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 Jokes Etc › Re: Farting Jokes by Recognise: 8:30pm On Apr 16, 2009 |
Lolabbey:Farting, is fun? Yeah, suppose so . . . I'll show you "funny farting" in sec . . . . Check this out  [flash=600,400]http:///degjtq[/flash] |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Mrs Kumuyi's Last Moments -- By Aides by Recognise: 1:31pm On Apr 16, 2009 |
OLAADEGBU:The righteous perish, and no-one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no-one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from the evil in this world[b] - Isaiah 57:1[/b] |
| Jokes Etc › Re: Farting Jokes by Recognise: 8:05pm On Apr 15, 2009 |
Lolabbey: Lolabbey:Easy with the farting . . . and hey we heard you the first time Tut-tut-tut [img width=25 height=25]http:///d9txw2[/img] Farts with lumps: "Honorary & Distinguish farters" beware "The teacher asked little Johnny to use the word "definitely" in a sentence. Little Johnny asks Teach a coy question before responding Little Johnny: "Teacher, do farts have lumps in them?" Teacher: "Of course not Johnny," To which Johnny replies, "Hmm, I have definitely sh1t my pants then . . . ". |
| Crime › Re: Famous Nigerian Armed Robbers Of All Time by Recognise: 2:02pm On Apr 14, 2009 |
Aloy.Emeka:5. Men in Uniforms and Agbadas 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: HOT from the PRESS: Pastor W.F. Kumuyi’s Wife Dies At 57 by Recognise(op): 11:17pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
Tpia:@Tpia Likely the west . . . Her name is Mrs 'Biodun Kumuyi |
| Christianity Etc › Re: HOT from the PRESS: Pastor W.F. Kumuyi’s Wife Dies At 57 by Recognise(op): 10:02pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
The story of Kumuyi:To read more of the Interview: [url=http://www.africasia.com/uploads/Deeper%20Life.pdf]Click here[/url] |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 9:50pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
8 of 8 The most sobering sentence in God's judgment is "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return." This is how Eve and Adam learn that life is finite. The words "from dust to dust," however, further proclaim a universal truth that is neither the tragic consequence of the first couple's disobedience nor a punishment. Our goal as humans should not be to try to escape death but instead to embrace life and savor its challenges and gifts. Eve is the one who chooses knowledge over immortality. She tastes the fruit from the tree of knowledge and forgoes the fruit from the other tree, the tree of life. She manifests no interest in immortality, despite God's concern about humans' pilfering from the tree of life. The narrative implies that the trade-off of immortality for knowledge and experience is complete. When Adam and Eve become mortal, they become fully human. Death confers a sense of urgency to life; the fact of death tells us that whatever we do is important, that we must not procrastinate. Contrary to popular understanding, Eve is not a manipulative temptress; nor is she a gullible victim who succumbs to temptation. On the contrary, Eve is a risk taker, a woman who dares to question the limitations imposed on her and her helpmate. She is driven by the need to create new life. She is the one who determines the future of humankind. She is a heroine, and her story is the template for the stories that follow. The women in the Bible are part of a long line of Eve's descendants—women who use their powers to work everyday miracles in a patriarchal world. By Naomi Harris Rosenblatt From After the Apple: Women in the Bible: Timeless Stories of Love, Lust, and Longing by Naomi Harris Rosenblatt for SOURCE: Click here |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Pastor Kumuyi Of Deeper Life Ministry's Wife Dies At 57 After A Brief Illness. by Recognise: 9:41pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
Kumuyi’s wife dies at 57 https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-260987.0.html [center]All credit to Drered &
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| Christianity Etc › Re: Pastor W.F Kumuyi's Wife Is Dead? by Recognise: 9:08pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
Kumuyi’s wife dies at 57 https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-260987.0.html [center]All credit to Drered &
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| Christianity Etc › HOT from the PRESS: Pastor W.F. Kumuyi’s Wife Dies At 57 by Recognise(op): 9:07pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
[size=14pt]Kumuyi’s wife dies at 57 [/size] Written by Sam Eyoboka Monday, 13 April 2009 THERE was an unusual calmness at the Deeper Christian Life Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, venue of the church’s just concluded Easter retreat, when news filtered in that the wife of the General Superintendent of the church, Mrs. Biodun Kumuyi had passed on. Mrs. Kumuyi, 57, mother of two — John and Jerry — was said to have died on Saturday, a day before the end of the retreat. The death of the first lady of the church, who was hardly known by members of the church, did not deter the husband, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, from preaching his sermon on Easter Sunday. He preached on a topic, he entitled: “Lovest thou me” and throughout the message, he was said to be full of life not revealing any trace of a bereaved heartthrob. Very little is known of the wife of Pastor Kumuyi as the ministry does not have any significant role for women as they are supposed to remain silent in church in accordance to biblical injunction. Until her death on Saturday, Mrs. Kumuyi was the Editor-in-Chief of the ministry’s highly subsidised women magazine — Christian Women Mirror — the magazine for building Godly women. In his reaction, last night, the National President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor expressed deep shock at the news of the death at this time. “The Bible says ‘if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”, he quoted I Corinthians 15:19, stressing that our hope is in God. for SOURCE: Click here PS: RIP [center]All credit to Drered for the original news scoop[/center]
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| Jokes Etc › Re: 10 Great 5EX Positions . . . by Recognise(op): 8:01pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
