Thoughts on the Prez’s SOTUS

I sat and listened to the President’s SOTU speech last night and I must truly tell you, this was the first time that I actually got physically sick peering into the chambers of the seat where the power in this country resides and works.
I literally thought I had tuned into some Hollywood production where old stars, with wrecked movie careers had gathered together in their most dignified attire, smiling through their heavily made up faces that surely made some plastic surgeon very rich.  They were all very conscience of the cameras and seemed to just be waiting for their moment to be on screen and have the overlay of their name and title shown.  It was a  sickening scene to say the least.
Then, smiling, cocky, with far more Chicagoan swagger than Rick Perry ever brought from Texas, President Obama wassailed up to the podium, waving, shaking hands, kissing and hugging the women as he walked by, even telling one grabby congresswomen, “Don’t get lipstick on me!”

As he began to speak, I honestly thought to myself, “I want to listen, i want to see if this man really understands where we are and what we face.  Maybe in light of the coming  competition in the impending campaign, he’ll surprise us all with a litany of exciting promises. “ 

What I was really hoping he would NOT do, is start his campaign season here on this nigh, this revered night; a moment of hollowed historical time, this joint chambered address that the constitution demand to be executed.
But alas, the campaign was indeed started, right there on my Telly screen! 

But, The MOST important issue facing this nation, the nearly 16 trillion dollars of debt. The unsustainable and deadly reality that we simply cannot continue with the monetary policies we are now living under, was NOT even dealt with by this man who holds so many keys of the keys to it’s correction.

What DID I hear in my moments of trusting attention? Spend, spend, spend!  And then spend a little more!
Every single proposal, and there were MANY!, was another opportunity for the Federal Government to BUY INTO some program’s execution.  And what the Fed couldn’t, or in his mind, shouldn’t fund, he made clear that he would DEMAND that the States pick up the charge.  In fact, he spoke of so many opportunities for the States to fund things that it was clear to me he thought everyone had a greenback printing machine!

How in the world does this President think he’s going to pay for these programs?  Well, he had a plan! He has a way to pay for all of it:  Soak the rich with more and more taxes.  

But I was glad to hear the President speak in favor of the FLAT TAX!  He wants to flatly tax ALL who make more than 1 million dollars! He wants all millionaire taxed at a minimum of 30%.  NOT the kind of flat tax that other more clear minded and straight thinking individuals have  proposed.

America is a nation full of problems, according to Mr. Obama.  He had a phrase that he uttered immediately after each new problem he mentioned…..”I have an answer…..or,  I have a solution..and of course, the solution, no matter WHAT the problem was, is to spend more money, paid for by flatly higher taxes on the rich!  Mr. President, adding to the deficient more and more and more is NO solution or answer, but only causes MORE problems with NO answers!

He spoke the truth about this division between the rich and those who aren’t. He even gave his new reality a name, the Buffet rule.  We, and by we I mean those of us who tend to think a great deal differently than what we heard last night, we would see much of what he proposed as CLASS Warfare!  He said, “some will call this class warfare.  ”Uh, you think?” I was screaming at the telly by now!  He went on, “But I believe that most fair minded Americans will not see this as Class Warfare……but common sense!”  

Really?  Not to repeat myself but, really Mr. President? You’re going to clearly call it what it is but spin it to convince us that class warfare is really common sense? Perhaps it’s common sense for the uncommon? 

I gave up listening with my innocent hope for change….and just began to pray.  

I cannot see a happy solution to our nation’s problems without at least these 3 steps being taken:

1) We need a national revival. A real revival, another great spiritual awakening. The current direction in our moral journey will only bring about absolute moral destruction.

2)We need a totally different, completely divergent direction of political thought in this country.  The current direction will only bring about absolute economic destruction.

3)It will take a revival of conservative principles in the political world, because the unsustainable, pay everyone whatever they want, meet every need, write a check for every situation – political mindset is how we’ve gotten to this point to start with,  and it will take a completely NON-progressive direction politically to save this country.

Will you pray with me?  

I, like the founders of the new ONECRY  (onecry.com) movement, believe that our only hope is genuine spiritual revival, where God becomes King rather than a Man believing he is.

Why Post it On Face Book?

I have a real problem with Face Book being the place where people air their differences with others and their problems in life!

