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Archive for August, 2011

Planned Parenthood: Oh, What a Web It Weaves

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

What web does Planned Parenthood (PP) weave, its victims to deceive?

What is the deceit?  Who are the victims?  How is it funded?  Why?

The web begins to spin in public elementary schools.  It seems silly to help first graders plan parenthood, so perhaps something else is going on.  “Obstacles that make young people uncomfortable about themselves, their bodies and their relationships should be removed.”  Would that be parents? (“Manifesto” of PP, April 2001, CITIZEN, 7-01, p. 17)

More spinning.  “Society may frown on sex play between children, but we have to remember that society disapproves of a great many sexual acts that take place, and there are two sides to the story.”  (Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy, a member of Kinsey‘s research staff, 1981, p. 48 and 52)

More spinning.  “If [your parents] seem to fear your sexuality . . . you may feel you have to tune out their voice entirely.”  (Changing Bodies, Changing Lives by Ruth Bell, 1980)

More spinning.  “. . . Boys and girls who start having intercourse when they’re adolescents, expecting to get married later on, will find that it’s a big help in finding out whether they are really congenial or not . . . it’s like taking a car out for a test run before you buy it.”  (Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy, 1981, p. 117.  This and the two books above have been used by PP.)

Pause spinning.  Did you note when these textbooks were written?  Do you realize that as early as 1970, PP encouraged homosexuality as a way to reduce U.S. fertility?  So, should we be surprised that PP shared their key to the schoolhouse door with LGBT advocates?  Should we be surprised by the boldness of GLSEN, Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” program, and same-sex marriage proponents teaming up with PP in public schools?

More spinning.  Working hard to preserve “reproductive freedom,” PP disconnects procreation from sex.  In PP’s Young Woman’s Guide to Sexuality, girls learn “we are all sexual” and “sexual expression is one of our basic human needs, like water, food, and shelter.”  But, as Dr. Miriam Grossman asks, does PP mention that a girl is born with all the eggs she’ll ever have, and that when she turns thirty, her eggs do, too?

More spinning… and spinning.   Oh, my!  Our kids are sexually active!  (Does PP feign surprise?)  We can’t let children have children.  And, HIV/AIDS isn’t just for homosexuals anymore.  PP stands “ready to serve”.  Contraceptives all around!  Sixth grade girls practice putting condoms over the finger of sixth grade boys.  By freshman year, girls are on The Pill.  But, even after lessons on how to have sex without getting caught, pregnancy happens.

More spinning.  “These girls are much too young,” laments PP.  “They have college, careers and marriage ahead.  Let’s help them out of a difficult situation… by postponing their parenthood.”  In 2009, PP in the U.S. performed 332,278 surgical or RU-486 “home” abortions.  How many were on minor girls?  I’m not sure.  Parents aren’t always sure, either, because not every state requires parental notification.  Alternatives to abortion?  PP, last I knew, performed 134 abortions for every 1 adoption referral.

Certainly, the spinning stops here.  But, no.  Once a girl or young woman agrees to let PP help them and consents to an abortion,  she may be asked if she’d like to have “some good come out of a difficult situation.”  Fetal tissue “banks” stand ready to receive human embryos and, if a young woman is a certain number of weeks along in her pregnancy, she may choose to “donate.”  Human tissue “banks” don’t pay abortion clinics for the “products of conception.”  However, money may exchange hands for “handling, transportation, and/or storage.”  (WORLD, 8-13-11)

The web is tight.  Well financed.  Government is complicit in the deception and entrapment of our children.  PP is tax-payer funded.  SIECUS is tax-payer funded.  The California Teacher’s Association which supports the LGBT-friendly textbook is tax-payer funded.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) which funds grants to fetal tissue distributors (WORLD, 8-13-11) is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and, yes, is tax-payer funded.

The web is spun.  The child deceived and caught as prey.  The spinning continues night and day.  “Once I had an abortion, what did it matter?” a 40-something woman told me.  Her life, for many years, was a blur of promiscuity, alcohol, drugs, and two more abortions.  Until, one day, she heard the words, “The Spirit of the Lord . . . sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1).

