What is "A Course in Miracles", and why is Oprah Winfrey offering these daily courses via her satellite radio program and promoting the courses on her show? Is it a new age philosophy, a religion, or something entirely different?
Whatever it is, it would be a mistake to ignore what Oprah promotes. Her TV show, magazine, website, and other media ventures that are part of her massive Harpo Productions corporation have huge readership, so anything she promotes (especially as frequently as she has promoted A Course in Miracles) will result in huge sales.
An article on TheLife.com explores what A Course in Miracles is all about: Oprah and A Course in Miracles. We encourage you to read it, and invite you to post your responses in the comments on this blog.
Embarrassment. Shame. Disgust. These ugly words don’t begin to describe the horror of what it felt like to be beat up as a 14 year old. I can still remember my classmates gathered around cheering for the ones delivering the powerful blows. As the beatings continued, I looked for a place deep within myself where I could pretend that the beatings weren’t happening to me.
I didn’t know what I had done to be hated so much. As an adult, I still don’t know. I didn’t understand why tormenting me was such a fun event for everyone else. The beating seemed to last forever and finally I was left laying on the ground. Beaten and bruised, I stood up to make my way back to the school building. I knew this day would forever change my life.
My peers accomplished something that day. They stripped me of my self-worth and made me hate myself as much as they hated me. I believed I deserved it. I was too scared to tell my family or any of the teachers. It happened a lot that year.
In the years that followed, I went through a lot of pain because I disliked myself so much. So much hurt could have been avoided if I would have dared speak out. I was convinced that no one would hear me if I did. Now, as an adult, I can see that my thinking was wrong. I did not deserve to be beaten-up. I had done nothing wrong and if I had gone to someone in authority they would have helped me. I was not as along as I felt.
School beatings have been in the news a lot the past few days. How can students and adults stand aside and watch as children are tortured? What can we do to stop this abuse? What if the student was one of your own friends? What if it was you?
Before the Internet, most famous people became well known because of exceptional ability, talent, or achievement that was particularly noteworthy. Nowadays, any idiot with a webcam can become famous (and many do). How many of the popular Internet memes in the video do you recognize?
Question to ponder: Are people making significant achievements in the fields of humanities and sciences being subjugated by the popularity of "Internet people", whose obscure talents may make us laugh (often at the person instead of with them) yet add little to our practical lives or life fulfillment?
Earlier this month, the world celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day on the 40th anniversary of Dr King’s historic speech where he dreamed of equality for people of all races. The issue of race has come back prominently into the news in Canada with the announcement that the Toronto District School Board approved moving ahead to created an "Afro-centric school":
The debate over Africentric schools in Toronto is raging [due to] a controversial step to help struggling black students with alternative education. By a vote of 11 to nine, school trustees agreed on an "operational model" for a black-focused school. The school would focus on the experiences and contributions of African people with a goal of discouraging students in the black community from dropping out.
A study done in 2006 found that 40 per cent of black students do not complete high school. [Source: CTV News]
Do you think a race-focused school will help? Is it appropriate to create schools which are tailored to specific races, or should public schools attempt to present a unified and diverse curriculum that is applicable to everyone in modern multicultural North America?
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We’ll try to answer your toughest questions and give you some resources that can help too. It’s free and private, 24/7. What do you want to talk about?
Embarrassment. Shame. Disgust. These ugly words don’t begin to describe the horror of what it felt like to be beat up as a 14 year old. I can still remember my classmates gathered around cheering for the ones delivering the powerful blows. As the beatings continued, I looked for a place deep within myself where I could pretend that the beatings weren’t happening to me.
I didn’t know what I had done to be hated so much. As an adult, I still don’t know. I didn’t understand why tormenting me was such a fun event for everyone else. The beating seemed to last forever and finally I was left laying on the ground. Beaten and bruised, I stood up to make my way back to the school building. I knew this day would forever change my life.
My peers accomplished something that day. They stripped me of my self-worth and made me hate myself as much as they hated me. I believed I deserved it. I was too scared to tell my family or any of the teachers. It happened a lot that year.
In the years that followed, I went through a lot of pain because I disliked myself so much. So much hurt could have been avoided if I would have dared speak out. I was convinced that no one would hear me if I did. Now, as an adult, I can see that my thinking was wrong. I did not deserve to be beaten-up. I had done nothing wrong and if I had gone to someone in authority they would have helped me. I was not as along as I felt.
School beatings have been in the news a lot the past few days. How can students and adults stand aside and watch as children are tortured? What can we do to stop this abuse? What if the student was one of your own friends? What if it was you?
TheLife.com takes all possible measures to protect the personal information of its users. We store any personal data given to us as securely as possible, and NEVER sell, rent, give or otherwise provide that personal data (including e-mail address) to anyone outside of our organization.
We are thelife.com, a product of TruthMedia Internet Group, a ministry of Power to Change Ministries, formerly Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada. Campus Crusade for Christ is a worldwide evangelistic and discipleship ministry, with our Canadian headquarters in Langley (B.C.) and with representative local ministries in over 160 countries. Our organization is comprised of the named ministry as well as a number of local member ministries (such as Athletes In Action, Family Life, etc) that cooperate at various levels. Throughout this document “we” and “ours” refers to the organization as a whole as well as to individual field ministries, and “you” and “yours” refers to any and all public site users. The information we collect from/about you
We collect a variety of information from our users in different ways through our online resources. This allows us to provide better service to you, to personalize our web sites for individuals, to personally contact you if necessary, and to ensure the effectiveness of our various electronic ministries.
If you visit any one of our web sites we may place a cookie on your computer. (See section on cookies for an explanation). In addition, we may collect IP addresses for purposes of system administration, to calculate aggregate statistical information, to identify general usage records, and to measure traffic patterns for all visitors to our web sites. These do not identify individual users, but may be used for general statistical and auditing purposes.
If you request electronic information via one of our web sites, or if you send us a comment or question via e-mail, we may keep your e-mail address in a database. This allows us to send you a reply or to provide further information pursuant to your request. For further information about e-mails, see section below on our spam policy.
If you request printed material via one of our web sites or by e-mail, we will require your name and mailing address to send this to you. You may also be asked to provide an optional e-mail address.
If you donate to one of our ministries, purchase materials from one of our resource centers or register as a conference attendee through one of our web sites, we will require your name, address, phone number, billing address (if different), credit card name, credit card number and credit card expiration date. You may also be asked to provide an optional e-mail address. If you have any other contact with our organization, we may ask for and record your personal details including an optional e-mail address.
We will only store this information within our own secure internal databases. We may combine this information with any other relevant data held in our databases to enable us to potentially provide you with personalized service.
We NEVER sell, rent, give or otherwise provide this information to any outside entity, except to comply with legal requirements or with legal process. We may also disclose this information to the appropriate authorities if we believe in good faith that your activities represent violations of the law or may be causing injury to or interference with — intentionally or unintentionally — our rights or property, other users or their rights or property, or anyone else.
We may use this information internally within our organization or within our member ministries to send you information by post or by e-mail to inform you about ourselves or to solicit donations. In the event that you reside outside of the country of Canada, we may make this information available to one of our ministries or representatives in your locale so that they might initiate contact with you. You may at any time inform us of your desire not to be contacted by us, and we will abide by your stated preferences.
We make every reasonable effort to protect your personally identifiable information by storing it in secure databases and by using secure servers to receive/transmit your sensitive data. However, this does NOT apply to personal data – including sender and/or recipient e-mail addresses — contained in ordinary e-mail notes while these are en route between your computer and our servers, during which time these notes must be considered public data.
We will never send you e-mail notes containing any sensitive or private information such as credit card details, and strongly urge you to never place such information in e-mails. We internally make all staff, contractors and volunteers aware of this privacy policy, and that violation of this policy is subject to disciplinary action — up to and including termination.
