ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S EVENING SERVICE: CHRIST IN THE HOUSE OF HIS PARENTS

Arrived late, so did not enter into the small room off to the side where service was being held.  As I've become quite a picture thinker; I wandered around looking at all the arts and their placements.

During the Gilded Age, highly prominent laity such as banker J. P. Morgan, industrialist Henry Ford, and art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner played a central role in shaping a distinctive upper class Episcopalian ethos, especially with regard to preserving the arts and history. These philanthropists propelled the Episcopal Church into a quasi-national position of importance while at the same time giving the church a central role in the cultural transformation of the country.^[36] Another mark of influence is the fact that more than a quarter of all presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians (see religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States). It was during this period that the Book of Common Prayer was revised, first in 1892 and later in 1928.

***

The only reason for the additional pictures which follow;  because I took them immediately after leaving St. Bartholomew for Whole Foods to pick me up something for dinner on my way home. 

First the lone spermatozoa looking sculpture with a lone complementary bird sculpture caught my eye. 

Then driving home from Whole Food, a license plate caught my attention for some reason.  

Then seeing another home, bordering my property, also up for sale.  

Just thought they all added up to something interesting having figured out yet...?

Oh!

And the fact that the first time returning home from St. Bartholomew after the first of my two attendance for their Sunday evening services (have yet to attend a daytime service); finding myself behind a little bitty red as well as oh so extremely slow moving vehicle with multiple bumper stickers pasted all over the back side of this car...a gremlin maybe?  

But only two stickers caught my attention:

1. DOING MY PART PISSING THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT OFF!

2.  LOOK BUSY!

JESUS IS COMING!

The second one;

 haven't been able STOPPING myself greeting everyone with... since.

And it made so much sense after having just witnessed 

a 

ST. BARTHOLOMEW COMMUNION RITUAL.

Something you just have to see for yourself  instead of read or hear about .

The way The Very Reverend Sharon Heirs, a young woman, oh so subtly  took a peek inside the shared communion cup, first, after the last one either took a sip directly from the cup or just dipped their piece of bread into the wine instead, then giving the silver cup a couple of gentle twirls holding onto it firmly as she did so with both hands, before quickly without...any hesitation... turned that cup up on end finishing off whatever was left inside of that silver cup. 

Really do not believe she was wanting to do this part...?

Don't blame her.

You can pick up nasty diseases this way.

Might as well have been a big time 

"Second Dippings" 

Tebow Fan Club Member!

"So...

does it fit?"

~(Simply Jim:  We Get The God We Have; Not The God We Choose.)~

"IT FITS! IT FITS!

 WE FINISHED NOW?"

~(Rev. Sharon Hiers)~

"Well....

was hoping of us possibly working out a way getting Joseph back into this picture somehow?  Not saying St. Bartholomew has to go.  Just saying that I can't help but sense Jesus' mother Mary 

is 

"The Holy Ghost";

 and 

Joseph as the parental father 

is 

"The Eternal Father"

Jesus 

is crediting as most responsible for shaping his moral 

character regardless of who's the biological father?

And far more practical implication to today's world problems."

~(Simply Jim:  Really Do Believe This Is Something Jesus Would Approve)~

"Uh. Uh. Uh. 
 
I have nothing to do with this.  

I'VE GOTTA GO!"

~(!THEY ALL DO?BOTH REVENUES AND DOCTORS? JUST DON'T GET IT!)~

MY TAKE ON THE TRINITY: SON OF A BEECH OR SON OR A BIRCH?

Surely this isn't news to them?!

And...

I am a firm believer in, 

"THE HIGHER UP WE GO; THE MORE DIFFICULT THE TESTS BECOMES."

Anyway,

although I did not try again on my second visit back to St. Bartholomew what I failed accomplishing my first visit;  definitely going to go back and try again soon.    Do believe I see a way, might be possible, getting Joseph back into a more rightful place, equally just as important as Mary's and Jesus' contributions to their combined stories and all of history leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth; the beginnings of the Christian Era.

Fucking drives me nuts how this mob mentality brain of mankind...STILL...only able comprehending overly simplified versions of....EVERYTHING!

