johniam

Eyes: When Jean said they were 'victims' she was referring to them saying they were being "bullied and stalked".

quote: A victim with poor grammatical skills THANK you very much IMO you are correct. You can indeed get your point across no matter how you spell. A few years ago Abigail posted to me that my posts would be easier to read if I would use paragraphs better...and she was right. I was relatively new to the internet and spent the first year or more saying to myself, "Duh, WOW! I'm on the INTERNET! That's ME on that post! Duhhhh, GOLLY!"...kinda like that. As such, I was oblivious to certain aids and amenities concerning written communication. My opinions are whatever they are, then as now, but (bottom line) I DO feel that using paragraphs better has made me an even MORE effective communicator. I think if you were more diligent to spell and punctuate better then you, too, would do an even BETTER job of expressing your pov. REdiculous??? Now THAT is annoying. I'm sure I'll get desensitized eventually, but as I said, you can indeed get your pov across with or without a spell checker.

quote: I know I should never do this. Why shouldn't you? You have too many rules. John what the F why do have to insult posters? Why is it about you? Well, from where I look, the scene plays out like this... 1) somebody posts something I strongly disagree with 2) I post my disagreement 3) the poster I disagree with takes my post personally and off we go Disagreeing is an option at GSC. It's OK. For you as well as myself. Recently on the open forum I posted my opinion/speculation on a thread and someone came back with "you have a lot to say for someone who doesn't know what he's talking about". That's insulting, right? I responded but not angrily. Dude's got a right to his opinion. That was what I was leading to in my post where I recalled going to the Jefferson memorial earlier this week. I wish I could remember it verbatim, but TJ was adamant that both sides of any discussion about religion should be freely allowed. I think Rascal and Bramble and others don't want to allow any free discussion which disagrees with their 'gospel'. Sure, I can be insulting, but so can they. A year or so ago, one of the mods in a PM said that there's 2 ways to deal with adversarial posters: 1) complain to the mods, and 2) break out the brass knuckles (deal directly with that poster). I've never once complained to the mods about any other poster. I think their lives are easier if we can police ourselves. Let me give u a clue it"s not and no one has to address any of your post. I've never thought it was about me. If I really felt it was all about me I would "take my ball and go home"...just abandon this place. But Templelady painted this rose colored, little-house-on-the-prairie ish picture of how virtuous it would be if Jean and I would stop our "self destructive ways" and basically agree with everybody else and that this would get us all the attention we could possibly want. I couldn't resist making fun of that one. In a different day that I lived I would just would of said kiss my grits. Again, you have too many rules; if kiss my grits is how you really feel, then you have every right to act on that. Today I think I will pray the scales come off your eyes and God can help clean your heart. Just curious, who is God going to help?

I would like some feedback on what I said in post #62 but because of you guys and your soap opera crap I guess it's not going to happen. By the way, Bramble, disagreeing does not equal stalking. If you think it does, the dictionary disagrees with you and the moderators also disagree with you.

quote: What convinced me that evolution is more than 'just a theory' (ie., a word that many people mistake for just 'guesswork'), is how its a lot more compatible with biological, natural, astronomical, and other laws and sciences; plus the explanations given by the evolutionary biologists just flow a lot smoother and more logically than the biblical account. LCM, for all his AOS talk about how you can't kill devil spirits, spent the last 6 years of his presidency trying to do just that: he had his doctrine of harassing evil, unproductive evil, destructive evil. He had corps go through your house looking in your underwear drawers for 'objects of evil'. He had people account for every 15 minute segment of their day. I can't help comparing that with Esther. The devil was working through a man who wanted to exterminate all Jews. The man God was working through, Mordecai, told Esther to talk to the king NOW. He didn't tell her to clean up her living area and all this other nonsense to keep devil spirits out of her life; he told her to deal directly with the people who could make a difference. She obeyed him; game over. LCM was trying to build a wall and keep the enemy out rather than live in freedom like a spirit filled believer is supposed to per TWI. You're no different than LCM, Garth. For one thing, there is no evolutionary "bible". At least creationists have the guts to say "this is from God, that's why it's right!" Luke talks about having perfect understanding of all things from the very first. Creationists have the Creator backing them up. All evolutionists have is their egos. No holy men of God, no thus sayeth the Lord, just so called educated, so called professional, so called scientists with their ego driven opinions 10 % synchronized. Sounds like a LOT of guesswork to me. Garth you have as much venom and hostility toward creationists as LCM had for those who "might" have devil spirits. I challenge you to give me even ONE example of evolutionary "doctrine" being more compatible than the "biblical account". By the way, which "holy man of evolution" wrote it? Darwin? John Lennon? Let me see just how scientific minded you really are.

quote: don't think you need faith of any sort to consider the creationist viewpoint. I think you need a TON of faith to consider the evolutionist pov. You weren't there, no concrete proof, you can clearly see that many things exist that man did NOT make that have clearly intelligent design (the human body, trees, the earth itself, ad infinitum) yet you blindly close your eyes and arrogantly say la la la la at even the slightest challenge to your evolutionary faith. Sound familiar?

