Bibles Destroyed in Afghanistan… By U.S. Military

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

It’s Obama’s war, and he’s buggering it up to beat the band. Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind on this one.

Whats the big deal, if you knew anything about teh muslin religion you woudl know that they read the bible, they think Jessu was a prophet also and abide by soem orf his teachings. our country needs to stop worrieing abotu hurting peoples feelings.

Much to the shagrin of some, alot of the world doesn’t want any part of the bible, including myself. Christianity highjacked the military under Bush, as this was all overlooked. Heck we even prayed to win the war. I guess if we give out bibles, and keep proselytizing, that our “god” will beat up their “god”, as we all know that our religion is the only religion that really matters. Evangelical Christianity is a sickness that is destroying America from within, and has allowed our militaries religious zealots to force their religion on others in the military and beyond.

Oh yeah, and keep them gays out too. You know they can’t keep them their hands off each other long enough to fight a war.

that is ridiculous, are country was founded on Biblical principles, Lets take every thing away from our soldiers. How do you expect to keep moral up over there in the desert if they cant share their faith!!! I am sure this will upset the soldiers. But oh well we can offend a Christian but can’t offend the Muslim religion.

Hardly surprising since we all know these wars are “christian crusades” instigated by Bush and Rumsfeld.

“Oh sure, attack Christianity, never mind the terrorists.”
Lisa, the Christians are the terrorists. Al-queda(in Afghanistan) killed about 3,000 Americans and we then killed 2 hundred thousand Iraqis, so who’s the terrorists?

What non believers do not understand is to Christans when life is behind you nothing matters more than if you were obedient to God and his commands which he gave them in the bible. It supercedes the laws of government if and only if the government sets laws contrary to Gods

To FaciastHyena & Code Pink: Obama inherited this war from the unholy trinity of W, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

Audra—”are [sic] country was founded on Biblical principles.” no our country was founded on freedom of religion which means all citizens may worship whomever they choose (or choose not to believe at all) and not have one religion (christianity) forced down their throats.

I am not for book burning, though, it seems that they could have found somewhere acceptable to send the Bibles, perhaps back to the church that donated them.

The Bible is THE truth about us, God and the future. The future, without Jesus, is bleak for everyone. Get a copy and read it. Satan doesn’t want anyone to read it as he hopes to pack hell’s halls with as many nonbelievers as is possible. But the truth shall set you free. Read the Bible.

KS Devil, Have you ever truly sat alone and read the Bible(New Testament) that you mock?

Eric | May 19, 2009 2:20:36 PM—Eric, i think if more christians read the New Testament this would be a better world. many christians dwell and spend many a sunday engrossed in Old Testament hatred and totalling missing the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The General issuing this order swore an oath when he was commisioned to support and defend the constitution of the United States. The first amendment to the constitution is to insure freedom of religon and speech. Is the General above the Law? The the order lawful? Do the General violate his oath of office?

And why should the Arab world not view as crusaders?

FacistHyena: Obama war ( LOL ) what planet have you been on for the last eight years.

Eric | May 19, 2009 2:31:58 PM—wrote “Paul, Your comments to Brent are contradictory.” Eric, my religious views are mine alone not a fact. i believe, i do not know. that people treat beliefs as facts is their right.

that is ridiculous, are country was founded on Biblical principles
Posted by: Audra
======================================
From the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate on a unanimous vote on June 7, 1797 and signed by President John Adams on June 10, 1797:
“Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen”

It would have been prudent to return the Bibles to the senders rather than burning them.
It is not prudent to allow soldiers to proslytize, actively or passively, in a cultural context that has harsh penalties, by law and/or tradition, for people who convert or seek to convert others. That is counterproductive to the establishment of civil order.
In the long term, once order is restored, it is a desirable goal that all religions around the world coexist peacefully, and that respectful study of each other’s holy works be allowed and encouraged. Conversion should not be punished, nor should atheism or agnosticism.
Understanding, respect and tolerance is the death of fanaticism, and should be sought by all who are not fanatics.

Eric | May 19, 2009 2:42:04 PM—Eric, why can’t you respect others beliefs or their right not to believe? buddhists, muslims, hindus all have different beliefs. to say your belief is fact/true and others false is arrogant and gives christianity the ugly face of being a religion that force-feeds itself onto others. i know many people of different religious beliefs who are far more tolerant about christianity than christians are of others’ beliefs.

