20 years after AI is widely accepted, it will then be an AI fact that God does not exist. This is how institutions function.

QUAERITUR:

Father during confession said in his opinion, the Holy Spirit is a woman. “She gives us birth in baptism, she will help you.” [Jackass!] His other remarks were well taken but I was so appalled I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Not to mention, it was face-to-face and no other option — just two chairs at one side of the sanctuary. He also stopped me saying the act of contrition because I was being rote. [Jackass!]
I think his words of absolution were correct but I still wonder. Do you think I am absolved? Is he actually a heretic?

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I’m reminded of one of the Martyrs of Gorkum, who were killed by Calvinist Protestants because they refused to deny transubstantiation. One of them, a priest, was an infamous rake and fornicator. They expected him to cave in easily. But when he was challenged to denounce his Faith he said “I was a fornicator, but I’m not a heretic” and they killed him.

The 19 Martyrs of Gorkum are invoked especially for relief from hernias. It seems to me that that jackass priest in that confessional has a brain hernia, cutting off part of his intellect.

Pray for him to the Martyrs of Gorkum.

Is that jackass a heretic? It depends. Heresy is the persistent denial or doubt of a revealed truth of Catholic doctrine. Putting aside the obvious point that God the Holy Spirit transcends physicality, based on biblical texts the gender of the Holy Spirit as male is a core tenet of Catholic belief. Denying it would heresy.

Continued below.

CWN Editor's Note: Archbishop Robert Casey, a former Chicago auxiliary bishop who was appointed archbishop of Cincinnati in February, defended his record at Casa Jesus, a discernment program for potential seminarians who spoke Spanish. Then-Father Casey directed the program, now closed, from 1999 to 2003, following a year as associate director.

“If I would see anything that was out of character, out of order, I would have the ability to send them home,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I took my role seriously. When I look back, I’m proud of my work there.”

The Pillar reported that “some former seminarians alleged sexual activity among some Casa Jesus residents, and said that it was part of a current of licentiousness tolerated there for decades ... At least 10 alumni of the program were later removed from priestly ministry or laicized—and in some cases arrested—because of sexual misconduct allegations of various kinds.”



Continue to this story on Cincinnati Enquirer

Today is August 11, the Memorial of St. Clare, Virgin.

We read at today’s Mass, “Moses said to the people: ‘And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?'” (Dt 10:12-13)

Today Deuteronomy poses a bold and beautiful question: “What does the Lord ask of you?” Moses answers: to love, to serve, to follow and to fear the Lord not out of dread, but out of reverence and devotion.

But how do we actually do this? How do we respond to such a high call every day?
St. Clare gives us an answer in one of her letters to her spiritual daughter, Sister Agnes of Prague. In it, she offers a striking image for the spiritual life: the mirror of Christ.

Continued below.

“The Christian of the 21st century will either be a martyr or will not be a Christian,” the archbishop of Santiago and primate of Chile, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, said during a seminar about the role of faith in public life.

The cardinal made the remark during his presentation at the seminar “And in Everything Charity,” which took place on the occasion of the centenary of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas.

The seminar’s title was inspired by a quote from St. Augustine. Organizations including the Catholic University of Chile’s law department, Community and Justice, and the ConBoca Foundation collaborated to host an event highlighting charity as the central pillar uniting social, cultural, and political efforts.

Chomali opened his presentation with a statement about the current reality: “We are glutted with everything: with words, with discourse, with so-called freedoms. But at the same time, we are full of nothing.”

Continued below.

Lady Bug said:

I'm not OK. My fault or not.

I don't know how often this happens to people who are grieving but the last thing that a grieving person wants is for people to leave them. I know it's only online people but I think that it could end up bleeding into real life. I have been accused of not putting in effort or taking advice, etc. I think that the worst thing that can happen to a person when they're grieving is to lose a friend.

I wrote this back to the person:
Hi G. Ever since my dad, my behavior has changed for the worse. I am more lonely yet more derelict in responding to people. I have been unable to understand my behavior. My life is lonely, empty, and has no purpose. I have been unable to word my problems. I will have to express a disagreement (well, you would probably disagree, that is) that the last thing I need when grieving is for someone to "leave" me, but I suppose that with the way my behavior is portrayed, you think I don't need anyone. I can't understand my own self and I feel basically like a zombie who complains of loneliness but has become too lazy and inert to respond to anyone. It does hurt to see you "leave" because I feel that anyone leaving (no matter how sporadic the content) is not beneficial but I don't want to look like I'm forcing anyone to be my friend. This is the second person who has been like this with me; there must be something wrong with me.