You give us permission to collect and utilize as here described any of this personally identifiable information by making use of any of our online resources, including but not limited to:
browsing any of our web sites;
requesting information or materials via a web site;
sending us an e-mail;
completing a donation through any of our web sites;
registering for a conference through any of our web sites
purchasing materials through any of our web sites.
Cookies are tiny files containing small bits of information that your web browser stores on your hard drive at our request. Cookies enable us to remember you and your personal information from one session to another, thereby enabling us to provide better individualized service to you. Cookies also enable us to remember any information you gave us so you don’t have to re-input it on each subsequent visit.
Most browsers accept cookies, but you can alter your browser settings to disable that feature. If you do you can still access most features available at our web sites, but you might have to re-input more data between sessions.
Spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail sent — usually for marketing purposes — to people who either have no reasonable expectation of receiving it or have specifically requested it not be sent. We consider spam to be an invasion of privacy and will never send unsolicited e-mails of this type.
Our electronic mailing policy is “opt-in”, so we will not send you any e-mail without your express permission or your reasonable expectation. All of our electronic publications are sent only to those who have either expressly subscribed to them or have “opted-in” to receive further electronic mailings from us.
If, for some reason, we have your e-mail address without knowing whether your preference is to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of further mailings, we may send you an initial unsolicited e-mail asking whether you would prefer to “opt-in” to further mailings. We will always make it easy for you to “opt-out” of receiving further electronic mail from us.
If you believe that the personal information that we hold about you is incorrect, or if you wish us to remove any information held about you, you may contact our Privacy Officer to ask us to update or delete that personal information. If you do not want us to use the personal information gathered about you through various means to contact you, you may request that we restrict or entirely eliminate sending you any post or e-mail, other than what is required for legal reasons or operational necessity. To update or delete your information please contact the Privacy Officer by:
telephone at [1] 604-514-2000 Ext. 240
post at Box 300, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6C 2X3
e-mail at privacy@truthmedia.com
For security reasons we will require verification of identity before taking any action, and you must be aware that certain information held for legal reasons or operational necessity may not be deleted.
If you would like more details about this privacy policy, clarification of any of the details provided here, or if you have comments or suggestions concerning this privacy policy, please contact our Privacy Officer by:
Although our web sites are primarily targeted at adult users, we may also choose to provide online resources for younger persons. Safeguarding the security and privacy of children is of paramount importance. Therefore, we will obtain verifiable parental consent prior to the collection of any personally identifiable information about children, and will not knowingly give children the ability to post publicly or otherwise distribute personally identifiable contact information without prior verifiable parental consent.
Any personal data voluntarily disclosed by you on bulletin boards, in chat rooms, in e-mail notes or in any other public forum provided by our organization, could potentially be accessed and “harvested” by third parties and is therefore not subject to our privacy policy. In addition, external web sites linked to by any of our web sites may not adhere to our Privacy Policy, and you should refer to their Privacy Policy to understand the rules under which they operate.
We offer the opportunity to advertise across a number of our sites through banner ads. We are currently accepting ad graphics in .jpg and .gif format, sized 250×250 pixels for thelfie.com, but can also accomodate other banner ad sizes (750×80 pixels, 120×240 pixels, 150×300 pixels) for many of our other sites.
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We do not advertise in the following areas: dieting, dating, adult/sexual content, gambling, alcoholic beverages, cosmetic surgery, political/dogmatic commentary, specific medical conditions or therapy, MLM or home based businesses. We do not participate in affiliate programs. All advertising is at the sole discretion of the site owner and we reserve the right to refuse any advertisement for any reason.
Advertising Inquiries
For more detailed information on rates and ad space availability on our websites, please complete the Advertising Inquiries form below. Thank you.
