Homosexual Parents Knock Out Nature in Courts

From the Family Research Council.

“It’s not just the definition of marriage that is being attacked by the homosexual movement–it’s also the definition of parenthood and of family itself. This was literally brought home today by an article in the Los Angeles Times regarding two homosexual men who wanted to have a child together. They bought an egg from one woman, rented the womb of another, and mixed their sperm so that they wouldn’t know which of them is the biological father. After “a four-year journey that involved three egg retrievals, 65 eggs, seven fertilization attempts, three surrogates and more than $200,000 in expenses,” documented by the Times in a series last year, a surrogate mother fulfilled her contract nine weeks ago by presenting the two men with a baby boy. She “continues to pump and freeze breast milk” and “ships bottles from Massachusetts to Georgia packed in dry ice.” One of the two men says that other than that, “we’re just going through what all parents go through.” Yet they have gone to such great lengths to ensure that this child will not “go through” the experience that most children enjoy of being raised by both a mother and a father. It is outrageous that courts in some states have become complicit in this denial of biological reality by allowing homosexual couples to have custody of newborns and birth certificates that mislead about the true parentage of the child.”

Prison Ministries Handcuffed by Religious Intolerance

From the Family Research Council.

“Adding some biofuel to the marriage debate, researchers at Michigan State University have given Americans another legitimate reason to save the family environment. Their study found that on top of the emotional and physical toll of divorce, the breakdown of the family is exacting a hefty price on the environment. With every separation, analysts note that water and energy consumption skyrockets–in some instances by 61 percent per person! Had divorced couples stayed together in 2005, the U.S. would have conserved “71 billion of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water.” While global warming has been blamed for everything from maple syrup shortages to collapsing gingerbread houses (see www.numberwatch.co.uk for over 600 examples), the repercussions of divorce have been largely ignored. With lifelong commitment on the endangered list, we can only hope that liberals, who have been unwilling to jump on the marriage protection bandwagon, will be motivated by this study to hop aboard now that the wagon’s eco-friendly.”

Marriage, Family, and Political Views

From Kerby Anderson and Probe Ministries.

“Does our view of marriage and family affect our worldview? Obviously it does. But most people have probably never thought about the fact that marriage and family also affect voting patterns.

We are a year away from the November 2008 elections, but some trend watchers are starting to see interesting patterns that will affect elections in the next few decades. In particular, they are finding a marriage gap and a fertility gap.

Marriage Gap

An article in USA Today pointed out how a wedding band could be crucial in future elections. “House districts held by Republicans are full of married people. Democratic districts are stacked with people who have never married.”{1}

Consider that before the 2006 Congressional elections, Republicans controlled 49 of the 50 districts with the highest rates of married people. On the other hand, Democrats represented all 50 districts that had the highest rates of adults who have never married.

If you go back to the 2004 presidential election, you see a similar pattern. President George Bush beat Senator John Kerry by 15 percentage points among married people. However, Senator Kerry beat President Bush by 18 percentage points among unmarried people.

Married people not only vote differently from unmarried people, they tend to define words like “family” differently as well. And they tend to perceive government differently. But an even more significant gap in politics involves not just marriage but fertility.

Fertility Gap

When you look at the various congressional districts, you not only see a difference in marriage but in fertility. Consider these two extremes. “House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic mother of five from San Francisco, has fewer children in her district than any other member of Congress: 87,727. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, a Mormon father of eight, represents the most children: 278,398.”{2}

This stark demographic divide illustrates the difference in perspectives found in Congress. Republican members of Congress represented 39 million children younger than 18. This is 7 million more children than are represented in districts with Democratic members of Congress. And it is also true that children in Democratic districts are far more likely to live in poverty and more likely to have a single parent than children in Republican districts.

This fertility gap explains the differences in worldview and political perspective. When you consider the many political issues before Congress that affect children and families, you can begin to see why there are often stark differences in perspectives on topics ranging from education to welfare to childcare to child health insurance.”

To read more click here.

Can’t Buy Me Love: Are We Becoming Marital Consumers?

From Chuck Colson and Breakpoint.

“You have to give the girl credit for honesty—if nothing else. On a website called Craig’s List, a young woman wrote: “I’m a spectacularly beautiful 25-year-old girl. I’m articulate and classy. I’m looking to [marry] a guy who makes at least half a million a year. Where do you single rich men hang out?”

She also wanted to know how men decided between “marriage versus just a girlfriend. I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY,” she said.

