And here is a little something for Gene. You are like Cain when God refused to accept his offering, instead of repenting and giving an offering that God would accept he decided that it was better if just killed his brother out of envy and move on. He never did give an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord but as the Bible states “Sin crouched at his door” and he never mastered it. People think that God is going to be pleased with any little thing we wish to give him but He does have standards and requirements that we are to meet if you expect His blessing. He is not the big sugar daddy in the sky as many want to believe and then get discouraged because they didn’t get everything they could dream up.
He provided eternal life what more do...

As I’ve read through this post I see people like Rife who claim to be a man of faith but it is really hard to tell what faith he’s talking about. His profess to be a Catholic but I do believe that they to believe that Christ is the only way to heaven. Now if a man truly believed that why would he keep such good news to himself. Even a stooge has enough sense to throw a drowning man a rope if just happens to have it in his hand. Or an idiot would tell a person dying of thrust that there was water just ahead. But not Rife for he doesn’t ware his faith on his sleeve for fear that someone might mistake him for a Christian. God after giving the Ten Commandments instructed the people to share them, and to repeat them, to talk about them when...

To answer your question of just how poor we were, have you ever had to eat pancakes made from pellets that were fed to cows because there was nothing else to eat? Why do some many think that just because we were raised in America that all is well. I know what poor means and I know you don't have to stay that way at least in the America I once knew. It seems that being poor in America in this day and time is a great benefit, just sit back and let the goverment take care of you.

It seems to me that those who are deemed highly intelligent with Dr. before their names suffer from the lack of common sense. It is rare that someone like Dr. Sowell is so well established in both. He is one of the few columnists worth reading that offers more than just opinions and for that I thank him. Wisdom is a God given gift and few seek it out and would rather allow the establishments of higher learning to be their source of all knowledge. Have all the knowledge in the world but lacking the wisdom to apply it does humanity very little good.

Someone on this post declared that poverty begets poverty, but I must disagree with that statement. I was raised in real poverty along with 10 siblings and not one continued in that poverty, for even though we were poor our father instilled a work ethic in each one of us that has been the reason for our success. Laziness and lack of responsibility is the real reason persons remain in poverty. It is no sin to be raised in poverty for in that condition one must learn to be self sufficient or else turn your life over to some government agency. We found that hard work has it’s own rewards, but even with all this said it is important to note that our faith in the Lord and His guidance deserves much of the credit.