Fights
My personal pain |
| image from Russian Direct |
image from CNN
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| image from NYTimes |
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| image taken from Julie Roys. Indeed- a pyramid scheme, if ever there was one in a church. |
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| image from Christianity Today |
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| Imagine by Stephanie Keith for NYT |
| Image from thepressdemocrat.com |
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| Image from New York Times |
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| Ji Xiang has been a member of our family for years now. He leaves to return home to China tomorrow. We don't know when we'll see him again... praying and believing in faith that we will if it be God's will.. Take care dear "Dragon." We love you so much. You have become our brother, son, nephew, grandson. Our lives are better because we have known you! |
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| Image taken from The New Yorker |
My favorite man (read that as
sarcasm please) just posted an article
about political cults, and I’m thankful because this issue is HUGE and infiltrating
all of our lives whether we realize it or not. If we are involved
in any form of social media or attempt any discussion with friends and family
members holding an array of political and religious or basically any type of
ideology that differs greatly from our own, we need to understand what cults
are and how they work. As I type this, I should add I, myself, and YOU, my
wonderful reader, are not immune or SAFE FROM the occult, not at all, in any
way, shape, or form. The only safety-net from the occult is knowledge,
awareness, community, and the grace of God, because Satan, the force behind all
cults, political, religious, and even of seemingly neutral affiliation, IS
powerful, seductive, deceptive, REAL, and nearby… Satan and the occult are
right outside our doors and right inside our computers. They are everywhere. I
could become a cult, but for the grace of God. This is just reality. Satan is a
liar, a thief, destructive, and his modus operandi is to take any and
everything that good and make it completely harmful. He takes the life-giving qualities
of the pieces of God’s created world and created order and makes them draining,
life-sucking, isolating, and ultimately the things that we use to FEEL like we
are serving a greater cause, even God, when in actuality, what we are DOING is worshipping
ourselves, idols, and our ability to control and believe we have a special,
perhaps even higher, secret knowledge about how the world is to be mastered, how
it works, and how we are to follow God or live or worship… a knowledge that is
taught primarily by our church, or our leaders, or the Holy Spirit through our
leaders and our church but only to a select few of a particular affiliation. Cults
are LIARS and they are sucking us in, right and left.
And
perhaps, as I write that, some of my less religious friends are even thinking, “this
is why Christianity itself is a cult,” and I would see there point, because
in all honesty, a LARGE NUMBER of our churches have become just that, cults
that operate under the guise of Christian churches but actually purport to have
a greater or more higher claim on the Gospel and salvation or the Holy Spirit
than most other congregations or denominations or churches at large.
Thus they isolate their followers, restrict them from thriving outside their
congregation or attachment to it basically. They find a way to vilify large
movements, even Christian movements and most other Christian resources… they
mainly operate from teaching their own form of theology produced by their leaders
who often have special knowledge and relationship to God and are considered prophets
or holders of divine revelation. They use Scripture to back up their claims,
but they purport Scripture. They don’t utilize material from multiple authors
and theologians through the ages, and while they are kind to Christians from
other churches, they carry out an attitude and a tone that assumes their church
has higher knowledge and are greater teachers of the THE WAY while most other
Christians are not as enlightened. These churches isolate the people going to
their churches and laregley encourage them predominately to pursue relationships
with people within their own congregation. They encourage the pulling away from
family members and other friends. They shrowd this as teaching health and being
differentiated, but what they are actually asking is more complete allegiance
to their own prophets. They filter the news and the content of what is going on
in the world through their own prophets who claim special ability to hear from
God, and when other leaders or prophets disagree with them, to some degree, these
prophets and preachers are villainized or belittled or preached not to have yet
arrived. So yes, my friends, many Christian churches are actually cults,
and I have had well-meaning friends and even family members get involved with
them all the time. I get forwards and emails of cult materials. I get the condescending
looks and words in conversations when I say something with which family members
disagree. The church I grew up at even had cult-like tendencies. Satan is
deceptive. Cults are real. Today. In 2020, in New York City and Augusta, Georgia,
and Columbia, South Carolina. In Hong Kong and the United States of America,
among the uneducated, the high school drop-out, and those who have attended Ivy
league schools. Cults don’t discriminate. They prey on the vulnerable, and we
are all vulnerable to one degree or another.
