Charleston’s police chief warned South Carolina lawmakers a proposal to let trained gun owners carry their weapons openly could endanger public safety and make the jobs of law enforcement officers more difficult.

Chief Luther Reynolds was one of dozens of South Carolinians who testified Feb. 10 in opposition to the bill, joining several doctors and self-identified gun owners who said they fear the bill could lead to more violence and anxiety on the streets.

The opponents outnumbered the six supporters who testified in favor of the measure by saying they believe the training aspect will ensure guns are handled responsibly and noting that South Carolina is one of only five states that does not have any form of open carry law on the books.

Read it all.

Charleston's police chief warned SC lawmakers against passing an "open carry with training" gun bill today, saying it would endanger public safety.

A subcommittee approved it 3-1 anyway, keeping it on track to pass the House within the next few weeks.https://t.co/WI8bZ4LX1D

— Jamie Lovegrove (@jslovegrove) February 10, 2021

The Archbishop of York then addressed the House in his capacity as head of the Vision and Strategy workstream. In his address, the Archbishop drew on feedback from Regional Bishops’ groups on Vision & Strategy and spoke about the integration of the Vision & Strategy work with the Five Marks of Mission and Missionary Disciples; the House took note of the work so far.

The Bishop of Durham and the Diocesan Secretary of Sheffield then addressed the House as Co-Chairs for the working group – Younger and more Diverse, setting out the issues, barriers and opportunities to creating a younger and more diverse church. In discussion groups, bishops discussed the proposed approach, aiming to direct feedback into further work of the Vision and Strategy Group.

A similar process was followed with the Bishop of Dunwich speaking to the House as co-chair of the Mixed Ecology the Norm, a subgroup of the Vison and Strategy workstream.

Read it all.

Having reached the vice president’s chair in the U.S. Senate, the self-proclaimed QAnon shaman, UFO expert and metaphysical healer removed his coyote-skin and buffalo horns headdress and announced, with a megaphone, that it was time to pray.

“Thank you, Heavenly Father … for this opportunity to stand up for our God-given inalienable rights,” proclaimed Jake “Yellowstone Wolf” Angeli (born Jacob Chansley), his face painted red, white and blue, and his torso tattooed with Norse symbols that his critics link to the extreme right.

“Thank you, divine, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator God for filling this chamber with your white light and love,” he added, in a prayer captured on video by a correspondent working for The New Yorker. “Thank you for filling this chamber with patriots that love you and that love Christ. … Thank you, divine Creator God, for surrounding and filling us with the divine, omnipresent white light of love and protection, of peace and harmony. Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists and the traitors within our government.”

Many phrases in this rambling prayer would sound familiar to worshippers in ordinary churches across America, said Joe Carter, an editor with the Gospel Coalition and a pastor with McLean Bible Church near Washington. But the prayer also included strange twists and turns that betrayed some extreme influences and agendas.

Read it all.

“So many people are being tempted to turn politics into an idol,” said Joe Carter, a pastor with McLean Bible Church. More and more Americans seem to believe that “what’s really important in the world is politics, while religious faith… https://t.co/41gLBsFpZw

— Herald Courier (@heraldcourier) February 6, 2021

From there:

With hardly a week going by with one of our clergy and or parish staff not having been exposed to someone with Covid-19 therein necessitating the cancellation of Sunday services and even Christmas Eve services, and with cases in many parts of the diocese still numerous or on the rise, we have made the decision for our spring 2021 Diocesan Convention to be held virtually. This gives our diocesan staff and your elected delegates not only clarity but time to make needed plans. While this is disappointing to our diocesan team and to me, we realize that to postpone the decision another month to see if the environment changes for the better only puts a greater burden on all to adequately coordinate and execute an effective online meeting. Therefore, this year’s Diocesan Convention on March will again be held online enabling not only broader participation from our congregations but also assuring all of greater safety and peace.

Often Moore has to tap-dance around the gap between his church’s beliefs and its behavior. He dismisses as a “manufactured controversy” the criticism of six SBC seminary presidents who in November released a public condemnation of critical race theory. “I don’t find any postmodern theory motivating those who are concerned for racial reconciliation and justice,” says Moore. “I find that what motivates such things is the Bible.” And while Moore has set himself apart from those who support the President, he declines to condemn those who opted to vote for Trump because they believed in the platform, not the man.

Moore thinks reports of the death of American Christianity are overblown. But as increasing numbers of Americans tell pollsters that they are not affiliated with any kind of religion, and in the wake of Trump, he wants the church to take a harder look at its priorities. “The biggest threat facing the American church right now is not secularism but cynicism. That’s why we have to recover the credibility of our witness,” he says. It’s one thing to dismiss the teachings of his faith as strange and unlikely, he notes, but “if people walk away from the church because they don’t believe that we really believe what we say, then that’s a crisis.” This is what he fears will be the legacy of an era in which people of faith put so much faith in a President. “There is an entire generation of people who are growing cynical that religion is just a means to some other end.”

Read it all.

“If people walk away from the church because they don’t believe that we really believe what we say, then that’s a crisis.” Theologian Russell Moore has a message for Christians who still worship Donald Trump https://t.co/zuNZzhdluv

— Karen Foong (@FoongKaren) January 26, 2021

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Help us, O God, to love one other as sisters and brothers, and to balance discipline with love, and rules with compassion, according to the example shown by thy saints Scholastica and Benedict. All this we ask for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

February 10th is the feast of Saint Scholastica of Nursia, Virgin: Umbro-Roman noblewoman, sister of Saint Benedict, ascetic, Benedictine nun, and founding Abbess of Plombariola, in Latium—where she died on this day in AD 543. pic.twitter.com/qY2EIrbvNx

— Tradical (@NoTrueScotist) February 10, 2021

O Almighty God, we pray thee, sow the seed of thy Word in our hearts, and send down upon us thy heavenly grace; that we may bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and at the great day of harvest may be gathered by thy holy angels into thy garner; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

pic.twitter.com/NHRFNlYpLB

— Sezgin Keskin (@sezginkeskin719) February 9, 2021

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.

–Mark 10:1-16

Winter sunrise colours pic.twitter.com/4OirzBy1Xp

— Nikon Photographer (@Astrid_Tontson) February 10, 2021