Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. ‘It’s AI blackface’: social media account hailed as the Aboriginal Steve Irwin is an AI character created in New Zealand (January 15, via) "The choice to create an avatar of an Indigenous person has raised ethical concerns."

2.  Because of Who You Are - Vicki Yohe (2008) I like this worship song, but in a complicated ex-evangelical way.

Same thing for this video, of the song "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."

I like the song. I like the singer's passion. I'm really into that. But seeing the crowd of Christians participating in this worship song, I just really feel unsafe in that kind of environment.

3. Chilean Cherries: Why Prices in China Plunge Every Winter (January 16) "To reach tables in China, Chilean cherries need to travel more than 19,000 kilometers, and for a long time, air freight was the only viable option. However, with the widespread application of cold chain technology, maritime transportation has become dominant in recent years."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion. (January 14) "As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients."

2. Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities (January 15) "When ICE operations switched to fast, random street abductions and door knocks, the only possible way to predict where they would act was to identify ICE vehicles as they approached, so people shifted focus to identifying ICE vehicles on the roads and staying on them. ICE needed to rely on surprise and ambush tactics, so responders employed noise—whistles and honking—to quickly give warning across distance. ICE officers don’t like to operate when outnumbered and don’t like to be surrounded, so patrollers amass cars and form impromptu traffic jam blockades."

Judge rules immigration officers in Minneapolis can't detain peaceful protesters (January 16) "The ruling prohibits the officers from detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles when there is no reasonable suspicion they are obstructing or interfering with the officers."

It’s The Videos (January 17) "Everyday citizens all over the country are racking up hundreds of millions of views with on-the-ground videos, and seem increasingly willing to film ICE agents on job sites, at traffic stops, and even on their doorsteps—even while being threatened at gunpoint. It’s a scrappy, diffuse content campaign against the Trump media machine, which likes to turn ICE arrests into highly produced hype videos that look as if they were produced by an SEC football program."

Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding (January 15, via) 

Dispatch from the occupation (January 17, via) "All of this means that the following dystopian scenario plays out in the open dozens of times per day in the Twin Cities: Multiple masked and armed agents in combat gear amass in unmarked cars outside a house or business. A bystander notices and alerts the neighborhood. A dozen or more neighborhood residents appear within minutes to legally observe, legally film the encounter, legally make sure the targeted people know their rights, and legally warn others by blowing whistles and honking car horns."

I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different. (January 21, via) "The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything."

3. Expand your vocabulary: the Dual State (January 19) "But your life goes on normally, until it doesn’t."

The Prayer That Jesus Taught Us To Pray

Image text: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." Image source. 

I was recently thinking about the Lord's Prayer, and I realized that if I don't view it as "talking to God," I actually really like it. 

In my experience in Christianity, prayer is defined as talking to God. We believed that God is literally on the receiving end, listening to what we're saying in real time, having opinions about the things that we prayed about, making decisions about what actions to take in response to our prayers. As the Christian cliché says, God always answers our prayers with "yes", "no", or "wait."

But now that I'm ex-evangelical and the concept of a "personal relationship with God" really weirds me out, I don't pray. I don't want to talk to Them. I very much don't want to talk to Them. I don't want Them to be there reacting to my prayers in ways that steamroll my freedom to have my own opinions and think my own thoughts and make my own choices.

For many years, I've been saying "I don't pray." But just now I've thought of something, a whole different way to conceptualize what prayer is. Get this: What if prayer is a ritualized way to express our hopes and our understanding of our place in the world?

I think there are some subgroups within Christianity that view prayer something like this. Many many times, when I was evangelical, I encountered other Christians who prayed in ways that felt "fake" to me, like they didn't really believe an all-powerful God was right there listening and taking it seriously. Using language that's flowery rather than language that reflects the urgency and power of literally talking to God. A lot of sentences starting with "may."

Now I'm like, maybe there actually *is* something to that, and I shouldn't just dismiss it as "fake." I'm still coming from a very evangelical mindset on this. 

There's no way I'm the first Christian to come up with the idea "maybe we should conceptualize prayer in some way other than 'talking to God'" - but if I ever encountered this when I was evangelical, I would have dismissed it as fake Christians not taking their beliefs seriously. But here's an idea, what if there are Christians who pray in ways very different from how I did, because they have a well-thought-out belief system where that would make sense, not because they're "not taking it seriously." (Do leave a comment if you have experience with a thoughtful and robust belief system that values prayer but doesn't view it as "talking to God.")

So let's walk through the Lord's Prayer. (It comes from Matthew 6:9-13, but the language I'm using here isn't the exact wording from the bible, it's the wording that is traditionally used in churches.) I want to talk about how I understood this when I was evangelical, and how it now means something new and exciting and inspiring to me, if I view it as a picture of what I want the world to be like, rather than "talking to God."

Our Father, who art in heaven

When I was evangelical: God (he/him) is our Father, and we are talking to God. He is all-powerful, and he is listening and doing things in response to our prayers.

