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Tag Archives: family

The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost

A bunch of drunk teenagers vandalized a site once inhabited by the American poet Robert Frost. In A Violation of Both Law and the Spirit, Dan Barry seems offended that these, for lack of a better word, punks didn’t show respect to history or elders.

These punks are a direct result of a bunch of people who didn’t respect history or authority teaching them. Why are they surprised? The generation that is entering and leaving colleges now is filled with higher percentage of “entitlement” mentality people than probably has ever existed before at one time. They have the mentality of the old aristocracy, and all too often lack of responsibility.

I wish I could say that I’m surprised that those like Dan Barry are surprised, but I’m not. Nor am I, obviously, surprised at the behavior of these punks. People such as myself, Bible-believing Christians, are often ridiculed, even by our friends, for our concerns about trying (although we often—even usually—fail) to align with a Biblically based life. If people were honest, how could a Biblically (read: New Testament, and not forced conversion) be worse than this?

Shame Should Have Been Outweighed By Love

I may be a right-wing fanatic Christian to some. I may be a clueless emotional liberal Christian to others. The truth is that Jesus Christ loves us, not because of who we are, or what we’ve done, but because of who He is (paraphrased, “I Surrender All”, Newsboys).

With the “traditional” family as the framework, I understand the situation of unwed mothers who made mistakes. While the error was significant, people’s obsession with it is damaging. I also completely understand to maintain the social norms and such. However, Jesus forgave those who came to Him and asked for forgiveness (out of honest repentance). Can we do any less?

People make mistakes. Christians make mistakes. Even Perfect Christians (see Wesley’s
A Plain Account of Christian Perfection) make mistakes (of course, within the context of this blog post we are talking about a sin, not a simple mistake).

A woman recently died in England. A few months before she did, the 50-year old body of a baby was found in a suitcase. She compounded one sin with a worse one. God will judge her, but my heart aches for her. To have carried that burden so long.

We in the Church must be concerned with sin, for that is why Christ came. However, we must not let that destroy compassion. I was in my Sunday School class this past Sunday, and we talked about how Mary was a failure to the society around her, and probably her family, too. Yet she truly did nothing wrong. From our perspective, Jesus was certainly conceived out of wedlock, but remember He was without sin, thus his conception was sinless as well.

While I know the woman in this case is not Mary, and I suspect by what is not said that was not only an act (or time period) of fornication, but also adultery, it does not change the fact that the pressures put upon this woman created a heart-wound that ended the life of the child.

Pro-lifers, and I am one, need to always keep our hearts open to people such as her.

May she rest in peace.

May her family and those affected by her death and the revealing of long kept secrets find peace as well

Men and Marriage

Insurance companies are pushing hard for for peopl to take care of themselves with various wellness initiatives. For men, on of the biggest is marriage:

Marriage Could Save Your Life
hattip to:The Point

Marriage is also good for the environment

However, there are a few downsides.

Mercifully, God has granted me a wonderful marriage to a wonderful wife, so I’m not concerned about the downsides personally. With all the upheaval and lances aimed at (traditional) marriage, society had better start paying attention.

Choose: Red, White, and Blue OR Red Versus Blue

I freely acknowledge that for a certain branch of the family, I am the red sheep (not the black sheep) of the family. I also suspect that my faith in Jesus Christ plays a greater roll in my life than the lives of others in my family (this is neither red nor blue). That being said, I don’t try to proselytize my family, either in politics or religion.

Politics have taken a very destructive turn in the United States. I was wondering if that means we are going to make a breakthrough of some sort towards some gilded age, or if everything is going to come crashing down around our ears (Oddly enough, there are probably even numbers on the blue and red sides saying the crash is coming. Oh, dear, they agree on something.)

It has gotten to a point that constructive dialog is almost impossible. We are no longer red, white, and blue, but red or blue, or at least people keep trying to shove everyone into the little cubbyholes. It is truly something to think that someone as polarizing as Newt Gingrich was as Speaker, can be the voice of moderation now. I just shake my head in disbelief.

This all brings me to a commentary by Nancy Morgan, My Mother is a Feminist ( archived copy ). This commentary is a snapshot of the discord and disconnect going on right now. While I can offer no advice to Nancy or her mother, I can ask of everyone, is this really what we want to be? Because this is where we are headed.

Thank You, God!

God has provided blessings innumerable. Sin has brought curses to counter the blessings. Being thankful is being humble, which is probably why so few are thankful (that includes me).

Thanksgiving Day in America – The Secret Riches of Thankfulness by Rev. Michael Bresciani ( archived copy )

My Anger Problem

Do I get angry? Yes! Is that a good thing? In retrospect, probably not. Should we encourage people to be angry? NO! (that’s not anger, that’s emphasis)

Apparently, some well-meaning (hmm, something about a road…) Christian psychologists are saying it’s okay to be angry. Well, I suppose that in some situations it might be okay.

Dr. Archibald Hart writes a critique of a new book added to the “it’s okay to be angry” list. I suspect the author of the book, Andrew D. Lester, was referring more to anger in a counseling session, but the problem that attitudes carry through into life.

I think I’ll add Anger Management to my netflix queue.

It can’t be the behavior!

An article floating around the web misses the true fact of the story (Hey, the AP and the UN have to keep their record consistent.) The United Nations in its anti-Christian tirade attacks the Roman Catholic church blaming them for opposing condoms. The problem is that the United Nations forgot to attack the REAL reason for the increasing number of A.I.D.S.—sex.

There are actually a couple of problems. The first is the prevalent view is that sex is always good between consenting individuals, regardless of age. The second is that we “can’t” say that it is bad, or at least the UN can’t. So, they attack the easy target that hasn’t fallen into their line. The Roman Catholic Church believes that (1) sex should not occur outside of marriage, (2) life begins at conception, (3) that a condom is mankind’s attempt to prevent God’s will, (4) the admonition to be fruitful and multiply, and I’m sure others. Since the Roman Catholic Church has some values that predate the UN, they must be too old-fashioned and must be destroyed.

It’s the behavior that is increasing the quantity of A.I.D.S., it’s not whether or not the Roman Catholic Church’s directive on condoms. By the way, the people who are using condoms (violating the directive under attack) are violating another directive against pre- and extra-marital sex. Hmm, I don’t think they care about the Roman Catholic Church’s feelings about condoms.

Oh, wait, that was logical thinking. Something that doesn’t prevail at the UN. So, I guess that’s a bid ol’ nevermind.

Mothering from the middle

…this is not about politics, although I suppose it is. Betsy Hart has a reasonable view of being a mom, and her column today is well worth the read.archived copy

The Porn Myth (on Challies Dot Com)

as posted (authored by) Challies Dot Com. I could add more, but why, when someone has said it so well. Despite the imagery of Naomi Wolf’s article, and despite Challies’ well-founded attack on porn in relation to sin, I realized, while reading her article, that I have been blessed by not growing like this generation. Read More »

Why do I need to know who my mom is, anyways?

In Motherless in Maryland, James M. Thunder writes about a disturbing story where a child’s mother (plus, there are two potential mothers) will not be listed on her birth certificate, in fact, there will be no mother listed at all.