I'm certainly not out to "assassinate" anyone's "character" (excuse the sarcasm by way of quotation marks, I find the expression amusing), no, so let me set the record straight on what I've said and what I meant.

As regards Russ's statements about believing that others suffer due to a lack of faith in Christianity, I am not about to trench knee-deep in a thicket of posts in order to come up with the exact comment I've mentioned -- having said that, I'll politely retract my previous comment. There, consider it unsaid. I do, however, distinctly recall such a conversation. If it didn't happen, I'm not maliciously trying to be a sniper and set my crosshairs on Russ's persona, I'm simply remembering wrongly.

So why do I bring it up at all? Certainly not so I can quote someone's long dead remark and chant "Nyah nyah"; I'm not one of those posters who likes to nitpick at other people's words and obsessively search for fault. On the contrary, I only wished to hear Russ say, word for word, "No, I do not believe that people starving in third world countries are suffering because of a lack of faith in Christianity." Since he's said this in a more recent post, I've got what I had hoped for.

To make a long story short, my only intention at this stage of the discussion is to ensure that no one here actually believes that people suffer because they don't believe in your god(s). I apologize if my post here was taken any other way. I will add that it is immensely relieving to me that no one (thus far) evinces such an absurd line of thinking. And I'm happy that you all agree that to think in such a backwards, Neanderthal manner (to think one suffers for not believing in another person's religion) is completely ludicrous, not to mention inhuman and barbaric.