But now: In some ways, we can use the metaphor of God being like a father (also mother, also nonbinary parent). In particular, it means all humans are children of God; we are all equal, and all deserve to have a good life. We should care about people, all over the world, people who are different from us- we are all God's children.

Hallowed by thy name.

When I was evangelical: God's name is holy. We want everyone to recognize that God's name is holy. Ugh, isn't it terrible that people don't believe in Jesus, don't respect God's name, don't dedicate their lives to Jesus like they're supposed to?

We're talking directly to God here, saying, hey God, *I* know that your name is holy and deserving of respect, doesn't it suck that other people don't know that? Can you do something about that, God? Can you get people to believe in you?

But now: We want God's name to be honored. And so *we* as Christians need to behave in such a way that people see we are doing good, and they respect our beliefs because of that. Yeah, this is on us. A lot of Christians are acting like Christianity means we're better than other people, and we're gonna pick fights over displaying the ten commandments in schools, and other such nonsense. But imagine this, imagine if Christians were known for doing good. Imagine if people were like "oh, Christians, they're always feeding the hungry and fighting for equal rights for everyone." Imagine that. I think if that were true, then "hallowed be Thy name" would be true.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

When I was evangelical: In heaven, God is in charge, and everyone obeys God's will. That's the way it's supposed to be, and we want it to be like that on earth too. We want everyone to become a Christian and believe what they're supposed to believe, and obey God like they're supposed to.

But now: The kingdom of heaven is a world where there is justice and freedom and everyone is able to have a good life, and we need to do the work of bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. This is something that *we* need to do. *We* need to fight for a better world. 

Give us this day our daily bread

When I was evangelical: We are dependent on God for everything, and we shouldn't forget that. We are pathetic and shouldn't feel like we are competent to do anything ourselves. We are nothing without God, and we should pray for even our basic daily needs, because we are dependent on God for everything. Yes, we should even be *asking God* to provide for our basic food needs. We worship the sort of God who is petty and might smite us if we aren't grateful enough.

But now: I feel like, I'm lucky that I have enough money that I'm able to take care of my needs. (I don't thank God for this, because that would imply that God chose to give me money and chose to not give other people money.) We should help other people who are in need. We want to live in a world where everyone has enough food.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

When I was evangelical: We are all sinners who deserve to go to hell. You have to forgive anybody who sins against you, no matter how bad it is, or else God might not forgive *your* sins and you'll go to hell.

Yeah, and we should directly ask God to forgive our sins, to remind ourselves that he's not obligated to do it, and we shouldn't take it for granted, because we're sinners who don't deserve that.

But now: We should have some grace and understanding for other people who mess up and hurt people in ways that we've also messed up and hurt people. Like, if someone gets mad at you over some little thing, they shouldn't do that, but also, you should think to yourself "well, there have been times I've gotten unfairly mad at people, and that was wrong" and so don't judge them too bad for it.

I *don't* believe we're required to forgive literally everything. What if someone's a murderer or child abuser or something? The teaching that victims always have to forgive is a big part of how sexual abuse gets covered up and allowed to continue in conservative religious environments.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

When I was evangelical: Oh, we're all such horrible sinners, we're susceptible to temptation, and we need God to help us not sin.

But now: I'm not sure about the "temptation" part- I don't really know where "temptation" fits into an ex-evangelical ideology. Maybe temptation to just kinda take the easy way out, to just take care of ourselves and not look for ways to do more and help other people- this isn't a specific discrete event where we make a choice to do the right or wrong thing, but more about our overall lifestyle.

And again, this is on us. Know yourself, know your emotional needs, and use that knowledge to set up good habits for yourself. Make deliberate choices about what kind of lifestyle you want to live. If you have a tendency to waste time on social media, for example, set up your life so that it's inconvenient to do so.

Maybe I'm discounting the role of God too much here. Many people can tell you about some feat of willpower or emotional health they accomplished, and they say "God helped me do that- I could not have done it myself." I have had experiences like that too. They felt so real, that I still believe in them now, even though I'm like "I don't really believe in that."

For "deliver us from evil," how about we understand that as keeping us safe from the evils going on in this world- rather than our own "evil"/ "sinful nature"? We want people to be safe from evil- and so that means we should take action and help people.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

When I was evangelical: God is all-powerful, and God wins in the end. Even though here on earth, a lot of people are not living the way God wants, and not believing in God like they're supposed to, fortunately it won't be like that forever. Eventually God will get everyone under his control.

But now: Even though we see bad things happening in the world, it will get better. There is something greater than the power-hungry exploitation which defines so much of how the world works. This isn't "just the way it is"- we should fight for a better world than that. God, heaven, justice, will win in the end. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

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What if we don't view prayer as "talking to God," asking God to do all the things that *we* think should be done, assuming God agrees with us, confident in our superiority because we believe the right things and other people don't? 

What if instead, it's a way of expressing our vision for how we want the world to be- and we're not telling it to God and asking God to act according to our ideas, because that relies on the assumptions that God agrees with us, and that God is the one who primarily takes action. No, we proclaim that this is the way we want the world to be, and then we have to do it. We're not telling God to do it- if we were, then we just need to say it really really sincerely, performing the right emotions, and that's enough- no, God is not going to answer our prayer and do this; we need to do it ourselves. 

