In what at least one critic has dismissed as the Dunning Krueger Effect in action, Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, claims there is no such thing as mental illness.

More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over one in five youth (ages 13-18) either currently or at some point during their life have had a seriously debilitating mental illness. About one in 25 U.S. adults also lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.

Days before the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month, however, MacArthur, who is also the president of The Master's College and Seminary, called mental illnesses “noble lies” while speaking during a panel discussion at Grace Church of the Valley last Thursday.

Continued below.

He has been silent thought the days of rage and destruction of public and private property.

Where is the President on the issue?
Where is the FBI?
Where is Merrick Garland?

Why are they mostly silent and not getting on national TV disavowing them?

Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who admitted to conspiring to aid the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in 2006, shared a photo of his spouse at Columbia's West Lawn encampment on X on Friday:



Saying:

"My wife Nahla in solidarity with the brave and very determined Columbia University students," he wrote.

Police said the woman they referenced was not accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but it was not immediately clear how or why she was able to access the encampment. The campus was on lockdown and only open to students and faculty and for limited visits by the media.

Whoever brought her in wanted her to be seen," said Liora Rez, the founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism, a watchdog organization. "It's spreading like wildfire now that a convicted terrorist's spouse was allowed to enjoy a beautiful day in New York on campus, openly, without any consequences, despite the fact that Columbia's administrators swore up and down that only students and faculty were allowed on campus."

John and Amy Sabol, who volunteer with Catholic Engaged Encounters retreats, pose with their wedding photo near a poster listing the weekend’s themes. (Theresa Cisneros)

As volunteers for Catholic Engaged Encounter (CEE), John and Amy Sabol have spent the last 28 years helping engaged couples plan for their big day by preparing them for what comes after their big day.
The Sabols, who’ve been married for 50 years, help run CEE weekend retreats where they encourage couples to bring God into their relationship and develop healthy communication habits, as a reminder that a wedding lasts a day, while a marriage lasts a lifetime.

The Sabols said their own marriage was strengthened by sharing their life story with retreat participants and explaining how forgiveness, open communication, and making a conscious decision to love your spouse even in difficult times can lead to a more fulfilling union.

“We always talk about how marriage is work,” said John, “but we also try to tell them that it’s worth it. Being in a good relationship with your partner is worth more than anything else.”

“We’ve learned that we’re kind of best friends as well as a married couple,” Amy added.

The Sabols are part of a global network of priests and married couples who present weekend retreats for CEE, an international Catholic marriage preparation program that grew out of the Marriage Encounter program about 50 years ago.

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, couples can meet marriage preparation requirements by completing a CEE weekend retreat.

Continued below.

Continuing from here, sort of:

So changing the freeze plugs was just the beginning, we also had to replace the radiator because it leaked after the freeze plug thing was fixed. Then my brother remembered that 4Runners have timing belts and, of course, my boyfriend’s has never been replaced. The Lord is holding that thing together at this point. We don’t have the money to replace it for at least another month.

Unfortunately, my boyfriend is not taking any of this well. He’s been having really bad mental illness episodes which have him losing his voice, breaking down to the point where he’s acting like a child and screaming at people, and threatening to do things to himself, asking me for weapons, etc. He is also wildly misinterpreting things that I’m saying in negative ways, worse than usual. He needs professional psychiatric help urgently.

Please pray for patience and financial provision for both of us as we deal with this incredibly frustrating situation. Also pray that I can find a mental health clinic to take my boyfriend to and actually get him there, and also some relief from the intensity of these episodes. Some of this is par for the course in fighting abusers, but seeing him break down like that is causing me grief.

Don't know if anyone else is following news from the Primates' meeting, but this sounded positive:

"The Pope said: "Only a love that becomes gratuitous service, only the love that Jesus taught and embodies, will bring separated Christians closer to one another. Only that love, which does not appeal to the past in order to remain aloof or to point a finger, only that love which in God's name puts our brothers and sisters before the ironclad defence of our own religious structures, only that love will unite us. First our brothers and sisters, the structures later."

