GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!!

Gosh, I go away for a few days to take care of business & when I come back I find my ohana battling it out like Frasier & Ali  And so yet another religious war breaks out…give me a break!  Don't we all have enough loved ones putting their lives on the line for religion & politics NOW?   Do we REALLY have to wage our own war HERE too?  I suppose I better put in a disclaimer before I continue on, so here it is.  I am speaking only of my own opinion & not on behalf of anyone else.  My opinions are based on what I have read on the open forum & not from any emails or PMs that might have been sent to me, which, by the way, there haven't been any.  Jackie & Mary D. made some very good points but it doesn’t seem like too many were paying attention because so many got all hopping mad or distressed over the in-fighting.  In MY opinion, Mary D said it as succinctly as possible...keep the religious stuff to a minimum.  That's not asking or expecting too much.  That's not saying we can't offer up prayers to those in need of them.  I am a Christian too but I don't want it shoved down my throat.  I choose to have a fairly private relationship with Him, & if that's not a good thing then I'm quite sure that He & I will discuss that when I meet Him later on.  You & some of your followers may not like this Bonny, but quite frankly, I read all the posts about this & I find you just as confrontational, if not more so, as you found Jill to be.  I picked up on the little barbs you tossed out there in the name of freedom of religion & freedom of speech.  I suppose some of you reading this will feel like I'm just fanning the flames, but what the heck...everybody else seems to get to put in their two cents worth, so I'm putting in mine too.  Bonny, you wrote, & I quote:  I realize that we do live in a world where the Gospel of christ  is being picked apart by those that Don't want to know him or hate those of us that do!  There's barb #1.  Nobody said anything about hating anyone or that anyone is picking apart the Gospel of Christ.  I'll bet that there ARE people like me on this board that don't want to be inundated with it & quite frankly I feel like you are now doing it just to keep the flames fanned, but again under the guise of being righteous. Point in fact, your posting entitled, "I'm a Christian so if?  From the way I interpret what you wrote, it came off as a challenge or taunting.  You went on to say:  So I guess you are right in a way' why threw my pearls to swine.......Another words why give Gods word to those who hate him and  me for doing so and will throw it away  Pearls to swine?  Excuse me?  The last time I checked, I did not have a curly tail & I don't believe I've EVER eaten my meals out of a trough!  I may still weigh as much as a pig right now, but I'm working on that. But talk about being insulting!  And where do you get off assuming that ANYBODY on here hates God?  Maybe some do...I don't know... but certainly no one has said a thing like that, at least not on this public forum.  Of course, I can't speak for whatever you might have received privately.  At any rate, that statement above is pretty presumptuous if you ask me.  I suppose there are those that would say I should have sent this response privately.  Why?  I don't care who started...the point is that it's being hashed out publicly, so I'm responding publicly.  The difference is I don't presume to speak for anyone else but myself.  Jill, when you first responded to Bonny's original post, was it on YOUR behalf, or others?  If it was for yourself, why not say so?  If it was on behalf of others, why can't they speak for themselves?  And how about all the newbies that come to this board searching for answers to how they can save their own lives with wls?  If I was a newcomer & saw all this going on, I'd say, "Oh heck no!  I don't need this kinda drama! & I'd be outta here.  I don't care if ya'll are orange skinned with green stripes; I don't care if ya'll plan to vote for Hilary, Obama, or Santa Clause for president; I don't care if you worship Jesus Christ, Buddha, Allah, or a pet rock in the back yard.  I'm here to LEARN how to save my physical life.  If I need your help in saving my spiritual life, I will ASK for your help...I wouldn't hold my breath on that one, by the way.  If ya'll wish to respond to this, that's great, but please do it publicly.  I really don't want to be inundated with PMs or personal emails...I just wanted to put MY opinions out there, listen to what ya'll may have to say in response, process your responses in my little pig brain, & then I'm just gonna move on from here with no grudge.   It's ya'lls choice as to how much of what I've said here you are willing to ingest.  I do hope...no... I EXPECT that all this arguing will be over soon so we can get back to the reason we all came here in the first place which, for me, was to learn about weight loss, & to gather support, caring, information sharing, & loving that we all have to offer each other.  Let's leave the wars to those that are trained for it, & that certainly isn't us.  Ok, I'm climbing down off my soapbox now.  I need a nap.

Ok, so I may be a little late getting to this.  As I said, I was away, taking care of some business. There is no need for you to leave this forum, but of course, if that's what you choose to do, I have no way of stopping you.  I would ask you to perhaps reread what I wrote though.  I said I don't care who started it...but an issue was brought up that has been on MY mind as well. You know what?  Never mind.  As I said, ya'll are going to take from this whatever you wish, & that's fine.  I just made MY thoughts on the issue known, albeit a tad late.  It's not meant as harrassment, but if you choose to take it that way, then that is YOUR interpretation.  I find your response interesting & will give it all the consideration it deserves. 

Santa Claus!  Of course, why didn't I think about him before.  What a perfect president. (No disrespect intended for any, just making a funny!!!)

Santa would be good.  He's diplomatic & generous.  Perhaps Mother Nature could be vice prez & Easter Bunny could be Sec of State...he'd have the bad guys running around looking for eggs with no time to make war. Never apologize for making us smile, Sweetie.  From the worst tragedy comes humor, & I'm a firm believer that God has a sense of humor...He'd have to...I'm sure we're all very entertaining to Him.

Ann- As far as I am concerned, you have your right to voice your opinion...publically or in private.  It's the only way that people can understand one another's feelings, and provide a differing point of view.  I know that I wasn't given a turbin with my weight loss surgery, and have yet to reach that ability in my clairvoyance training. So, unless someone tells me...I have no clue. Now, I know that you do not care who started what, but all of this was started by a simple post titled "This is the Day" (note...NO reference to religion in the title), yet when opened said (and I quote) "Glory is the day the Lord hath made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it. From God's holy word. Psalm 118:24.".  Now, you would NOT have known that this thread was religious in nature until you opened the thread and read it.  In my opinion, this was not meant to be hurtful, or spiteful.  I viewed it as someone having a full heart and wanting to share.  BUT...... In several conversations off line with other board members over the past few months, there has been some discussion that there was a bit too much religion connotations on the board and there was a concern that people would feel as if it was being crammed down their throats, or if they had differening beliefs they would be alienated because of them.  May of us on this board say that we are open minded to other points of view, but many are so deeply rooted in their faith that they may take acception to a person who was Muslim or Wiccan.  It was because of these conversations, and yes...my OWN personal feelings as well, that I posted (and I quote): "I hope that this does not come out offensive, as that is NOT the intention.  But....let us remember that not everyone has the same religious beliefs.  So, let's be considerate of others....Thanks!" Here it is...two days later and I am STILL trying to figure out where I offended (or why people thought I was offended).  Was it in the preface of not trying to come off offensive????  I can leave that off the next time and BE offensive if that would help.  BUT...my intention was a simple....let's remember that not everyone has the same beliefs and we do not want to offend ANYONE. So...instead of a simple, "no prob"...I got harrassed by Bonney (and a few others, as you can read from the posts, blocked by Bonney from defending myself, and had stones cast upon me (HA!  My Supergirl Shield protected me!!!!). You will notice that I have not responded to any more of this (especially from Bonney), because as far as I am concerned, she said what she felt she needed to say, as hurtful and spiteful as her words were and put me in a position of either:  (1) Leaving it alone - for the sake of the board.  Knowing that it does not matter what I say, it will NEVER be good enough unless I preface it with an apology to ALL for my original response.  OR (2)  Keep responding - which puts me no better than her.  I choose to take the high ground and just to ignore what she has to say and to keep doing what I've been doing.....helping others and hopefully motivating them daily to be successful. So...thank you for your comments, and questions.  Those who know me know that I would prefer that you come out and ask instead of sitting in silence wondering, or worse yet...chatting behind my back about stuff you don't know. And I'm glad that you are back.......

For whatever it's worth to you, Jill, I don't think that what you said was so all-fired terrible either.  A lot of hooplah over very little.  I learned a long time ago that if I want to know something, to go to the horse's mouth rather than the horse's ass & I believe I did just that.  I don't know if Bonny is even reading any of this since she made mention of not posting here anymore.  I do wish her much success in her weight loss journey...truly.  I will admit that for a moment I questioned whether I should even post what I wrote... but I also know that no matter how hard we may try to not offend someone, there's ALWAYS gonna be somebody that feels offended anyway.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  How's that old saying go?  You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time, or something to that effect.  Well, it would appear that that is what happened to you.  I am sincerely glad that you have chosen the high ground & that you have also chosen to continue on as you have been...helping others, & yes, you do motivate me. So, I'm glad to be back too and I thank you as well for your comments.  It's a tough issue but it needed to come out sooner or later.  It's too bad you had to take so much flak for it, but I'm glad you aren't letting it drive you away.

You are absolutely right....can't please everyone.  And I have learned through this journey that it takes way too much energy to try to please everyone.  I'd prefer to use that energy doing something positive.  Know what I mean???

But...do not worry...I will be here to try to motivate as many peaople as I can.  I want EVERYONE to be successful and as healthy as they can be!

And like I said before....my SuperGirl Shield protected me from most of what was thrown my way

Ann, It's refreshing as always to hear your level headed opinion.I wanted to thank you again for a wonderful and entertaining lunch yesterday. You and your son were great to get to get to know and I really enjoyed hearing your stories.You are are a riot and we will have to do it again soon, and I will try to get a few more words in edgewise!You look beautiful and keep up the good work. Hugs, Pam

Oh Pam!  I had such a great time yesterday too & so did Matt.  He did call that little waitress today but had to leave a message on her voice mail.  Hopefully, she'll call back.  (for those of you NOT in the know, Matt tried to make a love connection with our waitress, Holly...she's a adorable...and has a job too!!) I'm afraid I got a bad case of diarhea of the mouth & couldn't seem to shut up...lol.  But ya'll need to know that Miss Pam is a darling lady & fun to spend time with.  We stayed so long at Olive Garden that in another hour we could have had dinner too, which would have been really cheap...they could have reheated Pam's boxed left-overs & I'd have just ordered more soup & salad...lol!!! We'll make another date soon...I promise!