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Did You Hear? Pastors Stood for Marriage and Won!

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, tagged African-American, African-American pastors, Biblical marriage, children, enlightenment, gay marriage, Illinois, Jesus Christ, media, Obama, Rahm Emanuel, same-sex marriage, the church, truth on July 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Redefining marriage to be whatever we want it to be is an idea whose time has come. Those who insist otherwise are a remnant from some unenlightened age. Or so the media appears to believe. Perhaps that’s why there was little if any coverage of a surprising victory in the state of Illinois.

Earlier this summer, the Illinois legislature took up the issue of same-sex “marriage.” A vote in favor of gay “marriage” seemed inevitable considering that Illinois is President Obama’s home state. He and both the governor and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel endorse the practice. But a remnant from the unenlightened age was busy at work. The state’s African-American pastors were working hard to reach and convict African-American legislators. They were asking them to stand tall for the truth of marriage.

The pastors wanted the legislators to acknowledge marriage as the “institution created by God to bring men and women together for the benefit of children that can only be created through the union of men and women.”

The media informed me that this vote was taking place but then fell strangely silent. I would never have known the outcome even if I would have channel-surfed or picked up the local paper. I guess the media just couldn’t bring itself to report the stunning victory…

… of the African-American pastors. Their faithful truth-telling made a difference. Illinois did not succumb to the “inevitable.” Illinois legislators defeated proponents of same-sex marriage in a hard-left-leaning state.

I believe that significant victories in cultural debates are happening more often than we know in families and neighborhoods across the country. It’s just that the media, with a religious bent of its own, can’t seem to tolerate people who don’t share their convictions. So, rather than report the news, the media seems more intent on shaping minds.

The mantra of the media beats away, but it does not silence the unchanging Word of God. Truth is. Trusting the Truth, the African-American pastors in Illinois refused to be intimidated and went to work. Their voices and actions mattered. It matters that all of God’s people “stand tall for the truth of marriage… ” and the order of God’s creation.

But it’s too easy for the believer to fear. To doubt. To grieve the loss of morality and see only dark days ahead. We are tempted to disengage and succumb to the “inevitable.” Have we forgotten that the Word came to live among us? The Word cannot be overcome. Using that Word, the pastors in Illinois exposed the darkness and held it at bay. If they can do it, so can we.

While we have opportunity, we are compelled to speak what God has given us to say, warn neighbors away from sin, and offer forgiveness and hope to the repentant.

Come to think of it, this is how a remnant of people have pushed back against evil for a long, long time.

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Young Women Speak Up

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, Sexy or holy?, Vocation, tagged abstinence education, choice, created order, deception, discontent, faith, feminism, feminist myths, foolish women, Jesus Christ, judgmental, mentoring, model for mentoring, motherhood, postmodern myths, submission on July 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Another Titus 2 for Life Retreat has concluded. I am tired, but encouraged. In a culture such as ours, the need for mentoring grows daily. This was affirmed most especially this past weekend by the younger women who attended. Perhaps it will be helpful to share a few quotes from their evaluations.

I wasn’t sure what to expect . . . considering the topics, I thought it might all be too judgmental . . . but it was not. You see, I spent my childhood and good part of my young adult life wishing I was a boy because no one had ever pointed out the joy and biblical blessing of being a woman.

I will be getting married soon and this was a great springboard and encouragement for helping me understand my role in our new family.

It’s o.k. to be a woman! This retreat really laid to rest a lot of the horrible post-modern and feminist myths that were always a part of my life but were causing such pain and discontent. Thank you for being such a real person and addressing the foolish women in all of us with forgiveness.

As I approach motherhood, I wanted to attend this retreat again . . . I love how you share with us God’s purpose and esteem for women and womanly traits . . . there is no indignity in God’s design of the woman as ‘helper’ . . . it helps to remember that Christ was submissive and that the Holy Spirit is a helper.

Many of my friends are unhappy, kind of restless and certainly discontent. They hear so many voices of the world which seem in conflict with their own heart. This retreat was like ten years of godly mentoring in just a few hours!

I was afraid this retreat might be hours of anti-abortion rhetoric. Instead, it affirmed my value to God, reminded me that my Christian upbringing is not a lie, and why my faith makes me so weird to the world . . . I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that God made women not to compete with men but complete them. I’m very competitive . . . high school girls need to know about biblical womanhood.

