" I know this is a difficult time for my supporters, but I ask them, all of you, to join me in doing that. Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror."
John Kerry 11/03/04

I am not here as a supporter of the other side of a two-devil-headed coin in a Democratic politician.
I am here to raise a question the minds of the unwaveringly faithful that maybe their agenda is being dictated to them from the wrong sources...from the mouths of rich politicians with self-interest in mind and not from the love of the son of God.
The neo-conservative hijacking of politics as morality has forced many great men into compromise, including Kerry and others, given that our nation is predominantly Christian in its makeup. This saddens me...greatly.

This war has been called unjustified and a "war crime" by the most intelligent and compassionate men on the planet including the head of the U.N., Stephen Hawking, the Dalai Lama, and the Pope himself. Please look at what is going on and question yourselves, if not just for one minute.

Saddam and the insurgents are sworn enemies of the Jews.
The Bible is clear as to how God deals with these peoples.

 
Where is your condemnation of Islamist terrorism?

Bronzesnake

Saddam and the Baathist party were very notably secular socialists. The major middle-eastern conflict with the Jews now has little to do with religious difference and much to do with the fact that the Christian powers created Israel in the Arab homeland of Palestine, and now uses American money and equipment to kill women and children fighting for a return to their homes as they try to prevent starvation and disease.

Terrorism is a product of oppression and violence. Most terrorist recruiting happens in response to people who have lost loved ones to an oppressor (such as the US in Iraq today,) seeking vengeance. The IRA are of the Judeo-Christian faith and are the longest running terrorist organization in the world. This has nothing to do with their faith (talk about one-sided and closed minded...not everything in this world happens because of the human-created notion of vengeful, omnipotent beings...) and a lot to do with the fact that the British government has occupied their homeland forcefully for a LONG time.

I am trying to point out here that THE CONDONING OF DEATH OF INNOCENTS is in direct opposition to the heart of the Christ.
Why will no one acknowledge or counter this argument? How can a weak translation of "thou shalt not murder" justify the killing of hordes and hordes of innocents in the name of an all-loving being who asks us to "turn the other cheek" when we are struck?

This major dilemma is at the core of what is wrong with the world today. There will indeed be a day of reckoning, and I'm hoping for your sake that the Lord is as forgiving as the Bible tells us. A majority of the voting public selected a president who is fighting a war for power and profit because they appealed to a very narrow minded, hateful, and skewed version of Christianity which lacks tolerance and celebrates holocaust-scale murder.

I feel sorry for you.

The crusades
The Spanish Inquisition
The Reformation
The witch trials
The Holocaust

All that death and more iin the name of Christ.

It would perhaps be unacceptable in some circles to point out the fact that in many European countries, religion plays an even smaller role in people's lives than it does in America - yet levels of violence are lower than here. Were a lack of religion any sort of cause of violence, then we would find higher amounts of violence in countries like Germany rather than Ireland, where both religion and violence have been prominent in daily life.

Facts like this must lead any rational person to treat claim of religion as a solution to our ills - real or perceived - with real skepticism. Religion has in fact done even more to promote base inhumanity when it has become wedded to ruling political powers. It has been a common pattern throughout human history that wherever religious dogmas have gained worldly power, violence was abetted rather than stopped. Even if a person were to successfully argue that none of the violence was caused by religion, the fact would remain that religion not only failed to stop it, but has actually served as a useful tool for those perpetuating it.

Is Christianity only a religion of Peace and Love? I do not think that anyone can honestly and objectively examine American or European history and answer "yes" to that question. Christianity can encourage Peace and Love - but it certainly need not, and it quite often has done just the opposite. Although the people responsible for violence might have found a way to express their hatred without Christianity, it cannot be ignored that Christianity offers a convenient divine mandate for hatred and violent acts against a wide range of people.

does the word of God detail the "rules of war" when the war itself is fought for political and monetary gain?

iraq did not attack us.

100,000 civilians have died as a result of this war.

more people have died at the hands of "Christian" crusades than of all other wars combined.

is this the "culture of life" that bush speaks of?
a culture that builds nuclear bombs and threatens to kill other people who do the same?
a culture where the death penalty is still used on children, leaving us one of the only countries on earth to still use this practice?
a culture where profits are made from the manufacture of weapons of death?

wake up. please. Jesus would not condone this.

murder is murder is murder.
invading another country without provoked attack and slaughtering innocents by the tens or hundreds of thousands is against the teachings of Christ.

Your response is blatantly ignorant and typical of what Christianity has become to many today:, a way of justifying the legislation of moral principles, despite the grossly apparent hypocrisy inherent to them. NO abortion but YES to the CONDONING THROUGH SUPPORT of the killing of people in a country who never attacked us, including women and children?

the government conducts war KNOWINGLY accepting civilian casualties from the outset. bombs and weapons are built with your tax money that will kill everything for hundreds of miles around. most recently, all "military aged men" from 18 to 34 were prevented from leaving fallujah prior to the tens of thousands-strong invasion by the US and UK. these men needed no prior evidence of insurgent involvement. we just "had to be sure."

THESE ARE NOT THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST.
the "moral majority" of pat robertson, and now the bush dynasty, has wrestled the word of Jesus away from Jesus in order to justify hatred and murder.

I saw a billboard yesterday in central Kansas that said

"ACCEPT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OR REGRET IT FOR ETERNITY!"

Why is the word of the all-loving son of God being pressed upon the world in such a hateful, fear-inducing manner?
Is this not in contrast to the teachings of Jesus?

Why do so many Christians say to homosexuals and those who partake in premarital sex that they'll "burn in hell?"
Isn't it the job of The Creator to judge our sins?

What has happened to Christianity?
Do you think that the modern political world may have commandeered the word of God for its own benefit, using the loyalty to faith and Christ that so many share in the US as a basis for doing so?

I'm so scared and confused!

what is so hard to understand about "thou shalt not kill?"

which part is it that throws bush, his followers, and so many war-supporting pseudo-christians throughout history for a loop?

www.lancet.org estimates 100,000 civilian deaths so far in the war on terror. innocent people, including babies and women.

george w. bush oversaw, given the US status as BIGGEST users of the death penalty in the world and texas as the highest users in the US, the most death penalty exeutions in the world including those of mentally handicapped people and minors.

is this the "culture of life" that we're seeking?

this is not the way of christ.