Posted on 08/27/2006 12:41:00 AM PDT by Crazieman
Per Fox News
All I can say is Thank God they're safe. Thank God indeed.
...and remember the story of "Getting [a budget] Back into the African-American!" that ran in the early 90s...(was that in The Nation?) :-)
Those automated PC checkers were a hoot. I was waiting for the election-year story saying, "Throw the ~Homeless~ Out!"
Ah yes. Nice catch!
Exactly. And every rational human on earth should realize that whatever captives say on tape, is said under duress and doesn't mean a damn thing.
As well as several posters on this thread that would water down what Christianity is.
God is looking for us to willing come to Him, not to be forced to mouth words at the point of a gun. Such confessions, such testimonials, such conmversions, are meanigless according to His own word.
I work with a guy whose native country is Syria. He uses the word "God" in conversations with me in English, not "allah." But "Allah" is what he means.
In a conversation about forced conversions your point of this was?!?!?
Or do you have a point at all?
Amazing how unforgiving Christians can be. Good thing God is our judge.
Those folks that died there as a result of their true convictions to Christ will be eternally belessed for it...and they probably had little or no choice in the matter. For most, their lives were the testament and they would have been fed to lions for sport whether they mouthed a denial or not IMHO.
Others lived and continued to teach Gods Word in their time and passed it down. Some openly, some in secret.
All I am saying is that God will judge the heart, and that that is where He looks for the anser concerning a persons true faith...not at outward appearances.
LOL!
LOL!
It obviously was not a true "conversion," but that's not the point. If they were secularists (again, I don't know anything about their religious backgrounds, I am just making assumptions based on my experience with people who work in that world), they were in a sense "renouncing" Western thought and belief, but that's still a significant thing.
Lying to protect somebody else from death is certainly justifiable; there is a heirarchy of values, in that sense. But saying something you don't believe is never justifiable; however, it is forgivable. They were afraid, they just wanted to get out of there, and a few words seemed like no big deal to them, especially since they knew they could publicly renounce them afterwards.
I don't think we here or anybody else should be condemning them as if we were confident that we would somehow say and do the "right thing" when the time came. One never knows. But I do think this "conversion" episode has somehow upped the ante, and I suspect we should all be considering and praying hard about our own reaction in such a case.
Fine. Let me break out the Crayolas so you will be sure to get this.
Your original point was that Centanni did not really convert because he used the exclamation "Thank God." A Muzzie is going to think he means "Thank Allah" for the reason that I have already posted.
In post no. 767, you wrote: However, not all Christians have been or were called to Martyr themselves for Jesus or for the cause.
If Centanni and/or Wiig is a Christian, then that is precisely what they were called to do.
As usual, Brit is right on the money!
Since you included my name on this thread, you seem to be implying that I may have forgotten this historical event you mentioned about Peter denying Jesus three times. Is there a point to your comment? Are you possibly saying that because Peter did something he deeply regretted, and probably would not do again if given another chance, that it makes it alright to deny our faith and then to recant it later? I'm just curious as to what your point is.
One doesn't necessarily have to "run away." You can sidestep, back off, regroup, retreat, translocate, lie, acquiesce, cooperate, try to escape by cunning, or whatever it takes to live to fight another day.
For heaven's sake, an expert was on Fox the other day. His firm trains journalists, overseas businesspeeples and others who go into dangerous locations the techniques in how to live to fight another day, including those listed above.
The chat here by those who would just throw in the towel without using guile and be beheaded just to make a high moral or religious point is getting tedious. Martyrdom is now the purview of the other side in actuality.
In today's war on terror, you use trickery to out-trick the tricksters.
Centanni could play on my team any day. He played the game as he should have.
Enough already of the crappola posted here that the two captives "sold their souls to the devil".
Leni
Yes, my FRiend. But God also judges actions.
Think about this. Centanni and Wiig were placed in a situation where the world media was following their story.
If they are true believers (and I do not know if they are or not), it's quite possible God placed them there to bear a witness to the world.
What they did or did not do will reverberate for years to come.
I think this sets a nasty precedent. The Muzzies will continue (with more frequency) to kidnap and forcibly try to convert people. The world just got a little more dangerous.
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