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Amy Butler, Opinion contributor Published 3:18 a.m. ET June 23, 2017 | Updated 15 hours ago

Todd Underwood and Amy Butler in New York.(Photo: James Loop, Rev. Dr. Amy K. Butler)

Heres how it all went down.

A few months ago, as part of a sermon series on the teachings of Jesus from Matthews gospel, I preached a sermon called The Hardest Commandment. It was about the desperately difficult instruction Jesus gives us to love our enemies, and in it I talked about an article Id read that week that introduced me to Todd Underwood.

Todd is founder and owner of United Gun Group, which is a social marketplace for the firearms community," the platform on whichGeorge Zimmerman soldthe gun he used to killTrayvon Martin.

Last year, Todd participated in a socialexperimentsponsored by a group called Narrative 4 in which people from both sides of the gun debate agreed to meet and get to know each other. On his New Yorktrip, Todd met Carolyn Tuft, a self-employed artist and mother of four whose youngest daughter was killed at a mall while buying Valentines Day cards. Carolyn was there too and was shot so many times that she now lives with debilitating pain.

The story of Todd and Carolyn's meeting is powerful and illustrates the hard work of Jesus commandment: not to be right or to be a victim, but to be in relationship, to hear each others stories, to search and search until we find even the smallest piece of common ground on which we can stand together.

And then, sermon finished, life went on. That is, until several weeks later when Todd tweeted at me, asking to talk.

I didnt recognize his name at first, but when I clicked on his Twitter profile I immediately knew who he was. You cant read that story about Todd and Carolyn and not be impacted by its power, because it is about all of us. Its about awkward Thanksgiving dinners and an America filled with polarized zealots who immediately assume the worst about one another.

I was a little nervous when I sent Todd an email at his request. Still, we set up a time to talk.

When he picked up the telephone, I could hear his kids in the background. After exchanging a few pleasantries, I asked Todd why he had reached out.

He said, Well I read your article where you mentioned me.

Its a sermon, I interrupted, pretty sure he didnt approve of women pastors. (He has questions about whether the Bible allows for women to lead churches.)

But he was gracious at my interruption and went on, I read your sermon where you mentioned me and I know you were talking about loving our enemies and I wanted to know if you thought of me as the enemy in that story.'

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I immediately took a step back and realized I was going to have to set aside some of the assumptions Id been making about Todd. His action and his inquiry took courage, thoughtfulnessand vulnerability, and that started to shake my easy assumptions about him.

No, I told him. I explained I thought the story was a great example of the tremendously difficult work of human relationship, how when we love our enemies that is, see their humanity and risk relationship with people who believe the exact opposite that we do we sometimes find there are things we share in common.

Do you think its wrong to own a gun? he asked.

No, I said. But I am so alarmed about the proliferation of gun violence in our country. (He is, too.)

Do you think its wrong not to own a gun? I asked. After a short silence he said, No. No, I dont think its wrong to choose not to own a gun. (But protection of the Second Amendment is critically important to him, he said.)

We went around for a while about Scripture and how we interpret it in relation to gun ownership. Finally I asked him, Todd, if you could sum up the Bible in one sentence, what would it be?

You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself, he replied. After a couple of beats I said, Wow. Thats exactly what I would have said.

In that moment I felt we stepped onto a small piece of ground that was shared, where each of us moved over to make room for the other and where we understood each other in ways that surprised both of us. And where I was jarred by, well, his humanity. His personhood.

As our conversation continued it was clear: we disagree on quite a few points. Hes deeply anti-abortion; Im urgently pro-choice. He voted for Donald Trump; I voted for Hillary Clinton. Hes really concerned about Benghazi; Im really angry about ties to Russia and their influence on the election. I am deeply offended by Donald Trumps easy talk of assaulting women; he regretfully says thats just the way men are, and its not assault if its consensual. He sees his decision to allow George Zimmerman to sell the gun that killed Trayvon Martin on his online platform just a matter of course Zimmerman qualified to be a seller and thats the end of the story; I am alarmed by pervasive systemic racism that has come to be represented by Trayvon Martins death. Hes obviously a huge pro-gun advocate; I hosted a conference last year to help train faith leaders to discuss gun violence with their congregations.

Seriously, on almost every single issue, we do not agree.

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But he listened to me. And I listened to him. And we landed in an easy alliance where we agreed to disagree and not to allow that disagreement to preclude friendship. It was the strangest feeling. I wonder if he felt the same.

Im coming to New York next week, he said at the end of our conversation.

Why dont you come up and visit The Riverside Church? I asked.

Okay, he said.

A few days later, Todd was in my office at The Riverside Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We chatted about the weather, about how hed missed his flight the day beforeand the party in Manhattan hed attended the night before. I showed him the view of the Hudson out the tower windows, then I took him to see our worship space. He said, Its so beautiful, and I was surprised.

