Since the country of Chile banned abortion, the death rate among women has plummeted drastically.
Tag: moral issues today
“Peace on earth…”
This morning’s message spoke of the dream of peace that began with the angel announcement to the shepherds on that first Christmas night. Often in our warring world, that ideal seems so far away. But it is up to us to put it into action anyway. Here is a comment by famed Catholic writer Henri Nouwen on the same subject.
Henri Nouwen speaks to our time…
The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, calls for its realization in our day-to-day lives. Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.
We must remind one another constantly of the vision. Whenever it comes alive in us we will find new energy to live it out, right where we are. Instead of making us escape real life, this beautiful vision gets us involved.
My wife found this excellent article with five very wise observations and parenting tips for families in today’s world. All of the five are excellent. I recommend it.
http://www.crosswalk.com/family/parenting/kids/5-ways-you-are-ruining-your-child-s-life.html
The first one about the effect of the priority of amusements for children today is also a reflection of how families think about getting through the moment rather than thinking about the long-term effect of what is happening. This is also the case with the lack of putting priority on practicing our faith and with not putting priority on time for our marriages. Perhaps it is up to the older generation who have more time perspective to remind in tactful ways of the long-term view. But taking the longer-term perspective also needs to become more of a cultural habit of our society than it currently is whether the issue is family finances, raising of children, considering divorce, or professional growth.
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An interview with a former homosexual
I highly recommend this article and interview. This represents a perspective that is not being allowed to be heard today because of political correctness.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ex-gay-homosexuality-is-just-another-human-brokenness
Name the heroes not the criminal
Our hearts are grieving for the families affected by the tragic shootings in Oregon. Once again, the ordinary people who were there became extraordinary heroes. On Facebook, one person nominated as the most courageous person in America the second person in that room who was asked by the shooter if they were a Christian and answered yes anyway. I would like to know about that true martyr for our faith. I also applaud the Army vet who charged the shooter. I pray for Chris Mintz’s recovery from his wounds. These are the names I want on my lips, not the name of the shooter.
But learn from situation
As unpleasant as the task may be, it is important for the prevention of further such incidents that we learn about the perpetrator. Once again a person whose mental health was questionable had unwise access to guns and used them against innocent people in a place where he would not encounter armed resistance. He wanted to achieve media notoriety. I learn from the news of his hatred of Christianity. I believe he was also from a single parent home, an additional risk factor. In an eerie parallel to Sandy Hook, his mother was fascinated with guns. His actions also indicate character issues, lack of respect for others, no compassion, and insensitivity to bloodshed and violence.
Mental health is a difficult issue
People will wring their hands and ask, “What can be done?” Politicians will point to gun control. Indeed, there is work to be done in the area of screening access to firearms for those whose mental health records are questionable. But that is a very difficult agenda in a land where we cherish individual freedom. Families cannot even get help for those whom they know are mentally ill because the sufferer hasn’t done anything illegal yet. By the time they have it is too late either for them or for others. Similarly, families and friends of Alzheimer victims are powerless until either the sufferer is hospitalized for other reasons or a caretaker is hospitalized for injuries, even though the ability to choose of their loved one has declined past the point of safety for all concerned. The issue of mental health in America is much broader than just the gun control aspect.
Learning to value the valuable not the familiar
But almost no one will talk about the deeper issues involved here. Why is a mentally ill person like this shooter thinking that it is more desirable to become infamous than to remain one of the crowd? Might it be partly because we as a culture give too much adulation and credit to those who happen to appear regularly on television? Who even knows the names of those who found movements of charity? Who notices those who head up cancer research? Teachers are more likely to be blamed for low scores than given credit for dealing with increasing numbers of special-needs students. Our society does not know its real heroes! It adores people whose faces simply appear in movies and on TV rather than sorting out those whose character and achievements truly deserve recognition. There is something very wrong with how our culture rewards people based only on media exposure.
Media that considers its effect, not just its click numbers
I have been pleased with the effort of some news organizations to follow the lead of the Oregon community where the shooting happened and attempt to front page the names of victims and heroes while barely mentioning the perpetrator. This is a wholesome trend because it considers the effects of the way the news is covered. It counters the usual trend where media is driven by clicks, not by value. To make a lasting difference, there will need to be leaders in media and government that desire to set a course for the moral uplift of America. Negative portrayal of Christians in media today has to be contributing to the culture’s sad turn toward ungodliness and rejection of the Christian heritage of our country.
