Christian tropers, join together!

And also Scott Cawthon, famed creator of Five Nights at Freddy's, is a Christian too.

It's easier to find good works of fiction by Christian creators the farther back in time you go.

G.K. Chesterton, for instance.

It's like nostalgia: time filters out the unexceptionally bad things that might have been more notable in its own age. Depending on what attitudes about religion come about in the future, much of what revolts and inspires us today might just become a footnote that someone with a youtube show about dredging up then-obscure media msy bring attention to.

Speaking of time changing things:

https://www.studylight.org/commentary/isaiah/45-7.html

Wow okay, that word really needs a new translation. Misfortune? Chaos? Painful things? ... Unpeace?

Yeah, chaos seems like what the translation should be going for.

Hi, how is everybody doing?

Hello, I'm okay right now.

I'd like to try something here actually: I'll post some bible-related quotes from various unnamed sources and then maybe we this thread can discuss how it aligns with relevant biblical messages.

Crossposting from Yack Fest's Lent thread:

So, the Lent 2019 is over, at least in my timezone as of this posting. I failed to observe it 100%, but I find satisfaction in that I managed to cut down on my excesses significantly, by at least 60% or so.

Giving up TV Tropes has been consistently among the hardest thing to give up, but this year it was rather easy. Profanities were the hardest to give up, and I ended up using F-word only one week in when I bumped my knee on a desk.

Aiming for 100% next year's Lent. Next time, though, I should try giving up fewer things.

In another topic, the fire at Notre Dame.

Have you seen the image of the golden cross standing firm and shining gloriously amidst the ruins after the fire?

Well, the scientific explanation is that the cross is intact because it has a very high melting point. But honestly? It's an incredibly powerful image that once reminds me of God.

Edited by dRoy on Apr 17th 2019 at 11:01:48 PM

That image gives me hope, and again shows Notre Dame through all her trials will always rise up.

Some days ago was the anniversary of how a man who could be described as a very generic-looking middle-eastern carpenter triumphed over death and gave mercy to all people.

Good Easter month and a good year going forward everyone. Let's work and pray for a tomorrow with less screw-ups.

If anything, let's take the Notre-Dame's continued stand after that as a call to do good and do better.

Amen to that.

I missed the "Christianity vs. entertainment choices" question posted on the last page, but aside from High School DXD, where a devil is one of the good guys and an angel is a villain, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, where the angels are crass, rude, and a Lovable Sex Maniac in one's case, and any stand-up comedy routine about how "hurr hurr christians r dum", I find it tends not to matter too much.

Co-signing the "screw Christian media" statement, though. The vast majority of it is just not good, say nothing of how it's clearly just Pandering to the Base.

Regarding that sentiment, I do find that over time, I have become more attuned to some profoundly anti-theist sentiments and notions found in media than I used to be. In particular, I notice it very well when various things are praised simply for supposedly being a "sound indictment" against God and go unquestioned and unchallenged for being such. Things like this for example.

Now I am aware that there are many more problems in the world to deal with. I am aware that God has a far greater patience and sense of timing than what I could ever have, and that my indignation towards such comments and notions can come off as though I feel that it was me being attacked rather than the entity I worship. God is thicker skinned than I could ever be.

With that said, when I do try to focus on other things while knowing all of that, that sort of thing keeps butting its way into my line of thought. I do feel that I can be and am allowed to feel such feelings as though a person important to me was being slandered so unwisely. Certainly, I'd like to be able to have even stronger thoughts for other ailments in the world when I can find myself being a less flint-skinned, flawed mortal who lets this get in the way.

At times, I feel as though I require assistance in getting a counter-argument against such drivel. Times when I can go, "Hey look at thing ridiculous thing," and have others go, "Yeah, this is pretty dumb and heres why," and then they give a good explanation to back up that stance.

Thankfully, I am able to have some respite knowing that smarter people than me can and do continue to have faith. Things such as this (and I do find this one post particularly fascinating). I do think for myself, but a bit of community would be nice.

Because Lord help me, for I am not immune to stupid, be it my own or others. And I have plenty of my own and I don't need it from others, thank ye very kindly.

