You know who didn’t block sex-workers and Queer people? Jesus.

(Jesus offends the religious authorities more than a few times because of His associations, notably “prostitutes”–with a later tradition holding that the woman to whom Jesus’ return from death was first revealed, Mary Magdalene, was herself a sex-worker; as for Queer followers in the Bible, Jesus makes reference to “eunuchs” and Jesus Himself seems to fit on the asexual scale)

My mom never used iTunes on her phone, meaning she never once put any music on her phone, and so she was completely confused/angry when she’d get in her car and suddenly it would pair and start playing this U2 album. She didn’t know how to stop it, so it would play over and over (she’d just drop the volume). It also didn’t help that the cover art is among the gayest things to ever appear on her phone screen. I’d come home to visit and get in her car and she’d just start hollering “this stupid thing, where did this come from?!?”

Especially if they had it answer you like it was the head butler on Downton Abbey or something!

I went to rural Thailand back in 2007 to teach English for a month with a group from my university. Our plane died at the gate in Miami and, in order to make all of our connections to get to Thailand we made last minute changes that put us on Thai Air from LAX. Best damn flight I’ve ever been on and it was in basic, seated in the absolute middle of the middle section and I’m someone who’s unable to sleep on a plane unless I have the window. So I was awake for most of those 17.5 hours. Plane was beautiful, crew was beautiful and friendly. There was framed art on the walls and multiple full meals on the flight.

EDIT: Forgot to finish before I posted. The trip back we took Northwestern Airlines and, hoo boy. Meals were served out of a sense of obligation, stacked at last seat of the row to be passed out ourselves. When we hit the part where they wanted people’s seat backs and tray tables up they just went down the row and grabbed end seats with people asleep in them and pushing them up. Such a stark difference.

Okay, now I see where you’re coming from. If you actually want to engage with some different thinking about Christianity, here’s a thing I wrote a ways back regarding same-sex marriage and the Church. It’s not perfect and was debated a fair bit on a different Lemmy thread several weeks back, but I think it helps introduce some key thinking about this topic. But for some reason I suspect that you’re not interested in a good-faith discussion.

I’m not sure I understand this question. It’s literally a church and it defines itself as part of the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” same as the Roman Catholic Church does. That latter part is debated by the Roman Catholic Church (but even Pope Paul VI was open to the fact that Anglican Christianity sits in a space quite different from that of “Protestantism” writ large–the Episcopal Church is part of the global community of Anglican churches, being rooted in the Church of England).

Periodic reminder: the Episcopal Church exists. Has all the rituals and sacraments, the Apostolic Succession, but also ordains women and Queer people to the priesthood and blesses their marriages. The Episcopal Church is present in Germany (part of the Episcopal Church in Europe, formerly known as the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe).

I realize that. One of the guys who helped out as a grounds-keeper would wear a fleece-lined coat when outside. In Northeast Thailand. In June. He claimed that when a breeze came through the sleeves it cooled you down. Sure.

I also went to college with a Japanese girl who took up surfing. Her family would criticize her for how dark her skin had gotten. It was amusing to me, as an American, how we came to prize darker skin (but not too dark, yeah?) and the same companies that sold us “bronzers” and stuff sold creams that did the opposite in other parts of the world.

I knew of a lot of racist types in my youth (so, 25+ years ago) who would encourage kids to learn Mandarin because “in a few years we’ll all be working for them.”

Was in Thailand years ago helping out with an English-language program in a rural area. Noticed in the department stores when we went into town that Jergens sells a lot of lotions with “skin lightening” in the marketing…

This makes me wonder: what is the Mandarin-language equivalent of the American “Karen?”

Acts of the Apostles (written by Saint Luke). Saint Peter is recorded as having a vision of Jesus telling him to eat non-kosher foods. This is all a means to let Saint Peter know that Gentiles are not be treated as “unclean.”

I can’t think of a single instance where Saint Paul mentions pork.

Agreed.

I mean, it’s my favorite book of the Bible. But it’s the most easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. The whole thing is an allegory written in a particular kind of prose, drawing on tropes common to a genre of writing scholars call “apocalypse.” But given that even lifelong Christians are unaware of this fact means that this is definitely not the book to recommend reading as an entry point. Unless you’re looking for inspiration for something to airbrush on the side of your bitchin’ van (hopefully one with a crescent moon bubble window on the back). Then by all means flip to the section right before the maps and get to sketching!

Be sure you don’t say this in front of an Orthodox Christian…

Well, I’d argue that most of MAGA is evangelical, who tend to view Catholicism as either “fake Christianity” or a kind of quaint remnant of an older time that Protestantism fixed (and evangelicalism perfected). So most of them are already on board with the idea that the Pope is bad.

Came here to say this! The ol’ Reverse Midas!

To be fair, that guy IS on social media. A lot.

May 21, 2011 was supposed to be the rapture or end of the world or whatever. I remember this because it was also my wedding day. Lived outside DC at the time and there were all these people holding signs and wearing shirts about it. We joked about getting a few for my bachelor party (“ha ha the world is ending on that day … FOR HIM!”). Never did it. But I had a great wedding.

Yeah I’m not convinced that this site is accurate. According to this my blog pollutes more than facebook . com (I’m apparently as dirty as netflix . com) and is only slightly dirtier than newyorktimes . com… And images . google . com gets an A… I ain’t buying it.

Apparently Godzilla is sleeping beneath this road and REALLY needs to pee