As a follow-up to the “what’s the point” question: you recently posted about it being antisemitic to “save” a Jewish person or convert them to Christianity. If you say that being a Christian is about living a full life with all God intended, aren’t you doing a disservice by saying it’s wrong to share that with people of other religions? Obv. aggressively pressuring anyone to change their beliefs is wrong but to imply that any attempt at it is antisemitic/islamophobic/etc seems... backwards
Hi there! I’m going to answer this way more simplistically than the topic deserves; I invite Jewish persons or people of any non-Christian faith, or atheists, to offer more comment if they desire.
To begin with, my post on why I am a Christian was purposefully worded to describe why I, personally, am a Christian – I believe many other Christians likely can relate to what I wrote, but I have no desire to impose my feelings around the matter on others of any faith. I believe that other faiths offer other persons and groups access to a full, abundant life and to the Divine – I do not personally hold that Christianity is the “Only Way,” even while I admit that my personal suppositions regarding divinity as well as life after death are through a Christian lens.
It is a complicated balancing act to hold one’s own natural beliefs that their faith hold something special or unique (that’s why we choose the faith we do, whatever that is!) while respecting other faiths, particularly when we find ourselves a part of a culture’s privileged religion – as Christianity is in my country. I talk about that balancing act a little bit in my Youtube video with Leah.
So I personally do not advocate for trying to “convert” persons of just about any faith to Christianity, unless the person approaches me first (i.e., they seem interested, they have questions they’d like me to answer, they’d like my advice and support, etc.). The attempted conversion of Jewish persons in particular is highly problematic in the worst way.
For starters, Jewish persons already have a faith that offers them a beautiful relationship with God, with humanity, and with all Creation. It is a great disrespect to their faith to try to “save” them and “bring them to God” when they already have God. I am not going to try to force them into my faith when Christians doing that to Jewish persons has caused horrific harm and attempted genocide over the past two millennia.
It is antisemitic to try to convert Jewish people to Christianity because two thousand years of attempts have born terrible fruit. For a small example: as a hospital chaplain last fall I was taught to approach Jewish patients with the ultimate sensitivity due to the fact that many of them are extremely wary of Christian chaplains because we used to try to baptize them sneakily, without their consent!!! while they were in the hospital, a very vulnerable place!!!! not too many decades back!!! For a larger example: in many cultures across Christian history, Jewish persons were forced to choose between conversion and either execution or expulsion. I commend to you this wikipedia article and the links therein for more on that history.
I take my cue regarding this topic from Christian denominations as varied as PC(USA) and the Methodist Church and the Roman Catholic Church. These denominations have all “entered into dialog with American Jews, while discontinuing any efforts to convert them. They have gone beyond rejecting anti-semitism, and beyond simple tolerance. They now value Judaism as a “sister” religion with whom they have much in common, and from which they have much to learn. The dialog is conducted between the two religions as equals in a spirit of honest seeking” (source).
The Catholic Church also issued a document several years back called “The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable” solidifying the post-Vatican II decision that "the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews” (source).
I also appreciate this article on Christian privilege that states that one can follow Jesus’ Great Commission without trying to assimilate the whole world to Christianity:
Not only do we as Christians benefit from Christian privilege, we’re actually proud of it. We tout it as a victory. The more that culture becomes “Christianized” the more we’ve accomplished our mission.
What’s stunning is that this is the furthest thing from what Jesus taught, hoped for, or embodied.
Jesus never called for his disciples to Christianize culture. To make every aspect of culture about Christianity, and to marginalize and minimize those who were not Christian.
He didn’t even call us to convert everyone to a new religion called Christianity - that’s not what the Great Commission is all about.
No, Jesus called us to go into the world and proclaim good news - news of liberating love for everyone - and to make disciples, or in other words, invite people to follow in the example of Jesus. To emulate the life Jesus lived and work to create the world he dreamed of.
And did you know that you can do that without ever making someone a Christian? In fact, did you realize that when Jesus told his disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel, there was no such thing as Christianity - it didn’t exist. He wasn’t telling them to make people Christian.
…He wasn’t asking them to ask anyone to convert from their religion, or their culture, or their social setting. Rather, he invited everyone in every culture and context to embrace a path of self-sacrificial love for the good of their friends, neighbors and enemies.
People of all faiths, as well as atheists and agnostics and “the nones,” can and do live into this Good News we are called to share, regardless of where they see it as coming from. Liberation and love, justice and peace, are for everyone, not only those who identify as Christian.
Noah fence but y'all white people want to talk about colonialism like its ancient history but the current queen of England was literally already queen when my dad was a kid and Trinidad was an English colony and he was beaten in missionary school by his white teachers for speaking Hindi and refusing to convert to Christianity
Like my great grandparents, some of whom I knew and were alive in my lifetime were freaking indentured servants
Like if u dnt know what that is, it’s the system that the British created after they abolished slavery to get cheap Labor to the colonies (it didn’t just happen to Indians but that’s the narrative of my ancestors so that’s what I’ll talk about)
They promised some labourers free passage to and from India if they agreed to go to the colonies and work on the plantations in order to fund the British economy and some Indians they just plain stole like my great grandma arrived in Trinidad with no husband and a baby on her hip and spoke no English and had to live in an old hut that once housed slaves and performed the backbreaking work of cutting sugar cane in the hot sun all day with her baby with no compensation
And thousands of Indians had a similar narrative only to have it turn out that the promise of return to India was a false one that the Brits never intended to keep like the Brits exploited their labor for nothing more than empty promises
I have no idea what ethnics groups I belong to, I speak little more than kitchen Hindi that I picked up from speaking to my great grandparents who knew no English, I know little about my culture or family’s religion, and I could have family in India/Pakistan/Kashmir that I will never know anything about
I feel the phantom limb of India every day of my life
Fuck all y'all who pretend that colonialism was far in the past and that none of us feel its aftershocks today
I’ve only had two white people comment something ignorant on this post and I am pleasantly surprised
Wheelchair users who have chronic fatigue and/or joint instability…
How do you cope with the arm strain? I absolutely can’t afford an electric wheelchair at the moment, but the reality is that I really can’t push myself far at all. I’ve done okay on a really easy, smooth flat surface (like a nicely polished museum floor) for a few minutes, but realistically it’s going to do so much damage to my already useless shoulders, elbows and wrists to push myself. So idk I wonder if it’s really worth getting one as I’ll have to rely on other people to push me around.
