How, we ask ourselves? Yet another tragic death of someone who seems to have been guilty of relatively minor criminal offences. Shot dead because the officer made a terrible mistake in the heat of the moment. Distracted? Scared? Who knows, but tragic none the less, and the timing couldn’t be worse as another police officer comes close to sentencing over the death of George Floyd.
I think I’ve said something similar elsewhere, but I continue to be astounded that anyone ignores the instructions of armed police officers, knowing that they just might shoot! Put your hands on the dashboard! Simple. Get out of the vehicle! Simple. Get down on the ground! Simple.
So why not do as you are asked rather than escalating the situation and risking being shot? Why?
But changing tack a little, here’s something that I had not appreciated. Policing in America has changed radically since the begining of the “war on terror”. It is frankly shocking.
Hosea 8:7 “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”
I approach this very tentatively as it is a very sensitive area.
I have to say that we live in a very confused society. Perhaps the word is conflicted. Over the past few decades there have been radical changes in attitudes towards sex. What 50 years ago would have been classed as pornography is now mainstream on T.V. and film. I would cite “Naked Attrcation” on Channel 4 which has the strapline “The daring dating series that starts where some good dates might end – naked”, as a prime example. What is acceptable in terms of relationships, particularly the normalisation of casual sex has resulted I would suggest in our present predicament where women are not respected as they were.
The “sexual revolution” has backfired. The freedoms that people so desired has led to quite the opposite. Marriage has been devalued. The family has been devalued. The apparent promise of the 60’s expression “If it feels good do it!” has proved sadly hollow.
Having “Street Pastored” I am only too aware that, COVID notwithstanding, Friday and Saturday nights for many younger people is nothing more than a chance to get drunk and get laid.
It’s time to re-evaluate.
Emma Wood describes this situation in no uncertain terms, “Young men have grown up in a culture that tells them that sex is a recreational activity with no deeper significance. Unsurprisingly, then, young men have come to internalise the idea that initiating unwanted sex is on par with initiating an unwanted water fight. It is just a bit of fun, and nothing that any reasonable person should get too upset about.”
Emma Wood Posted Tue 16 Mar 2021, 5:02pm Updated Tue 16 Mar 2021, 5:22pm
Social media then filled with images of women shouting abuse at female Police officers.
Tragically the events that then followed around the vigil only uderlined another aspect of our loss of respect. The Police had asked that the vigil should not occur. It then seems that women with an agenda, other than quietly and appropriately lighting a candle in memory of Emma, took this occasion to make their point. Social media then filled with images of women shouting abuse at female Police officers. Does anyone else see the irony in that?
Respect should mean respect.
Social Media was quick to spread the unfortunate images.
And the response of the Metropolitan Police in the person of Cressida Dick
(I note in October that the piece does not want to play on the BBC website but does on the Guardian)
I also note in October 2021 that there have been calls for her resignation over misogyny in the Police force. An interesting accusation bearing in mind that she has risen to high office as a woman! So would the anti-misogynists prefer a man in post????
For the record I’ve had both my jabs (June 2021). I didn’t do so lightly and I did have reservations. On balance it seemed the right thing to do, and I did pray about it, but I do understand people who do not want to be vaccinated for personal and probably spiritual reasons.
1984 has been a long time coming but it is knocking at the door
I am not hugely into conspiracy theories and I sincerely hope that this vaccine is not what some say it is. But I do have real concerns around the rumoured source material used in its development. All I can say in my defence is that I am very grateful that, in a rather bizarre sense, the alledged baby concerned did not die in vain but will have saved thousands if not millions of lives.
You get shown a list of “ingredients” before being given the jab. I guess that’s for legal reasons. Problem is that in the list of a dozen or so components all I recognised was salt and water! What the rest of it is, I have no idea! So, completely on trust, I’ve let a whole bunch of chemicals into my body.
I at least suspect and trust that there aren’t any nanobots or microchips swimming around and I haven’t been checking the mirror to see if the “666” has appeared on my forehead. BUT that does lead me to my serious concerns.
We are being asked more and more to trust the experts, to be good boys and girls, to wear our masks, to get vaccinated, to carry the card, etc. 1984 has been a long time coming but it is knocking at the door.
where is the line in the sand?
Moreover, I know enough of my Bible to know that it only gets worse from here on in. The serious question every believer faces is where is the line in the sand. Is it too late already because of Bar Codes? Should we be using debit cards? What about the soon to be offered micro-chip implant.
I have “friends” on Facebook that will lauugh at this next question, but what will the “mark of the beast” be? Are we on a slippery slope towards making a decision from which there is no return? It concerns me that many long-term believers are “moving on” from what they used to believe, re-interpreting scripture and being “progressive”.
The media seem to have a massive filter when it comes to the persecution of Christians. It may be because the “West” is somehow still considered tobe “Christian” and therefore, as the dominant religion, immune from persecution. That is a grave oversight and misrepresentation.
Christians are the most persecuted of all religious groups across the globe.
It is therefore fantastic to see increasing awareness in the British Parliament.
