Hi there

I've decided to send you a comment because I believe that you would be honest and mature enough to debate/discuss and/or accept my personal opinion. I have tried talking to other conservative bloggers, but all they've done is distort my comments to make me look like an idiot, while refusing to debate in a non-childish manner. I doubt that you would do this.

First off, I'm a staunch Catholic teenager and I have fairly liberal views. However, I am strongly against abortion and gay marriage, and I believe in a stricter justice system (but not capital punishment, that's still murder); thus, I consider myself a centrist, with a slight leaning toward the left.

It seems to me that you're a staunch Christian who is completely supportive of Bush. So I have to ask: what is the difference between killing a baby, and killing a whole generation of Iraqi people?

I see no difference; in God's eyes, murder is murder, and no matter who you kill it's still a sin. Please don't take offence, I'm not trying to insult you, but I don't understand how Christians can claim they are close to God when they support a war for profit, which is completely against God's Word. It was the Americans who provoked the Islamic people to the point where they had enough and decided to fight back. I'm not going to go deep into the whole "Islam is a terrorist religion" argument because it takes too long and it deflects from the topic at hand. Jesus was a pacifist...why should Christians be exempt? This modern day problem of terrorism is not going to be solved by having more wars and death and violence.

Secondly, Jesus taught us to help the poor and needy. Conservative values are all about helping *themselves*, "who cares about the poor! They should get a job anyway!". Conservatives believe in lower taxes, which in turn lowers social programs that help people at the bottom rung of the ladder. How can you possible debate the morality of preventing children from going to school and getting the proper healthcare just because they can't pay for it? Nobody wants to be poor...yes, there are some who are indeed lazy bums, but the reality is that most people who are financially-strapped do not have a choice. Tell a single mother of two -- who's husband has left her to fend for herself -- to get a job, and they'll ask you who will take care of her kids. That's another thing I don't understand; how Christians can be conservative and adopt these "selfish" and "greedy" values (ie. making more money, getting more power, helping ME ME ME) when it's obvious that God wants everyone to have a chance at living a happy, healthy life.

The reason I'm strongly religious is because I believe in God. We were put on this Earth to do good. I can't say that I know the Bible by heart, nor can I quote many scriptures, but I know that we show our true love to God when we are good people and we help others, rather than one-up them either by bombing their countries or by keeping the necessities of life all to ourselves and not sharing it with the needy.

Right now I'm only at the tip of the iceberg; there is much more I would like to discuss but I don't want you reading an essay, and I don't think you do either! ;-)

You are very welcome to further debate or discuss with me on my forum, . I would have given you my email, but there's too much spam that goes in and i'm afraid that any email you send me might get lost and/or deleted. My forum doesn't have much traffic, it would be a good place to talk if you want.

My site is www.afterthought.cjb.cc, if you ever want to check it out.

Thanks for your time, and God bless!