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face the facts

face the facts

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(Originally published Wednesday, December 28, 2005)

Let Them Eat Guns?, Sojourners Magazine/January 2006

World military expenditure exceeded $1 trillion in 2004. The United States accounted for 47 percent of this spending.

$238 billion. Appropriations for the “war on terror” for 2003–05, which exceeded the combined military spending of the entire developing world in 2004 ($214 billion).

$236 billion. The combined arms sales of the top 100 companies in 2003. The top five companies accounted for 44 percent of this total.

$2.5 billion per year: The external funding required by 47 countries with the lowest primary school completion rates in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education.

$2.4 billion per year: The cost to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

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The facts are disturbing, but I pray we will have the good sense and courage to face them and to revise our priorities!

“god bless america” is not the doxology

“god bless america” is not the doxology

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Worship as Higher Politics – Christianity Today Magazine

I was pointed to this article while checking out another Christian blog. It is well worth reading.

There is a Christian politics, which is to say that following Jesus must lead us to care about the political decisions, the law-making and law-enforcement, the policies of war and economics and international relations that impact people’s lives in profound ways.

But it is a politics of Jesus. When we wed a Christian politics too closely to the aims of one particular political party or to one particular political entity — e.g a particular nation! — it is not a politics of Jesus any more.

Followers of Jesus are first and last citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

good people

good people

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I have been privileged to know some good people in my lifetime:

  • people who fight to defend other people’s rights
  • people who say “I forgive you” … and mean it
  • people who seem never to tire of serving friends and strangers
  • people who believe in a project and support it wholeheartedly … and don’t care about who takes the credit
  • people who can be passionate and articulate about their faith without drawing attention to themselves
  • people who live their faith in decisions about lifestyle, investments, career, politics, social life
  • people who teach their children about social justice
  • people who tell their children about Jesus

I have been so blessed to know some good people in my lifetime …

first words

first words

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I’m a believer. Of all the things that define who I am, this comes first. My faith in Jesus affects the way I think about my identity, the way I think about what I do, the way I think about the world. Perception, interpretation, motivation, action — all are processed through the eyes of faith.

But that is true of any of us. You believe something. Your belief may not be in Jesus, but you too have some core belief, some core value, through which you filter everything else.

The purpose of this journal is to give opportunity to discuss our core values, to look together at the world through the eyes of faith, to share with each other what we see and think and feel. The goal? Transformation! Thinking deeper and broader than the boundaries of conventional wisdom. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind!

Feel free to register and join the discussion!