The DL issue revisited...

This topic keeps popping up in relationship threads all over the net.

And yet and still, the same comments result in the issue being first a issue with men who are DL and not equally yoked.

And most importantly the issue behind the stigma of being bi or gay but not open about it to your Hetro mates.

So first I want to paste a comment I offered on someone's post about this subject and then I want to get deeper on this subject.

Actually your giving these men too much credit.

*Evil Stare*

When you really look at the past generations of people we have not known of their sexual polarity? You will notice that our society seemed to have been structured in hiding their sexuality while requiring many of them to look and act perfectly Hetro.

They got married and even had kids in pairs of couples to hide their connection between the polarities. They formed social clubs for men and women for the same reasons. While today, we are more exposed to the need to know who is who solely because of the AIDS epidemic more than their sexual polarities.

So the REAL question is now, WHY other than AIDS and STDs is their a concern about the sexual polarity of other possible mates.

When in many cases what people have been taught in the past as to who is a good mate and how men and women should react towards each other has now forced many to question their ability to understand the sexual nature of everyone.

And here's the kicker!

Most women who complain about DL men seldom notice how attracted they are to Bi Men in theory.

Just like how they consider men to be Dominant by doing things that are more submissive than Dominant.

And the more vanilla people are? The less they know.

And even worse. The less they can handle if in fact they knew.

And we now know that being Bi or Gay does not make you any less of a person.

Other than your ability to be truthful or at least honest.

So it's just not as simple as single people being any more or less in danger of being with a bi or gay mate until you include both men and women into the math.

It's not as simple as finding out that your man likes his prostrate stimulated or even that your man likes to suck penis. And then wishing he would be open enough to let you do it so he don't have to lie or creep to do it with strange dudes.

*wicked grin*

Having bi or gay tendencies are not as simple as the acts of sex they get into more than it is about who as well. Some men lust for male contact just like some women. So saying you want to replace their choice is just like when men want to tell a lesbian that they don't need to get a strap on or have a woman eat her coochie.

And even the Craigs list "cruising" for strange fruit is just as much a part of their desires as finding someone. The thril of the chase or even the act of cruising is a lifestyle choice for some. Just like ladies night out with the girls or a anonamous bootycall.

If you can't understand that men are pretty much just like women and with that there are just as many women on the DL and men. Then you can not be fair enough to deal with the issue.

Even the Spartan soldiers were known to be at least bi if not gay and they were some of the most fears soldiers in history. Or how about the Greeks being known for the men having sex with each other as a way of not getting a woman violated...lol

So the problem here is somehow there is something that you (women) seem to not be able to deal with very well...

And this DL issue may be as difficult as HOW do you openly talk about men and women on the DL without assuming that what either of them like sexually with whoever may cause you to belittle them as a man or a woman just like Hetro men and women.

Maybe women can't handle the truth and that is why many of them are not told the truth?

So what if your a strong enough woman to be willing to handle being open with your possible mate and being able to earn their trust to be open with you?

Now peep this...

How prepared are you to first deal with the possibility of learning that up until that person met you, they may have HAD to live a double life?

How ready are you to openly communicate your concerns with JUST being concerned with your trust being violated more than being sexually different?

What are you ready to allow if you are told that their lust for others is something deeper than the ability to give up, even if they love someone they need to have that part of their life in their life?

Would you try to assist them in having that dual connection in their sexual nature?

Can you deal with providing communication with your possible mate in confidence that you will never out them?

How will that effect your image of that person's manhood?

How prepared are you to be nurturing and respectful of their ego, knowing what you may find out to be how they are?

*wicked grin*

It's not a easy road to travel with anyone. And it is only worth whatever you feel it is worth to you and how well you can connect with your possible mate.

Deep huh?  

"a great deal of men who live a double life are in denial and simply aren't willing to come clean because they haven't accepted their own reality..."

Great statement!

So peep this...

How can anyone accept something they have lerned from everyone to be shameful? Like being born gay.

Who else can you come out too?

Think about the amount of closed minded people who will NEVER allow themselves to be THAT open to accept homosexuality, bisexuality like they do heterosexuality.

Some people consider THAT kind of secret so deep and dark that they hide in plane sight in dark places many call respectable secret groups and orders just because...

respect

Ok

I want to bring up a point here...

I personally do not see any difference in DL women and men on the DL other than society allowing women to excuse their unstable sexual urges as just being a woman.

