Palestinian Genocide is Happening and Needs to Stop

Posted on August 16, 2025 | 1 comment
Genocide Is destroying Palestinians in Gaza. There is more than enough evidence that this is, in fact, happening. It is a war crime, it is unethical, and it is a sin. The United States of America is the largest supplier of weapons to this ethnic cleansing, and is the country that could stop Israel, but chooses to be complicit. What is more, many Christians support this because they believe that Israel must be protected at all costs. On the contrary, this is a communal sin that Christians and Jews should be standing up against. Yes, we are to respect Israel and protect her people from another holocaust. However, God Himself spoke out against Israel when she was in the wrong: You see this throughout the Old Testament. For instance,
Hosea 5: 10 – “Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour out my wrath on then like a flood of water.”
Amos 2: 6-7a – “This is what the Lord says: ‘For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed…”
Micah 3:8-12 – “ Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right: who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness, Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.’ Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’”
Isaiah 58: “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted’, they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers…Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him…?”
When any country is in the wrong, we need to stand against that evil. Is any country free to do as they wish to anyone they wish? That goes for America as well. Is a country that is currently guilty of Genocide and ethnic cleansing going to admit it’s sins? Since the beginnings of recorded history in the Bible, did not Cain, who killed Abel, answer God’s confrontation of his sin with “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Did not Jesus confront the leaders of Israel when they were in the wrong? In fact, many Jews themselves are standing against the evils seen in Gaza.
Jesus told Peter to put down his sword when he was going to “help” Jesus fight off whom he thought was Jesus’ enemy. Jesus does not need our help with a Zionist movement that helps with the second coming either. On the contrary, the disciples were called to bring the good news to all nations. They were, themselves, slaughtered, though they did not raise the sword. The two greatest commandments were to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind, and to love one’s neighbor as much as oneself. It was not to slaughter groups of people to “help” Jesus return, as if Jesus needs our help with that. Did God need our help in creating the world? Yet we are doing a fine job of helping God destroy what He commanded us to care for.

