Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Church of the Evolving Christ's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, February 26th, 2006
5:28 pm [twilightsun]	A letter to the pastor of my childhood church I've typed this letter up rather quickly following a visit to my mother this afternoon. Please let me know if there is anything that would sound better if re-worded or clarified. Also, do you think it would be beneficial to send copies to the RCA (Reformed Church of America) and the Albany Synod? If I do, I will include a sentence at the end about copies being forwarded to them. February 26, 2006 Dear Pastor Dave, Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to decide what to do about getting my son, Thomas Ryan, Jr., baptized. My husband and I were married at Amity. I attended and was Confirmed at Amity. I was baptized at Amity, as were both of my brothers. But I’ve been conflicted because of issues involving my mother, and today it became clear that I could never allow you to baptize my son. I believe you have failed in your job as minister, and you have failed every opportunity you may have had to change that. I was too young to know what was going on when Dennis J. was murdered over 10 years ago, but I know that’s when this all started. My mom’s relationship with the church has never been the same since then, and that hurts her every single day of her life. I don’t care what you think about Dennis J. and the way he lived his life. I do care that, when he was murdered, his surviving family members were active, faithful members of the Amity congregation, and the man who was supposed to minister to their faith did not do so. My mom has never talked to me directly about this because she never wanted my faith or relationship to the church to be affected by her situation, but I’ve heard her talk to my grandmother and to my mother-in-law, and I know as much as I need to know. Members of your congregation no longer felt welcome because of your actions. People left the church because you shunned them instead of reaching out. You chose divisiveness over healing. You have never acklowledged, let alone apologized, for any of it. That is not what a man of God should do. Over the years, my mom has made numerous attempts to come back to Amity. She has tried going to other churches, but none of them is home to her. But every time she has gone back, when there was an opening for you to attempt to make her feel welcome again, you instead chose to ignore her and hurt her further. I was upset when I overheard my mom talking about how it had been several weeks since the birth of my son, and you still had not congratulated her on becoming a grandmother for the first time. She walks every day when the weather is good, and you walk as well. I remember her telling me about one day she thought you might say something to her when you were returning home just as she was about to walk past your house. But by the time she reached your driveway, you had disappeared from view. You must have known she was there, but you chose to avoid her. It wasn’t until another day when you were out walking and confrontation was unavoidable that you managed to casually ask her how she liked being a grandmother. My son may have been a month old by then. Part of being a minister is sharing in the joys of life and the miracle of birth with the members of your congregation, and yet you could not muster up the congratulations until your only other option was to keep your mouth closed. But that does not hold a candle to the anger I felt when I heard her talking to my mother-in-law today. My uncle, Jim C., is a Deacon. We know that my mother’s biopsy was mentioned at church. My mother may have breast cancer. You knew that. At a time when her heart is aching and she could use the support of someone in your position, you failed to provide any comfort or prayers. When she encountered you on a walk during one of the nicer days last week, after her biopsy was announced, you did not tell her you were praying for her. You did not ask her how she was feeling. You did not offer any words of comfort or say that God has a plan for everything. No. You made a comment about the weather. My mother is worried sick that she may have cancer, something you had been made aware of, and your only words to her were about the weather. I don’t know how you can call yourself a man of God if you think it’s okay to treat people this way. My mother is a good woman. There aren’t very many good people in this world any more, but my mother is one of them. She’s a much better person than I am. Jesus Christ ministered to prostitutes and lepers, and yet you cannot muster an ounce of kindness or compassion for a good woman who misses her church desperately. I want you to know what you’ve done to her. You have wounded her spirit. She often talks about how much she longs to go back to Amity, but how she feels that will never be possible until you are no longer the minister there. You continue to treat her like something less than human, as if she had no feelings. I want you to know that I do not think you are a good man. I