I don't think 20mph over the limit should be an automatic felony, but 127 in a 35 zone? He should lose his license for 20 years. As for the state taking over ownership of the car: consider that the state can take immediate possession of any house that drugs are sold out of. Back in '89 2 Pistons tickets to the NBA finals were auctioned off by the state after the tickets were confiscated from a drug dealer whose house was searched. But taking THAT guy's car after he did THAT with it doesn't bother me. I can see that down the road some govt employee might be tempted to tweak that law for his/her own personal gain though.

Interestingly, Tex Watson, the Manson family member who actually killed Sharon Tate and others, also claims he didn't remember killing anybody.

quote: A really sad situation, because they never realize that if they stopped their self destructive behavior and actually engaged others in meaningful conversation, with the give and take involved, they would become a valued member of any discussion no matter their position and thereby gain all the attention they could want. Nice sermon, TL. But you contradicted your own point. My last post (#62) addressed the very first post on this thread without mention of any poster's names. Did it get your attention? Apparently not.

JJ said... quote: But right now, it appears that God has established me in this ministry. Gee, maybe if VP had said that instead of snow on the gas pumps then none of us would be here.

quote: Ok I originally got that I've been extremely brainwashed and can't I think for myself? But when I changed ONE answer, count them ONE... I got that I have only been minorly brainwashed. The question I chaned was the TV one. Do you watch TV? I originally had, "Heck ya I do!" then I changed it to "yes." Go figure! Back in TWI I would always refute the anti cult spiel by saying that the biggest cults in the world were ABC, NBC, AND CBS; they had more people and did a better job of brainwashing. Thank God for cable.

quote: I notice that x-Catholics don't have a site where they go frequently to talk about the old days in the Catholic church. Or the x- Methodists don't get together to talk about the good and the bad times of their former lives as Methodists. Or the x-Presbyterians, imagine them getting online to find other former Presbyterians to discuss how their world has changed since they left the Presbyterian church. What about those x-Baptists, do they meet and party with other former Baptists? I used to be a Calvinist, but I don't go online and try to bond with former Calvinists. What draws me back here again and again? Have we really left if our thoughts are tied up with our old group? Something occurs to me. When in TWI, we all KNEW what we believed. Not necessarily so those other groups. Back in the late 70s I would hear people selling TWI by saying, "If you ask 10 way believers any specific question about faith and practice, all 10 would say the same thing, but if you asked 10 people from a Christian denomination the same question, then you might get 10 different answers". The flip side is that 10 robots can't be wrong, but that's a different can of worms. Perhaps the people who are ex Catholic, ex Baptist, etc. have just as much to get off their chests and out of their systems as we do, but because those groups are so much larger than TWI, there isn't as much common ground to focus on as there is in TWI. For us, EVERYBODY sat through pfal, EVERYBODY at one time or another had corps leadership, EVERYBODY went to at least 1 ROA, and on down the line. Did these other groups have things that EVERYBODY did? If not, would that make it more difficult to organize ex followers? Websites or no, I'm guessing that ex Catholics, Baptists, whatever have done what many of us have done: either abandoned Christianity altogether, or moved on to another group.

quote: Gosh, I might have gone on to college to further my education but was told that THAT was *worldly knowledge*...that *God needed me on the front lines spiritually* that *I needed the spiritual education that I could recieve on the wow field and in the way corpes more than I needed worldly wisdom*. I guess they were wrong, and education IS an important thing.....sigh just one more thing I missed out on when trying to follow God`s orders per twi`s instruction. Spelling and grammatical errors do not prevent me from having a point of view or expressing it. Hmm. No errors in this post. BTW the puntuation errors Jean referred to are generally learned in elementary school, not college.

quote: John you completely mischaracterized my point in attempt to belittle my statement. You are a big boy and I am certain, capable of legitimately making your own comments without lying about someone elses pov. It is rediculous to think that you understand why myself or anybody else returns here or even more silly, what is healthy or acceptible for anybody else. Please try to answere for yourself, as that is the only one who`s perspective and motive you are qualified to comment on. DEAREST Rascal: This response reveals that you have allowed me to get inside your head...BIG TIME! Your choice, not mine. The reason I didn't respond to this sooner is that Jean and I and the kids have been vacationing in Washington DC for the past week. We stayed in an Extended Stay motel. They didn't have a computer room; just outlets for laptops, which we do not have. So this is the first time I've been on GSC since that post. Jean told me that you tried to rip me a new one. She was just sticking up for me. As for that stuff about stalking and bullies; that's crap. You guys are just as abbrasive with us as we are with you. As for Jean's remark being not nice, I'll let her answer for herself. Actually, Rascal, you way over reacted to my post. The night I posted that I was in a silly mood. I posted on 2 other threads in a similar tone. Can't remember yet where they are, but I was trying to be funny more than anything else. Five years or so ago I was having this conversation with a female believer (not Jean) and she was saying stuff about the differences between men and women. She said, IHO, that men like to just resolve a conflict and move on and not talk about it anymore, but women like to analyze it, as you say, one layer at a time. Women, IHO, don't want to resolve the conflict, they want to just keep talking about it and that's how they get their closure. That was the gist of what she said. It was then that I came up with the phrase 'see the pain, be the pain' as a summation of her statements. She wasn't offended at all. She thought it was funny. Perhaps you take yourself(s) too seriously. The last place we saw in DC was the Jefferson memorial. Neat place. 20 ft tall statue of TJ surrounded by 4 clips from stuff he said. One of them emphasized the free expression of religion, both pro and con. That's GSC to me. One poster thinks TJ didn't even believe in God. Not true if those quotes in his memorial are accurate. One final thought. There's a song by Cream that says "happiness is something that just cannot be bought". Don't know about that, but the Dec of Independence says happyness can be pursued, and that this is a good thing. By sheer logic, then so can misery. Rascal, I think you and some of your friends may well be deeply engrossed in the pursuit of misery. Why?

