Avery 🏳️‍⚧️🫱🏼‍🫲🏾🇵🇸 they/ze

Hi there, I’m not sure I understand how your replies relate to my thread.

Art by @the-dance-of-italy on tumblr. Digital art of the risen Jesus, with a glowing cloudy sky behind him. He has brown skin, top surgery scars, and bloody stigmata; he is smiling with one hand raised.

Even when others try to strip us of dignity, status, or autonomy, Christ brings us into joyous, abundant life. The cross is not the end of the story.

- Excerpt from the Blessed Are the Binary Breakers podcast, "A Queer Easter Vigil: resurrection after religious trauma"
#transgenderchristians

When we dare to be who God made us to be, society's spotlight may make us feel like one raw wound, exposed & vulnerable. We may even be subjected to social death. But we refuse to be ashamed any longer for being the beautiful embodied spirits, inspirited bodies God calls beloved. #queerchristians

But through the cross, Jesus transformed shame and death into new life. Though he was the one who was stripped, his execution exposed both the evil of Empire, and Empire's ultimate fallibility.

In school and at work, at home and in church, we face every manner of violence. And when these evils wound us to the point of suicide, or when we are murdered, our deaths are lifted up as a warning: "see what happens when you refuse to comply?"

Woodcut of Jesus stripped before his crucifixion; his back is to us, scarred; his head hands down as a crowd of people in modern day clothing glare at him

Transgender & intersex persons are likewise made into a spectacle. Our bodies & private medical histories are broadcasted. New laws attempt to strip us of our God-given free will, denying us the autonomy to respond to God's invitation to participate in the ongoing creative act that is embodied life.

Painting of Jesus being stripped by two roman soldiers, the vertical pole of the cross behind him. Text reads: "Above all else, crucifixion was a spectacle: the Roman Empire making a show of its brutality in order to terrorize dominated peoples into submission.

If you dared to resist the Roman Empire, you knew what end awaited you: You'd be stripped bare before a crowd and suffocated on a cross, your naked, battered flesh twisted into a warning to others to comply — or die.

This is how modern Empire functions as well. #crucifixion #godoftheoppressed

…who God made us to be, fully in good relationship w/ creation & other humans, when we Escape capitalism & its endless onslaught of “not enough,” of “work harder or you’re worthless.”)

Hope this makes sense & is clear I’m not disagreeing w/ you, just adding on! It is good to be in God, with you. 💚

Thus emerges an extension on our purpose being simply to Be:

To be in God. To be exactly who God made us. And to be /in relationship/ —with God, with other created things, and with one another.

As you wrote, we can Be in this way without producing a damn thing! (Indeed, we can really only fully be

However, I’d push that there’s a little more to our “purpose.” We see this by looking to the Being in whose image we are made:

Truly, God is God even if God never created a thing!

But, being Triune, God is NOT God outside of relationship. So neither are we /us/ outside of relationship.

You’re absolutely right that Being Productive, especially as capitalism defines productivity, is NOT necessary to fulfilling this purpose. And like all Creation, we do indeed glorify God simply by being whom God made us to be. Simply by /being,/ by resting inside our Creator, who is BEING.

I’m not usually fond of the older Reformed confessions, but I do appreciate Shorter Westminster Catechism on this topic [when edited for patriarchal language lol]:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of [humanity]?
A. [Humanity’s] chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy [Them] forever.

Philly immigrant groups call for Super Bowl strike to protest Trump admin policy The strike is part of a “Week of Action” running through Valentine's Day in Philadelphia to show the value of immigrants.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE STRIKE SEASON, FRIENDS

"Don't fight hate with hate" is gaslighting meant to silence the oppressed and maintain the status quo

Live like a better world is possible. Even — especially — when it seems utterly impossible.

A prophetic challenge to churches that call themselves affirming and cishet individuals who would be allies — as well as to all of us who claim to support marginalized communities not our own.

Read and ponder proactively: How far are you willing to go? how much are you willing to risk?

To prevent overwhelm, choose just a few of the pressing issues to focus on — or even just one. Just one that you make your passion, devote time and energy to. We all are more helpful digging deep, not spreading ourselves thin. You don’t have to keep on top of it all — that’s what community is for.

On Organizing time to level up / an early draft of a playbook

Over 50% of nonviolent movements to overthrow governments are successful within one year of their peak.

The key is to engage over 3.5% of the country, a cross-section of society—clergy, kids, grandmas, teachers) using DIVERSE & CREATIVE tactics, with women in leadership.

We can do this.

More:

Left out are the facts that Jesus dined with Pharisees as he never did with the priests, and that the Pharisees conspired to save Jesus's life from Herod Antipas. There was clearly love between them.

The Pharisees were much more hard-line and liberationist. They hated the Romans in particular. The Pharisees accepted the authority of the Mishnah (the Oral Torah) while the Sadducees did not. But the Pharisees were most known for their righteousness and compassion.

Scream this from the rooftops. The whole thread should be required reading for Christians, but this part especially.

The two greatest commandments in Christianity come from the Pharisees. Jesus is literally quoting Rabbi Hillel.

Christmas Special 2024 The Word in Black and Red · Episode

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New episodes drop every Monday.
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‘twas a delightful conversation! 🏳️‍⚧️✨