Ziggy_mama to Sholabanke (m):@Ziggy_mama [img width=18 height=18]http:///cfwt76[/img] "Waa gbayi" literally Enuff Respect |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 4:28pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
7 of 8 Eve and Adam leave their father's protective abode, as children must. God knows it is time for them to face life as adults in an imperfect world. The heartbroken parent appoints a guard at the garden's gate to prevent Eve and Adam from regressing to a childhood devoid of adult responsibilities but also to prevent himself from softening and allowing them to return. The Garden of Eden offers a life that is comfortable and risk free. Yet Eve rejects the stultifying monotony of her perfect, paradisiacal life. As she gazes at the forbidden tree of knowledge, she seems to ask, "What good is life without the wisdom that arises from experience?" Passing by the tree of life, she might muse, "Of what use is immortality without knowledge or growth?" Eve wrestles with humanity's first moral dilemma and takes the first moral action recorded in the Bible when she crosses the limit set by the all-knowing God. The reader sees Eve and Adam leaving the Garden of Eden full of optimism. They are not at all the tearful, dejected couple portrayed in Renaissance art, expelled by a furious father. The first thing they do is make love and create new life. What better way is there to teach us about pleasure and responsibility, behavior and consequences, than through the knowledge that the fleeting gratification of lovemaking produces a child with whom parents share a lifelong bond? Generations of male commentators have accused Eve of being a disobedient seductress who led innocent Adam astray, thus bringing pain and suffering and death to all humankind. But a close reading of the Bible actually points in quite a different direction. The biblical chronicle suggests that Eve's sole motivation is curiosity, the starting point that leads ultimately to wisdom. It is Eve who forces open the gates of Eden so that all of us may benefit from the vast, perilous realm of human potential that lies beyond the garden. It is her daring choice that unlocks the sexual knowledge essential to the creation of new life. The biblical term "to know" is a graceful summing up of the intimate and in-depth understanding that grows over time in a sexual relationship. Only when a man and a woman really "know" each other over time and under many different circumstances—as companions, partners, lovers—will they risk revealing their most private feelings and responses to each other. To be continued: |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 1:59pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
6 of 8 Significantly, God's edict that man must till the soil to bring forth food follows immediately after his pronouncement on woman's role—"He shall rule over you"—linking their roles as complementary. It is clear that Adam and Eve's relationship is about collaboration, not subjugation. Woman is to bring forth life with pain, but she will also derive satisfaction from watching her offspring mature. Man is to eke out a living by the sweat of his brow, but he will also be feeding his family with a sense of accomplishment. The humans' reactions to God's judgments go unrecorded. God's devastating final punishment—"For dust you are, and to dust you shall return"—is followed by an apparent non sequitur: "The man named his wife Eve [Hava in Hebrew], because she was the mother of all the living." This name highlights Eve as the archetype for all women, whose unique role is to give life. It is the first of rare husband-to-wife compliments in the Bible; it is also hardly the contrite admission of guilt that might be expected in response to God's stern edicts. Instead, man and woman participate in the ritual act of giving a name, which suggests Adam's appreciation for his wife's action. He has stopped blaming her. The next sentence exemplifies God's compassion and mercy. He upgrades the fig leaves they wear to "garments of skins for Adam and his wife." His gift of clothing protects his children from the elements outside the garden. The garments also portend the beginnings of aesthetic appreciation and, with it, civilization. Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden is necessitated by a second tree in the garden, one previously mentioned but playing no part in the story thus far. God, mysteriously using the royal we, observes: "Now that man has become like one of us, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!" Now that man has breached the previous demarcation by gaining knowledge of good and evil, the Creator is determined to draw a line between the human and the divine; human beings are henceforth destined to live as mortals. God not only banishes Adam "to till the soil from which he was taken" but also "drove the man out, and stationed east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life." To be continued: |
| Jokes Etc › Re: Farting Jokes by Recognise: 1:02pm On Apr 12, 2009 |
@Suprted This got me guffawing Suprted on: November 22, 2008, 06:54 AM :OK, there is this old lady that needs to be taken care of . . . Incidentakly, there was this familly picnic, so the old lady's daughter asks her two children to watch the old lady and help her if she needs help . Now the old lady is sitting on a bench with her grandaughter on her left and grandson on her right After a couple of minutes, the old lady leans to the right and the boy gently pushes her back into place. then a few seconds later the old lady leans to the right and the girl does the same, pushes her back into place A couple of minutes later, the mother comes back to check on how the children are taking care of the old lady The mother asks the old lady how she is doing and the old lady replies "These kids won't let me fart!! . . . [center]Lame - Yeah I know . . . [/center] |
| Crime › Paid To Do It, But Fails To Make His Friend's Wife Pregnant After 72 Attempts by Recognise(op): 11:20am On Apr 12, 2009 |
