Bishop Bruce Ough, President of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church

Today, I stand with colleagues representing several faith traditions to strongly denounce President Trump’s widespread attack on immigrants and refugees. President Trump’s reckless, ill-conceived executive orders will divide families, impose a religious test for Muslims facing forced migration, penalize communities providing sanctuary and wall off the United States from our neighbors. These actions are expensive, unnecessary and profoundly antithetical to our values of compassion, dignity and justice for all individuals regardless of nationality, religious affiliation or legal status.

The biblical witness is clear and unambiguous. Walls are unbiblical. Hospitality is biblical. Denying one’s neighbor is unbiblical. Welcoming the stranger is biblical. It is not surprising that Judaism, Christianity and Islam teach the reign of God as a banquet to which all peoples are invited. We are to welcome the sojourner, love our neighbor and stand with the most vulnerable among us. These very values from our sacred texts and faith traditions are currently reflected in the mandate of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and must not be usurped by any executive order. Orders, legislation or administrative actions that would have the U.S. State Department disqualify refugees from protection and resettlement based on their nationality or religion are a denial of the very principles this nation was built upon, contradict the legacy of leadership our country has offered the world, and dishonor our shared humanity.

Jesus was explicit in his teachings. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” (Matthew 10:40).

Refugees and immigrants arrive among us, not only with their needs, but also bearing gifts of energy, resourcefulness, love of liberty and hope. These gifts have always contributed to the renewal of our society and the church.

Above all, these strangers bring to us the Christ. When we welcome a stranger we welcome Jesus, and when we welcome Jesus we welcome our creator. Refugees, immigrants, those yearning to be free—these are the ones whom Jesus spoke about when he said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35).

Repeatedly Jesus tells his disciples:

“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)

The original Greek language is far more poetic, powerful and prophetic. In finer translations of the Greek language, we hear Jesus saying:

“Whoever seeks to build a wall around their soul shall destroy it; whoever tears down the wall (around their soul) shall bring their soul to a living birth.”

The very soul of our country is at stake. When we abandon strangers who are at risk of bigotry, xenophobia and violence we not only destroy their hope, we destroy our own souls. When we fail to assist the refugees fleeing danger, we not only place them in harm’s way, we do harm to our own souls. When we build walls of concrete, or walls of divisive rhetoric, or walls of fear, or walls of immoral immigration policies, we build a wall around our own souls.

Christ calls us to tear down the walls around our souls that we might live fully and abundantly. Thus, I call on the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress to rescind the harmful executive orders and save the soul of our country. I call upon the people of The United Methodist Church to see the face of Christ in the refugee. Say “no” to the walling off of our country and our hearts and say “yes” to their hope – our hope – for new life. Let us unite and work together to bring the soul of this country to a living birth!

Bishop Bruce R. Ough, President
Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church

This image was posted on Twitter by the Upper Room. It is the theme for the daily devotional for today in their daily devotional guide. I like this quotation of Scripture because it calls us to examine ourselves and be accountable to what we say we believe.

Reflection and accountability are a necessity for being the person you want to be or the person you say you are.

Thank you, Matthew, for this reminder!

This is an image of protestors at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on January 28 in reaction to the executive order signed by President Trump the previous day.

The words below are the full text of the order issued by the court staying the executive order thus putting enforcement of the order on hold until the administration can prove the order does not violate the constitution.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

DECISION AND ORDER
17 Civ. 480 (AMD)

HAMEED KHALID DARWEESH and HAIDER SAMEER ABDULKHALEQ ALSHAWI, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated,

Petitioners,

– against –

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (“DHS”); U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (“CBP”); JOHN KELLY, Secretary of DHS; KEVIN K. MCALEENAN, Acting Commissioner of CBP; JAMES T. MADDEN, New York Field Director, CBP,,

Respondents.

ANN DONNELLY, District Judge.

On January 28, 2017, the petitioners filed an Emergency Motion of Stay of Removal on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated.

IT APPEARING to the Court from the Emergency Motion for Stay of Removal, the other submissions, the arguments of counsel, and the hearing held on the 28th of January, 2017,

1. The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioner and others similarly situated violates their rights to Due Process and Equal Protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution;

2. There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa-holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017 Executive Order;

3. The issuance of the stay of removal will not injure the other parties interested in the proceeding;

4. It is appropriate and just that, pending completion of a hearing before the Court on the merits of the Petition, that the Respondents be enjoined and restrained from the commission of further acts and misconduct in violation of the Constitution as described in the Emergency Motion for Stay of Removal.

WHEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the respondents, their officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all members and persons acting in concert or participation with them, from the date of this Order, are

ENJOINED AND RESTRAINED from, in any manner or by any means, removing individuals with refugee applications approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and other individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen legally authorized to enter the United States.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that to assure compliance with the Court’s order, the Court directs service of this Order upon the United States Marshal for the Eastern District of New York, and further directs the United States Marshals Service to take those actions deemed necessary to enforce the provisions and prohibitions set forth in this Order.

SO ORDERED.

Ann M. Donnelly
United States District Judge

Dated: Brooklyn, New York
January 28, 2017

Our U. S. Constitution does not give leaders unchecked power. The Court system holds the Legislative and Executive branches accountable for actions that are in violation of the powers granted to each of the other branches. I thank our Founding Fathers for giving us this system of checks and balances! I hope the stay issued prevails because I think it is justice in action!

This article was borrowed from USA Today.

LOS ANGELES — Barbara Hale, a movie actress who found her most famous role on television as steadfast secretary Della Street in the long-running Perry Mason series, has died. She was 94.

Hale was surrounded by family when she died Thursday at her Los Angeles area home, said Jaqueline Stander, an agent for Hale’s son, actor William Katt (The Greatest American Hero, Carrie).

“She was gracious and kind and silly and always fun to be with,” Katt posted on his Facebook page Thursday, calling Hale a wonderful actress and a “treasure as a friend and mother.”

Stander declined to provide the cause of death.

Hale appeared in Perry Mason on CBS from 1957 to 1966, winning an Emmy as best actress in 1959. When the show was revived in 1985 on NBC as an occasional TV movie, she again appeared in court at the side of the ever-victorious lawyer played by Raymond Burr.

She continued her role after Burr died in 1993 and was replaced by Hal Holbrook for the movies that continued into 1995.

“I guess I was just meant to be a secretary who doesn’t take shorthand,” she once quipped. “I’m a lousy typist, too — 33 words a minute.”

Hale was born in DeKalb, Ill., daughter of a landscape gardener and a homemaker. The family moved to Rockford when she was 4, and she later took part in local theater. But her goals were to be a nurse or journalist.

When her ambition turned to art, she studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where she was often sought as a model. Her work for a modeling agency prompted an offer for a contract at the RKO studio in Hollywood.

When she reported to the casting director, he was speaking on the phone to someone who needed an immediate replacement for an actress who was sick.

“It hit every paper the next day: the Cinderella story,” she recalled in a 1993 Chicago Tribune interview. “Of course they said it was a starring role. I had one line, but you know about those things.”

The movie was a quickie, Gildersleeve’s Bad Day, but she went on to appear with Pat O’Brien in The Iron Major, Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher and Robert Young in Lady Luck.

Another co-star was a blond actor named Bill Williams (real name: William Katt), with whom she appeared in West of the Pecos and A Likely Story. They met over coffee in the studio commissary and married in Rockford in 1946. The couple had three children: Nita, William and Jody.

Williams, who died in 1992, later gained TV fame as star of The Adventures of Kit Carson. Their son goes by his father’s original name, William Katt.

After her RKO contract ended, Hale worked at other studios, usually as the adoring wife of the leading man. She played opposite Larry Parks in Jolson Sings Again, James Stewart in Jackpot and James Cagney in A Lion Is in the Streets.

In 1957, she joined the memorable cast of Perry Mason that included Burr as the defense attorney who solved his cases in the courtroom, William Hopper as investigator Paul Drake, William Talman as never-winning prosecutor Hamilton Burger and Ray Collins as police lieutenant Arthur Tragg.

“When we started, it was the beginning of women not working at home,” Hale said in the 1993 interview. “I liked that she was not married. My husband, Bill, didn’t have to see me married to another man, and our children didn’t have to see me mothering other children.”

In the early 1970s, Hale took on another widely recognized role, touting Amana Radarange microwave ovens in TV commercials and print ads.

Burr and Hale were the only original cast members when the show resumed on NBC in 1985 in the movie format. Her son, William Katt, appeared in nine of the two-hour shows, as the investigator son of Paul Drake.

Hale’s later films included the original Airport, playing the husband of Dean Martin’s pilot character; The Giant Spider Invasion and Big Wednesday, in which she appeared with her son.

