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I could not agree more. It makes me crazy when I hear UK Muslims trash-talking British culture, calling it every dirty name in the book. They have such blazing hatred for the country they decided to call their own. UK Muslims are really biting the hand that feeds them, and have such big balls to insist Britain must surrender to Sharia law.

Indeed!

Indeed. If anyone comes to the UK, they should accept that the Church of England and the state are heavily entwined, that we have a Christian heritage, that we have our own culture and that our society expects people to abide by the principle of libertarianism.

What are things like in Canada? I've read that shari'ah councils have become accepted authorities for arbitrating disputes there.

In Canada, I think we go too far in trying to accomodate other cultures. A classic example is the Sikh man who wanted to enlist in the RCMP. The Mountie uniform is pretty iconic. In fact, that uniform is one of our national symbols. And part of that uniform is the hat, a great big Smokey-the-Bear type hat. As part of their religion, Sikh men wear turbans. The turban is compulsory for the Sikh male. Unfortunately, the Mountie hat is equally so for the Mountie.

Just as it was this patriotic gentleman's alienable right to serve in the mounted police, Canadians figured it was our right to preserve the Mountie uniform. We had a HUGE national debate about this. Eventually, the federal governent caved, and a compromise was found. The Sikh Mountie would wear something that was literally a cross between the two items. A turban-hat.

And then there was that thing about the Sikh ceremonial dagger, which all the males wear in a sheath at their waist. But it is against the law for Sikh students to bring weapons into our schools, weapons of any kind. But that's another thing the Sikhs would not budge on.

Eventually, we said it was okay for the daggers to be in schools under a few provisions:

1. Blade must be dull.
2. Scabbard must be sewn shut around the knife.
3. Knife must be concealed under clothing.

And that, in a nutshell, is the Canadian Way.

I agree. That is going too far.

As for the turban issue, he should have had to wear a stetson on top of it so that it wouldn't show: - the word "uniform" implies uniformity.

As for the dagger, they should have said, "No, end of story, no weapons in the public schools; if you can't handle that, go to a Sikh private school".

Canadians love to drivel on about their country's ethnic diversity endlessly. I often think Canada would have been better as just an Anglo-French country. The Canadians should have just said, "Ok, we don't want a fortress for our country, but as we're happy with our Anglo-French ethnic makeup, we have absolutely no need to make ourselves more diverse".

I have the same opinion about the UK. If we had just kept out the immigrants, we would be able to just live in peace in our own culture and enjoy the luxury of not having to listen to immigrants moaning endlessly about how we aren't destroying our indigenous culture to satisfy their whims.

Ethnic diversity and cultural pluralism ... these things are overrated. Canada has diversity as our main selling point, but how much is too much? And diversity for the sake of it? No thanks.

We fancy ourselves a very progressive society, what with the legalized same-sex unions and all. Liberalism should never be left unchecked by conservatism. And vice-versa. Don't be too permissive, but don't be too prohibitive either.

I agree. Both extreme liberalism and conservatism can put the freedoms we enjoy in the West in jeopardy. Too much conservatism obviously forces people to conform, but as for liberalism, if we listened to the "I hate Bush" crowd, most Western nations would have been taken over by somewhere like China by now, because liberals would be busy burying their heads in the sand about military threats to our country.

I also don't see what benefits diversity can bring. In my view, the long-term aim should not be to be as diverse a society as possible, but to become a society that is a net exporter of culture. I long for the days when the British Empire was at its zenith and the British realised that most of the rest of the world was uncivilised and that we were far more sophisticated. Whilst the British Empire certainly did use immigrants to accomplish its aims (whether it was immigrants coming to the UK or sending our own people out to the colonies or neither), it wasn't obsessing about diversity and instead concentrated on selling the benefits of its culture to the rest of the world. Truly glorious nations realise that they have much more culture to offer the world than the rest of the world has to offer them.

I am a progressive Christian. I believe in God, but I feel that He is more lenient than most people give him credit for. I am into animated sitcoms and indie films/music, which could be considered evil, depending on what people I associate with. I also feel that it's ok to have sex outside of marriage.

As for my perception of God, it really depends what you mean by lenient.

For instance, Jesus' view on the sabbath was regarded as extreme lenience because it broke the Mosaic laws on the subject. However, Jesus was upholding the principle behind the sabbath i.e. that it is there to enable people to get some rest and have a day available to concentrate on God, rather than be working every day of the week. It was not there to give the Pharisees an excuse to mess the Jews around and bring them under their control. In Israel, some hotels have lifts that stop at every floor on the sabbath so Orthodox Jews don't have to do any work by pressing the buttons: - this is completely missing the point.

