Gabriel David Hu

I write stuff, but I'll write more once I'm finished with my MFA. I drive a school bus to pay the bills. I’m working on American Fantasy.
Ps 27:4

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

Words! When did Americans start using this word? Do Native Americans have an equivalent? Why did we need a different word for a ghost, one that physically moves things? What other words for ghosts do we use? Why did we pick a German word?
#words #ghost #questions

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

"authors aren’t benefitting from the wider availability of their books"

I think, possibly, there are too many books out there. Being able to self-publish has flooded the market with work that is much less competitive.
#books #publishing #authors
https://t.co/d56obwGIoQ

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

he's right in saying "if invoking the Thucydides Trap can help prevent a war that no one wants, let’s not let the facts distract from the potential for peace."
There's a good reason Xi keeps mentioning the Thucydides Trap—maybe it's an apt perspective, maybe it's mind games.

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

"As an historian of ancient Sparta, I find the focus on the Thucydides Trap disconcerting," writes Andrew Bayliss, saying Graham T. Allison's analogy of Sparta and Athens to modern USA and China is flawed. He may be correct (I don't know), but...
https://t.co/0SgWp5GRYU

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

@Fascinate_Hist Kids are capable of more than we give them credit for. Push them and they will perform.

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

I wanted to read these, but even in undergrad, I kept getting the professors who wanted to do things differently. I’ve only read Moby Dick from this list, but I have read a list of classic American literature in my pursuit of creating American fantasy.

[Fascinating History @Fascinate_Hist]

A High School required reading list from 1978.

Yes, students under 18 years old read:
-Homer's The Odyssey & The Iliad
-Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote
-Herman Melville's Moby Dick
-Virgil's Aeneid
-Tolstoy's War and Peace
-Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

How many books on this list have you read?

[Beth Moore @BethMooreLPM]

Those in the SBC who think I no longer should have anything to say about the SBC profoundly underestimate the power of love. I’d served southern Baptist women for 40 years by the time I left. And when I left, I left directly on their behalf because it became disturbingly clear to me that the SBC as an entity was more interested in protecting shepherds than the sheep entrusted to their care. When protecting the pulpit from women becomes a far greater priority than protecting women (& children) from an abusive pulpit, something is wrong. Which has been the greater problem: women trying to become your senior pastors or pastors misusing or abusing women?

My biggest concern is that what happened with the CRT witch-hunt will happen now in regard to women. The overreach resulted in numerous pastors, teachers and professors dropping the immensely important biblical teachings against racism rather than risk being accused of CRT. I heard from pastors at that time who preached against racism and already had emails Monday morning from people in their congregation accusing them of CRT. Because the difference wasn’t clarified, they lumped all of it into the one category. The aim became: shut every mouth to shut some mouths.

I pled for SBC seminary presidents and leaders to please clarify to pastors and teachers and, thereby, to congregations & students what qualified as CRT and what indeed was the proper and deeply rooted and needed biblical approach to anti-gospel racism.

Crickets.

I see the same potential here. I have never once fought for SBC women to take over church pulpits. I have esteemed and supported the role of male senior pastors. My own pastors would tell you that. If you think I was in the SBC trying to lead a revolution against men, you are clearly not familiar with my materials. What I believed then and believe now is that God has called both men and women to serve their churches and communities and proclaim the gospel. He has poured out his Holy Spirit on men AND on women, calling them to broadcast the good news.

You have beaten the drum loudly about what women in SBC churches cannot do. So, what CAN they do? Clarity here is essential. What is a woman to do who has been gifted BY GOD to teach the Bible, especially if her church has moved to the community group model and there is no Sunday school to teach?

Here is what I see on the horizon. If you leave these matters involving women so vague that it becomes about pastoral roles/actions rather than the title of pastor, it will shift to the subjective rather than objective. I wish I was naïve enough to think that wasn’t the point to some of these leaders but, sadly, I’m not.

What if that senior pastor doesn’t allow a woman on the prayer team to pray over people at the end of the service because he deems she is acting pastorally? What if the pastor sees that a woman’s Sunday school class of WOMEN is getting, in his estimation, a little too big? Can he just decide she acting pastorally and remove her from the role? Can she counsel people with her God-given wisdom and knowledge or would she be acting pastorally? The examples could go on and on. And, of course, I realize many would not use their positions to disesteem women but surely you and I both know countless others would. God only knows how many unqualified, unloving, mean-spirited men are in pastoral positions but the obsession remains the women.

I have no desire to see SBC women leave the denomination. I loved and flourished in that denomination. I want them to be able to flourish in their spiritual gifts. I want them to be esteemed in their serving inside and outside their homes. I want them to be able to serve Jesus and proclaim his glorious gospel.

I know I’m going to get hit here. That’s fine. But you should know I will fight for them to the death. Because I love them. And, yes, whether they love me or not.

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

@LloydLegalist Ditto

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

Me: *stands up really fast*

My entire body:

[Liza Libes @pensandpoison]

Someone called me pretentious the other day for saying I read Dostoyevsky when I was 15, and that got me thinking—why have we created a culture where engaging deeply with ideas and challenging yourself is considered pretentious?

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

This video about Gen X exactly describes my perspective. However, I wasn’t a latch-key kid, and I wonder how much of this applies to other generations. Anyone else think this applies to others?

https://t.co/kNPXOii3dt

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

I'm not a dietitian, but if you eat pizza right around midnight your body doesn't know if the calories go towards yesterday or today, so they don't count. #diet #pizza #snacks

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

🎵 Where can I find a Weber like that?

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

@LloydLegalist Literally laughing out loud. My wife doesn’t get what makes me lol.

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

So many of us forget about that love your enemies bit. Me included. Imagine how different our public discourse would be if we tried to do this even a little.

[Brant Hansen @branthansen]

There's nothing about Jesus' teaching that suggests there exists a class of "Christian" that is not a disciple.

You are either endeavoring to love your enemies, or you're adding to the noise.

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

I was a much better parent before I had children.

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

This story provides a sobering perspective on the phrase, “Not fair.” And she intends to still return to the place she was kidnapped—quite a calling!
#commitment #journalism

If I Tried to Escape, I Would Be Killed - The Atlantic

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

"The crooked tree lives long, while the straight tree becomes lumber."

Chinese proverb

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: The FDA has blocked publication of research that found widely used Covid-19 and shingles vaccines were safe. https://t.co/P4ZNeIfvPV

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

I like this word because "niblings" is easier to say than "niece and nephew," and I don't have to figure out which one should come first. I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to be used, and people may assume my niece and nephew are trans. So I probably won't use it.
#forgotten

[Gabriel David Hu @GabrielDavidHu]

Learned a new word today: nibling, the gender-neutral form of niece and nephew, originally (in 1951) an alternative way to refer to nieces or nephews. It isn't in my spell-check because it's underlined in red, so I guess it isn't common yet.
#words #writing