Your posts are awesome...especially those concerning "Thee Long Haired Girl's Posts." So, keep the posts coming and best wishes always. :) Peace!
I'm sorry to bring a hint of negativity to this kindly thread but for the Dude to read my last response that I'm about to copy here he'd have to scroll down a bit. This is in reply to the Dude's post of "READ HERE" or "READ THIS."
Look buddy, I'm not trying to start an argument and I said nothing personal about you and then you go and call me un-Christianly? Well now who's being unChristianly, the one who goes to the dark depths of war and helps people find God there or the one who accuses others of being a bad person? And I AM NOT A WOMAN HATER and I highly resent that you would call me such a thing as I am not at all that kind of person. Mysoginist is what the term is for a woman hater and I am not a mysoginist. And I hate hippies in the sense of the ones who sit there and smoke pot all day and preach Communism. I don't hate Jesus, I love Jesus as he is not what I call a hippy, he was a kind man with long hair and the long hair has nothing to do with hippyism. There are long haired right wing nuts out there. So get off your high horse, you admit you're not perfect so don't act like it and I always stick to my principals and see no point where I flip floped. I simply wanted to stop a discussion before it turned into an argument but then you had to go and bring it to that level. Well if you want to argue then I'm ready buddy, if you'll accept my offer of peace then "Let's have peace" (-U.S. Grant). No point in fighting on and on about opinions. I have mine, you have yours, we can't change eachother's views so let's just drop it. Do you accept, yes or no? If you want to carry this into a debate/argument then you are the one who fired the first shot, not me.
I know this post isn't addressed to me but I have to ask some questions..
How many times have you actually done that? How many times have you been to war? How many times have you seen, in real life, the atrocities which war brings?
How do you know that Jesus had long hair? Because that's how he's depicted on European renaissance paintings?
My word there are.
I am only 17 and will get there eventually. Just wait untill I'm out of high school at least.
I happen to like those paintings. We can never be 100% sure on what Jesus looked like but I still think of the renaissance paintings because he looks really cool like that.
I found the following:
"Wherever Jesus looked there were priests.
The place swarmed with men in ceremonial costume-Levites with pointed caps and large pockets
in which they carried the books of the law;
Pharisees with their broad philacteries and deep white fringes on purple gowns;
His colorful turban, brocaded coat, and brilliant sash are
indicative of wealth, leisure, and material possessions.
The ancient Jews, and as such the color of his skin would be olive his eyes brown.
Palestinian Jews had black hair and usually wore it long and carefully groomed.
He wore a sleeveless undergarment with a girdle, the customary cloak and sandals, and carried a staff on journeys."
In Leviticus, men are told not to cut the hair at the sides of their heads, or the borders of their beards.
The modern people who probably come closest to this are the Hassidic Jews. You can see them in Israel, New York City, and probably other places with Jewish communities that are large enough.
I think they cut the hair on top of their heads to a comfortable short length as their is no prohibition against that (and it's probably more comfortable for most), but I'm not sure because they never go out without hats.
Jesus probably looked like a Hassidic Jew. There is a well known photographic mock-up of Jesus with short hair and a well groomed beard published by some scholars. I don't know where they got the ideas for that image. I think perhaps they were assuming that Jesus was conforming to contemporary Jewish culture, but Jesus wasn't driven by such a need; and would have done everything in accordance with scripture, as he was considered blameless even by many of his enemies.
Mark,
Your reply to Cactus "The Dude" Jack was highly uncalled for and simply furthers this board's perception of you as living in your own illusions. Where do I even start....
First, you're angry because Jack called you unchristian. I don't know what God you worship, but of what I do know about Christianity, its God is not one who thrives on war and using it as an advantageous way to spread his message. I also do know that one thing that most Christians hold close to their hearts is the belief that they should love all people and not hate anyone. Saying, and I quote you, "I hate hippies in the sense of..." is not showing Christian love for those you disagree with. True Christians don't hate anybody. Sure, they disagree with actions, but they don't hate individuals. Jack is having a very hard time in his life right now. Even granting that all of his recent words or actions are not perfect, you still have no right to treat him this way. You did not reply to his post to offer a true apology, for if you did, you would have omitted all the Christian and militant stuff. I would think that the Christian in you would see Jack as a good guy who is mourning and needs someone to be kind, nice, understanding, and mature to him. I doubt that your reply made Jack feel anything but anger and stress.
Secondly, Mark, you speak of yourself as if you have personally served as both a soldier and a missionary in times of war. But you even admit that you're just a high school student who has not done anything more militant than putting on Civil War clothing and participated in reenactments. Mark, you're 17. You could have been through boot camp by now. You could have gone to basic training. You could participate in ROTC. You could intern for the armed forces. I know people under 18 who have done all of these things (while still in high school). But you haven't done any of them. You're talking the talk, but certainly aren't walking the walk.
