[Ahimaaz Smith]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

Stop the presses! It seems that a Unity "minister" has discovered that, apart from celebrating Jesus, people actually give gifts to each other on Christmas. It's amazing that nobody ever thought to turn that idea into a sermon before.

Around 1:57, we get into the real heavy comedy:

If I know that if I gave Mary such a diamond she would be very spiritual then.

[cackling laughter from the crowd]

She would be sitting in the service and be looking at her diamond and saying, "It's a miracle!"

[even more raucus laughter]

Damn, those Unity preachers are amusing. And yes, there's more:

I came home with a 22 pound Turkey. It was too good a deal to pass up.

Pure comedic gold! No wonder he got a laugh with this joke. Both times he told it.

The topper is the way this sermon is signed for the deaf. Now, I have no problem with signing for the deaf in general, but doing it with this sermon has to got to count as cruelty toward the handicapped. I take back all of the bad things I've said about Unity. The truth is far, far worse than anything that I could possibly express in words.

[JennyD]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

I think I heard a request for some Bible. Now, I'm pretty sure that when there's a True Christian in trouble, you guys close ranks around him/her (one of the things I admire about Landover is the way you stick together). So, why don't tell me why you don't favor more social justice and wealth redistribution programs for the poor in the US, as Leviticus 19 requires?

Leviticus 19:33-34: ...if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

That has nothing to do with "wealth redistribution programs for the poor in the US". However, Lev. 19:9-10 does direct Godly people not to glean their fields after harvest, but allow the poor to do so. If you bothered to look around America, you'd find that in most agricultural areas, the fields are gleaned by volunteers from foodbanks.

[Palmer C. Eldrich]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

I think I heard a request for some Bible. Now, I'm pretty sure that when there's a True Christian in trouble, you guys close ranks around him/her (one of the things I admire about Landover is the way you stick together). So, why don't tell me why you don't favor more social justice and wealth redistribution programs for the poor in the US, as Leviticus 19 requires?

We have wealth distribution programs, it's just that the wealth keeps getting distributed to the rich and not to the needy.

[StarrKingGrad]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

Kwanzaa... Isn't this what that Condolleezzzaa practiced, that terrible neegroe "woman" who put a hoodoo on Godly President Bush to bewitch him into sending our Troops to Iraq - to bring her back some hummus, or something?

No, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and their Haliburton cronies put the hoodoo on America. If we'd gone to war over hummus, those bozos would probably still be scouring Iraq trying to find it.

I don't know what to make of Dr. Rice. She and Gen. Powell both could have stopped the Iraq insanity by resigning rather than going along with the neocons, and they'll have to live with that on their consciences. I don't cut them any special slack because they are African-American, but I'll admit it puts some tarnish on their triumphs.

Your confession of lies and deception quite takes my breath away...The experience of so called "Astral Projection" is identical to that of hyperventilation.

Interesting, it's like I stole your breath--I took too many, and you took too few. We must share a cosmic connection (well, actually, everybody does).

Abusing your body and calling it a revelation is blasphemous.

Revelation requires a revealer, and I have no evidence that there was any consciousness behind my experience other than my own.

whatever god you worship... that god is surely not the Lord of Hosts.

That is true. I believe in angels (I have seen them, fleetingly, on several occasions, and so have many of my congregants), but I don't think that God has a whole army of them. God doesn't need an army.

This huckster trick is not only contrary to the Word of The Lord but is, by any set of civilized standards, beneath contempt.

Why, Mr. Bathfire, there is hope for you after all. You believe that there are civilized standards that are not found in the Word of the Lord. Congratulations on making this important spiritual breakthrough.

and used enchantments

So now you're saying I used magic to induce hyperventilation? I don't need magic for that.

I think I heard a request for some Bible. Now, I'm pretty sure that when there's a True Christian in trouble, you guys close ranks around him/her (one of the things I admire about Landover is the way you stick together). So, why don't tell me why you don't favor more social justice and wealth redistribution programs for the poor in the US, as Leviticus 19 requires?

Leviticus 19:33-34: ...if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

For example, last week I astrally projected with some of my parishioners. Once you've done that, trust me, you won't see the world, or all of creation for that matter, in the same light.

StarKingGrad - I'm not sure where to begin here. Your confession of lies and deception quite takes my breath away.

I would usually keep my private life out of this. The experience of so called "Astral Projection" is identical to that of hyperventilation. Both I and a colleague, quite separately, have both experience looking down on oneself, both of us had hyperventilated.

