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A better country ?

I'm so sorry to upset you... not my intention ever. But, know this, I do not trust the internet.

For more on the one identified with Adventism see: http://www.blacksdahistory.org/sojourner-truth.html and http://www.adherents.com/people/pt/Sojourner_Truth.html

5 Things You Didn't Know About Bernie Madoff On March 12, 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in New York after pulling off perhaps the biggest scandal in Wall Street history. Here are 5 things you didn’t know about the man who committed the largest financial fraud in U.S. history... Madoff Had Been Running a Ponzi Scheme A Ponzi scheme is one where money is paid to new investors out of the funds received from older ones instead of using profits. Although Harry Markopolos, a math whiz, whistleblower and fund manager, had tried to tip off the Securities and Exchange Commission for a number of years that Madoff could not have made the money he claimed, the whistleblower was not taken seriously. Madoff was finally turned in by his two sons, Mark and Andrew, who were partners in the investment firm, after he confessed to them that their financial empire was a sham. Madoff Was Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison Charges against Madoff, 71, included mail and wire fraud, many counts of money laundering and securities and investment adviser fraud. In addition, he was charged with making false statements, perjury, stealing from his employees’ benefit plan and making false filings with the SEC. Madoff pleaded guilty to all of the charges and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, which was ten times longer than his defense team suggested. Why Madoff Finally Confessed to the Scam According to the SEC complaint, Madoff said that investors were claiming $7 billion in redemptions. This may have been due to the economy at the time, and it would have seemed suspicious that hedge funds were showing large losses, while Madoff’s firm was showing gains. In any event, the large amount of money being withdrawn from Madoff’s firm was impossible for him to pay, so he was forced to admit his wrongdoing. More Than 21,000 People Lost Money The federal government set up a victims’ fund to try and repay some of the money that was stolen from thousands of people, including famous celebrities, of about $17.5 billion cash and $65 billion in wealth. Investors included a number of banks, charities, celebrities such as Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Steven Spielberg and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and many others. Madoff Was Sent to Serve His Time at a North Carolina Prison Madoff, because of health conditions, was sent to Federal Correctional Institution Butner, which is a medium security facility. In prison, he is apparently something of a celebrity, although some of his admirers are murderers. He has never implicated anyone else in the scheme that rocked the financial world.

As Chaplain Matthews, has affirmed, there should be no expectation of privacy when praying with others. So what is the point? Why not just say "unspoken" and/or pray for the foreign missionaries, local evangelists, and our family. Any thing beyond this is likely to become fodder for local gossips. At some personal risk, allow me to give an example. I live in Asia. I used to live in an area where there were lots of prostitutes. By "lots" mean hundreds within a 20 minute bike ride. I also discovered that many popular holiday areas in Asia are habituated by "working girls". Dealing with this reality is very much part of the culture shock of a new country. I might ad that some of these women, selling themselves on street corners and in cheap rooms, were beautiful beyond imagination. Much of it was more or less public, no trip to a red light district required. To be perfectly honest, it caught me off guard. I was tempted. I guess that most guys in my circumstances who are not homosexual might also be tempted. In my mind, however, there is a huge difference between being tempted by a prostitute and actually paying one for sex. I don't recall ever saying anything about having sex with prostitutes. The microbiology course I took did more to give me the "victory" than anything EGW ever said. I mentioned these experiences for illustrative purposes; consequently, an individual who was not part of the original discussion began prefacing remarks to me by saying, "You've admitted that you have a problem visiting prostitutes in the past" therefore..... These references were an obvious effort to discredit my views on other issues, nothing less than character assassination. Granted that online posting is impersonal but mores of human decency would normally proscribe the kind of behavior I described; nevertheless, that's what Adventism has become. It's a toxic community in many respects, made more so by the culture wars being fought over WO, gay inclusion,etc.

It doesn't even need to be something you *state* to other people. Gossip can even stem from nuanced situations where people *think* they know the facts, when actually, they only have a partial knowledge of the truth...

One reason Adventists don't talk about Big sins is because their brethren can't be trusted with that information. Once they get some dirt on a person, regardless of the source, it will be chatted around and the person's reputation damaged or destroyed. There is no sacred ground in Adventism. if you go to a prayer meeting and share your issue or even pray about it in public, it will be taken out of the group and chatted about. In AA, anonymity and confidentiality are respected by "heathens." Not so in Adventism. A friend of mine was becoming more and more uncomfortable in her mother's home prayer circles because they seemed more like gossip sessions than prayer times i.e., so and so was seen coming out of a gay bar dressed in leather arm in arm with another guy [snicker, smile,guffaw] so we need to pray for him. Even though she had talked with her mom about the matter, she finally left home to be relieved of exposure to these "prayer meetings" An unfortunate corollary of this problem is lack of accountability among members. This is a serious matter because it leads to secrecy, isolation, hypocrisy, etc. People, after getting burned, simply don't share their real burdens with other church members. There are little support, understanding, or solutions being offered. People are left to their own devices. "Church" becomes meaningless, nothing but a show