Nadine S. Comments
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Hello Jim,
As a UCG member, I am sorry that you have been accused of not believing in the word of God. It seems that you are doing your best to worship God sincerely with what you know. I'm sure for you that Christmas is a very joyous occasion and that you feel like you have a connection with God through your worship on that day. I'm not going to put you down for that, even if I don't agree.
I'm sure you have read a lot of UCG's material on why we don't keep Christmas, and looked into scripture as well as history and have decided for yourself, as have we. You are absolutely right about a lot of our customs come from pagan origins. I have been caught in them myself without knowing at times.
It's amazing that you have something in common with us--that you don't believe in the trinity. That understanding must make things complicated for you, as there are very few like-minded people to connect with.
I'm sorry that you were told by a UCG minister that you wouldn't fit in. He could have at least welcomed you and let you decide for yourself. I hope that as a church we can improve on how we treat people who think differently than us.
I have mixed feelings about this article. The first example of Michael Rotondo, I feel, is more of an example of enabling than one that captures the current state of masculinity. Enabling others can take many different forms, and yes, it is very unfortunate that parents enabled their son to continue in this state for as long as they did.
I don't agree that the handshake study is a valid one, as it was only based on 250 participants in total. I don't know what factors they had control of in that study, including work experience and history of participants. The reason I bring this up, is because we in the church need to be careful to know what a valid study is before applying it as truth.
Some of the Biblical examples mentioned are encouraging, but not all men (or people) have the same personality traits. Recognising that one needs to develop assertiveness (or disagreeableness) may not always be something one can see easily, or know how to develop. Giving ideas of how one can improve, instead of pointing out all the flaws with no answers may be more helpful. Also, how women can encourage men would be helpful too!
In this issue, it mentioned that the divorce rate is at 50%, and that 60% of marriages are preceded by co-habitation, so I could reasonably guess that maybe less than 50% of your audience is married. So, why not include articles that reach and encourage those people? In an ideal world we'd all have the perfect marriage and family, but realistically this is not the case. It's almost like putting salt on someone's wound. Marriage is not easy at times, and that needs to be treated sensitively.
Here are different demographics you have the potential to reach:
-divorced
-single mothers
-fathers who do not have primary custody of kids
-singles
-victims of adultery
-victims of abuse (that includes men)
-cohabiting couples (with women you may have to reach to their heart, not with statistics, to understand the ramifications)
-couples who cannot have kids (there was 1 paragraph about that)
-articles for friends, church members, and family in how to show love and compassion in these situations, not using platitudes
There is a lot more potential for you to reach the hearts of your readers, and to give comfort to the brokenhearted. We live in a hurting world.
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