Hmmmm... debating whether or not to share my true thoughts on this or not... Ok so I will, but please everyone, understand that I am NOT trying to push my ideas on anyone, and that I don't hold judgement or any ill feeling towards anyone.
I believe that God is love, and evil acts done in His name are actually done in the
spirit of religion. "Religion" meaning just going through the motions of traditional practices without seeking a personal relationship w/ Him. Not to say that God has not or will not wage war; He has done so and it is prophecied that He will again*. *Note all the prophecies that have already come true, in the far past and even recent - but that's even more off topic... (check out the book of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before Christ was born, yet God revealed to him details of how Christ would be born, treated, accepted/rejected, and how he would be crucified and rise again - that's just one of many many examples...)
Anyhoo, these yahoos that are running around killing abortion Dr.'s or picketing against gays, etc. have missed something in Christ's example for us, IMO. You have to look at how Jesus lived his life, what He and God have to say about this type of behaviour or "heart attitude" and ask yourself would you really do that if He were standing next to you in the flesh? Would he do that? Is that how He treated people? No. However, He didn't just turn a blind eye and stay quiet either. Because good and evil do exist, and God is love, Jesus, as part of that love, extending that love, could not stand idly by and allow someone to continue in sin w/o warning them. Not to reject them, but as an invitation to Him - no sin is "part of" someone, so rejecting the sin is not the same as rejecting the person. Love is quite different than tolerance, and contrarty to modern popular teaching, tolerating something means putting up with something that actually bothers you. Charles Marx (self-proclaimed destroyer of Christianity) wrote that the way to take down Christianity and love was to instill the belief in tolerance, then tolerance would replace real love in society. God knows our full potential apart from sin and really wants to free us from it, and see us live at peace w/ His will. I don't think it's our place to decide to go to war ourselves - "Vengence is mine, saith the Lord". Their day will come if they don't repent (i.e. not just ask forgiveness but also turn from sin to Him). If you love someone and they are doing something that blocks the flow of relationship w/ God in their lives, staying quiet in the name of tolerance is merely being an accomplice and God expects us to at least, out of love (gently, lovingly) present the truth. If they reject it, then they will have to answer for it. But if you present it, then you've done all you can but still have to LIVE out Christ's love to them - be loving to them in day-to-day life. I think this generalized rejection of groups by any other group is a bunch of hooey too (for example, Christians picketing against gays). We are all sinners and all offense is transgression against God. Though some may seem worse than others to us, all of it is equally going against God's laws. That passage that says "Judge not, lest ye be judged" goes on to say that if we pass judgement, then why shouldn't God judge us with the same judgement (immature human nature judgement) that we judge others? The author also goes on in the same chapter though comparing people who are living in different types of sin to dogs, pigs, and empty white "sepulchres". So, he wasn't saying not to call it out when someone is living a lie, or not to tell them when they haven't heard the truth. I think he was saying not to think ourselves better than anyone else - not to let negative pride in. Personally, it would be very hard for me to do that unless it was in the context of an already formed relationship, where I cared deeply for the person and was worried about their soul. However, on a basic level, I have that love for all people, and want to share the truth with everyone. Just like it's not fair for anyone to make generalizations like "all natives are

" just because all the ones they've met are - it's also not fair to think of Christians as violent, fanatic, narrow-minded, etc. Please don't think I'm accusing anyone here of that - I'm just saying, that's what often happens out in the world when crazy people do schtool like that - burning down churches and stuff. So, there's my 2

, please no hatemail, like I said, that's what I believe is true, and I'm getting down off my

now!