The purpose of our chat room and discussion board is for:
1) evangelism (explaining, exposing & leading people to salvation through Christ)
2) discipleship (encouragement, prayer & building up of fellow Believers)
Please follow these stated guidelines:
Wherever there is a community, There are certain expectations of acceptable behavior among its participants. Our chat rooms have both hosted and topic-oriented discussions as well as times of open chat. During moderated chats, time restraints make it necessary to maintain focus and depth. We ask that all comments and questions pertain to the discussion at hand. TruthMedia sites encourage online communities characterized by grace and truth. We desire to foster discussion of significant spiritual questions. While we ask that each participant exercise grace toward other views, we reserve the right to limit content or involvement which is inconsistent with our Statement of Faith.
By entering the Chat room, you are agreeing to these terms.
Failure to abide by these Terms and Guidelines will be handled according to the discretion of the Administrator in the room at the time, or according to “Trouble Reports” received. This may include being expelled or banned from the room.
* You the user agree to…
* thelife.com & Cohost (and all with administrative control)
* Chat Manners
* Evangelism in the Chat Room
* The Monitor
* Advertisements/Promotion
YOU THE USER:
1. It is assumed that chat users have read and agreed to these Terms of Service & Guidelines and, by occasional rereading of them, will be aware of changes to the text.
2. Chat users understand the commitment to provide a safe and sensitive chat environment. However, all chatting is done at one’s own risk. While we are committed to maintaining respect and good manners, we cannot be responsible for the safety of children in our chat rooms. Women Today chat room is primarily for women, and thelife.com is for mixed audiences. (more about men in chat below)
3. Chat is not to be used for any unlawful purpose, any posting of foul, vulgar, obscene, or sexually explicit language, racial epithets or hateful words, or variations on such words spelled so as to suggest such words. Such users will be expelled immediately. Inappropriate talk of sexual nature or efforts to use the chat room as a dating service, will also result in banning from the room.
4. Nicknames that are inappropriate will either be banned, or be asked to change the nick, according to the discretion of the administrator in the room. (This includes any names that include sexual words or sexual connotations.)
5. Our chat rooms are public rooms monitored by a team of administrators, during various times.
6. Consistent disruption of the focused flow of dialogue or acting in a manner that negatively affects other members or hosts will not be permitted.
7. We reserve the right to edit or delete any interactive material that in violation of our Terms of Service.
8. The opinions expressed are **not necessarily** those of the host site or administrators.
We reserve the right to respond to the violation of any of the Terms of Service & Guidelines including issues discussed below.
thelife.com AND CO-HOST: (these instructions apply to all administrators present in the room at any given time, including open chat.) The administrators are a team of people hand selected by our Directors, to serve as administrators and leaders in our chat rooms. They direct chat discussions, as well as to deal with disrupters. For their protection, and the protection of the room, their user names are not revealed in open chat. If you happen to know one of their user names, please respect their privacy and protection by not discussing this with other users, NOR revealing this information in open chat at any time.
THE MONITOR:
Occasionally, there is a monitor in the room. The Monitor is there for your protection, as well as to deal with various situations that come up in chat, according to the stated purpose of the room. Please respect requests the Monitor makes of you. For safety purposes, general use of the private chat feature is currently disabled. Hostesses, monitors and administrators in the room may use PC to address an individual chatter as needed. Please respect any request made of you by an administrator using private chat. You will be unable to respond in PC to the administrator. If a response or explanation is needed, you may use the chat-feedback form to contact the site administration.
SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR:
Any one of the following activities will be viewed as slander/gossip/dissention, and will result in banning from the room.
* Emailing other users about decisions of the chat administrators
* Discussing in open chat or pc the decisions of the chat administrators
* Discussing other chat users in any negative or unkind way.
* Sharing news about others, positive or negative. (Allow people to share their own stories. If another user has asked you to share a message for them, please be sure to let the room know that you are sharing at their request, and that the content of the message is in keeping with the purposes of the room.)
* “Attacking” another chat user in any way, whether it be under your normal user name, or with a different user name.