The discussion on sex education and our mistaken identity was so important . . . I have had abstinence education for years but, no different from the culture, it was a constant focus on sex.

And what do I say to these young women?

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

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Want to Make a Difference? View Children the Way God Does

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, Sexy or holy?, tagged baptism, behavior, campus life, choices, education, expectations, grandparents, Jesus Christ, life's purpose, mentoring, parents, school, sexuality, sin, spiritual, teenagers, wisdom on June 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

I will never forget the mom and professional church worker who told me she hoped her sons and daughters would practice safe sex. We were serving together on a life task force and, during lunch break, she confided, “I raised them to be chaste . . . I want them to wait for marriage. But, once they started college, I encouraged them to use protection because, after all, they’re sexual, too, and I’m scared to death they’re going to be like everyone else.”

I remember the grandma who toured our local pregnancy center. She thought the best thing parents could do for their daughters was to get them on The Pill so they wouldn’t need a pregnancy test.

Then there was the single father who raised his daughter to believe in Jesus, but made sure she had the Gardasil shot and was using birth control. “I know what I was like at her age and I know she’s just going to sleep around so I have to look out for her.”

And there was the pastor who told me that he’s taken some girls from his congregation for abortions because “their parents wouldn’t be supportive of an unplanned pregnancy.” These girls are “just going to do it,” he explained. “They can’t help it . . . so I need to be there for them.”

Can’t help it? What does this say about the way adults view children?

Children are sinful human beings born into a love-to-sin-world. Do we say, “My child is a sinner. It’s just who he is, so I’m going to help him lie, cheat, and steal with the least amount of damage.” Is this how God sees children? Is this how He helps them?

When we don’t see children the way God does, then our mentoring role in their lives is compromised.

Yes, children are sinful… just like their parents and grandparents. But baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God sees us as His adopted sons and daughters in Christ. Jesus won for God’s children the privilege of becoming heirs of the heavenly kingdom. This not only bestows value but defines purpose.

Identity matters! Our sons and daughters are not “sexual from birth” as Planned Parenthood sees them. They are not captive to instincts and desires. They are persons created more in the image of God than the image of wolves and rabbits. To see children as God does is to realize they are more than flesh and blood but spirit and, because they are spirit, every choice they make will take them either closer to — or farther from — God.

It is the children who suffer when we fail to see them as God does. Expectations for their purpose and behavior are lowered. Their future appears grim.

Identity matters. And, because it does, my grandchildren need me to remind them of what happened at the baptismal font. Their baptism “is an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him” (1 Peter 3:21-22). I can literally tell my grandchildren that their Lord and Savior rules! This means that someday, when they are teenagers, they won’t have to be subject to raging hormones or made foolish by lack of judgment. In remembering who they are, they will know the source of their wisdom and strength. This will affect their choices and behavior. But that’s not all.

When boys and girls see themselves the way God does, the way they view each other will improve. Relationships will take on new meaning. Think about it. If boys see themselves in light of their baptism as sons of God and girls see themselves as daughters of God, then all baptized people become brothers and sisters in Christ.

Can you imagine? I mean, really! Can you imagine the impact this would have on high school and college campuses… at the beach… in the workplace… around the neighborhood… and for society as a whole?

I can. And it renews my hope.

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Government Fails Daughters But Shame On Us All

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy? on June 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This government has failed to defend our daughters and granddaughters.

With its blessing of Planned Parenthood, this administration embraced a profiteering assembly line dangerous to women and fatal for children. Now, the administration has decided not to fight a judge’s ruling to allow girls of any age to get the morning-after-pill over the counter – with or without parental permission. Shame on this administration.

In fact, shame on us all – parents, grandparents and the Church – for approving pills, shots, and devices for our girls instead of providing boundaries, long-term mentoring, and truth about their bodies, minds, and souls.

The young women in my life are worth defending. Because I respect them as persons, I lovingly tell them the truth. It is for this reason that I vow to continue mentoring privately in my home, one on one, and publicly through Titus 2 Retreats. I begin with an apology for the women of my generation who were deceived during a silly season of feminist fantasies. Today, those fantasies are the social norm for our daughters and granddaughters. The mantra hasn’t skipped a beat: Men and women are just the same. But, no matter how a feminist might want to manage, minimize or manipulate the female body, she cannot fool the Master Designer.