---------------
Sadly, he's kind of right. What am I even doing, wallowing in loneliness yet not maintaining contact. You don't get it and neither do I.

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I accidentally hit the ‘haha’ response. I corrected it to ‘friendly’, which is accurate. Praying for your continued healing.

A picture is worth a thousand misconceptions — at least where the conflict in Gaza is concerned. In the war behind the war, the sweeping campaign of anti-Israel disinformation, Palestinian sympathizers are working overtime in the media to warp and shift public opinion about what’s actually happening. So far, it’s worked. World leaders, all-too eager to make the Jewish state the bully, have latched onto the heart-wrenching images of starving, pained, or wounded women and children. But how much of it is real? An investigation from two German newspapers insists: not much.

Turns out, the shot from a camera can inflict as much damage as the shot from a gun. Carefully manipulated images have become a cottage industry in the last two years of the Israel-Hamas war, dangerously turning global sentiment against the victim of the gruesome terrorist attack of 2023. And one activist photographer seems to be making an outsized contribution to the number of controversial pictures, German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitungand BILD warn.

Anas Zayed Fteiah, whose images are routinely picked up by major U.S. and international outlets, is being accused of staging photos to evoke sympathy for the Palestinians. In one of the most egregious examples, Fteiah’s emotional depiction of a group of pleading women, desperately holding out empty bowls where food should be, was splashed across Time Magazine’s August 1 cover with the headline, “The Gaza Tragedy.”

The reality, other reporters on the ground revealed, is vastly different. Photos from the same location showed lines of men “calmly receiving food” in the hours when distribution was regularly scheduled. The Süddeutsche Zeitung article blasted the lack of journalistic integrity that makes it difficult to draw reasonable conclusions about the war, noting that “at least some of the images were presented in a false or misleading context.”

Continued below.

Matt5 said:

No. The Quran is demonic. Here is why:

Given that Islam is an Abrahamic religion, there is a connection with the God of Christians and Jews. But what exactly is that connection?

When the Islamic Jesus comes as foretold in Islamic prophecy, this is what he will say:

1. That he never died on the cross.
2. He never claimed to be the son of god.
3. That Islam is the only true religion.
4. That all people should convert to Islam and submit to the Mahdi.

Christians know the (Islamic) Mahdi as the antichrist and the Islamic Jesus as the false prophet.

Back to that connection issue. IMO, the reason for the existence of Islam is for angels to have their religion. And by angels, I mean demons. God and man got their religions. Now it's the turn of angels. Who can create the better religion, God or demons? Prove it. Let's run Christianity and Islam in parallel and see what happens. Christianity won. So the God of Christians and Jews facilitated the creation of Islam in order for demons to make their case.

As punishment for abandoning and/or ignoring Christianity, the world will get Islam instead.

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Islam is so false that I greatly doubt their eschatology will come to pass in any form recognizable to them.

Indeed Muhammad Ahmed al Mahdi, one of the first modern Islamic terrorists, who murdered all Egyptians including the women and children in Khartoum in 1885, arguably met all of the criteria for being the Mahdi, at least as far as the large Ansari sect was concerned, and he died three months after his “victory.”

Michie said:

Today is August 10, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We read at today’s Mass, “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Lk 12:39-40).

Happy Sunday, friends. Today, as we continue reflecting on the theme of thirst, I want to shift our focus slightly. So far, we’ve meditated on what it means to long for God. But what is it that hinders that longing? What is the great enemy of spiritual thirst?

One word: complacency.

It may not be a classic term from the tradition, but I think it names the spiritual condition that dulls our desire for God. Complacency is a kind of interior apathy — a voice that whispers, “I’ve done enough. I’m fine where I am.”

Continued below.

Holy desire or hollow routine?

When faith becomes routine, we lose our thirst for God, yet simple practices can rekindle holy longing and spiritual life.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

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A fellow Dominican - Rev. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. - has a very rich, indeed complete, spirituality to speak to this problem.

