Pretty much why I never got into religion....so mu strong advice is to not get involved at all with these things we know little about.
That's right. Jesus kicks ass. He's an ass-kicking machine. He kicks so much ass, that he actually lasted two rounds against Chuck Norris. No kiddin'.
As for the spirit-world....it's all a sham, my friend.
Same could be said of Unscrupulous Christianity......rather, Christianity's inherent unscrupulousness......
Are we talking about the con-men, or Christianity here? I'm leaning towards the latter, which ironically encompasses both......and how much are we talking in donations. What? 15%?
I'd have beaten them too, if they were dumb enough to give me a Rolls, yet starve and live in poverty...plus I'd have slept with their pretty daughters on top of that, then slapped their wives.
Kind of like raising people from the dead, walking on water, healing the blind and the lame, and moving boulders from graves? All you're saying is that your magic is stronger than his "real" sorcery.........think about it and you'll see it's true.......
Note the above on the disease thing. And I would caution you: The danger of belonging to a religion is that it is simply a cult that has gained majority status. If you don't believe this, read every Roman history in which Christianity makes an appearance.....note, especially Tacitus.....it's always described as a seditious, dangerous cult.....one that defied local Roman authority and refused to pay its taxes. How Unamerican........
Misinformation.........oh my "Please insert your local deity here"! You read these things with a Christian perspective, then transpose upon them your Christian "spirit-world" superstructure as if the world conformed to your warped-worldview. Oh my "Please insert your local deity here"!
It was called the Cultural Revolution......and their tricks/spirit boxing, etc. aren't a part of kung-fu nowadays, and died with them. Extant Chinese MA don't contain these elements, and consider them illegitimate. But for hte carnival tricks....note my rebuttal two posts above, again. ...then add a little Moses....and Joshua....and Paul....and then add some water.
You can get siezures from patterns of flashing lights. Are there demons in photons, too? Christians believed seizures were the results of demonic possession. Your oversights are glaring and downright ridiculous......so much for "using logic, science or proper statistical methods...." NEXT!!!!:
Oh, really? And will Christ fix my posture? I'm not sure where you're going with this.... I get those same problems when I go running, or when I practice kung-fu improperly. All it means is that I've done it wrong. Ain't no spirits, my friend.....
I agree. I'm a stud in the sack. Ask any of my girlfriends if you don't believe.
I regret defending you on any position you take.
You, my friend, are a psychonaut.
Let me just say that I disagree with JDK. You know, JDK, I deleted this before, but have you ever looked into the symbolism in your own religion? Christianity?
Take the 5 loaves and 2 fishes in the feeding of the 5000. (5 loaves ... put 5 loaves in a circle, draw lines, what do you have?) And the 2 fishes ... Ever seen a Yin-Yang symbol?
12 disciples. 12 tribes. Why do you suppose there are 12 disciples?
4 gospels. Why do you suppose they depict the 4 gospel disciples as beasts on the 4 corners in a lot of Christian art, such as illuminated manuscripts?
Or the fact that the first part of the Gospel of John is actually a quote from the Vedas.
Bottom line is like most Christians, you haven't bothered to look deeper into your religion. You take out the bits and pieces that suit you, and ignore the rest.
David, you've made a glaring error in your previous post. The whole context of the discussion about the paying of taxes is that the Pharisees are trying to draw him into saying something that they could use to force the Romans to arrest him. The message of this piece isn't "don't rock the boat", it's that God is interested in the spiritual side of your life, He doesn't want your money. The important aspect of this message in JDK's case though is that Jesus declared that it wasn't sinful to pay taxes to Caesar, which many orthodox Jews felt it was.
The message is in NO WAY kowtow to Caesar because he can do you harm, indeed Caesar DID do vast amount of harm to early Christians BECAUSE of their refusal to kowtow to him and acknowledge him as godly (one of the cornerstones of the Roman empire).
Anyway, JDK, you are blatantly trolling. You came to the Southern forum, asking a seemingly sensible question and got some (you'll never get a sensible answer from Lunghushan) sensible answers (which you never responded to). Now you're here making inflammatory statements and casting aspersions.
I've trained in traditional martial arts for nearly half my life, and it is not providing a foothold for the enemy in my life. I am careful about where I train, true, but ultimately the devil is not going to take control of me because I train in martial arts, read Harry Potter or listen to rock music.
