From our "I've Seen It All Now" Department: Jesus not mentioned at VT memorial!

Contact: Flip Benham, 980-722-4920; Kristene O'Dell, 972-240-2147, both with Operation Save America

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday, we Christians sat in horror as we witnessed all the false religions of the world being lifted up without mentioning the Name of the One who could truly bring healing--Jesus! The nations of the world saw it, and heaven took notice. The men of God are on their way.

Not one of those tragically taken on Monday at Virginia Tech is shouting "WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH - GO HOKIES!" at this moment. They are all bowing before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

The name of Allah was mentioned six times at yesterday's convocation. Jesus' name was not mentioned at all. The Name above every Name, the One whom the Pilgrims professed when they came to this land, the One our Founding Fathers staked everything on has been scorned and mocked at this abominable convocation.

Perhaps now we understand why kids are killing kids at a whim and without a conscience at schools all around America. When God is removed, violence fills the vacuum. May the prophets proclaim from the pulpits "Let Freedom Ring" as Jesus Christ is the only One who can bring true freedom.

"...and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Cor. 3:17

Press Conference Details ---

Where: Main St. entrance to Virginia Tech University

When: Wednesday, April 18, 2007; 1:00 p.m.

Contact Persons: For interviews call Flip Benham - 980-722-4920; For location updates call Kristene O'Dell - 972-240-2147

http://www.earnedmedia.org/osa0418.htm

So get over it. (From a fellow Christian)

The Christian victims can have their families give them a private memorial service in church.

Was he watching the Cub-Padres game? Why didnt the almighty healer intervene and spare people pain and agony?
These people are mentally ill IMO!

....like there is a TRUE religion. :eyes:

Flip Benham and Kristene O'Dell?
Their Religion is the only true Religion and all others are blasphemy
:sarcasm:

:loveya:

It's their chief delusion.

ummm...pretty sure it's a public institution

:banghead:

Maybe, we as Christians, do deserve it. But if you are going to use Allah, Mother Earth, Budda, etc. etc. etc. in a convocation speech, then why would you leave out Christ, considering there is a good chance that about half of the 33 killed would have professed to a Christian of some degree.

Granted I'm not saying that the world is ending or anything, and these folks are crazy to be sure, but as a Christian I asked myself the same thing when I saw this yesterday. Granted it didn't bother me enough to cause me any outrage.

William H. King, Lutheran campus pastor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va., and staff of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, delivered the Christian message April 17 at the Virginia Tech Convocation where students, faculty and others of the community gathered to remember the victims of yesterday's shooting on campus. According to the Virginia Tech Web site, at least 33 people died including the gunman.

"We're gathered this afternoon for many purposes. To weep for lost friends and families, to mourn our lost innocence, to walk forward in the wake of unspeakable tragedy, to embrace hope in the shadow of despair, to join our voices and our longing for peace, healing and understanding which is much greater than any single faith community, to embrace that which unifies, and to reject the seductive temptation to hate," said King, who also serves as deployed staff of the Department for Campus Ministry, ELCA Vocation and Education.

"We gather together weeping, yes, we weep with an agony too deep for words and sighs that are inexpressible, but also we gather affirming the sovereignty of life over death. At a time such as this the darkness of evil seems powerful indeed. It casts a pall over our simple joys, joys as simple as playing Frisbee on the Drill Field. We struggle to imagine a future beyond this agony. If we ever harbored any illusions that our campus is an idyllic refuge from the violence of the rest the world, they are gone forever. And yet we come to this place to testify that the light of love cannot be defeated. Amid all our pain, we confess that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it," said King.

"We cannot undo yesterday's tragic events, but we can sit in patient silence with those who mourn as they seek for a way forward. As we share light one with another, we reclaim our campus. Let us deny death's power to rob us of all that we have loved about Virginia Tech, our community. Let us cast our lot with hope in defiance of despair," said King, who invited the convocation to a moment of silence.

http://www.thelutheran.org/news/index.cfm?page_id=66&blog_id=637

Also, the President mentioned the Christian God twice, is there some kind of contest going on?

I hardly think it was because the Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist speakers ganged up on him before the convocation.

I hear you, Bluebear.

As a minister I used to work with once commented, "One hardly needs to keep mentioning Jesus in order to remember that He is there!"

By the way, CNN showed the field at the university earlier today, and an evangelical preacher had set up there with a sound system and was trying to attract a crowd. It looked like many of the people paying their respects were quietly standing elsewhere, or signing the condolences cards. I felt sorry for them because it seemed to me that not everyone would want to listen to him at that point, yet they had no choice.

