Done!

IO yes; written for E&A, not yet but hopefully someday 😁

This year in the US I'm thinking about the anti-monarchist implications - giving royal power to anyone but Christ is sacrilege, and he turns that power upside down. "The emperor's new clothes" is a great image. All the garments we clothe rulers with are false, but Jesus doesn't mind being naked.

The struggle with perfectionism is real! And that's holy work in and of itself.

Yes, 100%. "Dark night of the spirit" is a badass phrase for a very boring and discouraging reality. The only way I have found through it is patience, gentleness, and persistence; there is always something happening underneath, and the fog will lift eventually.

My guess is just-world fallacy...if They deserve bad things, then I can pretend there are Rules that keep me safe from disaster. Much easier than reckoning with the inherent fragility and contingency of our existential situation.

Yes - I tend to think of this side of the coin as "making room" for virtue, clearing out the weeds so that the garden can grow. Sin is a persistent weed, but God is a patient gardener.

Alien biology could bring up interesting considerations - what might resurrection, incarnation, salvation mean to a species with some level of collective consciousness, or biological immortality, or symbiosis with another sapient species?

Shepherd, because if I met him on the street surrounded by a murder of friendly crows I would question nothing

Hello! May I join?