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Archive for the ‘Life issues’ Category

Chaos Rules… Or Does It?

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2011| 3 Comments »

The sun has gone to bed.  So should I.  My mind wanders.  I tap the keyboard, then delete.  Somehow, I want to put into words what my eyes and ears see and hear.   So that maybe, just maybe, one person out there will be encouraged to take the high ground and stay the course.

Ever since my eyes were opened to the holocaust of abortion, I’ve been on the go.  It’s as if God’s own Spirit has nudged me: Get involved!  Lend a hand!  Offer a shoulder!  Make a difference while there is light of day!  In the midst of it, I heard the whispers: “She’s a bit too intense.”  “Why doesn’t she lighten up?”

I remember the older woman who, most kindly, said, “Thank you for your message about abortion, but my children are all grown now and this issue really doesn’t affect me.”  My emotion wanted to scream, but my better judgment took control.  I sighed, smiled… then tried to explain.  Abortion is the slippery slope to euthanasia… and so much more.

Well, it’s so “much more” later.  Here we are, mired in a culture that defends government-funded abortion and wonders why acts of violence increase,  calls homosexual behavior a civil-rights issue, sexualizes children but bemoans an epidemic of STDS and troubled teens, arrogantly re-defines marriage and family, seriously considers the transfer of American parental rights over to the United Nations, positions itself to deny freedom of religion, and sets up government health care that may judge some of us as “too burdensome.”

Narcissism rules and chaos reigns.  Or, does it?

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth,” God asked Job.  “Tell me if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements . . . or who stretched the line upon it?  On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?  Or who shut in the sea with doors . . . and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?'” (Job 38:4-11).

God, the creator of the universe, has never and will never relinquish control.  It would be contrary to His very nature.  The God who “binds the chains of the Pleiades” and loosens “the cords of Orion” (v. 31); the God who sends “forth lightenings, that they may go and say to you ‘Here we are’ (v. 35), and the God who put “wisdom in the inward parts” and gave “understanding to the mind” (v. 36) is the God who “provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food . . .” (v. 41).

Does chaos reign?  No, there is evidence of order and Truth at work.

I was reminded of this fact while captive on board a gated-plane.   Maintenance crews took three hours to service an engine, but captivity turned into opportunity for me to read the observations of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, authors of the book God Is Back.  Both agree that Christianity is poised to do well — and better than Islam — in the 21st century.  For example, “The Quran can’t be translated into any other language.  So most people that Muslims are converting do not understand a word of what they are taught to recite . . .”  Contrast that with the fact that the Bible is published in 95% of the languages of the world.

Here’s another example.  Have you noticed the growing number of bestsellers by atheists during the past several years?  Micklethwait says, “You do not suddenly wake up in a panic about God being bad or terrible if you think you’ve already won the argument.  If you went back 10 or 20 years, the idea that Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens could write a bestseller on the subject would have seemed odd, because — certainly in Europe — most of the educated elites would have assumed God was disappearing anyway, so what’s the worry?”  (WORLD, June 20, 2009, “Q & A” by Marvin Olasky)

Does chaos reign?

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, 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.’  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision'” (Psalm 2:1-4).

“God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Psalm 47:8).

“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.  For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told . . .” (Habakkuk 1:5).

We may fear that an immoral culture will absorb us.  We may feel powerless to resist.  Paralyzed.  But, while God is doing His work, there is something for us to do, too.  We can live.  We can live as men and women eager to glorify God while He transforms the culture.  God gives us a model for affecting the lives of others.  It follows the order of creation and can be found in Titus 2:1-8.  A young pastor named Titus used this model to help believing men and women push back against the culture while raising a new generation of hope.

Narcissism may seem to rule.  It may appear that our world is spinning out of control.  But, did you notice that my fingers aren’t paralyzed anymore?  The darkness overpowered me for awhile last night… but the Lord’s compassions are new every morning!  Because of His great love, we are not consumed.  (Lamentations 3:22-23)  Rather, we are re-energized and equipped to re-engage.

Hope rises up in unexpected places.  How can it not?  Hope is Jesus Christ.  He is the Word.  And, the Word is at work. Therefore…

Narcissism does not rule.  Chaos does not reign.  God does.

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What Is the Pursuit of Happiness?

Posted in Citizenship, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Vocation, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

My husband and I believe in exercising our minds while enjoying a meal.  If at home, Paul grills.  I steam veggies, broil some garlic bread, and mix a salad.  Plates in hand, we settle by a window overlooking a forest of hickory and oak.  Or, on a less humid day, we move out onto the deck.  We discuss matters of family, theology, and culture.  At some point, we slip on our worldview glasses.  There are only two pair: God’s — and any other.

