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Archive for the ‘Culture Shifts’ Category

Cohabitating Seniors and the Meaning of Marriage

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Relationships, Sexy or holy?, Vocation, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

older couple on beachWhat is marriage?

When do we stop mentoring the truth about marriage?

I submit for your consideration a strange phenomenon.  An increasing number of older men and women are moving in together.  But, it appears to me that their rationale is fear-based.  Perhaps their spouse has died.  They don’t want to be alone.  Financially, it seems practical not to marry and, instead, live together.  Perhaps it seems less complicated to keep their business affairs separate for the sake of their children and grandchildren.  Perhaps insurance coverage or a life-savings will be better protected if they just cohabitate.  After all, it isn’t so much about sex as it is companionship and being a couple in a “couple’s world.”

So, what is a cohabitating senior, especially a cohabitating Christian senior, saying about marriage?

Is marriage all about the joys of pro-creational sex?  Or is it more?

Marriage, from a Biblical worldview, is the practice of generational faithfulness.  It is the union of one man and one woman with all that they uniquely bring into partnership for the benefit of family and community.  In God’s words, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18 ESV).

We tell young people not to live together because marriage, more than anything else, is for the benefit of children.  God knows and evidence proves that if a man and a woman have a child, that child will do better when raised by a father and mother who are committed to one another in the life-long relationship of marriage.  Son or daughter will benefit from seeing the vocations of male and female played out in the home.  If a man and woman are married but cannot bear their own or adopt children, they remain an example to nieces, nephews, and neighboring children that marriage is a meaningful union that strengthens society.  It is one man committing to unselfishly love, partner with, and guard one woman under God.  It is one woman committing to unselfishly respect, partner with, and complete one man under God.  It is intimacy… far beyond the sexual.

So, what is an older couple who chooses to live together saying about marriage?

Are they saying that God’s institution of marriage is important for young people but not for those over 65?

Are they saying that one marriage was good and, out of loyalty to their first spouse, they won’t marry again?

Are they saying that financial stability and not God’s design is in their better interest?

Are they saying that marriage is all about sex and if they sleep in different beds then living together is no big deal?

Are they saying that they no longer need to set an example for children, grandchildren, or any child in the neighborhood?

Is the man saying there’s no need to guard his woman’s reputation and cover her with his name?

Is the woman saying she doesn’t need to help and complete her man?

When do we stop mentoring generational faithfulness?

Can you tell me?

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A Culture of Lying

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , on February 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

robert knightThe following is excerpted from “The Allure of the Lie” by Robert Knight.  It’s worthy of your read.

We are hip-deep in a culture of lying. It’s the coin of the realm for liberal politicians, the “mainstream” media and Hollywood, all of whom cover for each other. Since an accusation of lying amounts to fighting words, journalists reporting the lies tend to use softer terms, such as prevarication, dissembling, not forthcoming, not fully disclosed, misleading, redirecting, etc.

Lying often is accomplished with euphemisms. Government spending is “investment.” Raising taxes is “revenue reform.” Torture is sanitized as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Global warming is morphing into “climate change” to accommodate obvious departures from the warming scenario. Gambling is “gaming.” Defense of religious freedom is a “war on women.” There’s a slew of terms invented to validate sexual immorality. The sin of sodomy became homosexuality and then merely gay. Adultery became “finding oneself,” “open marriage” or “swinging.” Prostitutes are “commercial sex workers.” Two men – with no bride – are considered “married.” Pornography became “erotica.” And abortion – the killing of unborn children – is “choice.”

The culture of lying has become so entrenched in American political culture that any deviation is swiftly punished. People who question any part of the theory of man-caused global warming, for instance, are branded “deniers.”  End of discussion. Question the junk science behind the “born gay” myth and you’re a “hater.” If you believe God created marriage as the union of a man and a woman, you’re not only a hater but a bigot. If you favor photo ID laws to thwart fraud, you want to “suppress the minority vote.” If you question the morality or wisdom of putting women into combat, you’re against “equality.”

Often, liberal policies are sustained by repeated citations of a single study or studies, however flawed.  The granddaddy of those is Alfred C. Kinsey’s fraudulaent sex studies . . . .

