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Archive for the ‘Biblical manhood & womanhood’ Category

Why don’t we just admit it.  Child abuse is legal in this country.

We call it sex education.  But, in truth, it is child abuse.  Modern sex education abuses children by stripping them of their innocence.  It sexualizes our children.  Comprehensive sex education incorporates sexuality into language, thinking skills, health, science, and life-style.

Educators and parents (consciously or not) put their trust in a child abuser named Alfred Kinsey.  He is called the father of modern sex education.  Children, he said, are “sexual from birth.”  Few people paid any attention to the fact that Kinsey used known pedaphiles to experiment on children for the purpose of research.  His twisted documentation made its way into textbooks.  Homes.  Churches.  Those who share Kinsey’s disrespect for life and the innocence of children stood ready profit.  To further loosen moral restraints.

Removing the innocence of childhood has created a flourishing market for retailers.  The advertising industry.  Pharmaceutical companies.  Healthcare.  Planned Parenthood.  Who other than this government-subsidized monolith more unashamedly vies for the role of sex educator, pushes all manner of sexual paraphernalia, and then provides abortion services (for a fee, you understand).

I haven’t always used the term “child abuse” to describe sex education.  It was Douglas Gresham, the step-son of C.S. Lewis who helped me see it for what it is.  I had written Gresham to invite him as a speaker for Lutherans For Life.  I happened to mention personal efforts to help my church understand the dangers of sex education.  You are right to do so, he said, because “modern sex education is child abuse.”  Gresham knows what he’s talking about.  He ministers to women who’ve suffered sexual abuse and the loss of life through abortion that often follows years of abuse.  I, too, have heard the painful stories of women who became promiscuous after being exposed to early instruction in sexuality or blatantly sinful abuse.

For years, I traveled here and there speaking to boys, girls, and their parents.  I did not explain the intimacies of sex, but rather the uniqueness of male and female.  This was received as a strange and novel idea.  Maybe not surprising considering that moms and dads had been under the influence of Kinsey, too.  I kept asking: Why would we want to teach our children about all things pertaining to sex before first mentoring them to be boys?  Girls?  On the path to Biblical manhood.  Womanhood.

Churches have failed the youngest generations.  That’s what happens when we are deceived.  Fooled.  The world stands before us, hissing, “Did God really say . . . ?”  We look around to see new trends.  Sophistication.  Contemporary teaching.  Then, we fall into doubt.  We rationalize.  And we play the game.  The world wins when we are distracted from our vocation of instructing children in purity to instead educate them in sex.  So, along with others, I continue to encourage my church to please consider the source of modern sex education.  To refuse to wrap Jesus around worldly opinions and trends.

This mother and grandmother has sensitively-in tune antenna.  I sense, hear, and see that modern sex education is recruitment into sexuality.  Therefore, it is child abuse.

Modern sex education:

  • Is not anatomy class.
  • Fails to guard the innocence of children.
  • Breaks down inhibitions by placing boys and girls together in the same classroom.
  • Instructs children to be “comfortable with their bodies.” (And so they are… with girls having no clue as to why two cups and a thong might attract un-gentlemanly attention.)
  • Tempts children to believe they are, first and foremost, “sexual beings.”

When we believe that we are “sexual beings,” then it only follows that we have the “right” to be “sexual.”  That we “need” to be “sexual.”  And, in today’s culture, no one should deny “my rights.”  No one should deny “my needs.”  Well, here’s the truth that I will continue to proclaim: We are — first and foremost — human beings, made in the image of God and, although fallen from that image, we are called to holy living as a man or a woman.  Equal, but different.  Can you imagine how that changes the way we see ourselves and others?  The choices we make?  The way we treat one another?

The media and the general public is angry when a priest sexually abuses a child.  We should be.  But, where is our righteous anger when children fall under the tutorage of Planned Parenthood?   SIECUS?  LGBT and GLSEN-approved textbooks?  Projects such as “It Gets Better,” the “bullying” program initiated by homosexual advocate and leading “sex-advice” columnist Dan Savage?  (Warning: All of these sites are graphic.)

Children are not on this earth for our use.  They are gifts from God.  They are treasures of Jesus Christ.  I stand on this truth as a woman.  A mother.  A grandmother.  Try to prove me wrong.  Take your case before the Creator.  Question your reasons for defending sex education and the source of your information.

