C. GATSBY'S Weblog: "you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free. John 8:32

Sep 25, 2007 at 02:53 o\clock

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S PRESIDENT AIDS RADICALS

by: THETRUTH

Bowing to conservative pressures for inviting the Iranian president to speak, Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, played right into the Arab radicals' hands by setting a rude and belligerent tone in his introduction of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator."

What would Americans think if President Bush were introduced at a Mideast university with, "Mr. President, you have blood on your hands. You fabricated weapons of mass destruction and invaded a non-threatening country, throwing it into chaos, murdering thousands of innocent Iraqis."

Yes, Americans would be upset, screaming for revenge. Well, Bollinger's mishandling of Ahmadinejad is now being used to illustrate America's belligerent attitude and disrespectful behavior, becoming a recruitment tool for radicals.

It would have been best not to invite the Iranian president. But if you insisted on inviting him to speak, a simple introduction would have been best, leaving the tough questions and accusations to the audience. This would have shown America at its best: respectful and respecting of freedom of speech.

by CHRISTIAN GATSBY

Sep 25, 2007 at 02:53 o\clock

FOUNDING FATHERS AND CHRISTIANITY

by: THETRUTH

I read with amusement that some writers claim that all our Founding Fathers were Christians. Probably these same people also believe Betsy Ross made the first United States’ flag.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen were not Christians but deists. Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and assert that God does not intervene with human life and the laws of the universe. Most Deists reject the claim of Jesus' divinity, unlike Christians who assert Him as the Son of God.

Jefferson, who wrote his own version of the New Testament, deleting Jesus‘ miracles and any notion that Jesus is the Son of God, was not an evangelical nor a deeply pious person. He firmly believed in the separation of Church and State as did all the Founding Fathers.

George Washington, our first president, stated: "I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna-Charta [Constitution] of our country."

BY Christian Gatsby

(WRITTEN IN RESPONSE TO USA TODAY EDITRIALS)