Alice Mae Jackson died in 1969 at age 42 of breast cancer, but her daughter, Henrietta, age 61, is alive and is eligible to collect financial compensation from the state of North Carolina for the forced sterilization inflicted on her mother by government officials in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
When Alice Mae Jackson was alive she received state aid with strings attached. During one of her reviews for continuance of state aid Alice Mae Jackson took three of her four children -- 2 girls and a boy -- to the Mecklenburg County welfare department. Mecklenburg welfare officials told her to get sterilized or the state would take her children. Later government officials put Henrietta in an orphanage. After Alice Mae Jackson was sterilized she got Henrietta back.
James 1:27 Amplified Bible says, "External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world."
Aid is supposed to help people and be unspotted and uncontaminated with worldly strings like forced sterilization. Needing assistance is not shameful. Disabled or non-disabled we all need help in various ways. Chen Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, is a self-taught lawyer from China who helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures. Chen Guangcheng became internationally known for filing a 2005 class-action law suit against Chinese government officials for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Later he endured physical and psychological abuse in jail and in house arrest. Chen Guangcheng was in house arrest with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and the couple's daughter. Their son was being "educated." Eventually the Chen family escaped to the United States. Chen Guangcheng, a US immigrant, testified before Congress on April 9, 2013, regarding human rights abuses in China.
Human rights violations such as abortion and forced sterilization are not God's will. God wants people to enjoy living. God the Son Jesus Christ says in John 10:10 Amplified Bible, "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."
Most parents want their children to enjoy living. The daughter that Alice Mae Jackson did not take to her public assistance review, she had placed with other family.
Later on in life Henrietta met this daughter whose name is Sheila. They met as employees of a nursing home.
Alice, Henrietta, Sheila and their other siblings needed true help instead they received discrimination. Read more about their story at http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/08/08/4223519/alice-mae-jackson-and-eugenics.html.
North Carolina is scheduled to pay $10 million shared equally to victims of forced sterilization. If those forcibly sterilized are dead, the family's estate is eligible for compensation. Forced sterilization was legal in North Carolina based on a 1933 law that allowed government workers to forcibly sterilize people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' In Oklahoma earlier this year Governor Mary Fallin signed into law the Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act which takes effect November 1 and is modeled after anti-discriminatory language in federal law. The law, the first of its kind to be signed into law in the United States of America, will prevent health care providers like those connected to nursing homes from denying food, water and other assistance "on the basis of a view that treats extending the life of an elderly, disabled, or terminally ill individual as of lower value than extending the life of an individual who is younger, nondisabled, or not terminally ill."
Are creyentes (believers) working in your state to cut government waste like laws that permit abortion, forced sterilization and/or the denial of medical treatment based on disability and/or age? Are creyentes working in your state to improve government fiscal management by compensating victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Showing posts with label Forced Sterilization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forced Sterilization. Show all posts
Friday, August 9, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Cutting Waste And Working Wonders
Worship God. Use money to please Him. God is for immigrants and other people. Deuteronomy 10:17-20 Amplified Bible says, "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the terrible God, Who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and by His name and presence you shall swear."
Satan, the enemy of God and all people, gets some people to use money to please Satan by doing evil. Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote a June 2013 article for the Huffington Post explaining that the Chinese government uses money to pressure people to do its evil will and that it is likely that New York University was subjected to this pressure. Tutu writes, "The university's public relations people say they are not responding to pressure in letting Chen go. Their statements are well worked out. However, the Chinese government's actions have been fairly consistent with businesses or allied countries who fail to do their bidding when it comes to voices they do not approve of. They have squeezed companies financially, dropped contracts, and in other ways have repeatedly threatened and punished those "business partners" who fail to tow the line. When the Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo, one of China's responses was to strangle the Norwegian fishing industry, cutting their fish imports by 60%. In my own country in 2011, Chinese pressure on the South African government resulted in His Holiness the Dalai Lama being denied a visa to attend my 80th birthday party. They have gone so far as to have Chinese embassies contact film festivals and request that films critical of China be pulled from the festival. And they have rewarded those influential individuals who do their bidding handsomely."
New York University can still do good by reinstating Chen Guangcheng. Chen Guangcheng is a lawyer, human rights activist, blind and speaks Chinese. In 2005 he filed a class-action lawsuit against Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations. China put him in jail. Then in house arrest. Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest and became a US immigrant along with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children, Chen Kerui and Chen Kesi.
It's good for America to know about evil in other countries and those who are fighting against it. Helping these fighters to be successful helps to end evil in China and other countries.
We need many good fighters. Some of the evil in China is in America. Elaine Riddick was raped at 13. Then North Carolina state forcibly sterilized her. The sterilization was legal according to a 1933 law that allowed government workers to forcibly sterilize people deemed 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' In the United States more than 60,000 people have been forcibly sterilized. Gianna Jessen was born with cerebral palsy due to an attempted abortion. Jessen survived the abortion. However, since 1973 more than 55 million girls and boys have been killed by abortion.
New York University should go out of it's way to help Chen Guangcheng.
America shouldn't help terrorists and criminals. On April 9, 2013, Chen Guangcheng provided Congress with a list of 44 Chinese officials who have been persecuting his family and recommended that they be investigated and denied US immigration based on crimes committed. Congressman Chris Smith made the same recommendation in a July 29, 2013, letter to Secretary of State John Kerry which also included a request that Secretary Kerry meet with or contact Chen Guangcheng to learn about the human rights situation in China.
America should help freedom fighters and immigrants. Recently, an African American woman asked if I needed a green card. I was born an American citizen. English was a foreign language to me then, but now I am fluent. I also did not pay a dime to become a citizen.
At one tragic time in American history African Americans who were free had to carry on themselves emancipation papers explaining how they obtained their freedom.
