Oh gird.

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Over on Instagram, I trolled Julie Ferwerda for choosing to use the archaic form of magic in the caption of a recent post.

Magick.

Whatever.

All I wrote was, “magick. 🙄”

Her response was short and sweet: “Nice to hear from you. Long time. You’re as amiable and open-minded as ever, I see. 🤩”

What a ridiculous non sequitur.

I wrote back: “Oh no. I’m close minded. Almost as much as you are.”

She responded, “Me? The Good fundamentalist Christian girl turned polyamorous, agnostic, witchy, simulation theorist? 🤣😎🔥🤪 A lot of water under the bridge since we last talked.

Me: “oh gird. That just makes you normal, average really. Make no mistake, we’re not friends. You made that clear when you unfriended me for being so closed minded. You’re far from special for finding out who you are just like everyone else.”

Moments later, I got a text from her saying she’d like to clear things up. Then jabbed hard with a missive text that derided. me for my past efforts to correct her wayward ship of crazy conspiracy theories. We had a back and forth. Which was mainly me attacking her for her conspiracy-riddled views on vaccinations. And her woman-spraining the dangers of not accepting her “opinions” on vaccinations. Which she clearly believes whole-heartedly and drops every trope possible defending her indefensible position on what she’s been brainwashed to call “gene therapy.”

Continue reading “Oh gird.” →

When you dig in to your biblical studies

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This Christian influencer kind of loses her marbles in real time as she reads a Judges 19:22-30 as part of her morning devotional time.

These are the moments in my evangelical history when I would start scratching my head a little harder and finding myself in awe of how impossible the text can be.

Versions of this story happen multiple times in the Hebrew bible, and from what I understand, it was less about homosexuality and more about the act of hospitality being prioritized over all virtues, which is why a father offered a daughter in lieu of a guest.

It shows how immoral biblical values really are, and how so much of it can not be trusted or referenced as somehow superior to other values/ideas/worldviews.

“I took anger management classes. Here’s what they get wrong about the world”

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This article written by Olivia Watson at the Guardian is worth a read. For me, anyway. I have anger issues. Held them my entire life. I’m currently angry at this former nurse who still claims the vaccine is killing athletes.

Jesus Christ.

Happy Reading:

There are six rules of anger management, says my anger workbook. The first rule: “STOP, think, take a look at the BIG picture.” Then, because why use lower-case when you’ve got capitals: “ANGER MANAGEMENT IS A THINKING PERSON’S GAME!”

But thinking, it turns out soon into the course, is discouraged. “I’m not here to psychoanalyze you,” says our group leader, a self-styled anger management guru. “I’m just here to help you follow the program. If you follow the program, you’ll see results.” Later, after one question too many, he tells me: “The problem with you, Olivia, is that you like to complicate things.”

Maybe so, but I ended up in anger management for a simple reason: I’ve always been hot-headed. Sometimes my anger has been explosive, leaving disaster in its wake, and sometimes it’s pointed inwards, manifesting in depression. It was there throughout a childhood with stressed parents who loved me but occasionally snapped under the grinding pressures of work and child-rearing, and there during an adolescence characterized largely by alcohol-fueled outbursts

“When an actual Scholar meets a Twitter monkey.”

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

This is an amazing response to the hog-tied minds of people who gather news/information from illegitimate resources only to regurgitate it without second, third, fourth or fifth guessing.

I once called out a conservative for this, calling him uncreative. If the only thing we ever say or write or share is stuff we hear from the squawk box or even the pulpit, it makes for some resoundingly boring conversations.

We all deserve better.

Chick-Fil-A rustles some feathers

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The CEO of Chick-Fil-A has awoken to some negative press from hardcore conservatives who don’t want to hear a message of inclusion & a passion for diversity.

I don’t understand how this is even a controversy. But I’ll embrace it. People need to recognize the pain and suffering of black Americans throughout history and to go above and beyond to bridge the gap that is wider and deeper than we could imagine.