My
man, (I can’t write that without also reminding you to read it through sarcasm-
my pride won’t allow me), Joe Carter describes political cults in the
following way from his recent article published by The Gospel Coalition.
I would encourage the reader to be aware that you can substitute the word “political”
for “religious” and just change around some of the specific characteristics.
So
what is a cult? Joe’s words are these….
“While cults are often
considered religious phenomena, they can also be political. What defines a cult
is often debated, but they tend to share certain traits. In 1981, the
psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote an influential article on “.”
Lifton identified three characteristics associated with cults:
1.
A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of
worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group
lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and
becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power
and authority.
2.
A process [of indoctrination or education that involves]
coercive persuasion or thought reform. For example, members of the group
engaging in behavior that is not in their own best interest but promotes the
interest of the group and its leader.
3.
Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the
leader and the ruling coterie.
Lifton
also identifies several other traits of cults: milieu control (the control of
all communication within a given environment), mystical manipulation (turning
the member into a pawn who will spread the message and carry out actions for
the group), and dispensing of existence (i.e., those who have not seen the
light and embraced the truth are wedded to evil, tainted, and therefore in some
sense, usually metaphorical, lack the right to exist).
, “Cults are not defined by what their members believe but by how they enable members to translate their beliefs into a source of permanent self-affirmation, self-protection, and self-aggrandizement, sacrificing all else to maintain their membership in something that keeps their encouragement-to-discouragement ratio forever high.”
-Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition, The FAQs: What
Christians Should Know About QAnon
Read
his entire article. Google ‘cults.’ Think about your life. Think about what you
read on Facebook, online, and what you forward. Think about where you worship.
Think about all these things and ask God to speak to your heart and lead and
guide you, and then ask your friends and family what they think…. BUT PLEASE, do
not just ask the people involved in your group or organization about which you reserve
any doubt or are inquiring. No cult is going to readily or willing admit
they are a cult. They are going to get pissed about it, and perhaps that’s a good
warning sign. If you feel like you can’t ask your leaders if they are a
cult without them just laughing at you and saying “yes we’ve been accused of
that, but it’s so off-base” or shaming you… let that be a HUGE warning flag.
Ding-ding-ding. Anyone not humble enough constantly to check oneself or their
church or ideology is in actuality quite in danger of becoming a cult.
Okay.
Soapbox done, for the moment at least.
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| Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images via NPR.org |
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| Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images via NPR.org |
"The police department in Wilmington, N.C. has fired three police officers after investigators say footage from one of their patrol cars showed them exchanging racist and sometimes threatening remarks....Those include one of the officers saying he was ready for a "civil war" against Black people.Investigators say video captured exchanges by the officers showed them making disparaging and racist remarks. Two of them — Moore and Piner — were said to be captured using the n-word multiple times. Investigators also said Gilmore referred to anti-racism protesters as "worshipping blacks," and Piner said he expects a "civil war" and was planning to buy an assault rifle.
Williams, [the city's new police chief], made the announcement just one day after he was sworn in as the city's police chief.
He said Wednesday was a "challenging day for me because as your new police chief — one of my first major tasks is to announce the termination of three veteran police officers for misconduct." ... A routine inspection uncovered the racist remarks
The investigation that resulted in the firing of the three officers began with a routine audit.
According to an internal investigation, a police sergeant conducting a monthly review of police footage uncovered the remarks on June 4. The nearly two-hour long video came from a camera in Piner's patrol vehicle that was "accidentally" activated. After listening to the video for a short time, the sergeant heard "extremely racist" comments from the officers.
