Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Quotations or Citations
A few hours before I shall light the first candle at nightfall I shall look at the 1st day of Chanukah but also shall see how many come to celebrate a feast, they also call the feast of light, but has its main day on the birthday of the goddess of light, December 25. Lots of heathen but also lots of Christians shall have little candles in their decorated trees.
In my home the coming days there’ll also be some light, spiritual and literal, to have me thinking of the wonders of the Most High. The Eternal Being have been for ever, having made us in His image, has always been prepared to be there for those who want to be with Him. These present times there may be lots of darkness, violence and hate against each other. The heavenly Creator never created the human beings to go fighting against each other. Those people who claim to be lovers of God, be it Jews, Christians or Muslims, should all feel united under the same umbrella of their Divine Creator. Especially in these darker and colder days of the year we should make more time to come in each others warm houses to feel the generous warmth of solidarity.
It is in those darker days when we do not have to go to work, but can enjoy some free time, that we should bring up remembrances of how we and our ancestors grew up. We must become aware of how our minds get filled with lots of stuff as we grow from baby to adult, and how we are modelled by it. Growing up we come to certain believes and want to follow certain ideas. The beliefs we create are part of what forms our being, but they are also based on our genetic heritage, what other’s tell us, and what we accept as fact based on our experiences. (Which explains why siblings can be alike or different and also why some twins raised in separate home turn out to have similar tastes and beliefs.)
English: The Byzantine army under Nikephoros Phokas captures Halep (Berrhoea), Syria, in February 963. Ελληνικά: Κατάληψη του Χαλεπίου (αρχαία Βέρροια) της Συρίας από τον βυζαντινό στρατό του Νικηφόρου Φωκά, Φεβρουάριος 963. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The day that Byzantine troops led by Nicephorus Phocas, who had lead an expedition against the Saracen Emirate of Crete, and stormed Chandax and wrested control of the entire island from the Muslims, in 961 defeated Moslem forces and seized Aleppo, we once more have a picture of a destroyed Aleppo and a ruined city of Mosul.
As the 10th century temporary turn of events could not have been good for the Jews who had been living in Aleppo since Biblical times because it was the Moslem conquest of the city in 636 that removed the disabilities placed on the Jews by the Byzantines. Lots of times the Jews had to face difficulties and many generations had to suffer under persecution, like the ones who found themselves squeezed out of the major cities and ports into the area known as White Russia on this day in 1791 when Great empress of Russia Russian Yekaterina Velikaya, also known as Catherine II (the Great) created the Pale of Settlement.
When tonight I, like the Jewish troops with General Sherman, who kindle the first light of Chanukah in Savannah, GA. in 1864 (24th of Kislev, 5625) I’ll try to remember the good thing which happened to the Jewish community and the many signs which proof that they are a special blessed people. The world shall have to know that the Jews are the Chosen people who have been promised to reside in a Holy Land. This Holy Land may perhaps be something lots of people will not like to see realised, but the world must know that the Plan of the Most High Maker shall become a reality.
In the ancient books is being told of that Great Plan. Not only Jews know of it; Christians and Muslims are also told about the prospects believers in God may expect. In the Torah the Most High calls people to share the news of a Messiah, a liberator for all. Generally lots of Jews look perhaps at a different Messiah than the Messianic Jews and Christians. Though perhaps because many of the Hebrew people forgot about their Creator, it can well be that This Holy Creator made His call also clear to the goy or goyim. For that reason Christians and Jews should look at each other, know their roots, know their common writings, and should learn from each other how to prepare themselves for the day that Messiah may come or return to this earth for finally bringing to Jerusalem full glory, as the capital of the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Jewish wedding in Aleppo, Syria, 1914. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Though thick-skinned the Jews always tried to find a way to survive, never loosing their faith in their Maker and the hope in the promise made to him by their patriarch Abraham. Christians and Muslims today should also know that the Most High spoke about a terrible time, when more natural disasters would come over man, but also where children would come to stand up against their parents, and religions would come to fight against each other. We may well see lots of signs described in the Holy Scriptures as being the sings of the Endtimes.
Not having the pretension to be a spiritual leader or rabbi, but looking at the Torah, I can only come to the impression we have arrived in times that those who really love God should come together, unite and should come to spread the Good News. Lovers of God should spread the love and message of peace. Together they should become strong to help each other in the coming difficult times. By helping each other to come to understand each their way of life and come to see the religious teachings having to grow to a point where they shall be in line with God His teaching and not keeping any more to human dogmatic teachings.
Perhaps not regularly writing here, nor on my own site, I am honoured that I am allowed to share some thoughts from the Holy Scriptures and that I hopefully may show some ways Jews see the world and hold their religion high. By bringing also some news from the Jewish site I do hope this shall shed some light on present and future events and shall bring some more mutual understanding between the different religious groups our world has created .
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Please do find my introductions to my site
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A retired public school administrator and history professor says political polls asked people all across the nation how they felt about issues and adds that hey have been publicized in the mass media and questions how minorities would not being protected?
He writes
Our laws call for equal justice for all. The problem is that certain segments of our society are in denial about some of the crimes committed in our country. For example, the Black Lives Matter supporters blame the police for the killing of a few black people some of whom had criminal records. But they ignore the fact that the greatest killers of black people are other black people. In Chicago, the murder rate of black on black is greater than the casualties we suffered in Afghanistan. So why doesn’t the Black Lives Matter supporters focus on the greatest killer of young black men? {A Progressive Anti-Trump View Point With My Rebuttal}
That America where effectively a lot of killing goes on between the black population by their own skin-coloured compatriots, could once more shake Europe with something they never would have expected and would not have hoped for.
