Civil Rights vs Human Rights

I recently saw a headline referring to a very large Christian denomination stating certain rights are not civil rights.

What are civil rights? According to an online dictionary, civil rights are: "rights to personal liberty established by the 13th Amendment (neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the U.S., or any place subject to their jurisdiction.) and 14th Amendment (all persons born or naturalized in the U.S., and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the U.S. and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the U.S.; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.) to the U.S. constitution and certain Congressional acts, especially as applied to an individual or a minority group; the rights to full legal, social, and economic equality."

So, what are human rights? According to the same online dictionary, they are defined as "fundamental rights, especially those believed to belong to an individual and in whose exercise a government may not interfere, as the rights to speak, associate, work, etc."

So, from what these definitions and the Bill of Rights state, civil rights and human rights are pretty much interchangeable, therefore any and all rights afforded to the citizens of the Republic are, in fact, civil rights. But, with rights come responsibilities. Freedom isn't free, after all. Freedom is only achieved by the sacrifice made by those who have fought to purchase that freedom. Whether that sacrifice be the time and energy they have expended to fight to ensure the freedom or the ultimate sacrifice of losing one's life to ensure that others have that freedom.

As Christians, our freedom in God was purchased by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. As citizens of these United States of America, our freedom was purchased by the men and women who fought for independence from England in the Revolutionary War and those who fought and died in every war since. So then, what are our responsibilities for the freedom and rights we have?

Our first responsibility is to ensure that no single person or group is denied the freedoms and rights we hold dear. Even if we don't agree with their speech, assembly or affiliations, we must respect their rights to those things. We, ourselves, want to exercise our right to speak freely what is in our hearts and minds, to assemble with those who are of like-mind and to affiliate ourselves with groups that share our opinions, beliefs and ideas. Therefore, we must respect the fact that there are those who have different opinions, beliefs and ideas from ours and afford them the same right to speak, assemble and affiliate.

Often, as Christians, we think it is our responsibility to forbid people from doing things which we believe to be sinful. It's not. Our responsibility as Christians, as defined by Jesus and the Apostles, is to spread the Good News that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. That no one can attain relationship with God except through Jesus Christ and to pray for those who have yet to make that commitment to serving the King and kings and Lord of lords.

When we try to forbid people from things we consider to be sinful, or wrong, we are standing in judgment of those people. Now, I know many Christians who would answer me by saying that we are to judge people by their fruits, which is, in fact, true. However, you and I are unable to see the fruits of most people's lives. The fruits we are to judge by are clearly defined by Paul: "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." For most of the people, and groups, we place judgment on, we do not see them living their daily lives, therefore we cannot judge if these fruits are present or missing in their lives. Even if we do have the chance to observe their daily lives, we are only allowed to judge whether they are exhibiting the fruits listed above, not whether they are saint or sinner, accepted or unaccepted by God. That judgment is reserved for Jesus, only.

I know many people who are members of minority groups that are ostracized and demonized by the "church", today, who exhibit every one of the fruits Paul listed. And many more who demonstrate most of them. I also know many "Christians" who are not demonstrating those fruits or are missing several in their own lives. Does that, then, give me the right to judge them? No! It only gives me the right to pray for them!

I know many people think they are being good Christians by battling what they see as sinful living, but the Word of God tells us our battle is not against flesh and blood, that the tools of our warfare are prayer and fasting. Why then are so many Christians fighting against people or groups of people? Why are so many Christians fighting to prevent others from enjoying the very rights they themselves are complaining that they're losing? You cannot demand your civil/human rights while denying them to others. That's called hypocrisy. That's exactly how the scribes and Pharisees and the sadducees and the temple leaders, the high priest and the Roman leaders of Jesus' day treated Jesus and the disciples. The very messages that Christ preached and taught throughout Judea in the first century were about the wrong being perpetrated in God's name by those people and groups. They wanted the right to say and do what they felt and believed while restricting others from having the same rights simply because those people didn't believe or behave the way they felt they should.

So, my prayer is that each and every person in this country, whether Christian or atheist, Buddhist or Jewish, native born or naturalized will remember that just because we disagree doesn't mean we cannot exist in this great land in peaceful co-existence. And I pray that we remember the lessons of the Crusades: we cannot force someone to be born again and convert to Christianity by forcing them to behave according to our beliefs and our interpretation of Scripture.

Loving, Forgiving, Father God

I love to see posts from people discussing the nature of God and extolling His gifts, mercy and grace to us. Those posts that tell of His never ending love, His abundant grace, His compassionate and all-encompassing forgiveness which has no end. My heart and soul cry out in praise and adoration when I see the direct results of God's influence in those lives and the manifestation of His boundless mercies toward any person.

