From: allenmk@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (The Not So Tall Adventurer)
Subject: Re: * Jesus Christ? *
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 20:50:21 GMT

dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) writes:


>1) Wait for the Second Coming for eternal peace and Judgement day.
>   The Christians are deathly afraid of Judgement day.  I don't know
>why, though.  If it is what they say it is, they should get by just
>fine. 

As a Christian, I feel that I need to tell you that most of us (at least, most
Christians that I know) are not deathly afraid of Judgement day.  I know only a
few people who fear Judgement day--they are some of the saddest people I know
because they see only God's anger and none of His love.  

>2) The Church and Rome have supplanted Judea and Jerusalem

Again, this is not a general Christian doctrine.  Protestants for the most part
do not look at all towards Rome.  Most Christians that I know still consider
Jerusalem the Holy City of God.  If you were to look in the book of
Revelation, you would find that Jerusalem is restored.   

>3) They omitted the without coercion part.  They have gotten the world
>   to recognize Jesus by threatening death to those who don't comply,
>and by acting on the threats.

The coercion that so-called Christians have practiced to bring non-Christians
into the church is a shameful thing.  It is also, for the most part, a thing of
the past.  I know that there is still anti-Semitism practiced in the name of
Christ--just because it is practiced in Jesus' name does NOT mean Jesus would
approve of such actions and sentiments.  If someone I know were to go to a
person who does not like me and say, "In Melinda Allen's name, I am going to
kill you if you don't change your attitude towards her," I would never approve
of such an action.  In fact, I would say that this person did not actually know
me very well if they thought I would want them to do such a thing.  That one 
person's action would not mean that all the people who considered me their 
friend would do the same thing.  Perhaps that is a poor analogy, but I think it
can be applied.  Groups like the Ku Klux Clan call themselves Christians, and
yet they perform actions that show that they do not know what it means to be a
Christian (in other words, what they say and do does NOT stand up to Christian
scriptures).  Many Neo-Nazis are the same way (I say many because not all of 
them claim to be Christians).  I do not want to coerce any person to become a
Christian.  I am interested in discussing with any one else who is interested
what I believe and what they believe, and I will respect people who believe
differently from me, even when I disagree with them.  Most of my Christian
friends are the same way.  Please don't lump all Christians into one
anti-Semitic group, into one group of aggressive, disrespectful and cruel
people who only want to force Christianity down the throats of the rest of the
world.  We're not all like that.  


Melinda Allen
-- 
Melinda K. Allen                  The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 
allenmk@ucsu.colorado.edu       and saves those who are crushed in spirit.   
allenmk@tramp.colorado.edu			               Psalm 34:18