Posted on 12/21/2013 10:34:28 AM PST by DouglasKC
What do times of disaster teach us about ourselves and society? Is our moral center what it ought to be?
In 2005 I worked as a volunteer at a shelter for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. We tried to console confused, hungry, frightened people who had been picked off the roofs of their houses in New Orleans and transported to San Antonio, Texas.
One young woman sat on a cot staring aimlessly. In obvious shock, she ignored the activity swirling around her. I stopped, leaned down and asked her if I could help. She looked up with eyes filled with despair and asked, "What happened to my baby?"
I never knew what happened to that woman or if they ever found her baby. Since that time I have often thought about how human life can be degraded by the destructive force of natural disasters. Even more disturbing is the reality of how easy it is for human beings to devalue each other.
It's vital that we maintain the right perspective.
Civilization's thin veneer revealed in disasters
Working in a shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina was a study in how the veneer of civilization hides the possibility of chaos. There were many encouraging examples by scores of volunteers who simply showed up and worked, at times without supervision, to unload trucks of food and water, set up cots and assist the tired and hungry refugees.
(Excerpt) Read more at ucg.org ...
The chaos is here. The wildings, the knockout games, the violence at K-Mart sales ... the chaos is here and it’s just a matter of time before the Levee breaks.
Difficult for me to think about helping 0-bots who put us in this mess.
many were never taught what the right things to do are. they’ve never known any different. imagine what accounting their parents and teachers will have coming.
And there are common threads holding the chaos together. They are race (which is to say culture), number of parents in the home, and party affiliation.
The contrasting department stores were most likely separated by more than just 72 hours. Either could be turned into chaos in much shorter time. It’s only a 30 minute bus ride from the South Side to The Miracle Mile. The difference in the two is culture.
Ditto — also liking your sig line!!
to be clear i am not absolving the ones who don’t know better, because everyone has a conscience and knows how they would like to be treated, just pointing out others share their blame.
Ping to “thin veneer between civilization and chaos”...
“Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people – as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts... deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers... put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time... and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces, look at their eyes...”
- Quark, Star Trek Deep Space 9, The Siege of AR-558
People are human, if you think about it. If not, then not.
This article was an interesting comment on the difference between the pink tribe and grey tribe. R rated language, but a good read.
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html
Again, more blog pimping for the UCG cult? A disclaimer is in order:
Founder: It was founded “by Bob Dick and David Hulme, in Arcadia, CA;”1 offshoot of Herbert W. Armstrong and was formed in May of 1995.
Headquarters: Milford, Ohio
Membership: unknown
Origins: The United Church of God is an offshoot of the Worldwide Church of God. They claim to trace their origins back to the “Church that Jesus founded in the early first century.”2 How this is done is not explained.
Practices: Worship on Saturday
Analysis: The United Church of God is a non-Christian cult that denies the Trinity, the true divinity of Christ, and requires both baptism and obedience to the commandments to be saved. It teaches that there is a “God family” of which we can become members through keeping the Law. Jesus is one of two divine beings, the Father being the other. The Holy Spirit is a force, a power, and is not the 3rd person of the Trinity, and it is received only through the laying on of hands by their church members. It also teaches that their members are obligated to keep the Sabbath and must observe seven festivals. They cannot eat unclean meat. This is a false religious system that teaches a false God, false Christ, and false gospel. Stay away from it.
Other Teachings:
They teach that the wicked, or unsaved, are not alive in hell but are annihilated. Baptism is by immersion. The Bible is inspired and inerrant. They are pre-millennial and maintain that Satan is a fallen, evil angel. Christians are not to go to war and should refuse being drafted.
Quotes
God: God consists of two different beings, Father and Son, in a ‘family.’
“...the one God is a family, presently consisting of God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. And God is in the process of adding to the divine family multitudes of others - eventually all human beings who are willing and who faithfully choose to follow God’s way...the Father and Jesus Christ are both God...The real message in these pronouncements is that there is no other God apart from the true God’that is, outside the God family now consisting of two divine Beings, the Father and the Son. In short, the God family alone is God...the true God means the one God family to which others will yet be added.”3
Holy Spirit: The UCOG denies the personhood of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God’s divine power. “...the Holy Spirit is the very nature, presence and expression of God’s power actively working in His servants...the very essence and life force through which the Father begets human beings as His spiritual children...The Holy Spirit is spoken of in many ways that demonstrate that it is not a divine person.”4
The Holy Spirit is received by the laying on of hands, after being water baptized by immersion.5
Jesus:
“Jesus is one of two divine beings”6
Jesus is sinless, the creator of all humanity, who was raised from the dead, (physical resurrection is not explained).