Abusing your body and calling it a revelation is blasphemous.

If you want to fool yourself and the poor, uneducated and gullible in your care in order to aggrandize your false position and set yourself up as a godhead - it is a matter between you and whatever god you worship and that god is surely not the Lord of Hosts.

This huckster trick is not only contrary to the Word of The Lord but is, by any set of civilized standards, beneath contempt.

2Ch:33:6: And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

I have no hope for your worthless soul. Before you are called to Damnation the best you can do is repent and see the world that God has given you in all its glory and not look amongst the iniquities for revelations.

[StarrKingGrad]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

StarkRavingMad, why just not come out with it and say, "I'm simply better than everyone else. I believe the bits of the Bible that suit me and show how holy I am. I reject the Word Of God if it suits me and my pride."

For starters, because I don't believe that I'm better than anyone else, though I have to admit that sometimes my experiences here in the Landover Forums test my faith in that proposition. I do, however, bring unique experiences to any spiritual discussion, just as you do.

There are truths that are not in the Bible, not in scriptures from other religions, and truths not in science textbooks. For example, last week I astrally projected with some of my parishioners. Once you've done that, trust me, you won't see the world, or all of creation for that matter, in the same light.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

I don't claim to be better, just more compassionate and open to others who have different views. I'm not a meditator (though many of my parishioners are), but I can assure you I spend most of my life contemplating God.

Perhaps you would contemplate this then:
M'r:7:20: And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
M'r:7:21: For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
M'r:7:22: Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
M'r:7:23: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
M'r:7:24: And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

Verse 24 shows us that even Christ did not wish his deeds to be lauded like some cheap TV commercial.

StarkRavingMad, why just not come out with it and say, "I'm simply better than everyone else. I believe the bits of the Bible that suit me and show how holy I am. I reject the Word Of God if it suits me and my pride."

Disgusting!

[StarrKingGrad]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

Parsing out phrases from a single sentence? Would you expect him to add "each other" in every phrase? The words are in a letter TO A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Of course I parse out phrases from a single sentence. Paul chose his words quite carefully, and ignoring the differences in his sentence structures will lead you to miss many subtleties in his letters.

Yes, I would expect Paul to add "each other" in every phrase unless he meant the phrase not to be limited in scope to "each other." Paul knew perfectly well how to state when things applied only to members of A CHRISTIAN CHURCH, sentence after sentence after sentence. See, e.g., Colossians 1:

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, 2To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, 5For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 6Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: 7As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; 8Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. 9For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; 24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: 25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

[JennyD]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

Ah, forebearing one another and forgiving each other. No argument there, Paul definitely meant that the forebearance applies only within the Christian community. This proves that he knew how to say that an admonition applies only to dealings with fellow Christians. Was there a problem with conflict in the early Church that caused Paul to write this?

And again, no limitation to just other Christians.

blah blah blah

Parsing out phrases from a single sentence? Would you expect him to add "each other" in every phrase? The words are in a letter TO A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Tell me, where in that sentence did he say anything about behaving in that manner to someone other than "each other"? Oh, right. Nowhere.

[SUV]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

One more outburst like this, and I will bring a moderator into this.

Weak and Simple feMale though I be, still, I know when I am Needed to perform my Duty for JESUS.

Hey, FarkingMad: Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!

[Ahimaaz Smith]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

You claim to revere Paul the Apostle, does that make Landover a personality cult? I won't even discuss Pastor Deacon Fred, but I'm sure everyone reading this knows what I mean.

It means you want to go back on quarantine. One more outburst like this, and I will bring a moderator into this.

You think you're better than Paul or Pastor Deacon Fred? You aren't fit to carry their luggage, much less to criticize them. Nobody but God can criticize them! Yes, we revere the Apostle Paul, as we revere all of the Apostles (well, all but Judas Iscariot). We revere Pastor Deacon Fred, too. They are our friends, our leaders, and the annointed representatives of God on Earth. But the center of our religion is Jesus, as both Paul and PDF would be the first to tell you. Do one of your word searches on Fred and Jesus and see for yourself who gets more discussion.

I see you chose totally to ignore Sister SUV's comments on Condaleeza Rice. Are you ashamed that a black woman reached the summit of power without buying into the left wing politics that UU espouses?