One of the biggest lies in recent years is that there are no real biological differences between men and women – that masculinity and femininity are artificial social constructs. The latest fallout from this departure from reality is the Pentagon’s opening the military to homosexuality and putting women into combat. We’re told that everyone in the armed forces thinks this is wonderful. Sure they do. It would be a career-ender in this culture of lying to say otherwise.

The culture of lying depends heavily on cooked studies, weasel words and a compliant media that parrots them without examination. It’s a house of cards that’s waiting for a gentle breeze of truth to blow it over.

As G.K. Chesterton observed, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”

Robert Knight is a Senior Fellow for the American Civil Rights Union
and contributor to The Washington Times.
He wrote this article following Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s
testimony before Congress.
I encourage you to read the complete article here

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How Does the Church Justify Abortion Apathy?

Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2013| 1 Comment »

sandy hook school shootingThe Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre caught the attention of most Americans.  It should.  The brutal killing of students and teachers is a national wound.  It should be.  Parents and families mourned the loss of 26 human beings whose lives were cut short.  We all should.  What happened at Sandy Hook was evil.  Evil should always be resisted.

On this 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, 54 million other deaths should also capture our attention.  Be felt as a national wound.  Bring us to our knees in mourning.  But, 3,500 preborn babies are aborted every day in this country and people act as if nothing is happening.  An evil of monumental proportions is taking place before our very eyes, yet people who call themselves by Christ’s name appear unmoved and indifferent.

How can this be?

Rolley Haggard, writing for Breakpoint, observes that apathy and silence on abortion are evidence of a theological problem.  He notes that some will argue that Scripture is silent on abortion; after all they say, the term does not appear once in the Old or New Testament.  Nor are there any commands to “vote pro-life” or “peacefully demonstrate in front of Planned Parenthood.”  So, some Christians actually believe they have discerned the “letter of the law” and are obeying it by keeping silent.

But, asks Haggard, what about the “spirit of the law”?   The purpose and intent of the law?  St. Paul was  inspired to write, “He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.  If there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ” (Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14; 6:2).

Haggard begs the question of us all: Can we hear and believe God’s commandment to love our neighbor and still maintain passivity on abortion?  “The sober reality,” Haggard writes, “is that ‘he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).  Modern technology allows us to see inside the womb.  Having seen, can we un-see?  Are we not compelled to speak of what we have seen?

It’s possible, Haggard writes, that our error in not speaking has been an honest one.  “Perhaps our embrace of the letter rather than the spirit of the law has been unwitting.  Perhaps.  This much is certain: ‘When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken, or cease to be honest.’” (Note: This quote is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln).

Have those of us who call ourselves “Christ followers” heard the truth?  Knowing the truth, how do we respond?  When we see babies (woven together in the womb by God’s own hands – Psalm 139:3-16) being denied their God-given right to life, how do we respond?  When we know that the majority of abortions are done for convenience (not the life and health of the mother), how do we respond?  When we know that abortion says “no” to a new generation of creativity and hope, how do we respond?

(My appreciation to Rolley Haggard, “Brilliant Darkness,” www.breakpoint.org 1/23/2013)

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Bedroom Perplexities

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , on January 15, 2013| 1 Comment »

make abortion legal rallyI’m perplexed.  Can you help?

When I speak up against abortion and for the rights of unborn children and the well-being of women, I’m told: “What happens in the privacy of a bedroom is none of your business.”

Well, if that’s true, then why should I be forced to pay for what happens there?

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In the Land of Progressives I’m Grateful to “Go Back”

Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2013| 1 Comment »

people in churchOur “progressive” culture avoids any return to the past.  Questions and dialogue about traditions — or beginnings — are not generally welcomed.  This is arrogant… and deadly.

Until we go back to or re-visit things of the past, how will we know what works and what doesn’t?  Why we are where we are?   Until we re-visit our beginnings — either as human beings or as people with a particular worldview or ideology — how will we know who we are, or upon what we stand, or why?  If I see that my culture is in decay, can I really be of help to family, neighbors, or community if I don’t know why I believe what I say I believe or do what I do?  Many of us speak of what is “traditional” (in worship, marriage, morality, etc.), but if we can’t explain it, how can we defend it when someone wants to tamper with it?

