or
Join Now!
|
|
These are answers that QueenChoux has provided in Christianity
| Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 09/02/05 - Happy story I received this by email today
As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.
Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.."
His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an ex excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."
His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."
Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."
By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on he her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to."
After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets.."
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.
Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's deg degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.
The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."
(For you that don't know, Teddy Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist in Des Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.) QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:"It is more blessed to give than to receive", clete. Why don't you try it? You may have an epiphany. The very best giving is not the money kind. :) | | Question/Answer | | Bradd asked on 09/02/05 - A Polemic but an Interesting One, As Usual The below is c/p from Answerway courtesy of Itsdb on another page.
(Begin c/p)
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
(End c/p)
One more thing - when the head of FEMA, Michael Brown, says the feds DID NOT KNOW THERE WERE PEOPLE IN THE CONVENTION CENTER, AND THE REST OF THE ENTIRE WORLD KNEW IT FROM CNN, MSNBC, etc., etc., there is something very, very wrong. Look for Brown to get the usual deal for Bush Administration screw-ups - the Medal of Freedom. QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:I think this is what one may say is a fine piece of sardonic political writing. :) Nothing crucifies a person more than wickedly cynical satire.
Yeah, Brown, who will be relieved of his FEMA position in a short while, is a good candidate for one of Bush's bizarro Medal of Freedom ceremonies. I wonder if Bush can both preside at a ceremony and present himself with a medal at the same time? | | Question/Answer | | Laura asked on 09/02/05 - For America...For New Orleans and everyone else who is a victim:
A Rose is a Rose
You're at a standstill
You're at an impass
Your mountain of dreams
Seems harder to climb
By those who have made you
Feel like an outcast
Cause you dare to be different
So they're drawing a line.
They say you're a fool
They feed your resistance
They tell you you'll never
go very far;
But they'll be the same ones
That stand in the distance
Alone in the shadow
Of your shining star
Just keep on the same road
And keep on your toes
And let them call you
what they will
It don't matter
A rose by any name is
still a rose
The kindness of strangers
It seems like a fable
But they've yet to see
What I see in you...
That you can make it
If you are able
To believe in yourself
The way I do
Just keep on the same road
And keep on your toes
And let them call you
what they will
It don't matter
A rose by any name is
still a rose.
Cause a deal is a deal
In the heart of the dream
And a spade is a spade
If you know what I mean
And a rose is a rose
is a rose...
To deal with the scoffers
Well, it's part of the bargain
They heckle from back rows
And they bark at the moon
Their flowers are fading
In time's bitter garden
But yours is only
Beginning to bloom
So keep on that same road
And keep on your toes
And just keep your heart
steady as she goes...
And let them call you
what they will,
Just remember
A rose by any name is
still a rose.
~J. Wayne/S. Ashton
QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:Laura, don't worry, we Americans can make America better. :) | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 09/02/05 - A medal for the Mayor !
May I suggest the medal of honour for the mayor of N.O. for speaking his heart ?
Specially now dubblejoe failed to appear in NO today.
Not even a quick landing in some subburb, with a tank of water and a big bag of milkpowder.
QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:I saw Bush in NO today on cable news. Didn't you get that in Europe on CNN? | | Question/Answer | | HANK1 asked on 09/02/05 - LUTHERANS AND KATRINA:
"LCMS (Lutheran Church Misssouri Synod) World Relief and Human Care is taking initial action to respond to emergency needs following the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Monday, August 29.
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Monday with 100- to 145-MPH winds and sheets of rain. There is widespread destruction and human suffering in all the Gulf states, from Louisiana eastward. As search and rescue operations continue throughout the south, LCMS World Relief and Human Care is looking ahead to immediate and long-term response."
"The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod"
What is your affiliation doing?
HANK
QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:Hank, my affiliation is crabby old lady, and some of us oldies have shed a tear for fellow seniors living on bridges and dying in their wheelchairs.
Money? I am going to make a donation to the new State of Illinois schooling program for displaced kids when it gets up and running. If it doesn't, then the Salvation Army. :) | | Question/Answer | | Laura asked on 09/02/05 - Watching the NBC special for the hurricane victims Someone just said that Bush doesn't care about black people.. There was silence for a second or two..The next guy to talk didn't know quite what to say..WHAT A LIE!!!! Why do people say such foolish things? God have mercy!!! :-( QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:We have to judge people by their words and actions.
H
e admitted that the federal response was "not acceptable". I don't think that he doesn't care about black people. Just rhetoric. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 09/02/05 - Isn't it time? Isn't it time to request the United Nations to assist the USA with a contingency of - say - Iranese or North Korean emergency troops?
I note that dubbleyou failed to appear in N.O.
Maybe he does not like to visit the third world inside the USA ...
QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:On August 31 in Coronado California, Bush stated that the Iraqi War was about oil. (See my post on the Politics Board)
| | Question/Answer | | Itsdb asked on 09/02/05 - Had enough yet? Are you ready to stop the bickering, the politics, the criticisms, the second guessing, the handwringing, etc?
Well, do something:
Katrina donations QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:You're the one making heartless incendiary posts and answers focusing on all the wrong things.
You're no leader in Christian compassion. Your post is offensive. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 09/02/05 - Good idea? Bad Idea? there are some mixed feelings Should we cricify the idols of this age?
Churches upset by 'Star Wars' art
From:
By Liam Houlihan
September 02, 2005
AN ARTWORK that shows Star Wars characters nailed to crosses has sparked controversy before its public debut.
The controversial piece called 'Crusci-fiction' consists of a roomful of 25 replicas of robot C3P0 hanging on crosses.
Church leaders and Christian groups have condemned the exhibit as ridiculing and trivialising their beliefs.
They said it was only a matter of time before Christians started to use Victoria's religious vilification laws to defend their faith.
Catholic Vicar-General for Melbourne Monsignor Les Tomlinson, said the crucifixion was very sacred to all Christians because it depicted Jesus "in the very act of winning salvation for mankind".
"To trivialise it is offensive," he said. "It's disappointing that Christian symbols seem to be able to be ridiculed, but those of other religions or groups are not."
He said people offended should peacefully contact the gallery to express their views.
Australian Christian Lobby head Jim Wallace said Christians were becoming impatient with their views being mocked in art and advertising.
"If we don't have a reasonable response Christians are going to start to use these laws. There's a real groundswell there," he said.
But artist Jud Wimhurst, whose exhibition False Idols contains the contentious piece, defended his work.
"We weren't doing it to offend anyone," he said.
"We're talking about products and the fact that everything's for sale.
"Both technology and religion are for sale today."
The False Idols exhibition, which opens at Fitzroy's Intrude Gallery in a fortnight, is described as an exploration of pop culture, religion, science fiction, music and film.
Not all church representatives were upset by the display.
Anglican spokesman David Richardson, who is Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, was unfazed by the artwork.
"On first glance, as an image of crucifixion, 'Crusci-fiction' seems fairly inoffensive," he said.
"It makes an interesting contrast to Mel Gibson's take on the Jesus event.
"Christians don't have a monopoly on crucifixion so I don't see this as especially blasphemous." QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:There is no reason that Christianity, or any religion, should be held above rational discussion or that religious themes cannot appear in post modern artwork!!
Religionist are always whining about one thing or another as they go about their unChristian like practices. | | Question/Answer | | Itsdb asked on 09/02/05 - So where is the National Guard? According to a multitude of Bush critics, our National Guard is AWOL because they're too busy "killing Iraqis," or as Michael Moore puts it, "any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?"
So where are they? James S. Robbins of NRO explains:
So is the war in Iraq causing troop shortfalls for hurricane relief in New Orleans?
In a word, no.
A look at the numbers should dispel that notion. Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.
That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.
So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course — the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.
Not hardly. According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide. In addition, the federal government has agreed since the conflict in Iraq started not to mobilize more than 50 percent of Guard assets in any given state, in order to leave sufficient resources for governors to respond to emergencies.
In Louisiana only about a third of Guard personnel are deployed, and they will be returning in about a week as part of their normal rotation. The Mississippi Guard has 40 percent overseas. But Louisiana and Mississippi are not alone in this effort — under terms of Emergency Management Assistance Compacts (EMACs) between the states, Guard personnel are heading to the area from West Virginia, D.C., New Mexico, Utah, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, Washington, Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan. Thousands have already arrived, and more will over the next day or so.
The New York Times has called the military response “a costly game of catch up.” Catching up compared to what, one wonders. National Guard units were mobilized immediately; 7,500 troops from four states were on the ground within 24 hours of Katrina — a commendable response given the disruptions to the transportation infrastructure. The DOD response is well ahead of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew timetable. Back then, the support request took nine days to crawl through the bureaucracy. The reaction this time was less than three days officially, and DOD had been pre-staging assets in anticipation of the aid request from the moment Katrina hit. DOD cannot act independently of course; the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the lead agency. Requests for assistance have to be routed from local officials through FEMA to U.S. Northern Command and then to the necessary components. In practice, this means state officials have to assess damage and determine relief requirements; FEMA has to come up with a plan for integrating the military into the overall effort; DOD has to begin to pack and move the appropriate materiel, and deploy sufficient forces. This has all largely been or is being accomplished. Seven thousand mostly Navy and other specialized assets are currently in the area directly supporting hurricane relief, and a much larger number of other forces are en route. The process has been functioning remarkably smoothly under the circumstances.
It is hard to understand what more should, or realistically could have been done up to this point. A disaster of this magnitude is certain to be politicized, but it seems early in the game to be assessing blame for a response effort that has only been underway a few days in a crisis that is still developing; particularly such a rapid response. Moreover, it is simply not plausible to use the situation to critique the force structure in Iraq. The Guard is demonstrating that it can fulfill both its state and federal responsibilities, as it was designed and intended to do. Of course, it is impossible to win in these situations; critics will always find a way. A year ago after Hurricane Charley, the president was accused of responding too quickly, allegedly to curry favor with Florida voters. Back then only a few fringe characters tried to make the Iraq/Guard connection. It is a shame that the Times has drifted in their direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let the spin begin.
Steve QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:You're the spinner. You have disgraced yourself by your heartless postings and answers. Old and handicapped people are dying in the streets.
As I type, 1,000 National Guardsmen have arrived in a convoy in NO, and are delivering thousands of pounds of food water supplies. :)
This is an horrific and unusual disaster. I, for one, don't fault a slow response. I will wait to see an assessment later to see if there was any feet dragging on the part of Bush's Administration. | | Question/Answer | | mudpiemaker asked on 09/02/05 - National Guard armed and ready to shoot to kill looters What do you think of the National Guard armed and ready to shoot to kill looters instead of being armed and delivering emergency water medical supplies and food to desperate victims of the hurricane? Rich with bullets but poor with humanitarian aid and effective evacuation plans. Last I heard even the cops are having to loot for survival what gives!!!! Is the military more concerned with killing humans desperate to survive then providing the means for survival? QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:There are a lot of gang-bangers and released convicts out on the streets with automatic weapons and a real bad attitude. They are enemies of society!
Along with removing flood waters in order to make NewOrlean ready for the next step toward rehabilitation, the criminals have to be removed from controlling the streets. Probaboy will be some serious shoot outs. Prepare yourself for that. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 09/02/05 - what's good for the goose is good for the gander this might be a way of bringing feminists to heel?
Dog training for husbands
From correspondents in London
September 02, 2005
THE BBC has apologised over a show which tells women how to train their husbands like dogs.
Viewers said the program, Bring Your Husband To Heel, was "sexist, offensive and degrading".
The corporation's website has been besieged by complaints, with one saying: "If this was a woman being trained as a dog, the program would not have been aired."
Other viewers described the show, which features animal trainer Annie Clayton, as "grossly insulting" and "scandalous drivel". QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:A tempest in a teapot! Women have been manipulating men since the beginning of time. However, I agree, if this show wasn't done in humor, it is offensive.
[As an aside, some men like to be dominated by women]
| | Question/Answer | | curious98 asked on 09/02/05 - Kathrina aftermath I have just seen a CNN special on N.O. present situation where, on top of everything else, new fears are stricking New Orleans this morning, as explosions have rocked the riverfront a few miles south of the French Quarter.
The special shows the inhuman situation of thousands of people –all of them, black and belonging to the lowest strata of N.O. society.
They have been shouting for help for 4 solid days and help has not yet arrived. No wonder that man’s lowest instincts have been arisen in the desperation ensuing the feeling of having been forsaken by their own authorities.
Stories of rapes, looting, murders seem to become normal.
People are practically living amongst their own excrements. The first symptoms of dengue and cholera are appearing. Corpses are floating in the streets...
An indescribable situation that even in any third world country would shock us!!!
On the other hand, those arriving at the Astrodome in Dallas, are checked for weapons and then asked to manage themselves in the already packed stadium, where they are in need of food and water.
It seems that in their seasonal hurricane forecast issued earlier this year, William Gray and his colleagues at Colorado State University already estimated the odds were one-third higher than normal of a major hurricane making landfall on the Gulf Coast from Pensacola, Fla., to Brownsville, Texas.
But nobody paid much attention to them.
"This year, we were forecasting one of the most active seasons on record, " Gray's research associate Philip Klotzbach said in an e-mail. "So yes, I guess I would say that we are not surprised that there have been land falling hurricanes so far this year. ... And the season is only about 40 percent done."
The Gulf, Florida and East coasts could also be in for a decade or more of similar coastline-battering storms, they say.
And, according to some experts, global warming might be generating much more intense hurricanes than in the past. But I'm sure many will claim there is no scientific evidence to prove it...
I am stunned! I would have sworn the USA was more than capable of coping with any natural disaster… And now I wonder…
Is this just the evidence of years of mismanaging, over-optimistic planning and self-conviction that you could manage any cataclysm? What happened to the most powerful country in the world?
Curious98
QueenChoux answered on 09/02/05:American politicians have a tendency to address infrastructure problems in urban areas with the "Patch, Patch, Patch" mentality.
In large urban areas, organized crime runs some of the consruction businesses and the name of the game is fleece the taxpayers. Many politicians go along with this. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 09/01/05 - New Orleans a reality check perhps it's too early to say it, but when is the right time to say it? Surely now gWB will get real about the impending disasters associated with global warming and climate change. If he doesn't you will see New Orleans repeated along the US seaBoard in coming decades. the time to act to alleviate the impact of climate change is now
Disaster tough environment lesson
From: Agence France-Presse
By Richard Ingham in Paris
September 02, 2005
TWICE in eight months, Nature has given Man a brutal lesson about the cost of disrespect.
Last December 26, beachfront resorts in Thailand were swept away by a tsunami that could have been tamed if developers had not destroyed coral reefs and ripped up mangroves, a natural bulwark against killer waves.
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, a city built below sea level, sustained by a complex system of dams and whose buffer against storm surges, the wetlands of the Mississippi Delta, had been eroded by reckless development.
To most of the world, New Orleans had been the "Big Easy", the cradle of the blues, the home of cajun cooking, a symbol of laidback style.
But to environmental experts, the city had been a disaster just waiting to happen.
"We have always used New Orleans as the perfect example of the unsustainable city. It is a hopeless case," Klaus Jacob, senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at New York's Columbia University, told AFP.
"The city started (to be built) in the French Quarter, on high ground, which is the logical place to be when you build a village.
"But what happened is that as settlement progressed, people didn't want to be periodically flooded. So a complicated system of levees (dams) was erected, with pumps and so on, and this allowed the city to develop.
"But at the same time, the delta subsided as a result of natural action and the city got lower as the water around it build up."
The US Geological Survey (USGS) had warned in vain about preserving the delta wetlands, describing them as a "natural buffer". The progressive loss of this asset heightened the coast's exposure to floods and storms, especially in the light of evidence about global warming, the USGS said.
Warming water expands, thus boosting sea levels, and also increases the source of energy that feeds hurricanes, making them potentially more vicious.
New Orleans may be the most blatant example in the United States of unsustainable development - the term for human activities that eventually carry a huge cost because of environmental damage - but it is certainly not the only one.
Other specialists point to coastline cities built on reclaimed wetlands in southern Florida, the most hurricane-prone part of the United States, as well as Los Angeles and cities built in Nevada and Arizona, which need air-conditioning and a long supply line of water to survive.
These problems are not, of course, exclusively American.
Examples of unsustainable urban development teem on almost every continent - of cities whose poor location, sloppy building codes or ill-maintained infrastructure expose them to floods, earthquakes or water stress, or where choking pollution and sprawling shanty housing blight the life of its citizens.
More than 400 people were killed in Mumbai after unprecedented monsoon rains lashed the city in July. Its decrepit drainage system, laid down in the 19th century, could not cope.
Yet even sparkling modern cities are flawed. Shanghai, for instance, may be prone to inundation because of subsidence, inflicted by the unbridled building of skyscrapers and excess pumping, now curbed, of the water table.
Not all the news is bad.
Seb Beloe, director of research and advocacy at SustainAbility, a London consultancy that advises corporations about sustainable development, said worries about climate change were prompting some countries, notably in Europe, to invest more in urban planning and building standards to protect their cities.
"A case in point is the Netherlands, which is very low-lying and vulnerable to sea-level rise," he said.
"Houses, for instance, are being designed so that they can actually float. They are built on pontoons, which rise up from the foundations if the area is flooded."
In the United States, the pressure for change was likely to come from business rather than Washington, Mr Beloe predicted.
"The US (Government) is in a unique position in that it still questions the science around global warming and climate change," Mr Beloe said.
"But from the (US) business point of view, it is logical to at least look at the risks.
"Insurance premiums in New Orleans, for instance, will be going through the roof. Insurance companies at least recognise that this sort of event is going to be more frequent, even if the Federal Government doesn't.
So there it is folks, welcome to waterworld and the floating home, just moor your boat at the door. For those who don't have boats, relocate before you are forced to. Now I can sit in my ivory tower at 600 metres and wonder why others havn't got the message. I got the message years ago. A seaside home is nice but the price is high in so many ways. QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Well, the you know what has irrevocably hit the fan. **Overpopulation**, pollution, living on land that is subjuct to violent storms, destruction of species from man encroaching on habitats, and all the rest of humankind's evils.....
Hopefully, Americans will hold their government's senators and rep's feet to the fire so we can get America in line with sane policies. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 09/01/05 - Happy Endings ... Would you say thaty the only people who believe that life does not end tragically, but triumphantly, are those with religious faith, whose hope and optimism, convince them that life really does have a happy ending? QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Life ends with death, hardly a happy ending no matter how you spin it. That does not mean that life ends tragically!! Living into one's sixties and longer has wonderful benefits!! Dying young is tragic.
The trick is to **Accept Reality and Love Life** up until the end. :*) | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 09/01/05 - Why is it so hard to give Help? Hello Everyone,
I am so mad and depressed and at the same time confused.
When one nation or group want to go to other countries to kill their fellow human because of disagreements, they can do it so fast. They talk about it on a Monday and by Wendsday they have already accomplished what the set out to do.
These Thousands of people in NO are dying due to lack of water, food and a place to go to the bathroom. Babies only a few days old without formula. The elderly and weak are dying and their bodies being shoved on the side of the dome and covered. People living among such horrific conditions and it seems like everyone wants to do concerts, and the president said they are sending troops in to help. WHEN??? Why is it taking so long?
I bet if that was their family or loved one they would be their already. It is not like they can't drop off water and food for these people. They talk a big talk, while these people are dying because they lack basic needs for life. Water and food. Please can someone explain this to me? Why is it taking so long.
If they can get buses in there to pick up the people to take and carry them to Texas, Why oh why can't they just get food and water to these people? Something just does not make sense to me.
Here is what makes me even more sad and why I think they can do better if they want to.
I was at my place of work yesterday and one of the people I care for is retarded. He came to me and asked me could he sell his colored television so that these people could have water and food.
If this guy, who is suppose to be not too bright or educated sees by watching television that these people need food and water, why can't those who are suppose to be intellgent not know this and get it there to these people? "Sad to say unless an event or situation touches some personally, they don't try hard enough. I am sad to say I feel it is because those in charge place killing others before the value of life!
Any comments?
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Hope, I was so fuming earlier today seeing seniors and now handicapped lying dead in the streets. I really have a broken heart for when I was a social worker, I got to know seniors and handicapped adults(I had a 16 floor, or so, high-rise project in one of my caseloads), and they were the most wonderful folks.
When people get dehydrated, that causes all kinds of terrible problems, and within five days, death. Some of these people are going on four days without water.
I think we will see improvement tomorrow.
The Governor of Illinois has pledged to take all the children of school age and find them a place to live with their mothers with th coperation of Chicagoans, and provide schooling as long as they need it. I plan on making a donation to this program when it gets up and running.
:) | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 09/01/05 - Both this man's parents were members of the Free Church of Scotland - the "Wee Frees" BILL BOWLS, THE SAILOR
by William McGonagall
Bill Bowls was an amiable gentle youth,
And concerning him I'll relate the truth;
His mother wanted to make him a Tailor,
But Bill's Father said he was cut out for a Sailor.
Dancing bareheaded under heavy rain was his delight,
And wading in ponds and rivers by day and by night;
And he was as full of mischief as an Egg is full of meat,
And tumbling and swimming in deep pools to him was a treat.
His Father was a Mill Wright, and lived near a small lake,
And many a swim in that lake, Bill used to take;
And many a good lesson his good dad gave to him,
To keep always in shoal water till he could swim.
One day he got hold of a very big plank,
And with it he resolved to play some funny prank,
So he launched the plank into the lake,
Crying now I'll have some rare fun and no mistake.
And on the plank he went with a piece of broken paling for an oar,
But suddenly a squall came down on the lake which made him roar,
And threw him on his beam ends into the water,
And the clothes he had on him were drenched every tatter.
'Twas lucky for Bill his Father heard his cries,
And to save poor Bill he instantly flies,
And he leaped into the lake and dragged Bill ashore,
While Bill for help did lustily roar.
Then after that he joined a ship bound for China,
With a pair of light breeches and his heart full of glee,
His heart soon became less bouyant
When he discovered his captain was a great tyrant.
One evening as Bill stood talking to the steersman,
And the weather at the time was very calm;
Tom Riggles said, Bill we're going to have dirty weather,
But with the help of God, we'll weather it together.
That night the Captain stood holding to on the shrouds,
While scudding across the sky were thick angry clouds
And the ship was running unsteady before the wind,
And the Captain was drunk must be borne in mind.
Then a cry is heard which might have chilled the stoutest heart,
Which caused every man on board with fear to start;
Oh! heavens, rocks ahead, shouted the mate, above the gale,
While every face on board turned ghastly pale.
Then, port! port! hard-a-port! shouted the men
All over the ship, from bow to stern,
And the order was repeated by the mate
Who sprang to the wheel, fearlessly resigned to his fate.
At last a heavy wave struck the ship with a terrible dash,
Which made every plank quiver and give way with a crash,
While wave on the back of wave struck her with fearful shocks,
Until at last she was lifted up and cast on the rugged rocks.
Oh! heaven, it must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moon-light;
Men clinging to the rigging with all their might,
And others trying to put the ship all right.
Then the wind it blew a terrific blast,
Which tore the rigging away and the missen-mast;
And the big waves lashed her furiously,
And the Captain was swept with the wreck into the sea.
Then every man struggled manfully to gain the shore,
While the storm fiend did loudly laugh and roar,
But alas! They all perished but Tom Riggles and Bill Bowls,
And they were cast on a rocky islet where on the tempest howls
And they lived on shell fish while they were there,
Until one day they began to despair,
But thank God they espied a vessel near at hand,
And they were taken on board and landed safe in fair England.
==============
Don't you like happy endings? QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Really cute. Happy endings only happen in literature. :) | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 09/01/05 - Amazing. Just to bring this to the attention of those who dislike President Bush. Would you believe this. If he is just for oil, why would he ask people to stop using gas, if it is not necessary.. Well he did just that today. Oh, and Mr Clinton was standing right beside him agreeing with what he was saying. Just another note. to keep from offending anyone, I am going to stop saying "In Jesus' name.". Just so everyone remembers, I am doing it, and everything else in His name. QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:bucker, we all know your love and devotion to Jesus. You don't have to do everything in his name, for example talking politics. :)
Have an enjoyable evening. | | Question/Answer | | ATON2 asked on 09/01/05 - Ave Atque Vale!! Would love to stay and chat, but I have some last minute packing to do...and then Farewell.....Not for ever I hope :) Try not to hurt each other too much, while I am gone. Will check in as soon as I reach the first cyber-cafe...Gonna miss you guys!!!!!!!! Be back full time the second week in October. QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Enjoy your time in Egypt! We will miss our fearless leader very much.
Who knows more about Christianity and religion than the one, the only, ATON2???? Who dresses down the ranks better than the sarcastic ATON2???
No one!!!! | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 09/01/05 - The problem is huge. Some of the critics are mindless. 90,000 mile of destruction and now with snipers shooting at hospitals and ambulances and the critics are having a field day even here on this board as though help can instantly be brought to all that area.
Even Aton who is normally fairly intelligent is letting his hate and emotions run his mind.
It is amazing the variety of comments made by various people from around the country on CNN.
Some are quite helpful and hopeful. Many are knee jerk thoughtless sputtering.
A few are offering some advice on how to help. Others are just criticizing without thinking of that vastness and complexity of the situation.
I suggest that if any here have meaningful help or critical comments the place to put them is on Fox News, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and their local governments of city, county, state etc. rather than here where their worth will go no where.
Take it or leave it, but please don’t expect me and other who have been seriously thinking about the huge problem to blissfully accept foolish criticisms.
Peace and kindness,
Fred QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Please take this kind of rant to the Forum. It is out of place here. | | Question/Answer | | Laura asked on 09/01/05 - Please people..Let's not squabble over what coulda been or shoulda been!! Let's concentrate on helping those in need now. If you are able financially to help out, then do it. If you can't then send out that positive energy and prayers toward those who desperately need it.
I don't think that many people live in an area where a potential disaster couldn't happen. I know I live smack dab in the middle of tornado alley. What I have now could be gone tomorrow.
We need to hang together and do what we can. My thoughts and prayers and whatever monatery gift I can offer are with those in every place that was affected by Katrina.
Let's work "with" the powers that be in helping these people. Now is not the time for petty arguements about our political leaders or anything else.. We need to focus. QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:I'm so disgusted at how our politicians(Rep & Dem) failed us. It was common knowledge to Louisiana politicians that NewOrleans could not stand more than a level 3 hurricane. Yet, such an important strategic city like NOrleans doesn't get its infrastructure updated over all those years??????
Wait to see the price of gasoline.
Don't civilizations cause their own demise? | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 09/01/05 - Looting or perhaps not
Hello Christians:
Lets say that you live in New Orleans. You and your family haven't eaten or drunken anything at all for two days. You're standing in front of a grocery store that's closed. You have money in your pocket, and you would pay for the food and water that you're taking.
So, are you eating to avoid starvation? Or are you nothing more than a crook?
excon
QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:What do poor and uneducated, the down trodden in America do when trapped in a horrific natural disaster???
**What ever they feel like doing** because they know that noone in power cares a rat's ass about their plight in the best of times.
***Go for it, brothers and sisters***. Maybe under he Law of Unintended Consequences, politicians will do something positive socially instead of lining their pockets and the pockets of their friends. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 09/01/05 - Katrina's aftermatch How is it possible that the worlds richest and most powerful nation was not properly prepared for this natural disaster ?
I do not mean the natural violence. I mean the total lack of present control of the situation.
Everyone could foresee that a direct hit by Katrina would totally disrupt communications, gaz, electricity, telephone, etc.
And one day before the hit they KNEW it would hit New Orleans and surroundings.
So why was the army not applied in time? They're not all in Iraq, isn't it?
That way they would have been able to evacuate more people, instead of confining them at the superdom.
Ten army choppers, and the superdom is empty in one single day.
A couple of hundred army trucks and there will be food and water again.
Nobody could stop Katrina to hit, but where was the governmental control of the aftermatch?
And what does the average US citizen think about the missing control and support?
About the lack of energency supplies of food and water ?
And you? Posting here your commitment to pray for the victims is fine, but what are you going to do for the people there?
The most powerful Nation on it's knies by "Katrina"?
Where was dubblejoe and co? Hunting terrorists, or attending a meeting with Pat Robertson?
When is someone going to do something meaningful?
What do you think?
QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:I the first place, it is all about greed and politicians totally screwing America and Amerians by not keeping the **urban infrastructure(everywhere!) up to date**, let alone as crucial an area as New Orleans which i home for refineries and other fuel products!!!!
I am totally digusted. The Dutch keep their dyke(levee)system in good repair and updated!!
All our national politicians have failed us. NOt only this, but everything!!!!!
Healthcare!!!!
War!!!!!!
Social Security!!!!!!!!
Keeping good jobs in America!!!!!!!!!
What a bunch of MFers. | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 09/01/05 - New Orleans
Hello Christians:
Lets say that you live in New Orleans and own a grocery store. You evacuated. When you get back, you find that you’ve been wiped out. Are you upset? At who?
Let's say that you stayed and live above your store, and you own a gun (as all good rightward thinking Christians do)..... People are hungry... and have no money. What are you gonna do?
excon
QueenChoux answered on 09/01/05:Businesses have insurance. If not, any reasonable person knows that people have to eat. Many business owners were sitting in front of their businesses armed, per CNN.
However, now there are roving men with AK47's and the like....time to have the wisdom to accept reality gracefully.
Times that try men's souls. Will not last forever. Life will go on. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/31/05 - On discouragement - yours and theirs ... "If you sometimes get discouraged, consider this fellow. He dropped out of grade school. Ran a country store. Went broke. Took 15 years to pay off his bills. Took a wife. Unhappy marriage. Ran for House. Lost twice. Ran for Senate. Lost twice. Delivered speech that became a classic. Audience indifferent. Attacked daily by the press and despised by half the country. Despite all this, imagine how many people all over the world have been inspired by this awkward, rumpled, brooding man who signed his name simply, A. Lincoln."
(Wall Street Journal.)
'It is important to know, when you feel down, that many others do also and that their circumstances are generally much worse than yours. And it’s important to know that when one of us is down, it becomes the obligation of his friends to give him a lift. I hope that each of us will cultivate a sensitivity toward the feelings of others, and when encouragement is needed, make an effort to extend it. Be a friend, and you will have a friend. God be thanked for wonderful friends.'
--Gordon B. Hinckley, "Strengthening Each Other," Ensign, Feb. 1985, 3
QueenChoux answered on 08/31/05:Lincoln is one of my favorite, perhaps my favorite, person of all times. I never tire of hearing about his life.
"Real" courage... | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/31/05 - Do you agree with this? Earl Keener, a Technical Writer, says, according to The Onion:
"Pat Robertson, as a Christian, a politician, or a pundit, is a living argument for the separation of head and body."
Do you agree? QueenChoux answered on 08/31/05:LOLOL!! Of course. | | Question/Answer | | JesseJamesDupree asked on 08/31/05 - After Further Review......... I would like to publicly apologize to Saranian and Aton, and for my crude jokes of last week. The crude humor I would like to apologize profusely for. I haven't spoke like that in 5 years. Guess the old devil got a victory over me last week. I have asked God and "Man" to forgive me, so it's time to move on. Thank You.......Thak You......thankyouverymuch;) QueenChoux answered on 08/31/05:OK, Elvis, but your breakthrough creativity has been the only spark of life here for a long time. The most fun I have had in years was that unforgetable night when we all let it fly!!!!!!
Give me one person complaining about a little toilet-talk, and I'll give you a prissy little be-yatch. :)
(Not that that kind of stuff is acceptable very often) | | Question/Answer | | curious98 asked on 08/31/05 - Hurricane Katrina With profound regret and affliction I mourn the losses in human lives suffered by the southern States of the USA, aftermath and sequels of the Katrina.
Material losses, no matter how big, will be recovered. Human lives are definitely lost for their relatives.
These last two weeks we have been unvoluntary witnesses that natural disasters do not spare the so called 1st world countries, either. First, Europe. Now, the USA.
Our sincere condolences to all Americans and, particularly, to those that may have lost some beloved relatives or friends.
Curious98
QueenChoux answered on 08/31/05:We have also lost one of the great historic cities in America, New Orleans, so rich in French cultural history and influence.
Unlike the victims of last December's tsunami in south east Asia, the Gulf coast had two days warning that this hurricane would probably be the "Big One". Many people vacated the areas prior to landfall, thank goodness.
Sadly, according to the news, there are likely to be many more fatalities discovered in the weeks to come.
Thank you for your condolences, C. | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/31/05 - Injustices and Greed! Hello Everyone,
We live in a world or syetem of injustices. People who recently suffered a loss of electricity in South Florida have been plagued now with a 400 dollar deposit added to their electric bills. We are doing our best here just to get back to "some kind of normal life." Why would FPL as well as the gas companies make more of a burden on us who are already burdened? By the way a gallon of gas in south Florida is not up to $3.69.
How many of these company owners charge these outrageous prices and then turn around a claim to be religious people? Where is the justice?
As you know I get to speak via telephone to other disabled people and to encourage them and listen to their problems and try to keep them positive and in good spirits. Welll speaking to some in my home town alone there are some who are disabled and given SSI checks of the sum of $375 dollars a month to live on. That amount of money is for their rent and food and electric. Then companies turn around and charge these people $400. deposit to keep their electric running. Many of these people are depended on their electricity to aid in their care of their health problems. What is this world coming to? The rich get richer and the poor get killed with the rich perosons greed.
What is the solution? Do you believe their will ever be a solution for such greed? I have a solution but I would love to hear about yours, if you have one???
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/31/05:One partial solution to these problems is for adult family to live together and cooperate with each other so they can survive. That is how people survived from the begining of time up until a few decades ago.
Captialism is out economic system, although evil aspects have been tempered by Liberal thought since the Great Market Crash of 1929.
Utility companies are publically owned, that is individuals, mutual funds, pension plans, etc. own stock that pay dividends, Utility companies historically pay good dividends. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/30/05 - Who would be happy.. If Jesus should return tonight, who would be happy, who would be sad? In Jesus' name. M.L. QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:I want to see the White Sox in the baseball playoffs. I'd be sad if the end of the world were tonight. | | Question/Answer | | purplewings asked on 08/30/05 - For ATON - and anyone else who's interested in politics ATON, you said you can't find a single merit in Conservatism, so I posted something on the Politics board, that you might find merit in........or maybe not.
(Toss that potato chip bag away for a minute and check it out, if you want your secret kept by me.) QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:Get ready to be blasted by Aton. For the first time, wings??? I think it is a rite of initiation onto the Chrisitanity Board. You're no one unless Aton has ripped you a new one. | | Question/Answer | | kindj asked on 08/30/05 - This makes me a bit uncomfortable on several levels... GREENVILLE, S.C. — It began, as many road trips do, with a stop at Wal-Mart to buy a portable DVD player.
But Mario DiMartino was planning more than a weekend getaway. He, his wife and three children were embarking on a pilgrimage to South Carolina.
"I want to migrate and claim the gold of the Lord," said the 38-year-old oil company executive from Pennsylvania. "I want to replicate the statutes and the mores and the scriptures that the God of the Old Testament espoused to the world."
DiMartino, who drove here recently to look for a new home, is a member of Christian Exodus, a movement of politically active believers who hope to establish a government based upon Christian principles.
At a time when evangelicals are exerting influence on the national political stage — having helped secure President Bush's reelection — Christian Exodus believes that people of faith have failed to assert their moral agenda: Abortion is legal. School prayer is banned. There are limits on public displays of the Ten Commandments. Gays and lesbians can marry in Massachusetts.
Christian Exodus activists plan to take control of sheriff's offices, city councils and school boards. Eventually, they say, they will control South Carolina. They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state.
"We're going to force a constitutional crisis," said Cory Burnell, 29, an investment advisor who founded the group in November 2003.
"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."
Burnell has not moved to South Carolina himself — he promised his wife that they would stay in Valley Springs, Calif., until the end of next year — but believes that his 950 supporters will rally to the cause. Five families have moved so far.
Burnell said his inspiration came from the Free State Project, which in October 2003 appealed to libertarians to move to New Hampshire for limited government intervention, lower taxes and greater individual rights. By 2006, organizers had hoped to have 20,000 people committed to relocating to New Hampshire; so far, 6,600 have said they intended to make the move, and only 100 have done so.
Christian Exodus, Burnell predicted, will be more successful.
"There are more Christians than libertarians," he said.
After scrutinizing electoral records, demographic trends and property prices, Christian Exodus members identified two upstate South Carolina counties — they will not officially say which ones — as prime for a conservative takeover. By September 2006, Burnell hopes to have 2,000 activists in one county and 500 in the other.
Frank and Tammy Janoski have settled into a five-bedroom house with white vinyl siding in a new subdivision in rural Spartanburg County.
"This is where God wants us to be," he said.
Janoski, 38, a self-employed computer engineer, had been contemplating moving from his deadline-oriented lifestyle in Bethlehem, Pa., to a more conservative region with cheaper housing and lower taxes when a church friend handed him a Christian Exodus flier.
"What attracted me to the movement was the idea of calling back the country to a righteous standard," he said.
His first six months in South Carolina have been idyllic, Janoski said. Not only do his neighbors wave as they pass by, but they also share most of his conservative Christian beliefs.
"If you're going to secede, this is the place to do it," he said. "A lot of the locals have that spirit."
Although Christian Exodus members are confident that they can capitalize on evangelical disillusionment with the Republican Party, local observers are skeptical.
James Guth, a professor at Furman University in Greenville who studies the influence of religion on politics, does not think that Christian Exodus will be successful beyond a county level.
"South Carolina is a state that is dominated by Republicans," he said. "Although there are people on the far right edge of the Republican Party … in general, the population is a big fan of Bush."
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, upstate South Carolina is the most conservative region of a conservative state: Bush won 58% of the South Carolina vote in 2004, and Greenville is home to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college that until recently had banned interracial dating.
Cleatus Blackmon, treasurer and director of missions at the Greer Baptist Assn., which oversees 39 Baptist churches in Janoski's town, doubts that Christian Exodus' focus on taking over government bodies will appeal to the majority of the region's Christians.
"You don't find the word 'control' in the scriptures," he said. "The basic mission of the church is to proclaim God's redeeming love through the example of Jesus Christ."
But Christian Exodus activists insist that they will forge ahead, even if they end up polarizing the Christian community.
"We want to separate the wheat from the chaff," DiMartino said. "There's a lot of deception in the church. If the Republican Party says something, a lot of churches say it's gospel."
Despite its cynicism about the Republican Party, Christian Exodus plans to use the party's popularity to its advantage. Rather than running for office themselves, Christian Exodus activists hope to influence which Republican candidates win local primaries.
"All we have to do is put our guy on the ballot with an 'R' sign," Burnell said. "It could be a corpse and they'll vote for him."
Local Republicans, however, point out that they would never sit idly by while Christian Exodus took over.
"He talks about 2,000 activists, but I can easily get 4,000 activists," said Bob Taylor, a Republican Greenville County councilman and a dean at Bob Jones University. "There's incredible dedication to the [Republican] cause."
While many South Carolinians may oppose abortion and gay marriage, Taylor said, few would support secession.
But DiMartino is not worried about the naysayers.
When he explained Christian Exodus to the man who sold him his home in Pickens County, he said, the salesman gave him a high-five. DiMartino looks forward to living alongside Christians who want to put local government back in the hands of what, he believes, America was really founded for.
"Whether it flies or not," he said, "is really in the Lord's hands."
© 2005 Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with Permission.
QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:I have a few comments to make. Religion is one area where mediocre and dangerous men can rise to positions of authority and power. If there is no weeding out prccess like attending college and "Theology School of choice", we find men with a will to control and a few memorized Bible verses leading a religious movement! There are willing passive people who love to turn over the responsibility for conducting their lives into the hands of demigogues.
There is no salvation in wacky behavior, or in believing lies and spin. America is very friendly to Christianity. There are many Christian churches in villages and cities. Christian oeople can do what they want! There is no reason why public schools should do their work for them. Or, any governmental part.
Hopefully, the police will gun down these mindless troublemakers. | | Question/Answer | | kindj asked on 08/30/05 - Regarding my earlier post by Kilpatrick: I posted that for a variety of reasons. Of course the primary one is that I agree with Mr. Kilpatrick to a large degree. But I also wanted all of us--regardless of denomination, faith, or lack thereof--to examine within ourselves what our values REALLY are when it comes to our faith. Are we seeking to be yet another cog in the machine of organized religion, or are we truly seeking after he whom we call our King? Sometimes, though not all the time, there is a vast gulf between those two notions, and it's very easy to get confused without even knowing you're confused. Maybe I'm speaking just for me here. Who knows.
What I think that Mr. Kilpatrick missed, though, is a fundamental truth of God--and therefore of Jesus, to the Christian: God seems to get a kick out of shaking up the status quo sometimes. He seems to like to surprise us, and the surprise is generally to reveal something un-Godlike in our thinking or behavior. Again, perhaps I'm just speaking for myself again.
As for me, I catch glimpses of Jesus everywhere: In solitude certainly, but also in the workplace, in traffic, with family and friends, and yes, even in corporate worship.
Another expert pointed out how those of us here who call ourselves “Christians” sometimes act like Mr. Kilpatrick’s assessment of today’s “corporate” Christian. Trouble is, this example runs counter to the teachings of the one who inspired and has our faith and devotion. As I see it, we are to proclaim the Gospel boldly, yet without arrogance. We are to speak the Truth, but always from a foundation of love. For as Paul says so eloquently:
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
(1 Cor 13:1-3)
So today, I challenge myself to be more like Jesus, whom I believe to be the christos, the Christ, the Messiah. That belief is mine, and no one can take it away. If I am to call myself a disciple, then I must strive to emulate my Master and Teacher more every day. I must also remember not only his teachings and instructions, but his tremendous mercy, grace, and love. For this will keep me from being despondent when I fail, as fail I will.
In short, my new goal is not personal perfection. It is not to be seen as a “good man” by other Christians and non-Christians alike. It is not to out-give others’ charity (which is good, since I’m poor). It is not to see if I can dress better than everyone else on Sunday morning. It’s not to learn more verses. It’s not to write great sermons or lessons. It’s not even to evangelize on every street corner.
No, my new goal is to one day hear my Master, Teacher, Savior, King, and Lord say to me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
DK
QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:What worthy goals, to seek to be a good man, not a perfect man. There are no perfect human beings, not even close. To strive for perfection is to wrap oneself up in introspection; that leads to many negative human qualities related to arrogance and selfishness.
What others do has nothing to do with you. YOu are your own person with the ability to mature. Most people are annoying at least some of the time. That is just realilty. That does not mean that one retreats into "head religion" as a superior position. Quite the contrary, **Christianity will only survive as church(s)**. Think of all the letters Paul wrote to churches scolding them for their behavior! | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/30/05 - Jesus, Who is he Really? Hello Everyone,
There has been some posts lately about Jesus or having to do with what Jesus taught. That being the case, I really was wondering:
1-If you personally believe Jesus existed and if he still lives?
2- Do you believe in Jesus or in Jesus Christ? And are they the same?
3- What does the word or title Christ mean?
4- For those who believe in Jesus but not Christ, why do you believe that way?
5- For those that believe that Jesus is the same person as Jesus Christ, why do you believe that way?
6- For those that do not believe in Jesus or Jesus Christ, why do you believe that way?
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:There may have been an historical Joshua who was a gentle man who preached a relationship, inner peace ministry. Or perhaps, he preached a more violent end of the world ministry. I certainly don't know after my readings. There is much confusion and contradiction in the New Testament.
There is no doubt that Saul(Paul)created Jesus "The Christ" out of Greek and Egyptian myth, and then, combined it with the Jewish idea of a Messiah. "Christ" means the annoited one. The real Joshua was forgotten. Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua. Paul, a Jew, traveled all around the Mediterrean selling his new religion to the masses. He elevated the Jewish worldview of sin/guilt.
I don't "believe in" anything but Noble Ideals and Good Morality/Ethics, as you may know. | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/30/05 - Negative Emotions and Beneficial Emotions: Hello Everyone,
Do Negative emotions take over your life?
Our emotions are part of human experiences. When we properly controll them they can add spice to our life. But we live in a world where violence, crime and many problems exist. We need to learn to controll the negative emotions in order to make life more enjoyable.
How do you cultivate your positive emotions and curb or control your negative emotions? What is your personal secret?
What are some effects of negative emotions on others?
What are the effects of positive emotions on yourself as well as others?
Do you personally become upset, angry or fustrated by the many problems you see around or even with those you deal with each day?
If we find that we have negative emotions, what are some things we can do?
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:In real life(that is, not on the computer), I learned many years ago to cultivate total positive regard when I deal with all individuals in person or on the thelephone. I only had a few slips over all those years.
I trie not to take anything personally. That is one of the four "secrets" to living a happy and positive life. What other people do has nothing to do with you. A hard lesson to understand much less follow.
Anger is the emotion that can spread wildly and violently unless understood and worked on first. Anger can destroy individuals from the inside.
"The Kingdom of God is Within" "Know Thyself"
There is no other way to salvation. It is the first step. | | Question/Answer | drgade asked on 08/29/05 - Suprising Statistics
Suprising StatisticsThere are more Christians than many think...and in places where we wouldn't expect them.
This is from our District Office:
The Presence of Born Again Christians
Nationally, four out of every ten adults is a born again Christian. (This measure is based on people’s beliefs, not a self-definition. The two questions that qualify people are described in this report’s Research Methodology section.) But there is a wide range of incidence levels related to the location of born again adults. For instance, the market with the largest percentage of its adults classified as born again – by a large margin – is Jackson, Mississippi, where 83% of adults meet the criteria. There are ten markets in which at least six out of every ten adults are born again – and each of them is located in the South.
There were also six out of the 86 markets studied that had fewer than 25% of the adult public satisfying the born again standard. The lowest of those were Boston (21%), Providence (21%) and New York (22%). Of the six lowest-ranked markets, five are in the Northeast.
The market with the greatest number of individuals who are born again was, once again, the City of Angels (Los Angeles) with 3.6 million born again believers in the metro area. Surprisingly, there are 20 metropolitan areas that have one million or more adults who are born again.
The statewide data showed that Alabama earned the top ranking for the percentage of residents who are born again: 67%. Overall, nine states had 50% or more of the adult population who were born again. Among the 27 most populous states, the one that emerged with the lowest percentage who are born again, by far, was Massachusetts (17%). The four states with the lowest percentages of adult Christians were all in the Northeast.
Does this change your mind about LA? QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:You always pooh-poohing statistics, and now, suddenly, you are quoting them when it suits you!!!!!
Can you say hypocricy????? | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/29/05 - No question just suggested treats........ I just finished making this year's batch of Chokechery Syrup.
I don't know how many have tried this marvelous treat, but if not you shouild.
Here are my favorite suggestion on how to use it in addition to the traditional over hot cakes of waffles.
Enjoy this bit of Chritian sharing.
Fred.
Chokecherry Treats.
Try Chokecherry Syrup over potato pancakes for an unusually flavorful breakfast. A nice surprise for visiting guests. Of course it’s great on traditional pancakes, waffles, toast, corn bread, and biscuits.
Like Chocolate Ice Cream? Try a “Crazy Bear Sunday”:
Large scoop chocolate ice cream. Pour over 2 to 3 tablespoons Chokecherry Syrup.
“Awesome Frosting” really is. Add Chokecherry Syrup to your favorite chocolate frosting.
Try an “In the Pink”. It’s a lively, quick energy breakfast. Mmmmm!
Mix together:
1 cup Grape Nuts.
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons Chokecherry Syrup.
Try a “WOW”
Add 2 tablespoons Chokecherry Syrup to chocolate milk, or hot chocolate. WOW!
Pour 1 ounce of Chokecherry Syrup over a hot slice of homemade Granny Smith Apple Pie and you have a “Granny’s Secret”. Indescribably delicious!
“Big Sky Mortar.”
Swirled 2 ounces Chokecherry Syrup in a warm pint of Chunky Peanut Butter. Chill.
Serve on:
Whole wheat or sourdough toast. Or French Toast. (Magnificent!)
Toasted English Muffins
Left over pancakes.
In rolled up in Lefse
Or as a “Believe it or Not”! Put a dollop on top of each bite of a fresh banana. Marvelous!
A Canadian friend tried this and it is named as he exclaimed, “Bloody Well Good.”
In a bowl of unflavored hot oatmeal swirl in as much Chokecherry Syrup as you like.
“Blackfoot Tea the Paleface Way”
Don’t’ sugar and cream your favorite tea. Try this.
Stir in a tablespoon of Chokecherry Syrup.
It’s a real eye popper in good Green Tea.
Try it, you’ll see what I mean. Tastes great too.
“Frisky Eye Opener”
Your favorite hot breakfast coffee with a tablespoon or two of Chokecherry Syrup gives the term “eye opener” a delightful new meaning.
“Christian Bothers Holiday’s Secret”
Next time you serve Tom and Jerrys for the holidays, try this for your guests. They’ll ask what your secret is.
Use one ounce of good brandy (i.e. Christian Brothers) and one half ounce Chokecherry Syrup per cup in the hot liquid mix before the traditional topping. Watch what happens when they stir and hear the compliments when they taste.
Cheers! QueenChoux answered on 08/30/05:I don't think chokecherry syrup is an urban thing. Sounds really good; do you make it in a still? | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/29/05 - Conservative/Liberals I am just asking a question. Because I do not understand. Why are we classified as liberals, or conservatves? Here is my feelings. Some of the liberals' ideas I agree with. Some of the conservatives' ideas I agree with. Now how can I be either? Would that be "in the middle of the road"?
I believe we should have free health care, just to name one. I belilve that we should keep God's name in public places, Just to name one. I am not sure about prayer in schools, because we would need a set rule, so that one denomination cannot come in and force their views on the children. In order to do that, we would need the government to set the rules, approved by the courts. This would be a controle of our religious rights. We cannot afford that. I big mouthed enough. In Jesus' name. M.L. QueenChoux answered on 08/29/05:I am a "Moderate" I am to the right on some issues and to the left on others. Most Americans like you and I are Moderates.
Those people who are rigidly one way or the other--radical right or radical left are in the minority.
I love the fact that most Americans are reasonable people. :) | | Question/Answer | | kindj asked on 08/29/05 - How's this grab ya? Note: I did not write anything that follows this sentence, but I wish I did.
DK
I Renounce Christianity
Bob Kilpatrick
I renounce Christianity. I want everyone to know. I am no longer a subscriber to Christianity. If I ever was, I deeply regret it and hope to turn my back on it now forever. Having been raised to faithfully attend church as a child, it was not a difficult choice to continue doing so as an adult. Many people I know do just the same, while others leave it for awhile but return because this is what they were taught. How many of them are willing to renounce Christianity like I have done, I do not know.
I embrace Jesus Christ, the person of God. I am His follower, His disciple, His servant. I will do anything He asks of me. If, to stand with Him, I have to stand against the culture that surrounds me, I will. I believe Him more than I believe anyone else. I value His approval more than anyone elses. I will gladly forsake all, including the prevailing American Christian philosophies, if to hold them would take me away from Jesus even an inch. I do not believe that everything the church does is sanctioned in heaven. I do not believe that all our church practises are necessary, or even beneficial, to faith in Jesus Christ. I do not believe that the gathering of the saints is more important than the personal, individual meeting between God and man. I am seeking others like me for prayer and fellowship.
The idea of renouncing Christianity is not new to me. Leonard Sweet suggests it in his book Soul Tsunami. Others have raised similar thoughts throughout history. Paul devoted an entire book, Galatians, to the struggle between law and grace, or religious codes and divine relationship. It is not merely a semantic issue- people will think I am splitting hairs- nor am I overstating the case merely to startle, attract attention or to make a point. I mean it. I embrace the Christian moral code only because Jesus gave it to me. Apart from Him, I have no use for it. I love the Holy Bible because it is a true record of the God who calls me to Himself. Apart from Him, I have no use for it. Survivor Rudy said that the only use for a Bible in a situation like theirs was as extra toilet paper. I understand. He doesn't know the Person of the book. Without the Person, the book is meaningless. It is just so much ink and paper inside a nice leather binding with gilt edges. I love the Church because Jesus calls us to gather around Him. Apart from Him, church is meaningless. Worse than that, it is fakery.
I have met ministers who don't believe anymore. Some have admitted it to themselves, others have not. But in every case their lives showed what they believed. Their convictions were expressed through their habits. I meet church-going people all the time who have no relationship with Jesus. They are not bound to God because, like Peter, they have no where else to go "for You have the words of eternal life." They love the practises of the church, perhaps because it reminds them of good times in their past, perhaps because they love a mystery, or perhaps because these are the only people who will welcome them. Whatever the reason, they know His Church but don't know Him. Some of them admit it, some deny it, some don't even know there's anything more. In every case, their convictions are expressed through their habits.
I am daily faced with the choice of loving the image- the paragraph and the photograph- more than loving the Person. I hear so many times of a wife or husband looking up after years of marriage and realizing that they don't even know their mate anymore. Why does it happen? I think it's because they stop pay attention. They get an image of the one they married and they stick with it. All the while, their mate is changing, and they don't notice it because they stopped loving the person, even seeing the person, and held instead to the image. It can happen to us with God. We decide to forgo the face to face meeting with Jesus once, twice, thrice. A week passes and we still feel pretty good about ourselves. We don't notice that our oil is running low, that our muscles are getting weak- we don't notice that we're not noticing anymore. Life just goes on and we do what we did last week and it seems to work again this week, and we do it agin the week after, and weeks become months and months become years and one day we look up and see that we've been not noticing. We've had the form of godliness but God has not been there. Like a sculpture of God, it looks like Him but it has no power.
Sometimes throughout those years of not noticing we invent things about God that we want to be so. When we finally notice Him again, we find out that some of what we believed was not true of Him. We made it up. Then comes the choice. Will we continue with the image or will we embrace the real?
I am going away. I am going away to be alone with Jesus. If I don't do this regularly, I forget what He looks like. I forget how He acts. When I hear His voice again, I remember how much I've missed it. I renounce Christianity because I desperately want Christ.
QueenChoux answered on 08/29/05:I think he sounds immature. Is he over 21?
Any worthwhile endeavor requires social structure....leadership....work....money. Adults understand that. Adults are willing to do the work without complaining.
He makes this an either/or situation; it isn't an either/or situation at all! | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/29/05 - More "advice" for the Vatican !
I saw a television interview with the dutch Bishop Bluissens
He suggested the following changes to the RCC management system :
- Limit popehood to a maximim of 10 to 15 years.
- Allow married men to become priest, making celibate a prefered but not enforced lifestyle.
- On a question about women priests the Bishop replied that that will be something for the next century to decide.
The windows at the vatican seem to be welded into a permanent closed position : no chance in hell for a real fresh breath of air, there.
Women seem to be forced to wait at least another 95 years.
What a waste of excellent good-potential candidates.
Will there still be a RCC in 95 years?
Any non-orthodox comments?
QueenChoux answered on 08/29/05:I had a married Catholic priest as a customer at the bank. He went into the priesthood at age 40 or so; he had been married for some time and had children. At the time I knew him, he was an old man; his wife was dead.
*********ADULT CONTENT FOLLOWS*********
The Catholic Church is evil; see my reasons as posted on the Forum.
It cannot survive where the populations are educated. It can only spread its misery in third world countries. | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/29/05 - When bad things happen! Hello Everyone,
We live in this world where bad things happen to people, but is God always the blame for bad things.
Katrina now has hit us here in Miami Florida, many received a lot of damage and 6 people in Broward County lost their life. Should we blame God? Each of these people where told to stay home, stay inside. They didn't listen and went outside anyway during the time Katrina hit. All died by trees or branches crushing them or hitting their cars. Is God at fault here or just who is?
As to what some call a natural disaster, are they really natural? God placed the forces in action, but does that make him responsible for the forces when in action now? Do you feel that man has anything to do with the earths so call "Natural disasters'?
What's your opinion? Think about it before you comment. Think about what man is doing to the earth.
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/29/05:If you believe that God is omnipotent and intervenes in the daily life on Earth, then GodAlmighty allowed all the destruction to happen.
| | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/28/05 - Time for a change. I for one think it is time for a change. Now, before anyone get into an uproar, let me say this. I am talking about me. Yes, ME.
