My Journal

First thought across my mind: Why was he in Texas?

David Wilkerson, famed "The Cross and the Switchblade" protagonist in real life then, well respected as the preacher who turned whorehouses and gangs (ie. the gangster-turn-evangelist Nicky Cruz) of New York City around, passed just like that in a car crash.

Time Square Church (based in an old theater house) megachurch while being non-denomination (I thought it was "inter-denomination"), is very charismatic in style: music-wise and having a prominent healing center in the basement. It is probably the only pentecostal type church I don't mind re-visiting, mainly because of how all of their pastors have to sit on the stage and listen during the sermon, instead of running around doing their own thing - a method towards good elder relationship, I presume.

Putting Americans from some chaos thanks to the "birthers" as well as Donald Trump, the Whitehouse has Hawaii released the certificate. Of course, in denial, the response of them is naturally: Why wasn't this done sooner...etc.

Perhaps Obama doesn't have the "long form" document himself (only the standard short form is shared) and having the government to release the original is not a standard protocol. I don't know.

But unless his birthland is proven otherwise, patriotism is exhibited beyond papers and constitutions. Thus I feel the president puts it adequately:

We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We have better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do.

At least after about 10 seconds of screaming, the neigbhors come out yelling. I really thought the neighbor was going to say he stayed home like a little chicken when he heard the scream during the interview.

Good thing they put the video out and did not say it's too "gory" for the public to watch. But one month is definitely too long.

Some people questioned if the term "Easter" was of non-christian pagan origin.

I've encountered this issue a couple of times lately. And now thanks to this article at Christianity Today, I can generally summarize the issue:

The word "Easter" is traced to old English (Eostre) and German (Ostern). It is usually referring to the month of April, Eosturmonath (Eostre Month) according to Germanic calendar.

Venerable Bede, historian and English monk of the 7th century, appears to be the only source and claim that Eostre was the name of a goddess in Norse mythology. While Professor Ronald Hutton, 20th century British historian, intreprets the ancient term as "The Month of Opening".

The 1611 KJV Bible uses "Easter" in Acts 12:4 while other versions (NKJV, MKJV, NASB, NIV, etc.) use "passover". Original term being Pascha (Greek) or Pesach פסח in Hebrew.

Conclusion:

There's no ground even for Bede supporters or Christian attackers to say that the celebration of Easter Sunday is of pagan origin. It doesn't even share the same cause with the origins of other Pagan-Christian festivals such as Christmas or Halloween.