Yuletide Noms

Yuletide noms are open.

My Yuletide noms, sigh. I kept a list this year, of what I wanted to nominate or request ... except one fandom didn't make it on the list. So, when the nomination planning came around, I pulled out my list, picked three (two of which, Donovan's Reef and My Fair Lady were for sure, one of which (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress--I have seen one feminist critique-fic of it, and want more. And also more Mike, because I love him.) I was on the fence about. And when I posted my list to the nomination coordination post, I had several people squee about tMiaHM, and how they would love to read/write it and thank you for nominating it.

Then I realized yesterday that I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN ABOUT JANELLE MONAE'S ARCHANDROID SERIES. If you don't know her, she's a phenomenally talented psychedelic soul and R&B artist whose first three albums tell the story of a robot named Cindi Mayweather in a dystopian future who falls in love with a human and is scheduled for termination because of it. There's time travel, and robots, and a sharp commentary on race and class and who matters and who doesn't and finding hope in dark times and all of it set to music that makes someone who doesn't tend to like modern pop music (and particularly not the R&B/Hip-Hop edge of it) go, yeah, okay, I see why people love this type of music.

I would rather get Janelle Monae fic than MiaHM fic. But nobody else has nommed Janelle Monae's albums, and other people want MiaHM and probably won't be nomming it themselves because they think I will be. And I would like MiaHM fic, it would be a worthy Yuletide present. So I nommed MiaHM, as I said I would. (But it hasn't been confirmed yet, so I may change my mind and edit it.)

If anyone has an open nomination slot, nominate Janelle Monae's work!  Here are the proper Yuletide tags for the fandom and characters:
Metropolis Suites - Janelle Monáe
Characters
Cindi Mayweather
Anthony Greendown
DJ Crash Crash
Maestra (Metropolis: the Chase Suite)

It is hysterically funny that ...

... an LCMS pastor is the religious leader coordinating and sending out emails for a local Christian Unity gathering.  quinfirefrorefiddle will know why I snicker each time I see one.

The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod (aka LCMS or just "Missouri Synod") is much more conservative than the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Although they aren't the most conservative Lutheran church in America, they're the largest conservative Lutheran denomination.  And they have an institutional phobia about doing anything with people who don't hold and proclaim the "pure Gospel" like they do.  They couldn't possibly do anything that might imply that they endorse anything that isn't the ABSOLUTELY PURE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE (which they are the only arbiters of), and nobody can possibly be a true Lutheran without agreeing with them on every tiny point of doctrine (and some of them aren't too sure that people who disagree with them can even be called true Christians at all).  Most lay people in their church aren't bad about it, but some of their pastors can and do lead witch-hunts to root out impure doctrine and improper ecumenism.*   So when I see an LCMS pastor working on anything to do with Christian Unity, it's funny.  And I wonder what his superiors and fellow pastors think of him ...

*You may recall that after 9/11, an LCMS district president (their equivalent of a bishop) participated in a huge ecumenical prayer service in New York City.  (It might have been held at Yankee Stadium?  It was a really big deal, anyway, lots of religious leaders from lots of denominations.)  He had permission from the overall president of the LCMS to do it, but the ultra-conservative faction managed to get him brought up on charges anyway, hoping to use him to oust the president (who was, gasp, shock, horror, only a moderate conservative, not an ultra-conservative).  The District President resigned, instead.

For those of you interested in the history of it, ( internecine Lutheran strife, witch hunts, and propaganda )

tl;dr: the LCMS has been kinda screwed up since the late 1960s.