JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

09/17/08 03:18 PM

Nicole,

I have a lot to say, I respect your views, but I don’t agree with many of them. Give me a couple paragraphs to let me debunk some of the falsehoods of your economic statements, remind you of the history of the Republican Party, go through your opposition to a health care system that works for all Americans (which incidentally would lower overall health care costs), and then, we can start to get into the natural disaster talk and what God does or does not do to or for us.

Ok, your first point, that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. Your absolutely correct, there is no denying that; however, his party platform in the 1860’s is remarkably similar to that of a current day Democrat. I’m proud of Abraham Lincolns accomplishments, they are truly something we can point to as truly American. The Emancipation Proclamation is by far one of the biggest steps we have taken towards equality in this country. But if you are to call yourself a Republican, and be proud for what the liberal part of your party did during its founding, then you should also be ashamed of the fact that Republicans voted against the Voting Rights Act, voted against desegregation and voted against integrating the Army. I could go on, but I am trying to debunk your points in a succinct fashion. The point is, you can claim to be the party of Lincoln, but in reality your party fundamentally changed its views once the Jim Crow laws in the South came into question.

Who started Abortion? Hmmm. Lets see, the first recorded case of an abortion comes from 1550 BC in Egypt, the procedure and actual case study were found upon scrolls that have now been called “The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus”. Other recorded cases of abortions come from the Chinese, where their earliest recorded abortions took place in 500 BC. But don’t worry, those people are going to hell anyway because they didn’t worship Jesus and God. It doesn’t matter that Christianity hadn’t even been thought of as a religion at that point. But, in the 2nd century AD, the Greek physician, Soranus, recommended abortion in cases of health complications. Thus, I would just like to point out that I do not believe that liberals, in the terms that you believe, started abortions. Granted, the use of surgical removal of the fetus was quite rare, the use of different herbal and pressure techniques were used. But, I do have one question with this subject in mind. I know Sarah Palin believes that an abortion should not take place even in case of rape and incest (both against Christian teachings - rape and incest), but that she would be fine with an abortion to save the mothers life. You stated before that God has plans for all of us, but that an abortion of a fetus is not gods plan, thus gods plan was for the mother to die and for the baby to have a chance at living. So, in your opinion, just by examining your views you have provided me, abortion should be illegal even in cases where the mother will die from child birth. I just don’t agree with that, I don’t really agree with abortions, but Gov. Palin said it best when she told the media and public that she was proud that Bristol decided to make the choice to keep the baby. So was I, I was elated that Palin was proud and that Bristol was going to keep the baby. My only problem with her statement was that Bristol had the choice to decide, if it were up to Gov. Palin, Bristol would have never had the choice to decide to keep the fetus or not. I find it strange that those who say they want less government in their lives seem so intent on putting more government restrictions upon our lives.

Moving on....

Prayer in the classroom. While there are many reasons why we can’t have prayer in our classrooms a couple stand out. The oldest argument is that the constitution states Church and State must be separate. Proponents of school prayer rightly say that prayer was allowed in school during the time of our founding thus negating the point that school prayer should be outlawed in schools. Then again, the first public school in the United States that was tax payer funded, was founded on Jan. 1st 1643 in Dedham Massachusetts, and prayer was allowed to exist within the classroom. But one must look at the time, the most educated at that time were part of the clergical profession and classes were taught within churches. The thing is, Dedham is also known as the town that first tried to separate church from state, they believed that the state should definately not be involved in matters of religious necessity. They were scared of the government, they were scared that the government would impose a religious criteria upon them during publically funded school teachings. Thus, because of the fear of government, prayer was gradually taken out of the public school system, not because people were having their right to pray taken away, they just didn’t the government involved in their ability to prayer. If you want to say that liberals took prayer out of our schools, your wrong, prayer was taken out of all schools that receive tax payer dollars, schools that the government can control and can tell what to teach. But if you were to look at those who first started to take prayer out of our school system, look no further than the Puritans in Massachusetts, a bunch of folk that most would not consider liberals. Here’s my question to you on this subject, do you want the government to be able to control how you pray or when you pray, etc, etc. do you want your children to be told how they can pray, etc. We don’t allow religion into our schools because our children are easily propagandized, and we don’t allow religion into our public schools because we don’t want our government in our religion, its not the other way around. Religion is what gives us a sense of ethics, ethics can never be taken away from you once in government, but religion, once in school the government can start legislating on it. You don’t want the government involved in your faith.

