You fool yourself if you think that most AMERICAN FAMILIES value this sort of programming comming into their homes.

Most parents in America do still love their children enough to stop harmful things(whatever form they come in) from hurting their children. Most parents would not allow or bring anything harmful into their homes that would harm their children

That being said, many of these said families have removed cable from their homes to stop the cable programming that they feel is unfit and an attack on their values, children and families. So then when the 3 main networks start pumping this same sort of programming into their homes, they feel pushed into a corner and say enough is enough.

Why should these families be forced to at last remove the TV altogther from thier homes.

So going back to what I said about his being a democratic form of government, this families voted with their finances by not buying from companies advertising on this shows, by their emails and phone calls.

A pure example of demceacy at work.

Yes

Gee, Ravo, I guess that makes you better than us. Wait! No! Let me guess … you don’t fully understand it either. God has decided not to speak straight and tell us plainly what’s on his mind, but use convoluted parables just to keep us guessing so bad people can’t pretend to be good and only truly good people can figure out what the heaven he’s trying to say,

You are a mere pygmy on your spiritual journey in comparison to some spiritual giants who have reached nirvana and have their name ticked off on the entrance list scroll pinned in the guard tower adjacent to the pearly gates, just up the block from the Purgatory Bar and Grill.

Get reading, Ravo, decipher the code, or it’s Hell’s Kitchen for you!

…it isn’t literal and few who read it can understand it.

No, I think the bible has itself to blame for its own success, containing as it does a ripping good yarn.

I rarely do either Noel, but my faith is stronger than ever. I’m not filling my spiritual well solely from Church, and I’m not alone. It’s darn hard to even find a Church that “gets it”.

From the little I’ve read on the end times….I get there will be much Divine anger towards many Churches.

You’re very right, of course.

Just amazed that’s all, that any book, much less a book THAT hard to comprehend…(hey it ain’t an easy read, – most women would find Jackie Collins a bit more fun but she won’t be a top seller for a hundred years much less 2,000)…could be number #1 for 2,000 years without some sort of an ethereal boost. lol

Definitely the bible is full of interesting stories people have kept alive. In the Old Testament, you have incest, sodomy, intrigue, murder, politics, sun stroke victims talking to burning bushes and great prophets who heard voices telling them to kill their children. The New Testament isn’t quite as spicy, but there’s still plenty of miracles to keep the bored reader interested. And the hero of the story is supposed to be the son of God, which, you know, puts him right up there with Hercules. It’s the greatest soap opera ever told.

If you go in for Islam, Jesus is just one of many prophets, Mohammed being the last and most important, at least to Muslims. If you’re a Jew, you do not believe that a Messiah has come yet. If you’re a Buddist or a Hindu or a Taoist, you don’t care much for the bible, old or new. And it’s worth pointing out that more than two billion people fall into this category.

Jackie Collins sells millions of books, every one a bestseller. Doesn’t make it literature. It also doesn’t make it non-fiction

I read that Christianity is growing at 8% a year if you count the Biblical orthodoxy that is winning converts. It is the churches that have lost their biblical moorings that languish.

Yup,
….none of them on a best seller list 2,000 unbroken years long.

The church gained a lot of power throughout the Dark Ages and consolidated those gains in the Middle Ages. At one point the church in places owned more land than kings. Wealthy, powerful and with promises of everlasting life at a time when no one knew what caused disease, a time when there was no anaesthetic for amputations, no anitbiotics or vaccines, when one in four children died, not to mention what the Black Plague did to humanity, I can see how the church gained a foothold with its tales of salvation. Since the discoveries and rediscoveries that were made beginning in the Rennaisance and proceeding with ever more success since, I can also see how it is losing that foothold.

Understood.

Amazes me though, how any man, born into obscurity, could have his story kept alive for 2,000 years basically in complete consistency from every corner of the earth when it originated as only papyrus [sp?] and quill, and be the best selling book most widely read book for each and every single one of those 2,000 years without divine intervention! lol

Thanks for your kind wishes and the same to you. May this year be a healthy, prosperous and fun year for everyone.

First I can’t. Second, I wouldn’t bother trying. A sincere belief in God is not something that can be forced and coerced by earthly forces.

You were exposed early on to a religious background, as was I. After nearly 30 years of Church attendance since birth, the sum of my spiritual knowledge then was less than I’ve learned in the last two years. Subsequently, I spent many years as a doubting Thomas, not attending any Church, and giving little thought to it all.

One day I found myself inside of a Church with a very special Pastor. No earthly person had sent me, – it was not even a Church of the religion I was raised in. The Pastor believed in Christ, and his focus was on that…period. Not religion, per se.

I attended for a while. I hadn’t understood the meaning of all the rote learning in my childhood. What I came to understand there left me wanting to know more.

Even now, I question my faith nearly every day. The more I do, the stronger it seems to get.

I know of nowhere the hard evidence you ask for can be found at this time.

That you are demanding it – well, at the very least, – it makes those of us who believe think about and examine our faith. At best, it’s part of your own journey.

And, ….that’s the way it works.

The best to you {and Eileen, and everyone} in the New Year, Noel

To put Jesus in as a pop-up TV character diminishes His Lordship over all creation and makes Him out to be the pastor’s buddy, who magically appears when needed. Anybody of real faith knows that this is not the case and one of the real struggles of faith is that Christ has the Sovereign right to say “no” to our pleas and prayers, and that He does not pop up out of the blue when we want Him to.

Perhaps if NBC had sought better pastoral experts in putting this show together, they would not be making such a colossal mistake.

Thanks for being so honest.

Happy New Year!

Spirituality to me is believing in a Creator. [God]

As Eileen put it, one has to ask. …. the old saying, when the pupil is ready, [in this case to receive the grace of God], the teacher appears.

I wind up in many places, – recently the journey has taken me to first to one level (a church) than on to other avenues (to clear up some contradictions I didn’t understand there), such as the site examining the ancient Words of Christ. http://bible-truths.com.

I believe our personal journeys toward our Creator are just that….personal…as is the progress made between our maker and ourselves as we stop focusing on “it’s all about us”.

Got to go..Happy New Year to all!

P.S.

Thank you. Science admits that. Religion and spirituality do not.

Exactly, and that is why it’s called “FAITH”.

You cannot offer ‘God’ as an explanation when you admit you do not know the answer.

I offer you nothing, nor can I. Faith in God is not mine to give.