A friend of mine recently sent me the following email. It is one of those writings that gets forwarded among the masses.


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.

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.

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.

Here's what I think. It in no way is meant to offend anyone.

I think our belief system is f*cked.
Basically, we as humans have passed down the stories of Christ and for the most part have kept it true to origins.

I get asked occassionally what I believe.
"Do you believe in God?"
"Do you believe in Heaven?"
"Do you believe in Life after Death?" believe...............

See, that's the key word. believe...............
Truth is a belief system was never instilled in me growing up. I like to think I followed more of a "show me" mentality. I was always searching for tangible proof, in anything.

I did attend a few church services in my youth, but was not impressed. Every one chanting words like they were automotons. No passion in what they were saying. Sounding like they didn't believe what they were saying.

Now, I'm not saying none of what is stated in the Bible didn't happen. Quite the contrairy.
Just some creative writing was done to keep the reader interested.

Too many people want to use religion as a crutch as stated in the above forwarded email and not realize that things happen. And when we don't like it we blame it on the absence of a belief system created who knows how long ago.

If you want to believe in something then go ahead. There's nothing wrong with that. Just don't put ALL your faith into it. Take some responsibility.

(This will probably be my one and only time I get out the giant spoon and stir things up)