A Note on Alcohol for Church Friends and Others ~ Food for Thought

I read Animal Farm, by Geo. Orwell one morning last week.  It’s available free on line and is very instructive even for politics today.  A short book.

I noticed an alcohol theme in Animal Farm.  Had the farmer not been such a lush, he would’ve remembered to feed the animals;  the farm would not have fallen into disarray,  and the animals might not have rebelled.   Based on this experience, the leader-pigs of the farm  made a commandment to not use alcohol at all  (like evangelical churches and old time Methodists did)   It was  one of 7 commandments –and then the pigs start to behave as the farmer did –and start drinking.  They become corrupt and self-centered –as the farmer did  –and next thing you know, they change the commandment  to not drink unto excess!   Apparently not aware that they were doing that.   So even  with this secular author, drinking is portrayed as a slippery slope issue.  

For sure, the  Bible emphasizes avoiding drunkenness more than abstinence.    There were probably few year-round beverage choices, perhaps a risk of contaminated water,  and it  may have been the only temporary anti-depressant and pain reliever available –and “a little wine for the stomach’s sake”  was recommended by Paul.   Sure enough, Johns-Hopkins said moderate drinking may prevent H Pylori bacteria-caused ulcers .  That research hospital  also said antibiotics will take care of the bacteria and warned non-drinking  people to not start drinking for ulcer prevention as they said there are more potential problems from drinking.  The much touted health benefits of daily wine for the heart have been clarified by European study which said that NON-ALCOHOLIC wine has more anti-oxidant health benefits –and reduces blood pressure –more than does alcoholic wine. They said it’s the grapes themselves that have the most benefit and the alcohol reduces that benefit.

Of course, wine didn’t have to be fermented in the Bible to be called “wine.”  The “new wine”  is unfermented –and should be put in new wineskins which can expand when the wine ferments.  The  new wine is the fresh grape juice that tastes much better than alcohol.   (Yes, I’ve tasted –thought ewwwww! )  So maybe the wine of the wedding miracle was really flavorful and rare like “new wine” –which is only available at harvest time.    Most don’t agree with me on that, believing the wine of the wedding and the wine of the wedding feast of the Lamb in Heaven someday –are same as the intoxicating, prized, aged wines of today.  Time (Eternity?)  will tell! 

For people, alcohol  causes so much trouble in society, affecting judgment –and the drinkers don’t notice that their judgment is affected and don’t know they are drunk –as noted  one wife of an alcoholic , speaking up in a S.S. class.   My husband said no amount of pleasure from drinking was worth the horrible things he saw in ER from traffic accidents caused by alcohol.    

In fact, as per-capita consumption of alcohol increases in America, so does societal dysfunction and poverty with addiction –in addition to the  carnage on highways.

 The  great Christian evangelists and reformers in history preached abstinence –and that teaching thru-out our family line has protected many of us from having an alcohol problem.  That’s  why the Free Methodist Church still recommends it for members –though it no longer “requires” it for them –realizing that drinking itself is not biblically forbidden –though there are warnings about it –but does it sometimes pave the path to  poor judgment, regrettable sinful acts, emotions and  attitudes,  liver disease, drunk driving and  pre-mature entrance to Eternity?   Is there still good reason for the Christ-follower  today to set a pattern of abstinence for future generations?  Is  drinking  an avoidable stumbling block for the weaker brethren (including youth)  –which WE avoid for THEIR sake? 

Perhaps abstinence is   self-denial for many good reasons  which ought not be difficult for us  --not like chocolate abstinence would be….   ;  )  But keep perspective:  chocolate, a guilty pleasure for the calories,  doesn’t cause all the dysfunction that alcohol does!  (It, too, has antioxidants.)   God has given us many pleasures that don’t affect judgment , behavior and relationships the way alcohol can.  

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

RE: CANDIDATES FOR OHIO STATE BD. OF ED. 2014

There are three candidates on our ballot for Ohio State Bd of education --we choose one. And need to pray for whoever gets elected.

KATHLEEN A. MCGERVEY-- single, 45, engineer and surveyor, aunt of many children, tutor in math and science for inner city students; concerned for their education. She is a 4-year incumbent on the board which has effected school choice for students from failing schools --and enabled home school students to participate in public school part time and the extra curricular activities (Like my grandson Jacob, now taking 3 classes and marching band at A.W. --a right for home-schoolers considering their parents are also tax payers like the public school parents.) She describes herself as being for "family values" and is endorsed by some good groups.  She is a pro-life Catholic.

If children from inner-city, failing schools qualify for private (including religious) schools, they may now attend the private school with state aid for a better education --if they currently are enrolled in public school and if they apply by a certain deadline. The private school does not, however, have to lower admission, attendance, academic, religious and behavior standards to let such children in. (In my opinion, this funding should be available to all the private school students in ALL districts, and would be if we had vouchers to take to the school of one's choice. As it is, if you are already in private school, even if you live in a failing district, you don't get the aid. You only get it if you need rescued from a failing school --and you have to apply early in the year. The state figures if you are already funding your kids in private school, you don't need their help.)

RAY YOUNG is another self-acclaimed republican conservative running for state board of education. Retired, he has many years of experience as teacher, father, grandfather and other board membership. He is most articulate in writing and speaking. (Hear his interview on WSPD.) Google the candidates--they also have Facebook pages.  He is a Christian who says he will not compromise his convictions as a board member.  


KIM REDFERN, a young mother with small business history, wants more democrats on that board (8 of 19 get appointed by the governor and are likely republicans.) Her husband is chairman of Ohio Democratic Party.

Kim and Ray do not believe in vouchers for school choice --where public funds follow students to private schools. All candidates think charter schools should meet some standards --some of these schools have not tested well. The great irony of liberal thinking on this --the teachers' unions don't want competition by private or charter schools funded by gov't, as it may cut into their incomes. Their idea of "better education is more money" for the public school teachers and the buildings. Yet their schools continue to fail in the inner city.  

The conservative solution is competition for gov't funding from private schools accepting the motivated students from the poorer, failing districts. Help kids escape their unruly peers in schools that can't make up for the deficits of discipline at home and in school. NO question in my mind, that it's the culture of  unwed and teen parenting, fatherlessness and crime and disrespect for authority and rules-- and schools that are large and impersonal --and disrespect for education itself -- which all effect both poverty and failing schools.

I  recommend KATHLEEN MCGERVEY because of good changes allowing school choice by our state board with her on it and support for her from family values groups.  I believe RAY YOUNG is also an acceptable candidate.  Perhaps Kasich can appoint Ray Young some day; my only objection to him is that he IS a professional educator --opposing funding for school choice (PTA questionnaire) --while saying he IS for school choice --just not diverting public school funds to pay for private.

I do wish someone would address the new (as of last year) state requirements on public school teachers concerning their objectives, implementation and measurement of student progress --making new, esoteric, unnecessary, time-consuming burden on the teachers --in addition to the planning, testing and grading they already do. I heard of this from a teacher who is busy enough doing a good job without this new burden from the state.  I don't think it's part of Common Core --but state requirement.

What I believe Christians should care about in education: school choice via vouchers for all, not just the students from failing schools; the rights of home schoolers to some public school participation as tax payers; the whole truth in history ed about religion, racism, native Americans, opportunity for all (see D'Souza's recent film) and sex ed (no --latex does not make sex-perimentation and fornication inevitable and 'right' for teens) --common sense re: "common core," sex ed; school security, drug screening, science ed (don't claim proof  in theories without mention of evidence to the contrary.)

