I’m curious whenever a politician is asked about Jesus. So when I found this video from Marco Rubio, I watched and listened—and was thrilled to hear his witness.
Donald Trump brought his childhood Bible to a campaign rally to show the world he’s a good Methodist. (Please!) Rubio, on the other hand, articulately seems to speak from his heart about a relationship with Jesus founded on God’s Word and infused with the Holy Spirit. Some may wish he had left the Roman Catholic Church behind. But who are we to say where God can be doing his saving work?
I post this today not to endorse Rubio (though he and Dr. Ben Carson are running neck-and-neck in my mind). I post this because I usually view politicians with a healthy dose of cynicism. Not here. At least by his words and what I sense from his heart, Rubio really knows Jesus. He’s to be applauded for speaking openly about him.
Secondly, I post this today to encourage us all. God is at work in some of the most unlikely of places. That should keep us praying for those needs that seem most unlikely to be met.
That’s the title of the latest commentary from Ravi Zacharias. I greatly respect him and the perspective he brings as a world-traveling defender and advocate of the Christian faith. I can’t read him in bed at night, though. My mind can’t swim as deep as his. I have to re-read to follow his thoughts and understand his insights. So, if your mental swimming is as limited as mine, don’t give up. Read it again. It’s worth it.
* * * * *
The layers that obscure the truth are burying humanity in large numbers. Yes, Paris was burning again and those flames and the dead bodies may well be a grim foreshadowing of what the future holds. I was in neighboring England the night the massacre scattered across Paris took place, as people going out to enjoy a dinner or concert or a football game were the targets of hate-filled and ruthless killers. The newspapers the next day had similar words: “Carnage”; “massacre”; “assassination”; “murder”; “blood”; “death”; “screams”; “terror,” and so on. Television programming was preempted and viewers were cautioned that some of the scenes of the slaughter were graphic. It was real. A few hours later, names and pictures of the dead were shown. It was like we had heard this before. But it was new and real: the victims’ lives cut short in the peak of their careers. Children who weren’t going to come home. People looking for their loved ones. Marriages suddenly broken by death. A young graduate with life ahead of her. And so on. One doesn’t have to know the individuals to feel helplessness and pain. This is twenty-first century murderous man. War in small increments can be deadlier than large scale war because it doesn’t just desensitize the killers; it desensitizes all of humanity.
Killers who do not represent a country and whose belief is debated ad nauseam as to whether it is a version or a perversion are truly sinister and are the cancerous cells of our time. They are protected by having no roots either in country or belief. The West is being taken down in small portions till one day the lie of the murderers being protected by smooth-talking power brokers with a bodyguard of lies will be seen for the terrifying belief that it is. No contrary view will be allowed then. For now, the layers of distortion cover the graves of the murdered. The whole world has become a courtroom where clever lawyers make truth unattainable. Whether it be 9/11 or the carnage at the Boston Marathon or blown-up planes or Paris, we will not find answers because to ask the question is either to receive a lie from some politicians or many in the media, or to invoke the wrath of hate-filled killers.
So we ask! What is the belief behind all this that kills with such callousness? We do not get any answers. We are told by some that it’s a religion of peace. Others call it a political theory at its core covered with the garb of religion to give it maximum protection as it invokes the laws of blasphemy. What is the answer? We had dare not unpack the truth. In one sense, strangely, one feels almost pity for these murderers. The possessor of hate loses the essence of life much more than the victim does. Living with a heart so deceived breeds a decimating misery within and spreads the venom globally. There must be scores of young men within the belief who do not wish to inflict such pain but who now live with the pall of suspicion over them. Such is the contagion of a poisoned soul.
But the quest for answers still haunts. In one Middle Eastern country, an awful thing happened. Two young Muslims turned atheists were on a program. They argued for the reality that blood had been spilled across the centuries and that there was no denying that from its earliest days to the present, this was the same blood-letting in the name of the belief as originally given and carried out. Then one of them asked the cleric a question that was as pointed as could be. It was a powerful question with an irrefutable fact within the question. The question laid bare a reality that was deemed blasphemous. The next day that man and his family were murdered, just for asking a fact-laden question that was unanswerable without conceding the truth. For that, he and his family paid with their lives.
That’s the depravity of our age. It is death to ask the pointed question because the answer, if true, betrays the real truth. The masquerade is on and it is deadly. We watch hundreds die. We hear speeches full of distortions; we tolerate deceit and even reward it. Some in power and in the public eye whitewash the reality while the blood of the murdered cries out from the ground. Our children and grandchildren will inherit the whirlwind because our media pundits and misguided speech-makers have sown to the wind by trading in lives for their power.
