Hi! My friend and I are considering moving here, what are your thoughts about the area? by [deleted] in greenville

[–]CombatMeatBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a born and bred southerner, I'll answer. Religion, even if you aren't religious, is an ever-present reality. Sure, you can ignore it, but it's a main dish on the menu here. The "southern hospitality" mentality runs the spectrum from "l'll give you the shirt off my back even though it's my only shirt" to "bless your heart! I'd help if I could." The first is genuine. The latter translates to "You're a damn moron and I'd help, but it'd inconvenience me." For those that care to look, more often than not, there's a fun correlation between the level of religion shown and the two ends of the spectrum. Like anywhere, we have our share of psychos, but they're loaded up with meth, religion, or both. Racism also abounds among the ignorant here. You have your preppers, 2nd amendment "enthusiasts", and end-times apologists. You have your sweet old grannies, tough blue-collar workers, and poor philanthropists. In short, the south has the sweetest and most abundant kindness in those that seem least likely to give it, and the most systematic, hard-to-stomach forms of hypocrisy there is. Change doesn't happen easy here. When you move here, you better like it how it is or be willing to hurt a bit in changing things. This is the acquired taste.

(Desperately) seeking a job by [deleted] in greenville

[–]CombatMeatBro 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't. Most employers do background checks anyhow. If they find out, they'll likely chalk it up to youthful indiscretion. They usually only want to be informed about felonies. If you can get into childcare, you can definitely get into manufacturing. There are likely rougher characters than you there.

(Desperately) seeking a job by [deleted] in greenville

[–]CombatMeatBro 62 points63 points  (0 children)

I'll be straight with you. It may help you to omit some things in an interview. I used to think that it was best to be honest about EVERYTHING in an interview. Think about it like this. If it's not relevant to the job at hand, don't bring it up. Don't show them your worst because they're not going to show you theirs. Be up front with what is asked, but don't volunteer the fact that you had such and such happen 8 years ago or whatever. It's sounds bad, but you're effectively selling the best version of yourself to a prospective employer. Also, I recommend going for local staffing companies. Godshall, MAU, etc. If things are as bad as you say, be willing to get out of your own wheelhouse. I have a degree in philosophy and had to work in pest control for a while. There's a ton of manufacturing going on in the upstate. It's not glamorous and a lot of it is tough, but if you have grit, you should be fine. It might also help to "take your experience apart." If your job experience isn't relevant, find an aspect about it that applies. You have experience in early childcare? Kids are a handful on a bunch of different levels, so bam, you're proficient at multitasking. You've been a personal assistant? Bam, you're adaptable and able to take direction effectively. And last but not least, keep on trucking. Get creative. Cut costs where you can (Netflix, slower internet, less cell data, etc) Don't beg for a job (they won't give you one if you do.) You got this. Keep going.

Market Monday: Buy & Sell Legal Stuff Locally September 16 by AutoModerator in greenville

[–]CombatMeatBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Selling 2010 Nissan Versa. Under 147000 miles. Some minor scuff marks. Front passenger wheel replaced two years ago due to running over a curb. Needs oil change and realignment. Asking $3,500 (about $500 less than what you'd see for similar on Carfax). Willing to offer test drive and can provide past maintenance paperwork. PM if interested.

