The Barb Wire

What about Newt?

2012-01-25T12:06:00.004-06:00

A Leftist Blogger:

It seems to me that the Right was all about saying the affair made Clinton unfit because he lied about it, while we were extremely disappointed in him but didn’t see a sex scandal as a deal breaker, but now the Right willfully ignores what they once denounced (Newt won in SC), while we merely point it out and laugh at you all.

Well, you rightly can mock us if we end up with Newt as our candidate –Nevertheless, in that case, I would vote for him for competence over Obama who I believe is only a speech contest performer and “community organizer.”

I believe Obama has proven that he knows nothing about business and how to get this country moving. He’s failed at that. His policies and proposals are socialistic --how Big Gov't can solve problems with the workers' money --instead of letting the private sector and the market work. Consequently, more and more people depend on gov't to support them and will vote for such socialism. FDR set us up for this with the doomed Social Security System. Now we even have alcoholics and addicts getting 700 a month in SSI --Supplemental Security Income. Even in our protectorates like Puerto Rico. World magazine told about a family that had its 4 members on SSI and wanted to get the four-yr. old pre-schooler on it --so gave her their meds and she died!

I do think Newt is a genuine conservative, very smart and a good communicator –and wouldn’t have trouble besting Obama in debate –but he’s not a warm and fuzzy, likable guy despite his ability to get women –and sad to say, tv charisma is important. I don’t know that Newt can keep his arrogant airs and obnoxiousness in check –especially when he takes offense when we criticize his past –much as we’ve liked his debate performance.

He would be really smart to be humble about past sins and not bristle when they are brought up. We want to hear that he HAS changed –and that spiritual change is what all philanderers need! And that he knows he sinned against past wives. To tell the public it is irrelevant –well, that’s not for him to do. And the GOP should say it was wrong for King David and Bill Clinton and Newt Gingerich –and that we hope that Newt, like David, could sincerely practice the repentance of Psalm 51 in the blog thread below.

Then and only then can Newt be a family values candidate. According to scripture, repentance can make us clean and useful again –qualified to fill the “bully pulpit” of the presidency. Of course, he has appealed to the religious right with his “God in America” book/DVD. He "gets us" on that issue.

We surely need overhaul of family and spiritual values to save American economy. We are SOOOO dependent on the money of workers other than ourselves now, and family breakdown is the reason. High gas prices aren't helping and I do wish the fat cats of that industry would have compassion and less greed. I also think the gov't should develop sources in Alaska, etc.

This is not the time for the Left to make the clamor for gay marriage and abortion the biggest issues --when we, the people, should instead be saving the economy via:

shoring up families by publically condemning shacking up, abandoning wives and children
showing the Courageous film
promoting marriage, fidelity, Golden Rule and Grace attitudes to couples
promoting abstinence until marriage to our youth,
chaperoning youth and providing more youth leadership and activities that teach good Biblical morals and promote school achievement –private and church activities like Bush’s “points of light.” Volunteerism with youth is so needed.

(While Obama presents the facade of a good family–any truth to the Rev. Wright’s murdered choir director and Obama rumors?) Barb

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Re: Clinton vs. Gingerich

2012-01-25T11:55:00.004-06:00

I've been blogging where they are talking about Gingerich and the GOP hypocrisy if they nominate him --considering their stance on Clinton.

The not guilty verdict for Clinton indicated three things: a Democratic majority in the Senate who exonerated their leader 2. Democratic short-sightedness; they could've kept majority with Gore in office possibly if they had made the change then. 3. Democrats' disregard for morality, truth, and law re: perjury and work place ethics.

That God should punish a nation with such atrocious disregard for righteousness at the highest levels is nothing new, judging from the Old Testament. For us, some key events were the prayer ban in public ed, then Roe vs. Wade, 53 million abortions and as many shacked up couples and irresponsible fathers and women and children on the dole-- and now new sinful definition of marriage pending. If He spares us and restores our prosperity and security as a people, it will be because of God's mercy for the praying people, and/or real repentance and commitment to His ideals on the part of leaders and laity--or some plan for the world where He still needs us to be strong --like in protection for Israel.

Here is the attitude we need from the Clintons and Gingeriches and other leaders --as well as charitable generosity from the super-rich toward the poor.

We also really need to get ahold of the hearts of young people before they start bed-hopping --hard to do, given our culture's influences and their parents' examples and the lack of chaperoning as kids get older.

King David's remorseful prayer needs to be ours as a nation, leaders and laity:

Psalm 51: 1Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest....

... 9Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Only then can America continue to be the shining city on the hill --the beacon of liberty --rather than the mud pit of licentiousness (for which the Muslims call us "the Great Satan.") The West West is a temptor with our declining religious faith, our disregard for morality in entertainment, law, leaders, and ethically challenged education philosophy, and in our waffling churches --who don't think the Word of God really is "The very Word of God!" )

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Wood County Area 9/11 Remembrance with Elmwood Schools

2011-09-12T08:15:00.006-06:00

Yesterday, after our own church service which memorialized the 9/11 event, we attended a wonderful BG-Area /Wood Co. community service --a collaboration of local fire/EMS, law enforcement and Elmwood Schools -- to honor the local first responders and to memorialize and sympathize with all who’ve lost people in the event and its war aftermath. We attended because our daughter, the Elmwood director, planned it with the police/fire departments of her university county.

Both police speakers alluded to the prophet Isaiah, quoting him from the Bible –and one to Christ.

A joke told by the police chief: God made firemen for children to look up to; God made policemen for firemen to look up to.

One of them said, “You might think that we think of family first when charging into a building –but no, our mind is on the task at hand –more like, “O poop –look at all the steps!!”

The music was prepared in only 2 weeks of school with a few show choir kids coming in 2 weeks early. Sacred piano pieces were played in prelude by a school administrator followed by the high school girls singing Heavenly Voices –an absolutely beautiful piece of collegiate difficulty with ethereal effect of repeated Alleluias. The National Anthem was well-done by a student duet, a Latino boy and caucasian girl.

Police and fire officials opened and closed with prayer. All the firemen and police in their uniforms recessed in and processed out with a big, talented, Scottish-clad bagpiper leading them –who also did a rendition of Amazing Grace. Highschoolers did a flawless trumpet duet of Taps with echoes at the end.

The 6th grade sang tunefully and stoutly from memory (learned in 2 weeks!) “There’s a Hero on the Way” (available on the internet --see the video used accompanied by the song) --so honoring to all the police and firemen seated in the front rows. It showed rescuers in action and looking battle-weary in various situations typical of their work.

The high school choir did 3 beautiful numbers and got a thunderous standing ovation: Salute to our Heroes –incorporating narration and America, the Beautiful. They sang an arrangment of God Bless America by Irving Berlin (Jewish) –and In Remembrance –by Jeffery Ames –a college-level piece sung in Latin and English with Fr. horn and amazing vocal harmonies.

In Remembrance included The Lord’s Prayer (as taught by Christ.) The director reminded the audience that this prayer was recited by Todd Beamer –on the phone with an operator –from the plane of United Flight 93. (According to this account, other passengers also joined Beamer in reciting “The 23rd Psalm” together before he said the famous “Let’s Roll.”)

There was a Moment of Silence –the tolling of the Bell.

Mayor Bloomberg’s secular idea of a memorial service couldn’t compare to this one.

ACLU and terrorists –too bad for you. Let freedom ring! Barb(Quote)

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Where was I on 9/11? A Mattress Methodist

2011-09-12T07:52:00.003-06:00

I admit I was still in bed when my grad student daughter came up to turn on the tv in my room–“Mom, you gotta see this –the Trade Center was attacked!” My husband had taken the kids up in the buildings on a previous NYC school trip –probably 8 years earlier. And then we saw the 2nd tower hit and both of them fall to the ground. People jumping out to escape the fumes and flames –preferring a different death –and people running, running, running.... we were stunned –what would some unnamed enemy do next? what other buildings and planes? What more was coming? Who had it in for us?

I was touched by Great Britain’s official service for us afterward –and all prayers, remarks of brotherhood with America –and the great old hymns of English/European Christendom they sang. As with the royal wedding, I thought, “God isn’t dead yet in Europe –in the important times, they acknowledge the Book and the Judeo-Christian God and Christ of their fathers.”

Many Americans also looked to God and church for comfort in the aftermath of 9/11.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

We Should Learn from Fiddler on the Roof --and Father Swans!

2011-07-15T11:40:00.003-06:00

A Blogger: I would advise no young man to get married. If the milk is free, why buy the cow? Especially if she’ll destroy your life anytime she pleases.

The big problem in our Am. culture today IS that the milk is too often free. And that has led to our general marital misery –poor marital choices of people who don’t have a lot in common –and beauty fades –and sex and intimacy can only improve in a good marriage. We need Yenta the match-maker and the commitment that comes from faith, tradition, and community. We need to revive our faith communities and live by Tevye’s “good book!” seeing marriage as the foundation of family and community–which it is.

I just watched again the film based on the Broadway musical, Fiddler on the Roof –look at the “papas” and the “mamas” in the story –all having their sense of duty and their “place in the community.” Even the beggar had “his place.” They all know who they are and what they are supposed to do. Golde and Tevye don’t have a good marriage by Christian standards (fruits of the Spirit/Golden Rule standards) but there is no question they know their roles and responsibilities and have no intentions of straying or divorcing.

Not so anymore. We are exploring gender transition and rejecting our traditional gender roles –which are so important to the well-being of children. We don’t wait for marriage to have sex –but sleep with multiple partners –and then wonder why the bonding glue which sex and parenting are to marriage don’t stick anymore!!! Free milk –sex without marriage –ruins the Perma-bond-ability of so many. We are like tape that has lost its adhesion capability. We’re living like animals –i.e. the worst examples in nature instead of the best.

There are good examples in nature –like the Daddy swan who chased me and my little girl guests on our seadoo –He protects his family–puffs up his wings and starts to move menacingly and purposefully toward my seadoo –and then if I start to speed away–he goes faster and faster and rises up out of the water and takes flight with beak aimed to bomb! I didn’t know swans could fly like that. Gave the little girls a thrill and a lesson to remember for a long time –that is, the importance of finding a man with such commitment to his family–and courage to fend off outside evils.

Of course, I don’t mean a man should be hostile –ready to do battle with an encroaching Seadoo driver!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Frick & Frack, Dumb & Dumber, 3x over, Made up the Casey Anthony Jury

2011-07-06T15:04:00.007-06:00

How could a jury buy Jose Baez's alternative theory of an accidental drowning as cause for reasonable doubt about Casey Anthony's guilt??? Just because the prosecution had some hypotheses about chloroform, one hair, duct tape, and a smelly car which they couldn't prove forensically in the manner in which tv audiences are now accustomed, thanks to tv dramas, didn't mean the circumstantial evidence should not have removed all doubt that Casey killed her daughter.

The accidental drowning scenario was used to generate doubt that a murder had been committed --but there was no evidence for an accidental drowning. Only a theory. There WAS evidence that Casey's daughter was brutally murdered with duct tape --even though the defense disputed that evidence unconvincingly -- trying to suggest the child's grandfather did the taping because it was in his garage?? or what? I didn't hear all those details.... Duct tape is ubiquitous --hard to prove where it came from, I should think.

The REAL evidence is that a child disappeared and was last seen with her mother --that the mother went partying and never reported her child missing --that she lied to her parents and police about the whereabouts of the daughter and a host of other things, including false allegations of others. The REAL evidence included that the child was subsequently found dead near the home in a wooded swamp with the duct tape as a likely weapon.

If Casey's behavior during her daughter's disappearance doesn't prove Casey Anthony killed her daughter, what would? a confession, maybe? An eye witness? Remember the case of Laci and Scott Peterson? I don't think the evidence was any less conclusive in this case than in that one. People's behaviors --like blatant, unnecessary lies --unnecessary for the innocent -- surrounding murder are evidence just as good as DNA (especially if it's true now as in a Law and Order story that DNA can be tampered with and faked.)

I wondered if too many jurors and the delighted defense team approved abortion and had been parties to abortion --believing in the right of a mother to rid herself of an inconvenient child.

I wasn't eager to see Casey's mouth and nose covered with duct tape --but it would be justice. Saving Casey from the death penalty should never have been Jose Baez's primary motivation as it so clearly was, judging from his comments. He actually said he had "mixed feelings" after the judgment. Duh! I'd have mixed feelings, too, if I knew I had just helped someone get away with murder.

I wish defense attorneys were all committed to JUSTICE instead of winning. Committed to getting MERCY for their clients, not committed to twisting a dumb jury into believing a scenario for which there was no evidence --compared to the prosecution's case --which should've been a slam-dunk.

Too bad for the prosecution, that their main prosecutor acted overly confident --and disdainful of the competition. Too bad for them that the jury was part of the new generation of Americans who can't tell truth from fiction, who also call good evil, and evil, good.

A BAD ERA FOR CHILDREN –BESIDES THAT WE ABORT SO MANY OF THEM….

On the same day, Oprah tells of parents who only had to serve one year in jail for keeping their little 7 year old daughter in a cage in a dark basement –and for kicking their sons outdoors in the winter without adequate clothes. The son went to the police, and the horror ended for these children –after 2 previous visits to the home by authorities who didn’t find anything wrong.

Then, ALSO on the same day, Oprah introduces a couple who deliberately raised their child in a gender neutral home –such that their 7-year-old boy thinks he’s a girl –and the mother explained to him that some girls have anatomy like their fathers and some like their mothers. Of all the stupidity and evil in the world –to let this boy grow up thinking he is a girl if he wants to be. Next, we’ll all be asked to pay for the mutilation of his perfectly healthy little body when he’s a teen --via gov’t or insurance healthcare. They were pleased to announce that there are many families like theirs, raising children to trans-gender by giving them NO help with gender identity –NO guidance on how to be a boy or a girl consistent with their bodies. Poor kids!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

The Right of Churches to Marry Same-Sex Couples

2011-05-17T15:21:00.003-06:00

A blogger: Of course, some churches have same-sex matrimony, as well, and I’m sure, deep down certain in fact, that you would respect their religious right to have it, no?

I am more tolerant of the RIGHT of liberal churches to marry people to their same-sex friends, their pets or their motorcycles –if that’s their goofy man-made religion –more tolerant of that than I am of same-sex civil unions being sanctified by the state.

Marriage has ALWAYS, in nearly EVERY culture, every generation, been the union of a man and wife (or even wives in some cases.) It is by DEFINITION the union of opposite sex persons who then give us children (or role model the procreative units who give us children.) That definition shouldn’t change just because some people have been mentally damaged in their orientation and gender identity and don’t want to be with persons of the opposite sex.

Homosexual couples do not conceive and procreate together –they try to simulate marriage –and in doing so confuse any children exposed to them. The school and the popular media contribute to the confusion, telling children and teens that it’s ok to “marry” and do sexual things with their same-sex best friends. That’s what redefinition of marriage becomes: a teaching of youth that any 2 persons can enter into sex and also redefine marriage.

But marriage is the right of every person–to marry one of the opposite sex. That’s it. There is no other definition of “marriage” for which we are bio-designed. Our bodies aren’t made solely for orgasmic pleasures –but also for procreation and role-modeling the romantic/procreative/male-female unions –who become PARENTS and grandparents and role models of 2 genders to their offspring.

Each parent brings different qualities to the home –both of which are advantageous to children. And two moms and two dads can’t replace the opposite sex parent missing from the home.

All we do by the great marriage debate of the 21st Century is cause more kids to experiment and mis-identify their sexuality and get addicted to swinging both ways –sexploration and sexperimentation.

Sorry if this is too repetitive for you all — but I keep hoping someone will eventually GET IT!!!! Barb(Quote)

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Is Gay Marriage about Equality? Progress in Civil Rights? And What about Polygamy?

2011-05-10T06:55:00.002-06:00

A blogger; Marriage is not just about procreation, both for individuals and the state, and it never was. Marriage is even more so not about “the” [sic?] these days. The varied state interests apply no matter the sexual alignment of the couple. Inequality is unjustified.

So you say. I disagree. And so do most all the states. See Map. There is no inequality in marriage being limited to heterosexual couples with the potential for procreation, who role-model the pro-creative unit to future generations, even if they are childless for any reason. Every man and woman has freedom and EQUAL RIGHT to become a hetero couple –if they can find a willing partner. But marriage, by definition, has ALWAYS, historically, everywhere –been the union of man with wife (or wives (plural) in some unequal, unenlightened instances.)

The creation model is Adam and Eve, The Jewish model is Abraham and Sarah (and what a mess they started by letting the wife give the maid to him, bearing Ishmael, claimed by Muslims as their ancestor.) Also Noah and sons and their wives. The OT also says a man should “stay with the wife of his youth.” Then there was John and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist, and Mary and Joseph, parents of JEsus –and finally Christ’s words saying a man should leave parents and cleave to his wife and never divorce–cleave to EVE, not STeve. And the NT also says the exemplary leaders of the Church should have only one wife.

As for polygamy, the two religions that permit polygamy happen to have both been started by “angel” communications to one founder each –Mormonism and Islam. Lucifer appears as an angel of light.

II Corinthians 11:13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. [Some Mullahs and Imams, fomenting terrorism –all of them propagating untruth of Islam.] Their end will be what their actions deserve.

There is no biological justification for recognizing gay unions same as hetero. Any benefits in the law are for procreative couples and those who model procreative units before the children. Children don’t need the confusion about sex and sexuality which is generated by homosexuals.

Homosexuals (as well as promiscuous straights) lure people into non-procreative sex addiction. The more we affirm homosexuality, and the more we are dysfunctional as hetero couples with divorce, etc. –the more homosexuals we will produce. We already see where non-gay men “on the downlow” –i.e. men who have sex with men –see homosexual acts as legitimate, non-relational, impersonal sexual recreation –like prisoners and congressmen in airport bathrooms.

Homosexual orientation is something to study and prevent and attempt to fix — it is not to be accommodated as “the same as –or equal to” heterosexuality. Homosexuality is simply counter to our bodily design and purpose. You can’t dignify it with “marriage.” It will always seem both unfortunate and bizarre to those who have the blessing of good heterosexual role modeling in their families and culture.

Good ploy to try to say homosexuality is genetic, inborn, a race, or a disability –and thus we should help homosexuals find one another for happiness together. We should be kind without creating new definitions and examples of “marriage” and “family” which will only be hard on their children and confusing to all children about the issues of sex and sexuality, gender identity and orientation. Gay marriage gives license to something that we should teach and help our children to avoid. Because however orgasms are first experienced with others, they are addictive and affecting the self-image as male or female, gay or straight.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

How Can Christians Justify the Killing of Osama?

2011-05-09T08:03:00.003-06:00

Someone asked me how Christians could justify his killing.

Easy. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Osama was not merciful; hence, no mercy for him.

Matthew 7:

“1Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

or in modern English:

1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Osama judged the west harshly–not his place –so he murdered and led young men to do suicide bombings with false and ungodly promises of free sex to come.

Therefore, with what judgment Osama judged the West, he was properly judged –and sentenced.

Christian mercy and forgiveness of others is not to be foolishness whereby we let tyrants oppress and murder if we can prevent it. There is justification for “just wars” to liberate people from tyrants –and our own vulnerable ones from future acts of terror. There is rightly a war being waged by good against evil. Barb(Quote)

There is still mercy for the repentant sinner who changes his way--or one who sincerely repents on his deathbed. I would hold out hope for all bereaved people, that their loved ones encountered Christ's mercy before their deaths. But those who "live by the sword die by the sword." I don't think that refers to those on the right side of just wars or peace-keepers. Our military's purpose IS peace-keeping in a world frought with evil-doers.

I was just reading in Time about Mueller, head of FBI --and 2 terrorists they recently captured. There are people bent on the destruction of others. We need our peace-keepers. God bless them all!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

National Day of Prayer --Obama's Proclamation --Let us Pray!

2011-05-05T09:20:00.002-06:00

THE WHITE HOUSE
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, 2011
- – – – – – -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

2011 NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER PROCLAMATION

From the President of the United States

2011 NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER PROCLAMATION

Throughout our history, Americans have turned to prayer for strength, inspiration, and solidarity.

Prayer has played an important role in the American story and in shaping our Nation’s leaders. President Abraham Lincoln once said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.” The late Coretta Scott King recounted a particularly difficult night, during the Montgomery bus boycott, when her husband, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received a threatening phone call and prayed at the kitchen table, saying, “Lord, I have nothing left. I have nothing left. I have come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” Dr. King said, in that moment of prayer, he was filled with a sense of comfort and resolve, which his wife credited as a turning point in the civil rights movement.

It is thus fitting that, from the earliest years of our country’s history, Congress and Presidents have set aside days to recognize the role prayer has played in so many definitive moments in our history. On this National Day of Prayer, let us follow the example of President Lincoln and Dr. King. Let us be thankful for the liberty that allows people of all faiths to worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience, and let us be thankful for the many other freedoms and blessings that we often take for granted.

Let us pray for the men and women of our Armed Forces and the many selfless sacrifices they and their families make on behalf of our Nation. Let us pray for the police officers, firefighters, and other first responders who put themselves in harm’s way every day to protect their fellow citizens. And let us ask God for the sustenance and guidance for all of us to meet the great challenges we face as a Nation.

Let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those who have been affected by natural disasters at home and abroad in recent months, as well as those working tirelessly to render assistance. And, at a time when many around the world face uncertainty and unrest, but also hold resurgent hope for freedom and justice, let our prayers be with men and women everywhere who seek peace, human dignity, and the same rights we treasure here in America.

The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2011, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith or conscience directs them, to join me in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, and I ask all people of faith to join me in asking God for guidance, mercy, and protection for our Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Why Not Gay Marriage Anyway?

2011-05-04T05:25:00.008-06:00

A Blogger: To say that this [gay marriage and/or domestic partnership] would not help in sustaining relationships does not seem credible. Even if interest in monogamy is less in the gay community, the burden of canceling a legal agreement is much higher than when one would just be shacking up. More monogamy would be a plus for the gay community. Second, you seemed to ignore the impact on the children that gay people are going to create or adopt. Civil unions would undoubtedly be better as two parents are generally better than one.

Again, there are other contractual ways for gays to get most of what they want from each other in the event of separation, hospitalization, death, inheritance, etc. If they don’t get certain tax breaks, too bad and why should they? They can’t create children together and they don't role-model to youth the potentially pro-creative couple (man with woman.) They usually have a higher income than average. They have chosen their unnatural lifestyle –we shouldn’t have to subsidize or legalize it–even if they are victims of external influences on their gender identity and orientation.

I don’t think marriage and written agreement will incline the homosexuals toward monogamy OR long-lasting relationships –because it IS possible to have these without marriage ceremony and contract, and they don’t. The ceremony doesn’t keep the promiscuous together. These are not “natural” couplings, i.e. “according to biological nature.” They typically lack the glues of life-time commitment: child-making, child-rearing, grandparenting, better mental and economic stability. (Granted, science steps forward --more and more at our expense--to help them do the unnatural.)