It would be easy to lose heart and become cynical. But No! There is One who sees all things, knows all things, and will ultimately triumph over all things. There is only one message that addresses the truth as the truth. The Lord of glory, Jesus Christ, came to this earth and was also the victim of hate. Lies sent him to the cross. Power overruled reality, as politics and religious demagogues once again made the lie seem noble. But the Lord who sees the beginning from the end amazingly conquered not in spite of the dark mystery of evil, rather, He conquered through it. James Stewart of Scotland, pointing to the cross, said it in the most powerful terms I have read. Commenting on the verse from Psalm 68:18, “He led captivity captive,” he said,
It is a glorious phrase—“He led captivity captive.” The very triumphs of his foes, it means, he used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve his ends not theirs. They nailed him to a tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to his feet. They gave him a cross, not guessing that he would make it a throne. They flung him outside the city gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up the gates of the universe, to let the king come in. They thought to root out his doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy. They thought they had God with his back to the wall, pinned helpless and defeated: they did not know that it was God himself who had tracked them down. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.
The lie has a shelf life. The truth abides forever. God can even conquer through our perversion.
One more thing. I would be remiss if I left the guilt and darkness out there. That is the seduction of a fake righteousness. We all have to look at our own hearts and see the evil that is within each one of us. Only then can we find the answer from which all other answers flow. Some time ago, I was in Romania. A sculptor had some of his works on display. One was a horrific, fierce-looking, long nail. When you picked it up, as rusty and jagged as the nail was, the head was polished and shiny. And when you looked at that polished head, you saw a reflection of yourself. It is sobering. Very sobering.
You see, the nails that cause hurt and pain and death ultimately point to our own hearts. Only when we as individuals see the evil that is within will we find an answer for the evil that is around us. Maybe, just maybe, someday a carnage will take place that might cause everyone in power to see their own hearts as God sees them and tell us the truth of what these killings are all about. Only then will truth triumph and we find real answers. Until then, the flames will gain ground and not just Paris will burn, but the next story of scorched lives in another city will make us forget this one… or possibly, awaken us to the cost of a lie. More than ever we need the Savior. Lord have mercy!
News from Paris last night (http://www.nytimes.com/) seemed surreal. Were terrorist attacks really erupting throughout one of the world’s major cities? Were over 100 people really slaughtered as they went about a typical Friday night? It didn’t seem as frightening as “our” 9/11 (partly because it didn’t happen here); but it seemed more threatening. Maybe because after 14 years we assumed we had better control of our own safety. Maybe because it darkly warned, “This can happen anywhere, anytime.”
Politicians urge us, “Don’t be afraid. Live life as normal.” I’m not trying to stir up fear, but we should at least be aware of how tenuous life has become. Terrorists are rocking the world. Yes, the Lord is sovereign. He is in control. But that doesn’t mean that we casually dismiss evil, or that we watch a news report as if it were a movie.
One thing we can do is pray. How should we pray in the face of the Paris attack? In his blog today, Denny Burk suggests Psalm 10:12-18. Good idea. I’ll include verse 1, because in such times the Lord seems absent. Or it seems he really isn’t involved in these “real life” tragedies.
Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? . . .
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
The LORD is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
The above is taken from the ESV. Or you may wish to pray from the TEV below . . .
Why are you so far away, O LORD?
Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble? . . .
O LORD, punish those wicked men! Remember those who are suffering!
How can a wicked man despise God
and say to himself, “He will not punish me”?
But you do see; you take notice
of trouble and suffering
and are always ready to help.
The helpless man commits himself to you;
you have always helped the needy.
Break the power of wicked and evil men;
punish them for the wrong they have done
until they do it no more.
The LORD is king forever and ever.
Those who worship other gods will vanish from his land.
You will listen, O LORD, to the prayers of the lowly;
you will give them courage.
You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;
you will judge in their favor,
so that mortal man may cause terror no more.
When I pray “Bible prayers”, I often find their words spur additional thoughts. So, rather than sticking strictly to the text (which is fine), I often pray what it has jogged in my mind. You may find it so too. Either way, let’s pray.
God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil… ~ E.M.Bounds
Kelvin Cochran, right, with his attorney, David Cortman, at a Feb. 18 news conference in Atlanta. Photo: Ben Gray/Associated Press
Kelvin Cochran has led a remarkable life by any standard. He was born into a poor family in Shreveport, La., in 1960 that became even poorer after his father walked out and left his mother to raise six children alone. “After he left, we couldn’t afford to live in the projects anymore,” he once told an interviewer.
Mr. Cochran aspired to be a firefighter from age 5, and he eventually was appointed Shreveport’s first black fire chief in 1999. In 2008 he became the fire chief of Atlanta. And In 2009 President Obama appointed him U.S. fire administrator, the top position in the profession.
At the urging of Democratic Mayor Kasim Reed, Mr. Cochran returned to his post in Atlanta in 2010 and continued to impress. In 2012, after more than 30 years of service, he was given a Fire Chief of the Year Award by Fire Chief magazine. In a related press release, the mayor’s office said that “under Chief Cochran’s leadership, the department has seen dramatic improvements in response times and staffing.” Mr. Reed added: “Chief Cochran’s pioneering efforts to improve performance and service within the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department have won him much-deserved national recognition.”
