, which I chose to represent as a commodity. According to this view we are not a nation or people, we are simply products to buy and take home, and we exist in the midst of something ancient. When Israel took this country, they made a minority out of the Palestinians, they ghettoized them. And they took their image as a product for consumer consumption. (x)

currently on the netflix catalogue

#chronicle of a disappearance #elia suleiman #filmedit #gifs #“israel's national snack” #“patrolling the border” #palestine #dailyworldcinema #so many religious catholics around me in my old work talking about wanting to visit the holy land... like it isnt violently occupied #filmtag

[didoofcarthage]

The Presentation at the Temple in the Dark Manner by Rembrandt van Rijn

Dutch, c. 1653

etching and drypoint on paper

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

#Rembrandt #Rembrandt van Rijn #religious art #art #baroque #Dutch #Dutch Golden Age #works on paper #etching #drypoint #NGA DC #National Gallery of Art

[chaiaurchaandni]

25/2/1994 - Ibrahimi mosque massacre, Palestine - "It never leaves you, people tell me I don't laugh anymore."

#israel - nation of religious extremists with a rich history in terrorism #free palestine #palestine #gaza #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #notice the accents of the people in the video .... #death to israel #glory to the martyrs #long live palestine #long live the resistance #israel

[elbiotipo]

Unrelated (really, unrelated), but it's interesting that there is a conception that the Greek Gods (as in the Olympians and such) are considered the heritage of our current Western culture, when they never remained as static and "canonical" as most Greek mythology fans seem to believe. During the Hellenistic period, as Greek culture spread through Alexander's conquests and Greek colonizations the gods and their importance varied. It's really interesting that as big empires with multicultural populations (Hellenistic Egypt, the Romans) arose, there also arose "universal" gods, like Serapis and the spread of Hellenic philosophy. And then with the Romans who weren't exactly Hellenistic, but they continued these dynamics with the Interpretatio Graeca, mystery cults, the interaction with Zoroastrian beliefs. And of course, the rise of Christianity at the end of this period.

And I'm not saying this in the "the Romans were tolerant" sense, but as how religion evolved and adapted as empires spread.

Of course, I'm mostly talking in a religious sense here, as in people actually worshipping the gods. In the sense that they are "myths" and fables, that could be another way of looking at them, but that mostly, I think, dates from the interest on Grecorroman culture from the Renaissance onwards. The Middle Ages weren't as influenced by Hellenism.

#cosas mias #some real interesting parallels there with the 'evolution' of Yaweh from the national god of the Israelites but one of many #to the universal one God of later Abrahamic religions #but it's never as simple as that just pointing out a comparison #I'm also conflating the Hellenistic period and the later Romans but they really had a lot of similarities religiously speaking #as in previously small *cultures* found themselves as rulers of massive empires

[odinsblog]

This is definitely a trend for the hateful, christofascist, religious reich. Hobby Lobby did the same thing at previous Super Bowls.

It’s right wing, Islamophobic, homophobic, anti-abortion Christian nationalism, masquerading as “caring” religion.

The Servant Foundation: the power behind the ads

The $20 million "He Gets Us" campaign about Jesus - is funded by an influential donor to some of the most active and litigious Shadow Network groups working to undermine church-state separation.

The Servant Foundation

The Servant Foundation, also known as The Signatry, is behind the “He Gets Us” ad campaign that debuted during the 2023 Super Bowl. Over the next three years, the Servant Foundation plans to spend “about a billion dollars” toward this public relations campaign. They’ve hired a PR firm to address, in the firm’s words, the problem of “How did the world’s greatest love story in Jesus become known as a hate group?”

Of course, they’re the cause of their own problem – not only has the Servant Foundation funded hate groups, but the PR firm, Haven, has represented these organizations. Key Shadow Network members Focus on the Family and Alliance Defending Freedom are in their portfolio. ADF is a noted anti-LGBTQ hate group that has argued repeatedly in courts that religion, and specifically Christianity, is a license to discriminate; they have one such case pending before the Supreme Court right now.

The money trail

The Servant Foundation is one of ADF’s biggest financial backers. A recent exposé reports that, “between 2018-20, the Servant Foundation donated more than $50 million to the Alliance Defending Freedom and that those contributions “were among the five largest donations given out by the foundation in each of those three years.”

Other recipients of the Servant Foundation’s billion dollars in assets include:

Nearly $8 million went to Answers in Genesis, creationist Ken Ham’s fundamentalist ministry behind the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, an organization that has been championed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a former ADF attorney.

Over $1 million was designated for the anti-LGBTQ Campus Crusade for Christ (rebranded as “Cru” since 2011).

$374,800 went to Al Hayat Ministries, an organization that seeks to “respectfully yet fearlessly unveil the deception of Islam,” and runs an Arabic-language Christian satellite TV station with the goal of converting Muslims to Christianity.

In 2020 alone, we found donations to prominent Shadow Network members American Center for Law and Justice, First Liberty Institute, and Liberty Counsel.

(continue reading)

#politics #super bowl #republicans #christian nationalism #lgbt #homophobia #christofascism #religious reich #lgbtq #jesus gets us #the servant foundation #no hate like christian love #the signatry #alliance defending freedom #adf

[lionofchaeronea]

The three Magi before Herod. Stained glass by an unknown French artist, early 15th century, restored by F. Pivet in 1999. Now in the Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris.

#Epiphany #liturgical year #Three Wise Men #art #art history #Middle Ages #medieval #medieval art #stained glass #grisaille #French art #15th century art #Musée national du Moyen Âge #religious art #Christian art #Christianity

[sugas6thtooth]

#free palestine #palestine #gaza #free gaza #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #pray for palestine #ramadan #genocide #ceasefire #permanent ceasefire #islam #religious #religion #israel #israel is committing genocide #america #usa #united nations #hind khoudary

[secular-jew]

This was Iran before medieval clerics somehow took control.

Tehran, 1970 ⬆️👆🏻⬆️👆🏻

#iran #israel #secular-jew #jewish #judaism #israeli #jerusalem #diaspora #secular jew #secularjew #islam #iranian #iran news #sanaya irani #smriti irani #middle east #syria #lebanon #damascus #united nations #jihad #theocracy #totalitarianism #authoritarianism #despotic #despots #religious rule #dictator #misogyny #misogny