Saturday, January 7

Jazzy rebukes anyone who claims to know God’s specific providential motives

Cuffy was still mad at me, your humble Jazzy Cat, for rejecting her request for cosmetic surgery and liposuction; however, recent news events had stirred her feline curiosity to a fever pitch about theology. She asked, “Jazzy Cat, does God still use prophets to make predictions and explain his actions and intentions? Also, how do you explain it when someone in today’s world claims to know the motive of God in a specific illness?” I, your humble Jazzy Cat, was solemn as I consulted the Holy Bible for an answer to these questions. After a time, I responded, “Cuffy, I believe the Bible teaches that the era of prophets receiving revelation directly from God ended with the time of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-2). As to your second question, I believe it follows from the first answer that anyone who claims to know the mind and motive of God in a specific illness is a false prophet.”

6 comments:

Terry S said...

Oh, Jazzy Cat, you disappoint me. You take some really good pics. But your content is so rabidly christian right wing it leaves no room for discussion. You have become so enmeshed in the bible and right wing dogma that you can't conceive of anything beyond.

Stop the ACLU? By all means. We don't want any free thinkers out there. We don't want people having a notion that civil liberty is a right. We want all people to line up and follow the christian right to oblivion in its ultimate war with the godless ruskies, or, er, the heathen moslems, or, well maybe the equally godless chinese hoards (Just fill in the appropriate blank.) like lemmings to the sea.

Religion poses the single greatest threat to the future of humanity. How many will die in the defense of your god? Hundreds of millions of people all throughout human history have died horrible deaths in the name of one god or other, including yours. The old testament god is jealous, ruthless, wrathful, and murderous. He directs people to plunder, torture, rape, enslave and kill those who have displeased him. If god is all powerful, why on earth (or anywhere else) does he need us to fight for him? For what purpose? Can't god take care of himself? Can't he fight his own battles? Ultimately, who is he fighting? Satan? Are we to believe that god can't handle old beelzibub? If he can't how can we be expected to?

You speak in awe of all the biblical predictions that have come to fruition. Virtually all such predictions are so broad, and vague, that given the billions of people who have and now inhabit this planet, the odds are that something will happen virtually every day which would seem to support biblical prophecy. Bible wielding evangelicals who claim that Katrina came to smite the godless in New Orleans, the muslim clerics who claim that all who died in the tsunami last year were simply not properly devout followers of islam, and others making similar outrageous charges, including the apparently brain dead Pat Robertson, are hucksters of the first order.

Wake up to realize that all the fire and brimstone is just flatulence.

jazzycat said...

Terry, glad you finally decided to look at jazzycat site. Sounds like you had a good trip to Europe. Thanks for your comments. I will respond to most of your comments in this post very soon.

jazzycat said...

Liberals, ACLU, and civil liberties…….
The ACLU and liberals are outraged that Bush would in war time spy on calls from known terrorists into the United States. In spite of the fact that future 9-11’s or worse may be avoided, their worry is the freedom and liberty of the person receiving the call may be violated. Absurd, when you think these are the same people who had no problem with the massive loss of freedom and liberty that would have resulted from the Clinton Health care plan (see jazzycat Dec. 29 post).

The ACLU’s position on profiling is absurd (see jazzycat Jan. 2 post).

You have constructed a straw dog by mischaracterizing conservative and Christian positions. Just as I do not agree with or defend Pat Robertson, David Duke and right wing kooks, I would hope that you would not agree with and defend Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore and left wing kooks. In short, I can and will defend Ronald Reagan’s conservative principles and the reformation Christianity of Luther, Calvin, etc. However, I cannot defend the political positions and religious thought that I do not agree with, but you seem to want to put in my tent.

I hope your Colts do well in the playoffs.

Terry S said...

Where to start. Well, yes, we had a great trip to Germany. Thanks.

Yes, the ACLU has positioned itself against government phone tapping (at least those done without a warrent.) I am aware that our situation regarding terrorism since 9-11 has radically changed things. Since that day, we have relinquished a # of our civil liberties, reluctantly, but for the most part willingly. The process of flying to Germany was incredibly difficult owing to security issues. As one inspector at O'Hare told my wife: "We are not supposed to trust you. It is our job to assume you are a threat." For all that we can thank our friend Osama and his buddies.

