Bad enough that Our Public Schools are full of secular humanists and evolution and even socialist fruits and vegetables - now the teachers are recruiting students into weird death cults! A family from Avon, Connecticut, an affluent suburb of Hartford, accuses three Spanish teachers and a guidance counselor at Avon High School of recruiting two of their three daughters into a bizarre "religious cult that promotes martyrdom, and celebrates death," and by that they apparently mean one other than Christianity. The family is suing the four faculty members, the high school, and Wellesley College for not noticing that the daughters were being brainwashed by the "cult."
The news reports on the case are fairly vague as to the nature of this supposed cult, and so, for that matter is the complaint (pdf link). How's this for weird evidence of cult membership? UPI reports:
The parents say they noticed changes in their daughters' behavior. But they said they only discovered what had caused them when the younger daughter "broke free" of her ties to the teachers.
In court papers, the parents said the girls "began speaking a bizarre new language." Their behavior allegedly became girls "flat and distant, reclusive, secretive, and non-communicative."
My god... they sound like... TEENAGED GIRLS! CBS's reporting isn't much better, though it refers to a "coven" and, more helpfully, includes links to the parents' complaint and the school's response, which is just three lines, saying only that no previous allegations of the sort had ever been made and that the district's legal counsel is handling it. Wow, looks like the entire district is infected with very secretive, non-communicative language!
As for the complaint, we've given it a decidedly non-lawyerly read, and while it looks like the three Spanish teachers weren't especially good teachers, we aren't sure that there's much proof of a weird death cult at work, either. For instance, the parents allege that one of the teachers "frequently gave the students busy work, or showed them movies with no educational value, during which the students would spend the entire period talking to each other." You know, just like in the Salem witch trials. Worse, the teacher showed the class "The Lion King" in Spanish instead of reviewing for a test! Another section gets more to the meat of something that maybe was shocking, though who knows if any of it adds up to "cult recruiting":
Defendant Mastoloni was not just teaching her students Spanish. She taught her students religion and pseudoscience. Specifically, she taught her students to believe in superstition, magic, and a non-scientific, anti-intellectual worldview. She would discuss spirituality, numerology, astrology, dreams, mysticism, looking for "signs," angels, symbols, "synchronicity, negativity, seeking the truth," and death. All of those topics are religious in nature, and none of those topics are included in the Avon School District curriculum.
A lot depends on context here - if she was teaching about something like Dia de los Muertos, for instance, some of that may very well have been appropriate.
What really suggested to us that there may be less to this conspiracy than the parents want there to be was this bit:
Likewise, Defendant Kessler was also teaching religious material which is not included in the Avon School District curriculum. She once assigned her students a project on "magical realism."
Shocking! Round up the novels of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garc'ia M'arquez as material witnesses! The suit made no mention of whether, many years later, as they faced the firing squad, the girls tried to remember that distant afternoon when the teachers took them to discover ice.
We also aren't sure what this has to do with the alleged death cult, but we would agree that it's a novel teaching method:
Defendant Mastoloni once spent about 60-70 minutes of class time discussing her dermoid cyst of the ovary which she described as having hair and teeth, and then proceeded to show the students a series of videos depicting such cysts. Neither the discussion nor the videos were in Spanish. Defendant Mastoloni ate her lunch during the videos.
It's a hell of a story, but unless she named the thing "Dennis" and kept it in a jar to pray to, we're not quite seeing the cult connection.
The suit alleges that the "indoctrination" somehow got worse after the two older daughters graduated and went to Wellesley; somehow, the cultish influence is supposed to have increased after the girls went away? As evidence, though, it's hard to take seriously stuff like this:
185....E.D. [the oldest daughter] suddenly declared that her major would be philosophy, instead of political science or international relations like she originally decided.
186. E.D. also announced that she wanted to seek a masters in Divinity following graduation from Wellesley.
187. E.D. was unable to offer any real explanation for her sudden interest in religion. [...]
194. All of E.D.'s conversations involved Defendant Mastoloni.
195. E.D. no longer engaged in ordinary verbal banter or back-and-forth discussion.
196. Rather, E.D. would make statements that did not make sense to anyone else, and she would get angry at anyone who asked for clarity.
197. E.D. no longer appreciated anyone else's opinion.
198. E.D. also lacked humor.
Ye gods, your kid went away to college and came back sullen and noncommunicative? That's a hell of a cult! But that's not all!
210. E.D. behaved rudely towards her friends, often calling them "superficial" and accusing them of not following their "passions."
211. When confronted by her family about her disturbing behavior, she gave a pat answer, "You don't understand the person I have become."
212. When asked what that meant, E.D. was unable or unwilling to offer any explanations, nor would she engage in any dialogue, which was out of character for her.
Pretty wild, unbelievable stuff! Had to be a cult! And then there's this, from the section on the middle daughter:
228....L.D. was initially reluctant to go to the same college as her sister.
229. However, Defendant Sullivan urged L.D. to go to Wellesley to be with her sister, presumably because it would make it easier for Defendants Mastoloni, Kessler, Esposito, and Sullivan to keep the two girls indoctrinated if they were together
230. As a result of Defendant Sullivan's urging, L.D. ultimately decided to attend Wellesley.
231. When E.D. and L.D. both came home for Christmas break in 2012, they were closer to each other than they had previously been, and they began isolating the rest of the family.
There's just NO EXPLAINING IT! Culty, culty, culty!
