With all the publicity regarding sexual crimes against children, society feels less threatened when strong laws are in force limiting where sex offenders can live, work and play. They are led to believe that convicted sex offenders are very likely to commit new crimes, and are a threat to the community. This book exposes many of the myths surrounding the preceived threat of allowing sex offenders to live in our communities. It expalins how our criminal justice system has failed to apply justice when dealing with these cases.
In today's society, men and women who have committed sexual sin and have paid their debt to society and have truly repented of their sin to God are shamed, shunned, and shoved to the bottom of society and told, "We do not want you." We are seeing a paradigm taking place right before our eyes. We are truly seeing history repeating itself. As we look back in history, you will see how a person who had contracted leprosy was shamed, shunned, and shoved to the bottom of society as being unclean and unacceptable. Now fast-forward to our time period, and here is the paradigm that emerges and corresponds with that of a leper: the individuals who have been labeled "sex offender" are required to register and, in most cases for a lifetime, to make sure everyone around them know about the label they carry. Where is the forgiveness spoken of in the Word of God? We must not solely look at the sex offender but also those who have been victimized by the offender. Equal restoration should take place with those who have been offended. Trusting in the Lord and being led by the Holy Spirit, the Lord will, if allowed to, bring complete healing and restoration to all who have been offended against. Only those who are hard-hearted and not willing to reach out to the Lord for healing and restoration will be left to agonize over the offense. Whether you are the offended or the offender, we serve a God that is a God of victory. God has called each and every one of us to live a life of victory over Satan. As the Scripture says, "Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:36-39 KJV).
This fascinating cultural and medical history of leprosy enriches our understanding of a still-feared biblical disease. It is a condition shrouded for centuries in mystery, legend, and religious fanaticism. Societies the world over have vilified its sufferers: by the sheer accident of mycobacterial infection, they have been condemned to exile and imprisonment—illness itself considered evidence of moral taint. Over the last 200 years, the story of leprosy has witnessed dramatic reversals in terms of both scientific theory and public opinion. In A DISEASE APART, Tony Gould traces the history of this compelling period through the lives of individual men and women: intrepid doctors, researchers, and missionaries, and a vast spectrum of patients. We meet such pioneers of treatment as the Norwegian microbe hunter, Armauer Hansen. Though Hansen discovered the leprosy bacillus in l873, the 'heredity vs. contagion' debate raged on for decades. Meanwhile, across the world, Belgian Catholic missionary Father Damien became an international celebrity tending to his stricken flock at the Hawaiian settlement of Molokai. He contracted the disease himself. To the British, leprosy posed an "imperial danger" to their sprawling colonial system. In the l920s Sir Leonard Rogers of the Indian Medical Service found that the ancient Hindu treatment of chaulmoogra oil could be used in an injectable form. The Cajun bayou saw the inspiring rise of leprosy's most zealous campaigner of all: a patient. At Carville, Louisiana, a Jewish Texan pharmacist named Stanley Stein was transformed by leprosy into an eloquent editor and writer. He ultimately became a thorn in the side of the U.S. Public Heath Department and a close friend of Tallulah Bankhead. The personalities met on this journey are remarkable and their stories unfold against the backgrounds of Norway, Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, South Africa, Canada, Nigeria, Nepal and Louisiana. Although since the l950s drugs treatments have been able to cure cases caught early—and arrest advanced cases—leprosy remains a subject mired in ignorance. In this superb and enlightened book, Tony Gould throws light into the shadows.
The glamorous world of a silent film star’s wife abruptly crumbles when she’s forcibly quarantined at the Carville Lepers Home in this page-turning story of courage, resilience, and reinvention set in 1920s Louisiana and Los Angeles. Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict. Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease. At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate. As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis. PRAISE FOR AMANDA SKENANDORE’S BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY “Intensely emotional…Skenandore’s deeply introspective and moving novel will appeal to readers of American history.” —Publishers Weekly
‘Mark Harrison's book illuminates the threats posed by infectious diseases since 1500. He places these diseases within an international perspective, and demonstrates the relationship between European expansion and changing epidemiological patterns. The book is a significant introduction to a fascinating subject.’ Gerald N. Grob, Rutgers State University In this lively and accessible book, Mark Harrison charts the history of disease from the birth of the modern world around 1500 through to the present day. He explores how the rise of modern nation-states was closely linked to the threat posed by disease, and particularly infectious, epidemic diseases. He examines the ways in which disease and its treatment and prevention, changed over the centuries, under the impact of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and with the advent of scientific medicine. For the first time, the author integrates the history of disease in the West with a broader analysis of the rise of the modern world, as it was transformed by commerce, slavery, and colonial rule. Disease played a vital role in this process, easing European domination in some areas, limiting it in others. Harrison goes on to show how a new environment was produced in which poverty and education rather than geography became the main factors in the distribution of disease. Assuming no prior knowledge of the history of disease, Disease and the Modern World provides an invaluable introduction to one of the richest and most important areas of history. It will be essential reading for all undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in the history of disease and medicine, and for anyone interested in how disease has shaped, and has been shaped by, the modern world.
