[congressman]

One more thing. Since you want to bring "God" into the thread, what did he instruct the officials of Israel to do to these trypes of criminals? It was death, right? I think He was a lot tougher on these types than the USA is.

I don't typically bring up religion in the forums, and try to do so as little as possible. I'm not interested in passing judgement on someone for having a different belief than I do religiously.

I wasn't bringing "God" as a person, into this thread. I was bring a symbolic presence of 'he that giveth life and taketh away'. That can be whoever you want it to be.The God that I spoke of in the post above, may or may not be your God. I simply dont' care if you choose to believe or not. I personally do not believe much of the old testament myself. I do believe that Israel killed many people as you mention, and I dont' need a historical document to show me this. I see it on CNN daily.

If you take the old testament literally, then you obviously still sacrifice animals and send burned offerings to the heavens. But if you're much like most christians today, I'm sure you will say that you no longer need to do that anymore because Christ was the last sacrifrice needed. So which is it.. do you follow the teachings of Christ, or the teachings of the Old Law. They differ greatly, especially in this key aspect. How do you treat your enemies? Do you kill them? or do you heal them? Do you turn to them with a knife? Or do you turn to them with the other cheek? Thats the problem I find with Christians, or those who just like to pick a few verses here and there from the bible... Any life can be justified from a verse or two in the bible. I can drink, I can kill, I can have sex with family, I can be a murderer and then turn around and write half of the new testament (As Saul/Paul did.). I'm not interested in debating what Jesus would do. Or what you're God would want. This is about what I believe is right. Not what someone made me believe in Sunday School. We've got to start debating the real issues, not talkin about what one of the 35,000 denominations (number of denominations reported from Oxford) believe or want you to believe.

But hey, if you wanna talk about religion. Start a thread. I'll give you the rundown on Catholicism.. or perhaps the non-denominational church of Christ? How about the freewill baptist's? Take your pick. I can even tell you a thing or two about the Dutch Reform.. the reformation era, or the restoration movement. Don't tempt me..