quote: Imagine, maybe there is more to our healing than just moving on. Maybe there are layers, levels that need to be examined each one at a time, only to be seen and presented as the previous layer has been examined and addressed. See the pain; be the pain. IMO pain is OK as long as it's used in moderation.

Hmm. Mine said I was minorly brainwashed. Maybe I should go to twi and ask for my money back.

quote: Yes, Tales from Topographic Oceans. Saw them do sides 1 and 4 once. Hey if you like prog rock in general check out a band called Spock's Beard if you haven't.

Northern. Weird thing is, the thickest southern accent I ever heard was in Terre Haute, IN.

I bet it would have REALLY made the judge mad if he'd said "Don't bother me".

Another interesting point is that the phrase 'born again' can be translated 'born from above'. So are we also 'from above' once we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead? Just a thought. Well, ladies and gentlemen; we're going on vacation. See you in a week. Have interesting discussions, and I'll catch up when we get back. Oops, I forgot AGAIN. This is Jean, not John, but I guess it doesn't matter since we're both going.

I spent an hour or so on youtube looking at Monkees videos. The song I wanted to hear was "the door into summer" but they had so much stuff that was good to hear again. I think they were the prehistoric American Idol experiment. They, like the idol contestants, were chosen for their vocal ability and they had good songwriters. But I've had several of their songs in and out of my mind as a result of spending an hour on youtube.

quote: It's an off day--- I stumbled on THIS a few minutes ago which may be the funniest Wikipedia article I have ever read Ive never heard Harrelson announce , but I have to give the writer some credit for humorous delivery Tragically, I've heard him announce. Well, I didn't find him all that annoying. I remember him when he was with Boston. Once at Tiger stadium somebody threw a fire cracker on the field which exploded near him. He got POd and hit a home run. When I heard him announce he recalled trying to use a corked bat. He said Bill Freehan caught him. He hit a home run and Freehan said, "You're strong, but not THAT strong!" He wasn't mad; he just had respect for Freehan's leadership, sounded like.

'Is this just a stricter set of rules to follow? Or is there something more?' I would say there is something more than a stricter set of rules. Jesus also taught that the Pharisees gave tithes 'of mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment, and the love of God; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.' Luke 12:39-44. In the category of looking on a woman with lust, my husband (who is a window cleaner and has several accounts with 'Hooters' and other strip clubs) occasionally finds himself in the company of various attractive women with varying degrees of clothing on in the course of his job. This has always posed an interesting dilemna for him, because some of these women seem to take it as a personal insult if a man doesn't turn his head and at least give them more than a passing glance, (some women are insulted if the reverse happens and a man stares, also), so he has developed a philosophy of 'nothing below the neck', which seems to work most of the time. I agree with you last paragraph, except for the statement about not learning it in TWI. Some of us were taught that in TWI, although the teachers of that were few and far between. Oops, I forgot to log on AGAIN. One more time this is Jean, not John.

The Robins are still in the STL area. Saw them about a year ago at someone's memorial service.

quote: It might interest you to know that even VP referred to Jesus as being God in the PFAL class. I suspect most didn't catch it though. I caught it, but I dispute it. If I recall, there's one segment that ends with VP loudly saying, "...and Christ is GOD'S, so you belong to God!" He didn't say Christ is God, he said Christ is God's, which matches the very last verse of 1 Cor. 3. Compare these 2 sentences: Christ is God, so you belong to God. Christ is God's, so you belong to God. You could speak each sentence and they'd sound like the same sentence, but they're not. VP obviously believed Jesus isn't God, so it had to be the 2nd sentence. For the record, the word 'absent' is a PHYSICAL term. If you miss school you are absent. This means you are not PHYSICALLY present; it doesn't mean that you don't exist. Christ is the head SPIRITUALLY. Not physically.God's people have met millions of times all over the world since the day of Pentecost, but Jesus wasn't there PHYSICALLY. Therefore he is/was absent. Like VP said, there's no problem here unless readers want to make one.