Free Republic

This was difficult for me to log on and reply, but it is probably good for both of us. I lost my husband of 33 years last July and he was a wonderful man as well. They are probably getting along swell on the other side, being Christians and Bush fans too. What is so hard is that after the shock starts to wear off (took months for me), then the sense of loss continues on as you experience things without him for the first time (like going to social functions alone, hearing a familiar song, memories upon memories that come from simple little incidents of everyday life.) It is so hard, but they are honored when we face life head on without them and try to be a blessing with the time we are given. God keep you in His comforting arms. I use to go by 4truth...remember me?

...rebut them right away

You can't rebut was is your own doing. There are no attacks going on here only his own record and words are really being used.

John Kerry: "I want to rebut the rebuttal. uh, I think...?

I counted the word "attack" 8 times used in the first half of this article. I got tired of counting. The media is so pathetic.

Hey, I'm an Aunt Bea too, LOL. I wonder what is going to happen to Milosovik now and wonder too if his trial is what prompted these facts to finally get aired. I wrote my congressmen at the time too and really gave them a piece of my mind and stopped all donations, in fact vowed to work to elect any contenders to their seats. It's a sad way to be vindicated.

This makes me sick, but I knew it must be happening. I tried to tell some of the ill-informed bleeding hearts at FR that we were bombing the wrong people back then. The Christian Serbs were only fighting to preserve their homes, businesses and very lives that the Muslim Albanians were ruthlessly, systematically taking from them. I was so ashamed of our country as I watched the bombs dropping on a people that never did one evil thing to America and were just fighting for their survival.

Or better yet, find out who your independent oil company is and buy from them. Here in Texas all the big stations get Arab oil, but there is a Shamrock and Conoco, although I understand Conoco is negotiating and may eventually go that route as well.

Or better yet, find out who your independent oil company is and buy from them. Here in Texas all the big stations get Arab oil, but there is a Shamrock and Conoco, although I understand Conoco is negotiating and may eventually go that route as well.

In the interest of "fair and balanced" I'm posting an article for you to read and hope the author is right.

A CHRISTIAN BOOM - New York Post
November 26, 2002 -- WHICH of the worlds largest faiths, Christianity or Islam, is experiencing the greater ideological reassertion and demographic surge?
Islam is surely nearly everyones answer. As American Christians experiment with ever-milder versions of their faith, Muslims display a fervor for extreme interpretations of Islam. As Europe suffers the lowest population growth rates ever recorded, Muslim countries have some of the highest.

But, argues Philip Jenkins recently in the Atlantic Monthly, Islam is the wrong answer. He shows how Christianity is the religion currently undergoing the most basic rethinking and the largest increase in adherents. He makes a good case for its militancy most affecting the next century.

For obvious reasons, notes this professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University, news reports today are filled with material about the influence of a resurgent and sometimes angry Islam. But in its variety and vitality, in its global reach, in its association with the worlds fastest-growing societies, in its shifting centers of gravity, in the way its values and practices vary from place to place . . . it is Christianity that will leave the deepest mark on the 21st century.

What Jenkins dubs the Christian revolution is so little noted because Christians divide into two very different regions North (Europe, North America, Australia) and South (South America, Africa, Asia) and we who live in the North only dimly perceive the momentous developments under way in the South. Fortunately, Jenkins is there to guide us.

Faith: The changes in the South run utterly contrary to those in the liberalizing North, where religious beliefs and practices are ever more removed from traditional Christianity. In the South, Protestant movements are mainly Evangelical or Pentecostal, while Roman Catholicism takes an orthodox cast.

By Northern lights, the Souths theology and moral teaching are stalwartly traditional or even reactionary, what with their respect for the power of priests, their notions of spiritual charisma, their aspiration to direct spiritual revelation, their efforts to exorcise demonic forces and their goal of re-creating a version of early Christianity. As Southern Christians are reading the New Testament and taking it very seriously, increasing tensions develop with the liberal Northerners.

Demographics: Christians are facing a shrinking population in the liberal West and a growing majority of the traditional Rest. During the past half century the critical centers of the Christian world have moved decisively to Africa, to Latin America, and to Asia. The balance will never shift back.

The numbers are jaw-dropping: Nigeria already has more practicing Anglicans than any other country, with Uganda not far behind. The Philippines has more baptisms per year than France, Spain, Italy and Poland together. By 2025, two-thirds of all Christians (and three-quarters of all Catholics) are expected to live in the South. (This actually understates the contrast in growth rates: Many Southern Christians are relocating to the North. In London today, half of all churchgoers are blacks.) Under present trends, by 2050 non-Latino whites will make up just one in five of the worlds Christians.

Of course, the chasm between North and South is not complete (a fact that Jenkins hardly touches on); the United States, for example, contains substantial numbers of Christians with a Southern outlook. That said, the trends are clear:

Î Although Islam may appear to be the faith of choice for the worlds poor, Christianity is faring at least as well among them.

Î Christianity is no longer predominantly a European and North American faith.

Î The experimentation and decline that pervades Northern Christianity is less important than it appears.

Î The concept of Christendom may re-emerge in the South, where political, social and personal identities are being primarily defined by religious loyalties.