#1 from this day forward, I will never give anything but five stars, I do not care what kind of language, anti Amreica remarks, anti Jesus remarks, or anti me remarks. This does not mean that I am agreeing, or condoning, the remarks. It just means that I will not respond in a negative way.
#2 I am apologizing to all that I have had a run-in with. And that means you Aton, sarnian, and excon. Just to name three. There will be no more. Now this does not mean that I will not stand up for what I believe in. It just means that I will try my best to reply in a decent way. If I do not like the response, I will just rate it and not answer.
#3 That is it.... :-) QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:Well done, bucker. Take the high road.
I want to know, are you prejudiced against African-Americans? I thought I saw a comment that indicated you were.
Thanks,
Mary Sue | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/28/05 - New Orleans Although I give my best wishes to all the people of New Orleans, what good is it to pray to God (assuming for this question that such an entity exists) for New Orleans?
Accordingly to the teachings it is God who controls (or allows) the tornado to pass straight over New Orleans.
Praying to God for New Orleans is like questioning God on his/her decisions and activities.
Maybe God has decided that the town requires to be destroyed, like Sodom or Gomorrah.
So why question and/or irritate God with your little human wishes and preferences?
His ways are inscrutable, isn't it?
Well, accept that than !
With my hope for as little as possible damage, and that all of those remaining there will find a safehaven ...
QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:I just want to say that I have been following the news coverage for about three hours. I was OK until I saw those people in line to get into the Super Bowl. Then, inside, the super old people in wheel chairs, men and women with missing limbs and their heads in their hands. I have been teary ever since. I am so sad for all the people and for that wonderful city, New Orleans.
I looks like it will be destroyed. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/28/05 - Bless! Dangerous? But what's worse? California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed a lawsuit to force top makers of potato chips and french fries to warn consumers about a potential cancer-causing chemical found in the popular snacks.
In a complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lockyer sought an injunction to stop restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. from selling french fries without some form of warning.
Also named were producers of potato chips and other packaged potato products like PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co., makers of Pringles chips.
Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Kay Puryear said company researchers have been investigating issues raised by the 2002 acrylamide study, she said.
"Acrylamide is available whether those foods are prepared in a restaurant, at home or by the packaged goods industry," she said. "We stand behind, and absolutely think, our products are as safe as ever."
Scientists have found that potatoes and other starchy foods cooked at high temperatures contained low levels of acrylamide.
So, there you have it : do not eat chips or fries. Not even at the next church fete. Specially not during watching the next sceening of the Pat Robertson show : that is DOUBLE DANGEROUS on short as well on long term!
Better forward all chips and fries to bucker, so he can recover the oil in them to keep him going.
But serious : what do you think is more dangerous to christian weighwatchers? : Chips and fries, or Pat Robertson?
QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:Since Pat Robertson and Falwell and their ilk encourage folks to be passive, dependent, un-thinking, and full of fantasy that God will run their lives or in God's absence, the Preacher[ :=D ], those clergy are more dangerous th Christian obesity.
To lose weight, a person must **first** self-examine and determine why they are obese or the yo-yo syndrome sets in.
Praying doesn't establish healthy weight!
God doesn't hand out healty weight! | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/28/05 - Is Roberts a danger to keep a healthy balance in the Supreme Court ? An abortion rights group on Friday launched a new television ad criticizing US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, two weeks after pulling a heavily criticized commercial that linked him to violent anti-abortion activists.
The new ad "paints a really clear and unambiguous picture of John Roberts' record and it keeps the public debate focused on the threats that he poses to our freedom," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The new ad, featuring smiling families and an American flag in the background, emphasizes a phrase in a 1981 Roberts memo: the "so-called right to privacy," and points out that he co-wrote a government memo saying the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion was wrongly decided.
"There's just too much at stake to let John Roberts become a decisive vote on the Supreme Court," the ad says.
I'm NOT asking for your position on abortion. That's not a christian issue : it's an ethical one.
I'm asking you if it is healthy to break the balance of power in the US Supreme Court by nominating one more christian fundamentalist like Roberts for a seat on the Supreme Court. Is the increasing influence of fundamental christians in political issues not a danger to the so highly praised US democracy?
QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:My opinion is that the Supreme Court is pretty much irrelevant in matters of re-legislating social issues such as gay marriage, abortion, women's rights, minority rights, etc.
We are at a point after forty years of social upheaval and change, folks are educated that they have rights of privacy and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, right to equal justice blah blah blah........well, the social revolution is over and there's no going back.
I think Robert's is a fine candidate. He is a well-educated Harvard man, and he didn't kill his wife. :=D | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/28/05 - Christianity! What does Christianity mean to you? Many people here have different ideas about what it exactly means and what it means to you personally. I would love to hear from everybody.
Joe QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:It is a religion that teaches people how to have relationships....relationships with our neighbors(love and have good will); a healthy relationship with ourselves(The Kingdom of God is Within); a reverential spiritual life(This is the Day that The Lord had Made!etal)
Too bad there are so few Christians. | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/28/05 - Translations! Years and years of the bible being translated to new languages and the wording always been changed to help the newer generations to understand the bible better. Do you believe it has changed the way the bible should read? Changed meanings? Changed in what is being taught. I personally have noticed a difference between the older versions and the newer versions and for some reason the older versions of the bible speaks to me a lot stronger then the newer version. What do you think about this and does translations and re translations take away from the teachings of the bible? Thank you in advance!
Joe QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:When one reads scriptures tanslated in the stilted language of old, as well as when one hears a Mass in Latin, that contributes an air of mystery, an air or other worldliness....puts *distance* between the reader and God-talk, therefore heightening the impression of a supernatural God a God apart from Creation.
To learn the *meaning* of the scriptural content, one must read a translation in language you can understand. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/28/05 - Jesus! In many words, if you feel like responding when you read or hear this word Jesus. How does this word make you feel, how do you act and how do you describe the feeling you get.
Thank you in advance
Joe QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:When I hear the name Jesus, I am reminded of the years I was emotionally abused by the teachers and teachings of Catholic Church, and my gut clenches.
Another Example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/28/05 - THIS IS WHAT LOVE IS ALL ABOUT It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 a.m., when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.
On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.
I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.
I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?" He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."
I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life." True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.
With all the jokes and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there are some that come along that have an important message, and this is one of those kind. Just had to share it with you all.
Oh, by the way, peace is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have. (Amen to that!)
Please share this with someone you care about - I JUST DID.
QueenChoux answered on 08/28/05:Thanks, buck. I agree. All we need is our basic need for food, shelter, clothing, medicine, education, etc. met.
Too much money, to many choices, can blind us to the real beauty of life; for me, just the wonder of watching a cat go about his daily business for one thing. =^oo^=
True spirituality is in the small silent moments of awe and worship. | | Question/Answer | | JesseJamesDupree asked on 08/27/05 - Al Sharpton Is it just me, or does this guy only go to the cause of someone when they draw national attention? Anyone ever heard this cat preach any other Gospel but the Social one? Are him and Jesse Jackson the same person? Never see them together you know. People like this are what gives black people a bad name. True I'm white trash, but you don't see me jumpin' on any bandwagon that comes by either. To coin an old phrase by Charlie Daniles, "If you don't like the way I'm livin', you just leave this long haired country boy alone" Maybe Al should change that to "If you don't like the way I'm livin' you just leave this old straight nappy headed colored boy alone" Had to throw that last line in fer Aton, he'll probably pop a blood vessel in his left wing arse on dat one!!!!!;) QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:If this garbage doesn't get you thrown off the Board, run down and killed by five athletic black guys, I don't know what will.
Can't you be traced by your internet connection? | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/27/05 - Anonymous
Ron Barber
The shells were exploding all around. Ron was feeling the sting of small bits of shrapnel as they hit his face. He was hovered over the unconscious soldier on the ground, where he had been shielding him, and at the same time, binding up his wounds. Ron was a Combat Medic. Carefully tying the soldiers hands, he slipped them over his head. He then began to crawl back to his lines. Ron awoke in a room with white walls. He was in a hospital, but didn’t know where it was. After learning that he was home in America, Ron began to get the information about what had happened. He had been seriously wounded and had been in recovery for about three months. After discharge, Ron returned home. Because of his health, he didn’t know what he would do. After returning to his old job, he began to search for a home for him and his wife. Homes were out of sight and out of his price range. Ron began to be very discouraged, and there was a change taking place in him. Becoming bitter at the world and the dirty blow it delivered to him. He checked the mail one day and found a box. After opening it, he found a wallet, his wallet! He began to read the letter, which came with it. It explained that this person was the one who Ron had pulled to safety, before being shot himself. The soldier had grabbed Ron’s wallet, putting the money back in his shirt pocket. He took it so that he would know who it was that saved his life at the risk of losing his own. It was signed Anonymous. A few days later, a car pulled in the driveway where Ron and his wife were renting, and thinking about giving it up for they couldn’t afford the rent. A man came up to the door. He introduced himself as an attorney, and that he had some papers for Ron to sign. Ron thought, “oh no, I am not falling for that!” The man smiled and said that this was not a gimmick. He said that the man who Ron had saved, was deeding him a home.
There was just one thing. “Oh, here it comes”, Ron thought! The lawyer continued, you can never sell this property. You can never rent it out or allow anyone else to live in it. Another thing, the one who is giving this to you must remain anonymous. Breaking any of these rules will cause the property to automatically return to the original owner.
After signing, Ron and his wife moved into the home. It was a beautiful place. Ron had never dreamed of owning anything like this.
Ron became acquainted with his next door neighbor. For years they got along fine, and became best of friends. Ron’s health began to fail. He became grumpy and got angry about anything. He noticed that his neighbor was mowing a little farther onto his property. Year after year, the strip would get wider and wider. Ron watched and thought, he is going to claim squatters rights. That is where, when someone else mows and maintains a piece of property for so long it becomes theirs. Ron’s health got worse, and so did his disposition. Then he noticed that the neighbor was mowing half of his property. One day he stormed out of the house, very upset and angry. Confronting his neighbor, he said, “I know what you are up to, but it will do you no good. I can spot a thief a mile away. I just want you to know that I am having you investigated to find out just who you are and why you are doing this to me. Now I want you to get off my property and don’t let me catch you over here again!”
The neighbor dropped his head, and as tears came to his eyes, he said, “I am so sorry that you are upset. I would not hurt you for anything in the world.” As he turned to go he said, “I watched as your health got worse. I began to mow more of your lawn, thinking that I would make it easier on you. But I have hurt you more, by trying to help you. Now I am forced to tell you something, which will hurt me, and it will hurt you more. There is nothing I can do about it. For you see, I am anonymous. I am the soldier which you saved that day on the battle field. In telling you this, it makes the ownership of your property null and void. . Heb.13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Thank you Father, for Your revelations
By Milton L. Hazlewood@
QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:Thanks for your story, buck. There is a good moral here.
Never, never say an unkind word to your neighbors...The basis of relationship Christianity. :) | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/27/05 - I haven't gone anywhere. I was just talking to Aton, Acon, and one or two more.
No, that would make them too happy. I just had to spoil their night's sleep. Oh, and I want to thank them for posting my web page. That was very nice of them. maybe someone will be blessed by it. I know they will not. It is not just a Bible study page, it is many other things as well. Some of my writings, my paingings, my animations, and my pictures with messages. I suppose, since they posted it already, maybe it is okay for me to post it? I don't know... QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:Do you mean that they were spoiling your web site? | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/27/05 - The Sacrifice.
It was the day before Thanksgiving. Tom turkey was watching the back door of the house. Then he saw it. The farmer was coming out with the ax, and was making his way to the grinding wheel.
Tom was very anxious, as he wondered what to do next. He knew that there were other turkeys, which were older than him, but none bigger. All year he had gorged and now he was about to pay for it. Then an idea came to him. He walked up to the corner of the shed and peeped around. Then faking a laugh, he walked back behind the shed. As he kept repeating this, one of the older turkeys grew curious and asked him what it was. He said, “you will just have to see this for yourself!” Finally the older turkey could stand it no longer and went around the corner, just as the farmer was coming with his ax. Tom laughed to himself as he made his way to the grain trough. He said to himself, “Since he has Sacrificed for me I can eat all I want, for it will be another year before thanksgiving comes again.” In back of the yard, a pair of eyes had been watching. It was a younger turkey. He smiled to himself and said, “so that is how he worked it. I have to remember that so I can use it on him, for Christmas is only a short time away. He then walked away, whistling and happily humming to himself. While off in the shadows, there was a pair of eyes watching him, and this was softly heard, hummmm?
A Sacrifice only works, if it is given for the right reason. And then, as Jesus, there can be no substitute.
Thank you Father, for your revelations.
By Milton L Hazlewood@
QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:Extended metaphors are difficult to pull off without a lot of thought and practice for most of us average people.
Good try, don't forget you can re write to imporve clarity for the general public. :) | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/27/05 - Who is American I do not know who all is American here, but from what I read, there sure are a lot of America haters. My question is, why? I can hear praise for the middle east, and what a great place it is. I hear that it is about oil. My question: If we had no oil, what would we do? Do you realize that we would be helpless? We would go into a depression, the which you have never seen, nor heard of. Our economy would fall. People would starve to death. Food could not be transferred from the source to the destination. Farmers could not operate their machinery. Trucks could not run, trains could not move supplies. There would be blood shed you can not even imagine. Some people would kill their children and eat them. They would eat each other. The ones with the most weapons would kill the others. If you stop and think about what oil means to the United States, then you may have another view of what America is doing, and why they are doing it. Of course, the ones who are not Americans, or they are from a foreign country, but just living here, do not care what happens to us. I ask all Americans to just think this over, and then ask your selves why the others are putting America down. Why are they trying to turn everyone against their government. You may come up with a different view point about them. I am not talking about nations who are not our enemies. I am talking about those who want to destroy us. They are envious and jealous of us. They are mislead by their own governments, who are stealing the money we pay them for their oil, and pointing the finger at us. That is mostly why the people hate America, because their leaders are stealing their money and blaming us. We have their puppets over here, telling lies to our people. Trying to turn us against our government, and everything we are trying to do. The people pose as true Americans, but in reality, they are spies, and traitors.
Just think about what I have said, and then think about it some more. I do not want to see my people slaughtered, and I do not think you do either. If you are a true American. Like I said, I do not know who is an American, and who is not. Watch to see who tries to misquote this and make it sound different than what I really said. And then ask yourself why are they doing this.
In Jesus’ name. QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:bucker, look how other old men attack you mercilessly for your musings and ponderings about what would happen if there was an oil crisis.
You are not an anger-driven man at all. We can see that you have a lovely spitit. It is just that you are less facile with words and ideas.
These men dumping their repressed rage upon you while smugly congratulating themselves on how fabulous they are.
We all see this. Don't give up and leave the Board. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/27/05 - About handles Everyone already knows that Erehwon was Saladin, the Queen was Choux, and Aton 2 was Aton, and I am Freethinker.
Once you're suspended for a month and your punishment is over, you're free to return to the board, but your old handle remains blocked. So you have to take a new handle.
However this is only allowed if you made minor mistakes.
Those who really abuse this board are normally IP suspended permanently.
We only have to wait till management gets it act together.
Anyone still questions?
QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:Huh?
Anyway, yeah, I have run out of names from being suspended so often. :)
Once, I e-mailed Support at AW and they reinsated me to my original moniker, Choux, but I guess that took special attention.
I love your name freethinker; wish you still had that name. Nothing better than to be free and say free....free to learn about life without any kind of superstitious non-sense clogging one's brain. | | Question/Answer | | JesseJamesDupree asked on 08/27/05 - OK, spin this! Saran was formerly Freethinker who was suspended. He bypassed the legitimate protocol and signed on here illegitimately. He then proceeds to try to get me suspended for being a "Illegitmate Expert" and HE'S A "ILLEGITMATE EXPERT"!! He shouldn't be here in the first to place to bellyache against me, and besides I ain't "Illigitimate" they claim my Daddy is Charlie Tucker who lives down the road, he's Mama's old flame. Dan Turley is the kind feller who raise me though;) QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:Take this to the Forum. Rules is rules. :) | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/27/05 - So long, it hasn't been good to know you... I can see what others have said. This is a hate America board. And a hate Bush board. I have had enough of your griping. QueenChoux answered on 08/27/05:buck, toughen up! I really enjoy you here on the board, and I imagine others do also.
I hope you will reconsider. :)
Cordially,
Mary Sue | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/26/05 - Writings. First, I would like to know if it is alright to post christian wrinings here? Is it against the rules? Is there anyone opposed to this? Also I would like to know what do points mean. How do you earn them? Or are they posted for something bad? QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:My opinion is that this is a Christianity Board, post what you want about Christianity!!! Go for it. No one is in charge here. (Management, of course, it goes without saying. :))
I would suggest not to post too much. I, for one, have trouble with my eyes and only read the first couple of paragraphs, max, most of the time. Others get irritated with long cut and pastes.
The points are kinda like the points on the "Drew Carey Show"... | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/26/05 - JJD's abuse still continues This post is forwarded to all those who indicated that they posted an abuse report on JJD.
I've prepared a shortlist of the verbal abuse by JesseJamesDupreez, which can be copied and forwarded to board management, if you want to do that.
You can copy without problem. The content will still be clear without the html markers.
JJD is still active on the board. I intend to post this abuse report on a daily basis to management till either duPreez makes an open and serious "Mea Culpa" or gets kicked off.
Seen the scala of abuse please keep this message private. No need to get this once more on the board.
If you want you can reject the post. No offense taken.
Sarnian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abuse Complaint Report for obscene and inappropriate language and personal harrassment
Short list of obscene language used by JesseJamesDupreez, all on the Christianity Board to various posters.
In "Iraq disaster"
- you greasy foreign sand nigger, up your queer ass, you european fag.
- Eat shit you pinko faggot.
- Eat shit you two pansy fags, have a circle jerk.
- Shut up you old drone nigger lover.
- get it through your sorry old ass, your liberal ass, piss and moan, you got your ass handed, you got your Muslim lovin, ass whipped.
- You old heathern queer.
~~~
In "Who speaks for the filthmonger?????"
- run along to your gay rights rally, Aton is waitin' with they K Y Jelly
- he's gonna lay an eternal ass whuppin' on you and fagboy!
~~~
In "if I get it for cussin'
- you stupid bastard, there is no God bungholin' Aton board, you UN pansy,
I'd shove a U.S. size 12 boot up your ass, your words stink fagboy, Ya gotta get purtied up fer Aton ya know.
~~~
In "Ever notice"
- When Aton gits his ass handed to him in a can, he becomes a Christian?, to layeth the profanity laced smacketh down on those two heathen assholes Aton and saranian, when they stop performin' that "Abomination" thang on each other;)
~~~
In "I am a good guy..."
- I just like to git a few wound up around here
~~~
In "Is this why our children..." :
- with all your and saran's bellyachin', It's been a true pleasure shoving my 12 and a half up your old heathern ass this time around.
- You are a Muslim Sympathizer from the get go, when the engine went up yer arse
~~~
In "Why"
- cardcarryin' member of the ACLU stick up my butt guy, waving "Gay Atheist Pride Flags", UN Pansy, shove it up their arse!
~~~
In "About hypochrisy"
- you two dipweeds, your and Aton's old wrinkled asses, you two Godless Sun Worshippin' Heatherns!!!!!!
~~~
In ***Christianity*** Settling the board down
- you commie queer!
~~~
In "John Bolton"
- that Pansy bunch on UN Pinko's and kicked them right in the nuts! Keep up the good work
~~~
In "My box"
- It's kind of like your mouth, it should never be opened, till it's time to have a foot shoved in it! Day 4 and I'm still around you old commie!
~~~
End of abbreviated list.
QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:sarnian, The mistake you made was not knowing who you are dealing with here.
For atheists/secular humanists, there are few friends.
And, men are not necessarily your friends. None of the Christian men are I would guess. :):):)
Aton was the only other person really outraged by JJD, if I recall. Others were laughing their asses off. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/26/05 - It seems the Old Testament is still in vogue Three church leaders jailed for bashing woman
August 26, 2005 - 12:21PM
Three leaders at a Korean church in Sydney's north have been jailed over the bashing of a female church member who did not attend regular services.
Junior assistant pastor Chi Yeong Yun, 37, and bible study teachers Tom Chae-Yong Lee, 22, and James Kang, 21, from the Open Door Korean Church at Chatswood, pleaded guilty to assaulting 19-year-old Angela Kim in July last year.
In the NSW District Court today, acting Judge Joe Gibson gave Yun, described as the architect of the plan, a 12-month jail term while Lee and Kang were sentenced to up to six months.
All three had served some time in custody although were on bail in the leadup to the trial.
On July 8, 2004, Ms Kim was kicked and punched by the three men at a park in Bobbin Head in Sydney's north leaving her with extensive bruising to her arms, legs and buttocks.
During the trial, the court was told Ms Kim had not been attending church and was generally perceived to be disrespecting her elders.
In evidence during the trial, Kang told the court their intention was to help Ms Kim but it got out of hand.
He said he knew it was wrong and that it would not happen again.
In the future if people had problems he would attempt to counsel them using the teachings of the bible, Kang said.
AAP
It's apparent some part of Christ's teachings hasn't taken here QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:People who **actually think** know that Christianity (as well as Islam) is all about male superiority and female subservience.
It is about what men ****DO**** not what scriptures say. Men *do* oppression, mental and physical and psychological to the superior being, women.
Women have been leaving Christianity in search of more positive spirituality for a couple of decades. There is nothing but serving men for women in Christiaity or Islam.
Women don't want the narrow role of childbearer and servant then be relegated to non-existance when they hit forty.
Women are the rightful caretakers of civilization, the rightful leaders. Proof, see we are at critical mass under male leadership. | | Question/Answer | Erewhon asked on 08/26/05 - Time For A Change? ......Gender-Neutral Hymnal a Concession to the Culture, Says ELCA Pastor
'Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the God of Creation!
My heart is longing to offer up sweet adoration!'
Proposed revision to 'Praise to the Lord, the Almighty' (Hymn 543, Lutheran Book of Worship)
By Jim Brown
August 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says he and other ELCA pastors are disturbed by the denomination's approval of a new, more gender-neutral hymnal.
At its Churchwide Assembly in early August, the ELCA okayed a plan to update the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship by eliminating the "Father" terminology and male pronouns used in reference to God.
The hymnal overhaul will include other gender-neutralizing and diversity-affirming changes to traditional Lutheran worship lyrics and liturgies as well.
For example, in the Lutheran Creed, God and Jesus will now be referred to as "Holy Eternal Majesty" and "Holy Incarnate Word" instead of "Father" and "Son."
Dr. Roy Harrisville is executive director of Solid Rock Lutherans, a conservative group whose mission is to call the ELCA to "remain faithful to the Word of God according to the Lutheran Confessions."
Harrisville says those who favor the revisions to the Lutheran Book of Worship want to change fundamental Christian beliefs.
"At base, what needs to be asked is not can we be somehow inclusive in our language, but rather, when we do alter our language, are we altering our theology and our basic values -- and I think that is what's happening," he says.
Harrisville says it is tragic that a number of Lutheran Church leaders desire to be what they regard as more "culturally relevant" in hopes of attracting more people to their church.
"Relevance is a huge issue for many of them," he shares, "and they think that if they acquiesce to a particular ideology that is regnant in society, that therefore they will be relevant and thus influential and thus, of course, attract more folks to their churches. I don't think it works that way."
The ELCA's worship director, Rev. Michael Burk, has said the new hymnal will reflect the fact that the denomination is a "global church."
Use of the new hymnal will not be mandated in local churches, but likely will gradually be adopted by most of the ELCA's approximately 10,600 congregations as they either purchase the book immediately or buy it when the time comes to replace their old hymnals.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
================
Christians in general, and Lutherans in particular, Are for or against the idea?
(It will not impact on non-Christians, but they are welcome to make respectful contributions.)QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:No matter how many times Mainline Protestant Christianity(Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, etc) re-arranges the chairs on the Titanic, it is still going down. | | Question/Answer | | ATON2 asked on 08/26/05 - News????? Has anyone heard from Dorothy or ladybug....It seems every time another storm heads for Florida we lose Dorothy for a while...."Don't nobody bring me no bad news"!!!!! QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:I was thinking about rev Dorothy this morning when I saw the storm track of hurricane Katrina....off toward Pamana City and the shoreline of Alabama and Mississippi.
Hopefully, she went to visit her daughter in West Virginia. | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/26/05 - Stay the course? What course?
Hello Christians:
The "course", being nothing more than a neo-conservative philosophy grounded in a belief that the US is a divinely inspired empirical instrument for global transformation, whose immediate goal is the creation of a democratic Iraq to usher in a new era of peace and freedom in the Middle East.
On its face, it is not "course" at all, but a naive ephemeral projection of individuals who do not value the lessons of history and have no real understanding of the complexities of the Middle East.
This is a war looking for a reason to exist. We must depart.
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/26/05:There is a new book out, I don't remember the name or author, perhaps CeeBee can help us, that states that "apreading democracy" may not be in AMerica's best interests. I'd like to read a little in it.
However, we can never forget that Islamic Terrorists have vowed to destroy America. They are the real enemy, and dangerous. We must pursue them.
Thr Iraqi was may have turned out to be Bush's Folly, but Islamic Terrorists are waging their kind of war against us; we must increase our efforts against them. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/25/05 - My Box Jim Abrams.
Jim had been looking for a church, in which he could feel comfortable. He had attended this one church and was questioning the Pastor about the different beliefs of the many churches. Now Jim had a box which he carried around with him. No matter where he went the box was right there beside him. One day the Pastor ask him about it. Jim replied; When I was a small child, and through all my early years, I watched my Mother. You see, she was very short and could not reach the cabinets in the kitchen, among other things in the house. This didn’t stop her from being a great mom. It just made it a little more difficult for her to accomplish the tasks set before her, as a wife and mother. She had this box, which she kept near by. She would just climb on it and she could reach anything in the house. As I grew older and began to work in the house of my Father, I found many things which I could not reach. I grew very discouraged and was about to give up. Then I remembered what my mother told me. She said, “through your life, you may find that you are smaller than others, either in your mind, your body, your spirit, or in your abilities. Just always remember this, when you need to get on top of the house, you can always use a ladder. When you need to get under the house, you can always use a shovel. When you need to get into the house, you can always use a key. Just don’t quit and admit defeat in anything.” So, I have always used her advice. For you see, Jesus is my ladder, my shovel, my ability, and He is the key to my everything. So when I feel a need to reach something for the Lord, I just get on my box and I can reach the highest mountain. I can see over the cliffs of life into the deepest valleys. Some people call it my Soap Box! I call it My Bible!
Thank you Father,
for Your revelations. By Milton L. Hazlewood @ QueenChoux answered on 08/25/05:Can I talk about my box? | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/25/05 - *** Christianity *** Settling the board down ... I have an idea (that doesn't happen very often!). Those who wish to sign on or contribute in any way to the Christianity Board should be required to lodge a $500.00 deposit with AW management.
For every infranction of the Rules and Regs, a deduction of, say, $50.00 is extracted and used to defray expenses of the webmasters.
Regular offenders and those who use foul language would be fined on an exponentially increasing scale.
I appreciate that this should have been forumed, but many of the worst offenders don't go there, so I seek indulgence for posting it here where all may read it.
This is not censorship, only the judicial application of voluntary consequences for wrong choices.
Personal sexual references would result in the whole lump being forfeited and gifted to the person who is the target of the obscenity. QueenChoux answered on 08/25/05:That sounds good to me. We should add that people who take up too much space by posting excessively long and tediouos answers and clarifications be fined a dollar a word out of the same $500.00 fund. My finger gets tired scrolling down excessive verbosity from answers and too lenghty cut and pastes. I addition, comments like that clog my computer. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/24/05 - I'm sorry but I'm unrepentent Robertson apologizes for assassination call
Broadcaster finds thread from Saddam to Chavez
Wednesday, August 24, 2005 Posted: 2323 GMT (0723 HKT)
Pat Robertson discusses his comments about Venezuela's president on Wednesday.
(CNN) -- After two days of criticism, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized for his controversial suggestion that the United States should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement," Robertson said. "I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."
But he compared Chavez to Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler and quoted German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "[That if a madman were] driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."
Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis for his involvement in a 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.
Robertson's rationale for his statement remained unchanged.
