mstar1

As Jon Stewart would say, Here it is, your moment of Zen <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C_CDLBTJD4M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have all my fishing spots picked out that few people know about, most of them I can walk to. :) I'd still be more concerned about a bunch of extremists in my town than I would be about a 'what if' disaster scenario, but Im not a city dweller-- I live in a very small town, a good community in the middle of nowhere where everyone knows everyone and is also able to produce a lot of its own food and essentials. The town and county have pretty good disaster response mechanisms already in place that takes alot of variables and scenarios into consideration. Worse case scenario would be if thousands of city dwellers showed up ---that would stress the resources, mostly the hospitals--- but---they'd have to find us first

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That's my feeling and the older I get the less it bothers me.... Its a natural process. If an emergency happens I have an overall view and some resources but Im not going to go into freakout mode spending my few days here obsessing about it. Im curious about the first post about the IHOP "Christian" group that wasnt clear to me... They are preparing to be 'overrun with refugees'. Are they stockpiling food for themselves or to do a christian like thing and feed the hungry?

I dont know about these cult people, but people generally come together and help out where they can during disasters. We've had plenty of them in this country, and although its never easy in an emergency for the most part it brings out the better side in people. Im generally a live and let live kind of guy but am very leery of any group that gets too out of balance or unstable on any issue, or relies on the word of supposed 'prophets'. Todays issue might be preparing for the end of the world, but what will next months be? Shooting homosexuals or abortion doctors? Just my opinion but it doesnt smell good to me

Now thats a license plate

I dont know where it is like where you are, Im surrounded by farms, know where the fresh water is, live in a good community and think I could pretty much make my way if a disaster did occur. Personally Id be more concerned living around a paranoid end times cult than I would be about an earthquake. An earthquake may or may not come, but you have some fearful extremists there already.

---if ever a line was begging for a response no comment from me :)

Thats a very good idea, I know it was mentioned on these pages about 8 or 10 years ago but I dont think anything ever became of it...

Don't the Griffin's live in Quahog?

Im not all that familiar with Rhode Island but I worked in a nice little town last summer called Westerly. Its the western most point in RI right on the Ct border and on the coast, nice beach (Misquamicut) although a little over run by tourists that time of year, good seafood. Its a New Englandy seacoast town. The next town across the border is Mystic Connecticut which is the quintessential cute New England touristy town if you like that sort of thing. There are alot of upscale restaurants in the area but I prefer the old Clam shacks that still dot the area (Westerly/Mystic) along the coastline. As I said I was working so I didnt venture far exploring or looking at things. Newport is supposed to be quite the place, if you are looking for castles I suppose that would be the place although Ive never been there.. If you have a 'few hours' you can pretty much drive around the whole state and of course you could ask Pawtucket who just might know a thing or two.

She was wrong--if he tore you to shreds over some little thing, the correct term, rightly divided and all is he is an a-hole

true enough but we are not talking about the time of the inquisition nor about fundamentalist Islam either. TWI purported to be a christian organization( well maybe Im still unsure about that) but rejected established forms of church polity that offer any forms of checks and balances of power. After 20 centuries, theyve had some experience at developing this! Wierwille coming out of the Reformed Church surely knew about them ( I think that his Reformed church worked in the congregational model) but rejected the system so that he could be autonomous and would answer to no one

They weren't -they didnt have to be. TWI doctrine ( ie -'you are righteous now') left a convenient loophole where leaders were not required to act righteously, they already were, no matter what they did. If they did experience any pangs of guilt, the TWI doctrine of 'forgiveness' was quick, easy, cheap, painless and personal and required no change of character As long as someone 'spoke the word'or read a verse they were considered 'in fellowship', no matter what was going on. In Pulp Fiction, Samuel L Jackson quoted the Old Testament before murdering his victims, its extreme but not that far off.. Quoting the bible isnt the be all end all, or proof of anything, anyone can do it regardless of character

Ive just started singing out of the Sacred Harp 1991 Book. I like it alot but I'd like to hear the others, as the SH tradition as it now exists is very interesting but a little bit stringent. Reading from the 1860 book by White and King it seems that the approach may have been somewhat different at that time than it is now. As interesting as Sacred Harp is I would like to hear them as they were originally intended Regarding the Watts songs many were not arranged for SH until 50 to 100 years after they were written, are there still copies of the original arrangements? or was this left to whatever composer decided to eventually arrange it?

thats the crux of the matter--the final indoctrination. Im not very conversant in the ways of theological seminaries but the ones that I do know of operate along the lines of educating and equipping people who want to serve in some capacity in the body of Christ. It doesnt really matter all that much what denomination or group that they eventually choose, nor is one of their prerequisites "to practice believing to bring material abundance to the seminary" How blatant and vacuous is that???

