Kerry, Bush, Nader

[WayneB]

It pains me to see people rationalize fundamentalism and use the bible, twisting it their own ends. When you do this you end up with people who can't think for themselves and end up commiting unspeakable acts...

Yup, unspeakable acts like a one-on-one relationship with the creator-God, a love for His Word and a desire to please Him in all things.

What is a Fundamentalist? Why are they criticized? I found an article, which is from an unfriendly source (to be fair) so it is a bit mistaken in some ways but interesting nevertheless. I posted only an excerpt of the article here, which provides "distinguishing marks", but you can read it in its entirity by going to the address provided.

Do you recognize yourself? If you do, join the club. Although there are different variations of Fundamentalism (and yes, some are extreme), we Fundamentalists are simply saying that God spoke the Truth and an understanding of His Truth is available to every one of us through His Word and Spirit.

I highlighted my favorite parts of the writer's essay in blue font.

Distinguishing Marks

http://www.catholic.com/library/Fundamentalism.asp

The belief that is first and foremost the defining characteristic of Fundamentalists is their reliance on the Bible to the complete exclusion of any authority exercised by the Church.  The second is their insistence on a faith in Christ as one

[His son]

2 Tim 3:16-17

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Pet 1:20

20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

2 Sam 14:14

14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Job 37:24

24 Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.

Reply

How about some truth from Christian News sources about why we are kicking but on those terrorists, who when they succeed in controlling a nation take every last visage of freedom away from the people, and fill graves with those who don't obey every order to the jot, and title. Any Christian who opposes this is denying most of The Bible, and the fact that God sends His people to destroy totally everything in those kind of nations.

Despite what the big media says about post-war Iraq, seven out of ten Iraqis said their situation was good, according to a recent survey.

President Bush on Friday hailed the eighty-four countries that have recognized the threat of terrorism: "We are the nations that will defeat that threat," he said in a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.

The president noted that each of the 84 nations in the U.S.-led coalition "has pledged before the world, 'We will never bow to the violence of a few. We will face this mortal danger and we will overcome it together.'"

He said the recent murders in Madrid are a reminder that the civilized world is at war -- and that the war on terrorism is not a figure of speech. "It is an inescapable calling of our generation," Bush said.

Civilians are on the front lines of this war, he said. The terrorists' goal is to demoralize and divide us, Bush warned. "Each attack must be answered, not only with sorrow, but with greater determination, deeper resolve and bolder action against the killers."

Bush said it is the duty of every government is to fight and destroy the terrorist threat. Appeasement won't work, he said. "There is no neutral ground," he warned.

"The terrorists are not merely offended by our policies. They are offended by our existence as free nations. No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East, and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror.

"There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence," Bush said.

"The only certain way to protect our people is by united and decisive action."

The most common name for baby boys in Brussels is Mohammed. There are as many as 15 million Arabs and Muslims living in Europe. Europe needs babies and immigrants, because its birthrate has imploded, but Europe's not sure it wants these immigrants, because it fears the rise of Islam. Many Europeans are nervous. They like to think that they are more enlightened and tolerant than the rest of the world, but that tolerance is being tested by a wave of immigration that could change the face of Europe.

Abortion

"I don't know of anybody who rationally believes that a baby who has come to term is something a mother can destroy." Kent Morgan, a spokesman for the Salt Lake district attorney's office, reacting to women's groups who have said politics are behind the charging of Melissa Ann Rowland with murder for delaying a Caesarean section and causing one of her babies to be stillborn.

Missions Arts

For more than four decades Youth With A Mission (YWAM) has been sending young people into the world to share God's love with others. It encourages the young evangelists to be creative in sharing the Gospel - using drama, music, and sports, among other methods. YWAM's mercy ships have brought doctors, nurses, and medical technology to needy people across the globe.

Loren Cunningham founded the organization in 1960. Yet, today, it sounds as if he's just getting started.

'World Mission is for you, whoever you are and whatever you do.' That's the theme here at the YWAM Global Passion Conference, at the FineLine Center in Liverpool. The main speaker sharing that message is Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission, the world's largest mission agency, with over 12,000 fulltime staff.

Loren Cunningham explained how God first gave him the Vision to start YWAM.

Cunningham said, "For me personally, the Vision of YWAM started when I was 13, and God spoke to me at that time to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Then it was in 1956, in the islands of the Caribbean that God spoke to me on a Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. I was praying for my message that night-I was speaking to about 200 young people. There were 5 of us young men out there in the islands. And God gave me this picture of waves of millions of young people going to every nation on earth. And I saw the multiplication of what we had done a little bit about and He was simply taking it and multiplying it to the nations of the earth. And since that time, by 1995, we've seen already over 3 million young people serving short-term with Youth With A Mission."

Peter Wooding: The message here is that 'missions is for everyone'. What would you say to people-that they all have a part to play?

Loren Cunningham: For the Body of Christ it is literally that every person in the world has a mission. I believe that you are either a missionary or a mission-field. You're either part of God's answer or part of His problem. The word 'missionary' means 'one sent.'

"As the Father sent Me," Jesus said, John 20:21, "So send I you." Now, He has sent every one of us. If you are living in your home, in the will of God, then you're God's missionary on that street. And so you're to 'let your light shine so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father that is in Heaven'."

Peter Wooding: So what does the future hold for you and for YWAM? Do you think you'll retire soon or do you think you'll just keep going on?

Loren Cunningham: I don't see a place of stopping, I don't even see passing on a torch. I believe that I can light the torch of others with my flame--I'll share my flame. But the torch goes with me. My parents died, my father just last July, he outlived my mother by a couple of years. But they were in their 90's, and they just radiated the Spirit of Jesus right up 'til their death. Any time they'd get to praying, I could just hear the great strength that was in each of them. And that's really where our strengths lie.