Breach of Contract? In Stuttgart, Germany, a court judge must decide on a case of honorable intentions in a situation where a man hired his neighbor to get his wife pregnant. It seems that Demetrius Soupolos, 29, and his former beauty queen wife, Traute, wanted a child badly, but Demetrius was told by a doctor that he was sterile. So, Soupolos, after calming his wife’s protests, hired his neighbor, Frank Maus, 34, to impregnate her. Since Maus was already married and the father of two children, plus looked very much like Soupolos to boot, the plan seemed good. Soupolos paid Maus $2,500 for the job and for three evenings a week for the next six months, Maus tried desperately, a total of 72 different times, to impregnate Traute. When his own wife objected, he explained, "I don’t like this any more than you. I’m simply doing it for the money. Try and understand." When Traute failed to get pregnant after six months, however, Soupolos was not understanding and insisted that Maus have a medical examination, which he did. The doctor’s announcement that Maus was also sterile shocked everyone except his wife, who was forced to confess that Maus was not the real father of their two children. Now Soupolos is suing Maus for breach of contract in an effort to get his money back, but Maus refuses to give it up because he said he did not guarantee conception, but only that he would give an honest effort or SOURCE: Click here |
| Jokes Etc › Re: 10 Great 5EX Positions . . . by Recognise(op): 10:51am On Apr 12, 2009 |
10 Great sex positions:Re-loaded The most common sex position these days, possibly is the infamous DOGGY STYLE:  - Husband sits and begs for it while wife rolls over and plays dead! [center]Yeah yeah . . . I know you've heard it before[/center] |
| Crime › Convicted Of Child Abandonment - PLANE BIRTH WOMAN TO BE DEPORTED by Recognise(op): 9:20am On Apr 12, 2009 |
A Samoan woman who secretly gave birth on an international flight then dumped the baby in a rubbish bin has been convicted of child abandonment and ordered to be deported from New Zealand. Karolaine Maika, a 29-year-old seasonal worker, gave birth without anyone noticing in the toilet of a Pacific Blue flight from her home country to Auckland, New Zealand, on March 19. Cleaners found the baby girl still alive after the flight landed. Maika pleaded guilty to a child abandonment charge in Manukau District Court. Police withdrew a charge of assaulting the baby, saying that injuries the infant sustained were caused during the birth. Judge Heather Simpson convicted Maika on the abandonment charge and ordered her deportation to Samoa. Maika could have been sentenced to a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Maika's lawyer, Elaine Ward, told the court her client had told no-one about her pregnancy because it was considered shameful in Samoan society to be an unwed mother. In sentencing, Ms Simpson said she took into account that Maika was not aware that she was in labour before she boarded the flight. Maika was returning to New Zealand to work as a kiwi fruit-picker when her daughter was born. Maika's baby remains in the care of the New Zealand government welfare agency, but police Det Sgt Mark Gutry said the child would also likely be sent to Samoa, where Maika already has another child. for SOURCE: Click here |
| Crime › Jailed Terrorist lived Close To Al-Qaida Suspects by Recognise(op): 9:05am On Apr 12, 2009 |
[size=14pt]Jailed terrorist lived close to al-Qaida suspects[/size] A Pakistani terrorist jailed for six years in 2007 came to the UK on a student visa and later settled in the area where four of this week’s alleged al-Qaida bomb plot suspects lived. Abdul Rahman acted as a recruiting sergeant for British Muslims to join the “Holy War” and was the first person in Britain to be convicted of a charge of disseminating terrorist information. Rahman and his associates filmed each other training in the Lake District as they crawled across a snow-covered mountain while firing imaginary guns. He arrived in the UK on a four-year student visa in September 2004 and enrolled at university in Dundee for a biotechnology course. However, he quit the next day saying he was “unable to settle in the culture” and moved to the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester where he met up with other young radicals, including another Pakistani national who entered Britain on a student visa. The 26-year-old was also connected to the recent “invisible ink bomb plot” masterminded by Rochdale-born Rangzieb Ahmed and assisted by Cheetham Hill taxi driver Habib Ahmed. His mobile phone number was written in invisible ink in a diary handled by the two men. Eleven Pakistani nationals – of which at least 10 hold student visas – were arrested in the north-west of England on Wednesday over what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown labelled as a “very big terrorist plot”. Two suspects were arrested at a terraced house in Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, and two others were held at the Cyber Net Cafe in nearby Cheetham Hill Road. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom warned not enough was being done to carry out security checks on foreign students, while security experts said it could be a new tactic by al-Qaida to “import” terrorism. But links between Pakistani nationals on student visas and Cheetham Hill in north Manchester were revealed at Rahman’s court appearance in Manchester in November 2007. It emerged that the 25-year-old lived in a shared house in Heywood Street and began a regime of martial arts training while working as a mobile phone salesman. He joined up with former school friend Aslam Awan, 26, who himself arrived on a student visa in 2002, and Karachi-born Muhammed Muraad Iqbal, 29. It is understood Awan worked at Primark clothes store in Manchester city centre and Iqbal was employed at Capital One credit company in Nottingham. Manchester Crown Court heard Rahman was later caught in possession of a “call to arms” letter sent from Awan who had left the UK to fight the coalition forces in Afghanistan. Awan’s letter was to be passed to others to “spread the word” for their cause of inducing others to terrorism. It told of the “divine law of religion” which ruled in Taliban-held areas and described the fighting and the “fragrance of blood” from the battlefield. The letter stated: “We have to do this work even with our last drop of blood. Please do migrate and encourage others to migrate too. Please invite everybody towards this cause.” When police raided the Heywood Street address they found computer discs of speeches which told of the killing of Muslims in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and exhorted Muslim mothers: “Rather than raise coward disco boys, raise