The Holocaust has always been for me a historical period I studied in school. I remember one of the major reasons we were told we were learning about it is that, “The only way to make sure it does not happen again is to make sure we never forget when and it did happen.”

Today we remember the lives that were lost, the atrocities that were committed and those who survived that for the rest of their lives had to carry with them the memory of how they suffered.

This is indeed a day that deserves either some silent reflection, prayer, or both.

In the current session of the Maryland General Assembly a bill is being introduced to allow two physicians to jointly prescribe a lethal dose of medication to patients who are terminally ill. The bill requires:

• 2 Physicians to agree the patient has 6 months or less to live.
  
• The patient is of “sound mind” and understands the decision they are making.
  
• The patient is physically able to self-administer the prescription.
  

This question is not only being discussed in Maryland, throughout our nation seriously terminally ill patients are making their request for medicine to end their suffering. As a Hospice Chaplain, I hear some patients express this desire to end their suffering on their terms.

I also relate to this sentiment because both of my parents had terminal illnesses and spent 10 years each in nursing homes. Both begged for release from their suffering for months before their illnesses reached the point of causing their natural death.

As a member of the clergy I am opposed to taking a human life because all life is sacred! I do understand why patients reach the end of their rope. I see where some people see providing the medication as an act of compassion. Currently under the law administering a lethal dose of medication is considered murder. Before we re-classify providing a lethal dose of medication from murder to being a legal medical treatment we need to consider the huge distance we are crossing in thought and action.

I do not claim to have a mandate directly from God on this topic, but it scares me because I see so many situations where this type of law could be misused and take lives prematurely. I also see the compassionate sentiment behind the proposed law. Our General Assembly should be careful on how they deal with this legislation, they may set off consequences that are unintended and irreversible!

This picture was taken from the Internet and is used for illustration purposes.

I am ordained in The United Methodist Church. Our denomination’s slogan is “Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors, the People of The United Methodist Church”. Two of the patient care areas I visit daily are CVU and ICU. The door in the image above is very similar to the doors in those two units. Whether the doors are open or closed I never know for sure what I will encounter as I enter the room and engage with the patient and/or visitors in the room.

Sometimes when a room is full of a lot of infusion pumps and other equipment which I can see prior to my entry, I expect the patient will desire a shorter length visit. When there is not as much medical equipment in the room I expect that the patient will have the energy and desire for a longer visit. While this is a good rule of thumb it is not true 100% of the time.

There can be a lot more going on inside the patient’s mind than what the quantity of medical equipment in the room can indicate. When patients are fearful they often find comfort in the ministry of presence even though there may not be continual conversation while I am there. My experiences have taught me that I can estimate probabilities by what I observe before I enter a room, but I need to be watchful for any signs given that point me toward the patient’s needs whether they are what I expect or not.

This picture is from the Internet and is used for illustration purposes.

In my rounding, I often find members of our facilities staff repairing things that I did not even realize were not working. Yesterday several of our staff were repairing the automatic doors in CVU. While talking with the guys I learned that monthly they perform an average 200 preventative maintenance calls to keep things consistently working instead of breaking in the first place. Our Facilities staff are courteous, friendly, and very knowledgeable. So, I am highlighting their role in keeping our hospital able to function efficiently on 24/7/365 basis. GREAT JOB GUYS!

CNN declined to air live a press conference with the nation’s new White House Press Secretary, pointing to a growing rift between the embryonic Trump administration and the press corps that covers it and undermining the credibility of Sean Spicer, a longtime Republican operative who has become the new spokesman for President Donald Trump. Producers at the cable-news outlet, owned by Time Warner, this evening decided to see what was said at the press event, per a person familiar with the network, then play relevant parts as deemed necessary. 

The President, no matter who hold the office, is dependent on the press to report on the activities of the administration. The press can make a leader look impressive or incompetent. Trump has not started out well by fighting with the media. He even referred to CNN as “fake news”. To succeed he and his administration should away the Nixon era instruction manual and follow the example of Ronald Regan and make the press an ally!

Via UConn prof Jeremy Pressman between 3.3 million to 4.2 million people marched today. Largest protests in US history. He is the source of the map showing where all the protests took place.

This picture is from the New York Times and shows the crowds for the Women’s March in Washington DC.

By contrast this is a picture of a Metro subway train when it should have been full of people attending the inauguration the previous day.

The difference in the size of the crowds for both events says a lot! Things have not changed, citizens are frustrated with government. Now the political party in control has changed but the level of citizen agreement has not increased.