Williem said
We’re talking about soldiers here, not christians. What Christians do in their own bedrooms on their own dime doesn’t bother me in the least.
But you’re not allowed to do it on the taxpayers dime under the banner of the United States.
Well Williem it all comes down to if I was a soldier , from an eternal perspective, my calling to God to tell others about him is more important and means a heck of a lot more after i am gone than being disobedient to him and not telling others. Obviously I wouldn’t do it while in the foxhole and I would not pretend I was endorsed by the Government but you have a lot of freetime over their to discuss life and meaningful things

Paul, I understand exactly what you were trying to say. So much hate that is wielded about by so-called Christians (I call that type Bible-thumpers myself) comes from falling back on the Old Testament ways, and not from the teachings of Jesus. The condemnation and vengefulness of men against each other, the belief that one man can be better than another in the eyes of God because he managed to obey this rule or that rule to please God, that is all pre-Christ. Jesus taught that we are all sinners and that humility and child-like faith before God as well as love and forgiveness to our enemies are what we need to strive for and embrace. No man is better than another in the eyes of God, and whatever you do to any man, you do to Him. There was a reason the New Testament was separated from the Old, to designate the important changes in thinking and doctrine Jesus brought to the world. Sorry to all who non-Christians may be offended by my preaching; I was just having a personal moment.

Paul,I am extremely tolerant. The fact is simple Jesus says HE is the way,and the truth, and the Life, No one comes to the Father except thru him. The fact is all religions cannot be true. I could believe with all my heart that Eating Doritos everyday could get me to heaven. Fact is it is not true. This is the first time I have ever posted on a newspaper site of any kind so Im not peddling religion on anyone or being disrespectful of other viewpoints, but if what the Bible says Jesus said is true, then that is where the trouble is for those who have been given the opportunity to hear the message but rejected it as untrue

Paul,I am extremely tolerant. The fact is simple Jesus says HE is the way,and the truth, and the Life, No one comes to the Father except thru him. The fact is all religions cannot be true. I could believe with all my heart that Eating Doritos everyday could get me to heaven. Fact is it is not true. This is the first time I have ever posted on a newspaper site of any kind so Im not peddling religion on anyone or being disrespectful of other viewpoints, but if what the Bible says Jesus said is true, then that is where the trouble is for those who have been given the opportunity to hear the message but rejected it as untrue

Thankfully we are ending “Manifest Destiny”.

This did not surprise me ,the crusaders are in Afghanistan and Iraq to convert the Muslims to Christianity why? because that will be the legacy of Bush.Regime change and millions of a new followers shame on the milatary who allow this to happen.

Paul Wall.. correct men and women of our armed forces serving in Afghanistan..
I never thought I would turn against these wars, but I was wrong.. only under the condition that our ‘allies’ put forth money and personnel in great numbers, should we agree to stay the course.. this is a conflict which has no stated ‘end game’.
The Bush war protestors should never quit.. this is about lives, not politics.

Eric, the idea is to keep your proselytizing to yourself. What part of that don’t you understand or that your book won’t let you understand. Proselytizing does nothing to win anyone over, except those who want to be won over. How arrogant to think your religion is “the” religion in the world. It is being disproven on a daily basis. I feel the ferver of christians increasing the more their religion and bible are being scrutinized and debunked. Keep believing what you must, I’m sure you think it keeps you relevant.

When will Obama end his illegal wars against Muslims?
Posted by: Code Pink | May 19, 2009 1:02:04 PM
————————————–
LOL. When will radical Muslims end their illegal war against the rest of the world that has not converted to Islam?

…..Evangelical Christianity is a sickness that is destroying America from within, and has allowed our militaries religious zealots to force their religion on others in the military and beyond.
Posted by: Chuck | May 19, 2009 1:52:39 PM
—————————————
LOL Chuck. Maybe you should open your eyes and take a look at what radical Islam is doing as well…..

……The Bush war protestors should never quit.. this is about lives, not politics…..
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 19, 2009 3:24:09 PM
————————————–
Um…isn’t someone else President now? How will protesting Bush end either war???

How will protesting Bush end either war???
Posted by: dragoon70056
it won’t… but bringing war criminals like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest to justice does have merit

dragoon70056
I’m all for complete exposure of the whole sordid Iraq affair…… everything and anyone associated.. with regardless of party… all docs, memos, photos and videos…… all of it right out in the open

When Bush left, so did the war protestors.. move on dot org ‘moved on’.. Betrayus became Petraeus, Gates stayed on..
What has changed.. only one thing.

When Bush left, so did the war protestors.. move on dot org ‘moved on’.. Betrayus became Petraeus, Gates stayed on..
What has changed.. only one thing.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 19,
—————————————
Good point. Another is, civilians are still being killed, but now in Pakistan. Funny, no one seems to be protesting the current POTUST. Wonder if they are still blaming Bush????

