This is Viewpoints for Thursday, July 14, 2016

Can’t sleep

I am heartbroken and there are no words in the English language to justify the senseless killings over the past week. I am sorry to say that for the past three years, I have been taking power naps at night and then getting up to check the news to see if anyone has been killed. Many of you get text messages and emails from me during the middle of the night and later ask what I was doing up at that time. I applaud Sheriff David Davis and his staff for their presence in our neighborhoods and our community. I pray for our black men and their families, as well as for law enforcement officers and their families.

I hope that we are so outraged by the killings, that we will step up to mentor a young black man, invite a black friend and their family to our house of worship and then to lunch, and offer a cup of coffee to a law enforcement officer on the night shift. Please remember, these are all our children and my child’s name is Shamekia.

Makes more sense

It has been a long, hot, tragic summer so far. Sadly, so many have been murdered at the hands of terrorists, but now American citizens have renewed their zeal for killing each other in the streets because of the uniform they wear, the color of their skin, their religious and political beliefs or just for hatred. Any excuse will do.

God places a responsibility on Christians — “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (1 Chronicles 7:14) Yet, to the world, “the prophet is a fool, (and) the spiritual man is mad ...” (Hosea 9:7) Moreover, those who call loudest for tolerance, civil rights, justice and equality typically don’t mean a word they say, either. Sin is the enemy at the gates and the race war that politicians, the media, and Hollywood have consistently urged may be upon us.

We blindly channel our passions into opposing each other and continue down the errant path of meaningless debate and inflammatory protests that avail absolutely nothing! Would it not be a better idea to simply meet in the street, humbly before almighty God, bow our heads in an earnest prayer of heartfelt repentance and wait for his merciful healing in our midst. Scoff if you will, but it makes more sense than we are doing now.

What about Harris?

Any news about James Neal Harris, who ran for Eighth District as a Democrat in the primary? I have not seen any recent announcements, and I didn’t see any vote results for him from the primary.

Harris ran unopposed in the Democratic Primary in May and will face Rep. Austin Scott in the November general election.

Them and us

Hillary Clinton was not indicted as a result of the FBI investigation into her private email server and her handling of classified information. There are two systems of justice in our country, one for “them” and one for “us.” If you don’t know if you are a “them” or an “us,” just break the law and you will know in a heartbeat.

Hyperdimensional Christ

Bill Cummings has once again provided The Telegraph readership with a learned, intriguing, but woefully incomplete picture of the person of Jesus Christ. We have, in the four Gospels, four accounts that emphasize four differing aspects of this most important person who ever lived. In Matthew, he is the Jewish Messiah. Mark, who is Peter’s amanuensis, emphasizes Jesus as the obedient servant of YHWH. Luke was a gentile physician who emphasized Jesus’ humanity (“The Son of Man”), reflected in a genealogy traced back to Adam. John’s gospel is the most distinctive, revealing the Christ’s true origin as the eternal “Word” of God. There we find the most complete account of the risen Jesus as a spirit manifesting in our limited dimensionality, in somewhat the same way that a 3D cube manifests as a square in a 2-dimensional plane. He is physical, able to eat (“a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have”) yet possesses the ability to materialize in a 6-sided space (the “upper room”) without penetrating any of its sides.

Jesus’ body “did not see corruption,” but it did undergo “glorification” — a transformation into an eternal state which is, at a minimum, “hyperdimensional” to the space-time environment that we inhabit. All believers are destined for this same transformation (1 John 3:2). Cummings is correct in classifying them as Christ’s “body,” but a body without a head is dead. Jesus is the head, not only of the church, but of the heavens and Earth of which he is the creator.

One final note: Mark 16:9-20 is not a “later addition,” rather, it was expunged by the gnostic-influenced Alexandrian school, and reincorporated into Textus Receptus.

Would flogging work?

To your recent “hot truck” article and my comments in Letters to the Editor, this matter potentially appears to be turning into a debate, as indicated by a “Double the sentence” reply from Judy S. Veal Lawrence (Viewpoints, July 13) and a heart-wrenching letter sent personally to me by an anonymous Telegraph reader. Reading Lawrence’s letter, I was struck by her one reply: “I would have doubled the fines and sentence.” Apparently, it is not a mystery that some people have been prosecuted for “hot car” offenses yet they still happen. Maybe the answer is to bring back flogging? Maybe then they will learn — especially the poor, disenfranchised and dispossessed. And far from being desperate for validation of my complaint, I merely reiterated what had been previously reported in The Telegraph — that by his own admission, the alcohol-addicted judge in question said he had come to the realization that he needed professional help.

Doubling fines and sentences on poor or troubled people, or flogging for that matter, will not help stop the social problems we have in the U.S. today. We already have the world’s largest prison population (1 in every 100 adults) — only a more prudent and practical approach, with enlightened professional help, and perhaps resulting from a fundamental change in our justice system, will help resolve our ills.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, July 14, 2016."