Christian Reflection and Prayer

 Three Swedes died on Easter Sunday and went to Heaven.
St. Peter greeted them at the Pearly Gates and told them
that in order to enter Heaven each one had to answer a
question correctly. If they gave the wrong answer, they
would end up in Hell.

 

St. Peter turned to the first Swede and asked: "What is
Easter?"

 

The first Swede replied "That's when kids get dressed up
in costumes and go door to door collecting Trick or Treat."
"No, stupid", said St. Peter. "That's Halloween. You're
down to Hell!"

 

St. Peter turned to the second Swede and asked "What is
Easter?"

 

The second Swede answered "That's when the fat man in
the red suit comes down the chimney and leaves gifts for
everybody." "No, you moron", said St. Peter. "That's
Christmas. Go down to Hell!"

 

St. Peter turned to the third Swede and asked, in a very
exasperated tone of voice, "What is Easter?" The third
Swede answered "That's when Jesus rises out of his grave."
"And???" said St. Peter.

 

"And, if he sees his shadow there's another six weeks of
winter!"

 

GOD BLESS MY HOMELAND

 

The politics of hate are wrong in Mosul, in Beirut, in
Brussels, in Paris, in Ankara, in Pakistan, in San
Bernardino--and they are also wrong in the public
discourse of the United States. People of faith
should denounce the politics of hate everywhere--
whether propagated by violent terrorists or by political
leaders or candidates of any political party.
We must deny the terrorists their victory by not
becoming more like them in succumbing to hate and
violence. Rather than letting the terrorists change who
we are, we must become more like our truest selves
and more like Jesus we follow.
It's time we turned towards God and not into our own
human fears and hatreds. And it's time to listen to
what Jesus told his disciples again and again: "BE
NOT AFRAID."

 

(Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine)
GOD BLESS THIS EVANGELICAL AND HIS CALLING!

 

Thirdly, and finally, we must utterly denounce the
message of political leaders who speak and act to
politicize terrorist violence in service of their own
political agendas and ambitions. In particular we
must denounce the message of those who have
called for the "patrolling" of Muslim neighborhoods
in the United States and for putting Muslim
American citizens under surveillance we must also
denounced the words of those who secure fear of
more attacks and purpose to protect
"us" from "them" by monitoring Muslim Americans,
banning Muslim immigrants from the United States,
torturing suspects and killing the families of terrorists,
and even suggesting they might be open using
nuclear weapons against Isis.
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