Fr. Ralph+ Thank you for raising the question of what is a religious theme? That one is worth commenting on. At odd moments, for several days, I have thought on this question which your letter raises."For what its worth. . .", I think it is worth a lot of thought. Here is my preliminary assessment; As a line in a hymn goes "all the earth is God's own field." In this America, so blessed by God in His Providence, we have a president and congress faced with making momentous choices. One of these choices involves the stewardships of the bounty with which God has blessed America. The United States, like the nations of old, stands under the judgment of God in regard to the righteousness of its actions and stewardship of opportunities and wealth. To me, those are religious issues. Anything affecting the Reign of God, is a religious issue, in my opinion. This is a free forum, and all it takes to change the "flavor" from one day to the next is for everyone to paste something. Forward an article that interests you, and say nothing (as I often do), or comment if you like. In my opinion, clergy are often too 'nice" to voice opinions, and perhaps too sensitive to absorb criticism. There have been many moments in the past two years that this old dog has licked his (imagined) wounds and learned a new trick or two from things posted here. My hope is that more moments like these will occur, and I do thank you, Fr. Waterhouse, for making me think again about the issue of what is religious. Charles+. >From: H2ohouseRW@... >Subject: RE: [FaithandLife] RUMSFELD HAS MET HIS MATCH - THE ARMAMENTS >INDUSTRY >Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:42:25 -0500 > >For what it's worth, I would rather see us remain focused on religious and >spiritual issues which were the original intent of this discussion group. > Ralph+ > >"Charles Scott" <crscott@...> wrote: > >Brothers: > > > >I have snipped the bottom 2/3's of this article from the Sunday New York > >Times which examines company by company, the unnecessary pork barrel > >spending of the current congress and the Pentagon in regard to weapons > > >systems. Only the lead paragraphs remain, which summarize how the > > >administration's efforts of restraining wasteful military spending has >been > >thwarted. > > > >Money that could have been used to provide aid for seniors in regard to > > >prescription drugs is being wasted on weapons systems that are >obsolescent, won't be used, and in some cases, won't be built. > > _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_advancedjmf_3mf