Tag Archives: 2017

American Conservative Judaism

 

Mark Beré Peterson: Hauntings, Urban Legends, History, Folklore, Mythology and Witchcraft

The Conservative movement is the second largest of the three main religious denominations within American Judaism, claiming 18 percent of American Jews, according to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center. Historically it has occupied a sort of middle ground between Reform and Orthodox, maintaining (unlike Reform) that Jewish law remains binding on modern Jews, but affording far greater leeway than Orthodoxy in adapting those laws to reflect modern realities.

• The movement tolerates a range of religious practice in its commitment to halachic pluralism — the idea that multiple (and opposing) opinions concerning the requirements of Jewish law can be considered equally legitimate.

• Most (but not all) Conservative synagogues are egalitarian on gender issues, and the movement has endorsed religious rulings both in favor of and opposed to same-sex marriage.

• While its rabbis are not permitted to officiate at interfaith weddings, the movement has in recent…

View original post 757 more words

3 Comments

Filed under History, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs

Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag

Jelmer Mommers in zijn boek “Hoe Gaan We Dit Uitleggen” mag dan al oplossingen brengen om de klimaatverandering te temperen, want we moeten er bewust van zijn dat we ze niet zullen kunnen stoppen. Maar zeker mogen wij ons hoofd niet in het zand steken en moeten we onze verantwoordelijkheid nemen om de na ons komende generaties een goed leefbaar klimaat te geven.

Wij kunnen het niet nalaten stappen te ondernemen, anders zou dit getuigen hoe zelfzuchtig wij als individu wel durven zijn. Als maatschappij moeten wij samen verantwoorde stappen nemen om de opwarming van de aarde tegen te gaan. Dit vergt eerst en vooral politieke moed, waarna ook economische gevolgen onder ogen moeten gezien worden. Men kan niet ontkennen dat het algemeen een economische impact zal hebben voor meerdere jaren. Ook naar beroepen zal het een impact hebben. Er moet namelijk op landbouwgebied een hele herziening komen. Mensen moeten er toe komen om  minder vlees te eten en beter om te springen met het voedsel en voedselvoorraden. Het is hoog tijd dat ons consumptiegedrag ernstig onder de loep wordt genomen.

De Aarde en de toekomst van de mensheid liggen heden in onze handen. Er mag geen lafheid en geen egoïsme zijn. Elkeen moet tot het besef komen hoe kostbaar onze planeet is. Zij die niet willen zien moeten wij de ogen open doen. Er moet openlijk durven over gepraat worden. We mogen onze tijd niet passief ondergaan. Het kan makkelijk zijn om te zeggen

“We doen wat we doen en de toekomst zal haar oordeel over ons vellen.”

De vluchtelingen- en de bankencrisis van vorig decennium is niets in vergelijking met de groter wordende stroom van klimaatvluchtelingen, die nu al waar genomen kan worden en zal toenemen met de komende jaren.

Het neoliberalisme met haar geweld van de vrije markt heeft er voor gezorgd dat het leven van een mens klein en futiel werd, maar ook verstoord in zijn eigen achtertuin. De gehele technische revolutie ligt mee aan de oorzaak van wat we nu en in de komende jaren nog tegemoet moeten gaan zien, van hoger wordende temperaturen en aangroeiende woestijnen.

Sinds de technologische revolutie van de 19de eeuw hebben we generatie na generatie zien profiteren van vooruitgang. Nu echter is er een kantelpunt bereikt waarbij onze kinderen en kleinkinderen, het slechter hebben dan onze generatie. De globalisering en de overconsumptie laten zich voelen.

Erg genoeg zien we heel wat gepalaver en nodeloos heen en weer gepraat dat blijkbaar niet veel schijnt op te lossen. Men moet geen deskundige te zijn om in te zien dat we die vooropgestelde doelstelling uit het Parijse klimaatakkoord niet gaan halen. Zelfs met heel uitgebreide en  drastische maatregelen zal het moeilijk zijn door het niet eensgezind zijn van de geïndustrialiseerde landen en hun bewindsvoerders.

https://geengratislunch.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/krista102.jpg?w=365&h=365&crop=1

Krista Bruns bij het behalen van haar Phd bachelor diploma aan de Universiteit van Utrecht, waar na ze een premaster jaar in Econometrics aan de Erasmus Universiteit van Rotterdam volgde en een uitwisselingsemester aan de Universidad de Complutense in Madrid.

De 28 jarige Krista Bruns, sinds kort woonachtig in Den Haag en onlangs gepromoveerd in de Economie, en zich bij een ouderwetse blog verkiest te houden, wordt, zoals wij,  toch ook een beetje verdrietig als zij over de klimaatproblematiek nadenkt. Net als wij gelooft zij dat het nog niet te laat is en beseft ze dat het momentum en de noodzaak beiden aanwezig zijn. Ze drukt zelfs de hoop uit:

Wij kunnen de geschiedenis in gaan als de generatie die het tij van 200 jaar industrialisering en vervuiling deed keren. Hoe mooi zou dat zijn? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

Zij durft ook te kijken naar het huidige menselijk (wan)gedrag, waarbij de politiek onze dagelijkse belevenissen wel (on)handig weet te verstoren.

Wel met een economische blik, niet gehinderd door wetenschappelijke conventies of al te veel jargon. {Blog}

dringt zij zich nu ook op in de bloggerswereld, met haar eigen persoonlijke standpunten, los van haar functie als beleidsmedewerker van het Nederlandse Ministerie van Financiën. Ze hoopt zo met haar stem ook iets te kunnen verwezenlijken. (Wat wij toch allemaal hopen, is het niet?)

Zij schrijft verder:

Wij kunnen de geschiedenis in gaan als de generatie die het tij van 200 jaar industrialisering en vervuiling deed keren. Hoe mooi zou dat zijn? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

planetb

Met heet besef dat we te weinig doen en te laat stelt zij dat er geen tijd meer is voor uitstelgedrag.

Klimaatverandering is een probleem met mogelijk desastreuze gevolgen, maar deze ontwikkelen zich vergeleken met een mensenleven vrij langzaam en onzichtbaar. We hadden het dus pas door toen het al bijna te laat was, en zelfs nu we het weten doen we er weinig aan.

Dit innerlijke conflict, waarin we weten dat er iets aan de hand is, maar het gevoel hebben dat we er niks aan kunnen doen wordt cognitieve dissonantie genoemd. Het treedt op wanneer gedrag, emotie en cognitie (kennis) niet op één lijn liggen. Dit leidt bij mensen tot een groot intern ongemak, en als reactie daarop gaan we klimaatverandering negeren, bagatelliseren of ontkennen. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

struisvogel

Ons hoofd nite in het zandsteken eist het durven aanzien van onze eigen invloed op wat er voort het ogenblik aan het gebeuren is.
Probleem is dat mensen die op de problemen willen wijzen of hun vinger uitsteken, wel meer dan eens als lastigaards worden aanschouwd. Onze met haatberichten en lelijke woorden vollopende brieven bussen bewijzen dat zelfs dagelijks.

Psychologe Florien Cramwinckel (zie video hieronder) toonde in haar onderzoek ook aan dat we mensen die sterk hun morele waardes proberen over te brengen vaak een beetje irritant vinden, omdat ze ons confronteren met onze eigen tekortkomingen op dat gebied. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

Algemeen moeten we iedereen er toe komen om de hand in eigen boezem te steken.

Ik denk dus dat we een stuk verder zouden komen als we een soort generaal pardon uitspreken … {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

Bruns denkt aan een wijs man die ooit zei:

Het beste tijdstip om te beginnen was 20 jaar geleden, het op-een-na beste tijdstip om te beginnen is vandaag. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

Het is waar dat het geen zin heeft om te blijven zeuren over wat er in het verleden verkeerd gegaan is. Men moet de koe met de hoorns aanpakken wanneer dat geweldig dier langs komt.

De politici van vandaag zijn geen grote hulp. Vooral de populisten trachten met allerlei verzinsels de mensen te misleiden. Ze schamen zich niet om zelfs bevinden van erkende wetenschappers te negeren en nog erger, hun bevindingen in twijfel te trekken of als onzin af te schepen.

Betreft de klimaatskeptici schrijft Bruns:

Een derde reden dat we last hebben van uitstelgedrag is volgens mij dat klimaatwetenschappers, meer dan hun collega’s in andere vakgebieden, nog steeds vaak worden uitgemaakt voor een soort religieuze fanaten en dat hun resultaten in twijfel worden getrokken. Onderzoek proberen te reproduceren en falsificeren is nobel werk, maar in dit gebied gaat het er soms heftig aan toe met alternative facts en voor- en tegenstanders die zich beiden te sterk door hun eigen agenda laten leiden. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

Het wordt hoog tijd dat het gewone volk hun leiders ter verantwoording roept, maar ook dat zij zelf gaan inzien dat we zogvuldiger moeten omspringen met het gebruik van gronden, zij het om landbouw er op te verrichten of om het te bebouwen met woonelementen (huizen of apartementen) die op een milieuvriendelijk wijze moeten onderhouden en verwarmd worden.

extinction wave

Al enkele jaren kunnen wij getuigen zijn van uitzonderlijke weersomstandigheden.

Het extremere weer zal ook niemand ontgaan zijn. 2017 was het jaar met de meeste bosbranden, het duurste orkaanseizoen als het gaat om schade, ijskappen die afbreken in een niet eerder gezien tempo. 2018 lijkt wat betreft temperaturen alle records te gaan breken, in Nederland althans. Zélfs als je van mening bent dat al deze processen zich voornamelijk buiten de schuld van mensen voltrekken, dan zou je in een wereld waarin we alles en iedereen proberen te controleren, toch zoveel mogelijk willen doen om dit proces tegen te gaan? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

We kunnen slechts hopen dat er wel degelijk langzaamaan aan het besef begint te ontstaan dat er iets gedaan móet worden.

Een stijgende zeespiegel, extremere weersomstandigheden en het vernietigen van de natuurrijkdommen die in miljarden jaren zijn opgebouwd, zal ontegensprekelijk, leiden tot meer conflicten, oorlogen, migratiestromen, hongersnoden en economische crises.

paaseiland
Paaseiland, één van de door Diamond beschreven beschavingen die teniet zijn gegaan. Als ik dan toch nog een keer teveel CO2 ga uitstoten, dan wil ik hier wel heel graag heen.

 

Wat kun je doen?
Stap 1: informeer jezelf. Ik ben er van overtuigd dat deze verandering van inzichten van binnenuit moet komen. Het is niet erg als je vroeger dingen deed die je met de kennis van nu beter niet meer kunt doen. Maar ééns gelezen kun je het niet meer ontlezen. Doe wat met die kennis! Vroeger wist ik ook dat er vegetariërs bestonden. En dat vlees van dode dieren kwam. Maar ik besefte me nog niet de echte impact van vlees op het milieu, de bizarre manier waarop in de bio-industrie met dieren omgegaan werd. Hetzelfde geldt voor vliegen, een reisje naar een lekker warm eiland waar ik een paar jaar geleden geen seconde over twijfelde, wordt nu toch heel wat minder aantrekkelijk.

Leestips  
David McKay Sustainable Energy without the hot Air
Paul Collier Plundered Planet
Kate Raworth Doughnut Economics
Jared Diamond Collapse
Jorgen Randers et. al Limits to Growth
Tim Jackson Prosperity without Growth

Ik snap wel dat het lastig is om structuur en helderheid te scheppen in de enorme stroom van goede en foutieve informatie die er omtrent dit alomvattende probleem te vinden is. Dat iedereen moeite heeft om dit probleem te omvatten en de informatie te structureren blijkt wel uit het klimaatakkoord, waar na maandenlang nadenken door deskundigen uiteindelijk geen concrete maatregel in bleek te staan. Een helder boek was voor mij Sustainable energy without the hot air van David McKay. Het wordt ook wel het ‘Freakonomics’ van de klimaatproblematiek genoemd en het zet in heldere tabellen en figuren uiteen welk potentieel er nog is voor milieuvriendelijke energie-opwekking en hoeveel we zelf kunnen besparen op onze uitstoot. Op de website van McKay zijn ook leuke rekentools te vinden. De belangrijkste boodschap uit dit boek is: maak een plan wat onder de streep uitkomt. We kunnen leuk allemaal onze opladers uit het stopcontact halen als we ze niet nodig halen, onder het motto ‘alle beetjes helpen’, maar dit is alsnog maar een miniem percentage van ieders verbruik en uitstoot op een dag. Zelfs als we dit allemaal doen gaat het dus weinig zoden aan de dijk zetten: er zijn grote beetjes nodig. Kijk wat er echt een verschil maakt en ga hiermee aan de slag, ook al betekent dat soms afstand doen van verworven luxe.

Wat dan wel?
200 jaar economische ontwikkeling heeft ons een hoop welvaart en ontzettend veel gemak gebracht. Maar onder de ronkende motors van het kapitalisme is ook een feedback loop ingezet die zichzelf niet zal stoppen. Producenten geven weinig om negatieve externaliteiten en zijn op zoek naar de goedkoopste productiemethode om zoveel mogelijk spullen aan ons te verkopen. Wij als consumenten hebben weinig weet van waar die spullen vandaan komen en wat daar voor nodig is en blijven ze dus kopen, wat de producenten weer sterkt in hun verdienmodel.

Je energieverbruik binnen de 4 muren van je eigen huis is zeker belangrijk en makkelijk te sturen. Begin eens met elke maand de meterstanden opschrijven en experimenteer om te kijken wat daar veel invloed op heeft. Maar besef ook dat het grootste deel van onze uitstoot niet ontstaat binnen ons huis maar door de productie van goederen die wij aankopen. Volgens mij moeten we weer terug naar een cultuur van genoeg. Vraag je eens af of het nodig is om elke dag vlees te eten. Of om elk jaar een mooie vliegreis te maken. Laat die kaki-vruchten, hoe mooi ze er ook uitzien, eens liggen en koop lekkere stoofpeertjes in de winter. Repareer een kapot kledingstuk in plaats van voor een paar euro iets nieuws te kopen zonder je af te vragen hoe dat in godsnaam voor die prijs geproduceerd kan worden en vanuit Bangladesh hier naartoe verscheept. McKay rekent uit dat 60 van de ca. 195 kilowatt uur die een gemiddelde Westerling per dag nodig heeft komt van het produceren en verschepen van onze spullen.

Het lijkt misschien een opoffering, maar ik heb dat zelf helemaal nooit zo ervaren. Vlees eten mis ik helemaal niet, maar zelfs als je niet zonder kunt: smaakt het niet lekkerder als je het bewaart voor speciale gelegenheden? Wat vakanties betreft: natuurlijk zijn er plekken op de wereld die ik ooit nog wel eens wil zien. Hier ga ik voor sparen en dan ga ik alles eruit halen wat er in zit. Maar de afgelopen 2 jaar heb ik ook ervaren dat ‘staycations’ of vakanties dichtbij huis ontzettend relaxt zijn: je hebt geen lijstje van bezienswaardigheden die je moet afvinken, je bent vrij om te doen waar je zin in hebt en ook korte afstand van huis is er zo ontzettend veel moois te ontdekken!

schwarzwald
Het prachtige Zwarte Woud waar ik dit jaar op vakantie was

Wat kan de overheid doen?
Bij dit soort grote transities kijkt men vaak (terecht) als eerste naar nationale overheden en supranationale instituties. Met belastingen, subsidies en regulering hebben die grote middelen in handen om gedrag te beïnvloeden. De Nederlandse overheid heeft deze taak serieus genomen en gaat ambitieuzer dan de in het Parijsakkoord gemaakte afspraken aan de slag. Toch passen hier ook een paar kanttekeningen.

