Li'l 'phrathah
Recent news:
"A federal appeals court in Washington has reinstated the lawsuits for two religious colleges challenging a federal law that would compel them to cover contraception, abortifacients and sterilization in their employee health-insurance plans...During oral arguments Tuesday, HHS lawyers promised that the government would “never enforce” the mandate in its current form against Wheaton College, an evangelical liberal arts school in Illinois, or Belmont Abbey, a Catholic liberal arts college in North Carolina." (National Catholic Register)
But what makes the story Ephrathah-worthy?
Last week I was listening to one of the local Fundamentalist radio stations; their format is music, news, and gospel-preaching. When Catholicism comes up, it's in the context of its false teachings. In fact right now, the radio preacher is saying we've become our own priests and don't need a priest in a box. Straight to Jesus, amen! That's fine with me: I'm glad they just say what they mean. But when their newsman introduced the above ruling, he said it was in favor of "two Christian colleges," which he then proceeded to name. It would've been easy enough say a Christian college and a Catholic college, which is what I would've expected. It's a small thing; but not less significant to me for its smallness.
Kind of like the first Ephrathah.
1 comment:
If we do not stand together, we shall surely fall separately. I remember reading Richard Wurmbrand (a Lutheran pastor imprisoned in one of the Eastern Bloc nations for his Christian faith), who wrote in his book, "Tortured for Christ" essentially that while in prison, being tortured for one's Christian faith, one didn't stop to question the other prisoners there with him about the nuances of their faith in Jesus. They just loved and helped and comforted each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Funny how persecution strips away the dross and leaves only the blood and the cross behind.
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