This is Viewpoints for Thursday, September 8, 2016

Christian opportunity?

Our president is having a hard time understanding that the Western “Christian” world is engaged in a religious war against fundamental Islam. This unwillingness on his part may be due to the fact that his father was Muslim, or because of the assurances that he gave to Islamic countries during his Middle Eastern tour early in his presidency that he was one with them and stood with them. Whatever his reasons, we are now engaged in a religious war that is different from any war we have known before.

Certain specialists in this area are beginning to publish their opinions that are closer to the truth. One such writer, named Malcolm Nance, has written a large book titled “Defeating ISIS,” published this year, which is now available in our public libraries. He makes the accurate distinction that Islam is now divided into two camps. There are the fundamental Islamists who stay true to their holy book, the Koran, and are causing all the trouble. I have a copy of the Koran, and it does say the radical, murderous things the fundamentalists are promoting and practicing.

The other side of their religion includes the far more numerous and popular Islamists who know very little about how the Koran reads and do not believe nor practice the radical parts. We Christians should understand how this is, because most nominal Christians know very little about the contents of the Bible, and very few (only about 10 percent) have read the whole book.

The radicals, who are now accumulated largely under the ISIS label, are as much dedicated to destroying the nominal, moderate Islamists as they are to destroying all non-believers in their holy book — including Christians. And this would include most of the world’s population who refuse to submit to Islamic requirements. So they have quite alot of work before them. They will need plenty of nuclear weapons to even start the task.

In the meantime, what are Christians to do? The moderate, peaceful Islamists are actually moving more in our Christian religious direction, assigning more of the attributes of our God over to their God, Allah. What an opportunity. Can we take this as an opportunity, or shall we stay hung up over names — is it Jesus, Jehovah or Allah? Perhaps Christian evangelism can find a way out of this dilemma. I surely hope and pray so.

Election 2016

I have been watching reading and listening to the talking heads who claim they know all there is about the election. I have asked friends, relatives and even strangers the same questions. Everyone has a different answer. Each person claims to be right. The same word or words spoken by a presidential hopeful can be interrupted in a hundred different ways. All that dialogue depends on what side of the fence they are on.

To the common man, like me, we hear a different spoken word. We are told to believe as we are ordered. It is most confusing. Let us believe as we desire. Don’t say red is blue or white is black. It would be better if the talking heads just kept quiet and only repeated the words without trying to change thoughts and meanings. Then maybe we could have a president who will run our country honestly — run, not rule — remember the Constitution and support every word it has to say. Our thoughts are ours and ours alone. We have freedom of speech. However, when the truth is bent and twisted, one of God’s Ten Commandments is broken. We no longer are free.

Reason for no returns

Donald Trump has donated over $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. What does that say about his judgment? Could that be one reason why he won’t release his tax returns?

Stupid driver tricks

As I read the recent article about the difficulty law enforcement has continued to have with people texting while driving, various thoughts went through my mind. Yes, I agree texting while driving is dangerous and 99.9 percent of the time I won’t even attempt it for that reason. As to checking other notifications, it depends on what the notification is, where I am, and the amount of traffic as to whether I’ll check it. Even if I do, it will only be to clear it and see if I need to stop somewhere so I can safely act upon it.

Then I began to think of some of the bad habits and, by law anyway, illegal things done by Georgia drivers on the roads. Going slow in the left lane of Interstate 16 and Interstate 75 despite signs that say “slower traffic keep right.” Not using turn signals when changing lanes. Not using turn signals when exiting the interstate. Not using turn signals when making turns. Not having lights on at dusk. Not having lights on when raining. Locally, making left turns from Riverside Parkway onto Riverside Drive despite the fact the sign says no left turns. And doing it without using a turn signal to boot.

It really comes down to this: You can’t fix stupid. People are going to do certain things if for no other reason they believe it can’t happen to them. Rather than using manpower to enforce laws that are at least in part designed to protect people from their own poor choices (ie: Click It or Ticket), the focus should be on the actual things done wrong on the roads daily.

Grossly incompetent

Hillary Clinton signed a written declaration when she became secretary of state in 2009 that she knew the requirements for classification of official information and the penalties for failing to follow them. Now she tells the FBI that she does not remember having any training on the requirements and procedures for classification; that she did not understand classified markings on official emails; that she did not recognize certain top secret information in the documents she received; and that she assumed that classification was the responsibility of other people. All this shows her to be either a flat-out liar or grossly incompetent, either of which should disqualify her from holding the most powerful office in the world, in which she could lie to the American people on important issues or unknowingly leak classified information to our enemies.

This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 9:06 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, September 8, 2016."