Dear ALGOREisRICH,

I agree to your amendment.

I thought we'd finished - but we're
still going it seems.

I recently came across a few words that
I found written by author Bryce Courtenay
that I thought you may enjoy:

"There is a lust for life in much of
our language. It is covered in yellow
dust and hardened by drought, then
made soggy again with too much rain,
rendered rough tough once more by
bad times and fluffy as a lamington
by good fortune yet again restored.
It is the language of an uncertain
ambivalent land not yet entirely sure
of who it is, though bloody certain
it isn't returning to where it came
from. Australia's early White settlers,
unlike their American counterparts
who left England to the promise of a
richer and freer existence, were dragged
kicking and screaming from the dungeons
of Newgate and the hulks of Bristol to
the living death of an isolated and
barren land... Their language bore the
marks of shackles and carried the
inflections of the destitute and the whine
of the shanty Irish. It matured in a harsh
land with few of the niceties: just as those
little white pantaloons do not belong on the
end of an Australian lamb chop, os our ways
of speech are blunter than our antecedent
tongue. Our language is laconic and often
recalcitrant, but even in its lazy vowels
it has a vigour; a common touch which is not
being included in much of the work of
Australian writers. Too often our writers
ape the English way and look at our native
language as if our words were river pebbles
pushed forward and tumbled by another stream
of influence, a babbling English brook and
not a roiling, flood-rushed creek..."

I agree with the author when he tells us that:

"Books are the playground of our language.
They are our cultural past and the foot
stamp of our present. When they are Australian
made they should be a
celebration of where we've been and a guide
for where we're going."

David f,
You speak such nonsense! Jesus was put to death by the religious Jews of his time for blasphemy, disturbance in the Temple precinct, harvesting grain and healing breaking the Sabbath rest. What did they cry? Crucify! Crucify! Paul who trained under Gamaeliel and was complicit in the stoning of Stephen and the arrest and death of others; upon recognising the truth of Jesus as the Christ established the gathering of people together in Christ's name - the name meaning having in them the spirit of Christ [Messiah] - hence christ-in.

I have on my desk current magazines produced by the Israeli Christian Embassy on activities in Israel. One nephew an Orthodox Rabbi in Perth WA and several family members of the Orthodox Jewish faith. Christianity had its roots, heritage and foundation in Jewish thought and the same Textual view of God and Messiah. Among my many emails I also receive emails each week from Chabad.org an Orthodox Jewish e-mag[subscriptions@chabad.org]. Why? Because I share so many views in common with my Orthodox Jewish friends.

Grim,
Learn what context is and to whom the words are addressed.

Philo, I'm very well aware of what context is, and to whom the words were addressed.
Philo said: "No where did he tell all his followers to give up all their posessions."
Jesus said: if you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow me".
He then went on to say:"I tell you the truth. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God".
Why is it Capitalists always ignore this passage?

Dear Grim and Philo,

Both of you may appreciate the following:

A man dies and goes to heaven.
Of course, St Peter meets him at
the Pearly Gates.

St Peter says: "Here's how it works.
You need 100 points to make it into
heaven. You tell me all the good things
you've done and I'll give you a certain
number of points for each item, depending
on how good it was. When you reach 100 points,
you get in."

"Okay," the man says. "I was married to the
same woman for 50 years and never cheated on
her, even in my heart."

"That's wonderful, that's worth 3 points."

"Three points! Well I attended church all my life
and supported its ministry."

"Terrific! One point."

"One point. Golly. How about this.
I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked
in a shelter for homeless veterans."

"Fantastic. That's good for two points."

"TWO POINTS!" the man cries.
"At this rate the only way I'll get into heaven
is by the Grace of God."

"Come on in!"

Dear Philo,

The Jews of Jesus' time put nobody to death as they were not in control. The country was occupied by the Roman authorities who had the power of life and death. Those who wrote the New Testament some years after the crucifixion did not want to blame the Romans as they looked to them for converts and the Romans were still in power so they blamed the Jews. Roman archives contradict the Bible which puts Pilate as a wishy-washy character. Pilate was one of the few Roman governors who was fired because of cruelty. That meant he was exceptionally cruel. The account of Jesus before the Sanhedrin is purely fiction. According to the Bible it took place at night, but the Sanhedrin did not meet at night. The messiah was supposed to bring an era of peace where the lion would lie down with the lamb and nations would 'study war no more.' Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophesy so he was not the Messiah. The New Testament is largely fiction, a propaganda document for the gullible.

Chabad is a fundamentalist Jewish sect which is as screwed up as other fundamentalists. It says little for them that you share many views with them.

The Bible is a book of legends which should be examined with a critical eye to the origin of those legends. It has been a most effective propaganda document.