BC only Christians say this shit in the US: Fellow Christians call this shit out as bullshit EVERY TIME it happens. At coffee, at church, and sure as hell when government officials do it. First: it is a lie, and second it is straight up wrong. Little soap box 1/x

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1630613690058784773

First. Prayer didn't go away ANYWHERE. You, dear fellow Christian can pray wherever the hell you like. What you cannot do is impose your prayer on OTHERS as part of a government sponsored community project like say EDUCATION. It's a constitutional violation of sep of church/state

Ho boy. Seeing again the "all Christian stuff is stolen from pagans" narrative and there are *so many* issues with that. First: it is literally an evangelical talking point that was used to strip ritual/liturgy and anything but Sunday morning worship from the church. 1/x That right there should pull you up short but so much more. 1. Religions do not exist in vacuums. None of them. They influence one another, they exist within a matrix of culture that comes into contact with other cultures and is influenced by them. There is no "pure" Christianity

I started today baking bread and saying goodbye to my lovely little church. It was sweet, and silly which is perfect for them. I finished the day with a breathwork session with my favorite teacher. Letting go, releasing. There is a lot of that for me right now. ... And there will also be a lot of building. As I shed certain parts of who I have been, how I have been, to build something new. And this has me thinking about how tightly we hold to what we have. Traditions, sacred texts, liturgy, structure, even things as made up as economies...

Used to be I only had to say this around Passover. Christians have no right to Jewish festivals. If your Jewish friends *invite* you to a religious service or home observance obviously you can go as a *guest* but we have our own cycle of feasts and fasts that are NOT JEWISH...1/x So 1. Jesus was alive during the 2nd Temple period which ended with the destruction of the Temple in 70CE. Judaism today is *something different.* Jesus *did not* celebrate many of the feasts and fasts we see today. And he DEFINITELY didn't celebrate them as modern Jews do...

Growing up in the church I was often frustrated by the things I heard leaders say "young people" wanted. I was RIGHT THERE and no one ever asked (they were wrong 90% of the time at least.) And the church has a similar problem with evangelism. ... If we actually *talked* to nonChristians (I do, a lot) we'd find most of them find evangelism to be intrusive, harmful, even violent *no matter how we do it* because of the culture of Christian hegemony in which they are just trying to survive and stay themselves (nonChristian).

Wow, hello new folks! So probably should introduce myself. I am an Episcopal priest of the very progressive variety (some call me heretical), I focus on interfaith work (esp with Jewish folks), spiritual companioning, teaching spiritual practices (like breathwork meditation) ... And writing about "practical theology" which is basically spiritual/religious topics that impact how we show up in the world. I'm not much interested in what happens after death, or splitting hairs on liturgy, or doctrine. I care that you know you are loved by the Divine, and...

Continuation of the earlier theme of disease mitigation and "normal." I think we need to have a much more nuanced conversation about what we mean by "normal." BC to me normal is I can go grocery shopping, church, concert, hair cut without risk of getting a debilitating disease... Just like I want to buy and eat pork chops w/o the risk of trichinosis. Food safety rules being ALWAYS followed (including when people aren't getting trichinosis from pork) are what allow us to have normal with our food. To eat w/o fear of deadly disease. and...

A number of people in response to my surprisingly popular tweet last night asked "when will you let people live their normal lives??" (ie dropping disease mitigation) and I realized *most* middle and upper class Americans don't realize we've always had disease mitigations? THREAD And they didn't know because those mitigations were mostly carried out by agricultural and food service workers. That's right the VERY strict rules that keep your food safe are disease mitigation. From the way our crops are grown, to how they are harvested,...

OK. Because these discourses ALWAYS end up hurting actual lay people. Thread. To begin, dear lay folks you do not have to pass a belief test to be Christian, to be beloved of God, or to be living a faithful life. God's got you. And, I've noticed something UNDER creed discourse... The "Orthodox" and "Inclusive Orthodox" folks in Anglicanism seem to be stuck. Most of them would absolutely agree that we should read Hebrew scripture allegorically. That the Earth isn't 6,000 years old and wasn't made in 6 literal 24 hour days. Or that, for example,...

Oh goodie. We're doing the "if you don't believe the creeds are FACTUAL you can't be clergy" thing again in weird Anglican Twitter and this is your reminder: that is fundamentalism and it never, ever leads anywhere good... (also it isn't the best way our forebearers used creeds.) Years ago I read a book by a woman who grew up Buddhist and converted to Christianity as an adult. And she told a story that has stuck with me. The night before her baptism she called the nun who had been her mentor through her conversion in tears...

