Soul and Spirit | Ain't Complicated

“Are You Virginia?”

The few times we’ve air-traveled post-911 with minors, I’ve been grateful for this loophole:

Loophole allows minors to bypass airport security

When an Oregon teen talked his way onto an airplane bound for Chicago last weekend, he unknowingly revealed a little-known hole in airport security.

Kids don’t have to show photo ID.

That may come as a surprise to many air travelers. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, travelers are accustomed to removing their shoes, not carrying liquids and otherwise coping with strict protocols of airport security.

But when it comes to conducting minors through airports, security and efforts to preserve air passenger convenience intersect in a highly unusual way.

The Transportation Security Administration requires all air travelers 18 and older to show a boarding pass and government-issued photo ID to enter security screening.

But minors generally don’t have government-issued IDs. So security officers don’t expect them to have one, says Dwayne Baird, the TSA’s public information officer for the Northwest.

That makes sense enough. But….

Read it all

Congress Tries to Cover Gays Better

Congress acts to extend hate crimes to cover gays

The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.

With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.

Civil rights groups and their Democratic allies have been trying for more than a decade to broaden the reach of hate crimes law. This time it appears they will succeed. The measure is attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill and President Barack Obama – unlike President George W. Bush – is a strong supporter. The House passed the defense bill 281-146, with 15 Democrats and 131 Republicans in opposition.

[…]

Many Republicans, normally stalwart supporters of defense bills, voted against it because of the addition of what they referred to as “thought crimes” legislation.

“This is radical social policy that is being put on the defense authorization bill, on the backs of our soldiers, because they probably can’t pass it on its own,” House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said.

GOP opponents were not assuaged by late changes in the bill to strengthen protections for religious speech and association – critics argued that pastors expressing beliefs about homosexuality could be prosecuted if their sermons were connected to later acts of violence against gays.

[…]

Some 45 states have hate crimes statutes, and the bill would not change the current situation where investigations and prosecutions are carried out by state and local officials.

[…]

Tom McClusky, vice president of the conservative Family Research Council’s legislative arm said the next step likely would be contesting the legislation in court. “The religious protections are pretty flimsy,” he said. He contended that Democrats were trying to move their “homosexual agenda” this year because it would prove unpopular with voters next year.

A Blank Check for Love

What kind of commitments toward Himself does God require of me?

Love Him with all (Matthew 22:37)
If I love, then also obey (John 14:15)
Seek Him first, also His kingdom (Matthew 6:33; Colossians 3:1,2)
My body (Romans 12:1; 6:13)
Live His life (Galatians 2:20; 5:25)
Absolute dependence (John 15:5)
Take up my cross daily and follow (Luke 9:23)

Can I trust Him and love Him enough to stick my neck way out and give Him a blank check?

Dare I say, “Lord, whatever You tell me to do, I will do my best to do”?

Source: notes from a talk I gave at my home congregation — Hopewell Mennonite Church — on Sunday, May 28, 2006.

Heavenly Minded

A day or two ago I was leafing through a homeschooling magazine we got in the mail.

Eventually I got to a page on the left with this at the top:

Raising Heavenly Minded Children

Very good!

Then I glanced to the page on the right and saw this:

Is this photo conducive to being heavenly minded?

As a man looking at that, I admit to being momentarily distracted from that whole heavenly minded business.

Yes, I flattened out the scanned image above. I couldn’t in good conscience and Christian purity leave the photo as it was.

Did the magazine editors not think about the contradiction between the article and its accompanying photo?

I don’t know.

Was the woman being heavenly minded by dressing that way and then offering that view to the camera?

Obviously I don’t know that either.

I’m simply appealing to Christian women to consider whether or not the decadent culture in which we live has caused you to inadvertently lower the decency bar too far.

It seems to me that Christian purity requires modesty in dress. Actually, purity also produces such modesty.

So allow me a play on words in closing:

Heavenly minded — how much does it cover?

Persecution Updates

Here are four recent pieces from Mission Network News, the first being from Somalia:

Somalia’s Muslim militants are hunting down converts to Christianity. According to Voice of the Martyrs Canada, Al-Shabaab members have murdered 14 believers since July 15.

Compass Direct News reports the September 15 shooting death of 69-year-old Omar Khalafe, an underground Christian who had Bibles in his possession.

