Thread by @KrisAtLarge

okay, time to wind down.

incidentally we've been watching the 2006 documentary film "Jesus Camp" intermittently today. we've only watched forty minutes so far; it's upsetting material. right-wing #Christianity is an upsetting thing to deal with; just ask the *victims*.

(1/x)

@dalepartridge, whom I've given special attention this day (the feast day of St. Agnes—but that's just a coincidence; also it's #NationalHuggingDay) might be attempting to console himself with imagining that I'm a mere vengeful *victim* of right-wing Christianity. I'm not.

(2/x)

I'm an apostate #Catholic whose personal experience of Catholicism was in fact rather mild and not without its positive qualities...though there was also a lot of sadness and disappointment. I wanted to reach out to God. I reached out and felt...a void. mournful emptiness.

(3/x)

it's like I could feel only the broken hearts of all the parishioners who'd knelt in the same pews, looked up at the same altar, and felt...let down. abandoned. they reached for God, and God wasn't there to help them, only impenetrable ritual and an indifferent priesthood.

(4/x)

but I've never been *wounded* the way a lot of #Christianity's victims have been wounded. I suffer wounds, yes, but they were inflicted by parents and doctors and teachers, not ministers of God. so I have no _personal_ animus for corrupt #Christians like @dalepartridge.

(5/x)

indeed I feel it's my duty *as* a baptized #Christian to hurl challenges, not merely at individual Christian malefactors like @dalepartridge or @PastorMark but at Christendom itself—who else can do such a thing but a Christian? Partridge and I are supposed to be *fellows*.

(6/x)

we are not. @dalepartridge is merely terrified of me and is doing the equivalent of closing his eyes and shouting prayers at top volume, waiting for the awful shouty stranger to *go away* (and I will.)

meanwhile I look at this man and ask: what does he *actually believe*?

(7/x)

has @dalepartridge seen the same Beatiful Vision that I _think_ I've seen? it seems almost impossible to believe that Partridge and I have any beliefs or principles in common at all, but surely we must have *some* common ground, even if Partridge hates my everloving guts.

(8/x)

#Christians haven't had the courage to do what I've been trying.

#Christianity, especially right-wing American Christianity, is a such an unholy mess in part because other Christians have simply shut their eyes and said, "they're not 'real' Christians, they don't count."

(9/x)

#NotAllChristians, these timid Christians once wished to protest; there's a reason the hashtag no longer gets used.

Christianity had better try to *analyze* itself, for once. the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. I refuse to let the Rapture Ready folks win this one.

(10/x)

it's time for Christians, *all* Christians, to work out once and for all what they really believe in. for a while a significant chunk of American Christendom seemed to believe that @realDonaldTrump was the Second Coming; now maybe they think it's @RonDeSantisFL. it's BAD.

(11/x)

the Christians who *don't* place their faith in fascıst politicians can't evade their spiritual duty any longer. they have a debt to pay, a collective responsibility: Christianity has been one of the most destructive forces on Earth, and all Christians share in the blame.

(12/x)

that includes me, and my sibling Frisk—unlike me they *never* practiced #Christianity but they were baptized (Lutheran, curiously enough, and in infancy) so they're involved too. there's over two billion of us...and we're all stained with crime.

all of us.

~Chara of Pnictogen

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