Quotations: "... somebody who is looking for a logical explanation for why faith can be a reasonable perspective for a thinking person".~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dr. Francis Collins, Genome Project Director
Theistic evolution, less commonly known as evolutionary creationism, is the general opinion that some or all classical religious teachings about God and creation are compatible with some or all of the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution. The Wikepedia
Christians need not fear the term Evolution: Jesus permitted his transfiguration to be witnessed by Peter, James and John. Why? For among other reasons to demonstrate to his followers, along with the representatives of the Law and the Prophets, that as it had been written in scripture all who are born of the seed of the second Adam, would be undergoing a similar transposition from their terrestrial - carbon bodies into ethereal-heavenly bodies in the future!
Had Adam simply obeyed God, he would be living today, and both you and me, and any other person who cared to could go to visit him and ask questions about God. And, eventually all of us would have been transposed or evolved, if we had not been transposed already inside of Adam, on the occasion that Adam should have partaken of the 'tree of life'.
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Praxis: If you were to ever mention the word evolution to Christians or non-Christians alikee, don't be surprised if the skeptical members of either group turned a deaf ear to what you had to say, attacked you, threw holy water on you or simply walked away. However, I continue to believe in evolution, particularly divine evolution, which encompasses and at the same time broadens in scope many aspects of naturalistic evolution and its primary components, 'origins of the species', 'adaptation' and 'steady state' theories.
There are similarities between divine/theistic and naturalistic evolution; in fact the two overlap. Consider the genetic structure of the high-anthropoid which is believed to be 98% the same as that of humans. Is this a coincidence? Does it follow then that humans branched off from the species that we often refer to as apes? The jury is still out, however, one thing that is apparent, both species originated from a common source.The late Pope Paul II, a giant among men from my point of view, wrote about and encouraged the intersection of science, reason and religion.
The late Pope, a scholar and former professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin encouraged members of the scientific and religious communities to come together and to 'reason' together.
Some Christians still cannot conceive of such a meeting, given that many Christians view science as an enemy, if not 'the enemy'. However, if you think about it, God created science.Now scientists on the other hand, as opposed to their Christian antagonists are in most instances kinder to religion and religious people than it is the other way around.
Science helps us to understand time (relocation in space), space, force, matter, motion, energy, thermodynamics, entropy, the atmosphere, gravity, the flora and the fauna, Yom and life itself, all of which were created by the entity that we refer to as God.Science seeks to verify and explore some of the claims that have been postulated not only by religious groups but 'other origin of the universe theorists'.
Science also provides verifiable answers, as well as evidence to support its answers to some of the nagging questions that plague most of us, like how did the world originate, how did I get here what is my purpose here and who or what placed me here?Religion, on the other hand, insists that we simply have faith in God, which can often be interpreted as; one should have faith in what someone else has said, believed or written about God. Religion also demands that humans accept and believe in dogma that on many occasions has not been subjected to scrutiny. Religion even demands that writings from unknown and unproven sources be accepted as truth.
Thankfully, God on the other hand encourages us to test, touch, taste, handle and scrutinize all things even the entity that we refer to as God. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, the Apostle Paul even wrote to the church at Thessalonica (modern day Thessaloniki) that they should prove all things and hold fast to those things which were good or provable, and on the other hand they were encouraged to discard philosophies, ideas and beliefs that failed to stand up under scrutiny.Now, having said that and given that I have invoked Paul as a source, I suspect that the Apostle Paul would be dumbfounded if he knew that many of the epistles (letters) that he wrote were included in with what was considered sacred scripture.
I know that my conjecture about the Apostle Paul will probably read like heresy to some. However, let me add this that not only Paul's letters, but many of the books that were included in the canon, consider for example the books of poetry, wisdom and eschatology' those books were often metaphorical and allegorical. And, let us not forget the method that was incorporated in order to determine which books should be included, or left out of the canon.In short the method utilized by Constantine's canonical team was the method of choice or if you prefer by vote (Constantine's political motivations for constructing the Canon in the first place having been completely ignored by today's Christian).
So any believer must ask himself then, shouldn't I take more responsibility for myself, in terms of my salvation, given the very method that was used to construct a canon that I am so personally reliant upon?Factually, from what we understand today the book of Revelations barely made it into the canon. Just think of what impact that would have made on the eschatological outlook in the life of believers, if the astral laden book of Revelations had been left out of the Bible.
And when you consider the fact that other books that possibly should have been included in the canon, were left out, where does that leave us? For example, what about the other hundreds of books that were available but ignored, including approximately 200 books of the gospel that Constantine's team left out of what later came to be known as the 'unadulterated word of God'? I would have preferred a more prayerful and God-breathed canonization team, to organize books that represented 'the' word of God.
Therefore you ask, and then was all scripture 'God breathed', as Paul wrote? I don't have any argument with Paul's conclusion that true scripture was God breathed. I am simply suggesting that everything that was included within Constantine's canon, including many of Paul's letters were not all God breathed scripture! Paul admitted that some of what he wrote in his letters, more subjective truth; was written based upon opinion, his experience, beliefs and apostolic authority. However, one must ask the question, had Paul ever traveled, before down the wrong road?So what is my real motive for delving into this topic, you ask?
I am concerned about today's post-modern believers, who have been exposed to a limited and exclusive treatment of God's word by men who were selected by a politically motivated leader. I am concerned about the same believers, who have been corralled by teachers who have never verified the sources that they utilize in order to teach others. Constantine was a Roman Emperor who initially supported the martyrdom of Christians.He had his own imperial motives for having the canon constructed in the first place, just as most religious organizations, today, have their own reasons for making the canon their exclusive source of truth.
Constantine's influence alone on Christianity gives us much to be concerned about. Ask yourself this question, if Emperor Constantine was truly seeking to uncover the truth, how come he did not follow after it himself? I have discovered that within many religious groups, whether Islam, Christianity, Judaism or any of the world's other religions, their adherents often come to worship their exclusive writ, making any attempts to reason with them, effectively impossible.
I have found it challenging over the years myself to motivate believers (see Acts Chapter 19) to complete the journey and move in the direction of full disclosure. How, by verifying what they have been taught to believe is God's truth, in most cases from childhood - some of which has been proven, arguably, to be partial, questionable or syncretic suppositional truth. That step alone would help to eliminate the spirit of denominationalism, and the numerous factions that exist between disparate religions and religious groups from all over the world.Having said that, may I add that God's truth has over the years often been associated with the purveyors of partial truth and myth that was either passed on by oral tradition, or written down by scores or writers who harbored an incomplete pr negligible understanding of the truth themselves.
Sadly, given the conditioning of believers in all faiths, one can understood the fear of most religious people to question what they have been taught, especially when it has been taught as the unquestionable and unadulterated word of God. This is the unfortunate plight of religious people from all over the world.For what they have been taught by their preachers, imams, rabbis, priests or shamans is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. These teachers have wielded an incredible, unnerving and unwavering influence on believers in their faiths.
Factually, today’s believers in Christianity, in my opinion, are following a similar pattern which they often disparage others from when referring to their Jewish predecessors. Consider the attitudes of most of today's Christians towards the Jews, the forerunners of Christianity. Christians have been openly critical of the failure of the Jews to move beyond the writings contained within their holy writ, the Talmud, the Torah and other rabbinical books and writings. Christians believe that the Jews should advance beyond the Law and move forward into grace and truth.
However, when you think about it, haven’t Christians essentially done the same thing by locking themselves into their own, exclusive, holy writ, the questionable canon? And, if you consider the example of these two huge religious behemoths, in conjunction with the other major religious group in the world, Islam, all 3 of the world's major religions joined together have followed a similar path. The three have left the majority of the world’s religious practitioners with an incredible conundrum. This kind of exclusism has led to factionalism, fear, intolerance and confusion.
Houston, we have a problem, or as one writer so eloquently wrote in another context, we have 'an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum', with many proselytes who are afraid to think outside of their religious boxes. By doing so, one could find him or herself excommunicated, barred or even put to death, simply for hungering and thirsting after all of God's truth!
I am grateful that, unlike most religious institutions that I am familiar with, God is not reluctant to be subjected to scrutiny, as some religious individuals would have you to believe. We are not required to worship God 'in ignorance'. I also find it appalling and inconceivable that those same Christians, who are reticent to accept scholarship or science today, have accepted, fully, the work of Constantine's scholar/scientist/philologist/philosophers and their collegial construction of the canon. When I speak about religion, I am referring to the institution of religion which includes other faiths besides Christianity.
And as any learned individual knows, many teachings from various religious groups, past and present, have been found to be fallacious and unsubstantiated, even though that religion may have served a well-intended or useful purpose at the time. And having said that, haven't many religions been proven over the years, to be in conflict with God.
Adam was commanded to have dominion over the world, which encompassed learning about his world and acquiring the requisite wisdom that was required in order to subdue the world in which he was placed, not born. In other words Adam was required to study, to learn, to experiment, to extrapolate and garner and understand the world. Adam was expected, apparently, to acquire the requisite knowledge that was available to him, the same knowledge that would have permitted him essentially to retain eternal life.
And like today's modern day scientists (including evolutionary scientists) Adam spent much of his time studying in fields that later came to be known as Zoology, Animal Biology and possibly Botany, i.e., researching, classifying and categorizing animals and plants according to their respective species and genus. Noah, was also I suspect, involved in the science of animals studies. Darwin wasn't the first to study the origin of the species, in fact many of his ideas came from his mentor!
I have offended many Christians given my outspokenness about the failures of religion and religious institutions, however, I haven't meant to disparage or discourage anyone for I have always explained that science is not without its flaws and failure. Frankly, I have always taught my parishioners to seek the whole truth, and not to limit their understanding, exclusively, to what I have taught them, or to rely solely on what they have heard from any other teachers. I am simply devoted to the pursuit of truth and accuracy, even when that means discarding unproven or outdated ideas, including the ones that are religious or philosophical in nature.
And having said that I suspect that the late Karl Marx was likely correct when he said that 'religion was the opiate of the people'. Too many of us are or have been simply gullible or impressionable, and like a newborn chick, we sit in the nest with our mouths open, often being too willing to receive anything that has been dropped into our mouths. And the latter includes religious dope!
I don't believe that God would require that we have faith in phantasm or phantasmal conjecture or myth.God and religion in my view are two separate entities, the latter appears to have become more of an enterprise that has taken on a life of its own. We all know that many ideas and practices that have been attributed to God apparently have nothing to do with God, or with what God required, intended or desires. Micah 6:8 provides us with a perfect example of a period in time when religious Hebrews, God's chosen people, were engaged in practices that were contrary to what God intended, required or desired.In spite of the motives of the individuals who engage in various religious practices, ritual sacrifice and other ceremonial or ritual observances, with which God was not pleased, God rejected their practices.
In fact God's question to those post-exilic religious practitioners, written about in the book of Micah was, "What does the Lord require of you"? I suspect that many believers today, ought to be asking themselves the same question! Cain, eldest son of Adam discovered that a self-devised religious practice would not satisfy God's requirements. I suspect that simply following what someone else has instructed one to do without subjecting the instructor and his or her teachings to verifiable scrutiny, will result in many well-intending individuals ending up where Cain did. His sacrifice was also rejected!
I also suspect that if we would all simply pursue truth as opposed to getting all wrapped up in religion, religious denominationalism, dogma and religious practice, that humanity would be much further along and better off in both the short and the long run. We have truly been held back, by among other things, religion and self-serving religious institutions. I suspect that this thing is bigger than self-perpetuating religious institutions can possibly comprehend, and that it transcends the limitations that have been imposed upon religious adherents, even the ones who call themselves Christianity.
Moving beyond long-held theological constructs and restrictions that have been imposed upon the minds of many believers will also require the abandonment of certain religious ideas, dogma and practices that have been entrenched into the psyches of many believers. Well meaning, and on the other hand self-serving religious substrate organizations have done a yeoman's job of controlling not only the narrative but God's people.
The very thought of reversing the trend and the teachings of preachers and teachers that many converts have believed in for so long will be very frightening to most Christians and members of other religious and philosophical groups.We have religious organizations on Earth today who in spite of the fact that much of what they have taught in the past, even from the canon, that has been disprove; still insist that the canon is without flaw. Why do these organizations continue to make these assertions? Certainly, some organizations and their members feel the need to protect what they believe to be sacred, and authentic.
Some cannot conceive of going back to their followers to tell them that what they have taught for years as absolute truth was not all absolutely accurate after all. And some religious clerics and teachers are simply afraid of loosing their jobs. And even though some have done research, yet having determined that the canon is flawed, they prefer to defend and perpetuate that from which they derive the most, a job, a salary and a following.
Having said that, I suspect that religious dogma, mixed in with portions of truth, has taken us just about as far as it is going to take us in its current trajectory. Why? Because too many of our teachers today are afraid to go beyond the boundaries of the limited understanding of the past. They are missing out on what God, the unchanging God, is trying to reveal in this particular evolutionary stage of our journey. I believe that scientists may in fact replace many of our religious clerics and teachers, and instead they will become our modern day 'prophets and teachers', particularly the ones who know God!
Many scientists from various scientific disciplines have discovered from their research - properties which point to what they conclude is a unifying principle, a divine equivalent, a singularity; it is a common denominator which they are discovering in all phenomenon, one which scientists are willing to concede might be what religious institutions believe to be God!
Will scientist then lead us the rest of the way to God? From my perspective it is more than probable, it is likely. We have been taught in Christianity that God intends to reveal himself with clarity. And similar to what took place in the 16th and 17th century enlightenment period, science is uncovering and revealing knowledge today that many religious institutions, including the church, are often reticent to accept as truth, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Are members of religious groups willing to make any concessions to scientific truth, or will they continue to simply toss the scientific baby out with the scientific test tube water? Are the leaders of religious institutions willing to place the need of the people above their personal need for self-perpetuation?.
