Hate Crimes - Must We Categorize Hate?

The other day as I read an article about a certain group who was pushing for hate crimes legislation, I wondered to myself, isn't a crime that harms another human being hateful regardless of which group the victim belongs to. Do we need to have a separate law for someone who murders a blonde versus a brunette? Do we need a new law for when an Asian person is murdered? Or should we distinguish further by imposing a stiffer penalty if a person murders two Asians who happen to be Indians? Maybe we should create some gang violence laws that have more harsh penalties for those who rob and assault people outside their race or rob citizens of other neighborhoods besides those in their counties? The endless search for an absolute upon which to found such legislation shows the absurdity of the argument for hate crimes legislation. We can't look at things through the cloudy lens of emotions, we simply need to carry out the law without regard for race or ethnic background.

If a law is broken concerning discrimination such as denying a person a job solely on the basis of race that is totally different from murdering a person because of race. Now you may say, 'but wait a minute, they murdered because of racial hatred.' I say you are absolutely correct. The objection I have is this: we already have laws in place against murder. Let us execute the laws fairly and consistently and there won't be a need for hate crimes legislation or any other law that extends laws that already exist. By coming up with hate crimes legistation we will invite an onslaught of unnecessary litigation and create special treatment for certain groups above others.

If we continue to have special interest groups that desire legislation based on emotion, feelings, inner senses, preferences, etc. we will slide further and further down a slippery slope to having more laws than we can handle.

Calling all Fathers: Come Home

Young men in prison, young women being sexually exploited, suicide, abortion, low self-esteem, lack of personal responsibility, okay I'll stop with the depressing list. It's just that I am continually blown away by the way that people tread so lightly on the subject of fathers, when so many of the aforementioned issues stem from homes where fathers were either absent or simply didn't fulfill their role as God intended. Only now are some in the media beginning to mention that the absence of fathers could have something to do with many of the ills of our society. In her documentary presentation last week, 'Black in America', Soledad O'Brien did a segment in which she touched on the fact that so many black men who end up incarcerated had no father at home. This is not breakthrough news in my book. This is simply another page in the lengthy volume of issues that have come into society as a result of us excluding the God of the Bible and the truth of His word. It's still amazing to me that people are still so oblivious to God's design in which 'father' is essential to family. The greatest reason I see is that when a godly father is present in the home, children are more likely to be pointed to the Heavenly Father because they've seen an earthly example. I know we walk by faith and not by sight, but there is certainly a spiritual impartation that a child receives when a godly father speaks, loves, protects, embraces and sets an example for his or her life.

By no means do I desire to discount the role of mothers. Much of who I am I attribute to my mother's godly teaching and training. Mothers are invaluable to families as nurturers, encouragers, assistants, project managers, accountants, secretaries, creative designers, peacemakers, teachers, this could go on all day so I'll stop now. As you can see I am a huge advocate for mom, but the reality is that she can never be dad. In God's design, the two work hand-in-hand to form a child into the man or woman that God has called them to be. With the absence of one of the two, any child lacks. Unfortunately, the reality of our society, as with many others, is that the absentee in the picture is commonly the father.

At the end of the day, no government program, faith-based program, church outreach or other religious or social remedy will take the place of fathers coming home. Coming home not only to the physical address of their wives and children, although that would be a start, but coming home to the purpose God designed for them: first to know Him, and then to lead their families to do the same. Through this and only this will family be reestablished. Let no one fool you, there is no alternate agenda that will work. Same-sex marriage, cohabitation, government nannying, trying to be 'good people', etc. will all fail in the long run at raising children as God intended. We must be willing to look at the hard facts and realize that as the prophet Isaiah wrote the words of God in relation to us that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9 - NKJV). We can't ever come up with better plans than God has. We would be wise to embrace his design and pray what Malachi declared was God's word to us at the end of the Old Testament: that He would restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to their fathers. (Malachi 4 - NKJV).

If you're a father or a father to be, realize your purpose today. If you're not a father, pray that every father would.

Where's Your ID?

I just wanted to take a moment to remind anyone who reads this that our identity is in Father God. Never limit yourself to what you think about your giftings, talents, personality, etc. He has called us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and we have been made joint heirs to all that was promised in Christ: restoration, relationship with the Father, relationship with one another, healing, peace, prosperity, holiness, righteousness, and the list goes on. Be encouraged that as we surrender to Jesus Christ and obey His word, we have an incredible path in front of us each day. Our destiny is certain and secure in the Father of Creation. The responsibility we have is to be obedient to what He has set before us so that we can realize our true purpose. Whether you're a teacher, doctor, pastor, lawyer, lawn man, hair stylist, garbage man, etc. (feel free to fill in your full-time vocation), God always has a divine order for your steps and a preferrable future for you. Jesus said it best in Matthew 6:33 - 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His rightesousness and all these things will be added unto you.'

The Inauguration

In this my first post, I thought I'd share what you'll find in this blog: a little of everything :-). I have no specific topic I desire to deal with. What I hope to do is to provoke you to thought, encourage you, challenge you, make you laugh, and anything else that's beneficial to my readers (hopefully that will be more than my wife and my 3 kids, only one of which is old enough to read) and brings honor to God. As stated earlier, I don't have a specific topic, but as a follower of Jesus Christ it's inevitable that the majority of my discussions will wax spiritually philosophical through the lens of a Biblical worldview.

Well, that's it for my intro, hopefully you'll stop by again soon. Please comment as much as you'd like on anything I write. I love a good discussion.

'Til next time, have a great day and continue to move forward in your divine destiny.