The Neverending Story

Free Republic | 3/24/01 | The NES Crew

[malakhi]

The Neverending Story

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

After a nine month hiatus, The Neverending Story, the granddaddy of daily threads, has returned to Free Republic. Originally begun on March 24, 2001, as a religious discussion thread, the NES evolved over time into a daily thread spanning a wide variety of topics. The new and improved Neverending Story will feature conversation on religion, politics, culture, current events, business, sports, family, hobbies, general fellowship and more. We welcome you to hang your hat in our little corner of FR. We ask you to abide by the FR posting rules and, even in the midst of serious debate, to keep the discussion friendly and respectful. Those who wish to "duke it out" are asked to take it over to the Smoky Backroom. I placed this thread in "General/Chat" for a reason, so play nice and have fun! :o)

[SoothingDave]

Well, I started my first Baptist doctrine class tonight. We are going slow and it looks like it's going to take longer than 8 weeks. Tonight we discussed who came first , The chicken (Baptists) or the egg (Catholics)

Where else would you start? The preeminent Baptist dogma is the existence of Baptists as the "original Church." Of course, we believe the same thing, but we don't do it without any evidence.

SD

[SoothingDave]

If the person has never previously been baptized in any church, or if the baptism was not in the proper "form" (if, for example, the person was a convert from 'Oneness Pentacostalism' or LDS), then he will be baptized. If someone was baptized in most any other mainstream non-Catholic Christian church, then that baptism is recognized as valid. If there is any question as to the validity of the person's baptism, they'll do what is called a "conditional baptism".

The Baptism must be Trinitarian. So any regular mainstream Christian sect would be acceptable. Those who deny the Trinity or those with just-too-bizarre conceptions of God (Mormons) are not acceptable.

Baptism is effected by the nature of the process. The pouring or submersion with the intention of Baptising makes it work. One need not have a priest perform it in order to make it valid.

The same is regarded with marriage. Marriage between two Protestants is presumed valid because, again, a priest is not necessary for sacramental validity.

Any Christian may baptise (though this is usually reserved for emergency situations) and any two Christians can sacramentally enter a marriage.

SD

[SoothingDave]

Oh, that depends on local custom, which is often dictated by the weather and the baptismal facilities available. I once saw an adult baptism where the person being baptized stood in water and had water poured over them. Somewhere between sprinkling and full immersion. Dave might have a better idea how frequently the different methods of baptism are used in this country. In any case, all are recognized as valid methods.

"Sprinkling" is a misnomer, and usually pejorative at that. Baptism, if not done by immersion, is done by pouring. There must be a recognizable "washing" action. It is the sign of the sacrament.

We sprinkle items and ourselves, during Eastertime the entire Church and the people are sprinkled with water during Mass. This is a rembrance of our Baptism, a symbolic cleansing calling to mind the actual cleansing of our Baptism. It is a celebration of the saving waters of Easter. It's the only time we ever "sprinkle."

Current liturgical trends in the US favor large Baptismal fonts with flowing water. An adult can stand in the pool and have water poured over him, a total drenching. Adult immersion I have never seen.

Babies can be immersed in the same pool, or even in smaller fonts. Parents can choose wheter to have the baby dipped in the water thrice, or water poured over his head thrice.

SD

[SoothingDave]

Did you catch SNL this weekend? The very last sketch featured Seth Meyers playing a Pittsburgh guy trying to pick up Paris Hilton in a NYC bar. It was pretty funny and Seth did a pretty good (though not perfect) job on the accent. For a guy from New England, it was pretty impressive. He had the dahns and ahts down pat. More impressive was the entire style of the thing. Showing off his Bill Cowher "chin" impersonation and trying to impress Paris with "if you need any metal parts for machinery fabricated" were spot on.

SD

[malakhi]

No, I haven't seen SNL in years. Sounds like a funny sketch, though!

[SoothingDave]

Sounds like a funny sketch, though!

I'm not sure how many people will "get it," but it was funny from where I was sitting. It's not often (or ever) you hear "how are yinz doing?" on TV.

SD

[malakhi]

So what the heck was up with the Eagles' clock management yesterday?

Credit Fox for putting on the first watchable halftime show in years.

I hate stupid end zone camera angles.

Just how many cocktails did Bob Kraft consume during the course of the game? ;o)

Hey Reg, the Patriots have accomplished so much that they are now being compared to the Packers. You must be proud. :o)

What was your favorite commercial? I liked the Careerbuilder 'chimps in the office' ads. The FedEx commercial making fun of Super Bowl commercials was clever. The Ford Mustang ad was good, but they lost points with me by running the same ad three times. The worst, in my opinion, were the McDonalds Lincoln french fry spots. Honorable mention for worst ads goes to DirectTV for the depressing 'guy walking around getting older, but TV will always be there for you' ad, and 'Gladys Knight playing rugby' for ... ummm, what were they selling again?