A great problem of the States and Europe is that they had to undergo a terrible stock market crash and a period with lots of job losses. Both parts of the world also had to face a lot of people becoming poorer.
He writes
According to federal government statistics, we have more poor people now than ever before in our history. Ever since Lyndon Johnson started to spend billions on welfare and food stamps through his War on Poverty, poverty has INCREASED not decreased. Under Obama, according to federal government statistics, our nation now has more people than ever before. Obviously throwing money at the problem has increased poverty, not decreased it. {A Progressive Anti-Trump View Point With My Rebuttal}
For him
ObamaCare is a total disaster. Need I remind you that the Democratic Party politicians NEVER included Republicans in the drafting of the law. They refused to work with the Republicans. So the high premiums and high deductibles which make ObamaCare unaffordable is entirely the blame of the Democrats. {A Progressive Anti-Trump View Point With My Rebuttal}
He seems to forget Obama Care could not really be worked out as envisioned, because the republicans worked against it. It also had to face the difficulty, that though the U.S.A. claims to be a Christian nation there is not much Christian love for sharing with the weaker and needy ones. A lot of American citizens seem to care most for their own self little cocoon and all the rest they do not bother how they can manage.
For Europeans all what is going on in the states should be a portent. We should be aware of the dangerous harbinger showing very similar situations we have already encountered with the Weimar republic. In the twenties and thirties of previous century there was also a nation where there was a big difference between those who had money and those who had to fight every day to have some bread on the table. Last century Europe also face a crisis which made them very much afraid of all that was foreign or different than the main stream. Also then we saw a man with a big mouth shouting load and promising a lot.
This time it was at the other side of the ocean that some bigger or larger man used similar rhetoric tricks to get the majority of people on his hands.
Those who had other viewpoints at that time were not tolerated and often considered traitors. Something we also found a man of the American senate calling Hillary Clinton and demanding her to be put on the electric chair. It is not because the U.S.A. is called the land of the free that they are really so free.
The man replies
Trump has done nothing to violate the freedom of people. He isn’t even in office yet.
though did he not give enough signals that he would love to limit the freedom of many?
It is the protestors who are either unwilling or unable to accept Trumps’s selection in a democratic process. They are the ones who are creating the violence. When Obama won his elections, there were NO demonstration or violence committed against his supporters.
I agree with him that violence should not be permitted, in no circumstances, but to call Trump a full democratic process is to lay violent hands on the truth. In the U.S.A. people with not enough money never will make a chance to become a presidential candidate and once the are in, they have to count on people or worse organisations funding them. that the one with the biggest mouth can force them to step down, you can call part of the democratic system, so no objection to that. It is up to people to hear what a person is promulgating. It is up to the listeners to examine what that person in front of them is enunciating and if his or her words are filled with the truth or are distorting the truth. In the case of Donald Trump they seemed to be deaf for all the lies he told and for how he switched from one side to an other, turning like the wind. He could uncap whatever he wanted and they all wanted to take it in like sweet buns.
Hillary Clinton speaks to the press in New Hampshire. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The writer thinks we in Europe must be taken by all the propaganda, because most of us seem to have a distorted view of what is going on in America, and perhaps in the world.
What I find strange the writer of A Progressive Anti-Trump View Point With My Rebuttal does not seem to see the difference of what the bible-scholar Bijbelvorsers wrote and on what he reblogged, taking everything what was reblogged on the Stepping Toes article A Progressive Call to Arms as the writing of Bijbelvorsers though the reblog was of an article the bible-scholar wanted to lay in front of the readers to think about it. By doing so the reactor to that article also misses the point of such reblog, and also of such a writing on Stepping Toes, where I created a site where people should be able to come together to talk about controversial matters.
The second part the retired schoolmaster is referring and commenting to is a text written by theindependentthinker2016. I must commit it disturbs me we are not given more information who this can be, or which organisation may behind that name. But that does not make me to disagree with a lot that writer tells us.
I also would love to ask the readers on this readers digest and on the other lifestyle magazine to think about their way of going on with politics, willing to see what is going on or wanting to close an eye for certain things.
Niemöller, author of “First they came …” at The Hague’s Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk in May 1952
I too would like to call to remember what the ex-naval officer and commander of a German U-boat in World War I wrote. He also had faced a man who wanted to have control over everything, including the churches. Until his arrested by Hitler’s secret police, the Gestapo, he was not afraid to open his mouth and to defend those who had no voice. We as Christians should come up for the weaker ones in society and should look at what happens in the world, if it can endanger man, animal and flora.
Christians also should take care that we do not have a second generation to have a collective guilt. Lecturing widely, Martin Friedrich Gustav Emil Niemöller spoke freely in favour of international reconciliation and against armaments.
Like there has been given a call on the lifestyle magazine Stepping Toes, to remember his famous statement and provocative poem, I also would repeat that important saying here also:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Martin Niemoller
Let us always be prepared to stand ready, to defend those without a voice and those who are oppressed.
I also express my hopes that we shall not have to face such cowardice of American intellectuals following the rise to power and subsequent purging of his chosen targets, group after group.
