While we're interpreting the Pope's death right after Vance's visit in a certain humorous way, you'd better believe that a significant number of anti-Catholic evangelicals and Mormons will see it as Vance single-handedly conquering the church of the devil.
@jmagi828 This whole thread.
https://mastodon.social/@KydiaMusic/114372331256974482
KydiaMusic@mastodon.social - Happy Easter!
I gots so many Jesus memes.
PREPARE THYSELF. 
#holyweek #humour #humornegro
#HumourNoir #funny #cartoon
#viernesdememes #memercredi
#easter #jesus #jesusmemes #exvangelical
ALT-TEXT: Line ink drawing. Three figures rest at the foot of a hill after shooting a scene, as suggested by a film camera in the background. The Father rests on a tree wearing a long robe. He resembles the artist (bald bearded old man) and holds a bottle to his mouth. The Son sits at his feet. He is Jesus Christ in a crown of thorns, carelessly smoking a cigarrete. Bottom figure (The Holy Ghost), most likely the filmaker, wears a baseball cap and sunglasses. Papers hang from his right hand, above a holy bible full of page markings. The scene has a burned-out heavy feel, as if having been played too many times. It is signed as Diaz/79. Hugo Diaz Jimenez was known for decades of prolific heavy political satire in #CostaRica Central America.
After all, the God of the Christian Bible as widely interpreted is awfully authoritarian. You couldn't find a better example of squishy principles, double-standards, might makes right, the ends justify the means, cruelty is the point, justice as defined by punishment, punishment that vastly outsizes the crime, transactional love, exclusion as a definitive value, hierarchy based on birthright as the perfect system, torture as a test of character, speaking love but not practicing it...
Almighty makes Alrighty.
It's a perfect fit for abusers. They shaped God into that figure, as the Bible was being written thousands of years ago, in how it was translated and encoded into traditions centuries ago, and in how they interpret it today. Whether at the top of the chain as a prophet or pope, or in the downline as a impoverished drunk who beats his kids, authoritarians are preferenced in the religious culture that has claimed a monopoly on love and morality.
And nobody really wins. Not the prophet or pope, and not the impoverished drunk or his kids. After a time, the system is the only entity that "wins" as it feeds on every human being involved.
Have you ever thought to yourself, "You know, I could just *stop* trying to be a good person, or stop trying to do X thing they say I'm supposed to do... I could just lie and go on doing that thing"? And then you probably decided, naw, my reasons for doing the good thing are fairly solid, so I will keep trying to do what I'm supposed to even if it's hard."
Yeah, there are people who take the other fork. They stop trying to be kind, or be honest, or be giving, or trying to protect the weak, or any of those things. They decide that so long as they don't *get caught* they'll be fine.
Religion is supposed to help with that problem, because God knows everything and the myth goes that they'll be caught in the end. But there are many, many ways for a determined person to weasel their way out of that threat. Either they stop believing that myth and instead of leaving they stay and *pretend* to believe, or they rationalize that the ends according to them justify the means, or that they're inherently such a good person it's ok if they bend the rules now and then.
They took a different fork than you took. And they exist. They're out there. Or *in here*, wherever here is to you. And they get very, very good a lying.
Religious settings are perfect for them, because it's easier to lie about things that can't be seen, touched, heard, or proven. The Bible says this, God wants that, I had a dream, I felt prompted, and all the people who took the fork of continuing to try, but who believe the Bible and God? They eat it up.
That's why Christianity in the US is a bastion of Abuse Culture. Because this cycle has been going on for thousands of years.
For clarity, I am not dishing on the letter writers. Trust is not a crime. Naivety is not a crime. Giving one's best shot at defending someone from a miscarriage of spiritual justice is not a crime. Processing things with what you know about this world is not a crime. Their words will (editor willing) go into this book and stand as testament against religious authoritarianism, and against President Daley specifically.
I am simply referencing their approach as a way to educate on how we do need to change our thinking, in that someone who acts the way Daley did is not persuadable using ideas like "compassion" because he doesn't understand that worldview the way you and I do. And we need to get wise to that so they can stop running the world.
Learning about the abuser mindset makes me read differently the arguments people make in seeking justice or trying to get people and systems to stop being abusive.
When abuse is the point, "Stop doing this because it's harming people" won't work.
My client, Natasha Helfer, was excommunicated from the LDS Church for a number of things, including calling out abuse of authority. I'm editing letters of support people sent that Stake President, for inclusion in the book.
