Tag: moral issues today

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News Commentary

Lame Duck Senate Strategy

The Capitol

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/01/5559969-gop-to-block-all-bills-until-tax-cuts-are-addressed

I am a registered Republican who often votes Conservative.  And I agree with Harry Reid!  The Republicans didn’t learn anything from the last election.   I bet I’m not the only Republican the Senate leadership is disappointing by this latest shenanigan.

  1. It is debt the voters were worried about even more than taxes.  Every thinking person realizes that sooner or later somebody is going to have to pay more taxes to get our nation out of debt.  Nobody wants to do it.  Nobody wants to pay the dentist either, but we do.  I agree with the Democrats.   Restore a larger share of contributions from the wealthier people.  It’s what every businessperson knows. The largest share of business comes from the largest contracts.
  2. The Republicans will lose face with the voters by obstructing things that need to pass.  They are shooting themselves in the foot; they are their own worst PR nightmare. The arms treaty is needed.  By seeming to hold it up, the Republicans will appear to be endangering our national security and edging the doomsday clock closer to midnight.  They will earn the label “obstructionist” for no good reason.
  3. If the Republicans were really smart, their first act, instead of a political bullying attempt, would have been to seek common ground with Democrats by coming together to pass the DREAM act as a bipartisan signal.  Americans would have been shocked but very pleased at a new tactic in Washington.   Both parties want the political hay that is to be made among Hispanic voters.   Unfortunately neither seems to really care about the real life people they should have helped long ago.  The welfare of the children of immigrants is just another political football.

The long and short of it is that we need new leadership in the House and Senate!  We need men and women that seek a centrist way rather than dwelling at the extremes as we have seen; that take a coalescing road rather than the rank partisan one we have watched them travel, that find a way of building upon the past and creating something greater rather repeating the childish “tear-down-their-castle-so-we-can-build-ours” game.

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News Commentary

Carl Paladino may be mad but he’s not crazy!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/2010/10/carl_paladino_unhinged.html

http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/10/paladino_vs_brainwashing.html

Commentators, especially liberal ones, have had a ball with Carl Paladino’s recent comments.  I quote one version of the supposedly offending lines. “Appearing before a group of Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn on Sunday, Paladino declared that he didn’t want children “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option — it isn’t.” Then, in trying on the “Today” show on Monday to make things better, he made them worse. He spoke of how “disgusting” he had found a gay pride march he had seen, in which marchers “wear these little Speedos, and they grind against each other.”” (From  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/13/AR2010101305533.html ) 

My contention is that Carl Paladino is not bigoted as the cartoonist suggests, but rather represents accurately two contentions of the majority of Americans, both of which are completely lost on the modern-day media and, of course, on the gay-rights lobby as well.

The first constitutional contention he represents accurately is that it is the right of people of faith, whether evangelical Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Jewish, Amish, Orthodox or Mormon who believe that homosexual behavior is wrong, to teach their children the same and not to have their children taught otherwise by whomever.  This is fundamental to the free exercise of religion.  Schools exist primarily to work for parents, and only secondarily to serve the interests of the state.  Carl understands this right. 

Second, Carl’s comments about Speedos and grinding in a gay rights parade describe an immodest display.  Such behavior would be immodest if it were by a woman and a man too.  It would also be inappropriate for children then as well.   Good parents still teach children modesty.   But contemporary culture considers the concept of modesty archaic.   Media moguls argue that freedom of expression rules.   Consider the argument currently raging concerning the GQ pics by Glee stars (http://blog.syracuse.com/entertainment/2010/10/steamy_glee_gq_pics_have_many.html).  How dare parents bring up the idea that stars might want to be a good example of something old-fashioned like modesty because their show caters to preteens.  And the stars themselves are clueless.  As far as Hollywood and the fashion industry are concerned, about the only ones who cover up are the Amish, Muslims and very old women.   Carl is right that children should not be taught that immodest displays are proper, whichever sex they involve.  They indeed, don’t need to see them.

