text:
The 2011 Princeton Lectures on
Youth, Church, and Culture
The church's call to tend the soil of adolescents' faith is a joyful yet daunting task. We long for young people to develop a durable faith in Christ that sustains and empowers them to "seek first the kingdom of God" in a world where consumerism reigns, change is rapid, the economy is uncertain, and people of other religions are our neighbors. We want young people to engage such a world, fully knowing that they are beloved children of God and that life in Christ is a worthy adventure.
The theme for the 2011 Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church, and Culture is "Faith". These lectures consider what evangelism and interreligious dialogue look like in our postmodern context and examine faithful ways to engage religious pluralism. Eboo Patel addresses the complexities of raising children in their own faith tradition while living in a religiously diverse world. Rick Osmer discusses how important both Christian evangelism and interreligious dialogue are to the Church today as it seeks to live the gospel in a religiously diverse culture. May the ideas and stories shared here spark conversation around these topics in your own community and empower you in your ministry.
Director, Institute for Youth Ministry
Princeton Theological Seminary
2011 Lectures
- Eboo Patel
American Muslim Child
- Richard R. Osmer
Evangelism in an age of Religious Diversity
- Richard R. Osmer
Interreligious Dialogue in an Age of Diversity
Evangelism in an Age of Religious Diversity
Last Easter, I was sitting with a seminary student at our church's annual Easter brunch. As we talked, I asked her where she went to college. "I went to a small liberal arts college in Missouri," she answered. "Did you have many non-Christian friends during college?" I asked. "There is a large Vietnamese community near the college," she replied, "So there were a lot of Buddhist students. A lot of my friends were also post-Christian and many described themselves as post-evangelical. They were raised in conservative churches, but were now exploring other forms of faith. They were tag-lining religions like Buddhism." "What do you mean by tag-lining?" I asked. "Well, they might tag-line Buddhism on Facebook but that didn't mean they were practicing Buddhists. It meant that they had learned something about mindfulness in one of their classes and were trying to learn how to become more centered through meditation or to live mindfully in the here and now." The conversation continued until it was time to go to worship.
This brief conversation illustrates nicely two of the challenges facing contemporary American churches. On the one hand, they find themselves in a mission field that is increasingly diverse. Their context is composed of the members of other religious communities, former Christians who are seekers, and many people who only know about Christianity through the popular media. How might we think about evangelism in this context of religious diversity? On the other hand, American churches find themselves as never before—in a society in which non-Christian religions are an increasingly important part of public life, including Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and many others. In this context, Christians have much to learn about working with the adherents of other religions to deal with problems in their schools and neighborhoods, as well as state and national governments. How might we think about interreligious dialogue in this context of religious diversity?
Too often today, American churches approach evangelism and interreligious dialogue like opposing magnets. The closer one magnet comes to the other, the further it is pushed away. Affirming the importance of evangelism pushes away valuing interreligious dialogue. Affirming the importance of interreligious dialogue pushes away valuing evangelism. This "opposing magnet" approach is unfortunate, for both of these ministries are important to the mission of the church in the contemporary American context. In the present lecture, I begin by exploring this context and invite you to think about evangelism.page 2
1. Three Dimensions of the Contemporary American Context
The Historical Context: Interweaving Christian Mission and American Destiny
America as a society has a long history of interweaving the church's mission and American destiny. Indeed, this began before America was even a nation. The English Puritans who colonized New England believed that God had sent them on an "errand into the wilderness," as the great historian of American Christianity, Perry Miller, once put it. 1 They left the old world and travelled to the new with a sense of being called by God to establish a community based on Christianity that would serve as a model for the rest of the world. The Puritan preacher John Winthrop expressed this idea with the image of a city on a hill. God had sent the Puritans to build something special and exemplary. They were to be a light to the nations, building in the American colonies a society that fulfilled the promise of the Reformation and the mandate of Scripture.
By the time America became an independent nation following the American revolution, this cultural and religious ideal was deeply embedded in our newly emerging national culture. America's special destiny as a nation was thought to be deeply interwoven with the strength of its Christian churches, which provided a moral and spiritual foundation for America's success as a nation and its role in world affairs. Historians of American history have traced the permutations of this cultural ideal across the life of the nation and into the present. 2 Even today, American presidents end political speeches on matters of national importance by calling on God to bless America. American churches, likewise, continue to define their mission, at least in part, as support of their country's special calling—a calling defined in different ways across the political spectrum but, nonetheless, widely affirmed.
There are many reasons for Christian churches in the United States to pay attention to the historical legacy of interweaving the church's mission with America's special destiny. On theological grounds, they must ask if the church's mission is compromised by this cultural pattern. They must also ask if it is adequate on theological grounds for any nation to claim for itself a special destiny in the providence of God. These questions become even more important in light of the second dimension of contemporary America examined here: the rise of religious diversity.
American Society Today Is Becoming More Religiously Diverse
The United States is currently experiencing what is sometimes called the "second wave" of American immigration. The first wave took place between 1890 and 1920. During that period a large number of Roman Catholics and Jews immigrated to the United States from various parts of Europe. The second wave brought 20 million immigrants to the United States from around the world during the last third of the twentieth century. This included millions of people who are Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim. At the turn of the century, it was estimated that the U.S. population had 1.3 million Hindus, 4 million Buddhists (conservative estimates put this number lower), and 2 million Muslims (more generous estimates place this figure at 6–7 million). 3 The countries of origin of the new immigrants had much to do with the rise of religious diversity. This is seen in the following chart: 4page 3
|per year
|El Salvador
|Dominican Republic
|Total Pop.
|Total Foreign Born
In the course of a generation, Americans have seen an unprecedented increase in the diversity of major religious traditions in their country. Unlike the first wave of immigration, these immigrants do not live in relatively isolated and homogenous enclaves. They work in middle-class occupations. They live in diverse neighborhoods. Their children go to schools and play on sports teams alongside Anglo children. Mosques, temples, and meditation centers are often close to churches and synagogues. In other words, the adult members of different religions encounter one another in everyday life as neighbors, coworkers, PTA volunteers, and friends. Their children become friends as well. My daughter's social network in high school included Jews, Hindus, Roman Catholics, and friends with no religious background. Her social network became even more diverse during college.
It is important to recognize that while America has become more diverse in recent decades, it is not the most religiously pluralistic country in the world, as is sometimes claimed. Overall, just under 5 percent of the American population belong to non-Christian religions. 5 Research consistently shows that around 78 percent of the American population identify themselves as Christian. Korea is far more pluralistic with 21 percent identifying with Christianity, 20 percent with Buddhism, and 46 percent claiming no religious preference, though they are often influenced by Buddhism or practice Confucian ancestor rites. 6 India's population, likewise, is 14 percent Muslim, 4.6 percent Christian, and 2 percent Sikh, along with the Hindu majority. 7 Even Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, has greater religious diversity than the United States.
While it is important to temper exaggerated claims about the religious diversity of contemporary America, this diversity is an important part of the American context for three reasons. First, it is likely to increase in the future. Immigrant families are larger and have higher birth rates. Immigration policy also makes it easierpage 4 for the immediate relatives of recent immigrants to join their families in the United States. Thus the number of adherents to non-Christian religions, is likely to increase in the future.
Second, America currently is in the midst of a transitional period in which many members of the Christian population are uncomfortable with the influx of other religions. 8 For many, this is simply the discomfort that comes with living and working with people who are different. It generates awkwardness in conversation and mutual understanding. But for a vociferous minority of people—around 10 percent of the American population—this discomfort is deeper. 9 They believe that the increased prevalence of non-Christian religions threatens America's special destiny, noted above. They also believe that the increased presence of Muslims will make America more vulnerable to terrorism. The media draws attention to this noisy minority with the unfortunate effect of giving voice to their fears and exaggerating their apparent size. While most Americans deplore the extremist rhetoric and actions of this minority, they are uncomfortable with the country's transition toward greater religious diversity.
A third reason might be called the globalization effect. How Americans understand and relate to the members of other religions close at hand impacts how they understand and relate to the members of religions far away. This is particularly important with regard to the perception of countries with majority populations that are non-Christian. If Americans ignore or stereotype the adherents of other religions who live nearby, with whom they work, or whose children play with their own, how can they hope to understand religious communities with whom they have little contact, except through the media?
There are good reasons, thus, for Christian churches to consider the challenges posed by greater religious diversity in their country. Theologically, they will do well to ask about their responsibilities to their new neighbors. The increase in religious diversity, moreover, poses a direct challenge to the legacy of interweaving the church's mission and America's special destiny, noted above. As this diversity grows in the future, it will become less credible for Americans to view the moral and spiritual foundation of American public life exclusively in terms of Christianity. What will take its place and how will notions of the common good be inculcated among a diverse population? The answer to these questions is made more complex by the third dimension of our context examined here: greater diversity within the Christian community.
Spiritual Shoppers, Christian Inclusivists, and Christian Exclusivists
In my description of the diversity within contemporary Christianity, I draw heavily on Robert Wuthnow's America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity. 10 Wuthnow's research draws on a three-year project, which included a new national survey and more than 300 in-depth interviews of individuals and leaders of congregations and organizations located near mosques, temples, and meditation centers. 11 He identified three distinct orientations among Christians: Spiritual Shoppers, Christian Inclusivists, and Christian Exclusivists. Technically speaking, Spiritual Shoppers are not just Christians. They relate to a variety of religious communities in different ways. But two-thirds of this group do identify with a religious community, most of whom are Christian.
Spiritual Shoppers
People with this religious orientation represent 31 percent of the American population. They have explored a variety of religious traditions over the course of their lives, like people shopping at different stores in a mall. They are not seeking clear-cut, dogmatic answers, for they believe that God is mysterious and can never be captured by belief propositions. They are seeking intense experiences of the sacred. They value religious page 5 diversity highly because they believe different religious traditions offer varying pathways to God and can enrich a seeker's experience of the sacred.
Wuthnow is clear that Spiritual Shoppers come from a variety of backgrounds, but one factor that stands out among this group is the experience of some sort of trauma during childhood. This disrupted their relationship to established patterns of religious belonging and set in motion the desire to explore a variety of religious traditions. While Wuthnow does not single out divorce, research on the children of divorced families illustrates the impact of childhood trauma on their religious identities. One national study of divorce found that two-thirds of those people who were involved in a church or synagogue at the time of their parents' divorce report that no one from their religious community reached out to them—not a clergyperson or congregation member. 12 It also discovered that later in life those experiencing parental divorce are less likely to turn to the religious communities in which they were raised to find answers to their spiritual questions. Yet they continue to view themselves as spiritual, and many actively seek religious meanings from a variety of sources.
While divorce represents an extreme case, it does illustrate nicely the possible impact of trauma during childhood on people's later religious orientations. Sometimes, this involves young people's alienation from the church because they believe it provided inadequate responses to their questions. A young person might ask, "Do you mean that my Jewish friend, Kerrie, is going to Hell when she dies? She's the best person I know." Youth pastor, "It's sad, I know, but, yes, that's what Christians believe." The important point is that many Spiritual Shoppers have their natural ties to a religious community disrupted because of some trauma while they are young. They are still seeking spiritual meaning, but are skeptical about finding it exclusively in the religious community in which they were raised.
Christian Inclusivists
People with this religious orientation represent 23 percent of the American population. They are churchgoers and adherents to Christian beliefs and practices. At the same time, they affirm the truth of other religions. Central to their understanding of the divine is the loving, accepting, and forgiving nature of God. This is the sort of God, they believe, revealed in Jesus Christ. Moreover, they believe that a relationship with Jesus, supported by their church, allows them to move beyond the experience of separation from God. Past mistakes, present problems, or anything that might damage a person's relationship with God are obstacles that God is ready to overcome in order to restore them to a loving relationship with the divine and with other people. When pressed to describe their belief that Jesus plays a special role in their own relationship to God and how this fits with their belief in the truth of other religions, Christian Inclusivists tend to speak in terms of personal preference. Christianity works for them, though it may not work for everyone. Hence, they are open to the possibility that the loving God revealed in Jesus may find different ways of reaching out to the members of other religious traditions.
While the background of Christian Inclusivists also, is diverse, two factors stand out. Many people with this religious orientation report having close friends in their congregation during childhood and adolescence. They were anchored relationally in their congregation. They also recall being taught by their parents and the church to treat the members of other religions with respect, just as they were to treat the members of other races and ethnic groups. Acceptance and respect toward other religions thus, was part of their taken-forgranted understanding of Christianity. It was not something they had to discover for themselves later in life.
Christian Exclusivists