On another point, you could argue that God is lenient because he says that our sins will be forgiven. However, this does come with some strings attached. Matthew chapters 6 and 18 say that a condition of this forgiveness is that we extend the same courtesy to everyone else.

When it comes to fornication, I have come across several passages that say it is bad and none that say it's ok in God's sight.

There are some situations where it is necessary to drop certain biblical rules in order to maintain the principle behind them. For instance, there is the rule that a rapist who rapes an unattached woman must marry his victim and isn't allowed to divorce her ever. That rule was introduced because a raped woman was regarded as unclean and would never be marriageable, which would condemn her to a life of poverty, because formal employment for women in those days was scarce if indeed it existed at all. Given that today's women are able to earn a living of their own and can get married pretty much regardless of whether or not they were raped in the past, there is little need for a law like this. The law was made out of compassion for them, but these days, in light of the different circumstances, there is no compassion in forcing a marriage between a woman and her rapist.

However, I know of no such practicality issues with regard to fornication. The fact that it isn't seen as trendy to oppose fornication is not a good reason to condone the practice. The only valid reason for condoning practices previously considered forbidden is if a change of rules is necessary to ensure that God's underlying principles are followed.

Not only do I feel it's ok to do it outside of marriage, but it's ok to do it as early as the third date.

Obviously, I know of no scriptural grounding for such a stance, but the principle of libertarianism says that it's your life.

I call myself a Christian, because I want to follow Christ's sayings. My Grandfather is a terribly devoted Christian or something like that. The problem with him, is that he doesn't realise how he wants things of a church to be "his way". He has a mental check list. He thinks it's sinful for a song to have it's notes changed during the next verse and not sung the same way, amung many other things. He's never really a content guy, let me just put it that way.

My Aunt is wiccan, and hates being Christian. She was once, but I personaly feel she baptised for Grandfather's aprooval. *nods dissapointed* Polar opposites doing the same thing. Thinking of their own needs first.

Me, I'm more of a private Christian with no particular denomination attached. I believe in the union that doesn't involve the material world. Such as, the buildings, locations, our bodies, ect. All just material stuff we deal with while being in material world. The rest of my family feels that the union is people getting under a roof, worshiping, listening to sermons, and so on. They kind of feel that being Christian, you have to go to a building, do the traditional supper and sermon stuff, songs, and such to be a christian.

I don't want it limited to Sundays, and yes I take my deal with the supper on Sunday. I feel it's easier to focus alone. Also being out of the building now and then helps me to put my Deity more in perspective the rest of the week. I also think since it's a God, we should pray with respect, not to ask for something everytime, but just to focus our intent to the deity.

I don't think looking pretty at a church congregation matters. Decency yeah, but not "I have to look good or else". Why would God care the outer material? I also don't think "doing Christian works" revolves around being someone's bestest friend and being socialy skilled. Yes, in some way that influencially works, but really...

You support adultery? Do you know how destructive adultery is? If one of your parents had cheated on the other while you were a kid, your life would most likely be crap right now.
But if marriage is treated like a joke, I guess adultery isn't such a slap in the face.

Not adultery, just doing it outside of marriage.

That wasn't a mandate, just an option I am leaving open.

Whoe... Aye friend of mine..

What do you mean Lenient? Ok so you watch these shows. How do they influence you, if they actauly do to start with. Second, it is said in many Christian books that sex outside of marrege is adultry. Period. I think the reason for that is because the religion wants sex to be used for child makeing. Where have you been getting your info? Because if you havn't been studying yourself and letting someone else give you the information... uhm well..

The reason I bother going to church at all is I think it is necessary to commune with other Christians in order to grow as a Christian. I can read books on the subject, but unless I share my experiences of faith with others, it will remain just an intellectual matter and I may become detached from the reality of being a Christian.

As far as my attendance as a child went, most of it was Anglican and most of the remainder was Methodist. I am currently attending a Baptist church, but that doesn't mean anything, as all the major denominations have wide variations. For instance, many Baptist churches in the north-east of the USA support gay marriage, but Westboro Baptist Church (home of the "God Hates Fags" campaign) is reviled for its stance on the issue and lack of patriotism.

When it comes to what to do in the services, communion was the only act of worship Jesus explicitly instructed us to do, so apart from that, service formats are of little concern to me.