Law and Order! Or a good place for a friendly argument

[Eerie_Coppernight]

So far, I think the only current calamity is how to get this poor cat out of this vending machine.

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

Time to get back to work. I can sleep in the spiritual battles department when I am dead.

So far, I think the only current calamity is how to get this poor cat out of this vending machine.

I recommend calling the vending machine company - I think the phone number is on the side or back of most vending machines - they can send someone with a key to open the front and rescue that feline. Either that or a police battering ram could get it out.

A bigger puzzle is how the cat got there in the first place. It probably was in the wrong place at the wrong time when that machine was being refilled.

[Bluesky_Amberfun]

That's a possible solution. I would call out to the cat and see if it was able to climb out by itself. Cats are sometimes able to fit through really small holes. If it managed to get in, there's a chance it can get out by itself.

[Jayhawk_Greencape]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2FOA-DVP8]
Here's your answer...

[Levi_Orangeburst]

takes a deep breathe

I'm home.

shuffles to a seat and sprawls onto it
Someone bring me my crown, and deluxe pack of sour patch kids, to aid in the debates, of course.

[Jayhawk_Greencape]

Right now this seems more like RRP than RRP does...

[Abigail_Eggsong]

Someone bring me my crown

_{©Levi was fine with this.}

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

If we're going to deal in debates and continue the valiant war against spiritual misinformation, we might as well save a cat to establish heroic credibility.

I actually have a book on movie screenwriting, entitled Save the Cat! that emphasizes the importance of the hero doing some sort of heroic deed at the start of the film (aka saving a cat) to establish that person as the good guy. Failure to include this key and important scene has wrecked a lot of films. Captain Marvel, for example.

There are ways to do that that are subtle, of course. The original National Treasure starts off with a kid sneaking up into the attic to access family information and the grandfather catching him. It's the family's honor and legacy that is the "cat" the child saves when he grows into an adult, but from the very beginning, we establish him as the hero.

[Eerie_Coppernight]

These days, filmmakers don't particularly care about goodness and don't respect their audience enough to consider what they want. People want good stories, not pseudo-moral lectures.

[Eerie_Coppernight]

I would like to know what everyone thinks of this. (Mind the antiquated language.)
{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwz823Pt-B0&ab_channel=IAMAbled}

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

I think this is useful information that the entire forum needs to listen to. The point that Christianity does not automatically make people nice and friendly and can attract those from the darkest of situations is a point worth espousing.

I think Lewis' point about niceness coming from nature and upbringing is interesting, but I have to counter that with another thought: someone from a dark situation will look for more methods to spiritually grow and will probably be more motivated to do so. The theory is that what gets you out of darkness back up to "raised-by-good-parents-grew-up-in-church-nice-kid-normal" - those same methods are what allows you to move past that to an even higher level more easily than someone who had all of the advantages of good upbringing.

This is not an invitation to drive off into spiritual darkness and sin just so you learn how to eradicate it and climb out of it, but I thought the theory was interesting for those of us who had the stuff show up on our doorstep: don't give up. You will come out of the situation immensely more spiritually stronger than when you entered the trial.

[Beckendorf_Direscope]

Just for kicks, everyone should read this post carefully and then preceed to peruse the remainder of the topic.

Law and Order! Or a good place for a friendly argument

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

returns to Law and Order after an actual forum-wide civil war

Talking about sensitive topics and such divides the forums into two or more pieces.

I would prefer not to start a civil war with my above post, it was more of a statement then an actual argument prompt.

Well, isn't that nothing but the truth.

However, the issue is not the relationship ruptures these topics cause, it is the people's ability to repair the ruptures and keep going in spite of them. That is the most important thing. The argument I keep hearing is that children don't have this ability. The answer is that some children do, and some of them don't - just like some adults have the ability to repair relationships with fellow believers who have been ruptured, and some of them sit around complaining about what so-and-so said about whatever it was for years.

But all the same, I think the forum's inhabitants are a bit emotionally worn out at the moment for a lot of reasons, so I'm feeling okay with debating C.S. Lewis and cats. Maybe we should leave this topic there for awhile, or just not post in it until we get our lives back in order.

[Jayhawk_Greencape]

I DISAGREE WITH THATT!! iM'MA FIGHT THAT tIL I dYE!!!

(Just kidding... ;0) Well said.)

[Eerie_Coppernight]

"Love keeps no record of wrongs." If that is so, some of us have been doing a rather poor job of loving each other.

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

I wasn't saying that

some of them sit around complaining about what so-and-so said about whatever it was for years.

applies to anyone on this forum, Eerie. That's casting an unfair aspersion.

[Eerie_Coppernight]

Even if I willingly admit I am one of them?

[Sierepica_Fuzzywalker]

If you have done it in my hearing about something someone specifically said in this topic, I have forgotten it entirely.

I've found that aspersions against topics (or certain people) are more fashionable around here than repeated complaints over exact beliefs expressed or exact words used. Frequently the topic is blamed for corrupting the people, not the people for corrupting the topic.

It's not "So-and-so believes this! This is the worst and I absolutely cannot stand that they believe this!" over and over, it's more like "The Law and Order topic is corrupting the forums because everyone is evil and nasty to each other in there. If only that topic were closed, people would be better." Uh, people are still going to be evil regardless of whether a certain topic is open or closed.

Admittedly, E3 did have that problem and so some of us debating her struggled with it during the incident, but afterward the complaints folded into a general aspersion against her as a person, rather than all of us attacking her beliefs for months afterwards.

That's one good thing about this forum that has made debating so much fun over the years: people don't walk around and say "Everyone who believes this is the worst." We understand implicitly that beliefs, aside from the Gospel and the Bible itself, are a function of background and upbringing and people are not to be attacked for them, merely corrected if they are false.

[Beth_Applemine]

Members President

Thoughts?

[Eerie_Coppernight]

Do we even have such roles? Do forum politics need to be that complicated?