Ginx.

You know my name. Use it properly please. I don't disrespect your opinion and participation by calling you skinks, or minx, or what-the-hell-ever.

"....but you don't decide who posts on it or how."

You're right of course. But keeping it within the realms of the original topic would be appreciated. Common ettiquette and all that. I've never come to yours and done it.

Dear Ginx
I don't mind 'taking' it... by all means.. I simply wish to be taking it for the correct reasons.

You are projecting a notion of Christianity onto a post about a secular issue.. I'm part of the wider society also....and I am aware of how humanity in historical context approaches problems of hostility against it.

If you fail to understand why Britain declared war on Germany or why the USA declared war on Japan... then dear Ginx.. that is your own admission of naivity, and or.. plain denial.

My 'Christian' approach to the problem of 'Hamastan' is to proclaim Christ as Lord and Saviour.. that they may all be saved both Jew and Arab.

Considering the history of the area.. and the methods used, and for the Israelis the divine command/authorization as follows:

Deuteronomy 20:1

1"When you go out to war against your enemies, and see(A) horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is(B) with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

10"When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. 11And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. 12But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13And when the LORD your God gives it into your hand,(I) you shall put all its males to the sword, 14(J) but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you(K) shall take as plunder for yourselves

Now that should keep you going and raging for a while.
God ordered the complete annihilation of the inhabitants of Canaan... Men, Woman, children, livestock.. EVerything. The above was the 'generous' approach.

I hereby nominate this thread for the OLO doublethink-of-the-year award.

It goes like this.

StG starts a thread called "Hamastan". Considering that there was no substance to the piece, you'd have to be particularly charitable not to regard it as a provocative troll for anti-Islamic sentiment, which it achieved immediately, in the form of knee-jerk whack-a-mozzie Boaz.

But at least StG had the grace to come semi-clean by add the footnote "Just a rant. Thanks for reading"

Just in case you missed it, StG wrote:

>>Just a rant. Thanks for reading<<

Having achieved his objective of stirring fellow-traveller Boaz to his cause, which in turn generated the usual complaints from the likes of myself and Ginx, what do we find?

StG comes back online with:

>>I hate agenda driven rants as much as the next person.<<

Self-loathing is a trait common amongst religionists, StG, even (thanks Boaz) St Augustine turns out to have been a sufferer. But to perform such a U-turn so quickly...

Mind-boggling.

If you prefer sober discussions between mature people, StG, do not lead with a teaser that cannot fail to arouse the ever-vigilant Boaz to shove in his, slightly rancid, I'm-a-christian-and-therefore-must-be-right oar.

And Boaz, you are becoming increasingly unconvincing.

>>The issue with war is... we don't engage in it to spread the Christian Gospel, we do it to survive<<

Tell that to the Huguenots. Does the St Bartholomew Massacre ring a bell? Whose survival was at stake there, pray?

>>You are projecting a notion of Christianity onto a post about a secular issue<<

This comment to Ginx caused a serious coffee-meets-keyboard incident.

Pot. Kettle. Deepest, darkest, jet black.

That will do very nicely Pericles. I'll stick a ditto on that!

Hi Stg.... sorry for creating a bit of flack for you mate.

I guess when I see the words 'Hamas'.. my brain goes into meltdown, because I see 'Hitler'..and and Stalin....and Pol Pot...and but Hamas are worse.
Worse than all of them put together.

I'm not sure why you dislike agenda driven rants.. everyone has an agenda..and it is the conflict of agendas which causes wars.
This includes the 'Agenda' of power.. between the Catholic Merdici's and the Protestant Hugenots... and the associate riots.

We had one closer to home... in Hobart actually. (many years ago)

An ex Catholic priest came to Australia, to 'publically rant against the Catholic system.. nad all went ok while he did so in protestant Church buildings. But then the sponsors hired the Town hall... which had been paid for as much by Catholic dollars as Protestant...they seathed, and grabbed weapons..and it was virtual civil war.. Catholics attending protestant meetings with clubs in their hands.

That ex priest had an agenda.. even you must have some kind of agenda.. the important thing is.. "is the agenda in question ultimately beneficial and good for society or.. damaging and bad"?

Some agenda's can look bad..causing short term disruption.. (like the removal of a cancer) for the long term good. Some folks only see 'bad' in any agenda. Lets hope they educate themselves about history and human nature.

Stg...have you ever read the Hamas Charter ? look at article 11

http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Funny... I take the highlights below to be remeniscent of the speeches of Hitler and Japan around the time of WWII.

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

COMMENT
Sounds like a declaration of war to me.....

I probably made a mistake by approving this thread. I've been deleting posts above, and I'll be forced to take further action if you don't all play together a little more nicely.