Pulse

  • Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.  ~Colin Sautar
  • The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bed, and can't get there, is the meanest feeling in the world.  ~Edgar Watson Howe

Weblog

Tuesday, 09 February 2010

  • A teen a car and a school

    I Just read a story in the news  about a 17-year-old boy crashed his parents' car through the doors of his high school and then drove it down the hall. The car finally stopped 75 yards later when it hit a security office. The cops do not believe that drugs or alcohol are the cause but they did send the boy for a mental evaluation.

    Here is the story about the incident http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1120ap_us_odd_car_in_schoool.html

    This is kind of crazy. I can not fathom what his parents are thinking about this. This is the kind of thing that makes adults afraid for the next generation of people. I realize that not all teenagers act this way but, the ones that do, are doing outrageous things. Things that seem to have no thought about the consequences of their actions. It makes you ponder a little who is to blame

    The Parents
    or
    The Teenager

    Both?

    The are some reasons why each could shoulder the blame

    The Parents

    These are the people who have raised this Teenager. They are the people who were responsible to teach him right from wrong and especially not to drive a car through a school. It was their car that was driven through the school and they should know what is being done with their car. If the boy was mentally unstable they should have seen some sort of warning sign.

    The Teenager

    He is the one who physically drove the car into the school. He is the one who made the poor judgment decision and will have to live with the consequences of his actions. It will be him who will have to serve the time for the crime.

    In the end, there are probably many more reasons for both of them but what are your thoughts?

    Who should be the ones to blame considering the teenager could have killed someone?

Saturday, 06 February 2010

  • Faith healing.....How far do you go?



    Marci Rae Beagley, center, and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Beagley, behind left, walk into the Clackamas County Courthouse courtroom of Judge Susie L. Norby for their arraignment. Photo by Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian

    An Oregon couple was convicted on criminally negligent homicide…..

    The Oregon couple are believers in faith healing. So, when their 16 year old son  developed a urinary tract infection they had prayed instead of taking their son to the doctors for modern medicine to take care of the problem.  The son had a complication, he was  suffering from a serious kidney disease resulting from a constriction in his bladder that was present at birth. A catheter could have saved his life. An a side note they previously had lost their granddaughter due to pneumonia and a blood infection because their granddaughters parents had believed the same way

    Here is the link to that article….http://www.wftv.com/family/22421602/detail.html

    I am kind of split on this situation

    On one hand…..

    It is sad that the child had died from something that would have been preventable if only he would have be able to receive medical treatment. I mean I am sure the parents did not mean to kill their son but with the loss of their granddaughter you would have thought that they would have at least possibly reconsidered their stand on no modern medicine. A loss of a child is something that most of us want to prevent.

    On the other hand….

    It is their religious beliefs.  I may not agree with the way they do things. I mean if my children get sick, I’ll take them to the doctor. If they get really sick I would go to the hospital and for me prayer would be all part of the process It is just one of those situations where I feel if they start to ban and make laws against some religious beliefs, I don’t think it will be long till my religious beliefs will be infringed on.

    Today its faith healing, tomorrow it will be your right to deny flu shots or certain vaccinations or it will be the rights of you to decide that treatment option best for your child.

    I mean I know plenty of people who don’t  vaccinate or refuse blood transfusions because of religious beliefs. And they are good people, they just believe different things than I do. I would hate to see that their child die and they  get charged with criminally negligent homicide all because if they went against their beliefs they might have been viewed as been able to save them. Especially because I know they would not intend for their child die but they wanted to honor the ways of the god and belief system they believe in.


    All in all I think it may be a slippery slope that they went down  when they charged these parents…a well intentioned slippery slope but a slippery slope none the less. But when it comes to whether this decision is for the best….my verdict is still out….Saving a life is precious …..the freedom of religion is priceless…and finding a balance is the great divide.

    I guess someday we will find that balance…

    The real question here is how far is too far? How far does a religion go till it becomes a crime?

    What are your thoughts?
    Should the parents be charged?

Sunday, 31 January 2010

  • Religous Beliefs...Court and Thomas Jefferson




    An Arkansas Judge (Joe Griffin) terminated the parental rights of six members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Church. Removing a total of 13 children from four families.

    Some of you may remember that Tony Alamo is an American preacher and founder (with his late wife, Susan) of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is an organization that is know by some as a cult. In, July 24, 2009 Tony Alamo was convicted on 10 counts of Interstate Transportation of Minors for Illegal Sexual purposes, Rape, Sexual Assault and contributing to the delinquency of Minors. His punishment was 175 years in prison. There are many who believe that Tony Alamo was falsely convicted.

    The interesting thing about this case is the way the judge went about it. Here are some of the things that were done in the case.

