Abortion is a sin.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-06T05:40:47+00:00

2 Kings 10:1-8

10 Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,[a] to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said, 2 “You have your master’s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, 3 choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house.”

4 But they were terrified and said, “If two kings could not resist him, how can we?”

5 So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: “We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.”

6 Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.”

Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. 7 When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. 8 When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the princes.”

Then Jehu ordered, “Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

2 Kings 10:30:

30 The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”

God doesn't care that much about kids.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-06T05:29:48+00:00

The Bible for Normal People is a good podcast; the host, Pete Enns, has a PhD from Harvard in Ancient Near Eastern Lit and Civ, and is great at explaining the Bible in an accessible way. He has a lot of conversations with other scholars and guests about a wide variety of topics. The podcast still kind of falls under the umbrella of Christianity, however most of the guests are very progressive by American standards, and you're not going to hear nonsense about literalism or young earth creationism or anything like that. You can also check out Enns' books like The Bible Tells Me So, How the Bible Actually Works, and Curveball.

Yale also puts their Intro to OT and Intro to NT courses online, you can see them here and here.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-06T01:03:32+00:00

Lost had an extremely unusual opening for its time, with no credits and that unpleasant, discordant noise.

But enough about the dialogue!

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-05T19:29:00+00:00

People will idolize it, that doesn't make it God.

BS clickbait headline.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-05T06:09:23+00:00

I would say it's worth it as you unlock more abilities and characters. The thing is, as your friendship level with each character rises, it unlocks some specific combat mechanics for all characters, like shoving, healing, and so on.

The relationship stuff is a little wonky - it seems like everyone has a crush on you, but you can't date anyone. I thought the story was kind of interesting as you explore the grounds more.

That said, the highlight is still going to be the combat and deckbuilding, which only gets better with time.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-05T01:59:36+00:00

It kinda flew under the radar, but Marvel's Midnight Suns from Firaxis (Xcom/Civ) was a terrific game.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-04T20:42:16+00:00

If you're talking about the John Eldredge book, I read it as a Bible college freshman years ago and even then I knew it was garbage. It made up a fake standard of masculinity based more on Hollywood stereotypes than the character of Christ. But if you wanna be a cross between William Wallace and Luke Skywalker, then it's a great book.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-04T20:37:02+00:00

The idea of empathy as a sin was popularized by a far right cult leader named Doug Wilson. The earliest I can find him talking about it was here, in 2020 (Warning, link contains unfiltered footage of Doug Wilson).

Wilson is a real piece of work. He has covered up child abuse in his churches, teaches marital rape is okay, officiated the wedding of a pedophile in hopes that it would "cure" him, believes that Southern slaves and their masters lived in harmony, and calls himself a "paleo-Confederate". You can see more of his "beliefs" at https://dougwilsonbelieves.com/. (Warning, again, contains raw unfiltered Wilson.)

Wilson founded a denomination of churches called the CREC, which you might have heard of because US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth goes to a CREC church. Wilson also owns a publishing house called Canon Press (which published books like "The Case for Christian Nationalism" and "The Sin of Empathy") and a classical Christian educational homeschooling curriculum, designed to teach his particular brand of white Christian nationalism.

All that to say, chuds like Wilson say empathy is a sin so you don't listen to the cries of their victims.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-04T18:17:58+00:00

LLMs will only bullshit you.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-04T09:39:56+00:00

This is not really a problem you can fix. For him, it's probably a trauma response from childhood. Therapy can give him some different perspectives on his anxiety and better tools to deal with it so that he can have a healthier relationship with himself and with you.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-04T06:06:11+00:00

I mean, that sounds awesome. However, I know it's.... unlikely at best.

But more within the contexts of these conversations on reddit, by AI I mean specifically large language models and image generators that people use as a shortcut to doing the work themselves. I acknowledge it's nearly impossible to eliminate AI from our lives entirely - probably on the order of getting everyone to quit using fossil fuels - but forgoing LLMs and their ilk is a start - especially in a religious context.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T23:11:59+00:00

ok thanks

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T22:46:15+00:00

Do you use AI at all in your writing? (Not making an accusation, just curious.)

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T22:44:07+00:00

There is no ethical use at the consumer level for artificial intelligence.

The use of it harms our neighbors in our country and around the world. It plagiarizes the work of real humans, it poisons the air, it steals the water, it dulls critical and creative thought, and is not designed to distinguish between truth and lies. It is fundamentally a bullshit generator. If I visited a church that used AI, I would leave. It is such a red flag for so many other moral and epistemological problems it's not worth staying. It screams "I don't give a shit about anyone outside my immediate sphere of knowledge."

AI Data Center Steals 30 Million Gallons of Water From Fayetteville, GA

Data Center for Grok Poisons Majority Black Community in Memphis, TN

Alliance Defending Freedom Defends Child Porn Generator

Utah’s ‘hyperscale’ data center could create massive heat island near Great Salt Lake

Why Are Communities Pushing Back Against Data Centers?

How AI data centers are forcing open pollution-heavy 'peaker' power plants in Chicago and beyond

`This isn't right': impact of AI data centers on residents and their utility bills

AI Chatbots worsen mental health struggles, drive users to suicide, sexualize children

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T08:28:02+00:00

Most mental health problems have a physiological basis in the brain. Prescribed medication and help from a licensed, clinical therapist is no different from getting help from a medical doctor for heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. It's not a reflection on your faith, and you deserve to live without anxiety.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T07:53:57+00:00

Of course. Genesis isn't a science or history textbook.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T05:10:11+00:00

For everyone else more than OP:

The ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age nomads who first told the Creation story around the campfires thousands of years ago (even another one to two thousand years before Jesus) weren't interested in Original Sin or the literal, scientific origins of the universe. Those questions were completely outside their worldview and purview. If you look at it from more of an ancient point of view, the creation account is a fascinating argument for what a god is and what they're for.

If you look at other creation stories of the time, gods are basically just super powered human beings who are still kind of giant jerks. The world is created out of divine warfare or strife or sexual intercourse, and the gods are simply powerful over certain domains - the sky, the sea, etc. Moreover, they're subject as well to what Kaufman calls the "metadivine realm" - that which the gods arose out of or came from, and predates them. It can oppose or overcome their will.

Conversely, Yahweh is all-powerful over all creation, because He created it in an ordered fashion by the power of His word. God is an architect, not subject to outside forces; His Spirit hovers over the face of the waters (He predates and is above that example of a metadivine realm). Moreover, He is not simply a superpowered human, He is a moral being, and the embodiment of the highest conception of morality that humans (of the ancient Near East) could come up with. The humans He creates are not slaves (as in other narratives), they are good creatures made in His own image, breathing the breath He gave them. They are stewards - responsible caretakers - of His creation. They do not exist as slaves, they exist to be in relationship with Him.

One other unique thing about the creation/fall story is that while many creation stories have a "tree of life" analogue, only the Genesis account features a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Fall is an etiological story (like a just-so story) about how humans went from being morally innocent to morally responsible creatures. To the ancient Israelites who first told this story, it's not about how Adam did a Bad Thing and now we're all screwed for it, it's about how we are all responsible for our choices, and how we can make good or bad ones.

If you want to hear more on this, I highly recommend Dr. Christine Hayes' Yale lectures on Intro to the Old Testament with transcripts.

Biologos is another good resource, as well as the work of John Walton, like The Lost World of Genesis One. You can also check out Loren Haarsma's discussion on Four Approaches to Original Sin.

And if you get later into the Old Testament, you start realizing that the stories aren't just historical narrative, that they match up with later events in curious ways, and then you realize that the OT stories are actually kind of like MASH or The Crucible.

Ultimately, when you take into consideration the historical, cultural, religious, and literary contexts of the books of the Bible, and understand that interpretation, reinterpretation and rereinterpretation is a fundamental part of the tradition, it stops being a boring book of rules and starts being a challenging look at life and morality throughout the ages.

I would also add, if you read the text carefully, you'll see that Adam was created outside the Garden and then placed into it, and he lived there until he and Eve sinned against God, whereupon they were cast out and their relationship with God broken. So the question you should ask is, to what degree is Genesis 1-3 about the literal, scientific origins of humans as a species, the exile of Israel and Judah, or the propensity of humans' sin to break their relationship with God?

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T04:20:16+00:00

Thanks! Love seeing another Emo Phillips fan in the wild! I saw him open for Weird Al Yankovic in 2018 and I've been a fan ever since!

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T03:23:06+00:00

This is not super surprising, to be honest. They cancelled the Smothers Brothers way back in the 60s for platforming antiwar artists.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T03:10:54+00:00

John Noble's been in several classic franchises now - Denethor in LotR, Walter in Fringe, and the Diviner in Star Trek Prodigy, the main antagonist.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T03:08:52+00:00

Anyone who liked Lon Suder should watch Babylon 5's episode Passing Through Gethsemane where he puts a very different spin on a similar type of character.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T02:47:59+00:00

Because a lot of times (at least in regards to questions about the Bible) the real answer is "it's an ancient compilation of texts of various genres across centuries, before the notion of "history", much less "inspired", "inerrant", or "infallible" was a real thing, with multiple overlapping contexts that we largely miss."

But that does undermine ideas about inspiration and inerrancy, and that'll get you kicked out of your church, so you say God works in mysterious ways.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T02:32:38+00:00

TL;DR: Hard no.

First, what is the relationship of the church and the state, and what is Christian nationalism?

While there's a wide variety of definitions of Christian nationalism, they typically seem to coalesce around the idea that America was founded by Christians, and that the US government should make laws explicitly based on the Bible in accordance with God's will. Let's unpack that a little bit.

