Another great video

[Jonathan]

Your question can be broken down to "How has what is unchanging changed?" which is invalid. Remove the "How" and you're in business. The answer to that question is "No." So God's commandments are to all people, but if I'm an atheist, a politician or agnostic, I can tell God to go fly a kite with His commands. So while everyone is subject to God's commands, not all understand it, embrace it or realize it.

I'm not going to wait for government or rely on them to take care of the poor, they've been "trying" for thousands of years, and the problem remains.

Since God commands and puts them in place to uphold social justice (you posted that it is a command to the governments), good for them, I don't have to answer for the government's actions. Only my own. Christianity is a personal faith, not a corporate one.

Your perception that the American dream is merely about making it rich is a diversion and an oversimplification. You will get no argument about the pursuit and love of money.

The signature has been changed to something we all can appreciate.

[js3971]

Christianity is a personal faith, not a corporate one.

It is about a personal faith, but it is also a corporate one. Not in the sense of businesses, etc, but in the corporate sense of a church, and of nations. Nations, churches, individuals all face God's judgement if they accept and walk in His love.

[jk75]

Matthew RJ said "The American dream is about making it rich."

If you think the American dream is about making it rich you need a reality check. The American dream is about freedom. Not everyone in this world has that, but most wish they did. We, as American's do and that is what the American dream is. Why do you think so many people leave all they have behind to come to America. FREEDOM!!!! That is the American dream. I am living the American dream, but I am in no way monetarily rich. My riches are in the freedom I have to be whatever I want to be. Get a clue dude.

[Jonathan]

Corporate faith is organized religion, the antithesis of a personal relationship with Christ. You can ascribe to a set of doctrines in your church, but what it comes to is you and Jesus.

[Enosh]

I have to second JK on that.

The American Dream is about being able to provide for your own family the basic needs and freedoms we are entitled to as humans. A part of that is the pursuit of making the best living you can and if you become wealthy, good for you!

Americans have the freedom to choose what they want to be, what they want to make out of their lives, who they want to become. If you apply yourself, you can truly make it. If you choose not to pursue those avenues, then that is your choice to. Other's should not have to pay because you don't want to accomplish anything with your life.

I am not wealthy, yet I too say that I am living the American Dream. I know that through hard work and drive anything is possible. I have a home and wife and child. I live in the city, not a plushy suburb. It's all about opportunity and taking the ones your given to better yourself. That's the American Dream.

The American Dream is much more than money and making it rich. It's about bettering yourself in many different ways. Providing a safe place for your family. It's about relying on your own merits and hard work, not wanting someone else to foot the bill. That is the true American Dream.

Pure religion, undefiled is to care for the widows and the fatherless. I don't have a problem with Wellfare systems being in place to assist those that need it. What I have a problem with is the abuse that occurs everyday!

I grew up in a hard town. Flint, MI. I've known countless people on wellfare and government assistance. Many try to downplay the occurances of actual abuse of the system, but I tell you it's the majority! When laws were inacted to have people start working some hours to still recieve assistance, people I knew were praying that God would remove that Govenor because they were oppressing the poor. The Bible tells us that if you don't work, you don't eat. A man that doesn't provide for his family is worse than an unbeliever. I know generations of people, families that had kids, got on wellfare and that was their Dream. They didn't have to work, just hang out at the house all day watching cable tv. That's the truth. Wellfare is supposed to be a hand up, not a handout. Yet for the working man who looses his job and is having a hard time making ends meet right now but is actively seeking work, No, we can't help him. He's not eligible for assistance like those who don't want to work. Where's the logic in that??

I came from an area that was oppressed, but I got out , got a job, got married, and then had a child. I made some good decisions about what I wanted from my life. It's not always easy, but God supplies my needs and even some of my wants. I praise Him for all His blessings, and that I have never been to a point where we needed assistance. Not because I think I'm better than anyone else, I'm not. My family was on wellfare when I was a child because my grandma raised us and couldn't always make ends meet. I got out from under that, and so did my sister. It's possible with a little commitment and hard work.

The American Dream is to not be controled by your government. Who really wants to rely on that? I pray for those who are going through rough times. I see it everyday because of how the auto industry is going in Michigan. You can't lose hope, That too is what the American Dream is about!

RJ, you can't seriously put out there that Canadians are somehow superior to Americans because they supposedly are not trying to make money and become rich!? I hate to burst your bubble there buddy, but greed isn't central to America. I know Canadians who fall intot that same bucket.