De eerste is dat belastingen vaak werken als het zwaard van Damocles: ze gaan vaak ten onder aan hun eigen succes en teveel instrumentalisme heeft ongewenste bijwerkingen. Kijk maar naar het verstorende effect van de verschillende bijtellingen voor hybride auto’s op de automarkt. ‘De vervuiler betaalt’ is een mooi principe, maar als dit betekent dat rijke vervuilers hun schade af kunnen kopen en dat het arme vervuilers verder de armoede in duwt schiet je er weinig mee op. Daarnaast zal een effectieve belasting op vervuiling uiteindelijk zijn eigen grondslag uithollen en daarmee niet meer het primaire doel van een belasting vervullen: geld ophalen om publieke middelen van te betalen.

Een tweede kanttekening is dat er momenteel erg macro gedacht wordt. In Parijs zijn stevige afspraken gemaakt. Daarnaast heeft de regering besloten dat de gaskraan in Groningen dicht moet. Als er echter geen vertaalslag gemaakt wordt naar wat dit voor een gemiddeld gezin betekent, zijn we niet dichter bij huis. Bij gelijkblijvende consumptie zullen we de energie dan gewoon uit het buitenland importeren. Schotel mensen het eerlijke plaatje voor: wat gebeurt er als we niets doen? Iedereen wil een leefbare wereld voor zijn kinderen. Wat is er voor nodig om dat te halen? Kan een gemiddeld gezin nog 2 keer per week vlees eten en eens in de 5 jaar een verre vliegreis maken? Als we die cijfers helder hebben, wordt de gedragsverandering ook makkelijker te bewerkstelligen.

Een derde overweging is wel dat dit soort veranderingen zich vaak eerst langzaam, en dan ineens snel en onvoorspelbaar voltrekken. Het is voor overheden lastig om in te schatten welke kant de technologie opgaat en in het verleden zijn hier ook grove fouten in gemaakt, door bijvoorbeeld flink te subsidiëren om een kritische massa te bereiken voor een technologie, die enkele jaren later ingehaald bleek te zijn door iets beters. We kunnen dus moeilijk op de realiteit vooruit lopen. De markt kan dit doorgaans beter inschatten, maar is nog niet altijd bereid om zich in te zetten en risico te nemen op het vlak van sociaal ondernemerschap. Al komt dit wel steeds meer op gang.

Tenslotte is er voor de transitie een grote investering nodig. Economisch gezien betekent investeren vaak geld lenen voor hoge startkosten, die later terug zullen worden verdiend. Dit geldt in brede zin ook voor veel milieuvriendelijke hervormingen, zoals het isoleren van huizen, het aanleggen van infrastructuur voor elektrisch rijden, het verbeteren van het internationale treinennetwerk en ga zo maar door. Ik ben van mening dat de huidige kapitaalmarkt massaal aan het investeren is in projecten waarvan de negatieve externe effecten nog niet in de prijs doorgekomen zijn. Wanneer deze kennishiaat in de markt omslaat, zou het ook wel eens snel kunnen gaan met private investeringen in duurzame projecten. Tot die tijd is het echter een medeplichtigheid van de overheid om te bedenken hoe dit eerlijk en kosteneffectief gefinancierd kan worden.

Eerlijk is hier een lastig begrip, want hoe spreid je de lasten over huidige en toekomstige generaties? Paul Collier heeft hier een heel inzichtelijk boek over geschreven, waarin hij betoogt hoe de romantici die het probleem ‘tegen elke kosten’ willen aanpakken en de ‘struisvogels’ die liever hun kop in het zand steken nader tot elkaar moeten komen. De crux is in Collier’s ogen dat we toekomstige generaties niet precies dezelfde natuurlijke omgeving hoeven terug te geven als degene die wij nu hebben, maar wel een wereld met exact dezelfde verdiencapaciteit als hoe wij hem aantroffen. Dit zou bijvoorbeeld kunnen door de opbrengsten van het delven van fossiele brandstoffen in een fonds te stoppen waarmee investeringen in duurzame ontwikkeling worden gefinancierd. Dit model is in Noorwegen gehanteerd, en daarmee hebben zij een buffer van 1 biljoen USD opgebouwd om publieke voorzieningen als pensioenen mee te financieren.

Wat ga je morgen doen?

Zoals ik eerder al schreef, er is een hoop informatie en die lijkt soms onmogelijk te doorgronden. Daardoor krijgen we het gevoel dat we er niks aan kunnen doen en steken we liever als struisvogels onze hoofden in het zand of doen we aan gevoelsmatige gewetensbestrijding zoals de tv niet op standby zetten. Toch ben ik ook hoopvol, het momentum is aanwezig en we bezitten meer technologie en kennis dan ooit tevoren.

Vandaag is t-0 en morgen komt wat mij betreft het algemeen klimaatpardon. Schud dus je schuldgevoel van je af, maar lees je in en analyseer welke grote beetjes jij zelf kunt bijdragen. En bovenal: vertel je omgeving wat je hebt geleerd. Niet als moralistische betweter, maar omdat we allemaal hetzelfde doel nastreven. Kennis is macht, en als wij als samenleving eisen dat het over is met de race naar de bodem op het gebied van massaproductie en vervuiling, dan moeten producenten en overheden wel luisteren. En net zoals wij tot kortgeleden niet beter wisten dan dat spullen en eten uit de supermarkt kwamen en dat je je daar verder niet druk om hoefde te maken, zo zullen onze kinderen en kleinkinderen niet beter weten dan dat het normaal is om lokaal in te kopen, niet meer spullen te kopen dan je nodig hebt en jezelf zonder uitstoot voort te bewegen. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}

10 Comments

Filed under Ecologische aangelegenheden, Economische aangelegenheden, Gezondheid, Levensstijl, Natuur, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Politieke aangelegenheden, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voeding, Voelen en Welzijn, Wereld aangelegenheden

5 years presenting articles for you

On the 26th of March 2014 this blog started with calling you welcome at “Guestwriters for you” at a site on which we hoped to offer readings from several writers with different ideas. Our hope was that both the lifestyle magazine Stepping Toes and this “Guest-speaker” corner would be able to find writings by different authors, who could deliver material of interest for many.

At Marcus Ampe his personal WordPress blog could be found his own personal political views and at his religious sites, like Our World and his ecclesia site Free Belgian Christadelphian Ecclesia people could find articles written from his Christadelphian view as a Brother in Christ. Though well aware there are not enough Christadelphians willing to share interesting writings and thoughts from non-trinitarian but also from trinitarian and even non Christian writers he invited others to join the platform to create a readers digest of interesting articles on the World Wide Net.

Five years later we can only say we are a little-bit disappointed that not many writers presented themselves to write about historical, ecological, science and lifestyle matters like fashion and architecture, but also none who wanted to write about arts and / or education. So many subjects are not yet tackled at this blog.

We still would love a variety of articles about many aspects which may concern us to build up a better life. Once more we call for people to join us and to share their thoughts. Together we can build at better living conditions for everybody around us, humans but also animals.

We are convinced that whatever religion you may have, from whatever country you may be, whatever race you may have, we can and should be able to live together in peace. For that reason Marcus called for blogwriters to join the Movement Bloggers for Peace. But also there, not many were willing to connect.

At first we at the end of each article we presented a list of articles of interest by others. We stopped doing that, because of the continued complaints and several people asking us to take them out of the list (because the did not want to be associated with us – though they should not have to be associated with us). They should have been aware we provided free advertising for their writings and had many of our readers sent to visit their blog. This not being appreciated we thought it better then to keep our readers at our own place and at our own affiliated blogs.

In 2014 we had 234 articles published getting us 1847 visitors offering us 3 124 views. 296 articles the year after got 4 333 views and in 2016 7 782 views could be reached and 358 articles added. A dip in 2017 brought us 5 018 visitors for 395 articles, the site catching 6 888 views. With lesser articles for 2018 (366) we could reach 5 751 readers with 8 260 views. On February 9, 2018 we got our best views ever.

Up to today we have 1 736 posts which caught 22 211 visitors giving us 33 061 views. We are thankful we may count on 304 followers by Word Press and 3 per e-mail. – which is not much -. The 616 followers on Social Media do not always deliver readings, and as such we can not cunt on them really. We are in any case very grateful for those who are willing to take the time to read and to react at the writings. Thank You!

In case you know much about styling, fashion, gardening, interior decorating, inner being, psychology, anthropology, history, political analysation, arts, you are always welcome to present yourself as a guest-writer for us.  Even when you like to bring articles of other people to our attention you are welcome to let us know or to share them with us as an author presenting guest-writings.

Five years should be the sign we are getting out of our baby-years. You as reader may help us to grow.
Not only come to visit us regularly. Let this site be known by others. Let us know what you would love to see or find at this site, or give us some guidance to make this site better. All advice is welcome. Do also know that we do not mind some encouragement now and them. We are thankful for those few who do not mind to click the “Like” button. Thank you very much for that small but oh so important sign that can give us some encouragement.

On the 8th of April 2019 we still call everybody welcome who some way comes along this site.
Hopefully it shall not stay by a one visit.
May we look forward to more than one visit?

Welcome to this club of Bloggers for Peace and Understanding

 

Thank you very much for coming along this site and reading our articles.

Leave a comment

Filed under Announcement, Headlines - News, History

Going to the end of our 5th year of presenting interesting views from different authors

On the 26th of March 2014 we presented our first posting on this site “From Guestwriters” with Guestwriters for you and Welcome to “From guestwriters” expressing our hope to find more people interested in working together to spread the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God but also to aim for a better world trying to get all sorts of borders out of the way.

My hope for starting this site was to present a sort of Readers Digest and to present some of the many articles published on WordPress which I thought would be worthwhile to be read. My idea was also to present articles with at the end of them links to some related articles. Soon I came to learn that not everyone was pleased to find themselves linked to. Several times we got requests to take away the link to their article, because they did not want to be associated with our community. It took already a lot of time to select articles to link to them and when requested to take those links away that involved once more some extra work. We hoped to help the readers but also the writers with such links, because those links could bring more readers to their article. But because not favoured by many, from this year onwards you shall be finding less links to articles from non-associated people.

Our intention was also to present articles from non-christadelphians and sometimes even from non-religious people. The matter to select the writings was their importance for the community and their relevance for adding to the peace process.

In the first year of this publishing platform we presented 234 posts, catching 3124 views. the year later we got 4333 views for an added 296 articles. In 2016 358 articles got published whilst the site received 7782 views. In 2017 395 articles were added but not so many views gained (6888). Last year we got 366 articles added, fetching 8260 views bringing the total of views to 30 437 for 1646 articles. The most popular day seemingly to be the Sunday with 18% of the views.

We do not have many followers but are pleased with the 304 followers on Word Press of which the Opinionated ManC Washingtonmichelledipaola and The Mystic SandBox are subscribed from the first month and from the first hours. Our thanks goes to them and to those who followed. On Facebook we may reach 275 followers, whilst Twitter might catch 274 followers and Tumblr 121.
Thanks also for those who did not mind sharing our articles on social media. As such we got 670 times a share for those five years. (Not so magnificent, but something.)

We are also pleased to find some readers who regularly mention they “Liked” our writing.  Some of those regulars supporters are a.o.  which also present beautiful pictures of this world which also can be great and enjoyable. Such “Like” is very much appreciated and we are very thankful for that appreciated gesture which gives us also a feeling of support.

At this site we wanted to show people that the world is not just Black and White and that the political system is not linear. But also we wanted to point out that people can and should do much more than they think. Much more people should be aware of their possible power which has to come from them selves. The inner being by connecting to many others can present a greater power and be a rebuttal against the standard political parties. This site wanted to bring such possibilities more into the light. Therefore I had hoped to find many more writers willing to join us to write about positive elements in our life. There are already enough sites writing about the bad things in this world. As counter balance we could use some positive news. though that seems to be very scarce and hard to find.

Our offer for receiving voices who want to speak up and willing to bring some positive thoughts is till going.

We still miss a psychologist who can write about making a marriage life work of how to cope with one self and with others. We also could do with some historian who would like to compare what is happening now with what happened in the past, or who can shed a light on political situations in this world.

Wanting to be a lifestyle magazine we still can use some fashion freak or people who want to write about fashion, architecture and art.

In case you have already a blog on WordPress, do know that an extra writing platform can also help you to generate more readers to your main blog. At this site we do not mind, better … we also prefer you link also to other articles concerning the topic discussed, and as such you may also link to other articles written by you on your own or on other sites.

If you are a writer without a high opinion of yourself, able to write not very complex articles, not having too many hidden meanings or twists and turns, you could be the one we need. In case you are a  logical, rational thinker who tries to write that way as well, you too perhaps could be the one we are looking for. If you can play with words  and can create poems for sure such poetry should not stay in your own cupboard but could be shared on this platform.

All those who have much time to read, why do you not want to give those who have not so much time, a glimpse of what the written word has to offer? Why not telling others about what is interesting and a “should read”?

img_1494

If you feel called, do not hesitate to contact me or to offer your services here. We love to find more writers willing to share positive news and lifestyle matters.

+++

67557C99-854A-4E95-B81E-93E7122DDDD8

Related

  1. Goodbye 2018! ~It’s good to take a minute and look back over the year. My goals for this blog were to write about life in Israel
  2. 2018 Year in Review While it’s true my plans for growing my blog readership didn’t happen which had everything to do with being overwhelmed with working to get my first book published
  3. The end of year 2018
  4. Looking Back
  5. Recap of 2018
  6. My Top 5 Most-Read New Posts in 2018
  7. Reading Year in Review – 2018
  8. 2018 Year in Review Thanks to all my readers and followers for a great year.
  9. Looking Back at 2018 Writing
  10. Year End Stats (2018) for MattsMusings
  11. I’m a Man Of Many Words
  12. Reading Year in Review: 2018
  13. 2018 Wrap Up! (by the Bibliophile Chronicles)
  14. 2018 Wrap Up! (by the Random Melon Reads)
  15. My 2018 Reading in Statistics
  16. 2018 Statistics
  17. Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019!
  18. 2018 Stats
  19. First book tag and stats!
  20. 2018 Statistics
  21. Statistics of this Blog: Crossed 80.000 Views
  22. 2018 Reading Year In Review + 2019 Reading and Blogging Goals
  23. 2018 Reading Statistics and 2019 Goals
  24. New 2019 year resolution goals.
  25. Statistical resolutions

4 Comments

Filed under Announcement, Being and Feeling, History, Introduction, Lifestyle, Social affairs

We should all be writing

In this present world lots of short notices or messages are posted on social media, but to find serious writing on the net has become limited.

There is a serious need for analysing what happens in the world. We could do with some more bloggers recording for history what is going on and how we feel about it. Analyses of people giving an idea how a culture experiences the events.

It is for any person impossible to know what future shall bring, but by the knowledge of what happened in the past people can have an idea how things can evolve.

For sure all people should try to work for a better future and if they do not fix the disinformation problem, the divide will only widen.

You have very good reasons to point to Nazi Germany, because many factors are pointing that direction, and people could be surprised it can be as bad as then sooner than people think.

*

To remember

Journals. Blogs. Letters to the editor. Letters to others. Letters to representatives. Emails. Facebook posts.

> recording for history

history written by those who have most to gain by revising history.

‘recording’ history =/= ‘rewriting’ history.

current problem = large number of people been brainwashed by lies + who think they are informed.

=>

Be the scribe. Record your experiences. Tell history the facts.

+

Preceding

Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

Fake News Goes Back to the Garden of Eden says Pope Francis I

Parallels between what is happening in our world today and the atmosphere in pre-Nazi Germany

++

Additional reading

  1. Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past
  2. Finish each day and be done with it
  3. A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
  4. No curtain placed over tomorrow
  5. So it will be on the day when …
  6. Not to speak is to speak
  7. Faith, hope and love abide
  8. A concrete picture of what is to come in the future
  9. Trust the future to God
  10. You God hold the future

+++

Related

  1. Historical facts in myths and legends
  2. Don’t Compromise Monuments and Parks
  3. America’s Cult of Ignorance
  4. I Know You Hold the Future
  5. Would You Send Your Children to University?
  6. Worst Military Leaders in History
  7. They All Fall Down
  8. Educated Goal Setting
  9. The Expansion of Time and the Mind
  10. The Future of Emails: I
  11. Writing Prompt Response
  12. Scribes
  13. Focus on Scribes
  14. Future thinking
  15. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
  16. This Little Britain
  17. It Is Not A Democracy
  18. Now You See It, Now You Don’t
  19. Let’s Go To The Papers
  20. What is a historical fart?