Conversely, my heart is broken when some of those people do not apply the very virtues they highlight and exalt which God has shown to them to every person on the planet. They somehow believe that God only loves, forgives, cares for, is compassionate to, understands, accepts, satisfies, heals, gives loving-kindness to, renews, is the righteousness for and sovereign of those who believe exactly the way they do.

As human beings, we sometimes get into the mindset that our way of thinking or believing is the ONLY correct way to believe/think. I guess it makes people feel they are part of an exclusive club or somehow better than the average Joe. But, it is pure arrogance to believe that we, and only we, hold the truth of the goodness, mercy and grace of God to the exclusion of anyone who doesn't agree with our philosophies, guidelines and rules.

I literally cringe when I see, or hear, those from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas holding up signs or screeching how God hates "fags" and how God is punishing the US military men and women in foreign wars because He is punishing this nation. While their beliefs are Biblically based, they have taken scripture out of context and/or misused scripture. One of their mistakes is the belief that God will punish an entire nation. While God did, in fact, punish the nation of Israel in the Old Testament for certain acts or the lack of action, the basis of that punishment falls under the Law of Moses, which we are no longer under. When Christ rose from the dead and offered salvation to us, He made salvation an individual action and relationship. Look through the Old Testament, even, and you will see where God only brought destruction on other nations when they attacked Israel, not for the action or inaction of a few of that nations people.

Too often, today, we are trying to apply Old Testament and/or Law of Moses formulae to our lives today. That makes me shake my head and want to ask people, 'what part of the Law being fulfilled do you not quite grasp?'

Each and every person on this planet, today, will have to stand before Jesus on the throne of Judgment and answer for our actions, inaction, attitude, idle words, sins of commission, sins of omission, obedience, faith and love. I firmly believe the very first thing Christ will ask upon our stepping up to the throne of Judgment will be, "how well did you love?" The point is, however, that we will not have to answer for anything that others did or did not do nor for how well others loved or did not love. Only one specific type of individual will have to answer in any shape, form or fashion as to others. That individual type is a pastor or leader in the church. And even then they will not have to answer for the sins of their congregation unless they taught that congregation to sin and based that teaching upon their knowing misinterpretation of God's will.

Jesus gave us a NEW commandment, which if you really think about it, encompasses all the original 10: "love thy neighbor as thyself" or "love thy neighbor as I have loved you." If we were to be obedient to that new commandment, we wouldn't lie to or about another person because we love them as we love ourselves; we wouldn't steal from them because of our love for them; we wouldn't murder them because we love them; and the list goes on and on.

The most basic truth of this entire matter is this: we cannot see into the hearts of any other person therefore we cannot judge them. I know many who will counter that Jesus told us to judge by their fruits, and oddly enough, it is those who are judging others to condemnation who will use that argument, however, they're not judging people by their fruits, they're judging them by their actions. The fruits we are to look for in that statement of judging another are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we stand in judgment of someone based upon what we perceive to be the sin in their lives, we're not looking to see if they love others, whether they are peacemakers, kind, good, faithful, gentle and of good repute. If we were to look at each person to see if those fruits are manifesting in their lives, we would be unable to pass any kind of harsh judgment on most.

We need to get back to the basics, which are: loving one another as God has loved us, forgiving one another as we have been forgiven, helping one another in time of need and most importantly treating each and every person on the planet the way we, ourselves, want to be treated. As Galatians 5:23 says, "against such there is no law."

The Return of The King of Kings

I once heard a Christian say they couldn't wait until the rapture so they could basically gloat and say, "I told you so!" At the time I sort of agreed with them, but it was only a half-hearted agreement.

In that moment when the trumpet sounds and the eastern skies are split wide open to reveal the triumphant return of my savior and King, I don't think I'll have anything on my mind other than rejoicing in His presence and utter, complete and overwhelming joy. I seriously doubt that I will have time to think about those in my life who have ridiculed my belief in the return of Christ Jesus. But, if I do have time to think of it, there will be no sense of "I told you so," but rather, I think there would be a sense of sadness and disappointment that those people will be seeing the truth revealed only to realize that they have missed out. The utter horror they will experience in that moment that will be faster than the blinking of an eye will be so all-consuming and devastating. I cannot feel anything but sadness for them that they will witness the truth before them only to realize that they have missed their chance.