Anger, greed, lust, jealousy and pride are all much more real, pressing dangers than occasional exposure to a religion I don't believe in.
"The man who stands for nothing is likely to fall for anything"
www.swindonkungfu.co.uk
A very common mistake. Pacisfism is not a tenet of Christianity (see the thread on this in the southern forum, as I don't want to have to write it all out again).
Now is being involved in a war a great strain on your faith? Absolutely. It's incredibly difficult not to hate the guy who's shooting at you, and psychologically it's pretty difficult to extend agape to the guy you're shooting at.
"The man who stands for nothing is likely to fall for anything"
www.swindonkungfu.co.uk
Actually, Mr. Gash, I was the one who gave him the link to the Christian martial arts association.
Anyways, this is all a load of crap. JDK given what you've said, why would you even be on this board when obviously people on here are just the sort you don't want to hang with in the school?
You realize that, right? If CMA is evil then you are on an evil board of CMAists. And on a Sunday, no less.
Lung....your posts on JDK's issues are spot on. I've agreed with them to the letter in most cases.
I feel like we're bonding......hahahahaha
His sig is ****ing me off!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's not Who's (not "whose")right, it's what's right!
Man, this dude is sooooooo wrong....and it's what's wrong!
Last edited by Shaolin Wookie; 01-21-2007 at 01:57 PM. Reason: edit
Defense techniques should be done without vengeance or malice, but with firmness. Christians are not the soft "push-overs" the world depicts us to be. This is done through teaching the value of all human life to God and the great sacrifice He made for us. --from JDK's linked website....
I don't think anyone depicts them as "push-overs".
They terrorized Europe and massacred untold numbers of "heretics" and the like. Don't even get me started on "witch-hunts", the "crusades" (specially the Albigensian and 4th), or the "Inquisition".
Everyone knows not to mess with Christians. Just like people don't mess with the mafia.
JDK, I think I understand where you're coming from, but I don't know if I can be of any help. I am a Christian, but I was attending a school where we bowed both to our sifu and to a picture of the founder of our style (who died in 1962) had a fan with a Dragon, and a statuette of Guan Yu. I never thought to take issue to these things, much like I don't take issue to naming days of the week after pagan deities, or referring to months of the year after Roman Emperors. I'm not saying you're wrong for abstaining and taking offense to these things, I'm just saying I don't know how to help since it never occurred to me that they would harm me. Sifu never did any "spiritual" talk. He'd mention Chi every once in a while (as efficient biomechanics co-ordinated with breathing.) but never went into Buddhism or Taoism or Confucianism. Paul outlined similar issues ("ambiguous" issues among the believers, such as the eating of meat offered to idols, etc.) in his Epistles, most notably Romans and his response was essentially this: "If you feel it's wrong, but it's not forbidden by scripture, the it's wrong." Where the scriptures are silent, you must use your conscience. If you feel uncomfortable practicing Martial Arts in a secular or Eastern-Religious atmosphere, seek what you can practice in peace.
As for the whole violence thing- here's my stance. If someone came up to me on the street and hit me, my first response would be to find out why I was being hit- perhaps the fellow feels he has a valid grievance against me, and I would love to address that rather than have the fellow dig himself deeper by continuing to bear hatred toward me for whatever reason. If he was deranged I wouldn't hit him. I'd try not to get hit, but I wouldn't hit back- after all if he's in a state of dementia for whatever reason hitting him would do nothing but bring unnecessary harm. If the guy somehow knew I was a Christian and decided to hit me because of that, I wouldn't resist either (this happened to me when I was in 9th grade, at the hands of a random jock who caught sight of a WWJD bracelet that I had snapped onto my backpack.) In short, my first response would not be to bring my elbow down on the attacking arm, stomp kick the knee, and knock him to the ground.
Now if that random thug decided to attack my family or friends, I would do whatever is necessary to protect them without causing excessive harm to the assailant.
"Prepare your mind..." "For a mind explosion!"
-The Human Giant, Illusionators
It must be a strange day or something, Shaolin Wookie.
Although, I always thought that when Jesus said turn the other cheek, he meant to moon the person (turn the butt cheek). Or maybe it was a reference to spanking ... do me like that. LOL
Anyways, whatever... we got a thread here of a guy who is promoting Christianity. We got a thread with a guy who seems to be promoting psychotic criminals.
LOL