We talk of someone who is intolerant as lacking in love. Perhaps that's not normally the way we describe that individual, but it's really what we mean.
Now, consider God. He's completely loving; John even wrote "God is love." Yet we have the following idea in the scriptures, written succinctly here:
D&C 1:31 "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance"
So, is God intolerant? No. There is nobody more tolerant than God. Really. He sent Jesus to make it so everybody who wants to can go home. Everybody. The imperfect. Those we see as despicable. Us. The normal, imperfect humans who inhabit this world. Those who have known God while in the flesh and those who have not. For, as Peter said, "God is no respecter of persons."
God being the most tolerant individual extant, how then can He not look upon sin with any degree of allowance?
I believe it goes to this idea: keeping the commandments of God leads to happiness. Breaking them precludes happiness. Keeping a commandment results in greater happiness. Breaking a commandment results in less joy. God, who loves us, His children, and wants the greatest happiness possible (which He knows, as He possesses this ultimate joy) for us, desires that we should not accept less than that greatest gift which He has for us to reach out and take. Yet He's willing to accept something He doesn't want because of something He wants more. He's willing to let us choose degrees of joy (or sadness), because He values our individuality and our ability to choose for ourselves.
So, God lets us sin. He has provided a way out. For everyone. He's more merciful, kind, tolerant, and loving that we're willing to accept (or capable of comprehending) most of the time. There are consequences to sin, just as there are for righteousness. They differ. Each pays a different wage. Nevertheless, we each select our own master, be it God, or any variety of poor substitutes (lucre, pleasure, etc.).
Why did I write this? My wife and I were discussing judgment of other sinners. Somebody wrote an email to a whole university calling a particular individual running for a student government position a "sinner." Well, of course that individual is! We all are. So we'd better stop judging and start loving each other and be as tolerant as God. Note: loving is not the same as trying to love. To love is a decision made in a moment. It may take practice. Decide to practice.
Love.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Saturday, April 30, 2011
New May's Resolutions
So, I have this blog that I haven't posted on in a year.
Well, now that I'm out of school and have a life again outside of school and work, I'll record a bit about it. So that's my new May resolution.
We have a new daughter, M, and our four-year old daughter, E. M lies here in my lap as I type, just as her sister did when I was in school. I have had the last month off of work (since her birth), and it has been wonderful.
Well, now that I'm out of school and have a life again outside of school and work, I'll record a bit about it. So that's my new May resolution.
We have a new daughter, M, and our four-year old daughter, E. M lies here in my lap as I type, just as her sister did when I was in school. I have had the last month off of work (since her birth), and it has been wonderful.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Nick Jr. not Family-friendly
Nick Jr. has linked to addictinggames.com. Why? Well, here's how it works: Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company, is also the parent company of MTV, which hosts addictinggames.com; it only makes business sense to link back to another page hosted by that family of companies. The trouble is that the addictinggames.com contains objectionable content. I went to www.nickjr.com, checked this out for myself, and wrote Nick Jr. the following letter through their "Contact Us" link. If you agree with me, please write to them today, and invite your friends to do the same!
At the bottom of nickjr.com you have a section called "nickelodeon kids and family websites" which contains links to addictinggames.com. Visit that site for just a minute. It is NOT family friendly. Some of the offending categories are: fighting, naughty, bloody, cute shooter, war, and zombie. The list continues.
While it is prudent for parents to supervise their children's use of the internet, it is also prudent to categorize your links correctly. I am appalled that you link to a page with quasi-pornographic games like Perry the Sneak. Pornography has been causing enormous problems in society, and for people in the IT field, pornography addiction is a leading cause of firings! Way to go, NickJr, getting them addicted early on!
While addictinggames.com is a page hosted by MTV, part of your parent company, it is reprehensible to link to that page from this one. I understand that marketing shows that this is a smart thing to do. Morals, on the other hand, prohibit poisoning children in such a fashion.
Individuals must decide what is right and what is wrong, and so must corporations, which consist of individuals making the same decisions day after day. It is an inescapable decision. Please decide to remove all links to addictinggames.com from nickjr, so that children will not be poisoned at such an impressionable age.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Microsoft Job Offer
As many of my friends know, because people have contacted them for personal references, I have begun my job search for work to begin in May 2010.
