Technically it’s a post of guy putting a Babylon Bee headline on someone else’s page, now screen shot to yours.

They were pretty funny when they got started. They would openly roast Joel Osteen and all the Prosperity Gospel crap. Then they decided to wade into politics. And misogyny. So much misogyny.

It’s almost like language is radically democratic and words only mean what we largely agree they mean, with fluctuating cases based on particular contexts.

The best way that I found to think about The Orville is that Seth MacFarlane had to shoe-horn jokes into the first few episodes to satisfy the execs who expected him to make a comedy and then gradually that tapers off to become a really solid Star Trek-type show (that still has humor, but it’s more organic, workplace type humor).

The word cannabis is derived from a Hebrew term from the Bible (qana bosem, which means “sweet reed”) and is an ingredient in the oil used to anoint the high (heh) priests.

Additionally, this passage from the Apocrypha exists (folks’ mileage will vary on how authoritative that passage is because, Apocrypha):

4 The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible person will not hesitate to use them. 5 Didn’t a tree once make bitter water fit to drink, so that the Lord’s power might be known? 6 He gave medical knowledge to human beings, so that we would praise him for the miracles he performs. (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 38:4-6)

Kids these days will never know the satisfaction of opening the bottom, removing the ball, and then taking an unfolded paperclip to remove all the built up crud and hair on the components inside. I would do this anytime I was left alone in my mom’s office while she had a meeting or something.

It’s funny you mention that because as I was reading the story of Garcia yesterday I couldn’t help but see parallels to the whole back-and-forth that happens to Jesus after His arrest. An innocent man yanked around by an unjust system.

Precisely from the scene where the disciples realize that the water has been changed to wine at the wedding. John looks over at Jesus and sees that image. Jesus also gives a wink iirc. As one devoted to our Savior I feel like that shot absolutely captures what Jesus was like when He walked our earth.

All those NY accents among the disciples lol

Where I’ve come in regards to the Pharisees is that they were willing to make violent concessions for the sake of a tenuous status quo. Passover was often a flash point of rebellious activity in Jerusalem (which is why Pilate is there in the first place; to keep Jewish people suppressed and to put down any riots or revolutions from would-be messiahs). Violence was not infrequent at the time. And every time there was violence, Rome would take away more freedoms from Jews.

So the Pharisees are put in a position to see Jesus as a potential catalyst for Roman violence. So they figure that if they help hand over another would-be messiah then they can have a quiet Passover. But this mentality winds up being a sort of Leopards-eating-faces situation because Rome destroys Jerusalem a few years later anyway (due to a would-be messiah—just one that the Pharisees thought might be the real deal this time).

Truth.

Also, the predominant image of fire in the Bible is that of purification (not punishment). So the idea is that billionaires (or other such sinners) will not be simply burned away, but will be confronted with what their wealth hoarding has caused. They will have to endure the pain of being rid of their sinfulness in order come out on the other side. So there are no billionaires in Paradise in the sense that every person who is a billionaire in this life will one day be ridden of their wealth in order to enter said Paradise.

This is precisely the image Jesus uses when He speaks of the “eye of the needle.” Tradition holds that this phrase is in reference to a small gate that required a camel (or other pack animal) laden with goods to be unencumbered in order to pass through. The rich must let go of their wealth in order to enter God’s kingdom in the same way because that wealth is like dross to them.

I’m going to say this as a priest ordained in Christ’s One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (Episcopal branch): that choice of Jesus image is chef’s kiss

Some men are Baptists. Others, Catholic. But me? I’m a Godzilla fan. (Also, Episcopalian, but you get what I mean).

For real tho, I’ve been into kaiju films since I was about six and have introduced them to my kids. My 4 y/o daughter is probably the most obsessed of them. She really digs Godzilla: King of the Monsters. And we all had a blast with Pacific Rim. I even took my eldest to see Godzilla -0.1 in theaters.

Prey is great. It really mixes up the Predator franchise and feels super fresh. It’s pretty violent but, to me, just a smidge above typical PG-13 violence—there is animal violence, so keep that in mind if that’s a problem (you see a few animals get skinned and a wolf gets disemboweled, but it’s shown from a distance and is quick; there’s a pretty intense scene with a bear that gets kinda bloody, but honestly the animal scenes are kinda obviously CGI so it doesn’t look overly realistic). There’s also a bit in the middle that’s in untranslated French, but that’s a cinematic choice. My kids were kinda distracted because they thought the subtitles were broken lol.

Two people in trench coats pull a mass shooting in order to help the world “free their minds.”

It also happened to release in the Spring of 1999…

My Neighbor Totoro is magic for children. I have four kids and each one of them, starting at around 2, would go silent and sit for the entirety of that film any time I put it on.

Showed my 10 and 9 year old boys Alien a few months back. Followed by Aliens (and then AVP). 9 year old was way more scared by Aliens and AVP than the first Alien. But I tested the water on them with Prey, which they really dug.

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.

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.