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Please do find both articles
the original A Progressive Call to Arms
the repost A Progressive Call to Arms
the reaction A Progressive Anti-Trump View Point With My Rebuttal
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Stop the Violence Movement (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Helping to come over the prejudices can also be to focus more on what you have in common and to look over the differences each person has from taking his or her own culture with him or her, and considering it such thing as a diversification but also as an enrichment of your own culture and environment.
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To remember
- Many beliefs divide us … religion, politics race, sex, etc.,
- power to unite us = choice to respect … to value
- ramping up some brain power?
- Connecting the Dots … with The Respect Principle
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Preceding articles
Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!
Responses to Radical Muslims and Radical Christians
Tolerance Ends When There Is No Tolerance Shown Towards Us
My two cents on the refugee crisis
Stabbed victim parent’s hope for less hatred and more tolerance
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Related articles
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Editor’s note: The last several weeks have witnessed many events of violence that are difficult to comprehend, and which confound efforts to respond wisely and biblically: the Orlando nightclub shooting, repeated acts of terror in the Middle East, and most recently, terrifying violence involving police in the United States. As you process your own reactions to these events, please join pastor Mel Lawrenz in this prayer for God’s wisdom.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” — James 1:5
Dear God,
You have said in your word that whenever we know we need wisdom, we should ask for it, and that you will give it generously. In these perilous times, we pray for your wisdom from above.
Grant us wisdom to know the way you look on the affairs of our nation.
Grant us wisdom to understand how you view our world today.
Grant us wisdom to know what an ordered and just and compassionate society looks like.
Grant us wisdom to know what to do with the reality of evil.
Grant us wisdom to uphold the defenseless.
Grant us wisdom to love you and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Lord, we pray that our leaders will personally understand that you are a dynamic reality in the world and in our lives.
May we be a nation which depends on you, acknowledges your blessings, and values what you value. And on the day after the election, Lord, help us to be faithful members of your kingdom and responsible citizens of the nation we inhabit.
In Christ’s name and for his sake, Amen.
For more biblical insight to help you grapple with the difficult issues presented by acts of terror and violence, see this past posts:
Mel Lawrenz trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a Ph.D. in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, the latest, How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.
Dear readers, for those who are new, we like to repeat our aims and about the idea behind our sharing.
This website wants to bring an overview of interesting articles which were published on the worldwide internet and present some additional views on how we could come to a better world. Up until now we also wanted to bring additional literature in sight of our readers. For that reason we have, up until a few days ago, included several links into the articles, which opened automatically in a new window. But somehow WordPress changed the way to include url links and made it more difficult or time consuming, not allowing the enclosure feature to remember the previous used url codes and having each link to be separately indicated to open in a new window, instead of remembering it for all links on that page. This means we always have to look again for certain links and have to do much more work to include them. This makes writing our articles even more time consuming. For that reason we regret from a few days ago we did not include so many links any more and from today onwards you shall have to chose how to open the link. Until we do not find a solution to keep the fill in for the links remembering what we filled in previously, we shall have to limit such linking to tags and other articles than those of the particular website (in this instance From Guestwriter).
Secondly, we also received regularly complaints from people that we linked to their website or article and had to undo such links or write a letter first explaining why we included that link and asking what they wanted we did with it. Though most agreed then to have the link staying on the article, we had lost lots of energy writing back and controlling everything.
For that reason we are going to refer less to outside articles, but still use Zemanta for presenting some articles, but this time we are going to choose more those sites we do know and for other sites we are not always going to read them all, before placing the Zemanta link, and will withdraw them directly when a complaint or request for “why linking” is presented to us. (Simple as that.)
Now you know also why one or an other site shall be linked to more than others. Those who would also liked to be linked to, can always ask us to examine their website and to follow their writings, so that we can may have a choice out of their articles as well.
Concerning the writers on this platform, we still wait for more writers willing to share their ideas. Many who we have contacted wanted money to write or to help this site evolve.
We are very limited in funds and as such can not pay our staff. We also believe not everything has to be arranged by money. A money-free future is perhaps not possible, but lots of things could and should be done without money in the back of the head.
We still can do with people writing about the history of way of living, to show us how our lifestyle changed by the years of technological evolution. We also would love to find an author who want to talk about nature and show the world the beauty of it and/or can let our readers now what is important to look at at a certain moment in the year. (Parks to visit, special exhibitions, etc.)
A political and economical analyst is also welcome.
Because of our interest how human beings should try to make the best out of living with each other, we also could use some more writers who talk about keeping the family healthy, spiritually and health wise. Talks about marriage, brining up children are more than welcome.
All That Money Wants (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are convinced there are many benefits for not having everything in return for money. Most reasonable people will have no trouble accepting a money-free where people want to share with each other out of brotherly love. That will give better quality of life for all, less inequality, poverty, crime, greed, corruption, pollution and waste; greater health, education, trust, respect, awareness, sustainability, community values, technological advances, etc. Most people want these things, but are they convinced of the feasibility. How is a moneyless society possible?
I am convinced that there is a misconception about the need of money.
Imagining a world without money usually raises the following objections immediately, each of which is linked to a particular lifelong held belief (in brackets):
1. You need to have exchange (You can’t get something for nothing)
2. No-one would do anything (money motivates people)
3. People would take advantage (greed is human nature)
4. I will lose everything I have (fear of loss, ownership)
5. Chaos and violence would ensue (society requires control)
6. Society would stagnate or regress (markets fuel progress)
The good news is that all of these objections can be overturned quite easily using just plain common sense and basic observations.