Finally, Justina is absolutely right, we should concentrate on the Holy Bible. So, do you have any more Bible verses that you Unitarians adore? If so, please share, and Sister JennyD will explain why you are wrong just as she did regarding Colossians 3.

[Justina Thyme]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

What kind of malicious pleasure do you take in attacking people's beliefs for no particular reason? Do you really care what I or anyone else believe? What are you trying to prove, and to whom--yourself? Because you're certainly not proving anything to me except that you are arrogant, and it's been my experience that arrogance is a product of insecurity. I went through a phase of arrogance some years ago, and I didn't like myself very much at that time. Fortunately, I outgrew mine...

If I may briefly interject, this piece of Unsaved Trash© just might have a something akin to a point. Perhaps it would be wise for everyone concerned to try to leave their own attitudes and emotions out of such discussions as much as possible and focus solely on Scripture. The Holy Word of God contains everything we need to teach and to express to any interlopers on this forum, including the entire spectrum of emotions, from joy to fear to rage--indeed, even to the UT's above-referenced arrogance:

1 Samuel 2:3
3Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

I mean no offense, of course, to anyone here. I do not usually enter into the theological discussions of Landover's much wiser and more learned men, so I thank you for allowing me this small interruption.

[StarrKingGrad]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

And I haven't even gotten to how Unity is a cult of personality that never found a new personality when the old one died.

That's a low blow, even for you. You claim to revere Paul the Apostle, does that make Landover a personality cult? I won't even discuss Pastor Deacon Fred, but I'm sure everyone reading this knows what I mean.

Don't they know that this was a holidy made up by black nationalist Ron Karenga, who justified the invention by saying that "Jesus was psychotic" and that black folk should shun the "white" Christian religion? And yet Unity still claims to be Christian. How sad.

The gratuitous racism isn't worthy of a response. As for the rest, don't you see that a community that is constantly suppressed will naturally fight back? Karenga did create Kwanzaa as an alternative to what he viewed as a white religion, Christianity, but it has become much, much more than that. It symbolizes the very virtues that you seem to be saying that African Americans lack (and that I think many True Christians lack). I don't like any racism, white-on-black, black-on-white, black-on-black, or any other kind, but the way to get African Americans integrated into American society is to stop oppressing them. You seem to me to want to go in exactly the opposite direction.

What kind of malicious pleasure do you take in attacking people's beliefs for no particular reason? Do you really care what I or anyone else believe? What are you trying to prove, and to whom--yourself? Because you're certainly not proving anything to me except that you are arrogant, and it's been my experience that arrogance is a product of insecurity. I went through a phase of arrogance some years ago, and I didn't like myself very much at that time. Fortunately, I outgrew mine.

It's more clear from God's Word, the KJV, instead of that filthy NIV you use.

Sorry, I'll stick to the KJV in the future. In this case, I agree that KJV is a better translation from the Greek. So let's do as you suggest, and pay some close attention to the text in the KJV:

12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

Hmm, nothing in there so far discussing "each other." If Paul wanted us to believe that kindness was to be shown only to other Christians, why didn't he say so explicitly? He was an educated man with a firm grasp of the Greek language, so I'm sure he knew how to say that if that's what he intended.

13forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any one with any one may have a quarrel, as also the Christ did forgive you -- so also ye;

Ah, forebearing one another and forgiving each other. No argument there, Paul definitely meant that the forebearance applies only within the Christian community. This proves that he knew how to say that an admonition applies only to dealings with fellow Christians. Was there a problem with conflict in the early Church that caused Paul to write this?

14and above all these things, have love, which is a bond of the perfection,

And again, no limitation to just other Christians.

It's just my opinion, but I think you aren't giving Paul's intellect enough credit. But I can forgive you this error, since, in Paul's letters, there are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:16

BTW, how exactly does one put on bowels of mercies? Since you take the Bible literally, you're a perfect person to ask.

[SUV]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

Sister SUV, you can have any kind of bite you want.

manual for Kwanzaa services

My JESUS.....Kwanzaa!!!

So all of this is indeed sinful although with Money, of course, It's All Good....

"Kwanzaa" now. Isn't this what that Condolleezzzaa practiced, that terrible neegroe "woman" who put a hoodoo on Godly President Bush to bewitch him into sending our Troops to Iraq - to bring her back some hummus, or something?

[Justina Thyme]

Re: Unity - The Fast Track To Hell

I'm just dropping in to give my regards to Brother Smith.