HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: Re: Safe Sex & Relative Dangers
Summary: Opinions differ on these matters.
Keywords: danger, safety, tradeoffs, `Woof!'
Organization: Glassboro State College
Disclaimer: Brandy the WonderDog can testify that for squirrels, just walking
            across the yard is sometimes fatal.
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 16:26:45 GMT


Darryl Johnson (whose `(The Other Brother)' fouls up MH, for reasons I'm not
sure of just yet) writes:

> God made us to be sexually active, not chaste.

And I thought I'd point out that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Lots
of married people are sexually active.

That aside, I agree with the main point of his article, which is that just
about everything everybody does is risky; using computers exposes you to forms
of radiation which may or may not be dangerous, we don't know.  People die in
bathtubs, falling from trees/down stairs, getting kicked by horses, eating
fish, carpentry, and just about anything you can name.

Different people have different thresholds of what they consider acceptable
risk; some people like to ride motorcycles without helmets, because they
consider the risk of dying small enough, and the pleasure of riding helmetless
high enough, that it's a reasonable trade-off.  I always wear my seatbelt,
because the little extra freedom of movement afforded by not having it is not
worth the danger, in my opinion.  People see these things differently.

Somewhere out there, people prefer protected sex to abstinence; some of those
people make badly-informed decisions (using incorrect data to form opinions),
but not all of them do.

I personally dislike distributing/advocating condoms, but my dislikes are not
as important as other people's lives.  Vows of abstinence fail more often than
condoms do.

For an interesting discussion of relative dangers (including dangers due to
AIDS) I recommend _Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences_,
by John Allen Paulos.  The book has some arguments I consider weak (one about
Noah's Ark, eg), but the overall presentation is excellent and it is very
accessible to people with only a little mathematical training.  The paperback
may well be the best $3 you can spend.


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
"Bad things happen occasionally, and they're going to happen to somebody.  Why
 not you?" -- John Allen Paulos
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 11:18:07 CST
From:         CXKJP%UTXDP.bitnet@UTXVM.CC.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject:      Tilly
X-To:         CHRISTIA@ASUACAD.

Liz-

  Did you ask about "Tilly"?  It is about a little girl in
heaven - I guess- who was aborted. She continued to grow and
is 7 during the story. It raised all sorts of questions for me
about miscarriages, and if these babies  ( if you call them
that) go to heaven. Do we continue to age in heaven? I read
the story of a woman who died for 28 minutes and went to heaven
She said she saw children.

  Kim
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Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 1992 01:46:37 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject: re: "this pain thing"

Michael Kline writes:

 > I don't know if there is anyone else out there, but my Linda
 > didn't have so much as a Tylenol during her birth. I guess that's
 > why it was so painful when her uterus ruptured. Anyhow, we'd
 > just be sitting there playing "hangman" or something like that,
 > she'd pause, say "Just a minute", get her focal point and breath
 > for a minute or so, and we'd be right back to playing our game.
 > What's this pain thing???

My sister Beth has two daughters, both delivered without
anaesthesia.  After the first delivery, she was enthusiastic about
natural childbirth. "No Problem!" The second delivery, on the other
hand, was extremely painful, and she would gladly have had a strong
anaesthetic if one had been available. The moral? These things are
not uniform. The very athletic son of a friend of mine passed a
kidney stone, and it took six orderlies to hold him down on the bed.
I passed one with no fuss. I am not tough, just lucky.

 Yours,
 James Kiefer
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Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 03:33:52 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      rain

John Ross writes:

 > Have you ever heard the phrase, "the rain falls on the just
 > and on the unjust"?

 Matthew 5:45

 The rain it falleth every day
 upon the just and unjust fella,
 but chiefly on the just, because
 the unjust hath the just's umbrella.

 Yours,
 James Kiefer
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Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1992 07:30:51 MST
From:         Becky Harris <ISPBJH@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: The Prodigal Son (by Ryan Harris)

As I posted on Friday, my 4 kids have each written a 2 page essay on the
topic of the Prodigal Son.  This was the subject of a sermon two weeks ago
in which all of my children seemed to be boared to tears.  The third one
I'd like to share with you is from my middle son, Ryan Harris--(13 yrs).
I have retained the original spelling, punctuation, and sentance structure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                    God

To me Church is a place where you can pray for the forgiveness of god and
a place where you can learn about god.  I think I do no know a lot about
god.  I think that when you go to church you should think about who he is.
I would say that I am sort of ashamed that I do not know a lot about him.
I am going to try to read the bible every night.  I also think that we
should take it apon my self to find out about god and not take it apon my
mom.  I think that I should not block out my mom by not showing bordness.
I think that I should communicate with god and not pretend that he is not
there and pray more often and also think more often.  It is true that some
times knifes and scouting stuff is more important than church and god, but
I am going to try to think of god more than the other stuff like what I'm
going to do when I get home or what I'm going to play.  Its true that I
don't realize that god can take my breath away just like that.

