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The Discipline of Suffering
with Gary Thomas | April 12, 2006
Gary Thomas helps us sharpen our view of suffering.
On today's broadcast, author Gary Thomas, a professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, helps us sharpen our view of suffering.
Gary Thomas is a writer in residence at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, and an adjunct faculty member teaching on spiritual formation at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon and Houston Theological Seminary in Houston, Texas. He is the author of 20 books, including When to Walk Away, Sacred Marriage, Sacred Pathways, Cherish, Sacred Parenting, and the Gold Medallion Award-winning Authentic Faith. He has a master's degree from Regent College, where he studied u...more
With Gary Thomas

Bob: Which are you more committed to – your happiness or God's purposes for your life? Here is author Gary Thomas.
Gary: How do I face sufferings and difficulties? It's "Thy will be done" in whatever situation. So whether I'm well or sick isn't as important as God's will being done; whether I'm employed or unemployed; whether I have good kids or difficult kids; all of that doesn't matter as much as the fact that I am called to live out Jesus's prayer, "Thy will be done."
Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Wednesday, April 12th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. And it's okay to pray as Jesus did in the garden, "Lord, help," as long as we add, "Thy will be done."
And welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us. You've quote, many times, as we talk about marriage, you've talked about Matthew, chapter 7, where Jesus talks about the house that's built on the rock versus the house that's built on the sand. Both of them have to endure the storm, and one of them stands, and the other one falls.
I came across a quote from Jonathan Edwards that makes a similar point. He said, "If you want to know whether a building is going to stand strong, you look at it when the wind is blowing hard. Similarly, we can list the reality of a man's Christian practice when he is under the trials of God's providence." It's easy to be a Christian when the boss gives you a raise, and people are clamoring for your spiritual counsel, and your wife thinks that you're the greatest guy who ever lived, and your children adore you. I mean, anybody can be that kind of Christian, right?
Dennis: Right.
Bob: But when life is throwing hardballs and curves, that's when our faith is really put to the test.
Dennis: And I think, for a lot of us, we think suffering is one of the optional courses. You know, when you go to high school or college, there are certain courses that are required courses. Well, trials, troubles, difficulties, are all a part of, I think, the main course of following Christ. And if you try to get out from under it, you're running from real life.
Gary Thomas has written about this, and I'm glad he joins us here again on FamilyLife Today. Gary, welcome back.
Gary: Thank you, Dennis.
Dennis: He has written a book called "Authentic Faith, the Power of a Fire-Tested Faith," and so if you sense the radio getting a little warm as you listen to it, or your computer as you listen online to FamilyLife Today, there's a reason for that. We're dipping into the fire of that which tests our faith. Gary and his wife have three children. He has written a number of books, but this one, I think is – well, Gary, frankly, I think this may be one of your most important works, because you're dealing with the basics of the Christian faith. How do you live the Christian life?
I want to ask you a basic question. As Christians, how should we view suffering?
Gary: Inevitable and helpful – those are two things. Jesus says in John 16:33, "In this world you will have trouble." Now, that's as close to an absolute promise as you can get. But then the apostles followed that up in the Book of Acts. They said, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." They lived with the sense that not only were some problems going to arise, but they would have many problems. Accepting it as inevitable, I believe, helped them to see a value in suffering that we tend to deny today. Some people think that faith means you never face troubles. When I think biblical faith says "Faith is displayed through troubles on how you receive them and surrender to God's work in your soul." As you said, it doesn't take a lot of faith to figure out how you're going to spend $2 million. It does take faith to pray and figure out how you can spend – when you think you don't have enough money to cover your current needs.
Bob: There is a verse in the great hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," that's all about suffering. It says, "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, thy grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not harm thee, I only design the dross to consume and the gold to refine." The reason the heat gets turned up in our life is because it has a purifying, a refining, effect on us, doesn't it?
Gary: Absolutely it does, and sometimes the effect is more subtle, and we use that as an excuse that we don't really need it. I think most Christians know there are certain scandalous sins that are not appropriate for a believer. We certainly shouldn't be using certain type of language in front of our children, we shouldn't be gambling away the mortgage money. We know that. But sometimes we think that that's where it stops, and we forget that seemingly little things like petulance and impatience and harshness, and those character qualities that can so poison FamilyLife and relationships and a church, in general, we think those aren't as crucial, and yet those are often the things that God wants to burn up through difficult times, because He knows how destructive they can be.
Dennis: I'm picturing a mom right now, maybe she's gotten some bad news about a child; perhaps a businessman, there are challenges at work, maybe big-time challenges in his marriage or at home; and, certainly, as the sparks fly upwards from the fire, we are born to have trouble. Okay, we've established that. Help me in dealing with my trouble today, Dennis. I want to know how should I view it? How should I respond to it? And one of the ways that the Apostle Paul exhorted us to deal with it was through rejoicing, giving praise, giving thanks in all things. That's not a natural response to trials.