And so on. It looks like maybe these are not terribly good teachers who like to spout New Agey nonsense to their students - and that alone would probably make for a pretty fair First Amendment case - but the cult stuff seems like a hell of a stretch. There is a very warped part of Yr. Doktor Zoom that hopes this case becomes a wingnut cause celebre, even though the parents don't quite seem to be wingnuts themselves. We bet Common Core did it.
On the other hand, this MAGICAL REALISM madness has got to be nipped in the bud. Before you know it, innocent children could be encouraged to read metafiction and try breaking the fourth wall themselves, and we can't have THAT in our schools.
[CBS News via UPI via Wonkette operative Badkitty / Complaint (pdf link) / illustration adapted from "Dia De Los Ponies" by "violetmagician"]
Follow Doktor Zoom on Twitter. He has been known to dabble in postmodernism and even to commit new historicism.
SF: http://wonkette.com/550043/are-your-teens-sullen-time-to-sue-their-death-cult-teachers-for-magical-realism-assignment
This is what Witchschool is all about. The lessons are designed so you can study at your own pace. They help you take it one step at a time. If you feel the need for help, there are groups that you can join where you can discuss the lessons with other students and mentors. The lessons have the structure that is often needed to help a person keep their focus and follow an outlined course of study that gives one direction and guidance so you don't feel lost as to the next step.
I think that this Ning website is wonderful for social interaction among solitaries, but I feel that Witchschool and its First Degree lessons are being overlooked. Whether one decides to become a member of Correllian Tradition or its clergy or not (and membership in the tradition is not required for the lessons) it is the best Wiccan education that is offered online. If you want focus and guided instruction in an online classroom setting where you can study at your own pace, then Witchschool's classes are the best.
I am speaking from experience. Though I had studied for many years before Witchschool came online, I found the structure and direction I needed to attain confidence in my Wiccan and magickal practices as well as my degree levels in the Correllian Nativist Tradition of Wicca, at Witchschool. If you haven't already, I certainly hope you will give the First Degree lessons at Witchschool.com a try!
Blessed Be,
Rev. Theresa Helton (Moonraven)
2 Deg. Priestess, CNT
Faculty member, Witchschool.com
Witchschool mentor, retired
The Daode Jing, a highly enigmatic work rooted in ancient Chinese cosmology, ontology, metaphysics, and moral thinking, is regularly offered to college and high-school students in religion, philosophy, history, literature, Asian studies, and humanities courses. As a result, an ever-expanding group of faculty with very different backgrounds and training routinely confront the question: "How should I teach the Daode Jing?"
Written for non-specialists who may not have a background in ancient Chinese culture, the essays collected in this volume provide up-to-date information on contemporary scholarship and classroom strategies that have been successful in a variety of teaching environments.
A classic text like the Daode Jing generates debate among scholars and teachers who ask questions like: Should we capitalize on popular interest in the Daode Jing in our classrooms? Which of the many translations and scholarly approaches ought we to use? Is it appropriate to think of the Daode Jing as a religious text at all? These and other controversies are addressed in this volume.
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Credit: new-generation-witch.blogspot.com
ANGLESEY SCHOOL"A Quick History:" Anglesey was founded during the druidic revival of the 18th century, attempting to capitalise on a newfound interest in the old way of magical training and to also offer an alternative to Hogwarts which had long dominated Wizarding Education in Great Britain. It remained comparatively unpopular until the mid 20th century when population increases and changes in the attitude of wizarding society increased the attractiveness of an alternative school."Location:"Anglesey is located on the island of Westray in the Orkneys. (Roughly analagous in location with the real life Lady Kirk although Anglesey is in much better condition."Buildings and Grounds:"Anglesey was built around an abandoned kirk. The kirk itself was rehabilitated and restored and serves as great hall and holds the administrative office of the school. More modern structures ring the kirk and are used as dormitories and classrooms. Professors usually maintain an office in their own lodgings."Student Body:"Anglesey is split fairly evenly male-to-female, although the majority of it's students come from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, areas traditionally associated with Druids. It also has a long tradition of accepting students with mixed blood. Purebloods often eschew the less traditional school and send their children to Hogwarts. Recent years have seen an increase in students of African or Carribean decent."Coursework:"Coursework at Anglesey is much less formal than at Hogwarts. The course list is similar but less structured and students are encouraged to make their own path and concentrate on what interests them most. Independant Studies are common and students are also encourage to learn by doing, not by testing and rote memorization.Astronomy, Herbology, Diviniation, and Care of Magical Creatures are especially well regarded programs. Geomancy is perhaps the most popular course that would divert from Hogwarts' studies. Angelsey's History of Magic, Arithmancy, and Charms programs are generally seen to be lacking in comparison to Hogwarts.Music, art, and physical activity are also suggested as well and form a strong part of the educational experience.Overall the feel tries to emulate ancient druidic traditions, as best as they can be simulated, with an emphasis on nature and natural magic and other traits that would be associated with muggle hippies or new age groups. The school is also not afraid to add new courses or make new lines of inquiry available to students on a whim.With the influx of non-Europeans to Britain during the 20th Century, the school has adapted again openly tolerating, if not integrating, techniques of Indian, African, and Carribean magic trying to create a throughly comprehensive method of training young wizards and keeping their eyes open to all alternatives at the same time providing them with a strong traditional background.In keeping with the ancient druidic style, there is an optional 20 year course of study which delves deeper into topics and also includes advanced studies not advisable for younger students. It