At some point, even before they are really “old,” the males may find anal sex injurious and impossible in old age. Hence, the 50% rate of single gays (males) between ages 50–70. After all, without sex, who needs to live with some aging, crotchety partner in a lifestyle that is born of idolizing youth and beauty?

Proponents of homosexuality like to point out other methods of reproduction in the bio-world and the occasional confused animals who may partner homosexually (very, very rare, I believe) — but it is clear in our human bio-design, that we are to have sex with the opposite sex only –we are designed for it and this is the way we make babies and perpetuate the human race. These are the couples that can truly experience “perma-bond-ability.”

Heterosexuals are the ones who role model both masculinity and femininity to children –giving them what they deserve and need for their OWN normal sexual identity and orientation.

The daughters of single teen mothers are over 90 percent likely to follow mom’s pattern.
The children of divorce are over 90 percent likely to follow parental pattern.
The unmarried baby-daddy/baby mama phenomenon in black community is epidemic.
The children of functional hetero-parented homes who make life-time marriage and family life enjoyable tend to see their children follow in their footsteps.
It’s logical, therefore, to expect that homosexual homes will produce more bisexuals, homosexuals, sexually experimental, gender insecure youth.

And it’s also true that dysfunctional married heteros reproduce their dysfunctions in their kids –and disillusion youth about marriage. The increase in numbers of homosexuals can be attributed in part (not always) to the breakdown of heterosexual marriages, the poor examples set by hetero couples whose homes were full of quarrels, temper, apparent lack of love on a daily basis.

Homosexuals want to do “it” differently and start out with idolatry toward the beautiful of their own sex and fantasizing about really close relations with the admired (this latter is also a typical stage of child development) — they also typically manifest some gender identification confusion –usually influenced unconsciously by parents –often (not always) by a lack of functional normal loving parents of both sexes –and then by peers –and sometimes by older molesters who seek out the fatherless males. If the kids get into sexual activities with their own sex, they can get fixated there –arrested development and a gay self-image. Especially with schools, media and law saying gay marriage is as good as straight and that “some of you are inevitably born gay.” It also doesn’t help late bloomers or effeminate boys or tomboy girls to be bullied and forced to wonder if they are abnormal –that just reinforces their gender insecurity.

Parents are role models. If they started to have sex promiscuously with their own sex, where is their moral authority to raise kids who are straight, abstinent and then married and monogamous? No moral authority –zip –nada. Because one doesn’t usually decide he is gay by living a celibate life abstaining until marriage. Instead, a typical homosexual has risked all sorts of diseases –especially males–and has a lot of mental disarray on the way to “partnership” because (I think) one probably can’t feel really good about crossing God’s design as they do.

Peace, joy, contentment don’t come to those in bed with people of the same sex –nor other people’s spouses, nor with bio– members of one’s own family, nor to pedophiles — And not to anyone, straight or gay, who is out of sync with their Creator in general. Hence, so much depression, dissatisfaction, misery, addiction, dysfunction and divorce in the world.

In the recent UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research report on health of older homosexuals, there is high self-reporting of poor health, both physically and mentally, among older homosexuals. They are more apt to be alone in ages 50-70, lacking both partners and children to care for them. We really don't have any reason to think that gay marriage can change the essential nature of this condition.

As for the impact on the children in gay-parented homes –I surely do not ignore that, as charged in the above blogger quote.
1. Homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt –considering straight couples abound who want children.
2. those who oppose gay marriage do not want their children to see gay coupling as normal and as an equally happy life-partner choice –because it isn’t. Who would desire this for their own children?
3. Children deserve to have both mother and father when possible.

Consider the case of one Rosie O’Donell–whose little boy, according to her, said, “I want a Daddy!” And she unsympathetically explained to him that he wasn’t going to have a daddy since his mommies were lesbians. How sad for a boy trying to become a man with a house full of ladies! And yes, single parenting happens in a high percentage of straight homes, too -–but the bio-dad will at least have a better chance to visit and influence his son–and get custody of him in case something does happen to the single or married birth mother. Pity the boy left with his usually mannish, lesbian, non-birth mommy and never having access to his bio-father –except by expensive legal arrangements benefiting only the attorneys.

Unfortunately, Rosie and her partner adopted that little boy–and he was denied a daddy because of their selfishness and the fact that they DECIDED a father wasn’t important to a child. And now the 2 women are “divorced.”

There is an additional complication for the children in gay-parented homes — they are already children of divorce or the unmarried. The birth parent in the couple was either divorced or abandoned by the other party. The male couples typically would adopt if they wanted children, not able to get custody of their bio-children (I'm assuming courts favor the mother when her husband decides to divorce because he’s gay. If the children are at troublesome ages (when aren't they?) I suspect most gay men prefer the mothers, their ex-wives, to have the custody, and it is surely better for the children, than to ponder and find out what their two dads do together in the bedroom.)

When the lesbian couple has children, one parent is usually the birth mother divorced or never married to the child’s father. This makes a mess for a father who wants to stay involved in his child’s life when that child is in a lesbian home. It will be harder to protect his son from homosexuality and gender insecurity/confusion.

There surely were straight couples willing to adopt Rosie’s little boy to give him both a daddy and mommy–as it is very hard for the straight couples to find infants in the US to adopt and foreign countries don’t make adoption easy, either. And now the gays are competing for those children on an equal basis with straight couples –as in England and one of our US states (if memory serves me) where Catholic adoption closed down rather than be forced by law to give children to gay couples.

The work for attorneys will never end, dealing with homosexual couples, their adoptions and divorces and custody battles. Because homosexual couples are INHERENTLY less stable, less capable of perma-bond, than straights –and this will affect all their children adversely –and a higher percentage of their kids will sex-periment with bisexuality and homosexuality. Their parents will give them the same license to sex-periment which they gave themselves.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for lesbian and gay parents who want to be favored in custody over the other bio-parent.

This whole national issue is one big can of worms. Polygamists will have no reason to be denied legal marriage–even though most men can’t afford multiple families without the help of the gov’t.

See my blog report about Andrew Solomon's modern family: http://thebarbwire.blogspot.com/2011/02/andrew-solomons-modern-family.html

His is an example of the educated, “enlightened” MODERN family –the most complicated family tree ever. It will be interesting, and probably sad, to see how these children do in adulthood. I’m predicting, sadly, that they are just as “at risk” for various problems as the financially disadvantaged children born to the single moms –who make up most of the jail population, incidentally.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Why Not Domestic Partner Status at Least, if not Gay Marriage?

2011-05-04T05:14:00.003-06:00

a blogger: I could understand creating some legal scheme for same-sex partners given that they are de facto couples with property, shared income and expenses, and children.

In my city, to register as a "domestic partner," you can't be just 2 people sharing a place, family life, apartment, etc. in order to share expenses and have the same perks (whatever they are) as married couples --you have to say that you have a sexual relationship with each other. Why should gov't be recognizing homosexual couplings for legal purposes anyway???

What’s the need? Other contracts can suffice. As for the children, they belong to their bio-parents –and should never be given to gay parents via adoption or contrived “gay marriage.”

Mother’s house-mate ought not be in her room in the first place –and ought not be considered a parent –just Mommy’s friend. Or the lady friend “with whom we share life and expenses.” The other parent is the child’s father –by rights. If he’s a loser, join the club of other single mothers. There IS nothing inherently wrong with two women living together to pool resources and raise children and give the non-bio-parent-friend the comfort of family life --but today that suggests to outsiders that it is a lesbian arrangement --and in fact the gov't and employee benefits are only for those in a sexual "union." Too bad that sharing expenses and charitably taking in a same sex friend can look that way.

But 2 mommies? Even the step-mother/step-father situation has been problematic for kids, though sometimes the lesser of other evils. Two lesbian mommies and 2 gay daddies is not something to role model to kids –especially when we need kids to grow up able to form and stay in nuclear families –mom with dad and their children.

The functional nuclear family with a mother and father is a “mental health center” and “financial aid center” for families. We need more of those –not fewer.

See the post above for more on this topic.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Attorney Paul Clement leaves King & Spalding to Keep the Firm's Former Commitment to DOMA

2011-04-27T11:03:00.004-06:00

I’m glad to hear that DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) which defines marriage as between a man and a woman will continue to have good representation by Paul Clement against Obama and his so-called Department of Justice who are trying to kill DOMA in the courts --even though elected federal legislators passed the law --along with many states.

I am sorry to hear about the political pressure causing Paul Clement's law firm to cave. Clement said he believed attorneys should defend to the finish the cases they accept and not yield to political pressure --as King and Spalding yielded to the gay activists. So he left them.

If ever we needed a defense of marriage and an emphasis on it by gov’t, it is now –with the bloated entitlements necessitated by all the baby daddies of every race failing to marry and support their baby-mamas and babies.

What we don’t need is more men and women turning to their own sex for comfort –guaranteeing confused and sexually experimental (and thus promiscuous and disease-risked) children. We don’t need polygamous men either, who put their families on food stamps --because most men can’t afford more than one wife and her children. With gay marriage will come legalized polygamy and a proliferation of both.

We need to once again teach and role model to children that sex is for the married couples –that boys and girls are different from each other so they may grow up to get married and become mommies and daddies. And we need to chaperone and limit dating access of our teens still at home –and TV broadcasters should voluntarily clean up their garbage --with a little help of public pressure on, and responsibility of, sponsors.

Fact: college freshmen girls come to college free of STD’s –and over 90 percent leave college with HPV infection because there is no deterrent to sexual activity of students on campus which permit copulating in the dorms --and look the other way at binge drinking and sex at frat parties, etc.

Smart parents still look for campuses that have curfews, dorm deans and frat house moms and rules which operate in loco parentis (In place of parents.) Some of the Christian schools still do have a voluntary atmosphere of morality in dorms and disallow any drinking. There is positive peer pressure at least in Christian colleges --in spite of the unchaperoned freedoms most all college kids have these days.

Of course, gay sex for the men, especially, is high risk sex fraught with STD's --thus, a public health hazard whether or not they marry.

A recent UCLA study was reported in the Blade on April 18, finding that the health of older homosexuals was worse than that of their straight counterparts --and that half of older gay and bisexual men lived alone and lacked either partners or children to help care for them.

"The gay culture tends to be youth-driven," the researcher, Steven P. Wallace, said. I have said that before myself --and listened to gays deny it. I likened the gay youth preference to that of promiscuous straights --the inability of shallow, youth and beauty-oriented folks to maintain loving fidelity with mates into old age. I have said that the preference for homosexuality IS either gender identity disorder or arrested development (arrested during the same-sex hero identification and worship of youngsters) --failure to move on to more mature interests and goals.

Our economy cannot withstand such an immoral culture which not only raises boys who sleep around and won't support their kids --but blurs the distinction between the sexes.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

The Capitol Building as a Church! Amazing American History!

2011-04-26T11:45:00.000-06:00

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring --by Bach --amazing commercial with all wood marimba in the woods

2011-04-26T11:28:00.003-06:00

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Blog excerpt: About The National Day of Prayer --1st Thursday in May

2011-04-26T06:37:00.005-06:00

Blogger: This truth does not disparage the people who pray and do good things, it disparages prayer for the fact that it does nothing. Can you see that distinction?

I see the distinction. It is lack of faith that says “prayer does nothing.” The Bible says “The fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Some say, “Prayer changes YOU.” Or me, as the case may be. That when we pray, WE are reminded of our goals as Christians, we are changed in our hearts.

I believe that prayer is like “going on line” with our Creator’s great, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Spirit/Mind. We enter into HIs awesome presence.

Jesus said to petition God in Jesus’ name and we would see answers to our prayers. I believe the resurrected man –He knows much that we do not –and claimed that if we had seen Him, we had seen the Father –that He and the Father were One.

My husband noted that if he would ask God to give him an opportunity to witness for Christ to someone that day, he would get a natural (rather than contrived, awkward) opportunity to share his faith with someone. That has happened for me as well.

By praying for others, we are more mindful of others and meeting their needs.

I also believe there is POWER in prayer for healing and resolving conflict, etc. God can speak to our spirits/to our minds filling us with HIS thinking, and HIS love , and HIS power to forgive and do right. He can give us thoughts and motivations and the emotional aspects for good. The Bible says that wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in Christ’s name, He is in their midst. Sometimes, the Spirit of God is present in such a way that “mountains are moved” as Jesus said. Who knows how often prayer has healed the sick, averted tragedy, protected us on the highway?

Nevertheless, we are mortal in this life –and we shall all experience death, sorrow, tragedy–but Christ did, also! The worst kind of death! So because He suffered for us, and rose from the grave, we have this confidence that His promise is true when the resurrected Jewish Christ says (not in quote order) , “Because I live, you will live also. You believe in God; believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you –that where I am, you may be also. Let not your heart be troubled.” “Behold I am with you always.”

As for the National Day of Prayer coming up --I don't know if Obama has declared it or not. The court said He could. I believe he has ignored the founder of the day, Shirley Dobson and not had White House observance of the day like former presidents.

If ever a nation needed the intervention of the Almighty to save us, it is the United States who has been raised to great heights --and now the heights refer only to the price of gas, our rates of divorce, shacking up and unwed births, our deficit spending and debt ceiling!

Much to pray about! --America needs to fall on its knees in repentance and petition God for help and mercy.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

NARTH'S Dr. Nicolosi on Home -Schooling, Homosexuality, etc.

2011-04-12T10:03:00.002-06:00

The Compassionate Answer

Homosexuality Avoidable, Doctor Tells Parents

Dr. Joseph Nicolosi is Executive Director of the National Association tot the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and Clinical Director of Thomas Aquinas Psychological Clinic in Encino, California. An expert in "reparative therapy," a treatment for homosexuality, he was interviewed by Lesley Payne.

What do you believe are the factors that contribute to homosexuality?

Nicolosi: To understand the cause of homosexuality, we have to begin by understanding that homosexuality is really a symptom, a result, of a gender-identity disorder. In other words, the boy did not sufficiently develop a masculine identification or the girl did not develop a sufficient feminine identification. This seems to hold out for the vast majority or homosexuals. With regard to formation of a masculine identification, in order for the boy to develop a solid sense of his own masculinity, he needs to first establish a bonding or an identification with the father. The father-son relationship is absolutely critical in the boy's sense of his own masculinity. We have to remember that boys and girls are first identified with the mother in their earlier years, but the boy has to dis-identify with his mother and make the bonding identification connection with the father.

We're talking about 2 1/2 years old. This is what they call the gender-identity phase. It's the time when children begin to realize that the world is divided between males and females and that he or she is pressured into identifying with one or the other. If the father is cold, distant, aloof, detached or critical, that doesn't happen properly.

Can parents prevent a child from becoming a homosexual?

The concern I have developed over the whole question of preventing homosexuality in children comes from the years of clinical work with homosexual men who desire to change. So, essentially, I'm working backwards, dealing with adults and understanding the critical events in their childhood that con-tributed to their homosexuality. So. prevention is really guarding against those particular factors that create the homosexual adult.

To begin, I would say that I think home-schooled children have a particular vulnerability for a number of reasons. The primary reason, especially for the boy (and I'll be focusing primarily on boys), is that it isolates him from his peers. I think that's a very important factor in the development of his masculine identification and his heterosexual development. In fact, I'm working right now with a number of parents who are concerned about symptoms what we call pre-homosexual symptoms or gender-identity confusion and a number of these parents are home-schooling these children. The problem that they all complain about is that their son does not have access to boys his age and can-not participate in the kinds of ordinary activ-ities of boys, like sports and sleepovers and just getting together and playing. I think that's a critical factor.

"Freud said 90 years ago that if a homosexual has an older brother, it's a feared, hostile relationship with the older brother."

From my work with adult homosexuals, what we see repeatedly in their childhood is the fact that they were isolated from other boys. They did not have close male friends. That's a very important factor. Parents who home-school will often complain that they have to chauffeur their kid all over town just so he can play with a boy for a couple of hours.

They have to make appointments and drive and it's a lot of work, whereas going to school, there's already a built-in social net-work. . I think that the burden of responsibility, unfortunately, falls on the parents of chil-dren who are home-schooling to provide opportunities tot their children to have peer interactions. That's very important. I'm not saying that home-schooling produces homosexuals. I am saying that parents who home-school have an additional burden of being concerned about these issues.

You have to look at the variables. One of the things we see over and over in the history of homosexual men is the tendency to feel left out of the other boys, to always feel that they were not included, that they were not good enough. This is a fundamental theme in the lives of homosexuals.

What are the signs of the pre-homosexual condition?

One of the signs of the pre-homosexual condition is characterized by a confusion of gender identity, which is to say the boy will exhibit certain behaviors like what we call the "sissy-boy syndrome," which is UCLA psychology researcher Richard Green's term--he wrote a book by that name. Basically--and other researchers have supported this--this is a boy who shies away from physical activity, tends to stay with girls. tends to stay close to his mother, grandmother or sisters. When he's very young he will actually say he doesn't want to be a boy and that he wants to be a girl. They will sometimes engage in dress-up or playing with makeup. Now, we have to warn parents that a certain amount of this is kind of normal curiosity. So we don't have to panic as soon as we see the slightest sign. But we have to look at an over-all picture of a boy who systematically either ignores, denies or minimizes his masculinity.

Typically, these boys stay home more. they stay in the kitchen more, they like theater, acting and music, they're into fantasy--fantasy is a very big part of their life, and they tend to identify with female characters on television. Like, usually in the Disney productions, they tend to identify with Sleeping Beauty or the mermaid or whatever the feminine character is....

If people were to ask me what is the one characteristic that identifies the pre-homosexual boy, I would say it's a boy who is not connected to his father, who avoids his father, who minimizes his father, who does not really go out and seek out his father's attention.

My experience with home-schoolers is that the fathers are more involved with their kids than typical families and the fathers are what I would consider more masculine, where they are clearly the head of the family and they go to Catholic men 's meetings, etc.

Let me say this generally speaking, more conservative and orthodox people--not only Catholics, but any religion politically, religiously and socially conservative people--tend to be more clear about gender difference. This is to say, the men are the men and the women are the women. Whereas, the more politically/socially/religiously liberal people tend to blur gender distinctions.

Furthermore, the decision to home-school, which is a major decision, is usually made by parents who are more concerned. Home-schooling is such an unpopular decision that, for the decision to be made, it usually means that the mother and father are very committed to the children. Already, that tells me that this is going to be a father who is more involved in his children's lives.

In a large family is there a different dynamic? In some home-schooling families I know there are five boys or nine boys.

When we're talking about the important variables [which] determine a boy's masculine identification, one of the important factors is a relationship with his older brother. If he has a loving, supportive, encouraging, positive relationship with his older brother, that's a very good sign. Whereas, if it's a feared, hostile relationship with the older brother, then that is not a good sign. If the younger boy shies away from his older brothers or feels intimidated by them or is constantly being beaten up by his older brothers, that's also another important variable. Freud said 90 years ago that if a homosexual has an older brother, it's a feared, hostile relationship with the older brother, and I have seen this to be true time and time again.

Many people have a family member or neighbor who is homosexual. What do you tell the kids about that? I don't want my kids to be un-Christian, but I don't want them to think it's normal.

Basically, we should educate our children to see that the homosexual is a person with a problem. We have to respect this person. We don't want to contribute to their unhappiness by rejecting them or making them feel bad about themselves. We have to always be Christian and tolerant of the person. But while we are loving to the person, it does not mean we have to accept or approve of their homosexuality. Tell the kids that homosexuality is really a psychological problem and that many of them, if they really work hard at it, can overcome their homosexuality, get married and have families. This is basically what we want to teach our kids.

What treatment do you recommend for a "pre-homosexual" condition?

Number one, what you do is you let the child know very specifically that effeminate behavior is unacceptable. That seems very obvious, but you would be surprised how many parents don't like their sons sissy behavior but do not comment on it, because they're either intimidated or they're fearful, or they don't want to hurt the boy's feelings, or they hope it's just a phase that will go away. The child interprets their silence as approval. This is one of the big discoveries that Richard Green found, that parents will not correct an effeminate boy.

Anyway, the first thing you do is you discourage effeminate behavior. The second thing is you get the mother to perhaps back off, to not be so emotionally tied to the boy. The father has to get much more involved. Any male in the boy's life has to become involved. All significant males in this boy's life have to work together to support and encourage and reinforce his masculine identification. The message has to be: "You're lucky to be a boy. Being a boy is fun. Being a boy is special." You really have to play that up. You have to really make him feel special to be a boy. It may be sexist, but that's what we need to do....

One of the things I find is that when these mothers call me up--and it's usually the mothers who call--they have an intuitive sense that there's something wrong. That's a good starting point. When parents call me because they are concerned, the first thing I do is an evaluation to determine whether the parents' fears are well-founded. If so, then I basically work with the parents. I really don't work with the child. I coach the parents in doing the right thing. If they're motivated, they can turn this around. If the parents are willing to work together as a team, they can produce very good results. And the younger the child, the faster the change. I once worked with the parents of a 3 1/2 year old boy who wanted to be a girl. We were able to bring about a radical change that everybody noticed-- uncles and aunts and everybody--in about three weeks.

For more information contact NARTH at 16633 Ventura Blvd. Suite 1340. Encino, CA 91436, (818) 7894440. Their website is at www.narth.com. NARTH has a list of member psychotherapists throughout the country who treat homosexuality as a disorder.

From San Francisco Faith: The Bay Areas Lay Catholic Newspaper. Vol. 2 No. 7, July-August 1998.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Boy Says Heaven is Real!!! Of Course!

2011-04-11T21:31:00.000-06:00

After near-death experience, boy says

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

My Delightful Airplane Seatmate --Luis Resto! Eminem's musical collaborator

2011-04-09T12:24:00.005-06:00

Luis Resto and Restaurant's World "Just So You Don't Die Alone"

Pardon the name on this video format! Luis is the fellow playing the keyboard and singing --his brother is the guitarist and they look a bit alike I think.

Luis Resto (cut and paste this into address bar --as it is a streaming site --and changes continually.)

http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/artist/2358

About

• has performed, written & recorded with Patti Smith (reference: "Don't Smoke In Bed", "My Madrigal" and "Pastime Paradise"); backed Ms. Smith in her American Songbook performance at Lincoln Center and at the Bowery Ballroom concerts in New York commemorating the release of Smith’s Twelve album.

• won an Oscar and a Grammy as co-writer of "Lose Yourself", Eminem's smash worldwide hit and the most successful single of his career, spending 12 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 & is now widely regarded as one of the most important songs of the decade.

• co-wrote the title track and six other songs on the 8 Mile soundtrack album (released on October 29 in advance of the film) which quickly became the fifth best-selling album of 2002 with US sales of 3.2 million in it’s first two months of release.

