A Politics and Religion Post That Caught My Attention

An excertp:

 One of the reasons Christians tend to fight with each other over politics is that we are often secret utopians. We say we trust in Christ, but we really trust in ourselves, or some human solution, to make the world a better place. We keep hoping for and believing in the “silver bullet”—the candidate, the policy, the platform, the Supreme Court configuration—that will fix things. And when we find that someone else’s silver bullet differs from ours, we don’t trust him anymore—even if he is a fellow believer. Or we keep clinging to the mistaken notion that America is God’s chosen nation, positioned to make things right in the world: if we can just get America “right” we will put the world to rights. And when we find someone with a different vision for what it means to get America “right” we demonize him.

Read the full post @: Can Republicans and Democrats sit in the same pew?

Posted in Political, Spiritual | 1 Comment

The First Dollar Bill

In case you don’t recognize the person on the currency, it’s former Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who was responsible for designing the bill and later became part of the Supreme Court.

Chase National Bank was named in his honor.  The bank later became Chase Manhattan Bank, which is now known as JPMorgan Chase.

MentalFloss.com has a nice write-up about it.

Posted in Interesting | 1 Comment

Chief U.S. District Judge sends racially charged email about president

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull on Wednesday admitted to sending a racially charged email about President Barack Obama from his courthouse chambers.

Cebull, of Billings, was nominated by former President George W. Bush and received his commission in 2001 and has served as chief judge for the District of Montana since 2008.

The subject line of the email, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse email address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: “A MOM’S MEMORY.”

The forwarded text reads as follow:

“Normally I don’t send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?'” the email joke reads. “His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!'”

Cebull admitted Wednesday to sending the email to seven recipients, including his personal email address.

The judge acknowledged that the content of the email was racist, but said he does not consider himself racist. He said the email was intended to be a private communication.

Full GreatFallsTribune.com Article

Posted in Political | 2 Comments

Celebrity Christians Commentary

A few weeks ago in a Bag of Randomness I mentioned that I’m reluctant to cheer on a Christian athlete just because he or she is a Christian, that it might have something to do with jumping on a bandwagon, but I thought there was something more to it. After reading my pastor’s post on celebrity Christians, I he helped me understand why I’m uncomfortable cheering on an athlete just because he or she is also a follower of Christ.

Read his whole post here, but below is an except:

Back then I began to be troubled by the growing practice of American evangelicalism of prancing new converts front and center, in essence, using them as pawns in celebrity testimonies.  Indeed it was great to see a Hollywood star, an entertainment superstar, or an All Pro athlete bear witness to Christ’s redemption story.  Yet all too often is this repeat story of falling from grace. Hear me! I bear little judgment against the fallen, I’m growing increasingly troubled by the American evangelical church parading babes in Christ to primary platforms of witness, if not teaching.  It may make pack the sanctuary, it may inspire the Body of Christ, but it is a questionable practice, one the scriptures themselves seem to caution against for the well-being of the church, and above all to avoid harming the young in Christ.

Posted in Pop Culture, Spiritual, Sports | Comments Off on Celebrity Christians Commentary