But what concerns Me the most is our ability to evolve past the negative image of alternative sexuality in a so called heterosexual world.

Our sexuality does not make us who we are.

But our ability to not allow our sexuality to define us is of big concern.

Just because even if you don't feel you are effected by this issue.

Think again.

Our homophobic mentality has caused a great divide between many who are out and others who are not able to be out in their lives just because society will not allow it.

And that is more dangerous than being on the down low and not having any way of finding safer practices to indulge in with others who wish the same.

Maybe we should question our own personal morality just like we question our spirituality?

Because our basic sexual polarities are as natural as our physical structure.

But we all have been conditioned to shun what we can't handle.

And maybe it's time to stop running from reality.

Even if that reality is darker than we wish it to be.

It's not just about us.

It's about everyone.

And respecting who we are no matter what our sexual orientation is.

It's better to know than to be clueless.

Or is it?

respect

A public message to Laurence Fishburne. From 1 father to another

Dear Laurence Fishburne...

As a Father and a fan I would like to ask you to do something that may at first seem unquestionable personally but I believe in theory may shine I different light on the whole public issue between your daughter and her antics and career and Your emotional disgust at the manner that it has been handled so far.

First...

Where ever You are now? SEND FOR YOUR CHILD. Just her, and if the young man she is seeing has the guts to show up with her, send for him with her. 
And the FISRT thing I think will be helpful is the first thing you do is give her a public hug and make sure the media knows you are not publicly disowning your child.

Secondly...
Try and invite her to a formal sit down and family chat. And in that chat understand that she is now a adult and all the things that have happened can not be changed. And admit that she has single handedly put her name and her image in a very large portion of the media's focus in a very short amount of time. And THEN I want you to offer her some help and assistance in being able to better control her image and her career PERSONALLY and Professionally. Even if that means going back to school and learning her craft or skill or whatever she see's fit.

Thirdly...
Don't let anyone think that You are trying to BUY back her favor with You.
But consider this act of fatherly assistance a way of fixing the family image that is not really soiled that much if you look at it from a Grown Man's perspective. So make the haters your motivators as well as hers. And show her the ropes of the industry.

And most of all...

Please remember that right now Your little girl is fighting for some kind of identity. No matter how you may think it looks now. She has more people wishing she does better than people waiting for her to end up in the gutter somewhere because nobody would offer her assistance and advice and not take offense at what she feels "OK" with being seen as right now. She is still your little gurl stuck in this big world with a lot of KRUDDY friends that have no home training. And while it may be too late to teach morality you can mentor her street skills and accept her as a strong woman that may need better resources.

She must love you a whole lot to make this big of a scene to get your attention.

And I think we in the black community really want to see You and her turn this whole media circus around and shine like You have been shining and hustling your craft from a child to a proud father.

Remember all the women we have met that were just like her only they had less resources than she could have if she had a better Friend than a father right now...

But please...

Go get your child from the media hounds!
She needs some public relations help.
Right now.

And that could make up for all the things that made her feel she was in this word on her own...

And we need to see at least ONE MORE image of a strong Black Father who is not afraid of defending his child. No matter what she is trying to do...

What would Jesus do?
Luke 7:36-50


Hey Fish...
We go back to School Daze in ATL.

Wake up!


respect

64 years of evolution in theory...

Subject: Fw: 64 years later

One wonders,,........,,,,Who really won the war? 64 years later Hi - thought you might enjoy this political satire. What is the story here? Be sure to view all the way to the end! What happened to the radiation that's supposed to last thousands of years?? HIROSHIMA 1945 We all know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in August 1945 after explosion of atomic bombs. However, we know little about the progress made by the people of that land during the past 64 years. HIROSHIMA - 64 YEARS LATER All those lights, still must be radioactive, or perhaps they are using nuclear power??? DETROIT - 64 YEARS AFTER HIROSHIMA..... What has caused more long term destruction .... the A-bomb or U. S. politics?

At this point in life... Who is to say how we will evolve? respect

What would Harriet Tubman say today?

Harriet Tubman

She never made excuses for who and what she was...

"I grew up like a neglected weed -- ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it."

She knew the task was difficult...

"I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land."

But I wonder what she would say about her people today?

“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

I wonder what she would have said about MLK Jr's Dream?

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

She knew a new image of freedom found that became her reason to free others...

“I looked at my hands, to see if I was the same person now that I was free. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over de fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”

If knowledge was a snake it would have bit more of us...