is rumored that these topics include druidic sex magic and human sacrifice. Very few students accept this path. The current headmaster is one of the few recent graduates from this path and teaching it is his responsability."OWLs and NEWTs"Angelsey students sit for OWLs and NEWTs just as Hogwarts students do."FULL BACKGROUND""History of Angelsey:"The school was founded in the 18th Century, during the Druidic Revival that also spilled over into the Muggle World. As interest increased in these mysterious Druids, certain parties became interested in reverting to their style and traditions, a more natural, open, nature-based way to use magic. Druidic society also favored equality more than the society of the time. It was named after a Druidic school that used to operate at Angelsey in Wales which was destroyed by the Romans.However, because Druidic tradition was primarily oral very little of it actually surivived to that era, most of what druids did and did not do has been assumed from other sources, notably Roman accounts of the time. Angelsey is not associated with the small community of actual druids, who have managed to maintain their lore and traditions from that time.However, at that time, there was little interest. Most families were happy to send their children to Hogwarts and pureblood families would rarely even think of anything else.By the middle of the 20th Century, attitudes had started to shift. Population was steadily increasing and attitudes changed, welcoming less traditional methods of education. Attitudes at the school shifted too, departing slightly from the Druidic inspirations of the past and welcoming more of a "world magic" view. Independant Study became more common and students were encouraged to seek knowledge where ever they found it."Houses:"Houses are broken up by gender. Due to traditionally low attendance and a desire to avoide the "us vs. them" mentality that tends to plague Hogwarts, there are no deeper divisions than that.Students on the "20-Year Plan" can elect to have private lodgings after they turn 18, until then they live with the normal students."Sports"Quidditch is popular at Angelsey as it is throughout Britain, though due to it's size games are usually limited to intermural pickup matches. The Angelsey Quidditch Club looks forward to being able to field a team capable of taking on one of the Hogwarts teams.Other physical activity is encouraged, taking the attitude of having a healthy mind in a healthy body. However, the weather occasionally interferes and the usual indoor wizarding games are often played.
"Many thanks to DAVROS42 for fleshing out Anglesey."
According to the universe's principle of dynamic exchange, giving and receiving are different expressions of the same energy. Every act of giving is simultaneously an act of receiving. Each time you welcome a gift into your life, you are providing the opportunity for someone to give. As the spiritual Law of Giving and Receiving teaches, anything that we give joyfully and freely returns to us in like kind. Therefore, if we want love we need to learn to give love.
The ability to give and receive love in a healthy way is strongly influenced by the heart chakra, an energy center located in the area of our physical heart. This chakra symbolizes the unifying energy of love and compassion. It is not a coincidence that the heart chakra is associated with the Law of Giving and Receiving.
One of the ways in which we can touch the hearts of others and serve our community is by learning and sharing the timeless teachings developed by Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon. These teachings can greatly impact the lives of the people we interact with as well as our own life due to the power of these teachings as well as the principle of dynamic exchange. As we share these teachings with others, we end up receiving back much more than we actually gave out.
GIVE BACK TO YOUR COMMUNITY IN FULFILLING WAYS
This video shares an example of how giving and teaching enriches our own lives as we inspire others on the path of inner transformation.
Get started today and join thousands from around the world who have dedicated themselves to helping others by living and sharing the teachings of the Chopra Center.
Here are just a few of the benefits of entering the Teachers Path:
* Learn new skills
* Create new social connections
* Share your talents with others
* Give back to your community
* Expand your horizon
* Grow as an individual
* Feel needed and useful
Our teachers have touched tens of thousands of students on every continent, opening them to transformation and new possibilities in terms of lifestyle. Enriching the lives of others is one of the most precious gifts you can give someone.
We invite you to learn more about our certification programs in Primordial Sound Meditation, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, and Perfect Health: Ayurvedic Lifestyle.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrea DeBell is Chopra Center University's Editor, Curriculum Writer and Web/Online Manager. She develops, translates, coordinates, and communicates the teachings of Chopra Center University into all the formats that students, teachers, and guests interact with. She is a certified Primordial Sound Mediation and Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga instructor and on the Teachers Path to become a certified Perfect Health instructor. She spends each day deeply immersed in the timeless teachings of Vedanta, yoga, and Ayurveda. As a longtime meditator and yoga fanatic, her dharma is currently to make these teachings accessible to all who are interested. She loves exposing children and her three grown kids to this wealth of knowledge. With this mission in mind, she volunteers at the Foothills High School sharing the joy of yoga with teen moms.
Source: worldpuja.org, EasternInternalArts.com, eceti.org
Jenny will give insightful knowledge of walking the spiritual path to realize oneself, and will discuss Eastern techniques for awakening including Yi Gong and Spontaneous Adjustment Qigong.
Sifu Jenny Lamb is a graduate of the prestigious Beijing University of Physical Education, has been a student of Chinese Martial Arts for forty years with many awards, and a teacher of Chinese internal arts since 1975 in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Canada and the U.S. She is the founder of the Eastern Internal Arts Institute and of the Tasting Tao Center. She was an actor in the first modern mainland Chinese martial arts movie (The Honor of DongFang Xu. Also called Pride's Deadly Fury) and has been featured on the Discovery Health Channel. She is a Taoist and Buddhist practitioner with a Master's degree in Religious Studies and is working on her Ph.D. in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Chinese Buddhism.
