[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

...A pact made 200 years ago by a few desperate men has no bearing on the people that are suffering now.

You didn’t make a statement as to your personal beliefs with respect to the veracity of scripture but let me just say that there are many references throughout the Bible of how the actions and beliefs of people in a current age will have an effect on their future age....not just on a personal level but to their family, descendents etc.

Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

"Genesis 18: 22 – 33: God determines to destroy Sodom. Abraham argues with God, reminding God that God must live by the moral rules God established, and asks if God would destroy the guilty along with the innocent if Sodom had fifty innocent people. God says that, if there are fifty such people, the whole will be forgiven for their sake. Abraham continues haggling, bargaining God down to saving the entire city for the sake only ten innocent people. God agrees, “I will not destroy, for the sake of ten.”

Go to the New Testament - Jesus' teaching shows God's mercy for the individual even more clearly.

Too bad Pat didn't have this on his mind the other day.