GentlyFeral

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Posts by GentlyFeral

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  31

  What new fruits/veggies/foods have you tried? We tried Pepino Melon...yum!

  by FreedomFrog in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  each shopping trip, i get one new veggie/fruit or new dish and we (me and the kids) will taste test things.

  we've found many things we've liked doing this.

  tonight we just tried a pepino melon and it was very good.

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  GentlyFeral

  FreedomFrog recommends:

  Ginger root

  gingerroot is an old friend at our house (I just moved away from the San Francisco Bay area last week, and the wide diversity of foodstuffs is one of the few things I miss. However, you can get gingerroot even here in the wilds of Tie Dye Town Willits, California.)

  ohiocowboy reports:

  I have been seeing prickly pears

  I used to see them in the better class of supermarkets here in the Bay Area, when I was a kid -- but I haven't seen them for sale outside of Mexican groceries for many years now. They have beautiful red pulp, full of seeds, about as sweet as a date, mealy and juicy all at once -- a little strange, but very good.

  The day before we left the Bay Area for good, we treated ourselves to lunch in an inexpensive Indian restaurant. Most of the buffet looked more or less familiar to us, but what I thought was raita -- a fresh, grated cucumber/yogurt relish -- turned out to be a mildly sweet, semi-liquid rice pudding. My daughter isn't a big fan of heavily sweetened desserts, so she was very happy with it.

  gently feral
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  27

  What lullabies did you sing to your kids?

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i always sing the beatles' "good night" to get my baby asleep.

  works everytime.

  what did you sing to your kids?

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  GentlyFeral

  I never sang lullabies to my kids, because when my firstborn was a baby, singing to him at night kept him awake. In the "mommy's singing, so it must be time for a PARTY!" kind of way; not the effect I wanted at all >:)

  Once they could understand, I read them stories. When they were "too old" for stories (fluent readers, about ten or twelve), I encouraged them to read in bed.

  GentlyFeral
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  7

  bizarre artwork in watchtower

  by cameo-d in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hello people.. i found a couple of these magazines in a lobby and was flipping through.

  i thought it was a current issue, but i just now realize it is from july1, 2007.. i am not intesested in anybody coming to my house to give me bible lessons, so i will tell you that upfront.

  it is the weirdest thing i have ever seen in a sunday school book and it makes no sense to me.

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  GentlyFeral

  Why I love the internets:

  • "Jewish biblical commentaries emphasize that the imagery of the Merkaba is not meant to be taken literally; rather the chariot and its accompanying angels are analogies for the various ways that God reveals Himself in this world.[1] Hasidic philosophy and Kabbalah discuss at length what each aspect of this vision represents in this world, and how the vision does not imply that God is made up of these forms." – Wikipedia article, Merkabah
  
  
  • "ust as the Assyrian sunchariot with its horses is employed in the legend of the ride of Elijah to heaven (II Kings ii. 11; comp. Enoch lxx. 2, lxxii. 5, lxxiii. 2), so did the prophet Ezekiel in his vision, probably suggested by Babylonian sculpture, see Yhwh riding on the Throne-Chariot when leaving the doomed Temple at Jerusalem" – Jewish Encyclopedia article, Merkabah

  gently feral
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  133

  Is there a Christian message without the element of fear/perceived threat?

  by nvrgnbk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so many christians highlight love and mercy as the main point of their religion.. that's undeniably appealing.. but is it true to christianity?.

  in the end, isn't the belief all about escaping god's violent wrath?

  aren't those that are unable to accept the system's contradictions and absurdities promised suffering and eventual destruction as punishment for their disbelief?.

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  GentlyFeral

  Yes, the history of Christian universalism is a long one; in fact, for the first few centuries, universalism was the dominant view.

  • A Brief Introduction to Biblical Universalist Christianity
  
  
  • Wikipedia on Christian Universalism
  
  
  • And Wikipedia's List of early Christian Universalists
  
  
  • Apocatastatic [universal reconciliation] themes in the Bible
  
  
  • "Universalism and the Bible: The Really Good News"
  
  
  • And, last but not least: Bishop Carlton Pearson
    • Dateline story, 2006
    
    
    • Pearson on This American Life
    
    
    • Carlton Pearson's thoughts on the gory parts of Revelation

  gently feral
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  68

  So, why do you really hate the Roman Catholic Church?

  by StAnn in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this is actually a serious question.. when i was a jw, i was taught all kinds of things about how horrible the rcc is.

  i believed it.

  many years after leaving the wts, i began looking into the rcc for myself and discovered that everything i had been told about the rcc by the wts was a lie.

