• Add three more things to the very long list of things Rep. Louie Gohmert does not understand: 1) the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act; 2) the meaning of hate crimes in general; and 3) the context and meaning of John 14:6.
• So, according to students at Flower Mound High School in Texas (via), one of their teachers recently said something about Christianity: “the bible says to give as much to the poor as you can and he believed that not all Christians do that.” That teacher, Ryan Stagemeyer, was then suspended by the school district while it investigated his alleged “bashing on the Christian community.” Students rallied around the teacher — someone they apparently like and respect a great deal — and Stagemeyer was eventually reinstated.
But the weirdest thing about this story is the notion that his accurate observation about an objective fact was initially treated as potential “bashing” — as something controversial or inappropriately harsh.
We Christians do not, in fact, give as much to the poor as we can. If the Lewisville Independent School District thinks that noticing that amounts to “bashing on the Christian community,” then they should read the New Testament or any of the Ante-Nicene church fathers on the subject of wealth and poverty. You want to see heavy duty bashing on this point? Check out the epistle of James, or the sermons of John Chrysostrom.
• Arielle Newton looks at the pros and cons of putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
• “So yeah, the Avengers’ insistence on saving every last civilian in Sokovia – even at risk of their own lives – isn’t the way that wars are fought. That’s the point. It’s the way that wars should be fought.” YNATKC.
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