The Upper Room

12:01 AM

@JonEricson Likewise, when you're poor, Christianity can somehow make people happy. I talked with this amateur pastor (no seminary education, work as a nurse's aid, biology major college grad), and he told me that he entered the university, wishing for a relationship. He found a relationship with a girl who later broke up with him. His obsession with relationships and partying ruined his college career, so he ended up with the BS degree in Biology and didn't get into medical school.

He also said that he entered the pre-med major for all the wrong reasons (personal wealth and glory) instead of trying to help people. Then, he found God.

So, God "saved" him and presumably told him to become the amateur pastor of the church.

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous You seem to be operating under the assumption that wealth leads to happiness. That is an illusion.

Anonymous

He married a woman who was a legislator's aid, working in the house of representatives, and he added that he wanted to go to seminary school.

@JonEricson Well, one explanation is that people like to socialize, and lack of socialization makes people unhappy.

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous How would wealth exclude a person from socialization? (Socialism, I could understand. ;)

Anonymous

@JonEricson Huh?

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous What's the connection between wealth and socialization in your opinion?

Anonymous

12:14 AM

@JonEricson You're a community manager-in-training, eh? What do you do exactly? Do you think you would ever show your kids someday what your job is like?

Jon Ericson

31

A: Who are the Community Managers, and what do they do?

Who are the Community Managers? There are currently seven community managers. They are: Robert Cartaino Shog9 Grace Note Anna Lear Tim Post Jon Ericson Gabe What do they do? They help you out. No, really. But yeah, that's about the most generic non-answer ever. They revi...

My son thinks this job is even more awesome than my previous one.

Anonymous

@JonEricson I think, when you are wealthy or when you are an outstanding student in the class, people may be attracted to your wealth or good grades and would want to talk to you or befriend you.

@JonEricson What was your previous job?

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous But there's no statistical connection between wealth and happiness. So that hypothesis is not supported by the evidence.

@Anonymous Unlike you, I'm pretty free with my personal information. I bet you can figure it out in less than a minute. ;-)

Time's up, I believe. ;-)

Anonymous

@JonEricson I noticed that some people would tell the word everything or nearly everything about themselves and then wonder why they are being stalked. People can put anything and everything on their Facebook profiles, things that can potentially drive employers away.

Then, there are the smart people, who keep a squeaky clean online portfolio of themselves, so that potential employers can't find any blemishes.

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous Thank goodness Stack Exchange has never heard of Facebook. (That's not entirely true. ;-)

Anonymous

12:31 AM

@JonEricson Another way to express "thank goodness" would probably be "thank God" or "Thank the Lord" or "Praise the Lord".

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous How random.

Anonymous

@JonEricson My sentence is somewhat related to yours. You used the term "Thank goodness". I suggested similar variants.

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous Databases are awesome. So are thesauri.

Anonymous

@JonEricson On Between the Lions (TV show), there was a dinosaur puppet named Thesaurus.

Jon Ericson

@Anonymous I haven't seen that show since my son was in preschool. I'd forgotten about that character.

Anonymous

12:36 AM

@JonEricson How often do Evangelicals like you partake in communion?

Jon Ericson

Well, it's been something chatting with you, but dinner calls.

Anonymous

@JonEricson OK. Goodbye! Have fun at dinnertime!

James T

@Anonymous My father-in-law used to train executives in personal information security, among other things. He'd run seminars where his opening act was to show the attendees all the stuff he'd found out about them.

Anonymous

waxeagle is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America. If the PCUSA is mainline, then the PCA is evangelical, whatever that is supposed to mean. I wonder how waxeagle's evangelicalism is different from Jon Ericson's.

@JamesT That would be so embarrassing!

James T

@Anonymous I would worry about their reaction but he says they were really hooked from that point.

He would find out where their children went to school, etc.

Anonymous

12:44 AM

@JamesT What if a man is illegally married to two wives?

James T

@Anonymous I guess that would be something he wouldn't bring up in the class. I don't know how common bigamy is though. Very probably people are more likely to have a wife + a mistress/girlfriend.

One could run a course on how to commit adultery and get away with it, but it would be rather immoral.

Anonymous

@JamesT or two husbands or a husband + boyfriend.

James T

@Anonymous Yes, or bigamy with a husband and a wife - from next year in England and Wales, a bit longer in Scotland

Anonymous

@JamesT I wonder why bigamy is illegal in the United States.

I wonder if certain Mormon sects are breaking the law.

James T

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church, known to some as Mormon Fundamentalists) is one of the largest fundamentalist denominations and one of the largest organizations in the United States whose members practice polygamy. The FLDS Church emerged in the early twentieth century when its founding members left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The split occurred largely because of the LDS Church's suspension of the practice of polygamy and its decision to excommunicate its members who would continue the practice. The FLDS Chu...

this was recent and they were stopped

Anonymous

12:53 AM

Still, why is bigamy or polygamy illegal?

Even polyamory may be considered as "cheating" of a relationship. Maybe it's safer for a person to assume that the relationship only exists between the two persons, not anyone else?

James T

@Anonymous Historically the US got this from English common law, which derived it in part from canon law, which has its roots in Roman law and in the scripture and tradition of the church.

But all of these cultures, and others, have been against it.

Even as forms of multiple marriage have been approved in other places.

Anonymous

1:15 AM

@JamesT Weird. I wonder if times will be changing any time soon. If same-sex marriage is legalized, then legalizing polygamous marriages wouldn't be so behind. Besides, I once read a journal article about how Mormon women in the 19th century were plural wives, feminists, and schoolteachers. It's not like polygamy is evil or anything.

James T

@Anonymous This is the slippery slope argument from opponents of same-sex marriage. I am not convinced the slope is quite that slippery. There isn't a significant lobby wanting plural marriage to happen. And probably little common ground between liberal polyamory supporters and ultraconservative religious polygynists.

Moreover it is a huge legal thicket.

and many people would consider it evil - eg because of its history as an institution enshrining abuse of women

wax eagle

1:56 AM

@JonEricson something something something giant dumptruck full of money.

TRiG

lolblog.com/post/i-was-enjoying-my-blood-popsicle. (Is this a real thing in the real world?)

And this one isn't from Church Signs Epic Fails, but it should be: lolblog.com/post/just-a-funny-sign.

Anonymous

@JamesT But the same can be said for homosexual rape. My emphasis is on the word "rape", not the word "homosexual". Rape is bad, because it involves one individual who bullies and overpowers another individual. Homosexual behavior, like heterosexual behavior, can be appropriate and consensual or inappropriate and harmful.

wax eagle

2:20 AM

@TRiG religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/17/…

thats....almost as a strange as the lolblog posting

TRiG

2:32 AM

@waxeagle And it almost was a blood pop-ice.

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