Hey Bill, It’s Yashua I got your happy new year card, thank you for that. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get on here, I know it’s a long time to wait for someone to write. I’ll see how long it takes for them to get this to you and then for you to respond. We’re doing alright out here, my job is going pretty well and the little one is growing fast. She’s talking a lot and so strong it’s crazy, she’ll be 2 at the end of April. I ended up getting a motorcycle to commute with about a week ago and have been having a blast riding it around. Cuts my Drive time in half, I went with a klr650 so I can take it off-road too. Destiny and David seem to be getting to a place where they’re looking for a change in life which is good, they seem to want more out of life then what they’ve been doing which I hope leads to a change for the better. Wills doing good, he’s taking classes to become a realtor. He saw my bike and I think he might get one of his own haha I hope he gets bit by the same bug I did so we can go riding together. Moms coming down here on the 9th to stay with us for a week, she’s never been down here before so it’ll be fun to show her around and hang out with Hannah, hopefully getting AJ to meet up. He hasn’t been open to seeing us yet, I think it might be nerves because we haven’t seen each other in so long but I’m really hoping he decides to join us on one of our outings. Anyways I’ll see if they can get this to you and I hope to hear from you soon.
It ripped out my heart in the best way. The book was written in the first person, which is difficult to do well. Read Fifty Shades of Grey to fully understand how annoying first person narrative can get. The story was well developed and executed. You know a story has taken you to exactly where it intended when the plot twist at the end breaks your heart, has you hiccuping choked sobs, and knowing you will recommend it to everybody. I hope this finds you well and puts a smile on your face. If you are interested in the full list of categories for the reading challenge let me know. I am only using my local Library’s collection for the books I am choosing. Your available selection might be even more scarce than mine... but what is a challenge without adding another layer?
Is it just me, or did your address recently change? Mine did too. We recently moved. I sold my insurance agency and we packed up the family... since I have the time and opportunity I am contemplating switching careers. I will let you know how that goes. Since this address is only temporary until we find a permanent place, I will write you through here. We are waiting for the house to sell, then we might buy again later this year. So, the tiny humans are adjusting to their new schools. The husband is loving his new position. I am hunting for the right career for me... yet again. This time I am thinking of applying for a position as a 911 dispatcher. Of course it will take training but you know me, I am willing to learn. I recently took on a Reading Challenge to get me out of a rut. This challenge lets you pick the books from specific categories... A Classic you’ve been meaning to read: Lord of the Flies... A book of poetry, a play, or an essay collections: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child... A book recommended by a Librarian or Indie Bookseller: We Were Liars... A memoir, biography, or book of creative non-fiction: Orange is the New Black... These are just a few on my list of twelve books to read this year. My rut of reading stories that didn’t require me to think feels over. I am branching out to genres and authors I wouldn’t have previously considered. So far I have finished We Were Liars
Eric, it's great to see you're still blogging. I'm John -- I wrote you a few times about 4-5 years ago. Been catching up on your latest posts and of course I enjoy reading them. I saw you're currently in a big group setting now, yes? 60+ guys all in one big room? I can completely see preferring a 2-man cell to that. I occasionally watch a newish reality show called '60 Days In' on TV. It looks semi-fake at times but those jails are in that configuration -- a ton of guys, all out in the open, etc. It would drive me nuts. I'd constantly think some crazy guy would do something while I'm asleep. Anyway, if you've caught the show, I'm curious what your thoughts are about it. If it looks scripted, real, etc. I saw something about a "birthday beatdown"...which I guess is exactly what it sounds like.
Anyway, take care, hope to see you continue your writing. -- John
But if these biblical passages are to be used in support of capital punishment, then we should be willing to insist on capital punishment for every offense which is listed there. Kidnapping, blasphemy, homosexuality, adultery, worshipping other gods, premarital sex and not keeping the sabbath; just to touch on a few. Of course, if we applied capital punishment according to the Old Testament, there wouldn’t be anybody left to do the executing...