Contrary to what your pastor or parents may have told you, this country was NOT founded on Christian principals. Do some research of your own.

“As long as religion exists the wars will continue. This is what the faithful crave.”
Another total idiot making moronic generalizations. So all the anti-war stuff preached by many of various faiths? That must all just be a ruse to hide their bloodlust, right?
Why does there always seem to be a direct correlation between the loudness and ostentatiousness with which people profess their disdain for religion and the stupidity of the rest of what they have to say? The above quote is exhibit A.

I guess the point is, the protestors were against the Bush wars, but the current wars seems to be of little interest to them.. even though, the wars rage on..
Soldiers probably don’t consider who the Commander-in-Chief is during a shooting war.. the enemy will shoot at you anyway..

Mark:
as you so clearly illustrate, ‘blind faith’, unquestioned obedience to a political ideology or religious perspective leads to faulty ‘thinking’ and hatred…..

You mean the “intel” about WMD and the “ties between AQ and Iraq” that was later revealed to be obtained by torture? The intel that was stacked in favor of invading while the intel that showed Iraq did not have any WMD and did not have ties to AQ was deeply buried in footnotes and behind a wall of secrecy? You mean that “intel”?
And no: Congress and the Bush WH did not have the “same” intel. For instance, only four in the entire Congress were briefed about “enhanced interrogation”, the rest was not.
And there are numerous reports that the Bush omitted a lot of dissenting views from the intelligence community in it’s briefings of Congress.
Posted by: Willem van Oranje | May 19, 2009 4:02:20 PM
—————————————
All I can say to the above drivel is…LOL. D@#$ that is funny.

All I can say to the above drivel is…LOL. dragoon70056
tell that to the families of the brave Americans who died and are wounded for an imaginary threat, and a needless war

Pure baloney, Willem. That’s not how the NIE process works. What reports are you referring to? The principles with authority in that area, and the appropriate clearances, in Congress were informed, in full accordance with the rules.
This is refighting an old battle, but the relevant data was weighed, analyzed and synthesized in the NIE on Iraq. The key judgment summary language was this: “There is no direct evidence of a WMD program in Iraq; however, the existence of a program or stockpiles cannot be ruled out.”
The administration decided not to take the gamble. Intelligence analysis isn’t definitive, or a science. It is an art, subjective, complex and can have many moving parts. There are always data points that might contradict each other. These have to be reconciled and ironed out, as conclusions are drawn and the document is coordinated among the agencies.
The president doesn’t determine how dissenting views are presented. The dissenting views are enumerated up front in the key judgments. Both the president and Congress get the same NIE. It is made clear which agencies concur, and which don’t..

Shameful, simply shameful.
And back at Camp Gitmo, when handling a Koran can’t be avoided, soldiers are taught “to wash hands or put on sterile gloves before you touch.”

Dragoon: Exactly my point. It doesn’t matter what religion, it just matters the it’s radical which equates to dangerous.

All I can say to the above drivel is…LOL. dragoon70056
tell that to the families of the brave Americans who died and are wounded for an imaginary threat, and a needless war
Posted by: Dr. J | May 19,
—————————————
I can tell you first hand that the threats faced by our brave soldiers, sailors and airmen are not at all imaginary. If the threats were imaginary, then many people I know would not have lost their lives in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Imaginary threats do not saw off peoples heads with knifes. And imaginary threats didn’t kill 3,000 on 9/11 on American soil.

i’m not religous, but seriously guys, STOP CRITICIZING OUR TROOPS WHO ARE PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE WHILE YOU LAZY BUMS LIVE A GREAT LIFE. If a soldier wants to give someone a bible he has a right to if the person accepts it, its his right as it is anyones right to give any book to anyone, as long as you don’t force it on you. Also, this country was built on judeo-christian values, the word god is in the constitution 5 times. I’m not religious at all but at least i tolerate Christians unlike you libs that would rather tolerate islam, which has values that are 20 times more extreme than the bible.

dragoon70056 – by your account, could the same be said about the war in Afganistan which Obama clearly escalated? The Afgans never declared war on us…..so why are we there? Unfortunately for you, Bush is no longer POTUS. This is now Obama’s ballgame. He had the chance to end the war, and instead broadened it. You’ll just have to face reality and deal with it.
Posted by: PWC032096 | May 19, 2009 4:20:47 PM
—————————————-
PWC, not sure what your point is. Why is it too bad for me that Bush is no longer POTUS? Seems to me it’s too bad for the far left wing lunatics who are still trying to Bush for things he no longer controls. My point was the hypocrisy of the left…..the left wants to prosecute Bush for war crimes, yet the current POTUS’ strategy is getting civilians killed and their is no outcry – hypocrisy.