A Christian friend and I recently engaged in a lengthy and spirited discussion regarding discussion, which expanded into more discussion on divine vs. naturalistic evolution. He was understandably shocked and disturbed by my non-Christian church/religious position, given that I was a minister of the church. Second, he referred to all of the creditable information out there (his words) that debunks 'scientific evolution theory', whereby proving that the scientific evolution theorem is flawed/dead on arrival.I reminded my friend that some aspects of Christian, and other religious dogma were equally flawed! What is it that you are really saying, he asked me?
Simply put, I explained the following:
1. I believe in divine evolution.
2. I believe that divine evolution was and is a part of God's original plan.
3. I suspect that God evolved itself (or himself, if you are reticent to accept that a spirit is without gender).
4. I believe that most Christians are waiting for the next stage of divine transformative evolution to occur (which is expected by most Christians to occur along with the rapture). According to scripture, God's elect 'will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling (not blinking) of an eye.In other words God's elect will be metamorphized, like the butterfly from the caterpillar, into the next stage where Christians will no longer exist as corporeal sexual breathing beings, instead they will be transformed into extra-human/spiritual beings, existing in a form that is identical to that of Jesus Christ.
And what will happen to non-Christians and those who claim to be Christians who do not have the seed of Jesus Christ within them (even though they have attended church for years)? Well, according to Christian dogma, these individuals will become extinct, be consumed or at least be prevented from transformation into the next stage of the divine and time-independent evolutionary change life cycle! The following texts should help to elucidate my position, with never having been transposed, anothen, from the seed of Adam to that of Jesus Christ:
Read 1 Cor 15:20-23 and verses 42-50, for clearer understanding of. Paul's treatise on transformation from the Adamic seed to the Christ seed, I cannot emphasize enough how this text needs to be examined much closer by many who claim to be Christians. If you take Paul's conclusions and read them in conjunction with other scriptural texts, many who claim to know Christ will discover that they have never been converted to Christ.., because they remain - of the seed of Adam. The latter group must recall that even the disciples who walked with Jesus for 3 1/2 years, still have to be converted, anothr stage in the divine evolutionary process!
My Christian friend was probably as perplexed as you are by my comments. I explained to him that I understood why he was disturbed by my comments, however, that I believe that Christians are as intolerant of information from the scientific community, as he and most Christians have accused the scientific community of being opposed to receiving information from the religious community. Most creationists, and intelligent design followers, maintain that the scientific community's whole reason for coming up with the theory of evolution in the first place was to find a viable alternative to God, and divine creation.
II. I explained that his position was flawed, given that so many in the scientific community actually believe in God, and that they had not all set out to disprove God or God's word. Dr. Francis Collins, MD, an Astrophysicist, and head of the Human Genome Project is one who believes in God and God's plan. I understand that another 45% of members of the scientific community believe in God, and many are avid worshippers of God. On the other hand, I believe that many Christians and Christian leaders are locked into 2 to 4000 year old paradigms. Many believers and those who claim to be God's hold to conclusions, myths and stories that were written by pre-modern human beings who also believed that the world was flat.
Can paracletos guide the latter group into all of the truth I ask? We all know from a historical perspective what effect Christian prejudice has had on growth, and how it has on many occasions stifled it and prevented the door of learning from being opened and entered into by human beings who were merely seeking the truth about their origins and their destiny. We all know or have read about the churches reaction to Galileo, Copernicus and others who tried to inform the church that based upon empirical evidence: that the earth was not the center of the universe. The church still insisted on teaching fallacious ideas about the Earth's place in the cosmos, in spite of proof to the contrary that what the church had been teaching was inherently flawed, and simply put untrue.
One must ask him or herself, what benefit would any institution, religious or otherwise, derive from persisting in an enterprise that prevents other human beings from discovering the truth, other than what they teach? The ecclesiastical community of the 17th and 18th century ran into the same problem that our clerics and religious institutions are beginning to experience today. Many believers are beginning to questions portions of what they were taught, and believed in the past. The same believers are not relying solely on religious institutions or religious sources to supply them with answers, whose sources of information have all too often derived from myth, allegory, hearsay and tradition.
Historians and scientists have proven to be viable alternatives and indispensable in terms of filling in the gaps. Many of today's believers have become more knowledgeable than many of their religious teachers are, many of them having been exposed to resources that were heldback from them by religion organzations and teachers, and recently they have been exposed to data that has been supplied from other disciplines. What do the teachers of institutions who insisted on maintaining a monopoly on truth have to fear? The answer is simple, when portions of what has been taught before as unqualified absolute truth that is above question or dispute, turns out not to be true after all, it could destroy the very institution of religion, well at least their institution of religion.
With truth comes freedom, and I suspect that too many religious groups and organizations are committed to preventing their followers from finding 'the truth', which would ultimately free their adherents from the control that religious institutions have held over them. J ust consider the Catholic churches prohibitions, which prevented their members from possessing bibles.The position of the church leadership was that it was their intention to prevent individual members from coming up with their own private biblical interpretations. However, the truth is that in many instances, the ignorance of the members and their failure at inquiry turned out to be a boon for the churches leadership.
The leadership's ability to keep the members of the universal church in the dark, led to tremendous abuses and the exploitation of the catholic body at large by its leadership, some of which we are witnessing today. None of us should ever outsource our responsibility to seek after truth to another human being, even if she or he wears a robe, instead we need to know for ourselves what leaders like Nicodemus did not understand and he was a teacher. Jesus asked him, in John Chapter 3, Nichodemus, are you a teacher in Israel and you do not know these things?
The facts are:
1. The word to Jeremiah in the first chapter of Jeremiah was: Before, I formed you in the belly..., I knew you in a pre-human existence. This scripture proves that human beings, at least Jeremiah knew God in a prior existence.
2. After God's breath was breathed into the earthbound body, man became a 'living soul', in this dimension.
3. And believers today are looking for the next stage of 'divine evolution', a stage at which humans will be changed from mortality to immortality.
III. Transmigration of the soul?
In acts chapter 9, Jesus, while walking with his disciples, came upon a blind man, it was not accidental. The disciples reasoned among themselves, 'who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind'? Now it wouldn't make much sense for the disciples to ask whether one could experience congenital blindness as a result of personal sin, unless they believed in a pre-incarnate state of existence. Belief in a pre-incarnate state is not as far-fetched as it may sound, given that Christians like many individuals including their Jewish predecessors, groups both religious and secular believe in 'transmigration of the soul', or reincarnation if you prefer.
Many individuals today undergo regression therapy, in hopes of discovering or correcting portions of what has apparently been left over from a previous life. Beyond Jesus' explanation of why this brother was born blind, Jesus went on to demonstrate the creative work of the Holy Spirit when affecting this man's healing. How? By taking of the earth, the same substance that the human body was apparently created from, and having the blind man to apply it to his eyes in order to repair an organ which had prevented this man from seeing since birth. I suspect that this man had an impaired cornea, iris or retina.
Elijah was more than just another interesting biblical figure, with regard to reincarnation and many of his other deeds. If you were to examine his life closely, his life demonstrated that the spirit was not confined to corporeal body. Consider the following about Elijah, in addition to the ability that he had to communicate directly with God:
1. He was used to heal the sick.
2. He was used to raise the dead.
3. He commanded the elements and the environment, calling fire down from heaven.
4. He commanded the elements again by praying rain down from heaven.
5. He transcended human physical limitations by, apparently, outrunning a chariot.
7. He got into what primitive man described as 'a chariot of fire' and ascended into heaven.
8. He later jumped back into a human body, and reappeared, apparently as John the Baptist.
Jesus explained that to those who had been waiting for Elias to return as we are today for Jesus to return, that John the Baptist was Elias. Have you ever wondered who you may have been in a previous epoch in time? Has your soul been transmigrated into your current house/body?
9. In John the Baptist's body, Elijah had his head chopped off as his spirit inhabited John's body apparently. And that still was not the end of him.
10. He showed up again with Moses on the mountain of transfiguration, along with another man, Moses who no one could determine what happened to his body. Interestingly Moses, like Elijah, had taken human life before.
One should be able to see in contrast the difference between the resurrection of Lazarus, who eventually returned to the grave and Elijah who evolved into the next phase of eternal life, for there is a big difference!
We will talk about the killers on either side of Jesus on the Mountain of Transfiguration, just like the two criminals who were on either side of Jesus on the cross at a later date. According to Genesis 3:22-24, if Adam had simply parten of the fruit of the 'tree of Life', whle in a state of neutrality, that was in the midst of the Garden, he would have then entered into the next phase of divine evolution instead of becoming perpetually injured. Because of his choice to partake, instead of the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God determined that he must be kept back from the 'tree of life', which on God's part was both an act of punishment as well as an act of grace.
Why? Adam would have remained, permanently and inescapably, in an evil/death-state, despite those intervals when he could recognize good. I suspect that the 'tree of knowledge' must have resembled broccoli, asparagus or some undesirable vegetable or fruit, because it did not appeal to Adam and he summarily rejected it. Most humanoids still commonly reject what is good for them! Asparagus? All I can say is, yuk!
One other thing that we should take note of again is that God mercifully removed Adam from access to the Garden and to the life tree. God did not on the other hand remove the tree itself with its life altering principle, which is still apparently available to all of us in the person of Jesus Christ. Was there an actual 'tree of life', or was this allegorical myth? I don't know, but the truth of it is not so far-fetched if you consider the bio-chemical-electronic functioning of the human brain. Aside from brain mass what is it that causes the brain to work? The answer is blood, electronic signals and chemicals, at least we know that much thus far!
You and I have frequently witnessned just how impaired many of our friends and relatives became as a result of imbibing or injesting mind-alterting hallucinogens, narcotics and other drugs. Just think about that, and consider what chemistry/mind and body altering substance may have been an ingredient if 'the fruit' of the tree that the author described; the tree from which both Adam and Eve imbibed. Could it have been a lysing contingent, similar to the one mentioned in the Jurassic park movie, a movie which was loosely based on the Jurassic period that is consistent with what we read in the first chapter of Genesis.
What was the apparently chemical-altering hallucinogen, enzyme or drug within 'the fruit' that once consumed altered both Adam and Eve's DNA and RNA, or perhaps the cerbellum, pre-frontal or frontal lobe where conscious thought occurs, and which when damaged can result in mood changes? Or were the parietal, occipital lobe, the limbic system or cerebral cortex forever impaired?
Whatever occured, Adam and Eve were changed, and their offspring and descendants were forever changed. Did Adam experience a high after imbibing the mind and body altering fruit, that was followed by a down period? I suspect that he did! Adam and Eve were both likely as high as a Georgia kite after consuming the fruit, and I suspect that they saw and understood a lot more than that they were naked! Can you imagine what took place in their minds and bodies, it would be the equivalent of someone today getting high off of some drug, and along with the experience they take can't wait to share the drug experience with someone else.
Eve, like individuals at a drug or marijuana party wanted Adam to get high too, at least that is what I believe, as well as to enjoy the new sensations that she experienced. Can you imagine all of the new information that burst forth into her brain and consciousness, it gave new meaning to the word epiphany. But what about the after effects of the high and her experience, what all of us are dealing with today? In short, it was deadly! However it occured Adam (literal tree or not), the husband (Grk. for planter of the seed), his DNA was altered, and from then on his former perfectly formed and functioning body and mind became forever transmogrified. And not only Adam's, but everything and everyone that descended from his seed was altered.
With respect to the animals 'gone wild', I will leave you to figure that one out; perhaps they got a bite to eat themselves. Now, did a prescient God entity know before the creation of the world that this setback would occur? Well, of course God did, ergo, the second Adam, the authentic 'tree of life', that contained the spiritual/chemical cure within his seed, Jesus Christ, was to be a part of the cycle that would ensue to repair the damage that was done and all who would injest his seed would be cured and entered into the next evolutionary change-cycle.
Having said that the life altering 'chemical or spirit' that was contained in an apparently physical tree of life, would had to have been the same ingredient as the one that is contained within the seed that is imparted to us through Jesus Christ - or it could have been a chemical that contained chemical alterting affects for humans that would have prevented sickness and death? Think about it, when you were a kid how many times when you were outside some place with your parents, did they forbid you from partaking of certain fruits or plants that appeared to be so appetizing, however they were toxic? Adam, had he simply gone to and partook of the 'tree of life', I suspect that the spirit would have immediately altered and catapulted Adam and all who are were still in his loins into the next phase of divine evolution!
IV. Folks, the spirit of man is not fixed/limited to a limited space-time continuum or what Paul referred to as a unintended 'body of death'. And, if anything, the spirit or soul of man is transcendent - and eventually we must get out of these time-bound bodies in order to continue our existence in limitless time-independent bodies. The Jews clearly believed in not only an afterlife, but a pre-life, and Jesus confirmed on more than one occasion that there was a pre as well as a post or afterlife. Many atheists are beginning to admit that their could be other dimensions unknown to man, where extraterrestrials could reside - science has drawn a similar conclusion, particularly astrophysicists!
The Apostle Paul made a curious and often overlooked statement in the book of Thessalonians. Paul wrote that in terms of what we refer to as the rapture, that the dead in Christ would rise first, and that WE who are alive and remain should be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Paul clearly believed, unless the text was misinterpreted, that he would be alive at the time that the rapture occurred. However, we all know that Paul was executed before it occured. If the rapture is still an event that will take place in the future, did Paul write in error given his belief that the rapture was to occur while he was still alive?
My point: Christians, there are many mistakes in recorded or interpretive Christian theology. Constantine's canon, which we refer to as the unadulterated word of God is laden with errors. And rather than admit it, many would simply prefer that we would sweep those errors under the proverbial rug. Not me? I am not afraid to say that the canon is error laden and flawed just as most things that have been touched by humans contain flaws. If anything, we should learn from the mistakes that either we or our predecessors have made, being in denial, ultimately, will not serve us.Jesus promised us something else before he departed, and what he promised was not the canon - we have Emperor Constantine to thank for that. Jesus promised to send back, 'paracletos', another comforter.
He also explained that paracletos would lead us, not the canon, into all truth. If we have paracletos, we have received 'the guide' to all truth.The Apostle Paul apparently erred in terms of his understanding of the resurrection of the saints. And please don't be offended because I pointed it out. The Apostle Paul also erred on another occasion when he set out to persecute the Christians on the road to Damascus, thank God that he was prohibited from any further carnage. I suspect that Paul like some of us did not believe in his own infallibility. In the book of Philippians the Apostle made it clear that he was 'still learning things', indeed, even to be content in whatever state that he found himself.
