#i was raised with cultural inclusions but neither of my parents are religious

[thedeafprophet]

sometimes i think about a post i saw that talks about how many presume that atheists are only people who have left religion, ignoring the entire concept that some people are raised without a belief in any higher power....

[nataliesnews]

A letter from South Africa 17.7.2021

This is a letter I got from various people. I am sure many of you have received  the same. But I am sending it on  and not because I told you so. I left South Africa for Israel and would not have left for any other country.  I loved South Africa and still do. I find the self-satisfied remarks which I have seen pretty revolting.

 Yes we do not know what will happen there. But neither do we know what is going to happen here in Israel or anywhere else.  

 Not everyone left because of apartheid but some also for religious and also financial reasons. And some stayed because they love the country.

 They seem to forget that South Africa and their parents gave them the chance to be what they are today. I think  of  one young man who had nothing good to say about South Africa but who was very happy to live on what his parents sent him from there. I told him so.

 So instead of saying I told you so I suggest we send this to our families overseas.

     A message to South Africans now living overseas:

 Over the past few days I have received and read many notes of concern and sympathy for South Africa. Each of them is greatly appreciated. Thank you 🙏🇿🇦❤️

 I have also seen many messages with “I told you so”, “thank heavens we left when we did” etc.

 My note is to these people. The second grouping.

 My family and I left South Africa towards the end of 2008 following a terrifying crime incident and went to live in magnificent Sydney, Australia where I was the CEO of the largest and most successful advertising group in that country.

We lived in a beautiful home, in a beautiful suburb, with wonderful friends and family.

 We came back to South Africa as we found the sadness of being away from those we loved most and a country that was, in every possible way, home, to be too heartbreaking.

 We also came back as I had a wonderful opportunity to start something fresh, from scratch. We knew why we left, and we knew why we came back.

 Many people who left and have stayed overseas, have created happy and wonderful lives for themselves and that is a beautiful thing.

 Many however justify their lives overseas because “they saw the writing on the wall for South Africa”.

 Yes, South Africa has many, many problems for sure. It always has and it always will, certainly for the foreseeable future until we solve poverty, unemployment and corruption. Until there are far fewer people who have absolutely nothing and little hope.

 But South Africa is a magnificent country too. When you sit in Sydney, Perth or Melbourne, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Tel Aviv, London or wherever your journey has taken you, reflect on your own lives and happy childhoods in South Africa. Remember who you are, your accents, the Bokke, braais, biltong, pap, the people who helped raise you and the people who are still here. Who want to be here.

 Many of us could live anywhere but we have chosen to be here. Because it’s home. Because we love it. Not because we are stupid and couldn’t see “the writing on the wall” less than you could. Many people here would also love to leave, and can’t because of financial and other limitations.

 But South Africa is not the only country with issues dear friends. This week we saw soccer hooligans and riots in the UK and vile racism following the penalty kicks. None of which would have been visible had England won. But there you are…

 We have seen Americans (where guns literally outnumber people) storm the Capitol Building. Anarchy. Where I’m not sure who is more threatening to their society, the toxic Left or lunatic Right?

 We are dealing with a global pandemic from Wuhan, China that has destroyed hundreds of millions of lives and impacts us daily. It has literally changed the world. And not for the better as some may like to believe. The dolphins have not returned to the canals of Venice.

 We see unrest in Cuba, Venezuela, the Middle East and around the world. Chaos, anarchy, hate and insecurity is not unique to us in South Africa. But I don’t see you commenting on this. You reserve a special scrutiny and dare I say, hints of schadenfreude, for a country that gave you your identity and best memories. A place where your parents, siblings, cousins and many friends still may live.

 We don’t need your judgement and relief that you don’t live here. We need your love, concern and support. There are many NGO’s and charities like Gift of the Givers, Afrika Tikkun and others who do remarkable work here in tackling poverty and hunger. Make a donation to them or to others, big or small.

 Send love and thoughts to those you care about. Not messages of “you need to get the hell out of there”. We’ll leave if we want to and we’ll stay if we want to. It’s deeply layered and complex. There are no perfect solutions or answers. There is no decision without compromise.

 What I do know about South Africa is every time we get to the very edge, the remarkable everyday people of this country pull us back from the brink. We regroup, re-eavaluate and somehow recover 🙏🇿🇦❤️

 It’s a scary time here. Dangerous forces are at play. There is deliberate insurrection and treason happening. Whilst Zuma & Co were the flame, unemployment related poverty created the firewood.

 We need to fix this. We need far more of a sharing economy and inclusive culture. Hopefully this is a wake up call for Government. We cannot address unemployment without investment, both domestic and foreign, because ONLY economic growth can solve this. And a destabilised economy and society won’t attract investment. We know this and we need to fix this.