As outlined by investigators, [one of the former officers is recorded saying] the only concern of the department is "kneeling down with the black folks" while Gilmore added that protesters are "worshiping blacks."
In a phone conversation about half an hour later between Piner and another officer, a discussion about an arrest from the previous day becomes a graphic conversation about preparing for violence against Black people, according to the investigation.
During the call, Moore used the words "n*****" and "negro" to talk about a woman he arrested. When discussing the arrest, Moore also said "she needed a bullet in her head right then" and complained about an officer who discouraged him from breaking the window of her car.
Moore also referred to a magistrate, who is Black, as a "negro magistrate."
Later on in the conversation, Piner said he's "ready" for a civil war. According to investigators, Piner said, using the n-word, that "we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them."
"God I can't wait," Piner is reported to have said.
Piner also said, according to investigators, that he plans to buy an assault rifle and that society needed a civil war to "put 'em back about four or five generations."
Former officers did not deny making the remarks on the recording
According to the department, Piner, Gilmore and Moore confirmed it was their voices captured on video and they did not deny the remarks.
In interviews with investigators, all three of them said they were venting, citing what they called the current climate for police. They also denied being racist." -NPR.org
The last thing I'll note is that one of the officers defended that his remarks were made while he was off duty and calling his fellow-office from his home...hence he should not be fired. To this statement, I respond, "even if true, it is not an excuse, and you should be fired." Being called into law enforcement is a high calling, and such called people should be held to a high standard. Would we want to hear our doctors making these types of statements about our race, sex, ethnicity, or social status before performing a life-or-death operation on us? Heck- no. We judge our doctors by their bedside manner! We would also not go to a church where a pastor spoke this way in regard to a certain group of people during his ''off'' hours. Being ''off'' does not give a person the freedom to be an ass and untrustworthy, not when that person is supposed to be someone we trust, respect, revere, and can go to in our most vulnerable moments. Period. End of sentence. The end. Be better. DEMAND better. Accept nothing less.
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| Image taken from Star Tribune |
I have not written much in a few days; truth be told, it is hard to know where to focus. There is much to say, not enough time to write. Should we talk about the latest phenomena which is actually just a return of antiquated pastime? People of color being strung up in trees, left to die, and oddly no one knows how it happened… Good job America, on our way to becoming Great Again for sure.
Or if my readers are not that interested in hearing about the plights of our brothers and sisters possessing more melanin, then we can talk about all the white people dying in Florida because there are not enough ICU beds. Yes, the crazy leftists knew this was going to happen a few months ago, when it was happening to us here in NY, and governors below the Mason-Dixon and our lauded president wanted to pretend we were over-dramatic or lying about how many ventilators we’d need. Remember that? When Mr. Kemp learned that the virus could be spread by asymptomatic carriers WEEKS after the rest of the free world?
(I grow timid while waxing sarcastic and imagine my sister to stop reading about now. Confessions of a little sister: I try to gauge whether I’m being too thumb-in-cheek by how likely I feel my big sis is to become annoyed by the use of this attitude and respond with an article that preaches the converse of something I’ve just sought to prove. There you go world. Truth be told. I am really not all that brave after all… just a little sister always wanting to impress her heroine and afraid of disappointing)...
Click here to continue reading this piece under my medium publication.
Or see original blog post, This is America, for the rest.
