What you are talking about here is RELIGION. There is a big difference between RELIGION and haveing a personal relationship with Jesus. Just so we are clear....

Ah, dangit, this is goin WAAAAAAYYY down a bunny trail, as Margie would say...

Well now, there you go. You need to come over and have a BBQ and beer. (I went to catechism, real sudden like, when my family moved to Chicago for a while when I was young. Where my Irish Catholic grandmother and great-aunt lived. Where we suddenly were really good Catholics. I still reel. I did carry some of that forward, but sheesh.) We would have some great discussions I think, and more than a little in common.

OK, I'll quit bringing up the need to get out... it's just that your comments had a second-source ring to them.
Aw sure you did. My point is, I DO! Well, not keep them from believing it, as if they could, or should. But to speak out against it? Yes indeed.

I dunno...how many people on this forum (or at least that take part in these discussions) do you think vote? I would bet that it is a very high percentage...whereas the percentage of the general population that votes is not so large.

I think the people on this forum (or at least who participate in these discussions) tend to pay attention to and think about political/social issues far more than the "average american" (whatever that is).



yeah, but if the balance of power in the world were the other way around (the world dominated by a single muslim superpower that had military bases in, and conducted military operations in, the USA), i think the exact opposite would likely be true. militant christians/americans would be doing what militant islamists are doing now and the militant islamists would be confined to playing war games in the woods.



sticking to the small percentage of muslims who would actually know anyone to rat out or have any useful information to provide...

some do...some don't because they fear the ramifications (them and/or their families being killed).



the problem is that that often means telling the americans or people who are "conspiring" with the americans...

again, if it were the other way around, how would you feel about ratting out your fellow americans (even if they were nutcases) to the invading muslim country (even if that invading muslim country felt they were helping america)?

i honestly don't know how i would feel...on one hand, i would think i should turn them in because they are murdering innocent people...on the other hand, i would think that maybe those people aren't so innocent since their country seems (from my point of view) to be in the process of building an empire (on both a military and economic basis) at my expense, and they are living high on the hog while i am barely able to feed myself.

i might draw the conclusion from this that, while i don't condone what the radicals are doing, i also don't condone what the superpower is doing.

i might decide that i don't want to help either, so i won't turn anyone into the invading superpower.

or i might then allow my decision to be made on the basis of loyalty rather than conscience (since both sides seem to have no conscience) and decide not to turn in my fellow countrymen to a foreign invader (or people who are collaborating with the foreign invader).

it is a very difficult position that i hope i never face. however, there are many muslims who confront that very decision today. frankly, i feel sorry for them.