So, if God tells them to Go tell…complete the Great Commission…I would say God is the higher power. It is a shame Bibles were destroyed that could have saved a lost soul.

dragoon70056 – My bad…my comments were meant for Willem, but I accidentally copied your handle.

Christian Broadcasting’s David Brody says “the Bibles were burned because the rules on the base say that all garbage is burned at the end of the day—————————–The army never said they burned the books. Some wacko bible thumping media hound did. The Army spokesperson said the bibles were destroyed. She didn’t say how. I suspect “book burning” is being used to encite the fundamentalist crazies into causing trouble.

“Also, this country was built on judeo-christian values,”
What christian judeo value led to a representative democracy formed as a Republic?
How come the Bill of Rights is directly at odds with the Ten Commandments if we were built on Judeo-Christian values?
“the word god is in the constitution 5 times.”
The word God does not appear in the Constitution at all.
The lesson as always? Right wingers lie.

Extremism in either direction is dangerous. The military’s job is to keep the peace and fight when needed. Let the missionaries handle the Bible distributions. Once the Bible came on to the base and were in possession of one of the soldiers they became government property, just as was the soldier who received them from home. They did as they saw fit for them for the correct completion of their mission.

When will Obama end his illegal wars against Muslims?
Posted by: Code Pink | May 19, 2009
1:02:04 PM
How can you end a war that they started with us? Where have you been? Still till this day a moderate muslim has not condemed an exremist muslim that I’m aware of. We will finnish it.

When will Obama end his illegal war against Christians?

Juez7 said “BIBLES SHOULD NOT BE DISTRIBUTED TO PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES WHO FORBID ITS DISTRIBUTION. WE ARE NOT ON A CRUSADE! KEEP GOD AND JESUS IN THE CHURCHES AND NOT IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES WHO PROHIBIT THEM; FANATICAL CHRISTIANS.” wow, you must support government control! How dare you deprive others of freedom. Let the people have access to the Bible and to decide for themselves, not the government.

If a muslum army soldier was passing out the koran as a “gift” the military would have the same obligation to put a stop to it. How that is achieved is up to the commanding officer.

Hello. This incident was greatly mishandled by the members in the military that wanted to push religion. I am a Christian myself, and the bible does not endorse “hunting people for Christ”. Even if the Chaplain did not mean it in a derogatory way….the words reflect a stain on the history of Christianity where some Christians throughout history went about bringing the Word by force (i.e., pushing Christian religion on the African slaves). That type of behavior is fastest way of misrepresenting Christ and the Word.
As Christians, we are to go into the world and spread the Gospel, but as my mother tells me all the time “God also gave you a brain”. Use your mind and think for a change! The way to bring Christianity and what it truly means to people who do not know Christ….is to live the Gospel. Let your life reflect what the Gospel is about…, or better yet the results of the Gospel. First, you demonstrate your love for God by loving your neighbor…..as a military person involved in an overseas war….let your light shine in a way that states that you are also about peace. If your duties allow humanitarian work, or giving help to those who live in the land you occupy, you dive into that humanitarian area of your duties and you view the people you are there to help as your family…basicially, you act just like Jesus. Jesus never forced religion down anyone’s throat…He healed people, comforted people, forgave people, he taught the Word of God with authority, but also with great humility. He said that the “meek” shall inherit the earth. He also said that you feed the hungry and clothe the naked. He also called the Pharisees (the religious men of that time) hypocrites ,because they were too busy forcing religion when they themselves could not live up to what the faith requires. We are told to be like Jesus, which means…we do not “hunt people” for Christ, we do not act in a way that can harm the well being of others….we respect others, and we come at them in peace and in humility. No hunting allowed.
If you know that Christianity and passing about bibles are not as welcomed where you are stationed….then you got to be “smart” about how you do it. God did not make you stupid. You got to Live the Gospel (Love, Peace, and Humility of Christ) and you speak the Gospel in the same way. This may be the first time that some of the people you come across has ever met a Christian, give them a good impression worthy of being called the Son of God instead of blazing paths to the closest non-believer to unload a truck full of bible verses…let people see the life behind the bible verses..the life behind the Bible.
All most people want is peace…God is Peace…Peace is Christ…so be the peace, not the bullet.
As far as burning bibles, God forgive whomever did that. If the Chaplain called for the bibles to be burned, the same Chaplain that spoke about “hunting for Christ”…then he will be the one (not the non-believers) who will bear spiritual punishment. If the attitude and the environment among the soldiers promoted communication of Christianity properly, then maybe the bibles would still be here. I hold the people who really mishandled the spread of the Gospel at fault with the results of the Bible burning because they should have been better stewards of the Word.

