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Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
#184458
07/10/17 10:21 PM
07/10/17 10:21 PM
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OP
SDA Active Member 2023
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Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 982
Colville, Wa
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Someone left a crucifix with a figure of Jesus on it leaning against the fence surrounding a mosque. This is being investigated as a hate crime, and people are being encouraged to turn in the person guilty of this "crime". http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/...sus-hate-crime/
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184462
07/11/17 01:45 AM
07/11/17 01:45 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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Canada
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What is the world coming to?
You know -- the season is coming when I feel rather uncomfortable walking along the streets, where houses and public places are "decorated" with pictures, or air filled decorations of skeletons, headless horsemen, witches, ghosts, dismembered parts of people or animals, pumpkins with hideous smiles. etc etc.
Yes, I and other Christians feel very uncomfortable when our communities fill up with these things. But no one worries about that -- why it's only bigoted people who would find that offensive -- right???
Yet, put up pictures of Jesus, or a nativity scene and suddenly it is a "crime" against humanity?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: dedication]
#184465
07/11/17 02:17 AM
07/11/17 02:17 AM
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OP
SDA Active Member 2023
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Joined: Jul 2023
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Colville, Wa
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What is the world coming to?
You know -- the season is coming when I feel rather uncomfortable walking along the streets, where houses and public places are "decorated" with pictures, or air filled decorations of skeletons, headless horsemen, witches, ghosts, dismembered parts of people or animals, pumpkins with hideous smiles. etc etc.
Yes, I and other Christians feel very uncomfortable when our communities fill up with these things. But no one worries about that -- why it's only bigoted people who would find that offensive -- right???
Yet, put up pictures of Jesus, or a nativity scene and suddenly it is a "crime" against humanity? Imagine this spirit completely unleashed after a huge natural or economic disaster with the media doing its usual blaming of conservative/Christian thought. These things we see today are only a small foretaste of what is coming. Then it will be violence instead of turning someone into the police. The SDA church has to me always blamed the wrong side of the political spectrum for what is coming. It is the left that is in favor of destroying anyone who disagrees with it, not the conservative/libertarian side of politics.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184472
07/11/17 03:09 PM
07/11/17 03:09 PM
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I was surprised to find this in New York. Shouldn't the police immediately dismiss this and find something more worthwhile to investigate? Such as those Muslims for building a mosque.... That's quite hateful if using the same rules.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184473
07/11/17 03:14 PM
07/11/17 03:14 PM
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The SDA church has to me always blamed the wrong side of the political spectrum for what is coming. It is the left that is in favor of destroying anyone who disagrees with it, not the conservative/libertarian side of politics. I believe you are mistaken there. They both play the part. The liberals play the part of destroying anyone who believes religion. The conservatives play the part of destroying anyone who doesn't believe the way they do. It doesn't matter who wins elections. They both are on the wrong side. While there are individuals of each who stand for freedom and liberty, they will be eliminated.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184480
07/12/17 12:37 PM
07/12/17 12:37 PM
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Would you consider the papacy conservative or liberal?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184482
07/12/17 12:42 PM
07/12/17 12:42 PM
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How about the early churches and cities of the U.S.?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: kland]
#184488
07/12/17 05:06 PM
07/12/17 05:06 PM
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OP
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Would you consider the papacy conservative or liberal? The current pope is a socialist. That said, the papacy has always had a conservative slant to it, but what has it been trying to conserve? It's own power, wealth, and influence. Everything it does has it's own agenda, and that agenda is itself. It has, thus, been all over the map politically, economically, etc....
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: kland]
#184489
07/12/17 05:07 PM
07/12/17 05:07 PM
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OP
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How about the early churches and cities of the U.S.? What about them?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184505
07/13/17 07:35 PM
07/13/17 07:35 PM
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Were they conservative or liberal.
But regarding the papacy, and conservative and liberal, and powers that be in general, aren't they all trying to conserve their own power, wealth, and influence?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: kland]
#184539
07/15/17 07:07 AM
07/15/17 07:07 AM
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OP
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Were they conservative or liberal.
