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y888 Article content Bill Federer’s book, Silence Equals Consent: The Sin of Omission – Speak Now or Forever Lose Your Freedom , describes sins of indifference, commission and omission. Indifference is turning a blind eye to the less fortunate, changing TV channels when scenes of hunger and disease fill the screen, taking another path at the sight of panhandlers and the homeless. Indifference occurs when we say, “That doesn’t regard me; it’s not my business; it’s society’s problem.” But, “He who has a chance to do good and does not do it, commits sin.” The daily prayer, “I have sinned in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,” warns us of indifference and omission. Christians have a history of political indifference and now, more than ever, Christians must engage with the world. Indifference to the needs of others around you is described in the parable of the well-dressed and well-fed rich man’s indifference to the hungry leper Lazarus every day at his gate. A peasant’s meal would be a monotonous diet of bread, vegetables and rarely meat, compared to this man’s. Omission occurs in the parable of a rich man who built more barns to store his harvest for retirement and omitting to share it with the poor. Sins of commission result from exercising of vices; sins of omission derive from the neglect of virtues. Sin is not necessarily theft, greed, violence, slander and infidelity. It comes from doing nothing. Despite their affluence, both rich men did nothing wrong. They did nothing, precisely, to lessen suffering. They were self-absorbed and apathetic; they were indifferent. The blindness to suffering all around us is much worse today with so much technology to distract us. Between the rich and poor lies a vast desert of indifference, apathy, unconcern and coldness. Why do Christians stay silent in the face of evil? They have been deceived by “be in the world, but not part of it.” They think that disengaging from the world will keep them safe. “Silence Equals Consent.” Christians must engage with the world to preserve religious freedom. What’s happened in this era of no religion is Christians are afraid to speak up and lost any influence in society. As freedom hangs in the balance, will Christian step up? Jesus says, “Truly I tell you that, just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” These least are the hungry and sick, the stranger and the prisoner, the poor and the abandoned, the sufferers who receive no help, the needy who are cast aside. On their faces we see Jesus’ face and hear his words: “This is my body.” Jesus separates the sheep from the goats at the Last Judgment. Those condemned (the goats) are not identified by deliberate actions against the least who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, or in prison. Instead, the condemned have only one thing in common: one or more sins of omission, commission and indifference: failing to recognize women, men, and children in great need as people loved by God. In the poor, we find Jesus, who, though rich, became poor. Reach Gene Monin at adios43@yahoo.com Share this Story : GENE MONIN: Sins of indifference, commission and omission Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn TumblrDon't Miss These Incredible AiRROBO Black Friday Deals - Unbeatable Prices Await!

PVBLIC Foundation Hosts Panel at COP29 on SIDS Center of Excellence and the Development Bank for Resilient Prosperity

CoreNest Capital Ignites Next-Gen Tech with New Investments in OpenAI, xAI, Weave Robotics, Blaze Money, Domu, Phonely, Andromeda Surgical, and Texture CapitalCINCINNATI (AP) — The Cincinnati Bengals took care of business and won three straight games for the first time this season. Cincinnati is playing its best football, but it might be too late to sneak into the playoffs, with five teams battling for the two remaining AFC postseason spots. At 7-8, the Bengals are on the bubble along with two other teams that have the same record, the Colts and Dolphins. To have a chance, the Bengals will need to beat the visiting Denver Broncos (9-6) on Saturday, then try to take down the Steelers (10-5) at Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale. They'll need some help from other teams, too. The rub for the Bengals is that they have yet to beat a team with a winning record this season. Now with some momentum for the first time, the Bengals will have to clear that hurdle. “It’s just what it’s supposed to feel like for us. This is our expectation," coach Zac Taylor said after the Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns 24-6 on Sunday. “We just put ourselves in a position to now play some real meaningful games. ... We found a way to get the win and now we can turn our focus to a short week and the Denver Broncos.” Joe Burrow became the first player in NFL history to throw for at least 250 yards and three or more touchdowns in seven consecutive games. One of his TD passes, to Tee Higgins, came as he was falling down. He finished 23 for 30 for 252 yards. ... Ja'Marr Chase continues to build his resume as he strives to win the receiving “triple crown.” He had six catches for 97 yards and a touchdown against the Browns and leads the league in receptions, yards and TDs. ... K Cade York tied a franchise record with a 59-yard field goal. “The guys have responded this way all season,” Taylor said. “We lost some heartbreakers to be quite frank, and games that just came down to the end. It doesn’t mean that we’ve had a bad football team and we weren’t in it. We’ve been in this, and now — I don’t want to say getting our confidence back, because we’ve had confidence — but we’re just making the plays necessary at the critical points of the game to take control of these games. That’s really what’s happened the last three weeks, and we’ve got to continue that.” Burrow has fumbled 10 times this season. Against the Browns, he lost a fumble on a strip-sack with the Bengals on the Cleveland 2-yard-line. Last week, S Jordan Battle scooped a fumble and ran it all the way back, only to fumble as he crossed the goal line, leading to a touchback. Against the Browns, he intercepted a second-half pass from Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the end zone. The Bengals' defense has nine takeaways in the past two games. Cincinnati's depleted offensive line allowed four sacks. The offensive line took a hit when tackle Amarius Mims went out with an ankle injury and didn't return. 5.1 — Yards per carry by RB Chase Brown, who seems to get better every week. He had 18 carries for 91 yards. The Bengals continue their improbable effort to slip into the playoffs when they host the Broncos in their home finale on Saturday. They finish the season the following week at Pittsburgh. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Some seniors outraged over being left out of federal plan to dole out $250 cheques

