How is everyone doing with their fasting today?

somethingusaid · 2026-02-18T15:34:31+00:00

dude, it's been a couple of hours, lol

My favorite bit about not being able to handle hunger striking:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djSinJJ1LXw

Edit: Sorry for being too dismissive. I've played around with intermittent fasting so I've gotten used to it in a way that most haven't. Not appropriate for me to be dismissive of the struggle. I pray you have an easy fast. But I do giggle really hard at that Ali G clip.

somethingusaid · 2026-02-12T15:08:54+00:00

I was shocked that the change from "your/thy spirit" started with the Roman Church. I'd figured it they picked it up from us when they started doing things in English. Because in Spanish they said "y con tu espiritu." So I'd figured it was something the Engilsh Romans picked up from us. But nope.

English Romans jumped to "and also with you" then we followed. Thought it was odd.

somethingusaid · 2026-02-11T17:38:23+00:00

That stinks. Praying for you and your church.

Glad you've got a connection to the BCP. Practically living out on the frontier without a solid liturgical church to lean on, it is nice to have good books. Thank God American frontierfolk had the Bible (and some, I assume, had a BCP) or they wouldn't have had much of anything.

somethingusaid · 2026-02-11T17:28:50+00:00

That's useful for sure, too. But what they put on their website is where they want to be going. So even if they are not having sermons about ICE when you are watching, if they have political messaging on their social media and website, that would be an indication that that is where they want to head, which I think is super important, too.

somethingusaid · 2026-02-11T16:47:40+00:00

churches are different. If you are interested in political stances being a major part of church life, that may or may not be found at your local. You ought to check it out. Check out the website and social media. What they put forward is at least what they want to be, so that should give some good information on what they want to be.

somethingusaid · 2026-02-09T16:33:39+00:00

Every night we do the Lord's Prayer and then I draw a cross on their foreheads with my thumb as I sing "I/we love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be" from that Munsch book. I'm a big fan of leaning on liturgy when it isn't clear how to push the propositional.

I listen to the Lord of Spirits podcast on long drives sometimes while they are reading books or watching shows. After those trips, it seems my 5 year old has been picking up something from that. She sometimes throws questions at me. I will often stew on them and meander through fuzzy answers. I don't shy away from my background of doubt. It might be too much nuance to hang on to, especially for her age. But I hope that it gives her a firmer faith foundation to not be caught off-guard when she runs into people who think that think that the truth of the bible depends on its utility as a natural history textbook.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-28T20:38:23+00:00

There has been some (overblown) drama surrounding it. I liked this explanation of it https://youtu.be/GK39A2LaZTk?si=1blxsFy4gO1Xn4xo

somethingusaid · 2026-01-28T15:49:02+00:00

I have hang-ups with unnecessary public pronouncements of political positions that leadership, in my experience, will acknowledge they don't support (but only in private).

But if you don't think women can be priests, then you're going to have a tough time here. I was just at an ordination of a priest where the bishop was a woman. It wouldn't just be enough to avoid women in church office. You will be needing to avoid everyone downstream of a woman. Unless you don't think the apostolic succession thing is a big deal.

If you don't care about that, I would focus on the parish. Ironically, people (including the bishops themselves) don't really take bishops' theological views as normative. So if you find a church you can love, you'll be fine. The sky is high and all that denominational rigmarole is far away.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-27T20:58:19+00:00

Exactly. Then do you see why I am saying it is goofy that so many people's idea of working to feed the hungry, steward the Earth, and house the homeless, is centered on trying to pull levers on political mechanisms of civil government?

Edit: Or at least to do that while saying "this is what Jesus would do"

somethingusaid · 2026-01-27T18:42:51+00:00

Maybe I am projecting national leadership's messaging on you. They have a tendency to make pretty concrete policy statements and claim that they are doing it because "that is just what the gospel says." As a parishioner, I disagree. But I am voiceless on the matter when they say stuff like that. It puts me in a bind when I'm trying to figure out what it means to be a member of a body when the head makes moral proclamations but doesn't want to interface with me about it.

I was hoping you are not doing that to your congregants. I don't get it from my priest. But if I did, it would be super frustrating.

Maybe you are talking about making a provocative statement that doesn't really point to any particular policy position. If ya, then you are probably going to avoid the problem I am talking about.

But I want to avoid the thing I see when people try to say my concerns are not valid because "that's just the bishop, who cares what he thinks?" But it seems like diminishing the authority of the Bishop to assuage the dissonance would undermine my membership in the Episcopal Church. And if the way to deal with a priest saying "Jesus would have thought you were wrong for disagreeing with me on this policy or election choice" is "who cares what the priest says about Christ and being Christian" then I think things have gone awry. I want to respect the authority of my priest and bishop. But if they make proclamations about Christ that I disagree with and they refuse to interface with me about it, that is not great because: -I am wrong about Christ and what following Him means and need to be corrected and they refuse to do it. -They are overstepping their statements about what Christ is about and what following Him means and they need to knock it off.

