Story Statistics

2,345 Reads

80 Shares

320 Likes

Related Stories

1 year ago

Election Watch: What’s at Stake in November that may Impact Health Legislation?

August 26, 2024

BY: Sarah Dobson and Tony Brozey

As we are tracking the November elections with an eye toward impact on the work of the Lutheran Services in America network, we will be highlighting key races of members on committees with jurisdiction over issues that matter to us.  As you know, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee have jurisdiction over issues critical to our work. The HELP Committee plays a crucial role in shaping national policies related to healthcare and the workforce, while Energy and Commerce has broad jurisdiction over healthcare and the regulations and laws that govern the sector.

Senate HELP Committee

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), a senior member of the HELP Committee and chair of the Special Committee on Aging, is seeking re-election and is running against Republican Dave McCormick. Early projections and polls estimate that Casey is currently expected to beat his opponent, with some estimates giving Casey as much as a 10-percentage-point edge. Of course, Pennsylvania is a key battleground state in this year’s presidential election and so the race is expected to tighten. Lutheran Services in America and the Disability Network have worked extensively with Sen. Casey on legislation such as S. 100, the Better Care, Better Jobs Act; S. 762, the HCBS Access Act, and S. 4120, the Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act. We will continue to watch this race.

House E&C Committee

House Energy & Commerce (E&C) chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) is not seeking re-election. Her successor as leader of the committee will be determined first by whether the Democrats or Republicans have the majority in the House, and then through internal party deliberations. As chair, Rep. McMorris Rodgers has championed legislation addressing the needs of people with disabilities and served as a speaker at LSA-DN meetings. We will be closely monitoring who becomes chair of this committee, given the scope of their work, and ensuring an ongoing relationship for our network.

To learn more about our work with these lawmakers, or their legislation, please reach out.

Sarah Dobson is Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy.

Tony Brozey is a summer intern with the government affairs team at Lutheran Services in America.

1 year ago

Taliban Violates Women’S Rights, Flaunts Biden’S Guns, Threatens Us Homeland

27
Aug

by Lee Williams

Three years ago, 13 U.S. service members were killed during Joe Biden’s botched Afghan pullout. He never mentions them, their grieving families or the changes that have taken place since they made the ultimate sacrifice.

It is now illegal for Afghan women to appear outside of the home unless they are fully veiled, Afghanistan’s supreme leader announced last week, according to the Associated Press. Women are also prohibited from talking in public – their voices are banned under the new decree.

“A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public,” the AP reported.

Neither the Biden-Harris administration nor the Harris-Walz campaign have commented about the current horrors facing Afghan women, whom they abandoned.

The Taliban certainly have the means to defend their supreme leader’s edicts from any opposition, foreign or domestic. Biden saw to that. Thanks to his inept and deadly withdraw, the Taliban is swimming in high-tech American weaponry – $80 billion worth, to be exact – including 176 artillery pieces, 64,363 belt-fed machine guns, 126,295 handguns and of course 358,530 select-fire assault weapons – real assault weapons. Most of the rifles were equipped with high-end optics. Many had IR lasers, which aren’t much good without night-vision gear. But Biden left behind 16,035 sets of NVGs as well.

Earlier this month, the Taliban showed off Biden’s weaponry during a parade held at Bagram Airfield, which celebrated their third year in power. However, not all of the weapons were showcased. The Taliban sold some of their newfound arsenal to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Homeland threat

Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents released an Afghan terrorist who was on the FBI’s terror watchlist after he was caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border through California. The terrorist was allowed to post a $12,000 bond and disappear because officials weren’t completely sure he was the same person wanted by the FBI.

Nowadays, these type of intelligence failures are common. In June, the Department of Homeland Security identified 400 terrorists who crossed the southern border illegally but admitted it did not know the whereabouts of at least 50 of these hardened killers. The administration declined to comment, which led frustrated members of the House Homeland Security Committed to subpoena DHS for information on all potential terrorists who have crossed into this country illegally.

