In today’s digital era, live chat jobs have become an increasingly popular option for those seeking flexible and convenient remote work. This comprehensive review of “Live Chat Jobs” will provide an in-depth look at the nature of these roles, the skills required, the top companies hiring, and employee experiences. Through a detailed analysis of “Live Chat Jobs Reviews,” we aim to offer valuable insights for anyone considering this career path.
If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today
\***Affiliate disclaimer**** this article contains affiliate links if you click on the link and purchase the product I will receive a small commission from the product owner this is at no cost to you thank you James :)*

Understanding Live Chat Jobs

Nature of Work

Live chat jobs involve providing real-time customer support through online chat platforms. As a live chat agent, you interact with customers, answer their questions, troubleshoot issues, and provide guidance — all through a chat interface. These roles are often remote, allowing you to work from the comfort of your home.

Key Skills Required

To excel in live chat jobs, certain skills are essential:

• Communication Skills: Effective and clear communication is crucial. You must understand and interpret customer queries and provide concise responses.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Quick and creative problem-solving abilities are vital for resolving customer issues efficiently.
• Technical Skills: Proficiency in navigating chat systems and other relevant software is necessary.
• Customer Service Skills: Patience, professionalism, and empathy are key to managing customer interactions successfully.

If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today

Top Companies for Live Chat Jobs

Leading Employers

Several companies are renowned for offering excellent live chat job opportunities. According to various “Live Chat Jobs Reviews,” the following companies stand out:

• LiveChat: Known for its robust customer service platform, LiveChat offers competitive pay and growth opportunities.
• Smith.ai: Provides flexible work schedules and comprehensive training for its live chat agents.
• Apple: Offers attractive benefits and career advancement opportunities for its chat support staff.

Notable Mentions

Other notable companies include Clearcover, ExecOnline, and HubSpot, all of which provide competitive salaries, benefits, and remote work options. These companies frequently receive positive “Live Chat Jobs Reviews” for their supportive work environments and comprehensive training programs.

Job Market Insights

Salary Expectations

Based on “Live Chat Jobs Reviews,” the average salary for a live chat agent in 2024 is around $35,000 per year. However, this can vary widely depending on the company, location, and experience level. Some companies offer hourly pay rates, while others provide a base salary plus commission.

Job Growth Prospects

The demand for live chat agents is expected to grow as more companies move towards online customer service. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of customer service representatives, including live chat agents, is projected to grow by 2% from 2022 to 2032. The diverse applicability of these roles across various industries also contributes to their growing demand.

Employee Experiences

Positive reviews from employees highlight the benefits of working in live chat jobs. Many appreciate the remote work option, flexible schedules, and the opportunity for career growth. Commonly mentioned advantages include a better work-life balance and the ability to work from anywhere.
If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today

Tips for Success in Live Chat Jobs

• Be Professional: Maintain a professional tone, use proper grammar, and respond promptly.
• Be Empathetic: Show understanding and empathy towards customers’ concerns.
• Be Knowledgeable: Have a thorough understanding of the products or services you support.
• Be Proactive: Identify and resolve potential issues before they escalate.
• Be Flexible: Adapt to different customer personalities and situations.

Benefits of Live Chat Jobs

Flexibility

One of the most appealing aspects of live chat jobs is the flexibility they offer. You can set your own hours and work from home, making it easier to balance work with personal commitments.

Work-Life Balance

The remote nature of live chat jobs often leads to a better work-life balance. Without the need for a daily commute, you have more time for family, hobbies, and other pursuits.

Low Barrier to Entry

Live chat jobs typically do not require extensive qualifications or prior experience. As long as you have strong communication skills, you can secure an entry-level position.

Variety

The diverse range of customer interactions ensures that no two days are the same, keeping the job interesting and engaging.

Income Potential

With many live chat jobs offering $14-$25 per hour, the income potential is significant. Performance bonuses and incentives can further increase your earnings.
If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today

Challenges of Live Chat Jobs

Difficult Customers

Dealing with frustrated or impatient customers can be challenging. Maintaining a calm and professional demeanor is crucial but can be taxing.

Fast-Paced Environment

Handling multiple live chats simultaneously requires strong multitasking skills and the ability to work under pressure.

Technical Issues

Technical problems, such as connectivity issues or software glitches, can disrupt your work and require quick troubleshooting.

Self-Motivation

Working from home requires self-discipline and motivation to stay productive and avoid distractions.

Limited Career Progression

While there are opportunities for advancement, such as becoming a senior agent or supervisor, the upward mobility in live chat jobs can be limited compared to other fields.

How to Find and Apply for Live Chat Jobs

Job Search Tips

When searching for live chat jobs, prepare a detailed resume highlighting your communication abilities and relevant experience. Expect a typing test during the application process to assess your speed and accuracy. Aim for at least 60 words per minute with 90% accuracy.

Pre-Employment Assessments

Some companies conduct personality tests, writing samples, and multitasking tests to evaluate your suitability for the role. Be prepared to demonstrate your ability to handle multiple tasks and communicate effectively.

Recommended Websites

• LiveChat Jobs: A dedicated platform for finding live chat job opportunities.
• Working Solutions: Offers various customer support roles, including live chat positions.
• Smith.ai: Known for its flexible work schedules and comprehensive training.

If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today

How to Succeed and Grow as a Live Chat Agent

Master Core Platform Features

• Learn keyboard shortcuts for faster responses.
• Use predefined snippets for common replies.
• Set automatic greetings to welcome customers instantly.

Smoothly Handle Different Customers

• Angry Customers: Listen actively, validate their feelings, and focus on resolving their issues.
• Confused Customers: Ask clarifying questions and provide step-by-step support.
• Impatient Customers: Acknowledge their urgency and respond quickly.
• Overly Chatty Customers: Politely steer conversations back on track.

Boost Expertise

• Shadow top performers to learn from their experience.
• Build a personal knowledge base with resolution steps for common issues.
• Improve your technical skills to handle customer inquiries more effectively.

Improve Typing Abilities

• Benchmark your typing speed and aim for improvements.
• Practice regularly with online typing games and tools.
• Ensure proper ergonomics to prevent fatigue and improve speed.

Increase Income

• Upsell and cross-sell to increase order values.
• Gather positive feedback to improve your visibility and reputation.
• Volunteer for additional training or shadowing opportunities to expand your skill set.

If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today

Frequently Asked Questions about Live Chat Jobs

What qualifications do I need?

Strong written communication skills, typing ability, and basic computer literacy are essential. Some companies may require customer service experience or a college degree.

What equipment or tools will I need?

A modern computer with a stable high-speed internet connection is essential. Dual monitors and ergonomic accessories can improve productivity and comfort.

What is the work environment like?

The work environment is typically autonomous, with flexible schedules and independent tasks. Multitasking and managing multiple chats simultaneously are common.

How much does it pay?

Most live chat jobs pay between $14-$25 per hour. Performance bonuses and incentives can increase total earnings.

What are advancement opportunities like?

Advancement opportunities may include senior or supervisory roles. However, upward mobility can be limited compared to other fields.

Do you have any other advice?

Assess your strengths and weaknesses to ensure this career aligns with your skills and working style. Patience, focus, and conflict resolution skills are crucial for success in live chat jobs.

Conclusion

Live chat jobs offer a flexible and rewarding work-from-home opportunity. As highlighted in numerous “Live Chat Jobs Reviews,” these positions provide a good income, the ability to set your own schedule, and the comfort of working from home. While there are challenges, such as dealing with difficult customers and maintaining self-discipline, the benefits often outweigh the drawbacks. With the right skills and dedication, you can build a successful career in live chat support and enjoy the numerous advantages it offers.
If you want to learn more how to make money with Live Chat Jobs click this link to get all the training you need to get started today
\***Affiliate disclaimer**** this article contains affiliate links if you click on the link and purchase the product I will receive a small commission from the product owner this is at no cost to you thank you James :)*

On may 9th I started to have to go to the washroom more frequently I noticed that I had to go roughly every hour… I started feeling back pain on my right side more of a pressure pain. I initially thought I may be getting a kidney stone and boy was I wrong! I’m going to tell you guys my experience and how crazy this has been… here’s a little context. I am currently going through a divorce (which was my own doing), financially I am tight as I have to uphold two mortgages one being my own and other being portion of a rental property I own. However the rental property is not a positive cash flow atm due to high interest rates. A lot has happened in May. I had to buy a new dryer as my drying machine just went, also a new microwave (over stove). I work in sales and with high interest everyone is so tight with money and people aren’t spending nearly as much as they were a year ago. I could go on about more but no need. So may 9th it began, all day that day I had to constantly go to washroom almost every hour, I smoked some weed and went to bed. That night I ended up wetting myself a little overnight (this was a first) I panicked and snapped out of it however the next few days I would continue to have back pain and constantly peeing, unfortunately I started doing some google reading on this and I had pre determined myself that maybe I had a kidney stone and just needed to drink more fluids and try to get better. It went on until Wednesday may 15th at this stage my lower back pain had increased and I started noticing pain in my abdomen area also. I went to doctors and did some sampling. They found microscopic blood in my urine but weren’t sure what it could be and sent it in for further testing on top of that in Canada the long weekend was coming which typically means you won’t get lab results until mid next week (this week). Now this continued as I was freaking out about blood in my urine and more googling which made things worse… Friday May 17th comes around. At this stage I was extremely worried and was going to washroom every 30 mins until night time. Night time was horrible (I don’t wish this on my worst enemy) at night time while trying to go to sleep I started to go to washroom every 5-10mins and shortly after around 1AM Saturday I couldn’t get off toilet the back pain had increased and abdomen pain had increased. It left like my bladder was just squeezing everything out! I panicked further! I spiralled and broke down, I went to the hospital. Once I got to hospital and told them my symptoms they believed I was passing a kidney stone but they wanted to confirm and do a CT scan, blood work, and a urine sample. Few hours later my results were in… everything was fine. The doctor said he was not sure exactly what was happening but thinks I have something called “interstitial cystitis” however said I should speak to my family doctor and see a urologist. This is where I started doing more research as I couldn’t take going to washroom so much… I came across urinary frequency and one of the causes was anxiety and stress… I’ve always told my self that I have never had anxiety and never have experienced it. On google I came across a Reddit and it was someone who has experienced similar things and it turned out to be just anxiety. Currently as I am typing this I am improving quite a bit I no longer have to go every 5-10 mins. I go roughly every 2 hours. I am still in recovery as I do have moments where I need to go within 20 mins of just going to the washroom. However I have not taken any medicine I have slowly learned to accept things and get better and this has helped a lot with my anxiety. I have learned that somethings I cannot control but everything will be ok. I started to keep busy (deep clean the house, do all laundry, cooking, lawn work) and that really helped grounding me. Also one thing that helped me is start to relieving some weight. I’ve had weight on my shoulders about leaving my wife so I apologized to her last night saying that I am sorry for making her feel like her world is getting destroyed as we have a child which we will have to share custody. I also am writing this to get better. Please know guys if you are going through this it will all be ok! You have to overcome what is bothering you and accept it. The mind is very powerful, we can make ourselves sick even when we aren’t. I’m sure this isn’t my last time with this but I hope my experience helps you! And know you will be ok.

