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Man Martin

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Man Martin last won the day on July 18 2016

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  1. I like what Sommerset Maugham said about this topic in Human Bondage. I will misquote because I don't care to try looking it up, but the idea was that life can be viewed as deterministic in retrospect, but must be LIVED as though we have free will. When I look back over the long chain of events that brought me here, I can see a pattern woven together like an oriental carpet - Maugham's metaphor - and perhaps see the working out of God's plan for me, but here in the now, on the very precipice of the future, the next step, I must allow myself to believe, is fully mine to take, and mine alone - otherwise, fatalism might hobble me from doing anything at all; after all, why bother if everything's been worked out in advance anyway? Nevertheless, accepting that our lives are mostly or entirely shaped by determinism could be useful to a Christian. It reminds me not to judge. I do not know what forces have been brought to bear on the bigot, the misanthrope, or the fraud to make him the way he is. Perhaps, within whatever scope of action is allowed him by heredity and environment, he is a better, truer Christian than I. Nor can I take credit for my own virtues, whatever these are: I had no say in choosing my parents, my teachers, and my surroundings. The best I can hope for, is always to choose in each forward step into the future to act as if I have a choice, and to choose God.
  2. I'm a member of St Martin's in the Fields Episcopal Church in Atlanta where I write and teach. Currently in my third year of EFM where I came across Bishop Spong, whose work has come to me as a great relief; I used to fear I was "flying under false colors" to call myself a Christian at all, when so many things others accept as true, I privately disbelieve. I am also a novelist, my third book, The Limongello Syndrome, comes out Spring 2017 from Unbridled Books, and though I resist proselytizing through my fiction, matters of faith and the relationship between man, God, and fellow man always come into play. I don't intend this forum to promote myself, but I will also mention my comic strip, Inkwell Forest, appears daily on Comic Sherpa, through Gocomics.com. Looking forward to being part of the group! Man Martin
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