I've Found It In My Heart To Forgive You

[alreadyGone]

2 hours ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

 

Ignorant cock sucker. 

 

Oh my my ..... what would Jesus do?

Mathew 5:30 ???

[SemmelweisReflex]

1 minute ago, alreadyGone said:

 

Oh my my ..... what would Jesus do?

 

I ain't him. 

[alreadyGone]

1 minute ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

 

I ain't him. 

Well, bless you.

[SemmelweisReflex]

14 minutes ago, alreadyGone said:

Well, bless you.

 

No. I'll make you a deal. You don't bless me and I won't bless you. 

 

[SemmelweisReflex]

47 minutes ago, midniterider said:

 

This is most likely the reason he was banned off other sites. Not because he was preaching. 

 

 

 

Right. And the @TheRedneckProfessor wouldn't have been banned from that same place for calling me a Mother Fucker. That's the point. 

[florduh]

2 hours ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

Precisely.  Banning him at this point would only feed his persecution complex.  It's already fat enough.  Let it starve a while.

I think we're almost to the "You can't fire me, I quit!" part of the program.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

2 hours ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

 

Right. And the @TheRedneckProfessor wouldn't have been banned from that same place for calling me a Mother Fucker. That's the point. 

If I went onto a jehovahs witness website and started motherfuckering people, I'd expect to be banned.  I would also know exactly why I got banned.  I sure as hell wouldn't try to make out like I was being persecuted for being banned; and I sure as fucking hell wouldn't waste any time whiny-bitching about it.  Nevertheless, our house, our rules, motherfucker.

[SemmelweisReflex]

31 minutes ago, florduh said:

I think we're almost to the "You can't fire me, I quit!" part of the program.

 

Keep up. We've already done that. We are now on the cancel culture approach to censorship in the guise of protection for the sake of propaganda. Ball is in your court. 

[SemmelweisReflex]

23 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

If I went onto a jehovahs witness website and started motherfuckering people, I'd expect to be banned.  I would also know exactly why I got banned.  I sure as hell wouldn't try to make out like I was being persecuted for being banned; and I sure as fucking hell wouldn't waste any time whiny-bitching about it.  Nevertheless, our house, our rules, motherfucker.

 

Shut up, you sound like an idiot. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

You sound like a whiny-ass bitch who cries because they won't let you bring vodka to the AA meeting.

[florduh]

1 hour ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

1 hour ago, florduh said:

I think we're almost to the "You can't fire me, I quit!" part of the program.

 

Keep up. We've already done that. We are now on the cancel culture approach to censorship in the guise of protection for the sake of propaganda. Ball is in your court. 

No, you're still here. Not banned, didn't quit, so pay better attention while you're still around these parts. We do at least get some entertainment from the posts of egomaniacal, conspiracy minded, paranoid, science denying, alt-right whack jobs.

[SemmelweisReflex]

46 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

You sound like a whiny-ass bitch who cries because they won't let you bring vodka to the AA meeting.

 

Oh, no! I bring vodka to the AA meeting. As long as you don't make a scene they don't mind. Not much different than Ex-Idiots, really. Numb from the neck up. Dumb as a second coat a paint. Might as well ask the cat. And a fake God as a higher power. Now the last time I was in jail I got too drunk at the whatyamacallit? The idiot college professors who apply the quasi science of addiction counseling? Now they give the random breathalyzers before meeting so I had to fake an explosive diarrhea episode which got sort of interesting. 

[SemmelweisReflex]

5 minutes ago, florduh said:

No, you're still here. Not banned, didn't quit, so pay better attention while you're still around these parts. We do at least get some entertainment from the posts of egomaniacal, conspiracy minded, paranoid, science denying, alt-right whack jobs.

 

Ya know, dumb ass . . . I rather consider myself a sort of Dr. Gregory House of theology. Smarter than the average trained glorified drug pushers for the FDA, thinking outside of the box. 

 

Of course, I'm not an idiot atheist, but . . . 

[florduh]

53 minutes ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

Of course, I'm not an idiot atheist, but . . . 

Then what kind of idiot are you?

[◊ Krowb ◊]

43 minutes ago, florduh said:

Then what kind of idiot are you?

 

The doctrinally sound kind.

[alreadyGone]

1 hour ago, SemmelweisReflex said:

 

Ya know, dumb ass . . . I rather consider myself a sort of Dr. Gregory House of theology. Smarter than the average trained glorified drug pushers for the FDA, thinking outside of the box. 

 

Of course, I'm not an idiot atheist, but . . . 

 

As I fell away from the Christian belief, it was distressing.

I didn't want that. It came very late in life for me and it was a difficult thing for me to accept.

 

So I had long discussions with several devout (Protestant) believers and ministers.

 

I began to notice that every one of them at some point declared (with some minor variation): "well see... that's where most Americans/Christians have it wrong..  Now I've read the bible twice, and I pray over my bible studies for divine guidance, and I can tell you that what this (specific scripture, or theological issue) really means is..."

 

Isn't that what you are saying here also?

That you are better educated in the scriptures, that you have a really tight, special relationship with God? And therefore you just know...

