waysider

Is this the part where the DJ cues Steely Dan playing "I'm A Fool To Do Your Dirty Work."?

It's like being "a little bit" pregnant. You're either pregnant or you're not. It's either moral to punish someone for not being a virgin or it's not.

We're not talking about the scribes and pharisees application of the law, we're talking about the law, itself, and the morality of its author.

Roy I'm not trained in dealing with the sort of difficulties that vex you. I wouldn't know where to even begin. There are people, though, who do have the training and expertise to help you navigate your way through this difficult journey we call "life". The only advise I can offer is to seek them out and allow them to help you. For what it's worth, I've enjoyed the many times we've talked back and forth on this board and I hope there will be many more times in the future. I hope you know you can PM me anytime you need or want to. I don't have many answers but I'm a pretty good listener. Stay tough. Planet Earth needs your holy hugs. waysider

Huh? What in the world does any of this have to do with the subject at hand?

Maybe if we all just spoke in tongues a little more and got our believing up, the eyes of our spiritual understanding would be opened. I'm just sayin'.

You don't employ an oxen or a draft horse in the same sense as you employ a human, you own it. What we're talking about here is, in essence, the concept of conscription (forced labor), putting humans in the same realm as work animals not negotiated contract employment (ebeddery). According to scripture, Yahweh approved of conscription. Please refer to the following scriptures for an expanded understanding of Biblical conscription: 1 Kings 9:21, Judges 1:28, Judges 1:35, 2 Chronicles 8:8. Do you or do you not approve of conscripted labor? edit: For the sake of clarity, let's leave the U.S. military draft out of the discussion. Agreed? re-edit: sentence structure.

"But mind you, according to scripture it should be happening right now." ...and that scripture would be Malachi 3:6 (I am the Lord, I change not.)

"I wish you could see it in the original. It's just....so-so."

You won't find on the jukebox.

While some of this may address the function of slavery in ancient times, I fail to see how it portrays Yahweh in a moral light.

"My belief is that morality does not come from our religion, but that some of our religion comes from our morality." This. It explains a lot about worldwide current events.

It frees you to consider Yahweh as a metaphorical concept rather than a divine entity. It's much less taboo to question a concept than to question the divine. Therefore, we can question whether a concept that was once accepted as moral is still moral by today's standards. It's not questioning God, it's questioning the conceptual morality of societal standards. You can't do that if everything has to "fit and have a purpose", etc.

I think once you accept that the Bible is not all God inspired, doesn't fit like a hand in a glove and doesn't necessarily depict historical events in an accurate manner, it all becomes easier to understand.

Thinking about it a bit more, it occurs to me that the likeminded exercises, such as retemory cards, may have increased our sense of commitment by way of self induced reinforcement.

"see things the way we see it." Yes, that's a luxury that came at a price in The Way. All that "likeminded" talk was counterproductive to independent thinking and honest enquiry.

I never criticized Allan, I said I disagreed with his assessment. That's why I included "in my opinion". I also disagreed with the comparison being made to the brook incident because it's incongruous. The region of the brook was known to be fertile and plentiful with water in season and dry in the off season. That's a whole different scenario than what was experienced by many in The Way. It's not a valid comparison.

Rabbi drowns iphone to eliminate spiritual dangers: http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/129891/top-rabbi-drowns-iphone

And that's fine. We all see life through a slightly different lens than the next person..

Except that, in my opinion, The Way was never the best place for anyone. It was a cult, built on plagiarized works and the ego of VPW. It was already "dried up" when we got there.

......or to escape becoming a grease spot by midnight.

I think I was the one who challenged the premise. I apologize. It just seemed rather pointless to me that God would get you into something, only to have to get you back out. You know, all that stuff about foreknowledge and whatnot. Seems like a better plan could have been found that didn't include all the unnecessary nonsense. Anyway, if it's stories you want, I'll try to put mine together. I don't get as much computer time as I used to so it might be a while.

Why would God get you into something and then get you out of it?

"A cult is a religion whose founder is still alive." The last time I checked, L.Ron Hubbard was still dead.

I cringe when people use "cult" and "obsession" interchangeably. Take, for example, Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's not a cult film, it's a film that caters to an obsessive social experience. Those are two totally different things.