GOD DAMN EVERYTHING!

And I cannot say that I even blame the reverend and reverend doctors mostly for this paradox, either. They should have their rights earning their livings the same as any other occupations, but only up to a point;  the standards for morals needing to be set somewhere somehow by someone.   If not with them first, then who.  

 The same as with the patients of veterinarians coming with price limits having to be worked out in a personalized medicine kind of way; so do the faiths of members within any given church. 

Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) is a painting by John Everett Millais depicting the Holy Family in Saint Joseph's carpentry workshop. The painting was extremely controversial when first exhibited, prompting many negative reviews, most notably one written by Charles Dickens. It catapulted the previously obscure Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to notoriety and was a major contributor to the debate about Realismin the arts.

The painting depicts the young Jesus assisting Joseph in his workshop. Joseph is making a door, which is laid on his carpentry work-table. Jesus has cut his hand on an exposed nail, leading to a sign of the stigmata, prefiguring the crucifixion. As Saint Anne removes the nail with a pair of pincers, his concerned mother Mary offers her cheek for a kiss while Joseph examines his wounded hand.

The painting was immensely controversial when first exhibited because of its realistic depiction of a carpentry workshop, especially the dirt and detritus on the floor. This was in dramatic contrast to the familiar portrayal of Jesus, his family and his apostles, in costumes reminiscent of Roman togas. Charles Dickens accused Millais of portraying Mary as an alcoholic who looks

"...so hideous in her ugliness that ... she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England."

But at least some of the children do get away in the end. 

Now I have a new agenda in addition to the original one I'm determined voicing my concerns.

These two framed pictures paired together is just too morbid.  I swear!  That child does not look like he understands why he's being forced giving his mother a kiss for a bloody hand that's his...?

A MOTHER...

 HAVING SHARED THEIR COMBINED STORY WITH THE WORLD...

BET

 TIM TEBOW 

IS 

SCARED TO DEATH 

COMING ANY WHERE NEAR A WOMAN WITH HIS DICK! 

.

***

As of 2012, the Episcopal Church reports 2,066,710 baptized members. The majority of members are in the United States, where the Church has 1,894,181 members, a decrease of 29,679 persons (-1.4 percent) from 2011.  Outside of the U.S. the Church has 172,529 members, a decrease of 814 persons (-0.5 percent) from 2011. Total average Sunday attendance (ASA) for 2010 was 697,880 (657,831 in the U.S. and 40,049 outside the U.S.), a decrease of 3.7 percent from 2009.

According to data collected in 2000, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Virginia have the highest rates of adherents per capita, and states along the East Coast generally have a higher number of adherents per capita than in other parts of the country. New York was the state with the largest total number of adherents, over 200,000. In 2010, the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti was the largest single diocese, with 85,528 baptized members, which constitute slightly over half of the church's foreign membership

The Episcopal Church also has the highest number of graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita of any other Christian denomination in the United States, as well as the most high-income earners.

Episcopalians tend to be considerably wealthier and better educated than most other religious groups in Americans, and are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business, law and politics, especially the Republican Party.

A study by Fortune magazine found that one of every five of the country's largest businesses was run by an Episcopalian. Of the country's largest and most powerful banks, one in three was headed by an Episcopalian. Numbers of the most wealthy and affluent american families as the Vanderbilts and Astors, Whitneys and Morgans and Harrimans are Episcopalians.

The Episcopal Church experienced notable growth in the first half of the 20th century, but like many mainline churches, it has had a decline in membership in more recent decades. Membership grew from 1.1 million members in 1925 to a peak of over 3.4 million members in the mid-1960s. Between 1970 and 1990, membership declined from about 3.2 million to about 2.4 million. Once changes in how membership is counted are taken into consideration, the Episcopal Church's membership numbers were broadly flat throughout the 1990s, with a slight growth in the first years of the 21st century.  A loss of 115,000 members was reported for the years 2003–05, which has been attributed in part to controversy concerning ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood and the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Other theories about the decline in membership include a failure to sufficiently reach beyond ethnic barriers in an increasingly diverse society, and the low fertility rates prevailing among the predominant ethnic groups traditionally belonging to the church. In 1965, there were 880,000 children in Episcopal Sunday School programs. By 2001, the number had declined to 297,000.

