I would like to post further on this thread and respond more specifically to some things, but it seems I have no time this week. (Next week may be better.) For now, I just want to say a few things.
Thank you, Mike, for your last few posts. I really appreciate your kinder tone and your more thoughtful approach to this thread (and your repentance … fully accepted). If I came across badly at any point, I too repent. Thank you for hearing what I wrote about my main reason for posting Cahn’s message being a call to repentance. There was also another reason, as yet unmentioned, which I alluded to in my first post and indicated I might write more about later. Lord willing, I will.
Someone once told me that real communication takes place when a speaking person (or a writer) is able to convey to listeners (or readers) the actual meaning he/she intends to convey. When that happens, there is genuine communication. Another wise person told me that whenever respect, in attitude, tone, and language, is missing from dialogue, there is no possibility of real communication taking place. I believe that good and useful communication can take place on this forum if writers will work hard to write as clearly and respectfully as they can and if readers will take the time to really try to hear and understand what a writer is saying (or trying to say). It is easy to be reactive (…speaking from experience), but not so easy to take a deep breath, read a post slowly a second or even third time, ask God’s help to understand what is being said, and take time to think about it (all of it) carefully before responding.
I personally think communication is one of the most difficult things we do in life. (My husband and I are 100% in agreement about this statement. We have four plus decades of trying to learn to communicate well and some days it seems we’re still in first grade.)
My openness to Cahn’s message was due, in part, to recent happenings in my life that I referred to in the “cloud” part of my first post. I didn't explain this. My openness was also due, in part, to my current view of American history.
Although I had no intention of discussing views of American history when I posted, this became a topic (in retrospect, understandably so). So, for now, in hope of being a better communicator, I am providing a link to a document about historical revisionism with respect to this country. I know it might be better if I wrote what I think about this, but I don’t have time to do so. So, I submit this article, not to argue a position, or insist that others believe this, but just to show a little more of what has influenced my views about American history. Maybe some will find this helpful. The perspective I held about the founding of America, one that I was taught in school, has changed significantly over the last few years.
(The fact is that none of us human beings can say with certainty that we have the correct perspective on historical matters. We weren’t there in the early years of America's history and no one from that era remains that can answer our questions. Our only source of information is written materials. And, as is true with knowing the Bible, we should do our own research, homework, etc. to see if the things we have heard are so.)
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Lord, help us learn to communicate (fellowship) well. Help us walk in the light one with another as You are in the light. Thank you for your blood that cleanses us from all sin as we do so.
Here is the link:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissue...les.asp?id=100
Thankful Jane