Phillip Ben-Shmuel @Pondering@social.theliturgists.com
@vishnu’s silly little “esoteric analogy time” jingle is stuck on loop in my brain as a very invasive earworm. Thanks a lot, Vishnu! 😜
@RobertFrancis @Pondering @Jeff Sure. I am a person, not an hermetically sealed logic machine.
racism
The dog whistles were always blatant and institutional, systemic racism has been, quite literally, killing people and destroying both individuals and communities even after Jim Crow was technically outlawed. But yes, they aren't even trying to pretend any more now that the highest office is held by an open white nationalist and lifelong active racist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/opinion/trump-twitter-racist.html
Irreverent
Just as putting your sin on a goat doesn't work, neither does putting your doubt on a pastor.
US POLITICS (LEFTIST)
So I am a Bernie Sanders supporter. I really think he has for a long time identified problems correctly and proposed genuine solutions. Its my understanding that there's a lot of push back against his candidacy from centrists, liberals, and leftists alike. The arguments for why hes not a good candidate, that ive heard are.
1. He's quite old and a second term could be a stretch
2. He's quite white and so is out of touch with the concerns of some people of color.
...
Rowan 
I loved the most recent TAATR and am super psyched the they’ll finally have Reza Aslan on as a guest of the podcast.
Narrative theology # 1
And I said to him:
Are there answers to all of this?
And he said:
The answer is in a story
and the story is being told.
And I said:
But there is so much pain
And she answered, plainly:
Pain will happen.
Then I said:
Will I ever find meaning?
And they said:
You will find meaning
where you give meaning.
The answer is in a story
and the story isn’t finished.
-Padraig O Tuama
Some people have so much autonomy they don’t even know what it is, they think it is normal life.
If they even consider the condition of a person having little or no autonomy, they imagine that such people had it and willingly, foolishly traded it away.
So I was watching the Netflix doc on flat earthers (great doc btw). And it occurred to me that I used to think that the fact that the Christian religion started so fast was evidence of the resurrection. Like as if thousands of people wouldn’t have bought in at that time if it wasn’t real. But that’s not proof of shit. By that logic any religious supernatural claim has merit. Why not Islam? Why not Mormonism? Why not Scientology? Why not flat earth theory?
Why did I never see that before?
I'm feeling really down about the upcoming Israeli elections (just a week away) so it's good to be reminded that there are folks here in Israel/Palestine who actually have a worthwhile vision for our political future: http://www.alandforall.org/english-program.
I believe that one day this solution will be seen by everyone as both inevitable and just, however that day never seemed further off than it does right now in the current political climate.
@Pondering @peterbinks I can't read the word epistemology without hearing the (in @mike 's robot voice) "epistemological break down" jingle.
