Here’s some more links to things others are saying. No endorsement nor agreement implied
Politics, Social Media, and More Important Things
Yes, I know and am concerned about my rights as an American, and it isn’t my preference that anything infringes on those liberties as I understand them. But I am even more concerned about joining God on His mission, and I want be careful that unhelpful speech never gets in the way.
If you can find a group of Christians who love Jesus and want Him over “things,” who desire fellowship and community, who aren’t legalistic or libertine, and who know the basics of what it means to love others (i.e., treat others the way they want to be treated), then you’ve found something precious on this earth . . . regardless of the “form,” the meeting location, the size, or “denomination” it may take.
Feeling Shame Is Not Repentance
Shame has its place, but feeling shame over sin is not the same thing as repentance from sin. Shame can come from wounded pride as much as it can come from our love for God. And when we allow the shame of one sin to lead us into more sin, the tempter can focus on small sins and still yield big results.
It simply comes down to what Paul writes in Romans 12:16. I think the old Jerusalem Bible captures the idea best when it renders it like this: “Never be condescending, but make real friends with the poor.”
Mr. Keltner suggests that, in general, we focus the most on those we value most. While the wealthy can hire help, those with few material assets are more likely to value their social assets: like the neighbor who will keep an eye on your child from the time she gets home from school until the time you get home from work. The financial difference ends up creating a behavioral difference. Poor people are better attuned to interpersonal relations — with those of the same strata, and the more powerful — than the rich are, because they have to be.
My God tells me to “flee sexual immorality.” He says “there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.” And He says it because He has plans for me, because He’s making something of me, because He wants to give me something better than “sexy.”
The Cuban Five were fighting terrorism. Why did we put them in jail?
Anti-Cuban militants, in fact, were considered heroes. In 2008, more than 500 Miami exile movers and shakers gathered to honor Posada’s contributions to la causa — as the effort to overthrow Castro is known in the community — at a gala dinner.
His contributions? Besides the Havana hotel attacks (“I sleep like a baby,” he told the New York Times, commenting on the tourist who was killed), Posada is the alleged mastermind of the bombing of Cubana Flight 455. Cuba and Venezuela have asked for his extradition. The United States has refused.
In 2000, Posada was arrested in Panama in connection with a plot to assassinate Castro; he was convicted and served four yearsbefore receiving a still-controversial pardon. That pardon was revoked in 2008.
The closest the U.S. government has come to prosecuting Posada was in 2009, when the Obama administration charged him — not for his role in the Havana bombings but for lying about his role on an immigration form. He was acquitted.
Today, Posada, 85, walks the streets of Miami, a living contradiction in America’s war on terrorism. How to square his freedom with President George W. Bush’s post-Sept. 11 declaration that “any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime?” How to square Posada’s freedom with the continued imprisonment of the Cuban Five, whose primary goal was to prevent terrorist attacks?
Oops: Azerbaijan released election results before voting had even started
Even still, one expects a certain ritual in these sorts of authoritarian elections, a fealty to at least the appearance of democracy, if not democracy itself. So it was a bit awkward when Azerbaijan’s election authorities released vote results – a full day before voting had even started.