Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Charities - Bullying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charities - Bullying. Show all posts

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Cultures that Bully Speak Death, Not Life



Cultures that Bully Speak Death,
Not Life

Bullying Kills Personally, Psychologically,
Spiritually, and Culturally.

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT


To seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone perceived as vulnerable.


Growing up I experienced a number of parental mistakes. One of them was being labelled and belittled. It hurt and affected the image of myself. It did not bring out my potential. It made me feel worthless. My identity was held in the verbal abuse of another. It was unfair and unloving. It made angry to be called names and be told things which were untrue of myself.

I feel the same way today when listening to politicians and preachers lie and condemn their voting base or congregations. I feel we, as a maturing society, are unwise to follow the advice of bullies or to allow bullies to destroy the lives of those they do not love nor care for.

Culturally, it is a sickness which speaks death, not life. It misrepresents and intentionally (if not pathologically) lies in order to build up the speakers of untruth, hate, division, and death.

My response then, as now, is to educate myself about bullying. To identify it immediately. To resist it by talking openly and frequently about it. To seek out life-birthing habits, thoughts, and experiences in life. To build self-confidence through accomplishments and awareness. To befriend those around me who are encouragers, who are honest, and who can naturally love. And to let my life move towards love, loving speech, thoughts and actions, rather than participate or perpetuate in the continuance of any forms of death.

It is hard. It feels unnatural. It is difficult.... and it is a daily task. The psycho-social and emotional wounds are there. Though the scars are healed, and wounds less easily opened, my internal radars are always on the alert, standing high and tall, listening for the deeply unfair  and harmful toxicity flowing from the lips of bullies speaking their daily deathly acts of intimidation, abuse, harassment, thuggery, heckling, mocking, teasing, baiting, taunting, and hate upon the lives of others.

The bully's words and acts are unwanted. Together, let us learn to say, "Stop!" Your assessments are worthless as are your words and actions. "Go Away." When you have something worth listening to then come back... And when you come back, "Learn to speak life, not death." Otherwise, it is our turn to talk, to build, to enliven. Not yours.

Peace and Love,

R.E. Slater
August 14, 2025


by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Quotes to Live By


Kindness & Empathy

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. – Plato
There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up – John Holmes
Strong people stand up from themselves. But the strongest people stand up for others. – Unknown
Each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness. No one deserves to be bullied. – Barack Obama
You will never reach higher ground if you are always pushing others down. – Jeffrey Benjamin

Courage & Integrity

Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. Right is right even if no one is doing it. – St. Augustine
I would rather be a little nobody, than to be a evil somebody. – Abraham Lincoln
Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right. – Theodore Roosevelt
The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. – Ralph W. Sockman
True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free. – Lord Shaftesbury
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow. – Mary Anne Radmacher
One person can make a difference, and everyone should try. – John F. Kennedy

Self-Worth & Identity

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. – Judy Garland
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are. – Lady Gaga
It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities – J. K. Rowling
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. – Albus Dumbledore

Hope & Resilience

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise again. – Victor Hugo
No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true. – Cinderella
Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. – Mr. Rogers
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. – Marcus Aurelius


Types of Bullying


Three types of bullying

Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things:
  • Teasing
  • Name-calling
  • Inappropriate sexual comments
  • Taunting
  • Threatening to cause harm
Social or Relational bullying, Involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships:
  • Leaving someone out on purpose
  • Telling other children not to be friends with someone
  • Spreading rumors about someone
  • Embarrassing someone in public
Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. It includes:
  • Hitting/kicking/pinching
  • Spitting
  • Tripping/pushing
  • Taking or breaking someone’s things
  • Making mean or rude hand gestures

Identifying Bullying


1. Personal Bullying

Definition:
Bullying on a personal level is the intentional use of power, dominance, or manipulation by an individual to harm, intimidate, or control another person. It often targets someone’s vulnerabilities—appearance, abilities, beliefs, identity, or perceived weaknesses.

Key Traits:

  • Direct harm: Name-calling, ridicule, physical aggression, exclusion.

  • Indirect harm: Spreading rumors, undermining reputations, subtle exclusion.

  • Goal: Diminish self-worth and silence dissent or individuality.

Impact:
Erodes confidence, fosters isolation, and disrupts a person’s ability to live authentically.


2. Psychological Bullying

Definition:
A sustained pattern of mental and emotional manipulation designed to create self-doubt, dependence, and fear in the victim. It operates on the inner life—thoughts, emotions, and perceptions—rather than overt physical acts.

