Category: culture

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culture

Sexy little thang …

I remember the first time I visited Craigslist.  We had posted some children’s items for sale.  I was surprised and initially impressed by the range of products and services offered on the site and started surfing around.  It wasn’t too long before I noticed the “friendship” or “relationship” ads.  The explicit statements stunned me.  The Red Light District in Amsterdam had nothing on those postings.  Turns out that at least some of those girls advertised on Craigslist were/are still little girls.  While we were selling kids stuff, other folks were selling their kids … 

The open letter below to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster is a good reminder that the sex-porn  industry  is based on abuse, either harvesting the fruit of sexually abused children or too often, directly exploiting and abusing children.

An Open Letter to Jim Buckmasterby Rachel Lloyd

Dear Jim,

We met about 18 months ago via video-conference and at that time I shared with you a story of an 11 year old girl that I was working with. I’m not sure if you remember her, but I’d like to share this story with you again.

“Bethany” had been in foster care since she was 2 years old and had bounced from foster home to foster home, until at 11 she was introduced to a friend of her 14 year old sister. This friend was a 32 year old man who lured her in with promises of a stable home and love, everything she’d been craving her whole short life. He took Bethany from New York down to a hotel in DC, bought her some ‘sexy’ clothes, and took pictures of her and then posted those pictures on your site, Craigslist. Bethany didn’t really think there was anything unusual about this, after all her 14 and 16 year old sisters were both being sold on Craigslist too.

For nine months, almost till she turned 12 years old, Bethany’s pictures were posted on Craigslist. Sometimes she was “NEW IN TOWN” when her pimp/trafficker would bring her to cities up and down the East Coast, posting her pictures in different regions. Sometimes she was “HOT N SEXXY FOR U” with her price listed as 150 roses. Night after night, adult men clicked on her ads, dialed a number and ordered her as easily as they would’ve ordered a pizza. Night after night, adult men came to the hotel room she was being kept in and had sex with her, or rather raped her, as at 11 years old she was too young to consent. Night after night, her pimp collected the money that he made from her and if it wasn’t enough he beat or whipped her, badly enough that she has permanent scars.

No-one who saw Bethany’s pictures ever clicked on the link on your site and reported “suspected exploitation of minors and/or human trafficking to the appropriate authorities”. No law enforcement ever found the ads that her trafficker posted in the midst of the hundreds and hundreds of other ads of girls for sale.

Bethany, and her two sisters, were sold on your site, just like hundreds of other girls I’ve worked with have been. Just like thousands of other girls and young women across America are sold every night. It’s hard to imagine that as a businessman with a sense of social responsibility that this wouldn’t sicken and horrify you. The thought that you could profit even one dollar, let alone millions of dollars, in any way from the sale of children has to deeply sadden and make you outraged to the point where you would want to ensure that this can’t happen – at least not on your site. I would’ve hoped that would be your automatic response anyway.

Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. Your responses to the criticism though raise some interesting points.  Yes, while there may be a few people who are concerned about “casual sex” on your site, the vast majority of people who are signing petitions and raising their voices about this issue are doing so on behalf of girls like Bethany who don’t have a voice. Yes, while there are of course other sites, magazines and Yellow Page ads where girls and women can be bought, very few of them have the brand-name recognition that Craigslist does, and besides, the “other people are doing it too” argument seems to be one that our mothers taught us when we were in kindergarten didn’t hold much water. (Kudos, by the way, to New York Magazine for dropping all their sex for sale ads last year). And yes, while Craigslist has been cooperative with law enforcement on this issue, the sheer volume of postings of girls for sale on each night, in each city makes truly targeting traffickers and pimps a Sisphyean task.

This campaign isn’t about a “cynical misuse of a cause as important as human trafficking as a pretense for imposing one’s own flavor of religious morality”. In fact, for those of us on the ground who work with girls like Bethany every day, it’s saddening to have our work and our advocacy efforts framed as such. While we recognize that Craigslist taking a stand on this issue won’t end commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in our country, it will send a powerful message to the adult male buyers that Craigslist will have no part in, nor take any profit from, the sale of 11 (or 14, or 16) year old girls.

Rachel Lloyd is the founder of Girls Educational & Mentoring Services.

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culture

Man without God …

Remember those horrific stories about Nazi doctors performing medical experiments on Jews?  Don’t think that our secular socialists are so terribly different than were the German Nationalist Socialists, particularly at American public universities.  WorldNetDaily reports that after a significant public relations campaign against the project, a major Big Ten university has cancelled plans to conduct late term abortions that would be used to harvest baby organs for research:

The University of Wisconsin Hospitals have dropped plans to establish a late-term abortion facility at the publicly funded Madison Surgery Center that would be used to provide “fresh fetal body parts” to researchers at the institution, according to reports today from American Life League and the Alliance Defense Fund.

