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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Re: Probably flammable, but I want to ask anyways
I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I guess I understand it. It's part of the reason I homeschool.
But I also want my children exposed to other famililes and beliefs. I have confidence in my parenting and teaching skills, so I know that when they are exposed to things that we as a family disagree with, it's as easy as me sitting down with them and discussing what we do believe and then asking them if they understand to clear it up.
I hope you realize that when I have children over for playdates, we aren't discussing theology. I also hope you realize that people view sin on a spiritual level as different from sin on an earthly level. I said this already in this thread, but you're either intentionally ignoring it or not understanding. I realize that murder is worse than blasphemy in earthly terms. I think that earthly punishments should obviously reflect the fact that murder and blasphemy are two entirely different things. But the Bible teaches me that to God, telling a lie and murdering someone are both sin. God's judgment is applied to them equally, as is God's grace. Believing that doesn't mean that I'm telling my kids that murderers are the same as people who say Oh Em Gee here on earth. lol
To me, the lying and murder thing being equally bad is in the sense that they are both sins and in God's eyes sin is sin. We are supposed to repent and turn away from all sin, not pick and choose what sins we do or do not do based on how 'little' they are. KWIM?
Also I don't want to speak for her because she is often much more eloquent than I am, but in AW's original post I think she is just referring to common courtesy. No using the term that is so gay and using JayEffCee are not exactly equatable but it used to be socially acceptable to say that is so gay and now it is much less so. I think she was just wondering if the people who use it realize that they are in fact being offensive to some people.
I saw that you said it before, but saying it twice doesn't make it true. Please provide me with a quote from the Bible that says that all sin is equal.
Also, another thing you said in this thread was that you explain your sin to your children all the time. I assume that other children are exposed to your beliefs on occasion?
I'm not even going to touch the homeschool thing.
I'm on my phone but have so, so much to say.
Is there a slur for Christians like there is for Jews, Muslims, black people, homosexuals, the mentally challenged, etc? I don't believe there is, which makes Jesus Effing Christ nowhere near the same. You don't like it. It offends you. That's fine. You're allowed to feel that way. But we aren't persecuting you by saying it.
I'm not sure there is more I can say.
1) My intent in posting this wasn't to say that using these words should be illegal or that people shouldn't have the right to use them. My intent was to show that to some people it is offensive and that if you're concerned about offending people, maybe you might want to refrain from using it in the future.
2) I realize the words gay and retarded are different from using the Lord's name in vain (which is why I pointed it out in the OP). My point was that the issue of respect should be the same.
3) I don't think anyone has the right to pick apart why someone finds something offensive. Sometimes people can't even put a finger on why they find it that way. But if it's offensive to them, it's offensive. That's it. No more explanation needed. In asking are you hoping that their answer would make offending them right or wrong? Doesn't make sense.
4) The way I view sin on an earthly level is different from the way I see it on a spiritual level. This is why I don't expect the government to enforce equal punishment for murder and blasphemy. I can believe that God judges all sin equally and applies His Grace equally and still think that murderers are worse people than liars.
5) I apologize if my views on religion and God offend you. My intent isn't to offend, but just to discuss what I believe. If the way in which I express my beliefs (the words I choose) are offensive, please let me know and I will refrain from using those expressions in the future. That doesn't mean I won't talk about my faith. I just won't use those expressions that are offensive (like the words gay or retarded).
6) What in the world do my children have to do with this thread and why are they being brought up in it?
That's all I have.
To be fair, she did say in the OP that she wasn't crying persecution.
Right?
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
This is actually a little ironic. When I started reading this thread, I was pretty firmly in the camp that it was such a small change to make, someone not using a phrase, that it would be petty to keep doing it (at least deliberately, although I don't think most people do it deliberately). Although I still feel that way to some degree, until someone can explain why it's wrong or offensive to hear someone else blaspheme, I'm starting to be of the opinion that it's pushing a religious tenet onto someone else by asking them to modify their behavior based on one's own beliefs. I'm vegetarian and dislike the thought of eating meat, but I'm not going to ask everyone on the board to stop talking about bacon. The only thing that's different here is the religious component, which is what makes it hard not to see it is pushing beliefs rather than respecting beliefs.
