Romany and Vanilla! I want to grow up to be just like you!

Robert, how well you post as usual.

Pericles, patient as ever with Boazy. I admire your serenity.

Boazy, take the life of JC as an example. He was very much into breaking all sorts of rules and laws. He was a regular rebel, shockingly anti-establishment. He thought there were too many rules and laws. Remember?

It was Moses who was thundering around with tablets with laws written on them, but as a Christian you really need to pay a bit more attention to JC.

Legislation is not the answer to address issues of morals or self respect.

Dear DEAR Yvonne.. I totally concur there.

*Take the life of JC as an example*

hoooooray. You see.. I don't mind being negatively compared to my Lord, because I don't claim anything more than being a sinner saved by Grace.

That people find imperfections in me is most welcome. That someone directs my gaze to the Lord, is cause for jubilation :)

But may I do the same? aah.. I hope so. For the Lord Jesus was far more than just an 'example'....

You know what? the fact that no person can achieve his glorious level of righteousness, is testimony to our need OF "Grace" (undeserved kindness)

If I may humbly suggest, that includes me, you, Bronwyn, Pericles, Romany, Robert, Ginx, TRTL,Vanilla and all.

Prostitution, Race problems, Politicial intrigue, are all 'healed' in Him. The destroyed self worth of the prostitute, the hate of the KKK, or the Islamist, the selfish, greedy machinations of party politics.....

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all

Oh how I pray, that you (plural) see this along with all those who already do.

We have 'strayed' in our occupations, marriages, our relationships, our families, our politics...our values... from that which God would have us be, and.. as you put it Yvonne.. paraphrasing. "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith"...

May it be so.

Boaz

Your latest 'triste mot': "I don't mind being negatively compared to my Lord, because I don't claim anything more than being a sinner saved by Grace."

Well that's good to know because thus far you fail miserably in comparison to JC.

BTW, your opinions tend towards OT rather than NT. Just thought I'd point that out in case you hadn't realised that by now.

However, with the whole 'being saved from sin' thing - does this mean you can continue to be demean non-christians and generally behave very badly with impunity simply because you believe you have been 'saved' by Christ?

What a great deal, you can do anything you like no matter how much grief you cause others - no wonder christianity has such a huge following - it is the ultimate "Get Out of Jail Free Card".

Now I understand what your thread title means:

"Sex has a price; hate those who are different; and justify it all however you want (that's the political bit)."

To Romany and Vanilla:

Thanks for the inspirational posts - had a great laugh that I really needed.

A good try on the part of BD. But now, using the same tool of condescension which he wields to such patronising effect, lets see if his debating skills can be honed just a tad further.

The contentious statement was "if I thought that 'enough people' looked down on mixed marriages I probably would not have married her. Practical answer. I don't think it would have been fair to the children".

As I and others discounted the "fair to the children" aspect and he, with silence, gave consent to this, it is the first sentence that he was attempting to defend in the very interesting dissertation on Malay betrothal. Which, incidentally, works in the same way as African, Papua New Guinean, Chinese, Pacific Islands Indian and even, traditionally in French and Meditteranean cultures.(all of which being the countries in which I was brought up since birth and in which most of my life has been, and still is, lived.). He might also be interested to know that Islam betrothals also follow this paradigm.

(The corollary to a lifetime of experience and "deep immersion" in such countries is that I also know full well how colonialism works.)

However, his acceptance by his wife’s family is not the same issue as his personal attitude to mixed marriages. Whether or not they and his own family “thrashed things out” is irrelevant to this question .The statement that marriage to his wife was dependent upon the attitudes of an unspecified number of what appears to be disinterested parties rather than her own family, still stands.

Of course, I only offer the above in the spirit of his statement "That people find imperfections in me is most welcome" and do not descend into a polemic upon what imperfection are cast up as a result.

As for me being listed amongst those in need of certain gifts from the deity in whom he believe as he "humbly suggest(s)" - I have yet to see evidence that his opinion is, indeed, humble, which is why I too have often, it appears, caused him much jubilation

Dear Fractelle
you said:

"However, with the whole 'being saved from sin' thing - does this mean you can continue to be demean non-christians and generally behave very badly with impunity simply because you believe you have been 'saved' by Christ?"

May I draw your attention to the 'whole' of what Jesus spoke about?
I hope so, because it seems you are projecting your own subjective image on the Lord, where you are selecting only the things which you personally find acceptable, usually things which fit with 'tolerance'.. and then, drawing negative comparisons to me, against that unbalanced, self imposed, limited constrictive pattern.

Jesus spoke very harshly to some groups. Haven't you noticed?
Those he spoke most harshly to, were those who had the education and the knowledge to recognize the truth (about Him) but then rejected it.
Well educated Muslims, are in that category (i.e. religiously educated)

Impugnity? good grief.. how can you call exposing my words to the criticism of all and sundry here "impugnity"?

I long for the day when, instead of making these things about 'me', you make them about the actual issue being discussed. Example. Surah 64:4 u know my stand on that. 'prove me wrong'... its simple.

Regarding my 'attitudes' being more O.T. than N.T... err u kinda miss that this is a forum where you only see a small part of 'me' and if you tried to understand the whole of me based on this small part you would surely err.

Dear Romany. Sorry to say, you are still approaching the issue of my marraige pre considerations from a 'western romantic' perspective.
Honestly, you don't have a clue about what led up to all this, and I sure am not going to elaborate further. If you wish to place that little piece of information in a personally manufactured straight jacket, then feel free.
-blessings.

No, no, no, BD, don't feel sorry for saying what you did. Rather feel sorry that you were unable to extrapolate from my posts that I do not view marriage from a "western romantic" viewpoint.

However, from whatever viewpoints we view this institution the fact remains that you are currently posting, as am I, on a site that IS predominantly a Western one and whose adherants are predominantly Western.

Every comment I have seen you post is framed within this context - more definitively within a Western, Christian paradigm. It is in this context that your comment was, and remains, ignoble. Is it so impossible merely to admit that you goofed up?