 So my request of you, is not to pat yourselves on your backs and say “yup, we knew it, well done - and thank God we aren’t there”. Perhaps think of all the magic this country actually gave you, the very essence of who you are today, how you managed to move overseas and then please think of how you can help. In both big ways and small.

 Nkosi sikelel iAfrika : God bless Africa 🙏🇿🇦❤️

 Mike Abel

 Sent from my iPhone=This is a letter I got from various people. I am sure many

[leprincedaunsh]

Proverbs 16:18

The bible says "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall"

I've been wanting to speak out for a long time but always held my tongue, I wasn't sure if it was for the fear of being attacked or my inability to express myself in a respectful and loving way. I've been concerned with our Sexual revolution, call me conservative if you like but I'm struggling to see how liberating our desires and reducing such a powerful thing to a physical exercise and our addiction to social media helps to multiply our instant gratification culture. I remember when I was young, we were taught that being a virgin was something we should strive for and that it was an honorable thing to not give into the desires of your flesh until you were in a safe,loving and committed partnership that God created when he made marriage. As a result we didn't have to worry about contraceptives or speak about abortion because we knew that every single life is a blessing and has a unique and wonderful purpose. Now people look at you as if you've got leprosy when they here that someone is a virgin. I won't lie I miss the good old days.

We have this misconception that our sexual preferences or gender stereotypes define who we are and that is the founding blocks of our identity. Some people are attracted to men,some to women,others to both,some to neither, others to old people,some to young, some to fat people, some to thin people etc and the list will go on forever but what you're attracted to or choose to do in your bedroom has nothing to do with those outside your bedroom. What society cares about should be what's beat for society and which ever way we look at it, whether religious or circular...if we were to make a hierarchy of all our preferences and which benefits society the most than we will get back to what God created as marriage which is sacred. Once we remove this idea of the sacredness of marriage and the remove the protective mechanisms that protect people from the effects of sex, we get a population that is more afraid to go on dates and talk to a stranger than to sleep with them and move on. The thing is there are consequences to all these decisions and we pretend they don't exist. When was the last time we asked why there is a high rate of single mothers in our modern society?we know that children in single house holds are more likely to become the trouble makers in our society and the beat thing for a child's mental health is to have their biological parents raise them. These aren't noval ideas yet we promote everything that breaks down the best environment for society and the children because we are more concerned with selfish desires and the pursuit of individual happiness. Let's take South African which is a fairly western society in our continent and compare it to Ghana. A women gets raped ever 30 seconds in S.A ,being raised by a single mother is so normal that no one even asks questions, our crime rates are amongst the top in the world, HIV prevalence rate of around 27% is high and based on the men are trash movement I think it's safe to say it's not a heaven for women. Ghana in contrast has almost 1 women getting raped a day, marriage culture is almost like something to aspire to so kids are raised in their biological homes, crime is at a manageable rate that officers get bored,HIV prevalence rate is are 2%. There are definitely many factors to these stats but we know by inference that the notion of family affects crime rate and the sacredness of marriage and sex protects the most vulnerable and weak in the communities.

Diversity now exclusively refers to LGBTQ and racial matters, as a white straight man you are too privileged to have a discussion on this matter or you'll be burnt at the stake.

Inclusion will exclude anyone who disagrees with the sexual revolution agenda. So you'll lose your contract and endorsement deals like Israel folau did because you share your beliefs which is classified as hate speech merely because it's in contradiction with the LGBTQ agenda. That means any Christian,Muslim or Jew cannot believe in their books or face exclusion from our inclusion board. They are quick to point out that the religious views are dividing society yet are more than happy to promote a view that does the same thing.

Tolerance is my personal favorite. I think there is a new definition of the word that the LGBTQ community uses that isn't available to everyone who disagrees. I thought tolerance meant "the ability or willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with" if that's what it means then the tolerant people are definitely not those who use it as a weapon. If we are tolerant of each other than we can have debates about things we disagree or and we should both be able to share and hear each others views and respect each other enough to agree to disagree. That is a society I want to live in.

If we are honest with ourselves, we argue and fight more with the people we love then the people we don't know or care about. Love isn't agreeing with everything about the person you love or else married people would never argue. I believe a loving father will disciple their child of they believe that what the child is doing is wrong for their own betterment in the long run. We may not agree on the points I've made above but I hope that those who read this will show me the love they expect to receive,embrace the diversity they believe in , include me in the group of people who have rights to not only believe but be free to express their beliefs and most importantly tolerate my opinion.

With love and a hope,

A flawed human being.