• Biblical Families is not a dating website. It is a forum to discuss issues relating to marriage and the Bible, and to offer guidance and support, not to find a wife. Click here for more information.

Random Comments

This will likely bother some of you, but I found these today as links from Zero Hedge:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-history-of-psychedelics-part-1-of-2/

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-history-of-psychedelics-part-2-of-2/

I'm always willing to discuss any of this with anyone. I do not promote the use of psychedelics (it's decidedly not for everyone), but I do support their use among those who responsibly prepare themselves for their proper uses. Personally, I've engaged in hundreds of sessions between 1974 and the present.

It's also the case that in the last year, at the suggestion of a blogger at probably the most significant online resource related to tinnitus, I cured a terrible case of it created by a gunshot blast through a prescribed practice of daily microdosing LSD. After following other suggestions with little or no effect, and with no inhibition on my part related to the substance, I began daily use at a level so low it would have taken at least 50 times that amount to produce a state of altered consciousness. I am amazed by the outcome, stopped 2 months ago after 5 months, and have had no return whatsoever of the tinnitus that previously was so loud that I practically had to knock myself out to get to sleep.
 
Just something to share that doesn't need its own topic:

Today our congregation voted to leave the United Church of Christ starting on July 1st. Not going to join any other denomination but instead go back to just being a very informal congregation that's led by a lay leader and not an ordained pastor. Our current UCC pastor is leaving us in a few weeks to move to another church. I think everyone involved will be happier.
 
MeganC said:
Just something to share that doesn't need its own topic:

Today our congregation voted to leave the United Church of Christ starting on July 1st. Not going to join any other denomination but instead go back to just being a very informal congregation that's led by a lay leader and not an ordained pastor. Our current UCC pastor is leaving us in a few weeks to move to another church. I think everyone involved will be happier.
Click to expand...

Did the UCC become hostile toward Biblical polygamy? My late ex-mother-in-law (and, until her death, one of my very best friends) was a life-long member of the UCC (her father was a pastor in one of the branches that merged in the 1950s to form the UCC) and was very proud that it was among the most tolerant of all Protestant Churches. Tolerant may have been an understatement, in that it included under its umbrella churches that preach Liberation Theology, which doesn't require belief in the Resurrection of Christ.

But I'm just curious to learn what your individual congregation's reasons were for leaving.
 
Keith Martin said:
Woke Warning: I am a white male, but I am also descended from Jewish Gypsies, like Likud.





I had these two thoughts as I continued to contemplate what I watched last night:
  1. That there is a parallel between African-Americans and (especially American) Jews, in that they have each taken one (and in each case, admittedly-horrible) coordinated sin against them and turned it into a near Industry with hustlers who reward people in their ranks for believing that (a) the whole world has been persecuting them without one ounce of justification, which has created (b) a cultural environment in which they have phrases of automatic deflection which allow them to entirely refrain if they wish from cultural self-reflection. And, thus, the very behaviors that inspired the stereotypes that those within those cultures decry as unfair demonization continue on to a sufficient enough degree within each culture to further perpetuate the stereotypes that shall not be mentioned.
  2. It may be worth introducing a piggy-back tangent to the Never-Forget-the-Shoah message that purposefully insists on throwing up the polygamy banner each and every time someone plays the Shoah violin. I can provide numerous instances in which this strategy has worked for various groups to embolden its previously-downtrodden members, shock the opposition into disarray-and-fractured-impotence, and force should-be allies into being supportive instead of remaining in their deny-three-times-before-the-cock-crows cowardice (the homosexual movement deciding to embrace the 'queer' pejorative is an excellent example of this). In our case, why should we let the Jewish lobby get away with amassing sympathy and philanthropic contributions by limiting their defense of themselves to owning and promoting the legitimacy of their history of being merchant middlemen, while acting all ashamed of their former embrace of polygamy (and don't give me any of that YHWH only tolerated it and didn't encourage it nonsense)? Instead of hiding in our online cubby holes, worried that someone among us will be somewhat embarrassing by not being a 100% Pious Puritan other than Practicing Polygamy, why aren't we shouting, "Hey, you forgot about polygamy, dudes! You used to practice polygamy, and you let those same people who rounded you up and treated you like scum get away with shaming you into setting aside something blessed in Torah by YHWH Himself. You went right back to selling diamonds, making movies and loaning money, willing to defend all of that, so why did you cave in when it comes to one of the God-sanctioned forms of family bonding and intimacy that has so much potential to take better care of widows and orphans, not to mention lessen the instance of prostitution?" It probably wouldn't take too many instances of that kind of assertiveness to get some really serious attention.
Click to expand...
Slightly off topic, but you mentioned the puritans in a somewhat negative context. I don't think the puritans deserve the negative reputation that modern culture puts on them.

