Recently in the media world, Sony Pictures had been working on a movie that was planned to be released on Christmas day. Seth Rogan and James Franco were going to be staring in this comedy film called “The Interview.” The plot being the assassination of Kim Jung Un, did not go over to well with Korea. Un had people hack into Sony threatening the theaters, that led to four of the major movie company’s backing out of showing this film. Is it smart of them to back out of showing this movie? Or is it cowardly? As the United States, we have this thing called freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, free to do whatever we want, all while abiding by the law of course. But if we have freedom as a country why is Sony deciding to pull their movie? Because we are scared of some threats? The United States gets threatened all the time, and we are going to let it affect what we watch? Even though it sounds very arrogant and foolish, if we want to watch or produce a movie as Americans’ we should do just that. But what if Sony did produce this movie, and it went to theaters everywhere. Then North Korea launched an attack on the U.S. and we had a war on our hands, all because of some movie. Sounds like a pretty dumb thing to go to war about. But if we don’t produce this movie than Korea has beaten us without even fighting us. Truthfully I don’t know what is worse, getting attacked by Korea because of a movie, or losing a battle we haven’t even fought in. I think as American citizens we are very selfish and arrogant and we want what we want when we want it. Which isn’t a good thing, but since we already are we mine as well go with it and get what we want, we have the best military in the world! I don’t think we should be afraid of Kim Jung Un just because of a movie.

A Right To Die

          Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with glioblastoma and was told she had only a few months to live. At only 29 years old, this was devastating news for her and her family. Instead of going on and on about this woman's life, I will spare you the details. Basically she was the face of the "Right-to-Die" movement where she proclaimed she would not let this cancer kill her, so she had an assisted suicide instead. The question is, is this right? Is it okay to take your own life if it spares you the pain of death that is coming? Biblically I think this is wrong because God gave us life and it is his right to take it away, not ours. But hey, if abortion is morally right in todays society, anything should be acceptable. But unfortunately not everyone in our world looks at issues like these biblically, so I have to address it non-biblically as well. So even if this assisted suicide was considered okay, where would it end? They would then have to start considering euthanization of the sick and the elderly as being okay. But if we say thats wrong then everybody starts getting all sensitive and crying saying "we have a right to do this its our lives and our bodies" but the constitution says we have equal rights as people, it doesn't mean we have the right to do whatever we please. If that were the case we would have no laws and our country would just be chaos. But this woman did have cancer, and she was going to die a painful death, so this assisted suicide made her, at the time happier, and I'm sure it made her family happier too knowing she would not be going through as much pain. So although I do not think her decision was the right one, she did what she thought was right, but was it right?

"Torture"

                  Recently reports of torture from the CIA have been released. The CIA handed over information about torture such as waterboarding, rectal rehydration and other painful acts that were not authorized by the white house. Out of 6,000 pages from a report, the CIA released 528 pages about the things that they were doing. 5,472 pages are still in the hands of the CIA and I think they should stay there, we don’t know any other methods of torture that they used except for the ones that they told us. Is it immoral to torture? Torture is torture, whether it’s extreme torture or very mild, it’s still torture, but the ends justify the means. As a country, if we can save thousands of lives by torturing a few, it’s okay. But not everyone agrees with that statement, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the CIA to do what they had to do, but not to tell him what they had to do, otherwise he would have to take action and prosecute those in the wrong. It’s like when you go to tell your mom something but she says I don’t want to know so she doesn’t have to get you in trouble. The main point of this issue is the morality of our country, is it okay for us to torture if it gets us valuable information, or is it wrong?

Fegurson Part 2

           Everyone knows what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri, if you don’t, watch the news or read the paper. Basically police officer Darren Wilson is being accused of an injustice by doing his job, and defending himself. Shooting an unarmed teenager for no reason sounds bad, and that’s what the community of Ferguson is making it seem like. But that’s not what happened, Wilson was beat and got charged by 6 foot 4 300 pound Michael Brown, and so Wilson shot him. Is this an unjustified killing? Would you consider this a murder? Who’s in the wrong here, Brown or Wilson? In order to determine this, there has to be a trial, but before the trial there has to be enough evidence, and to figure that out, the case has to go to a Grand Jury to see if it is even worthy. A Grand Jury consists of a District Attorney and a group of 12 to 23 average American citizens. This case went to a Grand Jury for a couple months, and I’m surprised it even took them that long to come to the conclusion that this officer is not guilty and was just doing his job. The whole reason for a Grand Jury is so people like Officer Wilson don’t go to prison because they are accused for shooting someone, even when it is their job. But vice versa if Wilsons shooting was dirty and he really did “shoot him for no reason” then Wilson would be put on trial and be convicted, based upon how the trial went. The Grand Jury keeps Police Officers in line, cops can’t do whatever they want without consequences, the Grand Jury takes away their power of being able to do anything, but still allows them to do their job if they are doing the right thing. The Grand Jury is a vital part of our government and without it, our justice system would fail to bring justice to those who need justice brought to them, and it could falsely convict those who are doing the right thing, such as Officer Darren Wilson.

