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  • Bible has many repetitions of God's grace

    Leonard Lauriault, Religion columnist|Mar 13, 2024

    Probably every child heard their parents say something like, “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times!” — usually because the child keeps repeating the same mistakes or outright acts of disobedience. As I heard John 1:1-3 read at church recently, I realized the Bible has a lot of repetitions. John 1:1-3 includes two repetitive concepts: 1) The Word (Jesus) was in the beginning with God, and 2) Everything was made through him and without him, nothing was made. Since all Scripture is God-breathed, originating from the Word...

  • GOP has lost a lot in following Trump's course

    St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Syndicated content|Mar 13, 2024

    Anyone hoping Republican voters around the country would use Super Tuesday to slow their party’s careening trajectory toward the Trumpian cliff now must face facts: It’s over. Donald Trump’s near-total sweep of Super Tuesday states, and challenger Nikki Haley’s subsequent campaign suspension last Wednesday, means that, barring some epic surprise, American voters on Nov. 5 will be faced with a presidential rematch that most don’t want. Even among the many Republicans out there who recognize Trump’s obvious unfitness for office,...

  • Christian nationalism trouble for Democracy

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Mar 13, 2024

    Historically viewed as a fringe belief system, Christian nationalism has become a considerable force in American politics, particularly as it relates to the current Republican Party. A new survey from Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution revealed more than 50% of Republicans believe the country should aspire to become a devoutly Christian nation by ascribing to the fundamentals of Christian nationalism, or, at a minimum, identifying with such beliefs. Christian nationalism is the assumption the United States is a...

  • Republicans must fight hard to gain Senate

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Mar 13, 2024

    A miracle occurred last week in California’s U.S. Senate primary race. In a deep Blue state where Democrat voters outnumber Republicans 2-1, Steve Garvey, the former L.A. Dodgers star, ran against three Democrats and came in a close second to Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff. Garvey, a conservative Republican, finished behind Schiff in California’s crazy “jungle primary,” where voters are allowed to vote for any candidate regardless of party affiliation. That means in the general election this fall Garvey gets to face off against Rep....

  • Human rights endowed by the Creator

    Gordon Runyan, Religion columnist|Mar 6, 2024

    I made the mistake of watching some talking heads on a mainstream news channel the other day. When will I learn? My wife’s not holding her breath. Anyway, there was a panel discussion on the scary, new political faction on the scene. Religious zealots have arisen out of nowhere, apparently. The news has dubbed them Christian Nationalists. A pearl-clutching lady pointed out one of the horrifying doctrines of this group. These cultists think that our rights come from God, and not from any government. You may have to read that sentence again....

  • Photos are a little gift from the past

    Patti Dobson, Religion columnist|Mar 6, 2024

    I’m glad I grew up before cell phones were so much of a thing. I think the pressure of having every moment, good or bad, recorded for the world to see would be too much. I already have a blooper reel, in my mind, of all the less-than-smart things I did as a kid. Sort of like having a personal “Ridiculousness” of missteps, trips, and fails. I’m not a fan of having my own photo taken to begin with, especially when it’s for something goofy. Growing up, I would turn out my grandmothers’ jewelry boxes on my bed, and sort through the...

  • Sometimes just finishing is the achievement

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Mar 6, 2024

    Back in the 1970s, when dinosaurs roamed the land, I coached basketball in an inner-city league in Nashville, Tenn. Inspired by “The White Shadow” television show at the time, the Black teenagers on my team named themselves the Shadows because I was the only white coach in the league. We lost every game that season. Even though we had a standout team captain who worked the post and led the team with natural skills, a guy we all called J.C., we just couldn’t pull off a single win. Of course, we didn’t lose because I was white. Maybe...

  • Doubt Trump will appeal to Black people

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Mar 6, 2024

    Being the ever-menacing carnival barker that he is, former president Donald Trump said the four criminal cases he faces have garnered him significant support from Black voters. Why? He claims due to the historic injustices Black Americans have endured at the hands of the criminal justice system, they can identify with his legal dilemma. “I think that’s why the Black people are so much on my side now because they see what’s happening to me happens to them. Does that make sense?” Trump said at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in...

