Ian is the Priest-King of the Sacred Grove at Nemi

And the Big Acceptable Ecumenical Prophet Spake unto the aspiring politicians contemplating more ways to do big tax refunds and cuts instead of funding robust services or UBI, and he said:

"Donatives, donatives, none of you are free from donatives!"

The people were astonished at his doctrine!

TAXATION PROVIDES THE FUNDAMENTAL LEVERS OF PARTICIPATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR A LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC STATE. IF YOU DON’T PAY TAXES YOU CARE LESS IF YOUR TAXES ARE USED FOR ILLEGAL HOSTILITIES.

I am *so freaking irate* over this *stupid insane proposal* that is inspired by the *foolish anti-liberal policy* of *Ronald Freaking Reagan*

but in the Iowa direction!!

I am 80-90% sure that when I propose (in 5, 10 years probably, mb 15 years) to add getting a PhD (at a slower rate than usual) to my workload that both my session and my presbytery (if they care) will go “yeah, that’s absolutely something we do”

I need to make Cambria my friend, TBQH. She writes some INCREDIBLE stuff.

So, when I showed up and shared that I did not intend to stop my one class a semester at the local university, the session was like “why, yes, that sounds great to us!”

Like, for a comparison: the founding pastor of this church (in 1831) wrote a history book for the history of Presbyterianism in southern Illinois from the earliest days until 1860.

The pastor in the 90s wrote a history book about our church from 1831 until 1990 (this was his dissertation too).

I will note that this vibe varies in different traditions. I’ve found in the PCUSA a *much* higher investment in academic-pastors (I am one myself lol) than in TEC. I’m curious where these patterns land similar or not across the rest of the mainline!

what if, under Woke 2.0, we equip the HHS Tomahawks with MEASLES VACCINE DELIVERY capability

heard a quote recently that stuck with me: The opposite of authoritarianism isn't democracy; it's community.

The Gospel is the proclamation of Christ — and we don’t discern it by its formula, but by its consequents. The Gospel is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the congregation through the proclaimed Word, so if transformation (however invisible) is happening, we have the Gospel!!

I know I’m like a resounding gong on this at this point, but one of the purposes of trying to live the good life (at least, the secular model) is so that you can get old and die in peace.

And that will not be true for a single one of these fools.

One of the things that consoles me in reading Roman literature is how often the idiots of the previous generation are raised up as examples of idiots.

Pete Hegseth is not spiritually prepared for how his handling of the Strait of Hormuz will be seen in twenty years… nor in forty years

what’s wild, ofc, too, is that Hegseth has already demonstrated to us that he thinks warfighting is the same thing as fighting-fighting (or even, like, UFC, or WWE)

and, as a consequence, he is a laughing stock of a warfighter

NGL, I’m toying with the idea of hosting a “classics reading circle” at the local coffeeshop or the local library — “hey! let’s read Cicero!” kind of thing

yeah, this is absolutely my issue here lol

oh no

Then De Clementia, with its proposal of Mercy and the will of the sovereign to extend grace, has impacts on both Calvin’s political theology *and* his soteriology (…!)

that is, if one understands the Institutes as a work of political theology, articulating the Reformers’ church as representative of the Church Catholic (and not a schism of it, like the Anabaptists) — a reading I just saw Ruben Rosario-Rodriguez propose in his Calvin for the World,…

the first Loeb volume of Seneca’s Moral Essays ends with the essay that, technically speaking, I was most interested in reading in the first place: De Clementia, the essay John Calvin wrote his first commentary on

and can I just say that, uh, I think this text has CONSEQUENCES for reading Calvin??

wait, why are the lawyer and social workers not concerned??? if I was his teacher and he shared this with me that would be an automatic mandated reporter call???

Don’t make me tap the Marcionism sign.

If you call yourself a Protestant you are NOT allowed to do this. We don’t all get those Kant Tattoos just for shits and giggles, we mean it

This is also how CSL depicts the Devil in Perelandra and THS, contra to Milton’s tragic, romantic Satan who you almost feel sorry for — as a reminder, Milton was of the Devil’s party, even if he didn’t know it 😂

see, this is another case of DJT as the (LaHaye style) Antichrist in that every person around him has made a Faustian pact with him, for some abstract good that is unforeseeable, with immediate and horrific consequences on their souls

DJT is like, “Art of the Deal (I’m the Devil)”

Tbf that’s every human who ever lived or will live.

FWIW, I think of America's Funniest Home Videos as a kind of proto-surveillance state copaganda in its own right. "What if the TV show COPS happened in your own house?"

The combat evolves with each enemy, but if you feel like you’ve got the right grasp on a particular Nev, I recommend hunting down their Chromatic versions for the more challenging (and more fun) combat. (Most of the time, unless they pummel you.)