The U.S. presently occupies Muslim lands in Afghanistan and the Saudi peninsula…Muslims are obligated by their religion to defend it against the infidel.
We must expect them to fight a defensive Jihad as long as we are on their lands and we mustexpect them to attack us again.
That is what makes nuclear weapons so attractive. Why put boots on the ground when you can send the ultimate message ‘airmail’?

George | May 19, 2009 5:30:42 PM—the army is under the control of the US government. the US government does not promote one religion over another and cannot allow proselytizing. (you would howl to high heaven if they were passing out the Upanishads or some other religious texts.
as a US citizen you have every right to go to Afghanistan or any other country and try to “spread the good word.” you won’t be protected against gunfire but you have no problem since you don’t want any government interference.
US citizens of all faiths and none are paying for this war and have every right to expect soldiers to not push their faiths on others. if you want to raise your own army to go spread the gospel, go ahead. they have fond memories of that in the middle east (one of the main reasons they hate christians). just do a little reading and take a cultural sensitivity class.

The Bibles were confiscated and Burned when BUSH was president this has absolutely nothing to do with Obama other then the report came out when he is our President.

The “Establishment” Clause prohibits the government from “establishing” ONE religion. When our servicemembers are on duty, they are restricted. The courts have interpreted this to be a “Non-Preferentialist” view, religion is allowed without preference.
When they are on their own free time, they are entitled to the “Free Exercise” Clause. They are not on duty 24/7.

Get out of Afghanistan. You have brought death and destruction and now you are robbing the Muslims from their religion. Get out and stay out. You wander why the peoples of the world deslike the US government and what its agents are doing in 123 countries on 723 bases?

A few years ago, during the cold war . . . .
***************************************************
The cold war ended almost 20 years ago and the US never occupied the former Soviet Union, like it has Afghanistan. There are few, if any, similarities to be drawn from your anecdote. Afghanistan has never been secular and its people have their own faith, which obviously, wasn’t respected.

Hello all
This is what was expected from US army to start missionary mission over the world and buy poor and needy and occupied people by their huge $ for Chris. But in Afghanistan the case is very different and it’s not possible at all and it can be further justification for anti US organization and groups to strengthen the position and draw the attention of public for their interest. I don’t know how the US army justifies distributing the Bible among pure conservative Afghan society where there is no any percentage of Christian society along the history. Its just waste of their time and money and helping other side to fight strongly.
Re-think polish US army men about it
Kabul

And imaginary threats didn’t kill 3,000 on 9/11 on American soil.
Posted by: dragoon70056
what does 9/11 have to do with Iraq?
you folks don’t ever give up with the lies do you?

Spread the Word! After all that’s what we are here for and Christ’s return could be very soon!

JoeS wrote “When they are on their own free time, they are entitled to the “Free Exercise” Clause. They are not on duty 24/7.”
Actually soldiers give up some of the rights that private citizens have. They cannot proselytize in uniform whether ‘on duty’ or not. As agents of the state, which is what the uniform signifies, ‘free excercise’ is limited.
And nobody is really ‘off duty’ in a war zone.

“How in the hell can Jesus be equated with a man carrying a gun?”
Spoken by someone who has never had to defend his country. Carrying a gun doesn’t mean you aren’t Christian. Just because your Christian doesn’t mean that you lay down your arms before your enemy. What kind of silly logic are you using? The communists in the cold war tried to push that logic so that we wouldn’t stand up to them in places like Korea and Vietnam, Columbia and Chile. Whats sad is how many Americans bought into that rubbish.

It is just a waste of time to attempt to talk sense to folks who believe in and talk to imaginary, mythical, invisible folks who live in the sky somewhere. Hypochristians and other religious hard liners are incapable of enough objectivity to understand that their own superstitious beliefs are largely copy cat versions of earlier superstitious beliefs. Of course, I will now be attacked by a bunch of self righteous religious zealots in the name of whatever fantasy they believe in, even though this message is not directed to them, but rather to the readers still capable of having a rational thought process.

Who would have ever thunk the Word of God would combust at 451 degrees Fahrenheit?

