Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1.  Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19 (February 20) Part of me is like "why are they making another Toy Story movie" but also part of me is like "I'm going to watch it."

2. How the devil was disguised in the SBC and Paul Pressler's Conservative Resurgence (May 6, via) "By 1998, I had been so convinced of the rightness of the religious right and the conservative movement that when news of the Clinton-Lewinsky abuse case broke, I thought the leaders who spoke against Clinton and sought his impeachment actually cared about the immorality of it all." This is so real.

Add this to the "it was all fake" pile of evidence. All that talk about submitting your life to Jesus, every part of your life, every decision, even your thoughts, sitting in prayer and listening to God, willing to do whatever God wanted, no matter the cost, killing your sinful and selfish nature- and meanwhile, the leaders at the top are lying, sexually abusing people, and chasing political power.

Maybe this is the case any time you have religious people who totally believe "I have to do whatever God says, no matter how hard it is"- we are extremely vulnerable to any leader who comes along and claims "this is what God wants." Especially when they frame it as "I'm just simply telling you what the bible says- if you question or disagree with me, you're disagreeing with God" which I've heard so many times.

What to do about this? I guess if you're a religious person who believes "I have to do whatever God says, no matter how hard it is," you need to maintain some amount of independence, like "I'm going to use my own brain and only believe 'this is what God says' if there is a good reason *that makes sense to me*." You run the risk that you might refuse to obey something that turned out to be a valid command from God, but I think it's better to err on that side, rather than be manipulated by leaders who can claim anything is "what God said" and our feeble human minds aren't supposed to understand the reasons and that's why faith is so important.

3.  How terrible is this family? Family therapist takes on THE PARENT TRAP (May 22, 28-minute video) Yessss, I watched "The Parent Trap" on Disney channel so many times back in the day. 

"There's emotional realism in this film, which the actors kind of like, concoct out of thin air. ... there's no emotional realism in this premise. And everyone's just kind of like, well, your dad and I had a fight, so we got divorced, and we each took a kid, and then they're never gonna see each other. And I as a parent am not gonna see my other child. Ever."

"And apparently there are many adults in both of these adults' lives who know this and are cool with it."

4. Ancestral Genomes (May 29) From xkcd.

5. A cancer vaccine made just for you. mRNA is back and it's fighting melanoma (June 1) This is great news! Sounds like it's still being tested, but hopefully soon it will be widely available.

6. Enhanced Games claim ‘we changed the world’ but only one record broken and three clean athletes win (May 25) "While the vast majority of the 42 competing sprinters, swimmers and weightlifters were taking banned substances such as testosterone, EPO and anabolic steroids, three athletes who were competing clean also won."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Donald Trump’s Horribly Broken Propaganda Film (May 31, 31-minute video) "It's rare to see a bit of art that literally should not exist, that is, in and of itself, morally wrong." Oh good, Big Joel watched "Melania" so the rest of us don't have to.

2. Justice Department says it will abide by court order pausing its 'anti-weaponization' fund (June 1) "A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia last week temporarily blocked the creation of the anti-weaponization fund after a lawsuit from Democracy Forward and others."

3. One by one, U.S. civil rights agency dismantles tools to fight discrimination (June 1) "Protecting U.S. workers from unlawful discrimination — already a hard task — could become significantly harder if the government no longer has that data within arm's reach, Gilbride says."

4. Federal judge ends Kennedy Center name change, bars two-year closure plans for now (May 30) "'Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,' Cooper, an Obama appointee, wrote of the federal law establishing the Kennedy Center in his 94-page opinion."

5. Immigrant detainees sue over 'horrific' conditions at Texas ICE facility (May 30) "'No human being should ever have to go through this,' Angye said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing the detainees. 'I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America.'"

6. CA Gov Candidate Tom Steyer Calls Out Dems Capitulating On Trans People: "I'm Totally In Favor Of Trans Athletes" (May 28) "Steyer responded with a full-throated defense of transgender youth—and, specifically, of transgender athletes."

Also from Erin in the Morning: New York State Budget Released: $0 For Transgender Care Access (May 29) "'As the Trump administration continues to pose an existential threat to the transgender community, we are profoundly disappointed that the FY2027 New York State budget invests zero state dollars to support access to the health care many transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and intersex people rely on to live in their bodies with dignity and health -- a complete failure to meet the moment,' said Allie Bohm, NYCLU senior policy counsel about the lack of passage."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Here’s what’s in the opioid settlement against OxyContin maker Purdue and the Sackler family (November 19) "Most of the money will go to government entities to fight the opioid crisis, which has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999."

