God is not a religion, and religion is not God.

God is a spirit, beyond color, beyond ethnicity, beyond nationality.

God is Creator of the universe.

God is present everywhere, at all times.

God is borderless. God is boundless. God is infinite.

God is the creator of life cycles.

God is mirrored in the diversity of creation.  

God is larger and more significant than any faith tradition.

God is reflected in compassion, empathy, mercy, and truth.

God is immutable Creator.

God is the alpha and omega.

In the beginning, God created all that is.

From Everlasting to everlasting,

God is!

God is...

1. From everlasting to everlasting
2. Not a religious faith or tradition
3. A spirit, and they that worship Him must do so in spirit and truth
4. Not limited by human constructs
5. No respecter of persons – in other words, God does not discriminate based on ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, or physical abilities.  God receives everyone and anyone who calls upon Him with a sincere heart.
6. Love, merciful, forgiving, and patient
7. All-powerful and present everywhere all the time

God hates… (Proverbs 6:16-19)

1. Haughty eyes (pride or arrogance)
2. A lying tongue
3. Hands that shed innocent blood
4. A heart that devises wicked schemes
5. Feet that are quick to rush into evil
6. A false witness who pours out lies
7. A person who stirs up conflict in the community

Unjustly stopping, searching, arresting, and in many cases, convicting innocent American citizens based on ethnicity, physical appearance, or language is disheartening. It is unfair but not uncommon. Such injustices occur daily, impacting countless American citizens, including veterans and active service members. Most victims have little recourse against these unjust practices, and often, incidents go unreported due to humiliation and fear of repercussions.

Unfortunately, many well-meaning individuals believe that such harassment is justified because it hasn’t happened to them or their loved ones. They remain unaware of the injustices others face and often make excuses for dehumanization, thinking, “They must have done something wrong,” or “They wouldn’t have been stopped for no reason.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. As highlighted by the quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” injustices occur everywhere.

We stand in solidarity with those who weep and mourn alongside those who grieve.

God, help us address humanity’s inhumanity.

A little over two months have passed since the tragic killing of Mr. Tyre Nichols by five Memphis, Tennessee police officers on January 7, 2023, and Bloody Sunday, March 7, was commemorated less than two weeks ago. So, now seems an apt time to add my thoughts to the conversations about Mr. Nichols’ murder.

The barbarity of the crime, Mr. Nichols – one unarmed man, brutality beaten and mocked by five firearms-toting police officers, paid, and sworn to protect Mr. Nichols’ rights, demonstrated a wanton disregard for Mr. Nichol’s civil and human rights. The offense also gave the public another glimpse into the atrocities that can, and often, occur when an individual or group is given unfettered power.

The firing and subsequent charging of the officers involved in killing Mr. Nichols offer hope that the murderers will be convicted in a court of law, not just in the court of public opinion. Admittedly, the former police officers’ convictions will not bring Mr. Nichols back to life, compensate for his loss of life, or eradicate the profound grief his loved ones must endure.  

However, holding the officers accountable by convicting them of murdering Mr. Nichols may bring a small measure of comfort to those who love Mr. Nichols and restore public trust in the notion that justice is blind and every life matters.

God bless Tyre Nichols’ loved ones and help humanity to behave more humanely.

This writing was prompted by Peyton S. Gendron’s live-streamed killing of ten innocent people who had done the shooter no harm. Gendron‘s so-called manifesto and his actions on the fateful day of May 19, 2022, prove inflammatory words that inspired his horrific act were germinated by people preaching divisive rhetoric.

The Buffalo super-market shooter deserves to be held accountable for assassinating ten innocent people. However, the perpetrators of the hateful and untrue rhetoric that incited Gendron’s violence should also be held liable. They are every bit as responsible for the deaths of those innocent lives as the shooter. Moreover, they are equally accountable for corrupting the morals of Gendron, a weak-minded little man who lacks moral discernment.

The following litany highlight ways our words impact us, others, and our varied environments – home, work, church, and neighborhood.

1. Words influence culture.
2. Positive words affirm, encourage, inspire, and lift up. They speak life, healing, and peace into existence.
3. Negative words kill and destroy people’s reputations, relationships, and livelihoods. In some cases, words crush people’s spirits poking holes in their self-esteem and objectifying them by attacking and questioning their inherent value.
4. Upbeat, pleasant words coupled with encouraging actions create warm and nurturing environments in which everyone has the opportunity to grow and flourish.
5. Disparaging words shun, exclude, ridicule, and harass. Such terms also create a hostile and abusive atmosphere where hatred and wrongdoing are nurtured and perpetrated.
6. When dropped in the hearing of weak-minded people, words can incite violence, including harassment, and results in stigmatizing folk and the social, if not physical, genocide of individuals or particular groups.
7. Occasionally, negative words lead to unstable people committing horrific acts of violence, including carrying out mass shootings, encouraging folk to commit suicide, or taking a life over a petty disagreement or perceived personal insult.

We should choose our words carefully, understanding they have an impact beyond our thoughts and the small group in which those words are uttered.

May God help us speak words of life, healing, and peace. May God’s Holy Spirit gently urge us to recant and repent from saying words that cause pain and, in some instances, irreparable damage.   

God, help humanity.

Like most Americans, I remained quiet but contemplative about the January 6, 2021, assault on the U. S. Capitol for over a year. However, on the anniversary of that fateful day, I was reminded that a group of fellow Americans participated in a violent attempt to prevent the certification of Joseph R. Biden, president-elect.

With dismay, I rewatched on television a vicious group rushing the storied U.S. Capital, a worldwide symbol of democracy. Some in the crowd were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.” The event was shocking, horrifying, and a flagrant assault on our democratic system. The folks involved behaved unpatriotically and un-American. At a minimum, they should be charged with vandalism, defacing government property, assaulting law enforcement officials, and treason.

Regardless of political ideology, God-loving and peace-loving American patriots do not employ Gestapo tactics to turn the United States of America into a totalitarian state because they disagree with the outcome of a legitimate election. Those who love this great country look for ways to strengthen, not weaken, the republic.

More importantly, those who affirm the assault on the Capital or try to whitewash the attack are as dangerous to the nation as the domestic terrorists who committed the seditious act. Shame on those who refuse to characterize the insurrections as anything other than domestic terrorists – people who used unlawful violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of their personal political agenda.

It seems, integrity, love for this great nation, belief in the value of a democratic system, and concern for the common good, would compel patriotic Americans to call the assault what it was: an attack on American democracy and show by example a more civil way of dealing with political differences.

Unfortunately, too few Americans, especially politicians, have demonstrated the courage and integrity to publicly condemn the insurrection and label the mob participants domestic terrorists.

The 9-11-01 terroristic attack against our nation failed. Instead of destroying the country, America remained strong, and for a time, Americans united to protect the nation’s democratic system. Then the January 6, 2021, sedition happened. Fortunately, like the failed September 11, 2001, attack, the January 6, 2021, assault was unsuccessful. Both failed attacks show democracy works and is more powerful than the ideologies of those trying to cancel it. Despite the January 6 attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden, president-elect, the duly elected candidate was sworn into office on January 20, 2021.

Long live the United States of America! And may God continue blessing America and protecting the nation from terrorists and anti-democracy zealots.   

NOTE: 01/12/2021 I revised this post. After watching videos and listening to the insurrections state what they want America to be, it seems to me the term totalitarian more appropriately describes the kind of government the insurrections hope to erect.