http://thenewstalkers.com/cb Mon, 09 Nov 2026 14:42:42 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2565/okay-the-police-talk http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2565
TODAY, as I departed from my local area Circle K convenience store, something quite interesting and unique occurred. Parked next to my car in the lot was a police SUV and coming around from the driver side was this camo-apparreled young officer who (actually) nodded to me first as he moved on by to enter the store.
This store, I have observed is a 'regular' for some of our police officers . This is NOT the first time I have observed police SUVs coming and going literally for treats at this rather ordinary store. Anyway, back to my narrative:
When the officer turned left in front of his car to face me he nodded his head, as is my norm, I non-aggressively replied in my most ferocious Wendy Williams imitation voice: "How you doin'?"
I'm kidding. I say, "Hello." As he brushed by on his way into the store.
As I placed my items in the car and adjusted myself behind the wheel, this officer was in police lingo: "—exiting the premises." He paused standing on the storefront landing at the front of his SUV. I started backing out. Looking back and then to the front again: Something strange happened:
First, it being a beautiful sunshiny day and not a cloud in the sky 70'ish temperature. The lighting all around—PERFECTO.
Second, this officer is a young tanned white man wearing as I stated before camo' pants and lace-up boots and as my eyes came up (straightening up from backing out) his form-a short cut t-shirt with arm muscles (for days) expressed and impressive. 
Third, his hair was short coiffed and curly. And I am thinking besides the police-markings on the car-where is the indicator this man is a 'cop'?
Then, my eyes trailed down his right side and that's when I saw his gun-holstered and laced to his right leg. Oh yeah, I forgot something. He was sipping a fountain drink. . . through a straw.
Which may explain why he paused to collect himself without 'rushin' to get back into his vehicle.
Whoa.
I turn left away to head out. And now I am thinking. The police in my town do not disturb or annoy me. They are pervasive everywhere, but I can only remember a few times in x-x years here of actually talking to one or more of our authority figures.
Never has an officer parked next to me (it's a first!) - at Circle K I take the only place available next to an officer's vehicle in turn. Officers never speaks first. Though, they do 'verbalize' if you greet them.
Officer "Stud-muffin" is hanging out in the warm sunshine sipping on a cold drink: Just "chillin.'
I remember reality: This officer is a city official. One tasked with the unenviable task of being among the people, mixing inside them, but with endowed capability to question, detain, and go even farther in carrying out his authority.  He is not now, or ever, a friend to the public—despite the disarming isolation on the storefront.
As an officer, s/he is trained to look, listen, and be attuned to any violation or "breakage" of the law - to which s/he must take action immediately.
An officer of the law is not a friend. How, can it be? When at any instance in "small-chat" an officer may have to shuck his smile, his sipping, and tackle or destroy the person with whom they are conversing?
All of the above leads me to ask a question:
How do and can police officers relax in the community they serve, when he or she
never knows  who, whom, what, or where with the public?
A police-person on duty must be a truly lonely person. And, truly misunderstood!

Some of you on NT have given reason to suspect you were at one time or another members of the 'blue,' or friends of the 'blue.'
Some insight or insights plural into the men and women of the 'blue' beyond headlines would be nice. My mind 'today' is clear and open to understand.


]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:00:25 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2373/compelling-story-romeo-void-reunited-one-night-stand http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2373
 
Debora Kay Iyall (Cowlitz pronunciation: [ˈʌɪalwahawa]; born 29 April 1954), best known simply by her professional name Debora Iyall /ˈaɪ.ɑːl/, a Cowlitz Native American, is an artist and was lead singer for the new wave band Romeo Void. Debora got her surname from her family adopting their ancestor Iyallwahawa's "first" name written at the time as Ayiel.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debora_Iyall
Romeo Void Bands Reunited This episode of VH1's Bands Reunited chronicles the effort to reunite the group Romeo Void ]]> Thu, 04 Feb 2021 21:56:23 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2367/you-got-jokes-or-do-you-got-jokes http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2367


This is the Funny Room! And NO!
That Ain't What You 'Thank' It is!
2020 was tart. A real twisted story and so we need to do something funny. Real funny! 
Post a "I Got Jokes" moment one-liner or prose and we're be the judge of its ability to liven up a room in 2021. Pull from the joke makers. And yo! Give proper credit when you do!
Here, let me do the honors of starting this off. Not up here!
Down there ⇣
]]> Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:21:48 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2364/dance-listen-party-for-joe-biden-and-kamala-harris http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2364

Roger Waters - Us + Them Tour - Denmark 2018 (Multicam)
NOTE: Amazing concert. 18 minutes in two blond women are going to "Pow!" you. Roger and the concert wows all the way through. Exceptional. The women are 'boss' at 18 minutes, I repeat! Credit to: Official release of "Us and Them" from Rogerwaters.com
]]> Wed, 20 Jan 2021 22:24:17 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2355/senate-party-1-january-6-2021 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2355

GEORGIA! You've Earned This Love!
]]> Thu, 07 Jan 2021 02:12:45 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2349/new-year-dance-party-come-in-non-stop-dance http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/2349 Fri, 01 Jan 2021 02:05:59 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1669/mockingbird-daily http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1669
MockingBird DaY



This morning, there were sounds of many voices heard outside my window. I thought, "Who could it be, now?" I gazed over at the security cameras. There was the neighborhood mockingbird up and at 'em prancing house-left along my home - spitting out mellow sounds and rhymes in a throaty soliloquy to no bird in particular. 
I watched as this lady bird bounced and sprang up on fence and post, down to the air conditioner condenser's platform, skipped down the trail around to the back patio, then reappeared! Standing in a spotlight of sunshine and my camera's lens.
I thought, "This wild woman would never give me a show such at this, if she knew I was watching her every move!"
Immediately, I began to day-dream about what it must be for God to know our every move. That is, mind you, our moves God would care to see! After all, just how interesting can any one or group of us mortals be for God who has seen all earthly dramas?
This camera was only focused in on the stage outside my house. Every frame realized. But nothing before the lens or beyond the lens could be anticipated or evidenced. Is this possibly how an all-knowing God limits the frames of reference for our lives so as to afford us amazing chapters in privacy and personal freedoms? Even so, the 'tape' of our continuous dramas mount up in heavenly studio archives.
My mind raced.
This innocent little songstress playing to a crowd on the rooftops, and in the bowels of the trees, never could realize and appreciate the interplay she was giving the man behind these lens!
Not aware was this lady bird that mere hours of darkness ago, I had watched a tom cat skip, pounce, and race up the fence and post where she now was resting. I watched it all with ' night vision ,' and it was amazing!  During the blackened early morning hours, I had seen everything occurring . That sneakiest "pouncer" none the better informed!
As Apostle Paul long ago explained to a wayfaring people:
19 . . .what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made , . . . .

