Matt 18:12-14

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

Luke 15:4-7

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Reflection:

Here we see the incredible celebration over repentance or turning from our lost ways and being found by God.  Why would God care about ‘one’ when ‘99’ are still with Him? These passages speak volumes of the love and care of a true shepherd in that all sheep are accounted for – no one is less than the other – and expressing this genuine joy once the lost one has been found.  We see the wonderful result of redemption in action as there is a reason to rejoice even when just one person is now united back with the Father.

Response:

Knowing what we have experienced and continue to receive from the loving hands of the Father, we can’t help but think that this could also be enjoyed and received by those who are not yet in the fold. As followers of Christ, we are compelled to share through our lives, so that others are drawn into the life that is found in Him. Let’s pray today that we will be truly generous with our lives, so that in the end there is rejoicing in God’s kingdom when the lost come back home to the Shepherd of us all.

Image from ABC News

We at Democrazy have heard about allergies to peanut butter and bee stings and even the sun (okay, maybe that last one was on an episode of House…), but we hadn’t heard about the apparent algebra allergy epidemic… until Forever 21 made a tshirt about it.

Forever 21 is the second store in as many weeks to face controversy over some of their back-to-school clothes lines.

Last week, JC Penny faced outrage over a tshirt that had its female wearers proclaimed, “I’m too pretty to do my homework, so my brother does it for me.”

The store was faced with so much consumer backlash that it ended up pulling the shirt off the market.

But apparently Forever 21 didn’t learn their message that stupid girl stereotypes aren’t selling.

The tshirt was brought to the attention of the blogosphere yesterday, when a Reddit user saw it at the store and filed her own protest.  She attached a post-it to the shirt that read “SMART girls are cool too.  Don’t buy this top.”

In case you don’t have the time to head out to the nearest Forever 21 and take part in your own vigilante post-it activism, you can sign this petition to urge Forever 21 to pull this shirt and rethink their sexist messaging.

Because as Shelby Knox tweeted this morning, “Women aren’t ‘allergic to algebra’ but we are allergic to sexism.”

UMBC public policy faculty have offered valuable perspectives on local politics in the lead-up to the Baltimore City primary election, appearing in print media as well as on TV and radio. Most recently, Eric Zeemering, a new assistant professor of public policy, spoke about the role of Baltimore’s city council president on WYPR. He noted, “a lot of power can come to an individual through their ability to persuade and lead other people towards decisions. And the council president can exercise that persuasive power both on the City Council as a whole and on the Board of Estimates.”

Donald Norris also appeared on WYPR, discussing the always-contentious issue of redistricting on the program “Maryland Morning” with Todd Eberly, a UMBC alumnus and now assistant professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Norris also reflected for the Baltimore Sun on the final push for votes in city’s mayoral primary as well as early fundraising by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman ahead of the next statewide election.