Today, Dec 7, 2011, marks the 70 year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I ask that at some point today, take a moment to remember all the men and women that lost their lives who were someone’s son, daughter, husband, wife, etc.
God Bless
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At 3:00 pm cst a group of illegal undocumented immigrants, mainly of hispanic ethnicity, along with a few irrelevant students from UCLA decided to organize an illegal protest at the State House in Montgomery, Alabama today. I call it an illegal protest because, in the city of Montgomery as well as in most cities, you are required to have a permit 24 or more hours before the decided time. Instead, they decided they would just show up, block the doorway of the State House, block a busy street, and shout “Undocumented Unafraid” and “No Justice, No Peace”. These people are saying that the Alabama immigration law is racist and was compared by the New York Times today to the Civil Rights Movement of the 60′s. I will get to that in a moment.
There is absolutely no problem with protesting, nothing at all. There IS, however, a problem with a group of people who have no legal standing in a foreign country being disorderly and making demands that will better suit them. What’s even more troubling is there are a number of people who support them. These illegal immigrants say they are here to make a better life for themselves and their children. I can appreciate that, truly. But, when you disregard the laws and regulations of the constitution of the country, never bother to learn THE language of the land, and walk around defiantly, you are just making things worse on yourself and others. And to think that your protest makes a difference I have a rude reality check for you. YOU ARE UNDOCUMENTED, YOU CANNOT VOTE! That means what you have say is IRRELEVANT. State and Federal lawmakers represent their constituents, that means the people who vote. If you where here LEGALLY you could vote. That is the only way you can truly bring about any kind of change. Not by being defiant, disorderly and disrespectful.
Now, to the remarks by the New York Times that compares this issue to the Civil Rights movement of the 60′s is plain insulting, and ignorant. Insulting to the men women and children who died from bombings, shootings and beatings during that time. Insulting to the men and women who lived through that time. And ignorant in the fact that the Civil Rights movement was a struggle for the rights of LEGAL citizens of the United States of America. And to even play that card is nothing but fodder to try and make something out of nothing.
I say this to all who read this. You cannot just choose what laws you are and are not going to follow. Even if you don’t agree with it, it is still law. And when, not if, you get arrested you cannot really act suprised. It was only a matter of time. If you want to live here do it the right way the first time.
God Bless
I normally don’t watch Rock Center, but tonight they were covering the new immigration law in Alabama. I have to admit, I was hoping it would have been covered better. Karen Snow was the journalist covering the story and, for the most part, it was good. But she only covered one side and included a side that I thought was completely baseless and unrelated (a far stretch).
It began with her covering farmers and construction contractors and restaraunt owners which, understandably, would be the most affected by this new law. But as the story and Ms. Snow was interviewing a family who was here illegally somethings began to bother me. She stated that this family, which ran a bakery paid their taxes and they felt like the law was because the lawmakers where racist. Insert photos from 48 years ago of civil rights movement. And farmers are saying that this new law is killing their business and their livelyhoods. But here is my problem with that.
I live in Montgomery, the epicenter of the civil rights movement and capital of the state of Alabama, and I have not seen any of the local contractors, or restaraunts experiencing any backlash from the law. I don’t know about farmers. Also, when Snow stated the family paid their taxes, that did not make any sense. In order to pay taxes you have to have a social security number and to pay business taxes you have to have a Fed Tax ID. If they are indeed paying their taxes that would mean that this family is in fact LEGAL. So, did Snow let the real truth slip or did she make an ignorant statement?
Next, I live and bleed for this state and the small businesses that make it run. I will always support local businesses and farmers. BUT…..I do not agree with the farmers, contractors and restaraunt owners that employeed illegal workers, for several reasons. First, it is an accounting nightmare for CPA’s when tax time rolls around which is unfair to the CPA and their liscenses. Secondly, the fact that it became the culture to hire illegal workers because they could pay them less and not have taxes on them has led to the shortage of legal workers willing to work such demanding jobs. And never should have happened in the first place, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
And I don’t make that statment off cuff either. Most of my jobs coming up through high school and college and after were all manual labor. I worked for a window and door company that delivered to new constructed homes all year long. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. I would put in 10-12 hour days and sometimes work on weekends. I also worked as an electrician and put in long hard hours in all types of weather.
