Motes and Beams

Even if you believe homosexuality, abortion, birth control, etc., to be sins, then the correct Christian response is to avoid doing them. It is not to work to pass laws to force sinners not to sin. It would be like asking the scorpion not to sting you as you carried him across the river.  Nor is it to stand around on a street corner saying "Thank God I never had an abortion like that poor rape victim over there who is saying, ' God be merciful to me a sinner'" Pointing out the mote in her eye while praying no one notices the beam in yours. (Luke 18:10-14, Luke 6:41-42)

Energy Report: Obama Goes On Offense About Gas Prices, Reliance On Foreign Oil

There are 2 things we can do to immediately see the price of gas drop:



1. Ban the export of US oil - we're drilling more oil than ever but it's being shipped to the same places Republicans shipped our manufacturing jobs.



2. Require positions in oil futures be held a minimum of 30 days to discourage speculation and encourage those with a legitimate interest in oil futures (airlines, FedEx, etc.) to hold purchase and hold them.
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House Republicans Struggle To Piece Budget Together

Boehner and the Republican Liar's Club are still beating the same dead horse. They took over the House in 2010 promising to create jobs and have done nothing since but obstruct and try to legislate America's bedrooms. Oh, and try to pad Boehner's bank account by pushing through the Canada-2-China oil pipeline. Poll after poll has shown that, while the deficit is a concern, Americans care more about jobs - but the Republicans could care less what Americans care about.
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His Hands

Some time ago my wife and I were out shopping.  As we got in the car to go home, I saw a vision, plain as day, in front of me of a thrift store across town. When we got there we wandered around and found nothing of interest .. except .. this man with really greasy clothes hanging around in the book section.

Turns out he was new to town, had a job, but hadn't received his 1st paycheck and had nothing to eat.  We were priviledged to walk him across to MacDonalds and buy him a meal with the last of of our money.

Did I say, "Our money?" As a Christian I own nothing but am simply God's hand to pass his things on to those in need.

If He Will Not Work

Acts 2:44-45  And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

The first church, the one led by
the people who lived and ate and slept and traveled - if they had toothbrushes then they would have brushed their teeth together - with Jesus were Socialists. And... If they were Socialists, today's Christians should be Socialists.

The Bible did impose wage and labor regulations:

Leviticus 19:13  Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning:

And business regulations:
Leviticus 19:35-36  Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Socialism is the marriage of "Love thy neighbor" (Matt. 22:39)  and "if any would not work, neither should he eat." (2Thes. 3:10)  Welfare has several purposes. Capitalism is incapable of providing full employment, leaving a certain number of people jobless & willing to undercut the wages of those with jobs.  Welfare provides wage stability and mitigates Capitalism's failures by paying people not to work. Socialism doesn't pay people not to work, but it doesn't let people starve either, it makes sure everyone has a job and that everyone shares in the rewards of their work.

The Battle Over School Prayer and Why It Matters

I remember as a lad in 3rd grade in a country public school in Alabama (no kindergart­en, 1&2 grades had a new building, 3rd through 12th shared a building) that we had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and say a teacher led prayer every morning. I also remember also, that we had a little girl in our class whose parents were Jehovah's Witnesses and was not allowed to participat­e, something the teacher pointed out ... every ... single ... morning (as in, everyone but (can't remember her name) stand and...) she was harassed and teased mercilessl­y. And at how horrified I was at the way she was treated (even as the oldest grandson of a Southern Baptist preacher).



There is a lot wrong with public prayer in school - one can still pray the Biblically required privately, as a lot of prayers go up privately right before unstudied-­for tests in every school in the country. I'm sure Baptists don't want their kids praying Catholic style prayers in majority Catholic communitie­s, Catholics don't want their kids praying to Allah in Dearborn, & Muslims don't want their kids praying prayers led by Baptists in Protestant majority schools, etc.



God was not served in my 3rd grade class, nor would he be served by compelling kids to pray prayers they disagree with or in formats they disagree with today.
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What Does The Book Of Revelation <em>Really</em> Mean?

Revelation is the record of a vision received by a Christian mystic during a time when Christians were experienci­ng great persecutio­n. As a vision, it is symbolic, as a writing during persecutio­n, it is written to obscure it's criticism of the persecutor­s. Some of the symbols are obvious, like the "mark of the beast" which referred to a requiremen­t that everyone bow down and worship Caesar and those who did were giving a document attesting to their act - these documents were sold to people who couldn't worship Caesar (Christian­s and Jews), so they could "prove" they had and avoid the penalties.



Revelation makes little sense to us during pleasant times, but time and again, has provided comfort during the hard times of history. As a symbolic document, Revelation can be, and has been, re-interpr­eted to provide comfort to the persecuted in every age. It was written, not for the pseudo-per­secuted, the American Conservati­ve who complains of persecutio­n if someone says, "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas,­" but to Christians like those in North Korea, China, Indonesia, and the Middle East who are today giving their lives and freedom for their beliefs.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost