Helena L. Martin
@helenalmartin.bsky.social
priest + PhD student studying disability, demons, monsters, and magic in the NT and early Christianity (she/her)
“Then God gives a command, and the ice melts ...” (Psalm 147:18)
“Then God gives a command, and the ice melts ...” (Psalm 147:18)
Pinned
a blue and pink striped flag flies in the wind
Alt: trans pride flag flaps in the wind
media.tenor.com
I want to be crystal clear:
My religion requires access to gender-affirming care and, indeed, *obliges me* to seek and defend that access for others.
Any laws that obstruct this are infringing on my religious freedom. As a Christian. ⚓
My religion requires access to gender-affirming care and, indeed, *obliges me* to seek and defend that access for others.
Any laws that obstruct this are infringing on my religious freedom. As a Christian. ⚓
Massive institution run by men gets run into the ground in some profound way ➡️ figurehead resigns so people will stop yelling at him ➡️ First Woman Figurehead is appointed to the impossible task of uniting and cleaning up an institution whose wounds have been left to fester for decades/ centuries.
October 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Massive institution run by men gets run into the ground in some profound way ➡️ figurehead resigns so people will stop yelling at him ➡️ First Woman Figurehead is appointed to the impossible task of uniting and cleaning up an institution whose wounds have been left to fester for decades/ centuries.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
the specific language of “break bread with” and “visit him in prison” is so striking to me, used in condemnation this way
DHS includes a bunch of false and defamatory statements in their tweet about Kilmar Abrego Garcia as they prepare to send him to Uganda.
October 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
the specific language of “break bread with” and “visit him in prison” is so striking to me, used in condemnation this way
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.
September 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
Starting next Thursday at 5:30pm BST (9:30am PST), the Badè Museum will kick off it's new Lecture Series. Co-sponsored by the Archaeological Research Facility @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, the Series will explore Disability in the Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean. (1/4)
September 18, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Starting next Thursday at 5:30pm BST (9:30am PST), the Badè Museum will kick off it's new Lecture Series. Co-sponsored by the Archaeological Research Facility @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, the Series will explore Disability in the Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean. (1/4)
Please enjoy this ceiling tile from the 3rd century CE synagogue found at Dura-Europos.
Apparently this is just what Capricorn looks like. But since I didn’t know that, I’m choosing to continue calling this a mer-antelope in my head.
Apparently this is just what Capricorn looks like. But since I didn’t know that, I’m choosing to continue calling this a mer-antelope in my head.
September 26, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Please enjoy this ceiling tile from the 3rd century CE synagogue found at Dura-Europos.
Apparently this is just what Capricorn looks like. But since I didn’t know that, I’m choosing to continue calling this a mer-antelope in my head.
Apparently this is just what Capricorn looks like. But since I didn’t know that, I’m choosing to continue calling this a mer-antelope in my head.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
for all people mock it wikipedia is genuinely one of the wonders of the modern world
September 21, 2025 at 7:54 PM
for all people mock it wikipedia is genuinely one of the wonders of the modern world
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
Ah, yes. Full support! As @ewg118.bsky.social and I have said for almost a decade. www.forbes.com/sites/drsara...
September 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Ah, yes. Full support! As @ewg118.bsky.social and I have said for almost a decade. www.forbes.com/sites/drsara...
Welcome to New Haven, CT where every new building is a chance for the local university to further diminish the city’s property tax base.
Welcome to Princeton, NJ where every new building causes convulsions of political drama
Welcome to Blacksburg, VA where every new building is either Student Housing or a Nepalese/Indian restaurant
September 18, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Welcome to New Haven, CT where every new building is a chance for the local university to further diminish the city’s property tax base.
On Thursday, I get to play with this (not currently displayed) Roman gemstone ring at the art gallery, then immediately head an Eli Clare reading/lecture on his new book, Unfurl: Survivals, Sorrows, and Dreaming.
I feel like this diptych nearly perfectly encapsulates my current research interests.
I feel like this diptych nearly perfectly encapsulates my current research interests.
September 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
On Thursday, I get to play with this (not currently displayed) Roman gemstone ring at the art gallery, then immediately head an Eli Clare reading/lecture on his new book, Unfurl: Survivals, Sorrows, and Dreaming.
I feel like this diptych nearly perfectly encapsulates my current research interests.
I feel like this diptych nearly perfectly encapsulates my current research interests.
I'm currently reading Virginia Woolf for the first time (I know, I'm sorry), and yeah. I definitely see what the hype is about. This woman is brilliant.
September 16, 2025 at 6:14 PM
I'm currently reading Virginia Woolf for the first time (I know, I'm sorry), and yeah. I definitely see what the hype is about. This woman is brilliant.
I recently went out to eat with a friend, who ordered a Coke, and the server said, “Is Pepsi ok?”
My friend said:
“No. But bring it anyway, and I’ll drink it.”
This lives rent-free in my head because it’s the exact answer I’ve always wanted to give, but I didn’t know it was allowed.
My friend said:
“No. But bring it anyway, and I’ll drink it.”
This lives rent-free in my head because it’s the exact answer I’ve always wanted to give, but I didn’t know it was allowed.
the worst soda is a surprise pepsi when you think it’s coke and it’s not close
What’s the worst soda?
September 15, 2025 at 2:32 AM
I recently went out to eat with a friend, who ordered a Coke, and the server said, “Is Pepsi ok?”