Listen to some of the voices of reason from around the world, this just touching the surface:
Former United Nations Aid Chief, Marin Griffith, condemned the attack on Gaza, Calling it the “worst crime of the 21st century”. He goes on to say, “There’s no prior experience in my 5 decades of humanitarian experience, that can come close to the comparison to the horror we are seeing in Gaza”.
UN Secretary General, Antonia Guterres, on July 25th, 2025, stated he has condemned the attacks by Hamas on Israel. However, “Nothing can justify the explosion of death and destruction since (terrorist attacks by Hamas). The scale and scope of it is beyond anything we have seen in recent times. I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community. The lack of compassion, the lack of truth the lack of humanity.”
According to the United Nations, as of August 9th:
51,158 Palestinians have been killed.
151,000 Palestinians have been wounded
Many more Palestinians are missing.
“Displacement is on a vast scale: 1.9 million people – around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population.”
Nearly 100 children now dead from malnutrition. August 9th, 2025, The United Nations writes “For over 150 days, not a single truck from UNRWA has been permitted to deliver food, medicine or other essentials in Gaza…this denial of access is costing lives every single day.”
The United Nations states: “We need the world to act – to open the crossings, to stop the suffering, and to uphold the most basic principles of humanity
Action Against Hunger listed over 100 humanitarian organizations that have called for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded aid access in Gaza on July 23, 2025.
In A Genocide Scholar on the Case of Israel, July 23, 2025, by Omer Bartov and Daniel J. Wakin, Produced by Jillian Weinberger, for The New York Times, Omer Bartov, who grew up in Israel, served in the military, and became a historian on genocide, states that if Hamas were “just to surrender” the hostages to Israel, there would be no incentive for Israel to refrain from wiping out Palestinians in Gaza. Bartov, who is an Israeli citizen, goes on to explain why his beloved country is currently conducting an unethical genocide.
Anthony Aguilar is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who served 25 yrs. In the Army Special Forces as a Green Barret. He received a Purple Heart as well as a Bronze Star in 2005 combat.
Anthony was recruited by UG Solutions to help with The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation or GHF. After the four distribution sites, he says GHF is full of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel kicked out the United Nations who had 400 sites and fed 2.1 million people a day. The GHF, which is privately run, he attests, for 64 days from May 26th, has only distributed the equivalent of 14 days’ worth of food to the entire population of Gaza.
Not only are people starving to death, but there are also only 4 sites distributing food, which are strategically placed where civilians in desperate need of food are in the middle of military combat. Civilians who oversee the food distribution are given weapons designed to kill. They fire at innocent civilians. In a clip he shot that has gone viral, a GHF worker took shots at civilians leaving the food distribution site, unarmed. He is heard saying “Woo-hoo”. Another GHF worker shouts, “I think you hit one” The shooter then shouts “Hell, yea, boy!” He continues to describe, as a former Lieutenant Colonel would understand, the details of war crimes against civilians. Interview on Democracy Now July 29th, 2025. Please watch this video for yourself.
GHF denies this is happening, President Netanyahu of Israel says there is no starvation. Of course, bullies lie. However, they do not allow international journalists in. In fact, they have murdered multiple journalists who have gotten in. Many of them currently in Gaza are also starving.
Sky News has a 27:55-minute video on YouTube: Doctors on the frontline: Victoria Rose and Tom Potokar Take You Inside the War On Gaza. This video is a heart wrenching inside view from doctors who have also taken on the role as journalists to accommodate their scarcity. Please view this on your own if you believe this is not serious.
CNN reports on July 30, 2025, For first time, two leading Israeli human rights groups accuse Israel of Genocide in Gaza, by Ivana Kotttasova and Abeer Salman: B’Tselem, one of the 2 Israeli humanitarian groups calling out the genocide, states it’s duty is to speak the truth, it goes on to describe why the evidence from its own sources as well as thoroughly vetted organizations, conclude the war in Gaza is genocide and ethnic cleansing. They also go on to condemn leaders in Europe and The United States for enabling the actions.
This is just the beginning of evidence of genocide in Gaza.
The question for Christians is, will we do something?
Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. If you were a mother, father, aunt, uncle, teacher or mentor in Gaza, watching the children you love get blown apart or slowly starving to death, would you ask people to speak up for them? I am not talking about violence, I am talking about speaking out, as a Christian, for the children of the world.
One of the first songs you may have learned if you grew up in a Christian household, was “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world…” We never threw clauses in there, such as, “except the Palestinian children in Gaza”.
Please, let’s try to love the Palestinian children in Gaza as though they were the children in our own circles, because they are somebody’s child, grandchild, niece, nephew, student.
We can join organizations fighting to stop the slaughter.
We can make statements of faith that denounce actions of genocide.
We can seek truth, look for evidence, get a little uncomfortable for the sake of our neighbors who are being exterminated.
We can tell friends and organizations what is really going on, because there are so many lies, making it seem very complicated, when in fact, it is obvious.
We can write to our representatives. If you join groups like Amnesty International, they will send you texts that have all the information you need to call your representatives. They even find who they are for you if you give them your address. It could not be easier.
Will you make small steps to attempt to stop another genocide? We may not stop it, but we, as Christians, should be striving to assist our neighbors, just as The Good Samaritan stepped out of his busy day to assist someone who was bullied.

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Called to Act

Posted on June 29, 2025 | Leave a comment

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”

Trumpism is using the church to gain power, is causing extreme harm to God’s name,
And causing extreme harm to human beings around the world.
Because of this, the church needs to oppose MAGA and stand for the love of humans created in the image of God.

