Iraqis celebrate shuttle tragedy.

[mburbank]

Naldo does not see his relationship with God as a religion. All that other funky shuck and Jive is religion. Golden calfs are religion. What he does is embrace the Truth.

Okay. Lets say for the sake of argument you don't judge. You make a judgement. You know the TRUTH, proto is WRONG and if he dies he'll go to hell. Just the facts maam. You better hope you are absolutely right because fi you aren't, then you are INCREDABLY judgmental. And just for the record? I never thought you had the actual power to send someone to hell. I think you look at someones belief s and actions and think you know wether they're going to Hell olr not. I think only God knows that, and our understanding of his will is imperfect.

"Being a "nice guy" is not the standard in which GOD will judge us. I think you know that. "

I have no idea of what the afterlife has in it if anything, but if there is one I think being a nice guy should be just about the main requirement. Being nice is HARD! I'm completely serious here, Nalds, if niceness ie. compassion and caring aren't the main things God is looking for that his priorities are way to human for my taste. Obediance as the principal virtue sounds kind of nasty to me.

Nald. If saying you have 'issues' with the death penalty constitutes doubt for you then you haven't experienced a whole lot of doubt. What ARE these issues? How do you FEEL when a man is put to death by the state? What are you motivated to DO when someone who's spent years on death row is proven innocent? When W. mocked the Cristianity of thhe Texas woman on death row did you hear about it? Did it cause you to think about his clarity on the issue? What have the 'issues' meant to you?

I have concidered the idea that Jesus might actully be the messiah. So what? If that's all I can say about it, it doesn't amount to much.

And if I say I don't see you as a person who experiences doubt, Naldo, that's becuase based on what I read that you write, that's WHAT I THINK. Now possibly I'm off base. But I'm certainly mot lieing. Only a child thinks lieing, disagreeing and being wrong are just three ways of saying the same thing. Lieing is about intent.

I think YOU know that. Know what that means? Every time you call me a liar, it's a LIE. Because you know I'm expressing an opinion, not deliberatley stating something I don't believe, and yet you actively CHOSE to use the word liar. You have the INTENT.

"Many of Christ's disciples spoke against those who were of what they viewed as a false religion or who had views that did not agree with words of Christ. Were they wrong? "

In my reading of the Gospels, the apostles spend their entire time with Jesus getting his teachings wrong over and over. It's one of the primary ways he taught, and the fact he surrounded himself with hugely fallible people was a choice and a statement about the nature of Man, something He himself had chosen to take part in. If you believe he was divine, anyway. I mean, not much point in taking on flesh if you don't take on it's weakness. So unless I missed the prt where after Jesus died a wand was waved and the apostles became perfect, yeah, I think they were wrong. That's what I think. Not a lie.

I have asked you VERY direct questions and you dodge them. You've already wayed in on where Proto is going if he dies without a change of heart. Me too, right? And everybody on earth who doesn't accept Christ. You see that as a fact the same way I see gravity. Am I right? So here's my direct questions.

1.)Do you ever in the least little corner of your heart doubt that?

2.) Do you ever wonder WHY God wants it that way?

3.) Do you ever wonder about what this says about God's nature?

And don't just say yes or no, that's begging for people to missinterpret you. Explicate.

Ponder this. Maybe the reason you are so 'missunderstood' on this board has less to do with our knee jerk reactions than you think. Maybe it's because you relish your outsider role, and you don't try very hard to be understood.