Issues you have with other users are to be addressed to chat@christianwomentoday.com not with other chatters in any way, shape or form.
When you have an issue with another chat user, please try to resolve it between you and the person, and if that is not possible, then please take it to the leadership of the room.
Coming in the room as multiple users at the same time, will result in immediate expelling.
using any nicks or words that include sexual connotations in an inappropriate way.
The following attitudes are also required, as they make the chat room a safe place for all visitors. Violation in these matters will result in a letter of reprimand, but continued activity in any of these areas will result in banning.
* Be culturally sensitive. We have visitors from all over the world.
* Enjoy learning from others, and apply grace. Many different denominations participate, and many people are at different places in their spiritual journey. Please apply grace to each, especially in “Non-essential” doctrines. The purpose of the room is not for debate.
* Because the chat room is like a park, we do sometimes get men in the room. While we do not encourage them to stay, we should still be welcoming to them, and see if we can minister to them by a) answering their questions b) inviting them to write email mentoring for a specific problem. c)being aware that they also need the Lord, and may be seeking to grow spiritually. It is not our intention to make CWT co-ed, but neither is it our intention to make CWT so unwelcoming that we chase men away. Men who break the terms of service will be dealt with.
* Don’t flood the chat window with lots of messages, (5 or more in a row, or very long messages) preventing other chatters from participating in the conversation. Be careful with the use of humor, so that it doesn’t distract from users who wish to share more serious concerns.
* When there are times of praise & worship-please pause when other users enter to greet them..and see if they have a need they wish to share before you continue. As the purpose of the room includes evangelism, please be **aware that there could be “seekers” in the room at any given time.**
* Do not develop or include users on email lists, without their express permission. Emails are considered private information. Official chat email lists are available through the chat newletter, and joining the “pray-er’s” email list.
* Do not press your point of view regarding someone’s problem to the point that it is argumentative. People are free to make their own decisions. Opinions are welcome, but to make negative comments when the person chooses not to agree is not acceptable, even if it is an important decision. If someone’s choice is hurtful to you, please feel free to leave the room and return at another time.
* AVOID USING ALL CAPS. Using all caps is the virtual equivalent of shouting and should be done sparingly. If you need to emphasize a word, use asterisks, like *this.*
* Stay on topic, and honor the leadership of the room..
* Evangelism is, of course, welcome, but please be sensitive to the Spirit when seeking to share the Gospel. Having a listening ear, and caring heart is often necessary before the Gospel can be presented. Also, offer to pray for the needs expressed. Evangelism in the chat room: Please read and follow these stated guidelines.
ADVERTISEMENT AND PROMOTIONS:
Please refrain from advertisements or promotions of personal websites, business or asking for money for any purpose in open chat, or in pc. Users who persist in advertisement/promotion/asking for money will be banned.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR POSTING LINKS IN CHAT OR ON THE DISCUSSION BOARD:
We allow users to post helpful links in response to questions in our interactive areas with the following conditions:
1) Links must be consistent with the purpose of the site.
2) Links may not be advertising or considered advertising. Links to personal sites or business are not permitted.
3) Links must be posted in response to specific questions or needs within the conversation.
4) Repeated posting of a link or posting of links that is disruptive to the conversation is not appropriate and will be considered spamming and can result in banning.
5) When an administrator requests links to not be posted, please honor that request.
6) Discussion board registration may not include website links. Such registrations will be deleted.
7) Third party links are not necessarily endorsed by the host of this site. Please use discernment when reviewing links given to you by others.
On the discussion board: Registrations that include websites will be deleted. Posts with links considered advertising or that are in direct conflict with the purposes of this site will be removed.
In the chat rooms: Repeated posting of a link or posting multiple links is considered spamming and will be dealt with accordingly. Posting links which are not related to the conversation is inappropriate. Honor the request of any administrator in the room if you are requested not to post a link. Continued posting is a violation of Terms of Service and may result in banning from the room.
Tips on specific use of the features of the chat room can be found in our Chat Tips
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