backslider

I'm very happy that POW Jessica Lynch has been rescued, absolutely thrilled for her and her family. But tonight on CNN their "spokespeople" were driving me crazy. Plenty of talk about prayer and thanking God for this miracle of her rescue, not *one word* of gratitude to the Special Forces who located her and then risked their lives to go in there and get her. How does God always escape blame for the bad (Jessica's mates who were killed) but gets all the praise for the good??

Seraphim

Maybe because they (people who praising God) assume that those who did died will be received by Him. Die and be with God, or Live and be with your loved ones ... either way, you won't be alone ...

Amie

Hi backslider
I think it is because God is generally associated with the good things that happen in our lives, the blessings, the positives in the world and not the bad or the evil in life...

Kudos to the special forces indeed

happyboy

yeah, that girl's family ought to be praising the personell who risked their lives to bring their daughter to safety, not some invisible sky faerie who callously let her fellow soldiers die in iraqi hands.

people need to understand that if God (as depicted in the bible) exists, then He's a monstrous evil that allows suffering to exist because it apparently pleases Him.

a very irate happyboy, who's nevertheless glad that jessica is safe

brighid

Well, I wonder how many families of those dead soldiers (the other 11 in her unit) are praising God that their beloved child was allowed to die in an Iraqi prison/hospital after being ambushed? Hmmmm ... let's see ... NONE! A loving, strong, Almighty God with the presumed powers of the Christian God would not have allowed the followers of the false God, Allah to have killed and possibly tortured his good, Christian Soldiers fighting the just cause of the leader He appointed, George W. Bush, Jr., but would have protected all of them from evil ....

It seems without the special forces this God is rather impotent.

Brighid

RobertE

Not necessarily. On another board I frequent, a minister rather cavalierly dismissed the soldiers who die "without embracing the Lamb of God, Jebus" as doomed to an eternity in hell. I told the putz he had better get on his knees and thank his lucky stars that those brave soldiers burning in hell are there so he could be free to believe that sort of thing.

brighid

You know, that really boggles my mind!! How can a minister of an allegedly loving, compassionate, perfect God callously decry the deaths of courageous men and women DIEING on the battlefield when they are only doing their duty as American soldiers? Those men and women do not have much of a choice, and they do so because many (if not the majority) believe in the noble principles of freedom (even if our government doesn't despite the lip service to freedom.)

I have nothing but respect but for the men and women serving this country and putting their lives on the line for those principles. Any God that would condemn people to hell for non-belief is not a righteous, loving God worthy of worship.

Actually it doesn't boggle my mind, rather it makes me sick.

Brighid

GreggLD1

Many years ago someone asked an Israeli general if God had protected Israel during the Six-Day War (or one of those Arab/Israeli wars). The general replied to the effect that he rather thought the Israeli armed forces had something to do with it.

Wish we could go back to those days when more people in power were wary and skeptical of excessive religious devotion. The farther away we get in time from the Middle Ages, the closer we get to them in mind.

Gregg

Shake

Here's to all of the special forces operating in Iraq!!! This is for you guys!

We never know what all they do, but their service is greatly appreciated!

christ-on-a-stick

brighid - Well put.

[fundy hat on]

No, no, you see Gawd works through the special forces - without Him THEY would be impotent.

[/fundy hat off]

I'm sure that's what a lot of them are thinking... and yet not a WORD of thanks to the supposed "vessels" who actually risked their *own* lives to save her? THAT really chaps my hide.

Blood...boiling...

That is absolutely disgusting. Just a bit ago I was watching the news and apparently a Black Hawk was shot down today, killing 7 of the 11 on board. It brought tears to my eyes - of sadness AND anger - that these men and women, who are there whether they want to be or not, are dying for NO GOOD REASON other than our megolamaniacal president's war-fever. And a supposed "Man of God" blithely dismisses them as hell-bound if they don't scrape and bow to his mythical God?

And the Dictator-in-Chief happens to share those loving beliefs.

I also saw a news story about Jessica, showing as group of high school students in her hometown gathered on the lawn singing "Our God is an awesome God". Apparently not "awesome" enough to have kept her from getting captured and tortured though, eh?

Xians babble on about how God can't prevent evil without violating our "free will", but then how did he play a part in her rescue? Was he not violating the "free will" of the Iraqis holding her by keeping them from further torturing and maybe killing her? If he could keep them from doing her any further harm, why could he not keep them from doing her ANY harm?????

/rant-of-the-day

(BTW Shake, cool smilies, and despite my opposition to this war I agree with your sentiment entirely. It's THEY that deserve the credit for risking their own hides to "leave no (wo)man behind".)