Edited by Ikiniks on May 6th 2019 at 4:38:10 AM

I’m really messed up right now. I don’t even know what happened, but now I can barely pray anything but calls for help.

What happened with you?

I’m really not sure.

I thought I made peace with the fact that I didn’t really ‘’know’’ that Christianity was true and i’d have to settle for simply assuming it was, but lately it’s been bothering me more than usual. I’m still trying to figure out how it happened. The link provided above helped a little.

I think it would be good to talk with other believers about it.

I actually really enjoyed reading that link. Thanks for posting it!

Doing better now, but I think i’ll try talking to someone after the church service.

I did so, I think it might help eventually but i’m Not out of whatever this is yet. I don’t know, I think this started as something else going on in my mind that later came to infect my religious thoughts. It’s been discovered earlier that I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and am prone to depression.

But it has made me realize something, ever since I first came to Christ i’ve always been worried that my faith might just give out one day. Whatever happened accentuated that. Any thoughts?

Edited by Novis on May 12th 2019 at 10:42:42 AM

Have a read through this page, as well as this one.

Faith is a muscle that requires exercising. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) We grow our faith by reading and hearing the Gospel, by prayer, and by maintaining connections with other Christians.

I went through a phase for a number of years after I moved away from where I grew up - I couldn't find a church I wanted to attend, so I just didn't. I stopped praying, I stopped reading the Bible, and had no one to read or teach it to me. My faith definitely suffered because of all these things - intellectually I knew everything I did before, but I wasn't willing to live by it. Thankfully my fiancée has brough me back into the fold, praying with me, reading the Bible with me, and we have found a church together which fits us both - we go to Bible study and prayer groups with them.

Faith isn't an innate gift of God, faith is a choice, an act of will-power. It can be emotionally tiring, which is why we need a support group in the form of a church or other Christian community. God is with you in or out of church, but there's a reason Jesus said "where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20).

^ i’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, and firewriter as well.

Your welcome.

Continuing upon the saga of my occasional look through the site. So I was browsing things and I came across the a link to a page where, purportedly, Jesus helps Ghost Rider. I open the link and alas, it seems the site may have gone through revamps and/or new management.

But then I see this recent article and my Bile Fascination and poor impulse control compels me to look through it. A comic satirizing the actions of Jesus himself and their effects on the development of the faith down the line? Hmm and HMMMM.

Anyone have any thoughts on it?

Personally, the quotes given fire off some warning alarms in my brain. The alarms that tell of a great and pervasive pretension and pseudo-intelectualism that usually comes with the intent to subvert and satirize. (Specifically, it's that "controlling the narrative" crap that gets thrown around that alerted me of potential BS)

Now I know that Christianity has the plurality of the world abiding by some form of it, and the number is fluctuating. It's very splintered and you can't go too far from a given community without getting radically different ideas on what Jesus' message was truly meant to entail. And with that, there's some very strong reaction to/against it. And yet it's still the plurality. And it's not all by force.

Could it perhaps be that, in order to properly criticize something, one must display a greater intelligence than the fundies of said something? It's pretty rare apparently. And I am aware that I may be the target of the satire, as said in that article. To which I say, "Maybe yes, but even the stupidest of your opposition can detect your bullcrap. And I smell quite a bit of it."

But to get relevant to the comic's plot: I have faith that God knew exactly how little he actually had to work with if he was going to Jesus up the place a little while still preserving free will. I don't think it's proper to blame someone for the idiocy displayed by the people who would claim to follow Him, especially when they'd been given the message in a form that was tailored for their capacity to understand. Within reason. If I am to honestly listen to the argument that the message should have been simplified more, then perhaps humanity's collective intelligence is worth even more scrutiny that what it may already be getting.

Edited by Ikiniks on May 22nd 2019 at 1:05:07 PM

While I also agree with his take and have defended far worse fiction of being released, that doesn't say an iota about the comic's actual quality.

Hell, if we're being honest, it could be a pile of burning bullshit and the likes of Fox News would still want to stop it getting released. After all, it is the fact that the story deals with Jesus that makes them want to do it, not wheter or not it is even all that insightful or scathing.