brave crusaders.” Rahman pleaded guilty to possessing articles for the purpose of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist propaganda. He also admitted aiding or abetting the breach of a control order by giving £480 to a British-born Muslim to evade the authorities by flying out from Birmingham Airport to Pakistan in January 2007. Rahman attempted to later post a package to the man, containing mobile phones and combat knives. Sentencing him, Judge Clement Goldstone QC recommended his deportation after he served his jail term. Wanted terror suspects Awan and Muraad Iqbal are believed to be hiding out in the North West Frontier province of Pakistan and both were banned by the Home Secretary from re-entering Britain. The former address of the terror cell in Heywood Street was just two streets away from Habib Ahmed’s home in Elmfield Street. Habib Ahmed, 29, was jailed for 10 years at Manchester Crown Court in December last year – nine for being a member of al-Qaida and an additional year for possessing a document for terror-related purposes. He assisted Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, of Fallowfield, Manchester, who was the first person to be convicted in the UK of directing terrorism. Rangzieb was given a life sentence and ordered to serve a minimum of 10 years after a jury found him guilty of heading a three-man active al-Qaida service cell which was preparing to commit mass murder. The mobile phone numbers of both Rahman and Awan appeared in diaries held by the pair which were described in court as a “contact book for terrorists”. Counter-terrorism chiefs in Greater Manchester were not sure where Rangzieb Ahmed was planning to strike but they were convinced an attack was imminent. His scheme was uncovered when he passed three diaries to Habib Ahmed, no relation, to bring into the UK from Dubai. The diaries appeared largely blank but actually contained details of key al-Qaida operatives written in invisible ink. The phone number of the terror group’s former No 3, Hamza Rabia, was among the diary entries. Rabia was understood to be the ultimate controller of Rangzieb’s unknown foreign mission which was postponed when he was blown up in an explosion in December 2005. Sentencing Rangzieb, Mr Justice Saunders said he was satisfied he was “dedicated to the cause of Islamic terrorism”. “You are an intelligent, capable and superficially reasonable man who is involved in terrorism. “That makes you an extremely dangerous man.” for SOURCE: Click here |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 8:42am On Apr 12, 2009 |
5 of 8 God becomes angry not so much at the act of disobedience but at Adam and Eve's avoidance of responsibility. Significantly, the word sin is not introduced in the Bible until later, when Cain murders his brother, Abel. It seems that Adam and Eve's worst transgression is their scapegoating, and the couple's moral life will finally begin when they can acknowledge having done wrong. Seductive and aggressive, a narcissist, the serpent is deemed the archvillain of the story. It proves more articulate than man, and its courtship of woman is as ardent as it is cunning. It is involved with the woman strictly for its own pleasure and gratification. The serpent derives perverse excitement from successfully tempting Eve. It is a villain because of the baseness of its motives, not because of the act it encourages. The serpent began its existence standing erect, an image that suggests sexual enticement, and according to rabbinical tradition, that is how it spoke to the woman. God disapproves of this narcissism and severely punishes the serpent. No wonder we call a sneaky, selfish person "a snake"! God tells the serpent, "Because you did this, more cursed shall you be than all the cattle and all the wild beasts." God's first punishment reduces the offending serpent's entire species to the humiliation of crawling and eating dirt. Having meted out his sternest punishment, God then turns to woman: "I will make most severe your pain in childbearing; in pain shall you bear children; yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Even with modern medicine, giving birth is not free of pain or risk. After birth, however, a protective amnesia sets in, and the life force within the mother prevails. Memory of the pain recedes, and the woman once again desires sexual union with her partner. That, too, is part of God's grand design. The suppression of the memory of pain in childbirth is part of a fundamental optimism about the future, about hope and a new beginning. Next, God addresses man: "Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life: Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground—for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return To be continued: |
| Christianity Etc › Tony Blair, Catholic Convert, Takes On Vatican's Stance Toward Gays by Recognise(op): 8:40am On Apr 12, 2009 |
[size=14pt]Tony Blair, Catholic Convert, Takes on Vatican's Stance Toward Gays[/size] By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a recent convert to Roman Catholicism, says in a new interview with a gay magazine that the Vatican is out of step with ordinary believers in condemning homosexuality. the Associated Press: Blair, who formally converted to Catholicism in 2007, said he believes there is a big generational difference on the issue, and that ordinary Catholics are more liberal-minded than their leaders.Such church criticism coming from high-profile Catholic converts, so many of whom are political conservatives who are in step with the Vatican on social issues, strikes me as a rare thing these days. I E-mailed Bill Donohue, a conservative who is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and is a frequent critic of non-Catholics who pooh-pooh the Vatican, for his thoughts on Blair's critique. Donohue doesn't pull his punches: Donohue: Blair should put his cards on the table. Does he object to the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality, which proscribes sex outside of marriage? If so, we need to know why he rejects the Church's teachings. For example, does he reject the Church teachings on adultery?for SOURCE: Click here |
| Romance › Re: If God Were To Recreate The World, Would He Still Add Women? by Recognise: 6:29am On Apr 12, 2009 |
