The cultural divide between Akemi and I has made for some very interesting conversations. More often than not, my attempts to explain certain facets of the Western world have only served to baffle her as she makes the all too innocent error of attempting to apply logic to such notions as tipping, fashion, and vegetarianism. As a result, these chats have left me amused, frustrated and, occasionally, genuinely disappointed there was no one around to hear them. And then, the other day, I noticed the voice memo function on my iPhone. I decided to test it out. And the following is the result of that test: my attempt to explain the story of Noah to Akemi.
Granted, I could probably use a refresher on Genesis 6-9.
Continuing our stroll down SGA memory lane…
THE SEER (408)
As far as “prophetic visions” episodes go, I thought the show had done better – and would do better. Still, The Seer was not without its merits. There were a couple of standout guest performances on the part of the legendary Martin Jarvis, the always terrific Robert Picardo and, of course, Chris Heyerdahl as an enigmatic wraith looking to make a deal. It had its fair share of action, adventure and humor but, at the end of the day, unlike episodes like SG-1’s Prophecy or SGU’s Trial and Error, the visions at the heart of the story don’t really pay off in a satisfying manner (until episode’s later). Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Carter flexing her muscle in the face of some difficult command decisions, and standing her ground in the face of pressure from the IOA.
Today’s entry is dedicated to longtime blog reader Anne Teldy!
You know, she’s got a point there! Here’s a refresher to the story a la Ricky Gervais: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln64DYflGT4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
You should put them on iTunes! People would love it.
I agree with Akemi that punishment doesn’t solve the problem. I don’t interpret that story as punishment – more wiping the slate due to all the angelic/demonic? breeding resulting in psychopaths with no potential other than cruelty. It cleared the way for us to thrive, where we have a real choice whether to follow God or not, instead of the whole population being psychopaths or being murdered by them.
It was when I really understood the Sermon on the Mount that I came to understand that the interpretations I’ve heard of the Bible that paint God as punishing* aren’t correct. Understanding grace was almost too much to chew on at once, a HUGE paradigm shift if there ever was one–affecting my politics, my parenting, and my every interaction with other people. Those stories have been interpreted by people who want to exercise power through coercion and push the text more toward something that justifies their ways. The Old Testament is like a rocky marriage between God and people, where he’s constantly trying to preserve our knowledge of Him so we can have a choice to follow Him or remain estranged.
*some translations will use the verb “punish” where a translator has imposed his own interpretation on a verb. (I’m looking at you, NIV.) Such a little thing changes so much, worldviews and views of God’s will. It’s not a trivial matter.
Akemi has excellent moral discernment. Before she finished hearing the sentence for the first time, she cut to the heart of a matter that took me decades and the intervention of the Holy Spirit to see correctly.
Hi there Adam. Got to love Akemi’s insights. I admit I absolutely loved her dismantling of the Noah story, despite your delicate efforts to get the basic story straight. (8 people, Noah, his wife, his 3 sons, and their wives). Also, as long as I am nitpicking, God is supposedly omnipotent, but the word you were looking for was omniscient. It’s always been one of my quibbles about the story. Why not kill everyone, including Noah and family, and start completely over? Instead, he holds onto flawed material, leading to history’s first drunk, a possible homosexual rape scene, and mass slaughter as Noah offers up a sacrifice of animals to God in thanks. ( one of the versions says 7 of each animal, so presumably no species went extinct). Anyways, thank you for sharing that. Akemi is truly priceless, and it is wonderful seeing through the eyes of someone raised outside the culture where such stories came from. And I still say that an Akemi based sitcom would knock all the other shows out of the ratings…
As you say, the Seer might have been more. It reminded me of a dancer taking the first steps in a complex presentation, who is just a bit awkward. It is a buildup to the following episodes, which limited it to some degree. But yes, solid performances all around.
Thanks for sharing the audio, and I hope she doesn’t mind if you continue to do so in the future.
@AnneTeldy and AnneTeldy’s little sister: You and your family are in my prayers.
Tomorrow can you explain why God didn’t create a female human until his male human noticed all the animals had males and females both? Oh…and if he could create everything else out of dust why did he need Adam’s rib to make Eve?
