Search
1000 results for “innocence”
-
In childhood happiness was
Of the innocence
The obvious dream.
Then the time passed...
The sky changed,
The colours of life
Darker became.
Now happiness is
And an odd
And a rare
Pleasure.
Is this adulthood?
Or, maybe, is adulthood
The oblivion of what
The heart remembers
And the mind forgets?-Debora Radice
#poetry #poems #poem #poesie #poesia #thoughts #thought #pensieri #pensiero #thoughtsoftheday #pensieridelgiorno #thoughtoftheday #pensierodelgiorno #poetrycommunity #currentmood
-
In childhood happiness was
Of the innocence
The obvious dream.
Then the time passed...
The sky changed,
The colours of life
Darker became.
Now happiness is
And an odd
And a rare
Pleasure.
Is this adulthood?
Or, maybe, is adulthood
The oblivion of what
The heart remembers
And the mind forgets?-Debora Radice
#poetry #poems #poem #poesie #poesia #thoughts #thought #pensieri #pensiero #thoughtsoftheday #pensieridelgiorno #thoughtoftheday #pensierodelgiorno #poetrycommunity #currentmood
-
In childhood happiness was
Of the innocence
The obvious dream.
Then the time passed...
The sky changed,
The colours of life
Darker became.
Now happiness is
And an odd
And a rare
Pleasure.
Is this adulthood?
Or, maybe, is adulthood
The oblivion of what
The heart remembers
And the mind forgets?-Debora Radice
#poetry #poems #poem #poesie #poesia #thoughts #thought #pensieri #pensiero #thoughtsoftheday #pensieridelgiorno #thoughtoftheday #pensierodelgiorno #poetrycommunity #currentmood
-
In childhood happiness was
Of the innocence
The obvious dream.
Then the time passed...
The sky changed,
The colours of life
Darker became.
Now happiness is
And an odd
And a rare
Pleasure.
Is this adulthood?
Or, maybe, is adulthood
The oblivion of what
The heart remembers
And the mind forgets?-Debora Radice
#poetry #poems #poem #poesie #poesia #thoughts #thought #pensieri #pensiero #thoughtsoftheday #pensieridelgiorno #thoughtoftheday #pensierodelgiorno #poetrycommunity #currentmood
-
The Maranatha Empire
There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.
#anabaptist #antiImperialTheology #breadAndCup #ChristianEthics #ChristianNationalism #ChristianWitness #Church #churchAndEmpire #comeLordJesus #cruciformFaith #Discipleship #domination #Empire #empireCritique #Faithfulness #FootWashing #Humility #Jesus #kingdomOfGod #LambOfGod #Maranatha #MaranathaEmpire #Nonviolence #peaceTheology #Peacemaking #Power #propheticChristianity #PropheticEssay #religiousPower #Revelation #SpiritualReflection #Theology
Maranatha.
Come, Lord.
It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.
But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.
They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”
They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”
They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.
This is the Maranatha Empire.
It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.
It begins quietly.
It begins with concern.
The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.
Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.
So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.
A throne.
A sword.
A spectacle.
A scapegoat.
A strongman.
A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.
A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.
A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.
This is how the prayer becomes an empire.
The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.
The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.
The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.
The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.
The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.
And there is the blasphemy.
Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.
It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.
It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.
It displays the cross while despising weakness.
It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.
The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.
For the way of Jesus is slow.
It is seed, yeast, salt, light.
It is foot-washing.
It is forgiveness seventy times seven.
It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.
It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.
It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.
The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.
It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.
It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.
It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.
It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.
So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.
There is no time to love.
No time to listen.
No time to discern.
No time for reconciliation.
No time for peacemaking.
No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.
The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.
And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:
They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.
Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.
So they build him an empire to inherit.
But Christ does not inherit empires.
He judges them.
He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.
The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.
Outside the camp.
Outside respectability.
Outside the approved narrative.
Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.
The empire expected him in the capital.
But he is with the refugees.
The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.
But he is with the mother of the disappeared.
The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.
But he is washing feet in the basement.
The empire expected him to bless the troops.
But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.
This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.
It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.
Come, Lord, and judge our churches.
Come, Lord, and judge our flags.
Come, Lord, and judge our markets.
Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.
Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.
Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.
Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.
This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.
Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.
It may be our idols.
The algorithm.
The nation.
The party.
The brand.
The gun.
The strongman.
The myth of innocence.
The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.
The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.
Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.
The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”
Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
And perhaps this is the word for us now:
The church does not need to become more powerful.
The church needs to become more faithful.
Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.
That is the hard part.
Empire is attractive because it promises control.
Jesus offers communion.
Empire promises security.
Jesus offers peace.
Empire promises victory over enemies.
Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.
Empire promises to make us great.
Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.
So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.
Let it fall first in us.
Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.
And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.
A table.
A basin.
A towel.
A loaf.
A cup.
A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:
Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.
Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.
Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.
And until you come, make us faithful.
Not imperial.
Not triumphant.
Not afraid.
Faithful. -
The Maranatha Empire
There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.
#anabaptist #antiImperialTheology #breadAndCup #ChristianEthics #ChristianNationalism #ChristianWitness #Church #churchAndEmpire #comeLordJesus #cruciformFaith #Discipleship #domination #Empire #empireCritique #Faithfulness #FootWashing #Humility #Jesus #kingdomOfGod #LambOfGod #Maranatha #MaranathaEmpire #Nonviolence #peaceTheology #Peacemaking #Power #propheticChristianity #PropheticEssay #religiousPower #Revelation #SpiritualReflection #Theology
Maranatha.
