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My Thanks to Chuck Colson

Posted in Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , on April 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Today, April 21, the man who taught me much about worldviews in conflict was called home.  I never had the privilege of meeting Chuck Colson, but I mourn his death as if he were a best friend.  I signed the Manhattan Declaration because I trusted Chuck’s perspective on this culture.  An entire shelf or more in my library holds books and Bible studies authored by Chuck.  I quoted Chuck regularly in a human care publication I write called Christian Citizenship. How blessed the people who worked beside Chuck must have been.

After being humbled by his own failings in political leadership, Chuck was “born again” in Christ in 1973.  I remember that year.  It was the year that Roe vs. Wade handed down a death sentence to any inconvenient boy or girl in the womb.  As a believer, Chuck became an ardent supporter of the sanctity of human life.  1973 was also the year I became engaged to my husband.  We married in 1974.  I gave little thought to Chuck at that time, knowing him only as someone sent to prison for his part in the Watergate scandal.  But, growing in my own faith as a wife, mother, and involved pro-life and family advocate, I began reading Chuck’s books.  I often carried one or two with me when speaking around the country, offering them as resources for men and women who wanted to make their faith real in action.

I became a modest supporter of Prison Fellowship, the ministry founded by Chuck.  He had promised to remember the incarcerated and share the transforming love of Jesus with them and their families.  He kept his promise.  “I could never, ever have left prison and accomplished what has been accomplished but for God doing it through me,” Chuck said.

In 1991, Chuck began broadcasting BreakPoint Radio, educating Christians not only to grow in faith but live it in the public square.  I’m not sure how many reams of paper I’ve used to print Chuck’s BreakPoint articles.  For a number of years, I kept Chuck’s articles in a three-ring binder.  One binder, two binders, three… .  Oh, the weight of Chuck’s words!  This saint and sinner helped me see that two worldviews — perspectives on life — are daily at odds.  There are only two: God’s and all others.

Chuck Colson was the set of working clothes the Spirit chose to wear for nearly 40 years.  He is proof that, no matter the circumstances and failures of life, God is faithful.

Robert P. George and Timothy George, co-authors with Chuck of the Manhattan Declaration, wrote, “The two of us are committed to devoting our lives to carrying forth the vision and advancing the cause to which Chuck gave himself with unstinted vigor.  His life stands as a testimony to God’s power to transform culture and make a difference.”

Together with literally millions of others, I celebrate the life of Chuck Colson — a man of true faith, integrity, and humble service.  Even as Chuck rejoices in the presence of God, I will continue to be encouraged by this man’s refusal to be silent.  To defend the rights of conscience.  To obey God rather than men.

Won’t you sign the Manhattan Declaration, in honor of God’s servant Chuck?

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Standing On Truth & Resisting Evil

Posted in Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , on March 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The Manhattan Declaration is a historic proclamation promoting the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty.  Within a short time after it was released in November of 2009, 500,000 Christians from multiple denominations signed the document.  I am among those Christians.  Co-authors of this document include Charles Colson.  He writes,

“Christianity is more than a religion.  And it is more than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Christianity is an all-encompassing worldview that shapes how we think and how we live in the world.  It could not be otherwise.”

Colson continues, quoting from God’s Word in John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  “Word,” writes Colson, “is the English translation of the Greek Logos.  And as a translation, Word falls far short of the richness and totality of Logos.  For Greek speakers (like St. John) all the way back to Plato and beyond, Logos meant ultimate reality, all that was known or could be known, the glue that holds the universe together.

“Jesus Christ,” confesses Colson, “is more than a founder of a religion.  He is more than my personal savior (and I thank God every day that He is).  He is the Logos . . .  If Christ cries out ‘Mine’ about every aspect of life – medicine, music, literature, science, family, law, politics, and so on – then we, the Church when we look at every aspect of life, must cry out ‘HIS’!”

The faithful Christian has both the duty and privilege of bringing Christ’s truth to bear on every aspect of life.  And, says Colson and the authors of The Manhattan Declaration, right now “is a vitally important time to do so.”  Why?  Because we are witnessing a “titanic struggle between two antithetical worldviews: secular naturalism and Christianity.  The one side holds there is no God, that we humans are nothing but . . . glorified germs whose ancestors arose from the primordial soup.  The other holds that God created the universe, that His physical and moral laws are observable and knowable, and that He created man in His image – endowing man with a sacred dignity . . ..”