Key Traits:

  • Gaslighting (making someone doubt their own reality).

  • Withholding affection or approval to control behavior.

  • Creating a sense of helplessness or inevitability of the abuse.

  • Constant criticism disguised as “concern” or “help.”

Impact:
Internalizes shame, damages self-trust, and may cause anxiety, depression, or long-term trauma.


3. Spiritual Bullying

Definition:
The misuse of spiritual or religious authority to coerce, control, or shame individuals into conformity, obedience, or silence. It replaces authentic faith and love with fear, judgment, and control.

Key Traits:

  • Declaring divine disapproval for nonconformity.

  • Using sacred texts as weapons rather than as sources of life.

  • Elevating leaders’ authority above communal discernment.

  • Equating questioning with rebellion against God.

Impact:
Severs the person’s sense of divine love, distorts their image of God, and stifles spiritual growth.


4. Cultural Bullying

Definition:
When societal systems, traditions, or norms perpetuate power imbalances, marginalization, or harm against certain groups. This form of bullying is systemic, embedded in cultural narratives, and normalized through collective behavior.

Key Traits:

  • Institutionalized discrimination (racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia).

  • Media stereotyping and public shaming of targeted groups.

  • Erasure of cultural histories or suppression of languages and customs.

  • Penalizing dissent or whistleblowing.

Impact:
Silences cultural voices, enforces social hierarchies, and normalizes injustice as “tradition” or “common sense.”


Core Thread Across All Forms

Cultures that bully—whether on the personal, psychological, spiritual, or cultural level—speak death, not life by:

  • Suppressing the voice and agency of others.

  • Replacing dignity with shame.

  • Trading empathy for dominance.

  • Breaking relational trust.

In contrast, life-giving cultures speak life by:

  • Valuing the image of God (or inherent worth) in every person.

  • Encouraging diverse voices and perspectives.

  • Practicing restorative justice and compassionate truth-telling.

  • Promoting mutual flourishing over dominance.


Why all forms of bullying are anti-life and why relational, life-giving cultures are essential for human and cosmic flourishing.


Process-Theological Framework

1. Bullying as Anti-Process

In Whiteheadian process thought, life is an unfolding web of relationships where each moment (actual occasion) builds upon the possibilities offered by God and others. Bullying distorts this dynamic by:

  • Reducing possibilities instead of expanding them.

  • Replacing creative advance with stagnation or regression.

  • Disrupting mutual becoming by silencing or injuring another’s voice.

Bullying is not merely moral failure - it is metaphysical sabotage, choking the flow of novelty and mutual enrichment.


2. Life-Giving Cultures as Co-Creators

Process theology views humanity as co-creators with God in the ongoing shaping of the world. Life-giving cultures:

  • Amplifies the divine lure toward beauty, truth, and goodness.

  • Increases the range of potential futures for individuals and communities.

  • Fosters reciprocity - each member contributes to, and receives from, communal well-being.

In this view, a culture that speaks life is a culture that cooperates with God’s creative aim.


3. Why Bullying Speaks Death

Biblically and theologically, death in process terms is not only physical cessation but the cutting off of potential, the destruction of relational wholeness. Bullying does this by:

  • Stunting growth—psychological, spiritual, and social.

  • Turning relational networks into systems of dominance.

  • Filling the shared world with fear rather than trust.

In process theology, such "deathly" acts do not align with God's divine lure but with  personal, relational, and cultural disintegration, making them inherently anti-life.


4. The Divine Counter-Movement

In process thought, God is the ever-present lure toward richer possibilities, even in the wake of harm. Against the cultures that bully, God’s call is:

  • To restore broken relations through healing dialogue and justice.

  • To create safe spaces for vulnerable voices to flourish.

  • To turn wounds into new sources of compassion, widening the community’s capacity for empathy.

This is not “forgive and forget” but redeem and transform—a continual process of co-authoring better futures.


5. Cultural Transformation as a Processual Mandate

Cultures can repent - not in the punitive sense, but in the processual sense of reorienting their trajectory. To move from death-speaking to life-speaking cultures:

  • Name the harm in personal, psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions.

  • Refuse to normalize dominance as tradition or necessity.

  • Enact restorative practices that expand, rather than constrict, communal possibilities.

  • Embed empathy in structures—education, governance, religion—so that care is systemic, not accidental.


Conclusion


In process theology, bullying is a rejection of the divine invitation toward beauty, relationality, and mutual becoming. Life-giving cultures accept that invitation, choosing to speak words and create structures that enhance possibility for all.