Wouldn't it please God to end abortion and forced sterilization? Wouldn't it please God to welcome immigrants offering them citizenship and to cut government waste like green cards? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Satan, the enemy of God and all people, gets some people to use money to please Satan by doing evil. Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote a June 2013 article for the Huffington Post explaining that the Chinese government uses money to pressure people to do its evil will and that it is likely that New York University was subjected to this pressure. Tutu writes, "The university's public relations people say they are not responding to pressure in letting Chen go. Their statements are well worked out. However, the Chinese government's actions have been fairly consistent with businesses or allied countries who fail to do their bidding when it comes to voices they do not approve of. They have squeezed companies financially, dropped contracts, and in other ways have repeatedly threatened and punished those "business partners" who fail to tow the line. When the Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo, one of China's responses was to strangle the Norwegian fishing industry, cutting their fish imports by 60%. In my own country in 2011, Chinese pressure on the South African government resulted in His Holiness the Dalai Lama being denied a visa to attend my 80th birthday party. They have gone so far as to have Chinese embassies contact film festivals and request that films critical of China be pulled from the festival. And they have rewarded those influential individuals who do their bidding handsomely."
New York University can still do good by reinstating Chen Guangcheng. Chen Guangcheng is a lawyer, human rights activist, blind and speaks Chinese. In 2005 he filed a class-action lawsuit against Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations. China put him in jail. Then in house arrest. Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest and became a US immigrant along with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children, Chen Kerui and Chen Kesi.
It's good for America to know about evil in other countries and those who are fighting against it. Helping these fighters to be successful helps to end evil in China and other countries.
We need many good fighters. Some of the evil in China is in America. Elaine Riddick was raped at 13. Then North Carolina state forcibly sterilized her. The sterilization was legal according to a 1933 law that allowed government workers to forcibly sterilize people deemed 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' In the United States more than 60,000 people have been forcibly sterilized. Gianna Jessen was born with cerebral palsy due to an attempted abortion. Jessen survived the abortion. However, since 1973 more than 55 million girls and boys have been killed by abortion.
New York University should go out of it's way to help Chen Guangcheng.
America shouldn't help terrorists and criminals. On April 9, 2013, Chen Guangcheng provided Congress with a list of 44 Chinese officials who have been persecuting his family and recommended that they be investigated and denied US immigration based on crimes committed. Congressman Chris Smith made the same recommendation in a July 29, 2013, letter to Secretary of State John Kerry which also included a request that Secretary Kerry meet with or contact Chen Guangcheng to learn about the human rights situation in China.
America should help freedom fighters and immigrants. Recently, an African American woman asked if I needed a green card. I was born an American citizen. English was a foreign language to me then, but now I am fluent. I also did not pay a dime to become a citizen.
At one tragic time in American history African Americans who were free had to carry on themselves emancipation papers explaining how they obtained their freedom.
Wouldn't it please God to end abortion and forced sterilization? Wouldn't it please God to welcome immigrants offering them citizenship and to cut government waste like green cards? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
True Love Or False "Love"?
God created sexuality to be a beautiful reflection and celebration of Himself. God is Love, Life and Joy among other qualities.
Some don't think much of God and consequently they misuse sex. In bringing healing and reconciliation to a man who had sex with his father's wife and the church he attended, the Bible books of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians record that the man was not sterilized nor any child conceived from his sexual union with his father's wife killed. Instead he was disciplined to motivate him to stop sexual sin and to love God and people. His church was also counseled to deal with his sins and their sins and to love God and people. Galatians 6:1 Amplified Bible says about true change and true love, "Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also."
True love exists. So does false "love." In the United States state of Delaware Timothy Liveright, an abortionist at a Planned Parenthood clinic, would sing "hymns about sin to girls during the painful dilation phase of an abortion," according to Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, a former nurse at the clinic (Kirsten Powers, "Another Gosnell in Delaware?," The Washington Post, August 2, 2013.) Mitchell-Werbrich also said that Liveright placed patients on "operating tables still wet with the blood from the previous patient." Another former nurse at the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic, Joyce Vasikonis, and a former healthcare manager at this clinic, Melody Meanor, have all testified of the unsafe, unsanitary, chaotic conditions in the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic; read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/08/02/another-gosnell-in-delaware/, and watch them talk in a "Planned Parenthood Whistleblowers" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzt8u-LC34w.
Kermit Gosnell is in jail. While Timothy Liveright of the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic has voluntarily suspended his medical license, he could start to practice again unchanged and nothing has been done for the victims of his abortions.
In July 2013 North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law abortion clinic regulation. Joyce Vasikonis, one of the former nurses at the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic, talked to Kirsten Powers about regulating abortion clinics as ambulatory service centers; Vasikonis said, “The procedure of surgical abortion is similar to woman …going to the hospital or outpatient center and having a D&C. Outpatient centers are strictly regulated. I do not understand why any organization doing a similar procedure wouldn’t be similarly regulated. It’s not like you are taking a mole off someone” (Kirsten Powers, "Another Gosnell in Delaware?," The Washington Post, August 2, 2013.)
North Carolina is also scheduled to pay $10 million shared equally to victims of a former state program where government workers forcibly sterilized people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' Elaine Riddick was raped at age 13. Then the state of North Carolina sterilized her after threatening her grandmother, who could not read, with the withdrawal of welfare including food stamps if she didn't sign a form giving the state permission to sterilize Riddick.
Money helps to pay for physical and mental healthcare. Should victims of unsafe and unsanitary abortions be financially compensated similar to victims of forced sterilization in North Carolina? Should girls and boys who survived attempted abortions be financially compensated? Should Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers be fined and closed? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Li Fengfei was subjected to a forced abortion in China. Chinaaid reports in the July 18, 2013, article, "Family Planning Committee in Jinsha County, Guizhou Province, forces woman to undergo abortion, leaving her in critical condition," "On July 9, 2013, five officials from the Jinsha County Bureau of Family Planning (located in Bijie City, Guizhou Province) took Li Fengfei, who was nearly 18 weeks pregnant, to a family planning instruction station. They beat her, breaking one of her teeth, and forced her to place her fingerprint on a form consenting to an abortion. While holding her down on a desk, the officials injected her with Rivanol, a medication used to induce labor, and other medications including Mifepristone and Oxytocin. Li developed a high fever, but no labor occurred and the child remained unborn.
Seventy-two hours later, on July 12, the officials performed an ultrasound which confirmed that the unborn child was dead. On July 13, the officials gave Li another round of injections to induce labor, but were again unsuccessful. Today, July 18, Li remains hospitalized in critical condition and her dead child has not yet been born." According to March 2013 Chinese Health Ministry data 336 abortions and 222 million sterilizations have been done since 1971.
