The Barometer Online

I am honestly not sure of the point of this article. Is this a reflection on Biblical interpretation? Is it a commentary on Biblical use in society? Is the musings of a person on the nature of faith? I am struck by the extremely superficial level of understanding of both the Bible and Christian theology displayed in this article. As usual, the standard "intolerant Christians use the Bible to defend sexism, racism, etc" angle is used. Does the author really believe that those of us who wish to defend the basic concept of marriage, the rights of an unborn child to life, and other such controversial issues simply resort to Biblical texts for our views? In my case as a Catholic, I can assure you that we always believe that human reason can be used in a pluralistic democracy to debate these issues. When I seek to defend traditional marriage, I don't use Scripture, but philosophy, history and logic. Again, contemporary secularism cannot understand a theistic worldview and misses the whole point of the Word of God, its meaning and its purpose in the life of the believer. I would love to have a conversation with Sara Gwin and explain to her the traditional Christian view of the Bible which she seems unable to grasp beyond the political polemic of "liberal vs. conservative" and "modern vs. traditional".

As a Christian, I appreciate your indication that "a belief in God can have a positive impact on a person's life," and I also appreciate your vast knowledge of the Bible but at the same time, logic has been lost in several of your statements.
I am always amazed at those who claim to value "open-mindedness" and yet search for fallacies within religion. Of course, religious people are not perfect, but their belief system- especially that of Christianity is constantly taking a hit by the American public. As you mention, our laws and decisions shouldn't be left up to religious interpretation, but many don't seem to recognize that we value what we do Because of the values brought to us by Christianity. Jesus taught that, among human relationships, the most important commandment was to "love your neighbor as yourself," and this underlying value is appreciated today. The commandment against adultury further confirms this idea of values, whether you interpret broadly or not. Most people agree that faithfulness is to be valued. Although these values may be shared with other religions, it seems that they should be appreciated by ours as well.

You also made a comment that Christianity is merely a form of social control. I have heard this from professors as well. Obviously, Christianity as a form of "social control" is not as effective as that of the University system. As you have mentioned, America has adhered to the rights of individuals, but this seems to conflict with your view of abortion politics. Christians who "led a crusade to overturn" Roe v. Wade are demonized. Isn't it their individual decision to support or reject whichever policies they chose? Incidently, I believe it shows a strong response that Christians are becoming increasingly involved in politics, as all citizens should be.

Last of all, you mention the "monstrously inhumane acts" committed, I'm assuming, by Christians. However, other than those committed by religious activists against abortion clinics and by the faithful Lot (as you point out correctly), I do not see this embodied in your essay.

What are you talking about? I love it when people say they are accepting of all views except those of Christianity. Because to me that is basically what you are saying. You think that Christians are just a bunch of people brain-washed into their religion and therefore can't choose for themselves and that is a ridiculous statement. Once again it is you disagreeing with our right to choose if we believe in what we believe, wow just like we disagree with a woman's right to choose to kill her baby or not. I believe you and a large number of Americans are wrong in thinking that abortion is ok because to me it is really wrong to kill a human being. Just because you don't agree doesn't mean that I am evil or hateful toward people who don't agree with me it just means we don't agree. I personally think a lot of the media is more hateful of Christians then any real Christian I know being hateful toward anyone. Just because we tend to disagree with you doesn't mean we hate you or are trying to discriminate against anyone, we simply have a set of believes that we won't change our minds on. It is in what we considered the word of God and there for truth to us so your liberalism and societies liberalism in not what we believe. The wonderful thing about this country is that it is free. So you and a lot of the professors at this University can use your little platform to speak hate against Christians and promote your political views but the fact is until you have faith in Jesus like many Christians and I do then you obviously can not understand where we are coming from. You also said that we are a largely Christian society and I would argue that we are not largely Christian because the definition of a Christian is someone who is like Christ or "little Christ" and not very many of the so called "Christians' you speak of are actually like that. Granted we all mess up and will until we die but there are a large number of people in this country who claim to be Christian but only because their family was, or because a lot of people around them are, and so on and so on. but that does not mean they actually have faith that Jesus is their savior and many of them don't even try to live as if He were. So to conclude that the majority of this country is Christian is actually pretty in-accurate.