- was a Risk Taker, not a Temptress or Victim https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-260536.0.html |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 6:26am On Apr 12, 2009 |
4 of 8 Eve reaches out to Adam, holding the fruit. In contrast to the female, the male is immediately susceptible to any sexual invitation. Observing the ease with which man accepts the forbidden fruit, woman has already learned that man succumbs easily to sexual temptation. The female ignites the flame of his desire by her mere presence or through the subtlest of means—a smile, flattery, the offering of an apple—and the male is immediately seduced. This theme of man's instant responsiveness runs through the Bible. Hearing God moving about in the garden, man and woman panic and hide. God calls out to man, "Where are you?" He replies, "I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." God asks, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I forbade you to eat?" Man's immediate defense is to blame the woman as well as God: "The woman you put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate." God then turns to woman: "What is this you have done!" She replies, "The serpent duped me, and I ate." Both man and woman shirk their own responsibility by blaming someone else. Man could have chosen to protect woman, who has just fed him and given him pleasure. He could have said that she did not force him to partake of the fruit. Woman could have explained that she chose to trade immortality in the Garden of Eden for knowledge and wisdom. Like man, however, she disavows any accountability for her action. Eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is the first independent act by the human beings in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve cannot be said to have been fully aware of the extent of their transgression because they did not yet have knowledge of good and evil. They do, however, know that God has told them explicitly not to eat of that tree. In that respect, they are like children, who may understand that certain behavior is expected but do not fully understand why. Like any concerned parent, God wants his children to learn to accept responsibility for their actions, however painful it may be. Indeed, God has lovingly provided all of the arrangements in the garden—a secure life, the edict against one tree—but also the capacity for free choice that will cause Adam and Eve to mature. He knows perfectly well where the humans are in the garden, but he asks his question, "Where are you?" to draw the story out of them and begin the process of moral development. To be continued: |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 9:09pm On Apr 11, 2009 |
3 of 8 The serpent, a phallic symbol and fertility idol in cultures across the world, is a reflection of the sexual yearnings stirring in the woman's body and soul. The serpent cunningly addresses the woman's unconscious and casts doubts. Woman, however, is not easily swayed. She is not rash; she takes her time and deliberates; she is aware that the punishment for disobedience to God will be severe. She is alone when the serpent works to persuade her, but then she is with Adam when she finally reaches for the fruit. "When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took the fruit and ate. Then she gave some to her husband, and he ate." Eve deliberates before eating the forbidden fruit, but Adam devours it without hesitation and without questioning the consequences. The fruit has an instantaneous effect: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves" to cover their private parts. Before eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, they had nothing to hide either from their Creator or from each other. But afterward, they become self-conscious, ashamed. Privacy thus becomes part of human sexuality. The repast of fruit in the garden is a defining moment in the human saga. Soon the first couple's repertory of emotions expands to include shame, guilt, and desire. Man and woman begin the awkward and painful transition from the innocence of childhood to sexual awareness, awakening, experience, and accountability. It is the beginning of puberty and maturation. Woman's sexual awakening goes hand in hand with the life force, the drive to procreate. She must attract the man to her because she cannot conceive on her own. God knows that woman will be the first to take advantage of his gift and be drawn to the forbidden tree. In accord with his grand scheme, Eve is biologically, genetically, and mentally designed to perpetuate the species. Like every woman after her, she is born with all the eggs she will need for every child she will ever bear. Embedded in this charming allegory of sexual awakening is the gap between the female and male sexual response. Woman's arousal is gradual and internal, enlisting all her senses and emotions, as described in Eve's deliberations before tasting the fruit. We imagine the process she goes through before she is persuaded to take the ultimate step. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eye, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and did eat," the Bible says. The procreative drive has been awakened and overwhelms all other considerations. For the woman, the consequences of a sexual relationship can be much more serious than for the man. She is the one who becomes pregnant. Her decision is therefore slower and more deliberate than the man's. To be contnued: |
| Christianity Etc › Re: EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 10:37am On Apr 11, 2009 |
