Comments on: CDW Gets Committed!

By: Beebs

Beebs — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:08:04 +0000

Yeah. Um, Colin? Give it a rest? I don’t know about Rechelle, but some of you who seem to have set up residency here are kinda scarin’ me! And I skip reading your posts, btw.

Rechelle, I just posted on your other thread about hurting feelings and then just now read the post from your mom. (I’m assuming it’s real.) I hope you had a great trip with her.

Just SAVE your outfit from this trip – and in 10 years wear it to NYC again and you’ll be golden.

By: DirtyKSmama - Nikki

DirtyKSmama - Nikki — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:04:10 +0000

Took a few days off from reading here (try it people – there’s a whole, beautiful world out there,) and have to say, I think Colin’s writing on here more than Rechelle. Huh?

Not EVERY comment needs a critique or counterpoint. Even Rechelle’s mom and dad can’t have their say without people reading too much into it? Sheesh people, a little respect, for everyone, whether you agree with them or not. There’s a difference between healthy, respectful debate, and just being a bunch of venomous trolls, which doesn’t help promote anyone’s point of view.

By: Ted Powell

Ted Powell — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:14:30 +0000

Minutes after posting it, I encountered this hound of Earth (link), appealing to his/her god.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:54:53 +0000

Thank you for that Ted.

By: Ted Powell

Ted Powell — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:34:49 +0000

ann wrote: ... what would you do? Would you cahse them around and hound them.

Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907) answered in the affirmative in his poem The Hound of Heaven (link). It begins:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter;
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

The introduction to it in The Neumann Press Book of Verse, 1988 included this:

As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and imperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit.

The word hound in the cited comment immediately reminded me of the poem; it was on my parents' bookshelf as I was growing up, a hand-lettered copy made by my mother.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:40:12 +0000

Forgot to add: free will is limited. Among other things, it is limited by our knowledge. As it is limited, it isn’t free. Whilst we can increase our knowledge, thus making choice broader, we can never know all so will not have completely free will. (never mind the way biology limits free will….)
As much as religionists try to make it black and white, it isn’t to anyone who thinks. There are no certainties. Thus compassion is a must.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:51:47 +0000

Ann-your concept of God is very close to my own when I wonder if there is one. However, I don’t believe in the bible as anything other than a book and the Jesus story does not make sense at all to me. To every xtian I ever read of came across, that means I’d had it.
Your description of Hell is one I have thought of too. I know what real pain-you-think-will-kill feels like and I have thought that those who caused me that pain would feel it too when the time comes for them to understand what they did. HOWEVER, if this God exists, I do not at all believe that the way back to God is ever barred. Not ever. Otherwise love is conditional and and that is an oxymoron. I have no doubt at all that consciousness survives physical death nor do I doubt such consciousness lit my way to healing. I just do not believe in religion of any kind and I have no evidence of a single, personal, God that must be placated and that I must make myself acceptable to. I believe this idea is the root of much of the evil in this world and the cause of much of the suffering. Re the Jesus story-many many many people suffered far far far worse fates than he so I really get annoyed and am non-plussed when people hold him up as an example of suffering.

By: Ted Powell

Ted Powell — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:02:55 +0000

ann wrote: [presumably with reference to "Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo."] Also, to Ted, Constantine said that, not Augustine.

If you go to http://www.stoa.org/hippo/text8.html#TB8C7S17 you should find Confessions 8.7.17 at the top of the page. The text at issue appears roughly two-thirds of the way through 8.7.17.

I did some searching for support of your statement that Constantine (also) said that, but came up empty. Could you please cite your source?

