FACEBOOK PROPHETS - SERIOUS BUSINESS

BY STEVE DUNN

Tuesday is for Facebook Prophets.  Today's offerings are not on the lighter side.  The violence in Dallas, Baton Rouge, France, Turkey, etc, require us to be more sober-minded.

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS - THIS HAS TO STOP

BY STEVE DUNN

July 7 our nation was shocked by the killing of five Dallas TX police officers and nine more were wounded by a sniper while they were protecting a demonstration.  Then July 11, three Baton Rouge LA policemen were ambushed and killed and a fourth deputy critically wounded by still another person bent on killing law enforcement officers.  As our nation has spiraled into a cycle of violence, the men and women charged with keeping the peace and protecting the public as they exercise their right of free speech, are being targeted by people of hatred. 

The three law-enforcement officers killed in Baton Rough, Louisiana , were, from left, Montrell Jackson, Brad Garafola and Matthew Gerald.

 

 

The Dallas shooting was the deadliest incident for law enforcement officers since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that cost the lives of 72 police persons.  Dallas Police Chief,  David Brown, reports continuing death threats against his family.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown, shown here last week, said “We're asking cops to do too much in this country.” (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article90175207.html#storylink=cpy

A police officer bows his head during the funeral for Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Lorne Ahrens at Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Ahrens and four other officers were slain by a sniper during a protest last week in downtown Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

  

My fellow citizens, this must stop.  I am vividly aware that there are police officers who have broken the law, and that innocent and ordinary African males can legitimately report harassment and abuse from stressed out and sometimes rogue policeman.

But so many police officers are simply good people, who love God and love their communities, who work long hours in thankless tasks--and they are in some communities a thin blue line between chaos/anarchy and our desire to live peaceably as a free people.

THIS MUST STOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

© 2016 by Stephen L. Dunn.  You have permission to reprint this provided it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com 

FACEBOOK PROPHETS - CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

BY STEVE DUNN

 It's time again for Facebook Prophets. Read it and weep.

Photo taken by 4 year old grandson Caleb

OH! WOW! -LAURA BRETAN

If you have not been watching America's got talent, you missed this 8th grader who is going straight to the finals = STEVE

FACEBOOK PROPHETS - YES, IT'S TUESDAY AGAIN

BY STEVE DUNN

I probably spend more time on Facebook than I should, but where else would I read this stuff?

ONE MORE MONDAY REFLECTION - COMING TO AMERICA

BY STEVE DUNN

Those of you who read my earlier post today might appreciation this further musical word.

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS: AMERICA'S CORE VALUES

BY STEVE DUNN

In New York harbor sits one of the most famous landmarks in the world--the Statue of Liberty.  Engraved on "Miss LIberty" are these words--a poem called "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

When I was but a schoolboy in western Ohio, I was taught these words, then marked as a symbol of the incredible core values that drove my nation's actions.

Over the 65 years of my life I have met countless people drawn to this nation because of the twin promises of liberty and opportunity--people enriched by their coming and often enriching our nation because they came.

Post 9-11 America finds itself hard-pressed to live out these values.  Under the threat of Isis and other terrorists movements, we seem intent on closing that 'golden door."  Not completely.  People like us politically, whose religion does not threaten ours, whose economic goals do not undermine us, who will not compete for our resources, and who will embrace the prevailing secular individualism of the age--these people are still welcome.

I share our concerns about national security and obedience to the laws of the land; but sometimes I fear that the grace and compassion, the commitment to liberty for all peoples is being eroded or being replaced with a selfish inwardness that violates one of the most fundamental laws of the God I honor' "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Is it possible to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this nation without quenching that lamp beside the Golden Door?

© 2016 by Stephen L. Dunn.  You have permission to reprint this provided it is unchanged, proper authorship is cited, it is in a publication not for sale, and a link is provided to this site or to www.drstevedunn.com. For all other uses, contact Steve at sdunnpastor@gmail.com 

 

AMERICA TH BEAUTIFUL

BY STEVE DUNN

Continuing our recognition of the Fourth of July celebration with one of the finest presentations of  "America the Beautiful' presented by the Prestonwood Baptist Church and Orchestra.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER - ONE OF THE BEST VERSIONS EVER

BY STEVE DUNN

On this Fourth of July Weekend 2016 I want you to hear what I consider one of the finest renditions ever of "The Star Spangled Banner" ever - sung by Jennifer Hudson.