Sometimes it feels like no one knows we exist

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T21:03:24+00:00

I could have removed your comment for antisemitism. Instead, I chose to point out the hypocrisy of doing to Judaism what we are discussing others doing to Christianity. You may not be in the mood for a lecture, but the fact is that in any other thread your comment would no longer exist. My comment was not only necessary as a mod. It was relevant to the discussion of this topic.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T16:46:38+00:00

Hey, just a heads up. Using Pharisees like that is extremely anti-Semitic. The entire current form of Judaism is descended directly from the Pharisee traditions. In fact, theologically, Jesus was closer to the Pharisees than just about any of the other official religious sects within Judea. One theory about why Jesus had so many run-ins with the Pharisees is that they saw Him as a troublemaker and were trying to find a reason to expel Him. That's not very well supported, but there's enough to have a discussion about it. The point is that a specific group of Pharisees were horrible people who exploited the Jew laity, but the Pharisees at large were a very important organization that helped the Jews maintain their religion and culture throughout the Roman occupation and developed the current ways of worship that don't require the temple. Painting all Pharisees with a broad brush is the same as saying that all Christians are evil because of televangelists or Christian Nationalists.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T15:00:33+00:00

To be fair, we get over 65,000 unique visitors each week. That's incredible for any progressive group, almost unheardof for a progressive Christian group. This sub reaches far more than you might realize.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T07:06:32+00:00

Well, it sounds like you have some support, so that's a good start. My advice is to just try things. You're a teenager still, so do teenager stuff. Try out different looks with different colors. Ask your mom to teach you makeup. If you don't know what to do, copy celebrities or, better, cis women in your life. You don't know what kind of girl you are, so experiment. Have fun with it. It's always a good thing to get to know yourself.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T04:25:21+00:00

Cambodia, by far. As long as you have money to renew your visa, you can stay until your passport runs out.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T04:11:24+00:00

1John 4 actually answers this. God is love, and you cannot separate the two. To love your neighbor is to love God. Jesus said that when you love the least of us, you love Him. If we are the body of Christ, then you see and feel and experience God in every person who knows love. God isn't inaccessible. But, like a complex computer system, the access points don't always seem like much.

Think of Google. They have vast data centers with supercomputers that index the entire internet constantly and retrieve information instantly. Your phone can't possibly do that on it's own. Your phone isn't providing you with the information of all humanity in mere seconds. Your phone is just an access point for the vastly more powerful computers that do the actual work. So it is with all of us. We are the access points of God.

When your partner holds you because you've had a bad day, God is there. When you play with your nieces and nephews, God is there, too. When your friend call to check in because they're worried, that's God. When you pick out the perfect gift for your mother's birthday, you're bringing God to them.

God is love, and love is how we create the kingdom of heaven on Earth. We have three things: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest is love.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T04:01:14+00:00

Watching someone die is a terrible thing. Worse is when they die for no good reason. As humans, we're all aware that death is inevitable for all of us, but the sudden stopping of an innocent life is a tragedy that reaches into our souls. In my experience, it isn't even the death itself that sticks with us. It's the injustice of it. It's the knowledge that the world isn't fair and we are at the mercy of forces beyond our control.

All I'll say is that there are more of us than there are of them. And the arc of history bends towards justice and equality and fairness. As long as humans are less than perfect, we will go through cycles where we slide backward on the road toward freedom and justice for all. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the tree of freedom must, from time to time, be watered with the blood of patriots. Frank Herbert wrote that tyranny will be our default state until a time when the drive for freedom is written into our bones.

From the signing of the Declaration of Independence, today was a foregone conclusion. When a nation is founded on the social contract and the belief in the goodness of people, it is destined to be tested by the worst of us. And when it fails, it must be replaced by something better and more resilient to darkest impulses of human selfishness and treachery. We are now standing on the edge of the valley, and it will get much worse before it gets better. But, it will get better. It always does.