You stated what a misogynist is and that you are not one in your reply (by the way, you spelled "misogynist" incorrectly, Einstein). I don't see any real need for that sentence other than to boast about how you know a big word. In any case, Mark, I've seen men that are much more misogynistic than you. I don't doubt that you aren't moderately respectful toward women and that you truly believe in many anti-discrimination efforts. It is, however, obvious that you have a slight misogynistic tendency in your mind. Saying that war is not the place for a woman IS a sexist statement. Saying that men should not go to a day-spa is a very traditional viewpoint.
You're not a bad guy, Mark. But note how people tend to enjoy your company when you speak about hair, but not when you go off topic. And it's not just because we're a board that's slightly closer to pot-smoking communists than chauvinist war mongrels. I think you'd be received similar on many message boards, regardless of the crowd there.
I find your post to be well written except one thing glaring is you called me Mark repeatedly but it's a C, Marc. But that's beside the point, I previously offered Jack a peace offering, to agree to disagree but it was he who posted an unnecesary and pointless "argument starter" if you will. All he had to do was say, "Fine, agree to disagree" but he went down the other road instead. Now by saying the "I hate hippies" comment I don't mean I hate them per say, I was just jibber jabbering, I just highly HIGHLY disagree with their lifestyle. As for the misogynist spelling, well pobody's nerfect. I again shall offer peace and say, "Agree to disagree." I am glad not to have found you posting down below in the other thread as I would certainly have exhausted my resources. I find you a worthy advisary in such debates and would wish to consider you a friendly enemy in the sense that on the sidelines we don't argue as I must say I quite respect how well you debate things and such and hope I'm making sense here as it's one sixteen in the morning and I can't even remember my bird's name at this point. I'll finish this tomorrow if I need to, goodnight.
Great, Marc. I apologize I for spelling your name wrong. Thanks for reading what I said and not considering me an enemy. I respect you as long as you respect me. We're all growin hair together, right!
Goodnight
thank you for your kind words
i think that with all that i've been through in the last year combined with losing my partner,the person i loved most in my life that i've kinda gotten to the point where i don't care what people think of me anymore,
now to Marc:
if it makes YOU feel better to keep insulting me go for it because i'm too depressed to care what you think about me, you say your christ-like but then you say you hate Hippies, and then you say you just hate their lifestyle, ill tell ya something, you know NOTHING about Hippies or "their lifestyle" if you did you wouldent insult me or it
your just a 17-year old wannabe who thinks he knows how the world works when he doesnt know a thing
being a Hippie means being accepting of all people and loving all, thats all, so love is an unacceptable lifestyle? you can't even take the time to spell HIPPIE right (spelling is with a Y is seen as an insult by most of the hippies i know) True christianity isnt a religion, its a movement based on the teachings of Jesus Christ to love eachother regardless of what others do to you, being a Hippie means the same thing, to love eachother
the thing that gives Hippies a bad name were the morons who hijacked the name and wanted nothing but a party,
the thing that gives Christians a bad name is people like Marc who Hijack the name and don't follow the ideals of it
mabye i'm outdated here but i believe in Peace and that humanity can acheieve it if they would just start loving insted of hating, so marc, insted of just adding to the hate why don't you embrace love and let peace begin with you? you keep saying you serve God so well?
God IS love,lemme ask you something, how can you serve LOVE with HATE?
and before your go on about how its honorable to die for God in war,
God desires obediance more then sacrafice, obediance to God simply means to love your fellow human and treat them how you would want to be treated
war is never endorsed by God, war is man's attempt to controll other men by force,
and before you go and say there are certain situations where it has to hapen, if the people who started it loved insted of hate it doesn't, if Hitler loved insted of hated we wouldent be forced into situations like that,
one person effects another and so on, so if you love someone else that may go on and effect someone to the point where they dont do something bad and something evil is avoided
mabye i'm outdated, mabye im the last one who thinks like this,
yes i'm in mourning, yes i'm depressed but the ideals on which all decendy and normalcy is founded upon should never be abandoned, i'm too depressed to send more negative stuff out there
marc ya wanna send hate in my direction? i'm sending Love in yours
just to keep this semi-on topic,,marc if your going in the army when you finish high school why are you even bothering to grow your hair man?