The state should care that every district teaches basic skills and  fair treatment of free enterprise, capitalism, democracy, western civ and even its predominant religion --Judeo-Christianity.  According to Education Research Analysts, a new World History text by a major publisher proposed to the Texas State Bd--whose decisions affect the whole nation's textbook choices-- has much pro-Islam and anti-Christian, anti-American propaganda in it.

What should "educated people" learn?? Liberals have a very different view on these things than do conservative Christians and we do not want a federal department ruling from the top down --especially if their views are liberal, anti American, anti-Christian and plainly immoral. Politics and voting are important --and will affect the culture and future for our children.  

Candidates Ray Young and Kathleen McGervey agree that the feds should not be determining local education policy.   PROFICIENCY TESTING, criticized by most everyone,  came about in states because of the neglect of the basics --the Three R's --the fact that kids were failing to learn to read, etc. all the way to h.s. graduation.  Testing students resulted in intervention --and helped to focus the teachers on the needs of the students --during an era when we were all about "values clarification" and "moral relativity in life skills"  --social engineering -- at the expense of  BASIC SKILLS for making a living and/or  going on to college.  Testing --and "teaching to the tests" --is not all bad if it focuses educators and students on learning basics (even core curricula.)   However, I agree with candidates who don't want to see  teachers judged by their students' test results --because even the best teachers in the failing schools can have really poor students who are "tuned out" to the objectives, possessing poor attitudes --and high truancy rate.

I think we could cut the federal budget effectively by eliminating the federal dep't of education, their Common Core and all. Common Core wouldn't be a bad idea, if we could trust there would be political balance. As it is, we can't even expect balance at a local level --with our liberal schools of eduction turning out liberal teachers and other citizens who desire to "fundamentally change America." Not that there aren't some changes needed these days --but what changes determined by whom?? Co-ed bathrooms for school children as in California? A mayor's demand for ministers' sermons as in Houston, TX? Girls on the boys' wrestling and football teams? Transgender females (males) unfairly competing with women? I don't think so!!!

Revival of common sense needed! And spiritual awakening. There IS a higher power! and His name is Jesus!  Separation of church and state does not mean leaving our faith-based convictions and morals --our respect and search for Truth about God, man and history -- at the voting booth door.

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

CHRISTIANS: TO TATTOO OR NOT TO TATTOO --THAT IS THE QUESTION!

World Magazine addressed the  issue of tattoos this week. [Any comments in brackets are mine.]

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?   Leviticus 19:28 --"you shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead --or tattoo yourselves:  I am the Lord."

WHAT DID THE FAMOUS  PASTOR JOHN PIPER SAY?   . He said tattooing is not a sin, but "be wise and skip it."  He said that since the Leviticus passage is "explicitly anti-tattoo,"  "that should at least give us a few minutes' pause."    He said the permanent nature of tattoos with the painful and expensive cost of removal --may turn them into stumbling blocks later.  [In fact, even in California we hear recently of much demand to remove tattoos at great expense for better chances at jobs.]

WHAT DID PSYCHOLOGY PROF. LUKE TSE  AT CEDARVILLE U. SAY?  He researched the topic among Christian college students in 2008 and found that few consulted pastors or spiritual mentors before getting tattoos --and  "many" sinned in the process because they admitted they disobeyed parents who forbade the practice.  He found a few who minister in Christian punk rock bands who  fit in with their target ministry better, being tattooed.  He questioned whether such permanent skin markings were necessary  for evangelism to the tattooed.

The following is not from World Magazine.

WHAT DID THE  UNTATTOOED PHILOSOPHER ROB ROHRS SAY?    He reminds us that "we are not under the law --but the law is important." [Of course we eat shrimp and pork and we mix fabrics and many think tattoos may be in this category of Biblical laws.   Many also try to sanctify and excuse sexual sins  by the same argument these days.  However, tattoos are clearly not in the same category as sexual sins in their potential for harm to others.] 

WHAT DID A DOC FROM OHIO SAY?   It used to be just military vets and prisoners who had tattoos.   Otherwise, it was a characteristic of pagans and not of believers.  If you are going to do it, BE SURE to use a reputable business (check with the BBB or perhaps Public Health Dep't.)  as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis  have been transmitted by tattoo needles in the past.  He says his older patients don't like how their tattoos look on their older skin and many are embarrassed about them, attributing their acquisition to youthful folly.  He also warns against multiple piercings on the ears --as the cartilage has gotten infected causing disfigurement common to prize fighters, known as "cauliflower ear,"  definitely not a mark of beauty. ]
 
[Leaving our bodies unmarked and unpierced as God made them, was characteristic of  O.T. Jews and has been characteristic of the more modernized (civilized?) cultures --distinguishing us from the pagans who made graven images and art canvasses of their skin.  From where do we get this desire to tattoo?  In the church?  No, from the world and its values of  fads, peer influence, from the world's  standards of beauty and "cool."    From the pagan, unbelieving cultures --from the drug and punk culture --from Hollywood --not from the Bible, the Christians, their families and churches.  As with so many things,  the worldly lead  the culture and the Christians follow.  Instead of the other way around.

I worked with a very poor family with a sexually abusive father.  They lived in most desperate circumstances.  The kids were into tattooing themselves (before it was a fad) with pens and cutting the ink into their skins with pocket knives--self-mutilation.  Part of the cutters' syndrome.  Of course we know of  pagan cultures of the past where the standard of beauty is a disc in the lip, rings stacked to elongate the neck, feet bound to make them small, crippling the girls in China.  I've heard that getting tattooed and pierced  is almost addictive to some people.  

World said a starting price for a small tattoo could be $80.  That would cover 2 or  3 months of child support  through our ICCM ( Int'l Child Care  Ministries)  for  sex traffic prevention.  Or help the Winckles with their "country shares" to run their FM community center in Hungary.     I realize the same argument could be used to criticize Christians for eating out and buying clothes or owning anything nice--however, food and clothes, housing and cars,  are American necessities, whereas tattoos are not. 

However, I am NOT writing this to criticize tattooed Christians  and definitely NOT  saying  the non-tattooed are better Christians.  I know some wonderful Christians, whom I admire, who do have  some inobvious tattoos.
  
Some tattooed believers  say they use their tattoos for witness among the tattooed --and they get Christian-themed tattoos and believe they are  springboards for witness to others who also have tattoos.   If that's really the motivation, so be it.  May the Lord bless their ministries.  (Though I guess a tattoo on the inner thigh or the posterior would not be a witnessing tool?)   

But those who work with  church youth might want to refrain from  recommending  tattoos in teaching or by showing off their own as something good to other people's children --considering many parents hope their kids won't tattoo --at least for its potential to affect their future careers and the expense of both receiving and removing them. 

Yes, tattooing is superficial --generally not reflective of the heart or one's character--possibly not that important one way or the other --not affecting relationships.  However, many  do use tattoos to reflect noble sentiments --love for someone, e.g.--but we shouldn't feel somehow "incomplete"  as untattooed persons --or more attractive with tattoos.
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On a similar issue, I remember when churches and establishment types objected to long hair on the guys --as started in the hippie and rock cultures in the 60's.     (I heard of some Illinois sheriffs out in the country where I taught, who arrested 2 young men -- for what, I don't remember --but they let them off with a penalty of cutting their hair!)   Our Christian profs led the way to longer hair in the church as it became the prevailing style for men's hair at the time. At first,  Jon's grandparents and parents thought the style was sinful,   but  we said to them that Jesus from Nazareth probably had long hair --and for Samson it was a virtue.  As far as I know, there really wasn't any sinful connotation in the Bible against long hair on men, but the church had it as a legalism in western culture --such that when the rockers and the hippies let their hair grow, they INTENDED  to be "anti-establishment"  for worldly reasons --to be "in your face"  to parents, bending the rules and being against the military draft and the Viet Nam war.  At first, the long  hair  on boys and men just symbolized rebellion. Then it became mainstream fashion--and it was never really a sin in itself. Of course, tattooing is a little different than long hair in its Biblical prohibition. But it is another example of how the worldly, often rebellious youth, Hollywood and pop cultures  have affected Christians --more than the Christians have affected them.

