[prmenrs]

An email I rec'd and hope you enjoy:




If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just
a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very
intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in
such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on
CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at
all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if
I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica
are.
If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.
And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those
beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:
Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas"
to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't
bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key
intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche,
it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't
think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I
think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America
is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution,
and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from
that we should worship Nick an d Jessica and we aren't allowed to
worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and
Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh,
this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not
funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and
Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something lik e this Happen?"
(regarding Katrina )
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are,
but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get
out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And b eing the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed
out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection
if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school
shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she
was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want
prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the
Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your
neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children
when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped
and we mig ht damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we
said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience,
why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can
figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE
SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder
why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what
the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread
like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord,
people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely
through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the
school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it
to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe,
or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard
it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought
process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is
in.
My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

[jmgrn65]

I would pass this is on, this is how I feel.

[adrienurse]

I always get nervous and a little defensive when I start hearing about how people were more morally superior before I was born and that there is something fundamentally wrong with my generation and the people born after me. No, there were messed up people in the 50's and there were messed up people 50, 100 and 200 years before that. Maybe the fact that they didn't kill more people was they didn't have access to the kind of efficient weaponry we have today. Oops someone's gonna take offense at that.

I'm not Christian. For me to say that I'm not christian does not mean that I don't follow a moral code or that I'm not religious. There are just other ways of believing. I just prefer to have a belief system that does not include Jesus and the Bible. The word morals to me does not speak of anything beyond avoiding harm to other people. Maybe someone is offended here? I just fail to get what the big deal is, and why everyone must think the same way. I believe that as long as a child is raised to believe in something (anything) that reinforces the fact that hurting others is not good, that child will be just fine.

And where do people get off blaming society for the violent behavior of today? It's okay to question what's wrong with society, as long as the conclusion you come to helps yours become more of a healing and forgiving one. Raise your own children by the code of caring for others, raise the ones that others can't and help the rest who fall through the cracks. If someone took the time to show meanigful concern and understanding at some point in the lives of killers chances are they would have nothing to lash out against.

When I curse, I tend to use religious words. This is a cultural thing and is not meant to offend people's beliefs. I'm french canadian and instead of using sexually profane words to curse (like the english speaking world does). We talk about religious retuals and objects within the church. My dad still does this even though he is a minister. I don't like being told that this is a slight against others. This is just what words choose to come out of my mouth.

I love my dad. He's a cool guy with a lot of great things to say. He tells his church to get outside and help people rather than make being religious about rituals and prayer. Whoops that statement is probably gonna get me flamed too.