Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Blog Post to Check Out....Why We Should Legalize Murder for Hire...Great Blog!

Ok, so alot of you are skeptical about the title of this blog and are probably thinking, "Wow, our Pastor is condoning legalizing murder?!  This is not going to go over well in the community!" But, think about it - would I do anything controversial?  Would I really cause such a stir?  Please....(sarcasm implied)

Check out this fantastic blog by The Gospel Coalition:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/mobile/article/tgc/why-we-should-legalize-murder-for-hire

I'll be the first to admit it; hit men are shady. But they are shady because they are doing work that no one else wants to do, work that is, in fact, illegal. By labeling contract killing a "crime," we have obscured the fact that hit men provide a valuable service to society.
Bourne SightMany women find themselves trapped in unwanted marriages. Matrimony severely curtails a woman's freedom, and husbands can be unreasonably demanding. A woman in such a situation is vulnerable. She sees only one way out, and so she makes the difficult decision to kill her husband.
But the inconvenient truth is that a woman hiring a hit on her husband will likely have to pay tens of thousands of dollars, with no guarantee that the kill will actually take place. Legalizing the transaction would remove uncertainty. Hired guns could be vetted, trained, and held to professional standards of safety. No one wants a hit to go bad. Removing the threat of prosecution would drastically lower the cost of contract killings. Legalizing murder for hire would bring a sordid industry into the light.

While divorce may be an attractive alternative to murder for hire in most cases, some women do not have the emotional and financial resources to go through a divorce. A contested divorce can take more than a year to resolve. After attorneys drain the couple's finances, the woman will be left with little money to get on with her life. Additionally, a discrete and well-timed hit protects a husband from the pain of discovering that he is no longer wanted. A truly skilled assassin can take his target painlessly in an instant, without any suffering. The end of a marriage can potentially ruin a woman's life, but if her husband can be taken out quickly and cleanly, it can be a new beginning for her.

Murder for hire is an uncomfortable subject, and I personally could never order a hit. The better course is to avoid unwanted marriage in the first place. Yet this is not a decision that anyone else can make for a woman. It is her marriage; only she can decide when it must end.

I realize readers may be hesitant to endorse this proposal, but stop to consider the profound way that the legalization of abortion has taken away the stigma against a woman who wants to kill her child. Abortion was once considered murder and thus could only be obtained secretly and at great risk to women. Now, our country celebrates women who exercise their choice to kill their family members. Why shouldn't we extend this right, and give women the choice to kill their partners?

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Real Religion....Caring for the least of these

We believe that the Bible commands us to care for the widows and the orphans...and at Trinity, one of the many ways we are trying to participate in that calling is through a partnership with Compassion International.   If you have never looked in to this ministry, you might mistake it for one of the many "social aid" agencies in the world - but Compassion really is different.  Their mission is distinct and apologetically Scriptural. 

From their website: 
Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
Founded by the Rev. Everett Swanson in 1952, Compassion began providing Korean War orphans with food, shelter, education and health care, as well as Christian training.

Today, Compassion helps more than 1.2 million children in 26 countries.

Our family has sponsored Jhon Jairo M from a South American country and have had multiple opportunities to write back and forth with him.    Jhon Jairo had been waiting for a sponsor for over 8 months when we found out about him.  We recently learned that he and his family are having to leave their village due to an increase in violence in the area and threats against them: Jhon Jairo's biggest fear is that he will not be able to continue in the Compassion program where ever they end up living.  

Compassion International's sponsorship program is a wonderful way of teaching your children about real people, in real places that have real needs:  not "I need a new playstation," but I need clean water and a meal.  Compassion allows our boys to sponsor a child that they can correspond with, get to know, see pictures of and learn more about.  For $38 a month (less than a meal out for most families), Jhon Jairo gets to go to the Development Center nearby and receive food, education, medical care and have other material needs met.  His parents get to learn entrepreneurial skills and the community receives educational resources. 

This Sunday, October 20th, Trinity will host Shaun Groves from Compassion International for a free concert during our evening services.  Join us for some incredible worship music and to learn more about how we can carry out this incredible calling!