Posted on 12/17/2011 2:07:50 PM PST by nuconvert
I have several recollections of Christopher Hitchens, who died yesterday at the age of 62.
The first is when I served in the George W. Bush White House and, in the first term, invited Christopher to speak to the White House staff. He spoke very well, of course, but what I most recall are a couple of things that occurred before the speech. The first is standing with him outside of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He had gone out to smoke, which wasn’t unusual — and he confided to me that he was nervous, which was. The words “Christopher Hitchens” and “nervous” don’t usually belong in the same sentence. He also wore a tie, which he indicated to me he hadn’t done in years — and, he told me, he had gotten his shoes shined before the speech, which he didn’t recall ever having had done.
It wasn’t hard for me to fit the pieces together. Christopher felt it was an honor for him, a British citizen, to speak at the White House. For all his reputation for being a bon vivant, an iconoclast, and a man not known for his devotion to protocol, he was in fact quite moved to be a guest at one of the great symbols of American democracy. It was, I thought, something of a touching moment.
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
No, even then.
Jesus loves the very people who condemned Him to death and nailed Him to the cross.
It is beyond our mortal understanding, which is why He's Jesus, and we're not.
just asking
“Christopher Hitchens, BIH (burn in Hell), you atheist slime.”
People like YOU are EXACTLY what turns people 180 degrees away from religion. You are pathetically disgusting.
I believe this as well. I believe it because of a wonderful film that adequately captures the love of God. The movie is called "The Perfect Stranger" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466923/) in which a modern-day woman is invited for dinner with Jesus, who shows up looking modern, in a suit. Once she finally accepts who He really is, she mentions that Hitler wouldn't be loved by God. Jesus refutes her, saying, "Hitler is VERY loved by God." When she expresses her incredulity, Jesus takes a salt and a pepper shaker, and puts them table-length apart. He points along the axis, and says, "This is Godliness and Holiness. You are the pepper shaker, and Hitler is the salt shaker. Obviously, you are much more Godly and Holy than Hitler, as we see by the arrangement of the shakers on the table. Do you know where God is on this scale?
She looks at Him.
"Jupiter," Jesus says. "His level is out to Jupiter. He barely can notice the difference between the two of you. He loves you both."
I was thunderstruck. It makes intuitive sense to me. God is made out of love, He can do nothing other than Love.
..who watch for opportunities to post ugly just because they can.
No he's not. He's not pathetically disgusting. He's doing the best he can with the tools he has.
Religion, for me, isn't important. Knowing God, is.
wku man isn’t an AntiFreep.....just a little confused.... cut him slack like our Father would.....
I understand that Jesus is love, really I do.
Some people, however, seem to be ignoring Hitchens and what he said in life.
Hitchens ACTIVELY sought to turn people FROM God.
Understand that I am a polite person and I know that I cannot judge...
...but Hitchens was a frequently hostile atheist activist and there probably are some consequences for that.
Personally, I believe that your view of God most closely mirrors YOUR OWN PERSONAL spiritual development. People who are at the spiritual level of anger will percieve an angry God. I come at things primarily from a place of love, so I know a Loving God.
I believe it was Dawkins that called mother Teresa a B.
Shameful post.
Right, but what folly. Would he have been able to turn you? Me? No, of course not. Those he turned from God were eager to be turned, and it is a temporary condition, because frankly, God is undeniable.
..but have you read much of the Bible...both Old and New Testaments?
We can't pick and choose what kind of God we want....
He IS.
He is God of wrath as well as God of love.
I return ALL the respect and lack of offense, but this is not my belief. You’d probably trip out if you did hear my belief system. :)
Friend Laz....I am not angry.
Again, have you read much Old and New Testaments?
I read it.
Reading it changes nothing, except.to make clear a certain amoit of personal hypocracy on the part of Hitchens.
He would be polite and respectful to the face of a religious person, and then savage and relentles in attacking their religion in print or on a public forum. Some people need a mob to back them.
Not sure why you find that laudable.
Hitchens was never an athiest. An athiest doesn’t believe in a diety, and will defend that nonbelief. Either way, what you believe or do dot believe doesn’t affect him.
Hitchens went out of his way to get into debates the purpose of which was to persuade others not to believe in any sort of deity or hereafter either. That is anti-theism.
I hope he acknowledged God and.accepted his forgiveness as he lay dying, however unlikely.
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”
Would you likewise wish the author of those words to spend an eternity burning in Hell?
No ... he turned the insecure and the willing ... much like a cult leader.
But, as I said, many seem to want to say wonderful things.
I HOPE he had a deathbed conversion... I don’t know if he did.
There has been a tone, though, in some of these Hitchens threads as though he is somehow more special than other mere mortals. Under no circumstances am I predicting where his soul may be now.
....but you never answered my question
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