Now if these Christians turned their eyes towards the New Testament they’d see that Jesus came with a new message, which was repentance and forgiveness. A message that said no one was too bad or too far gone, that they couldn’t be saved. As a matter of fact, the Bible is filled with less than ideal men and women that God called upon. He didn’t call the popular, rich or successful to further his ministry, but rather, the poor, broken and sinful. Abraham was old but he obeyed. Elijah was suicidal, Joseph was abused and betrayed by his family. Job went bankrupt , Moses had a speech problem and he murdered an Egyptian, Gideon was afraid, Samson was vain and a womanizer, Rahab was a pagan and a prostitute, The Samaritan Woman at the well, was divorced and living with a man she had not married, Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a liar a cheater, David an adulterer and a murderer, Jonah ran from God, Peter denied Christ three times, Martha worried about everything, Zacchaeus was small and money hungry, The Disciples couldn’t even stay awake for Jesus, and Paul, arguably the worst– A Pharisee who relentlessly persecuted Christians, killing them in horrific ways. They were a team of reluctant misfits with apparently nothing much to offer but gained everything with their faith. He didn’t call the qualified, He qualified the called.
If you ever feel like you aren’t worthy enough to be used by God, let alone loved by him, just remember that Jesus used a bunch of flawed people to share Hope to a flawed and broken world. In God, we find renewal, mending, and purpose. And no matter what you’ve been through in life, remember that the same power that conquered the grave lives within you. You are worthy of life. You are worthy of God's love. You are worthy of joy. You are worthy of a fulfilling purpose that will take you places you never imagined reaching.
I realize this is post is several years old but your points remain relevant. I’ve recently been thinking about the pro-life movement recently, even more so than usual. We are currently in the annual 40 Days for Life that occurs in the same month that Roe V’s Wade was entered into American law. Some 58 million lives lost since, and counting... One can safely assume that about half of them were female. You want to see a war on women? Look no further. Abortion doesn’t prevent you from having a child, it just makes you the parent of a dead baby. I could go on for quite some time on how the abortion industry actually hurts women. There’s nothing empowering about killing your children.
But one of the tenets of the prolife movement is that “All life is precious, all life has intrinsic value, all life is sacred. It’s easy for prolifers to reconcile those beliefs with the tiniest and most helpless of humans. You lose quite a bit of that support when you apply those same tenets to bigger, less fragile humans- namely people sentenced to capital punishment. Then out trot the ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘they deserve to get what they gave’ and any number of other platitudes.
One sentence you wrote jumped out at me;
“By dehumanizing your adversary (the death row prisoner), through derogatory labels it makes it easier to hate, or kill, and in the case execute, its destructive to the common good.”
It is that very dehumanizing language that the pro choice crowd uses when discussing abortion- “Just a clump of tissue” “zygote”, “embryo” or “fetus” “potential life”, anything but a baby. Same with those facing capital punishment. It becomes much harder for self proclaimed moral people to cut short the life of a ‘person’. A person is something that they can identify with and to kill a person would be murder- not something they would ever be capable of promoting! So they distance themselves, where they can support their positions and maintain a clear conscience. This is why it’s so hard to sway them. To admit you have been complicit in the death of another person is farther than they are willing to go. All the arguments on the actual cost of capital punishment as opposed to life without parole means nothing. Same as to it’s effect (or lack of) on deterring future crime. No argument will be able to convince someone who willfully refuses to acknowledge the humanity of the lives they are willing to eliminate.
Christians, especially, are fond of quoting the Old Testament passages to prop up their positions. Yet the scripture they often cite was written for the Israelites who were wandering the desert without jails or any significant means of protecting the community from criminals. We have modern ways of protecting the public from dangerous individuals. We are a far cry from the society for which the text was written for.
RSS
It’s Yashua I got your happy new year card, thank you for that. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get on here, I know it’s a long time to wait for someone to write. I’ll see how long it takes for them to get this to you and then for you to respond. We’re doing alright out here, my job is going pretty well and the little one is growing fast. She’s talking a lot and so strong it’s crazy, she’ll be 2 at the end of April. I ended up getting a motorcycle to commute with about a week ago and have been having a blast riding it around. Cuts my Drive time in half, I went with a klr650 so I can take it off-road too. Destiny and David seem to be getting to a place where they’re looking for a change in life which is good, they seem to want more out of life then what they’ve been doing which I hope leads to a change for the better. Wills doing good, he’s taking classes to become a realtor. He saw my bike and I think he might get one of his own haha I hope he gets bit by the same bug I did so we can go riding together. Moms coming down here on the 9th to stay with us for a week, she’s never been down here before so it’ll be fun to show her around and hang out with Hannah, hopefully getting AJ to meet up. He hasn’t been open to seeing us yet, I think it might be nerves because we haven’t seen each other in so long but I’m really hoping he decides to join us on one of our outings. Anyways I’ll see if they can get this to you and I hope to hear from you soon.