In response, a man who claimed to meet her financial requirements said that from his perspective, her offer was a lousy business deal. “What you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party, and I bring my money,” he wrote. “But here’s the rub: Your looks will fade and my money will” continue to grow. “So in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset.” (Ouch!)

This is why, the man explained, “It doesn’t make good business sense to ‘buy you’ (which is what you’re asking), so I’d rather lease. So a deal that makes sense [to me] is dating, not marriage. If you want to enter into some sort of lease [agreement],” he finished up, “let me know.”

Well, that was pretty harsh! But plenty of readers thought she deserved it. She was turning marriage into an economic transaction—reducing what should be a sacred relationship into nothing more than a contract—and that’s a dangerous mistake.

Economist Jennifer Roback Morse, author of the excellent book Love and Economics, puts it well. When it comes to marriage, she says, “the language of contract is . . . misleading because it undermines the basis of generosity and self-giving that is so important in married life.”

Morse is right. Contractual arrangements are a calculated effort to get what you want on the best terms you can get it. But marriage is about unreserved giving and sharing.

Contracts are limited and renewable; marriage is a permanent, life-long commitment. It is about self-sacrifice, not self-satisfaction.

The Scriptures back this up. Christians have always seen marriage as a covenant with God as a party to it. Couples are to put aside their own selfish desires and focus on the needs of the loved one. But the values of the marketplace, applied to marriage, teach a totally different message: that is, that we are entitled to a good “return on our investment.” They turn would-be brides and grooms into marital consumers, looking for the best deal they can get.

Tragically, people who think this way often end up in a kind of unholy wedlock—one in which men abandon wives the moment their looks begin to fade, and women drop husbands if they run out of money.

That so-called “classy” woman who hoped to marry money should read the Song of Solomon, chapter 8. In this chapter, a bride tells her bridegroom: “If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned.”

These verses offer a beautiful glimpse of love and courtship as God intended them. They make clear that true love cannot be bought and sold—or leased, as the case may be.

When it comes to finding a mate, we should seek a faithful, faith-filled spouse whose “love is better than wine,” as Solomon put it. That is worth more than all the money—or spectacular looks—in the world.”

To read more click here.

The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Thrive in a Post-Christian Culture? By Dr. Voddie Baucham

This is an excellent introduction to understanding the culture/spiritual war that is raging in our society. 

The core message of this book is that we live in a post-modern/post-Christian culture that embraces all lifestyles and religions and rejects the idea of absolute truth.  Our faith is constantly challenged by a culture that uses words such as narrow-minded, intolerant, and bigoted to describe us. We must take a stand and challenge the culture instead of conforming to it.  We must use the unchanging truth of God’s Word to engage the culture for transformation.  As Dr. Baucham writes, “the unchanging truth of God’s Word still holds preeminence in relevance and answers to contemporary life issues” and “as followers of Christ, we must stand humbly but boldly in the marketplace of ideas and proclaim the truth to a culture void of everlasting answers”. 

Although the book is only 210 pages, Dr. Baucham covers a lot of ground and very effectively conveys his message in a simple, logical and relevant way.  This is a very important book for all Christians to read in order to begin to understand the dynamics of the culture war.  I highly recommend it.  For more information on Dr. Baucham visit his website at www.voddiebaucham.org.

MTV-AP Poll: What Makes Youth Happy?

From Gary Randall and Faith and Freedom Network and Foundation.

“I’m not sure what MTV was thinking or expected when they along with the Associated Press commissioned a poll asking kids what made them happy.

The answers may not have made MTV too happy, given the fact that they have built a fortune around the idea that kids will be kids and their happiness will most often revolve around sex, drugs, rock and hip-hop music, plenty of cash in the pocket and keys to the car.

Given this image that often colors our kids, you may also be suprised, pleasantly so, at the kids responses.

The poll questioned 1,280 people ages 13 to 24 on the nature of happiness among America’s young people.

The top answer was “spending time with their family”and nearly 75% of them said their relationship with their parents makes them happy.

Also confirming previous research, the poll found that youth of divorced parents are somewhat less likely to be happy. Among 13-17 year olds, 64% of those with parents still together said they wake up happy, compared to 47% of those with divorced parents.

Kristiana ST. John 17, a high school student from Queens in New York, said of her parents,”They’re my foundation. My Mom tells me that even if I do something stupid, she’s still going to love me no matter what. Just knowing that makes me feel very happy and blessed”.

