Author | Lightnews

Christopher Walsh

@deflatermaus.bsky.social

690 followers 700 following 1.1K posts

PhD candidate & book historian studying text, memory, & heritage @Rutgers. 🌈. Interests include Chinese history, East Asian languages, religious and theological book & print culture. Episcopal layman. Ritualist “in the modern sense of the word.”

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · Nov 21

welcome to all the new followers and sorry in advance for all my very bad posts

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 18h

I would go so far as to say that using AI for any pastoral work is akin to the sin of the Golden Calf, or the misuse of the brass serpent the necessitated its destruction.

memento mori @mtrkdjoyce.bsky.social · 22h

it is always nerve-wracking to take a position on a question not-yet-resolved, but that's the only time when taking a position can actually be meaningful, so

I think that using AI to "automate pastoral work" is an indefensible abdication of, and damning misunderstanding of, one's duty as a cleric

Profe G @tlacuachie.bsky.social · 22h

“AI assistants for automating pastoral work”

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 20h

True! And increasingly in the Episcopal Church here additional ceremonies have been authorized that mark some of these things - we now have a form for blessing a Quinceañera, for example. But ordained clergy innovating on central church rites should have clear theological justifications!

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 20h

This sort of thing also veers close to folk practices like Day of the Dead altars - but Roman Catholic masses would never have family photos on the altar! Not permitted by the GIRM!

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 21h

the funny thing is that this is neither truly Reformed or truly Catholic - are the dead in need of our prayers and do they derive benefit from being "presented" on the altar at the Eucharist? Or is praying for the dead vain superstition, and using photographs this way vain idolatry?

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 21h

a parish near me is transferring All Souls to Nov. 5, oddly, and asking people to bring photos of departed loved ones to be placed on the altar during the Eucharist, to celebrate "in the presence of their memories." What's the theology here?

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 21h

a consequence of the aesthetic victory of the Anglo-Catholic movement in TEC is that broad church parishes that have adopted soft catholic practices often totally ignore the tradition and theology behind them or go off-piste into the realm of folk religion

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 5d

秉顱玄網 for a little bit of esoteric flair?

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 5d

so what I'm hearing is that John Calvin would have hated Jeffrey Zucker's 1990 film "Ghost"

Anthony Oliveira @meakoopa.bsky.social · 6d

i mean the ghosts can demonstrably move on which means that some kind of moral/ethical restitution and purgation is possible after death but unfortunately this conversation will lead to the protestant reformation so

What a Seamus @whataseamus.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe crimes committed after you're dead don't count?

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 9d

I either turn that bitterness into anti-state teachings and get executed after a poorly-planned literary conspiracy, or stay on the straight and narrow but die just a year before my top student miraculously receives the jinshi degree. They build me a nice shrine, which has got to count for something

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 9d

I feel like the kind of guy who would take, like, two-three shots at the exam, never pass, and then end up a slightly embittered owner of a private provincial training school who gets a lot of students just on the fact I tried.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕚𝕤𝕥🎃𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕒 ℙ𝕠𝕕𝕔👻𝕤𝕥 @thoc.bsky.social · 9d

It's China's own version of the "I could definitely win a fistfight against a grizzly bear" Type Of Guy

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 11d

one of the NH reprints/abridgements I have of a classic text still has the Google Books watermark on the pages so I might chalk it up to simple incompetence

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 11d

Every time I look at this it gets funnier. "No, boss, this is MetroLEC center, you want Metro-LECH. That's the other way.You gotta go up over to the other side and get back on."

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 11d

"so uh yeah buddy, there's like three or four Dyckman streets so you gotta be specific about which one 'cus it's a pain in the ass to transfer."

Ben K. @benjaminkabak.com · 11d

ChatGPT is not doing the subway system too well.

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 12d

that Sliwa has carved out a position for himself as apparently the perennial GOP candidate for New York City is both hilarious and a deeply embarrassing indictment of the local GOP

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 12d

There's a few Sliwas in every small-town bar in America and that's why he's so intelligible. Weirdo, mostly harmless, full of crazy and funny stories that make you go "what is he talking about;" nailing down his politics is like nailing jelly to the wall

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 12d

sliwa is a truly fascinating Type of Guy

SH😮CK-tor Benway @docbenway.bsky.social · 12d

Sliwa: Going after the criminals is the job of ICE. But now they have these quotas and they’re going around to courthouses and restaurants and let me tell you I have three kids and they’re not doing any of that kinda work. These migrants are essential workers

Unrelated but I may be having a stroke

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 12d

gotta love new york baby

SH😮CK-tor Benway @docbenway.bsky.social · 12d

Sliwa notes he got shot in the back of a cab by a gambino hitter

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 12d

I love obscure reference books like this even if I have no obvious use for them and this one is no exception

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 12d

claiming to still be the Anglican Communion is certainly a choice.

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 15d

His big problem is that loved dialogue - Destination: Void is a great and terrible example of this!

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 15d

Out of all of Herbert's work Dune is the best; people think he went off the rails in God Emperor but Children of Dune is insane. The man desperately needed an editor.

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 15d

the Mormon/Reconquista crossover nobody expected

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 16d

this exact same topic came up during an education session I led on Lancelot Andrewes. I got more blank stares than I wanted when I asked "is being a good person enough to get to heaven?" and let me tell you they were also not ready for Arminius and conditional preservation...

Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 16d

I love Fredson Bowers

Dot Porter @leoba.bsky.social · 16d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

Where are your gloves?

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 19d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Christopher Walsh @deflatermaus.bsky.social · 16d

You can order the older version from the Order of the Holy Cross Etsy page - no leather involved! They’re currently on break so the shop page is closed but they come back regularly. www.etsy.com/shop/MonksCell

www.etsy.com

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Reposted by Christopher Walsh

S.C. Kaplan @medievallitura.bsky.social · 16d

You've been appointed chair.

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 19d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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