We live in a rural area with around 80 acres, all scrub land not worth much but very private, so 5 dogs are no problem, nor are the neighbors 30 plus dairy goats plus 4 horses. When my back was better I could ride them (the horses, not the goats) but these days I can just watch them, but that's fine. SWMBO can still ride, but unfortunately doesn't like to, would rather brush them and help milk the goats. Right now we have no guests but one of "our boys" and his family are coming next week to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of their wedding , should be great.
'

We live in a rural area with around 80 acres, all scrub land not worth much but very private, so 5 dogs are no problem, nor are the neighbors 30 plus dairy goats plus 4 horses. When my back was better I could ride them (the horses, not the goats) but these days I can just watch them, but that's fine. SWMBO can still ride, but unfortunately doesn't like to, would rather brush them and help milk the goats. Right now we have no guests but one of "our boys" and his family are coming next week to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of their wedding , should be great.
'

A couple years ago, my girl cousins and I forgave our abuser at least enough to form a posse to sit with him at family gatherings and funerals and visit him at home to keep him socially active, content enough and safely away from the children. He had abused boys and girls. He was beginning early stages of Alzheimer's and is fairly demented at around 75 years of age and has plans for a Nursing Home this Spring.

Not all abused kids ever are able to tell their families, much less muster up a multigenerational task force to protect and serve! I count myself fortunate in that regard. But it is a lifetime of healing as NPP can attest, and some may no longer possess the inner conviction that they are capable or worthy of that effort or protection.

They just hurt. Helplessly.

Your advice IS prescribing a healthy attitude, for sure. But many of these kids can no longer act or respond in healthy ways. And to hear good hearted advice that the abuser has won might only depress some in their helpless terror. One sometimes has to go and meet them where they are. So I think your advice has merit in a lot of cases, but understand the caution you have also encountered.

You seem to be such a good and thoughtful man, bggamers!

OMG, it it 41° here in Nashville and heavy snow flurries are swirling against my windows! I'm in the nook of the bay window. What a fluke! I gotta watch this and rejoice in life's little surprises. And coffee.

I Will Say What the Political Leaders Cannot Say About Pete Buttigieg
Posted Feb 11, 2020 by Michael L. Brown

It is certainly politically incorrect to say this. In fact, in the eyes of many, what I’m about to say is a classic example of extreme religious bigotry. But I will say it nonetheless. Choosing an out and proud “married” gay man to run for president, let alone become president, would contribute to the further degeneration and moral confusion of our society along with further attacks on our most fundamental rights.
When I tweeted this statement out on February 8, it received far more retweets and likes than my average tweet. Far more. So, it obviously struck a chord. The support was strong and consistent.
Also, as expected, there were words of condemnation and rebuke, including this tweet from Bible teacher Gilbert Gonzalez Jr. He wrote: “Please tell me this tweet is from a different century. There is no way that anyone today that has any education would ever write something so generally uninformed, childish, and biblically ignorant. This is why people don’t take Christianity seriously. Its leaders refuse to learn.”
Obviously, I fully expected responses like this. That’s why I began my tweet by saying, “Call me a h********c bigot, but I'll say it anyway.”
What else could I expect? The moment you say a word about Mayor Pete being “married” to another man, all while flaunting his deep Christian faith, you will be called a h********c bigot.
So be it. I’ve been called worse things than that.
Come to think of it, Jesus Himself, our perfect Savior, was called far worse things.
And He told us to expect the same: “It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul [basically, the devil himself], how much more the members of his household!”
According to Prof. Randall Rauser, however, to call me a h********c bigot is not out of line. (Prof. Rauser is a moderate Canadian evangelical and a constant basher of President Trump.) As he wrote in his blog, “Behavior and reasoning like this provide very plausible evidence that Christians like Brown have an irrational fear of and/or antipathy toward gay people.”
Indeed, according to Prof. Rauser, “Evangelicals like Brown fall over themselves to excuse Trump’s grotesque immorality. . . . Among his latest egregious actions, last week he mocked the words of Jesus at the National Prayer Breakfast while evangelical pastors laughed in the audience.”
But that’s where Prof. Rauser misses the point, as do Gilbert Gonzalez and other critics. (See also this excellent response to Rauser by Steve Hayes.)
First, I have never excused the president’s past immorality. In fact, I probably called attention to it as much as any evangelical leader during the primaries. To say, I “fall over [myself] to excuse Trump’s grotesque immorality” is to speak a lie.
Second, to this day, like a broken record, I draw attention to aspects of the president’s behavior that I find destructive and harmful. In fact, shortly after the National Prayer Breakfast, I wrote an article addressing the very issues Prof. Rauser mentioned regarding Trump’s response to the words of Jesus.
So, to brand me hypocritical for speaking out against Mayor Pete’s proud homosexuality is to be either misinformed, dishonest, or both.
But there is a much bigger issue that the critics are missing.
President Trump is not flaunting his past immorality, nor is he pushing it presently. Instead, when the ugly tape of his lewd comments went public, he said, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize . . . . I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.”
In stark contrast, Mayor Pete has talked about how his homosexual relationship to his “husband” Chasten has brought him closer to God. He has kissed his partner at public rallies. He is pushing his homosexuality, not apologizing for it.
You better believe that he will do everything in his power to normalize homosexual relationships even more in the eyes of America. He will also do his best to marginalize those who are convinced that these relationships are contrary to the will of God.
And this leads me to the primary reason for my tweet (and for this article).
It is not so much that homosexual practice is worse than adultery or fornication. Rather, it is the fact that there is an aggressive, gay agenda that has systematically undermined biblical morals for decades. It has also sought to silence all dissenting voices, becoming the principle threat to our religious and moral freedoms.
That’s why I’ve been active in resisting L**T activism since 2004, reaching out to individuals with compassion but resisting the agenda with courage.
And so, it is not the people whom I oppose. (God forbid. I’ve made that clear hundreds, if not thousands of times.) It is not even homosexual acts which primarily concern me (although issues of health and safety should not be ignored.)
It is an aggressive agenda that I oppose, one that I and others have tracked carefully for many years. (See already the important 2003 volume by Alan Sears and Craig Osten, The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today.)
It is an agenda that would only be fueled with great intensity by an out and proud gay president.
And so, just as President Obama’s administration pushed radical t***s activism on our nation’s schools, under severe penalties, things would only intensify under a president who would flaunt his “husband” being the country’s first “First Gentleman.”
In the end, this has nothing to do with having “an irrational fear of and/or antipathy toward gay people.” (How is it that Christian leaders end up repeating the world’s talking points?)
Instead, it has everything to do with recognizing where gay activism has taken us in the last 50+ years and recognizing where it wants to take us next.
I, for one, will continue to sound the alarm in advance.
Things are confused enough already. We don’t need to make things any worse.
Calling me a h********c bigot will only avoid dealing with the real issues at hand.
We avoid them to our own demise.

