I ask again, as I have many time before:
"Where was the Yahweh/Jesus combo God, when all these wicked things were being done IN THEIR NAME?"
fulltimestudent
JoinedPosts by fulltimestudent
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Aussie Pentecostal Group busted as 'Abusive Cult.'
by fulltimestudent inthe australian abc ( a government owned media group) has published the results of a four year investigation into a nsw-based registered charity and religious group christian assemblies international (cai).. the four corners program revealed that self-styled religious guru pastor scott williams was using his warped brand of evangelical pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.. courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.. they detailed shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.. they said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by williams, who described himself as "the anointed one" with the lord's authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience.. .
reference: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-28/former-members-break-silence-over-christian-cult-of-horrors/5627794.
(a short video extract from the abc program can be found on the rh side/top of the above page.
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fulltimestudent
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Aussie Pentecostal Group busted as 'Abusive Cult.'
by fulltimestudent inthe australian abc ( a government owned media group) has published the results of a four year investigation into a nsw-based registered charity and religious group christian assemblies international (cai).. the four corners program revealed that self-styled religious guru pastor scott williams was using his warped brand of evangelical pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.. courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.. they detailed shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.. they said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by williams, who described himself as "the anointed one" with the lord's authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience.. .
reference: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-28/former-members-break-silence-over-christian-cult-of-horrors/5627794.
(a short video extract from the abc program can be found on the rh side/top of the above page.
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fulltimestudent
The Australian ABC ( a government owned Media group) has published the results of a four year investigation into a NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).
The Four Corners program revealed that self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams was using his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.
Courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a Christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.
They detailed shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.
They said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by Williams, who described himself as "The Anointed One" with the Lord's authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience.
(A short video extract from the ABC program can be found on the RH side/top of the above page. A former member explains how difficult it is to leave a cult once you're hooked - something we are all too familiar with)
The claimed HQ of the group in Cofffs Harbour, northern NSW.
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Why are 'most' of the people fighting in the Middle East MEN???
by NAVYTOWN init seems that in every war or revolution, 'most' of the participants are men and young boys.
aside from the occasional female suicide bomber.
does this have something to do with their religion and/ or cultural traditions?
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fulltimestudent
NotNew:
Another feature of the Bedouin ethos is the law of blood revenge. A much quoted Arab proverb is, “Blood demands blood.” Relatives must avenge the blood of the slain by killing either the actual murderer or one of his relatives.
It comes from the Bible, or, should I say that the ancient Israelites also had this crazy law. Kill someone, even if accidently, and one of his relatives had the right to kill YOU. The person with the right to kill was called the blood avenger. You can read about it in Numbers 35:19
The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when the avenger comes upon the murderer, the avenger shall put the murderer to death. (NIV)
We had this wonderfully crazy series of WT study articles once (I think you could see Freddies mind behind it) on this topic. In Numbers, six cities were set up as "cities of refuge," to which the accidental man-slayer could flee and be safe from the blood avenger.
So Yup! you guessed it, there's a modern day city of refuge, and I can safely say that if you are HERE (grin) you are NOT in the city of refuge.
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$30 million for a Shang Dynasty bronze casting
by fulltimestudent inin 1922 some farmers in taoyuan county, hunan province, china, dug up a beautiful cast bronze vessel with a lid.
the farmer's son took the lid to school to ask his teacher what it was.
the teacher saw that it was something wonderful and raked up 800 silver dollars to buy it.
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fulltimestudent
In 1922 some farmers in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province, China, dug up a beautiful cast bronze vessel with a lid. The farmer's son took the lid to school to ask his teacher what it was. The teacher saw that it was something wonderful and raked up 800 silver dollars to buy it. Someone else heard about it and bought the vessel itself for 400 silver dollars. So the two parts went their separate ways. The lid finished up in the hands of an army officer, who gave it to the Hunan Provincial government in 1952
The body finished up in the hands of the Shanghai City government, but during the chaos of the times, was sold to foreigners, eventually being bought by a French collector in 2001 for the huge sum of $9,246,000. His recent death saw it back on the market.