Today in church the lesson was about a man and he had two sons.  One of the
son said he wanted to leave but the other stayed and worked.  The father
gave his son that was leaving the money and the son left to another country,
but the younger son spent his money and had to work.  He left to his father
because he was hungry.  He had thought up speaches to say to his father for
forgivnes when he got there.

His father ran and greeted him, and kissed him.  And when the older brother
came he was mad, and did not go in.  This is similar to every body because
he was forgiven by the father like we were forgiven by god.  I think we
can learn to love him by praying and reading the bible.

Ryan

Becky Harris
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Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 21:04:55 EDT
From:         MKLINE%VDH.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Safe Sex #2

Subject: Re: Safe Sex #2


There were Christians who were horrified at the use of anesthetics
during birth, because the woman HAD to have the baby while suffering
painfully.  The Bible said so.
MAKS> I don't know if there is anyone else out there, but my Linda
      didn't have so much as a Tylenol during her birth. I guess that's
      why it was so painful when her uterus ruptured. Anyhow, we'd
      just be sitting there playing "hangman" or something like that,
      she'd pause, say "Just a minute", get her focal point and breath
      for a minute or so, and we'd be right back to playing our game.
      What's this pain thing???

The "anti-choice" side of the condom argument seems to say that
humans are not animals, but oddly enough, when given the choice
between chastity and using condoms during sex, we'll pick the
sex every time.  An odd behavior for non-animals, don't you think?
MAKS> Hold on here, one time the subject came up and there were a
      lot of people on this list that were virgins at that time.
      Are you saying they don't exist? It sounds like you are
      saying the bulk of the people sin, so we should sin. Why
      fight it?

You said when married, STDs are not an issue.  I say, if you are
chaste, CONDOMS are not an issue, and if you AREN'T chaste, condoms
are better than nothing.  Why this drive to prevent the sexually
active from ANY protection?  Instead of trying to play up the
advantages of chastity, it would seem that many have chosen to
denigrate safe sex: an example of dimming someone else's candle
to make your own seem brighter.
MAKS> Okay Darryl, here's one for you.

      Let's say we all "cool it" and follow your advice. Now, in
      5-10 years we find out that 75% of those practicing "safe
      sex" now have AIDS. In "our" case, we could have a good
      conscience and say "We told you so." *NOT* just for the
      satisfaction, but because we saw a potential danger and
      spoke up instead of closing our eyes.

      The question for you Darryl, since you seem to be giving
      "examples", what would your response be? "Whoops?" I'm
      not trying to give you a hard time, but I just don't
      understand this. I'm not even going to touch your "It's
      okay to have extra marital sex..." or what ever quote.

Maks at Vdh
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Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 12:34:58 EST
From:         Ian Williams <iwilliam@AU.ORACLE.COM>
Subject:      Re: Contraception == abortion? (was Re: re:pro-choice)
X-To:         CHRISTIA@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
              Apr 13, 92 11:39 pm

Steve..

We are both in agreeement that any form of abortion that flushes an already
fertilised egg/sperm out of the body is wrong..

I think you will find that we disagree that other methods of birth control
are not wrong.. (ie I would not view using a condom as wrong)..

*****************************************************************************
Ian Williams          			Internet: iwilliam@au.oracle.com
Oracle Systems         			Phone   : +61 8 239 3900
Adelaide, Australia
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
From: djk55497@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (DJ the Social Guy!)
Subject: Disagreeing with the Bible
Summary: I need help!
Keywords: disagreeing
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 06:05:44 GMT

Hello all my fellow Christians.  I'm in a bit of a Spiritual dilema.....I need
some peoples OPINIONS and THOUGHTS!!!!  I have recently had a lot of trouble
with people telling me what God wants for me.  The problem is that God has "told
me" about 12 different things and nothing agrees.  I have come to the point 
where, only God can talk to me and only God can tell me what is right.  He does
that in a number of ways.  He speaks to us through the Scripture, he speaks to
us through our friends and the ones that we trust, and he speaks to our hearts
and convicts of things.  My friends all contradict each other, however, my 
closest christian friends have all been pretty consistant with each other.  I
know what is on my heart.  So then I turn to Scripture.....what is in Scripture
doesn't agree with what I feel God has placed on my heart.  Most people don't
understand the topic or have strong feelings one way or the other.  For that
reason, I will leave that out and keep this general.  Hopefully, we can all
help each other as we all deal with different things.
	So my point is.  What do you do when you read something that does not
sit right with you??  What do you do when the Word says one thing and your
heart and mind another???  I'll give an example (this is not what I am dealing
with but it is a good example)  When I read the passage that says that women
should not speak in church but rather go home and ask their husbands.  I
disagree.  Many women have many good and God filled wisdom to share with their
community.  It does not make sense that a woman should remain quiet when in
church.  So how do we deal with "cut and dry" laws or rulings when they just
don't seem right.  Of course, we could write this one off as: "Well, that was
just the time period.  Things are different now."  One could make that calling
on almost anything in the Bible then.  
	In all sincerity, I only want to do God's will.  I'm having trouble
discerning it though.  My heart and life are torn between a few lines of
Scripture and that which God has placed in my life and on my heart.  What do I
do????  What do you do?????  help!!!!  Please e-mail me or respond with a 
posting.  Thank you very much.

	DJ
		the Social Guy
	djk55497@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu



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Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 09:31:58 EDT
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From:         Brenda Curry-White <BSCURR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject:      Easter bunnies

Urban Research Institute
Phone: 502-588-6626

I don't see anything wrong with the Easter bunny or Santa Claus, because when
I was a child, I believed in the Easter bunny, Santa Claus and Jesus.  I
always knew that Jesus was the important one, and as I
grew older, I learned the truth about all three--that one was real, living,
and the other two were for make-believe fun.  I intend to have lots of fun
with my children when they wait for Santa or the bunny to bring them
goodies, but they will also know the real and lasting meaning of the
holidays--and I trust that if I do my job as a parent and set an example
for them, they won't be confused or forget.

As for Easter eggs in trees, I too have noticed that it is becoming more
common.  I don't like it, but only because I think it looks rather
stupid.  Eggs hanging from trees?  I just think its foolish.  My own
personal opinion is that it's maybe a carryover from Christmas, when we
decorate the trees with Christmas ornaments.

Brenda
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Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 11:44:06 EST
From:         Kerry Stephenson <KSTE@PURCCVM.BITNET>
Subject:      RE: Feminist theology/little god movement
              11 Apr 1992 16:40:00 -0600 from <DRAKE@ASUCP1.LA.ASU.EDU>

Mark Drake:
If you read Schuller's own work you will find that the need for self-esteem
in human beings is a major theme.  For some unknown reason (hmm, what could
it be?) he is extremely popular among Christian readers.  IMHO, he is a
first-order flake and a danger to the church.  He teaches people to
become as God.  When did I last hear that?  (Genesis maybe?)
                                                            Love INC,
                                                                 ---Kerry
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Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 17:41:00 EDT
From:         The List Minor <VCHAI@SMITH.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: "Correctness" and "Truth"

Tom writes:
>Each of us has a unique insight
>resulting from the particular tunnel vision we have due to our
>unique combination of skills, training, emotional character, etc.
>By sharing our unique views, we can all, perhaps, come closer to
>the reality of experiencing God.

  True...That's why God made only one of me and you.

> It seems very unlikely that any
>of us is so well informed that we are totally certain of our views
>on many topics and totally certain of the wrongness of another's,
>especially when it comes to spiritual matters.

  That's why we go back to the Bible.

> If we are so absolutely
>certain of the correctness of our views, where then is faith?

  I think we should be absolutely certain of the correctness of some
  of our views, like for example, that Christ is the way to eternal
  life, and accepting Him, we are saved.  And I think we must strive
  to be absolutely certain of the correctness of other views, or
  rather, truths taught by the Bible, with the guidance of the Holy
  Spirit.  (BTW, when I say "our views", I actually mean "our beliefs.")
  Also, it's not so much _our_ beliefs which we formulate ourselves, but
  rather, it's what God has taught, and is teaching us, that we should be
  absolutely certain of, and cling to.

  In Christ,
  Vicky
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Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 00:26:11 EDT
From:         JEK@NIHCU.BITNET
Subject:      "flesh and blood" quote

Jeff Sinatra writes:

 > Jesus' true identity was unseen to the physical senses--as he
 > said to Peter, "flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto
 > you..."

The quotation is from Matthew 16:17.

 + Peter said to Jesus:  "You are the Christ, the Son of the
 + Living God." Jesus answered:  "Blessed are you, Simon son of
 + John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
 + Father in Heaven."

 Yours,
 James Kiefer
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 10:22:52 EDT
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From:         Brenda Curry-White <BSCURR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: pro-choice

Urban Research Institute
Phone: 502-588-6626

Roy:
>     Problem is, "pro-choice" is vague and misleading.  Choice of what?
>Ice cream toppings?  It is a slick label designed to give people warm
>feelings.  How could anyone be against choice?

Problem is, "pro-life" is vague and misleading.  What life?  Animal life?
Lives of convicted murderers?  It is a slick label designed to give
people warm feelings.  How could anyone be against life?

>     Now with "pro-abortion," at least it identifies the
>issue.  It isn't nearly as clumsy as "pro-abortion-on-demand"
>although it isn't perfectly accurate.