Mussie Ezaz, who is married and has three children, was arrested in September 2007 for his work as a youth minister with the Kale Hiwot (Word of Life) Church. He had worked as an evangelist for 14 years and served with Youth for Christ for a number of years before establishing a youth ministry at the Kale Hiwot Church.
After his arrest, Mussie was taken to a small village prison staffed by young soldiers. He managed to escape with the help of fellow Christians and, after calling his family to say goodbye, he headed for the border. Upon reaching a border town about 60 miles from the village, he called his family to let them know he had made it. But shortly afterward, Eritrean authorities arrested him before he could cross into a neighboring country.
WRITE TO MUSSIE TODAY
For a long time after his arrest, Mussie’s family had no knowledge of his whereabouts and no information about his health. Eritrean believers feared he had been killed or left alone in a remote prison cell in the desert. However, more recent reports indicate that Mussie is in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, in a maximum-security crime investigation unit where many other church leaders have been imprisoned, some for more than 10 years. As with other Christians imprisoned in Eritrea, Mussie has been held without charge or trial. His family does not know if he will ever be released.
You can pray for Mussie and his family, and write an encouraging letter to him and other imprisoned Christians by visiting prisoneralert.com.
We also invite you to stand with imprisoned Christians and their families by offering spiritual encouragement and practical assistance, while being a voice for them among other members of the body of Christ. To learn how, click below.
“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” —HEBREWS 13:3
The Voice of the Martyrs
STAND WITH THEM

My 5 year old daughter is undergoing treatment for leukaemia its dismantled our live as we both can't work, my Income protection insurance has been declined. The ombudsman didn't uphold my complaint as I was preoccupied with my daughter, since coming out of hospital after 7 months I have found a new strong reason why the claim should not have been declined, a new reason previously not addressed and with medical proof from a NHS Psychologist, leading mental health organisation and my GP. Given it's a new complaint challenging the same claim decision. I need advice on how to encourage the ombudsman to see this as a new complaint and open a new case on this. Its impossible for regular people to get justice through the legal system as its too expensive. LV insurances board is full of solicitors.
The new proof is an NHS psychiatrist letter stating that ADHD is not a Mental Disorder therefore does not sit within the exclusion they used to decline my claim, the exclusion is for mental disorders only. This particular matter has not been addressed by the ombudsman previously.
We are a hard working family, we have never claimed benefits in our live (we have been lucky) The UK government will not support us at all as we have rental property for us to retire on (there is no passive income from them now).
We have not and do not wish to go to any charities and will sell the rental property at a loss before we think about this, but this means our retirement planning is derailed.
We paid £100 a month for nearly three years to LV insurance and they have let us down badly using a technicality, if you think about it the reason why we are currently unable to work is because of the impact of our daughters sickness.
Any advice will be helpful; even if its how to get publicity around this, we think we have a safety net when we pay our insurances in good faith. We have literally had no help from anywhere.
Please up vote and please share, I want people to know LV insurance company is doing this to vulnerable people. I am happy to share evidence to confirm I am being truthful.

I today got my boards results and I scored really really less marks. Overall percentage is only 65% and 43, 51 and 55 in physics chemistry maths. I expected these scores as the time during the boards were not really good for me and I almost had no studies during the second term of my school, due to health related issues.
My mid term grades and also all my high school grades were spectacular and always above 90. But the second term of my 12th grade was really really horrible and these marks are no surprise to me nor my family.
But I know that whatever the reason be the score is horrible and will put me in chance to get my acceptance rescinded. I have already paid my enrollment deposit at this college, the college is not very selective and also not at all in league of top 20 or 50, but still a good school.
I do not want my acceptance to get rescinded as it is still the best option for me. I wanted to know are there any next steps that I should take from my side to avoid this from happening.
Should I write an email to admissions office explaining my situation and ask them directly that will they rescind me or not? OR Should I wait till my counselor sends them the marksheet, (that will be after 15 days) and wait and see that they will send me a warning letter or not?
If my acceptance gets rescinded at this one, I think I should know it quickly so I could enroll deposit in any other public college that will not rescind my acceptance.
I am really confused here please guide me. Any help would be appreciated.

I’m wondering if anyone has experience of this. I volunteer in a programme where I meet up with a young person. I offer support, go do activities etc. I was using my car locally to go to activities and majority of the time the young person travelled with me. Recently the organisation have been looking for my insurance documents. (There insurance doesn’t cover driving) I queried why I would have to share my insurance policy as it doesn’t seem the norm. I was told there was a new ‘policy’, I asked to view the policy and I was sent a 1 line guideline. So then I was asked just to send on my insurance certificate so I ended up contacting my insurance in order to get a new one. While chatting with them they asked why I was looking for it and I explained why. I was informed that I needed to purchase extra cover as my personal insurance doesn’t cover the use of my car for work/volunteering purposes. They asked do I need to get a letter of indemnity. I went back to the organisation and they said no.
I had a meeting recently and the organisation told me I just have to treat it like driving a friend or family member. They said no other volunteer has had this issue and I said I didn’t know there was an issue too. I was quite upset when I found out because if there had been an accident my insurance wouldn’t have covered me. They asked who my insurance provider was. The person contradicted me three times telling me I was wrong. I said I will have to go with what my insurance says and asked would the organisation be covering the cost if they want me to use my car. (Being in the programme is not supposed to cost us anything but often does.) I suggested that all volunteers should be made aware so they can contact their insurance providers.
Has anyone had a similar issue and know more about insurance cover? I just think I’d be opening myself up to liability if anything were to happen.

Dear Gus,
I hope this letter finds you well. I've been thinking a lot about our friendship lately and felt it was important to reach out to you. You mean a great deal to me, and I value the bond we have shared over the years. That's why it’s been so difficult for me to notice how distant you've become lately, and I find myself struggling to understand why.
We used to talk about everything and spend so much time together, but now it feels like there’s a wall between us. I’ve tried reaching out, but it seems like you’re always busy or uninterested. I can't help but feel a deep sense of loss and confusion. It hurts to think that something might be wrong and I don’t know what it is.
I’ve always thought of us as more than friends, almost like family. Your presence in my life has always been a source of joy and comfort. But now, with this growing distance, I feel a profound sense of sadness and worry. It’s hard not to take your apathy and indifference personally, and I find myself questioning if I've done something to cause this change.
If I have done something to hurt you or upset you, please know that it was never my intention, and I deeply apologize. Your feelings are incredibly important to me, and I want to understand what’s going on so we can work through it together. Ignoring the issue is only causing more pain and misunderstanding.
Please, can we talk about this? I miss the closeness we once had and I genuinely want to know how you’re feeling. Our friendship means the world to me, and I don’t want to lose it. I am here for you, ready to listen and to make things right, if given the chance.
Take care, and I hope to hear from you soon.
With heartfelt concern,
Bruce

Apple TV+ is one of the strangest streamers out there, with almost no licensed TV or film content and a small number of originals. That makes the best movies on Apple TV+ easy to find. There simply aren’t that many! Apple is clearly taking a “quality over quantity” approach, with its money spread across genres and targeted at making its subscribers (many roped in with a deal that came with one of the company’s tech products) treat it like a real contender. It also helps that it’s only $4.99 a month, or free for a year if you’ve just purchased a new (and eligible) device.
With films from up-and-comers like Minhal Baig, arthouse favorites like Sofia Coppola and Werner Herzog, some A-list music docs, one of the best animated movies of the 2020s and Martin Scorsese’s latest, Apple TV+ is actually making the case that it belongs in the conversation alongside the more established services. As long as it keeps adding good movies to its roster, that is. It recently snagged a few critical darlings like Killers of the Flower Moon and Wolfwalkers.

10. The Pigeon Tunnel

For a documentary about one of the most celebrated writers of spy fiction, The Pigeon Tunnel can seem—at first glance—deceptively placid. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, the film features an extended conversation between David Cornwell, AKA John le Carre, and Oscar-winning docmaker Errol Morris. It’s just that. Two people talking, with Morris off-screen, their parrying question-and-answers broken up with archival images and re-enactments of Cornwell’s past, as well as snippets from the classic movies or TV adaptations based on his spy universe: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and A Perfect Spy.

9. Hala

Writedirector Minhal Baig’s Hala is an intimate coming-of-age drama held up by its personal writerly touches and a star-making turn from Geraldine Viswanathan as the title character. Hala’s struggling with the same kinds of things we normally see high school characters struggle with: What to do after graduation, how to manage a relationship with her parents that’s not quite adult and not quite childish, and (of course) boys. Viswanathan’s understated quiet and the warmth in which the situations are shot (almost always centered on her face)—be they at a family dinner or a walk in a Chicago park or a reading of a high school English assignment—make the dramatic ricochet of Hala’s minor rebellion rattle us all the harder.

8. Boys State

The tendency to read too much into Boys State as a representative of American politics—contemporary, functional, broken and otherwise—doesn’t quite line up with the event itself, in which every year the American Legion sponsors a sort of mock government sleepaway camp in Texas for high school boys (girls get a similar program of their own), where attendees join parties, run for office, craft platforms, run campaigns, hold debates, then ultimately exercise their right to vote.

7. On the Rocks

Sofia Coppola’s new movie On the Rocks starts out as a story of possessive fatherhood, with Felix (Bill Murray) narrating to his teenage daughter, Laura: “And remember, don’t give your heart to any boys. You are mine until you get married. Then you’re still mine.” The girl laughs off the declaration as a jape, which turns out to be a catastrophic tactical mistake. In her womanhood, Laura (Rashida Jones), does indeed get married to a man, Dean (Marlon Wayans), and they have two beautiful daughters of their own, eldest Maya (Liyanna Muscat) and youngest Theo (Alexandra Mary Reimer).

6. Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You

The black-and-white behind-the-scenes documentary accompaniment to Bruce Springsteen’s album of the same name, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You is a beautiful and companionable tour through the music and its making from an American master. Director Thom Zimny buys into the album’s concept, which focuses on just how long Springsteen’s been at this thing. Poignant juxtaposition with archival footage and pictures emphasizes just how long the E Streeters have been at this—and reminds us of who and what was lost along the way.
Also Read: The Last Duel

5. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

Werner Herzog will show you multiple clips from Mimi Leader’s Deep Impact for no other reason than because he likes them, he finds them well-done and evocative—he says as much in that even-keeled, oddly accented voice over—then soon after chastise “film school doctrine” when complimenting a field video shot by a South Korean meteor specialist in Antarctica. Like Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin, his documentary from earlier in the year, Fireball (co-directed with Clive Oppenheimer, with whom he made 2016’s Into the Inferno) is less about what it’s about (meteorites, shooting stars, cosmic debris—and the people who love them) than it is about Werner Herzog’s life, which is his filmography, which is a heavily manipulated search for ultimate truth.

4. CODA

Sometimes a movie so successfully plunges you into its world that it completely engulfs you in a lived-in experience. From the gorgeous, scenic opening moments of CODA, you can almost smell the Atlantic salt air and pungent scent of the daily catch. The movie transports you to Gloucester, Massachusetts and lovingly drops you into the life of one family. Seventeen-year-old Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) is what the title of the movie refers to—a child of deaf adults.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas

We could get into plenty of arguments over which Charlie Brown animated special is best, but A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite pull of the bunch. Charlie Brown’s confrontation with the Christmas season’s commercialism (back in 1965 no less) and a sad little fir tree make this a cartoon classic, as the ultimate funny-pages shlimazel suffers endless social indignities (no Christmas cards) and the holiday blues.

2. Wolfwalkers

Wolfwalkers is filmmaker and animator Tomm Moore’s latest project out of Cartoon Saloon, the animation studio he co-founded in 1999 with Paul Young, and the capper to his loosely bound Irish folklore trilogy (begun with 2009’s The Secret of Kells and continued with 2014’s Song of the Sea). At first blush, the film appears burdened with too much in mind—chiefly thoughts on everything from English colonialism to earnest portraiture of Irish myths, the keystones of Moore’s storytelling for the last decade.

1. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese has made a career telling stories that tackle issues of justice, retribution and betrayal. From his overt and poetic crime films, through to his dark comedies, religious parables and character pieces, he has long been drawn to stories where the ambiguities of life collide with the complexities of survival, and where day-to-day choices result in consequences sometimes obvious, and sometimes far more subtle and insidious.

So background of my family dynamic… I am the youngest out of 3 kids… My mom and dad are still together but not legally married, both are in their 70s… My father is a veteran, who is at 100% disability status… We as a family take care of him, under the same roof.. Since my sister WFH, naturally she does more for our parents are far as taking them to Dr’s appointments and grocery shopping… Before we all moved into the house we are at now, my parents and I lived in another smaller home, and it was on me to get them places and do the shopping, since neither of them are able to drive anymore… IT WAS LITERALLY ALWAYS ON ME, since I was the only child there with them… Background of my parents relationship, my mother and father have always fought, as far back as I can remember, I am now 40 years old.. Their fights would range from arguing, yelling, and sometimes physical altercation…My mother has stated that she does not love my father anymore because of past issues, but has no problem spending his VA money, mind you mostly on frivolous Amazon buys, ie: Phone cases, apple watch cases, shoes and clothes, that she doesn’t even wear anywhere, remember my parents do not drive… Pretty much any extra money her or my father has, she spends it on herself, never puts it into the household to help everyone… She has always been money hungry and manipulative and very selfish… Which as you can imagine being who I am a very considerate person and mainly kind… I admit 2 years ago I wasn’t that kind, I realized I had mental issues, and sought help with therapy and medication… These days I am much more patient and kind… I was sick mentally and didn’t realize how bad my depression and anxiety got, until I had a nervous breakdown… Anyway, I resent my mother for her ways, and how she treats my sister compared to how she treats me, and how she treats my father, regardless of their past history, both parties have done wrong in my eyes back then… Of course I love my mother, I just see her for who she is as far character… Now, a friend of mine explained to me about becoming a caretaker for my father, and how the VA will give caretakers a stipend every month to help take care of the veteran in your life… I mulled it over for months before even bringing it up to everyone, mainly my dad.. Who was all for it because again it would help the household out with extra money… I told my mom about it and she was at first skeptical, and didn’t actually believe it was a thing, so she basically said I don’t care… Well of course that changed when I told her the amount a caretaker could receive… Weeks went by and no one asked anything about it…Fast forward to last week and I decided to go ahead and fill the applications out… I put me down as primary because I was filling it out and brought it to everyone’s attention about the program, and I put my sister down as the second caretaker… Again no one really cared about the program until I got the ball rolling… Today 3 envelopes from the VA came to the house addressed to my father, sister and me… I read my letter and it stated that our application had been withdrawn because the 2nd caretaker( my sister) withdrew the application…Confused ofc and slightly enraged, I asked my mom, how could they deny the application, she stated she didn’t know, smh… Then I asked if my sister withdrew it, she said to ask her.. So I called my sister downstairs to get to the bottom of this, atp I am irate… She comes downstairs and I ask if she withdrew the apps and she said yes, I asked her why, and she says because Im not the primary, not realizing she inadvertently caused no one to receive money, unless we apply again… She then says, in the mist of me going off on everyone except my father, that she had already applied again as the primary, I then looked at my mom and asked who is the second caretaker, which she implied she was, even tho she had just stated she didnt know what happened… I giggled to prevent myself from being more angry and from slapping the literal piss out of my sister, I grabbed my things and stormed off to my room, while my mom is telling me to calm down… They didnt even care about the program until I got that ball rolling, and then went behind my back and removed me all together…Side note, my sister does do a lot for the household, so im not disputing her being a caretaker, I am hurt and mad because they went behind my back and removed me, from receiving a stipend…And this is not the first time they have deliberately cut me out of something… So AITAH?

Below you'll find information and links to help advocate for Reproductive Freedoms and Abortion care in Canada and emerging policy issues with the Reddit platform. This is a recurring post and will be periodically updated as needed. Feel free to post additional information and discussions in the comments.
Advocating for Abortion Care in Canada:

• There is a serious lack of Abortion Care options in Canada, particularly in the rural areas, and for those living on reserves, they have almost no access to Abortion care. People may have to travel more than 100km and across provincial lines to access abortion. Some have to travel by plane from their rural community to one with an abortion clinic or hospital. This puts an unfair financial and logistical burden on those that need to access abortion care. Provincial Health Insurance Plans do not cover travel costs related to receiving medical care.
• Because many provinces have few facilities that provide Abortion care, this places an unreasonable load on the clinics that do exist, forcing clients to look elsewhere for facilities with capacity to help them. In Alberta, there is one clinic for every 209,077 people who can become pregnant (number of assigned-at-birth females between the ages of 15-29). PEI, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon Territory each only have 1 Abortion care provider. Nunavut only has 2 abortion providers, and of those, only one offers medical abortion covered by the provincial health insurance plan. In fact, 9 (out of a total of 13) Canadian provinces and territories have five or fewer facililities offering abortion care in their entire province. And 10 Canadian provinces and territories have one or fewer (0) rural facililities offering abortion care.
• Some provinces, have more restrictive guidelines regarding abortion, limiting access to abortion care to those with a gestational period of less than 12 weeks (meaning, 12 weeks since the first day of your last period, not 12 weeks since you discovered you were pregnant or when you had sex). Many people who menstruate have irregular periods. Some people might only menstruate every 2 or 3 months, and might only discover that they are pregnant near the gestation limit of 12 weeks.
• Insurance coverage also limits access to abortions. Some provinces, like Nunavut, do not offer coverage for medical abortions unless they are prescribed and performed in a hospital. And being a rural province, there also happens to be only 1 hospital in Nunavut - Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqualuit. New Brunswick will only cover abortion services in a hospital setting, which means that abortion medical care provided in clinics are not covered by their Provincial Health Insurance Plan.
• Sexual and reproductive health services are among the services that physicians, pharmacists and nurse practitioners are most frequently unwilling to provide on moral or religious grounds. People who have been harassed and/or attacked while visiting an Abortion clinic may experience stigma and/or discrimination from their peers, especially in smaller, rural communities where everyone knows one another. People refused care by health care professionals because of personal beliefs may experience stigma and/or discrimination, forcing them to travel outside of their community to receive the care they need. This can all be particularly daunting for young people or those with limited resources.
• Everyone in Canada is supposed to have equal rights to access health care, regardless of race, age, class, immigration status, gender expression, sexuality and ability. Nevertheless, anyone's right to seek abortion care can be be impacted by discrimination and bigotry, both systemic and as a result of individual prejudice on the part of service providers. Racism, xenophobia, classism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and ageism in Canada are all direct and intersecting barriers to accessing abortion. It is much more difficult for a person who doesn\u2019t speak English to access abortion services, despite the presence of a translator. Transpeople also experience discrimination at higher rates in reproductive health care settings. Providers may also lack the knowledge or training to provide trans-affirming abortion care and abortion services are typically housed within *women\u2019s* health care departments.
• Further compounding the issue of inequitable abortion access are unregulated crisis pregnancy centres (CPCs), which are anti-choice pregnancy centres that advertise in hospitals, doctor's offices, churches, schools and community centre. They deceive people coming to them for options and advice by giving misinformation about abortion or by insisting on options that may delay or interfere with the clients ability to access the care they need. CPCs far outnumber abortion care providers in Canada. In Ontario alone, there are 77 active CPCs but only 38 abortion care providers. Overall, in Canada, there are 165 known CPCs compared to 147 abortion care providers (as of August 2022).

Reference: Policy Options, via the Institute for Research on Public Policy and Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights
What can you do to improve access to abortion care in Canada?

1. Listen, research and learn. This is always the first step to understand any problem.
2. Send a letter to your MP and MPP. Tell them that access to abortion care is important and how difficult it can be to access it in your province. Urge them to prevent anti-choice groups and CPCs from receiving charitable status, and to revoke the charitable status from CPCs that already have it. Encourage them to include reasonable reimbursement for travel costs related to receiving medical care when it is not available in your community. And push them to pass Safe Access Zone Legislation to protect patients, practitioners and their staff from anti-choice harassment and intimidation.
3. Give a donation to a pro-choice charitable organization of your choice. Remember, if you give a total of $201 CDN or more to Canadian charitable organizations, you'll get a credit of 29% of your total annual donations on your income taxes (for those that file Canadian Income Taxes, only).
4. Sign up for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada Newsletter. https://www.arcc-cdac.ca/
5. Participate in local marches and rallys in support of access to abortion care.
6. Spread the Word. Tell your friends and family. Encourage them to research, listen and learn. Encourage them to contact their MPP and MPs.
7. If you work in a Doctor's office or as a family physician, consider incorporating Mifegymiso into your practice to ensure patients have timely access to this essential service. If you are a Doctor, or studying to be one, consider opening an Abortion Care practice when you are licensed and qualified to do so, especially in rural areas where there are a lack of options.
8. If you work in politics, consider proposing legislation that will ensure safe access zones for abortion care providers and their clients and covering reasonable travel costs for constituents when medical care is not available in their community.
9. If you are a journalist or work in media, consider preparing pieces sharing the difficulty Canadians can have accessing medical care such as abortions.
10. If you work in the area of Not For Profit/Advocacy, consider partnering with a Pro-choice organization and helping them spread information and lobby for improving access to abortion care for Canadians.
11. If you know someone who needs abortion care, consider giving them a ride to a clinic, helping them access the advice and care they need, and provide non-judgemental support.
12. Ensure persons of First Nations, Metis and Inuit heritage know about Jordan's Principle, which ensures that First Nations children (which includes people who can become pregnant under the age of 18) can access the products, services and supports they need, when they need them. https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1568396042341/1568396159824

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emerging Policy Issues with Reddit
On July 1, 2023, Reddit raised the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that killed every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader. This policy change meant that mobile users would have a lesser experience browsing Reddit, users with visual difficulties could not browse reddit as screenreaders are not compatible with the official Reddit app, and mods lost tools that they depend on to keep communities on-topic and spam-free. Many subreddits protested this change in June 2023, and the Reddit admins enforced draconian measures such as removing and replacing mods who privatized their subreddits in protest of this policy change.
On September 12, 2023, Reddit will eliminate reddit coins, including removing all accumulated coins, a perk that Reddit Premium users pay for every month. Coins are used to reward comments and posts by showing your appreciation for the effort. Some reddit coins offer the ability to use reddit without ads.
In March 2024, Reddit had an IPO (Initial Public Offering), and the founder and current CEO, as well as the COO have sold $500,000 of their shares. How does this effect you? Reddit may face pressure to increase revenues to attract investors. This could lead to more ads or new monetization features. There could also be changes to the platform to attract a wider user base, such as bans and censorship on certain topics or words and control over content to appease more conservative shareholders or users.
What can you do to protest policy changes at Reddit?

