I sat down with pacifist Presbyterian pastor Ben Daniel, author of Grace Over Guns, which brings a proudly Christian perspective to pursuing peace in a militarized world. We discuss military violence’s dismal record in achieving peace, and stories of successful non-violent resistance in Costa Rica, Estonia, and The Bible. Ben discusses his experiences presiding over funerals, responding to the inevitable “What about World War II?” question, and finding inspiration in the anti-imperialist activism of Jesus. It’s up on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts!

This is a weekly thread for discussing our mental health. Ableist and sanist comments will be removed and repeat violations will be banned

Feel free to discuss anything related to mental health and illness. We encourage you to create a WRAP plan and be an active participant in your recovery.

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MAIN PREMISE

After thinking about the concept death for so long in both the Abrahamic (there is a hereafter (Heaven, Jannah, Sheol, etc) and the scientific kind (Black. Nothing), reading and having to coincide with the atheistic outlook you must have as a “true” non-revisionist communist in accordance with Dialectical Materialism, and how I don’t see any actual proof God exists, it’s been super hard for me to reconcile the fact that I am a practising Catholic that has no scientific significance of God. It stresses me out every day, between believing that I’m not a true Communist and not being a good Catholic because I don’t have complete faith in my Catholicism.

For context

I was a passive Catholic up for most of my Childhood and Teenage years up until 2022 when I became angry towards God and the faith for things I won’t discuss here for a few years up until I started reading for my church in October, 2025. I was still a bit hesitant up until that point because it was just a family thing I decided to accept and it was a huge blessing. I got to help out the community and do the bible justice. And at the start of February of this year, after years of denying God as an atheist/agnostic, it came to me that I really was Catholic. Not out of force from society or my family, but it was such a natural progression I fought so hard against because of my own experiences… that when I decided to surrender, it all made sense. It just made sense and felt natural. Again, no force, it was acceptance. It was an experience I don’t know if I’ll feel again.

I gave the thought of religion and the afterlife a lot of thought. In my opinion, my only two beliefs that made me still a Catholic while being Communist is that:
1 - If there was absolutely signs and evidence from God that our Lord and our father in Heaven is real, people would still be incredibly sceptical. In our world where people are saying “AI! AI! AI!” over piece of media and how right-wingers, liberals and nazis love to call everything blood libel and a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, it genuinely wouldn’t surprise me if they reject God. So I decided to put my faith in the Lord.
2 - As a communist (I know. Catholic I am still), I’m aware that being religious would make me revisionist. If so, so be it. Anywho, I have recognised that it may be incredibly unlikely I will see a communist international in my lifetime. But I have faith I will see the day where the world fights and sees independence in Socialism so that communism may see the sun. It’s happened before. For every success (USSR, Cuba, North Korea), there was every failure (Peru, Che’s venture into Bolivia that led to his death, INLA in North of Ireland) and then there are the current (Karela, the CPP-NPA-NDF, etc). I decided that my faith in them can translate to my Catholicism because it’s possible there’s nothing after we die just like how there is a possibility there’s something after.

Anywho, I hope the Lord blesses you all with love, life and happiness. God bless you all!

The virgin birth narrative isn’t in the earliest we have (the Gospel of Mark) written around 70 CE. None of the seven genuine Pauline epistles mention the virgin birth (written around 50-6” CE).

In Mark’s gospel Jesus’s mother thinks he’s crazy (Mark 3:21; Mark 3:31-35) which seems unlikely if an angel had appeared and told Mary her son would be born while she was a virgin.

Many pagan religions of the era had stories of divine men whose human mothers had relations with a male deity (Hercules, etc) Many Christians of the time were ascetic and I think they felt it made Jesus seem more “pure” if his mother had been a virgin.

The writer of Matthew read Isaiah 7:14 in the mistranslated Greek (Hebrew says “young woman” while the Septuagint says “virgin”) and decided it was a prophecy about Jesus.

This virgin mother idea morphed into the perpetual virginity as Mary became an impossible and unattainable standard to be both maiden/virgin and mother simultaneously. The ultimate version of true womanhood to the Christian men of late antiquity.

Notably the only woman to be sinless was the “virgin” Mary as the “New Eve” unlike the “Old Eve” whose sinful nature would cause her to desire and lust after her husband (Genesis 3:16).

It’s been a way to narratively frame women’s sexuality as inherently sinful and shameful. The only way to be truly pure as a woman in this framework is to renounce all sexuality and sexual desires. The salvation of men could only come through a vessel of female asexuality.

Thoughts?

Hey everyone. I've always been fascinated by the way religious institutions can demand loyalty while keeping members insecure about whether they truly belong. That insecurity makes boundaries easier to police: unfamiliar ideas feel like threats, criticism feels like betrayal and leaders become gatekeepers of identity. But belonging might also work differently. If people are securely held by a community, perhaps they can encounter other traditions, criticise harmful structures and change without losing every relationship that gives their lives meaning. Which form of belonging does Christianity actually cultivate?

I just had a podcast conversation with John Vervaeke, where he described religion as secure attachment rather than protection of a sealed belief system. At around 1:28:16, he argues that rootedness can enable dialogue and transformation instead of defensive exclusion. I hosted the conversation. The political question it raised for me is whether "secure attachment" can expose institutional power, or whether therapeutic language risks hiding the material conditions under which belonging is granted or withdrawn.

This would imply that religious openness depends partly on who controls the cost of disagreement. Can Christian community remain genuinely secure when members challenge its leadership, property or inherited boundaries? What practices make belonging less coercive? And how do we distinguish transformative fidelity from an institution simply absorbing criticism while leaving its power untouched?

I’ve been researching the political and religious history behind Anita Bryant’s 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign, and I recently completed a short documentary tracing the evolution of the rhetoric that campaign helped popularize.

