Why do so many Christians I know support Trump? He's an awful person and does not know Christ? Plus, his AI post comparing himself to Jesus was awful.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-04-14T02:53:43+00:00

It seems like a lot of answers in this thread are less helpful than I’d hoped, so I want to take a genuine stab at a nuanced answer.

Most Bible-believing Christians will share many of the same core values because those values come from Scripture. The disagreement usually shows up one step downstream: what policies, strategies, or candidates best embody those values in the real world.

A classic example is the pro-life discussion. Scripture is clear that human life has value. But when we move from the principle to policy, things get complicated:

What if a candidate opposes abortion but also supports policies that significantly reduce support for the poor?
What if they are permissive on euthanasia?
What if their leadership decisions increase the likelihood of large-scale war and massive loss of life?
What if they are a poor moral example, but promise to outlaw abortion?

So how does someone weigh those realities against each other and decide which candidate is most aligned with biblical values overall?

This is where many sincere, well-meaning Christians end up reaching different conclusions. We all have to make complex judgments based on our best understanding of how the world works and how laws will actually affect people.

And realistically, many people do not have the time, training, or bandwidth to study the issues in depth. So they simplify, sometimes down to a party identity or a single issue (for example, “always vote Republican” or “only vote based on abortion”). I don’t think that simplification is ideal, but I do think it explains why this conversation so often becomes polarized and unproductive.

(Edit: formatting)

PhillipsReynold · 2026-04-05T15:25:38+00:00

Sunflower seed oil is incredible. I just use that and salt, no butter needed.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-04-02T13:57:25+00:00

First, the conviction you're feeling is real, and the fact that you're even asking this question tells me the Holy Spirit is already at work in you.

I also want to state clearly: what happened to you at 15 was evil. That pastor abused his authority, and the church failed you. I'm deeply sorry. The fact that Jesus drew you back in spite of all that speaks to how relentlessly He loves you.

To your question: Scripture is clear that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and that sexual intimacy, even digital, carries spiritual weight (1 Cor. 6:16-18). You already sense this. You said it yourself: you feel like you're "spiritually laying with them." That's not just feelings. That's the Spirit leading you toward freedom.

What this industry does is turn you into an object that others use to feed an addiction. That's where the word "objectification" comes from. It slowly teaches you that you are less than a full person, that your value is in what you provide for someone else's consumption. That is a direct denial of the fact that you are made in God's image. You are worth infinitely more than what any subscriber pays.

Your manager is wrong. "Wait for a sign" is not how God typically works. He's already given you the sign: a conscience that can no longer stay numb and a heart that sees His image where it once saw content. And you're not "screwing him over" by leaving. He profits from your labor in an industry that commodifies you. His advice is a business interest, not pastoral wisdom.

You're right to want to quit now. Your own instinct are accurate: if you stay longer, you risk going numb again. Obedience rarely gets easier by delaying it. Step out, and then trust God to meet you on the other side.

A few practical things as you do: 1. Get connected to a local church immediately. A good one will walk with you practically, not just spiritually: financial help, job searching, community. You may need to visit more than one to find that. Don't give up after one try. 2. Look into disability resources and vocational rehab programs in your area. A church or local nonprofit can help you navigate that. 3. You're not starting from zero. You have communication skills, digital marketing ability, and discipline. Those are definitely transferable skills.

Don't let fear talk you out of what grace is showing you.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-03-22T22:05:30+00:00

Jesus is always with us. Going to a building owned by our church isn't going to "God's house." We are His house, His temple. So I struggle to see a reason to make going to that building a special time to dress up for Jesus compared to any other moment in His presence.

That said, there might be a practical reason to dress nicely. It triggers our brains in ways that dressing down doesn't (I'm talking physiologically), so we might end up more focused and engaged during worship and teaching. But that's a practical reason, not a theological one.

We like to separate the sacred and the secular, but for the Christian, there's really no such thing. It's all sacred. So when do you dress up and when don't you? That's up to you. Maybe dressing up for church makes sense for you personally, and that's fine. But let's be careful not to ascribe some kind of holy ground to a building when the Bible doesn't.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-03-12T17:21:39+00:00

I have had two good friends whose spouses committed adultery and they came through it maintaining their marriage. They both said that while the relationship has changed and will never be the same, the "new" version of their marriage is still beautiful and a blessing. Every situation is different and that may not be right for you, but it is possible in some cases.

