Well said! :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! & put so eloquently too... especially at the end. I'm not so sure about the aliens though... but that's one of the special things that makes us all unique. I believe 'Be kind to one another' is the only religion any of us need to subscribe to.

Take care.
Nicki

There is a small minority of Christians, (who happen to be quite loud), who don't really represent the Church or the religion begun 2000 years ago in Judea. They are the ones who are the "go-to" people for MSNBC or other bastions of leftist atheist philosophy, in order to get, what they KNOW will be crackpot answers to any question regarding Christianity. You'll never hear an interview or read an article focusing on a thoughtful orthodox Roman Catholic Priest or Bishop who they know can actually articulate the real Christian position on some idea or issue. No....they give you Bubba from the Church of Christ babbling about God hating fags, and everybody going to hell, (except themselves), because they're "saved". Not a man among them has ever even cracked open the Summa Theologica, or The Imitation of Christ, or any number of great spiritual classics of rational classic, orthodox Christian thought, which is about as tightly woven, and perfect as philosophy gets. They are either rednecks, who were full of hate before God, and then found God and remained full of hate, but now feel justified in it, or they're hokey health and wealth evangelicals looking to show you how you deserve to be rich since you found the Lord.

It is, or course, possible one could read St. Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, etc. and still come away without being a believer. That's fine. Because one must still feel a call, and no book can provide that. But it's nearly impossible to imagine someone studying the richness of these theologians and philosophers, and still come away with ideas like the 6000 year earth, and judgementalism being representative at all of true Christian thought. This smacks more, I'm afraid of using Bubba as a yardstick of what Christianity is. To understand real Christian insight, better to take a look through "Confessions" by St. Augustine, than to watch a news story about Fred Phelps.

Only modernist Christians can give you ugly thoughts about Christianit. But seriously..........a VERY small (though admittedly vocal) minority of them.

All I can do is pray that things change over the years, but whether they do or don't, it shouldn't be a division between us.

People are always wanting to NOT talk about religion and politics. Well what the hell does that leave anybody to talk about? Religion and politics are the only things that matter to anyone's life at all. It's no big surprise that they have become the least favorite topics of modernism. It's because authentic religion and politics makes people stand somewhere. To take positions. To get uncomfortable in their surroundings. They call for choices, reasoning, and good old fashioned thinking and studying. These concepts are anathema to modernists.

Just my 2 cents. Sorry for the little rant.

Love ya,

Dad

Hi Patrick:

It is November 18, 2012. You haven't posted here since August. There is literally a letter in the mail to you right now, but what the letter fails to say is Happy Birthday!!!! I hope you have a great one. I'm not optimistic that you'll get this message, since you don't come here anymore......and I didn't get a card off in time, so I'm left with egg on my face as usual. Hope you get this, so at least you'll know I didn't forget altogether.

All my love,

Dad
(Kim, Sondra and Kristal all wish you a Happy Birthday as well)