But a year ago, Mr. Cochran was suspended for 30 days without pay, pending an investigation into his behavior. On Jan. 6, at the end of the suspension, Mr. Reed sacked him. Mr. Cochran’s fireable offense, according to the city, was publishing a book in violation of the city’s ethics code and without permission from the mayor. The reality, according to a lawsuit filed in response to the firing, is that Mr. Cochran no longer has his $172,000-a-year job because of what’s in the book. The suit accuses the city of firing Mr. Cochran for his religious beliefs.
It turns out that when he’s not fighting fires, Mr. Cochran spends a lot of time helping black men turn their lives around and stay out of trouble. He does this under the auspices of Atlanta’s Elizabeth Baptist Church, where he is a deacon and leads a men’s bible study.
Mr. Cochran self-published a book in 2013, “Who Told You That You Were Naked?” The book, written on his own time, is a compilation of lesson plans for his bible classes and explains how the teachings of Christ can help men fulfill their purpose as responsible husbands and fathers. What earned the ire of Atlanta officials is that the 162-page tome includes a few passages criticizing homosexual conduct as “perversion.”
In response to the lawsuit, the city has maintained that Mr. Cochran was terminated for violating protocol, not for his religious views—as if he would have been fired for publishing a cookbook. But comments from the mayor and other city officials at the time of the suspension suggest that the book’s content is what drove the decision.
“I want to be clear that the material in Chief Cochran’s book is not representative of my personal beliefs, and is inconsistent with the administration’s work to make Atlanta a more welcoming city for all of her citizens—regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, race and religious beliefs,” said Mr. Reed. Alex Wan, a member of the City Council who is openly gay, said “I respect each individual’s right to have their own thoughts, beliefs and opinions, but when you’re a city employee, and those thoughts, beliefs and opinions are different from the city’s, you have to check them at the door.”
So the mayor fired someone who disagreed with him in the name of inclusivity and tolerance. And Mr. Wan believes that government employees are entitled to their own views but not entitled to share them with anyone. If this is true, the Constitution’s protections of free speech and freedom of religion are meaningless in practice.
David Cortman of Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal group representing Mr. Cochran, says the city is now using protocol arguments to cover its tracks after wrongly terminating someone for holding and expressing religious views that city officials didn’t like. There is no official requirement to notify the mayor before you write a book, Mr. Cortman told me, and Mr. Cochran sought and received permission from the city’s ethics department to pursue the book project.
“The ethics rule concerns moonlighting, other employment or outside work,” said Mr. Cortman. “It doesn’t apply to writing a book, religious or otherwise, on your own time at home. And if they had such a rule in place it would be unconstitutional. You don’t need the government’s permission to do that.”
Despite the left’s efforts to paint Mr. Cochran as some kind of hateful bigot, the city’s own investigation of the former fire chief’s work history found no complaints of discrimination.
Many Americans—and polls show their numbers growing—don’t agree with Mr. Cochran about sexual behavior or same-sex marriage, but all Americans have a stake in religious freedom. Consider: Would it be OK for a mayor who holds traditional views on marriage to fire an employee who wrote a book that expressed support for same-sex marriage?
“Our nation was founded on the principle that everyone should be free to not just believe what they want, but to live their lives according to those beliefs,” said Mr. Cochran in a statement last month following a court hearing. “I’m here today not just for myself, but for every religious person in America who does not want to live in fear of facing termination for expressing their faith.”
Mr. Riley, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and Journal contributor, is the author of “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed” (Encounter Books, 2014).
I was shaken yesterday when I first read of Dr. Ben Carson’s “fabrications”. I read further reports and became confused. What was said when? Did the media get it right? Did Carson make misstatements?
All this concerned me because I believe Carson’s honesty and integrity are key to his campaign. And while I’d love to see debates between Carly and Hillary, I’ll be voting for Carson. (I still can’t believe people are taking Trump seriously. If he or Hillary become president I may move to Sweden.)
Gradually, as I continued to read and hear reports, I came to the conclusion that this was another case of media bias on the attack. Take, for a small example, the top line of the video: “Ben Carson Goes Off On Reporters . . . ” Goes off? (Trump goes off every time he opens his mouth!) Please note: “goes off” is subtle media commentary.
By the way, the Democrat party has a shoo-in for the presidential nomination being investigated by the FBI. Where is the media feeding frenzy over that?
America is in trouble. When the media is so blatantly biased we don’t know who or what we can we believe and often are subconsciously swayed to believe a lie. The media are as liable for division in this country as people who always cry “racist”.
Thank God we belong to a kingdom not of this world! Yet we’re called to live in the kingdoms of this world and to influence them for righteousness and justice. The video above is my tiny attempt to do that in this case.
