#rock solid foundational beliefs and morals

[tarotphil]

he's a morning person, he went 3 decades without eating a pear, he's cosplayed sans undertale, he never reads instructions or recipes, he lies for fun, he has beef with a fictional child, he once hit a pheasant with a car. i didn't say his name but he came to mind didn't he

[nickyysharmi]

Abhay Bhutada: The CSR Pioneer Shaking Up Healthcare and Education in India

CSR—sounds fancy, right? But in India, it's become way cooler thanks to game-changers like Abhay Bhutada. His projects in healthcare and education are not just meeting needs but setting sky-high standards for other companies in India. Let's dive into how he's making waves!

Meet the Mastermind

Say hello to Abhay Bhutada, the former Managing Director of Poonawalla Fincorp. What's his secret sauce? A rock-solid commitment to CSR. For Bhutada, it's not just another task on a corporate checklist—it's a mission. He’s all about businesses stepping up to boost the communities they’re part of. His passion for healthcare and education shows his drive to build a brighter, sustainable future.

Healthcare at Your Doorstep

One of Abhay’s coolest moves is making healthcare super accessible. Through the Abhay Bhutada Foundation, he's launched health camps and mobile clinics in Pune. The idea? Bring healthcare right to people’s doorsteps, especially in areas where seeing a doctor feels like a marathon.

These mobile clinics are genius—they solve the big issue of healthcare access in India. By hitting the road, they provide essential medical services to those who can’t easily get to a hospital. With a focus on early diagnosis and preventive care, Bhutada’s programs are saving lives and easing the burden on our healthcare system.

Education: The Game Changer

For Abhay Bhutada education is the magic key to unlock potential. His projects aim to break the cycle of poverty by giving quality education to kids who’d otherwise miss out. Through scholarships and school improvements, he’s opening doors for students to chase their academic dreams and build a brighter future.

These scholarship programs are a big deal for low-income families, offering access to higher education and vocational training. By upgrading schools in rural areas, Bhutada ensures more kids have the perfect setup to learn and grow. This approach not only empowers individuals but also boosts the growth of entire communities.

Also Read: Abhay Bhutada: A Journey of Transformation and Leadership

Teaming Up for Maximum Impact

Running big CSR projects, especially in healthcare and education, isn’t a walk in the park. But Bhutada’s trick? Teaming up with NGOs, hospitals, and schools. These partnerships expand the reach and impact of his work, helping more people benefit from his programs.

His knack for building strong partnerships and tackling challenges head-on shows his leadership and vision. Bhutada’s collaborative style makes CSR programs more effective and builds a sense of community involvement and pride.

Setting the Gold Standard

Abhay Bhutada’s influence on CSR in India goes beyond his projects. His work is a masterclass for other business leaders on making a real impact with CSR. By focusing on healthcare and education, Bhutada shows how tackling key societal issues can lead to sustainable growth.

His belief that CSR is a moral duty pushes other businesses to think the same way, making social responsibility a crucial part of their success story.

Also Read: Unveiling Abhay Bhutada’s Salary Journey And Impact As MD Of Poonawalla Fincorp

Looking Ahead

As CSR evolves in India, leaders like Bhutada will be key in steering its direction. His current and future projects promise even more positive changes, not just in Pune but across the country. Bhutada’s work shows what’s possible when business leaders are committed to making a difference.

In a nutshell, Abhay Bhutada is setting a new gold standard for CSR in India. His vision and efforts inspire other businesses, proving that true success comes from making the world a better place.

[seancekitsch]

Hey love! Here for the ship game! I ship you with Geralt, he'd def have heart eyes for you all the time because you take no shit and you could definitely keep up with him! I'm a bi girl who appears kind and quiet on the outside, but I have a very strong personality underneath. I'm really willful and loyal, and I have morals and ideals set in stone that I will never change for anyone. I'm constantly worried about the people I care about not really seeing the true depths of me. I'd like a SW ship!

Hey thank you!! I think i could definitely handle the great white wolf 😍

I ship you with.... Jyn Erso!

-The two of you are very similar, and sometimes that doesn’t work in a couple, but for the two of you that’s a perfect storm. You’re in tune in a way that makes you extremely close.

-You’re a couple of strong personalities, and anywhere else but the Rogue One crew might be a bit too tame for you, but the two of you are a force to be reckoned with, especially with your family behind you.

-Both of you are pretty quiet temperament wise, and maybe that why she knew there was so much more to you. She would make the first moves and show interest in you first, and the two of you would be very loyal to one another very quickly.

-And when you date Jyn, she’s not just herself. You get adopted by the Rogue One crew as well. They’re not the perfect found family, but the best one you could ask for.

-Honestly, sometimes you and Jyn clash as far as morality goes. But it doesn’t start arguments. You’d think it would, but you both understand that your values and your beliefs will not change for anything. Better to let it happen and just sit back and support. Because if anything, if one of you doesn’t relent, you’ll go through each other to achieve any goal.

-You’re a strong couple in every sense of the word. You’ve got each other’s backs and your loyalty is the solid rock of your foundation. With Jyn, you never have to worry. Because you know she knows.

(1/25) ships are open!

[emmvxnce]

i didn’t know i was a p h o e n i x                                TILL I LEARNED HOW TO S P E A K

𝖖 𝖚 𝖔 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

"Without losing a piece of me, how do i get to heaven?  Without changing a piece of me, how do I get to heaven?  So if I’m losing a piece of me, maybe I don’t want heaven.” — Troye Sivan, Heaven

“She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, like when you’re swimming and you want to put your feet down on something solid, but the water’s deeper than you think and there’s nothing there.” — Julia Gregson

“The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“I’ve left my fingerprints somewhere. And that’s good enough.  And I am my own person. And that’s good enough.  And… I stand my ground. And that’s good enough.” — Morrissey

𝖇 𝖆 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈

NAME: Emmeline Glenys Vance NICKNAMES: Emme, Em, Vance AGE: Twenty Two BIRTHDAY: 10 September 1957 GENDER: Cis Female PRONOUNS: She/Her SEXUALITY: Homosexual ETHNICITY: English, Welsh, Chinese

𝖋 𝖆 𝖒 𝖎 𝖑 𝖞

MOTHER: Jìngyi ‘Jenny’ Vance, née Ling (44) FATHER: Raymond Thomas Vance (46) SIBLINGS: Charles Vance (23), Margaret Vance (20)

𝖕 𝖍 𝖞 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈 𝖆 𝖑 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖊𝖘

FACE CLAIM: Chloe Bennet BUILD: Naturally slim, of average height.  Several years of training have lent an athletic edge to her body.  Solid bone structure, thin but not waiflike. HAIR: Shoulder length, thick, and wavy. Typically pulled back off her face in some way or other.  Often twisted up with her wand which backfires when she is forced to pull her wand and her hair comes falling around her face.   HAIR COLOR: Dark brown. EYE COLOR: Typically brown, nearly black when she’s upset or angry but lighter when the sun is bright or her mood is up. SKIN COLOR: Beige with warm undertones. DOMINANT HAND: Right. ANOMALIES: Broken nails from years spent biting or picking at them.  A scar on her hairline on the right side of her forehead from where she fell when she was eight and cracked her head on the coffee table in the living room.  Various minor scars from several years with the Order.   SCENT: Honey and lilac from her shampoo, a touch of something floral if she’s decided to put on perfume which is rare and reserved for the most special of occasions.   ACCENT: RP but with traces of welsh from years listening and speaking with her dad who is from Cardiff.   ALLERGIES:  Pollen and blueberries. DISORDERS: Mild anxiety triggered in the last several years by the worsening war FASHION: Leans to muggle fashion, typical late 70′s clothing.  Bell bottoms, high waisted jeans, crop tops, the occasional leather jacket, over sized men’s shirts paired with leggings.  She prefers pants to skirts as often as possible.   NERVOUS TICS:  Biting and picking at her nails, toying with any jewelry she may be wearing, usually a necklace, twirling hair at the base of her neck or from her ponytail.  In general her hands are usually fidgeting in someway, she has a hard time keeping them still. QUIRKS:  She doesn’t like silence and sometimes will hum to herself if there is no other sound just to fill the empty air, she almost always sits with her legs pulled up either under or in front of her.

𝖑 𝖎 𝖋 𝖊 𝖘 𝖙 𝖞 𝖑 𝖊

RESIDES: Plainview Point BORN: Cardiff, where her parents lived in the earliest years of their marriage before moving to a village just outside London.   RAISED: Shere, a village in Surrey, about an hour southwest of London.   PETS: Persimmon aka Persy, a ginger cat she met in an alley near St. Mungo’s who took a liking to her after she shared her turkey sandwich one day and followed her home.  

