Dabullz
Registered on
Apr-14-2003
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Message #173397 posted by Dabullz (Info) March 16, 2008 23:13:04 ET
In Reply to: Obama on religion and politics posted by puffgeezer (Info) March 16, 2008 21:15:10 ET
Thanks Puff - great speech with great content. A couple of thoughts I had
during the speech that relate specifically to his reaching out to evangelicals
like myself.
"I myself believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most
important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between
individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another
level."
William Buckley - God and Man at Yale
Why does he believe this? Simple - look at every
socialist/communist/totalitarian country and a striking commonality becomes
extraordinarily apparent. Religion dies in such systems.
Name one socialist/communist/totalitarian country that has a vibrant culture
of faith? There are a couple, such as Cuba, but there is real correlation
between freedom and faith. Sweden, the "utopia" of socialism? 90% of the
folks are atheists.
It is refreshing to see that Obama understands, simply because he witnessed
the work being done, how powerful faith is in solving issues of poverty,
addiction, and tragedy.
Second thought as it relates to Scripture - Jesus, Paul, and other writers had
no use of government. They did not see government as the conduit in which
faith based works would flow, they saw that it was the concerned individuals
who would be the conduit in which issues of poverty and justice would be
addressed.
If anyone took the 40 minutes to listen to this, please take another 30-40 to
listen this speaker. He is the president and CEO of IJM.
http://www.ijm.org/
Link to the speech:
http://data.mppc.org/sermon/mp3/080302_ghaugen.mp3
Thanks again Puff - thought provoking stuff
DB
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