Desmond Hatchett (YouTube)
And you thought Octomom had her hands full—a Tennessee man who has fathered 30 children is asking the courts for a break on child support.
Desmond Hatchett, 33, of Knoxville has children with 11 different women, reports WREG-TV.
The state already takes half his paycheck and divides it up, which doesn’t amount to much when Hatchett is making only minimum wage. Some of the moms receive as little as $1.49 a month. The oldest child is 14 years old.
Hatchett explains how he reached such a critical mass: He had four kids in the same year. Twice.
Back in 2009 when Hatchett was in court to answer charges that many of the mothers were not receiving child support, he had 21 children. At the time, he said he was not going to father any more kids, but he ended up having nine more in the past three years.
The state cannot order Hatchett to stop making babies. He hasn’t broken any laws, according to the report.

J’can youth tells of struggles with homosexuality
BY CANDIESE LEVERIDGE Online reporter [email protected]
Saturday, May 19, 2012
CORBIN, a 21-year-old homosexual who resides in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, says he has been a victim of discrimination and has decided to speak out openly against homophobia, which he claims is rampant in the country.
Corbin, a human rights advocate, said he felt more confident about championing the cause of gays because of the decision by some countries to mark Thursday as the ‘International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia’.
The tall, introverted young man said he had been fortunate not to have been exposed to violence because of his sexual preference, but the torture of not being able to be his true self was ‘horrendous’.
“There was this time (when) my best friend and I were seeking to rent a place together since it is cheaper for two persons to share utility bills, (but) the landlady refused to take our information because she was adamant that we needed her place for more than renting as we were a homosexual couple,” Corbin shared.
“It is just disheartening how we jump to conclusions as a people and have such myopic views about lesbian, gays and bisexual people,” he added.
Corbin, who knew from an early age that he was attracted to men, said growing up he was teased by his peers who called him ‘Sharon’ and other female names, and was referred to as his mother’s ‘big daughter’ while he attended a prominent co-educational school in Clarendon, a rural parish in South Central Jamaica.
“I was seen as different from boys my age, and despite my efforts on my tenth birthday in the fourth grade to ‘man up’ and appear more masculine, I was in a world by myself,” he said. About that time Corbin also realised that he had an overwhelming sexual attraction to boys, but he was taught that this was wrong.
An ardent churchgoer who believed in the Bible, the teachings of Christ and the Church, Corbin said this unending aspiration for “worldly things” made him feel even more guilty.
“I had nowhere to go but church, which was hardly a place of refuge given my situation; I had no one to turn to either,” he said.
Confused and ashamed of himself as he tried to fit in socially, Corbin, who was in denial, said he began bashing other suspected homosexuals in an attempt to fit in with what he called ‘the accepted homophobic culture’.
Said he: “I am very saddened by my subscription to this expectation, but the truth is most young people my age are guilty of this. It’s an almost innate thing for you to do as a homosexual or questioning young man.” He said that denial worked to an extent, so much so that when he finally ‘came out’ while attending university, people were surprised.
However, his challenges with discrimination never ended. “I remember one evening, about three male friends and I went to a restaurant in Liguanea. We were hungry and decided to meet up; the waiter (a male) refused to serve us because ‘him nah serve no fish’. This was about 2008 and my first contact with expressed homophobia. I was livid. We got up and left and one of my friends spoke to the manager who said he would deal with the issue,” said Corbin.
It was after this that he began to fight discrimination, arguing that it is in this sort of environment that diseases such as HIV/AIDS are able to engulf a society. He said that he began to read on issues surrounding human rights and homosexuality, asking people questions and filling the gaps. He later went on to study human rights at the post-graduate level “because I thought I needed a broad understanding around the theories of rights and processes of change”.
However, even without the academic qualifications, Corbin insisted that he would have chosen the human rights field in which to work. “My aim is to ensure Jamaica is a place I can live in, that my friends, family and everyone can feel secure regardless of their sexual orientation. I also want to know that other people (heterosexuals) can feel safe and are encouraged to love lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons around them.
He blamed the Jamaican Government for what he said has been its failure to remove punitive laws, such as the Buggery Act, which continue to “create an enabling context for human rights abuses”.
Corbin charged that laws criminalising same-sex intimacy fuelled counterproductive behaviour, as gays have been afraid to visit health care centres and pharmacies to purchase products to protect themselves.
“After 30 years, the stigma and discrimination continue to hinder prevention efforts by increasing the vulnerability of people living with and affected by these diseases. Gay and bisexual persons are at high risk of HIV transmission,” he declared.
According to Corbin, his contribution, through academic research and his professional work, has been a critical component to create a sense of freedom within the gay community.
“I wish to dig deeper in the issues about sexuality… and the law, and how they impact on human social and economic development to explore potential opportunities for the necessary changes,” he said.

