I know you do not fail to see the hypocrisy in having other young people fight a battle you consider so vital, but not so vital you are willing to sacrifice to help them fight. The military is overburdened, morale is low, they need help. Whom should we expect to fight this war if not those young people who shout how important it is, and how we can’t get out before winning? If not you, then whom, Jason? That is as rational a query as you can get.

I repeat: sign up and fight. If you cannot, state the reasons why. If you are too old, or disabled, or have a legitimate excuse, so be it.

I have links, too:

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/badmovesprint.php?num=18

Peace out.

The Jefferson Bible, in which the founder attempted to weed out the hocus-pocus and focus on the simple teachings — he didn’t believe Jesus “saved” anyone from a hellish fate, just that his moral teachings were great.

http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/

Saddam, WMDs, and the Bush family war profiteering. Now, if you’re going to tell me the Bush family’s profiteering on wars all over the globe doesn’t bother you, or the profiteering of ANY politician who was tasked with choosing this war, then I’d be surprised and dismayed. My useless Democratic senator Feinstein is in the same wretched profiteering boat.

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd03052004.html

If you are of fighting age, and support this debacle like you claim, then unless you enlist I can’t really take your support seriously. If the battle is that important you have no excuse for not being over there. Go fight.

As for the video game, it had no place being distributed to soldiers, most of whom already have little to no knowledge of Iraqi culture. Positing this battle as one to convert sinners to Christ is as wrong as one can get.

Your notion of Saddam’s threat as reason to ignore the real 9/11 causes is the stupidity that has us mired in a civil war in another nation. Go read what your founders have to say about that. There isn’t a shred of credible evidence to support the false assumptions this war was begun for. It was a sham, a waste of life, and a wild distraction from the real problem.

Believe what you choose to, worship what you choose to, but if superiority is not part of your belief, why would you need to convert anyone?

And whatever man is right. I asked a legitimate question and you couldn’t answer it legitimately. WE attacked them, bud. So you’re going to teach with a game how to peacefully solve the problems you’ve created with a war so wrong and unwinnable it’s off the charts?

Some soldiers, like my brother, don’t need to be preached to in order to do the right thing. He had to fight all day to save an Afghan village his superiors wanted him to burn to the ground. And he saved it, his idiotic superiors were overruled finally. Jesus didn’t do that, my friend. Intellect and rationality and humanity did.

And I still can’t get over the venom you have toward someone who has told you he respects the wonderful teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Love your neighbor, help the poor, be good. What I have a problem with is taking those simple teachings and twistintg them into the literal belief in a magic man coming down from the sky.

And thanks for not mentioning that I exposed your ignorance on Deism and our founders. They didn’t believe in God like you do, they believed in nature as god, they believed God took no role and did no meddle at all in human affairs. That was the God of our most cherished founders, not the childish literalism of those who fail to grasp the beauty of metaphor.

Enough with our jousting, sure you’re a nice guy in person. Peace, bro.

The game wasn’t intended to be used for military purposes as you falsely claim. It was part of “care packages” for the troops provided by the non-military group OSU. Here’s what they troops are still getting:

* Greeting card
* 75 Minute Phone Card
* White Socks
* Baby Wipes (suggested by Col Oliver North)
* Gideon’s pocket size New Testament
* Extreme Sports “Livin It” DVD
* and an assortment of snacks.

Oh, look at that. A Bible. And I bet the greeting card has a Christian message, too. Why aren’t you bitching and moaning about that now?

“And explain to me, logically and rationally and factually, exactly how in the game Muslims are peacefully allowed to stay Muslim and prosper.”

This is a weird question and not easy to answer. Prospering isn’t really an issue in the game and your question is phrased in a way that completely ignores the game’s premise. In any case, most – if not all – levels have both neutral and hostile characters who may or may not be Muslims. It is not necessary to convert each and every neutral and hostile character in each level to advance to the next level. I suppose if one were to use their imagination, you could say that the Muslims in the world of Left Behind can quite easily prosper in a worldly fashion as either neutrals or part of the Antichrist’s side.

“How are peaceful solutions in the face of armed conflict presented.”

You can either try to turn the hostile forces neutral by raising their Spirit level via musicians or recruiters (who can also turn them good) or you can simply avoid them.

“And peaceful solutions to what?”

To being attacked.

“To the problem of people choosing not to believe what you do?”

lol! Whatever, man.

As far as Jefferson is concerned, did you know that just two days after he wrote his much misused letter to the Danbury Baptists, he attended Christian worship services in Congress? Did you also know that he authorized the Treasury and War Office buildings to be used for Christian worship services? Does that sound like someone who believed in the “separation of church and state” as it is interpreted today? Hardly!

“in a war started for no legitimate reason, in a country that did nothing to us and was no threat”

Reason: Saddam was defying U.N.-imposed sanctions. This was admitted by all sorts of officials in our government from the president on down long before George W. Bush took office. All he did was actually put our nation’s money where our mouth was instead of sticking cigars in the vaginas of chubby interns and bombing aspirin factories in Africa.

What Iraq did: Saddam had previously and without provocation invaded Kuwait. We kicked his butt back to Baghdad and since then, all we did under Clinton was issue warnings and lob a couple missiles at him. Saddam continued to defy the U.N. and the U.S. more and more.

The threat: our allies and interests in the area were most certainly under threat from Saddam since the Gulf War, and the threat grew and grew because of the inaction of both the U.N. and the U.S.

Finally, what makes your interpretation of Jesus’ teachings superior to anyone else’s? Because your interpretation is more “tolerant” (while ironically being extremely intolerant)? My interpretation is far more tolerant than yours because I can admit that I could be wrong on secondary, non-critical matters like the End Times. I can admit that because the issue of the End Times has absolutely zero impact on my salvation through Christ. If I’m right, I’m saved. If I’m wrong, I’m still saved. And I would never, EVER call other people’s beliefs on the matter abuse or twisting of Jesus’ teachings, nor would I denigrate and ridicule them for their beliefs.

In a letter to Adams, Jefferson concluded about religion: “the result of your 50 or 60 years of religious reading, in four words ‘be just and good’ is that in which all our inquiries must end.”

Jefferson, huh? Have you read anything about the Enlightenment, of which our most cherished founders were the product? Or how its view of the almighty is just a tad different that of modern evangelism’s? Deism and all that. Having survived my high school years immersed in the evangelical life, I can certainly say with confidence we see the world entirely differently. I chose to stop believing an obvious metaphor literally. You haven’t, I suppose. Free country. For now.

But why the wise teachings attributed to Jesus of Nazareth need to be abused and twisted, and why so many Christians need to believe the metaphor literally, that a magic man will descend from the sky and all that, I have no idea. Except the fear of death, mortality, will do that to some folks.

The screen capture is a tiny portion of the full screen of fraction of a second of gameplay. Having played the game, I am 100% confident that the armed figures are the forces of the Antichrist firing upon the peaceful doctors, singers, etc. of the Tribulation Force. So take your sarcastic, ignorant “Oh no, no killing here” and “Please” comments and throw them off a cliff.

And no, we’re not a “SECULAR” nation and we most certainly weren’t founded on the separation of church and state. That’s a modern myth. Our nation (i.e. the people, not the government) has always been dominated by people of faith and early lawmakers – including your beloved Jefferson – incorporated faith into their jobs.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/15/dodstopsplan_mn.jpg

Oh no, no killing here.

Please.

The POINT, my friend, is we are a SECULAR nation, founded on the principle of separation of church and state. We should not be aiming to have our own revolutionary guards.