Needless to say…I left the church a long time ago. 🙂
@AnneTeldy and Anne Teldy’s Little Sister – sending positive energy your way!
@Anne Teldy and family:
Anne is in our prayers. Please pass along our good wishes.
@Joe:
What I took from that:
Noah’s flood = reboot, Joe = Stargate Adam
And I guess the Stargate Serpent is Apophis (self evident really) 😉
On Seer, as soon as Woolsey showed up, I took this to be one of the foundational episodes (setting up events for later episodes), so I wasn’t really looking for an immediate payoff on the visions. It gave me some incentives for watching the later episodes. And I always enjoyed Christopher Heyerdahl as Todd.
On appliance failures…
I think I just proved that appliance failures come in fours? Our oven is broken now (bad igniter). I think it also proves my axiom that major appliances tend to break right before time off or a vacation (I’m heading to Nashville next week, so this fits right in with the last three failures). Guess I have to go look for replacement igniters now… 🙄
Akemi has a keen sense of justice and fairness which I very much respect. I always had trouble (intellectually and religiously) with the Old Testament when I studied it back in college (during the Dark Ages). Fortunately, the Jesuits were pretty good about open discussion.
Genesis meets Stargate or vice versa – very interesting.
The Seer was memorable for some wonderful Todd moments! Hungry Todd working side by side with McKay to solve the virus problem. The almost handshake with Woolsey… Good times! I really need to watch that one again.
And this episode was when I really started to appreciate Woolsey. Robert Picardo is a brilliant actor.
@AnneTeldy and her little sister, please know that we care and are praying for you. {{many hugs}}.
~~Joe,love the audio treat, thanks for sharing the story, thanks Akemi.
@ AnneTeldy & Little Sister & Family – Anne you have been in my prayers. I am adding your family. Angels are with you. God bless you.
@Anne Teldy – Wishing you all the best.
I could not listen to your podcast. My computer had a problem. Darn!
The Seer was good! Martin Jarvis was impressive and perfect. When he takes your hand, you can see a future. Sometimes it is not exactly as it seems though. Is this the one that started all the Sheppard and Todd together forever talk? Carter telling Sheppard he has the most experience dealing with the Wraith.
Carter: “You have a history.” (with Todd)
Sheppard: “Well it’s not like we’re dating.”
And so it began…
Todd and his little Wraith humor. After making a deal with Carter, he offers his hand so they can shake on it. Todd laughing, “he,he,he,he.”, as the guards freak out. Was Teyla’s zipper down when she was standing out on the balcony? Another good episode!
That conversation was priceless! Thanks for sharing it with us. It’s so nice to hear someone with a fresh perspective point out the ridiculousness of biblical fables. 🙂
@Anne Teldy and Sister and Family.
You are in our thoughts and prayers. Sending good frequencies in your direction.
Anne please know that you are loved by your cyber family.
The podcast was great. My favorite parts were God rebooting and Joe as Stargate Adam. Thanks! 😀
@JeffW – I grew up in the Towson/Lutherville area, but went West a long time ago; western Colorado for 30 years now (yeesh, THAT long?!!) I still have a brother and lots of cousins sprinkled around Baltimore County.
@AnneTeldy & sister – {{{{{hugs}}}}}
Thanks for sharing that, Joe. It was interesting to hear the take of someone from another culture on that story. There are many parts of the Old Testament that I have had difficulty with too. An interesting aside—older son is using online help with his Japanese, and I watched a culture clip with him the other day. I think I’m going to learn as much as he does on the differences between the two cultures.
Have a great day!!!!!
@Anne Teldy and Little Sister–my thoughts and prayers are with you.
Joe, that was awesome! And like Michelle said, it’s great to hear a fresh perspective on the ridiculousness that is “The Bible”.
You did fairly well, sir. 🙂 Here’s a bit more detail (quotes from 1611 KJ version, from Genesis chapter 6, unless otherwise noted).
The Bible says “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
So, what you had was fallen angels reproducing with human women, something most of us would certainly consider an unnatural union. Now, you may or may not believe in a supernatural realm, but nonetheless this is what the scriptural account says (it can also help us to understand why demi-gods were so popular in later mythology; the concept stems from this early human account).