"I said before the war in Iraq began that the wisest course would be to wage war against Saddam Hussein, not the whole nation of Iraq," Robertson said. "When faced with the threat of a comparable dictator in our own hemisphere, would it not be wiser to wage war against one person rather than finding ourselves down the road locked in a bitter struggle with a whole nation?"
So far there has been no reaction from Venezuela to Robertson's apology.
Earlier Wednesday, on his "The 700 Club" program, Robertson said the media had taken his remarks out of context.
"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club." (Watch video)
The controversy began Monday when Robertson called Chavez "a terrific danger" bent on exporting Communism and Islamic extremism across the Americas. (Full story)
"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson Monday. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." (Watch Robertson's comments)
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," he said. "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro, has said in the past he believes the United States is trying to kill him and vowed that Venezuela, which accounts for more than 10 percent of U.S. oil imports, would shut off the flow of oil if that happened.
Tuesday, the Venezuelan leader shrugged off Robertson's comments during a trip to Cuba.
"I don't know who that person is," he said. "I don't know him, and as far as his opinion of me goes, I couldn't care less."
And Venezuela's ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez, said Robertson was "no ordinary private citizen" and demanded the White House strongly condemn the remarks.
I suppose when you are wrong you are wrong and you might as well stay wrong. Is Chavez anything like Hitler or Saddam or is it that he doesn't kow tow to Uncle Sam that has this fellow worried, perhaps he will have to pay more to fuel his Caddie. Can we expect a new barrage of cruise missiles now that surgical strikes have been approved by Robertson QueenChoux answered on 08/25/05:This isn't the first time Robertson or Fawell(I get them confused) have advocated death and then retraced and apologized. Not by a long shot!
Remember him advocating that a Supreme Court judge or two die by cancer so Bush could make appointments???
Right wingers are some serious hatemongers. | | Question/Answer | | HANK1 asked on 08/25/05 - ASK YOURSELF :
Who am I? Where am I going? And what am I really meant to be doing with my life?
This has to do with DESTINY, the path you're meant to take in life.
HANK
QueenChoux answered on 08/25/05:Hank, I'm at the end of my life now; I am lucky that I have had time now for reflecting and time for just relaxing and sitting around and doing only what I want to do and am able to do.
I did what I did with my life. (See my profile) Again, I was very fortunate to have had so many different occupations, so many different kinds of friends, so many sports and hobbies to enjoy, as well as a keen desire to read and learn and understand.
The most crucial decision I made in my life upon relflection, was my decision not to have children. The second, to graduate from college.
Sox won two from Minnesota. What a finish to the third game just now. :):):) | | Question/Answer | ATON2 asked on 08/25/05 - Quandry?????
Double quandry????Our friend bucker who rated Krewton five stars for one of the filthiest posting ever seen on this board, now suggests, (in a totally incomprehnsible post about who belongs in a pea-pod with him and Pat Robertson) that excon is going to burn in hell because he can't stand Pat Robertson. Are there any other Christians (?) on this board who believe that one must like Pat Robertson in order to avoid hell????? Seriously!!!!!!! QueenChoux answered on 08/25/05:Pat Robertson and Falwell are politicians; they lead fascist movements. Imagine if historical Jesus saw what they were doing in his name. | | Question/Answer | | Bradd asked on 08/24/05 - WOW! What a board! I should come here more often.
Anybody know Kumbaya?
Seriously tho folks, the pleasure has been mostly mine.
For those who disagree with me, please do it with a bit more panache.
For those who agree with me, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Kumbaya, My Lord, Kumbaya (the "Lord" there is non-sectarian - don't want to get the folks riled up)
Nice to have some atheists here. They hone the edges of Christian wit. (Calm down, Aton, you'll have your chance at me in a moment).
(I was gonna say something funny about CeeBee, but the last time I did that, I got crucified - just an expression, don't get upset).
Anyway, nice to be back.
OK, my question. Should George move the Stadium over to Macombs Dam Park? I say NO! QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:We are so lucky to have so many fun and intelligent people here in one place, people with super senses of humor, great life experience from which to draw, good game players, a diverse group.
What fun! | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/24/05 - About hypocrisy I've been reviewing the various reply and rating posts that refer to the questions by or about our current board abuser.
I honestly can not see how anyone can validate glozing over the abuse that was dished out on this board.
There are mainly three views :
- Those who disapprove the abuse.
- Those who from a christian viewpoint hope for the better.
- Those who as christians play up to the abuser, even at the cost of co-jokes on other board members.
Specially this third group I honestly only can find as offensive as the abuser himself. What a hypocrites!
Our abuser - whatever he states - is no christian. He only states he is. But his abuse and rudeness tells me otherwise.
For boardmembers to gloze-over that rudeness and abuse, just because of the claimed christianity of the abuser, is really sickening, and shows the hypocrisy of these members (who loudly pronounce their socalled christianity elswhere).
I really wonder how loud they would scream if the abuser would be atheist or humanist or of other belief.
Shame on you, I say to them. Shame on your hypocrisy.
Shame that you slyly smile because Aton and I were picked out by the abuser, two boardmembers who do not allign with your specific format of christianity.
Actually I'm proud I don't allign with you.
I prefer honesty above hypocrisy.
If you want you can react to this.
QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:Sarnian, I know it is easy for me to say; I was only attacked once unlike you and ATon, but Krewton will soon be gone.
This kind of attack is just a hazzard of good Internet Boards like this one. Everyone here has something different to say, something different to contribute to conversations, we have a lively mix here. Good hot conversations and good quite conversations. Serious discussions, deep discussions, fun ...
Christians will never stand up for atheists/secular humanists like you and me. :( Soon the attacks will be over.
| | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/24/05 - *** Christianity *** In praise of a brave Muslim Top honour for man shot by robber
Aug 24 2005
By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
A HAVE-A-GO hero who was killed as he tried to foil an armed robbery has been given a top posthumous honour.
Father-of-two Tasawar Hussain [a Muslim], 36, who worked at British Car Auctions in Brighouse, has been awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery.
The award was presented to his seven-year-old daughter Haarisah Hussain by the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Dr Ingrid Roscoe, on behalf of the Queen.
Haarisah's sister, Rasia, and mother Naila were also at the moving ceremony in Bradford City Hall.
Tasawar was killed by a single shot through his heart after trying to stop armed robbers who had struck at Madina Travel in Manningham, Bradford in January, 2003.
The robbers got away with Ł40,000, and Mr Hussain pursued them in a car with his best friend, Azram Hussain.
Mrs Hussain said yesterday: "Not a day goes by without me thinking of him.
"For my two little girls, they will never have a dad again."
QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:Aristotle in NEthics proposes that virtue is the mean between two vices. Moderation is his view of the way to a happy life.
**Courage** is the Golden Mean between the two vices of Cowardice and Foolhardiness. The poor man was foolhardy.
I have never thought that average Muslims were anything but fine moral people. I am so sorry he threw away his life. | | Question/Answer | | JesseJamesDupree asked on 08/24/05 - Now it's personal Talk about harassment! I have e-mailed answerway twice in 24 hours! It seems Aton and Saran have taken their attacks to a new (low) level. They have invaded the sanctity of my bathroom to personally harass me! How you ask? well let me explain, I went for my usual 6A.M. meditation this morning and when I started to flush, you can imagine my horror when I looked down and saw Aton and Saran in my toilet!! Obviously Aton was the biggest one, he was curled around the bowl twice and looked mean and ornery. Saran was cradled right in the middle of him and seemed to look like a dirty cherry on a dirty 'nanner split! I immediately tried to flush them, Saran gave up the ghost pretty quick, but me and ole Aton went 'round and 'round, only after fencing with my trusty plunger did he go down! Then after I had Bratwurst and Kraut for my lunch, I went to take care of business awhile ago, and they are back! I must have knicked 'em first time around though because they were kind of dark and cloudy around the edges. They finally went down but in addition to e-mailing answerway, I'm going to complain to the local utility tomorrow for allowing them to come into my home. No one should have to be harassed like this! QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:I had two younger brothers and when I was a kid, and they loved to talk about their turds and everything else pertaining to bodily functions. Once, my youngest brother called me into the bathroom to show me what he thought would be the largest turd I had ever seen. He was correct.
I'm not one who likes prissiness in anyone; however, give it up. **Enough is enough**
Go away....... | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/24/05 - For those who are anti-creationists............... What is the scietific word for creation?
The creation idea started with the first part of the bible, "In the beginning God CREATED heaven and earth"
Evolution has not and cannot explain the creation of the universe. Creation exists. There is no other name or word for it. Some have said the "Big Bang" is creation.
Fine! It is still creation!
There is creation theory and creation theology, but there is always "creation".
Accept it or reject it creation will still exist.
Without it nothing would exist as we see it today.
Peace and kindness,
Fred QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:Reality? | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/24/05 - Jews
Hello Christians:
Did you notice how the Jews behaved? Can you imagine how Christians would have behaved - if the behavior here is an example?
God, I love being Jewish!!!
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:Not that it matters, but I love Jewish people. I have never met a Jewish person who didn't have a great sense of humor and who wasn't intelligent....the two most important personal characterists for an individual in my book. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | MaggieB asked on 08/24/05 - Is this not the word of God? God's Word To You today is from Titus 3:1-7 NLT:
Remind your people to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not speak evil of anyone, and they must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others, and they hated us.
But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.
QueenChoux answered on 08/24/05:The world was a different place circa the First Century AD. An individual submitted to the government(Rome)or face dire consequences.
Today, if we *don't* hold government(Republic/democracy) responsible for its actions, *we citizens* face dire consequences.
Being a Christian does not mean surrrendering rational thought. | | Question/Answer | ATON2 asked on 08/23/05 - Who speaks for the filthmonger?????
Who speaks against the filthmonger???The filthmonger who posts as Jesse James Dupree, posted last week that "If you beleive on Jesus Christ, you will get to Heaven"...
He has since posted four of the filthiest obscenities that this board has ever seen...attacking two other experts. Where is the Christian indignation that one who claims to be one their own has stooped to spreading filth on the Christianity board and bringing Christianity into disrepute??????? The only one who has had the courage to address this filth is 'sarnian'.....are there no other TRUE Christians on this board???????? QueenChoux answered on 08/23/05:I saw what he said about me, but I chose to ignore it. Apparently, people can insult me and harrass and stalk me and not get suspended. I am reforming and it's going quite well; I have to finess personal attacks. :=D
So, someone else will have to get rid of this guy; I can't lead a charge against this internet weasle!!!!
| | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/23/05 - The price of freedom Habib stabbed near his home
August 23, 2005 - 7:39PM
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib has been stabbed near his Sydney home.
Mr Habib was walking home with his wife Maha at Guildford late on Sunday when he was bashed on the head from behind and stabbed in the stomach, the Seven Network reported tonight.
Mr Habib, who was not seriously injured, believed he was targeted.
Lifting his top to show a 6cm cut over his stomach, Mr Habib said he thought a man had come at him from the front with a knife.
"He tried to stab me so many times and he keep going ... he got me in my left side," he told Seven.
Mrs Habib said she believed there were three men dressed in black with hoods covering their heads.
"They said something like 'Ah, that should keep you quiet'. What's meant by that?" she said.
Mr Habib told the network the men could have murdered him but he believed they wanted only to menace him.
"They hit me in my head from the back. If you want to kill me you can hit me from the back with knife, hit me in my kidney with knife and that's it, finish," he said.
Mr Habib, who was detained at the United States' Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba along with fellow Australian David Hicks, was released in January this year after spending more than three years in detention.
He was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001 on suspicion of terrorist activities and claims he was also taken to Egypt and tortured between November 2001 and February 2002.
AAP
There was a time when things like this didn't happen in my country. We are not a people to use the knife. While I don't like Mr Habib's politics, I don't sanction cowardly acts and bullying. This is the low attitude brought to this country by cowards and extremists, the acts of nazi's. Is it any wonder we say integrate or stay away? I wonder who wanted to silence him, al queda or the US? QueenChoux answered on 08/23/05:The stated goal of terrorists is to cause anxiety for average citizens via surprise bombings and the fallout from these massacres.
One of the things they hope for is citizens turning on each other.
That is what you see here. | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/23/05 - Iraq - DISASTER
Hello Christians:
So, how's it gonna feel to know that we fought a war to create an Islamofacist state?
Our friends, Turkey are now gonna have to fight a war in the North with the Kurds, and our boys are in the middle of a civil war between two factions of Arabs who despise the other.
What the hell are we doin???? And, is your great leader goin on another bike ride today???? Puleese!!
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/23/05:Hi excon,
I gave an answer on the Politics Board.
If I may, I would like to make an observation. Under the *Theory of Unintended Consequences*, I believe we have tured the corner on Extreme Christianity having political influence.
This Robertson incident is going to be the last straw for the American Moderates. The evil that extreme religious leaders promote is crystal clear not only for Radical Islam BUT for Radical Christianity.
I say thanks to you Robertson for disgracing yourself and Radical Christianity when in fact you had the grandiosity to think that an assassination comment would be a good thing. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/23/05 - The positive side of life iving on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.
How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.
Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.
Happiness comes through doors you didn't even know you left open.
Ever notice that the people who are late are often much jollier than the people who have to wait for them?
Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us.
If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day, how come nothing is free yet?
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.
We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all exist very nicely in the same box.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. QueenChoux answered on 08/23/05:Really cute!
Just an addition: Wal-Mart has experienced a drop in profits this quarter. Some analysts think it is because of the rise in gasoline prices. Since Wal-Mart's customers are primarily from the lowest income Americans, they feel that these folks are spending part of their discretionary income on expensive gas to get to workinstead of driving to Wal-Mart to spend any money. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/23/05 - Disrespect I feel sorry for the ones who sit in their living room, or bed room, and try to belittle our President. This man fell into a situation he did not ask for. He was not in office very long when this happened. But, like the great person he is, he took hold of the situations reins, and has led a nation to the closest they have ever been to freedom .. I know this will not fit well with the ones who do not want peace, but are too cowardly to do anything about it but flapp their lips. It must be nice to have educated oneself beyond their means. I wonder what their family thinks about them. I would like to buy them for what they are worth, and then sell them for what they think they are worth. Oh well, just a dream. There is no market for them. Is God pleased with them? Well, maybe their god is, but mine is not, and that is the true and living God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, who died on the cross that day, and said, "forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." maybe He is saying that for you now. I pray He is, and that you will some day learn to know Him.. QueenChoux answered on 08/23/05:You are always "feeling sorry" for someone. That means nothing; I feel sorry for *you*. :)
*Anyone* who is so ambitious as to run for President of the United States knows that everywhere in the world there are conflicts, knows there are unaccounted for nuclear weapons, knows *every day* in the White House it is all about negotiating out of potential massive disasters.
Bush (and his administration) is just doing the job. How well? This is America, citizens can discuss what he is doing and tell him about their opinions. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/22/05 - Them's fighting words? It seems my views on muslims are shared by some very influentual people. It's not hatred, it's just common sense.
Firebrand clerics ordered out
From:
By Samantha Maiden
August 23, 2005
PETER Costello is urging radical Muslim clerics to leave Australia if they do not share the nation's values ahead of today's national terrorism summit organised by the Prime Minister.
As Muslim leaders gather in Canberra to discuss the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, the Treasurer has warned Australia cannot afford to be ambivalent about the teachings of extremists.
John Howard has urged Islamic leaders to take a greater role in rejecting violence but he has been more restrained than the Treasurer.
"If you don't like those values, then don't come here. Australia is not for you," Mr Costello said yesterday.
"This is the way I look at it: Australia is a secular society, with parliamentary law, part of the Western tradition of individual rights."
In an interview with The Australian, Mr Costello said migrants needed to understand and respect the "core values" of democracy, a secular society and the equality of women.
And he warned that Australia needed to be clear that the nation's core values would not change.
"If you are looking for a country that practises theocracy, sharia law - which is anti-Western - there are those countries in the world ... you will be happy there. But you won't be happy in Australia."
But he stopped short of supporting the deportation of radical Muslim leaders, in the wake of similar debates in Britain and France.
Mr Howard said in Sydney that he would be reminding the Islamic leaders at the summit that "our common values as Australians transcend any other allegiances or commitments".
He said Muslim leaders had a "particular responsibility" to make clear that Islam totally rejected violence and terrorism and that he wanted them to take ownership of the process of dealing with extremists' views.
"The purpose of this meeting is to underline to the leadership of the Muslim community that it has responsibilities," Mr Howard said.
He refused to budge on suggestions he should include extremists in the summit and said they would flood the media with extreme remarks.
"It would undermine the good work of the leaders of 99 per cent of the Muslim community in Australia who are trying to do the right thing, are trying to work with their fellow Australians and don't want prominence given to extremists," he said.
Kim Beazley and Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said it was important to speak as widely as possible but said the Government would be receiving sensible advice on who should be included.
"I want to see the determination that we're going to uphold respect for Australian values - Australian values of tolerance, Australian values of ensuring that we respect another person's rights, both in religious terms and their own dignity - and to make sure that this notion of respect is included in the curriculum of all schools," Mr Beazley said.
Mr Costello also threw his support behind Australia maintaining a strong skilled migration policy. "Immigration overall helps our country in a security sense and an economic sense. I think there is an acceptance of immigration, more so than 10 years ago. I would like to see a strong immigration policy. I am not putting numbers on it."
Earlier this month, the Treasurer said the notion that terrorists secured a reward in the afterlife for waging jihad against Westerners was "repulsive".
Yesterday he said: "I have seen people that say they believe in sharia law and theocracy. If that's their view, don't come to this country. This one is not for you. I don't think we can afford to be ambivalent about this point to young people or anyone else."
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also compared fundamentalist Muslims to Nazis as he defended the decision not to invite radical clerics to today's summit."
So there you have it, fundamentalist muslims are nazi's. The view expressed is not mine but that of a highly respected international politician. You see some people can see through the muslim agenda. It's not hatred, it's common sense. QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:All women should look on FUNDAMENTALISM OF ANY RELIGION as a mortal enemy. It is our responsibility as women to work against the forces that seek to oppress us in the name of some non-existant diety, some male fantasy.
All Fundamental religions have a Nazi/fascist mentality. Governments have the right to "destroy" political movements disguised as religions. | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/22/05 - Protest "emboldens" our enemy
Hello experts:
I read, today, the following typical stuff: "The enemy loves the fact that folks are marching in the same way the Viet Cong loved the tie-dyed peace flags. It fuels the fire with the enemy and tears down support for the country and destroys the troops morale."
Where does that come from? Has anyone ever interviewed an enemy to find out if this is so? Why would exhibiting one of the basic tenets of freedom "the right to protest", embolden our enemy? Certainly, you don't believe that everyone from their side supports them - or do you? If you saw that they didn't, would it make you believe in your side even MORE?
I was a 'troop' once. Frankly, what the people did back home had nothing whatsoever to do with my job. Can any veteran tell me any different? How does an "emboldened" enemy act differently than a non emboldened enemy does?
So, if that stuff isn't true (and I don't believe it is), where did it come from?
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:There is a wonderful old piece of Chinese wisdom that goes something like this.
My son broke his leg, How Terrible!
A war broke out and my son had a broken leg and couldn't serve, How Wonderful!
On and On.
No one knows what the effect of one event will have on future events. No one knows if one event is a disaster or blessing in the long run. :)
There are always unintended consequences.
For example, in Islamic countries where a person can't protest against the government....young people see that Americans can speak their minds?? Think for themselves?? Who knows what the effects will be in the long run. No one knows.
Remember terrorists chopping off heads in Iraq and sending the videos to the media? They stopped it because it was disgusting average Muslims.
Old people die off, the younger generations rise to prominence. Young people have a different view of the world based on their life and times.
A person should always Do the Right Thing based on a good set of ethics/morality. | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/21/05 - Money = Power? There are some who believe that Money = Power. I personally do not hold this believe because I do not believe money is more important then our family, our health for example. Why does america put such an importance on money. This will be the downfall of us. What are your opinions and thoughts. Thank you in advance! QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:Money equals power in the sense of social and cultural organizations. Poor people don't run anything!!
Also, having lots of money frees a person from worries about survival. After all, it is still **all about survival** for most of the earth's human inhabitants, including Americans. Everyone in the world wants money because it is the means to survival. Money buys food and shelter, clothing, etal. :=D
An individual can have personal power(Integrity)and Wisdom/Enlightenment.
There are many wonderful things to enjoy in life, family friends, sports, hobbies, education, money....... | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/21/05 - well what do you Know? The Vatican has at last decided that we, (Australia) exist and that it might put some of it's Papal resources to the purpose of reviving teh morobund catholic church in Australia
Vatican singles out faithless Australia
By Desmond O'Grady in Rome and Linda Morris
August 22, 2005
The Pope has issued a dire warning about the state of religious faith in Australia, saying mainstream Christianity is dying more quickly here than in any other country.
In remarks to priests in Italy, Benedict XVI spoke of a crisis for the main Christian churches as people in the Western world felt self-sufficient, with less need for Christ and Christianity.
"Certainly this is a suffering linked to the present historical moment in which generally one sees that the so-called mainstream churches appear moribund," he said. "This is so in Australia, above all, and also in Europe, but not so much in the United States."
He told the priests in the Italian Alpine diocese of Aosta that the Catholic Church was not as badly off as the mainstream Protestant churches, which were in a " profound crisis" because of sects.
Many people felt Christianity was antiquated, he said, whereas it actually represented the future because it responded to socio-ethical problems which could not be handled by an approach based solely on a scientific mentality.
Pope Benedict made the comments during an improvised talk to priests on July 25. They were not released by the Vatican press office but appeared in the Vatican daily L' Osservatore Romano.
The source of his information about Australia is not known. His comment was in line with the judgements he used to make during his 24 years as head of the Vatican Doctrinal Congregation.
According to bid documents sent to the Vatican and obtained by the Herald, it was the parlous state of Australian Catholicism's spiritual health that was the driving force behind the request by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, for World Youth Day 2008 to be staged in Sydney.
With a proposed spiritual theme of of "Take up your cross and follow Me", the week-long festival of confession and eucharistic adoration would sow the "seeds of many priestly and religious vocations".
The bid document says the event would increase church attendance among young people, bring more men to the priesthood and precipitate a new evangelism in Australia and Oceania.
It would also address spiritual challenges, the document says, such as media hostility to the church, ideologies and philosophies antithetical to the Gospel, a tendency to push Christianity to the margins and disorientation among young people about values.
Church attendance among the young was as low as in many parts of Europe, the church conceded."
Isn't it interesting he makes his remarks to Priests in Italy, talk about preaching to the converted, why isn't he making his remarks to priests in Australia. Perhaps, he can't find any? He's right about the mainstrean protestant churches, they suffer the same disease as the catholics; irrelevancy, but there is hope, the pentacostal churches are doing well, even if they are under the Popes radar. Well, not to worry, he has the support of the Premier of NSW, a good italian catholic boy, who has his eyes on the dollars added to the economy QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:These are interesting times for Christianity. I saw an interview on television about religion and spirituality in America.
It was interesting to see that there is an increase of interest in younger people in spirituality and religion. But very encouraging, the results of a poll were that 80% of all polled(many religions)said that they did **not** believe people who held different religious or spiritual views from theirs would go to hell. Only the most orthodox in their religions believed that everyone but themselves would go to hell.
The new Pope is not expected to ignite an interest in Christianaity in Europe. He doesn't have the charisma of John Paul II.
Interesting article about Australia. Mainline churches in American are having problems too. | | Question/Answer | | STONY asked on 08/22/05 - SO, YOU THOUGHT YOU JUST COULDN'T HATE ANYONE ELSE??? DID YA'LL CATCH THE STORY LAST NIIGHT ON JOSEPH KONY, THE NEW IDI AMIN OF UGANDA? QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:NO I DIDN'T, AND I'M THE QUEEN OF ALL MEDIA. :):):)
FRANKLY, AFRICA, WHAT A DISASTER! I'M SAD ABOUT IT. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/22/05 - More evolution into (un)intelligent design In my question post "Paraclete and his evolution into (un)intelligent design" which was based on a question posted to the board by paraclete, which itself was again based on an article in some paper, JesseJamesDupree aka Krewton wrote :
- Why are there still "monkeys"?
Simple. Because there was and still is a natural niche for monkeys te exist and propagate.
Humans exist because out of all the descendants of the ancestors of monkeys one group found their own (new) niche and evoluted into homo sapiens.
- You see "Evolution" is a theory ,and not a proven "fact".
Of course it is a theory. A very good and strong theory, because it is backed up by a hugh mountain of supportive evidence.
We still find daily new supporting evidence for the evolution theory.
From a scientific point of view it will never be possible to find proof for all stages of evolution, as not all lifeforms left proof for their existence like bones - as they had no bones - or because proof was destroyed over time by f.i. plate tectonics.
By the way : for Creation (another theory) there is actually no supporting proof what-so-ever. All it is based on is belief, while some people suggested all kind of non-scientific pseudo evidence for the creation suggestion.
For (un)intelligent design, an outgrowth of the creation suggestion, there is neither any supportive evidence.
- You kick against the goads, you refuse to accept what you see around you
You're wrong. What I do is accept precisely what I see around me. And I use the brains nature gave me to draw a conclusion, based on what I see.
- you chatter that man is the supreme being
I never suggested that, nor do I chatter about "supreme beings". There is no proof for the existence of "supreme beings".
Only religious people accept "supreme entities". Based on their belief, not based on facts.
- keep this folly up 'O chap, and you'll be hellbent
There is no supportive evidence for the existence of hell, though you seem to live a life in continuous fear for hell itself. How silly!
- I'll stick to the "Truth"
You don't support an explanation for what that "truth" is, nor do you provide supportive evidence for that truth, nor do your own actions on this board seem to indicate any linkage with any form of religious "truth" - unless your rudeness and impudence have to be accepted as signs of that "truth", in which case I do not even want to hear of your "truth".
- you to can be in "Heaven
There is no supportive proof for the existence of heaven neither. You believe that there is a heaven. And even if there was a heaven - seeing how some believers behave - I prefer to stay out of it.
Anyone any comments? Is there anyone really interested in further discussing evolution / creation / (un)intelligent design on a basis of normal human dignity? ?
QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:Honestly, I have to say that I'm not interested in a discussion with Creationists/ID folks. I would be happy to read one though! | | Question/Answer | | bal317 asked on 08/21/05 - Hello Everyone, bal317 here :-) Just wanted to pop in and say, Hello.
I have not forgotten all of you. I have been very busy, working on the Program which we have high hopes of it reaching many States.
I do daily interviews of the elderly people, collecting information on lifestyle, christianity, and mainly how their ancestor's helped in society, from all cultures. Our goal is to show, the importance of all cultures, even when times were of the worst different cultures still believed in God and accepted fellow man, woman and child no matter what race they were.
We hope by collecting this valuable information in ones State, and having material one can obtain from other States, it will re-evaluate and instill a better form of appreciation for each other. Most definately just how important individuals are and the need to keep strong together aiming for more positive things, which we hope will improve many Government actions to better all. Opening jobs, mentor groups, strengthening one State at a time in improving their people who seem to of been left out and alone, specially the no child left behind.
I hope all has been well, and I have told many about how strong of a group you all are here at Answerway.
In fact, I have used many of your wonderful quotes with helpful knowledge you've shared from the Bible.
You all are so wonderful.
Will try to get some questions answered, and return more in the next few days.
Please all take care.
Respectfully,
bal317
QueenChoux answered on 08/22/05:Thanks for checking in! Great to hear about all the good stuff you're involved in. Visiting the elderly? When will you be arriving at my apartment? :=D
I miss your interesting compassionate answers.
Enjoy your life! | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/21/05 - Who is Christ? I have heard that Jesus and Christ were not the same. Tell me this; if Jesus is not who He says He is, then who is He? And where is the other Jesus? Has He come to earth, or is He yet to come? please explain who this other Jesus is. I keep hearing about Him, but nothing is explained about Him. I love Jesus... QueenChoux answered on 08/21/05:*If* there was an historical Joshua(Jesus), he probably bears no resemblance to the mythological Christ that Saul(Paul)and others created partly out of Greek and Egyptian myth and the Jewish Messiah.
