Bible on Desk OK, Bible Verses Not OK?

Different Branches of the Military, Different Outcomes, Same Country

Bible approved for AFB desk | IndyBlog | Colorado Springs Independent 

The investigation of a Bible placed at a work station of Air Force Maj. Steve Lewis at Peterson Air Force Base has concluded that the “good book” can stay just where he had it.

At issue are complaints from service members received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about the location of the Bible, which sits on a desk in an area where many people work in the Reserve National Security Space Institute.

You can read our coverage of the issue here.

Today, we heard from Lt. Col. David Fruck, chief of public affairs for the 310th Space Wing, who wrote in an email:

As pledged, we have reviewed the situation there. We have concluded that no abuse of liberties has occurred, and Maj Lewis’s behavior and the workplace environment at the RNSSI are well within the provisions of Air Force Instruction 1-1, Air Force Standards, paragraphs 2.11 and 2.12, “Free Exercise of Religion and Religious Accommodation” and “Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.”

Fruck, when asked, says he doesn’t know if the Bible has been placed at the work station again, but “the review allows him to have a Bible on his desk.”

No idea how this will affect the continuing case of a former Marine court martialed for Bible verses at her work station:

First Liberty:

United States Marine Corps Lance Corporal (LCpl) Monifa Sterling was court-martialed after she refused to take down Bible verses she had posted in her workspace and for reposting the verses after her supervisor threw them in the trash. A trial court ruled against Sterling, giving her a bad conduct discharge and reducing her rank. Sterling appealed to the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, but the appeals court also ruled against her. First Liberty Institute stepped in and appealed Sterling’s case to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF)— the highest military court. On August 10, 2016, the CAAF ruled against Sterling, denying her constitutional right to religious freedom. First Liberty announced they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hillary Clinton and Religious Freedom

 

 

Can we expect religious freedom to be an American foreign policy concern? Ever?

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“I’ve been fighting to defend religious freedom for years. As secretary of state, I made it a cornerstone of our foreign policy to protect the rights of religious minorities around the world — from Coptic Christians in Egypt to Buddhists in Tibet,” – Hillary Clinton

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Conservative Review:

“Frankly, [Hillary] was AWOL on human rights as a whole and religious freedom in particular,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J told Conservative Review. “She hasn’t even been a player on international religious freedom, much less a leader. It’s troubling that she would make that claim.”

China has long been a major violator of human rights — especially in regard to religious freedom — as it regularly imprisons Christians, harvests the organs of Falun Gong practitioners, and suppresses the activities of charitable religious organizations. The country’s track record was also brought back into public discussion last year when the government engaged in a sweeping cross-removal campaign in one of its heavily Christian regions.

While these and other abuses were going on, “Beijing had no worries about human rights or religious freedom during the seven years of the Obama administration, and during Hillary Clinton’s tenure [as secretary of state] especially,” said Smith, who is co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which produces an annual report outlining the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.

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Can we expect better from anyone?  Probably not.  When state sponsored oppression was the only problem, there was a chance.  The United States and the western world could influence others to a small extent.  Now that hoodlums control the Holy Land, Putin has banned preaching the Gospel, and Islamists are killing Christians just for being Christians…   

All we can do is pray, and my prayer is for a civilized world.  

Frauds and the tongue Matthew 23:13 James 3:7-10 Mark 13:5-6

 

 

Joel’s not the only one, but he’s one of them. In my opinion, the size of the church isn’t ever the issue: The work and Word are always atop the list.

Just broken

Matthew 23:13-22 (MSG)
13 “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

Mark 13:5-6 (NIV)
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

James 3:7-10 (MSG)
7-10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

How long have we fought God? Since the beginning. How often do we miss the intention of God and replace it with what we’re all…

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Kim Davis in the Clear

Case Closed – Kim Davis Has Won

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has won the fight for religious freedom after a federal judge issued an order dismissing all three 2015 marriage license lawsuits against her yesterday. U.S. Judge David Bunning dismissed in their entirety, Miller v. Davis, Ermold v. Davis and Yates v. Davis, which brings to an end the trial proceedings against her arising from the 2015 Obergefell decision.

Despite the ACLU’s attempt to continue the case against Kim Davis and assess damages against her, the federal district court dismissed the case, closed the files and ordered all the pending cases to be removed from the docket.

The next case of this sort will have to do with a Wyoming judge who refuses to perform same sex marriages.  Only half of her job has to do with marriages.

Both women have  the same view of gay marriage as all other politicians just a few years ago, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

 

Heads, Sand. Some Assembly Required

 

…He’s free to address sin in my life, but not my society or nation?

Alan Sears of the Alliance Defending Freedom, reporting on a Pew Poll:

Only 40 percent of those responding to the poll said their pastor had referenced the importance of – or the growing threat to – religious liberty in America. Only 39 percent reported hearing a biblical perspective on homosexual and related behavior. And only 29 percent remembered their pastor saying a word about abortion.

Those results make for an interesting contrast with another Pew Researchers poll – one showing that three-fourths of the American public is concerned about the shrinking influence of religion on America life. And that nearly half of all Americans wish churches would take a more public stand on moral and political issues.

Not surprisingly, the polling data shows that those most eager to hear church’s address these issues are the people within the churches. In other words, for every parishioner who walks out murmuring “the pastor should mind his own business” … for every letter a pastor gets urging him to “keep your sermons out of the ballot box” … there are many, many others longing to know what the Bible has to say about these most pressing, controversial issues.

Where did we come upon the notion that God’s input and influence is restricted to certain aspects of our lives and culture – that He is not everywhere, all the time? That He’s free to address sin in my life, but not my society or nation?

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I draw a very fine line on this, and please tell me if I’m wrong: The moral issues of the day in my country are a part of my ministry of pixels.  I’ll write, and do more to hold back what I think is an anti-freedom, anti-Christian movement to silince us in the public square.

I am not imposing my morality on others when I take a position in the public square which has been informed by my faith.  A generation ago, that statement would be obvious.

Additionally, I speak out against lawsuits, social media mobs and other actions designed to bully Christians into submission.  When a Christian is called a bigot, more often than not it is because a segment of our society has decided to stigmatize those who believe in God, morality and objective truth.

Some say Satan is behind it all.  Others say it’s just an atheist generation.  Others say evil is just a part of mankind, and it is growing in influence.  I say it should be opposed.  My God if free to address my sin, and my faith guides me to oppose the changes in my society and nation.

Yours in Christ, Dave Alexander

The Difference Between Law and The Law

On my secular Free Speech blog Dave Alexander and Company, I often end up standing against the laws which punish hate speech.  I’m not all that comfortable with social media companies monitoring and deleting hate speech.  i disagree with labeling incidents as ‘hate crimes.’

 

Why?

 

I’m not in favor of hate, or hate speech. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details.  Should we arrest people for racist rants, with no threat of violence?  In the U.S., we don’t and shouldn’t.  Are racist, anti-Islam, anti-Christian and anti-whatever statements reason for law enforcement to take notice? It depends.  Is it a reason for an arrest?  Hardly.

Actual calls for violence should and are illegal.  Speech without threats of violence?  They are illegal in lots of places.

Germany and France are both in a complex battle against Islamic fanatics, and their tools include hate speech laws.  The UK and Canada also restrict speech in various ways, generally to “protect” ethnic, religious or cultural groups from offense.  There will never be a football team in London called the “Braves.”  Don’t tell a joke about a disabled kid in Quebec.

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What about sin?  I’m pretty sure we got the last word on this 2,000 years ago.

Matthew 5:27-28New International Version (NIV)

 ²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[a]28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

I’m sure it doesn’t take a biblical scholar to suggest that hate in your heart is equally sinful.  Christians should encourage each other to be respectful in thought and word — and encourage the rest of the world to speak with respect about all people.

I don’t want the state enforcing that.

Whoever Believes

An excellent message. Yet we should always be mindful that everybody else thinks they have the way to salvation, with the exception of those who are not even looking for salvation. “No one comes to the father except through me” should be a greeting to the world that Jesus is the way. Unfortunately, people treat it as a criticism of all those other roads they’ve taken. — Dave

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From the Isaiah 53:5 Project:

Acts 4:12 is not politically correct…

Face it. The day we step into eternity may come sooner than we think. In preparation for that moment, we need to know this truth-not everyone is going to heaven. How can we know for sure that we are going to heaven? Some 2,000 years ago, the apostles Peter and John were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to a large crowd in Jerusalem. Peter made a profound statement that resonates even in our postmodern world:“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

Now as then, Acts 4:12 is not politically correct. Today it’s popular to say, “Everyone’s going to heaven” or “All paths lead to heaven.” There are many who think they can have heaven without having Jesus. They want the glory, but they don’t want to be bothered by the cross, much less the One who died there. Many don’t want to accept Jesus as the only way of going to heaven and are determined to find another path. But Jesus warns us that no other path exists and that the consequence for rejecting this truth is an eternity in hell.

He told us that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

Quotes of the Day (and the week, if I can’t find another)

Describe the God you’ve rejected. Describe the God you don’t believe in. Maybe I don’t believe that God either. —Timothy Keller

 

ELLEN DEGENERES RACIST?

No, she’s not racist. Unfunny at times. Charming at other times. Never racist.

Pastor Greenbean

Racism is real.

I have written about it many times–Here on this blog, in sermons, and in my novel “How Great Is The Darkness.”

It is a problem that continues to haunt our society, and my prayers are for healing and reconciliation, justice and peace.

The causes of justice and reconciliation, peace and healing are hindered when the issue is trivialized, or worse yet, mislabeled.

Of course I am referring to Usain Bolt and Ellen DeGeneres. Specifically, I am referring to this picture and tweet that have been causing quite the firestorm.

Disclaimer #1:  I am not a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres. Mrs. Greenbean and the sprouts like her, but me, not so much.

Disclaimer #2: I have watched about five minutes of the Olympics. It was fencing. I felt like I’d paid my patriotic obligation and turned the channel to something that interested me far more.

There is no…

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Christian Churches for and Against Divestment

The Gatestone Institute (Chaired by former United States UN Ambassador John Bolton) takes note of churches seeking to influence Israeli policies regarding occupied territories. They’re free to act as they wish, and there is a legitimate argument to be had about the Israeli settlements and violence overall.

On the other hand, I think their membership should know what’s going on:

In breaking news yesterday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America approved a resolution calling on the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel if Israel does not stop building settlements and “enable an independent Palestinian state.”

Several international Christian policy conferences this summer have produced a mixed bag of both blessings and curses — all aimed at Israel. The United Methodists, The Southern Baptists, The Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Unitarian Universalists are worth noting here.

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United Methodists

From the quadrennial United Methodist General Conference (UMGC), the good news is that the four major divestment and boycott proposals were defeated in committee before ever reaching a floor vote.

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Southern Baptists

In an even more comprehensive and positive move, the Southern Baptist Convention in its June gathering passed an anti-divestment resolution in support of Israel. The resolution declared “that the BDS movement seeks to isolate only the nation of Israel economically and socially.”

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I edited the sections above.  The whole article is at the link.  Worth a read.