Community | The Church of Jesus Christ

Jul 21 2009

Church Discipline – When is it okay to Abandon People?

Category: Church Discipline, Matthew — Polycarp @ 10:31 am

First, let me say that the author of the blog, Church Discipline, is a well reasoned, and balanced individual who has some biblical insights into this controversial subject. I thought that I might give a few thoughts myself. You might also want to check out this site as well.

The Church is a Community, a nation, a people, and each congregation is a subset of the larger Community. We have our leaders, our own financial system, our own by-laws, and our own culture. We also have our own justice system, so to speak. We are called to constantly exceed the righteousness (even self-righteousness) of the religious world around us. Further, we are called to be the first to apologized, whether we are wrong or the wronged. Further, the leader/congregant model is often seen as shepherd/flock; indeed, ‘pastor’ is better translated as shepherd.

Continue reading “Church Discipline – When is it okay to Abandon People?”

Tags: anger, christian, Christianity, church, Church Discipline, community, emotions, feelings, God, Jesus Christ, religion, the good shepherd

Comments (3)

Jul 07 2009

It's Deplorable what is being Ignored

Category: Religion and Politics — Polycarp @ 4:11 pm

Friends, the world watches as the people of Iran, China, and Honduras fight for life and freedom, while the Darfur genocide goes on, and people starve in the richest country in the world – and Americans entrance themselves in the death of a pop icon. I am watching the Twitter feeds of ‘journalists’ and lay people alike. While many glue themselves to the Michael Jackson funeral, some are trying to uphold real news by twittering about Iran.

I try not to get too political on this blog, but this is beyond politics – it’s about priorities. Can you imagine the difference it would make in Appalachia, or the inner cities, or the rural areas, if the cable news networks would devote as much attention to poverty and other social ills as they have to the death and burial of Michael Jackson?

Can you imagine what would happen if journalists took the stand as the gentleman below?

I am not going to quote this article, but I hope that you will take the time to read it, and to pass it on.

What passes for real journalism these days is a travesty of what it should be:

Op-Ed Columnist – A Journalist’s ‘Actual Responsibility’ – NYTimes.com.

Tags: china, community, honduras, iran, journalism, Michael Jackson, new, revolution

Comments (12)

Apr 16 2009

Church throws support behind couple facing deportation

Category: Religion and Politics — Polycarp @ 1:38 am

From the hometown newspa pe r (WV Gazette) -

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Victims of war and target of ethnic cleansing, Ivan and Violetta Petrosyan fled their native country of Azerbaijan in the 1980s.

For nearly two decades, ethnic prejudice and violence continued to follow the family until a South Charleston mission group led them to settle in West Virginia in 2006.

“We couldn’t find a country [where] we belong,” Violetta Petrosyan said Tuesday. ” We were harassed and treated wrongly. We had hoped that in America that proclaims freedom and human rights, we might get the chance to have a country where we belong.”

The couple found what they had been seeking in Charleston, and soon after arriving on a tourist visa in December 2006 they applied for political asylum.

Continue reading “Church throws support behind couple facing deportation”

Tags: asylum, azerbaijan, community, God, immigration, religion

Comments (0)

Oct 13 2008

Participating in Blog Action Day 2008

Category: Blogging, Religious News — Polycarp @ 5:56 pm

via Participating in Blog Action Day 2008 « A True Believer’s Blog

Thanks, Wickle.

Every once in a while, I have that Community Organizer in me wake up. Sign upi you blog, make a post, even if you just quote Isaiah or something.

You can do it on the major blogging platforms, and it is easy to sign up.

Enter Blog Action Day, on October 15.

With the way this week is looking, I’m not sure whether I’m going to be able to do as much as I hope, or if I’ll be playing catch-up on the weekend. However, poverty is something on which I haven’t focused enough of my efforts, and this is a good opportunity to be reminded.

I’d encourage readers with their own blogs to take a look, see if you want to participate, and jump in, as well.