2 of 8 God did not consult man about the creation of woman. Adam did not ask for a companion; he was not even aware of the deficiency in his life. Woman, like man, is entirely the Creator's idea. Both are created in God's image, which means they have free choice, and both are thus morally and spiritually equal in his eyes. The Creator "brought her to the man," and he presents her with a courteous flourish. Man is instantly moved to poetry: "This one at last / Is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh." Now man has a "fitting companion," different but equal, who stands upright and laughs and cries and talks like him. Both are naked, but neither is ashamed. They are as innocent as infants romping at the beach. The Bible introduces the idea of the need for companionship before it even mentions sexuality and procreation. By introducing this concept first, the Bible makes the point that the companionship we offer our mates is the most enduring and rare gift we can bring to an intimate relationship. Sexual desire—although indispensable—may ebb and flow, but the need for companionship is constant. One rabbinical commentary suggests that woman was created second so that man could experience loneliness and more fully appreciate his partner. Another opines that as Adam named the animals as they passed by him in pairs he commented: "Everything has its partner, but I have no partner." In the Garden of Eden, God designates one tree off limits, and he warns man never to touch its fruit on pain of death. The forbidden fruit is that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Hebrew word for knowledge, da'at, means sexual knowledge. "To know" is the biblical verb that implies more than the sexual act alone. It is an elegant euphemism for the intimate and sensitive understanding that evolves over time within a sexual relationship. Lurking about the forbidden tree is a serpent, "the shrewdest of all the wild beasts." Sidling up to the woman, it asks if God really forbade eating fruit from the trees of the garden. She corrects the serpent: "God allows the eating of the fruits of all trees, except for the one in the middle of the garden." She recites God's edict (presumably told to her by Adam): "You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die." The serpent tells the woman: "You are not going to die, but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know good and evil." To be continued: |
| Romance › Re: If God Were To Recreate The World, Would He Still Add Women? by Recognise: 8:52am On Apr 11, 2009 |
I honestly thought this posting was off the Religion forum when I responded to it. Took for granted it was by virtue of the question and so responded in an implicit manner Tpia:I wouldn't go OTT with the OP To be mild, the OP is likely half-conscious of the fact(s) from want of understanding. His controvesy will only profit him notoriety |
| Christianity Etc › EVE; the FIRST REBEL: was a Risk Taker, NOT a Temptress or Victim by Recognise(op): 8:16am On Apr 11, 2009 |
[size=14pt]EVE; the FIRST REBEL[/size] [size=14pt]- was a Risk Taker, not a Temptress or Victim[/size] It all started with Eve, the mother of us all. The story of the first humans, Eve and Adam, opens the Bible with a tangle of loneliness, companionship, desire, and love. It tells how woman, made in the Creator's image, gives up a life of ease in an idyllic setting, along with the promise of immortality, and instead chooses to pursue wisdom and intimacy with her man. Locked within the story of the first couple is a matrix for all the male-female partnerships that follow. The invisible mover behind the scenes is an all-knowing, loving God who sets all the elements in place: a man, a woman, the lush garden, the talking serpent, the fruit-bearing trees. In the story the Creator teaches us about the exercise of free will, the need to be responsible for the consequences of our actions, and the bumpy road to growing up. The setting is idyllic. We envision Adam enjoying the company of playful animals. Wonder fills his soul as he watches birds soaring across the sky. He runs with the beasts, climbs tall trees, and skips flat stones on the river's surface. The Garden of Eden is an ideal playground, a place of innocence where life is beautiful and safe, lacking all challenges. In this lovely setting, however, "no fitting helper for Adam was found." Adam has no other creature that walks upright and is able to contemplate both heaven and earth. No other living being cries or laughs like him. And no other creature talks. Adam has no one with whom to communicate feelings or exchange ideas. Surveying all he has created, God observes with compassion the loneliness of the human being among the animals. He says, "It is not good for Adam to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him." The Creator acts quickly, first anesthetizing Adam and then performing surgery: "So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. And the Lord God fashioned the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman." Adam is now unquestionably male, and Eve is his female counterpart. Is God aware of the energy he is unleashing by separating the human into man and woman? Or has woman been part of his secret plan all along? The Hebrew word tzela is customarily translated as "rib," but another of its meanings is "side"—as in the side of a house, or an essential component of the whole. The term suggests that if you remove the "side," the structure falls apart. That woman is made from man's "side" tells us that they are two halves of a once intact whole. On the one hand, man now has a separate companion from whom he can gain a different perspective. On the other, after they are separated, each half pursues the other, yearning to become one again. As the Bible puts it: "Hence, a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh." With this passage, the Bible indicates the potential for man and woman when they join together in mind, heart, and body to pursue a single goal, most fruitfully expressed as offspring. To be continued |
| Romance › Re: If God Were To Recreate The World, Would He Still Add Women? by Recognise: 8:47pm On Apr 10, 2009 |
Ojesymsym:@Ojesymsym What a negative rundown and distrustful view of God. You asked a question "If God Were To Recreate The World, Would He Still Add Women?" and answered it during your rabitting and wet blanket. Ojesymsym: . . . Mary was an instrument for saving the world . . .Go had/is already recreating the world. God was setting off recreating the "world" when he chose a woman (i.e. Mary) Moreover the characters of the men in your summation where of the old man type and not of the new man's. The new creation and all things becoming brand new does make a whole lot of difference . . . The male will be incomplete without the female, at least in this dispensation . . . During creation woman was the best left for the end. Without Without a woman, you wouldnt be here because you can't/wouldn't be a doing a genie entrance to earth . . . So let's put the demon of gynophobia or misogyny to rest, eh? It's a faux pas, it's embrassing and a distraction . . . [center]The "enemy" is within you and not outside - Woman is the least of concerns[/center] |
| Foreign Affairs › Al-Qaeda Terror Plot: Plan To Bomb Easter Shoppers by Recognise(op): 6:33pm On Apr 10, 2009 |