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A police officer responding to a report of a man with a gun inside a North Carolina supermarket was fatally shot Monday and authorities said a suspect was later taken into custody, authorities say. Police announced the death of Michael Horan, a Greensboro police officer, at an afternoon news conference, saying Horan was responding to a call about an armed person when he was shot before midday at a Food Lion store in Greensboro in the central part of the state. Ramona Miller told WGHP-TV she was shopping with her 6-year-old granddaughter when she heard shots fired. “We were on our way out and I was purchasing a lottery ticket and I was just sitting there and heard a ‘pop-pop’ and then ‘pop-pop-pop.’ I think I heard five shots,” Miller said. “At first I didn’t know it was a shooting ... but an employee yelled out ‘shooting! shooting!’ ” Miller said she and her granddaughter then left the store and police had already arrived. Authorities said Monday afternoon that the circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation and they did not immediately release further specifics of the shooting. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is expected to continue the investigatoin. Horan was hired in 2017 and became a sworn Greensboro Police Department officer in early 2018, Assistant Police Chief Milford J. Harris said. Horan served in the department’s patrol bureau. “He was an excellent officer. He had an outstanding reputation inside the department and in the community,” Harris said. Elsewhere, Gov. Roy Cooper said he had been monitoring the developments. Cooper said on the social media platform X that his officer had sent a “significant” number of to help aid in the emergency response in Greensboro. A heavy police presence was spotted outside the grocery store in Greensboro afterward. The store will remain closed while police continue their investigation, a Food Lion spokesperson said in a statement. The company plans to provide resources to its affected workers. It added that it was directing all questions to local law enforcement and cooperating with authorities. The shooting was another reminder that state lawmakers should strengthen resources and improve safety for law enforcement officers, said Democratic state Sen. Michael Garrett, who represents part of Guilford County where Greensboro is located. “During what should be a time of joy and celebration, another brave officer has been shot in the line of duty. Another family’s holiday season forever changed,” Garrett said in a Facebook statement. The Associated PressThe number of US troops in Syria has regularly surged higher than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed since at least 2020, and in recent months increased to more than double the roughly 900 troops the US has long said are in Syria, multiple defense officials familiar with the matter told CNN. The Pentagon said last week that the additional troops beyond the 900 are “temporary.” But on Monday, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, acknowledged that the numbers of forces in Syria “in general have increased over time as the threat has increased to baseline forces.” Ryder first revealed on Thursday that the number of troops in Syria is around 2,000, “significantly higher than what we’ve been briefing” in recent months and years. He also said that he only found out about the larger footprint there in recent days. The Army’s director of plans, operations, and training distributed the true number internally earlier this month, two officials told CNN. It is not clear when exactly the troop numbers reached their current peak, but the US surged additional assets and personnel to the Middle East following last year’s October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. On Monday, the Pentagon issued a new statement attempting to clarify the long-standing discrepancy about the number of troops in Syria. “In addition to the approximately 900 baseline troops, there are also approximately 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Syria that deploy for shorter durations as temporary enablers in support of force protection, transportation, maintenance, or other emerging operational requirements,” Ryder said. “The numbers of these additional temporary forces have fluctuated over the past several years based on mission needs but in general have increased over time as the threat has increased to baseline forces,” he added. Defense officials have long been reluctant to reveal the true troop numbers in Syria because it could risk angering neighboring partner countries, particularly Iraq, sources told CNN. When the Pentagon first acknowledged the larger troop presence, Ryder said there are “diplomatic and operational security considerations oftentimes with our deployments.” Syria isn’t the only country where the Pentagon has more troops deployed than it has previously said. In its statement Monday, the Pentagon acknowledged there may be more than 2,500 troops in Iraq, the baseline number the military has used for its military footprint in the country. But