What is important: 
In the peaceful watching of a morning "lady" executing her feathered flight ritual unaware of me; the presence of God reminds me of unseen figures gazing in on just a few, or all, of what mankind does.

Are you rational #4 Are You Open-Minded? OLLY! — ToP Of tHe DaY tO YoU, LaDy BiRd!
]]> Wed, 16 May 2018 22:06:40 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1663/happy-mothers-day-my-lovelies http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1663

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY - LOVELY WOMEN OF NEWTALKERS. ]]> Sun, 13 May 2018 12:58:59 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1611/the-spirited-h-word http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1611

MISDIRECTION
The dark speaks a word to light
The Son replies,
wellness is a white ship
sailing across an endless night.
© Calbab 2018

A while ago I finished reading a most interesting article presented by one of my NT friends.   The originating article included an internal link to another quite exceptional read. In the piece, the star character is a real life homosexual- married man, or is that married - homosexual man? Well, what is factually certain is this man has a wife and several biological children . He is fifteen years into a heterosexual marriage. Lastly, he is a devout Mormon and Person of Faith.
In this article, our 'star' will be referred to as, Original Author (OA) .
At the close of this writing, I have included both links to the OA's articles for any consideration and review. [i]   You will find a twin set of articles which beautifully articulate our OA’s public pronouncements of sharing his homosexual nature as a teenager with a childhood “sweetheart” who is destined to be his wife. S ome fifteen years of marriage later, the pair mutually arrive at a decision to divorce. The divorce will end what OA calls his and his spouse’s, “ Quiet struggle .”
I pondered for several days how to approach this OA’s personal life choices which are publicly available on their blog. Out of a sense of respect for the OA and his family, I’ve decided to limit the OA’s direct remarks in my article. I will go forward tackling some questions gleaned from his story with my own personal statements:
 Why do you not choose to be “true to yourself” and live the gay lifestyle?
Me:  I have lived a homosexual intimacy lifestyle across many continents for 18 years of my adult life. I came to a time and place where my active participation found a ‘resting point.’
For continuity purposes, this will be one of several exceptions where I invoke OA statements.
OA:   Because I am gay, any lifestyle I choose is technically a “gay lifestyle.” Mine just looks different than other gay peoples’.
Me:   I do not see how I can agree with our OA's statement. Technically, the gay lifestyle involves same-sex attraction alone . The OA is probably not the first, and likely won’t be the last individual, to intentionally 'gray' or remove the dividing line between heterosexual and homosexual relationships.
 Do I have regrets for having profound spiritual beliefs that I feel are true, and subsequently severely limiting to my sexual orientation?
Me:  Great question! The answer is, No! My spiritual journey is a real journey and thus as one who has “put his hand to the plow” I feel it essential to give faith an honest go of it. So far, the run bears up twenty plus years. I may add, with few to no regrets.   Is my faith life some kind of counterfeit existence?
  Me:  My faith journey is not counterfeit. I have not walked away all these years from sexual intimacy and romantic attachment because I feel it is more appropriate to have a broken heart! I have found a different and new way of expressing my life. As a result, my ‘old manner of living’ is put behind me in order to take up spiritual devotion and a higher calling, one which works for me. It may not be suitable for everyone, and each person individually should consider the cost wisely.

Christianity is my spiritual calling.  I could have chosen any religion in the world and I chose Christianity. It was not because of my upbringing per se, but because I am inspired and I reason within its values. No other religion suits me like Christianity.
OA: It all comes down to what you choose and why, and knowing what you want for yourself and why you want it. That’s basically what life is all about.  Why not get married to a person of the opposite gender and raise up a family?
Me:  This would be a counterfeit, and a greater pretense. After so long a time as I have in this faith realm, faith walk, I have discovered something of import:   I remain platonically attracted to men. Being true to self means I should not seek out a life-long relationship on false grounds, live a lie, or cause unrespited emotional injury to another person through deliberate insincerity.  Such actions can cause utter confusion in one, or many other lives. Consequently, it is morally abhorrent to me.
  The OA Marriage of Fifteen Years Ends!
As our awareness and love of the LGBTQ contingent increased, our hearts were softened to their struggles, and our understanding of the Gospel of Christ, of mercy, of the atonement, and of God’s love and intentions for His LGBTQ children were forever altered, little by little, by Him, in the temple and in sacred spaces, in ways that felt as tender as they sometimes felt radical. — Josh Weed
THE WEED
Can sexual orientation be managed by faith? Me:  I will attempt to answer this biblically in two ways: In First Corinthians 7:9, Apostle Paul warns believers to choose marriage over burning with passion . Before marriage was a real solution for homosexuals in the U.S., it was only a remote intellectual exercise. Since 2015, thanks to former President Barack Obama and the U.S. Supreme Court, same-sex marriage is a proper solution for homosexual romantic attachment . Though this type of marriage is vastly different from the sort expressed in the New Testament Epistles of Paul, practically-speaking, it is a viable option to help limit rampant gutter fornication. In Act I Scene III of Hamlet by William Shakespeare , Polonius is quoted as saying, “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” Apostle Paul appealed to conscience: Romans 14: 1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. . . 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  
Metropolitan Christian Church   Reverend Elder Troy Perry’s life narrative is an emblematic statement of something I have suspected for several years now. Homosexuals surely long to be spiritual children in the Kingdom of God. As I watch the videography and read the account of Elder Perry’s journey to opening his first home-church in 1968, I am amazed how in all of my travels I have never heard of him until now! In 1968, a year before New York’s Stonewall Riots, a series of most unlikely events in Southern California resulted in the birth of the world’s first church group with a primary, positive ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender persons. Those events, a failed relationship, an attempted suicide, a reconnection with God, an unexpected prophecy, and the birth of a dream led to MCC’s first worship service: a gathering of 12 people in Rev. Troy Perry’s living room in Huntington Park, California on October 6, 1968. [ii]
I am struck by the simple fact that in 1968 a homosexual Church existed in the United States, and continues to exist to the present. — Calbab. Since June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage has been established in all 50 states as a result of a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in the landmark civil rights case of Obergefell v. Hodges, I have supported the idea of some churches under homosexual leadership. Such congregations allow homosexuals a means of expressing their talents, energy, or emotions for God. Reverend Elder Perry at the present ministers to homosexuals, heterosexuals, and anyone who is willing to come to God through his ministry. Today there are almost 300 MCC congregations in 22 countries around the world. More than 43,000 people consider themselves members or adherents of Metropolitan Community churches — and MCC has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people over the past 36 years. [iii]   STRANGE FIRE
When tongues were set afire
firebrands spread like rage,
There were men found standing
frigid and naked in the briar patch
Seeking ignition of the Light. © Calbab 2018
[i] http://joshweed.com/2012/06/club-unicorn-come-closet-ten-year-anniversary/     http://joshweed.com/2018/01/turning-unicorn-bat-post-announce-end-marriage/ [ii] http://mccchurch.org/overview/history-of-mcc/ [iii] Ibid. ]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2018 15:51:51 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1605/the-one-about-the-g-word http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1605
I hate the word, “ GAY. ”
Good. I've got that off my chest. In the English Oxford dictionary the word GAY means, “Light-hearted and carefree.” When did “gay” as homosexual begin its journey of 'saving' grace to a class of people? Let’s look back.
Historians believe the first use of “homosexual” was by Karl-Maria Kertbeny, born as Karl-Maria Benkert (1824-82), an Austrian-born Hungarian journalist, memoirist and human rights campaigner born in Vienna. He first coined the word ‘homosexual.’ Mr. Kertbeny, wrote passionately in opposition to Germany’s anti-sodomy laws, Paragraph 175 , in the 19th century.[i]

