Can we work in teams.
Hollie and I both object to how you and Boss frame your own representation of God to the exclusion of the other.
Hollie thinks both are false and downright silly to argue. I think both are equally valid and thus should not compete.
How about one team where Hollie and I, you and Boss, challenge each other to come to a consensus
or to agree to separate and respect each other's views. Without calling names like imbecile or zealots projecting.
And for the other team, Boss and me, Justin and you, can challenge BreezeWood and maybe TAZ
on this spiritual healing prayer business.
My theory is that for both focus points
whoever is the most forgiving will reconcile first.
Whoever is the least forgiving will fight and obstruct more and take longer to resolve the issues.
Dear Emily, I do not need to be on a team for the purpose of respecting the views of others. I am not the one with a problem respecting the views of others. I can respect your view while disagreeing with you and that is often what I do here. I am afraid you misinterpret my posting style, so let me explain how this works... I am like a mirror, you get a reflection of what you put in front of it. Converse with me respectfully and cordially and that's what you get in return. Attack me with personal insults, that's what you're going to get back from me. Pick a fight and I am not backing down. You want to interpret this as me disrespecting the views of others, and that isn't so. Myself and GT do not agree on God, our opinions are as different as night and day, but I respect his opinion and he respects mine. I can think he is wrong without insulting him or attacking his views, and he can do the same for me, so we don't have a problem. Still, there may be times in the "heat of battle" where we call each other idiots or something, but it's rare.
I honestly do understand what you are trying to do here, but I think yours is a futile effort. The strategy of forming workgroups and teams is useful when everyone is trying to achieve a common goal. Here, you do not have such a dynamic, whether you fool yourself into thinking that or not. You have various people who have their own agenda, their own goal, and they are not interested in consensus with others as you are. So you will constantly have some who try to bully or cajole others, people who will use insult and ridicule, appeal to popularity, or find fault and disagreement when there really isn't any... whatever it takes to further their agenda. Your efforts are never going to change this dynamic, as noble as they are.
I challenge you on that, Boss.
I do believe that scientific studies on spiritual healing
will bring out the common knowledge of forgiveness and impact on health and relationships.
If what you say is true, if you are a mirror.
Then if I seek consensus, you would mirror this also.
so Boss if you do not seek consensus, then that is half the reason why you are not getting it.
It is equally your choice to ask for, or to insist upon, instead of blaming others for why it isn't sought.
I think you and Hollie are either big enough or stubborn enough to push for consensus by scientific study.
We'll see who gives up first.
Again, I am always caught by surprise.
The people I least suspect sometimes pull through
and the ones I thought were stronger cave in and cower, cut and run, blaming someone else.
M.D. surprised me when he posted he believed in spiritual healing, and even lectured me a bit
about not mixing religious agenda in but keeping it pure science. caught me off guard!
BW caught me off guard rejecting prayer in absolute terms. I am still floored
and think I must have miscommunicated because that makes no sense.
Hollie turned out to have a sense of humor about these things,
while you seem least able to cope, when I thought you had the best grasp of anyone here.
so we'll see, if this goes like usual, it will be the person I least suspected
who agrees to set up the proof of spiritual healing by applying science.
you, who I thought was focused and convicted enough to carry through
appear to want to bail out and blame the lack of consensus on the lack on other people's parts.
so if that is your way of surprising me, I should not be disappointed but should have seen it coming.
Least able to cope? Not sure where you got that. Bail? On what, exactly? I just don't believe you are ever going to reach consensus on matters pertaining to God and people's beliefs in God. Especially here, where you also have people who don't believe in any God. You are trying to be a Cat Herder, Emily. There is a reason we have thousands of religions and religious beliefs. If people were able to reach consensus, don't you think they would have done so by now?
But hey... In the spirit of not letting you be disappointed in me, I'll play along here. Put me on a team and tell me what you want me to do... You want me to forgive? Okay, I hereby forgive all those who have attacked me personally in this thread for my beliefs. I apologize for attacking you back and hope that we can work together for consensus. Happy now?
Boss, there isn't a button for hugs, but you really made me laugh!
You are so great. I was worried you were going to bail out on me and leave me to piece this consensus together without you to help stand up to M.D.
Boss we've never had the internet and the collection of people to Organize in teams.
Now we do.
so of course this has never been tried before.
Thanks for your willingness to forgive, including me when I said things wrong that offended or misrepresented you when that wasn't my intent.
The three focus points I suggested was
1. one team of elders from all churches to form a consensus on TAG, God and the Trinity in every religion.
so to align all the key points and principles even if they aren't perfectly the same.
2. one team to focus on the science part and spiritual healing.
I think I need the most help here,
though you'd be good to consult on both
3. one team to apply the spiritual healing and forgiveness demonstrated in #2
to concrete real life situations to prove this works globally:
this can be anything from solving the ISIS or Boko Haram issues,
the issues in China with forced abortions slave labor or torturing bears for their bile,
we can start with resolving issues between Republican and Democrat party leaders
or gangs involved with trafficking drugs or people across borders.
Some of my friends are already ready to take on #3
but most people can't even get past #2.
And M.D. is still so in love with TAG in #1 he isn't interested in #2.
But I think that is the key to solving world problems in #3.
So if you are really going to prove the message in the Bible is true,
and all humanity can be saved by healing grace in Christ Jesus,
then I would be prepared to take it all the way through.
I think you'd be good to help set up #1 where M.D. prefers to focus
but I'd really really appreciate your help to consult on #2 which has more real world
applications and would make sense to more secular gentiles and nontheists than #1.
Thank you Boss!
I am guessing, once we even agree how to set up #2 the study and
proof of spiritual healing using medical research and regular science,
this process will take off on its own. And again, it will
end up going in directions I didn't foresee, that always happens.
Some of it will end up easier than I thought, and then there
are always surprises where there is more to it than I expected.
Never been done before.
But I did meet a statistician at a Lutheran church who loved
the idea and thought this was totally doable. To track the
correlation of forgiveness with reconciling vs. the degree
of unforgiveness with inability to reconcile. So we could
prove that this is the key factor in spiritual healing, not only
applied to physical and mental conditions, but healing relations as well.
As for organizing consensus among tribes, I already know
people who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Atheists in the
peace and justice community who work together. My proposal
is to form a consensus that Christ Jesus means Restorative
Justice or Peace and Justice, equal justice, so similar to
TAG everyone can align around common terms. I will ask
my friends if we could write out a statement, and maybe
consult with you and M.D. how to present this and ask others
to join in teams to form a consensus on how to teach by alignment.