Bullet Points from a Bible Guy
I LED A TOUR of the Holy Land many years ago during an unsettled time when Palestinians and Israelis were hurting each other. Our local tour guide recognized the nervousness of many of our travelers, and he said they should not worry unless he looked worried.
If any of you who have been following me for a long time are looking to me for advice about life in the United States today, here’s what I would say to you:
I look worried.
Bullet point: Fear in the USA
Let me tell you how worried I look. ICE came to my town a little more than a week ago. They were reported in an area of town where dark-skinned people lived and spoke with Spanish accents.
There’s an online map that tracks ICE. That’s how I spotted them. I put notice out on Facebook about their location.
Then I locked the doors to my house and propped chairs under the door handle of the front door. I did it to slow them if they were going break into my house to arrest me for spilling the beans on their location. It sounds ridiculous, I know, that they would do that. But one shot an unarmed woman in the face and called her a bitch as he left the scene. I think he's in hiding now. From what I saw in the many angles of various videos, he should be in jail, charged with murder. Two others shot to death a man as he was laying on the ground, crushed by half a dozen masked men who were hiding their identity beneath a patch that read “Police,” though they were operating like marauders.
ICE, I believe, has lost most of us. I know they have zero cred with me right now, as does their commander-in-chief, who is being eaten alive with hatred, revenge, and evil intent. He needs to be relieved.
That’s how worried I am.
A third of the country embraces the policies of this dictatorship. Polls report that two thirds of us do not.
If our leaders cannot find their way to a compromise, we the people will have to do it for them. That’s when it gets messy. I am protesting these days. There are protests near me almost every day now. I also write my two Republican senators. One earlier this week, and the other today. I confess I’m tearing into them and reminding that their heirs will have to deal with the history they are writing for themselves.
Bullet point: Music
“I Know You’re Angry (Psalm 13)” is a song that released on Friday. It seems like a fitting transition here. But the song is actually about God’s response to someone who is angry with him. You can find the song on Spotify and elsewhere. Here's the link to the Music Video.
Bullet point: The Casual English Bible® Website
We were supposed have launched the makeover site in October. But the developer says he misjudged how complicated and intricate the website is.
There’s a lot going on there. A new Bible paraphrase with footnotes and Q&A discussion questions, with 3D-style maps, and music inspired the Bible book of Psalms, an ancient songbook for the Jewish people.
We have two dozen songs that we will attach to various Psalms in The Casual English Bible® so people can enjoy them while reading the Bible and studying the maps and notes. I think the music-in-the-Bible idea is a fairly innovative and unconventional idea. We started working on it late last summer. So, we have been at it for just a few months.
We have one album released, “Songs, Music of Psalms.” We will be releasing another album on February 27, “I Won’t Dance with the Devil, Music of Psalms.”
We hope to have the upgraded site live within the next two weeks.
Bullet point: Bible Lesson
Listen, at some point I need to slow down long enough to show you in the Bible what I think Bible writers would say to us today about living in this increasingly unjust nation. They have a lot to say about it because they lived under kings and dictators, too.
God’s leaders responded to tough times in a wide variety of ways. But they always fought for justice. They always fought for the people most at risk, and they always defended orphans and widows and immigrants - God’s trifecta of a measurement of godliness.
But that’s for another day.
For today, I wanted you to know that I'm not in hiding, I'm just overworked.