During the Republican National Convention, Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., warned the crowd about the threat foreign terrorists pose to the homeland.

“We have men from Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon crossing our southern border,” Scott said, according to FOX News. “I believe we have sleeper cells in this nation as a result of Joe Biden.”

Senator Scott did not mention the thousands of military-age males from communist China – at least a division, so far – who cross our border with impunity.

The FBI and civilian intelligence experts have repeatedly warned that terrorists may be plotting an attack here in the United States that would be similar to the 10/7 massacre in Israel – an attack on civilian targets rather than government or military installations.

Once again, the Biden-Harris administration has not addressed these concerns. They remain tone deaf and focused solely on disarming law-abiding Americans.  

On Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris posted a message on social media that’s become a frequent theme for the administration: “Congress must renew the assault weapon ban.” The post included the graphic: “Ban Assault Weapons.”

Joe Biden hasn’t posted anything on social media for four days, but he spent last week on vacation in California and will spend this week on vacation in Delaware.

Hyperbole and hypocrisy

If events in Israel and Ukraine have taught us anything, it is that any organized attack on civilian targets will be horrific, especially if the populace is disarmed.

Biden doesn’t seem to care. He has denounced American ARs as “weapons of war” and called for a ban, but he has never once mentioned the 358,530 select-fire rifles he gifted to an actual terrorist state – all of which, by definition, ended up in the wrong hands.

While Biden naps on a beach chair and Harris hides from the corporate media, the Taliban and other terrorist groups are making ready for something. Everyone in the intelligence community predicts this, including the FBI director. It’s only a matter of time.

American arms have served as a deterrent for invasion, as we saw during World War II, and may soon be used to defend our homeland from actual terrorists. Only a fool would seek to disarm us.

1 year ago

Meet Justin

A tragic event Justin experienced as a teenager changed the trajectory of his life.

“It left me feeling lost, alone and with no boundaries,” he says, “as if I had no meaning or purpose.” He began searching for something to fill the void, and his journey led to addiction, destructive habits and broken relationships.

“I would take, steal, lie – anything to satisfy my needs. Eventually the people I would turn to stopped tolerating that behavior from me.”

Finally, with no one to help him, he found himself on the streets. “I was headed for a really bad place, far beyond homelessness.” But God had other plans: He rekindled the compassion in the hearts of Justin’s loved ones.

“They hadn’t completely abandoned me – they confronted me. My sister put me in her car and brought me to the Mission.”

“I realized I was here for a purpose; there’s a plan I have to work toward.”Justin says his biggest challenge in life was facing a future he thought didn’t exist. But in our Christian Life Program, his eyes were opened as he grew in God’s Word. “The darkness in my heart was lifted and I began looking forward to tomorrow.”

Through his newfound faith, he’s also found the boundaries he was lacking. “There is an absolute objective authority over all of us, and that is Jesus Christ.”

Just as important in his daily walk, he now knows he’s not alone. “There’s a community here. I have support and I can support others as well. We’re all in this together.”

Looking ahead, Justin says, the Mission has put him in a position to be a productive part of society, gainfully employed and living independently.

Justin now has strength for a new beginning because of your compassion for him and others in need. Because you chose to share God’s love, he has a path forward in life. “I’ve found myself, I’ve found God and I’ve found a future.”

1 year ago

California veteran elected to lead the nearly 1 million-member DAV

PHOENIX— (Disabled American Veterans) today in Phoenix at the organization’s 102nd national convention.

“We need, as DAV has done for more than 100 years, to make extending our services and engaging veterans and family members part of our daily lives,” Contreras told the audience of over 2,000 DAV members and supporters. “I look forward to working with all of you and thank you for your help making our mission accessible to our fellow veterans and their families.”

A member of DAV Chapter 99 in Oxnard, California, Contreras is the adjutant and treasurer of the DAV Department of California and also served as past department commander. He also served on the DAV National Executive Committee and, in 2009, was elected to the board of directors for the DAV National Service Foundation, where he served until 2019.