People with this religious orientation make up 34 percent of the American population. They believe that Jesus Christ is the exclusive source of salvation—the source of healing, moral living, and spiritual vitality in this world and the only way to gain entrance to the next, to heaven. While they acknowledge that some moral truths may be found in other religions, they do not believe these serve as a pathway to salvation. Other religions, thus, should be tolerated in American society and their members not subject to persecution, but they should not be seen as standing on the same level as Christianity in matters of ultimate truth. Along with the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the source of salvation, Christian Exclusivists also affirm the importance of individual conversion, the authority of scripture as the inerrant Word of God, and the centrality of evangelism in the church's mission. Evangelism is emphasized because of the exclusivity of Christ. Unless people enter into a saving relationship with Christ through conversion, they have no hope in the afterlife.
Christian Exclusivists, also, come from varied backgrounds. One factor that stands out, however, is the way they were raised and continue to live in what Wuthnow calls "restricted social networks." They have strong ties to parents, relatives, and church members who share their exclusivist orientation. These ties commonly include financial and emotional support. This is not to say that Christian Exclusivists do not encounter people of other faiths at work, school, and through the media. Many even have non-Christian friends and acquaintances at work or in their neighborhoods. Their religious orientation, however, remains embedded in social networks strongly linked to family, supportive congregations, and Christian friends—all of whom share their basic beliefs.
The Impact of Diversity within the Christian Community
These three distinct religious orientations impact the ways Christians respond to the first two dimensions of the contemporary American context examined above. They are thus important. Take religious diversity, for example. 13 Ninety-two percent of Spiritual Shoppers agree with the statement that other major religious traditions contain some truth about God. Eighty-nine percent of Christian Inclusivists agree with this and 54 percent of Christian Exclusivists. When asked if all religions pretty much teach the same thing, only 14 percent of Christian Exclusivists agree, in comparison to 53 percent of Christian Inclusivists and 68 percent of Spiritual Shoppers. Sevety-eight percent of Christian Exclusivists affirm that Christianity is the only way to have a true personal relationship with God, while only 5 percent of Spiritual Shoppers agree.
We find comparable diversity in response to the legacy of interweaving the church's mission and America's special destiny. When asked if they agree with two statements—America was founded on Christian principles and America has been strong because of its faith in God—68 percent of Christian Exclusivists agreed with the former and 70 percent with the latter. The contrast with Spiritual Shoppers is especially striking. Only 30 percent of them agreed with the first statement and 28 percent with the second. Christian Inclusivists fall in between. As 55 percent agreed with the first statement and 65 percent with the second. The same pattern is evident when asked if they would welcome Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims in becoming a strong presence in American society. Forty percent of Christian Exclusivists responded in the affirmative, in comparison to 76 percent of Spiritual Shoppers and 54 percent of Christian Inclusivists.
In light of our focus on evangelism, Wuthnow's findings on two questions about faith sharing are especially interesting. The first asked if it is important for Christians to share their faith with non-Christians; the second, if it is important for Christians to encourage people from other faiths to become Christian. Seventysix percent of Christian Exclusivists responded affirmatively to the first and 61 percent to the second. In page 7 marked contrast, 29 percent of Spiritual Shoppers responded positively to the first and only 4 percent to the second. Christian Inclusivists, once more, fell in between. Sixty-three percent of this group affirmed the importance of faith sharing but only 29 percent believed it is important for Christians to encourage the adherents of other faiths to become Christian. Apparently, sharing one's faith and inviting non-Christians to convert to Christianity mean something different across all of these orientations, though the difference between them on the question of converting non-Christians is striking.
How might we think about evangelism in an age of religious diversity? Clearly, the increasing presence of religious diversity poses a challenge to American churches, but equally important is the diversity within the Christian community. American churches find themselves in a context both like and unlike that of the early Christian community. Like the early church, they are increasingly surrounded by other religions, a reality that is likely to become more pronounced in the future. But unlike the early church, they are in a context in which many people who were once part of a church are now actively exploring other religious traditions. Many of these seekers feel "burned" by the church. It proved inadequate to their needs and questions when they were young. Many also have questions about the way the American church in the past and present interweaves its mission and America's special destiny. This context is not pre-Christendom; it is post- Christendom. How might we think of evangelism in this context?
2. Evangelism in the American Context
Karl Barth and Evangelism
We find help in reimagining evangelism today in the theology of Karl Barth, whom many consider to be the greatest Protestant theologian since the Reformation. I will draw on a section of Barth's Church Dogmatics called, "The Awakening to Conversion." 14 Throughout his theology, Barth describes Jesus Christ from the interrelated perspectives of his divinity and humanity. He is the Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us; and he is the Son of Man, the true human being who lives a life of covenant faithfulness and obedience. In this section he makes two key points.
First, he says, that Jesus Christ is the true convert. Barth puts it like this, "It is in His conversion that we are engaged. It is in His birth…His baptism…His death on the cross…and His resurrection…that we are risen as new men…" 15 This is counter-intuitive. We usually think of conversion as something that human beings do as they turn away from sin in repentance and turn toward God in faith and obedience. But Christ is sinless; he does not need to convert! While Barth affirms the sinlessness of Jesus, he argues that Scripture portrays him with the pattern of turning away from sin and turning toward God in perfect faithfulness and obedience. We see, for example, Christ turning away from the temptations of Satan in the wilderness and toward a relationship of dependence and obedience toward his Father.
In portraying Christ as the true convert, Barth is emphasizing the representative nature of Christ. In turning away from sin and toward his Father in faith and obedience, he is doing what humanity cannot do for itself. He takes humanity's place, acting in its stead and on its behalf. This stands at the heart of the gospel, Barth affirms. The gospel is the good news that Christ has done what we cannot do, breaking the power of sin and death and offering us the possibility of a new relationship with God as an act of sheer grace.
Barth, then, makes a second point. Human conversion—our conversion—is a participation in Christ's conversion. He describes this with the image of awakening in a key passage, "We cannot…define Christians page 8 simply as those who are awake while the rest sleep, but more cautiously as those who waken up in the sense that they are awakened a first time and then again to their shame and good fortune. They are, in fact, those who constantly stand in need of reawakening and who depend upon the fact that they are continually reawakened. They are thus those who, it is to be hoped, continually waken up." 16 Barth is distinguishing here, Christ as the true convert who is fully awake to God and all other Christian converts who awake and fall asleep, who are aroused and stand up, only to lie down and sleep again.
This also is counter-intuitive. We typically think of conversion as a one-time event. Our imagination is informed by the story of Paul on the road to Damascus and by the long-standing patterns of revivalism in the First and Second Great Awakenings in which dramatic conversions figured prominently. But this is not the whole story in scripture or experience. Consider Peter. When was he converted? When Christ called Peter to follow him? Or was it when Jesus asked his disciples at Caesara Phillippi, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter confessed, "You are the Christ…the Son of the living God." But moments later Jesus told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and die, and Peter responded that this must not happen and Jesus rebuked him. Or was Peter converted when he witnessed the Holy Spirit being poured out on gentiles in Cornelia's household? From empirical research and our own experience, we also know that many people who experience dramatic conversions fall away and are back at the revival again the next year to be converted once more.
Barth's image of awakening and falling asleep, only to be aroused again, follows from his first point. Christ alone is the true convert; the Son of Man does on humanity's behalf and in its stead what it cannot do for itself. Our conversion is a participation in his conversion. We are joined to him and wake up from our pride and sloth. But we fall asleep again and are in need of further awakening. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to draw us to Christ and join us to his conversion. It is the mission of the church to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in pointing beyond itself to the gospel, the story of God's gift of love in Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Defined
Drawing on this part of Barth's theology, how might we define evangelism? Here is how I would define it. Evangelism is the ministry by which the Holy Spirit uses the members of the church to awaken others to the gospel, to the good news of God's gracious love toward the world in Jesus Christ. It is less concerned with promoting one pattern of religious experience or gaining new church members than with following the lead of the Holy Spirit in giving witness to the gospel. Three points follow from this initial definition.
First, it is no longer helpful to think of evangelism as directed solely to those "out there." This follows from the image of conversion as awakening and falling asleep, as an ongoing and necessary spiritual awakening to the one true convert, Jesus Christ. This is a particularly helpful way of thinking about evangelism in the post-Christendom context of contemporary America. As we have seen, this context is one of great diversity. Along with the members of other religions and the "unchurched," it includes Christians who are Spiritual Shopper, Christian Inclusivists, and Christian Exclusivists. It is not helpful to think of evangelism as directed exclusively to people outside the church, to those "out there" who are altogether different than the good Christian "in here."
There are many people on the edges of the church who are actively exploring different faiths. Some have been burned by the church in the past. They need to hear the gospel anew. There are many good, conventional young Christians who are little more than Moralistic Therapeutic Deists, to use a term coined by Christian Smith, Kenda Creasy Dean, and others who have studied young people in American culture. 17 page 9 They too need to hear the gospel anew. There are many long-time adult members of the church who have never really confronted their complicity in racism or a consumer culture that is rapidly destroying God's creation. Some are embedded in restricted social networks that prevent them from ever really encountering the plight of those who suffer from racism. Others espouse inclusive ideals but practice a way of life that conforms to the surrounding consumer culture. Adult Christians also need to hear the gospel anew. Christ alone is the true convert. The rest of us wake up and fall asleep. We grow indifferent or apathetic.
We are seduced by materialism, though we go to church every Sunday. The ministry of evangelism must be directed to those inside the church, as well as to those who are outsiders and the many people who fall somewhere in between.
Second, evangelism is dependent on people who are open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is not about offering pat answers or manipulating a single type of religious experience. The sheer diversity of our post- Christendom context makes this especially important. There is no single way of bearing witness to the gospel that will work with everyone. What is needed is openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit who will help us recognize and respond to the particular circumstances of those to whom evangelism is directed. Indeed, we must make this point more strongly. If Christ is the true convert, then the Holy Spirit is the true evangelist. It does not rest in our hands to convert other people, to awaken them to the good news of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit alone can do this. At best, we can serve as instruments of the Spirit's work. But we do have the promise that the Spirit will guide us if we are open to this guidance.
In light of our dependency on the Spirit's guidance in the ministry of evangelism, it is helpful to recognize that the church has practiced evangelism in many different ways across church history. In The Celtic Way of Evangelism, for example, George Hunter reminds us of the way Christianity spread in England and Western Europe through monastic communities who received their impetus from Patrick in the early fifth century. These Celtic monastic communities would settle in "unchurched" areas and practice a rule of life including worship, study, and work. They tried to embody an "alternative way of life, free of aggression and violence and devoted to God's purposes," serving as a model for the community. 18 We find something of this approach to evangelism today among those who are attempting to live in intentional Christian communities in neighborhoods devastated by poverty, the so-called "new monasticism." In More Ready than You Realize, Brian McLaren describes the importance of relationships and conversations in our present postmodern context. Evangelism, he argues, is about allowing people "to talk about things that matter—their sense of God, their experiences of meaning or transcendence, their attempts to cope with their own mortality, their struggles with guilt and goodness, their dreams and deepest longings." 19 Good evangelists, he writes, "are people who engage others in good conversation about important and profound topics," which allow them to share their own faith in an open and non-coercive way. 20 In Holy Conversations, Richard Peace similarly calls our attention to the spiritual journey that all human beings are on and the importance of Christians learning to share with one another their spiritual journey in Christ. 21 Many Christians, he believes, have lost their ability to talk meaningfully about their spiritual lives, a major deficit in an era in which interest in spirituality has grown even as affiliation with religion has declined. Before Christians can talk with others about Christ, Peace contends, they must first explore what Christ has meant in their own lives, providing them with the language and stories of authentic witness.page 10
None of these approaches to evangelism is the one right way to awaken others to the gospel. Rather, they remind us that individuals and congregations of every age must be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in discerning how best to engage in evangelism. This is especially important in the post-Christendom context of American Christianity today.
Finally, an important implication of the understanding of evangelism offered above is the impact it has on churches. The church needs to engage in this ministry of awakening others to the gospel because it needs to be awakened itself. It needs newcomers and outsiders, not simply to pay the bills or grow in numbers, but to receive afresh the gospel through the newly awakened lives of others. Darrell Guder makes this point in terms of what he calls gospel "reductionism." 22 Every church—even very good and vibrant churches— embody the gospel in ways that reflect its context. There is no other way for the gospel to take on flesh and bones in a community without this process of contextualization.
Yet contexts change, as ours is certainly doing today. Inherited patterns of church life stand in need of renewal. The church must wake up to the meaning and power of the gospel once again. And it will only do so if it receives the gifts of those people who have been awakened to the gospel through the ministry of evangelism. In the awakening of others, the church itself is awakened to the one true convert, Jesus Christ, in whom it participates anew through the evangelism of the Holy Spirit.


