Okaypeeps,<P>I don't mean to resurrect the dead thread, but I read it on the news section while the boards were down. Some of the questions that were discussed in this post never were really answered, so here is what I've been taught about the priciple statement in this thread: "False profits telling us we are born sinners."<P>The question here is interpreting what/who Common is referring to by the "false profits" statement that tells us we are born sinners. The simple answer would be ALL Christian ministers, because being born into sin is a Christian belief. That assumption is the reason why your uncle didn't like the statement. To my knowledge, Christianity is the only religion that assums sin first, then absolves that sin through practice of the religion. That leads us to the next question, why is it necessary for all Christians to be sinners at birth. Well, in order to place Jesus on a different level of humanity than everyone else who has ever been born in the history of the planet, He had to be the only person born without sin. This assumption goes along with Him being the "only son" of God, literally. This gets us to the purpose of Christianity, to bring gentiles to the God of Moses and all the prophets of the old testament. At that time in history( and still), the origial Hebrews felt that they were the chosen ones, and others (gentiles) looked at them like a people with a rich history and a strong sense of identity. This is not saying that the view of them was always positive or everybody was envious of them. Some of those people (gentiles) wanted to become Jewish, and be associated with their history, but they didn't want to do the things necessary to become a Jew. I'm not positive about all of the requirements, but I know circumcision is one, and for obvious reasons, that prevented coversion for a lot of people. Jesus preached Jewish (and other religious) teaching to gentiles and anybody else who would listen in order to bring those people to His God.<P>Okay, I've talked enough, but I think I addressed the relevant issues to me. <P>Nope, I'm not a preacher. Yep, I could be wrong to you, but this is MY TRUTH, and I sticking with it.<P>Finally, EVERYBODY IS IGNORANT TO SOMETHING. When Guiness called your uncle a idiot, I thought he was out of line, but within his rights. <P>Peace<P>Pseudonym-less Wendell