Do You Believe In Prayer?

[latraviata]

I just reread. While it does seem that some things were lost in translation, and that's unfortunate, I don't think it's quite fair to blame people who took your comments at their word. No one can climb into your head and know what you "meant" to say or what your comment was "intended" to produce, just what it actually did produce. Sometimes that leads to misunderstanding, but that doesn't mean that one side is all wrong and the other is all right. Yeah, it seems like people didn't give you the benefit of the doubt. It happens.

People, I think, were responding to this statement primarily, and not later statements:

You imply that decorum necessarily means: wearing black at weddings, strapless bridal gowns, hats in the evening, answering the door barefoot, etc. When others pointed out, at first gently and then more harshly, that decorum has different meanings in different cultures. You then tried to clarify what you "meant". I don't want to get into the argument again, and I want to acknowledge that you're correct - you tried to explain yourself, but people continued to respond to this original comment because, IMO, it was phrased poorly. Sometimes that happens. There's no need to stay angry about it as it seems like it was mostly a misunderstanding.

You are right, but some comments were particularly nasty and unheard of.

[Patsy]

You've made nasty comments yourself, in that thread and this one. Does that mean that if anyone accuses you of something you didn't do (completely out of nowhere), with quite a bit of nastiness in that exchange as well -- that'll be okay, they won't owe you an apology for that?

[keeperrox]

Oh please again the exaggerations, a persecution complex and a ridiculous and completely irrelevant comparison.

And you feel I was addressing you, why?

[latraviata]

You've made nasty comments yourself, in that thread and this one. Does that mean that if anyone accuses you of something you didn't do (completely out of nowhere), with quite a bit of nastiness in that exchange as well -- that'll be okay, they won't owe you an apology for that?

Oh really?

Where did I say somebody is a racist, need to be medicated etc.

[latraviata]

And you feel I was addressing you, why?

Acclimatization?

[latraviata]

Seriously. From what I've seen LPL is one of the more level-headed moderates around here. I was about to tell Latraviata to take a chill pill but I suppose that would be deeply offensive since she has stated she takes medication to deal with the loss of her son (which by the way somehow comes up in threads completely unrelated to loss and personal tragedy.) I don't buy the whole "I suffered a loss/survived cancer so no one can be the slightest bit rude to me and if I'm wrong well I don't need to apologize" thing.

This is below the belt and I hope you are very proud of yourself.

I rest my case.

[treemom]

This is below the belt and I hope you are very proud of yourself.

I rest my case.

\

I don't think that was below the belt.

[keeperrox]

per·se·cu·tion com·plex

noun

persecution complexes, plural

An irrational and obsessive feeling or fear that one is the object of collective hostility or ill-treatment on the part of others

[Patsy]

Oh really?

Where did I say somebody is a racist, need to be medicated etc.

I did not imply that you had, I said only that your comments were nasty.

You have implied that because, in your interpretation, LPL was nasty to you, your false accusations are okay and she deserves no apology. To back up that claim you bring up the fact that other people also, in your interpretation, were nasty to you in that thread. By this logic, if someone accuses you of something you didn't do, furiously and nastily, then that's acceptable behaviour, purely because you've made nasty comments.

For the record, I do not think that it would be acceptable behaviour. I also don't think that your behaviour to LPL was okay*. You might disagree, and you mightn't even give a shit about explaining why you disagree, but you've tried to back up your behaviour and so far I haven't understood how your defense was rational.

(* Even if you think she's a big ol' meanie pants - you said she did a whole bunch of shit she never did. You were wrong. Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe yours is a bit more embarrassing because you ran into it so gung ho, but I don't see why a "Oh, man, sorry about that, I really thought you were someone else" wouldn't suffice. It seems to me that you have tried to explain why such an apology wouldn't be necessary, but your explanation seems illogical to me.)

[Koala]

LPL was accused of something she absolutely didn't do. I am confused as to why she isn't owed an apology.

I would feel awful if I went on a mini tirade on someone here for something they didn't do.

I also don't understand the concept of, "I was wronged, therefore I can wrong someone totally unrelated, and everything is A-OK".

[Patsy]

Thanks Koala -- that is basically what I have been trying to get at, but I'm very bad at being succinct :) so yes, I agree.

Apologies to any onlookers for the ongoing drama, which I realise I've been fanning - I intend to back away from this tangent of the thread pretty soon.

