“How Gaza’s Christians View the Hamas-Israeli Conflict” – With much of the American Christian voice calling for a unanimous, no-questions-asked support of Israel, this is an important perspective to consider and remember. (Christianity Today also plans to do a similar piece representing Israeli Christians, as well.) “Timothy C. Morgan, senior editor, global journalism, and journalist Deann Alford interviewed Massad recently by phone and email as the conflict continued. CT is pursuing a similar interview from the perspective of Christians inside Israel on the latest conflict. What are Christians inside Gaza telling you?

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“The Cross and the Molotov Cocktail” – News in recent months has reminded all of us how broken this world is. I’ve seen a variety of responses to the Ferguson tragedy, but I think it’s important for those who are in Christ to understand this perspective from which Christena Cleveland writes: “Can you see the Imago Dei in these young men? Can you see the suffering Christ in their rage? “Many Black and/or justice-minded Christians can see the suffering Christ on the lynching tree. Theologian James Cone notes that by seeing the suffering Christ on the lynching tree, lynching-era blacks experienced the presence of God in the midst of unbearable suffering. “In the mystery of God’s revelation, black Christians believed that just knowing that Jesus went through an experience of suffering in a manner similar to theirs gave them faith that God was with them, even in suffering on lynching trees, just as God was present with Jesus in suffering on the cross.”[ii]

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“THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL WASN’T GOOD FOR MY SOUL” – (While there is difference in the ways news networks present their information overload, I should probably clarify that there are a number of options for becoming this type of diet for any news junkie.) “I couldn’t see it at the time (people mired in a sub-culture rarely ever do), but that person is not who I want to be. I want to be who I am and who I am becoming—and to do that, I need to leave the Fox News Channel in my rearview mirror.” “I was done. I didn’t know for how long. I just knew my steady diet of Fox News wasn’t good for my soul. So I walked away.

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“The Parent Trap” – Ross Douthat provides commentary on the recent trend of parents being arrested for mostly unfounded claims of “child endangerment.” “Here are two things that didn’t happen. My (lawyer) father did not call the police and have the coach arrested for reckless endangerment of a minor. And nobody who saw me picking my way home alone thought to call the police on my parents, or to charge them with neglect for letting their child slip free of perfect safety for an hour. Today they might not have been so lucky. For instance, they might have ended up like the Connecticut mother who earned a misdemeanor for letting her 11-year-old stay in the car while she ran into a store. Or the mother charged with “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” after a bystander snapped a photo of her leaving her 4-year-old in a locked, windows-cracked car for five minutes on a 50 degree day. Or the Ohio father arrested in front of his family for “child endangerment” because — unbeknown to him — his 8-year-old had slipped away from a church service and ended up in a nearby Family Dollar.

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“Will American Christians Fail the Good Samaritan Test?” – As Facebook, the news, and other social media has lit up with varying opinions on the refugee children, my thoughts have often gone back to the Jesus’s parable of The Good Samaritan. Ed Cyzewski has a helpful examination of the parable in light of the issue, as we seek out to love our neighbors. “The religious leaders passing by were too busy to help him. It wasn’t their fault and it wasn’t their problem. He probably took risks that put his life in jeopardy any way. Who would take time out of his busy day and assume the financial risk to care for this vulnerable man by the side of the road?

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