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Yes as many have noticed extreme behavior whenever anything approaches exposing sinful practices in her life - that's when the followers hit the road, people are dropped and bum rushed out of HQ, demoted etc I believe the Bible describes this phenomenon as a "conscience seared with a hot iron". Although to fool her followers and throw people off the scent she will label those of us here at Greasespot Cafe with that term who refuse to whitewash over evil.

What a great movie and what a great scene! Thanks for that clip, Rocky ! I am ashamed to say it reminds me of my former life when I thought I had all the answers and would dole them out with the cold clinical efficiency of a Pez dispenser . That scene from Good Will Hunting resonates with me so much more now than when I first saw it - because it’s like the older, more real-world experiences me talking to the younger know-it-all me that lived in my own little idealistic world. I’m fascinated by how Twinky’s posts kind of gives an illustration of how one situation plays out in real life... sometimes there’s things, situations, relationships, etc. you can’t fix, or may not have all the answers to, or maybe you have to seek help from others...but you’re still involved IN it! You’re invested in it...it’s life in the real world... maybe my 2 cents on this thread about who do you love - is this: I love my family and friends - even when it’s tough - even when we’re acting ugly to each other...nobody needs to tell me I should love them or how to love them...it comes naturally...sometimes love is expressed as forgiveness...how my wife and I might express that after an argument or fight is quite simple really - - one of us will say to the other “thanks for putting up with me”.

Humans evolved from non-human animals. These creatures evolved mechanisms for survival. Including instinctive reactions to various situations. A common example is that of snakes. Humans are born with some fear of snakes because their non-human ancestors adapted and evolved to fear snakes. That fear has not be selectively removed from the population. Ancient humans did not understand why this was, modern humans do. It would be logical for ancient humans to use the snake as a symbol of evil, since it felt right and so many others would have agreed that seems to be right. The Bible is a unique collection of writings which are an effort by ancient humans to express the murky truths written in our DNA.

I don't know if you in the US will be able to follow this link but it's a really interesting series of 15 min talks by Neil MacGregor, ex curator of the British Museum, now working in some top museum in Germany. Excellent credentials. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia, from which longer article I learn, to my surprise, that he is a devout Christian. He has run several most interesting series on examining the backgrounds to many artefacts and currently he is looking at Living with the Gods. It's of general interest, not even remotely considering the Bible, but is considering the routines of religions (that's plural), what they might have meant then and now, and similarities and differences. He bases his talk around some artefact that may or may not have (to us) religious significance. The artefact might be a garment, a coin, a shard... I mention this because it might give some insight into how some different religious practices came into existence. How those practices play out in other cultures, religions, time periods. One recently was about sacrifice, starting with Incas, moving through various stages, taking in Christianity, and moving forward. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09c1mhy If that doesn't work, you could try bbc.com (rather than bbc.co.uk).

TLC, God as Father I have a concept of. And that's parochial. God as Patriarch is also too parochial. In fact, it's a figure of speech that is designed to help us understand and develop a relationship with God. It's only a figure of speech. God as HUGE and the creator of the far sides of the universe, the beginner of time, and the ender of Time, and entirely present throughout - that's a very big concept. When you get more of the HUGEness of God, then you understand more of why the person of Jesus came, to personify God. To "limit" God, if you like, so that God is small enough for us to begin to understand. Now, God as the father of LIGHTS - that's much bigger. Lights not being just light, and the sun and moon, and the stars, but the galaxies that are so far away that space telescopes can only just see them. The father of these lights, for example - this astonishing infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope was taken Sept 2016.