Some thought he did to foreshadow Jesus' death and resurrection.

Jonah 2:

1 Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

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Did Jonah die and go to Sheol and pray?

I don't think so. There is a parallel between "the belly of the fish" and "the belly of Sheol". Sheol is a metaphor for the condition inside the belly of the huge fish. It was a near-death experience. Jonah continued to explain the metaphor:

5 The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head

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He was in a terrible place, like Sheol. But there was hope:

7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.

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He didn't die, but he was nearly dead. The experience was like he had died and gone to Sheol. If he had actually died, then prayed, and then got resurrected, that would have been an incredible event in the history of mankind. The Bible would have clearly spelled out the death and resurrection instead of using metaphors.

Matthew 12:

40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

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Jesus compared his death with Jonah's experience but the focus above was the duration and location. Jesus died; Jonah didn't.

Her husband has suddenly fell very ill. They are calling hospice in. Please pray for her and her husband at this difficult time.

Thank you!

If I buy an expensive Car for a friend, how much money can I charge the friend I am giving the Car to, and still declare the Car "A Free Gift"?

Hi all, I really need your help I suffer of severe OCD to the point that all I think is blasphemy, and everything time I try for example enjoy like having a conversation with someone I feel like I say something/mumbling blasphemous or my mouth open but only to make me feel sad and with shame, Sometimes I think I’ve said the blasphemy to self sabotage me on purpose, however this is not in my heart this is causing me a lot of stress, anxiety and depression. And the ocd threatening me like if you commit blasphemy you will become a homeless, you won’t be able to have a wife or have sex and everybody is going to dislike you because you won’t have any value and you don’t have any worth , or you won’t be able to even speak because you blasphemed. However I spoke with a Pastor in my church and he told me there’s no unforgivable sin but the Bible says this sin will not be forgiven and I received a promised from God through a Pastor when I was around 17 years old before all this happened and the Pastor has a good testimony and is a man of God. Has anyone experience anything like this??

Do you guys think the same that I won’t be able to have enjoy life or have wife or anything like just because of the blasphemy? I honestly don’t think sonand I think it’s the OCD ruining my life. I’ve spent 2 years of my life like that and only 28 years old , I am getting grey hair and losing weight. Because I feel I said the blasphemy on purpose but just to self sabotage myself. I also have severe low self steem because of that .

Russia flaunts Western military hardware captured in war in Ukraine​

I'm in Victory Park, Moscow's giant memorial complex dedicated to the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany. A new open-air exhibition has just opened.

But it has nothing to do with World War Two.

On display is Western military hardware captured by the Russian army in Ukraine.

They are war trophies and Russia has decided to flaunt them.

Among the armour here is a British Army Husky tactical support vehicle which had been donated to Ukraine. Its windscreen is covered in bullet-holes.

Opposite the Husky I can see Western tanks that had been transferred to the Ukrainian military. There's an American Abrams which had been damaged on the battlefield. A German Leopard tank, too.

In fact, there's a long line of German armour. And above it a sign: "History is repeating itself."



The Russians have not invented the wheel here. In the past Ukraine has displayed Russian military hardware that had been captured by the Ukrainian army.

Russia flaunts Western military hardware captured in war in Ukraine

The display seeks to energise Russians ahead of the country's victory day celebrations on 9 May.

www.bbc.com

Russia shows off NATO military hardware captured in Ukraine; Moscow to beef up weapons, front line forces​

Russian crowds are flocking to see a new exhibition in Moscow of NATO military hardware that was captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.

The display features a range of “trophies,” ranging from U.S.-made armored fighting vehicles to state-of-the-art tanks and European armored personnel carriers, from 12 countries including the U.S., U.K., France, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey, Australia and Germany.

1 Peter 3:

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous,

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i.e., those who knew God and those who didn't

that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed [aorist indicative] to the spirits in prison, 20a because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.

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What did Peter mean by "spirits in prison"?

Peter continued the explanation in the next chapter, but then he switched to the present tense, 1 Peter 4:

4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

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At this point, Peter addressed people who were alive at his time.

