Pastor's Blog

Their “gut reaction” was that her allegations “rang true” Imagine being charged with a crime you didn’t commit, a crime punishable by death.   The only evidence against you is that offered by your accuser, who testifies that he saw you commit the crime.   I don’t mean he claims to have seen it in the usual sense, as in with his eyes , but in a preternatural sense, i.e., in a vision.   You’re tempted to laugh the matter off.   Surely such evidence is inadmissible in a court of law?   But to your dismay, the court takes this “evidence” very seriously.   Making matters worse, every time you deny your guilt, the accuser claims a recurrence of the vision right then and there in the courtroom.   Thus, every denial only multiplies the “evidence” against you.   When it’s all is said and done, the jury renders its verdict: guilty as charged...and off to the gallows you go. Nineteen people were tried, convicted, and hanged for witchcraft in Salem...

Introduction The idea of reparations for slavery has been around in one form or another since the time of the Civil War. [1]   Recently, the subject has received renewed attention as several Democratic candidates for president have announced their support for the idea.   They argue that the legacy of slavery and its attendant evils are largely responsible for the disparities we see today between whites and blacks in terms of their respective educational achievement, household income, net worth, homeownership, unemployment and incarceration rates, etc.    For instance, a ccording to studies done by the Pew Research Center in 2015, 36 percent of whites over the age of 25 have at least a bachelor’s degree compared with only 23 percent of blacks.      Whites have a significantly higher household income ($71,300) than blacks ($43,300). Homeownership is more common for whites than for blacks:   72 percent vs. 43 percent.  ...