Family, theology and culture take on a different perspective depending upon one’s worldview.  The same is true with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This Saturday is the Iowa Straw Poll.  I plan to go, not so much to cast a vote, but to meander through the crowd.  To listen.  Watch.  Learn which pair of glasses the people have chosen to wear.   Most eyes are focused on the economy.  But, my worldview tells me that our economic problems have deep moral roots.  America may be collapsing on itself because its worldview of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is hopeless.

Life.  Abortion fails to see the value of life created by God and redeemed at high price.  Abortion is about “me.”  “My” fears.  “My” needs.  It sees no future.  It acts in desperation.  Legalized abortion is a root cause of our social security and health care woes.  I have long been concerned that the babyboomers who ushered in abortion will be ushered out by euthanasia.

Liberty.  To worship at the altar of sexual freedom is to eventually loose religious freedom.  “Righteous” folk who “tell me” that I have no “right to liberated” behavior, but must instead practice self-control, are “bigoted” and “must be silenced”.

Pursuit of happiness.  Some Americans think we are entitled to happiness or the right to instant gratification.  But, wearing his worldview glasses, former Senator Rick Santorum disagrees.  We are, he says, “gifted with the pursuit of happiness.”

Santorum, speaking in my town earlier this week, asked, “What is the pursuit of happiness?  Is it doing what we want, or doing . . . .”  He paused, waiting for someone to finish the sentence.  From my place in the back of the room, I did so:  It’s doing “what we should (ought).”  Correct answer.  I think many in the audience agreed.  But, as citizens, have we correctly pursued happiness?

America has given its citizens the freedom to pursue happiness.  But, believing happiness to be “my right to do whatever I want,” leads us to pursue wrongly.  Selfishly.  Dangerously.  Right down a slippery slope into despair.

So, my husband and I remind each other to polish our worldview glasses.  Clarify hope and change.  Look for leaders who pursue not what they can, but what they should.  And, correct our own pursuit of happiness.

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Is Pregnancy A “Disease”?

Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

“Am I the only one who thinks government-mandated health care telling me that my children are ‘targeted diseases’ is utterly revolting?”  This is a fair question asked by Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life.

To what is Kristin referring?  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), at the recommendation of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has decided to re-define women’s health care, mandating that by 1-1-13 insurance providers give women a range of new “preventative services” free, no co-pay or deductible.

These “preventative services” are to include all FDA-approved birth control.  This means even proven abortion-causing drugs such as ella and Plan B.  To be given “free” to married or unmarried women.  So, with Kristin, I ask: Since when is pregnancy a “disease”?

On July 19, the IOM released a Consensus Report: “The IOM defines preventative health services as measures — including medications, procedures, devices, tests, education and counseling — shown to improve well-being, and/or decrease the likelihood or delay the onset of a targeted disease or condition.”  Under these conditions, insured women will have access to free birth control because pregnancy has been redefined as a ‘targeted disease.”

This presidential administration wants women to have free access to abortion and cancer-causing birth control in order to fight the “disease” of pregnancy, notes Kristin, yet “medication that literally keeps my 2-1/2 year old son, Gunner, from dying costs my husband and me hundreds [of dollars] every month.”  Gunner has cystic fibrosis.

HHS announced new preventive-care guidelines will require all health insurance policies written on or after August 1, 2012, to offer contraceptives and other women’s health services without copays, coinsurance, or deductibles.  Included in the guidelines are voluntary sterilization procedures, breastfeeding support and equipment, annual well-woman visits, counseling on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases and screenings for human papillomavirus, or HPV, gestational diabetes, and domestic violence.

There are many individuals and organizations who protest on moral, ethical and economic grounds.  Supposedly, “religious” employers may “opt out” of the mandate.  However, NARAL — the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws — is urging its members to write HHS, saying, “I am concerned that certain religious employers may be allowed to opt out of the requirements.  All women should have access to contraceptive coverage, regardless of where they work.”  Has NARAL forgotten?  Birth control is widely available and publicly funded programs already provide it for women who cannot afford it.

Is pregnancy a “disease?”

Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring.  New human life.  To be pregnant means to be “with child.”  Every child is fearfully and wonderfully made by God.  Every child is knit together in the secret place of his or her mother’s womb.  Within the womb, and not by accident, the placenta nestles around the child to nurture and protect.

Pregnancy is not a disease.  Were it true, what would that make each of us?

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Planned Parenthood: Oh, What a Web It Weaves

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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What’s the Buzz?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Child Abuse

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, tagged , , , , , on July 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

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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Sexual Menu?

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

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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Sexual Trail Blazing

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 15, 2011| 1 Comment »

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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Squelch Pride, Return to Word

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Sexy or holy?, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

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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Demi Moore, Abortion & Prostitution

Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2011| Leave a Comment »

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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