u/Gingerfuzzsicle

BIGGG Trigger Warning: Bigotry and Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.

I’m speechless. I was in the beginning of my deconstruction phase when I worked with this guy, and we would casually talk about Orthodoxy here and there. 2016 came around, and he started posting a lot of MAGA stuff on social media, including a lot of “COVID is fake news” bullshit. So many people tried to call him out, because honestly, it was surprising since he always seemed like a nice guy and most of his comments were flooded with people telling him he lost his way. My grandfather had just died on a ventilator from complications of COVID, and his posts got to me so much I ended up just blocking him. Fast forward to now, he has a semi-popular podcast/youtube channel that just shits on everyone who isn’t Orthodox, how women shouldn’t be in positions of authority, and mountains of LGBTQ+ hate.

This has all been so weird for me. First I find out Trenham is widely talked about after going growing up in his parish, and now this guy I knew showing up out of nowhere. I guess if anything, it’s validating. I can’t believe how much hate there is in the world. Wild.

So 10 years ago, I lost my dad in a car accident. Some dumb kid was passing cars illegally and hit him head on. Obviously super traumatic.

Since my dad had converted to marry my mom in the church, he was given an Orthodox funeral, open casket. I absolutely refused to walk up the steps to go look at him. I’m a visual person, and the last memory I had of him was when he came to visit me at work on Valentine’s Day. I didn’t want that happy memory tarnished by the image of his body just laying there lifeless.

I’m standing there in the church, just wanting all of this to be over, and some random parishioner came up to me and kept pestering me to go see my dad. Over and over. I told her I didn’t want to, and she kept saying “if you don’t go up there you’re going to regret it”. She didn’t stop until I snapped at her and told her to leave me the fuck alone. I didn’t even know who she was.

The audacity of some of these people. Ugh. Some people really think they’re the hero in their own story.

From my perspective, she wanted the bare minimum of being treated as an equal, and has since been viewed as a demon of sorts.

Now I’m sort of in the realm of an agnostic choose your own adventure kind of paganism, so while I personally don’t believe in Lilith, what she represents is extremely meaningful to me spiritually. I don’t know how else to put it into words really, and I apologize if any of this is offensive because I truly don’t mean it to be, but it irks me so much that any modern reference to Lilith in pop culture is demon-coded. It’s so obvious to me that her demonization is a result of the patriarchy creating a cautionary tale against women who choose to not be subservient.

Of course I know we have a variety of belief systems, and when I refer to demons, I mean in the Abrahamic sense of demonic = bad, and that Lilith as a character is presented as such in modern media. I just think she’s so misunderstood. Anyone else share my frustrations?

I see it come up pretty often when people leave the church what their new view is on the meaning and purpose of life. I guess it’s natural, but why is it so important?

I’m not talking about Nihilism by the way, or trying to kill the curiosity in finding a meaning. I’ve noticed that there’s always this black or white way of looking at it that either life is meaningless and you’re a Nihilist or you hold on to the hope and have faith in a God, structuring your whole life around a moral code based on it. Why is it never just about existing and making the world more beautiful in the here and now?

Maybe I’ve been up too many nights this week watching videos on deep space, but I’m completely content with keeping myself both curious on the unknown and carving my own path of purpose.

Hey friends! I know it’s been requested, so we’ve been working on an FAQ post to put on the front page that should help with the issue of repeat posts/inquiries. We’re also going to be getting a little more into our change on the no preaching rule, which u/half_a_pony did a great write up on.

Since this subreddit has been getting a lot more traction hitting 10.2k weekly visitors this month, I would love to get your input. What topics/questions would you like to see covered in an FAQ for us?