Matthew 25:31-46

I was hungry and you gave me something to eat:


Bread for the World, a Christian lobbying group for the poorest of the poor, on Feb 28th, 2025, reported 28 million children were reached with nutrition programs in 2023 by USAID, which the Trump administration slashed by 90%, just recently announcing the total dismantling of all USAID overseas. (Saving the lives of people in over 100 countries has also helped protect the USA by creating friends instead of enemies).

The US did not contribute nearly as much money to USAID as it sucked out of poor countries either.


Global Wealth Inequality: What You Never Knew You Never Knew, by The Rules.org – is a short video that shows how rich countries have become 80% richer than poor countries by extracting their wealth. The money that rich countries give to poor countries, is just a drop in the bucket compared to the suctioning of their wealth. This video was created in 2013. The wealth disparity has become more extreme, surpassing the gilded age of the 1920’s for Americans and globally. And this was before Trump gave the richest Americans another $2.5 trillion tax cut while cutting USAID programs, cutting $625 billion in Medicare in the next 10 years, cutting $625 billion in Medicaid in the net 10 years, cutting $300 billion in SNAP, food programs for poor families in America.


1 Timothy 6:10 – “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”.


Save the Children, May 12, 2025, addressing the supplies embargo in Gaza, reported: “Nearly Every Single Child Is at Risk of Famine.” 930,000 children, as Israel is holding back food trucks behind the boarders. The Human Rights Watch, The United Nations, and UNICEF, are among many organizations warning that these children are at risk of starvation. And now, Israel and the US kicked out and/or severely limit former humanitarian groups, replacing it mainly with their own organization: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The United Nations, on June 24th, 2025, announced at least 410 Palestinians have been killed at these sights trying to get food. They went on to say “The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime”.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of State, on March 1st, 2025, states President Trump has signed over $4 billion in weapons and ammunition to Israel. He fully supports Israel while most of the rest of the world is calling it a genocide and ethnic cleansing. Most schools and hospitals have been bombed, doctors are being kidnapped and murdered, Rachel Fieldhouse, from Nature, June 27th, 2025, reported the first independent survey in January 2025 reported more than 80,000 fatalities in Gaza, with more than half being women, children or the elderly. The numbers have increased every day since then. Meanwhile, President Trump posts a video of the ethnically cleansed Gaza Strip becoming a luxury resort, with a large golden statue of Trump.


Habakkuk 2:8 “Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.


The “One Big Beautiful Bill” that has been passed by the House of Representatives, but is waiting to be passed in the Senate, according to Tax Policy Center, June 12th, 2025, will deliver a tax cut to the top 1% of Americans 40 times that going to middle-income families. This same bill plans on cutting nearly $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through 2034, reports Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on May 28th, 2025. SNAP, also known as food stamps, they report, will then have the biggest cut in history, possibly effecting 2 million children who live in low-income families.

Trump’s birthday bash was estimated to be $45 million.


BBC News, May 13th, 2025, was one news source reporting Trump’s acceptance of the largest “Gift” to an American president in history: an estimated $400 million luxury plane from Qatar. Trump also made deals to build a luxury golf course and villas in Qatar at that same time. All this not only benefits Trump but is unconstitutional. Dan Alexander of Forbes, on June 5, 2025, reported on Trump’s cryptocurrency, which he started around the time of his inauguration, which people can buy in exchange for luxury dinners at his resorts among many other favors. Forbes reports he has made $1billion on this venture.

1 John 3:16-18 – “…If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and truth.”

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink:

Amnesty International, on May 2nd, 2025, reported “In addition to blocking entry of all aid, Israel’s decision to cut power to Gaza’s main desalination plant on March 9th has further crippled access to clean water.”


In 2024, USAID reported “helping 6.2 million people gain access to drinking water services and 3.9 million people gain access to sanitation services.” These services not only saved lives, but they also helped avoid conflict before it started by addressing needs that desperate countries go to war over. It also protects America through goodwill instead of through weapons and destruction.