want you to look inside yourself and ask why you think it’s okay to call yourself a pastor when you can have such complete disregard for another person’s spirituality. I want you to pray about what you could do to even begin to make this better, even if you can never fully make up for the pain you have caused. I have not told her about this letter, and I do not intend to tell her about it. As I write this letter, I am praying for my mother, who has not yet gotten the results of her biopsy. Have you prayed for her? I hope that she will have the results before this letter reaches you, and I hope that you will pray for her whatever way it turns out. As for my son, I believe I will be having him baptized by Pastor Bruce Cornwell, a man who has not hurt any member of my family. As for my Uncle Jim and my Aunt Judy, who still believe you are a good man because my mom has not wanted to shatter their illusions by burdening them with her reality, I pray for them that they don't have to learn a similar lesson if some unfortunate tragedy should happen to them that you deem too unpleasant to deal with. You may reply to me if you wish, but I am not concerned for myself in this matter. It is my mother that concerns me, and it is up to you to do, or not do, whatever you feel is right. I pray that it is what’s right for my mother. Sincerely, Christina G. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, December 16th, 2005
8:50 pm [androsmiyamoto]	Jesus Christ! I've often wondered, how exactly did the name of the Son of God become an exclamation of the same wavelength as "fuck"? I mean, a person stubs their toe, and you're just as likely to hear "shit!" or "fuck!" as you are to hear "Jesus Christ!". When did that happen? I've been Christian, by the southern Baptist definition, for the better part of six years. I've read about, looked into, talked about alot of differenet religions, seen the similarities, the differences, the stupidity and futility of trying to define the search for meaning in human existance. The first thing I think any one, of any religion should do, is admit to yourself that not everyone is going to see things your way. Free will is a bitch like that, a double edged sword that means everyone gets to choose their own way, and they may not like the way yours sounds. Live with it. Stop preaching like your way is the only way. If God had meant for there to be only one relegion, why didn't everybodyknow about it to begin with? Free will! That's why! We all have to come to Him in our own way, or go away from Him in our own way. We know we'll be judged for our actions, our attitudes, our lives. The best God can do, and should do, is to put the idea out there and lets us decided, each of us ourselves what we want to do with it. Now here is where I'm going to throw people off. Could the tales of Jesus's exploits have been tainted, indeed changed, by stories from the East of Buddha, the man who himself preached many of Christ's teaching many years before? But Buddha didn't claim to be the Son of God, or God, or even an emissary of God. He claimed to be a man, nothing more. He wanted people to follow a path to enlightenment, and never claimed to know the way, just (if my understanding of what I've read is right) claim to be able to help a person learn the way. Adjust Buddha to be talking about God, and throw in some Jewish virtues and history, and you seem to have Jesus. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. I know it doesn't change the idea of Christ. It changes who Christ might have been. Did he actually say some of the things he said (I'll leave the miracles out because I haven't read anything about Buddha curing the sick and blind), or were these things adjusted to fascilitate the spread of the religion? "History is written by the victors." That statement leads me to believe that most of what is in things like the Bible and history books is tainted, prejudiced by those who want to look good and justified in front of their peers and societies. Did many of the things in the Bible happen as they are written? Probably not. Which is one of my main arguements against the Bible itself. Scholars have long been of the opinion that the Bible started as an oral tradition, a story kept by an elder of some kind, and passed from generation to generation until someone finally learned to write. So obviously some of the stories are going to be confused on most if not all details. Some people will say the the beieve the Bible because of faith. To them I say this: "Your faith should be in God, not in the Bible. The words don't matter, as long as you believe." But the Bible is the word of God, one might respond. No, it isn't. It's something a bunch of guys in a room thought up. Something people wrote down to express their faith. What have you done to express yours? When was the last time you helped a person without thought of reward? When was the last time you just looked to the sky and said: "I will not question, for my faith is strong." and just gone about living your life? I have faith. Faith in myself. Faith in my abilities. I won't ask God to help me live the life I've been given. If there is a God, I intend to show the strength of character, the personal fortitude to take respnsibility for my life, my actions. Faith won't change your life. It won't make you run faster, or live longer. God is a question, because if he's near, we'd always be asking for help. But we need to learn on our own what life is and what it isn't. The paths are ours, created by God perhaps, and we have to take it a day at a time. A moment at a time, and have faith in ourselves. That's my rant. Later, folks. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