And I'd like to add that my dad is a Baptist minister of his own church, so none of what you're saying to me is new or groundbreaking, and I do understand why you find it offensive. Honestly, I have the mouth of a sailor so as much as I say I'll try not to use it, I think you need to realize as well that this is a message board. We don't know if you're going to be reading a thread or not. Sure, we can not use it when you've already posted. But you're not here, in front of us, and we have no idea if you're even going to come back to THAT thread. So the only way to completely avoid any possibility of offending you is to never use JC, at all, ever, anywhere on the Nest, because there might be a chance possibly that you could maybe read that particular thread. In my personal opinion, that's asking a lot for an entire community of Internet people and all lurkers and everyone that might possibly post on here to do. So yes, I can and do respect you enough not to say something like that around you. But honestly? I'm not around you right now, or on your Facebook page or Twitter account. I'm on the Internet. On a public message board.
Also? This isn't the Catholic board, or a Christian board, or whathaveyou. So the number of people who would find this offensive are probably far, far less than the people who wouldn't. And if I live my life never saying anything that might possibly be construed as offensive on some level to anybody around me or passing me by or reading a message board frequented by thousands of people across the world then I'd be a damn mute.
Religion discussions = bat signal discussions of P&CE.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DReligion tends to get special treatment in most spheres though. One of the things that pisses me off as an atheist.
Wise decision, my friend.
I don't think she's being a martyr really. But you have to admit that saying one isn't being a martyr doesn't make it so. Just like the 'I'm not racist, but...' such phrases.
Oh boy. Disclaimer that I haven't read through the rest of the replies, so perhaps the OP has evolved...
AW, I think you're absolutely entitled to your feelings/reactions about stuff or expressions wherever you might encounter them.
However, juxtaposed against that is every human's absolute right to say whatever they want, however they want, unless it's illegal (threats against political figures, "fire" in a theater, etc.).
Such is life. I used to be totally immersed in the religious set of friends/people, and since then I've found I get way farther with people - religious or not - if I can accept them and not let their self-expression get to me. Andplusalso, as I've said ad nauseam on this board: God can take care of Himself. Really, He can. He can deal with that person's heart over using His name (and hell, sometimes it's ME using it), so I can just relax in knowing no matter what anyone here or elsewhere says against Him, I don't need to worry my little head about it.
My .02. And I know this is up over 100 posts now... oh well.
AW, I really like you. But I will confess that I am really not concerned that others using your lord's name in vain offends you. I'm just being honest.
He's not my lord. I don't believe he exists. I know it's a deeply held belief for you, but to me it's the same as saying, "Stupid effing pink unicorn!" And I get that that analogy is offensive, but there's really no other way to make it clear.
To borrow your cooking pork in front of Muslims and Jews analogy, I am a vegetarian, and I am unbothered by others cooking meat in front of me. I'd have to be offended literally all the time. I am an ethical vegetarian, and it is very important to me, but it is my belief. No one else needs to suspend their lives and comfort on my account. It is rude for me to be SERVED meat, but it's not rude for someone else to eat it in my presence. It would be absurd for me to expect others to keep vegetarian around me.
The number of gay people on this board or disabled people on this board is pretty low too, but out of respect there are still people who choose not to use words that would be offensive to them.
And maybe you've made the point for me. Because you never know if by using the word you could be offending someone, maybe the best solution is just not to use the word at all.
I don't see it as any different than someone being offended by someone swearing all the time. Does someone need to explain to you why , wh*re, mothereffer etc are offensive to them? It's offensive because it is offensive. No swear words aren't offensive to everyone but they are to some.
Touche.
I fixed it for you.
I really do understand what you're saying. However, asking people to change their behavior in a public forum because you find it offensive is a bit presumptive and in fact, does equate you championing a change in behavior based in your religious belief system.
Yes,I'm smiling...I'm a marathoner!
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5K-22:49 10K-47:38 Half Mary-1:51:50
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3/24-Coulee Chase 5K-21:40
5/6-Colorado Marathon-4:08:30
5/28-Bolder Boulder 10K
I didn't say martyr, Tef, did I?
I said persecution, which I know she said she didn't feel. She said she feels offended. I can't tell her how to feel. But she also can't tell us how to behave. That's kind of the end, really.
Come on, now. Usually I agree, but today she made her bed.
Please read the last paragraph. I'm not going to spend my life consistently worrying about if I'm offending somebody. Sorry if that makes me a bad person, but there you go.
Also, as people have mentioned before, "retarded" and "gay" is insulting. It's meant to be derogative. I've heard people go "Jesus Christ!" oh "Oh my God!" for MULTIPLE reasons. It's a way of expressing anything from anger to digust to excitement to fear to joy. So yeah. NOT the same thing.
Nobody's asked the board to stop cursing in general. The issue isn't whether she has a right to be offended (anyone can be offended by whatever they want), the issue is whether it's a reasonable request here to ask people to change their behavior based on it.
I'm sorry, but I'm not a 5 year old and you're not my mother. "Because I said so" isn't going to work for me.