CAREER: Healer, specializing in spell inflicted damage and working on the fourth floor of St. Mungo’s. EXPERIENCE:  Member of the Potions club in her fifth through seventh years at Hogwarts.  OWLS and NEWTS in Charms, Potions, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.  Entered the Healer training program upon graduation from Hogwarts, rotating through each floor and specialization at St. Mungo’s before choosing to specialize in spell-inflicted damage.   EMPLOYER: St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Order of the Phoenix BELIEFS: Equality, in all shapes and forms.  Being a muggleborn, a woman, the daughter of an immigrant, and a lesbian have given her a unique viewpoint into so many of the ways that society is stacked against certain people.  She does not have a strong religious or spirtual practice or belief but adds it to the list of things she believes people should be allowed to choose and practice without judgment or intercession. MISDEMEANORS: Breaking curfew, pilfering from the potion supply closet in school and a little bit from the hospital when it’s not something she can get at the apothecary FELONIES: None on the record, only in service of the Order DRUGS: Marijuana, both inhaled and ingested.  Girlfriend makes a hell of a pot brownie. SMOKES: Marijuana, yes.  Cigarettes, no. ALCOHOL: Beer mostly, the occasional whiskey when someone else is in charge of choosing it.  Never wine or cocktails.  Too sweet for her taste. DIET:  Mostly simple meals, usually with a bit of a Chinese foundation.  Rice as a staple, a lot of stir fry because it’s simply and quick and can be made in large quantities to last her for many days or to feed a multitude of people.  

LANGUAGES: English, Welsh, Mandarin

PHOBIAS: Fire, losing those she loves and being left alone.   HOBBIES:  Brewing potions, listening and collecting muggle music TRAITS: { + }: compassionate, self-assured, determined, hard working, pragmatic { - }: blunt, ineloquent, inflexible, stubborn, temperamental

𝖋 𝖆 𝖛 𝖔 𝖗 𝖎 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

LOCATION: Her flat.  She’s turned it into a haven with couches you can sink into, nooks where she can curl up, candles and warm smells, even a fireplace she and Persy like to lie in front of until they fall asleep on the poufs she has as extra seating.   SPORTS TEAM: Chelsea Football Club, Holyhead Harpies (football first and then quidditch) GAME: Rummy, card games in general MUSIC: Muggle rock and punk - Queen, David Bowie, Blondie, The Clash MOVIES: Star Wars, The Godfather (just the first one), Superman, The Exorcist FOOD:  Chinese food but actual Chinese food like her mother makes, not what you can get in the shops.  Not that that’s bad - it’s just not her favorite.   BEVERAGE: Chocolate Milk.  Yes she knows she is a child.   COLOR: Deep gold.  

𝖒 𝖆 𝖌 𝖎 𝖈

ALUMNI HOUSE: Hufflepuff WAND (length, flexibility, wood, & core):  9 ¼ inches, ash, phoenix feather core, slightly springy.  The saying goes that ash wands are stubborn but it isn’t the arrogant or crass type of stubborn that attracts this wood.  It is drawn to a person whose beliefs are held strongly in their mind and deeply in their heart.  Combined with a core of phoenix feather and it’s slightly springy nature, Emmeline’s wand is particularly loyal and becomes finnicky in the hands of anyone other than it’s owner. AMORTENTIA:  Fresh baked pastries, cinnamon, twilight air in the summer PATRONUS:  Brown Bear - social creatures who find strength in sharing resources and who are known for their protective instincts.  Bears are also closely associated with healing in some cultures.   BOGGART:  Darkness.  The kind of darkness that envelops your senses.  Instead of becoming stronger, it dulls each sense so you cannot see but you also cannot hear or feel or smell.  You are isolated, alone, helpless.  Seconds become eternities as you seek any anchor to hold on to to pull yourself back to the world.  

𝖈 𝖍 𝖆 𝖗 𝖆 𝖈 𝖙 𝖊 𝖗

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good MBTI: ENFJ-A (Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging, Assertive) MBTI ROLE: The Protaganist ENNEAGRAM: Type 2 ENNEAGRAM ROLE: The Helper TEMPERAMENT: Sanguine WESTERN ZODIAC: Virgo

Virgos are always paying attention to the smallest details and their deep sense of humanity makes them one of the most careful signs of the zodiac. This will lead to a strong character, but one that prefers conservative, well-organized things and a lot of practicality in their everyday life. These individuals have an organized life, and even when they let go to chaos, their goals and dreams still have strictly defined borders in their mind. Their need to serve others makes them feel good as caregivers, on a clear mission to help.

CHINESE ZODIAC: Rooster

Roosters are smart, charming, witty, honest, blunt, capable, talented, brave, and self-reliant. They are known for their ability to do astounding things with extremely limited resources. Their way is always right (in their mind, at least), and they love to debate their stance. Roosters are extremely sociable and bask in attention and praise.

PRIMAL SIGN: Corgi

Loyal, observant, and analytical, those born under the Primal Zodiac sign of the Corgi are devoted friends and family members who take on the role of caretaker with great passion. Few others are as eager to jump in and help a friend in need, and Corgis take great pride in this. More so than other signs, members of this sign like to fill a very specific role in the lives of other people, thus getting the majority of their own personal fulfillment through their service to others.

TAROT CARD: Justice

The Justice Tarot card has to do with moral sensitivity and that which gives rise to empathy, compassion, and a sense of fairness. Since the time of Solomon, this image has represented a standard for the humane and fair-minded treatment of other beings.  This card reminds us to be careful to attend to important details. It's a mistake to overlook or minimize anything where this card is concerned.

SONGS: coming soon, i suck at this

IDEOLOGIES: Doesn’t believe in wallowing or living in the past.  Mistakes get made and bad things happen and the only way to get past it all is to pick yourself up and keep on walking.

Tea over coffee.  Fight her about it.  Get yourself some black tea if you need the caffeine.  

There is exactly nothing that can’t be made better by a dance party around the flat with the music so loud that you can’t hear your own thoughts anymore.  

There is no excuse for inequality.  People are people and the only way to get through this life is to care about the people inhabiting the world around you.  Most common thought - “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.”

[commonsensewizard]

Standard-less Unlimited

Where is the foundation for societal standards? Growing up, I was taught that standards for living a life, grounded in what was to be a pattern for living that would be a benefit not only to myself, but to society at large, was found in the Bible. Did I always follow those standards? Of course not. There have been times in my life that I failed to do so, but the vast majority of those times more or less hurt only myself. I have not robbed, burglarized, murdered, swindled, raped, or committed any other crime that hurt others in some way. For the most part, I have lived by the standards that were taught to me as a child and teenager. No one has lived a perfect life, save for Jesus Christ. That is what I believe, whether you wish to or not. And if you do not, I defend your right to reject it. That is your prerogative.

In the last several decades, there has been a not-so-slow erosion of societal standards of living, like the ones I was raised to observe. There has to be standards that preserve the fabric of a cohesive society if it is to survive as being ‘free’. I put the word in quotations because over the years it has been morphed into a definition that is, in my opinion, incorrect. Being free is not a license to live as you wish, act as you wish, or be what you wish. Being free is not the liberty to do what you want, but to do what you aught. For all of us to have the ‘freedom’ to do what we want will ultimately infringe on what others wish to do as they want. The result of that will be a clash of personal rights perceived by the masses, with each individual claiming their right as being infringed when another’s right does not coalesce with their own, or at least bow to it. How can this happen and not create chaos? If I must bow to what you perceive as your personal right, then logic dictates you must bow to mine. If either of us refuse to do so, or both do, conflict arises. Is this not what we are seeing in the United States today? Are we truly and still a ‘united’ country? I submit we are not only NOT united, but we are in a societal disarray of unlimited standard-less confusion, acquiescing to the belief that all is right and there is nothing that is wrong. And, if one believes that what another is doing is wrong, then that person is wrong or evil or both. In our society today, toleration does not tolerate intoleration, and to be intolerant against intoleration means your toleration of what the other person is doing that is being declared wrong has been justified by your intoleration of the accuser. So then, who is really tolerant? Who is truly inclusive in this conundrum of illogicality?

This is where we are heading, if we are not already there. In the book of Judges, chapter 21, verse 25, it states, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Try to imagine a society totally committed to that ideal. Here is a scenario. I think it is right to use my neighbor’s water to irrigate my garden. My neighbor thinks it is right he keeps his water for himself. Is there a wrong here? By what standard do you use to make the call? If you say the neighbor is right, on what do you base it? Your own interpretation of right and wrong? That is what the water user is doing. And who is to say he is wrong? You? So an argument ensues. The water user gathers those around him who believe he is in the right. The water defender gathers those around him who believe he is right. Can there be two rights here? Of course not. But that is where we are and what we are facing.

