this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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this week's reading is The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
We have lived under a class of people who ruled American culture with a flaming cross for so long that we regularly cease to notice the import of being ruled at all. But they do not. And so the Redeemers of this age look out and see their kingdom besieged by trans Barbies, Muslim mutants, daughters dating daughters, sons trick-or-treating as Wakandan kings. The fear instilled by this rising culture is not for what it does today but what it augurs for tomorrow—a different world in which the boundaries of humanity are not so easily drawn and enforced. In this context, the Mom for Liberty shrieking “Think of the children!” must be taken seriously. What she is saying is that her right to the America she knows, her right to the biggest and greenest of lawns, to the most hulking and sturdiest SUVs, to an arsenal of infinite AR-15s, rests on a hierarchy, on an order, helpfully explained and sanctified by her country’s ideas, art, and methods of education.
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Hang in there...this too shall pass. I tend to rely on and hang out with immediate family members more than non-family members. My parents used to tell me "blood is thicker than water" and I now know that they were 100% correct.
I’m glad you have family members who you are close with.
Blood is thicker than water does not hold true for many people though, sadly. Especially not queer people.
By immediate family members I meant my wife, two sons and my brother. I am very fortunate that we all love each other very much.
My eldest son is gay. He's fortunate that his mother and I are very liberal and non-religious. I've had many queer friends with unsupportive parents and it is very sad.
I'll admit a curiosity about you starting r/AskBibleScholars as a secular guy. This said, what finally grounded me and set me on my writing path was a Catholic deacon who was my English professor at community college who left religion at the door and only cared whether you backed up your thesis with data (in contrast to high school, which was pure regurgitation).
Granted, I was still in high school. But my semester abroad caused all sorts of issues when I got home that led to me having to take college classes because the stuff offered in fall wasn't offered in spring. By senior year, I was taking only one course at the high school (completely pointless, at that, as it was Calculus BC, and I'd already gotten a 5 on the Calc AB AP test), just to remain enrolled -- I was not required to show up for class unless I had an SCC course that morning to head off to, meaning three days a week, where I also had the exemption to "no food in class" rule.
After rolling in from a bagel place thrice weekly, I realized the absurdity of secondary schooling and found I much preferred being treated like a functional human. And this was a top-50 high school in the country that told me to stick to math, not writing, and failed me for page design in beginning yearbook freshman year (by the newspaper advisor, so I was dead in the water there).
You bet your ass when I came home to visit, I headed to my high school and pointed out my national awards for, well, writing and page design. I could have left it well enough alone, but I felt they needed to hear that not everyone is going to take such advice as a wet-paint sign.
I really wonder how many people never found their paths because of such experiences.
I was raised in evangelical Christian churches. I used academic biblical studies to de-brainwash my mind. It worked and I saw how it could help other people.
That's awesome, I'm glad you have people you can depend on.
If I'm being honest, my family is more like an anchor. None of them ever learned to help themselves and that still expect me to do it. I'm just going to try to change the part of my personality that wants a social life.