I Picked a Bad Night to Watch the News

I never watch the news. I sometimes read about it. There’s just too much to keep up with.

This past Friday I spent the night with my parents after my dad had a stint in the hospital. My brother used to live in Memphis, we have friends there, and the city is on the verge of something big as police body cam footage is about to be released. My mind has been filled with frustrating, sad, angry, and confusing thoughts.

It’s Holocaust Memorial Day, and the only positive news story I see is of a successful play about Holocaust survivors. But even that is only good news about bad news that must be remembered.

But there’s a tiredness to everything. What lessons have we learned? That same night, news of a shooting at a synagogue, that was a response to a shooting of Palestinians.

The home attack of the spouse of a House Speaker.

School shootings in schools where nothing was done.

And the killing of a man by five police officers in Memphis.

I picked the worst night to watch the news.

Nothing feels safe. Nothing feels stable. Nothing feels right.

It all keeps swirling around as the same experience in my head tonight as I sit with my parents, befuddled.

Why does this keep happening? Why did this happen this time? Who is responsible? What will be done to them? How do we keep it from happening again?

And these questions as being asked of everything. All the pain. All the violence. All the history repeating itself.

I’m tired of hearing over and over again of a few bad apples. What are we putting in the basket?

Where was the good news tonight?

Lord come quickly.

6 Simple Ways To Tell If That Email Forward Is Bogus

Chain mail has been around for a long time. You may have been first introduced to them when you first received an email telling you that if you didn’t forward it to at least 5 people, something bad would happen. Or if you did forward it to at least 50 people, something good would happen. The more gullible people were, the more viral the email.
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If Christians Stand for Truth, We Will Not Believe the President at His Word

“For years, as a conservative radio talk show host, I played a role in [conditioning] by hammering the mainstream media for its bias and double standards. But the price turned out to be far higher than I imagined. The cumulative effect of the attacks was to delegitimize those outlets and essentially destroy much of the right’s immunity to false information. We thought we were creating a savvier, more skeptical audience. Instead, we opened the door for President Trump, who found an audience that could be easily misled.”
-Charles J. Sykes, Conservative editor of Right Wisconsin
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How Will I Raise Both My Children in This Violent World?

For over a week we’ve been expecting the imminent birth of our second son.

5520439491_beb66a0e23_bOur first son knows about violence. He likes to pretend to punch things, throw spikes, burn and freeze. He knows that if you cut somebody, there’s blood, that he wants to kill bad guys. At the age of four, his penchant for terror worries me already. Will he grow up to respect human life in the way I want him to?
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What Will Happen if Someone Says Something Politically InCorrect Today

WHAT WILL HAPPEN THIS WEEK IF A PUBLIC FIGURE GOES TO A GATHERING, GIVES UTTERANCE OF SOMETHING POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE OR MISLEADING, AND THEN MAKES HEADLINES
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