RE: http://www.timesdaily.com/arti...510/ARTICLES/5105000
Hi to my Forum Friends,
While I realize that the TimesDaily is no longer under the banner of the liberal New York Times; they still seem to find space to print columns from Christian bashing Liberals. And, the article below is a perfect example of a "Liberal at heart" who will, when convenient, don her "Conservative shawl" while throwing Liberal rotten eggs at Christians.
This lady cannot seem to decide which side of the aisle best fits her. In an article by Charles Krauthammer, dated Oct 22, 2008, we read: Kathleen Parker Endorses Barack Obama
Then, in her column, on Feb 9, 2009, she writes: Many suspected Obama wasn't ready for the presidency. They may have been right.
And, on Feb 11, 2009, Kathleen Parker writes: Obama the amateur, The first however-many days of Barack Obama's presidency have been a study in amateurism.
Does this lady have trouble deciding which, what, or who to like or dislike? Obviously, from the tone of her article below, she does not like Christian believers. Or maybe she just sees us a good fodder to fill her syndicated columns from time to time.
My Friend, when we read such articles, we must do so with our Liberal filters in place and realize that the writer is working hard to be controversial -- to sell more columns.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill Gray
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MAPQUESTING GOD FOR DIFFERENT ROUTES
By Kathleen Parker, TimesDaily News/Opinion, Monday, May 10, 2010
http://www.timesdaily.com/arti...for-different-routes
Commentary: Centuries of blood have been shed for the sake of religious certitude.
WASHINGTON - As thousands prayed across the nation Thursday in celebration of National Day of Prayer, the Rev. Franklin Graham held his own vigil in the Pentagon parking lot. Oh well, it doesn't matter where one prays, right? All prayers lead to heaven. Or do they? Not if you're Graham, who lost his place at the Pentagon altar after he mocked other religions, specifically Muslims and Hindus. A plea to President Obama to reinstate him apparently fell on pitiless ears.
Bill's Comment: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., can not only mock Christians -- but, can declare open warfare against them. How often, today and in recent years, have we heard of reports from those countries which are predominately Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. -- of Christian families, homes, villages attacked and destroyed by the followers of these world religions? And, no one, not even the supposed protector of world peace, the United Nations, even raises their voices or their hands to stop this hatred and killing.
Yet, let a Christian, especially a well known pastor or evangelist, publicly state the Islam and these other world religions are religions of hatred and evil -- and all the Liberals from around the world have heart palpitations. And, the hanky waving, smelling salts sniffing Liberals are worse in, of all places, Christian America.
Graham's offense was expressing his belief that only Christians have God's ear, that Islam is evil, and that Muslims and Hindus don't pray to the same God he does.
"No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me," Graham said in a USA Today interview, referring to one of the five main Hindu deities. "None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation. We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big kumbaya service and all hold hands and it's all going to get better in this world. It's not going to get better."
It's not? If the whole world prays for a common good, will no good come of it? If so, then what's the point of a National Day of Prayer? Oh ye of little faith.
Bill's Comment: Kathleen, if folks pray to a rock, or to a goat, or a frog, an elephant -- or to any other false god or gods -- it is much like the analogy of a tree falling in the forest -- who hears it? If I walk into a crowded room and you are one of a hundred people there; will you pay attention if I stop and talk with a person across the room? No. Why? Because it is obvious that I am not talking to you.
The same is true when those trapped in world religions pray. They are praying to their gods; be it goats, cows, frogs, or Allah. They are not praying to God, the preexisting, eternal God who created the heavens and the earth. So, since they are not praying to Him; why should He bother listening?
The National Day Of Prayer is a day in which Christians gather in groups small and large -- to pray to the one God, the God of the Bible. You really should get to know Him some day. You will be eternally happy if you do.
Perhaps Graham was feeling cross after his rejection. As honorary chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private evangelical group, Graham was to have led a prayer for the U.S. military. His son is on a fourth tour in Afghanistan.
But Graham's views didn't sit well with secular Americans or even non-evangelical Christians, who protested that the government is endorsing a certain flavor of Christianity. A Wisconsin court apparently agreed and ruled the day unconstitutional, appeals pending.
Bill's Comment: Kathleen, do you hold seances with Richard Dawkins to determine which hat to wear each day? You are like all atheist and secularist who lump all who can spell Christian -- into one group. There are many people and churches who wear the Christian hat; but, they forgot to be fitted for it by the Divine Tailor. Yet, you attempt to mix all the cult churches who wear Christ's name for the sake of some identity -- into the same cake mix as true Christians. Obviously you spent more time learning grammar than cooking; for their are many ingredients which can and do, spoil the cake.