Abortions are done in America also, more than 55 million since 1973. Some are working to save these lives. The US House of Representatives passed legislation which prohibits abortions at 20 weeks and beyond. Pray that the US Senate will also pass this legislation, and US President Barak Obama will sign it into law. The 20 week abortion prohibition is a step in the ultimate goal of protecting life from conception.
America should be a place who welcomes people and provides true love. We have a national motto of "In God We Trust." God created and loves people of all ages, races, sexes, ethnicity and abilities.
Some don't think much of God and consequently they misuse sex. In bringing healing and reconciliation to a man who had sex with his father's wife and the church he attended, the Bible books of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians record that the man was not sterilized nor any child conceived from his sexual union with his father's wife killed. Instead he was disciplined to motivate him to stop sexual sin and to love God and people. His church was also counseled to deal with his sins and their sins and to love God and people. Galatians 6:1 Amplified Bible says about true change and true love, "Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also."
True love exists. So does false "love." In the United States state of Delaware Timothy Liveright, an abortionist at a Planned Parenthood clinic, would sing "hymns about sin to girls during the painful dilation phase of an abortion," according to Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, a former nurse at the clinic (Kirsten Powers, "Another Gosnell in Delaware?," The Washington Post, August 2, 2013.) Mitchell-Werbrich also said that Liveright placed patients on "operating tables still wet with the blood from the previous patient." Another former nurse at the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic, Joyce Vasikonis, and a former healthcare manager at this clinic, Melody Meanor, have all testified of the unsafe, unsanitary, chaotic conditions in the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic; read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/08/02/another-gosnell-in-delaware/, and watch them talk in a "Planned Parenthood Whistleblowers" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzt8u-LC34w.
Kermit Gosnell is in jail. While Timothy Liveright of the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic has voluntarily suspended his medical license, he could start to practice again unchanged and nothing has been done for the victims of his abortions.
In July 2013 North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law abortion clinic regulation. Joyce Vasikonis, one of the former nurses at the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic, talked to Kirsten Powers about regulating abortion clinics as ambulatory service centers; Vasikonis said, “The procedure of surgical abortion is similar to woman …going to the hospital or outpatient center and having a D&C. Outpatient centers are strictly regulated. I do not understand why any organization doing a similar procedure wouldn’t be similarly regulated. It’s not like you are taking a mole off someone” (Kirsten Powers, "Another Gosnell in Delaware?," The Washington Post, August 2, 2013.)
North Carolina is also scheduled to pay $10 million shared equally to victims of a former state program where government workers forcibly sterilized people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' Elaine Riddick was raped at age 13. Then the state of North Carolina sterilized her after threatening her grandmother, who could not read, with the withdrawal of welfare including food stamps if she didn't sign a form giving the state permission to sterilize Riddick.
Money helps to pay for physical and mental healthcare. Should victims of unsafe and unsanitary abortions be financially compensated similar to victims of forced sterilization in North Carolina? Should girls and boys who survived attempted abortions be financially compensated? Should Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers be fined and closed? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Li Fengfei was subjected to a forced abortion in China. Chinaaid reports in the July 18, 2013, article, "Family Planning Committee in Jinsha County, Guizhou Province, forces woman to undergo abortion, leaving her in critical condition," "On July 9, 2013, five officials from the Jinsha County Bureau of Family Planning (located in Bijie City, Guizhou Province) took Li Fengfei, who was nearly 18 weeks pregnant, to a family planning instruction station. They beat her, breaking one of her teeth, and forced her to place her fingerprint on a form consenting to an abortion. While holding her down on a desk, the officials injected her with Rivanol, a medication used to induce labor, and other medications including Mifepristone and Oxytocin. Li developed a high fever, but no labor occurred and the child remained unborn.
Seventy-two hours later, on July 12, the officials performed an ultrasound which confirmed that the unborn child was dead. On July 13, the officials gave Li another round of injections to induce labor, but were again unsuccessful. Today, July 18, Li remains hospitalized in critical condition and her dead child has not yet been born." According to March 2013 Chinese Health Ministry data 336 abortions and 222 million sterilizations have been done since 1971.
Abortions are done in America also, more than 55 million since 1973. Some are working to save these lives. The US House of Representatives passed legislation which prohibits abortions at 20 weeks and beyond. Pray that the US Senate will also pass this legislation, and US President Barak Obama will sign it into law. The 20 week abortion prohibition is a step in the ultimate goal of protecting life from conception.
America should be a place who welcomes people and provides true love. We have a national motto of "In God We Trust." God created and loves people of all ages, races, sexes, ethnicity and abilities.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Covert Takeover?
In the Bible book of Jeremiah God tells His creyentes (believers) that they were doing many evil things in not worshiping God properly some of which were killing innocent people, mistreating employees and mistreating immigrants. God does not want well treated people or mistreated people to mistreat others. Galatians 5:14 Amplified Bible says, "For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself."
Ebed-Melech was an Ethiopian immigrant, government worker and creyente. Even though he had been sterilized, Ebed-Melech helped save the life of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah by advocating for his release from a particularly bad prison. Leading government officials did not want to hear and heed the truth that Jeremiah spoke about impending trouble and a difficult but definite way of surviving; so they put Jeremiah in jail.
Angel Moya was put in jail because the Cuban government didn't want to hear what he was saying. His wife Berta Soler as part of the group Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) helped to free him and other political prisoners from jail. Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) is a Cuban human-rights organization formed by the wives and mothers of 75 dissidents jailed in a 2003 government crackdown on political opponents. They participate in a weekly march and in weekly attendance at Mass dressed in white to encourage the Cuban government to free all political prisoners.
Soler became the head of Las Damas de Blanco after the death of Laura Pollan. Pollan is Las Damas de Blanco's founder and head who died of injuries inflicted on her because of her advocacy for freedom.
Soler and her family did not accept the Cuban government's offer to some Cuban dissidents to move to Spain. Soler currently lives in Cuba and is fighting for the Cuban people's freedom and the end of communism. Communism is not compatible with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because it is a system of government controlling people's lives rooted in the spirit of fear.