This is not OK. Jesus was clear that he came to serve and that his followers were called to be servants of all. Not rulers. Not nationalists. But sheep among wolves. Serving the least, the most vulnerable in reflection of his own ministry. (Feed the hungry, heal the sick, etc.)

https://twitter.com/BenLorber8/status/1552289306886160384

There are a whole OTHER host of issues with this. Study an ounce of history and you'll find taht nothing good comes from Nationalism, any kind of Nationalism. That road leads to fascism, oppression and death to minorities, and eventually suffering for everyone. ALSO

*sigh* The Last Supper was not a seder. It wasn't. That ritual was not in EXISTENCE when Jesus was alive and teaching. The Gospels do *not* even agree on it even being a Passover meal! Yes our Eucharist takes elements from Jewish *table blessing* but not (NOT) from seder... There is no excuse (none, at all, ever) for Christians appropriating seder rituals that were developed AFTER we split off from Judaism. They aren't ours. They don't belong to us. And we have our OWN rituals for Holy Week. Which any liturgical church can show you.

Good example of why evangelism is violence and I won't advocate for it or push it in my churches. So let's talk about it a wee bit, eh? Christians, despite 2,000 years of hegemony operate off the assumption NO ONE who has heard of Jesus wouldn't be Christian. Hence evangelism... After all, we have to get the word out! People need to know about this Jesus thing! What we miss of course is that people know. Trust me, they know. That they aren't Christian doesn't mean they haven't heard. NonChristians live IMMERSED in Christian hegemony.

Specifically speaking to my fellow Christians (esp clergy, but all of us) on this the third anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting. I wish I could say that act of terror by a Christian White Supremacist woke us up, that things are better today. But they aren't (thread). And while in the last ten years work *has* started in a very hopeful way on acknowledging and undoing the antiJudaism and antisemitism in our liturgy, theology, scripture, and tradition we have a long, long way to go. And it is absolutely vital work.

Yes. You can say they aren't EPISCOPALIAN, or LUTHERAN if they haven't done the things *we* require to be part of those churches but we (Christians) don't get to say "that person is bad so they aren't Christian." First of all because it is a way to duck responsibility.

https://twitter.com/sheilagregoire/status/1452680782103957505

And second because it isn't how Christianity has EVER worked. Christians are a diverse tradition filled with huge difference in belief, practice, history, etc. Our internal fights over who is doing Christian right are just that, *internal* fights. As in we're all Christian.

See I'm realizing that even as a fairly progressive Christian in my upbringing (raised Episcopalian) there is still this unsaid conflation of Scripture with God. Literally people use one of Jesus' titles (Word) for the Bible, like a LOT. (lil thread)

https://twitter.com/WorstSamaritan/status/1450319255182917634

And that causes issues (I mean OTHER than the basic idolatry problem of making a book God). Because when we snuggle the Bible up SO CLOSE to divinity then we have nowhere to go when we have to address its problematic bits. It becomes *beyond criticism* and that's BAD.

As I sit here sweltering in the PNW, and think about Texas friends who froze this winter and fires begin burning all across the West I feel like the church hasn't even started to address how our (Christian) THEOLOGY has contributed to the climate crisis we find ourselves in. We read the creation myths in Genesis and we decided that rather than emphasizing the goodness that God sees in the created order WE emphasize that *the whole of creation* is corrupted and broken because of *human* sin. We set the scene for disdain for our amazing world.

Progressive Xians, we are out here doing good work, trying to dismantle systems of oppression but because of how embedded (deeply) antisemitism and antiJudaism are in our culture/scripture/liturgy we can EASILY end up reinforcing antiJudaism while trying to do good elsewhere. 1/x Example. We're trying hard to make the church see the evils of being married to Empire and the ways the church has harmed indigenous people, black people, and many others because of that coupling. And because we're "go to scripture for examples" people

Hey leaders of things? (Church, nonprofits, etc). I know the urge to get back into the swing of "program year" is huge. But I'm starting to get emails from my diocese, seminary, others with schedules of in person stuff. And I don't think it is the right response right now... Though maybe not for the reason you think. I'm not saying that learning opportunities, conferences, etc aren't important. BUT let's say everyone in the US is vaccinated by end of June and it is safe to DO STUFF again. By then it will be 18 months...

That thing where I haven't seen friends or family in a YEAR, there isn't even a realistic estimate when I'll be eligible for a vaccine, and my diocese wants me to sign up for an in person OVERNIGHT training in June. Also: no.

OK. I have more to say apparently. ;)

Why aren't young people in church? Let's chat. As someone who was ordained in her early 30s, have friends and colleagues ordained in their early/mid 20s. And have worked a lot with folks in their 20s, 30s, and even 40s. THREAD

https://twitter.com/tcburkejr/status/1308111107626799106

First: your church's website is probably trash. Every church I've led as clergy had a website out of date by at least 10 years style wise, often content as well. This says a LOT about where you focus and priorities are. It telegraphs: we don't understand people who live online.