You take a broad brush stroke at Christianity by saying "or even non-evangelical Christians." In that cake mix, I am sure you have added a couple of teaspoons of Jehovah's Witnesses, Moonies, Unitarian Universalists, and others who mention Jesus -- but, follow a different Jesus than the Jesus Christ of the Bible. The way you mix your cake ingredients, I am sure I would not want to try your finished cake.
Graham isn't alone in his views. A survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, conducted by an evangelical polling firm, found that 47 percent agree that Islam is "a very evil and a very wicked religion." But such opinions may be confined mostly to an older generation. Evangelicals under 30 believe that there are many ways to God, not just through Jesus.
David Campbell, a professor at Notre Dame and co-author of "American Grace: How Religion Is Reshaping Our Civic and Political Lives" (with Harvard's Bob Putnam) conducted surveys showing that nearly two-thirds of evangelicals under 35 believe non-Christians can go to heaven, versus 39 percent of those over 65.
Bill's Comment: Let me see, you quote a poll, taken by an unnamed polling firm. Is that good journalism? Or, was it just a more convenient fit for your attack on Christians?
Then, you tell us that a professor at Notre Dame (professor of what -- Global Warming?) and a writer from super liberal Harvard -- have conducted a survey. Wow! I bet that really reflects the real Christian people of America. Have you ever watched Jay Leno when he does his show segment called "Jay Walking"?
If not, Jay Leno goes on the street in Southern California and does a survey. He will stop people and ask questions such as: Who was the first president of the United States? In which war did he fight? Even questions such as: How many states are there? And, I, as an American, am blown away when 8 out of 10 people on the street cannot answer these questions.
When you tell us about "your survey" -- I get the feeling there has been more "Jay Walking."
When it comes to whose prayers carry more weight in the heavenly realm, well, who really knows? But new brain research supports the likelihood that one man's prayer is as good as any other's.
Bill's Comment: When you tell us that "one man's prayer is as good as any other's" -- I have to ask how you determine the criteria for the effectiveness of prayer. If a person is praying just to make a resounding noise in his own head; it is true that it does not matter if he is praying to a tree, a goat, a cow, an elephant, or to Allah, Buddha, etc.
However, to see prayers truly answered; to see truly life changing results from prayers -- only those directed to God by believers will have any true effect. One can pray to a rock, asking for rain or for healing, until he is blue in the face -- and it may or may not rain. However, I have personally seen many specific prayers answered where the only answer could be God.
Yet, for a non-believer, the only prayer that God will hear is: "Lord, I am a sinner. I turn from my worldly lifestyle, my sinful lifestyle -- and turn to follow You. Be my Lord and Savior from this day forth."
If and when a person sincerely prays such a prayer -- he is a believer and all the rest of his prayers go straight to the throne of God. If a person is a non-believer, and is mired in any of the many world religions -- his prayers go only to that rock, tree, frog, cow, etc.
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the award-winning NPR religion reporter, participated in a peyote ceremony in Arizona, meditated while wearing a brain scanner at the University of Wisconsin, and donned a "God helmet" in a neuroscientist's lab in Canada in her quest to discover the secrets of prayer and, possibly, proof of God.
Bill's Comment: You have already lost all credibility when you say "NPR Religion Reporter" -- National Public Radio and Religion in the same breath is the highest form of oxymoron; unless, of course, you are speaking only of world religions. The only Christians you will find on NPR reports are those in the Far Left Liberal Theology churches or the cult churches such as the Unitarian Universalists, Jehovah's Witnesses, or Rev. Moon's Unification church.
In her book, "Fingerprints of God," Hagerty tries to answer a question that has plagued her for years: Is there more than this? She couldn't accept mainstream science's answer that we are "a collection of molecules with no greater purpose than to eke out a few decades."
Instead, she sought out spiritual virtuosos (people who practice prayer, religiously), as well as neurologists, geneticists, physicists and medical researchers who are using the newest tools of science to discern the circumstantial evidence of God.
Bill's Comment: What is a "spiritual virtuoso"? Is this a person, who in your opinion, is wasting his time talking with God when he could better spend his time talking with a rock, tree, or elephant? You say "people who practice prayer, religiously." While I have been a praying Christian for more that 22 years; I have never thought of it as "practicing prayer."