During the Gilded Age, highly prominent laity such as banker J. P. Morgan, industrialist Henry Ford, and art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner played a central role in shaping a distinctive upper class Episcopalian ethos, especially with regard to preserving the arts and history. These philanthropists propelled the Episcopal Church into a quasi-national position of importance while at the same time giving the church a central role in the cultural transformation of the country. Another mark of influence is the fact that more than a quarter of all presidents of the United States have been Episcopalians (see religious affiliations of Presidents of the United States).  It was during this period that the Book of Common Prayer was revised, first in 1892 and later in 1928.

The center of Episcopal teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, include:

• Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
• Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
• God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, are one God, and are called the Holy Trinity ("three and yet one").
• The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
• The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist.
• Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.  

To anoint is to pour or smear with perfumed oil, milk, water, melted butter or other substances, a process employed ritually by many religions. People and things are anointed to symbolize the introduction of a sacramental or divine influence, a holy emanation, spirit, power or God. It can also be seen as a spiritual mode of ridding persons and things of dangerous influences, as of demons (Persian drug, Greek κηρες Keres, Armenian dev) believed to be or to cause disease.

Unction is another term for anointing. The oil may be called chrism. 

The word is known in English since c. 1303, deriving from Old French enoint "smeared on", pp. of enoindre "smear on", itself from Latin inunguere, from in- "on" + unguere "to smear." Originally it only referred to grease or oil smeared on for medicinal purposes; its use in the Coverdale Bible in reference to Christ (cf. The Lord's Anointed, see Chrism) has spiritualized the sense of it, a sense expanded and expounded upon by St Paul's writings in his "Epistles". The title Christ is derived from the Greek term Χριστός (Khristós) meaning "the anointed one"; covered in oil, anointed, itself from the above mentioned word Keres.

• Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus' return in glory.
• Emphasis on living out the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor fully, as found in the Gospel of Matthew 

The full catechism is included in the Book of Common Prayer and is posted on the Episcopal website. The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way.

The Episcopal Church follows the via media or "middle way" between Protestant and Roman Catholic doctrine and practices: that is both Catholic and Reformed. Although many Episcopalians identify with this concept, those whose convictions lean toward either evangelicalism or Anglo-Catholicism may not.

A broad spectrum of theological views is represented within the Episcopal Church. Some Episcopal theologians hold evangelical positions, affirming the authority of scripture over all. The Episcopal Church website glossary defines the sources of authority as a balance between scripture, tradition, and reason. These three are characterized as a "three-legged stool" which will topple if any one overbalances the other. It also notes

The Anglican balancing of the sources of authority has been criticized as clumsy or "muddy." It has been associated with the Anglican affinity for seeking the mean between extremes and living the via media. It has also been associated with the Anglican willingness to tolerate and comprehend opposing viewpoints instead of imposing tests of orthodoxy or resorting to heresy trials.

This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a 16th-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason. Noting the role of personal experience in Christian life, some Episcopalians have advocated following the example of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of Methodist 

theology by thinking in terms of a "Fourth Leg" of "experience." This understanding is highly dependent on the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher.

You don't need a fourth leg!

Just sit your ASS on it!  

That's 

THE EXPERIENCE.

If you like the way it's feeling; you're not going to change it!

DEAR SISTER BETH: JESUS HAD HIS MINUTE...AND HE FAILED?

	Subject: James Edward Avery, DVM From:
	James Avery (jeaverydvm87@att.net)
	To: bethlp@stmarkumc.org; CC:
	alicer@glennumc.org; owen@clairmontpres.org; sharon@stbartsatlanta.org; office@central-ucc.org; jnoblitt@stmarkumc.org; fred@clairmonthills.org; bskarda@phumc.com; cboone@ajc.com;
Bcc:
	Dose: Saturday, July 5, 2014 2:58 PM

Dear Sister Beth,

This email will be my formal request for one hour of your time to be scheduled completely at your convenience. All that I ask, that there be two other people from your congregation present at this meeting; one of your most spiritual minded and one of your most pragmatic minded. And please do ask around for any information about me before this meeting. Before I even try asking for assistance/advice with my problem(s), I need, and it's only fair, the opportunity clearing any and all information(s) that could lead to any kinds of cognitive bias and/or dissonance. This will be the quickest/briefest way to proceed...again...in a way that's fair to me.