If we don't view prayer as "talking to God," then it's obvious that the act of just *saying it* isn't enough. We need to take action. We need to be the sort of people who are working in the direction of "thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven."

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Related

"Hey God, you and I both know..." 

"On earth as it is in heaven"

German Christmas Market (Shanghai, China)

In December I went to a German Christmas market here in Shanghai, called Christkindlmarkt. Here are my photos~

You can view a larger version of this image here

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Scott Adams, 'Dilbert' creator and conservative commentator, dies at 68 (January 13) 

2. China’s Viral New App Is a Safety Tool Called ‘Are You Dead?’ (January 13) "The app, known as Demumu abroad, functions as a daily check-in. Users input emergency contacts, then press the check-in button on the interface’s home screen each day. If a user misses two consecutive check-ins, the app alerts their contacts via email."

3. Planetary Alignment (January 9) From xkcd.

4. The lumpers, the splitters, and me (January 13) "So when somebody like Matthew Avery Sutton comes along and says 'evangelicalism is best defined as a white, patriarchal, nationalist religious movement made up of Christians who seek power to transform American culture through conservative-leaning politics' it can feel for them exactly the way it has felt for them over the past several decades when the gatekeeping goons said to them — repeatedly and regularly — 'You are a fake Christian and your story of being born again and transformed by your religious experience must be a lie and you must hate Jesus and the Bible because what it really means to be an evangelical is to be like us — to be part of a white, patriarchal, nationalist religious movement seeking power to transform American culture through conservative politics.'"

5. The Rape of Dinah and The Shame of Adults (January 10) [content note: rape and victim-blaming] "Dinah’s rape and her brothers’ reactivity show us the shame of adults: that adults will, time after time, do nothing but negotiate and cover up the rape of their children by powerful people."

6. This country taxes menstrual pads as luxury goods. She's aiming to end the tax (January 15) "The link to child marriage contributes to the secrecy around periods and makes it an extremely isolating experience."

7.  Sesame Street: ABC-DEF-GHI Song Love this classic Sesame Street song.

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Image source

Image source

Links related to the antichrist:

1. In Defense of Pretexts (January 9) "What I came to is this: For my entire adult life, I've watched American leaders justify war and atrocity with lies about democracy and freedom and self-defense."

2. Chaos continues (January 12) "Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait formy takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business."

Also about Minnesota: Minnesota federal prosecutors resign after DOJ push to investigate Renee Good's widow (January 13) "The investigation allegedly centers around any possible ties to activist groups [Becca Good] may have. That, of course, is protected First Amendment activity."

A Common Occurrence (January 14) "I’m sharing this so you’re aware that the ICE abuses we’re seeing since Renee Good’s killing is – aren’t new."

The Fascists are Lying about ICE Murdering an Innocent Woman (January 14) "Fuck Michael Shermer and the rest of his rightwing pro-murder pro-fascism sniveling grifters, who spread this lie even as we see ICE now enabled to literally go door to door, breaking into people’s homes, and dragging them away with zero accountability."

3. US aircraft that attacked suspected drug boat reportedly disguised as civilian plane (January 13) "'Fundamentally, the debate about ‘war crimes’ is a distraction – the whole operation is illegal, and the conduct of an extrajudicial execution by means of a plane with civilian markings is in fact reminiscent of a death squad operation,' Bhuta said."

4. Hundreds of nonconsensual AI images being created by Grok on X, data shows (January 8) [content note: contains descriptions of sexually explicit images (does not contain the images themselves)] 

Elon Musk's X faces bans and investigations over nonconsensual bikini images (January 12)

5. For Immigrants, Citizenship Now (January 13) "We have effectively created a class of criminalized residents who do not have full rights and protection under law. Immigration enforcement is a small fascist state within our polity."

I can't really agree with this without seeing an actual policy with more details- automatic citizenship? for who exactly? wouldn't there have to be some kind of criteria, like how long they've lived in the US? What about people from countries that don't allow dual citizenship, so they would have to renounce their other citizenship in order to get US citizenship, and they might not want to do that- there should be a way to have them legally protected anyway. It sounds too big and pie-in-the-sky to actually be a real policy- but, what if we think about it this way instead: What if the path to get US citizenship was a lot easier? What if it was less about bureaucracy and proving that you're "good enough," and more about a principle that people who live in the US and want to be US citizens should have a reasonable pathway to do so. Yeah, I support that.

6. Hillary Clinton May Finally Get Lock-Her-Upped For Refusing Stupid Subpoena From Dipsh*t James Comer (January 15) "You should definitely give the full Clinton letter a read, because it lays out not just why the Clintons won’t go along with Comer’s attempt to shift attention away from Trump and the DOJ’s foot-dragging, but also why this government’s corruption must be resisted wherever possible, from the streets to closed-door hearing rooms."

7. A federal judge dismisses the DOJ's effort to get voter data from California (January 15) "In 2017, one Republican secretary of state famously said the Trump administration could 'go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.'"