You have a warped view of Americans in general. You think you know something, yet you remain ignorant. I watch the Daily show too, and I get a laugh out of it. I can laugh at political humor, even though I support Bush, and the war. I tell you this, the negative feelings toward our president in this country are not the general attitude. The polls you see and hear about are not the way people actually feel. I talk to people all the time about these things. People are not happy with war, who would be? There's much more under the surface than whats on TV.

Please stop being a whiney, liberal sympathiser, trouble maker, and actually come up with ideas to discuss that will make things better for both of our countries. It's not a US/Canada/world thing. It a people problem. You never try to help, you just make acusations, post offensive materials to Americans, and attack people's beliefs while sitting back saying, "I just want to dicuss it." Bologna, sir. To you I say, Bologna. Pickled!

[Shell]

That was a good one Enosh. I was trying to stay out of this one. But someone needs to point out the problems people are screaming about existed long before Bush became president and are not unique to the U.S.

Someone should probably also point out the U.S. seems to be the country people want to immigrate to, they aren't rushing to immigrate to other countries.

[gman]

Yes, George Bush is a child of God. So were all the Iraqi civilians killed in the last three years, so are the forty million Americans without healthcare, I could go on really.........

Well first off, let me correct something. The term healthcare or "americans without healthcare", is really just the liberal's attempt to mislead people with clever wordplay. It's health insurance, or "americans without health insurance". Very few Amerians lack access to healthcare. What they don't have is insurance. Liberals want you to buy into the idea that someone else should pay for your healthcare. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't have insurance. It's a good thing. The the system is just run amuck. Because of a bad system, the costs have gone up so much, that it's difficult for the average person to pay for their own healthcare; they almost have to have insurance. Yet, the insurance companies can afford to pay for healthcare because they are getting a nice discount that the average person can't get. amazing how that works. I didn't mean to go on that rant but I did.

Second. So, some Iraqi civilians happened to die while the Coalition forces were trying to do something good. That's bad. But, what about all the Iraqi civilians who died under Saddam, while he was purposely doing evil. We'll just ignore that. It's ok for innocent civilians to die around the world as long as the United States isn't involved.
It seems to me that there is a lot of envy, hatred, or whatever, because the US happens to probably be the best place on earth. The world could get up in arms that the US won't step in to solve some problem; that the US should do something because it is so great. Yet when the US actually does do something, it is a bad thing. They need to stay out and stop imposing on others. Or, they aren't doing enough, when the reality is that no one spends more money on the worlds problems then the US.
You can't have it both ways.

[Jonathan]

I apologize and repent of anything I have said here or in other threads that has demeaned or insulted anyone or their faith or country. To begin, that was not my intent. But I admit that I no longer intended to discuss, I intended to win.

I'm sorry, and I was wrong for that.

[gman]

I don't think there is anything you need to understand, because it's not true. (Christians having an unquestioning bond for the current gov't). There may be pockets of that. Certainly there are those who only care about politics and power, but I don't think you can paint with such a broad brush and say everyone is like that. There has been a massive groundswell among conservatives lately that has killed several things George Bush has tried to do. A vast number of conservatives have an unquestioning bond, not to the current gov't but, to conservative values, principles, and ideas. It is those people, like me who are horrified at some of the things Bush has done, or is doing. That being said, I tend to like him and some other republicans because they often fit closely with conservative ideas. That is something liberals don't do. However, there is a groundswell starting now that is saying that if Bush does anything remotely close to amnesty in the matter of illegal immigration, the republican party will be sunk in the next election; and they will lose the Whitehouse. If that is the way it has to be, that is the way it has to be. I won't defend Bush if he is doing something I don't agree with. I think most conservatives would say the same. We have an unquestiong bond to our core beliefs, whereas liberals seem to have an unquestioning bond to power and winning elections. Liberal politicians will routinely sell out the core values they know don't win elections and the liberal base will say nothing. They will attempt, at every turn, to paint conservatives as mind numbed robots who blindly follow and support the president no matter what. It's a shame the average liberal base seems to buy that without any real thinking or analysis. A liberal can say that they are open minded, a thinker, and not a robot all day long. However, we are not what we say we are, but we are what we do.

Oh, and I think I have realized why it is so hard for conservatives and liberals to have an honest discussion about the war. It is because doing so would mean both sides would have to agree to a level playing field. Meaning, both would have to agree why it was we went over there. You can discuss all day long whether that was right or not, or a good idea, but I doubt liberals want to ever be heard admitting or accepting why we went there.