In an address at the conference, Cunningham said, "I remember as a young preacher trying to hold back my messages until I could someday give them. But I found I forgot them, I lost them, I never got to give them! So, I learned: you give away what you've got and then you get to keep it. And that's how you also learn. So, whenever you're discipling someone if you're the discipler, you first have to model it before them, like Jesus did."

In terms of the life of what God wants to have for Youth With A Mission, and for me in it, I have given away most of the titles to others. I started when I was 50, giving away the titles, but" he smiled, "the role of 'founder', I haven't found anyone to take that one yet."

After more than 40 years in ministry, it is refreshing to see so many young people ready to follow the same Calling that has driven Loren Cunningham for the past four decades. I'm sure YWAM still has many of its best years to come.

Visit the Youth With a Mission Web site.



Former 'Killing Fields' Yield Spiritual Harvest

By Gary Lane

For CWNews

March 12, 2004

In the late 1970's Cambodia drew worldwide focus. The brutal policies of the Khmer Rouge regime left 1 to 2 million dead - a fact that shocked the world. It also led to a movie called, 'The Killing Fields.' But today, new life is coming to this battered country.

In Pailin, Cambodia, Evangelical Christians worship the God of love and forgiveness.

Christianity has grown steadily in Cambodia since the end of the Khmer Rouge's brutal reign in 1979. Today there are more than 50,000 believers in the mostly Buddhist nation.

The Christian faith is growing particularly fast in this northwestern region of the country. Pailin was once a Khmer Rouge stronghold. But now it has four Christian churches.

Many converts once belonged to the bloody Khmer Rouge regime. One church has nearly 200 former Khmer Rouge soldiers in its ranks. Rim Pan is a former Khmer Rouge official, he said, "I joined Christianity because I was sorry for being in the fighting."

An estimated two million people died during the four-year rule of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army. The communist regime outlawed all religions, banning religious symbols, and killing religious leaders.

Driven from power by the Vietnamese in 1979, the Khmer Rouge then waged a 20-year guerilla war against the new government.

But in that time, Christianity began to take root in this suffering nation. It also began to take hold among some of those needing forgiveness most: the Khmer Rouge soldiers who caused such pain. Among them is Kang Khek Leu.

Leu ran a notorious political prison in Phnom Penh, where some 15,000 Cambodians were executed. But in the 1990s he became a Christian.

Christopher Lapel, a Cambodian Pastor who lives in America, helped lead him to Christ.

Lapel said, "Leu came to me and said 'Pastor Christopher, I'm a sinner and I don't think my brothers and sisters around me can forgive me, because my sin is so deep'."

Leu has since turned himself in and is awaiting trial for his crimes. He says he can face man's judgment because he knows God has his soul.

Thousands of other Cambodians are giving their lives to Christ every month. They're hearing the message of the Gospel through evangelistic ministries at work in the country, including through plays about Jesus.

And they hope that by reaching Cambodia's future generation, it will never repeat its past.

[Guest mcm42]

What is a Fundamentalist

:t: Count me In

[Cerran]

Yeah if it didn't come directly from the bible and I'm not sure what it stands for, or don't like what it stands for it comes from Satan.

The fundamentalists movement would have all the basic freedoms given to us from the constituion taken from us if they could. There is nothing worse to a fundamentalist than to have someone question their belief structure, even if the person is another christian. Funny in a way. I never said this country wasn't founded on some Christian princilples shared with their ideals, but the idea that the founding fathers sponsered christianity is absurd. You are allowed to worship what you believe (as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others to do the same) and I sure hope it stays that way.

Thomas Paine was a pamphleteer whose manifestos encouraged the faltering spirits of the country and aided materially in winning the war of Independence:

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

Thomas Jefferson, third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, said:"I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian." He referred to the Revelation of St. John as "the ravings of a maniac" and wrote:

"The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained."

James Madison, fourth president and father of the Constitution, was not religious in any conventional sense. "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

The Christian right is trying to rewrite the history of the United States as part of its campaign to force its religion on others. They try to depict the founding fathers as pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity.

Religion in the U.S. was meant to be a personal choice not one forced upon you by the government. Elect someone who will keep it that way. You want to convert followers? Do it the old fashioned way, talk with people about your faith.

[Guest LadyC]

The fundamentalists movement would have all the basic freedoms given to us from the constituion taken from us if they could.

really? name one.

I never said this country wasn't founded on some Christian princilples shared with their ideals, but the idea that the founding fathers sponsered christianity is absurd.

nobody said the founding fathers sponsored ANY religion. but they did NOT want God separated from Government, either. this country WAS founded on judeo-christian principals. that does not imply that they endorsed a state sponsored religion.

[other one]

Will John Kerry be any better?

No he won't.

Their both members of Skull and Bones and attend the pagan meetings at the Bohemian Grove. There they sacrifice effigies of kids to Moloch among many other detestable things. They are both from the same group. They talk out of different sides of their mouths to make us think we are making some drastic choice....... in the end we end up in the same place so vote for whoever you want, just don't try and tell me that Bush is a Christian. Christians don't go places that they do..... they don't do pagan worship in temples in Japan ..... they don't keep ties with the likes of the Brotherhood of Death ...... they don't worship Moloch.

[Ovedya]

Were you kidding, or what?

What evidence do you have that Bush ever sacrificed to pagan gods?

[other one]

Were you kidding, or what?

What evidence do you have that Bush ever sacrificed to pagan gods?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/031404exclusivephotos.html

[other one]

also

http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert.fs/shrine.htm

I believe it was on CNN that I saw him do it.

[Guest LCPGUY]

I just visited a site that was recommended to me by a friend:

Bush Revealed

Some pretty disturbing stuff there, but they seem to have their documentation.

John