Emailing our troubles is bad enough. I find that when folks email a friend or colleague about a difficult situation, we are more often than not, misunderstood and many times even make the problem worse!  Maybe that’s because we are generally poor communicators with pen and paper (keys and screens, now)!  However, I think there are several reasons that we can nail down as to why we communicate poorly in regards to our relational discussions in ink.

1)  First, writing, especially emailing for some reason, is a mode in which we are not fully capable of adequately expressing emotions.  Its not that emotions are not expressed on the printed page at all! I mean, just pick up a GOOD novel and somewhere in the reading you’ll have to get a hankie to clean up the tears!  Sometimes, emotions can actually be expressed too radically, too expressively on the printed page.  And then, there are those times when our message is simply cold and emotionless.  The PROBLEM is that we cannot adequately express our emotional state when writing others because short emails don’t have the privilege of context like a novel has!  Emotions may be adequately expressed by the pen, but be understood inadequately by the reader because there’s no context, no connection that’s been built for the emotions to be interpreted through!

2) Secondly, we sometimes try to have a CONVERSATION with someone when we write them.  In our heads, we’re talking it out freely with the one to whom we’re writing.  But there’s no way to have a two way conversation when you are writing someone, especially when there’s no immediate response from the reader.  That’s why texting and IM’ing works so well.  We are actually having a conversation.  There’s immediate response.  If something is misunderstood, then the recipient can immediately say so and clarification can be delivered.  But in a simple one sided email or Face Book offering, we “hear” them answering and speaking back to us, again, in our heads as we write.  But the reality is, the recipient of our mail may have an entirely different conversation with us in their head when reading what we wrote to them! Theres just no way to adequately control or anticipate that when we’re writing.

3)  Thirdly, again, and akin to point number two, we often try to write like we SPEAK, and yet grammatical skills, vocabulary, and such important aspects of clear speech can simply keep us from being able to pull this off!  And so, we wind up writing a stilted version of how we speak and so the reader reads a stilted writing of a speech that we never actually spoke!

I definitely have a special problem with people airing their relational problems on social networks like Face Book!  I most especially distrust the airing out, for all to see, of people’s church relationship problems….Problems with the pastor, or how much someone hates a decision that an elder or deacon made.  It’s just tacky.  And it’s very NON-Biblical!  The Bible never gives us the right to publicly spill our guts out against a brother or sister in Christ for all to see like on Face Book!  Nor does it give us the option to tell the world what we see wrong with our church or a leader in our church in a public forum like this.

I challenged a church member to show me the Biblical authority that gave them the right to diss the elders in their church on Face Book.  They of course couldn’t give me any such Biblical Authority.  But, that didn’t matter to them.  And that actually reveals another very deep problem within the American church that I won’t have time to address here.  But let it suffice for me to say that far too many have put the Bible aside in their lives as the final rule and authority for faith and practice!  It’s almost as each man does what is right in his own sight, once again!  But God wants us to do what is right in HIS sight (many, many verses state this) and the way for us to know what that “right” way is, can best be found in His precious Word! And His Word DOES NOT tell us to publicly attack other Christians or our church, especially on Face Book where the pagan world parks!

So, be careful what you write!  Oh, how I lie down on that bed every night, being a blogger, a radio personality and a pulpit minister!  But we ALL should be careful of how we speak AND write!

What we speak is gobbled up by the universe and many times never heard from again.  It turns into pixie dust or something.  Now, don’t misunderstand me, our words have weight.  Life and death is in the power of the tongue.  James writes extensively about the tongue and it’s destructive, burning power.

But What we write, stays with us and could plague us, especially with the advent of the internet! Our words will take on a life we never dreamed they could, and may actually haunt us for years to come!

So stay off of Face Book with the personal ills and the Churches problems!  How about trying to be an encourager and someone who lifts others up when you write on FB and other social media outlets?  There’s so little of that being done that you’d be an instant hit with those who read you.

And when you write an email or a letter, speak as clearly as possible.  If something seems unclear to you, it will be unclear to the reader.

Making New Year’s Resolution s?

Great questions to ask yourself in order to make BETTER, more effective new year’s resolutions:

 

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?
11. What’s the most important decision you need to make this year?
12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what’s one way you could simplify in that area?
13. What’s the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?
15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?
16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
17. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
18. What’s one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
19. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
24. What’s the most important trip you want to take this year?
25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
27. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
30. What’s the most important new item you want to buy this year?
31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year.

Another Church Bullied by the Government!