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| Image taken from Slate.com |
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| (Image taken from faithandleadership.com) |
Have you ever wondered how the Holocaust actually happened….how men and women actually got to the point where they truly believed countless human beings were worthy or torture and execution simply because they were a different race or had different abilities? To sit and contemplate how a man like Adolph Hitler rose to power is a sobering exercise, especially in light of what we are experiencing in this dense and potent cultural moment of America’s story. Ruminate upon this truth: Whatever you are doing now is exactly what you would have done then… if you were alive in Nazi Germany… if you were a white Anglo man or woman in the early part of the 20th century….if you were alive in the Confederate South during the civil war, (which by the way WAS predominately fought over slavery, and which, the South LOST…never have I seen a more decorated memory of a tragic loss of life that was brought upon oneself because of ones own evils in my life than when I visit the Southern U.S. It’s repugnant). Whatever stance you are taking right now in regard to civil rights and your own life and how much you are listening to and letting the INJUSTICE OF OTHERS who are a different race that YOU impact your daily life is EXACTLY what you would have done if you had lived in another time in history OR ANOTHER NATION IN THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. If you are being silent, and saying the onus rests on the black people, and the problem is not THAT big of a deal because there are other problems like black-on-black crime and sexism and that YOU have problems too, then that is EXACTLY what you would have done if you had lived right before Hitler’s rise to power… You would have said it wasn’t that big of a deal that Jews were being persecuted, and that you had issues too, and that actually all women were persecuted and lacked rights, and you would be well on your way to be a Nazi… just like you ARE well on your way to being a Neo-Nazi right now. Yes, I just said that. Take all the time you need to be angry at me and think about what I said.
Yet the truth remains, you WOULD have been on the wrong side of history….and you currently ARE on the wrong side of it… Let that sink in… and then come back, and work with me, to make a difference. You aren’t evil. You are just doing something extremely wrong right now, and there is still time to change. That’s all.
Jessica Wilson, in her article for TGC, Lessons from Bonhoeffer: Are You Standing Up to Injustice? Writes, “If you ever wonder what you would’ve done had you seen Hitler rise to power, or African American children barred from white schools, Laura Fabrycky reminds us that we’re currently acting in the exact same way we would’ve then. For our time is no less plagued with controversy, injustice, tension, or despair than the times that preceded us.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer....watched synagogues burn throughout Berlin, so have we watched rioters set fire to churches, cars, and stores. And what have we done? Whatever role we have played in our local community or on the national stage is exactly what we would’ve done at another time in history, and that realization should be a sobering call to action."
Quoting a book by Laura Fabrycky which in part analyzes American culture in the comparison to that of the culture that birthed what we now commonly deplore as Nazi, Germany, she continues, “During the Nazi era, Christians here and elsewhere failed their Jewish neighbors, and many others belonging to different groups. They were silent when they should have spoken up; they were complicit and, at times, even gleeful participants in persecution. They often used their beliefs to justify violence and genocide. . . . They did not see how their lives were connected to one another...How Are We Responding?The same words might be posed to white Christians who have witnessed crimes committed against black and brown brothers and sisters. Our lives are all connected. Are we seeing it? How are we responding to the time and place to which we’ve been called?
While Fabrycky wrote this book worlds away from the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others, her book speaks directly to this time and seems providential in its publication date.
In 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. preached in a church in East Berlin before the wall fell. Fabrycky visits the church in celebration of the American holiday and hears a recording of his sermon. “In a real sense,” King preached to a packed-out crowd of attentive Germans, “we are all one in Christ Jesus, for in Christ there is no east, no west, no north, or south.” King knew that just as there is “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free,” so too is there no east, no west, no black or white, “for we are all one in Christ Jesus” (). ” –(Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Gospel Coalition)
Where are you at in history, my friends? What do your actions demonstrate that you actually believe? Reflect, for heaven’s sake reflect. We are moments from murdering an entire race and branding ourselves with the mark-of-the-beast which we have so vehemently proselytized the pagans to beware. Beware! That is what we must BE. But WHERE we are and WHAT we are IS so FAR from the mark of the faith we herald. We are blind. Lord Jesus, help us see.