On the day of his death, Khalafe was carrying 25 Somali Bibles he hoped to deliver to an underground fellowship in Somalia.

Full article: Islamic extremists in Somalia hunting Christians

Next we go to India:

Since his conversion from Hinduism six years ago, Indian pastor Vanamali Parishudham has suffered opposition for his faith in Christ from other Hindus and even his parents. Most recently, Pastor Parishudham was physically attacked on his way to his home in Narketpalli, Andhra Pradesh.

On his five-kilometer walk home from a Sunday service, three Hindu extremists came up behind Parishudham and struck him hard on the head with what are being called sharp-edged metal rods. According to International Christian Concern, Parishudham was knocked unconscious almost immediately and left for dead by his attackers. He was bleeding severely from the head.

Full article: Pastor attacked by extremists

Now on to China:

An official notice was sent to government agencies last weekend telling them to “be prepared to use military force to crackdown on the churches throughout China,” according to ChinaAid. Dubbed the “Xinjiang Model,” this method was named after a violent incident that resulted in several hundred deaths in August. ChinaAid’s president says this preparation is unnecessary.

Full article: Officials prepare for violent crackdown

And finally back to India:

After being attacked by an ax-wielding young man, death was anticipated for Gospel for Asia missionary Titus Aamer.

Aamer met with this young man because he expressed an interest in Christianity: his parents had recently given their hearts to Christ. Later, however, the man attacked Aamer after being influenced by anti-Christian extremists.

Aamer suffered severe blows to the head and wasn’t expected to live; he remained in a coma until doctors were able to treat his wounds.

Full article: Militants in India launch brutal attack against missionary

Now you know.

Good’s Store: Update

E-mail targets store

Kenneth Burkholder is perplexed.

His business, Good’s Store Inc., is one of hundreds of Amish and Mennonite stores that do not sell American flags.

Nobody’s singling out the other places.

But Good’s is under fire. Again.

The sender of a recent mass e-mailing claimed that a young, unnamed Good’s sales clerk “wrinkled her nose” in disdain when quizzed about flag sales.”We don’t sell those here,” the clerk supposedly said, “and we never will.”

It’s true that flags aren’t in the Good’s inventory, said Burkholder, the company president. The families that own the stores are Anabaptists, who view the banner primarily as a symbol of military might.

But, he said, it’s false to imply that this faith group, which includes Amish and Mennonites, is anti-American.

Nor could Good’s find proof that the supposed testy exchange with an employee ever took place, Burkholder added.

“We researched it. That was my main concern,” Burkholder emphasized, that the company not appear arrogant.

[…]

Burkholder said the brouhaha is not going to affect the store’s Amish and Mennonite customers.

Nor is it going to compel the 51-year-old business to start stocking American flags.

All the same, he added, he would prefer that people just stop talking — and writing — about what’s for sale at Good’s.

“We’ve been through this a number of years.”

This Is Urgent!

Have you ever felt that way about responding to something or someone electronically?

Blog, Twitter, email, Facebook, forum, IM, text message, chat — having the option and capability to hit Reply right away seems to impose an urgency to do just that.

Most times, such urgency is an illusion untethered from reality. “Most times” — not in a 51% sort of way, but more like a 92% sort of way, if you get my drift. Yes, at the risk of overstating my case, I suggest to you that the urgency of most digital communication is a pseudo-urgency.

I suspect that most of the time, succumbing to such false urgency has little consequence beyond social pressure, inner tension, and time consumption. (That all sounds like something far more than “little consequence”!)

That aside, giving in to such imaginary urgency has far weightier consequences when responding in circumstances that roil personal relationships, easily impacting them negatively.

So I urge you to grant significant weight to my five essential guidelines for digital communication:

If you think your attitude will be milder in five minutes or five hours, wait.
If you think your wording will be more careful after an hour’s worth (or a day’s worth) of thoughtful editing and review, wait.
If you think your present circumstances are affecting you even though they don’t pertain to the message in question, wait.
If you think your choice of expression would moderate significantly face-to-face, wait.
If you think thinking about your response will change it, wait.

Otherwise, figure on falling short of constructive dialogue.

Unless, of course, you’re just engaging in weightless, inconsequential back-and-forth techno-babbling because you can and because you don’t know what else to do and because you want to.

Then you need a different set of guidelines. 🙂