“Never wound a snake; kill it.”

I wonder how she would compare our President today to Presidents of her day...

“Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation.”

As we remember our American history.

What will our future say about how we left them a history of how we are today?

I'm sure her simple prayer was more than enough for her in her day as she would say...

"Lord, I'm going to hold steady on to You and You've got to see me through."

In GOD she trusted.

I wonder how she would see "us" as her people today as we have evolved from her day when it was most important to free as many slaves as she could risk her life for?

It's 2010.

We have all evolved into a new image that many in our past would be proud of if we could only believe that we are living today in a new image of life that is more fair to everyone.

Even if nobody gets reparations for the pain of our past treatment.

But what will so many people who have grown to feel they have been historically unfair for so long in our past that we can not feel our new found freedom as a people together with everyone else who can see the difference too?

How free are you feeling today?

United we stand...

Are you still waiting to be aloud to stand on your own today like it's a new day?

What's stopping you?

respect

This 2012 thing is no joke!

I have been saying how the earth is shifting and even time it's self is going to change while we are entering that 2012 change.

Well

Read on...


SPACE.com – Tue Mar 2, 10:00 am ET

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.


The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.


The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph).


The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth's north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).

Strong earthquakes have altered Earth's days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth's days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).


One Earth day is about 24 hours long. Over the course of a year, the length of a day normally changes gradually by one millisecond. It increases in the winter, when the Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.

The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth's mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.


The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake's fault, NASA scientists said.

"This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis," NASA officials said.


Gross said his findings are based on early data available on the Chile earthquake. As more information about its characteristics are revealed, his prediction of its effects will likely change.

The Chile earthquake has killed more than 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.


Several major telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory managing them.

A salt-measuring NASA satellite instrument destined to be installed on an Argentinean satellite was also undamaged in the earthquake, JPL officials said.


The Aquarius instrument was in the city of Bariloche, Argentina, where it is being installed in the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) satellite. The satellite integration facility is about 365 miles (588 km) from the Chile quake's epicenter.

The Aquarius instrument is designed to provide monthly global maps of the ocean's salt concentration in order to track current circulation and its role in climate change.

Images: Deadly Earthquakes Past and Present
Satellite Images Help Focus Haiti Earthquake Relief

More...

Chile Earthquake: Is Mother Nature Out of Control?


Chile is on a hotspot of sorts for earthquake activity. And so the 8.8-magnitude temblor that shook the capital region overnight was not a surprise, historically speaking. Nor was it outside the realm of normal, scientists say, even though it comes on the heels of other major earthquakes.

One scientist, however, says that relative to a time period in the past, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so.

The Chilean earthquake, and the tsunami it spawned, originated on a hot spot known as a subduction zone, where one plate of Earth's crust dives under another. It's part of the very active "Ring of Fire," a zone of major crustal plate clashes that surround the Pacific Ocean.

"This particular subduction zone has produced very damaging earthquakes throughout its history," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The world's largest quake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, occurred along the same fault zone in May 1960.

Even so, magnitude-8 earthquakes occur globally, on average, just once a year. Since magnitudes are given on a logarithmic scale, an 8.8-magnitude is much more intense than a magnitude 8, and so this event would be even rarer, said J. Ramón Arrowsmith, a geologist at Arizona State University.

Is Earth shaking more?

The Ryukyu Islands of Japan were hit with a 7.0-magnitude quake just last night. News of this, the Haiti quake and now Chile make it seem Earth is becoming ever more active. But in the grand scheme of things, geologists say this is just Mother Nature as usual.

"From our human perspective with our relatively short and incomplete memories and better and better communications around the world, we hear about more earthquakes and it seems like they are more frequent," Arrowsmith said. "But this is probably not any indication of a global change in earthquake rate of significance."

Coupled with better communication, as the human population skyrockets and we move into more hazardous regions, we're going to hear more about the events that do occur, Arrowsmith added.

However, "relative to the 20-year period from the mid 1970's to the mid 1990's, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," said Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science & Technology. "We still do not know the reason for this yet. Could simply be the natural temporal variation of the stress field in the earth's lithosphere." (The lithosphere is the outer solid part of the Earth.)

And while the Chilean earthquake wasn't directly related to Japan's 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common.

For one, any seismic waves that did make their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking.

"It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation," Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) "Nevertheless, if the Chilean fault surface were close to failure, those small waves could push it even closer."