The hybrid offspring of these matings were referred to as ‘giants’, perhaps both in size and in strength. What we do know from the scriptures is that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” and “the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”
It goes on to say that man’s wickness “grieved him [God] at his heart.” So much so that he wanted to wipe man from the face of the earth. So, this wasn’t some angry god who just wanted to kill people, but this was a father cut to his very heart by what his children were doing. However, one man found favor in God’s eyes. The Bible says that “Noah walked with God.”
So, instead of destroying all life on earth, God arranged for this one righteous man to construct an ark to preserve alive his family and representatives of each animal species. In the Bibilcal account God gave Noah instructions on how to survive, including the building plan for the ark with its dimensions and even the type of wood. The Bible says that only those eight people survived (Noah, his wife, their three sons and their sons’ wives), and it later gives an account of each of Noah’s sons as they became the forefathers of the three main branches of the human family (Genesis chapter 10).
However, those who perished had not been left in the dark. At 2 Peter 2:5 the Apostle Peter calls Noah a ‘preacher of righteousness’, indicating that Noah did warn the people of the upcoming flood. So, others had an opportunity to be saved if they changed their conduct. But they didn’t change, and they lost their lives because of it, much as a criminal may receive a harsh judgment and lose his life as the result of his lawless actions. Thus the flood was not ‘discipline’, but a judgment against a lawless world.
After writing about Noah, Peter goes on to say “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” Thus, the flood foreshadowed a future, and greater, judgment to come upon lawless mankind. And, just as Noah warned the people of his day and was given instructions on how to survive the flood, today we have the scriptures which give both the warning of that coming judgment, as well as the instructions needed in order to survive it.
At least that’s what I get from it.
das
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I have to admit that as soon as Akemi brought up punishments in schools and you started stammering, obviously perplexed by the train of thought there, I started cracking up. 🙂 That whole thing just made my day brighter, thanks to you and Akemi.
RE: The Seer.
I didn’t see this episode until after I re-discovered (in Be All My Sins Remember’d) the Wraith I had a brief glimpse of when Mr. Das watched Common Ground. Confused yet? I basically watched Atlantis backward. While I had seen bits of Connor’s Michael eps (mostly because I’m a Trekkie), and Common Ground (Sheppard, admittedly, had my attention in that one because I thought you were killing off a main character), I really didn’t know who or what ‘wraith’ were. But then when Mr. Das was watching Be All My Sins…, and I got a glimpse of that lovely white hair…well…things changed overnight! I watched the next week, ran out and got the box sets, and in just a couple weeks caught up with the first three seasons. So, by the time I finally saw The Seer (either in repeat or when I got the box set), I was well familar with Todd. I rather wish I had watched the series from the beginning because I missed the surprise of seeing Todd pop up again. Oh well.
Anyhoo…one of my favorite lines in the series is in that episode, and not – it’s not the Wraith humor bit. It’s this:
McKay (to Todd): “Think about it: a single hive off by itself out in the middle of nowhere, orbiting a supposedly uninhabited planet. That’s bound to raise a few eyebrows … I mean, if you had eyebrows.”
😆
Yeah, nothing more fun than making fun of a Wraith right to his face…and surviving it. 🙂
das
I loved the podcast! It was so fun to hear both of you. Akemi is so very sweet. My favorite…when you said 2 animals of each kind and she asked if 2 pugs. So cute. I also love her belief on punishment. Beautifully expressed.
Anne’s sister: Please let Anne know that she is in our prayers and her family too.
Kind of bummed now that I read about Anne. One of my cousin’s had lupus (the bad kind) and she told me “I have my good days and my bad days”. I hope Anne is having a good day today.
I’ve been swamped since my hubby is out of town. I wanted to comment on yesterday’s blog about Missing. At the first of Missing, I was getting very irritated with Keller but she started shaping up. It was nice delving into their characters more. I could tell R. L. was pregnant but she seemed to move with ease. Was R. L. a dancer at one time? Plus, whoever was her stunt double, they did a great job! I liked the show overall.
The Seer: The brain is a fascinating subject. This show was interesting but like you said, you get the payoff in another episode. It was nice seeing Carter being take charge. Oh and I loved the “handshake” joke!