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2nd Anniversary Fukubiki Lotto Event Guide
Here is a list of translations for all the items you can win at the lottery. Feel free to submit questions, corrections, and additional information. This guide makes use of Japanese characters so change your encoding to shift-JIS if something doesn't look right.
It's worth noting that the items from fighting rare shinki during the event, such as blue beach sandals, black rose earrings, and feather earrings are not available. I highly recommended aiming for a race queen set for those of you who can't purchase SPT. Get the top first, then go for the skirt of the same color. Also keep in mind the beach sandals are pink, if you wanted to pick a color to match them.
Now... Illegal minds... apparently they change your shinki's voice when you equip them. You equip them as an accessory, like hair. Also like hair, they are tied to specific core units. Further more, your shinki has to be S rank to use it. So keep this in mind when picking a rank 1 prize. I heard a rumor that unlike other S Rank restricted items, Illegal minds will not work in Ex Class. This needs confirming.
You may have already encounter the illegal minds before. They formerly belonged to event Shinki, so if the names look familiar, this is why. In battle their voice clips should be what those event shinki were using.
How To Play
First you will need a fukibiki ticket. While you can access the fukubiki counter without one, and even give it a spin, if you have no tickets no lotto balls will come out and it will just Buzz at you. Much like the start button on a Pinball machine.
Fukubiki tickets were originally obtained int eh 2008 Summer Festa. You got them randomly from the treasure box after winning an event battle. Now that that is over, they can still be obtained from the "win a battle with your LP as same number repeating" Achievement
Go to the Shinki Center (神姫センター), where you normally go to battle. There will be a new option: Fukubiki Counter (ふくびきカウンター). You will see Mizuki, who, alas, is almost certainly destined to be come a limited edition figure in the Konami style shop, which most of us will never be able to own. [Yes, this has already happened as of this repost, but I left that line because looking back, it's amusing.]
The three options are:
ふくびきをする ==> Do Fukubiki
説明を聞く ==> Listen to Explanation
帰る ==> Return
Obviously, pick the top one to use one of you fukubiki tickets from the summer event. You will see the lottery device. Just turn the handle. And keep turning it. And keep turning it. Turn it forever if you want. Nice attention to detail here. Just like the real thing, if you keep spinning it fast the ball will never come out. The ball will come out once the sloshing noises slow down to a medium speed.
The color determine the rank of prize. You then get to pick a prize of your choice from that rank. Most of these are items from the summer event, so pick the ones you missed. (Race Queen items are nice for those who can't buy SPT.) In rank 2 there is one new item, and Rank 1 is all new items, the 18 Illegal Minds, which allow you to change your shinki's voice and personality.
Prize List
[Rank 5 - White]
Pocket Tissue
You can use it to wipe down your filthy, filthy shinki while they sleep.
Then when you wake them up they will be sparkling clean.
[Rank 4 - Green]
Old Japanese gold coin. Like Japanese version of Piece of Eight.
Earring (Tear Drop) L/R
Earring (Rose) L/R
Earring (Phaser) L/R
Earring (Black Heart) L/R
Pocket Tissue
[Rank 3 - Blue]
Paper Airplane
Hitodama (Red)
Hitodama (Blue)
Race Queen Top (Blue)
Race Queen Skirt (Blue)
Race Queen Top (Pink)
Race Queen Skirt (Pink)
Beach Sandals
Pocket Tissue
[Rank 2 - Red]
Main Body of Scroll "Izuna"
This is some kind of scroll used by Mizuki. It is a Knuckle type, but it looks
like it's main purpose is to give you access to a skill. Anyone want to do a
better job translating the name?
Dragon Wings
Water Gun
Red-Blue Pencil
Bashou Folding Fan
Bashou is a type of Banana, it would seem.
Bamboo Fencing Stick
Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi
Pocket Tissue
[Rank 1 - Gold]
Illegal Mind (Alice)
Equip by: Angel Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Yukino)
Equip by: Ninja Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Malicia)
Equip by: Cat Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Hartooth) ?
Equip by: DogType of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Volva) -_-
Equip by: Rabbit Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Sue)
Equip by: Devil Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Tsunami)
Equip by: Santa Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Judecca)
Equip by: Seed Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Sasha)
Equip by: Knight Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Forte)
Equip by: Cannon Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Jasmin)
Equip by: Flower Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Benisuzume)
Equip by: Samurai Type of S-Rank
Deilephia elpenor ...Elephant Hawk Moth
Illegal Mind (Guramis) ?
Equip by: Builder Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Tinbell) ?
Equip by: Tiger Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Wirakia) ?
Equip by: Calf Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Vanessa)
Equip by: Dolphin Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Irene)
Equip by: Mermaid Type of S-Rank
Illegal Mind (Else)
Equip by: Siren Type of S-Rank
Pocket Tissue
My Prizes
This is a list of what I've drawn from the game. Hopefully this can be used to help calculate the odds of winning. Rank 5 is always Pocket Tissue, so I'm not bothering to list it, unless I actively chose it at a higher rank.
Rank 2 [Dragon Wings]
Rank 4 [Slingshot]
Rank 5
Rank 2 [Izuna Scroll]
Rank 5
Rank 2 [Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi]
Rank 2 [Red-Blue Pencil]
Rank 5
Rank 5
Rank 5
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 5
Rank 3 [Race Queen Skirt (Pink)]
Rank 5
Rank 2 [Banana Folding Fan]
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 5
Rank 3 [Race Queen Skirt (Blue)]
Rank 2 [Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi]
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 3 [Race Queen Top (Blue)]
Rank 4 [Pocket Tissue]
Rank 3 [Hitodama (Red)]
Rank 1 [Illegal Mind (Alice)]
Rank 5
9 Rank 5
7 Rank 4
4 Rank 3
6 Rank 2
1 Rank 1
27 Total
Running Total
This is a rough calculation of the odds of winning, based on my tickets as well as submitted results. Feel free to submit your own to help the numbers along. Keep in mind you will need to account for all your tickets if you want to help. Telling me "hey I won first place twice" is pointless if it too you 50 tickets to do it.
36 tickets accounted for.
Rank 5
11/36 30.5%
Rank 4
9/36 25%
Rank 3
7/36 19.4%
Rank 2
8/36 22.2%
Rank 1
1/36 2.7%
Note that I really doubt Rank 2 is more common than Rank 3. I'm sure we will see this is the case once we get more normal people in here to balance on my skewed results.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Our VW campaign has passed a significant milestone, as the Jedi ranks swell to over 500,000. That's an incredible half a million people demanding that Volkswagen gets behind the sort of climate laws we need to save our planet.
So thank you for signing up, recruiting your friends and keeping up the pressure on VW - it's been absolutely amazing.
It seems an appropriate time to take a quick look back over the last six months and pulling together the timeline above, I realised how much we've acheived. VW is the largest car company in the world, as well as one of the largest companies full stop, so this campaign was never going to be a short one. But we know the pressure you've been piling on is having an effect within VW and in the rest of the car industry.
We still want to sit down with VW's boss Martin Winterkorn to talk about how his company really can be the greenest one ever (as it likes to claim in its PR and advertising). Until then - and until VW stops lobbying against the new EU climate laws - the Rebellion is just going to keep on growing.


