Just a person.
See pinned posts for my projects.
Safe
Several of the metaphors in this week's passage have been coopted by fascists. The phrase "salt of the earth"? It's linked to the stereotype sometimes referred to as "Real Canadians" (or "Real Americans"). They're white, rural, and racist. The shining city on a hill now has implications of theocracy. The most commonly used versions of these phrases seem opposed to Jesus's point here.
Justice
The church of my childhood ran a program for little girls aged 10 to 13 called the Calvinettes*. The program took some inspiration from things like Girl Guides or Boy Scouts and so there were uniforms and a weird little ritual were we'd all line up every week and responsively shout Micah 6:8 together before we went off to do our crafts or working on earning badges or whatever.
https://lectionaryoutloud.wordpress.com/2026/02/02/justice-5/
@MicroSFF absolutely!
Kingdom
When John is imprisoned, Jesus leaves town. He goes to Galilee, to Capernaum, to lie low for a while and to develop his ministry farther away from Jerusalem. It almost looks like cowardice, except that he takes up John's message. From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17 Full Text…
https://lectionaryoutloud.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/kingdom-2/
Lectionary Readings for the Third Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 9:1-4 Psalm 27:1, 4-9 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 Previously Fishing Disagree
If anyone's keeping track, I read Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang and it was very good (though perhaps not quite the book I expected it to be from the blurb)
@chiuki looks like dessert.
@maxelcat so you can fix the underlying issues that this is a symptom of, and you can make plans for how to support elders with a smaller number of young people, and you can welcome young people into your society from other places.
If your culture is good, it will be fine.
@maxelcat I personally find the number itself to be pretty much irrelevant. The increase is interesting, mostly from a perspective of thinking about what's changed.
Is this a reporting artifact? Does it come from increasing economic precarity? Is this about availability of other birth control? A cultural shift?
Hard to know. Most of those things aren't really about abortion, it's just a side effect.
And the birth rate? Who cares. There are plenty of humans.
Calling
The Gospel according to John tells a different story of Jesus gathering good first disciples than the other Gospels do. Elsewhere, Jesus hires his first disciples from boats around the sea of Galilee. In John, he finds them hanging around with John the Baptist and they essentially recruit themselves. They're actively looking for something, following John, listening to his call to repentance.
https://lectionaryoutloud.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/calling-3/
@maxelcat that said, there is pretty clearly an increase above population growth. I'd be asking questions about reporting here (did something change in miscarriage management or did the reporting change for the way D&Cs for miscarriage management?)
If not, I'd bet this is a function of the economy. People tend to avoid having babies when they're barely scraping by.
@maxelcat hm... I'm a little wary that none of the numbers are actually in the original sources. They're adding together things from multiple reports to get their total and then "abortions per 100 live births" or "abortions per WRA" aren't things that the official sources look at at all. They're running off to get other numbers that aren't clearly sourced. Some of their other rhetoric is also unsupported. (It's unknown how many of these pregnancies were viable)
@maxelcat What's the source of the figure?
@jupitersigh I would presume that alt-text in a different language is no more problematic than post text in a different language
@HeptaSean @gdeyke @MicroSFF I have no source, but this is a metaphor that's helpful for my kids: your brain is like a puppy that sometimes gets bored and starts chewing on things (making you scared). Distract it with things you don't mind having chewed (focus on something else).
Realize
Peter has realized something. We're in the 10th chapter of Acts. Peter has just arrived at the house of Cornelius and now he begins to understand. God is doing even more than Peter has already witnessed. He is, perhaps, late to this realization. Peter himself has already been preaching through Samaria and seeing the Samaritans accept the gospel. But here's Cornelius, a Roman centurion.
Lectionary Readings for the Baptism of the Lord
Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 Acts 10:34-43 Matthew 3:13-17 Previously: Opened Incarnation
@juliette it looks like one of your threads is very tight, is it the top thread doing that or the bottom one?
Flesh
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 Full Text John 1:1-18 There's a lot of terrible happenings in the news this week. So let's talk about the Incarnation. Maybe that seems like an awkward juxtaposition, like the magic of Christmas, the lights and the music and the family togetherness doesn't belong beside all this tragedy, war,…
So. 2025 being over, what books published in 2025 should I read before Hugo nomination season rolls around?
Recommendations welcome! Self promotion too!
I'm particularly interested in novels and novellas that are not part of long running series.