I think my Adventist upbringing is responsible for my fascination with cosmic horror and esotericism
The religious trauma is SO normalized. "Yeah but you didn't speak at that time, how were your parents supposed to know?" They knew, they didn't care because it was "the devil speaking". Kids aren't supposed to feel like the incarnation of sins just for exiting and believing something different.
This whole idea from Conservatives/the right in general that men are “leaders” is completely a farce even in their own groups, and I can speak to this firsthand because I grew up in it. Super Catholic, church services were all in Latin, women weren’t allowed to wear pants or cut their hair shorter than their shoulders, and they were sporting all of America’s current insane political views a decade before they became more popular. And men still did jack all.
I was running the church choir in all but name by the age of 14, despite the choir director being a man in his 20s. Women handled all the childcare and child rearing, women were the ones who organized everything. Who put up the decorations for each season. Who provided the food. Who kept the church clean and in repair. Who taught the children during Sunday School. They were the ones who made decisions for their families, the ones who kept tabs on everything, the ones who organized playdates and homeschool meetups and church potlucks. Women built everything and men only placed their stamp of approval on it to claim the work.
And I wish more people would WAKE UP to this realization. Being a leader means nothing if you aren’t actually working. Simply sitting on your ass and giving the occasional instruction is not true leadership, nor is it even the servant leadership Christ himself advocated for. Those men were completely useless in the grand scheme of things and we would have continued on without them with relative ease. They hold onto relevancy by forcing women to depend on them financially but that’s all they have to stand on. And it just pisses me off idk this is just a rant
One of the many reasons why I left that religion- and I ain't never looking back.
maybe it’s just my ex-catholics vibes, but the way evangelical christian circles treat mother mary and mary magdalene always rubbed me the wrong way.
their roles as disciples of christ are often so shamelessly downplayed that it’s laughable.
mary magdalene is never given any mention outside of “whore who closed her legs and repented” despite being one of jesus’ closest disciples and the first one to be notified that christ had risen. not to mention the belief that she was a prostitute before becoming a disciple is not biblically supported.
mary the mother gets the same treatment— albeit a further fall from grace given how highly regarded she is in catholicism. evangelicals remove every trait from mother mary except for her submission and willingness to get pregnant. they never talk of her anguish at the cross, or her hand in jesus’ ministry. they also shame the concept of veneration towards her. they teach that she was not born without sin, she was not assumed into heaven, and she cannot intercede on behalf of people who pray for her. she is essentially stripped of her title as “queen of heaven”. she’s just some woman who god picked to bear his child. there was nothing special about her and she receives no title or reward for her unimaginable struggle.
these women, and others like them, travelled alongside jesus and his apostles for their ministry journey. yet, you would never know according to evangelical teaching.
at the end of the day, catholicism is sexist as hell— but at least it gives mother mary and mary magdalene the honor and attention they deserve.