• a veteran and in-demand musician, Luis has recorded with Stevie Nicks, Iggy Pop, Jay Z, Mel Torme, Anita Baker, the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson) and many others.

• one of the most creative and diversely accomplished musicians currently working in Detroit. He has amassed a voluminous list of credits with relatively little fanfare; as part of the Shady camp, he played/produced/written songs for some twenty-five Top 5 album releases in the first decade of this new century, some fifteen of which reached the coveted Number 1 position.

• most recently Luis has been credited for co-writing Eminem's smash "Not Afraid" and Lil' Wayne's platinum single "Drop the World".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luis saw rotund me coming down the aisle toward my window seat on the plane from Detroit to Charlotte, W. Va., for my uncle's funeral in Savannah last Tuesday--but didn't scowl or blanch!
I was worried about narrow seats and not wanting to overlap anyone literally --forced intimacy of these planes but we couldn't get our tickets together for our party of 6. Fortunately for both of us, Luis was trim and fit and didn't take up much space himself, so we were both comfortable! So it wasn't a problem and he was as polite and solicitous as anyone could be! offered to share the drop-down shelf without me mentioning that mine would not sit level having to sit on my front just slightly. But, just so you know, I didn't need any extender to my seatbelt! He stuck my purse under the seat for me --didn't ask. Just a quick-thinking, helpful, energetic gentleman. I'd say "young man" --except for his gray hair --but otherwise, a young man in my book.

And the conversation was --as he said --"thoroughly enjoyable." He used his I-phone to pound out a melody on a keyboard app--and with a composition app he demonstrated layering acc't onto a melody. The young father in front of Luis often turned around to look at me between the seats with a big grin --as he listened to our conversation.

Right away, I learned he was a professional pianist. "O really! I play, too!" (heh heh but not professionally!) though my daughters' professions are music teaching/singing/playing and I've done a lot of church music over the years. And then I said, "Who do you play for?"

He is the keyboardist, arranger, accompaniest, and a composer-- mostly famous for work with rapper Eminem these days! Got an Oscar and Grammy for the best movie song, Lose Yourself, in Eminem's 8 Mile) --which was used on the impressive Super Bowl Chrysler commercial this year. Nominated for a Grammy for Not Afraid. And the above is one of his own songs --which I do prefer to the rap music. I haven't deciphered all the lyrics yet, but it sounds philosophical and I hear Jesus' name as Lord (not cursing) in there somewhere! I understand there is a lot of cursing and bad language and unholy themes in Eminem rap songs --and in most rap. Luis says all that angst comes quite honestly out of Eminem's earlier life experiences.

Luis said it is a challenge for him to set a good example for his 2 kids, one a young teen girl whom he was taking with her girlfriend for a birthday beach trip during spring break. His other --a son --is a college music tech/engineer? grad. He said it's a challenge, making money with Eminem as he does --on music which I will say is not the favorite of concerned parents--which Luis understands. Luis said he does sometimes wonder if what he does for a living is of "any good in the universe." Well, it's certainly good to make a living for one's family.

So I gave him an idea that maybe he and Eminem could do a song like, maybe, "Man Up!" for "all the Baby Daddies" --whose 29% white and 83% black children are being raised without the dads in the homes --"outside marriage" (whatever that means --never married or just single parented by any means?) according to the newsmag article and the 2009 census. Luis loves his 2 kids --and he says Eminem is a dedicated dad also with 2 daughters (one a step daughter) whom he parents with high priority and love.

Luis says Marshal Mathers (Eminem) is a prince among professional musicians --a truly "nice guy" -contrary to his image --and so very nice and good to work with. And that's good to hear. Maybe, being financially secure, I suggested, they might take a shift in message and consider using their fame as a bully pulpit for marriage and parenting for the sake of the children --for whom single parenting/unwed parenting, usually results in gov't dependency and poverty. Luis, himself, has been married 25 years. He is a Catholic by upbringing who occasionally helps in a couple of Detroit area churches with their music. Says their tech/engineer is a believer and a good influence.

Otherwise, we mused about the mysteries of flight --says he marvels that such a heavy piece of metal can stay up in the air -- and I told him I am always comforted and less scared on take-off and landing-- to realize that God gave the secret of flight to the Wright brothers --2 minister's sons --sons of a bishop in the United Brethren in Christ Church. He didn't know that --as most people don't but I do, being raised in that church myself. I said that tells me that flying isn't some vain Tower of Babel exercise on the part of humanity --but as our minister said last Sunday (and I alluded to you, Pastor!) our creativity as humans is a result of our being created in the Image of the Creator. We create --because we are like Him in that aspect. The challenge is to use our creativity for Him --and not for the worship of ourselves --as in humanism or idolatry.

Even though Luis told me his accomplishments --he did so because I asked and really wanted to know. I didn't detect egotism in him at all --but just a man who is comfortable in his own skin --and not feeling any need to impress anyone--certainly not me.

We were just 2 strangers who "hit it off" conversationally --and made the most of our time in flight. I gave him my blog address --and he gave me his email. And he said as he offered his hand upon departure, "Let's keep in touch!" I'd like that.

I hope he doesn't mind me boasting about meeting him and putting his video here --which is one of many. Luis even has a Wikipedia page.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

AHA! Evangelical Protestants HIGHEST on Newsweek's US Citizenship Test Beating Liberal Democrats!

2011-03-25T10:18:00.004-06:00

78% of evangelical protestants know their American history and citizenship test answers --more than any other single group!
62% of Liberal Democrats passed the test. : D

70% of conservative republicans passed compared to 62% of the liberal democrats, 61 percent of GOP moderates, 55 percent of GOP liberals --which shows they don't know why Republicanism and liberalism are incompatible.) 62% of liberal and moderate democrats passed , but just 36% of conservative democrats (which proves my point that it is not smart to be both a democrat and a conservative --shows you don't know what democrats are about--like the pro-life lady democrat calling voters to support Obama when she didn't even know how extremely pro-abortion his record is.)

62% of the general public passed. 75% of people making over $100,000 a year passed. 41% of those making less than $20,000 a year passed. Which just proves there is a general correlation between education/knowledge and the ability to make money.

And yet, the libs are always saying how stupid the religious and conservatives are! Well, I guess we have them beat when it comes to knowledge of the USA and its gov't and history --just plain citizenship!

The test was conducted by Newsweek on 1000 citizens in February, 2011. They did it like the citizenship test --whereby 10 questions are asked from 100 possible questions. They posted 25 questions in the article. A person has to answer 6 out of 10 correctly to pass the real citizenship test. Granted, some questions would be easier to answer than others, but they would surely do a random questioning --not asking for the politics of the polled
until after the questions were asked.

Some of the questions:

1.When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
2. What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
3. Who was president during WWI?
4. Who did the US fight in WWII?
5. How many voting members in the House of Reps?
6. When must all men register for Selective Service?
7. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the US?
8. What did Susan B Anthony do?
9.What did Martin Luther King Jr. do?
10. Who is in charge of the executive branch?
11. We elect a US senator for how many years?
12. If both pres. and vice pres. can not serve, who becomes president?
13. Some constitutional powers belong to the federal gov't. Wjhat is one power of the fed govt'.
14. How many justices on supreme Court?
15. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the contsitution?
16. What is the supreme law of the land?
17. Name one U.S. territory.
18. The idea of self-gov't is in the first 3 words of the Constitution. What are these words?
19. What territory did the US buy from France in 1803?
20. How many amendments in the constitution? (Only 6% got this right.)
21. What is the name of the vice pres. now?
22. What is the name of the speaker of the House of Reps now?
What is the economic system in the US?
24. What ocean is on the West Coast of the US? (9% incorrect)
25. The federalist Papers supported the passage of the US Constitution. Name one of the writers. (12% correct)

See latest Newsweek, p. 59, for answers. I don't have time right now to include them.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

ELMWWOOD H.S. PRESENTS PIRATES OF PENZANCE!

2011-03-25T10:11:00.004-06:00

OPENS TONIGHT –MARCH 25, 26, 7:30 pm –and Sunday at 2:30 PM

$8 for Adults; $6 for students and Senior Citizens

The director, Christine Rohrs, is well-pleased with her cast and says it is “hilarious” in its old-fashioned way. The English bobbies (police) are played by EHS grads of various ages and they are very funny.

Where is Elmwood? Allow an hour of driving time though it isn’t quite that far. It is SE of B. G. on the Jerry City Road.

Drive carefully south on 475 to State route 6 –Go left (east) on 6 a short distance, to Huffman Rd and turn right on Huffman –which is long and follows a Black Swamp drainage ditch and jogs a bit and has rare stop signs –so don’t go too fast! –and it dead-ends on Jerry City Road.

Then left on Jerry City Road –to the 2nd school building –

(the former school-bldg.- turned-community-center , where all the cars will probably be.)

Elmwood H.S. presents the Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta

The Pirates of Penzance

or
The Slave of Duty

Libretto (lyrics) by W.S. Gilbert and Music by Arthur Sullivan

The Pirates of Penzance was written in 1879 for the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York. Gilbert and Sullivan were in New York that year because their previous comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore had been performed there in various unauthorized versions. The only legal protection against this kind of musical piracy for the librettist (music writer) and the composer was to go to the States and present an "authentic production" of "Pinafore". While there, they composed "Pirates". (Was it just a coincidence that piracy was the subject of their new project?)

Sullivan conducted the premiere on December 31, 1879.

The story can be hard to follow if you don’t know it ahead of time –so here it is for those who want the most enjoyment from this silly, old-fashioned, but very entertaining and

wholesome forerunner to the Broadway musical comedy.

The lead vocals are demanding in range and the lyrics sometimes tongue-twisters.

Act One

The story begins on a rocky seashore where the pirates are celebrating young Frederic's coming of age. He has completed his apprenticeship and is now about to become a full-fledged member of the crew. Frederic however shocks the pirate king and his men by announcing that he is leaving their band.

We find out that Frederic was mistakenly indentured to become a pirate when he was a child. Although he never approved of the pirates' plundering profession, he stayed with them because he was bound by his sense of duty. This same sense of duty, he tells them, now compels him to forsake them.

Frederic is about to marry his elder nanny Ruth, who has constantly accompanied him since he joined the ship, but he wants her to remain with the pirates. He has not seen another woman since he was eight years old, and he wants to compare Ruth with other women. He comes upon a group of beautiful maidens, all of them daughters of Major-General Stanley, and falls in love with the youngest, Mabel.

The pirates try to abduct the Major-General's daughters and marry them. But the Major-General begs for their release, claiming that he is an orphan, and that he would be all alone without them. The pirates, who are all orphans themselves, are sympathetic to him, and they give up their plans for marriage.

Act Two

We find out that the Major-General lied to the pirates: He is not an orphan, and he now fears the consequences of his story. Frederic meanwhile has arranged for a Sergeant and his police force to help defeat his former buccaneering comrades.

Ruth and the Pirate King inform Frederic that through an unusual circumstance, he is still bound to remain a pirate. He reluctantly surrenders to his sense of duty and agrees to join them again. Mabel begs him to stay with her, but he sadly tells her that he cannot.

Meanwhile the pirates have planned their revenge on the Major-General and are now coming to rob his estate. The Sergeant and his police force await them. They meet. All is resolved after the ensuing battle.

(All the above info was "pirated" from various google sources.)

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

My Defense of Vouchers for Education

2011-02-17T10:00:00.002-06:00

a blogger: Vouchers also remove more money from the public schools; and if giving schools money doesn’t help. how does taking it away?

Those public schools will be smaller and that is apt to make them better, more personal, and less costly. Besides, where is the logic in continuing to subsidize failure more than we subsidize success? Highly motivated families and students will take their vouchers to better schools –those schools will grow and serve more students –including the poor.

Some think that private school students are rich and shouldn’t have vouchers. Yet, we all pay taxes and the rich more than anyone –but even the middle and poorer classes sacrifice to send kids to religious schools; they deserve vouchers so they can more easily afford the better schools.

Our country will be better off, overall, when we get gov’t out and help the successful schools serve more people –and give parental choice with vouchers.

It’s very important that gov’t keeps its nose out and doesn’t force the successful schools to change in order to accept vouchers. If religious teachings are part of their success, leave them alone. However, no school should teach kids that overthrow of Am. gov’t and violating our laws is OK (unless the law starts to undermine Christianity –telling parochial schools that they cannot receive vouchers and teach their students whose parents have chosen those schools, beliefs and all--beliefs such as Christ is the only way to Heaven–or that homosexuality, abortion and pre-marital sex are sins. Then we would have trouble with Big Brother's nose in the Christian school tent.)

My children went to a successful public school; the grandkids are home-schooled for now. It’s interesting to me how many public school grads are home-schooling –not just religiously motivated people –but others –because they don’t trust the liberal philosophy, the moral neutrality toward sexuality and transgendering, the witless teachers who would show-R-rated movies to jr. high, the questionable and downright immoral activities (like sex acts at school dances, with helpless administrators nearby, as reported to my husband by patients about a local suburban school and also featured on an Oprah program within the last year) , and the peer influence of the public school.

Inner city schools are classified as failing AND MONEY IS NOT HELPING!!! Maybe they pay better in some suburban schools as claimed here; this has not been so for our area. The failing schools in my state are not failing for lack of funding –but for lack of parenting of the students –fatherless, abusive, neglectful, addicted, religion-free, structure-less, discipline-free home life of the students being raised by TV. Too many kids who attend public school (inner city) now and then, don’t do homework, are disruptive and disrespectful, are vandals and thieves, drug users, sexually active, foul-mouthed, filled with “attitude,” and don’t get to bed at night and fail to get up in the AM because of their games, porn, and television. So when they do come, they already have quarterly F’s for truancy and tardiness –and get suspended more for disruptive behavior. Their disruption is probably to hide the fact that they are behind and ignorant. Better to act like a bored rebel than let peers see how ignorant you are.

People are fleeing such public schools –except for those families who have no choice –which includes those growing numbers of people who are multiplying on the gov’t dime –on SSI, ADC, and foodcards. And many of those needy homes ARE, nevertheless, responsible in their goals and child-rearing, and their kids deserve and would benefit from vouchers.

Of course, I think ALL kids deserve a chance at a better education–but I know some NEED boarding schools as a last resort to save them because their behaviors and attitudes destroy the learning environment for the others. Those kids could be given a chance at private schools, but as soon as they change the studious atmosphere and the moral climate of the school, they should go back to public which would be the bottom tier of options in some districts –as now –where they can’t expel but must try and educate in spite of the obstacles. But the rest of the students should not be held back from success by the miscreants in their midst.

We like the egalitarian ideal and the melding pot function of the public school –but as more and more students embrace television morals and delinquent attitudes and behaviors as the norm, responsible parents want something better for their kids –and we should subsidize the better schools so they can serve more of the poor who need to escape less motivated peers.
_________________________
In this blog discussion at another blog, I did acknowledge the problem with other schools that could demand vouchers via our Constitution's view of religious neutrality --radical Wahabi Islamic schools, schools for gay youth (as NYC attempted or has,) polygamists, the school for witchcraft and wizardry, and the KuKluxKlan --and any schools existing only for racism. Gov't's nose would rightly be in our academic tents to prevent teaching favoring the violation of our laws, including civil rights law --but Christian schools will then be given trouble for their Biblical views on sexual morals --denying our vouchers if we don't conform to PC thought that Christian view of sexuality is a hate crime.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Andrew Solomon's Modern Family

2011-02-04T09:43:00.002-06:00

An example of extreme moral relativism is written about in Newsweek, Feb.7 –by Andrew Solomon. He says he partied and had adventurous sex (and bisex) for years –and then married a man who had been a sperm donor to two lesbians and thus was a father of 2 –and then he himself fathered a child with a beloved lady friend (he is bisexual) –through IVF –in order to be faithful to his husband I guess–and the lady friend has a male partner. So, he and his partner were the fathers to 3 children being raised by 3 women –and then he decided he and his partner should raise a child –so one of the lesbian moms for his partner’s 2 children was a surrogate mother for him with a donated egg. So now he has 4 children from 4 mothers counting the bio mother who donated the egg –the surrogate is mom to two of the four. See the family tree.

He admits, “I would not obscure the frictions sparked by conflicting priorities and boundaries, disparate resources, myriad parenting styles....”

The Bible tells us not to mess with the family order established by the Creator from the beginning –when God created Eve for Adam in the image of God –and when Jesus tells man to leave parents and cleave to a wife –and to not divorce. This Newsweek family didn’t consider that this TRUTH, an absolute for family life, applied to any of them and they have created a mess. Lovers of self, and pursuers of happiness outside the rules, may all be educated and well-off enough to afford it –as most people are not –and thus most people following their example would have to have Uncle Sam’s subsidies when they violate the absolute standard of one wife for one husband (until death do us part.)

The article makes a case that love is all that matters –and that he loves the children. But these kids are going to see that not all things are equal –with one daddy being close to his 2 kids and the other daddy being comparatively indifferent to the 2 he made with the lesbians. (I read that between the lines.)

I want the people involved in this mess to make the best of it –but it will be interesting to see what stability in home life these 4 children will find when they grow up. They had better be rich enough to afford what most of the world cannot –a choice to live any way the mind can dream up –and to praise their own dysfunction, thus recommending it to their offspring and their friends.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Moral Absolutism vs. Moral Relativism

2011-02-04T09:32:00.002-06:00

C.S. Lewis, atheist-turned-Christian, came to faith pondering what he called “a universal sense of oughtness.” (Mere Christianity) The idea that in every situation, people tended to think, “There oughtta be a law!” They had an idea about “fairness” and appealed to some standard out there somewhere –though they didn’t necessarily agree about that standard. He noted that some cultures allowed more than one wife, but no culture said men could have any women they wanted —e.g. if they belonged to somebody else. He noted that when there is one seat left on a bus, people would disagree as to who should have it of those getting on –the first person on, the one who had been standing, the pregnant lady, the elderly lady, the crippled man –and so on. But they would all appeal to some notion of fairness about it. He came to believe this moral sense of “oughtness” was evidence of a God programming this sense into our minds. (No, programming wasn't a term when he was writing --I'm neither quoting or paraphrasing here--just repeating the gist of his point.)

Moral relativism is the idea that there is no objective standard for our views as to what is right or wrong, fair or unfair. That everything “just depends...” on the situation (situational ethics.)

The absolutist, of course, says SOME things are beyond debate –that it would always be wrong to murder an innocent. He might say it is ALWAYS wrong to hate, to not forgive, to abort, lie, steal, cheat, rape, have any sex outside of marriage, have sex with your own sex, with children, close relatives, animals –and always wrong to be arrogant and selfish at other’s expense.

Christ resolves the sin issue: “All we like sheep have gone astray; there is none righteous, no not one.”

From the beginning, we are all punished by death for our sin tendencies, preferences, and actions. “the wages of sin is death –but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We have GRACE (unmerited favor and mercy) from God in the sin-atonement by Christ’s death.

We have direction over both our absolutist views and our relativism –in the command to love –which Christ said is the fulfillment of all the Law. But we are also told to “Go and sin no more,” and be filled with acts of charity. We still are to avoid the sins of commission and omission by following King Jesus.

I confess to being both absolutist and relativistic. Meaning? Take abortion. I think it’s ok for a rape victim to go straight to the hospital and flush out the foreign invasion –before conception is known for sure to have occurred –it could have happened –it could happen a few hours or days after the rape or not at all –at that point, we don’t know. But in no way is the rape God’s will. (I’m not a Calvinist and thus less absolutist than they.) ON the other hand, if there is a conception, and the baby is born, it could be a wonderful person and a blessing to its mother. I do believe God operates in concert with our free will –guiding us, helping us to decide rightly, and ready to forgive when we err and are contrite about it. I don’t believe all things in the future are set in stone –there are Old Testament verses which confirm this dynamic relationship between God and man –where man is not a pawn of fate, but in relationship with free will with God.

Other examples of relativism are lies to protect someone from evil –to hide Jews in your attic as Corrie ten Boom did –and lie about it if asked. Not that she lied ( I don't think she was asked); I would have lied in such a circumstance if it would have prevented the death of my attic-dwellers. I think God would have forgiven that lie without me being terribly remorseful.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Iranian Girl Speaks Truth to Power!!!

2011-01-04T11:58:00.002-06:00

FROM SAT 7 TV --

Niki (not her real name) is an important partner in SAT-7 PARS’ ministry to the
people of Iran. Years before this strategic channel went on the air, Niki was
severely persecuted. The oppression came to a head when she telephoned her
non-Christian sister: “I’m exhausted. I’m tired of running. I want to come
home.” “Niki, you can’t come home. The secret police were just here and
delivered a letter. They said you had to turn yourself in. If you don’t, they
will find you and kill you.” At the time, pressures on churches to disband and
recant their faith were pervasive and unrelenting. Niki was part of a minority
of young followers of Jesus and was helping to lead a small growing church,
which was eventually closed down.
Several of its leaders were arrested and imprisoned. The church then moved underground and became a house church—a secret fellowship of young, new believers. “All of us had been rejected by our families. We had nowhere to go, and no one to turn to except one another. We had no pastors or teachers to instruct us how to read the Bible, or how to be a
follower of Jesus. There were not enough Bibles for everyone. There was no SAT-7
PARS then. Several of us came to faith when Jesus appeared to us in a dream.”
With few options left, Niki went to the officials who were seeking her. When she
entered the office, she knew the risks…their reputation. “Passing through those
doors, I knew I might never get out alive.” Then, as if from the pages of a spy
novel, they bound and blindfolded her and began to threaten her: “You know who
we are? Do you know what we can do to you? Whatever we like! If you disappear,
no one will know.” Inexplicably, Niki began to laugh loudly. Befuddled, her
interrogators demanded to know why. She said, “Then you don’t know who I am. I
have nothing to lose. The only thing I have—Jesus—you cannot take from me. Your
threats won’t work on me!” For eight hours they continued. Finally, her captors
demanded, “Do you also believe Jesus is the Son of God?” Niki boldly answered,
“You can also be a child of God.” They shouted back, “What do you mean?” Then,
without any formal training, she testified to the three interrogators about
Jesus’ divinity. Eventually, they fell silent. Niki was leading the
conversation! All the while, she remembers having the sense that the Holy Spirit
was in her every word. Her memory was so sharp in remembering and sharing
everything she had read and come to understand about Jesus. There was no fear in
her heart—she was actually enjoying the conversation. “…they will lay their
hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and
prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will
lead to an opportunity for your testimony…” (Luke 21:12b-13 NASB). At last, the
interrogation was over. The Judge told Niki, “It seems you have found a faith
right for yourself. Your testimony, all you have said, has touched my heart. You
are on solid ground. We were going to keep you for three months, but I’m going
to release you tonight because of what you’ve said. Stay in your faith, for no
one here can answer your questions and you have already said that you have
nothing to lose. Keep what you have found.” Obviously, God had big plans for
Niki. Today, she is a significant influence behind the SAT-7 PARS ministry in
Iran. Many house-church leaders in Iran have no training, no theological books
and no Bible. For most, the only source of truth and power is the authority of
the Word of God, broadcast over SAT-7 PARS. Niki’s leadership and sensitivity to
the needs of those isolated believers and her passion to proclaim the Gospel in
a winsome manner are among the many reasons why SAT-7 PARS is one of the most watched satellite channels in Iran. Niki’s story is a powerful testimony to the
ministry of SAT-7 PARS and to its influence on the thousands in Iran who have
become followers of Jesus. You can help increase the reach of that influence
today by www.sat7usa.org .

Date: 1/4/2011

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

American Humanists Attack Scriptures in Media Ads --Role of Women in Scripture Challenged

2010-12-20T22:47:00.006-06:00

According to a letter from Answers in Genesis to their supporters:

The American Humanist Association sent our a press release stating:

HUMANISTS LAUNCH LARGEST NATIONAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN CRITICAL OF RELIGIOUS SCRIPTURES:

A national multimedia ad campaign --the largest, most extensive ever by a
godless [their words] organization--launches today and will include a spot on
NBC Dateline...as well as other tv ads, that directly challenge biblical
morality and fundamentalist Christianity. The campaign, sponsored by the
AHA, also features ads in major ....newspapers and magazines demonstrating that
secular humanist values are consistent with mainstream America and that
fundamentalist religion has no right to claim the moral high ground.

....ads ask the audience to "consider Humanism." One example is the following pairing:

The Bible: "A woman should learn in quietness and full
submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a
man; she must be silent." I Timothy 2 (NIV)

Humanism: "The rights of men and women should be equal and
sacred--marriage should be a perfect partnership." Robert G. Ingersoll, in
a letter dated April 13, 1878.

AIG notes that context is important in scriptural interp and application. They go on to say that this admonition concerned the separate roles for men and women --that they are equal but have different roles in the church.

I would say that you also have to consider all the other teachings on women in the Bible, examples in scripture --and note that in this letter to Timothy, Paul says, "I" do not allow women to teach in the church and he gives his rationale. He doesn't exactly state that he is speaking for God here, does he?

There is much Biblical rationale to allow women full responsibility in the church today. In fact, fundamentalist Christianity has evolved the role of women more than any other group in all the world --as they were the first to have women preachers --because of the scripture by Paul that says that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on both men and women --and that women will prophesy or tell forth the Word, (same as men, evidently.) Of course, Deborah is an Old Testament example of a woman in a man's role as a judge and military advisor/leader. There is no biblical condemnation of her in these roles.

Jesus allowed Mary to learn at his feet along side the men --which was culturally atypical, we believe --at least when Mary's sister thought she should be in the kitchen instead. Jesus spoke to a woman at the well --an immoral woman --and went to her home to teach her family and friends. He refused to condone stoning the adulteress --after all, where was the adulterer? If the men who wanted to stone her were not without sin, they had no right to stone her, He said.

My pastor once pointed out that the subjugation of woman was part of the curse after the Fall --and notes that Christianity is about resisting and lifting ALL the curses: death, disease, pestilence, pain in childbirth--and subjugation of women.

Paul says slave, free, Jew, Gentile, male, female --all are equal in Christ. The implications are clear, even for the Church --though some churches and Christian men do get adamant about keeping women in their state of subjugation.

I'm glad my denomination is not about the subjugation of women. We had a split over the issue in my local body. The people are sincere in thinking that Timothy's letter from Paul mandates that the church today must subjugate women in roles in church in order to be a Biblical church. I suspect AIG thinks this, too.

We who disagree note that there ARE other issues in scripture where Christian churches have latitude. E.G.: the wearing of jewelry and hats.

A real liberal wants us to let homosexual conduct go, too, along with the subjugation of women. But that's a different matter entirely --and cannot be justifed Biblically, since we were created to be male or female in the image of God for His purposes. Anal and oral sex with our own sex just don't qualify as good and natural, healthy, normal --or Christian or Biblical --by any stretch of interp.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Random Notes on the Current Scene

2010-12-20T22:30:00.004-06:00

Jay Leno has lost my admiration for razzing the Answers in Genesis folks about their Noah's Ark project and their lack of belief in macro-evolution. He speaks ignorantly on the topic --not as one who really has any clue as to what those in opposition to evolution dogma say.

As always, it's seen as very hip and cool for comedians to blast Bible-believers --and our tv-loving youth eat it up and buy into liberal skepticism for the Word --and liberal respect for homosexuality and evolution theory.

Today's young adults shack up and when asked why they haven't married, they say, "We're waiting until we can do it right." Which means --a big wedding with a feast that will cost the price of a nice down-payment on a home. "Doing it right" is doing it wrong in so many ways and I don't think it's producing more life-long marriages. They used to say the stats indicate that people who live together first are more apt to divorce after they do marry.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson Tells a Story

2010-12-20T22:19:00.014-06:00

Chuck Colson wrote the following for a fund-raising letter --for Prison
Fellowship:
"I met a man at a Midwest church who had been locked up in one of the
meanest prisons in America. he'd been lost--that is, until he received an
Angel Tree application. Skeptical, he filled it out. But he
wondered, "Is this for real?" So imagine this joy when his children
received gifts! [As though from their father.] His eyes filled with tears, and he was changed forever."
Then Chuck goes on to say this same man is now mentoring 50 other ex-offenders.

"When people see hardened convicts turning gentle as lambs and taking good
back into the stinking holes from which they've come, the reality of the
Gospel cannot be denied. The invisible kingdom is being made
visible in our midst."
They need year-end donations --address at their website.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Applause for Church Music? " Agnus Dei "--Mixed Response

2010-12-20T21:55:00.005-06:00

At our first performance there was no applause --not even at the end --until the Pastor gave permission. So at the second performance, we had applause after every song --even when it would have been best not to.

So what's an audience to do??

Here's my rule of thumb: If kids perform a number with their little hands raised, it's cute, you're charmed and amused so clap. You feel like it, so do it!!! If angels dance and end their routine with upraised arms and a big finale of voice and orchestra, CLAP! If it's a triumphant finale, CLAP!

But when it's very quiet and worshipful --and awe-inspiring in a quiet way, and clearly transitioning on to another song, don't.

There were places in Michael W. Smith's Agnus Dei that clearly called for applause --and places where it did not. The audience wasn't sure what to do, so did nothing the first night and felt instructed to clap for everything on the second.

Well, it's no biggy in the world's dilemmas --to clap or not to clap.

Just don't clap in church because you think the performers need it --they don't. Clap when it's a big build-up, high-note, loud, triumphant grand finale-type ending! It CALLS for applause as a response. If it's quiet and reverent --and the theme is worship --and you feel moved inwardly, quietly --maybe applause isn't the response. Whatever, DON'T applaud just because you think performers want it or need it --but if it seems awkward to not applaud --like at the end of a program with a big high-note fortissimo ending --CLAP --even in church!

Videoworks did a professional taping for our church cantata on Sunday night--it is absolutely a beautiful video --and we singers will enjoy seeing how everything looked to the audience--much better than from the platform. And how things sounded for just an ordinary church choir in a small church. It was beautiful --the overhead pics very effective.

We fulfilled Rick Warren's 5 purposes in doing this musical: We showed our love for God and His Son and what He did for us in conquoring the grave. We worshipped. 2. We shared a holiday treat/inspirational event with other Christians --loving the Body of Christ. 3. We were called upon to imitate Christ in sacrificing (just time) and forgiving each other (the irritations of getting along in every group, even the church) --and the 5th purpose: Evangelism: the Mission of passing forward the Gospel of Christ's coming --The Story of the Savior's birth --and the angels, shepherds and wisemen --and the angel's visit to Joseph. We filled the 4th purpose of our lives if any poor and unsaved came to the concert --such that we could be seen as "serving the world." We took an offering for our church boarding school in Kentucky, which often serves needy students.

What fine acting by those who played Peter, Luke, Isaiah, and Matthew. The children were adorable. The soloists were excellent, the Nativity represented the ancient story again --teaching the children --making our Christmas holiday significant and meaningful --celebrating the real meaning of Christmas. Sue Conklin once again decorated church and people beautifully, professionally. Stephanie Hulbert and Christine Rohrs were sticklers in the directing, getting us to sing "properly" and with fine dynamic contrast --something we haven't always been good at in years past. Brent Simmons did a great job controlling sound balance.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Christmas Events at the Holland, Ohio, Free Methodist Church

2010-12-16T00:35:00.004-06:00

Michael W. Smith’s

AGNUS DEI

Lamb of God ~Born to Us

December 17 and 19, 7PM

Presented by

The Holland Free Methodist Church

6605 Angola Road, Holland, Ohio

East of McCord ~North of Spring Meadows Mall

All Ages will enjoy this worshipful, multi-media concert of beautiful Christmas music, including songs by Michael W. Smith and traditional carols. Adult and children's choirs, soloists and dramatists portraying Biblical characters narrating the Christmas story, angel dancers with shepherds, the children's choir in a middle-eastern caravan with the Wise Men --elegant costuming, video art …all will tell the age-old story of Mary's little lamb who became

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Approximately 1 hour ~ Admission Free ~ Refreshments ~ Nursery

Candlelight Christmas Eve Service

Friday, 6pm

Watoto Children’s Choir from

Africa Jan. 2, Sunday, 7pm

Sunday Worship 10:40 AM, S.S.

All Ages 9:30 AM

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Media Ignores the Bloopers from the Other Side

2010-12-11T12:01:00.005-06:00

This is from the Indiana AFA (am. Family Ass'n):

“Please Play the Blooper Reel, Mr. Producer!
”Here are two “oops” moments that
you may not hear much about in the mainstream media, unless, of course, Former
Governor Sarah Palin had said the same things. Then it would be all over the
news shows and fodder for all the late night hosts.
Blooper #1 – Forty-two
members of Congress have signed on to a letter to President Obama expressing
their concern over a statement he made in Indonesia last month. While speaking
to students, the President said that the United States and Indonesia share a
similar history (don’t ask what that means, just keep reading). "It is a story
written into our national mottos. In the United States, our motto is 'E Pluribus
Unum' -- out of many, one," the President claimed. At the time, some TV
stations aired this clip without any comment.The President must have forgotten
that the E Pluribus phrase is not our national motto. Our national motto, as
over a million Hoosier motorists with motto license plates know, is “In God We
Trust.” It has been the unofficial motto since appearing on our money before the
Civil War, and the official national motto adopted by Congress in 1956, five
years before the President was born . . . wherever that might have been.
Blooper # 2 – On Sunday, ABC’s This Week aired a clip of Indiana Senator Evan Bayh speaking about the repeal of what has been called the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”
policy on homosexuality in the military. The clip showed Senator Bayh implying
that homosexuality has never been a big deal within the US military saying in a
Senate hearing, “In all likelihood, there were gay Americans serving at Valley
Forge.”
Actually, in all likelihood there were not, Senator. As I have repeatedly mentioned, homosexuality has been expressly forbidden in the US military since our nation’s founding. General George Washington personally presided over the public humiliation and removal of a soldier who attempted to sodomize another soldier in the Continental Army. Washington made a big deal of the incident, which he called “abhorrent” in his March 14th, 1778, general orders. He issued those orders requiring all available troops to gather to witness the dismissal and drumming out of service of the homosexual soldier as an example and a clear statement that debunks Senator Bayh’s statement.
Accuracy in Media noted that ABC’s This Week reporter John Donavan actually confirmed
this incident later in the Sunday show making it the first time they have found
any report in the mainstream media informing the public that homosexuality has
always been against military policy . . . even among the founders who secured
our freedoms and liberties.

From Micah Clark of AFA Indiana

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Election Spending Good for Economy

2010-11-02T10:07:00.003-06:00

When people rail against campaign spending, they should, instead, consider who benefits --all the people in these industries: transportation, media (reporters on the road), signs, paper, printing, restaurants, hotels, food in general, post office, fashion (for the candidates --like Sarah's expensive wardrobe), luggage, phone services.

Campaigns turn money back into the economy.

We rail against their high cost like we do against lavish Christmas and other holiday spending --but it's all money back into the peoples' pockets, isn't it?

We rail against the spending of the rich, in general, their self-serving extravagances --but even those enrich others as they buy their luxuries and hire services. Giving away our money is good --best --but so is spending! But not to the point of debt. That is foolishness.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

God is So Good --Nevertheless!

2010-11-02T09:49:00.007-06:00

Something I wrote at another blog which will be moderated out --where the liberal muck-raker was saying Christians --the real believing Christians whom he calls "fundamentalists"--don't know the stories of the OT with all the violence, immorality, etc. or they couldn't believe in such a God:

You just don’t know the Religious Right, Mudrake, when you say they don’t know the OT. Yes, they do. MANY of them read it through annually. They have S.S. classes covering the OT and its difficult stories as well as the more positive ones.

The thing to remember is that our God allowed death. He allows hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, volcanos, earthquakes, cancer, birth defects, and man’s inhumanity to man. He allowed His son to die on a cross. His word says there is a Hell –either a place of eternal death and/or torment. I’m hoping it’s just a metaphor to deter us from choosing the path to eternal death when God has offered us a glorious future if we simply repent of sin and believe in a risen Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Shake your puny fist at Heaven and Bible-believers for what YOU are sure is right –which is that we Bible-believers are all wrong. You need to consider that maybe we’re not. My hope is that God’s Word is Truth, that Jesus saves, that there is an eternal happy life for believers. It bugs you that we are ‘sure” of what we believe –but that’s what FAITH is –and “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”

Dr. Paul Walberg spoke at our church this A.M. as our minister is on a mission trip in Costa Rica with Rob and 8 others from our church –and a contractor from Fla. Paul’s text was the temptation of Adam and Eve –and how Satan starts out persuading Eve to question and doubt what God had said –and how doubting led to disobedience through sensuality –the lust of the forbidden fruit. In your case, your doubt has led you to be consumed with hatred –like your father was.

It’s going to be hatred by people like you that brings our nation down–not what you see in the believers. Yes, many on the Right backed Bush in his pursuit of the terrorists and attempt to forcibly civilize the middle-east with our intrusion there. I don't believe we would have been better off to do otherwise. Some Christians did NOT support the war in the Middle East. Some are conscientious objectors to all wars. Because that would seem consistent with “Turn the other cheek.” So these are things that believers grapple with –and about which they form separate churches sometimes.

There is the pacifistic theme in the NT –but also the justice theme to consider. We don’t let a bully terrorize his neighborhood –we believe we need to restrain evil in the world by force. And that’s why we went to Iraq. And because they wanted us there earlier to rid them of Saddam.

I do wonder what all those soldiers would be doing to make a living if they were not in the military. I’m not saying that justifies war –just that you can have different problems if you reduce military–including a greater threat of terrorism.

For many in the middle-east, realistic knowledge of the West was lacking–few tv’s, e.g. One thing our military does is make friends and take western values and Christianity wherever they go. I believe Japan and W. Germany are both better off for the years we spent there —also So. Korea. And we remain as the country to which so many others want to come. Our majority Christian faith has more to do with the positive aspects of our national personality and character than you will ever admit.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

GLOOM -- yet God Inhabits the Praise of His People

2010-10-28T11:24:00.004-06:00

I've been going pretty much cold turkey to quit the Lyrica, the Morphine, and the codeine (percocets and tyl. #3's) I was chuffing down before surgery. I don't need the pain meds now --though it's just been a week since the back surgery. I've been very emotionally vulnerable --can't explain depression--it just can come after events like this --and when you're getting off drugs, I'm sure. I feel the pain and misery of the whole grey world --and can't get motivated to do all I was going to do with Rob gone to Costa Rica on a mission trip and my mother at my brother's home this week. Jon gave me 1/2 Celexa tab, anti-depressant -- but I hope to do without it and not get addicted, but I'll take again if I really feel bad.

About food, I don't feel hunger --but I feel like I'm going to be ill if I don't eat --like I'm queasy. I feel like I have a bit of a bug --a gastrointestinal bug. And a young friend in the church to whom I've been giving rides and taking out to eat occasionally, has been so afflicted with similar symptoms. She's pregnant. I've wondered if my problems aren't hormonal as hers may be.

I've had longer periods of uninterrupted sleep --and slept til 10 this am which may sound lazy to you, but was good for me. I was feeling emotionally vulnerable when I got up, while pushing myself to put one foot ahead of the other, brushing teeth, sponge-bathing, etc --can't shower unless I have my husband home to change my band-aid on my back. It's interesting how clean and dry the incision has been for days --since they took the drain bag out at the hospital, I've had almost no residue on the band-aid, so I seem to be healing well.

While feeling gloomy, the phone rang.

IT was Focus on the Family --thanking us for a modest donation we made. The gentleman prayed with me. It seemed like the Lord's own call!

I came downstairs and blogged briefly --and then decided to look at the pool and the plants. Yes, the pool water level was precariously low, nearly below the skimmer, which would make the pump run dry which wouldn't be good --and some plants were near death.

So I rallied to the tasks --and while in there decided to sing the doxology and other praise songs while in there where the acoustics are great. What a lift to the soul --with the sun shining on the golden leaves seen through the windows.

I tend to feel distant from the Lord in times of depression and stress --and then I was reminded that "God inhabits the praises of His people." It's a Bible verse from somewhere. He DWELLS in our praises! So if we praise Him, He is nigh~ And I was in good voice, despite the ordeal of intubation that initially affected my vocal cords.

I felt such a lift. Got my jobs done. Decided to write about it.

One thing about pain, suffering, depression --I feel empathy for the miserable of the whole world --and I feel like a spoiled American to have any complaint. And to read of the difficulties of Christians around the world --and to know how someone in another country would just have to endure a cyst on their sciatic nerve. No question about it, when I feel this weight of the world's misery, on top of my own blessed life, I would rather just slip from life peacefully in my sleep, than to go through the depressing miseries that so many live with daily. I would rather go to Heaven than endure depression, but I know I must be patient. It's not that I long to die --hardly--but I hate this feeling!

I was upbeat during the surgery time --oddly felt times of elation and joy in recent weeks despite my problem --perhaps from Lyrica, etc. I want that sense of well-being from the Holy Spirit, and I notice that He is indeed helping me.

It does take a leap of faith --especially if you aren't raised to have faith as I was --to believe that one is online with the Creator of the Universe --that He is personal --that He cares for us --just as the Bible promises. But Jesus came to assure us --and sent His Holy Spirit to comfort us in His physical absence. As Thomas, who had to see to believe, said, "Lord, help thou my unbelief!" And Jesus said how blessed the people would be who believe in Him without seeing.

So I walk by faith --and not by sight.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

NEW BED DISASTER!

2010-10-28T10:49:00.005-06:00

We bought a new bed and should've given the money to missions instead. We had our old bed for 38 years --bought when I was expecting our first child, Stephanie. A good Stearns & Foster --but it was badly dipped and springs poked through that we had covered successfully with layers of memory foam which my husband loved. So you would think we'd love a Tempur-Pedic mattress and got one with the foot and head lifting mechanisms --actually 2 twins --anticipating problems when I came home from hospital and need for help sitting up in bed --or lifting legs for circulation --old person problems that might come our separate ways at separate times --so separate beds together as a king with separate controls.

Right away Jon thought it gave him a back ache --so he put on the old foam layers from the old bed --and it's ok with him now, but it looks bad with his side 6 inches higher than mine. And I'm beginning to think this springless slab of dense NASA designed memory foam is unforgiving --it's the Tempera Cloud --their newest and softest with the air chambers built in for cooler effect, they claimed --and I do feel this thing is going to feel hotter than Hades in the summer. There is no "spring" to it --like they advertise you can turn over and not bother your mate. It's like dead weight --or you feel like dead weight on it. It's initially comfortable --but now I'm having just a little lower back ache --and one might say, "duh --you had surgery there and are going off the meds!" Yeah, I hope that's what it is.

After they installed it, they gave us a book about the lift mechanisms --and there is a weight limit --and we are precariously close to it --and my husband is over it slightly. Well, he's not using the mechanism either and I am typically preferring the flat position now --as you sort of feel like your rear is slipping down with all your weight on it when your head is up.

This was the Tempura-Pedic mattress with the Ergo mechanism. The price was shocking, but -oh, I forgot --one reason for it was that my pain doc said he recommended for back problems either a very firm bed (which my husband didn't want) or the Tempur Pedic --but not the air beds (Sleep Number.) So we were following doc's suggestion.

On TV there is a 90 day trial period "before you decide to buy" --but we didn't notice that before we bought --and Banner Mattress said we could possibly return the bed system for $500 or so for the shipping.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

I'm Baaaaack! Said the little lamb....

2010-10-22T15:54:00.003-06:00

I just got out of the hospital today after surgery on a synovial cyst on the sciatic nerve. I felt better immediately --missing that electric current down the leg --and the unrelieving fist of pain in the hip --especially after tortured hours of sleep at night --when the nerve was compressed by the cyst for long periods --and would get especially excruciating when I would awake and try to move. I'd use a walker to slide, weeping, yelling, moaning all the way to the "do-nut seat" --the toilet --which allowed decompression of the nerve enough after 15 minutes or more --so that I could walk back to bed fairly silently and start the compression of the nerve all over again--because no way that I lay down could avoid the compression on the nerve. Sitting upright was tolerable during the day but to decompress, sitting on the do'nut was the most relief --along with pain pills which put me in the camp with Rush Limbaugh --abusing the pills --I'd take one every 2 1/2 to 4 hours to survive (sometimes less during the day) --morphine alternating with codeine --which I had in an earlier RX. Understand, I did not use all the pills I had --and am aware of no addiction tendency. I got pain relief --and now I am still getting some post-surgery incision site pain relief --but that pain can't compare with the sciatic nerve pain of this past summer --and especially the last 6 weeks or so. I've been complaining of a hip pain for a longer amount of time --and it remains to be seen how much better at walking and standing I'm going to be without that cyst.

One draws closer to the Lord in times of pain --begging Him as I touched the hem of His garment with all confidence in His reality and His power to heal --I was disappointed when, at the height of my pain, He didn't relieve me as quickly as I would have preferred --though the pain did subside if I could get to the do-nut!

I knew of a man once, who lost His faith, because God did not heal Him of back pain at a healing service --one where the Pentecostal speaker suggested that sufficient faith WOULD result in healing. I was disappointed that my child-like faith did not effect healing of my father from colon cancer when he was 58 and I was in my early 30's --and He died.