First Schools, Now NYC Banning Churches From Community Centers

Dec 21, 2011

By Todd Starnes/TWITTER

An evangelical Christian church has been told by New York City officials that it can no longer rent a community room in a federally funded housing project named after Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

An attorney representing the Bronx Bible Church said the congregation was notified that Christmas Day will be the last day they can worship at the housing project.

“It does present a very ugly picture of the state of religious liberties in New York City,” said Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. “It’s the height of irony that the housing authority would violate the First Amendment at a place named after a Supreme Court justice.”

Lorence said the New York City Housing Authority based their decision on a recent court case that said New York City has a constitutional right to bar churches from renting schools during non-school hours for worship services.

The Supreme Court declined to review the case – meaning dozens of Christian churches will be forced to find other places to hold their services.

“What’s next – Central Park?” Lorence asked. “Religious groups can’t meet there? Where is this all going to stop?”

A spokesperson for the NYC Housing Authority declined to comment but did offer the following statement:

“The terms of this lease have expired and the New York City Housing Authority is reviewing the renewal of all of its leases,” the spokesman said.

However, Lorence told Fox News & Commentary there is no expiration date on the lease and when the pastor of Bronx Bible Church was contacted by the NYC Housing Authority there was no mention of the end of the year expiration of the lease.

“This is an arbitrary and unconstitutional decision,” he told Fox News & Commentary. “Even if they adopt an anti-worship service policy, they haven’t done so yet. So there’s no reason why they should be kicking out a church – especially during the holidays.”

Lorence said the decision to evict the church sends a dangerous message to the city’s Christian community.

“They’re suggesting that religion is something dangerous, that people shouldn’t be exposed to and that is an extreme and wrong understanding of the Establishment Clause,” Lorence said. “Religious expression is being driven away, prohibited in public buildings that are open to all other community groups to meet.”

 

An Interesting Read……

 

Tim Tebow: God’s Quarterback

He has led the Denver Broncos to one improbable victory after another—defying his critics and revealing the deep-seated anxieties in American society about the intertwining of religion and sports.

By PATTON DODD

On a brisk Thursday evening in mid-November, I sat high in the stands at a Denver Broncos home game, covering the ears of my 4-year-old son as the fans around us launched f-bombs at Tim Tebow, the Broncos’ struggling second-year quarterback. Mr. Tebow was ineffective and off-target for most of the game, and one of his more voluble and obnoxious critics was standing right in front of us.

Photos: The Tim Tebow Phenomenon

Associated PressTebow reacts after running in for a two-point conversion during the second half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 4.

But the heckler’s friend wasn’t joining in. “Just wait until the end of the fourth quarter,” he said. “That’s Tebow time.”And so it was. In the waning moments against the New York Jets, Mr. Tebow manufactured a 95-yard game-winning drive, punctuated by his own 20-yard touchdown dash. He brought the Broncos back from imminent defeat, just as he had done in previous weeks against the Miami Dolphins, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs.

And when the shouting was over, Mr. Tebow did what he always does—he pointed skyward and took a knee in prayer. In postgame interviews, the young quarterback often starts by saying, “First, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and ends with “God bless.” He stresses that football is just a game and that God doesn’t care who wins or loses.

This combination of candid piety and improbable success on the field has made Mr. Tebow the most-discussed phenomenon of the National Football League season. Most expert analysts still consider him poor material for a pro quarterback. An inexperienced passer with awkward throwing mechanics and the build of a fullback, he likes to run over defensive players, which is a no-no in the NFL, whose starting quarterbacks are expensive and hard to come by.

But onward he and the Broncos have marched, winning six of their last seven games and now tied for the lead in their division as they face the Chicago Bears this Sunday. Mr. Tebow continues to defy his critics—and to embody the anxieties over religion that are dividing today’s sports world and embroiling players and fans alike.

Earlier

Tiger Woods and the NFL’s Tim Tebow may make for strange bedfellows, but they lit up the weekend’s highlight reels. WSJ’s Jason Gay joins Mean Street host Evan Newmark to look at how each athlete mounted a dramatic comeback. (Photo: AP)

(Video originally published on Dec. 5. 2011.)

Sports culture is among the most fervently religious sectors of American life. If you turn on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” almost any night, you will see baseball players who point to heaven after a clutch hit and basketball players like the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard, who once intimated that a playoff series victory against the Boston Celtics was proof of God’s presence with his team

These claims by athletes—”God helped me do that” or “I thank God that I was able to do that”—are so commonplace that they usually draw little notice. Most sports fans seem to think that such religious talk doesn’t really affect how the games are played or credit it with a powerful placebo effect. So what if Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox has a Bible verse inscribed on his bat? Fine—whatever helps him to hit the long ball.