Well, the job search has born fruit: Last night I was offered a job by Microsoft! Pay and benefits are amazing - nobody else comes close, on either count.
Well, the job search has born fruit: Last night I was offered a job by Microsoft! Pay and benefits are amazing - nobody else comes close, on either count.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Net Neutrality
What if your favorite website didn't have enough money to pay the internet providers for high speed preference? Or if your ISP decided that your favorite website was a competitor and wouldn't let you get there?
Sound ridiculous? AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others want to make this happen!
If they succeed, the internet as we know it will cease to exist. What??? Well, if you want to make a webpage right now and start your own business, it's fairly inexpensive ($20/month or less). In the internet that these telecomm corporations want, that cost goes up a great deal.
Right now, a bill is up for consideration that can make Net Neutrality federal law. Net Neutrality is what we currently experience on the internet. Every site's data is treated the same coming down the wire to your house - nobody receives preferential treatment.
Check out this site for more information: http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq#
Sound ridiculous? AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others want to make this happen!
If they succeed, the internet as we know it will cease to exist. What??? Well, if you want to make a webpage right now and start your own business, it's fairly inexpensive ($20/month or less). In the internet that these telecomm corporations want, that cost goes up a great deal.
Right now, a bill is up for consideration that can make Net Neutrality federal law. Net Neutrality is what we currently experience on the internet. Every site's data is treated the same coming down the wire to your house - nobody receives preferential treatment.
Check out this site for more information: http://www.savetheinternet.com/faq#
Friday, October 9, 2009
Most funny Phishing Email ever!
The following is the text of an email I received from a phisher in Poland. Doesn't this sound like the worst Dragnet spoof ever? And really, would the director write to li'l ol' me personally? I feel so special that they aren't just knocking on my front door! Good heavens, I hope nobody falls for this...
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation Dept: Anti-Terrorist & Monetary Crimes Division
Office: Washington, D.C. Headquarters
Address: J. Edgar Hoover Building93 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Attention Funds Beneficiary,
This is to officially inform you that a foreign bank from West Africa have transferred funds worth Millions of United States Dollars with your name as the beneficiary. This foreign bank knows that they do not have enough facilities to effect this payment from their location to your account and therefore they used what is known as Secret Diplomatic Transit Payment (S.T.D.P) to do this transfer and they are currently awaiting a confirmation from you for final crediting to your account. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities, so if you are not intending to finance terrorism and your transaction is legitimate, why then did you agree to receive these funds through this means that was used instead of a direct transfer to your account?
Our findings shows that this method of transfer was used in the past to finance terrorist acts, so there is need to correct this problem now to avoid you getting into trouble when the funds reflects in your account. Under the United Nations monetary rules it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this fund will be credited into your personal account. Due to the increased difficulty and security measures set up by the United States for the transfer of funds from foreign banks, the FBI foreign bank commission have stopped the transfer on its way to debit your reserve account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (s.d.t.a) We govern and oversee funds transfer for the World Bank and the rest of the world.
We demand your immediate response with full details of the transaction you are doing that involved this huge sum because the funds are currently being held in our custody. You must provide us with a Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Transfer (DIST) within 3 days from the world local bank that authorized the fund transfer to certify that the funds you are about to receive are clean and free from terrorist and drug. Until this document is provided we shall have cause to cross and impound the transfer and will come to your house to arrest you.
The Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. This Condition is Valid until 30th of this month after which the funds shall be confiscated and legal action will be taken against you.
Guarantee: Funds will be released upon confirmation of the DIST document.
NOTE: We have requested for the DIST document to make available the most complete and update records possible for the enhancement of public safety, welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights. If you fail to provide the Document to us, we will charge you with the financial crimes. The United Nations Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities.
