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Unending Black Death and the Rise of Fascism in America

by Kenneth Vandergriff in Current Events

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Another young, black man shot in the back by police. The cycle of unending black and brown death pushes me to tears. The young man wasn’t innocent. There was a warrant for his arrest. But he was trying to make himself a better person. A father of two working on his GRE who couldn’t escape the life he once led. Unending black and brown death.

A disenfranchised young man half a world away and two generations prior to this shooting sits in the back of a packed room of disenfranchised men. He watches as someone takes a podium and begins to talk about how the country was great once, how it could be great again. It resonates with him. Over the next few months he begins to speak the same way. It turns out he has a way with words, a charisma that few can match. He begins a movement which overtakes the country. What is wrong with the country? How can we make the country great again? Eliminate the Jews.

A young man longs for the American dream. He starts a business. He fails multiple times but he keeps moving forward. He has a brashness about him that is charming in one moment and revolting in the next. He marries and divorces. He files bankruptcies. He finds his niche in reality television and a hairstyle that looks like the worst hair piece ever made. He runs for President. At first it seems like a joke. It seems that at some point his “movement” will blow over. It doesn’t.

What do the cycle of unending black and brown death, the rise and power of Adolf… [Read more…] about Unending Black Death and the Rise of Fascism in America

Legislating Bowel Movements: North Carolina and LGBT Discrimination

by Kenneth Vandergriff in Current Events, LGBT

I wasn’t alive during the Civil Rights marches of the 1960s. I wasn’t alive during the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s and 1970s. But I was alive to see the Berlin Wall fall, the Soviet Union crumble, and the rights of my LGBT friends become a reality.

I cried tears the day the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage because my LGBT friends who had lived so long as simply life partners could now enjoy the same benefits in the eyes of the law that my wife and I do.

I also cried tears last Wednesday because the legislature of my state, North Carolina, passed a bill which legalizes discrimination against my LGBT friends, as if they did not already experience discrimination — the only difference is that now that discrimination is legal.

The new law overturns Charlotte’s local LGBT non-discrimination ordinance, prohibits other local governments from passing LGBT non-discrimination ordinances, and requires students in public schools and publicly funded universities and colleges to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificate.

What the hell are the elected officials of North Carolina thinking? What’s worse is that they called a special session to ramrod this hateful, discriminatory piece of legislation through.

It doesn’t take faith in a higher power to understand that all people are created equal. No one person is inferior to another, though society often tries to tell us they are. I, however, do have faith in God. I read… [Read more…] about Legislating Bowel Movements: North Carolina and LGBT Discrimination

I’m an Evangelical Voter. No, Really …

by Michael L. Ruffin in Christian Issues, Current Events

I’m a Christian evangelical. To my way of thinking, “Christian” and “evangelical” are synonymous, since a Christian should live a life that bears witness with their attitudes, words, and actions to the good news of Jesus.

Somewhere along the way, though, people came to regard “evangelical” as synonymous with “conservative” and even with “fundamentalist.” Some folks think it’s not possible to be a “liberal evangelical.” Actually, one could make an excellent case that many liberal evangelicals reflect more of the way of Jesus in their ways of thinking, talking, and acting than do many conservative evangelicals.

It’s been interesting to observe how many of my more conservative evangelical sisters and brothers have approached the question of whom to support in recent elections.

When Barack Obama was running for president, lots of folks insisted that he was a Muslim and refused to believe his assertion that he was a Christian. I’m not sure it mattered to them whether he was Christian or Muslim. They weren’t sure which was worse: being a Muslim or being a liberal Christian. They figured that if Obama was a Christian, he wasn’t Christian enough, because he wasn’t their kind of Christian.

I understand that mindset, since I also sometimes judge the reality and quality of someone’s Christianity. Mainly, I’m troubled when a professing Christian seems to exhibit little awareness of what Jesus did and said. We’re supposed to be following him, after all, so I’m suspicious of… [Read more…] about I’m an Evangelical Voter. No, Really …

An Open Letter to Ted Cruz

by Matthew Distefano in Current Events

Dear Ted,

You and I claim to worship the same God. We probably read our Bibles a bunch and, only because I recently started attending a Methodist church, our Sunday mornings are probably spent in “similar” fashion. But, in light of some of the things you and your “people” have said on the campaign trail, I cannot help but think we actually worship a different God—at least one with very dissimilar qualities. No doubt if you knew my theology you would agree with me on that one. And so, instead of simply prattling off all the reasons why I believe you are in the wrong and I am in the right (as if that would get us anywhere), please allow me to ask you three quick questions about how you approach faith, the Bible, and the like. I think this will help me understand just how you arrived at some of your conclusions. Thanks.