But regarding the papacy, and conservative and liberal, and powers that be in general, aren't they all trying to conserve their own power, wealth, and influence? Not all. The corrupt, yes. But there have also been people who were not corrupt. What follows is a small overview of what they accomplished and how they went about doing it. I will quote from one of the greatest experts of all time, and let you decide for yourself what the early Americans were like. The book all the quotes come from is American Institutions and Their Influence and the author is Alexis de Toqueville. All the quotes come from the first chapter. The numbers you see are the footnotes he used for documentation for what he had to say. The documentation came from court records, legislative and township records, etc.... The settlers who established themselves on the shores of New England all belonged to the more independent classes of their native country. Their union on the soil of America at once presented the singular phenomenon of a society containing neither lords nor common people, neither rich nor poor, These men possessed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass of intelligence than is to be found in any European nation of our own time, All, without a single exception, had received a good education, and many of them were known in Europe for their talents and their acquirements, The other colonies had been founded by adventurers without family; the emigrants of New England brought with them the best elements of order and morality, they landed in the desert accompanied by their wives and children. But what most especially distinguished them was the aim of their undertaking, They had not been obliged by necessity to leave their country, the social position they abandoned was one to be regretted, and their means of subsistence were certain, Nor did they cross the Atlantic to improve their situation, or to increase their wealth; the call which summoned them from the comforts of their homes was purely intellectual; and in facing the inevitable sufferings of exile, their object was the triumph of an idea,
The emigrants, or, as they deservedly styled themselves, the pilgrims, belonged to that English sect, the austerity of whose principles had acquired for them the name of puritans. Puritanism was not merely a religious doctrine, but it corresponded in many points with the most absolute democratic and republican theories, It was this tendency which had aroused its most dangerous adversaries, Persecuted by the government of the mother-country, and disgusted by the habits of a society opposed to the rigor of their own principles, the puritans went forth to seek some rude and unfrequented part of the world, where they could live according to their own opinions, and worship God in freedom.
Now I will jump ahead in the same book and author: This happened in 1620, and from that time forward the emigration went on, The religious and political passions which ravished the British empire during the whole reign of Charles 1., drove fresh crowds of sectarians every year to the shores of America. In England the stronghold of puritanism was in the middle classes, and it was from the middle classes that the majority of the emigrants came, The population of New England increased rapidly; and while the hierarchy of rank despotically classed the inhabitants of the mother-country, the colony continued to present the novel spectacle of a community homogeneous in all its parts, A democracy, more perfect than any which antiquity had dreamed of, started in full size and panoply from the midst of an ancient feudal society
The legislators of Connecticut{30} begin with the penal laws, and, strange to say, they borrow their provisions from the text of holy writ,
"Whoever shall worship any other God than the Lord," says the preamble of the code, "shall surely be put to death." This is followed by ten or twelve enactments of the same kind, copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery,{31} and rape were punished with death; an outrage offered by a son to his parents, was to be expiated by the same penalty The legislation of a rude and half-civilized people was thus transferred to an enlightened and moral community The consequence was, that the punishment of death was never more frequently prescribed by the statute, and never more rarely enforced toward the guilty.