Colson notes that “we see the struggle all around us: in the classroom, in the courtroom, and on Capitol Hill.  If man is nothing special, then why not abortion?  Why not cloning?  Why not experiment with human embryos?  If there is no moral law, no ultimate truth, why not ‘same-sex marriage’?  Why not enshrine individual preference as the ultimate arbiter of human conduct?  Why not borrow money you cannot repay – and who really cares how that might impact others?”

The Manhattan Declaration is grounded in Scripture and the creeds all Christians confess.  It is a “wake-up call to the Church.”  It focuses on three issues: the sanctity of human life, marriage, and religious freedom.  Why not other pressing issues such as social justice or the environment?  Because, explains Colson, “these three issues are so foundational, so critical, that every other Christian concern – indeed, every human concern – flows out of them.”

Colson explains, “It is the belief in the sacredness of human life that led the early Church to fight the Roman practice of infanticide and abortion; it is this belief that put Christians in the forefront of fighting slavery; it is this belief that led Christians to lead in the promotion of civil rights.  And, today, it is this belief that has charged Christians to fight human trafficking all around the globe.  The sanctity of human life is the foundation of true social justice.”

The Manhattan Declaration proclaims, “Marriage — is the first institution of human society – indeed, it is the institution upon which all other human institutions have their foundation.”  Colson notes, “It is the bedrock institution that no society can survive without.”

The third foundational issue is religious freedom, or freedom of conscience.  It is under assault every day.  It might be the Methodist camp losing its tax-exempt status because it refused to allow a “same-sex marriage” ceremony or the Catholic adoption agency threatened from its ministry because it wouldn’t place orphaned children with same-sex couples.  It might be the steadfast refusal of Congress to protect the religious freedom of medical providers in the current debate of health care “reform” legislation.  “More is coming,” writes Colson.  “These are not political issues.  These are profoundly moral issues that affect the common good.”

How can we love God and serve our neighbor by sitting idly by?  As human dignity, marriage, and religious freedom are under increasing assault, will you visit The Manhattan Declaration to read, prayerfully sign, and then share with others?

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Could We Lose Our Religious Freedom?

Posted in Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Parenting & Education, Vocation, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2012| 1 Comment »

To some, this question may sound bizarre.  What?  Here in America?  Lose our freedom of religion?  No way!  To others, the question may sound like a “conspiracy theory.”  Just calm down, they may say.  Don’t get bent out of shape just because of some minor differences of opinion on whether birth control and drugs that abort babies should be freely provided through medical insurance.

If you’ve been watching American trends, you will see two worldviews at odds.  A secular naturalist worldview (which includes socialism, humanism, and atheism) diametrically opposes the Biblical worldview.  Consider the following: 1) The sanctity of human life has always been defended among people influenced by Biblical thinking, but 30+ years of legalized abortion in the U.S. has changed the way we view human life – in or out of the womb; 2) Faithful marriage between one man and one woman has always been supported by any people influenced by Biblical thinking, but U.S. courts are now ruling in favor of so-called “same-sex marriage;” 3) Freedom of religion is the first freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights written by Founding Fathers influenced by Biblical thinking, but today we are told that “sexual freedom trumps religious freedom” and that while we may have freedom to “worship” (a private practice), we shouldn’t publicly practice our faith during the course of our everyday lives.

Are we in danger of losing the right to practice what we believe to be true?  Think about it.  1) Religious organizations who believe abortion does not please God have been told their health insurance providers must cover contraceptive use (including drugs known to end the life of a baby before birth) and, therefore, go against their faith and conscience; 2) States like Iowa where the majority of citizens do not believe in “same-sex marriage”  must recognize the “right” of two women or two men to “marry” and, in states like California, the majority vote in favor of traditional marriage was overturned by a judge in favor of “gay marriage;” 3) Parents who believe that children are entrusted to them by God are being told to obey the “state” and let schools teach students that homosexuality and “gay marriage” are “normal” and, if anyone speaks otherwise, they may be guilty of “hate speech.”  Are all of these things – and more – indicative that our religious liberties are being removed?