Come, Lord.
It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.
But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.
They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”
They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”
They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.
This is the Maranatha Empire.
It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.
It begins quietly.
It begins with concern.
The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.
Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.
So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.
A throne.
A sword.
A spectacle.
A scapegoat.
A strongman.
A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.
A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.
A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.
This is how the prayer becomes an empire.
The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.
The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.
The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.
The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.
The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.
And there is the blasphemy.
Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.
It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.
It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.
It displays the cross while despising weakness.
It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.
The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.
For the way of Jesus is slow.
It is seed, yeast, salt, light.
It is foot-washing.
It is forgiveness seventy times seven.
It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.
It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.
It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.
The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.
It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.
It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.
It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.
It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.
So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.
There is no time to love.
No time to listen.
No time to discern.
No time for reconciliation.
No time for peacemaking.
No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.
The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.
And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:
They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.
Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.
So they build him an empire to inherit.
But Christ does not inherit empires.
He judges them.
He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.
The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.
Outside the camp.
Outside respectability.
Outside the approved narrative.
Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.
The empire expected him in the capital.
But he is with the refugees.
The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.
But he is with the mother of the disappeared.
The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.
But he is washing feet in the basement.
The empire expected him to bless the troops.
But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.
This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.
It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.
Come, Lord, and judge our churches.
Come, Lord, and judge our flags.
Come, Lord, and judge our markets.
Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.
Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.
Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.
Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.
This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.
Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.
It may be our idols.
The algorithm.
The nation.
The party.
The brand.
The gun.
The strongman.
The myth of innocence.
The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.
The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.
Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.
The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”
Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
And perhaps this is the word for us now:
The church does not need to become more powerful.
The church needs to become more faithful.
Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.
That is the hard part.
Empire is attractive because it promises control.
Jesus offers communion.
Empire promises security.
Jesus offers peace.
Empire promises victory over enemies.
Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.
Empire promises to make us great.
Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.
So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.
Let it fall first in us.
Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.
And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.
A table.
A basin.
A towel.
A loaf.
A cup.
A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:
Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.
Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.
Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.
And until you come, make us faithful.
Not imperial.
Not triumphant.
Not afraid.
Faithful. -
The Maranatha Empire
There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.
#anabaptist #antiImperialTheology #breadAndCup #ChristianEthics #ChristianNationalism #ChristianWitness #Church #churchAndEmpire #comeLordJesus #cruciformFaith #Discipleship #domination #Empire #empireCritique #Faithfulness #FootWashing #Humility #Jesus #kingdomOfGod #LambOfGod #Maranatha #MaranathaEmpire #Nonviolence #peaceTheology #Peacemaking #Power #propheticChristianity #PropheticEssay #religiousPower #Revelation #SpiritualReflection #Theology
Maranatha.
Come, Lord.
It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.
But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.
They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”
They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”
They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.
This is the Maranatha Empire.
It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.
It begins quietly.
It begins with concern.
The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.
Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.
So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.
A throne.
A sword.
A spectacle.
A scapegoat.
A strongman.
A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.
A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.
A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.
This is how the prayer becomes an empire.
The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.
The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.
The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.
The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.
The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.
And there is the blasphemy.
Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.
It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.
It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.
It displays the cross while despising weakness.
It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.
The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.
For the way of Jesus is slow.
It is seed, yeast, salt, light.
It is foot-washing.
It is forgiveness seventy times seven.
It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.
It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.
It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.
The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.
It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.
It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.
It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.
It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.
So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.
There is no time to love.
No time to listen.
No time to discern.
No time for reconciliation.
No time for peacemaking.
No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.
The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.
And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:
They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.
Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.
So they build him an empire to inherit.
But Christ does not inherit empires.
He judges them.
He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.
The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.
Outside the camp.
Outside respectability.
Outside the approved narrative.
Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.
The empire expected him in the capital.
But he is with the refugees.
The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.
But he is with the mother of the disappeared.
The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.
But he is washing feet in the basement.
The empire expected him to bless the troops.
But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.
This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.
It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.
Come, Lord, and judge our churches.
Come, Lord, and judge our flags.
Come, Lord, and judge our markets.
Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.
Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.
Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.
Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.
This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.
Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.
It may be our idols.
The algorithm.
The nation.
The party.
The brand.
The gun.
The strongman.
The myth of innocence.
The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.
The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.
Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.
The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”
Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
And perhaps this is the word for us now:
The church does not need to become more powerful.
The church needs to become more faithful.
Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.
That is the hard part.
Empire is attractive because it promises control.
Jesus offers communion.
Empire promises security.
Jesus offers peace.
Empire promises victory over enemies.
Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.
Empire promises to make us great.
Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.
So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.
Let it fall first in us.
Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.
And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.
A table.
A basin.
A towel.
A loaf.
A cup.
A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:
Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.
Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.
Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.
And until you come, make us faithful.
Not imperial.
Not triumphant.
Not afraid.
Faithful. -
The Maranatha Empire
There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.