The Gospel According to Tebow

A selection of the biblical verses that Tim Tebow wrote in his eyeblack during his college football days.

John 3:16
Jan. 8, 2009 vs. Oklahoma Sooners:

• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Ephesians 4:32
Oct. 24, 2009 vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs:

• “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Romans 1:16
Nov. 21, 2009 vs. Florida International Golden Panthers:

• “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

But Mr. Tebow has never been content to leave his evangelical faith on the field. Well before he became the starting quarterback for Denver, he was a lightning rod in America’s intermittent culture war of believers vs. secularists.

In 2010, while still at the University of Florida (where he won the Heisman Trophy and helped the Gators to win two national championships), Mr. Tebow filmed a Super Bowl commercial for Focus on the Family, the mega-ministry known for its conservative political advocacy. The ad is about how Mr. Tebow’s mother was advised to abort her son following a placental abruption, but she refused and, well, now we have Tim Tebow.

The ad takes the softest possible approach to the subject and never uses the terms “abortion” or “pro-life,” but its intent was clear, and it generated controversy. Since then, feelings about Mr. Tebow have been a litmus test of political and social identity. If you think he’s destined to be a winner, you must be a naive evangelical. If you question his long-term chances as an NFL quarterback, you must hate people who love Jesus.

The intertwining of religion and sports is nothing new in American culture. Both basketball and volleyball were invented by men involved with chapters of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Massachusetts. Or consider the pioneering college coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965), who created the batting cage in baseball, five-man teams for basketball and several of the standard aspects of football, from the man in motion, lateral pass and Statue of Liberty play to helmets, tackling dummies and names on uniforms.

The historian Clifford Putney has written that Stagg and his contemporaries combined faith with sports and competition because they believed that God wanted people to live healthy, vigorous lives. They believed that sports could help to make people good and thereby bring them closer to what God intended for them.

As Michael Lewis reports in his 2006 book “The Blind Side,” one of the standard problems of today’s top athletes—one of the main threats to long careers—is defective character. He offers a depressing list of high-school football standouts who came to ignoble ends because of selfishness and stupidity, including Eric Jefferson, a first-team all-American defensive end who was arrested for armed robbery, and Michael Burden, an NFL-bound defensive back who was charged with rape and then “vanished without a trace.”

More recently, we have seen the disrupted careers of star athletes like Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress and Tiger Woods—men whose lives in professional sports have been undermined by character faults. Such stories are more common than we realize. For every Michael Oher (Mr. Lewis’s subject in “The Blind Side”) who overcomes harsh beginnings and makes it, there are many other promising athletes who are overcome by their own worst impulses. They lose, the game loses and fans lose.

Alternatively, keeping the faith can mean keeping one’s best possible life. Josh Hamilton, the All-Star outfielder for the Texas Rangers, lost part of his career to drug and alcohol addiction before finding the support of a religious community. Tony Dungy, the former coach of the Indianapolis Colts, says that his reputation for “quiet strength” (also the title of his best-selling book) developed only after God changed him from an angry, testy man into a model of “Christian maturity.”

In the case of Mr. Tebow, what seems to fuel many of his fans—and to drive many of his critics crazy—is not so much his evangelical faith itself but the equanimity and generosity that his faith inspires in him. Can he really mean it when he says that football isn’t that important to him, that he cares more about transcendent things?

NewscomMr. Tebow says that football is just a game—and that God doesn’t care who wins or loses.

While at Florida, Mr. Tebow became well known for spending his summers helping the poor and needy in the Philippines. He also spoke in prisons and appeared to accept every opportunity to volunteer. He encouraged his teammates and classmates to follow his lead.

As Mr. Tebow recounts in his book “Through My Eyes” (written with Nathan Whitaker), after he won the Heisman Trophy in 2007, he had the idea to use his fame to raise money for the orphanage that his family runs and for other organizations. Since National Collegiate Athletic Association rules prevented him from raising money for his own causes, he worked with the university to found a student society that could be used for charity.

According to the former Florida coach Urban Meyer, Mr. Tebow’s philanthropic efforts reshaped campus culture, and for a time, volunteering became fashionable. In his senior year, the powder-puff football tournament that he launched, with the help of the university’s sororities and fraternities, raised $340,000 for charity.

Mr. Tebow’s acts of goodwill have often been more intimate. In December 2009, he attended a college-football awards ceremony in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The night before, at another gala at Walt Disney World Resort, he met a 20-year-old college-football fan named Kelly Faughnan, a brain-tumor victim who suffers from hearing loss and visible, continual tremors. She was wearing a button that said “I love Timmy.” Someone noticed and made sure that the young woman had a chance to meet the player.
Mr. Tebow spent a long while with Ms. Faughnan and her family, and asked her if she’d like to be his date for the award ceremony the following night. She agreed, and the scene of Mr. Tebow escorting the trembling young woman down the red carpet led much of the reporting about the event.

As Mr. Tebow’s acts of goodwill merged with his achievements on the field for the Florida team, Tebow fandom morphed into Tebow piety. Students launched websites dedicated to the young man, and blogs and message boards lit up with tributes. The blogosphere and Twitterverse produced a flood of over-the-top jokes declaring Tebow’s greatness: “Tim Tebow has counted to infinity…twice.” “When Tim Tebow walks on water, his feet don’t get wet.”

In recent weeks, as Tebow mania has re-emerged alongside the unexpected success of the Broncos, it has become clear that the fever is not confined to the quarterback’s fellow evangelical Christians. Mr. Tebow’s habit of taking to one knee in prayer on the field has given rise to an Internet meme called “Tebowing.” Fans have posted pictures of themselves praying on one knee while doing everything from surfing and fighting fires to touring China and going into battle.

“Tebowing” is the brainchild of Jared Kleinstein, 24, a real-estate marketer in New York City who was raised in Denver, where he grew into a devoted sports fan. Mr. Kleinstein, who is Jewish, just wanted to pay tribute to the inspirational quarterback of his favorite team. He launched Tebowing.com from Manhattan in October, on the night after Mr. Tebow led the Broncos to victory over the Miami Dolphins.

Getty ImagesTim Tebow after a Florida win over Georgia in 2009. His eyeblack refers to Philippians 4:6- 7, which reads, in part: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

“We were at a bar watching the game,” he says, “and when he came back to win, everybody was cheering like we won the Super Bowl, even though we had just beat the last-place team in the league.” Mr. Kleinstein noticed that as the Bronco players were jumping up and down on the sidelines, Mr. Tebow took a knee in prayer. He snapped a picture of himself and his friends doing the same, called it “Tebowing,” then created the site and sent it to eight people.

Within 48 hours, Mr. Kleinstein had been interviewed by this paper, CBS, Fox, ABC and other media outlets. The site has received millions of visits and page views in its short life. Mr. Kleinstein receives pictures of people Tebowing all day long, and often posts new pictures every hour.

With his site, Mr. Kleinstein says, “people found hope through a gesture,” noting a much-discussed photo that he posted of a young boy with an IV attached to his arm who wrote that he was “Tebowing while chemoing.” Mr. Kleinstein adds that a lot of support for the trend has come from rabbis. “It has made prayer in public something to not be ashamed of,” he says. “I think that crosses all religious boundaries.”

In communities across America, whether religious or secular, fields of play are often seen as workshops of character. Parents and coaches get kids involved with sports because they care about encouraging them to be better people.

At the national level, however, big-time sports is big business, with billions of dollars at stake, and Americans tend to be cynical about the whole show. In this world, Mr. Tebow’s frequent professions of faith can come across as a discordant note, equal parts over-earnestness and naïveté. It’s hard to resist the thought that, eventually, a darker reality will show through.

Mr. Tebow may indeed turn out to be a hypocrite, like other high-profile Christians in recent memory. Some of us might even want that to happen, because moral failure is something we understand. We know how to deal with disappointed expectations, to turn our songs of praise into condemnation.

What we are far less sure how to do is to take seriously a public figure’s seemingly admirable character and professions of higher purpose. We don’t know how to trust goodness.

And who can blame us? We don’t want to be fooled again.

The one loss in Mr. Tebow’s record as Denver’s starting quarterback this season came in a 45-10 blowout against the Detroit Lions. Mr. Tebow completed just 46% of his passes. He suffered seven sacks, including one by Stephen Tulloch, after which Mr. Tulloch took a knee, “Tebowing” as Mr. Tebow struggled to rise.