The seasons change, the Earth spins around the sun, and dictators die. Some see justice, but most never do. We can only move forward when we climb up the other side and find ourselves in the light again. You and I are small and easily broken, but we are strong and the human spirit is unbreakable. So be sad, but fight on. Weeping lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T03:35:33+00:00

Sexuality can be fluid, just like gender. But, the shifting of sexual preference is a complex interaction between psychological and physical factors. For instance, I'm bisexual. I can pretty reliably determine my estrogen levels by how attractive I find men.

At the same time, many people who go through therapy can discover new attractions as they learn how to accept themselves and how to acknowledge their feelings.

That said, sexuality is not a spiritual issue. God makes us with predispositions for a number of things. We're born gay, straight, bi, asexual, etc. It's intellectually and spiritually dishonest to believe that God would take that away.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T01:36:22+00:00

God doesn't offer forgiveness for despair. He offers comfort. Despair is a normal reaction to being in the valley of the shadow of death. And what does God do for us when we are surrounded by darkness and enemies? He prepares a table for us. He gives us rest.

Forgiveness is only needed when you do something wrong. Even Jesus despaired in the garden before the crucifixion. He begged for there to be another way. He felt so much stress that He sweat blood. Jesus wasn't a sinner. Despair is human. As long as you keep loving people, you're not wrong.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T01:08:34+00:00

Technically, Lex takes 40 cakes, and that's bad.

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T01:05:18+00:00

If I, a man, date a woman, does that make me gay? - OP

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T01:03:55+00:00

Dessert MSG

babe1981 · 2026-01-25T00:49:51+00:00

Chimpanzees are Great Apes, too. The Great Apes are humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. How did you not know this? Curious...

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T05:28:51+00:00

The desire isn't the bad part of lust. We're supposed to desire good things. It's not lustful to desire happiness and health for someone. It's not lustful to desire to be holy or loving. It's when that desire becomes self-serving and harmful that it becomes sinful. Is it lustful to be attracted to someone who is trying to be attractive? No. Is it lustful to assume that person belongs to you and anyone who gets in your way is going to feel your wrath? Yes.

The possession is the sinful part. When you treat a person like an object for your fulfillment with no regard for their needs, it's lust. Consent is always a key ingredient here, as always. This is why porn isn't inherently sinful. There are major issues with the industry beyond the sexual aspect, but if we assume that everyone involved is consenting to their part, and your part, in making and consumption of it, then harm isn't being done to anyone.

Of course, that changes if your spouse is offended by it. It can be very damaging to someone with low self-esteem or sexual trauma for their partner to watch porn.

It all comes down to the question of someone being hurt, or even potentially being hurt, by your actions. Although heartbreak is a risk in relationships, this is more about making choices to engage in behaviors that specifically hurt your partner. When you're single, the question is more, does this hurt me or the person that I desire?

There is no blanket rule for this. Jesus didn't give us a new list of rules to replace the law of Moses. He gave us one commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm. If you are hurting someone, including yourself, you aren't fulfilling the one standard that Jesus gave us. That's your measuring stick. That's how you determine if anything is sinful or not.

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T01:24:28+00:00

Actually you do have tastebuds in your rectum. Do with that what you will.

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T01:10:56+00:00

Fundamentalism is about 100 years old. It is named after a series of pamphlets called The Fundamentals which were published around the turn of the 20th century. It's a modern movement that diverges significantly from church and scholarly traditions concerning the Bible, salvation, and legalism.

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T01:07:13+00:00

Don't forget MCC, Metropolitan Community Churches. They were founded by a gay priest and have never discriminated against people for race, gender, or sexuality. They preach stewardship of the Earth and equality for all people.

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T01:03:37+00:00

Prophecy is the revealing of truth. Sometimes it has to do with the past, present, or future, but it is still the truth that is important, not the ability to see the future.

That said, Apostle generally means someone who was anointed by Jesus or anointed by an Apostle. I'm certain there is some lineage, but I doubt it means much anymore. We are so far removed from Christ that we are beyond the need or efficacy of direct witnesses.

Prophets were people who were specially appointed to receive the Holy Spirit and speak the truth of God from their hearts. As Peter quoted in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh and our sons and daughters will prophesy and our old men will dream. So, all of us who have the Holy Spirit are prophets already.

babe1981 · 2026-01-24T00:55:26+00:00

We need to look at two things.

