Trefor Heywood

Apparently Rabbis do not "whip off" anything like as much skin as is commonly done by doctors. Have you heard about the guy who applied to be a Rabbi? He was told that the pay was awful but that the tips were good! ;)--> These days it is a barbarically pointless ritual, physical abuse of infants who have no say in the matter, one of those "cultural traditions" which fortunately are now being heavily questioned, even in the USA. It should be left for adults to decide, after all it's their body, not their parents or anybody else's. The foreskin is far from being "a useless piece of skin." It contains one third of the total skin area of the penis, is a unigue type of tissue not found anywhere else on the human body and contains many sensitive nerve endings. It provides protection from infection during the early years of life also. Circumcision was declared to be redundant 2000 years ago, that people still defend it in the twenty first century is to me incredulous. I thank God I was born in a more enlightened age and country...

The speed at which everything happened was pretty far fetched and poor old NYC gets it in the neck yet again. I thought the fuinniest scene was all the americans fleeing across the Rio Grande and being refused entrance at the borders. I get the Mexicans thought that the best scene too! :D-->

Just as well that VPW wasn't buried at sea Uncle Hairy! :D-->

We were told that every Way believer had been prayerfully considered - doesn't say much for prayer if that was the truth!

Nobody has yet mentioned potential diabetes. I used to get episodes like this before I was diagnosed. Yes, please see a doctor.

You might give your tithing in envelopes to the local church leadership and outside of any formal collection templelady but the tithe is still preached and drummed into you time and again and the amount you give is noted as you have to complete a form to go in the envelope. So it's hardly anonymous and can be used as a gauge of honesty in temple recommend interviews. Nor are detailed accounts published for all to see where the money is going.

God may not need us but a lot of his so-called "servants" do to bolster their egos and their incomes.

How do you define "spoiled"? I will no longer call the Bible THE Word of God in the sense that TWI taught it, nor do I believe it is unerringly accurate, nor will I submit myself ever again to any man who wants spiritual authority over me, nor will I automatically give money to those who claim to be the only ones who should be receiving it. TWI and other groups have probably queered the pitch.

I don't give TWI mush room in my affections these days :D-->

Galen: Thanks for the explanation of "naval necessities" - no doubt there are indeed occasions that require thought and preparation based upon experience. But for the rest of us such a situation is unlikely to arise (no pun intended). To the question of support - it is a matter of personal preference and for me at least boxers don't cut it - if I want to droop then why bother wearing anything at all? :D--> The other point I made regarding escape still stands - unless there is a button holding the fly closed... Interestingly regarding Mormon male underwear - it is regulation white for all members of the Church who have been through the Temple but is allowed to be khaki for members of the military.

No self-respecting english cat would adopt such headgear. Nine out of ten cat owners (who expressed a preference" said that their cat preferred Whiskas. Clearly the lime flavoured lesser brand was not a success.

Be fair! At least Amway products have a demonstrable use! :D-->

Boxers are merely decorative and have no visible means of support. They cannot even prevent a "breakout"...

I use both Opera and Firefox and keepm IE for things like MSN email and upgrades only. Firefox doesn't seem to like loading some java chat programs at time though so it's more of a backup to Opera than anything else. Both are good at handling popups but as I also have a firewall I don't know if this does more than the browsers do.

I first remember seeing him in Mutiny on the Bounty and think of the three Fletcher Christian's that his was the best portrayal. For me his other great role was Jor-El in Superman. Another great actor bites the dust.

Some men wear thongs too. Not that I am keen on them myself.

Here in the UK the distance between seat and puddle is approx 9". No splash probs to report and I wonder if Galen is boasting?

In Episcopalian and Catholic churches defrocking removes the right to exercise priestly functions. Their sacramental theology believes that Ordination is a sacrament which confers a permanent character upon the person ordained and that this cannot be removed. If such a defrocked priest continues to exercise priestly functions such as the eucharist the sacrament itself is valid but the action is completely illicit. As TWI doesn't view ordination as a sacrament I guess that they cease to view the ordained person as clergy when they leave TWI or are kicked out of it.

I studied New Testament (Koine) Greek as part of my theology decree. So was able to check greek words in my Greek New Testament but I never studied Hebrew. I was therefore aware that translation was not always an exact science and therefore went along with TWIs take in the translations that seemed to make things fit. But I was also aware of variant readings on the same passages in some of the extant Greek texts - deciding which should be the preferred reading was a different ballgame. and could radically alter the meaning. For example there are texts which refer to Jesus as theos (god) instead of huios (son). There are also passages, such as that regarding the woman taken in adultery, which are missing from some of the earliest texts completely and others which VP dismissed as "scratch it out, does not fit." I wrote him once and asked him about the textual criticism issue. He replied that he did not know the answer to my question apart from it demonstrated an orientalism or Jesus' love for people. I realised that he was engaging in a pick and choose system and that the perfection he was so hung up upon wasn't always there. As in many other things he was dependant upon the work of others.

I think that courtroom judge managed more rise and expansion than Martindale ever did! :D-->

That is just so Freudian! When LCM was a little boy he must have played Doctors and Nurses and when the little girl asked if she could touch it he must have said "no - you have broken yours off"! :D-->

Galen - I never took the advanced class so I wouldn't have known they covered it in there. But none of us had to wait for an advanced calss to learn about devil spirits did we? But as it was a third of the angels that rebelled with Lucifer that left two thirds (2:1 ratio) working for God. Degree in higher mathematics nor instruction by MOG required! Gosh - how much more of the advanced class could people have actually worked out for themselves! :D-->

I seem to recall VPW in CFAS say something like "a woman should be an angel in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom." Brilliant definition of a biblical marriage it was not!

The canon of what we know as scripture was decided by an early catholic council so how inerrant their decisions were would require a lot of research. The concept of theopneustos referred to accepted scripture at time of writing, not what would be accepted as scripture three centuries hence. It is difficult to imagine that the first century writers actually had the concept that their writings would be collected in one volume at some stage in the future - that Paul imagined himself writing to a larger audience than those to whom his letters were individually addressed. There is also dispute that all things were actually authored by the same person, even when it is claimed from the name that they were. Many other writings did not survive so we have no idea what they contained. When compared with other scriptures which some accept such as the Qu'ran or the Book of Mormon which claimed to be directly dictated and inerrantly transmitted, the Bible is much more of a mish mash and mixture and so the perfection that VPW claimed was possible is much more of a myth than a reality.

TWI spent so much time talking about devil spirits that I don't recall any teaching about angels. Not even that they actually outnumber devil spirits 2-1 !