Yea well they shouldnt-To paraphrase VP you wouldnt want a surgeon who wasnt well schooled doing surgery on you...I wasnt in the WC so I cant really speak to that, but Ive known a lot of WC and a lot of people that have various degrees from accredited theological institutions. They are really two very very different animals altogether. WC was more like a focussed bible study group, or a study of Wierwillism, it didnt give the opportunity to study any varying or expanded viewpoints from the massive body of christian thought readily available anywhere outside the walls of New Knoxville and Emporia

Thomas--Do you know if authors in that period wrote the lyrics and the music or just one or the other? I have been going to Sacred Harp (shape note) sings lately and there are a huge amount of songs attributed to Charles Wesley, as well as other early writers like Isaac Watts and Philip Dodderidge. I have a feeling the music was alterred from the originals to suit the eclectic shape note style of William Billings but I have no real way of knowing.

That was another huge error in the setup, the top dog was a rock star celebrity not a servant or minister. Great for anyone who wanted to have their ego stroked.. All this crap about The "MOG" makes me sick now

Its odd that they give a degree in theology when they dont even touch the subject--Of course they were never accredited by anyone either so i suppose they could have granted degrees in enlightened understanding or anything that tickled their fancy and gotten away with it since they had no oversight. After seeing this thread I called a friend with a M.Div. degree from Andover Newton. They were exposed to every conceivable train of christian thought(liberation theology, conservative theology, feminist theology etc, the church fathers, church history, the mystics, world religions etc etc)-- and allowed to listen to their own conscious and make up their own mind. There was also a strong emphasis on ethics and practical ministry ( she did a year in a hospital and another year as an associate pastor)as well as the expected bible classes, classes in greek and hebrew, pastoral counseling, spiritual development, christian education etc etc. and other electives Ive forgotten half of the classes she took but they were very well rounded and not the words of one man. She's the director of the homeless shelter here in town and does a very good job.

None of us had a say in anything even though we were supporters and for all intents and purposes 'members'. Never mind us lowly twiggites, there were no representaives, counsel of elders--nothing --to aid, define and protect the direction of 'the ministry'despite all the BS about the 'one body' where everyone is supposedly equal. There was no method or avenue to confront, question or discipline the top dog. As I said above IMO Wierwille had enough and walked away from the church so he could do his own thing with invulnerability. Even If someone were perfect that setup couldnt last forever, it leaves way way too much room for any heinous thing to happen and by default negates any potential valuable contribution that could come from the rest of 'the body'

TWI was bound to fail no matter who was at the presidential helm because it had no system of checks and balances.It did not work together as a 'body', nor did it honor that God could possibly work in anyone outside of the president. It had near all power vested in one man. That setup was VP's doing. It was set up much more like a third world dictatorship than a body of christians with common goals. LCM or Wierwille for that matter, could have been confronted, maybe even restored if had been set up properly but VP had enough of that in the church and set up his own regime to make himself darn near invulnerable and unquestionable--It was pretty much doomed from the gitgo when time tested working traditions of church governance were all trashed.

well---its STILL snowing here.. BUT ..the Sox looked good all the way around drubbing the Astros in the final exhibition game last night 10-0---heck we even had the first 'guy falling out of the stands' moment... to me a perfect note on which to end spring training, and let us know that baseball and all of its joyful idiosyncracies and surprises are finally back :P <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PzcQp2A-P9s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Contrary to what they'll tell you there is alot more going on in the world than the way international. We can listen to James Cotton and dont even have to burn the records anymore round here <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jBeuco0PgJs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Are you saying he didnt read it in the original?