Now, with "anti-choice," at least it identifies the issue.
It isn't nearly as clumsy as "anti-choice-in-cases-of-removal-
of-unborn-fetuses" although it isn't perfectly accurate.

>     You may have heard this one before, but here it is anyway:
>"I'm personally not in favor of slavery, but I support the
>rights of people to choose to have slaves."  Any response to that
>one.

No.  Slavery ended in 1865 in the U.S. with Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation if memory serves.  I much prefer to stick to the issues
that are relevant today, nearly 120 years later.  Let's leave slavery
to the history discussion lists.

I much appreciated Lonnie Schubert's post on why worry about labels
anyway.  I wish we didn't have to.  But because our brains see the
world in categories, we have to have some way of referring to
each other.  I call you pro-life because you have identified yourself
as such, not that I agree that it is an appropriate term.  Do me the
service of calling me pro-choice because I identify myself as such.
If you do, I will be much more likely to listen to your arguments
in favor of making abortion illegal.  If you do not, I will not be inclined
to listen because I feel that you are not respecting my position.
How will that get your point across?

(I'm not speaking to you personally, Roy.  I'm using "you" in the plural
sense).

I hate labels!!!  But for now, we're stuck with them.  Can't we pass up
the temptation to argue over labels, decide instead to use labels that do
not judge or offend, and get on with discussing the real meat of the issue?

Brenda
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Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 22:23:00 EST
From:         The Nuzz <V063KC44@UBVMS.BITNET>
Subject:      I'm gonna be quiet for awhile

Listees:
        I will be quite quiet for awhile.
        I have a acquired a job.
        I'm finishing some painting before Resurrection Sonday.
        My little guy has a cold.
        The Spring of Life is coming down in Buffalo.

        Please give thanks for 1 and intercede for 3 and 4.


en agape,
bob
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 17:06:33 EDT
From:         Andrew Brennan <BRENNAAA@DUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Onan

      Whups!  Thanks, Lonnie!

      I did try to look him up - but the Bible I had at hand has a
   relatively inexhaustive concordance/list of names, so ...

      I was pulling from (my mental) definition of onanism, which
   I had this vague memory relation as being masturbation

      Hey, a twisted mind isn't always a dangerous thing!  Pretzels
   sell quite well here in Philly.

      andrew.  (brennaaa@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu)
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Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 12:43:52 EDT
From:         Andrew Brennan <BRENNAAA@DUVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Question of the day.

      Ok, last night I was sitting around thinking about the "why"
   God created us.  What is our purpose, type of thing ...

      I figured to look in Genesis and see if I was forgetting or
   glossing over something detail in the creation story.  I looked
   at Genesis 1:26-30 and noticed that God had created both man &
   woman ... then it goes over the same in chapter 2.  Is chapter
   1 considered a synopsis?  And if so, where does the condensed
   version end in relation to chapters 2 and 3?  God blesses man
   and the soil in the end of chapter 1, but by the end of chapter
   3 - it (or man) is cursed ...

      andrew.  (brennaaa@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu)
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Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:51:36 BST
From:         "Jonathan Wheeler" <JFW1@IBM-B.RUTHERFORD.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Prayer Suggestion
              9 Apr 1992 21:47:04 -0800 from <whchen@TW.EDU.NTHU.CS>

On Thu, 9 Apr 1992 21:47:04 -0800 dr798302 said:
>
>I will pray for this. Can you descibe for me a bit about the policies of
>the two parties on abortion.  Which leaders among the two leaders behave
>more following God's teaching.
>

There are more than two parties contesting the British election.  As well
as the Conservative party (in power for the last 13 years) and the Labour
party (the main opposition party), all seats are contested by the Liberal
Democratic party (approx 20% of the vote, but 2.5% of the seats).  Also
conesting many seats are the Green party.  In Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, there are local nationalist parties, and there are many other
smaller parties as well, so it is not a straightforward choice.

It is not clear that the leader of any of the main parties identifies himself
as a Christian.  The leader of the Labour party (Neil Kinnock) has definitely
stated his non-belief in God, but the leader of the Conservative party (John
Major) not made much of a point about his religious beliefs.  I do not think
either of them would want to make any change to the current abortion laws in
this country.  There are Christian believers in all the parties in the Houses
of Parliament, particularly the Liberal Democratic party.  You will be pleased
to know that many of these MPs meet regularly for fellowship across the party
divide.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Wheeler
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Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 22:34:00 CET
From:         "Peter Tuff, x6379, B1163" <TUK@IAEA1.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: prayers

Hi, I'm Peter.  This is my first posting, and I guess I'm a bit nervous.
  Hope I won't say the wrong thing.

Kim, I'm glad you prayed for I.A.

Gesegnete Ostern (or Happy Easter) from Vienna!

HE IS RISEN!