Dear Master’s Man,
The highest court in the land has passed its judgment. The headlines proclaim that a slim majority of Supreme Court justices considers freedom of sexual orientation a right for all Americans. This exchange of one set of values in favor of another does not come as a surprise to us who already know that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe (2 Cor. 4:4). June 26th, 2015 stands as a significant milestone in the American demonstration of this ancient reality.
In the coming days, you will be expected as a shepherd to provide commentary and comfort to your flock. This is a critical hour for pastors, and stands as another reminder of why proper training is crucial.
I’m writing this short message as one pastor to another. Media outlets...
Lifestyle
Dear Taylor Swift,
I have read your open letter to Apple where you give your reasons for refusing to allow your album ‘1989′ to be included on their forthcoming Apple Music streaming service.
I applaud it. It’s great to have someone with a huge following standing up for the rights of creative people and making a stand against the corporate behemoths who have so much power they can make or break someone’s career.
For instance, you say:
I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company
It...
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Dear friends,
You stand before the most important decision of your country’s modern history.
Up until now we left our politicians to deal with your crisis as a mathematical equation.
We allowed populists of the left and the right to use their rhetoric to divide us.
We have been silent for far too long.
No more.
This is the time to make your voice heard; where politicians have failed and technocrats have come short, it is you, the people of Greece, who will now decide your own fate.
We stand by your side and share the burden of your decision. It is time we unite our voices and we claim back our Europe of citizens.
Your decision is an important one. For yourselves, your family and your country. But also for our Europe as a whole.
Our challenges are common and so...
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Sir,
Greetings! (With all due Respect)
First things first, a very happy birthday to you Sir. May you achieve all the happiness in life, which you definitely are, and may you write many hundreds of books and hundred times the success.
I had first read The Alchemist when I was in class eight, five years back, when I, obviously, didn’t have the understanding enough to understand its depth, and hence I definitely re-read it again some time back. I don’t think my words are praise enough. They are just words, unlike yours, which spell out magic!
Over the years, I have read Brida, Eleven Minutes (personal favorite), The Devil and Miss Prym, By the River I sat Down and Wept and Witch of Portobello. And all these books have changed my life so much, which cannot be described in just...
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I think I'll start my open letter here, lying in my bed with a fractured ankle.
Seemingly endless TV series and movies can't seem to fill the void which life once filled. As you can imagine, life is now taking a complete standstill whilst the healing takes place (12-20 weeks) and some minor physiotherapy so my leg does not become thinner and less able than the other.
At this stage, (less than two weeks into my lengthy healing stretch) thoughts, emotions and memories plague my mind. Some moments are optimistic and bright, filled with hope for the future. Others are quite dark, filled with gloom and questions such as "will this ever end", "will I ever be the same again" etc going around my head.
Most conversations I have are injected with comments such as "stay positive" and "you'...
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Dear Pastor,
Tone can be tricky in writing. Picture me popping my head in your office door, smiling and asking if we could talk for five minutes. I’m sipping on my diet coke as I sit down.
You know that I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind, part of the reason you love me (mostly!), so I’m guessing that internally you brace yourself wondering what might be next.
I set my can down and this is what I’d say.
A few years ago I sat across from a woman who told me she doesn’t go to church on Mother’s Day because it is too hurtful. I’m not a mother, but I had never seen the day as hurtful. She had been married, had numerous miscarriages, divorced and was beyond child bearing years. It was like salt in mostly healed wounds to go to church on that day. This made me sad, but I...
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Dear LSU,
As a Gamecock fan, I had no expectations of winning against the Tigers this season, especially considering the last win South Carolina had was before I was even in high school. But as a Columbia resident, what I really did not expect was the overwhelming hospitality that LSU and the city of Baton Rouge has shown to the state of South Carolina in a time of need.
I live in an area of Columbia, SC that was greatly affected by the flood water. Last weekend, I woke up to sirens and heavy rain, and as I looked outside to see what was going on, I saw the lights from emergency vehicles reflecting off the water that surrounded my house. I watched emergency crews help my neighbors out of their homes with a boat in waist deep water. I paced the floor all morning watching the water...
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Dear America:
It’s time to speak up for mental health.
For many, it is impossible to think about mental health in America without thinking in terms of tragedy: police confrontations, heartbreaking suicides, mass shootings.
While this is the picture many see, this is not the true picture of mental health in America. The vast majority of people who suffer from a mental health condition are not violent, and most violent acts are committed by people who are not living with a mental health condition.
Behind the alarming headlines, what you’ll find is a tragic, yet mostly unrecognized crisis: a broken and underfunded mental health system and a society that has historically been afraid to talk about mental health in a meaningful way. Too often, and for too long, the people in our...
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Dear Minister
Welcome to your new role as Minister for Skills and Equalities, we wish you every success. With just nine months to a general election, your thoughts will undoubtedly be focused on what your policy and actions should be if you are re-elected, and I am taking this opportunity to offer a few suggestions.
It is often said that we are judged more by our actions than by our words, and that leads us all into a potential trap – the feeling that we must be seen to be doing lots of policy and actions in order to be appreciated. But my overriding message to you Minister, is that you should do only what truly improves, nothing more.
You see, SO much has already been done in the world of education – and, in particular, in the world of vocational education. In the past four...
2,804
Dear Katie Hopkins.
You don't know us, but sometimes you retweet the articles we write about you. You might retweet this one, who knows. We're writing today to say we're ignoring you from now on.
There was no real final straw, even though we write this as you speak at the Ukip conference, where so far today you've managed to claim the photograph of Aylan al-Kurdi was staged and suggested sealing up the House of Lords to "gas the lot of them".
We considered stopping writing about you when your infamous Sun column on migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean was published. That was the time you described your fellow human beings as "cockroaches" prompting the UN human rights chief to accuse you of using the language of the Third Reich, and of the perpetrators of the Rwandan...
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