2. textual activism and the ancestral toolbox (October 20) This post is about the bible passage which says parents can claim their son is "rebellious" and have him stoned to death. Apparently there's an ancient Jewish tradition of rules-lawyering and malicious compliance in reading this passage, interpreting it so literally and narrowly that you would actually never end up having a real-life situation where all these requirements would be met. This is how the ancient rabbis turned something horrific into something more just.

I have a few thoughts about this... First of all, for the people who are doing this very narrow interpretation, it's obvious to them that this isn't what the passage was intended to mean, right? There are other bible passages where I've seen people claim "this is actually really progressive for that time period because what God really meant was [whatever]" (and I'm generally not on board with this) but surely in this case they don't *actually* think that what God meant was "you should execute a rebellious son, when all these complicated criteria are met, so actually, in practical terms, never." This reading of this bible passage feels like it's in conflict with the passage, rather than being a good-faith attempt to get at what the actual meaning was.

But if you're going to so strongly disagree with and fight against the actual intended meaning of the passage, why even pretend you're respecting and obeying it? Why not say "this bible passage is just wrong. Let's NOT obey this." I'm wondering what sort of circumstance this kind of interpretation could be useful in. It seems like it could only really work if you *know* the bible passage in question is teaching something abhorrent, and you strongly disagree with it, but there are societal pressures that force you to pretend that you are respecting and obeying it.

I think this also has to do with the differences between Judaism and evangelical Christianity in how we view the bible. From what I've seen, Judaism has a tradition of disagreeing with some parts of the bible, while at the same time taking it very seriously. Evangelical Christians, on the other hand, believe we can't ever disagree with something that God said or did in the bible.

3. Journal Club: Adults’ Perceptions of Sex Ed (November 21) "We noted many potential issues with the survey, including recollection errors (the mean age being 45), and leading questions (there weren’t any response options that allowed people to be negative about sex ed). The questions are asking about a counterfactual that people have no direct experience with."

4. Down the Toilet: Shanghai Bids Farewell to Chamber Pots (November 21) "The dense, labyrinthine layout of Shanghai’s shikumen or “stone-framed doorway” neighborhoods, as well as concern for preserving cultural sites, often meant that officials had to devise highly individualized solutions for each household."

I live in Shanghai but I had no idea there were homes here without actual flush toilets.

5. This post about how to turn off AI features in Gmail. (November 21)

6. The Trans Vibe of Lilo & Stitch (November 20, 33-minute video) "It might not be on the planet 'trans' or 'gay', but it's certainly orbiting the same solar system as those two."

7. Other people might just not have your problems (November 22) "I find this thought comforting. It’s not that I have failed to learn some trivially easy skill that everyone else managed to learn in kindergarten, and it’s not that everyone else has some cool lifehack that they’re hiding from me out of spite."

8. The female crash test dummy has been a long time coming — but she isn't here yet (November 21) "In the early 2000s, regulators added a small "female" dummy to tests — but it was just a scaled-down version of the male dummy, with breasts attached. That doesn't reflect the real anatomical differences between male and female bodies."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Slavery Was Defined by Sexual Violence (September 1) [content note: rape]

2. Trump Honors the Man Who Had Jamal Khashoggi Killed (November 19)

3. Lawrence: Humiliated Trump's dictatorship over Republicans is coming apart with the Epstein vote (November 19) 8-minute video

4. Some Democratic Congresspeople made a video to tell the military they should refuse illegal orders:

We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.

The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.

Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r

— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025

Yes, just stating the unremarkable fact that the military is supposed to serve the Constitution and follow the law. Oh but it turns out I was wrong about this being an "unremarkable fact" because the MAGAs are treating it like it's extremely controversial and inflammatory.

Apparently that felon is out here posting on social media that these Congress members are guilty of "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"

Outrage after Trump accuses Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’ (November 20)

5. These families' health care costs will balloon if Congress doesn't act on the ACA (November 20) "Bixon says he knew he'd have to pay for health care out of pocket after retiring from his career as a small business owner. 'But,' he says, 'in my wildest dreams, I never thought a number close to $70,000 a year would be the cost that I'd be facing.'"

6. Baby, teenagers allegedly caught in San Antonio immigration raid (November 21)

7. A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness (October 29, via) "But don’t tell me that excusing that tattoo is good politics. It is the exact same politics that the right is selling, in a different outfit."