Jesus will return
Law:
“The Ten Commandments are the 10 points of God’s law of love. We believe that breaking any one point of the law brings upon a person the penalty of sin. We believe that this fundamental spiritual law reveals the only way to true life and the only possible way of happiness, peace and joy.”7
Man:
Man is fallen but can become “partakers of the divine nature.” This means that they can be added to the God Family.
After death, you cease to exist but are resurrected for judgment:
“The soul ( nephesh ) is not immortal, because it dies...what happens to the spiritual essence that separates man from animal? Does it continue as a conscious, immortal soul independent of the physical body? Certainly not!”8
“We believe that at the return of Jesus Christ a resurrection to spirit life will take place for all who have been God’s faithful servants.”9
Sabbath: Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the proper day to worship God.
Salvation - Salvation is through Jesus only, but you must be baptized to be saved. Salvation can be lost.
You must acknowledge your sin, that your sin condemns you, and that you need forgiveness in Jesus. The person must repent and be baptized. You “...must forsake the sinful ways that brought the death penalty upon us and made Jesus’ sacrifice necessary in the first place. We must undergo a life-transforming change of heart and direction, a process the Bible calls repentance....When you are baptized, God forgives your past sins and clears your record...After our baptism, Christ’s ministers are to place their hands on us and pray for the gift of God’s Spirit for us. It is at this point that God gives His Spirit to a repentant, baptized person.”10
“After baptism and our receiving of God’s Spirit, we are justified. That is, we become righteous in God’s sight”11
“If we stumble and sin after baptism, we must ask God’s forgiveness and return to Him so that our state of forgiveness is not lost by our return to our old sinful way of life...If a Christian at some time during his life, after committing to serve God, turns away and renounces Jesus and God’s way in word or action, he will lose his salvation.”12
The saved don’t go to heaven but will live on earth with Jesus.
“God will offer salvation all who have lived, including those of non-Christian religions, in a time described in Revelation 22: 5, 11-13 . This is a period known as the Great White Throne Judgment when God will offer salvation, through Christ, to those denied such opportunity in their life.”13
“We believe God’s purpose for mankind is to prepare those whom He calls, and who elect through a life of overcoming sin, developing righteous character and growing in grace and knowledge, to possess God’s Kingdom and become kings and priests reigning with Christ at His return.”14
“Such individuals are justified, pardoned from the penalty of sin and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which literally abides within them and supplies the divine love that alone can fulfill the law and produce righteousness.”15
Footnotes at link:
CARM (from wikipedia):
1. CARM is 1 (one) guy: "The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) is a Protestant apologetics ministry in the United States founded in 1995.[1] The president of the ministry is Matthew J. Slick, and there are as many as 30 contributors to the website.[2] The ministry is registered as a 501 (c)3 organization,[3] and it is located in Meridian, Idaho.[4]"
One guy with 30 "followers" in it to make money for himself.
2. CARM (Matthew J. Slick) is inaccurate and selective: " "Like the Countercult in print, the Countercult on the Net is a carefully managed presentation of selected truths, half-truths, spun truths, and untruths." (CARM
3. CARM (Matthew J. Slick) hates everyone: "In his book Bearing false witness? An introduction to the Christian countercult, Cowan says that "Slick's choice of cultic and sectarian movements is interesting", commenting that it is rare to see Christadelphianism described as a major cult, or to see such different movements as Eckankar and Christian Identity listed adjacent to each other."(CARM)
4. CARM (Matthew J. Slick) hates Catholic too: "In her book Voices of Diversity: Multi-Culturalism in America, Mary C. Sengstock, a sociologist from Wayne State University, describes the CARM website as one of those continuing a tradition of religious prejudice, because it puts forward the view that Roman Catholics are not Christians.[13] Sengstock cites Slick's essay "Are Roman Catholics Christian?"[13][14]"(CARM) From Jesus Saves on CARM:
Oh...and here ARE the religions that CARM (Slick and presumably yourself) are against:
"Also, find a good church to go to. Most are good, but here are some to avoid: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, the Mormons, The Jehovah's Witnesses, United Presbyterian, United Methodist, United Pentecostal, and United Apostolic."
