yet another death we could avoid..

The State of North Carolina is planning on killing Samuel Flippen this Friday morning at 2 a.m. Here is a copy of something I posted on a web-forum about the whole ordeal:

As a Christian, I firmly believe in the power of the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Those things have brought salvation to this earth and all that is in it. Our salvation was bought at a price, and that price was the blood of Christ. Christ died for our sins so that we don't have to.

This alone is enough reason for me to support the abolition of the death penalty. I believe it makes a mockery out of God and of Christ's death. The state is telling us that Christ's sacrifice wasn't enough and that we must shed the blood of humans in order to make sin right. This is simply idolatry. To execute Sam Flippen or any other human being is to offer blood sacrifices to the god of Vengeance. How dare we presume that Christ's blood was not enough? How dare we take the life of another human when God strictly forbids this? What about Jesus' instruction to love our enemies? Jesus himself refused the death penalty for a woman who had been caught in an act that the law of the time required a death sentence for. If God is for the death penalty, then Jesus should have been the first to hit her upside the head with a rock and kill her. The law required it. Jesus resisted. In fact, he forgave her and released her with the instruction to sin no more.

To execute Sam Flippen is for the state of North Carolina (and by the state I mean all of us: the citizens of NC, lawmakers, government officials, prison guards, etc.) to cast the first stone, to say to Jesus "step aside, foolish man, and let us do what we believe is right." If any of you wish to tell the Executed and Risen Lord to step aside, please go right ahead. As for me, I will obey him and work for mercy and compassion.

God vs. Allah??? REALLY??

I was reading an article about Bush's "shit" comment last week, and noticed there was a comment section below it. I scrolled through the comments a bit, and found this example of why it scares the hell out of me that there are people in this country who basically worship Bush and who think that God is fighting a war and using our troops to carry out His "will." So far removed from any grain of truth. Read with the warning that this may anger you (well, not that you haven't heard it before):

We must continue to remain loyal to Bush. I know he’s slipped up on a few things… hell, he’s made some pretty galling errors. Like Norman Mineta. But let’s go over a brief list of what Bush has done for us:

- Samuel Alito
- Bush Tax Cuts (Hell. Yes.)
- Supported opposition to abortion
- Supported our most important institution: the marriage of a man and a woman
- Stood strong on important stuff. His father caved on taxes when his polls looked down. Not Dubya.
- He literally inspires fear in terrorists. Just his name. Just because liberals crow with laughter dosen’t mean the terrorists aren’t frightened sick that the most powerful someone in the free world is determined to kill them all.
- Helped to being the clearing of the previous administrations ridiculous roadblocks to military force and law enforcement. Speaking of which…
- The Patriot Act.
- He’s wiretapped, fund-tracked, cash-strapped and in other ways hindered the terrorists. Let’s just hope the NYT dosen’t ruin all of them.
- He continues to call the evil people evil, and seems to really understand that God and Allah are at war. This is invaluable. Would you rather have someone who never caved to liberals on something like education bills but failed to see this war as the fight between good and evil that it really is?
- And let’s not forget that notoriously strong Bush economy that the NYT is so desperate to ignore all the time.

cops with cookies in the park

tonight, i went downtown with a friend to see an outdoor movie in moore square park. an interesting crowd had gathered together for the occasion, including some of the folks experiencing homelessness who often sleep in the park. after the movie, i saw a police officer approach two men who were seemingly homeless. this would normally be a familiar scene, which would usually end in the men being asked to leave the area. however, what ensued gave me a small glimpse into what the kingdom of heaven must be like. there was a concession stand selling some snacks, and apparantly they had some leftover, because the police officer started handing these homeless men a bunch of leftover cookies. he then moved to where some children were sitting and gave one to each of them. as i watched the scene unfurl, i couldn't help but laugh at how odd it was to see a law enforcement officer giving out sweets to homeless folks and kids alike. but what a beautiful picture! i wanted to ask him if he'd consider replacing his gun with a sleeve of fig newtons or something and just hand out cookies all day. imagine such a thing! it makes me long for the day when we'll all dance together in the dream of God, casting aside all our prejudice and hatred and just love one another and love our Creator. if a police officer giving out cookies seems odd and peculiar to us, imagine how odd and peculiar a God who gives out grace to a bunch of sinners and who lays His own life down for the entire world! how odd! and how wonderful! i've said it before and i'll say it again, our Lord delights in foolishness and works in strange ways.

words of wisdom..

"we cannot listen and speak and work out of our own centers and at the same time give our attention to weighing whether or not others are approving of us.. whenever we begin to act and produce with the approval of others in mind...we enter into the sin of judging our own works, of deciding what is good and what is bad, when our only task is to be faithful over what we have - to do the best we can with it and leave the judgment to God"

from "Eighth Day of Creation" by Elizabeth O'Connor