Complacency does describe the slow spiritual suicide that prevents the soul from ever attaining holy Thirst for God. This supernatural thirst is never experienced by the "retarded souls" who cling to the shallow pleasures of this world, and remain asleep to the needed saving Gifts of God. Dr. Taylor Marshall gives a brief description of the unhappy state of these spiritually impoverished souls, citing:

Some souls, because of their negligence or spiritual sloth, do not pass from the age of beginners to that of proficients. These are retarded souls; in the spiritual life they are like abnormal children, who do not happily pass through the crisis of adolescence and who, though they do not remain children, never reach the full development of maturity. Thus these retarded souls belong neither among beginners nor among proficients. Unfortunately they are numerous.

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The more complete description of this condition is found HERE, in vol 1 of Garrigou-Lagrange's great work, The Three Ages of the Interior Life. The point is, without the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit to activate and begin to perfect the Virtues, the soul is left bounded within the "natural man", a chasm separating him from the supernatural Life for which we are intended.

cfposter said:

Jesus will return in Glory and Power in Sept of 2040. The days of Adam began in 3890 BC with Isaac born in 1910 BC, with the Exodus in 1479 BC. With the crossing of the Jordan in 1440 BC. With Solomon's Temple dedicated in 950 BC. With the destruction of that Temple in 530 BC. With the Resurrection of our Lord in 31 AD, and with the coming of the 121st Jubilee in Sept of 2040.

The intervals above are consistent with Jubilees and there are only 120 Jubilees given to the dominion of Man (Genesis 6:3). Time is short.

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Okay so we can cross september 2040 off the calendar because this guy is expecting Jesus to come some time during that month.

(If this counts as scoffing, then come Lord come!)

The problem with expecting a certain date or month, blinds us to any other possibilities. I wouldn't be surprised if he returned on the last day of August if everyone was expecting sometime in September since the scripture says it will be "when we won't expect."

Jesus said to "Watch" so just watch.

Seven things are listed for us here which God hates, and which are an abomination (a moral stench, a detestation, and something disgusting) to him. Although the Scriptures mention many more sins than these as also abhorrent to God, here we have a list of only seven. And the purpose for the Lord having me talk about these today is that so many Christians are giving their loyalties and devotion and support, sometimes in a worshipful kind of way, to people who exemplify these qualities and character traits.

Haughty eyes – those who self-exalt themselves, who elevate themselves well above others in a prideful sort of way, who see themselves as though they are “gods” to be worshipped, or as though they are kings above all others, like no one is better than them or more gifted or more talented, as though they are the “cream of the crop,” kind of like Jesus described the Pharisees who acted righteous on the outside but while inside they were full of all kinds of evil and who did not live what they professed before others.

A Lying Tongue – those who speak what is false deliberately and habitually in order to deceive others and to lead others astray from what is truth, with the full intent to mislead and to deceive others to believe the lies. But please know that lies are not always all that obvious. Many lies are cloaked in what is truth to make what they are saying sound like truth, but while they are deliberate misimpressions, which are subtle and hidden lies mixed in with truth, which is what many liars use as a way to deliberately mislead others.

Hands that shed innocent blood – should be self-evident. It is the murdering of those who are innocent in the sense that they have not knowingly done anything deserving of death in the eyes of God. This especially applies to the practice of abortions, which is the murdering of unborn human beings who are being formed by God in the wombs of their mothers. But this includes the practices of people of power who are at war with many nations for the purpose to conquer, to rape, to kill, to steal from, and to take control over.

A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, and a false witness who utters lies can be all in one. For those who devise wicked plans often are those who run rapidly to evil and who bear false witness against others, especially against anyone who may know the evil that they are devising, and who might be a threat to them, because they might expose them for the evil which they are creating and performing. Or they might bear false witness against those who do not worship them, to berate them.

And one who spreads strife (conflict or contention) among brothers (and sisters) might also fit with all of the above. And this person may be a person whose heart is filled with bitterness, anger, or even violence, and so they will tell lies about those with whom they contend to try to turn others against that person, to get others to hate, reject, and to spread gossip about that individual and/or group of people. So before we believe what someone else says, we should pray and ask God for discernment, because liars, those who devise evil, those who bear false witness, and who spread strife, abound.

And please test all the spirits to see whether they be of God or not. Before you put any faith and trust in any person, listen to the words that they speak and/or that they write. Watch for their attitudes, their actions, and their practices, and the choices that they make. And no one is absolutely perfect all the time in everything that they say or do, so this is not about demanding perfection. But this is watching for character traits, practices, attitudes and actions that are their regular course of life which define who they are, in practice. And pray for much spiritual discernment from God.

[Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; Romans 16:17-19; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 3:2; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:3-10; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:1-25]

The Prayer

Written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager,
Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

I pray you'll be our eyes
And watch us where we go
And help us to be wise
In times when we don't know

I pray we'll find your light
And hold it in our hearts
When the stars go out each night
Remind us where you are.

Let this be our prayer
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
To a place where we'll be safe.

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An Abomination to God
An Original Work / August 11, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

rstrats said:

On what day do you think the crucifixion took place?

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I don't know. I agree with those who say there were two Sabbaths that week, one being the "high Sabbath:

“Therefore, because it was the Preparation [Day], that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.” (Joh 19:31 NKJV)

I don't think that the day matters much when compared with the glorious truths of our Saviour's death for sinners, and His resurrection.

Warden_of_the_Storm said:

Could you call the lack of wisdom teeth, or rather the problems from complications of the eruption of wisdom teeth, in certain world populations evolution? Human diets are now heavily geared towards soft foods, cooked or otherwise, thus eliminating the need to chew so heavily and thoroughly.

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It's related to paedomorphisis, the retention of juvenile traits in adult humans. Humans look more like juvenile apes than adult apes. Big crania, small faces and jaws, longer legs, shorter arms. Much of it is doable by timing of gene expresssion. DArcy Thompson showed that the diffferences are a matter of coordinate transformations:

I tend to use Open Doors for my info about the persecuted church.

Fantine said:

Are you an immigrant yourself?

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Nope. The son of an immigrant and married to one.

Fantine said:

If you left a totalitarian dictatorship you may not realize how far our country has fallen or how horribly abnormal this current administration is.

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You need to turn off The View, matey. FWIW, I grew up poor working class, in a 700 sq ft house. New knew what a new car was, sweated in the Southern summers because AC was for rich folks. Mom made a goodly portion of our clothes. Travel? Oh hahaha! If you could get there in our whatever old car (only the rich had more then one car) we had then we didn't go. Fly? People who lived in $4500 houses didn't fly. Education? Not bad. School was no-nonsense, and a Korean mom meant if you came in with a B on your card you better have a good excuse. No AC in the school, either. Shut up and sweat. Politics? Whoever my dad thought was best. Lessee... Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Goldwater, Nixon, dad voted for the man, not the party. Pro integration (JIm Crow in those Good Old Days, right?) , anti-war.

On and on. So don't try to school me on how much better it was back then, EVERYBODY now is orders of magnitude better off now than they were then. Black Folks were still second class citizens then. Poverty was rampant. The poor were very poor (we didn't qualify on that score) and lived in vile slums or tarpaper shacks, or both. Education? Better k-12, no sociological experimentation. Root hog or die college, shape up or ship out, back to the factory. Sp spare me the "things have never been so bad" bravo sierra. Gays were routinely beaten and mistreated. Poor women worked in sweatshop "shirt factories" for a little of nothing.

You may or may not get the drift. Trump is Hitler? What monumental ignorance! See any death camps? Where's the Trump Jugend? Where are the pograms? Where's the elimination (read governmental mandated murder) of the gays and trans people. No worry about trans joining the Werhmacht, they were shipped off to the eextermination camps. Ditto Roma (gypsies), Jews, trade unionists, Any religious or political ground that the Nazis found inconvenient or annoying, and of course, bloody unrestricted war. And yet y'all beat the idiotic tub about "Trump is Hitler". Have none of you ever cracked a book? Are you all completely, abysmally ignorant of the past 100 years of history? There is no excuse for that kind of stupidity.

So Trump isn't your cup of tea; sonuvagun, he isn't mine either. But he's a whole lot less dangerous than the conspirators who spent4 years trying to purge him from office because he didn't fit their program for their own rise to power. Do I like everything he does? Nope, but what have your lot to offer instead? Mutilating children?

Let's face it, the American left has gone completely insane. That's that why their polling is in the tank, where it belongs. They're tried to remake the US in their own insane image, and have been roundly, and properly, told to sod off.

An article published by Phoenix Weekly has exposed what it calls a long-standing falsehood:
'Jackie Chan’s claim that he never uses stunt doubles. The piece, titled “Jackie Chan Lied—This Is His Dedicated Stunt Double”,
reveals that many of the high-risk action sequences for which Chan is famous were, in fact, performed by professional doubles.

