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Getting it Off My Chest

It wasn't but a few short years ago, especially in the south, that tobacco was many farmer's main crop and even preachers were known to smoke ... and it was accepted. It was the tobacco industry that added ingredients to keep one hooked and our government who looked the other way ... the same government who has, now, picked out a select group to tax and breed hate. And, those same people, who's service for the Lord was once honored, are not allowed to serve in titled positions of churches today. What? Did God stop speaking to people because they smoke? Ok, did He stop speaking to you who drink coffee? Or, have you ever heard God speak in the first place? The government's excuse for taxing smokers is that they run up more medical bills. Well, if that's the true reason, why aren't we taxing the gay? In addition, studies have proven the effects of obesity are just as damaging to one's health as smoking. Equality for all? I don't think so. Though, many smokers were guilty of one thing ~ being rude and inconsiderate with their smoking. So, now, we penalize them all! We believe whatever we're told to believe, hate whatever we don't understand, label sin, judge people by degrees, and look the other way to our own vices. Perhaps, brother hating brother originates with one's need to feel superior. But, let me tell you, it's just as ugly and damaging as tar. My father was a licensed preacher, an ordained deacon, and from the south. As a church planter, he served, through the years, in most every top leadership position of the church, at one time or another. His home served as temporary residence for uncounted numbers of evangelists, missionaries, summer workers, and the like. And, his wallet belonged to the church. Only, fundamentalists never knew him that way. They killed my daddy, long before cancer got him. And, all of his children mourned for what their hate had done to him. This one's for him. People fail us. We fail God. But, God never fails.

© 2003 by Joyce C. Lock

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