Samson's Jawbone

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...

Following my last Elisha's Ax Head post  "The Growing Pandemic of Foot-and-Mouth Disease"  I stated this post would emphasize how we actually avoid the malady. Unfortunately, it has taken me more time than I expected to prepare the second post, and with all that has happened in the month since I last posted I have decide to delay my post for one month. I apologize for the delay but after this post I will return to Elisha's Ax Head Can anyone explain why for 6+ years under President George W Bush (43) we went without any terrorist attack on US soil, or on our interests overseas, while after 71/2 years of Obama we have had either a terrorist attack, a mass shooting, or riots weekly? Sometimes Obama says availability of guns is the problem. Other time s, he says its because of a racist judicial system . Were guns not as readily available from 2003-­2009? Do we spend too much money on military spending , o r have we failed to use our military to create diversit...

It would appear to many, especially the political pundits, that Donald Trump may very well be the Republican Candidate for President of the United States of America. And the Internet gives all of us plenty of opportunity to like or endorse or reject or hate the man. In doing any of the above, I suggest that Conservative Christians have the hardest job in many years of deciding which of the above options we should pursue. Is God calling Conservative Christians to refuse to vote for Trump? Can Conservative Christians endorse Donald Trump and look God in the eyes at Judgement? And can Conservative Christians support or vote for a man with the moral and spiritual failures that Trump clearly carries with him? And can Conservative Christians reject Trump's candidacy when knowing that action will result in less votes for Trump, when every vote for Trump cancels out a vote for Hilary Clinton. In other words, withholding a vote for Trump will almost assure four more years ...

And so he began: Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself. The death that fell from the sky on that "bright cloudless morning" laid a new foundation for peace and restored order. The War with it's 60 million dead had demonstrated man's capacity  to destroy itself. The bomb prevented civilization's self-destruction. The bomb prevented civilization's self-destruction. Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women and children, thousands of Koreans, a dozen Americans held prisoner. The force unleashed that killed so many was unleashed long before the fateful day.  After many envoys had gone from China pursuing peace, Japan invaded...

In the Nathanael Hawthorne's  novel  Scarlett Letter  set  in June 1642 in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman found guilty of adultery. She is required to wear a scarlet "A" ("A" standing for adulteress) on her dress to  shame  her. The persistent victories of Donald Trump in the early primaries reveal a new mark of shame. Now any politician that has the letter (R)  next to his name is marked as an adulterer, one who has broken the most sacred bond of trust with their family.  Few pundits and even fewer politicians understand Trump's popularity is a result of adultery, a betrayal of trust, a broken relationship. The Republican party has over the last two decades treated its base like the people of Boston treated Hester Prynn e. Over and over again from the passage of the Medicare Prescription drug act to several attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform the party leade...

My first years of schooling were spent at Forest Hills Elementary School in Tampa. I have fond memories of the school except for one thing -- the air raid drills. We had regular practices preparing for nuclear war with Russia and an invasion of the Florida peninsula from Cuba. From time to time we were shown films prepared by the United States Office of Civil Defense, showing what our lives would be like in the bomb shelters, or how to recognize Russian or Cuban infantry if they were in our area. While walking between buildings the air raid would sound, we would hurl our bodies spread eagle with our hands over our head onto the ground, or if we were indoors we would get under our desks.  50 years later the drills seem ludicrous. These precautions would have done no good in a nuclear war. Since President Kennedy's showdown with Russia gave the country a feeling of safety, to a small elementary school boy the precautions seemed adventurous. Most of us preferred the Civil Defense...