Love overcomes the spirit of fear. Cuba is a communist country. China is a communist country that has a one-child policy with government permission required for pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, huge fines for conceiving unauthorized boys and girls and other means of fear. Communist officials claim the one-child policy is good for people. A Chinese proverb says, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse," meaning, "Right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Abortion is currently legal in America; until 2003 in North Carolina people the government deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic' could legally be forcibly sterilized. Do you think legal abortion and forced sterilization are attempts at a communist takeover of America? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Ebed-Melech was an Ethiopian immigrant, government worker and creyente. Even though he had been sterilized, Ebed-Melech helped save the life of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah by advocating for his release from a particularly bad prison. Leading government officials did not want to hear and heed the truth that Jeremiah spoke about impending trouble and a difficult but definite way of surviving; so they put Jeremiah in jail.
Angel Moya was put in jail because the Cuban government didn't want to hear what he was saying. His wife Berta Soler as part of the group Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) helped to free him and other political prisoners from jail. Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) is a Cuban human-rights organization formed by the wives and mothers of 75 dissidents jailed in a 2003 government crackdown on political opponents. They participate in a weekly march and in weekly attendance at Mass dressed in white to encourage the Cuban government to free all political prisoners.
Soler became the head of Las Damas de Blanco after the death of Laura Pollan. Pollan is Las Damas de Blanco's founder and head who died of injuries inflicted on her because of her advocacy for freedom.
Soler and her family did not accept the Cuban government's offer to some Cuban dissidents to move to Spain. Soler currently lives in Cuba and is fighting for the Cuban people's freedom and the end of communism. Communism is not compatible with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because it is a system of government controlling people's lives rooted in the spirit of fear.
Love overcomes the spirit of fear. Cuba is a communist country. China is a communist country that has a one-child policy with government permission required for pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, huge fines for conceiving unauthorized boys and girls and other means of fear. Communist officials claim the one-child policy is good for people. A Chinese proverb says, "Pointing to a deer and calling it a horse," meaning, "Right and wrong are deliberately mixed up." Abortion is currently legal in America; until 2003 in North Carolina people the government deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic' could legally be forcibly sterilized. Do you think legal abortion and forced sterilization are attempts at a communist takeover of America? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Legal But Not Moral
As a teenager Elaine Riddick lived in North Carolina in a two-bedroom house with her grandmother, who was affectionately called Miss Peaches. One day when the 13-year-old was walking home, a neighbor raped her and threatened to kill her if she refused to keep silent about the rape.
North Carolina state government workers also threatened Miss Peaches and Elaine Riddick. Government workers told Miss Peaches, who couldn't read, that if she wanted to continue to receive welfare benefits including food stamps that she must sign a form that gave the government permission to sterilize Riddick. When Riddick gave birth to her only child, a son named Tony Riddick, by cesarean section, she was also sterilized. Riddick did not find out that she had been sterilized until she was 19 and was told by North Carolina government authorities that her sterilization was done because Riddick was deemed mentally retarded and promiscuous and to stop the reproduction of such people.
What happened to Elaine Riddick, Tony Riddick and Miss Peaches was not moral, but it was legal. A 1933 North Carolina state law authorized the sterilization of people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' It was not until 2003 that North Carolina made it illegal to forcibly sterilize people (NBC News, "State of Shame," November 2011.) Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs before and/or after World War II that included forced sterilization of those considered mentally and/or physically inferior.
Irregardless of what mental and/or physical abilities or disabilities we have, God loves us and desires wholeness and wellness for us spirit, mind and body. When someone is in a difficult situation desiring help God does not try to "solve" difficulties by killing people; instead He desires to heal people. In Luke 10 Jesus Christ shares the story of a Samaritan who participated in the healing of a man who had been robbed and beaten, and He teaches us to do likewise.
"You can't put a price on someone taking your womb or castrating you, it's humiliating,” Elaine Riddick told NBC News. Money helps to pay for physical and mental healthcare and other needs and wants. "I tip my hat to North Carolina,” she also told NBC News regarding the $10 million to be divided equally among victims of the former North Carolina eugenics program; “Finally they came to their senses and decided to do what's right.”
Un dicho (a proverb) says, "Amor primero, amor postrero" (Love, first and last.") All creyentes (believers) are called to be good Samaritans which is being a good neighbor in the Matthew 22:36-40 way: "Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light—which are heavy?] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets."
ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith acted as good neighbors to Li Fu, Cao Ruyi and Li Dahai who live in China. When Cao Ruyi was five months pregnant she was forcibly taken to a hospital to have an abortion because she did not have the proper paper to have a child. No hospital bed was available. Her abortion was delayed enough for ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith to intervene. Cao Ruyi gave birth in a secret place to the married couple's only child, a son named Li Dahai, which means "our help came from overseas."
China has an one-child policy that includes forced abortion, forced sterilization, economic terrorism and other terrorism. Cao Ruyi and Li Fu are suffering a $15,000 fine for the unauthorized birth of Li Dahai.
Proverbs 14:28 English Standard Version Bible says, "In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined." Instead of forced sterilization and legal abortion, what are some ways governments can be good neighbors? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
North Carolina state government workers also threatened Miss Peaches and Elaine Riddick. Government workers told Miss Peaches, who couldn't read, that if she wanted to continue to receive welfare benefits including food stamps that she must sign a form that gave the government permission to sterilize Riddick. When Riddick gave birth to her only child, a son named Tony Riddick, by cesarean section, she was also sterilized. Riddick did not find out that she had been sterilized until she was 19 and was told by North Carolina government authorities that her sterilization was done because Riddick was deemed mentally retarded and promiscuous and to stop the reproduction of such people.
What happened to Elaine Riddick, Tony Riddick and Miss Peaches was not moral, but it was legal. A 1933 North Carolina state law authorized the sterilization of people deemed to be 'mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic.' It was not until 2003 that North Carolina made it illegal to forcibly sterilize people (NBC News, "State of Shame," November 2011.) Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs before and/or after World War II that included forced sterilization of those considered mentally and/or physically inferior.
Irregardless of what mental and/or physical abilities or disabilities we have, God loves us and desires wholeness and wellness for us spirit, mind and body. When someone is in a difficult situation desiring help God does not try to "solve" difficulties by killing people; instead He desires to heal people. In Luke 10 Jesus Christ shares the story of a Samaritan who participated in the healing of a man who had been robbed and beaten, and He teaches us to do likewise.
"You can't put a price on someone taking your womb or castrating you, it's humiliating,” Elaine Riddick told NBC News. Money helps to pay for physical and mental healthcare and other needs and wants. "I tip my hat to North Carolina,” she also told NBC News regarding the $10 million to be divided equally among victims of the former North Carolina eugenics program; “Finally they came to their senses and decided to do what's right.”