8. Behind the front lines of the legal battle against Trump's National Guard deployments (January 15) "Earlier this month, President Trump pulled hundreds of National Guard troops from California, Oregon and Illinois after the Supreme Court ruled against the administration in the Illinois case."

9. UPenn faculty condemn Trump administration’s demand for ‘lists of Jews’ (January 13, via) WTF

What kind of God will judge how we treat immigrants?

Church nativity scene depicting baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE. Image source.

What kind of God will judge us for how we treat immigrants?

Will it be the God who said, "Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt"?

Will it be the God who said, "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Is it the God who "defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing," and instructs the people to also love foreigners?

Will it be the God of Moses, who said, "Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow"?

Is it the God of Ruth, a Moabite widow who came to live among the Israelites, married an Israelite man, and became the great-grandmother of King David?

Is it the God of Isaiah, who had HAD ENOUGH of religious rituals and just wanted people to help the poor and oppressed instead?

Is it the God of Jeremiah, who promised blessings to the people "if you do not oppress the foreigner"?

Is it the God of Ezekiel, who said that foreigners should be allotted land in Israel, the same as native-born citizens?

Will it be the God of the Magi, who studied astrology and came from far away, following the star to find the baby Jesus?

Is it Jesus, who escaped a massacre as an infant? His family fled to Egypt and lived there as refugees.

Is it Jesus, who asked, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" He was angry at the way people hid behind the letter of the law, ignoring a person in need right in front of them.

Is it Jesus, who talked to the Samaritan woman at the well, even though it was weird for a man to talk to a woman, or a Jew to talk to a Samaritan, in that setting? He revealed to her that he was the Messiah, and she went to share the good news, and many Samaritans believed in him.

Is it Jesus, who bent down to scribble in the dirt when the religious leaders brought a "sinful" woman to him? Jesus, who ignored the literal words of the law and said, "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone"? After all of them had awkwardly left, he told the woman, "Neither do I condemn you."

Is it Jesus, who pointed out that the prophet Elisha did not heal lepers among the Israelites, but instead healed Naaman the Syrian?

Will it be Jesus, who was asked "who is my neighbor?" and didn't directly answer that question- didn't give a precise definition of who we are supposed to care for and who we can ignore. Instead, he told a story about a man beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, who was saved by a Samaritan, an ethnic minority. The answer to "who is my neighbor?" is "go and do likewise." Go and help people, across lines of race and nationality.

Is it Jesus, who told a parable of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus? The rich man went to hell, because he lived a life of luxury and totally ignored Lazarus.

Is it the King who separated the sheep from the goats, and told the sheep they would enter heaven because "I was a stranger and you invited me in"? He said, "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me."

Is it God the Spirit, poured out on the day of Pentecost, where people from many different nations had gathered, and miraculously heard the apostles speaking in different languages?

Will it be the God of Stephen, one of the leaders in the early church who was appointed to make sure that widows from a Hellenistic background were given equal benefits with the Hebraic widows?

Is it the God of Peter, who saw a vision of animals on a sheet lowered from heaven, and said, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right"?

Will it be the God of the apostle Paul, who preached to the Athenians, affirming their religion's desire to seek God, and told them that God intends for people of every nation to seek and find God?

Will it be the God of the apostle Paul, who wrote to Gentile readers and said that, even though the first Christians were Jewish, "you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household"?

Is it the God who showed John of Patmos a vision of worshippers "from every nation, tribe, people and language" in heaven?

Or...

Will it be the God who brought a plague against the Israelites when they were "seduced" by the women of Moab, and only stopped the plague after Phinehas the priest murdered a cross-cultural couple?

Is it the God of Moses, who led the army into victory over the Midianites, and instructed the people to kill all the Midianite men, women, and boys, and take the virgin girls as sex slaves?

Is it the God who said you can buy slaves from the nations around you, but you must not enslave your fellow Israelites?

Is it the God who sent fire to kill the priests Nadab and Abihu because they "offered unauthorized fire"? God's laws are very important, and they broke God's laws. Don't feel bad for them.

Is it the God who declared that a man should be stoned to death because he gathered sticks on the Sabbath day? Rules are rules. He deserved that.

Is it the God who said you must totally destroy "the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites"? Do not intermarry with them, and do not follow their gods.

Is it the God who said that when you go to attack a city, first you should make them an offer to surrender and be your slaves? Unless it's a city in the promised land, in which case you don't even offer that, you just go in and kill all of them, all of them, men, women, and children.

Is it the God of Joshua, who attacked the cities of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Debir, and many other cities, and left no survivors?

Is it the God of Joshua, who warned the people not to intermarry with other nations?

Will it be the God who struck Uzzah dead when he touched the ark of the covenant to stop it from falling? The rules are that nobody can touch it. Uzzah broke the rules, so he deserves whatever happens to him.

Is it the God of Nehemiah, who led them people in making a promise not to marry people from other nations?

Will it be the God of Ezra, who wept when he found out that the Israelites had intermarried with foreign women, and organized a mass divorce and abandonment of these foreign wives and children?

Will it be Jesus, who ignored the Canaanite women begging him to heal her daughter, until she convinced him that he was in the wrong?

Is it Jesus, who taught that if someone wrongs you, you should try to reconcile with them, but if they refuse to listen, "treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector"?

Is it Jesus, who said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," excluding people based on the technicality of whether or not they know the name of Jesus?

Will it be the God of the apostle Paul, who wrote, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."

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A God who is love, who cares about everyone, especially people who are in need, and expects us to do the same? 

Or an authoritarian God who judges, excludes, and punishes, and if you think this God's punishments are unfair, shut up, no you don't. You better stay on his good side, or else you'll be next.

Both of these gods can be found in the bible. Every Christian must choose which of them is worthy of your worship.

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Related

ICE and Hell 

This "Do Not Intermarry With Them" Stuff Hits Different Now 

The Second-Worst Bible Story 

Love Wins (an Ezra fanfic) 

That's What Radicalized Me (a post about immigration)

Blogaround

 Links not related to the antichrist:

1. 一隻哈巴狗 (2022) In case you are interested in what songs Chinese toddlers are listening to. This is a cute little song about a pug.

2. PHOTOS: Laundry is a chore but there's a beauty and serenity in the way it hangs out (January 10) "Castañeda Lee photographed locals in hopes of appreciating the invisible workers on the other side of Cambodian tourism, who spend hours each day doing the laundry of tourists."

3. Inside a Gaza medical clinic at risk of shutting down after an Israeli ban (January 11) "'I am trying to provide the best care to patients because I know they don't have any access to this kind of care elsewhere,' Harb says, adding there's a waitlist of people trying to get in."

4. Author Philip Yancey Confesses Affair, Withdraws from Ministry (January 6)

The Terrible Takes on Philip Yancey’s 8-Year Affair (January 12) "I don’t want to be married to someone whose only reason for not falling into bed with another woman is that Jesus performed a miracle."

Something I was thinking about this: So, the conservative Christian response to these kinds of scandals is 'don't judge, we are all sinners, we are all equally guilty, it could have been any of us falling to the temptation to cheat on our spouse [or sexually abuse children, or whatever the scandal is this time].' And then the progressive Christian response is like, 'hey, this sin-levelling is not cool, presenting it like the victims and the perpetrators are equally sinful, so we can't judge or hold people accountable. No, in reality we are NOT all just 1 bad decision away from having an affair, okay? That's not normal! You can say we're all sinners, but not like that, gosh. Some sins are way worse than others.'

So it's like... the conservative Christian point of view is that we're all horrible sinners, and the progressive Christian point of view is there are 2 types of people: 

1. Normal people who just sin in normal ways, like, you yelled at someone about something that wasn't their fault because you were in a bad mood. That's wrong, you should apologize for that. But we don't judge people as a Bad Person Forever if they do these kinds of little normal sins. We've all done things like that before.
2. People who do something really bad, that's totally beyond-the-pale. They are a completely different type of person from us normal people; we are very much NOT "all" susceptible to the temptation to do something so terrible. We shouldn't have empathy for these people, or think we can relate to them. They should be shunned from public life and we can never say any good things about them again.

This "2 types of people" perspective also seems bad. (To be clear, I haven't really seen it presented so explicitly like this- this is my own summary.) So I'm wondering what a better perspective would be. 

Maybe something like this: There's a spectrum of bad things that people might do, and at different points along the spectrum, we should respond with different levels of concern for the victims and for the perpetrators. Towards the lower end of the spectrum, it's like, well, that was wrong, but your victims are also imperfect people who have done similar things, so like, you have to apologize, and then all of us work together to become better people. Towards the higher end, our primary response should be to help and support the victims, and we shouldn't spend our efforts on caring about the perpetrator. But hopefully the perpetrator has somebody in their life who cares about them and will try to get them to be a better person. But that's not something that most people should care about- mostly we should care about helping the victims.

So rather than a clear line dividing the "2 types of people", it's a spectrum where the proportions of "how much we want to help the victims" vs "how much we want to help the perpetrator" gradually change.

See also, this post I wrote in 2015: "Christians Aren't Perfect" When It's Convenient

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Nationwide anti-ICE protests call for accountability after Renee Good's death (January 11) "At least 1,000 events across the U.S. were planned for Saturday and Sunday, according to Indivisible, a progressive grassroots coalition of activists helping coordinate the movement it calls 'ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action.'"

Photos: Protests grow over the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis (January 8) 

January 10, 2026 (via) "In the case of the murder of Renee Good, the shooter and his protectors are clearly so isolated in their own authoritarian bubble they cannot see how regular Americans would react to the video of a woman smiling at a masked agent and saying: 'That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,' only to have him shoot her in the face and then spit out 'F*cking b*tch' after he killed her."

2. National Park Service will void passes with stickers over Trump's face (January 9) "The use of an image of Trump on the 2026 pass — rather than the usual picture of nature — has sparked a backlash, sticker protests, and a lawsuit from a conservation group."

3. The CDC just sidelined these childhood vaccines. Here's what they prevent (January 9) "Before routine administration of the current rotavirus vaccines began in 2006, about 70,000 young children were hospitalized and 50 died every year from the virus."

4. Tomorrow never knows (January 7) "And then — because their lives are governed by the need for everyone, everywhere to always line up behind every mandatory Proper Christian Stance on everything — they probably would have guessed that you were testing them about their adherence to the PCS on something like melting glaciers and climate change."

Rep. Lieu Says Illegal for Military to Use Force Against Greenland Without Congress Authorization (January 8) "If any military member, including the generals on down...participate in the use of military force against Greenland without congressional authorization, they are following illegal orders."

5. Over 400,000 Transgender People Have Moved States Since Trump's Election (January 9)

About Vulnerability, Boundaries, and Oversharing

Book cover for "Daring Greatly"

I read Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown. It's about the importance of "being vulnerable." This means things like: Sharing your feelings with other people, instead of pretending that you always have everything under control. Trying new things, rather than avoiding this because of fear of failure. Stop being a perfectionist- which is defined as believing that you need to do everything perfectly, because if people see you as less than perfect, you believe it means you are worthless. As leaders, cultivating a culture (at work, school, in a family, etc) where people are not shamed or criticized for making mistakes- this way, it is easier for people to learn from their mistakes and do better.

This is great. Definitely recommend this book if you want to learn more about shame and vulnerability. For myself, though, I felt like I already understood a lot of this. And there was something that was bothering me as I was reading: Does "vulnerability" mean just letting people see your real, raw emotions? Like just letting anyone see that? Is that a good thing? No, I don't think that's a good thing- I believe in boundaries instead.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Build a Tensegrity Structure (2020, via) 3-minute video. Oh this is very cool! It looks like it's floating.

2. The network of mutuality is not escapable (January 1) "So it’s jarring, here, to read an explicitly evangelical condemnation of racism that contends it refers only to disparate impact and does not at all include sinful personal animus — that contends, instead, that there is no such thing as sinful personal animus."

3. A single Chick-fil-A store congratulated a gay couple, and conservatives lost their damn minds (January 5) "The conservative Washington Stand (which is published by the Christian hate group Family Research Council) posted an article claiming this harmless post was 'controversial' and proof that Chick-fil-A hasn’t 'weeded out the LGBT extremism' within its ranks."

4. 'A Directive From Above': Former NYT Editor Lays Out How The Paper Pushes Anti-Trans Bigotry (January 2, via) 

5. Experience with AI coding (January 6) "The rest of y’all can confidently spout opinions about AI coding, because you’re not actually doing it, so you never risk the humility of learning that you were wrong."

6. Superstition (January 7) From xkcd.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. RFK Wants to Un-cure Cancer (December 24) "This will not shock you, but RFK, Jr. is not suggesting that we adopt any other part of Denmark’s public health policy–not the universal health care, not the guaranteed parental leave, not the guaranteed medical follow-ups after birth. None of the things that make Denmark’s vaccine schedule work for Denmark’s population."

Also from Skepchick: Somali Americans are Good, Actually (December 31) "And, gosh, I hate to be a broken record, here, but…GOOD. GET THOSE PEOPLE HEALTHCARE. Get them food stamps and stuff, too, but YES HEALTHCARE IS GOOD. Treating people for their illnesses benefits EVERYONE. I don’t even care that this is hyper-focused on the Somali community in Minnesota (where about a third of all Somali-Americans live). Get them all healthcare. Get them all food stamps. Helping each other is good, actually."

2. Four key lessons that we can and must take out of 2025 (January 1) "Pushing back is essential — and it works."

3. The Case For Hope: Transgender Rights Going Into 2026 (December 31) "And yet, we have not met our doom—at least not yet. Gender-affirming care for transgender adults remains available in all 50 states, with Florida imposing some restrictions, ones that transgender people have nevertheless found ways to work around."

Also from Erin in the Morning: Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding (January 8) "The bill comes as families scramble to locate alternatives to hospital systems that are abandoning them. With more than 20 hospitals closing their doors to transgender youth care out of fear and preemptive compliance with the Trump administration, many families have been forced to seek alternatives."

4. An Ode to Corruption: Announcing 2025’s Golden Duke Winners (December 29, via) "Trump’s $300 Million White House Ballroom takes the cake for, as one reader put it, the most visually 'on the nose' corruption of Trump’s second term and the 'raw indulgence of the gold plated ballroom funded by shady crypto guys.'"

5. The Venezuela attack is a constitutional crisis for the United States (January 5) "If Congress were taking seriously its constitutional obligation to preserve our system of checks and balances, it would immediately launch an impeachment."

6. 12 Senators Describe What It Was Like as Rioters Stormed the Capitol on January 6 (January 6) "At this point, there were so many breaches, and the doors that we have really weren’t going to—the outer doors weren’t holding. We knew the inner doors weren’t going to hold. So we needed to get the Senate out of there."

This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It's nowhere to be found at the Capitol (January 6) "This summer, two officers who fought the mob that day sued over the delay."

7. Sen. Mark Kelly fires back after Hegseth threatens his rank and retirement pay (January 5) "I will fight this with everything I've got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don't get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government."

8. ‘This is not normal’: Minneapolis on edge and angry after ICE killing of woman amid federal surge (January 8) "Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said succinctly Wednesday after the shooting: 'To ICE – get the fuck out of Minneapolis.'"

9. A once rare legislative tool is causing headaches for Mike Johnson (January 7) "'It is idiotic and shameful,' Lawler said on the House floor. 'This place is disgraceful. Everybody wants the political advantage. They don't actually want to do the damn work.'"

Donating to Charity

Button that says "Donate." Image source.

Hi all, every year in January I write a post encouraging people to donate to charity. My approach is to make a decision in January about what percent of your income you will donate this year, and then keep track of whatever donations you make throughout the year, and then at the end of the year, check the amount and donate the last chunk to get to the goal amount.

It's a good idea to do automatic monthly donations because then it still happens even if you aren't thinking about it.

I want to encourage everyone, if you are in a good position financially yourself, to think about this and make a decision, rather than just donating haphazardly.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Film review: Cover-Up (2025) (December 29) [content note: descriptions of genocide] "It is must-see viewing for anyone who wishes to know more about the murder, war crimes, rape, torture, and other abuses committed by the US government and its military, many of which were revealed because of the dogged work of Hersh."

2. From xkcd: Anyone Else Here and High Altitude Cooking Instructions

3. The biggest downside of marrying someone from another country... (December 29, 28-minute video) This vlogger is a US citizen married to a Chinese man, and she is trying to help him get a US tourist visa so he can come visit her family. Spoilers, he doesn't get it. The interview process for a US tourist visa is about proving that you really do just want to take a short trip there, and you're not planning to overstay your visa and be an illegal immigrant- and the evidence they want to see is that you have a well-established life in your own country- being married to a US citizen is a strike against him, actually. Lots of couples are in this situation, where the foreign spouse comes from a poor background, such that it's almost impossible to convince the US visa interviewer that you genuinely like to live in your own country and you're not going to decide that being an illegal immigrant would be a step up.

This is the kind of thing that radicalized me. Seriously, there are Americans who are not allowed by the US government to bring their spouse home on a trip to meet their family- not because they've done anything wrong, but because the US judges the foreign spouse as not having sure enough ties to their home country. 

My husband and I are lucky that this didn't happen to him. He got a US tourist visa before we got married, and now has a good track record of going there for a vacation and then leaving, they like to see that.

4. Natasha Romanoff: My Unlikely Ace Icon (January 2) "Nat is perennially single and, unfortunately, incapable of having children of her own. But she has a good relationship with Clint and Laura, and the way their daughter greets her suggests that she has also provided at least some childcare. Though we don’t get a lot of details on the relationship, it seems that Nat is valued by the Bartons and perhaps even loved."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. In Parents' Own Words: Documenting the Stories of Separated Families in Honduras (December 18) "One mother, who had been deported without being given the opportunity to bring her two month-old child, a US citizen, back with her, could talk of little more than her frantic desperation to have her newborn baby back."

2. Trump calls Somali immigrants ‘garbage’ as US reportedly targets Minnesota community (December 2) I guess I didn't post anything about this when it happened a few weeks ago, because he always says all manner of horrible racist bigoted things, I can't possibly pay attention to all of them.

But, this one was pretty bad. Calling a whole group of people "garbage."

And part of me wants to be like "how does he get away with calling himself Christian- the bible says all people are made in the image of God- to call people 'garbage' goes against Christian teaching" but like, come on, that ship has sailed, the MAGAs are no longer even trying to pretend that being Christian has anything to do with, like, following the bible or the teachings of Jesus. Everybody knows that's not what it means.

3. Capitol riot 'does not happen' without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress (December 31) "Accounts from Republicans willing to stand up against the falsehood that the election had been stolen 'even though it could mean trouble for them' created what Smith described as the 'most powerful' evidence against Trump."

‘This is not a peaceful protest!’: A visual archive of Jan. 6, 2021, through the lenses of those who were there. (January 4)

4. The Artists Are Not Obeying In Advance (January 1) "The administration is threatening to sue these artists for millions, and no doubt they will try to find ways to intimidate and defund any organizations with whom they might be affiliated. But that won’t stop them. Artists, musicians, writers, film makers and performers of all kinds are rebelling, one of the most profound forms of resistance to a repressive regime."

5. 'We are going to run the country,' Trump says after strike on Venezuela (January 3)

Photos: Aftermath of strikes in Venezuela (January 3)

The Dems (January 3) "Too many people on social media are saying that the Democrats are all falling in line with Trump’s Venezuelan misadventure. That’s not true."

Miami mayor calls for Trump to 'immediately' reinstate TPS for Venezuelans (January 4) "'The instability unfolding in Venezuela today makes it even clearer that the country remains unsafe for people to return. No one should be forced back into chaos and uncertainty,' Higgins wrote in a statement. 'They have built lives here, contributed to our community, and deserve the security to remain while their homeland regains stability. This is not just a matter of policy — it is a matter of basic human dignity and safety.'"

