How many of us have heard that question "Where was your GOD when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was attacked?" Well, I know where my GOD was the morning of September 11, 2001, GOD was very busy! God was trying to discourage anyone from taking these flights. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard. GOD was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on one of the high-jacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights GOD was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake the highjackers. GOD was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all, only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings held over 50,000 workers, this was a Miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employed at the World Trade Center told the media that they were late for work or they had traffic delays. GOD was holding up two 110 story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out. I was so amazed that the top of the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted. And when they did fall, they fell inward. GOD didn't allow them to topple over, as many more lives would have been lost. And when the buildings went down, my GOD picked up almost 6,000 children and carried them home. Reassuring frighten children that the worst was over and the best was yet to come. GOD sat down and cried that 19 children could have so much hate in their hearts. That they didn't choose GOD, but another God that doesn't exist, and now they are lost forever. GOD sent his children that are best trained for this disaster and had them save the few that were still alive, but unable to help themselves. And then sent many others to help in anyway they were needed. GOD still isn't finished though, GOD held the loved ones that were left behind in His arms. GOD comforts them daily. God's other children are given the strength to reach out to them and help them in any way they can. And I believe GOD will continue to help us in what is to come. GOD will give the people in charge of this great nation the strength and the wisdom to do the right thing. GOD would never leave us in our time of need. So when anyone asks, "Where was your GOD on September 11," you can say "everywhere"! And yes, although this is without a doubt the worst thing I have seen in my life, I see God's miracles in every bit of it. I keep praying for those who don't believe in GOD, every chance I have. I can't imagine going through such a difficult time and not believing in GOD. Life would be hopeless! 1/29/02 I read this in the Dallas Morning News online and was really hurt by what it said about the "Christian" world of today.  Read it and email us your thoughts. Ethicists promote 'sacredness' of sex Many at conference fault traditional views as too restrictive 01/19/2002 By DOUGLAS TODD / Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sex is sacred. Sex is good. Sex can be for fun alone. Sex, in some circumstances, can be terrific outside marriage. Those were some of the messages that speakers were delivering at the annual gathering of the Society of Christian Ethics, which brought together more than 350 religious ethicists from across Canada and the United States. Many at the conference were determined to move away from traditional beliefs that Judeo-Christianity preaches sex is shameful, sex should be restricted to procreation, masturbation is wrong, sex outside marriage is always bad and homosexuality is evil. Subjects such as "good sex," "sanctifying women's pleasure" and "the problems with regulating sex" were discussed in a host of sessions, papers and books at the conference, attended by Christian scholars from an array of denominations, including mainline Protestant, evangelical and Roman Catholic. Professor Cristina Traina, a practicing Catholic who teaches about ethics and sexuality at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., says female religious scholars have been among the leaders in the movement toward promoting the sacredness of human sexuality. "The physical world, including the body, is one through which we experience the love of God," she said during the conference, which debated scores of controversial issues, from the morality of war to the ethics of globalization and cloning. Dr. Traina compared sex to food. Just as sex doesn't always have to be a method simply to make babies, she said, food doesn't always have to be purely for nutrition. Sometimes, she suggested, it's fine to eat a chocolate brownie simply for the wonderful sensation. Sex is generally moral, she said, when it doesn't harm society and has meaning. Although it's not official Catholic teaching, Dr. Traina said, most Catholics use some form of contraception. And even conservative Christians are moving beyond the old church belief that sex must be restricted to procreation alone. Ethical sex in a relationship should be "mutually pleasurable," Dr. Traina said. Many of the 1,000 members of the Society of Christian Ethics (which includes about 25 Jewish ethicists) are staking out a kind of middle ground on sexual ethics that does not embrace either the mass media's promotion of promiscuousness or the strict admonitions of some religious authorities. The new breed of Christian sexual ethicists generally believes traditional religions have often ignored the health and sexual desires of women, restricting them to the role of baby makers. As a result, a growing chorus of women has been trying to broaden the definition of moral sex. In Sexuality and the Sacred, a book promoted at the conference, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America theologian Mary Pellauer says that women "need to follow the trails of our joys with the same persistent adventurousness with which we have explored the pains of sexual abuse." In another book, Good Sex, Society of Christian Ethics member Patricia Jung, of Loyola University, and Mary Hunt, a theologian in Maryland, reveal how followers of world religions are removing the stigma on once-illicit sexual relations. Good Sex, for example, suggests sex outside marriage can be healing and joyful in many circumstances. So do other books that were promoted at the conference, including The Strange Woman: Power and Sex in the Bible. Dr. Traina, who contributed to a collection of essays on sexual morality titled Sexual Diversity in Catholicism, tends to agree. Many Christians, she said during an interview, now believe sex between engaged couples, and even sexual experimentation among young people, including masturbation, is morally acceptable. In addition, many papers and speakers at the meeting did not condemn homosexuality, suggesting a sexual relationship between homosexuals is not much different from sex within a heterosexual marriage. When it comes to family planning and women's rights, many of the ethicists have been joining with noted University of Victoria religion scholar Harold Coward and working on how they think Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and other religions could be better emphasizing the need to limit family size to protect the Earth. Daniel Maguire, a religious ethicist from Marquette University in Milwaukee, has been studying approaches to contraception and abortion in 10 world religions. As co-author of What Men Owe to Women, he took part in a panel discussion at the conference on justice-oriented family planning, which supported "abortion as a backup when necessary." The meeting revealed an explosion of interest in the changing shape of morality when it comes to sexuality, reproduction and spirituality. For her part, Dr. Traina said she didn't plan to be a "sexual ethicist" when she began her career at Northwestern University's religion department. "But every time I talked to people about sex and ethics," she said, "they kept asking me to do more."