Oxfam’s article, What USAID does, and the impact of Trump’s Cuts on Foreign Aid, May 23, 2025, say the cuts endanger:


o The education of 23,000,000 children
o 95,000,000 people may lose access to basic healthcare
o Maternal and Child Health, since 1990, has helped the number of children under the age of 5 dying drop by half, 90 countries saw it drop by 2/3.
o AIDS relief has saved over 25,000,000 lives
o Clean water programs, to Goma for instance, which was housing hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo
o Responding to humanitarian crises is hard when the staff have been terminated.

I was a stranger, and you invited me in:


Friends Committee on National Legislation, lobbying with Quakers, in their article, Four Cruel Ways Trump is Attacking Immigrants – And Our Values, Feb 4, 2025, by Greg Williams, stated the Trump administration’s policies are cruel, opposed to the ideals of our nation, and opposed to values of people of faith. They state:
o Trump’s administration shut down the asylum system, and U.S. refugee program
o Deportation and Detention
o Using the Alien Enemies Act illegally, to involve the military and create a pipeline which will send millions through private detentions centers that will make millions.
o Our Faith Imperative to Welcome – They can now arrest people in places of worship. “This is a direct assault on faith institutions”.


Trump is coercing universities to get rid of foreign students. For example:


Harvard Magazine, June 6,2025, posts Trump Announces Travel Ban for Harvard International Students. They reported his attempt to halt their international students from entering the country.


Trump is sending university students that have been in peaceful demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza to prisons without due process.


The Trump administration has had a goal of arresting 1,000 immigrants a day. Trump used to say he was targeting the very dangerous criminals. This was not enough for Trump, his quota now is 3,000 arrests a day. Times Radio, June 11th, 2025, reported that deporting gang members and criminals takes time. Therefore, ICE is making large sweeps in work sites like Home Depot and restaurants, where you do no find criminals, you find working people. School graduations, hospitals, grade schools are being targeted. ICE cannot concentrate on horrible criminals now because of this quota.


Bill Frelick, from Human Rights Watch, on February 20, 2025, in his article Ten Harmful Trump Administration Immigration and Refugee Policies, reports on Trump’s “Indefinite Suspension of all refugee resettlement except Afrikaners” (White Africans, whom he inaccurately said were being suppressed in South Africa). The Refugee resettlement has served refugees fleeing for their lives, especially refugees who are in danger of their lives due to their assistance to the U.S.


International Rescue Committee, June 5th, 2025, reported on a complete travel ban of thirteen countries and partial travel ban of those from 6 other countries. IRC stated it was “deeply concerned about the humanitarian consequences of this discriminatory and harmful ban”.


Tim Sullivan from PBS News, June 25th, 2025, in his article 4 ways Trump’s “big beautiful bill” could change the U.S. immigration system, states asylum seekers will now have to pay $1,000, and another $550 for employment applications. These used to be free services to the most destitute.


“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” -add $1,550 for each application please.

In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus talks about a man who fell into the hands of robbers. The priest and teachers of the law ignored him. The Samaritan, a person hated in those days by much of his audience, had mercy on him and helped him. Jesus told the crowd to be like the Samaritan, and demonstrate mercy.

I needed clothes and you clothed me:


Exploitation from rich countries is not a new concept by any means. The roots of injustice are very deep. The Trump administration has just taken the exploitation and put it on steroids. It is like someone winning in a game of Monopoly who suddenly puts hotels on almost every property. Only, this world is not a game for one to win everything.


W. Stanley Mooneyham, in What Do You Say to a Hungry World? noted, in 1975, extreme exploitation of rich countries by “unceasing transfer or resources from the poor to the rich nations. And by exploitation of cheap labor which takes literally billions of dollars out of the pockets of nearly two-thirds of mankind, who toil from dawn to dusk.” The National Labor Committee has worked tirelessly for years trying to raise wages and working conditions of people in countries American companies contract with. For example, that great bargain on those shoes I bought maybe was made by someone in Burma making 9 cents an hour. NLC Wages of Workers Around the World


Honest Accounts 2017 – How the world profits from Africa’s Wealth, by Mark Curtis and Tim Jones, June 6,2017, shows the actual flow of wealth, due to rich countries’ trade policies, tax dodging, foreign companies taking most of the profits from their commodities, and high interest on loans to poor countries to name a few unethical practices.