Nevertheless, God sent to my hospital room this lovely Nurse's Assistant whose husband had just died at 40. She said, "I'd heard of you as I used to go to Dr. So and So and my parents went to your husband," and they said you were " a wonderful Christian woman --so I am glad to meet you." And then she told me her husband died of pancreatic cancer at 40 just recently --and she told of how strong her faith was through it all --and her confidence that God sees us through these sufferings --even when He doesn't heal us --that He is good all the time --that He has purposes and plans in what He does. That His mercy and Grace are sufficient through our sufferings (which the Bible also says, along side the promises of healing), that His funeral service was a time of praise to God with all her children performing or speaking --a testament to their father's Godly witness in their lives. She spoke of a church and ministers who upheld them at every step.

My minister, too, came to us before surgery --and read a comfortable passage that I will share later when I remember what it was.

I know that we all will die of something. I know that suffering is part of our mortal journey through life. I am confident that immortality where there is no more suffering, pain, or death is our destiny --because the risen Jesus said so. I have experienced the comfort of the Lord through His presence in the midst of pain--the feeling that He IS there --that I AM His child --I am a sheep who belongs to the Good Shepherd --a lamb of the Lamb. I have known the beauty and blessing of the Body of Christ who ministers to us in our times of need, pain and sorrow.

Now, I praise and thank God for American health care --for the kindness and patience of nearly every employee with whom I had contact. For my skillful surgeon, Dr. Spetka --and his neighbor at the Toledo Clinic, Dr. Travedi in pain management. It's wonderful how these people can be so patient and caring, day in and day out --and also so skilled.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

The Truth about Anita Hill's Accusation of Justice C. Thomas

2010-10-22T15:17:00.002-06:00

I watched the Senate hearings on Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court.

A Professor Chillicothe from Oral Roberts' U. was a witness after midnight. A white-haired gentleman, he said that Thomas had helped Hill get a job teaching at ORU --was a reference for her. So she invited Thomas to speak to the student body and he came. The professor later had them both as guests at his dinner table.

He said something like this, and this is certainly a paraphrase, but I'll never forget the word "conviviality" that he used: "Such conviviality (joyful fellowship--joy of life) was evident between them. They laughed and laughed --loudly, heartily-- and enjoyed each other's company immensely and seemed to have a great friendship. When it came time for Thomas to go to the airport, Anita insisted that she drive him herself."

Now, this was AFTER the alleged harrassment as her employer.

Years later, what exactly was the nature of his harrassment according to her? Well, it was a couple of things that she knew his Christian, socially conservative, supporting base would find offensive --making him seem to be less than a perfected saint at best -- an insincere hypocrite at worst --but NOT a sexual harrasser. Supposedly there was a hair on a coke can --and he said it looked like a pubic hair --and supposedly she had visited his apartment once and found he owned inappropriate things for a Christian to own --porn video or Playboy or something of that nature.

"Sexual harrassment" in those days included making a "hostile work environment" by sexual vulgarity that would make a woman (or anyone) "uncomfortable." So his remark and possibly others like it made her feel "uncomfortable," in that way, she claimed.

Nevertheless, he helped to get her a job at ORU with a reference letter and his own high profile in gov't as support, and she used her relationship with him to get him as a speaker to the students, and afterward, enjoyed him immensely at dinner and insisted she be alone with him in a car to take him to the airport.

So Prof. Chillicothe was "shocked" to hear her accuse Clarence of something so vile as "sexual harrassment."

Another testified at the hearings that Anita wanted to marry and had marital designs on Clarence --and that he disappointed her greatly when he up and married his, incidentally white, wife. I can appreciate that she would have been keenly disappointed, after Prof. Chillicothe's description of them together socially.

She was "used" by the liberal left feminists, elevated as a public heroine, a whistle-blower on behalf of all working women who endure the rudeness of men in high places. She has nothing to gain and a lot to lose if she would admit to his wife Ginny Thomas that he never really harrassed her in any way --but was always a friend to her, in fact.

Ginny is asking her to search her Christian heart and come clean and admit to the public that she over-stated her accusation of "abuse" by sexual harrassment in the work place. But that would be an admission of guilt on her part. No wonder Anita reacted badly--she can't admit that she maligned him unfairly --every job she has gotten since has been because of her high profile history as a noble woman who came forward --achieving black woman against achieving black man.

Reports at the time from ORU students were that she was not a good teacher. I wonder what her students say today. Maybe she has improved in that regard.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Anita Hill's response to Clarence Thomas' Wife

2010-10-20T10:33:00.005-06:00

From Rob

Virginia Thomas left a message on Anita Hill's answering machine stating her desire to put the issue of Hill's accusation of Thomas' husband behind them discuss the issue and consider an apology for the accusation.

Here's the message:

"I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day,"

How does she react? She call's Brandeis University's security department who turned it over to the FBI!

Really Miss Hill? What's the high profile judge's wife going to do to you?

Later, Anita Hill says to reporters as she is moving to class, "I need to get off this street and I don't want anybody to get hurt," she said. "I don't have any comment right now. Please, let me go teach my class."

Is this the response of a victim or of someone who's been hiding the truth?

Catholic Church Problems --Response to the ol' Mudrake

2010-10-04T16:55:00.005-06:00

Thought I'd check on Mudrake after long absence --he has a topic about his wife's class reunion --about the 68 year old women who are still letting the Catholic Church affect their lives negatively --run their lives. My reply (because he will not publish it at his blog.)

Doesn’t sound to me like these women let the church run their lives at all! The one did not annul but got a divorce–even though annulment would have squared her with the church. Because of her mother’s beliefs concerning the status of the grandchildren. Not because she feared the church. She went ahead and divorced and re-married. The other lady, the heavy-drinking Catholic had no respect for the church clearly–and the church has no practices or beliefs to help the laity stay sober.

The Foundation for Life, e.g. is having a reception to raise money for the pro-life cause –and charging $60 a head for snacks and the open bar –no dinner. There will be a speech by a former Planned Parenthood director and I intend to attend in order to support the pro-life work of the foundation. But it’s sad that most of the $60 ticket will support the open bar which was considered a selling point in promoting the event. I said to the really sweet young lady at the FFL office, “O you Catholics!”

Catholics “lapse” in faith because the church has been headed by such extreme hypocrites –Evil –way too many pedophiles and uncelibate homosexuals and alcoholics in the priesthood. what kind of teaching can come from such a church? what disillusionment for the young with parents and priests addicted to nicotine, alcohol and perverse sex, affecting their temperament, behaviors, reputations.

Sepp, my experience of church has been wonderful. I go to a really “functional” church (Holland FMC on Angola Rd.) –with a history of “clean living” without nicotine and alcohol. All the pastors I’ve had were really godly and not hypocrites. Genuinely loving and sweet people. Right now, we only have a VERY few “body lice” in my congregation to test the saints with irritable personalities or control tendencies common in church lay leaders —(“Saint” meaning “believer.” ) Our pastor preaches the Bible to us –HE doesn’t tell us how to live; the Bible does. And so we know we are to be patient and forebearing with one another, “Kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us.” And to be filled with the Holy Spirit and not excessive wine. To be sober all the time.

The music is uplifting and varied with traditional and contemporary music –most always aesthetically pleasing. And the minister is intelligent, insightful, educated, practical and inspiring.

Now, a final word about the Catholic Church:

They are leaders in the pro-life movement and some priests are surely godly men. The sincere and devout have FAITH in Jesus as the Savior of the world --on that we agree. And the sincere and devout also live lives such that their children receive the baton of faith from their parents. A Catholic layman brings our church baked goods for us to distribute after our Sunday service --from area merchants. I guess his church doesn't want to distribute these on Sundays? I'm not sure why we are the beneficiaries of this good work. And the devout Catholics also practice good deeds to neighbors --as the Bible teaches --as my mother's neighbors did for her, an elderly widow.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

MY LIFE LATELY! if anyone is interested....

2010-10-03T16:36:00.005-06:00

In August, my daughter, a teacher, had an emergency appendectomy just before her school year was to start. So I drove her back and forth from Maumee to BG to Jerry City --to finish preparing her classroom, loaned her my Rascal scooter to get around in the school building. Then my sciatica kicked up --for which I had curative pain shots at the end of June successfully. This time the shots didn't help. I got worse and worse until I had an MRI --during which I was as comfortable and snug as a bug in a rug --despite my apprehensions about claustrophobia. But when I went to get off of the high, narrow table a week ago Tuesday, I could not move any which way without this thing in my hip "catching" and giving me tremendous unrelieved huge, sharp pain--talk about a pain in the A!!! pain down the right leg and my right toes and part of my foot feeling as though they were bandaged. SCREAMING, NOT PRETTY FEMININE HOLLERING as in on tv --but hoarse screeching like in a horror show. The worst pain EVER --NUMBER TEN TO THE MAX! And no one could help me. I knew they couldn't without just putting me under and there was no one around the MRI unit to do that at night--so I suffered helplessly to the car and could hardly get in --or get out at home --or get into the house --but then if I sat on the toilet, I had already learned that there would be some relief --as sitting on the doughnut shaped-seat seemed to gradually release the aggravation of the nerves.

What was it??? The MRI showed general disc disease of lumbar spine (common to my age?) , a bulging disk, some narrowing of something or other, and a CYST on a joint space near the nerve endings to sciatic nerve -or something like that --my layman's interp. I had two more of these screaming bouts when getting up from lying down before the pain clinic shot me up again two days after the MRI. Dr. said he tried to aspirate and flush out the cyst -so it wouldn't fill up again. But I don't think he was entirely successful. I've had some relief, and am getting around --but I have that tell-tale pain in the right "buttock" as Forest Gump would so plainly tell you --when I lie down. Otherwise some good days --and various pills --Lyrica, Percocet as needed, Celebrex --and sometimes Motrin as needed. A previous hip x-ray didn't reveal a problem in the joint where I feel it.

Meanwhile we've just signed up for a Tempur-pedic ? bed with the adjustable head and feet feature --thinking ahead. Our Stearns & Foster bed is as old as our oldest child --37 1/2 years old. We bought it in St. Louis when I was pregnant. Before that we were on a studio bed --one side mattress --and one side just flat springs. The current old bed is lumpy and dippy and no support compared to the beds at Banner Mattress. We also bought those wedge pillows for the car seat --as sometimes I can hardly move into the house after driving. Those seem to help. Unfortunately, Hubby still likes the old mattress which we have layered with a couple of memory foam layers --but I know my side of the mattress is aggravating my condition.

MOREOVER, my husband has suffered a terrible pain for a year, which started ruining his happiness in August --for which he had surgery--and his was due to an abscess that he thought was merely the family hemorrhoid curse --until the doctor looked into the matter. He is healing and was immediately relieved by the surgery.

91 year-old Mom? Nothing wrong with her!!! And I'm glad, because we don't need any more problems right now. I tell the Lord we've been tested like Job enough for one summer.

Mom had a birthday party last week --and I thank the church ladies who were available for hire to get my house caught up --and for Rob's help, too. Her sister and husband in their 80's came; her son and wife; all of our kids and our 2 grandchildren --15 total.

The party started here with appetizers, fall decor, floral bouquets and candles --then we went to show the visitors our daughter's new beautiful park-like home in Whitehouse at dusk, and then to Biaggi's Restaurant for a wonderful meal--and back to our house for cake and gifting. Mom was well-honored, and delighted. She has been taking the new higher dose of Aricept lately and it seems to me she is sharper --answering the phone which she couldn't figure out before --and speaking of her sister and husband by name instead of as "those people --the ones who are my relatives" and "my aunt and uncle," which they are not hers, but mine.

She still thinks her birthday was a certain day that it wasn't, the same numerical day as mine --instead of the day which has always been on her birth certificate and ID card. She complained to the hairdresser that no one celebrated her birthday on her birthday nor agrees with her about when it is --which is progress in that she even knows that her dream birthdate passed. She says to me with exasperation, "I know what I know. You weren't always around back then!!!" She also thinks she and her father looked at our property before there was a house on it --and also came to the Toledo Airport when it was being built, which is highly doubtful. She thinks she recognizes a lot of places which aren't really in her history.

Mom stays in her room all day except for her daily trip to the mailbox --which will usually have a copy of her hometown newspaper. She spends her days looking out the window and re-organizing her photos, her clothes, my mail. If she can, she saves old kleenex boxes and candy boxes and the like--they're pretty and they might come in handy. She also tears her table napkins in half to get more use of them--and likes to use one square of toilet paper at a time. She gets her hair done on Saturdays--Rob drives her. I do the baths. He does the breakfasts. Sunday morning she is likely to change out of the clothes which I put her in, into something of her own choosing --which usually isn't' color coordinated --if she gets a chance. Unfortunately, whenever it is time to go anywhere, she heads for the bathroom again--just in case --even though she was just in there 5 minutes earlier. She will brush her teeth with a tube of hand creme if I'm not there to show her her toothpaste. She is out of sorts if she doesn't get her favorite breakfast, a fried egg, 1 piece of toast which she slathers with huge amount of jelly, orange juice and instant coffee with milk. She is not even polite about substitutions.

She did go to a bridal shower brunch with me Saturday morning and enjoyed that --I think. She and I do not go anywhere fast --what with my painful gait and our similar slow penguin walks.

I'm using a beautiful, Gandalf-like cane --a hickory stick, highly varnished and polished by Wayne Altman, of Holland, now deceased, who gave it to my husband many, many years ago. I do feel a little witchy using it, but it helps a bit to take weight off.

I'm trying a diet --no night-time eating. Lost a little. Plan to get back to daily swim --which I had not been doing mainly because I was busy trying to get two things done during this pain siege --driving a young mom to and from her community service obligation at Toledo's Botanical Gardens (right beside the old Mudrake's home --I drove by there once to see if he was there for me to wave at.) Then I would drive her baby over to a sitter from my church. Both lovely people --the baby and the sitter. Adorable baby!

Between the morning and afternoon trips, I was trying to learn the new Publisher 2010 computer program I bought in order to do a church newsletter for outreach to our own and others. I started it in August and had to keep changing the articles because the events I was promoting in September had passed --so I just wrote about them as re-caps in the past-tense. I had trouble using the newspaper format --I am very unskilled and had to have a friend wave her magic fingers over my keyboard --and had the publisher try to talk me through some problems like how to send it to them. I did take this to Welch publishing to print --in order to get it done fast without imposing on the church office.

We mailed it Friday after closing time at the Holland P.O. and people said they got it Saturday! Hooray!!!

My hat is off to the medical profession--and the post office! And Welch Publishers did a lovely job!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Respect Life Sunday in Maumee --The Faithful Take a Stand

2010-10-03T16:01:00.002-06:00

Because I just finished a church newsletter as outreach for my church, I was aware of Respect Life Sunday and their Life Chain being today, the first Sunday in October--and promoted it at my church today. I was counseling a young teen, however, and didn't have time to be in the chain myself, but my friend and I drove up by one of 3 area churches participating --St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Maumee, OH. There they were --at least 30 mostly gray-headed people holding colorful posters with a pro-life, Biblical message --various verses and statements --like "Lord, Forgive our nation." They filled at least one block as they took their stand for one hour between 3 and four --as did Christians of Christ the King Church in Toledo and Dayspring Assembly of God Church in Bowling Green.

Next year, I'm hopeful we'll get a chairperson to arrange for the posters and our involvement at my church in Holland, Ohio.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Patrick Henry College Core Curricula

2010-09-27T08:59:00.002-06:00

This is a repeat of an older column because I had a new comment by a PhD and wanted to bring it forward. Remember that PHC is extremely successful in debating, mock trials, etc. and designed for home schoolers, in particular.

Patrick Henry College Core Curricula
For AndThenSome, I wondered about their majors at PHC and found this in their current catalogue on line
Classical Christian Liberal Arts Education at PHCDespite the success of homeschoolers and classical Christianschools, few Christian colleges have taken an active part inthis educational reform movement. Patrick Henry Collegewas founded specifically to serve the best and the brightestof Christian homeschooled young people. Thus, the classicalliberal arts—with a strong Biblical foundation—is at the heartof PHC’s educational philosophy.PHC has a rigorous and extensive core curriculum of 63 creditsplus intermediate foreign language proficiency. The Universityof Chicago, which is famed for its liberal arts core, only has45. The National Endowment for the Humanities, in a projectdesigned to promote liberal education, proposed 50.The PHC core embraces all seven of the classic liberal arts:grammar (Research and writing; intermediate foreign languageproficiency1), courses in logic, rhetoric, mathematics, geometry,music, and science (with biology and physics taking the placeof the ancient “astronomy”).In addition, PHC requires two courses in the history of theUnited States, and two courses in the history of the WesternWorld, two Western Literature courses, two courses in thetheology of the Bible, Principles of Biblical Reasoning,philosophy, Constitutional Law, economics, and two courses inFreedom’s Foundations.The classical liberal arts, of course, is not just a sequence ofcourses, but a conceptual framework and a methodology. Theseven liberal arts cultivate mastery of language (grammar),analysis (logic), communication (rhetoric), aesthetics (music),numbers (mathematics), spatial relations (geometry), andempirics (astronomy) (Veith & Kern, 2001, pp. 11-16). Thus,other courses in a variety of subjects can contribute to thisbreadth of education.The liberal arts stress content, the imitation of excellence, thepursuit of knowledge that is valuable in itself, and the exerciseof the whole range of talents that God has given. The liberalarts curriculum is broad in scope, but its parts are integratedwith each other, as students explore the connectedness of all thedisciplines.The core curriculum embraces the whole range of the contentareas, as classified according to the “Natural Sciences” (biology,physics, philosophy), the “Moral Sciences” (history, law, thehumanities), and the “Theological Sciences” (the Bible, theology,and the undergirding of every course in Christian truth).The foundational liberal arts are the Trivium of grammar,logic, and rhetoric. These have to do with mastering language.Grammar is about exploring the structure, rules, vocabulary,and conventions by which language operates. Logic has to dowith using the mind to analyze and discover truth, as well asto distinguish between truth and falsehood. Rhetoric is the artof effective communication that persuades others, and is thus akey to cultural influence.1) Latin and Greek have, historically, been touchstones of classical learning and these are taught oncampus; in some programs, PHC accepts other foreign languages as meeting the core requirement.Grammar has to do with basic knowledge; Logic withunderstanding; Rhetoric with creative personal application.The Trivium is a particularly powerful concept, in that everysubject can be said to have its grammar (the foundational facts,rules, and information), its logic (the thinking required forunderstanding), and its rhetoric (its original application). Infact, the Trivium’s emphasis on knowledge, understanding,and application is a direct parallel to Bloom’s Taxonomy, sothat an ancient concept of education is confirmed by moderneducational psychology. Each part of the Trivium has itsappropriate method of learning: grammar by lecture, reading,and practice; logic by dialectic (that is, Socratic questionsand discussion); and rhetoric by student performance andapplication (Joseph, 2002).At Patrick Henry, classes tend to be heavily oriented to reading(often of the “great books” in the field) (grammar), discussion(logic), and student projects (rhetoric). PHC’s emphasis onApprenticeship (specifically, the internship program) exemplifiesthe rhetorical dimension of classical education, and it also followsthe model of how classical universities prepared young people fortheir professions, giving them a rigorous grounding in the liberalarts and then sending them out to practice their craft under amaster/mentor.The classical liberal arts core curriculum is a true core. That is,every student in every program takes every class. There is noelectivity in the core, which means that professors in the upperlevel programs can know what their students have already beenexposed to—what books they have read, what subjects theyhave studied, what skills they have developed—so that learningcan build on a common foundation.One objection to having a core curriculum consisting of 63credits plus intermediate foreign language proficiency wouldbe that it would seem to necessitate fewer courses in the majorprogram. Actually, though, since Patrick Henry—in anotherunusual feature—has a restricted number of majors andspecialties, this is not necessarily the case.A number of the core classes tie into the Government major:A two-semester “Freedoms Foundations” sequence, studyingissues of government by discussing classic texts on the subject;two semesters of American history; two semesters of Europeanhistory; Economics; and Constitutional Law do advance thegovernment program in crucial ways. The same holds true forthe liberal arts majors, with core classes directly impacting theprograms in literature, history, and liberal arts.The upper division courses also employ a liberal artsmethodology. For example, the various Government tracks use the specialized “great books” that have shaped each discipline.Writing at PHC is “across the curriculum,” with requirementsand formats codified in A Handbook for Research and Writing, acollege compilation that is taught in the first Freshman writingcourse and serves as a reference for all courses, including theupper division classes.Another element of the classical liberal arts, according toLittlejohn and Evans (2006), is a particular “ethos,” whichthey describe as “the essence or the ‘feel’ of the school as acommunity of faith and learning” (p. 53).Ethos is the inarticulate expression of what the communityvalues. It includes the quality of the relationships withinthe school, the traditions, the professional comportment,the approach to classroom management, the out-of-classdecorum, the aesthetic personality of the school reflectedin the student and faculty dress codes, the visual andauditory imagery, and the physical plant itself. And ethos isinterfused with the academic culture including curriculum,pedagogy, faculty preparation, and student learning. Ethosis the way in which the school expresses (or doesn’t) truth,goodness, and beauty through the experiences of everyperson who enters our halls (pp. 53-54).I found it difficult to locate a simple and basic list of majors offered, but gleaned the following: Classical Liberal Arts, CLA Music Track, History, Literature. Gov't.Dep't has these major "tracks,": Am. Politics and Policy, Int'l Politics and Policy, Political Theory, strategic Intelligence, Journalism;They offer Russian, Latin, and Greek and numerous internships. It's really impressive and very extensive what is offered --the listing of all the courses. It looks to me like you don't major in science there, but have required science and lab courses same as any liberal arts college plus Bible and theology courses. I'm impressed with a school that focuses on thinking, debating, rhetoric, logic, writing, general classical knowledge, for use in impacting the world, possibly at the level of the decision-makers and gov't leaders.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
Posted by Barb at 12:03 AM
Labels: classical education, Patrick Henry College

2 comments:

