u/masquefetiche

I was so happy with my perfect balcony garden at the beginning of the Summer, but then it got so hot here in Dallas and my cumbers were attacked by aphides, then my tomatoes and strawberries all the sudden was overran by spider mites. It was all so instant, and now I have basically had to cut everything down to nothing and it may not recover.

I did not realize how hard Summer growing could be. I was watering and using Neem oil, but I just do not know what went wrong. I guess after a few days if they do not improve I will have to get rid of everything, but now I feel scared to grow any more veggies.

I am a Christian. I go to church and Bible study, and I certainly do not live perfectly. That is actually part of why the Rodrigues family’s public presentation of Christianity bothers me so much.

The issue is the performance of righteousness.
Jesus explicitly warned about this: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1). In Matthew 23, some of his harshest criticism was directed not toward obvious sinners, but toward religious people who were deeply concerned with appearing righteous while neglecting the things that actually mattered.

There is a difference between being a Christian and constantly needing everyone else to know that you are one. That distinction matters when your public Christianity repeatedly depends upon comparison.

Your sons are not “sissies.” Your daughters are “trim.” Your family dresses more modestly. Other people are liberals, blue-haired, gay, worldly, insufficiently Christian, or otherwise examples of what your family supposedly is not.

Jesus gives us an extraordinarily relevant example in Luke 18:9–14. The Pharisee stands before God and essentially says: thank God I am not like those other people. The tax collector simply recognizes his own sin and asks God for mercy. Jesus says it is the second man who goes home justified.

Christianity is supposed to produce humility, not a never-ending list of people beneath us.
That is also why I find the constant framing of criticism as Christian “persecution” troubling. 1 Peter 4:14–16 makes a distinction between suffering because you belong to Christ and suffering because of your own conduct. Being Christian does not automatically transform criticism, accountability, or consequences into persecution.

The recent allegations surrounding Timothy make that distinction especially important. When allegations of abuse arise, the Christian response should not primarily be about protecting the family’s image, explaining how much the family itself has suffered, attacking the motives of the person speaking, or demonstrating how resilient and righteous everyone else is. The center should be the person who may have been harmed, the truth, accountability, repentance where necessary, and protection from further harm.

And if accounts of violence and abusive discipline within the family are being raised publicly, those accounts deserve to be taken seriously rather than incorporated into another story about how the family is being attacked.

There is another reason this bothers me as a Christian.

James 3:9–10 asks how we can praise God with our tongues while using those same tongues against people made in God’s likeness. Christianity cannot become an excuse for cruelty. Mocking people is not transformed into righteousness simply because the people being mocked live differently from us.
Paul gives Christians a remarkably simple test in Galatians 5:22–23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Those are the fruits. Not attention. Not superiority. Not humiliation of outsiders. Not endless culture war posting. Not being the victim in every story. Not announcing how righteous your family is.

And this is where I think Christians like Jill can actually become dangerous to Christianity itself.

For many people watching from outside the faith, this becomes their picture of Christianity. They see the performance, mockery, judgment, obsession with appearances, public family branding, victimhood and claims of persecution, and understandably conclude that Christianity itself produces those things.

But the New Testament repeatedly warns Christians against exactly those behaviors.

Matthew 7:16 says, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Christianity does not need us to constantly advertise how Christian we are.

It asks us to produce the fruit that makes it evident.

Hi, I’m looking for great whole coffee beans. I’m buying them from Full City Rooster now, but interested in others. Thank you!

Edit to add I’m a coffee snob! 🤭

I feel like going swimming this weekend in a lake, not a pool. Any suggestions? Thank you! I’m new here. 🤭

I have a little Pomeranian boy that is maybe 7ish years old. I’m an American but was living in the gulf and got him in covid. He was a rescue who had been treated badly and in many homes. This little guy has been the love of my life.

With that being said he’s very jealous and always worried something will happen to me, so he gets stressed. He’s never really been okay with dogs and anytime he sees them he goes crazy.

Well.. I just drove to DC to get him after a flight from the other side of the world and he’s now here in Dallas. Needless to say Dallas is a dog community and I took him the dog park and he just as going crazy with every dog and people acted upset and annoyed. Plus I’m stressed and he’s stressed. He’s had a traumatic life i. a traumatic country after a traumatic experience. Where do I even start?

Hey everyone! My background is design and I feel creativity is really siloed in the USA. I am American, but have been working overseas. I’d love to meetup and start something for the creatives in our city. Anyone interested?

I bought a really nice jacket from the 40s at a vintage shop from for about $85 and obviously stupidly thought I could wash it on delicate for the smell. Now the seams at the side and one sleeve came out kinda bad. What are some seamstress here that could fix it?