I was having one of those days with my daughter, the kind where you seem to be having to give alot of correction (preteen)  I could tell she was really down and I realised that from her perspective she was getting a very negative picture of what I thought of her. so I stopped and told her she was getting the wrong idea. I  stood up and jestured to the wall and said " If this whole wall represented every thing that I love about you everything you do right and everything about you that im proud of, then this little peice of dust(pointing to something to small for her to see)  represents the things Im asking you to work on.    It wasnt long befor her spirits were back up.   I just thought Id post this incase anyone else ever feels they are wounding their child,s spirit through nessisary correction.

thanks Tom, the %%% were there because Im new at this , and didnt Know how to separate what I quoted from what I wrote.  I have had posts that ran it all together . I think that was at fresh-hope. God Bless

     Gods word doesnt tell us who he made smarter, but it does say he put us men in charge!!!  hee  hee!!!

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.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%     Keanon, I wonder if someone went out and wrote a bunch of checks in your name,  would it be fair for the people who received those checks to expect you to cover them???    I m sure if that was the case you would feel quite justified in refusing to take responsability.   Many people have done horiffic things in the name of Christ or in most cases just used the name of Christ to gane a possition of power and then did did the evil having nothing to do with Christ( Hitler ) but as with those checks it is hardly fair to lay these evils at the feet of Christianity.   I would ask you to at least read the first four books of the new testament, I am quite sure if you are a reasonable person you will conclude that Christ tought NOTHING that would justify any evil actions.    compare this to Islam and the moslem expantion, if you go back to their founding you will find that Mohamed was violent and encouraged others to be violent.  If you could make this kind of conection to the teachings of Jesus then it might be fair to blame Christianity for the things you mention, you should consider that at the times of some of the events you mention , most people did not own their own Bibles, this left them to trust in their leaders for the truth.   you also dont seem to realise that there is 2000 years of Christian history 1600 of western domination by Christianity..  the universitys , hospitals and Christian charity is unsurpassed by any other group of people in the world.  A strong Christian work ethic(rapidly fading) has made western industry thrive, creating wealth that feeds many impoverished nations.    I hear the kind of retoric you offer from an athiest friend of mine. its ironic that an athiest would even try to use pain and suffering to atack Christianity,    try looking into the deathtoll of communism; Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam and others check out the stagering death toll of atheism, abject poverty and opresion are rampant. when you look at it in a resonable perspective. I think you would agree that the best thing for this world, Is more of what Jesus tought!

   I think ther is a differance in preaching and having authority over others.  I have authority over my wife, but that doesnt mean she cant bring to me a word of truth, infact sometimes she give me the truth with both barrels!

  I do beleive that a padle should be used in conjunction with other forms of dissapline. I have two girls,ages 8 & 12 (12 to old for spanking) neither of them remember the last time they got spanked. why because I was very insistant on being consistant. they quickly learned not to test me. I always used one or two swats on the butt only. I doubt Ive given more than a dozzen swats between them in their entire lives. I constantly get complimented on what great kids they are.  It breaks my heart to see parents who are not consistent with their kids, they only punish every other infraction so the kids are always testing them and end up getting punished more often! it would be better for these parents NOT to spank.

the Bible tells us that governments rise and fall at the will of God. therfor the fact that Sadom is no longer in charge in Iraq shows that at least part of what is happening was ordained by God. this does not prove that the action itself was rightous, because there are many ungodly nations that God used to punish other ungodly nations. I tend to think that if you average the lives lost and suffering during the 30 year reign of Saadam, you will find that in the long run the Iraqy people will suffer less and people will die less without him.