I hope this finds you well and puts a smile on your face. If you are interested in the full list of categories for the reading challenge let me know. I am only using my local Library’s collection for the books I am choosing. Your available selection might be even more scarce than mine... but what is a challenge without adding another layer?
All my best,
Shea
So, the tiny humans are adjusting to their new schools. The husband is loving his new position. I am hunting for the right career for me... yet again. This time I am thinking of applying for a position as a 911 dispatcher. Of course it will take training but you know me, I am willing to learn.
I recently took on a Reading Challenge to get me out of a rut. This challenge lets you pick the books from specific categories... A Classic you’ve been meaning to read: Lord of the Flies... A book of poetry, a play, or an essay collections: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child... A book recommended by a Librarian or Indie Bookseller: We Were Liars... A memoir, biography, or book of creative non-fiction: Orange is the New Black... These are just a few on my list of twelve books to read this year. My rut of reading stories that didn’t require me to think feels over. I am branching out to genres and authors I wouldn’t have previously considered. So far I have finished We Were Liars
Anyway, take care, hope to see you continue your writing. -- John
Of course, if we applied capital punishment according to the Old Testament, there wouldn’t be anybody left to do the executing...
Now if these Christians turned their eyes towards the New Testament they’d see that Jesus came with a new message, which was repentance and forgiveness. A message that said no one was too bad or too far gone, that they couldn’t be saved. As a matter of fact, the Bible is filled with less than ideal men and women that God called upon. He didn’t call the popular, rich or successful to further his ministry, but rather, the poor, broken and sinful. Abraham was old but he obeyed. Elijah was suicidal, Joseph was abused and betrayed by his family. Job went bankrupt , Moses had a speech problem and he murdered an Egyptian, Gideon was afraid, Samson was vain and a womanizer, Rahab was a pagan and a prostitute, The Samaritan Woman at the well, was divorced and living with a man she had not married, Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a liar a cheater, David an adulterer and a murderer, Jonah ran from God, Peter denied Christ three times, Martha worried about everything, Zacchaeus was small and money hungry, The Disciples couldn’t even stay awake for Jesus, and Paul, arguably the worst– A Pharisee who relentlessly persecuted Christians, killing them in horrific ways.
They were a team of reluctant misfits with apparently nothing much to offer but gained everything with their faith. He didn’t call the qualified, He qualified the called.
If you ever feel like you aren’t worthy enough to be used by God, let alone loved by him, just remember that Jesus used a bunch of flawed people to share Hope to a flawed and broken world. In God, we find renewal, mending, and purpose. And no matter what you’ve been through in life, remember that the same power that conquered the grave lives within you. You are worthy of life. You are worthy of God's love. You are worthy of joy. You are worthy of a fulfilling purpose that will take you places you never imagined reaching.
You are worthy.
But one of the tenets of the prolife movement is that “All life is precious, all life has intrinsic value, all life is sacred. It’s easy for prolifers to reconcile those beliefs with the tiniest and most helpless of humans. You lose quite a bit of that support when you apply those same tenets to bigger, less fragile humans- namely people sentenced to capital punishment. Then out trot the ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘they deserve to get what they gave’ and any number of other platitudes.
One sentence you wrote jumped out at me;
“By dehumanizing your adversary (the death row prisoner), through derogatory labels it makes it easier to hate, or kill, and in the case execute, its destructive to the common good.”
It is that very dehumanizing language that the pro choice crowd uses when discussing abortion- “Just a clump of tissue” “zygote”, “embryo” or “fetus” “potential life”, anything but a baby. Same with those facing capital punishment. It becomes much harder for self proclaimed moral people to cut short the life of a ‘person’. A person is something that they can identify with and to kill a person would be murder- not something they would ever be capable of promoting! So they distance themselves, where they can support their positions and maintain a clear conscience. This is why it’s so hard to sway them. To admit you have been complicit in the death of another person is farther than they are willing to go. All the arguments on the actual cost of capital punishment as opposed to life without parole means nothing. Same as to it’s effect (or lack of) on deterring future crime. No argument will be able to convince someone who willfully refuses to acknowledge the humanity of the lives they are willing to eliminate.
Christians, especially, are fond of quoting the Old Testament passages to prop up their positions. Yet the scripture they often cite was written for the Israelites who were wandering the desert without jails or any significant means of protecting the community from criminals. We have modern ways of protecting the public from dangerous individuals. We are a far cry from the society for which the text was written for.