When asked how he felt about Mr. Tulloch’s mockery, Mr. Tebow responded, “He was probably just having fun and was excited he made a good play and had a sack. And good for him.”

Last week, after the Broncos’ victory against Minnesota, Mr. Tebow was asked by a reporter to name something memorable that had been said to him in the wake of the extraordinary win.

“I’ll tell you one thing that happened during the week that I remember,” he said. Mr. Tebow proceeded to talk about spending time with a young leukemia patient from Florida who had just been transferred to hospice care and about how delighted Mr. Tebow was to say the kid’s name on television and to let him know that someone cared.

Mr. Tebow may or may not enjoy long-term success as an NFL quarterback. His current streak will run its course, and the Broncos might well move on to another quarterback, one who is more obviously suited to the pro game.

But win or lose, Tim Tebow will compete hard—and when he’s done, he will thank God and remind all of us that it’s just a game.

—Mr. Dodd is the managing editor of the website Patheos and a former senior editor at Beliefnet. This article is adapted from his e-book, “The Tebow Mystique: The Faith and Fans of Football’s Most Polarizing Player.”

My Response to the Pro-Gay Attacks of the Past Week

Last thursday I invited Ed Vitagliano of the AFA Journal to talk about his article that he’d written in the latest Journal about polygamy. Ed and I got into a discussion about the logic of the same sex marriage agenda and what the full effect of those arguments would be on other sexual and marriage issues such as polygamy and polyamorism. I made a simple statement about something I’d seen on a reality TV show. That statement has set off a firestorm of angry, name calling vitriol from the left and it’s supporters of same sex marriage. Let’s play that clip so you can hear the exchange between our resident Italian and myself. And then afterwards, I want to address some of the comments that have been published about my remarks.

(CLIP)

Ok, now that you’ve heard it, let me restate and clarify what I DID actually say. I have been sliced and diced by the homosexuals for saying something I didn’t say. I DID NOT SAY that I assumed the acceptance of same sex marriage could POSSIBLY open the door to all manner of weirdness like “taboo loves”. I did NOT say that it was MY opinion that the door would be flung open wide for polygamist and taboo lovers. What I DID do, was simply report that THEY ARE ALREADY SAYING THESE THINGS! Those who are polygamist and taboo lovers are already saying that they want to marry their loves. They are already using the logic AND the legal arguments that same sex proponents are using to argue that they should have the right to marry whom or whatever they desire. Let me be clear, for Right Wing Watch and others who are taping this show even as I speak: I DON’T “BELIEVE” PEOPLE WILL USE THE GAY AGENDA’S ARGUMENTS TO JUSTIFY MARRYING THEIR MULTIPLE LOVES OR THEIR TABOO LOVES. THEY ALREADY

A R E USING YOUR ARGUMENTS! I SIMPLY REPORTED SUCH ON LAST THURSDAY’S BROADCAST!

It’s simply amazing! I’ve had no less than 10 different pro-homosexual blogs and websites attack me for, in their estimation, having said that if we allow gay marriage people will be marrying buildings and cars. AGAIN, I didn’t say that MY logic and opinion was such. I said THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO ARE SAYING IT.

A little side note here; AFA has been called a “certified hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. We’re in good company. They designated FRC and Focus on the Family as hate groups as well! Now as far as I know, we’ve NEVER taken the names or works of any of these guys connected with whom I’m talking about and called them filty names. But they have called me and this ministry names that I cannot mention here. I don’t use language like they’ve used and this radio network is dedicated to the glory of God, so, I chose NOT to speak as they have spoken. AND YET, WE ARE THE HATERS! We are called a certified hate group, as if there were some test we could take down at the DMW and get a license to officially hate people! We are the ones called intolerant! And yet, they are the name callers, they are the most hateful, hate filled writers at least, that you’ll ever know. It’s absolutely amazing.

Back to the people marrying cars and buildings.