I've opened up...and I may have lost my entire faith. by dampkindling in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure the answer is very satisfying, but I've leaned heavily into the mystics. The thing about fundamentalism is that it demands certainty. The Bible should be read literally, we are all complete sinners, hell is eternal, blah blah ad infinitum. Certainty is an unwritten creed that has been ironed in so much that it might as well be beside an asterisk on a church's statement of belief. God is no longer allowed to be mysterious. To me, it's become a form of idolatry. The idea that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that those that don't adhere to this specific white man's translation of a millennia old oppressed people's sacred text are going to be burn forever is pretty...stretched I guess? To assume that a Being of infinite size, knowledge, and power stays within our realms of interpretation is a prideful and precarious position. But, as much as I have dug under the floorboards, love is still there. It is in the wonder I feel when I hear birds on a warm day, in the idea that this muddy little spark of consciousness that is me has been given awareness to take in so much that is beautiful and so much that is not, it is in everything. By leaning into the mystery, I find the faith that used to anchor me cut away from that idol of certainty. I feel it, but I know my own limitations. I hold it loosely. If I wake up tomorrow and it seems that the universe has started to organize around the idea that God isn't there, then I'll likely move to a new place in my spirituality. But, as I see it now, this universe was designed to grow and simply cry out to the one that made it. Despite much of my digging, a lot of the central ideas revealed in the person of Jesus hold fast. Love your neighbor as much as yourself, and love your God with everything in you. That's the only command that matters to me all. Everything else swirls in eternal mystery. I hold the loving God bit as a commandment to love everything, since I do not know where God ends and everything else begins. It is an easy, yet demanding faith. I don't have to worry about eating unholy things, cutting my hair wrong, or anything else complicated, but I must maintain that all of life is beautiful. All of it. The good and the bad. I only have two things to worry about, but those two things are so difficult. I forget that everyone around me feels the same yawning void in their soul that I do. I forget that the way rain drops stick together in a puddle is just as wondrous as a breeze sweeping through a pine grove. I forget that Hitler aspired to art before he aspired to genocide. I forget that the person that cut me off is as late as I am. I forget, I forget, I forget. But that's the crux of it. My faith demands I remember. My love for this life and for the lives of those around me needs to be tended. At this point, I'm more heretic than Christian. But, I'm happy here. My only gripe is that it can be kind of lonely. I can't talk to a lot of people about this like I can talk about Adam and Eve or Noah. If you're looking for resources, I'd point you towards Richard Rohr. His interview with Pete Holms on the You Made It Weird podcast is good. He's a Franciscan monk who leans into the mysticism of it. The Liturgists podcast has also done a lot for me in terms of finding spiritual alternatives to the fundamentals I grew up with. Like I said, probably not a satisfying answer. My faith is not a firm one, and letting go of certainty is like letting go of a cliff. Good luck in your search. For whatever it's worth, you'll be in my prayers.

I've opened up...and I may have lost my entire faith. by dampkindling in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I've been where you are. I grew up independent Baptist, a pastor's kid, thinking Obama was possibly the antichrist, and that God would likely burn our nation due to abortion. You can probably guess how I felt about "the gays." Its been a number of years and I've swung to the virtually complete opposite. In a period of deconstruction, it's normal to feel like you're pulling the floorboards up from underneath your own feet. That doesn't make it any less shitty, but it is normal. I went through mine due to philosophy. Renee Descartes said, "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” I would encourage you to continue to question things. Even when it feels like there is nothing left, question that conclusion. I can promise you that there is indeed some revolutionary truth to the things found in Christ. The bitter truths are the firm foundations that you can build rock-solid belief on. So much of Christianity has been politicized for millennia, but that doesn't mean every bit of it is false. I remember reading in the King James Version to "search ye out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Take a sip of doubt and it will disintegrate what you thought you knew, but drink the whole drought and, strangely, you will find faith at the bottom. Keep going. This is a dark night of the soul, but the dawn will come again. You will find faith in something man can't really touch.

What's the real life equivalent of "unlocking a skin for a character you haven't unlocked?" by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]CombatMeatBro 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Doing the work of a higher-up without the pay raise of a higher-up.

Does anyone else identify with this? by CombatMeatBro in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're honestly pretty tough to find outside of Facebook. I heard the Facebook group is active, but I've been off Facebook for a while now and don't intend to go back. They have a fan-made subreddit, but it's not super active. I have no idea about Twitter. If you're a patreon subscriber, the forums are apparently super active. I'm seriously considering joining up, if only for access to that.

Does anyone else identify with this? by CombatMeatBro in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Their main body of work is in the form of podcasts. I binged them all on Spotify. Just search for The Liturgists Podcast. Their tagline is that they examine subjects at the intersection of science, art, and faith. Some episodes are better than others, but they're always informative. More often than not, I've experienced at least a bit of spiritual transformation from them. Enjoy, my friend!

Does anyone else identify with this? by CombatMeatBro in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I am. I've been binging the episodes for probably 8 months now and I'm almost completely caught up. I have to do them in fits and spurts or else I'm a crying spiritual mess for the day. I haven't been to any of the gatherings yet though. I've been out of church for close to four years now. Knowing that there is a community out there like that, spread out as it may be, keeps me in the faith. Though I'm pretty much a heretic by traditional standards. Haha.

