Mother dies after internet love tryst

www.thisislondon.com ^ | July 15, 2003 | Nigel Rosser

[Centurion2000]

sudden death syndrome?

Used to be known as God striking you dead.

[HamiltonJay]

NO, I have never claimed any such thing, it isn't I claiming she was struck down in God's wrath.. better push the reset switch my friend, your CPU's gone loopy.

[sweetjane]

An internet affair is an emotional affair. While it doesn't threaten the parties involved with pregnancy or STDs, it still hurts the marriage and family even if it is not consummated physically.

Here is an example of an emotional affair, though it wasn't an internet affair. I know of a married woman who had an emotional affair with the pastor of her church, also married. They had made plans to run off together, though they had never "consummated" the relationship. People in the church found out and confronted them. The woman and the pastor ended it with the pastor and his wife moving away. Both were self-righteous about the whole thing because they never had physical relations, despite the fact that it devastated their families and the people in the church.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Lust begins with the undressing of another via the eyes.

For a man to see a woman and admire her beauty is one thing, to look at a woman and wish to know her sexually is another. I would apply the "know her sexually" to both merely wanting to see her nakedness and also to having actual physical relations of any sort.

Lap dances, masturbation, strip clubs, "petting", and internet affiars are all forms of adultery for the married, and species of fornication for the unmarried.

Flirting and admiration are not lust, but can lead to it if not strictly controlled.

The consummation of lust requires consent to the thought or act. So the fleeting phantasms of lust that enter into our mind are not lust unless we consent to the thought.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

HIV is God's way of killing sodomites

How many just have contracted and died of AIDS? How many unjust sinners?

[HamiltonJay]

I hate to break this to you, but as an agnostic, which is a whole other philosophical debate all together, you certainly seem less than open to the factual realities of life and death. MILLIONS and I mean MILLIONS of people die yearly inexplicably. You can't even begin to keep track of perfectly healthy people who suddenly die rapidly without any medical indication of why. Its not so common as every runs around afraid of it, but it happens and happens far more often than most want to know.

A person who dies suddenly and inexplicably is rarely a newsworthy event. In fact the only reason this woman's death made the news is because she left her husband so shortly before. Had she keeled over in her kitchen, and found by her husband or child, this woman would likely not even make more than a brief mention if that in her local paper... and even more likely would only make the obituary column.

I have never argued God could not strike anyone dead at any time, he's God, he could do whatever he wants whenever he wants. However because her death happened after her leaving her husband, that means she MUST have been smote by God is hardly any sort of logical or even spiritual leap. Unless of course you don't believe in the new testament, or are a muslim, in which case smoting a sinner is perfectly justified and legitimate at any time.

Which I don't happen to subscribe to.

[Colofornian]

NO, I have never claimed any such thing, it isn't I claiming she was struck down in God's wrath.. better push the reset switch my friend, your CPU's gone loopy.

Yes, your claim is there rather boldly:

however to attempt to say that he did so because she left her husband... well now you are trying to claim you know the motivations of God...

Let me reword your claim, only adding 2 words in italic only so that you can see the flip side of what you said...allowing you to see it more clearly: "However to attempt to say that he did not do so because she left her husband..."

So,ignatz & I can now quote your words back to you: "well now you are trying to claim you know the motivations of God..."

You said it wasn't His motivation. How do you know? What is your pipeline to God to know that? How can you be so sure? Why did you say it in such an absolute way?

[Pagey]

As P.J. O'Rourke wrote after Jim Fixx, the jogging guru, died of a heart attack while out jogging:

"Among the manifest attributes of GOD let not forget a sense of humor..."

[Pagey]

Oops,correction:
"Among the manifest attributes of GOD, let's not forget the sense of humor..."

[The Grammarian]

Sounds rather like a case of "Your Sin Will Find You Out."