The web will be spun as long as the culture allows it.  But, one life at a time can be kept from the snare.  And, even after becoming prey, a single, precious life can be set free.  Free to begin again.  To heal.  To better navigate the journey.  To warn others away from the web.

The Failure of Sex Education is a short booklet written by L. Bartlett
for parents, educators, and church workers who want to protect children
from PP’s web.  Available from Lutherans For Life or CPH

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No More Beating Up On Boys

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Parenting & Education, tagged , , , , , , , on August 3, 2011| 2 Comments »

There’s a soft spot in my heart for boys.  Not surprising considering that I’m mom to two sons and grandma to four grandsons.  This means I’ve been very attentive to the way America treats boys and men.  I do not exaggerate.  The culture is beating up on our boys.

Dr. James Dobson recognized it years ago.  It’s why he wrote Bringing Up Boys before he wrote his book on girls.  It’s why Christina Hoff Sommers wrote The War Against Boys.  But, the war on boys puts girls at greater risk, too.

“If just one sex wins, both sexes lose.”  These words were spoken at a recent event sponsored by the Boys Initiative in Washington.  The group believes that we need to start a national conversation aimed at improving the outcomes for American boys and men in school, work, health, and marriage.

“. . . [W]e have a national crisis, a national security issue, a state-of-emergency issue and a nation at risk,” stated Willie Iles, national director of government relations for Boy Scouts of America and board member of the Boys Initiative.  “If anybody cannot understand that, as we talk about investments and the return on those investments, which are our boys, then it is very clear we are going in the wrong direction.”

Cheryl Wetzstein, a columnist for The Washington Times, notes startling statistics.  “Compared to girls, boys are less educated and more medicated.  One in five men of prime working age is not working.  Men have a life expectancy five years shorter than women.  Male suicide rates start out equal to females, but steadily rise over the lifespan.

America is failing its sons.  Is this not shameful?

There is no time to wallow in despair.  There is work to be done.  It begins with respect and appreciation for boys and girls: equal, but different.  Let’s get over the foolishness that boys and girls are the same.  Each brings to society something good and necessary.  Rather than putting them into competition, let’s help them develop their complementary skills with confidence.    Let’s help them communicate and problem-solve, not in sexuality class, but by teaching skills for life and how to relate.

To my gender, specifically, I say: Let’s boycott women’s study classes at the university, stop laughing at “men are idiots” commercials, and walk away from conversations that put boys and men down.  As mothers of sons, let’s praise the faithfulness of husbands and, when they are unfaithful or uninvolved, point sons to the Perfect Man, Jesus Christ.  Let’s help our sons treat older women as mothers and younger women as sisters, in all purity.  Let’s explain why we value brave men who protect us from wolves at the door.

Let’s give our boys (and girls) the far-reaching benefits of marriage, home and family.  It is folly for our nation and suicide for our boys to set fire to traditional and real marriage.  A male father and female mother model roles vital to their son’s social survival.    Together, dads and moms help boys channel natural aggressiveness into someday providing for their own families.  For goodness sake, let’s help our boys think and give them work to do.

President Obama has launched a national Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative.  I’ll be honest.  Our boys and men — and, therefore, we girls and women, too — would benefit far more from the mentoring of a caring Christian community.  A community of older men and women who pass on the wisdom of experience, the practice of self-control, and the promise of identity in Jesus Christ.  A community that says, “No thanks” to federal grants or incentives with strings attached.

This momma bear perseveres in defense of America’s sons.  I do this best by assisting those who make the greater difference in the lives of  boys becoming men.  They are the weathered warriors who grip the Sword of Truth.  They are the men who learned their lessons well.  Who fell on humbled knees, then rose to re-engage.  These older men are “sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.”   I’ve seen these models of integrity.  I’ve heard their speech and witnessed behaviors that cannot be condemned,  rather put opponents to shame (Titus 2).

For seasoned and honorable men, I am grateful.  Under their tutelage, boys mature in wisdom.  Strength.  Service.

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What’s the Buzz?

Posted in Culture Shifts, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , on August 2, 2011| 1 Comment »

Those who make a living positioned in Washington, D.C., may think the rest of us are positioned on a beach with our heads in the sand.