Anthony (Tony) V. Manzo said...
Only we know that Teacher Preparation and staff development are seriously flawed, and often painfully inane. There is no real market place in proven ideas, in some ways Teacher Education is controlled by well intentioned but misdirected interests that can include Schools of Education, publishers, self-important foundations, and yes, by weak professors and teachers who get a net gain from generations of ambiguity about our critical mission, powerful professional teaching. Current Teacher Preparation is a mishmash of competing whims and untested practices with no continuity or coherence across the profession. Every other profession has a common core of principles and PRACTICES that everyone is expected to know. Of course, there are outstanding teachers and teacher Education programs but this is random when it needs to be highly replicable.Join the dialogue to raise awareness of this critical problem ironically it has an easy, inexpensive solution. The goal is to craft a system for identifying and refreshing a core curriculum of Best Instructional Principles & Practices as opposed to mere “standards.” Teaching is about doing. This would lift the entire profession since there is no other profession that has not done this in some shape or manner. The absence of preparation in a core curriculum makes teacher education impossible, and therefore, evaluation of teacher effectiveness and accountability based on student outcomes illogical, if not irrational. While there is no consensus on core principles and practices to guide instructional decision-making there has been a pretty remarkable, though unheralded progress in pedagogical science made in the last 50 years; it could be called a Cambrian Period as when many new life forms began to appear on planet earth.The aim to better regulate teacher preparation may only appear to reduce professionalism, but it is in fact next-generation professionalism; especially now when information is massive, but distilled knowledge still thin. For example it is now widely acknowledged that pilots make many fewer errors when they follow the industry wide constructed check-off lists before takeoffs and at landings. Similarly, life threatening errors have been reduced by a considerable degree when surgeons and support staff have carefully followed check-off lists before, during and following surgery; the more error prone surgeons have been made less so, and the more skilled ones even more so. Ideally, and most likely, as teachers are guided to better instructional decisions, an overall enhancement in decision-making, and strategic thinking are also likely to follow. All stakeholders can now be more easily involved in identifying Best Practices, and in the ongoing process of providing field-based guidance of where these choices falter and/or simply need a bit of tweaking or customizing. The effort would take place on the web where all could see and participate, and to that extent would be a transparent and tangible exercise in science, conflict resolution and participatory democracySee:http://teacherprofessoraccountability.ning.com/main/invitation/new?xg_source=msg_wel_network And…http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/Or our newest site featuring advanced teaching methods for and concerns of Professional Teachers: http://anthony-manzo.blogspot.com/2010/05/race-to-top-accountability-leaves.htmlRespectfully,Anthony V. Manzo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus(avmanzo@aol.com)
September 25, 2010 6:19 PM

Barb said...
Thank you, Dr. Manzo, for your thoughtful contribution here. Since education has been a focus of the Ophrah show and elsewhere lately, I'm moving this to the top of my blog.
September 27, 2010 8:58 AM

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

From the Email Bag --Audience member's perspective on Remarks of Bob Latta, Ohio Congressman

2010-09-15T09:14:00.001-06:00

>
> Just thought I would share with you a little bit of what we heard at last night's Republican dinner here in Crawford County, Ohio . John Kasich (running for Gov. of Ohio ) was the keynote speaker. Also present were many politicians, most notably, Bob Latta, our U.S. Congressman. Mike and I walked up to Bob and thanked him for his conservative voting record and voiced our concern about what is going on in Washington . He made some funny botox remarks about Pelosi and then agreed with us that we have every reason to be concerned.
>
>
> As there were others waiting to talk to him, our time was brief. Although what took place later that evening should make chills run up and down everyone's spine to hear. He had asked to speak a few words at the end of the night and went up on stage. He proceeded to tell the crowd how bad things really are in Washington . He said he only had a few minutes to speak, but if he could tell us even half of what the agenda is and what this administration plans to do to our country we couldn't sleep at night. He said he only gets about 4 to 4-1/2 hours of sleep a night and worries constantly about what they want to do to this country.
>
>
> He said that Pelosi, Reid and Obama have to be stopped. He said, "You know, you always hear this is the most important election blah blah blah, but I am telling you people...whatever you have to do to wake people up you need to do! We have got to vote them out in 2010 or with the things they have planned for this country we won't even be a country by 2020! Ten years. You could see the look of almost desperation on his face.
>
>
> He talked about the huge debt. He talked about how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gets their "figures". He sits on the finance committee of some sort and listens to the ramblings of Geitner and Bernanke. He said "If you think that the Chinese won't hold this over us with all our debt you have another thought coming. Our children will have nothing. I don't care if you have to go out door to door, tell at least 10 people who will then tell 10 people. We have to do this. This is the single most important election ever in the history of this country. The change that Obama promised us is NOT the change people thought he meant."

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Obama has Blundered on Christian Prayer at White House

2010-09-15T09:08:00.002-06:00

In
1952
President Truman
established one day a year as a
"National Day of Prayer."
-----------------------
In
1988
President Reagan
designated the
First Thursday in May of each year as
the National Day of Prayer.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In June
2007
(then)
Presidential
Candidate Barack Obama
declared that the USA
"Was no longer a
Christian nation."
---------------------------------------------------------------
This year
President Obama
canceled the
21st annual National Day
of Prayer ceremony
at the White
House under the ruse
Of "not wanting to offend anyone"

------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUT... on September 25, 2009
from 4 AM until 7 PM,
a National Day of Prayer
FOR THE MUSLIM RELIGION
was Held on Capitol Hill,
Beside the White House.
There were over 50,000 Muslims
in D.C. that day.

HE PRAYS WITH THE MUSLIMS!

I guess it Doesn't matter
if "Christians"
Are offended by this event -
We obviously
Don't count as
"anyone" Anymore.

The direction this country is headed
should strike fear in the heart of every Christian,
especially knowing that the
Muslim religion believes that if Christians cannot be
converted, they should be annihilated.

This is not a Rumor
Go to the website
To confirm this info:
( http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/ )

Pay particular attention to the very bottom of the page:
"OUR TIME HAS COME"
I hope that this information will stir your spirit.

The words of 2 Chronicles 7:14
"If my people, Who are called by my Name,
Will humble themselves And pray,
And seek my face, and Turn from their Wicked ways,
Then will I hear from Heaven
And will forgive their Sin and will heal Their land."

We must pray for Our nation, our communities,
Our families, and especially our children.
They are the ones who are going to suffer the most.
.
If we don't PRAY
May God have Mercy.
IN GOD WE TRUST.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

GREEN EGGS ---RECYCLE CONGRESS!

2010-09-07T09:51:00.005-06:00

Thanks to email friend & Dr. Suess:

I do not like this Uncle Sam,

I do not like your health care scam.

I do not like those dirty crooks,

Or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker Nan,

I do not like her 'YES, WE CAN'.

I do not like their spending spree,

I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.

I do not like your smug replies,

When I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it, nope, nope, nope!

Go Green - Recycle Congress

In November, 2010!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

World Magazine on Glenn Beck --Two Links

2010-09-03T08:49:00.004-06:00

WORLD MAGAZINE is the best --MUCH more interesting and newsy than Time or Newsweek these days; I get all 3. I had let World expire a while back and they didn't pursue me so I went without for many months. It's good to get back to a news mag with a Christian worldview. I do know they are Reformed/Calvinist theology in world view, but nevertheless, they don't push that difference in their writing that I've noticed. Where I notice it is in their ads for colleges, conferences and school faculty positions --schools advertising for teachers of reformed theology.

Here are two interesting articles, one about Glenn Beck by World's Marvin Olasky and the 2nd one is on politicians' addictions by Glenn Beck at his website--who is said to admit a history of drug and alcohol addiction. I haven't found out what drugs and how long ago -- anyone who knows should comment for me here just for the facts.

http://online.worldmag.com/2010/09/02/sultans-of-snoot/

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/34736/

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Radioactive Decay Changes!

2010-08-25T19:04:00.004-06:00

From Rob

When I was in high school and perhaps 2/3rds through college, I was very much into young earth creationism and I felt it was one of the most important movements for biblical Christianity. For several reasons, I have long left that sentiment. I'm no longer comfortable with the way YEC advocates come very close to de-Christianizing orthodox Christians of other views from progressive creationists to theistic evolutionists. I no longer am confident that taking Genesis seriously and authoritatively demands a "literal" interpretation.

Still, I know my place. I began to recognize, even when I was more hyper about the issue, that my limited technical knowledge meant that many of the issues where beyond my ability to judge.

For this reason and perhaps others, while I don't identify with the YEC (Young Earth Creation) movement, I actually don't want them to go away. I don't consider it beyond a reasonable doubt that they may be on to something, that they may indeed come out ahead of the game and may be right about many things. And it's all due to what so many in the 20th century seem to take for granted even if they pay lip service to it. Science is tentative.

I followed an article from popsci on this that serves as a reminder and it involves a matter very important to YEC. Those who have a bone to pick with the idea of an ancient universe or at least an ancient earth have an issue with radio-isotopic dating. It turns out that the decay rates that those methods depend upon are not set in stone and may be altered.

The consequences aren't just for those who have a beef to pick with an ancient age for the universe. Those decay constants are probably linked to many physical principles. Those principles may be wrong. As the article concluded, "Perhaps our understanding of nuclear physics in general -- is a lot weaker than we thought."

HEY, STEVE --I MISSED YOUR POST!

2010-08-24T12:29:00.002-06:00

Some how, I read your comment as email and clicked to publish but it didn't publish. Then I went to the moderation page and probably didn't check mark the little box --but just hit "publish." Not realizing I had to check mark your post first. So a couple of topics ago, you are now published and I responded. And as usual, you are wrong and I am right --heh heh ; )

This happened with Jeanette's comment, too, and I didn't realize until she called me.

I have been SOOOOO BUSY! Our family had 3 medical procedures in one week --one an emergency appendectomy. So I've been driving people around, etc. I also have to have another shot for a pain in the A myself --sciatic nerve --so bad I can't sleep!

You'd think I wouldn't have any more pain in the A with Mudrake out of my blog life!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Some Ways I Would be Disappointed by Gay Marriage

2010-08-17T18:55:00.005-06:00

A Question on Another Blog --and My Answer

Have you, now or at any time in the past, been harmed by the marriage of two persons of the same sex?
Obviously not, since gay marriage is not legal around here.

If it were my kid, I would be harmed by his/her opinion that he/she were homosexual–and I would be harmed by such a “marriage.” Or even a civil union. Why?

1. I would feel that my husband and I had failed as parents to pass along God’s family values in a positive way. We had failed to teach or role model hetero marriage effectively. We had failed to help our kids be happy in their given sexuality, with normal family goals.

2. I would feel that I made mistakes in not chaperoning them better in youth, not grounding them in Christian faith and worldview before college, not shaping their character so they would resist sexual temptations.

3. I would be disappointed that they would not have a normal union and bring children into the world, at least not by any normal means, passing on their fine musical genes and raising chaste and heterosexual children. (Granted, single children don't do this either, but celibate singleness is pleasing in God's eyes, when it's part of a godly lifestyle.)

4. I would be harmed in them deliberately choosing to avoid normal marriage, bringing us no grandchildren for us to love and to love us. There would be fewer family members to help us out and cheer us in our elder years. (My family enriches their grandmothers’ lives, looks out for them.)

5. By not having their own children, homosexuals do impose duties to look out for them on their siblings’ children–who already have their own family responsibilities. Otherwise, the burden falls to themselves or the state entirely. (Again, chaste hetero singles do this, also, but they also haven't made any unholy alliances, given us grief or made children out of wedlock for gov't or us to subsidize.)

6. My kids ARE harmed when they can’t find chaste, hetero mates if more and more of their peers are going off with their own sex.

7. My kids are harmed if their teachers or neighbors or cousins or friends lead them into gay experimentation: “Try it; you’ll like it!”

8. My kids are harmed and I’m broken-hearted if they get a highly promiscuous sex addiction or an incurable STD or other physical ailment because of homo-sexperimentation --or any extra-marital sex for that matter.

9. Families/spouses and children are harmed when the spouse or one of their parents decides to transgender or leave for another person of either sex. I would be devastated if my daughter or son-in-law decided she or he had to be with someone else of either sex, and caused divorce for it.

10. We feel we are harmed if we can’t disapprove of this lifestyle and teach our children to reject it for themselves. We are harmed when our Bible-based values are considered Hate speech –and when we can be prosecuted for teaching or preaching the morality of the Bible. We are harmed if we are denied our constitutional right to free speech, freedom in media, and freedom of religion on this topic –as in England and Canada.

11. We are all harmed in economy if we have to give the same economic benefits to partners of homosexuals who don’t bear the children, educate them for over 18 years per child, spend thousands on them. The perks are for the child-maker-bearers –to offset the costs of bringing children into the world, having one parent stay at home to civilize them, or hiring daycare to do it. This is just best done with a hetero couple –as they are the only ones who can make babies and role-model the functional nuclear family with both a mother and father for their children. Yes, homosexuals may already have children from hetero marriages, and they should have the father’s financial support for those children–unless the mother caused the break-up by coming out gay. In that case, the father should get the custody and child support from the mother because of her infidelity. Marriage law should be just.

Granted, many of the same things I list are true about heterosexual immorality, also –except for the greater likelihood that children will be involved.

Homosexual involvement is just one more rung higher, on the already dangerous and depressing ladder of nuclear family breakdown with promiscuity.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Overview of the Demise of Marriage

2010-08-15T21:19:00.003-06:00

Read part of an article about No Fault Divorce issue HERE. This August, 2010, article from World magazine, edited by Marvin O’Laskey (brilliant Jewish convert to Christianity) concludes that divorce should be more difficult –and that when someone like Christie Brinkley complained and exposed her husband’s misdeeds , it was because he was so wrong and there should be consequences. Divorce ought to be fair –rather than neutral about fault when one person has devastated the other’s life, financial and emotional security, and guaranteed the kids a more than 90 per cent chance that they, too, will get divorced some day –if they even marry.

The institution of marriage in the U.S. has been more egalitarian and humane than in some other cultures throughout history, but it has received a battering ram in the last 50 years.

During the Hippie era, free love was in vogue; parents let their college-age kids bring home their boyfriends to their beds and wondered why their example wasn't embraced by their kids; the reason: they didn't TEACH their kids that the fear of the Lord and respect for His statutes are the beginning of wisdom -- and example alone wasn't enough; abortion replaced shot-gun weddings, freeing the young couples who erred to pursue serial monogamy. Soon virginity was VERY unfashionable –except for the religious groups that came along with their “true love waits” programs.

Abstinence ed. had some success with delaying teen sex activity and pregnancy –when it was really embraced by the sex educators. Those who didn’t try very hard to teach it saw their students following the Hollywood love/sex model instead. (i.e. They run up to the bedroom –and live happily ever after –until the next person comes along — or, as in Sleepless in Seattle, in which the old shacked-up mate is tossed aside for new, and in Bridges of Madison Co., women vicariously enjoyed the “romance of adultery” (the bad thing about the movie) –even though the wife stays with her husband –(the good thing about the movie.)

HOwever, TV actually helped marriage with the Cleavers and the Ingalls family as examples. The latter (conceived and directed by Michael Landon (Jewish heritage –and Christian from his parents) were role models for Christians and home-schoolers But then followed Friends and then Seinfeld’s young adults jumping in and out of bed with whomever –as though this were not immoral, just funny, and wouldn’t be emotionally damaging and physically risky.

The Sexual Revolution started with the hippies, aided by Roe vs. Wade –and then came AIDS and Herpes –and instead of the whole country wanting to return to traditional American, religion-inspired, moral VALUES to prevent incurable STD’s, we quixotically endorsed homosexuality because of our compassion for the AIDS afflicted–the group that brought AIDS to America and the group that still has the most new cases.

Finally, I believe we are seeing more and more people with gender identity issues –no doubt, in part, because they don’t have one parent of each gender modeling love for the opposite sex spouse and affirming the given sex of the children in their immediate families. Tougher divorce laws and promoting the importance of traditional, hetero marriage, MIGHT help.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Steve on Proposition 8 --and My Rebuttal --Of course!

2010-08-05T09:37:00.005-06:00

Blogger Steve writes:

Oh boy! Prop 8 in Cali got overturned. I imagine most judiciaries will follow suit and laws against Gay marriage will begin to fall like dominoes. The judges language in the ruling is perfect and logically spells out the separation between church and state in legislative issues.

The arc of history is constantly shifting toward more and more inclusiveness and tolerance. Each passing generation is more accepting of others than the previous generation. I think we are on the edge of a new enlightenment. The world is worn out from war and hostility and hate. I think that we will still suffer more paroxysms of violence to be sure; Isreal is about to attack Lebanon again and will probably use that attack as a smoke screen to go after Iran and Syria. But the world is growing tired of armed conflict to resolve issues. What does the bible say about "wars and rumors of war" in the last days? But if you look at statistics.. the number and amount of heated armed conflict is steadily declining, victims of political violence is declining. One of the reasons for this steady decline - in my oppinion - is the empowerment of women around the world. The more women are empowered politically, the better the world will be. So who are the holdouts that are stopping the empowerment of women? Religions.. Specifically Christianity and Islam. Nobody should be treated a 2nd class citizen based on their race, gender, or what they do in private.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The number and amount of heated armed conflict is [sic] steadily declining, victims of political violence is [sic] declining."

HUH? I wonder about your so-called stats! Aren't you the bright-eyed optimist!! An American Christian mission team was in a restaurant in Uganda recently and Muslims happened to target it (not them but the general population) for bombing --76 dead but the mission team sustained injuries only--as body parts flew through the air.

One could go on and on and list the terrorist and other actions around the world which don't indicate we are becoming more civilized. Yes, women having respect and rights would help the cause of world peace because democracy brings such equality AND peace. However, Christianity is woman's friend, not foe. Democracy has thrived in our culturally Judeo-Christian nation. It is in Christian nations where women have the most freedom and opportunity.

I don't think women fare at all well under Communism, do you? with forced abortions, e.g. I read recently of a Chinese woman who tried desperately to escape abortion, without success. What carnage! What creepy totalitarianism is that!! Personally, I prefer America's freedom that came from its Christian faith --where children were valued and women were protected in divorce and custody situations, where adulterating husbands paid more than now for destroying their marriages. Where women were not expected to protect men from marriage, paternity and child support with abortion, where men were the primary bread-winners able to let the women stay home looking after children and house --or work if they wished, not because they had to.

So, I don't know what rose-colored glasses you are wearing, Steve --that you should see a coming utopia free of Christianity's moral and decency standards in the law in some misbegotten liberal opinion of church-state separation. Our moral standards come from religion --or atheistic ideology. Somebody's philosophical ideals inevitably must prevail in the law--I'll take the Christian ideals anyday.

I just read the Am. Family Practice News magazine or Journal of AFP --and noticed the diseases more common to MSWM (men who have sex with men) than anyone else --and to black youth who have 40% more of a type of STD, especially from bisexuality and down low activities. We can't seem to keep ahead of the flesh-eating bacteria which are on the increase and most prevalent in the gay population--and like HIV, spreading to others, particularly in hospitals.

So celebrate your coming utopia where your own children will be taught in school and media and even by you to feel just as free to explore same sex behavior with all its attendant risks, addiction, heartbreak, frequent promiscuity and broken relationships and childlessness --in order to find out if their self-perceived "difference" from peers (youth ALL feel odd and out of it at various times in development) that makes them odd or unpopular, might just be homosexual preference. There's a pop song out now about a girl kissing a girl and liking it. That's supposed to mean she's homosexual, no doubt. When in fact, it just means that lips on lips can feel good --barring bad smells and sloppiness that a clumsy, pimply-face, adolescent, first boyfriend (or girlfriend) might bring to the experience.

We're setting ourselves up for "the gaying of America." And in the long run, I predict you will rue the day and say, "Barb, you were right!!" when your kids announce their bisexual or homosexual experiences and proclivities. MARK MY WORDS. This is one time that I truly hope I am wrong!! The new rebellion against parental authority and society will become gay experimentation, as parents don't go along with the new official encouragement of gay marriage.

As for the courts --don't be so sure. This one is headed for the Supreme Court if democracy and the right of appeal are still alive in America. But of course, the liberals outnumber us on the court --though not yet in the country. We had better get a series of decent, God-fearing, principle-following presidents to appoint such justices after Obama --or "Gov't Of, By and For the people" will become, instead, "Gov't Of, By and For the Liberal Judges."

As for your privacy right --there is no such right as a right to do whatever you darn well please in private. After all, pedophilia and rape are carried out in private, along with most other crimes. A right to privacy was the twisted logic that produced abortion on demand in America --of which we can never be proud. "Privacy right" was also used to legalize sodomy behind closed doors between consenting adults, which I agreed with only because I don't want the police to barge in on same-sex adults, suspecting they are doing Back Door Boogie and Blow Jobs when they are just sharing expenses? I don't want to hear about their doings, except for educational info necessary to realize we should protect our kids from this mindset with its high-risk behaviors.

YOu are going to be amazed, Steve, if gay marriage is legalized, how fast the following will become legal: polygamy, close relatives petitioning to marry if they are willing to be sterilized or have any defective kids aborted, eccentric ladies marrying their pets, step-fathers marrying step-kids when they turn 18 --and ultimately, lowering the age of consent. All will follow gay marriage. All will be demanding perks for their various kinds of partners --like housing and spousal benefits in the military as Britain and other allied nations provide. Yet, we already have too much social expense due to divorcing heteros. Gay relationships are even more unstable and adulterous than hetero relationships. (On average, their couplings last 2 years, I read somewhere.) Gay spouses REALLY have no right to demand the financial benefits which heterosexual spouses get because of the obvious value to our national survival and health of procreating couples making and raising children.

Do you really want the gov't and business to pay for the maintenance, insurance, support and pensions of gay men and other same sex partners who can give us no children --same as for wives and mothers of children who deserve the perks for their labor and maintenance of homes for their spouse and kids whom they diligently and most healthfully raise with both mom and dad in the home? Just so these "couples" can give each other orgasms that are normally a part of potentially procreative/intimate male/female relationships? For which we are all designed --even the gays are designed for heterosexual intimacy and procreation.

That's just too much diversity for me to start paying for Adam and Steve to copulate anally and orally in the military --same as for Adam and Eve, father and mother of the future.

Call Your Senators : WE DO NOT WANT THIS CROOKED KAGAN ON THE COURT

2010-07-25T17:26:00.004-06:00

When I read the following, I was appalled at what Elena Kagan did regarding partial birth abortion in the Clinton administration. Even liberals should be appalled. If our Congress appoints her, they are nuts. She amended the opinions of the medical societies about partial birth abortion not being necessary to save the life of any woman. NO NEED TO KILL A BABY WHOSE BODY IS DELIVERED ALL BUT FOR HIS HEAD WHICH IS THEN CRUSHED! Bring the baby out alive if an early delivery is deemed necessary in the 3rd trimester.

If our senators approve this woman, they have no respect for life, ethics, honesty, or the law.

Family Research Council sent this via email:

It was little surprise that President Obama would nominate someone to the Supreme Court with as limited regard for the U.S. Constitution as himself. However, the radical political and liberal history of Elena Kagan should make even the most diehard Leftist take a step back.

The recent Senate hearings helped expose her disgust for traditional morality, free speech, the military, individual liberty, unborn children, constitutional fidelity, and all things religious. As a political appointee to President Clinton, she was so fixated on protecting partial-birth abortion that she masterminded an effort to substitute her own opinion for that of two medical groups. Both the American Medical Association (AMA) and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said there was virtually no instance in which a partial-birth abortion was necessary to save a woman's life. When that statement crossed Kagan's desk, she personally changed it to say that partial-birth abortion "may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of the mother."

The political and unscientific opinion inserted by Ms. Kagan into what was supposed to be an authoritative medical document was then cited by several judges to strike down restrictions on the horrendous partial-birth abortion procedure.