For this reason, I am extremely grateful to my pastor.  Some people see him as “too catholic” or “inflexible.”  Some ask, “Why do we have to sing old hymns?”  Or, “Why do we have to use a liturgy?”  Or, “Why do we have to learn creeds or attach ourselves to the doctrine of a bunch of dead Europeans?”  Some wish he would just “lighten up” and “get with the movement of our day.”  Oh, how thankful our little flock should be that our shepherd resists the “movement of our day” in order to teach us why Christian Lutherans believe what they believe and do what they do.

My pastor has been gifted with a pair of worldview glasses that help him contrast God’s Word with the ways of the world.  My congregation is blessed — whether it knows it or not — because our pastor is not afraid to return to the past.

In his book, A Free People’s Suicide,” Oz Guinness writes,

A return can be progressive, not reactionary.  Each movement in its own way best goes forward by first going back.”

What does Guinness mean?  National, church, or even family  renewal happens by going back to its beginnings.  To its reasons for being in the first place.  Martin Luther knew this.  The Puritans knew this.  Thomas Jefferson knew this.  History, writes Guinness, “shows that when it comes to ideas, it is in fact possible to turn back the clock.  Two of the most progressive movements in Western history — the Renaissance and the Reformation — were both the result of a return to the past, though in very different ways and with very different outcomes.”

It is, in fact, a law of physics that things are preserved from destruction when brought back to their first principles.  Guinness calls this innovative thinking “outside the box” because it is “back to basics and not a mindless espousal of the present or a breathless chase after some purported future.”  Guinness states,

The most creative re-makings are always through the most faithful re-discoveries.”

I am a Biblical Christian of the Lutheran bent living in a hurting world.  For the sake of my grandchildren, I need to help re-build, in church or society, by re-discovering things of the past.  There is no embarrassment or intellectual shame in this endeavor.

So, thank you my dear pastor, for taking me back so that I might better move forward.  Thank you for helping me re-make what is good and right and true by re-discovering who I am.  Upon what I stand.  And why.

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The Royals Are Having a Baby!

Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

preborn baby 4-D“The battle over human dignity,” writes Eric Metaxas, “is waged not just at the local abortion clinic or crisis pregnancy center, nor merely in the halls of Congress or the Supreme Court.  It is also carried out in our choice of words.”

Metaxas points out that “the war on the sanctity of human life relies on bullets of deception and warheads of untruth – in short, on what George Orwell called ‘political language,’ which he said ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.’”

Metaxas explains that those who support the legal killing of unborn human beings in the womb “have used political language for decades, cloaking their morally indefensible position in innocuous-sounding terms such as ‘choice’ and ‘women’s health’ – hoping the rest of us will forget about the status and rights of the other person directly affected in the abortion transaction – namely the fetus.”

Planned Parenthood folks typically deny the humanity or personhood of the baby in the womb by calling it a “lump of tissue,” “product of conception,” or “potential person.”  But, writes Metaxas, “it’s hard to keep up the verbal sleight of hand all the time.  A case in point is the considerable elation over the news that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is carrying a child. That’s right, a child, not a ‘product of conception.’  We are told that her ‘baby’ will be third in line to the throne, behind only Prince William and Prince Charles.”

At this point, the pro-life Christian has opportunity to reveal “verbal sleight of hand” and also ask questions that help others think.  The Duchess is in her first trimester.  Is this a baby or not?  Is this a child with a destiny or not?  Is this child special or just like the other non-persons who have been aborted from wombs in Britain, the U.S., and all over the world?  As Christians, we are compelled to answer all questions from God’s perspective, not our own.

As Metaxas (and others) point out, “the language we use matters.  Is the life in the womb a ‘product of conception’ or a person, maybe even a prince in waiting?”

In a response to Metaxas’ commentary, someone named Kevin posted, “Try to imagine even the most staunch abortion advocate being present at a childbirth and, when the head is coming out, saying, ‘Look!  It’s turning into a human!’”  Bearing this in mind, the Christian is compelled to do what philosopher Peter Kreeft suggests.  We need to see the personhood of the fetus as the defining issue for abortion, “for if the fetus is not a person, abortion is not the deliberate killing of an innocent person.”  The Christian does well to know God’s Word on this matter of human dignity, life and death.

As we reflect on the first coming of Jesus, the Creator and Redeemer of all human life, let us draw near to His Word about life: Job 10:8-12; Psalm 8:4-5; 119:73; 139:13-16; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Isaiah 44:24; Luke 1:15; 1:41-44; John 16:21; Galatians 1:15-16.