Additional Reading: Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
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| Image taken from twitter.com@kylejameshoward |
In order for the people of Israel to be healed from the judgment of their unfaithfulness, Moses held up a bronze serpent & they had to look upon the very instrument of their judgment to be healed (Numbers 21:9). In John 3, we are told that Jesus had to be lifted up on the cross like the serpent in Numbers. In Numbers, God’s covenant people had to look up to a serpent to be healed, and in John, all of humanity has to look up to a crucified man because it is humanity that is under the curse. Likewise, for true healing, white people have to look up and truly come to terms with what they’ve done. Healing cannot come without repentance, and White Evangelicals must come to true repentance if they are going to be healed. Also, true conciliation and healing will not happen without comprehensive repentance the includes owning the depths of sin along intentional action turning away from sinful patterns confessed.Faithfulness is not a switch that can just be turned on; it has to be accompanied by the hard and sometimes agonizing process of repentance. Beloved evangelicals, there are layers of hurt & woundedness that’ll take time to heal between the black & white community. Still, the church must lead the way & there is genuine repentance necessary for this to be accomplished. This repentance needed is likely both on a personal & community level.There is good news! There is awesome news! There is forgiveness & grace for you all! No white person who turns to God in repentance for their apathy, despite its depth, will be cast away. God loves black people, he is grieved at the betrayal they’ve endured, but he is merciful! Repentance may require you to speak to black people you have a relationship with and ask them for forgiveness for your apathy. It may require personal, corporate, or collective repentance. It will be hard and may even be embarrassing, but I promise you that most people will receive you and forgiveness. There is restoration on the other side of genuine repentance. Also, You must leave room for the possibility that you may have wounded/traumatized individuals to such a degree that for their own well being, they may not respond to your outreach. Press on in repentance; there’s healing there. There is reconciliation and restoration beyond the hard work of coming to terms with the gravity of your sin." -Kyle Howard
•Amy cooper knew to say I’m going to call the police and say an African-American man is bothering me. She knew what that would do- the fear it would incite. She knew how to wield that weapon.
•That was a hell of a punishment- taking a white lady’s dog. Job was one thing… but her dog. She was the first domino- with the backdrop of corona
•Remember Ahmaud- and then we watched someone being murdered and the murderer, the cop, is calm while doing it. It’s like he could do it, so he did it. Black man on the ground in handcuffs and you could take his life, so you did- almost knowing that there would be no ramifications. And everyone on the internet must watch this and see it- it floods our timelines as people.
•Ray of sunshine, how many people instantly condemning what they saw. – even fox news.
•What people take for granted is that for so many people it feels like nothing. How many of us can take the life of a human and have firing be the worst that happens to us? It just feels like there is no moment of justice. We don’t know what will happen but we can look at the past and so we feel like there is no justice…
•This is not how society should be run, this is not how society is built… but what is society? Society is a contract- a contract we sign as human beings amongst each other. And we agree with common rules and practices, and the contract is only as strong as the people abiding by it, but if you think of being a black person in America …. What vested interest do they have in maintaining the contract? The others are maintaining it for them. There are so many people who are destitute – all the have-nots… they are exhausted by playing by the rules- playing by the rules and they are getting killed. They are exhausted.
•What good does this do? What good doesn’t it do? Ask yourself this question. You were upholding society’s contract but law and ppl of power aren’t upholding their end of it… we need people at the top to be the MOST ACCOUNTABLE because they are setting the tone and tenor of everything in society… and right now our president isn’t setting the tone!
•Law enforcement is setting the example that they don’t adhere to the laws so why should others adhere to the laws? The people in leadership aren’t… our president surely isn’t setting some great example… (Megin could go off on a tangent about this…)
•CORE Principles we have to agree on: oAgree on what the principles are oThat the people who enforce will enforce them fairly oThat everyone is going to be treated fairly according to those principles
•Black Americans have seen their principles completely de-legitimized
•The unease you felt seeing target looted- try to imagine how it feels for black Americans to watch themselves being looted EVERYDAY
Let Rapper Killer Mike take you to church if you have nowhere else to go on Sunday. I have been struggling to figure out how to walk the line of not condoning violence yet completely understanding the riots and actions of protesters around the country right now burning businesses down to the ground. I get it. I don't LIKE it, but I get it. My mother sent me another video the other day that was given her by her African-American colleague. Some of you may have seen that I posted it on my Facebook soliciting response from my friends of color in regard to their take on its message. Samantha had wisdom and graciously took the time to share with me why she understood this woman's message but was angered by the tone in which she delivered it. Since then, I have perused her page, and while I appreciate her ministry and message, I identify what Samantha pointed out. This woman, BMack, appears to be a woman of privilege as well. She is black, but she is a woman of privilege. And what I am learning is that we have to realize our own implicit bias and privileges regardless our race. The spectrum of privilege is broad and runs through racial divides. We cannot instruct people on how they should behave and respond without considering their privileges and opportunities because, as Samantha so perfectly stated it, one cannot pull himself up by his bootstraps if others are continually cutting his bootstraps. 