Gary: The verse you're referring to, I believe, would be Romans, chapter 5, verse 3 through 4 that Paul says we rejoice in our suffering because of what suffering produces. It leads to perseverance, which leads to proven character, and Paul didn't look at just what suffering did in the immediate moment. He looked ahead. It gives me the chance to develop perseverance, and when you think about it, perseverance assumes you want something to stop. It means that something unpleasant is going on – no for a little time. That's the thing – a lot of us want to put up with a little time. Perseverance assumes it's ongoing, and then proven character comes from that. So what that tells me is that proven character, the type that shapes me and that forms me, assumes there is an ongoing discomfort in my life.
And what I've noticed, and you may have noticed this, too – don't trials usually come in bundles? I think of my pastor – very godly man who, in one year – it was incredible what he had to face – the death of his father, which is a huge passage of life that just knocks the wind out of you. He was close with his dad. Then he faced kidney stones, which, for a guy, is about the most painful thing you could imagine. After that, it wasn't long before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which, you know, it's a humiliating experience to be treated with that and to go through that. And then in his church, there was a person on staff who had to be dismissed for moral failure and some other issues that were going on. And I was thinking, he faced a decade's worth of troubles in about 18 months.
And it often happens that way. It's not just that a child rebels. A child rebels when you're going through a medical problem, when your marriage is going through a difficult time, when there's some financial pressure, and I think one of the reasons for that is perseverance isn't just facing one little annoyance. Perseverance comes when God puts us in a place where there is literally more than we can handle so that we have to get to the point where we say, "Lord, I give up. I'm not strong enough to endure all this."
Dennis: And, you know, in Romans, chapter 5, that passage you quoted, I think there's a couple of things God's trying to get our attention about here. He is letting us know there is a process. The process is tribulation brings about perseverance, perseverance brings about proven character, and then proven character results in hope.
But knowing that process is there is a form of comfort.
Gary: Yes.
Dennis: But it doesn't sustain us, it really doesn't. I've been there. It is our relationship with Christ, where we keep on going to Him and saying, "Okay, God, you must walk with me through this period. Lead me, guide me," and what He's done is, He's given us the Scripture to guide us. We should be careful of never betraying the truth of Scripture as we go through a time of suffering.
But, secondly, he has not just left us with the cerebral knowledge of the Bible. He has spoken to the needs of our soul in a profoundly personal way by giving us the person of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, if we are a follower of Christ. He is the third person of the Trinity. He manifests God to us and through us; comes to comfort us; He comes to teach us; He comes to guide us; to direct us; to give us wisdom. And when I couple these two together, the process that I know is at stake in my soul where something good is going to emerge out of this time I'm going through but then, secondly, I know that I am riveted to Him – getting to know Him through the Scriptures and then, secondly, experiencing Him through the Holy Spirit. Then at that point, you know what? Suffering becomes very purposeful. It's not some random thing happening in your life.
I've remarked many times, I wonder how someone who doesn't follow Christ – how do they interpret life? I mean, it's one thing to have a flat tire and go, "Well, that was bad luck that I ran over a nail." But when a kid gets leukemia; when a wife finds a lump; or a husband gets fired; or a child gets off in the ditch as an adult; how do you handle that? How do you piece that together? How do you make sense out of that? I think Christianity is the only way a person can sanely embrace life and come out on the other side a better person.
Bob: Gary, when the Bible talks about knowing Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings, that's a phrase that sounds really strange to us – the fellowship of sufferings sounds like a contradiction in terms.
Gary: But it's a precious spiritual reality. I think it's most displayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. The prayer of Jesus has changed my life, it's so simple – "Thy will be done." How do I face sufferings and difficulties? It's surrendering to God saying, "Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come," you know, basically, to go into The Lord's Prayer from there, but basically whether I am sick or in good health, my desire is that I learn to be a surrendered Christian, whether that's with children who love me and appreciate me or whether it's children who rebel against me; whether I am in a delightful marriage or a distant marriage; whether I am respectably employed; whether I am frustratingly unemployed, the prayer of my life is "God, Your will be done." What does it mean to love You and serve You in whatever situation? And, for me, what that means is the biggest question of my life has been answered – what is my purpose here on earth? To do God's will.
So whether I'm well or sick isn't as important as God's will being done. Whether I am employed or unemployed; whether I have good kids or difficult kids, all of that doesn't matter as much as the fact that I am called to pray and to live out Jesus's prayer – "Thy will be done."
