posted on August 17, 2003 12:49:34 PM new
I never said I was a Catholic, or even a christian. I said I went to mass. Your cute picture shows the depths to which you will descend to insult someone, in case anyone here was unaware. If that is a christian attitude then I certainly don't fit the definition. Yeah, I know all about confession. It's that nice little "out", which many believers think gives them permission to treat people however they want to, as long as they go whisper their regrets to a faceless priest on the other side of a screen. How many times a day do you go?
I'm stopping now twelve, you have my permission to take the last shot.Make it a good one and let folks know how base you can really be.
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What luck for the leaders that men do not think. - Adolph Hitler
posted on August 17, 2003 04:25:15 PM new
The Ten Commandments are the foundation of our laws and civilization.
I signed the petition and I joined the presidential prayer team.
And helen, you should be scared. With 3 million people praying for Bush and America, we're going to win the war on terror and the economy will recover.
posted on August 17, 2003 05:12:23 PM newI never said I was a Catholic, or even a christian. I said I went to mass.
I have proven my point... you expect to uphold people to christian beliefs, but are against having some of those very rules to live by, in sight for all to see... very amusing
Riley's appeal to Christian morality -- a standard theme in Alabama campaigns -- has taken some unusual bounces. "What would God have Alabama Baptists do as individuals and what would He have us do with the influence entrusted to us in this state?" wrote Bob Terry, editor of the Alabama Baptist, the newspaper of the Alabama Baptist Convention. Terry called for a yes vote: "The Bible is clear that 'to whom much is given, much is required.' "
posted on August 20, 2003 09:08:53 AM newThe Ten Commandments are the foundation of our laws and civilization.
Far from it. Our constitution, which is the foundation of our law and civilization, is in fact a rejection of European theocracies and using religion in government.
posted on August 20, 2003 10:02:23 AM new
What all is on the monument for thos interested:
TOP PANEL
"Ten Commandments" excerpts
FRONT PANEL
The inclusion of God in our pledge therefore would further acknowledge the dependence of our people and our government upon the moral directions of the Creator. —Legislative History
One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. —Pledge of Allegiance, 1954
Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. —James Wilson
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? —Thomas Jefferson
LEFT SIDE PANEL
Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? —George Washington
So help me God. —Judiciary Act of 1789
The greater part of evidence will always consist of the testimony of witnesses. This testimony is given under those solemn obligations which an appeal to the God of Truth impose; and if oaths should cease to be held sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights would become insecure. —John Jay
BACK PANEL
We, the people of the State of Alabama, in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following constitution and form of government for the State of Alabama. —Constitution of Alabama
In God we trust. —National Motto 1956
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto — "In God Is Our Trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. —National Anthem
RIGHT SIDE PANEL
The laws of nature are the laws of God; whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth. —George Mason 1772
Laws of nature and of nature's God —Declaration of Independence 1776
The transcendent law of nature and of nature's God, which declares that the safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to which all such institutions must be sacrificed. —James Madison
This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; …upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. —William Blackstone
posted on August 20, 2003 10:20:28 AM new
UPDATE: The open letter to Justice Roy Moore has received 40,000 signatures since it was launched last Friday!
"God?!! Why, some poor wide-eyed plaintiffs lawyer from Demopolis, in town to file an asbestos lawsuit, might get the impression the State of Alabama thinks highly of God. Mercy, we can't have that -- never mind that the Founders thought highly of God." --William Murchison, weighing in with the rationale of those opposing Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's defense of the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama's justice building rotunda
posted on August 20, 2003 08:02:45 PM new
Africans to evangelize a godless Europe??
A Tidal Wave of Christianity
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter
August 19, 2003
In just 20 years, two-thirds of all Christians will live in Africa, Latin America or Asia.
CBN.com – September 11th focused a lot of attention on the growth of Islam. What most pundits and scholars have missed is the incredible growth of Christianity, and where it's growing. Today more Presbyterians worship in the African nation of Ghana than in Scotland. And more Anglicans worship in Nigeria than in Britain.