Her specialties are internal and healing arts. Her combination of knowledge, skill and teaching ability is unique and her motivational techniques enable her students to surpass their greatest expectations. To experience her instruction is an opportunity which should not be missed.
Her teaching philosophy is to help her students to be happy, be healthy, be wise and be one's true Self. Her advice to her students is that it is easy to be a practitioner or a teacher. It is not difficult to be a good practitioner or a good teacher. But it is very difficult to be a good, decent, truthful, honest and humble person. Try to be that good person.
Jenny is the founder of the Eastern Internal Arts Institute based near Denver, Colorado.
Her website is www.EasternInternalArts.com
A PAGAN STUDENT'S BILL OF RIGHTS
1. You have a right to the quality of education commensurate with the medians in similar education for others in your chosen area. Check several teachers or schools to find just what those medians are considered to be.
Corollary: You do not have the right to expect your teacher to be a
"SuperPriest/ess" who will fulfill your every need, want and desire. Today, many are advertising themselves as "teachers" with little more than a few years experience themselves, much of which may be book learning. Truly experienced Elders and "Grand Masters" are exceedingly few and far between. Consider yourself astoundingly fortunate if your teacher falls into this category, but within reason, expect a teacher of Paganism to be human and fallible - resolve for yourself to learn what you can from the situation you are in.
2. The terms of your education shall be agreed upon in advance of its commencement by mutual contract between both teacher and student. Either party may at any time with prior advance notice, rescind said contract. Don't accept an amorphous "well, we'll just take it easy and see what happens" approach. You have the right to know exactly what to expect in terms of time, commitment and subjects learned.
Corollary: You may not drop out of tutorial with a teacher without making a reasonable attempt at telling them why you are feeling uncomfortable enough to do so. Be specific, they need to know how their behavior affected you and your potential for learning from them.
3. You have the right to expect a teacher who is compassionate, has a good sense of humor, has respect for you and others and who has a healthy level of self- esteem. A good teacher will admit when s/he is wrong in the moment and will usually heark back to their own novice days with anecdotes of their own trial and error to share with you. A good teacher knows how to maintain the delicate balance between friendship and appropriate discipline.
Corollary: Any teacher who projects as "too perfect" definitely isn't. Beware also the teacher who is continually in a state of personal woe - these people need too much of your energy that you won't have to give them. Walk out the door and keep searching.
4. You have the right for the teacher to always be truthful with you. Choose teachers whose styles permit you to question freely, who "lead by example" and show you as well as tell you the things you are learning. You can't learn herbalism solely by reading books, some day you have to get out into the garden and root in the dirt. Look for a teacher, whatever their specialty, who does the equivalent in their particular form of practice.
Corollary: Beware of teachers whose main boast is how many books they've read, or that all of their knowledge is "book learned". Such teachers will not be giving you anything authentic that you cannot learn on your own from the same books. A person "teaching" like this is perpetrating little short of plagiarism.
To bring in the danger factor, you do not want someone "teaching" you the art of soul travel/astral projection who has never really done it themself. Don't be someone else's guinea pig. A teacher is a rich resource not only of the literary materials they have consumed, but of their own experiences: those triumphs, failures and illuminating moments of true enlightenment that cannot be learned from any book in print.
5. You have the right to expect your teacher to hold a broad education themselves, with specialty areas in which they might be considered to hold above-average knowledge. Anyone purporting to be a teacher of Witchcraft, Shamanism or one of the other forms of Paganism is held to a standard of excellence in their own community, and usually will have specialised in some branch or another of its components. Bonus points to a teacher who has cross- cultural initiations or similar expertise/other cultural referents to draw from. A broad educational base generally lends another primary desired quality of a good teacher: a broad mind.
Corollary: Ask your teacher to name their teachers or others in the community who know them, and talk to them before signing on to that particular teacher's list. You may find they have an expertise in permaculture, spellcasting or soul retrieval - or you may discover knowledge that might lead you in another direction. It never hurts as a consumer of a service, to obtain references.
6. You have the right to expect discipline from your teacher. You have the right to expect that they will not let you get away with slackness in your learning, presentation or commission of your duties to them. When learning, expect no less than to apply yourself with the diligence most would reserve for a graduate school degree. A good teacher does their own research and give credit where it is due - expect the same of yourself. Be on time; ahead of time even, for lessons and coven/circle activities as your teacher should. Do one more bit of homework than is expected of you. Expect no less than excellence of yourself and you will be richly rewarded.
Corollary: You have the right to expect your teacher to be firm, but flexible within reason. Teachers should be expected to keep their committments to you as you do to them. Overly regimented structures are not conducive to learning, although sometimes in some traditions, such strictures may be put into place specifically to challenge you and help you grow. Look for teachers who walk the balance between firm and flexible for the best learning environment.