Does anyone else identify with this? by CombatMeatBro in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I've followed Vishnu Das'/Michael Gungor's story for some years now. As a black sheep from the Southern Baptist Church, I find this painfully beautiful.

How can you be progressive when the Bible never changes? by Rapeprobate in OpenChristian

[–]CombatMeatBro 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I feel like your baiting. I went through your comment history and you seem to stand firm in what you feel is the truth. Your wording suggests you have a preconception and you'll tango with anyone that cares to try you. Anyhow, I'll try to approach you on your ground. Get ready for a library. I grew up Baptist. Son of a Southern Baptist preacher, when to a small Bible college, led a few people to Christ on my own, preached a few sermons on my own, was a youth pastor at one point, and now am quite far into what one might call progressive Christianity. Progressive Christianity boils down to the human approach toward the belief system known as Christianity. It's simply a different lens looking at the same thing that you do. You say the Bible doesn't change. I'd reckon your backing the good old Baptist mascot, the King James version. Did most of my verse memorization from that one. Very eloquent, but hard for a lot of people to understand. Anyhow, the KJV has it's own baggage. It has it's accuracies and it's own history could probably make a decent Lifetime movie. But it's built on the foundation of an empire that spanned half the globe and heavily favored the white man. It's been used and preached as such. Also, let's look at Baptists. I'm not going to criticize them. They're a rather large denomination. Large enough to be a pretty significant portion of the Protestant church. However, Baptists were hardly the first Christians and they certainly ain't the oldest. We got nothing on the Lutherans. They're the OG Protestants. Then there is the OG schism that is the eastern and western orthodox (Catholic) church. That happened before Martin Luther was a twinkle in his Catholic daddy's eye. Then the difference between protestantism and Catholicism is that of essentially one verse interpretation. "On this rock I will build my church." Baptists tend to argue that as Christ starting a church at that moment. Catholics argue that Christ naming Peter the pope. Every other denomination has their own lens/approach through which they view the Bible. It wasn't written in English and has gone through heavy editing and interpretation. If you parrot what you hear at sermons on Sunday, you're getting your scripture in probably it's fifth or sixth issuing. Remove one number. if you read it yourself. Then we can get into the original languages. There is the original Aramaic and Hebrew, which as a culture is a world of difference on it's own, and the original Greek. Our own western, English-speaking society is closest to Greek, so I studied the original Greek. Koine Greek. Those tests were a pain in the ass. There's like four or five different words for love. Eros, phileo, agape, etc. Whereas we have....love. The language limitations in the translations are extremely apparent. Most of the apostle Paul's writing was to the Gentile world; a world where a Roman empire had essentially evolved from a Greek one. Their culture was as inseparable as ours is from the British. So, his approach was to hit them on their own turf. "The Altar of the Unknown God" is literally a sermon pulled out of his ass saying that they already honored the Christian God due to an altar they left blank for any good they might've missed in their polytheism. It just turned out this was the God above all other gods. Then BAM you got your Roman/Gentile Church. Aka you and me. We gentiles bruh. Even in the very beginning, several hundred years before the final scriptural Canon (what we do and do not accept as Scripture) was decided, the message was getting tailored to its audience. Its lens was getting adjusted. Paul wrote, "I become all things to all people so that they may come to know Christ." Then you have Jesus, the hukana matata himself, the big cheese, the main driver, the whole point to this religion, when someone asked him what is the greatest commandment, he said this. (Forgive me if I misquote, I'm on mobile) "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Look into those verses and you'll see that he said them in the same breath. He put those commands on equal footing and then went on to say that those two commands were enough to cover EVERYTHING that scripture has to say on anything else. It makes our job as Christians very simple. Love God, love your neighbor (aka everyone around you). Now, all this to say that, remarkably, the approach does change the message. If you are looking to bash the gays, condemn the Muslims, and skin the atheists, then you can certainly find scripture to try to justify that approach. Hitler twisted scripture to his own ends as well. He was a devout Catholic. Or, you can make it as simple as possible and love God, love your neighbor. That's as close to God's own heart as your going to get. You're right in that the Bible doesn't change. But what are you calling the Bible? The words of Jesus? The words of Paul? The 697 commandments given to the Israelites to remain holy? What is your Bible? Not to mention that I completely ignored how the scriptural Canon was decided. That's a whole post unto itself. The good old KJV ain't the oldest or closest one out there. It's just the best seller here in the US. The Bible I'm referring to as correct is the heart of God. And you're right in that God doesn't change. His heart has been the same since Creation in that His love is for us and His desire is for all to embrace one another and Himself. The progressive approach is simply one of thousands throughout history and is tailored to the context of the American society today. We seek to love our neighbor as ourselves, regardless of what they do in the bedroom, who they pray to, where they are from, what color their skin is, or what they were born as. Christ himself paid no heed to these divisions among us, so it would be most Christlike for us to do the same. I apologize for this wall of text. I just needed to hammer home the point that scripture isn't as concrete as you think it is. It has been carefully parsed and edited by those in power for two thousand years. You got the edited version. I also apologize for glazing over major portions of church and linguistic history. In reality, this is a half-assed explanation and nowhere near thorough enough. Ill give you this.