When I think of what I would feel toward those who will not rise to meet Jesus in the clouds, I stop to think of God's heart and how He will feel knowing that so many of those He has loved and called have rejected Him. Each and every one of us knows the hurt, pain and ache of rejection; now just imagine the depths of those feelings in the very heart of God who took on flesh and came to earth to live and died an excruciating and ghastly beating followed by one of the most horrific deaths known to man: hanging on a cross. He did all of that so that each and every person might enjoy the eternal life and love that we will experience in Glory. The best part of that everlasting life will be living in the presence of the living God for eternity without end.

I have loved ones who have passed away that I have no doubt are waiting for me in Heaven, and I have loved ones who have passed away whom I am completely unsure whether they are spending eternity in Heaven or hell; according to what I know, unless they made a decision for Christ in the last hours or days of their life, they are not basking in the light of His love, but I don't know what decisions they made in those last hours and minutes of life. I know that if they did, in fact, call on Him, even with their last breath, then they are forever by His side in Glory. If not, then they are experiencing the most horrible of all torment: the complete lack of the presence of God.

Much has been made over the years and centuries about the horrors of hell: fire and brimstone; the fire that is never quenched, the gnashing of teeth and the other torments that are mentioned not only by the apostles and prophets, but by Christ, Himself. Yet, those will not be the worst torment for those who are cast into utter darkness. That very term refers to the complete lack of God's presence, and that would be the most horrendous fate that I could ever imagine.

As the remaining signs prophesied in the Bible come to pass, as the day draws nearer and nearer to the splitting of the eastern skies, I hope and pray people will respond to the call that God is extending to them. And I admonish all of us to remember that we are not called to be smug or gloat to think about those who will get a wake-up call on that day; we are called to work diligently so that they will be able to fly away in the sweet by and by.

On Being Weird and Strange

Not too long ago, I learned from a former in-law that a member of my immediate family had talked about me with this former in-law and had used the words "weird and strange" to describe me, explaining why my family member limited contact with me. Now, I know I'm unusual, but then again, every single person on this planet has some unusual qualities or traits. I, myself, have even used the terms "weird and strange" when describing myself. But, the way my family member used these descriptors was in a negative sense.

Learning this information some 15 years later was both revelatory and hurtful. It explained so much the erratic nature of my relationship with this family member, but it was quite painful to hear that she felt that way about me, and because of that she limited her involvement with me, and even tempered her love and affection.

I realize I can be abrasive, and even at times I can seem almost alien. I have my opinions and views, just like anyone else, and just because they don't mesh with those of another person, especially a loved one, that shouldn't preclude having a good relationship with them. Just like every other human being on the planet, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, I inadvertently hurt those I love the most and I'm even callous and insensitive at times. Yet, I never intentionally set out to hurt or alienate anyone, especially my family. The one thing that is most important to me on this planet is family. Maybe because I've never felt truly a part of one.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to speak with this family member about her opinion of me, but if I could, I would tell her that I sometimes think of her as strange and weird, as well, though I never cut her out of my life, and heart, because of it. I simply counted it as part of who she was; part of what made her her.

I've changed quite a bit over the past 25 years. I am not the man I was when I began the journey to become a better man. Have I completely succeeded in being all that I can be? No. But I continue to strive for that goal even though I know I may never reach it. I will continue to be "strange and weird" in the eyes of many, but that's just part of being me, just as it is with everyone else.

Sudden Loss of Relationships

Like other people on the planet, I have a history. In my personal history I have come to realize that I have lost contact with others suddenly and inextricably. These people simply stopped speaking to me; they refuse to answer or return my phone calls, eMails or text messages. Recently a relative blocked me from her facebook page. In a few of those instances, I am aware that I said or did something that could explain the sudden cessation of conversation and interaction, but in others, I have no idea why the other person suddenly stopped speaking to me.

I have also cut off communication with other people during my lifetime. However, I've never just suddenly stopped speaking to those people, I've always let them know, in some form, why it was that I was severing contact with them. I find it to be better if I am courteous and responsible by letting them know what it is they've done or said that caused me to no longer want to have interaction with them, while I desire the same respect and consideration from others.

In almost every instance of someone suddenly ceasing to communicate with me, I have left voicemails, eMails or sent letters asking them to please let me know what it was that I did to cause them to suddenly cease communications, yet in nearly every instance, my request for information was ignored. I simply cannot understand why someone would cease communication without letting the other person know why. Especially when the offender asks to know so they can avoid that situation in the future.

I've also asked, no I've begged, forgiveness from those people even though I've no idea what it is I'm asking to be forgiven for. To say I feel extremely offended by their refusal to tell me what I did would be understatement, but the idea of forgiveness being sought and rejected is even further outside my realm of understanding.