“It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency ‘In God We Trust’ has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of a patriotic or ceremonial character,” the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in Aronow v. United States.
With all due respect to the court, that’s empty-headed. While it “has nothing whatever to do with the establishment of religion, of course it’s religious. God of “In God We Trust” is the Deity, the Supreme Being, the Sovereign Lord. Methinks to declare him just another word for “flag” is not to his liking!
Paulson argues that, since the phrase is religious (despite the court’s ruling), putting it on money and police cars violates the first amendment. Now Mr. Paulson’s credentials far outshine mine (“BA, in Bible”—Wow, that’s impressive!). So dare I say that I think he misunderstands the first amendment? Its pertinent part is here . . .
“The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law ‘respecting an establishment of religion.’ This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.”
I agree that police cars plastered with “In God We Trust” implies the government prefers religion over non-religion (unless we make a case that atheism is a “religion”—which, in fact, we can). But I disagree that by the motto the government is establishing “an official religion” or unduly favoring “one religion over another.” Or, to use Mr. Paulson’s words, the “government cannot promote a specific religion.“
To my knowledge (which admittedly is limited), I know of only one major world religion that has no God. Some religions have hundreds.
As I see it (I first tried to take the log out of my eye!), “In God We Trust” is a religious statement that the vast majority of the world’s religions can agree with. And therefore it does not prefer one religion over another. And it’s quite a stretch to argue that the government is preferring religion over non-religion.
Anyway, I’m sure Mr. Paulson will never read this, nor will I have set his academic pot boiling. In fact, unless God works some totally unexpected miracle (he has been known to do such), this post will pass largely unnoticed. But I just had to get it off my chest.
P.S. I’m thinking that if all us folks who sit safely at computers critiquing every little thing had to face life-and-death violence, we too might publicly declare our trust in God!
God created us in his image. The sanctity of human life stands firm on that theological foundation.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26a.).
The Hebrew word for “man” (adam) is the generic term for mankind, “mankind” including both men and women as the next reference makes clear.
When God created man, he made them in the likeness of God.
Male and female he created them, and he blessed them
and named them Man when they were created (Genesis 5:1b,2)
So we argue that every human life has value and, therefore, even the terminally ill should not be assisted to commit suicide. Who are we to take the life of one created in the image of God? I write that not having a loved one cruelly suffer day after day with no hope of recovery. I know that only in my imagination, not in my experience. Nevertheless, I say, “Don’t help her die!” because her life was created in God’s image and therefore sacred.
My Mom Just Died Of Brain Cancer. Here’s Why She Opposed Assisted Suicide
I’ll admit it, I’m an adrenaline junkie. And judging from the plethora of new TV shows like “Trauma: Life in the ER” or “Code Black,” most of America is too. Except that’s my life. I’m a Trauma Nurse. I eat, sleep, and breathe trauma.
Every time I walk into work with a French Vanilla Swirl Latte from Dunkin’ Donuts in my hand, life and death are waiting for me. And up until this week I thought I’d seen just about everything. I’ve performed CPR till I thought my arms would fall off to keep blood pumping through a child’s body. I’ve administered life-saving medication to a patient having a stroke and seen the joy on his face when he regained his speech. I’ve had a patient fall through a ceiling onto another patient (I can’t even make that up.) I’ve held the hand of patients as they’ve taken their last breath, and I’ve hugged family members so tight I couldn’t breathe. I really thought I’d seen it all.
And then last week, my mom died. She had a glioblastoma brain tumor. I knew all about it, even cared for patients with her same diagnosis. I knew what was going to happen. But no matter how much I thought I was ready, I wasn’t. Death stings. And my beautiful, 52-year-old mother’s grave is freshly dug.
But my mom’s name was Dr. Maggie Karner. And she was the textbook definition of awesome. Don’t take my word for it, Google her. She devoted her entire life to helping others and spreading Christ’s beautiful gift of mercy for all. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard my mom speak more passionately then when she was talking about the word “mercy.” And that’s why my mom used her last days on Earth to campaign against a very dangerous use of that word. A “merciful death” some would call it, or a “right to die.”
My mom is most famous for a YouTube video that went viral entitled “A Letter to Brittany Maynard.” In the video my mom pleaded with Brittany, who had the same diagnosis, not to commit assisted suicide. Unfortunately, Brittany eventually chose to end her life, but my mom never stopped advocating for life. In her words, “How long will it be before the right to die quickly devolves into the duty to die? What does this mean for all who are elderly, or disabled, or just wondering if they’ve become a burden to the family?” Even while she was receiving chemotherapy, my mom spoke at the Connecticut state house to lobby against a “right to die” bill. The bill did not pass.
Difficulty Does Not Justify Suicide
That’s why my heart breaks tonight to learn the news that California’s governor has just signed legislation allowing residents of the state to take their own lives in the face of terminal illness. This makes five states in our nation allowing assisted suicide.