Karl-Maria Kertbeny (Benkert)
As a young man, while working as a bookseller's apprentice, Karl-Maria Benkert had a close friend who was homosexual. This young man killed himself after being blackmailed. It was this tragic episode which led Benkert to take a close interest in the subject of homosexuality, following what he called his "instinctive drive to take issue with every injustice". Benkert claimed to be "normally sexed" and there is no evidence to contradict this, despite the skepticism of some writers. Nevertheless, he began to write extensively on the issue of homosexuality, motivated by an "anthropological interest" combined with a sense of justice and a concern for the "rights of man." In 1869, he anonymously published a pamphlet entitled 'Paragraph 143 of the Prussian Penal Code of 14 April 1851 and Its Reaffirmation as Paragraph 152 in the Proposed Penal Code for the Norddeutscher Bund. An Open and Professional Correspondence to His Excellency Dr. Leonhardt, Royal Prussian Minister of Justice.' What was Paragraph 175? This was the anti sodomy law against homosexuals enacted in Germany since 1871. The provisions were vastly expanded by the Nazis in 1935. The 2 Germanys retained the law much after the war, and it was finally repealed only in 1994 . [ ii] It saw the first public use of the word ‘homosexuality’, although he had used it in May of the previous year in a private letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the German gay-rights advocate.
Before then, there were very few neutral words to describe people who experienced romantic or sexual attractions toward others of the same sex. Those used, such as “bugger” , “ molly ”, “sodomite” or “pederast” , were loaded with condemnation and shame. But as the budding science of sexology began to grow, and as same-sex loving defenders began to speak out about what same-sex love was all about, their first problem was with how to name it: the “abominable vice” wouldn’t do. A new word was desperately needed to describe their lives and feelings.
The ‘love that dared not speak its name’ in fact couldn’t; it didn’t have one.
The first to try to give it an acceptable name was Karl Heinrich Ulrichs . In the 1860’s, he described the Urning [“homosexual male”] as a “male-bodied person with a female psyche”, who is sexually attracted to men and not women; the opposite form was Urningin (“lesbian female”] Ulrichs devised an entire system of classification based on different combinations of attractions and gender roles. Some of these words gained usage in English, but they quickly became obsolete, replaced by Kertbeny’s new creation.
Kertbeny also believed that homosexuality was inborn and unchangeable, an argument later called the "medical model". This contradicted the dominant view of the time, that men committed "sodomy" out of mere wickedness. Kertbeny pointed out that many of the great heroes of history were homosexual. He was the first writer to put these now-familiar arguments before the public. Once self-identified homosexual men, such as Ulrichs, began to campaign for homosexual rights, Kertbeny faded from the scene. If he was homosexual, he was never prepared to say so. In 1880, he contributed a chapter on homosexuality to Gustav Jäger's book Discovery of the Soul , but Jäger's publisher decided it was too controversial and omitted it. Nevertheless, Jäger used Kertbeny's terminology elsewhere in the book.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs
In his Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) , German sex researcher Richard von Krafft-Ebing , borrowed the terms homosexual and heterosexual from Jäger's book. Krafft-Ebing's work was so influential that these became the standard terms for differences in sexual orientation, superseding Urning. Richard von Krafft-Ebing
Having established the ‘birth’ and surroundings for the word, “homosexual.” I now come to the word, GAY .
Surprisingly, the word, GAY,  has maintained same-sex connotation and denotation from the early 19 th and crossing over into the 20 th century, first in Germany and later in the United States. It was a German immigrant, Henry Gerber, who first brought the fight for gay rights to America, in the nineteen-twenties; Gerber’s short-lived Society for Human Rights, in Chicago, took inspiration from physician Magnus Hirschfeld, German founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the first gay-rights organization. The Human Rights Campaign, a powerhouse of contemporary gay politics, which was first formed as a political action committee, in 1980, also echoes the German nomenclature, intentionally or not. German homosexuals—especially well-to-do men—began to win acceptance when they demanded equal treatment and otherwise conformed to prevailing mores. In this respect, Germany in the period from 1867 to 1933 bears a striking, perhaps unsettling, resemblance to twenty-first-century America. [iii]