Well maybe he doesn't save you if you go to one of those churches.
5. CARM (Matthew J. Slick on what constitutes a "cult": "The division between World Religions and Religious Groups/Cults, according to CARM, is by the number of members each group has. If a group has less than one million members, it is considered a religious group and/or cult. Why this number? Why not? It is a round figure and seems to be sufficient for now."
Oh? So if you're a member of a Christian group that has less than a million members, you're a "group and/or cult"?
So in perspective Matt Slick only believes in what Matt Slick teaches. He has a very narrow viewpoint of what a Christian is based on group size and whether or not they agree with him. You can continue to hold him up as an expert but he and his limited number of followers seem more cultic than UCG by a longshot.
And please stop pimping CARM on every article I post. It's kind of weird.
“Seriously? You’re using the website CARM, which IS a cult run by one guy in it for the money to “prove” that UCG is a cult?”
You don’t know the meaning of what a “cult” is. It is applied to any non-Christian group that denies the Trinity, which naturally includes the UCG. The UCG also asserts that they are the true church of God on Earth, and that baptism by the hands of their members is necessary for salvation. This is the same position as the Mormons, JWs, Oneness Pentecostals, etc.
As for the rest of what you wrote, CARM is a well known and respected apologetics website, and the material is offered freely, though they do sell books and accept donations. If there is anything incorrect represented about the UCG’s teachings in the article, you should be able to demonstrate that, without claiming that CARM “lies” or is “selective.”
All the material from the CARM link is footnoted with sources straight from your religion.
Your weird attack against CARM, therefore, has no credibility whatsoever.
Are you Matt Slick? Is that why you're pimping this guy and his website?
Natural “disasters” have been around since the beginning of time. Only when it affects humans are they called disasters.
It might be well known but it's not respected by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, the Mormons, The Jehovah's Witnesses, United Presbyterian, United Methodist, United Pentecostal, United Apostolic and hundreds of other groups that Slick (you??) deem to be outside of Christianity.
Again...are you Matt Slick? Are you pimping your own website so you can personally profit from it?
I’ve got go out for a while Mr. Slick (?) so I won’t be able to respond for a while...I’ll pick it up later tonight...
“I’ve got go out for a while Mr. Slick (?) so I won’t be able to respond for a while...I’ll pick it up later tonight...”
What differences do your responses make? You are not disputing the teachings of the UCG, only the fact that I used an article from CARM to expose them. But, all Christians reject groups which deny the Trinity, and have for all ages.
From the Catholic EWTN list of Cults:
“Worldwide Church of God - Leader: Hurbert W. Armstrong
. Jesus is a part of the godhead (God is a family) and men can become like Jesus and part of the God family - Sons of God. They do not believe in a closed godhead (TRINITY). The Holy Spirit is not considered a person, but the Father and the Son work through it. (Derivate cult - International Church of God. Leader: Son of Herbert, George, was disowned by his father and started this group that believes the same, but claims that the Worldwide Church lost its authority when Herbert divorced his wife.)”
https://www.ewtn.com/library/NEWAGE/CULTCAT.TXT
These are, of course, the same teachings that your descendant group upholds. Though it’s also outdated, since Armstrong’s successor, in 95, reformed the worldwide church of God and renounced these things. Your group, however, split from them and still upholds these doctrines. From my copy of Walter Martin’s “Kingdom of the Cults”:
“Most of the splinter cults of Armstrongism retain the name ‘Church of God’ somewhere in their title. They mix legalism, including strict Sabbatarianism, with a variety of Armstrong’s leading doctrinces. Two other noteworthy groups among these are the Global Church of God, located in San Diego, California, and the United Church of God in Arcadia, California. The former has a television following on two superstations covering much of the United States, while the latter publishes The Good News magazine and covers thirty television stations with programming.” (Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, Ed. Hank Hanegraaff. Pg. 472)
Your arguments are absolutely irrelevant so long as your religion teaches what it does.
As for whether or not I’m Matt Slick, the Catholics here have accused me of being James White. Why not add another name to my legend?
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