1. Listen, research and learn. Check /modcoord for updates
2. Cancel your Reddit Premium membership
3. Participate in subreddit led protests
4. Look for other forums to patronize. We have a forum on Discord called Auntie Network Canada. Message the mods here for an invite link to the Discord group.
5. Complain. Message the mods of reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on reddit. Leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app.

Any opinions on whether a county judge may consider our farm exempt under the TN Right to Farm Act?
My wife and I purchased a house in Monroe county TN in 2022 with 1.5 acres with the intent to start a small market farm, selling vegetables and flower to farmers market and direct to consumers.
18 months into living here, setting up 1/2 acre garden, and getting approved for a $20k grant to build 2 large high tunnels, my neighbor (previous owner) presented me with deed restrictions he placed on the property in 2007 when he sold it.
We were told the property had no restrictions when we purchased it, and I have a legal document from the seller (different guy than who placed restrictions) stating there are no restrictions or HOAs.
The neighbor who placed the restrictions had his lawyer send me a letter stating we would be in violation if we construct the high tunnels and/or operate a business on the property.
I would like to make a claim for declaratory judgment allowing us to farm under the TN Right to Farm Act T.C.A. § 43-26-101 et. seq. High tunnels are also generally defined as “temporary structures” and should be allowed even if not exclusively exempt under the Right to Farm Act.
Below is the language from the deed restrictions.
This conveyance is made SUBJECT to all visible easements or rights-of-way, whether private or public and is further made SUBJECT to the following RESTRICTIONS and COVENANTS:
LAND USE: This property may be used only for residential purposes, with one (1) single-family dwelling permitted. The above tract shall not be subdivided into additional lots or tracts. Under no circumstances will the residence be used to house individuals involved with drug rehabilitation, a half-way house for paroled prisoners or as a residence for homeless or victims of communicable diseases.
OUTBUILDINGS and SWIMMING POOLS: New or rebuilt outbuildings shall be restricted to residential type tool houses, garages, bath houses, or equipment buildings which shall be for the use only of the occupants of the residence. All outbuildings must be either stone, brick, stucco, block, vinyl or wood siding. All outbuildings that are to be built shall have roofs that are wood, metal, asphalt or fiberglass shingles or slate. In-ground and above ground swimming pools shall be located in the rear of the residence.
RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES: If the need arises to rebuild the home, the dwelling shall have a minimum 1,400 square feet o f heated and air-conditioned living space, excluding garages, porches, and heated basements; multi-levels shall have a minimum of 1,400 square feet on the first ground level at the highest elevation, which shall be heated and air conditioned living space.
EXTERIOR MATERIAL COMPOSITION: If the need arises to rebuild the home, exterior walls must be either stone, brick, stucco, vinyl or wood construction. Metallic siding or equal materials can be used in wood areas for structures such as eaves, soffits, and facia. Roof materials shall be wood, metal or fiberglass singles, or slate.
BUILDING LOCATION: No new buildings (or rebuilt structures) shall be built closer than 25 feet from any boundary line of the property.
ANIMALS: Dogs, cats and other household pets may be raised, and kept on the lot except for commercial purposes. The intent is to restrict the use of these animals for family use and enjoyment, and to specifically prohibit feed lots, horses, cattle, poultry, hogs, or other animals that would interfere with the residential development of this property.
RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES: Mobile homes, manufactured homes, camping trailers, tents, temporary structures, factory built pre-fabricated homes, modular homes and transported or movable homes, are specifically prohibited to be used for temporary or permanent housing. Prefabricated structural units such as trusses or panels are permitted.
WASTE MANAGEMENT: Any garbage or trash containers shall be located on the rear of the residence. No burning of trash, rubbish, garbage, or refuse shall be allowed. No individual sewage-disposal shall be permitted on this lot unless such system is designed, located and constructed in accordance with the state and local health authorities. Approval of such systems as installed shall be obtained from such authorities.
DUMPING: The property shall not be used as a dumping ground for trash, rubbish, junk or garbage, and shall not be used for the storage of junk vehicles.
OIL and MINING OPERATIONS: No quarrying or mining operations of any kind shall be permitted upon or in this lot, nor shall oil wells, tanks, tunnels, mineral excavations or shafts be permitted on this lot.
ENFORCEMENT: Enforcement shall be by the proceedings at law or equity by the Grantors, or their lineal descendants, against any person or persons violating or attempting to violate any covenant either to restrain violation, or to recover damages.
TERM: These covenants are to run with the land and shall be binding on all parties and on all persons claiming under them for a period of 50 years from the date of this instrument.
NUISANCES: No business operations shall be conducted on the premises, except in-house child care not designated as a child care center, certified public accountants, traveling salesmen, using the home as an in-house office, etc. No noxious or offensive activity shall be carried on which may become annoying to the neighborhood. No illegal activities may be conducted on the premises
SIGNS : No sign of any kind shall be displayed on this lot except one (1) professional sign of not more than two (2) square feet, one sign of not more than five (5) square feet advertising the property for sale or rent, or signs used by a builder to advertise the property during construction and sales.
SEVERABILITY: Invalidation of any one of these covenants by judgment of a Court of competent jurisdiction shall not affect any of the other provisions which shall remain in full force and effect.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said real estate, with the appurtenances, estate

My qualifications are below:
Did 10th in 2015
Joined Diploma in 2021 , B-Tech(24 Batch) : Computer Science & Engineering. You can see i have 3 years gap. after 10th. That's cus i failed 12th twice. Got selected in 3/4 companies but they didn't gave offer letter
Now i am looking for jobs since January and haven't got any interviews. Should i just go for MBA? thinking there i might get a good job? My main focus is to get back on my feet.
I don't go to family functions, attend calls from cousins. Fearing they will ask me about job status.
All of my friends of same age are very well placed. I am from Delhi/NCR. Life has been very poor, Girlfriend too dumped me when she got placed (later she didnt got job offer too). But please someone guide me: 1. Should i pursue MBA? I am General and don't think i can get 90+ % to attain a set in top IIMs

1. Should i just join any job (i am getting a recruiting agency job) for 25k per month.
   
2. Should i just keep looking for more jobs and keep upskilling??
   

The thing is i do not want to waste my time as i am old already. Neither i wanna stick myself into a job where there is no future growth. I can understand in childhood i have made very terrible mistakes.

I got selected for Adit associate in KPMG KGS India in campus placement in January this year. Now my collage ended, I have been sitting idle in my home. The document verification was done few weeks back. And it says ' Interview to be scheduled '. I haven't got any updates since then, i am worried they might retract the offer and my family pressurs me to look fr other options. Does any one know how long does it take get offer letter in such circumstances? Or should I look for other jobs?

It was my cousin sister's wedding and we are Indians, so if you are Indian or know Indian friends/weddings, you know the drill - the daysss long wedding events, the heavy dresses and jewelry, and also, some serious family dramas.
My cousin and I are very close even if there is a huge age gap between us. Naturally, when her wedding came around I was very excited and I helped a lot with the planning and decoration and the food - literally everything. It was exactly as we have imagined her wedding to be like. Just perfect in every way possible. But again, it's a wedding. How is a wedding ever complete with a Drama Llama? So dear potato community, here is the tea.
The man that my cousin was marrying to, my current BIL, is an amazing man who has been with my cousin since their college days. They were friends in their college days and when they started working they joined the same company so they remained close to each other. Friendship turned into love and they decided to date and eventually get married. Both the families were informed and everyone was very happy with their decisions, except just one person. BIL's sister. She didn't have any personal problems with my cousin, her only issue was that her best friend liked my BIL, let's name this friend the 'idiot' (because she truly is an idiot and this is honestly the nicest word I can use for her).
When idiot found out that BIL loved someone else and is getting married, she went ballistic. She has been trying to get his attention for so many years and he didn't even turn towards her even for one day and he was being head over heels for my cousin. I understand her being upset, I have been a girl in love and in heartbreak too, but I wouldn't try to break someone's marriage because of my heartbreak.
Yes she tried to stop their marriage via BIL's sister. The two forged all types of absurd accusations on my cousin and tried to anonymously sneak in the accusations in means of messages from unknown numbers to my cousin's then future FIL and MIL, to emails and even letters delivered to their doorstep. My cousin was really stressed because she thought the FIL and MIL would think the accusations are true and would stop the wedding. I told her, "don't worry sisso, I am here." (add dramatic music here and imagine a cape on my back).
My cousin's father (my maternal uncle), me and my brother first went to the FIL and MIL to let them know that all of this was false and that my cousin is innocent. We asked them for some time and that we will find proof of who has been sending them those false news and will let them know of everything and then they are free to judge and make decisions from their side. We got the permission from them and decided to get to work immediately.
One thing I forgot to mention was that BIL used to live in his own house in a different state from where his parents lived after he got a job. Before this, my cousin and BIL used to live in one town and went to college together. Once they got their jobs, they both came to my city, BIL got his own house and my cousin came to live with me. His family came to live with him when he told them that he wanted to marry so they came help him with the wedding arrangements. What's unfortunate is that the sister also brought her best friend, the 'idiot', who was in love with my BIL since she was 15 and BIL was 17.
I mentioned BIL having his own separate house in a new town because it was important to mention. Both his sister and the idiot didn't know he installed security cameras in his house and that the camera was pretty well hidden so they couldn't have noticed either. We asked BIL if we can see the camera's recordings and we saw someone early in the morning at 4 am dropping a letter. Guess who it was... THE IDIOT!! We showed it to my cousin's FIL and MIL and they cross questioned the idiot about it and she was in tears and admitted to everything. She and BIL's sister apologized for everything. They were forgiven and it was a happily ever after... or so you thought...
Everything after that was pretty peaceful, all the arrangements were made and we are now at the wedding day. My cousin was really jumpy and on her toes at all times, she was panicking so bad about everything. My brother and I had to sit her down and talk her out of her panic. She however mentioned that she was scared that idiot might try to pull up some sick stunt to ruin her wedding day. I however told to her calm down cause I wouldn't let my precious angel's wedding get ruined. I have seen enough Charlotte's videos to know that we must always have a backup plan prepared in advance in situations like this. And so I did. I collected a lot of information and evidences and kept them in place in case they come in handy.
I had my suspicions that they would do something to mess up the wedding way before it even became a thought in my cousin's mind, so I did a little research about the two. Since we all belong from the same hometown, I got in contact with my friends who still lived in the town that my cousin and my BIL used to live in. I asked around about these two baboons and found out that BIL's sister had a boyfriend and has even slept with him. Premarital smex is a big no no here. As for the idiot, I found out that she was slowly getting BIL's sister into illegal substances and into becoming a call girl. Again, a big no no. And I think no parent in this world would want their child to do something that would end up in trouble for them and the child as well. I knew my cousin's FIL and MIL would be worried about their daughter and take actions immediately if I let them know of this. I would have told them this after the wedding was over anyway, but that would have been in private so no one else would know, but I guess the girls wanted something else.
Once the wedding ceremony started and the guests were all there, they were enjoying, everyone was having fun and giving their blessings to the new husband and wife to be. These two pain in the asses were going around and gossiping about my cousin to everyone. We noticed that, and we came up with a quick solution. I asked two of my male friends, who is very attractive to go and talk to the girls. However I told them to switch on their recorder and be with them no matter what. God bless my two friends, they did exactly what I told them without thinking twice. They came to me after an hour or so and told me what was going on.
The two girls were planning to ruin her wedding dress. When I tell you that shit was costly, IT WAS COSTLY. It was really heavy with all the heavy stone work that was done on the cream colored lehenga and if it was stained it would be ruined. We could not afford that in any cost. She was taking a glass of juice from the juice counters and tried sitting right behind the bride but I stepped in and told her to go sit behind her brother and that I would sit behind my cousin. She was trying so hard but me and my brother kept pushing her off and away from my cousin. Eventually she did manage to throw it but it accidentally landed on someone from the groom's side and she got scolded by her. While her grumpy face was funny to see, I still had enough because if that aunty wasn't there, it would have been my cousin. After the wedding was over and people were going to start taking the photos with the couple, I announced that me and my brother had some things to say. Initially we talked about the bride and the groom but then we shifted the attention to the groom's sister and her friend. We played the audios of the calls I had with her friends in the hometown as a surprise to the groom's sister. There were a lot of angry faces, some on the sister and some on me and my brother. I tried to explain, that had she and her friend not try to ruin my cousin sister's wedding dress, this wouldn't have been broadcasted to the entire wedding venue. I then called my two male friends and both of their faces was in gasps. Both of them pulled out their phones and I played the recordings on one of the phones, which explained how they were still spreading fake news about my cousin and also them planning to ruin my cousin's dress. We also got the video recording of them actively trying to throw the red colored drink on my cousin's dress.
Both of them got kicked out from there and weren't allowed to enter until the rest of the ceremony was over. Both of them stood outside, making attempts to convince anyone who would listen to them and let them in, but no one paid heed to them. Once everyone got home they were scolded badly and my BIL's sister kept screaming at me that I was so mean and rude to have their truths exposed to not just her family, but to every relative and friends who was there to witness the show. While my cousin was glad that I had her back and my brother is standing in support of me, my parents and some of our relatives think that it should have dealt within the family and shouldn't have been exposed to anyone outside of the immediate family members. AITA?
Note: I am so sorry if the post ended up being too long but I just wanted to give all the context that would be required to judge the entire situation and my actions as well. Also if something doesn't make sense just blame it on my sleepy head cause I wrote it in half sleep mode.

“We’re a meat family,” my dad would proudly tell strangers. He’d wait for the quizzical look, then launch into detail, starting with how many freezers we had, how long we could sustain ourselves on the contents. It was just his way of starting a conversation, which made sense when you considered that raising and home-killing animals for food was, for want of a better term, his life-long hobby. His prize possession was one of those industrial-sized vacuum sealers: you could put half a pig inside and wrap it in plastic so tightly that every wrinkle and skin fold waxed unreal with shiny detail.
If we hadn’t lived in a rural area, albeit semi-urbanised, I guess it would have been pretty weird. But the mostly farming-stock locals only found his extra enthusiasm a little bit odd.
When he wasn’t being a bit embarrassing talking about it, I never really paid much heed to his hobby. I had a child’s vaguely grateful awareness that though our family went through some lean financial times, our stomachs never suffered like some of the families around us. All the beef, pork, ham and bacon in those big old chest freezers passed down from his dad really could have fed us for years.
I should preface all this by saying that I wasn’t a particularly bright kid, though neither was I dumb. I didn’t fail badly at anything in school, I just never achieved beyond a pass. I didn’t know it yet back then, still quietly dreaming about being a ballet star or a dressage champion, but mediocrity was my destiny. And I think that’s why I got on so well with my Aunt Liz.
Liz was my dad’s live-in youngest sister. She was one of those women who get described as ‘bubbly’ — not really pretty, not really smart, not a lot going on besides just being… well, all Liz. But she was salt of the earth; kind, caring, and great with kids. She was the only person who would willingly mind my two older brothers, who fought like hellcats and caused more trouble than the whole last generation of my family combined. People would privately lament to my parents that it was a shame Liz didn’t have kids of her own, but dad would just shake his head and say Liz liked it that way – that all the fun of looking after kids is being able to give them back to their parents.
I guess she was like me; nice, but mediocre. Lovely, but somehow forgettable when she wasn’t doing something for you.
But when Liz left us, I couldn’t forget her.
In hindsight, it was pretty weird timing that we had a big fortieth birthday party for Liz right before she disappeared. She was radiant that night; she’d hired a local girl to do her hair and makeup, and it was honestly the first time I’d ever seen her look pretty. She’d even worn a push-up bra under a tight red dress, which flattered her very plump curves well enough that the neighbour’s farmhand was spotted disappearing into the woolshed with her for a snog. In my dawning awareness, that gave a plain girl hope: if Aunty Liz could get a guy at forty, maybe things would turn out okay for me.
Anyway, I couldn’t forget how her pink cheeks, her eyes, her whole self, glowed that night before Liz went to bed. She said it was the best birthday ever, and that she was very much looking forward to the next stage of her life.
Would I have done anything different, if I had known? If I had realised what, exactly, that next stage was?
The week after the party, Aunt Liz said she was going on a little holiday up north, to visit some old school friends. She packed her things – she didn’t honestly have that many – and drove her little orange mini out onto the main road. And with a wave of one fleshy hand, she was gone. Nobody really thought much of it when she didn’t call, because nobody rural had cellphones back then. And Liz was, as I said, somehow kinda forgettable when she wasn’t right in front of you.
When we hadn’t had contact for six weeks, Dad tracked down the land line numbers for their old school buddies. They were surprised to hear from him — Liz had never arrived, so they had just assumed she’d cancelled her visit. No-one had thought to check. I eavesdropped on the conversation, and it sounded for all the world like *they* had forgotten about Aunt Liz, too.
From there it became a missing person case. The local cops came and talked to all of us; the farmhand who’d been seen snogging her was briefly detained, then let go, dad got grilled at length, even my hellion brothers were questioned thoroughly to see if this was one of their wild and dangerous pranks gone wrong.
But everything was a dead end. Nobody knew where Liz was, or what had happened to her.
The remains of her old mini were found halfway across the country, burned out on a beach, on a derelict stretch of ragged, rocky coastline. The police assumed murder and combed the area for remains. But even the most expert divers couldn’t conquer the incredible undertow and fast-shifting seabed of that coastline to look for evidence, so none was forthcoming.
Eventually the cops collectively shrugged and said that there was really nothing more they could do unless more information suddenly came to light. The locals knew nothing, no witnesses had come forward, and the trail was cold. As far as anyone knew, poor aunt Liz had been murdered on some desolate beach, far away from her home.
It didn’t feel fair to me. She’d once mentioned wanting her remains buried on our farm, in the graveyard plot beside grandma and grandad.
So, in my grief, I went into her room to look for something of hers to bury beside them.
Like I said, Liz didn’t have many things. Her room was pretty spartan, and her wardrobe was mostly sensible farm stuff. There was one exception: she, like me, did like to read, and she had a pretty good collection of well-thumbed books. I think it’s the escapism – even the most mediocre girl can lose herself in the plot of some trashy romance novel, imagine there’s still hope of being swept off her feet by that handsome stableboy, his inexplicable yearning for chubby plain girls.
So I set myself the task of going through the books, to find the right one to bury in the graveyard plot.
Most of them were exactly what you’d expect, but some of them were racier than I was used to. I felt various parts of my body flushing and tingling, as I read breathless prose about calloused hands touching the softest flesh of the protagonist. Okay, if I’m honest with myself, I might have got a little *too* invested in my project at that point. But that was also why I persisted going through her entire collection, until I found the ragged paperback from 1970, entitled Tawny Sands. And inside that trashy cardboard romance cover, I discovered not the tale of Tawny Sands, but some carefully hand-cut, stitched-in pages. A handwritten story in my Aunt’s rounded penmanship: Memoirs of a Long Pig.
I read her story twice in a row, utterly gripped.
Aunt Liz was no Stephen King – heck, she wasn’t even the Goosebumps guy – but her story was gripping and compelling, and I couldn’t put it down. Even if I hadn’t known her, I think that would have been true.
The gist of it was that Liz, when she was sixteen, had discovered that our family had a very long history of eating what she described as ‘Long Pork’. It’s an antipodean term, anglicised from the Pacific Islands: human meat.
Like me, young Liz still had some hopes and dreams. In one of her many failed attempts to find a special talent, she’d taken up cooking as a hobby. Naturally, with our family’s overabundance of meat, she’d scoured the freezers in the shed for ingredients: the racks of ribs and stacks of pork chops, butcher-paper wrappings all neatly labelled with the first letter of the name of the animal they came from.
She found familiar meat from Rodney, one of the pigs that had been recently slaughtered, emblazoned with an ‘R’ in her father’s strong, blocky lettering. There were cutlets labelled ‘M’ for Mary, from one of the lambs she’d hand-reared, and ‘F’ for Ferdinand, the steer they’d killed the month before. But she couldn’t explain the many, many curious parcels of meat on one side of the huge freezer, all labelled ‘J’ – at least, not until she took it all out and assembled it as well as she could on the scoured concrete floor of the killing shed. A big, frozen jigsaw puzzle without the box, her best attempt to discover what kind of beast the pieces had come from.
The animal, she quickly realised, was a Long Pig. Her own Aunt Jenny, who had died the month before – just after her fortieth birthday.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, for Liz, her father entered the shed right at that moment and realised his daughter had discovered the family secret. He sat down calmly on the lid of the freezer, and explained to her that this was a long-running family tradition, dating back to at least before his grandfather had been born.
“There are always people in life, Liz,” he’d said, “who won’t really amount to much. They want to be useful, want to be more. They strive and they strive, trying job after job, hobby after hobby, trying to hit on something they’re really good at. Something that makes them special. Those people can waste their whole lives, chasing dreams that never come true. Eventually they die unfulfilled, knowing that all their time has been wasted. That what they leave behind will fade quickly.”
His voice was oddly gentle as he leaned down and patted one of the neatly wrapped cuts of Aunt Jenny, still sitting frozen on the shed floor.
“Your Aunt Jenny was one of those people. So was my Aunt Irene.” He paused to gaze at his daughter, his next words peppered with emphasis. “But you see, my sweet Liz, they did find a purpose in life. They did find a way to be special, and they left this world utterly certain of their gift.” He stood up, stretched his back. “Let me show you.”
Liz waited while my grandad meticulously stacked the meat back into the freezer, all but one J-marked parcel that looked for all the world like a thick venison steak. He took her back to the farmhouse, and reverently unwrapped the deep red, heavily marbled meat to let it thaw. Then he laid it in the family’s ancient, cast-iron pan, basting it with butter and rosemary until a heavenly scent filled the kitchen, and Aunt Liz couldn’t stop her mouth from watering.
“Just try it. Let her show you. You’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.”
Even though she knew it was her aunt, Liz couldn’t stop herself from taking that first bite. There was something transcendent about the smell, overriding her natural revulsion that this was human meat, not one of their farm animals. For the first time, she truly realised it: we’re just another kind of animal. And weren’t her memories of Mary the lamb almost as fond as her memories of Aunt Jenny?
Liz explained then, in her curly handwriting, the explosion of taste that had assaulted her when she tried the steak. It was tender, it was succulent, it was rich beyond imagining. The fats melted on her tongue, lingering somewhere between pork and beef, but oddly neither. The flavour of the meat defied identification; something familiar, yet not.
But one thing she couldn’t deny; it was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten. Tears dripped onto her plate, mingled with the juice, the grease — not grief, but a pure, real, giddy delight.
“You’re tasting your aunt’s love for this family,” my grandad explained. “Her entire life was carefully curated, to eventually make unforgettable moments for us, just like this. This was her way of being special. This was the greatest gift she could possibly bring to our world – and because she realised that, she died with not a single regret. She knew her life had purpose. She was perfectly, completely fulfilled.”
I felt those words. I felt them lodge in my own belly, settling uncomfortably deep. I knew Aunt Liz, probably better than anyone else in the family. I’d seen how fucking happy she’d been on her fortieth, how goddamn fulfilled she was, despite apparently being a *nobody* and achieving *nothing*. Somehow, in the space of a single day, she had gone from being a forgettable background character to becoming the *main character*, immortalising herself in our family’s history with her sacrifice. Quite literally becoming part of all of us, forever.
I went to the killing shed after I finished with the book. I looked inside the freezers.
But there were no vacuum-sealed packages labelled ‘L’, no matter how deep I dug into the frozen stacks of plastic-wrapped flesh. Panicked now, not sure if I wanted to connect all the dots or unconnect them, I tried to think back over the last few months, recall any meals that had been unusually good. A few Sundays ago, we’d had a stew that really hit the spot and left me craving more. And I realised that the family had a really good night that night; my brothers behaved themselves, my parents didn’t fight, and grandma and grandad had been there. Hadn’t they looked far more… expectant than they should have?
I strained my brain, trying to recall if I’d seen the homekill bag on the kitchen bench – if I’d registered what letter it was. I knew it wasn’t an L. I would have remembered if it was an L.
And then it hit me, the memory, the connection, sizzling as if branded with a hot iron.
It had been an ‘E’.
E for Elizabeth. Not for Edward the pig.
I snorted at my own stupidity – of *course* Liz was short for Elizabeth – and as I comprehended my lack of smarts, I felt something give inside me.
I wasn’t clever, and nothing, nothing would ever make me smart. I had no big talents. I wasn’t beautiful, or even cute – and even if I had a million plastic surgeries, it still wouldn’t fulfill me. It wouldn’t be real.
I was a Liz.
I was a Jenny.
I was whoever the first aunt had been, the aunt who had dedicated her life to making her flesh as delicious as possible, who had worked every damn minute to be the best Long Pig she could ever be.
I wondered how many magical family evenings had been spent eating Aunt Jenny. How many glorious, satisfying, memorable dishes had been made out of her.
And… I wanted that. I wanted to finally know I had a *purpose* in life. One so simple, and so easy to achieve.
I wanted what Aunt Liz had.
***
It's my fortieth birthday today and I’m so fucking excited. For the last twenty-four years, I’ve dedicated myself to this moment; I’ve eaten exactly what I needed to, I’ve exercised just enough, but not too much, to maintain that perfect balance of marbling vs tenderness. I’ve relaxed and meditated to keep all those amazing flavours inside of me. I’ve researched all the greatest meats in the world, from prime Angus beef to A5 Wagyu. I really think I may have outdone myself.
I’m having my hair and makeup done at the local salon this afternoon, and I’m going to look so pretty; all prize piggy on show at the fair. I’m even going to have a big red ribbon in my hair, in memory of Aunt Liz.
Maybe there’ll be a cute boy I can snog in the wool shed, maybe there won’t – I don’t really care; because the most important, most certain thing is that I’m going to be the most delicious Long Pig in the history of our entire family.
I’m going to make everyone so damn happy, and I’m just so glad I can share my story with you all, instead of hiding it in a grubby book like poor Aunt Liz.
My only real disappointment? That you won’t get to taste me.
Reader, I have loved, loved my life. My Long Pork will be out of this world: once tasted, never, ever forgotten.

"Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

The main reason Jesus died on the cross was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory (e.g., Recapitulation, Moral Influence, etc.).
This understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. But, what exactly was Christ victorious from, and why? To find out the answers to these questions, we have to turn to the Old Testament, as that's what the apostles would often allude to in order to properly teach their audience the message they were trying to convey (Rom. 15:4).
The OT is full of conflict between the Father (YHVH) and false gods, between YHVH and cosmic forces of chaos. The Psalms speak of this conflict between YHVH and water monsters of the deeps (an ancient image for chaos) (Psa. 29:3-4; 74:10-14; 77:16, 19; 89:9-10; 104:2-9, etc).
The liberation of Israel from Egypt wasn’t just a conflict between Pharaoh and Moses. It was really between YHVH and the false gods of Egypt.
Regardless of whether you think the aforementioned descriptions are literal or metaphorical, the reality that the Old Testament describes is that humanity lived in a “cosmic war zone.”
The Christus Victor motif is about Christ reigning victorious over wicked principalities and Satan's kingdom, and is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came to drive out "the prince of this world” (John 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) and to “put all enemies under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who held the world in bondage and worked with his Church to plunder his "palace" (Luke 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” the life YHVH intended for us (John 10:10). Jesus came and died on the cross to disarm “the principalities and powers” and make a “shew of them openly [i.e., public spectacle]” by “triumphing over them in [the cross]” (Col. 2:15).
Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaimed that Jesus in principle conquered all YHVH's enemies (Acts 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all YHVH’s opponents. (Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to in Matthew 22:41-45; 26:64, Mark 12:35-37; 14:62, Luke 20:41-44; 22:69, Acts 5:31; 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, 1st Corinthians 15:22-25, Ephesians 1:20, Hebrews 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15, 17, 21; 8:1; 10:12-13, 1st Peter 3:22, and Revelation 3:21.) According to New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”
Because of man's rebellion, the Messiah's coming involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness.
Since YHVH is a God of love who gives genuine “say-so” to both angels and humans, YHVH rarely accomplishes His providential plans through coercion. YHVH relies on His infinite wisdom to achieve His goals. Nowhere is YHVH's wisdom put more on display than in the manner in which He outsmarted Satan and the powers of evil, using their own evil to bring about their defeat.
Most readers probably know the famous story from ancient Greece about the Trojan Horse. To recap the story, Troy and Greece had been locked in a ten-year-long vicious war when, according to Homer and Virgil, the Greeks came up with a brilliant idea. They built an enormous wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and offered it to the Trojans as a gift, claiming they were conceding defeat and going home. The delighted Trojans accepted the gift and proceeded to celebrate by drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. When night came and the Trojan warriors were too wasted to fight, the Greeks exited the horse, unlocked the city gates to quietly let all their compatriots in, and easily conquered the city, thus winning the war.
Historians debate whether any of this actually happened. But either way, as military strategies go, it’s brilliant.
Now, there are five clues in the New Testament that suggest YHVH was using something like this Trojan Horse strategy against the powers when he sent Jesus into the world:
1) The Bible tells us that YHVH's victory over the powers of darkness was achieved by the employment of YHVH’s wisdom, and was centered on that wisdom having become reality in Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25, 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 3:9-10, Col. 1:26). It also tells us that, for some reason, this Christ-centered wisdom was kept “secret and hidden” throughout the ages. It’s clear from this that YHVH's strategy was to outsmart and surprise the powers by sending Jesus.
2) While humans don’t generally know Jesus’ true identity during his ministry, demons do. They recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, but, interestingly enough, they have no idea what he’s doing (Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7, Luke 8:21). Again, the wisdom of YHVH in sending Jesus was hidden from them.
3) We’re told that, while humans certainly share in the responsibility for the crucifixion, Satan and the powers were working behind the scenes to bring it about (John 13:27 cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-8). These forces of evil helped orchestrate the crucifixion.
4) We’re taught that if the “princes of this world [age]” had understood the secret wisdom of YHVH, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8 cf. vss 6-7). Apparently, Satan and the powers regretted orchestrating Christ’s crucifixion once they learned of the wisdom of YHVH that was behind it.
5) Finally, we can begin to understand why the powers came to regret crucifying “the Lord of glory” when we read that it was by means of the crucifixion that the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us [i.e., the charge of our legal indebtedness]” was “[taken] out of the way [i.e., canceled]” as the powers were disarmed. In this way Christ “triumph[ed] over” the powers by "his cross” and even “made a shew of them openly” (Col. 2:14-15). Through Christ’s death and resurrection YHVH's enemies were vanquished and placed under his Messiah's feet, and ultimately His own in the end (1 Cor. 15:23-28).
Putting these five clues together, we can discern YHVH's Trojan Horse strategy in sending Jesus.
The powers couldn’t discern why Jesus came because YHVH's wisdom was hidden from them. YHVH's wisdom was motivated by unfathomable love, and since Satan and the other powers were evil, they lacked the capacity to understand it. Their evil hearts prevented them from suspecting what YHVH was up to.
What the powers did understand was that Jesus was mortal. This meant he was killable. Lacking the capacity to understand that this was the means by which YHVH would ultimately bring about the defeat of death (and thus, pave the road for the resurrection itself), they never suspected that making Jesus vulnerable to their evil might actually be part of YHVH's infinitely wise plan.
And so they took the bait (or "ransom"; Matt. 20:28, Mark 10:45, 1 Tim. 2:5-6). Utilizing Judas and other willing human agents, the powers played right into YHVH’s secret plan and orchestrated the crucifixion of the Messiah (Acts 2:22-23; 4:28). YHVH thus brilliantly used the self-inflicted incapacity of evil to understand love against itself. And, like light dispelling darkness, the unfathomably beautiful act of YHVH's love in sending the willing Messiah as a "ransom" to these blood-thirsty powers defeated them. The whole creation was in principle freed and reconciled to YHVH, while everything written against us humans was nailed to the cross, thus robbing the powers of the only legal claim they had on us. They were “spoiled [i.e., disempowered]” (Col. 2:14-15).
As happened to the Trojans in accepting the gift from the Greeks, in seizing on Christ’s vulnerability and orchestrating his crucifixion, the powers unwittingly cooperated with YHVH to unleash the one power in the world that dispels all evil and sets captives free. It’s the power of self-sacrificial love.

Why Penal Substitution Is Unbiblical

For the sake of keeping this already lengthy post as short as possible I'm not going to spend too much time on why exactly PSA (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) is inconsistent with Scripture, but I'll go ahead and point out the main reasons why I believe this is so, and let the reader look further into this subject by themselves, being that there are many resources out there which have devoted much more time than I ever could here in supporting this premise.

