A Sudanese court, two weeks ago, sentenced Mariam Yehya Ibrahim to death by hanging for her failure to renounce Christianity and return to Islam. Officially, the crime of which the court found Mariam guilty was apostacy, i.e. abandoning or criticizing Islam.
The 27 year old woman was, also, sentenced to 100 lashes on the related charge of adultery for marrying her Christian husband, Daniel Wani, an American. Such marriages are forbidden under Islamic religious law which is incorporated into Sudan’s constitution.
Mariam gave birth last week to the couple’s second child. There is hope her release may yet be obtained through diplomatic means.
We gripe about religious persecution here in America, but have little or no concept of how severe persecution can actually be. All across the globe there are Christians bearing witness to their faith in the face of violent opposition. Read more…
Arlington Cemetary, Author Karakorhummel (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)
Monday we celebrate Memorial Day. The holiday was conceived to honor Civil War dead, but expanded over the decades to include all deaths during military service.
The solemn purpose of Memorial Day has not changed. It is to preserve the memory of brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Each generation is charged anew with the protection of that freedom. One generation passes the priceless baton on to the next.
Our soldiers, our sailors, our marines, our airmen we know have been faithful – from deserts to jungles, in air, on land and sea. The question is are we? Do we even give the men and women of our armed forces a second thought when the holiday rolls around again? Or are we too busy picking up hamburger buns and charcoal briquettes, staking out sales?
The apparent scheme by certain Department of Veterans Affairs facilities to misrepresent patient wait times rather than do anything to reduce them suggests we have a long way to go.
Valley Forge, Iwo Jima, Khe Sanh, Kandahar. The names echo down the corridors of history. Too few Americans, however, recall their significance.
This is a precious legacy we have been given. But we will not hold it long, if we do not recognize its value.
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 2: 2-3).
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
Often, when lawyers attempt to assist impoverished clients, we discover that legal problems are only the tip of an iceberg. There are, almost always, layers upon layers of difficulty with which these clients struggle on a daily basis. Such difficulties may include child abuse, teen pregnancy, urban violence, hunger, drug addiction, mental health issues, and homelessness.
When the law is insufficient to provide the clients seated before us an adequate solution, we can easily feel inadequate ourselves. At such times, the promises of the Lord may sound hollow.
Justice is not always achieved in this life. That does not make it any less worth fighting for.
But we cannot know the ways of the Lord. He is capable when we are not. He may be accomplishing some greater purpose we do not see or comprehend, a purpose extending across nations and generations. Read more…
“He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11).
My mother and I stood on line at the pharmacy counter, in the back of an aging drugstore. An attempt had been made to modernize the cramped space by adding plastic privacy screens. These were positioned so close to one another any hope of privacy was immediately eliminated.
The heat was palpable. An overhead fluorescent fixture buzzed like an irritated insect. I glanced up and noticed a forlorn effort to embellish the area, by way of a basket of faded plastic flowers. The arrangement had clearly been intended as a table topper, but was instead suspended precariously from an exposed pipe. The entire display was coated with a heavy layer of dust, and tilted awkwardly askew.
I touched my mother’s sleeve, and pointed to the arrangement. She looked up and exclaimed, without irony, “Beautiful!” Read more…
Roman slave shackle found at Hampshire, England, Photo by portableantiquities, Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/finds/7549071576/in/set-72157630526828120 (CC Attribution 2.0 Gen)
A rally was held in Nigeria earlier this week to protest that government’s inaction against the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram (translated “Western Education Is Sinful”). The group recently kidnapped some 230 school girls, and is selling them into slavery for as little as $12 or “marrying” them to their captors [1].
Though estimates vary, there are as many as 30 million men, women, and children entrapped in slavery, as I write this.
Included among these are forced laborers recruited under threat of violence, by governments and political parties; chattel slaves abducted from their homes – bought, sold, inherited, and given as gifts; bonded laborers whose loans – impossible of repayment – can be passed from generation to generation; child soldiers; child brides in forced marriages; children engaged in toil destructive of their health and well-being; and sexually exploited women and children, now a basis for sex tourism.
If any of this sounds familiar to Americans, it should. The impact of slavery on our country has been immense. It is a lasting scar the extent of which cannot be summed up in a few neat words.