Summation: My friend was obviously concerned, and wondered why I was saying these things? I simply believe that it is time for humanity to move forward into the next stage of divine evolution. I believe that by purifying our faith, and leaving archaic principles and traditions behind us we can move on to the truth and what lies ahead of us, some of which will result when we embrace truth even scientific truth. I also believe that as long as we continue to hold on to primitive and outdated beliefs and ideas, and refuse to be brought forward, we will only hinder our own understanding, the understanding of others and ourselves.
Besides, ignorance hinders a closer walk with the God that is trying to help us to uncover the truth. Enoch, as you will recall, walked so close with God, that God simply took him. Fear and a need to hold on to traditional beliefs and customs, I believe is preventing us from growing into full knowledge of Jesus Christ, just as fear is keeping us from understanding and moving into the next stage of divine evolution. Fear of what, questioning old religious ideas? Do we really believe that we are 'going to be changed'? Do we really believe that we are going to 'be like the Divine"?
I am not talking, in a secular sense, about astral projection. I am talking about what we understand from the scriptures, and God's spirit that we are going to evolve into a different state of being, not only in terms of consciousness but in form.And that is why we are dying daily. Something must die out before it can be changed into its subsequent form. In terms of the law of nature as we know it, a seed must be placed into the ground before something new can grow from the ground.
Christ’s objective was not to simply give us religion; rather, Christ’s ultimate objective was to transform the creation from the first man Adam’s seed, to the second Adam's seed, that of Jesus Christ. And the result of this transformation would be that human would be provided with the eternal life that we all desire, that God intended and Adam rejected. If you have been born anothen, you have the seed of Jesus Christ within you. And as a result of the germination of that seed that is within you, certain transformations have already begun to take place, and others will follow eventually resulting in the final stage of your spiritual evolution from human to angel/Christlike form.
When God created the universe as we know it, I believe that the seed of the universe was encoded with all God's instructions, including the various stages that life as we know it would 'grow through'. In other words, everything that was to come into being or to die out (even beginning with a 'big bang' )- in its time, all that was enclosed within the seed before the world ever existed. In other words the full development cycle of God's creation, from start to finish, which would apparently span billions of human years was already precoded. And at every stage of divine evolution, various evolutionary changes would occur, some of which we still have not realized! Many Christians have on occasion, often criticized the Jews saying that they refuse to move beyond the dispensation of the Law, into the dispensation of Grace and Truth.
However, I believe that most Christians are stuck themselves, and unable to move beyond primitive and post-modern Christian theology and doctrine, to where they should be in the 21st century. Jesus referred to the 'mustard seed' in a conversation with the disciples. A mustard seed evolves from a tiny seedling into an enormous tree once it has completed its stages of development and growth. And just as a tree or flower reaches its full potential and begins to flower or bear fruit, or just as a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, some humans will eventually be transmogrified into their final life forms.
Hopefully, our thinking will someday begin to follow suit and we will begin to learn and understand the directions that we have been given by the Master Scientist and creator of all things! Christians, I am certain, will continue to dispute the findings of the scientific community, and some in the scientific world will likely continue to question Christian myth, tradition and dogma. However, as I explained to my friend, frankly, believers have more to fear from religion than they have to fear from the scientific community. The religious community does enough to damage itself without any help from other disciplines.I recall the words of Jesus, when he once warned the self-righteous Pharisees that like dogmatic many in dogmatic religion today, they that had 'heaven shut up'.
Jesus warned the Pharisees, that they weren't going into the kingdom, and that they were responsible for keeping others from going into the kingdom. My friend eventually conceded during our discussion, that despite the churches disapproval to the contrary, that based upon his own studies, he actually believed in micro-evolution.I agreed with his admitted position for there is plenty of evidence available that proves that all species have not remained unchanged as some creationists and intelligent designers would have us to believe. What is really sad is that my friend, like too many religious believers, has to be secretive about what he really believes for fear of punishment by his religious group.
Conclusion: I believe that God, the Alpha and Omega, the Great Spirit, the Singularity, the Unifying principle..., preplanned all of the evolutionary changes that have proceeded thus far. I believe that the entire plan (logos) from end to end was encoded before the foundation of the world (see John 1:1-3; and we have only experienced some of it. I believe that at some unknown future date life, as we have become accustomed it, to will go through another radical change which may complete our cycle in the universe as we currently know it.
No man, not even the Son of Man knows the day or hour, when this next step in God's evolutionary cycle will take place.I also believe that scientific, creationist and intelligent design dogma notwithstanding, that the final stage will represent just another stage in divine evolution! Now if you have concluded that this minister has not placed 100% of his confidence in an often error-laden canon, you are correct, there is too much at stake for one to simply rely upon one source. I would prefer to rely on all of the words that proceed and proceeded from God. I believe that if we seek all of revealed truth, that the Truth Will Find Us! And I suspect that the truth has been knocking on the door, however, too many worldly influences, especially religion, has prevented us from hearing its knock.
In most of our faiths, and to our detriment too many of have believed that we have an exclusive understanding of the truth, which tells me that in some respects, all of us must in part be in error. Will we ever be humble enough to admit it? I suspect that each of us ought to simply open up, reexamine our long-held beliefs test the voracity of our long-held beliefs, test the sources from which our beliefs are derived, and then begin all over again.One thing that I know for certain is that not much has changed in the world of religion. The same, bickering, divisions, crucifixions, global wars and crusades, infighting and the rigorous defense of one's own beliefs or understanding have persisted. Being right for too many in religious circles, appears to be far more important than finding out 'what is right'!
Jeremiah almost lost his life, see Jeremiah the first and the eleventh chapters, when he was instructed to go to the religious zealots to root up, tear down and destroy their traditions and traditional beliefs. Afterwards, they were to go back and build all over again. From Jesus Christ until today, every minister, prophet or scientist who has ever tried to root up, tear down, destroy and build over again, has met with the similar fate which befell Jeremiah, ostracism, suspicion, accusation and imprisonment.
If we are any closer to God today as an institution, particularly in America with our American Capitalist Corporate-Religious-Military ideals, I simply cannot see how. For from this minister's point of view, IT IS TIME TO begin moving forward again for we are standing still, if not regressing. And in order to move forward, first of all we must go back and root up and discard many of our retrograde, fallacious, intolerant and unsubstantiated beliefs that we have held on to for all too long. Afterwards, we can begin all over again to prepare for the next step in God's divine evolutionary plan, by answering that knock at our doors, that brings us all of divine truth! For I say to all of those who are 'waiting for God', I suspect that God is, 'waiting for us' to grow up beyond self-serving religious practice and idealism.
Ask yourself, could God live among us as things stands now, given our current existence of murder, crime, theft, bitterness, hatred and other vices; of course not, and that is why he did not live with Adam and Eve. .Now if you still don't believe that what I am saying represents the truth, just ask yourself whether or not what you have been doing so far has been working, and whether or not it satisfies God? Or have you simply taken a position based upon what someone has taught you that is supposed to be the unadulterated truth; and you are determined to hold on to it regardless of all other evidence to the contrary?
This is not heresy that I am referring to, God has always utilized disparate voices, among others things, in order to relate truth to his creation. Religious organizations must open themselves and their teachings up to scrutiny, just as the scientific community is doing. Do you believe in divine healing, or do you subscribe to some dispensational theologist's take on divine healing?
With regard to dispensational theologists, some dispensational theologists believe that divine healing was something that ended during the Apostolic period. We have evangelists today like Benny Hinn who claim that individuals were healed during their religious crusades. However, years ago when subjected to scrutiny and verification, it was determined that many of the individual claims of healing were in fact false. Now having said that, I am not a dispensational theologist, and I believe that God has healed many individuals since the close of the Apostolic period.And just as divine healing occurred before, during and after the Apostolic period, those healings that took place were often visibly verifiable.
In the same manner, religious institutions of today, ought to open themselves, their claims, teachings and dogma to scrutiny, as opposed to saying, because we say or believe it, therefore it must be true.There is too much at stake, for religious organizations to demand that other human simply rely on the good intentions of religious individuals, and their singular and dogmatic interpretations of a parochial or exclusive text. Having said that, one's philosophical understandings or beliefs in interpretive truth will not in any manner mitigate what is actually true, no matter how much fear is attached to it! Albeit doing so, could hinder or cause a lot of people to stumble.
God, the time independent evolutionary I Am, is apparently the evolutionary principle that continues to befuddle mankind, perhaps with the exception of members of our scientific community. It is Jesus Christ who in the person of God reported that I am life, I am the light, I am eternal life, I give eternal life; in other words I AM the evolutionary life giving and life changing principle! And isn't this the crux of the debate, naturalistic versus divine evolution?And isn't this the motivation or praxis of most religious organizations, to impart eternity's motivation upon our lives, given that each one of us is driven towards living as opposed to dying?
Peace & Grace
Reverend C. Solomon
http://www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com/
My oral-written position on Divine Evolution. My motive: Each of one of us must remember that one day we will meet our creator on an individualized basis. Therefore, each one of us must take the responsibility for our own actions in this life, in order to ensure that we have done the things that God requires as opposed to what some well intentioned religious group believes or requires of us!
And if you disagree with my conclusion I simply ask you this: Don't Taze Me Bro!
Jan 14, 2008
The Rev Responds To The Washington Post's Mr. Arkin 01/14/08
The Boy Who Cried Wolf (by the Rev):
Mr. Arkin wrote: In Abu Dhabi yesterday, Bush said Iran is threatening regional and world security and that the United States and its Gulf allies must "confront this danger before it is too late...!
The Rev Wrote:
Let me see whether or not I can wrap my arms around this. You are telling me that the man who recently invaded a nation, unjustly, I might add; the same man who continues at this hour to meddle, unjustly, in the internal affairs of how many other sovereign nations of the world; the same man who is currently wreaking havoc in the once sovereign nations of Pakistan and Iran (inclduing with their leadership) that wants the American people to rally around him as some did, before, leading up to and afterwards, supporting his folly in Iraq? I would simply ask you again, which one of these gentlemen is the good guy, and which one is the bad guy?
The policies of the Bush administration are jaundiced and warped! Factually, I am not sure who is more of the alarmist, videotape producer, UBL, or media propagandist, GWB? One thing is for certain, both entities take advantage of the media and spin, in order to spread their messages of fear and discord.
The rest of the world will be better off, and more likely to move forward when men who practice such behaviors are retired, either to Crawford or the White Mountains!
BTW was anyone present when the former President of Iran, Rafsanjani, spoke at the National Cathedral in DC last year? He explained and it has been confirmed how the nation of Iran supported Bush and the USA in Afghanistan in the war against terrorism.
And what did Iran get in return? Answer: More saber-rattling and threats (like
invasion) from GWB and company.
The Bush Administration is not pursuing peace, they are simply trying to diminish the power of those nations who do not share a common belief with them, particularly those nations who prevent America from spreading its vision of world-wide domination of disparate people and resources! [Why? It is always been the aim of America and some Americans, to retain and acquire more wealth and the requisite power that is needed in order to retain wealth and power!]
I said it years ago and I will say it again, Hitler would have been proud of this Administration. He would likely add if he could: that was all that I was trying to do and say in the first place [make the world a better place]. So, why did you stop me?
Someone in Washington and America needs to have a real gut check!
and the Rev's second comment:
Bush is right about one thing, there is a nation out there who is threatening regional and world security..., and the United Nations, the allies, the world and sober-thinking Americans ought to do something about it!
What he does not accept, however, is the fact that he is the leader of that nation and Administration in particular, that is putting the world at risk. The nation that he is unwittingly refer to is the 'the United States of Amigo - George Bush'!
Unlike the mythical allegory of the first President George Washington, now I am beginning to wonder, did this President on the other hand tell lies to his father when he was growing up? He certainly is a good liar now. Oops, sorry to offend - he called it 'misleading the nation' didn't he?
Clinton lied about sex, GB lies about security matters! And which President was impeached in the House?
Posted by: The Rev January 14, 2008 03:15 PM
Posted by: The Rev in the Washington Post Blog
Addenda: Six things does the Lord hate: "....one who spreads innocent blood..., a liar...!
Some of the American people may continue to excuse the misbehavior of our
mad-man, needs to be prayed for and confronted President,
who is needlessly destroying innocent lives
around the world, however, I don't
believe that God will act
in kind!
Does anyone recall the Hegalian explanation for man's inhumanity to man? Hegel attributed it to the following: "The ownership of property, and the pursuit of class struggle". Too many Americans idolize property and wealth, and they are clashing with their brothers and sisters, in must inhumane weay in order preserve as well as pursue the former, in deference to sharing with their brothers and sisters around the world!
Mr. Arkin wrote: In Abu Dhabi yesterday, Bush said Iran is threatening regional and world security and that the United States and its Gulf allies must "confront this danger before it is too late...!
The Rev Wrote:
Let me see whether or not I can wrap my arms around this. You are telling me that the man who recently invaded a nation, unjustly, I might add; the same man who continues at this hour to meddle, unjustly, in the internal affairs of how many other sovereign nations of the world; the same man who is currently wreaking havoc in the once sovereign nations of Pakistan and Iran (inclduing with their leadership) that wants the American people to rally around him as some did, before, leading up to and afterwards, supporting his folly in Iraq? I would simply ask you again, which one of these gentlemen is the good guy, and which one is the bad guy?
The policies of the Bush administration are jaundiced and warped! Factually, I am not sure who is more of the alarmist, videotape producer, UBL, or media propagandist, GWB? One thing is for certain, both entities take advantage of the media and spin, in order to spread their messages of fear and discord.
The rest of the world will be better off, and more likely to move forward when men who practice such behaviors are retired, either to Crawford or the White Mountains!
BTW was anyone present when the former President of Iran, Rafsanjani, spoke at the National Cathedral in DC last year? He explained and it has been confirmed how the nation of Iran supported Bush and the USA in Afghanistan in the war against terrorism.