The Duck wrote: “…to talk sense to folks who believe in and talk to imaginary, mythical, invisible folks who live in the sky somewhere.” “…this message is not directed to them, but rather to the readers still capable of having a rational thought process.”
You are certainly entitled to your own beliefs. Others may, but I certainly won’t attack you for what you believe.
Here is my rational thought process at work. It’s really very simple. One must believe that EITHER the entire universe–the billions of stars and planets spanning billions of light years in all directions AND all of the incredible intricacies of living organisms here on earth–just happened by pure random chance OR it is the result of Divine Providence. Then when you calculate the fact that without the earth’s specific rotation and revolvement around the sun that life here on earth would be unsustainable, I personally cannot conceive how pure random chance is really a viable theory. To me it requires so much more faith to believe in “pure random chance” than to believe in God’s Devine Providence. But that’s my opinion!

if one chooses to believe in the bible, that’s certainly up to the individual, it should be noted tho’ that ‘the bible’ was written long after Christ by humans, and that there is no evidence that it was written by a quasi-mystical super being.
You take the opinion of and stories of men from 1000′s of years ago from a radically different society based on myth and fear.
There are many things we all don’t understand..
some of us look to invisible beings.. some look to what science can explain.
If one chooses the ‘super-being’ route:
-”central dogma of all fundamental Christians that the Bible is without error. They teach this conclusion by “reasoning” that god cannot be the author of false meaning and he cannot lie. Is this true?
If written by a perfect being, then it must not contradict itself, as a collection of books written by different men at different times over many centuries would be expected to contradict each other. ”
“What is incredible about the Bible is not its divine authorship; it’s that such a concoction of contradictory nonsense could be believed by anyone to have been written by an omniscient god.”

“What is incredible about the Bible is not its divine authorship; it’s that such a concoction of contradictory nonsense could be believed by anyone to have been written by an omniscient god.”
Common analysis here, one which is a mistake. Yes, the bible were written by men. The words are just that, words on pages, the message that those words send is the word of God. There is a difference. Narrow minds like to attach themselves to the literal, face value of pages. What your missing is the meaning, the message that it sends, the lessons that it conveys. Do you expect that God would have explained the composition of atoms to someone 3,000 years ago? No, its the message, not the words.

The action of burning religious texts is beyond reproach. If these religious texts were of some other religious group I doubt they would be handled in such a way. Yes, I respect others beliefs and holy writings. They should of collected them up and sent them back to where they came from. For those who comment that this is pay back or think that people who have a belief in a unseen God are fanatical, I suggest you look at yourself and re-examine why someone else’s belief would have any impact in your life. Personal belief is just personal and not subject to either your approval or disapproval. I believe that this matter was handled very poorly and that the burning of any books is wrong. It’s like something Nazi’s would do.

Russ:
everything you wrote is a charming narrative on your faith in a specific belief system. I don’t have any problems with you and your faith.
There are those who claim that the bible is not just a story reflecting the wishes and guidance of a super being, written in a way humans can understand it….that it is the ‘literal word’, to be taken exactly as written…
so…. whose ‘right’, what makes them right, can you prove your doctrine is more authentic than theirs?
re: What makes your books any better? Who wrote them? If nothing, then is it not religion to force feed them to my children in school?
You can always take your kids out of school and home school them as many do, if your find public education to be a threat to your beliefs.
As far as ‘my books’…. well, the books I read can show me how to make something real that I can hold in my hands, or music and art, or even compare and contrast your religion with someone else’s…. but you are correct in saying that the books I read do not base everything on a mysterious invisible being.
I don’t want to bring this down to a prove your religion debate, as I understand that religion is not about proof in the general usage.
re: ‘What part of this do you have a problem with?
well, when the former president says he consults an invisible source to get the OK to go and start a needless war, yeah, I have a problem with that part of it….
re KR’s ‘Do you expect that God would have explained the composition of atoms to someone 3,000 years ago?
as far as my limited knowledge of god goes, can’t a god do anything, I mean if creating the entire universe is a but a 6 day gig, what’s the big deal about atomic theory 3000 years ago?
about ‘forcing religion on others’:
seems folks like Falwell, Robertson and others missed that part as they and others use their religion as base of operations for political and economic gain.
There are many church going believers in my extended family, we do not have any problems.
The message may be a good one, and worthy, but it’s a long way from saying that a message is a good one, and determining that the source of that message is a mystical presence.

Dewde,
You say, “There are those who claim that the bible is not just a story reflecting the wishes and guidance of a super being, written in a way humans can understand it….that it is the ‘literal word’, to be taken exactly as written…
so…. whose ‘right’, what makes them right, can you prove your doctrine is more authentic than theirs?”
Who are they?
Let me also state something here… In what I wrote that you call a “charming narrative on my faith”… I am interpreting the bible literally. The bible is a big book and obviously I could go into MUCH more detail to explain and prove this. But I can prove my take on it. I do not claim to be 100% accurate but I do have truth and truth will hold up to scrutiny and will prove out.
The bible is the word of God and because of this it will stand up to the test of scrutiny as it has now done for 2500 years or more.
The results of its wisdom are manifest in my life and I see the proof all around. But this also is spoken in the bible… That it seemed right to God to hide these things from the wise and well learned but to reveal them to the children. – Meaning… those who have their own knowledge and call themselves wise will never know God’s wisdom. But those who will be as a child and learn from God, will know His wisdom and knowledge.

