Originally Posted by
jonc
God has not given us free will if by definition, his sovreignty can't allow it, you make choices governed by religious teachings, you are never free of God and therefore neither is your will.
Big and fascinating subject! If you want to start a thread on it I'll do my best to give you my perspective, Jon.
Originally Posted by
jonc
I'm not questioning whether because you are a Christian or not we should help them, but rather should we help them because they are Christian?
The reason we should help
is because they are Christian, yes. It's absolutely because they are Christian that they are being persecuted. I'd extend that to Shia Muslims; whilst they have Iran, Southern Iraq, Kurdish controlled Iraq, Lebanon and other places to take refuge, if they came knocking on the UK's door I for one would like to see it opened. Same for atheists and Sunni apostates and moderates who can't tolerate the fundamentalism of I.S. I'll repeat:
we helped create the vacuum, therefor we have a moral obligation to help those affected.