5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached [Aorist Indicative] even to those who are dead, that though judged [Aorist Subjunctive] in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

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When are the preaching and judging performed?

The aorists direct our thoughts to some definite occasion. Time or tense is not always in the past. They are done on the last day of a person's life, corresponding to the last day of the current creation for everyone.

Who are these dead people?

These dead people refer to:

1. The people who died in Noah's flood long ago.
2. The deceased patriarchs and the Old Testament saints. (Papists' Limbus).
3. Those who are alive but spiritually dead (Amplified Bible).
4. The good Christians who died as martyrs.
5. A selected (or elected) group of dead people who never heard of the gospel when alive but would believe if they heard it.
6. All dead people who are not born of the Spirit before they die, Jews, Muslims, or anyone who has misunderstood the Savior Jesus; some to heaven, others to hell.
7. All the dead will head to heaven eventually (Origen, universal salvation).

I think options 5 and 6 are plausible.

Polls over the last few weeks from the Economist and YouGov capture the story: Johnson is surging with Democrats, and collapsing with Republicans. Johnson has seen in just the past two weeks alone double digit swings towards him among Democrats and away from him among Republicans.

Power corrupts.

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Well didn't last long did he? Who would have thought that policing people for their personal believes don't sit well with the PEOPLE. *Shock Pikachu face*.

Yet he was so adamant about it too. Every report will be investigated he insisted. While the nation is gripping with more pressing matters. He pressed on matters which have no grip. A clear case where ideology blinds you to the reality around you.

In fact he was not even voted in by the Scottish people. Just by his party. Can one say he truly represented Scottish people?

Anyway I'm glad he is out of the way. Maybe now Scotland can have a better First Minister who actually cares for the nation's overall well being.

Hey is anyone here familiar with Kali Linux? It is a version of Linux loaded with hundreds of hacking tools, it is free and available for download on the internet. If you download this and install it and play around with it and get good with it that is your ticket into the information security field! There are online courses out there that will teach you how to use Kali, if you want to learn ethical hacking those would be just the ticket!

I work at Target since last October, I was given a "Take Pride" T-shirt that they used for the month of June for (lust) Pride month. I otherwise wear normal red t-shirts to work.

Many people have commented on my shirt and how they liked it. etc

I do not support the re-definition of marriage or the lifestyle etc.

Is it wrong if I continue to wear this shirt or just wear plain ones from now on?

The fear factor is real in America, but Democrats and Republicans are scared for the country's future for different reasons, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.

While the article leads with that question about fear, I think this one is waaay more interesting, particularly for this crowd.

The WA GOP put it in writing that they’re not into democracy​

After the candidates left, the convention’s delegates got down to crafting a party platform. Like at most GOP gatherings in the Donald Trump era, this one called for restrictions on voting. In Washington state, the delegates called for the end of all mail-in voting.

A resolution called for ending the ability to vote for U.S. senators. Instead, senators would get appointed by state legislatures, as it generally worked 110 years ago prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913.

“We are devolving into a democracy, because congressmen and senators are elected by the same pool,” was how one GOP delegate put it to the convention. “We do not want to be a democracy.”

Then they kicked it up a notch. They passed a resolution calling on people to please stop using the word “democracy.”

“We encourage Republicans to substitute the words ‘republic’ and ‘republicanism’ where previously they have used the word ‘democracy,’ ” the resolution says.

The resolution sums up: “We … oppose legislation which makes our nation more 'democratic' in nature.”

--

Some recent context for when the leading candidate for governor chose not to be endorsed by the state GOP at the convention, because they've gone too chaotic.

Does this mean we have to stop with the jokes?

Poland officially requests deployment of NATO nuclear weapons on its soil as part of Nuclear Sharing program, citing need to bolster deterrence against Russia after Moscow stationed tactical nukes in Belarus.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined a request from the porn industry to block a Texas age-verification rule, allowing the law to stand and temporarily derailing the efforts of porn creators to see the new safety measure scuttled.