 I wrote this because it's topical--in this week's World.  And I believe we should discuss things we do as Christians--and give our youth and parents who raise them wise biblical counsel and well-rounded, informed direction about cultural trends --especially when the church is being challenged to conform to the WORLD'S values in the name of compassion, love and witness. 

Romans 12: 1--I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
² And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
³ For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Can one think soberly and humbly, be a good Christian,  and still get tattoos?   Yes, but would I recommend it?  Not me --but I don't want to be guilty of thinking more highly of myself and my opinion than I ought.  It is a matter for biblical consideration, reflection, personal conviction and I think a discussion on what it means to be worldly and to be good stewards of  both money and the body.  To those who already have tattoos, I'd say, "Don't worry about it."  To those who don't, I'd say,  "Be spiritually and biblically thoughtful first of all."
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"⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."--II Peter 3:9

On Pre-Marital Sex --posted at an Atheist Blog

A woman wrote me that she felt no guilt or unhappiness that she and her husband had had many previous sexual relationships.  Therefore, it's not a sin, she said (after all, there is no God in her view.)  She believes there shouldn't be any teachings that abstinence until marriage is best, or that virginity is good to reserve for one mate --in short, Christians should not promote their views on sex.

I agree that no one should feel ruined or miserable --except to feel the guilt that all of us need to feel for falling short of God's glory --"all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" and because of that we die. We are mortal --all of us --since the first couple's sin. Jesus came saying, "Repent; the kingdom has come!" or "the kingdom is nigh--near --right at hand!" And with the Kingdom and its King comes the chance to start anew --completely forgiven for past error.

If we don't feel any guilt, do we possibly also have a seared conscience?? Would you feel guilty if you were unfaithful to your spouse? Should you feel guilt for betrayal of vows, for infidelity, for lying, stealing, for cruelty, for anything? Should your spouse feel guilty if he did those things to you?

Jesus was very merciful and non-condemning and protective of the woman "caught in adultery" because He said all her accusers were sinners, too --that all had committed adultery in their hearts. He also forgave the man on the cross beside him, a thief, because the man believed in Him. Without guilt, however, is there no deterrent for unkindness and cruelty and selfishness in human relationships? Jesus didn't condone adultery --(or fornication, etc.) or call it the unpardonable sin, but he told the lady to "go and sin no more." He lifted her up.


As long as it isn't my own husband, or my family's spouses, other fornicators and adulterers aren't hurting  me in their sex lives (unless we have to pay for the consequences out of our pockets with tax monies)  --but they do sin against God--because God calls adultery and fornication sin--and for good reasons. The prohibitions are for our good. Fornication caused syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS,  HPV, Herpes, unwed pregnancy --and we have only had cures and good treatments in the last century or half-century  for the STD's --and condoms still aren't fool-proof to prevent all risk of STD's or pregnancy. Many kids have been left fatherless because of fornication and adultery --and forced into poverty. Many people have been broken-hearted and hurt by sex lives that didn't result in marriage --ever--or sex lives that ended their marriages.

So, while you [the atheist commenter to whom I was writing] don't acknowledge that your past sex life was sinful --you should admit that it was risky and could've had very unhappy consequences for you and others --as promiscuity has had for many people.   Pre-marital sex, if not a sin in the view of unbelievers, is at least not the wisest choice for young persons to make.  Not something we should be recommending as harmless.   It is frought with risk. You are lucky or blessed to be happily married now when both of you have history of sex with others.

The whole point of Christ's salvation is to restore to us the joy of our salvation and a relationship with our Maker through faith in His love and presence -- --and there is a Biblical concept of "restoring the years the locusts have eaten." I believe this means that God can bless us from here on out --from the point at which we believe and trust Him and agree with HIS definitions of our sin nature --and the nature of sin.

You  [the commenter] say you think you live with integrity by opposing the Creator of the Universe who "wants to burn your soul?"    That's just about as foolhardy as in, "the fool hath said in His heart, 'There is no God.'"  However, be sure, God does NOT WANT to "burn your soul."  He loves you and has sent a Savior.  He wants us who believe in Him to spread this good news.

Let's see --a Heaven to gain --or a Hell to shun? Which would I rather have for Eternity?

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
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"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Witness to an Atheistic Blog on Homeschooling, Gay Life Span, Salvation

The biggest opposition in America to Christians --and also to home schooling  --comes from those who oppose the Bible and the Bible-believers on the topic of sexuality and also the topic of abortion --those 2.   Atheists  encountered on blogs  often hate believers  for maintaining that there is a God who doesn't like these two "rights" which  Americans have claimed.

[I stumbled across a blog  on the subject of homeschooling --and the atheists there vigorously defended  the virtues of  what Americans  traditionally viewed as immoral.  They don't like the idea that Christians will spread the Biblical definitions of sin to their own children, in their schools, and on blogs --where they often censor speech that disagrees with them.  This blog was my  post to them today.}


Here is one study on lifespan  of homosexuals about which some atheists disputed my report that they die younger than straights:
from http://www.lifesitenews.com/ne...

"...which study was conducted in Vancouver British Columbia and published in 1997 in the International Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 26,657-61: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/.... It almost exactly mirrors the findings of the maligned  Family Research Institute and the Camerons, their psychologists.

"Despite their attempts to downplay the practical consequences of their research, it is difficult to ignore that
the study concluded with the statement that “'under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre [Vancouver, BC] are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871.'” Corresponding almost exactly with Cameron’s study, the Vancouver study indicated that “'life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men.'” 

That is reason enough to not paint a falsely rosey picture about activities and promiscuity common to the gay (male) community. --suggesting that latex really will prevent all the bad consequences of casual and/or unnatural sex (recommended by some of you here as harmless) --be it hetero or homosexual in nature.

I've seen very intelligent people here, very literate, articulate, presumably educated people --call immorality good --and morality, evil. Just as the Bible predicts of "the last days." Some have said promiscuity is ok with protection--and virginity is nothing to recommend to youth --and "whatever feels good is permissable--even if you like giving yourself and others pain--consensually."

It's good for every culture to consider that these could be "the last days" for they are "the last days" for each of us in our mortality.  We don't know when Christ will return--or when we shall die.  Jesus told us to be prepared.   It happens that there will be "4 blood moons" (lunar eclipses) this year and next --the only time this century--on Jewish high holy days -- and a solar eclipse between the 4. In the past, a tetra-lunar occurrence like this coincided with significant events for Israel. And significant events for Israel signal the return of Christ ultimately.

Prophecy says that the return of Christ will mean our end for choice regarding our spiritual destiny --when He says all the nations will be gathered and "the King" --the Son of Man (Christ) will separate the people as a shepherd separates goats and sheep --and He will send the righteous to eternal life and the unrighteous who failed at the Matt. 25 kindnesses, to "eternal punishment."   I hope that "eternal punishment" is just eternal non-existence --rather than eternal suffering.  However, Jesus said there is a place prepared for the devil and his angels where the unrighteous will go --where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth."   In any case, we have been forewarned. Atheists do rail against a God who would do this and yet be called merciful by His followers.

