Monday, January 5, 2009

Deaf Juror dismissed In Ohio (Update)

Hearing-impaired woman should not have been on jury, court says Does this mean that deaf jurors are disqualified from sitting on juries?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Mistrial caused by a Deaf Juror

Yesterday,The Columbus Dispatch reported that
Family outraged to learn of retrial The court concluded that boat owner Scott Speer of Fairlawn didn't receive a fair trial be cause a hearing-impaired woman was on the jury and she couldn't fully comprehend the vocal nuances in Speer's 911 call, a key piece of evidence in the case.

This decision will create alot of feedbacks from deaf and hearing-impaired citizens around United States. Could this cause problems for hearing jurors in deaf-related trials?

Friday, January 2, 2009

Interfaith Prayer and The Christian's Responsibility to Government

Evangelicals generally expect their clergymen to use Jesus' name whenever and wherever they lead prayer. Many conservative Christians say cultural sensitivity goes way too far if it requires religious leaders to hide their beliefs. "For a Christian, especially for an evangelical pastor, the Bible teaches us that we are to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. How can a minister pray any other way?" Franklin Graham said. "If you don't want someone to pray in Jesus' name, don't invite an evangelical minister." Graham, who in 2001 stepped in for his ailing father, ended the invocation with, "We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit."

President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Warren would say only that, "I'm a Christian pastor so I will pray the only kind of prayer I know how to pray."

Throughout the history of Christianity, Christians and non-Christians alike have criticisms about Christianity. I am one of many Christians who are wise enough to wonder what non-Christians think of us. Christians have responded to many of these criticisms, partially through the field of Christian apologetics. Apologetics is about answering the criticisms, fair or not, of the secular world. We all assumed that we have planned and executed our lives according to our own free-wills, but in reality, we were really never aware that our lives have always been guided by God because He knows how to handle our free-will decisions and when we do make them, God allow us to go through tough circumstances to wake us up from our own choices.

Church politics, controversies and worldliness have brought in the darkness that people cannot see the light. Some Christians want government set up their way, which mean they want Theocracy rather than Democracy. Political and Christianity will always be divided no matter how hard we try. God’s purpose in redemption was not to make people’s lives happy, healthy and free of trouble; His purpose was to rescue them from sin then conform them from the inside out to the image of His Son by the power of His Spirit. God has given us the grace to sanctify us.

True Christians knows that not everyone is willing to be a Christian. I can’t be like a Pharisee to make sure they don’t break God’s “rules”. I can’t force against their will to believe what I believe. Being a Christian is being a person whose primary form of witness is by their spiritual life, but they do not hide the fact that they are Christians and that they show their spiritual light through deeds first and then words. In our Christian fellowship (not individual), we must recognize that the Holy Spirit desires to take us and lead us, and use us as instruments through which He can express Himself in the community. I have learned that democracy does not give me any real power at all because in God’s providence, He allowed democracy to basically swamp each of us Christians among non-believers.

As a Christian, I know I will be facing those who disagree with me, including other Christians who think differently than I do. I am thankful that I do not live in an oppressive narrow kind of government however, you may notice that we live in a very oppressive narrow kind of society. Christian Grace is about loving other people who are very different and that we have the freedom to do so but at the same time, respect how they practice their beliefs. A Christian life in this world should be different from the world, being in the world but not of the world.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Law against texting while Driving: Does this discriminate Deaf drivers?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 80 percent of vehicle crashes and 65 percent of close calls are caused in part by driver distraction. One of the growing problems in driving is text messaging. One example case is when five teenage girls were driving to a vacation home in upstate New York when their sport utility vehicle crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer, killing all of them. The police later learned from phone records that the driver had been typing text messages on her phone just before she swerved out of her lane. Toxicology tests ruled out alcohol and drugs as possible causes. Article

Text Messaging is illegal in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington and the District of Columbia have a text messaging ban for all drivers. Many believed this is not discriminatory and it is a public safety issue for everyone. Cell Phone Driving Laws Research have shown that teenagers and Generation Y (ages 16-30) drivers are more likely to send text messages while driving.

What do you think?

New Year Resolution: Overcome personal flaws with GRACE

One of my New Year's resolutions is to over-come my flaws through God's grace. I have learned to understand the true nature of the Christian life which is unpredictable and expanding called "sanctification". God does not desire to destroy my will, but to sanctify “my will into His will”. As Christian, I know that the world is no longer my master and that I am an over-comer because of the Holy Spirit that is within me. That’s the definition of a Christian. That's a mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ. I have learned to accept the existence of my weaknesses. I am always searching and identifying my strengths and weaknesses rather than dwell solely on the negative aspects of my weaknesses. I will have to remember that I will often fall short of my resolutions that the world will not come to an end it that happens.

Failures are just lessons of bad habits that I keep bringing back. I just need to pick myself up and start again. Let the mistake be a lesson and learn to make adjustments as I go along. I know that God's love hopes all things (1 Corinth 13). I understand that God's Grace with love refuses to take human failure as final. With Christ in me, my human failures are never final. He is not finished with me yet.

God has given us the grace to sanctify us. The sources of "thorns" can be weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties. Paul just needed to focus on God rather than the problem. God uses thorns to perfect His "power is perfected in weakness". Through GRACE, "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:4).

The main thing to understand and remember is that Jesus is MY SHEPHERD that He will supply all my needs (Phil. 4:19) and that He knows everything about my life (Ps. 139:3), cares about me (1 Pet. 5:7), has the power for every difficulty (Ps. 62:11), is perfecting me to be like Christ (Phil. 1:6), and that nothing escapes Him (Ps. 147:5), that will lead me to be stable, not anxious living.

Its time for me to be serious about going to church and focus on grace that will help me overcome my personal flaws.

Happy New Year.