To speak life is to participate in God’s ongoing creation, where the aim is not control but co-flourishing, not silencing but amplifying, not death but ever-deepening life.


Addendum

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) that an imbalance of physical or social power exists or is currently present. This perceived presence of physical or social imbalance is what distinguishes the behavior from being interpreted or perceived as bullying from instead being interpreted or perceived as conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, the goal (whether consciously or subconsciously) of addressing or attempting to "fix" the imbalance of power, as well as repetition over a period of time.

Bullying can be performed individually or by a group, typically referred to as mobbing, in which the bully may have one or more followers who are willing to assist the primary bully or who reinforce the bully's behavior by providing positive feedback such as laughing. Bullying in school and in the workplace is also referred to as "peer abuse". Robert W. Fuller has analyzed bullying in the context of rankism. The Swedish-Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus stated that bullying occurs when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons", and that negative actions occur "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways". Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person using coercive, intimidating, or hurtful words or comments, exerting threatening or intimidating behavior, or using harmful physical force in order to gain power over another person.

A bullying culture can develop in any context in which humans regularly interact with one another. This may include settings such as within a school, family, or the workplace, the home, and within neighborhoods. When bullying occurs in college and university settings, the practice is known as ragging in certain countries, especially those of the Indian subcontinent. The main platform for bullying in contemporary culture involves the use of social media websites. In a 2012 study of male adolescent American football players, "the strongest predictor [of bullying] was the perception of whether the most influential male in a player's life would approve of the bullying behavior." A study by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health medical journal in 2019 showed a relationship between social media use by adolescent girls and an increase in their exposure to bullying.
Bullying may be defined in many different ways. In the United Kingdom, there is no legal definition of the term "bullying", while some states in the United States currently have laws specifically against it. Bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse: psychological (sometimes referred to as "emotional" or "relational"), verbal, physical, and cyber (or "electronic"), though an encounter can fall into more than one of these categories.

Behaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or the use of threats, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets. Rationalizations of such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size, or ability.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Short Takes - Process Christianity, Pandemic Brokenness, & Church Repair





INSPIRING! Lionel Richie + Idol Finalists
“One World” Finale Performance! - American Idol 2021


Can Process Christianity "Become?"
by R.E. Slater

I foresee the next area of Christian expansion through the eyes of a Process Christianity. A Christianity which absorbs all the best from Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed theology then adds to the mixer all the better aspects of Wesleyan Arminianism emphasizing God's love and indeterminate freewill as opposed to Calvinist doctrines emphasizing divine transcendent apartness and determinism.

Next, take away the church's philosophical preferences to interpret the bible in Greek Hellenistic and Western thought in contemporary life by replacing it with Alfred North Whitehead's Process Philosophy with its subsequent corollary, Process Theology.

That is, (i) as to context, the former is quite applicable. (ii) But as for contemporary interpretation, those older forms no longer hold up. They need to be brought forward. Process Christianity is just such the vehicle to do this.

It embraces a here-and-now God who loves all without racism or discrimination. Without religious rules and laws (ahem, Legalism, Asceticism, Stoicism, Gluttony, Adverice, Lust, Pride, Greed,etc). And without the worse parts of Christian traditionalism which too easily divides the religious from the secular not realising there is no such thing before God. All is secular as much as all is spiritual.

Now I'm not sure if I have ever read of such a label but have determined that Christianity is due for an upgrade. Process Christianity cannot be found Wikipedia. But Progressive Christianity can be. That is, Process Christianity has all the earmarks of Progressive Christianity in its social aspects of social justice, equitable equality, and refusal of all elements of neoliberal capitalism (which is how much of America runs these days).

Which means that we may proceed as a Christian fellowship towards biblically-based doctrines of post-capitalism more focused on the equitable sharing of goods to all people. Accessible justice and unheld for all. A mindset of generosity. Of human solidarity with each other in local community. And, the derivative effort of community to restore the earth around the centralising ideas found in (cosmo)ecological societies (sic, civilization).

Said differently, Process Christianity is similar to Progressive Christianity in its social aspects but that its underpinnings (or foundations) can be found in aspects of Wesleyan Arminianism and especially as it relates to Whiteheadian Process Philosophy and Theology.

What this means then is that rather than reading the bible literally we might learn to read it with Process Christian mindsets and progressively in terms of society justice and equality.