#anabaptist #antiImperialTheology #breadAndCup #ChristianEthics #ChristianNationalism #ChristianWitness #Church #churchAndEmpire #comeLordJesus #cruciformFaith #Discipleship #domination #Empire #empireCritique #Faithfulness #FootWashing #Humility #Jesus #kingdomOfGod #LambOfGod #Maranatha #MaranathaEmpire #Nonviolence #peaceTheology #Peacemaking #Power #propheticChristianity #PropheticEssay #religiousPower #Revelation #SpiritualReflection #Theology
Maranatha.
Come, Lord.
It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.
But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.
They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”
They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”
They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.
This is the Maranatha Empire.
It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.
It begins quietly.
It begins with concern.
The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.
Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.
So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.
A throne.
A sword.
A spectacle.
A scapegoat.
A strongman.
A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.
A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.
A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.
This is how the prayer becomes an empire.
The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.
The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.
The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.
The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.
The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.
And there is the blasphemy.
Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.
It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.
It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.
It displays the cross while despising weakness.
It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.
The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.
For the way of Jesus is slow.
It is seed, yeast, salt, light.
It is foot-washing.
It is forgiveness seventy times seven.
It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.
It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.
It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.
The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.
It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.
It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.
It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.
It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.
So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.
There is no time to love.
No time to listen.
No time to discern.
No time for reconciliation.
No time for peacemaking.
No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.
The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.
And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:
They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.
Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.
So they build him an empire to inherit.
But Christ does not inherit empires.
He judges them.
He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.
The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.
Outside the camp.
Outside respectability.
Outside the approved narrative.
Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.
The empire expected him in the capital.
But he is with the refugees.
The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.
But he is with the mother of the disappeared.
The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.
But he is washing feet in the basement.
The empire expected him to bless the troops.
But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.
This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.
It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.
Come, Lord, and judge our churches.
Come, Lord, and judge our flags.
Come, Lord, and judge our markets.
Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.
Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.
Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.
Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.
This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.
Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.
It may be our idols.
The algorithm.
The nation.
The party.
The brand.
The gun.
The strongman.
The myth of innocence.
The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.
The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.
Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.
The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”
Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
And perhaps this is the word for us now:
The church does not need to become more powerful.
The church needs to become more faithful.
Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.
That is the hard part.
Empire is attractive because it promises control.
Jesus offers communion.
Empire promises security.
Jesus offers peace.
Empire promises victory over enemies.
Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.
Empire promises to make us great.
Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.
So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.
Let it fall first in us.
Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.
And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.
A table.
A basin.
A towel.
A loaf.
A cup.
A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:
Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.
Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.
Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.
And until you come, make us faithful.
Not imperial.
Not triumphant.
Not afraid.
Faithful. -
The Maranatha Empire
There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.
#anabaptist #antiImperialTheology #breadAndCup #ChristianEthics #ChristianNationalism #ChristianWitness #Church #churchAndEmpire #comeLordJesus #cruciformFaith #Discipleship #domination #Empire #empireCritique #Faithfulness #FootWashing #Humility #Jesus #kingdomOfGod #LambOfGod #Maranatha #MaranathaEmpire #Nonviolence #peaceTheology #Peacemaking #Power #propheticChristianity #PropheticEssay #religiousPower #Revelation #SpiritualReflection #Theology
Maranatha.
Come, Lord.
It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.
But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.
They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”
They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”
They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.
This is the Maranatha Empire.
It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.
It begins quietly.
It begins with concern.
The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.
Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.
So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.
A throne.
A sword.
A spectacle.
A scapegoat.
A strongman.
A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.
A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.
A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.
This is how the prayer becomes an empire.
The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.
The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.
The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.
The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.
The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.
And there is the blasphemy.
Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.
It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.
It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.
It displays the cross while despising weakness.
It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.
The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.
For the way of Jesus is slow.
It is seed, yeast, salt, light.
It is foot-washing.
It is forgiveness seventy times seven.
It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.
It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.
It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.
The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.
It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.
It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.
It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.
It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.
So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.
There is no time to love.
No time to listen.
No time to discern.
No time for reconciliation.
No time for peacemaking.
No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.
The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.
And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:
They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.
Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.
So they build him an empire to inherit.
But Christ does not inherit empires.
He judges them.
He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.
The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.
Outside the camp.
Outside respectability.
Outside the approved narrative.
Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.
The empire expected him in the capital.
But he is with the refugees.
The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.
But he is with the mother of the disappeared.
The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.
But he is washing feet in the basement.
The empire expected him to bless the troops.
But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.
This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.
It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.
Come, Lord, and judge our churches.
Come, Lord, and judge our flags.
Come, Lord, and judge our markets.
Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.
Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.
Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.
Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.
This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.
Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.
It may be our idols.
The algorithm.
The nation.
The party.
The brand.
The gun.
The strongman.
The myth of innocence.
The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.
The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.
Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.
The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”
Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”
The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
And perhaps this is the word for us now:
The church does not need to become more powerful.
The church needs to become more faithful.
Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.
That is the hard part.
Empire is attractive because it promises control.
Jesus offers communion.
Empire promises security.
Jesus offers peace.
Empire promises victory over enemies.
Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.
Empire promises to make us great.
Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.
So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.
Let it fall first in us.
Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.
And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.
A table.
A basin.
A towel.
A loaf.
A cup.
A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:
Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.
Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.
Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.
And until you come, make us faithful.
Not imperial.
Not triumphant.
Not afraid.