Un dicho (a proverb) says, "Amor primero, amor postrero" (Love, first and last.") All creyentes (believers) are called to be good Samaritans which is being a good neighbor in the Matthew 22:36-40 way: "Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light—which are heavy?] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets."
ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith acted as good neighbors to Li Fu, Cao Ruyi and Li Dahai who live in China. When Cao Ruyi was five months pregnant she was forcibly taken to a hospital to have an abortion because she did not have the proper paper to have a child. No hospital bed was available. Her abortion was delayed enough for ChinaAid, Women's Rights of China and US Congressman Chris Smith to intervene. Cao Ruyi gave birth in a secret place to the married couple's only child, a son named Li Dahai, which means "our help came from overseas."
China has an one-child policy that includes forced abortion, forced sterilization, economic terrorism and other terrorism. Cao Ruyi and Li Fu are suffering a $15,000 fine for the unauthorized birth of Li Dahai.
Proverbs 14:28 English Standard Version Bible says, "In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined." Instead of forced sterilization and legal abortion, what are some ways governments can be good neighbors? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Sex, Money and Love
Money is necessary to take care of many needs and wants. Generally having a lot of money is better than having a little money provided money is kept in its proper perspective. 1 Timothy 6:10-11 Amplified Bible says, "For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee from all these things; aim at and pursue righteousness (right standing with God and true goodness), godliness (which is the loving fear of God and being Christlike), faith, love, steadfastness (patience), and gentleness of heart." A ChinaAid News March 24, 2013, "With ChinaAid's Help, Two Victims of China's One-Child Policy Granted UNHCR Refugee Status" article reports that in 1995, when Guo Yanling was eight months pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion. In 1999, she was forcibly sterilized. In 2006, she was imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine for having more than one child. The Chinese government also refused to issue household registrations to her and to her husband, Du Yiliang's, three children without which they are unable to attend school or to receive government benefits. Guo Yanling's and Du Yiliang's abortion, sterilization, educational and economic terror experience is typical in China. The Chinese government collects many fines related to its one-child family. Since 1971 in China there have been 336 million abortions, 222 million sterilizations and two trillion in fines in Chinese currency (Ma Jian, "China's Brutal One-Child Policy," The New York Times, 5/22/2013.) A connection between economic policy, economic practice and population control is in America also. Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs before and after World War II that included forced sterilization of the disabled. The 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision ruled that forced sterilization of people with disabilities was not a violation of their constitutional rights. By the 1970s, more than 60,000 disabled people were sterilized without their consent.
North Carolina became the first US state legislature to approve payment to victims of government-run forced sterilization programs. Ten million is to be shared by each victim through an one-time payment on June 30, 2015. ""The money don't take up the place of what happened," said Willis Lynch, an 80-year-old retired handyman who was sterilized at age 14 after being deemed mentally unfit. "I'm glad they did something, though."
Mr. Lynch said he was sent to a school for the mentally and developmentally disabled after his widowed mother could no longer care for her seven children. Records from the state's eugenics board show that in the late 1940s no one from that school was to leave without being sterilized, except in cases where children had been committed in error" ("NC offers $10M to victims in forced-sterilization- NC ends pay boosts for teacher master's," Bayou Buzz, July 26, 2013.)
Instead of using money to stop people from having children, God calls creyentes (believers) to use money to help self and other people. Luke 16:9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home." Jeremiah 22:1-3 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "The Lord sent me to the palace of the king of Judah to speak to the king, his officials, and everyone else who was there. The Lord told me to say: I am the Lord, so pay attention! You have been allowing people to cheat, rob, and take advantage of widows, orphans, and foreigners who live here. Innocent people have become victims of violence, and some of them have even been killed. But now I command you to do what is right and see that justice is done. Rescue everyone who has suffered from injustice."
Some government leaders believe the only way to help widows, orphans, foreigners and others is through communism. China and Cuba are communist countries. "Communism doesn't work in Cuba. Really, the Cuban government has supported communism to repress its people," says Berta Soler, leader of Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White,) a Cuban human-rights organization formed by the wives and mothers of 75 dissidents jailed in a 2003 government crackdown on political opponents. Ladies in White participate in a weekly march and in weekly attendance at Mass dressed in white to encourage the Cuban government to free all political prisoners.
Good relationships, having more than enough resources, freedom and justice are biblical ideas. In America we have a national motto "In God We Trust." God calls us to be good to creyentes and to non-believers. Matthew 5:44-48 English Standard Version says, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
God made sex. What God makes is good, very good. Occasionally children are created as the result of God's will and sexual relations. Love celebrates and cultivates life. China Aid helped Guo Yanling, Du Yiliang and their children to become refugees in Thailand. Shouldn't all countries be welcoming to victims of China's one-child policy? Shouldn't the killing of unborn girls and unborn boys be illegal globally? Shouldn't all 32 US states compensate victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
North Carolina became the first US state legislature to approve payment to victims of government-run forced sterilization programs. Ten million is to be shared by each victim through an one-time payment on June 30, 2015. ""The money don't take up the place of what happened," said Willis Lynch, an 80-year-old retired handyman who was sterilized at age 14 after being deemed mentally unfit. "I'm glad they did something, though."
Mr. Lynch said he was sent to a school for the mentally and developmentally disabled after his widowed mother could no longer care for her seven children. Records from the state's eugenics board show that in the late 1940s no one from that school was to leave without being sterilized, except in cases where children had been committed in error" ("NC offers $10M to victims in forced-sterilization- NC ends pay boosts for teacher master's," Bayou Buzz, July 26, 2013.)
Instead of using money to stop people from having children, God calls creyentes (believers) to use money to help self and other people. Luke 16:9 New Living Translation Bible says, "Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home." Jeremiah 22:1-3 Contemporary English Version Bible says, "The Lord sent me to the palace of the king of Judah to speak to the king, his officials, and everyone else who was there. The Lord told me to say: I am the Lord, so pay attention! You have been allowing people to cheat, rob, and take advantage of widows, orphans, and foreigners who live here. Innocent people have become victims of violence, and some of them have even been killed. But now I command you to do what is right and see that justice is done. Rescue everyone who has suffered from injustice."