That podcast reminds me of my teenage son. We’ve sent him to a Christian school and the education/discipline has been great BUT they keep teaching their version of science to him. Crap like “the earth is only 4,000 years old”! What?! My hubby and I both believe in the Bible but we don’t think it’s meant to be taken literally. I think if you are too rigid in your belief system, then it doesn’t give room to wonder or question. So if you believe in a literal Bible, it’s hard to reconcile it with Science. There are chapters in the Bible that were written hundreds of years after the subject. People change things as they tell a story. The story changes but the life lesson doesn’t. Sorry to babble.
I’m very impressed with Akemi’s English!
Das: Are you on Prevacid? I took that at the same time I was on antibiotics once and it was terrible! If you are on any other meds, look at their side-effects/interactions. Just a suggestion. Hope you feel better soon.
JeffW: I hope this doesn’t mean you are starting on another set of “threesies” . Nashville’s population has greatly increased in the last few years and their roads haven’t kept up. Have fun but stay off the interstates! I got stuck for 4 hours one day on I65. Now I take Briley Parkway and bypass downtown.
@Tam Dixon: Thanks for your comments on the Bible. It helped me clarify some of the things I’ve been feeling lately about my belief system.
Speaking of the Noahs Ark stuff. Personally if it actually occured I’m not so sure that ‘God’ Wiping people from the face of the Earth was the right thing to do, not just because innocent people would be caught in the crossfire but because ‘Evil’ is in the nature of every living thing, it’s how we live our lives and respond to those feelings that define who we are.
Good, bad, evil. Will always exist, as long as humans and any being with intelligence exists, as long as people learn the consequences of their actions and understand the difference between good and evil. In most cases evil will rarely show itself and most people will live a good honest life.
For that reason, removing people from the equation won’t solve the problem. Human beings by their very nature are flawed, but thats what makes you human.
I don’t think humans deserved wiping out by ‘God’ if it happened. I’m skeptical if it did or not. But truely, if there was a God, that was a horrible thing to do.
Speaking of which, couldn’t a large asteroid striking the ocean near enough the area where Noah lived cause a mega tsunami and pretty much flood the area for a long period of time?
In that day and age there wouldn’t be anything regular people could do to avoid being killed. And it would take a little while for water levels to recede enough to step on dry land again in that area.
Although there’s no evidence to suggest a worldwide flood ever occured, maybe a large scale flood occured in the area and this is how this story came to be. I don’t know.
@ Tam Dixon – Thankies. I’m not taking anything else (besides my bp meds, and they’re okay). When I get a touch of heartburn I just eat an apple, seems to clear it up. Not sure why, it just does.
das
I had a couple of thoughts about the past episodes you covered and I keep forgetting to post them. Here goes before I ADD out again: Tabula Rasa: Just wanted to say Nice Touch on the “Rodneyannavolosa”. (I have no idea how you spell that). I got a little chuckle out of the “cactus found hiding under the shrub”. Which writer came up with that one? Also, on Missing, the gofer was cute but those tentacles…Gross!
Das: Glad to hear something helps!
Randomness: Interesting….I’ve heard other ancient texts refer to a “great flood”. http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/great-flood.htm
I’ve also heard it wasn’t strictly “two by two” on Noah’s ark but why throw all that at Akemi/b> now. http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-noah-ark-big-enough-to-hold-all-animals.html However, you covered the basic message of Noah’s ark Mr. M., so the semantics don’t really matter.
You should hear us trying to convince our son about the earth’s age. I think we are making headway. It’s the only drawback to a religious education we’ve seen so far. I had to explain “agenda’s” to him. Everyone has an agenda and everyone thinks their way is the ONLY way to believe.
Sorry, I’ll try and leave you alone for the rest of today.
LisaR: Thanks! You might like this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Faith-Investigates-Christianity/dp/0310234697
Sorry again, Mr. M.….I’ll turn off the computer now to make sure I won’t be tempted. I’m having a pre-migraine and it makes me hyper. Have a good night!