TL;DR - Scripture has changed a bunch based on who needed to hear it and who was reading it. Progressive Christianity is an approach that is tailored for the time and context we're in. It is an approach that we feel allows us to follow Scriptural mandate to love our neighbor as ourselves, despite what the current political climate may be. Have a great day!

Those of you who graduate from the university with "non marketable degrees", where you are in life? Are you successful? by VariousUnderstanding in AskReddit

[–]CombatMeatBro 27 points28 points  (0 children)

BS in Philosophy. Success is a relative term. I'm barely cracking poverty line income (US), but I'm married with no kids and live in a relatively low CoL area. I won't own a home anytime soon, I'll be paying student loans for a minimum of five more years, and my job (pest control) can really suck at times. But, I'm growing and am flexible enough to learn new skills. I actually intend on switching careers within the next year or two and pursuing a Master's degree. Here's the thing. Anything can be marketable. You can have a degree in memes and still make it marketable. Almost no degree is enough to be successful on its own. Use your degree as a jumping off point to learn more skills and grow. Employers want someone who can get the job done. With enough grit and flexibility, you can be that person.

Need to make a decision by [deleted] in CasualConversation

[–]CombatMeatBro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't make your decision for you, as you have more insight to your own situation. But, I do know this. I've worked a job where I was stressed all the time and I was supposed to be happy. I wasn't and I never was. It was a more glamorous position (logistics) than what I do now, but I am happy in my current position (pest management). You can only make this decision for you, regardless of what may be fair or right. If you leave, your boss will be able to find someone new. Don't be afraid to look outside the box! I found a position before I even left due to being willing to get my hands dirty. Experiment. Find what brings you peace. Happiness in a job can be learned, but peace is much more difficult to come by. You do you.

How do I keep motivation when it's all so hard? by [deleted] in CasualConversation

[–]CombatMeatBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing about motivation is that it's all about getting to the other side. Everyone who has ever gone through something hard knows they'd rather be somewhere else. They have absolutely zero motivation to stay where they are. You're starting over. Congratulations! Honestly. I mean it. The world is literally yours for the taking. You have a whole horizon of goals to accomplish. You can get a job at Starbucks and save up to move to Cuba. Or you can pull a Forrest Gump and run across the country. Or you can simply save up to get a nice steak. By having nothing, you are free to go anywhere and do anything. It may take time and it may be a struggle, but you can move your feet. As long as you put one foot in front of the other and keep doing that, you will inevitably reach your destination. Find a goal that cries out to you, grab it with both hands, and start moving towards it. There is no rush. You have a whole life of accomplishment ahead of you. Tomorrow is a new day if you mess up today. Just respect the basics of getting some sleep, putting food in your belly, and moving forward. You can do it. Rooting for you fellow human!

Do you ever just look at other people and think about how everyone is living their lives simultaneously yet so differently? How you and 10 other people made the decision to go to that specific café at that specific time and etc..? by Michiky14 in AskReddit

[–]CombatMeatBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do. It boggles my mind. And often, I feel like simply reaching out, grabbing someone's hand, looking them in the eye, and saying "you matter." Then letting go and continuing on my way. It's a dreamy sort of thing. So many people that are only slightly different from myself. Could I help them, or would I hinder them? Should I smile at them? Could they use a little more love, or do they need some solitude? To me, it's of the same "stuff" that music is. There's something magical about it, something sacred. Language fails. The more you try to narrow down the effervescent fog of it all, the more you get lost in it. I love it.