[dcmhejbl62]

Latraviata, I read the whole thread also... I saw a couple of slightly rude comments toward you, but the problem is there were many, many comments you made to multiple people that could be considered rude, in many cases moreso than the comments you are complaining about. And yet everyone else has moved on. That's why it seems odd that you keep talking about it.

I'd like to assume the best and believe the whole misunderstanding was caused by the language / cultural differences, as well as the complications involved in online communication.

[formergothardite]

That thread made me realize that Latraviata is a drama queen. If she didn't really mean what she wrote in that thread, and was just joking, she should have said so the second it became obvious people were misreading her. But she didn't, she let the drama go on and on for pages and didn't mention till the very end that her original posts in that thread were not supposed to be taken seriously. If it was a language issue, she should have been thankful people took the time to explain why everyone was upset, but instead she acted insulted.

[Effie]

[Guest Anonymous]

This is below the belt and I hope you are very proud of yourself.

I rest my case.

That wasn't offensive or below the belt in my opinion. It's starting to look like reality and factual statements hurt your feelings. Latraviata, you seem to have very different standards in regards to how you expect to be treated versus the way you treat other people. Say whatever you want to whoever you want, I guess, but it's disingenous to do so and then get upset because people aren't being as nice to you as you think they ought to be.

[Koala]

I was on a board once that had a "runs away screaming" smiley. We need it here :lol:

[Kathryn31]

ladypuglover wrote:

I do and I believe in prayer chains too. Now with that said I don't believe that just because I pray that God will answer me in my wants or wishes but what is best for me and mine. I also don't pray if I should wear the pink shirt or the green one but that He moves in my life that I would know what He wants me to do.

I have had many times prayers answered but here is one. When Navypuglover was a baby he needed to have emergency surgery on his bowels due to twist and sever blockage. I was told by the doctors that the with so much fecal matter that my baby most likely would not survive the surgery but without the surgery he would be dead very soon. We took our son home and called friends and family to pray for our son, and those people called their friends and churches. Over the weekend we had hundreds of people praying and giving good thoughts for our son. Monday we took him in for surgery and the doctors gave him one last ex-ray to make sure nothing had changed for the worse over the weekend. We had already had left our son for the surgery when the doctor came running out to us to tell us that we could come get our son right now! Somehow his bowels untwisted and there wasn't any blockage. He never had a bowel movement over the weekend let alone one to clear a 6 inch blockage. Everyone was amazed and even the doctors were calling it a miracle. We gave thanks to the Lord and to everyone to cared enough to pray and send good wishes. Many different denominations and faiths prayed as God doesn't care nor do we.

I don't pretend to know how such a thing happened but I will give credit to the Lord as He was the only one who could have healed my baby over the weekend. Why did He heal my baby and allow another mother's baby die? I don't know. I just don't know and I don't have any better answer for why God answers some prayers with a yes and others no.

I do believe in the power of prayer as well. There were times I had great difficulty with this as I have a special needs child and it pained me greatly that no amount of prayer could heal him. I have learned that sometimes the answers are not what I want to hear but are sometimes what I need and did not know. There is no real need to elaborate on the depression I suffered due to this but my son is progressing at a wonderful rate and will start receiving 40 hours of therapy a week in an effort to make him a contributing member of society. We have also learned there is nothing wrong with his ability to learn and he has worked ahead of grade level since he started school several years ago. We have no reason to believe he will not be very close to "normal" at some point.

One of my favorite quotes is "Faith without trials is not true faith". I probably did not quote that verbatim but it is from memory. Faith precedes the miracle and sometimes the answer is no and the miracle does not come or at least in the packing we hoped/expected.

I have left religion a couple of times with the longest being seven years. A sheeple I am not and I am the first to question at my church which sometimes makes me unpopular but so be it.

I think that LPL is a very fair and wonderful mod/contributor. Just my .02.

[latraviata]

That wasn't offensive or below the belt in my opinion. It's starting to look like reality and factual statements hurt your feelings. Latraviata, you seem to have very different standards in regards to how you expect to be treated versus the way you treat other people. Say whatever you want to whoever you want, I guess, but it's disingenous to do so and then get upset because people aren't being as nice to you as you think they ought to be.

Well, to me it is and the comment was addressed to me wasn't it?

The two very nasty comments I mixed up well, this the one Lpl wrote and I find it very offensive, it shows she didn't read the thread properly:

All you have done is rude and judge others. Please. Yes this is a board of snark but you look down at everyone else that is not you. This isn't the first time you have done it and then cried that people judged you unfairly, you do it in every post you write on. I'm glad you are proud of your parentage but please stop shoving your high handedness down our throats because you seem to think we are somehow less than you. Please! And in case you didn't catch my meaning, you can shove your fake ways any way you want.