text:
Lil Flip Speaks On Dissing T.I. Plus 50 Cent Gives His Opinion Of What The Role Of A D.J Is On Tim Westwood Radio [Throwback 2004 Footage]
Lil Flip back in 2004 on Tim West Wood Radio
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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text:
Last weekend, a new Rubik's cube world champion was crowned in Bangkok. Polish speedcuber Michal Pleskowicz won the event by completing a Rubik's Cube in 8.65 seconds, almost a second faster than the first runner-up, American Rowe Hessler, who clocked in at 9.56 seconds.
Good gravy. That is some fast 'cubing. The event was held at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel in Bangkok, and hosted over 350 competitors from over 40 countries. The championship took place over a number of different events with a number of different cubes, with timed events, number of moves, and more. The full list of events can be found on the championship webpage.
I'm surprised that there wasn't a category for solving Rubik's cubes one-handed while playing Guitar Hero. I bet these guys could hack it. And while we're talking Rubik's Cubes, check out this video of Yumu Tabuchi solving 5 Rubik's Cubes in 1:52.
Hey actually, let's watch that video:
Holy crap!
You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.


text:
Brand story
Wang Peijun has strong interested in redwood when he was a child. He learned carpentry in Ningbo,and then he worked at innovative craft in Shanghai,what's more,Wang Perjun decided to resign resolutely in 1983,next he opened a small factory in The western suburbs of Shanghai which included designs,production,sales of furniture.From then on "SONMA" was born.
Product display


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text:
Quarterback Alex Smith says his post-concussion symptoms have subsided and that he felt fine practicing today, albeit in a non-contact role.
"I feel good. Everything I've gone through, I've felt good," Smith said of the NFL's mandated protocol players must follow after sustaining concussions.
Regarding his availability for Monday night's visit by the Chicago Bears, Smith noted: "It's not up to me. It's up to the doctors and there's a lot of stuff they're looking at. At this point, it's early."
Smith spoke Wednesday for the first time since a second-quarter concussion knocked him out of Sunday's 24-24 tie with the St. Louis Rams.
Smith confirmed an earlier statement from coach Jim Harbaugh that a fourth-down run is what immediately resulted in Smith's blurred vision.
"For me, the vision was the biggest thing," Smith said. "I've taken a lot of hits over the years, and for me it didn't get better. I sat down on the sideline and felt it get worse. It was not good for me and not good for the team to get back out there."
Smith noted, however, that neurologists believe a helmet-to-helmet hit from the Rams' Jo-Lonn Dunbar may have contributed to the ensuing concussion. That play occured at the start of his final series, and near the end of the first quarter. Smith confirmed he was examined between quarters by 49ers team medical director Dan Garza.
"I felt fine after that hit, though," Smith said. " When I came up off the sneak, mye eyesight was off. … It's tough to play quarterback without your eyes and when you can't see. There was a bunch of stuff out there I couldn't make out."
Smith received medical clearance to participate in non-contact practice drills after visiting a Stanford University neurologist who works independent from the 49ers.
This concussion was "more severe" than the one he endured after last season's home opener against the Dallas Cowboys, although vision problems were a similar symptom.
Despite the hindered vision, Smith completed three passes after his fourth-down sneak, including a 14-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree. How did Smith do that? "It's a great question," Smith responded. "It's not like I was blind. But I didn't think I should go back out there."