I remind us all that our God HAS allowed great suffering --even to His children --his followers and believers --and charges us with the responsibility to fight evil and death and help each other --and trust him when we suffer and die.  So why wouldn't He have a Hell?   We can shake our puny fists  Heavenward about the plight of fallen, suffering humanity who chose sin over obedience to their Creator/Designer --or we  can make peace with Him while there is yet time. Jesus says it is God's LOVE for His creation for which He sent Christ to give us another chance at immortality where there is no more suffering, sorrow, sickness or death. He says He is the Good Shepherd who rescues His sheep --but we do need to want to be rescued. Salvation is a free gift --when we repent (His first public message) our sins will be deleted from God's celestial computer-Mind --to be remembered against us no more. He is absolute holiness, purity, justice --and it is this justice about which the Bible says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

We speculate rightly that our knowledge and understanding of God is partial --only what He has revealed in His Word and through Christ . There is still much mystery. I believe our biblical view of Him and prophecy is the view He has given us . If it weren't so thoroughly debunked by creation scientists (who are real credentialed  scientists) --if it were not for the lack  of proof and lack of ongoing transitions between kinds of creatures --I could even swallow Darwin's evolution of amoeba to man via lower life forms --as trial and error in God's celestial laboratory where life was created. Instead of that imaginative theory, I imagine angelic competition to come up with all the life forms for planet Earth --all the funny creatures --God's sense of humor.  We are told that  humans are made in HIS image --wherever He resides and whoever He is --He is SPIRIT --like we are within  our amazing minds ---those slimy brains that have computer-esque abilities --natural intelligence that created the artificial to help us. How can you not have AWE for the capabilities of a brain (and the rest of our bodies) --and conclude instead that our consciousness and mental capabilities are a product of an organ that just "evolved" without a DesignerController?


Stands to reason that the Designer would communicate to us a possibility for eternal life out of love for His creation--and that is what Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, came to tell man --that's the purpose of God taking the Jews out of Egypt --honoring a covenant He made with one man, Abraham --and then keeping that covenant thru the Law given to Moses --for our good. And ultimately providing a Savior through the descendents of Abraham--"Immanuel --God with us" "Jesus --for He will save His people from their sins." A Jesus who teaches the worth of every individual in God's sight. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him will have eternal life. For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world --but that the world through Him might be saved."

And yet, we are choice-makers with free will --and we choose to break his laws.  Mortality  (death) is our continued curse --except that Christ does break the power of sin and death for those who pursue and abide in the Word --the greatest life-changer that the world knows. It is His resurrection (and miracles and raising others from the dead) that convinced His disciples that He was the promised Messiah of the Jews --whose resurrection means we, too, can be resurrected as the Risen one promised.

I can't over-state the value of the peace and joy that really comes with faith in the Christ of Christmas --the Christ of Easter. "I serve a risen Savior --He's in the world today --I know that he is risen --no matter what men say. I see His hand of mercy--I hear His voice of cheer --and just the time I need Him --He's always near. --He lives! He lives --Christ Jesus lives today --He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way --He lives --He lives, Salvation to impart --you ask me how I know He lives --He lives within my heart!"

His Spirit bears witness with ours. I can't over recommend to atheists and agnostics to ASK GOD to make himself real to you. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Yes, repentance is a hard thing to go through --a sad thing to admit and be remorseful for "messing up" in life.  It does bring fearful questions about loved ones who died without faith.  But Jesus was very kind and merciful --a friend of sinners. Not condoning or condemning but delivering --and "restoring to us the joy of our salvation" --"restoring to us the years the locusts have eaten" --and He promises to be  merciful when we continue to fail.


"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He is our defense attorney who said He intends to KEEP safe all whom His father gives Him-- all the sheep --the believers who obey in compassion, mercy, forgiveness, generosity, and own their sins so that He may delete them.


See Matt. 25 about our destiny: http://www.biblegateway.com/pa...

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

BATES MOTEL --SO FAR-- Compelling mysteries!

Is anyone watching the BATES MOTEL series?
The movie of a young man's descent into insanity doesn't appeal to me --or so I thought, but they showed all 4 episodes thus far on Sat. night and I thought --"well, I'll just watch a little," and Jon and I were drawn in by compelling characters, actors, directing. It's quite a compelling drama! Fifth episode is tonight. I'm hoping this has a different ending than the later Hitchcock movies. I want artistic license to be redemptive! with triumph of good over evil! I like happy endings! Never was one for soap operas!

It appears that there are not any GOOD persons in the show except Norman's 2 girlfriends and Norman himself. Even his brother who has come home for lack of other options --and taken a turn for the better toward Norman and is befriending/protecting him (at last)-- told him to "go be a normal teen --go get laid at 17 with a pretty teen girl!" And the worldly audience probably found themselves agreeing that that's just what Norman needed! as he went off to visit the girlfriend --who invited him at night --a girl whose beloved father was mysteriously murdered by fire in his warehouse. Next we'll have a teen love triangle with the other girl who has cystic fibrosis --who also has a crush on him. Then maybe there'll be a pregnancy or an abortion--and goodness knows what from such lousy brotherly advice.

The story is contemporized --with teens texting on their phones and a sex-trafficking mystery involving Asian girls and a journal of drawings about their plight found by Norman under the carpets --after they removed the carpets for blood --because his likable mother murdered her rapist, a gross fellow who formerly owned the property and lost it in foreclosure. Norman caught him in the act, bonked him on the head, they handcuffed him to a table leg --and his mother went into a rage and stabbed the guy to death. We suspect mother caused an accidental death to her husband, too, Norman's father, for insurance money. That's another mystery. The estranged son, Norman's brother --was born to the mother when she was 17 to a man who left her --and that son never respected her (calls her Norma) --so she favored Norman. Her facial expressions are terrific --with a mix of kindly motherly affection for Norman and vulnerability to the disrespectful son. She seems neither crazy nor particularly inappropriate with her sons --so far.

The older brother gets a job, starts helping out at home. His job is guarding a big secret marijuana field --near which there is a cabin in the woods --featured in the Asian girl's drawings in her journal.

The police suspected Norma in the disappearance of her rapist -- she and Norman dumped him in the lake --and carpet fibers found on his recovered hand from his body matched the motel's carpet which they removed because of blood residue as the police arrived. They had stored him in a bathtub of one of the motel rooms --after murdering him in the kitchen. She chose not to report his rape of her and her understandable rage leading to his murder --it wasn't self-defense since they had him handcuffed and helpless. He had once claimed the police were his fishing buddies when she threatened to call the police on him for his threatening ways --so she figured the police would discount the rape, and she figured no one would want to visit a motel where there had been a murder. She already found out that a freeway was being put in on the other side of town which would hurt her business.

Another twist --the sheriffy's deputy has become Norman's mother's lover --as he found the dead man's belt under Norman's bed and promised to keep it and not tell on them. Norman had kept the belt as a memento of the event --and wonders why and what's wrong with him for doing so. Norman's mother apparently told him to get the belt back --so he goes to the deputy's house --and he finds, not the belt, but an Asian girl in the basement --apparently a sex slave. He tells his mother --and she looks in the basement when she is with the deputy at his place and he falls asleep --and there doesn't appear to be a girl there anymore.

So what's going on? Norman had a trance and black-out in the classroom thinking about the drawings in the journal. There is a scene in which the mother tells him to reclaim the dead man's belt from the deputy's house because he could use it as blackmail to get whatever he wanted from her --to make HER his sex slave. Yet, the deputy claims to love the mother --took Norman fishing --says he will protect them.

Everyone knows the dead man was a brute and had it in for his mother. Nevertheless, when they find the dead-man's fish-severed hand with watch and carpet fibers in the lake, they arrest Norman's mother. That's where the story takes up tonight.

Mystery: Norman's mother says she did NOT tell him to get that belt from the deputy's house, tells him he has been having delusions like this all his life, tells him there IS no Asian girl in the deputy's basement because she went down and looked. But the deputy could have moved her --because when deputy got home he found his vicious dog locked up in his bedroom --(by norman) and basement window was left open, too, from which Norman fled. So the deputy may have known someone had been in the house --and thus moved the girl. Or is Norman imagining the girl from the journal drawings? There is something fishy going on here --his CF girlfriend found Chinese writing under a bathroom sink in the motel --the figures spelled "Beautiful." But why would you write that word under a sink? Perhaps it is her name! And she was leaving evidence of her presence in that room.

Wow! Lot's of mystery --and no one to trust!

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

Open Letter to Bob Ferguson, Wash. State AG --on Persecution of Florist

Dear Mr. Ferguson: (Attorney General of Washington state)

We are told that people of religious conscience on the gay marriage issue have nothing to fear from the government if gay marriage is legalized. Thanks for proving this untrue before the Supreme Court rules on the issue. I hope they take note.

There is a lot of research that shows that the children who lack a father fill our jails, do poorly in school, and follow the footsteps of their parents, unable to remain married and sustain happy homes. Three researchers found that children raised by homosexuals are 35% more likely to fail a grade.

Functional homes with both mother and father intact produce the most children able to marry and parent normally --civilizing and educating the next generation --providing an economic safety net and a mental health center and good school for life for their children and grand-children. The homes which lack fathers tend to need a lot of gov't aid --and tend to produce similar, fatherless, poverty-status homes.

What your office has done is shameful --to tell private business people that homosexuals are the same as minority races --and thus those who fail to provide services for their weddings --or housing for their unions --are in violation of the civil rights of homosexuals.

There have always been limits on our sexual proclivities: illegal prostitution; illegal obscenity as porn; age restrictions; consent restrictions (no legal rape) ; restrictions on bigamy and polygamy; and restrictions on bestiality and incest --and re: GENDER!

Everyone has the same right --to marry --and marriage is the union of a man and wife --according to historical definition and nature, our physical design as procreative people. The age and fertility status (inability to procreate) does not prevent an adult couple from being role models of the natural order. Married heterosexual people do role- model the natural order as male with female. All else is problematic for our young people influenced by adults as role models; they are impressionable and not ready to make mature decisions about intimacy and procreation. Youth who start to sex-plore their gender roles, end up vulnerable to STD's, depression, and all the downsides of serial broken relationships. Older gays tend to be lonely due to the emphasis on youth and beauty in their community. They do commit 1/3 of the molestations between adults and youth --which is way more than their percentage of the population.

Our national encouragement should be to wait for marriage before having sex. Some people still do that, you know, believe it or not. And all people have a right to heterosexual marriage --there is no discrimination against people --just against immoral sexual inclinations, lust, and choices. We need to protect our children from the lie that is "homosexual happiness." Gays aren't typically gay. They are angry because they want their anal and oral sex to be respected. They tend to hate those who disagree with them --rather than receiving hatred from the religious. The argument now is to say that straights do it, too. I haven't found in my medical practice that ANY women are succumbing to anal sex --or that oral sex is an oft-practiced event for heterosexual couples. There are some real health concerns with sodomy. According to recent study of obituaries in gay-friendly San Francisco, only 20+% of homosexuals attain old age --compared to over 70% of heterosexuals.

If the Christians are right - if Jesus Christ did rise from the dead, we should consider His definition of marriage --man leaves parents and cleaves to his wife. St. Paul called homosexuality "exchanging the truth about God for a lie, " and "worship of creature more than Creator."

Don't ask this florist to violate her conscience, be it religious or moral concerns or both --by participating in gay weddings. Which is better, to serve God or man or money? Don't make this small business pay for refusing to help solemnize sodomy.

Sincerely,
Jonathan E. Rohrs, MD
Family Medicine

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

NOM on Barronelle Stutzman's Persecution by Wash. State' AG

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2013
Dear Jonathan,
...the news this week [is]t hat Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson is using taxpayer funding to bring a lawsuit against a small Washington state florist named Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene's Flowers and Gifts. Stutzman's crime? Refusing to sell flowers for a gay wedding.

For this 'thought crime' against gay marriage, her whole livelihood is now put at the stake.

It was only a few months ago, before the November elections, when gay marriage advocates were sanctimoniously getting on television and reassuring voters that our claims of the religious persecution that comes hand in hand with redefining marriage were unfounded. Made up. Untrue. They knew at the time they were not telling the truth. Because now, just a few months later, the ACLU and a State Attorney General are the ones at the forefront of making sure that Christians who disagree with gay marriage pay a price for acting on their convictions.

Failure to tell the truth—call it a lie—arises from the fundamental lie: same-sex unions are not marriages because they cannot ever, under any circumstances, do the fundamental, key, and irreplaceable work that marriages do: bringing together under one home, in one family, the two great halves of humanity, male and female—to create homes in which children are known and loved by their own mother and father.
Not every marriage succeeds in creating the full range of goods that marriage aims at. But when marriages succeed in doing so, it's because they combine elements and circumstances that no same-sex couple can.

Suppressing the truth is what same-sex marriage advocates have to do to "win" the debate (temporarily, anyway).

How Truth is Suppressed

That's why, when a distinguished social scientist does an ordinary act like publishing his research in a major peer-reviewed journal—all pandemonium must break loose to discredit him. Not just disagree with him. Not just contextualize or re-contextualize his data—that would be normal scientific debate. But to smear him as a non-scientist and to ignore his work.

That's the crucible University of Texas Prof. Mark Regnerus has been going through and still is going through.

C-FAM's Austin Ruse recently pointed this out in his piece on Regnerus:
"Science Study Still Spooking Gay Advocates."

Ruse points to Dr. Susan Yoshihara, research director of C-FAM, who used the Regnerus study before the legislature in Rhode Island. So-called "fact-checkers" claimed her testimony was false:

Politifact, a self-styled watchdog of political truth, branded Yoshihara's claim as false. Yoshihara, however, says the Politifact piece itself backed up her claim when they quoted a "prudent scholar" who said the issue is not settled in the scientific literature, which was Yoshihara's claim in the first place.

Ruse also cites the recent claim by former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, who said that "The study was pretty well demolished by peers."

But for me the worst was a claim in the LA Times that the Supreme Court was just silly to entertain the idea children do best with a mom and dad. Justice Scalia had made the assertion that "there's considerable disagreement" about whether "raising a child in a single-sex family is harmful or not," an assertion no doubt based in part on Regnerus's research.

"Those comments startled child development experts as well as advocates of gay marriage, because there is considerable research showing children of gay parents do not have more problems than others," the LA Times went on to report with a straight face…. '"There is a fundamental, scholarly consensus that children raised by same-sex couples do just fine,' said Stanford sociologist Michael J. Rosenfeld."

Yet I know of—and I'm no sociologist—at least 5 studies published in peer-reviewed journals whose results contest the "no difference claim": Mark Regnerus (2012), Loren Marks (2102), Douglas Allen (2012), Daniel Potter (2012), and Theresa Sirota (2009).