Robert S. Mueller, III
(FBI Director)
From: Federal Bureau of Investigation Dept: Anti-Terrorist & Monetary Crimes Division
Office: Washington, D.C. Headquarters
Address: J. Edgar Hoover Building93 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Attention Funds Beneficiary,
This is to officially inform you that a foreign bank from West Africa have transferred funds worth Millions of United States Dollars with your name as the beneficiary. This foreign bank knows that they do not have enough facilities to effect this payment from their location to your account and therefore they used what is known as Secret Diplomatic Transit Payment (S.T.D.P) to do this transfer and they are currently awaiting a confirmation from you for final crediting to your account. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities, so if you are not intending to finance terrorism and your transaction is legitimate, why then did you agree to receive these funds through this means that was used instead of a direct transfer to your account?
Our findings shows that this method of transfer was used in the past to finance terrorist acts, so there is need to correct this problem now to avoid you getting into trouble when the funds reflects in your account. Under the United Nations monetary rules it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this fund will be credited into your personal account. Due to the increased difficulty and security measures set up by the United States for the transfer of funds from foreign banks, the FBI foreign bank commission have stopped the transfer on its way to debit your reserve account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (s.d.t.a) We govern and oversee funds transfer for the World Bank and the rest of the world.
We demand your immediate response with full details of the transaction you are doing that involved this huge sum because the funds are currently being held in our custody. You must provide us with a Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Transfer (DIST) within 3 days from the world local bank that authorized the fund transfer to certify that the funds you are about to receive are clean and free from terrorist and drug. Until this document is provided we shall have cause to cross and impound the transfer and will come to your house to arrest you.
The Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. This Condition is Valid until 30th of this month after which the funds shall be confiscated and legal action will be taken against you.
Guarantee: Funds will be released upon confirmation of the DIST document.
NOTE: We have requested for the DIST document to make available the most complete and update records possible for the enhancement of public safety, welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights. If you fail to provide the Document to us, we will charge you with the financial crimes. The United Nations Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities.
Robert S. Mueller, III
(FBI Director)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Finally! The gov't gets it right!
A six-year-old girl goes to the kitchen to get a snack. Only, this isn't your ordinary snack-obtaining mission. You can't get caught by the grown-ups, and if you do, you get tied up for days, surrounded by things that scare you.
Sounds pretty sick, huh?
Well, that's exactly what happened to this little girl, and thankfully, someone who knew turned in the bad guys... her family. Mom and Dad were away, and her relatives had been caring for her. What a sweet way to care for her: binding her up and surrounding her by snakes and spiders that scare her.
It's heartbreaking to me as a father that someone would do this to a child. Why, oh why do we think in this country that little children are to be treated horrendously, and as long as you are the guardian, it should be okay?
The mentality that allows spanking, taken a little further, is the same that allows this treatment. Spanking is the single most scary thing that happened to me as a child - and I did dumb things that nearly killed me. Putting a child in line through fear and pain is wrong. It is not part of raising a child to become a responsible, honorable adult.
Stopping violence begins at home with gentle parenting - with any child. Of course some children will offer tougher challenges - we're all different. It doesn't mean that they need to be forced into submission. If that's your thought, you probably have a leader. Turn that around and use that to the child's advantage; don't try to beat/scare it out of her/him.
How can you develop empathy that you've never experienced? You can't! That's how!
Sounds pretty sick, huh?
Well, that's exactly what happened to this little girl, and thankfully, someone who knew turned in the bad guys... her family. Mom and Dad were away, and her relatives had been caring for her. What a sweet way to care for her: binding her up and surrounding her by snakes and spiders that scare her.
It's heartbreaking to me as a father that someone would do this to a child. Why, oh why do we think in this country that little children are to be treated horrendously, and as long as you are the guardian, it should be okay?
The mentality that allows spanking, taken a little further, is the same that allows this treatment. Spanking is the single most scary thing that happened to me as a child - and I did dumb things that nearly killed me. Putting a child in line through fear and pain is wrong. It is not part of raising a child to become a responsible, honorable adult.
Stopping violence begins at home with gentle parenting - with any child. Of course some children will offer tougher challenges - we're all different. It doesn't mean that they need to be forced into submission. If that's your thought, you probably have a leader. Turn that around and use that to the child's advantage; don't try to beat/scare it out of her/him.
How can you develop empathy that you've never experienced? You can't! That's how!
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