The court said in an unsigned order without comment that it was denying a request from the Free Speech Coalition to issue a stay on the law. The Free Speech Coalition includes a porn trade association and several pornography creators.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has defended the law, HB 1181, since its passage last summer. The measure requires porn websites to institute “reasonable age-verification methods” to ensure minors are not accessing explicit sexual content on their sites.

The attorney general has sued multiple pornography companies in order to enforce the age-verification law. He argued earlier this year that pornography sites “are on the run because Texas has a law that aims to prevent them from showing harmful, obscene material to children.”

Continued below.

Estee Williams faced her TikTok followers and detractors head-on with full makeup, coiffed blonde waves, and a floral-printed puff sleeve peasant top cinched at the center with a tidy bow. She felt obligated to clarify a few things about what it really meant to be a “tradwife”—a portmanteau denoting “traditional wife”: “So the man goes outside the house, works, provides for the family. The woman stays home, and she’s the homemaker. She takes care of the home and the children if there are any.”

But Williams’ definition moved beyond the idyllic character of June Cleaver or even the Victorian-era presumptions of separate spheres. “Tradwives also believe,” she insisted, “that they should submit to their husbands and serve their husbands and family.” Williams was quick to defend her position against potential critics, noting that she did not believe women were inferior to men, but that they had an equally important but different role.

Tradwives have not escaped the notice of journalists and social commentators who track their popular rise on various social media platforms. Some analyses of the tradwife trend reference the 1950s, while other commentators focus on influencers like Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm fame, who perform the role of 19th-century homesteaders (despite Neeleman’s occlusion of her husband’s inherited wealth). But the ideology behind the fad has much deeper—and more insidious—roots in American history.

Continued below.

Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years.

The church also decided to forbid punishing clergy who either perform or refuse to perform same sex marriages.

Likewise, local churches can decide to either host or forbid SSM in their buildings, without fear of penalty from supervisors.

Later, they may vote on changing the church's "Social Principles", presumably to be more open to homosexuality than the current version.

Over the past few years, a quarter of congregations have left the UMC since, it appears, the writing was on the wall.

Psalm 90:

2 Even from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

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God is self-existent, Wiki:

Aseity (from Latin ā "from" and sē "self", plus -ity) is the property by which a being exists of and from itself. It refers to the Christian belief that God does not depend on any cause other than himself for his existence, realization, or end, and has within himself his own reason of existence. This represents God as absolutely independent and self-existent by nature.

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Before God created anything, God was self-sufficient. He did not need anything or anyone.

God created space-time and everything in it. Take the air away, I die. I need to breathe to stay alive. God cannot die due to lack of air because he existed before he created air. God's existence does not depend on anything in his creation, not even space-time. God existed outside of time. God is timeless.

John 1:

3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

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Godhead divinity was an entirely self-sufficient reality before he created anything, including space-time.

ucla-moves-to-shut-down-pro-palestinian-encampment-as-unlawful
I am interested in discussion about these topics:

1 What is protected in the American "freedom of speech"
2 How is one American freedom, limited by other American freedoms?
3 How does this co-limitation of values, parallel the way in which
formal Moral-Ethical models are created?
4 Why are demonstrators breaking the rules of the college campuses,
as well as the criminal laws of the states in which the colleges are situated?
5 What does this embrace of violence and breaking the law, have to do with
a moral demonstration?
6 Why did classic demonstrators in America, such as Martin Luther King Jr,
demand that those who demonstrated, were peaceful?
7 What seem to be the underlying principles, among the "electronic screen"
generations, that seem to lead to a pathway from peaceful freedom of speech,
to violent and lawless rioting (such as we saw at the Capital Building, on January
6th)?
8 What is the proper Christian position, on demonstrating?
9 Define what you mean, by "demonstrating".
10 Where does moral-ethical responsibility for expressing your "freedom
of speech", kick in?
---------- ----------

(I have started to address these topics, in a couple other threads.
But, Americans do not, in general, seem to think that the underlying
topics of Epistemology and moral-ethical ought, seem to be relevant
to them. Perhaps this thread, will join these topics together, in the
mind of some of the younger generations in America.