10:17 pm [androsmiyamoto]	You ever notice how God is written in the bible? all vengeful? Spiteful? Mean like your old man after a bottle of Jack? Because he is! "Boy c'mere! C'mere now! gimme some love! Boy I will slap you so hard, you're gonna feel it 'fore you was born!" God just sitting up on his mountain top. Big asshole. "Worship me! Feed my insatiable ego! I gave you free will, but if you want peace for eternity you will do as I command! Noah, you drunk ass bastard! Build me an Ark! What do you mean 'what's an ark?', just fuckin build it!" Then you've got Satan over in the corner, "Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. But, I'm not gonna force you into anything. Free will and all. No pressure. Go on, serve God. He's a pig-fucker, but you'll find that out." Smoking his cigarette, leaning on a post, like the cool kids in 60's movies. "Worship me if you want, I'm not going to make you." And god? "DO IT OR I'LL FUCKING SPANK YOU! WITH FIRE! AND BRIMSTONE!" Then Jesus came along, the Son of God, talking like Satan. "No big deal, it's all good, all you need is love." And one of the Jews caught that! "wait! God's all fire and bullying! Satan's all nice and smooth! and Jesus is just like Satan!" the rest of the jews heard that and said: "He's not the son of God, he's the Devil! Crucify the bastard!" Judas then said only two words: "aw, shit." (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 20th, 2005
3:25 pm [city_of_dis]	Fun and Games with Desert Nomads ( Fun and Games with Desert Nomads ) Current Mood: bitchy Current Music: Petland - Blame My Robot (Comment on this)
Monday, January 3rd, 2005
9:13 pm [ladyegreen]	Science Must Stand Crossposted from my own journal and dark_christian. Everywhere I turn there are strange folks coming out of the woodworks with even stranger ideas. God gave us the ability to think, to reason, to understand. His chosen people were the tribes of Israel and it was/is their destiny to wrestle with God, if one is inclined to believe such things. Obviously God wanted us to be more then small minded yes men or he wouldn't have designed us the way he did. Yet more and more Americans are dismissing the gifts God has given us. To be quite frank about it as a Christian I believe these others have fallen away from God and can count themselves as part of the corrupted beings that inhabit the lake of fire they like to worry about so much. I'm very serious about this line of thought. It's a rather consuming idea that has taken hold of me and won't let go. I've been taken to task online and in private emails about denying certain individuals as being Christian. The idea has not been shaken loose, on the contrary it is in fact growing. I perfectly respect everyones right to believe and think as they choose. That is not the issue, so most of the emails and tirades have been addressing precisely the wrong thing. There is a difference between respect of belief and validation of said belief. I have had a terrible time letting the validation happen. This most horrific occurance has uprooted some of my base personality, somethings very much taken for granted by myself and most anyone that knows me. Such as my very liberal bend and flexibility when it comes to others and my generally easily given tolerance have all taken major hits. I simply cannot sit idly by, smiling up into the face of thieves and liars. Cannot give my tolerance and acceptance to those who defile my faith and harm others in the name of God. I never knew I had it in me to be hard or perhaps cruel, but apparently I do. I'm quite angry at the state of things, quite angry at these people such as the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, and the Coral Ridge Ministries. And what they are are not doing to help their fellow man. I picked this up from dark_christian and went to look for myself. Only Focus for the Family says anything about the disaster in Asia but it's below them asking for donations to them first. They have the money, time and resources to harass, belittle and actively seek to harm their fellow man in the name of Christ, in the name of families and of morals but their is no room left in their hearts or minds to spare for those who are in need. Not in Asia, not in Africa, not in their own back yard. And yet I am suppose to nod, smile and give them room to claim they are of the same faith, the same genesis as me? I think not. I know not. They may claim they are Christian as much as they like, have at and have on. I still have no more intention of agreeing then I would agree that the