Believe me, terminal illness sucks. There is no way to sugar coat that. It stole my mom from me along with so many others. But it also gave me something that I could never begin to describe, the opportunity to serve her. My family and I cared for her when she could no longer care for herself. We were her left arm when hers was paralyzed. And when that became too much, we had the distinct privilege of being able to visit her at her hospice facility during the last month of her life. She was not herself, and many times confused, but she could laugh. Even up until the day before she died. We laughed about seagulls that she thought were drones. We laughed about how much she loved chocolate and McFlurry’s from McDonald’s. We laughed about all the stupid things I did as a kid. And then when she could no longer laugh, we sang to her and we prayed with her.
My mom said it best in an op-ed in the Hartford Courant: “My brain may be cancerous, but I still have lots to contribute to society as a strong woman, wife and mother while my family can daily learn the value of caring for me in my last days with compassion and dignity.”
I’m here to say that she was right. No matter how hard it was and still is. She was so right. And the greatest honor of my life was to care for my mom in her last days. I hope and pray that her legacy will continue to inspire caring American voters to support those choosing to squeeze life for every drop that it has to give. Support hospice and palliative care programs that give true meaning to “death with dignity.” Let those fighting illness and disabilities know that they are precious, no matter what. They should never have to feel for a second that they might have a “duty to die” just because the option is available.
Mary Karner is a Registered Nurse currently working in Connecticut.
When Isaiah wrote, “they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (40:31), he didn’t have helicopters in mind. But if Chloe Valdary gets her way, Middle East Christians may.
Writing in last Friday’s “Wall Street Journal”, Valdary (a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal) recalled how in 1975 air and sea missions saved tens of thousands of Vietnamese. Eventually they were resettled in the U.S. She advocates the same approach for the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.
Since the rise of . . . ISIS, about 125,000 Christians have fled [Iraq]. After ISIS took [the city of] Mosul in June 2014, the city’s Christians flocked to Erbil, the Kurdish capital. In Syria, once home to nearly two million Christians, at least 500,000 have been displaced during four years of war. It is ISIS policy to kidnap and rape Christian women and girls. The terrorist group has razed Christian sites, including monasteries dating to the fifth century. Last October the ISIS magazine Dabiq referred to Christians as “crusaders” and vowed to kill “every Crusader possible.”
That should remind Western policy makers: Christians are not random victims, caught in the maw of Mideast strife. They are targets of genocide, much like the Jews during World War II. This entitles them to broad protection under the 1951 U.N. Genocide Convention, to which the U.S. is a signatory.
It is also worth noting that because Christians in Iraq and Syria are facing genocide—as opposed to displacement—there is a limited window for rescue. Unlike the thousands of refugees pouring into Europe, who are mostly escaping the violence driven by the sectarian war in Syria, Christians are facing a targeted campaign of annihilation. The U.S. ought to take that into consideration when prioritizing the resettlement of the additional 30,000 refugees the country is slated to absorb over the next two years.
Valdary goes on to note that a California Democrat has introduced in the House of Representatives a bill to require the secretary of state to “report to Congress a plan to expedite the processing of refugee admissions applications” for religious minorities threatened by ISIS. Valdary writes . . .
The bill hasn’t moved in Congress, partly due to inattention but also because the Obama administration seems to want nothing to do with it.
Mark Arabo has founded the Minority Humanitarian foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to get Iraqi Christians out before it is too late. Arabo . . .
. . . is essentially running an underground railroad to help Christians escape. “We are bringing them to America, Australia and France,” he said. “In the U.S. alone, we have identified 70,000 Christians who have been displaced and have matched them with 70,000 people willing to bring them in.” But that depends on the administration’s willingness to allow them to enter.
* * * * *
The scale of suffering in the world staggers my mind—and I see only bits and pieces on TV, the Internet and in print. This suffering is intentional. It’s persecution. Not as in, you might lose your job. But in, you will be killed if we catch you.
These are our brothers and sisters. Their fine points of doctrine may differ from ours. They may worship differently. But many certainly have genuine faith in Jesus. That makes them family. Whatever we believe about end-time theology, this is their Tribulation!
Should I write my representative and ask him to get moving on House Resolution 1568, the “Protecting Religious Minorities Persecuted by ISIS Act of 2015”? Should you? One thing I know you and I must do is pray. I’ve become so cynical about the government, and my faith in God’s intervention is sometimes weak. But, if not out of great faith, then out of desperation for our brothers and sisters, I (we) should pray for the Father to save his family from this demonic, antichrist evil sweeping the Middle East.
I know: something else to pray for. It never ends. The list always lengthens. But we are at war and the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ hang in the balance. May our Father protect them. May he save them from the evil of ISIS. And may he, if he so wills, use even helicopters to “mount [them] up with wings like eagles.”