The chief care of the legislators, in this body of penal laws, was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community: they constantly invaded the domain of conscience, and there was scarcely a sin which they did not subject to magisterial censure, The reader is aware of the rigor with which these laws punished rape and adultery; intercourse between unmarried persons was likewise severely repressed, The judge was empowered to inflict a pecuniary penalty, a whipping, or marriage,{32} on the misdemeanants; and if the records of the old courts of New Haven may be believed, prosecutions of this kind were not infrequent, We find a sentence bearing date the first of May, 1660, inflicting a fine and a reprimand on a young woman who was accused of using improper language, and of allowing herself to be kissed,{33} The code of 1650 abounds in preventive measures, It punishes idleness and drunkenness with severity{34} Innkeepers are forbidden to furnish more than a certain quantity of liquor to each customer; and simple lying, whenever it may be injurious,{35} is checked by a fine or a flogging, In other places, the legislator, entirely forgetting the great principles of religious toleration which he had himself upheld in Europe, renders attendance on divine service compulsory,{36} and goes so far as to visit with severe punishment,{37} and even with death, the Christians who chose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own,{38} Sometimes indeed, the zeal of his enactments induces him to descend to the most frivolous particulars: thus a law is to be found in the same code which prohibits the use of tobacco,{39} It must not be forgotten that these fantastical and vexatious laws were not imposed by authority, but that they were freely voted by all the persons interested, and that the manners of the community were even more austere and more puritanical than the laws. In 1649 a solemn association was formed in Boston to check the worldly luxury of long hair.{40}
If, after having cast a rapid glance over the state of American society in 1650, we turn to the condition of Europe, and more especially to that of the continent, at the same period, we cannot fail to be struck with astonishment, On the continent of Europe, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, absolute monarchy had everywhere triumphed over the ruins of the oligarchical and feudal liberties of the middle ages. Never were the notions of right more completely confounded than in the midst of the splendor and literature of Europe; never was there less political activity among the people; never were the principles of true freedom less widely circulated, and at that very time, those principles, which were scorned or unknown by the nations of Europe, were proclaimed in the deserts of the New World, and were accepted as the future creed of a great people. The boldest theories of the human reason were put into practice by a community so humble, that not a statesman condescended to attend to it; and a legislation without precedent was produced off-hand by the imagination of the citizens, In the bosom of this obscure democracy, which had as yet brought forth neither generals, nor philosophers, nor authors, a man might stand up in the face of a free people, and pronounce amid general acclamations the following fine definition of liberty:{52}7
"Nor would I have you to mistake in the point of your own liberty There is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint; by this liberty 'sumus omnes deteriores;' it is the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it, But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good: for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives, and whatsoever crosses it is not authority, but a distemper thereof, This liberty is maintained in a way of subjection to authority; and the authority set over you will, in all administrations for your good, be quietly submitted unto by all but such as have a disposition to shake off the yoke and lose their true liberty, by their murmuring at the honor and power of authority.II
So were these people conservative or highly radical in their day? I say they were very radical politically for their day. They were far, far ahead of their contemporaries in Europe and elsewhere in the world. They were the forerunners of the liberal thinkers of the 1700s such as John Locke, Adam Smith, and men such as John Stuart Mill. de Toqueville says it was their legacy that spawned the greatness of the political system of liberty in the US that existed in his day, and he traces all of this out in the book I quoted from here. It is a fascinating read, and it dispels so many modern day errors and misrepresentations of what the US was always meant to be, and how it was meant to be governed. God most definitely had His hand in this.
Last edited by Gary K; 07/15/17 07:09 AM.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184556
07/16/17 12:57 AM
07/16/17 12:57 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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Joined: Apr 2004
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Canada
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We've come a long way from any such idealistic conditions as pictured in the comments above concerning the beginnings of America. -- A new country with vast areas of freedom to explore, and develop and dream big dreams.
But then we see there were some pretty oppressive laws! Not so idealistic after all -- I would say those in Connecticut were highly conservative, strictly following the sacral society methods of the old country.
Putting to death whoever worships differently doesn't sound like freedom of religion. --"and goes so far as to visit with severe punishment,{37} and even with death, the Christians who chose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own". Even if the majority voted these laws -- the rule of the majority can be quite tyrannical. It sounds too much like the European government enforced religion. The Connecticut laws were very much into a person's private life. Not what I would call the "land of freedom" if that sort of thing would have been engrafted into the constitution. They were no different than the Christian churches they had fled from because they wanted to worship in freedom. Why won't they extend freedom to others. They just wanted it for themselves.
We can be thankful for men like Roger Williams who was probably the first to grasp the principle of freedom of religion.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: dedication]
#184569
07/16/17 04:28 AM
07/16/17 04:28 AM
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OP
SDA Active Member 2023
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Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 982
Colville, Wa
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We've come a long way from any such idealistic conditions as pictured in the comments above concerning the beginnings of America. -- A new country with vast areas of freedom to explore, and develop and dream big dreams.
But then we see there were some pretty oppressive laws! Not so idealistic after all -- I would say those in Connecticut were highly conservative, strictly following the sacral society methods of the old country.