In addition, both regions reside within the Ring of Fire, which is a zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates dive beneath other slabs of Earth. About 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur along this arc. (The next most seismic region, where just 5 to 6 percent of temblors occur, is the Alpide belt, which extends from the Mediterranean region eastward.)

Colliding plates

The Chilean earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. These rocky slabs are converging at a rate of 3 inches (80 mm) per year, according to the USGS. This huge jolt happened as the Nazca plate moved down and landward below the South American plate. This is called a subduction zone when one plate subducts beneath another.

(Over time, the overriding South American Plate gets lifted up, creating the towering Andes Mountains.)

The plate movement explains why coastal Chile has such a history of powerful earthquakes. Since 1973, 13 temblors of magnitude 7.0 or greater have occurred there, according to the USGS.

In fact, today’s earthquake originated about 140 miles (230 km) north of the source region of the magnitude 9.5 earthquake of May, 1960, considered the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the world.

The 1960 earthquake killed 1,655 people in southern Chile, unleashing a tsunami that crossed the Pacific and killed 61 people in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines.

In November 1922, a magnitude-8.5 earthquake occurred about 540 miles (870 km) to the north of the Feb. 27 earthquake, triggering a local tsunami that inundated the Chile coast and crossed the Pacific to Hawaii.

Because the recent one was such a huge earthquake, the shaking would likely have caused just as much damage had a similar-sized event occurred elsewhere, said Baldwin, the USGS scientist.

"If [the quake] were in Los Angeles you'd probably have massive destruction too," Baldwin said in a telephone interview.

Andrea Thompson contributed reporting to this story.

Now you know?


respect

Breaking the rules of the game to play fairly?

I been doing a lot of thinking about what I have learned about these sexual lifestyles and the different titles and types of sexual natures known as what you are as you do what it is you do.

(WIITWDish)

What we __DO__ know is that everything within the realm of BDSM as we know it, seems to be not only helpful but respectful for consenting adults to adapt within their relationship dynamics no matter what spiritual faith base or cultural balance you support.

So what I have figured out so far is that by the time we become sexual adult minded people, we are capable of finding and keeping fruitful and productive relationships and honor others as well.

But THAT has been a very new awakening in just the past 15 or 20 years or so. And many of us today have lost the FULL memory of how it really used to be. I mean before we were old enough to remember before computers or cell phones or Tv and radio. And I'm hoping that I am reaching a few of you who may still have been too young to really remember when the REASON why parents made us go play outside is because there was VERY LITTLE to do other than chores in the daytime of our past youth. And the truth about growth of our nation and reality as what we see from Sea to Shining Sea...lol

There are JUST AS MANY young new and not so new adults in these lifestyle communities as their are elder types who have worked very hard to carry on the memory of the way things really used to be in our history. Because there is a legacy of protocols and rituals that several cultures also have within their own genetic mysteries. From Leather and Old Guard to Blue Blooded slavery and servitude to shameful memories of genocide and supremacy.

We all can see a reflection of something that we all can desire to live and admire within our desired relationship dynamics, in theory.

But there is a constant scream of "but there is nobody who I can relate that lives in the same state as me...lol"

And that is a ONLINE reality.

So it's a wild kind of vision to envision the sight of everything that is right with the next generations of new adults as they try to mold THEIR evolution more than many of us that have a lifetime history of how these lifestyles used to be, only now this is more of their reality and we are just holding up the walls or trying not to have no space to play well with others who see you as their fathers and mothers, only kinda naked...lol

###*evil grin*

And there is no longer a reason to try to explain why there should be one true way because that is where you are today when others in other places never have to see the faces of your demons that keep you from being where they are in their heads more than in their words.

And WORDS have had more power back in time than it was expected to be law in the Cyber world. And there becomes yet another issue. Because now there are more politics groups and protocol groups on these social sites that are active than there are self help groups for young adults with no older adults in membership.

So life online is becoming hard to find subjects that people with relate too. Without shock value or drama and gossip that others can watch too. And always a need to read each others words as a debate and not a lack of the ability to relate to the OP.

And much of what we suffer from is generational gaps than culture shock from subtle words and strange attentions from people too far away from you to file a complaint...lol

This aint your grandmother and grandfather's vision of freedom of sexual expression in the public realm when the World Wide Web we weave if as dark and as dirty as we tip toe between TOS's and cultural blacklisting just for missing the meaning of a humorous statement at the wrong time. And not enough time to rewind and correct a outside observation and reply in their HO (humble/honest opinion)...

