Samson's Jawbone

How can Christians love their neighbor minister to refugee's in a country that enforces Trump's executive order on immigration.  Samson's Jawbone: What Nehemiah's Wall Reveals About Trump's Immigr... : A friend of mine, who is a Christian musician who was prominent in the 1970's, wrote this on his Facebook page after President Trump i...

A friend of mine, who is a Christian musician who was prominent in the 1970's, wrote this on his Facebook page after President Trump issued his executive order on immigration; Compassion is a Christian value and I believe an American one as well.  Closing the borders of our country based on religion defies imagination.  I'm not naive.  I understand that terrorists are looking to enter our country, and I am for all the background checks and law enforcement we need to do to make sure they aren't allowed in.  But my faith, and I'd like to think basic human decency, demands that I not turn a blind eye to the suffering masses who are fleeing war ravaged regions of the world.  How exactly to meet their needs will be debated, but surely Christian folks can agree that Christ taught us to serve the least of these. Compassion shouldn't be a partisan issue.  The book of Matthew speaks to me today… "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and...

Samson's Jawbone: If You Can't Do It, the Government Can : By David L. Miner In the last essay, we discussed the issue of rights and where rights come from. We saw that the Founding Fathers ...

By David L. Miner In the last essay, we discussed the issue of rights and where rights come from. We saw that the Founding Fathers believed that all rights originate in the Creator and rested in the people. We also saw that the people delegated certain responsibilities to the State and federal governments, and only certain responsibilities. Based on these statements of fact, we come face to face with a very important question: If We the People cannot require others to submit to a course of action, can our government require us to submit to that same course of action? This question is very important, even critical, in virtually every discussion of individual sovereign rights versus government authority. Can the government, any government, require you and me to perform some action or submit to some requirement that you and I cannot require our neighbor to perform or submit to? The quick and simple answer to that question is a resounding “NO!” Let’s see why this is true. ...

Last Friday, on January 6th the Christmas season ended in many liturgical churches in the west with Epiphany. (The calendar is a little different in the eastern churches). For those of us in the more informal, so called free or non-liturgical, churches Epiphany passed without recognition. For many of us it remains the untold epilogue of Christmas. In our churches the story of the Epiphany is conflated into the nativity. Our creches and living nativities will represent the baby in the manger, the Holy family, the angels, the shepherds, and the Magi all staring together in wonder at the new born babe in the manger, but the appearance to the shepherds and the visit of the Magi were separate  events. The Nativity story which is principally about God fulfilling his promise of a Messiah to the nation through a single Jewish family is told in the very private personal story account of the gospel of Luke. Matthew connects the events of the Savior's birth and early life to an histori...