text:
Norwalk Man pleads guilty in hole-in-one prize case
MISSOULA, Mont. -- A businessman charged with failing to pay golfers for hole-in-one prizes insured by his company has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to pay a Montana man $10,000 of a promised $18,000 prize.
Kevin W. Kolenda of Norwalk didn't attend Thursday's hearing before Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech in Missoula. His attorney, Brian Tipp, entered a guilty plea on Kolenda's behalf to acting as an insurer without a license. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed a felony insurance fraud charge. Kolenda was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.
Kolenda is the former president and CEO of hole-in-won.com, a company that collects premiums and agrees to pay cash prizes to winners of hole-in-one contests. He has been charged with failing to pay prizes in several states. Last month, he pleaded guilty in Seattle to two felony counts of selling insurance without a license and one count of first-degree theft. He has not been sentenced.
Complaints of Kolenda's company failing to pay prizes have been filed in several other states, and he has been sanctioned by regulators in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina and Washington. Connecticut officials fined Kolenda $5.9 million in 2009 for illegally offering insurance without a license.
Kolenda was charged in Montana after Troy Peissig was denied an $18,000 prize after hitting a hole-in-one during a 2010 golf tournament in Missoula.
In February 2011, the company denied Peissig's claim for the prize money, saying the distance from the tee box to the hole was less than the 165 yards stated in the contract. However, several witnesses and a satellite photograph confirmed the distance was at least 165 yards on the day of the tournament.
Tipp said Peissig's claim was denied because Peissig received an associate degree from a golf college and at one point was a professional golfer.
The company's website says that Kolenda sold the company in December 2008 and that the charges against him are the result of politicians and regulators making "outlandish claims" against the company and that journalists "sensationalized" the story. The website blames event coordinators for mismanaging the contests and contends other denied claims were filed by golfers who "cheat and lie about their achievements."


text:
Mario Bros. (Arcade)
Published by
Developed by
Also For
Not an American user?
DescriptionMario and Luigi, the best plumbers in the world, have a real job on their hands. A host of characters have taken over the sewers, and the brothers must clear them out of the pipes.
The platform puzzle which first introduced Luigi to the world has both single and multiplayer action with two differing game types, but with the same objective. Crabs, turtles and fighter flies must be cleared out by jumping underneath the platform they sit on, then kicking them away. Each level is cleared when a set number of coins is collected.
For the two player mode, the first to collect the set amount of coins wins.
Promo Images
Alternate Titles
- "Mario Brothers" -- alternate spelling
- "Mario Bros.-e" -- e-Reader title
- "マリオブラザーズ" -- Japanese spelling
Part of the Following Groups
- Arcade Archives series
- Classic NES / Famicom Mini / NES Classics releases
- e-Reader series
- Games referenced in movies
- Mario games
- Nintendo's Arcade series
User Reviews
There are no reviews for the Arcade release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.
Critic Reviews
There are no critic reviews for this game.
|# Posts
|Last Post
|About the PC-88/ Apple ports
|Trypticon (11040)
Apr 05, 2011
IntroductionThis game marks the first appearance of Mario's brother, Luigi.
Unreleased portsAn earlier conversion for the C64 by Atarisoft was not commercially released according to Gregg Tavares, one of the programmers. The same applies to an Apple II conversion programmed by Jimmy Huey.
Related Web Sites
- The Many Faces of . . . Mario Bros. (A little bit of Mario Bros history and comparative reviews of the game on different platforms.)
The cranky hermit (2929) added Mario Bros. (Arcade) on Jan 23, 2014
Other platforms contributed by Michael Cassidy (21144), リカルド・フィリペ (308228), Guy Chapman (2001), Kartanym (12749), RKL (5737), Servo (57413) and 雷堂嬢太朗 -raido.jotaro- (60691)
Credits (5 people)
Designed by:
Nintendo of America
Market Research Analyst:
Market Research Analyst:
Jerry Momoda (uncredited)


text: I have restarted the old friend code thread, it became overrun with other conversation and had a lot of posts from old members who no longer frequent the forum. So, post away! This is to be a sort of friend code directory, post either Wii codes or game codes, whatever you wish to share, but please keep this thread strictly for friend codes, PM people to let them know you have added them, don't post it here.


text:
It's been a really exciting period for Hospital EMR and EHR. I've been really proud of what we've built. Anne Zieger has been writing some really great content and I try to supplement it where I can. Thanks to that, the site has had a steady stream of traffic and we'll soon have over 1000 email subscribers from most major hospital institutions. Not too bad for a relatively new blog that's focused on such a tight niche.
Plus, we've recently gotten the support of a number of really amazing advertising partners. Without them, the work we do covering the hospital EMR and EHR world wouldn't be possible. So, if you enjoy reading this site, then please take a moment to check out the following new advertisers.
Canon – I think we're all quite familiar with Canon. They're a great company that creates a lot of great products. The best product they make for healthcare is their high volume scanners (Although, I bet their printer division might argue this). I personally have a Canon high volume scanner by my work desk and I love it. While we'd love to get rid of paper in this new EHR world, it's just not possible. So, a high volume scanner is a must. The Canon scanners are well worth checking out.
iChartsMD – iChartsMD recently launched their new Emergency Deparatment EHR software. They've been working hard in the EHR space to offer an affordable EHR that still can handle a fast moving workflow environment like in the ED. If you're looking for an ED EHR solution, take a moment and check out what iChartsMD has created.
Caristix – When I first met Caristix, I could immediately tell that they were HL7 Interface experts. Everything about them, their website, and even their detailed HL7 Survival guide is focused on making HL7 easy for healthcare. Kind of reminds me of my post about the need for Interoperability Action, Not Talk. In order to make this a reality, we need more companies like Caristix that make HL7 interoperability easy.
A big thanks to all of these advertisers for their support. Also, thanks for reading the site. None of these advertisers would support us if you didn't read. Hopefully we can continue to bring you great content about the crazy, fun, and exciting hospital health IT space.


text:
Has a quad-core processor, 64GB of storage, and Android Jelly Bean
Processor benchmarks are up with the best
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4G enabled, Decent battery life
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Low-resolution screen, Average specs
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text:
Tricolore couscous salad
Prep: 15 mins No cook
A quick and easy salad that teams well with chicken, lamb and tofu. Of have it as a barbecue extra
Nutrition and extra info
- Easily doubled / halved
- Vegetarian
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal456
- fat32g
- saturates8g
- carbs30g
- sugars3g
- fibre3g
- protein13g
- salt0.6g
Save to My Good Food
- 200g couscous
Consisting of many tiny granules made from steamed and dried durum wheat, couscous has become a…
- 2 tsp vegetable stock (or use a cube)
- 250g pack cherry tomato, halved
- 2 avocados, peeled, stoned and chopped
Although it's technically a fruit, the mild-flavoured avocado is used as a vegetable. Native…
- 150g pack mozzarella, drained and chopped
- handful rocket or young spinach leaves
Rocket is a very 'English' leaf, and has been used in salads since Elizabethan times. It…
For the dressing
Mix the couscous and stock in a bowl, pour over 300ml boiling water, then cover with a plate and leave for 5 mins.
For the dressing, mix the pesto with the lemon juice and some seasoning, then gradually mix in the oil. Pour over the couscous and mix with a fork.
Mix the tomatoes, avocado and mozzarella into the couscous, then lightly stir in the rocket or spinach to serve.
Recipe Tip
TipTo check if an avocado is ripe, cup it in your hand and gently squeeze the fruit. If it is ready to eat, the flesh will give slightly to gentle pressure. Riper avocados also have darker skins.
You may also like
Comments, questions and tips
23rd Jun, 2016
Made this tonight for the first time after my 11 and 12 year old boys said they wanted more 'salad based' meals. My oldest has always refused to eat tomatoes or avocados and they both absolutely loved this. I added less boiling water to the couscous as I thought the dressing would make it too soggy and also used mini mozzarella balls cut in half. That worked for me. Will definitely be making again.
24th Nov, 2014
Delicious! I made this for my Italian boyfriend who at first wasn't keen on the idea of adding couscous to a traditional tricolore salad (He hates messing with his country's food), however, he absolutely loved it! I might try adding a few olives next time, as I feel they could work quite well with it.


text:
Quick Details
E1F25 EVA Floor Protector
Content Details:
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Blister card size: 19*12*1.3cm
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Inner/Outer: 24/144 sets
Delivery time: within 30 days after order confirmed
Payment terms: TT, 30% deposit and the balance before shipment
Sample time: within 3 days
Trade term: FOB Huangpu, Nansha, Shenzhen
MOQ: 3000 sets
Place of origin : Gaugnzhou, China
Customize: OEM & ODM available
1)Clean surface and leave the surface to dry thoroughly
2)Peel the backing paper off, and take care not to touch the adhesive.
3)Attach the adhesive sides of the tape to the object and press firmly.
put or stick under the feet of furniture or appliances of furniture bottom to prevent the furniture moving, and using for protection
between furniture and floor boards reducing attrition, scratching and noise, one of necessary household products, we can design our
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GUANGZHOU PRODIGY DAILY-PRODUCTION CO., LTD Our company is more than 11-year top quality manufacturer certified by ISO 9001, UK standard factory audit SEDEX(SMETA) and WCA. We produce many dozens of baby safety items in EU standard,including baby safety locks, door stoppers,door guards, corner & edge guard, plug protector, safety bed rails etc .The products passed tests of REACH, PAHs, EN 71-3, ZEK, AZO, popular and trending in EU, Northern & southern America, Australia etc.


text: I have been looking through all the excellent work produced by you guys and have noticed that a new thread is started for each new pic. What if we all had our own personal `Gallery' where people could visit and comment on our latest pics? It would need the ability to make unlimited edits to that thread to remove old work, replace with new or just arrange it how we wanted. Just an idea.