And our children are quickly aging just enough to want to know how to better do this kinky stuff us older folks seem to know a bit more of. And it's hard enough posting your real age. But when your real age becomes the fun age to put on a young persons page like 25, 35, 40ish or 88, it seems that by the time you find out how young these other profile people are and where they have run away from? It's hard to agree on good scene music when they have more songs on their iPod than you can remember good albums you used to listen too that sounds just like that...lol

And as I walk through a land that is more fantasy than reality per capita that the odds of being in a actual mixed crowd can be younger in age than in the ability to know how much more they could be doing if we were not cool enough to let them keep doing what they are doing and not trying to stop them from doing it wrong.


There is no right way.

But there has to be a better way for all of us to do these BDSM lifestyles WDWIITWD....

But this Metro shit is really hard to take when there are more Dominant masochist and submissive Sadist than their are people they like enough to get and idea of what they can deal with and deal with how it is in their street and in their style of life while others have no idea how valuable each person is to their social dynamic more than they are able to learn the one you live without having to write cliff notes for them to read as you flow together or not.

But what is really HAWT, is that somehow I can see a small place in black history for you and Me in the POC BDSM community.

And there is more than Me in this community that can be more expressive if it wasn't for our ability to communicate more civilly.

And I don't think none of yall are deep enough to really be feeling Me.

*pimpish grin*


And sometimes I sit back and think about the First Lady and The President in the White House getting kinky as they want to be.

And I want to be THAT kinky and still just who I be.


A POC in the BDSM lifestyle Community.



Without self-knowledge, we cannot go beyond the mind.

~J. Krishnamurti~



respect

Black farmers win settlement over racist lending.

When you think of racism

You seldom think about black farmers.

As a matter of fact

Today

Many of us seldom think about Black Farmers at all.

Thank GOD the new administration in the White House is!

"Justice Department Contends Settlement For Black Farmers Nears"


April D. Ryan
White House correspondent, American Urban Radio Networks

The Justice Department has notified the White House that a settlement is near for black farmers discriminated against by the United States Department of Agriculture. The plaintiffs in this case 80 to 90 thousand black farmers. The issue dates back to the late 1990's and the Clinton administration.

President Obama's 2011 budget proposal includes 1.2 billion dollars in settlement monies for the black agrarians. If approved by congress, it would mark the second time federal funds were allocated for the discrimination award for black farmers in a presidential budget proposal. In the past, President George W. Bush proposed the monies, but, congress cut the farmers hoped for compensation. Rob Nabors, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget says, "The President [Obama] put forward a proposal last year; and, it is continued in this year's budget where we have a proposed settlement of approximately 1.2 billion dollars. The Department of Justice is currently negotiating the settlement.

"It is about ensuring Justice is done. It is important in this situation," contends Robert Gibbs White House Press Secretary.

John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association contends, "It has been very frustrating for the black farmers. He is hopeful this latest settlement offer, makes it into the black farmers hands after years of promises.

"Nearly 80 to 90 thousand black farmers are waiting for justice and they are getting older everyday and they are dying everyday", says Boyd.

In 1999, 14 thousand black farmers were awarded a settlement from the original lawsuit. Boyd reminds that those farmers received "62,500 a piece totaling over a billion dollars." Farmers who did not know about that initial suit were able to file claims against the United States Department of Agriculture. Now, tens of thousands of black farmers are possibly in line for the federal monies to correct the wrongs by the Agriculture Department.

Boyd contends, "Not all those are going to get their money. Those farmers who are eligible will get there money. Those who are not, will get closure."

Boyd says, the issues originated from a "lawsuit in 97 [1997] for discrimination in farm lending programs and subsidies (farm service agency USDA). The National Black Farmers Association allowed for late file lawsuits in 2008." He also believes the only way farmers will get their overdue settlement monies is if President Obama and the Democrats in Congress fight for the budget item approval.

It was approved!

respect

American Black History is more than just a memory that our reality too.

Let's take a trip into our recent past.

Back when we all learned how to give each other five...

...on the Black Hand Side.

And this time study the script in this trip back into our black history that now we have to respect as our history and not just a memory.








Before we had cell phones and CNN we had to pretend that we knew about Me and you.

And while we live today we try to say we know where we came from.

But not so long ago.
The history we used to know.
Was all we knew.
Before we knew there was all of you too.





respect

The Bibical Quake issue and Haiti. There is more to all of this than you know.

In these last days on this earth as it shifts into a new awakening. The truth is becoming more than most can handle.

Earthquakes in these Last Days

by Steven A. Austin, Ph.D.

Earthquakes are among the most awesome, and sometimes most terrifying, natural events a person can experience. That was brought to the world's attention again by the great California earthquake of October 17, 1989. Already, that earthquake is recognized to be the most costly natural disaster in the history of the United States. Christians, also, have been asking what God's purposes have been for earthquakes.

SPECIAL PURPOSES FOR ANCIENT EARTHQUAKES

A review of the twelve historic earthquakes of the Bible shows that they were used at various times for special purposes.

1. Day Three of Creation Week. On the third day of creation the earth's waters were collected into their oceanic basins as continents appeared (Genesis 1:9,10). Continents were uplifted and the ocean floor was depressed during a great faulting process which "established" the foundations of the earth. We are told that angels saw and praised the omnipotent God as this earth-shaking process occurred (Job 38:4-7; Psalm 148:1-6; possibly Psalm 104:5,6).
2. Noah's Flood on the Earth. One of the primary physical causes of God's great judgment in Noah's Flood was the splitting open of all the fountains of the great deep (Genesis 7:11). Enormous earth upheavals on the sea floor occurred as sea floor springs were faulted open, unleashing a universal flood on our planet. God's purpose was to begin the human race again from the family of Noah.
3. Crossing the Red Sea. Although the historical record of Israel's crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 14) has no reference to earthquakes, the poetically heightened account in Psalm 77:18 speaks of God's voice expressed as earthquakes accompanying this extraordinary deliverance.
4. Moses on Sinai. Before God spoke to Moses and gave the Ten Commandments, there was a great shaking of the mountain (Exodus 19:18). No doubt the earthquake prepared both Moses and Israel for the important truths the Lord was going to communicate.
5. The Fall of Jericho. Bible readers, especially those who are familiar with the archaeological excavations at Jericho, have supposed that an earthquake toppled the walls of the city. However, the account of Israel's conquering the city of Jericho (Joshua 6) contains no reference to earthquakes. There is no doubt that the fall to earth of the city's great wall would have caused the earth to shake. God delivered the city, by whatever means, into Israel's hand.
6. Korah's Rebellion in the Wilderness. Korah and all his men were killed, and all of their possessions taken, as the land on which they were camped split apart and closed back upon them (Numbers 6:31-33). The 250 men were destroyed by God because they were in rebellion against Him.
7. Philistine Camp near Geba. Israel conquered the Philistines near Geba after an earthquake occurred in their camp (I Samuel 14:15). Jonathan and his armor bearer were separated from their army and would otherwise have been killed by the Philistines.
8. Elijah on Mount Horeb. God spoke to Elijah at Mount Sinai (Horeb) as He did before to Moses after the occurrence of an earthquake (I Kings 19:11). Elijah, who had been hiding in a cave, realized that the Lord does not need to use a mighty earthquake to speak, but can, in His meekness, reveal Himself simply in a still, small voice.
9. Uzziah's Earthquake at Jerusalem. Uzziah, the longest-reigning King of Judah, became proud of his great buildings and the strength of his army (11 Chronicles 26). The Lord afflicted Uzziah's kingdom and buildings with a great earthquake (Amos 1:1; Zechariah 14:5) as well as Uzziah personally, with incurable leprosy. A recent technical report gives evidence that this earthquake was the largest in the last 4,000 years of Palestine.¹
10. The Crucifixion in Jerusalem. When our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, a great earthquake tore the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple, and many dead saints were resurrected from their tombs (Matthew 27:51-54). The earthquake was used by the Lord to show the great salvation that had been accomplished that day on the cross. Because of the earthquake, the centurion and those with him at the cross recognized that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.
11. The Resurrection in Jerusalem. No human agency rolled away the stone blocking the opening of our Lord's tomb (Matthew 28:2).
12. The Prison at Philippi. An earthquake not only released Paul and Silas from the prison (Acts 16:26), but it authenticated their testimony. The jailer who witnessed the event recognized the Lord's hand and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"BIRTH PANGS" AND RECENT EARTHQUAKES

Recent earthquakes should receive a different interpretation in the Christian's thinking. Jesus Christ spoke of them as "signs" of His coming again to earth. He said, "There will be earthquakes in divers places" (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8), a fact now verified by the global distribution of earthquakes recorded on seismographs. Furthermore, He said this sign is the "beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8). The word translated "sorrows" in many English Bibles is the Greek work for "birth pangs." Just as we know that a woman is going to give birth to a child because of birth pangs, Jesus says we know that the intolerable anguish of God's judgment and the return of His Son is at hand.

