Homeless Man Kicked Out Of Shelter for ringing for Salvation Army…

[WLZB]

A 48-year old Vermont man who earns a modest daily stipend for manning a Salvation Army kettle at the local shopping center now faces eviction from a homeless shelter because of his work. A staff member at the Good Samaritan Haven in Barre, Vermont notified Paul Tucker by letter this week that it “will no longer support individuals volunteering for the Salvation Army.

We provide housing for those trying to get their lives in order,” the letter said.

Tucker has lived at the shelter for about nine months, and hasn’t had a full-time job for most of that time.  He said he now earns a $20 stipend each day from the Salvation Army, which works out to $2 per hour.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I don’t remember the Good Samaritan giving a stipulation that the man have no job or he wouldn’t help him.  Isn’t the idea of these shelters to help people get back on their feet?  All this does is make people be lazy.  The man is trying to work but it it is only $20 a day.  Who could live in the US off of that?  I give this man props for working.  Don’t take away his desire to try.  This doesn’t make much sense.

What do you think?

Sunday School for Atheists?

[From TIME]

On Sunday mornings, most parents who don’t believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids’ soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there’s no need for church, right?

Maybe. But some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. “When you have kids,” says Julie Willey, a design engineer, “you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on.” So every week, Willey, who was raised Buddhist and says she has never believed in God, and her husband pack their four kids into their blue minivan and head to the Humanist Community Center in Palo Alto, Calif., for atheist Sunday school.

An estimated 14% of Americans profess to have no religion, and among 18-to-25-year-olds, the proportion rises to 20%, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies. The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. “It’s important for kids not to look weird,” says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto. Others say the weekly instruction supports their position that it’s O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Something about this story just breaks my heart.  I just don’t get it.  It is one thing for a mature adult to reject God but to teach children in a Sunday School…Breaks my heart….

What do you think?

Family sues hospital over snakebite death in church service

[Lexington-Herald Leader]

The family of a woman bitten by a rattlesnake during a church service in southern Kentucky is suing a hospital and several of its employees, accusing them of ridiculing her religious beliefs rather than providing proper care.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Sad is the only word I know to describe this tragedy.  If the hospital staff did laugh and ridicule this woman rather than provider her with excellent care then they should be sued.   I think snake handling is crazy but I would try to help anyone in need despite their wacky religious views.  Tragic!

What do you think?

mother of newborn twins dies after refusing a blood transfusion

[The Sun]

A woman whose life could have been saved after complications set in – ticked a form before the birth insisting she should not be given blood.  Medics begged her husband and other members of family to overrule her after she suffered severe blood loss and began slipping away.

Blood ban … a legal notice, quoting the Bible, spelling out Jehovah’s Witnesses’ opposition to life-saving transfusions. But because Jehovah’s Witnesses are barred from having transfusions they refused – insisting the young mom would not want to betray her principles.

“What makes it even more sad is Emma had time to hold and start to bond with her twins before the complications set in.”

Read about it here and here.

[From me]

It is sad that someone could distort the Bible to allow someone to have adequate medical treatment.  The passage in Acts 15 isn’t talking about blood transfusions.  It is about drinking blood from animal sacrifices.  Now twins have no mother.  Sad.  That isn’t the God that I know.

What do you think?

Could you preach someone else’s sermon?

[Christian Post]

More than 1,500 pastors across the country and around the globe have pledged not to short circuit their sermons with someone else’s. In a new campaign aimed at putting the centrality of the Bible back into a preacher’s message, “The Preacher’s Pledge,” introduced by SermonCentral.com, has been signed by pastors from over 50 nations so far.

“We introduced The Pledge because we think preachers must engage the Bible in their sermon preparation and not simply short circuit the process with someone else’s study,” says Ron Forseth, general editor for SermonCentral.com. “Our site is a valuable supplement but not the primary source for a sermon. God’s Word is.”

Read about it here.

Take the pledge here.

[From me]

I could never preach someone else’s sermon! Period! I’ve had some false accusations to the contrary but never, never, never have I downloaded and preached someone else’s study. To me that is lazy and robs the person delivering the message an opportunity to grow through their study. God teaches me new insights every time I study. I have taught the same passages before but somehow God teaches me something new. Other great speakers give challenges to me and I gain wonderful ideas. But my personality and style is different than other speakers. I don’t get this.

Could you preach or teach some else’s work?

What do you think?

90 minute DVD erases 19 years of teaching…

[Philly.com]

JEFFREY SMITH has been a stickler for rules and propriety during his 19 years as a Philadelphia public-school teacher.

He wears a tie every day. He doesn’t allow food, cell phones or headphones in his class at William Penn High School. If you don’t do the work in his class, you flunk.

In fact, he was so incensed that his principal changed his flunks to passing grades last spring that he created a mini-scandal by leaking that story to the Inquirer.

Smith, a father of four, is just as I remembered him when we attended Germantown High together, where he was vice president of our senior class: straight-laced and as hip as a pocket protector.

Smith, 61, was terminated after showing his journalism class a DVD about the f-word that included scenes of graphic sex and every obscenity you can imagine.

He said his intent was to teach his students about a word they use so casually and constantly – a word he believes has coarsened the school environment – in a movie that explored the limits of the First Amendment.

He said he didn’t know the film included a 38-second sequence of a couple having sex. (He timed it later.)

But his actions were found “inexcusable” by regional superintendent Janet Samuels, who upheld the principal’s decision to fire him.

Smith admits he made a mistake in judgment.

But he believes his intentions were honorable and his years of exemplary service, with no disciplinary infractions, ought to have mitigated the punishment.

“I feel wronged,” he said.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Why does he feel wronged? If my child was in that class I’d be angry too. I’d be more angry about the 38 seconds of sex than the F-bombs but teachers have to show better judgment than that. We have a TV Guardian that blocks curse words at home but it doesn’t block sex. He should have checked it out 1st.

What do you think?

What message does this send?

[11 Alive.com]

After an outbreak of pregnancies among middle school girls, education officials in this city have decided to allow allow one school’s health center to make birth control pills available to girls as young as 11.

Read about it here.

[From me]

What does this say to students? I don’t want to hear the junk that they do it anyway. This is middle school. Where are parents rights? Just keep your pants on!

What do you think?