kls have you ever thought of trying out for a team? The NFL is always looking for good poop slingers..
Posts by Valis
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124Who's ready for some football?
by Big Dog in.
training camps opened here in the us and it won't be long before they will be playing the hall of fame game in canton (which is less than a half hour from where i live and i have tickets for) and the season will be going in full swing.. favorite teams, predictions, etc?
any enthusiasts out there?
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40
Anybody in UK on here please?
by LeedsBradfordEngland in.
if so, i'd like to know.. clive (formerly of hemsworth, west yorks cong in the 1970's)
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Valis
Yeah Sirona's got a greater chest alright...
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40
Anybody in UK on here please?
by LeedsBradfordEngland in.
if so, i'd like to know.. clive (formerly of hemsworth, west yorks cong in the 1970's)
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Valis
I have honorary UK citizenship does that count?..
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Does Anybody know latin???
by RichieRich in.
does anyone know what the latin word (if there is one) is for apostate??.
anybody in who knows other languages, please chime in with what apostate is in your native tongue.... thank you!
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Valis
Job 13:16 He also [shall be] my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
Job 17:8 Upright [men] shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short, and the joy of the hypocrite [but] for a moment?
Job 27:8 For what [is] the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
Job 34:30 That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared.
Pro 11:9 An hypocrite with [his] mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Isa 9:17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one [is] an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
Mat 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Luk 6:42 Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.
Luk 13:15 The Lord then answered him, and said, [Thou] hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or [his] ass from the stall, and lead [him] away to watering? -
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The Christian Paradox
by Valis ini showed this article to some of our friends at the fish fry i had this past weekend and thought i would share some of it with you all as i found it interesting and thought maybe some of you would find it so as well... excerpt]the christian paradoxhow a faithful nation gets jesus wrongposted on wednesday, july 27, 2005. what it means to be christian in america.
an excerpt.
originally from august 2005. by bill mckibben.
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Valis
I showed this article to some of our friends at the fish fry I had this past weekend and thought I would share some of it with you all as I found it interesting and thought maybe some of you would find it so as well.. You can find the whole article in the new issue of Harper's magazine.
Excerpt]
The Christian Paradox
How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong
Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. What it means to be Christian in America. An excerpt. Originally from August 2005. By Bill McKibben. SourcesOnly 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation’s educational decline, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.
Asking Christians what Christ taught isn’t a trick. When we say we are a Christian nation—and, overwhelmingly, we do—it means something. People who go to church absorb lessons there and make real decisions based on those lessons; increasingly, these lessons inform their politics. (One poll found that 11 percent of U.S. churchgoers were urged by their clergy to vote in a particular way in the 2004 election, up from 6 percent in 2000.) When George Bush says that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher, he may or may not be sincere, but he is reflecting the sincere beliefs of the vast majority of Americans.
And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.
* * *
Ours is among the most spiritually homogenous rich nations on earth. Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans—about 75 percent—claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week. Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice, it clearly represents aspiration. In fact, there is nothing else that unites more than four fifths of America. Every other statistic one can cite about American behavior is essentially also a measure of the behavior of professed Christians. That’s what America is: a place saturated in Christian identity.
But is it Christian? This is not a matter of angels dancing on the heads of pins. Christ was pretty specific about what he had in mind for his followers. What if we chose some simple criterion—say, giving aid to the poorest people—as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior? After all, in the days before his crucifixion, when Jesus summed up his message for his disciples, he said the way you could tell the righteous from the damned was by whether they’d fed the hungry, slaked the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, and visited the prisoner. What would we find then?
In 2004, as a share of our economy, we ranked second to last, after Italy, among developed countries in government foreign aid. Per capita we each provide fifteen cents a day in official development assistance to poor countries. And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden). In fact, by pretty much any measure of caring for the least among us you want to propose—childhood nutrition, infant mortality, access to preschool—we come in nearly last among the rich nations, and often by a wide margin. The point is not just that (as everyone already knows) the American nation trails badly in all these categories; it’s that the overwhelmingly Christian American nation trails badly in all these categories, categories to which Jesus paid particular attention. And it’s not as if the numbers are getting better: the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last year that the number of households that were “food insecure with hunger” had climbed more than 26 percent between 1999 and 2003.