[size=14pt]Al-Qaeda terror plot: searches continue over alleged plan to bomb Easter shoppers[/size] By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent Police investigating an alleged al-Qaeda plot to carry out an "Easter spectacular" of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester are continuing to search a number of addresses in Liverpool. Eleven Pakistani nationals and one UK-born Briton were still being questioned at various locations in the UK in connection with the alleged plot. The men, ten of whom hold student visas, can be detained for up to 28 days A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "Twelve suspects remain in custody in various locations across the country. "A further address on Highgate Street, Liverpool, is also being searched, bringing the total number of addresses being searched to ten." The police statement came as Downing Street revealed that Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, had spoken with the President of Pakistan about the threat from terrorism. A Downing Street spokesman said: "The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke by telephone last night. "They agreed that the UK and Pakistan share a serious threat from terrorism and violent extremism, and committed to work together to address this common challenge." Mr Brown said: "We know that there are links between terrorists in Britain and terrorists in Pakistan. That is an important issue for us to follow through and that's why I will be talking to President Zardari about what Pakistan can do to help us in the future." Sources told The Daily Telegraph that the arrests of 12 men in the north west of England on Wednesday were linked to a suspected plan to launch a devastating attack this weekend. Some of the suspects were watched by MI5 agents as they filmed themselves outside the Trafford Centre on the edge of Manchester, the Arndale Centre in the city centre, and the nearby St Ann's Square. Police were forced to round up the alleged plotters after they were overheard discussing dates, understood to include the Easter bank holiday, one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year. "It could have been the next few days and they were talking about 10 days at the outside," one source said. "We had to act." Police are now engaged in a search for an alleged bomb factory, where explosives might have been assembled. If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain's worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered. A plan to arrest the suspects in a series of co-ordinated raids yesterday morning had to be hastily brought forward to Wednesday afternoon after the country's most senior anti-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, of the Metropolitan Police, was photographed going into Downing Street carrying a briefing paper with top secret details of Operation Pathway in full view. Mr Quick resigned after he was told by the Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, that he had lost her confidence and that of MI5. As a result of his blunder, hundreds of police officers had to be scrambled to arrest the suspects, who were being monitored round the clock. Former police chiefs pointed out that rounding up suspected suicide bombers in public places in Liverpool, Manchester and Clitheroe, Lancs, had put other people at risk and could also have compromised the operation. All but one of the men arrested were Pakistani nationals who came to Britain on student visas. This suggested a possible new tactic by al-Qaeda, which had previously used British-based extremists who travelled to Pakistan for training. The issue of student visas represents a potential security nightmare for the police and MI5. There are 330,000 foreign students in Britain and around 10,000 such visas are issued every year to Pakistanis alone. Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, has described the student visa system as "the major loophole in Britain's border controls". Several of the suspects who were being questioned last night, were from the al-Qaeda heartlands in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan. Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester, said police had been forced to act to protect the public. Asked about al-Qaeda involvement, he added: "We know what is the nature of the threat to this country and where it comes from." But he sought to reassure shoppers, and added: "I would like to say I would have no hesitation, or any of my family, in using any of those locations that have been mentioned." The security services suspect that several of the men arrested were trained at religious schools in Pakistan and sent to launch suicide attacks on the West. They were suspected to have Continued on Page 5 Continued from Page 1 chosen Easter as the most significant Christian holiday for an attack. Police believe the suspects may have smuggled bomb-making equipment into the country and were ready to launch their attacks. Sources said police had arrested the man they suspected was the ring-leader, Abid Naseer, 22, at an address in Galsworthy Avenue in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. He is said to be from the tribal areas of Pakistan where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have established their base. The alleged members of the cell had signed up for a range of student courses, while two were employed as security guards at a new Homebase store in Clitheroe, Lancs. Among the locations raided on Wednesday afternoon was the Cyber Net Café in Cheetham Hill, where it is thought the men communicated using emails. Security sources suspect they received their instructions from al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan. The leader of the Pakistan Taliban is Baitullah Mehsud, who last week claimed responsibility for an attack on a police compound in Lahore and promised to attack the West. At least one of the arrested men is from Mehsud's heartland of South Waziristan, sources in Pakistan said. SOURCE: Click here |
| Christianity Etc › Pastor used Church Money for Plastic Surgeries by Recognise(op): 8:05pm On Apr 08, 2009 |