Hunan Museum thought there was little chance of buying the vessel's body and displaying it complete, but a group of Chinese businessmen from both China and Taiwan negotiated a deal that brought it back to China and the complete vessel will soon be on display in the Hunan Museum.
The vessel was made as a wine serving vessel and stands around 600 mm (two feet) high.
The history blog of Livius describes it:
The vessel’s massive size distinguishes this extraordinary work as one of the foremost examples of its kind. The surface is intricately cast with stylized animals and mysterious monster masks that provide a fascinating insight into early Chinese culture and beliefs. The crisp, precise casting of this complex design vividly illustrates why bronze vessels created during the Shang and Zhou dynasties rank among the finest examples of bronze casting the world has ever seen.
Reference: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/category/ancient
FYI: The Shang dynasty existed between the mid 18th C BCE and the mid 11th C BCE and was followed by the Zhou Dynasty which at its end in the third C BCE was only a nominal ruler of China.
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Reunion: Dog Passes Out From Overwhelming Excitement!!!!!!
by rip van winkle ineven grumpy cat would smile :).
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/dog-faints-from-overwhelming-joy-upon-reuniting-with-owner-after-two-years-9630441.html.
a pet dog appeared to faint from overwhelming joy after being reunited with a family member after two years.. rebecca ehalt had been living and working in slovenia.
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fulltimestudent
talesin:
Humans! What a bunch of arseholes!
In my studies I've just come across an interesting reference, for which I'm trying to find the complete piece.
Wang Ling was a bright young man in the Song dynasty, who composed ballds about social evils. In one of these ballads called Meng huang (Dreaming of Locusts), nightmarish insects lecture him - arguing that humans are the real pests in the world.
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If you're Near Canberra - Partisan Eagles and Fascist donkeys, at the AWM
by fulltimestudent ini guess that few here would remember any detail of ww2.
not sure whether i should be sad or happy to be old enough to remember those days and the absence of my father who was blown up by a german bomb during the seige of tobruk, but who happily survived.. even more likely to be forgotten in the fog of anti-russian and contemporary cold war propaganda, was the heavy price paid by russians, with between 8 and 14 million military deaths and millions of civilian deaths.. the sustained russian resistance against the german war machine was a major factor in the allied victory.
i doubt that there would have been a successfull landing in normandy if the russians on the eastern front had not tied up so many german armies.
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fulltimestudent
I wish I was closer to Canberra. I'd like to hear this presentation. Perhaps it would answer some questions in my mind. When I was about 10, the house behind us belonged to an elderly Russia couple. In pride of place was a picture of Stalin. The old couple revered him. I asked my father who he was, and my father made a derogatory remark, which I (with a child's lack of guile) repeated to the old Russian couple - the result - an explosive loss of neighbourly camaraderie.
Some years later, not too long before I was persuaded that the Yahweh/Jesus combo was the only hope for a better world, I was hanging around the left wing fringe in Sydney, including the Russian Club, which was completely supportive of the USSR. I used to go to see free films, some of them magnificent works of art. Others were propaganda in which Stalin was presented as a superhero who saved Russia from Hitler. I've always found the cognitive gap between western and Russia propaganda difficult to bridge
So maybe this may help to bridge that gap.
Lunchtime art talk: Stalin and the warrior archetype
12:30pm Tue 5 Aug
Join Anita Pisch, PhD candidate from the Australian National University, who will speak about a selection of posters from the Second World War.
The creation of a symbolic persona for Joseph Stalin as leader was a deliberate process that drew on mythic archetypes, including the Father, the Warrior, the Architect, the Helmsman, the Teacher, the Saviour and the Magician. A key archetype, particularly during the years of the Second World War, was that of the Warrior. This presentation will examine the ways in which Stalin was presented in political posters as a successful warrior leading the Soviet Union to victory.
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If you're Near Canberra - Partisan Eagles and Fascist donkeys, at the AWM
by fulltimestudent ini guess that few here would remember any detail of ww2.
not sure whether i should be sad or happy to be old enough to remember those days and the absence of my father who was blown up by a german bomb during the seige of tobruk, but who happily survived.. even more likely to be forgotten in the fog of anti-russian and contemporary cold war propaganda, was the heavy price paid by russians, with between 8 and 14 million military deaths and millions of civilian deaths.. the sustained russian resistance against the german war machine was a major factor in the allied victory.
i doubt that there would have been a successfull landing in normandy if the russians on the eastern front had not tied up so many german armies.
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fulltimestudent
From the Australian War Memorial Site:
Partisan Eagles and Fascist donkeys: Soviet stencilled propaganda posters
Until February 2015
Second World War GalleriesEstablished in 1925, the Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) was the country’s official state news agency. In June 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany, a group of artists and writers in Moscow set up a studio under the TASS for the production of propaganda posters.
For the next four years the TASS studio operated as a “poster factory”, with teams of writers, poets, artists, stencil cutters, and painters working in shifts around the clock to create large, hand-stencilled propaganda posters known as Okno TASS (“the windows of TASS”). At its peak, the TASS studio employed 300 workers, and by 1946 had issued a staggering 700,000 hand-stencilled posters.
During the 1418 days the Soviet Union was involved in the Second World War approximately 1240 TASS posters were designed and distributed in editions of 60 to 1000. Displayed in shop windows and distributed via subscription across the Soviet Union, TASS posters were also sent to Allied countries, including Australia.
TASS posters were as much an expression of state ideologies as mechanically printed wartime propaganda. An editorial office developed officially sanctioned themes for interpretation by selected artists and writers. The nine posters on display at the Memorial exemplify the main styles used by TASS artists – heroic realism and graphic satire.
A comic-strip format (OKNO Panno) was also used by TASS studio artists and writers to create narrative propaganda which effectively replayed and commented on events on the battlefields. These stories often used a cast of stereotypical players: bearded Soviet partisans, heroic Red Army soldiers, and reptilian Nazis. Popular themes presented in the posters included the guerrilla actions of Russian partisans and the lampooning of the German army.
Soviet posters, including those by TASS artists, were admired internationally for their visual punch. Reproduced in Allied propaganda, including in Australia, they became symbolic of the strength of Soviet resistance against the German Army during the Second World War. This exhibition also includes British posters that used images from TASS posters to show the strong relationship between the Allies.
The posters are on display for the first time in Australia.
The production, content and care of the posters will be explored in a series of talks:
TASS propaganda posters – Professor Sasha Grishin, 12.30pm Tuesday 29 July
Stalin and the warrior archetype – Anita Pisch, 12.30pm Tuesday 5 August
The TASS posters at the AWM, 12.30pm Tuesday 12 August
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If you're Near Canberra - Partisan Eagles and Fascist donkeys, at the AWM
by fulltimestudent ini guess that few here would remember any detail of ww2.
not sure whether i should be sad or happy to be old enough to remember those days and the absence of my father who was blown up by a german bomb during the seige of tobruk, but who happily survived.. even more likely to be forgotten in the fog of anti-russian and contemporary cold war propaganda, was the heavy price paid by russians, with between 8 and 14 million military deaths and millions of civilian deaths.. the sustained russian resistance against the german war machine was a major factor in the allied victory.
i doubt that there would have been a successfull landing in normandy if the russians on the eastern front had not tied up so many german armies.
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fulltimestudent
I guess that few here would remember any detail of WW2. Not sure whether I should be sad or happy to be old enough to remember those days and the absence of my father who was blown up by a German bomb during the seige of Tobruk, but who happily survived.
Even more likely to be forgotten in the fog of anti-Russian and contemporary Cold War propaganda, was the heavy price paid by Russians, with between 8 and 14 million military deaths and millions of civilian deaths.
The sustained Russian resistance against the German war machine was a major factor in the Allied victory. I doubt that there would have been a successfull landing in Normandy if the Russians on the eastern front had not tied up so many German Armies. And, in the closing days of the war, after Germany's surrender, the Russian troops were able to sweep the Japanese from China and were within a few kilometres of invading the main Japanese Islands.
So its rather fascinating to see this collection of patriotic Russian posters from WW2 exhibited at the Australian War memorial in Canberra
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Why are 'most' of the people fighting in the Middle East MEN???
by NAVYTOWN init seems that in every war or revolution, 'most' of the participants are men and young boys.
aside from the occasional female suicide bomber.
does this have something to do with their religion and/ or cultural traditions?
