I don’t want you to go anywhere. You are always welcome here. I like reading your insight. Please reconsider.

Harold,

Thanks for stopping by.

You have as much right to post as anybody else — unless Kevin wishes otherwise, or if he wants to restrict the site as being welcome to only those who participate in mutual admiration societies. In which case, perhaps approved login accounts should be considered. Please reconsider, and don’t leave.

I certainly agree with your stance. What an appalling, pretentious message from Rob. If that is what Christian honesty and sincerity is about; well, as Shirley Phelps says: “connect the dots”.

You claim to love everyone and that supposedly includes atheists, however, to learn that I am only “tolerated” and permitted to speak in order that you may prevent my speaking to others via the Internet was demoralising and disillusioning, to say the least. Who’s “misleading” whom??

You should NEVER pretend friendship and acceptance where there is none. Never practise deceit for ANY reason!! I’ve been upfront with you, so learning that you have an ulterior motive was disturbing and distressing, and completely against what a freethinker is all about. I was upfront with you- it was not reciprocated.

Never again will I ever trust what a Bible-wielder says. I’ve learned my lesson. I shouldn’t have been so disappointed- I had formed a pleasant opinion of you, but a former Southern Baptist friend in USA was likewise disilusioned by pastors who said one thing and meant another.

If you really want to reach us “unchurched”- please bear in mind that some of us actually have ethics and principles, and we take a dim view of two-facedness.

Ave atque vale. It’s been an experience!

I checked out the China Aid Association which broke the story. CAA is a non-profit out of Midland, Texas that offers quite a bit of (what appears to be) legitimate academic research. This story is not unbelievable. Religious freedom is suppressed daily in China. Do we really need an official state department press release to verify this story? Come on.

If you doubt this story, take a look at the yearly reports released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. China definitely does not get 4-stars.

Now, I don’t think religious persecution is coming to the United States, whatever that means. It’s not as if the good ole USA is being secularized - pluralism has allowed us to be more religious than ever.

I have heard our dear brothers and sisters in persecuted countries often say, “Please don’t pray that God would spare us the persecution; that that He would give us strength to endure it.”

THAT put things in perspective for me.