What is wrong with this forum????

[luvinthemountains]

Since I always mention how blessed I am, for my online bonsai circle...and give God credit for every tree that hits my bench.

I really hope that you have misunderstood. Nothing that I have seen on this site leads me to believe that people of any persuasion are unwelcome, and I believe that my perception is generally accurate (albeit with some rare but glaring exceptions).

To relate some of my own experience, I came from a seriously devout Christian family, all of whom struggled deeply when I took another path. It was very hurtful to me when they took the tack of implying that I was a disappointment or somehow otherwise "less than." Expressions of condescension and judgment were common, and my relationships with my family seriously declined. We confronted the problem eventually, and when they started to recognize and correct their antagonism our relationship began to heal. Quite honestly, I myself had also become antagonistic to their faith as a defense mechanism, and I had to learn to cut that out as well. It has now been years since we went through that difficult decade, and we have learned how to be tolerant of each other. My parents talk often of being blessed, and of the role of their faith in their lives, and it no longer triggers me because they are respectful of the validity of my chosen path. Conversely, my family has been far more receptive in recent years when I bring up humanistic philosophical concepts. It is really nice, I have to say.

If I can boil it down, we are able to be open about our ideologies without conflict erupting because we recognize the boundaries of not insisting the other think and act like us, and of not resenting them because they nevertheless do not. For the most part, I see interactions on these forums following that pattern as well. If you have ever felt unwelcome or unsafe because of your off-topic views, I hope you can find commonality with members here who hold opposite views and have sometimes felt the same, and agree with me that we can all do better, always. But as for me, Darlene, I promise you that you can be as open as you like about your beliefs, and I will not ostracize you for it. That is only you holding to your own integrity while allowing the integrity of others. And honestly, gratitude is hardly ever a bad thing.

 

[Perrywinkle]

I'm a bit disappointed as well. Since I always mention how blessed I am, for my online bonsai circle...and give God credit for every tree that hits my bench. This blew me away...maybe...I don't belong here after all.

Please do not think we consider your contribution any less important to the forum because of your beliefs. I for one always enjoy seeing what you have to say in threads and your love of neagari. I am personally not very religious, but have lots of friends and family who are and I am grateful that they are willing to share this with me

 

[Vance Wood]

Plenty of places on the Internet to go if you want to talk about God... just not here.

Can you tell me why or sight me a source that eliminates mention of God from the making of bonsai?

 

[luvinthemountains]

Can you tell me why or sight me a source that eliminates mention of God from the making of bonsai?

You didn't ask me, but I can think of none. But neither do I have a source to support the elimination of beer-drinking from the process of creating bonsai, and indeed peripheral discussions of the role beer plays abound here. I welcome both.

A polemical pronouncement of the moral inferiority of teetotalers, however, is something I cannot stomach so well.

 

[John P.]

 

[Mr.E]

Vance, I don’t know you nor did I read the other thread but after reading that quote I feel inclined to say this.
There are thousands of Gods on this planet, which I assume you don’t believe in, but because I choose to not believe in 1 more God than you it makes me a bad person?

 

[John P.]

It seems that it is impossible to mention the subject of God. Has this site become so WOK that one subject that founded this country cannot be mentioned???

It can be mentioned, just don’t expect others to think it has merit or a place on a tree site.

The bigger thing that you should realize about this country’s (USA) founding is that nobody should force one’s religious beliefs on others, or get all self-righteous when people don’t believe in your childish fairytales. Keep it to yourself, that’s all.

 

[_#1_]

Since I always mention how blessed I am, for my online bonsai circle...and give God credit for every tree that hits my bench.

This is an honest question. Why did God blessed you with all that you have, even materialistic things?

In other parts of the world people, kids live in fear their life could end any day at any time. Are every one of them inherently bad? Evil? They deserved to be afraid for their lives?

When a toddler dies from a bomb meant for someone else, what did it do to deserve it?

 

[John P.]

This is an honest question. Why did God blessed you with all that you have, even materialistic things?

In other parts of the world people, kids live in fear their life could end any day at any time. Are every one of them inherently bad? Evil? They deserved to be afraid for their lives?

When a toddler dies from a bomb meant for someone else, what did it do to deserve it?

Oh, no—logic and facts! Look out for the enlightened “holy” ones to hurl some brimstone and fire at you.

You’ll likely get a “it’s because it’s gawd’s plan” or some other BS.

 

[John P.]

Can you tell me why or sight me a source that eliminates mention of God from the making of bonsai?

Sight, or cite?

