al-Zarqawi

I am happy that another evil terrorist has been removed from this world but at the same time, as a Christian, I am not happy that he went to hell. That's right, I assuem he is there because he was no one who believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior. In fact, his life was filled with hate and violence. He is not in heaven and that is sad. If only he had repented and turned to Jesus for forgivness he would have found it. Although we triumph at the justice in this case, we still are sad because another soul has gone to hell. The Lord doe snot rejoice in the death of the wicked. I am disturbed by an editorial I heard yesterday on WMCA a local Christian radio station. We should not gloat over soul going to hell. It is sad.

Coulter's comments

Perhaps Coulter is being criticized for what some of us are thinking. A lot of people thrive on being in the limelight as a victim. But our culture would rather we not say or think bad things about victims. One of the great sins we can commit is America is to say anything bad about those who died on 9-11. They were all heroes because they died so tragically. Albeit there were heroes. A lot of people lost their lives trying to save others. A lot of people died instantly without knowing why or how. I would also add that a lot of those firemen who went in did not think about dying. They had no clue. A few of them I speculate went in seeking glory. They would not die they thought and so they could then boast about having survived the terror attacks. They were there on 9-11. Its human nature so I would think a few were glory hounds. Now it is human nature to promote oneself as a victim because it makes us feel good about ourselves. We are somebody because of 9-11. Before then I was not much. Now I am a hero or heroine.

Now shortly after 9-11 at the Memorial service at Yankee Stadium Oprah maintained that those innocent men and women in the Trade Towers, the Pentagon, in the jets, who were killed so tragically by terrorists were now angels, implying they all went to heaven. As a Christian, though I understand why she said that, I would have to sadly disagree. The real tragedy is not that so many died so horribly and needlessly. That is bad but what is far worse is that few were prepared to die. Many unfortunately did not go to heaven. They went to the same place that their killers went to because they did not believe in Jesus. As a Christian I believe that Jesus is God and the only way to heaven is by faith in what He did on the cross. Those who do not accept this are on their way to hell unless they repent and believe in Jesus as Savior. It may be nice to say that all those who are victims are forgiven because of what they did or suffered, but that is not the case. It may be nice to say that they were heroes but we know that is not necessarily the case. I would think these wives should get on with their lives. Money will not help them adjust. Only faith in Jesus will.

Ethnic Diversity

Yesterday I was delayed at church because of a congregational meeting. I had to wait for about a half hour before leaving to catch my train so I decided to catch some lunch. Now since our church sits on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn's Chinatown, there are quite a few Asian restaurants but since I wanted quick food I decided on dumplings at the Dumpling House, a little hole in the wall place where you can get 5 dumplings for a buck with hot sauce or vinegar. Delicious. 3 others from church joined me. We went to the place and purchased our food and brought it back to the church to eat. Later it occurred to me that we must have been an odd sight for the 3 Asian ladies working at that place. I, a mid-50s distinguished Brooklynite with salt and pepper hair accompanied by a young Asian woman, Janet, her boy friend, Dion, a tall slim black man with Caribbean roots, and Adam, our youth pastor, a Midwestern American white guy with an earring. What must have those ladies thought of this odd collection. But yet in our eyes, in our church, we represent the diversity of ethnicities and ages that attend our church. We did not think it odd. We get along well, we are family and love and respect each other. This is the way the Church ought to be anyway.

By the way, as we returned from the dumpling house, Adam bought an Osama Ben Ladin doll for 2 bucks at an Asian Schlock store. Only in Brooklyn can you use a Yiddish expression to describe a store owned by Chinese people!