That is one of the most ridicules and divisive arguements I have ever heard.
As I recall, Christ said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
There must be a lot of sin free Christians here because I see a lot stones being cast..
The correct translation of that is generally acknowledged to be:
"Let he who is without this sin cast the first stone."
The sin in this instance being whoremongering, of which all of the pharisees that were present were guilty.
The admonishon was against hypocrisy, not punishment.
What was the purpose of this meeting?
- To make Bush/America appear tolerant of the Islamic faith; stress the message that this is not a war on Islam (from a "Christian" nation).
- To acknowledge a muslim presence in this country. They vote (but will they rememeber this in 3 years?)
- To pray for the world's conversion to Islam (let them all glorify "allah"). This is Rammadan after all.
I can take issue with the goals of this meeting. I can take issue with actions that occcurred at this meeting.
I cannot pass judgement as to what will happen to anyone, anywhere in this world, when they die. Some have faiths, some don't. You choose your path. Maybe none of us our right but some of us here have our convictions. We have seen others who purport to share these convictions seemingly betray them.
Bush does not need to wait until a separate religious ceremony to offer his prayers of peace to his God publicly. This would lead to a truer peace settlement between Islam and the Judeo-Christian world. We have to allow each other to co-exist. Being silent when they express the hope that one day we will all be like them solves nothing. That "hope" will not be met.
If that is the best we can hope for a peaceful understanding, it will never come.