Evolutionary Politics for Evolving Citizens

We should all be writing.

Journals. Blogs. Letters to the editor. Letters to others. Letters to representatives. Emails. Facebook posts.

We need to be recording for history what is going on and how we feel about it.

They say that history is written by the winners. I don’t agree. I believe history is written by those who have the most to gain by revising history.

There is a difference between ‘recording’ history and ‘rewriting’ history. We are seeing this happening in 2017. There are those in public life who don’t seem to understand that technology makes it easy to find the videos from the past that document a statement. You can try to deny that you said something but someone will find that video and publish it to prove you are lying.

The current problem is not just the lying about the past, even the recent past. What is most…

View original post 104 more words

4 Comments

Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, History, Juridical matters, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Spiritual affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Weinig Nederlandstalige lezers en nog veel minder reacties

In 2014 ging dit lifestylemagazine van start. Van de 1847 bezoekers konden wij er 115 uit Nederland aantreffen en 106 uit België. Het Nederlandstalige artikel met het meeste bezichtigingen was “Zit je in de put? Stop dan met graven.” van 19 november voor maar 29 bezichtigingen. Na 3 jaar werking staat het engelstalige artikel “Freedom and amendments, firearms and abortions” aan de leiding met 237 bezichtigingen en in het Nederlands “De Familie Palache. Joden en ontroerende onzin” van 23 januari 2017 met 78 bezichtigingen.
Vorig jaar mochten wij van de 5018 bezoekers er 469 aantreffen uit Nederland en 199 uit België met een totaal van 5018 bezoekers en 6888 pagina bezichtigingen.
Ons lijkt dat niet zo veel.

Indien die lage cijfers de enige opbrengst kan zijn voor al het harde werk, kan men de vraag stellen of het dat allemaal waard is. Maar elke lezer telt en elk verhaal heeft op zich haar eigen waarde en haar eigen levensloop. Wij staan nog in onze kinderschoenen en moeten nog uit onze luiers geraken. Ook beseffen wij dat artikelen over seks, seksueel gedrag, koetjes en kalfjes, over eigen of persoonlijke ervaring meer succes zouden hebben dan datgene wat wij hier trachten aan te bieden.

Bezoekers aan onze site zijn diegenen die meehelpen om ons te doen groeien en om ons groter te doen worden. Zij kunnen anderen van ons bestaan laten weten. Ook zouden zij kunnen gebruik maken van de “Like”  knop alsook van de “Sharing” mogelijkheden. Dit gebeurt echter zelden, nochtans lijkt het ons toch niet te moeilijk om van die knop gebruik te maken en ons dan zo te stimuleren om voort te doen of verder de opgeslagen weg te gaan. Vraag hierbij is of ons materiaal dan niet boeiend genoeg is of slechts een zeer beperkt publiek aanspreekt.

De opzet van deze site was om een soort van Readers Digest te creëren zodat mensen met beperkte tijd een selectie van interessante artikelen van allerlei slag en een keuze van over de gehele wereld gepubliceerde blogartikelen kon voorgeschoteld krijgen. In het Engelstalig gebied is er heel wat meer te vinden dan in het Nederlandstalig gebied en aan de kijkcijfers is ook te merken dat de Engelstalige artikelen meer bezichtigers kunnen aantrekken wat ook maakt dat er voor hen ook meer artikelen worden aangeboden.

Wij mogen misschien wel in een wereld leven waar er volop duizenden meningen worden gespuid op allerlei sites en waar sommigen echt overtuigd zijn dat zij het volle recht hebben om ongezouten zo hun eigen mening mogen uiten zonder boe of bah, want zij voelen zich een onvolprezen scherprechter, en wie weet ook een ondergewaardeerd recensent. Hier staat niemand klaar met een stok om niet graag gezien reacties weg te kegelen. Wel staan wij klaar om elke reactie naar waarde te vatten. diegenen die hier langskomen zullen wel moeten beseffen dat wij hier niet enkel onze eigen opinie weergeven. Wij durven gerust het woord geven of linken naar pagina’s die met hun denken niet in lijn liggen met ons denken. Wij willen juist een onbevooroordeeld overzicht geven van wat er op het internet te vinden is van, volgens ons, boeiende lectuur. De opzet van dit platform was juist om het mensen, die weinig tijd hebben, het makkelijk te maken om toch lezenswaardige artikelen voor te schotelen en een selectie van aanvullende lectuur te bezorgen, zodat eenieder die wat meer tijd kan vrij maken op zijn of haar ogenblik tijd kan maken om verder te lezen over een bepaald onderwerp.

Op het internet is een heel kleurenpalet te vinden en naar ons inzien is er zo veel dat wij zelfs tijd te kort hebben om voldoende na te kunnen zien voor onze selectie. Daarom nodigen wij nog steeds vlijtige lezers uit om hun selectie van lezenswaardige artikelen hier op dit platform voor te stellen.

Dit platform is niet echt een forum, maar wel zouden wij het leuk vinden indien wij nu en dan toch nog wat reacties zouden kunnen krijgen. Nu blijven die echter veel te lang uit. Het is zo spijtig dat wij zo weinig respons krijgen. Onze elektronische brievenbussen geraken wel goed gevuld met spam, of met scheldtirades. Je moest eens weten hoe dikwijls worden toegeroepen dat wij zullen branden in de hel. Gelukkig geloven wij niet in zulk een eeuwige folterplaats die zulke vervloekers voor ons in oog hebben. Meer constructieve reacties zouden wij liefst willen zien en durven u daar vandaag ook toe aanzetten.

Misschien is het best dat wij vandaag enkele vragen oproepen, waarop onze lezers dan misschien eens tijd willen voor maken om ze te beantwoorden.

Onze vragen voor vandaag

Vragen die u van harte welkom bent om te beantwoorden

  1.     Zijn de artikelen die we hier presenteren niet van enig belang voor iemand die hier langs komt?
  2.     Is een persoonlijkheidsgevoel dat ontbreekt of echt noodzakelijk?
  3.     Is het verkeerd om te denken dat onze woorden niet zomaar willekeurige woorden zijn? Of zijn onze woorden niet van belang voor de huidige generatie?
  4.     Zou u nog steeds graag een “lijst” van “Aanvullende informatie” en van “Verwante artikelen” willen zien?
  5.     Wat vindt u van een dergelijke selectie die we onze lezers willen presenteren?
  6.     Kijkend naar de statistieken kan het de indruk wekken dat het niet goed gaat met ons. Dus wat kunnen we doen om het beter te maken?
  7.     Wil je dat we nog steeds regelmatig naar interessante blogs zoeken om ze te herbloggen of om ze hier te bespreken?
  8.     Hou je van de kleine gedachten, citaten of overpeinzingen voor de dag. Zou je het waarderen om ze regelmatig gepubliceerd te zien?
  9.     Zou je niet bereid zijn om enkele lezingen die je leuk vond of interessant of belangrijk vond om te lezen te delen op dit platform?
  10.     Als je van je werk houdt, zou het dan niet interessant voor je zijn om er enkele gedachten over te delen met onze lezers?
  11.     Als u een historicus, een psycholoog of een filosoof bent, zou u het niet erg vinden om enkele artikelen te schrijven over historische feiten, menselijke evolutie en menselijke activiteiten, manieren van leven, menselijke manieren en gebeurtenissen, misdaden tegen de mensheid, e.a.?
  12.     Behoort u tot de mensen die geen commentaar hebben op de toestand van onze samenleving?
  13.     Zou je niet een extra plek waarderen waar je af en toe wat gedachten kunt delen die voor anderen interessant zijn om te horen?
  14.     Betreft de hier aanwezige “Like” en “Share” of “Deel” knoppen: Wanneer het zo gemakkelijk wordt geacht om op een dergelijke knop te klikken, waarom gebeurt het dan niet meer? Waarom kunnen we niet meer “Likes” hebben?
  15. Is er een bepaalde angst die je weerhoudt om hier te reageren?

Bloggers For Peace BannerU ook mag u verbinden met een beweging die deze wereld nodig heeft: join a movement the world needs.

 

The-one-thing-that-you-have

+

Voorgaande

Openingswoord voor Nederlandstaligen

Bij angst om excentrisch te zijn in je opinie

++

Aanvullende lectuur

  1. Faal beter

+++

Gerelateerd

  1. #10. De reviewsitereclame.
  2. Mijn allereerste blog ooit
  3. Jupiler 0,0

4 Comments

Filed under Aankondiging & Introductie, Activisme & Vredeswerk, Culturele aangelegenheden, Geschiedenis, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

Readers, likes and comments

Mostly the articles placed on this and our other platforms are not so much placed to open a debate, or better said are no part of a “forum”.

that does not mean we do not like to receive reactions like “likes” or some comments. You can imagine that it takes time to create a post and when we can notice in the statistics that they are read. That may be a stimulant to continue, but also to see a reaction brought by the reader, either by clicking on the “like” or “share” button, this last one giving us the opportunity to receive more readers for that particular article.

Voxate Writing & Editing which was established in 2008 and since then, has been providing writing, editing and SEO services for South African and international clients writes

Reader comments aren’t only a little boost to the blogger that spent hours crafting a post, although they certainly help! They’re also important for search engine optimisation and for letting the blogger know what his or her readers value in terms of content. A good comment can be integral to generating leads, and the commenter may also benefit by directing other readers to his or her own content or blog, since they can usually click your username to be taken directly to your site. It’s an all-round score.

On this site you may find a.o. news articles which discusses current events or recent news of either general interest. Bringing such headlines or talking about recent incidents we do want to bring up some thoughts around those affairs. They are used to focus the reader’s attention on a particular (or main) part of the article or that what we think is important for people who want to make something of our society. At the same time looking at what we think may be a major event we also try to give facts and detailed information following answers to general questions like the Five W’s: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Our intention is also to offer some encyclopedia articles or reference works, offering a more in-depth informative article with a primary division of content. For this we are still looking for more contributors, willing to share their knowledge around specific subjects like ‘life’, ‘living’, ‘history’, ‘culture’.

This Blog as such may have blog articles which are like magazine or newspaper articles whilst others may be written more like entries in a personal journal. More important as lifestyle magazine we do hope we may offer some different opinions about several important life issues, of which the religious and spiritual aspects are not gone out of the way.

Being aware that today not many people have lots of time to read serious articles, we do love to present on this site an overview of articles we think would be interesting to read. Therefore we offer next to our own articles a selection of reblogged posts. We may not bring a Listicle or a specific article whose primary content is a list, but at the end of the postings presented over here we also do try to offer a listing of other additional readings or related articles we could select from the blogging world. We also do hope to bring here a sort of Readers Digest and are still hoping some more writers would join us to help us to succeed in those efforts.
Concerning the “Related articles” service we offer, we regularly do get some irritated bloggers who ask us to take their writing of the list. This discourages us a lot for doing all that research work, checking all those posts, looking for them of being of interest. Therefore we reduces already the time for searching and reading so many blogs, to look for something to share. We also can use more people to help us looking for interesting writers, photographers, to present their articles or work to our readers.
Normally we would think there must be enough people who read several blogs and would be able to find something worth reblogging, this being an extra place to do so, next to their own blog, and at the same time giving them the opportunity to link to their own articles. As such we can offer additional readers to those who are willing to join this effort of sharing information and promoting a multicultural and multicoloured world.

In our articles we talked already a lot about how we use are time and on what we are willing to spend time in our time limited day and world. Being aware that not enough people do take time to retreat and to take some time to look at things, wondering how everything is going good or bad and why certain things evolve a certain way, we are trying to bring some balance and are willing to give some material for thought. Having only certain moments a day for ourselves or to do something else than our job, being limited in time we sincerely do hope to be able to offering some interesting material. If not so let us know.

The small thoughts or quotes we offer a day, we do hope can give something to think and are a welcome meditation for the day. Perhaps they can bring you to some daydreaming or musing.

In 2014 we started and reached 1847 visitors with 3124 views offering us 263 likes. Last year we got 5018 visitors fetching 6888 views willing to give us 486 likes. We are pleased to find 279 WordPress followers and only 2 e-mail followers, making us not such a popular blog it seems. Or do you find we do not do enough our best as a team? What can we do more?
Comparing with my personal (political) site I generate 256 WordPress followers and 9 e-mail followers. It is also not so much but there I bring very personal views and spend not so much time as on my other (religious and lifestyle magazine) blogs.

Looking at the statistics it may give the impression we are not doing well or it may be very discouraging. So what can we do to make it better?

Steve Hayes also may have a similar feeling like me. He writes

Speaking for myself now, one of the reasons that I write blog posts is that I have some half-baked ideas floating around, and I’m hoping that others will read them and help me to bake them. So it’s pretty discouraging when there are no comments at all. {The importance of blog comments}

WordPress does a wonderful job diverting spam from the inbox.

For me the talking we do bring here on certain matters and bringing comments on some expressions of others or on certain blogwritings is giving comments on the quoted blog, though most often nothing of our comments is quoted on the discussed page or no link to the article is mentioned. When we get some feed back it is mostly somebody who is angry that he is quoted or that we dared to link to his article. Most often when we get such reply we are asked to delete the link or the mentioning of that person’s name. For that reason it can be that after some time you come to read an article again some related articles may not appear any more in the list. Those negative reactions concerning the links to related articles made us also to decide to reduce this service we thought would be productive for both sides. What surprises us that several blog writers do forget that when they with writing on the net and not making their blog private, have the possibility that from everywhere  all sorts of people may come to see and read what they have written and should as such also not be surprised when people react on their site (what we also do, but not have it appreciated all the time – certainly not on the religious front.)
One big problem is also that we daily get in a lot of spam or ridiculous mail nothing to do with the article or articles. Spam luckily enough gets straight in the Spambox to be deleted.

Spending hours moderating comments and determining what is or isn’t spam can be extremely frustrating.

I do agree this blog and my ‘personal’ blog are not really blogs about me or an other person his personality. when I look at some very popular blogs I notice that most often they are about the person himself or herself or really commercial blogs without the followers noticing it or being aware of it that it is a blog full of advertisements or promotional articles. Dominic Sceski (Aul) a sixteen year-old home-schooled student formulates it this way

You might have a huge following, but if you don’t have a sense of personality, people will stop treating you like a blogger.  They’ll see your blog posts, they’ll Like them, hopefully they’ll read them…but if you are only putting your writing forward, or whatever you’re trying to promote, people won’t care about you.  They won’t know YOU.

People might like your blog, but they aren’t going to comment unless they like you.

Think about it.

If your blog, your writing, lacks a sense of YOU, what will people be seeing?   Just words.  They might be some good words.  But if they aren’t able to attribute them to you, then why would they comment?  Who are they commenting to?  Not a person.   Just words.  And no one praises or converses with random words, however good they are.

its-all-about-me

Of course, maybe you ARE putting yourself into what you write…but maybe it’s too much of yourself.  I see this sooooo often.  Those bloggers who get big and popular and then all they do is blog about themselves and their own personal endeavors.  The titles of their posts are eternally:

“Hey, check out my new book”

“PLEASE buy my new book”

“Hey, guess what?  My new book is out”

“Update on my story”

You get the picture.

I’ve said this multiple times and I’ll say it again.  If you want followers and an active audience, blog about things people CARE about.  Blog about things that HELP people.  Make them WANT or NEED you.

Are we according to you then not blogging about matters that can help you or others? We do agree we talk more than once about God and the way of life according His rules, and not so many people are interested in that. Is that a reason why we have so few followers? Is that what we try to offer our readers not something some people want?

Voxate comments

Although time is scarce and we’re often reading other blogs between other must-do’s on our daily schedule, making the time to comment is important – both for the link it may allow you to include to your own blog or site, and to the blogger.