Maybe one day I'll learn what it is about me that causes people to just walk out of my life with no explanation. After all, it's been happening to me since I was a mere four years old, so I really should be close to knowing what it is.

Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Those were the words of Jesus recorded in John's gospel, 8th chapter. We all know the story, the scribes and pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the very act of adultery, they demanded Jesus answer to the command of the law which said she should be stoned to death. Ironically, even though they caught this woman in the very act of adultery, which means they found her and a man who was not her husband in the act of sex, they brought only the woman to be condemned to death when the scripture is plain and clear that BOTH the man and woman should be put to death. The scripture they cite to justify her death is Leviticus 20:10, and is repeated in Deuteronomy 22:22. Yet, the scribes and Pharisees, just like the people of today, were selective about the punishment and chose to only condemn the woman in this case. There are many instances in Leviticus (the Law of Moses) where death is proscribed for sin. Many actions which today we consider to be of no consequence were given the death penalty or being completely cut off from the people. Anyone who cursed his father or mother was to be put to death. If that sanction were applied today, more than ¾ of the population would have to be killed. If a couple engaged in intimacy during a woman's monthly flow, they were both to be cut off from the people, another way of saying put to death. It didn't matter if the couple were married or not, if they engaged in relations during her cycle, they were to be killed. The beauty of Christ's life, death and resurrection is that we are no longer under the law, but under grace. As the Bible states in New Testament scripture, the law did not pass away, it was merely fulfilled in the death and resurrection of the Messiah. Each and every person on this planet who is a Christian revels in that grace and the mercy that God has shown to them for their sin. Yet so many of us refuse to extend that grace and mercy to anyone else. Just as the scribes and Pharisees of John chapter 8, we want to impose the harshest penalty available against every other person for the most minor of infractions, while we want to be pardoned for the most major infractions that we commit. Each and every one of us have our own point of view, opinion and belief about everything. We all believe that our point of view/opinion/belief is the right one and every person who doesn't agree with us is wrong. Sadly, both sides of every issue can also use Scripture to justify their stand. How is this possible? I do not have all the answers. I don't even have a few of the answers. What I do have is the belief/opinion/point of view that the Bible tells me that A: my battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities of the air and the powers of darkness. Some use that to justify their attacks against those who disagree with them politically or religiously, however. B: that my home is not this physical, earthly kingdom. My home is the eternal heaven in which God reigns. And C: that I am not the judge for anyone or anything that occurs in this life with or by other people. Jesus is the only One who can judge others. Jesus told us that we cannot see into the heart of another person therefore we cannot stand in judgment of them. Is what someone else does a sin? There are some cases where we can say that something is a sin. But, there are some things that may be a sin for me but not for you. It's a very complicated thing to be a human being born into the kingdom of Christ. We see through a veil, darkly, as Paul stated. In other words, we do not see everything, we don't have all the information needed to make judgments. Some people say the old adage, "live and let live" is heresy. Is it? Considering there are numerous instances in the Scripture that tell us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, to stop trying to remove a speck from our brother's eye while we have a plank in our own and that we are admonished to not be "busybodies" (Paul's word, not mine), I think the adage is appropriate. Many of the ones who scream about this or that or the other issue, whichever side they're on, would do well to think about the things in their own life they wouldn't want anyone to judge them on. Just saying!

Falling From Grace

There's a common saying in American language that says people "fall from grace". The most recent example was in a new article regarding media moguls, comparing the rise and fall of Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst, and the fact that many media moguls suffer this "fall from grace". Grace is defined as "favor, goodwill, mercy, clemency, pardon; a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior." Humanity has a history of building people up into larger than life symbols of their hopes and dreams, only to gleefully rip them off the pedestals they were placed on, most of the time without their desire to be placed there in the first place. Many times the ambition of the person in question turns into hubris which precedes their "fall". God tells us in His Word that His grace is "sufficient" unto us, to cover a multitude of sins and mistakes. We cannot fall from His grace because there is more than enough to cover any and all of the mistakes, sins and times that we miss the mark. But we still continue to talk about people who have fallen from His grace. We give human attributes to the Creator of the universe and apply our own failure to offer sufficient grace to one another to the Almighty. We think that He cannot possibly have enough grace to cover those things that we refuse to cover with our own grace toward one another. The irony is we refuse to offer the grace to others, or expect that God will refuse that grace to them because we won't while at the same expecting that God has enough grace to cover all of our missteps, misdeeds and sin. How human of us. The next time you begin to fault someone for "falling from grace" take a moment to ask yourself if you expect God's grace to cover you in the same situation. If you do, then you must give that same grace to the person you want to condemn.