But slavery has not been confined to a single race or nation. Slavery is referenced as far back as the Code of Hammurabi and the Bible [2]. Slavery existed in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; in Ireland, Poland, and elsewhere across the globe. It existed among Christians and Muslims. Slave labor camps in the form of gulags were utilized as a political tool by Russia until 1960. They persist in China (under the name “laogai”) and North Korea today.
By focusing exclusively on grievances of the past – albeit, legitimate grievances – we may overlook the chance we have as Americans of every stripe to make a difference in the present.
The evils (and insidious after-effects) of slavery should, if anything, make America the nation foremost in seeking an end worldwide to that institution, once and for all. Instead, we remain a house divided, consumed by our own pain. Read more…
Favela de Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Photo by Hmaglione10 (CC ASA, 3.0 Unported)
“And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year on a circuit…But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there” (1 Samuel 7: 15-17).
Earlier this month heavily armed Brazilian troops stormed another favela in Rio de Janeiro. These armed attacks on Rio’s slums are being billed as attempts to improve security, in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. The less articulated goal is to take over the territory currently ruled by gangs, and turn existing, high elevation, urban poverty into enviable, upscale, real estate.
This is gentrification at the point of a gun.
Promises of better education, health, and social programs have been made to slum residents. While the pledged improvements have stemmed any large scale protest, they have yet to materialize.
How often have the powerless been displaced from land to which they had longstanding ties? The Israelites were, themselves, expelled by the Romans from Judea (renamed Palestine) in 70 AD. The history of Native Americans provides additional examples. Treaty after treaty with them was broken, once it appeared that there was an advantage to be gained.
If the prophet Samuel judged America as he did ancient Israel, would we pass muster? How then are we to approach problems like Brazil’s use of the military to redefine the social contract with its impoverished citizens?
What if instead of self-interest we used God’s standard of justice to govern our actions, personal and political? Does the treatment of our own citizens — especially the most needy — meet that standard? Read more…
Depiction of Jesus Christ from “Resurrection” by Germain Pilon (c. 1572), Louvre Museum, Photo by Jastrow (Public Domain)
“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!’ ” (Luke 24: 1-6).
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
“The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem” by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum of Art (PD-ArtlPD-Age-100)
“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
‘Hosanna!
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”
The King of Israel!’ ” (John 12: 12-13).
In the ancient world palm branches were used to signify triumph, eternal life, and peace. Successful Greek athletes were awarded a palm branch. The Roman goddess of victory carried a palm frond.
The ecstatic crowd gathered for Passover welcomed Christ to Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday by waving palm branches and quoting from Psalm 118. The psalm, also, contains the line, “Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”
As Christians, we know that Christ was the sacrifice who five days later would willingly take our sins upon Himself and give His life for ours…no cords required except those of love.
Five hundred years earlier, Isaiah had described the Lord as saying, “ ‘See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…’ ” (Isaiah 49: 16).
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
Protest against school desegregation (Little Rock, 1959), Photo by John Bledsoe of US News & World Report, Source Library of Congress (Donated to the public without restrictions)
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
– Evelyn Beatrice Hall, summarizing Voltaire’s view
“…[F]alse brethren… came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage…[But] we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you” (Galatians 2: 4-5).
America is a “big tent” nation. We welcome those from all backgrounds and all faiths, with all points of view.
The Founding Fathers felt so strongly about freedom of speech that they enshrined it in the First Amendment. But the right to express our political and religious views has limitations. Lawyers make a comfortable living litigating obscenity, slander and libel, copyright, and sedition cases.
That last is particularly relevant. Sedition is conduct which tends to subvert authority and/or incite insurrection whether by ethnic and racial hatred or other means. Read more…
White Horse Temple Doorway, Luoyang, Photo by kevinmcgill of Den Bosch, Netherlands (CC ASA 2.0 Gen)
Over the past year or more, my mother has been so often hospitalized we have lost track. One hospital room looks much like another. One ambulance trip, one emergency room visit blends into the next.
As it turns out, the valley of the shadow of death is frequently linoleum tiled. Acrid medicinal odors, cries of pain, and calls for help define its borders. Silent prayers rise from its depths like incense. Angels wearing scrubs hover nearby.
This journey we call life takes us places we do not wish to go. Read more…
A Lawyer's Prayers 