The birth pang theme is also alluded to by the apostles Paul and John. Paul speaks in cosmic dimensions of all creation "groaning in travail" (Romans 8:22), awaiting the new birth of the world; John speaks of the sign of the pregnant woman (Revelation 12:2) and later describes the greatest earthquake since men have been upon the earth, when mountains and islands will be displaced (Revelation 16:18-20). This great future earthquake will be associated with the return of Christ to Jerusalem (Acts 1:9-12; Zechariah 14:1-11), and is described as inflicting severe topographic and geologic changes on a global scale.²

Figure 1. Global summary of ninety years of seismograph records showing the frequency and energy of large shallow earthquakes.3 A. Number of great earthquakes with measured surface wave magnitudes greater than or equal to 8.0 reported each year since 1897. B. Number of shallow earthquakes with surface wave magnitudes greater than or equal to 7.0 reported each year since 1897. C. Global energy of large earthquakes assembled from seismograph records beginning with the year 1900. Curve shows five-year running average (in ergs per year) displayed on the logarithmic energy scale.

Some people have supposed that earthquake frequency and intensity have been increasing significantly in recent times, and that this is fulfilling prophecy. This is an illusion caused lately by more frequent detection of earthquakes (more seismographs with greater sensitivity). The illusion is also promoted by the fact that earthquakes inflict greater damage on today's larger, urbanized populations, and, therefore, make the news more often. Since good seismographs went into operation late in the 1890's, no steady trend suggesting increased frequency or intensity has been demonstrated.

The birth-pang notion of earthquakes is verified by seismographic data, which shows their erratic occurrence. Figure 1 summarizes global data on large earthquakes during the last ninety years. For the decades of the 1950's and 60's, twelve great earthquakes with magnitudes greater than or equal to 8.0 occurred (Figure 1A), but for the decades of the 1970's and 80's, only three have occurred. Similarly, shallow earthquakes, with magnitudes greater than or equal to 7.0 for the period 1899-1970, averaged ten events per year, but during the decades of the 1970's and 80's, they have averaged just seven events per year (Figure 1B). Perhaps the best illustration of the erratic trend in earthquake frequency and intensity is seen in the total energy of large earthquakes (Figure 1C). A pronounced peak in global earthquake energy release occurred from 1952 to 1965. For the year 1989, the global energy release may be one-tenth the yearly release of the early 60's. Global seismic activity is very non-uniform in time; it is like waiting for birth pangs. When will there be another global upturn in seismic activity?

CONCLUSION

Earthquakes have been used of God at special times, with special people, for special purposes. Like other miracles, Biblical earthquakes were employed infrequently when no other human or physical agency could inflict judgment on the wicked, redeem His righteous people from difficult situations, or gain man's attention so God's Word could be considered. In fact, these three purposes—judgment, deliverance, and communication —should form our basis for understanding earthquakes. In our fast-paced, man-centered, technology-based society of the late 20th century, God would have us pause and consider His sovereign nature and His coming program for the world.

REFERENCES

1. S.A. Austin, "The Extraordinary Middle East Earthquake of 750 B.C.," ICR unpublished technical report, August 1989, 18 pp.
2. H. M. Morris, The Revelation Record, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1983), p. 321.
3. Figures IA and 1B after K. Abe and S. Noguchi, "Revision of magnitudes of large shallow earthquakes, 1897-1912," Physics of Earth and Planetary Interiors, 33 (1983): pp. 1-11. Figure 1C after H. Kanamori, "Importance of Historical Seismograms for Geophysical Research," W. Lee, H. Meyers, and K. Shimazaki, eds., Historical Seismograms and Earthquakes of the World (New York: Academic Press, 1988), pp. 16-33. These figures were brought current from the year 1980 to the year 1988 by a computer search of the global earthquake data base of National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado.

*Dr. Austin is Chairman of the Geology Department at ICR.

The problem here is where do you find the fine line between where the bible stops and folklore begins.

Even Pat Roberson was right in a racist kind of way.
And Rush in on his last days...

*evil stare*

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respect