Have you watched those heart-rending scenes of refugees pouring out of Syria toward western Europe and wished there was something you could do? How could we not? My daughter, Meridith, posted this on her Facebook page. Because it gives concrete ways to “stand up and be the church” in the midst of this refugee crisis, I’m posting it here to reach anyone she might not. Please prayerfully consider being Jesus’ hand extended . . .
5 Ways To Stand Up & Be The Church in The World’s Worst Refugee Crisis Since World War II
The world is in the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
And Syria’s civil war and the rising of ISIS is the worst humanitarian disaster of our time.
The number of innocent civilians suffering: more than 11 million people are displaced.
Half of those 11 million refugees are under the age of 18. There is no such thing as other people’s children. They are all of our children.
–> Tweet a photo of yourself holding a sign saying “Refugees Welcome” and tag your government and or your government representative #refugeecrisis; #refugeeswelcomehere
If you’d like to help Syrian refugees stranded on the Greek Island of Lesvos, see the list below, and mail to: Hellenic Postal Office of Mythymna ℅ The Captain’s Table
Molyvos 81108, Lesvos, Greece
ITEMS TO SEND for SYRIAN REFUGEES on GREEK ISLAND OF LESVOS:
Sneakers, gym shoes for men, women and children (all sizes) are a HIGH PRIORITY
Sweatpants of all sizes.
Briefs/underwear for men, women and children (all sizes)
Men’s trousers (small, medium and large) and shoes
Baby powder milk
Any non-perishables like nut butters or other long-lasting foods.
Diapers
Feminine products
Sleeping bags
Plastic to cover the floor/for shade
Tents/tarpaulin
Mats (camping or yoga mats)
Hats and caps for sunshade (adults and children/light colours because of the sun)
Electric Plug for multiple devices (european voltage)
You could have stayed with us, Aylan. Your whole family could have stayed with us.
Shalom has a new bunny — she calls him Jesse or Jojo, and Malakai calls him Peter Rabbit, and I call him Edward Toulane, and you could have come and played with that floppy eared fur ball, here on the back lawn and just called here home.
AFP/Getty Images
You could have jumped on our couch, Little Aylan, and we would have made you an extra tall stack of steaming pancakes this morning— and did you know that one of my favourite things in the whole wide world is to stand out in the kitchen garden in the rising fog of the dawn and eat a few cherry tomatoes?
We could have done that barefoot together, Aylan. You could have kneeled and looked for the juiciest, ripest ones. I can see it now, how the juice would have dripped off your chin and you would have grinned from ear to ear. You could have all come. There’s enough room in our hearts.
There’s enough room for all of you in our imagination of the future, Aylan.
There’s enough room in this land, in our embarrassment of riches, for us to imagine you growing up and opening up books and bringing creative ideas and forging a fresh way and our land needed the hope of you, Aylan. We couldn’t afford to lose you, Aylan.
We couldn’t afford to lose the music only you would make, the ideas only you would have, the world that only could ever be, because you were here with us. There was enough space in our schools, in our streets, in our dreams for you.
Your were born for this land’s dreams, Aylan — not a haunting of all our collective nightmares.
I woke this morning with you haunting all my thoughts, Aylan, and our national motto echoing in my head: “A mari usque ad mare.” It means “From sea to sea.”
I thought of that, when I saw that photo of you lying on that beach in Turkey, the waves lapping against your little lifeless head.
You only wanted to get from your bloody sea to our blessed sea, for crying out loud. We’re the ones literally crying out loud now. You only wanted there to be a way across the waves — the endless waves of terror, of gnawing hunger, of bloody battles, of suffocating hopelessness. From sea to sea — for yours to ours— the whole world between us is filling right now with a sea of tears.
We’re shattered that for all of your three short years in this huge home that we call the earth, you didn’t know the sun rising over the Rockies or prairie fields of hope or countries of people all with open, beckoning doors —- you only ever knew fear, Aylan. You only knew the death and destruction that is ISIS, you only knew fleeing and running and everywhere, closed doors. We could have done better, Aylan. You’re begging us all to do better now.
Once I sat at our breakfast table in the thin early light, Aylan, and saw a fawn run right up to our house, right up to our window and press his head right up against the glass because there were guns firing everywhere in the woods. I looked right into the deer’s begging wild-eyed fear, Aylan. I wanted to let it in.
It may be nauseatingly hard for us all to look at that last photo of your limp body, Aylan —- but you’re seared into all of our collective conscience, Aylan, because the undeniable truth of it is: We can turn a blind eye to the poor all we want, but it could have turned out that we were the poor.
Come to our tables, come to our hearths, come fill our playgrounds with your laughter and come fill our land with your dreams.
There’s always enough room at our tables for those in need, because our imagination and our nation and our transformation have always fed off the truth of abundance and refuse to be poisoned by the myth of scarcity.
There’s always enough abundance and grace to welcome those in need, because it’s only by abundant grace that any of us are here — and if there’s abundant grace for us, by God, there’s abundant grace for all of us.