Lastly, just the sheer fact that Federal Law, FEDERAL LAW, states that it is UNLAWFUL to employee a person(s) that are not either citizens or have the proper documentation to work in the U.S. in the first place.
In closing, Alabama only trying to work to enforce a FEDERAL law that has not been enforced over the past 20 plus years. There are many COUNTRIES that have much, much more strick than that of the Alabama law.
That’s my thoughts on it. What about you?
God Bless
There are many things that have gone on this week, but I will start with the one that has the most recent news coverage.
Earlier this week, allegations and arrests where made by Pennsylvania State Police of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky as well as the Athletic Director and one other with over 40 charges of child molestation. This of course has also involved the name of legendary coach Joe Paterno and former graduate assistant Mike McQueary. Just the other day the Penn State board of trustees elected to fire coach Paterno, even though the police said he was not a suspect and was being very coopertive.
Please don’t get me wrong, I think these allegations are extremely serious and disturbing and, if true, should be dealt with severely. But, the question I want to raise is this. Did Joe Pa do enough? Should he have done more? Before you jump straight to the “Absolutely he did not do enough, he had a moral responsibility to do more” answer I give you this to ponder on. How many times do we see things going on in our workplace and do nothing? How many times in a day do we see co-workers taking things from the office, which is wrong and against company policy, but we choose to say nothing? Have you ever seen a store or peron being robbed and intervened, called the police, or did you just watch. Why didn’t we do more? Aren’t we morally obligated to do more? No, I am not trying to minimize the severity of the issue, but I do want to make you think first. Everybody I see on the news is saying Joe Pa was morally obligated to do more, but it is easy to say that when it’s not you in the situation and you don’t know ALL the facts of what was done. Just yesterday the attorney of the first victim said that Penn State was wrong to fire Joe Pa.
As the head football coach, and only the head football coach, is it really Joe’s job to conduct and investigation into the matter? Or do you trust your superior to do his job and contact the authorities and conduct an investigation into the matter and leave you to do your job which is football. And if you see Jerry Sandusky walking around the campus two, three, four months later, do you assume there must have been nothing to the allegations? And further more, look at all of your friends. Could you fathum that any of your friends, that you have known for years, could possibly do such horrible things?
Again, I am not trying to minimize the severity of the situation. I do want you to put yourself in Joe’s position before you jump on the bandwagon of people that want to hold him to a higher standard than that of themselves. I will say this, if and only if Joe had a greater knowledge than what he says then yes he should be held accountable and terminating his employment would be correct and possibly charging him as well, along with the other three people involved. But the fact of the matter is, we just don’t know at this point. We only know what the media is bunching together, which is a bunch of bits and pieces.
I hope this has been more thought provoking than heart provoking, as I was intending it to be. God Bless
Today is Veterans Day, 11/11/11. I would like to take a moment to thank all of our men and women, past, present and near future, for all of the sacrifices you make to serve our country and defend our freedoms and liberties that make the United States of America such a great place to call home. We are blessed beyond our real comprehension. The majority of Americans really don’t have a clue how well off they have it here.
From the first World War to the Battles in Iraq and Afghanastan I salute you and would like to say Thank You for everything that you do.
God Bless
Well, I know it’s been a while since I last updated my blog and boy has it been crazy. Since I last updated, all kinds of crazy things have happened. My grandmother has been put in the hospital and almost died, twice, and my wife’s aunt has passed away at the young age of 47. If you would have told me three weeks ago that we would be going through all of this I would have been somewhat skeptical. But wow has the past couple of weeks been very crazy.