The only way I can think of, trying to explain who I am, is through the use of mixed media collages.

In other words...

 

 

 

~(6!9)~
is 
my tool/game figuring out other people's game.

 It's 
a little bit of everything including the trinity, 

which
 I'm understanding to be: 
one substantive and two unsubstantive 
or 
two substantive and one unsubstantive; 

the 

art behind my colorful language:

Jesus: 

 Father(Joseph the Parental Father as the Eternal Father, Son (take a lucky guess), Holy Ghost (the essence of his Mother Mary); different way of saying the same thing: sum of his parents in his father's absence.

Simply Jim: 

 One Pearl, Total Pig, Anti-Christ.

G. Robert Gary, Sr. ThD: 

 Arrogant Obtuse Swine.

His wife, Janet: 

 Pernicious Prevaricating Cunt. Also "THE HOSEA JOKE BETWEEN ME AND HER HUSBAND BOB." She's the one who started all this by crossing over to my side of the street first and introducing herself to me and Bob

Neighbor Charles W. Bliss: 

 Useless Green Acre Faggot "I'M INCREASING YOUR PROPERTY VALUE!" I"M INCREASING YOUR PROPERTY VALUE!" "TREES are DANGEROUS!" "I'M INCREASING YOUR PROPERTY VALUE!"

His partner Bobby B. Rasulnia: 

 Charlie's Iranian Uranium Enrichment Concubine. "Well! It's Charlie's money and he can spend it however he wants!"

Robin and Scott Dowel: 

 ROBIN THE LANDLORDS VAGINA MONOLOGUE. "All trees fall eventually." "Well if we cut one tree down, we might as well cut them all down." "It's a live tree. It's a pretty tree. For all we know it may live to be another hundred years?" "However, we'll let you cut it down if it is a concern of yours." After it finally fell eight months later, "Well. We only view this property of ours next to yours as an investment to help pay our children's way through school." They refuse to pay having it hauled out of my backyard, even though it destroyed a fir tree of mine, that was also a pretty tree, a live tree, for all we know it might have lived to be another hundred years.

And so you have an example of who I am. 
Or an example of who I've become.

Going to wrap this up with some quotes, another example of mixed media collages I use when trying to express myself, with the last quote slightly altered to reflect my hearing impairment:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

(PRAGMATIC(?)SPIRITUAL)

At one point, he wrote to Thomas Paine, criticizing his manuscript, The Age of Reason:

"For without the Belief of a Providence that takes Cognizance of, guards and guides and may favor particular Persons, there is no Motive to Worship a Deity, to fear its Displeasure, or to pray for its Protection ... think how great a Proportion of Mankind consists of weak and ignorant Men and Women, and of inexperienced and inconsiderate Youth of both Sexes, who have need of the Motives of Religion to restrain them from Vice, to support their Virtue, and retain them in the Practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great Point for its Security; And perhaps you are indebted to her originally that is to your Religious Education, for the Habits of Virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it."

In 1790, just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University, who had asked him his views on religion:

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble ..."

ALBERT EINSTEIN 

(PRAGMATIC(?)SPIRITUAL)

 Like Spinoza, Einstein was a strict determinist who believed that human behavior was completely determined by causal laws. For that reason, he refused the chance aspect of quantum theory, rejecting the concept of a god playing dice with the universe. In letters sent to physicist Max Born, Einstein revealed his devout belief in causal relationships:

"You believe in a God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world which objectively exists, and which I in a wildly speculative way, am trying to capture. I firmly believe, but I hope that someone will discover a more realistic way, or rather a more tangible basis than it has been my lot to find. Even the great initial success of the quantum theory does not make me believe in the fundamental dice game, although I am well aware that some of our younger colleagues interpret this as a consequence of senility."