Renowned Hong Kong action director Law Lai-yin, who has an intimate understanding of Chinese stunt choreography,
disclosed that he himself had served as Chan’s double. According to Law, the notion that Chan performs all his own stunts is
a “beautiful lie.” From the beginning of his film career, Chan has relied on stunt doubles throughout.


(Translated from Epoch Times)

RDKirk said:

I once suggested that line of thought to an Orthodox rabbi, and he jerked me short very abruptly:

"We don't obey God because it makes sense, we obey God because he's God."

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Yeah, that sounds absurd at first, definitely the kind of thing you'ld find as fodder for the New Atheist crowd. What's missing is the relational context. The rabbi's experience with God is what grounds his trust. That's not something that fits within modern epistemology, of course, which is why it sounds so hollow to many moderns.

RDKirk said:

Many of the laws do make sense in various ways. However, there is a category of laws called the Chukim. These are decrees or statutes that do not have an obvious rational basis, and are followed solely out of obedience to God's will. One example is the prohibition against wearing garments of mixed wool and linen.

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Well, there's a very practical reason, perhaps. Mixed fibers tend to pill up and wear out faster.

RDKirk said:

Jews (at least the Orthodox) don't regard the Chukim laws as any less significant than the other laws.

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It depends on what rabbinic source you draw from. Maimonedes, much like Aquinas, distinguished moral from ceremonial law. More mystical strains of Judaism, however, tend not give as much weight to that distinction.

RDKirk said:

IMO, a significant purpose of the Chukim and all the other laws is to create distinction...to make God's people a peculiar people compared to the rest of humanity. And I think that's a significant purpose of the Christian lifestyle as well.

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That's the Christian explanation, and one that some Jews also use. But another possibility is that they often involve symbolic, non-linear thinking. For instance, separating death and life symbolically and ritually is a frequent theme in the Old Testament's Priestly sources. Christianity doesn't place as much importance on that distinction, because we have a figure like Jesus that transcended those categories, quite literally.

Other possibilities are that certain ones originated as cultural customs, like circumcision, which was also practiced by Egyptians, but were re-interpreted. That seems to be common in ancient Israelite culture, to take cultural forms and stories common to the region, but reinterpret them, or iterate them. In fact, that theme appears throughout the entire Bible. Most of the stories in the Hebrew Bible are found in other cultures in similar forms, but the biblical stories often have unique theological emphases, subtle changes that change the meaning of the entire story.

Some interesting examples: the story of the Tree of Life is ancient, probably goes back tens of thousands of years, and can be found even in Native American cultures. The story of a talking snake that deceives humanity and steals immortality also transcends cultures, and probably has its origins in Africa, and may be one of the oldest surviving stories we have. Those are just a few. All those images in the first chapters of Genesis are widespread in all ancient cultures, to one extent or another. What's unique is how they are combined by the biblical authors to tell a unique story about human vocation and responsibility, one that is perhaps only echoed in the ancient Persian culture to any similar degree.

The Barbarian said:

It describes the Earth at creation, not yet formed into what it would become.

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Yes but I think that is sort of describing the void that was prior to the earths form. Something non material in nature. Something that created that which came out of the void. Which was the 'Word' Logos. Which cannot be explained in material terms.

The Barbarian said:

Precisely so. Parables are not falsehoods; they are truths put in story form.

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I agree. But if we consider say the stories of Christs resurrection this is claimed as a real event. The parables are based on this truth which we cannot verify.

The Flood story is another interesting one where it happens within the context of humans being around to witness such an event. Though it being a proven fact is not necessary for believing the message.

But like the Exodus they happened in human lifetime which we can find evidence for. Though no amount of evidence would make any difference to someone who does not believe in God.

These stories are based on real events that have been made into divine messages and revelations.

Lord i pray for the victims in this situation.. Grab a hold of them and stay by their side as you heal them. I pray for their recovery. Amen

The Liturgist said:

That’s not the case; I find most of what you write to be extremely interesting and I’d say you’re one of the more learned members.

I just don’t understand why my recommendation you use AI in a careful manner to test the limits of knowledge would translate to interpreting the posts of other members in the worst possible light.

My goal was to provide a specific technical recommendation - that being, that insofar as AI has problems with reliably conveying information unless used extremely carefully, that the use case you were outlying struck me as one that would warrant additional caution. This is particularly the case with less advanced AIs that many people use, for example, Anthropic or Google DeepMind.