Our daughters are not the same as our sons. Girls are influenced by oxytocin. This hormone produces a warm, cuddly feeling with the touch or kiss of a boy. Oxytocin is great for married women who want to bond with their husbands, but not so great for 16-year-olds. Girls are not ready for sexual intimacy. Their pre-frontal cortex, the thinking and decision-making part of their brain, is not fully developed and ready for dependable use until the late teens or early twenties. Girls have a sensitive ecosystem. The cervix plays a vital role in female sexual health, but can actually increase a girl’s vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) because it, too, is undeveloped. A mature cervix can better guard against infection with its layers of 20-30 cells, but an immature cervix has only one layer of cells. Might this be the reason why girls under the age of twenty are hit hardest by the STD epidemic, most especially HPV and Chalmydia? (HPV can cause cervical cancer. Chalmydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and infertility.) A girl’s cervix is easily penetrable and becomes a nesting place for nasty bugs whose single purpose is to multiply.

So, when our government and the laws of this land disregard the science of our daughters’ anatomy to instead guarantee them access to the morning-after-pill, how must parents with the support of the Church respond? We should confess our own failures and then press boldly forward to defend those entrusted to our care.

It is to moms and dads that God entrusts children. God does not leave parents ill-equipped but gives them everything they need in His Word. The Church is to support parents in their courageous endeavor. Shamefully, it is parents who have handed over their mentoring responsibility to government schools. Every day, in public schools across the country, the government educates our children in sex. Shamefully, parochial schools assist busy or overwhelmed parents by wrapping Jesus around government-produced sex-ed material. But whether in a public or parochial classroom, talking a great deal about sex and encouraging a child’s celebration of sexuality has sure and certain consequences for vulnerable bodies and minds lacking maturity of judgment.

The government, confident in its role of educator, also sees itself as problem-solver. Shamefully, fearful parents entrust their daughters to government-funded industries such as Planned Parenthood and chemical companies who produce the before-sex-pill, the after-sex-pill, the just-in-case-shot, and the use-it-and-be-safe-device.

God did not give to government the role of parenting. Government has no personal, vested interest in helping girls be patient for love while their bodies mature and their brains kick in gear. Government was instituted by God to guard life and the pursuit of right things, make safe the highways and byways, and stand against enemies of the state. An amoral government has more interest in perpetuating itself rather than the people it was instituted to serve.

The government and courts of law have a voice. They can mandate a policy or a procedure. But they have no hands to pick up the pieces, no arms to hold the sick and dying, no way to nurture relationships, no heart and soul to comfort the brokenhearted and hopeless.

Parents and grandparents have a voice, too. With informed voice, we must dare to speak truth even at risk of being labeled intolerant or judgmental. And, while we speak, we can do what no government can do. We can use our hands to lead away from danger, our arms to embrace the confused and fearful, our homes as safe places to mentor and nurture relationships, our hearts to love unconditionally, and our souls to bring hope in the midst of hopelessness.

Note: I highly recommend Unprotected and You’re Teaching My Child What?
by Miriam Grossman, M.D.

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Scouting Too Close to the Cliff (Part 2)

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Identity, Parenting & Education, tagged boyhood, children, dangerous behavior, family, freedom, God and country, heterosexual, homosexual, ideology, idolatry, Jesus Christ, Kinsey, lifestyle, manhood, marriage, mentoring, morality, parents, pedophilia, sexual identity on June 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A Boy Scout learns how to survive in the wilderness. Trained correctly, he can sense danger and steer himself and others clear. But when faulty ideologies reconfigure the training ground, a young man’s moral sense is compromised.

Adults who should know better can boast, “Look at what we’ve done! We broke new trail for young men!” But this trail most definitely leads off the edge of a cliff.

Why would anyone want to tamper with moral behavior and remove boundaries put in place for the human good? Jesus said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42).

There is little that influences society more than mentoring a boy to be a man. Dennis Prager writes,

Wise cultures have learned that happiness is attained only when we conquer our nature . . . Historically, societies and parents have always known it’s a good thing to teach boys to control aspects of their male nature – their sexual desires and their predilection for violence. Decent men were taught from youth to touch a woman sexually only with her permission and to channel physical aggression into sports or into helping fight evil by joining the police force or military. Men who didn’t learn to control these aspects of male nature not only became bad men, but unhappy men.” (“Wanted by women: A few good old-fashioned men,” The Washington Times 6/30/08)

When a scout questions his male nature, how will his troop leader respond? Will he help the young man practice self-control? Will he remind the scout of his pledge to “do my duty to God . . .”? And, if so, what god will he be pledging to? Here he faces the most dangerous cliff of all.

