Sunspots 701

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else: 

Christianity: Christianity Today asks if the United Methodist Church has a case against Jeff Sessions, Attorney General.

Education: Grammarphobia on how (mostly English) families got their names.

Ethics: Remember Scott Pruitt, Trump's first head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who was removed after several ethical clouds? Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior is probably going, for similar reasons, according to UnDark. Unfortunately, both of their replacements, or likely replacements, are likely to be more efficient, if that's the right word, at removing environmental protections, than the original appointees.

Food: Relevant reports on how long candy should be stored before discarding it.

NPR reports that immigrating to the US probably causes changes in the gut bacteria, and that this, in turn, may lead to obesity. (The study involved Southeast Asian immigrants.)

Health: Relevant reports on a study that found that over 8,000 children are hospitalized because of gunshots, each year. (More are killed, or are not brought to a hospital.)

Humor: The man who inspired the appearance, and name, of Super Mario, of video game fame, has died, according to NPR.


Politics: The Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit, by some young people (one is 11), against the Federal Government, saying that federal actions and/or inactions related to climate change are depriving them of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Listverse describes nine Senate filibusters, and one in the Texas State Senate.

Politico reports that most Americans want stricter gun laws. That is true of Republicans, too.
White supremacy groups are using video game participation as a recruiting tool, says NPR.


Science: Earther shows us some newly discovered sea slugs. Fabulous photographs!

Gizmodo considers how much dead human skin cell material we take into our bodies.

Sports: Greg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, has been with the team for a long time. Every other NBA team has changed coaches during his tenure, usually several times.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.

Thanks for looking!

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the Bible justifies his actions on immigration

It is no secret ("Build a wall!") that the Trump administration believes that too many people are entering the country, both illegally and legally. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been a cabinet officer that has tried to slow down, or stop, such immigration, with apparent enthusiasm. The Trump administration has drastically cut the number of refugees that will be accepted, and is in the process of deporting previously admitted refugees.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant body in the US, have both recently passed resolutions rebuking the Trump administration, especially for separating young children and their parents at the borders. Other Christians, in groups, and as individuals, have also done so. (See here for Franklin Graham's recent statement.) As they should have, such rebukes have been based on the Bible.

Attorney General Sessions has reacted. His argument is that the Bible teaches that we should obey, and enforce, the law, for the good of the overall society, implying that the recent resolutions of religious bodies and individuals, supporting immigrants and refugees, are not really based on the Bible, but that his actions and policies are.

Really? Consider:
1) In general, Sessions is right. We need to enforce traffic laws, and put bank robbers in jail, for the good of society. But some laws, and/or the penalties for violating them, are unjust. Laws that supported the institution of slavery were unjust, for example. Many people, including some Republicans in Congress, believe that laws that require young children to be separated from their parents are unjust, and even violate basic human rights. President Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a minor drug offense. As far as I know, he didn't say that her sentence was unjust, but perhaps a belief that it was influenced his decision.

2) Some laws are subordinate to higher, and more important, laws. If my wife is desperately ill, and I violate speed limits to get her to the emergency room, I wouldn't expect to be charged with speeding. In fact, if an officer knew what was going on, I would expect that officer to precede me to the hospital with siren and lights on.

It is true that the Bible generally indicates that we should obey the law. See Romans 13:1-5, and 1 Peter 2:13-17. But some laws are more important than others. In dialog with the religious rulers of His day, Jesus and these rulers said that the most important laws from the Old Testament were the two great commandments, namely to love God, and to love other people.

3) The Bible gives directions about how to treat immigrants, aliens and refugees, with kindness and generosity. See here for several Biblical statements on such matters. One such direction was that the Israelites were to provide sanctuary for refugees from another nation, and a nation which had sometimes gone to war with them.

Sorry, Mr. Sessions. You aren't acting and speaking Biblically on this issue.

Note: In many cases, law enforcement personnel must choose which laws to enforce. There are so many laws, covering so many aspects of life, and limited resources to enforce with, that it would be impossible to discover violations of all laws, and punish the law-breakers. The Justice Department, and other branches of the current administration, appear to have chosen to rigorously enforce laws relating to immigration, while other types of laws are not. All administrations have to make such choices, but which laws are attended to says something important about the law-enforcers.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 664

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Computing: Gizmo's freeware recommends a Facebook tweaker, which can hide lots of things that you don't really want to see.

Gizmodo reports on another scheme by Facebook to gather data on users. Sigh.

Food: Gizmodo reports that the Trump administration wants to deliver food in boxes, instead of using food stamps.

Health: (of dogs) Gizmodo discusses built-in health problems of purebred dogs.

History: Relevant reports on six black women of significance that you've probably never heard of.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight examines the hard line on crime and punishment taken by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And here's a different report, on the same subject.

National Public Radio reports on Russian cyberinterference with the 2018 elections.