That’s what they have all flipped out about. That’s why my simple comments last thursday have gone viral. But the context of what I said last Thursday WAS to simply agree with Ed Vitagliano! He siad that the logic assumed by the homosexual activists would be used by polygamists and taboo lovers. In fairness to him, his article wasn’t about that, but the tense of his piece fairly led to the discussion that ensued. The fact is, I KNOW that those kinds of people in our society ARE already using the logic of the same sex marriage proponents. I’d heard them do so with my own ears. That’s why I brought up the reality TV series that showed taboo lovers. There was one woman who had a passionate love for a building. She was in love with a building! Now, you and I can appreciate great architecture. But this woman perceived of this building as her lover. (I know, this is a horrible subject and I wish I could be talking about something else. But thanks to the morally sick and sin sick culture we live in, it’s incumbent upon us to respond. That’s what we’re called to do.) Anyway, she loved this building AS she would love a husband and spoke of wanting to marry her love! The other example was the man who was in love with his Volkswagen Beetle – a car! He spoke of how much he loved his car and how, after washing and waxing her, he wanted to, well, he wanted to marry the car. In both stories, with both objects of taboo love, the subjects in each story were shown kissing their loves, the building and the car, and hugging them and talking about how desperately they wanted to marry their loves.

My point in sharing all of this is to PROVE the simple reality of what I said on last Thursday’s broadcast: THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY USING THE ARGUMENTS OF THE PROGAY ACTIVISTS TO ALSO OPEN THE DOOR TO OTHER ABBERANT SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS, like MARRYING A BUILDING OR A CAR. They have called me all manner of names and said that I was absolutely crazy for thinking such an odd thing. Let me be clear one more time (because, apparently it takes several times for RWW and others to simply get it!) I WAS SIMPLY REPORTING WHAT OTHERS ARE ALREADY SAYING these things! Thus, for me to say that approving gay marriage could open the door to other aberrant options for marriage, does NOT make me crazy…..it makes me FACTUALLY TRUE!

Now, beyond that, they’ve thrown out the illogicalness of what I said. I’ve had great lectures about marriage being a contract between two consenting individuals, and since a building or a car cannot consent, then what I was speaking of could never happen. What a buffoon I am, didn’t I know that? Doesn’t matter. You heard me, be sure to get this on your blog. It doesn’t matter how you argue away the concept. PEOPLE ARE STILL USING THE PRO-GAY MARRIAGE ARGUMENTS TO ARGUE FOR MARRING WHOEVER AND WHATEVER. That’s the truth. Or, as Paul Harvey used to say, and That’s the rest of the of the story!

I will confess though, it’s quite flattering to know that what we say here from this ministry is considered so dangerous by those who reject the wisdom of God’s Word. I wish all of you would go to knowhim.afr.net and learn of the One we celebrate at Christmas. But I warn you, You could fall in love with the precious son of God, and that would rock your world far more than anything I could say.

 

Alright David….let’s talk!

David Badash has taken my comments completely out of context, written in his article that I’ve said things and made arguments that I did not, and called me and my comrade in the ministry Bryan Fischer names.

And yet, he claims thawe’re are the insane ones.  Fine.

Tell you what David, if you’re really that concerned with what I’m saying, rather than call me names and mislead your readers about my arguments in cold,  disconnected way, why don’t you come on my show and we’ll have an adult, intelligent conversation.

You game?

662-844-8888.  Hit 0 Monday morning and have the operator page me.  We’ll discuss a live, on the air adult discussion, so there’s no misleading print articles.  Just honest talk.

Stay tuned.  I’ll let you know if David is willing.

And yet again, they demonstrate their ignorance……or, is it their deception?

Another homosexual hate group has taken my comments and written about them:

(I warn you FIRST, if you go to this site, there are extremely Offensive pictures there.  Be careful.  Don’t let your little ones see this!)

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/christian-group-gives-new-meaning-to-words-i-really-love-my-new-car/legal-issues/2011/12/02/31135#.Ttk3QEoxq70

Again, the reality TV shows, Taboo and Forbidden Loves had those on who talked about their deep desires to marry their “LOVES” (ie: a building for one, a car for another….).  The push to do away with traditional marriage REQUIRES US to accept that one should be allowed to marry whomever or whatever he or she wants.  It’s all about the “love”, they tell us.  If we love each other……and that’s the rub for these homosexual writers.  They say that my arguement is faulty because a building or a car can’t love someone back.  True, but that small fact isn’t keeping those who ‘love’ those objects from wanting to “marry” them, and they use the EXACT SAME LANGUAGE AND REASONING THAT THE HOMOSEXUAL, GAY RIGHTS ADVOCATES USE!

Insane, I know.  But what I said on my show was right!  Right Wing watch should do their homework first before calling me nasty names.

