Tuesday, October 14, 2008

GC 08

Wow, this is a first for me--blogging! Wait till my computer guru son hears about this! :) So I guess 50+ isn't too old to learn new stuff, huh?
Okay, on to the reason for this blog--GC 08. We arrived after a long 15 hour--but beautiful--drive from St.Louis on Monday. Great weather, beautiful foliage--but messed up GPS once we got to the city. Oh well, we got here safe.
Lots of familiar faces, meetings going on, a mall right across the parking lot--woo-hoo!--elevators slowly getting slower . . . typical GC stuff. Wednesday is setup day for those of us manning booths, then the PMA service at night.
Biggest rumor is Palin's appearance for Thursday night--from all I hear, it is more than just rumor. We'll see. We've got our buttons to wear just in case!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just caught site of your header photo at the top there- haven't visited in months and months.

Seriously- a pentagram and a five-pointed star? Are you guys for real? Are you folks closet satanists infiltrating the Apostolic churches (hey, it happens), or do you know the significance of that and don't care, or are you folks seriously that clueless?

chantell said...

A pentagon (a 5 sided shape)is not the same thing as a pentagram (a 5 pointed star associated with Satanism). And not all five pointed stars are pentagrams. The star featured in the header is not.

Calm down.

Anonymous said...

With all due respect Chantell, you are displaying some ignorance here. The pentagon is indeed associated with Satanism. The 5-pointed star is also associated with Satanism. If you'd like to do a google search for "pentagon satanic" you could come up with any number of articles that can explain these things to you. To have such symbols on an Apostolic blog is inexcusable.

Things are what they are, regardless of the pretty thoughts a person thinks in their head about them to the contrary.

chantell said...

Okay. Perhaps I am unaware of all of the Satanic symbols out there. I'll take a rain check on doing the Google search and take your word for it.

However, according to your logic, you might as well say that the headquarters for the United States Department of Defense in Arlington, VA houses closet Satanists infiltrating the US military due to the shape of the building. How clueless could our government be by allowing the existence of The Pentagon?

Denelle said...

Caya,

As the person who picked the header photo I thought I'd just like to comment on your observations. First, I can say with all honesty and sincerity that I'd never noticed the shape until you pointed it out.

However, since you brought it up, did you know that a pentagram was originally a Christian symbol which represented the five wounds of Christ (head, hands, feet)? It is just another example of religious things being subverted by the world. Also, in order to be a satanic symbol a five-pointed star has to be five straight lines that intersect at 45 degree angles, with two points up, and inscribed inside of a circle/double circle (which our star in the header clearly isn't). Furthermore, a pentagon is simply any shape with 5 sides and has no distinct satanic connotation.

I am very sorry if you were offended or thought that we had somehow started subverting truth by our choice of banner header.

Sometimes a star is just a star.

Anonymous said...

As for the Government Pentagon- well, actually, it was designed by a Freemason, so yes, the occultic Pentagon symbol was picked purposely. Washington D.C. is laid out with Freemason and occultic symbols in mind. The symbology of American government is full of Freemason and occultic references. Occultic means "hidden"- so yes, that's why most people don't know about it.

As for it being a supposed "Christian" symbol- there's just no addressing that one. I'm flabbergasted. I see that we are in such different places here that there's just no closing that one. I can't even begin!

But see I don't go to UPC churches any more- I suppose I haven't progressed far enough and kept pace with the Emerging Church to understand these things. I suppose I'm too fearful, too afraid of change, too stodgy and tradition-bound to see it. What a shame- I guess you folks will have to move on without me.

Anonymous said...

"Sometimes a star is just a star."

Hmm… a Freudian permutation.

Sometimes a Christmas tree is just a Christmas tree.

Anonymous said...

Yes- A Christmas tree certainly is a Christmas tree:

http://www.carnaval.com/saturnalia/

kdc said...

Caya,

I don’t understand your hostile tone. You came onto the site & immediately asked if we were secret Satanists.

You (evidently) believe every pentagram and pentagon can only symbolize the occult.

Those who have disagreed w/you (evidently) believe not every pentagram and pentagon symbolizes the occult.

I see this as a disagreement between believers where both sides have valid points.

However, completely out of the blue, you pulled the “UPC card” as if the honor of different Apostolic organizations were somehow at stake in this discussion. Why so defensive? Those with superior knowledge on a topic are generally kind and patient with the less informed, especially when they’re fellow believers.

Genuinely Puzzled,
k

Anonymous said...

Ok- first off, sorry for having a somewhat hostile tone. It all gets very tiresome & I don't have as much patience as I ought.

Secondly, there's just no way I can communicate why it is a bad idea for an Apostolic blog to have pagan symbology on it. It would require explaining the entire paradigm behind why it is so wrong. Why not have a yin-yang symbol then? Isn't that just a pretty arrangement of black and white colors? See there's just no way to communicate it.

It is a fundamental paradigm issue. One paradigm says that things are what you say and think in your head that they are (moral relativism), a pentagon is whatever you mean it to be- the other paradigm says that things are what they are, and morals are strictly black and white (Biblical), a pentagon **in it's usage as a symbol** is a satanic symbol regardless of the pretty thoughts you think about it and therefore inappropriate as a symbol for an Apostolic's representation. The two are simply incompatible and irreconcilable. That is truly the heart of the issue.

Thirdly, the reason why there is no way to communicate it brings in my mentioning the UPC. That has a lot of backhistory that of course other people don't know. See, the arguments used here to defend the pentagon/5-pointed star symbol are very CLASSIC arguments that people in the Emergant Church/Modern UPC/liberal camp like to use. Generally speaking, the UPC is firmly headed in the direction of the "Emergant Church" movement- for lack of a better term. All those labels I mentioned (fearful, afraid of change, etc.) are things that "progressive" liberals like to call the "Ultra-Cons" or "ultra-conservatives" as they call them, who are not going along with their agenda. So my point was sarcasm- I must be too "fearful" of "change" to not see that of course a little thing like pentagons/5-pointed stars as a blog header make no difference. Just because Satanists use it, so what? See, that is the common come-back. I can't even count the number of times I've heard it.

Anonymous said...

"a pentagon **in it's usage as a symbol** is a satanic symbol regardless of the pretty thoughts you think about it"

Caya, I'm interested to know if you think this means children shouldn't learn geometry or that they shouldn't be allowed to draw pictures with stars on them as well? Should we, as Christians, refuse to live in Washington D.C. because it is layed out in a Freemason design? We are to be in the world but not of the world but if the world is full of such horrible things where do we draw the line? Do we withdraw from the world and become the next Branch Davidian?