And what did Iran get in return? Answer: More saber-rattling and threats (like
invasion) from GWB and company.
The Bush Administration is not pursuing peace, they are simply trying to diminish the power of those nations who do not share a common belief with them, particularly those nations who prevent America from spreading its vision of world-wide domination of disparate people and resources! [Why? It is always been the aim of America and some Americans, to retain and acquire more wealth and the requisite power that is needed in order to retain wealth and power!]
I said it years ago and I will say it again, Hitler would have been proud of this Administration. He would likely add if he could: that was all that I was trying to do and say in the first place [make the world a better place]. So, why did you stop me?
Someone in Washington and America needs to have a real gut check!
and the Rev's second comment:
Bush is right about one thing, there is a nation out there who is threatening regional and world security..., and the United Nations, the allies, the world and sober-thinking Americans ought to do something about it!
What he does not accept, however, is the fact that he is the leader of that nation and Administration in particular, that is putting the world at risk. The nation that he is unwittingly refer to is the 'the United States of Amigo - George Bush'!
Unlike the mythical allegory of the first President George Washington, now I am beginning to wonder, did this President on the other hand tell lies to his father when he was growing up? He certainly is a good liar now. Oops, sorry to offend - he called it 'misleading the nation' didn't he?
Clinton lied about sex, GB lies about security matters! And which President was impeached in the House?
Posted by: The Rev January 14, 2008 03:15 PM
Posted by: The Rev in the Washington Post Blog
Addenda: Six things does the Lord hate: "....one who spreads innocent blood..., a liar...!
Some of the American people may continue to excuse the misbehavior of our
mad-man, needs to be prayed for and confronted President,
who is needlessly destroying innocent lives
around the world, however, I don't
believe that God will act
in kind!
Does anyone recall the Hegalian explanation for man's inhumanity to man? Hegel attributed it to the following: "The ownership of property, and the pursuit of class struggle". Too many Americans idolize property and wealth, and they are clashing with their brothers and sisters, in must inhumane weay in order preserve as well as pursue the former, in deference to sharing with their brothers and sisters around the world!
Jan 11, 2008
The Rev Has Friends: From The Washington Post Blog & The Rev's Reply
Rev, you are a prince and gent, it is just funny to me how Bush lies to people repeatedly and these conservatives still never get tired of defending him. INSTEAD THEY CHOOSE TO ATTACK ME FOR TELLING THEM THE TRUTH. Yes, keep telling me how Bush loves America, and how us libs hate America. At the end of the day, Bush's actions have resulted in devastating consequences for this country and the world. But I guess the real problem is secular Iranian Americans who tell the truth online, not lying presidents who draw up plans for mass murder.
Posted by: Farzad | January 10, 2008 03:11 PM
The Rev Replies:
And thank you Farzad...
Someone has to keep the record straight,
you shouldn't have to, along
with a few others have
to defend it alone.
We want a just world, many Americans
want an Americanized and controlled
world - with the real American Idol
the U.S. Government sitting
atop it!
My position has been confirmed as a result
of a few press conferences and
numerous meetings that I
have attended in
Washington DC over
the years.
A group of my peers who returned
from tours of the Middle-East,
and several honest
U.S. Representatives
shared the truth
with respect to
what has really
been going on
overseas, as
far as the
USA is concerned -
some of us
will
listen to and tell the truth!
Americans believe that
Iraq has America's
oil underneath
its sand for example!
And trust me, some
of the folks who
are harassing you,
they know the truth
too - they are
simply sticking
with the American
position - well
you know that
already!
Ironically one event that
I attended took place
at the National Press
Club right on 14th
Street in Dodge City,
well the District
of Columbia - isn't
it ironic that
America believes
that it can solve
problems in
other nations
when our
government
can't resolve
crime and
American-style
terrorism
right underneath
their noses in
the nation's
capital, including
the crime and
terrorism that they
participate in
themselves?
Bush has his mis-advisors, and I
listen to truthful advisors,
individuals who have
travelled overseas and
met first-hand with
Sharon and company, as well
as with the late Yasser
Arafat, the
PLO...
All of the honest and moral
people of the world who
believe in 'justice for
all' people, will
have to stand
together
against
fascism - even
American fascism,
well,
that is if we
can hurry up
and stop
even my
own nation from
killing everyone
else who is
willing to
stand up for
anything other than
worldwide,
'American-style injustice'
that is supported by
American tergiversators -
some of whom write
into this blog!
And a man who is surrounded by
'yes men' will never accept
no for an answer, and
that is another problem
that this administration
has!
Keep fighting the good fight!
Posted by: The Rev | January 11, 2008 02:06 AM
Peace & Grace
Rev. c. Solomon
Addenda: I have been accused on numerous occasions of being
a traitor in the blog, however, having said that my foundation
has been shaped by a higher source, and America is not all that
matters - truth is what matters. And factually, we are no
better than any so call renegade or renegade nation, given
that we are masters of the practices that they reportedly
engage in. Other people are accountable to God, just as
America is accountable to God. America has to trying
to be God, for as I wrote many times last year,
the real American Idol is America itself.
And just like the previous empires of
history that got beside themselves
eventually they were brought
down. Am I wishing that
America be brought down -
I am hoping that
we humble ourselves
before that inevitably
were to occur, not by man
but by an act of the Sovereign - remember folks, WE ARE LITERALLY IN CONTROL OF BABYLON now!
Posted by: Farzad | January 10, 2008 03:11 PM
The Rev Replies:
And thank you Farzad...
Someone has to keep the record straight,
you shouldn't have to, along
with a few others have
to defend it alone.
We want a just world, many Americans
want an Americanized and controlled
world - with the real American Idol
the U.S. Government sitting
atop it!
My position has been confirmed as a result
of a few press conferences and
numerous meetings that I
have attended in
Washington DC over
the years.
A group of my peers who returned
from tours of the Middle-East,
and several honest
U.S. Representatives
shared the truth
with respect to
what has really
been going on
overseas, as
far as the
USA is concerned -
some of us
will
listen to and tell the truth!
Americans believe that
Iraq has America's
oil underneath
its sand for example!
And trust me, some
of the folks who
are harassing you,
they know the truth
too - they are
simply sticking
with the American
position - well
you know that
already!
Ironically one event that
I attended took place
at the National Press
Club right on 14th
Street in Dodge City,
well the District
of Columbia - isn't
it ironic that
America believes
that it can solve
problems in
other nations
when our
government
can't resolve
crime and
American-style
terrorism
right underneath
their noses in
the nation's
capital, including
the crime and
terrorism that they
participate in
themselves?
Bush has his mis-advisors, and I
listen to truthful advisors,
individuals who have
travelled overseas and
met first-hand with
Sharon and company, as well
as with the late Yasser
Arafat, the
PLO...
All of the honest and moral
people of the world who
believe in 'justice for
all' people, will
have to stand
together
against
fascism - even
American fascism,
well,
that is if we
can hurry up
and stop
even my
own nation from
killing everyone
else who is
willing to
stand up for
anything other than
worldwide,
'American-style injustice'
that is supported by
American tergiversators -
some of whom write
into this blog!
And a man who is surrounded by
'yes men' will never accept
no for an answer, and
that is another problem
that this administration
has!
Keep fighting the good fight!
Posted by: The Rev | January 11, 2008 02:06 AM
Peace & Grace
Rev. c. Solomon
Addenda: I have been accused on numerous occasions of being
a traitor in the blog, however, having said that my foundation
has been shaped by a higher source, and America is not all that
matters - truth is what matters. And factually, we are no
better than any so call renegade or renegade nation, given
that we are masters of the practices that they reportedly
engage in. Other people are accountable to God, just as
America is accountable to God. America has to trying
to be God, for as I wrote many times last year,
the real American Idol is America itself.
And just like the previous empires of
history that got beside themselves
eventually they were brought
down. Am I wishing that
America be brought down -
I am hoping that
we humble ourselves
before that inevitably
were to occur, not by man
but by an act of the Sovereign - remember folks, WE ARE LITERALLY IN CONTROL OF BABYLON now!
Jan 10, 2008
Fighting The Good Fight In The Washington Post Blog: The Rev Continues to...
Farza said: AND GUESS WHAT FOLKS THE REAL AXIS OF EVIL (Israel lobby, defense related contractors, and Big Oil)...
The Rev responded,
Clearly you don't need my help, however,
I have reminded many Christians over
the years - those who ascribe to
Constantine's canon, that
the Angel of the Lord,
according to 'the canon',
particularly books
taken from Hebrew
scriptures
spoke to Hagar,
the mother of the descendants
of Ishmael, apparently
more often than it
spoke to the
Virgina
Mary!
In other words, Ishamael's descendants
should not be excoriated or
written off as often is the case in the
West, where Jews are preferred
over Muslims. Paul a
Jew, found and explained along
with many other Jewish
prophets that the
Jewish people
were not
above
reproach themselves!
Some of us are trying to get the American
Christian and secularist, to understand
that neither are they
above approach, and therefore
the misguided assumption
that everyone else in
the world is a flawed
miscreant, is a
'categorically
flawed, deterministic
and self-serving
mis-assumption'!
Someday, perhaps the Jews and Christians
will get it. And with respect to
atheists, the one's that I
have learned from explained:
We do not have an issue with a God,
we simply believe that God is
a manmade invention. I
understand, and therefore
it would appear that at
one time all humans
were atheist (in one
respect or another);
and whatever guides
you, your heart
appears to be
in the
right place!
Perhaps some of our religious Americans
need to acquire some of what
you have!
Posted by: The Rev | January 10, 2008 02:42 PM
The Rev during the wee hours of the morn West Coast time: Actutaly ended at 4:24am Pacific time
Someone should wake Mr. Arkin up, and I mean that literally - he started this and he is somewhere getting his rest.
I spent 9 months in Ohio listening
to different individuals who voted
for our 2-term President, and are
currently expressing regret over
their decisions.
There are too many Americans, who
are not forward looking [or
thinking] enough to
recognize that a short-term
fix/invasion will never fix long-
term problems.
The Iranians are merely sending
a warning across the America bough,
the message is clear - don't punk
our nation; for we are warriors and
just like you will not permit
your nation to be punked - real or
imagined - neither will we.
Plainfacto, your logic gives
individuals like Mr. Bush and those
who serve along with him just what
they want. The evidence is clear
that the Bushtanistas were planning
to hit Iraq for example, arguably,
before they ever took over the
reigns of government.
And I suspect that going back
to the Nixon era, when Cheney,
Rumsfool (forgive me) and others
were working together, they were
secretly conspiring, given that
they wanted to strengthen their
foothold in Iraq and the rest of
the Middle and Near-East. And
Pearle, Snowe, Wolfowitz and
the rest of the gang
were saying Amen!
At the time Condoleeza was still
back in the Golden State with
me at Stanford (While she was
provost - I was a member of
the Executive Board for
Afro-American Staff
and Faculty).
Your logic gives license to a
group of thugs who consistently
ignored the will of the U.N.,
ordered Hans Blix and the inspectors
out of Iraq before they could
finish confirming to the
world that Iraq did not have
the purported WMD arsenal,
that the Bush brigade
claimed. Bush
had to get them
out, for they
were disproving
his lie and
rationale for
invading
Iraq!
One of our Congressmen, said it
best in one of the meetings
that I attended, Bush
and the boyz felt
that Iraq has our
oil under their
sand! Thank
you Rep. Charlie Rangel!
Your logic says to thug
leadership now and in the
future, that it is okay
to ride into a nation
with guns blazing,
for sooner or nation
the American people
will rally behind
any cause for war,
a just one or an
unjust one, just
as the government
is currently doing in
Iran and Pakistan.
Oh come on, I have
spoken with military
personal that were
secretly dispatched
to Iraq,
at the same time that
the American military
went to Afghanistan.
Congress never declares
war, and our American
Presidents too often
will not tell the truth
when factually they have
already engaged the
country in war.
America is already at war
with Iran and with those
factions that it does not
care for in Pakistan.
And the people of Iran and
Pakistan as well, they know
it and therefore they are
not sitting back on their
laurels.
Their is one component of
American foreign policy that
needs to be talked about more -
it is the lying aspect of our
foreign policy. The latter
is totally out of hand.
And what would a Colin Powell
or Obama do Dao? With respect to
Powell, we will never know. However
we may just get the chance to see
Obama in action, even though I am
voting for someone else in the
primaries.
There is a lot at stake here, and
whoever takes over at the helm will have
to, number one, be realistic. Number
two, they will have to stay away
from narrow interests and ideologues
whose ears have long since been shut.
The latter are on a mission of their
own construction.
Their behavior has been endogenous
and not reactive behavior. Why do
I say that? For when you get right
down to it, none of these nations:
Iraq, Iran or Pakistan have done
anything to the United States of
America. However, the United
States of America on the other
hand has harassed, aggressed
(it's a word now), invaded,
threatened, strangled economically,
spied upon and interfered with
one or more of these nations.
Any nation having done that to
the USA we would serve notice
that we view their actions as:
An Act of War!
And in my learned opinion,
they are entitled to the
same conclusions.
And to you E. Coast people, 3 hours
ahead of us, I am joining Mr. Arkin
who I suspect is enjoying a pleasant
REM dream right about now, while the
rest of us are up fighting over what
he started!
The Rev back on West Coast (Left Coast to some of you time)
Posted by: The Rev | January 10, 2008 07:24 AM actually 4:24am.
Rev. C. Solomon
Addenda: Many cringe when I say it, however, given all of my research
and for Dao, sitting almost directly in front of Colin
and listening personally to what he had to say
after he was (summarily fired by the Bush Administration),
I cannot see where, just as I said above, Iraq, Iran or
Pakistan have done anything to the U.S.A.! And while
we are at it, I cannot see where Syria, the DPRK,
China, Russia, Bolivia, Nicaragua or
leaders like Hugo Chavez and others
have done anything but respond
to the malfeasance of our
nation, with its purported
Christian leadership!!
The 'tergiversators' of the USA will someday have to give account
to a force that is greater than that of the U.S.A. - there lies,
plausible deniability, rationalizations, misdirection, coverups
and controlling the narrative - won't work then as it often
does and resonates with the American people!