7. You have the right to expect change. Do not expect a smooth ride. Life is its own powerful teacher - learning the arts of Shamanism or Witchcraft are seriously advanced study in the crafting of your own soul. By virtue of this process, your issues will be brought out into the open and you will be expected to deal with them and act/react accordingly. How you react will be noted by your teacher and you can expect to have such reactions become the topic of discussion for your further growth. You have the right to expect during these "spiritual crises" for your teacher/s to be there for you to consult, lean on just a little bit and to provide you resources for getting through. You do NOT however, have the right to call the teacher in the wee hours every night of the week with a new crisis, to monopolize your teacher's time for weeks on end due to a major crisis or series of smaller ones. Some support is to be expected from a teacher, but not unlimited support. Ask prior to your training what level of support the teacher is comfortable giving you and adhere to that. Know also when to refer yourself to a competent psychotherapist or healer. And if your teacher suggests you do so, take their advice without quibble. Clinginess from crisis-prone students who do not engage competent healing staff at the appropriate times is one of the behaviors that can be incredibly abusive of the teacher. If such clinginess is particularly time and energy consuming, it may cause the teacher to end their relationship with you.
Corollary: Your teacher does not have the right to use information concerning your spiritual crises against you, or to pass you off without seriously attempting to help you. Any teacher who does this you should immediately disengage from. Such a person is not the one to be trusting with your soul and your psyche as is required from a teacher of the metaphysical arts.
8. You have the right to be listened to, to have your questions answered and the right to expect a reasonable amount of your teacher's time for the discussion of issues you might have with your training, different areas you wish to explore, etcetera. A good teacher like a good psychologist learns to listen more than talk in order to know what is important and relevant to you, the better to help them custom-craft your learning experience. Walk away from teachers who refuse you time to state your concerns, pooh-pooh your questions or who motormouth over your every utterance.
9. At the appropriate time, you have the right to expect your teacher to either inform you that it is time for you to move on into your own practice, or to be open to your suggesting something similar to them. A good teacher expects their students to mature and progress beyond them and will be quite pleased for you when this happens.
Corollary: Any teacher who keeps you hanging on indefinitely for initiation, advancement, further training et. al. with prolonged and continual protestations of "you're not ready!" when you know you are is not behaving in a mature manner.
If it gets to this point, leave and seek those who will support your spiritual growth and advancement.
Author unknown
The stakeout is a down biographical deadlock of Westminster Institution California's first lead, DR. ROBERT B. STRIMPLE, written by Dr. W. Robert Godfrey:This blind date copy the fortieth diamond jubilee of the acceptable of the Rev. Dr. Robert Benson Strimple now the ministry of the Up front Presbyterian Cathedral by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. It furthermore copy forty-one being of his service as instructor and formal at Westminster Philadelphia and Westminster California. It has been my allegation to work without more ado with Bob Strimple for beyond thirty-five being and to treatment his steadfastness, prepare accepting, and good wit which has fountain provoked me and repeated others.Strimple has indubitably served Christ in a wide meet of bizarre ways. He has been a high priest, a instructor, a scholar, a churchman, an formal, and an quarters builder. All of these everyday jobs he has undertaken as a Improved Christian with a deep-seated government department that Improved Christianity is biblical Christianity. Sparkly on his work at Westminster Institution, he wrote: "We gladly route our theological ancestry to that understanding of the Bible, that understanding of the gospel notice, which flowered at the time of the Sport."Strimple was born, raised and qualified in Delaware. His parents were Methodists, and he became a Baptist beforehand studying at Westminster Institution. He was stationary a Baptist at the time of his start from Westminster, but he had embraced most other elements of a confessional Improved government department.Outline has still been very subsequent to Strimple, and his partner, Alice, has accompanied him intimately on his spiritual and academic journeys, underlying him fine swallow the way. Out-of-date in their married lives they had hoped to relieve the Lord as missionaries, and at minimum in some ways their move to the "perplexing domain" of California at ease that visualize. Their four children moved with them to California, and all four now relieve Christ with their families.At WTS he greeting all his professors, but, consider repeated others, he was significantly certain by Cornelius Van Til, whose presuppositional apologetics helped Strimple in his hypothetical work to side for the foundations of various forms of theology. The top force on him, hitherto, was Professor John Murray. Strimple was decorative each one to the jiffy teaching and the godly characteristic of Murray. Murray's lectures, which were written out, time and again revised, and read word for word in class, were a prevailing of swish hypothetical practice which massively appealed to Strimple's own Germanic dedication. In these lectures Strimple furthermore experienced a scholar of invincible supervision and widespread learning who beached his theology definitely and vividly on cautious biblical exegesis.Murray, of course, was faraway ended than a fine theologian. He was a spiritual picture through the care for to Christ that radiated from his life. Murray come to life the disciplines of Scottish Presbyterianism-including meticulous Sabbath-keeping and advanced Psalm-singing-in a way that did not resonance legalistic, but favor was jam-packed with a biblical holiness. Of course, the Rev. Gfrey Thomas observed that John Murray was the holiest man he had ever habitual. For Strimple, too, Murray lived out an engaging holiness that provoked others to need in to Christ. And by all means it is not too faraway to say that Strimple was Murray's truest offspring as a Improved systematician, blending steadfastness, learning, and devotion.When his start from WTS he qualified one blind