Amos 8:4-8 “Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land…. cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals…Will not the land tremble for this and all who live in it mourn?”


Micah 6:10-13 “Am I still to forget, O wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short epha, which is accursed? Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? Her rich men are violent: her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully. Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins.”

I was sick and you looked after me:


The BBC News reported on May 30, 20`ê25, that the last hospital in North Gaza was evacuated after Israel told staff they would kill anyone who did not leave. “World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the closure of al-Awda meant there was no remaining functioning hospital in the North Gaza governorate, ‘severing a critical lifeline for the people there’”. Previously, the hospital had been struck 28 times. Mallory Moench, BBC News, 5/30/25. This comes after months of refusing to allow any food or medical supplies in. As of 6/4/25, trucks were trickling in, but barely enough for survival. Doctors Without Borders, stated, on May 20, 2025, “Israeli authorities must stop the deliberate asphyxiation of Palestinians in Gaza and the annihilation of their health care system, actions that are underpinning their campaign of ethnic cleansing.”


UNICEF reported, on May 27, 2025, that over 50,000 children have been reportedly killed or injured in Gaza. (The numbers go much higher when you include the unreported children, for example, those under rubble).


I was in prison, and you came to visit me:


Trump sent 238 people to El Salvador’s CECOT Prison, though judge ordered their return, most are from Venezuela, and data shows 75% had no criminal records, reports CBS News 60 Minutes April 6th, 2025.


CECOT is notorious for slave labor and torcher. Human Right’s Watch is unaware of any detainees who have been released from CECOT. (Note: there is now one exception: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which is a long story that is still unraveling).


They report that El Salvador denies human rights groups access to these prisons, only media in very limited amounts. There are cases of “torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, severe violations of due process and inhumane conditions, such as lack of access to adequate healthcare and food”. Juanita Goebertus, Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch 3/20/25 (El Salvador has a history of extreme torture of people siding with the poor, including killing Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was shot in the back while serving communion, some of his colleagues were brutally tortured).


Noah Bullock of CBS News, April 8, 2025, reports that in El Salvador, neither families nor lawyers have any access to the prisoners.


The Center for Constitutional Rights calls the transferring of prisoners to El Salvador’s Notoriously abusive prison a “Blatant violation of International Human Rights Obligations.”. The Trump administration is paying El Salvador $6 million under a renewable one-year term. Trump was recorded telling Bukele that he would like to expand their contract to include “homegrowns”,(US Citizens!), to which Trump’s administration laughed.


Hebrews 13:3 “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering”.


Many human rights organizations have come out against the prison and El Salvador’s security policy. Civil society organizations and advocates have reported over 6,000 human rights violations including arbitrary detentions, torture, due process violations, enforced disappearances, and 366 deaths within state custody. The government denies the allegations. via Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia. Reuters March 18, 2025


Meanwhile, Tom Dreisbach from NPR New, on Jan 30th, 2025, reported that President Trump granted clemency to everyone charged in the January 6th attack of the capital, “even those convicted of violently assaulting police officers.” Some of them also had extensive and serious criminal records prior to the January 6th attack.


Jeremiah 5:26,27 “Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch men.”


The Christian church has compassion. For example, the church I go to works to support immigrants by housing them and walking along side of them until they obtain all they need to become independent.


The MAGA movement is sometimes seen as helping the Christian church, therefor, the completely inhumane actions are often being ignored. This is a blind spot for many Christians in The United States of America, especially to those who side with Christian Nationalism. Jesus stated the church is a global church. He talked about every tribe and nation being present in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, the Christian church needs to stand up for the people around the world made in the image of God, even if it is their country that is causing the distress.

