The hobos got 'em, or the nomadic smilies have them.

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There you go! Good find! :)

lost.

Who's In Houston?
 

No, this isn't an addendum to the thread, I'm just after Houston advice not available on the internet.

My bro and SIL are going there for a long weekend in a couple of months.
Ste's part of the trip is going to the Space Center.
E's part of the trip is going to a Joel Osteen sermon.

WTF?!
I am genuinely shocked by this.
And quite alarmed.

Still. Any insider info you can give me re great things to do and see would be nice to pass on to them.
They're there for four days (I think) and not looking to fill their time up, but if there is anything really unmissable I'll pass it on.

Food-wise they're casual restaurant diners. They like decent sized portions, polite and friendly waiting staff and a clean place without any pretentions. They are both teetotal so won't be interested in anywhere more famous for its booze than its food.

They're regular travellers to the States (at least once a year) so unless you have any coupons you want to share, there's no need to mention any big chains.

Oh - and what can I ask him to bring back for me? :)
Foodstuff usually (although I got my Hello Kitty purse when they went to Japan).
If no-one comes up with something to tempt me I might go with Ass Kickin' Cornbread mix, as they simply don't sell it here and I can never get enough.

(Just to add - I am not a spoiled brat. Ste likes to bring back prizes but is an indifferent shopper. Mum doesn't ask because she thinks it's cheeky but I find a specific request means everybody is happy)

I wikied Osteen. Apparently, he's a tv preacher who other tv preachers think is a heretic. I don't know anything about Houston either.

Seems an interesting character. I like that he downgrades 'sin' of homosexuality to 'missing the mark' of what God created them for rather than somethiing vile. In fact he has seemingly avoided the topic as much as possible. The criticisms levelled at him by other evangelicals (calling his views heresy) seem based on the fact that he doesn't include a lot of scripture in his preaching, doesn't focus on sin, but rather the achievement of yourpotential, and doesn't emphasise Christ as the only route to heaven.

Only when pressed has he agred that Christ is the only way to heaven, and only when pressed would he say he agreed homosexuality was a sin: though he then clarifies in an interview with Piers Morgan :

Slightly more worrying (to my mind) is his idea that wealth and prosperity are the reward for piety.

All in all he seems a more reasonable face of evangelicism ( to me) than some. Though I am intrigued as to why your sis is going to see him....isn't she a Catholic?

He does seem like more of a self-help guru. My sister is a hardcore Catholic who dabbles in Evangelical preaching. It isn't terribly consistent, but since when is religion consistent? It could be SG's sister is on her way out of the Church trying to find a soft-landing place more in line with her personal views. I went through a period of that, assuming someone would have already built a system of thought which aligned decently with reality as I saw it, but then I realized I didn't want that either and stopped looking. I'd rather see the world with my own eyes.

That is pretty common Evangelical nonsense in the US. I like the idea of people optimizing their lives and that stability can lead to wealth but there is a blame the victim strain in there. In all honestly, I do see a lot of people who could use a more rigid belief system because they lose sight of their goals and real needs.

There was a similar view prevalent within the British evangelical movement during the late 18th/early 19th century. It was one of the things that justified a lot of the anti-poor legislation of that era. I don't know if the modern mission in the Uk is like that. I suspect so.

Not my sis going to see him - my sister in law.
She has no religion that I know of, which makes it all the more bizarre. We do not need another God-botherer in our family, least of all one of the wishy-washy ones that confuse coincidence with divine intervention and occasional good luck for God's will. I'm also annoyed by his "stand" on homosexuality. No, it's not enough to me to have it downgraded. He does not preach directly from the scriptures so why can't he just drop that idea altogether. If he had the guts to say, "God made them the way they are and loves them just the same" I might have a bit more respect for him.

But at the beginning of each sermon he says, "Hold up your Bible, let's say it like we mean it...
This is my Bible
I am what it says I am
I have what it says I have
I can do what it says I can do
Today I will be taught the word of God
I boldly confess, my mind is alert
My heart is receptive
I will never be the same
I am about to receive
The incorruptible, the indestructible, everliving seed
Of the word of God
I'll never be the same"

Yes I know it's never going to appeal to me as an atheist, but it also doesn't fit in with his preaching style, or his ducking of the question on homosexuality. It gives no indication that he is happy to ignore Leviticus, that he doesn't set much store in Jesus' command to leave all you own and follow me, that apparently God rewards the good on earth and that for true believers God is happy to meddle in all sorts of things.

An example of his preaching. Don't get cross when things go wrong. Sometimes God has set it up to help you or someone else. His wife lost her credit card. She phoned to cancel it. The women in the call centre was intending to leave her husband that day. She recognised her preacher's wife's name and they ended up on the phone for 30 minutes after which the employee decided to give her mariiage another go. When she put down the phone the wife found her credit card wasn't lost at all - it was just underneath her bag! Pesky God. It was obviously necessary to save the fragile marriage of a call centre employee with this trick. And I guess she would need a husband once the extra long call was played back for training pruposes, because she'd have lost her job.

Does make me wonder why God doesn't worry about saving all the other marriages out there that fail. Perhaps they are not good enough people? Like when God saves some people from dying because other people pray so hard for them, but sometimes He decides to call them home. Irregardless :) Maybe the people he saves ae less interesting.

One of the big reasons I like you Griff.

SPLEEN!!!

Are you baiting me, woman?

Moi?
Nah - just testing your irregardless monitor...

aheh. Well, I don't exactly approve of his stand on homosexuality either. But it's a damn sight better than a lot of what gets preached on that subject. He's clearly walking quite a fine line on it, but his reluctance to actually make statements (avoiding the question in most cases apparently) suggests he isn't part of the hate brigade. A definate step up :p