An example of what results from misunderstanding the above:
This is the result of an Arsenio Hall moment I had, you know, “things that make you go hmmm.”
First, some background:
Associated Press
Feb. 14, 2005 06:39 AM
ATLANTA - For hours, Ashley Smith gently talked to the armed suspect in Atlanta's courthouse slayings, turning from hostage to confidant as they discussed God, family, pancakes and the massive manhunt going on outside her apartment.
"I believe God brought him to my door," Smith said Sunday, only hours after her 911 call ended a manhunt for Brian Nichols, who is accused of shooting four people since Friday.
Over the course of the night, Nichols untied Smith, and some of the fear lessened as they talked. Nichols told Smith he felt like "he was already dead," but Smith urged him to consider the fact that he was still alive a "miracle."
"You're here in my apartment for some reason," she told him, saying he might be destined to be caught and to spread the word of God to fellow prisoners. She told him his escape from authorities had been a "miracle." . . .
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that a courthouse surveillance camera recorded Nichols' initial surprise attack on Deputy Cynthia Hall but that no one in the control center noticed the assault.
"It's not just horrible, it was preventable," Senior Superior Court Judge Philip Etheridge told the newspaper.
A video camera, which is supposed to be monitored by two guards in a command post, shows Nichols and the deputy arriving in the holding area between two courtrooms, according to a law enforcement official who saw the tape. The video shows Hall guiding Nichols, whose hands are still handcuffed behind his back, into one of two open cells.
Hall releases one cuff and turns Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff. But the muscular, 33-year-old Nichols then lunges at Hall, knocking the petite, 51-year-old grandmother backward into another cell. Both disappear from camera view. Two to three minutes later, Nichols emerges from the cell, holding Hall's gun belt and police radio. He picks up her keys from the floor and locks her in the cell.
A few minutes later, he emerges in civilian clothes. He locks the door behind him and calmly walks out of the holding area, carrying the gun belt, according to the official who saw the tape.
Judge Etheridge said Hall should not have been alone with Nichols, a former college linebacker who had been found with two sharpened door hinges in his socks earlier in the week.
The above is a quote from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 14-ON.html
Hmmm . . . let’s see if I got this straight: God arranged it for deputy Hall, and deputy Hall by herself, to escort Nichols. God arranged for the two deputies that were supposed be monitoring the surveillance camera not to be doing job their job. Then God arranged for Nichols, a man that brutally, repeatedly raped and sodomized a woman over a three-day period, to kill three people in the process of making his divinely arranged 'miraculous escape.' Then God led Nichols to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm to kill him before leading Nichols on to Ashley Smith. Have I got it straight? . . . If so, what god is it that operates in that fashion and that also leads his people to believe and to claim that it is OK that he operates in such a fashion? Can you please tell me?
The point of this is not to badmouth Ashley Smith! It is the commonly held and often-repeated beliefs that her words express which are being pointed to rather than her actions. There are many similar quotes made by Columbine victims and survivors and by tsunami victims and survivors expressing the very same ideas. This has nothing to do with Ashley Smith other than to look at the belief system revealed by her words. No doubt it is correct to say that we all admire those that can take lemons and make lemonade; but that is not all that she seems to be doing and saying, remember this: "I believe God brought him to my door," and also "She told him his escape from authorities had been a "miracle."" If those statements are in fact true, then the scenario laid out above must be also! Where did she get such ideas? What is being taught or not being taught that makes people believe and claim such a thing about their "God?"
Why make a ‘federal case’ out of this seemingly little thing, you may ask? The answer is simple. The lives of the people who believe that way are at stake. How is that? At John 17:3 Jesus prayed: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” That’s right taking in knowledge of God means everlasting life. But can we really take in false knowledge such as the lies and slander revealed by what some people claim about their “God” and still have God’s favor and still receive everlasting life? . . . Well, if someone were telling lies about you, would you be mad or glad? Mad, right? Obviously the knowledge and beliefs we have about God make a difference to God!
So, who is really behind the “knowledge” and beliefs revealed by the claims of some people? . . . I think I feel . . . oh yes, I definitely feel a Church Lady moment coming on! . . . "Could it be SATAN?"