Needed: A resurgence of the fear of God
I have also noted before and repeat again that one thing that needs to change in our society in order for the culture of violence to change is this. There needs to be a revival of the fear of God including teaching about the accounting that each person must give to God after they die. People who kill others and then commit suicide think it is over. Jesus clearly taught us that it is not over (John 5:28, 29)! Our accountability for our actions has just begun. We may have escaped earthly accountability but we cannot escape God’s judgment. “We know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30-31 NIV 2011).
Violent programming programs brains for violence
Finally, to change the violent climate of our country, we must stop loving violence in our entertainment. The Bible warns that cultures that love violence will be dogged by it. “Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you” (Ezek. 35:6 NIV). When children grow up watching hundreds of murders on television and committing virtual murders in video venues every day, why should we be surprised if some people on the margins whose ability to separate fiction and reality is impaired and whose ethical intelligence is very low commit real world mayhem? Is it not probable that if violence had not been pre-programmed in by media habits, then their acting out would manifest entirely differently?
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A New Name for my Blog
Sometimes when I see one of those big flashing arrow signs on the highway pointing to a lane closure or a detour, I reflect on how we might wish that life came with flashing directional signals that we could not miss. I know I have needed such a thing more than once. But life does not, and so many people lose their way amid the maze of decisions, circumstances and pressures that face people every day. I remember when I first felt called to become a pastor, one who helps others along life’s road, one of the objectives in my mind was to be used of God in helping to teach people how to live wisely. I hoped to help folks learn to make wise choices. It’s a dangerous and slightly presumptuous undertaking because no matter how old or educated one is, one must undertake the task while very much a learner along the road.
The Good News is that one of the purposes of the Bible is to provide the principles to teach us how to live wisely. Consider, for example, the stated purpose from the prologue of the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.
For gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
For receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
For giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance— Prov 1:2-5 NIV 2011
In addition, God’s Holy Spirit has promised to guide Christ-followers in their journey. So there is hope!
The Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Prov 2:6 NIV 2011
Recently, this focus on helping others live wisely has been impressed upon me again. Accordingly, I have decided to change the title of my blog to: Learn to be Wise. I hope that the change will accomplish several purposes.
- It will help my blog focus more on wisdom for daily living. I want to write more in the wisdom category on my blog.
- It will enlarge the blog’s appeal beyond those who normally look at the writings of pastors. This is an important factor in New England where fewer people have a relationship to a church that in upstate New York.
- It aligns the title with the web address, an address chosen two years ago because we could not get one that looked like the old blog title. Could it be that God was already at work pointing in this direction? I think so.
Of course, there will still be some family posts; that keeps the blog personal. And there will still be some church-related posts; church gives me a great deal of context. But overall, I trust the percentage of posts will shift toward practical comments on daily life and reflections that help us find wisdom for our daily choices.
My heart is filled with grief at the picture of Muslims affiliated with IS lining up Christian Copts for martyrdom. My mind reels. In addition, religiously motivated shootings in Denmark and France are shocking as the specter of anti-Semitism appears. The potential in humans for barbarity is surfacing in several places. On another front, I am saddened also at the losses and broken promises in the war in Ukraine. One country invading another to take over more territory – sounds like greed in action, lightly covered under the pretext of a rebel cause. There is so much fanaticism and aggression!
Is there a word of wisdom for our warring world today? This morning I was reading James 3:13-18 and was impressed by it. It is a rebuke to the spirits both of fanatics who kill and to aggressors fulfilling their selfish ambitions. A popular paraphrase brings it down to a more personal level and warns, “Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats” (James 3:16 The Message).
In New Testament times the fanatics were the Zealots. The word translated envy in this passage is the word for zeal that they used. The Apostle James warns that in contrast to hearts filled with bitterness and selfish ambition and behavior marked by evil, “true wisdom is the wisdom of peace not of violence” (IVP Bible Background Commentary on the NT). A person who is truly wise shows gentleness and consideration for others. They are merciful, impartial, reliable and straightforward in their dealings. Those who sow bitterness and violence reap bitterness and violence. But the harvest of peacemakers is joyful. I pray for wise peacemakers in our world.
