Sudan: Death to Christians & Freedom

I have received several e-mails like the one posted below from the ACLJ:

Meriam Ibrahim faces death. Martin, her American toddler, is imprisoned and sick.

He could lose his mother and be turned over to the very radical Islamists who hung her.

A judge in Sudan ordered Meriam to renounce her Christian faith or die. She's refused, saying, "I will remain a Christian."

She's pregnant, and once her American baby is born, she'll be flogged and then executed.

Prayer and public pressure are Meriam and her American children's only hope.

Already over 200,000 have signed our petition for her freedom.

We're working directly at the U.N. and with Members of Congress to save her life.

This is a death penalty case. Your voice can make the difference, but time is of the essence. Tomorrow is the last day to sign before we send our letter to Sudan.

The ACLJ is petitioning Sudan concerning this matter.  To join in signing their petition go to Be Heard Project.

Fox News reports on this at Sudanese Christian shackled while awaiting death sentence, husband says.

MailOnline also reports at EXCLUSIVE: The REAL reason pregnant mother was sentenced to death in Sudan? Jealous family got her charged to STEAL her successful business claims her American husband's legal team.

Below are some videos telling more about this situaton:







If speaking out against this flogging and death sentence seems appropriate and desirable, the ACLJ offers the very simple and easy opportunity to sign their petition on-line at Be Heard Project.

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Not OK, for You, Man

Yesterday produced various reports of a domestic incident in Darien, CT.  According to police, a family fight ensued between CBS news personalities Robert and Ashley Morrison.  Ashley’s mother called the police to report the incident.  The police found red marks on Ashley’s neck and arrested her husband for felony strangulation.

Here is Robert’s mug shot:



While the various reports all mention that upon arrival the police found Robert’s face bloodied, not a single word is mentioned in any of the news reports concerning how this occurred.

How did Robert receive these injuries?

In the elevated family fracas, who first acted with violence against the other?

How can it be that with two people suffering injuries that only one is charged with violence?

In the film, Joe Somebody, Joe and his girlfriend, Meg, have an argument where she gives him an ultimatum regarding his plan to do something very stupid and wrong.  He has planned and prepared for a fight with a bully who previously assaulted him and humiliated him.  She presents the ultimatum of a choice between keeping the appointment for the fight or keeping her.  He sadly says that he cannot make that choice and walks away.

After facing the bully and declining to fight him, Joe comes to Meg to share the news of his choice.  She does not listen, but reacts angrily and violently.  She first gives a two-fisted and forceful thrust to Joe’s chest.  Then she punches toward his face, which he blocks.  He explains how important she is to him and she calms down and all is wonderful.



How many times is this sort of scene portrayed in the movies?  How many times is this encountered in real life?

How many people will be inclined to call the police upon seeing a woman striking a man?  If a man calls the police saying that his wife is pushing him around and hitting him, will they even respond to the call?  If they do, will they arrest the woman or will they bring a straightjacket for the man and take him for a psych evaluation?

How many wives hit their husbands and when confronted act as though they did nothing wrong?

Admittedly, in many cases it is like a flea attacking a dog.  Yet even the tiniest flea can drive a dog crazy.

I have witnessed women acting violently toward men on many occasions, even as they walked down the street or in a shopping mall or parking lot.  I have never seen the police called unless the man responded in similar manner.  In fact, I’ve never seen people intervene in any way unless the man became forceful.  This is especially true in less affluent areas.

How is it that a woman can be abusive to a man without a strong likelihood of being held accountable, but if a person acts abusively to a horse the person is very likely to be charged with a crime?

What actually transpired in the Morrison household is not known publicly.  Yet the reporting certainly reflects this inequitable perception in society.  Moreover, the reported assumptions of the police also seem to reflect this injustice.  The police responded to a reported incident.  Upon their arrival at the home they find two people with injuries.  The man is arrested and charged with multiple crimes.  The woman is presumed to be an innocent victim.

Maybe the police were correct.

Certainly Robert’s love for his wife should have restrained him from acting as he did, whether or not he was provoked by his wife or even if she bloodied his face.  Certainly he should have found a non-violent way to address whatever issues existed between them, even if this meant leaving the issue alone until they both could confront one another calmly and rationally.

And from a Christian perspective, the responsibility does fall upon the husband to act as the head of his family. This means that he will be the one to bear the injustice and unfairness of the situation.  He will be the one to step back and wait patiently for his wife and family to become calm again.  The Lord has placed this upon the man.  He is to be the stronger one who bears all things in love, dealing with the issues from the strength that the Lord gives.

It is amazing how often extremely heated arguments if viewed in retrospect are perceived as arising from very insignificant issues.  Pride and an unwillingness to bear what is perceived to be unfair are usually the main problems.