Faithful. -
https://www.europesays.com/be-fr/75655/ Images spectaculaires de l’incendie d’une usine de voitures BYD en Chine (vidéo) #abuse #animal #arm #BE #BEFr #Belgique #Belgium #Business #cat #claw #compassion #dangling #domestic #downy #Économie #Economy #expression #feline #für #furry #grab #guilty #hand #hanging #helpless #hold #innocence #isolated #naughty #Pain #paw #pet #punish #punishment #purebred #scruff #seize #suspended #torture #whisker
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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻
Caro, voorheen bekend als Caro Emerald en The Jordan, brengt komend najaar haar nieuwe soloalbum Returning to Innocence uit. Dat heeft de 44-jarige zangeres bekendgemaakt. Ook heeft Caro vrijdag haar single Greatness uitgebracht.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5591691/caro-kondigt-nieuw-album-aan
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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻
Caro, voorheen bekend als Caro Emerald en The Jordan, brengt komend najaar haar nieuwe soloalbum Returning to Innocence uit. Dat heeft de 44-jarige zangeres bekendgemaakt. Ook heeft Caro vrijdag haar single Greatness uitgebracht.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5591691/caro-kondigt-nieuw-album-aan
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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻
Caro, voorheen bekend als Caro Emerald en The Jordan, brengt komend najaar haar nieuwe soloalbum Returning to Innocence uit. Dat heeft de 44-jarige zangeres bekendgemaakt. Ook heeft Caro vrijdag haar single Greatness uitgebracht.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5591691/caro-kondigt-nieuw-album-aan
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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻
Caro, voorheen bekend als Caro Emerald en The Jordan, brengt komend najaar haar nieuwe soloalbum Returning to Innocence uit. Dat heeft de 44-jarige zangeres bekendgemaakt. Ook heeft Caro vrijdag haar single Greatness uitgebracht.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5591691/caro-kondigt-nieuw-album-aan
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𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼 𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝘁 𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘂𝘄 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗮𝗻
Caro, voorheen bekend als Caro Emerald en The Jordan, brengt komend najaar haar nieuwe soloalbum Returning to Innocence uit. Dat heeft de 44-jarige zangeres bekendgemaakt. Ook heeft Caro vrijdag haar single Greatness uitgebracht.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5591691/caro-kondigt-nieuw-album-aan
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Two tremendous dystopian whodunnit films
Two recently released dystopian thrillers are outstanding movies and both are available via streaming services.
Mercy (2026)
Source: imdb.comReleased earlier this year, Mercy is a tremendously interesting and entertaining science fiction movie — despite what the critics may say. In fact, the reviews and ratings by viewers of the film are much, much higher than those of the critics.
Rebecca Ferguson and Chris Pratt are tremendous in their respective roles – Ms. Ferguson as the AI generated Judge Maddox of the Mercy Capital Court and Mr. Pratt as a police officer accused of murder. He has exactly 90 minutes to prove his innocence sufficiently to AI Judge Maddox (a threshold below 92 percent likelihood of guilt) or be summarily executed.
Mr. Pratt must prove his innocence while his arms and legs are locked into the execution chair by employing all sorts of evidence gathering techniques that access the court’s ties to the municipal cloud. All technological devices within the city (LA) must be registered to the municipal cloud so defendants can access them. This includes surveillance cameras, live action feeds, cell phones, databases, and other technologies available. He can do this by use of a small hand screen or through voice requests to the cloud and/or AI Judge Maddox.
You will definitely be on the edge of your set while watching Mercy!
Relay (2025)
Released to theaters in 2025, Relay is thoroughly entertaining movie and unique in its story/use of an older technology as the conduit to protect whistleblowers who are being tormented by those entities they called out or implicated.
Relay stars Lily James and Riz Ahmed, who both excel in this film. Lily James plays a whistleblower who is being harassed by powerful corporation that she has dirt on. Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmed play the fixer who uses old-fashion TTY (teletypewriter) relay service to communicate with his clients (the whistleblowers) and to those who are harassing them.
TTY machine – Source: ultratec.comThis movie fan does not recall seeing TTY employed in a movie before and certainly never in such a central role of the plot. Mr. Ahmed’s use of old-fashioned TTY technology makes his communications virtually untraceable. That premise alone makes Relay highly engaging, truly groundbreaking, and a definite must see!
Hope you enjoy both films too. Peace!
#Mercy #ai #art #ChrisPratt #cinema #cities #cloud #clud #dystopian #entertainment #film #fun #history #LilyJames #MercyCapitalCourt #movieReviews #movies #RebeccaFerguson #Relay #relayServices #RizAhmed #Science #scienceFiction #technology #thrillers #TTY -
#Movies . . .
#Mercy (2026) the most recent #ChrisPratt #ActionMovie that bombed n the theaters just a few months ago is not available to stream on #Amazon #Prime. . . .
Just watched it & it's actually not that bad. The concept is the opposite of #MinorityReport (2002) in which crimes were stopped before they were committed. In Mercy, an accused has 90 mins to "prove" that s/he is innocent.
As in Minority Report, Chris Pratt's character is set up to be convicted by the justice system designed to short cut the messiness of trial by jury.
In this case, it's the Mercy Court system & he has to challenge an AI judge to bend the rules in order to prove his innocence & avoid his being executed prematurely.
That the movie is now available for streaming & also available for purchase on DVD must be proof that they need to make their $ back on it quick.
I like it. I'd rate it a 6.5 out of 10, plan to buy the DVD & recommend it to those of you who like this film genre.
