One man's cultural holiday is another man's child abuse

"Tehran, 1979: As Kamen wrote in 2005, "On Nov. 4, 1979, just a few days after Halloween, militant Islamic students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Various parts of the embassy were still decorated with ghosts and goblins and other scary stuff. So when the hostages were taken to a room with decorations, the Iranians asked what this was all about. One hostage explained, apparently closing the culture gap. "You do this to your children?" a confused militant asked."

If your faith kills widows it probably isn't faith

As I think about my sermon for next week I would draw my reader's attention to an article entitled "Widow's Mite, praise or lament," in Catholic Bible Quarterly issue 44 from 1982 on pages 256-265.
The author looked at all exegetical works he could find and noted that almost all of them assumed Jesus was praising the Widow and then went on to talk about tithing.
Then the author goes on and points out that isn't anywhere in the text. Jesus points out the poor widow has given more-- in fact she is giving her whole life to the temple. A little earlier he scourged the temple, right before this he said it was bad that scribes devour the houses of widows. Then the very next thing that happens is Jesus points out that the temple is about the be destroyed.
I'm just sayin', if your faith kills widows is ain't faith.

Bonhoeffer objectifies a fool

"One feels in fact, when talking to him (the fool), that one is dealing, not with the man himself, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like, which have taken hold of him."--Dieti B.