Hello Jeff!

19 May 09 04:10, Jeff Snyder wrote to Mike Tripp:

 JS> Mike, please don't put words in my mouth. I never referred to the
 JS> local police department, paramedics or firefighters as warmongers, so
 JS> please don't insinuate that I did.

Then who were you referring to as warmongers?  I quoted your words from
your message...I didn't put them in your mouth.

 MT>> You should be glad that somebody is raising folks to serve and
 MT>> protect your ass, whether you know who they are or not, and even
 MT>> if you protest the concept. They're prepared for that, too...

 JS> First, please tone down your language, as it is not appropriate
 JS> for this Christian echo.

Excuse me...I thought I was replying to a Fidonet echo disseminating
troll-bait, not fundamentalist dogma.

 JS> I stand by my statement. Thirteen and fourteen year old children
 JS> should NOT be taught those things. They should be concentrating on
 JS> their scholastic endeavors, and behaving as kids behave, and doing the
 JS> things that kids do, and NOT the things that adult men -- who are
 JS> already out of school -- are trained to do.

The truth is that while it may be technically possible to join at that
young an age, since they are vocationally oriented, it is normally 16-18yrs
old that that have already achieved much of what the Boy Scouts have to
offer and have made some choice about future career direction that
participate in Explorers.

 JS> BTW, those young kids do not serve or protect me, as I do not live
 JS> in the continental USA; and I would not ask them to do so, even if
 JS> I did live in the USA, because it is wrong to request such things
 JS> of children that young.

I guess you missed the point, in your hurry to censor my language.  Neither
the Boy Scouts nor the terrorists are confined to the continental USA.  And
those boys become the men who are your soldiers, policemen, firemen,
paramedics, fellow congregation members, ministers, rabbis, etc.

Boys must learn to be men...it doesn't just magically happen on a given
birthday.  The Boy Scouts assist in that department where the father
figures are absent, unable, unqualified or unwilling.  Providing
information is not impressment into servitude.  Insulation from information
is not enlightenment.

 JS> Please also note that peaceful protest is a right given to the
 JS> people to express grievances with the government.

And what government has provided its people the right to peaceful protest
without having first shed blood to earn the right to determine rights and
then shed further blood to preserve the rights they determined?

 JS> We Christians are supposed to belong to a different kind of army; an
 JS> army which saves lives, and does not destroy them. Our battle is with
 JS> Satan and the forces of darkness which control this world, and which
 JS> ensnare the souls of men through ignorance and unbelief.

Satan is in the eye of the beholder.  Millions of Christians have managed
to see past the paradox that would prevent them from serving their Lord and
country simultaneously.  Even conscientious objectors have found a role on
a battlefield.  Jesus will not forsake them.

Please continue to dream of the war-free world.  It won't happen unless
many more do.  But please don't consider the fact that a group of Explorer
scouts in a law-enforcement post would practice training exercises similar
to those that law-enforcement officers practice "outrageous".

.\\ike

--- GoldED/2 2.50+