D. B. Grouper

the moment youve all been waiting for

las vegas if they werent cowards

somehow instead of saying "as a treat", I've started using the phrase "for morale", as if my body is a ship and its crew, and I (the captain) have to keep us in high spirits, lest we suffer a mutiny in the coming days.

and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.

I'm not sure if it helps, but it does entertain me

Terrible Terrors

In general, I think it's currently really important for progressive Christians to be very loud about being both progressive and deeply religious Christians, and for everyone else fighting for progressive values to be supportive of them doing just that. I know that's like, idk, counter-intuitive or cringe or whatever, but seriously folks, the alternative is that progressive Christians have to be quiet about their faith to be accepted within broader secular and interfaith progressive advocacy, which means that the regressive asshole Christians (a) sound that much louder and (b) dominate the USian religious landscape all the more. That's a problem, for all of us.

We need people pushing back within the faith as well as outside of it, because that destroys any edifice that this is about Christianity and religious freedom.

You can be a devout Christian and also:

• Openly, proudly, and without being forced to remain celibate or otherwise limit your full expression of self, identify as LGBTQ+ or be a supportive ally.
• Advocate for full reproductive autonomy and comprehensive sex education.
• Love and support people of other religious groups, non-religious people and/or atheists, by choosing to believe that a truly loving God would not pursue anything less than universal salvation.
• Stand against evangelism and proselytizing as they have thus far been interpreted and used, because there are ways to interpret the Great Commission that don't promote colonialism and cultural genocide.
• A steward of the earth, protecting God's beautiful creation and lovingly tending to it as the unique and incredible gift that it is.
• A believer in science, rationalism, and human progress as part of God's divine plan for humanity.
• A believer in history and someone who understands that the Bible can be both divinely given and open to interpretation (no really)(if you're confused, please talk to a knowledgeable traditional Jew)
• An ally to Jews, who stands against supercessionism and antisemitism in the church.

And in before regressive Christians come shouting at me that (1) what do I know, I'm a Jew and (2) no lol you can't because of ___ reason:

My source is that I've personally met and talked to Christians of great faith and integrity - people who embody the closest forms of kindness I've seen to what Jesus himself advocated - who are each of these things.

It is 100% possible; you just choose to believe otherwise.

At this point I think it's time to start preaching and claiming the moral high ground here.

Right-wing evangelical Christians want you to think that they're the moral ones, when they EXPLICITLY defy the word of God. They routinely:

• Evade taxes intended to help the poor
• Oppress the foreigner
• Hoard wealth
• Hate their fellow in their hearts
• Destroy God's creation that they were entrusted to steward, intentionally and recklessly as well as carelessly
• Cast the first stone
• Preach idolatry through the prosperity gospel and the American cult of nationalism
• Sacrifice their children to Molech through encouraging a culture of gun violence
• Commit true sexual abominations, such as rape and pedophilia, and/or cover these things up or engage in apologetics
• Encourage actual child and spousal abuse while calling it "traditional family values"
• Oppress and demean women, when their main guy uplifted and valued women outside of marginal roles
• Smugly quote scripture to satisfy their bigotries and to benefit themselves without caring about the true message
• Fail to acknowledge God as the True Judge by substituting their prejudices for God's love and mercy

.......and plenty more. These are not just a few bad actors; this lifestyle is ENCOURAGED by this irresponsible and immoral cult. They are leading people astray into a life of sin and a culture of callous cruelty.

Is this the Christianity you want the world to know you by?

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

There he is

The bear in area

His arrival was foretold in ancient murals

hey, can we talk for a second? it’s about your girlfriend. yeah, she’s great. no, yeah, I agree. It’s just that… she seems really devoted to you? Like really devoted. Almost as if you were the sole, fragile line mooring her to the shores of humanity. No, that’s not romant—ugh. Listen. Me and the girls, we’re worried you might be the last good thing to happen to her and that were some tragedy to inevitably befall you, she would tear the gods from their thrones and dye the infinite western seas wine-dark with their ichor. Do you think you could introduce her to a new hobby or something? we don’t want to have to argue over what color “wine-dark” is supposed to be

When people graffiti on buildings: Yes! Ha ha! Fuck yes!

When people graffiti on rockfaces and cliffsides on hiking trails: What the absolute fuck.

It's not punk to poison the soil, dude.

i miss the real gun emoji so much

Consider:

silly wizard funny gang. we love smiling big

people who are like "oh but you can just buy x thing online" are missing the point. its about the joy and journey

"just find it on amazon" what next. do you want me to throw rocks at babies too

This made me think of the thing Kurt Vonnegut said about buying envelops

[Image ID: Black text on white background that reads: "Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And see some great looking babies. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And I'll ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is - we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And it's like we're not supposed to dance at all anymore. /EndID]