But the good there isnt the church part; its the community anf social ties; being a third space. You could do this about nearly anything else. Hell, for the sake of argument; get a 3d printer and hold a fucking pirate wh40k league, with a book club for the novels and figurine painting workshops, and the audience might be different, but I bet the results would shake out pretty close. Diversify it a little (hold d&d on Monday nights, board games and tacos on Tuesdays) and the results will be even better.
The church has been the safety net because religion gets special treatment, and all the other safety nets get aggressively violently cut to shit (see: ‘the black panther party for self defense’ for a prime well documented example, or how ‘food not bombs’ get arrested for terrorism fucking routinely. Watch the biography ‘Judas and the black messiah’ for how that happens.). This is the exact same reason Iran(and a lot of the middle east) is the way it is; when they killed all the socialists and anarchists, the only organized radicals left to fight a government the people could not abide were the islamofascists, because religion got special status.
Youre not better than the rest of the athletes; you’re just cutting corners in the foot race. Possibly on an e-bike. If you’re not willing to tear down the institutions that make this so fucking hard, then you’re not really aiming for systemic good; youre aiming to keep your monopoly on conscience, with state enforcers floating you wherever youre going on an easy convenient river of blood. Fuck, this even happens in your holy book doesn’t it? It’s like a whole thing the one time religion doesn’t get special treatment?
I know you probably don’t mean to do this, but then; what, may I ask, is the symbol of your faith?
But the good there isnt the church part; its the community anf social ties; being a third space. You could do this about nearly anything else. Hell, for the sake of argument; get a 3d printer and hold a fucking pirate wh40k league, with a book club for the novels and figurine painting workshops, and the audience might be different, but I bet the results would shake out pretty close. Diversify it a little (hold d&d on Monday nights, board games and tacos on Tuesdays) and the results will be even better.
The church has been the safety net because religion gets special treatment, and all the other safety nets get aggressively violently cut to shit (see: ‘the black panther party for self defense’ for a prime well documented example, or how ‘food not bombs’ get arrested for terrorism fucking routinely. Watch the biography ‘Judas and the black messiah’ for how that happens.). This is the exact same reason Iran(and a lot of the middle east) is the way it is; when they killed all the socialists and anarchists, the only organized radicals left to fight a government the people could not abide were the islamofascists, because religion got special status.
Youre not better than the rest of the athletes; you’re just cutting corners in the foot race. Possibly on an e-bike. If you’re not willing to tear down the institutions that make this so fucking hard, then you’re not really aiming for systemic good; youre aiming to keep your monopoly on conscience, with state enforcers floating you wherever youre going on an easy convenient river of blood. Fuck, this even happens in your holy book doesn’t it? It’s like a whole thing the one time religion doesn’t get special treatment?
I know you probably don’t mean to do this, but then; what, may I ask, is the symbol of your faith?