Followers of Jesus Christ have always – and will always – be different from the world.  But, in order to “fit in” with the world, have Christians been silent?  Compromised faith?  Stopped putting their faith into practice?

Atheists, humanists, and secularists all have a faith, too.  It is faith in something other than the God “I Am;” in the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.  They are passionate about their faith.  They practice their faith wherever they are: in the schools, media, workplace, courts of law, and places within government.  Are Christians less passionate about their faith?  Or, have we believed the lie that “your faith is a private matter between you and God”?  Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21).  We are to obey government except when it tells us to disobey God.  Then, we must speak up and resist evil.  We must use God’s Word to defend life, marriage, and family — the very foundation for civil society.

When we are told to keep God’s Word “private” and not share it in the marketplace of ideas, then we have lost our freedom of religion.  How, then, can we be “salt and light” (Matt. 5:13-16)?

Recommended resources include Breakpoint, Family Research Council,
World magazine, and Concerned Women for America

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Should We Question Faith & Character?

Posted in Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , , on February 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Tom lives in the neighborhood.  Most of us see him as a quiet, non-troublesome kind of guy.   He “minds his own business.”  But, those of us who live a little closer to Tom see him making some choices that, while seemingly private, are affecting his neighbors.   It isn’t my right to tell Tom what to do in his own home, or to tell him who he should invite into his home.  But, when how he chooses to live his life encroaches on my life in a less than helpful way, then should I voice concern?

Conversations of the past have revealed that Tom and I don’t share the same faith or character.  We have built our lives on very different foundations; therefore, we not only see the world differently, we respond to the things of this world differently.   I’ll be honest.  I’m concerned about my neighbor.  I’m concerned for Tom’s sake, but also for the sake of other neighbors whom he influences. 

I don’t believe I should question my neighbor’s faith and character.  I do believe, however, that I can ask questions about his perspective on life.  His worldview.  Every caring neighbor should ask another neighbor questions about their worldview.  If we don’t ask our neighbor why he does what he does, says what he says, or lives the way he lives, then what kind of neighbor are we?  What kind of neighborhood will we jointly build up…or tear down?

Rick Santorum was recently understood to have questioned President Obama’s faith.  When criticized for his remarks, Santorum explained that he was questioning the president’s “radical” environmentalist view that “elevates the Earth above man.”  Santorum explained that he wasn’t questioning that President Obama is a Christian, but that his worldview on natural resources and how they can’t be tapped because to do so will harm the Earth is a “phony ideal.”  Santorum has also questioned the president’s worldview on the issue of abortion; most recently, in the area of insurance coverage for prenatal tests that can identify problems in unborn children.  Santorum knows for a fact that doctors “more often than not” recommend abortion when problems are discovered.

I believe that any presidential candidate – or American citizen — should be able to ask questions about their neighbor’s worldview.  In kindly doing so, he or she is simply and fairly asking: Why do you believe what you believe?  What is the source of your belief?  How does your belief serve other people?  How does your belief help us all build a better society?  After asking such questions, it is fair to say:  Here’s what I believe and why.  Here is the source of my belief.  Here is how I try to live my belief.  Now, please feel free to question me about my worldview.  Why I say what I say and do what I do.

Too many of us seem unwilling to dialogue about worldviews and how those worldviews affect neighborhoods and society as a whole.  When a person is concerned enough to speak up about health care, marriage, sexual behaviors, abortion, euthanasia, or ethics of any kind, they are quickly labeled as “judgmental.”  Care and concern are not judgmental.  Contrasting one worldview with another is not “judgmental.”  Laying something counterfeit next to the real thing is not “judgmental.”  And, you know what?  Calling something harmful or dangerous is not “judgmental.”  If it is, then every “bridge out” or “stop ahead” or “wear your seatbelt” sign should be torn down.

I’m not sure that I’ll be given the opportunity to dialogue with Tom about important matters of life.  But, if I am, I promise to take care.  To not question his faith (or lack of it) or demean his character.  Instead, I will try to ask questions.  Questions that show my interest in him as a person.  But, also questions that help Tom think about being a good neighbor.