Defined as a “sexual being,” a boy may be tempted to give himself freedoms that God does not; to trust his own reason and desires; to, in fact, worship and serve self rather than God (Romans 1:24-25). In time, sexual identity can influence everything… even the way a boy sees God. When society redefines morality, identity and even the character of a Boy Scout, then it redefines God. It will not just be young men who are in danger. It will be all the others who fall into idolatry with them.

I’d like to believe that many young men, in doing their “duty to God,” have been encouraged to see themselves as God does. God does not call a boy “gay” or “straight.” He calls him “holy.” Even in the midst of conflicting desires, God equips a boy to rise above self to Him and through Him resist dangerous attitudes and behaviors. God says, you “will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21). Identified this way, a young man can blaze a trail for himself and others away from danger.

What god does a boy pledge to — the Creator who made woman a “good fit” for man in the faithfulness of marriage, or the god who declares sexuality not a moral issue but a civil rights issue? It matters. It matters a lot because a god in our own image is no god at all. Such a god cannot help any boy navigate the wilderness of life.

Foolishness is tampering with marriage. Now it threatens another institution. God did not establish the Boy Scouts, to be sure, but He did establish the boundaries of morality and character. He does not give us license to do as we please. He does not make square pegs to fit in round holes. He does not delight in a boy’s frustration and misery. But He does offer wisdom and strength to change… or practice self-restraint. Only the God of all creation enters the chaos of this world to bring order and goodness to life.

New trail for scouting may have been broken, but it leads off the cliff. Rather than sinning against God and all that is holy, the most courageous thing a boy might do is to turn away to a trail less traveled. Separate from the pack. Together with dad, grandpa, and men of faith, set safer course.

P.S. Looking for a collection of outdoor adventures and character building supplies? I highly recommend Vision Forum.

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Boy Scouts and Sexual Identity

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Identity, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, tagged boyhood, children, family, God & country, heterosexual, homosexual, Kinsey, lifestyle, manhood, marriage, parents, pedophilia, sexual identity on June 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Boy Scouts now allow homosexual boys to participate fully in its programs.

What does this mean?

Weren’t all boys always welcomed into the Boys Scouts? Weren’t all boys invited to be morally trained in courage, tenacity, community service, trustworthiness, and good citizenship? Weren’t all boys equally mentored to develop character and skills that honor God, country, and neighbor?

Has there ever been a time when a Boy Scout had to declare himself a heterosexual?

Who turns the heads of boys to think they must demand their rights to sexual preference? Is sexual identity a pre-cursor to responsible citizenship? In the name of common sense, we’re talking about children here!

Sexual identity rules the day… even for a Boy Scout. Alfred Kinsey would be proud. He’s the one who coined the phrase we’ve heard over and over again: “Children are sexual from birth.” Prior to Kinsey, no one ever referred to children as being “sexual” or inferred that they enjoyed or responded pleasurably to a sexual experience. Prior to the 1950s, a child was never defined as “sexual” except in the mind of a predator or pedophile.

A Boy Scout pledges on his honor to do his best “to do my duty to God and my country . . . to help other people at all times . . . to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” What does it mean to honor God who never once identifies children as “sexual beings?”

God calls boys and girls by name. He entrusts children to moms and dads within the faithfulness of marriage so that they won’t be mistreated by those who do not see them as He does. To guard their personhood, God sets children apart from animals who are captive to instincts and bound to do whatever it is they do. Honoring God, boys are equipped to mature into self-controlled men who rise above selfish interests.

In a sin-drenched world, boys battle sinful natures and the distortion of identity. But a boy who is baptized is a son of God in Christ. He is not defined as sexual, but holy. He is not common, but uncommon. He is not slave to the weakness of body, but strong of spirit.

Baptized or not, we are all – beginning in the womb of our mothers – both body and spirit. Our bodies will change, but our spirits will live forever – either with God or apart from Him. Spiritual identity matters for eternity.

So here is my plea to the Christian community: Do not hide behind choice words like “tolerance” or “compassion.” Linger no longer in organizations shape-shifted by humanist ideologies. Take a stand for the sake of boys who journey to manhood. Treat them not as slaves to themselves, but as heirs of a Kingdom not of this world.