I take the liberty to reproduce the result of Voxate his inquiries posed in his article Why Reader Comments Are The Cat’s Pajamas concerning

 

  • reader comments that meant the most to them (I’ve included them as written and submitted):

    Gaynor from Tulips and Phoenixes said:

    The comments on this blog post of mine have been the most special to me because of the wonderful feedback I received from various people. It showed just how fond people were about the area of Tsitsikamma and how willing they were to share the love for it. This is why I blog – I love seeing comments like these!

    ___________________________________________

    Steve, who blogs at Khanya, said:

    The comment by Nomtha Gawe on this post. It gives a complementary experience to that described in the blog, and thus a different persective on it, while remaining on topic. She immediately grasps what the post is saying, relates it to her own experience, which is similar in some ways but different in others, and explains it lucidly.

    ___________________________________________

     

    Luchae, from My Spreadsheet Brain, added:

    Marcolene’s comment really meant a lot to me. It feels good knowing my oversharing brought some sort of peace to someone else’s crazy thoughts…

    ___________________________________________

     

    Lizna, from With Elizabeth H, shared a candid post about her weight struggles.

    She really appreciated Ilona Fourie’s comment, which read, “What a awesome post. Whilst I was reading it so much rang true to me. I have been on a roller coaster with my weight. I have lost 26kg but have not been able to move any more in the last year. I have tried and tried and are failing miserably. It has made me so negative and I keep asking myself whats wrong with me. This is a war that few people understand and I am so grateful to have read your post!” Lizna said:

    It meant a lot to me because I am not alone, me and her became such great friends that we are actually living together now, you find best friends when you least expect it. 
    ___________________________________________

    JustEllaBella also shares some really personal stuff. Ella says:

    Over there years I’ve opened up about losing my son. Sometimes it felt a little self indulgent and that people would surely be rolling their eyes at me BUT I speak about him because of comments like these. People who can relate, I have somehow told them it’s okay not to be okay and for that I am grateful. This one particularly struck a chord, “i simply love this blog. lost my baby girl also two days after she was born in hospital 7 February 2017 and to this day she is a big part of our lives. This is the first time i ever spoke about her to anyone besides my husband.God decided he needs her more and she is now one of heavens angels im just glad to have had the opportunity to meet her. i also hope that the best part of her 48 hours on earth was meeting mom&dad.
    -Forever Gianni Hendricks-“
    ___________________________________________

    In Africa and Beyond is one of my favourite travel blogs. Sara shares some of the reader comments that touched her the most:

    On my post about “30 Photos of South Africa That Will Fuel Your Wanderlust” Erika said, “I was tearing up looking at these photos. Going to South Africa has always been a dream of mine. I loved seeing it through your eyes and hope to see it through mine one day soon.”

    Jonelle, from Tyranny of Pink, had an understandably tough time:

    I’ve narrowed it down to this post, but I can’t choose a specific comment. A lot of comments are also sent to me privately because my blog is so raw and personal but each and every comment on my blog is a reminder of why I blog. The sense of community, that feeling of not being alone. The understanding that it’s okay to not be okay. The affirmations from other women who are in the same position as me. I treasure every comment, many of them moving me to tears because other women GET me and other women feel what I feel and in many cases, it’s a rawness that they share with me about their own experience with loss, grief, parenting and just being. Comments remind me in the times that blogging feels like too much that this is my tribe, these are my people and I’m never alone!

    In this article, Zena posted a comment that was meanginful to me. She said, ” Jonelle you have such courage to have written this great story, a tribute to your hero. You have inspired me. I work everyday for a foundation in memory of Hassan and its been 8 yrs since his passing and 4 years working here, and still have not had your courage to even speak or write a sentence, I believe the time will come.”

    ___________________________________________

    Shante Hutton of Rose For Thorns shared a very personal post, and valued this comment:

    Beautiful Shante, your story touched me so deeply that I found it difficult not only to find words, but to actually find my voice. You told your story in such a delicate yet profound way and I’m in awe of you right now. Reading your story, your pain and then how the birth of your daughter opened your heart to this incredible love again is wonderful. And isn’t it amazing how the opening of your womb caused an opening of the heart! Like a flower you have opened and become even more beautiful than you already were.
    I also lost my brother 34 years ago. I was 23 and he was 26 and because we were the last two of 8 kids, we were very close. So one sunny morning 34 years ago, I kissed him goodbye as I dropped him at work, not knowing that as I watched him walk away I would never see him again. For many years I would search for him on a crowded street or shop or anywhere thinking, it was just a mistake and that he was alive somewhere and I suppose that was how I coped.
    So thank you for your story, we all need to be reminded of how God, in His infinite wisdom can bring us out of darkness and into His beautiful light.
    Never forget how strong, courageous and breathtaking beautiful you are.
    love n blessings
    Connie

    ___________________________________________

     

    For the Bloggers

    To encourage your readers to comment more on your posts, you could:

    • Ask open-ended questions that prompt them to answer in the comments
    • Have a numbered list (e.g. 9 Ways To Clean Your Ears) and then ask them to add to this number
    • Write a controversial post; this often leaves readers chomping at the bit to include their pro or anti opinion
    • Reply to the existing comments – this starts a conversation
    • Comment on other blogs
    • Encourage commenting on your social media platforms

    To Wrap It Up

    Don’t underestimate the power and reach of your comments on the blogs and posts of others. By using this powerful tool, you play a big part in SEO and engagement – both for the post on which you’re commenting and on your own site.

*

Now we come to the end of this article, we dare to ask you some questions and perhaps you would not mind to answer some of them or to give us some advice.

*

Questions you are welcome to answer

  1. Are the articles we present over here stuff nobody or not many are interested in?
  2. Is a sense of personality lacking or really necessary?
  3. Are we wrong to think our words are not just random words? Or are our words not of any interest to the present generation?
  4. Would you still like to see a “Listicle” of “Additional Reading” and of  “Related articles”?
  5. What do you find of such selection we like to present our readers?
  6. Looking at the statistics it may give the impression we are not doing well. So what can we do to make it better?
  7. Do you like us to regularly to search for interesting blogs to Reblog them or to discuss them over here?
  8. Do you like the small thoughts, quotes or musings for the day. Would you appreciate it to have them regularly?
  9. Are there any subjects you want to see covered more?
  10. Would you not be willing to share some readings you liked or did find interesting or important to read?
  11. When you love your job, would it not be interesting for you to share some thoughts about it with our readers?
  12. When you are a historian, a psychologist or a philosopher would you not mind writing some articles about historic facts, human evolution and human activities, ways of life, human manners and events, crimes against humanity, a.o.?
  13. Do you belong to the people who have no comment on the state of our society?
  14. would you not appreciate an extra place where you now and then can share some thoughts which would be interesting for others to hear?
  15. When it is considered so easy to click a like button why does it not happen more? Why can we not have more “Likes”?

When-you-stand-and-shareBloggers For Peace BannerYou too may join a movement the world needs.

 

The-one-thing-that-you-have

+

Preceding articles

From Guestwriters 2015 in review

From Guestwriters 2016 in review

Be realistic, do not pretend

The Culture of Excesses- Losing Humanity

Thoughts and reflections taking only a few minutes

The Scensual World – Mission & Vision

Awards, prizes, Peace and Working together

Again nominated for the same award

Do you have a writer or presenter in you?

1000 articles placed on From Guestwriters

++

Additional reading

  1. My blogs 2014 in review
  2. A new voice calling for peace
  3. Americans wrongly informed about situation in Europe

+++

Related articles

  1. A Comment Issue
  2. Comments How do you get more comments on your blog? Just asking.
  3. The Reason Why People “Like” But They Don’t Comment
  4. Is It All About Likes/Comments When It Comes To Blogging?
  5. The Awkward Duty and Ecstatic Joy of Comments // The Blogging Life
  6. Kan du kommentera min sida / Can you comment on my page
  7. Candid Comments
  8. The Potpourri of Blogging Comments
  9. Is it time to turn off comments on your blog?
  10. The return of the comments malfunction !
  11. The Joys of Spam ~ Amusing Comment
  12. Interesting and Nonsensical Spam Comments
  13. The Real Reason Why Nicki Minaj Turned off Her comments and Erased her Instagram Profile
  14. Response to Some Comments
  15. New Rule – No spoilers in comment
  16. A comment on the state of society

15 Comments

Filed under Announcement, Cultural affairs, Fashion - Trends, Headlines - News, History, Social affairs

Quiz questions, views, left- and right-wing anti-Semitism

An Orthodox Christian got confronted by a friend who recently posted a link to an article on anti-Semitism which claimed that anti-Semitism of the left was more dangerous than anti-Semitism of the right. He found the article biased and tendentious for several reasons and writes

For one thing, the author seemed to characterise “the Left” in much the same way that antisemites characterise the Jews — with stereotypes based on innuendoes. Just as for antisemites there is no need to substantiate any accusations against “the Jews”, so for those authors there is no need to substantiate any allegations against “the Left”, because those are something that “everyone knows”.

Anti-semitism from which site it may come in whatever country it may be uttered is also something which is wrong and should not be accepted. the writer of the article may have been writing about the “the Left” in the American sense, which means still a very conservative group, because the left for Americans can be a group which belongs to the Democrats.

Steve Hayes aged 9

The writer of Khanya, Steve Hayes considers himself a a liberal who believes that theological liberalism leads to political conservatism and vice versa. According to him there is primary an ascetic struggle as part of the training and discipline we need in order to engage in other aspects of the struggle. {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}

The primary aspect of spiritual warfare, therefore, is the struggle against the passions leading to theosis (divinisation, godliness). {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}

When we look at today’s society we can see al lot of ungodliness and it is just because so many people are so far away from God’s rules that there are so many problems in this world.

Soon after seeing the anti-Semitism article, someone posted one of those quizzes on Facebook that purport to show whether you are left or right. Hayes questions

Is it accurate? I don’t know, but I thought it would be interesting to do it to see what the quiz authors regarded as “left” or “right” characteristics, which can itself be revealing of social trends.

Funny to see I had exactly the same result as him, getting following result:

Your political views:

result

You can take the test here,and compare your results with ours.

I can assure you I am not for Tax-increases but I am for a better distribution of wealth and a better differentiation for the wages and a better performance related pay.

Hayes is anti-war, anti-abortion and anti-capital punishment and writes

Most of those who claim to be pro-life are less than solidly so, and are rather full-of-holes pro-life. If you want a more accurate test to take your political temperature, try the Political Compass.

Having tried it myself it showed my Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67

personalised chart

My position plotted against the UK parties in the 2015 general election would be

UK Political Parties chart 2015 including Respect, Sinn Féin, Scottish Socialist Party, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party, SDLP, Green, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, UKIP, Labour, DUP, BNP

which I think would not be a bad picture.

Hayes remarks

Be that as it may, very few of the characteristics ascribed to the left, either in the test or in the antisemitism article, appeared directly in the quiz questions. There was nothing about intersectionality (whatever that may be) or “identity politics” (which sounds like a pretty right-wing thing to me). But there were quite a lot of questions about Christian values. One of a group of four that I opted for was “kindness”, because it came closest to the Christian value of love, though whether the test counted that as “left” or “right” I’m not sure, but I noticed that it does place the Christian value of forgiveness on the left. {Anti-Semitism, anti-leftism and anti-Christianity}

I consider Jesus a “communist avant la lettre” and have seen several tests where the agapè love is considered to be “leftish”. The Christian value of forgiveness is also many times placed on the left.

Though what shocks me and troubles me a lot is that several people in the U.S.A. who call themselves “Christian” or “Born again Christian” have not much feeling for other people and or not much interested in sharing with those around them. Many of them oppose anything what has a smell of socialism or systems where is demanded that people help each other or provide money in a fund or system like Obama Care to help others. Lots of those so called Christians have also a very averse attitude to true or non-trinitarian Christians, Jews and Muslims. All that worship the Only One True God and not their Trinity seem to be people they would like to see to “burn in hell”.

Clearly when hearing lots of North Americans talking on the little screen, they give an impression all those who do not belong to their Christendom are disgusting people which should be thrown out of the country. Some have such weird ideas about other faiths that we in Europe can wonder if they did not learn about them in their schools and if the media does not give any good advice. Looking at some TV-station , like Fox, we see lots of de-information and no objective information.

In the American media we see a lot of anti-black racism and a lot of Islamophobia, plus the choice of many to consider those with a “white” skin (I would say an light tainted orange skin) superior to those with an other coloured skin. As such the Jew comes into the picture as well, having not the Caucasian looks. Jews all over the world comes in all shades — from blonde to black. In Israel the conflict between Jews and Palestinians isn’t about race. Nor are the tensions between Jews from Europe and those from the Muslim world — though activists and academics sometimes import the terms “black” and “white,” in defiance of their lying eyes. But on many American platforms the looks of the Jews bring sayings against them which I would prefer not to hear in a civilised country.

Already in the preparation for the previous American election we could find several lies about Obama his origin and birthplace. This was for us already an indication that there was more brewing and that a significant portion of Americans felt horror that an Afro-American could become president.

Race is the most pervasive reason that some Americans believe they can discriminate against and despise others. When you see certain Jews their body clearly shows certain marks, which are good enough a sign for those so called Christians to call them murderers of Jesus and to hate them.

Some may think anti-Semitism just isn’t as bad as other forms of racism, but it is. Worse is it when there is an attitude of

Jews don’t count as a group worth protecting.
Jonathan TaubesJonathan Taubes, a student activist at Binghamton University who worked with progressive campaigns in Binghamton, on and off campus, writes
Jewish people face bigotry in this country, and the history of institutional anti-Semitism here is real, but today we find ourselves mostly free of persecution. We should recognize that privilege and use it to fight for the vulnerable. {Dear Allies, Don’t Downplay Anti-Semitism in Trump’s America}
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed at the beginning of this year that the number of anti-Semitic incidents remained significantly higher in 2017 compared to 2016. In addition to the significant bump in the first quarter of this year, there was also a distinct increase after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
Since 1979, ADL has counted anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. and reported the numbers in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. It can be said that also in the U.S.A. the amount of injustices to Jews became too high. New York State (267 incidents); California (197); Massachusetts (117); Florida (69) and Pennsylvania (58) incidents of crimes against Jews for their race.

In August, ADL recorded a “meta-event” rarely seen in America: the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., which featured shocking and violent expressions of anti-Semitism and racism, including the display of swastika flags, chants of “Jews will not replace us!” and other overt anti-Semitic acts.

There seems such a fear that they would replaced by Jews and Muslims or that their world would become Islamic. Though then why do they not question their own religion and their own religious members. In case they would be strong believers there should be no fear that they would leave their faith. When they are standing strong in their faith they should even be able to come to witness to Muslims and Jews and have them to come to Christianity.

Anti-Semitic incidents spiked on and immediately following Charlottesville. Of the 306 incidents reported in Q3, 221 took place on or after the August 11 rally.

The Charlottesville rally was one of at least 33 public white supremacist events in the U.S. so far this year, which were supplemented with 188 incidents where white supremacists used fliers to spread their message to new audiences, especially on college campuses.

Police departments and human rights groups across the United States of America and all over Europe show that there is a dramatically rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes. When the president’s chief counterterrorism advisor, Sebastian Gorka, was found to support a violent anti-Semitic militia in his parents’ native Hungary, there showed a situation where the left talks about white supremacy as if Jews aren’t affected and anti-Semitism is just a distraction from real issues – when, in fact, anti-Semitism is at the core of the white supremacist ideologies today’s leftist movements seek to upend.

The anti-Semitism article Hayes encountered, also has a significant comment on the Christian worldview — How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible To The Left – The Forward:

In addition to the belief in a shadowy group with the power to affect large-scale outcomes, conspiracy theories also reflect a worldview in which reality is the product of a timeless and cosmic struggle between good and evil. These kinds of dualistic narratives are especially enticing to groups that view themselves to be under existential duress, and as Elaine Pagels has shown, this has profoundly shaped Western culture. Jews under Roman occupation and early Christians under Jewish ostracism and gentile persecution developed theologies of the oppressed in which the devil and his demonic host squared off with God and his angels.

