BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

theodicy

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I was impressed, again, in Dean Smith’s autobiography, when he wrote that he often took his team to visit prisoners on death row.  One of those prisoners, John Noland, was executed in November of 1998.  John had become an ardent UNC fan, never missing a game on the radio.  Dean spoke to John on the [...]

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Maybe someone can explain to me why we have a so-called “death belt” which is roughly the same as what we call “the Bible belt.”  Texas, Florida, Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, and Alabama….Together they account for almost 80% of the executions America has seen since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.  [...]

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And if the above, by itself were not enough, let me share with you a few other reasons to be against capital punishment.   First, the death penalty does nothing to break the cycle of violence in our country.  While it does prevent a convicted murderer from committing other crimes, it does not stop others [...]

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The United Methodist Church is on record as being adamantly and irrevocably opposed to the death penalty.   We believe that all people are created in the image and likeness of God, that all life is God’s precious gift to be celebrated from conception to natural death.  Our church Discipline says it like this:  (page 117) [...]

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several weeks, totally out of touch with what’s going on in our country, you will know that you cannot pick up a newspaper, watch the news on TV, or even listen to the radio without hearing talk about capital punishment…the death penalty.   Politicians on both [...]

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always-teaching

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Everybody has problems, but it occurs to me that pastors are not in the business of promising fixes for all of them.  That’s not what we’re called to do.  We’re called to be witnesses, to call people to discipleship, to be in the business of forming spiritual lives of Christian character.   So when a [...]

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On this morning’s Today show, Matt Lauer conducted an interview with Gene Robinson, the gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, and I also read today a recent interview from New York’s General Theological Seminary.  In case you missed one or both, let me share a little of them with you. When asked to identify the most [...]

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I’ve heard it said that it is a wise man who realizes his limitations.  I’m very well aware of mine, but whether that makes me wise or not, I cannot be the judge.  However, I do know when I need to ask for help, and today is such a day.  It’s been one of those [...]

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