Moving on again…

Paying homage to the creator, I’m going to take that as a reference to not teaching creationism in public schools as well. Besides the bible, show me proof that the world was created in 7 days. The thing is, couldn’t seven days be taken a little less litterally, and more figuratively? If you take the bible too litterally you should be a supporter of stoning women that were found to have committed adultory. Now, sex education, that gets a lot of play nowadays after Obama’s views were distorted and torn apart from the truth, you believe that sex education should come from the family. It should be an issue brought up between Mother and Daughter, Father and Son, well.... thats kinda how most people believe creationism should be taught, within the family or at church. If we decided to teach religion in schools, why would we ever need church? Why can’t we pray, and learn about god, and if Catholic, take Mass in public schools… if that actually happened, whats the point of a church?

Moving on…

I have just one sentence for when I get to the Pearly Gates, “I was a good man, I loved my family and lived the most honest and true life that I could.” If I am damned to hell as you say, so be it, I lived in an ethical, logical way, I lived a life structured on reason and science, if that damns me to eternal hell, I don’t care. I do not want to live in ignorance or fear of reason.

Once again, moving on…

President Bush prays to God for guidance, thats great, but I would rather him listen to his commanders, the American people, or even terrorist chatter. I’d like him to listen to reason while he is the most powerful man on earth. By not listening to what I previously stated he is disregarding his obligations demanded of him through the consitutional duties of the President. The Presidents boss is not God, it is the American people. If he wants his boss to be god, then he can become a preacher back home.

On to Retirement,

Well, before, I was just worried about the lives of Americans, but now that you have let me know that I’m going to hell, I’d really like my retirement to be great, because eternal hell doesn’t sound that great but a beach house in Southern Florida might make up for it.

Your statement that God does allow certain people to be elected to office makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Does that mean that God allowed Hitler to go into office? If thats true, God allowed the Holocaust to take place, that he allowed the subjegation of an entire continent, etc., etc. I really do not think God gets into politics, if he did, he would have given us better candidates than what we have right now.

Now.... finally, tax cuts.

Obama has stated that he will give tax cuts to all of those making under $250,000, John McCain will also give tax cuts to everyone making under $250,000. Barak Obama will raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year, John McCain will lower them. John McCain says he can pay for all his plans by taking out Earmarks from Congress, only problem is earmarks don’t add up to the spending he wants to do. Not only that, but most earmarks go to building something within the district that the Congressman is from, take away 150 Billion Dollars a year from the construction industry and from small towns across America is not only hazardous to a housing market in crisis but it will also force many who work in the construction industry to lose the only jobs they have left, jobs that use money from earmarks. A little bit earlier, when I has talked about retirement and a better life for my children, you responded that I should be looking out for my own eternal life, well quite frankly, my life comes second to my childrens, my country and my planet. I will gladly serve the rest of my eternal life in hell to allow for my children to have a better life than I did, for my country to succeed and for the world to become a safer place. I worry about our economy, I worry about my childrens economy… you say we have 5 generations of welfare in this country, well we have social security, which elevated our impoverished seniors to that of a normal life after work. Figure out something thats better, that improves the lives of seniors and get back to me when you have one. It may not work that well, but its all we have at this point, and I’m not letting the people who helped shape this country to be the parthenon that it is so that we can throw them in the gutter when they get too old. I thought helping others was a true Christian value, but I guess that only applies when it is applied to oneself. Your right, people are thankful everyday that they are healthy and can work, because if you had your way, those without health insurance, when they get sick, and cannot work, not only do they suffer, their children suffer, then they go to the hosipal anyway, something they cannot afford, and then declare bankruptcy, increasing our health care costs and then increasing the credit needed to do almost anything in terms of loans.
While a nationalized health care system is quite a challenge, something that I do not think we can do right now, Obama has something inbetween. If you want to join it, you can, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to join it. He got hammered by not making health care mandatory, he got attacked from his own side, but he stuck with it. Just think, if 47 million Americans actually got health care and didnt stick the bills with those who were lucky enough to have it, how much money do you think we would save? The reason our health care system is failing is because the people that pay for health care not only have to pay for themselves but for everyone that doesnt pay. But if everyone has the opportunity to pay into the system, the people that want to pay into the system, then they wont have to go into bankruptcy, wont raise our minimums, and allow for an overall decrease in health care costs.

By the way, I paid for myself to go through college, majored in History, Anti-Terrorism, and Political Science. I work everyday to protect this country, I work everyday to protect people like me, people like you. Just remember, there is more that unites us than divides us, even though I believe most of your views to be hypocritical.

I’ve read the book, I just don’t see everything in it as litterally as you do. 7 days, stoning cheating spouses, etc.

09/17/08 09:37 PM

It’s sad that an evangelical Christian hunts and owns a commercial fishing company.  I’m pro-life and graduate from a fundamental seminary.  What churches don’t teach is that hunters in the Bible were not of God’s chosen and Jesus’ disciples who were fishermen, left their fishing to follow Him.
God’s first commission to us was to be good stewards of God’s creatures (not to do as we wish as so many misinterpret ‘dominion’).
We will be held accountable someday for every creature (see Hebrews 4:13).
We will know them by their fruit (peace, kindness, gentleness, and mercy).
We need to do our homework.
God’s Creatures Ministry

09/25/08 03:49 AM

The reason we Christians should not vote Palin is that she would do better to be at home; and why help her err?
It was Adam who was made first then Eve and Eve who was deceived? right?
Does she mean to lead all husbands even her own?
How can we glorify God and deny what He says?

09/25/08 03:52 AM

Do you think Palin should have her hand cut off for attempting to take her brother-in-laws ability to help his kids by firing him?

09/27/08 12:12 PM

I hope you children or grandchildren get drafted and sent to Iran or wherever the far right will invade next. You are an ignorant person

09/30/08 06:31 PM

So apparently Palin is a good person. That makes her sooooooooo qualified to be Vice President. It takes her three days to be prepared for a questionnaire with reporters. I can’t wait to see how the debate will play out. Republicans will be the laughingstock of the White House.

10/14/08 12:17 PM

Palin represents what the “common” American needs are - Freedom, Pro Life, and putting honesty back into our government… DC now stands for a “ A Free kick back once your voted in”
Its such a “shame” because Our Country is the Greatest Country we have just taken it for granted too long.... Please people “Wake up”

OUR DAYS ARE LIMITED IF WE DON’T ....
OUR FREEDOM IS ONE STEP AWAY FROM INSTINCTION (R.Regan)

10/14/08 12:24 PM

Why would you think this ? “Cut her hand off” Do you know the entire story - the facts? what were the reasons ? explain ? or is this the press’s explanation of it or do you have the solid facts - pls let me know your background, history and the fact back by facts why you could state such ?

However, why should I think this page would be different .... Please provide the facts before questioning some sort of punishment ....

10/16/08 04:11 PM

Your right L Clarius, because questioning things is just wrong… I mean, why question anything… why question the British Royal family, why question when injustices are happening.... why?

The reason we question everything is because if you do not you will be taken advantage of and in your instance, you have been taken advantage of.

I will question any punishment thats end result is the amputation of ones hands. Theres this thing that we protect..... hmmm.... oh yeah, the constitution where it states that it is unlawful to use cruel and unusual punishment upon even the guilty.

I feel sorry for you Clarius, I feel sorry that your life is so rigid and so based upon blind faith that you cannot see anything else but your own beliefs…

I’ll pray for you, to try to make sure that you become more open-minded and questioning of everything around you. Do it, and you will gain more out of life.

10/16/08 09:44 PM

Are you bare foot and pregnant in a trailer park down south somewhere with a bible in one hand and a soiled diaper in the other? Do you have a gun collection and a bathroom cabinet filled with medication? Do you live off TV dinners and junk food and shop at Walmart? What a pitiful statement from a woman!