Some government leaders believe the only way to help widows, orphans, foreigners and others is through communism. China and Cuba are communist countries. "Communism doesn't work in Cuba. Really, the Cuban government has supported communism to repress its people," says Berta Soler, leader of Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White,) a Cuban human-rights organization formed by the wives and mothers of 75 dissidents jailed in a 2003 government crackdown on political opponents. Ladies in White participate in a weekly march and in weekly attendance at Mass dressed in white to encourage the Cuban government to free all political prisoners.
Good relationships, having more than enough resources, freedom and justice are biblical ideas. In America we have a national motto "In God We Trust." God calls us to be good to creyentes and to non-believers. Matthew 5:44-48 English Standard Version says, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
God made sex. What God makes is good, very good. Occasionally children are created as the result of God's will and sexual relations. Love celebrates and cultivates life. China Aid helped Guo Yanling, Du Yiliang and their children to become refugees in Thailand. Shouldn't all countries be welcoming to victims of China's one-child policy? Shouldn't the killing of unborn girls and unborn boys be illegal globally? Shouldn't all 32 US states compensate victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Monday, July 29, 2013
You Make Us Better?
"As I have already said, our number one goal should be to develop a close, intimate, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Being in continual fellowship with God and learning to obey Him in all things will make you happier than you might ever imagine. Since God is Life, how can we hope to enjoy life apart from Him?" (Joyce Meyer, Making Good Habits Breaking Bad Habits 14 New Behaviors That Will Energize Your Life) Good, enjoyable relationships start with God who is love and expand to self and other people. "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 New Living Translation Bible.) 1 John 4:10-11 Amplified Bible says, "In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another."
Desmond Tutu and Nomalizo Leah Shenxane married on July 2, 1955. Almost 6o years later they are still married and still loving and enjoying God, each other and other people. Desmond Tutu is also involved in helping to free from a Chinese prison Chen Kegui, husband of Liu Fang, father of the little boy Chen Fubin and nephew to Chen Guangcheng, who is the blind, human rights activist who exposed forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China's one-child policy and is continuing to work to end China's one-child policy and other human rights violations. Tutu writes about Chen Guangcheng in a June 21, 2013, Huffington Post article "Chen Guangcheng: Has NYU Bowed to Pressure From China?", "Chen Guangcheng has been one of the most outspoken of the Chinese dissidents abroad, taking a public stand against Chinese human rights violations, including the abominable practices of forced abortion, imprisonment and enslavement of religious minorities, and the unthinkable execution of prisoners for the harvesting and sale of their organs. He is also charismatic, intelligent, with a wonderful story -- a self taught lawyer who defended villagers against corrupt officials, who before gaining fame for his escape from house arrest was known ... in the villages as the "barefoot lawyer.""
When Jesus Christ lived on earth, He had a variety of relationships. Wherever He went, He sought to make people's lives better now and forever. What are some of the ways people are better off for being around you? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Desmond Tutu and Nomalizo Leah Shenxane married on July 2, 1955. Almost 6o years later they are still married and still loving and enjoying God, each other and other people. Desmond Tutu is also involved in helping to free from a Chinese prison Chen Kegui, husband of Liu Fang, father of the little boy Chen Fubin and nephew to Chen Guangcheng, who is the blind, human rights activist who exposed forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China's one-child policy and is continuing to work to end China's one-child policy and other human rights violations. Tutu writes about Chen Guangcheng in a June 21, 2013, Huffington Post article "Chen Guangcheng: Has NYU Bowed to Pressure From China?", "Chen Guangcheng has been one of the most outspoken of the Chinese dissidents abroad, taking a public stand against Chinese human rights violations, including the abominable practices of forced abortion, imprisonment and enslavement of religious minorities, and the unthinkable execution of prisoners for the harvesting and sale of their organs. He is also charismatic, intelligent, with a wonderful story -- a self taught lawyer who defended villagers against corrupt officials, who before gaining fame for his escape from house arrest was known ... in the villages as the "barefoot lawyer.""
When Jesus Christ lived on earth, He had a variety of relationships. Wherever He went, He sought to make people's lives better now and forever. What are some of the ways people are better off for being around you? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Sex And Reparations For The Disabled
The United States is a nation with a motto "In God We Trust." God counsels us in Proverbs 3:29 Amplified Bible, "Do not contrive or dig up or cultivate evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly and confidently beside you."
Sometimes instead of trusting God, our government becomes an evil neighbor. Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs that included forced sterilization of the disabled.
Kim Severson reports in the July 25, 2013, The New York Times article "North Carolina: Budget Pays Eugenics Victims" that the North Carolina state board ran a eugenics program from 1933 through 1977 that sterilized about 7,600; on July 25, 2013, North Carolina became the first state legislature to approve payment to victims of government-run forced sterilization programs. Ten million is to be shared by each victim through an one-time payment on June 30, 2015 (Lynn, Charlotte Observer, "N.C. budget would end teacher tenure, pay some private school tuition," July 22, 2013.)
Fear of the sexuality of people who are different is part of our past and present. The 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision ruled that forced sterilization of people with disabilities was not a violation of their constitutional rights. By the 1970s, more than 60,000 disabled people were sterilized without their consent. Forced sterilization is illegal today, but the sexuality of the disabled is not widely celebrated.
Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. Today he is married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara. The couple have a son named Kiyoshi James Vujicic. As an adolescent Nick Vujicic says he experienced bullying about his sexuality. Vujicic writes in his book Unstoppable The Incredible Power of Faith in Action, "Day after day, he'd walk by me and shout out, "Nick has no --!""
God made our bodies, and we are to use them according to His design. 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation Bible says, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs."
A Nigerian proverb says, "Our children are living messages sent to a future we may never see." Kiyoshi James Vujicic is a child witness celebrating the sexuality of those with disabilities. Perhaps when he is an adult American society and other societies will think it common and not a point of criticism for people with all kinds of disabilities to marry and to have children.
Americans of Japanese and other Asian heritage were interned in camps during World War II. Starting in 1990 the US government sent survivors reparations of $20,000.00 each. Do you think other states should pay reparations to victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Sometimes instead of trusting God, our government becomes an evil neighbor. Thirty-two US states practiced eugenics programs that included forced sterilization of the disabled.