the Pentagon did not provide any additional details on how many more troops are in Iraq, only saying there are “some additional temporary enablers deployed on a rotational basis.” “However, due to operations security and diplomatic considerations, we do not have any more specifics to provide,” Ryder said in the statement. The vague reference to additional troops in Iraq leaves open the possibility of a significantly larger presence than was previously acknowledged, just as in Syria. The US military presence in Iraq is a sensitive issue for Iraqi officials, who have said publicly they want US troops out of the country. If the Iraqis saw the number of troops increasing in Syria, they’d fear the US was doing so in Iraq as well, officials explained, which it now appears may be the case. It is particularly delicate in the midst of negotiations about the future US military footprint in Iraq. For more than a year, Washington and Baghdad have engaged in a series of talks about the future of the US military presence in the country. In January, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani made the goal of the discussions clear when he said the aim was to “end the presence of the international coalition forces in Iraq permanently.” The US military footprint in Syria relies on support from US troops in Iraq, and a larger presence in the former could necessitate more troops in the latter. Defense officials insist the Pentagon has not misled the public about the core number of troops in Syria, which they have said since 2020 is around 900. Most of those are special operations forces, one defense official said, and the military rarely acknowledges changes to special operations troop levels. Officials say the additional 1,100 or so that have been stationed there in recent months are “temporary enabling” forces, primarily with the Army, that are meant to augment the core presence with logistical and defensive help. But those troops are typically replaced as soon as they finish their rotations, which are frequently three months or less, so the total number has consistently surged above 900 over the years, officials said. Concealing the true number of US troops in Syria dates to Donald Trump’s first administration. In 2020, the outgoing US envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffrey, acknowledged that his team routinely misled senior military leaders about troop levels there, which suggests it was not exclusively military officials keeping the number under wraps. “We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey told Defense One at the time . Trump in 2019 had agreed to keep roughly 200 to 400 US troops in Syria, but the actual number was “a lot more,” Jeffrey said. There are even more civilian contractors in the country. A report from the Congressional Research Service said there were more than 5,400 contractors in Iraq and Syria in the second quarter of 2024.

Premier League football returned this weekend after the final international window of 2024 and it wasn't without VAR drama. Manchester United secured a 1-1 draw away at Ipswich Town on Sunday evening in Ruben Amorim 's first game in charge of the club. Marcus Rashford opened the scoring inside the opening few minutes, but his strike was cancelled out by an outstanding goal from Omari Hutchinson before half time. While there wasn't any majorly controversial referee or VAR decisions during the game, the Premier League Match Centre was forced to make a statement before the break confirming the technology had been disabled for a freak reason. Anthony Taylor pulled the two captains aside to inform them VAR wasn't operational due to a fire alarm sounding at Stockley Park. READ MORE: Manchester United player ratings as Andre Onana good but three get 4/10 vs Ipswich Town READ MORE: Ruben Amorim's gestures show what Manchester United players must improve after Ipswich draw That was then followed by confirmation on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), as it was revealed the match would be operating without VAR until further notice. Fortunately, the half time whistle blew shortly after and there were no incidents that required VAR's intervention. United, though, were left frustrated they had their early lead slip after such a promising start. Before the second half kicked off at Portman Road, the Premier League released a second statement confirming VAR was back up and running after the incident. The entirety of the second 45 minutes was played with the technology in use, but neither side found a much-needed winner. United remain 12th in the league standings after 12 games, and sit 15 points behind leaders Liverpool . They are seven behind Manchester City , and six behind Arsenal as things stand. Amorim will hope his side can secure the first win of his tenure when they face Norwegian side FK Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League midweek. Next weekend, they host Everton at Old Trafford in the league. Try MUFC Pro NOW for free Subscribe to our brilliant app for the best way to enjoy the M.E.N's unrivalled Manchester United coverage. No adverts, pop-ups or distractions - just our brilliant content presented in the best way possible. Comprehensive, round-the-clock coverage of the Reds, with agenda-setting breaking news and insight from Samuel Luckhurst and our authoritative team of United writers Exclusive content for subscribers New interactive elements including (coming soon) quizzes to test your United knowledge. Try MUFC Pro for a front-row seat to the action at absolutely no cost for the first month. You can get started by downloading our app here on iPhone , or here on Android . If you a lready have our app, click on the ''MUFC Pro',' Subscribe' or ' Remove ads' links. *Free trial auto renews at £19.99 annually unless cancelled. T&C’s apply. Ad-free indicates that you will not be shown standard display ad formats with the articles that you read, selected articles may contain commercial messages/affiliate links where contractually required.