Hayes believes that there is a cosmic struggle between good and evil,

though I’m not sure that it is timeless. The Christian take on it is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the decisive battle was won by good, and we live in the last days of mopping up operations.

That we live in a time close to the end-times we may see in the signs given in the bible, which we can recognise clearly. But that should not have to mean we should let everything happen like it goes now.

Hayes thinks that

Western Christianity tends to be legalistic, to share the values of the Right rather than the Left, preferring punishment to forgiveness, and justice to kindness (in the left-right quiz mentioned above).

but than he forgets to see what real Christians preach.The real lovers of God recognise what the Nazarene Jew has done and do now that there is no such place as a hell to torture people for ever. Real Christians keep to the bible teachings and not to the human doctrines and human fear-mongering to have their flock under control. though Hayes recognises the appalling falsehoods that several Christian denominations

smack of perversity even to attack its perverseness.[1] And the conclusion is altogether evil. {Love the sinner, hate the sin}

For him is in his Orthodox theology the Church a hospital where sinners can be healed rather than a courtroom where they are to be judged. He should know that it is also in other Christian denominations, like the Christadelphians for example. In the Christadelphian faith it is even so that we consider no man to judge others, except those in function as judge, but still it being up to Jesus to give the end verdict.

He rightly says

if we are Christians we must love the sinner but hate the sin.

We must

  • Love the oppressor but hate oppression

  • Love the corrupt politician and businessman, but hate corruption

  • Love the warmonger but hate war

  • Love the exploiter but hate exploitation

and I would add that we should protect all those who have no voice and should come up for all those who are discriminated or done wrong.

Lest it seems that Hayes is saying that the line between good and evil runs between Eastern and Western Christianity, making “us” superior to “them”, he quotes a Western Christian, G.K. Chesterton, on this:

The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt.

There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor.

A Christian may consistently say,

“I respect that man’s rank, although he takes bribes.”

But a Christian cannot say, as all modern men are saying at lunch and breakfast,

“a man of that rank would not take bribes.”

For it is a part of Christian dogma that any man in any rank may take bribes. It is a part of Christian dogma; it also happens by a curious coincidence that it is a part of obvious human history. When people say that a man “in that position” would be incorruptible, there is no need to bring Christianity into the discussion. Was Lord Bacon a bootblack? Was the Duke of Marlborough a crossing sweeper? In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment.

12 Comments

Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, History, Juridical matters, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Jews In France Ponder Whether To Stay Or To Leave

“French-Jewish families are being forced from their homes in Paris suburbs as Europe continues to be convulsed by levels of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of the Second World War.

Rue Gabriel Péri, a pedestrian zone in Saint-Denis, in 2012.

The Paris commuter newspaper 20 Minutes documents an “internal exodus” during 2017 of Jews from the Seine-Saint-Denis department, saying

“it is emblematic of broader concerns that French Jews, like their brothers and sisters across Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their faith with the changing demographics of the continent.”

Who would ever have thought that after the lessons of World War 2 we’d see this sort of thing in Europe again. Well, we are, and we may not do if our node bleeds, or turn our heads when a car drives over the pavement to hit Jewish pedestrians, or have our ears shut when people shout

“Dirty Jews, You’re going to die!”

 

The third largest Jewish community in the world has seen growing anti-Semitism in France since the 2000s. Increasingly, the Jewish community in France no longer feels safe. The most salient events were the murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006, the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and the attack on the Hypercasher in Paris in 2015. These three events alone accounted for the murder of nine Jews, including three children who were murdered at close range.

In 2014, there were 851 antisemitic acts of violence in France as recorded by the Protection Service of the Jewish Community.  Indeed, some Jews in their private lives in France have given up wearing their kippa or the Star of David for fear of insults or aggression. This video from 2015 shows the kind of intimidation a Jew can face depending on what part of Paris they walk through.

The Aliyah In Israel 

The growing antagonism towards them has led some French Jews to make the drastic decision to leave the country.

For several decades now, Jews in France have been leaving for Israel. The attacks of 2015 doubled the figure of departures, which is now about 6,000 to 7,000 per year. Following the 2015 attacks, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu traveled to Paris, and while there did not miss the opportunity to mention that Israel was open to French Jews. The president of the Jewish Agency for Israel went further, stating that there was “no future for Jews in France.

Read more

+

Preceding articles

Dr. Miller looking at Jews in France

Apocalyptic Extremism: No Longer a Laughing Matter

Anti-Semitic pressure driving Jews out of Europe

Growing anti-Semitism possible sign of certain times

What to do in the Face of Global Anti-semitism

Geen groeiende moslimhaat in Europa, maar groeiende jodenhaat

++

Additional reading

  1. Religious Practices around the world
  2. Who is a Jew?

+++

Further related

  1. The Rise of Anti-Seminism
  2. If you’re going to be a hater, make sure you’ve done your homework.
  3. French Jews will have to give up Israeli citizenship, says Le Pen
  4. French Jews imagine life under Marine Le Pen
  5. Israel’s New Cultural War of Aggression

15 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Headlines - News, History, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #1 Abrahamic religions

2016 was already a year of great dissonance, 2017 was not so much better. It did turn its back unto us, but left a big stamp on what we might expect for this year. The world looked with astonishment to the one who managed to become the 45th president of the United States of America. What most people in the West thought would not ever happen did happen. It shows how mistaken we can be.

Like their leader,who thinks he can decide which place has to be the capital of a certain country, several of the citizens of that so called ‘united’ States think they may decide which word people have to use to speak about their god or how to call God. On many internet platforms and chat-groups or Facebook Groups, those Americans want to forbid people in whose languages already thousands of years before the U.S.A. was founded, the word Allah was used to denote “God” to call the Most High Maker “Allah”. They forgetting that this title’s origin can be traced back to the earliest Semitic writings in which the word for “god” was il or el, the latter being used in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Allāh is the standard Arabic word for God and is used by Arab speaking people as well as in many other languages by Christians as well as by Muslims .

Those English speaking Americans having the pretentious to decide which word other language speaking people may use for speaking about their God. Worse is that several of those stubborn Americans do not want to see that they commit blasphemy against the Divine Creator. One can wonder if it is because of their education of lack of education that those Americans go so much against the word “Allah” they even do not come to see or understand that it is a common title for “God” in many languages and in many countries outside the United States of America and in many religious groups.

0042_20Just to few some active bloggers, we can find a person living in in Troutdale, Oregon USA, who loves cats and perhaps likes to crawl like one. Though she writes to be a lover of Christ we can not see that expressed in her writings which are a continuous attack on a group of people as well on those who dare to use “Allah” to speak about their “God”. Strange that an “average man who tries to do his best at being the kind of person the Bible tells us we are all suppose to be” likes to follow and duplicate her writings doing just the opposite the Bible tells and also bringing blasphemy to the Divine Creator.  Though both have a writing where they quote (Exodus 20:3 KJV) they both, like many other Americans love an other god, are even not afraid to draw pictures of their god and worship in front of graven images (though that is against the commandments of the Only One True God). In the cartoons they publish they also say umbilical things and want their readers to believe “Jesus is the only one god”, instead of recognising that Jesus is the son of God. Naturally the Old Poet and Kristi Ann are free to take whatever god they want, but they should not forbid others to use the title “Allah” for the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. If they do not want to see that Jesus is the way to the Only One True God, that is their problem and their right, but they should not hinder those who want to love Christ Jesus and take the God of Jesus as their “Allah“.

Though the

people make the statement that all ‘these religions’ pray to the same God, they just call Him/Her by a different name, so why can’t they all just get along? {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}

In a certain way he is right because Jews, real Christians and Muslims worship the Only One True God, Whose Name is Jehovah, whilst the majority of those who call themselves Christian do not worship the same God as Jesus but have made Jesus into their god, and in fact are ‘hidden’ polytheists, having a three-headed god with different qualities as the main god.

But the Old Poet has an other view on that and see other reasons for not believing that they worship the same god. He writes

This statement would be nice, if it were true, but it isn’t at all correct. Mostly the people I have heard say this nonsense have been the Hollywood types or talking heads from the NYC area. People who make this assumption tend to be people who have no knowledge of what the different religions teach and usually have no knowledge of even the teachings of one religion. {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}

The Old poet recognises that there are different divisions in the Christian communities, of which he claims that they

have no knowledge of what the different religions teach and usually have no knowledge of even the teachings of one religion. {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}

Strange enough he says himself

“Yet I am not going to stone any believers in Jesus Christ whether they are Protestant or Catholic.” {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}

Though he condemns all those Catholics and Protestants who use the word “Allah” and condemns all the Bibles and Christian teaching books where the writers use “Allah” when they speak about their God, be it a Trinity or a Binary or Unitarian God. Very strange it becomes, when he continues

One of the many things I have never understood in life is how groups that believe that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and King can raise their weapons against another person who believes the same thing, in the name of Religion, in the name of Christ! This confusion isn’t just among Christian Churches, let God be the Judge, we are not qualified. {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}

But he himself and his favourite female writer do throw stones to all those Christians who worship Allah and have Jesus Christ as their saviour. He asks God to be the judge, but he himself judges all those people who do not speak English and use the words of their language to speak about God and not his English title he likes so much. By his writings he also condemns the books which got an imprimatur from the Roman Catholic Church and have the title of God written as “Allah”. By her writings Kristi Ann indicates than that that Roman Catholic Church is the instrument of “Satan”.

Kristi Ann further writes on her website

Only Devout Judaism and Christianity is Right {He is (Yahweh-Jehovah) God!!}

though seems to overlook that no Jew or no real Christian would ever believe in her three gods: a God the Father, god the son and a god the Holy Spirit. For real lovers of the Jewish Nazarene rabbi there is only One and the same God, The God of the Jews and Muslims, namely the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jeshua (Christ Jesus) and his disciples, the God of Israel, the El Shaddai, Jehovah Jireh.

In her article He is (Yahweh-Jehovah) God!! she brings a lot of quotes from the Holy Scriptures, which she herself does not seem to belief, because she has made herself an other god than the God of the Bible. She may do that, but then she may not throw stones to those who prefer to believe those verses which declare that there is Only One True God.

When she then also attacks those people who use their own language and not English, it becomes to much to bare or to let it circulate the internet without any reaction. It is not up to her, or any other person who calls himself or herself Christian, to dictate that the words to describe the Most High Divine Creator of all things should be their English word “God”. We and all those for which “Allah” is the word to describe the title of the Most High God should not be dictated by American nationalists and/or Neo-Nazis which title to use, or should not be dictated by them to have such or such city as their capital. They may have freedom of speech but should also have others to have the same freedom of speech and the freedom of language.

Several American Christian magazines try also to bring confusion and have those who use the word “Allah” to denounce that God or those using that title

“The key condition behind calling the Christian God Allah is that Allah must refer to the same God as the one in the Bible. However, this requirement presents “a huge problem for both Muslims and Christians….” From its very starting point Islam denies what Christianity takes as its central truth claim – the fact that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. If Allah has no Son by definition, Allah is not the God who revealed himself in the Son. How then can the use of Allah by Christians lead to anything but confusion …and worse?” {passage from the ‘Christian Post’, U.S. (Is Calling the Christian God ‘Allah’ Wrong? – August 23, 2007)  Ustaz Azahar A Pluralist?}

That writer like many Muslims seems to forget that lots of Muslims may be confused by the son part, though they still also call Abraham their patriarch and themselves children of Abraham.

From Muslim site there is also a grudge against all those who use the word “Allah” as if they have the sole right to use that word.

“Allah” in the Bible – Two copies of the Bible in Malay (L) and the Iban dialect are seen in this picture illustration taken in Kuala Lumpur January 2, 2014. REUTERS/Samsul Said

In this country, Allah has been used to refer to God, whereas Tuhan, which the ruling party wants Catholics/Christians to use, is a generic term which is non specific, hence the refusal by the Malay/indigenous language speaking Catholics and Christians to budge. {Malaysia: Muslims confiscate Bibles, police threaten arrests if non-Muslims use word “allah”}

To the West and East it is clear the U.S.A. would not love more to have an American take-over. Their president like a little child boasts about having a bigger button than the North Koreans have, and by always shouting about having better and bigger weapons he and his Alt-Right friends and those who call themselves Christian but fight against all who have an other idea or use other words than they, are a danger for world peace.

As we can see what happened in certain Muslim countries wanting to have the sole use for the word of “god” them claiming they alone should be allowed to use “Allah” we now find the opposite by fundamentalist Christians (mainly North American U.S.A. citizens) who claim that everybody should use their word and nobody alse should use the title “god” for any other god, though they forget that the bible itself calls angels, Moses, Pharao, Baal, Apollo; Zeus, “god” (notice the small letter), even when they (according to us) are not their god Jesus , nor the Real Divine Creator God above all gods, the Host of hosts, which has in certain languages also the title “God” (with capital) or “Allah”, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, the Only One True God.

The smear of certain Christians, their strong reactions against users of the title “Allah” and their strong reactions against those who prefer the Islamic Faith, doing as if all Muslims are Islamic terrorists and haters of God, makes it that we see it coming closer to the times the Bible mentions that religion shall come up against religion.

+

Preceding

Crisis man needed in this world

+

Additional reading

  1. Today’s thought “Sun, moon and stars” (January 22)
  2. The language of Jesus and the title of God
  3. Government school classroom assignment on world religions in discussion and Islamophobia gone wild
  4. ISIS cannot be presenters of the real Islam
  5. Malaysia requires sole use of God’s title for Muslims
  6. The Divine name of the Creator

+++

Kristi Ann falsely claiming that the Quran would say “Allah” or “The God”, Whom we take to be Jehovah, is the “Best of deceivers” and Satan

The blasphemous postings: by Kristi Ann “Muslims bow and worship allah / satan Everyday!!” + “allah is NOT a god!!” and the reposting by Old Poet’s ‘Truth troubles’: allah is NOT a god!! are just one of the disturbing postings on the net we encountered the last few months.

+++

Related articles

  1. Kalimah Allah: The Argument of a (Very) Confused Man
  2. Ustaz Azahar A Pluralist?
  3. Islamic Authorities Seize Bibles Because Christians Use the Word ‘Allah’
  4. For Bumiputera Christians, ‘Allah’ ban akin to cultural ‘genocide’, says archbishop
  5. Malaysia: Muslims confiscate Bibles, police threaten arrests if non-Muslims use word “allah”
  6. Arabic Bibles have been falsified to please Muslim converts
  7. Imam Goes Off Script at Vatican
  8. Pope Francis: Vicar of Allah?
  9. Be good even if you don’t receive good, not because of other’s sake but because Allah loves the good doers. -Ibn al-Qayyim.
  10. 99 Names of Allah: al-Rahman
  11. Part 103: To Allah do we belong…
  12. HumanBeing Can only Dream
  13. Masha Allah! Qur’an offers a clearer understanding of Prophet Isa (Jesus).
  14. What is God?
  15. ​Christianity Vs Islam.
  16. Depression in Islam
  17. Why did Vikings have “Allah” embroidered into funeral clothes?
  18. No issue about using ‘Allah’ for God
  19. The Spheres of Heaven
  20. Eid Reflection: Allah is Beautiful and Loves Beauty (The Beautification of Man by God)
  21. Allah Made Easy #2
  22. Why do so many Muslims hate America?

27 Comments

Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Religious affairs, Social affairs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Hedendaagse protestanten tegenover Katholieken of de Antichrist

In 2011 schreef het Reformatorisch Dagblad al

Als Luther zijn confessionele volgelingen vandaag zou kunnen zien, zou hij dan niet het hoofd moeten schudden en zijn hart vasthouden, omdat de ”theologie van het kruis” toch weer al te zeer een ”theologie van glorie” is geworden, waarbij het zo moeilijk is om blijvend te leven uit geloof alleen, uit genade alleen? Overigens geldt deze vraag evenzeer voor de protestanten die zich afstammeling weten van Calvijn. {De ernst van Luther en Calvijn}

English: Thomas Schirrmacher of World Evangeli...

