Letters To Landover: Pastor's Mailbag

JUNE 2006
A Small Sample of e-mails unedited and in original form

Mark Spelling

I have a 13 year old son that has been very involved in the online game Ruin Scape. I am not comfortable with some of the elements of this game and have been searching frantically for some other online game that he and his friends can play together -- with Christian values.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you so much for your time. This means so much to my son and to myself.

God bless!
Trish Banning

Sal Farina

You guys are really fucked up! Little Timmy is in heaven, his killer is in HELL!

pat Drottz

I have been a Christian for over 30 years and was shocked by what I saw on your site!

Your quiz is totally out of character with the love of Christ and His body. Since when is it right to call anyone a moron, and who told you that your church should exclude sinners?

It may interest you to know that Christ went down among the sinners to save them, and rebuked the self-righteous who thought they were above others. He called them a generation of snakes, and blind leaders of the blind.

I was once lost but now am found, was blind but now I see! Your site and quiz is an offense to God who sent His son to die for all who will repent of their sin. It is no wonder that men and women turn away from God when they see bigoted displays such as the one on your web site.

Christ will cleanse everyone who will turn to Him. It is our job to get the message out, not to congregate and isolate ourselves from those who are headed to Hell and damnation without hope.

If you are serious in your hatred of those who don't want the unforgiving Christ you represent to them, then you must repent yourself, or you will share the fate of those who you now despise and drive away from the mercy of God.

In Christ's Service;

Rick Shaffer

Hellen Koolba@---.com

Organo Aeternam

Number 1: http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0801/molester.html

In this article you state

"Mr. Hobbs was apprehended nearly three years ago after a bloody 12-state killing spree in which he brutally slaughtered and raped at least 127 children under the age of 10. "The devil had a hold on that boy," one True Christian source stated, "that is . . . until the last three seconds of his life when Jesus finally broke through and saved his soul from a horror worse than any man could devise."

How dare you, HOW DARE YOU! How can you celebrate a man that killed and raped so many children? How can you say that he was "accepted into heaven" 3 seconds before they pulled the switch? This man was evil and for you to celebrate his "passing into heaven" is disgusting, and it makes you no better than what he did. I am trying to hold back the anger, but as you can imagine (maybe) I am finding it real hard to actually read that you find it tolerable when a man kills children and repents at his death. Guess what thats what we here in Texas call "Talking out your ass!"

I can only imagine the hate mail you get every day.

Number two: The discrimination on your forums (self proclaimed "gods favorite forum" I call bullshit) is unbelievable. To tell you the honest truth I am afraid to join for the discrimination you seem to flaunt about. I wonder have you had any black, asian, native american, people join your forum? And have they been slandered and banned? Im betting you did.

I truly have no sympathy for you people and I try to be tolerant of you people but I hope your church burns to the ground and your children are trapped inside. Only to see you cry outside the church as it flares in a blaze of glory.

Demanding a reply,
Justin Eckbledt

Carissa Sanders

StaciAiello@---.com

boy o boy no wonder christ people are suffering and in bondage because of the likes of you

CLG TEMP4

I at first thought your " Christian website" (As you call it) was a joke. Then to my horror, I discovered you were serious. I pray that God can forgive you for the sick things on your website & for misleading all the members of your church. Or as I would call it, a cult! You & all of the people confused by your so-called Godly sermons will be in my prayers.

God Forgive You, Jessica

Sincerely your brother in Christ – God Bless – Jamie Jordan

Emanuael Lawrence

Suzanne SN

Poopsie CBaum

Sheri Robinson

Heather Jeffres

Dr. David Sippel

Your reply to little Timmy's question on whether if animals will be in heaven is a disgrace and sick! The bible does not give an exact answer on whether or not animals will be up there, but it does give hints that they will.

Krystal Crawford

I was reading your very "interesting" article on "Lucas Watch". Rest assured I was not intentionally trying to find this site or anything remotely "holy". I was in a yahoo search for "dark parodies of Christ". But back to my point, This seemed really silly and a complete waste of time and effort and personally I cannot believe that any denomination of Christianity would truly pursue Lucas as an enemy. George Lucas is an artist and regardless of how or why he has made the works he has I can't help but feel somewhat offended by the simple fact that he is being attacked in this way, granted I feel everyone is entitled to their own opinion and beliefs I can't help but feel that some of the "symbolism" the publishers are finding is superficial at best. Is the writer aware that this is not the last movie? it is actually part 3 of 6. And that the end of this part is not a triumph of evil, its merely a chapter of the story. In the end when all is said and done good does conquer evil as it always does. And the "force" isn't saying at all that it is the work of any god. In fact Lucas may have left this open ended on purpose so that anyone could interpret this imaginary world as the work of their own deity. I guess I want to ask how do we not know what all God has or has not created and if he chooses not to tell us, wouldn't he have good reason? Also, I'm a little upset at the fact that modern day Christianity attacks all other religions, I am aware that it is said in the bible that all other beliefs are wrong but that is commonplace in all religions and aside from Islam the others remain pretty calm and don't call Christians out on their faith. At this point I still do not say that any of these other "faiths" are true because frankly I don't believe in any of them. I am merely saying why is it that Christians that seem to have a problem with "Star Wars" or "Harry Potter"? You don't see Buddhists rallying against movies or books that they don't agree with, and you'll definitely never see a Satanist rally against anything including Christianity. I guess to me it seems kind of pathetic that Christians can be so selfish demanding that things be banned because they don't agree, and above all else like they have nothing better to do. I am by no means saying all Christians are small minded or hypocritical, but sometimes I can't help but wonder if why do they believe in this "god" why doesn't that reflect in their actions. It seems the ones who parade his name use it only for self gain. One last question if you choose to answer any, Why is it that Christians do not call their god by his name? The Hebrews called him "Yahweh" so why is now he just "God"?

Please take the time to read my email and reply if you wish because I would like to know more about Christianity although I have given up on it personally. Thank you for any time you spend on this email and any reply.

Jake Ashworth

I was saddened to see the article about what you did to your children regarding St. Patrick and the Catholics. You may have scarred some of these children for a long time. I ask you, is that how Jesus taught? Did he teach through fear or through love? Didn’t Jesus say that if His disciples were not accepted in places that they should leave and shake the dust off of their feet and let God be their judge? Did he tell them to mock and mimic them, to instill terror in their young regarding them? Did He teach us to hurt our enemies or neighbors?

From what I have read in the Bible, God loves all of us, saved and unsaved, and He always calls to us even as sinners He calls to us. Did the father accept his prodigal son in love? Did he condemn him and curse and hurt him and tell him how wrong he was?

Two things I would like to say to you and those who judge Catholics as being unsaved:

1.) If you were to turn the time, money and energy you spend vilifying Catholics to something positive, like communal prayer for the sick and those who are without in your community or actually going out amongst the elderly and talking to them and helping to take care of them, would the Lord be better served and would more of God’s grace be shed on not just your church members, but also on those around you as well?

2.) What purpose does human condemnation, fear, ridicule and lies serve? Are these things from God? Does Jesus ask for us to save people by negative means?

When, out of curiosity I went to the link about why Catholics are not Christian and saw the Chick site, I was extremely saddened. From the very first page I saw untruths, whether unintentional or not, they were not true. I have never, ever seen salt put into a child’s moth at a baptism for starts – but I do not wish to try to make you understand that faith, I just ask that you do not go by the teachings of another human, learn these things yourself before you judge or simply do not judge what you do not yourself truly know. Chick tracks are not fact and any reasonably intelligent person can see that immediately upon doing his or her own research.

I accepted the Lord, Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior as a small child. I choose Him daily and I look for Him in everyone I meet. I choose to look at the world with the Love with which I feel that Christ looked upon the world. You may not call me saved, but does that take away the relationship I have with my God and Savior? Because you call me unsaved does that mean that I would not be there to help you if you were hurt or troubled? Would I pass you by as the Levite and others or would I come to your aid as the hated Samaritan to do God’s bidding – to do unto others as I would have done unto me? (To love others as oneself?)

Please look in your heart and ask the Holy Spirit for enlightenment. I thank the Lord for bringing me to your story and I pray for you that all the negativity you feel towards those whom you do not understand and those who may worship differently than you do may be turned to good and that as the scales came from the eyes of Saul on the road to Damascus may be banished from you, too, and that you, as did Paul, will better understand God’s Will for His children. May this new understanding spread from you to all those around you and may the love of God surround you in all you do. May this new light of love and truth bring to you those who are confused and in need that you may bring them into the fold of your loving Shepherd’s arms. As in nature the bees and butterflies are drawn to that which is sweet instead of that which is vinegar, may you draw multitudes to your flock with your optimistic love for that part of God in each and every child of God and that your fruits will be abundant. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, the only Son of God the Father Almighty and Creator of Heaven and Earth, now and forever, Amen.

I humbly ask forgiveness if you have taken any offense by my words, just know that I took time from a very busy day of VBS planning to share the love and understanding I feel for you. I grew up Catholic with Southern Baptist grandparents and I cannot tell you how badly they hurt me as a child all the while thinking that they were helping me. My parents practiced no faith. As a young adult I decided that I didn’t need a church with all those rules and just kept my faith in prayer and love. In time I felt this inner calling, this inner nudge that told me I was missing something in my life. I finally realized what is was and came back into the fold where I feel I blossomed. Now, instead of discouragement I have faith that in everything that there is a purpose that God can turn even the worst if nights into day. The bad things have a purpose, to help and understand others or to the pave the way for greater learning. I choose the catholic way to worship my Lord, and you choose a different faith to worship and that’s ok. It reminds me of all the beautiful creatures on this earth and how they glorify God – like the varied colored and shaped butterflies and moths that fly in the sky on their gossamer wings, they glorify God in their flight be it day for the butterflies or night for the moths, in whatever their given colored raiment. Have you ever seen a Luna moth? We think of moths as rather dull colored and clumsy night fliers, but the Luna moth is more beautiful than some of the most colorful of butterflies.

Sheila Cowling

 

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