Malawi President Vows To Legalise Homosexuality

Malawi’s new president has pledged to lift the country’s ban on homosexuality, breaking ranks from much of Africa where such activity remains a crime.

Joyce Banda, who came to power in April on the death of her predecessor, said in her first state of the nation address on Friday: “Indecency and unnatural acts laws shall be repealed.” She described the measure as a matter of urgency.

Elsewhere in the speech, Banda said her government wanted to normalise relations with “our traditional development partners who were uncomfortable with our bad laws”.
But repealing a law requires a parliamentary vote and, although Banda’s party commands a majority, it is unclear how much support the move would have in this socially conservative nation.

Malawi was widely condemned for the conviction and 14-year prison sentences given in 2010 to two men who were arrested after celebrating their engagement and were charged with unnatural acts and gross indecency.

The president at the time, Bingu wa Mutharika, pardoned the couple on “humanitarian grounds only”, while claiming they had “committed a crime against our culture, against our religion, and against our laws”.

Mutharika died from a heart attack in April. Banda, who was vice-president, stepped in to serve out his term, which ends in 2014. She has hit the ground running with a cabinet reshuffle, the sacking of the police chief and sweeping reforms to break from Mutharika’s autocratic rule.

Her audacious plan to legalise homosexuality was welcomed by the campaigner Gift Trapence, executive director of the Centre for the Development of People. “If that’s what the president said, Malawi is going in the right direction in terms of human rights and meeting international human rights standards, and saying people are equal irrespective of sexual orientation,” he said.

Banda has previously demonstrated her liberal attitudes on the issue, he continued. “When she was vice-president she was invited to address a group of religious leaders and she spoke in favour of including LGBT communities in HIV interventions.”

Trapence said Banda’s stand offers hope in a continent where homosexuality is criminalised in 37 countries. “It has come at the right time as the African Union is coming to attend a summit in Malawi. This sends a good message to the African heads of state who will attend.”

Trapence said the gay couple whose engagement caused a storm, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, were no longer together. Chimbalanga gained asylum in Cape Town, South Africa, while Monjeza is serving a three-year prison sentence for theft.

“They will be happy at this decision,” he added. “They will look back at how they suffered and were incarcerated and have a smile that at least they did something to influence the sodomy laws under which they were convicted.”

Wapona Kita, one of Malawi’s leading human rights lawyers, said he welcomed the president’s announcement. “She has done the right thing. The repeal of this bad law is long overdue.”

The law is “unconstitutional against international human rights standards”, he added.

Undule Mwakasungula, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, said: “This is good news for us as we have been advocating for these sodomy laws to be reviewed or repealed as part of all the bad laws. Now that president Joyce Banda has indicated that the sodomy laws will be part of the laws to be repealed, this is very welcome development.”

In South Africa, the only African country with laws protecting gay rights, activist Mark Heywood said Banda would have international support. “I hope that she is persuasive enough in her own country,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s really important for other African countries other than South Africa to move in this direction. Symbolically, I think it is very important for Africa.”

A report this week from Kenya and Uganda by the watchdog Human Rights First found that African homosexuals who fled persecution in their countries were abducted, beaten and raped in the places where they sought asylum.

It cited examples including two refugee women in Uganda who were abducted and raped because they had been assisting LGBT refugees, five cases of “corrective rape” of lesbian or transgender male refugees in Uganda and a gay Somali teenager in Kenya who was doused in petrol and would have been set on fire if not for the intervention of an older Somali woman.

Human Rights First, a US-based non-governmental organisation, called on Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, to help make sure that LGBT refugees gain access to safety and protection from violence.

The Guardian

BWAAY A DOE WAA SEH NUTTIN BOW NOTHING WEDDING BUT LAWD DEM LOOK BORING SAH..HOW DEM DO DI TINGS?

by Al Maxey
The Prophecy of Jonah
Background & Critical Analysis

The name Jonah (Hebrew: Yonah) means “dove.” He was the son of Amittai, of the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13), and from the village of Gath-hepher, which is in the region of Galilee.

It was believed by some of the Jewish rabbinate that Jonah is to be identified with the dead son of a widow from Zarephath who was raised to life by Elijah (1 Kings 17), however there is no basis at all for such an assumption. In 2 Kings 14:25 Jonah is mentioned as being a prophet of God during the reign of King Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.). Jonah foretold of the wide extent of this king’s conquests and the expansion of Israel’s territory under his leadership. As a result of the above prophecy, which was fulfilled in a relatively short time, “Jonah must have enjoyed great popular respect as a true prophet … this may explain his reluctance to accept a less popular commission … and cause him to lose substantial face” (New Layman’s Bible Commentary).