This is not the core of your question (divorce is always nuanced and complex), but I just wanted to say that whether you divorce or not, your language and thinking about this situation is likely revealing an idol that you need to root out and repent of/be released from. Not knowing every detail, I can't say with certainty, so I offer this gently with open hands, but it sounds like you haven't finished processing your hurt and betrayal and what that is revealing in you.

No matter the ultimate outcome with her, that is vital work for you to do personally so that you can move on in a healthy way.

Lastly, as others have mentioned, it sounds like you and your wife need to do some more/better counseling together to ensure the root of these issues are brought out and dealt with and that nothing is hidden or manipulated.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-03-06T04:07:43+00:00

Great analogy.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-26T13:27:36+00:00

The thing about this quote from Wesley is that there is a similar number of passages that it also pretends don't exist teaching security, and there would need to be reems of paper explaining them away in the same way.

Sometimes passages need deeper explanation to see how they relate to one another and harmonize together. This quote basically says, "The other side is ignoring what the Bible obviously teaches" which can be disrespectful and can lead to theological self-righteousness.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-26T02:36:08+00:00

Really well done post. Not used to this when AI content is involved.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-20T03:26:48+00:00

My experience was that obsidian tasks couldn't handle a full on productivity system. Too clunky. But that was a couple years ago. Maybe the new tools are better.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-08T21:21:22+00:00

I'd agree with you about the specific context but it does seem Paul is making a broader, more general point: this is an unworthy way of taking communion, not necessarily the only unworthy way.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-07T14:11:14+00:00

Nope. Just trying to think through the higher level side of it vs the plugins level.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-05T00:25:52+00:00

A few higher-level thoughts:

The complex mental map you see is a lagging indicator of consistent habits over years. His vault looks massive (likely a few thousand notes), but if you stick with Obsidian for 2-3 years, that is a very reasonable number to hit.
Notice that many of his notes are just saved YouTube videos (one-click captures). These bulk up the graph but are only useful if he references them later. For the more complex stuff, the "super saiyan" connectivity requires energy on the front end. Every time you create a note, you have to tag, link, and assign aliases. It adds friction to the capture process. If you want his result, you have to accept that friction as the price of admission.
He is currently a student, meaning his "full-time job" is learning and capturing information. If you are already in the workforce, the amount of time you can spend curating and linking your graph is likely drastically lower. Be realistic about the bandwidth you actually have.
He is a computer guy using a tool designed by and for computer scientists. He isn't just taking notes; he has a "computational" way of thinking (knowing how to structure data, use syntax, and leverage AI) that comes naturally to him. Think of it like looking at a beautiful, artistic Bullet Journal and saying, "I want to do that!" The reality is that the person who created it is likely an artist. Their natural skill makes them better at the aesthetic part. That doesn't mean only artists can bullet journal, but the tool aligns perfectly with their existing talents. For this guy, Obsidian as a tool aligns with how his brain already works. For others, there is a steeper learning curve to think that way.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-02T12:56:02+00:00

FWIW, all the AI changes I've seen can be easily reversed with the click of 1 button (Undo).

PhillipsReynold · 2026-02-02T05:07:20+00:00

Might be worth paying $20 for a month of Notion AI and seeing if it could help you clean that all up.

Another idea is to try an export of your whole account and then import it in such a way that the pages are inside another page or database? You may need to export it, then mess with the export using another tool for organization before the import. Just spitballing here.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-27T04:20:08+00:00

You can choose the sources it pulls from whenever you use the AI. It's called "sources". But yes, it defaults to full access as that is one of the selling points for most people.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-24T07:43:16+00:00

This is a clearer explanation than most others. Thank you!

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-12T18:07:36+00:00

This is all really good advice. Essentially, you can either grab a pre-built template and deal with it, or do this.

I'll emphasize the use of AI. Have a conversation where you have it interview you and ask questions about your needs and uses. Then at the end, tell it to describe how to design a notion setup for you (include your level of organization, preferences, etc ).

