Confessional Lutherans impose ashes on Ash Wednesday, too. It's not necessarily a sign of fasting, but can be and certainly is not done to "look gloomy." In other words, it's not done to be seen no more than when you pray publicly at your church on Sunday.
So, why do Confessional Lutherans observe the imposition of ashes? There are many good reasons, but certainly because ashes are a long-standing biblical symbol of repentance and mortality. Genesis 3:19, "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return." Those words are typically spoken when ashes are placed on the forehead of a person in the sign of the cross. Job repents in “dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Daniel prays with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Daniel 9:3). The people of Nineveh sit in ashes in repentance (Jonah 3:6). For Confessional Lutherans the imposition of ashes is a visible sign preaching the law.
The imposition of ashes is an adiaphoron. Meaning, the Christian is free in Christ to practice it. There is nothing in Scripture forbidding the practice. Not even Matthew 6:16 which was quoted as if it forbade the practice. It doesn't.
I say this with all due respect to @realDonaldTrump . When I thought this was a limited strike to go after Maduro, I was willing to defend it. But now that I hear we will be "running Venezuela," I have some concerns. Because I've lived at the business end of this kind of foreign policy and it didn't work out well.
So as a Trump supporter, Im asking...
Why are WE responsible for ensuring a "proper transition" takes place in Venezuela???
How many troops are we dedicating to that venture?
What do we consider a "safe, secure and independent" Venezuela to even look like? How do we measure when we have achieved it?
How much blood and treasure are we willing to dedicate to this venture?
What does the US get out of this?
I genuinely want to understand how this is supposed to work.
Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska warns that if the US secures control over Venezuela’s oil fields, after already moving into Guyana, it could end up overseeing more than half of the world’s reserves. In his view, Washington would then be able to hold oil prices near $50 a barrel, putting serious pressure on Russia’s state-capitalist economic model.
A reminder this chart is complete nonsense.
They count murders with no political motives as right-wing (prison murders) but didn’t count Luigi Mangione murdering a healthcare CEO as left-wing.
The ADL’s “methodology” is a joke, and purposely so.
It was a bolt-action .30-06 with wood furniture, the fuddiest deer gun there is
You can own one in the UK & most European countries
The only common-sense gun safety law that would have stopped this is disarming anyone with an estradiol prescription