We Don't Worship the Same God

I guess I've been living under a rock because I just found out today that the same people who proudly (and inaccurately) declare "God hates fags" have been protesting military funerals. This group from a Baptist church in Topeka has always enraged me to my very core and today was the final straw. Obviously we know that these people are evil, but I'm going to show you why. I'm going to counter their views with the words of the God they claim to serve, but obviously don't know. To see the God that I love so much so badly misrepresented and His words twisted to promote evil makes me so angry and so sad, I cannot remain silent.

Jesus to the Pharisees (who seem a little nicer compared to these people):
"Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do...Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture: 'I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices.' For I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough." Matthew 9:12-13

"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35
Other verses to this effect: John 15:12-14,17-19, Matthew 5:43-45, Luke 6:27-34

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." John 3:16-17

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love." John 15:9

"If a shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the other ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? And if he finds it, he will surely rejoice over it more than the other ninety-nine that didn't wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish." Matthew 18:12-14

"If you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 6:15

I could list so, so many more scriptures to show that God does not hate anyone, God is not killing our troops in Iraq, God did not rejoice over 9/11, and God does not hate America, or Canada or Sweden or any other country they have listed on their website. God is a just God, He has laws that He expects to be followed, but He does not hate anyone who does not follow these laws, rather He longs for them to follow His ways because He has a beautiful plan for their lives. He doesn't hate those who don't follow His ways, he longs for them, He anguishes over the pain that comes into all of our lives in this depraved and fallen world. If God were to hate anyone (which He doesn't) it would be those who were self-righteous and judgmental of the lost. Those who believe in Him and have his words to look to are in far more trouble than those who had no idea they were going against his laws. The reverand Fred Phelps might be really surprised to see where he ends up when he leaves this world. That's all I have to say.

A Great Article by One of my Favorite Ladies

LIE DOWN WITH STRIPPERS, WAKE UP WITH PLEAS
April 19, 2006

However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money. Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone else detect a common thread here?)

And if you are a girl in Aruba or New York City, among the best ways to avoid being the victim of a horrible crime is to not get drunk in public or go off in a car with men you just met. While we're on the subject of things every 5-year-old should know, I also recommend against dousing yourself in gasoline and striking a match.

Everyone makes mistakes, especially young people, but the outpouring of support for the victims and their families is obscuring what ought to be a flashing neon warning for potential future victims. Whenever a gun is used in a crime, there are never-ending news stories about how dangerous guns are. But these girls go out alone, late at night, drunk off their butts, and there's nary a peep about the dangers of drunk women on their own in public. It's their "right." Yes, of course no one "deserves" to die for a mistake. Or to be raped or falsely accused of rape for a mistake. I have always been unabashedly anti-murder, anti-rape and anti-false accusation — and I don't care who knows about it!

But these statements would roll off the tongue more easily in a world that so much as tacitly acknowledged that all these messy turns of fate followed behavior that your mother could have told you was tacky. Not very long ago, all the precursor behavior in these cases would have been recognized as vulgar — whether or not anyone ended up dead, raped or falsely accused of rape. But in a nation of people in constant terror of being perceived as "judgmental," I'm not sure most people do recognize that anymore.

It shouldn't be necessary to point out that girls shouldn't be bar-hopping alone or taking their clothes off in front of strangers, and that young men shouldn't be hiring strippers. But we live in a world of Bill Clinton, Paris Hilton, Howard Stern, JuliaRoberts in "Pretty Woman," Democratic fund-raisers at the Playboy Mansion and tax deductions for entertaining clients at strip clubs. This is an age in which the expression "girls gone wild" is becoming a redundancy.

So even as the bodies pile up, I don't think the message about integrity is getting through. The liberal charge of "hypocrisy" has so permeated the public consciousness that no one is willing to condemn any behavior anymore, no matter how seedy. The unstated rule is: If you've done it, you can't ever criticize it — a standard that would seem to repudiate the good works of the Rev. Franklin Graham, Malcolm X, Whittaker Chambers and St. Paul, among others.

Every woman who has had an abortion feels compelled to defend abortion for all women; every man who's ever been at a party with strippers thinks he has to defend all men who watch strippers; and every Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton feels the need to defend duplicity, adultery, lying about adultery, sexual harassment, rape, perjury, obstruction of justice, kicking the can of global Islamo-fascism down the road for eight years and so on.

This is crazy. (I can say that because I've never been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. Although I did test positive for "Olympic fever" once.) In no area except morality would a sane person believe he can't criticize something stupid because he's done it. How about: If you've ever forgotten to fill up your car and run out of gas, you must forevermore defend a person's right to ignore the gas gauge. Or if you've ever forgotten to wear a coat in cold weather and caught a cold, henceforth you are obliged to encourage others not to dress appropriately in the winter. This deep-seated societal fear of being accused of "hypocrisy" applies only to behavior touching on morals.

But we're all rotten sinners, incapable of redemptionon our own. The liberal answer to sin is to say: I can never pay this back, so my argument will be I didn't do anything wrong. The religion of peace's answer is: I've just beheaded an innocent man — I'm off to meet Allah! I don't know what the Jewish answer is, but I'm sure it's something other than, "therefore, what I did is no longer bad behavior" — or the Talmud could be a lot shorter. The Christian answer is: I can never pay this back, but luckily that Christ fellow has already paid mydebt.

COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER
DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE

I'm Back

We got back from China last night. It's 3:30pm here but my body definitely thinks it's 6am, that's a tad bit annoying. We had a really action packed trip and we never stayed in one place more than a day, except Beijing the last 3 days. We traveled to Beijing and then to a city bordering North Korea and worked with the Korean population for 3 days. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go in to NK. No big surprise there. We were in a town that we could look across the river into NK though and we saw fires where guards were hanging out around the border. Pretty crazy. We returned to Beijing only then to travel west to Lanzhou and lots of small farming villages in Western China that had Tibetan populations. Our guide was actually calling it Tibet, but it was china proper with Tibetan people. I'm kind of confused about where we were...I think maybe it had been Tibet before China took over the country in the 50's or something. Anyway, we worked with many Tibetan peoples and got stared at like we were rock stars because most of them had never seen Western people before-especially not with Blonde hair! One guy almost had a car accident staring at me. It was pretty funny! We ended our trip in Beijing spending time with an orphanage there, some underground seminary students and some sight-seeing. I'm pretty sure I'm in at least 20 random Chinese kids' pictures at the Great Wall because they kept asking me to take a picture with them. It's the blonde hair, but I'd like to think it's because they knew deep inside that I'm a rock star.
I'm keeping it breif for now because I'm a very tired lady, but if you want some extensive details of the trip check out our friend Tom's blog he kept the entire trip - he was willing to pay to use the internet, I, was not. The site is www.tcislost.blogspot.com He'll give you more details than I ever could and maybe more than you even want! Enjoy. I'll be sure to post more details and some photos as I become normal again!

See Squirrel
See Sophie stare down the squirrel...
for hours

In other news,


Jason finally got his tattoo! Look at those guns


We're leaving for China on Thursday. I'm so excited. I'm excited to go, but I'm also just as excited to get two weeks away from camp planning and hiring. It's been pretty stressful lately. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I agreed to do this again. I keep reminding myself how much fun it can be and I'm trying not to think of the craziness. There are certain kids from last summer that were just so much fun, so I keep thinking about them and it really makes it all worth it. I know that sounds cheesy and cliche, but it's true! It's all about the kids. If you happen to know any college aged guys who would love to hang out with 7-12 year olds all summer, send 'em my way =) I'll be sure to post lots about China when we get back.