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Meditations of a christizen (christian-citizen)upon today's topics. |
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I, Brother James, cultivated through my imagination 'The Word Courier's Journal'. It is but one of several literary efforts so conceived to include the "Word", the mind altering, eye opening, lifesaving Gospel of Jesus Christ into the everyday conversation on those things deemed relevant to readers. I and all other followers of the Lord are called to witness. Jesus said "Go therefore and teach all nations..." (see Matthew 28:19 KJV Holy Bible) Here lies my modest attempt to introduce the unknowing people to the Lord and immerse they who know Him in discussion with respect to His outlook on all that matters. |
| They call it a once in a life time opportunity for a reason; So stop looking for it to happen again |
| The Covid -19 plague has directly taken the heretofore unthinkable 200,000 American lives. Death has garnered more than its typical share of the news lately. This is saying something given that death is a familiar daily announcement. Still, the Lord revealed rays of hope from the lives of three non covid related who passed on in the last few days. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice from 1993-2020,Chicago Bears legend Gale Sayers and lesser known Rev. Robert Graetz have departed within this time. Mini and mighty could be their epithets. The Notorious RBG as she was known in popular culture was a 5'2 court dynamo who made perhaps her most lasting impact with a dissenting i.e. minority court opinion. Her dissent in the equal pay based Ledbetter v Goodyear Tire and Rubber decision (550 U.S. 618, 2007) provided the gist for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Gale Sayers put together a hall of fame resume in a seven year career shortened by injuries. Yet, it's Rev. Graetz story that inspires 'Word Courier' awe. The good reverend, a white southerner native to West Virginia, helped to organize the Montgomery bus boycott of which Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr are known. He and his family faced stiff opposition as a result. Threats, vandalism to his personal property and two fire bomb attacks upon their home followed due to the dominant culture's resistance to change. Recently, via the Word courier, I've spoken out against the hypocrisy typically displayed by dominant Caucasian Bible Belt culture. To profess faith in the God of the Holy Bible along with the hatred historically displayed towards their black brothers and sisters is inconsistent at best and simply shameful. However, it's heartening to know the Lord has a faithful few among the bible belters. The Lord has always provided for this faithful few. He told Elijah as much. The great prophet hid in terror from the wrath of Jezebel, Israel's queen and devotee of the Canaanite deity Baal. Furthermore, he was convinced that he was all alone in worship of the true God of Israel. To this the Lord said "...I have left seven thousand in Israel which have not bowed unto Baal.." 1 Kings 19:18 KJV Holy Bible The apostle Paul some 900 years later referred to these few as a remnant. Romans 11:4,5 The South's remnant provided safe houses for the famed Underground Railroad that freed as many as 100,000 people from slavery. Southern faithful few such as Rev. Graetz challenged post civil war "Jim Crow" society. Today, they live out the true meaning of faith in and living according to the God of the Scriptures. The remnants in the South and elsewhere prove the truth to Aristotle's quote "The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend." |
| The N.F.L.'s (National Football League) delayed season is formally upon us. Benjamin Watson, recently retired Super Bowl XXXIX champion and tight end who played with four league franchises made the news last week. But, it wasn't about football. It was about life. To be precise, it was about lives. He shared a press conference stage with Tulsi Gabbard, congresswomen (D-HI) and former presidential candidate, to urge American advocates for racial justice to speak up on behalf of persecuted Nigerian Christians. Life and lives are a familiar talking topic for him. He has repeatedly spoken up with regard to abortion and penned a legendary response to the Ferguson, MO police killing of Michael Brown and its aftermath. Then, he remarked that racism wasn't a skin problem but rather a sin problem. This time he spoke for Nigerian Christians. He as one of the faithful is concerned with all lives. Undoubtedly, the fact that its fellow people of faith is of concern to him. The United Nations estimate that roughly 2.4 million people dispersed between African nations Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger have been displaced by the theoretically Islamic group Boko Haram and ethnic Fulani militants A website, silentslaughternigeria.com, tallies deaths and abductions* sustained by the Christian communal farming groups typically targeted. Jubilee Campaign , an organization dedicated to protecting religious and ethnic minorities, maintains that this activity amounts to genocide. Terror led by Boko Haram multiplied the Christian death rates. The numbers are higher from 2015-2020 then the longer time span of 2000-2014. Mr. Watson seeks to bring this to our attention. He express concerns about lives regardless of stage of lives, location of lives or color of lives. This is a sincere meaning to the phrase "all lives matter." * See Word Courier Journal entry Nigerian Nightmare, May 7 2014 |