That does not mean that a person can't love Jesus, and consider Jesus their Lord. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/21/05 - Did Jesus lie? Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me! This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased! Was Jesus lying, was God lying? I know the answer. I just want to know who else does. QueenChoux answered on 08/21/05:Bucker, I don't believe in ancient God(s); they are just a way that primitive people developed to look at their world.
For me, the story of GodAlmighty and his son Jesus Christ is just another myth. Death is final.
Love Life! | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/21/05 - World War 3 and the Economy! Many people believe that the economy as of late keeps booming and keeps growing. There are always good times and bad times. Do you believe that eventually all the high prices and the economy will not be able sustain itself and we will need another depression era. Start all over if you will. Does anybody here believe that all the signs of late are going to lead to another eventual depression and to another major world war? Something needs to give? Right? What are your thoughts and opinions. Oh, ya I hear many people say we need another war in order to start things over or to have an effect on the major prices of everything that keeps going up? QueenChoux answered on 08/21/05:I can only speak for America, but the housing bubble is about to burst according to ecomonists. I areas like California housing is very overpriced. Same for areas around Boston and a number of other cities and towns. A person may have paid One Million for a home in a hot real estate market, but soon it will be worth say %500,000.
But, anyway, the American economy is so huge and so dominant that is controls all world economies.
"If the American economy sneezes, the rest of the world gets pneumonia." very loosely paraphrased.
The Dalai Lama consideres it somewhat "evil" that the American economy dominates all other world economies.
It is our economy that dominates the world and that is why we are the sole super power. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/21/05 - Paraclete and his evolution into unintelligent design Re. Paraclete's "question" on the board "God help us - whose idea was this?" dated June 30, 2005, to which I could not reply because some frustrated board member got me suspended for use of the clarification button.
"Consider the human body. Ask yourself, if you were designing the optimum exit for a foetus, would you engineer a route that passes through the narrow confines of the pelvic bones? Add to this the tragic reality that childbirth is not only painful in our species but also downright dangerous and sometimes lethal, because a baby's head is too large for the mother's birth canal."
Indeed. Actually that can be considered as proof for EVOLUTION. Birth through the pelvic bones is standard for almost all mammals.
Where animals change too much from the original design, problems start with natural birth. These problems can either be caused by physical breeding changes (as with horses and cows, which are bred to OUR human specifications of stronger or bigger, or by physical chances by natural evolution (as in the human head growing beyond "normal" apelike proprtions, just to allow the much bigger brain of that species).
~~~
"Why would evolution neglect the simple, straightforward solution? Because human beings are four-legged mammals by history. Our ancestors carried their spines parallel to the ground; it was only with our evolved upright posture that the pelvic girdle had to be rotated (and thereby narrowed), making a tight fit out of what for other mammals is nearly always an easy passage."
As can be seen from my previous reply, this is a fallacy. It has very little to do with using 4 or 2 legs. It has to do with evolution. With adaptation of the species from a common-to-all design for all mammals. In the case of humans our heads simply grows too large to allow easy exit through the mammal birthcanal.
Actually humans are born about three months too early, and their development at 9 months is incomplete. But being born later would not allow passage through the birthcanal anymore, so humans are born premature. One of the reasons why we humans are so totally helpless when born.
~~~
"This design flaw is all the more dramatic because a skeleton shows that there is plenty of room for even the most stubbornly large-brained, misoriented foetus to be easily delivered anywhere in that vast, non-bony region below the ribs. (In fact, this is precisely the route obstetricians follow when performing a Caesarean section.)"
Other ways of birth are indeed more preferably for our species. A Creator would have understood that, and taken care of it.
However, evolution works from the first of the mammal family, and develops from that design. That is why wings developed from arms and hands in birds.
That is why we HAVE to be born through the female birth canal, instead of much better alternatives.
~~~
"It is simply deplorable that the prostate gland is so close to the urinary system that (the common) enlargement of the former impinges awkwardly on the latter.
In addition, as human testicles descended - in evolution and in embryology - the vas deferens (which carries sperm) became looped around the ureter (which carries urine from kidneys to bladder), resulting in an altogether illogical arrangement that would never have occurred if, like a minimally competent designer, natural selection could have anticipated the situation."
That is basically correct. A "designer" would have done a much better job. Another goal for evolution!
There are hundreds of such examples in the human body, from eyes to ears to smell to taste to bones to joints to spine, etc. etc.
But than we have the best and most evolved brain to compensate for all these negative aspects! The end result has to be considered extremely positive for humans!
~~~
"And what about the theological implications of all this? If God is the designer, and we are created in His image, does that mean He has back problems, too?
The point is that these and other incongruities testify to the contingent, unplanned, entirely natural nature of natural selection. We are profoundly imperfect, cobbled together rather then designed. And in these imperfections reside some of the best arguments for our equally profound natural-ness."
Well, a big HURRAY for the Los Angeles Times. There is a deep truth in that. Think about it, and draw your conclusions !
~~~
"For Freethinker :
Now FT you have the ideal material to commence the dabate on the existence or otherwise of the creator.
What price intelligent design? Does God use the same creation process we do, incremental development? or is He content to leave well enough alone once the prototype has been put into production.?
Intelligent design? I do not see ANY PROOF for that. All I see is support for the EVOLUTION THEORY.
Sorry paraclete !
Anyone any comment?
QueenChoux answered on 08/21/05:Wonderful rebuttal, free. A great debate on the Atheism Board or Furum would be Creationist/Intelligent Design vs Evolution.
But, really, who has the energy or desire? Anyway, there is not one single proof of Intelligent Design. Many for Evolution. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/19/05 - When tolerance is not tolerance Islam says it is a peaceful religion. Is this the act of a peacefull religion?
Koranic TV next step for radical sheik
By Tom Allard
August 20, 2005
The Koran is also a book of legislation, says Sheik Khalid Yasin.
An Islamic preacher who advocates the execution of homosexuals, adulterers and armed robbers plans to start broadcasting his message in Australia on radio, TV and through the internet.
Sheik Khalid Yasin, who was born in the US, gained notoriety when his views on homosexuals - and that the Koran endorsed beatings of spouses - were aired last month, bringing condemnation from the then premier, Bob Carr.
In an interview with the Herald this week Sheik Khalid said he was preparing to use the airwaves to proselytise and offer a "moral alternative" to the mainstream media.
He remained unapologetic about his strict interpretation of the Koran, but pleaded for it to be put in context.
"It's not just a book of revelation and inspiration; it's a book of legislation," he said. Among these Koranic "laws" was capital punishment for offences including adultery, homosexuality, rape, child molestation, bestiality and murder.
"This is God's law, but the execution of those laws has to be by a government apparatus," he said. "Without an Islamic state you can still promote these views … but my message is that you have to obey the laws of the land."
Sheik Khalid, a former Christian who was inspired by the US black nationalist Malcolm X to convert to Islam, has visited Australia five times and is a popular speaker among the young.
However, other Muslims vehemently dispute his intepretation. The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, said: "It's not in the Koran. His views on homosexuality and adultery do not reflect the views of the majority of Muslims. They are really radical and, at this point in time, we could do without them."
Sheik Khalid said he had entered into a joint venture partnership with Fame Entertainment to broadcast over satellite radio and TV. "By October we will be broadcasting two to four hours a day, seven days a week," he said.
"We are looking at satellite TV by January next year and we expect to be webcasting here from the 15th of September." The programs, titled Purpose of Life, would involve talkback and documentaries and would canvass issues from genetically modified food to nuclear proliferation and the abortion debate, Sheik Khalid said.
He had met Abu Bakar Bashir , the jailed alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, but found him "obnoxious and pretentious". Sheik Khalid does not subscribe to the notion of a pan-Islamic caliphate, terrorism or the overthrow of Western democracies.
"It's more important for me to reform Muslims than to reform states," he said. "We tolerate you, but you also have to tolerate us. It's a two-way street"
My view is we don't have to tolerate this sort of thing and particularly not from an import. This fellow, who preaches respect for the law, is in contempt for the laws of this country, and should be sent back to enlighten the people of the US from wence he comes. For years they have been sending their ratbags to us, why I ask? don't we have enough of our own? QueenChoux answered on 08/20/05:I think it is very odd that Fundamental Islamic men can bomb and attack other countries, yet other countries are not supposed to take the necessary steps to reduce the risks!! (specifically America, for example)
How silly! | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/19/05 - This is not my writing. Bucker She Does Not Speak for Me
My son died in Iraq--and it was not in vain.
BY RONALD R. GRIFFIN
Thursday, August 18, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
I lost a son in Iraq and Cindy Sheehan does not speak for me.
I grieve with Mrs. Sheehan, for all too well I know the full measure of the agony she is forever going to endure. I honor her son for his service and sacrifice. However, I abhor all that she represents and those who would cast her as the symbol for parents of our fallen soldiers.
The fallen heroes, until now, have enjoyed virtually no individuality. They have been treated as a monolith, a mere number. Now Mrs. Sheehan, with adept public relations tactics, has succeeded in elevating herself above the rest of us. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida declared that Mrs. Sheehan is now the symbol for all parents who have lost children in Iraq. Sorry, senator. Not for me.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times portrays Mrs. Sheehan as a distraught mom standing heroically outside the guarded gates of the most powerful and inhumane man on earth, President Bush. Ms. Dowd is so moved by Mrs. Sheehan's plight that she bestowed upon her and all grieving parents the title of "absolute moral authority." That characterization epitomizes the arrogance and condescension of anyone who would presume to understand and speak for all of us. How can we all possess "absolute moral authority" when we hold so many different perspectives?
I don't want that title. I haven't earned that title.
Although we all walk the same sad road of sorrow and agony, we walk it as individuals with all the refreshing uniqueness of our own thoughts shaped in large measure by the life and death of our own fallen hero. Over the past few days I have reached out to other parents and loved ones of fallen heroes in an attempt to find out their reactions to all the attention Mrs. Sheehan has attracted. What emerges from those conversations is an empathy for Mrs. Sheehan's suffering but a fundamental disagreement with her politics.
Ann and Dale Hampton lost their only child, Capt. Kimberly Hampton, on Jan. 2, 2004, while she was flying her Kiowa helicopter. She was a member of the 82nd Airborne and the company commander. She had already served in Afghanistan before being deployed to Iraq. Ann Hampton wrote, "My grief sometimes seems unbearable, but I cannot add the additional baggage of anger. Mrs. Sheehan has every right to protest . . . but I cannot do that. I would be protesting the very thing that Kimberly believed in and died for."
Marine Capt. Benjamin Sammis was Stacey Sammis's husband. Ben died on April 4, 2003, while flying his Super Cobra helicopter. Listen to Stacey and she will tell you that she is just beginning to understand the enormousness of the character of soldiers who knowingly put their lives at risk to defend our country. She will tell you that one of her deepest regrets is that the world did not have the honor of experiencing for a much longer time this outstanding Marine she so deeply loved.
Speak to Joan Curtin, whose son, Cpl. Michael Curtin, was an infantryman with the 2-7th 3rd ID, and her words are passionately ambivalent. She says she has no room for bitterness. She has a life to lead and a family to nurture. She spoke of that part of her that never heals, for that is where Michael resides. She can go on, always knowing there will be that pain.
Karen Long is the mother of Spc. Zachariah Long, who died with my son Kyle on May 30, 2003. Zack and Kyle were inseparable friends as only soldiers can be, and Karen and I have become inseparable friends since their deaths. Karen's view is that what Mrs. Sheehan is doing she has every right to do, but she is dishonoring all soldiers, including Karen's son, Zack. Karen cannot comprehend why Mrs. Sheehan cannot seem to come to grips with the idea that her own son, Casey, was a soldier like Zack who had a mission to complete. Karen will tell you over and over again that Zack is not here and no one, but no one will dishonor her son.
My wife, Robin, has a different take on Mrs. Sheehan. She told me, "I don't care what she says or does. She is no more important than any other mother."
By all accounts Spc. Casey Sheehan, Mrs. Sheehan's son, was a soldier by choice and by the strength of his character. I did not have the honor of knowing him, but I have read that he attended community college for three years and then chose to join the Army. In August 2003, five months into Operation Iraqi Freedom and after three years of service, Casey Sheehan re-enlisted in the Army with the full knowledge there was a war going on, and with the high probability he would be assigned to a combat area. Mrs. Sheehan frequently speaks of her son in religious terms, even saying that she thought that some day Casey would be a priest. Like so many of the individuals who have given their lives in service to our country, Casey was a very special young man. How do you decry that which someone has chosen to do with his life? How does a mother dishonor the sacrifice of her own son?
Mrs. Sheehan has become the poster child for all the negativity surrounding the war in Iraq. In a way it heartens me to have all this attention paid to her, because that means others in her position now have the chance to be heard. Give equal time to other loved ones of fallen heroes. Feel the intensity of their love, their pride and the sorrow.
To many loved ones, there are few if any "what ifs." They, like their fallen heroes before them, live in the world as it is and not what it was or could have been. Think of the sacrifices that have brought us to this day. We as a country made a collective decision. We must now live up to our decision and not deviate until the mission is complete.
Thirty-five years ago, a president faced a similar dilemma in Vietnam. He gave in and we got "peace with honor." To this day, I am still searching for that honor. Today, those who defend our freedom every day do so as volunteers with a clear and certain purpose. Today, they have in their commander in chief someone who will not allow us to sink into self-pity. I will not allow him to. The amazing part about talking to the people left behind is that I did not want them to stop. After speaking to so many I have come away with the certainty of their conviction that in a large measure it's because of the deeds and sacrifices of their fallen heroes that this is a better and safer world we now live in.
Those who lost their lives believed in the mission. To honor their memory, and because it's right, we must believe in the mission, too.
We refuse to allow Cindy Sheehan to speak for all of us. Instead, we ask you to learn the individual stories. They are glorious. Honor their memories.
Honor their service. Never dishonor them by giving in. They never did.
Mr. Griffin is the father of Spc. Kyle Andrew Griffin, a recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal and the Bronze Star, who was killed in a truck accident on a road between Mosul and Tikrit on May 30, 2003.
QueenChoux answered on 08/19/05:In America, everyone has a right to express an opinion about the actions of the government.
That is all she is doing. She is expressing her opinion, and she is against the war. President Bush said a cuple of days ago that she has a right to express her opinion!!!!
Others have joined her. In America, we have the right of free assembly!!!
Have a great weekend. :) | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/19/05 - A Question for Linguists ... Can you dientify the language of and provide a reasonable translation for:
Baba wedu uri kudenga
?QueenChoux answered on 08/19/05:This is the Christianity Board. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/19/05 - Vacation I do not know how everyone feel about the Jews. So I will just ask this in general, about all people. If you have a home, which you have worked thirty years to own. Then one day someone comes with a notice that you do not own that house, and you have three days to vacate. Would this not be devastating to you? I watched while Jewish soldiers carried the people out. Some of them were crying too. this was sad for me to watch. Do you not believe that this is fulfilling the scriptures? I know that some are going to defend the other side. But I am talking about now. That was another time, and another circumstance. QueenChoux answered on 08/19/05:FOLLOW-UP:: Palestineans burning down buildings and dancing and cheering, just now. Breaking down buildings into rocks.
"Palestineans can't use the former homes of Jewish settlers because they don't fit the ***high density*** living style of the Palestineans".
******PALESTINEANS ONLY HAVE A WILL TO FAIL!!!!!!!!***********
The Middle East is so pathetic I jsut have to laugh, so I don't cry, at the insanity born of religion and despotism.
| | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/19/05 - Support? Hi all ...
This was sent to me this morning from a Marine (and friend of many years) now deployed to Fallujah. I've removed all indication it came from anyone in the military and, obviously, it is unclassified.
~~~~
MATT LAUER: "Now, don't get me wrong, I think you guys are probably telling me the truth about how well it's going to over here, but there might be a lot of people at home wondering how that could be possible, how could it possibly be going well here with the conditions you're facing and with the insurgent attacks that you're facing, so what would you say to those people who were doubtful that morale can be that high here?"
CAPTAIN SHERMAN POWELL: "Well, sir, I tell you if I got my news from the newspapers also I'd be pretty depressed as well."
LAUER: "What don't you think is being correctly portrayed?"
POWELL: "Sir, I know it's hard to get out and get on the ground and report the news, and I understand that, and I appreciate that fact, but for those of us who actually have a chance to go out and go on patrols and meet the Iraqi army and Iraqi police and go on patrols with them, we are very satisfied with the way things are going here, and we are confident that if we're allowed to finish the job we started, we'll be very proud of it, and our country will be proud of us for doing it."
LAUER: "Well, there's been some reports in the media lately -- and I'm going to get your feathers ruffled here, I'm sure in a second -- the expectations now are starting to be lowered for what would be success here in Iraq. How would you feel about US forces being withdrawn before -- see, you're shaking your head, I can see it -- before the insurgency is defeated?"
POWELL: "Well, sir, I would just tell you, and for the people who are listening back at home, that we appreciate the support we've gotten from them so far, and soldiers will do anything when they know they have good leadership and they have the support from the people back at home, and as long as we continue to have confidence that we are supported and people have our back, there is nothing we cannot accomplish."
QueenChoux answered on 08/19/05:I heard on the news that oil output in Iraq is 91% effective, they are pumping hard and effective. That is in the south of Iraq(Shi'a) and north of Iraq(Kurds)where there are few problems and the areas are condidered pacified and on the road to "success".
The problems are around Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. Car bombs and homocide bombers blowing up civilians and soldier recruits, as well as American soldiers.
Iraqi oil...what, the second largest oil reserves in the world....will never be left in jeopardy by America....(I think) | | Question/Answer | | kindj asked on 08/19/05 - Here's a "Father of the Year" award A woman comes into my office this morning, and during the course of the interview, I discover that she is widowed. Furthermore, I learned the manner in which she became a widow.
It seems that her and her husband separated a few months ago, for reasons as yet unknown to me. They had two kids aged 7 and 8. A couple of months ago, the dad calls the two kids on the phone, and proceeds to tell them that everything that has happened is their fault, and that what happens next is their fault, too. He then sets the phone down (still connected, kids still listening), and shoots himself in the head.
Words fail me. I've heard lots of tragic stories, and lots of things to anger me. But this....this tops them all.
Pray for the kids. And if you have kids of your own or grandkids, get to them as quick as you can, and hug them and love them.
DK QueenChoux answered on 08/19/05:Thank heavens he killed himself; he would have been a pernicious influence on his children throughout his and their lives.
His kids won't remember him, they are very young and impressionable....in a positive way by caring folks. | | Question/Answer | | CeeBee2 asked on 08/18/05 - The Reformers.................... Do you think they wanted to actually **reform** the Catholic Church or simply *break off* from it in order to do their own thing? QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:As for Reformers, I don't have an opinion(or knowledge), but I would like to compliment you on you asterisk stylings! :)
Christianity needs **another Reformation** in my opinion as well as Islam needing a first Reformation. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/18/05 - The Church of the future? or a desperate last stand? Let us play
By Jano Gibson
August 18, 2005 - 10:08AM
Page Tools
First it killed the VHS player. Soon after, it began wiping out cinemas. Now the DVD is set to knock the church minister off his pulpit.
But it's all about keeping the gospel alive.
A shortage of ministers has left some rural communities without regular visits from clergymen.
So the Uniting Church has begun producing DVD sermons that are screened at more than 20 village church groups across the country as part of Project Reconnect.
The DVDs are made each week at a church in Parkes and feature a short religious discourse, a youth-orientated message as well as hymns and music.
Churchgoers are also given four questions to discuss at the end of the DVD discourse, which adds a richer dimension to traditional services, the Reverend Stuart believes.
"It's a much more participatory and engaging experience than what they had when there was a minister," he said.
"Many of the people who use Project Reconnect now say they don't want to go back to the way [services] were," he said.
Mr Stuart sees the DVD concept as a sustainable way for people to share their knowledge about the faith.
"The printing press was huge for the Bible in the same way the DVD has created a whole new set of opportunities for the church," he said.
So there you have it folks straight from the ministers mouth. The DVD is more interesting that what ever it is he has been preaching in the flesh, isn't amazing what happens when you allow the flock to be part of the service, such innovation! QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:I see why there are such problems for Christianity. DVD/s will never be a substitute for a real live minister.
I wonder if this is the reason for the birth of Super Churches.....??? | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/18/05 - 25 Phrases Of Wisdom.................................... 1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.
2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.
4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.
6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
AND . . . (drum roll please?)
25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:Hey, these are really funny! | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/18/05 - Where did a dove find the olive leaf? Hello Everyone,
After the Flood, where did the dove find the olive leaf that it brought to the ark? If there was flood waters covering the mountains, where did the dove find and olive leaf? Does this make sense to you? If so please explain.
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:Hope, these Bible stories are just that, stories. Ancient myths. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/18/05 - *** Christianity *** - If Was Good Enough For Jesus ... A former Texas Governer said,
"Texas schoolchildren don't need to learn Spanish. If English was good enough for Jesus Christ it's good enough for them!"
Is there something in the water in Texas? QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:These kinds of narrow, ignorant attitudes hiding behind ridiculous rabel rousing words is why I don't like to talk to anyone who lives south of Interstate Highway 80. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/18/05 - Trouble asking questions Does anyone else have trouble asking a question on the queation board...? QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:I have trouble coming up with a subject for a question since everything has been covered over and over and over. Don't feel bad.
A suggestion, take a current news story and see how it relates to Christianity or religion in general. Everyone seems to enjoy answering them.
Take care! | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/18/05 - *** Christianity *** Dennis Rader ... Just curious - does anyone doubt that had Dennis Rader (BTK Killer) been a Roman Catholic, a Muslim, a Mormon, or a Jaydub, etc., that this board would have been awash with denominational denunciation, or have I been QB-conditioned to be cynical? QueenChoux answered on 08/18/05:I didn't want to talk about Dennis Rader, a **Lutheran Deacon**, except for making a very tenuous and unfair case for how children are really twisted by early religious teaching and cold mothers. :)
I did some reading about the history of serial killers. *Recorded* evidence of serial killers is generally agreed upon to have begun in England with Jack the Ripper in the 1880's, a by product of industriaized society. There is little recorded evidence of serial killers before that time. Then, the Dusseldorf Ripper, and many other killers since.
Serial killing is pretty much a white man's crime according to statistics. I would be very surprised if a Muslim man was a serial killer. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/17/05 - *** Christianity *** - Interpreting the scriptures ... The early Christians did not regard the canon of the scripture as closed. In a recent and important study, Van Unnik has shown that for the earliest Christians, the apostolic office, the gift of revelation, and the bringing forth of scripture were always regarded as going hand in hand; and, with von Harnack, he points out that at least as late as A.D. 200 it was held to be perfectly legitimate "for someone to add something to the word of the Gospel."
The Bible itself leaves the door wide open for future revelation in many places, but even if it did not, men fool themselves when they think for a moment that they can read the scripture without ever adding something to the text, or omitting something from it.
In the wise words of St. Hilary, Scripturae enim non in legendo sunt, sed in intelligendo: "Scripture consists not in what one reads, but in what one understands."
We can see that the Apostles themselves "knew not the scripture"--though no doubt they had often read it--until the Lord opened it to them. To read is by very definition to unriddle, to expound to oneself, to interpret.
In the reading of the scripture we must always have an interpreter, but who qualifies for the task of interpreting God's word to men?
Irenaeus insisted that no special interpreter was needed, the book being self-explanatory so that "the whole of the scripture . . . can be understood clearly and without ambiguity equally and by all."
But then he turns right around and accuses vast numbers of Christians of reading it all wrong, "becoming bad interpreters of the good and correct word."
What is one to do when, in the words of a later church father, "there are as many interpretations of the scriptures as there are readers"?
In that case, Irenaeus recommends appealing to the opinions of the oldest churches, those who had traditions actually going back to the Apostles.
But when these churches disagree among themselves, what then?
Then, says Irenaeus, we must examine the order of tradition committed to the churches.
All the while, you will note, Irenaeus is looking for an interpreter for the scriptures, which he began by saying needed no interpreter!
If the Bible contained its own interpretation, the best and wisest of its readers would surely agree on its teachings, yet those who study it hardest disagree most widely about it.
Tertullian pointed out that discussions based on scriptures are a waste of time since the most hopelessly mistaken person can in all good faith prove his case from the scriptures "by divers expositions and commentaries," easily corrupting the sense without having to corrupt the letter of the text, and picking and rejecting whatever suits his purpose.
If we say that the heretics are playing fast and loose with the Bible, Tertullian reminds us, we must remember that they in all seriousness believe that we are corrupting the scripture by false exposition while they preserve the pure truth of it.
For that reason, according to Tertullian, it is practically impossible to win an argument by appeal to the scripture alone, and even when we do win, the whole issue remains uncertain.
Can one interpret the scripture without actually adding something that was not there before?
If the Bible is all-sufficient, why the huge flow of books and periodicals that obligingly offer to tell us what the Bible is trying to say? Can't the Bible speak for itself?
The council of Seleucia in 359 solemnly declared that the prophets and gospels are perfect and complete, the absolute guide to the church in all things, no others being necessary.
This point being settled, the meeting was promptly thrown into an uproar, for the homoousian party was quick to point out that the keyword of the opponents' doctrine, the homoiousia, was not to be found in the Bible, while the homoiousian faction returned the charge against them.
Each side protested that it was merely interpreting the Bible, while the opposition was adding to it. It was the suspicion that the Council of Nicaea in interpreting the scriptures had been guilty of adding to them that drove the clergy and general public alike into agonies of doubt and indecision that were never allayed.
Even the first and greatest of oecumenical synods was not able to interpret the Bible without adding to it.
Well, we are forced to ask, who, if anyone, has a right to interpret the scriptures?
Clement of Alexandria asks that question. He says that there are things in his own writings which in the future will be interpreted in all sorts of different ways as men "seek to reveal hidden meanings in them to demonstrate the presence of things unsaid."
But who has the right to take such liberties? Only the author himself, says Clement, or a direct and trusted disciple.
On one thing he insists--the interpretation must come from outside; it cannot be conjured out of the writing itself which is being interpreted.
To interpret the Bible by one's own reading of the Bible is to lift oneself by one's own bootstraps.
Men have recognised this fact and sought earnestly to establish or discover some authorized individual or board or some infallible rules and principles by which the interpretation of the Bible could be made a sure and certain thing, and they have failed.
The synods of pious and learned men assembled to give definite interpretations have been scenes of raging controversy through the centuries, each great council sowing the seeds of misunderstanding that lead to the next.
The great Tertullian declared with fire and indignation that the authority of the church in such matters does not reside in a number of bishops no matter how great, but only in a man who can speak by the spirit of God.
Yet even that throws up a greater calamity. Who are we to believe when four people interpreting, as they suppose, "by the Spirit," read the same passage and reach four widely diverging opinions as to its true meaning?
One of the normal offices of episcopal councils has been to correct the errors and indiscretions of certain individual bishops, those of the great leading communities of Christendom--Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, Constantinople, etc.--who have declared that in their peculiar office as bishops resides the ultimate authority to interpret the scriptures.
The holders of that high interpretive office have been convicted of heresy from time to time, and an examination of the Patrologia, the writings of the fathers, will show that it has never been the custom of Christians to consult any one particular individual when in doubt on matter of doctrine and authority, no matter what his office.
Instead, the Christian church has been guided through the centuries in its reading of the scriptures by doctors of the church whose supreme qualification was their own native wit, regardless of the office they held.
These clever men have made repeated attempts to lay down sure and reliable rules by which anyone properly trained could arrive at the true meaning of the scriptures.
Taking the greatest of the fathers as an example, we cite Marrou's recent work on St. Augustine's methods of interpreting the scripture wherein he points out what has long been known to scholars: that the rules which Augustine calls "nothing less than the keys to the holy writ" are simply the familiar technique which had been employed for centuries in the pagan schools in the interpretation of Homer and Virgil.
When this system found itself--as it did not rarely--in indissoluble opposition to the plain meaning of the scripture, "It was," wrote Turmel, "the interpretation of the text [the Bible] that was sacrificed." "Let us remember," says Gilson, "that a doctor of the Church is not infallible."
How then can the ultimate appeal be to such? Time and again we meet with such phrases as "since the authority of the scripture does not specifically declare such and such to be so, it is doubtful whether we should presume to express an opinion on it."
No one seems eager or even willing to assume the awful responsibility.
There are churches today which declare for the absolute sufficiency of the Bible as perfect, complete, and infallible.
Yet it is precisely the ministers of these churches who concern themselves most diligently with the study of Greek.
Why? Because they recognize that our translated versions are not the original, but are imperfect, tainted by the interpretations of men.
So Bible interpreters choose a Greek grammar as the faithful guide to lead them on paths that do not stray.
Alas! a more hesitant and speculating guide could not be imagined, and when we get the so-called original texts of the Bible before us with their stately apparatus of possible corrections, emendations, suggestions, recommendations, and whatnot, we first come to realize that the holy text is a maze of a thousand passages.
In the end, authority cannot reside in man, but, as Tertullian insists, only in a man who speaks by the Spirit of God.
Thus, it remains that the scripture is indeed what the mediaeval church called it: a mystery!
The question is not whether or not one shall add to the word of the scripture - thousands of volumes of learned commentary have already done that - but whether such addition shall come by the wisdom of men or the revelation of God.
Who then, presumes to know what the Bible means, and why should we believe them? QueenChoux answered on 08/17/05:What/Whoever last assembled The Bible officially closed Christianity to further holy revelation. The Bible starts with the beginning, creation, in Genesis, and ends in Revelation with "The End".
Early Christianity was consolidated by the Catholic Church, and the more creative and gnostic and etc were stamped out. Just because early Christians believed something does not mean that what they believed is acceptable to current Christianity.
:) | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/17/05 - *** Christianity *** Athanasius What were the three 'erronious views' of creation rejected by Athanasius.
(Those of the Stoics, Platonists, and Gnostics) QueenChoux answered on 08/17/05:Why learn ancient arguments and philosophical viewpoints when all that is irrelevant???
Creation questions now fall under *SCIENCE*, not theology or philosophy for those interested in reality.
However, I understand that some few are interested in esoteric pursuits. I'll be interested to see your responses. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/17/05 - Help me understand
Hello experts:
Last night on TV, some right wing wacko, when asked about the bombings in Iraq, replied that it meant that we're winning.
What?? I've heard it before, and it still dumbfounds me. Tell me, please, what would winning the war in Iraq look like to you?
excon
PS> I ask here, because this has become the ipso facto politics board.
QueenChoux answered on 08/17/05:One thing I dislike about the radical right is that we have "bizarro language"....losing equals winning, for example, and all the other lies/spin/propaganda that we are bombarded with from Bush on the public media and the radically partisan media such as Fox News.
There is no winning in Iraq any more than there was any winning in Viet Nam. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/16/05 - Well, that's one way to duck prosecution? Pope seeks immunity over sex abuse suit
August 17, 2005 - 10:44AM
Lawyers for Pope Benedict XVI have asked US President George W. Bush to declare the pontiff immune from liability in a lawsuit that accuses him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas, court records show.
The Vatican's embassy in Washington sent a diplomatic memo to the State Department on May 20 requesting the US government grant the pope immunity because he is a head of state, according to a May 26 motion submitted by the pope's lawyers in US District Court for the Southern Division of Texas in Houston.
Joseph Ratzinger is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. Now Benedict XVI, he's accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up the abuse during the mid-1990s. The suit is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Gerry Keener, said today that the pope already is considered a head of state and automatically has diplomatic immunity. Keener said Benedict doesn't have to ask for immunity and Bush doesn't have to grant it.
International legal experts said today it would be "virtually impossible" for the case to succeed because the pope, as a head of state, had diplomatic immunity. "There's really no question at all, not the vaguest legal doubt, that he's immune from the suit, period," said Paolo Carozza, an international law specialist at the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Nevertheless, lawyers for abuse victims say the case is significant because previous recent attempts to implicate the Vatican, the pope or other high-ranking church officials in US sex abuse proceedings have failed - primarily because of immunity claims and the difficulty serving top Vatican officials with US lawsuits.
"It has gone further than any suit before, and it should be instructive to the church that if evidence of their continued handling of these matters keeps coming to light and is inconsistent with fair play, that lawyers are going to pursue it," said Stephen Rubino, a New Jersey lawyer who is not involved but has handled hundreds of other cases of church sex abuse.
The three boys, identified in court documents as John Does I, II and III, allege that a Colombian-born seminarian on assignment at St. Francis de Sales church in Houston, Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, molested them during counselling sessions in the church in the mid-1990s.
Patino-Arango has been indicted in a criminal case by a Harris County, Texas, grand jury and is a fugitive from justice, the lawsuit says.
Attorney Daniel Shea, who is representing one of the three boys in the civil suit, said in a telephone interview today that then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before becoming pope, was involved in a conspiracy to hide Patino-Arango's crimes and to help him escape prosecution.
In the lawsuit, Shea cited a May 18, 2001, letter from Ratzinger, written in Latin to bishops around the world, explaining that "grave" crimes such as the sexual abuse of minors would be handled by his congregation. The proceedings of special church tribunals handling the cases were subject to "pontifical secret," Ratzinger's letter says.
"Ratzinger's involvement arises out of this letter, which demonstrates the clear intent to conceal the crimes involved," Shea said.
The Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have insisted that the secret church procedures in the sex abuse case were not designed to cover up abuse nor to prevent victims from reporting crimes to law enforcement authorities. The document deals with church law - not keeping secrets from secular authorities, they say.
"To insinuate that this letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is part of a Vatican conspiracy is a total and complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the letter," Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza said in a statement. He heads the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese and is also named as a defendant in the suit.
A Vatican spokesman and attorneys for the pope declined to comment.
AP
It seems the rot goes all the way to the top, will the RCC never be rid of it's problems? QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:clete, at first I thought this was going to be one of your ubiquitous jokes, but then realized that this has the ring of truth.
In an earlier answer to a question, I mentioned the fact that Ratzinger contributed to the cover-ups of sexual misconduct of American priests when he was head of the Inquisition (now renamed).
There are so few HOly Men....all I can think of right now is Gandhi.
I don't think that the Catholic Church will ever make the necessary changes to save their church in first world countries. Meanwhile, Protestant missionaries are making inroads in traditional Catholic Territory like South America. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/16/05 - *** Christianity*** (or **Dobsonianity**) So, I asked myself, Just Who is James Dobson?
James Dobson
The religious right's new kingmaker.
By Michael Crowley
Posted Friday, Nov. 12, 2004, at 12:00 PM PT
Although the notion that the religious right's "moral values" determined the 2004 election has been roundly debunked (for example, here and here), perception is reality in politics—and the indelible perception in Washington is now that George W. Bush owes his evangelical Christian base big-time.
One corollary to this idea is that no one helped Bush win more than Dr. James Dobson. Forget Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who in their dotage have marginalized themselves with gaffes (this week Robertson referred to potential Supreme Court nominee Miguel Estrada as "Erik Estrada"). Forget Ralph Reed, now enriching himself as a lobbyist-operative, leaving the Christian Coalition a shell of its former self. Forget Gary Bauer, now known chiefly as a failed presidential candidate who tumbled off a stage while flipping pancakes. Dobson is now America's most influential evangelical leader, with a following reportedly greater than that of either Falwell or Robertson at his peak.
Dobson earned the title. He proselytized hard for Bush this last year, organizing huge stadium rallies and using his radio program to warn his 7 million American listeners that not to vote would be a sin. Dobson may have delivered Bush his victories in Ohio and Florida.
He's already leveraging his new power. When a thank-you call came from the White House, Dobson issued the staffer a blunt warning that Bush "needs to be more aggressive" about pressing the religious right's pro-life, anti-gay rights agenda, or it would "pay a price in four years." And when the pro-choice Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter made conciliatory noises about appointing moderates to the Supreme Court, Dobson launched a fevered campaign to prevent him from assuming the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which until then he had been expected to inherit. Dobson is now a Republican kingmaker.
Surprisingly, though, this isn't a role he's traditionally sought or relished. An absolutist disgusted by the compromises of politics, he sneers at those who place "self-preservation and power ahead of moral principle." He has always kept his distance from Washington. Unlike Reed, a canny strategist above all, Dobson has talked about bringing down the GOP if it fails him. Yet as the gay-marriage movement surged this year, Dobson's moral outrage over the direction of American culture went supernova, asserting in his recent book Marriage Under Fire that Western civilization hangs in the balance. But now Dobson faces a difficult trial. He must decide which he hates more, Washington politics or cultural apocalypse.
Dobson's clout emanates from Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based ministry he founded that is awesome in scope: publishing books and magazines, disseminating Dobson's weekly newspaper column to more than 500 papers, and airing radio shows—including Dobson's own—that reach people in 115 countries every week, from Japan to Botswana and in languages from Spanish to Zulu. The ministry receives so much mail it has its own ZIP code.
His rise began in 1977, when as an unknown pediatric psychologist in California he published Dare to Discipline, a denunciation of permissive parenting that tried to rehabilitate the practice of spanking. The book sold 2 million copies. Dobson then cranked out a string of follow-up Christian self-help books, with titles like Straight Talk to Men and What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women.
What made Dobson's books successful wasn't, as you might think, bilious jeremiads about modernity, but rather their highly practical advice about daily challenges from midlife crises to sibling rivalry. In these books and elsewhere, Dobson can sound like a perfectly sensible, if conservative, pop psychologist, not too different from Dr. Phil. On his Web site, he replies to a query about a marriage stuck in the doldrums. Instead of haranguing the questioner about the covenant of marriage, Dobson concedes that "[a]dults still love the thrill of the chase, the lure of the unattainable, the excitement of the new and boredom with the old. Immature impulses are controlled and minimized in a committed relationship, of course, but they never fully disappear."
Possessed of a friendly, fatherly manner, Dobson can even play the part of genial cornball. A passage in Straight Talk to Men, for instance, meant to show Dobson's sympathy for ordinary families, recounts what he calls "the day we now refer to as 'Black Sunday.' " On that gruesome morning, it turns out, the Dobsons woke up late for church, spilled some milk at breakfast and—Lord have mercy!—lost their tempers after a Dobson child got his church clothes dirty. "At least one spanking was delivered, as I recall, and another three or four were promised. Yes, it was a day to be remembered (or forgotten)," Dobson writes. The lament sounds like something you'd hear from the hyper-geeky and ultra-devout Ned Flanders of The Simpsons.
Initially, Dobson indeed focused on the family, keeping his distance (as many evangelicals customarily did) from the political arena's dirty deal-making. But as his following grew, he warmed to politics. In 1983 he established the Family Research Council as his political arm in Washington, although he had his friend Gary Bauer enter the Gomorrah of Washington so Dobson could concentrate on his ministry in Colorado. Then, in the late 1990s Dobson began to grow disenchanted with Republican leaders in Congress for not pushing the Christian social agenda harder. In the 2000 campaign his tepid support of Bush may have helped dampen turnout among evangelical voters, a disappointment Karl Rove dwelled on for four years.
It was the gay-marriage debate that finally hurled Dobson into politics wholeheartedly. The subject of homosexuality seems to exert a special power over him, and he has devoted much idiosyncratic thought to it. When discussing gays he spares no detail, no matter how prurient. In Bringing Up Boys, he gleefully reprints a letter he received from a 13-year-old boy who describes wiggling his naked body in front of the mirror to "make my genitals bounce up and down" and admits to having "tried more than once to suck my own penis (to be frank)." Dobson believes that such adolescents suffer from what he calls "pre-homosexuality," a formative stage which results from having a weak father figure. Dobson further contends that homosexuality, especially in such an early stage, can be "cured." His ministry runs a program called Love Won Out that seeks to convert "ex-gays" to heterosexuality. (Alas, the program's director, a self-proclaimed "ex-gay" himself, was spotted at a gay bar in 2000, an episode Dobson downplayed as "a momentary setback.")
To Dobson, gay marriage is a looming catastrophe of epic proportions. He has compared the recent steps toward gay marriage to Pearl Harbor and likens the battle against it to D-Day. While Dobson maintains that he'd prefer to stay out of politics, he has said that "the attack and assault on marriage is so distressing that I just feel like I can't remain silent." Earlier this year, Dobson started a new offshoot of Focus on the Family called Focus on the Family Action, which he used to campaign openly for Bush. And during the campaign he joined Ralph Reed and born-again Watergate conspirator Charles Colson in regular conference calls with Karl Rove and other senior White House officials.
With Bush's election, Dobson has won a major battle. But success brings its own perils. It's quite possible that Dobson, his hopes having been raised, will find them dashed. After all, Republican strategists will surely realize that too strong an anti-gay stand could further alienate moderates and independents (groups that John Kerry actually won this year). Dobson himself predicted future disappointment during an appearance on ABC's This Week last Sunday. Asked whether Bush would fail evangelicals, Dobson replied, "I'm sure he will fail us. He doesn't dance to our tune." If that's true, and Dobson believes his words about putting principle ahead of power, then his new bond with the GOP may already be in jeopardy.
Perhaps more damaging is the possibility that Dobson gets what he wants. Maybe the GOP will establish an anti-abortion Supreme Court, overturn Roe v. Wade, stamp out gay rights, ban stem-cell research forever, and shut down MTV and cancel The Bachelor. Voters may not be so pleased with the Republican Party after that. Despite the qualms they showed about gay marriage this year, there's no reason to think they want anything like Dobson's Utopia, and they could see a replay of, say, 1998, when the perception that angry culture warriors were running the GOP damaged the party at the polls. In one of his books, Dobson has written of the gay-rights movement that "[e]vil has a way of overreaching." So does the far right.
Michael Crowley is a senior editor at the New Republic.
========================
COMMENTS?QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:What a scary dude! All of his kind are scary.
Thanks for the detailed information.
| | Question/Answer | | Itsdb asked on 08/16/05 - Biblical Pool Uncovered in Jerusalem The reservoir served as a gathering place for Jews making pilgrimages and is said in the Gospel of John to be the site where Jesus cured a blind man.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the Old City of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John.
The pool was fed by the now famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is "a much grander affair" than archeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, said Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, which reported the find Monday.
"Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now we have found the Pool of Siloam … exactly where John said it was."
A gospel that was thought to be "pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history," he said.
Religious law required ancient Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once a year, said archeologist Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who excavated the pool. "Jesus was just another pilgrim coming to Jerusalem," he said. "It would be natural to find him there."
The newly discovered pool is less than 200 yards from another Pool of Siloam, this one a reconstruction built between AD 400 and 460 by the Empress Eudocia of Byzantium, who oversaw the rebuilding of several biblical sites.
The site of yet another Pool of Siloam, which predated the version reputedly visited by Jesus, is still unknown.
That first pool was constructed in the 8th century BC by Judean King Hezekiah, who foresaw the likelihood that the Assyrians would lay siege to Jerusalem and knew a safe water supply would be required to survive the attack.
He ordered workers to build a 1,750-foot-long tunnel under the ridge where the City of David was located. The tunnel connected Gihon Spring in the adjacent Kidron Valley to the side of Jerusalem less vulnerable to an attack.
The first Pool of Siloam was the reservoir holding the water brought into the city. It was presumably destroyed in 586 BC when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar razed the city.
The pool of Jesus' time was built early in the 1st century BC and was destroyed by the future Roman Emperor Titus about AD 70.
The pool was discovered by a repair team excavating a damaged sewer line last fall under the supervision of Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority. As soon as Shukron saw two steps uncovered, he stopped the work and called in Reich, who was excavating at the Gihon Spring.
When they saw the steps, Shukron said, "we were 100% sure it was the Siloam Pool."
With winter approaching, the two men had to hurry their excavation so the sewer could be repaired before the rainy season.
As they began digging they uncovered three groups of five stairs each separated by narrow landings. The pool was about 225 feet long, and they unearthed steps on three sides.
They do not yet know how wide and how deep the pool was because they have not finished the excavation. The fourth side lies under a lush garden — filled with figs, pomegranates, cabbages and other fruits — behind a Greek Orthodox Church, and the team has not yet received permission to cut a trench through the garden.
"We need to know how big it is," Charlesworth said. "This may be the most significant and largest miqveh [ritual bath] ever found."
The excavators have been able to date the pool fairly precisely because of two fortunate occurrences that implanted unique artifacts in the pool area.
When ancient workmen were plastering the steps before facing them with stones, they either accidentally or deliberately buried four coins in the plaster. All four are coins of Alexander Jannaeus, a Jewish king who ruled Jerusalem from 103 to 76 BC. That provides the earliest date at which the pool could have been constructed.
Similarly, in the soil in one corner of the pool, they found about a dozen coins dating from the period of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome, which lasted from AD 66 to 70. That indicates the pool had begun to be filled in by that time.
Because the pool sits at one of the lowest spots in Jerusalem, rains flowing down the valley deposited mud into it each winter. It was no longer being cleaned out, so the pool quickly filled with dirt and disappeared, Shanks said.
The story of Jesus and the blind man, as told in John, is well known. Jesus was fleeing the Temple to escape either the priests or an angry crowd when he encountered the man. His disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, the man or his parents, to cause him to be born blind.
Jesus said that neither had sinned, but that the man had been born blind so that God's work might be revealed in him. With that, he spat in the dust to make mud, which he rubbed in the man's eyes before telling him to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. When the man did so, he was able to see.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments?
QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:Of course there are archaeological digs all over the world including, Jerusalem; that's one way we learn about ancient civilizations.
What is your point?
I'm guessing that you have erroneously concluded that because there are ancient digs in the Holy Land that proves that their god is a fact.
The digs are facts.
God is about belief/blind faith.
Totally different. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/16/05 - The Gospel According to Groucho ... Groucho Marx quipped, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."
Though he was joking, I wonder if he is actually hitting close to home?
Do you have a firm set of principles that guide your life? QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:First of all, I only come in contact with adults, and that is important. :):):)
Soooooo, I don't have a *firm set* of principles that guide my life, I just like to be spontaneous.
Enlightenment::
We don't know in advance what's in our own best interests; everything we do is right; providence gives us exactly what we need daily!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/16/05 - Israel
Hello Christians:
Is it true that you only support Israel because the bible says that Jesus will only return to Israel? And, once he does, you'll no longer have any use for the Jews? After all, you need 'em to provide a place for your savior to return to, but they still won't be allowed into heaven.
What kind of hypocrisy is that?
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:This is just my opinion, but I think that Fundamental Christians are Israel's best friend politcally, and they have real love for Jews.
I think you are on the wrong track here.
(From my experience when I was a Born Again Christian.) | | Question/Answer | | Itsdb asked on 08/16/05 - Beware We've been warned and now I guess it's true - Roberts will be a disaster if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court. Two headlines from my paper today:
"Roberts wrote in 1985 that memorial for fetuses was good way to draw attention to 'abortion tragedy'"
"Memo: Roberts supported moment of silence in classroom" (ok, maybe not exactly, but that's how I remember it.)
The first tells us, "As a young lawyer in the Reagan White House, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts concluded that a group's memorial service for aborted fetuses was "an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy."
Roberts' wrote the advice in an October, 1985 memo after he was asked to review a proposed telegram from President Reagan to the memorial service promoted by the California Pro Life Medical Association.
"The president's position is that the fetuses were human beings, or at least cannot be proven not to have been, and accordingly a memorial service would seem an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy," wrote Roberts...
Referring to a Supreme Court ruling issued earlier that year that struck down an Alabama school prayer law, he said, "The conclusion ... that the Constitution prohibits such a moment of silent reflection — or even silent `prayer' — seems indefensible."
In the second, we learn that "As a young government attorney, John Roberts advised the White House to support congressional efforts to allow school prayer, arguing that a Supreme Court ruling striking down the practice ``seems indefensible.''
In a Nov. 21, 1985 memo released Monday by the National Archives, Roberts was responding to a move by Congress to permit ``group silent prayer or reflection in public schools.'' He said he would not object if Justice Department officials announced that President Reagan had no formal role in passing an amendment to that effect, but said he would support such a move.
The Supreme Court's conclusion that ``the Constitution prohibits such a moment of silent reflection -- or even silent 'prayer' - seems indefensible,'' Roberts wrote in a memo to White House counsel Fred Fielding."
Not only that, but he dissed the "King of Pop"
"The office of presidential correspondence is not yet an adjunct of Michael Jackson's PR firm," Roberts wrote in a memo to his boss on June 22, 1984, opposing a request by the singer's publicist for a presidential letter praising the star's work against drunken driving."
So what does this tell us about Roberts and the possible threat to this country he may be?
Steve QueenChoux answered on 08/16/05:LOL!! a "DISASTER" if Roberts is confirmed. Constant exaggeration!! Roberts has solid Coservative credentials. THAT'S WHY BUSH NOMINATED HIM!!!! | | Question/Answer | | HANK1 asked on 08/15/05 - My Answer To Bikini Question:
Here's a verse from God's Word. God calls women to modesty, which means to not draw attention to themselves! 1 Timothy 2:9-10 says, "I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."
HANK
QueenChoux answered on 08/15/05:...."I want"....ŕ Tim" went way too far. Hairstyles and jewlery and nice clothes forbidden????
Actually, that book is considered a forgery by scholars. I see it's definitely oppressive to women therefore, evil.
Women are the heart and soul of a society; a society fails if women are not valued as the most important member of a culture and uplifted. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/14/05 - confusion regarding When was Jesus born I have just read two different sources which give a vastly different timeline for Jesus life. one sourse newadvent suggests the Church began on the day of pentacost 29AD
the other a time line suggests that date would be 36 AD, so experts was Jesus born in 4BC or 3AD and what is the evidence for each view? QueenChoux answered on 08/15/05:I'm not so sure there was an historical Jesus in any way like the writers of the New Testament described. Maybe so, probably not.
The best choice seems to me is to decide to go by the gospels and just chose a date for the founding of the church and the birthday of the Christ.
You are Peter and upon that rock.....seems resonalble.
Birthday? Unknown. Just as well to make it coincide with the winter solstice to please the European pagans etc. Yo Saturnalia???? | | Question/Answer | | powderpuff asked on 08/15/05 - some funnies A Sunday school teacher asked the children just before she dismissed them to go to church, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" Little Annie replied, "Because people are sleeping."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesus saw the crowd stoning the woman, and stepped forth, shouting, "Let he without sin cast the first stone!" Silence -- then a stone came flying from the crowd, and Jesus turned around saying "C'mon, Mom, I'm trying to make a point here..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mission President to a new Elder:
"When a big mean dog attacks you elder, just remember, you don't have to run faster than the dog, ...you just have to out run your companion."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a few things guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of even the strongest war veteran:
--a 3-year old who has just begun wearing big-kid underclothes squatted in the corner with a look of fierce concentration on his face;
--a little tiny voice from the back seat saying 'I gots to use the potty' when you are in bumper to bumper traffic;
--total silence from a room full of children;
--a boom/crash from the other room and the sound of many feet scampering in all directions;
--a boom/crash from the other room...and silence;
--the sound of a flush from a bathroom occupied only by a 2 year old
--all the kids huddled in the corner, whispering, when all you can overhear are the words, "Don't tell Mom!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two missionaries were tracting door to door and knocked on the door of a woman who was not happy to see them. She told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear their message and slammed the door in their faces. To her surprise, however, the door did not close -- in fact, it bounced back open. She tried again, really put her back into it, and slammed the door again with the same result -- the door bounced back open. Convinced these rude young people were sticking their foot in the door, she reared back to give it a slam that would teach them a lesson, when one of them said, "Ma'am, before you do that again, you need to move your cat."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A primary president, a high councilman, and a bishop sat on the front row of a airplane flight that, unfortunately, was hijacked. When the hijackers' demands were refused, they threatened to shoot some passengers, starting with the first row. The primary president promptly asked for one last wish. She wanted to sing her favorite primary song. The hijacker said that would be fine, then asked the high councilman and bishop if they also had a last wish. The high councilman requested that after the song he be allowed to stand and give the talk he had prepared to give in sacrament meeting that next Sunday. The hijacker agreed, then turned to the bishop. The bishop motioned for the hijacker to come closer and whispered in his ear, "Please shoot me after the song."
QueenChoux answered on 08/15/05:Sharlene, I love the practical as well as jokes.
My fav is that when being chased by a dog, you only have to run a little faster than your companion! LOL!! | | Question/Answer | | HANK1 asked on 08/15/05 - Let's Take A Swim:
Should a Christian woman wear a bikini?
HANK
QueenChoux answered on 08/15/05:I believe that **all women** should dress modestly in public. Men, too, for that matter. No banana hammocks, please!!!
Bikinis are fine but not in public. | | Question/Answer | | Ccl471 asked on 08/14/05 - Religious Tolerance Dear Aton:
Why is it that it is not wrong for someone from another religion to criticize Christianity, but if a Christian criticizes another religion, that Christian is immediately accused of doing wrong?
America believes in religious tolerance, however that means tolerance for all religions except for Christianity.
C.L.
QueenChoux answered on 08/15/05:IN America, Christianity has morphed into a political movement. Churches receive tax breaks from the government.
Christianity is therefore fair-game for close scrutiny! Gone are the days when Christianity is above it all. | | Question/Answer | | HANK1 asked on 08/14/05 - Students Of Christianity:
How can a student of Christianity or any other religion truly understand any subject if he/she only has access to one narrow viewpoint?
HANK
QueenChoux answered on 08/14/05:Hank, religion is about "belief/blind faith", either a person believes that there is a supernatural entity as presented to them in Christian doctrine( there are only a **very few** crucial tenents to Christianity)....or one doesn't. All the rest is commentary.
Believe in God the Father Almighty
Creator of "Heaven and Earth"
His only son Jesus was
crucified dead and buried
he rose from the dead
Will judge humanity
Believe in the Holy Ghost
the forgiveness of sins
Life everlasting
Love god with all your heart
Do unto others.....etc
A person can make of hobby of studying different religions, I did, and found it very interesting.
Really, there is *nothing to understand*, just to believe.
Have a good one! | | Question/Answer | | Ccl471 asked on 08/13/05 - Re: My Post on the Islam Board Please take a look at the post I placed on the Islam Board on Thursday.
No one there has responded to my question, and I know it's not because there are not enough experts registered there.
So am I to infer from their silence that the answer to my question is no?
C.L.
QueenChoux answered on 08/14/05:No, the only thing you can infer is that no one has answered your question yet, assuming anyone read it!!!!
See my answer. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/13/05 - Sabbath Day for Christians ... Most Christians worship on the Lord's day, Sunday, but some have decided to go back to the Jewish Sabbath.
What supprt is there for Christians to observe either Saturday or Sunday. Please be as detailed as possible. QueenChoux answered on 08/14/05:It amazes me how so many Christian denominations and Christians chose to occupy themselves with minor details and minutiae instead of waking-up from their dreams and seeing the world for what it is!! "Supernatural forces" will not solve all the terrible problems we, and the world, face.
| | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/14/05 - A question for all This is a question for all. I don’t know if you have ever thought about what it was like at the beginning of America, but there have been uncountable innocent people killed to make this country what it is today. Countless lives have been lost to keep you and I free. To give us the right to give our opinion, to speak against, or for something. These men and boys went over to another country to keep them away from our people here. I went over there, and yes I wanted to go. I was up there at fifteen trying to join the Navy. This was after pearl harbor. I was sent to Germany. America, along with other nations, defeated them. What did America do? It helped them to become better nations. They now rule themselves in a democratic way. Can any of you remember how many American men and women were killed before we started to fight back. Well we are fighting back now. We are trying to establish a democracy right in the middle of the trouble makers. One we can have as friends and allies. I am proud that America is standing with the Jewish people. I believe that God is leading us to do so. If it wasn’t for the Jewish people, we may not have Jesus. It was through their lineage that He came to us. Jews were the first Christians, including Jesus. So, yes, let us keep war away from our country, even from those who do not know enough to be thankful for it. There are going to be innocent ones killed.
That cannot be helped. But do not blame our fighting men and women, blame the cowards, who hide behind them and will not come out and fight in the open. They cause this, and our fighting people get blamed for it. Really fair isn’t it??? Maybe we should send the squawkers over there and see how they would talk over there. Would they go crying to the enemy, saying “don’t kill me, I am on your side”. Just a thought.. QueenChoux answered on 08/14/05:*If* Radical Islam gains control over Islam and the majority of Muslims, the civilized world will be in big trouble. There is no way to fight hit-and-run bombers except by extermination.....of the cancer.