Additionally, her pro-homosexual views led her to restrict military recruitment on Harvard Law School's campus, and, as Solicitor General, to sabotage the defense of our federal marriage law and of the current military policy on homosexuals serving openly in the U.S. military. In these instances, she favored her personal ideology and political calculations over the law. Without your help, she may spend 30 or more years doing this same thing as a member of America's most powerful court. Elena Kagan was unfit to be Solicitor General, and she definitely doesn't deserve a lifetime promotion to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Please contact your U.S. Senators today and tell them to oppose Elena Kagan.

Call 1-202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator. Ohio's are Senator Voinovich who is pro-life--and Senator Sherrod Brown, who is not.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

I've Been Busy with my Meaningless Life!

2010-07-19T23:37:00.003-06:00

Someone sent me a comment that I moderated out because all it said was that I had a "shallow, meaningless life." Guess who!

Actually, I've been very busy lately, seeing through the paper work for 40 kids to attend church camp at Somerset Beach in Michigan this summer. (Check out the website through google.) We are sending 17 going into grades 3-5 tomorrow morning (to a 3 day camp) and 17 in grades 6-8 on Sunday to a 5-day camp. We already sent 5 high school teens to camp and another 6 teens to Bible Quiz Team National competition the same week. This follows our team of 7 men who went to Haiti in the spring--and are planning another trip in November.

Today I wrote and ran off 17 copies of this letter for the camp that starts Sunday and 17 copies of a different letter for the camp that starts tomorrow. Then each is individually addressed, stamped, decorated with stickers and mailed! So all of our kids will get a letter at camp.

Dear Young Teen Camper ( name inserted and hand-written instead)

I hope this letter finds you making great memories, new friends, and a new or re-newed commitment to Jesus.

I am praying for your safety, your attentiveness, cooperation, obedience and that you will BE A STAR!

Here’s how to be a star:

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. Philippians 2:14, 15

Also, I pray you are all helping each other to make good memories, to have a good time, quarreling with no one, “picking on” no one, doing no “name-calling” but befriending all. I pray that no one will be unkind to YOU, but love you as you deserve. As the Bible says in Ephesians 4:32, “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.”

But most importantly, I hope you will make sure your place in the Family of God this week –if you haven’t already done so.

“…to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—John 1:12

Ephesians 5: ¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

And finally, do remember that whether we are already His children or not, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

We have a wonderful Creator-Father-God who made all the beauties of nature and gave us the ability to appreciate and enjoy what He has made. I pray you’ll really feel close to Him in this time at camp, that your faith in Him will be strengthened, that you will have an altogether wonderful and blessed time.

Love,

Barb

Next, I'm taking 3 kids to the lake --because one of them was so naughty at VBS that we couldn't send her to camp. So I'm taking her with her cousin and brother to my lake --because God is redemptive. And this little girl,9, wanted to go to camp but she has oppositional defiant disorder and some ADHD, etc. So I told her we'd send her to camp if she had a good week at VBS --and she just didn't. But in a smaller group, she has done fine for me.

So, anyway, I'm on to my meaningless life these days....

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

2010-07-12T12:05:00.002-06:00

An AP article: MINNEAPOLIS - An Orthodox Church theologian who was invited to greet the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has criticized its approval of non-celibate homosexual clergy.

The Reverend Siarhei Hardun of Belarus said that vote and efforts to approve same-gender "marriage" looked to him like an attempt to "invent a new religion -- a sort of modern paganism."

"Christian morality is as old as Christianity itself. It doesn't need to be invented now," he said of attempts to create what he described as a "new morality."

Hardun added, "When people say that they are led and guided by the Holy Spirit to do it, I wonder if it is the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible."

The Orthodox priest's remarks drew applause from conservative Presbyterians who made similar arguments at the gathering in Minneapolis.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

2010-07-08T09:52:00.003-06:00

Another blogger's remark at another blog --and my reply:

...the example you’re giving says nothing about the right of
fully-informed, competent, consenting adults to marry any more than cross-gender
rape or pedophilia indicts heterosexuality and heterosexual
marriage.

If homosexuality starts with gay predators inducting kids into the life , (and that is a common result of homosexual rape in Afghanistan, according to the article) as is statistically common in “the life,” with homosexuals reporting early sexual activity with older gays, before such kids are old enough to have normal relationships, then it is a lifestyle addiction that passes itself on to succeeding generations of young men (as in the Catholic priesthood) –and such predators have advocated for pedophilia and lowering ages of consent in other countries –and mark my words, they will do so here, also.

In fact, I saw my first Law & Order story yesterday, on TV, in which pedophiles made the argument for themselves that they cannot help their orientation, cannot change it, and resemble homosexuals in their claim to an inevitable condition from birth.

Sodomy is activity that should be eradicated from the face of the earth–voluntarily–by ALL citizens respecting decency and rejecting perversion and refusing to participate or condone it. “Gay marriage” is condoning sex practices which are harmful to the body, dangerous to personal and public health. I’m not advocating penalties for consenting adults; I’m saying we need to stop condoning such wrong-headedness.

No, as you said, I don’t get a right to determine the law –God already did that –but I have a right to prophesy or preach forth God’s will for human-kind as has been done for centuries by people of God –and they have never been popular with those who prefer evil to good –who can’t tell the difference between the two –anymore than they can confine their love-making to the proper body orifices with the opposite sex. There is no compelling sexual need for anyone to have anal sodomy or oral, for that matter, with their own sex. If men need male friendship, male love, male affection, male affirmation they can join a church (and not for the priests –but one of those fellowshiping churches that spend time with one another.) For sex, they can marry women, who do get the job done –even with homosexuals who have fathered children–obviously they can get excited enough to make a baby with a woman.

The goal of parents should be to cultivate normal interests by how they parent. Parents have made a lot of mistakes –and even if they didn’t, the culture has taken over to make homosexuality "trendy" and to mislead our youngsters.

God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

You go, Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck --on Kagan "What a Sack of Sacrosanct!"

2010-07-07T14:19:00.005-06:00

The following are two quoted pieces by Ann and Glenn --nothing by me. I don't use the block quotation mechanism here because it's a less readable, fainter blue. Perhaps if I tinkered with it....but for now...rest assured this is all Ann followed by all Glenn.

Ann Coulter
What a Sack of Sacrosanct

"In The New York Times’ profile on the family of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, her aunt was quoted as saying: “There was thinking, always thinking” at the family’s dinner table. “Nothing was sacrosanct.” "

"Really? Nothing was sacrosanct? Because in my experience, on a scale of 1-to-infinity, the range of acceptable opinion among New York liberals goes from 1-to-1.001.

How would the following remarks fare at a dinner table on the Upper West Side where “nothing was sacrosanct”: "Hey, maybe that Joe McCarthy was onto something." " What would prayer in the schools really hurt? " "How do we know gays are born that way?" "Is it possible that union demands have gone too far?" "Does it make sense to have three recycling bins in these microscopic Manhattan apartments?" "Say, has anyone read Charles Murray’s latest book?"

Those comments, considered “conversation starters” in most of the country, would get you banned from polite society in New York. Also, unless you want the whole room slowly backing away from you, also avoid: "May I smoke?" "I heard it on Fox News" and "Merry Christmas!"

Even members of survivalist Christian cults in Idaho at least know people who hold opposing views. New York liberals don’t.

As Kagan herself described it, on the Upper West Side of New York where she grew up, “Nobody ever admitted to voting Republican.” So, I guess you could say being a Democrat was “sacrosanct.”

Even within the teeny-tiny range of approved liberal opinion in New York, disagreement will get you banned from the premises."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glenn Beck

"When, as dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan disagreed with the Bill Clinton policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” for gays in the military, she open-mindedly banned military recruiters from the law school, denouncing Clinton’s policy as “discriminatory,” “deeply wrong,” “unwise and unjust.”

From this, I conclude that having gays serving openly in the military is “sacrosanct” for liberals.

Having gays NOT serve in the military is a position held by lots of people in other parts of the country, but I do not recall any Christian colleges banning military recruiters because the schools believed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” went too far the other way.

Not only is every weird, shared delusion of the New York liberal deemed sacrosanct, but what ought to be sacrosanct — off the top of my head, human life — isn’t.

As Stan Evans says, whatever liberals disapprove of, they want banned (smoking, guns, practicing Christianity, ROTC, the Pledge of Allegiance) and whatever they approve of, they make mandatory (abortion-on-demand, gay marriage, pornography, condom distribution in public schools, screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth”).

When liberals say, “nothing is sacrosanct,” they mean “nothing other Americans consider sacrosanct is sacrosanct.” They demonstrate their open-mindedness by ridiculing other people’s dogma, but will not brook the most trifling criticism of their own dogmas.

Thus, for example, liberals sneer at the bluenoses and philistines of the “religious right” for objecting to taxpayer-funding of a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine, but would have you banned from public life for putting Matthew Shepard in a jar of urine, with or without taxpayer funding. [Barb--not that anyone should condone cruelty or ridicule of the Matthew Shepards either --but Jesus Christ vs. Shepard??? Is there a reason why Jesus shouldn't be respected by liberals as Shepard is?]

These famously broad-minded New Yorkers — “thinking, always thinking” — actually booed Mayor Rudy Giuliani when he showed up at the opera after pulling city funding from a museum exhibit that included a painting of the Virgin Mary plastered with close-up pornographic photos of women’s vulvas.

(The New York Times fair-mindedly refused to ever mention the vulvas, instead suggesting that the mayor’s objection was to the cow dung used in the composition.)

Has a decision to fund or not fund “art” ever gotten a politician in any other part of the country booed in public? And how might the Times refer to citizens booing a mayor who had withdrawn taxpayer funding for a painting of Rosa Parks covered in pornography?

If New York liberals insist on bragging about their intellectual bravado in believing “nothing is sacrosanct,” it would really help if they could stop being the most easily offended, P.C., group-think, thin-skinned weanies in the entire universe and maybe ease up on the college “hate speech” codes, politically correct firings, and bans on military recruiters.

With that in mind, here are some questions it would be fun to ask a New York liberal like Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan at her hearings next week:

– Roughly one-third of Americans are Evangelical Christians. Do you personally know any Evangelical Christians? Name two.

– In 1972, Richard Nixon was elected president with more than 60 percent of the vote, winning every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. How many people do you know who voted for Nixon?

– Appropriate or inappropriate: Schools passing out condoms to seventh-graders? Schools passing out cigarettes to seventh-graders?

– Who is a greater threat to America, Sarah Palin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Senate Hearings, Dishonesty on the Left, Kagan and Abortion, Gun rights, ETc. Etc.

2010-07-02T10:53:00.003-06:00

A blogger where I'm blogging lately wrote: I don’t really know if there is much value to having witnesses testify. I would rather hear more from the nominee.It is sort of like the opening statements of Senators. It strikes me as mostly a waste of time.

Good grief! The nominee is going to be evasive and parse her remarks so that we think she never had an opinion on anything of controversy. I welcome witnesses like Koppel who know her opinions by her past advocacies and judgments –who recognize that a sense of humor shouldn’t be our first criterion for a life-time appointment to the court. We can bet anyone Obama appoints is a sure vote for gay marriage, abortion, and against gun rights –in any cases on these issues. We know she opposed ROTC on college campuses for no good reason.

Mr. Kopel’s linked testimony here at 41:09 is the first I’ve paid any attention to re: Kagan because it’s so frustrating to have the most pro-abortion pres. in Am. history (who even supports late term abortion) appointing judges with a democratic majority.

Some young conservatives and Christians I know let themselves be outnumbered in the last election–uselessly voting for 3rd party candidates, rejecting McCain as liberal himself, heedless of the impact on the Supreme Court for decades. Some didn’t bother to vote at all. Of course, my state was screwed up by election boards who lack honesty and a liberal sec’y of state in charge of all kinds of provisional and absentee ballot and “early voting” mess-ups. If the people in charge of our election boards don’t value honesty (and some don’t) we can’t guarantee honest elections.

If our judges don’t recognize the humanity and rights of the pre-born child (and the liberal ones appointed by Obama don’t), how can we call them “just?” The woman’s rights? She has rights and ways of preventing pregnancy, not a right to kill a child. The pro-abortion argument should be about abortion only for rape and life of mother. The original Roe of Roe Vs. Wade claimed to be a rape victim to get the sympathy of the court, and she was not. As for the unwanted infant’s life not being worth anything: People want to adopt them.

An adopted child now grown, businessman Iott, is running against Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for Congress –who has presided over the continual economic slide of our region for too many years. I doubt Marcy ever ran a business or had a real job –it’s been too long ago, in any case.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Islamic Pederasty Reports --See the Kite Runner

2010-07-02T09:11:00.003-06:00

I was shocked to read of PBS and LA Times reports and other footnoted material telling of pederasty and homosexual rape of teen boys in Afghanistan by the Pastun men and Afghani soldiers and commanders –and the Pakistani truck drivers who have “boy helpers” to sodomize. But they don’t “love” them romantically, so it’s not “homosexuality.”

The Kite Runner is a movie based on a book by an Afghani author. Homosexual rape occurs in the story --just as described in the very few news items on the topic. We only hear that Muslims (as in Iran) murder homosexuals. We don't hear about Afghanistan and Pakistan's view of women as unclean, nor the rape of hundreds of Afghani boys by the soldiers who are our allies. We don't hear that the Taliban opposed such assaults. (The Taliban have their own cruelties --like shooting adulteresses at the soccer game --also featured in the movie.)

Judeo-Christianity has been one great force for good in opposing porn, promiscuity, fornication, adultery, public nudity and sex establishments, divorce, prostitution, pedophilia, pederasty, bestiality, necrophilia, polygamy, bigamy, polyandry and shacking up –and in opposing filth on tv. We need to stay the course of culture clean-up and preservation of decency.

Jesus also gives us an example of mercy toward those who commit the above sins --in how he treated the woman caught in adultery--yet, he didn't approve adultery; he said, "Go and sin no more. "

Biblically, righteous men are to have a healthy lust for their wives, their only sexual outlet. Only “the (hetero)marriage bed is undefiled.” For all else we should be ashamed. And need to repent.

Every culture should desire to preserve the innocence and normal gender identity and orientation of children. All else is sin--and repugnant.

We do well to be “god-fearing” nation –“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Otherwise, “professing themselves to be wise, they became as fools.”

Our goal for the sexually confused should be "help" to find normalcy --not encouragement in their dysfunction.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Discussing Gay Marriage and Transgendering

2010-06-17T08:36:00.009-06:00

I've been busy at a really fine blog where the people don't resort to spamming and ad hominem attack like some people we know. Here's a discussion from that blog.

A Blogger: How, exactly, does a woman marrying another woman affect the needs of children?

By denying the child a father in the home who models the love of a man for a wife and family. The boy child is denied daily access to the one who should be his primary role model, affirming his own masculinity. The girl child is denied the love of a daddy who makes her feel feminine. Both may crave male love and one doctor’s article in Human Sexuality magazine –out of print now –drug companies published it for doctors –the doctor wrote that in his clinical experience, children denied a father tend to have what he called “male hunger” and become promiscuous with men.

A Blogger: Maybe, but are you going to then prohibit divorce or single parenthood because it doesn’t match some standard of “optimal?” Be consistent, or admit you don’t have an argument here.

So because divorce and single parenthood are on average not the
optimal situations for children, we should advance other parenting arrangements legally which we already know are not optimal –because the optimal is providing children with both their mothers and fathers? I have an argument. You are the one who does not. There is no reason to create a new form of “marriage” that has the denial of both parents for children built into the definition.

Later:
A Blogger: Who conducted these “studies?” When? What was the methodology? How much “earlier?”

Check out NARTH and Family Research Institute. I know all about FRI’s PC-discredited psychologists –but there is no legitimate criticism of their methods; they are published in peer-reviewed journals –and they often cite other people’s studies --which people have not been "discredited" by homosexuality defenders. [People can draw different conclusions from the same studies, you know.]

Two former presidents of the APA are in NARTH and complained that the APA was taking stands politically without valid research –when they claimed it was WRONG to counsel gays who wanted to be straight, wrong to suggest homosexuality was a mental illness, wrong to believe and affirm those who say they became straight. At least half the psychs in the country disagreed with the conclusions of the APA which had to back down eventually and admit they at least could not say homosexuality had a biological cause/ genetic or congenital--which I believe they had previously, erroneously stated. So now they say they don’t know what causes it. But there are many psychs who can point to environmental causes in the gay patients –and I can in my gay acquaintances.

You won’t consult NARTH or FRI because you don’t want to hear what they have to say, as your mind is made up. Granted, mine is too –but there are some good articles and research reported at NARTH. They haven’t really been discredited by the APA as you claimed. They are the ones who, with past APA presidents, cast doubt on the integrity of the APA –which did not have a vote of membership supporting their gay agenda and agreeing with them that homosexual orientation was not a mental illness.

A Blogger: So this is about “modeling the procreative unit of bio-design?” How are they doing that if they’re not procreating?

By being a man and a woman married, that’s how. Like Mommy and Daddy –even if they are NOT a mommy and daddy for reasons unknown to the child. IS that so hard to understand? They are role-modeling the normal marital unit of man with wife and it's nobody's business why they do not have children. I’ve already said that marriage is not just for procreation –but it is for a man and a woman and THEIR one-flesh union, THEIR intimacy, THEIR sexual design. (The Bible says God made Eve, not for procreation, but as a helpmeet fitting for him, a companion.)

There is nothing I want to see role modeled for youth about the unnatural couplings of same sex partners. Their relationships are a poor substitute for the real thing and we shouldn’t encourage the notion that it’s normal, equal to, just as good as, functional hetero marriage. It is high risk perversion.

A blogger: Same-sex relationships are not evidence of mental illness: this is the conclusion of real scientists with real degrees in relevant fields doing real research.

And there are scientists –maybe MORE scientists–who disagree with their conclusions. I know that Johns Hopkins won’t do transgender surgery any more.

From Wikipedia: “In 1979, when Paul McHugh became chairperson of the psychiatric department at Johns Hopkins, he ordered the department to conduct follow-up evaluations on as many of their former transsexual patients as possible. When the follow-ups were performed, they found that most of the patients stated that they were happy as members of their target sex, but that their overall level of psychological functioning had not improved. McHugh reasoned that to perform physical gender reassignment was to ‘cooperate with a mental illness rather than try to cure it.’ At that time, Johns Hopkins closed its gender clinic and has not performed any sex reassignment surgeries since then.”

I know you will say transgendering isn’t the same issue –but it is a gender and orientation issue. It is dissatisfaction with the role and purpose of one’s body –when the gay person chooses to couple in strange and risky ways with people of his own sex. So if it’s mental illness on the part of the transgender, it is mental illness for the homosexual. And the bi-sexuals are just plainly indiscriminate seekers of orgasms. All 3 have a quirk in the works between the ears which some of us would also call our sin nature. They deserve compassion, counsel, tolerance [for their co-existance and freedom of association in a free society.] and they deserve study and help–but not the advancement of their strangeness as something positive for youth to explore.

You talked about the value of pre-marital sex so people can find out which way they swing. If they never have orgasm with the opposite sex, I doubt very much they are going to think they swing that way. I think the activity (even via molestation) often reinforces the gender identity problem. I see you have no guilt for any fornication in your life, from what you said, but many people will have regrets –maybe women more than men –and wish they had come to their marriages virginal and without disease or memories of sex with others.

A blogger said: Given that pretty much everyone feels different and out of place at some point during adolescence, I think it unlikely that this is what causes homosexuality.

Exactly –pretty much everyone feels different and out of place during adolescence. Thus, our advice to youth should be that they need to wait until they get well into their 20’s if they are having doubts about their sexuality and gender and especially desires to transgender. And give their bodies and social selves some time to mature. We ought not be pushing them by condoning sexploration, suggesting they MIGHT be gay or "in the wrong body" and should check it out –like the Boston Sex Ed Conference would advocate. That’s just so wrong.

A Blogger: Here you go again, assuming that it needs to be “remedied,” when there is no actual scientific basis for that.

Yes, it needs to be remedied. Homosexuals are unfortunate in their orientation. There is nothing good about it. It's a highly promiscuous lifestyle for young people. They CAN make children but they don’t want to do what is needed to make children. They have some kind of mental aversion to the opposite sex. This is unfortunate because they cannot start a family even if they want to –by any normal means –and give the child both its mother and father. If they don’t bear children they have no one to care for them in older age and in fact, impose a burden on nieces and nephews or strangers and Uncle Sam –to care for them in old age. Granted a lot of dysfunctional heteros do the same thing. but we aren’t celebrating their acquired dysfunction–you want us to create and encourage homosexuality which has dysfunctionality for family and childlessness built in.

A Blogger: correlation does not equal causation.

Not always–but sometimes. If you find that a majority of homosexuals had certain common experiences not shared by most heterosexuals, it might mean something.

It really isn’t rocket science to KNOW that certain parents are wacky enough to have caused gender identity disorder in a child–or cause hunger for intimacy with the same sex because they denied it –or cause revulsion for the opposite sex by their behaviors. And then there are those kids who are just odd and get labeled gay for it–and begin to wonder if they might be gay. Today we see more and more kids identifying as gay, even from apparently solid 2-parent homes. When this happens, it is likely part of their adolescent rebellion --like those who embraced being hippies. It's trendy to explore one's sexuality and have indiscriminate pre-marital sex today. It's also possible for any child to be molested or get into early sex experience and find himself addicted to abnormal and unhealthy sex. Especially today with educators promoting homosexuality. But the children who lack both a functional mother and father seem to be especially prone. And even good parents can err --as in babying a sensitive son as they might a daughter, to the point that he doesn't feel masculine. And his peers notice it.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Dr. Phil's "Right to Happiness" --Bad Advice

2010-06-11T09:54:00.002-06:00

I was a bit disgusted with Dr. Phil this morning. He was counseling a family whose mother/wife was having an affair --and she still had 3 daughters at home. He said to the children that their mother "has a right to be happy" "wherever that would lead" --but there was "a right way and a wrong way" to go about it.

It was clear that Dad was just older-looking than mom --and better-looking, I might add. I didn't watch all of it so didn't hear any complaints about the husband. But I heard them say that she went to Vegas with Boyfriend and didn't have sex yet by HIS decision because he was waiting for her to divorce. I would've suggested that pedophiles do this --marry woman with kids and have no interest in sex with the grown women they seduce.

Dr. Phil did raise the question of why the wife thought the lover should be viewed as "honorable" for not having sex yet --while nevertheless sharing a bed with a married woman with kids. A man of integrity doesn't have affairs with married women, with or without sex.

Dr. Phil pretty much tried to alleviate any guilt for people who divorce in order to have their affair --that being the "right way to do wrong," apparently. He called ending the marriage and divorcing "the right way" to attain your happiness and get into a new relationship.

