Bill, if Christians can't talk and write about their faith, discerning the truth from fiction, I don't know what we can talk and write about. Christians are exhorted to stand for truth. The Bible is filled with all kinds of war/combat images for precisely that reason.

In Ephesians, for example, Christians are told to put on "the full armor of God," which is his word, the Bible, in defending the faith from those who misapply, misquote and otherwise pervert it. Just like a soldier in Roman battle, we are to gird our waists with the truth and the breastplate of righteousness, our feed shod with the preparation of the Gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.

If I think someone is wrong about the Bible, I say so, just as I do when blogging about politics. The day I become too shy or afraid or embarrassed to do that for fear of sarcastic comments like yours is the day I close up shop and cease blogging about whatever Tom Delay is up to or how Ann Coulter looks in a photograph or whether Dan Rather is still relying on phony memos.

The debate will escalate, and I predict more comments like yours will pop up. This comment is probably a lot more info than you needed to know, but it's my response.

Hey, I just like a good poker game analogy.

'america we stand as one' -- wtf? is that for real? who paid to make that? the odd reference to the spoof video sent me in search of it, and THAT is just a killer.

as for Minto being forced to fold, i say CENSORED! it is well known the first amendment does not apply to the pope.

La Shawn,
Since you closed your comments at your blog I guess I will respond here. As a former Protestant turned Catholic I have been on both sides of the fence so to speak. I understand where you are coming from, but I assure you that Pope John Paul believed in and loved Christ as you or I cannot begin to do. Are your knees worn and disabled from years and years of praying on them? His were. Yet he still did.

Using words like "born again" and seeing them through human eyes demeans what Christ was saying. Using the analogy of rebirth Christ was making sure we understood that we are no longer the unrepentant sinner, but a new person in Him. Pope John Paul was certainly that. We on earth have no right to say who is going to heaven or hell. That is God's job, not ours.

I love your blog and your faith. I would never set out to demean it, please don't do that to mine.

If you are interested, my latest post is "Why I am a Catholic." Maybe you would like to read it and get a sense of where I am coming from.