What can We do?


o Pray
o Tell our friends, neighbors and family what is going on.
o Write to our members of Congress.
o Join peaceful organizations that are standing up for the rights of others.
o Find reliable media sources, gather information and seek out truth.
o Bring our talents and insight to the table, even if it is just a very small step

Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary/compassion states compassion is a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it” For compassion, first we need to gain a consciousness of the distress others are going through, then we need God’s help to gain a desire to alleviate their distress, then we need to act, even if in a very small way, to alleviate their distress. Complacencytocompassion.org assists with the first step of helping Christians in the United States of America to gain a consciousness of the distress of certain areas that are in dire need of attention, and then hopefully, we can together build ways to alleviate their distress. Please return to this website in the future for further posts. Thank you for your time, Julie Fergus

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The Problem is not Mexicans

Posted on September 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

One of Trump’s first agendas is to deport 3 million immigrants. He still wants to build a wall between The United States and Mexico, insinuating that one of  America’s core problems is about race and ethnicity.

This is smoke and mirrors. The Problem is not Mexicans. We must stand together against this lie. This propaganda is leading us away from one of the biggest problems facing the United States. According to Oxfam’s article An Economy for the 1%: How Privilege and Power in the Economy Drive Extreme Inequality and How This Can Be Stopped, “the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together...Meanwhile, the wealth of the bottom half of humanity has fallen by $1 Trillion in the past five years”, which Oxfam estimates to be a drop of 38%. Wealth Inequality in America, a 6.23 minute video on YouTube by Politizane, notes that an average working person in America has to work a month to make what a top CEO in America makes in one hour. The majority of US citizens are becoming more skeptical about their financial future, not to mention the future of their children.

BBC’s article Hitler’s Rise to Power, discusses how the Treaty of Versailles continued to eat at people. After WWI, Germany was given a raw deal since they lost the war which depleted them of their wealth. Then there was the Great Depression that made people even more desperate. Their skepticism of the government’s handling of these events made them want change. According to the BBC, “many workers turned to communism but this frightened wealthy businessmen, so they financed Hitler’s campaign. Under the Hitler regime, the Jews, the gays and the gypsies became scapegoats. It was argued that if Germany got rid of them, their problems would drastically improve. The fact of the matter is Jews, Gypsies and gays were not the problem. However, it seemed logical at the time  because people do stupid things when they are scared and desperate.

As Americans, the working class is loosing ground by the day as the gap between the rich and the poor grows. Those at the top are gaining not only more money, but more power in politics, the media and throughout the world. This is allowing them to make the rules that govern.  Thom Hartmann, in his book The Crash of 2016, says “We no longer have an economy that’s geared to benefit working people around the world; we have an economy that’s geared to exploit them for Wall Street Profits”. Hartmann goes on to quote Rastani in a BBC interview: “The governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world”. Goldman Sachs is a bank that greatly benefited 2008 Bank Bailout but is now one of the richest businesses in the world.

Americans are becoming desperate and skeptical of their government for good reason. So we elect a person who says he will fix our problems. Meanwhile, Trump wants to get rid of Mexicans and other immigrants as one of his top agendas. When the KKK recently had a speech of theirs broadcasted saying “Hail Trump”, while raising their hands in the exact same way as the Nazis did to Hitler, and talking about how he was going to make the white man great again, Trump’s campaign, when asked, made zero denouncements of the KKK. Before this, he appointed Stephen Bannon, president of a White Nationalist paper, chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon was also a former banker at Goldman Sachs.

America, we are in hard times. Many of us are scared and desperate. Please do not let history repeat itself as it did in Germany.

We can stand together as we did with FDR. America was also desperate when he was elected. The difference was that he pulled all Americans together instead of blaming a group due to color, race or ethnicity. He put checks and balances on wealth to even out a playing field that was so favoring of the wealthy that we have not seen it’s like again until now.