I do agree that most people want something for something else. For generations we people are brought up with that idea. Even worse, often people consider somebody not right in his head when he just wants to do something, not requiring anything in the place. Naturally we all need something to eat and we need a roof above our head, whilst we can not all have the same skill. Not everybody has enough competence to do the things he need. So we often are for many things dependent on others.
I am a believer in the Divine Creator and I am convinced He created all beings in His image and with the idea that all creatures are there for some good reason and to complement each other. Rabbi Jeshua, better known today as Jesus, reminded his listeners to look at the birds who have no money but manage to have their food and everything they need to live.
The master teacher and the prophets of God asked the people to look at nature where we can see what man came to call “symbiosys“. Everywhere in the creation of the Most High where man did not interfere there is balance. We can see that in nature two species benefit each other (the bee taking nectar while helping the plant to pollinate is the most obvious example), but there is no intentional transaction taking place. Both species are ignorant of the desires of the other. Some look at it as purely an accident of evolution that has caused both species to survive and flourish. In nature we can find many plants or animals which make use of each other, but not really demanding a return as such, and most of all not being repaid by something we can compare with money. We invented that idea of intentional exchanges as an essential ingredient to life or to community, to cope with scarcity in more primitive times, and with more complex needs.
Serious Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The money / value system that we humans operate in has its origins in more primitive times, but which has now made us hell-bent on keeping score and accounting for everything in a numerical sense, and at the expense of common sense and sustainability. It is true that people are motivated by money, and that the communist system failed because of people being too egocentric and not willing to work together for a communal idea, building up a society where everybody could live on the same terms and being considered of equal value. We love to have a hierarchical system and I do agree somebody who is just lazy and does not want to co-operate in the system can not have the same advantages as somebody who works hard.
But like in nature those animals not having money, we as humans also do not nervelessly need a currency to provide payment, which proved not always to bring that luck hoped for.
We all have look at “Money” as a handy tool or a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. In industrialized nations, portion of the national money supply, consisting of bank notes and government-issued paper money and coins, provides a value or currency. Everybody expects everything to be “prized” and expresses the value of things in currencies or in money. In the so called “third world” or among less developed societies, we can see that currency encompasses a wide diversity of items (e.g., livestock, stone carvings, tobacco) used as exchange media as well as signs of value or wealth.
We should come to see and understand that there are much better values than money. Think about the many other human motivators:
Nature doesn’t keep score and why should we put everything in figures and balance it out to get even? Do you find it normal that people would seek exchange in their families or in their circles of friends? So why do we seek exchange in others? Among our loved ones, loving people shall tend to help each other out when they can and no-one will keep score.
Trying to get everything for yourself is not a natural instinct but a created attitude which can be transformed back to the innocent position we have a s a toddler. At the beginning of life the human being only asks and takes what it needs. Greed is not a basic element of human nature – it is even a deformed desire to stockpile something what the person may consider scarce and which he need to live, or a wrong attitude having come into the personality by the envy looking at others and comparing to others.
Like a squirrel collecting nuts, some may find greed makes good sense – because we don’t know what the future will bring. In a monetary world, the greatest scarcity is money itself, so it makes sense to accumulate it, and, since there is no upper limit to the money and property you can have, there’s no reason to stop accumulating it.
Map of the global distribution of economic and physical water scarcity as of 2006
Price systems may be considered the result of scarcity but for the first time in history, we have the technology to eradicate scarcity (or paucity) and to create an abundance of necessities for all humans on Earth with minimal physical effort. Primarily by coordinating the decisions of consumers, producers, and owners of productive resources people have taken refuge with their monetary system. Prices have become an acceptable expression of the consensus on the values of different things, and every society that permits exchanges between people has prices. Because prices are expressed in terms of a widely acceptable commodity, they permit a ready comparison of the comparative values of various commodities.
Normally we have enough technology to make work light for man. For lots of jobs the machines could do the work for man. What is going wrong today is that certain people, who do not do much work, can earn more than 300% than those who do the dirty work. And that is too much inequality. Such a difference should not exist. This way not having people being rightly paid according to what they do or which responsibility they take at a reasonable reward, prevents a nice way of living for everybody, as it intrinsically requires scarcity to perpetuate itself.
Throughout history mankind has tried out several systems which all failed in a certain way. I as a Christian am convinced no human system can bring the right solution, but until the return of the Messiah we have to find ways to make life as smooth as possible and to have the creation in balance, not demanding too much of nature and not destroying so many things around us, which we have in loan and do not own. And there is the difficulty of it all, too many people think they “Own” and want to possess more. It is their fear of loosing what they “own” which makes them behave this way and often makes them blind for the way others (other humans, animals and plants) have to live.
The whole notion of ownership should be revised altogether.
We all need privacy and a certain amount of exclusivity, right?
Who wants to share their toothbrush, or have strangers walking around their home, for example?
Our normalised belief tells us that we define who uses what through something called ‘ownership’. Our laws define and protect ownership, with the threat of punishment to those who disobey (ie. stealing).
But where does this concept of ownership came from in the first place? Did we own nothing before someone wrote the law?
We think we own something and that the earth is ours. Believers in God do know that it is a gift from the Divine Creator and that we have received this earth in loan. It is not ours, it is God’s.