To accomplish such a thing we'll need individuals well versed in Whiteheadian Process Philosophy and Theology to step up and rewrite past Christian doctrine into contemporary terms of process doctrines, a process Jesus, process-based teleology (eschatology), and so on.

Here, at Relevancy22, I've attempted such a thing over the last several years. You'll also find a large effort given the idea of Process Christianity in the Open and Relational Theology spaces of Christianity (e.g. Thomas Oord, Tripp Fuller, Homebrewed Christianity, The Open & Relational Center for Christianity, and many, many other authors, teachers, writers, etc). They can do this because the subject of open and relational theology is deeply embedded in Process Thought.

And so, its time to re-orient Christianity away from it's Christian secular structures and foundations towards a greater all-encompassing act of Process-everything. Process is part of the world's evolution. The Earth's very own internal and external structures. And within society itself.

Process flow, rhythm and re-balance is simply everywhere. But no one has thought to look for it in their lives, the organic and inorganic lives of the processes around them, nor in the bible. I once read somewhere (whether true or not I cannot remember) that people would look up into the sky and see whitish colors, but not the color blue. But when they learned to look for the color then they began to see all its nuances, hues, and differences.

Similarly with God's Word. Let's look for a God of process, flow, and rhythm. A God who is, and is becoming, even as His Word and Creation is, and is becoming. When you look for it, you'll find it everywhere. Inhabiting all the spaces we live in now as then in ancient times.

Blessings,

R.E. Slater
May 23, 2021
* * * * * * * * * *


http://www.cmalliance.org/


Can There Be Christian Spaces for Healing?
by R.E. Slater

I came across David Fitch's prescient comment this weekend. He works at the Christian ministry organization, Missio Alliance, and I believe is a professor at Chicago's Northern Seminary with my past classmate Scot McKnight.
David's observation speaks succinctly to our past and present period of enduring the global SARS-CoV-2 (Covid19=2019) viral pandemic (Feb 2020 to present). 
More importantly, for a church year dedicated to the need to grieve over our many losses, to seek a kind of healing and restoration to be able to move on, and to find the earthly joys in societal community again.
I would recommend David's insightful list as a good place for Churches to dedicate a whole year of community recovery around; to pray through; and implement within their fellowships.
See what you think... And please, leave a comment or two on any similarly helpful programs you have found along these same ideas and practices. Thanks!

Blessings,

R.E. Slater
May 23, 2021
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The Top 5 Issues for Church Leaders
Coming Out of COVID

by David Fitch

1
People’s broken relationships revealed by the isolation of COVID...

NEEDED: Spaces for relational connection.

2
People deconstructing their faith after the props to their faith were taken away by COVID...

NEEDED: Spaces for personal and social deconstruction.

3
People’s anger and rage at various coercions/abuses in their lives, including racism, sexual abuse, misogyny... all of which were intensified in COVID...

NEEDED: Spaces for lament and the unwinding from the antagonisms endured.

4
People’s fatigue from the constant drudgery of moving through the blunt challenges of COVID...

NEEDED: Spaces for celebrating God’s sustaining power and hope for a future.

5
People’s grief over losses of friends, family, and economic security...

NEEDED: Spaces for grieving and comfort.

Rarely has there been a time in our history when we needed the social spaces around tables where Christians can tend to one another in the Holy Spirit in all these ways.

Thoughts??

David Fitch
May 23, 2021

* * * * * * * * * *


 Amazon Link


Bullies and Saints
Thoughts by R.E. Slater

John Dixon was our church's guest speaker this week and last. His newest book tells of Christian traitors to Jesus and bullies to their churches and public communities.

Now knowing John, and having heard him speak over the years, I can say he will be a lot kinder in his book than I will be in my comments over these next several proceeding paragraphs below. But after witnessing the suffering of so many innocents at the hands of the wayward evangelical church and its harming political policies over recent years it's time to speak out once again....

America's nativist Christians and dominionist churches have given witness to their anti-Semitism and cold-hearted feelings to suffering Muslims across Palestinian, Syria, Lebanon*, and Jordan. To their racist attitudes towards Asians, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Blacks, and the impoverished.

Christian nationalism is an ugly expression by the church forcing its ungodly teachings upon a struggling democratic society. Not unlike past eras of poorly lived Christian beliefs holding to an austere, forbidding God full of religious rules and beliefs, guilt and unhappiness. Denying a God of human dwelling for a Greek God transcendently far above our suffering world untouched by our feelings. Denying a God of biblical forgiveness and mercy for a God condemning all to hell. Such miserable Christian beliefs have over-centered themselves on a God of wrath and judgment. This is the kind of God the world can well do without.