Masculine Women, Feminine Men [iv]
It was called, “Pansy craze.” [v] For a brief time in the late 1920s and early 1930s, a relatively open gay culture thrived in Chicago, with gay cabarets and nightclubs proliferating throughout the Near North and South sides. By 1930, Variety reported, there were 35 “pansy parlors” in Towertown, the neighborhood named for its proximity to the Old Chicago Water Tower. A place called Diamond Lil’s , at 909 North Rush Street, was packed so tight with partying gays that people were turned away.   Credit: http://www.charliecochet.com/photo-friday-the-roaring-20s-and-the-pansy-craze-updated/  “African American drag entertainers performed for racially mixed audiences at some of the South Side’s most famous ‘black and tan’ [cabarets]. Mexican ‘queers’ carved out a space for themselves along Ashland Avenue, and ethnic working-class ‘queens’ from the city’s North, South and West Sides met at private parties and public drags throughout the city.” The nighttime entertainments did not attract just gays. High society and the middle class flocked to the cabarets to gawk or to experience the prurient thrill of dancing with one of the “homos.” The so-called Bughouse Square in front of the Newberry Library was such a well-known pickup spot that the Chicago Gray Line Sightseeing Company included it on its Chicago-By-Night tour, advertising the promise of “the unusual, strange and different” in “gay night life.” Prohibition, Jazz, speakeasies, and bootlegged liquor are only a small portion of what makes this era so fascinating. The period of the 1920s and early 1930s changed the way society viewed homosexuality–a relatively new term at the time. It was a time of exploitation yet cultural growth for the gay community. With its wildly relaxed attitudes, Chicago’s Pansy Craze, as the brief phenomenon has come to be known, emerged from Prohibition just as homosexuality first came to be recognized in this country as a distinct sexual orientation. The outburst lasted only until the mid-thirties. “The Pansy Craze was part of the same phenomenon that produced the Negro vogue in Harlem,” says the University of Chicago history professor George Chauncey. “Massive waves of immigrants from Europe and the American South were arriving in American cities so that white middle-class urbanites became fascinated with exploring the new communities taking place in their midst, whether immigrant, bohemian, black, or gay.” First published i n 1968, DSM-II (the American classification of mental disorders) listed homosexuality as a mental disorder. In this, the DSM followed in a long tradition in medicine and psychiatry, which in the 19th century appropriated homosexuality from the Church and, in an élan of enlightenment, transformed it from sin to mental disorder. In 1973 ,[vi] the American Psychiatric Association (APA) asked all members attending its convention to vote on whether they believed homosexuality to be a mental disorder. 5,854 psychiatrists voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM, and 3,810 to retain it. The APA then compromised, removing homosexuality from the DSM but replacing it, in effect, with "sexual orientation disturbance" for people "in conflict with" their sexual orientation. Not until 1987 did homosexuality completely fall out of the DSM. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) only removed homosexuality from its ICD classification with the publication of ICD-10 in 1992, although ICD-10 still carries the construct of "ego-dystonic sexual orientation." In this condition, the person is not in doubt about his or her sexual preference, but "wishes it were different because of associated psychological and behavioral disorders". To most ears, it probably sounds inoffensive. A little outdated and clinical, perhaps, but innocuous enough: homosexual . But that five-syllable word has never been more loaded, more deliberately used and, to the ears of many gays and lesbians, more pejorative. “ ‘Homosexual’ has the ring of ‘colored’ now, in the way your grandmother might have used that term, except that it hasn’t been recuperated in the same way,” said George Chauncey , a Yale professor of history and an author who studies gay and lesbian culture. Consider the following phrases: homosexual community, homosexual activist, homosexual marriage. Substitute the word “gay” in any of those cases, and the terms suddenly become far less loaded, so that the ring of disapproval and judgment evaporates. Some gay rights advocates have declared the term off limits. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or Glaad, has put “homosexual” on its list of offensive terms and in 2006 persuaded The Associated Press, whose stylebook is the widely used by many news organizations, to restrict use of the word.  Franklin E. Kameny , a gay rights pioneer, coined the phrase “Gay is Good” in 1968 as a way to help strip away some of the negative association. By then, gay had become the preferred term among gays and lesbians. But it would take decades for the rest of the country to catch on. The New York Times resisted the word gay until 1987, preferring homosexual (now, it prefers the word gay in most contexts). The Washington Times set off in quotes the term gay marriage until 2008. The newspaper also updated its standards that year to say the term was preferred over “homosexual marriage.” “Gay doesn’t use the word sex,” he said. “Lesbian doesn’t use the word sex. Homosexual does.” [vii]   Still, I think the word, GAY, instead of homosexual is: Just. Plain. Queer. These days, this sign, wielded in New York in 1971, might very well be lettered differently.
Credit Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images [viii]
[i]   http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-male-same-sex-desire-got-its-name.html [ii] http://desispeaks.com/nazi-homosexuality/ [iii] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/berlin-story [iv] http://www.charliecochet.com/photo-friday-the-roaring-20s-and-the-pansy-craze-updated/ [v] http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/November-2005/The-Gay-30S/ [vi] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201509/when-homosexuality-stopped-being-mental-disorder [vii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/frank-kameny-american-hero/2011/03/04/gIQAH2DRfL_blog.html?utm_term=.dc42885edace [viii] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/fashion/gays-lesbians-the-term-homosexual.html ]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2018 12:13:57 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1588/agnostic-doubter-or-somebody-who-does-not-know http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1588

DOUBTING THOMAS?

MIDDLE PATH?

MY LORD AND MY GOD!

The focus of this article is on Agnostics and Agnosticism.

Questions such as these came to me about a week ago as I watched  prime-time evening news. Actually, I'd like to come back to this after a bit. Clarence Darrow, the famous lawyer and Agnostic wrote: "I am Agnostic as to the question of God. I think that it is impossible for the human mind to believe in an object or thing unless it can form a mental picture of such object or thing. . . . To believe in a thing, an image of the thing must be stamped on the mind. — Why I Am An Agnostic . p. 27, 1929. How can a man or woman believe in a spiritual being or beings that cannot be pictured or given ‘shape’ in the mind? Does Agnosticism exist because of lack of experiences in other-worldly awareness ? It could be so! The human brain has two roughly symmetrical halves with a connecting bridge between them. The left hemisphere being dominant (driven by hard facts, and inductive logic) and the right hemisphere non-dominant (driven by intuition and abstraction). It is my understanding that our knowledge of self , requires activity between logic and intuition . What happens to self when science is used as a tool to ‘cut away’ logic from intuition ? What then? Book learning is quite distinct from the merger and union in intuition.   Is it because an Agnostic cannot view or locate the seat of the soul that s/he doubts? Should science and religion ‘split up’ and be at odds?   Science allows mankind to invent and fashion countless numbers of products, services, and realities for itself. Science can even make essential repairs to some problems of nature. Truly, men and women can ask questions of nature and fetch answers back which allow humans to help shape life in its myriad forms, and in hopes of creating brighter and promising futures.   So yes, we should all thank God for scientists. . . and no , Steve Jones, the professor of genetics at University College London and an atheist, put it like this: “Science cannot answer the questions that philosophers or children ask: 1. Why are we here? 2. What is the point of being alive? 3. How ought we to behave?” [i]   In fact there are many scientists who are religious that speak out about what they consider to be a false dichotomy being driven by some in both science and religious communities. So what does a believer ‘see’ when s/he thinks about God, Jesus, and Spirit? What ‘shape’ is prominent?   Good questions! As a twenty year plus believer, I can honestly answer I do not maintain an image of God of any kind. God is Spirit. Sure, “popular” images flash across my psyche and are instantly gone! For though religious images are pervasive in world cultures, mentionable on radio and shown on television airways, these so-called “icons” and figures are meaningless and without value in the Spirit realm. This believer places no stock in shapes or images related to God or spirit beings! I would be interested to know if other believers do see an image, nevertheless. Okay, now to what stirs this topic up for me. About a week ago, there was a thirty-second ad featuring Ron Reagan, Jr., the son of former President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Take a look and listen:  
Ron Reagan Jr.  “Not afraid of Going To Hell.”