What staggers me all the time is that pro-abortion activists like these actually accuse pro-life people of hate! HATE!? Yet they are quite happy to support the actual taking of life. It has to be an utter blindness. Utter blindness. How can they be that confused?
On my Facebook feed this morning someone had posted with reference to Trump’s departure and the inauguration of Joe Biden, “Good riddance the world can breathe again“
That struck me immediately as an unintentionally sick, certainly ironic statement with COVID still being so dominant all over the world and hundreds of thousands dying because they can’t breathe.
It is a tragic irony that the phrase that 2020 will be remembered for is “I can’t breathe“.
Possibly long after George Floyd is forgotten the phrase may live on as the epitaph of the Corona Virus.
Meanwhile, and this is day two of the Biden administration, on the theme of breathing. . . . . . Thousands upon thousands of babies will never get to breathe at all thanks to the inhumanity of Biden et al.
Perhaps my abiding (Abiden?) memories of this last year will be these.
First the hypocrisy of those who praise the violence, hatred and vulgarity of one group of mainly young people as being progressive and justified, whilst condemning similar actions by clearly frustrated and mainly older people. Goose and Gander never was true.
The second will be the uproar, the virtue signalling, the horror expressed over the death of one man as a result of an officer’s negligence (possibly intent) and drug induced complications during an arrest, leading to the burning of whole neighbourhoods, the storming of police stations, the cursing and swearing, the hatred, the social media cancelling. Meanwhile the deaths of millions of babies are sponsored and applauded.
Be not misled, this is a sick world, full of sin. God’s mercy and indeed some might see apparent disinterest, in withholding his hand is more than remarkable.
Unless one interprets the election going the way that it did as God’s judgement on a nation which in short only cares for personal pleasure!
You know how it goes. One minute you’re watching Nancy Pelosi on YouTube, the next up pops John Cleese!
So I was musing on the fact that Nancy Pelosi referred to the Capitol as “The Temple of our American democracy” and the implications of that mindset when I then hear John Cleese rather irreverently talking about Jesus clearing the temple!
When Jesus “cleared the Temple” he did act rather out of character, enraged by the abuse of that “House of Prayer” – His Father’s house. He behaved in a way that in today’s terminology many will have thought as unacceptable, politically incorrect (!), disrespectful and even violent. Someone might have said “unprecedented in our history” or at least “not since the Romans” (insert British!).
A couple of days before the “storming of the Capitol” a session of the Senate opened in prayer to multiple gods, not just the true God. You will remember the one, he acknowledged Brahma amongst others and ended with “Amen” and “Awoman” (which he says was meant as a joke). Could it just be that it was enough to open the doors of the Capitol to the “mob”? Possibly. The “Founding Fathers” would have believed firmly that “Thou shalt have no foreign gods” and “No gods before me“.
So here’s my observation. If the Capitol is viewed as a “Temple of Democracy” then they have turned to the false worship of a man made ideology. I have always struggled with Americans saluting their flag and not letting it touch the ground. It is as if it is sacrosanct, holy, set apart.
The Houses of Representatives and Senate should be there to represent (the clue is in the name) and defend the people of the United States and to uphold law and order on their behalf that they might live in peace. This last year has demonstrated a complete failure to do that across American cities. It is very easy when you have #WealthPrivilege to ignore the needs of ordinary people, especially the poor.
I was bewildered by the outrage that was expressed by the demonstrators entering the “temple” and worse still even the “sanctuary”! It is just a building at the end of the day. Representatives and Senators are just people.
The Old Testament is full of the history of Israel turning away from God and reaping the results of that, usually in military defeat and enslavement. Those accounts were recorded that future generations might not repeat the error.
Can we hope and pray that what has occurred will be a sobering moment to reflect on what sort of nation America wants to be and see a genuine return to honouring God.
You cannot have a leader that thinks only of himself and uses others, including it would seem God, for his own ends, even if he does a lot of good along the way.
I reckon we’ve just lost a sheep in wolf’s clothing in exchange for s wolf in sheep’s clothing. Let’s hope and pray not.
Christians beware.
Actually, listening to the whole prayer Emanuel was doing well. A long coherent “christian” prayer. An immense shame therefore that he ended the way that he did, and there is no indication in the tone of his voice that he was making a small joke about political correctness. Possibly he had been handed a script and then adlibbed the end!https://www.youtube.com/embed/qgI8HL7J4Ns?feature=oembed
BTW, speaking of unfortunate prayers, I had no idea that this had happened 6 years ago! What damage did that do?https://www.youtube.com/embed/fVXhyvgXf-E?feature=oembed
Sometimes Facebook just isn’t up to posting what I really feel or all that I’d like to say on a subject. I have friends on the right; friends on the left; those with a faith; those who seem to have lost it somewhere along the way; Remainers; Leavers; optimists; pessimists; Americans; Europeans; those who get irony and those who don’t; literalists and humourists; the list goes on.
These pages I hope will better express how I see things.
Why ‘malcolm in the middle’?
Simply because I relate to the character in so many ways. Often misunderstood. Sometimes upsetting someone. All around seems madness much of the time. As the caption says below – “I don’t want to forget anything when I start the years of therapy”.