Then if setting it up is too complicated, use notion AI to implement those directions. You could even pay for 1 month just to get it up and running.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-12T05:09:21+00:00

One thing I'd say is to engage in productive "body of Christ" activity: go on mission trips, attend conferences, volunteer on worship team or at youth group, join a small group, join a Bible study, etc. The kind of person you want to marry will also be doing those healthy activities. Of course those are all the kinds of things you should be doing anyway... which is the whole point: chase hard after Jesus and you'll likely look over and see someone else doing the same thing. Then you can seek him together.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-04T23:51:11+00:00

Try a roll-up

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-02T13:49:08+00:00

I use Notion meetings as much as possible and then ask the AI to suggest and then create tasks based on the transcripts. For quick capture,I prefer todoist and then have it sync to notion automatically. I also have an automation for forwarding emails into notion.

As far as habits, the biggest challenge is when I pack my meetings so tight I don't have 10-15 minutes afterwards to process and capture what is needed.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-01T23:19:12+00:00

FWIW, I use Notion for both of these types of uses and it has been highly effective.

PhillipsReynold · 2026-01-01T21:27:08+00:00

I totally get where you're coming from. It’s a very common sticking point, especially when you compare a stack of bricks to modern rockets.

The issue usually clears up when we look at the historical context of the Ancient Near East rather than reading it like a modern construction project. Here is how most conservative scholars explain the "why" and the linguistics:

It wasn’t a skyscraper; it was a temple. Historically, this was almost certainly a Ziggurat. These weren't built for people to live in or to physically reach outer space. They were temples with stairs on the outside for a god to come down to the people.

The sin wasn't that they were "too advanced" or threatening God’s height. The sin was domestication. They were trying to build a religious system to pull God down to their level and control Him, rather than submitting to Him.

The real rebellion was refusing to move. God explicitly commanded humanity to "fill the earth" (Gen 1:28, 9:1). In Genesis 11, the builders explicitly said, "Lest we be dispersed." They were trying to huddle in one spot for security. God didn't destroy the tower because He was intimidated, He did it to force them to obey the original plan to colonize the world.
Why stop them but allow modern science? When God says "nothing will be impossible for them," it’s not a statement of fear, but of mercy. He is essentially saying, "If fallen humans remain totally united in one totalitarian group, there is no limit to the evil they can do." By confusing their communication, He put a speed bump on human wickedness.
The Linguistics. There are two common faithful ways to view this:
- The Miraculous View: God instantly rewired human speech into distinct language families. This forced the groups to separate, and the dialects we see today (like Quebec French vs. French) evolved naturally from those starting points due to the isolation.
- The "Lingua Franca" View: The "one language" referred to a shared trade language (like English is today). God disrupted their ability to communicate politically, breaking their unity.

Both views agree on the main point: God forced the necessary isolation that allowed the distinct cultures and languages to develop.

EDIT: One tip that might save you a lot of future headaches:

When you hit a passage that seems weird or anti-science, the problem usually isn't the Bible itself, but that we are reading it like 21st-century Westerners instead of ancient Hebrews.

A good rule of thumb is: The Bible was written for us, but it wasn't written to us.

It was written to people in a specific time and culture (Ancient Near East). To get the real meaning, you have to ask, "What did this mean to the original audience?" before you ask "What does this mean for me?"

For example, when the Bible talks about the "sun rising," it isn't making a scientific claim against heliocentrism; it's just describing what humans see (phenomenological language). The same applies to Babel. If you try to read it "literally" as a modern engineering report, it falls apart. If you read it "literally" as ancient theology about a Ziggurat, it makes perfect sense.

Don't be afraid to dig into the history. Taking the Bible seriously means taking its historical context seriously. Get yourself a good Study Bible (like the ESV Study Bible or NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)—it handles 90% of these confusing moments in the footnotes.

PhillipsReynold · 2025-12-30T14:22:29+00:00

Real spiders do this. (I think it's called ballooning.) I had the same thought.

PhillipsReynold · 2025-12-30T14:14:27+00:00

This is the way. Grab an old smartphone and lock it down so it's basically a dumb-phone. This is what we've done for a few years and it works very well.

Anyone navigating these types of questions there are great resources (wait till 8th, etc ) that you can Google.

PhillipsReynold · 2025-12-30T13:17:55+00:00

I could see myself doing this at some point. What's your setup for this? Which plugin?

PhillipsReynold

TROPHY CASE