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Are Catholics Stupid?

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Vocation, tagged , , , , , on February 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

No.  Neither are those of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Or the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  Or other church bodies which are speaking up in defense of religious liberty.

But, President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius must think differently.  Following the firestorm ignited by his policy forcing religious organizations to pay for “contraceptives” and sterilizations, the President offered a compromise.  “Quite frankly,” said Bill Donahue of the Catholic League, “he’s adding insult to injury.  He must think the Catholics are stupid.” 

The president is playing word games which fail to mask his assault on core convictions regarding the sanctity of human life held dear for decades by many Christians.   Catholics, Southern Baptists and Missouri Synod Lutherans believe aborting a child by way of so-called “contraceptive” pills such as Ella or “Plan B” is a sin.  The government said, “So what?  You’ll do as we say.”

Mr. Obama and Ms. Sebelius have blatantly disregarded individual conscience and faith by forcing religious organizations to pay for “preventative services for women.”  HHS, you see, has included unintended pregnancy as “a condition for which safe and effective prevention and treatment” need to be more widely available.  (This sets the stage for mandated coverage of abortion as the treatment when prevention fails.) 

In effect, Mr. Obama and Ms. Sebelius see pregnancy not only as a burden, but as an obstacle – or disease – that must be overcome.  To commemorate the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Mr. Obama was unashamedly transparent.  He said legalized abortion is indispensable “to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.” 

I believe Mr. Obama is being honest in a most sobering way.  He is taking a stand against life and liberty.  He is friend to Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions, but foe to the church that seeks to protect and rescue human life in Jesus’ name.  More important than the sanctity of human life to this administration is the sanctity of personal liberation.    

So, here’s what I think.  Catholics, Southern Baptists, Missouri Synod Lutherans, Rick Warren, and other conservative believers are not stupid.  But, we are enablers.

I think this government is doing what it is doing because we Christians have enabled the culture to deteriorate.  We let ourselves come under the influence of nonbelieving neighbors in the land.  We went to the university and mingled with those who followed Darwin, Lenin, Sanger and Kinsey.  We set aside God’s Word on all matters of life to follow after human opinion.  We believed ourselves wise enough to separate good from evil. 

Abortion was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court only because many in the so-called faith community had already condoned it.  And, why do you think that might be?  Because they had fallen for the lie that abortion is “a tragic but necessary choice.”   Behind that lie was another: We are “sexual beings” whose right to be sexual trumps all other rights, even the right to life. 

Perhaps we in the faith community ought not be so critical of this government for attacking religious liberty.  Perhaps we set ourselves up for the attack by letting people who oppose God shape the thinking of our children.  Lenin said that America would never be changed by a Bolshevik-style revolution.  Instead, believed Lenin, removal of God and the rule of socialism would be guaranteed if children were separated from their parents and taught to follow after “their sexual instincts.” 

A century of Darwin and at least five decades of Sanger and Kinsey have had their way with American children.  Those children grew up questioning God and standards of morality.  They were taught to be comfortable with their flesh side – their sensuality, but this put them at odds with their Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.   For them, the First Commandment is no longer “You shall have no other gods before Me;” rather, it is: “I am my own god” and “it’s my body, my choice.”  This becomes crystal clear to me as I hear women defend President Obama’s order that all religious institutions provide contraceptives.  They completely miss the fact that individual conscience is being violated and religious liberties stripped away.  They focus, instead, on their sexual liberties and the “right” not to be burdened by the procreative miracle of sex.  “I’m a working woman,” said one, “who must be guaranteed my reproductive rights.”  “This Catholic uproar,” said another woman, “has nothing to do with faith and everything to do with women’s health.” 

Do you agree that Christians have enabled such thinking?  It is fact that even “good” Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, and other Christian parents have allowed their sons and daughters to be educated by those whose worldview opposes God.  Children have been separated from parents and tutored K-12 in “sex education” or “family living” or “human sexuality” classes whose origins are not God but Sanger and Kinsey.  Educated in such an environment, children do come to think about the act of sex, marriage, family, and civic responsibilities in ways that open the door to government intervention.