But thank God for the church's saints who have stayed strong during this period of Trumpian Christian insanity. Who have preached God's Word with unerring conviction. Who have not been confused by nationalistic or supremacist politics by Q'anon conspiracy politicians. Who have ably discerned the Word of God and preached of God;s atoning redemption through Jesus' love and forgiveness.

These modern-day New Testament prophets and preachers are God's blessings to unloving, secular Christians and their insupportable, ungodly Christian doctrines. These saints are the beacons of light and truth to a lost world. They stand up to the religious bullies. They dissent and resist the lies of the Jesus traitors in the flocks of God's people. And they speak life in Jesus, God's Redeemer for mankind, rather than the death and evil that comes from the mouths of the unrighteous. Praise God for his gate-keepers!

May God bless each and everyone to wear his full armor in Christ Jesus our Lord!

R.E. Slater
May 23, 2021

*My good friend, and university dorm neighbor, was Lebanese. A lovely man and aspiring humanitarian. He was related to his first cousin, a famous American singer, and was the first generation of his side of the family to America. This also would account for his high interest in music and quality stereo equipment :)


Book Description

Is religion a pernicious force in the world? Does it poison everything? Would we be better off without religion in general and Christianity in particular? Many skeptics certainly think so.

John Dickson has spent much of the last ten years reflecting on these difficult questions and on why so many doubters see Christianity as a major cause of harm not blessing. The skeptics, he concludes, are right: even a cursory look at the history of Christians reveals dark things therein--violence, bigotry, genocide, war, inquisition, oppression, imperialism, racism, corruption, greed, power, abuse. For centuries and even today, Christians have been among the worst bullies you could ever imagine.

But these skeptics are only partly right: this is not what Christianity was meant to be. When Christians do evil they are out of tune with the teachings of their Lord. Jesus gave the world a beautiful melody--of love, grace, charity, humility, non-violence, equality, human dignity--to which, tragically, his followers have more often than not been tone-deaf. Denying the evils of church history does not do. John Dickson gives an honest account of the mixed history of Christianity, the evil and the good. He concedes the Christians' complicity for centuries of bullying but also shows the myriad ways the beautiful melody of Christ has enriched our world and the lives of countless individuals. This book asks contemporary skeptics of religion to listen again to the melody of Jesus, despite the discord produced by too many Christians through history and today. It also leads contemporary believers into sober reflection on and repentance for their own participation in the tragic inconsistencies of Christendom and seeks to inspire them to live in tune with Christ.

About the Author

John Dickson (PhD, Macquarie University) is an author, speaker, historian, and media presenter. John is author of more than 20 books, two of which became television documentaries. He also cohosted the documentary For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than you Ever Imagined. John teaches a course on the historical Jesus at the University of Sydney, Australia, and researches the origins of Christianity in the Roman empire. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney, a Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University (2016–2021), and Distinguished Fellow in Public Christianity at Ridley College Melbourne. John presents Australia’s no.1 religion podcast, Undeceptions, exploring aspects of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that are either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten.


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Ephesians 6:11 - Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:10-20 - Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 

Ephesians 6:14 - Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Ephesians 6:15 - And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Ephesians 6:16 - Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Ephesians 6:17 - And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

1 Thessalonians 5:8 - But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 3:15 - But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Matthew 7:15 - Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Matthew 10:16 - Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Acts 20:29 - For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Philippians 3:2 - Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
James 2:14 - What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
Ezekiel 22:27 - Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.


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Let us leave on a more pleasant note...




Monday, March 26, 2012

Bullying and What To Do About It



Bully Official Trailer #1
Weinstein Company Movie (2012) HD 



Bully Official Trailer #1 - Weinstein Company Movie (2012) HD

This year, over 5 million American kids will be bullied at school, online, on the bus, at home, through their cell phones and on the streets of their towns, making it the most common form of violence young people in this country experience. The Bully Project is the first feature documentary film to show how we've all been affected by bullying, whether we've been victims, perpetrators or stood silent witness. The world we inhabit as adults begins on the playground. The Bully Project opens on the first day of school. For the more than 5 million kids who'll be bullied this year in the United States, it's a day filled with more anxiety and foreboding than excitement. As the sun rises and school busses across the country overflow with backpacks, brass instruments and the rambunctious sounds of raging hormones, this is a ride into the unknown. For a lot of kids, the only thing that's certain is that this year...

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Bullying

 






KIDS REACT TO BULLYING


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