Bob: John Piper made the statement at one point – he said, "The world is not going to look at us in prosperity and say, 'Gee, I want to be a Christian because when good things happen, they say praise the Lord.'" He said, "But instead, when they see us go through suffering and maintain a faith and a peace and a hope," he said, "That's when the world is confounded. That's when they scratch their head, that's when they say 'what is it about you? What's different about you?'" So it may be that God moves us through a season of suffering for the refinement of our own character, but God may also be moving us through a season of suffering so that, around us, people will look and go, "There's something different about the way he handles that."
Dennis: Bob, you're illustrating someone who handles suffering right, the way God wants us to handle suffering. But, Gary, sometimes people refuse to suffer. They detach from it. I think it was D.L. Moody who said, "Suffer? I don't want to embrace suffering. When I see trouble coming, I want to turn around and run away as fast as I can."
Bob: That's my natural tendency. You get a letter one day from the IRS, okay, and it says …
Dennis: Now, this didn't really happen?
Bob: This happened to me – a letter from the IRS, and it says, "We've been looking over your taxes, and a tax return from three years ago, you made a miscalculation, you owe us $800." I think it was $400 for the original tax plus interest now on the money, because you haven't paid it for three years. I remember opening that envelope and looking at it and going, "There must be something wrong here." You know, I just put the envelope down and walked away and thought, "They'll write me in a couple of days and say, 'Oh, we made a mistake about our mistake. You're okay.'" See, I will move quickly to denial as kind of my default mechanism.
And some people, Gary, move to denial and then call it faith. You know, they say, "Well, whatever," but they're not really embracing suffering, they're not walking into it, they're not reaping the benefit that comes from those trials, because they're just kind of pretending it away.
Gary: We do, and I think one of the main motivations behind the reason for that is that we assume that we've arrived. I'm amazed at my pride. I'm going through a difficult time, and what helps me is to remind myself, "You know, Gary, obviously, God sees you have some issues that need to be burned off that you're not seeing." And why do I think I'm finished? Why do I think I don't have those things? And God has to turn up the heat, and it's just learning, for me, it's just this decision to surrender and say, you know what? I'm not there. God's working on me. He's got this issue, and I've got to face this instead of run.
Bob: So when we get the diagnosis of a disease or when we get the letter from the IRS, and we take a financial hit, or when we walk into a valley, and we go, "Woops, I'm in the valley of suffering. I took a wrong turn here." Should we, at that point, become introspective? Is it right to say, "Lord, why do you have me here? What are you trying to teach me?" Is that where we ought to go when we're there?
Gary: Well, instead of why, I think the right question is what? I have a wonderful friend, a godly man named Darrell Smith [ph]. He grew up as a weightlifter. Now, for those of you who lift weights, he used to bench press 450 pounds, which is about 400 pounds more than I can do. I mean, it's incredible even for a bodybuilder, and his greatest fear was always that he would lose the use of his legs. He married a woman who had had a difficult background, and he wanted to be her hero. He wanted to lift her up, but within two years of being married, he was diagnosed with MS. Today he does go around on a scooter. He's lost most of the use of his legs. He has to walk very slowly with a cane.
And he talked to me about how, when he was going through this in the early days, every day after the diagnosis, he's praying, "Lord, please deliver me from this. Please heal me." He was involved in full-time ministry with youth, he wanted to do this, he wanted to do that, and finally he felt like the Lord getting through to him saying, "Darrell, you're acting like MS is the biggest issue in your life." He said, "Well, yeah." And he said God said, "It's not. There are other things I want to build into your soul." And he said from that day on, instead of saying, "Lord, why?" He started praying, "Lord, what? What is it that you want me to learn? What is it that I need to know? What is it that isn't complete in my soul that You're trying to complete, that You're trying to do?"
And Darrell just has this powerful ministry. He calls it "The Ministry of Sitting Around." Because of his situation, he'll just go, and he'll sit outside of Starbuck's. They bring the orders to him because they know what he wants, and they know him well enough, and it's amazing the people that God brings to him, because he's just there waiting to be used by God. And in one real sense, his weakness has become a tremendous strength. I say that with some embarrassment, because knowing what he faces with MS on a daily basis, I don't want to minimize the daily trials and the troubles that he has. But God is using it and, I tell you, the testimony that he has is amazing.
Dennis: We all know of a businessman who is written about in the Bible. He lost his children, lost his business, lost his health – the story of the temptations last for 41 chapters in the Book of Job. And then at the end of the book, there is this pronouncement – Job answers the Lord, and he declares to Him, he says, "I know that you can do all things." He has found God to be sufficient and that "No purpose of Yours will be thwarted."
And he goes on to kind of muse – you can almost hear him say, "You know, I used to talk about You in the third person. I now know You, hear You, and see You because I walk with you through desperate moments." And I think when you boil it all down and after God's through with our character, what He is interested in doing in our lives is He is interested in us getting to know Him, because He is going to be the One we spend eternity with. And He is introducing Himself to us through life's little interruptions and through life's big distractions, and He wants us, in the process, to know Him so that we'll trust Him.