Technically, the book of Jonah is anonymous, however Jewish tradition holds that the author is Jonah himself. In more recent years it has come to be believed that “the book is about Jonah rather than by him.” “It is chiefly a book about a prophet instead of being a collection of oracles of the prophet. Only eight words are needed to report Jonah’s preaching — Jonah 3:4” (Dr. Jack P. Lewis).

Jonah is the only “minor prophet” ever to be mentioned by Jesus Christ. He is also the only OT figure that Jesus Himself likens unto Himself (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32). Although some contend this book is a fable and that Jonah never actually lived, the biblical evidence is to the contrary. 2 Kings 14:25 speaks of him as an actual historical figure. So does Jesus Christ. Josephus (an early Jewish historian) also regarded him as historical rather than fictional (Antiquities of the Jews, book 9, chapter 10, sections 1-2). Also, when Paul wrote that Jesus “was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4), he may well have been alluding, at least in part, to Jonah’s experience.

The intertestamental writers (The Apocrypha) also regarded Jonah as an actual historical figure. He is listed among “The Twelve Prophets” in Sirach 49:10. Tobit 14:4 refers to “God’s word which was spoken by Jonah against Nineveh” (although the Codex Sinaiticus reads “Nahum” at this location rather than “Jonah”. In 3 Maccabees 6:8 the deliverance of Jonah is one in a series of God’s great acts of mercy of the past that forms a part of the prayer of Eleazar. The Greeks have long expressed their deep veneration for the prophet Jonah. In the 6th century A.D. they dedicated a church to him — (compare this action with what Peter sought to do in Luke 9:33).

Date & Occasion of Jonah

From 2 Kings 14:25 we know that Jonah lived during the time of Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.). He was sent to Nineveh — the capital city of Assyria — to deliver a warning from God that unless they repented they would be destroyed. There are several historical clues which seem to point to a date for this prophecy somewhere in the late 750’s B.C. — perhaps around 758 B.C. Notice the following:

During the reign of Adad-nirari III (811-783 B.C.) there was a swing toward monotheism. However, at his death the nation entered a period of national weakness and even greater moral decay. “During this time, Assyria was engaged in a life and death struggle with the mountain tribes of Urartu, and its associates of Mannai and Madai in the north, who had been able to push their frontier to within less than a hundred miles of Nineveh” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 7).

In 766 B.C. a plague struck the nation, followed by a second plague in 759 B.C. In 763 B.C. there was an eclipse of the sun. These were “events of the type regarded by ancients as evidence of divine judgment, and could have prepared the people to receive Jonah’s message” (The Ryrie Study Bible). “No doubt this depressed state of Assyria contributed much to the readiness of the people to hear Jonah as he began to preach to them” (Homer Hailey).

There is some historical evidence that during the reign of Ashurdan III (771-754 B.C.) a religious awakening occurred. This may have been the result of Jonah’s preaching. In 745 B.C. Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 B.C.) came to the throne and Assyria again became a major power. Under his leadership the Assyrians became “the rod of God’s anger” (Isaiah 10:5) against His rebellious people Israel. Israel finally fell to the Assyrians with the capture of Samaria in 722 B.C. (through the efforts of Tiglath-pileser’s successors — Shalmaneser V and Sargon II).
Through the preaching of Jonah, and the repentance of the people of Nineveh, the city was spared at this time. However, history tells us their repentance was fairly short-lived. Soon they had fallen back into their sinful way of life. The prophet Nahum was then sent to these very same people. However, they failed to repent (as they had with Jonah), and thus were destroyed in 612 B.C.

Interpretations of Jonah

Perhaps the greatest difficulty connected with this book is the matter of determining the method of interpretation. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, Jonah was regarded almost exclusively as historical fact. However, in the 20th century many other theories have been put forth as to how this book should best be interpreted. The following are the major theories of interpretation proposed:

ALLEGORY — “An allegory is a story consisting of a series of incidents which are analogous to a parallel series of happenings that they are intended to illustrate.” Therefore: Jonah = Israel … Jonah’s flight = Israel’s failure to fulfill its spiritual mission to the nations … The “great fish” = Babylon, which swallows up Israel in the captivity … The spitting out of Jonah = the restoration of Israel to their homeland … Etc. Jeremiah 51:31 speaks of Babylon “swallowing” Israel “like a monster,” and it “filled his stomach.” Then, in vs. 44, God says He will “bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up.” Some regard this as biblical proof of their theory that Jonah is merely an allegory.

PARABLE — “A parable is a short, pithy story with a didactic aim.” The moral of this “Jonah story” would be God’s love for the nations. Jonah himself, then, in the context of such a parable, typifies “the narrow-minded, exclusivistic Jews with no love for the nations beyond their own borders.”

MYTH — This point of view assumes that the whole story is nothing but a myth or legend which arose around some incident in the history of Israel.

