Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy

NewHouse News Service ^ | 3/26/03 | Mark O'Keefe

[Illbay]

The Truth of Jesus Christ is *never* darkness, nor wrong.

You're correct. However, you must at least admit that much of what was done in His name throughout history has been TERRIBLY wrong. The Inquisition--with forced conversion of the Jews, the "rape" of the Americas by the Catholic Spanish, and many other instances where "light" was supposed be brought to the savages come to mind.

I absolutely applaud the attempts to bring sustenance--both temporal and spiritual--to this unfortunate people.

Just make sure it is done with an open hand, not a closed fist.

[GirlShortstop]

Do you believe in religious freedom and in freedom of speech?

I also believe in good manners.

Gotta break a couple eggs to make an omelette, no?

[Illbay]

Couldn't have put it better m'self.

[Illbay]

You gotta admit he's right on the "body count" statement, though.

Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho and Kim combined slaughtered far more in the name of their creed than all the "people of the book" put together throughout history.

Kind of gruesom comparing body counts like that, but the fact is that when there is slaughter in the name of religion, it is because the religion is used as an EXCUSE for the slaughter by those who are in reality ungodly.

When it is done in the name of atheism, it is PART of the creed.

[GirlShortstop]

However, you must at least admit that much of what was done in His name throughout history has been TERRIBLY wrong.

The acts that you have itemized are *not* The Truth of Jesus Christ.

So I needn't respond to them as if they're pertinent to what I posted:   The Truth of Jesus Christ is *never* darkness, nor wrong.
FReegards.

[Illbay]

I think that whatever their assumptions going into the fray, giving Christian service to a needy people, and coming to love them, is going to smooth out the rough edges of any willing soul.

I don't believe you can be a missionary giving compassionate service in the name of the Lord, and remain contemptuous of the people you are trying to serve.

[Cedric]

"Couldn't have put it better m'self."

That's embarrassing.

[Illbay]

Gee, I could be wrong about this but I thought the Crusaders were Christian.

They were, but like the radical Islamists of our day, they were simply vicious and grasping men using religion as a cloak for their dark deeds.

This is the point I keep trying to make to those who say, without further stipulation, that "Islam is an evil and wicked religion." That Franklin Graham had the audacity to say it just stuns me.

[BibChr]

lol

[Illbay]

Imagine that: Whiney and insecure evangelicals spending all their time weeping, wailing and gnashing their teeth regarding what they think someone ELSE believes, while remaining steadfastly ignorant about what they themselves purport to believe.

[Libertys Kid]

You know, if the lazy, no good French had bothered to do this centuries ago we wouldn't be in this mess. Perhaps Holy Mother Rome should take an active interest in this effort to make sure the protestants don't get out of hand, like they are often want to do.

[Illbay]

Jewish religious wars: See the Old Testament: Exodus, Joshua, Numbers, Judges, Chronicles, Kings et seq.

Christian religious wars: See the Crusades, Wars of the Reformation (Thirty Years' War, etc.), English Wars of the Roses, et seq.

[Timmy]

America is GREAT because America is GOOD. When America ceases to be GOOD, it will no longer be GREAT. America's GOODNESS comes from our Christian worldview. Period. We are the GREATEST country on earth because we are the most Christian. There is no reasonable alternative cause.

[Illbay]

Al-Qa'ida, Hezb'ollah, and the various flavors of Islamic Jihad also put their lives on the line every day for what they believe.

If your point is that this somehow "validates" what they are doing, you are way off base.

If Graham's group wants to help, fine. If they want to teach to willing ears, fine.

If they just want to make trouble because they have the same sort of itching desire for martyrdom as the radical Islamic groups named above, they aren't needed.

[Illbay]

The sneering, taunting way you expressed that thought is a case in point.

It's possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.

[Illbay]

Straw-man argument.

There is a difference between what one MAY do under the law--no one is suggesting legal restraint here--and what one OUGHT to do as a self-governing individual.

Too many like you cannot see that distinction.

[Illbay]

What "truth"? Spreading a bunch of legends and myths doesn't help a single soul.

[Illbay]

We're not talking about omelettes, though.

[Illbay]

But the people who perpetrated them believed that they were.

Don't be so arrogant as to suppose that anything that is done for the "right reason" must ipso facto be "good".

[Mamzelle]

Do you mean to imply that the Samaritan's Purse, with its long charitable history, is equivalent to Hezbollah? Their charity is what they believe, and that charity is its own validation. Having faced physical danger, Graham is entitled to a lot of credibility.

Maybe you're just Baptist-bashing?