The first page starts off this way: "Hello! I am 16 years old. I have some very good parents. But actually  what is a "good" parent? It may be rather difficult for some people to ascertain this question’s answer, but I find the answer rather obvious and of course enlightening. This answer is not my opinion nor anyone else’s, but a simple and explicit fact; - just as much a fact as it is a fact that you are living."

At first, I thought this site was just the result of a 16 year old kid with too much time on his or her hands. So I went to the About Us section. That page starts out this way: "We do not support absolute free religion, speech, and the press. We support only such that complies with God's judicious preset standard of righteousness. All other religion, speech, and material is stark crazy heathenism."

So by this point, I don't care how old this guy is or how many of them there may be. If it is just one 16 year old person, mabe I do feel a little bad in that I'm about to make awful fun of him. Then again, a 16 year old zealot will soon be an 18 year old zealot and then a 21 year old zealot and so on. But the best was yet to come.

The Citizens for the Ten Commandments have some very interesting opinions on an array of topics from abortion to the death penalty to population control. Consider this for example. "To have a clean world, it is all sanity to put to death those who deserve death such as murderers, homosexuals, adulterers, adulteresses, children who curse or hit their parents, false preachers, people who blaspheme God and etc. When we get rid of such criminals, then lets see just how populated the world becomes."

I have to confess I had never thought of that. Support population growth by killing, in effect, everyone. Although that is not the stated goal. We are all sinners. And many of us have done at least one of the above. Sometimes often! Therefore, it stands to reason that all of us should be put to death. Talk about population control.

In fact, it was the above passage that made me wonder if this was not all someone's feeble attempt at pulling a fast one on us. In hindsight, I don't think so.

"So instead of the world putting to death innocent babies, it needs to wait until babies    become guilty in a death-worthy way and then put them to death. Then the world’s      governments cannot rightly be accused of murdering the innocent."

Another interesting concept.

If you think I am making this up, click on this:

There is actually more than I have posted. I was planning to go into a long-winded discourse directed at the Christian Coalition and their elk. But frankly, I think my blood pressure would prefer I not do so. I would like to tell you a little more about me though so you can understand where I'm coming from.

I have, so far, lived in the same small South Carolina town for my whole life. Since I was 7 years old, I have been a member of Second Baptist Church, a moderate Southern Baptist Convention church. In my time there, three men have meant a lot to me, the late Reverend Clyde Runion, who was preacher of Second Baptist from 1967 to 1985, Dr. Hubert Welch and Reverend Warren Johnson. These were good Christian men who, along with my parents, gave me a values system, a set of morals I try to live by.

My mother more than anyone taught me the value of thinking for one's self. She was a teacher in the public school system for thirty years, taught Sunday School and often played piano in church. My father has many times been a deacon and served on many committes at church. In other words, I come from a very Christian background.

But when I hear Pat Robertson spewing his Jewish conspiracy paranoia (not to mention his frequent diatribes against feminists, whom are all husband murdering lesbians, if you believe him) or see stuff on-line such as the Citizens for the Ten Commandements, I really have to wonder if I am worshiping the same God that they do.

My God is a just, yet forgiving, God. He knows we are all sinners. And He knows our hearts. I believe that at the ends of our lives, perhaps before, each of us will be dealt with justly. I belive in the ultimate truth of the Bible. But I beleive the Word of God can be found elsewhere, in other philosophies that at first may seem at odds with the Bible. I beleive the Word of God can also be found in the stars and in the earth and in the hearts of men and women.

I believe that God gave each of us a mind and that He expects us to use it. I beleive he expects us to question the teachings of the Bible and to decide how they apply to us. Each of us as a creation of the Lord has the right, the duty, to interpret the Scriptures according to our conscience. But we should all expect to be judged in the end on the interpretation.

Amen.

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