Misspelling or not, this is a private website, not the government. Freedom of speech is not a thing here. Your version of god is of no more significance than a post about root aphids.

Actually, I take that back. Though both are big problems, at least root aphids are real. I want to hear about how to deal with them.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Plenty of places on the Internet to go if you want to talk about God... just not here.

You allow foul language, glorification of booze and drug use but not the Creator of all things? Kind of one sided for Satan is it not?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Here's the problem with the "subject of God". Remember who wrote this? (I'll give you a hint...his initials are VW) I see it was deleted from the other thread. If you don't see the issue with statements like this, and why they don't belong on a bonsai forum - I don't know what to tell you. (actually I just noticed it was not deleted from the other thread...)

People that don't believe in God don't believe in much of anything else except satisfying their own needs and wants. -Vance Wood

Assigning certain traits to people because they believe something different is what rubbed me the wrong way.
That isn't a nice thing to do in my book, and it's a worldwide issue that we best get rid of as a whole. He who is without sins cast the first stone..
If the stones in return turn out to be a rockslide or an avalanche, maybe one shouldn't have started casting them onto others in the first place.
It's not a hard thing to do, there's probably a book about it somewhere with some guidelines on how to treat others.

 

[Rivian]

Talking with people you dont know well about religion, politics or vaccinations usually ends in a shitshow

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Nothing special, just thought we’d get this forum back on topic.

 

[Mapleminx]

I don’t see why mentioning god has any place on a Bonsai forum. There are many people here from different backgrounds and religious beliefs. Not once have I seen people barking on about other religious figures so why should this particular god be an exception?

I atttend church regularly and have a large curiosity when it comes to the plethora of other religions but of course no one here would know that before now because this is a bonsai forum and my religious views are not relevant here.

The members on this forum are here to advise and guide others in the world of Bonsai. Of course there is no problem in referencing things such as you feel blessed about a particular situation, but its if and when people start trying to use religion to win and argument or force that belief on others that we run into problems.

 

[_#1_]

You’ll likely get a “it’s because it’s gawd’s plan” or some other BS.

God's plan to have a baby born one day and die by bomb the next is one F'ed up plan ain't it?

 

[Mapleminx]

Nothing special, just thought we’d get this forum back on topic. View attachment 399434

That is a beautiful little tree my friend, I am also really “oooooooh” over that pot color. That’s quite a stunning blue!

 

[Dzhokar]

Personally, I have NO PROBLEM with anyone's religion or if they want to say little things like "I feel blessed" or "God is smiling on you" or things like that. These are positive statements.

What I do have a problem with is when people use their religion to justify bad behavior. Like making moral statements about negative aspects of society and blaming it on "the godless" or if they are out in some random public place and someone happens to say "goddammit" and they think it's OK for their child to admonish an adult for using "the lord's name in vain". To me this is antisocial behavior. Missionary work is also bad manners on a global scale. While I appreciate that individuals are just trying to help people, the practice was started to expand the churches power base without care for the destruction it causes.

I was born and raised Catholic. There was just one problem though. I was also born gay. All of my childhood going to church, to CCD, confirmation etc it was constantly reinforced that homosexuality was evil and sex in general was evil. And this wasn't just from one church. We were a military family so moved every 3yrs or so. Every church was the same. So you can imagine when I hit puberty there was quite a bit of inner turmoil. On top of that, this wasn't something that I could talk to my parents about. Years of praying and crying later I had to question my belief system. First in the Catholic church then quickly followed by my belief in God. By 16 I decided I didn't want anything to do with the Catholic church anymore. Further introspection led me to the conclusion that there is no God. I have absolutely no control over who I find sexually attractive. It is something purely defined by instinct.

That's a sugar coated synopsis. I won't go into how alienated I felt or the constant thoughts of suicide or why I no longer speak to my family.

 

[andrewiles]

Plenty of places on the Internet to go if you want to talk about God... just not here.

I'd wager it's really this: "Plenty of places on the Internet to go if you want to talk about <insert contentious topic>... just not here"

If each mention of stamp collecting started a war of words between those folks and the coin collectors, I suspect Greg would be asking us to avoid talking about those topics. It probably has nothing to do with God or religion and everything to do with keeping this site on topic.

And @Vance Wood you must see that your comment in the other thread was exactly this. You didn't say you were blessed. You indirectly attacked many members of this community. So you should not be surprised by the result. If you want more freedom to mention your religion your recent comments have been counterprodutive to that goal.

 

[63pmp]

The Karaoke Bar is the place for this troll, not in the General Discussion forum.