Because the party is full of assholes like this:

Minnesotastan: “Dolly Parton for President”

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

This is the best nominee for president that I can possibly imagine. You’ll have to read the whole piece, but here’s a snip:

Seriously.  Dolly Parton is the only person who can unite the brutally divided partisan voters of this country.  She is eminently qualified to represent the values this country claims to hold dear.

Allow me to anticipate the potential objections:

“She wouldn’t have the right qualifications for being president of the country”

Constitutional requirements for the president:  a natural-born citizen at least 35 years old and a resident of the country for at least 14 years.  Box checked.  Moving on.

Read it!

An Open Letter To Ron DeSantis From The Lincoln Project

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From the good folks at the Lincoln Project:

May 24, 2023 – The following is an open letter to Ron DeSantis from the Lincoln Project regarding his announcement that he’s running for President:

Dear Ron,

Congratulations on entering the 2024 Presidential primary process. Running for President is a life-altering event that will challenge your mental and physical abilities to the utmost.

But first, let’s cut to the chase: you’re going to get absolutely destroyed. Your awkwardness, disdain for people, and general disgust with the process, won’t help while you’re shaking countless hands in distant diners or standing in the middle of a fair posing for pictures with a butter cow.

You think you are owed a win, but you’ve never been attacked like Trump will wreck you. Your height, your recent and sudden weight loss, your terrible political judgment, the bad advice from domineering advisors, will all be fair game to Trump. He’s going to go through you like fingers through pudding. You’re too weak and afraid of Trump and his MAGA cult members to fight him to win.

It was a brilliant move to announce on Twitter so you don’t have to talk to real people or answer real questions. It’s just you and Elon Musk – a South African who believes that the radical right deserves their own space to scream racist tropes, promote political violence, and push a bizarre culture war. It won’t re-energize your already failing campaign with its fleeing donors and falling poll numbers, but it was worth a shot!

Read the whole thing.

What Dan McClellan is posting

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I’ve been following Dan McClellan for a few months now. I’ve posted his work before. It’s the best current source for biblical scholarly information on the internets.

I learned something new from him the other day, the proper pronunciation of “Yeshua.” It’s in the first video below. I always thought it was “Yesh-ooo-Ah”. But I have no basis for pronunciation apart from sounding it out the way it looked. Apparently it’s more: “Yesh-oo-aque.” But I’ll probably never say it that way.

For clarity, back in the heyday of this blog, I had coined a term for how insanely difficult it is to leave the church in the south, because it’s so monstrously prevalent and restrictive. I called it the Yeshua Fog. Or The Jesus Fog, because I read a book that created an idea that it’s more accurate to refer to Jesus as Yeshua or Joshua. According to the below video that might not be accurate either. (see, learning shit).

To me, the Yeshua fog is so dense and impenetrable, that one cannot see their way out of it, unless they move to a location where questioning, whole-hearted, whole-body, whole mind, spirit and intellect of seeking is not only allowed but unperturbed and therefore possible. Otherwise, you may make strides, but the dense fog will always force a certain connection to the intensely fenced in world known as evangelicalism will hold you down and keep you obedient to its oppressive nature.

The term was inspired by my drives between my home in High Point, NC and college near Asheville NC. Then later from drives between NC and Illinois. During certain times, a fog cloud would get caught on the southeast side of the drive up the Appalachian mountains that it would bring traffic to a crawl. But I knew that after a certain distance at the top, I’d hit a clearing of sunlight and visibility that was like a majestic crescendo of trumpets and orchestral bliss. That, dear reader, is what it’s like to free yourself from the bonds of the fog. It’s majestic. It feels so so good. And I wish more people were able to find their way out of the crawl.

I also loved hearing the scholarly information on the authorship of Pastoral Epistles. And the one below it on women’s place in the church.

Enjoy.

Work the heart and brain harmoniously

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Tom Robbins // “It doesn’t matter how sensitive you are or how damn smart and educated you are, if you’re not both at the same time, if your heart and your brain aren’t connected, aren’t working together harmoniously, well, you’re just hopping through life on one leg. You may think you’re walking, you may think you’re running a damn marathon, but you’re only on a hop trip. The connections gotta be maintained.”