Legalized abortion and now this bold attack on religious liberties and individual conscience are government policies that happen when the people (that’s us) seek after the unholy rather than the holy.  After sensuality rather than purity.  After self-gratification rather than generational faithfulness. 

People of faith are not stupid.  But, we are enablers.  I’ve always believed that God placed me where I am at this time in history to play a specific role as the woman He created me to be.  As that woman, I have a choice.  To enable neighbors – and, thus, a culture – to seek after things of God… or self.  To raise the standard of behavior for men and children… or to lower it.  To live as if I’m on a journey to eternal life with God… or just “here for the moment, so get all I can.”

There are those who want to strip away the right to defend life.  Purity.  Marriage and family.  Ethics.  Just law.  Freedom of conscience and faith.  We can no longer enable them to do so.

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Hedonism: America’s Official Religion

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , on February 11, 2012| 2 Comments »

What follows is an article by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.  It was published by Dr. Morse and MercatorNet,  (2/9/2012) and reprinted with permission (see below).  Ezerwoman believes there is no need to try to write what someone else has written so well.

How Hedonism Became America’s Official Religion

An edict from the Obama administration has ended the American experiment in religious liberty.

No, I’m not exaggerating. The American experiment in religious liberty is officially over. The First Amendment provided institutional structures that allow different religions to peacefully coexist. All groups agree to not try to capture governmental structures for the benefit of their own particular denomination.

But the Obama administration has ended that truce. The administration made a decision to require all employers to provide contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization. The administration offers no religious exemption for people who have the audacity to believe that pregnancy is not an illness that needs to be always and everywhere prevented.

In effect, we have a new state religion, a new Established Church of the United States of America, with Barack Obama as its head. It is the religion of Secular Hedonism, the worldview that sex is a sterile recreational activity, with babies thrown in as an afterthought, an optional extra, for people with quirky life-style preferences. The contraceptive mandate uses the full might of the US government to scrub the public square clean of any competing religious voices that dissent from the new orthodoxy.

But because this worldview is fundamentally irrational, it cannot stand on its own two feet. Some sexual activity does result in babies. Not everyone wants their government acting as if the highest goal is that pleasure is to be sought. Not everyone believes that the purpose of the government is to allow people to indulge themselves sexually, without a live baby ever resulting.

The Catholic Church for instance, famously opposes every precept of Secular Hedonism. As a matter of fact, so did all of the Christian churches, right up until five minutes ago. The ancient Christian teaching is that marriage is the proper context for sexual activity and for child-bearing, for the good of children, women, and men alike, as well as society as a whole.

The government believes that this dissenting voice cannot be tolerated. It must be crushed. And, of course, from their point of view, they are perfectly correct. They have an established religion that says that every sexual act is intrinsically meaningless except for the meaning we might happen to assign it. They simply can’t allow someone to go around saying that each and every sexual act is sacred, and endowed by our Creator with inalienable significance. From the point of view of Secular Hedonism, Catholicism must be crushed.

And of course, anyone else who dissents from the new orthodoxy must be crushed as well. That is why so many other faith traditions have joined in criticizing the Obama administration’s usurpation of power from civil society. The National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jews have all criticized the administration’s attack on religious liberty. These religious bodies know that their religious liberties are at stake as well.

The religious truce is officially over. The Established Church of Secular Hedonism has declared war on the rest of us, enlisting the might of the United States government on their side. We will respond using nothing but peaceful means.

We used to refrain from making religious arguments in the public square. We thought it was our duty. We thought it was good strategy. The Ruth Institute has specialized in defending the ancient Christian teachings, using non-religious arguments. This no longer makes sense. The arguments are still good arguments. But there is no longer any reason to hold back from proclaiming our faith. Our position deserves respect, not simply because it is our “deeply held religious belief”. Our position deserves respect because it is grounded in reason and evidence, and in a far deeper understanding of the human person, and the human good. The ancient Christian teachings on marriage, family and human sexuality are superior to the teachings of the Established Church of Secular Hedonism.

If we don’t respond firmly, the Obama Administration will assume they can get away with ending religious liberty. This website, StopHHS.org will become a clearing house of info about the insurance mandate. Go sign their petition.

