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The failings or eating habits of "those other" SDA's doesnt have anything to do with the biblical instruction concerning unclean meat. Questioning a restaurant about what ingredients are used in preparing your order is something routine. You are paying for a service\product.

Is that really the question you wanted to ask in this thread? If so, why did you ask if you should ask if there was lard in the beans? You also asked "Which is the greater sin?" My stance on "greater and lesser" sins is that there isn't much of a difference in the long run. A sin is a sin is a sin. Jesus died on the cross because of sin. A tiny sin, a big sin...whichever. He still died.

How dare the sheep get out of line and do something without the "guidance" of officialdom! This is truly sad and reminds me of Doug Batchelor being refused in the Florida conference.

During WW II a dentist and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt proposed a plan to bomb Japan that as it developed became known as Project X-ray. As conceived, it was simple and low cost: The project was funded with some $2,000,000. This is how it developed: * Some 6,000 bats (the kind that fly around at night and eat insects), were collected. * Devices weighing up to 28 grams were developed that could be triggered to start a fire. * The bats were forced into hibernation. * The above devices were attached to a fold in skin on the bats that allowed them to fly. * While in a state of hibernation they were stuffed into mechanical containers that could be deployed from B-25 bombers. * At a pre-determined altitude the containers would open and released the now awakened bats. * The bats would fly down to the city below. At night they would seek a place to spend the night, hopefully in the homes of the Japanese. * At a pre-determined time the devices attached to resting bats would ignite and the Japanese city would burn! Well in actual practice as Project X-Ray developed, things did not go as well as planned. * One group of bats did their own thing, nested in brand-new Air Force hanger and burned it to the ground. Along with the hanger, they burned the commanding officer's car. * Some bats never woke up from hibernation. * Many bats did not cooperate and went their own way not accomplishing the mission. * All in all, some 30 different times the 6,000 bats participated in this experiment which was determined to be impractical. NOTE one of the number of websites devoted to this is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb Some of what I wrote above came from an article by John Mooallem, in Wired. and titled: "My 7-Year-Old Took Pictures of My Naked 3-Year-Old and Almost Put Them on Facebook. How do I Explain This Is a Bad Idea?" Yes, that is actually the title.

Born to a slave mother in 1845, and therefore legally a slave, no one would likely have predicted that William Cathay would enter the history books and set a standard for service to the United States. As the Union soldiers rolled through the South during the Civil War, it was often their policy to force "Freed" slaves to serve the Union Army in positions, such as a cook, that were considered not to be military positons. At the age of 17, William Cathay was forced into such a position. But, William performed well and as the war ended became jobless. With good knowledge of the now U.S. Army, in 1866, William enlisted for a three (3) year term as was assigned to the 38th Infantry. It should be noted that in order to enlist, William was given a medical examination and declared the military physician to be fully fit to serve in the U.S. Army. Again William served with honor until infected with an active case of smallpox. This resulted in a series of hospitalizations and clinical care until following a comprehensive medical examination a decision was made that William was not fit to continue to serve and William was discharged in 1868. But, William Cathay had set a standard and is noted in the history books of today to be the first known African-American woman to have enlisted in the U.S. Army. The following is just one of the websites that tell William's story. https://www.army.mil/africanamericans/profiles/williams.html

Who has been granted the authority to determine lesser or greater sin for someone else? Any sin you refuse to let go of or rationalize continuing becomes the greater sin. Biblically it is pretty clear.

In the following article, Michael Peabody presents some aspects of a recent executive order of President trump that are new to me. See: http://religiousliberty.tv/trump-order-affirms-right-of-churches-to-address-issues-not-promote-candidates.html

Thank you for your honesty The truth of humanity right here. The heart wants what the heart wants. I pretty much see everyone following their hearts.... ..if they can.

In case anyone is worried that it may give Christians a bad name to ask for no meat, lard, dairy, or any number of other frequently undesired food items, more than just Christians are asking for such food restrictions. I suspect there are even people who will ask and not be pleasant when given items requested not to be in their food. To not be sensitive to the dietary choices of the public for a restaurant owner is just not good business sense. In some parts of the country, they even have vegetarian menus available on request and go out of their way to comply. Don't forget that in some years nearly 20% of restaurants have gone out of business.

This is more about food offered t Idols. Pork etc was not considered food, as do not do consider mice food. A nice trip to Israel today will help that understanding possible :)

I believe part of church membership is submitting one's self to church authority. This takes humility. The apostles teach us that we are to submit ourselves to the authorities and part of that includes the church authority. I know that if very distasteful especially because church authority is composed of sinful humans that don't always get things right. Nonetheless, just as a slave is to submit to his or her master (even though it is an unjust system that allows slavery to exist) so it is that we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, are to submit ourselves to church authority.

I want to clarify that when I said I don't believe we should follow all the laws to the letter, I was not including the ten commandments. I think the ten commandments are a separate category of laws which should never be lumped together with the other health, moral, civic and sacrificial laws.

Pam, welcome back.

"Living in a nation that is privileged with religious freedom, it is often easy for us to forget what it’s like to be brutally persecuted for our faith. " http://faithit.com/christian-girl-burned-to-death-by-isis-final-2-words-forgive-them/