Contreras said that he views serving as a sacred opportunity, and is one he sees doing as long as he’s able.  “Service, that simple act of helping a veteran, family member or survivor one-on-one, is one of the most rewarding things one can do.”

Contreras enlisted in the Army in 1980 and served as a combat medic and Army nurse for 16 years, achieving the rank of sergeant first class. In 2000, he started at DAV as a benefits advocate before being promoted to national area supervisor in 2006 and taking over as DAV Department of California adjutant and treasurer in 2008.

“Commander Contreras has earned the respect of his fellow veterans at DAV through years of dedicated service as a former service officer and as adjutant of the Department of California,” said DAV National Adjutant and CEO Barry Jesinoski. “His familiarity with both the professional and membership sides of our beloved organization will continue to help us generate meaningful impact that changes the lives of disabled veterans and their families.”

1 year ago

Teaching Them to Observe

Being an evangelist is more than just telling people about Jesus; it requires that we become teachers of the gospel. The gospel is proclaimed by the preaching of the good news. This is the beginning. But we also need to explain to new believers the implications and consequences of believing in the gospel. This is necessary to make real disciples.

The Authority to Teach

R.T. France notes that when Jesus said to His disciples that they would have to teach, He was transferring to them the authority to be teachers. In Matthew 28:20, Matthew uses for the first time the verb “teach”—didaskō—which implies that the disciples then had authority from Christ to teach others.

Believing in the gospel requires the newborn believer to submit to teaching and to receive instruction in order to live according to Jesus’ will. Making disciples starts with the confession of faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9); then, baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit so that we can join the church in order to learn to observe all that Jesus has commanded us in the context of a community of believers.

The Need to Teach

The fact that the church has been established by Jesus to be a teaching community is clear. And if this is the nature of the church, then Christian ministry is mainly a teaching ministry.

In Acts 2:42, we learn that the primitive church gathered together to devote themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. The first Christians prioritized their time together in order to comprehend the gospel and its implications in their lives. The Apostles formulated the gospel. Then the preachers proclaimed the gospel and the teachers taught the ethical implications of the message.

God has given the church gifts in order to keep the gospel at the center of the new community. Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, says, “For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher” (2 Tim. 1:11). All the gifts and status given to Paul were used to serve the gospel. The church, then, should be the guardian of the gospel, and everything the church does and every ministry in the church should be an instrument for the promotion of the gospel and the advance of Christ’s kingdom. This is the only way to fulfill the Great Commission.

What to Teach

As we evaluate which teachings are essential for new disciples, we may want to consider what Derek Tidball suggests were Paul’s teaching goals:

He (the apostle) wants his disciples to grow up, to become mature adults, no longer infants and children (1 Cor. 3:1–4; 14:20; Eph. 4:14–15). He wants the bride to be a virgin, betrothed to one husband, with eyes for no one else (2 Cor. 11:2). Using imagery from the gymnasium and the athletics track, he wants them to develop strength, build stamina and not be feeble in faith (1 Cor. 9:24–27; Eph 4:16; 1 Thess. 3:2; 2 Thess. 2:17, 3:3). Using agricultural imagery, he wants the roots to go down deep and see fruit development (1 Cor. 3:5-9; 2 Cor. 9:10; Gal. 5:22 Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10; 2:7). Using educational imagery, he wants them to “learn Christ” (Eph. 4:20).

Tidball demonstrates here the rich diversity of teachings that disciples are to receive but which are nonetheless focused on one goal: the creation of strong, mature believers.

When Paul knew that he was close to death, he reminded Timothy of his duty to the gospel. The heart of his ministry was to preach and teach the gospel, to defend it against attack and falsification, and to ensure its accurate transmission to the generations to come. Timothy was charged to guard the gospel (2 Tim. 1:14), to suffer for the gospel (2 Tim. 2:3, 8–9), to continue in the gospel (2 Tim. 3:13–14), and to proclaim the gospel (2 Tim. 4:1–2). This is the greatest privilege and duty that can be entrusted to a teacher: to be the guard of the gospel and to teach it faithfully to faithful disciples.