The Rev responded,
Clearly you don't need my help, however,
I have reminded many Christians over
the years - those who ascribe to
Constantine's canon, that
the Angel of the Lord,
according to 'the canon',
particularly books
taken from Hebrew
scriptures
spoke to Hagar,
the mother of the descendants
of Ishmael, apparently
more often than it
spoke to the
Virgina
Mary!
In other words, Ishamael's descendants
should not be excoriated or
written off as often is the case in the
West, where Jews are preferred
over Muslims. Paul a
Jew, found and explained along
with many other Jewish
prophets that the
Jewish people
were not
above
reproach themselves!
Some of us are trying to get the American
Christian and secularist, to understand
that neither are they
above approach, and therefore
the misguided assumption
that everyone else in
the world is a flawed
miscreant, is a
'categorically
flawed, deterministic
and self-serving
mis-assumption'!
Someday, perhaps the Jews and Christians
will get it. And with respect to
atheists, the one's that I
have learned from explained:
We do not have an issue with a God,
we simply believe that God is
a manmade invention. I
understand, and therefore
it would appear that at
one time all humans
were atheist (in one
respect or another);
and whatever guides
you, your heart
appears to be
in the
right place!
Perhaps some of our religious Americans
need to acquire some of what
you have!
Posted by: The Rev | January 10, 2008 02:42 PM
The Rev during the wee hours of the morn West Coast time: Actutaly ended at 4:24am Pacific time
Someone should wake Mr. Arkin up, and I mean that literally - he started this and he is somewhere getting his rest.
I spent 9 months in Ohio listening
to different individuals who voted
for our 2-term President, and are
currently expressing regret over
their decisions.
There are too many Americans, who
are not forward looking [or
thinking] enough to
recognize that a short-term
fix/invasion will never fix long-
term problems.
The Iranians are merely sending
a warning across the America bough,
the message is clear - don't punk
our nation; for we are warriors and
just like you will not permit
your nation to be punked - real or
imagined - neither will we.
Plainfacto, your logic gives
individuals like Mr. Bush and those
who serve along with him just what
they want. The evidence is clear
that the Bushtanistas were planning
to hit Iraq for example, arguably,
before they ever took over the
reigns of government.
And I suspect that going back
to the Nixon era, when Cheney,
Rumsfool (forgive me) and others
were working together, they were
secretly conspiring, given that
they wanted to strengthen their
foothold in Iraq and the rest of
the Middle and Near-East. And
Pearle, Snowe, Wolfowitz and
the rest of the gang
were saying Amen!
At the time Condoleeza was still
back in the Golden State with
me at Stanford (While she was
provost - I was a member of
the Executive Board for
Afro-American Staff
and Faculty).
Your logic gives license to a
group of thugs who consistently
ignored the will of the U.N.,
ordered Hans Blix and the inspectors
out of Iraq before they could
finish confirming to the
world that Iraq did not have
the purported WMD arsenal,
that the Bush brigade
claimed. Bush
had to get them
out, for they
were disproving
his lie and
rationale for
invading
Iraq!
One of our Congressmen, said it
best in one of the meetings
that I attended, Bush
and the boyz felt
that Iraq has our
oil under their
sand! Thank
you Rep. Charlie Rangel!
Your logic says to thug
leadership now and in the
future, that it is okay
to ride into a nation
with guns blazing,
for sooner or nation
the American people
will rally behind
any cause for war,
a just one or an
unjust one, just
as the government
is currently doing in
Iran and Pakistan.
Oh come on, I have
spoken with military
personal that were
secretly dispatched
to Iraq,
at the same time that
the American military
went to Afghanistan.
Congress never declares
war, and our American
Presidents too often
will not tell the truth
when factually they have
already engaged the
country in war.
America is already at war
with Iran and with those
factions that it does not
care for in Pakistan.
And the people of Iran and
Pakistan as well, they know
it and therefore they are
not sitting back on their
laurels.
Their is one component of
American foreign policy that
needs to be talked about more -
it is the lying aspect of our
foreign policy. The latter
is totally out of hand.
And what would a Colin Powell
or Obama do Dao? With respect to
Powell, we will never know. However
we may just get the chance to see
Obama in action, even though I am
voting for someone else in the
primaries.
There is a lot at stake here, and
whoever takes over at the helm will have
to, number one, be realistic. Number
two, they will have to stay away
from narrow interests and ideologues
whose ears have long since been shut.
The latter are on a mission of their
own construction.
Their behavior has been endogenous
and not reactive behavior. Why do
I say that? For when you get right
down to it, none of these nations:
Iraq, Iran or Pakistan have done
anything to the United States of
America. However, the United
States of America on the other
hand has harassed, aggressed
(it's a word now), invaded,
threatened, strangled economically,
spied upon and interfered with
one or more of these nations.
Any nation having done that to
the USA we would serve notice
that we view their actions as:
An Act of War!
And in my learned opinion,
they are entitled to the
same conclusions.
And to you E. Coast people, 3 hours
ahead of us, I am joining Mr. Arkin
who I suspect is enjoying a pleasant
REM dream right about now, while the
rest of us are up fighting over what
he started!
The Rev back on West Coast (Left Coast to some of you time)
Posted by: The Rev | January 10, 2008 07:24 AM actually 4:24am.
Rev. C. Solomon
Addenda: Many cringe when I say it, however, given all of my research
and for Dao, sitting almost directly in front of Colin
and listening personally to what he had to say
after he was (summarily fired by the Bush Administration),
I cannot see where, just as I said above, Iraq, Iran or
Pakistan have done anything to the U.S.A.! And while
we are at it, I cannot see where Syria, the DPRK,
China, Russia, Bolivia, Nicaragua or
leaders like Hugo Chavez and others
have done anything but respond
to the malfeasance of our
nation, with its purported
Christian leadership!!
The 'tergiversators' of the USA will someday have to give account
to a force that is greater than that of the U.S.A. - there lies,
plausible deniability, rationalizations, misdirection, coverups
and controlling the narrative - won't work then as it often
does and resonates with the American people!
Jan 9, 2008
Cromwell, Iraq, Today's Slaves and other: Rev Responds To WashingtonPost
Mr. Arkin's Topic: The Bush Administration Overreacts
Images are irresistible, and so it didn't take long for the Pentagon to release videotape of the Iranian harassment of U.S. naval ships Sunday. Speedboats dart about the hulking American vessels, their size belying their potential to deliver a suicide bomb or other mortal threat.
The Iranians obviously had theater in mind themselves: The 30-minute confrontation was seemingly choreographed and includes a heavily accented male voice taunting the Navy over the radio. "I am coming to you," the voice says. "You will explode after [inaudible] minutes."
By William M. Arkin | January 9, 2008; 8:17 AM ET Iran
Previous: Dire Straits |
See some of the comments that were exchanged between
plainfacto and myself which proves that people can
come together, and please don't overlook the
more caustic exchances that took place. It is
sad that religious people, all who claim to be
connected to God, cannot do a better job
of respecting one another's viewpoint.
Please read comments from the bottom up this time in order to under the threads!
to plainfacto from the Rev,
And I suspect that the people of Iraq,
Iran and other nations of the
world would appreciate it more,
if the people of the United
States would find a more
pallative and trustworthy
way of helping
them, unsolicited
of late, to secure
their freedoms!
You and I for example -
and I appreciate your
comments and candor
have been able to find
synthesis
via a spirited, but
fruitful discussion
- no one was shot!
BTW in the state of MS
they hung my uncle to
a tree and shot 66
holes into his dangling
body, roughly 70
years ago - I'm not
saying this to you,
however, I am
certain that
some Mississippians
(Trent might have
approved of that
too) probably interpreted
that as helping
him to secure
his freedom.
Okay, that was a cheap
shot, but so was Trent's
with respect to Edgefield
S.C. son of a killer racist
former Congressman, and
possibly Rev, Al Sharpton's
distant cuz!
Having said that, you sound
like a decent person who
can be reasoned with
and there are many
individuals in the middle,
near east and the Americas
who share that quality -
they don't have to be
slaughtered.
And believe me
black people want to
protect this country,
we simply want the nation
to become
what George H.W. Bush
talked about, 'a kinder
and gentler nation',
and to conduct America's
foreign policy in a
more considerate, not
shoot first and
ask questions
later manner.
Unfortunately, we believe
that the nation needs
to become kinder and
more malleable at the
same time that the
majority culture
feels that the nation
needs to become more
aggressive.
And there is another
part of the disconnect
that goes beyond red
state/blue state
politics. Black
Americans could
help bridge the
gap between the
two polar opposites
here in the USA and
overseas. Some
Americans, on
the other hand
do not want the
gap to be bridged;
they are after control
as well as wealth.
You can understand what I
mean given your
comments as follows:
the monied interests..., for there
are some powerbrokers in America
whose aims clearly are not as
altruistic as your interests,
or your family's interest
have been or appear to be.
And it appears that all too
often it is those
individuals who I just
mentioned, that
are the ones who
appear to be driving
driving the process -
that others on both
side of the ocean
white, black, rich,
poor, male and female -
are dying over and
that is NOT
Freedom - well it
may be freedom
to exploit
whomever
they have to in
pursuit of
market wealth.
So you and others ought to be
able to see why the Iraqi, Iranian and
Pakistanti people might be as
fearful of President Bush and
the United States, as they
might have been of Saddam
Hussein and the Bathist
parties.
I suspect that there are
still better methods that
we can employ as a nation
in order to help other
nations to obtain
their freedom
objectives!
As Americans today,
and many have appeared
to have learned finally,
you cannot just
take what you
want from Iran,
Iraq, Pakistan,
or nations of the Americas...
in the manner that
the American
colonists
bought and brought
people from
Africa -
even if
African
traders
sold them to
American traders!
The white family that I lived with
for the past 4 weeks agree with the
Rev's postion about justice too!
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 07:42 PM
Isn't this country grand?
It turns out that to be a warrior, ready to take on a nation of 70 million, all you need is a browser and a bad temper.
Strange, but I don't see a Baghdad or Kabul dateline in any of these posts. But then making war has always been much easier from a desk than in the field.
But, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Jorho and Plainfacto and Bulldog6 and Vincent and Steve and Mike are strapping on their warrior gear right this minute.
Or maybe not. Maybe they're heading to the bathouse where they can, as is their custom, demonstrate to each other how manly they are.
Posted by: camorrista | January 9, 2008 07:09 PM
Hey Rev:
We haven't forgotten the previous oppression. At least, some of us haven't. But we don't rule the domain. We are not the rich and powerful. The monied interests and rulers through the ages have always gained power more in spite of our heritage for loving freedom than because of it.
Please understand that I don't feel 'entitled' or 'priviledged or overtly 'enlightened' by my ancestry.' Instead, I feel responsible for this country. Yes, responsible. Maybe - moreso. My vote counts the same as yours -though.
What you sense is my own need to make it work now - as it did way back then. The priciples of democracy are quite simple, it is the world that gets complicated. Money and corruption are bound in the heart of man. You know the bible? Then you should know this - too.
As a side note, many of early settlers (in the North) bought slaves to free them. I know my family did for sure. One of my past relatives gained early notoriety in colonial America for harboring a fugitive slave and refusing to turn him over to his 'so-called' owner. Many a field in this country have been soaked with the blood of my relatives, who fought and died for the simple idea that men are naturally entitled to freedom. These are some of the many things that attach me to the ideals by which they lived.
Only God makes people truely free. Some governments allow their citizens to thank God for their freedom. That would be any country that guarantees the right to freedom of conscience/religion.
On the other hand, some countries force their citizens to thank God. But, in such a case, the people are no longer free. Indeed, how could one be thankful for freedom that doesn't exist, and especially when the thanking is involuntary?
Then there are those who are given no freedom at all by the dictates of their government. You can see them by comparing to the above.
I think that George Washington said it best, in his fairwell speech. Paraphrased, he said that it was not only important that 'real' Christains were essential to keep the courts - and therefore the government - honest and straightforward, but essential for it continue as he would have it.
I kinda liked 'ol George for saying that way - in particular. Priveidged, sycophant, overbearing rules of government; no. Hard to understand and interpret; no. Easy and responsible for the citizen to understand' yes.
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 9, 2008 07:08 PM
How quickly we forget....
The US entered the Vietnam War after the so called "Gulf of Tonkin incident". Please google that exact phrase, which is in quotation marks above, for further insight.
If Lyndon Johnson's administration fabricated (lied about) the Gulf of Tonkin incident, how could ANYONE with average intelligence, or above, believe this Iranian "harassment" (in unrecognizable/unidentifiable speed boats) is nothing but more than war-mongering chicanery by the same WMD liars, er, I mean, "misinformed intelligence" of the Bush administration?!?
Posted by: Rex | January 9, 2008 07:08 PM
Oh by the way, I still think George Bush is a liar, thief, murderer, and torturer. In a just world Dick Cheney and George Bush would die in prison. HEY NEOCONS THAT MY VERSION OF "BRING IT ON"!!!
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:58 PM
When will the highly-offensive comments listed in this section be deleted? It's sad and disturbing to see belligerent ignorance manifest itself here on the Washington Post Company's website, or anywhere.
Please remove the offending comments immediately; the webmaster certainly ought to consider banning the offending contributors.
Posted by: Concerned Reader | January 9, 2008 06:55 PM
Can anyone say Gulf of Tonkin? Yes, the "incident" involving North Vietnamese high-speed patrol boats firing on navy ships that sparked our entry into the Vietnam War . . . that NEVER happened we now know.
