So here's the thing. I've spent since 2015 talking to my MAGA friends and family, trying to initiate dialogue about how 45's whole ethos is the opposite of what they say they stand for as #Christian #evangelicals and #fundamentalists. (A thread.)
What they *say* they believe - love for humankind, protection of the most vulnerable, honouring marriage, intact family units - is so very clearly NOT what this administration stands for.
I've lost touch with many of these people because I won't shut up in the face of what they are endorsing. I've tried appealing to their better natures, discussing spiritual ramifications, trying to build bridges. Trying to understand them.
I've spent a long time saying things like "I grew up in your versions of Christianity. I know what you are supposed to believe. I don't understand HOW you can be ok with this." and "Explain to me again how this is what Jesus would do?"
When all is said and done, though, they really believe it is ok because they really believe in a god that is just waiting around for a chance to send people to eternal torment for not saying the right words or getting baptized the right way.
When you hold to a duality that says that Jesus loves everyone and died to save them all, and yet Jesus is coming back as an avenging warrior to throw all those "others" in hell forever and ever and ever because they did something wrong...how are kids in cages any different?
When you believe that Jesus will oversee tossing millions of God's children into the fire, as he says "You should have got in line the right way"...well, that's how you can look at kids dying in custody and blame them for their own deaths.
If you believe in hell as a place of eternal fire and unbearable pain, if you believe in scaring people into 'salvation' by describing the torments and passing around that tape from Siberia (all y'all know what I mean) then there's no reason to not be ok with 45.
If your god is all-loving and compassionate and also deliberately created a hell and will send people there even though it hurts him worse than it hurts you and that's ok because *they deserved it* then ripping families apart and threatening LGBTQIA folx is fine.
So when it comes to the masses of MAGAgelicals, the torture is a feature, not a bug. That's how they are alright with it.
And that's where I'm at a loss to help them. How can they deconstruct from it all when their theology is their politics is their theology?
As someone who left Christianity because of that theology (and reclaimed my Jewish heritage), I know they see me as one of those destined for the flames, and their hearts and minds are closed to my words even as they "pray for my soul".
The irony is, of course, that I've found so many people living out what was ascribed to Jesus - feeding, clothing, helping, healing - in liberal Judaism. Among my friends in atheism. In paganism. In earth religions and Native religions.
Right now my biggest challenge is figuring out how to remind these radicalized right-wing Christians that Grace is for them,too. It's hard when their entire theology revolves around their belief that the way is hard,narrow, and painful,and so they act out that pain on innocents.
I don't know how I grew up in that and yet didn't take the fear and hatred inside me. But I can tell you, as someone who spent the better part of 3 decades around them and with them-the fear and hatred is real, and is as much a sacrament as Communion. cc: @C_Stroop #exvangelical

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More from @r_diamond

Sep 7, 2022
As a Reform Jew, the version of the Amidah we chant uses m'chayeih hakol (give life to all).
Since last year when I chant it,I say m'chayeih meitim (revives the dead) out of gratitude for the fact that M, the daughter of my friend @Nick_theGeek,was literally revived from death.⬇️
My friend @andrea_r interrupted my participation in Rosh Hashanah services with an emergency alert that M had suddenly dropped with a heart attack. I, in turn, interrupted the service itself, and we said a Mi Shebeirach (prayer for healing) for M. ⬇️
During the Days of Awe, when the sages taught us that the decree of who will live and who will die has been written, but that repentance, prayer, and good deeds can avert the decree - every action I took was for M, praying desperately that the decree of death would be averted. ⬇️
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Mar 10, 2022
Y'all, my son is bisexual. I didn't 'make' him that way. He was not sexually abused nor was he exposed to inappropriate materials or any other weird theory people have.
He was made by a loving Creator in that Creator's image, and for him, B'tzelem Elohim means LGBTQIA (a thread)
I suspected he wasn't straight by the time he was 5. I kept my mouth shut about it because it wasn't my life, it wasn't my identity, and frankly, it wasn't my business.

But I leaned into advocacy and ally-ship, jussssssst in case. And if not for him, for someone else's kid. 2/12
When he came out to me, he was shaking. He was scared. And I listened, and I said "Ok." and smiled. He was shocked that I wasn't shocked, and so now we play the 'how did you KNOW?!?!' game every now and again as I show his adult self all the ways I knew from the start almost.3/12
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Nov 1, 2021
In spite of what people might think, breaking the law in order to have an illegal funeral for a Covid victim doesn't actually honour the victim's life.

Yes. It happened.
No. We did not attend.
At some point, this has to stop.

If you can't comply with the law and only hold funerals in controlled access spaces with proof of vaccination/gov't ID, because family members are unvaccinated...

MAYBE YOU SHOULD NOT HOLD A FUNERAL AT ALL.
I mean, from the photos/videos I saw, many people were masked. They even stood a little ways apart from each other.

That's all well and good except for the part where we are under a mandatory order and NONE OF THAT GATHERING WAS LEGAL.
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Nov 1, 2021
I mean I thought it was “hurtful” that my mother-in-law suffocated to death after catching Covid but clearly @premierbhiggs feels my angry comments about her death and his carelessness with public safety are more so.
Bless his heart.
@premierbhiggs And yes. I blame the conspiracy theories my MIL consumed for her death, even more than the provincial mixed messaging.
The fact remains that “going green” reinforced her beliefs about Covid not being a big deal.
@premierbhiggs By the time the province started taking it seriously again, she was on a ventilator.
Wearing a mask was NEVER about “punishment for the vaccinated”, Premier. It was about trying to protect the vulnerable people around us.
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Oct 31, 2021
This reminds me of my cat Smokey.
CW: animal gruesomes

Smokey was half Manx; our across-the-road neighbours were VERY upset when their show cat found my scrawny calico.

He was a grey/white tabby, with the long legs and the bobtail, and he ran like a bunny. 1/8
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So fresh, indeed, that he refused to bring me a *dead* frog. Oh no.

Only the best for his Hooman and that meant a LIVE frog. 2/8
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At 7am, I would have to step to the screen door of our enclosed porch and put a frog out of its misery. 3/8
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Oct 30, 2021
“Unknown small but nonzero fraction of a murder” perfectly expresses what I think some folks I know engaged in.

For someone in the medical profession to tell family to avoid vax / not seek care when they were dying of Covid because “it’s a hoax”?
Fractional murder, indeed.
Would my mother-in-law be alive right now if 3 of her 4 children hadn’t ardently embraced conspiracy theories?
I dunno.
What I *do* know is that her husband got vaccinated, caught Covid from her, and had 2 days of sniffles.
She spent days on a ventilator and died.
I know that the first week of the pandemic I called her and volunteered to pick up groceries for her and begged her to stay safe.
“Oh, there isn’t any virus!” She said; “(child) said so.”
Read 6 tweets

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