Even using walking sticks completely screws my arm joints up, and recently has been like putting me out of action for a couple of days at a time. It’s just a constant toss-up between my legs and my arms.
I just have no idea whether it’s worth investing in a wheelchair for travelling out. Or if there are any other mobility aids that might be more helpful?
Honestly the most frustrating thing about chronic illnesses is the boredom. Like actually right now I don’t want to sleep. I would love to be doing something productive with my day. But I just don’t have the energy…
The Times probably should have waited until after the Kavanaugh coverage slowed down, but then there probably would have just been some other big shit storm stirring up because every day is a hell day full of shit storms in the Trump Presidency, ensuring that every shitty thing he does gets buried in the latest shit storms.
today is such a bad pain and fatigue day… like i know i shouldn’t be, but i just feel so shitty and guilty because the weekend is the time i get to spend with my partner, and i know he really wanted to go into town and look round an antique store in town, but i barely had the strength to walk down the road let alone all the way into town.
and he didn’t really say anything about it because he’s nice like that and could see i was struggling, so didn’t suggest going into town cos i’d either say no or say yes even though i shouldn’t cos i feel guilty
it also made me think about wheelchairs again cos like… if i could just get the fuck over my internalised ableism and stop feeling so embarrassed about it, and also somehow have enough money for a wheelchair, i’d actually be able to go out sometimes on days like this
but also… the pavements round here are so unevenly paved it’s a nightmare trying to use anything with wheels. and half of the shops we were going to go into are not really accessible, and would be a nightmare trying to navigate in a wheelchair.
so most of the time it just kinda feels like it’s not worth it. like it’s just easier to suffer through and keep pushing myself too much or just stay in and not go out instead of actually using a wheelchair more often
Welcome to 2019! The Daily Caller is posting fake feet pics of a Congresswoman now. I wrote about the right’s drive to slut-shame Ocasio-Cortez, and why reducing her to a sex object is the most convenient way for them to avoid grappling with her politics.
So there are TERFs and SWERFs out there now who are claiming
Stormé DeLarverie as ‘their’ Stonewall heritage because she identified as a butch lesbian and to those TERFs and SWERFs I just want to say: FUCK YOU.
Stormé DeLarverie was an african american gender nonconforming butch lesian and a hero and she was no fucking TERF or SWERF.
Stormé was a regular at the Stonewall where the majority of the visitors were trans, the majority was people of color and the majority was involved in some kind of sex work. This was the community she was part of, these were many of her friends, these were the people she protected. After Stonewall she continues to work at and frequent bars that put up drag shows and provided safe spaces for transgender people. As a gender nonconforming person she stood in solidarity with transgender people and queer sex workers and frequently risked her life for them.
It is typical that TERFs and SWERFs are trying to do this 3 years after her death because if you all did this while she was alive she would have told you to fuck off before she could get her baseball bat. How dare you shit on everything she stood for.
Fuck you for trying to tarnish her memory with your hate.
You disgust me.
Storme was the MC and “sole woman member”* of a drag troupe, the Jewel Box Revue, from 1955 to 1969. This is on wikipedia even. So she worked with two dozen “female impersonators”** for over a decade, right up until the year Stonewall happened, bc she despised them and they posed a threat to her… is that the story?
*That’s how she was billed. I expect at least some of the drag queens were actually trans women, but I don’t have info on hand about that. ** Likewise, this is how the show was billed at the time, not how I’m describing it now.
Yeah, there is soooooooo much evidence that Storme worked with trans people, protected trans people and considered them part of her community. It’s ridiculous that TERFs are even doing this and the fact that they’re doing it 3 years after her death is telling and infuriating.
*and yeah, a lot of trans women have at times (1) identified as queens or female impersonators because we all have a road to knowing who we are (2) been booked as queens or
female impersonators
because that was who could perform (3) used ‘queen’ as a group identity for genderdiverse people with similar experiences.
I have a headcanon that Hermione insists her children attend some primary muggle schooling before Hogwarts, just as she had done. Now, imagine Arthur Weasley attending his grandchild’s science fair, being the ultra proud grandfather….and yet also completely geeking out over absolutely EVERYTHING.
Canon
“That is a volcano, that is a VERY SMALL VOLCANO, how - young lady, how did you make this? Baking soda and food coloring? MARVELOUS!”
the kids would love him.
Never have I ever loved anything more than I love this
All the muggle teachers would think he was being so adorable, “pretending” not to know how potato batteries and mini-volcanoes work, fawning over the hard work the kids did on even the simplest the projects. And he comes every year, because after the kids have aged out (”gone on to some boarding school in Scotland,” the teachers say over bad coffee in the break room, “they didn’t seem the type”), he gets an honorary invitation to the fair every year, because he never stops making the kids feel smart and good.
“And this airy-o-plane, it flies by means of a… rubber band? Did I hear that correctly? No magic at all? Doesn’t flap its wings like a bird? MARVELOUS! What an ingenious method of flight!” *looks around* “You, sir! With the ribbons! This child deserves one of those prizes!”
- Anonymous
