Dr. Martin Luther King and the Berlin Wall

Today is Martin Luther King Day 2015.  I use this day to help raise money for a scholarship for high school students.  I believe we should spend this holiday, helping the needy. 

I listened to a lecture from a former NYTimes journalist Earl Caldwell as he explained that he witnessed something different than the official explanation about the assassination.   

While he was speaking, I thought of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Many people give Reagan credit for that.  I believe Reagan took more credit than he deserved.  When the wall was finally broken through they sang “We Shall Overcome”.  It was the marvelous work of Martin Luther King and countless nameless and faceless people that helped give those oppressed by communism another dream for their freedom.   

I remember a journalist at the time reported “They (the East Germans) want American freedom.  The journalist did not mention the struggle for civil rights as one of their visions of American freedom.   

So we should be proud that we live in a land where so many were willing to put their life on the line like Dr. King, Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo and others to sacrifice their lives, while making our country a place to be admired for our freedom.  We should remember that the Dream of Dr. King, helped change the world.

Romney - Double Speak and Mind

During the recent presidential debates, Gov. Mitt Romney reversed many of the positions he espoused during the primary.  Many Evangelical Christians have endorsed Gov. Romney because he shares their Christian values. 

When candidate Romney was running for Senator of Massachusetts, he said he was going to be to the right of Ted Kennedy on Gay Marriage.   He also stated in the past that he supports a women’s right to choose, a few months ago he said that he would get rid of Roe vs Wade, now he says that he would not support abortion legislation. 

I have many problems with the candidate for President Romney.  He has back tracked, side stepped, lied on most of the important issues.  He would not show his taxes when running in Massachusetts and even though he knew 4 years ago and gave McCain 13 years of taxes he refuses to give the same courtesy to American citizens. 

If he had espoused these views during the primary he never would have been nominated.  It would have most likely been Rick Santorum.

Romney has proven he will say anything to get nominated and anything else to get elected.  The Bible says in James Chapter 1 “a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways”.  Gov. Romney has tried to say one thing and later have his campaign walk it back.  He is a man that says one thing and then says another. 

President Obama Support of Women Erodes

President Obama’s support for Abortion Rights and Gay Marriage are offensive to many Christians.  Although I believe as a citizen of the United States of America, we are provided certain freedoms and I don’t believe I have a right to tell you what you should do with your body.   I don’t believe that 2 people who want to legally bind their relationship, whether you call it marriage or not should be rightfully denied. I support Christian Institutions’ right not to be involved in performing those marriages.  I don’t support Christian organizations that act as employers discriminating against the employees’ right to their body or whom they can legally live with. 

Many evangelicals refused to vote for President Obama because he supported a woman’s right to choose or Civil Unions.  I believe in order to get more votes, he chose to go even further than Civil Unions and support marriage equality.   

  Now there is speculation why his standing with women has not improved but has eroded.  I can only speak for myself, but I find it unsettling for anyone to advocate the glorification of their support for abortion, without acknowledgement of the innocent life destroyed in the process.  Many of the women that he is looking to support him are also mothers.  I am not excited by this political pandering.   I am not energized by it either. 

I was a pregnant unwed teenager and after witnessing the anguish I felt supporting my friends in their decision to terminate their pregnancies, I chose to go through with mine.  It was difficult and although my son’s father and I married, I never wanted to have any other children.  I chose a birth control method with over 90% success rate.  Even though I used this method according to my Doctor’s and manufacturer’s specifications 5 years after my son was born I became pregnant again.  My husband wanted me to terminate the pregnancy, I could not do it.  I have a daughter and later we raised a nephew from the time that he was 10 and homeless.  These were not easy decisions, not my first choice, but for me they are decisions that I am proud of.

So when someone like President Obama seems to glorify his support of a woman’s right to choose.  I look at my family and realize that while women are given the right to control their own bodies, some acknowledgement of the innocent victims of this decision is warranted and the glorification of the decision to terminate is not energizing to me.

North Carolina Ban on Gay Marriage is Unconstituional

Yesterday North Carolinians amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.  I imagine many Christians are making a statement for their religious views, but what will this amendment really do?  Will it stop same-sex couples from sleeping together?

I believe if you are a Christian it is wrong for you to engage in a same-sex relationship or to engage in heterosexual relationship with someone you are not married to.  I also believe that Christians should not tell lies or cheat, etc.  I believe that people that engage in these and acts are committing sin.  I don't believe a person same-sex relationship is any more of a "sinner" than a liar. 