I hadn't an idea, Mr. Cactus, that you have had troubles due to the name change and that finally hit me this morning and I am sincerely sorry for your loss and such. Now as with all people there are two sides to me, there's two sides to everybody, even God to a degree (New Testament of love and Old Testament of "You did what?" Fire and brimstone!). With me I have two sides, the one that almost enjoys arguments and such and then the truly Christianly one who wants to just have fun and let everybody have fun. Where am I going with this? I'm not quite sure but I still have sent no "hate" your way, I've been trying to represent myself and this is the last time I shall offer a branch of peace, can we or can we not agree to disagree? If you refuse then that's your problem but this now is the second or third time I am trying to end this debaccle. And about the hippie thing, well my brother ruined the idea of hippies for me as he's always saying he's a hippie but he's the kind that smokes pot and while he's not Communist all he really is is a dead head. And you're right, I'm only seventeen and still have some learning to do but I know enough to try and end an argument before it gets any uglier and as stated I've tried that. And to keep it on topic I'm debating on joining the army or not and I may not due to the haircut and because modern day fighting is way too much like skrimishing, five guys ten feet apart, flat on the ground firing at liesure...my idea of war is firing lines with a hundred guys shoulder touching shoulder firing all at once sending a wall of lead into the enemy. Plus you can have your hair long(!!!).
I think you need to revise your visions of War Marc.
War isn't like a game of paintball. Nor is like Re-enactment, both these things are FUN, war isn't.
War is full of mamed children, widowed wifes, poor santitation, disease, hunger, sorrow & loss. Bravery, tactics & heroics make for good films, in War they are only a fraction of the reality.
Take a trip to your local library or have a scout round on the web for details of a town called Srebreniza in the former Yugoslavia, you'll see a place that suffered terribly during the Bosnian Conflicts, try to remember that the War ended 10 years ago, that'll give you a sense of perspective of how much lasting damage War can do to a place.
Heck if you get chance why don't you travel there see for yourself.
Picture Purged
This too is war.
Not really. Infact that's the wrong picture, not the one I wanted and infact that post makes me look almost like a dork. Sorry about that. I was trying to get two other photos and the thing rejected both of them. Go here for the one I wanted to say "this too is war." http://www.ipeters.de/images/war_1.png I hate formatting and stuff I don't understand, stupid computers.
Picture Purged
Precisely my point, this is a photo of death, there is nothing glamorous or noble about it. But this is still a rather antiquated vision of war, in todays war there is no great battlefield chivalry, there are no open plains on which to fight, people who have nothing to do with conflict wind up just as dead as everyone else.
Instead war happens around people's homes, their schools their hospitals, their streets. 20th Century Wars have had much greater civilian casualties than those fought in times gone by. Maybe if wars were still fought like your re-enactments then it wouldn't be such a bad thing as atleast everyone involved would be a willing participant.
Fredericksburg, Virginia: Pillaged and burned by Union troops
Civilian casualties: 53
Atlanta, Georgia: "raped" and burned by Union troops
Civilian casualties: 25 (factories burned by Confederate troops)
Richmond, Virginia: Burned and shelled by Union troops
Civilian casualties: 432
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: Burned by Confederate troops
Civilian casualties: 54 (they didn't pay a ransom)
Gettysburg Pennsylvania: Caught up in a battle
Civilian casualties: 2, one was John Burns but he fought but the other one is more sad, her name was Jennie Wade and she was helping to make bread and food and get water for all the wounded, both sides, all of them laying on her sister's property being helped. A stray bullet entered the door of her sister's house and went right into her back killing her instantly. She was 17.
Tragic, but compare those figures to ones from 2003 and you'll see my point:
Iraq 2003:
7,350 Iraqi Civilians die during the course of "Major Combat Operations" as American & Coalition (read "British") Forces Invade, bomb and occupy Iraq.
Source: www.iraqbodycount.net
And let's not forget the British people who also died when the Americans attacked.
Let us not turn this into an anti-American forum.
No Danger of that... there are more American's here than Brits. Though it has to be said that by the end of major combat operations in Iraq more British Troops were killed in "Friendly Fire" Incidents with American Troops than by Saddam's Army. More still had been killed in Accidents such as helicopter crashes. Basically we didn't have a lot of luck.
No personal grudge held here, but its ironic that our Allies were better at shooting us accidentally than the Iraqi Army were. Clearly we were fighting a well equipped and dangerous opponent... NOT!!!!
Maybe a left over grudge from the Revolutionary War?
I doubt it - personally I don't hold grudges. I was tempered in my youth and have made the greatest effort I can to change that over the past few years.
Now whenever possible I let the feelings wash away.
That plus the fact that I know next to nothing about the war... and of course, the fact that I wasn't there.
Oh, no, I didn't mean you, I meant the American and British coalation forces. They were quite nasty at a few battles but I suppose war it's self is very nasty.
n/t
As opposed to, say an anti hippie forum?
Hello kettle? This is the Pot. You're black.
I'm actually quite fond of Americans by the way.
wolfeyes
Wolfeyes, I haven't any beef with you nor want any unless it's beef stroganoff, or however you spell it. :-D