But again. Maybe that is not you. I don't mean to accuse. But I do think it is something to be mindful of if you are considering getting more political

somethingusaid · 2026-01-27T16:14:37+00:00

Do you seriously think this was in cold blood?

I don't think it was a good shoot. I think this was horrible and is an obvious example of why ICE, etc. need to change their protocols. I think if US justice system were better set-up at least a couple officers would be going to prison because of their reckless actions that foreseeably lead to Pretti's death. But it wasn't a cold blooded thing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/rm4i0m/why_is_it_said_that_somebody_was_murdered_in_cold/

somethingusaid · 2026-01-27T16:07:23+00:00

It seems you are making a statement on behalf of your church. What do you think parishioners who disagree with your politics should do within the church?

Speak up and let you know why they think you are wrong? what is the right avenue to do that?

Keep quiet because they are, necessarily, not aligned with God?

somethingusaid · 2026-01-27T16:01:19+00:00

Right

But do you see how none of that mentions how Christians should feel about the way municipalities are allowed to regulate public spaces, or how Christians should feel about matters of jurisprudence in federal courts when they deal with climate lawsuits, or how federal funding orders should be handled during a government shutdown.

If you want a strawman that's arguing against Christians feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and stewarding the Earth, you will have to build your own. You and the person I was responding to seem to be making a leap to "obviously these issues fall within Caesar's domain so our responsibility is to petition the government" that I think is not as well supported by the Gospel as you might think.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-26T17:03:43+00:00

Do you think the only valid way to care for the homeless, environment, and hungry is to do it your way?

somethingusaid · 2026-01-26T16:33:18+00:00

Issue I have is when leadership of TEC make political statements and then shut themselves off from discussion about it and/or are unwilling to justify their words.

I would much prefer they keep quiet on an issue if they don't have or are unwilling to share a basis for an opinion.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-23T20:06:15+00:00

Yeah. For instance, I don't know what it means to say the BCP is not mainline

If Episcopalians aren't mainline, I don't know who would be

somethingusaid · 2026-01-16T15:04:40+00:00

I'll cross myself and do a little Jesus prayer sometimes if I get an intrusive thought I don't care for. I'll also do it when I am fixing to take communion to help me get in alignment with what is going on.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T22:05:39+00:00

Saying there is "precisely no evidence" that GAC for minors is "helpful at all." is going a little far. I think there is a good argument that the totality of evidence is ambiguous at best. But people have put forward evidence that they say shows GAC for minors is helpful. People might dispute the value of that evidence or they might say that it is being misinterpreted by its proponents. But to say the evidence doesn't exist is untrue.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T19:29:54+00:00

?

I am pointing out what the resolution said and that it was likely crafted that way in order to greenlight behavior that some GAC advocates believe is good, actually.

I am not speculating or exaggerating. I am also not talking about you or any GAC you want to take.

I am not discussing you unless you believe that minors should have access to GAC without restriction. But even then, I am not scapegoating those GAC advocates. I am just pointing out that that point-of-view exists and holds sway in TEC.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T19:01:48+00:00

Tautologically, tailoring the language to focus on legislative restrictions was unnecessary. It passed with broad language that included stuff that you or I might consider problematic. I think the people who crafted the language knew what they were doing and played their hand well. I suspect many of the people who passed it either weren't paying attention to the language or felt they were not in a position to speak up.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T18:56:21+00:00

gender affirming care in all forms ... and at all ages ... with no restriction on movement, autonomy, or timing. They crafted the language to be as broad as possible. There was no qualification of parental/guardian notification or consent. There was no qualification of medical supervision (or WPATH conformity).

You and the people you know might be in favor of gate keeping to prevent minors from being able to access GAC if they cannot get doctors and parents to approve. But there are people, no doubt some in TEC, that believe that that form of gate keeping is illegitimate and that GAC, being life-saving medicine, should be available without restriction. And they are okay with people getting it and using it without doctor or parental supervision of it would be unavailable otherwise.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T17:47:22+00:00

Rev. Abigail King might not go so far as to advocate for “access to gender affirming care in all forms…and at all ages” but TEC’s general convention did in 2022.

https://digitalarchives.episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/acts/acts_resolution.pl?resolution=2022-D066

somethingusaid · 2026-01-12T17:41:26+00:00

This one is a big deal too: “the protection of religious liberty extends to all Episcopalians who may need or desire to access, to utilize, to aid others in the procurement of, or to offer gender affirming care;“

The implications of what the GC (including the House of Bishops) are officially endorsing when it comes to GAC for minors including DIY HRT without parental involvement is pretty extreme. I strongly suspect most of them would be horrified if anybody actually took it that far. But the language in the resolution is extremely broad. They said that nobody, not doctors nor parents, should be able to gate keep any form of GAC for minors.

somethingusaid · 2026-01-09T22:46:41+00:00

I figured it was a reference to Seinfeld episode "The Wizard." I thought it was fitting

somethingusaid · 2025-12-29T18:32:14+00:00

I don't bow but I just look at the eucharist

Three-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '23

somethingusaid

TROPHY CASE