So, far the war in Iraq has been a great help for the radical elements, and indeed, if the Iraqi people fail to make a go of a new democratic government, could become a training ground and government for Islamo-fascits. (ala Afghaistan was, and still is a problem coutry)
Uncertain times, to say the least. Open warfare has to be deminished, other methods of problem solving have to be used. | | Question/Answer | | sarnian asked on 08/13/05 - Mons. Eugene Clark And another RCC scandal!
First we had a long period of child-sex-abuse by hundreds of priests and the resulting court cases (which have already cost the US RCC more than 1 Billion US dollars and near-bankrupcy for several US RCC disoses).
Next case that stepped into the spotlights : the break of celibacy and the break of trust by Monseigneur Eugene Clark, the priest in charge of St. Patricks Cathedral in New York, and a wellknown and very vocal regular television religious show host with extreme conservative ideas.
At 70 (!) Eugene Clark was found out to have a sexual relation with his 46 year old secretary (by a detective hired by the husband of the secretary).
Besides that this relationship is contra to all that Eugene Clark preached over the years in church and on television (he is wellknown as a fiery supporter of celibacy and a major opposer of extra-marital activities), there is also the fact that he knew that his secretary was married.
Clark has meanwhile offered his resignation.
We all know that nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes, and the case of Eugene Clark is no exception.
But Eugene Clark also shows that priests don't have some form of built-in restraint to keep to their own advices (instructions), and fail themselves to resign FIRST and only than concede to their bodily needs.
That they for centuries have been condemning all who did that seems of no concern, at least not to Eugene Clark.
And that the lady was married neither seems to have been of any concern for Eugene Clark.
How can anyone still TRUST priests, and accept their directions and advices?
Aren't all of them potential liars and cheaters ?
Is celibacy (whatever was intended with it originally and/or used as reasoning for it) not more an impediment for the good functioning of priests in 2005 AD ?
Has the RCC not lost contact with it's flock and with reality ?
QueenChoux answered on 08/13/05:In America, the overwhelming number of priests entered seminary at age 18. These boys were often kids confused about sexuality or homosexual and unsure of themselves about facing a dog-eat-dog world. (Per article from Time Mag by a Catholic Priest)
IN England and Continental Europe, there was a tradition of the second eldest son going into the clergy. It was a status job if you will.
Anyway, today, Roman Catholic Clergy in America does not have high quality individuals serving as priests. Not the brightest men, or best rounded individuals; they also have a high percentage of homosexuals estimated at between 30-50%.
This leads to problems! Most specially when they preach against homosexuality and the public sees their sexual sins verified in print....and a percentage of these sins against children!!! The, their superiors covered-up the evils these priests engaged in and transferred them. The Boston Cardinal was promoted to a job at the Vatican by the current Pope Benedict 16 after his complicity in harming children war revealed!!
The Catholic Church in America stands in disgrace today. Operating in a Medieval mind-set in a 20th century world. Rigid and stubborn about details; wrapped-up in ritual. Afraid to let go of irrelevanties unrelated to core spirituality.
It is my pleasure to watch the evils of Catholicism exposed to the light. It is an evil institution. (See my post on the Christianity Forum) | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/12/05 - I Will Give You Rest ... I Will Give You Rest
Ronnie Bray
Late in 1999, Gay, two of her American friends, and I strayed through Durham, and North and East Yorkshire for a couple of days.
We sat in the cool dimness of the awesome 1,000 years old Durham Cathedral in the land of Prince Bishops. The only cathedral in the British Isles built in a single style. It has massive round stone pillars, typical of heavy Norman architecture supporting an unbelievably complex roof. In that cool place whose tiny windows let in but little of the late sunlight, it was easy to wander backwards through the centuries and sense the devotion that had inspired and built it.
Looking round the broad, squat nave, one of our friends looked about at the dark reddish hue of the titanic pillars and the complex tracery of the ceiling of the massive pile, and exclaimed, How on earth did they pour all that concrete? You can see why I love Americans.
Later, we visited the mostly perpendicular Ripon cathedral, built over the Saxon crypt that was more than 1400 years old, before tramming down to see the ruins of Bolton Abbey, despoiled by Henry VIII during the Reformation.
We must have examined several millennia of history transformed into stone and earthworks, and walked where the heroes and villains of English history walked, saw the stunning vistas they saw, and been as enchanted by the broad green lands and rugged purple hills as they were, and been made to feel wonderfully alive by the same sights that inspired them.
We saw many places of ancient tale and fable whose names are connected with significant events in British history. At the end of our journeying, I asked Georgia and Karen which of the places we had been was most memorable. The bed and breakfast place! said the lady from Casa Grande, without hesitation.
Having told you that, I now have to tell you about the bed and breakfast place. It wasn't our first choice. We had telephoned a B&B in a five house village in North Yorkshire, near the historic Richmond Castle, only to find that they had no vacancies. However they recommended their friends' place called Stones Throw.
Stones Throw was a beautiful cottage built of the light gray stone of that area, with a deceptively large interior, kept by a shepherd and his wife. The interior appointments were sumptuous. Little touches here and there advised that a creative romantic spirit had been at work. The beds were surprisingly comfortable, and the rooms artistically and tastefully decorated.
We were greeted with home baked scones filled with fresh cream and home made strawberry jam and put at our ease. However, it was breakfast that really rang the bell.
When we went down to breakfast, it was already laid on the hefty pine table. The table legs were round and stout, such as might be seen on an overweight version of Long John Silver.
I have had Continental breakfast in American Motels and felt cheated. But this was a value-for-money breakfast with a vengeance! Orange juice in man-sized glasses with jugs of the stuff waiting close by for refills. More toast than you could shake a stick at, huge pots of coarse and fine shred marmalade and a huge boat dish of rich yellow butter.
The sideboard displayed a choice of breakfast cereals with an unlimited supply of milk fresh from a smiling cow, and oatmeal, called by the British either porage or porridge, was available for the asking.
After orange juice and cereals, the cooked portion of breakfast was carried in on red hot giant plates creaking under the weight of fried eggs with bright golden-yellow yolks from self-satisfied chickens, rashers of best back bacon with the fat trimmed, succulent pork sausages, crispy fried bread, mushrooms cooked in butter, black pudding fried to crispy deliciousness, and a couple of hash browns - an American import slowly gaining favour - topped with tomato ketchup for the Americans and with brown fruit sauce for the mature taste of the Englishman, and we were mostly silent for twenty minutes doing justice to the oblation.
Having wiped the various sauces from our mouths and chins - beards can be messy things! - we set about the toast. Just as the mountain was disappearing, our hostess arrived from the kitchen with another tottering precipice.
More orange juice, a brief rest to let our repast settle, then with cheery farewells we sloshed our way to the car to head across country towards Yorkshire's East Coast, where we meandered through the unbelievably picturesque hillside fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay, and the old fishing town of Whitby, where Count Dracula came ashore, and where the popular Whitby Jet mourning jewellery popularised by Queen Victoria was still made.
After a visit to the medieval Whitby Abbey and the equally ancient St Michael's church, a gentle troll down the coast road through the holiday resort town of Scarborough, where we enjoyed traditional fish and chips, we turned inland toward West Yorkshire and home, through towns that bear all the signs of the industrial revolution and the hardy folk that made the wheels of commerce turn whilst enduring grinding poverty.
Yet, for all the ancient glories, and the wealth of historic places we had seen, it was the bed and breakfast place that had made the most substantial impression. Contemplating the reason for her choice, I realised it was her favourite because it offered her something that the other places hadn't.
Although the scenery and buildings had broadened her understanding and given solid form to places she had only heard about, the place of rest and refreshment had supplied that which she most needed. She was no longer young, and her health was not as good as it could be, but she had proceeded with the stamina and fortitude of a pilgrim.
But, Stones Throw had granted rest, peace, silence, and fed her spirit with its peaceful seclusion as well as filled her with the best food she had ever tasted.
In our busy lives, we often rush around places thinking that we are doing ourselves some good, when we really ought to be in some bed and breakfast place refreshing our souls. Jesus pointed us to such a place when he said:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest . . .
Learn of me . . . and ye shall find rest for your souls
And, of course, you will receive the spiritual equivalent of a Full English Breakfast!
- - -
Copyright © June 2000
Ronnie Bray
All Rights Reserved QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:Very nice! I shall post a shabby story forthwith. | | Question/Answer | | CeeBee2 asked on 08/12/05 - Reproduction freedom, part 3................. Jenny is 21 and has a paper-trail history of ADD, amoral behavior (general irresponsibility, theft, lying, burning down the family home, school problems, social problems, sexual acting out in that sex is fun and she isn't choosey about who she sleeps with), and so on. There was no consistency in parenting Jenny; steps were always taken to make life easy for her.
Now Jenny is 7-8 months' pregnant, had decided to get pregnant because her younger sister was pregnant and unmarried at age 17 and was getting lots of attention because of it (Jenny said this in my hearing).
The baby is due in late summer, probably September. Jenny has no idea who the father might be. DNA testing is out of the question; there's no one to test.
Jenny's mother recently retired. Her father is partially retired, works 3 days a week. The younger daughter and baby son live at home with her parents. The parents, who help care for this grandchild, bought a mobile home for Jenny to live in (several miles away) once her baby arrives. Jenny, of course, wants to live at home too for the free meals, bed, and babysitting (or, as she says, so her parents have the fun and excitement of helping her raise her child).
Do you understand why I fear for this baby (who will be my great-niece or nephew)???? QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:I feel like I'm back in my social work days.
In cases like this, you have to put the child in the hands of God since you can do nothing. There is no point in worrying or investing any emotion in this situation. (Unless you are thinking of adopting the child?)
We never know what will happen in the future. My guess is that she will be reported to Children and Family Services in her state in no time.
Wouldn't it be nice if after the baby arrives, a young man with a veneral disease has intercourse with her and she gets PID and becomes sterile? That probably could be arranged. :D
The "hand of God" often works in odd ways. | | Question/Answer | | CeeBee2 asked on 08/12/05 - Reproductive freedom, part 2.................. In today's newspaper is a story about a 26 y/o woman who is mentally disabled (from an accident when she was younger), who cannot care for herself, cannot fix her own food even in a microwave, cannot shop alone, doesn't take medication correctly and responsibly, but who is sexually active (with mentally handicapped men she met at the workshop she goes to) and wants to have a baby. Her guardian wants her to be sterilized, asserts she cannot care for herself, much less a baby. Arguments for both sides have been made in court, and the judge has yet to decide. What do you think the decision should be?
Here's the entire article:
Guardian sues to sterilize her niece
A mentally disabled 26-year-old wins stay on forced surgery
By Michael J. Higgins
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published August 12, 2005
In an unusual and emotionally charged legal case, a 26-year-old mentally disabled woman on Thursday staved off--at least for now--her guardian's legal bid to force her to be sterilized against her will.
Kirsten Johnson of Matteson (IL), who requires help with such basic tasks as preparing meals, said in a deposition that she would like to be a mother someday and didn't want a tubal ligation, which she said, "Ties your ovaries so the eggs can't get hatched."
But Johnson's aunt and legal guardian, Vera Howse, argues that her niece can't handle the responsibilities of pregnancy or parenthood.
Johnson, whose brain was damaged in a childhood accident, has agreed to use birth control. But she isn't capable of taking pills properly, Howse contends, and had a bad reaction to a long-term form of birth control, Depo-Provera injections.
Howse and Johnson, who is represented by an advocacy group for the disabled, presented witnesses and arguments over several days of hearings in June and July in Cook County Probate Court.
On Thursday, Probate Judge James Riley ruled that birth control was in Johnson's best interest but said he would hold off making a decision on Howse's "petition for tubal ligation."
Riley ordered Johnson to be examined by a gynecologist to determine whether she can use other long-term birth control methods, such as an intrauterine device. The gynecologist is to report in January.
Johnson "is unable to do most of the home chores," Riley wrote in a 12-page opinion. "She does not do any cooking. She cannot be left alone to operate a stove or microwave. She has a personal caregiver who comes into her home every day. ... Simply put, if Kirsten cannot care for herself, how can she care for a child?"
The case shines a light on a largely hidden issue between adults with disabilities and their guardians. Many adults not legally competent to handle their own affairs are still sexually active. So their guardians may try to counsel them on birth control or suggest a sterilization procedure, experts said.
But seeking an involuntary sterilization in court is highly unusual, according to experts. Around the country, no one knows how often such cases arise, but it is rare to see it litigated in court.
No published legal opinions in Illinois directly address the issue.
Disability rights advocates generally oppose the idea, except where an incompetent person faces a serious health threat.
"Our position is that we're dealing with a fundamental right," said Byron Mason, attorney for Equip for Equality, the group that represented Johnson.
"Regardless of whether a person has a disability, a person has a right to make certain fundamental decisions about their own body."
Howse's attorney, Lester Barclay of Chicago, said Thursday that those discussions of principle ignore the practical consequences should Johnson become pregnant.
Johnson would probably have to go off her psychiatric medications during pregnancy and could become ill as a result, Barclay argued. He said child welfare officials might take the child from her, which would be tragic and painful for her.
"This lawsuit was not about placing any restrictions on Kirsten," Barclay said. "It was only about looking at her desire to be free and recognizing her desire to engage in sexual conduct. ... This is why we appoint guardians."
Kirsten Johnson was born in 1978, and her early life was a poignant mix of misfortune and resilience. Her parents divorced when she was 4, and she grew up with her mother, Barbara Johnson. When she was 7, she was hit by a car and suffered brain injuries.
In 1990, Johnson's family settled a personal injury lawsuit, which included a $750,000 lump sum and an annuity expected to pay Johnson $4.5 million to $14.4 million over her lifetime, court records show.
Just a few years later, Barbara Johnson was diagnosed with cancer. As she became more ill, the family moved in with Howse, a receptionist at a law firm, at her home in Matteson. Kirsten Johnson went to high school, attending a special-needs program.
Barbara Johnson died in 1995, and a judge appointed Howse as the young woman's guardian. A separate guardian handles Johnson's money, which can be spent only with court approval.
As an adult, Johnson attended workshops and other programs with men who have similar disabilities. She became sexually active, both sides agree.
Johnson began using Depo-Provera for birth control.
But in 2002, a doctor became concerned that she had gained 68 pounds and apparently suffered high blood pressure, hair loss and nosebleeds from the drug.
In 2003, Howse filed the petition in Probate Court. Equip for Equality found out about the situation when Johnson called the group with questions about whether they could help her get married to a man she was dating, Mason said.
Johnson told Equip for Equality officials she did not want the procedure done and repeated that claim in a deposition she gave in April.
Johnson said she would like to have children "because just like my mother had took her time taking care of me, I would love to have the opportunity to take my time taking care of a baby."
In Illinois, two state agencies--the Cook County Public Guardian and the Office of State Guardian--care for more than 5,000 wards.
Officials in both agencies said they knew of no cases where they sought involuntary sterilization.
"We always do a lot more before we would think about such an extreme or irreversible procedure," said Charles Golbert, a supervisor in the adult guardianship division at the Cook County Public Guardian.
State Guardian officials said that on rare occasions--perhaps once every five years--they sought court approval to sterilize a person in its care who wanted the procedure done.
No specific law governs sterilization. But under general probate law standards, courts look at what wards would decide for themselves if they were competent.
They also ask whether a procedure would be in the ward's best interest.
The hearing before Judge Riley was closed to the public. But briefs filed in court show a battle of medical experts.
One of Johnson's witnesses, Dr. Cassing Hammond of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said in a deposition that the proposed forced sterilization was so wrong that he believed his hospital would forbid it being performed there.
But some doctors testified for Howse, agreeing that Johnson didn't understand the consequences of her decision.
At the hearing, Johnson showed herself to be easily influenced, Riley wrote in his opinion. She opposed the tubal ligation while on the witness stand, but in a meeting with Riley in chambers was "extremely suggestible and anxious to please" and said the opposite, he said.
Riley went on to rule that Johnson didn't have the capacity to decide the issue for herself.
But the judge also emphasized that whatever decision he makes should not be confused with practices of many decades ago, when some state governments sterilized people with mental disabilitiesto prevent the birth of "a defective child."
"Only Kirsten Johnson's best interest was at issue here," Riley wrote.
----------
mjhiggins@tribune.com
QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:This certainly is an interesting case.
If Ms. Johnson does have a child, it seems that the judge can authorize monetary payouts from the lawsuit settlement for a private nurse(s)homecare worker(s). Vera Howe need not be burdened with the day in day out responsibility of raising any child (ren) Ms Johnson has.
The child or children could be put up for adoption if Ms. Johnson gets sick of the crying.
Ms. Johnson may die in childbirth.
Any child Ms. Johnson has may grow up to be a fine person because of its special circumstances, as long as the child had a loving person in its life.
My personal opinion is that she should be sterilized because childbirth and raising a child would definitely be too much for her to cope with.
| | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/11/05 - Food For Thought ....A must read
This was written by Major General Vernon Chong, USAF Ret. Some remember him from their days at Wilford Hall when he was the commander. It's long but definitely well worth the read.....
*******************************************************
MG Vernon Chong, USAF ret: This WAR is for REAL
To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes W.W.II).
The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.
First, let's examine a few basics:
1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11th, 2001. The answer as far as the United States is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:
• Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
• Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983;
• Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
• Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
• First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
• Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
• Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998;
• Dares Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
• Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
• New York World Trade Center 2001;
• Pentagon 2001.
(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).
2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.
3. Who were the attackers?
In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.
4. What is the Muslim population of the World? 25%.
5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). (see http://www.Nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm ).
Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others.
Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else. The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels." I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?
6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.
So with that background, now to the two major questions:
1. Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean?
If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.
We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?
It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get. What losing really means is:
We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorist to attack us, until we were neutered and submissive to them.
We would of course have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see, we are impotent and cannot help them.
They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.
The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast!
If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims.
If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else?
The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.
Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.
So, how can we lose the war?
Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by "imploding." That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose, and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!
Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.
President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation.
Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war! For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.
And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during W.W.II, and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then.
Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?
No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness, and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.
Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.
Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying.
We have recently had an issue, involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police.
These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.
And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type enemy fighters, who recently were burning Americans, and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq.
And still more recently, the same type enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of American prisoners they held.
Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them.
Can this be for real?
The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense.
If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.
To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world.
Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife.
Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude, of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us, for many years.
Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels! That translates into all non-Muslims -- not just in the United States, but throughout the world.
We are the last bastion of defense.
We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That charge is valid in at least one respect. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world!
We can't!
If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the World will survive if we are defeated.
And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.
This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.
If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little, on the established French traditions. The French will be fighting among themselves, over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?
Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.
And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.
They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"?
I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I hope now after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about! Do whatever you can to preserve it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After reading the above, we all must do this not only for ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, our country and the world.
Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal and that includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world!
Please forward this to any you feel may want, or NEED to read it. Our "leaders" in Congress ought to read it, too.
There are those that find fault with our country, but it is obvious to anyone who truly thinks through this, that we must UNITE!
QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:The "problem" cannot be solved, it can only be contained.
Long term, what Europe does to contain the problem may be different from what America does in self defense.
For example, Muslims are very much integrated into American society; they are not in Europe. Many European Muslims are ghetto-ized and only stay in a European country to amass money to retire back in an Islamic state.
There are lots of unknown variables effecting this complicated situation. We don't know what impact they will have on the problem. For example, in America, lots of Muslims who are here to stay are successful; what effect will that have? Positive and anti-violence.
One thing we know for sure, violence will not work as a long term solution.
Surely we are bright enough to see many ways to improve the situation. | | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/12/05 - Bad Driver! On the 400 highway, an old driver 67 years of age was driving on the wrong side of the highway and hit somebody head on. The women serious condition and needed the jaws of life to get her out. She had a little baby in the car. In the car seat. Nothing wrong not even a bruise, healthy and strong. I said immediately this guy should not have his liceance. I found out that he was killed. Now if this person survived do you think there should have been anykind of punishment depending on what the investigation turned up on why this guy was doing what he was doing. I seen it even in my own town and of course it seemed it was an older person confused? Do you think there should be a limit or retesting depending on your age?
Thank you in advance. It is amazing how people and babies survive such a terrible mess.
Joe QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:I don't want to admit it, but I have to say that before my car was repossessed, I was having a few mishaps when driving, specifically, when I made right turns, I was likely to run my right side wheels over the curb causing a big jostle. Obviously, I wasn't able to judge distances plus I had a high anxiety level!!
Older drivers should be tested more often than younger drivers behind the wheel. As we age, we loose our physical and mental prowess...gradually.
I know that people who have heart attacks often end up in the wrong lane or in a ditch or against lightpoles.
I would be curiouos to see what age group causes the most serious and/or fatal accidents. Would guess the male 16-30 age group, they are full of raging hormones! | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/12/05 - It must be something in the water? A Jewish father was concerned about his son who was about a year away from his Bar Mitzvah but was sorely lacking in his knowledge of the Jewish faith. To remedy this he sent his son to Israel to experience his heritage. A year later the young man returned home.
"Father, thank you for sending me to the land of our Fathers," the son said. "It was wonderful and enlightening, however, I must confess that while in Israel I converted to Christianity."
"Oi vey," replied the father, "what have I done." So in the tradition of the patriarchs he went to his best friend and sought his advice and solace. "It is amazing that you should come to me," stated his friend, "I too sent my son to Israel and he returned a Christian."
So in the tradition of the patriarchs they went to the Rabbi. "It is amazing that you should come to me," stated the Rabbi, "I too sent my son to Israel and he returned a Christian. What is happening to our sons? Brothers, we must take this to the Lord," said the Rabbi.
They fell to their knees and began to wail and pour out their hearts to the Almighty. As they prayed the clouds above opened and a mighty voice stated, "Amazing that you should come to Me. I, too, sent My Son to Israel..." QueenChoux answered on 08/12/05:What a good one! I wish folks would post a few of the "A Rabbi, a Priest and a Minister went into a bar..." jokes, or the like. They tickle me. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/11/05 - I just got this thought for the day from an old friend. What are your thoughts about it?
Thought for the day...
OBITUARY
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend by the name of Common
Sense who has been with us for many years.
No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago
lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are on charge). His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Finally, Common sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.
He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized! he was gone.
If you still know him pass this on, if not join the majority and do nothing. QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:I have to say out in the real world where I live, people have a lot of common sense and not only that, are educated people, fair- minded people and generous and compassionate people.
I live in the Western Suburbs of Chicago-land. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/11/05 - Sin If someone sins against God or breaks one or more of God's commandments ignorantly, are they responsible and will they be punished to the same extent that a knowing wilful sinner will be? QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:I'm going to have to answer from the perspective of a person who does believe in a "God" but considers "God" an unknowable mystery at this time.......
Unfortunately or not, if a person breaks the rules of society or of the higher spiritual power, knowingly or unknowingly, they will be "punished" in one way or another in this life.
There is no substitute for good morals/ethics. It is every person's responsiblilit to have good ethics for their time in history. By that I mean that at the present time for example, vegetarianism is a must due to the huge amount of pollution the animal industry makes, not to mention animal suffering. On the personal level, good sexual morals.
There is no substitute for consciousness and worship of a higher power. Simply, so that a human does not think he is God.
| | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/10/05 - Is it OK to tell Catholic jokes here - like this one? Parrot talk
A lady goes to her priest one day and tells him, "Father, I have a problem I have two female parrots, but they only know how to say one thing."
"What do they say?" the priest inquired.
They say, "Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?" That's obscene!" the priest exclaimed. Then he thought for a moment.
"You know," he said, "I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male talking parrots, which I have taught to pray and read the Bible.
Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we'll put them in the cage with Francis and Peter. My parrots can teach your parrots to praise and worship, and your parrots are sure to stop saying .that phrase .in no time."
Thank you," the woman responded, "this may very well be the solution."
The next day, she brought her female parrots to the priest's house. As he ushered her in, she saw that his two male parrots were inside their cage holding rosary beads and praying.
Impressed, she walked over and placed her parrots in with them. After a few minutes, the female parrots cried out in unison: "Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?"
There was stunned silence. Shocked, one male parrot looked over at the other male parrot and exclaimed,
"Put the beads away, Frank. Our prayers have been answered!" QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:I would say that 99.5% of the "jokes" posted here are just not funny to adults.
I'm all for a ban on this kind of "joke". | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/10/05 - Is it OK to tell politcal jokes here - like this one? Reagan's Last Words
+++
I don't know whether or not you watched the memorial service for Ronald Reagan, but if you did, you probably noticed that Bill and Hillary were both dozing off.
+++
President Ronald Reagan, who never missed chance for a good one-liner, raised his head out of his casket and said...
"I see the Clintons are finally
sleeping together." QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:First of all, it is not funny, it is just right-wing smearing and degrading under the cloak of being a "joke".
Gore and Obama in 2008 :) | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/11/05 - Is it OK to tell jokes here? From: Bin Laden, Osama
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 8:17 AM
To: Cavemates
Subject: The Cave
Hi guys. We've all been putting in long hours but we've really come together as a group and I love that. Big thanks to Omar for putting up the poster that says "There is no 'I' in team" as well as the one that says
"Hang In There, Baby." That cat is hilarious. However, while we are fighting a jihad, we can't forget to take care of the cave. And frankly I have a few concerns.
First of all, while it's good to be concerned about cruise missiles, we should be even more concerned about the scorpions in our cave. Hey, you don't want to be stung and neither do I so we need to sweep the cave daily.
I've posted a sign up sheet near the main cave opening.
Second, it's not often I make a video address but when I do, I'm trying to scare the most powerful country on earth, okay? That means that while we're taping, please do not ride your razor scooter in the background. Just while we're taping. Thanks.
Third point, and this is a touchy one. As you know, by edict, we're not supposed to shave our beards. But I need everyone to just think hygiene, especially after mealtime. We're all in this together.
Fourth: food. I bought a box of Cheez-Its recently, clearly wrote "Osama" on the front, and put it on the top shelf. Today, my Cheez-Its were gone.
Consideration. That's all I'm saying.
Finally, we've heard that there may be American soldiers in disguise trying to infiltrate our ranks. I want to set up patrols to look for them. First patrol will be Omar, Muhammed, Abdul, Akbar, and Richard.
Death to infidels,
Osama
Source: This piece aired on the NPR program "Rewind" and was written by Staff Writer/Producer John Moe QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:Cute.
I wonder if it is too soon to tell "jokes" about Osama? Kinda like it is still too soon to tell jokes about Hitler. | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/11/05 - Intlligent Design???
Hello Christians:
So, tell me... If we're here because of some intelligent design, why am I bald? Isn't that a design flaw? What about my bad back? Seems to me if someone (or intelligence - or God) could create the Universe, he could have given me a knee that wouldn't go out all the time.
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/11/05:But, on the other hand, when I was young, it was said that bald men were more masculine and better lovers by the fact that whatever caused baldness caused them to be better lovers.
Urban legend or truth? | | Question/Answer | | excon asked on 08/10/05 - Children
Hello Christians:
Do you let your children win? What does letting them win teach them? What does not letting them win teach them?
Me? I never let them win, so that when they finally won, it was a real victory.
excon
QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:You mean "win" at card games, games, or sports??
Of course not!!!! | | Question/Answer | | mudpiemaker asked on 08/10/05 - Do Christians have premarital sex? Or is that something only non Christians do? I know alot of people who are sexually active and not married who say they are Christians. If a person is a Christian or not, should they get sexual health care if they are sexually active?
A lot of people don't have private doctors and insurance. Is Planned Parenthood a good place for young men and women to go for sexual health care? Or should they go to the public health departments? Or if they are Christians, should they just pray for protection? QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:I saw an interesting TV segment on Christian sex among teenagers versus non-religious teens who dated.
The results of private polling were that the Christian teens did not have intercourse much at all, but they had more oral sex than non-religious teens. I was shocked!! The Christian teens and non-Christian teens did pretty much everything else, as I remember. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/10/05 - *** Christianity *** Clement of Alexandra (c.200) on Universal Salvation ... Clement writes, Stromateis,VI, Vi (47),
The gospel says that 'many of the bodies of those who had fallen asleep arose' (Matt xxvii.52) - clearly to a better state- the state oif those who had been changed.
There was then a general movement and change as a result of the 'dispensation' [economy] of the Saviour.
One righteous man does not differ from another in respect of righteousness, whether he be under the Law or a Greek [pagan].
For God is the Lord not of the Jews only but of all men, though he is more intimately the Father of those who know him.
[...]
