Soul and Spirit

Borderline Perspectives

So here’s the story: Drug violence spins Mexico toward ‘civil war’.

And here’s the piece that provokes this post:

…the United States helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs.

Victimhood in international relations — great.

How about an alternate rendition?

…the United States Mexico helps fuel the violence, not only by providing a ready market for illegal drugs weapons used by drug gangs, but also by supplying the vast majority of weapons used by drug gangs illegal drugs.

Interesting, no?

So…do I (and/or you) do this sort of thing in my our own communicating?

Right to Life in Mexico

From yesterday’s good news:

Colima Amends Constitution to Protect Right to Life

In an overwhelming 19-0 vote, legislators in the state of Colima, Mexico, decided Tuesday to amend the state’s constitution to protect the right to life “from the moment of conception.”

Article one of the state’s constitution now reads: “Life is a right inherent in every human being. The State will protect and guarantee this right from the moment of conception. The family constitutes the fundamental base of society. The State will encourage its organization and development. For the same reason, the home, and particularly the children, will be the object of special protection on the part of the authorities. Every measure or disposition for protecting the family will be considered to relate to public order…”

[…]

Similar amendments have been passed recently in the states of Baja California, Sonora, and Morelos. However, the constitutionality of the Baja California amendment is now being contested in the nation’s Supreme Court. If the Court rules negatively in the case, all similar amendments could be negated as well, making it impossible to defend the right to life at the state level.

I don’t know if amending a state constitution in Mexico is as simple as that. If it is, then that must be the law of the state.

And if it is, it’s too easy. Nineteen votes in favor is an awfully small number…especially when there were no votes against.

Maybe their Supreme Court will decree similar sentiment.

In any event, thank the Lord for good news like this.

Woes in the Holy Land

You can help!

Here are the first three paragraphs of something I just posted on another of my sites:

Times are tough in the USA. But in the Holy Land….

GAZA CONFLICT: The recent conflict in Gaza caused the deaths of more than 1,000 people, injured thousands more, and destroyed or damaged 21,000 homes. The war increased the woes in this troubled part of the world, known as the Holy Land.

After the militant group, Hamas, continued firing rockets into southern Israel, ignoring repeated warnings, Israel began air strikes the weekend of December 28 and later moved in with tanks. This recent conflict is part of the long-running feud between Israel and the Palestinians. As always, many innocent people — families, children, and the elderly, both Jewish and Palestinian — suffer the consequences.

CAM has been working diligently with our contacts in Israel to supply food parcels to hundreds of needy families in Gaza (mostly Christian, but also some Muslim). We also plan to distribute Christian literature in Gaza. On the Israeli side, where people are traumatized by the rocket fire, we will distribute care packages.

You can help!

Will you?

Am I Guilty?

Last fall (is that when it was?) when Congress rushed some multi-billion “package” through and President Bush signed it, I wondered how they could put their signatures and votes to something they had not read carefully and studied thoroughly.

I marveled at such reckless irresponsibility.

Now I see that such an approach must be the norm.

Yet voters continue to send them back to keep doing such things.

Amazing.

I guess.

But do I do the same type thing as the politicians do? Perhaps more than I realize.

But before further introspection, the “news”: Read it all

Freer Again?

This sounds like good news from Kazakhstan:

According to the Constitutional Council (CC), the amendments to the religion law, passed by the Kazakhstan Parliament in late 2008, are in conflict with the country’s Constitution, CC chairman Igor Rogov said.

[…]

The bill passed by the parliament involved, in particular, changes and amendments to the section of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which imposed liability for violating the law on the freedom of religion and religious associations.

It also suggested detailed regulation of religious groups.

Under Siege in Egypt

Daughter of Convert Attempts Suicide

Mariam Azmy Fouad, a Christian secondary school student in the satellite city of Tenth of Ramadan east of Cairo, narrowly escaped death when she attempted suicide after being required by her school to sit for an Islamic religion test paper even though she is Christian. Mariam’s father had converted to Islam making her, according to Egyptian law, automatically a Muslim. She was shocked and greatly humiliated at the sarcasm of her classmates which brought on hysterical tears and apparently made suicide a welcome idea.

She repeatedly cried she was Christian and would not answer the test, insisting that her faith had nothing to do with her father. After swallowing some pills, Mariam was moved to hospital where she was given a gastric lavage to save her life.

[…]

Mariam was finally allowed to take the Christian religion exam on January 29, the last day of the school term.

Pray for her strength. And her faith. And her hope. And her joy. And her peace. And her….

Christian Seed in Islamic Soil

Revival Comes to the Muslim World

Some call it a revolution in the Middle East but it’s not the result of political movement. Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ in large numbers.

[…]

“Just in the four countries we work in, we’re projecting one hundred new churches just in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt,” he explained. “In Iran, the ministries that are working together are projecting 10,000 churches in Iran next year. That’s how fast they’re opening up to the Gospel.”

So there is good news out there!

Above all, love God!
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