Dr Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD, is the founder and president of the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage.

This article by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, PhD, was originally published on MercatorNet.com under a Creative Commons Licence. If you enjoyed this article, visit MercatorNet.com for more.

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Religious Freedom, Government Health Care, & My Church

Posted in Citizenship, Commentaries of others, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , on February 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

Below are excerpts from a statement issued by Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of my church body, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), in response to a recent HHS decision which affects religious freedom.   

We are deeply distressed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent decision to require nearly all private health plans, including those offered by religious employers, to cover contraceptives.  This will include controversial birth-control products such as “Ella” and the “morning after pill,” even though the FDA warns that such drugs can cause the death of a baby developing in the womb.  The LCMS objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sign of God from the time of conception, and we are opposed to the HHS’ decision mandating the coverage of such contraceptives.

This HHS action relates to a provision in the “health care reform” legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) signed into law in 2010 . . . The Concordia Health Plan (CHP), the LCMS church workers’ health plan, has been maintained as a “grandfathered” plan.  As such, employers and workers participating in CHP would not be subjected to the mandate.  However, many religious organizations do not have grandfathered plans and cannot avail themselves of the extremely narrow religious-employer exemption, which only is applicable to religious employers that primarily serve and employ members of their faith.

For centuries, Lutherans have joyfully delivered Christ’s mercy to others and embraced His call to care for the needy within our communities and around the world.  In a nation that has allowed more than 54 million legal abortions since 1973, we must consider the marginalization of unborn babies and object to this mandate.

In addition, I encourage the members of the LCMS to join with me in supporting efforts to preserve our essential right to exercise our religious beliefs.  This action by HHS will have the effect of forcing many religious organizations to choose between following the letter of the law and operating within the framework of their religious tenets.  We add our voice to the long list of those championing for the continued ability to act according to the dictates of their faith, and provide compassionate care and clear Christian witness to society’s most vulnerable, without being discriminated against by government.

The LCMS, a church body of sinners redeemed by the blood of Jesus, has affected the lives of millions of people with care, aid, housing, health care, spiritual care and much more.  We have been a force for good in this nation, promoting education, marriage and giving people the tools and assistance to be good citizens.  We live and breathe Roman 13:3-7.  The governing authorities are “God’s servant for good.”  We pray for our President and those in authority . . . 

Increasingly we are suffering overzealous government intrusions into what is the realm of traditional and biblical Christian conscience.  We believe this is a violation of our First Amendment rights.  We will stand, to the best of our ability, with all religious and other concerned citizens, against this erosion of our civil liberty.  Come what may, we shall do everything we can, by God’s grace, to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).  (February 3, 2012)

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Making Wrong Choices Unthinkable

Posted in Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , on February 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

It is not that Christians can make this a Christian nation.  Or a Christian culture.  We may not be able to prevent laws, such as nationalized health care which appears to mandate many practices a Christian doesn’t and can’t Biblically support.  But, Christians can choose to not do wrong things and, thus, affect their family,  neighbors, and community — one person at a time.  History records that it is possible for small groups of people to make wrong things unthinkable and even, eventually, illegal.

In Rome, it was culturally acceptable to take an unwanted, newborn baby outside the city gates and abandon the child to the elements.  It was, basically, legal.  But, Christians helped to make that behavior unthinkable by rescuing the newborns.  They took them home, adopted them, and founded orphanages.

William Wilberforce and a small group of Biblical men and women in England determined to obey God and help their country stop the practice of slavery.  It took 30 years of Wilberforce’s life.  Slavery did become illegal but, first,  it had to become unthinkable.  Christians who knew slavery was wrong helped others see the practice as economically and morally unthinkable.

What can we learn from this as we Christians in America face legalized abortion?  Legalized euthanasia?  Legalized embryonic stem cell research?  Legalized national health care?  We can choose not to engage in the procreative act of sex outside the faithfulness of marriage.  We can choose to see every human life as God sees it: so valuable that Jesus Christ would die for him or her.  We can choose to live in ways that honor the Creator of life so that even non-believers are encouraged to make choices that build a moral society.