The poll revealed that being sexually active actually leads to less happiness among 13 to 17 year olds, The 18 to 24 year olds felt it might lead to more happiness in the moment, but not in general.

Nearly half the kids surveyed said religion and spirituality are very important and more than half of them said they believe in a higher power that has an influence over the things that make them happy.

Overwhelmingly, young people think that marriage would make them happy and want to be married some day. Almost all of them expressed that they want children of their own.

That of course, is best achieved through the traditional, Biblical model of one man and one woman being married and raising their children in a home where that child is influenced by both the male and female parent.

In the imperfect world that we live in, that may not always be achieved, but it is certainly the most effective model and must continue to be the model that we protect.

Traditional, Biblical values have served us well as a society. It would seem to me that through this poll our kids are once again asking us to strengthen and work at our marriages for the sake of the family and the next generation.

They would also be asking us to” honor” marriage as the Bible instructs us to do and protect it as the union between one man and one woman.

There is much more in the AP story. (Click here to read story). I would encourage you to take a moment and read it.

God bless you and your family.”

Where the Battle Rages: The Sexualizing of America

In Michael Craven’s article entitled, “Where the Battle Rages: The Sexualizing of America”, he discusses how God’s absolute moral truth as revealed in the Scripture regarding sexual ethics has been rendered irrelevant by our society.   The consequences we face because of this are horrific.

Michael writes the following: 

“Prior to the ‘60s America’s moral consensus, along with our public and social policies, was derived from profoundly Christian principles and values: in essence the Christian worldview.”

“The sexual revolution was the first open rebellion against this consensus. It was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of war against God’s revealed standard in scripture. The sexual revolution was the “beachhead” from which the final assault on God’s absolute moral truth was launched. The battle to redefine sexual ethics has become the ground out of which springs the cultural rejection of absolute moral truth and ultimately, I believe, Christianity in America.

Unfortunately most Christians failed to recognize what was happening at the time. The events of that era were simply regarded as passing youthful rebellion. We failed to recognize that these values and attitudes pertaining to sex were actually the result of a clearly defined and methodically advanced worldview that ultimately seeks to replace the Christ-centered plan of salvation with a man-centered plan of salvation. (In essence, a naturalistic plan for utopia.)

At the very heart of the prevailing values and attitudes pertaining to sex is a false doctrine of salvation that believes that the “imposition” of sexual morality itself is the cause for much of what is wrong in the world. The naturalistic worldview espouses the idea that religious and social constraints or (“morality”) are artificially constructed concepts that inhibit natural desires. Of course this is true. However the difference lies in the false presupposition that man is inherently good and not inherently sinful. Our passions and desires do require restraint. Humanity is capable of both great goodness and great evil. It is the latter capacity that the natural man ignores. This defies both the biblical truth and the reality of human experience. The natural man or secularist is convinced that these “restraints” act in a repressive manner, producing guilt, which in turn, leads to behavioral pathologies that are ultimately self-destructive, this, despite the fact that the natural order continually reaffirms God’s moral truths. The goal therefore has been to remove these so-called artificial moral boundaries and the first area from which to remove them is sexual conduct.”

All ideas have consequences.  Let’s examine the consequences America faces because of the idea to abandon God’s absolute moral truth for a man-centered “naturalistic utopia”.

Pornography

In 1973 Americans spent approximately $10 million on pornography. By 1999 the pornography industry took in more than $8 billion dollars. This is more than all revenues generated by Rock-n-Roll and Country music, more than spent on Broadway productions, theater, ballet, jazz and classical music combined.”

Sexually Transmitted Disease

America leads the industrialized world in STD’s. Over 68 million Americans are currently infected & more than 15 million new cases are reported each year.  In the 1960’s there were 2 recognized STD’s, today there are over 25, many of which are viral with no cure.Teen PregnancyAmerica leads the entire world in unwanted teenage pregnancies. American teenagers are more likely to become pregnant and have multiple partners than any other teenager on earth.

Violence Against Women

Violence against women has increased 526% since 1960 and has the highest reported rape rates in the world, more than 13 times that of Great Britain and 20 times that of Japan. Ironically, those states with the highest sales of sexually explicit materials also have the highest rates of rape.Sexual Abuse of ChildrenIt is estimated that 1 out 3 girls and 1 out of 7 boys will be sexually molested before their 18th birthday.  In 1973 there were 167,000 reported cases of child abuse in by 1987 that figure had reached 2,025,000!