It is difficult to say, on any particular issue which is proper or necessary, or rather an unnecessary breach of our rights. Just as our government is designed with checks and balances via the 3 branches of government, the ACLU serves a similar check and balance as regards the rights and liberties of American citizens. The American Constitution is likely the best political document ever written. But there are still many areas which, even after over 200 years, are still open to interpretation. The ACLU may not be a perfect organization, but they attempt to protect all American's rights, even yours. They have represented the Klan in an effort to protect their rights to assemble, and their right to free speech. They are a loathesome bunch, but, if we curtail their rights, how can we protect our own? Remember the old saying: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

As to the Clinton health care plan, it is not altogether clear to me what all the particulars of their "plan" entailed. However, I am on the side of national health care. I am self-employed. I make a reasonable amount of money, but cannot afford medical insurance. Fortunately, as I am a Vietnam era veteran, I am elibible for care from the VA. However, my wife, who is diabetic and has had other health problems has no medical insurance, nor can she obtain any owing to her pre-existing conditions. (She actually has been offered some medical insurance, but at such exorbitant rates that we couldn't begin to pay for it.) Around 40% of Americans have no health insurance. Is maintaining the profits of big insurance companies, HMO's, hospitals, doctors, etc. of greater importance than the basic health needs of our people?

How have I mischaracterized conservative and christian positions? Perhaps I have not accurately captured your own take on all this, but it is clear to me that the majority of social/cultural right wingers, and fundamentalist christians (who are often but not always the same people,) would like nothing better than to render the USA a religious state having intensive control over individual rights and behavior which is anathema to a true democracy.

Do I support the likes of Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore? Well, yes, and, uh, no. I believe that at the beginning Cindy Sheehan was sincere in her efforts, and as I am not in support of our incursion into Iraq, I essentially agreed with her position. Subsequently, the media and others took over and spun the whole affair out of her hands. Eventually, she was kind of just going along for the ride, having been overwhelmed by it all.

As to Michael Moore. Yes, again, I essentially agree with many of Moore's positions. But, I think the he is a dispicable character. He takes cheap shots and bends facts to his own ends. I wish he was not a liberal spokesman. He is generally an embarrassment. However, he is no more or less despicable than Rush Limbaugh, who has made millions taking cheap shots.

On a lighter note I'll end with a little incident which happened while we were on a train to Berlin a few days ago. We passed thru the town of Wittenburg. My son pointed out a distant church steeple saying that it is the church the door of which Martin Luther put his theses. My wife, who had been dozing, misunderstood a key word and said - "Well, that wasn't very nice of him."

Yeah, a Colt Super Bowl win would be good. Still a long road to hoe, though. (Has anyone ever actually hoed a road?)

jazzycat said...

You have touched on several issues that I will try to address in future jazzy cat blogs….. With Jazzy’s approval of course. I would like to focus on the following paragraph of your last comments:

How have I mischaracterized conservative and Christian positions? Perhaps I have not accurately captured your own take on all this, but it is clear to me that the majority of social/cultural right wingers, and fundamentalist Christians (who are often but not always the same people,) would like nothing better than to render the USA a religious state having intensive control over individual rights and behavior which is anathema to a true democracy.

If I believed and formed my opinion on this subject based solely on what the mainstream media, and the agenda based entertainment media had to say; I would agree with your statement totally. However, I go back 40 or so years not trusting them and also not necessarily believing their interpretation and reporting. The November 6 and 7 Jazzy cat posts on global warming illustrate my point with the MSM bias as well as incidents like Rathergate. Your statement about social/culture right-wingers….. is exactly the implication of their reporting. My Photo Meditation # 32 touches on this in greater detail and also has an interesting 1965 civil rights march photo taken in Holly Springs, Mississippi. A Christian conservative that believes the Bible and is pro-life is defined by the MSM as a fundamentalist which equals right-wing religious fanatic that wants the Church to as you say render the USA a religious state. Sorry, but this is ludicrous. Christians of all stripes have just as much right to vote, support legislation, oppose legislation, petition, march, etc. as left wing radicals. However, having a religious state is the last thing conservative Christians want. The puritans came to America to escape state interference with religion. Christian influence had a major impact on the USA constitution which accounts for the guarantees of freedom of religion, etc.

That was a funny story about the Wittenburg incident. BTW, I was an Air Guard/Air Force pilot of the Vietnam era just as like GW Bush. When I joined, about the same time he did, there was a long waiting list for enlisted, but none for pilot trainees due to more rigorous requirements. Somehow the MSM never was able to ascertain this fact. I wonder why?

Terry S said...

Hey,

I, too will answer your latest offering, but will do so on my site. It occured to me that I'm leaving some of my best stuff on your site. As it may be with you, I have only so much time and energy to devote to this, and doing double duty is tough. Since returning from Germany, I have been attempting to get my business back up and running. The problem with being self-employed as I am, when I'm gone, I'm shut down with no money coming in.