I heard one on NPR, and she was blatantly Christian. The "Lord hear our prayer" call-and-answer part is from the Western Rite Liturgy (done in Catholic, Lutheran, and some other western Protestant churches).

nt

nt

and see no such thing. Please offer specific examples.

I haven't watched the full video of the memorial service, but when wingnut extraordinaire Flip Benham...



takes issue with something, I question.

From what I've read, God was certainly mentioned, but I guess that's not good enough for the Jesus-on-a-trailer-hitch crowd.

P.S. There's no war on Christmas or Easter - pass it on.

I attended the University of Houston off & on for years. The Religion Center there--definitely designed to resemble a Christian chapel--serves ten religious organizations. One is Jewish. Two others are Catholic & LDS; of course, some "Christians" think they don't count.
www.uh.edu/adbruce/wedding.html

This extremely diverse student body in a diverse city also has Hindu, Muslim & Buddhist groups. (And probably a few more.)
www.uh.edu/hsc/
www.uh.edu/campus/msa/home.php
http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~tihuang/old_bud_hou.htm#uh_bud

But it's been a while since I spent time on campus. Again, please supply real examples of colleges excluding Christianity.

At UNC Chapel Hill, my New Testament class was taught by a professor nicknamed "The Anti-Christ". He started the class with "I am here to tell that Christianity is a fraud". Two of my poly-sci professors called Christians Idiots on a regular basis.

It almost seemed cool to them to hold this belief amongst the "educated".

I grew up Methodist instead of fundamentalist or anything like that so it didn't shake me at all. I just seemed to notice it a little bit from a lot of my different professors at UNC.

Then when I was doing my grad work at UNC Greensboro, I kept running into folks who for some reason just seemed to hate Christians and wore it around on their sleeves. I guess the whacko fundamentalists are causing people to lump us all in together.

The other cool thing to do now is to defund Christian groups who won't allow non-christians in leadership positions. That has happened at UNC, UNC Greensboro, Southern Illinois, Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin Madison, UCLA, USC. The SIU case was taken to the seventh circuit and overturned. The same University's in a sweeping show of tolerance, failed to put the same restrictions on the Jewish and Muslim groups on campus.

I don't mean any disrespect, but I don't think that a woman's group would want me, a man in a leadership position. Would a GLBT group want a straight guy leading them? Would the Islamic Student Union want me a Christian leading thier group? It just doesn't make sense at all to have a requirement like this.

If so, were you punished? Or did you just sit there, taking notes? Surely, these guys would have defended you. www.naacd.com/updates8.htm

Here's an SIU case--which was decided in favor of the "Christian" group.
SIU’s chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) filed suit after law school Dean Peter Alexander revoked the group’s official recognition, asserting that the group’s sexual morality requirements violated SIU’s nondiscrimination policy. CLS policies ban voting members and leaders from engaging in or approving of premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex, although any person may attend the group’s meetings and activities.
www.thefire.org/index.php/article/7141.html

Is this the case? Has it been overturned? The "qualifications" went beyond mere religion--but the group won.

I found the information above on what appears to be a fairly liberal site. I'd love a more detailed look at some of the cases you mention. With links, of course.

It never occurs to these people to question why they just happened to be lucky enough to be born into a culture that practices the "one true religion". It was that kind of ethnocentricity that caused me to give up on christianity altogether.

Even more ironic is the fact that this "American" religion is actually a transplant from the Middle East. They never question that, either.

Jee-SUS! What morons.

manifestations of the same thing, varying by culture.

Religion is like language - every culture has one. It would be like proclaiming English as the one true language (though I wouldn't put that past some of these wingnuts.)

I heard one speaker at the ceremony, and she was blatantly Christian, so it's not like it's not been mentioned at all. Either way, if one of the reasons this happened was because of one man's angry backlash against the Christian faith, putting Jesus's name all over everything isn't going to solve that, un-do that, or make it all better.

Let them be, whiny Christians. Light candles, if that's what you do in your church, pray hard for their souls and mercy, and be Christ to these people--not a pharisee.

and "Divine Providence." They don't seem to have referred to Jesus that much, at least in major documents.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?" He said, "Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?" He said,"Reformed Baptist church of god!" I said, "Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off. -- Emo Phillips

I never heard that one. I love it. Thanks.:hi:

How very Christ-like. :eyes:

:banghead: why oh why do these people feel the need to speak? Their agenda would be furthered without them revealing themselves to be such lunatics.

But where was the one true church in all of this?

:argh: :grr: :puke:

the number of references of His name in speeches, rather than being concerned with the pain and loss in the community. :crazy:

That sounds like a threat to me.