Stand Up and Stand Together. YOU make a difference.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus

“The love of money is the root of all evil”. – Jesus

 

 

 

 

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Love God, Love Other People

Posted on September 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

Jesus declared that to love God is the greatest commandment, followed by love for others. He stated that all of the laws stem from these two commands. Jesus led by example. For instance: he left his throne to pay our debts; he was born into a stable instead of a palace; he had no place to lay his head; he healed the sick; fed the hungry; and he washed his disciples’ feet.

Compare this to our current world situation where the richest countries, (the USA being the richest and most powerful), own 80 times the wealth of the poorest countries. Within the United States of America, the richest 20% possess 85% of the wealth, and the poorest 40% possess 0.3% of the wealth.1

Jesus told a rich man to sell all his possessions and give them all to the poor, then follow him. He talked of the rich fool who hoarded wealth without looking after the needs of others. Jesus said the first would be last and the last would be first. He talked of sheep who helped their neighbors and were put on the blessed side, and goats who were oblivious to those in need and were put on the side of judgment. Jesus commended the Good Samaritan who helped the person in need along his journey and told others to go and do likewise. Jesus talked of a complacent rich man who ignored Lazarus during his life, a rich man who later suffered while Lazarus sat by Abraham’s side.

Contrast Jesus’ words to the situation in the U.S.A where the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of Black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.2

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring”. MLK3
Monopoly is a fun game to play. Fun, that is, until you start to lose everything. This is inevitable for all but one player. Suppose the person to whom you were paying $2,000, for landing on Board Walk with a hotel, right after paying her $1,150 for landing on Ventnor Ave with a hotel, said she felt charitable and gave you $5? Now suppose that same person gave herself 10 times more money than anyone else, along with a few properties and hotels thrown in at the beginning of the game? You may not feel grateful.

“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, ‘This is not just.’” MLK4

Bangladesh has the lowest minimum wage in the world at 21¢/hr.5 There have been at least four tragedies due to unsafe working conditions in the last two years. Factories have very inhumane working conditions. Yet it is the third largest exporter of garments to the U.S.6 Meanwhile, the Ford plant in St. Paul, MN, which has been in operation for almost a century, employing 1,800 hourly workers in 2006, closed it’s doors this summer.7 Those jobs have gone to countries where workers are paid far less. Exploitation of people for the love of money abounds. Our world tells us to love financial gain over people. However, Jesus called the love of money the root of all evil.

Are there areas where our life styles contradict the very teachings of the God we profess to follow? If so, how can we change to live more like Jesus and bring his whole gospel to the world? 8

“God yearns to interact with young people, and he is in the business of using them to do incredible things in the world.” Efrem Smith

Our youth groups have great potential to be God’s agents to bring the whole gospel to the world! Isaiah 6:8 – “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” NIV

I am offering classes, geared to youth, on God’s call to bring his love to the world by not only preaching the Good News, but also by loving our neighbors as ourselves through our actions.

The sessions will be split into an active game, followed by an interactive teaching which includes a variety of stimulus to keep youth involved and interested. At the end of the class we will work on projects that impact our world. Youth have many good ideas and lots of energy. Therefor, their ideas, talents and involvement are of great value to furthering God’s kingdom. Networking with other groups and sharing ideas will be encouraged after the sessions.

Saved by grace through Jesus Christ, we are empowered to make a great impact on our world.

Class Information:

• These sessions are appropriate for youth groups, retreats and Sunday school classes. Four hours are recommended, but the number of days we meet is flexible.
• Classes are free, though materials, such as Fair Trade T-shirts, which we make for the youth group/VBS, need to be purchased.
• Contact me to discuss your thoughts.Bibliography

1Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely, Building a Better America-One Wealth Quintile at a Time, Perspectives on Psychological Science 2011 6:9.

2Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry and Paul Taylor, Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends 26 July 2011.

3Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam-A Time To Break Silence, Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967.

4Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam-A Time To Break Silence, Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967.

5Bangladesh Garment Wages the Lowest in the World-Comparative Garment Worker Wages, Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
19 Aug. 2010.

6Bangladesh Garment Wages the Lowest in the World-Comparative Garment Worker Wages, Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
19 Aug. 2010.

7”St. Paul: The Ford Site: Think Jobs for the Long Term”, Pioneer Press 11 June 2013.

8Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010)

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Will Your Church Be a Pioneer for Economic Change?

Posted on July 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

As Christians, we tell our kids to be kind to other kids. We tell our kids to neither steal nor cheat.

While I am a Christian in America that has been teaching these godly principals to my daughters for years, I am finding that I am profiting from a system that is doing just that.

What if we, as American Christians, find that we are a part of a system that bullies millions of people worldwide, stealing from them their very livelihood so that we may live in more luxury? What if we find that we are as well off as we are because of other people’s bullying? You may never have stolen another persons lunch as a kid. But, what if someone else routinely stole a lunch from a smaller kid, and then shared that kids lunch with you? If you knew of this action, would you be guilty by association? If you had a suspicion that this was going on but never looked into it, but kept accepting the lunch, (It was a really good lunch), would you be part of the problem?

America had slaves to help them produce. Now, corporations are pulling their production left and right from the United States to other countries where they can pay workers sometimes 1/10 of 1% of the profits they make since there are very low standards of work conditions and wages in other countries, while these same companies are making sometimes billions of dollars for their CEO’s and share holders. As consumers, we feel amazed at the low prices we pay and go home thinking we hit gold when in fact it is stolen property. As factories go overseas, Americans lose jobs. Those families who still have jobs sometimes have to have two full time jobs to support a family. Those who were unable to go to college often work 60 – 80 hour weeks and still get no health coverage for their family, no benefits and no paid time off. The Republicans and democrats argue over how much money we should give to the poor. I believe God would say. “Why don’t you pay an honest wage to your laborer and an honest price for your purchases so that a laborer can support a family on his/her own, drastically cutting down on the number of poor in the country?

When we buy items which are made in other countries and do not concern ourselves with the working conditions of the laborers or if they are receiving enough money to stay even above poverty, we are being complacent. If I had been sharing a lunch with someone who stole it from another kid for years and did not know it, I may be guilty by association. If I was told this was happening, knew it was a possibility but never looked into it, I would be more responsible than the first scenario. If, however, I became aware of that fact that I was eating a stolen lunch and made no effort to either stop eating that lunch or put a stop to the stealing, I would then be held partially responsible for the damages done to the person who lost their lunch.

American Christians have buying power. We also have a voice. We presently have more power than any country on the planet. We can start making a difference. To not try is now complacency as we start to see the truth.

Will your church be a pioneer in a Christian effort to end economic exploitation once and for all?

Write to me with your ideas.

Keep posted.

Learn more from sources such as the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.

Learn how you can support organizations that provide living wages and good working conditions such as Alta Gracia Apparel.

Start providing Equal Exchange Coffee during your church’s coffee hour.

Buy your church’s T-Shirts for functions from organizations like Madres Solteras, one of the very few factories in Central America that has a living wage and fair working conditions.

Either help start a factory/company that is fair trade or support companies that are currently documented by reliable sources to be fair trade.

Network to find other ways to help those who labor for our purchases.

There are small steps you can take now. If the church of Jesus pulls together, we can be a strong force towards ending a tremendous evil. However, if the church supports such evils while continuing to benefit from the profits, without taking any steps towards the right direction, our witness will become less effective. Even small steps in the right direction are important. Complacency is a very dangerous thing. Pray about what God is calling your church to do, even if it is one small step forward.

Blessings and Love to you,

Your Fellow Believer in Jesus Christ

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