| (Image: Source: Nijalon Dunn / Courtesy of Resurrection Houston via Christianitytoday.com) |
Why do I take up this cause? Why do I fight this battle? Why do I 'touch this hot stove' as my friend so well coined it to me in conversation earlier. Well, why not? SOMEONE has to. And I can. Others cannot, but I can... BARELY I can, but I can, nonetheless.
Black women can't. They get called angry.
Black men can't. They get killed.
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| (Championsofdiversity.com) |
But that is okay. I have learned how to live in the midst of emotional abuse, and I have learned how to thrive through it and let God use it. I have learned how to fly even when people seek to clip my wings and keep me down. So I will take up this torch in the place of those who cannot. Because I can....to some degree I can, and that is a privilege....a privilege I have as a white woman.
And I will hope to educate others lest they be like this white woman who did not realize she was racist. She paid a high price for ignorance. My heart almost hurts for her and the price she has paid, but I am reminded that the price others pay for her ignorance is much higher. She lost her dog and her job. Black men lose their lives.
My friend from high school shared a story on her personal Facebook page earlier today. I share it with her permission. She is married to an African-American man:
I’m glad we were almost home then or who knows what would’ve happened TO US. 🤰🏻👨🏽🦲👧🏽
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| (Reddit.com) |
Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Last night I went to bed angry.
I hadn't had time to myself in days, it seemed, as I cared for kids. I delight to care for my children, but I was itching to read and to write and to express myself in ways other than changing diapers, reciting the alphabet, and having tiny hands pull at different parts of my body all hours of the day and night. I love those hands, but sometimes I need to distance myself from them in order to gain the strength to love them well.
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| (Dailymail.com) |
and
‘I Can’t Breathe’: 4 Minneapolis Officers Fired After Black
Man Dies in Custody ...
Didn't we just have this happen? Wasn't that just yesterday?
Am I to assume that we've learned nothing? Apparently so!
Didn't we just have this happen? Wasn't that just yesterday? Am I to assume that we've learned nothing? Apparently so!
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| (Heavy.com) |
You may, however, tell me Jesus would have done it better. That, I will believe. I am not sinless. I am guilty. There is blood on my hands, and I screw up everyday. I hurt people. I make mistakes. I abuse through my words and actions. But I also repent, and I humble myself, and God teaches me, and I learn, and I grow, and I change...by God's grace. And I will work with anyone else who is willing to repent and grow and be changed by God's grace. Will you change with me? I will listen to any man who can lower his head with me and say "woe is me, for I have sinned, and my society has sinned," but I will listen to no man who turns his eyes to someone who places his knee upon the neck of another. I will listen to no man who says thank you God that you have not made me like one of those other men, a sinner, (Luke 18:11). I will listen to no one whose words ring hard of the rules we should follow and are devoid of the love He has been for us... for whatever you have done for the least of these brothers...that you have done to Him. And who is the least of these brothers? Who is our neighbor? Which man was a neighbor to the other? I guarantee you this, the man who was a neighbor did not have his knee upon anyone's neck, suffocating the life out of him... and the man who was his neighbor did not walk past and do nothing... spouting his faith. And these things, these things are not my verdict... they are the verdict of Christ, the guy you say you follow. So follow Him.
