What God cares about

Posted on April 18, 2023 by jwfisch

Randall Balmer

Our guest today on BlogTalkRadio is Randall Balmer, author of Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. In this book, Balmer traces the origins of the conservative movement among Christians and how we were drawn into politics. Regardless of your political affiliations, it is formative to know that the things that led Christians into politics didn’t just happen. They were calculated by men who wanted Christians to have more influence in government. This is not at all a bad thing, as long as that influence is driven by biblical principles and by Jesus’ teaching. Unfortunately I don’t believe this was. It was driven more by fear and anger and politicians’ formula for winning than anything. There was a huge need to have a safe place in the world and the Christian subculture provided that place.

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Two bad guys

Posted on April 17, 2023 by jwfisch

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Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: Luke 18:9

Probably most of you are familiar with this story Jesus told about the Pharisee who prayed on the street corner to hear himself talk about a litany of righteous things he did while judging the wicked tax collector who embraced his sin and humbly called out for God’s mercy. Jesus concluded that it was the tax collector who went home justified.

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Fighting for religious freedom

Posted on April 14, 2023 by jwfisch

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I realize I am risking overstating the case for Vietnam Veterans, but I just can’t leave this story alone. I am catching up with too much I missed and thinking there must be others like me who might benefit from what I am learning. I’m not sure why this has such a hold on me, but let me try a few reasons.

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Just show up

Posted on April 12, 2023 by jwfisch

Tim and John Fischer

These last two weeks have been quite a learning process for me about Vietnam Veterans. Two weeks ago if you’d asked me what I thought about Vietnam Veterans, I would have said, ‘Who?” Now I have a huge sense of appreciation and compassion for them. Most of what I know has come through getting to hear, all these years later, from my high school youth group buddy, Lieutenant Tim Lickness, an infantry platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division, who in 1968 was jumping out of helicopters in the jungles of Vietnam, leading troops on patrols — one as long as 42 days — engaging in fierce fighting, with death all around him, never dry in the rainy season and never enough water to drink in the dry, and watching his men get killed over and over again in his nightmares to this day.

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BlogTalkRadio returns today LIVE 

Posted on April 11, 2023 by jwfisch

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Undoubtedly one of the most conflicting events in the early lives those over 65 was the Vietnam War. We were either for it or against it or we were ambivalent to the whole thing. The majority of the college student population was against the war and the most tragic thing about that was the fact that those who fought in Vietnam were treated like villains when they came home even thought they had no choice about going, in that they were drafted. Among most of their peers there was no sense of compassion for them. There was death and carnage all around them, if they escaped with their lives they were extremely lucky (even guilty as to why they were spared and their buddies were not) yet they came home the bad guys. And they’ve lived with this ever since, and while much of the world has forgotten, they have not. They will not. Adjustment to normal life was difficult — even impossible for some who took their lives or ended up mentally ill.

Here at the Catch I want to make sure we don’t forget. That’s why we are welcoming back BlogTalkRadio today with a live interview at 3pm Pacific Daylight time with a special guest, Tim Lickness. Tim was an infantry platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division, putting him at the very center of some the most intense fighting of the campaign.

Tune into our conversation by clicking here. If you would like to call in during our live event from 3:00 – 3:30 PDT you may do so by using the following number (319) 527-6764. If you miss us live, you can listen anytime after by using the same link.

And if you ever encounter a Vietnam vet, welcome them home. They’ll get it.

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Flower power

Posted on April 10, 2023 by jwfisch

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Once every day I shall stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are.

Clyde Kilby, professor of English at Wheaton College

We have had so much rain in California and snow in the mountains that the flooding has caused great damage to low-lying areas and trapped others in mountainous areas, collapsing roofs under piles of snow and trapping people so that emergency workers have to get them food, water and their medications. But the other side of this is that we’ve been in a severe drought for over seven years where lakes and reservoirs have been only a third full and dropping. Water was getting scarce. With all this water that has been falling from the sky, it has caused damage for some, but overall, the lakes and rivers are teaming again. It’s hard to see some people suffer, except that the need for water is so great. Severe weather causes hardship, but it also brings relief. And in some cases, it can bring great beauty.

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Always Easter

Posted on April 7, 2023 by jwfisch

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I want it to always be Easter. I want to stay focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want to keep having the Lord’s Supper every night so we can remember Christ’s death until He comes back. I want to hang around the empty tomb for as long as possible, and remember the new covenant in His blood that has not only forgiven us, but empowers us daily with His Holy Spirit.

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Welcome home

Posted on April 6, 2023 by jwfisch

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“It was a very difficult time for veterans. There were no parades or parties to welcome you home. There were no services to help you deal with what you saw, what you’d been through or to help you find out something to do next.”

Today, Chandler and I attended an event that is so appropriate to this holy week when we focus on the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. We visited the moving wall — The Wall That Heals — a traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.. (See the Catch for March 30.) I wanted to see it and I wanted Chandler to see it too. Not that he could understand it all, but I wanted him to experience it through me.

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The other side of the cross

Posted on April 5, 2023 by jwfisch

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As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7

In reflecting on yesterday’s Catch about Jesus praying in the garden, Toni, one of our MemberPartners commented, “Jesus had more courage than any of us could possibly imagine.”

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A war of the wills

Posted on April 4, 2023 by jwfisch

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Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

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