Update for Everyone VI: What Is and What Should Never Be

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Lol, it would have even been funnier if you were cat-fished instead XD.

We may or may not find out tonight or tomorrow. Things went from semi-Ghost to spontaneous concert invite. Given my stance on spontaneity, this does not bode well. Free ticket, group looks interesting, but I’m cooking and I don’t like paying for parking.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

This place can be so lull on sunday afternoons. Sundays mornings and evenings have plenty of activity, but just the 2-6pm time is just so lull.

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

I know it's a little early to start attention-whoring, but it looks like I'm going to get my prescription for hormones within the next two weeks.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

I have gone around the sun 16 times now.

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

I have gone around the sun 16 times now.

Congrats, dude.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I have gone around the sun 16 times now.

😃 We’re but teensy little things on a spinning ball careening around a hot yellow blob while flying through space like a god damn lawn dart.

[RINO Tom]

I have gone around the sun 16 times now.

Always forget that I'm easily in the oldest third of Atlas users (26).  Enjoy the time you're living!  It's a fun time and you can never go back, but there are much more fun times ahead.  Trust me when I say your views on various things and attitudes about even more things will change, as hard as it is to believe!

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

[BBD]

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

Congrats!

[RINO Tom]

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

Congrats!

Yeah, that is awesome!

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

[fhtagn]

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

Congrats!

[Virginiá]

Sooo last night I was trying to run down the bug in the alerts system Wulfric pointed out some weeks ago, and in order to reproduce the bug on my test forum, I had to reproduce the environment in which it occurred, which means I had to change my name to what Wulfric had at the same time and start making a bunch of Wulfric posts. I spent about an hour doing that.

It's probably safe to say my life has hit rock bottom.

[IceSpear]

I have gone around the sun 16 times now.

Always forget that I'm easily in the oldest third of Atlas users (26).  Enjoy the time you're living!  It's a fun time and you can never go back, but there are much more fun times ahead.  Trust me when I say your views on various things and attitudes about even more things will change, as hard as it is to believe!

I always forget this too. Before you know it we'll be like Torie.

Happy to announce that Atlas just officially gained another lawyer! Passed the IL bar as of yesterday.

Congrats!

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

Congrats!

Yeah, that is awesome!

Congrats!

Congrats!

Thank you!!

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Lately I've been doing nothing but sleeping throughout the day and I feel really bad about it, but I'm not in a position to gain employment or really do anything of value, like get back to working on my degree.

I have to get the f#ck out of here.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

My mom got one of those beeper collars for our 11 year old toy poodle since it just keeps barking and won't shut the heck up.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Sadly, I suspect I'll soon be changing which church I call my home church.  As I've mentioned before on the Forum, I'm a UU, tho I'd be most comfortable as an old-line Universalist.  My home church was at the time I joined it one that unlike many UU churches steered clear of politics.  (Strangely enuf for someone on here, I'm not all that political but more interested in how politics works in the abstract.)  I go to church for spirituality, not politics, tho I realize there is no clear dividing line.

However, there's been turnover since I joined.  The old pastor was great but the new one not so much, at least not for me. In place of sermons on how to be spiritual when dealing with a particular social topic, it's mostly lessons on comparative religious experiences and holidays. I don't find myself in need of social studies lessons, even ones with a veneer of spirituality attached.

Moreover, the membership has taken a turn for the political.  They're doing so in a manner that I think leads from the heart, but isn't considering the head.  They're considering going in a new direction and jumping into it feet first. While some members of the congregation have taken an interest in immigrant issues and been active in them, the congregation as a whole has not. Getting active in those areas wouldn't be a bad idea, but going from essentially zero to considering becoming a sanctuary church is a bit abrupt, even if we had the capacity to do so, which I doubt. It's a very small church and we've run a deficit for quite some time.  It's not enough to cause a quick collapse, but I do see this as significantly hastening the decline in finances.  Build it and they will come is a movie line, not a financial plan.  Granted, I don't think offering sanctuary is the best use of resources to help the immigrant community, but it's not the policy itself, but the haste and recklessness combined with a major lurch into politics that has caused me to reconsider my connections to my current home church.