I know I'm not through suffering, I'm not through learning the lessons I've got to learn, but that through the suffering that Barbara and I have been through, and it's minor compared to what others have gone through by comparison, but I do know God in a way I would not have known Him any other way, and you can introduce others to Him. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, "comfort others with the comfort with which you've been comforted." And, I promise you, the way you'll do that is by introducing them to the God you've gotten to know.
Bob: You know, I was looking at the way that you expressed this on the back of the book, Gary. You say, "Authentic faith is about something other than a smooth ride through a fallen world. Rather, authentic faith is shaped and tempered and purified in the flames of struggle, and that will help you rise above the shallow attachments to fix our hearts on something that is of eternal worth." And that ought to be the goal and the desire of our lives – not to love this world or the things in the world, as the Scriptures teach us. Although the world keeps trying to seduce us every day, and the only antidote for that is the renewing of our minds with the Word of God.
I want to encourage our listeners to consider contacting us to get a copy of the book, "Authentic Faith," by Gary Thomas. We've got it in our FamilyLife Resource Center, and we'd be happy to get a copy out to you. Go to our website, FamilyLife.com, click the red button that says "Go" on our home page, and that will take you right to the area where you can get more information about Gary's book. There are other resources that we list there that you may find helpful including a small book by our friend, Elisabeth Elliott, called "Faith That Does Not Falter." And if you're interested in getting Gary's book and Elisabeth's book together, we'll send you at no additional cost the CD that includes our conversation this week with Gary Thomas on these subjects.
Again, all the information on this is on our website at FamilyLife.com. You can order online, if you'd like, or call 1-800-FLTODAY for more information. That's 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY.
And when you do get in touch with us, someone may ask you if you are interested in making a donation to the ministry of FamilyLife Today, and the reason for that is because we are listener-supported, and folks like you who listen and who also contact us to make a donation, you're the ones who make it possible for this program to continue on this station. This week when you make a donation of any amount, we'd like to say thank you with a copy of the Jesus film on DVD. Now, this is the movie about the life of Jesus taken from the Gospel of Luke. It has been viewed by billions of people worldwide, and in addition to the Jesus film on this DVD, there is a special feature called "The Story of Jesus for Children," that's designed for elementary-age kids to help them understand the story of Jesus in a unique way.
We'll send you this DVD as our way of saying thanks when you support the ministry of FamilyLife Today this week. You can do that by calling 1-800-FLTODAY to make a donation and, when you do, just mention you'd like the Jesus DVD, and we'll send it to you. Or you can donate online, and if you do that, as you fill out the donation form, and you come to the keycode box, type the name "Jesus" in that keycode box, and we'll know to send you a copy of the Jesus film on DVD. And, again, let me say thank you in advance for considering partnering with us in this ministry. We appreciate your financial support, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Well, tomorrow we are going to hear part one of a message from our friend, C.J. Mahaney, on "The Power of the Gospel." And if you have thought that the Gospel was simply the message that non-Christians need to hear so that they can become Christians, I want you to tune in tomorrow and find out why you need to hear the Gospel over and over again.
I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine. We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today.
FamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
________________________________________________________________ We are so happy to provide these transcripts to you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider donating today to help defray the costs?
Copyright © FamilyLife. All rights reserved.
Living Beyond Yourself: The Discipline of Selflessness
with Gary Thomas April 11, 2006
Gary Thomas encourages those who know Christ to live unselfishly for Him.
Fire-Testing from a Loving Father
Gary Thomas explains the difference between authentic faith and cultural Christianity.


STANSBERRY: "THE AMERICAN JUBILEE (Debt Forgiveness) IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK; WILL THE FED ANNOUNCE THE DIGITAL DOLLAR ON 03/21/2019?
The FEATURE this week is taken from Porter Stansberry's book, THE AMERICAN JUBILEE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK which cites the Biblical reference to the forgiveness of debt every 49 years or so in order to avoid an overthrow of an existing government by an indebted population. This event is timely in America because our Federal debt and personal debt has grown greater than ever in the past 10 years than in the past 231 years. Student loans alone for 44 million borrowers now exceeds $1.5 trillion and there are 3,000 defaults/day. The Government is not only ineffective in dealing with the problem, it helped create it. Hopelessness amongst the poor is already causing riots which will only grow with the promotion by Progressives for political gain. We also cover the possibility that the Federal Reserve may announce next week that the US will adopt and phase in a digital US dollar and begin calling in all $100 bills. Other topics include: "Has China made major concessions to settle the trade and tariff dispute"?, The Tax surprise, Wells Fargo still doesn't get it, VPLM US Fed Court decision next week, Apple loses infringement case vs Qualcomm, The College Entrance scheme, Justice Democrats and their puppets and The End of Global Warming-The floods are coming!