Putting to death whoever worships differently doesn't sound like freedom of religion. --"and goes so far as to visit with severe punishment,{37} and even with death, the Christians who chose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own". Even if the majority voted these laws -- the rule of the majority can be quite tyrannical. It sounds too much like the European government enforced religion. The Connecticut laws were very much into a person's private life. Not what I would call the "land of freedom" if that sort of thing would have been engrafted into the constitution. They were no different than the Christian churches they had fled from because they wanted to worship in freedom. Why won't they extend freedom to others. They just wanted it for themselves.
We can be thankful for men like Roger Williams who was probably the first to grasp the principle of freedom of religion.
There is a caveat to that. All those laws were voted upon by the entire community which enacted them. In those days the seat of power was the township, and the citizens of each township passed their own laws, thus when they passed those laws the citizens of that township were in full accord with them. de Toqueville points out that as strict as their laws were their personal ethics were even greater, thus their laws were less strict than their actual lives. These laws were not a case of a central power enforcing laws upon a community without their consent or support. These laws were each community policing themselves. This puts a far different light on them, for every citizen had a vote and every citizen was involved in the debate before the laws were passed. All these debates, discussions, and voting took place in the town squares. They were completely transparent affairs. No one could say they didn't know how their community was run or what laws were established.
Last edited by Gary K; 07/16/17 04:29 AM.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184585
07/17/17 03:22 AM
07/17/17 03:22 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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The principle of the community making the laws sounds good. A government by the people, for the people. However -- Even if the majority voted these laws -- the rule of the majority can be quite tyrannical. And for this I even have de Toqueville's support!! Most alarming to him {Alexis de Tocqueville } was the power of the majority, which he thought would distort every sphere of human life.
Despots of the past tyrannized through blood and iron. But the new breed of democratic despotism “does not proceed in this way; it leaves the body and goes straight for the soul.”
That is, the majority reaches into citizens’ minds and hearts. It breaks citizens’ will to resist, to question its authority, and to think for themselves. The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking. We see this happen almost daily: to stand against the majority is to ruin yourself. If you read the historical stories, they did execute the punishments prescribed in their laws against people who believed differently -- A majority may have made those laws, but a minority suffered because of them. But the USA didn't end up with a democracy, but rather a republic. In a republic the minority are also given rights.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184595
07/17/17 03:18 PM
07/17/17 03:18 PM
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I will quote from one of the greatest experts of all time, and let you decide for yourself what the early Americans were like. ... So were these people conservative or highly radical in their day? I say they were very radical politically for their day.
Or radical political conservatives. These laws were not a case of a central power enforcing laws upon a community without their consent or support. These laws were each community policing themselves. This puts a far different light on them, for every citizen had a vote and every citizen was involved in the debate before the laws were passed. All these debates, discussions, and voting took place in the town squares. They were completely transparent affairs. No one could say they didn't know how their community was run or what laws were established.
Isn't that what United States is, a community policing themselves? Every citizen has a vote. No one can say they don't know the laws. (at least what we're talking about) What about those who disagreed back then? Punished or killed. Our legislatures represent us. Look how the laws are being changed perverted both in the U.S. and Canada. This is because the people are "policing" themselves. So that, in itself, does not define conservative nor liberal. The laws reflect the citizens.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184601
07/17/17 03:56 PM
07/17/17 03:56 PM
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SDA Active Member 2020
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Is a cross with a human figure on it, an idol?