We all know the U.S. Military is a part of our government. We also know that our constitution forbids the government from participating in religious propaganda. Destroying those Bibles was the right thing to do. Some think the Bible is the gospel truth. I wrote a book that pinpoints the many impossibilities, misperceptions and blatant lies of the Bible.

You can be and say anything today and be protected except when it comes to the Bible and Christianity. If they had burned the Koran, our president would have wet himself trying to tell those folks how bad and selfish we were for doing that. The fact that the Afghan gov does not want any Christian lit or talk tells you just how afraid they are of its power to change. As far as the Afghan war…remember 911. As for Iraq…remember everyone else in the world that wants to destroy a piece of America for their own satisfaction…To the troops…fight to win….share your heart!

…”have no problem forcing their own beliefs of global warming on everyone demanding that we all change our lifestyles to conform with their beliefs.” James Danley
So James, is the earth flat or oval-ish?
does the earth revolve around the sun or vice versa?
if you drop a baseball from your hand, will it hit the ground or fly away?
I guess evolution is out for you also.
Is there any science you believe in?

Dewde, I am a huge fan of the sciences. But the global warming alarmists have taken an ideology that is anti-fossil fuels and manipulated results to conform to their agenda. True science has proven that it is the cosmos that controls warming and cooling trends.
I have no doubt that man has influenced temperature changes but nowhere to the degree that the alarmists project. Temperatures in Hawaii, for example, have warmed over the past 20 years. But it’s not because of greenhouse gas emissions, but rather the elimination of the canefields and replacing them with asphalt and concrete parking lots and shopping centers.
It has been estimated that 89% of the weather reporting stations in the United States failed to meet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) standards. The temperature measuring equipment at these weather reporting stations are required to be at least 100 feet from any artificial heat source or reflecting and radiating sources. Yet many of these weather reporting stations were surrounding by parking lots and roads or too close to sidewalks and buildings. This results in greatly inflated “official” temperatures.
You really believe that the first atom formed itself out of nothing; then out of nowhere additional atoms formed and they combined to form molecules–many different molecules–and then combined further to form millions of different objects? That the reproductive systems for plants, insects and the animal kingdom were by “pure random chance?” That DNA is just a freak of nature? That the gravitational pull of the sun on the earth is such that it revolves around the sun in just the right orbit to sustain life happened by sheer luck? That low and high pressure areas which interact creating our weather just happened by chance? As I mentioned previously, I believe it requires an incredible amount of faith to believe that the entire universe was created by “pure random chance.”
Now as for evolution, I personally don’t believe we humans evolved from apes. The cliche response is if we did why didn’t all of the apes evolve? However, I do believe that many species do evolve and adapt to their environment.

James Danley
OK, you and I will differ on what the sciences indicate as to global warming, and which scientists to ‘believe’.
as to ‘pure random chance creating the universe’:
again I think we would never find common ground here, but I will leave you with this for consideration:
- you and others say that the universe in all it’s amazing complexity could not have ‘just’ happened, your implication is that something else is behind the ‘creation’ of the cosmos as we now know it to be.
I could very well use your comments framework
to logically ask if there was ‘something’ that made everything, where did that ‘something’ come from.
We arrive at the classic stalemate:
- where faith and religious commitment come into play to help understand what can not be explained by science or understood by some other means.
- yet there seemingly is no acknowledgment of my and others questions of divine origin and ‘proof’ of the mysterious ‘thing that makes all’.
-we arrive at:, ‘well you have to have faith and believe, or you won’t understand, and if you don’t worship as ‘we’ do,..you will not get the ‘reward’, but regardless of what you believe, you will suffer in some other dark unknown mystical realm because you’re different from ‘us’.
you suggest that a universe of random chance can not happen … but you are comfortable with the assumption of ‘something’ with powers that you admit you can’t explain, with no explanation of how that came into being.
As I mentioned, I have no problems with the faithful, I have many religious folks of different faiths in my family.
Also, Russ mentioned ‘the truth’, truth is a matter of perspective, and it varies from generation to generation.
My not having answers to very deep questions leads me to a very different search for understanding than yours.
I wish you well on your journey.

