tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post4161659647988389003..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-65094586905934908542013-10-20T11:07:45.811-04:002013-10-20T11:07:45.811-04:00Good morning, Andie,
I understand you went to her...Good morning, Andie,<br /><br />I understand you went to her blog and apologized to Ms Shaw. I know she was very touched, so I thank you for that.<br /><br />HOWEVER, you haven't done anything I, myself, haven't done also from time to time. We all lose our temper from time to time. The issues are extremely provocative, and arouse great feelings of anger, resentment and personal insecurity. I've said far worse things online over the years than you did here, but that doesn't make it right for either of us -- and it is never <i>wise</i> to lose control of one's temper.<br /><br />I was surprised seeing that from you of all people, because I have always known you to be a person with a sunny disposition filled with an extraordinary degree of positive, creative energy.<br /><br />Please try to let this go, and don't waste time with too much self abnegation. <br /><br />None of us is perfect, and we must accept ourselves warts and all ;-) lest we become paralyzed with self-doubt.<br /><br />I love this bit of homely popular verse, because it contains much truth:<br /><br /><b><i>We're only here for a little stay<br />Don't worry. Don't hurry<br />Just be sure to stop<br />And smell the flowers along the way.</i></b><br /><br />There always have been many more weeds than flowers, but it's foolish to let the presence of weeds stop us from enjoying the many beauties growing among them.<br /><br />Look at the beautiful thing you've made of your own life after having had a terrible start. You've already lived in such a way as to work out your own salvation. Please don't let what others say and do spoil any of that for you.<br /><br /><b>"BE CURIOUS; NOT JUDGMENTAL"</b><br /><br />~ Walt WhitmanFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-66157852547104656142013-10-19T21:08:43.196-04:002013-10-19T21:08:43.196-04:00FreeThinke,
I removed the offending posts. I was...FreeThinke,<br /><br />I removed the offending posts. I was wrong and I am sorry to have posted such vitriol on your page.<br /><br />AndieDivine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-71428728162121594192013-10-19T18:02:10.328-04:002013-10-19T18:02:10.328-04:00Studies show that more-intelligent people are more...Studies show that more-intelligent people are more likely to be Conservatives. They are also more likely to say they go to religious services. I have no desire to purposely offend those of you who are liberals who may be reading this so I’ll throw in something that might be looked at as something positive... a <br />Liberals are boasting that they successfully stopped President Obama’s plan to launch air strikes on Syria.K. E., Atlanta, Georgianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-32210361690154203242013-10-19T16:11:13.072-04:002013-10-19T16:11:13.072-04:00Ms Shaw,
My involvement with Christian Science go...Ms Shaw,<br /><br />My involvement with Christian Science goes back more than sixty years. I would trust no outsider's analysis or attempts to define or explain the motives behind something they have not experienced and of which they have no real understanding. <br /><br />Serious Christian Scientists would never submit to the belief that they are abusing or neglecting ANYONE by attempting to care for them through the use of Christian Science. <br /><br />Outsiders just assume that CS has to be poppycock -- of no real value -- an illusion -- the product of superstition and wishful thinking, etc. That may the way it appears to those who have no real knowledge or understanding of the movement, but -- as with everything else -- popular opinion and popular will are rarely in harmony with the Truth, which is the very reason why "direct democracy" is one of the greatest evils on earth.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-78977921028656743432013-10-19T16:06:33.994-04:002013-10-19T16:06:33.994-04:00@ Shaw: How do you reconcile that when a state go...@ Shaw: <i>How do you reconcile that when a state government that uses tax money for the death penalty when the official Catholic teaching and the Catholic Church are against the death penalty. That is forcing Catholic citizens to involve themselves in capital punishment by proxy.</i><br /><br />Aha! False equivalency.<br /><br />Every taxpayer indirectly contributes to something he or she finds morally objectionable. We live in a democratic republic, the founders anticipated this, and considered it a trade off. Most importantly, the constitution does not forbid it.<br /><br />This is not equivalent to the government forcing a business owner to provide a certain kind of insurance coverage that violates his beliefs.<br /><br />To anticipate your next jump: Yes, I am saying that there is a difference between the government taking my tax money and paying for abortions, and government making me provide the direct means to do so to my employees.<br /><br />Your Christian Science argument is an irrelevancy and a distraction. Silverfiddlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-18305256410672253702013-10-19T16:00:54.589-04:002013-10-19T16:00:54.589-04:00FreeThinke is right.