world was made of carefully molded velveeta cheese. While they are too busy to actively help others they aren't too busy to attack education, science and sex education in particular. All around the internet stories are popping regarding schools being brought under fire to remove or discredit evolution, in Texas, in Alabama, and here in Georgia where I live. Ray Bradbury wrote a fascinating short story once where the government had decided to elmininate anyone who was too smart, so at a particular age, I believe it was 14, a child had to drink a pink liquid that made him tell the truth so the child could be tested to see if they were too *smart*, if they did they simply never came home again. How frightening that story seems to me now. As much as it tears at my heart, as much as it bothers me, I would rather live in a world bereft of spirituality then to live in a world bereft of free will and thought. You cannot destroy true spirituality yet free will can be crushed from a man, or washed from his mind if the right pressures are applied. A young girl saved quite a few lives in Asia. On holiday with her mother she recognized the signs of a tsunami and told her mother who in turn told the hotel staff. It's worth noting the girl was British, not American. Quick action by Tilly's mother and Thai hotel staff meant Maikhao beach was quickly cleared, just minutes before a huge wave crashed ashore. The beach was one of the few on the Thai island of Phuket where no-one was killed. This is why science must stand, why education must stand, why I cannot and will not validate one more person who utters God's name as an excuse for behaving as a perfect jackass. Had this girl been raised here in America, in a dumbed down state where Creationism has replaced science do you think she would have learned what she needed to know to save her own life and the lives of others? Or would she have been sitting on the shore staring at the unusual waves and the fish flopping on the beach waiting for death to over run her? And if you think she would have known, it's not that bad yet, how much longer do you think it will be before it is that bad? Before you answer that or feel comfortable do you know how many people I know of who firmly believe that condoms do not protect against the AIDS virus because their church told them so? Not, do not believe it's a hundred percent effective, not, believe abstinence might work better but flat out do not believe at all. More then you would be comfortable with, more then I am comfortable with. The atheists, the secular, the agnostics and those of other faiths have all started to rise to stop a flood of ill will and maliciousness. They will not be enough, it has to be US, it has to the Christians themselves who come to turn back the tide. We have to cast out those who have corrupted our faith. We can pray for them, we can try to reason with them, we can invite them to our homes and churches, we can even attempt to win them back to Christ but we must not accept them as being Christian. They are not Christian, some of them may be lost and confused, some may truly believe they are the next best thing to Christ Himself, and of those I hope many come to their senses. But most of these so called Christian Warriors no full well that they do not walk the path of their so called religion. They walk among us, their sins and lies protected by a faith they are corrupting from the inside out, the rot becoming more evident with each and every day. Christians must come to the forefront of the battle because it is in our name that great harm is being done. I will not yield. Ladye (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 27th, 2004
3:00 pm [twilightsun]	Cross-posted from my personal journal We were in the bottled water aisle when my mom looked back to make sure my grandma hadn't caught up to us yet in the grocery store when she said, "I have kind of a strange question for you." "Okay," I said tentatively. "Do you pray?" I conceded that it was kind of a strange question for the grocery store. "Occasionally," I replied. "Then please pray for your brother," she said. And the tears started welling up in her eyes. He and Meghan are staying with them until they go back to Georgia tomorrow. When he got out of the shower yesterday, she saw a mole on his chest. Apparently, it wasn't there three months ago, it's all purplish now and is turning black. My mom is understandably upset, because these things are generally cancerous, and her friend Kathy's mother died because she ignored a mole like that for too long and the cancer had spread by the time she got it taken care of. She doesn't want to say anything to my grandma so that she doesn't freak out, too, until they know for sure what it is. He goes to the doctor on Monday. Meghan's supposed to call my mom as soon as they find out. Please, if you pray, or if you just send some happy thoughts, could you send some in Joe's general direction? He's already got health issues because he's an insulin-dependent diabetic. If it does turn out to be malignant, let it still be early enough that it's not going to be devastating news. Current Mood: worried (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 20th, 2004