I believe that ultimately...ULTIMATELY...everything can be reduced to right or wrong. But to do that, there must be standards that are rock solid and irreversible, without contest and without regard for what someone else feels about it. In every society in the history of civilization, there have been laws that negatively affected someone, if not everyone. There have been standards that have restricted certain behaviors, whether you like it or not. There have been established morals of conduct that shaped and molded the society as a productive unit, whether those standards were agreeable to everyone’s mores or not. We just cannot live any way we want to and expect to remain a civilized, cohesive, non-chaotic, united society. It is impossible and will always be impossible. The old saying is true. “You cannot please everyone. And if you try to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one.”

What I find astonishing is that Christian Biblical principles and standards of living are being denounced as bigoted, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and yes, even evil; while at the same time the tolerant tolerate Islam, which is openly bigoted, racist, especially rabid in its misogyny, radically homophobic and openly evil in declaring all who do not follow Islam as being infidels deserving of death. Anti-Bible/Anti-Christian folks always want to point to the Old Testament as proof of their intolerance about the perceived intolerance found there, being ignorant of the scriptures as a whole. What they fail to see is that if we all would only follow ONE verse in the New Testament, it would radically change the world. It is found in Philippians 2:3, where it says, “Always esteem others better than yourself.” There is no quantifying ‘others’. It means everyone. Just think how following that one verse, by us all, could and would change this world for the better. All we truly need is one standard. Just one. Just...one. But, class envy and the will to live as your own god is too great for it to ever happen. More is the pity. So let us continue down this path of doing what is right in our own eyes. Even if it most surely leads us to our own self destruction. And, it most surely will.    

[ruminativerabbi]

Thanksgiving 2018

For as long as any of us can recall, American Jews have celebrated Thanksgiving out of a deep sense of gratitude to God for any number of different things that define our lives in this place: the great prosperity of this land in which we share; the security provided for us and for all by our matchless and supremely powerful military; the freedoms guaranteed to all by a Bill of Rights that basically defines the American ethos in terms of the autonomy of the individual; the specific kind of participatory democracy that grants each of us a voice to raise and a ballot to cast; the freedom to embrace a minority faith—or any faith—without fear, reticence, or nervousness about what others may or may not think; and the inner satisfaction that comes from being part of a nation that self-defines in terms of its mission to do good in the world and to combat tyranny, oppression, and demagoguery wherever such baleful things manage to take root among the peoples of the world.

None of any of the above strikes me as being anything other than fully true, yet I can’t stop reading op-ed pieces and blog postings that posit that things have somehow changed, that the world now is not as it even just recently was, that it is the past and all its glories that shine bright now rather than the unknown—and unknowable—future, and that every one of the reasons listed above for us American Jews to join our fellow citizens in feeling deeply grateful for our presence in this place could just as reasonably be deemed illusory as fully real. And I hear those sentiments, interestingly enough, coming from people on both ends of the political spectrum as well as from all those self-situated just to the right or left of center. Nor are American Jews alone in their ill ease: if there is one thing vast swaths of our American nation seem able to agree upon, it’s that the age of great leadership belongs to history and that it is thus our destiny for the foreseeable future to be led by people whose sole claim to serve as our nation’s leaders is that they somehow managed to get themselves elected to public office. No one seems to dispute the fact that this is not at all a healthy thing for the republic. But expressing regret is not at all the same thing as formulating a specific plan to address the situation as it has evolved to date.

To keep this creeping malaise from interfering in an untoward manner as we prepare to celebrate our nation’s best holiday, I suggest we take the long view.

Frederic E. Church was a nineteenth century man, born in 1826 when John Quincy Adams was in the White House and dead in the spring of 1900 as a new century dawned. He was also one of America’s greatest landscape painters, a member of the so-called Hudson River School and, in his day, one of the most celebrated artists alive. I mention him today, however, not to recall the larger impact of his oeuvre, but to tell you about one single one of his paintings, the one called “The Icebergs.”

As you can see, the picture (currently owned by the Dallas Museum of Art) is magnificent. But what made it famous in its day was specifically the way in which it was taken by many to capture the surge of self-confidence that characterized America’s sense of its own destiny at the end of the nineteenth century. One author, Jörn Münkner, characterized the painting’s appeal in this passage composed when the painting was put on exhibition at Georgetown University:

Frederik E. Church's "The Icebergs" pictured the Alpha and Omega of time and tide. It reflected the mid-19th century American world-view that was characterized by the belief in a “Manifest Destiny” according to which the United States…was the New Israel that had been prepared for by the divinity. 1861 saw the U.S. reigning from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. Nature was regarded as holy and science as sanctified. The belief in the American Garden Eden whose very fortunes were guided by the Creator emanated out of the scientifically correct “The Icebergs.” It was the display of the rare and intoxicating American amalgam of science, religion, and nationalism. The relationship of the actual and the real that was concealed in the painting revealed the idea/fact that scientific thinking in America was shaped by a deep religious faith. Providence guided the scholarly painter's hand.

I find those words somehow inspiring and chilling at the same time, but I see what the author means: even after all this time, the painting hasn’t really lost its ability to suggest the majesty of nature or its timelessness. I get a bit lost on my way from that thought to the notion of manifest destiny inspiring America’s nineteenth-century rise to greatness (and, yes, the whole America as the new Israel is beyond peculiar, as surely also is the fact that the artist was thinking so expansively about American destiny on the eve of what in 1861 would still have been unimaginable carnage), yet I really can see the strength, the power, and the sense of ineluctable kismet mirrored in the majestic icebergs in the picture…and so finding in them a symbol both of America’s uniqueness and of its remarkable destiny is not as big a stretch as I thought at first it would be.

But other nineteenth-century types saw different things in the image of these gigantic icebergs afloat in an endless sea.

Edward Bellamy, once one of America’s most famous authors, has been almost completely forgotten. Yet his 1888 book, Looking Backward, was the third most popular American novel of nineteenth century, exceeded in fiction sales only by Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Ben-Hur. An early utopian novel, the book tells the story of one Julian West, a young man from Boston who goes to bed one night in 1887 and somehow manages only to wake up from his sleep in the year 2000. Some of the author’s predictions are uncannily correct—he depicts West as enjoying the almost instant delivery of goods ordered without having to visit any actual stores—while other things West finds in 2000, like a universal retirement age of 45, have not turned out quite as the author imagined they might. But it is the author’s postscript to his own work I want to cite here, as he imagines America in the future and uses his own version of the iceberg symbol to express his dismay. Almost definitely thinking of Church’s painting and the expansive optimism it inspired, he wrote as follows:

As an iceberg, floating southward from the frozen North, is gradually undermined by warmer seas, and, become at least unstable, churns the sea to yeast for miles around by the mighty rockings that portend its overturn, so the barbaric industrial and social system, which has come down to us from savage antiquity, undermined by the modern humane spirit, riddled by the criticism of economic science, is shaking the world with convulsions that presage its collapse.

This line of thinking I also understand: for all it appears mighty and invincible as it rises from the sea, icebergs are, after all, just so much frozen water. They melt as they float into warmer waters than can sustain them, which may (or may not) dramatically affect the ocean into which they dissolve but cannot affect the iceberg itself once it disappears into the sea and is no more.

So one image and two distinct interpretations. Of course, both are right. An inert, uncomprehending iceberg was powerful enough to sink the most sophisticated ocean liner of its day in 1912. And the semi-famous iceberg rather prosaically named B-15, which broke away from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in 2000, is about to melt into the South Atlantic Ocean. At 3,200 square nautical miles, B-15 is larger than the island of Jamaica. Yet its doom was sealed not by weapons of mass destruction or acts of God, but by the sea’s slightly too-warm water. (To read more, click here.) From this we learn that strength and weakness are not as unrelated as their antithetical nature makes them at first appear. Indeed, they are each other’s twins…and from that thought I draw the lesson I wish to offer to my readers for Thanksgiving Day in the Age of Anxiety.

Our nation is currently divided down into people who see America’s great and mighty presence in the world pointing to a remarkable destiny framed by our nation’s ongoing commitment to the foundational principles upon which the republic was founded and still rests. Such people look at Church’s painting and are heartened by what they see because solid, powerful, majestic icebergs afloat in the sea remind them of our nation, its strong moral underpinnings, its commitment to (the American version of) tikkun olam, and its invincible military. This group includes members who vote red and who vote blue, but others see our nation coming apart at the seams, a country divided down into warring factions in which personal liberty is increasingly defined in terms of the sensitivities of the majority and in which justice is meted out entirely differently to people of different races and social strata. Such people look at Church’s painting and hear Bellamy’s warning that even giant icebergs that look stable and impregnable can be undermined by the gentle, unarmed presence of a warm current in the sea. Nothing lasts forever. Every Achilles has his heel. No garden thrives because it was once watered.  

