Posted on 06/26/2007 8:18:26 AM PDT by RDTF
>>> The politicians will do anything to eliminate Christians and Jews.
Well this is quite a small step, if that is the goal.
I can't name any American Hindu generals or statesmen. I don't see a lot on the welfare rolls, either. No, the Hindus I see every day are hard-working entrepreneurs, computer programmers and techies, doctors. Just the kind of simple, hard-working Americans I thought conservatives and Republicans were supposed to value and respect, even if they're not Christians.
If the llegitimacy of your deity or deities is based on the United States Senate, your faith is pretty f-ed up from jump.
Okay, so there's that corner heard from -- the subset of Christians who consider it a grave insult to recognize and respect the existence of other religions in this country. The ones who howl and cry not because they are denied far or equal treatment, but because they are denied a privileged position.
They don’t have to believe everything I do; truth is;TRUTH whether people want to believe it or not..
Jesus is the ONLY way; not per my opionion, but based on the true Word of God that all have sinned and are in need of a savior. It’s not based on my opinion but on The Bible which is based on the truth created when God formed the world!
Recognize it or not (doesn’ mean it doesn’t exists)!
There is no "subset" of Christians who believe the way I do about pagan religions. All real Christians, whether Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Coptic, etc, believe that Jehovah of the Judeo-Christian bible is the one and only eternal God who exists or has ever existed, and that His Son Jesus Christ is the only gateway to salvation and eternal life. If a so-called "Christian" actually believes otherwise, he or she can not be a real Christian. All other religions are the work of Satan designed to deceive men and women and keep them from biblical truth and faith in Jesus Christ, and no true Christian can have any respect for Satan or his many false religions.
But we Christians sorrowfully recognize that those pagan religions exist in the US, and that their adherents have the same Constitutionally protected right to worship their false "gods" that we Christians have to worship the one true God. But we can't respect their false religion or their false god(s), even though we respect and pity the deceived men and women who have been duped by the enemy of their eternal souls, and who are under condemnation by God unless they repent of their idolatry and accept the truth of the Gospel of Christ.
Do you really want to wade into that particular swamp?
Then you should sorrowfully recognize that these poor, decieved souls are as American as you are, possessing the same rights, as invested in this country and its government as you are.
Someone has to. To leave such statements unanswered just feeds the widely-held suspicion that behind the mouthed platitudes about respect for other faiths and legal immigrants, conservatives and Republicans harbor bigots who grudgingly (or in epow's word, "sorrowfully") tolerate other cultures and faiths as long as they don't get all uppity and demand full rights and equal treatment and stuff.
Posts like epow's are just a couple steps short of a call to Christian jihad and support for a Christian Taliban. I am not qualified to police Christian ideology. But I am qualified, and in fact obligated, to stand up for a free, pluralistic and constitutional Republic that respects and values all its citizens.
...and besides, it’s good practice for when you want to argue pot laws with a subscriber to High Times.
You can’t argue points or faith/belief. The more the person who believes argues, the more he or she feels they are strengthing their faith. Very often faith is strengthened in or through conflict.
Whether it's pointless depends on the intended audience. Many online debates -- or for that matter, most in-person public debates -- are playing to the lurkers. Get both sides out there, and no matter which side (if either) a listener chooses, at least they know that no position is uncontroversial or axiomatic.
No matter what folks believe, I think they make better decisions and judgments if they've at least heard, and preferably considered, both (or more than two) sides. I'm not just playing devil's advocate -- I believe everything I wrote. But i also don't believe it's pointless to voice my opinion, even if there's a zero percent chance of convincing the person I'm addressing most directly.
Okay then, have at it.
You might want to try quoting The Jefferson Bible.
America is finshed. We have lost our way.
No such thing.
They could use some group processing or a locational, though...
To destroy it?
However to refuse to acknowledge that other people can have their own path to salvation and have a happy productive life following their religious beliefs is total bigotry. What ever happened to live and let live. You can try and influence other people to your way of thinking but trashing everyone else as a lesser human being is not what God intends for you to do.
I'm not trashing anyone as a lesser human being Maneesh. I respect Indian people as much as any other race including my own, which I freely admit has a very poor record of human kindness and compassion for others less fortunate.
But according to the Judeo-Christian bible, which I firmly believe is the inerrant Word of the only true God, I cannot and do not respect or admire any other religion. According to the Word of my God, all religions other than Christianity and Judaism are false and the products of Satanic deception.
I'm sorry that you and other Hindus on this thread are so put out by my belief on this issue, but I didn't intend it to be personally offensive. If you or any other Hindu, Buddhist, Shintoist, whatever, had been taught from your youth and are firmly convinced that all other religions are blasphemous to the deity of your religion, I think that you would not be able to respect Christianity as a viable religion.
Ah but they are here because of our freedom, liberties, and capitalistic democratic freedoms and opportunities. Not, because they, they themselves produced these things. Now that they are here, Thank God and not Shiva, that they are gaining and keeping and contributing to our culture, free enterprise and democratic systems. As long as that is true, they and other legal immigrants are very welcome, commended and respected by Christians, agnostics or anyone. Surely you understood that?
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