Growing up we make things our own. We create our personality. Growing up we collect certain things we consider our own. But we should know that once we die, the breath of life goes out of us, and we shall be nothing any-more with those treasures we collected. We can’t take those treasures with us in our grave, to an other life. It shall be of no purpose in our death. We shall just decay and become dust like many of those goods also shall become dust.
The point is that most things in the community belonged to no-one. Whatever items within the community that were not morally or logically entitled to anyone were used and shared by all.
So without ownership, what stops people from stealing? What actually stops people from stealing from each other is that it is anti-social, disrespectful and invasive, and people who do so are liable to become deeply unpopular. This social incentive for certain behaviour is far stronger than any rule could ever be, as it is dictated by how we feel about ourselves and our position in society. Yet we commonly mistake the rule of law as being the only thing that governs this behaviour.
Value for Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If we understand that respect, privacy and exclusivity are, in fact, already hard-wired into our social psyche – not dictated by external controlling forces – then we can begin to move beyond the traditional inefficient limits of ownership and with it, any fear of loss.
Throughout history we can see that it was the desire of power and the greed of certain people that brought misery to others. The last few moths I encountered many who said religion is the base of violence. When they would look closer at what really happened in history they would see that most criminal acts where done by non-religious people for political reasons and on second place or by people who used a religion as an excuse for their war of conquest. Today we see this by ISIS who present a similar war as the crusaders and do the same atrocities as the inquisitors a few centuries ago. Their killing had a duration of more than one century, whilst ISIS is only busy for a few years. Their terror is as abominable as the terror other terrorists bring. They bring fear and terror in the hope increasing their power. But most crime and violence is driven by desperation through lack of basic requirements for living, ie. theft, armed robbery, burglary, etc. and by having a low moral. Almost all other crimes can be seen as the secondary effects of poor upbringing. ie. where parents are poor, over-worked, unemployed, frustrated, depressed or disillusioned, etc. – all factors that can contribute to an unstable and unloving environment for children, who may later turn to crime as a result of low self esteem or maladjustment.
When you succeed into taking away the inequality and create a world where everyone will have free access to good food, housing, education and technology, it still won’t be perfect or eliminate all crime, but if everyone has a good quality of life and free access, then crime will have little or no incentive.
In our commercialised society we are so used that everything is valued by a currency and money. The economists or entrepreneurs look at the system we are used to and cite economic incentive and competition as good for progress. Have you ever wondered with what they compared their luxurious system? Might it not be that because they start of with a false key that they come to false conclusions?
Are we really to believe that all innovators, inventors and artists will down tools the moment someone calls time on money? Obviously not, since we all know so many creative people that never achieve financial success, it shows us that they are not driven by money, but rather by their passions and desire to innovate.
I would love to call onto people to come to think about sharing more.
Often I do meet people who are very much afraid of a sharing system and think we can not do without money, though they themself use lots of tools without paying for them. We can find lots of people who are using Open Source Applications, which they take it for granted they can use them because everybody is using them. Often they do not see other large scale innovative projects which are becoming the optimum means of production without a monetary incentive.
Lots of people behind the screens try to invent things which can be used by others, and use themselves things others created. Lots of people do forget that many computer programs like Linux, Chrome and Android have been developed freely by enthusiasts in their spare time,. It ware those people who were willing to spend their precious free time to create something for the good of the whole community and not just for them selves or to gain lots of money. The computer industry has led the way on this, but of course, there is no reason why ‘open source thinking’ cannot be applied in agriculture, crafts, construction or education, etc.
The big problem we are facing today is that there has been created a generation of people who mainly think about themselves. Their ego comes on the first place and they look for gaining as much as they can for their own, often at the cost of others.
In the past the economical factor, being of wealthy parents of a having a privileged background was the creating facility for equanimity or for daring taking risks. Comfortable upbringing, access to good food and education, often provided the luxury of time – not labouring for their keep – but spending it on developing their ideas and skills instead. But we also find lots of creative minds who had no financial security, though created masterpieces.
Having money does not mean being smarter. If society can work better without money, then all potential young Einsteins and Mozarts will have the optimal opportunity to exercise and advance their talents.
If we create a society where talents are recognised and stimulated and people can receive equal opportunities, so much more can come off the ground.
You can see that money does not bring that happiness many people hoped for. It is not a bad tool to be used in exchange for things, but we should not put all our hopes on it.
We should go back to the natives. We best dare to look at those living in the Amazon or other not yet by capitalism spoiled places. We too can learn from populations where money is not the key factor to order their way of living.
We should also come to understand that in our society we do have so many things we do not need or do not need any-more. Why not giving that stuff away that is filling your cupboards? If you have certain talents, why not sharing them with others and letting them also enjoy them?
In case a moneyless future seems something interesting to think about or when you like the idea, why not join “a movement of believers”?
Please have a look at the underneath brief introduction to the charter for a truly free world.
You are invited to show your support by reading and signing The Free World Charter.
Thank you.
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Preceding articles
Your position about materialistic desires having conquered the world
Learning that stuff is just stuff
Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth
Looking on what is going on and not being of it
Misleading world, stress, technique, superficiality, past, future and positivism
How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace
Why “Selfishness” Doesn’t Properly Mean Being Shortsighted and Harmful to Others
Hoarding Relationships and Things
A bird’s eye and reflecting from within
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Our feelings are with all those who have been hurt by the acts of brutal men.
There might be lots of violence which we seem to be unable to avoid.
We should let our voice be heard and protest against such cruelty in this world.
“Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep.” (Romans 12:15 ASV)
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3 ASV)
Dear God, we ask you that you bring light to many people
and show them your way to peace,
making them stronger to bear all the violence of this world.
These days the west came to understand how seriously Islamic State group wants to launch “enormous and spectacular attacks,” as jihadis broaden their focus to target Western lifestyles.
The heart of Europe was severely hurt on the 22nd of March with up to 35 deaths and 396 wounded (as registered on the 31st of March).
The Paris and Brussels attacks have rightly caused outrage across the globe. However, while millions in the West took to social media to share their grief, there are numerous attacks across the world that go largely unreported in the mainstream media are which are forgotten or not remembered by lots of Westerners.
The “black flag of jihad” as used by jihadist militants since around the late 1990s
Ardennes (in ‘darker’ green)
Our regions do know that IS is no longer content to simply radicalise people through propaganda, but is “trying to build bigger attacks.” for several months now that rebel group is also trying to bring jihadis trained in Syria into northern Europe to launch strikes, helped by those who are trained in West Flanders and in the Belgian Ardennes.
On 21 March, the Kurds celebrated the biggest cultural event of their year, Newroz or New Year, but once again they too were under attack by Turkey but also by groups of their own, namely the PKK.
Pro-Assad media hails recapture of ancient city as ‘strategic victory’ but others allege collusion between Damascus and retreating militants
A Syrian soldier looks at graffiti in Palmyra reading: “The Islamic State is staying’ (AFP)
The ruins of Palmyra in 2010
The dramatic recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra by the Syrian army and its allies on Sunday prompted some commentators in the Arabic-language media to declare the beginning of the end for the Islamic State (IS) group, while others predicted a long and drawn out battle to come with regional and global consequences. {- See more at: Middle East eye}
Four days after the Brussels attacks the terrorists showed they were not at all only focussing on fakir Christians. At least 41 people were killed and 105 wounded when a teenage ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up at a small soccer stadium in the Iraqi city of Iskanderiyah, less than 30 miles south of Baghdad. The attack targeted the crowd watching an amateur soccer match on Friday evening in the mixed Sunni and Shiite town, and the city’s mayor, who was presenting awards to the soccer players at the time of the bombing, was among those killed. The BBC also reports that 17 of the dead were boys between the ages of 10 and 16. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack using its social media channels, according to the Site extremist monitoring group.
On Sunday the 27th of March Pakistan got its share also with a bombing that killed 72 people and injured more than 350 at a crowded park on Easter Sunday. Though the violent Pakistani Taliban offshoot known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar — which boasted that it targeted Christians in a crowded park in Lahore — once publicly declared support for ISIS, but has hit more Muslims and Hindy people than Christians.
Now it’s the subject of an intensive crackdown in the world’s second-most populous and only nuclear-armed Muslim nation. On dealing with the threat of Islamic State, Obama said he had invited participating nations to work on improving intelligence-sharing to prevent terrorist attacks.
“At our session on ISIL this afternoon there was widespread agreement that defeating terrorist groups like ISIL requires more information sharing,”
Obama said on Friday April 1, using an acronym for the militant group.
Pakistan, a country long considered an al Qaeda stronghold, feels more and more also the negative pressure of that group and similar related groups which want to govern lots of people, telling them what they can or not can do.
Those “cowardly” suicide attacks shall continue. And with them we can see the Biblical prophesies of having the religions coming up against religions, after the period when the people living in the land of Euphrates and Tigris would have fought against each other (Iran & Iraq).
Whilst US President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons yesterday after arriving in France for a Nato summit, where he won French endorsement of his new Afghanistan strategy, we should be fully aware that the war on terror continues and shall bring forth some other serious attacks form underground people or different cells which sprout up like ulcers.
It are those rebels who misuse the name of God and try to get religious people against each other. Believers in God should be very careful not to fall in the trap and going to one or another religious group. In Belgium, Holland, France and some other Western countries we can see movements from right as wall as extreme left wing organisations defiling the Muslim community.
Flag of Taliban (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For sure the Western states do have to get a grip on rising violence by al Qaeda and Taliban militants driven from power in 2001 but never completely defeated. But Christians should be careful not to be carried away by hatred and should abstain from any violent action. They also should show their love for those who are different than them and who have an other faith than them, but who also sincerely believe in the Divine Creator.
We always should remember that those who rape and sell children, kill innocent people, burn Koran‘s, mosques and bring terror on so many places are all doing things which are against Koran teaching and as such against real Muslim faith.
They are not only misusing and defiling the Name of God, but they are bringing discredit to all those believers who belong to the Islam.
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Islamic State claimed responsibility for several explosions causing many deaths and severely wounded, creating lots of horror and pain
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Preceding / Voorgaande
In tijden van gemeenschappelijk verdriet
Hoe te reageren op aanslagen in Brussel
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Related articles
To remember:
When tidal wave of yet another tragedy linked to terrorism will subside, we will return all of our lives.
We’ve almost forgotten about Charlie Hebdo, gunshots in the Bardo Museum, the ones on the beach in Sousse.
Living in age of terrorism = gulp down tons of violence at speed of light.
ruthless process, perhaps the most terrifying of terrorism purposes: on the one hand aims at deceiving and stun, the other creates in us the awareness that fear walks hand in hand with us.