Dewde: You wrote: “…ask if there was ‘something’ that made everything, where did that ‘something’ come from.”
You may not agree, but that is your choice. But for me the answer is in Genesis and Revelation.
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 22:13 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
I, likewise, wish you well on your journey.

If the Army had burned a load of Korans, the crap would’ve been in the wind. Main-stream media would still be screaming about the affront to Islam.
Why the difference?
Because the world HATES the TRUTH.

Destroy many Bibles, where’s the outrage?
Start a rumor that we destroyed one Koran and people die.
The world and our country is sicker than we admit.

Now we know that waste is in this Obama admin. We know that Bibles are useful tools of God in our God fearing country. Someone mentioned that if this happen to have been Korans, imagine the uproar in the muslim community. This is outrageous.

Gee, it’s an act of true religious faith to believe that a guy on a dialysis machine with a cellphone not organized so complex an operation as 9/11 but continues to mastermind a worldwide conspiracy against the USA.
Shortly before her death, Mrs. Benazir Bhutto stated in an interview with David Frost that Mr. bin Laden was dead. Interestingly, Mr. Frost moved effortlessly on to the next question as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
As for God being “our only hope for peace”, his track record should have driven him to suicide millennia ago. That failing, the human race should fire him. Given that the Pope abolished Limbo a few months ago, maybe he could have a word with Him and persuade Him to resign quietly?

Muslims ROUTINELY burn Bibles, and now our military is acting like fools burning the Word of God which was the basis of our entire culture. Muslims protect when a tiny church in Florida (with the blessing of ex-Muslims I might add), decides to burn a collection of commands that when executed have destroyed very place this religion has gone – including ground zero.
It is a subversive book with out serious literary value, yet the Muslims protect it while Americans treat the vastly superior Bible like a piece of dirt.

I’m gonna burn the US tax code tomorrow.

Let me get this straight:
Holy Bible is trash to the US Military.
They burn it.
The Koran is lifted up and protected
by the President on down.
No wonder they have brought such a
curse on this Nation & the war isn’t
going so well. Duh!!!!!!

Not sure what the big deal is, the bible and the quran are works of fiction anyway :)

I think our troops over in Afghan have the right idea, lets see…convert muslims to christianity could possibily take away the muslim radical who wants to bomb their next target in the U.S.
Hmmm, arm our troops with Bibles!!

“THE BLIND ARE LEADING THE BLIND, AND THEY SHALL BOTH FALL INTO THE DITCH..” Anyone who will take a little time to actually READ the Bible or the koran, or the book of mormon, or the hindu or buddhist books, will see that the Bible is the ONLY one that CLAIMS to be the Word of God (written over 2000 years by 66 authors from all kinds of different cultures) – joseph smith never claimed that for his fiction book of mormon, that took him about a week to write – mo never claimed that for his koran that took him a week to write – none of the hindu guru’s or buddhist monks claimed that their books were God’s Word.

Someone asked “How can Jesus be equated with a man carrying a gun…” Romans 13 tells us that “…the servant of God does not carry the sword (gun) in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices EVIL…”

Cultural Marxism
The Left and Muslims believe the same things:
1) Morals belong to the group. Ergo, if you’re Muslim or Liberal you’re good, if you’re not you’re evil.
2) Rights belong to the group. Ergo, if you’re a Muslim man you have the most rights. To the Liberal, women have specific rights, blacks have specific rights, gays have specific rights, etc.
3) Utopia will exist when the world is converted through violent revolution. Both Muslims and Liberals believe that violence is necessary to make the world perfect. “Peace” in Islam only exists when you live in a Muslim country. Liberals are no different. To them Cuba is a perfect world. The Soviet Union was perfect (and the CIA sabotaged it). Murder anyone who disagrees and you’ll have everyone in perfect agreement.
4) No more nations or identities, just one big global empire. Muslims want a Caliphate, Liberals want communism.
The both hate Christians and Westerners because we tend to believe the opposite. To be honest, we wouldn’t have a Muslim problem if we didn’t have a Liberal problem. There would be no Muslim immigrants to Western Countries – period. Just look at the Sanctuary City of Portland Oregon. They took in these “poor minority Somolies” to burden the tax payer because “they care.” Now they have a Muslim terrorist problem. That’s Liberalism. You have one side that is so indoctrinated they’re beyond stupid and cannot survive their own ideology. Then you have the other side who intentionally imports terrorists, busses ghetto gangs into your school, tears down fences and floods our cities with illegals, and forces the tax payer to pay for it all. It’s the other side that is practicing Cultural Marxism. They want to create Chaos so they’ll be able to swoop in and become the savior, while the real savior is attacked and reviled.