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text:
Show producers and NBC announced Monday that \"The Ellen DeGeneres Show\" has been renewed through 2017. Some 189 television stations, including the 10 owned by NBC, have committed to airing it.
In its 10th season, DeGeneres\' show has scored some of its best ratings this season. Valari Staab, president of the NBC-owned TV stations, described the show as the \"crown jewel\" of NBC\'s daytime lineup.


text:
Oh my, look what we have here…big mistake because I don't think this is going very far….his franchises that is.
Bill Warner Private Investigator-
My source in Fort Lauderdale tells me that attorney David J. Stern has rolled over his $Millions in foreclosure home profits and the cash he got up front from the DJSP Entreprises Inc. FKA Chardan 2008 China Acquisition Corp deal into at least 150 Five Guys Burger and Fries Franchise's, will that be fries with your meal sir?
It appears that David J. Stern is buying "Five Guys Burger and Fries Franchise's" in bulk, Stern is trying to acquire 500 Burger Joints NATIONWIDE…
image: Bill Warner© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.


text:
Gays/lesbians And Being Armenian
Posted 03 June 2007 - 06:35 PM
Anyway, let's talk; I'll start off with some questions, but say whatever:
(1) Are we, as Armenians, less accepting of gay people among us (i.e., we accept odarner/otarner that are gay, but not "our own")?
(2) Why do we care?
(3) Do gay Armenians have the same pressure to partner with another Armenian (despite the whole kid thing being a sort non-issue)?
(4) How do you personally feel about gays/lesbians/etc.?
Posted 04 June 2007 - 12:33 AM
they are normal persons, some of them good, clever, interesting and others bad, like heteros, where's the problem. Their sexuality doesn't matter to us, some heteros like sado-maso, scato, sex-addict, nympho or "no-sex" is it better?
I start to met gays at school, I've always had good laugh and good relations with them, as with heteros, and today my boss is gay, his boyfriend works just near me, they assume, no problem, they are normal persons. living, working, eating like any human.
For gay's parents, may be they're sad cause the look of the society, they won't be granparents, and... what ? I have a son, he's 12, the idea passed in my head, but what can I do, my son is my son, I love him over all, no ? same for my daughters.
How old is your friend ? I think it's better for him to tell his parents, as soon as possible, it will may be hard, for them, to hear, to accept at the beginning, but your friend will FEEL FREE from his heavy secret, cause when ur parents know, after, the rest of the world you don't worry.
Posted 04 June 2007 - 01:47 AM
- onjig likes this
Posted 04 June 2007 - 02:21 AM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 05:22 AM
Hm , you have a point , but that was not what I meant . I mean , I personally do not agree with this , but do I agree that they have a right to be who they are ? Yes , I have no right to interfere when it comes to that ... anyway , from what i understood , the post since it touches on the idea of Armenian homosexuals , we must discuss Armenians' reaction to this issue .
- onjig likes this
Posted 04 June 2007 - 11:16 AM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 12:46 PM
I know that homosexuality is a sin in our religion and goes against everything we believe in, but tolerance and compassion should be employed when relating to this matter. We should respect nature and accept that some people are created differently. If you choose not to befriend gay people, that is your perogative, but for God's sake, they should not be hunted down and killed just because of their sexual orientation.
And to answer one of Vahan's questions, may I say that there are a lot of gay men in the Armenian community of Los Angeles. If you are a resident of West Hollywood or have the occasion to dine in this city you will come across many Armenian gay couples. Impeccably dressed, well groomed, very well mannered, succesful and courteous to their fellow human beings. I only ask why more heterosexaul men are not like them?
And question #3 reminds me of the joke in which one woman tells another that her son is marrying a man so the other woman asks if at least the other guy is Armenian. Lol.
Posted 04 June 2007 - 03:48 PM
I've never met armenian homosexuels, but right in my family they cannot imagine one of us to be homosexual !
whatever, often homosexuals are very courteous, and they could be an example for some men, as says Em!
I remember when mother, who's 81, said to my daughter in law brother's (they're italians, not armenians !!!!), the boy is homosexual, and then she told him " you know God doesn't love homosexual, change your mind and find a nice woman !!!! each night I pray for u and ur boy-friend for both of u find a good woman !" she was so persuaded ! The boy knows my mum since always, he wasn't surprised ! it was funny !
Posted 04 June 2007 - 04:10 PM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 04:19 PM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 05:02 PM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 06:44 PM
Posted 04 June 2007 - 07:06 PM
Considering what some of the neighboring countires do to gays (ahem Iran for e.g.), I'd say Armenia is not that bad. Of course you can't compare any country in the region to San Francisco or Hollywood.
(2) Why do we care?
Because sexuality is a big part of being human. The first thing I notice about a person is whether they are male or female... gays tend to screw around with this initial perception and categorization so it's definitely something I care about (of course it depeonds on whether it's a profesional context in which case I don't really care -- or a social context in which case I would care).
(3) Do gay Armenians have the same pressure to partner with another Armenian (despite the whole kid thing being a sort non-issue)?
Haha ... I have no clue.
(4) How do you personally feel about gays/lesbians/etc.?
See #2. I don't know if I have a "feeling" in that generic sense (i.e. if you are expecting me to say I love them, hate them, or don't care, you won't get an answer like that from me. However, I do refer to them as "them" obviously
Posted 05 June 2007 - 05:57 AM
Posted 06 June 2007 - 10:14 AM
Interesting. I will say that there are lots of Armenian children that need to be adopted in Hayastan, but they will not allow gay couples to adopt. Also, preference is given to Armenians, but have to be a married couple and I think Armenian Apostolic. I read this all somewhere a long time ago...may have changed.
Posted 06 June 2007 - 11:50 AM
Thanks for the reply/clarification. I am not the one making such arguments , I was just presenting the argument that I have been hearing in my other thread about conversion , so I thought I would pose this question , as I am sure the ones who made these accusations of treason are too shy to make the same argument here.. i will try to answer your post based on what their reply/argument to this would be : well yes , there are Armenian children up for adoption , but really , these already exist and these conditions for adoption help maintain their Armenianness anyway, and we need more Armenian kids to be born ...
Posted 06 June 2007 - 03:32 PM
Because sexuality is a big part of being human. The first thing I notice about a person is whether they are male or female... gays tend to screw around with this initial perception and categorization so it's definitely something I care about (of course it depeonds on whether it's a profesional context in which case I don't really care -- or a social context in which case I would care).
I thought the first thing you noticed about people was "the fact that they tend to move very slow in buffets."
The eternal threat for heterosexual men: homosocial behavior turning into homosexual encounter. Or do you feel more threatened by lesbians? (I assume that the more male homosexuals there are out there, the less competition there will be for you; which means that lesbians should be more threatening to you than male homosexuals).
Posted 06 June 2007 - 03:35 PM
Being gay is something you are born as, not something you can convert to. Perhaps the difference lies there.
Posted 06 June 2007 - 03:43 PM
i don't care about gays... but deep me in chocolate and throw me to lesbians...
Posted 06 June 2007 - 03:43 PM
What is the percentage of gay and lesbians in our society ? I don't think we have to care about, the majority is hetero.
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Red Cross releases tips to avoid the flu
Send a link to a friend
[January 10, 2013]
SPRINGFIELD -- Widespread flu
activity is being reported across much of the country, and the
American Red Cross urges people who have not yet gotten a flu
vaccine to get vaccinated now.
For most people, the flu makes them feel very sick, but they
generally get better in about a week. However, young children,
people over age 65, pregnant women and people with chronic medical
conditions may develop serious complications from the flu, including
dehydration, pneumonia and worsening of medical conditions like
heart disease, diabetes or asthma.
The American Red Cross has a few tips to help you stay healthy
this winter:
Get your flu shot
as soon as it is available for the best chance of protection. A
flu vaccine is available in the U.S. every year.
Always practice
good health habits to maintain your body's resistance to
Eat a balanced
Drink plenty
of fluids.
Manage stress.
Get enough rest and sleep.
[to top of second column]
Take common-sense
steps to stop the spread of germs:
Wash hands
frequently with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand
Avoid or
minimize contact with sick people (a minimum of three feet
distancing is recommended).
Avoid touching
your eyes, nose and mouth.
Cover your
mouth and nose with tissues when you cough and sneeze. If
you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the crook of
your elbow.
Stay away from
others as much as possible when you are sick.
Adopt business and school practices
that encourage employees and students to stay home when
For more information about
flu prevention, visit
[Text from file received from
American Red Cross, Illinois
Capital Area Chapter]
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Letters to the Editor