Carl’s candidacy may have issues, but the way he thinks about gays grinding in Speedos and politically correct police pushing gay rights on other peoples’ kids is not one of them.  His mistake was in apologizing instead of explaining.  Quite a few of us are just a little mad that simply thinking thoughts like I am writing will get us labeled as bigots.   But having traditional morality is not the same as being a bigot, despite such verbal bullying!

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News Commentary

Syracuse Life Chain a United Witness

http://topics.syracuse.com/tag/Life%20Chain/index.html

My wife, JoAnne, and I along with another couple from Community Wesleyan, George and Jenny Raterman joined in the Syracuse Life Chain Sunday afternoon.   It is an annual public expression of our stand for the sanctity of life.   I have not attended for a few years, but this year, I was inspired by my participation in Pray & Act to take part again.   As I stood by the road, a lady walked by with a beautiful sign picturing a very young baby in the womb and a Bible verse neatly printed.  The verse reminded me of my favorite pro-life verses,    “You formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.   I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful.  My soul knows that very well” (Ps 139:13-14 WEB).  Certainly God is actively creating in the life of every individual from conception.

Visible Unity –Cool!

Life Chain is especially notable as a united witness to the Biblical value of respect for the sanctity of human life.   The unity is demonstrated visibly in the unity of signs carried.   Most of the participants hold the same pre-made signs that say either, “Abortion kills children,” or “Adoption, not abortion.”     The current venue is a manifest symbol of unity too.  Life chain happens on Route 11 where North Syracuse Baptist and St Rose de Lima Roman Catholic churches are across from each other.   Marchers can pick up signs at either location and they met together afterwards at the Catholic church to hear political speakers who are pro-life.

Four major streams of Christendom united in this witness!

I remarked to the lady across the street in front of the St Rose de Lima Church holding the same sign I was how neat it was that the Catholic and Baptist churches cooperated in this event.   And the unity that was there was much wider even than that.   I represented the Wesleyan/Arminian strain of Protestantism while the Baptists represented the more Calvinist strain.  So each side from one of the bigger theological partitions in Protestantism was represented.     A few moments later, I walked up the street and spoke to Father McCaffery of the Greek Orthodox Church (Franklin Park) who stopped by to stand in solidarity with this witness to pro-life.    He represented another great wing of the Christian church, the Eastern Church.   As I reflected on this gathering, I could not remember being a part of another event like it in my life where these four great strands of Christ’s church were visibly praying and working together for one immediate purpose.  Certainly, as Jesus promised, hell cannot stand against such a united front.

I pray that Roe vs. Wade is soon over-turned or rendered irrelevant by a ruling that life begins at conception.   Our country must stand for the sanctity of life as the Bible does and the Declaration of Independence also does.   Eliminating children because they come at an inconvenient time is an affront to their Creator.   It is also a major cause of the economic crisis in the Northeast.  There would be millions more people needing goods and services if it were not for the crimes of the abortion industry.    Law should only be mute on this issue in cases where the life of the mother is in danger.   And I understand that cases presenting such a tragic choice are so rare that some obstetricians have testified to never having seen one in their practice.

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Journal Who Am I

Why I Signed the Manhattan Declaration (Sep 8, 2010)

 

Today I decided to sign the Manhattan Declaration.   The time has come for Christians to speak out strongly in unison about these values that are essential without clouding the picture with denominational exclusives and sub-culture preferences.   I was very drawn also to the way the declaration’s preamble linked the causes we are speaking out about today to some of the high moments in the history of Christianity.  Indeed, when I sign it, I do have a sense that I am standing in the greatest strands of Christian tradition.

I signed, first of all, because the three causes are ones with which I wholeheartedly agree.