     And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
(1 Peter 4:8)

Agape kalupsei plethos hamartion. (1 Peter 4:8)

Agape
veils
fullness
of lacking of share in/missed marks

Husband and wife, sharing together in Agape, see not the missed marks of the other, perceive not the short comings of the other, count not any lacking of sharing in the union with the other, for all that they perceive is the Agape.  It is as though the bridal veil is again covering the bride’s face so that she sees her husband through the veil and he sees her through the veil.  Both are viewed with the perfection of the love that binds them together.

When this veil is removed and cast aside or stored away someplace, then they see each other very differently.  Then every fault, every failure, ever shortcoming is viewed and accounted.

In Joe Somebody, when Joe stops Meg from hitting him and pressed beyond her anger to express his love for her, he tells her: “You're what I want.  I don't think there's anything about you that I don't like.”  She responds: “My ears aren't perfectly even.”  Joe responds: “I like that.”

Joe seems not even to have noticed that she tried to hurt him.  He counts no insult from her ridiculous minimization of her faults with the vain remark about her ears.  He sees only the beautiful perfection of his love for her.

This is the way with Agape.  It is a one-sided love.  Agape is of God.  Thus it covers all to whom He gives it so that they begin to see through God’s love for us, which covers all imperfection with God’s perfect love.  This is more than an emotional attachment or infatuation. For those to whom God’s love is poured out in their baptism, God’s love covers them and fills them completely so that their view of the world is changed.  This is because they themselves are changed.

The beginnings of this are experienced even now for those who are baptized into Christ.  In the resurrection they shall experience this in its fullness everlastingly.

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Fascinating Videos

Tuesday was the Fortieth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that the privacy of the womb belongs only to the woman, and not to its occupant, not to the unborn baby.

Yesterday I found some fascinating videos that were produced regarding this issue.  They are quite effective in evoking deeper thought concerning the issues of the reality that babies are people with hearts and souls and minds and are part of our society, part of the human race.







I don’t particularly like the notion of “potential” as the view towards a baby or any other human being.  But these videos do demonstrate that something very important is being ignored by our society in the matter of abortion and the value human life in general.

In Roe v. Wade and Roe v. Wade - 410 U.S. 113 (1973) it is reported that the woman’s constitutional right to privacy as guaranteed in several amendments and particularly the Fourteenth and Ninth amendments was the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision against the unborn baby in favor of the woman’s right for no one to know.  It seems ironic that the strongest arguments were based upon the right for privacy regarding Due Process.  And so a woman and abortionist are protected under due process while the baby is not.

It is even more powerfully ironic that in his recent inaugural address Obama spoke of reasons to ignore people’s rights to privacy in various matters.  The right to self-defense amendment is particularly under attack by a former Senator and now President who openly supports abortion as a right of women and especially of the abortion industrialists.  Is it not ironic that a woman’s so-called right to privacy has now become a right to have the rest of society pay for the termination of her baby?  Is it not ironic that the people who object to abortions on the basis of their belief that killing babies is ungodly no longer have any First Amendment rights whatsoever, even in many cases being denied the right of free speech?

The extent of the irony reaches into another area as well, as is reported at Ex-SEAL Zinke: 'Nearly Certain' Women in Combat Will Cost Lives.

It does not seem to be accidental that with the Roe v. Wade decision that the views of many women began to change significantly.  In the past it was extremely uncommon for women to think of military service as a “right” of women.  With the dehumanizing of babies and the devaluing of life in general, our society is more and more inclined to glorify warriors as role models.  Killing and fighting are predominant themes in movies.  Survival games are promoted as entertainment on TV.  Sending troops overseas to invade other countries under the guise of National Security and the War against Terrorism has become accepted. Assassinations via drones has become accepted.  Even the so-called collateral damage is hardly even counted anymore.

Are these issues divorced of one another?  Is there no common link between them?

Should we not consider seriously how far we have wandered in our thinking and values as a society?  Should we not also consider the things that have promoted this erosion and degradation and devolution of human decency?

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Prudes, Fornicators, Adulterers, Homosexuals,and other Perverts & Sexual Deviants

Each of the categories listed in this title, along with others that are not listed, are forms of idolatry.  In each of these is the false presumption that one can be in control of oneself apart from faith in God, that a person can choose the best way for oneself apart from the design that God has declared to be the true way.  In each of these categories a person trusts not God but oneself for the determination of what is the best perspective concerning human sexuality.  In each of these sexuality is not honored as the truly blessed, pure, holy, and wonderful gift that God has given it to be.

From our warped, corrupted, and perverted, sinful nature, we abuse all of God’s gifts to us, including our own bodies and the life that we are meant to enjoy in connection with our bodies.  Is it any worse to treat one’s body and the functions of one’s body, functions designed by God, as something to be despised, or is it worse to use those functions in ways that mock the very design clearly indicated even from a cursory anatomical observation?  Is it worse to steal the proper use of sexuality through being a prude, or is it worse to steal the proper use of sexuality through fornication or adultery, or perhaps through rape or incest?

All of these are perversions of human sexuality.  All of these are deviations from the obvious design that anyone can easily observe.  Moreover, the proper use of our sexuality has been clearly declared by the Creator.

The Creator also clearly states the purpose for His design.

The first aspect of this purpose is not what a person may first presume.  Procreation and reproduction are not included in the first statement regarding being created male and female, as sexual beings.  The first statement is that this is in accord with the image of God in which they would exist together as one.  Unity in God’s communion is the first stated aspect of being created as we are.  The man was created first.  But man was not complete without woman.  So from the man God took flesh and bone and created woman, to be joined in union with the man as one flesh.  In their God ordained union they were complete.  Together they were man, created in the image of God.  They were designed to be a perfect fit with one another, to unite as one and to continue in that union, in the likeness of God’s union with Man in Christ.

Next stated is the aspect of reproduction and filling the earth with children who would likewise live together in the image of God, that is, Christ.  Together Man would live in communion with God and thus with one another.  They would enjoy together the manifold blessings of the cosmos.  They would fill up the earth with people who would rejoice together in the goodness of the family of God.

And thus also is observed the aspect of family in God’s purpose.  God’s loving providence would be manifested in the family structure.  Unity and love would be demonstrated in everything.  Husband and wife would come together in the union of God’s love and design and children would be produced through God’s blessing of their union together.  These children would be nurtured by their parents in God’s love.  They would grow to become parents themselves.  All of mankind would gather on the Sabbath to be refreshed in the Lord’s communion.  They would enjoy all that it means to be the children of God living under His Fatherly care.

Adam’s willingness to accept the devil’s notion of free will overturned this design.  Now Adam and his wife saw their nakedness and were ashamed.  They no longer were covered and clothed with the image of God, but now stood as mere earthlings, creatures of dust and ash.  The glory of God was no longer theirs.  Now they stood corrupted and exposed in their corruption.  The perfect unity into which they had been joined was disrupted.  The holy relationship of God’s communion was perverted by their deviation from His Word and will.

The farther that people transgress from the Word and will of God, the more deviant their views of themselves and of what is good become.  Even the clear anatomical witness becomes muted by the noise of their corrupted thoughts and opinions and imaginations and fears and insecurities.

But the Lord was not willing to leave His beloved children to wander aimlessly to their peril and destruction.  He came calling for them with the plan of redemption and salvation and restoration that He had for them even from eternity.  He gave the promise of the Savior who would be born of the woman.  He brought that Savior into the world through the virgin Mary.  He established His Church on earth for the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments for the ongoing reconciliation of Man to God in Christ.  In this way the image of God is restored, at first still in connection with our corrupted flesh, but in the Resurrection with flesh that has been changed into incorruptible.

At that time the marital union of male and female will no longer be functional, for the marriage of Christ and His Church shall supercede it.  Those who have been incorporated into the body of Christ shall be truly one with one another in Christ and together they all shall rejoice in God’s Holy Communion forevermore.

Then no more corruption of the human nature and perversion of the human will shall exist.  Even the desire for sexual union will become obsolete, as perfect union with God in Christ shall be enjoyed by all the saints.  True fulfillment shall then be realized by all.

For the current time, however, God still has plans for husbands and wives to be joined through marriage in the unity of the one true faith so that all who are to be born in this world to hear the Gospel and be joined into God’s family shall be.  And so we wrestle with our fleshly desires, created holy but corrupted through unbelief and transgression.  Even though mankind greatly abuses these desires and gifts, God still uses them for good.  Those who recognize this seek to use these wonderful gifts of God and to enjoy them in accord with His good and gracious will.  Thus healthy families are produced and new children are brought into the world to rejoice in God’s goodness.  This is true also for those husbands and wives to whom God reserves life without children of their own, as they nevertheless rejoice in their God given union together in their bodies as well as assembling with those who demonstrate the even greater union of the common confession of the one true faith by which all of mankind is reclaimed as God’s family and restored to the unity of His image once again.

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Fetal Cells Heal Baby’s Mother

I read a very interesting article today entitled: Unborn child just a ‘parasite’? Cutting edge science shows fetal cells heal mother for life. It is a very interesting read.

My mind immediately jumped to 1 Timothy 2:15. I don’t think that St. Paul was referring to this link between baby and mother in this context, but my mind jumped here nonetheless. But since St. Paul was speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is possible that the Lord was revealing something that we would not discover until a couple of millennia later. Even if this is so, it is not the primary point of the text. Still, it is an interesting thought.

Certainly this discovery would seem to provide a sense of explanation for the strong ties that mothers and their children have throughout life. Perhaps it also gives some information regarding why women have for so long outlived men. Perhaps also there is some explanation regarding why mothers tend to have such amazing stamina for long term care giving when everyone else in the family is sickly and weak. There are of course other factors, but this does leave one wondering about this particular one.

At the very least it brings to mind this wonderful passage from the Psalms:

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:12-16)

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