First of all, he alludes to me as a Calvinist --and said I dumped a load of manure on his doorstep. No, I just made one statement as a comment to his blog: "I am not a Calvinist." Since he said I was in the blog. I knew he wouldn't print it.
However, I agree with MUCH of the quoted article Mudrake posted by Rev. Andrew Sandlin. (Link above) I would like to read it more closely and respond to that and Ms. Diamond's view when I have some more time.
Obviously, Mudrake doesn't understand the terms or he would not call me a Calvinist --even though I share much of their perspective. Especially when I have tangled over this issue in past blogs with those who are "Reformed" "Calvinists." Mudrake has no apparent understanding of Arminian Weslyans and how they differ from the Calvinists in some respects.
He alludes to me as one of the so-called "stealth candidates," "reconstructionists" getting into politics --when I was on a school board.
I was NO STEALTH CANDIDATE! Nor a "reconstructionist, Calvinist, Reformed theology advocate." But I did come right up front with my concern for values. My campaign flier said, "Swing the Pendulum" --back toward traditional Judeo-Christian values and away from secular humanism as the ideology of America --and emphases on the Three R's in education, e.g. I was very clear in my church affiliation. I somehow had the misperception that being an evangelical Christian with a concern for public values and culture did not disqualify me from politics!!! Silly me!!! I didn't realize that I was supposed to be a persona non grata in America because of my religious beliefs and concerns for values and character in education and culture.
At the time, American schools didn't think they could search lockers, tell kids how to dress for school, advise on sexual values ("you should decide for yourself what is right and wrong for you!") Everything was "me-centered," self-esteem and "what's good for me and my future" as supreme values --and choice was to be determined with the help of non-judgmental teachers facilitating brain-storming sessions where there are no right or wrong answers. School libraries were awash with books for kids featuring witchcraft, native American beliefs --lauding all beliefs except Christian--in fact, Judy Blume's books were unacceptable to believers and promoted in schools --as the child character ponders that religions are like smorgasbord choices --a matter of preference --and the neighborhood peeping tom can't decide if he will peek in his friend's window anymore or not, "Maybe I will; maybe I won't." End of story.
Planned Parenthood told school board members that they should not promote abstinence until marriage because so many parents had not made that choice and we would offend them by telling their kids to do so. I countered that many women WISH the men in their lives believed in responsibility, fidelity, and marriage --and did not really enjoy being single, unwed mothers. That we would do ourselves and future mothers more good to promote abstinence until marriage, family and fidelity (even if those ARE traditional Judeo-Christian values) because strong, traditional families parented by both mother and father are best foundation for children's success, security and happiness. This is still true by all social measurements. It is still true that most of the guys in jail are from single-parent households.
I remember when one of the school's liberal educators, a colleague of Mudrake's, looked at me in a meeting about AIDS concerns and said, in so many words, "We thought we were doing the right thing to teach safe sex with birth control and condoms --and now we know that abstinence and monogamy are truly the only way to be safe." Her epiphany!
It is just so true that condoms don't protect our kids from broken hearts. I once read that teen suicide was most often a result of break-ups of intimate relationships. Like kids getting divorced. Bad enough when they are the children of divorce; worse when they are divorced couples as children. Yet, the revisionist advocates of gay life have claimed that most teen suicides were disappointed homosexuals --either disappointed in unrequited love or by lack of societal acceptance. The academic/sociological solution: approve homosexuality.
What we need is more traditionalists in politics --who know better than to throw babies out with bath water --and know better than to abort them as well.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