6. DHS pauses immigration applications for an additional 20 countries (January 2) "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo released Thursday, said it would pause the review of all pending applications for visas, green cards, citizenship or asylum from immigrants from the additional countries."

When God Says It's Your Choice

Image text: "Choice." Image source.

Long ago, I was at some Christian event, and a speaker was giving a talk about listening to God, and how to know what God wants you to do. One of the examples he gave went something like this: "I was thinking about asking my girlfriend to marry me, so I prayed about it, I prayed about it so much, asking God if I should do it, and finally I felt like God was saying 'it's your choice.'" (And then he did end up marrying her.)

This was really surprising to me at the time because the idea of God giving you a choice- rather than God "having a plan" regarding a big important decision in your life- was totally new to me. I think this speaker's talk also included other examples where he was trying to make a decision, and he determined that God wanted him to make some specific choice- but this is the example that I remember, because it was the exception to the rule. We had a very strong belief that "God has a plan for your life" and you have to pray about every important decision, to make sure you're following God's plan and not accidentally ruining your life (this is very stressful). The idea that sometimes there can be multiple good choices, and God is fine with you choosing any of them- well, that was new and surprising.

Okay, so here's a question: Let's imagine 2 different ideologies. In the first one, God has a plan for your life, and you have to do what God wants, but perhaps occasionally God is okay with you choosing for yourself based on your own preferences. In the second, you always make your own choices, without input from God. When God lets you make your own choice in the first ideology, is that the same situation as a choice you make in the second ideology? 

No, I don't think it's the same at all.

In this story where this guy prayed about marrying his girlfriend, and God said "it's your choice," what kind of circumstance would lead to God saying that? God must be looking at the available options, and reasoning that if this dude is allowed to choose for himself, he's not going to choose anything that's going to end up being catastrophic. I imagine it like, he really wants to marry her, but he's hesitating because he's not sure if God is okay with it, or if there might be something bad about the relationship that he's unaware of. God knows it will work out fine, really the only determining factor is this guy's own interest in marrying her, and so it's okay for God to let him make his own choice.

So God knows that no matter which way it goes, it will be okay. God knows there's not some unexpected terrible thing that's going to happen as a result of them getting married. When God lets you make your own choice in a situation like that, it's basically like God is giving you information- now you know that there's not going to be some horrible outcome that no one could have predicted.

(Or, alternatively, it means that if something does go wrong afterward, it's still okay because God believes this is an okay outcome for you.)

Another example might be, if you're thinking about moving to another country to become a missionary, and it's going to be difficult and maybe even dangerous- and you ask God if you should do it, and They say it's your choice. In this case, God lets you have a choice because you know the risks, and They are letting you decide for yourself if you're willing to take on those risks.

So I would say, in this "God has a plan for your life" ideology, in the cases where God lets you make your own choice, it's because all the options are basically fine and nothing terrible will happen, or it's because you clearly understand the risks and the benefits and it's a matter of your own feelings and opinions about taking an action that has those risks and benefits.

This is completely different from just living life without ever running any of your choices by God. In this kind of lifestyle, there are plenty of decisions you have to make where you don't know the outcome, you don't really have enough information to say one option is better than another, but you just have to do your best. What job to take, where to live, decisions about dating and marriage, having kids, buying a house, whether or not to go see a doctor when you might have a medical issue or it might just be nothing, or even situations where you're just living your normal life and then something bad comes out of nowhere (like you got in a car accident that could have been prevented if God had told you not to drive there that day), etc. We don't have anyone directing us toward the options that have everything working out okay. We just have to do our best, with the limited information we have. 

It's a totally different thing than believing that God has a plan but lets you make the decision if it's one of the more straightforward ones.

Honestly I'm glad I'm no longer living in the "God has a plan for your life" way, because it was so stressful, making decisions based on analyzing my feelings to try to figure out if any of them were planted there by God in order to tell me what the right choice was. In that ideology, you can't just look at the situation, look at the real-world facts- because the real-world facts will tell you that there is some probability it will go a certain way, and some probability it will go a different way, probability this probability that- but if you could get God's take on it, then you could have certainty. The path to certainty is overanalyzing all of your feelings and asking if they seem like the sort of feelings that God would give you if They wanted you to choose a certain option- and of course there's no actual standard to check that against. 

So much stress, trying to figure out what God was telling me, rather than just looking at the facts and doing my best and taking the responsibility myself.

When God says "it's your choice"... what would that mean, under the "God has a plan for your life" paradigm? It must mean God knows that whatever choice you make, it's okay- none of the available options would be horribly worse than the others. Or, it must mean that God knows you already have an accurate understanding of the good and bad aspects of each of the options. There are guardrails- God's not going to say "it's your choice" if one of the options would lead to something really bad, in a way that's impossible for you to have predicted. This is very different from a belief system where we're on our own and we don't try to suss out "God's will for your life" when making big decisions.

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Related

I'm SO HAPPY I Won't Be Praying During Childbirth 

God, Soul Mates, and International Marriage

The Power Dynamics of the "Personal Relationship With God"

I Didn't Like the Ocean in "Moana" Because it was Too Much Like God