They're like, "I'm a true believer, please don't excommunicate Sister Helfer, this is how she helped me escape abuse, or helped my daughter process her assault, or helped my gay kid, or saved my mental health from debilitating shame," and I'm reading them with President Daley's authoritarian mind (yeah, sue me, prick, your actions are clear), or with the mind of "the system," and like, naw, hun, this will not phase an abuser, who thinks you deserved it, your child needs to change, that guy is an acceptable casualty for the Lord, and haha you suckers you haven't even begun to figure out how this works, have you?
And I was thinking last night about the word "predator" while watching a homesteading show. Where the bears and cougars had people crying and ready to give up. You think "predator" is an insult to someone who does those things to women and kids? Naw, hun, that's a BADGE OF HONOR to some of those creeps. They like people crying and running around helplessly failing to stop them. They get off more on that than on the predation. Even better when they can trick a congregation full of "christlike" people to defend them and heap further abuse on a victim.
Some abusers are unconscious, and maybe this kind of language might sway them or at least shame them. For sure.
But the ones who are fully aware of who they are? Who have created an entire worldview around their impulses?
All of this pain and chaos is the point.
That's #AbuseCulture.
This is a long way to say: If you don't understand the effects of cognitive dissonance, and don't unpack your own internal contradictions, you can be more easily manipulated into behaviors and beliefs you would not *consciously* agree with.
If you like free agency and are a big fan of free will, this is the sort of thing you need to work on.
#philosophy
#atheism
#theism
#exvangelical
#exvie
#exmormon
#exmo
#ReligiousTrauma
#AbuseCulture
Theological concepts like "The Problem of Evil" aren't just atheist gotchas. The contradictions within certain theologies can exist unawares within the minds of believers, causing dissonance that comes out in ways that perpetuate and allow harms to continue.
For instance, even if a Christian believer has not consciously considered the Problem of Evil, they will still feel this contradiction whenever it is encountered:
1. God is good.
2. God is omnipotent.
3. God allows evil to exist.
They will have many sideways methods of resolving this discomfort, which will vary from person to person and from situation to situation.
They may, for instance, lean on Just World views (the feeling that the world is automatically fair and so if someone is disadvantaged they must have done something to deserve it) when it comes to LGBTQ issues. God is good, and omnipotent, so if a queer person is suffering, it isn't because their church community has stigmatized them or because church doctrines about God's will are wrong (or further, that God might not exist or might not be good), no it must be proof that being queer is sinful and they deserve their suffering.
This same formula applies in many other areas, including towards abuse victims.
The contradictions within many popular forms of theism are not harmless. They get resolved, usually unconsciously, by organizations and individuals. When they are resolved without mindful consideration of the consequences, people get hurt.
For abusers and powertrippers? This is by design, to their benefit, and more likely to be conscious.
“But don't tell me that no one who isn't Christian can be truly moral, and that no one who is truly Christian can be immoral, because that's not flying.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/strongwilled/p/wild-faith-an-interview-with-talia?r=3g116p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email #exvangelical
"Why don't I have grandchildren???"
— boomer whose death cult eagerly tries to hasten the end of the world
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZsR...
CHRISTIANS will HATE this COMEDY SKIT | Welcome To Evangelical Christianity! #comedy #exvangelical
CHRISTIANS will HATE this COME...
@forestine I can't find the post, but did you write something the other day about community not having to be "in person?" I liked that. I've signed off Facebook which houses my old "in-person" community of church people who I haven't seen in 15+ years. I am in community in Discord and on the fediverse, but it's people I've never met. I've been blogging about #Exvangelical books and the last chapter of these always talk about finding new community and if the only way we can do it is online, it should not be discounted. Thanks.
Oooooh I almost came out to my mom tonight via text (she's Deaf & I'm GenX so neither of us uses our phone as a phone).
I think I gave her enough hints that "the talk" she's been trying to avoid for decades is gonna have to happen soon.
Y'know that old canard about how you start out as a young progressive hippie and over time as you get older you become more conservative?
That *totally didn't happen* for me. I've been on the exact opposite journey. 
And I'm ready to tear down the whole fucking establishment. 
Gee, I wonder what my Young Evangelical Republican self would think of me now?! 
#blog 
#minimalism #exvangelical https://jaredwhite.com/20250302/hippie-roots
Are you really even #exvangelical if you haven’t judged your PK* friend in your heart because you’ve read through the bible numerous times and they haven’t done it even once?
*pastor’s kid
One of the biggest bummers of the decade is millions of Christian’s finally escaping the clutches of a toxic Christianity, only to have the Government / country be taken over by the same toxic cult. #exvangelical #christianity #maga #cult
Man, I'm so glad I grew up in a city where it was a little weird to be an evangelical. I could have taken a very different path if that culture had been more difficult to fall out of.