P.S. Fathers, grandfathers and pastors interested in alternatives to the Boy Scouts might visit Vision Forum. This ministry offers exciting resources to mentor godly young men.

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We Admit It: We Don’t Want Marriage to Exist

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Parenting & Education, Relationships, Vocation, tagged " homosexuality, adoption, children, civilization, future, gay, gay marriage, hope, lesbian, parenting, redifintion of marriage, same-sex marriage on May 27, 2013| 1 Comment »

Here’s something that we all need to hear. At the 2012 Sydney Writers Festival in Australia, four gay writers on a public panel were asked, “Why get married when you could be happy?” There was a consensus that gays did not want to be married. ABC Radio recorded the discussion which you can hear by going to Mercatornet and their Conjugality page.

Here is an excerpt from Masha Gessen, a Russian-American dual citizen and author. She was married to a lesbian partner in Massachuetts and then divorced. Now she has three children who have five different parents. She would like to see the institution of marriage abolished. Here is an excerpt from her remarks as a panelist:

It’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist . . . Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there — because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution is going to change and it should change. The institution of marriage should not exist. I don’t like taking part in creating fictions about my life. That’s not what I had in mind when I came out 30 years ago. I have three kids who have five parents more or less. I don’t see why they shouldn’t have five parents legally. I don’t see why we should choose two of those parents and make them into a sanctioned couple.

To know what the gay (and determined to be at odds with their Creator) community wants, please listen to the first eight or ten minutes of the panel discussion. We all — who care about children and civilization — need to know what those who seek to redefine marriage really want.

My appreciation to Michael Cook and Mercatornet

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Gosnell, Abortion and Identity

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, tagged children, choice, Jesus Christ, Kinsey, Planned Parenthood, self, sex, sexuality, spirituality, the lie on May 14, 2013| 1 Comment »

There are no words to describe what abortionist Gosnell did. I won’t try to come up with any. What he did in his little shop of horrors is no different than what goes on every day in abortion clinics across this country. Gosnell is guilty of murder. So is Planned Parenthood.

Abortion is the greatest child abuse. But it is also abuse of women. Abortion ends the life of a child God calls by name, but it forever changes the mother of that child. Babies carried into an abortion chamber by their mothers never exit. Mothers may exit, but they are physically, psychologically and spiritually altered. The way they see themselves and life itself is never the same.

What happens in abortion clinics will continue to happen until we all begin to see ourselves the way God sees us. Women will continue to seek abortions, men will pay for them, and churches will defend them until we stop identifying ourselves the wrong way.

Never – ever, has God identified boys and girls as “sexual from birth.” Before Alfred Kinsey, no one ever labeled children in such a way. But, for the last 60+ years, children have been told beginning as early as kindergarten that they are “sexual from birth.” Can we be so surprised that abortion was legalized some twenty years after men and women took on this new identity? If we’re told from childhood that we are “sexual,” then it can’t be helped. It is, after all, who God made us to be. Abstain? It would go against nature, wouldn’t it, to abstain from what is natural.

There is this one thing. Behavior is shaped by identity. However we see ourselves and others determines how we treat ourselves and others. Gosnell looked at the women and children who entered his clinic as less than human. He saw the women as sexual beings and the babies were products of that sexuality. Gosnell failed to see them all as God sees them. When we mis-identify our children as “sexual from birth” (which is taught in every sex education class) then we are failing, too. We are failing to see women, men and children as spiritual beings. Sexuality may have something to do with our bodies and minds, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with our spirits. Our spirits will live forever, you see, either with God or apart from Him.

Abortion, I’m afraid, is a sinful choice that will continue for as long as we sinful people inhabit this earth. However, people who love the lives that God creates could remove many of the excuses for abortion if only we would stop telling our children: You are “sexual from birth.” It’s just not true.

Repeat a lie often enough and many will believe it. They will act upon it. But, I’d like to be one of the different people God calls followers of Jesus to be. The kind of people who resist being labeled by the world and who call other people by their rightful identity.

To do so will make a difference, one man, one woman, one child at a time.

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Empowered Women

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Faith & Practice, Identity, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, Vocation, tagged fashions, feminism, modesty, my body my right, politically correct, prostitute, Robe of Righteousness, selfishnes, sex objects, sex trafficking, temptation on May 3, 2013| 4 Comments »

I walked into a hospital lobby recently and was met by a pair of barely covered breasts. “How may I help you,” they asked.