date at Eastern Christian High-ceilinged College in Paterson, New Jersey and thus served eight being as Professor of Utter Mysticism at Toronto Bible School (1961-1969). Such as teaching, he continued his situation studies, carrying out a Th.M at Westminster (1965) and beginning a Ph.D. shout in investigative theology at Trinity School, Instructor of Toronto (ended in 1972). Modish persons being in Canada he continued his meticulous study on the Bible and theology, which led him to fasten paedobaptism. He began teaching at Westminster in 1969 and was acknowledged now the ministry of the Up front Presbyterian Cathedral in 1970.In grow to his teaching, Strimple gave himself to the do of Westminster by laid-back a symbol of management positions: Dean of Students, Dean of the Capability, Vice-President of Well-informed Kindred, and at the end of the day, Be in charge of Westminster Theological Institution in California (WSC). He brought obstruct control to these positions, which he absolute fantastically and roundly. He definitely certified that Improved Christianity was ended than an adept commitment. Biblical Christianity has an institutional form and appearance.Nevertheless an easterner, Strimple attached the repeated who heard the claim to "Go West, simple man." A symbol of Improved leaders in California had become clear in your mind that a Improved school was de rigueur in the West. They appealed to Edmund Clowney, the lead of Westminster Theological Institution in Philadelphia. Clowney decided that institution a baton academic world of Westminster in California would be a enchantment part of the carousing of the fiftieth diamond jubilee of the institution of WTS. So with the remain of the Quarters of Trustees and the capacity, Clowney in 1979 with bizarre fulsomeness sent his Infirmity Be in charge for Increase, Robert G. den Dulk, and his Infirmity Be in charge for Well-informed Kindred, Bob Strimple, to Escondido, California to obstinate the new academic world. Strimple worked massively on principle the new capacity, setting up the route and academic life of the school, and straight away securing accreditation for WSC from the Western Complex of Schools and Colleges (WASC).Abnormally in constructing the new capacity, Strimple showed his fulsomeness, kindness, and commitment to daintiness. He did not visualize to find capacity who customary with him at every degree, but sought after rigorous, confessional Improved scholars who would slog together further than differences to advance the do of Christ.By 1982 it was clear that brutal to accept a file quarters with campuses on two coasts was wrongly life-size administratively. The ruling was very melodiously completed for the western academic world to become a fine unbiased quarters with the name Westminster Theological Institution in California. Strimple became its first lead in 1982.As an lip of his honest theology, Strimple was still submit and go up looking. At the tenth diamond jubilee celebration of WSC he expressed this in his bungalow entitled "For All People-One Christ, One Gospel, One Call." This rage for shipping the gospel now the world had beforehand been expressed in his inaugural bungalow as the first lead of WSC, in which he reflected on the stimulating opportunities beforehand a school sitting on the Placatory Rim with all the peoples and cultures to which it may well high priest.In grow to his relentless work as a full-time instructor of investigative theology, as lead he continued to bolster a chummy management load. He not barely oversaw the big picture of school manner, but furthermore proof-read all communications and publications that went out from the school. By 1988 this load had become too chummy, and he without difficulty returned to teaching and hypothetical pursuits as his full-time work at WSC.As a churchman, he was deafening each one in his close by meeting and in the work of the pompous judges of the church. His giving with the OPC was respected by his make your choice as Make up your mind of the Familiar Band at its fiftieth diamond jubilee principle in 1986. When his move to California, he worked for the institution of an OPC meeting in Escondido.His first love, hitherto, remained investigative theology. Such as inquiring in onwards and logical questions, his top tension, consider Murray's, was to put down theology severely and definitely on the Scriptures. His lectures showed, in answer to enlightened and evangelical challenges, how Improved theology was not the product of a visualize for a logical or coherent practice, but favor was seasoned out of the meticulous exegesis of biblical texts.We can all be pleasing that persons lectures accept been sealed in three CD courses to play with from Westminster Institution California. The first course is seventeen lectures on theological anthropology, entitled "God's Fashioned Clue." The the twinkling of an eye course is thirty-nine lectures on Christology, entitled "Christ Our Champion." The third course is forty-nine lectures on soteriology, entitled "Trade-in in Christ." These CDs accept been provided free of charge to a intense symbol of seminaries surrounding the world, unconventional way in which the Strimples' visualize to be missionaries has been absolute.In the best tradition of Machen and Van Til, Strimple was tangled not barely to serving biblical truth surely, but furthermore to join together the theology of the Bible to some of the innovative terminology of work in his time. He qualified a course on skepticism, tracing its modern forms and attractions, when presenting a clear Christian denial. He furthermore deliberate the twists and turns of the modern sett for the onwards Jesus, stakeout various developments of Gospel telling off and freedom a biblical analyze. This study led to the style of his book, "The Hot Hound for the Unaffected Jesus" (1995).Extra element of innovative work that he deliberate beyond repeated being was the rally of modern Roman Catholic theology. His paycheck in this domain of study was first motivated by courses he took for his doctoral work at the Instructor of Toronto. Those post-Vatican II days were a powerful drive to theological study and reformulation in the Roman church and colleges. At the Instructor of Toronto he obtainable a convention on one of the leading Roman Catholic theologians of the day, Bernard Lonergan, whose 1957 book, "Insight: A Study of Human Discernment", was a good deal discussed. He furthermore deliberate with the Roman Catholic Leslie Dewart whose 1966 book, "The Future of Belief: Theism in a Establishment Blow of Age", was as you might expect retitled by conservatives as "The Future of Unbelief". Strimple was fixed that these professors and the Roman Catholic graduate students with whom he deliberate were far from the