#there is such a big disconnect between the institutions themselves and the faith itself | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

butwhatifidothis · 3 years

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I also think that part of the reason why the church gets so much hate is because of how much general distrust there is in organized religion in real life. Like I went into Three Houses trying to keep an open mind and during White Clouds I really couldn't see what was so heinously wrong with the church even during the Lonato thing that made the institution so much worse than what Edelgard was inciting. I could be totally wrong but I was under the impression that Rhea didn't squash the insurrection because they were a part of the Western Church but because they were actively rebelling and, on top of that, Lonato was bringing civilians into the conflict. That, along with the fact that Rhea knows for an absolute fact that the goddess existed and that she herself is old as dirt (trauma included) makes her decisions make a lot of sense.

I'm playing through AM with my friend who's never played before and they IMMEDIATELY said they distrusted the church because Jeralt doesn't like Rhea (for understandable reasons but my friend also ignored his very sus behavior of not explaining literally anything to Byleth) and because organized religions must be inherently bad.

It’s something that’s heavily related to a player’s inability to separate the reality of their specific circumstances with those of the fiction they’re consuming. They implant their experiences onto things that are only somewhat related and then extrapolate “facts” about the fiction that are, many times, actively shut down and/or disproven by that fictions lore or story or plot.

And, like, it’s normal to relate fictional things to your personal stories if you see connections to them. I’d wager a good amount of people find some aspect of a character they like/love that sticks out to them specifically because of a similarity they share of some kind, whether big or small. I know of people who’s fave superhero is The Flash because The Flash is fast and they ran track and hey, that’s cool, a superhero who’s ability is running really fuckin’ fast and I wanna be really fuckin’ fast. To use myself as an example, I can relate to the struggles Claude specifically has with race because many of the things he says correlate very well to my personal experiences with race. So, going by that line of logic, the opposite is clearly going to happen as well; there are many villains, or characters of either or neither allegiance towards good and evil, who have traits that personally affect someone in a negative way.

But here’s the thing about that... Claude and I have similar experiences with race. He’s still a prince, and I’m still someone who’s never seen above the poverty line in terms of income. He’s never had to live off a box of Whoppers he happened to find under his bed for three days to hold off until the food stamps come in because there’s just no food and no money to get any food. And on the flip side, I’ve never had people try to kill me just cuz I’m mixed. I’ve never felt the pressure of having to lead thousands of people to safety or have them die, directly due to my inability to lead them well enough. We still have extremely different lives and I can acknowledge those differences when looking into his character, regardless of whatever connection I may have with him otherwise, and that’s where these people fail in terms of critically consuming 3H as a piece of media.

These people - understandably, to an extent - look at Rhea, this devout religious woman who heads a major religious institution, and they automatically connect the language she uses as a devout religious person to the negative experiences they personally had with religion... without acknowledging the differences between the two. They see Rhea and they don’t see a bisexual who surrounds herself with and gives shelter to former criminals, foreigners, and people in need of a home while asking for little in return - they see their local pastor, or some other religious leader/person, who’ve done them wrong, and thus Rhea hates gay people, she hates POC, she’s a zealot and unreasonable and she’s this terrible person with no redeeming qualities. And this isn’t me arm-chair psychology-ing these people - they poke fun at themselves about how much they let their personal experiences cloud their judgement of the game and its characters with bingo cards for liking Edelgard having “raised with religion” be one of the slots and things like that.

And really, why else would “religious institution led by white-presenting race of people” be automatically turned into “racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and violent to any who aren’t their religion” when 1) one of the main characters - the one calling Rhea racist - himself eventually says that racial diversity fits well and snug in the Seiros faith, 2) not only is the leader and founder of the religion a bisexual woman, but no one says anything about having their love be confined to one specific gender anywhere, with heavily coded LGBT relationships like Shamir+Catherine and Dorothea+Petra being just as LGBT coded in SS - where Rhea can potentially come back as archbishop - as anywhere else - hell, when one of the most devout followers of Rhea clearly is romantically interested in her and faces no repercussions or consequences for openly being so despite being female herself, and 3) the Church only ever uses violence when either called from the outside for help or forced to when outside forces try to attack them? Why are we hearing all of these awful things about the Church when it sometimes is never even implied?