English: Thomas Schirrmacher of World Evangelical Alliance in discussion with the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Churches Bartholomäus I. in Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Als wij naar de vele protestantse kerken kijken zien wij ook dat heel veel zaken waar die geestelijken zich 5 eeuwen geleden tegen verzet hebben nu weer gewoon aanvaardbare zaken zijn in de denominaties die hun naam dragen. In vele protestantse kerken zien wij zo bijvoorbeeld weer kruisen hangen en beelden en prenten de kerkruimte versieren. Meerdere protestantse verenigingen hebben er tegenwoordig ook geen bezwaren tegen om samen te werken met Rooms Katholieken.  Doch heeft de World Alliance of Evangelicals (WAE) de kritiek van de hand gewezen als zou ze te nauw samenwerken met prominente vertegenwoordigers van de Rooms-Katholieke Kerk (RKK).

Algemeen secretaris Thomas Schirrmacher zegt

„Ons werd verweten in een geestelijke unie met de antichrist te treden” {Duitse nieuwsdienst Idea}.

Hij en zijn collega Thomas K. Johnson stellen dat de WEA in het gesprek met Rome herhaaldelijk de kernnoties van de Reformatie heeft ingebracht. Volgens hen is echter niet de RKK het grootste gevaar, maar zijn dat

„de interne debatten onder protestanten die de heiligheid en de gerechtigheid van God onder druk zetten.” {WEA reageert op interne kritiek: „We willen geen unie met antichrist”}

Meerderen mogen wel in hun achterhoofd weten dat

„De vrede waarover de Bijbel spreekt, de sjalom, is gelegen in een goede verhouding tussen God en mens.”

maar houden zich er niet echt mee bezig om de vrede van Christus te verspreiden en om zich als gezamenlijke Broeders in Christus vredelievend op te stellen naar anders denkenden.

Een jonge Johannes Calvijn

Ook zijn er tegenwoordig nog maar weinigen die “stille tijd” voor Het Woord van God willen uittrekken. Zij zijn klaarblijkelijk vergeten wat Calvijn schreef over de rustdag en wat daarom ook geldt voor de dagelijkse stille tijd:

„De bedoeling (…) is dat wij sterven aan onze eigen begeerten en werken, de aandacht richten op het koninkrijk van God en ons daartoe oefenen in de inzettingen die Hij gegeven heeft.”

Veel protestanten kijken nu meer uit naar een ‘swingvolle’ dienst of een waar zij lekker van leuke muziek kunnen genieten of zelfs helemaal kunnen op gaan in de sfeervolle muziek. Dat zij met Bijbellezen en bidden hun eigen begeerten en hun zelfgerichtheid de nek om draaien zint hun eigenlijk niet zo, want dat eigen ikje is voor de meeste mensen vandaag het hoofddoel in hun leven. Weinigen zijn nog echt geïnteresseerd in de vreugde en vrede die over zich kunnen komen door bijbel lezing en door samen dat Woord van God onder de loep te nemen.

De Bijbel zegt ons dat wij in het gewone leven te druk zijn en dat het gewone leven ons afkerig maakt van het zoeken naar God,

aldus Tim Keller in een van zijn preken. Hij verduidelijkt dat met een passage uit het boek ”Brieven uit de hel” van de bekende Britse schrijver C. S. Lewis. Hierin leert de ervaren duivel Schroefstrik zijn neef Galsem hoe hij mensen moet verleiden. Als de ‘patiënt’ –een doorgewinterde atheïst– van Schroefstrik tijdens het lezen in de bibliotheek overtuigd dreigt te raken van Gods waarheid, fluistert de duivel hem in dat het lunchtijd is en dat hij beter na het middageten de tijd kan nemen om na te denken, omdat hij dan weer fris is.

„Toen hij eenmaal op straat liep, was de slag gewonnen.”

Velen mogen denken dat het

In onze tijd en in ons werelddeel het niet vanzelfsprekend is om in God te geloven en de Bijbel als gezaghebbend te zien.

Maar ligt dat zo anders dan 500 jaar geleden. Heden zijn de mensen meer omringd door luxe en zouden zij minder zorgen moeten hebben dan toen. Maar op dat vlak blijft alles gewoon het zelfde; Zorgen om het bestaan,  en vandaag ligt door de media de wereld aan onze voeten en loopt al het geweld over ons hoofd heen, terwijl wij soms aan tafel onze maag lekker opvullen dat terwijl uitgemergelde wezens de revue passeren.

Vandaag zijn er heel wat meer mensen die twijfelen of de Bijbel wel echt het betrouwbare Woord van God is? Ze worden om de oren geslagen met allerlei berichten die die God tegenspreken.

Prof. dr. H. van den Belt reageert op dit probleem door te zeggen

„Er is gelukkig geen manier om zeker te weten dat de Bijbel waar is, dan door de Bijbel zelf.” {Vier bedreigingen voor Bijbellezen in 2017}

Hij vindt zou het handig vinden als we de waarheid van de Bijbel konden bewijzen maar merkt op

“Toch zal dat niet gaan, want dat zou het Woord van God afhankelijk maken van extern gezag. Het Woord heeft gezag in zichzelf. Dat noemen we de autopistie, het in zichzelf overtuigend zijn van de Schrift.” {Vier bedreigingen voor Bijbellezen in 2017}

Dat gezag heeft de Bijbel niet omdat het in de Bijbel staat, geeft de bijzonder hoogleraar gereformeerde godgeleerdheid aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen aan. Dat zou immers een cirkelredenering zijn.

„Nee, het is de inhoud van het Evangelie van Christus dat weerbarstige en hardnekkige zondaren toch leert buigen voor het Woord.” {Vier bedreigingen voor Bijbellezen in 2017}

Daarom, zegt prof. Van den Belt,

„is de enige manier om zeker te weten dat de Bijbel Gods onfeilbare Woord is, de Bijbel gelovig lezen en luisteren naar wat God daarin zegt.” {Vier bedreigingen voor Bijbellezen in 2017}

Maar anno 2017 is dat lezen van de Bijbel geen drukke bezigheid meer en niet iets waar mensen mee willen pronken of durven mee naar buiten te komen al zullen ze heden daar niet voor vervolgd worden in deze contreien.

Vele protestanten willen niet meer aandacht geven aan dat Woord, dat tijd van hen zou wegnemen om leuk op de sociale media te vertoeven, in plaats van in ‘saaie kerkgebouwen’. Vreemd genoeg nu het Woord van God makkelijker in ieders handbereik zou moeten liggen en de Bijbel zelfs kan gelezen worden vanaf een iPad of op een smartphone waar men ook maar is. Er voor tijd nemen ligt voor velen moeilijk omdat gewoon hun hart daar niet meer voor is.

Daarom moet deze wereld terug “hartverwarmers” vinden en moeten er weer mensen op staan die dat Woord van God bij de mensen willen kenbaar maken. Ook al mag men heden terug een beetje van onverdraagzaamheid vinden bij bepaalde protestantse groepen, moeten er ook mensen komen die aantonen dat christenen en kerken niet het lelijke gezicht van een intolerante, onmenselijke religie mogen laten zien maar juist een openheid moeten tonen naar anders denkenden.

Wat begon als een klein plantje in het Duitse Wittenberg is uitgegroeid tot een boom van 560 miljoen protestanten wereldwijd in 2017, stellen dr. Todd M. Johnson, directeur van het Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in de Verenigde Staten, en onderzoekster Gina A. Zurl.

Leefden in 1600 vrijwel alle protestanten in Europa, nu woont nog maar 16 procent van de gemeenschap er. Johnson verwacht dat in 2050 dat percentage gezakt is naar onder de 10 procent van de dan verwachte 870 miljoen protestanten wereldwijd.

Een tegengestelde beweging maakt de lijn van het aantal protestanten –inclusief anglicanen– in het werelddeel Afrika. In 1900 was slechts 1,7 procent van de protestanten woonachtig op dat continent –bovendien ging het toen vooral om Europeanen in Zuid-Afrika–, nu is dat 41 procent. En Johnson berekende dat het percentage in 2050 kan zijn gestegen naar 53 procent van de protestantse wereldgemeenschap. Demografische factoren –zoals het kleine aantal kinderen per gezin in het Westen– versterken het effect van de groei van de kerken. {Wereldkaart protestantisme verandert snel}

+

Lees ook

  1. „Reformatie was als frisse wind”
  2. Wereldkaart protestantisme verandert snel

+++
Aanverwant

  1. Bronne om charismatiese/pinkstergroepe te beoordeel
  2. Laat die kindertjies na My toe kom: ‘n Gereformeerde antwoord op ‘n Baptistiese standpunt
  3. Die Gereformeerde Kerk Vrijgemaakt (GKv) geskors uit die ICRC weens hul besluit oor die vrou in die ampte
  4. The GKV’s Major Leap off the Cliff
  5. RCN @ ICRC: In or Out?
  6. Ian Buruma en ‘het betrekkelijk goedaardige imperialisme uit Washington’ 16
  7. A Report from the 2011 Meeting of the Calvin Studies Society
  8. Two for the price of one!
  9. Reformation Day at Emory 2017
  10. Puritan Reformed Spirituality by Joel Beeke
+++
Related articles

4 Comments

Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Geestelijke aangelegenheden, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Wereld aangelegenheden

Geen groeiende moslimhaat in Europa, maar groeiende jodenhaat

Vandaag kijken wij naar een artikel van politicoloog, schrijver Freek van Beetz van het in 2015 opgerichte onafhankelijk opiniemagazine Opinie Z, “met confronterende, goed leesbare, niet politiek-correcte artikelen over politiek en maatschappij”.

Bewustzijnde dat ook in onze regionen de censuur ook toe neemt en het ons niet kan ontgaan dat migratie-kritische berichten, foto’s, video’s steeds vaker worden geweerd op Twitter, Facebook, YouTube … komt het er op aan dat wij bepaalde stemmen toch nog kansen geven om zich volledig te uiten en dat wij zelf onze stem niet verstillen of te bang worden ons gezicht te laten zien of om waarheden en feiten naar boven te brengen in het daglicht.

Weze het grote steden als Paris, Brussel, Antwerpen, Rotterdam of Amsterdam, overal beginnen sinds enkele jaren Joden zich minder op hun gemak te voelen en heerst er een dreiging van ongewenstheid. Die uiting van verwensing komt echter niet enkel van moslims maar veeleer van extreem rechtse groepen die in Frankrijk en de Benelux aan populariteit winnen door hun populistische visies.

Lange tijd wilden inzaten van die drie landen niet inzien dat er bepaalde bevolkingsgroepen uit hun eigen regionen verwenst werden of in de verdrukking kwamen.
Terwijl de media alsmaar de aandacht op een bepaalde terreurgroep wilden vestigen, brachten zij een vloek over de moslimgemeenschappen die wel vredelievend waren, maar deden ook het licht uit over de gebeurtenissen die een herhaling blijken te worden van wat er zich voordeed in de jaren 30 en 40 van vorige eeuw.

De politie heeft haar handen vol om zich zichtbaar op te stellen, maar intussen hebben zij het blijkbaar te druk met iftar, hoofddoekjes en offerfeestjes, om bepaalde haat uitingen tegenover inwoners van haar steden en gemeenten voor ernstig te nemen of om op te treden bij gevallen waarbij de eerbaarheid van de mens, zij het een kind, vrouw of man wordt geschonden.

De rozemutsenbrigade vindt het niet belangrijk. Te druk met woordjes als identity politics, mansplaining, manspreading in plaats van daadwerkelijke veiligheid. Het COA is te druk met het rondpompen van probleemmigranten. De rechterlijke macht is druk aan het navelstaren. Politici zijn druk aan het formeren. {Wordt het niet optreden tegen aanranding de norm?}

Politici en media zijn bang geworden om bepaalde dingen bij hun ware naam te noemen.

Zo komen we in Nederland anno 2017 in de situatie terecht dat een Hamas-conferentie geen Hamas-conferentie genoemd mag worden, ondanks overduidelijke banden en bevestiging daarvan door de Duitse inlichtingendiensten het verband blijven ontkennen. Hiermee geven zij een terreurorganisatie de ruimte om zichzelf in Nederland te profileren. Ten koste van de Joodse gemeenschap, want die heeft hier alles bij te vrezen. Dodelijk geweld tegen joodse burgers in Europa is de afgelopen jaren afkomstig uit één hoek: die van islamitische extremisten.

Na gruwelijke aanslagen op joodse kleuters en een leraar in Toulouse volgde de aanslag in het Joodse museum in Brussel en een jaar later op een joodse supermarkt in Parijs. Vervolgens wordt er bij elke anti-Israël demonstratie hardop in het Arabisch geschreeuwd dat Joden eenzelfde lot wacht als de joodse stammen die door de profeet werden uitgeroeid. En iedereen staat erbij en kijkt ernaar. {De politiek-correcte Fabeltjeskrant over de Hamas-conferentie}

Tanya Hoogwerf van het Nederlandse opinie blad is bewust dat lezers zo veilig in de bubbel blijven:

rechts is fout en potentieel gevaarlijk en links danwel islamitisch is goed en vredelievend. {De politiek-correcte Fabeltjeskrant over de Hamas-conferentie}

Jan Gajentaan schrijft dan weer dat het benoemen van islamitisch antisemitisme – dat net als christelijk antisemitisme eeuwenoud is – nog steeds not done is  in policor Europa.

De leidende gedachte van veel politiek-correcte geesten is nog steeds dat wij, “witte mensen”, de erfzonde dragen van kolonialisme en Holocaust. De enige manier om ons daarvan te bevrijden is Europa openstellen voor miljoenen islamitische migranten. Wie op de keerzijde daarvan probeert te duiden wordt uitgemaakt voor neonazi, of op zijn best iemand die de neonazi’s dienstig is. {De blindheid voor Arabisch antisemitisme}

Volgens Yves Mamou zijn de Joden in Frankrijk al jarenlang slachtoffer van moslimterreur. In het artikel van vandaag nemen wij niet enkel de meest recente voorbeelden van maart 2012 en mei en juli 2014 of oproepen tot

“Dood aan de joden”

welke te horen zijn in Brussel, Parijs en Kopenhagen waar Joden slachtoffer werden van moslim-fundamentalistisch geweld in Europa, anno 2016. Vraag is wanneer zekere islamietische jogeren roepen

Smerige joden, we hebben onze kalasjnikovs

deze niet hardhandiger worden aangepakt of er niet meer wordt op gewezen dat dit een ontoelaatbare discriminatie is.

Op de ARD kon men de documentaire,gemaakt in opdracht van de Frans-Duitse zender Arte, Auserwählt und ausgesetzt – der Hass auf Juden in Europa zien waaruit duidelijk blijkt hoe antisemitisme in Europa in opmars is.

Wanneer zullen dromen en roze olifanten zichtbaar worden voor de uilen die niet zienen willen?

+++

Verder aanverwant

  1. Europa’s medelevende haat tegen Israël
  2. Over de ‘normaliteit’ van antisemitisme in Europa
  3. Religiocide
  4. U heeft niets te vrezen?
  5. Het multiculturele ideaal bestaat toch!
  6. De Haat Tegen De Joden
  7. Al-Haddad in Utrecht: zijn meest controversiële uitspraken
  8. De Joden en het nazisme van de 21e eeuw
  9. Islamic State calls on Scottish Muslims to target businesses owned by Jews
  10. Studie: Judenhaß unter moslemischen Schülern weitverbreitet
  11. De eenzaamheid van Kuzu
  12. Audioversie Bidstond Waddinxveen 8febr.2017
  13. Attack on Israeli Embassy in Jordan
  14. Bondi synagogue ban over terrorism risk leaves Jewish community shocked and furious
  15. Hamas in Rotterdam
  16. Israel-ready-for-annual-training-cyber-attack

OpinieZ

“Ook buiten het VK groeit de moslimhaat. Islamofobie in Europa”, kopte de NRC vrijdag 23 juni. Ik moest even met de ogen knipperen. Heb ik iets gemist? Bij nadere lezing werd de alarmerende boodschap behoorlijk gerelativeerd en eigenlijk nauwelijks onderbouwd, maar het beeld dat de krant ons wilde opdringen was duidelijk: de moslims in Europa verkeren in groot gevaar.

