CoffeeJunkie

....fuck...that is very hard. This is not your relationship, nor did you cheat, and their problems have now been made yours(ish). I'm sorry you're caught up in this.

That said, your mom raises some excellent points & personally I'd be inclined to live with her. She is correct. But we must also acknowledge that she is way too close to this situation & is blinded by hurt, rage; women are prone to making decisions based on emotion & not logic, reason. How much more when she is cheated on.

The fact remains, this man is your biological father. Personally, I think it is time to reassess the depth of your relationship due to his adultery. But to cut him out entirely, forever is kind of stupid, too. That is your father. You only get one father. Your relationship to him is different than your mother's relationship to him. You can distance yourself & react appropriately to his impropriety without...completely destroying the ties of family. It will hurt your father's feelings, and you know what? I think he should have his feelings hurt. A little. Understand, he threw your mother away, treated her very badly.

But what's done is done. This is the family you have now, and you have to decide what is right for you. If you don't leave your father & distance yourself at least a little, she's right, you do condone his actions & you're hurting your relationship with your mother. If you care about that. But I would keep those lines open, and your mother will fuss, but explain to her that is your biological father & you have made the decision to keep in contact with him. That is your right, as his child.

Ohhhh....this provides much needed context & clarity that I didn't have before. When I hear there's been a 'shooting' in America, while this is technically correct, I don't think it's one person shooting another. I hear 'shooting', and I think one or more shooters/multiple targets/largely indiscriminate just one group vs another.

By all accounts, this is very discriminatory & targeted. Obviously. I would word it as "Jonathan Joss murdered", then explain he was gunned down by a deranged homophobe.

Until just now, I genuinely assumed Mr. Joss got caught up in a mall or gang shooting. This is especially tragic & inexcusable, such targeted hatred.

Back when Wicked, the musical, was brand new & the hot topic & it was just so so cool culturally speaking -- my high school choir was going to take a field trip day to go & watch it live in a big city. 🤩 Time off of school, going to this cool musical, it's a no-brainer. Right?

My parents told me I couldn't go because there was a 20-25% chance of snowfall. Combined with a significant 2+ hour commute, there was a chance I wouldn't make it back home by 6:40 PM on a Wednesday night, and that would cause me to miss the hour long 7 PM Wednesday night church services. 🥴🥴🥴🥴

Not even Sunday morning, most of everyone's day of rest. Wednesday. Night. Services. Couldn't even take a chance on missing that. That was...."special".... 🙄 Religious brainwashing at its finest!

I try to be generous in my readings & assign to others....grace & the best of intentions. So! I take what your parents said and, while not eloquent, you could maybe read it as: they were more frugal in your younger years, saving money "just in case" or whatever. Now that more years have come & gone without horrible financial issue, they have an abundance of sorts, and they feel more confident about splashing a little more cash on you now, and frankly when you are of an age to appreciate it more. 🙂

I've seen people spend stupid amounts of money on newborns, 2-3 year olds, and it's like....you know they won't remember any of this. Right? 🤔 Same with very young kids, yes they'll remember & appreciate certain things, but most of it idk is just kind of lived & lost. So your parents say that, and if it is in good faith with good intentions, I feel that. Kinda. I just wouldn't articulate it like that.

LOL, that's not even scripturally correct. He doesn't know his own faith! 😂 This is common, and really sad when you think about it, because their faith is their "single most important thing" in life & they're so damn ignorant of it. Like...it's one book. Read it, if you are so inclined?

There is only one sin earmarked as the eternal sin, the unforgivable sin. Explicitly described in Matthew 12:30–32, alluded to in other relevant passages. "Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit". Even blasphemy against the Son of Man (Jesus) will be forgiven...but never the Holy Spirit. Because it's simply too big of a contradiction or discrepancy in how the Christian faith operates & how one is saved. You have the "power of the Holy Spirit" working through you, working with Christ & God the Father on your behalf. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is largely interpreted as to deny that very power, the power that saves.

It is akin to needing hydration, but refusing to drink large amounts of any kind of liquid ever. Or needing an electrical charge to run a device, but never making a connection to transfer the power, you're going to somehow "will" or speak the power into your phone. Well. That's simply not how it works, and you'll never have power.

I only explain to provide clarity of the Christian faith to others, I do not profess the faith present day, it has taken 25 years of my life. Others are welcome to comment, of course, but I'm not here to argue endlessly over "how many angels can dance on the point of a very fine needle". As they say, and have done before, and has since morphed more colloquially into "on the head of a pin". 😉

It is perfectly fine, in fact it would be incredibly refreshing & welcome, to admit...she was a shitty candidate. Fuck, she was so terribly bad. And Tim Walz was a bad pick, too.

Everything was fake. Every day it unraveled more. She was caught saying things like, "I am different than Biden, I am not Biden, do not let his presidency reflect on me." What would you do differently? "Nothing, I wouldn't change anything." Okay....so....how are you different if everything Biden did was totally great & you wouldn't do anything differently?? 🤡 Heavily paraphrased, of course, the convos were more detailed (which only made it worse).

It's fine to say Kamala Harris was a cringe candidate. Completely unwanted, unelected, unqualified. Biden bowed out & the DNC shoved her in; there is no logical reason to continue to own her as your candidate & representative. You don't bring dead babies to Passover. This is an opportunity to rebrand the Democrat Party, to refocus on issues that actually matter. That is to say....if anyone still gives a goddamn about the issues that actually matter.

Frankly I appreciate the info. Definitely at least put the word former on there, but it's good to know this probably isn't some know-nothing schmuck. This is a man that probably has decent amounts of inside knowledge, as others are alluding to possibly friends aiding & abetting. He knows not only how to stalk & kill you, but also how to hide the body.

This is good to know.

Right? Kerb isn't even the original, not by a hundred years. Apparently. I just read it & assumed the author was having a stroke.

It means...all the worries?... 🥴

It's so fresh, we're operating on limited information, and idk if we can really say if it's false flag or not. Which, funnily enough, is the desired result of a false flag. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I do think it's rather odd that the man killed himself, blew himself up in the car. A la rented Tesla Cybertruck terrorist, granted he wasn't that fucking dumb, but it's in the same vein & same method. And outcome.

I'm not one to hand out advice for conducting domestic terrorism, but let's just say I'd do it differently.

The religious right is very much split on IVF, especially since Trump approved it. The true religious right is anti-IVF because it's not natural, you do "sinful" /unnatural things in the process, homosexuals or singles sometimes create children, mistakes happen mixing wrong egg/sperm creating bastard children, and finally the destruction of fertilized human embryos. They really don't like that, they view it as abortion on steroids. Then the more...utilitarian?...religious right doesn't focus too much on the mistakes, the masturbation, the destruction of fertilized human embryos. They focus on helping infertile couples & the children created from that process. And again, Trump cautiously giving IVF blessing & in the future, maybe even funding has turned religious right's opinion on IVF. Positively.

That's kind of where I'm at, I see bad people in every single camp. Every single one. It's no big deal, that's human nature, but we can't gatekeep radicals out of any camp. I see some pretty radical people on here, wishing death on people & such.

Not everything that happens has to be a massive conspiracy; something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. All kinds of people get really riled up over IVF.