FFRF's Ron Reagan Ad
How do Agnostics get ‘ drawn together’ with Atheists? Are Agnostics really members of any Atheist sect? I ask questions, because Agnosticism involves epistemology – What one knows. Atheism has to do with belief — What one believes (“There is no God”). It’s not knowing over and against not believing . How then is the Freedom from Religion Foundation justified in seeking Agnostics to its cause? The two things are simply not seeking the same outcomes. Can an Agnostic convert to Believer?  Believer-atheist inclining or believer-theist inclining? Or, is Agnosticism simply a   middle-path category hewed-out and stand-alone between the two pillars? Because when movement to either side does occurs, the individual immediately shifts into the realm of faith or the realm of unbelief.   One closing thought. During my period as a young Agnostic, it was not a performance category. You simply stayed out of the fray of God versus Nature debates. There were no politicization and  activism. Well, everything changes sometimes.   [i] Steve Jones, The Language of the Genes (London: Flamingo, 2000), xi. ]]> Sun, 18 Feb 2018 03:43:52 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1586/the-one-about-faith http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1586
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8
The Conversion of John Newton
Captain John Newton wrote in his book, Thought s Upon the African Slave Trade :
With our ships, the great object is to be full. When the ship is there, it is thought desirable, she should take as many [slaves] as possible. The cargo of a vessel of a hundred tons, or little more, is calculated to purchase from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty slaves . Their lodging-rooms below the deck, which are three, (for men, the boys, and the women,) besides a place for the sick, are sometimes more than five feet high and sometimes less; and this height is divided towards the middle, for the Slaves lie in two rows, one above the other, on each side of the ship, close to each other, like books upon a shelf. I have known them so close that the shelf would not, easily, contain one more.
And I have known a white man sent down among the men, to lay them in these rows to the greatest advantage, so that as little space as possible might be lost. Let it be observed, that the poor creatures, thus cramped for want of room, are likewise in irons, for the most part both hands and feet, and two together, which makes it difficult for them to turn or move, to attempt either to rise or to lie down, without hurting themselves, or each other. Nor is the motion of the ship, especially her heeling, or stoop on one side, when under sail, to be admitted; for this, as they lie athwart, or across the ship, adds to the uncomfortableness of their lodging, especially to those who lie on the leeward, or leaning side of the vessel. Dire is the tossing,deep the groans.  
The heat and the smell of these rooms when the weather will not admit of the slaves being brought upon the deck, and of having their rooms cleaned every day, would be, almost, insupportable, to a person not accustomed to them. If the Slaves and their rooms can be constantly aired, and they are not detained too long on board, perhaps there are not many die; but the contrary is often their lot. They are kept down, by the weather, to breathe a hot and corrupted air, sometimes for a week: this, added to the galling of their irons, and the despondency which seizes their spirits, when thus confined, soon becomes fatal. And every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found, of the living and dead , like the Captives of Mezentinus, fastened together.  —Pgs. 33-35.  
"How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence
been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or
profligate is a petty sinner to what I was."  
“I not only sinned with a high hand myself but made it my study to tempt and seduce others upon every occasion. ” Revealing the first glimpse of his later talent as a hymn-writer, he composed a derogatory song about his new captain and taught it to the entire crew. He had to leave the ship in a hurry after that bout of troublemaking; so Newton’s next move was to work for a shore-based slave trader in Sierra Leone. He indulged in every available vice including witchcraft. Accused (unfairly) of stealing, he fell afoul of his employer’s black mistress, a tribal princess who imprisoned him in chains, starved him, and treated him brutally. He was recused from a remote part of the West African coastline by a ship’s captain from Liverpool. Because Newton’s lifestyle had improved by this time, he initially refused the offer of a passage home, but the thought of seeing Polly [future wife] again won him over.  
During the long voyage to England Newton again behaved appalling as a troublemaker. Although he had been brought up in the Christian faith by his
devout mother, who died when he was six, Newton had become such an aggressive atheist and blasphemer that even his shipmates were shocked by his oaths.  
During his 1748 voyage to England after his rescue, Newton had a spiritual conversion. The ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland and almost sank. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and, as the ship filled with water, called out to God. “The ship is sinking!”   The ship was badly holed and waterlogged. As it seemed to be going down, Newton, to his own astonishment, began to pray, “Lord, have mercy on us!”
 
After many hours of extreme peril, the storm subsided, the cargo shifted and stopped up the hole, and the ship drifted to safety. [i]   “About this time,“ he said. “I began to know that there is a God who answers prayer.”  
Almost immediately Newton stopped swearing, changed his licentious lifestyle, and started to pray and read the Bible. From that day, March 21, 1748, until his death in 1807 he never let a year go by without recognizing in prayerful thanksgiving what he called his “great turning day” of conversion. [ii]  
“How unworthy and unlikely was I to preach that faith which I had renounced and scorned! What
difficulties were in the way, which thou only couldst remove.  But thou didst it; and hast now supported
me in it thirty-eight years, restraining me from those evils and errors which might have hurt my
character and prevented my usefulness, and from which, nothing short of thy power and grace could
restrain a heart so vile as mine.”
 John Newton, Rector St Mary Woolnoth, London, 4 August 1802 [iii]  
Hymn writer: Amazing Grace


  The Conversion of George Foreman
An impoverished youth, George Foreman often bullied younger children and didn't like getting up early for school. Foreman became a mugger and brawler on the hard streets of Houston's Fifth Ward by age 15. [iv]   "You know what it's like to mug somebody?" he asks. "To get him down, like he's so much trash? And you know he feels like trash. And he's yelling" --Foreman actually whispers it, though-- "'Hey, hey, hey.'" The refrain of submission, surprise, even self-hatred that accompanied each awful victimization, every one performed with carefree cruelty. He hears them all, and there were plenty. [v]   As a teenage mugger, George [once] 'covered myself with mud from a busted sewer pipe under a house so the police dogs couldn't sniff me out' [vi]
  "Oh, I was a dangerous fella, all right," Foreman says. "It wasn't no act. If some wealthy guy drove by in a limo and gave me a finger, I'd find him." [vii ]                
At 16, Foreman was a school dropout on his way to a West Coast Job Corps camp, where he would be trained in carpentry and other manual skills. He took his bad attitude with him, and fistfights were not rare. But — in what might have been the luckiest break of his life — Foreman’s rowdiness caught the eye of the camp boxing coach, Charles Broadus, who challenged Foreman to take his fighting to the ring. The gambit paid off with Foreman claiming a gold medal in heavyweight boxing at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. The win propelled Foreman to a pro career and heavyweig ht championship victories over Joe Frazier in 1973 and Michael Moorer in 1994.





No one was more surprised by his embrace of religion than Foreman himself.           






George’s ultimate reckoning with religion came in 1977, minutes after he was pummeled into defeat by the hea vyweight Jimmy Young, and it came in the most frightening way. “In the dressing room, I was walking back and forth to cool off,” he told The Houston Chronicle. “Then in a split second, I was fighting for my life.” Foreman’s mind filled with battling thoughts: preening pride versus death and panic. Foreman bargained, offering to devote his boxing prize money to charity. “I don’t want your money,” Foreman heard a voice say. “I want you.” Instantly he found himself cast into the bleakest darkness he had experienced. “It was the saddest, most horrible place I had ever seen,” he said.  



