Guilty as changed, M’lud?

Pontius Pilate, King Herod and Others to Face Trial at The Hague?
August 4, 2013 By Kathy Schiffer – Patheos

The International Court of Justice in The Hague has been asked to revisit a 2,000-year-old case–convening a re-trial of Jesus Christ and prosecuting those responsible for his unlawful conviction.
Dola Indidis, a Kenyan lawyer who is former spokesman for Kenya’s Judiciary, has built his case on facts which you already know: that Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate was invalid, because it was “conducted in a manner contrary to a fair trial.” Indidis hopes to persuade the ICJ to issue a declaratory judgment that the trial judgment and sentence entered were badly done, and were therefore null and void.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Indidis is reportedly attempting to sue Tiberius (emperor of Rome, 42 BCE-37 CE), Pontius Pilate, a selection of Jewish elders, King Herod, the Republic of Italy and the State of Israel. A Kenyan TV report adds Palestine to that list of criminal offenders who are being sued by Indidis on behalf of a group called “Friends of Jesus.”
This is not the first time Mr. Indidis has brought his case to court. He first filed in 2007 in Nairobi, in Kenya’s High Court; but that court ruled that it had no jurisdiction. He then took his case to the UN’s top judicial body, where he hopes it will receive a formal hearing.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Indidis acknowledges that the persons responsible for Jesus’ conviction and execution are dead. However, he believes that the governments and agencies for which they worked can and should be held responsible. He included the modern nations of Italy and Israel in the suit because when those nations were founded, they incorporated into their charters the laws of the Roman Empire. The JP reports:

“I filed the case because it’s my duty to uphold the dignity of Jesus and I have gone to the ICJ to seek justice for the man from Nazareth,” Indidis told the Nairobian. “His selective and malicious prosecution violated his human rights through judicial misconduct, abuse of office bias and prejudice.”

Indidis … is challenging the mode of questioning used during Jesus’s trial, prosecution, hearing and sentencing; the form of punishment meted out to him while undergoing judicial proceedings and the substance of the information used to convict him.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi considers the exercise futile, at least from a theological viewpoint. Rev. Maloba Wesonga, spokesman for the Archdiocese, said, “As we know it, the trial had to happen. We must understand that Jesus was not vulnerable and nobody can do justice to God.”

A Prayer {from the New Zealand book of prayer [cc]}

Eternal Spirit, Earthmaker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that shall be. Father and Mother of us all. Loving God, in whom is heaven;

May the hallowing of your name echo through the Universe! May the way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! May your heavenly will be done by all created beings! May your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and may it come on earth.

With the bread that we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts that we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love. Now and forever, now and forevermore.

Amen.

Burka Avenger

 

Huffington Post UK  |                                           By Sara C. Nelson                                      Posted:25/07/201312:07                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

                  

Armed with pens and books and draped in a flowing black burka, this is Pakistan’s first female superhero.

The Burka Avenger is the star of an upcoming cartoon series, which sees the teacher protagonist using martial arts skills to fight thugs seeking to close down the school where she works.

Her mission is an obvious nod to the tyranny of the Taliban and its efforts to stymie female education.

The Taliban is responsible for blowing up hundreds of schools in Pakistan’s northwest and for the attack on Malala Yousafzai.

Militants shot the 15-year-old in the head in 2012 for the “crime” of promoting education for girls.

“The main goals of the Burka Avenger TV series are to make people laugh, to entertain and to send out strong social messages to the youth that educate, enlighten and reinforce positive social behaviour,” states literature on the official site.

The 13 episode Urdu cartoon, which starts in August, is the brainchild of Aaron Haroon Rashid – one of Pakistan’s biggest popstars.

That the Burka Avenger is thus clad may well raise some eyebrows – after all it was the Taliban which forced women to wear the Muslim dress when it took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Of his heroine’s attire, he told the Associated Press: “It’s not a sign of oppression. She is using the burka to hide her identity like other superheroes.

“Since she is a woman, we could have dressed her up like Catwoman or Wonder Woman, but that probably wouldn’t have worked in Pakistan.”

When she’s not fighting bad guys and saving schools, the Burka Avenger goes by the name of Jiya – and wears neither burka nor headscarf.

Questions

Some questions…..

Why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice?

Why is abbreviation such a long word?

Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on your radio?

Why is a boxing ring square?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?

There are indeed a lot of things in this life that we just really don’t understand.

But let me take it to a deeper and more disturbing level. For example, we don’t really understand disease.  Why is a youngster perfectly healthy for 13 years of his life… and then suddenly just happens to be in a place where he suddenly encounters some germ or bacteria that invades his body and destroys it? This happens in meningitis cases.

And we don’t understand accidents.  They are so random and indiscriminate. You start out a day that is like any other day… and then something happens in a matter of seconds… and life is forever different.  You can never go back beyond that accident.

On and on we could go with our list… of things we don’t really understand.

Why is there so much pain in our world? Why do good people suffer? Why do we hurt one another? Why can’t people get along? And why do some of the best prayers seem to go unanswered?

Now, all of these difficult questions prompt us to raise yet another crucial question: What can we count on from God?  When we face the troubles of the world, the heartaches of life, the tough challenges of this existence… what can we count on from God?

Christ tells a parable – a rather strange parable. It involves two people: an unjust arrogant judge and a humble but persistent woman.  The judge ignores her at first, but finally grants her justice because she is so persistent.  She won’t give up and she won’t go away… so eventually he gives in and comes through for her.

Now that’s the parable. Jesus then makes his point and he frames it in the form of a question.

He says, if an unjust judge gives this woman justice how much more will God bring about justice for his chosen ones?

A loving God hears our struggles, hears our cries of help and then responds to them.

WE CAN COUNT ON GOD TO BE WITH US WHEN WE ARE HURTING.

A tragedy left the man homeless, widowed and fatherless. Fire had swept through his house, and all was lost. It took some time for the full weigh of the loss to descend, and when it did, he was nearly crushed.

Like Job in the O.T. he would not be comforted…When the gift of shock was lifted, anger, resentment filled every waking thought.

God had not been fair to him God had not protected his family. He had not come to him with a special visitation to explain the “why” and the “what next”.The greatest temptation was to add to his losses by forfeiting his faith.

He felt justified. No one would fault him. Some might even support him. He prayed angrily now, daring god to hurt him further, challenging him if you like.

He prayed angrily, but he prayed, and God could handle it….The anguish continued to mount until one afternoon he uttered a cry so forcefully, it could only be described as a scream. No word was spoken, just a loud angry scream against the forces of heaven and hell, as if to say, “I’ve hurt all I can, and I’ve paid my dues for love…. Help me.”….

The silence that followed was quieter than silence. A peace was evident for the first time in months.

He believed, at last, that God was caring for those he lost. That God was caring for Him. that God could handle his honest anger, his honest emotions

And God can handle all our pent up emotions, feelings, denials. He is with us in our hurt and our pain.

And, although our questions may not be answered, we can come to know him as the one who always listens, always cares.

Unity – Rainbow

Justice

Amos Chapter 5 verses 21-24 (“The Message” translation)

 “I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.