[Ravok99]

Well, in football the run supports the pass - and the pass supports the run. A team has to offset these two in order to keep the defense guessing. So, if the other team can see your plays in advance, your players are probably in for a good pounding at the line of scrimmage. The game becomes more brute force, and less finesse. So, under those conditions - praying for your players and then sending them into a narrow set of plays is pretty weak, IMHO.

I seriously do not believe God is 'hands off'. It is said that if you follow the Ten Commandments, you will be blessed to ... ten generations ... and if you break them, you will feel the hurting for the next ... four generations. That's OT style, and with the birth and blessing of the Christ, that format was altered. Because we can petition God for anything, and He will weigh it and through a relationship with Him He can and will alter things; He is hands on. How does it work? Good question! One, don't give Him half a heart - we are told to give Him our best and our worst when we pray to Him - 100% of all we are, and what is going on with us.

Now, is this creation set in stone as a prefabricated Plan? To some degree. There is definitely a plan for the creation. Quantum mechanics shows there is a lot of room for an entirely new creation and the table of the elements shows there is also a lot of room for potentially new variations in our physical universe. Our creation doesn't have to behave in the way that it does. So, either it just so happens to do what it does, or something has been moving it along a certain path. Yet because it can be altered on a quantum paradigm shift - it is highly possible that the rules we now take for granted could - by some unknown cause - change.

What God knows is our set of options, and why and what we choose to do. This is not a brave stretch of the imagination. As psychologists have picked apart the reactions and responses of several thousand (plus) mice, and have resulted in general behavioral patterns --- it is no mean stretch that a supreme consciousness can easily foretell what us knuckleheaded humans can do under a set of conditions.

So what is free will? Our ability to choose consciously what we wish to do, and not have such choices made for us. It is also an ability to choose something different than what had been done before.

Now, you can say that religion should change according to popular society. But traditionally religion has sought not to do that, but to remain within itself despite popular society. So, whether or not religious faith practicioners actually alter their view on gay marriages really depends on their own assessment of what their belief system stands behind. Much like a law leans on precedents, and weighs carefully any new precedent being added; yet religion is much more stringent on setting precedents of any sort. Setting a precedent in a religious context means something big has been changed as according to the perspective of the religion.

Gay marriages are not new to history. Both sides of the argument have confirmed this. Our society is only reviewing it for the first time. That freedoms have been limited and arguments flared up is also not new for our history. The right to bear arms has been limited to the extent that civilian does not have the same capability of defending himself as a militant. This is a restriction of freedoms that many believe is not aligned with the intention of the right as defined in the bill of rights.

Because, in one of the premises, it is stated that we as a people have the right to fight against any tyranny - especially if it arises within our own government. It was one of the statements used to show our own responsibility to shrug off England's Imperialism.

The idea that we should have the ability to fight against the state is a definitely rooted in freedoms. No other country has had them kinda balls that I have ever seen, but right now, could we gather as a people and defend our rights with a militia? Not on your life. So, this freedom has been limited.

Could Bush make the U.S. into a theocracy? If he did, there wouldn't be a thing you could do about it in any real sense except to attempt to impeach him. Which, as we all now know, is a clunky quirky system that probably wouldn't do the job. So, what, assassination? That's been done as well, and martyrdom only progresses every ideal that the martyr stood for. We have put a lot more trust and faith into the government's ability to run and sustain itself than I think we have the ought to do.

Our government was intended to be run by the people, not as its own entity. So, our rights are already severely limited, even if that fact is not recognized by most of the populace at this point.

If you feel like you must stand before God and man, and declare your marriage to someone of the same sex as something that is right and good and wonderful to do; of course that is yelling into the wind as people re-evaluate what is right and good and wonderful. Yet, I see people everywhere evaluating it, because as a whole - people want what is good and right and wonderful to prevail.

If a group of people deny you something you want because they do not believe nor support that it is good and right and wonderful; I know that those who do become polarized and there is a seperation of groups. The only way the two groups can be reconciled to each other is if they can forgive each other their shortcomings.

This is one of the primary reasons Christ was born, in my opinion. None of us are without shortcomings. When things get heated like this, our shortcomings stand out like a sore thumb, and we are damned if we do; damned if we don't. In my opinion, if the Christ can be on that cross, blameless and accused of what - being a king of the Jews? - and can forgive all those around him and all those before him and all those after him; well, if you guys put me up there, and beat the heck out of me, and stick a crown of thorns on my head, and whip me with a cat of nine tails, and poke me through the ribs with a spear and basically post me up on a sign until I bleed to death; and for what? Political reasons? And I can't forgive you for it - then what is my faith? Am I truly following in my Lord's footsteps?

So, seriously, I forgive you for our differences, ok? I don't understand why they are there, nor do I understand your motives or what drives you; I don't think I ever really need to understand such things. But if you can forgive me my ignorance, and the fact that I only know what my book says is good and right and wonderful; then maybe there is a way through this strange jungle, yet. I don't know what way it is, though; I only know that my main concern in marriage is to give my word to my lady; and the rest of those folks there are witnesses to that word. Now, the real test is keeping that word through thick and thin, despite successes and failures, sickness and health, to stick by her - to hope we both take that word just as seriously.

If some big church guy gives us his blessing as a representative of the church? Well, that's nice and everything, and it really does have its fuzzy feelings; but the heart of it has to be there first. If I come to the big church guy with a half of heart, he can only bless a half.

OK - back over to you guys