Merry Christmas

Many people believe that Christmas is about being with family and exchanging gifts, and celebrating the new year. Although that is partiality true, there is so much more behind the true meaning of Christmas. People stray away from the fact that Christ was born on Christmas, and was a savior for all. From God, someone to save us. And that's the reason we should be celebrating. And instead of praising material things, take this time to reflect and truly realize all God has done but putting Christ on this Earth. This is the time to give thanks to God, and to show love to everyone. Merry Christmas :)

Invisible Children

If the name doesn't say it all. Invisible. Invisible Children is an organization that helps save the lives of hundreds of thousands of children that are taken from their homes and forced to fight in a  war that has been going on for over two decades. 

This organization was founded by a group young men, Jason Russell, and Laren Poole.Who all had the same love for making films and documentaries. They wanted to travel to Africa to film, but what they saw, and what they learned would change their lives, and soon to be  many others. 

The war that has been taking place for so long is located in Uganda. This war has been going on for 23 years. A group called the LRA (Lord's Resistance  Army) Is a military group that attacks the villages of Uganda, capturing the children to fight.  Joseph Kony is the leader of this group. It's amazing what one man can do to change and destroy so much, and kill so many people. 

Kids that have been captured have been taken at such young aged, and of the 1.8 billion, in the past year; 900,000 have returned home.

The main purpose of the Invisible Children organization is to help those children go home, and to keep others from being taken.

Other goals that they have is to protect the villages of Uganda from any futher attacks, they have set up Early Warning Radion Towers to provide the people with some heads up warning them that the LRA could be coming towards them. Also, the arresting of Joseph Kony, and the leading forces of the LRA to help the army become weak.  
In my opinion, I think that the U.S government should have stepped in a lot sooner, so maybe the attacks, abductions, and murders could have been reduced. But I do believe that Invisible Children is a leading force in the fight for peace.  

Westboro Baptist Church

                  If the title of their website doesn't say enough, "godhatesfags.com". The website belongs to maybe the most insane group of religious beings, ever. The Westboro Baptist Church. Established in 1995, Westboro Baptist church isn't your typical church, the Westboro Baptist Church is  an independent baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities. They are set out to preach the Bible, and in doing this, talk about the wrongs of adultery, homosexuality, and more. This church has been known for picking funerals of people that have passed away in the war. They say that they reason that they "preach hate" is because that's what the Bible does. They also say that Preist don't tell you what you NEED to hear about that's in the Bible, rather; they tell you what you WANT to hear. 


 Peoples views on this Church? 
93% of people are against it, that's a big majority. Someone said;


"When a group of ignorant, inbred rednecks get together and fom a church, you can expect them to spout nothing but hate. If God hates anyone, it,s the WBC"



People feel strongly about the wrongs that this Church has presented. What they do isn't right, they have no room to judge others on what they believe. 
In my own opinion, their nuts. I don't believe that they have good morals I've honestly never seen a group of people with that much judgement on others, it's wrong. People can believe what ever they would like, but when it comes down to it, the way they show how they feel is a few steps too far. To be able to judge someone that easily, and to preach they things they do, I feel it goes against everything God says. One of the main messages that the Bible portrays is the message of love. Being a part of Christianity, following the Bible means understanding what the main ideas are. And, the members of this church don't seem to really understand. I also think it's immoral to judge someone for their sexual orientation, and to say that God does not love them because of it, is just cruel. 

Cyber Bullying

With all technology we have now a days, it's hard not to get caught up in drama or rumors, and bullying. One of the most popular forms of bullying is cyber bullying. But what exactly is cyber bullying? Its when someone is tormented, harassed, threatened, humiliated, embarrassed, or targeted by another person. Cyber bullying is taken place in many forms of electronics, the most popular being over the phone. Over 80% of cyber bullying is done threw cell phones, the other most popular way is through the Internet. People use social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace as ways to connect with people. But with the power of being able to do that, but with that power, the power to bully is just as strong, and likely. People don't understand what the effects of cyber bullying actually are. Cyber bullying can and has led to suicides, depression, anxiety, stress, and self inflicted injuries.The number of teens that have been bullied, that same number have been engaged in bullying. And of that number, less than 25% tell an adult, or counselor about it.  


http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

There are many ways that cyber bullying can be stopped, and one is through getting the message across. Most celebrities that teens look up to have taken a stand against bullying, and are speaking up for the kids that are victims. Another way is informing teens about the consequences of cyber bullying. Bullying has a negative effect on everyone that it comes in counter with, cyber bullying is the most common way of bullying, and by telling people how it can actually effect someone is the first step in helping to fight to stop it.


http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html

It needs to stop.

Jamey Rodemeyer. Yet another innocent victim who has taken his life because of bullying. Jamey was a fourteen year old teen going through the troubles of finding who he is. Along with trying to realize his sexuality, came bullying. In a YouTube video Jamey made he says, 

“That's all you have to do. Just love yourself and you're set. And I promise you, it'll get better,”  
 Unfortunately, the bullying didn't stop. And Jamey was done with it. 


According to an article on abcnews, the comments that Jamey had to hear everyday were mostly about his sexuality. He was called many names, and someone had even said “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it It would make everyone WAY more happier!”

People don't realize what words can do, and in this case it was too little to late. 

World wide known artist Lady GaGa was Jamey's BIGGEST idol. She also stands up for gay rights, and is maybe one of the strongest believers that bullying is wrong. She decided to speak up. She dedicated her song "Hair" To Jamey, a song about really finding who you truly are. Ms.GaGa had set out to get the rights that Jamey, along with all other kids being bullied deserved. 


I talked to some of the kids in my religion class about their views on bullying 


Emily B. "Its wrong and it should never happen in life. And Jamey shouldn't have gone through what he did." 


 Hannah S. "Enough is enough. This should be ended."


Ethan W. "Bullying is bad. It can't happen anymore. We need to do something."

After reviewing the Bishop Kearney Bullying policy i realized Kearney has a strict policy about bullying, in all forms. Including, cyber-bullying, rumors, and physical bullying. The consequences of these acts are serious. 

Be Responsible

Everybody has responsibilities. Even as a little kid.
As we get older our responsibilities grow more serious, and so do the consequences if we don't complete them, or go against them.

One good example of having responsibility is babysitting. You not only have to take care of the child, but the house and everything in it as well.
Some teens find babysitting an awesome opportunity to have people over. Being young and  not thinking about what the consequences of not handling these responsibilities, teens make the wrong choices.
Inviting people over a house that isn't yours is not only rude, but it's not part of your responsibility, it's to take care of the child.
People need to think about what it is there told to do before they do it, and do what they need to.