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https://www.europesays.com/news/23165/ Double killer’s new wife screams ‘I love you!’ as he is executed while professing his innocence #Crime #executions #Headlines #murders #News #Prisons #Texas #TopStories #USNews
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Typed worlds, or: Before the graphics loaded
A Sijo
YouTube histories play blur alongside old Netflix reruns; multi-user dungeon echoes drift through Netscape loading bars; next to my fave mall arcade my seventh-grade self waits for his buds
Reena’s Xploration Challenge 429
For Reena’s RXC prompt, she invites us to compose poems inspired by the fantasy genre and imagine ourselves unexpectedly arriving somewhere strange while late-night doom-scrolling online.
Sijo?
A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a “turn,” and the third provides closure. Modern sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.
Let’s write poetry together!
When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.
–Ben Harper (b. 1969)Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!
#Childhood #Fantasy #Innocence #Internet #Mall #Memories #Poem #Poetry #Sijo #Technology #Teenagers -
The Ascendents
Ancestry, Memory, Humanity, and the Upward Calling of the Living
Ascendent by kmlsWe have been taught to say that we are descended from those who came before us.
The word is not wrong. It is genealogically useful. It traces the stream from the spring, the branch from the trunk, the child from the parent, the living from the dead. It tells us that we are not self-made, not self-originating, not isolated sparks floating in the void. We come from somewhere. We are carried into being by names, bloodlines, migrations, accidents, loves, wounds, prayers, hungers, wars, fields, fires, and forgotten hands.
Yet the word troubles me.
For to say that we are descended may also suggest a downward motion, as though we have fallen from some ancestral height. It can feel as if the past stands above us in solemn judgment, and we, the living, are merely the lower remainder: diminished copies, scattered seed, thin-blooded heirs of stronger people.
We speak of descent as if we are always coming down.
Down from the fathers.
Down from the mothers.
Down from the old country.
Down from Eden.
Down from glory.
Down from the dead.But what if the truth is not only that we descend from them?
What if we ascend from them?
What if we are not the falling away of our ancestors, but their rising continuation?
What if we are the place where the buried become conscious, where the forgotten become remembered, where the unfinished become possible, where the dead are not merely behind us but beneath us — not as a weight dragging us downward, but as roots pressing life upward through the dark?
To be human is not simply to be descended.
To be human is to be ascendent.
Not ascendant in the arrogant sense. Not ascendant as empire is ascendant, not as a conqueror ascends a throne, not as a nation ascends by trampling another underfoot, not as wealth ascends by feeding upon the poor, not as the celebrated ascend by making the nameless disappear.
That is false ascendancy.
That is Babel.
That is the tower built upward by those who refuse to look downward at the bodies embedded in its bricks.
The ascendancy I mean is humbler, older, stranger, and holier. It is the rising of life from soil. It is the green blade through the graveyard. It is memory becoming mercy. It is grief becoming wisdom. It is ancestry becoming vocation.
We are not above our ancestors because we are better than they were.
We are above them because they are beneath us as foundation.
The child stands higher than the parent only because the parent has bent low.
The living stand higher than the dead only because the dead have become earth.
Every generation is lifted by those who are no longer visible.
This is the first doctrine of the Ascendents: we rise from what has been buried.
We rise from bodies and stories. We rise from names spoken and names erased. We rise from villages burned and fields planted. We rise from ships, cabins, kitchens, trenches, meetinghouses, reservations, prisons, refugee roads, hospital rooms, schoolhouses, barns, factories, cemeteries, and quiet beds where the dying whispered blessings no one wrote down.
We rise from all of it.
Not only from glory.
Not only from virtue.
Not only from noble sacrifice.We rise also from sin.
This is what makes ascent morally dangerous.
For our ancestors do not hand us only wisdom. They hand us wounds. They do not give us only courage. They give us cowardice disguised as prudence, prejudice disguised as tradition, violence disguised as necessity, greed disguised as providence, silence disguised as peace.
To be ascendent is not to romanticize the past.
It is to redeem it by telling the truth.
A person who worships their ancestors remains trapped beneath them. A person who despises their ancestors cuts themselves off from their own roots. But a person who honors their ancestors truthfully becomes capable of rising.
Honor is not flattery.
Honor is not nostalgia.
Honor is the severe mercy of remembrance.
To honor those before us is to receive what was good, repent of what was evil, grieve what was broken, and carry forward what was unfinished.
We are the living edge of their becoming.
We are their unresolved sentence.
We are their prayer still traveling.
We are their question still being answered.
This means that the past is not dead in the simple way we imagine. It is not gone merely because the bodies are gone. The past continues to move through us as habit, language, land, fear, blood pressure, lullaby, recipe, doctrine, posture, accent, suspicion, hope, inheritance, and unexamined reflex.
History does not stay in books.
History enters the nervous system.
A war may end, yet its tremor continues in the children of the children of those who survived it. A displacement may be recorded as an event, yet the hunger for home may live for centuries. A massacre may be omitted from the official monument, yet the ground remembers. A church may repent in words while its architecture still faces the wrong direction. A family may never speak of grief, yet every child learns how to lower the voice around sorrow.
The dead are not silent.
They speak in us.
The question is whether we will listen.
The Ascendent is one who listens downward in order to live upward.