Brussels = city = distillation of different cultures + overall mix = cultural capital of a dream > Europe > perhaps proved more ambitious than what you thought over sixty years ago.
vibrant + dynamic city > reflected in Atomium
an eternal greyness surrounds the mussels, French fries, chocolate + most delicious beer in the world
Streets full of dirt that intersect with embroidered gardens by the cleanliness and order.
Brussels = not hit at random <= Belgium at crossroads of social redemption
child trapped in subway tunnel = cry in the dark = Something atavistic, that binds us together. Because the greatest fear and that all we suffer is that of the unknown nightmare that assails us in silence and darkness of the night.
A cry that can not have answers. Because it is too irrational. Especially to be explained to a child.
Let us remember that cry, before all is still metabolized. Before that our fears are deleted from the looming everyday.
The symbol of Brussels is Manneken Pis, a child from angelic features that pees. Perhaps it is now broken.
But if they reassemble, us, we can make sure he gets to pee.
Maybe in their own terrorists head.
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Related articles
Lo sappiamo tutti. Quando il maremoto dell’ennesima tragedia legata al terrorismo si placherà, noi torneremo tutti alle nostre vite. Alle nostre bollette da pagare, al nostro Paese che ci delude quotidianamente, alla Juventus che ci fa incazzare e a Belèn che tenta di alzare lo share spostando l’aria con le natiche.
Ci siamo già quasi scordati di Charlie Hebdo, degli spari nel museo Bardo, di quelli in spiaggia a Sousse.
Vivere nell’epoca del terrorismo significa ingurgitare tonnellate di violenza e conseguente retorica alla velocità della luce. Metabolizzare tutto ed espellerlo. E aspettare che tutto torni, ciclicamente.
È un procedimento spietato, forse il più terrorizzante della finalità del terrorismo: se da una parte punta a spiazzarci e a stordirci, dall’altra crea in noi la consapevolezza che la paura cammini a braccetto con noi. Fino al punto di non percepirla quasi più.
Di Bruxelles ho un ricordo simile a quello che ho…
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Filed under Crimes & Atrocities, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, World affairs
Remain lovingly. No path for softies.
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David Grégoire Van Reybrouck Flemish Belgian author who writes historical fiction, literary non-fiction, novels, poetry, plays and academic texts. He has received several Dutch literary prizes, including AKO Literature Prize (2010) and Libris History Prize.
Jens Stoltenberg
One hears language of war here and there as a reaction to acts of terror worldwide. In his opinion column David Van Reybrouck pleads for other forms of resoluteness than war language. Immediately after the attacks in Norway the Prime Minister Stoltenberg pleaded frankly for
“more democracy, more openness, more participation“.
In this climate of violence we need this connective thinking. Violence starts indeed where people allow themselves to be played off against each other and point at innocent people.
Only light can conquer darkness.
Last november ,’Hart boven Hard‘ (Heart above Hard) and other similar organisations have organised simultaneous “silent wakes” in various towns in solidarity with all the victims of terror attacks and wars. Under the common motto “together against hate” the civil movement invites as many people as possible to make a gesture against violence, polarising and terrorism.
Also the youth brigade Tony! takes to the streets in order to commit hopeful attacks. In the autumn they drove through the city and projected connecting messages onto public buildings like the MAS. With this wildbeam action these young people offer a constructive counterweight. They choose for radical hope as a last freedom of the human being. The freedom to choose how we want to deal with the things thrown at us today.
An alternative for fear begins with …. YOU!
Every person who chooses resolutely every day to stay lovingly, to accept dialogue, to choose for encounter, knows that this is not an easy path to take. Resistance, disappointment, desperation are part of it. Resilience is a must. Notwithstanding this MWN summons – already for over 55 years – to choose this path. To keep trusting. Also when it becomes difficult. Because we keep believing in the silent force of many citizens who together keep delivering small , meaningful deeds. As a silent protest.
The present and 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
The Dalai Lama has spread a similar message :
“Violence is a reaction of shortsighted people that have lost the plot. At 81 I believe that violence cannot be solved by prayers or Governments. We have to create change at an individual level and then spread this to your neighbourhood and the society”.
BZN or MWN Who we are & What we do;
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Original Dutch Version /Nederlandse versie: Liefdevol blijven = Geen weg voor softies
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Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014
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Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Bijbelvorsers
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Immanuel Verbondskind
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Relating to God
We belong to the Bloggers for Peace and you can join them too. (Click on the picture to know more and to connect.)