ETA, Don't bother to respond to me, I don't care what you have to say as I find you tasteless and without any form of good breeding. I see I'm not alone in this. If you do try respond, it will fall on deaf ears (oh the irony) as I block trolls and you are a troll in every sense of the word. I'm tired of playing with fools.

[Kathryn31]

I defended you over at ZsuZsu's when she made the horrible comment about your son having died and was unfairly rude about your use of SSRI's. She didn't publish the comment but my point is that most people here whether Christian or Atheist are fair minded people and are confused that you didn't just apologize when it was proven that LPL was NOT the person who made the statements that had obviously upset you.

My kids constantly do the same not-apologizing-because-one-he-did-something-and-now-we-are-even-so-not-sorry and it doesn't even make sense with children.

[latraviata]

I defended you over at ZsuZsu's when she made the horrible comment about your son having died and was unfairly rude about your use of SSRI's. She didn't publish the comment but my point is that most people here whether Christian or Atheist are fair minded people and are confused that you didn't just apologize when it was proven that LPL was NOT the person who made the statements that had obviously upset you.

My kids constantly do the same not-apologizing-because-one-he-did-something-and-now-we-are-even-so-not-sorry and it doesn't even make sense with children.

Well, ok drama queen, rude comments and a comparison to children are been added to my CV.

What on earth do you all want, a deceptive formal apology because I had two comments mixed up?

The woman, claims I am fake, fool a troll I look down on people I shove my heritage through throats, apparantly I am rude and bad breed and she banned me.

You honestly demand a meaningless apology from me??

[failsafe]

No one is demanding it, just pointing out how absurd it is you didn't offer one. You don't need to make LPL your BFF, but yeah in your situation, I would have offered up a "Sorry about that, I was mistaken."

In other words, two wrongs don't make a right. If you want to hold other people to a high standard, hold yourself to the same one and apologize when you do something rude/insensitive/hurtful. Regardless of what the other person has "done to you."

[latraviata]

Well, you can argue until you are all blue in the face, no aplogies here.

I had my share of rude comments and I would love to see one of my 'rude comments.'

The tendency of the conversations here are, if I say I come from a long line of farmers it inmediately implies according to some commenters that I look down on town people and this goes on and on 6 pages.

[Kathryn31]

Well, you can argue until you are all blue in the face, no aplogies here.

I think that this has become a given despite the fact you are wrong yet somehow still defend the wrong as if that morphs it into a right.

I had my share of rude comments and I would love to see one of my 'rude comments.'

How about reading the thread as they (your rude comments) are all contained within it.

The tendency of the conversations here are, if I say I come from a long line of farmers it inmediately implies according to some commenters that I look down on town people and this goes on and on 6 pages.

Again you are only seeing what you want to see. LPL answered the question honestly and was immediately attacked and then branded a liar. When this was proven AND linked you switched to the "tit for tat" method and you are unhappy that several people called you on it and did not back up your rant.

[latraviata]

I think that this has become a given despite the fact you are wrong yet somehow still defend the wrong as if that morphs it into a right.

How about reading the thread as they (your rude comments) are all contained within it.

Again you are only seeing what you want to see. LPL answered the question honestly and was immediately attacked and then branded a liar. When this was proven AND linked you switched to the "tit for tat" method and you are unhappy that several people called you on it and did not back up your rant.

Sure.

Tit for tat?

Have you actually read the loving and christian 'slightly rude comments toward you' comments addressed to me, but hey never mind as long as I am apologising.

Hve you ever been called a racist, arrogant, drama queen, misuse of my late son, bad breed, fake, fool, troll? Oops too bad.

Yes this larmoyant prayer chain story of LPL ticked me off, you are right about that, her comment addressed to me, the wrong or the right one were unheard off and very offensive.

Apologise never!!

[Stacie]

I do believe very strongly in prayer. In giving thanks....and to ask for guidance or help when needed. I may not always get the answer I was hoping for, but have been answered in other ways sometimes which have many times worked out better.

And yes I ask St. Francis to watch over my pets, too...and for St. Anthony's help when I've lost something. Sounds crazy, but I could be looking for something for days, finally ask for help or a clue, and voila!

Nope, not a fundie, not even close. But a strong believer, yes.