Right Wing Watch: LIsten up, you actally may learn something

Right Wing Watch is all over me about something I said on last Thursday’s broadcast while interviewing Ed Vitagliano.  He was sharing about his AFA Journal article in which he wrote about polygamy.  Our discussion expanded to the dangers of the Gay marriage push in America today.  I made the statement that if America accepted the demise of traditional marriage by approving gay marriage, it would fling open WIDE the door to all kinds of weird and forbidden marital relationships.  His article presented some documentation to that affect.

I made the statement that once you approve man marrying a man, or woman marrying a woman, then it will move next to men marrying men, women marrying their animals, etc.  Why stop with gays?  If the argument is that we should be free to marry whomever we love with NO restraints of religion or state, then, why wouldn’t we allow anyone to marry anyone…..or any thing?  I said that there was already a group in America, much like the groups that Ed had written about, that wanted marriage rights for the most absurd of relationships.  One man wanted to marry his car.  Another story is about a woman wanting to marry a building.

Right Wing Watch seems to think I’m a “—-Bag” (sorry, their actual words) for making such an insane argument against homosexual marriage rights. Why did I mention those kinds of marriage issues?  BECAUSE I’D HEARD THE STORIES WITH MY OWN EARS!

Herewith I will provide you first with a clip of my comments, actual, in context:

Now, here’s my EVIDENCE!  A TV REALITY SERIES FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CALLED “TABOO” IS JUST ONE REALITY PROGRAM THAT DOCUMENTS THOSE WHO HAVE “FORBIDDEN LOVES”!

There are other reality programs that I watched. Literally, one was about the woman who “loved the wall of this building”, and another, much more sickening, was about a man who “after washing his VW bug, kissed it and wanted to “mate” with it (the safest way I knew to say this!)”.  THEY BOTH TALKED OF WANTING THE FREEDOM TO MARRY THEIR LOVES!

The ONLY way that people like that would ever have the freedom to “marry their loves” is because the doors,  having been flung wide open by the ever progressive arguments on behalf of same sex marriage, have been pressed upon and accepted by the American public.

I’m AFRAID ONCE AGAIN IT’S THE RIGHT WING WATCH THAT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT!

 

 

Does “True Love” Wait any longer?

(THIS IS POSTED FROM CNN, WRITTEN BY JOHN BLAKE OF CNN)

(CNN) –True love doesn’t wait after all.

That’s the implication in the upcoming October issue of an evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers.

The article in Relevant magazine, entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” cited several studies examining the sexual activity of single Christians. One of the biggest surprises was a December 2009 study, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which included information on sexual activity.

While the study’s primary report did not explore religion, some additional analysis focusing on sexual activity and religious identification yielded this result: 80 percent of unmarried evangelical young adults (18 to 29) said that they have had sex – slightly less than 88 percent of unmarried adults, according to the teen pregnancy prevention organization.

The article highlights what challenges abstinence movements face. Movements such as “True Love Waits,” encourage teens to wear purity rings, sign virginity pledges and pledge chastity during public ceremonies.

Yet many of these Christian youths eventually abandon their purity pledges, Relevant’s Tyler Charles concludes in the article. Tyler talked to people like “Maria,” an evangelical woman who said she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex.

But she said she started having sex with her college boyfriend when she turned 20 because nearly everyone, even most of  her Christian friends, were having sex.

Maria:

It seemed everyone in my life, older and younger, had “done it.” In fact, I waited longer than most people I knew and longer than both of my sisters, even though we were all Christians and came from a good home.

Relevant theorizes about why it’s so hard for so many young Christians to wait, including the saturation of sex in popular culture, the prevalence of pornography and a popular “do what feels good philosophy.”

Yet the article also asks a question that rarely comes up in discussions about abstinence movement. Relevant notes that in biblical times, people married earlier. The average age for marriage has been increasing in the U.S for the last 40 years.

Today, it’s not unusual to meet a Christian who is single at 30 – or 40 or 50, for that matter. So what do you tell them? Keep waiting?

Scot McKnight, author of “The Jesus Creed,” and “One.Faith: Jesus Calls, We Follow,” acknowledges that young, single Christians face temptations that their counterparts in the biblical age didn’t face.

He  tells Relevant:

Sociologically speaking, the one big difference – and it’s monstrous – between the biblical teaching and our culture is the arranged marriages of very young people. If you get married when you’re 13, you don’t have 15 years of temptation.

So what should a Christian parent or youth pastor do? How do they convince more young Christians to wait until marriage, or should they stop even trying?

John Blake – CNN Writer