As I stated, my grandmother is in the hospital. She went in almost three weeks ago to have a stint put in to her only working kidney to help with bloodflow to the kidney. That was supposed to be an outpatient procedure. So much for that. Since then, she has developed a hematoma in her leg, asperated in her lungs, flatlined twice, started dialysis and has been on a ventilator twice. I went to see her last night and she seemed to be in relatively good spirits and was able to talk a bit. I would appreciate your prayers for her.
God Bless.
I just want to start with this. When we began the process of starting NewSong Church the goal was to be a church that was different. A church that actually practiced the Love, Compassion, Grace and Forgiveness that Christ exemplified for us in the New Testament. We understand, and have no illusions, that people are people and that people are going to mess up. Some mess ups big, some small. Regardless, we wanted to create a church that would be slow to speak, cast judgement and blame and quick to listen, have compassion and offer BIBLICAL instruction/correction for reconciliation.
When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees with the woman caught in adultery, he didn’t make a quick judgement. Instead, he said “let the one without sin cast the first stone” and began to write in the ground. As he did this the Pharisees all left. Jesus then asked the woman “where are your accusers?” her reply was “Lord, I have none, they are gone.” Jesus proceeded to pick her up off the ground and said “neither do I condem you, go and sin no more.”
In this one instance Jesus had compassion for this woman, loved her, had compassion for her, and extended grace and mercy to her. In the past couple of days I have witnessed leaders of a church do the exact opposite of this to people associated with their church. Instead of gathering first hand information and offerring to hear a plan of action for BIBLICAL reconciliation from these people, this church chose instead to cut ties and associations with these people because they where more concerned with how it would make the church look to be associated with them.
My heart broke! I was shocked and appalled to hear this. This came from a church that I had great respect and admiration for, and thought that if any church had faith love and compassion for people, it was this church. But that, apparently is not the case. This is the reason many people have left the church completely and have not returned for years. This is the reason people feel that church leaders are nothing but hypocrites. Because in their times of greatest need for compassion and help, they turn to their church and the church turns it’s back on them. It should not matter if it’s a longtime member of your church, a newcomer, or a person in a leadership position. Everyone deserves to have their part of the story told, offerred an opportunity for reconcilitation, and be given the same grace from people that God gives.
God Bless
This week I have been involved in a very interesting set of situations and circumstances that I have a new appreciation for. I cannot divulge the specifics of it, but I will say that God has taught me what it really means to be compassionate for people who are facing things that could completely turn their lives upside down. God has also opened my eyes to realize that genuine love is shown by the amount of compassion a person has for others who are facing tough times. These past couple of days has truly been eye and heart opening.
God Bless
Every Labor Day weekend my grandfathers side of our family has a family reunion in Franklin, Ga. This past Saturday I attended and had a lot of fun. I also did the one thing that everybody that attends winds up doing. Eat waaayy to much. There is, without fail, a ton of food and desserts. And the final thing to top off the weekend is……a full day of college football. This truly is my most favorite time of the year.
God Bless
I really can’t stand it when good Christian people say stupid things. Recently, Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann was in Florida and made a statement, which truthfully was intended as a joke, that does not help the cause for Christ. Now, more than ever, Christians are under more scrutiny for being “crazy” than ever before. And it does not help when a person who is in the public eye, with cameras everywhere she goes says something so thoughtless and ridiculous than what she has said. Now, don’t get me wrong, Bachmann is not the only Christian in the public eye who has said crazy stupid stuff like this that does in no way help the Cause for Christ. It especially makes the job of a minister harder when we have to explain to people who have been turned off and calis to church and Christianity in general that you’re crazy and your statements don’t represent the church as a whole.
The entire theology of Christianity is based on love and compassion and does not in any way care about political affiliation, and it makes me extremely irritated when people running for public office make comments like that. If you haven’t heard what she said, I have included the youtube link below so you can watch and make your own call on it.