[Centurion2000]

As P.J. O'Rourke wrote after Jim Fixx, the jogging guru, died of a heart attack while out jogging:

And he was probably found by a smoker ;)

[Colofornian]

However because her death happened after her leaving her husband, that means she MUST have been smote by God is hardly any sort of logical or even spiritual leap

My understanding is that God is a Father. Good Fathers love. Good Fathers discipline in love. Good Fathers discipline on the spot, not simply 45 years down the line when the child can't connect the lesson to the act. So what's out of character here?

"Well," you say, "for one thing, if they die, what sort of lesson will they learn?"

Well, going back to Acts 5, I believe the lesson wasn't simply for Ananias and Sapphira. The lesson was for the rest of the Church: "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events." (Acts 5:11)

Maybe (just maybe...I have no pipeline to God to know this...let me set up these disclaimers so you don't jump all over my case, knee-jerk wise)...maybe God is tired of folks misusing the power of the Internet. Maybe He sees a slew of folks headin' down the wrong pathway parallel-like...and just maybe upon reading this article or this thread...somebody...maybe a lurker visiting this thread...will choose a different course due to this "tough love" discipline God may (italic emphasis=disclaimer) have used upon this woman.

[HamiltonJay]

I suggest you reread my comments, you attempts at "reverse" logic do not work.

I never said it was not possible that God smote her, I said it is impossible for you or anyone else to know.

Sure it is equally impossible for me or anyone else not to know that God may not have smote her, however I never claimed definitively that he did not. Only that no one here can claim to know God's will.

Trying to portray this womans death as the wrath of God claims defacto acceptance that you must know the will of God, for otherwise you cannot make that claim.

For me to challenge that assertion does not. I don't know if God smote her or not, but I do know this much, I know enough not to make the bald faced claim he did. People die daily, and God punches a lot of time clocks, for a lot of reasons only known to him... to claim definatively knowlege of this one death at this one instant could only be because of 1 reasons is frankly blasphemous.

[technochick99]

I would call it emotional infidelity, which I believe is every bit as wrong as physical infidelity. An occasional flash of lust is a bit different.

[Colofornian]

Sounds rather like a case of "Your Sin Will Find You Out."

Think of the legacy this leaves in the hearts & minds of the 13 & 8 year olds. "Our mom died naked in the arms (or at the foot of) of another man. And this was so important for her to leave us two days after Christmas that she was willing to spend the little remaining time of her life with a near-stranger vs. us."

[jimt]

...or are men more permissive when it comes to themselves.

I don't know about permissive, but "lusting in one's heart" is certainly pervasive, at least among the normal men I know. Even very Christian men.

The line defining "adultery" to me is physical contact. That said, it's certainly possible to engage in behavior detrimental to a relationship, whether it's going to topless bars or spending too much time on FR.

[gcruse]

"sudden death syndrome",

...often accompanied by bullet wounds, SDS
has baffled medical science for years.  It
is most often referred to as smokeless
spontaneous human combustion  for
those times when bursting into flames is
inconvenient.

[The Grammarian]

Yeah, that's not exactly a legacy I'd want to leave for any children I would have in the future. On the other hand, apparently there are some women (and, presumably, men--I take this account from The Week magazine) who actually dislike their children. How would that grab ya?

"I despise you, son/daughter. You ruined my life. It was all fun until you came along." Gah.

[Crusher138]

see i still think there's a diffference between lust in one's heart and mind and the physical act performed between 2 people (don't get me wrong....i'm not advocating this behavior). who among us....both men and women haven't had a little "lust" in our hearts for the opposite sex, even if we're married.

I had a minister explain the whole "lust in your heart" thing to me once this way:

If you admire, that's okay. God put beauty here for us to admire and appreciate. When "admiration" becomes "wanting" (i.e. mental movies of you two getting it on) you have passed from appreciation into sin.

I believe, since the whole idea behind internet sex is a mental picture of you having sex with a person you are not in physical proximity with, this makes it adultery.