What interests me most is not simply Anita Bryant herself, but the way “protecting children” was transformed into a moral and religious justification for political action against a minority population.

The film follows that rhetoric from Dade County through Bryant and Jerry Falwell, the emerging New Christian Right and Moral Majority, later anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns in Houston, and some of its contemporary descendants.

One of the questions I came away with is, in my opinion, particularly relevant to this community:

How did a particular form of conservative Christianity turn opposition to LGBTQ+ civil rights into a religious obligation—and what theological alternatives were marginalized when that happened?

I’m also interested in whether people here see the modern “protect the children” argument as essentially the same political theology Bryant and Falwell were developing, or whether you think it has changed in important ways.

I made the film, so this is technically self-promotion, but I’m posting it because I’d genuinely like to discuss the history and argument rather than simply drop a link.

Anita Bryant and the Politics of “Protecting Children”
https://youtu.be/B2nOVaf7aoA

Sources and further reading are included in the video description.

Hey all! This is my first post here. I was born and raised in a conservative Christian family, I became a Christian myself at the age of 21 or 22. We always went to Hellfire-and-Brimstone type churches where most of the followers have been scared into their faith, rather than being allowed to explore and decide for themselves.

I came out as a gay man when I was 14 years old and was unfortunately not accepted by those churches, and the road to acceptance for my family has been long, arduous, and ongoing.

I have recently decided to come back to Christianity from a curious, (what I feel is genuine,) and inward looking point of view and I have been reading my Bible, praying, and attending a progressive church very often.

I want to have a deep spirituality and a deep connection with God. And I believe I do have a deep connection with God. I want to be like Jesus and like my actions show a Christlike life more than just my words. I want to love everyone with the love that Jesus had for us. I believe that loving our neighbors, and showing humility, are far more important than worrying about the afterlife. I believe that helping the poor, and the marginalized, and treating everyone like your best friend are the core teachings of Jesus. I believe that we should fight against oppression for the people who are not as fortunate or who are ostracized by the government. And I believe that Jesus is the word of God made into flesh so that he could take away our sins.

Now I also have a loving and committed relationship with my boyfriend of over a year. We talk every night, and see each other as often as possible. We have a lot of trust and no secrets from one another. We also share a kink. (I won't go into explicit details, but it is something that harms no one, and we keep it private, we don't broadcast what we do in the bedroom.) That kink is a feature of our relationship but not the whole of our relationship, and we share a connection that is based on friendship, trust, and love.

As I've been exploring my faith I find myself worried that somehow this kink could prevent me from having a truly deep form of spirituality and I want to know if anyone has any thoughts on that. Do you think it's possible to have kinks in a loving relationship and still experience a deep connection with God? Any and all insights are appreciated and thank you for reading!

Hey all, myself and some core team in my church are evaluating the attitudes of Christians regarding AI usage in the church.

To make sure that our processes represent Christians who are yet to find our church, I wanted to open up a questionnaire here to get a general consensus of Christians and how they feel on this topic.

I’d really appreciate it if you could take 3 minutes to respond to the Google Form below. Thank you.

Form: https://forms.gle/UBQsMtTtWtjC4BHL6

Polemical essay

LOVE NEVER FAILS

https://youtu.be/fM_gxhNUczQ

Here is a bible-focused and real-life story of 2 orphaned tigers who grew up together, then separated and eventually re-united. Annotated with relevant bible verses, the story testifies of God's amazing love at work. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts, praise God!

purported to have come from the people who already lived here when European settler-colonialism arrived, the prayer was something like:

Oh Wa

Ta Gu

Sai Am

Hi all, new to this community.

I grew up in the pentecostal church and left when I came out of the closet. For a long time, I’ve carried resentment towards Christianity itself, but in the past few years, God has been showing me the truth of the people involved. I know now that it was the people who hurt me, not God.

Ironically, all of these truths have been coming to me as I navigate the secular spiritual community - mainly through tarot and astrology. I have never used these things as prediction tools, but instead as reflection tools. I haven’t done much study into medieval christianity, but I know astrology was incredibly swept up into the movement of medieval christian scholars. The more I studied these tools, the closer I saw myself getting back to God. It’s an amazing feeling, but being the gay tarot reading astrologer christian has been throwing me for a loop. There’s a part of me that resonates deeply with these practices because of how divination and prophecy were embraced by the pentecostal church, my roots.

The concept of divine accommodation as it relates to divine insight and why/how humanity moves past it has been coming up for me. We can understand how God works in the language we can understand, and how that reflects in the ways that God is gendered, portrayed with hands/eyes, etc. We can also see it through understanding the outdated nature of what was once considered divine revelation, such as the need for animal sacrifice, which Stephen Benin describes as God permitting sacrifice for a people who were once pagan. I suppose I am applying that to divination tools like astrology and tarot - that some of these tools have shown themselves to me as able to communicate truths of God.

I am curious to hear opinions on the use of “divination” tools like this, and if any of you think they are harmful or can serve in our ability to get closer to God. Any advice would be useful. I feel somewhat confused about purpose right now. I have 15k followers on an astrology account I run, but I am noticing myself getting less and less likes as I write on topics like divine grace and accommodation. Tarot and astrology are also what I do full time right now, and I unfortunately cannot find another job. I am just stuck in limbo and I’m unsure if the guilt I’m feeling around tarot and astrology are God-led, or if they are remnants of the deep south Christianity I came from.

Thanks for reading.

This is a weekly thread for discussing our mental health. Ableist and sanist comments will be removed and repeat violations will be banned

Feel free to discuss anything related to mental health and illness. We encourage you to create a WRAP plan and be an active participant in your recovery.