Titelfoto: Screenshot door redactie OpinieZ van video ABS-CBN News

Ik geloof daar niets van, maar het is een beeld dat de media ons al jaren proberen voor te spiegelen: al die aanslagen door moslimextremisten, ach, een beetje vervelend, vooral voor de slachtoffers en hun nabestaanden, maar in het verkeer en thuis vallen veel meer doden (keukentrapje!) en de meeste moslims zijn vreedzame burgers.

Wegredeneren
Waar komt die onbedwingbare behoefte tot wegredeneren vandaan? Laat er geen twijfel over bestaan: de aanslag op moskeegangers in Londen is net zo goed…

View original post 612 more words

10 Comments

Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Misdaden & Wreedheden, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Politieke aangelegenheden, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Wereld aangelegenheden

From Guestwriters 2016 in review

English: The logo of the blogging software Wor...

Each day million articles are published, looking to find a reading eye. Every day thousands of new articles appear on WordPress. In 2016 one hundred seventeen billion nine hundred thirteen million one hundred forty-eight thousand three hundred fifty seven words got published on WordPress. {Automattic WordPress year-in-review-2016}

2016 in view

The year that David Bowie and Prince passed away, like several very well known figures of the arts world, it looked like some people who made it in their life did not want to stay here any longer. It was also the year of lots of terrorism and political correctness, where those who are different than the mainstream (disabled, transgender, refugees, extreme religious and non religious groups, jihad fighters,) got lots of attention.
In the United States of America Obama Care which at last had become a reality came back under threat. North America saw in Boston in November, the Disability Policy Consortium accepted proposals and held a Disability Intersectionality Summit. Presentations included topics on the intersections of being undocumented, being LGBTQ+, being a person of colour, having mental health disabilities, on #DisabilityTooWhite – the hashtag and movement around the the disability community’s failure to represent racially diverse voices – and more. Lots of things came on the American roller-coaster, having Michigan banned non-emergency restraint and seclusion for disabled students and Georgia’s governor speaking in favour of Employment First policies for disabled people in Georgia.

2016 Nice attack.png

Route of the attacker from west to east at the Promenade des Anglais, Nice

With the 15th anniversary of 9/11 the jihadi‘s made sure they would not be forgotten; ISIS/ISIL and BokoHaram being the new strongholders. In Europe the fear took so many people that politicians saw the opportunity to fuel the extreme right and come with absurd laws, like banning burkini‘s. All the fearmongering having fueled by the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussel’s Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, leaving around 35 victims dead and 360 seriously injured, ISIS claiming responsibility.
America also got its portion of  ISIS-madness with a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49, injuring 53 – one of the bigger mass shootings in the U.S.A.. September 17 a terror bomb in Chelsea, New York injured 29 people. Lots of Americans got so frightened of Muslim people, looking at them if they all would be terrorist, though they under their own white Christian population had more victims by weapon violence this year than by terrorism. Several times the world could see how racism is still a big problem in the States and how police can not keep themselves in control when arresting black people. (African American Alton Sterling shot by Louisiana police in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile shot by police in St Paul Black on July 6; American Keith Lamont Scott September 20)
The Islamic militants for sure where very active all over the world. Some events called for more attention worldwide, having foreigners also under the victims or by being considered the country’s worse terror attack for the year, like at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where a fighter killed 20 hostages and 2 police on July 1. The next day (July 2) a large lorry bomb in Baghdad killing at least 125 people and wounding 150, Islamic State claiming once more responsibility.  On December 11 a bombing at a chapel in Cairo, Egypt, killed 25 and wounded 45. December 19 again a truck was used to kill many people, like in Nice on the 14th of July now the target was a Christmas market in Berlin killing 12, injuring 48.

Terroranschlag-Berlin-Breitscheidplatz-2016 (2) (31731061626) (square crop).jpg

Aftermath of the 2016 Berlin attack

In the States of America on January 17 the Fourth Democratic presidential candidates debate showed how Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed over healthcare and gun control in Charleston, South Carolina, and gave us an idea that though perhaps the best candidate of all Bernie Sanders would not going to make it to president elect. Two days later Sarah Palin officially endorsed Donald Trump‘s presidential bid at a Trump rally in Ames, Iowa. What nobody thought possible occurred when this man made it to the preselections, then to the selection to finally become what nobody would ever dreamed possible, him becoming president elect. November 8 Republican Donald Trump became elected President of The United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton despite Clinton winning 2.9 million more votes. Europe fell on its back for the second time, the first one having been the vote for the Brexit (June 23), who nobody had thought would come through. These two unexpected events show clearly how careful we must be when we think it not necessary to spend time on such personalities and situations.

{{{image_alt}}}

Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

For that reason we should much more react on what is going on on ecological level. The Paris Agreement on climate change signed in New York (on April 22) binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C is only the beginning of a long road to run. Global warming is not only blamed the cause of many people having to flee for the rising water-level. On August 1 there was an anthrax outbreak in the Russian district Yamalo-Nenets, Siberia killing one and infecting 8 others, also killing 2,300 reindeer. Indian government declared levels of air pollution in Delhi an emergency situation, closing schools and construction sites on November 6.

Though 2016 seemed to be the year that people where more concerned about the whereabouts and the look of their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Social media being the major interest gainer of the year. Most people more concerned about their outfit, fashion, style and strangely enough books and films again.

Astronaut Scott Kelly

Astronaut Scott Kelly

Lots of people running with their heads in the skies did not notice that US astronauts Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to earth, on March the 2nd, after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record. For the earthly matters it became time that the U.S.A. did something positive to restore the relations between them and Cuba. March 20 Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 2 day tour.

The ‘Big Joke of the year’ (in April) was to see how many politicians who said something had to be done against fraud and how people had to pay honestly their taxes, their names could be found on the 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca , the Panama Papers exposing widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world’s elite in the world’s largest ever data leak.

On April 11 UN-backed ceasefire came into effect in Yemen conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and government forces.

June 7 with a car bomb attack on a police bus in central Istanbul killing 11 was just a beginning of a whole series of bombings in Turkey of which there is no clarity if they are orchestrated by some political forces to have Erdogan in an even stronger dictatorial position. June 28 presented again a suicide bombings and gun attacks, at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport killing 42 and wounding more than 200. We have no idea if the coup d’etat was something set up by Erdogan himself. It gave him way to hold a big clean up and to get rid of all those who stood in his way.

In Colombia more than 50 years of conflict came in its last stadium, the governement and Farc rebels signing a ceasefire agreement on June the  23rd, followed by many talks to have the rebels not being sued.

2016 for this platform

WordPress Administration

WordPress Administration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of the 595,795,035 posts written on WordPress we only presented a mere 358 articles, hoping our humble little site could catch some interest by the many people who are scanning the worldwide internet for something interesting to read. From our tiny country not having any funds, not having serious backing and not able to afford much money on writers, designers or even having our own publishing space, just using the private limited funds of the editor and responsible publisher Mr. Marcus Ampe, we sincerely try to find some interesting literature on the net and present it to our readers and visitors. Because not having much GBites we are limited in re-blogging because pictorial content eats our internet data space, but when a must read is found with lots of photos we still do hope to be able to discuss it or to present it in one of our articles.

English: Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging

Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must confess that we did not catch many readers for the many work-hours we invest searching for additional and further reading material. Luckily this was the first year we did not very angry letters of people being onerous that we included their article in the listing. In 2016 for the first time we even got a letter thanking us for having brought 1000 readers to someone’s site. Though we put a lot of work in creating all the links in the articles and in the accompanying list of interesting articles, to our sense or liking not enough people make use of those links and referential titles. For that reason from now on we shall perhaps start putting less url-backgroundlinks to words or tags, but still shall continue to try to offer you a list of noteworthy article by other bloggers.

It is a pity we only could find 7 782 views of only 4 827 visitors coming along.
Officially opened to the public on 2014/03/2 we got 1 847 visitors the first year and 2 764 visitors in 2015, so we may be satisfied it is a line going upwards. Though published from Belgium in the European Union, our ‘home-country’ only delivered 269 views. The United States being at the top with giving us 3745 views, followed by the United Kingdom delivering 852 views and our northern neighbours the Netherlands offering us 532 views may encourage us to continue.

The home page caught 2 118 views, followed by 349 for the About page. Of the articles “Religious celebrations in May 2016” got the most views (only 103) and got only 4 likes.

People naturally have to find us. 1 437 do so by using search machines, whilst 783 use the WordPress facilities. 155 come along by Facebook. But we too are happy to find other WordPress users referring to us and bringing readers to our site. Naturally our own authors or own sites like our ecclesia site (9 views), the Belgian Biblestudents and the Bijbelvorsers (each 8) and Stepping Toes (7), but non connected writers like ridzerdvandijk.wordpress.com with 8 views and sneakytwistedlittlewildheart.wordpress.com (good for 6), entering the promissedland (5), discoveronething (5), eternalhunt (5) and some others bringing us each 4 or less viewers.

U.S. advertisement for the 11th edition from t...

U.S. advertisement for the 11th edition from the May 1913 issue of National Geographic Magazine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The most used search terms were ‘hoopvolle slogans’ and ‘bezinningsteksten zelfkritiek’ with each 3 hits.
We ourselves brought 110 readers to our other site “Our World” and for for other sources Wikipedia got 56 readers from us, whilst the Collins dictionary got 21 and the very good Encyclopaedia Britannica only 18 views. Abortion and crime rates by wordlifeandlight managed to get 6 views from us and Lizaborstlap received also 6 visitors, as far as we can see from our statistics.

imageThis last person who has always been a person with a to-do list is also one of the people who wanted to share some writing on this platform. But there were many days when she became a slave to her lists and she had to face that things don’t always happen as planned and that she would feel like a failure if she wasn’t able to cross out all the tasks that she allocated to a specific day.{a goal should scare you a little and excite you a Lot!}

She may perhaps had to become, like us, more specific and to be realistic in what she can (and can’t) achieve in one day; but we did want to reach so much and sometimes got frustrated not seeing our accomplishment for the day.

We are still looking for authors who would not mind to write about lifestyle, interior design, fashion, cooking, family life, gardening, nature and ecological matters and some persons who would not mind tackling the history and people who would love to write about education and health. There are so many subjects not covered yet by people who can tell more about it than we can.

From the end of 2016 onwards we added two viewpoints, namely two comparators, on one site the Muslim world and on the other site the Judaic world and traditions.

English: Monkeys Blogging Español: Simios blog...

English: Monkeys Blogging Español: Simios bloggeando (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We do know that certain subjects are not tackled here. Marcus Ampe would love to find some one talking about family matters, family life being one of the cornerstones of our society. To his regret he must also establish that in 2016 not enough regard was given to ecological matters. Man having to live in surroundings which are too polluted and which are filled with buildings and cars, but not given the freedom to have enough green to bring enlightenment and fresh air to people. It is really getting time that more people warn others about us, man, to take care of mother earth, before it is too late.

Whilst on WordPress in general 112 million posts were liked, we did not have many likes. 8 billion e-mails were send on WordPress, but in those there are not counted the very many e-mails we got in our own e-mail box, instead of reacting on the blog articles themselves. This is a pity, because other readers can not read the reactions and oh so often we have to reply to very similar questions, which is more time consuming than having a reply which can be read by thousands on the internet.

For 2017 may we hope that if there are even more articles written on the internet than the 595,795,035 posted on WordPress in 2016 and the huge amount of comments, making it up to 457,596,906 comments on WordPress, you shall be able to  find some very interesting articles and comments here too.

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fash...

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2016 we saw that it is possible that those with the biggest mouth and do not mind trampling over many can get their cause. 2016 may have been a disastrous year on several issues and lots of important issues where not even mentioned or got not the right attention. For this new year we love to repeat our call to get more people daring to come out for the poor and the maltreated. We also once more want to ask people to wake up the majority of the population who still keeps their eyes closed for what is really going on in this world. There is a need of more people who are willing to stand up to preserve and encourage the progress of humanity while resisting the forces that threaten to turn it backwards.

We have to be very cautious for what certain people try to do with their nation but also with the world. As citizen we should be aware that politicians are nothing without their people and that folks if they really want can be much stronger than those politicians, who dare to look away from the citizen who needs help and encouragement. Those who call themselves Christian should be there to give a hand to all that need help, not forgetting nature, plants and animals who do not have a voice. therefore we do hope to find more blogs tackling their problem, and would love to have an author on ecology writing for us from this year onwards.

Without you reader we are nothing and can do nothing. We thank you for being here with us and for the followers we are grateful and do hope we can please you with a varied menu.

Wishing everyone a great 2017.

+

Preceding article

2014 in review

In 2015 finishing our first year: From Guestwriters 2015 in review

Pokémon craziness

2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Children of Men

Max Lucado: I Had a Dream That Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Reached a Truce

Leaders in disguise

Looking at man’s closest friend

Looking at an American nightmare

The twist of politics and expression

Tribes Redux

Darkest just before dawn

Bruxelles Ma Belle

Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

Women in France running with naked bosom all right but with covered bosom penalised

An American Embassy to the Eternal Capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem

Humanity Quote for Pax Populi

When will it stop

Not limiting others but sharing peace with all

Not missing your appointment in 2017

++

Additional reading

  1. EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) asylum seekers and Eastern neighbours
  2. At the closing hours of 2016 #1 Looking down at terror
  3. At the closing hours of 2016 #2 Low but also highlights
  4. Suffering brothers and sisters in Malawi, Mozambique and surrounding areas
  5. Not much interest for English articles
  6. From Bibles and other religious writings and those who witness for Jehovah
  7. 2016 American Bible survey
  8. On April 21 brother Nelson, in the world better known as Prince was lost
  9. Social media, sympathy & shocks
  10. Foreign workers and immigrants
  11. A stain of shame for the European Union
  12. Voted against their system
  13. A sleeper cell of militants was said directing attackers sent back to France from Islamic State’s de-facto capital in Raqqa, Syria
  14. Daesh hits heart of Europe
  15. Islamism Rises from Europe’s Secularism
  16. March 22 2016, attacks in Brussels at airport and metro
  17. A Black day for Belgium – Brussels Airport ravage
  18. Knife-trust in democratic sore back
  19. For those who call the Brussels Airport attacks a fake or a conspiracy of the government
  20. Terrorist attacks in brussels
  21. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
  22. US President, Barack Obama Condemns The Outrageous Brussels Attacks
  23. What Associated Press released on Wednesday 23 March 2016
  24. Mediterranean bloodshed
  25. Nice attack, terror everywhere and coup attempt in Turkey
  26. Is Europe going to become a dictatorial bastion
  27. French showing to the whole world their fear and weakness
  28. On French beach French police forces woman to undress in public
  29. France and the Burkini
  30. Secularism in France becoming dangerous for freedom of religion
  31. Christians, secularism, morals and values
  32. Listening to the lessons of the Bible and looking for ways to please God
  33. Where’s the Outrage Over Nun Beachwear? – The Daily Beast
  34. You are what you wear
  35. Does Banning Face Veils Help Us Fight Terrorism?
  36. Jews the next scapegoat for Donald Trump
  37. The American clouds of Anti-Semitism
  38. Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
  39. The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
  40. Trump has been buffetted by accusations of miscunduct
  41. Fearmongering succeeded and got the bugaboo a victory
  42. Are United States of America citizens going to show their senses
  43. When so desperate to hold onto power
  44. Some quotes Americans should remember when going to the ballot office
  45. Brexit and British business
  46. Brexit No. 2 Blow-up
  47. Nigel Farage called Donald Trump’s victory ‘bigger than Brexit’
  48. A strong and wise fighter who keeps believing in America
  49. Bosphorus bloodshed
  50. Belgian aftershock from the Turkish coup d’état