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Alright. But do know, there's a reason I distrust the current trends of technology and LLMs.

idma said:

What I mean is that the loudness, softness, interesting hits/snaps/riffs/melodies, are never heard by the bass. Its done by everybody else, and the bass provides, well, the bass. As in it certainly adds a lot of weight to a part, but it doesn't bring in the interest.

You can argue that bass certainly provides the loudness to a song, but its something everybody builds on and therefore only goes so far in dynamics.

As for leading while playing bass, do you basically give all responsibility for dynamics to your team? How complex does your playing get rhythmically?

The reason I ask is in the P&W song recordings, while the swells, melodies, and over all dynamics can be pretty far reaching, the bass really doesn't contribute much the moment there are more instruments playing.

I can only hear its impact when there is a particularly soft part of the song and barely anything is playing, and the bass stops. Then the song ramps up a little but only the bass is added in. At that point I can feel its weight and how the song feels like its gonna get more exciting. But then the moment everything else comes in, the bass is regulated to just...well...the bass.

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I think you're noticing something common in a lot of modern church music. The bass can sometimes sound lower in the mix when the band is in full swing. But that doesn't mean it's less important—its role just shifts.

The bass is crucial in providing a solid foundation and rhythmic pulse for the band, (hopefully) enhancing the overall worship experience. The bassist's primary job is to establish the groove, lock in with the drummer, outline the chord changes, and create a supportive and cohesive sound.

In big, layered sections, the bass anchors the harmony, groove, and energy. You may not hear it distinctly, but you feel it. Even when it's not in the spotlight, the bass is essential. Remove it, and the song loses warmth, drive, and depth.

The magic often comes from being felt, not featured. The congregation may not always notice you, but they'll notice when you're gone.

As for signalling tempo or volume change, consider some of these:
You can use physical cues and body language. Step forward slightly, make eye contact, or nod your head when a change is coming. Move to face the drummer so everyone knows a change is coming. Nod your head to indicate the new tempo. Lean in toward your instrument or exaggerate your movements to indicate intensity changes.

Disclosure: I have not led a worship group since the mid-1970s, but I have been playing electric bass guitar or double bass to support congregational and choir singing in the Catholic church for about 45 years.

==============
Lady: Are you the police?
Elwood Blues: No, ma'am, we're musicians ... We're on a mission from God.

I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed to see this study. But it explains why the face looks fake.

In theory, if the Black community of a particular state was more evenly spread out across the state (to a degree where there was no district that was majority-Black), what would the recourse be in that type of situation?


It seems like the concept of "districting" in the first place was a bit of a ill-thought out approach.

No matter how it's done (even if it's done by an "independent bipartisan redistricting committee"), you're still going to end up with a wacky looking map in most cases.



The more I've looked into it, the more I like what Germany has with their MMP system (Mixed Member Proportionality)

From my understanding (and any Germans on here, feel free to correct any misinterpretations I have)

German voters get two votes on their ballot. The first vote is for a local candidate in their district (like the US system), and the second vote is for a political party.

The final composition of their parliament must match the proportional party vote.

So half of legislature is populated by regional winners, and the other half is assigned by party leadership for the "filler seats" based on who needs to get what to make the numbers line up.


So, how that would work would be... (let's pretend the number is 700 just to keep the math easy)

350 of those seats would be populated by the regional winners, the other 350 would be assigned seats by party leadership.

Each "district" would be about 950,000 people (the states can divvy those up how they'd like, because gerrymandering would be a non-issue)


The results come in...
195 Republicans Won the local races, and 155 Democrats won local races
The party vote came in, and 53% of voters said "D", and 47% said "R"

How that would shake out for the "proportionally ensured seats"

• Democrats need: 371 total - 155 won = 216 proportional seats
• Republicans need: 329 total - 195 won = 134 proportional seats

That system not only makes gerrymandering "moot" in terms of unfair advantage, it actually make gerrymandering a liability if someone tried it.

If a party drew some wacky looking districts just to help a few specific guys get a victory, they'd actually be handing more proportional seats to the other party's leadership to assign (not elect), so there's almost an incentive to keep districts as proportional as possible, because you can strategize to beat someone in an election, there's no strategizing if the other party's leader can pick whoever they'd like to fill a seat.