Educating children in sex is cruel.  It is a far cry from a parent’s role to instruct sons and daughters in purity.  Remembering our own mistakes, we may fear for our children, but comprehensive sex education does not protect young hearts, minds and souls.  Instruction in purity does.  It allows us to protect our children in ways we, perhaps, were not.

What can a parent do?  For starters, teach boys what it means to be a man.  Girls what it means to be a woman.  There are only two sexes, equal but different.  Teach respect for both.  Resist falling for the lie that “experts” know better how to raise your children.  Help children and teens set goals.  Discuss the consequences of choices. Remind them that their bodies are not their own to do with as they please, but creations of God and valued at high price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

There is a time for everything.  Childhood is a time for innocence.  Therefore, keep the fence up and the gate closed.

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Saugatuck, MI., is a pleasant village on the shore of Lake Michigan.  I’ve spent several nights there on my way home from speaking to teens and their parents in the Grand Rapids area.  The first time, I had my cousin along for the trek.  I made reservations at one of the local bed and breakfast establishments as a special treat.  We were not disappointed.  The village of Saugatuck is delightful: cottages with wide front porches, art stores, fine eateries, and the calm of lakeside living.  We visited with everyone we met, including shop-keepers who were comfortable being “out.”

A year or so later, I returned, this time with my daughter-in-law and niece .  I selected a different bed and breakfast for our night’s stay.  By this time, it had been explained to me that Saugatuck is a popular weekend and summer destination for homosexual travelers from the cities.  I guess it’s more than just a destination.  For some, it’s their home.  I know.  The B & B I had chosen for Angie, Lisette and I was home to two women who greeted us, showed us to our rooms, and then invited us to come knock on their bedroom door should we need anything.  Their obviously shared bedroom.  As in “we are a couple” bedroom.

So, you might understand why I took special note when Saugatuck made national news.  In June, the school board rejected a video for its eighth-grade anti-bullying program.  The video’s title is: “Coming Out: What Every Teen (Gay and Straight) Needs to Know.”  Some board members apparently would have supported the video for a sex-ed class, but noted that it had little to do with bullying.

Board member Jason Myers told the Holland Sentinel, “It’s about sexuality.  We got sold on it as something  more about bullying.”  “This does little on the harassment and bullying component,” added board President Mike VanLoon.  “It’s not the bulk of the video.”

Interested in what the homosexual community might have to say, I visited advocate.com.  They reported that the vote was 5-2 against the video.  Joan Lamb, board secretary, voted in favor of the video, noting that educational professionals had endorsed it and few parents opposed it.  Steve Hutchins, who cast the other favorable vote, said Saugatuck’s demographics make it necessary for the school to address gay issues.  Many businesses are owned by or cater to LGBT people.  I remembered our B & B hosts.

Taking the demographics of Saugatuck into consideration, I find the school board’s vote curious.  School boards across the country are under pressure.  In a growing “gay community,” I wouldn’t have been surprised if the vote was 5-2 in favor of the video.  Why?

Dan Savage is the founder of the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying campaign, widely seen in a variety of media outlets.  But, has he adapted a bullying approach of his own — toward parents?

“The whole point of the campaign,” he said in an interview with Salon magazine, “is that we’re not waiting for permission anymore to talk to your kid, whether you want us to or not.”

Daniel Villarreal was just as candid as Savage in his article that appeared on the prominent New York homosexual blog Queerty in May.  “I and a lot of other people want to indoctrinate, recruit, teach and expose children to queer sexuality.”  Many things Savage said are unfit to quote, but the reason “gay activists want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality,” he said, is because “our future depends on it.”

It would appear that in the charming village of Saugatuck there is a battle of worldviews.  The school board decision against a video that appeared to teach more about sexuality than anti-bullying may be evidence of conflict, but it is also evidence of hope.  As activists for a behavior with harmful consequences push hard — and boldly — to indoctrinate our children and grandchildren, perhaps they are exposing their true agenda.  They want nothing to do with abstinence education.  They want nothing to do with real marriage or family values.  But, they do want to teach children that they are “sexual from birth” and have every right to express their sexuality any way they choose.  Maybe more and more parents are beginning to recognize the deception and danger.