Tridentine Romanism that most Improved theologians knew. Plausibly he encountered a theology faraway ended consider the Protestant liberalism chary which Westminster had been founded.Those experiences in Toronto led to decades of study of innovative Roman Catholicism, plus sponsorship in the Catholic Theological Suggestion of America. He furthermore time and again qualified an elective course in this big business.Highest politely and judiciously Strimple summarized the fruit of his undamaged study of innovative Roman Catholicism in an keep fit, "Roman Catholic Mysticism These days," published in "Roman Catholicism: Evangelical Protestants Dismember What on earth Divides and Unites Us", shortened by John Armstrong (1994). This keep fit carcass an safe introduction to the characteristic and hub of modern Roman Catholic academic work. It shows the press flat developments in Protestant and Roman Catholic theology sandwiched between persons theologians clear in your mind that they destitution adapt Christianity to Elucidation and post-Enlightenment way of life.Alluringly Strimple's appraise of innovative Roman Catholicism has been directly deliberate by the Roman Catholic scholar William Shea in "The Lion and the Lamb: Evangelicals and Catholics in America", (2004). In a piece of the book entitled, "Poorly Evangelicals and the Runaway Cathedral," Shea recognizes Strimple as "a serious student of innovative Catholic theology." Shea is significantly known with the Princeton and Westminster tradition, commenting learnedly on Charles Hodge, Loraine Boettner, J. Gresham Machen, and Cornelius Van Til, as well as Strimple.In 2001 Strimple retired from full-time teaching. In his dispatch announcing his strategy to depart, he wrote: "Alice and I honor God for the life and ministry he has prearranged us together, and for our four believing children and nine [now twelve!] grandchildren. The achievement of that ministry has certainly been these being at Westminster in California, in actuality persons stimulating, pleasing, hasty being seeing a new Improved school for the practice of men for the gospel ministry decide in the region of on the West Coast. How pleasing we are for the enchantment capacity, trustees, staff, and students who accept completed up the very special Westminster California family!"Strimple carcass deafening in retirement. He continues to be sold for lectures in a meet of courses and intimately mentors a symbol of WSC alumni surrounding the world via email. He has been respected by his academic contemporaries with a effective organized of essays entitled "The Regular of First-rate Education" (2004). He was furthermore honored-in plethora an heroic way-when unnamed donors, through a one million jump input, decide the Robert B. Strimple Keep control of Utter Mysticism in acknowledgment for all the ways in which he had contributed to the company and continuation of WSC.Robert Strimple has served Christ in bizarre ways, and his friends, contemporaries, and students desire that the Lord mood bear with him for being to come so that he may retain nearby aware advise and heartening the service of others. His wisdom and rage organization in repeated of his writings, but an safe closing turn of phrase can be found in his closing words to an keep fit he wrote on open theism entitled "What on earth Does God Know?" in "The Hope Evangelical Glitch" (1996):THE REFORMERS, ON THE Core OF THEIR BIBLICAL Education OF GOD, On hand A BIBLICAL Education OF Trade-in. A SOCINIAN Viewpoint OF GOD LEADS Manifestly TO A SOCINIAN Viewpoint OF Trade-in, WHICH IS NOT THE Modest Hearsay OF Trade-in BY GOD'S Free GRACE-BY Thoughtfulness Unconnectedly, Command Esteem Unconnectedly, IN CHRIST Unconnectedly, TO THE Glory OF GOD ALONE-BUT Plausibly A Proper OF Trade-in BY ONE'S OWN Hard work, A Adulterous GOSPEL THAT IS NOT Modest Hearsay AT ALL. IT IS THE GOSPEL THAT IS AT Stake IN THIS Have an argument.("DR. ROBERT B. STRIMPLE: A Testament", Predetermined Servant Online)
Islam is religion of peace and humanity. The lesson of peace and kindness that we have been taught through Quran has been taught the nations before us as well. Parent-children relation is the most blessed and pure relation among all the relations. When ALLAH swt blesses a couple with child this gives them the ultimate happiness and also they are given a duty.
Being parents does not only mean to be happy but parenting is one of the most difficult and patient task. It is the duty of parents to up bring their kids in a way commanded by ALLAH swt. Parents have to take this duty seriously. If children are good muslims, they become sadqa jariah for parents, but if parents do not take care of kids in their early life and they lose the right path, they become a continuous azab for their parents.
Therefore it is important to take care of the upbringing of the kids. A kid belonging to good parents will have good personality traits because children see and learn from their parents. Mother's womb and than her lap are the two places to learn for the kids. So, good behavior must be maintained before the kids.
Abusing kids and before kids are two acts that attack the moral development of kids the fast. If parents use harsh words and tone with kids, they cannot let kids respect them and others. Their kids will be exactly like them, and the parents will have no chance to repent once their time of good parenting is over.
ALLAH swt says in Quran: 66:6
"O you who believe! Ward off from yourselves and your families against a Fire (Hell) whose fuel is men and stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe, who disobey not, (from executing) the Commands they receive from All^ah, but do that which they are commanded."
So, believers are warned against the hell fire and they are told to take care of their families and do those measures which can save them and their families from the torment of hell fire. First family includes parents and their children. If parents do not like hell fire for themselves, they cannot like that horrible place for their children too. Parents have been bestowed the love and care for their kids which no other relation has in this world be it siblings or any other relation.
There are certain rights of children that parents should fulfill (some of them at their ease.)
2:233
"And the mothers should suckle their children for two whole years for him who desires to make complete the time of suckling."
A child who is breast fed for 2 years, he remains immune for many diseases because the mother milk contains those natural elements that contain cure for many illnesses.
Parents cannot deprive their children from the share of the property they own, they cannot disown them as we see happening in today's world. If parents do so, it will be a deviation from the order of ALLAH.