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"-1 Corinthians 5:7

The Passover is one of the two most prominent images in the New Testament given as a comparison to Christ's atonement and what it accomplished, (the other most common image being the Day of Atonement sacrifice).
In the Passover, the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the Hebrews in the book of Exodus was meant to mark out those who were YHVH's, not be a symbol of PSA, as the lamb itself was not being punished by God in place of the Hebrews, but rather the kingdom of Egypt (and thus, allegorically speaking, the kingdom of darkness which opposed YHVH) was what was being judged and punished, because those who were not "covered" by the blood of the lamb could be easily identified as not part of God's kingdom/covenant and liberated people.
Looking at the Day of Atonement sacrifice (which, again, Christ's death is repeatedly compared to throughout the New Testament), this ritual required a ram, a bull, and two goats (Lev. 16:3-5). The ram was for a burnt offering intended to please God (Lev. 16:3-4). The bull served as a sin offering for Aaron, the high priest, and his family. In this case, the sin offering restored the priest to ritual purity, allowing him to occupy sacred space and be near YHVH’s presence. Two goats taken from "the congregation” were needed for the single sin offering for the people (Lev. 16:5). So why two goats?
The high priest would cast lots over the two goats, with one chosen as a sacrifice “for the Lord” (Lev. 16:8). The blood of that goat would purify the people. The second goat was not sacrificed or designated “for the Lord.” On the contrary, this goat—the one that symbolically carried the sins away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness—was “for Azazel” (Lev. 16:8-10).
What—or who—is Azazel?
The Hebrew term azazel (עזאזל) occurs four times in Leviticus 16 but nowhere else in most people's canon of the Bible, (and I say "most people's canon," because some people do include 1 Enoch in their canon of Scripture, which of course goes into great detail about this "Azazel" figure). Many translations prefer to translate the term as a phrase, “the goat that goes away,” which is the same idea conveyed in the King James Version’s “scapegoat.” Other translations treat the word as a name: Azazel. The “scapegoat” option is possible, but since the phrase “for Azazel” parallels the phrase “for YHVH” (“for the Lord”), the wording suggests that two divine figures are being contrasted by the two goats.
A strong case can be made for translating the term as the name Azazel. Ancient Jewish texts show that Azazel was understood as a demonic figure associated with the wilderness. The Mishnah (ca. AD 200; Yoma 6:6) records that the goat for Azazel was led to a cliff and pushed over, ensuring it would not return with its death. This association of the wilderness with evil is also evident in the New Testament, as this was where Jesus met the devil (Matt. 4:1). Also, in Leviticus 17:1-7 we learn that some Israelites had been accustomed to sacrificing offerings to "devils" (alternatively translated as “goat demons”). The Day of Atonement replaced this illegitimate practice.
The second goat was not sent into the wilderness as a sacrifice to a foreign god or demon. The act of sending the live goat out into the wilderness, which was unholy ground, was to send the sins of the people where they belonged—to the demonic domain. With one goat sacrificed to bring purification and access to YHVH and one goat sent to carry the people’s sins to the demonic domain, this annual ritual reinforced the identity of the true God and His mercy and holiness.
When Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity’s sins, he was crucified outside the city, paralleling the sins of the people being cast to the wilderness via the goat to Azazel. Jesus died once for all sinners, negating the need for this ritual.
As previously stated, the goat which had all the sin put on it was sent alive off to the wilderness, while the blood of the goat which was blameless was used to purify the temple and the people. Penal substitution would necessitate the killing of the goat which had the sin put on it.
Mind you, this is the only sacrificial ritual of any kind in the Torah in which sins are placed on an animal. The only time it happens is this, and that animal is not sacrificed. Most PSA proponents unwittingly point to this ritual as evidence of their view, despite it actually serving as evidence to the contrary, because most people don't read their Old Testament and don't familiarize themselves with the "boring parts" like Leviticus (when it's actually rather important to do so, since that book explains how exactly animal offerings were to be carried out and why they were done in the first place).
In the New Testament, Christ's blood was not only meant to mark out those who were his, but also expel the presence of sin and ritual uncleanness so as to make the presence of YHVH manifest in the believer's life. Notice how God's wrath isn't poured out on Christ in our stead on this view, but rather His wrath was poured out on those who weren't covered, and the presence of sin and evil were merely removed by that which is pure and blameless (Christ's blood) for the believer.
All this is the difference between expiation and propitiation.

The Content of Paul's Gospel Message

When the New Testament writers talked about “the gospel,” they referred not to the Protestant doctrine of justification sola fide–the proposition that if we will stop trying to win God’s favor and only just believe that God has exchanged our sin for Christ’s perfect righteousness, then in God’s eyes we will have the perfect righteousness required both for salvation and for assuaging our guilty consciences–but rather they referred to the simple but explosive proposition Kyrios Christos, “Christ is Lord.” That is to say, the gospel was, properly speaking, the royal announcement that Jesus of Nazareth was the God of Israel’s promised Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The New Testament writers were not writing in a cultural or linguistic vacuum and their language of euangelion (good news) and euangelizomai would have been understood by their audience in fairly specific ways. Namely, in the Greco-Roman world for which the New Testament authors wrote, euangelion/euangelizomai language typically had to do with either A) the announcement of the accession of a ruler, or B) the announcement of a victory in battle, and would probably have been understood along those lines.
Let’s take the announcements of a new ruler first. The classic example of such a language is the Priene Calendar Inscription, dating to circa 9 BC, which celebrates the rule (and birthday) of Caesar Augustus as follows:
"It was seeming to the Greeks in Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: Since Providence, which has ordered all things of our life and is very much interested in our life, has ordered things in sending Augustus, whom she filled with virtue for the benefit of men, sending him as a savior [soter] both for us and for those after us, him who would end war and order all things, and since Caesar by his appearance [epiphanein] surpassed the hopes of all those who received the good tidings [euangelia], not only those who were benefactors before him, but even the hope among those who will be left afterward, and the birthday of the god [he genethlios tou theou] was for the world the beginning of the good tidings [euangelion] through him; and Asia resolved it in Smyrna."
The association of the term euangelion with the announcement of Augustus’ rule is clear enough and is typical of how this language is used elsewhere. To give another example, Josephus records that at the news of the accession of the new emperor Vespasian (69 AD) “every city kept festival for the good news (euangelia) and offered sacrifices on his behalf.” (The Jewish War, IV.618). Finally, a papyrus dating to ca. 498 AD begins:
"Since I have become aware of the good news (euangeliou) about the proclamation as Caesar (of Gaius Julius Verus Maximus Augustus)…"
This usage occurs also in the Septuagint, the Greek translations of the Jewish Scriptures. For instance LXX Isaiah 52:7 reads, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news (euangelizomenou), who publishes peace, who brings good news (euangelizomenos) of salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'" Similarly, LXX Isaiah 40:9-10 reads:

"…Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos) to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos); lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Ioudas, “See your God!” Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with authority (kyrieias)…."-NETS, Esaias 40:9-10

This consistent close connection between euangelion/euangelizomai language and announcements of rule strongly suggests that many of the initial hearers/readers of the early Christians’ evangelical language would likely have understood that language as the announcement of a new ruler (see, e.g., Acts 17:7), and, unless there is strong NT evidence to the contrary, we should presume that the NT writers probably intended their language to be so understood.
However, the other main way in which euangelion/euangelizomai language was used in the Greco-Roman world was with reference to battle reports, announcements of victory in war. A classic example of this sort of usage can be found in LXX 2 Samuel 18:19ff, where David receives word that his traitorous son, Absalom, has been defeated in battle. Euangelion/euangelizomai is used throughout the passage for the communications from the front.
As already shown throughout this post, the NT speaks of Jesus’s death and resurrection as a great victory over the powers that existed at that time and, most importantly, over death itself. Jesus’ conquest of the principalities and powers was the establishment of his rule and comprehensive authority over heaven and earth, that is, of his Lordship over all things (again, at that time).
This was the content of Paul's gospel message...

Justification, and the "New" Perspective on Paul

The following quotation is from The Gospel Coalition, and I believe it to be a decently accurate summary of the NPP (New Perspective on Paul), despite it being from a source which is in opposition to it:

The New Perspective on Paul, a major scholarly shift that began in the 1980s, argues that the Jewish context of the New Testament has been wrongly understood and that this misunderstand[ing] has led to errors in the traditional-Protestant understanding of justification. According to the New Perspective, the Jewish systems of salvation were not based on works-righteousness but rather on covenantal nomism, the belief that one enters the people of God by grace and stays in through obedience to the covenant. This means that Paul could not have been referring to works-righteousness by his phrase “works of the law”; instead, he was referring to Jewish boundary markers that made clear who was or was not within the people of God. For the New Perspective, this is the issue that Paul opposes in the NT. Thus, justification takes on two aspects for the New Perspective rather than one; initial justification is by faith (grace) and recognizes covenant status (ecclesiology), while final justification is partially by works, albeit works produced by the Spirit.