Today’s thought “A blessing and a curse” (April 25) Deuteronomy 10-11 We continue to read Moses’ final message – a wondrous exhortation to the tribes of Israel – before he died and they entered the promised land without him. These chapters in Deuteronomy have a powerful message. Much of what Moses says to them we […]
De evangelisten Marcus en Lukas schrijven dat de heer Jezus zich regelmatig terugtrok in de eenzaamheid om, zonder door anderen in beslag genomen te worden, te spreken met zijn Vader in de hemel. Zij vertellen ons niet veel over wat Jezus op zulke momenten bad. Maar wat zij, door de Geest geïnspireerd, wel hebben opgeschreven, […]
Today’s thought “Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of Jehovah” (April 24) Deuteronomy 8-9, In today’s reading we are requested to carefully obey every command Jehovah, the Most High Maker God has given us. He let us know that when we keep His commandments we will live and grow in number. […]
“15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, […]
Today’s thought “Watch yourselves very carefully” (April 21) Deuteronomy 4, Proverbs 31, John 15,16 Today we have a remarkable set of meaningful readings. In Deuteronomy Moses commences his final exhortation to his nation; in Proverbs, the final chapter is taken to be an exhortation from the mother of Solomon (Bathsheba), a message that at the […]
When we are looking for some one for having a good or close relationship with, we can assure you the best one to have a good relationship with is the Most High Divine Creator God Who made it possible for you to be here in the first place. Having a relationship with Him is a […]
When wondered about a godhead and having come to the conclusion that there must be a Divine Creator or Supreme Being that surpasses all human and animal beings, we may question if it is possible for us to have a relationship with that Higher Being. What does it take to begin a relationship with God? […]
In March 2016 we created on Weebly a website to talk about man’s relationship with God. After we had done all the placing of pages and came to the contact form and placing of a Gravatar for the replies, we were brought to WordPress where we not only could choose a Gravatar but also got […]
Throughout history of mankind there have many groups of people who worshipped a triple deity (sometimes referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic, or as a trinity). Those people who worshipped such tri-une god all claim they only worship one deity. Such deities that are worshipped as one are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion. But the God of the Bible is clear about Which God has to be worshipped, not a more headed, be it an eightfold, three-une or bi-one god, but only the God of Abraham, Which is only One God of gods.
Find out in this article and its links how Jews, Christians and Muslims may have been influenced by the pagan gods and false teachings and how they have to separate them from such pagan teachings.
You may wonder if there really exist a God. You have all reason to question His existence and to check if you are feeling right or thinking the right way. We are even requested to examine our own faith. It is important to know what you want to believe, what you want to take for […]
Als men bepaalde woorden en verzen uit de bijbel wil bespreken moet men steeds teruggrijpen naar de betekenis van die woorden in die tijd dat de tekst geschreven werd.
Vandaag kijken wij naar het woord “Liefhebben” en wat dat inhoudt voor de Hebreeër.
The HalleluYah Scriptures present a translation directly from the original Hebrew into English in parallel with Hebrew, following the same principles of the original English translation HalleluYah Scriptures wherein the Name of the heavenly Father is restored throughout in Paleo Hebrew as is the Name of Ha’Mashiaḥ.
Lots of Jews and many who have found Jeshua as the way to God have come afraid by the populist far-right politicians and extreme right agitators. Many do not want to come out in the public because of fear for bullying and terrorist actions against them. Many are also afraid that when they would unite with a group or would have a collective name that they would loose their characteristic property.
As partakers of a particular Body they should know that it is more important how we make others feel and would like to be open and susceptible to them.
In Belgium and Holland we may find several populist politicians who do not mind to be enablers of hate speech against certain groups of people and who do not mind to go in against the freedom of speech, expression and religion. since a few years Muslims could receive hate and abuse and more and more Jewish communities also became targetted. The number of suspected far-right extremists referred to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme has increased by more than a quarter, new figures show, as the number of Islamists falls. Also in our regions we must be careful not to loose democratic rights, seeing that around us over half the nations in the world are experiencing significant democratic decline.
Op vrijdag 30 maart 2018 of 14 Nisan 5778 begint voor vele kinderen een extra leuk verlengd weekend met hun ouders. Tot en met maandag 1 april is er het Pesach en/of Paasweekend waar vele mensen eigenlijk stil zouden moeten staan bij de verlossing van de mensheid, maar velen de Uittocht van Egypte zo wel als de Loskopingsdaad van Jezus (Jeshua) zijn vergeten en eerder aan paaseitjes en geschenkjes denken.
We believe that the truly special thing about Pesach is how it manages to be both traditional — we read the same story that our ancestors have been reciting for millennia — and personal, with each of us making the Seder our own by incorporating our own interpretations and interests into the timeless tale of […]
Wij geloven dat het echt speciale aan Pesach is hoe het erin slaagt om zowel traditioneel te zijn – we lezen hetzelfde verhaal dat onze voorouders al millennia reciteren – als persoonlijk, waarbij ieder van ons de Seder de onze maakt door onze eigen interpretaties en belangen op te nemen in het tijdloze verhaal van de […]
In Antwerpen zal er eindelijk werk moeten gemaakt worden voor een herdenkingsmonument (of “Namenmonument”) zoals dit reeds enkele jaren wordt gepland als waardige antwoord op de stolpersteine en het uitblijven van een waardige herinnering voor de vele holocaust slachtoffers.
Un pavé de mémoire devant le seuil de la maison dans laquelle vivait une victime du nazisme, à rendre hommage public aux victimes mais aussi à renforcer la tolérance, la cohabitation et la démocratie.
Een kijk op “struikelstenen” of “Stolpersteine” naar het idee van de Duitse kunstenaar Gunter Demnig. In februari 2017 liggen er nu zo wat 65.000 struikelstenen verspreid over heel Europa, 260 daarvan in België, onder meer in Brussel, Gent, Charleroi.
1 April 2018 Deel 3: My verassing ~ The Remnants of an Ancient Civilization Foshan word beskryf as an ancient civilization, in hierdie gedeelte van die stad is van die ou geboue gerestoureer en sommige van die oorspronklike mure vorm deel van die struktuur. Dit is beyond beautiful! Ek het al só baie oor […]
1 April 2018 Deel 2: The Chinese Lion Dance Gymnasts perform lion dances in which two or more performers dress up like a big lion. The Chinese believe that lions are full of power and grandeur. They are supposed to be auspicious animals which can bring good luck. Stone carved lions are used […]