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fulltimestudent
It has nothing to do with Mid eastern fighting, but most modern nations enlist women in their military forces.
Here's some of China's finest female soldiers. (Reminder: I post about China because it is the focus of my studies at Macquarie University.)
China has not had a military war for a long time, but PLA (People's Liberation Army) detachments (including women) have served in peace-keeping efforts in some places.
In July 2011, 35 female soldiers became the first generation of missile launch trumpeter.
Four months later, a female missile launch company was established and they became
a new force of the Second Artillery Corps.
Female pilots of the PLA Air Force.
The female soldiers of a tactical detachment. They are responsible for counter-terrorism task.
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Where's Jesus When You Need Him-Cant He Defend His People From Islam?
by fulltimestudent inone of the oldest remaining christian groups in the world is close to being wiped out by the isis sunni caliphate.. the 'sort-of' history called, 'acts of apostles,' tells us that on the day of pentecost, among those who were in jerusalem on that day and supposedly witnessed the coming of the ns, were (acts 2:9), among others:.
"parthians and medes and elamites and the inhabitants of mesopotamia ...".
it's claimed that many of these people became christians before they returned home, and a christian church was formed early in the beginnings of christianity/.
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fulltimestudent
OK, Mum ...
To feed your fascination - I offer (grin)
From Christian Broadcasting Network.
Q&A
Why are So Many Westerners Converting to Islam?
CBN.com - It is a fact that Islam is growing rapidly in the West. In the U.S. alone the number of Muslims has risen dramatically, from about 10,000 in 1900 to 3 million or more in 1991 (some authorities say 4.5 million). Most of this growth is due to recent immigration and the high birth rate of Muslims (5 children per family on average), rather than to conversion. Still, the number of those who convert to Islam is significant. In the U.S., the majority are African-American (a third of all Muslims according to most authorities), but there have also been significant numbers of Anglos to convert as well, many of them well-educated.
What is motivating people to turn to Islam? A recent article in Christianity Today (Aug 20,1990) reported that in the U.S., the average age of those converting to Islam (31) is about twice that for conversion to Christian faith (age 16). It listed 5 main reasons given for becoming Muslim:Islam's doctrine is simple and rational,
all believers are equal,
it is a "practical" religion,
and lacks a priesthood.
I read and clipped the article at the time, but when I recently pulled it out to re-read it, it struck me that those "reasons" merely parrot the arguments Muslim apologists use to propagate Islam. On reflection, I would say that all that they show is that Muslim apologetics is having some effect, but these are not necessarily what is motivating Americans to become Muslim.
An American Muslim interviewed in a fairly recent book (Neighbors: Muslims in North America. Friendship Press, 1989) gave the following reasons when asked why African-Americans are turning to Islam. I have heard the same things from African-Americans in Philadelphia more than once. First on his list is racism in the church. "The discrimination that we feel makes Islam attractive to us because it's a way of rejecting the culture that will not have us. In sociological terms I think that one of the reasons that many African-Americans go to Islam as opposed to Christianity--and many of us have been raised Christian--is that the people doing these things to us are also Christian." How often does one not hear it said, "America is no more segregated than at eleven o'clock on Sunday mornings."The second reason he gives is, I believe, also important in the conversion of Anglo-Americans. "Another factor--and this is part of what attracted me to Islam--is direction and discipline." Our society is disintegrating for lack of discipline, especially in the city. Through its disciplined life-style, to many people Islam seems to hold out the promise of helping them get their lives back in order again.
Finally, there is a third factor which probably no one would ever mention explicitly, for obvious reasons, but which, I believe, is nevertheless important. This is the fact that Islam offers a conversion experience and the opportunity to get one's life in order, without needing to confess ones sin and need of salvation. In fact, Islam makes quite a point of denying these truths. It tells people they do not need salvation; all they need is to follow the "guidance" of God's law, and they will make it to heaven. That is something the natural man likes to hear.and
A list of people who've converted to Islam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam_from_Christianity
PS: I am not a convert to Islam (or, any other religion- I intend to keep my soul unsullied )
PPS: Share your conclusions - when you do draw some>