This is not ancestor worship. It is ancestor responsibility.
Nor is it progressivism in its shallow form. Progress, as commonly preached, often imagines time as a ladder on which the present naturally stands above the past. It assumes that because we come later, we must be wiser. This is foolishness. Chronology is not sanctification. The future can be more brutal than the past. Technology can amplify barbarism. A people may move forward in time while moving backward in soul.
No, ascent is not automatic.
Humanity does not rise merely by surviving.
We rise only when remembrance becomes transformation.
We rise when the grief of one generation becomes the compassion of the next.
We rise when the violence of one generation becomes the refusal of the next.
We rise when the silence of one generation becomes the testimony of the next.
We rise when the buried cries of the forgotten become the moral hearing of the living.
“The blood of your brother cries out from the ground.”
That ancient sentence is the foundation of all history.
The ground is not mute. The earth is not neutral. Soil is archive. Dust is witness. Every field has its dead. Every town has its omitted chapter. Every nation has its sanctified lie. Every family has its locked room. Every monument has a shadow. Every victory has a graveyard of the unnamed.
The Ascendent does not merely ask, “Who were my ancestors?”
The Ascendent asks, “Whose blood is beneath my feet?”
Not because guilt is the final word.
Guilt alone can paralyze. Shame alone can distort. Accusation alone can become another form of vanity, where the living make themselves dramatic by endlessly displaying the wounds of the dead.
The purpose of remembering is not to become impressive in our sorrow.
The purpose of remembering is to become faithful in our living.
To be ascendent is to understand that I am not an isolated self. I am a crossing point. I am a confluence. I am made of many streams, some clear, some polluted, some holy, some poisoned, all meeting in the temporary river of my life.
My task is not to pretend the waters are pure.
My task is to help them run cleaner through me.
This may be the deepest meaning of repentance: not self-hatred, but generational purification. Not the rejection of one’s people, but the healing of what one has received from them. Not a descent into despair, but an ascent into truth.
Repentance is how ancestry becomes possibility.
Without repentance, inheritance becomes repetition.
Without remembrance, repentance becomes vague.
Without love, remembrance becomes accusation.
Without courage, love becomes sentiment.
The Ascendent must hold all four together: remembrance, repentance, love, and courage.
Only then can the past become seed rather than chain.
There is also a personal meaning here.
Each of us carries within ourselves earlier selves. The child, the adolescent, the wounded one, the ambitious one, the ashamed one, the hopeful one, the foolish one, the frightened one, the one who failed, the one who survived. We often speak as if we have descended from those selves into disappointment. We look back and say, “I was once more alive. I was once more promising. I was once closer to what I might have been.”
But perhaps we also ascend from our former selves.
Perhaps every earlier self, even the embarrassed and broken ones, is part of the root system.
I rise from the child who dreamed.
I rise from the young person who misunderstood.
I rise from the failure that humbled me.
I rise from the wound that opened me.
I rise from the grief that deepened me.
I rise from the fear that taught me how much I needed grace.
Nothing is wasted if it can be transfigured.
This does not mean everything was good. Some things were evil. Some things should not have happened. Some wounds are not secret blessings. Some suffering does not ennoble; it damages. Some losses remain losses.
But even what cannot be justified may still be gathered.
Even what cannot be called good may still be refused the final word.
The Ascendent does not say, “All things were good.”
The Ascendent says, “Even here, I will rise.”
Not by denial.
By truth.
Not by domination.
By integration.
Not by forgetting.
By carrying.
This is why ascent is not escape. It is not floating away from the earth into disembodied purity. True ascent is rooted ascent. The tree rises because it goes down. The mountain ascends because it is grounded. The resurrected body still bears scars.
Any spirituality that rises by abandoning the wounded is not ascent but evasion.
Any politics that rises by erasing the poor is not ascent but conquest.
Any theology that rises by despising the body is not ascent but contempt.
Any family story that rises by silencing the inconvenient dead is not ascent but propaganda.
The true Ascendent rises with scars visible.
This is where humanity stands.
We are a species that has learned to fly but not yet learned to kneel. We have ascended into the air, into orbit, into code, into machines of astonishing power, yet our moral imagination often remains tribal, fearful, acquisitive, and easily bewitched by idols. We can split the atom and still cannot share bread. We can map the genome and still cannot honor the stranger. We can remember data forever and forget the dead almost instantly.
So the question is not whether humanity is technologically ascendant.
The question is whether humanity is morally ascendent.
Will we rise from our ancestors or merely repeat them with better tools?
Will we carry forward their wisdom or only refine their weapons?
Will we remember the forgotten or continue to build monuments to the victorious?
Will we become more human, or only more powerful?
The Ascendents are not those who dominate history.
They are those who redeem memory.
They are the ones who refuse to let the common dead remain common in the sense of disposable. They remember the foot soldier beside the general, the farmer beside the statesman, the Indigenous village beneath the colonial map, the mother beneath the family name, the enslaved beneath the plantation ledger, the child beneath the statistic, the refugee beneath the border argument, the prisoner beneath the ideology, the enemy beneath the uniform.
They understand that every human being is an ancestor of the future.
This is a terrifying thought.
How will the future ascend from us?
What soil are we becoming?
Will our lives be root or rubble?
Will those who come after us have to heal from us, or will they be strengthened by us?
Surely both.
