From My Perspective - - -
If you cut the head off of a poisonous snake, is the snake dead? No! Can its fangs still bite and excrete venom? Yes! Does a Constrictor immediately lose its strength and grip? No! How much Arsenic (arsenic and its compounds are used in insecticides, weed killers, solid-state doping agents, and various alloys) or Strychnine (an extremely poisonous white crystalline alkaloid used as a poison for rodents and formerly used topically as a central nervous system stimulant) is needed to bring about death in a person? Just a little administered over an extended period of time! In 1944, the film Arsenic and Old Lace was produced. “The lead character played by Cary Grant is Mortimer Bruster. He is a newspaperman and author known for his diatribes against marriage. We watch him being married at city hall in the opening scene. Now all that is required is a quick trip home to tell Mortimer's two maiden aunts. While trying to break the news, he finds out his aunts' hobby; killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar. Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in a window seat and suspects Teddy, but his aunts explain that they are responsible ("It's one of our charities"). They have developed the "very bad habit" of ending the presumed suffering of lonely old bachelors by serving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and just a pinch of cyanide. The bodies are buried in the basement by Teddy, who believes he is digging locks for the Panama Canal and burying yellow fever victims…” The point is that the victim is unaware of the presence of the poison or its deadly consequence until it is too late for remedy.
A news story yesterday describes: One dead jellyfish wreaked havoc on a New Hampshire beach this afternoon, stinging close to 150 people, most of them children, and sending five to the hospital, fire officials said. Rye, N.H., emergency officials received the call around 1:30 p.m. that 125 to 150 people, including children and a few adults, at Wallis Sands State Park had been stung by a jellyfish…Park officials had tried to remove a large dead jellyfish from the water earlier in the day, but it broke apart and the floating pieces stung the children in the water…The jellyfish was roughly the size of a cover of a trash can… Lifeguards treated the majority of the children with vinegar and baking soda…Five children were transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital as a precaution over allergy concerns…Several summer youth groups had made a trip to the beach today…No one could remember the last time they had experienced a jellyfish sting in the area, let alone nearly 150…” Once again, no one knew of the presence of the Jelly Fish remains or that its stingers could still cause pain, discomfort and other result.
In public discourse, Denigration and Contamination have entered and dominate both thought and attitude. Some cringe each time racial slurs or accusations surface, and when the word Nazi is bandied about. The use of these terms polarizes the public, while attempting to gain support from minority ethnic groups. There is little regard for the old wounds and scars that are reopened; nor for the pain that is inflicted that will enrage some who have no meaningful context, historical knowledge or experiential background that attaches to these references. Words have consequence and can be just as deadly as a dosage of arsenic, strychnine or cyanide. The Bible speaks of these things in precise terms. In James 3:5-6, we read: “…the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” The Message Translation renders these verses with these words: “A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.” In Luke 12:1-3, Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and how it could and would contaminate others. In Galatians 5:9, Paul echoes this concern when he wrote: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Words used carelessly, randomly, recklessly or purposefully can and will prevent civil discourse beyond ones calculation! Be careful what you say and when you say it! Consider these things with me!
If you cut the head off of a poisonous snake, is the snake dead? No! Can its fangs still bite and excrete venom? Yes! Does a Constrictor immediately lose its strength and grip? No! How much Arsenic (arsenic and its compounds are used in insecticides, weed killers, solid-state doping agents, and various alloys) or Strychnine (an extremely poisonous white crystalline alkaloid used as a poison for rodents and formerly used topically as a central nervous system stimulant) is needed to bring about death in a person? Just a little administered over an extended period of time! In 1944, the film Arsenic and Old Lace was produced. “The lead character played by Cary Grant is Mortimer Bruster. He is a newspaperman and author known for his diatribes against marriage. We watch him being married at city hall in the opening scene. Now all that is required is a quick trip home to tell Mortimer's two maiden aunts. While trying to break the news, he finds out his aunts' hobby; killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar. Mortimer finds a corpse hidden in a window seat and suspects Teddy, but his aunts explain that they are responsible ("It's one of our charities"). They have developed the "very bad habit" of ending the presumed suffering of lonely old bachelors by serving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic, strychnine and just a pinch of cyanide. The bodies are buried in the basement by Teddy, who believes he is digging locks for the Panama Canal and burying yellow fever victims…” The point is that the victim is unaware of the presence of the poison or its deadly consequence until it is too late for remedy.
A news story yesterday describes: One dead jellyfish wreaked havoc on a New Hampshire beach this afternoon, stinging close to 150 people, most of them children, and sending five to the hospital, fire officials said. Rye, N.H., emergency officials received the call around 1:30 p.m. that 125 to 150 people, including children and a few adults, at Wallis Sands State Park had been stung by a jellyfish…Park officials had tried to remove a large dead jellyfish from the water earlier in the day, but it broke apart and the floating pieces stung the children in the water…The jellyfish was roughly the size of a cover of a trash can… Lifeguards treated the majority of the children with vinegar and baking soda…Five children were transported to Portsmouth Regional Hospital as a precaution over allergy concerns…Several summer youth groups had made a trip to the beach today…No one could remember the last time they had experienced a jellyfish sting in the area, let alone nearly 150…” Once again, no one knew of the presence of the Jelly Fish remains or that its stingers could still cause pain, discomfort and other result.
In public discourse, Denigration and Contamination have entered and dominate both thought and attitude. Some cringe each time racial slurs or accusations surface, and when the word Nazi is bandied about. The use of these terms polarizes the public, while attempting to gain support from minority ethnic groups. There is little regard for the old wounds and scars that are reopened; nor for the pain that is inflicted that will enrage some who have no meaningful context, historical knowledge or experiential background that attaches to these references. Words have consequence and can be just as deadly as a dosage of arsenic, strychnine or cyanide. The Bible speaks of these things in precise terms. In James 3:5-6, we read: “…the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” The Message Translation renders these verses with these words: “A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.” In Luke 12:1-3, Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and how it could and would contaminate others. In Galatians 5:9, Paul echoes this concern when he wrote: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Words used carelessly, randomly, recklessly or purposefully can and will prevent civil discourse beyond ones calculation! Be careful what you say and when you say it! Consider these things with me!
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