Those who lived good lives before the Law were reckoned as having faith, and were judged to be righteous.
It is clear that those who were outside the Lawe because they spoke a different lnaguage, and yet had lived good lives, even if they were actually in Hades and 'in prison,' [2 Pet iii.19] on hearing the voice of the Lord - either his own voice or that which operated through the Apostles - were converted and believed.
For we remember that the Lord is 'the power of God' (1 Cor i.29); and power could never be powerl;ess.
Thus, I fancy, the goodness of God is proved, and the power of the Lord to save with justice and equity displayed to those who turn to him, whether here or elsewhere; it is operative in all places and at all times.
================
Why has traditional Christianity lost sight of this important truth?
How does denying the justice of Christ and God damage the image of their perfection? QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:Since I believe salvation occurs for the human being while they are alive, if at all, and there is no afterlife or God, I don't think you are not talking about *truth* but myth and ancient fantastical viewpoint.
If anything, certain Demoninations of Christianity are better ow than in the past. The problem with improving Christianty is that congregations don't want to let go of primitive viewpoints such as Satan, dead bodies rising, etc. A survey reported that 80% of ministers don't believe in a literal translatio of the Bible. | | Question/Answer | | Itsdb asked on 08/10/05 - Are you ready? Presenting...........................................
The Messiahcam.
Just follow the link, install the ActiveX control and you can watch the live webcam feedback of the second coming...it's only a click away.
Is this really necessary, or even useful other than as one more tool to make fun of Christians? If "every eye shall see him" what's the point, to see who can be first to spot the Messiah? QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:Well, have a nice day, It. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/10/05 - *** Christianity *** Clement of Alexandria on the Deification of Man ...
[Gospel knowledge] leads them to the end, the endless final end; teaching of the life that is to be ours, a life in conformity to God, with gods, when we have been freed from all punishment and correction, which we undergo as a result of our wrong-doings for our saving discipline.
After thus being set free, those who have been perfected are given their reward and their honours.
They have done with their purification, they have done with the rest of their service, though it be a holy service, with the holy; now they have become pure in heart, and because of their close intimacy with the Lord there awaits them a restoration to eternal contemplation; and they have received the title of 'gods', since they are destined to be enthroned with other 'gods' who are ranked next below the Saviour.
Stromateis, VII, X (55-56)
If you do not believe the prophets ... the Lord himself will speak to you 'who being in the form of God, thought his equality with God not as a prize to be grasped, but abased himself.'
This is the God of compassion, yearning to save man; and the Word himself at this point speaks to you plainly, putting unbelief to shame; the Word, I say, of God, who became man just that you may learn from a man how it is that man should become God.
Protrepticus, i, (8, 4)
============
When did Historical Christianity lose sight of this important teaching? QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:I can't give a day, month or year, but I would say that a combination of science(demysitfying natural events and explaining them) and psychology/psychiatry etal( human beings learning about themselves, behavior, unconscious etc)combined to reveal that not only do human being not have to be perfect, that being perfect is quite impossible!!!
Therefore, human beings need to do is have good morals/ethics, devolop compassion always(and empathy sometimes), for really, there is no God*. Human beings can do wonders just as Jesus predicted would happen long after his death. And, developed countries do breathtaking wonders. (See modern medicing for just one example)
* suggested reading for those interested "The Wizard of Qz" | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/10/05 - Funny how this is so true to some, is it true or false to you? Funny how simple it is for people to trash different ways of living and believing and then wonder why the world is going to hell.
Funny how people can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when one starts sending messages regarding life choices, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of morality is too often suppressed in school and the workplace.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what we think of ourselves.
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge but less judgments more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We have higher incomes, but lower morals; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time then you can choose either to make a difference or just hit delete.
Keep reaching for that level of perfection. You can make a difference!
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:Hope, it is only in the very recent history of human existence that so many people have had such great wealth. I consider myself wealthy compared to the world, yet I am poor as an American.
Great widespread wealth requires a period of adjustment. Lots of cultures still have sayings and general outlook of poverty and striving for comfort. The Bible has an outlook from a viewpoint of poverty, for example.
When most people have so very much even if they don't realize it, well, that has to be delt with. | | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/10/05 - Here is somthing to try and explain! Hello everyone,
A child came home from school one day and told his parent he was learninga about evolution in school
That Sunday the child went to worship with his parents and listened while the minister taught that God created all things, including each one there at worship.
The child then asked his parents on the way home from worship, aren't you confused mom? The mother said no, why do you ask? The child then said in all innocents, in school they said I came into existense by evolution, and in church today, the minister said I was created by God.
Which is true, did God create me, or did I evolve?
If God Created me, who made God? Where did he come from?
If I evolved by evolution, what did I evolve from and where did whatever I evolved from come from?
Experts, How would you answer this thinking child? Could you answer this child with sincerity and clearly?
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/10/05:Hope, I'm an atheist/secualr humanist, so I would think to myself that the child was quite bright and take measures to make sure she got a good education.
However, I am not against attending church at all; whereelse to get a positive message in community?
I guess I would say that "maybe" God was part of the Universe that always was and always will be.
Change subject. :) | | Question/Answer | | kindj asked on 08/04/05 - So tell me--where's the hope? Hello again friends, neighbors, or mortal enemies, depending on your point of view and opinion of me. Been gone for awhile. Actually, not gone, just not HERE on this board.
Some of you may or may not know that things kinda came to a head in my life a few months ago, and I thought I would throw in an update, on the off chance that anyone's curious.
After much poking, prodding, testing, blood-drawing, MRI-taking, and uncomfortable questioning by MD's, psychiatrists (I f***ing HATE psychiatrists--always have), and psychologists, and after being examined in all manner of clinics from my regular doc's office to the VA quacks, the final word (so far) is "Major Depressive Disorder Brought On By Insidious Recurrent Episodes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Ain't that a freakin' hoot? I mean, what the hell? Sure, I went to Panama and Kuwait, plus a couple other little brushfires. But damn, those things were nothing like my grandfathers' experiences in WW2, or my uncles' experiences in Korea and Vietnam, and they're fine (well, both grandfathers are dead, and OK, there's the one uncle whom 'Nam hit pretty hard, but he's totally functional). So why me? Sure, I volunteered. Volunteered three times over, to be exact. I knew the possible ramifications of the career path I chose with Uncle Sam. And really, those things weren't a lot of fun and I sure was glad to come home, but really, I didn't think it was THAT bad, especially after hearing various instructors and relatives speak of THEIR experiences. Maybe I'm just a wuss......
So we're trying to get the meds on line and adjusted right. Talk about a shotgun approach: "Let's try this. Oh, you almost murdered an entire small town? Ok, let's try this. What do you mean, you haven't slept in 8 days? Guess we'll try this. What? Now you sleep all the time, including at work? Damn....guess we'll try this..." and on and on, until I think we've hit something that will eventually work, once we quit screwing around with the dosage level and find a good one that works ALL day, and not just until 5 or 6 in the evening.
Even with insurance, this crap is expensive. Almost prohibitively so. However, I make like 14 cents a year too much to get any kind of temporary assistance with it. So I quit taking it for a week last month, to wait for payday to come. Let me tell you, THAT was a bad idea.
In the meantime, everything's gone up except for my paycheck. I work for a non-profit agency that is totally dedicated to helping those less fortunate than me. HA!! Little secret: some of those "less fortunate" are doing better than I am.
Anyway, it's been a financial struggle this year, to say the least. It's a long story, but suffice to say that it's been enough of a struggle that I have 16 days from today to cough up three thousand dollars or they're gonna take my house. I've filed all sorts of paperwork with the company and the VA (since it's a VA loan), but so far, no one's doing sh!t. Big surprise, since by my calculations, there are like four people on the face of the whole earth that care enough to do their job properly.
So I've been sitting back, cursing virtually every choice I've made and characteristic that I have. I've wondered if I shouldn't chunk this drive in me, the one that demands that I do good for people and not screw them over just to make a buck. Maybe I need to forget about finishing up this ridiculous masters in counseling psychology and get an MBA instead. Maybe I should say to hell with what I want to do, what's gonna pay me?
I have a wife and three kids. My wife's been working a bit, but it's not enough. We can't send her to work full-time, or whatever she made would be eaten up by daycare costs, clothing, lunches, gas, etc. I've done the math.
No, it falls to me, and I have failed.
Where's this "hope" that we speak of again?
DK
QueenChoux answered on 08/08/05:Hey!! You are so filled with anger because life is full of terrible problems!
Why not talk about your anger with a professional and quit bad-mouthing psychiatrists? You have nothing to lose, but you can't see that now because you don't want to.
You can't recover from the Depression unless you change, and you can't change is you insist on staying the same.
Getting real self-knowledge is liberating, is salvation of a sort.
Please feel free in contacting me privately. | | Question/Answer | | paraclete asked on 08/08/05 - perhaps this one will be subtle enough for you http://www.news.com.au/cartoons/?from=ninews_leftnav
for those who have difficulty grasping the antipodean slice of humour, the theme is identity cards prevent terrorism and save lives, a justification for a more rigorous identification system QueenChoux answered on 08/08/05:Darn it! I have seen your last three posts referring to a site address and apparently there is humor there, but my latest IPS download screwed-up my address bar b overlaying my real addrss window with a bunch of stuff...a glitch.
Inorder to get a site up, I have to do a google seach with keywords and hope the site I want comes up.
Are there a couple of key words I can use to get up your address on google so I can click on the link?? | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/08/05 - The whale Did Noah really spend three days in the belly of the whale? And did Jesus really spend the same amount of time in Hell? QueenChoux answered on 08/08/05:??? | | Question/Answer | | ATON2 asked on 08/08/05 - Dennis? Has anyone heard from, or had a follow-up from Dennis??? QueenChoux answered on 08/08/05:I don't recall who Dennis is..Username. Could you refresh my memory?
CRS Syndrome kicking in. | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/07/05 - *** Christianity *** Look at it this way for a change ... As Christians, we are sometimes prone to denigrate the religious faith of others. This works equally at the denominational level.
Professor Daniel Peterson, with whom I am acquainted, addresses this phenomenon.
"The familiar language of prejudice [says of others]:
"They are not like Us. They are lower, less rational, less spiritually sensitive. They don't think like normal people."
In-groups always exalt themselves by degrading out-groups. Prejudice finds it hard to recognize individual variation; it judges whole classes, without nuance.
It makes no real attempt to understand why others think or act or appear differently; it condemns them because of the sheer fact that they do.
It is prejudice that leads to the notion that other groups need to be controlled, even enslaved, for their own good.
It is prejudice that has led, in some extreme cases, to concentration camps, holocausts, and ethnic cleansings.
[Anti-Mormons] John Ankerberg and John Weldon should be ashamed of themselves for resorting to such language [in their anti-Mormon book, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism].
"In Cairo some years ago, I [Peterson] spoke at length with a Muslim chemistry professor at the University of Cairo. He was astonished when he learned that I was a Christian.
"Do you really," he asked, incredulously, "believe that God had a Son, and that he allowed that Son to be murdered in order to buy himself off?"
After expressing some reservations about how he had expressed the doctrine of the atonement, I replied that, yes, I did believe precisely that.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "How can any intelligent person believe in such nonsense?"
Well, the fact is that highly intelligent people have accepted Christianity. (Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, and Kierkegaard are among those who come immediately to mind.)
But it was thought-provoking to find that my most sacred beliefs seemed insanely ludicrous to a highly educated outsider.
It was enlightening to find Christianity, for once, in the minority, and Christian assumptions questioned as less than self-evident.
How many times have I heard people say things like, "How can any intelligent person believe in Islam?" or "How can any intelligent person be a Catholic?"
Yet people like al-Ghazali and Iqbal and Ibn Khaldun have been Muslims, and the Catholic Church has claimed the loyalty of such people as Cardinal Newman and G. K. Chesterton and Jacques Maritain.
Reflecting on this, and on my own experience as an Islamicist, I have come to formulate what might be termed Peterson's First Rule for the Study of Other Religions: If a substantial number of sane and intelligent people believe something that seems to you utterly without sense, the problem probably lies with you, for not grasping what it is about that belief that a lucid and reasonable person might find plausible and satisfying."
Food for thought? QueenChoux answered on 08/08/05:In America, Christianity and its various demonimations and ***cults*** have enjoyed the position of being above rational discussion and examination for over 400 years; a position that no other social institution has had! This is an intolerable situation in view of the fact of all the harm to the individual believers and to the nation as a whole.
As far as I'm concerned, religion must be discussed openly so that the **benefit** of the **magic advantage** of **one-sided presentation** is destroyed.
Transparency in all matters. If not transparecy, then evil may flourish.
Remember, it says on the Christianity Board that the folks participating are ***EXPERTS*** not necessarily believers. :D | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/07/05 - THE MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF ROBERT ALLAN, THE FIREMAN THE MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF ROBERT ALLAN, THE FIREMAN
by William McGonagall
'Twas in the year of 1858, and on October the fourteenth day,
That a fire broke out in a warehouse, and for hours blazed away;
And the warehouse, now destroyed, was occupied by the Messrs R. Wylie, Hill & Co.,
Situated in Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow.
The flames burst forth about three o'clock in the afternoon,
And intimation of the outbreak spread very soon;
And in the spectators' faces were depicted fear and consternation;
While the news flew like lightning to the Fire Brigade Station.
And when the Brigade reached the scene of the fire,
The merciless flames were ascending higher and higher,
Raging furiously in all the floors above the street,
And within twenty minutes the structure was destroyed by the burning heat.
Then the roof fell in, pushing out the front wall,
And the loud crash thereof frightened the spectators one and all,
Because it shook the neighbouring buildings to their foundation,
And caused throughout the City a great sensation.
And several men were injured by the falling wall ,
And as the bystanders gazed thereon, it did their hearts appal;
But the poor fellows bore up bravely, without uttering a moan,
And with all possible speed they were conveyed home.
The firemen tried to play upon the building where the fire originated,
But, alas! their efforts were unfortunately frustrated,
Because they were working the hose pipes in a building occupied by Messrs Smith & Brown,
But the roof was fired, and amongst them it came crashing down.
And miraculously they escaped except one fireman,
The hero of the fire, named Robert Allan,
Who was carried with the debris down to the street floor,
And what he suffered must have been hard to endure.
He travelled to the fire in Buchanan Street,
On the first machine that was ordered, very fleet,
Along with Charles Smith and Dan. Ritchie,
And proceeded to Brown & Smith's buildings that were burning furiously.
And in the third floor of the building he took his stand
Most manfully, without fear, with the hose in his hand,
And played on the fire through a window in the gable
With all his might, the hero, as long as he was able.
And he remained there for about a quarter of an hour,
While from his hose upon the building the water did pour,
When, without the least warning, the floor gave way,
And down he went with it: oh, horror! and dismay!
And with the debris and flooring he got jammed,
But Charlie Smith and Dan. Ritchie quickly planned
To lower down a rope to him, without any doubt,
So, with a long pull and a strong pull, he was dragged out.
He thought he was jammed in for a very long time,
For, instead of being only two hours jammed, he thought 'twas months nine,
But the brave hero kept up his spirits without any dread
Then he was taken home in a cab, and put to bed.
Oh, kind Christians! think of Robert Allan, the heroic man
For he certainly is a hero, deny it who can?
Because, although he was jammed, and in the midst of the flame,
He tells the world fearlessly he felt no pain.
The reason why, good people, he felt no pain
Is because he put his trust in God, to me it seems plain,
And in conclusion, I most earnestly pray,
That we will all put our trust in God, night and day.
And I hope that Robert Allan will do the same,
Because He saved him from being burnt while in the flame;
And all that trust in God will do well,
And be sure to escape the pains of hell. QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:Knowing you is like running into a gentleman from 1880's England. Everything!! the language, the education, the manners and morals, the contempt for riff-raff, the haughtiness, the vanity, and the desire for fair play.
You are truly a marvel. I am a lucky person to have run into such a character as yourself along life's road. :):):) | | Question/Answer | | arcura asked on 08/07/05 - News and Brian Melton comment for your information... Why All the Fuss Over a Fetus?
Written by Brian Melton
Saturday, August 06, 2005
France gives us something to think about in the abortion debate.
Not long ago, I mentioned that abortion was a crime with no face, and that we would see no “tiny broken bodies” as a result of the practice. The French have just given us an instructive example of what might happen if the real victims of abortion were to suddenly become visible.
In the mortuary of a hospital in Paris, authorities discovered the bodies of 351 still-born babies, some as old as 25 years. There was no mention of squalid conditions; no one is being accused of stirring them into his or her ramen noodles. Apparently, they were cataloged and stored neatly and with scientific care, floating silently in their bottles of preservative. Supposedly the oddest thing is that these abandoned bodies had been preserved and not incinerated within ten days of death.
What is interesting is the reaction of French officials. Health Minister Xavier Bertrand described himself as “sad and indignant” and said that the situation “demands we find the truth.” He launched an immediate investigation of the hospital and all others connected with similar mortuaries.
My question for anyone who is in favor of abortion on demand (which I think I would be safe in assuming Bertrand is): Why in the world do you care?
What makes these “fetuses” any different from the millions that have been aborted in France and elsewhere over the past fifty years? If a child at that stage of development is nothing more than a lump of tissue without even a right to life (let alone liberty and the pursuit of happiness), why is it any more immoral to preserve it for scientific study than it is other body parts? After all, there are thousands of specimens sitting in laboratories all over the world with no consent forms attached to them. In fact, are not babies such as these the very ones “scientists” want to harvest for stem cell research?
The simple truth is that pro-abortionists cannot give a single reason why this hording of death in France should outrage anyone. They might perhaps say that it was terribly unkind of the doctors to do such a thing to the parents. But the reason the bodies were there in the first place was that no parents had claimed them. Why do they think the parents should care? Why not just explain to them that the baby they had lost was really no more human than a cancer, and that the state might want to stick them in bottles and stack them in a storeroom?
And yet, as we see in the BBC article, people are outraged. The discovery was far from routine. It doesn’t just raise eyebrows; it makes people “indignant” and “sad.” I have no doubt that most of the tens of thousands of web surfers who read the article caught their breath and then exhaled a righteous disgust at what they saw. They are instinctively struck by the hypocrisy of men and women who are supposed to respect and defend human life, operating a practical warehouse of dead children.
In this contradiction, between what people say they believe about a “fetus” and what they really believe about one when confronted with hard truth, we see the crux of the issue. The simple truth is that God has locked us into reality. Those whose consciences have not been complete obliterated cannot help but react negatively to what Mr. Bertrand found in that Paris morgue.
It is an unguarded moment. Since the word “abortion” was not directly involved, they have not yet been conditioned to respond a certain way. If the ultimate test of a worldview is its ability to explain reality, as Chuck Colson argued in How Now Shall We Live?, it is clear that the pro-abortion view cannot account for this reaction in its fullness. The deep horror of seeing those tiny, vacant eyes and small fingers can never be satisfactorily explained away as simply a “conditioned response.”
Which is also why abortionists must cover this sort of thing up quickly. The only reason why the “morality” of abortion can support itself is when the people who engage in it—as patients, advocates, or doctors—can shield themselves from the reality of what they are doing. The claim that abortion is about nothing more than “women’s rights” has somewhat of a hollow ring to it when one is confronted with the real cost in human lives.
It is doubtful that 1 in 100 readers who see that page on the BBC website will even notice that something is out of sorts with the fury they feel at the indignity offered these babies and their own cold, detached use of the term “fetus” or support for abortion. For those who do, the question is whether they will realize that they do have reason to be outraged (and should be outraged at abortion) or, more frighteningly, whether they will learn to live with it.
About the Writer: Brian Melton is an assistant professor of history at Liberty University. Brian receives e-mail at bmelton@liberty.edu. QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:At the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago there was(still is?)a very "popular" exhibit of many jars of dead fetus' in formalin, or the like, preservative from say about one week to nine months.
What a fascinating exhibit. I was about 12 when I saw the exhibit, and I went up to the glass and could almost touch them. I remember feeling dizzy and wanting to turn away. Death of any kind repulsed me.
As they got more and more mature, I saw the mystery of creation unfold before my eyes. Yet, they weren't really human. Looking back from my vantage point in my 60's, I can understand that flesh is not human unless it is alive..filled with life. The reality of death is a powerful reality to confront. If we ever do.
Thanks for triggering a powerful memory.
| | Question/Answer | | FormerJesusHelper76 asked on 08/07/05 - Question On Misscarriages? Miscarriages are very common. What do you think is the purpose of the miscarriage? God knows us even before we are created. He knows us in the womb so why does it happen? I see some women who do not want babies and are smoking and drinking and end up having normal healthy babies. Then there are other women who do not drink, dont do drugs and really want babies and they have problems and miscarriages. Is there any reason to this?
Your thoughts and opinions please. God bless and Thank you in advance! QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:Joe, Hope your wife is ok?
I had a miscarrage. One of the most common reasons a woman has a miscarriage is that it is nature's way of expelling an imperfect fetus or a pregnancy with a medical problem. Many of these miscarriages happen in the first four months of the pregnancy. These kind of miscarriages are common. They are really blessings.
As for theological implications, I have no thoughts on that. | | Question/Answer | | Laura asked on 08/07/05 - Favor Could everybody please sign up as an expert in travel and tourism so that I may ask a question about plans for future travel? There are like 40 something unanswered questions there so posting another one would be kinda dumb without someone to answer.. I need advice about where to go for a once in a lifetime 14 day vacation that we are planning for next year around October. Will never be able to afford it again so this has to be "The place" for unforgettable memories.. QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:If you want an unforgettable vacation(and safe), how about a tour packge to Asia...stops in Japan, China, then India. What an unforgettable trip that world be!
Or, another idea for your vacation of a lifetime, you could go to Rome, Greece, Paris and Jerusalem(and environs). YOu could stop in Crete for a couple of days of beach time.
Or, American vacation of a lifetime. Canada, like Quebec and rugged NewFoundland, then, fly to Mexico City--see the pyramids for sure, short trip to Acapulco) for beach time if desired....back to the States, enjoy SanFrancisco. Then home.
Get brochures from a travel agent now just to look them over and get yourself educated about great places. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/06/05 - Where do you think we came from?
Two Peas in a Pod
There were once two little peas in a pod.
One ask the other, “do you believe in God?”
This one little pea just shook his head,
“Nope! No fairy tales for me he said.”
The other little pea said, “please explain,
from where do you think we came?
If you don’t believe there is a God,
then how did we get into this pod?”
The other pea said, “No problem at all,
we are the results of a mighty great fall.
There was this wind, it blew us up high
then we came falling down from the sky.
We came falling down, down, down,
then with a force we hit the ground.
Then there was this mighty big bang,
and we came from this unknown thing.”
The other pea said, “I believe in God
only He could have created this pod.
So I’ll just wait as a good little pea,
and see what He has in store for me.”
Then it came time to harvest the peas.
to chose the ones who were good for seeds.
To plant the ones who is God’s desire,
and cast the others into a very hot fire.
The one little pea, who believed in God,
was very gently plucked from the pod.
And then was placed in a very fertile row,
where he was watered and then let grow.
Because one little pea believed in God,
in Gods kingdom is this very large pod.
In the pod before, only two peas to count.
In this pod, there is an enormous amount.
Thank you Father, for your revelations.
By Milton Hazlewood
QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:I see I should have started reading today's posts from the bottom up, not the top down.
Bucker, since you are new, be advised that I hate cutsy feel good over-rhymed stuff....that being said, HAVE A GREAT DAY!! | | Question/Answer | | Mathatmacoat asked on 08/07/05 - hey what happened to the site? I logged in here and thought I was in the wrong place QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:It's super, isn't it? Very professional looking and reflects well on the owners.
Oh, and hey, don't be a stranger, now! | | Question/Answer | | Erewhon asked on 08/07/05 - Donde esta Brenda? Where is Bal? Anyone in touch with her? QueenChoux answered on 08/07/05:I remember awhile back bal advised, on one of the Boards I'm active on, that she is going to be very busy for some time. She wasn't sure how often she would be checking in at AW. | | Question/Answer | | bucker asked on 08/06/05 - prejudices be honest now. Have any of you ever felt prejudiced against anyone at anytime. Being three different kinds of Indian, Irish, and English. There may be more, I don't know. I Never the less, I have felt prejudice toward others. I do not like this, and I refuse to do it now. This was many years ago. That was before I learned that we are all God's chilfren. QueenChoux answered on 08/06/05:I have to say that I was prejudiced against Bohemians, of all people! How wierd!!! Just for stereotypical Chicago-land reasons....
After 9/11, I looked into different aspects of Islam and was disgusted. I'm pretty much over that now.
Qualities in people that turn me off???
1. Lack of generosity of any kind.....
Qualities in people that turn me on???
1. Sense of humor
2. Intelligence
3. Self-effacing nature
4. Just are their authentic selves; the good the bad and the vast inbetween. Irresistible
You don't happen to be of Bohemian extraction, are you? HeeHee
| | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/06/05 - What is you future hope? Hello Everyone,
We all woork hard to make our life interesting and to live more comfortably. It takes may years to acheive our goals, we then all grow old and sick and we die.
Do you believe that that is all there is to life?
Do you have a hope for you and your loved one beyond just what we have here and now?
If you have a hope please share it no matter what religion or no religion, tell us about it.
Thanks,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/06/05:We as Western People(as opposed to Easten/India, China, etc.)we are very **goal oriented**. However, there is no ultimate goal in life, no happy ending. We already know "The Outcome". The outcome is death!
So, therefore, the meaning of life is to be found in the journey. Each person's journey is different; each person is different! How wonderful.
Every day is a step in our journey. We may be happy, joyous(sp), sad, angry, desperate....we may be different things on this day of our life. Cover the spectrum of emotions and intellect in one day! Feel, live.....UNDERSTAND. There is no permanence.
Endure the terrible times.
Endure the happy times.
Just be and accept.
Love Life (Whatever comes and goes) !
| | Question/Answer | | hOPE12 asked on 08/06/05 - Answerways change! Hello Everyone,
We have seen the nice changes Answerway is making. They are nice and refreshing, aren't they?
What though can we can do to make changes so as to be refreshing also to others on the Christianity board?
Here is what I would like to do to be more refreshing:
1- I will not cut and paste anymore.
2- I will try to type my own words no matter how difficult it is for me.
3- I will not be rude to others, no matter what they say or do to offend me or my religion.
4-I will look for the positive qualities in all other experts, after all we all have something positive about us.
5- No more long comments, just enought to say what I feel.
Now I have told you my changes that I will try to make,
What are yours?
Take care,
Hope12 QueenChoux answered on 08/06/05:Huh? I just learned how to cut and paste before I was suspended. Is that against the rules???
Granted, I just skim other people's "Cut and Paste"'s for the most part, but mine would be interesting! lol...really......lol | | Question/Answer | | CeeBee2 asked on 08/06/05 - Favorite books. Briefly.................... What is your favorite OT book, and why? What is your favorite NT book, and why? What are some favorite non-Biblical books, either fiction or non-fiction, and why? QueenChoux answered on 08/06/05:JOb is my favorite Old testament Book; it is *the* masterpiece of Jewish literature. Favorite because?...it covers the heights, depths and bradth of the human "soul". It ploughs through any barriers of race creed class or gender. It is a drama of the human soul. Wonderful!!
Job was an ancient ***hero*** of righteousness. I love that. A hero.
Favorite non-Biblical books? I love "Crime and Punishment" but I haven't been able to finish it, so I'll say Dostoevski's "Notes from Underground" in his honor.
Shakespeare's Dramas. esp, "Hamlet".
All recent books by PD James...Ruth Rendell and Ruth Rendell writting as Barbara Vine.
"Heart of Darkness" by Conrad. "Apocalypse Now" is the movie.
"A Christmas Carol" by Dickens.
"The Four Agreements by Ruiz.
Just the beginning. "So many books, so little time." as the saying goes. :D | | Question/Answer | | CeeBee2 asked on 08/05/05 - Afterlife/heaven............................... IN YOUR OWN WORDS, what do you think it will be like? What will we do there? What will we look like? QueenChoux answered on 08/05/05:Afterlife, sometimes called Heaven, is a magical fantasy place that exists only in the minds of those who "believe" that death is not final.
Since I believe death is final, after that, after life, there is nothingness.
Regards,
Mary Sue |
|
|
|