So what to do?  There really is no perfect fit, at least not in my area.  UCC would work theologically for me, and indeed my first few years up until my family moved from Florida to South Carolina when I was not quite five were with a UCC church being my family church.  I even read a good bit of leftover UCC youth literature that my older siblings had used in Sunday school there when I was of an age to read.  But the one UCC congregation in the area is a former Metropolitan Community Church, and while it's not an LGBT-only church, it understandably is a major focus, but it's not a focus for me. LGBT issues don't significantly impact my personal life.

The Moravian Church would be a good fit for me , but they have no churches in South Carolina, let alone my part of it.

Disciples of Christ would also be a good fit theologically, but the one congregation in the area I might consider joining suffers from a serious lack of membership and it's not in a convenient area for me.  It has a fairly large 1960's era church built to accommodate the expected continued growth of that church, but like all mainline churches has suffered declines instead since then. It just doesn't strike me as vibrant.

So I'm considering joining the ELCA. I do regularly attend one for Bible study and serve every so often as a lay reader on Sundays there.  My qualms at becoming a member are mostly that I take doctrinal creeds seriously and while the ELCA is liberal theologically it still has creeds.  As it is, I have to take a minor liberty (see below) with the reading of the Apostle's Creed that conforms to Isaiah 7:14, without placing a particular interpretation thereof.

But I like the church and the pastor, and I've begun preliminary discussion with her laying out my concerns about joining.  We'll see what happens.  There is still a couple weeks before the vote at my current church, tho I have little doubt that at most my concerns will cause them to proceed more cautiously, but I do think I am likely to switch from being a member of a UU church and an associate of an ELCA church to the reverse, even while remaining the same theologically.  It's odd in that I'll essentially be going from being one of the most conservative members to one of the more liberal members of my home church.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Almah Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

[fhtagn]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia. 

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

[Mr. Reactionary]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia. 

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

Muh rape enabler ...

[HillGoose]

Wassup all. So yesterday was my birthday and I met this dude at my university who is into venture capital, never had a better conversation with anyone in my life (except meeting my fiancee) I feel like I'm really getting places in life now. So many doors have been opening, so much progress has been made. It's not time to rest though. I'll rest if I live to be old. Now I need to seize the moment.

F!ck my family and everyone else who never believed in me lol, they were so wrong.

[BBD]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia.  

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

Imagine using precious time and energy to lobby for a gang-rapist.

[HillGoose]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia.  

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

Imagine using precious time and energy to lobby for a gang-rapist.

I use precious time and money going to clubs and getting wasted beyond the realm of what should be possible to numb the stress of the 100 hour weeks I do.

I respect that she's fighting for something she believes in, instead of just blowing it like I do lmao

[BBD]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia.  

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

Imagine using precious time and energy to lobby for a gang-rapist.

I use precious time and money going to clubs and getting wasted beyond the realm of what should be possible to numb the stress of the 100 hour weeks I do.

I respect that she's fighting for something she believes in, instead of just blowing it like I do lmao

Better to blow your dough on drink than to lobby for a raping drunkard to be on the Supreme Court.

Also, what she believes in seems to change depending on the time of week. Full on MAGA by 2020, I'd expect.

[fhtagn]

So as posted in PAPOY, I spent my day in DC visiting various Senate offices. There was a lot of love from some offices, we had lunch with Rand Paul's staffers, who gave us an opportunity to meet him, and we got to have a meeting with Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff to discuss our concerns as residents of Virginia.  

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

Imagine using precious time and energy to lobby for a gang-rapist.

I use precious time and money going to clubs and getting wasted beyond the realm of what should be possible to numb the stress of the 100 hour weeks I do.

I respect that she's fighting for something she believes in, instead of just blowing it like I do lmao

Better to blow your dough on drink than to lobby for a raping drunkard to be on the Supreme Court.

Also, what she believes in seems to change depending on the time of week. Full on MAGA by 2020, I'd expect.

I'm not interested in taking someone's opinion seriously when they choose to take uncorroborated claims as facts.

I happened to have a wonderful day and took the time to stand for my beliefs in a setting that matters. I'd suggest you take your keyboard warrior bitterness to someone who cares.