FrChazzz

I eat them raw as a topping/side, but I like pickled onions best.

I’m also troubled by all the others. What gets me in this case, aside from the fact that it’s more “personal,” is that there’s a sacramental nature to the priesthood that feels almost mocked by the notion of a gimmick like this. Also, as others have pointed out, this is a continued slap in the face to women who’ve long struggled for ordination in the Roman Catholic Church only to see that their church would rather call an advanced algorithm a “priest” before it would do so for them.

TIL lol

Bluesky is still pretty centralized and venture-capital backed. There’s been discussions about monetization. It’s only a matter of time before it enshittifies.

I would argue that Jesus, as Christ/Messiah is also a priest and prophet, thus fulfilling all of the various other prophecies about Him. He is these things and more: God’s decisive revelation of Himself to humanity, as well as one who redefines what humanity fundamentally is.

The reason why Christians have a tense relationship with the other “Abrahamic faiths” has to do with the understanding that Jesus is God. To deny Jesus’ divinity, from a Christian standpoint, is to define God apart from Jesus which is not consistent with Christian belief. The other problem comes from the idea (more or less later introduced into Christianity) that anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus goes to Hell. This idea, so deeply held by many many Christians, actually misses what the gospel is all about: the minute Jesus forgives His murderers, He effectively declares that there’s no sin beyond His ability to forgive. Which means that all of humanity is forgiven, full stop.

Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity has a very interesting and different view: Hell and Heaven are the same place, just experienced differently—“Heaven” for those who love God on His terms, “Hell” for those who demand God behave on their terms. The basic idea there is that, in the end, most people will come face to face with Jesus and go “oh, it’s you! Cool!” and experience Heaven. But there are those who will see Him and still refuse (at least for a time—I believe that the scriptures are pretty clear that God is merciful and patient and that, given enough time, everyone winds up in “Heaven”).

This is an interesting question. You can use saliva to baptize in the event of an emergency (lick your thumb and make the sign of the cross on the forehead, in the name of Father, Son, Holy Spirit—but that would likely need a secondary “proper” baptism if the emergency passes, this one counting as “conditional”). Which I guess would supersede ever needing Gatorade since you always have saliva.

You talking about the one involving the Trinity, etc?

As an actual, honest-to-God (Episcopal) priest myself, the idea of an “AI priest” is very troubling.

I would be totally fine with that tbh. Though I wonder if we’ll ever get to the place where a Mastodon client somehow incorporates an algorithmic timeline for those who want that?

I’m still Christian and I adore both bands. David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) is recording some of the most theologically rich music of his career now, back under the Pedro name, as he’s come through his whole wrestling with faith. Not sure what he considers himself these days, but it’s clear that he’s never going to shake his Christian upbringing.

Like MxPx, their inclusion of faith in their lyrics became so much more honest and less forced once they left their Christian music label. They introduced me to punk.

Amazing Grace is one of those songs that uses a particular meter that allows for these kinds of tune changes. You can sing it to the tune of House of the Rising Sun as well (among others). One of my supervising/mentoring priests (Episcopal) from when I was in seminary did a Lent study on Amazing Grace and had people listen to all these different versions.

Tracy Chapman’s version is truly excellent.