From: ap290@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ruth M. Hanschka)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.xcult-l
Subject: Re: Question for Ruth....
Date: 1 Jan 1993 05:35:38 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, AHMED@DAYTON.BITNET () says:

>Ruth,
>
>You are the most articulate and best spokesperson for the Christian
>right here....and while I disagree on just about everything with you,
>I am curious....
>
I'll take the above as a compliment, although I don't feel especially
articulate most of the time.  Thanks.:)

>You seemed to have indicated that you had friends of different faiths and
>colours and beliefs......  I do admire those friends of yours.... do they know t
>   hat you think they are
>doomed to hell, that you think their religion is all wrong and that you
>feel it your mission to show them the right way, that you feel it
>your duty to take away their right to their body or to practice sex in
>way they may prefer and YET they continue to be "friends"....

You had it right, up until that last part.  I do not consider it my duty
to take away anyone's rights, and in fact have fought for just the opposite
in the past.  There are a few issues [I think you're referring to abortion
here] where you and I have a fundamental problem.  What one person sees as
a "right", I see as permission to commit murder.  I don't know if I support
the repeal of Roe'v'Wade, but I can and will vehemently denouce the practice
of taking away the rights of another human being.  Many nonChristian friends
and I are actually not that far apart on this one.  Most of us have 
agreed to disagree on this one.  It's an issue like Mac versus IBM
preference - both sides have a point, and neither is likely to convert.:-)

>I am not trying to be sarcastic..... I am just wondering if their is
>something wrong in the way I perceive friendship... I have come across
>people with similiar beliefs and cannot seem to handle them and just
>avoid them..... and their are other christians (are they christians by
>your definition?) who seem to accept that I just might make it to heaven by
>being a good person even if I never open a bible again or see the inside
>of a church....
>
Well?????  You've asked a big one.  There are cultural Christians, "churched"
Christians, and "believers".  The first group includes people raised in
a faith or a tradition, but who don't practice anymore, if they ever did.
THe second are those who attend a church, but don't really have a personal
involvement in what's going on.  They may be faithful attenders, and may even
be Sunday School teachers or elders, but it's not the same thing as belonging
to the third group.  The last group, and the smallest, are those who claim
[and have] a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and who trust in Him
as Lord and savior.  The group of people who think you can get into Heaven
by just being good are Christian by definitions one and two, but not by the
third one.  And, while a Methodist [seperate denomination] might disagree
with me, I think that people who at least at some time made the decision
in definition #3 will wind up in Heaven too.  Some people give up on
God, but I don't think he ever gives up on them.:-)  So maybe.....
 
-- 
		###	Ruth Hanschka, the Nethead    ###
			- ap290@cleveland.freenet.edu
	      Where anything can happen, and it usually does
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU