Yup.

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1412383542328311811

Basically, my thesis -and I'm not a historian or sociologist obviously- is that Religion has been used as a tool to control the masses (often for political ends) since ever, and post-enlightenment they were faced with a competing worldview that wasn't dependent on their doctrines

@Matt_Dermody What if you're wrong tho?
And it's not rational to say you cannot possibly be wrong - you can. About any of it.
Let me explain:
Consider, assuming the existence of the Christian God and the reliability of the Bible for the sake of discussion, what is the single MOST important... @Matt_Dermody revelation in Scripture, according to all Christian faiths?
How one is reconciled to God, right? How one "gets saved", obtains forgiveness, is redeemed, etc - pick your term. Asa former baptist I'm going to use the familiar "get saved" terminology.

Now, if God was going to...

thread.
Underneath this point is something too seldom discussed, re transitioning...

https://twitter.com/shovdashovda/status/1382103671643770882

Transition is a 2-part phenomena, each running parallel to the other.
There's the inward track-the extent to which one is less distressed by their own phenotype.
And the outward track-how we are perceived by the world around us. How we are seen/accepted according to our identity.

@tatereeves Bigots gonna bigot.
Mississippi always looking to stay on brand.
So rewarding to be constantly reminded that you live in a state where your humanity is subject to a veto by moralist Pharisees.

It has been ever thus. @tatereeves And for y'all that didn't know, these assholes already regulated *all* trans people to second class status when they passed HB1523 a few years ago.

That one was even more blunt:
Just say "because Jesus" then discriminate as you will.

@albertmohler I don't honestly expect you to have the intellectual integrity to even acknowledge this response, let alone engage with it, but for the passing reader with a more open mind, let us consider Church History in general, & American Church History in particular... (a thread, 1/n) @albertmohler In the recent example, from the time of the founding until literally our own lifetimes a large, probably majority, portion of the American church was thoroughly convinced that slavery, & then segregation was entirely Biblical, if not indeed Gods preferred design for humans (2/n)

@tommy_sc_wong Normally I just respond to a comment like this (if at all) by asking "what if you are wrong, though?" but in my (Baptist) experience, asking a baptist pastor to consider the possibility of that question doesn't generally provoke much reflection so I will presume to elaborate 1/x @tommy_sc_wong During my time in church and interacting with the Moralists around me who obsess over this topic, the most common phrasing by far is "The Bible clearly says..." but that is the place, right at the beginning, where the argument goes off the rails. Consider this:
2/x

So, with NY(correctly)adjusting the death toll upward, it's time for me to tell my own quiet little story of the real world effect of deliberate internet disinformation and conspiracy mongering. I have a good friend, fmr nurse who lost yer license years ago for whistleblowning... She's been mildly emotionally unstable for some time but 5 or 6 years back she got more & more "online" and I could tell the difference. I didn't think much of it when it was weird stuff about Rh- blood but it never ends there though, does it? Soon enough she was listening to...

So I went back over Zach's thread about FEC reports since I was bugged by CNN's little"Warren is struggling to raise cash"hit in Brianna's show which made no mention of the boost she got in Feb. Turns out, it's a bigger flub than that. (thread incoming)

https://twitter.com/ZachMontellaro/status/1230539422753574914?s=20

First, I'm going to lay aside the billionaires for whom this is meaningless, and also Bernie's $25mm January which, TBH, I'd look into if I was FEC. It's such a massive outlier you have to see red flags. There's only been one QUARTER in the whole cycle by anyone higher than that.

so everyone thinks they're a pundit, including me I guess, so here's my take on where the race goes from here taking candidates in the reverse order they rank in today's YouGv poll. Not predictions of outcomes but how you, the candidates, should approach the race: Steyer: I know you're encouraged by the bump in NV and SC but it looks like Bloomberg (much less desirable as a nominee IMO) has upstaged you and I don't think you have a path. Go spend your money party building, GOTV, Senate races and so forth. Pay off those Florida poll taxes.

@ddale8 @JessicaHuseman As someone who has spent her whole life in Mississippi, I can't speak for what east coast people say about TX or other red states but I know what *I* say: states which are dominated by the votes of white evangelical Pharisees can only seem unappealing and backwards to those... @ddale8 @JessicaHuseman who are targets of their bigotry (and most of the time racism as well) no matter what other appealing qualities the place may have. Someone who is black or brown or LGBT in a red state, or people in blue states who sympathize with what that means, are perfectly justified...

So, let's review what we know about the whole "Elizabeth Warren used to be a Republican" trope. A thread.
it's necessary first that we look at the timeline of her adult life.
Warren's 21st birthday was in June of 1970, before the passage of the 26th Amendment. So we have... 1/ A maximum of 49 years to discuss. At the time she and her then Husband lived in TX, which does not and did not require registration by party and there's no existing records that have been found documenting that she was registered at all during this period. 2/

I'm about to indulge myself in a bit of #Warren2020 game theory (or whatever you call it) - pure speculation for the most part, but intended to react to the "Can she win tho?" school of thought. Feel free to ignore what follows if it's not your thing. 1/ First a disclaimer: OBVIOUSLY polling isn't linear. Over the course of time you'll get outliers in both directions, this observation is thinking of trendlines over the long term. The base premise is that every other candidates among the leaders got an "announcement bounce"... 2/

@GovMikeHuckabee But... what if you're wrong?
Let's do a thought experiment. This will take several tweets but stick with me. You're a Southern Baptist. So was I for 40ish years. The SBC (among others) insists that LGBT people are living outside the law of God. Okay, but what if they're wrong? 1/ @GovMikeHuckabee "Oh", but you'll say, "the Bible CLEARLY says..." - Yes yes BUT we've heard that before, haven't we? Do you remember Sen. Bilbo of Mississippi? In 1948 (47?) he took to the well of the U.S. Senate and preached that segregation was demanded by God's Law. He was no outlier... 2/

+1 to everything you said in this thread but layered in with that, there's a documented history describing how Paul Wyrich, in league with Falwell and others, reacted to the Bob Jones University IRS decision by acting to create a deliberate political movement which... while actually founded in racial segregationist bigotry (and dressed up in the costume of being anti-abortion) was framed and founded on victimology. Whatever target group they identified as a threat, whether another race or ethnicity, or "the gays!" or Hollywood liberals...