Groaner Time

clipped from www.beliefnet.com A Well-Known Monk A wandering monk walked barefoot everywhere he went, to the point that the soles of his feet eventually became quite thick and leathery. And because he ate very little, he gradually became very frail. Several days often passed between opportunities to brush his teeth, so he usually had bad breath. Therefore, throughout the region, he came to be known as the super-calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.

Need I say more?

Special Needs Kid told saying God in School Against the Law

clipped from jojosays.wordpress.com There is a story of a young boy in 5th grade who has special needs…think along the lines of autism. And because of his disability, his innocence far surpasses most 5th graders. He believes everyone is good and kind and that everyone believes in Jesus and God. It has never even occurred to him that there are people out there that don’t believe. So in class in a public school, he started talking about Jesus and his teachers immediately told him to stop. So the next day at school, the boy had kept his promise and in fact had not mentioned God or Jesus at all, and when he was suppose to start his spelling test, they sent him down to the school social worker. The social worker told the boy that it was against the law to speak of Jesus or God in the public school. The social worker informed the dad that there was separation of church and state issues and ranted on about the forefathers.

"The bottom line is the dad got nowhere but did inform them that they had best call him first if they ever are about to discipline his son for speaking about Jesus as it will not be tolerated."

Now I normally don't post stuff like this, but this got to me just a bit. I know a couple of Special Needs children and what the teachers did to this child really steams me.

What steams me even more is that the clause in the US Constitution has nothing to do with speaking about one's faith in schools or other government buildings. It has to do with not establishing a State Religion. Some people get worked up if you say "God Bless You" to someone.

Let's uphold the Constitution without trying to destroy the free will of our kids!

GodTube or SmearTube?

Taken from the perspective of just being a video, this is entertaining. I really like the use of running the footage backward to get their effect. But, you saddle it with the GodTube branding, and it becomes something else, when you look at comments section you see a lot of what is behind the Site.

Mission Statement

GodTube utilizes Web based technology to connect Christians for the purpose of encouraging and advancing the Gospel worldwide.

--About Us, GodTube.

Just how does this video "encourage" and "advance" "the Gospel worldwide?" The comments made in relation to the video seem to me to violate the terms of service agreement as follows.

Prohibited Content:

You agree not to submit or post any User Submission to the Site, or transmit any User Submission through the Site, that (a) is contrary to the evangelization of Jesus Christ and His teachings, or constitutes blasphemy, or is otherwise offensive to our online Christian community, (b) violates any patents, copyrights, trademarks or other intellectual property rights, (c) is illegal, obscene, pornographic, defamatory, or libelous, (d) is abusive, hateful, harassing, or threatening, (e) promotes bigotry, racism, or hatred against any group or individual, (f) is false, misleading or constitutes a misrepresentation, (g) encourages conduct that could be illegal or give rise to civil liability or is otherwise inappropriate, or (h) promotes the exploitation of, or solicits information from, any person under the age of eighteen. You understand and agree that GodTube.com reserves the right to review, edit, block, and delete any of your User Submissions for any reason at any time without notice, including without limitation, if GodTube.com determines in its sole discretion that a User Submission is prohibited as provided above or otherwise violates this Agreement.

--TOS Agreement, GodTube.

I saw a video by the same group on myspace too... People mixed up in Wicca had so much bad stuff to say about it... I find it entertaining... I was messed up and wrapped my life around the whole Wicca thing for 6 years... And people would really try to control the movement of things with their minds or with the help of their spirit guides or whatever... It's such a silly thing for people to believe in.. I don't understand why I made it such a big part of my life for so long...

--Sherri "SherJonesy" Jones of Colorado Springs, CO.

This statement is "false, misleading, and constitutes a misrepresentation" of Wiccans and other pagans as a whole. Granted this the opinion of Sherri's, and should be taken as such and allowed to be posted. Sure people involved in Wicca would have bad stuff to say about this video, it is misleading as to what Wiccans represent.

I am going to create an account on the place to see what will happen when I make a slightly different comment. Stay tuned for further developments on this.

My Comment on the video:

First of all, let me say....COOL VIDEO... A little misleading in the title, but cool video. Loved the use of running footage backward to get the effect desired. Now, as to Sherri's comments. So, you feel Wicca isn't for you. So be it. Most of those following the Wiccan path do not think they can do any of those things. Most of them are pretty level headed. Yes, you do have those who are into trying to do those things. Wicca, like Christianity, has it's crack-pots. Aside from the aspects that are alluded to in this video there are a lot of positive aspects to Wicca that prolly drew your attention, Sherri. The idea promoted that everyone in the world should be treated with dignity and respect for one. Modern Paganism has received such a bad reputation from the pulpit because 75% of clergy don't understand the nature of the faith. Tolerance and dialog would help in understanding. Look what it has done for the Protestants and the Catholics. ;)

Technorati : GodTube, religion, web 2.0

A Catholic's Guide to the Issues in Politics 2008

Nice to see them focusing on "racism, torture, genocide, and "the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war," here's hoping they can focus a lil more on these issues in future years. The tired haggling over Abortion is enough to drive some people insane.

clipped from blog.beliefnet.com The nation's bishops will vote next month on a political roadmap for Roman Catholics headed into the 2008 election that gives top billing to abortion but also spotlights a wide range of issues, including opposition to torture and killing noncombatants in war. about 300 bishops will publicly debate and vote on "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" at its fall meeting in Baltimore. A draft of the document calls abortion and euthanasia "intrinsically evil" and "pre-eminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others." The bishops then cite other threats that can never be justified: human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research, racism, torture, genocide, and "the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror or war. Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director, noted that the "Faithful Citizenship" draft includes new references condemning torture, genocide and the deaths of noncombatants in war.

Technorati : Political, faith, religion