Saugatuck is a beautiful place.  I would like to visit there again.  In the meantime, I want to think that the two women who hosted my daughter-in-law, niece and I in their home will continue to be hospitable.  Good neighbors.  Self-controlled.  Not in favor of bullying parents… or indoctrinating children.

Excerpts from CITIZEN, August/September 2011 and http://www.advocate.com
Do you want your children under the instruction of Planned Parenthood or SIECUS?
Discover their worldview for yourself by visiting http://www.teenwire.org

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Seems that New York has followed the lead of my fellow sophisticated Iowans.   Same-sex “marriage” has just become law there, too.  People like me who don’t believe we have the right to define an institution created by God justifiably oppose tampering with marriage and parenthood.  But, we are told, not to worry!  Legalizing same-sex “marriage” won’t hurt a thing.

I disagree.  So does Michael Cook, the editor of Mercatornet.  In his article of July 11, he asks: “Anything else on the menu?”

He offers three reasons why the legalization of same-sex “marriage” will, indeed, affect our culture.  All come from authors featured in the New York Times.  First, Michael Cook notes the commentary of Katherine M. Franke, a Columbia University law professor.  She confessed that she really didn’t want to marry her long-time lesbian partner anyway.  Why lose the flexibility and benefits of living as domestic partners?  Cook quotes professor Franke, saying as far as she was concerned, “we think marriage ought to be one choice in a menu of options by which relationships can be recognized and gain security.”

“One choice in a menu of legally supported relationships?” Cook asks.  “How long is the menu?”

Cook offers a second reason why legalizing same-sex “marriage” will impact society by highlighting another article in the Times by Ralph Richard Banks.  Banks is a professor at Stanford Law School.  What comes after gay “marriage”?  Banks “puts his money on polygamy and incest” because legal prohibitions on either practice are losing strength.  Society forbade them in the past because they were seen as “morally reprehensible;” therefore, society felt “justified in discriminating against them.”  I follow Banks’ reasoning.  Just as homosexual advocates are working hard to shift our thinking and normalize the behavior God calls a sin, so will advocates of polygamy and incest.

Two more behaviors, Cook notes, are added to the “menu of [sexual] options.”

The third reason why legalized same-sex “marriage” will have a domino affect on the culture is voiced by Dan Savage.  The Times describes Savage as “America’s leading sex-advice columnist.”  He is syndicated in at least 50 newspapers.  Here’s what Cook writes about Savage.  “Savage, who claims to be both ‘culturally Catholic’ and gay, thinks that gay couples have a lot to teach heterosexual couples, especially about monogamy.  Idealising monogamy destroys families, he contends.  Men are simply not made to be monogamous.  Until feminism came along, men had mistresses and visited prostitutes.  But instead of extending the benefits of the sexual revolution to women, feminism imposed a chastity belt on men.  ‘And it’s been a disaster for marriage,’ he says.  What we need, in his opinion, is relationships which are open to the occasional fling — as long as partners are open about it.”

Cook continues, “Traditional marriage — well, actually real marriage — is and has always been monogamous and permanent.  There have been and always will be failures.  But that is the ideal to which couples aspire.  They marry ‘for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part’.  The expectation is exclusivity in a life-long commitment.”

Cook believes that legalization of same-sex “marriage” will most assuredly “affect the attitudes of young couples who are thinking of marriage a decade from now . . . it will be one of a number of options . . . they will have different expectations . . . marriage will include acceptance of infidelity, will not necessarily involve children, and will probably only last a few years.”

Advocates of same-sex “marriage” in New York say it’s good for marriage.  Cook concludes:

“In a way, they’re right.  Just as World War II was good for Germany because out of the ashes, corpses and rubble arose a heightened sense of human dignity and a democratic and peaceful government, same-sex marriage will heighten our esteem for real marriage.  But in the meantime, the suffering will be great.”

Amen.

Mercatornet: Navigating modern complexities
Check it out!

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Yesterday, California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law legislation that requires the state’s schools to teach the contributions of people who are lesbian, bisexual, “gay,” and transgender.

S.B. 48 makes California the first state in the union to pass such a law.  It was authored by Senator Mark Leno of San Francisco, a homosexual.  The law requires textbooks be re-written to include information about LBGT Americans and “present them in a positive light.”

