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I don't doubt that it is indeed the historical context, and I much appreciate your sharing it. However, as I pointed out, Leviticus 18 doesn't say anything about worship, nor does it mention the kind of orgies that you describe. Rather, it forbids quite a number of specific practices, evidently because they violate the principle behind the 7th commandment, and thus undermine the sanctity of marriage. I think it was quite possible for a thoroughly degraded society to have engaged in orgies as a part of their worship, and also to have approved of many perverted sexual practices as a general part of their society. God would not have wanted His people to imitate either of those two things.

Precious corner stone ?

5 Fascinating Facts About The Empire State Building_2 On May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building was officially opened when President Herbert Hoover turned the lights on with a push of a button from Washington, D.C. Here are 5 little-known facts about one of the United States’ most iconic skyscrapers... The Empire State Building Went Up in 13 Months At 102 stories tall, the Empire State Building was meant to rival two other prominent skyscrapers being built at the time: the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street. While its height was certainly awe-inspiring, perhaps even more amazing was the fact that John Jakob Raskob's crew built the entire building in just over a year. At their peak, construction crews were completing 4.5 stories a week. The project completed way ahead of schedule and under-budget. During World War II, the Building Was Hit by a Bomber On a foggy day in July 1945, a Mitchell B-25 bomber was traveling to New York City from Massachusetts. The accounts differ, but it is believed the plane was denied landing permission at the airport and advised to turn away from the city because of the weather. The pilot, William Franklin Smith, Jr., ended up crashing into the skyscraper, and the accident killed 14 people. The Mast at the Top of the Empire State Building Was Originally a Docking Station for Airships. When the building was constructed in the early 1930s, transatlantic airships were gaining steam and appeared to be the future of intercontinental travel. As a result, the building's designers included a 200-foot mast at the top of the building intended as a docking station for arriving airships. Passengers would deboard via a ramp, go through customs, and be on the streets of Manhattan in seven minutes or less. But high winds (and the eventual distaste for airship travel) made the concept a complete flop. Aside from a couple of publicity stunts, the tower was never used for docking purposes. One Woman Fell 75 Stories From Inside the Building and Survived When the bomber crashed into the building in 1945, pieces of the plane’s engine went into several of the 73 elevator shafts, severing the cables in two of the cars. Unfortunately, Betty Lou Oliver, one of the elevator operators, age 19, was inside one of them on the 75th floor when it happened, and the elevator fell all the way to the sub-basement. Fortunately, over 1,000 feet of the severed cable had landed at the elevator shaft bottom in advance, which cushioned the landing, and although she was seriously injured, Oliver survived. Three People Have Parachuted Off the Building's Observation Deck. If you've ever been to the top of the Empire State Building, you know there is security and fencing up everywhere. And for good reason: In 1986, two daredevils successfully hid parachutes from security and launched themselves from the top of the building. Both survived and were arrested. Fourteen years later, another man followed suit and jumped from the observation deck. He managed to evade capture and later successfully jumped from the Chrysler Building, too. He was finally caught while attempting a jump from the World Trade Center.

I wouldn't be surprised. For centuries, the papal church has been at odds with the Jesuits on certain points of theology and church administration. Now, suddenly the RCC has a Jesuit Pope. There are probably many older "traditional" Catholics (including some of the church hierarchy) that have a problem with that. I'm sure many conservative Catholics felt the same way about Pope John XXIII after the decisions of Vatican 2 were implemented in the 1960's.

Bravus is simply saying that sometimes, in his experience, he has seen people approach the Bible with a pre-conceived agenda as to what the Bible says. I also suggest that he, has on occasions, seen people do that in this forum and possibly in this thread (?). He is saying that he comes from a background in which an approach to the Bible should be from the standpoint of an open mind as to what the Bible says and not from a pre-conceived agenda.