2:42 pm [city_of_dis]	The Mote in Thine Eye ( What would Jesus do? ) Current Mood: determined Current Music: Dar Williams - A God Descended (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 5th, 2004
3:54 pm [city_of_dis]	God vs. the Fags ( The Bible is perhaps the most powerful socio-religious weapon in the arsenal of the opposition to homosexuality. ) Current Mood: awake Current Music: Ani DiFranco - God's Country (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 29th, 2004
8:54 am [reulf]	Greetings all. I have been watching for sometime and finally decided to post this. I wrote this in my own journal some months ago and re-reading it now I've realised how poetic and pretentious it is but please bare with me. I have never quite been able to deny my religion. I have always felt strongly spiritual but never been able to name what I believed in. Well last year when I was in China, touring with a choir. we sung at a Catholic church. I remember entering it and, as always in a church, I was over-whelmed by both the beauty and the sacredness of the space. When you are in a place like this, surrounded by people who don't speak your language, with your breath freezing in the air before your face, it is hard to believe that a God does not exist. However, I managed it because at that moment I realised what it was that I was worshipping: people. I was stunned, not by the presence of any God but by the beauty that humans had created and by the universal nature of beauty. This Church was being appreciated, not only by me, but by Chinese peasants, people I seem to have very little in common with. I worship humanity because we are creatures capable of such amazing compassion, thought, intelligence, love and poetry. (I don't mean poetry in the sense of words but in the sense that we can create poetry through our everyday lives.) We are capable of both goodness and inflicting amazing hurt. Has anyone ever held a small bird on their hand and realised how easy it would be to crush it? We have that power. Some use it. Most don't. Isn't that worth praising? We can hold that fragile life, stroke it with tenderness and appreciate it without harming it. Isn't that extra-ordinary? Few other creatures are capable of such a feat! Why worship something that wars against itself, that tortures, rapes, kills and maims itself? Because humanity survives and will continue to do so. Individuals may struggle to destroy it but it lives on in an infinite number of people. That is beautiful. I take strength from such a thought, because at times I feel the weight of it pressing down upon me; all those minds that form this body clamouring to be heard. Let me appreciate it in all it's loveliness now so I can remind me of it when I see it's hideous side; when I sit at the kitchen table and cry over newspaper images of bomb blasts and rape victims being guided from court. Yet still I lie awake at nights and watch men covered in flames which they have lit themselves run before my eyes, beggars dying of cold on the streets of Xi'an and a wealthy man declaring that all we need to do to avoid aids is stop having sex before marriage. Sometimes believing is hard. Avec foi, Fleur Susannah Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: Bjork, 'Big time sensuality' (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 11th, 2004
3:57 am [geminibalance]	Called to serve god, but necessarily as a priest? In a community I belong to, someone posted something about people being called to serve their god and how they choose to do so. I left a comment I thought I'd like to share with all of you. Take a look at what I have to say, and tell me what you think. Do you think I'm very far off? Called to serve . . . (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, June 25th, 2004
5:25 pm [buffaloraven]	First-Timer First time posting hear, hello everyone. ( My Beliefs ) Hope all that was appropriate for a first post Current Mood: anxious (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004
10:58 am [athenaia]	A comment in response to one of sadbluedonkey's in the previous post here. I exceeded the idiotic word-count, so here it shall reside. ( Read more... ) Current Music: Feeder - Turn (5 Comments |Comment on this)
11:32 am [sadbluedonkey]	A Sermon on Tolerance, from the 'other side' Recently I’ve been reading some of the posts on the gaystr8alliance community and I’ve been saddened by a few of the attitudes I have encountered there. This has weighed on my heart to the extent where I tried replying to one of the posts in particular that worried me, but the comment I left remains screened and unread by the majority. That in itself is very saddening to one who actively prays for enlightenment, tolerance and a means to bridge across the divide between Christians and the GLBT community. Lacking any other way to be heard on this issue, I decided to openly air my thoughts in this community, because I believe something needs to be said. The post in question, deals with an upcoming day in the United States that is dedicated to the protection of marriage. A member of the community posted on how she would love to visit the church across the road from where she lives on that day, wearing her gay pride shirt, and get a bunch of her friends together and ‘interrupt.’ While I can truly understand her frustration at the calling of this particular day, I did feel that she had made some fairly broad assumptions about the church across the road, and about Christians in general, and I pointed that out in the aforementioned comment. First of all, the poster has never visited this church before. She knows fact zero about the church or the people who attend it. Has she called them and asked if they plan to even make a big thing of “Protect Marriage Day” ? It didn’t sound like it from the tone of her post. Secondly, the best way to get yourself ejected from a church and to close all opportunity for your concerns and opinions to be heard, is by ‘interrupting’ a service. I understand the issue of gay civil marriage, and I support the right of homosexual couples to be married under civil law, however, I also know that civil law gives Christians, Muslims, Jews, Quakers, Buddhists, Mormons, and any other religious group you care to name, the right to congregate and pursue their religious beliefs in peace. That is a right most of them would defend fairly physically and I wouldn’t blame them for doing so. Creating a riot is only going to further the division, and prove right, in the minds of those who’re already close minded, the idea that homosexuals don’t deserve to be listened to. Open and honest dialogue is what is needed, and a thorough knowledge of the facts is handy before even considering approaching the ‘opposition.’ I live in Australia where thankfully, it seems, the culture is much different. I don’t hear a lot of messages preached against gay marriage in my church and, as far as I am aware, my church is not interested in the whole ‘protect marriage’ thing. One assumption by a lot of people, and not only the homosexual community, that annoys me personally, is the one that says all Christians hate homosexuals and want to deny them their civil right to marry and be recognized as married partners under law. That is very far from what is actually true. I know many Christians who think that civil rights should not be an issue decided by the church. Another assumption turned up in another gaystr8 post which I didn’t bother replying to as I am fairly sure it would not be unscreened either, but I will address it here. That is the assumption that homosexuals are not welcome or wanted in church. Last time I looked everyone was welcome in church. There are many churches in Australia at least which specifically reach out to, and welcome homosexuals. I know it can seem sometimes like the ‘church’ doesn’t want homosexual people in her midst, and that is sad. But to make a broad and sweeping statement that “no church will allow…” is wrong. Just as GBLT people resent being lumped in with paedophiles, rapists and other unsavoury types, so do open minded and loving Christians resent the thought that all Christians and all churches are going to blindly follow along with the rest of the herd and do whatever the ‘church’ dictates. Refresh yourself, and me; next time you’re talking to a Christian ask his or her opinion. You may be surprised! Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: none (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 11th, 2004
2:47 pm [rattrick]	Abortion. "If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life..." Exodus 21:22-23 If two men fight and cause a pregnant woman to miscarry, but the woman is not killed, the man who caused the miscarriage is only condemned to pay up a sum determined by the judges. Only if the woman is killed is the man condemned to death. If the death of a foetus doesn't merit "giving life for life", then doesn't this mean that the foetus doesn't have the same standing before the Law of Moses as people? A good way to fight the Pro-Life Christians using their own tools. Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Pink Floy - Us and Them (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 9th, 2004
11:08 am [bamlver]	An open invitation! Hey everyone! My name's Blair. A friend of mine, Bry (almostfam0us) started up a Christian community a few weeks ago called vegaschristians. So if you read this, whether or not you live in Las Vegas, we would love to have you join! So stop by and check us out. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Air 1 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 8th, 2004