Then a “giant hand” plucked him into consciousness. Foreman found himself on a locker room table, surrounded by friends and staff members. He felt as if he were physically filled with the presence of a dying Christ. He felt his forehead bleed, punctured by a crown of thorns; his wrists, he believed, had been pierced by nails of the cross.
  “I knew that Jesus Christ was coming alive in me,” Foreman said. "I kissed everybody in the dressing room and told them I loved them. That happened in March 1977, and I never have been the same again.”
  The change was noticed immediately by the boxing world. “There was a transformation from a young, hard character who felt a heavyweight champion should carry himself with menace to a very affectionate personality,” the HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant said. “I would say this was a sincere evolution of a human being maturing, and it suggests real effort.” [viii]  
Mr. George Foreman is founder and minister of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston, Texas.

The Realm of Faith  
2 Corinthians 5:7.  For we live by faith not by sight.  
In the illustrated lives of both men above, there arrived a day when the life courses of both men changed inside them. These men entered: The Realm of Faith .  
For an ordinary series of years Newton and Foreman were on unbroken paths of reason and experiences. One day in a “twinkling” faith adjoined their lives. Faith answers existential questions in those in which it inhabitants.  
For true believers, dwelling in faith is not a counterfeit act or forced condition. Faith properly constituted, can cause a state of relaxation inside the soul. Moreover, faith can be viewed as a kingdom or city dwelling place . Doing so, it becomes easier to understand how in living out their faith lives, some denizens build near or at faith’s borders and others bore in towards faith’s   center .  In everyday symbolism, it is existing on the edge of faith or, living well-established in it.  
As it is in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Daughter), there are many who enter a life of faith through some extraordinary amount of loss, defect, or expectation . Each individual can shed, repair, or achieve something new through a life change. For example, the thief seeks a way out of a life of crime and disappointing others. The alcoholic desires to be restored to a new orderly time. And, the murderer yearns for a way off and forward from a sinister past. There are innumerable scenarios for seekers to chart to faith.  
I grew up in a Baptist tradition. I was baptized at 8 years of age. Upon becoming a young adult, I walked away from the Church. The order found in church life was not what I had in my mind for my future. I was growing up to be fundamentally different. There were no hard feeling between my former church members and me. We all simply parted ways. I on an odyssey of self-discovery.  
My plan was to go out into the world and allow reason and experiences to teach me the truths of this life and perchance, if there was anything to spiritual reality, I could choose to discover (rediscover) that. Walking away from familiar settings, and hang outs complete with family, friends, sounds, and smells is tantamount to be consigned to the wilderness! For me it was necessary, nevertheless. I felt I had no other serious choice than to become one of the “not-knowing.” An Agnostic .  
Decades have passed, and I can still remember that inward conversation with myself. I chose to step out into life “uncovered.” In order to: Find myself. Life on my terms.
Find God. A spiritual awakening of some kind.
Find life and spiritual awakening.

Swift death or long life.


I lived in a nonreligious, secular world. I indulged myself in many facets of this life with abandon. I lived my life handsomely, but as I pointed out in another article, love’s ‘true kiss’ eluded me all the while. There has been such a great deal of violence, hatred, and confusion over same-sex relationships in our nation’s background.  No one like a President Barack Obama had shown up to put a ‘cap’ on the public discrimination, bigotry, and humiliation which was pervasive in the United States.  
Fact is, being “gay” used to be a major dead-end street. You simply got old, and mostly did so alone.
At the end, like the Prodigal Son (Matthew 21:28), I “came to my senses” and turned to seeking the meaning of life in other ways. I was sick and tired of dead ends. Had my fill of the sights, sounds, and smells of being ‘out there.’ I wanted to find a place inwardly in order to surrender to peace and calm.
Growing older, sleeping around, being taken advantaged of, injured or “savagely” killed simply was my worse fear, and by no means a proper way to end up! As a Seeker, spirituality found me. I successfully entered the dimension of faith. I have been an inhabitant in this realm for 25 years now. I included George Foreman’s conversion for a personal consideration. There is similarity to his conversion experience and my own: A kinship of running water at conversion.
On the day of my conversion, it happened that I was thinking over many spiritual statements which had been explained to me, while at the same time showering up for work. As I stood under the running water answers to long-overdue questions began to flow into my mind. I remember tingling with revelation and clarity. From that day in 1993 to 2018, my life has been drastically changed.
So reader, faith is a lifestyle many enter into and having done so can live out their lives therein.
:::::

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton#Spiritual_conversion
[ii] John-Newton: Disgrace-Amazing-Grace, by Johnathan Aitken, Phillip Yancey. Page. 19 – 20.
[iii] https://www.johnnewton.org/Groups/256702/The_John_Newton/new_menus/Journals/ MiscellaneousThoughts/Commendations/Commendations.aspx
[iv] http://www.georgeforeman.com/biography
[v] https://www.si.com/vault/2003/12/01/355150/born-again-and-again-and-again-from-nasty-heavyweight-champ-to-humble-preacher-to-jolly-heavyweight-champ-to-zillionaire-pitchman-george-foreman-is-a-miracle-of-reinvention
[vi] http://tyronemalone.blogspot.com/2007/12/george-foreman-teen-mugger.html
[vii] https://www.si.com/vault/2003/12/01/355150/born-again-and-again-and-again-from-nasty-heavyweight-champ-to-humble-preacher-to-jolly-heavyweight-champ-to-zillionaire-pitchman-george-foreman-is-a-miracle-of-reinvention
[viii] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/sports/the-conversion-of-george-foreman-packing-a-wallop-in-the-pulpit.html
]]> Thu, 08 Feb 2018 22:49:58 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1563/the-one-about-marriage-new-poem-by-neetu http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1563
[Start the song now.]
MARRY ME, M.
Only once was I
offered a hand in marriage
just what I needed --
the sanctity.
 
It could have been
the look in those eyes,
in that moment
you could be mine.
 
Our hands entwined
for all to see
I dreamed that dream
believed it could be
 
You couldn’t understand
why I hesitated,
it wasn’t your fault,
your spirit soared free.
 
You couldn’t really know
why I let my hand drop--
what held me back and
you couldn’t see.





Your head on my lap,
blue eyes looking at me--
the laughter in them
was so dear to see


I knew then it was
my time to love,
to be right there
with you by my side.
 
I opened my heart
left the past behind
those feats and defeats
meant nothing to me


 I had stumbled upon
you, baby
that hard-ass frame
beneath which lay
your child-like naiveté.
 
Now you have stolen
my fire, awakened desire,
baby, can we discover
the joy of life together?