... you know, the truth and all.

 

[SemmelweisReflex]

15 hours ago, alreadyGone said:

 

As I fell away from the Christian belief, it was distressing.

I didn't want that. It came very late in life for me and it was a difficult thing for me to accept.

 

I hear this often from former Christians and I can't comprehend the reasoning behind it. They leave a delusional way of life for what they perceive as truth. Christendom, with it's savage history of suppression, warmongering, deceit, inquisition, crusades, child raping and pilfering of the poor. How could that be distressing unless you benefitted from it in some way? I used to think that religion was designed, or at least corrupted in order to control people. Then I realized that religion and all of it's nefarious practices was controlled by the people. The people who, either blindly supported or even greatly benefitted from the abuse of power to which religion always strived towards. 

 

Shortly after my becoming a believer I was posting on forums like this when I was introduced to Acharya S, Wellhausen and the Christ myth / higher criticism nonsense. I didn't do my homework and in an enthusiastic knee jerk reaction I did a 180 degree turn and just as loudly as I had defended the Bible I then attacked it. It was a momentary lapse of reason, but I think there are two reasons I didn't feel the distress so often experienced by those undergoing a crisis of faith. 1) I hadn't invested myself socially, or in a familial way. I've always been a loner, knowing that any large group of people act as a xenophobic machine of which I could only be a replaceable cog. And 2) I have always, even as a child, observed that people live in a quixotic bubble they create to surround themselves and protect themselves with. The bubble doesn't allow truth to penetrate it or escape it. So to me, God wasn't as important as truth unless God was true.

 

Do you know what the Hebrew word Israel means? It means to wrestle or strive with God. So Jacob was named Israel after wrestling with the angel or messenger of God. That is what we must do. You and I and every living person of all time. In one way or another with either of two outcomes. 

 

I have three religious stories to tell. First when I was only 4 or 5 years old I had noticed that my grandmother always seemed sad when going to church every Sunday morning so I went with her one cold rainy Sunday. I had been raised to believe that there were no obscene words so even at that age my language was what some would classify as colorful. The term go to hell meant little more to me than an insult. I didn't know what hell was, but when we got to the church down the road from where I lived my grandmother introduced me to the pastor or priest or preacher - whatever he was called and he looked down at me and said: "You've never been to church? Do you know what happens to little boys who don't go to church? They go to hell." Without hesitation I replied: "Well, you can go to hell!" The back of my grandmother's hand came down hard across my face and I ran home from church in the cold rain. I never went back. 

 

A few years later my atheist dad decided that us kids had never been to an Easter egg hunt. He was a strict conformist and couldn't bear the fact that his kids might, in some small way, be abnormal. I remember standing in the park on a beautiful spring day looking at all the spoiled brats running around tearing up the grass, eager to get the main prize. A plastic colored egg with a twenty dollar bill tucked inside. 

 

pWhen it was explained to us that we needed to race around with all the other children searching for boiled eggs hidden in the grass I remember me and my siblings looked up at my dad with an expression that clearly said you want us to do what?! He was furious when all three of us simply stood there and marveled at the sight of those spoiled children running around looking for boiled eggs, candy and the illusive prize of money on what was apparently a ceremony to mark the death of a man 2000 years ago. 

 

My final event was after I had recently discovered the Bible and had studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses for about six months. The Presiding Overseer of the congregation was my Bible study conductor. His first wife had died years earlier because she needed a liver or kidney transplant, I can't remember which, and the Society's position of a ban on organ transplants prevented her from getting what she needed. One day I received an Awake! magazine through the mail like I did every month and it had the photographs of many young children who had died by refusing blood transfusions. They were put upon a pedestal as sort of martyrs. I took the magazine with me to my next Bible study and I asked the PO if he could tell me for sure that these children hadn't died in vain. With a sad expression on his face he shook his head and simply said: "No." I ended my study that day. 

 

So it's important that people hear your story and the countless other stories of people like you. It's important for people like me. But it's also important that people like you hear my story. For that you have to come to the Lion's Den. Don't let the history of that message itself be heard. You can't hear me and I can't hear you outside of the den. Allegedly for your protection. But, then, how many stories are untold and forgotten in the guise of protection is perhaps the most important story of all. 

 

 

15 hours ago, alreadyGone said:

 

So I had long discussions with several devout (Protestant) believers and ministers.

 

I began to notice that every one of them at some point declared (with some minor variation): "well see... that's where most Americans/Christians have it wrong..  Now I've read the bible twice, and I pray over my bible studies for divine guidance, and I can tell you that what this (specific scripture, or theological issue) really means is..."

 

Isn't that what you are saying here also?

That you are better educated in the scriptures, that you have a really tight, special relationship with God? And therefore you just know...

... you know, the truth and all.

 

 

What I have is remarkably similar to what you have. Each of us have our truth. Each of us have our story. I personally believe that everyone, even those who disagree strongly with me, should have the honor of having our voices heard if we choose to do so. Even if our stories are frightening or there is danger in those stories affecting our own adversely, because only history distorted or concealed is allowed to repeat itself.