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Tangent: isn’t Talarico a fairly serious Presbyterian? I’m seeing some claims that his church is hyper liberal, but I don’t know how you get a religious degree without some genuine faith.
Oh my dear friend, you have plainly not read me sperging out about his views on the Annunciation (hint: the point of it is not the Incarnation, redemption, repairing the broken relationship between God and man or atonement for sin, the point is God is okay with abortion so go right ahead and have your abortion without guilt like the mean ol' bad right wing Christians try to make you feel!) Even the liberal Jesuit magazine had to go "Er, no" on that one 🤣
He had to clarify what he meant by "God is non-binary" (theology behind that remark is not incorrect, but it's a shit-awful way of phrasing it and Jimmy boy was clearly trying to be both one of the cool kids and get the normies all het up, but just inserted his foot in his mouth).
His church is indeed hyper liberal, the retired-but-came-back Pastorette Babs was assuring all and sundry that Jim boy was lying through his teeth about LGBT+ issues in order to get elected, but once elected would reliably go back to the right side of history (in another interview, she wasn't as sure about if Jesus ever existed, but she was sure about Jimmy boy). The main pastor of the church thinks, well, where do I even begin with the bounty of material from "referring to God with masculine language makes girls feel their brothers are more important" onwards? Jimmy boy isn't quite as to the extreme edge as his pastor, but he's done the usual "True Christianity is all about being nice" liberal crap in politics so to sum up, this Catholic isn't sold on how solidly Presbyterian this seminarian is, apart from "member of a progressive church in a liberal branch of the denomination and reliably on-board with the Democratic platform on everything".
Though fear not, he has now accepted there are two biological sexes and not six 😁
This is still just so crazy to me. Even secular historians agree that Jesus existed, it’s decisively been the (again, secular) consensus for over a century, at least. This could be sort of an edgy but intriguing thing to say in like the Vienna cafes of the early 1800s, now it’s just stupid.
The Texas senate race this year is truly the Battle of the Bad Candidates, isn’t it. I don’t envy people voting in that one, especially moderates. Curious if there’ll be an unusual rate of abstention in that particular vote.
Years back, as an interested onlooker to the Anglican Wars, I got an introduction to some of the wackier ideas of liberal Protestantism and hoo-boy. Pastorette Babs is a church leader not because she believes that god shit, but it's a useful tool for social liberalisation and the doing good stuff can be extended out to "this means pro-reproductive justice, pro-gay marriage, pro-trans rights and the sixty other liberal to progressive notions pulled out of the grab bag". She's an old lesbian so this is catnip to her - ha, take that all you dumb right-wing Christians of my youth who told me my lifestyle was sinful, I'm a lady pastor now, so how do you like that?
Jesus Mythicism is just another step on the path, after all what really matters is how we feel inside about things and building community and being Good People, and if the idea of Jesus helps you do that, then fine! Just don't force people to have to believe in this being literal, and we're all good.
Though Pastorette Babs is still not as shocking as the former Primate of The Episcopalian Church, the very smart and educated* (she has a science qualification as an oceanographer!) Katharine Jefferts Schori, who managed to preach a sermon where the encounter of St. Paul with the possessed slave girl is the excuse for scolding Paul for being jealous of other people having spiritual gifts, so that is why he exorcised her. Yes, being possessed by a demon and your owners using that to make money off you as a fortune teller is a beautiful gift of God, and if Paul had only been able to recognise how special and wonderful this was, then he would have been able to learn. About slave owners and demonic possession. Being good things.
"Maybe there was no actual Jesus guy" is just a commonplace of liberal theology after that.
*There was a wonderful interview with the NYT shortly after her election as Primate where she was asked about the Episcopalian numbers sinking like a stone, and she came back with "well, we're educated so we tend not to have lots of kids, unlike the Catholics and Mormons". Managing to insult two different denominations in one go, that takes talent! 🤣
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His church is extremely liberal (in both "open minded" and "leftist" senses). The top three images on their website are a video that begins by pointing at their "Love They Neighbor - No Exceptions" banner, a photo of a cross covered in progress-pride-flag-design drapery, and a "No Human Is Illegal" sign.
Whenever I visited (before my father's death but after he moved to Austin he was a member for a few years) everyone I talked to (including the current pastor making headlines, but I don't recall meeting Talarico) seemed animated by genuine faith, even if the level of liberal (in both "open minded" and "ample" senses) interpretation required for that faith gave it a very struggling/double-think tone to me. That sounds patronizing, but it isn't intended to. I met a lot of loving and helpful people there toward the end of that "before my father's death" period, and I'm a bit worried about the Eye Of Sauron now shining on the place. I did sadly conclude that their beliefs are wrong in a descriptive way, but there seem to be a lot of people now angrily concluding that their beliefs are wrong in a normative way, and I'm hoping that doesn't include anyone too unstable.
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Don't non-denominational schools of theology exist at some universities?
Maybe, but I’m not sure any of them are labeled seminaries.
They adopted that term from Catholicism as the Protestant denominations became mainline and wanted to sound respectable and rooted in ancient tradition and shed any vestiges of "Brother Billy-Bob leading the tent revival because he was called by the elders". Brother Billy-Bob went to Bible College. The Reverend Robert went to seminary and got a Masters Degree in Divinity.
Oh, those wacky Protestants.
Can't throw stones too hard because we have the crazy in Catholicism as well, but at least there is some effort to try and at least pretend we officially believe the doctrines 😁 But like I said, a Presbyterian coming out with how much he admires Mary makes my Catholic antennae twitch (due to historical Presbyterian attitudes to Mary and indeed women in power), and instead of (for example) quoting the Magnificat he goes off on "because this was about choice, so God likes choice, so abortion is totes cool and fine!"
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