I have been a believer in God and the Bible for a relatively short time, even though I grew up in the church. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior my junior year of high school, and even went on to attempt an Associate Degree in Theology at a bible college in Southern California. If you asked just about anyone who knows me - or just read the last two sentences - you would likely come to the conclusion that I am what most individuals would class...

A report was released Tuesday last week on the myriad methods used by the CIA and other intelligence agencies to extract certain information from al Qaeda operatives convicted of terrorism, including prolonged sleep deprivation, exploitation of phobias, and threats against their family members. Sleep deprivation was forced by injected stimulants and mild beatings, and they were forced to stand with their hands bolted to the wall above them for over a week in many cases, with an hour of sleep somewhere in the middle to keep it within CIA rules. Some were locked into small rooms with snakes or bugs or some other object that evoked panic attacks in the subjects. Threats were issued to kill their kids, to do nasty things to their mothers and wives. They would even pin up pictures of their kids in the cell as they described the ways they would kill them.

I see the Pope's name in the headlines quite a bit recently, and I know that a lot of people, even those outside of the Catholic Church, think he is a wonderful example of what Christianity should look like, and he is a good man. But I have some serious issues with a lot of the things he has been throwing out there for the public the last couple weeks, and any Christian should. I know homosexuality is a big topic in today's world, and the Pope...