We like to think of ourselves as the Christian West. But there is growing evidence that the center of Christendom has moved.
Africans are running to accept Jesus Christ. It is a scene playing out all across the developing world. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it's not: Christianity is sweeping across the southern hemisphere and Asia like a tidal wave.
"The scale of Christian growth is almost unimaginable," said Dr. Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University.
Jenkins shocked and probably panicked some of America's political and media elite with his acclaimed book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Jenkins argues the greatest movement of the past century was not communism or capitalism. Do the math and the winner is spirit-filled Christianity, or what he terms in his study as "Pentecostalism."
"The modern Pentecostal movement begins at the start of the 20th century," Jenkins said. "So say this begins with a few hundred, a few thousand people… today you're dealing with several hundred million people, and the best projections are by 2040’s or 2050’s, you could be dealing with a billion Pentecostals worldwide. By that stage there will be more Pentecostals than Hindus. There are already more Pentecostals than Buddhists."
Jenkins says in just 20 years, two-thirds of all Christians will live in Africa, Latin America or Asia.
"Back in 1900, there were about 10 million Christians in Africa, representing about 10 percent of the population. Today there are 360 million, representing just under half the population. That is one of the most important changes in religious history, and I think most of us didn't notice it," he said.
A lot of people still haven't noticed it. When scandal or controversy hits an American church, the U.S. news media tends to treat it like a worldwide crisis for that denomination. But it is not a crisis for those churches in the developing world. Most of them are not gripped by debates over homosexuality or abortion — that is a problem for European and American liberals — they believe the Bible.
"The Bible is alive in Africa and Asia and Latin America," Jenkins said. "Overwhelmingly, the kind of Christianity is one which is very Bible-centered, which takes the Bible very seriously, takes authority very seriously, both the Old and the New Testament, in a way which I don't think western Christianity has done probably since the Enlightenment."
But the growth of Christianity threatens Islam, and Christians are being slaughtered in places like Nigeria and Indonesia. Jenkins thinks the conflict will intensify in nations where the two faiths compete. And he debunks the notion that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Christianity is growing faster.
"If you look at the 25 most populous countries in the world in the mid-21st century, 20 of those are going to be divided to a greater or lesser extent between Christianity and Islam," Jenkins said.
Then there is China. There are about 80 million Christians in China, according to former Time Magazine Correspondent David Aikman, who predicts China will be a Christianized nation in 20 to 30 years. He does not predict a Christian majority, but a China that is 25 to 30 percent Christian. Enough, he says, to change society and government.
"If you have a Christianized China, the leadership of China would reflect a Christian worldview to some degree," Aikman said. "A China that's Christianized would not be a threat to the United States."
And Aikman says the Chinese church leaders have a burden to take the gospel the rest of the way across the globe, to the Muslims.
"It's part of a sense that they call ‘back to Jerusalem,’" Aikman said. "They believe that just as the gospel originally came out of Jerusalem and went to the West and to North America and Europe and came to China, now the Chinese need to bring it back to Jerusalem, not in the sense of evangelizing the Jewish, but in the sense of completing the circle so that the gospel message is available to everybody in the world."
Imagine Chinese reaching the Muslims, Koreans evangelizing Indians, Africans taking the gospel back to a largely godless Europe.
African Matthew Ashimolowo is the pastor of the fastest growing church in England. "God is sending people who used to receive missionaries to now be missionaries around the world," Ashimolowo said.
Kenyan Bishop Gilbert Dya has one of the largest churches in London. "I am in this country, believing that God sent me here in Great Britain to make a voice on His behalf to let them know that they need to repent and come back to God," he said.
The developing world is not only a growing base for world missions, Jenkins says it is becoming the center of Christendom…again.
"Jesus said His church would last until the end of time. He never used the word, ‘Europe.’ Christianity is returning, I think, to its roots. It is a religion that originated in the Middle East and in Africa. Perhaps it went away for a while, but now it's back," Jenkins said.
