[Colofornian]

From the latest @ Christianity Today:

Meet the Rio Olympians Who Put God Before Gold: A glimpse of inspiration and testimony from some of Team USA’s Christian athletes

Gabby Douglas, 20
Gymnastics (previously competed in 2012 London)

CT interviewed Gabby Douglas following the 2012 Olympics, when she became the first African American gymnast to win gold in the all-around competition. She discusses her career and her Christianity in the memoir Grace, Gold & Glory: My Leap of Faith. Douglas described how she keeps the faith during the Games: “I take my Bible with me, sometimes two of them, when I travel…. I always pray at every competition, when the judge's hand goes up I am praying, and there are little Scriptures I like to quote. That keeps me motivated when I am about to go out on the competition floor. I would say little short prayers, quoting Scriptures: I can do all things through Christ, don't fear, be courageous. Little things like that get me motivated.”

After reading thru the sludge-like comments from FR posters... CodeToad; dforest; newfreep; exnewsexspook; bgill; ac86ut89; organic panic; laweeks; TADSLOS; HomerBohn; Hulka; Sagar; Leaning Right; The ErnFormerlyKnownasBig; ladyjane; GBA; Jane Long; Senator_Blutarski; Rooster Redux; Varon; Mr. Mojo; tomkat; nutmeg; nikos1121 ...
...I'd say 80-90% of you are either simply off-base (hey, that happens; me, too on other occasions) or worse, are seriously spiritually/socially sick.

Instead of taking a deeper look @ her based upon her previous testimony...many of you want to compile a narrative of her entire life based upon...

(a) an unraised arm;
(b) the position of her fingers (fist);
(c) a few of you judged her inwardly based upon a few close-ups of her face;
(d) many of you brought race into it & linked her to others you dislike & judged her on skin color as well [Lord, look out if people of the world judged me on my white color based on the actions of a select 10+% of whites around the world]

Most of you would fit into well to the MsM with the way they try to turn very minute points about Trump into major character narratives. As such, many of these posts (certainly not all of you whom I'm pinging) are...
...a true embarrassment to FR,
...to the conservative movement as well,
...& are in need of repentance re: these specific comments before God.

I'm sure Gabby Douglas is far from perfect; I'll take her public witness of her Christian faith any day before your attempted judgmental take-downs based upon the thinnest of observations.

For those of you who claim Christ as your Lord, you've unnecessarily maligned a sister in Christ minus further investigation. [I saw two posters cite some gossip of her as the closest thing to "researching" who she is]

Bottom-line: Upgrade your public comments:
...a few of you need to knock off your racist comments...
...& the rest of you need to stop tolerating racist comments...
...overall, most of these comments are so shallow they don't even make a splash!

[Chgogal]

I second your post.

It is a shame that Freepers can’t enjoy these young women for the amazing feat they accomplished. Yes, Gabby didn’t put her hand on her heart. But she put her heart into gymnastics and is a wonderful athlete. Her mother single handily raised four children. One of them became a Gold Medalist in the Olympics. Yet, Freepers don’t have the humanity to enjoy the moment. Very sad. Very embarrassing.

[Hulka]

2012 is not now.

Good Lord (see, I am a Christian), calm down, people disagree with you (and me) all the time, doesn’t mean they are picking a fight or awful people.

[Leaning Right]

I was quite willing to read your thoughts about Gabby Douglas until I hit the term “sludge-like”. Then you kind of lost me. But you really lost me when you implied that anyone who disagreed with you might be some sort of racist.

That’s no way to make friends and influence people.

And by the way, I still stand by my post #9. Douglas smeared a lot of good people. Did you read the link I provided there?

[tomkat]

Gen. Arnold was a patriot, and then he wasn't.

- - -

If memory serves, you're some kind of zealot/loon from waaay back, and as such the balance of your hyper-formatted screed is of neither interest nor consequence to me.

IOW, p!ss off.

[CodeToad]

Being Christian has nothing to do with loving country.

Many of these racist blacks claim to be Christian while hating America. Hell, Obama is one of them!

[GBA]

Thanks for sharing your take on it. I didn't know what you had posted.

Fwiw, I generally regret something about virtually all of my posts, including this one, most likely, but also the one that made you include me in your reply.

In light of what you said, she committed an unforced error by failing to note where she was in that moment and be in that moment as a representative of the nation who sent her, in addition to being a representative of the Holy Trinity.

Due perhaps to her unforced error, obviously the commentary and pictures that others and I responded to told us a different story, a story that made your post quite a surprise for me.

Thanks for that and for the rest.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

“I was all set to say give her a break....she probably was lost in the moment and lets wait to hear her answer the criticisms with an explanation.

Then I see the photo and she has her right fist clenched down by her thigh.

Photos can trick the eye with the snapshot in time....but to me it looks like she is contemplating oerforming the black power salute and cannot muster the courage so she is doing it surrepticiously.”

THAT.... is an exact cut and paste of what I wrote.

You will note that I mever mentioned religion and only addressed what it looked like she was doing based upon a photograph.

So I have ZERO IDEA why you have lost your ever loving mind and sent attack messages to me via freerepublic threads.

But I can make educated guesses as to why you did this...because you read a book ALLEGEDELY written by a semi famous gymnast where claims are made that she is very religious and a believer in Christ.

I make no accusations related to her being or not being a believer in Christ. I also do not assume..... just because a book was written and the printed her name on the front cover and called her the author....and that she sometimes even carries “two bibles” with her when she travels.....that she somehow is above public scrutiny for her public behavior while representing my country...aka rep’n ME.

You on the other hand assum becaise she allegedly carries 2 bibles with her when she hits the road that she cannot lossibly be an American hating leftist. I would point you towards the Very Reverend Jeremiah Wright who I assume owns more than one bible and quite possibly totes 2 or more around with him when he goes on one of his “God Da$@ Amerikkka” road trips.

Again...I don’t really know what was up with her fist being by her side but I can surmise different possibilities.

So I would ask you kindly to first of all take your pious Bible thumping know-it-all accusations and stick them in your ear.

And secondly please never replied to me on this website ever again especially when I did not direct any comment your way to begin with. I’ve had my fill of Pious self-righteous two Faced make believe Christians calling me names and lecturing me in real life.

I will continue to just walk the path while others fling their rosary beads, prayer cards, and self righteous bullcrap around at everybody around them just so they can make themselves feel holier than thou.

Good day to you

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

And as far as that “racist crack” go jump in a lake....you don’t even know what race I am.....you disgust me.

[HomerBohn]

You’re in the minority.

Typical for a Colofornian. Puff away and see the magic dragon.

[nutmeg]

Why in the world have you sent long and/or multiple posts to me in a group ping? You two seem to be having some kind of argument on this thread. I'm not even remotely interested in your discussion. Please stop pinging me.