We too will hand down contradiction. We too are mixed. We too are capable of tenderness and harm, courage and cowardice, insight and blindness. The Ascendent is not pure. The Ascendent is accountable.
Perhaps that is the most we can ask of any generation: not purity, but accountability; not perfection, but faithful transformation; not innocence, but the courage to become better ancestors.
To be an Ascendent, then, is to live with one’s face turned in two directions.
One face turns downward toward the dead and says:
I remember you.
I receive you.
I grieve you.
I forgive what can be forgiven.
I name what must be named.
I will not pretend you were gods.
I will not pretend you were monsters only.
I will carry what was holy.
I will heal what was harmed.
I will not let your suffering vanish.
I will not let your sins rule me.The other face turns upward toward the unborn and says:
I am trying.
I am unfinished.
I am clearing what I can.
I am planting what I may never see.
I am refusing some inheritance so you need not bear it.
I am preserving some inheritance so you may be nourished by it.
I am becoming soil for your rising.This is the holy middle place of the living.
We are between the buried and the unborn.
We are the narrow bridge of breath between memory and hope.
We are the Ascendents.
Not because we have arrived.
Because we are called upward.
Not upward away from the world, but upward into fuller humanity.
Upward into mercy.
Upward into truth.
Upward into responsibility.
Upward into reconciliation.
Upward into the difficult radiance of becoming worthy of the dead.
And perhaps this is why the dead haunt us.
They do not haunt us merely because they are restless.
They haunt us because we are.
They haunt us because something in them remains unfinished in us. They haunt us because the lie has not yet been confessed, the grave has not yet been marked, the name has not yet been spoken, the wound has not yet become wisdom, the inheritance has not yet become blessing.
The haunting is not only terror.
It is vocation.
The dead rise in us so that we may rise from them.
And if we listen closely enough, beneath every field, beneath every town, beneath every family tree, beneath every national myth, beneath every human triumph, there is a murmuring from the ground. It is not only accusation. It is not only lament. It is also invitation.
Remember us.
Tell the truth.
Rise better.
Become what we could not.
Carry us toward the light.
So let us no longer say only that we are descended.
Let us say also that we are ascended from.
Ascended from dust.
Ascended from grief.
Ascended from labor.
Ascended from women whose names were not recorded.
Ascended from men who did not know how to speak their sorrow.
Ascended from children who died too soon.
Ascended from migrants, prisoners, farmers, singers, sinners, saints, cowards, prophets, fools, and friends.
Ascended from the blood that cried out.
Ascended from the prayers that rose before us.
Ascended from the earth that holds us all.And let us become, for those who follow, not a ceiling but a root.
Not a burden but a blessing.
Not a curse but a calling.
Not the final height, but one more living terrace on the long climb of mercy.
For humanity is not yet finished.
We are still rising.
We are still being judged by the dead.
We are still being summoned by the unborn.
We are still becoming the answer to our ancestors’ unanswered prayers.
We are The Ascendents.
#ancestors #ancestry #ascendents #becoming #creativeNonfiction #generationalHealing #grief #Hope #humanEvolution #Humanity #inheritance #memory #moralImagination #philosophy #PropheticEssay #reflection #remembrance #roots #sacredMemory #soilAndSpirit #SpiritualReflection #theDead #theUnborn #theologicalReflection #vocation -
Zuporouge 1846 https://zuporouge.com/zuporouge-1846/
Salut, je crée des designs, viens découvrir mon site web.
#jeunebebe #rappeur #fier #sourire #micro #flow #mignon #hiphop #minirappeur #casquette #scene #musique #vibes #attitude #talent #studio #freestyle #innocence #beats #performance #miniswag #bebestar #rire #energie #streetstyle #vetementscool #amourdurap #confiance #regardjoyeux #scèneUrbaine
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Not a big opera fan, but hey this is historic:
Finnish women as composer, librettist, conductor and co-star (folk musician Vilma Jää) at the Met in #NYC
#KaijaSaariaho is only the third female composer featured in nearly 150 years at the #Met (starts around 0:25)
#innocence #opera #SusannaMälkki #SofiOksanen
https://areena.yle.fi/1-77549116 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K86uKcbc__E
In this deep dive, AI breaks down the "Physics of Opposites" that drives the narrative of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. At its heart, the novel is a collision between the Christ-like innocence of Prince Myshkin and the destructive, earthly passions of Rogozhin and Nastasya Filippovna.
#Dostoevsky #TheIdiot #ClassicLiterature #BookAnalysis #RussianLit #Philosophy #PrinceMyshkin #LiteraryCriticism #BookTube #GreatBooks #Existentialism #LiteratureDeepDive
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#Spotted While Roaming in Aotearoa New Zealand:
In a cafe: A server brings a woman (60s?) a GIANT cheese scone and she hoots with laughter. Slicing it in half to butter it, she exclaims: "Oh. My. God! This scone is just butter and cheese held together by wishes and dreams!"
In a supermarket, a fierce looking man (50s?) in black bike leathers with full head and face tattoos is doing a little on-the-spot groove in the coffee aisle to Enigma's song "Return to Innocence." Humming along as he chooses his brew.
On a very long bike track on sunset, two small humans (3 & 4?) on bright pink and green push-along bikes are propelling themselves next to Dad.
They have ALL the energy and aren't looking tired at all.
