Unfortunately, hateful comments from a reality TV star get all the attention when people like this Christian deserve it. I certainly don't share her faith but I have a ton of respect and admiration for her. Widow of American teacher forgives attackers who killed her husband in Libya http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/20/us/libya-widow-teacher-forgives-attackers/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 (CNN) -- A widow says she forgives the attackers in Libya who gunned down her husband earlier this month as he went for a morning jog outside his home in Benghazi. Ronnie Smith, 33, was a chemistry teacher from Austin, Texas, who was working for more than a year in the International School Benghazi when four unidentified assailants in a black Jeep fatally shot him December 5. "I just envision the black Jeep driving up to him and I don't know their faces. I just want them to know that God loves them and can forgive them for this," Anita Smith tells CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview. Emotion broke her voice as she spoke. "I don't know them. That's how I honestly feel. It may sound crazy. It's God's spirit that's putting this inside me," she added. Smith said she didn't feel any anger or want any revenge against the killers of her husband. "I just really want them to know that I do love them and I forgive them, and Ronnie would want this, and I hope and pray that our son, Hosea, would believe this," she said. "Yeah, they took away my husband. I loved my husband. But it's got to be God's spirit that's pushing me to show them that this is what God wants them to see," she said. Smith also wrote an open letter to the Libyan people. She and her husband traveled to Libya "because we saw the suffering of the Libyan people, but we also saw your hope, and we wanted to partner with you to build a better future," she wrote. To the attackers, she wrote: "I love you and I forgive you." To the Libyan people, she said, "We came to bless you, but you have blessed us much more. Thank you." Benghazi was the cradle of Libya's 2011 revolution that ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime but since then, the new government is struggling to control armed groups in the country. Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi also is where militants attacked a U.S. diplomatic mission in September 2012, killing four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. The United States blames the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia for the attack. "I hear people speaking with hate, anger and blame over Ronnie's death, but that's not what Ronnie would want," Smith wrote of her husband. "I want all of you -- all of the people of Libya -- to know I am praying for the peace and prosperity of Libya. May Ronnie's blood, shed on Libyan soil, encourage peace and reconciliation between the Libyan people and God."
Nope... The four killers need to be hunted down like rodents, publicly tortured and dragged down the town square in Benghazi and then drawn and quartered. Their quartered remains should then be put on stakes throughout the city to remind the Libyan people.
Amen! That's how we roll in Christ My flesh would crave revenge, but my God would want me to forgive...just as he's forgiven me for my sins. Repped for feel good story.
Disagreeing with the homosexual lifestyle is not "hateful". You can disagree with sin and with how someone lives in perpetual sin and still care for that person. In fact, the true hateful way to approach a homosexual's behavior would be to NOT tell them it's wrong. Until they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
I regularly attend the Church that this guy used to preach at. I wasn't there a few years ago when he was there, but a few of my friends knew him personally and many at the Church did. It was eerie 2 weeks ago being there a few days after everything happened - instead of a regular sermon, they replayed one of his sermons. Not much to contribute here except that, not knowing him personally, he seemed to really live out his Christian beliefs and get the sense that she is being genuine in what she's saying here.
Isn't that also part of what Robertson said? He said he didn't understand or agree with a homosexual lifestyle. Well, I don't understand Robertson's but that doesn't mean I hate him or his lifestyle.
Part, yes. But he said far more than that. In particular, he said that gay people won't go to heaven due to their sinning, which is what FV Santiago is referring to and I am questioning.
He is painting with broad strokes but so many gay people reject religion-- I would be a higher percentage than the general population. In that system rejection is hell-inducing.
Following Christ is about forgiveness, presenting your sins at the foot of the cross is where forgiveness begins as a Christian. Without this confession and then the redemption from a firm but loving God, you are left to continue with the sin still in your life. Sin is separation from God and Jesus is the bridge to a personal relationship with God. We are not left with the authority to decide what is sin and the definition does not change with the culture that we live in. I say all these things as a scoundrel that does not deserve the grace I have been given, yet everyday I lay my sins before the Cross. We do not have to agree on anything, but the tolerance that is presented from all sides should be what we strive for. I will not change your mind and you will not change mine.
Just wondering what the kingdom of heaven is like? E.g – What do you do there and what does it look like etc.
I disagree with most of hollywood but it doesn't stop me from watching. There is a difference between inciting violence and just disagreeing with ones opinion.
So anywhere between four to five billion people currently alive today will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Where will they go? That doesn't sound like a very nice thing to tell your fellow human beings.
Over many thousands of years so many hindus, budhists, taoists/daoists, janists, ect have all been wrong too.