No, my dear lady, let me try to explain to you about prayer. Prayer is speaking with your very Best Friend. When you converse with your spouse, your girl friend, or any other friend -- do you have to "practice" first? When I talk with my wife, it is just a natural thing to do. When I talk with my God, it is an even more natural thing to do.
Possibly, this is why you are so confused about prayer, about Franklin Graham's prayers, and about the National Day of Prayer -- you have no idea what a prayer is -- or how to do it. Kathleen, just talk to God as you would anyone else you love and respect.
Her research led to some startling conclusions that have caused no small amount of Sturm und Drang among those who believe theirs is the one true way. She found that whether one is a Sikh, a Catholic nun, a Buddhist monk, or a Sufi Muslim, the brain reacts to focused prayer and meditation much in the same way. The same parts light up and the same parts go dark during deep meditation.
Bill's Comment: By "Sturm und Drang" I presume you mean "storm and stress" and not the 18th century German literary movement. Yes, I am sure that during prayer, as well as with any other activity, when one is connected with a machine to measure neurological responses, there will be brain activity caused by these activities.
However, you are measuring man's response to his own activity -- not God's response to prayer.
If you were to take equipment to measure neurological reactions to a Nascar race and connect some to spectators and some to the drivers; would you expect to find the same response measurements? Of course not. The spectators are responding only to their senses of excitement from watching the race.
However, the driver strapped into a high performance race car driving at 200 mph among 30 other such cars -- will most certainly have a different response. Why? Because the driver is reacting to his own excitement as well as to the response of this powerful machine he is riding.
By the same token, people in the world religions praying to their gods, are reacting to their own emotions and feelings.
While the Christian believer who is praying to God -- is reacting to his own personal feelings and emotions -- as well as interacting with the Living God. My Friend, there is a tremendous difference.
Apparently, we have a "God spot" and "God genes." And though some are more generously endowed than others, spiritual experience is a human phenomenon, not a religious one. Different routes to the same destination.
Bill's Comment: When you write: "Apparently, we have a 'God spot'" -- you have actually touched on a real truth without realizing it. While you appear to be making an attempt to be facetious; this is the truth. You see, when God created each of us, including you, He did include a "God Spot" or a hole within us which can only be filled by God. No square pegs (world religions) in the round holes (Christian).
This is why we can read about missionaries over the last one hundred years traveling to remote islands or lands -- and finding native people who were, from their own native legends, expecting the "people of the book." A wonderful book which tells of these encounters is "Eternity In Their Hearts" by Don Richardson and published by Regal Books.
Also, you can read about this phenomenon in Romans 2:14-15.
Understandably, these are not glad tidings to some. Centuries of blood have been shed for the sake of religious certitude. But transcending the notion that only some prayers are the right ones might get us closer to the enlightenment we purportedly seek.
Bill's Comment: While it is obvious that the only enlightenment you are seeking is a worldly enlightenment; you also have pulled out the old worn and frazzled atheist/secularist trump card -- "Centuries of blood have been shed for the sake of religious certitude."
Yes, it is true that in earlier centuries the Roman Catholic church did instigate the Crusades and the Inquisition. The Crusades to drive out the Muslims and the Inquisition against a group the church felt were Christian heretics. Yes, these events were wrong -- but, they occurred in the Middle Ages and were, for the most part, private wars of corrupt popes and church leaders.
However, while those occurred many centuries ago -- there are many inquisitions against Christian believers happening today. They are happening in Muslim nations, in Hindu nations, in Buddhist nations -- and in secular nations such as China. So, if you want to talk about bloodshed -- let's talk about Christian blood and let's talk about today's events; not something which happened 600 years ago.
Hagerty is optimistic that science eventually will demonstrate that we are more than mere matter. In the meantime, it would seem imminently rational to presume in our public affairs that God does not play political favorites with his creation.
Bill's Comment: God has a plan for all of His creation -- and, yes, He will play favorites. God's plans and His thinking are far above that of man. But, He has one plan. That plan is: from the chaos and turmoil of this world, He will one day destroy this world and He will create a New Heaven, a New Earth, and a New Jerusalem. And, the inhabitants will be those who, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ -- and only Jesus Christ -- believe and receive His "free gift" of salvation. God's plan is to spend eternity with these believers.
Sorry, Kathleen, but there is one other eternal destination. This is where all non-believers will spend eternity -- and, it will not be a pleasant place to live for eternity.
Kathleen Parker can be reached at kparker@kparker.com
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