Do you like how the table is taking shape? Have you ever seen chisels take curvature over time? Let me know in the comments section.
Next time, I'll glue the feet onto the legs!
This is quite an adveture. I hope you are very proud of this.
Thanks for following along! I'm enjoying this build immensely and I am very proud of my work on this table. Can you wait to see it on its feet? That is going to be a very exciting and special moment!
Love the look of the feet. Wonder how they'd look with a 5º bevel on each long side.


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ACCEPTED

#### According to
The Catalogue of Life, 3rd January 2011

#### Published in
Magazin Ges. naturf. Freunde, Berlin 8: 34 (1816)

#### Original name
Sporotrichum flavissimum Link, 1816

### Remarks
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Join National Water Dance 2018_Dancing for Water in NM
by Carolyn Tobias | Mar 4, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Keshet Dance Company dancers together with pre-professional and community dancers of all ages and abilities invite the community to join the National Water Dance 2018 – Dancing for Water in New Mexico live stream event.
Saturday, April 14th 2pm MST
Mill Pond Refuge, Saw Mill
Together with the New Mexico Water Collaborative, join over 1,500 dancers across the nation, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada and they move for the movement of water. Here in New Mexico we are drawing attention to the water crisis with the message of conserve, recycle and reuse!
"Dancing for Water" 40 States Dance Across America, Puerto Rico, Canada & Mexico
WHAT: 3rd Bi-Annual National Water Dance, with Keshet Dance in New Mexico
WHEN: Saturday, April 14, 2pm MST (Live streamed)
WHERE IN NEW MEXICO: Mill Pond Refuge, Sawmill Community Land Trust, Albuquerque NM [1751 Bellamah NW, #1101] For complete list of locations, please visit nationalwaterdance.org
TICKETS: Free & Open to the Community
Coming together on Saturday, April 14 at 2pm MST are 1500 dancers from across the country to perform a site-specific dance at a river, a bay, a lake, the ocean, or any water site nearby. Representing the water crisis in New Mexico, Keshet Dance has partnered with the New Mexico Water Collaborative to show movement in a specific location that celebrates the collaboration between various stakeholders to install an onsite wastewater treatment system and reusing the recycled water to support an urban green space.
Yvette Tovar, Executive Director, New Mexico Water Collaborative (NMWC) says, "We live in an arid climate with a new normal of less snow in the winter, less rain and hotter temperatures in the summer. We have a responsibility to conserve, recycle, and reuse water. Projects like Mill Pond Refuge demonstrate viable solutions to water scarcity in our state."
Keshet Dance Company and Keshet Pre-Professional dancers will join over 100 other professional dance companies, colleges and universities, private dance schools, elementary, middle and high schools, across the nation uniting to take responsibility for protecting our Water.
The Mill Pond Refuge treatment system recycles 2000 gallons daily of toilet flushing water. All communities have a responsibility to use water efficiently. In Bernalillo County approximately 60% of water usage is for outdoor landscapes.
"The Keshet Dance and New Mexico Water Collaborative partnership highlights that we are all the solution to issues of water scarcity. Think about how much fresh water is pumped for your showers, toilets, laundry, cooking, landscapes etc. Think about opportunities to capture rainwater for reuse in your landscapes. Think about how much water your washing machine or toilet uses!" Silva Laukkanen, Keshet Adaptive/ Integrated Dance Director and National Water Dance participant said.
"We're all connected," said NWD Projects producer, Dale Andree, founder and artistic director of National Water Dance. "What we've done is create a community of dancers across the country, including Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico, who want to involve dance in the national conversation about water issues. For the April 14th event, each dance institution will engage with their community creating their own event; and connecting everyone is the internet, where dancers share movement phrases, personal choreographic processes, and local stories about water. On Saturday, April 14 at exactly 4pm EST everyone will begin their performances with the same phrase, uniting us all through movement."
"The fact that something like this is going on in so many different states is quite breathtaking and in the same breath it's humbling to be a small part of the big picture," Danella Bedford, teacher, Conchita Espinosa Academy, Miami.
About New Mexico Water Collaborative: NMWC is a nonprofit focused on solutions to water scarcity in NM by supporting water conservation and reclamation technologies. We are in a water crisis and consuming water at a rate that is unsustainable. New Mexicans use more than four million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture, industry and domestic use. That is about one million gallons of water per person. Water is a finite natural resource. Conserving water is crucial to ensure that water resources are available to sustain New Mexico communities presently and in the future.