FiveThirtyEight on why the attitudes of both Republicans and Democrats on the  FBI are dangerous, and not consistent with the usual history of party attitudes.

Science: Scientific American reports on techniques to make wood much stronger (so it can stop a bullet) and making it transparent.

ListVerse debunks 10 "facts" about the human body, such as that we lose most of our heat through our heads.

A new species of crayfish is reproducing by cloning, according to the New York Times, and other sources.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 653

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:


Computing: Wired reports that there is now a church, sort of, which more or less worships artificial intelligence. The IRS has granted this "church" tax-exempt status.

Health: Time, and other outlets, report that the Centers for Disease Control say that about 90% of Americans don't eat enough fruit and vegetables. Not a surprise.

Politics: Relevant reports that a game manufacturer is trying to block President Trump's wall by acquiring property on the border.

National Public Radio, and other sources, report that the Keystone Pipeline recently spilled 5,000 barrels of oil. Hardly a surprise, unfortunately.

Wired has compiled an annotated list of things Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Congress that he can't remember.

Science: Listverse describes 10 islands, and their unusual animal populations.

Scientific American reports on a body from outside our solar system that is on its way out of it.

The He Lives blog argues that the Intelligent Design movement isn't about science, although it's usually presented that way.

An illustrated and annotated periodic table.

Thanks for looking!

How the Bible wants us to treat aliens, foreigners and strangers.

Matthew 7:12 Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (The Golden Rule)

The Israelites were warned that they should eliminate non-Israelites from the Promised Land. (See, for example, Deuteronomy 31:3-6) However, this was not an absolute command. Most likely, those warnings were really against the false gods of these non-Israelites. Rahab, from Jericho, and Ruth, from Moab, were ancestors of David (and of Christ). They were both non-Israelite followers of God. Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s first husband, who lived in Jerusalem, and was part of David’s army, had Canaanite ancestry, and he seems to have also been a follower of God (2 Samuel 11). David placed the Ark into the care of Obed-Edom, the Gittite (2 Samuel 6:10-12). Some bible scholars believe that he was descended from the Philistines from Gath, where Goliath came from, but others believe that “Gittite” has another meaning in this case. David purchased the land, which ultimately became the site of Solomon’s temple from Ornan, a Jebusite, who may have been a non-Israelite (1 Chronicles 21:18-30, 2 Chronicles 3:1, Some Bible translations call him Araunah).

The passages below give further evidence that non-Israelites were allowed to live in the Promised Land. 

Exodus 22:21 You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9 You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:10 You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God. (This command is repeated in other parts of the Bible.)

Leviticus 19:33 If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

Deuteronomy 10:19 Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Peter reminds the church of his day that they, too, are, in a sense, foreigners: 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12 having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 

The Bible also says, in reference to a specific refugee crisis:

Isaiah 16:3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive! 4a Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. (This was in spite of the fact that the Moabites hadn’t always been good to Israel. See Josh 24:9, Judg 3:12-30, 1 Sam 12:9.)

Ezekiel 47:21 “So you shall divide this land to yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 It will happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the aliens who live among you, who will father children among you. Then they shall be to you as the native-born among the children of Israel. They shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. 23 It shall happen, that in whatever tribe the stranger lives, there you shall give him his inheritance,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers*, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

*The NIV Study Bible thinks “strangers” may mean “Christians that you don’t know.” The two commentaries I consulted did not say this. There are Christian refugees, that we don’t know, in our time.

Unfortunately, a recent poll found that only 12% of Christians say that they get their views on immigration from the Bible. 

Notes: 1) Refugees may become immigrants, but not all immigrants, legal or illegal, are refugees. The concept of border security probably was seldom considered in Bible times. In the verses above, “alien,” “foreigner,” and “stranger” seem to mean “non-Israelite.” Some of these would have been refugees.

2) Scripture quotations from the World English Bible, public domain. This post, on January 13, 2018, is a modified version of the original, which was posted July 27, 2017.

3) The United States is not equivalent to ancient Israel.

4) At least in Old Testament times, it seems that God would not have expected non-Israelites who came into the country for the purpose of subverting worship of Him, or to murder Israelites, to be treated as generously as the verses above indicate.

Thanks for reading.

Update, June 21, 2018:

Jeff Sessions, currently the US Attorney General, recently claimed that separating immigrant children from their parents is obeying the Bible, which says that we are to obey the law and the government. Well, usually, but Sessions has left out a lot of what the Bible says.

Update, December 23, 2018:

Job 31 gives a list of good things Job has done, and bad things that he has not done, as he justifies himself. One of the good things is in verse 32: “the foreigner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler ...”

And we shouldn’t forget that Jesus, Joseph and Mary were refugees in Egypt, fleeing a threat of violence.  

Update, February 26, 2020:

2 Chronicles 30 describes the revival during the reign of Hezekiah, many generations after the time of Ruth, or David. It includes this statement:  
30:25 All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced.