Posted on 05/23/2002 1:46:16 PM PDT by RWBaral
STOP AIDS BY STOPPING THE SINS
I write as Chairman of the non-profit organization, "Be informed! Lessen suffering! Save lives!, inc." The mission of BLS is "to promote the public health, education, understanding and virtue." I wish to share how we can all help stop the terrible disease of AIDS in America.
It is heartening to know that many are concerned about the suffering and dying from AIDS, and of events to raise money to help AIDS patients. However, such AIDS fundraising events are not an answer to stopping this horrific disease. Rather, let's tell the truth about AIDS. Stop AIDS by stopping the sins that have caused atleast 88% of AIDS cases in the USA. Allow me to explain.
As a career hospital Paramedic and then emergency room Nurse over about 20 years, I have seen so much suffering and death, often self-inflicted and avoidable. For such things my heart and soul break beyond human words. Some of these were AIDS patients.
I note certain activists, industries and politicians - often willingly - are ignorant of the FACTS of who is at risk for contracting HIV and thus what we can do to prevent it's spread. Politics and money over the health and welfare of people? It shouldn't happen, but it does.
Consider the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) table 5 US AIDS totals for men and both genders to 12/31/2000 for exposure categories: men who have sex with men (MSM); intravenous grug abusers (IVDA); both MSM and IVDA; heterosexual contacts, etc (www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats/hasr1202table5.htm).
For US male AIDS cases, 56% are MSM; 22% are IVDA; 8% are MSM and IVDA; 5% are heterosexual contacts.
For US both genders AIDS cases, 46% are MSM; 25% are IVDA; 6% are MSM and IVDA; 11% are heterosexual contacts. 46% + 25% + 6% + 11%=88%.
Further, so called "safe sex" is a medical lie. The Physicians Consortium reports that, even if male latex condoms are used 100% perfectly all of the time, they are no more effective against HIV infection than 85% (www.headlines.agapepress.org/archives/7/252001b.asp).
So what does this data tell us? The truth. Avoid homosexual relations. Do not use intravenous drugs. Do not be sexually promiscuous. Stop the at risk behaviours, and you stop most HIV infections.
Translated: simple! The answers to stopping most US HIV infections, and thus AIDS cases, are morality and marriage. GOD gives us His Moral Code (ex Ten Commandments) and the institution of marriage because He loves us, wants to protect us, and see us flourish and be happy.
Thus, do not engage in forbidden sexual perversions that will cost you your earthly body and the damnation of your eternal soul. Keep your body clean and don't mess with drugs. Abstinence until marriage, then marrige between one man and one woman, within a mutually faithful, loving, uninfected relationship, hopefully for life.
The days of consequence-free sexual debauchery, free love and casual sex are over (as if they ever really existed?). The sexually transmitted diseases you can acquire today in America too often can't be just taken care of with a few pills or a shot. AIDS is lethal, and there is not likely to be a cure - ever.
The AIDS fundraising events, etc are nice gestures, but the answer to stopping most HIV infections in AMerica is to avoid the risk factor exposure category behaviours of homosexual relations, intravenous drug use and sexual promiscuity. Stop AIDS by telling the truth. Stop AIDS bwith GOD's Moral Code and the blessings of marriage. "Stop AIDS by stopping the sins" is my humble prayer, in JESUS' Name, Amen.
GOD's Speed To All,
Mr. R. W. Baral, RN,CEN,EMT-P, Chairman, "Be informed! Lessen suffering! Save lives!, inc." Po Box 315 Bennington, VT 05201 bls135@aol.com (802)-423-7636
... and God's point was ...??
"Job loves me even after I let you kick him around ( hope he dosen't find out I set him up ! ) "
"I can too create people that you can't seduce...so there ! "( my reject rate is pretty dismal with all the non-christians, but I'm working on it )
"See, I could have made you just like this... I want you just the way you are and don't forget it !"
Why don't you ask Him? (I am not being facetious).
SMILING - I sure intend to !
...LUCY... you got some 'splainin to do !
hopefully we will laugh about this later...much later !
Was man not made in God's image ?
Was His word left in a Bible that we are not meant to comprehend ?
Besides, do you expect me to seriously consider that an all knowing God would have trouble understanding his creation ?
--- obviously not, so why the useless analogy ?
Not really sure what your point was, unless ...
God is smarter then you - ( kind of the whole "god" concept isn't it )
God wants you to search for enlightenment - ( if the search is the key... I'm in ! )
God leaves a book around, and if you don't actually try to understand it... you're in !
Judging God ? Can't do that until I have all the facts - ( and I couldn't if He didn't want us to -- free will, remember )-
Not that anyone would presume to judge someone who could have you slow-roasted for eternity -
If I am to be damned for using the curious mind He knew I would have an eternity before my grandfather was born, so be it.
To deny it would be to reject the gift of intellect He has given me.
Does God see a big difference between robots programmed to love and "free will" life that has been told - ... if you don't freely love me, I will send you to hell to burn forever...
Sounds like He is is willing to accept(demand ) love given "freely", but not give unconditional love
Are we weong because we love our children in a different way then He loves us ?
... and God's point was ...??
Well, that could have been taken for an honest question, but you wouldn't want anyone to mistake your intent, right? So you continued with some choice sarcasm. Fine. Now everyone knows that you have already decided that your question has no answer that you will deign to accept.
If you ever happen to suffer a flash of openmindedness, you would do well to remember that the attitude you have exhibited here nearly guarantees your inability to recognize a good answer. Moreover, in order for you to apprehend the right answer, you must begin with at least a small amount of faith. In case you ever find yourself in that situation, read the first two chapters again. Look first at the point that Satan is trying to make. In my previous post I wrote that "God apparently intends to prove Satan wrong." More accurately, God intends to allow Satan to prove himself wrong. But it doesn't stop there.
You might be further enlightened by reading parts of the Bible that speak of other reasons that God allows His people to suffer, such as Romans 5:3, II Corinthians 12:9, Phillipians 1:27-30, the first chapter of James, I Peter 4:12, Malachi 3:2-3, the end of Hebrews 11 and the beginning of Hebrews 12. There are more, but none of them will profit anything unless they are mixed with faith.
The Zeitgeist of pop psychology and political correctness tells us that suffering is the very definition of evil. When someone suffers, it says, that is evil. If someone else deliberately caused suffering, it says, they are evil. If someone in authority allowed that, it says, they are evil. Perhaps this is how you judge God.
But my God can bring forth good from anything, even—and especially—suffering.
The answer is "C) All of the above". While God knew what Job would do, Job didn't. This was for his own benefit as well.
Hopefully he had some rational reason for it, but the explainations so far are simply not very God-like, more like some petty dictator trying to prove how strong he is, and therby asserting his weekness.
There usually aren't rational explanations for the things God does. We can't explain them because God's wisdom exceeds the wisdom of all mankind combined. "Ears have not heard and eyes have not seen" the things God has in store for us. You don't know what is God-like and what isn't, and neither does anyone else. We can only guess based on what He has told us in His Bible.
Since you seem to know what things are "God-like", please let me know what you think God should have done. As for the petty dictator remark, I don't think a petty dictator could have created life, nor do I think a petty dictator would die for his people. A petty dictator would not love his people unconditionally. A petty dictator cannot set down laws that would become the basis for every decent set of human morals for the last 4000 years.
Very perceptive. Yes, He did give Satan permission to harm Job, but NOT TO KILL HIM. Satan could do anything he wanted to, short of taking Job's life. God loved Job and protected his life. After it was all over, God gave him back everything he had before, plus some.
I think you may be right. God wouldn't give someone AIDS directly, He would just let it happen as a consequence of their actions. However, let's not forget that God can also punish directly.
Of course, because without it, we would have no choice on how to behave. We would be the race of obedient robots that Skooz described. You need darkness in order to see the light. There has to be some contrast.
The title of the thread is "Stop AIDS by Stopping the Sins". We cannot discuss sin without discussing God. I think it's a natural tangent for this discussion to take.
Very true. I was exactly the same way. I searched and searched, reasoned and argued, and finally came to the conclusion that there is a God and He loves us all very much. Believe it or not, it was scientific rationalization and thought that brought me to this conclusion. My entire testimony would take far too long to type here, and the parts outside of the whole would not fit together to make perfect sense.
On a side note, as just one of many examples of how God uses His people to teach several lessons at once, I will briefly tell a story that happened from May 9 to the present.
My brother-in-law, Jason, goes to school at Azusa Pacific, near LA. We live in San Diego. Our entire family loves God very much and we seek His will in our lives daily. Anyway, Jason felt that God wanted him to spend the summer at home, which was very irrational in Jason's mind because if he didn't go to summer school, he wouldn't graduate on time. There were many other reasons for him to stay in Azusa. However, he felt God calling him home. He got home and there was nothing for him to do. He felt like he had made a mistake and that he should be doing something. Well, two days later, my father-in-law had a stroke, and Jason was the only one around. Had Jason not been there, my father-in-law would have died.
My point of telling this story is to show that God has reasons for doing what He does, and we may have trouble understanding why He does certain things. We may or may not ever find out His reasons. The other point is that God can use one situation to do many things with. This stroke was relatively minor, and my father-in-law has made a remarkable recovery. Before this, he has always been a high-strung guy who worried about anything and everything, and this is God's way of teaching Him to slow down and keep things in perspective. Also, God is using this to teach my mother-in-law to think of someone other than herself, because she is naturally self-centered.
Sorry about the lengthy story, but I thought it could give a real-life example of some of the things we were talking about. God uses Job and his story to do many things. He teaches Satan that he can't win, He teaches Job that perseverance will win eventually, and He teaches the rest of us several lessons through Job's story in the Bible.
Here's where you're wrong. He loves those who are sent to Hell. He loves them very much. He hates their sin, and that's why they go to hell: because they won't let go of their sin. It's their choice. Ever heard of "tough love"? "He that spares the rod spoils his son". Just because you punish your child does not mean that you don't love him or her. In fact, a parent that doesn't punish their child when they do wrong does not love their child. A parent that would allow their child to get into trouble is not a parent at all.
Read post #77 for a good example of this.
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