text:
There's a reason the San Joaquin River has been labeled one of the hardest-working streams in the country.
Most of its flow is diverted to cities and farms before it ever reaches Stockton.
State officials are poised to address that for the first time in almost two decades, but their proposal to increase flows from less than 30 percent to 35 percent is under attack from two fronts – from water users who warn that farmland will be fallowed and jobs lost, and from environmentalists who say the increase doesn't go nearly far enough.
The State Water Resources Control Board will hear their concerns at a meeting Wednesday. The board says 35 percent strikes a balance between the needs of fish and water users.
The amount of flow is not the only issue up for discussion, though. The board also has proposed relaxing rules determining how much salt can accumulate in south Delta waterways, to the concern of farmers there.
"They're giving up on the Delta," said John Herrick, a Stockton-based attorney for the South Delta Water Agency.
These proceedings are just a first step. The water board also plans to examine flows on the Sacramento River and to determine how much water should ultimately be allowed to flow through the Delta – key determinations as Gov. Jerry Brown pursues construction of twin tunnels to divert freshwater away from the estuary.
More flow
For now, the plan is to send more water down three tributaries of the San Joaquin: the Stanislaus, the Tuolumne and the Merced rivers. Those streams were historically flush with Sierra snowmelt in the spring and early summer, and were significant breeding grounds for salmon.
Now most of the water is held back in reservoirs or diverted to cities like Stockton. The Stanislaus River alone is blocked by 28 dams.
The new proposal would allow 35 percent of the flow to pass through from February through June, when fish need help getting downstream.
But that's not enough, environmentalists say. A previous report found that if economic factors were not considered, 60 percent of the natural flow would be needed to truly sustain the ecosystem.
"The San Joaquin is the poster child for how not to manage a river," said Gary Bobker, program director for The Bay Institute in San Francisco.
A modest increase to barely more than one-third of its natural flow will not save the stream, he said. He called the proposal a "marked failure" in the first test of the board's commitment to protect the environment.
Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings blamed the board for limiting the increased flows to the lower San Joaquin, below the Merced.
"Basically they're insisting the three tributaries of senior water rights holders have to bear the burden, and it's absurd," he said.
The water board says it didn't include the upper San Joaquin because there aren't fish there now. It might consider mandating flows on that part of the river in the future if an ambitious restoration effort currently underway proves successful.
For the lower streams, the 35 percent figure is bigger than it sounds, the board argues, and it's a flexible target that could go up or down based on how fish respond.
"Thirty-five percent really is a significant increase in flows," said Diane Riddle, an environmental program manager for the state board. She noted that the Tuolumne is as low as 19 percent of its natural flow.
"Considering other agricultural uses and groundwater impacts, we thought 35 percent is an appropriate place to start, and work from there," Riddle said.
Fighting back
Just as angry as the environmentalists are the water districts tapping the three rivers. A group of them called the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority has mobilized to fight the plan, warning it would have a "devastating" impact on the economy by fallowing 128,000 acres of farmland and eliminating 460 jobs. It also could force remaining growers to draw more upon precious groundwater, they say.
For perspective, the board's report says that releasing more water would reduce the region's agricultural output by about 1 percent.
Nevertheless, the water districts argue that it's unclear whether more water will equal more fish. Flows aren't the only problem for salmon; invasive fish species like striped bass are known to gobble them up.
"The 35 percent number seems, at least to us, to have no rationale and no scientific basis behind it," said Allen Short, formerly the general manager at Modesto Irrigation District, and now the director of the tributaries group. "We've made investments in water releases down tributaries over the years and we have not seen a significant improvement in salmon."
Jeff Shields, manager of Manteca-based South San Joaquin Irrigation District, warned that shooting more water down the Stanislaus would drain New Melones Lake roughly once every five years.
"Empty," he said.
Stockton could be harmed because it now receives a portion of its water supply from that reservoir. So do farmers on the east and south sides of the county.
According to state board documents, however, the impact will be far greater on the Tuolumne and Merced streams whose flows today are typically lower than the Stanislaus.
In the big picture, like other observers, Shields fears releasing extra San Joaquin water is an attempt to make up for sending more Delta water south through the proposed twin tunnels.
If the Delta's Sacramento River water is siphoned away, some other stream will have to make up for it.
"That's exactly the intention here: To be able to flush the toilet and use our water to do it," Shields said.
Riddle, with the water board, said that's not the case.
"We do intend to look at (state and federal) project impacts," she said.
And she acknowledged that simply sending more water downstream won't solve all the Delta's problems.
"There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that need to be brought together," Riddle said.
Hold the salt
Lumped in with the debate over river flows is a plan to ease up on salt restrictions in the channels of the south Delta.
Salt is a plague for farmers, since it can stunt the growth of their crops. Salt comes from many sources – drainage from farms, discharge from city wastewater treatment plants, and the sheer lack of water in the San Joaquin, for starters.
A standard for salt in the south Delta was set in 1978, but enforcement was delayed for many years and today the standard is routinely violated.
Critics blame the mass export of water from the Delta into the state and federal aqueducts, and say the move to weaken the standards is an attempt to make those violations less prevalent on paper while maintaining the status quo on water quality.
"Since they're not going to enforce the rules, they thought they'd change them," said Herrick, the south Delta attorney. "But this must be the only instance in the United States of America where a regulatory body is trying to relax water quality standards. That's just insane to me."
The water board argues that the amount of salt in the Delta right now is "suitable for all crops," based on a study which Herrick says does not reflect real conditions on the ground.
"A couple of years ago one guy had to replant tomatoes because the salt ruined him," Herrick said. "We have continuing salt impacts and the notion that we can deal with this quality of water, or worse, is simply false."
Salt in the south Delta is not just the farmers' concern. Everyone in Stockton would have to pay if the city is someday ordered to improve its treatment plant to reduce the amount of salt in the treated wastewater it releases into the estuary.
The state board's plan says that even with the weaker proposed standard, Stockton and its ratepayers could still be on the hook.
Nothing is certain, said Jeff Willett, assistant director for Stockton's Municipal Utilities Department. The city is due for a new discharge permit next fall, but the amount of salt it releases has been declining because the city is relying less on saltier groundwater.
Stockton may, in fact, be close to meeting the board's proposed new limit, except for the fact that the new standard is based on 30-day rolling averages as opposed to an annual average, he said.
"We're watching carefully," Willett said.
Source: Stockton Record


text:
Metro-North to hire firm to install safety cameras
Metro-North will ask to approve money to hire a firm to design and install inward and outward facing cameras and audio recorders in locomotive cabs to comply with recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board for better safety monitoring after the December derailment that killed four people.
Last month the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that Metro-North expedite installation of the cameras which the agency said would have helped with their investigation of the Bronx, N.Y., derailment in December.
A cost estimate or description of the type of work included in the contract was not yet available, Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North Railroad said Wednesday.
"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is committed to safe operations at all its agencies," said Thomas F. Prendergast, chairman and chief executive officer of the MTA. "We will be systematically implementing recommendations put forward by the NTSB and other regulators to ensure the best practices are adhered to throughout the MTA..."
The contract will cover all Metro-North and Long Island railroad M8 and M7 railcars, cab cars and diesel locomotives, including 843 cars for Metro-North and 926 at Long Island Railroad.
"I'm happy that they are doing it but it makes you wonder if they had had a culture promoting safety this might have been done in advance," State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a ranking member of the state legislature's Transportation Committee. "There might have been other improvements in place that would have prevented the derailments and dozens of people injured."
In January, the nation's rail safety regulator, the Federal Railroad Administration, announced it would require crash-proof cameras on all passenger trains. In February, NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman said in her preliminary recommendations to Metro-North after the Spuyten Duyvil crash that the inward and outward facing cameras would have helped identify the engineer's condition or actions before the derailment.
In that crash, the engineer driving the train William Rockefeller told investigators that he went into a daze before the crash in which the train careened into a sharp curve at 82 miles per hour where the speed limit was 30 miles per hour.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he welcomed Metro-North's decision to take concrete action toward installing the cameras, but was concerned about the lack of specific deadlines to get it done.
In January, Blumenthal along with his colleague U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Federal Railroad Administration to order the installation of the cameras rather than follow a longer rule-making process.
"I'm going to continue to push for the installation of these cameras and other safety improvements needed to restore the safety and reliability of the line," Blumenthal said.