Cheerleading, mean girls, shopping . . . and leprosy? High school is about to get complicated. For fans of Before I Fall and Exit, Pursued By a Bear. Abby Furlowe has plans. Big plans. She's hot, she's popular, she's a cheerleader and she's going to break out of her small Texas town and make it big. Fame and fortune, adoration and accolades. It'll all be hers. But then she notices some spots on her skin. She writes them off as a rash, but things only get worse. She's tired all the time, her hands and feet are numb and her face starts to look like day-old pizza. By the time her seventeenth birthday rolls around, she's tried every cream and medication the doctors have thrown at her, but nothing works. When she falls doing a routine cheerleading stunt and slips into a coma, her mystery illness goes into overdrive and finally gets diagnosed: Hansen's Disease, aka leprosy. Abby is sent to a facility to recover and deal with this new reality. Her many misdiagnoses mean that some permanent damage has been done, and all of her plans suddenly come tumbling down. If she can't even wear high heels anymore, what is the point of living? Cheerleading is out the window, and she might not even make it to prom. PROM! But it's during this recovery that Abby has to learn to live with something even more difficult than Hansen's Disease. She's becoming aware of who she really was before and what her behavior was doing to others; now she's on the other side of the fence looking in, and she doesn't like what she sees. . . Darkly comic but ultimately touching, Confessions of a Teenage Leper is an ugly duckling tale with a surprising twist.
What if Jesus were born in the Twenty-first century, instead of the First Century? Who would he choose as disciples? What challenges would he make to today's churches? In FRESH: 21ST CENTURY JESUS, Steve Niswanger presents a "fresh" image of Jesus as He might appear in our hurried and hassled 21st-century world. By exploring some of the most well-known stories in the Gospels with information regarding the historical, political, and cultural contexts of First century Israel, the author reveals Jesus in a way that is fresh, new, clean, bright, and unspoiled. The author takes himself and the reader on a journey that imagines Jesus as if he moved on the earth in his bodily form today, just as he did in the First century. The book reaches its climax as Mr. Niswanger breaks completely into prose fiction, depicting a fascinating 21st Century Jesus interacting with 21st Century people who are analogous to the First century people with whom Jesus interacted in the Bible. This book brings Jesus "up close and personal" with our modern world and reaffirms His timeless message of mercy, grace, and salvation. A practicing attorney, Steve Niswanger has bachelor's degrees from Duke University in English and Public Policy Studies and a J. D. degree from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. In 2009, Goldline Research recognized him as one of the top nine attorneys in the Southeast. He is a former officer in Kiwanis of Little Rock and Kiwanis International and a board member of Youth Home, Inc. His community activities include serving as a board and committee member at Saint James United Methodist Church in Little Rock and speaking engagements at numerous bar association-sanctioned seminars. He is a certified United Methodist lay speaker and is accredited to speak at United Methodists churches throughout Arkansas.
Significant change is best achieved by knowing others are praying for someone in prison and, most importantly, by reminding them that God has not given up on them. This book is a collection of twenty-eight Into the Light main articles written since 1997. Each article speaks directly to issues that must be faced while on the journey. “Someone understands me” is the most frequent response to the newsletter. The author knows these feelings firsthand. 20 20
This is a book of short homilies on the Gospels for the Sundays and celebrations of Year B, featuring the Gospel of Mark. Each homily discusses in a simple and straightforward way the core message of the reading and its application to everyday life. It makes a wonderful companion and guide for those who prepare the homilies as well as those who want further reflection on what they hear at Mass.
An "expert in the law" once asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life--and his question initiated a very interesting conversation. The Law says to "love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus pointed out, so the next logical question is, "Who is my neighbor?" Rather than offering an exhaustive list of neighbors and non-neighbors, Jesus told a story . . . the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Out of that famous parable, Dr. Wayne Gordon draws more than forty characteristics of the man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the road to Jericho--the character Jesus created to show Christians how to recognize their neighbors. Dr. Gordon brings that character vividly to life in Who Is My Neighbor?, and helps readers use Jesus' parable as a reference point for their interactions in their community and the world. And as readers catch Jesus' vision of neighborliness, they will also find practical suggestions for meeting needs and changing the lives of those around them . . . that is, their neighbors!
