Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

Try the NIV.

 

Maybe it's a book purposely difficult to read written by men so they can take advantage of that fact. "Yeah, I can explain how to get to heaven if you give me your money."
I bet Dianetics has some confusing parts that good old LRH, Miscavige, Cruise, or Travolta would happily explain.

One of my closest friends on this planet and his wife are both teachers with three children ages 9, 7, 4. The first check they write each month is $1,000 to their church. That's before mortgage, groceries, bills, etc.
I said one time and never brought it up again: "You know what investing $12,000 a year for your children would be by the time they are adults."

 

I’ve never participated in one beyond Sunday school as a kid, but I have no problem with Bible study/discussion groups. The key phrase being group.

 

I don't have a problem with anyone's religion as long as it does not do active harm to others or attempt to co-opt government into enforcing its tenets on other people.

 

So the state of Louisiana will require the state to post a dictum that says, “Thou shalt not kill,” yet another law on its books permits the state to kill under certain circumstances.

 

This is frankly an absurd statement based on a reading of the OT or NT - but not as Christianity is practiced in whole parts of America today. That's the sad thing. Seminaries are expensive. Missions are expensive. Some youth groups are expensive. And while there are typically "scholarships" and "fundraising" to do, the upshot is, to really live that life even for three weeks out of the year, you'd either better be wealthy, or convince wealthy people to donate money to you.

And there's just not a lot of evidence in the NT for grand statements of personal wealth or "fees" for good teaching of the Bible.

 

This reminds me of the argument that keeps financial advisors in business.

 

Holy cow, I am exhausted. You know how you see people in witness wear behaving badly and think, "Uuh hunh. That's why people hate us (you.)" Tuesday afternoon, that person was me. I had been at the hospital since 1:30 am and was still wearing Predators PJ shorts and a tee with a verse from Matthew declaring that faith could move mountains. I should have been back home by noon, but n0. I was across the hall from a woman with dementia who screamed, cursed, threated everyone who walked by and screamed at me and my mother every time we spoke above a whisper.

We kept it quiet, together, and civil for thirteen hours. The frustrating part is I have a background in clinical psych and maybe I should have gone across the hall (they refused to shut her door) and handled this the way I would have handled an escalated DID/DD patient. My fear was if something went horribly wrong, the people who would have gotten in trouble would have been the very people who were dealing with her, the nursing and tech staff.

Like I said, at hour thirteen, I snapped. The cogs that determined my heart was okay did not click together to discharge me. I packed up what I brought in the ambulance and marched down to the nurse's station and begged someone to tell me I was safe to go home, etc. They offered to let me go AMA. I insisted they call my doctors, one of whom was already on his way home.

I went back to my room and got very juvenile.



Then I forgot to erase it before I left. This was a big behavioral/compassionate fail on my partthat has had me wanting to curl into a fetal ball. It is also some background as to why I am not handing this as well as I should,

 

I usually use Who among us ironically or sarcastically, but it applies here. You’re a good egg, Oscar.

 

I thought Republicans opposed NIV.

 

@OscarMadison send the nurses’ station some cupcakes or pizza and absolve yourself. I’ve nearly done the same on Hour 15 sitting with my Dad in the ER.