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Assault on Freedom of Religion

Posted in Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , on February 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Pliny the Younger was a provincial governor in the Roman Empire.  He asked Emperor Trajan if he should execute Christians who refused to burn incense in worship of the emperor.  “Pliny, in keeping with the customs of the empire,” writes Wesley J. Smith, “didn’t care about forcing Christians to believe that the emperor was a god.  But, in public, they had to behave as if they did.”  It wasn’t that Christians were targeted for their faith, but over their refusal to declare themselves part of the reigning social order. 

Smith, in writing his article “Free Birth Control vs. Freedom of Religion,” said he thought of Pliny when reading about the specific rules being created to implement nationalized health care.  Some of these rules seriously conflict with Christian faith and conscience.  Under nationalized health care, religious organizations will be required to provide insurance coverage for practices they believe to be morally wrong.  The “free-birth-control” rule will require all employers (with a very narrow exception) to offer their employees health insurance that provides FDA-approved contraception, female sterilization, and other “reproductive” services – free of charge.  It will not matter if the employer is a religious organization and will violate its doctrine by providing the insurance.  With such a rule, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is imposing a legal duty on faith organizations.  What is that duty?  To comply with the values of the state whenever engaging in public action or charitable enterprise among the general society.

But, what about “freedom of religion?”  More and more, U.S. officials refer to “freedom of worship” rather than “freedom of religion.”  They are not the same thing.  The former means an individual is free to believe whatever he wants and worship privately without interference.  The latter means an individual is free to express their core faith out in society even if not endorsed by the state.  Freedom of religion, as defined by the Founding Fathers, allows Christians to maintain a Christian school, hospital, or inner-city mission – true to Biblical teaching and practice — where the general public is served.   Freedom of worship would not allow that.

The specific rules of nationalized health care, as directed by HHS, knowingly force religious organizations to pay for medical services to which they are theologically opposed.  These rules represent a frontal assault on freedom of religion at an institutional level.  This is not a trivial matter.  “To date,” writes Wesley J. Smith, “public controversies over ‘conscience’ in health care have mostly involved individuals – e.g. doctors, nurses, pharmacists – whose personal morality or religious conviction conflicted with the provision of certain medical procedures or substances.”

But, explains Smith, “the free-birth-control rule goes much further than creating a potential conflict between the general law and individual religious beliefs.  Rather, the rule targets the right of religious organizations to conduct their public activities consistently with their religious dogma and moral values – except within the narrow confines of an actual church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or monastery.”  How narrow might this be?  “The group health insurance covering nuns in a Catholic religious order,” writes Smith, “would probably not have to cover contraception.  But insurance provided by the same order’s elementary school probably would.  Ditto a hospital established by the nuns.”

“Despite much screaming from opponents,” Smith explains, HHS “has refused to broaden the religious exemption in the final rule — forcing religiously founded organizations to violate their parent church’s teachings, a frontal assault on the freedom of faiths to operate institutional outreach organizations consistent with their beliefs.  If this rule stands, it won’t end there.  If Catholic organizations can be compelled by federal diktat to violate their religious tenets, so can other religious organizations in different contexts.”  According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, even if a religious employer does not cover contraceptive services, they are to tell where such services can be obtained.  “Thus,” observes Smith, “the Obama administration is attacking even freedom of worship by forcing exempt organizations to tell their employees where and how they can violate church teachings.”

“This birth-control rule,” concludes Smith, “is the latest and most egregious example of government forcing religious organizations to conform their operations to reigning secular moral values.  In this sense, faith organizations are being compelled to participate in a metaphorical Caesar worship.  As in the Roman Empire, the government will allow religious organizations general freedom of worship, but, increasingly, not freedom of religion.  Pliny would approve.”

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow
at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism and a consultant
for the Patient Rights Council and the Center for Bioethics and Culture.
To read Wesley J. Smith’s article, please visit National Review.  

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Religion, Sex & Biology 101

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Parenting & Education, Relationships, Vocation, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2012| 18 Comments »

Sex is protectively positioned between religion and biology.  Otherwise… well, let’s take a look.