When you told the American Family Association that “if you fear God, you obey God’s precepts,” what did you mean by that? I know you listed a few things after this statement (like living by holiness codes, individual responsibility, and free enterprise) but are we to follow all biblical precepts? For instance, if two men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, should we cut off her hand and show no pity like Deuteronomy 25:11–12 commands? Or how about this one: are we to follow Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, in… [Read more…] about An Open Letter to Ted Cruz

 Putting Dr. Larycia Hawkins on Trial 

by Sharmeen Farooq in Christian Issues, Current Events

The Wheaton College Faculty Council has unanimously recommended that the college administration withdraw their efforts to fire Dr. Larycia Hawkins. This development comes after a month of controversy stemming from Dr. Hawkins’ public expression of solidarity with Muslims and her statement that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. But, despite the showing of support from the Faculty Council, Dr. Hawkins must still face the inquisition presented by the Faculty Personnel Committee, the College President, and the Board of Trustees.

Like millions of people around the world, I do not have a profound understanding of theology. I am just a common (wo)man with a bit of a common sense and an appetite for justice. And that is why and how I write today — not personally as a Christian, a Muslim, a Zoroastrian, or a Jew — but as a human being who cares deeply about justice.

As a third person to the events surrounding Dr. Hawkins, I cannot possibly peel through all the layers of policies and agendas at Wheaton College. What I do know and understand, however, is the essence of religious belief and the appeal of religious conviction, factors that have allowed religion to thrive throughout human history.

Here is how I would rather simplistically break down the case of Dr. Hawkins if I were a Christian “judge.”

I understand Dr. Hawkins had good intentions and felt sympathy for her “Muslim neighbors” who were being targeted by Islamophobic “gestures.”

Good intentions… [Read more…] about  Putting Dr. Larycia Hawkins on Trial 

White Supremacy and the Pulpit: What the White Church Must Learn from Charleston

by Kaytlin Butler in Current Events

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Today marks the six-month anniversary of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Though other stories now dominate the headlines, and though the trial of Dylann Roof is at least a half-year away, the issues raised by the events of that horrific day are still sadly relevant. Issues of racism, oppression, responsibility and reconciliation continue to haunt American society and continue to confront Christian church. But, just as yesterday’s tragic headlines are all too quickly forgotten, so too does the white church all too easily ignore these deeper issues, instead sacrificing meaningful engagement for the complacency of simplistic platitudes.

In an interview with NBC News several months after the Charleston shooting, two of the survivors spoke about their experience. Felicia Sanders recalled watching her son, Tywanza Sanders, breathe his last breath. Polly Shepherd recalled being specifically told by Dylann Roof that he would intentionally spare her life so that she might tell the story of his actions. In the interview Sanders says, “I’ve forgiven him now. It’s all in God’s hands.”

In the days after Dylann Roof was apprehended by South Carolina authorities, the victims’ families and the Emanuel AME community gathered for Roof’s bail hearing. Through the course of the hearing, the community members were given an opportunity to speak directly to Roof. They tearfully declared that they had chosen to… [Read more…] about White Supremacy and the Pulpit: What the White Church Must Learn from Charleston

Bible Test for Syrian Refugees

by Matthew Distefano in Christian Issues, Current Events

Surely, it is quite easy to establish whether someone is a Christian or not. Just ask Presidential candidate Jeb Bush. I mean, there are ways. One of those ways should be for all Syrian refugees who want to enter the United States to take a rigorous test of their faith and their understanding of Scripture.

The Bible clearly states that Christians are to rightly explain the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Thus, I believe the easiest thing to do is create an appropriate test for us to tell whether or not we are bringing in Christians, as some have suggested we do. I have compiled such a test below.

Section I: Multiple Choice

Directions: Select the best answer from the given options.

How many books are in “the Bible?”

66
73
80
81

Where was Jesus born?

Bethlehem in Judea
Nazareth in Galilee
Bethlehem in Galilee

Who wrote the Torah?

Moses
J
E
P
D
All of the above except a

How should the phrase πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, from Romans 3:22, be translated?

