Four Christians arrested in Dearborn Michigan at Arab Festival

Hello Folks:

On Friday June 18th, Dearborn Michigan hosted its annual Arab Festival.  Four Christians of Arabic heritage were passing out literature on a public street outside the festival area.  One of them had a video camera and was recording the event.  Dearborn Police Officers arrested  them and confiscated the camera.  They were all charged with criminal offenses.  The US Constitution’s First amendment guarantees Americans the right to free speech, freedom of religion and the freedom of assembly.  While the city of Dearborn may restrict the time place and manner of speech it must not do so if the restriction is content based.  (Board of Airport Commissioners v. Jews for Jesus, 482 US 589 (1987).).  In this situation, Arab Christians were engaging in protected speech on a public street outside of the festival grounds and were arrested.  No crime had been committed and the public streets are a public forum.  This conduct by the City of Dearborn is absolutely improper and reprehensible.  If you are interested in expressing your displeasure at this, you may write a polite letter to public officials at www.cityofdearborn.org/contact-us

Ron

Christian Liturgy’s Jewish Roots and the Calendar

Hello:

In my last post,  I talked about the purpose of this thread and what liturgy was and its impact on believers.  In this post I want to look at how Christian Liturgy has Jewish roots and how this affects our church calendar.  Most Christians are aware Jesus was a Jew.  He was born to Jewish parents in a small town in Israel in the royal line of David.  (Matthew 1:1-15, 2:1 NASB).  His parents were observant Jews.  They went to Jerusalem ever year for the Passover.  (Luke 2:21,41 NASB).  When Jesus grew up he was an observant Jew.  He went to Jerusalem for the Passover.  (Matthew 26:17 NIV).  

In the Old Testament God instructed the Jewish people in how he wanted to be worshipped.  He established a place — the tabernacle — while the Jewish people travelled from Egypt to the land of Israel.  (Exodus 25:1-31:18 NIV).  He gave them the furnishings of the tabernacle, the formula for the oil and incense, the clothing for the priests and he high priest.  (Id).   God told his people about specific feasts and offerings to observe.  (Exodus 12:14-17;31:12-14 NIV).  Therefore, God told his people to worship in a special place, using special furniture, using special people who wore special clothes, and to worship at special times.  In other words, God set up a liturgical system for tabernacle worship and a calendar.  Since Christianity roots lie in Judaism, it makes sense for Christianity to continue along the same lines.

SPECIAL NOTE:  During this last post a number of you, I’m sure noticed that after certain sentences I placed a set of parentheses behind it such as (Exodus 25:1-31:18 NIV) and another one (Id).  You may have wondered what these were.  That is the purpose of this special note.  They are citation sentences.  Almost every one reading this post has had to write a research paper.  In a research paper, you have to cite your sources.  When you learned to do this you either used the footnote or end note system to cite your source.  In legal writing the citation sentence system is used.  Id is a shorthand sentence which means the previous cite was also used here.

Next:  The Church Calendar.

Ron

Constitution Protects the Individual

Hello:

First law post.  I am an attorney in Ohio and have my own firm — The Sebree Co., L.P.A.  Tim, who is a friend on Facebook asked me a question in a message.  Tim and I went to grade school and high school together and I think it was an excellent question.  So, I am going to post it here along with my short answer. I may expand on that answer in a future post.  Here is Tim’s question:

Ron: I just finished Sarah Palin’s book. She has become the face of the T Party Express and I wanted to find out more about her. She said something I have been trying to get my head around, that being “the role of government is to protect the individual”. Is there a constitutional basis for this statement? Tim

 

Here is my short answer:

 

Yes. When we were an English Colony, England had a strong central government that often trampled on our individual liberties. In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers said it best:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, …”

When forming the constitution, one of the problems the founding fathers encountered was how to have a strong central government that also balanced individual liberties and protect the individual. The solution as found in the Bill of Rights which were the first 10 amendments to the constitution. These were all protection of the individual’s rights and limitations on th federal governments. When the 14th Amendment was passed, the US Supreme Court applied the Bill of Rights to the States to limited State action.

Ron