HISTORY — This view holds that the narrative describes events which actually took place. This seems to me to be the most likely view. Those who object to this view do so primarily on the basis of the miraculous element in the account (the “great fish” incident, for example). “Jesus placed His sanction on the story as historical fact … therefore, the historical interpretation is the only interpretation worthy of acceptance to all who believe that Jesus is the Christ” (Homer Hailey). “The effort to say that Jesus was only a man of His day and accepted certain views prevalent among those about Him carries implications that we are not ready to accept” (Dr. Jack P. Lewis).
The fact that this account should be regarded as historical, however, does not mean there are no parabolic or allegorical or spiritual lessons to be derived from it. “This does not rule out the presence of typical lessons illustrated by the historical incidents” (The Ryrie Study Bible).

Miracles of Jonah

The fact that there are obvious miracles recorded within this book has caused some — who doubt or deny the miraculous power of God — to label this work as fiction. There are several miracles recorded here, but “so much has been made of the ‘fish story’ that one is tempted to forget all else about the book of Jonah” (Dr. Jack P. Lewis). The various miracles that are recorded in the book of Jonah are:

God raising up a storm — 1:4
God calming the storm — 1:15
God’s commissioning of a “great fish” to swallow Jonah — 1:17
Jonah surviving three days and three nights inside the “great fish” — 1:17
God commanding the “great fish” to vomit Jonah out on dry land — 2:10
A city the size of Nineveh experiencing such a wide-spread repentance — 3:5-9
The Lord raising up a plant, a worm, and a scorching east wind — 4:6-8
“Dag Gadol” is the Hebrew phrase which literally means “great fish.” The Jews had no special word for “whale” (the word used in the KJV). Since the word dag may refer to a fish of any species, including the whale (which technically is not a fish at all), “it is reasonable to adhere to the traditional interpretation at this point, since no true fish — as opposed to a marine mammal — is known to possess a stomach as capacious as a whale’s” (Dr. Gleason L. Archer, Jr.).

Major Messages of Jonah

The overall message of the book is basically twofold:

God’s love and concern is for all people, and anyone who is willing to repent and turn to God can find salvation (Acts 26:19-20; 2 Peter 3:9).

God is a universal God. There is but ONE God, and He alone is to be the God of all people. Jonah preached to a monotheistic people, but the god they worshipped was Nebo. He warned them they must repent and turn to Jehovah, and worship and serve Him only.

Some of the other great lessons of the book of Jonah are:

“God’s judgments, even when declared in prophecy, can be averted by genuine repentance.” This is a “crucial theological truth relating human repentance to escaping from anticipated judgment” (New Layman’s Bible Commentary). Jeremiah 18:7-8 — “At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.”

National sin demands national repentance! Just as this principle applied to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, so also does it apply to the nations of today!

This book is a stern rebuke of a narrow exclusiveness that characterized the Israelites. Jonah, whose attitude was typical of his people, had no desire to see the Assyrians saved — they were the enemy! He fled rather than preach such a distasteful message to this distasteful people. And even after finally preaching it, he sat outside the city waiting to see if God would change His mind and still destroy them. When he realized God was indeed going to show mercy to these people, he prayed to die rather than have to witness such a thing! (Jonah 4:1-3).

When we today hold to such an attitude — “We are the only ones God favors” … “We would rather die than see those people saved!” … “We’re not about to preach the gospel to that bunch” — then we have repeated the sin of Jonah. Further, we have completely failed to perceive the universal love of God. Jonah symbolizes a narrow, sectarian spirit!

One cannot run away from God (Psalm 139:7-12). “Jonah learned, and through his valuable experience millions have learned, that when God enjoins a disagreeable duty, it is far easier to go and do it than to run away from it” (J.W. McGarvey). “When one sets out to baffle God, there is bound to be a storm” (George L. Robinson).

“The infinite concern of God for life is shown in contrast to the concern of man for the material” (Homer Hailey). “The withering of the prophet’s gourd, with the regrets it excited, strikes home in all ages, as it must have done in Jonah’s day, the contrast between the infinite love of God and the selfish coldness of man. The growth of a night can be pitied when it touches ourselves; but unspeakably higher claims too often awaken no tenderness where we are not personally concerned” (Cunningham Geikie).

In Jonah one sees “the forerunner of the universal gospel message” and messenger (Homer Hailey). Also, we see the principle that “the most unpromising mission fields are often the most responsive” (The Ryrie Study Bible). “From the human standpoint Assyria was the last place an Israelite would choose for a missionary venture, so Jonah took a trip in the opposite direction” (Samuel J. Schultz).

“There is no remonstrance and no mention of Jonah’s former call and flight (Jonah 3:1-2). The Lord passes this over in gracious silence” (Homer Hailey). The Lord is willing to forgive and forget!

-Al Maxey