My friend said:
“No. But bring it anyway, and I’ll drink it.”
This lives rent-free in my head because it’s the exact answer I’ve always wanted to give, but I didn’t know it was allowed.
My friend said:
“No. But bring it anyway, and I’ll drink it.”
This lives rent-free in my head because it’s the exact answer I’ve always wanted to give, but I didn’t know it was allowed.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
Ironically they're inadvertently performing the real function of damnatio memoriae, which doesn't erase the memory of what they perceived as negative, but reinforces it. Spaces left when an emperor's name or image is blotted out of an inscription or artwork remind us even more of what was there.
London authorities removed Banksy’s latest mural of a judge attacking a protester. What remains is a shadowy stain, eerily reminiscent of a hooded Grim Reaper wielding a scythe, capturing attention in its own right.
Haunting Shadow of Scrubbed Banksy Mural Goes Viral
The erasure of the mural outside London’s Court of Justice has become a metaphor for widespread government crackdowns on protesters around the world.
hyperallergic.com
September 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Ironically they're inadvertently performing the real function of damnatio memoriae, which doesn't erase the memory of what they perceived as negative, but reinforces it. Spaces left when an emperor's name or image is blotted out of an inscription or artwork remind us even more of what was there.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
In my experience, courage is usually the product of love and/or solidarity. When we are deeply invested in each other, we are more likely to take risks that we wouldn't take out of mere principle, or for the sake of people we feel disconnected from. Our alienation mass produces cowardice.
September 12, 2025 at 4:23 AM
In my experience, courage is usually the product of love and/or solidarity. When we are deeply invested in each other, we are more likely to take risks that we wouldn't take out of mere principle, or for the sake of people we feel disconnected from. Our alienation mass produces cowardice.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
if you’re an isolated, angsty, strange young man, please know that you can become a Kierkegaard scholar instead of joining fringe online communities
September 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
if you’re an isolated, angsty, strange young man, please know that you can become a Kierkegaard scholar instead of joining fringe online communities
This is so profoundly disturbing that I can’t form a complete thought in response to it.
UC Berkeley gives the Trump admin the names of 160 faculty + students for a federal investigation into “alleged antisemitic incidents.”
Judith Butler, one of the targeted scholars, tells me: "It is an enormous breach of trust... It's shocking. Did you consider not complying with this request?”
Judith Butler, one of the targeted scholars, tells me: "It is an enormous breach of trust... It's shocking. Did you consider not complying with this request?”
UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move
Prominent professor Judith Butler among students and faculty investigated for ‘alleged antisemitic incidents’
www.theguardian.com
September 12, 2025 at 10:52 PM
This is so profoundly disturbing that I can’t form a complete thought in response to it.
On 9/11/2001 and its first dozen anniversaries, it was impossible to imagine that anything else could ever capture public attention in the U.S. on this day.
September 12, 2025 at 1:48 AM
On 9/11/2001 and its first dozen anniversaries, it was impossible to imagine that anything else could ever capture public attention in the U.S. on this day.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
I’ve been thinking about how the white moderate think about free speech. Where calling for violence and the dehumanization of entire groups of people is merely supposed to be pluralism at work rather than an a threat to that pluralism.
September 11, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I’ve been thinking about how the white moderate think about free speech. Where calling for violence and the dehumanization of entire groups of people is merely supposed to be pluralism at work rather than an a threat to that pluralism.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
Anyone who has spent a single cursory hour reviewing the literature knows that gender is a spectrum and different cultures at different moments in history have displayed a wide array of different gender identities. The people doing "gender ideology" are the ones ideologically insisting on a binary.
September 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Anyone who has spent a single cursory hour reviewing the literature knows that gender is a spectrum and different cultures at different moments in history have displayed a wide array of different gender identities. The people doing "gender ideology" are the ones ideologically insisting on a binary.
This scruffy dog(?) caught my eye this afternoon. She’s in the 3rd-century CE Mithraeum at the Yale Dura-Europos exhibit, and I love her.
September 5, 2025 at 2:00 AM
This scruffy dog(?) caught my eye this afternoon. She’s in the 3rd-century CE Mithraeum at the Yale Dura-Europos exhibit, and I love her.
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
under no circumstances can the legitimacy of a desire to see appropriate reforms made to our gun laws become an excuse to equivocate regarding any attempt to categorically deny trans people rights - *any* rights - that others retain
Banning trans people from owning guns is a really REALLY significant escalation and I think the scariest part about it that's not being discussed at all is that the plan is to declare that trans people are mentally ill
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/04/p...
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
edition.cnn.com/2025/09/04/p...
Trump DOJ is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say | CNN Politics
Senior Justice Department officials are weighing proposals to limit transgender people’s right to possess firearms, according to two officials familiar with the internal discussions.
edition.cnn.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
under no circumstances can the legitimacy of a desire to see appropriate reforms made to our gun laws become an excuse to equivocate regarding any attempt to categorically deny trans people rights - *any* rights - that others retain
Reposted by Helena L. Martin
I refuse to give em dashes to the AI
September 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I refuse to give em dashes to the AI
Happy Labor Day. What a timely reminder of the long lasting impact of collective action.
September 1, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Happy Labor Day. What a timely reminder of the long lasting impact of collective action.
yet even at the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In the size of a tweet, how would you respond if someone asks you what was the Gospel? ⚓️
September 1, 2025 at 1:12 AM
yet even at the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia