ANNE GRAHAM

Scorpion

ANNE GRAHAM

In light of the many
perversions and jokes we send to one
another for a laugh, this is a little
different: This is not intended to be a
joke, it's not funny, it's intended to
get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed
on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked
her "How could God let something like
this happen?" (regarding the attacks on
Sept. 11).

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound
and insightful response. She said "I
believe God is deeply saddened by this,
just as we are, but for years we've been
telling God to get out of our schools, to
get out of our government and to get out
of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe
He has calmly backed out. How can we
expect God to give us His blessing and
His protection if we demand He leave us
alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists
attack, school shootings, etc. I think it
started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she
was murdered, her body found recently)
complained she didn't want prayer in our
schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the
Bible in school ... the Bible says thou
shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and
love your neighbor as yourself. And we
said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't
spank our children when they misbehave
because their little personalities would
be warped and we might damage their
self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an expert should know
what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Then someone said teachers and principals
better not discipline our children when
they misbehave. The school administrators
said no faculty member in this school
better touch a student when they
misbehave because we don't want any bad
publicity, and we surely don't want to be
sued (there's a big difference between
disciplining, touching, beating,
smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.).
And we said OK.

Then someone said, let's let our
daughters have abortions if they want,
and they won't even have to tell their
parents. And we said OK.

Then some wise school board member said,
since boys will be boys and they're going
to do it anyway, let's give our sons all
the condoms they want so they can have
all the fun they desire, and we won't
have to tell their parents they got them
at school. And we said OK.

Then some of our top elected officials
said it doesn't matter what we do in
private as long as we do our jobs.
Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't
matter to me what anyone, including the
President, does in private as long as I
have a job and the economy is good.

Then someone said let's print magazines
with pictures of nude women and call it
wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for
the beauty of the female body. And we
said OK.

And then someone else took that
appreciation a step further and published
pictures of nude children and then
further again by making them available on
the Internet. And we said OK, they're
entitled to free speech.

Then the entertainment industry said,
let's make TV shows and movies that
promote profanity, violence, and illicit
sex. Let's record music that encourages
rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic
themes. And we said it's just
entertainment, it has no adverse effect,
nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go
right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our
children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why it
doesn't bother them to kill strangers,
their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and
hard enough, we can figure it out. I
think it has a great deal to do with "WE
REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to
trash God and then wonder why the world's
going to hell. Funny how we believe what
the newspapers say, but question what the
Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through
e-mail and they spread like wildfire but
when you start sending messages regarding
the Lord, people think twice about
sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene
articles pass freely through cyberspace,
but public discussion of God is
suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message,
you will not send it to many on your
address list because you're not sure what
they believe, or what they WILL think of
you for sending it. Funny how we can be
more worried about what other people
think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If
not then just discard it... no one will
know you did. But, if you discard this
thought process, don't sit back and
complain about what bad shape the world
is in!

ChrisVance

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound
and insightful response. She said "I
believe God is deeply saddened by this,
just as we are, but for years we've been
telling God to get out of our schools, to
get out of our government and to get out
of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe
He has calmly backed out. How can we
expect God to give us His blessing and
His protection if we demand He leave us
alone?"

There have been distasters all though history, many of them worse than 9-11. This kind of reasoning makes me puke.

RAYZORBLADE

What is taught at home...that is what concerns me. (god or no-god)

Scorpion

ChrisVance,

Take two Alka Seltzer and get some rest. Hope you feel better in the morning.

Razorblade,

I agree with you. God or no God, what is taught in the home usually molds a childs thinking. It is unfortunate that most parents don't have a clue about where or what their kids are doing today. Some parents do know and don't seem to care.

Scorpion

blackout

I think loving and caring for your kids and being consistent is more important than smacking them, and I think That this whole article is completely wrong. I dont see the world as a bad place, sure bad things happen but I think most individuals are kind loving and caring. It is when people say leave it up to god he will save us, or look how bad everything is we NEED god to save us because no-one else can, that problems are caused.

If all the negative individuals would be positive and strive forward toward a better future, then that furture would be our reality. I believe in the power of one and in the power of mankind. Its up to YOU to make a difference, don't wait on god.

ChrisVance

Its up to YOU to make a difference, don't wait on god

Good point. If you wait on god you'll be waiting forever.

Abaddon

The author's response is based upon an assumption that a fairly closed and literalistic interpretation of one supposedly 'holy' book is correct, and that divergance from this results in bad things. That people who are not Christian should be forced to act as Christians. That essentially, 911 was 'our' fault.

This might be an arguement from the point of view of geopolitics and the effects of the past quarter century of foreign policy as pursued by the West, but in religious terms they are speculating on unprovable assumption of questionable morality.

They fails in this to account for the fact that the 'we' who didn't want all those bad things suffer as much as those they speak for who do want them, so is calmly excusing the sins of others being vested on the innocent.

They also fails to account for the fact they are linking bad things to people not following god in the way they think is correct is not consistant with the fact that bad things happen even when people have follwed god in a traditional Christian fashion.

They fails to take into account that the population has exploded in the past hundred years, and that many of the social issues of the day result from population change, from it becoming acceptable not to believe that unless you follow a certain path you will be punished after you die, from social changes where matters of birth (gender, race, sexuality, religious upbringing) are no longer acceptable reasons for bias or discrimination.

Their whole though process is so closed, and their arguement so facile, that I wouldn't forward it because I'd be embarressed to, rather than any strawman justification they may attempt to give.

Their are some valid points, mostly along the lines of if you don't give people a moral base, they don't automatically have one, but as with many religionists makes the mistake of assumping you can't have a moral base without religion.

A rather offensive little piece of work, in my opinion.

funkyderek

Here's a link to what Anne Graham Lotz actually said:

http://www.cbsnews.com/earlyshow/healthwatch/healthnews/20010913terror_spiritual.shtml

It took me all of 30 seconds to check the source. How many people did you forward that lie to, Scorpion?

gumby

And being the gentleman He is, I believe
He has calmly backed out. How can we
expect God to give us His blessing and
His protection if we demand He leave us
alone?"

So are we saying here......she didn't say this?

If she did........how does she explain the spanish influenza, the epidemic that killed millions. How about the lives lost in our wars......when God was in the schools. This is like saying if we keep God in our lives there will be no trouble.......which is utter bullshit. ( see the history of mankind for refrences)

Gumby

BTW Funkyderek,........which part of scorpions post was inncorrect?

artful

"How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

As a Christian, I definitely find the above thought process unreasonable - namely: "If we are good Christians then God will protect us from physical harm, but if we are not, then we are more likely to be subject to physical harm". I don't believe that Jesus or any of his disciples taught this.

Having said that, I would suggest that it is also unreasonable for those who 'ask God to leave them alone' to then blame him when any catastrophic event occurs. God is either directly responsible for the bad AND good that happen in our lives, or he is not. I don't believe that we can have it both ways.

Personally, I don't believe that God is directly responsible for the events that occur in our individual day to day affairs. He has equipped each and every one of us with the capacity for moral values and principles (whether we are Christian or not), and any monumental events that occur in our lives (good or bad) are primarily the result of our own actions, the actions of those around us, or chance occurrence. But that's just me, maybe I have it all wrong!
Cheers
Artful

ANNE GRAHAM

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