When There is no Hope

According to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey published on 7 June, "suicide is a growing problem in the United States." The survey indicated that "rates increased by 25% across the United States over nearly two decades ending in 2016. Twenty-five states experienced a rise in suicides by more than 30%." The first and most obvious question that comes to mind is why? Why are people in this country killing themselves with increasing frequency? Why are they finding suicide an acceptable outlet to whatever problems they think they have, or actually have? Is there anything that can give individuals considering suicide the hope they need to continue the hard slog of life?

The Work of Grace

One of the things that distinguishes Christianity from all other major religions of the world is the issue of grace. No other religion makes so much of grace and in no other system of belief is grace so central as in the Christian faith. And it is easy to see why. In just about every other system, indeed I would submit that in every other system, what man does to reach up to God is the essence of the belief. From Islam to Buddhism, man is constantly trying to find a better way to reach up to God and somehow please Him enough to be accepted by Him. That was the primary impetus behind the heathen ancients' sacrificial system: "how can I appease the deities so they will be pleased with me"?

LGBTQ+...Pride?

This month has been named LGBTQ+ Pride Month. According to this article at ABCnews.go.com, "Every summer in the United States, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and allies come together for a month-long celebration of love, diversity, acceptance and unashamed self-pride" (notice the words "celebration" and "unashamed"). The article goes on to explain that the month of June was selected for the "celebration" in order to commemorate the Stonewall riots that took place in 1969. If you don't know what the Stonewall riots are, I will not get into that here, but you can search and find a plethora of information on that unfortunate episode on the internet.