#religious stuff

Let's start with the broad strokes. One of the basic ideas in Christianity is that Christ, having ascended into Heaven after the Resurrection, will return at the end of time, render final judgement on all souls living and dead and usher them to their eternal reward/punishment as appropriate. Simple enough, right? But there's one thing you need to understand about Christianity, and that's that Jesus said, "Okay guys, I'm off, see you soon, Peter's in charge until I get back," and nobody has agreed on anything since. The devil, as ever, is in the details.

For the majority of Christians (both historically and currently), the Second Coming (the return of Christ to Earth) and the Last Judgement (the ultimate rendering of justice on the world) are one and the same, and will happen at some unknown and unknowable future time--we can prepare ourselves for it (indeed, this is one of the purposes of the Advent season), but we cannot predict its time or nature. But starting around the 18th century, some American theologians started having different ideas. These ideas were based on two specific passages from the Bible, the first being Matthew 24: 37-41:

 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;  and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

The second is from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, 4: 16-17

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Now, these theologians assumed both of these passages meant that the faithful Christians of the world would literally be taken up into Heaven ahead of the Last Judgement. This "rapture" would occur instantaneously, and would precede a time of "tribulation" where the Antichrist and his buddies ran rampant before the Second Coming. Some further concluded that they could determine the timing of this rapture based on certain events/time frames given in Scripture. The restoration of Israel is a big one here, which is why you have a lot of Evangelicals coming out on the side of the country--they don't really care about Jewish autonomy or self-governance, they just think the state needs to be in place for the End Times.

How do I get more comfortable around Mormons? They genuinely scare me

It’s totally okay to feel scared or uneasy around Mormons, especially if you’ve had negative experiences. I think that the goal here shouldn't be to convince yourself they’re "safe" but to adjust your own boundaries and coping so you feel more in control when you’re around them.

Set clear boundaries. You can calmly say something like "I don’t talk about religion" or "I’m not interested in discussions about faith", and then change the subject or leave.

Remember that they are people, not monsters. Many Mormons are just trying to follow what they believe is right, even if you disagree with their beliefs. 💖

Control the environment. If they show up at your door then you can keep the door partly closed, limit the time, or declare at the start that you only have a few minutes to spare. Or even just ignore them, lol.

Practice calm responses. Rehearse short, polite lines so you don’t feel frozen. "That’s not my belief" or "I’m not comfortable discussing that", or even "let’s talk about something else".

Know that you’re allowed to distance yourself. You don't have to force yourself into situations that feel unsafe.

It’s completely okay to feel uneasy around any group that feels “different” or intense, especially when religion is involved.

I don't really know much about Mormonism so I'm sorry if this wasn't the best but I tried. 🫶

what do you think ab catholic jason todd! you always articulate your thoughts well so id love to hear them ab this, if that’s okay! :D

I try to stay in my lane on religious stuff, just since I'm very out of my own depth on non-Jewish religious topics. But I can see there's a lot of care put into this art! Very visual. In Flashpoint, wasn't Jason supposed to be a priest?

(stolen from the DC wiki)

I was on tiktok for a little bit and i encountered one of those videos with like a roblox game in a background and people saying shit over it.

The point the person was making was something along the lines of "The place of women in religion proves that religion is man-made, by men" and like that may seem good at first but it's so incredibly ignorant. (Even ignoring the fact that no half-cooked theological discussion could be created in a 1:00 video on tiktok)

First of all, this only works with Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), take a quick look into all the religions in the world and you'll see a vastly different picture. Religions mirror the values of the society which created them. In a matriarchal society, religion would have much more favourable views towards women. I fear this is common sense.

Another thing they said is that it makes sense that men would create such a religion, and they said "a lot of people say that how do i know that women didn't create it. I know it from the fact that a person would prefer to be a billionaire rather than homeless". NOBODY wakes up someday and says "hmm let's create a religion". THAT is not how religions are made. They are made by generations upon generations of people who all think what they are saying is the truth. Again, the values which end up in the religion are a reflection of the values of the society whom created it.

What they are saying just blatantly ignores that humans are INHERENTLY spiritual creatures. Reducing the thing that humans from all over the world have been using since the dawn of time to explain the world to just a well-thought out system of oppression, ignoring the existential, spiritual and anthropological aspects of it and mentioning only on the values of SOME religions as some all-truth in the entire aspect of spirituality is honestly insulting to every theologist that has ever lived.

THE WORST PART?? I went in the comments expecting the person to be comepletely called out and make fun of, but people where praising them. I saw many comments which said "As a Christian/Muslim etc this is so real" and one even said "I aspire to be as articulate as you"