All the foreclosure stories reminds me a little of this parable:

[Gore1FL]

Same Story, different millennium.

Matt 18:23-35 Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants. When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and kneeled before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’ The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. "But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’ He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him.

Perhaps the bank bailouts should be withdrawn until they can forgive the delinquencies of their debtors.

One wonders why this wasn;t part of the deal in the first place.

[The Traveler]

1. Scripture recommends against usury

and says nothing about abortion, a procedure that was certainly performed in those days. (We call delivery by incision a "Caesarian" because, among others, Julius was delivered that way. This is a more complicated procedure than dispensing penny royal or other agents to terminate early pregnancies. Not an expert on the subject of ancient medical procedures but if they were delivering children by surgery that early it is reasonable to assume surgical abortion was also practiced, and probably earlier.)

Yet the Judeo-Christian religious folk in our country applaud usurious capitalism and condemn abortion.

Go figure ...

:shrug:

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. Don't plaster us all the same color.

Usury is a more serious problem than abortion by far, and I'm sure a number of my coreligionists here would agree with me. (If you're interested in how the Catholic Church officially came to its conclusions, message me and I'll give you a quick run down).

By the way, I like your avatar.

[The Traveler]

6. I will be messaging you.

We can continue this on a more private channel.

For you and all of your other "coreligionists", please understand I was merely pointing out what I find to be a stunning dichotomy between Biblical tradition (which represents an injection of reason and compassion for the cultures of those times) and modern practice. To emphasize a derived doctrine (i.e. not one directly rooted in the teachinys) and ignore a primary doctrine (i.e. one explicitly discussed) seems amazingly inconsistent to me, and it puzzles me.

And it makes me wonder ... if the energy that has been devoted to this topic of abortion had been instead focused on caring for the poor ... a task clearly appointed in the Bible ... where would we be now?

I think that is a perfectly appropriate point of discussion, and I raise it without any disrespect.

Trav

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

7. No, I actually agree with you when it's put like that.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[The Traveler]

8. It would be better if I

were more careful in composing my posts. On re-reading the post that triggered this little subthread ... well, it is simply poorly written. I had in mind the rabid sort of dogmatist that thinks Sarah Palin is cool, for example. One can object to abortion on Christian grounds without being a complete fanatic. The way I wrote that it sounds as if I am indeed issuing a blanket condemnation of all or the majority of Christian thinkers.

If anyone owes an apology, it is I ... and I render it.

Trav

[Diclotican]

4. The Traveler

The Traveler

Julius Caesar was never really delivered by incision.. Because for one his mother lived to a grand age. And she had have that type of operation she would in 99,99% of the cases be dead when the baby was delivered. Because in the days with no real medicine and no real treatment for the operation it would definitely kill the mother.. Even today this type of operation is not without its danger, and today we have all the medicine we can think about... Why the operation have been called Caesarian I have no clue about, I could be because of a myth of something...

Abortion have always been with us, and would possible be with us for a long time... Even that I personally have some issues it is the law in the land, and I have to accept it as that. It is Legal..

They might call them self cristian, but I do believe that many of them have not getting the Small print in the bible, and read it as the devil does.. Both the New and Old Testament is full of what become people who got to greedy...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[The Traveler]

5. Hey, don't worry about the English

I bet your English is a lot better than my capacity in any other language, friend!

As for the "factoid" about Caesar ... I could be wrong about it. But then again, I could be right. I certainly came out of college history with that impression, but I went to college at Ga Tech which is a lot better at teaching calculus than it is teaching history!!!

I do know, though, that various herbs and such have uses in managing infection. While Caesarian would definitely have been a high risk procedure back in those days, if only due to post-op infection, it was certainly performed. It would be interesting to know more about the history of surgery in general.

Anyway, thanks for writing back.

Trav

[Diclotican]

9. The Traveler

The Traveler

Maybe;). But if you try hard you to could make another language your second language;).. But english is a big language compared to Norwegian I guess (4.6 mill population in whole of Norway)

True, but then again Julius have allot of mythology around himself, from his birth to his death.. So I guess we both can be right in this case.. And for the record, for the most part I have studied the art of history on my own, so I guess you have the "paper trial" better than I have: And Julius Cæsar himself was verry good of making all type of mytology about himsfelf, and even today the schollars have problem to put the real Julius into the light, and take the mytology away.. But he is still well known after more than 2000 year. That itself could say something about the person i Guess..

True, many herbs have healing purposes, and it is possible to do this type of procedure for 2000 year ago. But I would bet the doctors would do everything else before they was starting to cut up a woman... Because if you do, you could have a hell of illnesses coming in. And in that age they had no clue who could happened and why people was falling ill.. That was something that was not known for for almost 2000 year later

Always a pleasure to writing to others you know;). Specially in this area, who I always have enjoyed to study. A heritage from my foster father I guess:7 He was something like a buff when it came to history..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[riley3]

3. The deal was that the banks were given the money to use however they wanted.

I think there was also some "gifts" to politicians as a way of thanking them. The rich get richer as usual.