Einstein was then asked to what extent he was influenced by Christianity. "As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene." Einstein was then asked if he accepted the historical existence of Jesus, to which he replied, "Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."

He stressed however in a conversation with William Hermanns that, "I seriously doubt that Jesus himself said that he was God, for he was too much a Jew to violate that great commandment: Hear O Israel, the Eternal is our God and He is one!' and not two or three." Einstein lamented, "Sometimes I think it would have been better if Jesus had never lived. No name was so abused for the sake of power!" Nevertheless, he also expressed his belief that "if one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity."

JESUS OF NAZARETH 

(PRAGMATIC(?)SPIRITUAL)

John 5:30

I can of mine own self do nothing: as I sense, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

- King James Bible "Authorized Version", Cambridge Edition

I'm convinced, all we are dealing with here is the sixth sense: the mind media, which the eastern cultures factor into their spiritual journeys. And this is what we need to be doing with America's spiritualism.

U=Pragmatic Competence?

Before I even discovered Spinoza through my research on Albert Einstein, I had already come to the conclusion, if there is to be a God, by definition there can only be one. This would then leave us with: We get the god we have; not the one you choose. And I'm unable seeing why there should be any difference between those people of faith and the rest of us. As you will find no two people believing in God exactly the same way; technically then, there are as many Gods as their are people claiming to believe in God. And this is what I like about being the radical atheist that I am, even a militant one who style Einstein would probably not approve as I have chosen to follow Einstein's lead that faith and science, both being the search for truths, originates and is controlled from the same part of the brain; that mere unbelief in a personal god, then, is no philosophy at all. Once one figures out, "the way the world is," being nothing more than "the sum of all of us," God can now hypothetically be given a face...a human face...but one that changing constantly like that of time on a digital clock with each second as "the sum of all of us' is constantly adding up differently departures and new arrivals. So I have decided to believe in "ZERO" god as opposed to "NO" god; even changing the spelling of God to g(0)d. And this leaves the only god available being my witness, if indeed one truly does exist, the one I refuse choosing to recognize or worship; the only one that be witness to us all. So don't go mistakenly believing, because I claim myself atheist, among many other things you may have heard about me, that this automatically puts God on your side against me. 

 But honestly, 

my intuition tells me that you and I already agree on the gist of who god is and how god operates. The only difference being, our style in how we should to go about enumerations of our sets. Just within the Christian sect, your set is still one of many. 

 I've come to the belief, the best way is to start all over with another attempt at a reset in the language we use discussing god and religion. And for this, we need another catalyst similar to what Jesus attempted with his use of phrases like "Son of Man"...and "flesh being born of flesh" with the rest made of "water" and "spirit".

But somewhere along the way, the meaning of "spirit" got high-jacked and we ended up with nothing but a "botched" Crucifixion.

⁴ “What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears.

⁵ Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,

I killed you with the words of my mouth—

then my judgments go forth like the sun.^[a]

⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷ As at Adam,^[b] they have broken the covenant;

they were unfaithful to me there.

⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,

stained with footprints of blood.

⁹ As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,

so do bands of priests;

they murder on the road to Shechem,

carrying out their wicked schemes.

I have lots ideas, 

 but I need sponsors helping me get past my lack of the "halo" effect on other people. 

 With today's world population roughly 33 percent Christians...

"HE STILL AIN"T ELECTABLE!"

Jesus had his minute...and failed. Just think of it as a form of "negative" theology.

Okay! I lied when I said I was going to wrap this up! Sue me!

