It is much easier to skip from Friday to Easter than to dwell on Holy Saturday. It is like, as happened in my life, skipping grief as much as possible. It is easier to run from grief. We prefer to escape it rather than face it.
But my biggest problem starts on Easter Monday. I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday…and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration.
For believers, it is spring: Christ is risen! Yet for many of us, it still feels like winter. We identify with those powerful words Paul uses to describe our experience: groaning, longing, waiting, hoping. Those are not words of despair but of deep trust. They proclaim: “I believe spring has started even though it feels wintery.”
When darkness is all you can see, hold on for tomorrow is coming. And with it will come healing, hope, and joy.
Alexander Campbell, Tolbert Fanning, David Lipscomb: A Nineteenth-Century Anti-War Triumvirate
With examples like these, why is it that the greatest supporters of war and the military continue to be conservative Christians? I have given many reasons for this in my many articles and lectures on Christianity and war. But now we must add two more: ignorance or rejection of the nineteenth-century anti-war triumvirate of Alexander Campbell, Tolbert Fanning, and David Lipscomb.
But by this assumption government declares that both marriage and family are little more than legal constructs at best, and gifts from the state at worst. In the former case, marriage and family lose their objective fixity; in the latter case, we become the wards of the state.
Man is fallen and will destroy the Earth – but at least we greens made him wait
In the Christian world view, humankind is not basically benign. People are not good. But they can be redeemed. That’s the point, the unique selling point, if you like, of Christianity; and tomorrow, Easter Sunday, is its celebration.
Most Say Illegal Immigrants Should Be Allowed to Stay, But Citizenship Is More Divisive
A new survey finds that seven-in-ten Americans (71%) say there should be a way for people in the United States illegally to remain in this country if they meet certain requirements, while 27% say they should not be allowed to stay legally. Most who favor providing illegal immigrants with some form of legal status –43% of the public – say they should be allowed to apply for citizenship, but 24% of the public says they should only be allowed to apply for legal residency.
Right-to-Die Group Claims Initial Victory in Minnesota
It’s a felony in Minnesota to intentionally “assist, advise or encourage” suicide. Asphaug ruled that “advising” infringed on Goodwin’s right to free speech, since there was no evidence to directly implicate him in the woman’s death, and was therefore unconstitutional. The judge also struck down an assisted suicide charge and a charge for interfering with a death scene against one member, Roberta Massey.
Woman returns $30,000 she found in donated clothes
She said, “Things are tight. You struggle in your business, like everybody’s struggling. But when you struggle you think, oh, wow, if only I had money, my troubles would be solved. And so all this money shows up, but it’s the wrong way for it to come. It wasn’t mine and I knew it.”