Students as young as six will be affected.  Parental notification is not required.  Parents cannot opt their children out.

The governor says the bill prohibits “discrimination in education.”  He stated that “history should be honest.”

For the sake of honesty:

  1. What is the driving force behind this law?  What is the desired outcome?  Who does it benefit?
  2. To whom are children entrusted: their parents or the school?
  3. If parents teach God’s Word to their children because it protects them from harm, why would the governor, teacher’s association, or school want to contradict parents?
  4. Why does the bill prohibit teachers and textbooks from telling students that homosexuality is a risky lifestyle?  The practice of homosexuality carries with it the highest rate of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, high cancer rates, and earlier deaths.

It has always been a good thing to teach young people about the contributions of earlier Americans.  But, honestly, where is the textbook describing the contributions of George Washington the heterosexual?  Clara Barton the heterosexual?  Martin Luther King, Jr. the heterosexual?

Apparently S.B. 48 is California’s eighth school sexual indoctrination law forcing itself on parents and children.  What will this trend in sexual trail blazing leave behind?

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To be sure, men can be foolish, too.  Still, I am intrigued by the fact that the book of Proverbs calls attention to foolish woman.  As a woman, it seems appropriate for me to pick up on this — and ponder.

Light contrasts dark.  Hope contrasts despair.  God’s Word contrasts deception.  In Proverbs, God teaches the way of wisdom by contrasting it to foolishness.  So, I’m pondering the following verses.  And, I’m thinking of the hopeful difference women could make if they responded with wisdom in contrast to foolishness.

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones”(12:4).

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down” (14:1).

. . . [A] wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.  House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord” (19:13b-14).

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife” (21:9; 25:24; 21:19).

As long as women are deceived by the world, we will remain foolish.  Fretful.  Impatient.  We will fall to the idolatry of self.  Expect others to make us happy.  Blame them when they don’t.  Our houses will become cold.  Unwelcoming.  Without mercy.   But, there is hope.  There is always hope!

The remedy for foolishness is to be in God’s Word (Proverbs 2:1).  (All of His Word, not just the passages we like.)  Jesus Christ is the Word that brings people from darkness to light.  Sets captives free.  A foolish world is overcome by Jesus Christ.  One day, it will pass away and be no more.   For now, He commands the dawn to know its place and takes hold of the skirts of the earth (Job 38:12-13).  Evil, disguised as good, is being shaken and exposed.

If we want to be wise — even in the midst of those who think themselves sophisticated and progressive — we must know Christ.  Not just quote Him, but study Him.  Then seek to follow Him.  Turn away from silly myths.  Tell Satan to jump a cliff.  Be repentant for wrong choices of the past and begin to trust the Creator of our lives.  See the things of this world as Jesus sees them: False.  Puffed up.  Loud.  Arrogant.  Harmful.  Hopeless.

And, so, the wisest of women builds her house.  Her sphere of influence.  She trusts that God will meet her needs in unexpected ways.  Putting herself in His care, she is free.  To leave old ways behind.  Serve husband and children.  Encourage.  Build up.

May I — and all the women in my life — be like the adulterous woman who sat at the feet of Jesus.  Sins exposed and forgiven.  Eyes open.  The foolishness of the temporary exchanged for the wisdom of the eternal.

No longer foolish, may we be a refuge.  Our light burning brightly.  Our homes a welcoming place.

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A friend of mine has been trying to get the attention of her church.   Today, after nearly 14 years, God made it possible for her to speak to a small group of church leaders.  To make her plea.  To provide well-documented evidence giving justified reasons for her concern.  I prayed for listening ears.  Open hearts and minds.

I share my friend’s concern.  Motivation.  Perseverance.  Our experiences are different, but our conclusion the same.  That is:  Christians have been taken captive to the ways of modern sex education.  Nowhere in Scripture does God say to “educate in sex.”  He does tell parents to “instruct” in “purity.”  Guard the innocence of youth.  Mentor Biblical manhood and womanhood.   I want the church to be distinctively different from the world.  As it should be.  But, making this request of the institutional church is costly.  My friend knows.  She and her family have paid a high price.