9:11 am [childofsod]	First official posting... I doubt that I actually belong here, although I have been non-denominational for several years now. But I still lean towards being conservative in my religious standpoint. I dont see Christ or G-d as a religion, it is a faith, a friendship and a community. It is non-exclusive, but does have several rules that need to be accepted before any person can join. In my mind it is simple, if someone believes in Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation, the only way to heaven and the only way to the Father (G-d); there is no other way, no alternative and no second chances when you die. For although Christ/G-d are compassionate and want all to get into heaven, they have allowed us free will to choose what we want - and if we choose to reject them so be it. I also believe that the Old Testement is obsolete, for Christ himself said so - he was the replacement to all the laws. Now the New Testement still has some laws, but only rules that would be simple to follow if the person had already taken the first step and accepted Jesus. He tells us to believe in Him and to spread his word, He tells us to love, He tells us to be kind and generous to our fellow man, to be an example. He lists very few 'donts' besides the normal (cheat, steal, lie, etc)... As for homosexuality - My opinion has not yet been decided on that matter...I do not have enough information. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Sacha Sacket - Paris and September (2 Comments |Comment on this)
12:10 pm [mhw]	If you have a little time and energy, I'd like you to do me a favour. A friend of mine's having a big crisis of faith and hassle from his church because of his sexuality. Could you spare a little vibe or a prayer or a candle or whatever you do to ask for a good outcome for him, please? Current Mood: hopeful (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 7th, 2004
10:19 pm [teitha_noriel]	Interesting Prophecy I was just reading a newspaper that I picked up at the Columbus Hempfest, and came across a great quote that I thought was really applicable to what is going on here: "When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the Warriors of the Rainbow." --Native American Prophecy (5 Comments |Comment on this)
10:14 am [androsmiyamoto]	Okay, first post. Here goes. There are too many "what if" questions for faith at all to be an easy thing. The question: "What if God doesn't exist?" To me, the only answer is another question. By the same token, what if He does? Scientifically there is no way to prove it. Or at least, none has been found, and I can't think of any. There hasn't been a Burning Bush in what? 5000 years? I think the last person to claim to be touched by God was burned at the stake (Joan of Arc, 1260? Can't remember the year.). I might be missing a few. My memory isn't perfect. But setting aside the idea of whether or not God exists, which is a philosophical battle I fear no one can win, we must look to the message that He put forth, through His Son, who supposedly died to give us a second chance. Third, if you count the flood. That message can actually be summed up pretty quickly in 1 verse. Luke 6:37. "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: Condemn not, and ye shall not be condenmed: Forgive and ye shall be forgiven." I mean, Jesus was all about love. Maybe he did look too nicely on the 60's... but that's not the point. And the key part of that verse is the last. Forgiveness. Part of it all was "turn the other cheek" and that sort of thing. Well, if everybody was doing that, nobody would need to. And I think that's all for me, for the moment. Peace be with you all, J. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
8:58 am [twilightsun]	Something to consider I grew up within walking distance of a Reformed Presbyterian church. I went to Sunday School until I graduated high school. I became a member of the church. I was married there. But I take immense issue with some horrible things our minister did to the church and the community, most particularly where it pertains to my mother. I've struggled for a while with what I believe. I guess college and enlightened conversations with intelligent people can do that. And i still believe in God. Maybe not as most other Christians believe in God... I believe the Christian God is just one name for the Higher Power that most of the world believes in. I believe each culture based their religions in the terms they could understand best. I don't think that any one faith is necessarioly wrong, though the details may not entirely be correct. So why do I remain Christian? I think I can best explain it by paraphrasing one of the scientists (possibly an archaeologist, possibly some sort of anthropoligist) on a special that aired this past Easter. Something happened two thousand years ago when the man known as Jesus of Nazareth was put to death on the cross. If he died and that was the end of it, Christianity would've never begun. The apostles would've eventually scattered after the loss of their leader; it had already begun. They would've been a handful of dissenters; nothing to spark any sort of revolution. But something happened, something no one could explain. Paul didn't believe until he met Jesus after his death. Why would an unbeliever make something like this up, and then go around telling everyone else? Something happened, and we may never know how or why, but it was, for lack of a better word, miraculous. Does this prove that Jesus was the Son of God? Not necessarily. But he was something special. And that makes him, in my opinion, worth paying attention to. (9 Comments |Comment on this)