So...Rev. Dr. Beth; I'm so sorry to impose on you like this. It's not that I don't know what I'm doing due to my crystal methamphetamine addiction. I know exactly what I'm doing because of my crystal meths addiction. As I ended up having to perform my own drug addiction intervention after going to and from work as a veterinarian under the influence of this drug addiction almost everyday since it became a daily habit roughly around the year 1999 up until I told Janet Gary first ...Thanksgiving 2010...followed by telling everyone else as well; I spared no one. Therefore, although I've decided to retire from the practice of clinical veterinary medicine (it's not about the animals anymore/unless you can afford being referred to specialists such as Georgia Veterinary Specialist here in Metro Atlanta where humanized personalized medicine is practiced in stark contrast with our difficulty getting any forms of Universal Health Care legislation passed), the same as I've always been and forever will be Methodist no less than Jesus ever stopped being a Jew due to first eighteen years raised with First United Methodist Church of Prescott,Arkansas; James Edward Avery, DVM should get to be in control of his drug addiction intervention. This means he "should" get to choose the support groups he believes needing helping him get off this addiction since none care enough to initiate the intervention on my behalf themselves.

Of course I know this is not how real life works?

Don't be so sure about this;  

always a first time for everything...going both ways.

Again...Jesus had his minute. 

 As "OUR" story is such an important part of "MY" story; 

I am 

"ABEL" 

 seeing how this might actually work.

I'm trying to keep "OUR" story within the Methodist family. It's the last family I have left. The memories anyway. I've given up on my immediate family living in Arkansas. But they are not really Methodists anyway. Except my father, now deceased, and Mike Avery Ross who is my second cousin.

Now that he's running for Governor of Arkansas, will not be surprised he becomes less "Blue Dog" than he was as Representative of Arkansas's 4th district; even switching parties once elected Governor. If you really want a good book to read in which one could learns a lot about human nature, it would be one detailing the parallel lives and thoughts, if able getting the other two to be halfway truthful, of mine as James Edward Avery, DOCTOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, of Mike Avery Ross, BLUE DOG DEMOCRAT, and author of JESUS UNPLUGGED.... G. Robert Gary, Jr., MASTER OF DIVINITY. We all three are as pure Methodist as you can get.

You remember me mentioning my version of the trinity: two substantive and one unsubstantive vs two unsubstantive and one substanstive?

A different way of saying the same thing: "Quality of a good leader is one able disappointing his/her own people at a rate they can absorb." Personally witness this within the only sermon of yours I've heard so far regarding the removal from Methodist by-laws, the section barring self avowed homosexuals as ordained ministers, to a congregation roughly 80 percent homosexual males. 

 Did I read this correctly?

Anyway, I'm not particularly pleased by what I'm seeing out of the other two...?

As a reference point, something I would like to guage, would be my opinions of Wayne Besen of TRUTH WINS OUT (TWO) to the average of your THE GAY ONE (TGO) CHURCH.

I'm not out looking to make friends out of your church; just looking to see if your church can, 

where others have failed 

(most especially Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church)...

"All of us are familiar with the famous line attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald,

that “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in

mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Less famously,

Conor Cruise O’Brien (contributing editor to The Atlantic magazine) described an

intellectual as “someone who is prepared to admit when another has made a

point in a debate.”

On both counts it’s fair to wonder whether our society has lost some of its

capacity for instilling—or at least requiring—this kind of intellectual

capaciousness, this (perhaps uniquely human but too often underemployed)

ability to experience or understand life from another person’s perspective.

Can you imagine the talking heads on some of the cable TV channels and AM radio

stations pausing in the middle of their heated exchanges and saying, “You know,

Bill, or you know Sean, or you know, Tim – I think you have a point there.” It

doesn’t happen, or at least it doesn’t happen often. We are a society

increasingly trained to hold on like bulldogs to a narrow way of viewing things.

Perhaps it is in our sense of surety, founded or unfounded, that we find comfort."

And this is James Wagner I'm quoting:

A Time for Courageous Universities

James W. Wagner

Emory University

Address to the National Press Club

25 April 2007

Sounded very pretty didn't it?

Now compare his statement with Wikipedia explanation of:

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the excessive mental stress and discomfort experienced by an individual who (1) holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time or (2) is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction.

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals largely become psychologically distressed. His basic hypotheses are listed below:

1. "The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance"
2. "When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance"

If I'm understanding this correctly, do not believe it can be done James Wagner's way...unless living a lie.

And any form of manipulations and deceptions eliminates  the possiblity consent.

Sincerely yours,

James E. Avery, DVM