April 19, 2013—After a powerful explosion Wednesday night at a fertilizer factory in Texas flattened homes and caused dozens of casualties, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) approved an emergency grant to the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference of The United Methodist Church to assist in relief efforts.
While needs are still being assessed, those who would help are being urged not to go to West, the tiny town, population about 2,500, where the disaster occurred.
Instead, they may channel their assistance by donating blood at a local center or to assembling cleaning buckets, which will soon be in great need, and health kits. These relief kits can be shipped to any of the eight depots in the UMCOR Relief-Supply Network.
You can also donate funds to help at: Donate Now! Choose the West, Tx sub-designation on the donate page and 100% of your funds will go to this specific relief effort.
For full article, please see: UMCOR Responds to West Texas
I believe we should also pray for the young 20 year old man Alex Fields for his bad choice of action. He too is a child of God, may God open his eyes and help him to repent for his actions whether they be out of malice or out of fear for his life. None of us were in that car with him only God knows his true heart.
Laurie, thanks for joining this conversation. I suspect that what St. Paul calls “principalities and powers” — or what Karl Barth calls “lordless powers” — were behind much of the murderous chaos in Charlottesville. (The Baptismal Covenant’s emphasis on evil helps train us to see that.) Hatred, violence, and speech suppression — whether they are carried out in the name of racism (by KKK members, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists) or in the name of anti-racism (by antifa members) — are evils to be deplored on the basis of our Baptismal Covenant vows. They are never strategies for achieving good. Nor are they ever good strategies.
Very sad to see the politicalization of the church. It is obvious Bishop Hope’s opinion has been swayed or outright determined by the left-wing mainstream media. People who can think know the root cause of illegal immigration is lawlessness and corruption in Mexico. If you want to pray and/or direct resources for those in need, it is those people in Mexico that need far more than a few already in the US. The people below the southern border need a return of law and order in their local, state, and national governments. The lawlessness that is condoned by the left and the idea that breaking laws is okay if it is a means to an end just creeps the US more towards what Mexico is today. No one wants suffering, but burying your head in the sand, ignoring the real problems, and propagating others is a disservice to all of those with whom you have contact.
Proverbs 28:4 reads: “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them.” The left’s support of DACA and other emotionally-charged issues gives license to lawlessness – noting the violence incited time after time by the left and condoned by mainstream media.
Furthermore, your memo on this is premature. The letter by Jeff Sessions (which you refer to as the act of rescinding DACA) calls for an orderly and efficient winddown process, clearly giving congress time to enact a policy that is legal as opposed to the illegal nature by which DACA was initially enacted.