I got this forward in my e-mail and decided to forward it to some people since I found it to be an interesting read


Subject: Billy Graham's daughter

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I >think! it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliatin! g, kicking, etc.). And we said OK. Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK. Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents
they got them at school. And we said OK. Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that
encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it ...
no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!

I sent the e-mail out to a bunch of my friends and co-workers, and my friend Jack Jones wrote this eye-opening respose:

Oh, boy.

Okay, normally I take a backseat to these forwards, and I'm a pretty middle-of-the-road guy when it comes to politics. But this one got me
a little incensed, so here is my response.

The letter started with a reference to 9/11, and how we "deserved" it for letting "god" and "the bible" out of our lives.

Lets start this conversation with the terrorists who comitted the act.
The fundamentalists who comitted this act were some of the most religious people in the world, and would have agreed with everything in this letter.
Lets talk about the fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001.
-They kept prayer in their schools (in fact it was the main subject!).
-They spanked their children for wanting to think differenly.
-Abortion was punishable by death. Pre-marital sex was likewise brutally punished.
-Any leader of thiers who got blowjobs in his spare time would probably be at least exiled, and at most killed, no matter how good a leader he was.
-Penthouse, Playboy and other nudie magazines were against the law. So were film, painting, sculpture, music, and anything else likely to contain "morally corrupting" influences. In fact, some very great artwork was destroyed under thier regime.

So, the argument given below in summary says that these people were doing us a service by coming here and indiscriminantly killing those who are godless
and corrupt. People with families and lives. Some people who were devoutly religious.

There are other people who agree with the letter below as well. I'll just toss out the names of Hitler and Stalin to start you thinking.

Let me give MY response to the letter below. The greatest societies on this earth all came about because of FREEDOM. When you allow people to have thier own beliefs and thier own morals, punishing them only for harming others, you end up with a happy, healthy, creative, THINKING population. Without some degree of freedom, things like language, science, art, exploration, and RELIGION would never have come about in the first place.

I don't believe in god. Do I let other people? Yes. I think it's great that they have religion. I watch tv, go to museums, and enjoy the sight of a naked woman. Some of these things have even inspired me in my life. Am I an evil person? I don't think so. And I don't think anyone else has the right to judge me as long as I'm not hurting them. I believe in family, morals, and goodness as much as the next guy. So don't go pushing your beliefs on me.

I'm an american, and I am blessed to have the freedom to REALIZE the difference between right and wrong, and not to have others' moral interpretations FORCED on me.

-Jack Jones

if you want to put your 2 cents in, or share any other opinion for that matter, e-mail me at natalllya@yahoo.com and i will add it in