There’s always enough hope because dreams always last longer than the dark.
There’s always enough hope because dreams always last longer than the dark.
Possibility is always more potent than past history.
It’s Love that drives us to not let the fleeing be pushed off this earth and into the sea, but to come up with ways to say: Come.Come and we will hold on to you because we all belong to each other.There are dreams enough for you, there are tomatoes in the garden for you, and a rising sun and hope coming even now for you, and there is no bureaucracy or excuse or reason that can render us impotent, that can paralyze us in helping the immigrant or wild-eyed or the littlest because we know a Love that is infinite.
When our woods exploded in gunfire, and that deer pressed its own wild-eyed fear up to our glass window, I looked into its eyes, Aylan:
How can we not move heaven and earth to let the broken in —- when heaven moved and came to earth to let us in?
How you would have loved this morning, Aylan, if we’d let you make it to land, if you had got here…
How you would have sat out on the back lawn in the heavy mist and buried your head into the thick abundance of that rabbit. How you could have heard, right above you, the mourning doves up there somewhere in the filmy spruce trees, cooing this quieting peace…
How your eyes might have danced…
You would have seen it too —
How, about mid-morning, the shroud of fog lifted —-
I am unabashedly and unreservedly pulling for Dr. Ben Carson to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. As the headline below announces, here is his stand on the issues. I hope you take time to read the article and become an informed voter.
Why Carson? I see America plunging headlong and long down the wrong moral path. A Washington insider isn’t enough; we need a brilliant, respectable, caring outsider to lead the country back to the right path.
Ben Carson on the issues: Inside the mind of the retired neurosurgeon surging in polls, rivaling Trump
Michael Walsh
Reporter
Yahoo Politics
September 2, 2015
Ben Carson speaks in Little Rock, Ark., during his campaign for president. (Photo: Danny Johnston/AP)
The red-blooded Republican base of America is fed up with career politicians and ready to hit reset — if poll numbers are any indication.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has been surging in the early polls for the GOP presidential nomination. His reserved and soft-spoken personality is a far cry from the bombastic rhetoric that’s largely defined the primary race so far.
Like real estate tycoon Donald Trump and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Carson has never held elected office, but that might actually be a boon rather than a hindrance in appealing to conservatives frustrated with politics as usual.
Without a governance track record for Carson, some voters are unsure of whether he would be able to “play the game” necessary to make changes in Washington. But his commitment to conservatism is indisputable.
Here’s where Carson stands on several key issues:
National debt
Carson thinks that the government will not pay down the national debt of more than $18 trillion until a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution mandates it.
He says “career politicians in Washington” have shown that they won’t get serious about balancing the budget until they are forced to.
“Each generation’s greatest responsibility is to pass on a greater opportunity to the next generation. Our generation is failing in this regard,” he wrote on his official website. “A Balanced Budget Amendment to our Constitution will lead to a better future for our grandchildren.”
The Economy
Carson has argued for a flat tax between 10 and 15 percent based on tithing for all Americans.
“You make $10 billion, you pay a billion. You make $10, you pay one [dollar]. Of course I would get rid of all the deductions and all of the loopholes,” he said during an appearance on Fox Business.
Carson also called for gradually raising the age of eligibility for receiving Social Security and eliminating the IRS.
Ben Carson poses for a photo in Little Rock, Ark. (Photo: Danny Johnston/AP)
Immigration
Carson says he does not think that the 14th Amendment should protect birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
In a 2014 National Review op-ed, he criticized the Obama administration for making it clear that “certain unaccompanied illegal minors would not be deported if caught.”
According to Carson, this helped to create an environment of tolerance that led to what he called the “current rash of illegal dumping of thousands of children.”
He bemoaned “incentives” for illegal immigration, such as easy government assistance and public school enrollment.
“We must create a system that disincentivizes illegal immigration and upholds the rule of law while providing us with a steady stream of immigrants from other nations who will strengthen our society. Let’s solve the problem and stop playing political football,” he wrote.
Health care
Carson says the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is a “looming disaster” and “monstrosity.” Despite the cost of $1.2 trillion, he argues, 23 million people will still not have health insurance even after it has been fully implemented for 10 years.
He supports health savings accounts that, he says, will lower health care costs while letting Americans make their own decisions about the medical treatment they receive.
Carson says that the medical community must re-establish a direct relationship between patient and physician.
Marijuana
Speaking on Fox News, Carson said that medical marijuana has been useful in certain cases but that he opposes legalizing the drug for recreational use — saying it’s important to remember it is “a gateway drug.”
“I don’t think this is something we really want for our society,” he said. “You know, we’re gradually just removing all the barriers to hedonistic activity. We’re changing so rapidly to a different type of society, and nobody is getting a chance to discuss it because it’s taboo. It’s politically incorrect. You’re not supposed to talk about these things.”
