The story of Phil Masters’ martyrdom was documented as part of a larger story in the book Lords of the Earth by Don Richardson. It’s quite old now but well worth tracking down; you can probably get it for pennies.

Robert’s father was a hero of the gospel and the story is harrowing and inspiring.

I’m especially gratified by your last long paragraph; one of the reasons I started this site was to interact with non-believers on matters of culture, politics and faith.

I will say that many of my believing friends are snickering at my being labeled a moderate, though I’ve been called liberal as well.

Please stop by often and share your thoughts *as he goes off to check Chuck’s other comment*.

I agree, Christians tend to be lumped together for criticism online in many instances. In full disclosure, I am an Atheist. However, I am not an anti-theist. People should be allowed to believe what they like as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else. Robertson is the living antithesis of this idea.

The real problem here is this: The hard-right, politically active Christians have all the money, airtime, mega-churches, and fund-raising abilities. In a lot of cases, churches have become lobbying arms of various Republican campaigns.

Here’s the problem: A few years ago, Fox “News” was running the line “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists happen to be Muslim” (forgetting people like Tim McVeigh and Joseph Stack) and then they moved on to the line “Why aren’t moderate Muslims speaking out against the crazy jihadis?”

Well, I have been waiting for that moderated Christian voice to pop out of the static, and draw a line in the sand between Real Christians, and the politico’s, such as the Fred Phelps Westboro Baptist klan (‘k’ used on purpose), and the people like Michelle Malkin, Glen “Magic Underwear” Beck,Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. These folks use faith as a tool. Nothing more.

So, let me be among the first Atheists to thank Marty Duren and most of the folks posting here for reminding the rest of the country that the teachings of Jesus Christ are universal to the believer and unbeliever alike. If followed, the country would be better off. And I mean the actual teachings, not the “interpreted” garbage, and opinion.

Moderates: Speak Louder! The nation needs to hear you!!!

That’s what most of these churches need….more Jesus, less Fox ‘News’.

-C

According to Ephesians 2:2-3 your father did make a pact with the devil, just like you, just like me, and just like those Haitians. Apparently grace saved him from that pact. But I also assume that grace is at work among Haitians as well as your father. The Apostle Paul didn’t say that Christ died for us after we had sufficiently dealt with our own sin but that it was “while we were yet sinners.” No doubt God punishes sin, but it has already been pointed out to you that the Scriptures state that judgment begins at the house of God. If you want to maintain that America is a Christian nation (and I agree with Beth and Marty on this one, but I’ll go along with you for the sake of argument) then America should be much farther up in the line of discipline than Haiti.

But, after all, it is much more convenient to look down on those evil voodoo practicing Haitians than it is to look inwardly at our own sin and do something about that. That way we can spend more time saying, “God, I thank you that I’m not a sinner like those people.”

My only contribution here is you, Barton, Stanley, et al, cannot prove that American was a Christian nation no matter what the intent of her founders was. First and foremost you have to find where the New Testament teaches (1) that nations can be “Christian” and (2) that God’s plan is to set up “Christian nations.” Until you can show that from Scripture, you cannot demonstrate America to be a Christan nation no matter how many books or videos say it.

I’ll save you the time, Robert. The Bible does not teach that nations can be Christian, therefore America is not nor has it ever been a “Christian nation.”

You might like to read this Scripture….

Deuteronomy 32:39
“See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to
death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who
can deliver from My hand.”

So….. Akon is a muslim who smokes, drinks beer,swears and has three wives in senegal. All my Indonesian friends say he is a muslim.

God Bless
Robert I Masters

Seriously though, a nation cannot be Christian because a nation has no soul. And Obama is not Muslim. The guy smokes, drinks beer, swears, and treats women as equals. In other words, completely not a Muslim.