Re: [TruthTalk] Please hear me out before ousting me.

[Wm. Taylor]

Thank you, Terry,   Sorry it's taking so long to get back to you. I'm still experiencing some 'net difficulties.   I'm not trying to equate education with wisdom. I am saying that ignorance is not a virtue, just like knowledge does not make us more precious in the sight of our Lord. I am attempting to place knowledge in its appropriate place within the larger context of the wisdom that comes from God. I am saying that we should work in areas of weakness, and stay away from things we can not change, like height, skin color, and IQ. When we criticize those things that we can not change, aren't we really saying that God is to blame for making me this way, and if he had his act straight I would be different? I know that no one would say something so absurd, but what do our readers hear us saying? Aren't they precious too?   Bill Taylor ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Clifton To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2004 7:13 PM Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Please hear me out before ousting me. Wm. Taylor wrote:         "But the wisdom that comes from God is first of all pure, then peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help those who are troubled and to do good for others. It is always fair and honest. People who work for peace in a peaceful way plant a good crop of right-living. Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you. You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people, but you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want, because you do not ask God. Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures."  -- James 3.17-4.3             A man criticizes another for being five foot tall and two-hundred seventy pounds, as if he can take credit himself for his own 5' - 10" and 180. A man criticizes another for his dark skin and curly hair, as if he himself can take credit for being blond haired and fair complected. A man criticizes another for his high intelligence, as if he himself can take credit for his own. Come on, people, get over it. We cannot take credit for being 5 - 10, for our great metabolism, our blond hair and blue eyes, or being really bright. We didn't get a say in those matters -- that's the way God made us! When we criticize in stuff like that, we show our own pride and prejudice. When we criticize in things like that, who is it that we fight?           Lighten up! How can we expect others to get this stuff if we do not demonstrate it ourselves?           When I suggest that a lack of education has led to no end of misunderstanding, I am not puffing myself up. Why? because you do not have to be ignorant. Let the ones with knowledge teach the ones without. Don't take offense at that. Participate. Appreciate. Become a one with knowledge.   Bill Taylor    Bill, you make some good pointsWe have no control over our genetic makeup, and should not criticize or be criticized for the way the Lord has chosen to make us.  You are correct to point at this as both pride and prejudice. I understand that fully. Just before that though, you quoted verses speaking of the  wisdom that comes from God, then if I am not mistaken, you equated that somehow with education.  If I might point at my own experience with education, particularly secular history and sociology, purity would be a rare and accidental thing to come across while studying these subects. Waddaya think? Terry