well, yikes! right back at ya!

Don't feel bad. I think that you have the right idea in many ways, it's just that the example isn't true. There are a lot of urban myths circulating in the Christian world - this sort of ties into my refusal to accept end-of-the-world prophecies from anything other than the Bible. When you Google certain terms - paranoic Christian things - you'll come up with a whole host of things in which it is written slanted to give a certain impression.

My instinct is always that if it sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably is, and for anything, not just religious stuff, I tend to first sort through what is reasonable and plausible and possible before I jump to a supernatural conclusion.

Where I think you are right is that traditional moral Bible guidelines are constantly being blurred to the point where even Christians do not always know what is the right thing to do. I think there will be a war-war, but there is also a war of ideas and spirits going on and that pressure to conform will only increase as time goes by.

Did you ever think that one of the side-effects of the scrambling of languages at the Tower of Babel separated the nations in a good way? When God says, that, with a common language "nothing shall be impossible unto them", it is true that a common language seems to up the mischief factor that people can get into. And English is pretty much the lingua franca of the day.

I would just rather we not jump at shadows and so miss the real threats. And I honestly think that Christians are their own worst enemies when they expect the state to follow the Bible.

I also think that many Americans confuse socialism (which Canada is - a social democracy) with communism, which Canada is not. I recall one debate during which an American whom I suppose most Americans would regard as left-wing or left-of-centre, basically stated that she believed that the US was the only country in the world with free speech. And yet, for all that, apparently American communists cannot be school teachers in at least some of your states. I don't understand that. Doesn't freedom apply to everyone?

Canada had at least one communist big-city mayor in the 60s and 70s that I know of, and many other communists in other positions. One of our Prime Ministers was apparently on the list of Canadians not allowed into the US due to his travels before he was Prime Minister in communist countries. It hardly seems to be fair to accuse communist countries of keeping their citizens prisoners when communists are restricted in their activities in the US. So much for freedom of ideas.

I also think that many Americans think that freedom includes the right to say what you damned well please, no matter who it hurts. I don't believe that. I don't believe in an automatic right to say anything in any situation at any time. A lot of it is common sense - don't yell "fire" in a theatre - don't incite racial hatred or any other hatred. It's like if five big crazy guys ask for your wallet in a dark alley - would you assert your right to free speech and tell them you think they are a brick short a load, or would you say, "Here's my wallet?" Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

You have to pick your battles and I don't waste my energy on people who don't believe in God. Why would I hold them to God's standards? God gave me the freedom of will - why would I not extend it to others?

I have full confidence that when the Lord reigns over the world, he will judge and rule righteously, and sort out all our confusion, sexual and otherwise, and then we will be in no doubt at all as to what way is God's way and what is not.

I don't think, based on what I read, that Boisson is in any danger of being fined. If anything, the paper who published his letter-to-the-editor might be fined as they obviously have to use a certain amount of discretion in what they publish. We are a very politically correct country by and large. Some people don't like that and some do.

Me, all in all, I like it. I like it that we don't have the KKK here. I'm happy that our laws infringe on their "freedom" of speech. I like it that Holocaust deniers are charged under the hate crimes laws. They are spreading lies. Why should lies be covered under "freedom?"

On the other hand, you could have a church pastor preach whatever he wanted to about race, and that is covered under our conscience laws. There is no danger at all to freedom of religion. I'm not saying that that day will not come, I'm only saying it isn't here yet, nor is that train anywhere in sight. Christ is preached every day in Canada without any fear of arrest.

Layla