“The Obama Administration,” writes Chuck Colson, “has decided to promote and emphasize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights – and it is doing so at the expense of everyone’s God-given freedom of religion.”  (Breakpoint 1-17-12)

Colson backs up this strong statement by quoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  In an address entitled “Human Rights Agenda for the 21st Century,” (12-9-09), Clinton said people “must be free to worship, associate, and to love in the way that they choose.”

“Did you catch that?” Colson asks.  “In one sentence, little noticed at the time, Mrs. Clinton showed the Administration’s true priorities.  In one fell swoop, she changed our God-given right to freedom of religion, a public act, to a much more restricted ‘freedom of worship,’ a private act, which any Chinese official could go along with.  At the same time, Mrs. Clinton, speaking for the administration, elevated the quote ‘right to love in the way they choose’ as a fundamental human right.”

Last December, Mrs. Clinton told a gathering of diplomats that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”  She also said the “most challenging issue arises when people cite religious or cultural values as a reason to violate or not to protect the human right of LGBT citizens.”

President Obama told a pro-gay-rights group, “Every single American – gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender – every single American deserves to be treated equally before the law.”  Colson rightly asks, “Does that include marriage?”  There are those in this present Administration who have expressed their support of so-called same-sex “marriage.”  This Administration has refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.  Where is the threat to religious freedom?  If so-called homosexual “marriage” can be defined as a civil right, then those who oppose it on Biblical grounds could be branded as practicing “sexual discrimination.”

So, how did we come to this place?  How is it that sexual liberty trumps religious liberty?  That sexual freedom is the one right above all rights?  The one right upon which no one else dare tread?

We were taunted with one question, “Did God really say . . . ?”  We doubted divine creation.  Put ourselves in place of God.  Raised our will above His.  Determined our own identity.   When we see ourselves, first and foremost, as “sexual beings,” then one might assume the right to express that sexuality according to personal preference.  But, God created us to be more than our flesh side.  We are each a soul.  We are created in His image and, though fallen from that perfect image, we are not captive to sexual instincts.  The Savior, Jesus Christ, pulls us out of ourselves and away from harmful choices.  His Spirit equips us to avoid sensuality and, instead, pursue purity and holiness.  Things of God.   When we fail, all is not lost.  We are not destined to despair, but invited to confess.  Ask for forgiveness and help.  Start over.  And over… and over…and over.

A good way to start over is to leave foolishness behind.  We have been too long in “human sexuality” class and not nearly long enough in Biology 101. 

Heterosexual is a biological term describing how a mammalian species reproduces.  The “higher” species reproduces sexually.  The lower invertebrates reproduce asexually.  Therefore, the suffix “sexual” refers to reproduction.  The prefix “homo,” which means “same throughout” with “sexual” is an oxymoron.  Mammals can’t reproduce with two like genders: male with male or female with female.  For the sake of civilization, let’s get our biology straight. 

Who better to consult than the Master of biology.  When He finished speaking animals into existence, God put His hands to work on His greatest masterpiece.  Humans.  He made two genders: male and female.  Count them.  Not three or four or five, but two.  He shaped man, then built woman from man.  He made them equal, but different.  Gender is determined by our anatomy.  (If you’re not sure which one you are, look down.)  An individual male or female, not paired, might be lonely, but they can actually survive without sexual involvement.  However, if they want to continue the human species, they must “fit together.”

God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).  “Fit for him,” taken literally, means “like his opposite.”  Do you comprehend this?   Male and female are compatibly different.  Their different anatomy allows husband and wife to “fit together” in order to bring new life into the world.  It is for our physical, emotional, spiritual, and generational health to live as male or female in a way that honors God rather than self. 

God tells man and woman to avoid sexual immorality and sensuality, but never once does He tell us to avoid being male or female.  As a man or a woman, single or married, we have a choice.  We can live in a way that glorifies God and makes the world a better place… or not.

Mock God, Mr. President.  Re-define creation, Mrs. Secretary of State.  Replace freedom of religion with “freedom of worship.”  Disregard biology and let people “love as they choose.”  Claiming to be wise, you lead many on a path of foolishness.

The Holy God stands in contrast.  “My ways are not your ways.”  While we have opportunity, let us speak of holy things.  Oppose foolishness.  “Fit together” in marriage.  Grow children.  Explain what it means to love.  To be human.

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