They definitely had their faults, and these faults were numerous, and substantial. Still, on the whole, I think the puritans were in the whole far more Biblically faithful than (1) Roman Catholicism has ever been, (2) the non-puritan wing of Anglicanism, (3) modern evangelicalism in general, (4) Lutheran pietism (post Martin).

The puritans weren't the uptight prudes that we are told. They mainly tried to follow God's Laws rather than man's laws. They tended to be patriarchal, and often raised their children in God's Word.

They weren't afraid of alcohol or tobacco, and believed sex was good in it's proper bounds.

I would even include someone like Martin Madan in the overall stream of puritanism (though he came a little later). I greatly appreciate guys like John Bunyan, John Owen, and Isaac Watts.
 
MeganC said:
Just something to share that doesn't need its own topic:

Today our congregation voted to leave the United Church of Christ starting on July 1st. Not going to join any other denomination but instead go back to just being a very informal congregation that's led by a lay leader and not an ordained pastor. Our current UCC pastor is leaving us in a few weeks to move to another church. I think everyone involved will be happier.
Click to expand...

Well I will pray for you and your congregation. Sometimes having a shift like that may be hard but if the overall feeling is mutual for everyone, can't argue with that.
 
W
Keith Martin said:
What I have witnessed first-hand is how both churches and colleges bankrupt small towns by systematically buying up property every time a downturn occurs, a process that spirals the towns into poverty. This is also by design. Every major progressive long-term plan includes shifting the population from small towns to big cities, where people are easier to control.

The other problem is that this scenario in which churches and colleges take properties off the tax rolls while actually consuming more than their share of local services is also taking place in the cities, suburbs and exurbs; it's just not as noticeable.

I think it's way past time that we recognize that, no matter how laudable any particular association group is, there is no reason why such groups deserve to expect provision of services without paying into the kitty. Big Church is Big Business -- and, imho, no more righteous just because their social clubs are ostensibly centered around worship of God. The tax exemption also has everything to do with why mainstream/corporate denominations have drifted so far into wokeness.
Click to expand...
When I saw the suggestion to tax churches, my first thought was:."We should tax colleges/universities."
:)
 
Keith Martin said:
Did the UCC become hostile toward Biblical polygamy? My late ex-mother-in-law (and, until her death, one of my very best friends) was a life-long member of the UCC (her father was a pastor in one of the branches that merged in the 1950s to form the UCC) and was very proud that it was among the most tolerant of all Protestant Churches. Tolerant may have been an understatement, in that it included under its umbrella churches that preach Liberation Theology, which doesn't require belief in the Resurrection of Christ.

But I'm just curious to learn what your individual congregation's reasons were for leaving.
Click to expand...

The first thing was our pastor is not poly friendly. I mean he'd say things like he was and then give sermons saying something else. A lot of us didn't like the music he and his wife liked. It was like this consistent meditative kind of music and the lyrics were sometimes quoting non-Christian philosophies and religions. And we definitely believe in Scripture and refer to it when we have questions. The UCC doesn't put Scripture ahead of man. It's a problem. And it's a problem we're not going to have by June 20th! :)
 
MeganC said:
How hard can it really be to find a place for 29 people, three horses, two dogs, six cats, and 750 chickens?
Click to expand...
At least you don't have to find a place for the cattle now. I'm assuming the 750 chickens are layers not broilers right? If you have meat birds you could just wait a few weeks and throw them in the freezer. Twenty-nine people are a bit more difficult.
:)
Do you guys need hundreds of acres, or would "dozens of acres" possibly be acceptable?
 