Abortion

Since 1972 there have been over 41 million abortions performed in America.Sexuality RedefinedWhile 45% of adults polled believe homosexuality is an “acceptable lifestyle”, 85% of High School Seniors (The next generation) believe it is acceptable and 86% believe homosexuality is determined at birth.

To read the full article and to view the sources of the above statistics click here. 

What does the Bible really say about heterosexual marriage and homosexuality?

From Hal Lane and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

“The evangelical Christian community leads efforts to preserve the traditional definition of marriage and to oppose acceptance of homosexuality for one primary reason—biblical revelation. For those who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God there is no confusion about the proper definition of marriage or the immorality of homosexuality.

The biblical basis for understanding God’s intention for marriage is found in Genesis 2. The human race began with the creation of a heterosexual couple—Adam and Eve. The creation of Adam and Eve (male and female) was the foundation of human civilization and their union the first marriage. Genesis 2:24 states: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. Marriage is an institution of God designed as a lifelong covenant relationship between a man and woman (Matt. 19:1-6).

God’s command to Adam and Eve was “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28). God’s design for procreation demanded the union of a man and woman. This is another indication that God’s intention for marriage was exclusively a heterosexual union.

The Bible declares all sexual activity outside of the marriage relationship to be sexual immorality. Homosexuality is first mentioned in biblical history in the story of the angelic visitors who came to Lot in Sodom (Gen. 19:1-25). The principal sin that resulted in the destruction of Sodom was homosexuality (Gen. 19:5-6). Homosexuality is condemned in the Mosaic Law as “detestable” and was punishable by death (Lev. 18:22; 20:13).

The New Testament also clearly identifies homosexuality as immorality. Jesus’ statement, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17), indicated His agreement with all moral laws of the Mosaic Law including the laws prohibiting homosexuality. His statements on marriage and divorce in Matthew 5:31-32; 19:1-9 revealed His agreement with the definition of marriage as a lawful bond between a man and woman for life.

The Apostle Paul confronted a secular culture where homosexuality was accepted and endorsed by influential writers and leaders. In contrast to the acceptance of homosexuality by many in the first century A.D., Paul referred to the practice as “sexual impurity,” “unnatural,” “shameless acts,” and “perversion” (Rom. 1:24-27). Paul included “homosexuals” among those who will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Homosexuality is also included in a list of sins in 1 Timothy 1:10.

Liberal scholars have attempted at least three forms of attacks upon the biblical condemnation of homosexuality. Some have openly taken issue with the veracity of Scripture and treat the modern acceptance of homosexuality as “new truth” superior to scriptural revelation. Others have attempted to use a distorted definition of “love” to justify homosexual relationships. Still others assert that some people are born with homosexual tendencies and that God is therefore responsible and approving of homosexuality.

People are born with a sin nature that manifests itself in many expressions of rebellion against God. God is not to be blamed for our sinful choices. He sent His Son to deliver us from the penalty and the practice of sin—including homosexuality.

Christians have an opportunity to be salt and light by taking a stand for the biblical definition of marriage and upholding its condemnation of homosexuality.”

Americans say children not vital to marital bliss

Another article regarding the recent Pew Research Center survey from One News Now.

“A new survey shows that a large percentage of Americans believe a successful marriage hinges more on sharing household chores than having children. The vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC) is expressing concern over that survey, which he contends shows Americans have an increasingly selfish attitude regarding marriage and parenting.”

To read the article click here.

Moms, Dads, and Marriage Still Matter to Americans

From Family Research Council.

“There’s both good news and bad news in a Pew Research Center poll on marriage, parenthood, and other issues involving family and sexuality that was released over the weekend. A lopsided majority of Americans–69%–still believe that a child needs both a mother and a father. Large majorities also still believe that having children out of wedlock is a big problem for society. Americans still oppose same-sex “marriage” by a 57-32% margin, while opposition to the marriage counterfeits called “civil unions” has once again surpassed support for them. These views reflect the continuing common sense of the American people. However, other study findings were more troubling. The Washington Post chose to emphasize the sharp drop since 1990 in the percentage of people who consider children very important to a successful marriage, from 65% to only 41%, along with the 65% who believe that “mutual happiness and fulfillment” (rather than “bearing and raising children”) is the “main purpose of marriage.” Yet while an individual couple may not have children as their top priority, there’s no question that providing an optimal setting for bearing and raising children is the most important public purpose of marriage–one same-sex unions can never fulfill. “