As the pandemic continues to spiral out of control, it has consumed news media making little to no room for the fact that the US Justice Department has executed 3 men in the past couple of weeks. In the state of Tennessee, executions resumed in 2018 and has since executed 7 people. This inhuman and barbaric punishment continues to be swept under the rug and ignored while many Christians and Christian political leaders still cling to the practice. But this practice, though complex and complicated by the trauma experienced by surviving murder victims’ families, goes against the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith.
Here are 5 reasons Christians Should Oppose the Death Penalty:
Christians believe that life overcomes death. Christians hold to the resurrection story of a Savior that overcomes death – a Savior that was sentenced to death and executed on a Roman Cross. We will never know the suffering of the victims of murder, but we can offer needed support to their families and comm..
Tag: <span>Politics</span>
Adjusting to the Pandemic: A Teacher’s Story
When COVID-19 officially became a pandemic back in March, states, businesses, and schools were forced to shut down. School districts, administrators, and teachers were stepping into unchartered waters and asked to provide high quality education and teaching for the remainder of the school year to their students. Teachers were asked to become proficient and learn how to teach their students from home through the use of technology. Not only was this something new for parents, but teachers had to become miracle workers and technologically savvy overnight. Teaching my kindergarten students from my home while they sat in theirs proved to be challenging. We no longer had face-to-face interaction. They did not understand exactly what was happening. Teachers were losing sleep and working more hours in order to become better educators and have their students succeed during this large adjustment. Federal, state, and local government praised, thanked, and stated that we were truly essential.
Fa..
A Call to Action Against US Sanctions on Syria
Palm Sunday of March 2011 was unlike any Samir and Fatima (not their actual names) had experienced. For decades members of all the different Christian traditions in Homs, Syria gathered in this central square in the old quarter to share in a Palm Sunday procession. The streets would be crowded with celebrants. Others would fill the balconies, waving palm branches. In a neighborhood where church and mosque were built side-by-side, families of all religious traditions celebrated with one another.
This was not so in 2011. In 2011, Samir and Fatima were among the thousands filling the square, but this time to protest actions of the Syrian Government. This time to protest—demanding increased political freedoms to match the social and religious freedoms already experienced by Syrians across the country; to demand equal access to the increasing economic opportunities that had been developing in Syria over the previous 10 years. There was a glimmer of hope that maybe the impacts of a wide-spr..