Just putting it out there … something personal for this Lenten season, for trans and non-trans friends alike …

Will the veiled sister pray for Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee, Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait In darkness?

I keep thinking about this and how there are a lot of would-be Herods. But Herod is not the emperor, and eventually, the empire betrays all to death.

If you are complaining about technofeudalism and the internet being filled with nazis then openly promoting your Substack, I will look at you a bit cross. You can just run your own website and own your content.

This is something that has genuinely annoyed me because there is a difference in application to history and theological beliefs. Even if Christian Nationalism was the belief for nearly 2000 years, and it wasn't, there is nothing saying I can't call it a heresy today, which it absolutely is.

Always hard to be critical of your own and in turn yourself.

Going to take a wild guess he's probably not a big fan of James Baldwin.

Middle of February and it's 74º in Oklahoma City. Utterly bonkers.

Who else reads 20+ books simultaneously?

Fascinating article.

In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women." Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration. It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Our latest.

Always hard to be critical of your own and in turn yourself.

Not sure I can do uncontroversial lol.

As an Episcopalian, I have met a lot of wonderful people in the Episcopal Church, but it can be hard not to look around and wonder if more often than not we're nothing more than a nice social club instead of the church we're called to be.

I think the author is mildly upset.

In a Formation Hour class today, "protestants" were referred to as someone else multiple times, and it took every ounce of me going "but actually". I actually wasn't even aware so many Episcopalians don't see themselves as Protestant till recently.

As an Episcopalian, I have met a lot of wonderful people in the Episcopal Church, but it can be hard not to look around and wonder if more often than not we're nothing more than a nice social club instead of the church we're called to be.

Too often, it is nothing more than a social club for the so-called faithful. A place of comfort for a specific in-group. With only a concern for itself and its own matters.

New book time "Jesus and the Powers" by N.T. Wright and Michael Bird.

​But can we say the Church has been that shining city on the hill? Has it been a place of refuge and love, shining its light, beckoning all who need saving grace to come?

I got a bit carried away at a used bookstore today. A nine volume set of Doyle’s Holmes. Complete with dust jackets.

Afternoon stroll

Those who have seen even they doubt.

That being said, this is more than what we've been getting from the Presiding Bishop's office, which, last I checked, he did not sign. This is a time for boldness, not timidity. The desire to maintain some sense of "centrism“ goes out the window when we're talking about fascism.

The Episcopal Bishops’ letter is a nice step in the right direction, but I always feel like we pull out punches. We're too committed to the idea of America, we fail to remember the church is an alternative to the world systems and governments, and we can shoot for more than mere dignity.

Working through NT Wright's Christian Origins series as I am preparing a series of lengthy posts during Holy Week, I keep thinking about how I am going to read volumes that may not even make it in, but it's still totally worth it.

We are to be an ever present indictment on the world order that does not see the dignity in all because the church does not have a social ethic the church is a social ethic! It’s a new way of being! hopefulmystic.com/fourth-sunda...

Trying to figure out how to pay for college in the USA at 39 is only mildly less daunting than applying to enter university. I need a school counselor to sign off for the local state university. I graduated high school in 2004. 2004!!!

What we see in the Beatitudes is the priorities of the Kingdom of God. This is the lynchpin of the good news of Jesus Christ. We see the kind of Christianity that He blesses. hopefulmystic.com/fourth-sunda...

Christ comes to earth and instead of praising the powerful, wealthy, and happy among us, he proclaims good news to the captive, the poor, and those who hunger. The future doesn’t belong to the rich, nor the full, nor the merry, nor those who are seen highly.

What we see in the Beatitudes is the priorities of the Kingdom of God. This is the lynchpin of the good news of Jesus Christ. We see the kind of Christianity that He blesses. hopefulmystic.com/fourth-sunda...

Christ comes to earth and instead of praising the powerful, wealthy, and happy among us, he proclaims good news to the captive, the poor, and those who hunger. The future doesn’t belong to the rich, nor the full, nor the merry, nor those who are seen highly.

I really blame mainliners for pulling out of the public sphere post moral majority for this. It created this sense there are only two Christian voices Catholic or Evangelical.

I grew up in an extreme fundamentalist church and they weren’t this bad. Now they are all anti vax Christian nationalists. I’m not saying this is a recent phenomenon but something changed after 2016.

Drinking at the airport bar hits differently. Yes, I’m paying through my nose for cheap drinks, but this is freedom.

I've been meaning to write for years about how anti-LGBTQ ideology predisposes people to become extremists. Historically, extremist movements have often been queerphobic. And the "moderates" I knew who got sucked into MAGA were the queerphobic ones. open.substack.com/pub/rebeccab...

"And if God himself is human and remains so forever, if all theology is therefore eternally an anthropology; if the human being is forbidden to belittle himself because to do so would be to belittle God;

This to me has always been the inherent contradiction here. These people have no culture nor are they interested in culture, but they are also perpetually envious that those who do find them repugnant.

To stand against Empire and proclaim Christ and his Kingdom is to proclaim the Gospel. What happened in His death and resurrection was not a personal salvation but a cosmic one. hopefulmystic.com/third-sunday...

The banality of evil.

I am probably going to ruffle feathers here, but it still kills me this article was written by a straight woman instead of, like, you know, a trans person or at least a queer person at a minimum. Yes, I think that actually matters.

"They have usually confronted a cold indifference and a blatant hypocrisy. Even the white religious leaders who have a heartfelt desire to open the door and provide the bread are often more cautious than courageous and more prone to follow the expedient path than the ethical path."

As long as the church is a tool of the state it will be unable to provide even a modicum of bread for men at midnight. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal and cease to be an echo of the status-quo it will be relegated to an irrelevant social club with no moral or spiritual authority.

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’” (Matthew 7:22–23, NRSVue)

I have yet to actually write out Sunday's Homily. Last Sunday's was difficult to get out too.

Every day the would be Herod's of this nation slavishly serve death in the hopes that just maybe they can control it. They can't because Christ has defeated death. The fear of death leads us down dark paths.

I've started Paul Tillich's "The Socialist Decision," and I would say this has a lot to say to our current moment, particularly to an American Church enraptured by fascism.

Just one of many examples of blasphemy this administration gets up to on well an hourly basis at this point.

New Books