[size=14pt]S.I. PRIEST USED CHURCH MONEY FOR PLASTIC SURGERIES[/size] By JAMIE SCHRAM A Staten Island pastor was busted for breaking the Eighth Commandment -- thou shalt not steal -- after using church money to finance his plastic surgery and botox injections. Authorities said the Rev. William Blasingame, 66, fell prey to one of the seven deadly sins -- vanity -- when he stole nearly $85,000 from his Episcopalian congregation to finance his obsessive quest to turn back the clock. Blasingame, who resigned from St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church, was charged with second-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after an investigation revealed the pastor was skimming from donations, officials said. The Episcopal priest was collared by the Staten Island DA's detective squad after suspicious church elders began double-checking church finances. Officials said Blasingame also used the money -- from a church upkeep and maintenance fund, and a parishioner emergency account -- to pay for club memberships, car insurance and fancy clothes. He was arraigned Friday and released on his own recognizance for SOURCE: Cllick here |
| Christianity Etc › Drive-around Church by Recognise(op): 9:48pm On Apr 07, 2009 |
[img width=400 height=500]http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/ModernMechanix/11-1931/med_portable_church.jpg[/img] Above: a Baptist church on wheels, complete with a twelve-foot high belfrey. I wonder if any of these still survive? |
| Christianity Etc › Meet the New Head of Catholics in England and Wales by Recognise(op): 8:08pm On Apr 05, 2009 |
[size=14pt]Catholic Church names new leader[/size] By Robert Pigott Religious affairs correspondent, BBC News Vincent Nichols might easily have taken the top job in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales nine years ago. In early 2000 some Roman Catholics saw the Auxiliary Bishop in Westminster as the most likely successor to Cardinal Basil Hume, who had died in 1999 and whose burial Bishop Nichols presided over. His appointment might have promoted continuity, but Pope John Paul II chose the long-serving Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, instead. Bishop Nichols was also promoted, becoming the Archbishop of Birmingham in March 2000. A keen football fan, the 63-year-old Archbishop Nichols has maintained a high profile in the Church hierarchy while in Birmingham. He took on chairmanship of the body set up to prevent a repetition of the sexual abuse of young people by priests that had scandalised the Church. And as head of the Catholic Education Service he won a battle against the government over the allocation of places in Catholic schools to non-Catholic pupils. Vincent Gerard Nichols was born in Crosby on Merseyside in November 1945, the son of teachers, and was ordained a priest in 1969. https://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45368000/jpg/_45368352_000179745-1.jpg Archbishop Nichols has maintained a high profile in the Church. THE NEW ARCHBISHOPThe road to his lofty achievements began with a more humble ambition, as he wanted to become a lorry driver when a young boy. But it was as a teenager that he felt the calling to become a priest. "I'd gone to watch Liverpool and stand on the Kop at Anfield, and say to God: 'Why don't you just leave me alone? Why can't I just be one of a crowd?'," he told the Times in 2007. The young Father Nichols spent 14 years in the Liverpool archdiocese, where he came under the care of Archbishop Derek Worlock. Archbishop Worlock is reputed to have observed Father Nichols' efforts to help divorced couples to remarry - something controversial in the Church - and encouraged him to make more "Vatican-friendly" gestures with a view to eventual promotion. Vincent Nichols was firmly inserted into the Church hierarchy when he became the general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. He occupied this influential post for nine years, earning a reputation as a dynamic administrator. In 1992 he moved as auxiliary bishop to the Archdiocese of Westminster, taking on special pastoral responsibility for north London. Then came Birmingham, a large demanding archdiocese where Archbishop Nichols had the chance to shine on the national stage. Effective communicator He became the Church's lead spokesman on education, including among his official posts head of the Bishops' Conference Department for Catholic Education and Formation. In 2006, when the government introduced plans to force faith schools to take up to a quarter of pupils from "other religions", he mounted a campaign against what he called "insulting" and "divisive" plans. Archbishop Nichols pointed out Catholic schools already took some 30% of their pupils from other faiths or no faith at all, and denounced coercion by the law as "ill thought-out, unworkable and contradictory of empirical evidence". Perhaps more significantly he wrote to the head teachers of the more than 2,000 Catholic schools, mobilising them in the campaign. The plan was eventually stripped of its coercive elements. He retained a reputation as an effective media performer and tough champion for the Church in a secularising society. That may have played a decisive part in the Pope's decision to appoint him to head what is one of the most important archdioceses in the Church. 'Good with people' Peter Jennings, his press secretary, describes him as a "very thoughtful" and prayerful man. He added: "Some people have described him as calculating. I would just say that he thinks very, very carefully about what he wants to do and the ramifications of a decision that he takes. "He is fiercely loyal to his friends and he is hard-working and diligent. He has an open door to his priests and is extremely good with people." But some sources - admittedly on the liberal wing of the Church - claim the archbishop is seen as insufficiently "collegial". When pushed, some of the same clergy suggest that although to become the head of the Church in England and Wales it does not hurt to have been somewhat ambitious, it is best not to let it show - and Vincent Nichols has sometimes been a little too open about wanting the top job. But there is agreement that he will understand the political machine he is inheriting in Westminster and be a robust defender of the Church's interests. He has shown he could prove to be a skilled negotiator in the role. Where other leaders might have presented just the mailed fist, Archbishop Nichols is expected to cloak it within a velvet glove. for SOURCE: click here |
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