Abortion. From a Christian perspective.

Have said this before, but will again.

Jesus lived in a world dominated by Rome. He did not tell his followers to go out and overthrow Rome and change the laws and force people to live a certain way and by certain laws.

You want to belong to a certain religious group and adhere to their laws/views - feel free to do so.

To me our country was founded for that very thing - freedom of choice.

It is why, to the ire of some, I often can be found supporting things like freedom of where to drink or eat (re: smoking being allowed). I dig freedom and choice of what to do with your body.

I don't want my own personal beliefs to be forced on others. I might hate the choices you make, might think they are bad and something I would never do or endorse, but it is none of my business how you choose to live this one life you have, where you go, who you associate with.

And apparently Jesus felt the same way. If people did not accept his message, he told his followers to shake the dust off their feet from that place and move on - not take over their government and force them to do it.

You were to come to him by choice. Choice. A word some people seem to really hate.

I choose not to own a gun. I choose where I eat, where I work, whom I hang out with, where I go to drink, what to do with my own body.

So next time you fellow Christians want to rail against choice, maybe your poster boy for yelling about should be Jesus himself.

that most of the people who call themselves "Christian" have zero interest in what Christ said or meant.

They still teach (my Sister is a church going fundie) that in the end times the church will fall away...Well, if you believe these are then end times I will give you some points on that - the church has fallen away from it's original teachings and become something it never should have been.

The baptists though, they think it refers to the catholics :)

I'll stay home on Church day, because I am not about to give my money to groups that call themselves Christians while acting like Romans.

Since there is no real evidence he ever even existed at all. All quotes attributed to him were written long after the fact by non-eyewitnesses. So anybody is free to put any construction on them that he or she wishes.

It is a small extremist crowd compared to the general population of Christians. However, people like that gas-bag murder-inciting Bill O'Reilly have pumped up the numbers and should be removed permanently from the public eye. Most of the Christians I know may not personally approve of abortion but they certainly don't believe in violence over the issue.

Personally, I agree with the above-poster that the key word is "choice."

I think all restaurants and bars should have a choice. The facility will be either all smoking or all no smoking. No mixtures. No backing out of the decision. Choice must be made when applying for the license to do business and more importantly, the liquor license.

The market will determine how many smoking and non-smoking restaurants and bars will be in any given urban environment.

My youngest was called the son of satan in the school parking lot just for making it clear in his classes that he didn't believe the religious stuff being touted. My oldest was driving them to school at the time, and he got out of the car and loudly stated, 'what the hell did you say?'. I took it to the administrators at the middle school.

My kids have been threatened in school for not thinking that religious beliefs should automatically shut down the brain. The more they've encountered those who have let their brains shut down, the more they've run in a different direction.

They were all baptised in an Episcopal church that we used to regularly attend, and they don't want any part of any of it anymore.

I live in Kathmandu where many expats come to practice the dharma in the form of Tibetan Buddhism. What they practice is about 80% Tibetanism and 20% Buddhism, in my opinion.

We have our fair share of missionaries here, though it's illegal to proselytize. My daughter has been told she's going straight to hell because we don't practice any form of Christianity. That's about the worst we've had. We're lucky.

I tell my somewhat confused children that we're buddhists and jesusists. Works for me.