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184609
07/18/17 04:04 AM
07/18/17 04:04 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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In a sense -- yes the crucifix for many is an idol, if they bow down and worship before it, or carry it around thinking it gives them special protection etc.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184611
07/19/17 05:26 AM
07/19/17 05:26 AM
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Central Alberta
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Would you consider the papacy conservative or liberal? The current pope is a socialist. That said, the papacy has always had a conservative slant to it, but what has it been trying to conserve? It's own power, wealth, and influence. Everything it does has it's own agenda, and that agenda is itself. It has, thus, been all over the map politically, economically, etc.... Meanwhile, the real hate crimes are being ignored http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/8303...report-un-china
"The worst foes of my spiritual life have never been hostile circumstance." "There is always a little bit of light" (Micah 7:8) https://www.lightintheclouds.net/wordSincerely, IN Christ; and THROUGH The Spirit - The Wanderer
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: dedication]
#184615
07/19/17 11:02 AM
07/19/17 11:02 AM
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OP
SDA Active Member 2023
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Colville, Wa
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The principle of the community making the laws sounds good. A government by the people, for the people. However -- Even if the majority voted these laws -- the rule of the majority can be quite tyrannical. And for this I even have de Toqueville's support!! Most alarming to him {Alexis de Tocqueville } was the power of the majority, which he thought would distort every sphere of human life.
Despots of the past tyrannized through blood and iron. But the new breed of democratic despotism “does not proceed in this way; it leaves the body and goes straight for the soul.”
That is, the majority reaches into citizens’ minds and hearts. It breaks citizens’ will to resist, to question its authority, and to think for themselves. The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking. We see this happen almost daily: to stand against the majority is to ruin yourself. If you read the historical stories, they did execute the punishments prescribed in their laws against people who believed differently -- A majority may have made those laws, but a minority suffered because of them. But the USA didn't end up with a democracy, but rather a republic. In a republic the minority are also given rights. And de Toqueville also says that there not set of stricter laws created, but also no set of punishments more rarely enforced. But, that is all beside the point. The civil and religious liberty that were once here in the US and guaranteed by the Constitution still grew out of the Pilgrim's beliefs and political ideals. It was their forms of self government that was copied across the entirety of the northern colonies and was adopted by the founding fathers. de Toqueville makes this very clear. It was the holding of the majority of the power at the local level that was the hallmark of the colonies. The power structure in it's everyday effect on the citizen went, from lower to greater: Federal -> State -> County -> Township. This has been turned completely upside down. It is now: Town -> County -> State -> Federal. The Federal government was created to do only a very few things: protect God-given rights, protect from outside aggression, common currency, mediate disputes between states, create a common framework for commerce between states, etc.... Today the Federal government controls almost every aspect of American life. It is the tyranny that the founders feared. And, yes, the founding fathers created a republic because they knew every democracy ever tried had turned into the oppression of the minority by the majority, totalitarianism, and had collapsed. This is one reason why you see the press in the US always refer to the US as a democracy rather than a republic. They want to see only one point of view exist. They want to see a totalitarian government.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: The Wanderer]
#184616
07/19/17 01:19 PM
07/19/17 01:19 PM
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SDA Active Member 2024
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Hate crimes. Stealing copper. Execution. Seems to be an excellent deterrent. Definitely no repeat crimes. Is this an example of using force to stop a an evil, ("crimes against humanity"), from ruining the entire nation?.....
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: dedication]
#184618
07/20/17 03:32 AM
07/20/17 03:32 AM
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What is the world coming to?
You know -- the season is coming when I feel rather uncomfortable walking along the streets, where houses and public places are "decorated" with pictures, or air filled decorations of skeletons, headless horsemen, witches, ghosts, dismembered parts of people or animals, pumpkins with hideous smiles. etc etc.
Yes, I and other Christians feel very uncomfortable when our communities fill up with these things. But no one worries about that -- why it's only bigoted people who would find that offensive -- right???
Yet, put up pictures of Jesus, or a nativity scene and suddenly it is a "crime" against humanity? Understood. Yet, I have for a long time now considered the crucifix a hate crime against Jesus.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184634
07/23/17 06:01 AM
07/23/17 06:01 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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Even if the majority voted these laws -- the rule of the majority can be quite tyrannical....
But the USA didn't end up with a democracy, but rather a republic. In a republic the minority are also given rights.
yes, the founding fathers created a republic because they knew every democracy ever tried had turned into the oppression of the minority by the majority, totalitarianism, and had collapsed. This is one reason why you see the press in the US always refer to the US as a democracy rather than a republic. They want to see only one point of view exist. They want to see a totalitarian government. True. Interestingly there was another strong republic that fell. Rome. A.T.Jones writes concerning the "Two Republics" "All the permanent conquests of Rome were made by the arms of the republic, which, though "sometimes vanquished in battle," were "always victorious in war." But as Roman power increased, Roman virtue declined; and of all forms of government, the stability of the republican depends most upon the integrity of the individual....