Research has repeatedly shown that children of same sex relationships are at much greater risk in so many ways. Here is one of the more recent and largest studies to come up with that result. As a corollary, helping Mom and Dad keep together and do well as a couple needs to be one of the goals of the church’s ministry. If heterosexual marriage were doing better as an institution,there would be much less gender confusion in our culture.
“A new study published in the February 2015 issue of the British Journal of Education, Society, and Behavioural Science appears to be the largest yet on the matter of same-sex households and children’s emotional outcomes. It analyzed 512 children of same-sex parents, drawn from a pool of over 207,000 respondents who participated in the (US) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) at some point between 1997 and 2013.
Results reveal that, on eight out of twelve psychometric measures, the risk of clinical emotional problems, developmental problems, or use of mental health treatment services is nearly double among those with same-sex parents when contrasted with children of opposite-sex parents. The estimate of serious child emotional problems in children with same-sex parents is 17 percent, compared with 7 percent among opposite-sex parents, after adjusting for age, race, gender, and parent’s education and income. Rates of ADHD were higher as well—15.5 compared to 7.1 percent. The same is true for learning disabilities: 14.1 vs. 8 percent.” from http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/02/14417/
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Baseball ads and culture
For the first time, I was able to watch at least some of every game of the World Series. For a long-time baseball fan, this was a big deal that has been a long time in coming. But since I am not a big TV watcher, I am not as adept as some at escaping the commercials. Oh yes, I take snack breaks, probably a few too many of them. But, still over the course of the World Series, I watched a lot of ads, many of them multiple times. So I decided to make watching ads a little more interesting and become a critical observer of them. The results of this are my own annotated lists of the best and worst of them.
Here are five of my most important criteria.
- Was there creative energy in it?
- Did it have a positive message overall, positive for the company and for our culture?
- Was it interesting? Did I enjoy watching it?
- Did it respect my intelligence?
- Did it fit and respect the venue?
Okay, here are the top five
- Mo’ne Davis – This ad was sponsored by Chevrolet. It championed the rise of women’s sports in America today and fitted with the World Series by featuring a young girl who can pitch a baseball 70 mph at the age of 13. By the end of the ad, I wanted to know what company had the wisdom and welcome sense of Americana to sponsor it.
- T-Mobile’s the Big 7th – This ad reflected the interactive nature of the world today, something that cell-phones are exploiting for better or worse. The ad was shown as part of the traditional 7th inning stretch. It allowed the audience to be part of the ad in the way that TV announcers at games are trying to do by showing fan clips.
- Anheuser-Busch – the history of baseball. The ad showed great moments in baseball history through the experience of fans of that time in history. It was appropriately sepia in tone for the oldest ones too. I loved the Babe Ruth’s speech over the radio moment. I’m not a fan of alcoholic beverages, but I have to hand it to the people who do advertising for Budweiser.
- Nissan Rogue – the little boy’s ride home. The ad was a gem of creativity. It seemed to flow from the fresh mind of a child where the line between fantasy and reality is very thin. It was fascinating to follow. It captured the desired feeling tone of security very successfully too.
- HP ad with the lost iguana — This ad successfully showed that HP has many products while keeping attention with a mini-story of a child-prodigy manager who smoothly runs his campaign to find his lost iguana using HP technology. Two favorite moments – he’s in bed and lights up the town with big screen ads at the click of a button on his phone; and, like a big-time CEO with a little too much confidence, he rightly predicts the knock at the door.
When I finished making this list, I noticed that four of the top five winners also had great story lines. Interesting!
No ad rating would be complete without talking about the losers as well. The World Series had plenty of them too. When these played I went to get a snack whenever possible.
- Painfully awkward Rob Lowe – This ad was banal and offensive to my intelligence from the beginning. Do ad makers really think people are that dumb? It was unkind to those who are not with it. It sealed its fate as the worst of the worst by sinking to offensive and unnecessary toilet humor at the end. Direct TV – you lose.
