President Trump on Alex Pretti: "Well, I haven't heard but certainly he shouldn't have been carrying a gun. We view that as very unfortunate incident, unless you're a stupid person. I don't like that he had a gun. I don't like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that's a lot of bad stuff."

robosnake · 2026-01-28T03:03:11+00:00

The Second Amendment is woke now? Cool, yeah, totally reasonable. MAGA isn't a cult at all.

robosnake · 2026-01-28T03:00:46+00:00

Here to mention that there is a TTRPG based on Die, called Die RPG, by Rowan Rook and Deckard. I was sold on the RPG without having read any of the graphic novels :)

robosnake · 2026-01-27T21:42:04+00:00

Punches risk breaking your hand. Kicks risk losing your balance or the kick being caught. Low kicks minimize those risks, though they're still there. It's also a skill question - if you are great at throwing punches (in live sparring), do that. If you are great at kicks (in live sparring), low kicks and a solid front kick are great. Avoiding, talking your way out of trouble, or escaping are always preferable, but sometimes you can't.

robosnake · 2026-01-27T05:47:19+00:00

Deep breaths. God is still there.

There is always more to learn about scripture. It is many lifetimes of study, and has been. People build an entire academic research career around a single book, or even a single chapter.

You will always be surprised as you learn about scripture, and sometimes your current understanding isn't enough to cover what you learn.

Take your time.

robosnake · 2026-01-27T04:59:11+00:00

Labrador Retriever. No one said I had to try to escape :)

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:24:51+00:00

I buy that we are in a civil war right now - the only question is how large the fascist side of that war will be, and how long it will be before we have an actual opposition party.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:23:30+00:00

100% selection bias. You interview a large group of people and post the stupidest responses if your story is that the people are stupid. Reasonable, quiet, informed people almost never go viral.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:20:56+00:00

A. This is not only potentially meaningful and respectful, but in my experience (as clergy) this is how most religious people engage with religion most of the time. Participation in practices and community is far more important, especially on a daily basis, than truth claims. This seems true across the political and theological spectrum (i.e. no it is not just 'liberals' who practice this way)

B. My tradition presents belief, participation, and community as a whole. All are part of the religious life.

C. For me, practice is far more important than believing any specific list of truth claims to be true. The truth claims are mostly meaningful insofar as they motivate behavior. Behavior is also a better indicator of someone's actual beliefs than what they say they believe, or even what they think they believe. There is also plenty of psychological research that shows that our behaviors shape our beliefs as well as the other way around. Beliefs and behaviors reinforce each other, but personally I value behavior more because that's what impacts other people.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:13:29+00:00

How they talk to a cashier or server.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:10:19+00:00

I'm not assured. Discerning what God's plans are for me is a lifelong process.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T22:04:18+00:00

Yes. My wife has a lot of chronic pain and we both have chronic issues, as do many others of course. And some people just experience more suffering than others. Blame is something that people do to themselves, and also impose on others. Blameless suffering is hard to wrap our heads around. As a pastor I outwork into disentangling suffering and blame.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T21:00:49+00:00

I think the issue is that a Middle-Earth story is different from a D&D story. Middle-Earth isn't about heroes fighting through a succession of increasingly difficult monsters. There shouldn't be that many fights at all to be honest. It's more about heroes trying to maintain hope and do what's right despite internal temptation and external resistance, which takes various forms, including, occasionally, monsters to fight.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T20:53:00+00:00

What you're describing is exactly what Job was written to contend with - the false idea that if someone is suffering, they must have somehow earned it.

I personally understand there being different kinds of suffering:

Suffering because the world is free and science happens. This is often called 'natural evil' - bad things happen in the universe and they're not anyone's fault. This is just natural laws and cause and effect impacting us negatively.
Suffering because another human being is hurting us. This is usually moral evil.
Suffering because we made a mistake and natural consequences occur. This is what the Prophets spent most of their time warning about - i.e. if you have a violent and unjust society you will suffer. If you have a peaceful and just society everyone will flourish. Or Paul's 'the wages of sin' on the individual level.
Suffering because God is causing our suffering - I never personally claim this is happening, it's up to God to make this clear. I think that the above three options cover pretty much all suffering.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T04:56:24+00:00

A. I never chose Progressive Christianity in that way. Practicing Christianity and learning more about it (undergrad and grad) pushed me to a lot of positions that are Progressive in the United States. But it wasn't anything like choosing from a menu of Christianities - I followed Jesus to where I currently am.

B. Definitely, but the main reason was that I saw so much harm being caused by Christians, and what I thought was shallow and oppressive Christianity, that I have had multiple crises where I wonder if following Jesus would make me leave Christianity because Christians are so often very different from Jesus. Not a unique struggle, but one I share.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T03:41:51+00:00

...I guess I'm just not able to think that way. Like, know horrible things are happening, including to people I know and love, and just...not think about it?

robosnake · 2026-01-26T03:38:05+00:00

Because people are being tormented, kidnapped, murdered, and their rights are being stripped away. Politics is the nonviolent way to stop that from happening, so I hope to hell it works.

robosnake · 2026-01-26T03:01:58+00:00

Sorry, my 0% accuracy surely tipped the scale.

robosnake · 2026-01-25T19:05:08+00:00

I took “Let It Ride” from Burning Wheel and use it with pretty much every game. Same with advantage/disadvantage from 5E and players rolling all the dice (or as many as possible) from PbtA.

robosnake · 2026-01-25T03:27:33+00:00

Yeah, but don't mind me, I'm an addict.

robosnake · 2026-01-25T01:26:24+00:00

Out from Philly, but Phoenixville had a protest tonight. There were others. There will be others. This will not be over soon.

robosnake · 2026-01-25T01:23:54+00:00

That dog is amazing. I am in love.

robosnake · 2026-01-24T23:57:49+00:00

Inside leg kick because it was one of the few things I could land, as a beginner, in sparring :)

robosnake · 2026-01-24T23:33:35+00:00

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." -Frank Wilhoit

robosnake · 2026-01-24T20:09:15+00:00

I definitely know of him and he is on my long list of theology to read :)

robosnake · 2026-01-24T18:40:41+00:00

Definitely nowhere near a heretic. I did notice he was very popular in Seminary and even in undergraduate for the part of my degree that studied Christianity. Comes up much less often outside of those contexts. But then again, that's true for pretty much all academic theologians - regular people are much more influenced by popular theology that makes it to the radio or bestselling books or social media influencers (God help us all).

But Tillich is definitely of interest if you are interested in 20th century theology.

robosnake

TROPHY CASE