Not. At. All.
Sleepy Looking Dad saying: "How bout ya see how fast you can go!"In a paddock next to a walking track: A large, placid looking cow is being piloted by a seagull that's sitting on its back.
Seagull is standing to attention, facing the direction this big cow beast should be going.
Meanwhile Cow seems quite happy to munch some grass, running on autopilot.On dusk, a tiny human (2?) in Bluey pajamas is toddling through a park with Mum. Picking feijoas off some nearby trees before studiously putting them in Mum's wicker basket. Birds singing good night to each other overhead. A big Labrador snuffling at the grass by their side.
(Continued Below)
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#Democratic Gov plans to release #TinaPeters, #commuting her #sentence! Unbelievable treasonous stupid shooting-foot stuff. Leave sentencing to #judges!
The recent case of some woman who received #parole for same charges is apples to oranges: She forged a letter, to gain personally. Peters stole #voting records, to steal #election & void legit #votes; claims innocence, will crime again!
#Democrats = #conservative #BernieSanders, #AOC = #moderates not #liberals #GOP = #KKK
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/polis-signals-possible-clemency-for-tina-peters/73-621c47c7-9a83-4dab-8cda-5cd31aa1cba3 -
#LesFicFri "RISK"
She laughed brightly and I could see then why someone would fall in love with her. The sweet innocence and intense passion were a powerful paradox. I hoped that Leonard would be a good husband to her.
I went to kiss her on the cheek but she moved so my lips ended up on her ear.
But she stopped and turned. Our mouths met for a long time and our tongues played with one another.
I pulled myself away before I got lost in her loveliness. I would make sure Leonard was a decent man before I let him deflower my student. She should not risk pregnancy with a scoundrel.
“Not here, my sweet, someone might come along.”
[...] remainder in alt text.
From THE VIRGIN by Stephanie Bull (a pen-name of Steve Turnbull), from Book 4 of THE SALACIOUS JOURNAL OF WINIFRED CHURCHILL
#SapphicRomance #sapphic #romantasy #lesFic #writingCommunity #lesbian #writing #reading
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#LesFicFri "RISK"
She laughed brightly and I could see then why someone would fall in love with her. The sweet innocence and intense passion were a powerful paradox. I hoped that Leonard would be a good husband to her.
I went to kiss her on the cheek but she moved so my lips ended up on her ear.
But she stopped and turned. Our mouths met for a long time and our tongues played with one another.
I pulled myself away before I got lost in her loveliness. I would make sure Leonard was a decent man before I let him deflower my student. She should not risk pregnancy with a scoundrel.
“Not here, my sweet, someone might come along.”
[...] remainder in alt text.
From THE VIRGIN by Stephanie Bull (a pen-name of Steve Turnbull), from Book 4 of THE SALACIOUS JOURNAL OF WINIFRED CHURCHILL
#SapphicRomance #sapphic #romantasy #lesFic #writingCommunity #lesbian #writing #reading
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#LesFicFri "RISK"
She laughed brightly and I could see then why someone would fall in love with her. The sweet innocence and intense passion were a powerful paradox. I hoped that Leonard would be a good husband to her.
I went to kiss her on the cheek but she moved so my lips ended up on her ear.
But she stopped and turned. Our mouths met for a long time and our tongues played with one another.
I pulled myself away before I got lost in her loveliness. I would make sure Leonard was a decent man before I let him deflower my student. She should not risk pregnancy with a scoundrel.
“Not here, my sweet, someone might come along.”
[...] remainder in alt text.
From THE VIRGIN by Stephanie Bull (a pen-name of Steve Turnbull), from Book 4 of THE SALACIOUS JOURNAL OF WINIFRED CHURCHILL
#SapphicRomance #sapphic #romantasy #lesFic #writingCommunity #lesbian #writing #reading
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#LesFicFri "RISK"
She laughed brightly and I could see then why someone would fall in love with her. The sweet innocence and intense passion were a powerful paradox. I hoped that Leonard would be a good husband to her.
I went to kiss her on the cheek but she moved so my lips ended up on her ear.
But she stopped and turned. Our mouths met for a long time and our tongues played with one another.
I pulled myself away before I got lost in her loveliness. I would make sure Leonard was a decent man before I let him deflower my student. She should not risk pregnancy with a scoundrel.
“Not here, my sweet, someone might come along.”
[...] remainder in alt text.
From THE VIRGIN by Stephanie Bull (a pen-name of Steve Turnbull), from Book 4 of THE SALACIOUS JOURNAL OF WINIFRED CHURCHILL
#SapphicRomance #sapphic #romantasy #lesFic #writingCommunity #lesbian #writing #reading
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CW: Réflexion sexualité & photo de pénis
Je suis un être complexe.
Et dans ma complexité, je suis aussi ça. 🍌
Ou plutôt ça fait partie de moi. « Ça », c'est ma bite, mon #sexe, mes couilles (surtout elles)...
Et ça appelle, ça crie, ça demande de l'attention. Quand je refoule, ça devient colère et véhémence. Alors j'apprends à écouter, à accueillir, à faire de la place.
Alors non, je ne suis pas qu'un être de raison. Je suis un être complexe.
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Je m'appelle Régis et j'explore le #lien à travers l'intime. Peut-on retrouver l'innocence là où le jugement se fait si lourd ? J'en fais le pari.