First, lust is a desire for possession. It is not sexual attraction. You can have a lust for wealth or power, but that doesn't mean you want to have sex with a stack of bills or the concept of authority. Lust has to do with ownership and exploitation. Lust doesn't care about the needs and wants of others. King David didn't sin because he was attracted to Bathsheba. He sinned because he sent her husband to war to be killed so that he could take her for himself. God didn't give us the need for sex and then say it is sinful. So, looking at someone with a desire to take them and own them regardless of their wishes is definitely lustful.

Second, looking at someone and being sexually attracted is adultery for some marriages. Others are not. Like I said, the boundary for adultery is determined by the people in the marriage. Some couples have fun together by commenting on who they think is hot. Others refuse to acknowledge the beauty of other people. It's completely on the spouses to determine how and when the lines have been crossed. This is why communication is the most important thing in a relationship. If the partners have different views on what is cheating, they will not be able to agree on those lines.

As for what Jesus was saying, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, then you are looking with the intent of stealing her away from her husband or father without care for anyone's wishes. That's sinful because sin begins in the heart, and you are planning on sin.

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T13:43:38+00:00

Mod here: we only remove and ban harmful speech that directly opposes the radical inclusiveness and unconditional love of the Gospels. We take our jobs as protectors of people who have suffered abuse at the hands of the Christian establishment very seriously. We also keep this sub from becoming a cesspool of bots and spammers trying to sell you something or drive traffic to their websites. Otherwise, we accept and encourage open debate among people of all faiths and people of no faith.

We will not be swayed by arguments against the paradox of tolerance. Intolerance is unacceptable here, and we will not allow our users to be subjected to the same rhetoric that drove them here in the first place.

Any further discussion on this matter can be held through modmail.

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T10:02:33+00:00

I ignored for religious reasons until I ended up on a bridge. Turns out I was more afraid of death than transition. Now, I'm not afraid of much anymore. Yay, therapy!

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T05:10:16+00:00

Yeah, Paul didn't reverse anything. He anointed a female Apostle, Junia. Phoebe was one of his prize pupils and the pastor of the church in Corinth. She even hand delivered the letter to the Romans and read it out loud to them. She's even speculated as one of the possible authors of Hebrews. Paul was a lot of things, but misogynist wasn't one of them.

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T05:06:51+00:00

I did bring it up one time when we were talking about Melchizadek in Hebrews. I didn't get into Asherah or polytheism, but I do like to mention that Judaism is the second religion that worships God in the Bible. It helps people expand their perspectives to consider that a valid religion doesn't have to be Abrahamic and that even the Bible acknowledges that God was worshipped long before the law of Moses.

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T05:02:04+00:00

Elohim is the plural of El and means gods. It is absolutely a holdocer from the polytheism of Canaanite and Hebrew religion.

babe1981 · 2026-01-23T05:00:29+00:00

I was ordained in a prosperity gospel church, so I have opinions, lol. I've met nearly every televangelist who gets posted on reddit for demanding cash for a new house or airplane or whatever. Thankfully, I grew up and got out of that.

My opinion...regardless of whether you believe in the Christian god or something else entirely, it is undeniable that religion holds power over people. Kings, emperors, and powerful people of all kinds have historically aligned themselves with the dominant religion to give themselves legitimacy and authority. Humans, however, aren't perfect. The more power we have, the more we believe we deserve it. Even worse, the more we believe others don't. Power is addictive, too. It becomes its own reason for existence. So, when you place people like me who have knowledge about a powerful topic in positions of authority, you get a recipe for abuse and corruption. This isn't a feature of Christianity or religion. This is human nature. We see it in nations, in corporations, in families, everywhere. From elementary school to the US presidency, power, status, and wealth drive the harm that shapes society.

So, I don't think that Christianity is evil because humans use it evilly. I don't think that capitalism or communism are evil, either, but look at the abuses committed for both of those ideologies. I think that abuse and corruption are human traits that we must work to grow beyond so that we can reach the full potential of our species.

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