    BEFORE THE CASE

    Arkansas Department of Human Services (DPS) required that

    1. They move from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Church property
    And
    2.  They find “secular employment”

    The parents felt that the Arkansas DHS was going against their constitutional rights so the parents refused to comply. The judge decided to side with the Arkansas DHS, especially during the trial.

    DURING THE TRIAL

    1. A gag order was issued to everyone involved with the hearing.
    2.  The Judge removed an advocate group for the parents(CPS Watch team http://www.cpswatchlegalteam.com/index.htm ) leaving only one attorney against more than one dozen government attorneys
    3. Hearing was closed to the public.

    The really weird thing about the hearings is that the parents were never charged for criminally for child neglect and there was no allegation that any of the children were abused

    The neglect is being alleged  is based totally on the relationship with Tony Alamo, who as previously mention serving a 175 year prison sentence

    ANOTHER THING

    A grandmother, who moved from AR, had requested to adopt her grandchildren. The DHS would not even allow her to adopt the children even though she moved from OK to AR to take care of them, setting up a home and making sure she was able to care for them financially and the Judge and DHS would not allow her to just because she is not against the ministry.

    You can read more

    Here  http://www.examiner.com/x-14537-Albany-CPS-and-Family-Court-Examiner~y2010m1d30-Judge-Joe-Griffin-terminates-parental-rights-of-six-members-of-Tony-Alamo-Church-in-Arkansas

    And

    Here http://www.alamoministries.com/content/english/children/interview.html


    MY THOUGHTS

    This right away brings to mind two other similar situations….the removal of 400+ children from the FLDS church in Texas and Waco.

    This is clearly a violation of  religious beliefs. I mean first of all was the Arkansas DHS rule that they had to move from the church property and get “secular employment” Then, eliminating people who would aid the parents in their fight for their children and then finally not allowing the children the right to be with family.

    What they are trying to tell me is the government can tell me where I can call home (when I have a right to live there) and what is considered work. I mean, if I decided to get together with a bunch of like minded religious people and build a commune style community where we own land and share our resources (especially during the economic downturn.) I personally don’t think the government has right to question that. Even if lets say a person who is affiliated with starting the commune is convicted of a crime.

    It just makes me mad. Day by day, laws against our religious freedoms are choking our way of life.  They are taking our freedom of our own beliefs. We are close if not here to being charged with thought related crimes. I mean think about it….those children were denied being with their grandmother because she did not out rightly condemn the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Church. Her thoughts were used against her. It did not matter if she could provided a great home and a stable life for her grandchildren. What mattered to the Arkansas DHS was the fact that she did not believe the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Church was wrong. She didn’t live with them….just didn’t think they were wrong.

    Like the article points out, This ruling is  unprecedented in American history. In identical cases where there have been mass removals of children from religious groups the children have been reunited with the parents without conditions that would affect their religious beliefs.

    We just accept what we are fed. We just about always accept what the news and government officials tell us. I am not talking about conspiracy theories here. I am talking about situations in the news. What ever we are told we readily accept it. I don’t know if we just don’t have the time to research it or just because we don’t make the time but we take just about every piece of news as fact when sometimes the facts are not facts but spin.

    Waco is a prime example, there are so many untold facts about the events that surround the Branch Davidians and that fateful day. So many facts were spun that the American people believed things that were in fact lies. There are people out there now trying to right what wrongs there were in those days but find that now years after the American people swallowed what they were told and no matter what they are shown have closed the book on that subject and have become unwilling to fathom a whole government who would lie to us.

    Lets hope that no matter what religious belief we all follow…we wake up and realize

    We need to fight today for our beliefs so tomorrow our children can stand proud in those beliefs

    I will leave you with Thomas Jefferson’s words…….

    The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.
  • Pain today....brighter tomorrows....

      


    Tomorrow, I start night shift (5pm to 5 am). Am I looking forward to it?  Not really

    As some of you may remember I worked night shift well over a year ago at my current company. They had closed it due to layoffs and lack of work. Lots more work had come in now (a good thing) and they asked for me to move to nights again. It is still up in the air for how long the minimum we are looking at is six months the maximum is stated as indefinitely. They are leaning more to the maximum

    You would think my problem would be more to do with the fact that, the last time I was on night shift I has a slew of problems. But, actually I am OK with that end. Most of the problems were because of the person I was working with and this time around I have a different person to work with and I actually know that I don’t have much to worry about.

    I guess, what really bothers me is the amount of time I get to spend with the children.  If I stay up in the morning I get to see them and hour or two before they go to school.  Before I go to work I will have like 10 to 20 min with them.  They are saying that they will have us work 6 days a week. So, I will have one day that I am home with them a week.

    Another thing that bothers me a little is the fact that I don’t get to sleep in our bed when my wife sleeps…yeah at times I am a sap.

    I know I could have said no……but

    This is one of those times where as Casey’s character in John Steinbeck’s  “Grapes of Wrath  said “I know this - a man got to do what he got to do

    I know that I have got to provide some sort of stability for my children. I want to provide them with everything that they need and maybe, just maybe a little bit of what they want  and to do that I need to break my heart a little. I want to be able to look them in the eye and say I did the best I could for you.
     I need to sacrifice a little bit of the times of joy I could have with them  so they can have a brighter and bolder future.

    In the end, tomorrow with be a brighter day because of the pain I feel today and that love in its purest form.



Friday, 29 January 2010

  • Teens and religion

    Two women and a man have been charged in connection with the case of a 14-year-old runaway.

    On Dec. 10, state police investigated a report of a missing girl and  determined that the girl had run away and that people were concealing her whereabouts. The girl had runaway to join a group known as the “Strict 35” Mennonites. The girl had become interested in the Mennonite religion, to the point of attending their church and dressing as a Mennonite, and wanted to join the church, but her parents refused to let her and were threatening to send her away from home.

    In Pennsylvania, it is a crime to lure a child from her parents or not return a child to her parents.

    you can read more here http://www.wgal.com/news/22365555/detail.html

    This kind of reminds me of another  news article a little while ago where An Ohio teenager who secretly converted from Islam to Christianity has fled to Florida.

    Now I know in while these two stories are different but what binds them together is the question

    If a teenager wishes to follow a certain religion and their parents don’t agree with that decision, how much control should a parent have over that?

    It is a conflicting situation

    ON ONE HAND

    The Parent is just trying to protect their teenager from the (in their views) evils of this world. They don’t want to see a teenager make mistakes that they may or may not be able to recover from. Religion has always been one of those slippery slopes. A Christian believes they got all the right answers while a follower of Islam or a follower of Wicca believes just the same as the Christian.  But it becomes so much more personal when a teenage chooses to follow a belief the parent does not.  A parent wants to protect a teenager from the religious beliefs that the believe will cause them to lose more than what the teenager may see in the immediate future. A lot of times especially with a Christian (a point of view I am familiar with) religion is literal battle for the eternity of  the teenager. To fail in instilling your faith in you child and teaching your child what you believe most times is literally view in their own eyes a failure as an parent.

    ON THE OTHER HAND

    A teenager grasping into the world and retrieving their own beliefs from their own experiences. For a parent to stifle a teenager, when they are building a foundation for their beliefs, is scary to a degree. Will the teenager be following a set belief because they believe it or basically because the parents forced them to and do they continue as adults following a religion to appease their parents. Islam and Christianity speak about the children and parent delemia

    In Islam. with respect to the treatment of parents, it forbids the Muslim to be disrespectful to them even if they should be non-Muslims who are fanatical to the point of arguing with him and putting pressure on him to renounce Islam. Says Allah Ta'ala: ...

    Be grateful to Me and to thy parents; to Me is (the final) goal. But if they strive to compel thee to associate with Me that of which thou hast no knowledge, do not obey them; but keep company with them in this life in a kind manner and follow the way of those who turn to Me. Then to Me will be your return and I will inform you (of the meaning of) all that you did. (31:14-15)

    In these two verses the Muslim is commanded not to obey his parents in what they try to tell him to do in this regard, since there cannot be obedience to a creature in sin against Allah.  At the same time, he is commanded to treat them honorably in this world, unaffected by their stand against his faith, and to follow the path of those righteous Believers who turn to Allah and to leave the judgement between himself and his parents to the Most Just of Judges, on a Day when the parents will not be able to benefit the child nor the child the parent.

    In Christianity, a teenager would be encouraged to RESPECTFULLY be the salt and the light …like it says in Matthew 5:11-16

    "How blessed you are when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of vicious lies about you because you follow me! Rejoice, be glad, because your reward in heaven is great -- they persecuted the prophets before you in the same way. "You are salt for the Land. But if salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except being thrown out for people to trample on. "You are light for the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don't cover it with a bowl but put it on a lampstand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.


    And would be reminded what Matthew 10:34-37 says…

    "Don't suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword! For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, so that a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me.

    Both religions are fully aware that the teenager may make a choice in direction opposition of the parents and the religion has an answers for them.

    I guess the question remains….should teenagers be allowed to follow their own religions, if the parents disagree with the religion?

    What should we do if teenagers are forced to compromise their beliefs to satisfy the concerns of a probably well meaning parent?

    What if it was your teenager?





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BarryDadof3

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  • Hey There, I am a father of 3 children and husband to my wife (Kristenmom0f3). I am a Christian who enjoys sharing Adonai's word with others. I made this blog to become an outlet for my thoughts and feelings on being a father in this world in which we live May Elohim Bless You All Shalom BarryDadof3

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