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Christian writer Mary Pezzulo has pointed out the irony that some evangelicals think it’s perfectly all right for Jesus to be portrayed as an animal yet draw the line when he’s given a woman’s voice. “Very Online conservative Christians really think that portraying Christ as a lion, a carnivorous beast with notoriously smelly urine who sleeps 23 hours a day and steals meat from hyaenas, is beautiful sacred art,” she wrote. “But having Christ portrayed by a woman is sacrilege.”
Stephen said
What Evangelicals worry about.
Christian writer Mary Pezzulo has pointed out the irony that some evangelicals think it’s perfectly all right for Jesus to be portrayed as an animal yet draw the line when he’s given a woman’s voice. “Very Online conservative Christians really think that portraying Christ as a lion, a carnivorous beast with notoriously smelly urine who sleeps 23 hours a day and steals meat from hyaenas, is beautiful sacred art,” she wrote. “But having Christ portrayed by a woman is sacrilege.”
Evangelicals: More of their toxic reality, which makes life less worth living for a full half of the human population. I wish they would hurry up and grow out of their stupidity.
Robert said
Doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. What are the chances the chances that liberal Christianity becomes dominant in the US?
Idk. I think we are still trying to figure out who we are, and how to relate to the bible as well. We need to have more going for us before we have something to offer to other people.
I’ve met some fundamentalist evangelical women who say that as long as men do the following verses then everything is okay and just as it should be:
Robert said
Doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. What are the chances the chances that liberal Christianity becomes dominant in the US?
I don’t think it will be a question of dominance. As Christianity loses its privileged position in our culture the saner flavors will simply accommodate and find their place. The less sane flavors will double down and get meaner and more vindictive as they decline. Opposition is persecution. Persecution is validation. There’ll be no end of trouble from these folks. The “Righteous Remnant” script was written long ago.
Robert said
Doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. What are the chances the chances that liberal Christianity becomes dominant in the US?
Fundamentalism seems to have adjusted to a round Earth and an Earth that revolves around the Sun. How long did that take?
What’s next? A longer than a 7 day creation story, and an Earth that is more than 6000 years old?
If Jesus had been born in Egypt, we’d have the Egyptian creation story at the beginning of our faith story. If he’d been born in England, we’d have the Druid creation story.
Faith and science can coexist – sometimes beautifully.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Dan Schmidt, an Assembly of God pastor and member of the Batavia City Schools board in New York, cast the lone vote against a senior class trip because students wanted to visit the Salem Witch Museum.
Schmidt called it a “Satanic” museum, urged “the church” to protest, and claimed Jesus would disapprove—even though the museum actually teaches visitors about the Salem witch trials and the persecution of innocent people.
Schmidt later admitted “I can’t really say that I know the history of it.”
Allow me to wholeheartedly recommend Hemant Mehta’s YouTube channel, ** you do not have permission to see this link **. He is. (Like me.) What sets him off is not religion per se but church/state separation issues. (Like me.) Mehta has a healthy sense of humor and is aware of what deserves mockery and what is worthy of criticism. (Like me.) If I was going to create an “Atheist” YT channel this most nearly resembles what I would shoot for. But Mehta does it so I don’t have to.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Certainly not the most pressing of the issues facing our troubled civilization but surely worth a thought and at least a moment’s regret. I guess the saddest part is that we’ve already raised generations of people who have no regrets simply because they have no idea what’s been lost.
Stephen said
The night sky is getting 10% brighter every year. We’re forgetting what darkness feels like
Certainly not the most pressing of the issues facing our troubled civilization but surely worth a thought and at least a moment’s regret. I guess the saddest part is that we’ve already raised generations of people who have no regrets simply because they have no idea what’s been lost.
The night sky can be beautiful and absolutely stunning, undimmed by all the human-made light.
Still, do we need to look at the other side of the coin? Do all these lights make our streets safer? If so, how much safer?
It seems like for everything there is a tradeoff and a price.
What are the right things to do?
BJH1960 said
My sister and brother-in-law returned from a trip to several of the National Parks.
This one she took in North Dakota.
Cool. A lot of those astronomy photos you see released from NASA are highly processed and color saturated. They’re beautiful but the actual night sky is more subtle and to me more beautiful because of it.
BJH1960 said
My sister and brother-in-law returned from a trip to several of the National Parks.
This one she took in North Dakota.
I wonder, are those colors gases showing up as a result of the sun’s light on them? What causes the colors to show? I see green and blue. What is that about??
Jill_L said
BJH1960 said
My sister and brother-in-law returned from a trip to several of the National Parks.
This one she took in North Dakota.
I wonder, are those colors gases showing up as a result of the sun’s light on them? What causes the colors to show? I see green and blue. What is that about??
In space photos the colors are usually determined by the composition of the gases and dust clouds being photographed. Brightness is a function of the length of the exposure. Generally and I underscore the word generally since nature loves exceptions, a red/pink glow indicates active star-forming clouds; glowing green/blue like this one usually means there’s a hot star nearby exciting the gas; red/orange is usually cooler gas clouds. The point here is that these gas clouds don’t glow on their own but are reflecting light from some other source.
Those magnificent NASA photos like ** you do not have permission to see this link **, nicknamed “The Cathedral” are the result of multiple, lengthy exposures and computer processing often using non-visible light wavelengths. This is not what you would see with the naked eye if you’re floating in space nearby. It would be much much darker. It’s interesting that a lot of sci-fi movies use special effects to reproduce this kind of spectacle not realizing that it wouldn’t really look like that with the naked eye even up close.
It’s frustrating sometimes to show people objects like the Orion Nebula in a telescope and they’re disappointed because they expect to see ** you do not have permission to see this link **. But even in binoculars, the Orion Nebula with it’s darker greenish red glow is still quite beautiful. And when you consider what it is, a nursery for new stars, more beautiful still.
Be careful friends, astronomy is a hobby that can quickly become an addiction. And it’s cheap. Get yourself an inexpensive pair of 7 X 35 mm binocs, a paperback with seasonal star charts and have at it! Unless you’re fortunate to live away from civilization the hard part will be finding clear dark night skies.
Robert said
Stephen said
We must learn to build tightly knit communities not based on believing silly and destructive ideas. Modern culture atomizes. All centrifugal force. I have no fix. But we evolved as a social species. I miss that belonging. But I saw too much to ever be able to settle for some gimcrack substitute for what I lost. Humans need community. And we’ve shown in the past that we’ll go for just about anything that will provide us that belonging even if it is held together with a rancid glue.Stephen, it looks like there’s one of these Sunday Assembly groups in or near Atlanta. It sounds like the kind of non-religious community you’ve expressed a desire for.
Sounds great. I know just where the meeting place is located, having lived in Atlanta for many years. The problem is that it’s a good hour’s drive away from where I am. Both ways.
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