Listen, social science is not a "hard science," and I don't need to know from merely scientific evidence what I know in my heart from my own experience and the experience of so many children raised in fragmented families: children long for and need their mother and their father. But simply as a statement about the scientific literature, the claim there is now a "consensus" is untrue. The claim can be made only by ignoring the reputable scientists whose works disagree with that claim.

Truth matters to us, but it's not clear it matters to gay marriage advocates.
If you doubt me, listen to the voice of the extraordinary British writer Brendan O'Neill—a one-time Marxist, a man of the Left, who has spoken out repeatedly against the use of elite power to shut down the debate over same-sex marriage across the pond:

I have been doing or writing about political stuff for 20 years, since I was 18 years old, during which time I have got behind some pretty unpopular campaigns and kicked against some stifling consensuses. But I have never encountered an issue like gay marriage, an issue in which the space for dissent has shrunk so rapidly, and in which the consensus is not only stifling but choking. This is the only issue for which he has been not only booed but threatened with death.

"Is it a good thing, evidence that we had a heated debate on a new civil right and the civil rights side won?" O'Neill asks. And then he answers his own question:
I don't think so. I don't think we can even call this a 'consensus', since that would imply the voluntaristic coming together of different elements in concord. It's better described as conformism, the slow but sure sacrifice of critical thinking and dissenting opinion under pressure to accept that which has been defined as a good by the upper echelons of society: gay marriage. Indeed, the gay-marriage campaign provides a case study in conformism, a searing insight into how soft authoritarianism and peer pressure are applied in the modern age to sideline and eventually do away with any view considered overly judgmental, outdated, discriminatory, 'phobic', or otherwise beyond the pale.

"Gay marriage," he writes, "brilliantly shows how political narratives are forged these days, and how people are made to accept them."

Narrative is the relevant word here. Not hard truths uncovered, but stories created to whose allegiance people are held by threats, by bribes, and by conformist pressures.

The editor of First Things, Rusty Reno, has a similar set of concerns for what all this means for our democratic society. "If government can reshape marriage, it can reshape everything," his article explains:
Tyranny isn't just a situation in which the government is telling you what to do at every moment. It's also a society in which government says that, if necessary, it can. In this respect gay marriage reflects a dramatic enlargement of government. If legislatures and courts can redefine marriage, what can't it intervene to reshape and re-purpose?

The tyranny of the conformists, backed by government's coercive power, were on display in Washington State when the ACLU decided independently to sue the same florist the Attorney General is pursuing.

But first they sent this poor woman a letter:
Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed's lawyers, working with the legal powerhouse at the ACLU of Washington, sent a letter today to Arlene's Flowers owner Baronelle Stutzman saying she has two options: (1) She can vow to never again discriminate in her services for gay people, write an apology letter to be published in the Tri-City Herald, and contribute $5,000 to a local LGBT youth center, or (2) she can get sued for violating the Washington State Civil Rights Act.
Conform to our falsehood. Pretend you believe things you do not. Or face the consequences. George Orwell, call your office.

But here's the good news in all this: It's going to get bad, we already know this. But in the end truth has a power that no narrative, no story can compete with.
Our job is to remain firmly fixed on the truth about marriage, to speak up for it with love in in our heart, and with the courage to never bow before the false gods, the untruths, the made-up stories offered to us in place of reality.

I am so honored to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with you for God's truth about marriage. Thank you for making this enormous megaphone possible.
I treasure your friendship, your prayers, your words of encouragements, your sacrifices of time and treasure on behalf of this great cause.
Bless you!

Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage

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

With Sympathy for Rick Warren's Family

Our prayers are with Rick Warren's family.  I googled and found there are those on the left who are unsympathetic --because of Rick Warren's evangelical stand against homosexual marriage. They erroneously believe that the Christian stand against homosexual relations is a primary cause of suicide among homosexuals --and they muse that Rick's son was probably gay.  

 In fact, the activities in the gay life are such that self-loathing and depression can result --without any doctrinal causes.    Nevertheless, in this case, the LEFT is proving itself to be like the misguided Westboro Church showing up at military funerals to say that America's homosexuality is causing our military deaths.  That church's view lacks any Biblical support concerning individual soldiers who die in war.  And likewise,  it is just as  cruel a  point of view to speculate that Matthew Warren's suicide is for any other reason than depression.  

I was just ONCE what you would call "clinically depressed;"  and this was 8 years or so after a wonderfully affirming spiritual experience --so I didn't lack assurance of salvation per se.  I was almost Matthew Warren's age at 26.   I was pregnant for the first time and the chemicals of the condition knocked me for a loop for several months  so that I just never felt good.  Like  post-partum depression, it has no rational cause.  You can't explain why the world looks grey, cold, impersonal and bleak and you feel overcome with dark thoughts--I had no complaint.  I just was overwhelmed with despair --and it wasn't because I didn't want my baby --or that I felt unloved --or anything I could put my finger on.  Chronic tiredness and nausea was part of it and is part of pregnancy sometimes. (I'm still easily "so tired.")   I would force myself to go to my aunt's or an acquaintance's house --to just not be alone in that mental state. (When Jon was at school.)  

I am so glad that my condition didn't seem to affect my wonderful first baby.  And I never had the condition to that extent again.   I heard that my grandfather and an uncle had bouts of such depression when in THEIR 20's. 

Depression is often alleviated today with medicines affecting our brain chemistry. 

I know some people recommend strongly that young adults live on their own to  experience rent and bills, etc.    In Matthew's case, being single,  perhaps he should've lived with his parents.   Did he have a career?  It would be hard to be the son of such a successful man --in today's economic market --when careers are hard to establish --and jobs hard to find --and you are going nowhere financially and don't have a girlfriend.  None was mentioned.

Our single son lives at home --and he stays busy and cheerful --and is an immense help to us and his grandmothers --and his church. He is an extension of his father in the care of his home, wife, mother, property --so that his father doesn't have to worry about those things.  With 2 college degrees, he works for his father at something he says will never be a career for him.  I don't appreciate those who advise that living alone would be a panacea to mature a person and jump start him into relationships, marriage, and career direction for need of money.  I do think a girlfriend/ wife  can help to focus the future --but living alone after college and without a career is an expensive option fraught with many time-wasting, ungodly temptations these days.  And no panacea against depression either.   I think Matt Warren went home to an empty house/apartment.

 But I also want to believe He went home to a merciful Heavenly Father with His sins covered by the atoning blood of Christ --who would have great compassion for the desperation of the depressed son of his servants, Pastor & Mrs. Rick Warren. Depression leading to suicide  is not usually the sin of arrogance and rebellion --but of despair.  I believe Christ was there to pick him up as he descended into the abyss that is death.  I imagine he asked God's forgiveness as he went --and received it.


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

About the Boy Scouts & Gays in their Ranks

A BLOGGER in a news forum --IN RESPONSE TO ME --THE ISSUE WAS ORIGINALLY ABOUT THE BOY SCOUTS AND THEIR DILEMMA ABOUT GAYS:

BLOGGER: Hey, I don't like this comment. Please remove it.

Nice job treating a group of humans as trash.

Superb example of "Christ's Love for All".