© Calbab 2018 & Neetu (Reword)

[NOTE: M.’s super bike drove through an unmarked four-way intersection in our neighborhood at a high-rate of speed ‘broadsiding’ a van helmetless. I innocently found the helmet resting on the bar after arriving home from work. I barely understood the significance of it being there, until the PD officer knocked. M., was in Intensive Care and comatose at an area local hospital. I was allowed to see M., a lover unmolested by legalities. Even privileged to come and go at-will at the long-term care facility he landed in. Up until the day he was airlifted home to be closer to his family.]
 Life is All About Moments.
]]> Tue, 30 Jan 2018 02:07:34 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1562/john-unlike-me-revised-february-11-2018 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1562
John Unlike Me is a pseudonym, a symbol even, for a truly amazing man that I met during the post-modern 1990's. I had newly come to faith in God in the mid-90's and I was progressing through a six-week interval some of you may be conscious of or have observed in new believers: It is a stage most noticeable in men by a new found sense of hugging or embracing other men as a form of greeting. It is a harmless practice. First, a little humor:

No Worries for Worriers   This is Not a Conversion Story. John Unlike Me and I met on my job. His opening greeting was original and irrepressible, for as he shook my hand and leaned in for a hug he uttered, "Good God AlMighty Bless You!" Well, I immediately replied, "God bless you!" and separated from the embrace. In this briefest of exchanges something important was shared between us, but as it turns out it was not a mutual sharing of a belief system! Turns out John was not religious in any sense I could detect. John Unlike Me and I became really good friends that day, and I can honestly say that I learned from him some things which warm my soul even today as I write this blog. Moreover, I hope and trust he learned a thing or two from me too. John and I could not have been on more different treks. He an entertainer and performer, a good one I soon learned, also had this incredible connection with the women he dated I later discovered. Me, a newly confessing "baby-Christian" on the beginning cog of a lifelong journey into the realm of faith. Each time we'd get together, we'd hug up, separate, and he would hail, "Good God All Mighty Bless You!"   And I back, "God Bless You, John."
John Unlike Me loved taking me out places. And, I must say how swell it was to take off and go away too. For me, having a true heterosexual "pal" was unusual. It became an exciting new adventure in itself! Y'all, this was the early 90’s, and the culture still had the luxury of stigmatizing those whom it collectively chose to label, shall I say, "Indiscreet." The shadow of a man named Barack Obama, “The Straightener” was likely casting itself on the mean streets of Chicago, and the future president was bodily working through the ranks of local, and state politics! I can distinctly remember occasions where I was simultaneously out with John and introspectively watching the scene from somewhere up above us thinking: S o, this is what it is like to bond in friendship with heterosexual males .  Just coffees.  Just dinners. Just sleep. No ‘hook-ups.' It was like being allowed a 'special pass' into a new reality!
Note: I could put a whole discussion here about the internal peace and comfort women must feel inside when hanging out with gay men.
Once while I was on a lunch date with John Unlike Me, I begin talking about my faith in Jesus Christ and my church which I had certainly grown to love. We talked, and John began to explain what spirituality meant to him. To my surprise, his concept of 'Good God Almighty' was not a belief in a superior being! John’s philosophy encompassed, oddly enough, his approach to love-making with the woman, or women, in his life. He opened up to me about the great care, passion, and attention to detail he took with a woman’s body, mind, and spirit. How the ‘acts’ were what I could only guess he meant as “spiritual rides” of ecstasy! As you might imagine, this was not what this newly developing "baby" Christian was expecting, or prepared, to hear! HA! To quickly round the bend in the discussion I interjected, “John, you should come to church with me next Sunday.” He looked at me with his usual savoir faire and replied, “Of course!” And, he honored his word. Now John Unlike Me , the performer and Casanova-lover, was a bit post-modern in his fashion sense as well. When Sunday arrived I had no idea what he might choose to adorn himself in at my church door (I, a newly-minted deacon, was already at-station since AM Sunday school). In the New Testament, I am told the shortest written verse is, “Jesus wept.” It’s John 11:35. Well, . . . .
"John arrived. " No pun intended. At the 11:00 AM Service and right on time  there stood John, affirming me and my trust in him once more. He was at my church! (Who is this guy?) I literally leaped inwardly. Him , dressed in a suit and tie wearing those customary ear-rings —in both ears! Allow this image of him to sink in for a moment. Because, it did not bother me one bit. He stayed the entire church service and waited for me, his friend to walk out together. Later, he told me, it was a really nice service. About a month later, John gave me a gift of a very intricately worked ‘rainbow’ jeweled crown with the inscription, “ Jesus ” set into it. A rainbow brooch. The irony did not escape me . In the year plus of friendship, as young friends, we had never discussed my past life. It’s just one of those discerning ether-like moments of knowing, I’d guess. This was the 1990's and John Unlike Me , in his special way, taught me a lot about ordinary relationships and male bonding which can give much and is no way over-demanding. This man simply affirmed me as a fellow human-being. As a new Christian, I was learning "somethings" fast about “straight” male relationships. Things which had been walled off to me up to this point. Call it lack of interests or just no 'time and space' supplied to breath life into finding out more. I dunno. But there it was occurring, as some 'auto response' correlating to my new calling, and spiritual connection. Last night, as I did my usual OT/NT Bible reading I came next to this Old Testament passage:   David and Jonathan’s Friendship  I Samuel 18:1:  As soon as he [David] had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.  John Unlike Me , shall forever be just this kind of friend in my soul. NOTE:  After  writing this blog, I was provided an interesting link to subject matter on which I plan to blog! What about you: Care to Tell? The Rat Pack Credit: ArtWallPaper.Net
]]> Sun, 28 Jan 2018 16:57:05 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1553/pressed-into-service http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1553
When Were You Ever Pressed Into Service?
How Did It Make You Feel?