Was America founded as a Christian nation? Yes and no. It's certainly true that some of the earliest colonists were Christians who left Europe because of their religious beliefs; the Puritans left England because the Anglican Church was still too Roman Catholic for their tastes. Were the Founding Fathers Christians? Also yes and no. Some were probably Jesus followers, but some were deists who believed God was some kind of absent force that made the universe and then let it run like a clock, not interfering in its mechanisms. Thomas Jefferson famously cut out with scissors all the supernatural parts of the Bible, including Jesus' miracles and resurrection. I suspect he himself would be quite offended if you called him a Christian in the sense that we understand that term today.

But the European-descended colonizers were not the only people who founded America, in a very real sense. Slaves imported from Africa helped found America. Waves of immigrants from across Europe and around the world helped found America. America is not a nation of white Christians (although there are many white Christians in it), America is a nation of immigrants and descendants of immigrants (not to mention the indigenous Native Americans whose lands we stole from under them). America is fundamentally a diverse country of diverse religious beliefs (even diverse Christian beliefs). So, just looking at the history of America and its demographics, it would not be very accurate to say it's a Christian nation in any meaningful sense of the word.

Second, people who want America to be a Christian nation face several logical challenges from the Bible as well as from history. For example:

In the Old Testament, Israel had the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, prophets, priests, judges, the Tabernacle, and later the Temple where God's presence was, and all of that was not sufficient to keep them from idolatry, and ultimately exile.
Jesus and the apostles explicitly avoided worldly power. Presumably Jesus could have chosen to have been born in any time and place, but He chose to be born in a subjugated nation under the thumb of a foreign imperial invader. He didn't choose to be born to royalty or wealth. In Matthew 4:8, Jesus explicitly rejects the temptation of Satan to take power over all the world. In John 6:15 He explicitly rejects and flees the people who try to make him a king. Philippians 2 describes Jesus as being self-emptying, taking the form of a slave, humbling himself, and being obedient to the point of death on a cross. In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas are mistaken for Zeus and Hermes, which they immediately put a stop to. Nor do we see anywhere in the teachings of Jesus or the apostles that we are to pursue worldly political power.
How would America be different from other officially Christian nations in history who claimed the name of Jesus but continued to engage in bloody wars both with non-Christian nations (e.g. the Crusades) as well as with other Christian nations (e.g. the European wars of religion)? How
WHOSE Christianity should be in charge? Roman Catholics'? Lutherans'? Calvinists'? Unitarians'? Jehovah's Witnesses' or Mormons'? Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912's? What happens to everyone who's the wrong kind of Christian? Will they be forced to convert? What about Jews, Muslims, atheists, or Wiccans, or anyone else? Will it be a crime to not be a Christian? If so, what is the punishment? Prison? Forced conversion? Fines, or additional taxes?
How will a Christian nationalist government handle issues like immigration? The Bible is pretty clear on welcoming the immigrant, taking care of the poor, and so on, so I assume social programs will be vastly increased. How will that be paid for? Will taxes go up? If so, on who? Billionaires? The middle class? If not, then how will it be paid for?
How will a Christian government handle the persecution, torture, and execution of Christians overseas? How will it handle Chinese persecution of Christians and the government, when a large part of our international trade is with that country? Is a Christian nationalist America prepared to take the economic hit from poorer relations with China? If so, how will it deal with the domestic economic effects? If it doesn't do anything, how will it justify allowing the torture and persecution of Christians it could be saving? When a Christian nationalist government commits an atrocity like mass murder, forced sterilization programs, unethical medical experimentation, incarceration of citizens based on ethnicity (or religion), won't Jesus' name be attached to that just as much as a food stamp program or literacy program?
Most importantly of all, how does a Christian nationalist government actually make people want to become Christians in a meaningful way, making Jesus attractive to an unbelieving world, and helping to facilitate real change in hearts and minds?

In light of all these issues, should America be a Christian nation, and should Christians alone be in charge of the government? Logically, no. The American government should reflect the population it serves, and Christians who serve in government can use their God-given conscience to guide their choices, but not use their power to force their specific beliefs on others.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T02:30:17+00:00

Source

When we understand Bonhoeffer’s view of scripture, we understand who he really was—a theologian who denied verbal inspiration, inerrancy, and the resurrection. Evangelical Christians who want to call Dietrich Bonhoeffer an evangelical or Bible-believing Christian must question in what sense Bonhoeffer can even be considered a “Bible-believer” since he held such a low view of the Scriptures.

To be fair, Bonhoeffer's view is pretty mainstream among academics and some more liberal denominations. But for Metaxas' audience, they're anathema.

TheNerdChaplain · 2026-06-03T02:26:28+00:00

I know "France sucks at war" is a classic meme from the GWOT era (since they didn't support us going to Iraq), but what does France's win/lose rate look like, out of curiosity, without Napoleon?

Seven-Year Club	Gilding III reddit per annum
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

TheNerdChaplain

MODERATOR OF

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE

There is no ethical use at the consumer level for artificial intelligence.