So who is right? I propose we give the last word to Bellamy himself, whose afterword to his own novel (which I am currently reading for the first time) closes with these words: “All thoughtful men agree,” he writes, “that the present aspect of society is portentous of great changes. The only question is whether they will be for the better or the worse. Those who believe in man’s essential nobleness lean to the former view, those who believe in his essential baseness to the latter. For my part, I hold to the former opinion. Looking Back was written in the belief that our Golden Age lies before us and not behind us, and is not far away. Our children will surely see it, and we too who are already men and women, if we deserve it by our faith and by our works.”

Despite it all, that’s what I think too! And I offer that thought—part prayer, part wish, part hope—to you all on this Thanksgiving Day, a day on which all Americans are united by the desire to recognize the good in ourselves and our nation, and to be grateful for the potential to do good in the world that derives directly from that noble sense of what it means to be an American. 

[activatingaggro]

Sipara is always so bold and headstrong! What kind of situations would make her crack underneath pressure? What kind of situation would make her stagnate and how far would she stay in a stagnated state before doing something about it? What would cause her to take a complete 180 on her current ideals?

So, defining thing about Sipara is the fact she likes to be in control of a situation. The majority of Pheres’s mistakes, she’s spent her adolescence mopping up, and now, as an adult, she’s found herself spending way too much time trying to mop up ID’s, and Hadean’s before that, because she handles her life and her emotions by always staying on top. If she isn’t handling things, she doesn’t know what the fuck to do, except panic!

And then she spirals, and then people start getting mauled, or she starts mauling herself in a mad race to get back in control. The worst thing you could do to Sipara would be to strip her of her agency, and then put her in a situation where she can’t win it back. Sipara’s good for big defining moments. If one of her quadrants died, she’d kill the person involved, and get over it. Because that’s her taking control of the situation: they died, but she still control the narrative, and “fix” it, in a way, by getting revenge.

If one of her quadrants died, and then the person involved died, so there was nothing she could do, and no way to seize the narrative - Sipara would shatter, unless someone else held her together.

She stagnates pretty easily! Sipara is not a person who grows easily, nor sees any need for it. ID shoved her in the forge and hammered her out into the person she is when he told her what helming was, and told her it was wrong. Since then, she’s had.. relatively little development. She was the same kid at four years old that she was at ten. She’s the same kid at thirteen that she is at nineteen, and the only difference is that she’s significantly more ruthless, and she’s more capable of emotionally handling the shit that gets heaped on her plate.

She doesn’t change easily, nor without severe consequences that force her to. ID traumatising the shit out of her and Pheres is what made her decide helming was wrong. Pheres ditching her twice over is what, ultimately, has made her decide she needs to shape up the way she treats people. Sipara makes her mind up very rapidly, and then sits on her conclusions up until the point she is actively forced to change them - not out of laziness, but just because she’s not the type of person who experiences doubts. She’s one hundred percent confidence, all the time, and that has very distinct drawbacks.

On changing her views: Sipara is very, very set on her convictions at this point in her life! She’s pretty much rock-solid on her morals and her obligations: if you got to her as a kid, and never had her encounter the IEP or any of the psionics in it, she’d be a copy of Daedal in that she just genuinely would not care beyond her clade. She was forced to care, and the conviction that she should - that everyone should - is basically the foundation of her moral beliefs as an adult. Getting her to do a 180 would require actually fucking breaking her.

Getting her to shift in smaller ways, as said above, just requires a harsh stick/carrot routine. She’s shifting her views on individuals! She’s getting more used to Kit, and is about to start the process of trying to actively befriend and mend her gap with her, despite her being cerulean and a mind-controller, because she doesn’t care about Kit, and her morals hold that Kit’s better off dead - but she does care about Pheres, and she’s willing to shove her anti-blueblood beliefs down because of that.

[yscbc]

(A solid foundation Will be required moving forward)🙏🏿 24 “So then, everyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man. He builds his house on the rock. 25 The rain comes down. The water rises. The winds blow and beat against that house. But it does not fall. It is built on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man. He builds his house on sand. 27 The rain comes down. The water rises. The winds blow and beat against that house. And it falls with a loud crash.”🙏🏿 Matthew 7:24–27 NIRV🙏🏿 ✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️

Your trust in God, your growing relationship with Christ, and your obedience and application of God’s Word are all crucial to building a solid foundation of faith. When storms of life come your way, you’ll be grounded in biblical truths and remain steady as a rock in your moral beliefs. Plus, you’ll remain strong inwardly by trusting in God’s sovereignty. If you disobey him, your foundation will begin to crack. For this reason, it’s wise to seek God daily and ask him to search your heart and make known what displeases him🙏🏿 Lord, like David, I need your encouragement in a time of trial and anguish. Thank you that you are always on the throne, always my God, ready to save. Thank you for being the same God to me that you were to David. Thank you for always being near and always rescuing me from my fears and hurts. Lord, help me remember that daybreak might be just ahead, that this trial will not last forever. Fill me with hope that daybreak is coming and that your love will always prevail🙏🏿

Riondo S Jackson

Christian at-large

[brantleypollock]

Morality, Pt. 2

The single question that all of ethics is based around is this: what makes something good? And not just beneficial or pleasurable, but objectively good. By what system of measurement can we understand what makes an action morally praiseworthy or morally reprehensible? Who or what is responsible for defining human beings as valuable and as people who should be honored and respected?

 For a time, Immanuel Kant and John Stewart Mill were the two leading thinkers on this topic. Mill defended a utilitarian view of morality, which holds that the effects of an action are what determine the moral status of said action. More plainly stated, the question Mill wants to ask is: does the action maximize human well-being? If the answer is yes, then the action could be considered good. Kant, on the other hand, held that the morality of actions had nothing to do with effects, but rather with humans acting out of duty in obedience to an objective moral law which is derived from eternal reason. Again, to put it more plainly, Kant wants to say that certain things are good, and other things are evil, regardless of how they affect other people. He attempts to ground this in what he refers to as “eternal reason”, which in his mind is, essentially, just necessarily-existent truth.

 It seems to me that both men got it wrong. The reason for this being that they failed to ground objective morality in God. God is the only one who can provide a solid foundation for objective moral standards. If God does not exist, then there seems to be no good basis for suggesting that anything, or anyone, is objectively good or valuable. On atheism, there is nothing that can ground an objective standard of morality. No atheist (or anyone, for that matter) has ever been able to give a convincing argument that has been sufficient to ground objective moral standards in anything other than God. Mill and Kant both certainly tried, but as we will see, it seems they both came up short.

 Let us first evaluate the utilitarian view suggested by John Stewart Mill. It seems as if Mill’s view of morality is bankrupt for two main reasons.

 -       Firstly, Mill’s theory of morality is entirely subjective. No action is inherently right or wrong, but the effects of the action are what determine its moral status. However, it seems clear that in order for anything to be considered truly moral or immoral, and therefore binding to all humans, there must be an objective standard of morality that is mind-independent. That is to say, it is right or wrong regardless of what anybody believes.

 -       Secondly, there is no way, on atheism, to show that maximizing human flourishing is an inherently good thing, and maximizing human flourishing and well-being is the sole premise on which Mill’s morality stands.

 In his peer-reviewed article, The Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality, Dr. William Lane Craig describes why morality cannot be subjective in order to be binding. He writes, “To say that there are objective moral values is to say that something is right or wrong independently of whether anybody believes it to be so. It is to say, for example, that Nazi anti-Semitism was morally wrong, even though the Nazis who carried out the Holocaust thought that it was good; and it would still be wrong even if the Nazis had won World War II and succeeded in exterminating or brainwashing everybody who disagreed with them.”[1] As Dr. Craig rightly points out, subjective morality is entirely based on the perceptions of humanity, and if the Nazi’s had won World War II and forged a world that agreed with their views – namely, that it is most beneficial for human flourishing if only a certain race of people are alive – then Mill’s theory of morality would say that what they did was morally good. Sure, millions of people were slaughtered, but it was all for the good of the human race. If morality is all about the current consensus on what is the best for the human race, then morality can never be truly binding because it is always subject to change. It is always going to be decided by who is in power, or who is winning the culture war. There is no objectivity whatsoever, and if that is the case, then nothing can ever be truly considered “good” or “bad”. Moreover, one should be extremely skeptical of anyone who claims to know what is best for maximal human flourishing. There are certainly things that are beneficial in certain situations, but for any human to claim to know the decisions or the actions that is best for the flourishing of the rest of the human race both now and in the future seems like delusory.