As a teen male, I was first pressed into service in an unappreciated role of "gay" high-schooler. Of course, in those years, it was nowhere a positive look. My life was a lonely, terribly unspectacular tale of beatings, spittings, and being trespassed against. Just kidding! Yes, really. I was a very popular kid in high school - even after that one incident of shame where my single worst indiscretion made campus 'news.' I could not believe a friend had shared the story in my neighborhood! Even more unbelievable and unexpected was when it was shared with the entire school! HORRIBLE!  No worries, I always manage to come out ahead in any destructive situation with good press. That kid made me the cat's meow!! As a young adult, I was pressed into service, but I was not allowed to suit up. It occurred to me to that I should not wallow in pity, so I did what what I had to do. I set my face before a military recruiter and I told the easiest lie I have ever told: Had I ever felt same-sex attraction? Or had a same-sex interaction? [I won't be answering those questions at this time, folks.] How in the world was I going to breach the door of government service, if I told of all the times and abuses I had surrendered myself to and been forced by others to partake? I mean, who knows ahead of time the 'steps' involved to save oneself for the purity of government service?  All those other young enlistees had been lying about some "Slim Jim"  or "Betty Boop" in their lives ! Why single me out? So, I pressed my way into military service as any all-around boot-camp nominee and soon to be base favorite would, for two terms of service. To this very day, I can say with utter pride, service people, officers and enlisted alike, who hold control over the lives of thousands of members are some of the most well-balanced and fair people in our country. A finer brand of brothers I have yet to discover. [I once wrote an American President asking why some service-members were reasoned liable to blackmail, when with a stroke of the presidential pen all can serve evenly. I never got a reply. But, I was bold enough to ask!] Again, I was pressed into the service of a lifetime. This spiritual odyssey of faith in God. After not so very long and the equivalent of long enough, a person can hear a "Call" being placed on his or her life. It is like a distinct impression continually lightly pressing until it is brought out into open reality. Honestly, maybe it can go unanswered. For me, I could find no way how to escape such a caressing entreaty . Many people in churches today can recall the day in which they were entreated. It carries a special 'tag' of remembrance in an individual's life. It is the day an individual turns away from life as they have known it and begin cutting a new path. Long before the first black President was to appear on the national scene, many same-sex relationships were essentially dead-ends. The position had no value in Society-at-Large. These men and women were powerless, at least socially and politically. Throughout the history of our nation, I can not imagine the number of men and women who were never honored for the "services" which they provided through the free use of their bodies and minds behind stalls, bushes, hotel rooms, any assortment of cars, and enclosures. All of it kept well out of the sight of cultured America. Those unknown individuals were cheated out of a proper status and position in life. But, God. Leave it up to God to give hope to to the lost, and the hopeless . God would not abandon the old man or woman to one-night stands, dives, and dens of foolishness writhing with dangerous pitfalls. God can give sanctuary to the aging man or woman left to fend for him or herself in a world where young men display aggression and prey on societal outcasts. God. It turns out manages a home for outcasts. All sorts of diverse people land on the Spirit's doorstep. A host of comers arrive daily at the Spirit's sanctuary readied for travelers seeking a life-long rest from troubles. This blog can be a harbor for some who are tired and weary. One last note: A big thank you to all those high-schoolers who never attempted to make me feel different, simply because I was different. A big thank you to those service-members who were not like me, and never let it make a damn bit of difference. A great big thank you to the church that surrounded me when I came in out of the street and you began wrapping loving and true arms around me until I decided to retire to my own "steady state" in life. Special thanks to "Pastor C," for not letting any differences matter. Finally, thank you Lord, for being perfect enough to fix and contain all mankind's differences until a time when differences fade out of existence. — End. How Were You Pressed Into Service? Care To Tell? ]]> Wed, 24 Jan 2018 03:45:26 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1266/disregarding-danger-sweden-to-deport-christian-to-iran http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1266
". . . part of the problem is that migration officials don’t understand why someone would become a Christian and don’t understand what it means to be a Christian. Less than 20 percent of Swedes say they believe in God. This is most apparent when they come to the question when a convert says I converted because of the love I have received from Jesus Christ. And they almost mockingly ask the convert, what do you mean by love? It’s just completely alien to them."  — Gabriel Donner.


>>>>>>







Posted By: External Source on: August 04, 2017:

Sweden is about to deport Iranian Christian actress Aideen Strandsson back to Iran, where she faces torture, rape and even death in an Iranian prison.

It is a clear violation of international law. But, as Swedish officials have told Aideen, becoming a Christian was her decision, and now it’s her problem and not theirs.
This from a nation that thinks of itself as the ‘humanitarian superpower’ that welcomed refugees with open arms, until the government took too much political heat and decided that some would have to go, even if it kills them.

Filling Quotas

Sweden’s migration board even violates its own stated principles: that it will never deport asylum seekers to a nation where they will be harmed, according to Swedish Attorney Gabriel Donner, who has assisted an estimated 1,000 Christian asylum-seekers facing deportation.
“The migration board has on its home page information about each country. And in the information regarding Iran there are plenty of reports stating that it is standard to torture and rape in Iranian prisons,” Donner said. “And the question we have been asking the migration board time and time again is why do you put this information on your homepage if you don’t follow it? ”
We asked Donner if, in Aideen’s case, Swedish authorities don’t believe she’s a real Christian or they just don’t care.
“They don’t care,” he replied. “It’s numbers. They have promised the people of Sweden that they will deport more people than before, and so they have to fill a quota.”

What Geneva Convention?

Article 33 of the Geneva Convention on Refugees, which Sweden signed, prohibits nations from deporting  asylum seekers back to nations where they could face danger.
Donner estimates there are 8,000 Christians hiding in Sweden because they are under deportation orders.
He said part of the problem is that migration officials don’t understand why someone would become a Christian and don’t understand what it means to be a Christian. Less than 20 percent of Swedes say they believe in God.
Donner said, “This is most apparent when they come to the question when a convert says I converted because of the love I have received from Jesus Christ. And they almost mockingly ask the convert, what do you mean by love? It’s just completely alien to them.’
Asylum Rejected, Prison Expected
A Swedish Migration Board press officer told us, “If the person [has] well-founded reasons to fear persecution due to religious beliefs, he or she will be granted asylum in Sweden.”
But Aideen’s asylum request has been rejected and her case has been turned over to the border police.
http://www.israelislamandendtimes.com/disregarding-danger-sweden-deport-christian-iran/
]]> Thu, 03 Aug 2017 15:55:28 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1265/father-of-girl-on-afghan-robotics-team-killed-in-isis-bombing http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1265


This is bigotry I just can not understand on any level. Why are people of faith attacking and killing their own? Why can't they just suffer the loss? And, in the instances of prayers. I just can not relate to this happening.
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(CNN) The father of a member of the Afghan all-girls robotics team that made headlines last month after overcoming US visa obstacles died this week in an ISIS bombing in Herat, Afghanistan.


Afghan authorities confirmed that Mohammad Asif Qaderyan, father of Fatima Qaderyan, was among 36 people killed in Tuesday's attack at a Shiite mosque during evening prayers.



Two suicide bombers blew themselves up after firing on worshippers inside the mosque, a Herat provincial spokesman told CNN.







]]> Thu, 03 Aug 2017 13:37:54 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1257/war-vs-the-conscientious-objector http://thenewstalkers.com/cb/blog/1257
Desmond Doss

Desmond Doss enlisted in April 1942, but refused to kill or carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. He consequently became a medic, and while serving in the Pacific theatre of World War II he helped his country by saving the lives of his comrades, at the same time adhering to his religious convictions.




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The power of faith laid against the truly atrocious state of war in 1945. I am completely honored to have met this man among men on the big-screen, " Hacksaw Ridge " (2016) Director: Mel Gibson. The power of his story spans the time.
War is hatred. Desmond Doss is love. He was treated with much religious bigotry and misunderstanding in his early army days. He was severely beaten by his platoon members, mistreated by his company commander and staff officers, eventually court-martialed in order to discharge him, but he persisted and won his case to stay in the Army Medical Corps—without passing weapons training. Through all these things, yet t he soul of the man song.
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