He said the younger children are "at risk" for all sorts of poor choices because of their mother's infidelity --he at least called it that. He offered marriage counseling or family counseling as needed at the show's expense. That's a good thing he does, but I didn't like him suggesting that the mother had a "right to happiness" that included a "right" to hurt her husband and kids. Do we really have a right to pursue sexual/romantic happiness apart from our vows and commitments to family? I think not. We need to work on the marriages we have.

To Dr. Phil's credit, he models a committed marriage; he calls infidelity what it is; he offers counseling --but then he seems to condone a "good divorce" as though divorce could be good.

I won't say divorce is never necessary --Jesus said adultery was grounds for divorce on the part of the aggrieved spouse, but He also said that God hates divorce and only allowed it "for the hardness of your hearts." I think REAL emotional and physical abuse are grounds, too, and any danger for the children from a spouse who abuses either them or the spouse. They say it is harmful for kids to see their mother tolerate abuse.

I do believe any 2 people CAN will to make their marriage work --but it does take two --though there are spouses who have modeled Christian love and forgiveness to difficult mates and seen their marriages saved.

A good marriage weathers a lot of storms and also mellows like a fine wine with age.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

The Ring --a Sign of Vows

2010-06-11T09:12:00.006-06:00

Forty and 1/2 years married--and my husband came home the other day and said, "I have a new piece of jewelry." And held up his hand to show that he has a wedding ring.

Many, many years ago, he tied his ring to his scrubs before a baby delivery --he used to keep it in his shoe --but that hurt so he tried the scrub method --and absent-mindedly threw it down the laundry chute at Toledo Hospital and of course, someone there thought it was a gift. He has to wash and re-wash his hands several times a day, and has allergies to some metals, so I didn't make it my job to find a replacement. And never pushed it either. I understood the convenience of not having one in his work, since I don't wear my rings every day, except if I'm going out of the house. I take them off as soon as I get home because I'm just more comfortable without jewelry on. O --and I lost track of my own wedding rings for many, many years after a move and some redecorating upheaval --at least 20 years -and then in the 1990's, I think it was, I joyfully found them in an old jewelry box.

So out of the blue, he got himself a ring and is wearing it --it's supposed to be hypoallergenic.

He said he did it, perhaps realizing more now how people do look at the ring as a sign of your being married --as he knows I keep my eyes open for young men without rings in hopes of seeing one for my single daughter. I just like knowing there are still available men out there. Finding one that appeals to her is not easy (which I understand--we're picky) --and then getting him to move into her sphere where they can meet is another challenge. I remind people that George and Laura Bush met at a backyard barbecue because someone thought they should meet --and they, too, were in their 30's.

Another reason for the ring, my husband had told me how some lady patient propositioned him a couple of weeks ago, saying boldly, "would you like to have an affair?" And he said, "I would never do that." He said afterward that he wished he had given her two reasons: "I love my wife --and I'm a Christian." He says she knew he was married, but he realized that a lot of people might have wondered through the years, seeing him without a ring. I guess he saw that being ringless, even though the woman knew he was married, might have conveyed a message of "I'm available."

I am so blessed that being a Christian means all that it does to him. He also has said that he believes "divorce ruins the happiness of kids and damages their lives." He is very committed to the children and grandchildren we have. I heard years ago that the children of divorce had over 90 per cent chance of being divorced themselves. We know the children of divorce are at higher risk for poverty, depression, teen pregnancy, etc. They are probably at higher risk for gender identity issues, too.

My husband is definitely part of God's grace in my life --more than I deserve ---especially by any worldly standards. Grace--God's unmerited favor.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Judicial Sanity in the Pleasant Grove, Utah, Case

2010-06-08T22:07:00.003-06:00

A federal judge, Dale Kimball, ruled that a Ten Commandments monument in a city park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, erected by the Fraternal Order of Eagles 50 years ago, did not violate the constitution. A religious sect called Summum wanted to erect their "Seven Aphorisms" in the same park, and claimed the establishment clause meant both monuments should be allowed. Obviously, they considered the Ten Commandments to be a Judeo-Christian monument.

But the judge ruled that it was a historical monument, and not an establishment of Judaism or Christianity in the USA.

According to the AP, "Summum, a Latin word meaning highest or greatest, is rooted in Gnostic Christianity. The group believes Moses received the Seven Aphorisms along with the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. According to the group, Moses destroyed the tablet containing the aphorisms because he saw the Israelites weren't ready for them."

The Ten C's are remarkable, considering their age and their relevance for today. Whether someone believes they came from God or man, they are a basis for western laws and human rights. We really do want every child to believe that he should not steal, bear false witness, dishonor his parents, and murder --and do the coveting that leads to the crimes. A wise nation will revere such commandments.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Lessons from "And Tango Makes Three" --gay propaganda in our elem schools

2010-05-22T14:33:00.004-06:00

I complained on a blog that I knew there was a book in our elem schools called "And Tango Makes Three." When the substitute teacher started to read it, she had no idea it was pushing gay marriage until she got into it --so she edited as she read. The Blogger I'm dialoguing with said the following:

R: Actually, that’s exactly what I want my daughter to learn. We talk to her about the same-sex couples we know and explain that they love one another just like Mommy and Daddy do. If the schools reinforce that, so much the better.

And I wrote to him: Don’t be surprised if your daughter says she wants to marry her best girlfriend. you’ve given her license –and that leads to imagination –confusion–the idea that she can choose to be with either men or women. I wish I could talk with you in 20 years! or sooner.

I LOVED my girlfriends as a child –I liked (and envied) the pretty ones. I wanted to be pretty like they were. If I were popular with them, perhaps it meant I was LIKE them. I was jealous if my friend were also good friends with another girl –if she seemed to prefer her over me. And I observe this same phenomena in my CLC girls. If someone had read And Tango Makes Three to me in the 3rd grade, and suggested two girls could marry like mommy and daddy, I might’ve concluded that I was “different" and wanted to marry my best friend. But I never heard of homosexuality–and I always wanted to be Snow White to some Prince Charming some day. Thank God for fairy tales and that I knew I was the princess! I always had a crush on some guy or other.

So maybe a teacher would read me a book on bisexuality! Then I might say, "That’s what I am,” Because what the heck do kids know except what they are taught and what they experience!? They are by definition IMMATURE –this is NO time to suggest to them “You might be “different” –i.e. homosexual–or bisexual. Experiment and decide. It’s OK as long as you use protection. All ways of being sexual are equal.”

SPARE ME SUCH TEACHERS!!! and such parents raising my children’s friends! This is one reason why parents are home-schooling and choosing any schools but public. The more the responsible people hear about these abuses of parental trust in public ed, and the crazy liberal parents raising our children's classmates, the less likely they'll want to pass levies or entrust their kids to an institution that thinks its job is to erode faith and traditional morality in our kids.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Arizona's Scholarship Program --Wha' Hoppened?

2010-05-20T22:18:00.002-06:00

An African-american pastor tells what Arizona's scholarship program means to him HERE.

I've googled and tried to find out what SCOTUS did with this yesterday. Does anyone know? This fellow's article would suggest victory, but another place said the court refused to hear the case.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

HOW DENSE AND WILLFUL IS THE 9TH CIRCUIT COURT! Why don't we impeach the scoundrels for incompetence and legislating from the bench?

2010-05-20T06:13:00.003-06:00

George Will in the Washington Post yesterday writes about a bad school choice decision by the infamous 9th Circuit Court HERE.

PRAY TODAY FOR SCOTUS --THAT THEY WILL HAVE DIVINE GUIDANCE AND COMMON SENSE REGARDING THE 9th Circuit Court's bad decision BEING PRESENTED THIS MORNING AT 9:30 am!

Read all about it at the link above, but here is an excerpt with my emphases in bold and inserts in brackets added:

The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools -- including religious schools. Yes, here we go again. [OHIO NEEDS SUCH A PROGRAM. We all have federal income tax deductions for donations to religious schools --but not tax credits--and no deduction for our own children's tuitions even though we ALSO fund the public schools.]

The question -- if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question -- is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government "establishment of religion." The incorrigible 9th Circuit has declared Arizona's program unconstitutional, even though there is no government involvement in any parent's decision to use a scholarship at a religious school.

Surely this question was settled eight years ago in a decision that was the seventh consecutive defeat for the disgustingly determined people who are implacably opposed to any policies that enable parents who are not affluent to exercise the right of school choice that is routinely exercised by more fortunate Americans.It sometimes takes time for news of the outside world to penetrate San Francisco, where the 9th Circuit is headquartered, but surely by now that court has heard that in 2002, in a case coming from Cleveland, the Supreme Court upheld a program quite like Arizona's but arguably more problematic.

It was created after Cleveland's school district flunked 27 -- out of 27 -- standards measuring student performance, and the state declared the district an "academic emergency." The [Ohio] program empowered parents to redeem publicly funded vouchers at religious as well as nonreligious private schools...

...The Supreme Court has been splitting and re-splitting constitutional hairs about this for decades, holding, for example, that it is constitutional for public funds to provide parochial school pupils with transportation to classes -- but not to field trips. To provide parochial schools with nurses -- but not guidance counselors. To provide religious schools with books -- but not maps. This last split-hair caused the late Sen. Pat Moynihan to wonder: What about atlases, which are books of maps? The court has ruled that public funds can provide a sign language interpreter to a deaf child at a religious school and can provide rehabilitation assistance at a religious college.

The court has held that a state can offer tax deductions to parents paying tuition to religious schools. [REALLY? I believe Ohio doesn't have such a deduction.] Can the 9th Circuit see a pattern here?

Scores of thousands of children have benefited from Arizona's scholarship program, which, unlike Cleveland's, does not involve any government funds that might otherwise go to public schools. Rather, Arizona's program infuses substantial additional funds into the state's K-through-12 educational offerings. Democracy demands patience. In its political discourse, repetition is required because persuasion takes time. But the Supreme Court should not have to cajole lower courts into acknowledging its rulings. This term, the court has issued 11 summary reversals. Thursday morning it should use its 12th on the 9th Circuit, a slow learner.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

A Letter from the Persecuted Church; END ENDA!

2010-05-18T06:18:00.005-06:00

The World Missions department of the Free Methodist Church has a Facebook page to inform the church--so I got this in my email from them--a "creative access" country is one where Christianity is officially discouraged if not outright forbidden--probably a place where they want all the churches "registered" and controlled in their preaching, teaching:

Subject: Urgent request for prayer from FM pastor in creative access country

Dear brothers and sisters.

For a long period of the time, constantly I myself and the church have been threatened, bothered and invited by the authorities for many times ... the Sunday before last Sunday, when we were worshipping our Lord, suddenly they came in, with threatening words and then write a paper for what they call "illigal meeting." And this morning many policemen and a truck divided into many groups stood along the road near my house. Then one group came into my house, they did the same trick. Then they withdrew waiting outside in order to stop any motorbike which came out from my house. One of our brothers fell down when they tried to stop his motorbike, but thank God he got no injury. Finally they took away two motorbikes and confiscated the driver's license of another motorbike. We think that our brother will face threat and will be fined when they go to the police station to take their motorbike and paper back. I don't know what will happen to the church next, but it seems that they are intensifying persecutions on the church here. So please pray for the Lord 's divine protection and peace on his church.
Brother in the Lord Jesus Christ
________
I can see this starting here, with financial penalties, over the issue of sexuality. As soon as you have the majority of the younger generation convinced that it's an issue like race, and that all who teach and preach against sexual immorality involving gender confusion are racists and bigots, we may see persecution. Already, a photographer was fined 6600 in fees and costs for not photographing a gay wedding. And higher court would not hear the appeal.

There is no exception for a Biblically informed conscience in the new ENDA law being proposed in congress.

The AMERICAN CHURCH should RISE now to demand JUSTICE and FREEDOM of CONSCIENCE for the photographer. We need an ENDA law, alright --to END discrimination against people with Biblically-informed consciences influencing their business decisions.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Transgendering and Homosexuality: Mental Illness

2010-05-17T10:30:00.003-06:00

From Wikipedia: "In 1979, when Paul McHugh became chairperson of the psychiatric department at Johns Hopkins, he ordered the department to conduct follow-up evaluations on as many of their former transsexual patients as possible. When the follow-ups were performed, they found that most of the patients stated that they were happy as members of their target sex, but that their overall level of psychological functioning had not improved. McHugh reasoned that to perform physical gender reassignment was to 'cooperate with a mental illness rather than try to cure it.' At that time, Johns Hopkins closed its gender clinic and has not performed any sex reassignment surgeries since then."

I wanted to make sure that the quote I posted from Paul McHugh earlier, saying they had ceased to do transgender surgeries at John Hopkins, was correct. It is, apparently.

Good for them --for calling a spade a spade --and recognizing gender identity disorder for what it is --and that includes homosexual preference, as well. It's a problem between the ears that is probably rooted in early influences and a focus on one's thoughts of being "different" --and early sexual experience in the case of homosexuality.

I am convinced that improper ways of obtaining orgasm have addictive effect --and affect gender preference and identity. But I also think kids go through stages of same-sex preference-for-friends in childhood and adolescence--and that they can experience same-sex arousal just by proximity to other warm bodies. Today's child in today's gay-pushing social climate will be mis-led into believing he is abnormal sexually because of childish sexual ideas and experiences.

We need to build up our kids' satisfaction with their gender assignments as males or females --role model happy marriages where it's satisfying to be either the husband or the wife --and protect children from molestation and early sexual focus and involvement --not by shaming but by teaching well --and chaperoning appropriately--cheerfully --as adults who want to see the youth "make it to the church on time."

The best thing we can do for our children is teach them that God loves them and has a plan for their sex-assigned bodies --to be either celibate or monogamous in a faithful hetero-marriage --as male or female, according to their birth anatomy. This shouldn't be taught with such focus as to stimulate precocious interest in sex --but role-modeled and taught subtly --promoting normalcy in a godly way.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Pray for Rwandan Bishop Philemon Munyagisaka

2010-05-13T09:59:00.006-06:00

Update from Free Methodist Headquarters: "We received word that in the last week, Rwandan Bishop Philemon Munyagisaka reappeared before the Gacaca courts for his appeal to the last verdict from August 2009. The concluding verdict was the same as last time - life imprisonment. He is left with only one more opportunity to appeal. Pray for the bishop, his family and the church."

From:
http://fmcna.typepad.com/david_kendall/2008/09/index.html

A Visit to Prison -- by Bishop David Kendall

During the week of August 24 I was privileged to join three others (Bishop Keith Elford of Canada, Bishop Elie Buconyori of Burundi, and Supt. Allan Ellershaw of the United Kingdom) in visiting our Church in Rwanda. Our visit was on behalf of imprisoned Bishop Munyagisaka Philemon.

Since May of 2006 Bishop Philemon has been in Kigali’s Central Prison charged with genocidal crimes. We are certain that these charges are false, the result of conflicts in the church and the continuing struggle in Rwanda to deal with the atrocities of genocide that has so scarred the national psyche. Bishop Philemon has opponents in the church who do not want him to lead because he belongs to the wrong tribe. And, the judicial system created to prosecute crimes associated with the genocide functions in an atmosphere of continuing suspicion and fear.

Our delegation went to Rwanda to clarify Bishop Philemon’s situation actually, to see if there are ways to help his cause, and to plead for justice—both before the judicial system there and before our fellow Free Methodists who are in leadership within the church. We believe that the Lord used our visit and that He is at work on behalf of this part of our family.

The absolute highlight of our week came when our delegation visited Bishop Philemon in the central prison. We found a modern day Apostle Paul. Though he is under arrest, incarcerated, still the Word of God is not bound. He is a Bishop charged with oversight of the church. That is precisely what he does—even from the prison. He writes letters, offers guidance to the church, and makes disciples. He is known as the Bishop of the prison. He studies and teaches on the mission of the church, with impact both inside and beyond his confinement. Here are a few memorable lines:

• The best thing you can do for someone in prison is to visit. Thank you!
• The two weaknesses of the church: we don’t pray enough and we don’t teach our members to be true disciples.
• Walk with God, then walk with people. In that order!
• God has a plan, even for someone imprisoned unjustly. And, it is always a blessing to be part of God’s plan!
• Tell the church (around the world praying for him) not to be afraid. God is at work.

Before our closing time of prayer together, Bishop Philemon urged us to tell you: “I am strong spiritually, physically, and intellectually. I have already forgiven those who have falsely accused me. I am doing Ok, fulfilling God’s plan for this part of my life. I have time to pray, think, study, write, and share with people. And, he said with a twinkle and smile, I am now a sports-man!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

ENDA THE POLITICAL CAREERS OF THOSE WHO SUPPORT ENDA

2010-05-13T08:37:00.003-06:00

Be sure to note the surprising last paragraph of the article below.

ENDA is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, H.R. 3017. Marcy Kaptur's office tells me there is a religious exception for religious institutions, but how long will that last when they are promoting sexual orientation, gender identity disorder, and transgendering as a minority difference like RACE or DISABILITY?

There is NOT an exception in the bill for conscience --for religious objection --for business people, employers, employees and schools who , on the basis of religious or even just moral convictions and the concern of role models for youth, do not want to hire or rent to transgenders and homosexuals or provide wedding services and accommodations for them. ENDA is the end of freedom of religious belief and practice for those who believe the Bible --which says the only MORAL sexual intimacy is that between a man and his female wife--and that God has ordained we be either male or female according to our bodies' design. The only people with a right to confusion are those with Klinefelter's Syndrome --the extra chromosome --and these are males who typically identify and live as males.

I welcome transgendered and homosexual people attending church --but the message of the church needs to be Biblical when it comes to the definitions of sinful life choices --and the definition of what the Bible calls "a sound mind" and decisions about who should teach or perform musical worship. They don't need to be mature Christians to ASSIST (not teach) in children's ministries or to join the choir, but they shouldn't be actively sinning either in ways that are clearly forbidden by the Bible --e.g. an active adulterer can sit in the pew and hear the Word of God, because church is for sinners and believers/saints alike --but he needs to renounce his sin in order to be a role model to children or a church worker/employee.

ENDA sanity?

By Peter Sprigg --This article appeared in The Washington Times on May 11, 2010.

The House of Representatives may act soon on a bill to marginalize and stigmatize Americans who disapprove of homosexual conduct. H.R. 3017, known as ENDA, seeks to give homosexuals (and the government) the right to sue employers, based on the theory that being gay is like being black (even though homosexuality is a matter of conduct, not race), female (even though homosexuals were never denied the right to vote [and typically have job opportunities and decent income--Barb's note], or religious (even though sexual preferences are not in the Constitution).

The business community has failed to mobilize on a large scale against this intrusion into their right to set their own standards for employment, largely because most large, secular employers [rightly--B] do not make a practice of inquiring into the sexual practices of their employees in the first place. There is no evidence that homosexuals have unusual difficulty in finding employment, nor that such laws on the local or state levels have improved their economic situation.

The relative indifference many employers have toward homosexual employees is due (apart from a few stereotypes) to an invisible characteristic, and the behavior that defines the class - men having sex with men or women having sex with women -- that is something that takes place predominantly in private, not in the workplace or on work hours.

However, ENDA also contains within it another radical provision that may be its Achilles' heel. It includes within the orbit of its special protections not only sexual orientation, but also gender identity.

Gender identity does not simply mean gender, which most people would consider synonymous with sex (i.e., being male or female). Discrimination based on sex was banned 46 years ago, in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

No, gender identity is defined in H.R. 3017 as the gender-related identity, appearance or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth.

Got that? According to the advocates of ENDA, homosexuality (the desire to have sex with others of the same sex) is something present in infants at birth (although this has been disproven scientifically). But one's sex (male or female), which in truth can be determined by examination of the genitals or of the chromosomes of any cell in the body, is to their minds, merely designated at birth, like the name the parents pick out.

Special protections based on gender identity mean that employers will be forced to hire transvestites (cross-dressers, who merely wear the clothing of the opposite sex); transsexuals (people who have undergone surgery and other medical treatments to obliterate the characteristics of their birth sex and imitate the characteristics of the opposite sex); and drag queens and kings (people who dress as the opposite sex for the purpose of entertaining themselves or others). All of these groups together are now typically referred to with the umbrella term "transgendered."

Unlike sexual orientation, gender identity is by definition a visible characteristic, involving appearance, or mannerisms. And with transgenders, the behavior that characterizes the class -- dressing and presenting oneself as the opposite of one's biological sex -- is by definition something practiced in public, in the workplace and during work hours. In fact, the right to do so is exactly what transgender activists seek to secure through ENDA.

A legitimate concern for privacy allows employers to maintain separate facilities for men and women when it comes to restrooms, locker rooms and showers. But what happens when a man in a dress insists he has a right to use the women's room? Many women might feel justifiably uncomfortable, or even threatened, at such a prospect. ENDA carves out an exemption for shared shower or dressing facilities in which being seen unclothed is unavoidable -- but that still might not apply to restrooms with stalls. This is why similar bills in a number of states and localities have been tagged bathroom bills.

In addition, there are many jobs for which personal appearance is a legitimate and relevant characteristic. Yet even Anne Lawrence, a male-to-female transgender who has written several academic papers on the issue, has admitted that many transgendered people do not make a convincing appearance in their chosen gender identity. It is simply inevitable that when they see a brawny 6' 2" man with broad shoulders, large hands, large feet, a protruding Adam's apple, facial stubble, and a deep voice wearing high heels, pantyhose and a skirt, many customers or clients may be put off. An employer should not be forced to ignore this risk.[emphasis, Barb's]

Dr. Paul McHugh, the psychiatrist who called a halt to sex-change surgeries at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, has written, "We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure and ultimately prevent it." Congress should not collaborate with this madness either.

Peter Sprigg is a senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Islamic Peace Demonstration in England --SCARY!

2010-05-12T07:49:00.004-06:00

WHY ENGLAND WENT ON HIGH ALERT - SCARY

This
is scary

Pictures
from London ~ this is beyond scary... Makes you wonder
doesn't it...can you imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in
downtown Baghdad ?
These pictures are of Muslims marching
through the STREETS OF LONDON during their recent ' Religion of Peace
Demonstration.
'

Why would
anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful
Muslims?! You need to forward this one to everyone! These pictures
tell it all!Muslims have stated that England will be the first
country they take over! These are pictures not shown on American TV
or in American Newspapers, but were forwarded by a Canadian who thought all
Americans ought to know!
End of email

The pics wouldn't copy from email to here (my ignorance, no doubt) --but these are the captions from the posters carried by angry-faced people in traditional Islamic attire:

Be Prepared for the Real holocaust!

Europe, you will pay. Your 9/11 is on it's [sic] way.
Freedom go to Hell.
Europe, Take some lessons from 9/11.
Islam will dominate the World.
Europe is the Cancer; Islam is the Answer!
Behead those who insult Islam!
Slay those who insult Islam!

Meanwhile, American and European liberals are blasting Christianity every chance they get. Frankly, you will never replace Islam with atheism, with John Lennon's "Imagine"; Christianity is your best bet -being the Truth after all.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible