Actually I never said anything about America's benevolence in "terms of following Christ"...specifically.
But now that you mention it, along with providing more aid, food and assistance in disasters to others than any other nation, we also send more Christian ministries around the world...
Remember when Jesus said that the woman who dropped in two mites had given more because she gave all that she had?
Sure...but having poor people send 2 cents to help starving Rwandans will still not save their lives. It was the enormous gifts from the U.S. that actually did any good for the people who needed the help.
I think the point Jesus was making about the widow's two mites was regarding giving and personal sacrifice when it come to the individual's committment.
We can't just say we (American Christians) are better because we give more money. The men in the photo below are risking their lives to be reading these Bibles. The Sudanese Bible translator was executed by Muslims for translating the Bible.
There have been far more American missionaries executed for their work than any others.
In any case my argument was not in about who is a better Christian than another.
But to those who wanted claim America was being punished for it's wickedness in the terror attacks, I was presenting the proof that when it comes to charity, human empathy and benevolence...in real terms that actually mean anything to other nations...America is by far the most remarkable and good nation in the history of the world.
The idea that some people want to point their self righteous fingers and blame the victim for these horrendous Sept 11 attacks..is absolutely ignorant and vulgar.
I don't think the writer's statements in any way resemble Jerry Falwell's. I think Jerry Fallwell pointing out sins of the unsaved without pointing out sins of the church was unbiblical, but I've been accused of blaming the victims because I agree with everything Don Feder says in his article Invoking God or everything Rev. Steve M. Schlissel says in Shaken and Stirred.
Rev. Schlissel speaking: Some Christians think it will be easy to take back ground for Christ in the wake of this fiasco. This is naïve. People are not looking to Christ. Oh, they are ready to use the church, like Rocky Balboa did on the way to his championship fight: he stopped at the priest’s apartment and yelled to his third-floor window, “Father, t’row me down a blessin’.” In the short term we well may see a return to “religious” exercises. But is that a return to Christ and His Word?
I shake because we seem not to know how to speak with humility before the God of the Bible. I shake because the airwaves have been filled with unending and hyperbolic bravado, without the slightest hint that a tragedy of this proportion would be a perfect occasion for self-examination. I shake because the meaning of the events is being interpreted for the masses by the non-reflective talking heads. I shake because Americans want immediate answers to life’s most difficult questions, and they think they have been given the answers by images and emotions. I shake because we don’t know the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Brotherhood of Man. ..
I SHAKE FOR THE CHURCH. for some of these same reasons. We have a church today that does not know where to stand. It does not know that it ought to look in the mirror; it is not even sure where the mirror is. The Bible is the mirror (James 1:22-25), not the television. One cannot gain insight into our current crisis, nor understand the opportunities it may present, by feeding on scraps of diced information supplied by anti-Christian newsroom editors. We’re already being made to look like oddballs because our stomachs turn at the ecumenical services we are supposed to embrace.
Me speaking again: As I said before September 11, the church needs to fear God more than it fears the world.
This nation is given to us by God and we who call ourselves Christians need to start learning some humility, instead many talk as if He should thank us.
Ignorance was bliss when my prayer life consisted of whining to God about living in a small apartment or being misunderstood or hating my job; etc., etc. I'm sorry but it shames me that there are Christian brothers and sisters of other countries who can be joyful and grateful to God for the little that they have and we Christians think we are saving the world by sending Christian tv shows by satellite to the little people who aren't as rich as we are. One of those programs with a famous televangelist was promoting the teaching that Christians should have three cars, including a Mercedes, in their garage. There's nothing wrong with prosperity if it is God's will for us, but do we love Jesus enough to keep his commandments? Those were His words not mine. Or do we only remember Him when the going gets rough and demand our blessings because we are Americans.
There was a poll of Christians done by a Christian scholar recently and I believe the figures were 25% of people who called themselves born again Christians agreed with abortion and homosexual, divorce is higher in the church than without and adultery is almost matching that of the world outside the church. Our churches no longer preach obedience and repentance and without that we are victims of doctrinal confusion.
I'm talking here about the condition of the church, the backbone of America.