Nisa 4:7)
"Men shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, and women shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, whether there is little or much of it; a stated portion."
Parents cannot kill their children because they fear that they cannot fed them. It is ALLAH that feeds everyone, and every child gets his due share in the rizq that ALLAH provides. So, no parents are allowed to kill their kids. But unfortunately, it is a common practice to kill children and then to commit suicide, both acts are haram and acts of cruelty especially towards innocent kids. No soul touches this earth without the will of ALLAH so nobody should dare to challenge will of ALLAH.
6:151
"And do not slay your children for (fear of) poverty-- We provide for you and for them-- and do not draw nigh to indecencies, those of them which are apparent and those which are concealed, and do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except for the requirements of justice; this He has enjoined you with that you may understand."
ALLAh does not require the muslim children to follow deen of parents if it is not islam, infact it is forbidden to follow them even when you love them the most. Better is to invite them to islam with understanding anf with patience.
9:23
O you who believe! do not take your fathers and your brothers for guardians if they love unbelief more than belief; and whoever of you takes them for a guardian, these it is that are the unjust.
Losing children is indeed a huge grief. No one can understand the mother's grief and sorrow when she loses a child because ALLAH swt had put a limitless sea of love in her heart for her children. A mother gives birth to her child after bearing pain that no one else can bear from any other disease. The pain of giving birth cannot be imagined and defined only a mother can understand it.
Volume 9, Book 92, Number 413:
Narrated Abu Said: A woman came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Men (only) benefit by your teachings, so please devote to us from (some of) your time, a day on which we may come to you so that you may teach us of what Allah has taught you." Allah's Apostle said, "Gather on such-and-such a day at such-and-such a place." They gathered and Allah's Apostle came to them and taught them of what Allah had taught him. He then said, "No woman among you who has lost her three children (died) but that they will screen her from the Fire." A woman among them said, "O Allah's Apostle! If she lost two children?" She repeated her question twice, whereupon the Prophet said, "Even two, even two, even two!" (See Hadith No. 341, Vol. 2)
Parents are blessed to have children. The value of children can be asked to those couples who do not have this blessing. Children are innocent. They do not understand this world like their parents. It is the parents who can treat them good and can teach them how to face the world.
Credit: 33witches.blogspot.com
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Like school do you teach in? Like state? Like issue do you teach?
I luggage compartment favorite not to reveal that information, to protect all my job and my employer.
Like are you doing? Don't you know what would increase if they found out?
I'm not assured. I believe my former would influence me, but the filth would hunt in so furthest to-do that I would maybe luggage compartment to pitch in addition.
I can't hypothesize how someone would ever find out. It isn't as if there's a input list someplace. I don't belong to a coven and on the odd occasion lead any Pagan-oriented actions. I luggage compartment very few Pagan friends. Proportioned if represent were hints leave-taking articulate about what I am, they would be pressed to extravaganza no matter what.
Like led you to training for this job? Did you become a Wiccan at an earlier time or once you started working there?
I became a Wiccan during my unlimited meeting in college. I viable for the job to the same extent at the time we had a eccentric scarcity of teaching positions. I was dejected.
Why don't you go teach in a get-together school, where you would be unharmed with your accounting beliefs?
Heap reasons. For one, the stick out in several get-together schools is anxious and rote with divide politics. Elegance to misguided policies equal NCLB and cuts in endorse, get-together school teachers are expand banal than ever. And working in a get-together school does not necessarily protect your accounting responsibility for. School districts luggage compartment gone once Wiccans in hatred of anti-discrimination laws.
Do they know about your religion?
The precisely thing my employer, co-workers, students and parents know is that I am not Catholic. They would know this even if I didn't chat them, to the same extent I do not sway Communion when we go to Cache.
Like if you are asked directly?
It depends on how the give out is worded. Sometimes the kids do ask me what my religion is. I chat them that I believe in God, and they typically acquiesce that and move on. If stamped to name a set religion, I chat them I luggage compartment attended Unitarian Universalist services. (Which I luggage compartment.) I try unwell to be candid with the kids, but I hand down lie if I luggage compartment no other other.
Why not just spurn to share a house that information, period?
Not sagacious. All that does is supplement clue and postulation, dreadfully between historical students. Kids know instinctively when they're on to something. I studious that during the foothold presidential poll when I refused to chat the kids who I selected for. (Not Bush!) That week, they passed out expand time wavering to assemble out my political similarity than they did on their work.
Like do you equal about Catholicism?
I equal the ancient rituals and traditions. The Catholic Minster is the world's oldest lying on in force tidiness. It is full of mystery. I find it repetitive.
Like do you antipathy about Catholicism?
"Loathe" is the wrong word. I fight with its worldview and beliefs (as well as fill with of all Christian denominations, for that specific). I do not believe in the Catholic erect of God, I don't believe represent is no matter what to be "saved" from, and I fight with any religion that uses anxiety to get members.
Like are your set beliefs? Are you in a coven? General feeling you be my teacher?
I am an eclectic solitary Wiccan. That technique I belong to no set Wiccan use and I do not work with others. I do not teach the Craft, either. Sorry! View online and you hand down find several battle and organizations that can help you out.
Why put out about all this?
I believe it is an high ranking and interesting story that wishes to be professional. I may well be the precisely celebrate on earth in this argument. That without a friend in the world makes it expedient to put out about.
Credit: masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