Posted by: Steve | January 9, 2008 06:38 PM
Hey Farzad, I hear Iran is looking for new suicide bombers, can you PLEASE apply for the job? I hear it has great benefits (72 ugly Muslim cows).)Another neoidiot
LIKE I SAID I AM NOT A MUSLIM, DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY RELIGION. SO MUSLIM WOMEN ARE COWS NOW? VERY INTERESTING RACIST, RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, AND MISOGYNY ALL ROLLED INTO ONE. WOW, YOU CONSERVATIVES HAVE REALLY OUT DONE YOURSELVES. THANK YOU FOR EXPOSING HOW YOU HAVE NO IDEAS, AND CAN'T ARUGE SUBSTANCE AND FACTS. THIS IS IT PEOPLE, THIS IS ALL THEY HAVE TO OFFER. THREATS, SMEARS, AND BRAINLESS CLICHES; THANK YOU FOR DEMONSTRATING HOW YOU LACK INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY AND HOW MORALLY REPUGNANT YOU ARE. I OUTGREW THIS KIND OF CHILDISH BANTER WHEN I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL. I AM GLAD THAT THE WASHINGTON POST FEELS THAT THIS KIND OF RACISM AND HATE SPEECH IS GOOD CONTENT FOR THEIR BLOGS. IF I CAME OUT AND MADE THESE TYPES OF COMMENTS AGAINST JEWS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, ASIANS, OR ANY OTHER GROUP THEY WOULD KICK ME OUT OF THIS CITE AND DELETE MY MESSAGES. TYPICAL, BEING IRANIAN IS THE NEW BLACK I SUPPOSE. AND THE WP IS SHOWING ITS ANTI-IRANIAN AND ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS AGAIN.
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:35 PM
What kind of Arab or Persian is Farzad? Just wondering. Have you prayed 5 times today yet?)jorho
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR DEMONSTRATING THE COMPLETE LACK OF IDEAS AND XENOPHOBIA OF THE RIGHTWING IN THIS COUNTRY. MY NAME IS PERSIAN, AND I AM AGNOSTIC, I DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY RELIGION, AND IN FACT BELIEVE ORGANIZED RELIGION IS A NEGATIVE. BUT THANKS AGAIN FOR BROADBRUSHING ME, AND TRYING TO INSULT ME. AT ONE TIME, I WAS EVEN A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN AND A REPUBLICAN, BUT THEN I WENT TO COLLEGE AND ACTUALLY READ A BOOK OR TWO(not written by Ann Coulter, Rush, or Hannity), TRY IT.
And quite frankly I am very proud of my persian heritage and culture and I wouldn't change it for anything, thanks again for showing the ugly face of bigotry, hatred, and intellectual bankruptcy of the rightwing in this country. As if any reasonable person needs more evidence of it. NOT ONE OF YOU HAS EVEN TRIED TO ARGUE WITH THE POST OR THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CITE I HAVE PROVIDED. INSTEAD YOU JUST THREATEN ME WITH VIOLENCE, SMEAR ME, OR THROW IN VEILED RELIGIOUS EPITHETS. IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACTS, IF THE WEAPONS ARE FROM THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OR IRAN, WHY ARE THEY THE WRONG SIZE, WHY ARE THEY DATED STAMPED WITH THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR, AND WHY IS THE WRITING IN ENGLISH?
Oh wait you guys don't have a response other then, "he hates America", and "I want to kick you a--".
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:13 PM
plainfacto
Let me say this as a black
American, and someone just gagged
I know.
As a bifurcated American,
part American and part
African, I can always sense
a form of patriotism from some
writers in this blog that
I have often suspected
dates back to their ancestral
heritage.
It is something that in one sense
many Americans like me do not share,
in fact at times, and even though
I believe I understood - it
seems hypocritical.
It appears to be a harbinger or sense
of pride that
goes along with a feeling that
we are the 'true 'Americans',
and therefore we must protect
the trust!
Indugle me, for again there
are those of us who on the
other hand share multiple ancestry
some of us part white. So, some
of us feel, therefore, a
strong kinship with the descendants
of the American colonists, despite
what they put our ancestors
through, yet we also feel a common bond
with the native American tribes,
the other non-white people of
the world, and those people
who have and are being oppressed
by any oppressor.
Why? Because
we understand what they are
going through now, because we
have gone through it here just as
your foreparents went through it as
a result of their experience with
King George.
Problem and Praxis: We often
wonder how or why the
descendants of the American
colonists have so easily forgotten
what their foreparents and ancestors
endured, when they were also
subjected to the rule of an
outside agitator.
We wonder why their descendants seem
to have forgotten how hard their
foreparents, along with the help
of many nationalists and other
nations fought to help secure
their freedoms, and the freedoms
that their progeny, enjoys even
until today.
Now wouldn't King George in
the same manner as you have
expressed that he was a friend
of the patriots, a friend who
provided them with land and
land grants, just as you feel
that America is a friend of the
Iraqi, Iranian and Pakistani
people - well I went a bit
further in saying what you
meant, but you get my drift?
Can you explain to me why it
always appears from many other
world people's perspectives,
that the lesson of freedom and
democracy appears to have been
lost or mitigated when
it comes to other people of the
world?
Why? For like King George, your
ancestors always seem to feel that they
are extending freedom, and causing
others 'to be better off than they
were' originally, when they are
conquered subdued or subjugated
by the descendants
of the freedom fighting colonists
that they descended from?
How come other world people, much
like your parents, would not view
your kindness, as your people seem to!
I am not being cynical, I really
don't get it! And you really might
not get this - most of us don't have
a dog in the fight - we are not
rooting for 'them', whoever whom
might happen to be. And we really
don't believe that you care a lick
about a free Iraq, Iran, Sudan,
Pakistan, Nicaragua, Bolivia..., we
believe that your people, our
half-American brothers and sisters
have another more sinister agenda!
What we are many times trying
to say is - that many times it
simply appears that you are trying
to do to 'them' what you did
to us - and somehow, believe
it or not, we never interpreted
that as helping us to become
free or 'to be better off'!
Comeback?
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 06:10 PM
USS Cole comes to mind here! Or did Arkin conveniently forget about that.
Posted by: Johnhubbard | January 9, 2008 06:09 PM
Well Rev, if Maliki ever decides that it is important to listen to the needs of his own people - as he should - and stop taking dictation from Iran; they might actually take the next step after having a constitution and solve the issues they face as a new government.
Their own resistance to their own thirst is appalling. Turkey - as an example - has a secular, surviving, and flourishing democracy.
There is no excuse for Iraq to say - that being a Muslim has no need for a democracy - when the alternatives are being under an Iranian kind of democracy. Mullahs looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do - is not a democracy - it is nothing more than a form of fascism.
I think that Maliki and other Shia representatives have been threatened by the Iranians. Maliki needs to be brave and resourceful; after all - he has US/Coalition forces to help him thru the night.
Iraq is unique - in that eighty percent of them are either Sunni Ararbs or Shia Arabs' the other twenty percent are Kurds.
Personally, I thought if we could suggest that Iraq be three provinces - with a central gov;t in Baghdad - it would do much to solve most of their ethnic dilemmas. Call them Sunnistan, Shiastan, and Kurdistan - as an example.
Baghdad has historically been the center for this entire region; so it would be the logical choice to administer to its provinces. Taxes and revenues could then be collected and distributed by needs and population. It is not as though I am the first one to see it be this way; logic dictates that it needs to be this way. But Maliki needs to be the man and do what is right for all Iraqis. They no longer need to worry about a guy like Hussein to take them away in the night...
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 9, 2008 05:48 PM
What kind of Arab or Persian is Farzad? Just wondering. Have you prayed 5 times today yet?
Posted by: jorho | January 9, 2008 05:45 PM
Hey Bulldog you republican nazi, how would you like to be whopped by a liberal. Anytime any place.
Posted by: bulldog_is_a_puss | January 9, 2008 05:37 PM
One caveat Plainfacto...
The Iraqi people are not free, their current fate is similar to that of the English colonists and they know that - wouldn't you agree.
The Iraq simply traded Saddam Hussein for, all due-respect, one dictator for another one! Someone, and his Party is still telling them what they can and cannot do.
Now can you answer this for me, for I just woke up from a bad dream? Did OSU, my former favorite team of 37 years, loose yet another BCS Championship game, and was it to the SEC?
And, is there something in the Constitution that says that there is something 'uncontinental' and 'unconstitutional' about our team loosing twice in 3 tries?
I suppose that the South has risen again after all, and therefore the Rev must head off to Tibet and join the monks and go into mediation until next years Big Game - the Rev is depressed!
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 05:21 PM
//If you keep messing with people, they will retaliate, just like the colonists did against the english mother land!//
Yes, but you must understand that Oliver Chromwell took up the fight against the English Monarchy - that spilled over into the 'colonies' as well.
Matter of fact, My great Granddad ('nameless') almost married Chronwell's (he brought reforms to British rule) sister.
Chromwell's man (my 'granddad') was used in the colonies to watch/report and ensure that British rule didn't seek to corrupt and rob the same.
The colonists were not recieving what their heavy taxes had paid England for - protection from the Indians and the Dutch - and the first colonists insisted upon a new identity as a new nation.
Since they began to take care of themselves independantly from England, they wished to be tied to them and their government no longer. This was the setting of the scene for 'the Charter Oak' incident which launched the colonies with their first constitution (Connecticut first). A constitution that was to be a first in the known world; it changed the concept of government from that point forward.
Yes; I know well of the constitution - more thn I have yet let you know - Rev...
Since we have began to help Iraq find the need for their own identity as free people; in the final analysis it will be up to them to show if they are worthy to be responsible for their own freedom. You can lead a thirsty horse to water, but you cannot force them to drink it...
Posted by: Plainfacto
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
Images are irresistible, and so it didn't take long for the Pentagon to release videotape of the Iranian harassment of U.S. naval ships Sunday. Speedboats dart about the hulking American vessels, their size belying their potential to deliver a suicide bomb or other mortal threat.
The Iranians obviously had theater in mind themselves: The 30-minute confrontation was seemingly choreographed and includes a heavily accented male voice taunting the Navy over the radio. "I am coming to you," the voice says. "You will explode after [inaudible] minutes."
By William M. Arkin | January 9, 2008; 8:17 AM ET Iran
Previous: Dire Straits |
See some of the comments that were exchanged between
plainfacto and myself which proves that people can
come together, and please don't overlook the
more caustic exchances that took place. It is
sad that religious people, all who claim to be
connected to God, cannot do a better job
of respecting one another's viewpoint.
Please read comments from the bottom up this time in order to under the threads!
to plainfacto from the Rev,
And I suspect that the people of Iraq,
Iran and other nations of the
world would appreciate it more,
if the people of the United
States would find a more
pallative and trustworthy
way of helping
them, unsolicited
of late, to secure
their freedoms!
You and I for example -
and I appreciate your
comments and candor
have been able to find
synthesis
via a spirited, but
fruitful discussion
- no one was shot!
BTW in the state of MS
they hung my uncle to
a tree and shot 66
holes into his dangling
body, roughly 70
years ago - I'm not
saying this to you,
however, I am
certain that
some Mississippians
(Trent might have
approved of that
too) probably interpreted
that as helping
him to secure
his freedom.
Okay, that was a cheap
shot, but so was Trent's
with respect to Edgefield
S.C. son of a killer racist
former Congressman, and
possibly Rev, Al Sharpton's
distant cuz!
Having said that, you sound
like a decent person who
can be reasoned with
and there are many
individuals in the middle,
near east and the Americas
who share that quality -
they don't have to be
slaughtered.
And believe me
black people want to
protect this country,
we simply want the nation
to become
what George H.W. Bush
talked about, 'a kinder
and gentler nation',
and to conduct America's
foreign policy in a
more considerate, not
shoot first and
ask questions
later manner.
Unfortunately, we believe
that the nation needs
to become kinder and
more malleable at the
same time that the
majority culture
feels that the nation
needs to become more
aggressive.
And there is another
part of the disconnect
that goes beyond red
state/blue state
politics. Black
Americans could
help bridge the
gap between the
two polar opposites
here in the USA and
overseas. Some
Americans, on
the other hand
do not want the
gap to be bridged;
they are after control
as well as wealth.
You can understand what I
mean given your
comments as follows:
At least, some of us haven't.I appreciate it that you mentioned
But we don't rule the domain.
We are not the rich and powerful.
The monied interests and rulers through the ages have always gained power more in spite of our heritage for loving freedom than because of it.
the monied interests..., for there
are some powerbrokers in America
whose aims clearly are not as
altruistic as your interests,
or your family's interest
have been or appear to be.
And it appears that all too
often it is those
individuals who I just
mentioned, that
are the ones who
appear to be driving
driving the process -
that others on both
side of the ocean
white, black, rich,
poor, male and female -
are dying over and
that is NOT
Freedom - well it
may be freedom
to exploit
whomever
they have to in
pursuit of
market wealth.
So you and others ought to be
able to see why the Iraqi, Iranian and
Pakistanti people might be as
fearful of President Bush and
the United States, as they
might have been of Saddam
Hussein and the Bathist
parties.
I suspect that there are
still better methods that
we can employ as a nation
in order to help other
nations to obtain
their freedom
objectives!
As Americans today,
and many have appeared
to have learned finally,
you cannot just
take what you
want from Iran,
Iraq, Pakistan,
or nations of the Americas...
in the manner that
the American
colonists
bought and brought
people from
Africa -
even if
African
traders
sold them to
American traders!
The white family that I lived with
for the past 4 weeks agree with the
Rev's postion about justice too!
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 07:42 PM
Isn't this country grand?
It turns out that to be a warrior, ready to take on a nation of 70 million, all you need is a browser and a bad temper.
Strange, but I don't see a Baghdad or Kabul dateline in any of these posts. But then making war has always been much easier from a desk than in the field.
But, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Jorho and Plainfacto and Bulldog6 and Vincent and Steve and Mike are strapping on their warrior gear right this minute.
Or maybe not. Maybe they're heading to the bathouse where they can, as is their custom, demonstrate to each other how manly they are.
Posted by: camorrista | January 9, 2008 07:09 PM
Hey Rev:
We haven't forgotten the previous oppression. At least, some of us haven't. But we don't rule the domain. We are not the rich and powerful. The monied interests and rulers through the ages have always gained power more in spite of our heritage for loving freedom than because of it.
Please understand that I don't feel 'entitled' or 'priviledged or overtly 'enlightened' by my ancestry.' Instead, I feel responsible for this country. Yes, responsible. Maybe - moreso. My vote counts the same as yours -though.
