Back when I was going through an argument with my W, July 2005, actually, she was saying that I needed to love her unconditionally. My "condition" was set forth in that wonderful statement, "I will not live in a sexless marriage forever." In grappling with what was expected of me regarding providing her unconditional love, a then-married Mojo said this:
Quote:
What you are expecting from me is unconditional love. Unconditional love is what you should have gotten from your Daddy but didn't. There is nothing I or any other man on this planet can do to make up for that because unconditional love is not the kind of love that two mature adults share.
It's often worth it to go back to the original Hebrew, or Greek, etc to catch nuances in meaning.
Agree wholeheartedly. But frankly, most people around here only know "Jesus loves you. Pray to him." And I can't say I blame them, many of these poor folk live hard-working lives. Not much time to learn Greek or Hebrew.
Then again, I just had a interesting talk with some farmers recently about the myth of "hard working" modern farmers. Most of the share-croppers around here with good equpiment and genetically modified crops work only a few weeks out of the year. Granted, unless you have more than 10,000 acres, you aren't going to make much, but things aren't that expensive around here either.
Well, getting really off topic here. Then again, others are talking about flipping skirts at Catholic school ... so
Chrome
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
many of these poor folk live hard-working lives. Not much time to learn Greek or Hebrew.
Good point. And also another reason why the Christian Fundamentalist leaders can so easily prey on (no pun intended) those less educated. Not that all fundies are uneducated but those who lack the ability to apply any critical thinking skills to some of the "religious" BS that is spewed at them on Sundays in just a real pet peeve of mine. The Christian Fundamentalists are abusing religion to fit their own self-serving ideologies. They are a pox on our society. Ok, I'm off the soap box for now. LFL
It's often worth it to go back to the original Hebrew, or Greek, etc to catch nuances in meaning.
Agree wholeheartedly. But frankly, most people around here only know "Jesus loves you. Pray to him." And I can't say I blame them, many of these poor folk live hard-working lives. Not much time to learn Greek or Hebrew.
Then again, I just had a interesting talk with some farmers recently about the myth of "hard working" modern farmers. Most of the share-croppers around here with good equpiment and genetically modified crops work only a few weeks out of the year. Granted, unless you have more than 10,000 acres, you aren't going to make much, but things aren't that expensive around here either.
Well, getting really off topic here. Then again, others are talking about flipping skirts at Catholic school ... so
Chrome
*smile* And you run into plenty of folks who try to think "the Fall" of mankind as depicted in the book of Genesis had something to do with sex. When reality of course is much more subtle, and infinitely more interesting.
Joseph Campbell sees the serpent as a symbol of rebirth, left over from the old pagan religions, which somehow snaked its way into the tale. The shedding of the old hide, etc. My old theology teacher thought the story of Cain and Abel was a remnant of a much older tale of a sacrifice made for the founding of a city. Comparative mythology is also a wealth of interesting things. Ah, to have much more time....
Well, getting really off topic here. Then again, others are talking about flipping skirts at Catholic school ... so
Hey, I don't mind vearing off in different directions, religious or not.
Unconditional love comes up quite a bit in relationships that are experiencing imbalances.
Unconditional love creates monsters, IMO, and entitled princes and princesses who never get challenged about their base presumption that they do indeed sit in Corri's Seat of the Universe Chair (TM).
Oddly enough, those individuals who insist that you should love THEM unconditionally, come with a boatload of conditions with which YOU must comply before they will dribble a bit of kindness your way.
Human nature (ours and theirs) compels us to interact with each other with conditions. It may be that the only condition we can enact is "if this situation continues, I will have to disengage myself from it".
Unconditional love is a myth, IMO. For ex., if any of our spouses began torturing our children or pets, most of us would quickly find that we DO have conditions. It's merely a matter of where the lines of condition are drawn.
Well, if we are to prevent Taliban-like thinking from being persausive in "land of the free", more people need to get on that soap-box.
And yes, MANY (not all or even most thankfully) churches around here resemble cults more than loving environments centered around faith in a loving God. IMHO, if John, Peter, or Paul were around, we'd have a few more scathing epistles to add to the Bible.
Chrome
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
And yes, MANY (not all or even most thankfully) churches around here resemble cults more than loving environments centered around faith in a loving God. IMHO, if John, Peter, or Paul were around, we'd have a few more scathing epistles to add to the Bible.
Snort. I just had visions of 1st and 2nd NOPolonians.
And you run into plenty of folks who try to think "the Fall" of mankind as depicted in the book of Genesis had something to do with sex. When reality of course is much more subtle, and infinitely more interesting.
*vigorous nod* Not to mention how much the husband/wife writings of Paul, when understood appropriately tell us BOATLOADS about human nature and our anamalistic tendencies, but have been SO misused.
Quote:
Joseph Campbell sees the serpent as a symbol of rebirth, left over from the old pagan religions, which somehow snaked its way into the tale. The shedding of the old hide, etc. My old theology teacher thought the story of Cain and Abel was a remnant of a much older tale of a sacrifice made for the founding of a city. Comparative mythology is also a wealth of interesting things. Ah, to have much more time....
And you see, looking at the environment in which the various parts of the Bible were written can shed SOOO much light on faith. Yet you mention to any fundamentalist pastor that parts of the Bible might be borrowed from earlier or comparative time texts and their eyes will burst with fire and brimstone. And if I even mention Mithraism ... watch out!
And of course, my favorite reply are those that tell me that I shouldn't read the Bible in an intellectual way. That doing so is putting myself above God. I usually just give up and walk away at that point.
Wouldn't we all like to have more time ...
Chrome
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
