The way to reverse the culture of death is to follow the God of life, the creator God!! He is the only one who can reverse the trend! My parents, my husband, my children, their spouses, we are all strongly believing Christians. We only had two children but I'm glad to say that both of them had three children each (none of whom have had vaccines, as I've repeated here ad nauseam - sorry!). We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last year (2023) because we felt it important in this day and age (of divorce etc) to thank God for the survival of our marriage - marriage isn't always easy. What I think may be lacking nowadays is stickability: people give up too easily, whereas you have to stick at a marriage to make it work (I don't mean stick even if you have an abusive partner or something like that - I don't feel qualified to talk about that). We live in a bit of a 'me' culture, whereas what's needed is self-sacrifice, self-discipline, etc - not popular virtues now. The main thing with us though is God, as I am neither particularly sacrificial nor particularly disciplined (in fact rather the reverse) but somehow God kept us through these years, for which I thank him.
Congratulations Priscilla (and husband) on 50 years of marriage! That's an incredible achievement. I agree with most of what you say, I just don't think it's specifically Christianity that stabilises societies in this way (after all, Islamic countries also have strong, lifelong marriages). As you say. it's really more to do with believing in God. And I think we need to be clear that people can very much believe in God, without "believing" in (i.e., adhering to) religion. And that's not to say I think religion is "bad". It's complicated. I shall probably have to write an article on it...
Thanks, Miri. Actually I was really trying to point out that it wasn't down to us that we've managed (now) 51 years of marriage, but rather to God and to having faith, so in a way I was agreeing with you. But, yes, of course there are stable marriages in other faiths and even no faith. My contention is that our society is in the state you describe in your article because we have gone away from God. I do actually also contend that only the one true living God (living because he rose from the dead) is able to bring about change were we, as a nation or world, to turn to him. But it's far too long and deep a debate to go into here and I don't want to unleash any more arguments. Sorry about that as it has distracted from your article, which I thought excellent.
I wasn't saying that one should be submissive (but I am sure you realise that). I am far from being such a person.
Christianity (and turning the other cheek which is only one small part of Christianity and is often taken out of context) certainly hasn't led to where we are now. Giving up on God is what has led to where we are now, a godless society, and that's the problem. Most people are aware that we are in a spiritual battle/war and, if that is the case, there is good and there is evil. I have decided to go for good - I do not want to follow or be involved with evil in any shape or form. And, BTW, Jesus Christ is far from being a psy-op or knowledge of him would hardly have lasted 2,000 odd years.
But, yes, we do need to stop being blindly sheep-like. Jesus was far from being a weak sheep!
Christianity has been the great bulwark against totalitarianism for two thousand years. That's why they hate it, and at every revolution, murder them by the million.
Heartland, I live in 2024. The earth, as far as I am concerned, is about 6,000 years old. I am afraid I don't agree with your ideas, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Sorry about that.
nearly every Apostle was executed, and they knew it would happen. Christianity is not to blame for where we are, turning away from Christianity? yes, maybe.
yes, this is pretty much exactly where we are. I genuinely think there is only one way out. Back to God. cos what is described above can be summed up pretty succinctly as Evil. It's now so prevalent you can almost touch it. And there's no way we can rescue this situation on our own. We need help.
That’s is an extremely thought provoking piece. Not thought about this before to be honest and I can totally see where you are coming from. Very interesting. Of course I’ve understood / been aware of the slow demise of meaning and pride and really caring about who we are, where we and why we are but not from this context. It has taken it a bit deeper for me 🤔
puts me in mind of walking through a village/town and seeing so many residential properties such as "The Old Post Office", "Mill House", "The Old Vicarage", "The Old Bakery" or a cafe with beautiful signage above the door of an old hardware shop. All hollowed out. As someone said "so much in the window, nothing in the room". I'm still finding so many things/people to really care about though and will continue to do so
I do find it strange, still, when people refer to their 'partner'. Where does it come from? I guessed it is just another example of the Americanisation of English, 'Buddy' being another annoying example, or the over use of the work, 'like' when trying to describe.
I guess it comes from people watching too many 'programmes' on the T.V.
which is probably why I still use the words, 'wife' and 'mate' and didn't get my daughters vaccinated, didn't get the CONVID jabs and still haven't dropped dead or got Turbo cancer.
The way to reverse the culture of death is to follow the God of life, the creator God!! He is the only one who can reverse the trend! My parents, my husband, my children, their spouses, we are all strongly believing Christians. We only had two children but I'm glad to say that both of them had three children each (none of whom have had vaccines, as I've repeated here ad nauseam - sorry!). We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last year (2023) because we felt it important in this day and age (of divorce etc) to thank God for the survival of our marriage - marriage isn't always easy. What I think may be lacking nowadays is stickability: people give up too easily, whereas you have to stick at a marriage to make it work (I don't mean stick even if you have an abusive partner or something like that - I don't feel qualified to talk about that). We live in a bit of a 'me' culture, whereas what's needed is self-sacrifice, self-discipline, etc - not popular virtues now. The main thing with us though is God, as I am neither particularly sacrificial nor particularly disciplined (in fact rather the reverse) but somehow God kept us through these years, for which I thank him.
Congratulations Priscilla (and husband) on 50 years of marriage! That's an incredible achievement. I agree with most of what you say, I just don't think it's specifically Christianity that stabilises societies in this way (after all, Islamic countries also have strong, lifelong marriages). As you say. it's really more to do with believing in God. And I think we need to be clear that people can very much believe in God, without "believing" in (i.e., adhering to) religion. And that's not to say I think religion is "bad". It's complicated. I shall probably have to write an article on it...
Thanks, Miri. Actually I was really trying to point out that it wasn't down to us that we've managed (now) 51 years of marriage, but rather to God and to having faith, so in a way I was agreeing with you. But, yes, of course there are stable marriages in other faiths and even no faith. My contention is that our society is in the state you describe in your article because we have gone away from God. I do actually also contend that only the one true living God (living because he rose from the dead) is able to bring about change were we, as a nation or world, to turn to him. But it's far too long and deep a debate to go into here and I don't want to unleash any more arguments. Sorry about that as it has distracted from your article, which I thought excellent.
Miri, here’s an interesting article someone just sent me: https://unherd.com/2023/11/why-i-am-now-a-christian/
I wasn't saying that one should be submissive (but I am sure you realise that). I am far from being such a person.
Christianity (and turning the other cheek which is only one small part of Christianity and is often taken out of context) certainly hasn't led to where we are now. Giving up on God is what has led to where we are now, a godless society, and that's the problem. Most people are aware that we are in a spiritual battle/war and, if that is the case, there is good and there is evil. I have decided to go for good - I do not want to follow or be involved with evil in any shape or form. And, BTW, Jesus Christ is far from being a psy-op or knowledge of him would hardly have lasted 2,000 odd years.
But, yes, we do need to stop being blindly sheep-like. Jesus was far from being a weak sheep!
Christianity has been the great bulwark against totalitarianism for two thousand years. That's why they hate it, and at every revolution, murder them by the million.
Heartland, I live in 2024. The earth, as far as I am concerned, is about 6,000 years old. I am afraid I don't agree with your ideas, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Sorry about that.
You don't have to, Heartland. That's your prerogative.
Jesus gave the bankers of the time a whipping. He also called out hypocrisy and never chose the easy path… people can learn A LOT from Him.
nearly every Apostle was executed, and they knew it would happen. Christianity is not to blame for where we are, turning away from Christianity? yes, maybe.
yes, this is pretty much exactly where we are. I genuinely think there is only one way out. Back to God. cos what is described above can be summed up pretty succinctly as Evil. It's now so prevalent you can almost touch it. And there's no way we can rescue this situation on our own. We need help.
That’s is an extremely thought provoking piece. Not thought about this before to be honest and I can totally see where you are coming from. Very interesting. Of course I’ve understood / been aware of the slow demise of meaning and pride and really caring about who we are, where we and why we are but not from this context. It has taken it a bit deeper for me 🤔
puts me in mind of walking through a village/town and seeing so many residential properties such as "The Old Post Office", "Mill House", "The Old Vicarage", "The Old Bakery" or a cafe with beautiful signage above the door of an old hardware shop. All hollowed out. As someone said "so much in the window, nothing in the room". I'm still finding so many things/people to really care about though and will continue to do so
🎯 bang on. We need to reject the ancient death cult that has been enjoying too much leniency recently
Life is sacred an God given. The values espoused here would dramatically change society for the better.
I do find it strange, still, when people refer to their 'partner'. Where does it come from? I guessed it is just another example of the Americanisation of English, 'Buddy' being another annoying example, or the over use of the work, 'like' when trying to describe.
I guess it comes from people watching too many 'programmes' on the T.V.
I haven't watched the Telly in years
which is probably why I still use the words, 'wife' and 'mate' and didn't get my daughters vaccinated, didn't get the CONVID jabs and still haven't dropped dead or got Turbo cancer.
You are a gem! Thanks.
Your article made me think of the film 'Life Itself'. We are all part of those who came before us.
Don't they have any editors on the Garudian any more?
Using a commercial US drug names instead of the normal UK ones?
With no explanation?