In 2020 in West Virginia we elect the Governor, one US Senator, the Commissioner of Agriculture and three of five Supreme Court of Appeals Justices. We will also elect School Board members, delegates, state senators, sheriffs and more. Especially in light of the many intrusions on constitutional rights now taking place, it will be important to choose wisely on June 9th, 2020 in the primary election and in November. Remember that the Supreme Court of Appeals, School Board members and Magistrates are chosen in the June election only. View the candidate interviews so that you can make informed choices. Interviews with Charles Robert Sheedy-Republican for Governor, William J. R. Keplinger-Democrat for Commissioner of Agriculture and Jody Murphy-Democrat for Governor were added on May 20, 2020.
2 Timothy 4
6 Now the time has come for me to die. My life is like a drink offering being poured out on the altar. 7 I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful. 8 So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. He judges fairly, and on the day of judgment he will give a crown to me and to everyone else who wants him to appear with power.
Richard: We need to speak the truth, no matter what. View my series on The Great Fraud: The COVID-19 Agenda at my blog. You can also search for the Richard Urban Show on you favorite podcast player.
Psalm 68
Our Lord and our God,
Bashan is a mighty mountain
covered with peaks.
16 Why is it jealous of Zion,
the mountain you chose
as your home forever?
17 When you, Lord God, appeared
to your people[c] at Sinai,
you came with thousands
of mighty chariots.
18 When you climbed
the high mountain,
you took prisoners with you
and were given gifts.
Your enemies didn’t want you
to live there,
but they gave you gifts.
19 We praise you, Lord God!
You treat us with kindness
day after day,
and you rescue us.
20 You always protect us
and save us from death.
World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon
Part 1
God and Creation
Chapter 1
God
The Creator
Heavenly Father and Mother
The Absolute Being relates to human beings as parent to child. The Jewish and Christian scriptures call God our Heavenly Father; in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha is called “Father of the World.” In some traditions the Absolute Being is also identified as the Divine Mother. Even religions that customarily employ patriarchal imagery for God also describe a motherly aspect: God as Nurturer, Fount of compassion and Sustainer. “There is something in the nature of God that corresponds to our maleness and our femaleness,” remarks Bishop Desmond Tutu. God’s fatherhood and motherhood may be identified with heaven and earth, cooperating to create and nurture all living things.
God’s parental role is not limited to the act of creation; it is an enduring affective relationship of the heart. Love reveals God’s parental aspect better than anything. Even Islam, which avoids describing God as a divine father, in light of its strong rejection of polytheism in which gods physically procreate, includes traditions that describe God’s love by analogy to a father’s love for his son.
Love is central to Father Moon’s teaching about the parenthood of God: “The relationship of the Father and His children is the foundation of the universe.” Elaborating, he teaches that we can and should establish a genuinely filial relationship to God, attending Him and sharing His heart. God, for His part, is ever searching for children who can meet Him in that intimate embrace.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name.
Matthew 6.9
You men are all my children,
And I am your Father.
For age upon age, you
Have been scorched by multitudinous woes,
And I have saved you all.
Lotus Sutra 3 (Buddhism)
The Great Principle, the Divine, is my womb;
I cast the seed into it;
There is the origin of all creatures.
Whatever forms originate in any wombs
The real womb is the Divine, the Great
Principle.
I am the Father that gives the seed.
Bhagavad-Gita 14.4 (Hinduism)
Thou art Father, Mother, Friend, Brother.
With Thee as succorer in all places, what fear
have I?
Adi Granth, Majh M.5, p. 103 (Sikhism)
For God, people of the whole world are all my
children. All of you equally must understand
that I am your Parent.
The daily concern of the Parent is single-
heartedly how best I can advance arrangements
to save all of you.
Ofudesaki 4.79; 14.35 (Tenrikyo)
Our Father, it is thy universe, it is thy will,
Let us be at peace, let the souls of the people
be cool.
Thou art our Father; remove all evil from our
path.
Nuer Prayer (African Traditional Religions)
Heaven and Earth are the father and mother of
the ten thousand things.
People are the sensibility of the ten thousand
things.
Book of History 5.1.1: The Great Declaration
(Confucianism)
What man of you, if his son asks him for bread,
will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will
give him a serpent? If you, then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7.10-11
Once a man came to the Messenger with his
son. The Messenger embraced they boy and
said, “Do you have mercy upon him?” The father
said, “Yes.” Then the Messenger replied, “Allah
is more merciful upon him than you.”
Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
Do you thus requite the lord ,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?…
He found him in a desert land,
in the howling waste of the wilderness;
He encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
Spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
The lord alone did lead him,
and there was no foreign god with him.
Deuteronomy 32.6-12
All ye under heaven! Regard heaven as your
father, earth as your mother, and all things as
your brothers and sisters.
Oracle of the Kami of Atsuta (Shinto)
Mother Earth, have pity on us and give us food
to eat!
Father Sun, bless all our children and may our
paths be straight!
Blackfoot Prayer (Native American Religions)
That breast of Thine which is inexhaustible,
health-giving,
by which thou nursest all that is noble,
containing treasure, bearing wealth, bestowed
freely;
lay that bare, O Divine Mother, for our
nurture.
Rig Veda 1.164.49 (Hinduism)
As one whom his mother comforts,
so will I comfort you;
You shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66.13
O Mother of Imupa, advocate for the whole
world!
What a remarkable Mother I have!
O Mother, a pillar, a refuge!
O Mother, to whom all prostrate in greeting
Before one enters her habitation!
I am justly proud of my Mother.
O Mother who arrives,
Who arrives majestic and offers water to all!
Yoruba Prayer (African Traditional Religions)