- Dumb and Dumber 2 – This is the trashiest ad for a trashy program. Raunch and idiocy replacing humor! Enough said.
- Geico – Ickey Woods – celebrate anything. This whole series of ads has long ago lost its punch. You can only ride a good idea (..but did you know that…) so far. This one rode it ad nauseam. More stupidity. Seeing ads like this confirms how TV in general has sunk so low that smart people seldom can find a show to watch.
- Rob Lowe – Creepy – Direct TV loses again. This one was not quite as low as the other one as it had no toilet humor. But it still insulted my intelligence. Do they really think I would choose Direct TV because one creepy person uses cable? I’m not impressed by actors playing different roles. I felt creepy about the whole ad.
- Sonos your home – The one where gold crept up the walls. This one is gross and seems more like a horror flick where the viewer is about to be engulfed in good-looking yuck. It is on the list because it failed spectacularly in the basic task of advertising – making a positive emotional appeal on behalf of the product.
Well, that’s my take. Any comments? What were your favorites and what ads were the butt of your jokes?
Question: One of my parishioners recently wrote me about a dilemma that is certainly common to all of us today.
“I received email from 6 organizations wanting donations from me today. This is pretty much a daily happening and it’s causing me mixed feeling. The question is how do I handle this situation? I have my pet charities; but I don’t feel I should support them all. Some of them do grab at my heart when it comes to children and animals, and even disabled or blind vets. The list is getting longer and I feel guilty when I discard them. This is not counting the many calls I get via phone – please give me some advice.”
Answer from the Pastor’s Desk:
It is unfortunately part of the modern world that we are able to receive so many calls for donations. As you mentioned, some come by phone and some by email, not to mention TV. Many come from automated mailing systems. I’m sure before long they will figure out how to send them in other ways as well. Even at church we have plenty of fund appeals. There are twin spiritual and emotional dangers. On the one hand, we can become overwhelmed by them and laden with guilt so that we hardly know what to do. On the other hand, and this may be even worse, we can become immunized by the barrage of them to the point that our compassion atrophies and we can no longer respond when we should.
Here is a strategy that I recommend that I believe will allow us to respond in compassion appropriately while protecting ourselves from overload.
1. Pray about where God is calling you to help.
2. Then choose a few charities that are very reputable and that deal with issues that are dear to your heart. Use your passion for issues and world needs as a guide. For example, if you feel strongly that you would like to eradicate cancer, then you might choose the American Cancer Society as one of your charities.
3. The number of charities you choose may depend on your means but for most people, I think it will probably be from 3-6. Keep the list small enough so that you can respond occasionally to all of them every year. Don’t worry if you don’t respond to every call. I don’t think anyone does that. Most of us can’t. Married couples may decide to each add some favorite ones to a joint list or they may each have their own.
4. Your local church will likely be your number one charity.
5. I recommend that all Christians in developed countries like ours include at least one charity that ministers to needs in the third world in their list. It might be UMCOR or World Hope (the one JoAnne and I have chosen), or Samaritan’s Purse or World Vision, for examples (Gal. 2:10).
6. Consign all other email solicitations ruthlessly to the junk email box. For most of the repeated ones, you can get your browser to do this for you before you even see them. Trash both email and snail mail from other charities without even opening it.
7. For phone calls, tell the person up front if their charity is not on your list and if they won’t take “no” for an answer, they deserve a hang-up.
8. The fact that you are obeying God in generosity to the charities you have chosen helps you to not feel guilty in disregarding the others. Seek to be at peace with your level of giving. God does not want you to feel burdened with guilt about it but to be a joyful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).
9 Follow faithfully the charities that you have chosen, allowing God to use you to help them. Read their materials and become knowledgeable about them.
10. Annually evaluate your overall participation in your chosen charities. If you do taxes, that is a natural time to evaluate. Your ultimate goal as a Christian steward is God’s well-done for your handling of the wealth he has entrusted to you. A term that I have found helpful in measuring my response is to ask whether or not I have been generous. God loves generosity and his economy rewards it. As the Proverb says, “The generous will themselves be blessed” (Pr 22:9 NIV 2011).