I, too, recognize the cost.  Involvement.  Thirty years of researching, serving on boards and committees, writing, traveling the country, meeting with young and old,  listening to people suffering a wrong choice, and being a voice of hope.  Those who didn’t understand thought me odd.  Well-meaning folk suggested I “lighten up.”  But, the more I contrasted the world with God’s Word, the more convicted I became.  I couldn’t “lighten up.”  Not when boys and girls have their innocence stripped from them.   Not when educators try to wrap Jesus around Kinsey.  Not when parents or grandparents who’ve suffered the consequences of worldly ideology ask for my help in warning a younger generation.  But, pointing out an error in teaching troubles the teacher.   No one wants to hear that wrong teaching, no matter how well-intentioned or Gospel-wrapped, hurts children.  Makes them more vulnerable.   The whistle-blower risks being called a fool.  A simpleton.  Out of step.  There is much resistance.

Why?  Perhaps the greatest reason is pride.  Years ago, while serving on a sanctity of life task force, I was given opportunity to meet with men of influence.  I expressed concern that legalized abortion had greased the slope to euthanasia and offered documentation of the growing acceptance among Christians of “mercy killing” and “assisted suicide.”  I was silenced by a kindly church leader who told me not to concern myself.  His words were like a pat on the knee.  “You’re just a homemaker,” he said.  “You let us take care of this.”

Pride.  The pride of education.  Position.  Initials before or behind one’s name.  But, the saying is true: Pride goes before the fall.  It certainly did in the Garden of Eden.

The day came when I was confronted by a church “expert” on all things pertaining to sex.  He stood with arms crossed.  Feet planted.  Taller than me.  “So,” he said.  “I understand you have concerns about my work.”  Who was I to respond to him?  Would he, a driving force behind Christian sex education, listen to a homemaker?  A mom?  A lay-person?  His stature was intimidating, but I managed one small request.  “Please.” I said, “Guard the boundaries of modesty.  Teach what it means to be a boy or a girl first… before educating in sex.”

Pride puts well-meaning people on the defense.  Even after a “good” person has been deceived, pride says, “Hey!  I know what I’m doing here.  And, because I’m a Christian, I will do right.”  Well, that’s what Chuck Colson said before he was neck-deep in Watergate.  In his new DVD series, Doing the Right Thing, Colson admits to thinking that because he was a Christian, he couldn’t be deceived.  Couldn’t fall to wrong choices.  That’s a different sort of pride, isn’t it?  Is this also true for Christians who associate with the theory of sex education?

It isn’t that that Christian leaders want to do wrong.  They simply do what they should not and don’t do what they should.  (Sound familiar?)  Perhaps these leaders believe themselves Christian enough to stand strong.  To sort the good from the bad.   But, the deceiver is always at work.  Deception comes at the university, in study groups, on the internet, at the coffee-house,  and in animated discussion with intelligent but secular friends.   Well-intentioned Christians can actually be duped into wrapping Jesus around worldly ideology.  Sophistication.  Progressivism.  But, the Word doesn’t wrap around the world.  Jesus doesn’t… won’t… can’t wrap Himself around the world.  Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life.  He is Light upon the world’s darkness.

A “good” Christian leader knows this.  But, pride is an ugly monster.  As pride swells, we dig in.  We go on the defense even as we begin to feel the prick of conscience.  There is guilt when one realizes that something intended to be straight was built on a crooked foundation.  When wrong teaching or practice has coursed its way through curricula, workshops, conferences, sermons, counseling sessions, books, and media.

But, most amazingly, there is hope.  There is always hope, even in the midst of error and sin.  In humility we are strengthened by the Spirit of God who lives in us.  We can allow the alarm to sound.  We can express shame and regret.  We can apologize for wrong teaching.  We can ask for and receive forgiveness.

We can squelch pride and return to the Word.

For related topics, see “Jesus Doesn’t Wrap “Silly Myths”  (10-1-10), “1988” (1-22-11), “The Body is Our House” (1-24-11), “Damage Control,” (1-26-11), “Choices Affect Our Attitude Toward God” (2-9-11), “Too Long at the Animal Circus” (3-23-11), “Unhooked and Set Free” (5-17-11), “Unhooked: Part II” (5-18-11), “Men and the Monogamy Molecule” (5-18-11), and “Were Moms Hooked, Too?” (5-18-11)

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On Sunday, June 26, CNN aired a report about “Nepal’s Stolen Children.”  The documentary, narrated by actress Demi Moore, explained how Nepalese girls are sold into slavery and turned into prostitutes in neighboring India.  I’m sorry I missed it.  But Chuck Colson, a gentleman who shares my worldview, did not.

Colson, in his Breakpoint commentary of July 8, noted that Moore became emotional during the broadcast.  Understandably so.  Slavery and bondage as a prostitute should never happen.  But the problem, Colson believes, is that we are ignoring the driving force of this “inhumane traffic in innocence.”

The New York Times ran an article following the CNN documentary titled “160 Million and Counting.”  It referred to the number of “missing” women in the world.  Colson points out “missing” as in “disappeared,” rather, as in “never born in the first place.”

Ross Douthat, author of the Times article, reminded readers that 26 years ago the number of “missing” women was estimated by experts to be 100 million.  These experts concluded, after examining skewed sex ratios in China and India, “that something terrible was happening.”  Twenty year later, the estimate has grown by 60%.  But those concerned about this terrible thing, Douthat notes, remain reluctant to name the cause: abortion.

Colson writes, “Citing the work of social scientist Mara Hvistendahl, Douthat points out an uncomfortable truth: what Times readers would no doubt see as ‘female empowerment’ lies behind the missing women.  According to Hvistendahl, in places like India, ‘women use their increased autonomy’ to abort their daughters and ‘select for sons,’ who enhance their social status.”

Sex-selection abortion may have originated among the “affluent,” but now all women can select — or reject — their preborn child based on sexual preference.

What is the impact?  Colson notes a 2008 article by two Loyola Law School professors who found that by “reducing the number of potential brides, selective abortion in India increased the demand for sex workers.”  And, Colson continues, “one way that ‘demand’ is being filled is through the Nepalese girls featured in the CNN documentary.  The ‘lucky’ ones are ‘smuggled and purchased from poor countries like Nepal and Bhutan to be brides for Indian men.’   The more unfortunate are sold into the Indian sex trade.”

India and China have outlawed the practice of sex-selection abortion because of the social ills and suffering.  But the practice continues because, says Colson, “cultural norms are hard to overcome.”

Douthat notes that sex-selection abortion puts Western liberals “in a distinctly uncomfortable position.”  Colson explains why.  “They can’t deny the reality of the practice but, at the same time, their own worldview leaves them hanging in mid-air.”

“After all, they insist ‘that the unborn aren’t human beings yet, and that the right to an abortion is nearly absolute.’ ” But, continues Colson, “160 million missing women and the suffering it radiates in all directions tells you where that kind of thinking inevitably leads.”

Colson concludes, “It’s hard to imagine a better example of the poverty of modern thinking: faced with a great evil and unable to address the answer.”

Slavery and prostitution are great evils.  But, the Christian worldview addresses the answer.  When we value human life in the womb, we will better value and protect all human life.  Including Nepalese girls.

__________

Breakpoint is published by Prison Fellowship ministries.
For further reading: “Gender Discrimination Fuels Sex Selective Abortions” (Lemoine & Tanagho, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, 2-23-08); “160 Million and Counting” (Douthat, New York Times, 6-26-11); “It’s Raining Men” (Kim Moreland, Breakpoint blog, 5-24-11)

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“All the people care about is the economy.”

“The people aren’t interested in ‘social issues’ like abortion, homosexuality or gay marriage.”

“There they go again,” reports MSNBC and others.  “The ‘radical right’ is working abortion and marriage into the conversation.”

Rightly so.  Social issues, as they are called, are moral issues.  The legalized killing of preborn human children is a moral issue.  Re-defining marriage is a moral issue.  Teaching our children that homosexuality is just a choice on the “sexual menu” is a moral issue.

Everything has a moral component.  The government has a moral obligation to protect “life and liberty,” to maintain a strong military, and to live within its means.  It should encourage responsible, orderly behavior and a good work ethic.  It should protect families from drug cartels, terrorists, and enemies from within and without.