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  GentlyFeral

  When I was a good little dubbie, I was as Catholic-phobic as the rest of them. When I woke up and questioned everything I believed – and heard about people like Dorothy Day and Sister Helen Prejean – that had to go away

  I only have three problems with the Catholic church, as distinct from the Catholic people I know:

  • Papal infallibility. I've spent way too many years handing my conscience over to others to come within a country mile of ever doing that again.
  
  
  • One True Religion – not unique to the RCC, I know :)
  
  
  • Top-heavy bureaucracy. But this is a superficial impression; I haven't looked at the situation very closely.
  
  
  • I really think celibacy should be optional for clergy and religious (nuns and monks). So, for that matter, should heterosexuality. Too many spiritually gifted people are locked out of the life they were made for because of this – and the church also loses out.

  gently feral
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  76

  What Were Your Favorite Old TV Shows (From the 50's to the 90's)???

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i watch the rifleman almost every night on encore westerns.. when i was a kid i used to love watching the 3 stooges.. my favorite 80's show was taxi and hill street blues.. which tv shows did you love watching?

  ?.

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  GentlyFeral

  james_woods recommends:

  Have Gun, Will Travel

  Amen to that.

  I know a magic worker spiritual teacher who recommends "Have Gun, Will Travel" as a way of understanding how good, upstanding people can possibly hex other people.

  Oh, and –

  • The Addams Family
  • Batman
  • Star Trek (up through Deep Space Nine)
  • Most PBS documentaries
  • Dark Shadows, for about a year
  • The Waltons
  • Maya, a drama set in India starring two abandoned/orphaned teenage boys (one American, one Indian) and an elephant; lasted less than a year. I was, what, twelve?
  • The Muppet Show

  gently feral
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  25

  If I were a building,

  by John Doe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would be __________ because ___________.

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  GentlyFeral

  whitman,

  I would be the Winchester Mystery house.

  Damn! I wish I'd thought of that first!

  gently feral
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  25

  If I were a building,

  by John Doe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i would be __________ because ___________.

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  GentlyFeral

  I like to think I'd be the Gamble House in Pasadena, CA.

  Here's the Wikipedia entry.

  gently feral
• 
  20

  "If you are Christian you are definately Trinitarian"

  by Sirona in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my jw mother thinks that all christians (non jws who call themselves christian) are all trinitarian.. i tried to point out that there are certain groups who are not trinitarian, but she seemed to think that all christian groups in babylon the great believe in the trinity.. is it true that only fringe groups reject the trinity?.

  sorry for my ignorance but i don't know much about mainstream christianity.. i would like to email her (my mum) a list of religions which reject the trinity but are also christian.

  i also heard of groups who believe and preach about jehovah as gods name.. sirona.

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  GentlyFeral

  NanaR

  All mainline Christian Churches, from the Catholic and Orthodox through the Reformers and even some of the Restorationists (Church of Christ, for example) teach the Holy Trinity as defined in the Nicene Creed.

  Well, for most members of "Christendom," non-trinitarianism is not a deal-breaker. Some years ago, I got into a conversation with a Catholic who told me that belief in the Trinity is not "essential for salvation" - not enough, in other words, to keep you out of heaven. He indicated that modern Catholic teaching did not hammer obsessively on the Trinity the way the jaydubs do.

  gently feral
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  66

  Funny/strange things you ate as a kid.

  by IP_SEC in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok i'll start.. 13 y/o or so.. once it rained for a month straight.

  we had an old dry tank dump in the back that filled up with water.

  there were tons of frogs that showed up and started breeding.. i was looking at them on the edge of the water through my .22 scope.

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  GentlyFeral

  • Ketchup sandwiches, every chance I got, until I was about twelve. Then I came to my senses and never willingly ate ketchup again.
  • Mushroom sandwiches - just plain mushrooms, sliced and fried in butter, on white bread.

  That was about it, actually; my childhood diet was actually more cosmopolitan than "weird." Mom was a lifelong subscriber to Gourmet magazine and had a six-foot high bookcase full of cookbooks. Not only that, she kept a cardfile full of index cards - not recipe cards, but library-style cross-references - so she could find any of her thousands of recipes in an instant. Maybe that was a little weird.

  gently f eral