The constitutional amendment in North Carolina, I don't believe will do much to stop same-sex relationships from happening. If a person believes that homosexuality is a sin; then the sins will continue even after this amendment. What the amendment does is stop them from having legal rights and that speaks to their citizenship. 

I don't believe that I can tell consenting adult Americans, what they should do with their own genitals.  If they are adult and a same-sex relationship aids them in their "pursuit of happyness" I don't believe we have the right to deny them legal rights that we give to other Americans.

Many of these same Christians will also say as Americans they "support the constitution" of the USA.  How are you supporting the constitution by denying others their rights?  Christians are responsible their sin and witness and pray for those have not accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah.  We are to be salt and light.   As Americans we support the constitution and every American has the right for individual happyness as long as it does not infringe on the rights of  others.

Biden on Gay Marriage/ Richard Grenell dismissal

Last week Richard Grenell a foreign policy and national security spokesperson for the Mitt Romney campaign, resigned.  The Romney campaign was criticized by some conservatives for hiring Grenell, an openly gay staffer.  On Sunday's Meet the Press program VP Biden said that he was ok with gay marriage.  President Obama says he opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions.

I believe that President Obama's staff wanted to exploit the resignation of Mr Grenell by allowing VP Biden to enthusiastically support Gay marriage on a personal level, to curry favor with the gay community to gain votes.  I believe they were responding to recent polls that a majority of Americans, are not opposed to same sex marriage. The Biden support for same-sex marriage allows a not so subtle nod to the gay community, that the Obama administration also is open to same-sex marriage without supporting it "officially".

My views on gay marriage it that it is wrong for Christians to be in a gay relationship and that churches should not perform or condone gay marriage for their members, and churches should not be forced to perform marriages for same-sex couples who are not members.  As an American, I don't think I have the right to tell consenting adults how they should live as long as they are not hurting anyone else.  Although I would not vote for same-sex marriage, I support same-sex couples their "pursuit of happiness".

One reason that Pres. Obama's staff believes that they can alienate some Christians who are fervent in their opposition to gay marriage, is that these Christians, have demonstrated that in spite of what the Obama administration does these Christians will not  vote for President Obama.

An example of this is that during the healthcare debate, the Senate and House bills had differences. The House bill included the Stupak amendment that, did not allow abortion funding for healthcare participants and the Senate bill made no such provision.  Pro-life Senators could have inserted a similar Stupak-like amendment to their bill, even if they would not vote for it.  The democrats would have taken any amendment to the bill that Republicans proposed, but no Senator made provision halting public funding of abortion.

In the end to reconcile the bills as required the pro-life portion of the House bill was removed, but Stupak, got President Obama to sign an executive order banning public funding of abortions.  Instead of applauding Congressman Stupak for getting the Pro-life issue into the bill, Stupak is not recognized for this accomplishment by many in the Christian community.

I believe that Christians should leverage their power, by not being beholden to any party, but using this leverage to negotiate issues that are important to us   I believe that Pres. Obama's administration would make additional compromises if they could be assured of some support from these Christians.  We risk allowing other legislation that may be harmful to our society, because we don't utilize our voting leverage.

Black History Month

Black History Month?  I never thought that almost 50 years after the signing of the civil rights act that the USA would still need this.   When I was young, in my school books I read some things about Africans that are difficult for me to believe now.  Some examples are "Indians were too civilized to become slaves" and "Africans were better off because the English civilized by providing them Christianity". 

It has been reported that last year members of the Tennessee Tea Party had a press conference and stated "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."  Many people are claiming this was last year but in early January 2012 the Tennessee Tea Party announced they were suspending actions to "redirect focus on faith based initiatives and education."  They also said "the current state of affairs in the country calls for a return back to the foundation of faith and morality in which this country was founded."

We as a nation need to tell the true history.  The Bible tells the "sinful" and "saintly" acts and does not try to cover wrongs.  Sorry Tennessee Tea Party our founding fathers were hypocrites, they intruded on the Native Americans and we cannot try to justify those acts.  They were also great men and did “try” to build this country on Judeo-Christian values; but they were just men with flaws just like us.  We will continue to grow if we acknowledge and report our entire history and then there will not be a need for Black history, Women's history or any other history month.