It’s in large part due to religion being such a sensitive part of people’s lives that they are unable to disconnect their personal experiences with religion with the fictional religion the media they’re interacting with provides them. Rhea, as a devout religious leader, especially with how genuinely morally gray she is, was never going to land well over here in the west, double especially to an audience of people that very clearly are already inclined to ignore pieces of the game’s story, lore, plot, and character interactions to fit their own preferred version of what’s happening. Triple fuckin’ wombo-combo especially since the game itself fails to do Rhea any favors until the literal last second of two out of four routes and only shove in her directly admitting she was wrong in her actions in the hardest support chain to build up in the entire game, and even then only at the last part of it. Poor girly didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell

#ask #anon #like are there people who are overall unaffected by religion and still dislike Rhea? more than likely #but it's hard to argue that people shoving Rhea in a box of their own personal making regardless of whether she fits or not #has NOTHING to do with how much she is disliked #hope I'm makin' sense lmao

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cedrickudowor · 7 years

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Understand Your Perspective in Life And Make The Best Out of It.

I’ll keep this short and as such provide a general synopsis: that is ‘everything in life is a matter of perspective’. I recently embarked on assignment to El Salvador to gain personal enlightenment if you will. As part of a team working with Living Water International, I embarked on a week-long mission to successfully drill and install a well pump in an under-served community several miles south of El Carmen (closest town on the map).

Instead of presenting a case study, here in itself, of benefits and importance of international pro bono-ism or even a simple rationalization of the merits of it, I will simply notate a few takeaways from my experience. In the very least, I hope this post and its timing may be propitious to your personal endeavors, whatever they may be.

1) Trips like these serve as a humbling reminder: El Salvador is in many ways much like Ghana (where I grew up until age 11). The country’s infrastructure provided a sense of nostalgia however, by venturing outside of the capital I’m is quickly reminded of the disparities that exists within developing countries. Unfortunately, like Ghana, there is at times a heavy reliance on foreign aid in attempts to alleviate the stresses its government faces in social, micro and macroeconomic contexts. Living in an industrialized nation like the US, it is quite easy to overlook accessibility to clean running water, reliable power, or even road access to schools and hospitals and even take them for granted. As I iterated in my opening sentence, it all a matter of perspective. I grew up in a country much like El Salvador so I quickly share a similar understanding for the importance of effecting change whenever the opportunity arises especially in establishing a foundation for providing clean drinking water to providing medical services and everything in between. To my fellow transplants, expatriates, and immigrants: I challenge you to understand where you came from [know your history], distinguish where you are [establish yourself], and always stay principled [be the domain for greater good]. In my opinion, if we remain steadfast in our ambitions and drive, we can all be a beacon of prosperity even in the littlest volume to the countries we once were as well as to the country we now are :)

2) Material possessions are not essential to the equation for happiness: This is notion that has been preached time and time again over multiples mediums and in many facets of religion and faith so I need not explain this further. The simple joy witnessed from the various members of the community I had the pleasure of interacting with was a testament of their true happiness. Maybe a Psychologist/Philosopher can provide an answer to this puzzling question: How or why is someone so delighted to give or share a piece of their meal when they have so little and in some situations shouldn’t due to the mere fact they won’t have any for themselves? I experienced this multiple times during my time in the community and felt horrible to accept their gestures of kindness, even from the children! I mean real awful! I later understood it to be the culture here and to never decline any such gestures; but surely culture can’t be that ingrained and instituted in manner that even when it would be easily understandable and even acceptable to do quite the opposite, it’s not. Again, as a matter of perspective [and depending on your upbringing and social status], many of us have been conditioned to place greater importance on material possessions instead of placing far greater value on the relationships we have with one another. Being disconnected from the world really allowed me to re-connect with those intrinsic values.

3) People are not powerless…just disadvantage. History makes this point loud and clear even in the example of the current Salvadorian president whose background stems from one that was characteristically poor. This was a pivotal lesson for me especially considering the circumstances and purpose of the trip. I very much recognized that with determination and a little grit the ability to overcome such adversities are very much possible, but the journey can be made a little easier if those of us who are blessed, do our part and help. In the words of the great Robert Nesta Marley, “the greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” As such I implore you to connect with the youth in your local communities and even in at-risk areas whether that is through local organizations such as boys and Girls Club, YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, CASA just to name a few, or even through sports, church, etc.

There I kept it short. I could keep going on about how this trip further showed me the unwavering pride in the people of El Salvador or that love is truly universal, and like music, can transcend through different cultures, religions, races, etc. or even that happiness is an invaluable currency that cannot be easily monetized; but instead I decided to spare you :) If the purpose of this post was not clear, well then I make it clear in the following: understand your perspective in life and make the best out of it. If you can – do, and if you can’t – give to those so they may go out and do.

#el salvador #do good #perspective #lifes good #believe #on a mission #I missed a bunch of other tags but oh well #¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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