About Keshet: Established in 1996, Keshet's mission is to inspire and unite community by fostering unlimited possibilities through dance, mentorship and a creative space for the arts. In 2013, the Keshet Center for the Arts was created as a home base for Keshet's production season and as a resource for Keshet's national and global performing arts partnerships; a welcoming space to house Keshet's community education and engagement programming; and the central location for the Keshet Ideas and Innovation Community (KIIC), a business incubator and resource center for arts entrepreneurs.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Being forgotten is a strange thing to strive for. After all, many thousands of people throughout history have achieved incredible feats in an effort to be remembered. However, in a world where everyone (from a future employer to your mother-in-law) can carry out a simple Google search on your name, the ability to have certain parts of your past expunged can be attractive.
The desire to 'curate' what comes up on Google when others search for your name is certainly understandable. However, were Google (or the law) to allow individuals full control over what does (and doesn't) appear amongst their Google search results this would defeat the object of "Googling" someone in the first place. A balance must be struck between protecting the individual's human rights (in particular the right to a private and family life) and the right of the general public to access information in the public domain.
This article will examine the recent High Court "right to be forgotten" decision in NT1 and NT2 v Google LLC, where two people asked Google to remove search results relating to their criminal pasts.
The Google case concerned two (unconnected) businessmen. NT1 had been sentenced to four years imprisonment in the '90s in relation to "a controversial property business that dealt with members of the public". NT2 had pleaded guilty to conspiracy involving unlawful investigation methods relating to his involvement in "a controversial business that was the subject of public opposition over its environmental practices". He received a short custodial sentence. Both men had asked Google to de-list the press stories which were published at the time of their convictions and sentencing, and subsequently. When Google refused, NT1 and NT2 brought claims against Google, which were then combined to form the Google proceedings.
The Court rejected NT1's claim. The data NT1 was asking to have removed related to crimes committed by him in the course of his business. Given the nature of NT1's crime, the fact that he continued to deny his guilt, showed no remorse and was still in the same line of business, the Court found that the information should continue to be available so as to reduce the risk that he would continue to mislead the public as he had done in the past.
NT2's claim, however, was upheld. Crucially, NT2 admitted his guilt and "expressed genuine remorse" and was no longer operating in the same field that he was at the time. The Court found that information of his crime and punishment had "become out date, irrelevant and of no sufficient legitimate interest to users of Google Search to justify its continued availability".
For most people, bringing High Court proceedings against Google for removal of a damaging link will not be cost effective. The wider legacy of this case will therefore be determined by Google's attitude toward removal requests; it may be that Google are now more willing to remove articles which fall within the realms of NT2's position.
Where an individual has historically pleaded guilty to an offence and the conviction is now 'spent' these are factors which should be highlighted when asking Google to remove items from search results. This case seems to suggest that protesting one's innocence (particularly where the risk of further offending exists) is not the best tactic.
Google is not the only source of information available to future employers. In some occupations (for example, those involving working with children) a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be carried out on individuals before they take up employment. For information about challenging the inclusion of information on a DBS certificate, please see our article here.
If you have any questions about making a right to be forgotten request, please contact myself, Mike or Polly in our Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team.
Note: the content of this article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be taken in any specific circumstance.


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Home > Events > Paging Through Berlin
Paging Through Berlin
DATE: 13 September 2011 TIME: 06:30 pm LOCATION: Deutsches Haus at 42 Washington Mews, New York University
Eva C. Schweitzer, founder of Berlinica Publishing, New York, presents the newest Berlinica-book, The Berlin Wall Today, with a preface by Green Party Parliamentarian Michael Cramer. The Berlin Wall Today is a photo book about today's remnants of the Wall. Also, Berlin aficionado and photographer Stefan Maria Rother presents his new book on Kurfürstendamm (at Berlin Story Verlag). These two new photo books give fascinating insights into Europe's buzzing and vibrant cultural capital. Moderated by the Berlin raised American artist Rachel Libeskind.
Biographies:
Dr. Eva Claudia Schweitzer is a journalist, book author, and publisher, bridging the German- American cultural sphere. She attended the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, earned an MA in German Literature, Journalism, and American Cultural History at the Free University in Berlin, and completed her Ph.D. at Humboldt University in Berlin. Originally based in Berlin, she now divides her time between Berlin and New York City.
Her newest venture is Berlinica Publishing LLC, a New-York-based publishing company devoted to all things Berlin.
Stefan Maria Rother is a Berlin based photographer. He studied at International Center for Photography in New York and at the Lette Verein in Berlin. Rother has been published in many of the most prestigious German magazines (Spiegel, Stern, Focus), is the author of 13 books, and has exhibited his works in numerous galleries.
Events at Deutsches Haus are free of charge.
Send an email if you would like to attend this event to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu


All of Glacier Steel's roofing and siding panels are finished with specialized, highly durable coatings in a wide variety of colors. Seventeen colors, including darker ones, employ the "cool roof" technology which reflects heat back into the atmosphere, reducing energy usage while extending the useful life of your roof and structure. The colors shown here are website representations only which will vary somewhat from the actual color finish. Glacier Steel will gladly provide you with a printed colors sheet that is much more accurate, and then actual steel samples to help you make a final choice.


I will be introducing the appearance of the 'Grist' poets at the Ted Hughes Festival this year. The festival is held in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, where Ted was born.
The reading will take place 2-3pm on Saturday 20 October.
The 'Grist' venture, sponsored by the University of Huddersfield, has a Facebook page. If you are interested in contemporary writing in English, please 'like' our page.
This is a song by Half Man Half Biscuit. It appears on the album, 'Achtung Bono'.
The description of Chatteris (a place in Cambridgeshire) sounds very much like Horbury, where I live.
By HMHB standards, this is one of their more melodically sophisticated songs.
The lyrical sophistication, and the surrealism, are, of course, ever-present.
What we get is a commentary on what goes on in Chatteris, super-imposed on a love-song about the difference between the narrator and his putative love. This is nothing more nor less than the economic potential difference between Liverpool and Cambridge.
And it is genius. This is motivated by the same forces that shaped "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and "Nowhere Man". The fact that the originators of this intellectual property have not earned as much money as their predecessors is merely an accident of history.


This workshop will focus on cultivating techniques which will allow the practitioner to sit for meditation with moderate movement in order to keep the focus on the depth of the meditation and less upon the aching body.
First Hour: Warm ups; seven positions which train the Being for body movement. Five Tibetans Sequence of five deep body movements which allow action in small quarters. Sun Salutation; movement needing space and feeling the expansion of the opening body.
Second Hour: Walking Meditation or Vipassana Meditation; Guided meditation which allows for labeling the consciousness. Releasing the layers of everything except emptiness.
Third Hour: Yoga Nidra; Guided Sleep meditation for deep relaxation and body awareness.


Reinstatement of Little Marlow Lakes and the discharge ditch. Habitat restoration for fish and invertebrates together with community work in the creation of a country park.
The Abbotsbrook, Little Marlow - reduce urban diffuse pollution arising from Marlow's Globe Business Park together with introduction of woody debris to promote turbulence raising dissolved Oxygen levels so improving habitat for fish and invertebrates.
Hedsor Fish Pass – The EA propose to install a fish pass at Hedsor weir to provide a passage for fish up the river.
Temple Island SSSI. Land owned by the Henley Royal Regatta but a restoration project is being undertaken by Sonning Common Green Gym volunteers to control invasive species and desilting of water courses to provide fish refuges.
Kings Meadow Recreation Ground. Minor riparian works to ecology by improving plant communities create habitat and prevent erosion by passing boats. Potential for community involvement.
Thames Valley Park. Potential for expanding habitat that already exists on the south bank of the river.
Bisham. Potential for wetland habitat improvements.
Henley STW. Modifications to works to improve discharge quality.
Hennerton Backwater. In channel habitat improvements including LWD and canopy opening.


text:
Occupy America and Friendly Fascism: Life in the Corporate Police State
by John W. Whitehead on Nov 01 2011
"Law is no longer what it was intended to be – a set of rules equally binding everyone to ensure that outcome inequalities are at least legitimate – and instead has become the opposite: a tool used by the politically and financially powerful to entrench their own power and control the society. That's how and why the law now destroys equality and protects the powerful.
What we see with the protests demonstrates exactly how that works. The police force—the instrument of law enforcement—is being used to protect powerful criminals who have suffered no consequences for their crimes. It is simultaneously used to coerce and punish the powerless: those who are protesting and who have done nothing wrong, yet are subjected to an array of punishment ranging from arrest to pepper spray and other forms of abuse.
That's what the two-tiered justice system is: elites are immunized for egregious crimes while ordinary Americans are subjected to merciless punishment for trivial transgressions."—Glenn Greenwald, author ofWith Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
While the Occupy protests are an encouraging sign that Americans are not completely oblivious to the creeping despotism that is overtaking the nation, time alone will tell whether the Occupy Wall Street movement and its companion protests throughout the country amount to anything more than an expression of discontent on the part of the 99% with the so-called 1%. What has been made clear, however, by the naked aggression of the corporate-state against these protesters is that the 1% is protected by its own security force—the police—funded ironically enough by the very 99% against whom they are waging war with pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas and other instruments of compliance.
For example, in a September 2011 incident, the New York police responded to Occupy Wall Street protestors by throwing people to the ground and using pepper spray on nonviolent protesters trapped behind a barricade. One protestor, Kelly Brannon, described the scene, "They put up orange nets and tried to kettle us and we started running and they started tackling random people and handcuffing them. They were herding us like cattle." Another protestor was arrested because he had been chanting "let them go" as people were handcuffed. According to news reports, journalist Luke Rudowski was rammed in the stomach with a club and thrown to the ground, despite repeatedly making it clear that he was with the media, while two Fox News reporters were hit with pepper spray and at least one police club. The NYPD have since become savvier. Rather than using brute force to discourage the protests, they have resorted to freezing out the protesters by confiscating their electric generators and the fuel that runs them.
Police in Oakland used tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, sound cannons and flash bang grenades to disperse the Occupy Oakland protest. An Iraq War veteran, 24-year-old Scott Olsen, who was taking part in the protest, was struck in the head with a police projectile. His skull was fractured and he was listed in critical condition due to his brain swelling. When protestors came to his aid, they were driven back by a flash bang grenade.
Police in Atlanta rounded up more than 50 protesters who had been camped out in a city park as part of Occupy Atlanta, while police in Philadelphia arrested 15 individuals engaged in a sit-in in protest of police brutality as part of Occupy Philadelphia. San Diego Police arrested 44 protesters at Occupy San Diego, confiscating all personal belongings and all supplies and food that had been donated.
These police tactics bring to mind something journalist Daniel Kurtzman asked years ago. "When the government…begins to stamp out the freedom of dissent that is the hallmark of a democratic society," he wrote, "can there be any turning back?" Indeed, these attempts by police to stifle the various Occupy protests serve only to reinforce what Bertram Gross warned against in his 1980 book,Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America:
Faceless oligarchs sit at command posts of a corporate-government complex that has been slowly evolving over many decades. In efforts to enlarge their own powers and privileges, they are willing to have others suffer the intended or unintended consequences of their institutional or personal greed. For Americans, these consequences include chronic inflation, recurring recession, open and hidden unemployment, the poisoning of air, water, soil and bodies, and, more important, the subversion of our constitution. More broadly, consequences include widespread intervention in international politics through economic manipulation, covert action, or military invasion. On a world scale, all of this is producing a heating up of the cold war and enlarged stock piles of nuclear and non-nuclear death machines.
Although the message of the Occupy protests is somewhat muddled at times, they do underscore the fact that the state of the nation has not improved in the 30 years since Gross penned those words. In fact, it has grown worse, from economic concerns to threats to our civil liberties, an increasing military presence in our daily lives, and the rise of a police state enhanced by a surveillance complex that invades virtually every aspect of our lives.
Gross, a presidential adviser who had a role in the expansion of government during the New Deal era, warned that the rise of friendly fascism would be a subtle progression. As Gross noted, "Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties, or men on horseback will miss the telltale clues of creeping fascism… In America, it would be super modern and multi-ethnic—as American as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards, and apple pie. It will be fascism with a smile. As a warning against its cosmetic façade, subtle manipulation, and velvet gloves, I call it friendly fascism. What scares me most is its subtle appeal."
Indeed, added Gross, "the subversion of constitutional democracy is more likely to occur not through violent and sudden usurpation but rather through the gradual and silent encroachments that would accustom the American people to the destruction of their freedoms." The elite will use "triplespeak" to keep the public in line, feeding the people myth and jargon to divert them from the truth. The apathy and naivety, or possibly the cynicism and hopelessness, of the American citizen would contribute to his own oppression.
At a time when most Americans are feeling the pain of an economy continuing to plummet, the Occupy movement's motto has a universal appeal:
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
However, what the Occupy movement's "We are the 99%" motto fails to recognize is that the problems we face have to do with much more than economic inequality between the haves and the have nots. Similarly, the Tea Party, which started off with similar zeal, failed to recognize that the problem was not merely Big Government but, rather, the merger of Big Government with Big Business. Inflation, unemployment, job insecurity, career anxieties and conditional benefactions are all, as Gross points out, forms of terror deliberately perpetrated upon a populace in order to control them. Thus, until we can gain some consensus about the true culprits behind our problems, any movement to change the status quo is destined to fail or be co-opted by political forces.
Lest we forget, most police states have come about through the democratic process, and their leaders come into power citing platitudes of religion, morality and order, asking the citizenry to put blind faith in the government. As Gross reminds us, "Big Business—Big Government partnerships, backed up by other elements, were the central facts behind the power structures of old fascism in the days of Mussolini, Hitler, and the Japanese empire builders." Our present crisis is no exception. In fact, William L. Shirer, author of the monumental The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, once predicted that America may be the first country in which fascism comes to power through democratic elections.
"As I look at America today," Gross remarked in 1980, "I am not afraid to say that I am afraid." More than 30 years later, I fear that we have even more reason to be afraid.
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