In the train of luxury came vice; self-restraint was broken down; the power of self-government was lost; and the Roman republic failed, as every other republic will fail, when that fails by virtue of which alone a republic is possible. The Romans ceased to govern themselves, and they had to be governed. They lost the faculty of self-government, and with that vanished the republic, and its place was supplied by an imperial tyranny supported by a military despotism. {1891 ATJ, TTR 18.2}
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: Alchemy]
#184635
07/23/17 06:22 AM
07/23/17 06:22 AM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
5500+ Member
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,430
Canada
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Yes, I and other Christians feel very uncomfortable when our communities fill up with these [Halloween decorations]. But no one worries about that -- why it's only bigoted people who would find that offensive -- right???
Yet, put up pictures of Jesus, or a nativity scene and suddenly it is a "crime" against humanity?
Understood. Yet, I have for a long time now considered the crucifix a hate crime against Jesus. There was an awful satanic hated that moved the people to crucify their Creator. Also our sins are a crime against Jesus, as well, yet He bore those sins on the cross, so we might be forgiven, pardoned. The cross shows the extremes of evil hate against Christ, but it also shows the wondrous, great, love of God. Interestingly it's usually the Papal religionists who carry a crucifix. Protestants are more likely to picture the empty cross emphasizing the risen Saviour. The first seems to emphasize defeat, (Satan would have loved to keep Christ on the cross) while the second emphasizes ultimate victory over sin and satan.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184673
07/26/17 08:48 PM
07/26/17 08:48 PM
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SDA Active Member 2024
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 6,425
Midland
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Do not all crimes involve a degree of hate?
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: kland]
#184683
07/27/17 07:54 PM
07/27/17 07:54 PM
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Global Moderator Supporting Member 2022
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 6,430
Canada
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Do not all crimes involve a degree of hate? Crimes are often motivated by hate, but not all. Some are motived by pure self interest with almost a total lacking of regard (either positive or negative) toward others. There are numerous studies that are really quite shocking, basically claiming there are people totally concentrated on "self" and self interest, while they regard everything, whether object, animal, or person, is as only a thing which may or may not affect them. Some attribute this to immersion of the brain in technology to the point of cutting out relational experience. “Their brains have become “wired” to use their tech gadgets effectively in order to multi-task — staying connected with friends, texting and searching online endlessly, often exposing their brains to shocking and sensational images and videos. Many people are desensitizing their neural circuits to the horrors they see, while not getting much, if any, off-line training in empathic skills.”
This disconnection from emotion can be a deadly mechanism. When we lose sight of compassion and empathy, we are losing touch with what it means to be human, and essentially reality.
Other factors are involved as well, of course. Also "hate" is not always evil. We are to hate or abhor sin, while still loving and caring for those trapped in sin.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184719
07/31/17 02:44 PM
07/31/17 02:44 PM
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SDA Active Member 2024
5500+ Member
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 6,425
Midland
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Isn't selfishness a form of hate? I hate others having that which I want for myself or having more than me. So I'm going to take it from them.
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Re: Crucifix with Jesus hanging on cross hate crime?
[Re: ]
#184731
08/01/17 04:53 AM
08/01/17 04:53 AM
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SDA Active Member 2020
5500+ Member
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 6,368
Western, USA
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The essence of sin, is a hate for God, and a desire to kill God.
Jesus tried to get His people to see the foundation of His kingdom when He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke_9:23). The religion of the Enemy has extracted the cross as a principle and put in its place a mere emblem, a sign, a talisman that feeds the ego of man and promotes works for salvation. Increasingly the cross as an emblem obstructs the true gospel and blocks the very experience it is supposed to represent. The struggle to which the cross points is the very one it is invoked to shield against. The result, let Jesus bear the cross alone!
Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Here is the link to this week's Sabbath School Lesson Study and Discussion Material: Click Here
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