I have another email to show you after I wrote

It was written by a close friend. You will also find her questions here:

https://littlestepsoffaith.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/when-people-have-questions/

I received a phone call today from her, because when reading it, I thought it was an attack. But it wasn’t her intent at all. She told me she just wants someone to help her figure the whole God thing out…
and so this is the email, and then from there..maybe you might want to jump in too:)

Hey, you!
Go, Black President, Go!
Yes, we have a lot of worries…but Sarah Palin is IMPOSSIBLE to take seriously (I mean, come up, she earns her title as a punchline) and genetics tell us that homosexuals have nothing to apologize for, so why not let them enjoy life. They are different, not “wrong.”
Things are going to dramatically change, but it doesn’t have to mean (another S Palin gaffe) the “End of Days,” just th e need to do things and live life differently. The Roman Empire fell, but it wasn’t the end of life — just their empire. Do you think that “Godlessness” really describes our world? I just see so much GOOD for all of the bad. I agree, we’re in a terrible mess (due to terrible motives) but I don’t see the “End of Days” as anything more than dinosaur extinction….when it’s our time, it’s our time. The earth takes care of these things.
My problem with all of this is: I MUST BELIEVE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT GOD AND REJECT THE OLD TESTAMENT GOD. If God created us, then HE created us to be the way we are, to have our flaws. I see no reason to create a bunch of imperfect beings who have to daily fight their imperfect impulses — the ones that he gave to us. Why are we created to have to prove something? I have to think of God as an all-loving and all-forgiving force, not a vengeful soul who is playing some game: I made designed you to want to screw up, and when you DO screw up, well…..you’re screwed. What kind of loving God is that???? If this whole End of Days thing is a way to “sort” the GOOD folks from the BAD folks, to reward the good with Heaven and punish the bad with Hell, then this God is really not the peaceful, loving, forgiving God that I need. It’s like placing a bunch of people at the edge of a cliff, giving them a bunch of shots to drink, and then watching them fall off the ledge. He might as well have pushed them.
I’m not going to go on and on about this, but I can’t accept the fear-laced God that is so often presented. I think that “God is good” so this fearful picture has no place in that belief. NONE.
Does that make sense??