I know. I know. You think I’m being prudish. No, I’m being prudent.

Now, the woman might defend her choice of un-dress in one of many ways. For example: 1) It’s my body, my right or, 2) I didn’t even notice or, 3) What’s the big deal? I’m comfortable with my body, aren’t you? Other women might chime in, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

Many women believe that the freedom to dress how we please empowers a woman. I don’t agree. The erotic photos of women on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Women’s Health (for heaven’s sake!) and Victoria’s Secret; the photo images that pop up when I google “women;” and the photos of girls semi-attired for spring prom do not empower a woman. In fact, wearing sexy, form-fitted, revealing clothing distorts the way that men see women. This is nothing new. Why do you think prostitutes and sex-trafficked slaves are dressed the way they are and always have been?

Feminists, you can argue all you want. You can tell me that a woman has the right to show her womanly features and if a man has a problem with it, tough! But, you will be arguing foolishness. That’s because men and women aren’t the same. Never have been. Never will be. Just ask the boy in the tuxedo dancing with the girl in the lingerie at prom.

Feminism and the sex merchandising industry have wrapped themselves in political correctness but, in so doing, stripped girls and women of their dignity and true identity.

We are not sexual beings! We are, first and foremost, spiritual beings who will live forever either with God or apart from Him. Our souls are housed in a body where our minds also reside. We are human beings, male or female, created at different times, in different ways, and for different purposes. Female bodies look, tick, and respond to life differently than men’s bodies.

So, when my husband was also greeted by the pair of barely covered breasts, I wanted to apologize. “In this world, women dress as they please, but don’t judge her, honey. Be the gentleman you are and avert your eyes. See her as a sister or your daughter-in-law or your granddaughter… each precious in God’s sight and covered in Jesus’ Robe of Righteousness.

You see, that’s the thing. God did not leave the first woman, Eve, naked and uncovered. He covered her embarrassment of nakedness with neck-to-knee clothes and her shame of sin with the Robe of the forgiving King. When we see ourselves as daughters of royalty, we not only dress differently, we act differently.

Does stripping away clothing empower a woman? No. It makes her an object for man’s desire.

I believe that every woman is far more than that.

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Millennials for Marriage

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Relationships, tagged Biblical marriage, children, courage, family, foundation of society, God, institution of marriage, Jesus Christ, nation, procreation, unity on April 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Refreshing. Hopeful. Faithful to the God who created us… and marriage.

That is is the Marriage Generation. I just signed on as one of them and applaud their courage. Below, you will find their statement and five core principles.

Perhaps you’ll want to become one of the “marriage generation,” too!

We are millennials who understand that marriage is a lasting promise between one woman and one man. It is the unique human relationship where bodily, emotional and spiritual differences converge to form something new, often leading to the creation of life itself.

Sadly, the marriage culture our generation inherited was eroding long before we were born. Marriage in America has become increasingly associated with the fulfillment of sexual desire, and the self-actualization of adults, rather than the fulfillment of a lifelong commitment and the well being of children.

It should come as no surprise then that our generation is so ambivalent about marriage. There has never been a generation of Americans so starved for marriages to emulate or so confused about what marriage actually is. Competing claims that marriage is both an obstacle and a key to our happiness has led an increasing number of young Americans to declare marriage obsolete, delay or forgo marriage, or embrace calls to redefine marriage altogether.

Marriage remains indispensable to society, and we need marriage, rightly understood, to make a comeback.

We’re millennials who remain committed to the meaning and enduring value of marriage. Neither court rulings, nor elections, nor cultural pressures will dissuade us. Our passion is to revive a marriage culture, and to shape the way our generation thinks and talks about marriage.

Our Five Principles

1. Virtually every civilization throughout human history has recognized and upheld marriage as the permanent, exclusive and comprehensive union of one man and one woman.

2. Marriage uniquely provides for both the creation and nurturing of children.

3. The State has a compelling interest in upholding the meaning and purpose of marriage because marriage is the beginning of family, and family is the foundation of society.

4. Affirming the meaning and purpose of marriage through the law is an important and necessary step, but an insufficient one. As a society, we must redouble efforts to promote a culture of marriage and family, for the common good of all current and future citizens.

5. Recognizing the dignity of every human being and ensuring they receive the full protection of the law can and must be accomplished without redefining the meaning and purpose of marriage.

We aren’t indifferent. We aren’t giving up.

We are the Marriage Generation.

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