Oh come on, you guys have to be kidding. Trump admitted to being a serial adulterer with each of his three wives. Adultery is much more destructive to the family unit because often the result is to destroy it! Homosexuality doesn't destroy anything except to the minds of Christian bigots who are enraged by it. But the fact that Trump's adultery doesn't bother you but Buttigieg homosexuality does is put the onus on you and exposes your bigotry for what it is.
What's more, your bigotry is more detrimental to society than anything Trump or Buttigieg has done. If you can't get your own house in order and free from sin why are you so consumed by someone else's?

For your information, God holds his hand out to sinners for forgiveness so what Trump did before he's allowed through Jesus to ask for forgiveness . Now I know you think he's a terrible sinner but that's Gods place to judge what I elected him to do is what he does best be a businessman and get the peoples business back in shape and through all the BS from all of you and the DEMS he's doing what no other president has done HE'S KEEPING HIS PROMISES and that doesn't seem to compute for all of you he's brought back jobs/ he's eliminated not one but 3 high-end terrorist he's smoothing out the wrinkles with other countries he is trying to get our immigration under control with no help from all the weepy i***ts who want all the other countries rapist/murders/lazy good for nothings that are draining our country so you i***ts can feel warm and fuzzy while they go out and murder someone Pelosi will hug them and say they just need love and they let them out of jail to do it again the Dems controled states are hell hole littered with drug adicts s**t and used needles so if this is your utopia please please count us out and we will build a wall so you and your beloved imagrants can enjoy your missery WITHOUT us

"For your information, God holds his hand out to sinners for forgiveness so what Trump did before he's allowed through Jesus to ask for forgiveness . Now I know you think he's a terrible sinner but that's Gods place to judge what I elected him to do is what he does best be a businessman and get the peoples business back in shape and through all the BS from all of you and the DEMS he's doing what no other president has done HE'S KEEPING HIS PROMISES and that doesn't seem to compute for all of you he's brought back jobs/ he's eliminated not one but 3 high-end terrorist he's smoothing out the wrinkles with other countries he is trying to get our immigration under control with no help from all the weepy i***ts who want all the other countries rapist/murders/lazy good for nothings that are draining our country so you i***ts can feel warm and fuzzy while they go out and murder someone Pelosi will hug them and say they just need love and they let them out of jail to do it again the Dems controled states are hell hole littered with drug adicts s**t and used needles so if this is your utopia please please count us out and we will build a wall so you and your beloved imagrants can enjoy your missery WITHOUT us." - bggamers

Yep!
America will continue to prosper in spite of Democrats, as long as they keep the majority.

Concerning rich men and creepy nasty poor ones, their gated communities and border walls and a final great gulf of separation, . . . . it seems your God has a plan...


Luke 16:19-31 King James Version (KJV)
"19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."