Our Hangout

Thanks for the update. We've been wondering!

Missing you both,
Sandy

Joy and I have been on pins and needles over here! We are all praying for you three! Happy Birth Vun! Eddie, remember the shortcut!

Beautiful Pics guys. Congrats on your new little one. I can't wait to see pics.
5 healthy babies you can't ask for anything better than that. Truely blessed.
Ed I requested you on facebook. I updated pics last weeks of the kids.
Take care Guys.
Love
Mary-Anne

Sheesh my friend do you have to weird us out with that pic lol.

Ewww grosse.

why do you people even post? Grow up already! Of course I might be talking to twelve year olds, in which case, never mind.

Sheesh what's you problem? I thought you're supposed to be a pasture. I'm entitled to my opinion and you put the picture out there. I thought you'd have a sense of discretion than to show THAT!

"THAT, sid is my beautiful wife carrying my beautiful son. As as a husband, father, and pastor, I'd show that picture any day my friend. And if in your world that shows a lack of dicretion...then hanging around here probably isn't going to be the kind of place you'll enjoy.

"THAT, sid is my beautiful wife carrying my beautiful son. As as a husband, father, and pastor, I'd show that picture any day my friend. And if in your world that shows a lack of dicretion...then hanging around here probably isn't going to be the kind of place you'll enjoy.

You have to admit that a random picture of someone's fat belly with a belly button that's ready to pop is hardly what anyone expects coming onto a Christian blog. Where's your tact? It's not like she's a model on the front page of Vogue magazine or something. I'd have to agree with Sid on this.

3 Points TIM.

1. Nowhere in this blog do I claim that this is a Christian Blog. (if by Christian you mean a place where people who call themselves Christian debate the latest fashions of Christendom - not saying there's anything wrong with that, but this blog is not and never claimed to be that, although I might discuss something I think about occasionally, Christian or otherwise. I am a Christian father or a Christian family, so that will inevitably be reflected here. Where it measures up to everyone elses "Christianity" or not.

2. This is our family blog. So, what you will find here will mostly pertain to our family life, and so it could be photography, or events or happenings or birthday parties or other family things. So as a family blog, the place where you're most likely to find a picture of my pregnant wife will be here, in that sense this was not in any way, a "random" picture.

3. As for my tact, I'm not sure how walking into my blog (my house) and telling me that a picture of my pregnant wife hanging on the wall is a "random picture of a fat belly with a belly button about to burst." is a tactful way to point out my fault. My initial reaction is go get the plank out of your eye Tim.

That's not even mentioning the vogue comment, which could be understood as outright offensive.

Since you touched on the Christian thing, let me compare what I see vs. what you see. This is a picture of a child of God. Her name is Vania. And she's my beautiful wife who I have been married to for 13 years. The child pushing out the belly button which looks like it's about to burst, that is my fifth child. His name is Emerson. And God created him too.

But here's the most important thing to me...
I know that if there's one person that absolutely loves this shot it's the One who created both the children in the picture.

And that, my friend, is beautiful, more beautiful than a lot of the stuff that makes it to many covers of Vogue. And most importantly, it's good enough for me.

I've been to your church before and I know you're a Christian pastor. I welcome your freedom to be you but why should you be beyond question and immune to criticism? The blogosphere is open to everyone and I'm giving my opinion. It's okay if you disagree but why be so smug about it. Also I wasn't trying to be tactless by describing the reality. I'm sorry since obviously you were offended (shouting out my name in tall caps). I saw Demi Moore naked and pregnant once on the front cover of Voque but she is a beautful actress. All I meant was it seems unseemly to exhibit 'that' on your blog as far as I'm concerned. It appears I'm not the only one too. We use our bodies in other very natural ways but we don't show everyone. I appreciate that it's good enough for you and I'm okay with that despite my strong opinion.

Just a couple of things here Tim, I know we're not going to see eye to eye on this one, so we're going to have to agree to disagree.

But let me clarify a few things...

The uppercase name wasn't put there with any intent. I don't do that, you can go back through my posts if you'd like, but I don't use uppercase to "Scream" as it were. Just want you to know that wasn't the intent, for whatever it's worth.

Yes, I was offended. I would hope that you could read through your post and, in the very least, see that your wording left lots of room for misinterpretation. When my wife read it, how I read it was exactly how she understood what you were trying to say. And no, I never showed it to her.

I wasn't trying to be smug, okay, I've read my response and see how it could be interpreted that way. I apologize for any smugness, I was, honestly trying to point out how I view the "reality" as opposed to the reality you presented. My point, I don't post things on my blog blindly and without thought. Fair enough not everyone is going to agree with my decisions, and it's absolutely your right to disagree and have an opinion. I struggle however when those opinions are worded in offensive ways. As I originally felt it was.

I don't know whether this matters, but I'll say it anyway, I don't for a second think that the fact that I'm a Christian or a pastor means I'm beyond question or immune to criticism. And if that's what came accross, then for that I really apologize. I think, however, when criticizing someone else, we have to be very careful how we word our criticism so as to the best of our abilities, leave the least amount of room for misunderstanding as possible.

The only other thing I'd say is this...I've been blogging for five years now. When you do that you get used to all kinds of people dropping by. And there's people that drop by not just to share their opinion on something, which I try to welcome, even if it's different than my own, but much of the time, people just want to say what they feel like, however they feel like and think that's okay. And that I disagree with. Everyone is welcome to share their opinions, but how they share it is just as important as what they share.

If there was no offensiveness on your part, then I apologize for any over reaction on my part. But I feel your original post leaves lots of room for understanding it as I did.

Having said all that, I still disagree with your opinion, even though you and Sid seem to agree. Numbers don't matter to me. If I find ten people who agree with me, that doesn't disqualify your opinion and vice versa. So having heard your opinion, I have to say, I still disagree with it so, in the end, we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Not sure there's much more that I could say on this one. Sorry, for where I might have misunderstood.

Thanks a lot! Beauty must definietly lie in the eyes of the beholder then. I to could understand if it was a pretty actress or movie star but let's be humble here! In all honesty with no rudeness meant I felt sick when i first saw the picture. Why would you subject the rest of us to what you could see on your own privacy. Sheesh!

Now that I read some of this stuff, it kinda makes me sick to see this photograph of your own wife. It's immodest and uncalled for. I think you posted it rashly and now you're afraid to remove it. Jus because she's preggers doesn't mean its right to do. Because you can doesn't mean you should.

This thread is all about what I hate about blogging. People who hide behind computer screens, so they can say whatever they want, however they want, and still pretend to be expressing valid view points. This doesn't go for everyone commenting, but for quite a few on this thread.

My point, I hope, is that you more than likely would not do this, this way, if you were talking face to face or happened to be visiting someone's home, or if you were just talking me to personally.

What I've realized after quite a few years of this forum is that what I'm saying will fall on deaf hears, because you're not interested in dialogue, and you don't really care about the picture. If it bothered you that much that you're coming back to say the same thing two and three times, your concept of reality is pretty messed up.

So, you didn't like the picture. You absolutely have a right not to like it and as long as I give you the privilege of commenting, you have the right to say so. But since I've stopped hearing anything that is creative or constructive it's time to end this conversation.