Hi all. Would love to chime in, but am wet-dishrag tired from working splits (split shifts) this week. Started to scribble earlier today, but then noticed a new post from Das that said perfectly what I would have wanted to say. (Excellent, D!) All I can think to say now is that God is real, and He wants a Relationship with us. Personally. Religion never saved anyone, but it points us in God’s direction.
He loves both Justice and Mercy. He is the powerful Almighty of the Old Testament, and the redeeming Lord of the New Testament. He expects obedience and right-living. He uses our original sin nature, our inability to be good all the time, to show us our need for a Savior. He is the Judge and final Authority who demands justice and will call all of us to account one day. BUT He also loved us, and laid down His power and authority, and was born of a virgin birth, as a Man on earth, to pay the price for our original sin. That is Mercy, and Redemption.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)
Yep, there will still be people who do what they want to do, for evil or for good, for wrong motives or for right. (John 3:16-21)
No human being has the authority to say what is evil and what is good. Thank goodness, right? Only God has that authority. If the world disagrees, their argument is with God, and God alone. It’s Him we will all have to face one day. But if we accept God’s redemption alongside His justice, His Son will stand alongside us, and say, “I paid their debt in full.”
Justice & Mercy.
Judgment & a warning.
The Flood & a Life Boat.
Noah & The Ark.
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
To see for yourself:
Mobile phone app:
http://www.biblegateway.com/app/
John 3:16-21
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203:16-21&version=NIV
Noah’s Story, Genesis 6 – 9
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206-9&version=NIV
@Tam Dixon:
I’m hoping they really come in fours and that this is the last one for a while!
On the Noah discussion, I tend hold the classical Augustinian view of Genesis. See:
http://geochristian.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/augustine-the-literal-meaning-of-genesis/
I sounds like from your comments above, that you may have similar views. If so, you may find this interesting (and if not, then please disregard as you all see fit).
http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Case-Earth-David-Snoke/dp/0801066190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347582878&sr=1-1&keywords=snoke
This book also covers Noah’s flood (examining the original ancient hebrew) and some of the limitations of the small vocabulary of ancient hebrew (for example, what is translated as world, earth, land, and soil all come from the same hebrew word). Our perceptions of the text can vary quite a bit depending on which english word is used by the translator for these passages.
Now to get ready for the trip to Nashville (with a small detour to Bowling Green)…
My computer does not like the podcast. 🙁 So rather than attempt to comment on the issue, I will just say thank you to Das for giving a thorough, cogent and polite summary.
The Seer- hmm. Not quite up to the levels set by Adrift and maintained by Doppelganger (love) and Tabula Rasa (lovelovelove), although Todd-Carter-Wolsey was fun. The production looked gorgeous, too.
Count me in the same camp as Das and for the love of Beckett. I am a Christian and have spent my entire life in the church. I was just recently watching a piece of an interview with a extremely intelligent scientist who studies the universe and solar system and everything. He did not believe there was a God and certainly one who created the universe. Asked what he would say if he died and went to heaven and met God. He said something like, I would ask him why he went to such great lengths to conceal himself. Jesus said “blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe”.
Anne Teldy and family, I will be praying for you! Thank you for letting the blog folks know. I am sometimes a bit of a lurker, but I have really enjoyed your comments, Anne. God bless you all.
@ Tam Dixon – Interestingly, the very first sentence of Genesis merely says ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and earth’. There is no time given, thus making it possible to reconcile the Bible with science – even according to the Bible the earth can be hundreds of millions or even billions of years old before God began creating life. When it turns its attention to the creative days, it does refer to them as ‘days’, but this could easily be taken figuratively, since elsewhere in the scriptures it gives various lengths to other ‘day’ periods. So each creative period could have a burst of activity (a figurative morning) and a moment of completion (a figurative night). Even now we speak of the ‘dawn of time’, for instance, and we don’t mean the passing of a literal early morning hour.
But I think first and foremost it must be remembered that the Bible was not written as a book of science, and it was also written by and for people who had a limited knowledge of the scientific world as we know it today. Just as you would not give a child a detailed answer to a complicated question, God chose not to give too many details to people who were still childlike in their understanding of physics and biology and the universe and all the other things we understand so well now. The Bible was written in terms people would understand, not to explain the details of creation, but to explain a message of salvation so that it would be understood.
@ Randomness – Although there is dispute about an earthwide flood, some things that are attributed to an ice age could also suggest a time when the earth was flooded with water (such as seashells found in mountain ranges, errosion, and the sudden extinction of many different species). I guess it could be said that even though there is no proof of a flood, there is also no evidence against it. Interestingly, The Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the earliest surviving literary works, and which I have sitting right here in front of me), references a flood. Many ancient civilizations also have flood stories, suggesting that the idea of a flood wasn’t just one culture’s myth, but perhaps an actual event that left such a lasting impression it became part of the history of many different peoples – something that cannot be said of an ice age.
@ ftloB – Thanks for your input. You sound so much less preachy than I do. 😛
@ Joe – Sorry, when I get passionate about something, I sound very preachy – it’s just the passion I feel for the subject, and nothing else. *See Epic Wraith posts. 😉
das
I need to listen to the Podcast, but I like how Pope John Paul II said that science proves e theory of evolution; however it is the human soul that was eternal and that which God gives to us. Our priest also described much of what Das has said. That the people of the time could not understand the quantity of a million let alone a billion. They understood the measure of a day. Also that the Old Testament is the Old Covenant with Moses and his people; the New Testament is the New Covenant, or New Law, with Jesus. When a new law comes out, the old law is nullified. Therefore, turn the other cheek and love your enemy replaces eye for an eye. The Bible has to be read with textural criticism, literary criticism, form criticism, transmission history (as stories were handed down by oral traditions before the written word, redaction criticism, and archaeological point of view. More in next post….
Also there are 4 main sources that make up the Old Testament. The J source, the Yahwist source, uses Yahweh for God. Vivid, earthy style. Refers to the Mosaic covenant as Mount Sinai; refers to natives of Israel as Canaanites. Origin of this writing is about 950 BC in southern Israel (Judah). Examples are the second creation story Gn 2:4b-25 and Egyptian plagues (Ex 7:14-10:29). The “E” source, or Elohist uses Elohim for God. Their style of writing is more abstract. Instead of it being Mount Sinai it is Mount Horeb, refers to natives as Amorites. Origin is Ephraim in the northern kingdom about 850 BC. Talk about Elijah and Elisha, great emphasis put on prophecy, covenant being central and God’s relationship to Israel in terms of promises. Example Abraham/Sarah (Gn 20:1-18). Basically “E” retold “J”s stories from a northern POV. Many scholars believe that around 750 BC an editor combined “J” and “E” into one narrative and ignored the contradictions. More in next post…..
The “D” source is Deuteronomist. God is Yahweh, emphasis on morals and law, long speeches by Moses. Meant to spoken aloud to remind people of the laws of Moses, composed around 650 BC by a priest in the northern kingdom at the shrine of Shechem. May have been finished in Jerusalem. Example. Dt 1:1-30:20. Themes about reward for obeying and punishment for sin. “Listen Israel” is a common phrase. Last is the priestly source or “P” source. God is Elohim, very formal style, interested in census lists and genealogies. Concern for numbers,mates, ways of worship, etc. first came into being around 587-538 BC and perhaps completed by 400 BC. Examples. First creation account (Gn1:1-2:4a) and priestly laws Lv 1:1-27:34. Priestly editors gave us the first 5 books of thenPentateuch. So there, just in Genesis alone, you have multiple authors and editors from different geographical areas. I think as the found text, they just cut and pasted things together. And sometimes there are real translated words. So when the Bible was being translated into English, that person might have substituted their meaning of a word in Hebrew or later Greek that had no translated. Also FYI, Catholics don’t believe the Book of Revelation is a book about the end of days. It was written during a time when Christians were being persecuted (not like Americans claim, but like being crucified), so it was written in code so that people of that time could continue to worship in secret. Anybody who reads the Old Testament and believe it is word-for-word a literal interpretion of what we need to be doing needs to read AJ Jacobs’ book,”The Year of Living Bibically.”. There were times I bust out laughing that people in public looked at me strangely.
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@PB Mom: Thanks for your posts. That is the most comprehensive explanation I have ever seen, and it reflects what I believe exactly. Do you recommend any other reading besides “The Year of Living Bibically”?