Apprection to Eric Metaxas for “The Royal Fetus”  www.breakpoint.org
and The Unaborted Socrates by Peter Kreeft

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A Time to Mourn, A Time to Speak and Act

Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

sandy hook school shootingThe Apostle Paul was inspired by God to write, “Mourn with those who mourn.”  Following the loss of human life in schools like Newtown, CT., we as fellow citizens and especially as Christians are called to mourn with the families of those who died.  We do well to mourn with few rather than more words.

However, as John Stonestreet brought to my attention, it becomes tempting in this fast-paced, technologically-driven society to Facebook or Twitter our thoughts.  It appears that both Christians and non-Christians took advantage of their “freedom of speech” to make public political or moral comments on the situation.  Many of the comments, it seems, were made with little thought of the families that simply need time to grieve.  As Christians, we are always called upon to respect our fellow human beings.  We are called to a higher standard.  A standard of thoughtful behavior that is reflective of our holiness in Christ.

On Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation.  God became Man.  The very Creator and Redeemer of all human life came into our messy, depraved, and broken world.  He did more than hand us a book or tell us a story.  He came in the flesh.  He offered Himself.  He sacrificed all that He had… for us.

Evil exists in our world because of sin.  Our sinful flesh becomes a willing instrument of destruction in the hands of Satan.  But, in Jesus Christ, we become new every morning.  This means that we are given opportunity to reflect the God who made us rather than ourselves.  We are equipped to make choices that help others rather than hurt them.  As new people in Christ, we are called to act in a more holy way, wait on the Holy Spirit for His discernment and, when the time is right, speak the Truth in love.

There is a time to speak.  The Christian is not called to silently allow non-believers and those who oppose the Biblical worldview to rule the day.  We are to be well informed and ready to defend the faith.  But, in times of tragedy, we are called first to mourn.  Offer care and compassion.  If given opportunity, we are to serve those who are facing adversity and trial in their lives.   When possible, we can help carry a burden. Then, in whatever conversations crop up, we can help ourselves and others contrast the things of God with the things of this world.  Good and evil are real.  God and Satan daily do battle for our very souls.

It is for this reason that Jesus Christ came to live among us.  He entered into the lives of sinful, broken and hurting people. Everything He said and did directed people away from self to God; away from despair to hope; away from evil to good.  He knew when to speak and, when He did, He spoke The Word.  He also knew when to grieve with those who mourned.

We might learn a valuable lesson from Job’s three friends.  “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place . . . to show him sympathy and comfort him . . . they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.  And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great” (Job 2:11-13).

Suffering will be great in this world.  But, Job’s friends did harm when they pontificated on what Job had done wrong to cause such suffering.  We, too, do wrong when we place blame or fail to remember that God works in the midst of trouble to lead us to Him or refine our faith.  When we are perplexed in affliction, may we – through the eyes of faith – see Christ, whose affliction saved us from sin and eternal despair.  May we be silenced by the awe of such sacrifice.

But, when asked how to prepare for such evil as a school shooting, may we speak up with the answer:  Tell your children and grandchildren about Jesus.

Only in Christ the Savior can any child — of any age — know victory over evil, suffering or even death.

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After the Vote: Stay Calm and Carry On

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Vocation, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

Before the election, I suggested that we “Vote: Then Stay Calm and Carry On.”

Well, the people have voted.  We cannot blame the president for what will or will not happen.  His ideology and hope for America were made clear through his unapologetic support of abortion, partnership with Planned Parenthood, promotion of sodomy, new definition of marriage, and health care mandate that forces Christians to choose God or Caesar.   The people, whether church-goers or not, determined the kind of leadership this country will have for another four years.

For the believer, nothing has really changed.  The day before the election is the same as the day after.  In all circumstances, we are to stay calm and carry on.

But, how can we do this?  How can we carry on the work of Christ in a nation that puts its trust not in God but in government?  In a culture that lifts the “right” to uninhibited sexuality and abortion above the right of conscience and faith?  In congregations that compromise God’s Word for the sake of church growth?

We stay calm and carry on.

There is a passage from Scripture that many of us like to offer as encouragement to friends or family.  It reads: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).  Left to itself, this passage assures us that all will be well.  All will turn out for good.  But, Steve Elliott of Grassfire.com and my own Pastor Beisel remind me how crucial it is to read all of God’s Word in the context of when and why it was written.

The “future and a hope” passage is from a letter that Jeremiah wrote to the surviving elders, priests, prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.  Please take note that the Lord God “sent” His people into exile.  It didn’t happen by accident.  It wasn’t because Nebuchadnezzar outwitted God or was more progressive.

What were exiled and captive people of God to do?  They were to be faithful.  They were to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:5-7).

They were also to heed God’s warning.  “Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in My name;  I did not send them, declares the Lord” (vv. 8-9).

Then the Lord continued, “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (vv. 10-11).

It is for this reason that I started Titus 2 for Life years ago.  After hearing the cries of so many Christian women deceived by the world’s focus on sexuality and “my right;” after hearing their cries after choices of promiscuity and abortion, I was motivated to encourage believers using God’s Word of Genesis together with the mentoring model of Titus 2.  Young pastor Titus was concerned for his congregation.  They were pressed on all sides by a culture that craved new ways and personal fulfillment.  What could Titus do for the few believers so that they would be equipped to raise up Christian families and, at the same time, push back against evil?  St. Paul offered Titus a model for mentoring that has always proved effective for any generation – in or out of exile.

So, on a quiet evening, please read Jeremiah 27-33.  Read the whole story.  Then, read Titus 2:2-15.

But, don’t stop there.  It has become very important for me to remember what happened when God’s people came out of exile.  In the Book of Ezra, we learn that only a few of the Jewish exiles wanted to return to Jerusalem and their homeland.  Most were unwilling to give up their Babylonian property or lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.  They didn’t want to return to “old ways.”  So, with only a few faithful ones returning to rebuild Jerusalem, the work was hard.  Some people in the area offered their help.  Those people didn’t worship Yahweh but held to a blend of mixed religious beliefs.  Suffice it to say that they had their own motives for wanting to help.  God told His people to refuse the help of unbelieving neighbors in the land.  Why?  Because accepting help from non-believers would obligate God’s people to pagan ways.  The potential for corruption in worship was too great if God’s people became aligned with non-believers (Ezra 4:3).

I pray for courage and opportunity to use the model given me for mentoring.  Even if it means being strange or unpopular, I pray for help in persevering for God’s glory rather than my own.  At Titus 2 Retreats, I often tell women that I feel exiled in my own country even though never forced from my home.  Perhaps, that’s how it will be for the rest of my life on this earth.  After all, I am but a stranger here on a journey to my heavenly home.  I’m not sure I ever felt “different” in my youth, but I do now.

Identity is everything.  God doesn’t call me to fit in with the world or grow comfortable with my desires.  He calls me to be holy as He is holy.  And when I am not, He reminds me of all He did for me in Christ Jesus.  In exile or not, I am His.  Redeemed to holiness, I can fear less.  Serve more.

In exile or not, I can trust my identity.  Resist deception.  Mentor away from evil.  Seek what is good.  Plant the seed and till the soil.  Raise the standard.  Be fed with Word and Sacrament.  Not be ashamed.  Run my race.  Encourage family.  Stay calm.  Carry on.

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Vote… Then Stay Calm and Carry On

Posted in Citizenship, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 1, 2012| 4 Comments »

In the last four years, human life has been placed more at risk.  The “right to life” that America promises to guard and protect has diminished.  The life of the unborn – and, therefore, also the born – has been declared of value only if that life is convenient and wanted.

In the last four years and under a government that seems to have another allegiance, a cruel blow has been dealt to the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage and the guardianship of children.  Generations will pay dearly.

Here’s what I see.  The king sets himself and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:2-3).

In the past four years, this government has passed over the Creator of life in the scramble to feed the ravenous coffers of Planned Parenthood (PP).  “Opportunity Centers,” PP’s friendly neighborhood sterilization chambers, are set up in strategic locations to reach America’s daughters so they don’t have to worry about pregnancy.  Is there a reason why abortion clinics are strategically set in the middle of African American neighborhoods?  Strange, isn’t it, that one of their own would allow this to happen.   Under no other American presidency has there been such a tight bond between the one who is to defend life and the institution which makes a profit from destroying life.

In the last four years, Americans have been put at risk by an economic burden that threatens to suck the very life out of us.  What kind of leadership pits the young against the old, the “haves” against the “have nots,” and, in general, one citizen against another?