Bartato said:
At least you don't have to find a place for the cattle now. I'm assuming the 750 chickens are layers not broilers right? If you have meat birds you could just wait a few weeks and throw them in the freezer. Twenty-nine people are a bit more difficult.
:)
Do you guys need hundreds of acres, or would "dozens of acres" possibly be acceptable?
Click to expand...

Uh oh, people might think that is the recipe for a commune. LOL
 
It is kinda funny that I had my little diatribe about the puritans and then Megan was talking about the UCC (which originally came from the congregational puritans). Probably my main criticism of the puritans is that they became the UCC.

Megan,
I hope all goes well for your church moving forward. One nice thing about being congregational is that it makes leaving a denomination smoother.
 
The priority is housing and for land we want enough that we don't have anyone so close they can see everything all the time. It's weird but the school in Texas was a great place because the road was right there in front of it but there were no neighbors right close by the place.

Steve was back on Friday and he's gone back for work now but he and Macy checked out some other places. There's some resorts and retreats that are up for sale and they'd have enough room for us. Not the acreage I really want to see but with enough trees the compromise gets us the same privacy. Also I doubt we'd even run livestock again so the smaller property might be better. Steve is having our attorney check things out and see what's going to work. One of the places is near Houston and we'd have waterfront which might be nice. Some of the others are on rivers and that's nice too.

The legal things are transferring our trust and making sure there are no weird water rights problems and making sure no one has any easements through the property.
 
MeganC said:
The priority is housing and for land we want enough that we don't have anyone so close they can see everything all the time. It's weird but the school in Texas was a great place because the road was right there in front of it but there were no neighbors right close by the place.

Steve was back on Friday and he's gone back for work now but he and Macy checked out some other places. There's some resorts and retreats that are up for sale and they'd have enough room for us. Not the acreage I really want to see but with enough trees the compromise gets us the same privacy. Also I doubt we'd even run livestock again so the smaller property might be better. Steve is having our attorney check things out and see what's going to work. One of the places is near Houston and we'd have waterfront which might be nice. Some of the others are on rivers and that's nice too.

The legal things are transferring our trust and making sure there are no weird water rights problems and making sure no one has any easements through the property.
Click to expand...

Yes, privacy is key. It doesn't have to be hundreds of acres but not too little where you feel paranoid. Also waterfront? Fancy!
 
MeganC said:
I think the waterfront is more swampy than fancy! Supposed to be newtria in the area which are like big rats. Gives me something to shoot! :p
Click to expand...

Nutria? *cocks rifle* PULL!

Yeah, I saw plenty of them when I was visiting New Orleans, right before Hurricane Katrina but for some swamp folk, they are good eatin'!
 
MeganC said:
The priority is housing and for land we want enough that we don't have anyone so close they can see everything all the time. It's weird but the school in Texas was a great place because the road was right there in front of it but there were no neighbors right close by the place.

Steve was back on Friday and he's gone back for work now but he and Macy checked out some other places. There's some resorts and retreats that are up for sale and they'd have enough room for us. Not the acreage I really want to see but with enough trees the compromise gets us the same privacy. Also I doubt we'd even run livestock again so the smaller property might be better. Steve is having our attorney check things out and see what's going to work. One of the places is near Houston and we'd have waterfront which might be nice. Some of the others are on rivers and that's nice too.

The legal things are transferring our trust and making sure there are no weird water rights problems and making sure no one has any easements through the property.
Click to expand...
I remember you mentioned that one property in West Texas that had 640 acres (one square mile). That amount of land would be awesome (but W. Texas is a little desolate). With the large family, you guys really do need substantial housing. I'm sure it is out there somewhere.
 
MeganC said:
I think the waterfront is more swampy than fancy! Supposed to be newtria in the area which are like big rats. Gives me something to shoot! :p
Click to expand...
That’s what I call looking on the bright side!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top