Paying Taxes
15-17 That’s when the Pharisees plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging. They sent their disciples, with a few of Herod’s followers mixed in, to ask, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, teach the way of God accurately, are indifferent to popular opinion, and don’t pander to your students. So tell us honestly: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”18-19 Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? Do you have a coin? Let me see it.” They handed him a silver piece.20 “This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”21 They said, “Caesar.”“Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”22 The Pharisees were speechless. They went off shaking their heads.
Anglican Diocese of Melbourne begins divestment journey
By divesting in fossil fuels "this Synod would be... http://t.co/LKWjhk7Umh
— Green Anglicans (@Greenanglicans) October 19, 2014
“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.” --George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh poet & Anglican priest
— Jim Thomas (@pastorjimtvc) October 19, 2014
Amos 5:24The Message (MSG)
21-24 “I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.
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I welcome the discussion on ''just war''. The planes, however, are already flying and, as usual, ethical thinking limps after events. Some politicians deny this is a religious war; Prime Minister Abbott denies it is war. But it is undeniable that the conflict between the so-called Christian West and Islamic communities has a religious character. Just war doctrine originated from the Roman Stoic Seneca (65AD) and was adapted by fourth-century Augustine of Hippo. The church was no longer a pacifist community. ''Christian'' leaders sought to balance political and spiritual demands.John Howard Yoder, US Mennonite theologian, concludes that just war doctrine is so stringent it is almost impossible for war to be declared just. It all but prohibits war-making. US political analyst Noam Chomsky argues that national interest, not ethical concern, is served by war. If David Wroe sees permission to go to war (The Saturday Age, 4/10), the final clauses of the doctrine impose severe limits. Violence must be proportional to the injury suffered and the weapons used must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets and their deaths justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target. Certainly, we must find ways of protecting and liberating oppressed peoples. But don't contemporary military strikes from a distance disqualify modern war-making as ''just''? Wouldn't the requirement to protect non-combatants be sufficient to prohibit modern warfare?
WILD GEESEYou do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
