Thanks Andy Morgan for alerting me to the following two pieces that made me stop … I felt sad, I felt sick, I got angry … I reflected …, I resolved… repented … prayed … the list goes on!

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Piece No.1 ~

Last Sunday Christian evangelist Jimmy Swaggart shared a shocking confession to his congregation during a worship service that is broadcast to a global audience. In the middle of his sermon, Swaggart proclaimed that he would “kill” a man that looked at him with romantic intent.

Swaggart’s sermon is so outrageous that I want to give you his exact words:

“I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry.”

(shouts, applause)

“And I’m gonna be blunt and plain, if one ever looks at me like that I’m going to kill him and tell God he died.”

(laughter, applause)

“In case anybody doesn’t know God calls it an abomination. It’s an abomination! It’s an abomination!”

(applause)

…”I’m not knocking the poor homosexual. I’m not. They need salvation just like anybody else…. I’m knocking our pitiful, pathetic lawmakers. And I thank God that President Bush has stated we need a constitutional amendment that states that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

(applause)

taken from sojourners

Piece No.2 ~

an iranian woman has applied for a court order to restrict her husbands beatings to once a week instead of every night.
“my husband is violent and beats me virtually every evening. i thought he would stop after the birth of our child, but it has got worse,” said maryam j.
“i dont want a divorce. my husband is violent. it is in his nature. i just want him to promise to beat me only once a week,” she told the judge………

summoned to explain himself, the husband said: “i hit her because a wife should be afraid of her husband and this way i oblige her to respect me.”

(Andy’s comments)
i wept when i read this. i wept becaue women are being abused and attacked and beaten in our world today. it is absolutely mind blowing to think that for this woman, a good thing for her would be for her husband to beat her once a week. our lives can be hard – but for millions of people around the world life is unimaginable.

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