Ben Carson speaks with Edwin Johnson at a Little Rock, Ark., coffee shop in August. (Photo: Danny Johnston/AP)
Climate change
Carson has described the issue of manmade climate change as irrelevant. Though he says we must protect the environment, the presidential contender said climate change cannot be an “excuse not to develop our God-given resources.”
Same-sex marriage
Carson opposes same-sex marriage and says he believes in the traditional definition of marriage as one man with one woman. In 2013, he incited controversy by comparing homosexuality to bestiality and the North American Man/Boy Love Association.
“Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition,” he said in an appearance on Fox News.
Carson said he thinks people who want to “change the definition of marriage” are ”directly attacking the relationship between God and his people.“
Abortion
Carson describes himself as “unabashedly and entirely pro-life.” He believes that human life begins at conception and needs to be protected from that point forward. As a surgeon, he has operated on fetuses and says they are “very much alive.”
The Second Amendment
Carson vowed that he would never support any attempt to “to weaken the Second Amendment.” He said it is not a mistake that the Founding Fathers established the right of law-abiding citizens to own guns immediately after the right of free speech — they are essential for American liberty.
“The Second Amendment is a central pillar of our Constitution,” he said. “Our Founding Fathers added it explicitly in order to protect freedom in the United States of America. It provides our citizens the right to protect themselves from threats foreign or domestic.”
Ben Carson laughs as his wife, Candy Carson, waves to the crowd after saying a few words supporting her husband in Phoenix. (Photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)
Israel
Carson says the U.S. must maintain its special bond with Israel and help protect it against surrounding nations that “threaten her very existence.” As Israel is America’s only democratic ally in the Middle East, he added, we must never waiver in supporting the nation.
Iran deal
During a speech in Iowa recently, Carson said that the controversial Iran nuclear deal puts the “whole country in jeopardy” and betrays a “complete lack of common sense,” the Daily Signal reported.
“It [the deal] doesn’t disassemble the nuclear infrastructure of Iran,” Carson said, according to the news site. “It lifts the economic sanctions. … It allows for arms dealing and ballistic missiles. And if we want to inspect something, it has to go through a committee on which Iranians sit, and on which the Russians sit.”
Terrorism
In an opinion piece for the Washington Times, Carson said that conditions across the globe have improved since the United States hit the stage. People need to suspend their knowledge of American history, he said, to believe that the U.S. is the source of much of the world’s problems.
“Understanding that we are not evil makes it easier to identify evil elsewhere and to combat it effectively,” he wrote. “When we accept the falsehood that everyone is equally bad and, therefore, we have no right or obligation to interfere with atrocities occurring elsewhere in the world, we facilitate the development and growth of groups such as ISIS, which are not dissimilar to the adherents of Adolf Hitler, who also aspired to world domination.”
Carson said it is better to fight the country’s enemies when they are in their early stages before they grow into bigger threats.
On his campaign website, Carson said the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp is the best facility in the world for detaining dangerous terrorists while they await a military trial. The United States, he said, must keep Gitmo open to protect the country from potential attacks.
Ben Carson laughs during a rally in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Photo: Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)
Tax Code
Carson described the U.S. tax code, which includes more than 74,000 pages, as “an abomination.” He supports wholesale tax reform to remove the system’s complexity and loopholes, arguing that career politicians are unable to deliver the bold changes Americans deserve.
“We need a fairer, simpler, and more equitable tax system,” he said. “Our tax form should be able to be completed in less than 15 minutes. This will enable us to end the IRS as we know it.”
Religion
Carson says that Americans should be proud that “courageous men of principle and faith” founded the United States on “Judeo-Christian principles.” He thinks that secular liberals are trying to drive faith out of public spaces in American society.
Confederate flag
Carson says he does not have a problem with removing the Confederate flag from government property and acknowledges that it has been used for racist purposes. But, he said, the real issue is not the flag as much as what people use it to symbolize.
“The issue is not the flag so much as it is how people think,” he said to the Wall Street Journal. “What’s in their heart? You can get rid of every Confederate flag in the world, but if you’re still being motivated by the wrong emotion it’s not going to solve any problem.”
During an appearance on CNN, he shared a story about a racist person trying to intimidate his family into leaving a new home in rural Maryland shortly after they arrived.
“One of the neighbors put up a big Confederate flag on the barn, I guess as a message to us,” Carson said. “And one of our friends who’s a black general came through the drive, saw that and said, ‘I’m in the wrong place.’ The interesting thing is all the neighbors immediately put up American flags and shamed this individual and he took it down.”
Carson said that humans are social beings and we live in a pluralistic society, so we should pay attention to the messages we send one another.
With additional reporting from Yahoo News’ Gabby Kaufman
I’m curious whenever a politician is asked about Jesus. So when I found this video from Marco Rubio, I watched and listened—and was thrilled to hear his witness.
