Image from http://www.getreligion.org/2012/02/race-religion-maryland-and-gay-marriage/

“Marriage has been between one man and one woman since the beginning of time.”

–Maryland Delegate Michael J. Hough, R-Frederick

Delegate Hough has an interesting notion of “the beginning of time”. It must have taken place sometime after Old Testament folk like King Solomon and his 700 wives had expired. (The 300 concubines we won’t worry about since they weren’t exactly “wife” material…)

Although Hough and the rest of us will probably never know when the beginning of time really was, there’s no doubt that it’s certainly time for the Maryland House of Delegates to vote upon the gay marriage bill sponsored by Governor O’Malley.

The bill proceeded to the House on Tuesday after being approved by two House committees. Last year, a gay marriage bill died in the house after some delegates, including a number of black Democrats, refused to support it due to religious beliefs.

Now, the bill is back, and many proposed amendments have been rejected, including one that would’ve allowed parents to opt out of school programs that discuss gay marriage and offered teachers exemption from teaching it.

However, Delegate Kathleen Dumais, D-Montgomery, who is a supporter of the bill, says advocates may be willing to accept a few minor changes to the bill on the house floor.

Other delegates hope for more significant amendments to the legislation. Sam Arora, D-Montgomery, for example, hopes it will be amended to support civil unions instead of gay marriage.

But many same-sex marriage supporters argue that settling for civil unions sets us back into the times of “separate but equal.”

Will there be enough support in the House to pass the legislation? Or is the bill bound to face the failure it saw last year yet again?

We at USDemocrazy will be watching and sharing updates.. like we have since the “beginning of time”.

2 Corinthians 3:4-11

⁴ Such confidence we have through Christ before God. ⁵ Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. ⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰ For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

Reflection

With names like Red Bull, AMP, Full Throttle and more, these drinks promise to boost our energy and give us strength to accomplish more than without.  But, like everything else in this world, they wear out.  Like the name “5-Hour Energy” says, it lasts only for five hours!  The reality is that we get tired and every available solution is only temporary.  That was how it was with the old covenant.  While it had its own glory, the old covenant was only a temporary fix that revealed sin but not the power to overcome it.  Its glory was outshined by the new covenant of the Spirit that brought life.  And it is from this Spirit that we receive the competence to minister, love and forgive others.  While all of our self-competence or self-reliance will fail and end, our competence from the Spirit will never fail.

Response

Our competence as ministers of the new covenant of the Spirit comes from God. Let’s pray and ask God to fill us with His Spirit and to give us a greater competence to minister to those we are reaching out to.  Let’s pray that we will minister more in the Spirit’s power on the campuses, in our missional groups and churches.

EE Graduate Seminar

Physical Layer Wireless Network Modeling and Simulation
and my Technical Publishing Experience

Jon R. Ward
EE PhD Student, UMBC and
the Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory

11:30 – 12:45, Friday, 17 February 2012, ITE 237

Jon Ward, and coauthors Jack Burbank and Bill Kasch, recently wrote a book for IEEE Press/Wiley entitled "An Introduction to Network Modeling and Simulation for the Practicing Engineer." In this talk, Jon will provide a biographical summary of his UMBC research, the path that led to the book, and the technical publishing process. The talk will then transition to a technical discussion that highlights physical layer wireless network modeling and simulation from Chapter 3 of the book.

Jon R. Ward, PE graduated from NCSU in 2005 with an MSEE. He currently works at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) on projects focusing on wireless network design and interference testing of standards-based wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4, and IEEE 802.16. He has experience in wireless network modeling and simulation (M&S) and in test and evaluation (T&E) of commercial wireless equipment. He is currently a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), pursuing a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering.

Host: Prof. Joel M. Morris