Î An enormous rift seems inevitable between North and South, possibly leading to a split in the Christian church, similar to what happened centuries ago between the Catholic Church and the Protestant movements.

Î Christianity and Islam are on a collision course, competing for converts and influence. Some countries might be brought to ruin by the clash of jihad and crusade.

To understand the future of Christianity, then, keep your eye on those Southern believers who reject the Norths liberal outlook and who increasingly dominate the faith.

Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America (W.W. Norton).

. And I don't expect PERFECT judgement from my president, anymore than God expects it from me, thank goodness.

Oops, I think I should have said I don't DEMAND perfect judgement from the president, anymore than God demands it from me. :-)

I think we all have to give President Bush more time to get things made right. It can't be done overnight and so far his strategy has moved the country in the right direction. He told us he was a uniter, not a divider and that has brought more control in the long run to Republicans who can now start to clean up the Clinton mess.

He is applying that same strategy of uniting, not dividing, on the world stage. Slowly, but surely, individual leaders and nations are being exposed for what they are truly about and we the people can react and respond on this good information.

I don't understand some of Bush's statements and seemingly lack of action on some of these issues, but he has earned my trust and I expect in time that they will be put right.

Like Miss Marple, I send pertinant articles to the president's email and ask that he be informed and I spread information at every opportunity. I also pray that God will continue to expose corruption and evil in ALL leaders, in all parties and nations. And I don't expect PERFECT judgement from my president, anymore than God expects it from me, thank goodness.

Good for you and .45man! What a relief to get rid of McKinny, huh? Freeper protests are the greatest fun. My favorite was here in Houston when we stuck styrofoam cups in chain link fence and spelled out "Wag the dog" over busy overpass at 5 o'clock (we always got permits). All the cars started honking like crazy and someone got word to us that bombs had just started dropping in Yugoslavia (the capital?)

Then during the recount I made front page of metro section of Chronicle facing off with a socialist protestor. Our core group protested every weekend before the local cameras, and got some write-ups in the paper.

I can't wait for the next election and we should all stay informed and not get complacent. We can help make it a rout!

Oh, do you mean people who's glass is always half empty, the naysayers, those who can never see any good anywhere, but are full of gloom and doom? Okay, now I undersand. :-)

Oh, do you mean people who's glass is always half empty, the naysayers, those who can never see any good anywhere, but are full of gloom and doom? Okay, now I undersand. :-)

I admit I haven't read the last 150 posts, but just to add my two cents, I want to object to the premise that FR is not effective any more. I know personally of many new Freepers who come here for support and it is their favorite site. They weren't here during the Clinton years or even the recount, but they are here now and get so much information to give out to the uninformed and to those who are now leaving the Democrat party.

We all come here first to see breaking news, knowing we can't trust main stream media to broadcast news that may cast negative light on the liberal Democrats.

I missed the last fund raiser, but I intend to double up to make up for it at the next one, because I shudder in horror to think of being without FreeRepublic. Long live FR and Jim Rob and his family.

I think it's funny the way Bush and Putin are playing "good cop, bad cop" to their respective countries. Notice the article said Bush is now acknowledging terrorist factions among the Chechens, while Putin fingers the Saudis and Pakis for Bush.They are a good team.

Then she said, "well, there's one more chance that a woman will win a governorship, in Hawaii." What she failed to see was that BOTH major candidates for governor were women -- the Republican and the Democrat

Yeah, Woodruff does seem slow, but I wonder if she's on medication, tranqulizers maybe because she even talks like she's barely awake..or maybe she's just layed back. I prefer that to the hyper screeching of some the young ones over there.

Talk about screaming, Carville was off the charts spewing venom tonight on Crossfire..perfect timing with Dashle's comments, lol. They are all self-destructing...well maybe with a little help from above.

Judy Woodruff was just caught trying to help Gore with his campaign. I tuned in to see how they were handling the Daschle/Limbaugh flap, you know to see if they were spinning it. Discussing Gore speaking against all Bush's policies, she asked if he was going to attack Bush's tax cuts to the rich, lol.

She knows the rich get more cuts because they pay more taxes, but couldn't be a professional journalist and just say "tax cuts". So they're still a mouthpiece for the Demcrats and will continue to lose their audience while the democrats lose votes. Btw, I tried to email her, but couldn't find any feedback addies at their web site. That is telling in itself.

I just sent the article to the whitehouse. I email all instances of muslims attacking Christians and ask them to inform the President so he can get a factual sense of this "peaceful" religion and know his enemy. It can't hurt and I also pray for God to counsel and guide the President and give him victory. All bases covered, :-) while I wait for the world to see that Islam drives these attacks, no matter what country they come from.

And don't forget the two Dem stooges who spoke out against the President in Iraq. I and many other faithful Americans have been praying for God to expose the dark souls of leaders in the U.S.

There is a cleansing going on in America and all of us need to search our hearts and be ready for the consequences of our actions. Just as the filth of the presidency reached down to all segments of society under BC, bringing darkness and lawlessness, so the Christian heart of GW will filter down to all levels with light and righteousness. It is a time to get our moral act together and turn from selfishness to selflessness (I'm preaching to myself too, donchaknow).