As he was getting ready to leave he asked, So, whats next?

I sat there, startled briefly by the unlikely situation in which we found ourselves. We couldnt be more different. But Todd and I share at least one fundamental belief: nobody is the stereotype we believe they are.We do ourselves and our world a fundamental disservice when we wont summon the courage to listen to each other and try as hard as we can to find the things we share, small as they may be.

Todd loves family, countryand God. I do, too.

I think its critical for the future of society that we learn to listen to each other, even in our differences. Todd does, too. Both of us dont know whats next for this country or even for our conversation. But we definitely agreed: We have to keep talking.

Rev. Dr. Amy Butler is the seventh senior ministerat The Riverside Churchin New York City, and the first female to hold that position. Follow her on Twitter@PastorAmyTRC.

You can readdiverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers ontheOpinion front page,on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our dailyOpinion newsletter.To submit a letter, comment or column, check oursubmission guidelines.

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I preached about a gun rights advocate. He wasn't who I thought. - USA TODAY

Janke will be officially hired at the commissions July 5 meeting when Fisk will bring forward a salary and benefit package she will prepare.

This is the right fit for the city of West Fargo to take us to the next level, and hell add to that, Fisk said.

Janke and North Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Troy Hischer were narrowed down from 12 initial applicants, four of which were from within the department. The two finalists then each interviewed for a full day June 7 and June 8, respectively.

His 15 years with the FBI and his leadership really stood out to me, Mayor Rich Mattern said. Im hoping to get him onboard as quickly as possible.

Mattern said it was obvious Janke had researched the city and the department before his interview, which was impressive.

The city has been looking for a new police chief since the commission fired Mike Reitan on Feb. 6 after complaints surfaced that he created a hostile, toxic environment.

City Commissioner Mark Wentz, who served on a panel of city staff who interviewed the candidates, said Janke will be able to bring together a department fractured by recent events.

Itll be an adjustment for some, others will like it right away, Wentz said. Hes definitely a team player.

Janke is a North Dakota State University graduate who earned a law degree from the University of North Dakota. His wife, also an NDSU alum, has family and parents in West Fargo. Janke has worked for the FBI since 2005, and since 2013 in its Kansas City office, where he has supervised more than 400 cases.

Janke said he hoped to move to West Fargo because theres family here and a good school system.

Janke also worked for the FBI in San Antonio, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Before joining the FBI, Janke was an associate attorney in Sioux Falls, S.D.

While working for the FBI, Janke said he has been part of national headline-making cases such as the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman in Florida, as well as the shooting of Michael Brown, a black man fatally shot by police officer Darren White that sparked riots in Ferguson, Mo.

During a presentation to city and police officials on June 7, Janke showed comments about the former chiefs leadership style and compared them to comments made by his own subordinates about his leadership style to show the stark contrast. Janke said he prefers to lead by example and it is important to admit when wrong, but he will have officers backs when right.

Youll never hear me say department or squad, Janke said. We are a team.

Mattern said he hopes Janke will work well with staff and the general public.

Thats the kind of person I was really looking for, Mattern said.

A phone message left for Janke at his FBI office in Kansas City was not returned Friday.

Excerpt from:
West Fargo plans to hire FBI agent Janke as police chief - West Fargo Pioneer

Jay Z made a call for criminal justice reform and explained how racism in American society can be deadly.

Shawn "Jay Z" Carter, produced a documentary series called "Time: The Kalief Browder Story," which premiered early this year,that outlined Kalief Browder's brutal treatment by the criminal justice system. Through interviews with family and friends and footage, the documentary highlightedhis period of solitary confinement while at Rikers Island, and his suicide after release. When Browder was 16 years old, he was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack, and his bail was set at $10,000 - an amount his family couldn't raise.

Held in New York City's Rikers Island Prison Complex, Browder's mental health began to deteriorate largely because of the 400 days he spent in solitary confinement during the three years he was held at the notorious prison.

Browder's brother Akeem is running for mayor of New York City, specifically to push for Riker's Island to close.

In an opinion piece published Thursday in the Hollywood Reporter, the rapper wrote that American society needs more creative and informative projects to help create conversations about social justice issues and expose the racist double standards that kill black men.

"He wasn't an angel, but he was a good kid on the right path who held up under the social pressures common in the Bronx," Carter wrote. "This young man at 16 was arrested for something any suburban kid could have gotten away with and held at Rikers Island for three years, mostly in inhumane solitary confinement."

Research shows that black men are more likely to be searched, more likely to be arrested, more likely to be wrongfully convicted, and receive harsher sentences after a conviction.