By: ann

ann — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:38:32 +0000

Colin, I never said God abandoned people, but God doesn’t force himself on anyone. He gave us free will. We leave God, he doesn’t leave us. If people don’t want to be with God, what should God do? I am not being flippant, I am asking a serious question. If you loved someone and told them that, but they told you they didn’t love you back, didn’t want to be with you, what would you do? Would you cahse them around and hound them. I don’t understand and am trying to understand your point of view.I am sorry if I come across as harsh. I have struggled for years with my faith so I know believing isn’t easy, but faith is not easy. I decided that I believe there is a higher being out there and I believe it is God and I believe he loves me and cares about me and I believe he loves and cares about everyone. I was never a fundamentalist, so I never suffered with a cruel God the way you seem to have. Fundamentalism is a warped view of Christ. I live in the south, so I know it exist, however I choose to look at the life of Christ and believe, from the way he lived, that he loves me. I don’t listen to people who warp God into a cruel, abusive being.
Also, to Ted, Constantine said that, not Augustine. Augustine wrote over 300 books, letters, sermons etc. To whittle his writings down and say he is sexist and hates women is a vast overstatement. Confessions is a beautiful love letter to God. I read it and found nothing sexist in it. Rechelle, yes, there is wailing in hell. But it is not God who is punishing us, it is ourseves. Have you ever done something you regretted and cried about it for hours and hours and hours because you realized you were to blame, no one else, and there was a horrible feeling of regret? I believe that will be the wailing that will be heard in hell. We punish ourselves with our behavior, God doesn’t need to do it for us. This isn’t some new invention of religion. I believe God wants people to be with him and I believe people spend inordinate amounts of time obsessing about Hell instead of thinking about heaven. I am thinking you have never read anything by Henri Nouwen. If anyone out there doubts the kind of love God has for us, please read The Return of the Prodigal Son. What do you have to lose?

By: Twin-Skies

Twin-Skies — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:32:32 +0000

Stephanie C.

Assuming that’s Stephanie’s mom at least.

By: Priss

Priss — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:01:51 +0000

I mentioned this before to Cheyenne, but to others who haven’t seen their posts coming through like Stephanie…it probably isn’t Rechelle directly monitoring them and choosing not to let them show up. She said there are certain words that if they are in a comment will make that comment go into her spam folder. She has control over which words are flagged for spam, but it doesn’t mean she’s reading those posts and choosing not to publish them on here. I had two posts that were not at all offensive not go through a week or so ago. I felt bad and wondered why in the world Rechelle would object to them. I figured out later after I read her comment about the spam folder that it was an automatic thing and that my comments just had a word that made them register as spam. Anyway, don’t assume that Rechelle is singling you out and rejecting your comments. Since we can all see a number of posts that are not at all supportive of her being published, I think we can assume she is not weeding out all the negative ones.

By: Stephanie C.

Stephanie C. — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:56:10 +0000

Sorry Alex, so much back and forth going on, can’t keep everyone straight. I do apologize though, my bad.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:00:22 +0000

(Stephanie, I think you’re mistaking me for another commentator, I didn’t accuse you of anything.)

By: Stephanie C.

Stephanie C. — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:07:31 +0000

Alex,
Rechelle can delete any comment she wants and post the ones she wants – this is her blog, she has complete control. I have posted some very supportive ones that were never published, it is her choosing. So, only reading the one that was published that criticized bringing her mom into this is not fair to generalize that I am critical of her or not showing love. Your perception has been manipulated to make it look that way, hmmm.

When it comes to a mom and daughter relationship, something I take very serious, it breaks my heart to see this happening. I am a mom and a daughter and it breaks my heart to see this not only happening but happening for everyone to see and tell what they think.

Oh, look, I got caught up in the bickering. UGH. Gotta leave now, bad jou jou.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:35:10 +0000

Unlike the more vocal members of my family, I was never actually religious or politically conservative, so I had practice being different, and my family had practice making me feel ridiculous for it.

I’m also not an atheist, or a democrat for that matter, I’m just me without any religious or political affiliation, and that just drove them bananas for a while- they wanted something to call me, to label me, so that they could easily explain the anomaly in the context of their understanding of the world. Calling someone a Gosh Darn Independent Voter just doesn’t have the satisfying sting of Bleeding Heart Liberal, Satan Worshipper or even Smelly Hippy. I took all the fun out of their being able to be superior to people unlike them, so eventually they just decided that I’m dumb, irrational, and over-emotional. I just roll my eyes…

In my experience, the only thing that would have improved my relationships with the religious folk in my family would have been being born without a need to rationally understand and accept the beliefs I stand for. So to keep the peace, I learned to keep my mouth shut. Unfortunately, that means I have to forgo 95% of the conversation my family loves best, so they added surly and uncommunicative to my list of flaws.