Remember that it is the local congregation that has the authority to discipline a member. In the present day, probably in the NAD, most congregations treat people involved in divorce with compassion. Yes, some will likely be able to post exceptions.

I have to agree with that EGW quote! My family having moved from Germany shortly after my father got out of concentration camp. We had relatives that lived on the lower eastside. I was about 3 and my brother about 8 months. Of course at the time we knew a few choice words in Jewish/yiddish, but by the time we moved up to the Bronx and started going to Public School that changed. Of course my father who had started working at the Domino Sugar Company learned the english words that went along with the Yiddish ones, so my brother and I had to be careful what we said because we get the evil eye from him, which usually meant a big whopping. So that kind of curb our language. Than my Mom started doing VOP Bible Studies and the Bible worker brought us to the German Brooklyn Church. We did really good about our language! Than my Mom wanted to find a Jewish/Christian Church so that she could get my Dad to start to go. And to our surprise they had a Hebrew Temple in the Bronx, it could've been called the Jewish Temple, but I don't think it matters either way. It had all Jewish/Adventist pastors and most of the members were Jewish also. So even though I went to PS for all my years except my last I did pretty well with my language! There was the occasional blurt here and there, I still do that now!! Than after I graduated from GNYA I went to work at the sleekly company, but soon after I got hired by FFT and of course I had to watch my language for sure, so if I didn't like one of the bosses I couldn't just pop off a few choice 4 letter words. I got pretty good at not cursing or using dirty words. Than after a year there I got drafted and of course I attempted to stay true, but that didn't last long, I did feel good though because the people in charge wanted me back at FFT, so I thanked God once more for helping with that problem!! I should stop now!!

Some words more than others seems to carry a weight to them which allows them to be stored in other parts of the brain relative to everyday speech. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2767834/amp/Prim-proper-grandmother-t-stop-SWEARING-stroke-altered-personality.html So in the end, swearing does appear to have a special place in the brain, which helps explain why kids pick it up so easily, why people with TS sometimes can’t control it, and why people with aphasia are often better at it than they are at producing other language. https://theaphasiacenter.com/2014/09/cursing-aphasia/ No one really knows why cursing is, of all speech, more preserved in aphasia. Even for persons who didn’t curse a lot before the stroke, caregivers may be shocked to find their loved one cursing when frustrated. An educated guess would be that cursing is somewhat ‘automatic’ speech. Automatic speech is very common in aphasia, so that sometimes it seems as though the person with aphasia can better than they really can. https://helix.northwestern.edu/blog/2013/02/special-place-brain-swearing The nature of her job as a bank customer service adviser demanded she was extremely polite and well-mannered. But now the 65-year-old can't help but swear like a trooper after suffering a stroke that changed her personality. Mrs Preston, of Whickam in Gateshead shocked her husband Michael, 66, by letting rip a stream of four-letter worlds in front of her doctors, in the presence of friends. And she has even called her young grandchildren 'little b*****s'. The change was brought about by a stroke she suffered in January. All that said, there are words that can carry heavy emotional and social baggage in one language, but which in another language is just another word. Even the names of some people can be a swear word in another language.

Part of it is just the sound of the word itself: the most vulgar words tend to be monosyllables ending in hard consonant sounds. Part of it is usage and a whole range of associations and social attributions that form around a word. We learn a word from how it is used by the people around us and who uses it. Words do change their meaning over time, at least at the level of connotation (all our associations around a word) if not denotation (its technical dictionary definition). The point has been made by a number of people over the years, including Stephen Fry, that the words for love-making are considered dirty while the words for war and murder and torture are considered less so. Which is bizarre, but seems to be the case. His examples are things like "My feet are killing me" or "This traffic is torture".

That makes sense. I've read studies that people who swear vigorously while being subjected to severe pain (voluntarily and only for as long as they can tolerate it) have a higher tolerance to pain that those who remain silent or only say stuff like "my that hurts; golly!" Maybe swearing releases endorphins! (Just kidding, I hope).