“There’s time to think. There’s time to work…I hope I’m wrong, but I still think the second waves coming…I hope I’m wrong.” -Dr. Lee, his father died shortly after the recording of the documentary.
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| (NYDailyNews.com) |
He Fit the Description: My friend Amy shared this on Facebook today. She lives near where this happened. This man's account speaks for itself- I have nothing to add... I want to say more. I want to go on and on, but we should just listen to him- his testimony. Believe him. He doesn't need a white girl to retell it and put he spin on it hoping people might listen to her. His word is enough. It should have been enough.
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| (Image taken from stevelocke.com) |
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| (Picture of Drew taken by his wife, Mandy Thompson) |
Is it a Free Country? I Don't Know.- ⇠⇠That is a link the the full article in the Guardian. Here is one from NBC news.
Die to the Gym:
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| (Facebook (screengrab) via Dailyvoice.com) |
We Aren't Safe in our homes? Or Are We?
Something's Gotta Give, and WHERE are the Christians??
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| (The Mercury News) |
I keep coming back to that adjective up there ↑↑, incongruous. And it's not because I don't have a robust vocabulary, (although it could probably use some revamping). But I come back to this word because these things don't make sense. WE don't make sense. THIS isn't fair. THIS isn't justice. This isn't RIGHT. THIS ISN'T THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE. And if we want to be Christians, if we want to be evangelical, then we have GOT to be congruent. We have GOT to practice what we preach. People deserve for us to get the freaking planks out of our own eyes before we try to point out the specks in theirs.
Breonna Taylor. 26-years-old. An EMT. She served people. I do not know her, but I ache for her. I ache for her family. I ache for all the dreams and hopes they had for her, that she had for herself, that will never come to fruition. I ache for the unknown and the unjust. I ache for the quenched flame. Her life was not wasted. Our God still reigns. He is still sovereign, and He is still good, and one day all this pain will be completely vindicated. Her life has meaning. I pray her death, though senseless to our minds, will be redeemed by God and used to redeem the brokenness in humanity... are you willing to be a part of that redemption? I'm willing. It's not easy. I don't always get it right. It's humbling. It's messy, but I cannot see that there is any other way...
Letter from Black Vineyard Pastors
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| (TheCut.com) |
Black Men Can't Jog
The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
Lynchers Finally Arrested after 74 days
Sign the Petition; Demand Justice- take a moment to sign the petition. You can upload a video calling for justice.
Dialogue with Pastor Steph
As an addendum to my previous post, I challenge anyone with questions to take my friend Stephanie up on her offer for conversation.
Stephanie was my roommate in Hong Kong in 2003. That fact alone should tell you she has the patience of Job. (If you didn't know 2003 Megin, you could ask her about that after you're done with the systemic racism conversation. It will certainly lighten any somber mood). Her passion for ministry was and still is inspiring. If you are genuinely interested in learning and dialogue, she offers conversation. I promise you won't regret it.
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| Painting by Nikkolas Smith |
Okay, I get it, everything is about politics. There have been politicians before now and there will be politicians later, but isn't THIS supposed to be the man who claims that he is NOT a politician but a regular guy trying to TIDY up Washington and make America great? A move like this from leadership frustrates me. Hand off the crisis so as to not be blamed for the mess of it... Position oneself in the just the right light so as to ward off criticism. Narcissistic personality disorder much? I recently read a book about unmasking narcissism and learning how to communicate better with those around us who are challenged in this area; nonetheless, I find myself angered to the core when those who are in positions that are positions that should shepherd and care for others use their positions for their own grandeur and glory. Leadership is about helping people go where they need to go even if they don't want to go there. Leadership is not about having people like you. Leadership is about service. Leadership is about love. Positioning oneself for one's own personal prestige and power-move is not loving. Getting into the trenches with people, aching with people, and waiting it out with them....that is loving. Doing for people what they cannot do for themselves; that is loving. Leading and loving is not looking for the people who will do for oneself what one needs done so that his or her agenda may be secured. I hate it. Disgusting. Ugh.
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