Posted on 10/07/2007 2:26:28 PM PDT by ellenbrewster
Hitchens has devoted his life toward fighting oppressors large and small in service to the less fortunate. In some areas he's dead wrong about who the oppresors are. But not all.
Seems to me he's a guy who's accepted his calling, and may well be doing *most* of what he's been put here to do.
It's hard to say, but maybe God already has him.
I must strongly but respectively disagree, angkor. Hitchens is a Marxist - and the Marxist lie that religion has cause more wars than any other reasons is as much propaganda as fallacy. Even wars that were fought for religion pale in comparison to the death tolls that non-religious wars have accumulated - not to mention the greatest loss of blood in human history perpetrated by men who were avowed Marxists out to rid the world of not only religion but of 'oppressors'.
Thanks but no thanks. Maybe some men are not worth praying for.....
Matt. 13:3-9 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop— a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear."
PS: I do not have a problem with thoughtful atheists and agnostics - it is the atheists of the Communistic and Marxist bent that I have a problem with for they see religion as an oppressor to be destroyed (and those that practice religion are naturally the enemy). What I term 'thoughtful atheists and agnostics' are those that hold these positions because they are rationalists and thus don't believe or accept want can not be quantified rather than haters of religion because they view it as an opiate of the masses.
Yes, I pray that he is the next Paul.
Hitchens argument is fundamentally flawed, IHO. He uses the same logic those that favor gun control try to use. They blame the gun (religion) for the acts of the person (criminal).
In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, Paul writes:
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
I respectfully submit that all men are worth praying for. (I will confess that I don't always act like I should in this matter, however.)
Amen, brother.
St. Monica prayed for her son Augustine for 20 years! Yes, I join you and Peter in prayer.
We are three, thou art three, have mercy on us!
The Prodigal Son parable comes to mind of course but there is validity in what I wrote and I stand by it.
Terirem,This is today’s Gospel reading.I think of and pray for Christopher often.
Gospel
Lk 10:25-37
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Again, Amen, brother!
Pray for the lot; Clintons, Obama, MoDo, Teddy K, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, the worlds legions of mohammedans ... all of 'em.
I have no problem with treating Hitchens and all men - even evil men like Hitchens - with mercy, fatima.
The Lord’s Justice is a form of mercy as well.
Two little brothers fought and bickered all day long. Everytime their mother turned around, these boys were at each other, bickering. Came bedtime and the youngest was bathed and put to bed. As the older brother was getting his bath, his mother worked on his conscience, asking how he would feel if he went to bed without making up and forgiving his brother and in the mnight his brother died? The oldest boy thought about it while the bath continued, then when mother was toweling him off he repsonded, "Okay. All right, I'll forgive him ... But if he's alive in the morning ..."
Well, Christopher, I'll pray for you tonight, really. But if you're alive in the morning, you're on your own fella.
I already do........along with Ian McKellen and Kathy Griffin, daily.
So what is the Lord’s Justice for Hitchens?
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1021.htm
The justice and mercy of God
I see what you are saying.St. Thomas was always a hard read for me.
Yeah, I'll pray for Hitch. He needs it.
That is why I make distinctions between types of atheists. Marxists hate religion because they view it as a tool of the oppressor - rationalists adopt atheism and agnosticism from their rationalists views but don’t usually come to their position through hate of religion.
Read - or re-read - Whittaker Chambers' Witness. It took me a long time to understand what the title really meant. Shouldn't have, but it did.
In terms of Marxist inspired atheism? Hitchens reached the promised land - his journey is complete after his current book blasting religion along Marxist lines (rather than say rejecting religion along understandable empiricist lines).
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