Anyone running for office should have moral integrity.  Moral character.  Moral and ethical fiber.  It’s not just my opinion, but God’s mandate that people who rule a nation should respect the life that He creates.  Anyone who compromises on issues such as abortion, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, assisted suicide, and euthanasia has lost (or never had) a moral compass.

Those who seek to experiment with marriage and family float rumors.  They say that Americans don’t really care about same-sex “marriage.”  They add: If someone is against gay “marriage,” then they must be against homosexuals.  Not true.  People who believe they are homosexual are persons, too.  They are  people loved by God.  But, God is the Creator of marriage and, therefore, He alone defines it.  God created marriage for one man and one woman because it’s the best environment for children, it connects children to their biological origins, and it brings two opposites — male and female — together to mentor boys and girls in the way God intends for them to go.

Moral integrity is practiced — or not practiced — on Wall Street and in every business.  In education.  In health care.  In courts of law.  In the military.  In homes.  And during election cycles.

My eyes have seen that men and women who defend the sanctity of human life generally have a moral compass not only in place but in operation.  Leaders — in the home, community, church, and government — who value the life that God creates and redeems in Jesus Christ are imperfect leaders to be sure, but they are accountable to someone other than themselves.  Their God determines right and wrong.  Their neighbors matter.  Their choices reflect hope for a new generation.

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Some would claim I am guilty of heterosexism if I do not embrace the practice of homosexuality or the teaching of the homosexual lifestyle to children in school.

Then, does it follow that I am also guilty of some form of “racism” if I do not embrace thievery, alcohol or drug abuse, adultery, cheating, rape, pedaphilia, or murder (to name a few) or the teaching of these practices to children in school?

All of these practices are harmful.  It is for that reason that God’s Word consistently warns against them and calls them wrong.  Vibrant civilizations have always warned against them and called them wrong.

What, you say?  A person with homosexual tendencies is born that way?  Cannot the same be said about the person who is an alcoholic or prone to violence?  Thus, the practice of self-control.  Restraint.  Setting of boundaries.  All for a person’s own good as well as the good of his neighbors.  If someone is looking for help in practicing self-control and — in fact — putting the old, harmful ways behind, tell them to give Exodus International a call.   This group offers the same hope for “recovering homosexuals” as Alcoholics Anonymous does for “recovering alcoholics.”

It is bold and progressive to demean me with words like heterosexist.  No matter.  I am going to refrain from embracing a dangerous lifestyle even while I embrace the person struggling with it.

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Students identifying themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ)  are asking conservative, evangelical colleges to change policies and theology to reflect their “sexuality” and behavioral choices.

In his article for CitizenLink (6-13-11), Jeff Johnston notes that LGBTQ students are rallying on the campuses of Cedarville University, Hope College, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, and more.  The Wheaton LGBTQ website states, “We do not believe there is anything wrong with being gay.  We don’t just believe otherwise, we live happily, and even faithfully, otherwise.”

The Cedarville group concurs, “Most of us still identify as Christian and are joined in our belief that God made us gay and that being gay is not a sin.  Instead of a burden or a struggle, we see our and everyone’s sexuality as a gift.”

Once again, I take issue with God “making people to be homosexual.”  Does a loving God create a person who can’t “fit” together with another to procreate and bring new life into the world?  Does a loving God sit in heaven and laugh when homosexual behavior produces STDs, anal cancer, and HIV/AIDS?

Johnston is correct.  “To affirm homosexuality and transgenderism takes some major Scripture twisting.”  Evangelical colleges and universities would have to change basic tenets of the Christian faith in order to embrace LGBTQ theology.  Johnston gives three examples:

  • Humanity is created male and female in the image of God.
  • God established marriage to bring into union a husband and wife and as the foundation for procreation and family.
  • The metaphor of husband and wife is the central biblical image that illustrates God’s deep passion for His people and Christ’s love for His Bride, the Church.

To affirm homosexual or transgender behavior is to ignore 5000 years of Judeo-Christian foundational teaching.  More, as Johnston states, it assaults the core features of what it means to be human.

Doubting God’s Word was the first — and still most troublesome — sin.  It ruins relationships, first with God and then with others.  God will not have us doubt His Word.  Tweak it.  Distort it.  But, He would have us use His Word to changes hearts and minds.  To treat even those who doubt His Word with kindness.

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