According to UNICEF, roughly 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. That’s almost ten 9-11 attacks, every day, in children alone.

For any of us here, clean water is no farther away than the nearest sink. There are people in the world who have to walk miles to have any hope of clean water … and sometimes they can’t get it, anyway. I think that we can do better. Let’s take a look at it.

Tags: blog, blog action day, Christianity, community, community service, faith, God, hope, love, poverty, religion

Comments (2)

Sep 05 2008

I was a Community Organizer

Category: Debate/Discussion — Polycarp @ 5:37 pm

This is the issue with politics in the States…too many people could care less about the rest of us. I was a Community Organizer for 3 years with a labor organization for Coal Miners – United Mine Workers of America. I spent over 3 years traveling the rural areas of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. I have been in the cities and on the farms, up the hollers, and down the roads of this states talking with workers, wifes, children, coal miners, retirees, union members, anti-union workers, pro-union workers, pastors, ministers, atheists, and most of all, have a conversation with myself.

I have criticized both sides in the American election for president – both Barack Obama and John McCain. I was not writing when Joe Biden ignored the widow from the Sago Mine disaster during last years AFL-CIO’s Presidential Debate. Had I been, I would have taken him to task for his lack of respect for a woman who had lost her husband on the front lines of labor providing not only for his family but in a larger sense, this country. (Coal provides over 50% of the electrical power for this country). I still have some hard feelings for this man – when one person is not worth 5 minutes to answer a question, then you, as a politician aren’t worth my vote.

Therefore, furthermore, and so that brings us to Gov. Palin’s comments about Community Organizers. On my shoulders I have the weight of more than 20,000 people. Each day I went to work believing that the days actions would benefit each and every one of those union members and workers that were attempting to seek a better way to organize. No, it was not running a small town, but it was executive experience like none other. I met a wide range of people who I took with me, many still remaining with me to this day. A good community organizer has a heart filled with compassion and a determination to seek justice, to walk humbly before the Lord our God. A good community organizer will attend local community meetings, learn the area, learn the people. A good community organizer will exhaust him or herself in fighting for others, for good causes, when those people have been beaten to a bloody pulp.

The Good Community Organizer gave His life for those that He brought justice to.

From Jonathan Martin’s Politico blog:

“Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor .”

I don’t endorse any politic views of either the link above or below, but I stress to my readers, a community organizer is something more valuable than you realize.

Community Organizers Fight Back « Community Organizers Fight Back.

Continue reading “I was a Community Organizer”

Tags: barack obama, coal, coal miners, coal mining, community, community organizer, Community organizers, community organizing, democrat, Democratic National Convention, DNC, election, election 2008, faith, God, GOP, gov. palin, john mccain, justice, mccain, Obama, politics, presidential election, religion, republican, Republican National Convention, right to organize, Sarah Palan, UMWA, United Mine Workers of America

Comments (0)

Aug 30 2008

Former New York Times reporter looks at growth of interfaith movements

Category: Atheism, Islam, Religious News — Polycarp @ 8:10 pm

Unlike many Fundamentalists, I don’t dismiss Interfaith dialogue quickly, as I have seen the fruits of Interfaith assistance on certain issues, however, many of these Interfaith groups readily dismiss any idea of a separation of doctrine, insisting that true tolerance is to acknowledge that everyone is equally correct. Therefore, Muslim and Christian are equal religions, as is Hinduism, Buddhism, and Atheism – all leading to the same path. This is wholly (or unholy) false. If this is true, then Christ suffered and died for naught.

Former New York Times reporter looks at growth of interfaith movements – Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading “Former New York Times reporter looks at growth of interfaith movements”

Tags: bible, buddhism, christian, Christianity, church, community, ecumenical, faith, Faith Communities, God, hindu, hinduism, interfaith, jew, judaism, mosque, muslim, quran, religion, religious tolerance, Syracuse, temple, tolerance