  • Time for Nikki Haley to drop out of race

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Mar 6, 2024

    OK, Nikki Haley. Sing along with me, the Republican Party and the great Kenny Rogers: You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, Know when to walk away, know when (NOT) to run. It’s long past time for you to drop out of the race for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. You’ve been called repeatedly and you’ve still got a losing hand. Donald Trump has humiliated your political butt in primaries across the U.S. But you still don’t know when to throw in your cards and just go away. Ron DeSantis was...

  • Run like Sadie Hawkins after God

    Leonard Lauriault, Religion columnist|Feb 28, 2024

    During my junior high school years, we lived in south-central Kentucky about 15 miles south of the Dogpatch Trading Post, a tourist trap based upon the “Li’l Abner” newspaper cartoon series. The cartoon included a character named Sadie Hawkins, the homeliest girl on earth for whom Sadie Hawkins Day is named. To get her a husband, Sadie’s father initiated a race in which bachelors got a head start on being chased by spinsters. Like running from a lion, you needn’t be the fastest, but you wanted to be faster than spinsters in pursuit....

  • Haley nomination would lower the political temperature

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Feb 28, 2024

    For years, I’ve been calling Donald Trump a snake-oil salesman, but that’s such an antiquated term. Then I heard about the line of shoes and cologne he’s now promoting, and now I’m thinking he’s a telemarketer. And, I must say, he’s good at it. I heard on NPR that his red, white, blue and gold sneakers are selling out. Like the Trump brand itself, they’re getting terrible reviews, but he manages to sell them to his salivating suckers anyway. Trump may be bringing down our democracy, but hey, he’s one of the best pitchmen out...

  • Future of current gen women positive

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Feb 28, 2024

    It should probably come as little surprise that a majority of American millennial and Generation Z women identify as liberal. A Gallup Poll released earlier this month indicated the ideological gap between men and women across various generations has increased over the past few years, and that young women today are much more liberal than young men. Some of their findings: • Women aged 18 to 29 are now 15 percentage points more likely to identify as liberal than men of the same age group. • Young men are slightly more likely to identify as...

  • 2024's major candidates both criminals

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Feb 28, 2024

    The Democrats are trying to put Donald Trump in jail. The Republicans are trying to put Joe Biden in jail – along with the rest of his extended political crime family. Both sides think the only way they can win is by putting their opponent in jail. Is this what our beat up republic has to look forward to as we head for the election in November? The country is not just going to hell in a handbasket, it’s already there. I’m watching an invasion of illegal immigrants parading across the open border in Texas and crawling down the hills south...

  • Bible: You can have joy again

    Gordon Runyan, Religion columnist|Feb 21, 2024

    Psalm 51:8 - “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” Whatever you think of the Harry Potter books, the author created a creepy monster called a Dementor. It was meant to be the personification of clinical depression. Dementors are invisible, heartless, and relentless in their desire to suck all the joy and happiness out of a person. One victim said the monster’s effect was to make her feel like she’d never be cheerful again. Live long enough and you’ll come to a place where you fear death less than...

  • Legislature says 'no' to prosperity

    Paul Gessing, Guest columnist|Feb 21, 2024

    As Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, told the floor as debate over this year’s budget wrapped up: “You’re not a poor state. Quit telling other people you’re a poor state.” He’s right. New Mexico is not poor. But what about the people of New Mexico? Among the citizens poverty remains high. According to World Population Review, New Mexico has the third-highest poverty rate in the US. Crime remains troubling and the education system is in dire straits. The state of New Mexico -- meaning the government itself -- has had massive surpluses...

  • Society must re-examine notions

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Feb 21, 2024

    From the Duchess of Sussex and actress Meghan Markle to former Harvard President Claudine Gay to Vice President Kamala Harris, Black women have been the target of severe attacks in recent months. The most recent example are the distasteful comments made by Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas toward his colleague, Democrat Cori Bush of Missouri. Nehls, an acid-tongued conservative, took it upon his shamelessly arrogant self to refer to representative Bush as “loud” and “mouthy.” Nehls also referred to Bush’s husband, a man who served...

  • Lawmakers did good work in session

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Feb 21, 2024

    Pay too much attention to the goings-on in Congress and you’d think our nation is broken. But focus your attention closer to home and you’ll see an altogether different picture. Take the New Mexico Legislature as an example. It just went through a whirlwind 30-day session and got plenty done, and not just for the special interests. The people of our state, both left and right, might actually benefit from our lawmakers’ recent actions. Altogether, 72 bills were passed and now await Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s signature to become law....