 Suppose, however, that we granted Mill the ability to always be able to demonstrate the action that would do the most amount of good for the greatest amount of people. Why should we think that this is a good thing? The only reason that human flourishing could be objectively good is if humans have some sort of intrinsic moral value. However, Mill was a naturalist, and on the naturalistic view, there simply is no grounding for this intrinsic moral value he attributes to humanity. If naturalism is true, then humans are just accidental beings evolving on a random planet inside the Milky Way galaxy. Why think they have any value whatsoever? There is no meaning behind their existence, and there is no true purpose of their existence. Because of this, on naturalism, there is no non-arbitrary way to show that human flourishing is objectively good, but rather, simply beneficial on a subjective level. Humans are the only ones who care about human flourishing, and there is nothing to set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. To think otherwise would be to fall victim to speciesism, which, according to the Encyclopedia Brittannica, is “the practice of treating members of one species as morally more important than members of other species; also, the belief that this practice is justified.”[2]

 When we survey the animal kingdom, we see lions killing zebras, male sharks forcibly having intercourse with female sharks, and queen bees eating their offspring, but we don’t hold any of them accountable for their actions. Lions do not murder zebras, and sharks do not rape each other. If humanity is simply part of this animal kingdom, why hold them to a higher standard? Especially when their sense of morality is simply a by-product of biological evolution and social conditioning. They were not endowed with a sense of morality, but instead, they evolved in such a way that they began to discover that this “herd mentality” was beneficial for survival. But, again, that cannot truly be considered “good” because humans aren’t really special or valuable. They just happened to evolve faster than the other members of the animal kingdom. Moreover, because humanity’s moral code is a by-product of evolution, it is entirely possible that they could have evolved with a completely different set of moral beliefs and values, and if that is the case, then we can have no confidence that the set of beliefs and values we have evolved with are truly good or bad. They’re just the ones we’ve come to hold based on our situationally-based survival instincts.

 Certain atheist philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, and David Hume were all able to grasp this concept, and so adopted a nihilist view of the world – which states that there is no objective truth, no objective value, and no objective purpose. Nothing is truly valuable, and life has no ultimate purpose. If atheism is true, then these philosophers are surely correct in their assessments of the human condition.

 Immanuel Kant seemed to have a good grasp of this concept, and was desperate to affirm objective moral standards. According to the 101-level college philosophy textbook, Philosophy Here and Now, “For Kant, the moral law cannot be something contingent, changeable, or relative. The moral law is absolute, unchangeable and universal, a rock-solid structure build on eternal reason.”[3] Kant understood that in order for morality to be binding, it had to be grounded in objective truth. Actions are not good or evil based on the effects they might bring about. Rather, they are good or evil because they either obey or disobey the objective moral law. The problem with Kant’s theory is that the only foundation he was able to base this objective truth is in eternal reason, which he claims exists necessarily. The problem with this is that Kant has no philosophical grounds for this “eternal reason”. He just states it as a brute fact. If he’s going to attempt to show that this “eternal reason” can exist without God, he’s going to have to somehow base the existence of this knowledge in abstract objects of the Platonic sort. There are a few philosophers attempting to do this (Dr. Erik Wielenberg of North Carolina State University is one of them), but none have been very successful.

 This all leads to the conclusion that God is the only thing that can ground moral value and intrinsic goodness because both of those things are grounded in His very nature. We have just spent time looking at the conclusions of granting the truth of atheism that God does not exist. So, if we grant the alternative, namely, that God exists, then it seems as if we have a firm basis for coming to the conclusion that objective moral values and standards can only be grounded in God. Saint Anselm of Canterbury, the great philosopher and theologian of the eleventh century, defined God as the greatest conceivable being. If we could conceive a being greater than God, then that would be God. Moral perfection is a great-making property of God, and because God – as the greatest conceivable being – has such a property, it follows that objective goodness can be comfortably and firmly grounded in His nature. Because God can only be perfectly good, His standard of goodness will never change, and because of this, things that are good will always be truly and objectively good.

 Finally, it seems that the answer to our initial question, “what makes something good?” is going to be found in the nature of God. God is what makes things good, and anything that is against the moral perfection of God will be considered bad. Certainly, it can be debated whether or not such a person even exists, but that is a topic that will need to be debated elsewhere. The truth of God’s existence is frankly irrelevant to this particular conversation as this is not an argument for God’s existence. This conversation is about what can truly ground objective moral standards and values, and we have seen that only theism is capable of handling such a task. Any attempt at grounding morality in something other than God will be unsustainable, and ultimately indefensible.

[1] https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/the-existence-of-god/the-indispensability-of-theological-meta-ethical-foundations-for-morality/

[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/speciesism

[3] Vaughn, Lewis. “Philosophy Here And Now: Powerful Ideas In Everyday Life.” Oxford University Press. 2016.

[floridaprelaw-blog]

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

By Rosanna Jenije, Florida State University Class of 2019

June 19, 2019

The 31st of October in 1517 was one of many dates that religion was challenged.  A German man consumed with the perplexities of religion nailed a declaration named “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” better known as the “95 Theses”.  This declaration rang through the Catholic Church, and with each swing of Luther’s hammer, pierced through the perceptions of religion. Luther would be rebuked and exiled by the Catholic Church for heresy, but ultimately, his work would go on to lay the foundation of the Protestant Reformation.  

Centuries before have known religious wars just as we know them today, and we have had manifestos and declarations for a call for change, just as Martin Luther nailed his manifesto on the Wittenberg Castle.[1]Manifestos such as Eric Rudolph’s “Feminism”, comparing feminism and its social liberation to the Bolsheviks in theirsiege of Russia, as in the siege of manhood.[2] Or other declarations like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” saying we [African Americans] will not fear, we will choose love, and we are not frightened by the cost of justice, because “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, have demanded change.[3]Every iteration of a declaration or manifesto, whether in reminiscence of the past or idealistically pursuing the future, has numerous sides and forms on which their argument is built; and to know which will prevail is to see who built their foundation on solid rock or sand in preparation of rain (or are they the rain).

In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Universal Declaration), Article 18 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”[4]  This is to say that one can chose to be religious or non-religious.  One can even create their own religion such as the Pastafarians.

The Pastafarians are a religious group whose god is a Flying Spaghetti Monster. They believe in peace on earth, and heaven and hell.  They have commandments called “I Really Rather You Didn’ts” that would ensure morally responsibility throughout a community.  While few subscribe to Pastafarianism and may think it is strange, its philosophy is not far from the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther inspired. Its intention was to break-down the status quo to live as god-fearing and most importantly god-chosen people.

This concept is extremely powerful because it can ignite transformational change. Such as Horace Bushnell a Puritan theologian, named the Father of American religious liberalism, who promoted religious teaching to children, so they are less likely to struggle religiously when they are older.  Billy Graham, a Baptist Christian evangelist who dedicated his life to revive masses through the gospel of the Christian Bible. James Cone, revealing an understanding of Black Theology and Black power to the unknown.  The good transformation that has come of the world is not only entitled to Christian leaders of American nationality, it also comes from people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama.  These spiritual leader in their own humanity created waves of good, as god-chosen people.  

To understand what good is, one must recognize evil.  We have seen that many people of many religions and many denominations of religions believe that they are divinely chosen by God.  This is a great power and concept, and can be dangerous to the ones that maliciously personify their God.Unfortunately, religion in the hands of some has harmed rather than redeemed humanity.  April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.  This man was religiously motivated to fight against the government. The Army of God, a religious group that has been charged for the bombings and killings of women’s services clinics and physicians.  June 17, 2015, the Emanuel African Methodist Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina by Dylann Roof took 9 lives.  March 15, 2019, Christchurch Mosque shooting, and on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.  We have seen lives and cultures changed through religion, for better and for worse.  However, through every devastation there will rise a multitude of triumphs, because through the law we become more aware of what is good and evil. God bless America and all her diversity, and she should know her empowerment over all her citizens that attempt and succeed to do good for her legacy. For with wisdom comes law, which lays the foundation that can withstand any flood.

________________________________________________________________

[1]History.com Editors, “Martin Luther and the 95 Theses”https://www.history.com/topics/reformation/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses

[2]Rudolph, Eric “Feminism”

[3]Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter for a Birmingham Jail”

[4]https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

 Photo Credit: Jaknouse

[giftofshewbread]

Have You Strayed?