------------------------------
The comment to which he objected --We were asked if our kids were gay, would we reject them? My answer at the time:
Barb  (January 30, 2013): I would grieve --love them, but grieve for the mess between their ears. For our failure to affirm their gender identity and moral and spiritual commitment to Christ. I would not attend their sham "weddings" or invite them to share a bedroom with partner under my roof. I would wonder what we could've done to prevent their confusion/sin --and their first association with other homosexuals such that they wanted those activities which are so frought with promiscuity and disease.  In medical research on HIV, 2  stranger-encounters (sex) per week were reported by average homosexual during height of AIDS crisis. The males suffer prostatitis, high rate of STD's, anal fissures and incontinence --potentially, eventually. Women are giving neck and head cancers from HPV to their oral sex partners of either sex. They won't give us grandchildren by any normal means. They won't know the joy of heterosexual love and parenting as God designed it to be. If they start into this, they become addicted --and may never repent of choosing this lifestyle instead of God's plan for their bodies, they may miss out on Heaven --without repentance. A time for parental grief all the way round.

My response to BLOGGER's private message to me at the top:

Thanks for bothering to write your feelings about my posts on the scouting issue. If you looked there, you would see a lot of my rationale on this gay issue.   [e.g. I don't believe in labeling boys or adolscents as gay nor excluding them from scouts, unless they are "out of the closet"  and think it's justifiable to have crushes on or pursue the other scouts or are known to be sexually active with other boys.  I would hope scouts would help them find a niche with heterosexual boys and men, such that they were affirmed by and  identified with normal guys --even in orientation.]  

  I don't know if you are homosexual --most objectors to what I write are. But I certainly won't remove it because it is an obligation to warn the uninitiated --and the homosexuals --of the physical and spiritual risks of settling for homosexual relations instead of growing up into God's design plan for man and woman.

We are made in the image of God as female for male. Our bodies are complementary. homosexuals know what each other likes sexually because they have the same bodies --but God didn't want us to short-circuit our potential there. Romans 1 is very clear --start with verse 18 --it is clear that homosexual proliferation today is part of the wickedness of these times --as in other times. A worship of creature more than Creator. Exchanging the truth about God for a lie --and receiving the recompense for their error in their bodies --such that God gives them up to lusting after their own sex. It almost suggests he gives up on them. But elsewhere in the NT it tells of former homosexuals and other converted sinners as part of Christ's church so there is hope in conversion.

How do you dignify the activities which are unsanitary, injurious, promiscuous usually, and simply not what our bodies are designed for? Even gay leaders like Andrew Sullivan admit that gay partners don't expect absolute fidelity like heteros do. God Himself is a jealous God --and wants no idolatry from us. He doesn't expect marriages to hold when one is unfaithful to the other. But homosexuals know that they are orgasm-focused (by early homosexual indulgence) and weak-willed as regards either fidelity to partners --or to God.


"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

"If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us."

Satan is a deceiver and the Father of Lies --his native language is lying --Jesus said.

Today
10:28am
BLOGGER

What if someone doesn't share your religious convictions? What moral basis do you have for your argument for people who do not share your faith?

1:18pm
Barb
If it's not a matter of religion, it is still a matter of role modeling to future generations about the purpose and design of gender. We know kids do better with both their original father and mother --not hindered by divorce and the deprivations common for single mothers and the kids when there is no man to share the load --or to role model masculinity to the boys. Someone needs to raise the children --and give us children. There is no societal need or call to the mutual pleasuring involved in homosexual relations.

1:24pm
Barb
As for religion--I was just telling some youngsters last night who brought up the tragedy of Syria --and wondered how anyone could do what they have done to babies and children. I told them about Pol Pot and his bayonets on the march of refugees from Cambodia --and Communists and Stalin killing 50 million --and the 6 million Jews and 5 million others murdered by Nazis --and the girl, in 8th grade, had just learned somewhere about the chemical showers in Nazi Germany.

I said atheism and Islam fuel horrendous atrocities --and America has an atrocity of its own in legal abortion. That it is the Judeo-Christian faith and the Bible that stand tallest and strongest against the cruelty and evil in the world. Saying "Thou shalt not murder." And "love your enemy" and "forgive 70 x7." It made America the best place, the most humane and generous place in the world to live.

And the weaker we are in our religious convictions, the more immoral we are, and the more hateful and violent we become. Watch homosexuals talk to Christians online --they HATE them and want to hound them out of the discussion and get them censored.

Some people hate gays--but I think it's more often the other way around. Christians don't want their children to consider that homosexuality is harmless and good --because it is neither. It is not the best. It short-circuits their potential to be happy as spouses and parents --and grandparents.  It is not cruel to deny them the legal status of "marriage" with their adverse role modeling and involvement with youth --putting gay sex ed into our public schools and requiring us to hire them in churches and admit them to religious schools as though they were a minority like RACE --ignoring the Bible.  We aren't working to deny them  their "weddings" or their lifestyles --e.g. in the Episcopalian  or other unbiblical churches --but legal recognition by such churches and gov't will doom this nation ultimately.

The people doing the most "breeding"  (rather than parenting) these days are men not making commitments to a wife and kids --and the result is the violence of a Chicago.  It is also the black youth who are the leading recipients of HIV/AIDS today --and their women are the 2nd most afflicted as new cases.   We need a restoration of the family to role-model normalcy to youth --and a reformation of tv --and thus, culture.  No more GLEE.   TV is the main culprit in changing culture for the the worse --such that young people are shameless in their shacking up with either sex.

 

LIBERALS THINK MAN IS GOOD, SINS & ALL

 Rant of the Day: I was reading Time's man of the year issue on Obama and saw all the teams of dems who helped his re-election--and it occured to me that a big difference between the parties is the Liberals' belief that mankind is essentially GOOD and IMPROVING, evidenced because they elected Obama and are winning in their belief that it's good to approve and encourage EVERYBODY'S lifestyle as a civil right --including the transgenders, gays, polygamists, promiscuous, prostitutes, drug-users, porn-makers and addicts.  This is seen as non-judgmental and progressive--even "Christian."

Thinking that anything is a sin is "judgmental."

And yet, the Religious and the Religious Right, who follow the Judeo-Christian Bible, know that we are desperately wicked in our inclinations --we are a sinful people --and we need knowledge of "right" and "wrong" that we may know what needs to be repented and changed in our behaviors and thinking. "Judge not lest ye be so judged" does NOT mean "approve all behaviors, traditionally viewed as sins; say nothing against any behavior lest you be wrongfully judging."

About the only thing most of us agree on, both right and left, would be that saving the planet is good (but how? and R we responsible for weather and disaster by our SINS, in the hands of an angry God, or by our carbon footprint? or are variations just normal for Earth-life?) 

We also agree that stopping gun violence is good but don't agree on how this should be done. We agree that helping the poor and elderly and ill is good.  Pedophilia, sex slavery, murder, theft, rape, etc. are still viewed as wrong. Yet, we don't seem to be getting fewer of these behaviors..and we have way too many poor because of their lifestyle choices and the legacy of THEIR parents.

We don't seem equally bothered about cheating/adultery on the Left as on the Right because the biggest, unbowed, unrepentant presidential cheater of all (as far as we know) is still the darling of the Left --Bill Clinton. It's considered mean, hateful and disrespectful that I would even mention him in this negative context. I'm not stoning him --I'm just suggesting that Jesus be the hero for forgiving --and not the adulterers celebrated in spite of their selfish, unrepented acts.

The Left won't agree that  abortion kills over a million people a year in a violent, painful procedure.  They won't agree that Hollywood and TV are causing cultural erosion and should be reigned in before all the kids are debauched; that porn is a world-wide blight instead of a first amendment "right," that TV shows glorifying shallowness and nasty dog-eat-dog behavior (as in The Bachelor/bachelorette/survivor shows) , pregnant teens, overweight children with unmarried hillbilly parents (poor Honey Boo Boo), pre- and extra-marital sex, shacking up,  foul language, nudity, polygamists, homosexual relations, transgendering, and brassieres should be discouraged by lack of sponsors.

Even Dr. Phil gets it wrong sometimes --encouraging "slutty dress" the other day as benign. Unwittingly setting up mothers and daughters against each other on the importance of dress and the message which dress really does convey. He called those who were wanting young women to dress respectfully and honorably "judges" of others. As mothers, do we not think there is a message conveyed by certain ways of dressing?? a message to men, in particular? a message that we ought not want to send? Should a good culture not TEACH its young right from wrong and encourage and celebrate the Right --instead of the wrong?

Democrats as Progressives? Not really! It's regression we observe in American culture today --led by the LEFT.

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

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

OPEN LETTER --WE SENT TO M/M OBAMA

The letter below is what I sent to the Obamas from my husband and me. I guess he did what I asked concerning taxes on the rich --starting at $400,000 (or was it $450,000?) instead of $250,000 which would have meant increasing taxes on  millions of  job-creating, small-business-people making less the uber rich--and yet well-off - like the bourgeoise (the middle class and business class) of Russia when Communists took over and pitted the proletariat (blue collar worker) against the bourgeoise, taking over their businesses, houses and lands for the state.)

November 9, 2012
President & First Lady of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President and Mrs. Obama:

We --and the Romney-supporters (half the country) really do want to like you with your nice smile, great charisma and lovely family. We want to be glad that you were re-elected. You can help us do that. We don’t want to think you have communistic sympathies or a colonialist view of the U.S. nor plans to disarm our country with promises to Putin.

You did say in your speech a few moments ago that the top 2 per cent of the nation make $250,000 or more and should be taxed more. Those include mostly the lower end of that income, the small business owners and various professionals --who live like “middle-class” --rather than the super-rich of the top 1/2 per cent like yourself and the ultimate uber rich like Romney and other million dollar -plus a year people. Those making high 5 figures, and 6 figures up to $250,000 are Marx's bourgeois --the middle class educated conservatives whom Communists destroyed. According to 2009 and Tax Payers Union, it was $344,000 that the top 1 per cent make. There aren’t very many uber-rich who make millions like Romney, Hollywood celebs, uni coaches and presidents and CEO's of big corporations --not enough of them to slow the deficit if you keep adding more people to the poverty rolls, approving pork and new billion dollar spending packages and sending tons of money to other nations' corrupt governments.

Please surprise the half of the country that supported Romney. We are scared to death of your agenda --what we perceive it to be--and the radical influences in your past. Please prove us wrong. Show that you can cut programs for which we should not borrow from China. We know --that means lost public sector jobs --but if China is paying them, they have to go. If they are valuable employees in a department we don’t really need, they will find work elsewhere in a more prosperous private sector --i.e. more prosperous if you don't tax them down.

We suggest you not raise taxes EXCEPT SLIGHTLY on the uber rich -- the top 1/2 per cent. You still want them to be inclined to invest, hire, spend and give. Learn from business people who know how to succeed at business and know how taxes impact growth. The Government needs way too much revenue because of the horrible level of spending. Let Big Bird support Public Broadcasting. He can do it. They can sell muppets. As for Public Radio, put Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion on every day and we’ll send them a donation. PBS is not neutral enough politically that they should deserve tax-payer support. They speak in their measured, neutral, unemotional tones --leaning WAY to the left --as far left as Fox News speaks excitedly with no pretense of neutrality, to the right. But Fox raises their own money. So can NPR. (Note: “fair and balanced” doesn’t mean neutral. Gov’t stations should be neutral.)

Planned Parenthood shouldn't get public funding if pro-life Pregnancy Centers and clinics don't. The poor women will still get healthcare using their medicaid cards and the public health clinics.

You must move toward the center if you would meet the Republicans half way and end the supposed gridlock. Your determination should be NO NEW SPENDING --and the elimination of all non-essential spending and departments that don’t directly impact the needy or the elderly or the ill. Send the education of the nation back to the locals. Shut down the federal department of education. Send the school breakfast program to the churches. Promote volunteer tutoring by the elderly in every public school. Note that Christian and parochial and home schools educate best on way less money.

And for goodness sakes, PLEASE deliver to the nation’s youth Santorum’s message from your bully pulpit. The 3things to do to avoid poverty: “Finish high school; get a job; get married before having children--( and stay married if possible. Stay faithful. ) If you do even the first 3 things on this list, 98% of you will be above poverty line; 77% will be above average in income.”

There really is a correlation between family stability and morality and the strength of communities and nations. You are for gay marriage, but ought not be, because children deserve a mother and father when possible. Gay marriage deprives them of one or the other by its very nature. Nor should gays share quarters with straights (or with each other) in military. It’s like putting men and women together in showers and barracks--completely distracting to the mission of military preparedness. Homosexuality does spread --from the experienced to the inexperienced, and like drugs, becomes addictive. No evidence yet that we are born homosexual. U. of Texas published a 2012 study that said the adult children of homosexual parent are among the most miserable and dysfunctional of all young adults.

Please be better than conservatives expect. Seriously try to understand the logic and reason behind conservatism and their criticism of your party and policies. Communism hasn’t been appreciated anywhere where it is tried. Socialism leads to the fiscal cliff --sliding like Greece--and you’ve got us on the edge. Surprise us --and do not push us over. Don’t tax us highly now or you will kill business and jobs. People are thinking of moving out of country for fear you will rob them of their pensions --either through confiscation of high taxes or bad economy, inflation, devaluing of the dollar, etc.

We are afraid of having our lives shortened by your Canada-style health care program. Let someone tweak that program! We don't want the long waits and rationing of Canadian healthcare! Canadians come HERE for procedures they can't get in a timely manner in Canada. Start with TORT REFORM. Doctors and insurance companies settle out of court for 100,000 rather than go to trial and risk jury’s compassion for miserable patients suing for a million dollars. Doctors rightly fear that the jury will consider only the patient’s misery, thinking it will cost no one if the insurance company pays the patient without proving malpractice. In fact, the costs of such suits and mal-practice insurance are a big cost in healthcare.

As for national security and disarming Americans, we hope you are just the fun-loving, congenial and kindly public servant, Barack Obama from Hawaii --and not a Stalin or Hitler in the making who was mentored by Communists and other radicals, as some suspect.

Seek good successful businessmen’s advice and not just socialists’ advice. They have never made any nation solvent. Put Romney on your cabinet! Because he does like to solve financial problems. Wow! That would be a uniting act. Listen to Ryan, too. We are in a mess. Let them try to help!

We shall pray for you daily--that you really ARE a Christian as you told Rick Warren --or will become one and that you will seek God’s guidance on all matters before you --not Marx’s advice, nor Alinsky’s, nor Ayers, nor Davis’s. Only Jesus rose from the grave. He is the only one worthy to save us for Eternity. Atheists can’t give you wise guidance like the Holy Spirit and the Word of God can. Your stands on abortion and homosexuality --and lukewarm relationship with Israel, are all 3 in contradiction to His Word and His Spirit and need to be reconsidered if the nation would be blessed. Separation of church and state doesn't mean God is not real --and has no say in the country's values which shape national culture and character.

Forgive us for any misjudgment of your character and intentions, and prove all the naysayers wrong.

Sincerely --wanting to admire you--
wanting your term to be successful
in the eyes of God and informed Americans,

Dr. & Mrs._______________

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Thoughts: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Psalm 33:12

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Isaiah 5:2

If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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. II Chronicles 7:14

Generosity is to be voluntary, from the heart, not confiscated by dictators
to maintain power via the envious.

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