 

 

Christianity Without Hell

          

What is hell? Hell to some people is just a word, or an idea, but to Christians, it is ones eternity. But it is an option of eternity, the other being heaven. Christians believe everyone deserves to go to hell for eternity because of our sins, but since Jesus Christ died for our sins, we now have a chance to choose, since of course God gave us free will. But what would Christians preach to non-believers if there was no hell? Because then there would be nothing to be afraid of after death. So if there was no hell would Christianity even exist? Why would it? If there’s no hell why would we want to live our lives for God if we are going to go to heaven anyways? The problem is exactly that, we wouldn’t praise God if we didn’t have to face consequences of sin. But now the real problem is, are Christians only praising God out of fear of going to hell? You can clearly tell the difference between a Christian who legitimately has an unconditional love for God, and a Christian who is just afraid of hell, technically I wouldn’t even call them true followers of Jesus. So what is the point of hell? Hell is where sinners, which we all are, who didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their savior and live their life for him, go after death. For eternity. That is a scary thought, which is why a lot of non-believers turn to Jesus, because they are scared, which isn’t wrong, its good people turn to Jesus when they are scared. But its even better when they stay with Jesus, and they become true lovers and true believers of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Hillsong's Journey

          In our world today gay marriage has became an extremely controversial topic, which is now causing churches to get shut down and leaves the christian faith extremely frowned upon. The gay community, and the people who support the gay community do not appreciate what the bible says about homosexuality, and they are finally getting sick of it. Forcing pastors to marry gay and lesbian people, and even the situation in Houston, Texas, shutting down churches if their sermons discriminate gays at all. Brian Houston is the Senior Pastor at Hillsong Church, which is now a worldwide church with locations in New York, California, and their main campus which is in Australia. Hillsong is an extremely influential church, and is where a lot of churches get their worship music from, for Hillsong is a very musically talented organization. Recently Hillsong has been bombarded with their view on gay marriage, particularly Pastor Brian, who decided to speak on the subject. He said “Its very easy too reduce what you think about homosexuality to just a public statement and that would keep a lot of people happy, but we feel at this point, that it is an ongoing conversation, that the real issues in people’s lives are too important for us just to reduce it down to a yes or no answer in a media outlet. So we’re on the journey with it.” That is a very respectful response in my opinion. The problem with this is the government is bombarding the church with questions and accusations, and the only right answer is what the government wants to hear. For example what if murder all of a sudden became legal, and the government asked the church their views on murder. And the church said well it says in the bible right here that murder is wrong, then the government would instantly be against the church, its the same situation with gay marriage, churches are getting shut down for disagreeing with the church. What happened to the first amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of religion? The church now doesn't have freedom of speech or religion. If the government is listening and they hear something they don't like they can just shut the church down, that doesn't sound like freedom. On the other hand christians do seem to discriminate against the homosexual community, making them feel unwelcome. But if thats the case then liars shouldn't feel welcome in church either because the bible professes that lying is sin, and it is wrong, so why is homosexuality so different? Why is it that liars feel welcome in church but gay people aren't? Were all sinners so whats the difference? I think the difference is the christian community in general tends to get more on the gay peoples case than the lair, or stealers, or lusters. I think we give gay people a much harder time because they are different than us, when in reality we are just as much as in sin as they are.

Ebola Doctors

Currently in our world there is much stress over this disease “Ebola” which is a type of hemorrhagic fever. Its cause of death is multiple types of organ dysfunction, but if survived it is a quick recovery. Ebola is a contagious disease which makes it easier to obtain, unlike cancer, or a genetic disease, it is a sickness. The only way for you to get Ebola is from contact with somebody’s bodily fluids who has this disease. That being said, most people wouldn’t want to go to Liberia or West Africa, which is where this disease originated from, to help these people who have this disease. Most Americans are comfortable with their life and would not want to sacrifice, or even risk it to help others, and the fact that some people do sickens them. A few Christian doctors are over in these infected areas and it really bothers people for one reason, their faith. The fact that they talk about Jesus while they do what He asks of them is just absurd to these people for some reason. Author of “In Medicine We Trust” Brian Palmer explains his view on these doctors, being an atheist he obviously does not believe in God, so his writing of this article is completely unbiased. He says in the article that if these doctors were non-believers of Jesus Christ, he would not have any critiques or complaints about what they are doing, but since they are believers he admits that he finds faults in the work that they are doing. And why is that? Why are people getting so offended about these Christian people sharing about God, God is the reason that they are even helping these people! So why is it not okay for them to explain why they are making such a sacrifice and risking their lives? I think I know the answer to why people have such a problem with this. It is because they are uncomfortable, and scared, they are scared that these Christians might be right, but do not want to admit it because they do not want to change their ways of sin. That is just one way of looking at it. Overall I think these people have no room to criticize these Christian doctors, I don’t see them trying to help, at least these Christians are making an effort to do the right thing.