Christian nationalism goes viral
Also, Gnostic ideas about AI
Wow this week has been a struggle. Everything is fine but there’s a lot happening all at once. This week’s edition is especially video-heavy, so maybe grab some headphones or something and enjoy.
By the way, I’m very nearly at 200 subscribers, so if you would kindly recommend this newsletter to someone you know, that would be ace. Also, if you’ve recently subscribed, I’d love if you introduced yourself in the comments or on Discord.
What are we going to do about Christian fascism?
It was recently Independence Day in the United States, and given the overturn of Roe v Wade there’s a lot of mixed feelings coming from my American friends about overt displays of patriotism. Christian nationalism and Christo-fascism were a major theme on social media and mainstream media alike the last week or so, too.
Tess Owen’s article in Vox about the #ChristPilled hashtag and Christian nationalism on TikTok has been in several newsletters I read.
…this subculture is distinct from the world of Christian TikTok influencers, though curious travelers could easily find themselves submerged in Christo-fascist or Christian nationalist content if they were searching hashtags like #Orthodox or #Catholic.
It’s of particular concern on TikTok because its audience is demographically younger, but I also recognise this material from Twitter, and it’s been boiling away on there for years.
@basedorthodoxEmbrace Christ ☦️✝️ #christian #christianity #orthodox #based #edit #catholic
Tiktok failed to load.
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
I think there’s a tendency to view these posts as a fringe thing only weirdos who live in basements get into, but in the years I’ve spent on religious and religious-adjacent social media it’s always been present, although the Christchurch massacre and January 6 insurrection have emboldened the people behind these accounts. National reporter for Religion News Service Jack Jenkins writes in a Twitter thread, “the reality that some on the far-right now not only *openly identify* as Christian nationalist (which is new), but also Christian fascist.”
It’s not on the radar of any church I know of, but I think Christian denominations need to develop strategies to counter Christo-fascist ideology and deradicalise anyone who is sympathetic to it. Blake Chastain over at the Post-Evangelical Post has a few more thoughts on this if you want to read more.
In other Independence Day stuff, Sufjan Stevens released two new versions of Fourth of July so it’s not all bad news.
“I Found Jesus at a Walmart”
Using a TikTok filter to make a Baphomet face…
… but the Vagina Museum has some advice for scaring the devil away
This thread from the Vagina Museum tells the story about how a woman scared away the devil using her vagina and some quick thinking.
AI and Gnosticism
If you’re not tired of reading about possibly-sentient-but-probably-not chat bots, I commend this post by LM Sacasas from The Convivial Society. He takes a look at how software engineer Blake Lemoine’s Gnostic religious beliefs influenced the way he interpreted the output from the LaMDA software.
I hesitate to push this too far because the term as Lemoine uses it could mean a host of different things to him, but one common feature of gnosticism is a disregard or even disdain for the material elements of our existence, presupposing, for instance, a rather sharp distinction between the body and the soul. From this perspective, Lemoine’s comments about not telling God where he can or can’t put souls makes a certain sense.
Speaking broadly, Gnosticism is a dualistic belief system that says there’s a supreme divinity that’s opposed by a lesser evil god who created the world and everything in it. Therefore, the material world (including our bodies) is polluted and evil, but the spiritual world (including our souls) is good and pure.
It’s interesting to think about what this would mean for an intelligence without a body.
A Gru-some post
It’s been one year since the universe sent us this video
You might have seen this video of self-help guru Wiliam Knight, who is famous for saying “There’s no such thing as a coincidence”. It’s been one year since his breakout video went viral and it’s just as funny as ever. If you want some context, try this video.
I’m not going to hell
I want to hear the whole song!!
Biblically accurate shower
Thanks to Shanti for posting this in the Discord. If you’ve got a post or TikTok you want me to see, the memes channel is a good place to put it!
“Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!”
Elisha and the she-bears is a favourite in-joke on Christian Twitter, so it’s a bit of a shame that Weird Medieval Guys didn’t pick up on that. I admit it’s a story I completely forgot about until recently, and sure enough it’s only a couple of lines long. Still, it’s so weird and shocking it really should have stuck with me.
Extra posts just for you:
- Jake has been searching for the lost, first film made by Billy Graham’s production company, and he recently got a taste of what he’s looking for
- I was not aware that there was an “Islam themed sissification fetish” that went around on Tumblr for a while. Anyway, people are digging up posts from that time and reposting them to Twitter. There’s nothing NSFW here it’s just very weird
- This video of Drew Barrymore opening a window feels spiritual to me and is also high camp
- What did CS Lewis keep in his closet?