8. To Those Familiar with Purity Culture, Megyn Kelly’s Comments About Epstein and 15-Year-Old Girls isn’t Such a Surprise (November 18, via)

9. After unprecedented autism-vaccine messaging change, scientists, advocates say CDC no longer trustworthy (November 21, via) "Instead of a global leader in science, the CDC has devolved into 'a propaganda machine for RFK Jr.'s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories,' said Paul Offit, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine. 'The CDC is being weaponized to promote RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine point of view. So why should you trust it?'"

Blogaround

1. Michael Card - Chorus Of Faith - Here's a song from Michael Card, a Christian singer from the 80's. "He loves us with passion, without regrets, he cannot love more and will not love less."

2. Discarded toys are creating an e-waste disaster. Here’s how to stop it. (November 22) People are always giving my kid low-quality toys with pointless electronics in them. Turns out that these things shouldn't just be thrown out in the regular trash because they are "e-waste"- but wow I can't imagine, as a parent, actually having to do the task of figuring out how to throw them out "correctly" and doing it. That just sounds exhausting, and why should I have to do that, it's not my fault people keep giving my kid crappy toys. I would say the only actually workable solution is for the manufacturers to take the responsibility for how to recycle them.

3. A Mother’s Worst Nightmare (June 29, via) [content note: it's about the government taking babies away from their parents] "Federal law has put thousands of women on anti-addiction medications like Suboxone into an impossible bind: Give up your treatment or risk losing your child."

4. The Remarkable Biden Economy (November 27) "Biden has been an excellent president, particularly in his stewardship of the economy."

5. Take heart, it looks like China could send new pandas to the US (November 17, via)

6. ChatGPT generates fake data set to support scientific hypothesis (November 22, via) "'It seems like it’s quite easy to create data sets that are at least superficially plausible. So, to an untrained eye, this certainly looks like a real data set,' says Jack Wilkinson, a biostatistician at the University of Manchester, UK."

7. I Came Out as Intersex in Front of the Texas Legislature (September 15, via) "Does that mean that, because of my genotypic XY chromosomes, I’ve been using the wrong bathroom my whole life? No. It means who cares what bathroom I use?"

Blogaround

1. Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Long Pause Explained Racism and Sexism in America (posted March 24) "Everybody knew that Ted Cruz got to stand up there and call Ketanji Brown Jackson whatever he wanted to, and nobody would stop him. Everybody knew that Jackson could not respond in kind if she wanted the job. And everybody knew that, in the same situation, Kavanaugh could and did sneer at his questioners, threaten the Senate with political retribution, and declare his undying love for beer, without hurting his chances at unaccountable lifetime power."

2. Harm Reduction: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (posted March 28) "But advocates say that much, much more is needed, including making sure that people who use drugs have a seat at the table during policy discussions, and that funding gets to community-based organizations providing the services for them."

3. ‘I Found It!’ (posted March 22) "Those memories of billboards, buttons, and bumper stickers came flooding back when I read this Christianity Today piece by Maria Baer last week: '$100M Ad Campaign Aims to Make Jesus the ‘Biggest Brand in Your City’.'"

4. As the Emmett Till Antilynching Act becomes law, we owe a debt to the mother who never let us forget (posted March 9)

5. 7 Things White Christians Can Do to Address White Supremacy at Church (posted March 20) "Pull together a group to write a more honest church history that begins with this simple question: Why is our church physically located where it is? Why is it in this part of our community and not another one? In nearly all cases this question will quickly lead to issues of racially segregated neighborhoods, white flight from cities to suburbs and land grabs from Native Americans, to name just a few. And other questions will flow from this beginning: Has the church ever had a policy or practice of prohibiting non-white members? Where was the voice of the church during past and present movements for civil rights? How different would a history of your church be if it were written by non-white members of your community?"

6. The Redemption of Redeeming Love: A Movie Review and Marketplace History (posted March 24) "But without fail, every time a new film adaptation is released, reviewers are once again shocked with the popularity of Christian fiction romance."

7. Madison Cawthorn Allegedly Overwhelmed By Washington Cocaine And Orgy Invites (posted March 28) Uh okay.

8. Twitter suspends Babylon Bee for naming Rachel Levine ‘Man of the Year’ (posted March 21) The Babylon Bee is trash.

Jesus: “Show me your funniest joke.”

Babylon Bee: "I have no funniest joke."

Jesus: "You are right in saying, ‘I have no funniest joke,' for you only have one joke, and the one you have is not funny."