No way.  Nearly every day, I skim through a dozen or more articles and commentaries on national events.  This blog exists for two reasons: 1) To encourage other ezer (“helper”) women and the men in the lives, and 2) To help my neighbors and me think – then engage.

So, in case you’ve been at the beach — or up to your neck not in sand, but with family and work – and haven’t had time to hear what’s going on, here’s a quick read of the news:

  • The Grand Lake Patriots is a movement of former teachers who make the agenda of the National Education Assocation (NEA) known.  The Patriots group recently hosted a presentation by former educators who are calling attention to how the NEA actively promotes abortion and the homosexual agenda.  Judy Bruns reports that thousands of dollars in teachers’ union dues are going to homosexual organizations.  “In just two year’s time, between $350,000 and $400,000 . . . was given to the Gay, Lesbian [and Straight] Education Network [GLSEN],” she explains.  “They also gave to the Human Rights campaign, [which] is a gay activist organization.”  Bruns, during her time as a NEA member, tried along with other Christians to encourage the union leadership to at least take a neutral position on abortion and homosexuality.  The NEA refused to do so.  The Grand Lake Patriots speak at events throughout Ohio.  There is a similar group speaking up about the pro-homosexuality efforts of the teacher’s union in California.  You may learn more from OneNewsNow.
  • Population-doomsayers continue to proclaim: “There are too many people!”  Speaking in New York recently, Al Gore warned that the world will drown in pollution unless we stabilize population growth.  He suggests that we do this through “fertility management” and “educating and empowering women and girls” to make the right choices.  “Right choices” to those of the liberal persuasion are limiting families through contraception and abortion but, I note, not limiting “rights” for anyone to engage in the procreative act of sex.  (Huh?)  Don Feder offers this truth: “You can’t have progress — of any kind — without population growth . . . More people equal a greater capacity for production, development of resources and innovation – which in turn leads to higher standards of living all around.”  I’ve long subscribed to the belief that over-population is a myth.  However, under-population, as Feder notes, could soon become reality.  He writes: “When there aren’t enough young workers to pay the pensions of the elderly…  When one child is asked to care for two retired parents and four elderly grandparents…  When the housing market collapses because there aren’t enough buyers for existing (not to mention new) housing units…  When developing nations are drained of young men to meet the labor needs of developed nations which refuse to reproduce in adequate numbers…  When a nation’s one-child-per-family policy results in a situation in which millions of young men will never be able to find wives — that’s under-population. ”  (Excerpted from Don Feder’s speech to the Moscow Demographic Summit.  Read more of “Demography is Destiny” by visiting Mercatornet.)
  • A study has come out from the University of Iowa indicating that women who were sexually active as teens — prior to marriage — were more likely to divorce as adults.  This goes without mentioning the risks of unwed pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, single parenthood, emotional baggage, and HIV/AIDS.  So, it makes perfect sense that sexual abstinence – “just say ‘no'” education – would be in the best interests of children, parents, and the government.  But, government begs to differ.  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released grant money to promote healthy marriages.  Grant money, however, cannot be used for abstinence education.  That’s because “abstinence education” is listed as one of the “unallowable activities” under the Healthy Marriage and Relationship Grant.   (Huh?) Read more by visiting The Heritage Foundation.
  • Diane Sawyer, on ABC World News , reported on a Christian counseling center run by Dr. Marcus Bachmann, the husband of Michelle Bachmann.   Sawyer introduced the report, “Michelle Bachmann Family Business Exposed!”  Sawyer’s lead question: “Is the Republican superstar making money trying to turn gay people straight?”  For years, I have been following the work of Exodus International and other sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE).  I have collected stories of men and women who left the homosexual and lesbian lifestyles behind.   Some have married.  Some have become parents.  Contrary to the mainstream media, there is no harm done.  No pressing down with guilt but, rather, a lifting of the burden that often separates a man or woman from the God who made them.   Recommended sites: Exodus International , Love Won Out, and Joseph Nicolosi.

If you’ve been on vacation, welcome back to the world!

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