Aaron

@theclutteredmouth.com

659 Followers 459 Following

Nerd. Poet. Spiritual director. Post-Christian theologian. Chaplain in formation. I contain multitudes. There will be typos. He/Him https://aaronjsmith.net https://theclutteredmouth.com

The cover for Third Eye Blind's first album.
A screenshot of a social media post on a black background. It is quoting someone who said, "The Church didn't hurt you. Jesus didn't hurt you. A person hurt you." Above it is my response, "The only people that want you to know the difference here are people that want to pretend modern Christianity isn't a drawer full of knives."
Chicken scampi cooking in a pan, with sauce, chicken, red peppers, and green beans.
A twenty something me playing a Tacoma road king guitar on a stage.
Dark, blurred background with words on top that read, "We receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation in our community. And then we go to the world, becoming what we have received: a means of God’s grace to make itself manifest in the world that desperately needs the bread and wine. We go out, not to struggle to remain whole in a world that wants to tear us apart but to be freely broken, s..." In the lower left-hand corner it says, "Aaron J. Smith" with "sacred time" under it, and then the link "aaronjsmith.substack.net" under that.
Dark background of old books with the words, "5:30 Lateness" on the top of the image.
An old grandmothers hands clasped together with the words, "I am older Than My Mother" on top of the picture.
Dictionary entry for witness with the words "bear the witness break out of the church-industrial complex" over it.
Text imposed on a blurred image that reads, "Colonialism is the systemic assertion of control by one group over another—geographically, culturally, economically, spiritually—often under the disguise of benevolence or moral superiority. That disguise of goodness and care is nothing short of deceit and bearing false witness about our motives and intentions. We long to save people, and the way we save people is by turning them into us. This isn’t loving our neighbor. This is colonizing them so that we can feel better."
Rocker jumping while playing hisbguitar. Overlaid are the words, "Im just a Christian dirtbag baby"
A classic painting of Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss with the text over top reading, "It started out with a kiss how did it end up like this."
Snapshot from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. It reads "A REVOLUTION is supposed to be a change that turns everything completely around. But the ideology of political revolution will never change anything except appearances. There will be violence and power will pass from one party to another, but when the smoke clears and the bodies of all the dead men are underground, the situ- ation will be essentially the same as it was before: there will be a minority of strong men in power exploiting all the others for their own ends. There will be the same greed and cruelty and lust and ambition and avarice and hypocrisy as before."
Picture from Tiananmen square where a lonely Chinese man stands blocking a row of tanks from moving forward.
Hand holding a sign that reads, "Jesus would slap the shit out of you."
Captain Von Trapp from The Sound of Music ripping a Nazi flag in two. It's my mood right now.
A post urging people to believe that a person hurt you, not the church. My response reads, "The only people that want you to know the difference are people that want to pretend modern Christianity isn't a drawer full of knives."
Photo of a theblower half of a man's face with a substantial goatee of brown with some gray in it. He's wearing a gray shirt with some black letters on ot
Still of Caption Von Trap tearing a Nazi flag down the middle. Image from The Sound of Music, and isnsomething we should all practice as often as possible.
A post from abbynormansays that reads: Today we were talking about peace with my 5th graders. I was asking was whether peace was a thing they feel like they live with. Is their life a place of peace. A child says we live next to cop city, so we hear the explosions and the guns all the time. He can remember before it was like that. So. This is advent in america.
Mind map showing blocks of small text connected by lines.
Screenshot showing 224 followers and 224 people I'm following.
Man with unkempt beard peering over the tops of his glasses
A list that reads: Antiracism work, de-centering whiteness, and making reparations for race violence LGBTQIA+ affirmation and making a safe space for people of all genders and orientations Gender equity and ensuring that the voices of women and nonbinary/gender non-conforming individuals are amplified Accessible spaces that all bodies can navigate with ease A planet we can thrive in for many generations to come, including supporting efforts to uplift and protect indigenous care of the land
A statue of Maey haling a baby Jesus dressed up like Ronald Mcdonald. Text says, "this might be the most accurate depiction of white Jesus I've ever seen. @christena clieveland.“