eBooks and I

This showed up in my inbox recently and I had to protest and I sent my response in a Word document to all the people in the "to" field of the original email. The text of the Word document is in double quotes.

"Some of you may have recently received the below as one of those annoying, endlessly forwarded emails and as a thinking human being I could not let this piece of pious drivel go by unchallenged. My comments will be in blue and all grammatical errors will be as in the original.

Just think about it. How scary this can be. We all need to do our part to keep it from happening. We can change things one day at at time and one person at a time.

Allah or the Lord Jesus Christ?

...A Bit Scary

This is very interesting and just a bit scary ... The Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion per capita in the United States , especially in the minority races!!!

This statement is not precisely true. If however, you limit the discussion to the monotheistic religions, i.e. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, then yes, Islam is the fastest growing of that group of three.

Allah or The Lord Jesus Christ? ... By Rick Mathes Last month I attended my annual training session that's required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who explained each of their beliefs.

I can only imagine what those “explanations” consisted of. I would think that a detailed explanation/debate on whether or not unicorn horns are hollow or the exact coloration of male vs. female fairy wings would have about the same rational content as the “explanation” referred to above.

I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. The Imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video.

After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers.

When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked: "Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world and, that by killing an infidel, (which is a command to all Muslims) they are assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?"

There was no disagreement with my statements and, without hesitation, he replied, "Non-believers! "

I responded, "So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can have a place in heaven. Is that correct?"

In light of the gentleman’s above question for the Imam, my question to Christian faith-heads would be: How is Allah any different from the Yahweh of the Old Testament (OT)? And don’t even try to maintain that because of the New Testament (NT), all the rules have changed, because for every NT scripture you come up with that alludes to a change in the rules, I can come up with a NT passage that says that all the law of the OT is still in effect!

The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of "a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar."
He sheepishly replied, "Yes." I then stated, "Well, sir , I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr. Stanley ordering all Protestants to do the same in order to guarantee them a place in heaven!" The Imam was speechless!

This part above is what motivated me speak out. How blind to their own hypocrisy can Christian faith-heads be? This is every bit as stupid as the Muslims who were running around in the aftermath of the “Danish Cartoon Fiasco” of several years ago in which Muslims were seen to be carrying signs that said “Kill those that say Islam is a violent religion.” All “People of Faith” truly suffer from an “Irony Deficit Disorder.” It was not all that long ago when Christian leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, were instructing their followers to do precisely that. Duh, Northern Ireland! Duh, Bosnia! It is also false that killing unbelievers or dying a martyr’s death is believed necessary to get to the Islamic Paradise. Just as in the concept of “jewels in the crown” for Christian believers, doing certain things for Allah’s greater glory does ensure greater glory and reward upon reaching paradise but is not an absolute requirement for getting there. Also, it was only 150 years ago that Catholics were forcibly removing Jewish children from their parents if it was believed, on almost no evidence, that they had been baptized. The baptism need not even have been done by a member of the clergy, sprinkling of bathwater on an infant by a Catholic nanny hired by Jewish parents (the Catholic nannies were allowed to work seven days a week) was considered sufficient.

The reason Christians (Catholics or Protestants) are not killing heretics or unbelievers en masse today (at least not in Western, civilized countries) is not because they had some profound ethical insight which led them to conclude it was wrong to so. The only reason it is no longer done is because of changes in the larger society have made it inexpedient for them to do so. If Christians thought they could get away with killing unrepentant non-believers, if the clearly stated goals of the majority of Christians are realized and a Christian theocracy is established in the United States, based on Christian history and current events, I have no reason to conclude, based on that evidence, that Christians would not brutally suppress and even kill those that refuse to adopt their way of non-thinking.

I continued, "I also have problem with being your 'friend' when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me! Let me ask you a question. Would you rather have your Allah, who tells you to kill me in order for you to go to heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and He wants you to be there with me?"

What I have a problem with are people that demand that I take seriously their preposterous beliefs about the factual state of the world for which they are incapable of providing any coherent evidence for. As far as the teachings of Jesus being all about love, for every one a Christian faith-head throws out about “Jesus/God is Love,” from the gospels I can provide one from the gospels which entails a violent, militaristic intolerance for unbelievers. The message is very, very inconsistent and maintaining the “Jesus/God is Love” requires an awful lot of “cherry picking” on the part of Christian faith-heads.

You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame. Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the 'Diversification' training seminar were Not happy with Rick's way of dealing with the Islamic Imam and exposing the truth about the Muslims' beliefs. In twenty years there will be enough Muslim vot ers in the U.S. To elect the President! I think everyone in the U.S . should be required to read this, but with the Liberal justice system, liberal media and the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized.

The only reason this has not made headlines is because Christian (and other) faith-heads have so thoroughly sold the American public on the ridiculous notion that it is impolite to honestly criticize people’s religious faith and the societal consequences of religious faith; we are free to criticize and even discount those who believe that Elvis is alive and well onboard a flying saucer, but to demand a rational explanation of the equally preposterous virgin birth or resurrection, no we can’t do that, that’s not fair. That attitude on the part of faith-heads of all stripes is a load of crap and is merely a way for faith-heads to avoid the embarrassment of having to give a rational accounting of why they believe what they do because deep down they know that they don’t have one!

Please pass this on to all your e-mail contacts.

This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes, is a well-known leader in prison ministry.

The Man who walks with God always gets to his destination.

If you have a pulse you have a purpose."