I believe what's called the "new perspective" is actually rather old, and that the Reformers' view of Paul is what is truly new, being that the Lutheran understanding of Paul is simply not Biblical.
The Reformation perspective understands Paul to be arguing against a legalistic Jewish culture that seeks to earn their salvation through works. However, supporters of the NPP argue that Paul has been misread. We contend he was actually combating Jews who were boasting because they were God's people, the "elect" or the "chosen ones." Their "works," so to speak, were done to show they were God's covenant people and not to earn their salvation.
The key questions involve Paul’s view(s) of the law and the meaning of the controversy in which Paul was engaged. Paul strongly argued that we are “justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law” (Gal. 2:16b). Since the time of Martin Luther, this has been understood as an indictment of legalistic efforts to merit favor before God. Judaism was cast in the role of the medieval "church," and so Paul’s protests became very Lutheran, with traditional-Protestant theology reinforced in all its particulars (along with its limitations) as a result. In hermeneutical terms, then, the historical context of Paul’s debate will answer the questions we have about what exactly the apostle meant by the phrase "works of the law," along with other phrases often used as support by the Reformers for their doctrine of Sola Fide (justification by faith alone), like when Paul mentions "the righteousness of God."
Obviously an in-depth analysis of the Pauline corpus and its place in the context of first-century Judaism would take us far beyond the scope of this brief post. We can, however, quickly survey the topography of Paul’s thought in context, particularly as it has emerged through the efforts of recent scholarship, and note some salient points which may be used as the basis of a refurbished soteriology.
[Note: The more popular scholars associated with the NPP are E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright. Dunn was the first to coin the term "The New Perspective" in a 1983 Manson Memorial Lecture, The New Perspective on Paul and the Law.]
Varying authors since the early 1900's have brought up the charge that Paul was misread by those in the tradition of Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers. Yet, it wasn't until E.P. Sanders' 1977 book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, that scholars began to pay much attention to the issue. In his book, Sanders argues that the Judaism of Paul's day has been wrongly criticized as a religion of "works-salvation" by those in the Protestant tradition.
A fundamental premise in the NPP is that Judaism was actually a religion of grace. Sander's puts it clearly:
"On the point at which many have found the decisive contrast between Paul and Judaism - grace and works - Paul is in agreement with Palestinian Judaism... Salvation is by grace but judgment is according to works'...God saves by grace, but... within the framework established by grace he rewards good deeds and punishes transgression." (Paul and Palestinian Judaism, p. 543)
N.T. Wright adds that, "we have misjudged early Judaism, especially Pharisaism, if we have thought of it as an early version of Pelagianism," (Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 32).
Sanders has coined a now well-known phrase to describe the character of first-century Palestinian Judaism: “covenantal nomism.” The meaning of “covenantal nomism” is that human obedience is not construed as the means of entering into God’s covenant. That cannot be earned; inclusion within the covenant body is by the grace of God. Rather, obedience is the means of maintaining one’s status within the covenant. And with its emphasis on divine grace and forgiveness, Judaism was never a religion of legalism.
If covenantal nomism was operating as the primary category under which Jews understood the Law, then when Jews spoke of obeying commandments, or when they required strict obedience of themselves and fellow Jews, it was because they were "keeping the covenant," rather than out of legalism.
More recently, N.T. Wright has made a significant contribution in his little book, What Saint Paul Really Said. Wright’s focus is the gospel and the doctrine of justification. With incisive clarity he demonstrates that the core of Paul’s gospel was not justification by faith, but the death and resurrection of Christ and his exaltation as Lord. The proclamation of the gospel was the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, the Messiah who fulfilled Israel’s expectations. Romans 1:3-4, not 1:16-17, is the gospel, contrary to traditional thinking. Justification is not the center of Paul’s thought, but an outworking of it:
"[T]he doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel’. It is implied by the gospel; when the gospel is proclaimed, people come to faith and so are regarded by God as members of his people. But ‘the gospel’ is not an account of how people get saved. It is, as we saw in an earlier chapter, the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ….Let us be quite clear. ‘The gospel’ is the announcement of Jesus’ lordship, which works with power to bring people into the family of Abraham, now redefined around Jesus Christ and characterized solely by faith in him. ‘Justification’ is the doctrine which insists that all those who have this faith belong as full members of this family, on this basis and no other." (pp. 132, 133)
Wright brings us to this point by showing what “justification” would have meant in Paul’s Jewish context, bound up as it was in law-court terminology, eschatology, and God’s faithfulness to God’s covenant.
Specifically, Wright explodes the myth that the pre-Christian Saul was a pious, proto-Pelagian moralist seeking to earn his individual passage into heaven. Wright capitalizes on Paul’s autobiographical confessions to paint rather a picture of a zealous Jewish nationalist whose driving concern was to cleanse Israel of Gentiles as well as Jews who had lax attitudes toward the Torah. Running the risk of anachronism, Wright points to a contemporary version of the pre-Christian Saul: Yigal Amir, the zealous Torah-loyal Jew who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for exchanging Israel’s land for peace. Wright writes:
"Jews like Saul of Tarsus were not interested in an abstract, ahistorical system of salvation... They were interested in the salvation which, they believed, the one true God had promised to his people Israel." (pp. 32, 33)
Wright maintains that as a Christian, Paul continued to challenge paganism by taking the moral high ground of the creational monotheist. The doctrine of justification was not what Paul preached to the Gentiles as the main thrust of his gospel message; it was rather “the thing his converts most needed to know in order to be assured that they really were part of God’s people” after they had responded to the gospel message.
Even while taking the gospel to the Gentiles, however, Paul continued to criticize Judaism “from within” even as he had as a zealous Pharisee. But whereas his mission before was to root out those with lax attitudes toward the Torah, now his mission was to demonstrate that God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness) has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.
At this point Wright carefully documents Paul’s use of the controversial phrase “God’s righteousness” and draws out the implications of his meaning against the background of a Jewish concept of justification. The righteousness of God and the righteousness of the party who is “justified” cannot be confused because the term bears different connotations for the judge than for the plaintiff or defendant. The judge is “righteous” if his or her judgment is fair and impartial; the plaintiff or defendant is “righteous” if the judge rules in his or her favor. Hence:
"If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatsoever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. For the judge to be righteous does not mean that the court has found in his favor. For the plaintiff or defendant to be righteous does not mean that he or she has tried the case properly or impartially. To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works." (p. 98)
However, Wright makes the important observation that even with the forensic metaphor, Paul’s theology is not so much about the courtroom as it is about God’s love.
Righteousness is not an impersonal, abstract standard, a measuring-stick or a balancing scale. That was, and still is, a Greek view. Righteousness, Biblically speaking, grows out of covenant relationship. We forgive because we have been forgiven (Matt. 18:21-35); “we love" because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8, 10, Gal 5:14, Jam. 2:8). Paul even looked forward to a day when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10), and he acknowledged that his clear conscience did not necessarily ensure this verdict (1 Cor. 4:4), but he was confident nevertheless. Paul did in fact testify of his clear conscience: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation [i.e., behavior] in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward” (2 Cor. 1:12). He was aware that he had not yet “attained” (Phil. 3:12-14), that he still struggled with the flesh, yet he was confident of the value of his performance (1 Cor. 9:27). These are hardly the convictions of someone who intends to rest entirely on the merits of an alien righteousness imputed to his or her account.
Wright went on to flesh out the doctrine of justification in Galatians, Philippians, and Romans. The “works of the law” are not proto-Pelagian efforts to earn salvation, but rather “sabbath [keeping], food-laws, circumcision” (p. 132). Considering the controversy in Galatia, Wright writes:
"Despite a long tradition to the contrary, the problem Paul addresses in Galatians is not the question of how precisely someone becomes a Christian, or attains to a relationship with God….The problem he addresses is: should his ex-pagan converts be circumcised or not? Now this question is by no means obviously to do with the questions faced by Augustine and Pelagius, or by Luther and Erasmus. On anyone’s reading, but especially within its first-century context, it has to do quite obviously with the question of how you define the people of God: are they to be defined by the badges of Jewish race, or in some other way? Circumcision is not a ‘moral’ issue; it does not have to do with moral effort, or earning salvation by good deeds. Nor can we simply treat it as a religious ritual, then designate all religious ritual as crypto-Pelagian good works, and so smuggle Pelagius into Galatia as the arch-opponent after all. First-century thought, both Jewish and Christian, simply doesn’t work like that…. [T]he polemic against the Torah in Galatians simply will not work if we ‘translate’ it into polemic either against straightforward self-help moralism or against the more subtle snare of ‘legalism’, as some have suggested. The passages about the law only work — and by ‘work’ I mean they will only make full sense in their contexts, which is what counts in the last analysis — when we take them as references to the Jewish law, the Torah, seen as the national charter of the Jewish race." (pp. 120-122)
The debate about justification, then, “wasn’t so much about soteriology as about ecclesiology; not so much about salvation as about the church.” (p. 119)
To summarize the theology of Paul in his epistles, the apostle mainly spent time arguing to those whom he were sending letters that salvation in Christ was available to all men without distinction. Jews and Gentiles alike may accept the free gift; it was not limited to any one group. Paul was vehement about this, especially in his letter to the Romans. As such, I will finish this post off by summarizing the letter itself, so as to provide Biblical support for the premises of the NPP and for what the scholars I referenced have thus far argued.
After his introduction in the epistle to an already believing and mostly Gentile audience (who would've already been familiar with the gospel proclaimed in verses 3-4), Paul makes a thematic statement in 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This statement is just one of many key statements littered throughout the book of Romans that give us proper understanding of the point Paul wished to make to the interlocutors of his day, namely, salvation is available to all, whether Jew or Gentile.
In 1:16 Paul sets out a basic theme of his message in the letter to the Romans. All who believed, whether they be Jew or Gentile, were saved by the power of the gospel. The universal nature of salvation was explicitly stated. The gospel saved all without distinction, whether Jew or Greek; salvation was through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Immediately after this thematic declaration, Paul undertakes to show the universal nature of sin and guilt. In 1:18-32 Paul shows how the Gentile is guilty before God. Despite evidence of God and his attributes, which is readily available to all, they have failed to honor YHVH as God and have exchanged His glory for idolatrous worship and self-promotion. As a consequence, God handed them over in judgment (1:18-32). Paul moves to denunciation of those who would judge others while themselves being guilty of the very same offenses (2:1-5) and argues that all will be judged according to their deeds (2:6). This judgment applies to all, namely, Jew and Greek (2:9-10). This section serves as somewhat of a transition in Paul’s argument. He has highlighted the guilt of the Gentiles (1:18ff) and will shortly outline the guilt of the Jew (2:17-24). The universal statement of 2:1-11 sets the stage for Paul’s rebuke of Jewish presumption. It was not possession of the Law which delivered; it was faithful obedience. It is better to have no Law and yet to obey the essence of the Law (2:12-16) than to have the Law and not obey (2:17-3:4). Paul then defends the justice of God’s judgment (3:5-8), which leads to the conclusion that all (Jew and Gentile) are guilty before God (3:9).
Paul argues that it was a mistaken notion to think that salvation was the prerogative of the Jew only. This presumption is wrong for two reasons. First, it leads to the mistaken assumption that only Jews were eligible for this vindication (Paul deals with this misunderstanding in chapter 4 where he demonstrates that Abraham was justified by faith independently of the Law and is therefore the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike). Second, it leads to the equally mistaken conclusion that all who were Jews are guaranteed of vindication. Paul demonstrates how this perspective, which would call God’s integrity into question since Paul was assuming many Jews would not experience this vindication, was misguided. He did this by demonstrating that it was never the case that all physical descendants of Israel (Jacob) were likewise recipients of the promise. In the past (9:6-33) as in the present (at that time; 11:1-10), only a remnant was preserved and only a remnant would experience vindication. Paul also argued that the unbelief of national Israel (the non-remnant) had the purpose of extending the compass of salvation. The unbelief of one group made the universal scope of the gospel possible. This universalism was itself intended to bring about the vindication of the unbelieving group (11:11-16). As a result of faith, all (Jew and Gentile) could be branches of the olive tree (11:17-24). Since faith in Christ was necessary to remain grafted into the tree, no one could boast of his position. All, Jew and Gentile alike, were dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. As a result of God’s mysterious plan, He would bring about the vindication of His people (11:25-27). [Note: It is this author's belief that this vindication occurred around 66-70 AD, with the Parousia of Christ's Church; this author is Full-Preterist in their Eschatology.]

Hey there guys! I'm a first gen girl from North India in class 12 cbse from a middle class family of 7. Im putting this info here only for 2 days b4 deleting. Guys it would be very helpful if u can chance me and tell me what I can do to improve(advice me here or on pm ) . Im not posting this on chanceme due to the toxicity there . My school is basically a school where people have very little interest in applying abroad there is no counselor and very limited knowledge but yeah couple of teachers are supportive mainly prep for jee or neet is done here. So there are no clubs or extracurricular activities of any kind I have done this all on my own).
Major: physics Uchicago ed1 Sat:1580(800 math) Grades 9-96 10-92 11-70 ( this happened due to bouts of pneumonia and typhoid throughout year due to which I couldn't go to school and even missed a few exams . There was also heavy grade deflation)(this is my applications weakest point pls advice me about what I can do . I'll be mentioning this in sop and my teacher will also mention this in lor) 12-96(expected) AP: my school doesn't provide and they are expensive af Financial aid: no ( loans and external scholarship maybe I'll ask for 18-20k/yr from uchicago cuz coa is 97k/yr)
Awards and honours 1. Research paper award (international) 2. Conrad challenge top50
3.ioqm

1. aknowlegment by hon' PM Modi for continued efforts to bring improvement in society ( also got acknowledged by ministry of education)
   
2. School academic distinction 9-10
   

ECS

1. 2. 3. All three are research papers 1 on math reviewed by UIUC prof and 2 on physics (astro) that have also been acknowledged by iiser profs
2. Astronomy app
3. Braille and sign language educator at local school have held initiatives and workshops as well as working on making a free course right now
4. Research with iit prof ( ongoing)
5. Research project - an innovation hailed by ministry of health and iit profs.
6. Tutor for underprivileged children for 4 years
7. Book on physics (250+ pages still writing)
8. Mun and debates or a research project I'm doing this summer
   Essays i must say are nice ( I'm a good writer as well as quite into philosophy)
   

Letter of recommendation - my teachers love me and must say the draft of my chemistry teacher lor is a piece of art. And I'm hoping if iit prof will also write me one.
So yeah this is it. I know I was a bit vague it's because I didn't wanna get doxxed. PS I have also built a small electromagnetic particle accelerator at home. 🌟