— J.R.R. Jokin (@joshcarlosjosh) March 23, 2022

9. Another negative positive (posted March 30) "The previous time my wife tested positive I was sent home from the Big Box, told to get tested, and not permitted to return until 24 hours after a negative test result. This time they’re just, like, 'But you didn’t test positive right? So why aren’t you coming in? And why are you still wearing a mask like some weirdo?'"

(Meanwhile in Shanghai, I have been in lockdown for about 3 weeks because of the covid outbreak...)

10. Autistic Sensory Pain and the Medical Consequences (posted 2021) "If autistic people are constantly told that their sensory pain 'isn’t a big deal,' why would we assume you would take our physical pain seriously?" I am autistic, and all of this rings very true.

Blogaround

A baby elephant standing with an adult elephant. Image source.

1. Why It’s Easier to Accept David as a Murderer than a Rapist (posted October 14) "If David was merely a weak man who fell prey to a tempting woman on a lonely night, then we don’t have to grapple with the far more insidious reality: David was one of many (mostly men) throughout history who used their power for sexual exploitation."

2. ‘Meth. We’re on it,’ South Dakota says in ridiculed ad campaign that cost $449,000 (posted November 19) LOLOLOLOLOL

3. Here’s What’s Actually Going on With the Chick-Fil-a Charitable Giving ‘Controversy’ (posted November 18) It's sort of good news, but not as much of a big deal as people are making it out to be- and as a queer Christian, I am still not supporting Chick-Fil-a.

4. This tweet from @AspieHuman:

Exposure therapy IS NOT A THING FOR SENSORY SENSITIVITIES. This makes me so angry. Our brains literally don't habituate to sensory stimuli, which is why we have sensory sensitivities in the first place. You're just forcing the autistic person to be in pain. #TheGoodDoctor

— AutisticScienceLady (@AspieHuman) November 20, 2019

Wow. This is EXACTLY my experience. Really really valuable to see someone put it into words like this.

5. Star Trek Doesn't Actually Understand Evolution (posted November 20) Yep.

Blogaround

A fluffy puppy. Image source.

1. I'm Starting to Wonder If My Membership In This Fraternity Will Hamper My Future SCOTUS Prospects (posted September 24) [content note: sexual assault, but it's written as an over-the-top parody] "I mean, a young man can technically do all these things without any consequences, but thirty years later he may possibly have to worry that he won’t get to be a Supreme Court justice. It’s just not right."

2. Seattle judges throw out 15 years of marijuana convictions (posted September 25) Good news~

3. Christian Azusa Pacific University lifts, reinstates ban on LGBTQ relationships on campus (posted September 28) "'They said we could put our trust in them, and we did that,' Green said. 'And this is how they treat us, an already marginalized community — push us back down into the fringes.'"

4. A Rewriting of Psalm 10 (posted September 29) "Where the fuck are you, God, hiding yourself in these days?"

5. Transgender youths who use their chosen name are 65 percent less likely to attempt suicide, research reveals (posted April 2)

6. Promises, False and Discovered (posted September 22) "In college, I became aware that why yes, our god did indeed allow people to have problems that were too big for them."

7. Hurricane Maria was a manmade disaster. Hundreds of families told us what really happened (posted September 14)

8. When Gomer Looks More Like God (posted September 24) [content note: misogyny in the bible] "So I’ve been preaching about women called whores and the men, prophets, and God who use that language for some time now."

9. Urban Church Planting Plantations (posted 2014) "One older African-American pastor said he’s heard chilling reports of meetings, in which representatives from many of the suburban churches have gathered around a map of the city and marked each church’s “territory,” as if Buffalo was theirs to divvy up."

10. Tearing the Robe Twice: Christian Parenting and the Rape of Tamar (posted 2016) [content note: rape]

11. I Know Why Evangelical Women Support Brett Kavanaugh. I Was Raised To Do The Same. (posted October 3) "When I was 18, in college, a guy at my Christian school lectured my friend and me for stretching in the student union. He said it caused him to picture us in the positions we could maintain in bed and that we should work harder to protect his thoughts. We acquiesced. After all, we wanted to be women of God, worthy of our future husbands."

Blogaround

People in Taiwan celebrate after the highest court rules in favor of marriage equality. Image source.

1. Blogging Against Disablism Day 2017: Disability and “Can’t” (posted May 1) "It’s not even that my to-do list is that onerous; it’s more that I live in a perpetual state of believing that I cannot say “no.” If I have a free moment, I need to be Doing Something Productive."