Faith of Jesus Christ
Faith in Jesus Christ
I don’t know Greek
I didn’t know that was Greek

According to the Old Testament, who incited David to take a census in Israel?

The Lord
Satan
Satan, working for the Lord
Depends on who you’re talking to

According to the Bible, in what way were the first man and woman created?

At the same time
The man first, then the woman
Depends on who you’re talking to

According to the Bible, when will the rapture… [Read more…] about Bible Test for Syrian Refugees

Three Kisses: A Glimpse Into the Life of a Syrian Refugee Family in America

by Sana Khatib in Current Events

This guest post was written by Sana Khatib about her visit with a Syrian refugee family. Specific names and locations have been omitted in order to protect their privacy.

View image | gettyimages.com
 

I knew I was in the right place when I saw stained sofas and mattresses on porches, spray painted houses with boarded windows, and shirtless teenage boys on the street corner. On September 25th, someone robbed the refugee family I was going to visit of the $1200 that they had managed to scrounge together for rent. When they returned home, the house looked like the dressers threw up and the table that used to hold a donated laptop was barren.

I pulled into the driveway, reluctant to block the entrance. Turning on the hazard lights, I quickly opened my trunk and attempted to pull out the large wooden dresser. A middle-aged man with round eyes like bouncing balls and leathery tanned skin approached me. “Ahlan! Yateekee al afiya,” he chirped in Arabic, which roughly translates to “Hello! May God grant you health.” He gestured for me to step away so he could take over. “Who do you think put this in the trunk in the first place?” I asked facetiously. He let out a light-hearted chuckle.

My eye caught a glimpse of a young boy wearing worn out jeans and a Seattle Seahawks t-shirt. “Come here,” I called for him, “I have a present for you.” His eyes brightened as I gave him a Nintendo DS that once hid untouched in the bottom drawer of my daughter’s room. I thought about… [Read more…] about Three Kisses: A Glimpse Into the Life of a Syrian Refugee Family in America

Kicking the Samaritan: Christianity and the Anti-Muslim Backlash

by Don M. Burrows in Christian Issues, Current Events, Islam

View image | gettyimages.com

 

By now, the anti-Muslim backlash we witness after every fresh terror attack is not all that surprising. Bigots will be bigots, and they are not known for complexity or nuance in the face of … well, anything.

What makes it more unsettling this time is that while in decades past the top Republican in the country has denounced Islamophobia, this time around Republican candidates for the presidency have fallen over themselves to be ever more hateful toward Muslims.

A full 23 governors (most of them Republicans) announced on Monday that they would not welcome Syrian refugees into their borders, while Jeb Bush noticeably departed from his brother’s more measured words and declared that we should screen people by religion – accepting only Christian refugees and not Muslim ones into America.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, then mused on national television that we should look at shutting down mosques.

All of this from the party of “religious freedom.”

We could wax on about how hypocritical they are for thinking religious freedom means actively discriminating against gays or denying your employees birth control, as opposed to, you know, shutting down houses of worship. But their mentality seems far darker than mere hypocrisy.

Need it even be said in this day and age? To turn one’s back on refugees is the epitome of anti-Christian action.

When Jesus was asked what one must do to attain eternal life… [Read more…] about Kicking the Samaritan: Christianity and the Anti-Muslim Backlash

God or Country?

by in Current Events

I live on Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH), I am a United States war veteran, and I am one of the people who contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) about the “God Bless Our Troops” sign situated here on base.

When I first arrived at the base this past summer I noticed how beautiful and serene it is here. I was also overjoyed to meet some of the finest, most caring, and most giving individuals one could ever hope to come in contact with. I signed my boy up for soccer and now coach his football team.

I also, however, noticed a problem when I arrived at MCBH: a giant sign erected on the base that seemed to me to be entirely unconstitutional. I passed this sign every day. It was unavoidable — the road to the athletic field and the health clinic goes right by it.

The sign states, in no uncertain terms, that this base, which is supposed to be entirely neutral regarding religion, does in fact hold one deity above all others. This was unacceptable to me and so, in August, I contacted the MRFF to investigate whether or not the sign violated the Constitution of the United States. Their reply, in very plain words, explained that it did.

When I joined the United States Navy I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. This majestic product of the Enlightenment, was, and still very much is, an important part of my life. When I was honorably discharged, I did not renounce my oath, which is what makes this situation all the more heart wrenching for me. To see one of the… [Read more…] about God or Country?