In the last four years, the vibrancy of life that grows out of time-honored marriage and family has been slowly drained away at the altar of progressivism.  But, two men and two women are not a “good fit” (Genesis 2:18).  Faith and science walk hand in hand to prove that social experiments – those trendy ideas that go against the very structure and design of civilization – have terrible consequences.

In the past four years, pedophilia, sex trafficking and all forms of sexual deviancy have risen to dangerous levels.  The hope of desensitizing society and changing the penal code system so that all manner of sexual lust and imagination can be practiced has, indeed, been realized.

In the past four years, the government has determined to take over the health care system. But, human lives will fall between the cracks of a cold and monolithic structure.  The government, after all, is not a person with heart and hands to care.  As to efficiency, well, take a good look at the U.S. Post Office or federally (as opposed to locally) run schools.

In the past four years, people of faith have been told they must deny their faith in order to pay for deeds and services that go against God and conscience.  Under government health care, church-supported schools, social services, and hospitals must cover the sterilization, abortion producing drugs, and birth control of employees.  To refuse places church or private Christian business under penalty of heavy fine.  Will it be God… or Caesar?

In the past four years, the life of every American citizen is more at risk because this government would rather build relationships with America’s enemies than strengthen our defense.  When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was gutted and in-the-field-experienced soldiers sequestered, our president bowed to those who seek jihad against American men, women and children.

The Lord of creation does not stand far off.  He has not forgotten those who call upon Him.  He defends the fatherless and oppressed.  He has shown us what is good.  What does He ask of us?  “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

So, please.  Vote.  Vote as if your life depends on it.

Then, in the words of Winston Churchill (the man whose bust was removed from the White House four years ago): “Stay calm.  Carry on.”

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Where Government Replaces God Suicide Increases

Posted in Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , on October 11, 2012| 3 Comments »

More Americans now commit suicide than die in car accidents.  “People are despairing in America,” writes Joseph Farah, “more than ever before.”

It would be easy, notes Farah, to blame the suicide epidemic on the economy.  But, that’s not how he sees it.  People may be struggling financially, but they’re not ending their lives because they lack food and shelter or toys and gadgets.

“I believe the trend reflects a deep and growing spiritual emptiness in a culture that is more depraved than ever before,” writes Farah.  “Too many people just don’t find any meaning in life.”

We should all, as Farah advices, “think about it.”  He continues:

We are told from the youngest age in state-run schools that human beings are merely the result of billions of years of evolution from lower life forms and random mutations.  There is no God who loves us and to whom we are accountable.  There are no laws higher than those that government imposes on us – no sin.  No ultimate, objective moral code.  In fact, human beings are a blight on the planet.  It would be better off without us – or at least with a lot fewer of us polluting the air with carbon dioxide and overheating the earth.

. . . Prayer and Bible reading are prohibited, but explicit instruction on how to have promiscuous sex without consequences is mandated.

Abortion is subsidized, while adoption is prohibitively expensive in the unlikely event you can find a child to adopt.

Increasingly, the state is sticking its nose into what we eat, what we say, how we raise our children – even what we believe.

Government is fine with pornography.  But purity and abstinence are discouraged.

In other words, right is wrong, up is down, black is white, left is right.  And we sit here and wonder why people are killing themselves.

When government replaces God in the lives of people, their lives become empty.  They become subjects of the state, rather than citizens endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights – among those being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When government becomes the ultimate authority in our lives and practices lawlessness, disregarding routinely the Constitution from which it derives its limited authority, I would suggest to you this is a much bigger cause for despair and powerlessness.

There is a solution to this problem.  But it’s not a top-down answer.  It’s a bottom-up solution.  Americans need to get right with God.

They need to find out what He requires of them, why He created them, and how much He loves them.

They need to have a genuine repentance for having turned away from Him and whored after false gods and pursuits.

If Americans did this, they wouldn’t be taking their own lives in record numbers.

Thank you, Joseph Farah.  It is a privilege to reprint a portion of your column.  May it be used to spark dialogue in families, neighborhoods, schools, places of business, law offices, and congregations.

Joseph Farah is a nationally syndicated columnist.
I excerpted  from his commentary,
“What happens when government replaces God”
which appeared in October 1 edition of The Washington Times

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