What you sense is my own need to make it work now - as it did way back then. The priciples of democracy are quite simple, it is the world that gets complicated. Money and corruption are bound in the heart of man. You know the bible? Then you should know this - too.
As a side note, many of early settlers (in the North) bought slaves to free them. I know my family did for sure. One of my past relatives gained early notoriety in colonial America for harboring a fugitive slave and refusing to turn him over to his 'so-called' owner. Many a field in this country have been soaked with the blood of my relatives, who fought and died for the simple idea that men are naturally entitled to freedom. These are some of the many things that attach me to the ideals by which they lived.
Only God makes people truely free. Some governments allow their citizens to thank God for their freedom. That would be any country that guarantees the right to freedom of conscience/religion.
On the other hand, some countries force their citizens to thank God. But, in such a case, the people are no longer free. Indeed, how could one be thankful for freedom that doesn't exist, and especially when the thanking is involuntary?
Then there are those who are given no freedom at all by the dictates of their government. You can see them by comparing to the above.
I think that George Washington said it best, in his fairwell speech. Paraphrased, he said that it was not only important that 'real' Christains were essential to keep the courts - and therefore the government - honest and straightforward, but essential for it continue as he would have it.
I kinda liked 'ol George for saying that way - in particular. Priveidged, sycophant, overbearing rules of government; no. Hard to understand and interpret; no. Easy and responsible for the citizen to understand' yes.
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 9, 2008 07:08 PM
How quickly we forget....
The US entered the Vietnam War after the so called "Gulf of Tonkin incident". Please google that exact phrase, which is in quotation marks above, for further insight.
If Lyndon Johnson's administration fabricated (lied about) the Gulf of Tonkin incident, how could ANYONE with average intelligence, or above, believe this Iranian "harassment" (in unrecognizable/unidentifiable speed boats) is nothing but more than war-mongering chicanery by the same WMD liars, er, I mean, "misinformed intelligence" of the Bush administration?!?
Posted by: Rex | January 9, 2008 07:08 PM
Oh by the way, I still think George Bush is a liar, thief, murderer, and torturer. In a just world Dick Cheney and George Bush would die in prison. HEY NEOCONS THAT MY VERSION OF "BRING IT ON"!!!
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:58 PM
When will the highly-offensive comments listed in this section be deleted? It's sad and disturbing to see belligerent ignorance manifest itself here on the Washington Post Company's website, or anywhere.
Please remove the offending comments immediately; the webmaster certainly ought to consider banning the offending contributors.
Posted by: Concerned Reader | January 9, 2008 06:55 PM
Can anyone say Gulf of Tonkin? Yes, the "incident" involving North Vietnamese high-speed patrol boats firing on navy ships that sparked our entry into the Vietnam War . . . that NEVER happened we now know.
Posted by: Steve | January 9, 2008 06:38 PM
Hey Farzad, I hear Iran is looking for new suicide bombers, can you PLEASE apply for the job? I hear it has great benefits (72 ugly Muslim cows).)Another neoidiot
LIKE I SAID I AM NOT A MUSLIM, DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY RELIGION. SO MUSLIM WOMEN ARE COWS NOW? VERY INTERESTING RACIST, RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, AND MISOGYNY ALL ROLLED INTO ONE. WOW, YOU CONSERVATIVES HAVE REALLY OUT DONE YOURSELVES. THANK YOU FOR EXPOSING HOW YOU HAVE NO IDEAS, AND CAN'T ARUGE SUBSTANCE AND FACTS. THIS IS IT PEOPLE, THIS IS ALL THEY HAVE TO OFFER. THREATS, SMEARS, AND BRAINLESS CLICHES; THANK YOU FOR DEMONSTRATING HOW YOU LACK INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY AND HOW MORALLY REPUGNANT YOU ARE. I OUTGREW THIS KIND OF CHILDISH BANTER WHEN I GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL. I AM GLAD THAT THE WASHINGTON POST FEELS THAT THIS KIND OF RACISM AND HATE SPEECH IS GOOD CONTENT FOR THEIR BLOGS. IF I CAME OUT AND MADE THESE TYPES OF COMMENTS AGAINST JEWS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, ASIANS, OR ANY OTHER GROUP THEY WOULD KICK ME OUT OF THIS CITE AND DELETE MY MESSAGES. TYPICAL, BEING IRANIAN IS THE NEW BLACK I SUPPOSE. AND THE WP IS SHOWING ITS ANTI-IRANIAN AND ANTI-MUSLIM BIAS AGAIN.
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:35 PM
What kind of Arab or Persian is Farzad? Just wondering. Have you prayed 5 times today yet?)jorho
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR DEMONSTRATING THE COMPLETE LACK OF IDEAS AND XENOPHOBIA OF THE RIGHTWING IN THIS COUNTRY. MY NAME IS PERSIAN, AND I AM AGNOSTIC, I DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY RELIGION, AND IN FACT BELIEVE ORGANIZED RELIGION IS A NEGATIVE. BUT THANKS AGAIN FOR BROADBRUSHING ME, AND TRYING TO INSULT ME. AT ONE TIME, I WAS EVEN A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN AND A REPUBLICAN, BUT THEN I WENT TO COLLEGE AND ACTUALLY READ A BOOK OR TWO(not written by Ann Coulter, Rush, or Hannity), TRY IT.
And quite frankly I am very proud of my persian heritage and culture and I wouldn't change it for anything, thanks again for showing the ugly face of bigotry, hatred, and intellectual bankruptcy of the rightwing in this country. As if any reasonable person needs more evidence of it. NOT ONE OF YOU HAS EVEN TRIED TO ARGUE WITH THE POST OR THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CITE I HAVE PROVIDED. INSTEAD YOU JUST THREATEN ME WITH VIOLENCE, SMEAR ME, OR THROW IN VEILED RELIGIOUS EPITHETS. IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACTS, IF THE WEAPONS ARE FROM THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OR IRAN, WHY ARE THEY THE WRONG SIZE, WHY ARE THEY DATED STAMPED WITH THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR, AND WHY IS THE WRITING IN ENGLISH?
Oh wait you guys don't have a response other then, "he hates America", and "I want to kick you a--".
Posted by: Farzad | January 9, 2008 06:13 PM
plainfacto
Let me say this as a black
American, and someone just gagged
I know.
As a bifurcated American,
part American and part
African, I can always sense
a form of patriotism from some
writers in this blog that
I have often suspected
dates back to their ancestral
heritage.
It is something that in one sense
many Americans like me do not share,
in fact at times, and even though
I believe I understood - it
seems hypocritical.
It appears to be a harbinger or sense
of pride that
goes along with a feeling that
we are the 'true 'Americans',
and therefore we must protect
the trust!
Indugle me, for again there
are those of us who on the
other hand share multiple ancestry
some of us part white. So, some
of us feel, therefore, a
strong kinship with the descendants
of the American colonists, despite
what they put our ancestors
through, yet we also feel a common bond
with the native American tribes,
the other non-white people of
the world, and those people
who have and are being oppressed
by any oppressor.
Why? Because
we understand what they are
going through now, because we
have gone through it here just as
your foreparents went through it as
a result of their experience with
King George.
Problem and Praxis: We often
wonder how or why the
descendants of the American
colonists have so easily forgotten
what their foreparents and ancestors
endured, when they were also
subjected to the rule of an
outside agitator.
We wonder why their descendants seem
to have forgotten how hard their
foreparents, along with the help
of many nationalists and other
nations fought to help secure
their freedoms, and the freedoms
that their progeny, enjoys even
until today.
Now wouldn't King George in
the same manner as you have
expressed that he was a friend
of the patriots, a friend who
provided them with land and
land grants, just as you feel
that America is a friend of the
Iraqi, Iranian and Pakistani
people - well I went a bit
further in saying what you
meant, but you get my drift?
Can you explain to me why it
always appears from many other
world people's perspectives,
that the lesson of freedom and
democracy appears to have been
lost or mitigated when
it comes to other people of the
world?
Why? For like King George, your
ancestors always seem to feel that they
are extending freedom, and causing
others 'to be better off than they
were' originally, when they are
conquered subdued or subjugated
by the descendants
of the freedom fighting colonists
that they descended from?
How come other world people, much
like your parents, would not view
your kindness, as your people seem to!
I am not being cynical, I really
don't get it! And you really might
not get this - most of us don't have
a dog in the fight - we are not
rooting for 'them', whoever whom
might happen to be. And we really
don't believe that you care a lick
about a free Iraq, Iran, Sudan,
Pakistan, Nicaragua, Bolivia..., we
believe that your people, our
half-American brothers and sisters
have another more sinister agenda!
What we are many times trying
to say is - that many times it
simply appears that you are trying
to do to 'them' what you did
to us - and somehow, believe
it or not, we never interpreted
that as helping us to become
free or 'to be better off'!
Comeback?
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 06:10 PM
USS Cole comes to mind here! Or did Arkin conveniently forget about that.
Posted by: Johnhubbard | January 9, 2008 06:09 PM
Well Rev, if Maliki ever decides that it is important to listen to the needs of his own people - as he should - and stop taking dictation from Iran; they might actually take the next step after having a constitution and solve the issues they face as a new government.
Their own resistance to their own thirst is appalling. Turkey - as an example - has a secular, surviving, and flourishing democracy.
There is no excuse for Iraq to say - that being a Muslim has no need for a democracy - when the alternatives are being under an Iranian kind of democracy. Mullahs looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do - is not a democracy - it is nothing more than a form of fascism.
I think that Maliki and other Shia representatives have been threatened by the Iranians. Maliki needs to be brave and resourceful; after all - he has US/Coalition forces to help him thru the night.
Iraq is unique - in that eighty percent of them are either Sunni Ararbs or Shia Arabs' the other twenty percent are Kurds.
Personally, I thought if we could suggest that Iraq be three provinces - with a central gov;t in Baghdad - it would do much to solve most of their ethnic dilemmas. Call them Sunnistan, Shiastan, and Kurdistan - as an example.
Baghdad has historically been the center for this entire region; so it would be the logical choice to administer to its provinces. Taxes and revenues could then be collected and distributed by needs and population. It is not as though I am the first one to see it be this way; logic dictates that it needs to be this way. But Maliki needs to be the man and do what is right for all Iraqis. They no longer need to worry about a guy like Hussein to take them away in the night...
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 9, 2008 05:48 PM
What kind of Arab or Persian is Farzad? Just wondering. Have you prayed 5 times today yet?
Posted by: jorho | January 9, 2008 05:45 PM
Hey Bulldog you republican nazi, how would you like to be whopped by a liberal. Anytime any place.
Posted by: bulldog_is_a_puss | January 9, 2008 05:37 PM
One caveat Plainfacto...
The Iraqi people are not free, their current fate is similar to that of the English colonists and they know that - wouldn't you agree.
The Iraq simply traded Saddam Hussein for, all due-respect, one dictator for another one! Someone, and his Party is still telling them what they can and cannot do.
Now can you answer this for me, for I just woke up from a bad dream? Did OSU, my former favorite team of 37 years, loose yet another BCS Championship game, and was it to the SEC?
And, is there something in the Constitution that says that there is something 'uncontinental' and 'unconstitutional' about our team loosing twice in 3 tries?
I suppose that the South has risen again after all, and therefore the Rev must head off to Tibet and join the monks and go into mediation until next years Big Game - the Rev is depressed!
Posted by: The Rev | January 9, 2008 05:21 PM
//If you keep messing with people, they will retaliate, just like the colonists did against the english mother land!//
Yes, but you must understand that Oliver Chromwell took up the fight against the English Monarchy - that spilled over into the 'colonies' as well.
Matter of fact, My great Granddad ('nameless') almost married Chronwell's (he brought reforms to British rule) sister.
Chromwell's man (my 'granddad') was used in the colonies to watch/report and ensure that British rule didn't seek to corrupt and rob the same.
The colonists were not recieving what their heavy taxes had paid England for - protection from the Indians and the Dutch - and the first colonists insisted upon a new identity as a new nation.
Since they began to take care of themselves independantly from England, they wished to be tied to them and their government no longer. This was the setting of the scene for 'the Charter Oak' incident which launched the colonies with their first constitution (Connecticut first). A constitution that was to be a first in the known world; it changed the concept of government from that point forward.
Yes; I know well of the constitution - more thn I have yet let you know - Rev...
Since we have began to help Iraq find the need for their own identity as free people; in the final analysis it will be up to them to show if they are worthy to be responsible for their own freedom. You can lead a thirsty horse to water, but you cannot force them to drink it...
Posted by: Plainfacto
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
The Rev's Reply To The Washington Post: 01/10/02 Re: President Bush and The Iranian Boat Taunting
The Rev wrote the following:
The "I's" Have it...
No, I am neither referring to the Iowa caucuses nor the New Hampshire primary.
I am referring to Iraq, Iran, Israel, George Bush and Pakistan, Pakistan each one also has an 'i' in it.
Can the Rev spell? Does George Bush's name have an I in it? Well, all of the time that he has been in office it would appear that all he has cared about was himself and the Republican pedantry, so instead of George H. Bush, how about George I. Bush.
And no wonder, 'Republicans' also has an 'i' contained within its spelling. It kind of reminds you of the movie 'I Robot', 'I Republican' or 'I Republican president.
Mr. Bush, had he placed his interests in other than the republican god, and sought after what was right for the people of the world including Americans, he might have made a decent President.
Had he done so he could have avoided so many blunders and his tendency to make so many inflammatory and inane statements that have cost all of us Americans.
The folks overseas have the President's number - see I called him the President. That is the least that I can do before he is sent into exile. And come to think about it the term exile and President also contain the letter 'i', and so does 'retire'!
And the latest Republican apologist on the blog, my man plainfacto - well, you can see the letter 'i' all over the place, Republ'i" can, apolog'i'st and pla'i'nfacto, can't you!
Too many 'pubs, when they were placed in the garden, and were forbidden from doing so - partook of the forbidden fruit.
The question is, how come they still don't know that are naked/exposed to the whole world? And what about the world Bush and the Republicans, America is not the majority of the world?