[OLD REGGIE]

That was quite a game! :o)

Actually I thought the Pat's played a lousy first half. They showed their mettle in the second half, playing the entire half with three rookies in the secondary and clearly showed they were the better team.

Why, oh why, do the Pat's insist on these 3 point games which aren't decided until the final seconds?

Note to II: Now may I claim the Patriots are a football DYNASTY?

Terrell Owens showed me a lot. He may have a big mouth but he is a real football player.

[malakhi]

Actually I thought the Pat's played a lousy first half.

Yep, but their defense kept Philly in check until the offense could get things going.

They showed their mettle in the second half, playing the entire half with three rookies in the secondary and clearly showed they were the better team.

Absolutely! I must have said half-a-dozen times yesterday, "how come the Packers rookie DBs can't play like this?" Coaching, coaching, coaching...

Terrell Owens showed me a lot. He may have a big mouth but he is a real football player.

An impressive, gutty performance.

[SoothingDave]

So what the heck was up with the Eagles' clock management yesterday?

Am I a racist if I think McNabb throws a lot of really bad passes? Not mentally bad, just physically bad. Like Roethlisberger-with-a-bad-thumb bad.

He threw away the ball twice in the red zone in the first half. There's your game.

What was your favorite commercial?

The FedEX one was cute, but it was almost trying too hard to be clever. We've already got TV shows about making TV shows and movies about making movies. Do we need commercials about making commercials?

That GoDaddy.com one? What's up with that? I thought we were avoiding being risque this year.

My favorite was a close race between the two ones for whatever mortgage company. The guy "robbing" the convenience store was classic. "Slaughtering" the cat was secondary cause it was derivative of the Bud one from a year or so ago where the guy greets his new neighbor with the duct tape and a knife.

And I loved the "Tomorrow" one with Ben and Joe Montana and Chucky and all the other guys. Very funny.

SD

[OLD REGGIE]

I think I might be a Armvinist:')

Well I was a UNITARJEWMIAN (I think) before I became a "maybe" Biblical Unitarian. :-)

[OLD REGGIE]

The preeminent Baptist dogma is the existence of Baptists as the "original Church." Of course, we believe the same thing, but we don't do it without any evidence.

"Reconstructed" evidence doesn't count.

[OLD REGGIE]

Hey Reg, the Patriots have accomplished so much that they are now being compared to the Packers. You must be proud. :o)

Since Belichick has surpassed Lombardi's SuperBowl playoff record 10-1 vs 9-1 the trophy will now be known as the "Belichick Trophy". :-)

What was your favorite commercial? I liked the Careerbuilder 'chimps in the office' ads. The FedEx commercial making fun of Super Bowl commercials was clever. The Ford Mustang ad was good, but they lost points with me by running the same ad three times. The worst, in my opinion, were the McDonalds Lincoln french fry spots. Honorable mention for worst ads goes to DirectTV for the depressing 'guy walking around getting older, but TV will always be there for you' ad, and 'Gladys Knight playing rugby' for ... ummm, what were they selling again?

I don't watch commercials or the half time show so I missed almost all of them. I did see a scene where a bunch of soldiers were being cheered by the crowd while walking through (I think) an airport. I think it was a Budweiser ad and it brought tears to my eyes. (But that's the kinda guy I am. I have never forgotten the band playing and cheering crowd when we disembarked from the troopship.)

[OLD REGGIE]

Am I a racist if I think McNabb throws a lot of really bad passes? Not mentally bad, just physically bad. Like Roethlisberger-with-a-bad-thumb bad.

I was watching one of the pre-game shows and they asked the talking heads (maybe 10 of them) which quarterback would they choose between Brady and McNabb assuming they had the same team around them. As I recall most of them picked McNabb because he is the better "athlete" and can get the job done with his legs.

I don't think there is any contest. Brady is a far better quarterback and wins games with his arm and his brain.

If Brady's future is comparable to his first five years he will be listed as one of the top 3-4 quarterbacks of all time. I think.

[CindyDawg]

Thanks.I'll pass this along. We have a coordinator but no teacher in our group of 6. We are teaching ourselves. I did learn that the name Baptist was started as derogatory and for ridicule but the "church of Christ" thought it was cool and adopted it. Sounds like there were liberals and freepers even way back then:')

[CindyDawg]

So how are things going today?

[SoothingDave]

I did learn that the name Baptist was started as derogatory and for ridicule

"Ana-baptist" means "re-baptiser." That is, people who were baptised just fine when they were babies would get baptised "again" when they joined the Baptist sect. Of course, they considered the infant baptism as invalid.

SD

[CindyDawg]

I saw that. Yall didn't have to throw us in jail over it though:')

[CindyDawg]

Actually, and I have to study my material again I didn't seen the grief coming from the Roman but the English church.

[SoothingDave]

Actually, and I have to study my material again I didn't seen the grief coming from the Roman but the English church.

In that period, the Roman Church had already been outlawed, had its lands confiscated and its bishops forced to swear allegiance to the King as Head of the Church or face death.

SD