Who influenced you?

[Nebulous]

Who has been the biggest influence on your life?

What lessons did that person teach you?

Describe him/her.

 

[TommyTooter]

i was one of the last students of a prominent american reform rabbi, louis binstock. instead of trying to describe louie or binnie as dr. binstock's flock referred to him, i think i'll post this statement a minister friend of mine just made about gaza here, instead of trying to figure out where to put it.

stephen dunning's impassioned rant to the gazans is almost identical to what i would expect out of binnie today. we need to rejoice in our own cultural identities and celebrate together with people of other ethnicities. only when fear and loathing is turned to love and acceptance will the world ever know peace.

on that day, the earth will be one and it's name will be one.

https://www.facebook.com/stephendunningthecomposer
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Louis-Binstock-DD/203984486454657?ref_type=bookmark

Considerations of the Situation in the Gaza Strip:

"Dear Gaza Group,
I am an American Teacher and ordained Reverend. A dear friend connected me to this Facebook group yesterday. What I have seen in less than 24 hours demonstrated through images and first-hand reports brings great sorrow to my heart. As a Believer in our unified and shared God I must at least sound a cry, however softly, for Peace, Justice, and Equality amongst mankind.

True spiritual followers of any of our shared three Abrahamic religions and belief systems have no room in their hearts for anger, hatred, or desires of violence. The Believer and Devotee bears nothing but compassion for his fellow man and a call for peace; to see violence propagated in such destructive and evil ways under assumed ideological identities demonstrates very misguided understanding (or complete disregard) of the Holy Texts and their Universal Call for Peace.

Throughout history many a war has been fought in the name of Religion, and many a man has been killed for and by his beliefs. I hear the call of the One God that we all share sounding her timeless mantra of PEACE and COMPASSION.

Though organized religions have been used historically as control mechanisms by governments over their peoples, the times are changing and no longer can this be a justified or accepted.

I urge Believers from all spiritual and ethnic lineages to concentrate their efforts on rebuilding the identities of their respective religions.

We, as a global society, know that there is enough to go around, and if we discontinued our efforts to wage ideological warfare upon each other we could feed and shelter the world.

It does not take a big man to carry a grudge, but it takes an enlightened person to allow the water to flow under the bridge.

The atrocities we wage against each other are not aligned with the faiths they proclaim allegiance to.

WORLD PEACE and INTERNATIONAL / INTERFAITH COOPERATION will be our Earthly salvation, and I pray sincerely for this sentiment to be echoed and reverberated into the cosmos for all of time.

As an American civilian I opposed the initial war efforts in Afghanistan and the preemptive war policies leading to the occupation of Iraq. But more than a decade later those peoples have failing governments and poorer living conditions than before we became actively involved.

As the Leaders of the Free World, I believe that since we (the people of the United States of America) are aware of such outrageous acts of genocide and war crimes it is our DUTY to help put an end to those atrocities.

We CANNOT continue to watch the Syrian Government use its military to murder its peoples.

We CANNOT allow ethnic cleansing in the Iraqi region.

We CANNOT turn a blind eye to the ongoing military occupation of the Greater Palestinian Regions by the State of Israel.

We CANNOT allow the war machine and the industrial military complex perfected in the World Wars to continue into the 21st century.

In the name of the Prophets of Peace we MUST ACT NOW.

As rockets fly and sirens sound in the West Bank and Gaza we must consult our consciences and decide to COLLABORATE instead of INCINERATE.

I call upon all readers of this message to consider the REAL OPTION OF PEACE and the position of power that America holds to help end the timeless suffering of our fellow Man.

The message of the God of Abraham and His many Prophets echoes quietly but resoundingly in the walls of the Old Temple in Jerusalem, barely audible over the violence and cries of pain, the wailings of a war-torn people.

Please let us all join together to sound the bell of awakening, and let the path reveal itself to us in our meditations. Wars and rumors of wars are being propagated amongst GOVERNMENTS, not RELIGIONS.

It is the various MILITARY STATES working through POLITICS that PERVERT the call of our SHARED GOD.

FOLLOW GOD’S WORD and help END POLITICAL VIOLENCE AMONGST WARRING GOVERNMENTS THAT DISREGARD THE FAITHS THAT THEY PROFESS AND THE PEOPLES THEY DISPLACE AND DESTROY.

HERE AND FOREVERMORE WE MUST UNITE AND AWAKEN ALL PEOPLES INTO COOPERATE RELATIONS AND PEACEFUL TIMES.

May the God that we all share bless us and guide us on the Right Path, the path of those upon whom he hast bestowed favors – not the path of those upon whom He hath brought down wrath, nor those that go astray.

PEACE AND UNITY ARE THE NEXT STEP; LET US NOT HESITATE."


* aho, mitakouye oyasin!

 

[Khalessi]

I have read thousands of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and in my case, i think that reading such a huge variety of stories, and gaining knowledge through them, has influenced me and my life ..more than any one particular person eva has.

 

[Phossix]

My Grandfather - who will remain one of only two people in this world I trust fully. I know he wants what is best for me, and if I do something and he voices criticism, I will listen. I won't do that for anyone else, but him.