text:
Lindsay Lohan is confirmed for her next acting gig, where she'll portray Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor.
Lifetime confirmed the news — which Access Hollywood reported in February — by announcing the 25-year-old will portray the late actress in the original movie, "Liz & Dick," based on the true story of the screen icon's historic romance with actor Richard Burton.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Trials & Tribulations Of Lindsay Lohan
U.S. & World
"I have always admired and had enormous respect for Elizabeth Taylor. She was not only an incredible actress but an amazing woman as well," Lindsay said in a statement.
Adding, "I am very honored to have been asked to play this role."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood Legends
"We are thrilled Lindsay will portray beloved Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor," by Rob Sharenow, Executive Vice President of Programming at Lifetime Networks said. "She is one of the rare actresses who possesses the talent, beauty and intrigue to capture the spirit of such a provocative icon."
In February, a source close to the production told Access that Lindsay had landed the part, on the condition she contiuned to obey a judge's orders, which she has done.
The movie will begin shooting in early June in Los Angeles.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Lindsay Lohan: The Early Years
Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Dame Elizabeth Taylor & Her Many Loves!
PLAY IT NOW: Access Archives: Elizabeth Taylor (2007)
PLAY IT NOW: Pitbull 'Surprised' By Lindsay Lohan's Lawsuit
More from Access: [ Lindsay Lohan Elizabeth Taylor Lifetime ]


text:
Source: National Bureau of Economic Research
Release: NBER Macrohistory Database
Stocks Include Those In Principal Warehouses In New York And Hoboken, New Jersey. The Commodity Exchange Statistical Supplement Beginning November 1934 Gives The National Federation Of Textiles, Inc. As The Successor Of The Silk Association Of America; The Commodity Exchange Becomes The Primary Collector Of Data After January 1, 1936. The April 1926 Issue Of The Silkworm Notes That Data Beginning In 1924 Include Goods Held At Railroad Terminals; The December 1928 Issue Notes For The First Time That Stocks In Warehouses Include National Raw Silk Exchange Certified Stocks. Original Data For The Months Of January And April 1928 Are Given In Scb As 37.5 And 45.5 Respectively. However, These Figures Never Appear In The Original Source Nor In The Silk Association Files. 1929-November 1933 Figures Were Checked From The Silk Association Leaflets. Figures Through 1935 Were Checked From The National Federation Of Textiles. Both Sets Of Figures Are In Files At The Commodities Exchange. Source: Data For 1919-November 1922 Were Estimated With No Information Given; Data For 1922-1930: The Silk Association Of America, The Silkworm; Data For 1931-1941: Commodity Exchange, Inc., Monthly Statistical Supplement To The Daily Market Report, "Raw Silk"; Figures Were Checked Throughout With The Survey Of Current Business, U.S. Department Of Commerce
This NBER data series m05036 appears on the NBER website in Chapter 5 at http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/contents/chapter05.html.
NBER Indicator: m05036
National Bureau of Economic Research, Raw Silk Stocks at Warehouses for New York, NY and Hoboken, NJ [M05036USM587NNBR], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M05036USM587NNBR, August 4, 2020.


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Evan had the IV in his head removed yesterday! He has had an IV going since August 3 (21 days)! And he was on bili lights for a few days before that! So for the first time since July 30, Evan doesn't have any medical equipment! We finally have a "real" baby and are loving how easy it is to hold him now!
The stinkin' nurse that came and removed the IV didn't bring any adhesive remover-so Evan has a nice bald spot now where all the tape was holding the IV in. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Evan!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Going Wireless
Evan had the IV in his head removed yesterday! He has had an IV going since August 3 (21 days)! And he was on bili lights for a few days before that! So for the first time since July 30, Evan doesn't have any medical equipment! We finally have a "real" baby and are loving how easy it is to hold him now!
Posted by Brittnie at 2:36 PM 14 comments
Friday, August 14, 2009
Welcome Home (Take 2)
Guess who's at our house?! That's right-our little Evan was discharged from the NICU Thursday afternoon! He had passed all of his exams/tests and the only thing keeping him there was his last antibiotic. So the Doc sent us home with the IV still in his head and we just hook up his medicine to it every 8 hours. He has to be on the antibiotic until August 24th. We are so happy to have him back in our home and doing so well!
Posted by Brittnie at 10:08 PM 16 comments
Monday, August 10, 2009
More Good News!
So we just heard from the doctor...if Evan can wean off of all of his tube feeding and just nurse, we'll be able to take him home towards the end of this week! He'll still be on antibiotics, so a nurse will have to come to our house every 8 hours to administer that to him through his IV. We're a little overwhelmed by the thought of having him at home without any nurses, but couldn't be happier to get to have our baby back! Thanks once again for all your prayers and support-we really do appreciate it!
He's opening his eyes again and is so much more active and awake now!
PS-We would love to have visitors, but it might be a little while before it's safe to have people in our home. His little immune system has been working over time and needs to get strong again. Once it gets stronger and it's ok to have visitors, it will be even a little bit longer before others can hold him.
Posted by Brittnie at 10:30 AM 11 comments
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Quick Update
Here's another update on our little guy:
We've been so blessed to have pretty much nothing but good news! Evan is doing so well! His infection levels and bili levels drop everyday. His head was pretty inflamed from all the swelling, but his measurements also continue to get smaller. He looks so much better! He's starting to cry more and he is getting his little wiggles back! We try to nurse a few times a day, and that keeps getting better as well. We are now on day 4 of the 14-21 days of antibiotics and the Dr has said that we might be able to finish the last few days at home! They are weaning him off the oxygen and some of his medications. Overall, he is just doing so good!
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. We are so thankful to have so many good friends and family members to help us get through this hard time. We appreciate all of you so much!
Posted by Brittnie at 2:43 PM 5 comments
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
First of all, we'd just like to thank everyone that has remembered our little guy in your thoughts and prayers. We have definitely been able to feel of your support and love. It means so much to us.
The last 2 days have been much better. He already looks 10 times better than he did on Monday and is starting to move around a little more and make a little more noise. Who ever thought his little screams would sound so beautiful?! We've started to get test results back and they have discovered that the specific bacteria is Group B Strep. So even though I was given antibiotics for it during labor, he still picked up the GBS. But the GBS meningitis is the most common type and apparently it's the one to get if you get it at all. So we were happy to hear that. His bili has come down significantly, but they want it even lower since it is paired with the meningitis.
Evan was having problems with his blood pressure and his heart contractions. So he got another IV for those medications. But he's already off both of them. All of his vitals have been really good and have stayed stable. He's such a strong little boy!
Today we found out that his blood culture from yesterday came back negative-if his blood culture comes back negative again tomorrow the countdown to coming home begins! It will still be another 2-3 weeks, but at least we'll be on our way. We are so grateful that we are already getting those negative results back so soon. He had a brain ultrasound done today and everything came back normal.
Mom and Dad have been able to get a few good nights of sleep and we're eating better. Things are still pretty crazy, but we're making some really good progress. We were able to hold him a little bit yesterday and helped to give him a bath today. We love our little guy and just can't wait for him to be better!
Tuesday, August 4 (Happy One Week!)
Wed, August 5
Posted by Brittnie at 9:27 PM 14 comments
Monday, August 3, 2009
Prayers for Evan
So today has been one crazy, terrible day. For those of you who haven't heard, Evan was admitted to the hospital today. He was fine last night and then when we got him up for a feeding really early this morning he was breathing kinda funny. And then he wouldn't eat and he was really lethargic. We tried to wake him and feed him, but he just wouldn't. So we called the on call doc who suggested we take him to the ER just to be safe.
So we took him to the ER and we're so glad we did. Evan really wasn't doing very well and the ER Dr started ordering lots of different tests for him and they put him on an IV to get him fluids since he wasn't eating. Basically the Dr was afraid he had either some respiratory distress or meningitis. So they sent us up to the peds floor to get more testing and monitoring done. Before we knew it, he was surrounded by nurses and doctors and was being prepped for a spinal tap.
When the results came back, it was confirmed that our little guy has bacterial meningitis. Needless to say, we've had a really long, hard day. They wanted to life flight him up to Primary Children's Hospital, but they were full. So they cleared out a room for him in the NICU where he could be isolated. And that's where he is now and will probably be for the next month or so. He's doing as well as we can hope he can be and really being a little trooper. He's had 4 different antibiotics, a steriod, blood pressure and heart medicine, food, and other different IVs throughout the day. It's been a rough day, but he's really hanging in there.
We'd really appreciate any prayers in Evan's behalf. He has a long ways to go and could use a little help. We love him so much and are eager for a full recovery so he can join us at home again.
Posted by Brittnie at 9:20 PM 17 comments
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Posted by Brittnie at 7:19 PM 5 comments


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Organization: U.S. Postal Service's Information Technology Solutions division.
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Looking for some players to hit with. In Newport Beach from Sun-Wed weekly for business and don't know anyone to hit with in the area that is 4.5+ and above. Looking for both doubles and singles. 760-550-9401
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From the 'Who they can or need to trade' section:
INF/OF Brent Lillibridge: Although the fleet-footed 26-year-old has loads of to-date untapped ability, there doesn't seem to be a spot on the roster for him — definitely in '10 and possibly beyond. He might benefit from a change of scenery.
loads of untapped ability? is Merkin drinking?