  1. Every human life is a creation of God from conception and is to be respected as such.   As the Psalmist writes, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps 139:13-14 NIV).  Every day God gives us until our natural death is a gift of God, and comes to us with “good works prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).   This is the Christian way and has nothing to do with country or politics.  Its truth stands prophetically opposed to any government at any time in history that covers its hands in violence and bloodshed, whether obviously or more silently by implication.
  2. Marriage is defined as a covenant union of one man and one woman for life.   It cannot be defined otherwise and be the same product.   It began in the Garden of Eden.    It was blessed by Jesus with his own presence in Cana.    It is a covenant that God uses to illustrate the relationship of Christ to the church (Eph. 5:25-32).   It has been under assault for years and now is in critical danger of official redefinition.  I believe that Christians need to stand together in the way they live, and pray about and stand up for the Bible’s idea of marriage.
  3. Lastly, religious freedom is a precious gift that came to us in our country because so many from so many different faiths were part of our fledging nation in its beginning.    They recognized that freedom of conscience was a divinely assumed parameter of Scripture.   So they made it a pillar of our system of government.   Today it is under direct attack by the “politically correct” crew.    What is not being made clear in our country today is that our Christian faith is the only safe foundation for our freedom.   Other great world faiths have not resulted in the potential for tolerance of diverse faiths that American Christianity has.   We need to recognize that preserving our Christian heritage is essential to the continuing of our freedom of religion.  

 

These three causes truly need our support today.

I do not need to repeat the work of the declaration.   But let me add that in my work as a minister of the gospel, I have seen the decline of marriage from several angles.  It is frightening.   Divorce is more frequent.   Promiscuity is a way of life especially among many twenty-something’s.  More and more children are born outside of marriage.   The number of marriages I have personally been asked to perform has fallen steadily over my years of ministry.   Today, many want to teach an outright falsehood by suggesting that somehow homosexual unions are the same as heterosexual.    If they were, why do homosexuals often imitate the heterosexual pair?  If they were, why don’t statistics concerning happiness come out equally well?   And today, we are in danger as pastors of not being able to say how we feel about that subject and others as has already happened in Canada.   This is just one reason why we need to speak out in defense of religious liberty. 

The success of these causes will require a unity across all brands of Christian faith.

It is high time that we became more creative in answering Jesus’ prayer for our unity.  “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23 NIV).   I think all of us recognize that part of the reason for the powerlessness of the church in today’s world is its divisions.    To take one small example, if a media person wanted to call someone to represent the church on a given issue in a given city, who would they call?   The truth is, we couldn’t even advise the media what to do ourselves.   There are probably three ministerial associations at least; and the largest churches are often not even represented in them.  No wonder we have so little voice.   So the Manhattan Declaration gives Christ’s Church a chance to come together across all those artificial lines and speak out with one voice.  I want to be part of that.  

You can speak out too.

If you have been impressed to check up on the Manhattan Declaration with a view to joining in yourself—and I hope you have—I have added the website to my blog roll.  The sign-in process is simple.  You do not have to join the community to sign the declaration.   Let’s work together to stand up for truth!

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News Commentary

Why burning the Koran is wrong and un-Christian

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11238062

I am saddened and maddened by pastor Terry Jones’ intransigence in the face of wise and godly counsel.   Many people from pastors to government officials to General Petraeus have counseled him that his plan is unwise.   Even the announcement of it has already brought offense to the gospel, caused riots, and endangered Christians worldwide.   

Of course, by our American values, that should not happen; here we would not be so deeply offended by a protest.    But wishes do not factor in here.  Those in Athens do not live by Jerusalem’s values and Paul did not address Athenians as if he were in Jerusalem.  Paul’s approach in Athens was not constructed to offend but to invite.  

In addition, it seems elementary to me that to burn their holy book does not pass the test of the golden rule.  Do we want them burning Bibles at mosques?   Of course not!  Then neither should a church bearing Christ’s name–say nothing of the name “Dove”–burn a Koran!   

As a conservative Christian pastor with the same last name, I urge pastor Terry Jones to show humility and wisdom and listen to counsel; first for the image of the gospel itself which is being tainted by this hate-filled image of burning; second, for the sake of believers in Muslim countries whose persecution will increase because of such an act; third, for the welfare of troops deployed today in harm’s way whose task will be made more dangerous and difficult by a publicity media day; and fourth for the safety of our country itself because radical Islamists will use this as a spur to recruit new followers in this country as well as abroad.   

Proverbs warns that it is only a fool who keeps going despite much good counsel.  “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” (Pr 12:15 NIV).  I urge him to cancel the Koran burning, if for no other reason, then because the international publicity has made the whole issue just too hot to safely handle.   I am praying for him.