  • For Valentine's Day, love is the answer

    Leonard Lauriault, Religion columnist|Feb 14, 2024

    Today is Valentine’s Day, but I have a question for you that’s not “Will you be my valentine?” Rather, it’s “What do Valentine’s Day, Cupid and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre have in common?” The answer is love, even for the massacre. The massacre was based in the love of money, leading to all kinds of evil that pierces with many griefs (1 Timothy 6:9-10; Ecclesiastes 5:10). It took place during Prohibition when, to satisfy love of money, many took advantage of people’s inappropriate love for alcohol. Those slain that day...

  • Public safety needs honest accounting of what's working

    InsideSources.com, Syndicated content|Feb 14, 2024

    There may be no tenet of faith so fundamental to the cult of gun control than the idea that more guns equate to more crime — a theory that was soundly disproven in 2023. Just four years after the biggest recorded one-year spike in our nation’s homicide rate, it looks as if the United States may have just gone through the biggest one-year decline, an impossibility according to gun control activists. There are millions more guns around than there were four years ago, yet the vast majority of cities reported fewer homicides than they did in...

  • Swift courageous, unapologetic

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Feb 14, 2024

    Several years ago, Taylor Swift was far from the femme fatale some members of the MAGA far right now consider her to be. Many conservatives used to revere Swift. In 2015, Republican lawmakers invited the pop icon for personal tours of the U.S. Capitol and offered to provide donors tickets to her concerts. Even Donald Trump stated she was “terrific” and “fantastic.” How times have changed. Swift is now political poison to the right, largely despised for her progressive viewpoints, her unabashed support of feminism and, perhaps worst of...

  • Biden's legacy mental confusion

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Feb 14, 2024

    Videos of Joe Biden not knowing where he is or saying he just met with a French president who died 25 years ago are not so funny anymore. They’re tragic. And I can’t help feeling embarrassed and sorry for the president. It angers me to see him dodder out in public almost every other day and make a mumbling and confused fool of himself. Biden’s clearly been in the early stages of dementia for several years. It’s getting worse by the week and there’s no pill or treatment he can take that will ever make him better. In the 1990s I...

  • Redemption demands brutal honesty

    Gordon Runyan, Religion columnist|Feb 7, 2024

    Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” David is direct, even blunt, here. He’s not sugar-coating anything. Even so, these words are routinely misunderstood, especially by new readers of the Bible, or older ones who’ve never paid attention. The sense is the same as if he had said, “I was born into the tribe of Judah, and therefore Judah is my tribe.” Only, here, the tribe in question is that one we call “humanity.” As cats bring forth cats, and dogs have litters of...

  • Ban TikTok in schools? Ban phones

    Bloomberg News, Syndicated content|Feb 7, 2024

    In response to the inordinate amount of time young Americans spend online, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to curb students’ access to social media sites while at school. The goal of keeping students off TikTok during the school day is undoubtedly worthwhile, but policymakers would be better off taking a simpler and more effective approach: banning mobile phones from schools altogether. It’s by now indisputable that allowing kids to have phones in the classroom harms academic performance — even among those who don’t actually...

  • Truth, honesty no longer valued

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Feb 7, 2024

    For just a moment, let’s deviate from modern times and actually be honest about the state of our nation. Remember how, back in the old days before lawyers replaced gunslingers, honesty was actually valued. “A man’s word is his bond,” went the old adage, while a simple handshake could close the deal. Now, that handshake is considered unsanitary and you’d better have some wet wipes and a contract before you go any further. Fact is, as a society we don’t really value honesty anymore. Advertising has always been about superficial spin...

  • I'll take crazy over more Biden

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Feb 7, 2024

    It’s a good thing Donald Trump doesn’t own one of the Super Bowl teams. If he did, people would already be rioting in the streets of Las Vegas, demanding that the NFL call off this weekend’s big game. The liberal media would be cheering on the rioters, as usual. But believe it or not, Trump is not just the madman from New York who his political enemies say tried to destroy democracy in America and has plans to install himself as a dictator this fall. According to leftist Democrats and the liberal media, Trump is to blame for everything th...

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