Shaw, I apologize for my har...FreeThinke is right.<br /><br />Shaw, I apologize for my harsh words. It is your ideologies I despise. Not you.<br /><br />AndieDivine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-17419367930285926362013-10-19T15:57:50.848-04:002013-10-19T15:57:50.848-04:00Oh dear! I hate it when people I like and respect ...Oh dear! I hate it when people I like and respect are unkind to each. <br /><br />Rather than take sides or go into a long sing and dance, let me make one brief quotation from the Bible:<br /><br /><i><b>"A soft answer turneth away wrath."</b></i><br /><br />When feeling run high, it's all too easy to get carried way by one's passionate convictions, and make intemperate remarks we might -- or should -- regret later.<br /><br />My father often quoted the following. It was for him a life motto:<br /><br /><b><i>"THE SOBER SECOND THOUGHT IS SELDOM WRONG."</i></b><br /><br />Jesus asked His Father to forgive His torturers and murderers, because He knew they had no real idea of what they were doing.<br /><br />If He could do that, surely we owe each other the benefit of every possible doubt, and should not, therefore, judge each other too harshly.<br /><br />'Nuff said.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-3857488280213739832013-10-19T15:31:46.684-04:002013-10-19T15:31:46.684-04:00Free Thinke,
What you reported about Christian Sc...Free Thinke,<br /><br />What you reported about Christian Scientists now allowing traditional medical treatment is, from what I've been able to research, only recent:<br /><br /> <br /><b>"Since the founding of their church 131 years ago, Christian Scientists have been taught to avoid doctors at all cost. It is a conviction rooted so deeply in church dogma that dozens of members have endured criminal prosecution rather than surrender an ailing person to what they see as the quackery of medical science.</b><br /><br />But faced with dwindling membership and blows to their church’s reputation caused by its intransigence concerning medical treatment, even for children with grave illnesses, Christian Science leaders have recently found a new tolerance for medical care. For more than a year, leaders say, they have been encouraging members to see a physician if they feel it is necessary.<br /><br />“In the last year, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called to pray at a patient’s bedside in a hospital,” said Philip Davis, 59, the church’s national spokesman, who has been tending to the sick for three decades as a Christian Science practitioner. The church trains and registers its practitioners to help patients with their prayers.<br /><br />His credentials as a practitioner consist of a friendly Midwestern manner and a certainty that sickness is the manifestation of a conflict between “correct” and “incorrect” thinking. <b>He does not believe in germs or the existence of illness, which they consider a dreamlike state.<br /><br />The faith’s guiding textbook forbids mixing medical care with Christian Science healing, which is a form of transcendental prayer intended to realign a patient’s soul with God.</b>Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-19932482419456703762013-10-19T15:24:25.361-04:002013-10-19T15:24:25.361-04:00Typical liberal argument:
But everyone else is do...Typical liberal argument:<br /><br />But everyone else is doing it!Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-15404118287781813712013-10-19T15:20:41.642-04:002013-10-19T15:20:41.642-04:00"The government is forcing businesses to proc..."The government is forcing businesses to procure abortions by proxy against their consciences, and that should disturb all Americans, regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion."<br /><br />How do you reconcile that when a state government that uses tax money for the death penalty when the official Catholic teaching and the Catholic Church are against the death penalty. That is forcing Catholic citizens to involve themselves in capital punishment by proxy.<br /><br />And the same forcing by proxy is there when the federal government, through taxation, forces Quakers and other religions that are conscientious objectors, to support wars.<br /><br />What do you say about those instances where government bends people to its will and forces them to support and participate in capital punishment and war-- serious issues that go against their moral beliefs?<br /><br />What should the role of government be in those cases in exempting the tax-paying citizens from these things?Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-51650593000398595982013-10-19T15:18:26.424-04:002013-10-19T15:18:26.424-04:00When think of the hundreds of millions who have be...When think of the hundreds of millions who have been killed directly or had their lives blighted, stunted, aborted and shadowed in misery and deprivation as a result of Marxian initiatives, whatever may have been tragically misunderstood or misapplied by the Christian religion or by the strict adherents to our American Constitution pales into insignificance by comparison.<br /><br />The medical establishment effectively kills many thousands of patients every year, and many die protracted deaths in mortal agony at its hands, yet no one would ever dream of suggesting that the practice of medicine should be considered invalid, unworthy and belongs in the realm of crackpot superstition. When a child dies during surgery, or when conventional medical treatment fails to save save a life -- as it so often does -- no one ever dreams of calling in the authorities to have its parents -- or the doctors -- arrested for abuse and neglect because their decision to have the child treated resulted in its death.<br /><br />I happen to be a long time student of Christian Science, though I never joined the church officially. I have found Christian Science to be of enormous help to me during many crises medical and otherwise. I have tremendous respect for the movement.<br /><br /><b>It's simply not true, Ms Shaw, that seeking traditional medical treatment is "forbidden" by the Christian Science Church, and there are no consequences dire or otherwise for church members who -- for whatever reason -- seek help from <i>materia medica</i>. I know that for a fact.</b><br /><br />I see a typical brand of perverse logic being applied here against things for which some have a natural antipathy and against which a deeply ingrained prejudice.<br /><br />Anyone may build an, apparently, strong case for-- or against -- just-about <i>anything</i> by citing "facts" that either flatter or defame the object in question while blithely ignoring contradictory information.<br /><br />People of all stripes indulge in this kind of distortion all the time. That does not make either accurate or morally tenable.<br /><br />The POINT underlying this entire argument is that the heavy hand of GOVERNMENT has taken it upon itself to COERCE many thousands, perhaps millions, to participate in a policy that countermands the dictates of many an individual conscience.<br /><br />As the proponents of leftist initiatives ALWAYS do, they firmly believe "the ends justify the means" and to hell with the Constitution, the law, established customs and mores or anybody's cockamamie religion which if they had the sense they were born with the wouldn't follow anyway.<br /><br />The leftist position is ALWAYS "We know what's best for the everybody, and we are going to ram it as far down your throat and up your anal orifice as we deem necessary to make sure you see it OUR way -- OR heavy fines, loss of liberty -- and eventually DEATH for Crimes Against the State will be your portion. Of the threat of incarceration and death ALWAYS lies at the root of leftist beliefs and practices for who do not conform.<br /><br />There are many things worse than death. Loss of liberty heads the list.<br /><br />I'd much prefer to put my trust in Almighty God than in the hands of an Almighty State. <br /><br />The growing power of government on the domestic front is THE greatest threat we face.<br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30518237702704826292013-10-19T15:00:38.629-04:002013-10-19T15:00:38.629-04:00We have a few different confusions going on here.
...We have a few different confusions going on here.<br /><br />Whether parents have the right to withhold medical care from children is a legitimate topic of debate. If someone's religion required throwing children in volcanoes, I doubt even the staunchest libertarian would criticize the state for declaring the practice illegal and punishing perpetrators.<br /><br />However, this has nothing to do with government telling people what kind of insurance they must provide to others, and that is what Obamacare is doing. Think I'm wrong? Go google Hobby Lobby Obamacare.<br /><br />The very fact that the grotesque bureaucratic tangle known as Obamacare must parsel out narrow religious exemptions is self-condemnatory.<br /><br />Only those whom government decrees exempt may claim an exemption. That flies in the face of our constitutionally-protected liberties.<br /><br />The government is forcing businesses to procure abortions by proxy against their consciences, and that should disturb all Americans, regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion.<br /><br />This is government bending people to its will and forcing them to participate in activities that go against their moral beliefs.<br />Silverfiddlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-9421185758400596492013-10-19T14:52:13.375-04:002013-10-19T14:52:13.375-04:00Silverfiddle said:
"Take the money, dance to...Silverfiddle said:<br /><br />"Take the money, dance to Uncle Sam's tune. That is why the LDS church takes no government money."<br /><br />That only works when the recipients are conservative. Look at all the welfare leeches living life as they darn well please.Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-54704995449503619942013-10-19T14:40:44.912-04:002013-10-19T14:40:44.912-04:00Thanks for that clarification, Ducky. Thanks for that clarification, Ducky. Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-70806827604271933142013-10-19T14:36:56.410-04:002013-10-19T14:36:56.410-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-40679435922406370272013-10-19T14:36:30.784-04:002013-10-19T14:36:30.784-04:00"The fact is that the PPACA legislation does ..."The fact is that the PPACA legislation does not specifically exclude any particular religious groups from its provisions. The bill contains a general "religious conscience" section which sets forth guidelines under which religious groups who have established conscientious objections to certain forms of insurance may seek exemption from its health insurance requirements:<br />RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMPTION — Such term shall not include any individual for any month if such individual has in effect an exemption under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.<br />For members of religious groups to qualify for this exemption, they would have to be adherents of a religion or sect "described in section 1402(g)(1)" of the Internal Revenue Code, which governs exemptions from the payment of Social Security and Medicare taxes on self-employment income. In general, persons seeking a health insurance exemption must belong to a religion (or sect thereof) which has been in existence since 1951 and has an established history of spurning participation in insurance programs ..."Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-24773962937814855372013-10-19T14:22:20.425-04:002013-10-19T14:22:20.425-04:00Shaw,
I was being polite.
You and your ilk disgus...Shaw,<br /><br />I was being polite.<br />You and your ilk disgust me beyond words.<br />Whatever you have "gone through" I am certain you deserved.<br />With that, I will no longer lower myself to your depths.<br /><br />AndieDivine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-23450979196967760502013-10-19T14:19:42.554-04:002013-10-19T14:19:42.554-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-63674590089843343712013-10-19T14:17:04.369-04:002013-10-19T14:17:04.369-04:00But I would like to hear it,,, pretty pleaseBut I would like to hear it,,, pretty pleaseDarth Baconhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00035321069218552814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-35763878535791312362013-10-19T14:11:57.975-04:002013-10-19T14:11:57.975-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-74918631575409496942013-10-19T14:11:23.895-04:002013-10-19T14:11:23.895-04:00I'd bet lyingI'd bet lyingDarth Baconhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00035321069218552814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-25615669403606775142013-10-19T14:09:40.848-04:002013-10-19T14:09:40.848-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-53330662741998938612013-10-19T14:08:49.692-04:002013-10-19T14:08:49.692-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-71933200193964433352013-10-19T14:04:41.781-04:002013-10-19T14:04:41.781-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Shaw Kenawehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08637273000409613497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-78138632151018061232013-10-19T13:58:59.694-04:002013-10-19T13:58:59.694-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Divine Theatrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02553420826262806110noreply@blogger.com