If you keep messing with people, they will retaliate, just like the colonists did against the english mother land!
Posted by: The Rev
Addenda: Will somebody tell me that I am dreaming, did the Ohio State Buckeyes loose another BCS national championship game. No matter, the Rev is home and he is changing parties, I mean conferences; go Pac12, we can beat the teams in the SEC!
The "I's" Have it...
No, I am neither referring to the Iowa caucuses nor the New Hampshire primary.
I am referring to Iraq, Iran, Israel, George Bush and Pakistan, Pakistan each one also has an 'i' in it.
Can the Rev spell? Does George Bush's name have an I in it? Well, all of the time that he has been in office it would appear that all he has cared about was himself and the Republican pedantry, so instead of George H. Bush, how about George I. Bush.
And no wonder, 'Republicans' also has an 'i' contained within its spelling. It kind of reminds you of the movie 'I Robot', 'I Republican' or 'I Republican president.
Mr. Bush, had he placed his interests in other than the republican god, and sought after what was right for the people of the world including Americans, he might have made a decent President.
Had he done so he could have avoided so many blunders and his tendency to make so many inflammatory and inane statements that have cost all of us Americans.
The folks overseas have the President's number - see I called him the President. That is the least that I can do before he is sent into exile. And come to think about it the term exile and President also contain the letter 'i', and so does 'retire'!
And the latest Republican apologist on the blog, my man plainfacto - well, you can see the letter 'i' all over the place, Republ'i" can, apolog'i'st and pla'i'nfacto, can't you!
Too many 'pubs, when they were placed in the garden, and were forbidden from doing so - partook of the forbidden fruit.
The question is, how come they still don't know that are naked/exposed to the whole world? And what about the world Bush and the Republicans, America is not the majority of the world?
If you keep messing with people, they will retaliate, just like the colonists did against the english mother land!
Posted by: The Rev
Addenda: Will somebody tell me that I am dreaming, did the Ohio State Buckeyes loose another BCS national championship game. No matter, the Rev is home and he is changing parties, I mean conferences; go Pac12, we can beat the teams in the SEC!
Jan 3, 2008
The Rev Recapitualtes In The Washington Post Blog 01/03/2008
Plainfacto wrote:
I don't know about that Rev. If you would have read and learned from that bible; you wouldn't be saying half the stuff you are trying to pontificate with. I've studied the bible far more than the other two. Let me reassure you, that my family had a great deal to do with the Constitution; a direct connection - so to speak. More than I am willing reveal to you at this time.
However, my Dad wanted me to be a lawyer, and I wanted to be a doctor. My brother is a lawyer. But we were both raised to understand law and how to debate at an early age. That was a big deal in our house; my Dad was sure that we could cover our own butts in an argument. The best way to do that, is to make sure you are defending what you know and understand.
Have you been taking disassociatives; ketamine, etc? This is not a slam, as much as it is a observation. You constantly regard my person as some other being and go on a psychotic ramble. Have you had this problem a long time? Have you hurt other people because of this condition? I am worried about your state of mind/being. Please pardon my concern and questions.
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 3, 2008 05:03 AM
The Rev's Reply
I customarily attack your ideas, and you in turn have customarily turned around to attack me personally.
We have all witnessed a lot of that trend in America over the past 6-years. You and I happen to both be Americans; however, we simply see things differently. I have never accused you of having a neurosis, psychosis, Axis 3 problem - or drug use, as you have done to me on more than one occasion.
BTW, did you know that Ezekiel of the Hebrew Scriptures would be classified as a 'paranoid schiz', by many in the psychiatric field today, and according to the DSMIII? I thought that calling people crazy, dissasociativee... who held divergent views went out with the former Soviet Union and now you and many other Americans have resumed the practice.
I only called you a crypto-fascist however, after you accused me of being a communist, the same that many in our country did when MLK was alive. I have long suspected that some individuals who wrote into this blog were not freelance writers - one admitted that he was not writing independently.
I suspected that you fell into the same category as he did - I was trying to draw you out, suspecting that you could be working for a DIA in Virginia.
And you are not the only individual who has worked with advocates, and having said that some are good and some are jaundiced themselves given that they represent the positions of their clients.
It might do you some good to converse with some of the other advocates of the world, particularly those advocates who are more international in scope, for American law is not the only kind that matters.
Having said all of the above, I actually view you, lmao, Frank and some of my other critics as erudite and intelligent writers. However, it appears to me that all of you need to open up a little bit and show some respect for the opinions of other people of the world whose opinions and perceptions may differ from an American perspective.
The planet belongs to all of us. Can you tell me what nation has invaded and occupied our nation and tried to force their will upon us recently, I can't? So why are we forcing our 'opinions, forcibly, upon other nations of the world -we haven't been invited into those nations...
So, can we respectfully disagree while debating issues that we disagree on in the future?
postbed by the Rev on 01/03/2008
Addenda:
This is what all protagonists who share a difference of opinion need to do - seek synthesis!
I don't know about that Rev. If you would have read and learned from that bible; you wouldn't be saying half the stuff you are trying to pontificate with. I've studied the bible far more than the other two. Let me reassure you, that my family had a great deal to do with the Constitution; a direct connection - so to speak. More than I am willing reveal to you at this time.
However, my Dad wanted me to be a lawyer, and I wanted to be a doctor. My brother is a lawyer. But we were both raised to understand law and how to debate at an early age. That was a big deal in our house; my Dad was sure that we could cover our own butts in an argument. The best way to do that, is to make sure you are defending what you know and understand.
Have you been taking disassociatives; ketamine, etc? This is not a slam, as much as it is a observation. You constantly regard my person as some other being and go on a psychotic ramble. Have you had this problem a long time? Have you hurt other people because of this condition? I am worried about your state of mind/being. Please pardon my concern and questions.
Posted by: Plainfacto | January 3, 2008 05:03 AM
The Rev's Reply
I customarily attack your ideas, and you in turn have customarily turned around to attack me personally.
We have all witnessed a lot of that trend in America over the past 6-years. You and I happen to both be Americans; however, we simply see things differently. I have never accused you of having a neurosis, psychosis, Axis 3 problem - or drug use, as you have done to me on more than one occasion.
BTW, did you know that Ezekiel of the Hebrew Scriptures would be classified as a 'paranoid schiz', by many in the psychiatric field today, and according to the DSMIII? I thought that calling people crazy, dissasociativee... who held divergent views went out with the former Soviet Union and now you and many other Americans have resumed the practice.
I only called you a crypto-fascist however, after you accused me of being a communist, the same that many in our country did when MLK was alive. I have long suspected that some individuals who wrote into this blog were not freelance writers - one admitted that he was not writing independently.
I suspected that you fell into the same category as he did - I was trying to draw you out, suspecting that you could be working for a DIA in Virginia.
And you are not the only individual who has worked with advocates, and having said that some are good and some are jaundiced themselves given that they represent the positions of their clients.
It might do you some good to converse with some of the other advocates of the world, particularly those advocates who are more international in scope, for American law is not the only kind that matters.
Having said all of the above, I actually view you, lmao, Frank and some of my other critics as erudite and intelligent writers. However, it appears to me that all of you need to open up a little bit and show some respect for the opinions of other people of the world whose opinions and perceptions may differ from an American perspective.
The planet belongs to all of us. Can you tell me what nation has invaded and occupied our nation and tried to force their will upon us recently, I can't? So why are we forcing our 'opinions, forcibly, upon other nations of the world -we haven't been invited into those nations...
So, can we respectfully disagree while debating issues that we disagree on in the future?
postbed by the Rev on 01/03/2008
Addenda:
This is what all protagonists who share a difference of opinion need to do - seek synthesis!
The Rev's Reponse to the Excellent 'Faith In Action Blog' 01/03/2008
Faith In Action Religion, Policy, & Activism blog
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This Pastor will NEVER make the “preacher circuit!”
01.02.2008 by Heber Brown, III in African American Christian, Black Clergy, Christian, Events, Faith &/or Religion, Free Your Mind, africa, black nationalist, liberation theology
I believe that it was Bro. Sitawi Jahi - a faithful “Faith in Actioner” (regular visitor/supporter of my blog) that first put me on to Pastor Ray Hagins out of St. Louis, Missouri.
After Jahi put the name out there in the comment section and forwarded me an email, I thought I’d check out this Hagins guy and see what he was all about. It turns out that Hagins isn’t just some guy - he’s a Master Teacher and Conscious Preacher who preaches a challenging message about engaging God, the Bible, and the Christian Faith with “new eyes.”
My seminary journey at Virginia Union and and self-imposed aggressive reading schedule since school has blessed me to be exposed to a healthy portion of what Hagins preaches. He proclaims a challenging and unsettling word that many “sunday morning church folk” would choke on rather quickly. Hagins speaks on the origins of the Bible, Constatine’s impact on the Faith, the Kemetic influence of the scriptures (especially the Old Testament), and many other intriguing topics.
However, I am most impressed with the spirit in which he teaches. After reading about his transition to Afrikan Consciousness, I could tell that he doesn’t teach from a self-righteous posture nor does he engage “sunday morning church folk” in a reckless way as if to attack the presuppositions that they sincerely believe. Like a surgeon, he carefully dissects the theological foundation of his students with the ultimate goal of sewing them back up in a manner that promotes healing.
As a third generation preacher who engages God primarily through the lens of Black Liberation Theology, I recognize that the great mission of any conscious Afrikan servant/leader is to creatively locate strategies, techniques, and opportunities to awaken the sincere sleep-walkers in the sanctuaries and mobilize the giant called The Black Church down the avenues of social justice. Those who hurl “their truths” in insulting ways toward those in the sanctuaries will find that their assault only inspires those in the church to fortify & strengthen the walls against their vicious attacks.
Hagins preaches his “truth” in a way that attracts and even if the hearers disagree, they will at least listen.
Solvivaz Nation is bringing Dr. Ray Hagins to Baltimore for a special lecture on Saturday, January 12, 2008 7 - 10PM at St. Martin Church (2118 Madison Avenue, Baltimore 21217). Hagins will be speaking on the topic “Religion vs. Spirituality.” See the flyer below for more details. To get your tickets visit Reality Speaks Bookstore. I’ve also posted a youtube video for you to get a taste of Hagins’ presentation.
# 1 Rev. C. Solomon Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
My compliments to Bro. Sitawi Jahi, and to you for having the verve to bring ministers like Pastor Ray Hagins to center stage, in deference to some of our ‘the church is a franchise, get rich off of the church-members celebrity ministers’.
I have also been challenging Christians and pastors in my own writings and sermons over the past decade by using my own 'American Capitalist Church Syndrome” sermon for one, see www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com. My objective was to encourage those ministers who have continuously referred to Constantine’s canon as the ‘unadulterated word of God’, the ones who have used it to make themselves wealthy and powerful to get a clue.
The sacrosanct ‘holy writ’ of too many of our divergent and competing religious institutions in the world, not just the canon, has helped to create a hopelessly divisive atmosphere and to perpetuate sectarianism. The canon that we use and describe as a definitive source is not above reproach, and most Christian ministers aren’t willing to capitulate and admit that the canon is flawed and error prone – even the one’s who know better!
I have neither heard Pastor Hagins preach nor teach, however, I suspect that he is elucidating what more and more the spirit appears to be saying, that if God’s elect are going to move to the next level they are going to have to extend themselves beyond strictly 2000 year old paradigms and Constantine’s canon.
Similar to Galileo and Copernicus of years gone by, scientists who were confirmed later to be correct in their research with respect to the earth's position in the cosmos, it appears that some members of the scientific community are about to overtake many of today’s institutionalized religious organizations and teachers again, in terms of bringing clarity to the mysteries of God. Some members of the scientific community, many who were formerly atheists, confess to having discovered a God equivalent/unifying principal/sovereignty during their unrelated scientific research.
Some have confessed that what they keep running into must be related to the God, which religious groups have only narrowly defined or understood. I have portended for some time now that our scientists will likely overtake us and turn out be God’s premier prophets in the new millennia, while too many ministers, imams, clerics, priests…, persist in self-perpetuating, self-preserving and self serving organized religious organizations and dogma, while rehashing partial and primitive understandings of what they believe might be truth!
Frankly, Jesus promised that ‘after his departure, paracletos’ would come and guide Christians into all truth. Christians are more dependent on a canon that is composed of codices, some allegorical, poetical and mystical, and that have often been misused. And, we know that some of these codices, barely, by vote, made into the canon in the first place; and other codices that perhaps should have been included in the reported ‘unadulterated word of God’ were left out! The outspoken Rev. Solomon will add that a couple of decades ago the spirit revealed that future ministers who would be in the forefront, would be there in lieu of the ministers who should actually be in the forefront; and I have lived to see that come true.
Here is a question that I frequently ask pastors: Would Paul have ever conceived of his letters having ever been considered scripture, or included along with scripture?
Having said that, this story isn’t about me; keep up the good work Pastor Hagins.
peace & grace
Rev. C. Solomon
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
Addenda: I encourage everyone one to read and participate in the Faith In Action Blog. The author is a trailblazer, and I predict that he will soon be a recognizable figure on the world stage, and very likely a household name.
Jan 2, 2008
The Rev's Reply To The Washington Post Blog: 01/02/08
I was just wondering - Rev.
Where do you get your drugs from?
Because, I want get some - too,
They HAVE to be good...
Plainfacto
Sorry this is a drug-free zone, I have never imbibed any chemical substances in my life. I get my ideas from the Bible, the American Articles of Incorporation and the American Constitution. Have you ever read or studied any of them?
It would appear that you grow 'your stuff' in your own back yard!
How much do they pay you plainfacto?
Posted by: The Rev | January
Where do you get your drugs from?
Because, I want get some - too,
They HAVE to be good...
Plainfacto
Sorry this is a drug-free zone, I have never imbibed any chemical substances in my life. I get my ideas from the Bible, the American Articles of Incorporation and the American Constitution. Have you ever read or studied any of them?
It would appear that you grow 'your stuff' in your own back yard!
How much do they pay you plainfacto?
Posted by: The Rev | January
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