Kim Severson reports in the July 25, 2013, The New York Times article "North Carolina: Budget Pays Eugenics Victims" that the North Carolina state board ran a eugenics program from 1933 through 1977 that sterilized about 7,600; on July 25, 2013, North Carolina became the first state legislature to approve payment to victims of government-run forced sterilization programs. Ten million is to be shared by each victim through an one-time payment on June 30, 2015 (Lynn, Charlotte Observer, "N.C. budget would end teacher tenure, pay some private school tuition," July 22, 2013.)
Fear of the sexuality of people who are different is part of our past and present. The 1927 Buck v. Bell Supreme Court decision ruled that forced sterilization of people with disabilities was not a violation of their constitutional rights. By the 1970s, more than 60,000 disabled people were sterilized without their consent. Forced sterilization is illegal today, but the sexuality of the disabled is not widely celebrated.
Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. Today he is married to Kanae Loida Vujicic-Miyahara. The couple have a son named Kiyoshi James Vujicic. As an adolescent Nick Vujicic says he experienced bullying about his sexuality. Vujicic writes in his book Unstoppable The Incredible Power of Faith in Action, "Day after day, he'd walk by me and shout out, "Nick has no --!""
God made our bodies, and we are to use them according to His design. 1 Corinthians 7:3 New Living Translation Bible says, "The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs."
A Nigerian proverb says, "Our children are living messages sent to a future we may never see." Kiyoshi James Vujicic is a child witness celebrating the sexuality of those with disabilities. Perhaps when he is an adult American society and other societies will think it common and not a point of criticism for people with all kinds of disabilities to marry and to have children.
Americans of Japanese and other Asian heritage were interned in camps during World War II. Starting in 1990 the US government sent survivors reparations of $20,000.00 each. Do you think other states should pay reparations to victims of forced sterilization? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195
Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Freedom-Loving Friends
Some Southerners spread rumors that Frederick Douglass was never a slave because he spoke so well. Partly in response to these rumors, Douglass wrote his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass that gave specific information about slave owners, slaves and places where his time in slavery happened. Under the Fugitive Slave Law Douglass, who left a slave state for a free one, could be returned to slavery. So Douglass left the United States and went to England.
In England he gave speeches against African-American slavery and in favor of Irish freedom, women's rights and world peace. Douglass made a lot of freedom-loving friends, but his heart was to be in America fighting primarily for the freedom of African Americans.
Proverbs 17:17 Complete Jewish Bible says, "A friend shows his friendship at all times — it is for adversity that [such] a brother is born." Douglass' English abolitionists friends purchased his freedom, so that Douglass would be safer from the Fugitive Slave Act.
We all need to welcome and live in a wide variety of relationships. Chantal Sicile-Kira categorizes relationships in her article, "The Transition To Adulthood: Planning Ahead," for the magazine, Autism File, that is applicable to all people. She describes four circles of relationships:
1) The Circle of Intimacy includes those with whom we share our secrets, dreams and values. These are our best friends and are usually family members, but can and should also include others. We know and share a lot about what is going on in each others lives, our thoughts and feelings. We feel safe enough in these relationships to support each other spiritually and emotionally. Jesus encouraged intimate relationships beyond biology. Mark 3:33-35 New Living Translation Bible says, "Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
2) The Circle of Friendship includes friends or relatives whom we see for occasional social activities, such as for a movie or to eat a meal, but who are not our closest friends. The Bible records that Epaphras and Paul shared some time in jail and time spreading the Gospel, but not with the intensity and intimacy of the relationship between Timothy and Paul.
3) The Circle of Participation includes people who we participate with in our life, such as on the job, business or ministry, our place of worship, schools, sports teams, social clubs and other organizations. This circle contains people who may eventually be in the Circle of Friendship or even the Circle of Intimacy. We can socialize with members of our church, other churches and other groups. Luke 9:49-50 New Living Translation Bible says, "John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.”"
4) The Circle of Exchange includes people who are paid to be in our lives, such as medical professionals, teachers, counselors, governmental officials, sales associates, auto mechanics, etc. These people can also be cultivated to move into the Circle of Participation, Circle of Friendship and even the Circle of Intimacy. Everyone is a potential friend/disciple. Matthew 28:18-20 the Message Bible says, "Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.""
Like Frederick Douglass had abolitionist friends who purchased his freedom, Chen Guangcheng has friends who helped him to obtain his freedom.
Chen Guangcheng is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.
Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.
Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."
Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong is a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.
On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Being able to spend the rest of life with a spouse is a privilege that can be plucked away at any time whether we are a US citizen or a citizen of another country. Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape. Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin.
"He (Chen Kegui) must be heavily injured, I'm worried about his physical state," Liu Fang said to Reuters reporter Sui-Lee Wee for her May 24, 2012, article "Brother of blind China activist flees village." Liu Fang also said about her husband and Guangcheng's nephew, "Inside, he might be subject to beatings."
Torture and other reprisals by Chinese authorities are happening to family and friends of Guangcheng since his escape from China to the US.
On April 24, 2013, Chen Kegui's mother, Ren Zongju, and Chen Kegui's uncle, Chen Guangjun, were told by Chinese authorities to answer questions about whether they “harbored a criminal” by helping Chen Kegui before his capture. Chen Guangjun is a bother of Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangfu, another brother of Chen Guangcheng, told Chris Buckley of The New York Times for his April 24, 2013, article, "Chinese Officials Order Questioning of Exiled Activist’s Relatives, “I think that this is really about Guangcheng;” “I’ve heard that he spoke at the U.S. Congress and leveled accusations against officials. In my view, that infuriated them.”
Iranian authorities are infuriated by the Christian faith and works of Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini. Pastor Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 573,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org. In a February 18, 2013, letter to his wife, Pastor Abedini wrote about physical and psychological abuse inflicted on him to compel him to deny his faith in Jesus Christ. He also wrote of plans to persevere in his relationship with God and to share it with others: "There are empty containers who are thirsty for a taste of the Living Water and we can quench their thirst by giving them Jesus Christ."
In another letter to his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, Pastor Saeed Abedini wrote, "... In the Bible we are all considered brothers and sisters despite our race, color or nationality."
Even though we have many Christians in America, not everyone is treated like a brother and sister. Please call Governor Mary Fallin at (405-521-2342) to ask her to sign into law HB 1403 The Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act of Oklahoma which protects the elderly, seriously ill and disabled by preventing medical providers from denying individuals life-saving treatment based on their quality of life.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost welcomes all kinds of people and calls creyentes (believers) friends. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 8:11 English Standard Version Bible, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." He says in John 15:14 Amplified Bible, "You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do."