This Christian nation also tends to make personal, as opposed to political, choices that the Bible would seem to frown upon. Despite the Sixth Commandment, we are, of course, the most violent rich nation on earth, with a murder rate four or five times that of our European peers. We have prison populations greater by a factor of six or seven than other rich nations (which at least should give us plenty of opportunity for visiting the prisoners). Having been told to turn the other cheek, we’re the only Western democracy left that executes its citizens, mostly in those states where Christianity is theoretically strongest. Despite Jesus’ strong declarations against divorce, our marriages break up at a rate—just over half—that compares poorly with the European Union’s average of about four in ten. That average may be held down by the fact that Europeans marry less frequently, and by countries, like Italy, where divorce is difficult; still, compare our success with, say, that of the godless Dutch, whose divorce rate is just over 37 percent. Teenage pregnancy? We’re at the top of the charts. Personal self-discipline—like, say, keeping your weight under control? Buying on credit? Running government deficits? Do you need to ask?
About the Author
Bill McKibben, a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, is the author of many books, including The End of Nature and Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America’s Most Hopeful Landscape. His last article for Harper’s Magazine, “The Cuba Diet,” appeared in the April 2005 issue.
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Deep meaning of my thread
by gringojj inmany of you have read the post entitled "how fortunate we are!!!!!".
but few if any know the origins behind it.
so i will now explain why the quetzal thread came to be.. .
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Valis
But if it were proven to me tommorow that there was one, I would say ok, adjust my life accordingly, and go on.
eh go on you say? I would just as soon shoot myself than resign to the supposed fact there was a creator. Someone or some thing would have some splainin to do before I could "adjust" anything. Even if there was a creator I woul think some portion of the contract has been voided by said creator. Especially if that contract invovled worship. Too much bad stuff happens every day for me to believe in a "loving" creator who had earned or even demanded respect.
Sincerely,
District Overbeer
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Was Samson the first suicide bomber? Discuss . . .
by cruzanheart inokay, y'all, that's the hot discussion going on in valis' kitchen right now.
we've had a great meal of fried trout, hushpuppies, potato balls, fresh peach pie, cookies, cole slaw, and a bunch of beer (of course!
) and other liquid libations.
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Valis
One woule be SURPIZED what you can do with 50 loaves of white bread and fitty pieces of phish.. Gospel of The Saintz !:17
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Orders from Sith
by kls inthe all mighty sith/ robbie has informed me that i must include him in my 7000 post or he will spank my butt .
so i do this post under duress for fear of haveing a sore hinny.
not yet stupid 2 more
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Valis
So i do this post under duress for fear of haveing a sore hinny
um so how is that different than it's usually swollen and engorged state?
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An End To Shunning
by Sunspot inwell, in my case anyway.
for those of you that may recall my posts about my family and that after i left the wts, how i wrote long (and painful) letters to my nonjw children among others.
i had tried to explain why i had shunned them and how very sorry i was, and for all the mistakes i had made throughout their childhoods as a jw mother.
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Valis
rock and roll! so nice to see this happen!
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JWD Awards??
by RichieRich inso, i was thinkin, and got hit with a good idea.
everyone whos been here for more than a week has posters that they love, and posters that they loathe.
some make laugh, some make us cry, and some drive us right up the wall.... so to honor that, i think we should have some sort of jwd award session... (should simon approve).
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Valis
Eh I have a very simple way of creating a submission form. The same way I do my tests for school. You just fill in the blanks and click submit. It then sends the responses to an email address. I would be glad to set up the form and an email address for tallying the results. Please lemme know if I can be of help. I think it would be fun and that there is no reason we can't recognize posters for funny and serious reasons. We could even do it every once in a while with new categories as a diversion form dealing with the JW issues.
Sincerely,
District Overbeer