2. Confederate Monuments and “Historical Vandalism” (posted May 16) "It wasn’t about remembering a historical moment. It was about a communal act of worship of a white supremacist racial ideology and historical memory."

3. I prosecuted drug offenders in the ’80s. It was a disaster. Why is Sessions taking us back? (posted May 18) "Drug prohibition has created a stigma that blocks public health solutions, and fosters an intense distrust for police and the criminal justice system."

4. At Wedding Market, Mothers of Gays and Lesbians Face Resistance (posted May 20) The kingdom of heaven is like Chinese mothers at the Shanghai People's Park marriage market, protesting for their gay and lesbian children's right to marry.

5. The Creation of adam (posted May 17) "Rosales’ painting is seen as making a theological (and political) statement in a way that Michelangelo’s original is not, even though it absolutely is."

6. Taiwan is closer to being 1st Asian country to allow same-sex marriage (posted May 24) "The country's Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that current laws, which say that marriage is between a man and a woman, violate the Constitution." Hooray! LGBTQ people here are very excited about this.

7. Yes, You’re ‘Trans Enough’ to Be Transgender (posted 2016) "Transition doesn’t have to be a desperate last resort. You can transition simply because you want to. Transition isn’t a sacred act only for the worthy, it’s for anyone that wants it. I’ll let you in on a secret; only trans people want to transition."

8. How Government Support Saved Me (posted May 24) "But the truth is, we’re not really independent—nor have we fully known what it’s like to be poor in America—because we’ve always been surrounded by safety nets. Our great-grandparents were immigrants from countries that were deemed European enough to allow entry, and their legal status was transferred onto us. I attended private universities and lived rent-free at home for periods of time in order to reduce my school debt. When we were support-raising, my husband and I benefited from stable communities and churches that were able to donate money to us, allowing us the luxury of time to work towards church-planting. And we received a large loan for our house, which up until recent history was only afforded to white people."

9. And the wedding song of the week is "Sugar" by Maroon 5. I love this!

Blogaround

Four big dogs laying on top of each other. Image source.

1. Why Jesus’ Skin Color Matters (posted March 18) "As an ethnic minority, Jesus didn’t simply care about people who were victims of Rome-sanctioned violence, he was a victim of Rome-sanctioned violence. Jesus didn’t simply care about refugees, Jesus was a refugee. Jesus didn’t simply care about the poor, he was poor."

2. Writing a love letter instead of a police report: why victims contact sex attackers (posted February 13) [content note: rape] I don't see anything contradictory about this at all. It seems very normal to me to initially give someone the benefit of the doubt when they attack or abuse you- because you like them and you want the relationship to work out. Only later would you realize, you know what, this isn't right, this is abuse and I'm done.

3. Nearly 4 Million Syrian Children Born Into War Risk Becoming ‘Lost Generation’: UNICEF (posted March 14)

4. Stephen Explains "Star Wars" To China (posted December 19) "Star Wars is a story of a simple farm boy who buys two robots. One looks like a garbage can. The other is programmed to be scared all the time for some reason."

5. Autism—It's Different in Girls (posted March 1) Yep. All of this. Pretty much everything in this article feels SO TRUE to me, but if I had to pick one quote, it would be: "Even many highly intelligent girls on the spectrum have difficulties with washing their hair, wearing deodorant and dressing appropriately, Jamison says. Some of this behavior is linked to sensory issues; other aspects of the problem are related to difficulty following the appropriate sequence of behavior when doing something you think is unimportant."

6. Legalize It All: How to win the war on drugs (April 2016 issue) "The government’s own data, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, shatters the myth of “instantly addictive” drugs. ... Only tiny percentages of people who have sampled one of the Big Four — heroin, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamine — have used that drug in the past month. (For heroin, the number is 8 percent; for cocaine, 4 percent; for crack, 3 percent; for meth, 4 percent.) It isn’t even clear that using a drug once a month amounts to having a drug problem."

7. Heels (posted March 24) "Or, to use the rhetorical flourish favored by “bathroom-bill” advocates, Gov. McCrory wants to look in your young daughter’s pants and in the pants of every one of her elementary school classmates." And also: "How Is The Government Supposed To Figure Out A Person's Biological Sex?"

8. Jimmy Kimmel “mansplaining” to Hillary Clinton was a perfect sendup of campaign trail sexism (posted March 25) Lol.

9. NRA: A Lesson on evangelism (posted March 28) "This iteration of the guilt-driven pep-talk may eventually succeed in motivating them to get back out there and make their hard-sell even harder than before. That will, in turn, leave them feeling even guiltier about their pushier, but even more counter-productive attempts at evangelism, after which they can be lectured yet again about why they should feel even guiltier about feeling even guiltier." OH MY GOODNESS he describes evangelism perfectly.

