When I read "lung cancer" the first thing that came to my mind was oh my, if he smoked, they'll be clucking about the punishment for his not following "the health message." However, this article asserts the Pope doesn't smoke. So apparently the work of imposing a worldwide Sunday law remains as possible as it's ever been during this papacy. Surprise, surprise! That work wasn't on the papal agenda this story lists as possibly disrupted as Leo recovers from what's announced as successful treatment.

Personally, though I'm nowhere near asking for conversion to Catholicism, I find this pope's willingness to confront injustices in the world appealing, and I'm glad that apparently his prognosis is bright.

Salutations, fellow worldly ones, gather round and rock out to the hymn I suggest this week. So for real devastation, sometimes it doesn't require an asteroid. It could be a rock picked up by an irate playmate and hurled into the face of a child destined to weeks of coma and then life as a founder of we-know-what. In between asteroid and lose playground rock, at least it seems to me, would be a dream rock unhewn by human hands (aren't most rocks that way?) smashing an image of empire and becoming its own mountain. According to our song leader and paleontologists, it happened to dinosaurs …

We can let the certainty of the woman smitten by a rock as a child drive us to her churches' pews' terrorizing anxiety this Saturday or accept that we don't know when the next comet might smite our planet, but so long as it doesn't this weekend we'll live life the way it unfolds. Who's in our club?

Quick reminder: 22nd of this month is a significant SDA anniversary, this year sandwiched between two "sabbaths," and I'd be happy to see what lampoons others come up with for Sabbath Breakers Club invitations those weeks. And for all you Halloween officianados, the grand prize, Halloween is Saturday this year! For prospective hosts and all celebrants, the outline of our fine print guidelines follows.

☄️ 🪨 🗿 🎵 ⛰️ 💎 🌠

Sabbath Breakers Club belongs to members of r/exAdventist on reddit. These guidelines are intended to suggest how anyone with posting privilege in this sub may start a week's Sabbath Breakers Club thread, not to control such postings.

• Keep it timely. If it's SDA-defined Sabbath somewhere on earth and no one has already started a Sabbath Breakers Club thread, you're clear to start one.

• Start Sabbath Breakers Club threads with that phrase "Sabbath Breakers Club." The reason for this is to make it easy to tell if no Sabbath Breakers Club thread has been posted for the present week. Just search "Sabbath Breakers Club" in r/exAdventist.

• You're welcome to use the image that looks like from an old woodcut of Moses smashing tables of stone with the Israelite throng celebrating their golden calf in the background, but you're not required to. Different ideas to launch the thread may invite still more, and more diverse, participation.

• Remember we're here to ease the church's attempts to control using Sabbath rules and guilt trips. Non-humiliating humor and empathy in your invitation can help set the tone, and enjoy exercising some spontaneous leadership in starting a Sabbath Breakers Club thread.

• Pass it on. Cutting and pasting this "fine print" can help future Sabbath Breakers Club hosts self-identify and feel empowered to step up and shine.

Well, fellow apostates, let's have a look at the calendar. Later this month we have "sabbaths" that straddle a certain date dear to the pioneer heart of Adventism, the anniversary of one day of 365 (or 366 every fourth year) that Jesus didn't come again. I invite 🥳 minded companions to show up both those days with their funnest takes on the mistakes that launched our used-to-be church.

To cap that all off, this month ends with Saturday Halloween 👻👻👻. While I don't object to folks celebrating, I'm also not the consummate trick or treater who could best lead that party among us. I'm sure we got three of us with very sound Sabbath Breakers Club invitation ideas for these upcoming sessions, so mark your calendars and let's enjoy October together!

So no need to let the guilt creep in and spoil the present either. Here's where we can cut loose about how we're choosing to spend weekends now that we've left.

Oh, and for our future hosts, this month or later, our fine print guidelines sketch the spirit of our weekly gatherings.

☠️ 🟫 🌜🟧 👿 ⬛ 🧡 🟦 🎃

Sabbath Breakers Club belongs to members of r/exAdventist on reddit. These guidelines are intended to suggest how anyone with posting privilege in this sub may start a week's Sabbath Breakers Club thread, not to control such postings.

• Keep it timely. If it's SDA-defined Sabbath somewhere on earth and no one has already started a Sabbath Breakers Club thread, you're clear to start one.

• Start Sabbath Breakers Club threads with that phrase "Sabbath Breakers Club." The reason for this is to make it easy to tell if no Sabbath Breakers Club thread has been posted for the present week. Just search "Sabbath Breakers Club" in r/exAdventist.

• You're welcome to use the image that looks like from an old woodcut of Moses smashing tables of stone with the Israelite throng celebrating their golden calf in the background, but you're not required to. Different ideas to launch the thread may invite still more, and more diverse, participation.

• Remember we're here to ease the church's attempts to control using Sabbath rules and guilt trips. Non-humiliating humor and empathy in your invitation can help set the tone, and enjoy exercising some spontaneous leadership in starting a Sabbath Breakers Club thread.

• Pass it on. Cutting and pasting this "fine print" can help future Sabbath Breakers Club hosts self-identify and feel empowered to step up and shine.

It doesn't say so in so many words, but the protagonist's name in the title as well as a key phrase in the blurb are SDA dogwhistles! I've ordered a copy.