In 2012, the 17-year-old unarmed black boy who was infamously shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman in Florida. The watchman, George Zimmerman, made recorded statements on a 911 call that Martin looked suspicious, even though he was simply walking down the street. Ultimately, Zimmerman wasn't convicted in the death of Martin.

This sort of racial bias in the justice system and in policing isn't unfounded. Research shows that some Americans see black men as physically larger and more threatening than white men of the same size.

Carter wrote that telling these stories can help create change and expose how racism works in a way that often times claims the lives of innocent young black men. He underlined that social justice issues are truly about human stories.

"But social justice isn't a political issue. It's a human issue. It's a story of empathy," he wrote. "When we are able to identify that we are all not perfect and have compassion for someone else, we can move forward as a society."

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Jay Z Breaks Down the Racist Double Standard that Killed Kalief Browder, Trayvon Martin - ATTN:

Mumbai-based social networking platform VoxWeb Pvt. Ltd has raised $1 million (Rs 6.45 crore) in its third round of external funding from a clutch of unnamed individual investors.

According to the company, the new capital will be deployed to strengthen its backend technology infrastructure, besides adding innovative and engaging front-end features. It will also deploy a part of the money to scale up marketing efforts and increase its user base.

VoxWeb was founded in June 2014 by IIT Kanpur alumnus Yash Mishra, who had worked as an analyst with JP Morgan.

With its unique voice-augmented photo technology, the company is focussed on designing and developing refreshingly new products to add a new dimension to social media consumption around the world. We believe the new round of funding will further hasten scaling up up of operations, said Mishra.

In December 2015, the company had raised $350,000 from an unnamed investor. Subsequently, in August the same year, it had raised seed funding of $100,000 from CitrusPay co-founder Jitendra Gupta.

The flagship product of the company, speaking pictures, allows users to capture and share moments through photographs with voice-over options. At present, it is available both on iOS and Android platforms. It also facilitates creating selfies that can speak upon touching, called Voxies. The design patent for the same was filed in the US.

The company claims to have a user base of over half a million.

Other recent deals in the social networking segment include a Rs 1-crore fundraising effort by networking app Nodd last November. Former Just Dial Ltd chief technology officer Sandipan Chattopadhyay and IKYA Global associate partner Jaison Jose, among others were the investors.

The app-based networking platform helps individuals to discover and meet like-minded people through curated experiences, data analytics, experiences and algorithms.

November also saw social networking app Pulse, which enables users to stay connected with their college and school communities, raising $500,000 from venture and growth capital fund SAIF Partners.

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VoxWeb, a social networking app that allows users to attach an 11-second audio clip to any image, has raised $350,000 (Rs 2.3 crore) in funding...

VoxWeb, a social networking app that allows users to attach a 11-second audio clip to any image, has secured seed funding of $100,000 from CitrusPay...

Hindi social networking platform ShabdaNagari.in, which is operated by Kanpur-based Trident Analytical Solutions Pvt. Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount in bridge funding from ah!...

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Social networking platform VoxWeb raises $1 mn VCCircle - VCCircle

U.S. Supreme Court

Posted Jun 19, 2017 09:18 am CDT

By Debra Cassens Weiss

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a North Carolina law that makes it a felony for a registered sex offender to access social networking websites that can be used by children.

The law, which bans sexual offenders from using websites like Facebook and Twitter, violates the First Amendment, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion (PDF). His opinion was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The law was challenged by Lester Packingham of Durham, who pleaded guilty in 2002 to taking indecent liberties with a 13-year-old girl when he was a 21-year-old college student.

Packingham was convicted of violating the ban because of his Facebook post declaring Praise be to GOD, WOW! Thanks Jesus! to celebrate dismissal of a traffic ticket.

Kennedy said the North Carolina ban on social media use is unprecedented in the scope of First Amendment speech it burdens.

With one broad stroke, Kennedy said, North Carolinas law bars registered sex offenders from accessing news websites, checking help wanted ads, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.

While in the past there may have been difficulty in identifying the most important places (in a spatial sense) for the exchange of views, today the answer is clear. It is cyberspace, Kennedy wrote.

Kennedy said his opinion should not be interpreted to bar states from enacting more specific laws, such as laws banning sex offenders from contacting a minor or using a website to gather information about a minor.

Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. concurred in the judgment in an opinion joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the case.

Alito said he agreed the law violated the free speech clause because of its extraordinary breadth. But Alito said he couldnt join the majority opinion because of its undisciplined dicta. The court is unable to resist musings that seem to equate the entirety of the internet with public streets and parks.

The majoritys language could leave the states largely powerless to restrict even the most dangerous sexual predators from visiting any internet sites, including, for example, teenage dating sites and sites designed to permit minors to discuss personal problems with the peers, Alito wrote.

Updated at 10 a.m. with additional information

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Supreme Court strikes down law banning sex offenders from using social networking websites - ABA Journal