10. Secret Service: We’re not allowing firearms at the Republican National Convention (posted March 28)

When you get "the bible" confused with "rules my parents had when I was 13"

Hand holding a bible. Image text: "What the Bible says about..." Image source.

Here's a bizarre article about evangelical Christians who sell and promote medical marijuana. Bizarre because the point is basically "yeah I know as Christians we're supposed to think marijuana is thoroughly and irredeemably evil, but, like... no, we don't believe that anymore because medical marijuana is so useful and here's a bible verse about how we should help the sick."

Here are a few quotes, to help you see what I mean:

As the successes mounted, Stanley said, “it was a transformation for me, and I was angry that I had been told marijuana was evil and of no medical benefit. At that point, it was very easy for me to reconcile marijuana with my Christian faith.”

And this:

Jackson, who said her Christian faith is everything to her (it’s “the pie, not a piece of pie,” she said), talked to her minister as she wrestled with the morality of marijuana. “I’m a byproduct of the 1980s and ‘Just Say No,’ so I grew up thinking this was evil,” she said.

Stacey Mobley, minister of the church of Christ of Colorado Springs, an independent, Bible-based congregation, said members support Jackson’s work.

“God made the plant, and said in Genesis 1:31 that everything he made was very good,” said Mobley, who opposes recreational marijuana. “We are firsthand witnesses of its benefits in the providential healing of Zaki, and I believe Heather is driven by obligation because she is a Christian to do good to all.”

First of all, I love how they both used the word "evil"- because it shows how the teaching they had received about marijuana was more about fear mongering than actual information. When those kinds of scare tactics are used to control kids' behavior, it leaves them with a vague sense that the thing in question is very very bad, but unable to explain exactly why- and too afraid to try. (I'm looking at you, abstinence-only education.)

It's so baffling to me that they're starting from a position of "I know as Christians we're supposed to think this is evil, but..." Like, why on earth would there be a connection between being a Christian and believing marijuana has absolutely no potential benefits? (Does the bible say that somewhere? Maybe in 2 Hesitations?) I mean, I see how you can make a biblical case that we shouldn't use drugs that are harmful to our health, but this is isn't about that. This is believing that any possible use of a marijuana plant is bad- like I said, scare tactics will do this. They were taught to feel a hazy and not-well-defined fear hovering around the concept of marijuana, so yes, that included both medical and recreational uses. But what on earth that has to do with being a Christian, I have no idea.

Looks like a case where "Christianity" was confused with "the rules you have to follow to be a good kid." Where "the bible" was confused with "American values." These are very much not the same thing. Their Christian parents and teachers said they had to believe and do certain things in order to be upstanding members of society, and they thought it meant they had to do those things to be good Christians.

And, now that I think about it, there are a lot of issues where American Christians believe they are supposed to hold a certain view, "the Christian view", but the bible says no such thing.

First of all: communism. Christians are supposed to believe communism is evil, right? And that God definitely likes capitalism. Wait, why? Does the bible say that? Nope.

R-rated movies. Christians aren't supposed to watch R-rated movies, that's immoral! Remember when "The Passion of the Christ" came out, and people were all like "well surely we can make an exception for this one, it's about Jesus."

How about taking care of the environment? Christians are supposed to be suspicious of any talk of environmentalism, right? Really? Does the bible say that? No.

Living with one's boyfriend or girlfriend. Oh, this is a horrible sin! Wait, where in the bible does it say that? Nowhere, you guys.

How about being transgender? Yeah, there's nothing in the bible that says there's anything wrong with being transgender. What's that you say? Genesis 1:27? Umm, I'm pretty sure it says "male and female he created them" not "everybody with a penis is a man." (You could use this verse to make an argument that everybody fits into the gender binary. I wouldn't agree with you, but at least it's possible to make a biblical argument for that.)

Christians are supposed to read the bible every day. Really? Where does that idea come from?

Life begins at conception. Or rather, Christians are supposed to believe that every embryo has just as much of a right to life as any other human. Umm? Does the bible say that? No.

Yeah, for all of these, I know there are bible verses people pull out to support their opinions. But none of those bible verses actually explicitly says the thing they're trying to make them say.

And it's so bizarre when somebody says "I'm a Christian, so I believe [thing that literally has no relevance to Christianity]."

Readers: Do you have any other examples?