Separation of Chuch and State

I do believe that the church and its members should be helping people and fighting against social injustices towards others. But there should still be a separation of church and state.

Take a look at my website for more of my thoughts…
Blog post on marriage
Blog post on health care (link coming soon)

Where do you think that this line should be? What should the role of the church and government be in relationship to social justice?








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Is Global Heath Care the Real Solution?

Many people are looked down upon when they are opposed to government aid. A girl in one of my classes said that “people who are against health care are stupid and ignorant.” I disagree. This girl in my class could be seen as ignorant because it was clear, as she continued talking, that she had no idea what many people who opposed health care actually think or believe.

There are several reasons for being opposed to global health care (I am not necessarily opposed but I do see it going terribly wrong as it has in other countries). The main reason is that the church should be addressing grace issues. It is not the government’s job to involve itself in people’s everyday life. It is our job as individuals and Christians to be helping the people that don’t have health care.

There is a church in Spearfish, South Dakota, which had several doctors and nurses in their congregation. This church chose one night a week and opened the basement up for free heath care from these professionals for the entire community (not just the church). This is what we should be seeing everywhere. If a church has doctors, financial advisers, artists, tradesmen, mathematicians the church should be using these skills to be help people who can not help themselves.

Making health care a government issue could make situations like this illegal or greatly reduce them. The government could also start regulating more of our medical procedures. I have a friend who was a missionary in Mexico for a couple years. When she had her second child in Mexico the hospital forced her to take drugs that she had previously had the option to in the United States. This is just one example of how government control in our health care is dangerous.

I agree that it is not alright for people to be dying because they cant afford to go to the doctor and that something needs to be done. I do not believe that the government providing global health care is the best option. It may seem to be the most realistic at the moment, but if every one who supports global health care stepped up and helped someone, the need for the government may dissipate and be taken care of.

This is a challenge to the churches in America to start using their resources for people who need it.

Body Piercing

I went back into some of my writings from high school and found this quote on a scratch piece of paper from my creative writing class. It depicts the most amazing act of grace that anyone can imagine. Jesus' death was the ultimate example of grace.  Even though we were still sinners Jesus died for us.  We didn't need to change for Jesus (and God) to love us.  If we can understand this, we can better understand grace and how to share grace with others.

Another part of understanding grace is that we it can be easy for people to take grace too far. Grace is not salvation. Grace is also not Christianity, but rather an aspect of Christianity. We still need to remember the truth that Jesus is the "truth the way and the life." Grace does not mean that we are on the way to the father. It does explain how a perfect man would be willing to look past all of the garbage in our lives to see the beauty in all people.

See my website featuring this poster and more.

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Grace is A Bit Queer

The idea for this poster came from my life drawing class.  During a critique the class discussed how the model looks like Jesus.  It was interesting because the model was a friend who happened to be gay.

The text in this poster is jumbled and confusing to represent the contrast between grace and our culture.  Our culture tells us that we should get what we deserve.  If we do good in school we should get good grades, good grades will get us a good job and a good job will get us lots of money.  We earn what we get and nothing is free.

Grace, however, offers a different message.  It is free and we can not earn it.  It is different from most every aspect of our culture.

Grace is queer.

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One Reason Grace is Amazing

Grace is not restricted to one culture or language...

Amazing Grace in Cheroke



Flatfoot 56 - Celtic Punk Band - he talks for a bit (about Grace). The song starts at 1:30.
More importantly I was in that mosh pit in 05 (same place).

This video better illustrates my point (that grace transcends to non Christian audiences) but the sound is not as good.  Flatfoot plays at a lot of pubs...




Lin Yu Chun Sings Amazing Grace - WOW this kid is good

Soweto Gospel Chior


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I Believe that Grace can Save Lives

How can this one Biblical principal of grace save lives?

A person often chooses suicide because they believe that there is no other choice, there is no hope, they are worthless, no one would miss them, they have nothing to live for or a combination of these beliefs.

Suicide is often a brash decision.  In most cases all it takes to prevent a suicide is one conversation and a tiny ounce of hope.  This is one reason why suicide hot lines are so beneficial.

One example of grace is taking the weird kid in your class out for coffee or sitting by him at lunch.  This would show them that someone cares.

If you decided to talk to this "weird" kid during lunch and get to know him, you could show him that that you do care.  By asking questions about him you can show that you think he is valuable (not worthless).

At the end of this conversation asking your new friend if you can sit by him tomorrow at lunch will give him something to hope for the next day.  They now have a reason to live one more day. 

By showing someone the alternatives side to suicide (and suicidal ideation) you can help save their life.

Let's learn more about GRACE and how to use it everyday to save lives or at the very least, make new friends...

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Grace = seeing my own flaws

Sample Poster from my site.

I have recently been working on a project for a class (the next few posts will address my project). The project is in response to looking at the problems within and among GLBTQ communities’ and the Christians communities. I think that many of the problems that strain these relationships result from a lack of two features: grace and dialog. I am choosing to focus on the issue of grace for this project. The project is composed of a website that displays some posters that I have created about the topic of grace.
Grace is such an important topic in our society and Christian community. We should all be working to better understand what Jesus did for us as well as striving to show the grace of God to others.

I was having a conversation with a friend/mentor (Anthony Johnson or AJ) about grace. He explained that when he is having a hard time showing someone grace, he asks God to show him his own flaws. After seeing his imperfections he will often remember a verse such as “we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

(Romans 3:23 or Isaiah 53:6)

If you don’t read anything else from this page, I would like you to take the idea that a gracious attitude toward someone can be as simple as looking at your own flaws first.
 

hey God, please show me my flaws and 

help me to see that we all fall short of your glory and therefore 

we ALL need your grace.

AMEN