| I don't hear it. Upon holding my hand on my ears and stretching my neck out, I still don't hear it. Perhaps the sound that I'm listening for isn't there. Where is the outcry from the president's rabid pro life evangelical supporters about alleged government obstruction into multiple womens ability to bear children? A government agency, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) is partnered with a contractor accused of doing nonconsensual hysterectomies on immigrant women. Still, not a word from them. It wasn't that long ago Donald Trump trotted out former college football coach Lou Holtz among others at his Republican party convention. Coach Holtz led several football teams, notably the universities of Arkansas and South Carolina. He won his lone national championship at Notre Dame with its storied and very Roman Catholic tradition. He's not only catholic , he is so catholic that its his prerogative to determine who the legit Catholics are. He renounced Sen. Joe Biden as catholic in name only due to his political stance on abortion. Yet, this alleged government interference with life doesn't seem to bother coach. He hasn't spoken up about government collusion who may have conducted 17 coerced hysterectomies. The president's evangelical prayer partner, Rev. Franklin Graham is also silent on the issue. And, herein lies the problem. It seems some are pro life only when it suits them. The trumpettes readily play the conservative abortion card when it's time to chase votes. They're against government interference to the right to life come election time. This is as witnessed in their Republican convention. Government sponsored obstruction of lives and the possibility of lives seems like something a true conservative i.e. limited government, respect for rule of law and personal freedom devotee would be against. But, not in this case. However, it's Democrats that are raising their voices about this. Congressional leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,(D-Ca) Bennie Thompson (D-MS) Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) have raised concerns about this. In fact, the House Speaker has indicated the complaint lodged over this behavior will be investigated. All this is in response to a complaint filed by Project South an organization not affiliated with conservatism. Apparently, Trumpian pro life crowd values some lives over others. The lives of and potential lives from the women affected by Georgia's Irwin Cy Detention Center don't factor in their definition of life. A more disturbing reality rears its ugly head. The accused actions actually is a form of mankind taking on the role of our Lord with regard to choosing who will and will not reproduce. Such a thing is a the most extreme act of heresy. The irony that this would come from an administration whose supporters think of themselves as faith based. |
| " Evangelicals of all people, should not be silent about Donald Trump's blatant immorality" Christianity Today October 2016 "The world is watching and when church leaders hold Trump up as a representative of our faith; the damage to the gospel is immense" Jerushah Duford, leader in the Lincoln Women a component of the Lincoln Project It's heartening to see that other people of faith in the God of the Holy Bible share the same concerns about "evangelical" support for Donald Trump that the Word Courier Journal has expressed. The publishers of Christianity Today warned us of this false prophet back in 2016. Recently, Jerushah Duford, a granddaughter of the late great Billy Graham, sounds the alarm concerning the price to pay for support of this most un Christ like among leaders. She has mentioned the world sees this hypocrisy and the result is turning further away from the gospel. The enemies to the gospel have and in the future will use Bible belt, evangelical and Caucasian i.e. white Roman Catholics support of Donald Trump as a means to dismiss Christians. And, when gospel enemies point towards this, they don't and won't bother to distinguish these sub groups from all other believers. They do and will paint church support to this anti Christ like figure as something universal among "Christians." Meaning, that all his foolishness, vileness and complete failure as a leader and its attending devastating results will be lumped together with people of faith and our faith. This is what happens when the spirit of idolatry takes over among the flock. Something, political power in this case, has super ceded believers call to live out the gospel. So, blindly following a severely un Christ like man as this and anointing him leader, excusing his heretical ways is a natural outcome of putting Supreme Court appointments, policy changes and party above God. The commandment that "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is the first such commandment given for a reason. History has repeatedly shown that once something comes before God nothing that follows will be of any good. When the G.O.P. i.e. Republican symbolic elephant is valued above the cross (or anything for that matter) disaster happens. |
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