A Greek woman approached Jesus
and begged Him to remove the demon from her daughter.
“He said to her, Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.
She replied and said to him, Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps.
Then he said to her, For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter." (Mark 7:27-29)
Dear Friends –
The Church Fathers would take those words of Christ to emphasize that He was sent only to teach The Jews, whose nation God had chosen to be used as an example for the rest of the world. The rebuke by Jesus is no doubt insultingly acerbic to declare that fact; His mission didn’t have time for the Greeks, (being Gentiles or non-Jewish people and disliked by the Jews), and thus He belittlingly labels them “dogs” to make His point. Harsh words
to hear from Jesus, but that’s how committed He was to saving Israel first, with other peoples coming eventually. The most marvelous observation to me of Christ’s usually succinct words is that their moral themes were never just generally spoken, or for that particular person or time only, but richly laden with truths for many different people, situations and eras of humankind. Let’s examine more closely how this might apply to three current day examples.
Sticking with the dinner table theme introduced above by Christ, imagine any family of today gathered around the supper table, or not, because they are all out involved in self-interests. Father works late have sporting or interests events, mother has volunteered for yet another community effort, thus, packaged fast food is left out available 
for individual consumption when they arrive home. In this scenario, the “children” to be fed first is the family… not everybody’s self- interests… for pretty soon there is no family left, it will just be a bunch of people living under one roof. Family time should not be thrown away to the other interests (dogs), but those other interest should be incorporated where possible into each family member’s schedule. If a child is in a sporting event, the whole family goes to support their own; if a mother wants to contribute to community, why not choose an activity the whole family can contribute to in some way, and never should the mother absent herself so much from family time, that they suffer individualism for it. If father must work late, try and hold off on serving until he is home, or have dessert with him while he eats supper… a family that eats, plays and prays together, stays together.
Illegal immigration is certainly a national topic with much discussion on both sides, and to apply Christ’s words as a solution, would be to consider our nation as the “children” to be fed first… and yes, if we have scraps, that is what we give away. Homelessness is a gigantic crisis across our nation; for various reasons people are sleeping on the streets, addicts can’t afford rehab so they too exist in tent cities; veterans suffering PTSD can’t get treatment and care so they wander the byways or commit suicide. Poverty is prevalent in so many families existing on minimum wage, it requires schools to offer a free breakfast and lunch to emaciated children, while food banks and church donations can hardly keep up with the demand. We are doing a miserable job of taking care of our own and yet there are those who want to leave the borders wide open and welcome anyone in with open arms which means taking the food out of the mouths of our own starving and giving it away to complete strangers. We can’t build 
housing for our homeless or supply enough food for our poor, but yet some want to take millions of dollars to build housing to feed and care for foreigners at the border. Religious leaders will spout all sorts of Biblical quotes to emphasize loving and caring for the poor, and that’s true, but they never point out that it should not be at the expense of our own poor! Yes, if we have two tunics, we are to give one away (Luke 3:11), but God doesn’t tell us to give them both away and stand there naked! A family can decide to tighten their belts and take money from the food budget and buy groceries for the community food bank and survive fasting for a while, but not indefinitely. If there was just one cause that required our sacrifice, budget adjustments could be tolerated, but a nation has many different children or causes to feed, and priorities are necessary starting with our own poor before increasing them with more foreign poor.
My last example, and the most important, is directed to the non-Christian who like the woman above, will reach out to God in desperate times 
begging for help. The woman knows she is not fit to sit at God’s table as one of His Christian family, and when Christ rebukes her (which He doesn’t do to be mean, but as a test to see how committed her trust), the woman doesn’t argue her unworthiness, but acknowledges it, that yes, being unchristian she is a lowly nothing as is a dog… but even a worthless dog is entitled to a few scraps now and then she argues! Her desperation, honesty, and belief register with Christ's merciful heart and He cures her child. “God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing, and does His will, He hears him.” (John 9:31) That’s what you must hold on to as a non-Christian… while God doesn’t normally listen to sinners, if your mind, heart, and soul are in the right place and ready to believe… beg, and plead on your hands and knees before Almighty God for His mercy… you have nothing to lose by a sincere effort, but everything in the world to gain.
SHAME ON YOU, PETER BUTTIGIEG
Peter Buttigieg is a 37-year-old married gay man who is also Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and yet another entrant into the Democratic Presidential race for 2020. As all contenders in this jam-packed contest are want to do in the opening phase of their campaign, a provocative remark or stance is taken to immediately grab the media’s attention… and the more controversial or reprehensible the stance, naturally, the more free air time garnered. Peter is no different in these tactics and hoping to be the first gay President, he needs to get that out there right away, so what does he do but uses the Christian beliefs of Vice President Mike Pence as a scapegoat to make himself look the victim of biased irrational thinking. The Vice President does not hide his Christian beliefs and has quite often openly professed himself against gay marriage, and for that Pete
retorted that he wished “the Mike Pences of the world would understand that if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.” Of course what Pete is implying here, is that his physical creator is God, when in reality that is very, very wrong… the creator who made him to be queer is humanity, not Almighty God! Pete, like most homosexuals, needs to declare this malady was not his choice and being imposed upon him is therefore a justifiable lifestyle… that is also wrong. Our physical life is pretty much a genetic hand-me-down, while our spiritual life is created when Almighty God picks up that material earthen body and blows into it the Holy Spirit. Yes, the original perfect physical pattern was established by Almighty God with Adam and Eve; male and female He created them, to unite and produce a family. By their Original Sin, however, humanity has suffered the consequences with disease and death brought into existence once perfection was violated. Through the evolution of sin, mankind has created all the wrongs of life, not Almighty God. The disease of alcoholism began way back when and continues to this day through various forms of sin and weakness, not that Almighty God made the first alcoholic! When an alcoholic male marries an alcoholic female, it is pretty certain they are passing on the tendency for alcoholism through genetics to any children born of their union… and so it is for many other behaviors. Scientists will have to get a handle on whatever the cause and cure possible for homosexuality, but in the meantime, homosexuals, like alcoholics, should use the tenants of AAA that implore God’s help to overcome the tendency. Fighting this sexual perversion by abstinence and with God’s help, would be the only acceptable lifestyle to Him because He considers it one of the worst sinful abominations committed; God ordered Moses to tell the people, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.” (Leviticus 18:22) This sin infuriated Almighty God so thoroughly, that He annihilated the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for this unrepentant sin by raining down fire and brimstone as an example to the reality of Divine Retribution, which is most definitely always bestowed on the ungodly. For self-proclaimed religious Pete Buttigieg, to feign ignorance of this eminent Christian doctrine is absolutely ludicrous, and he further compounds his display of ignorance with his erroneous statement that God is his creator! Pete has drifted into the Episcopal Church, some of which perform gay marriages for the likes of Pete and his husband, and for that deviation from traditional Christianity, those churches have fallen into disrepute, which undoubtedly will also earn God’s wrath. Shame On You Peter Buttigieg, who seemingly had the material intellect to graduate from Harvard and Pembroke as a Rhodes Scholar, only proving you have education, not wisdom; you are obviously so lacking in The Holy Spirit who bestows wisdom only on His children… you have no right to call yourself Christian for there is not one ounce of Christ residing in your being! You falsely use God’s Image for your promotion and betterment and that is called blasphemy, another sin for you and one so serious, “it will never be forgiven.” (Matthew 12:31) Finally, with a little poetic license, I use against you the words you first uttered to gain public attention --- “I wish the Peter Buttigiegs of the world would understand that if you’ve got a problem with who we Christians are that are anti-gay marriage, your problem is not with us. Your quarrel, sir, is with our Creator, who calls homosexuality an abomination.”