By Nathele Graham

Published on: July 12, 2020

You hear it all the time. Someone attended Sunday school and youth groups as a young person. They gave their life to Christ, but as life went on, they strayed. They made choices that drew them farther and farther from that straight and narrow path. Now, their soul is yearning to return to Jesus, but they think their sins are too great; they’re certain that there’s no forgiveness for them. Let me assure you that you haven’t sinned beyond what Jesus will forgive.

It seems as if rebellion is a part of human nature. It’s not a beneficial part, but many young people do tend to stray as they get older. If the child was blessed with God-fearing parents, he or she was given a solid foundation and will eventually realize they’ve strayed and come back to their Christian beliefs.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

It’s not only young people who stray, but everyone is prone to sin. Life is better if there’s no rebellion, but God is loving and forgiving. He’s always willing to hear a prayer of repentance.

In this day and age, we have many distractions and temptations. This isn’t a new problem, but it seems as if the availability of temptation is greater today. The internet can lead anyone astray. Some videos found online are pure filth, and there’s also much false doctrine to be found there. Television and movies graphically depict sin and make it look pleasurable. Popular music today is full of vulgarity.

When I was young, the Beatles sang “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” but soon the Rolling Stones sang “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” One step at a time, the level of vulgarity was lowered until rappers sing (if you can call it singing) of killing and sexual degeneracy, and Katy Perry sang praises of sexual relations with aliens. Even professing Christians listen to this filth and are drawn away from the straight and narrow path. They should be reading their Bible.

Public schools and colleges teach everything except right and wrong. Well, they do teach wrong… evolution, choose your own gender, it’s ok to have two mommies or daddies, etc. Morality is laughed at in today’s society, and we see the results of filling our thoughts with glorifying sin as rioters and looters demand respect by destroying lives and businesses. That is nothing to respect. Remember, you have a choice in what you look at and listen to. God knows what choices a person will make, but that doesn’t mean He’s happy with our sinful rebellion.

When an adulterous woman was brought before Jesus for Him to condemn her because of her sin, He didn’t condemn her. Still, He didn’t just let her go on her way without confronting her sin. “…And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11b).

If you’re one of those Christians who has slipped down the slope deeper into sin, you may be questioning if you’ve sinned too much for salvation, or if you ever were saved. Those are questions that need an answer.

Christians sin. It would make things much easier if, when a person accepts Christ for salvation, all temptation and failures stopped. That’s just not how it works. In all actuality, life can get harder. Before accepting Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts and actions, sin was just normal. You weren’t a threat to Satan because you were on his side. Friday night partying with friends could lead to all kinds of mischief. One sin always leads to another, and there’s always consequences. Before you know it, a baby is on the way, or you’ve contracted some deadly disease and wish you had practiced abstinence. This all fits into Satan’s plans. If you’re not a Christian, well it’s just a part of life in the fast lane. If you do profess to be a Christian, you need to put it behind you and get back to pleasing God.

If you paid attention to the Bible stories in Sunday school, you might remember a story about the prodigal son:

There was a father who had two sons. The younger son wanted his inheritance so he could go off and live life his own way. “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want” (Luke 15:13-14). This young man had no money, no food, and no friends. He should have made a better choice and stayed in his father’s house, but now he had to do something drastic. He found a job feeding swine. That’s about as low as a Jewish man can sink. Even the swine’s food looked good to him. He was at the end of his rope and realized that he was better off at home.

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants” (Luke 15:17-19).

Does that describe you? Did you stray from your Heavenly Father’s protection because you wanted to live life on your own terms? It’s time to come to your senses and return to the Father.

The prodigal learned the hard way that the rules he had been subject to in his loving father’s house were rules for his protection. That young man had to admit he sinned, then humble himself and return to his father. As it turned out, his father was overjoyed at his return.

“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).

If you’ve strayed from God, you can be sure that He’s looking for your return. Whether you’ve hit rock bottom, or just strayed a little, God wants you to repent and come back to fellowship. The father in the story had a great celebration at his son’s return. “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:24). It’s time to return to God.

We all have choices and make decisions. The decisions that are based upon Scripture always turn out right. Decisions based on lust or greed lead to sin, and sin always has consequences. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:14-15).

If you’re paying a physical price for your own choice to sin, don’t blame God. For instance, yoking yourself in marriage with a non-believer can bring little happiness. You can’t blame God when your spouse decides to have an affair or makes it difficult for you to worship God. You may have to live with the consequences of your bad choices, but like the prodigal son, there’s always forgiveness waiting if you return to God.

When Christians fail in their walk with Jesus, it becomes a burden on their mind. They begin questioning whether or not they are saved and what will happen if they die. Either you accepted Christ for salvation or you didn’t. If you did and you’ve been living in opposition to God’s ways, you need to stop. Right now, you need to turn away from the sin that’s dragging you down and destroying your relationship with your loving Saviour. Stop living as the prodigal son, humble yourself, and ask forgiveness. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and has been calling for your return and has been seeking you.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one” (John 10:27-30).

If you’ve strayed from your faith, then you need to get back into fellowship. Jesus wants you back in fellowship.

If you wonder if you ever were really saved, why spend time wondering? Make that confession of faith now. Then, turn from the sin that’s destroying your life. If you’ve never turned to Jesus for salvation, do it now. All you have to do is recognize you’re a sinner and that only Jesus Christ, God Almighty, loved you enough to shed His blood to take your sin away. You cannot change the past, so don’t be held back because you think your sin’s too great and cannot be forgiven. There’s no little sin; they all separate us from God. The only unforgivable sin is to reject Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will guide you away from the sin in your life, but you need to follow His prompting. The first step is to give your life to God.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

Everyone has sinned, even the most pious elder in the strictest of congregations. Jesus knows every sin you will commit, but has forgiven them at the Cross. You need to humbly turn to Him for forgiveness.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10).

Admit that you’ve strayed, and confess your sin to Jesus. He already knows it, but by confessing it, you bring it to your own mind. Were you sincere in your confession? If so, He’s forgiven you. Now you need to forgive yourself. Don’t keep straying away, but live your life to honor Him.

God bless you all,

Nathele Graham

[calebyap]

The Tragedy of J

Recently one of the most prominent leaders in the movement I like to associate myself with had an unprecedented “fall”. It wasn’t the typical moral failure which occurs every now and then. Nope it was worse. It was a full-on renunciation of his views and teachings, accompanied by a personal life decision that represented a 180 degree U-turn on what he had believed. I felt so sad. Not a few friends sent me the links to websites about hte news when it broke, because this figure was beloved, and very very public. When I saw another friend repost the same information this morning, I felt strongly that I should put my thoughts down in writing to him, and I’ve expanded it here for whoever finds it helpful.

1. I think J is a brother in Christ who has one spiritual crisis after another after another. It must have been terribly rough. We should pray for him. Right now.

2. J’s’ crisis began with an external prompt -- of the cases of abuse in his church, which prompted him to see faults and flaws in his denomination and leaders, ultimately leading him to question their credibility. He broke with them, which must have hurt terribly, considering that these were leaders and mentors in his life that were pillars. And they had failed him.

3. Breaking from that authority structure and seeing the failures of those leaders led him to question fundamental assumptions he previously held, including the authority of scripture, and with it the conservatism of evangelical teaching. Basically, it looks like he started to entertain the possibility that everything he had learnt and believed and even taught was wrong. Once this plausibility structure was shaken, everything became possible.

4. This further trickled into doubt with respect to specific points of Christian teaching: about his understanding of sexual ethics, complementarianisn, “purity culture” dating, and dating. If the foundations are shaken, what else can stand on it? His current remarks on various subjects indicate more confusion and uncertainty than full-on renunciations. The renunciations are to the rock-solid confidence and clarity that he previously held.

5. This may be why he’s descended into the break in his personal relationships. Ultimately, the shattering of his own personal relationships. Once the guards of our beliefs are removed, the heart, deceitful and wicked, is free to roam into all kinds of unrestrained “freedoms”.

Lord, have mercy upon us all, sinners.

[naturalagate03-blog]

Importance of spheres and pyramids in metaphysical world

Sphere of human understanding

All the knowledge of the human understanding can basically divided into four types:

1.      Physical – referred as empirical

2.      Logical – referred as reason

3.      Ethical- referred as philosophy in-action

4.      Metaphysical – referred as philosophy

Metaphysical world refers to the idea of Meta physics which in turn has derived from the mixture of physics and metaphysics of physics. It is often referred to as the rock that can be experienced directly or through any measurement tool. The theme behind the metaphysical world refers to the morals in actions and the practical philosophy with the emotional reactions. All this are easy to experience but are that much difficult to define or measure.