+++

Other WordPress bloggers looking back at 2016

  1. 2016 Year In Review (by Hunter Bonner)
  2. 16 things i learned in 2016
  3. 2016 was lighting candles to mourn, but it was also carrying torches high
  4. 2016: Year in Review (by Angela Classen)
  5. Hasta La Vista 2016!
  6. Top 10 Moments of 2016
  7. 2016 in Review (by Pastor Zach)
  8. A year in review
  9. 2016 in Review: Your Favorites, My Favorites
  10. 2016 Review (by Pliable)
  11. Tater’s 2016 In Review
  12. Best and worst reads of 2016
  13. Reflections and Resolutions for 2017
  14. 2016 Year in review book tag
  15. V’s Reading Year in Review: 2016
  16. 2016 Recap and 2017 Goals
  17. A Look Back at 2016
  18. 2016 in Review (by amanda)
  19. 2016 in review (by Katrin Ilves)
  20. My 2016 Freelancing Report: 28 Pitches Disappeared into a Black Hole (but I’m okay with that)
  21. 2016 Year in Review (by Trip accomplice)
  22. Honorable Mentions 2016
  23. 16 in 2016: Results
  24. 2016 Year in Review (by Abby)
  25. Looking Back at 2016…
  26. 2016 in the books
  27. My 2016 in Books and Graphic Novels, Part 1 of 2
  28. 2016 in Review (by Sarah)
  29. Best and Worst of 2016
  30. Sara Reads No. 17
  31. Two Thousand and Sixteen
  32. So Long 2016!
  33. 2016: The Book Fight! Year in Review
  34. Year In Review: Variety Edition
  35. 216 of 2016
  36. 2016 Year in Review (by Becker)
  37. 2016 Year in Review: A Year in Outfits
  38. 2016 In Review (by Leigh)
  39. 2016; What a Year
  40. A Look Back at 2016 and a Peek Forward at 2017
  41. 2016: Year in Pictures
  42. 2016 Year in Review – The Five Most Thrilling Action Scenes
  43. Looking Back on 2016 (by sip of star)
  44. 2016: Year in Review (by James)
  45. 2016 Year In Review (by alex)
  46. My Top Ten Books from 2016
  47. Top Ten Blogs of 2016
  48. vCloud Air: 2016 Year in Review
  49. 2016: Running Year in Review
  50. 2016: My Year in Review (by lurking)
  51. Things that were not garbage even though 2016 was
  52. Adelaide Etc in 201
  53. Looking at 2016
  54. Blogging Lessons of 2016
  55. 2017 New Year’s Resolutions
  56. 2016 in Review (by dgobs)
  57. 2016 – A Year in Review (by comics)
  58. 2016 in Review (by the Cappucino traveler)
  59. Highlights from 2016
  60. Life of Lizzie: 2016 In Review
  61. Top 10 Tuesday: Best Books of 2016
  62. 2016 Year in Review (by Library cancuck)
  63. The 2017 Post
  64. The best 15 posts of 2016
  65. 2016 Year in Review – Book Stats
  66. 2016 by the Numbers (by Melissa)
  67. Five 2016 singles that I find myself enjoying in 2016
  68. Happy 2017 From Still Chasing Fireflies!
  69. The Best Albums of 2016
  70. My 2016 in Books and Graphic Novels, Part 2 of 2
  71. 2016: Year in Review (by Natalieinne)
  72. 2016 in Books (by Stories)
  73. Year In Review: Kpop Edition
  74. 16 Things I Learned In 2016
  75. My Year In Re(ar)view
  76. 2016: Year in Review (by Kai)
  77. Foursquare/Swarm Year in Review
  78. What i learnt in 2016
  79. My Top Five Blog Posts of 2016 (and other highlights)
  80. Dear 2017 (by Sophia van Gent)
  81. Top Posts of 2016
  82. 2016 Year in Review (by Styled by Summer)
  83. The End Of Year Survey For 2016
  84. 2016 Year in Review (by Angela Chau)
  85. 2016 Year in Review (by LJT Reads)
  86. 2016: A Year in Review (by Zaweebie)
  87. 2016: A Bookish Retrospective
  88. 2016: A Review (by Jazmin)
  89. Goodbye 2016
  90. The scariest post I’ve ever written: my favorite reads in 2016
  91. 2016 Year in Review
  92. The Ups and Downs of 2016 – The Year in Review
  93. 2016, A Year in Review: a yer of ups and downs
  94. My Year In Review. Mom Fashion Style
  95. One of My Favorite Things
  96. 2016 Year In Review (by Ashley)
  97. 2016, By the Numbers
  98. Alt-Right 2016: The Current Year in Review
  99. Year in review: 2016 Top Ten Conspiracies
  100. 7 Global Health Breakthroughs: A Year in Review
  101. ABC s of 2016
  102. 2016 #DiversityJC – Ian’s Year-End Review
  103. 2016 Year in Review-it was interesting
  104. “Reflecting on 2016” part 2 = My Biggest Disappointments
  105. 9 Reasons Why 2016 Was Pretty Great
  106. Top 6 of 2016
  107. 2016 in review (by BamBam)
  108. 2016 Year In Review: The Good, The Bad And The Deaths
  109. Breakaway 2016 – A Year In Review
  110. Trump, Prince, and Queen Elizabeth: 2016’s most-read Wikipedia articles
  111. 2016: Sustainable Nano Year in Review
  112. Quiz of the Year Response!
  113. Hello 2017! (by spina squared)
  114. 2016 in Review: A Year on Staff
  115. Looking Back on 2016 (by Melissa Burgess)
  116. 2016 – A Moment a Month
  117. My Blog in 2016 (by MS.L. Wheeler)
  118. 2016 Year in Review (by Ingrid Racine)
  119. My Year in Books 2016
  120. Best Books of 2016 (by Gwen)
  121. 2016 in Review by Ellie Pelto)
  122. 22: Books I read last year
  123. Comics Update: My Current Lineup and 2016 Pros & Cons
  124. 2016 #DiversityJC – Doctor_PMS’s Year End Review
  125. Top Ten Books of 2016
  126. Top 16 of 2016
  127. 2016 in Film
  128. Reader’s Room Winter Challenge
  129. My Tweets in 2016 #MTBoS
  130. 16 great things from 2016
  131. Jim Ryan: Looking Back At The Year in Music
  132. New Year : Noob Year
  133. My One Word for 2017: Onward
  134. New Year Blog – Revising 2016, and Looking Forward to 2017
  135. 2016 Year in Books
  136. 2016 Law Review
  137. 2016 – A Year in Review (by Rob P)
  138. Softimage mailing 2016 year in review
  139. Top 8 of 2016: Art Highlights
  140. Rowls- 2016 year in review
  141. Faves of 2016: Nonfiction
  142. 2016 My Year in Review:  My Top Ten Personal Lessons/Observations
  143. Goodbye 2016 (by Allison Anti Quotidian)
  144. 2016 Year in Review (by Kialtho)
  145. A Year In Review
  146. My goals for 2017
  147. Yeah, 2017!
  148. 2016 Year In Review (It Sucked But I Read A Lot)
  149. Tart ISBI: Year in Review, 2016
  150. 2017 A Year of Light in Action
  151. fifty things that made my year, 2016
  152. You are (20)16 going on (20)17
  153. 2016: Amazing Year in Review
  154. Goodbye 2016
  155. 2016 Book Archive
  156. 2016: Stronger Together
  157. a year in the life
  158. 2016 Was interesting
  159. 2016 Costuming Year in Review
  160. Learn How to Better Engage Your Child with a Year in Review Activity
  161. The Obsessive Viewer Podcast – Ep 199 – 2016 Year in Review – Best and Worst Movies of the Year and Viewing Stats
  162. Looking back at 2016
  163. 2016 in Music: Shock and Awe
  164. Look back, leap forward
  165. Were You Ready To Close Your Book?
  166. 2017 (by Andrew Reynolds)
  167. 2016 In Review (by Aaron Mallett)
  168. My 2016 at the Movies, Part 1 of 2: The Year’s Least Best
  169. Ten Moments in GH music: 2016
  170. Anime of the Year: CJ Hitchcock’s Top 5 Anime of 2016
  171. 2016 Reflections
  172. Year in Review/Shit for 2017
  173. 2016 Year in Review (by Dan Guido)
  174. January 9: Warmer Weather Ahead, Looking Back At 2016
  175. 2017 – a year in review
  176. Annual Statement of Goals, 2017 Edition
  177. 2016 Reading Challenge – final report
  178. New Year, New baby, new outlook
  179. 2016 Beer in Review
  180. Happy 2017
  181. NFL Year in Review
  182. Tag – Year-end Superlative Tag
  183. Yearly Wrap-Up! || 2016
  184. 2016 in Books
  185. End of Year Survey; 2016
  186. 2016 Year In Review (by Run Wright)
  187. 2016 Year in Review (a crazy year for bad literature)
  188. Some Days in 2016
  189. Twenty-sixteen: that’s a wrap
  190. 2016 in review (by Mara Thang)
  191. My 2016 at the Movies, Part 2 of 2: The Year’s Least Worst
  192. 2016: A Yer in review (all in one)
  193. My Writing Year – 2016 In Review
  194. Endings & Beginnings
  195. 2016 Year In Review! (by circling around the sun)
  196. The year of many firsts
  197. Goodbye 2016 – Hello 2017
  198. 2016 – A Year In Review
  199. Two Years Gone By
  200. translate.wordpress.com in 2016
  201. Welcoming the light
  202. My Bookish Year 2016
  203. 2016 Pop Culture Year in Review
  204. Short stories I read and loved in 2016
  205. Set It Off: My Writing Goals for 2017
  206. Goodbye 2016
  207. 2016 By The Numbers
  208. 2016 In review (the Mic is the message)
  209. 2016 in Review (by Cindy)
  210. Erin Blogs 2016 in Review
  211. High Five For 2016!
  212. 2016 Round up
  213. 2016: Year in Reading
  214. 2016: looking back
  215. So That Was 2016..Year in Review
  216. 2016
  217. Year In Review – 2016 (by atop the clouds)

+++

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

28 Comments

Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Announcement, Crimes & Atrocities, Ecological affairs, Economical affairs, Headlines - News, History, Lifestyle, Political affairs, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Welfare matters, World affairs

Not missing your appointment in 2017

Soon we will turn over the page of the dark year 2016.

These past days and the coming days lots of people had very important gatherings they would not like to miss. This time of season it are days of appointments which have us looking forward to pleasant cosy being together moments.

In the new year, people shall again make and keep lots of different appointments that they would never miss. For many the people are so important, they would never cancel. The circumstance may also be so pressing that those meetings cannot be put off.

The need so urgent, we cannot afford to overlook it. The desire so great, it cannot be denied or postponed. {Don’t Trade Away God’s Help Today}

But what about the most important meeting of the year, the season or even of the day?

Lots of Christians say this is the season of the year and that they are celebrating the birth of their god. Those Christians also say the bible is the word of their god, though most of those Christians do not read that Word of God. For sure then they would perhaps not worship Jesus as their god and would not take part in the heathen Christmas events.

Many Christians far too quickly dismiss their daily appointment with the God of the universe as soon as life gets a little busy. The other appointments stack up, and our time to sit with the Most High and heavenly Father of our Saviour, seems to fade away so quickly and easily. Not many of those Christians who have Jesus as their god know his words or know the Words of his heavenly Father. Though those Words are very important and each follower of Christ should know them very well.

Perhaps it is

Arrogance, because we don’t think we need God’s help and wisdom enough to consistently ask him for it (James 1:5). Apathy, because we’ve let other things drown out the call to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). {Don’t Trade Away God’s Help Today}

book-1209805_6401Not many people do know why and how important it is to come to read the Bible. Many have no idea how to start doing it. At my first series I look on this matter “Reading the Holy Scriptures“. In it I try to show how reading the Bible is a way of  hearing God’s Word and a way to let us be strengthened. It is a way to allow ourselves to grow whilst we are guided by the One Who knows everything. He is the Omnipotent Who is pervasive, extensive, omnipresent and willing to help us at any moment of the day and night.  He is the Most Trustworthy Supreme Being Who is prepared to be there for us whenever we need Him. He is the One Who can tell us how to prepare for life and is willing to show us what to do and how to serve Him. We can turn to the Bible in times of sadness, joy, worry or bereavement and receive comfort from Gods word.

SiddurToo many are not aware how easy it is to have the most super guidebook in the world and the most intense appointment with the Most High Person in this world. We may wonder why so many Christians miss such an appointment regularly. Because their God has asked them to remember Him and to take time for Him. He told them to take a Sabbath, a day of rest to give and share it with Him. But we do not see many accepting that invitation or going to that appointment.

Many Christian churches are running empty today. There are not many worship places where Christians are really worshipping the Most High Elohim. We may find lots of churches where false gods are worshipped, but also they are having difficulties to keep their members. Many Christian even have no place for God on the day that they say would be especially for Him. At Christmas most energy is put in the cooking and preparing for the festivities and the presents. But there is no place for many Christians and not much thought about the Most High Present, namely the Saviour Jesus Christ. That child in the mangler is mostly forgotten or a detail in their life which is consumed by all the material things around them.

Moshe had given a task, like Jeshua also has given a task to his followers. They told the task of the leader is to remove that Din and bring everlasting Chesed and Rachamim to us. We should do away with all wrong traditions, all heathen connections. Believers in, and lovers of God should be different than atheists. Their way of life should be pure and according to the wishes of the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, and to know those wishes God has given the best manual for life: the Bible, the Book of books. We should read it, making time to have close and fine words with the One who we should love and honour as the most Important One.

Taking up the Bible is taking up and keeping your appointment with God. Do not forget to meet Him and His Word in 2017.

+

Please come to find following articles on Immanuel Verbondskind:

***

Wishing you a happy and blessed spiritual New Year

***

Did you come to read already our Vision and mission. Have a look at our page: Our Vision and mission.

from-guestwriters-vision-and-mission-20161231

++

Find additionally

  1. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
  2. Walking alone?
  3. Try driving forward instead of backwards
  4. Gathering or meeting of believers
  5. Truth never plays false roles of any kind, which is why people are so surprised when meeting it
  6. God has not destined us for wrath
  7. Hearing words to accept
  8. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #3 A voice to be taken Seriously
  9. Witnessing because we love

+++

Further reading

  1. The Ten: Lesson 1
  2. Summaries of Catholic Teaching Topic 31: The first commandment
  3. Ethical Implications in the Ten Commandment
  4. God of Our Relationships
  5. The Loving Lawgiver
  6. Better late than never
  7. Never Can Say Goodbye
  8. No Appointment Necessary
  9. When will it be Your day?
  10. Will I make the appointment? 
  11. 10 reasons why I love my hospital appointments
  12. Are You Engaged?
  13. Calm the shit down 
  14. Monday Morning Thoughts
  15. I Am Alive
  16. Measuring Time
  17. I’m Getting What I Want and Now I’m a Little Scared
  18. God’s Appointment
  19. Sunday Appointment Pimpama
  20. Our daily grateful post
  21. The first appointment
  22. Out of Eden
  23. Happy New Year!
  24. How Wide is the Saviour’s Catchment?
  25. Repeat The Sounding Joy…All Year Long!
  26. Teaching the Crowds, Instructing His Disciples
  27. His Name Is…Prince Of Peace
  28. Christmas Day At My Church
  29. Light and Life to All He Brings
  30. Five Ways To Revive Evangelism In Your Church
  31. Repeat The Sounding Joy…All Year Round! Finale
  32. My year long Bible adventure
  33. Reading On Faith
  34. Like John Taught His Disciples
  35. Job 28:28 Wisdom And Understanding (Part 2)
  36. How to Read the Bible
  37. Healthy Leaders Can’t Lead On Empty

+++

Save

18 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Religious affairs, Welfare matters