In England he gave speeches against African-American slavery and in favor of Irish freedom, women's rights and world peace. Douglass made a lot of freedom-loving friends, but his heart was to be in America fighting primarily for the freedom of African Americans.
Proverbs 17:17 Complete Jewish Bible says, "A friend shows his friendship at all times — it is for adversity that [such] a brother is born." Douglass' English abolitionists friends purchased his freedom, so that Douglass would be safer from the Fugitive Slave Act.
We all need to welcome and live in a wide variety of relationships. Chantal Sicile-Kira categorizes relationships in her article, "The Transition To Adulthood: Planning Ahead," for the magazine, Autism File, that is applicable to all people. She describes four circles of relationships:
1) The Circle of Intimacy includes those with whom we share our secrets, dreams and values. These are our best friends and are usually family members, but can and should also include others. We know and share a lot about what is going on in each others lives, our thoughts and feelings. We feel safe enough in these relationships to support each other spiritually and emotionally. Jesus encouraged intimate relationships beyond biology. Mark 3:33-35 New Living Translation Bible says, "Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
2) The Circle of Friendship includes friends or relatives whom we see for occasional social activities, such as for a movie or to eat a meal, but who are not our closest friends. The Bible records that Epaphras and Paul shared some time in jail and time spreading the Gospel, but not with the intensity and intimacy of the relationship between Timothy and Paul.
3) The Circle of Participation includes people who we participate with in our life, such as on the job, business or ministry, our place of worship, schools, sports teams, social clubs and other organizations. This circle contains people who may eventually be in the Circle of Friendship or even the Circle of Intimacy. We can socialize with members of our church, other churches and other groups. Luke 9:49-50 New Living Translation Bible says, "John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.”"
4) The Circle of Exchange includes people who are paid to be in our lives, such as medical professionals, teachers, counselors, governmental officials, sales associates, auto mechanics, etc. These people can also be cultivated to move into the Circle of Participation, Circle of Friendship and even the Circle of Intimacy. Everyone is a potential friend/disciple. Matthew 28:18-20 the Message Bible says, "Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.""
Like Frederick Douglass had abolitionist friends who purchased his freedom, Chen Guangcheng has friends who helped him to obtain his freedom.
Chen Guangcheng is the husband of Yuan Weijing and the father of a girl and a boy. He became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy.
Guangcheng's lawsuit was rejected, and he was placed under house arrest in Shandong, China, with guards surrounding his house, his cell phone service cut off, access to the Internet blocked and bright lights shinning on his house at night. His wife and daughter were living with him under house arrest. This family was prevented from meeting their wider family, including Chen Guangcheng's and Yuan Weijing's son, who lived elsewhere with an aunt.
Tejas is the name the Spanish gave to the area that became the US state of Texas. The Spanish chose the name based on a Native American word for "friend."
Guangcheng, who became blind as a result of a childhood illness and now wears dark sunglasses, had friends help him to escape from house arrest in April 2012. He Peirong is a key member of a group of activists who organize support for Guangcheng in China. He Peirong drove Guangcheng to the US embassy in Beijing. Were they traveling in a Corolla, the best-selling car of all time produced by the Japanese company Toyota?
A deal was worked out between China and the United States; now Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer who also helped the disabled win public benefits and aided farmers fighting illegal land seizures, lives in New York with his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their two children.
On April 9, 2013, he testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of 130,000 Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations.
Being able to spend the rest of life with a spouse is a privilege that can be plucked away at any time whether we are a US citizen or a citizen of another country. Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape. Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin.
"He (Chen Kegui) must be heavily injured, I'm worried about his physical state," Liu Fang said to Reuters reporter Sui-Lee Wee for her May 24, 2012, article "Brother of blind China activist flees village." Liu Fang also said about her husband and Guangcheng's nephew, "Inside, he might be subject to beatings."
Torture and other reprisals by Chinese authorities are happening to family and friends of Guangcheng since his escape from China to the US.
On April 24, 2013, Chen Kegui's mother, Ren Zongju, and Chen Kegui's uncle, Chen Guangjun, were told by Chinese authorities to answer questions about whether they “harbored a criminal” by helping Chen Kegui before his capture. Chen Guangjun is a bother of Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangfu, another brother of Chen Guangcheng, told Chris Buckley of The New York Times for his April 24, 2013, article, "Chinese Officials Order Questioning of Exiled Activist’s Relatives, “I think that this is really about Guangcheng;” “I’ve heard that he spoke at the U.S. Congress and leveled accusations against officials. In my view, that infuriated them.”
Iranian authorities are infuriated by the Christian faith and works of Pastor and U.S. Citizen Saeed Abedini. Pastor Abedini was setting up an orphanage and Christian house churches in Iran when Iranian authorities put him under house arrest in July 2012 separating him from his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and their two children. In September 2012 they arrested him. In January 2013 Iranian authorities sentenced him to an eight-year prison sentence for threatening Iran's national security. The US State Department, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the European Union have all called for Pastor Saeed Abedini's release, and over 573,000 people worldwide from over 180 countries have signed a petition lending him support. A campaign to write letters to him for his May 7th birthday and to sign the petition is being coordinated at http://www.savesaeed.org. In a February 18, 2013, letter to his wife, Pastor Abedini wrote about physical and psychological abuse inflicted on him to compel him to deny his faith in Jesus Christ. He also wrote of plans to persevere in his relationship with God and to share it with others: "There are empty containers who are thirsty for a taste of the Living Water and we can quench their thirst by giving them Jesus Christ."
In another letter to his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, Pastor Saeed Abedini wrote, "... In the Bible we are all considered brothers and sisters despite our race, color or nationality."
Even though we have many Christians in America, not everyone is treated like a brother and sister. Please call Governor Mary Fallin at (405-521-2342) to ask her to sign into law HB 1403 The Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act of Oklahoma which protects the elderly, seriously ill and disabled by preventing medical providers from denying individuals life-saving treatment based on their quality of life.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost welcomes all kinds of people and calls creyentes (believers) friends. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 8:11 English Standard Version Bible, "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." He says in John 15:14 Amplified Bible, "You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do."
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