Pyramids – Power and belief

Pyramids are considered to be extremely sacred in many cultures in the world. The power of the pyramid is derived from the ability to channel or collect energy from the higher realms of the universe and bring down to the earth.

The bottom of the pyramid represents a solid, earthy foundation whereas the top pointed apex represents the ability to reach into the higher realm of consciousness. The energy which enters the pyramid has an ability to be cleansed or purified. They act as a filter which sorts out the negative ions and balances the body’s electromagnetic field and delivers healing.

Interconnection of the pyramid and spheres with the metaphysical world

These pyramids and spheres provided through Natural Agate are considered as a sacred symbol across many cultures. This shape represents to the physical body emerging from the earth and getting ascended towards the sun. The pyramid structure is greatly connected in terms of philosophy where each wand signify different energy center blending the metaphysical essence with the goal of pulling the soul or the spirit to its Highest Calling.

Importance of the pyramid and spheres in the metaphysical world 

1.      They are believed to be extremely sacred in many cultures and were used as healing agents from the ancient time.

2.      It is being used for conducting rituals and ceremonies with the belief that this shape helps to connect them with the earth and the heaven above.

3.      It enhances the effectiveness and actually helps to enhance the benefits and reduces the stress.

4.      It helps to hold different energies and it influences in subtle and profound ways.

5.      It also absorbs the harmful EMFs and other energetic frequencies that can bring a serious damage to the health conditions.

6.      It is very effective in breaking up the energy blockages and fosters the power and ability to mediate in a more focused manner.

 Facebook Link : Natural Agate

Twitter:  Natural Agate

Linkedin : Natural Agate

[thomasreedtn]

Timothy Glenn ~ Uranus in Taurus: The Preview

After a long hiatus, but always timely … a new astrological meta-analysis by Timothy Glenn. This is an important — and potentially empowering — post. I know so many good-hearted, intelligent people about to have their world shaken like an electric popcorn maker struck by lightning. If you find yourself knee-jerk reacting to anything, it’s wise to step back and humbly reassess. Maybe your original assessment will hold, but it’s wise to examine any and all “of course” ideas. Look for those areas you consider “so obvious” that you’re certain anyone who disagrees with you is a neanderthal or idiot.

As Tim explains, we’re in preview mode. What do you wish to create? What are you fighting, and what are you supporting? Are you sure they’re mutually exclusive? Awakener, Revelator, Liberator Uranus is full of surprises. It’s popcorn time. Whether you get zapped or enjoy the show depends on your own creativity, awareness and adaptability. Sending love, discernment and courage to everyone … here’s Tim:

Uranus in Taurus: The Preview

by Timothy Glenn

We have been hearing quite a buzz about the revolutionary planet Uranus entering the staid sign of Taurus. Uranus tends to be ahead of its time, so no matter what sign it enters, it looks around and says, “Oh, this is so retro. It’s time for an upgrade.”

The three outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) never simply move from one sign to another. Since they scour every single degree of the zodiac, they always do a triple transit over the cusp during their ingress into any sign.

Uranus initially moved into Taurus on May 15. It will go into retrograde motion on August 7, and cross back into Aries on November 6. This gives us a six month preview of what may arise during the following seven years.

Movie Trailers

Most of us have watched previews of movies, and from that we have determined whether or not we would like to watch the entire film. We can apply the same principle here.

If we see or experience things we like during the preview period, we can invest more energy into manifesting such possibilities on a grander scale during the Main Event after Uranus returns to Taurus for the long haul on May 6, 2019.

Simultaneously, if we see or experience things we don’t like during the preview, the wise among us will make appropriate adjustments – or run the risk of the universe treating us to a major league, industrial strength cosmic attitude adjustment at a seemingly inopportune moment.

Shake and Wake

Uranus has been known as the Awakener, and could perhaps be credited with coining the expression “rude awakening”. While Uranus can bestow magnificent blessings, those blessings can sometimes arrive extremely well disguised.

As the Revelator, Uranus can also unveil broader perspectives and cold hard facts that shake outmoded belief systems to their foundations – usually not a comfy, cushy process.

During the original Red Pill experience in the first Matrix film, the character Neo fully realized that the world he had accepted as Reality had all along been a computer-generated simulation. He and all other humans had lived their lives inside that trap, perpetually being drained of energy by the artificial intelligence that had designed and built the Matrix. When this realization crashed through his barriers, he dropped to his hands and knees to vomit. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Much of the Blue-Pilled population still clings to their beliefs in the very systems that have misled and exploited them all their lives. These duped people are testing the Red-Pilled sector’s patience. However, Blue-Pilled obnoxiousness and obstinacy demonstrated by some of them, have reached such a fever pitch that others are at least beginning to question what they have been supporting.

We might wish for them to be awakened, without envying them the procedure of awakening. Mark Twain said, “It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” And the deeper the resistance, the more intense the pain of releasing the lies they have believed.

Another Fine Myth

Q. What happens when the irresistible force meets the immovable object? A. The so-called immovable object has its illusions shattered.

Many of our Taurean illusions are coming up for review. Think you’re grounded? Think the Earth is solid? Think institutions and ways of life are permanent and immutable? Uranus in Taurus will invite you to guess again.

As our old friend the Buddha pointed out, the entire universe is transient. Everything is moving, flowing. Nothing is solid and stationary.

Scientific best guesstimates indicate that we are rapidly spinning on a planet that is flying at about 67,000 miles per hour around a sun that is barreling through the galaxy at 483,000 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are approaching each other at an estimated speed of a quarter million miles per hour.

And yet some part of human life thinks it’s immovable? Good luck with that.

All That Matters

Everything earthy will be challenged. Materially based, consumer driven societies will rethink and retool, or risk extinction. The old greed-fueled financial systems of debt slavery have reached their expiration date.

Uranus also serves as the Liberator. Uranus loves to create opportunities. Uranus promotes conscious evolution. And this is where Uranus can bring its highest ideals right down to Earth.

We will all have adventures in realigning our priorities, to the point that some of our dearest old values will be weighed and found wanting. Not a single one of us can expect to usher in the New Earth while carrying on in any of the old world paradigms.

Uranus in Taurus will strongly encourage greater conscientiousness in how we spend our material resources, individually and collectively. As more uncomfortable facts are unveiled about methods of procurement and production, humanity’s conscience will be galvanized. We will insist on the technological innovations that Uranus can provide. We will up our game.

And yes – Uranus rules electricity, hence electronics, hence computers, hence the internet – hence get ready for cryptocurrencies to move to the fore.

Signing In

During our preview period (now through November 6) we can watch for signs of things to come. There will continue to be indicators popping up everywhere.

And yet our crazy friend Uranus remains the least predictable influence in the solar system. He specializes in surprises. He enjoys giving a good head fake. In the aftermath, he loves to hear us say: “Who’da thunk it?” Uranus, that’s who.

We cannot ignore that as the first of the Earth signs, Taurus involves the physical planet. The prophesied Earth changes will not only continue, but escalate. The “system” is currently downplaying many of the phenomena happening right now, but this is an area to watch. Uranus in Taurus will rock the Earth – literally.

Growing Up

The time has come for humanity to grow the hell up already. Fortunately, Uranus in Taurus will generate the impetus for us to ascend to the next level of human evolution.

The Uranian method of awakening the sleepers can be analogized to having a bucket of ice water dumped on your head. But it works. Once you shake it off, life becomes a fresh new day.

Uranus in Taurus will support upliftment of all kinds, especially in the arts. Our divine creativity will be stimulated. Genuine inspiration will elevate society above the moral and ethical depravity of the corporate entertainment industry.

But our enhanced creativity will extend into all areas of Earthly life. We can expect to see tremendous advancements in ordinary folk type humans growing more of their own food, and helping reverse the environmental degradation that now staggers the intellect.

Uranus is the true Tech Giant. Whatever will help us shift life on Earth, the technologies (which already exist – and have long existed) will emerge. The key lies in our ever opening consciousness, especially in our hearts.

Uranus in Taurus? As Laura Bruno loves to say: “Bring it!”

Timothy Glenn http://www.soulpurposereadings.com/

from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/timothy-glenn-uranus-in-taurus-the-preview/

[superacadenthusiast-blog]

How Conservative and Liberal Cultures Have Been Fostered in The Philippine Context

Do you know just how powerful and influential the Catholic Church is? Ever since we have been colonized by Spain in the 16th century, Catholicism has been widespread in the Philippines and has reached a tremendous amount of followers. According to the most recent census of the National Statistics Office (NSO) in 2010 about 80% of the Philippine population is Roman Catholic. Catholicism has indeed been integral in shaping the culture, politics and micro and macro decision making of people all over the Philippines. Catholicism has been passed down from one generation to another and this shows how parents, who are arguably the most influential actor to their children, are able to impose their own set of morals and beliefs down to their children to believe in majority of their life.

           It is important to consider that the Catholic Church and its beliefs are inherently conservative. This manifests in how they are against the RH Bill because it is against the conservative beliefs of the Catholic Church that sex is a sacred act and must only be done to reproduce and also only when the person is married. In light of the most recent issue, the legalization of Same-Sex Marriage, it is another conflict of beliefs that the Catholic Church believes that man is only man for woman and vice-versa and anything besides that would be contrary to God’s law. The Catholic Church has also been incredibly successful in the past in having a solid foundation of influence especially during the times of Martial Law where they used Catholic Church officials and numerous nuns to the rule of Marcos in the Philippines.

 On the other hand however, there is still a great number of people in support of Same-Sex Marriage in the Philippines. According to a poll conducted by Rappler in 2015, it suggests that around 70% of the Philippine population opposes Same-Sex Marriage. This shows how there is 30% in support of Same-Sex Marriage and that is already a great number especially in politics where that is almost half your population. The reason why there has been a rising number of people in support of Same-Sex Marriage is because of the rise of liberal values that are being fostered in the Philippines. The LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual) community has looked up to celebrities and idols who have come out of the closet such as Boy Abunda, Vice Ganda, and Bretman Rock who all stand up for gay rights and gave hope to people in the LGBT community.

           Given that both the liberal and conservative contexts have been established in the Philippines, it is now important to look at how it has played a role in the political contestation has looked like. The Catholic Church has made numerous statements against Same-Sex Marriage and now Duterte himself has said that “There is the civil code, which states you can only marry a woman for me, and for a woman to marry a man. That’s the law in the Philippines… Walanang he or she — 'yanangkulturanila. Kayo lang. Hindi pwedesaamin. Katoliko kami”. It shows how the president himself, who is in the highest position of authority and political power, has been influenced and convinced that the Philippines is inherently conservative because of its Catholic beliefs and must stay that way. Although the counter-narrative that exists is that there are many politicians such as Leni Robredo and Geraldine Roman who are fighting for the legalization of Same-Sex Marriage. In conclusion, the political contestation exists between both conservative and liberal politicians, and moreover redefining what truly is the new culture of the Philippines. Are we now close to a more liberal society? Or are we still conservative and want to preserve our very own historical Roman Catholic image? That is for the politics of the Philippines to decide and we have done that with passing the bill of the RH Bill.

References

Duterte opposes same-sex marriage for 'Catholic' Philippines. (2017, March 20). Retrieved December 13, 2017, from http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/03/20/Duterte-same-sex-marriage-LGBT-gays-Catholic.html

Bueza, M. (2015, January 18). MAP: Catholicism in the Philippines. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/81162-map-catholicism-philippines

Jesus, J. L. (2016, February 19). Robredo on gay marriage: Choosing whom to love a 'basic right'. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/766280/robredo-on-gay-marriage-choosing-whom-to-love-a-basic-right

 Ethan J. Floro

[djgblogger-blog]

Why evangelicals are OK with voting for Roy Moore

http://bit.ly/2kYlH7J

Are conservative evangelicals and Catholics in political decline?

Many liberals apparently see hypocrisy over sexual harassment bringing down this once-formidable social and political movement.

Roy Moore allegedly stalking girls, Donald Trump’s mic’d misogyny, family values Congressman Wesley Goodman’s alleged sexual harassment of young Republican men and the Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes resignations at Fox News – all of these point to a would-be crisis.

Some evangelicals have rebelled.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, condemned President Trump during the presidential campaign, saying, “Trump’s horrifying statements, heard in his own proud voice … must make continued support for Trump impossible for any evangelical leader.”

But unlike Mohler, most conservative evangelicals and Catholics have remained rock-hard faithful to Trump and Moore. While many find this paradoxical, it really does make sense.

I have recently published a study of Christian responses to key public policy issues. The study took the form of surveys and interviews, a cross-sample of hundreds of Christians conducted across America, on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to abortion to the nature of evil and goodness in the world. The results are a reminder of why religious beliefs and values are so intertwined with politics in the United States.

Understanding these underlying core beliefs can explain the actions of most evangelical voters in the #MeToo era.

Liberals don’t get it

Liberals claim to detect a double standard in those with whom they have long disagreed. They cite the resignations of members of Congress Al Franken and John Conyers as examples of the righteousness of the Democratic Party – while a Republican president who admitted to what sounds like sexual assault remains in office.

But that won’t help the Democrats win elections in the future. What I learned in my research is that the ways people – be they Democrat or Republican or independent – process political decisions is a complex combination of deep-held values and trade-offs.

Do the resignations of Senators Al Franken and John Conyers really give Democrats the moral high ground? Senate TV via AP

Let’s start with the obvious. For decades, Democrats could win presidential elections only with the solid support of segregationists in the South who controlled the electoral votes that propelled northern liberal candidates from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy.

Hypocrites? Not really. Democrats made a cold assessment of how they could win and what policies were most critical to the party. That meant Kennedy promised Southern governors he would never use federal troops to desegregate schools. And, of course, Democrats were silent over the sexual exploits of their leaders as they were over corruption and election manipulations. Hypocrisy on the part of the politicians? Perhaps. But liberal Democratic voters understood and made a cold-blooded, rational choice. Landmark legislation, from Social Security to Medicare, as well as historic civil rights bills, were the result.

Emphasizing issues, not candidates

Research shows that across all parties, voters make contradictory political and policy calculations all the time.

Evangelicals of today are no more or less rational in their choices as they prioritize what really matters to them. The evangelical Christians I interviewed believe the world is filled with sin, repentance is possible and that American exceptionalism flows from God’s love and from a Christian commitment to purity. The battle to protect America from what these believers see as the potential pollution of American society is fundamental to their religious – and their political – worldview.

For many American Christians, the Bible provides a very clear and commanding code of purity that informs their views on such issues as adultery and premarital sex, homosexuality and abortion, condoms in schools and sex education. They fervently believe that humans are sinful and have the demonic capacity to defy the divine plan for America and drive God out of the United States and out of our world.

For these believers, the sin of abandoning the sacred is not limited to the sinners alone. Once the evil they perceive is endorsed by their government – whether same-sex marriage or abortion – not only the evil-doers will be punished. America’s sins, it is believed, will also bring faithful Christians down with them. By allowing sin to flourish, Christians themselves will have contributed to the contamination of God’s sanctuary. In short, they see salvation at stake.

Like religious leaders who were arrested fighting for civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, evangelicals and conservative Catholics of today are unwilling to keep their religious beliefs private.

This is how one evangelical minister I interviewed explained evangelical support for Trump campaign: “Hillary, who apparently practices more of a moral lifestyle, nevertheless promotes policies … which are seen as undermining the moral fabric of the nation even more than one man’s actions. In other words, in this vein at least, Mrs. Clinton is even more of a purity violation than Mr. Trump.”

The same rational thinking was often used by evangelicals to endorse Roy Moore, whose passionate defense of core Christian fundamentalist values is unequivocal and who supports a solidly conservative Republican agenda. And what is that agenda? The 2016 Republican platform calls for defunding Planned Parenthood, ending abortion, halting the Obama administration’s transgender restroom edict, rejecting the “LGBT agenda” and restoring the traditional definition of marriage while protecting the religious freedom of Americans to reject same-sex marriage or provide contraception. If you believe that there is a biblical mandate to battle the moral taints condemned in the Republican Party platform, then Roy Moore is your man, no matter what his personal behavior.

The faithful may well believe that Moore and Trump, among others, are deeply flawed human beings. For them, God’s ways are mysterious. The idea that a flawed human being can be a vehicle for God’s plan is as old as King David in the Bible from whom descends the Messiah. Americans reelected Bill Clinton, also a morally compromised leader, believing that what he could accomplish as president transcended who he is.

An awareness that pragmatism, not hypocrisy, runs both left and right should open an avenue for productive conversation among Americans across the spectrum. Certainly there are limits even in today’s vitriolic discourse. Nobody should vote for a candidate who endorses racism, misogyny and homophobia, white or Christian supremacy or religious hatred and violence.

But no matter one’s religious and political beliefs, viewing the political terrain as the forces of light against the forces of evil on every issue is overrated. There is certainly hypocrisy in politics, but what seems cynical or insincere to outsiders may be better understood as thoughtful compromise in the name of deeper-held core values. Reaching out to engage and try to understand these values may well allow liberals and conservatives, and people of different faiths, to cross the polarized divide.

David Elcott receives funding from Ford foundation and NYU