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culture entertainment

Piano dedication

We enjoyed a touching and enjoyable piano dedicatory recital Monday evening at the beautiful Butler University Chapel on Campbell University.  Randall Atcheson was the pianist.  He performed on a new Steinway nine-foot concert grand model “D.”  Great performer and wonderful instrument.  Mr. Atcheson, a member of the international roster of Steinway Artists, professed a strong faith in Christ and gave a wonderful performance.  After playing a set from Chopin, he performed a Gospel, popular, and patriotic selection, each of which he arranged.  Mr. Atcheson is a passionate and fun performer who loves God and is excited about everything, particularly music and God and other people.  And he wasn’t afraid to express it. His stories about his southern preacher father were touching and humorous. We also share the same favorite song: Amazing Grace.  Great performer if Monday night was in any way typical for him.

The litany of dedication was also touching:

Creator God, You have given us minds to know You, hearts to love You, voices to sing Your praise and instruments to resound the majesty of Your name. We are grateful You have gifted Your people with music.

When words fail, music can express our deepest yearnings. In those seasons of our lives, we can find You in the notes of the familiar hymns whose melodies bring soothing calm and sweet serenity.

When we are still in Your presence, we can seek You and find You in the songs of quiet contemplation.

When we gather to worship, music can voice our highest and most exalted praise through the sounds of strength and majesty.

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culture entertainment

On How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon is released, and it looks like another creative, entertaining work from the movie geniuses at Dreamworks.  I haven’t watched it yet, however, I’m already enjoying the commentary on the movie.  I’m increasingly finding that the commentary and controversy surrounding new movies is quite often much more interesting and entertaining than the movies themselves.  The commentary thus far on How to Train Your Dragon is enjoyable and provoking, for example, see here and related article here.  The criticism being raised is that the work reflects the increasingly popular worldview that good and evil is a myth, or at least evil is; there are only misunderstandings and unfortunate circumstances.  Some new age systems of thought posit that evil is a fiction.  Moral (and existential) nihilism is also a natural fruit of scientific materialism, the worldview that has held our cultural and moral elite for the better part of a century now.  Regardless, How to Train Your Dragon looks like clean, fun entertainment and I look forward to seeing it with the family.

I refused, however, to see Avatar.  I became of bit of a pariah when I let it be known to co-workers and extended family that I was boycotting Avatar, or at least boycotting paying theatre rates.  One person even commented that I must be hateful if I refused to watch it.  The most common comment was that I needed to stop thinking about what the movie might mean and “just enjoy it.”  Everyone said it takes cinema to an entirely higher level of performance.  Problem is, I don’t think I could enjoy it.  Avatar plays a special effect symphony with my list of peeves: corporations are evil; military veterans as psychopaths; European descendants as psychopaths but indigenous and primitive people as enlightened; new age/Gaia as prevailing religion, and finally, non-humans “winning” by killing lots of humans.  Aside from the last element of aliens prevailing over humans (a new yuck), each of the rest are worn, left-wing prejudices and standard fare to some degree in most movies, but it’s not typical for them all to show up at once in the same non-satire flick.  Two thumbs down says the critic who hasn’t seen it.

UPDATE:  We’ve now seen HtTYD … Make sure to see it in 3D.  We didn’t.  Cute.  Criticism is valid.  Cute and fun story (except the vikings sounded too much like Shrek), however the moral was the story is that if we take the time to get to know and understand our enemies, we can probably be friends.  Sometimes that’s true.  In the case of real life dragons, however, it’s dangerous.

Categories
culture

RU 486 “publicity”

Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek has two interesting articles on World Net Daily about recent live-Tweets by women sharing their RU486 experiences.  Stories here and here.  I don’t recommend reading prior to mealtime.  As described by these women, the experiences were not in any way without suffering. 

My immediate thought is “what were these woman thinking” by publicizing their abortions to the world.  After reading their tweets, that question looms even larger.  What did they accomplish or hope to accomplish?  Abortion providers purposefully avoid explaining exactly who and how the baby is dissected and suctioned out of the womb and what the mother will experience during and after her abortion, both physically and emotionally.  Certainly more woman “sharing” what it’s like to experience the bloody business of aborting the child from their womb will only further the pro-life cause.

Categories
books culture homeschooling marriage and family

Work at home moms

My wife and I recently took a well needed, long weekend vacation – without kids .  It had been many years since we took time off together.  I’ve heard of people who do this kinda stuff regularly, but don’t think I’ve actually met anyone.  The trip was instigated by a kind friend who has repeatedly encouraged us to give effort toward not growing apart.  Wise and hard-earned advise.  Without our kids, the first several hours “alone” almost seemed awkward.  It occurred to me that typically so much of our time is talking about what the kids have done, are doing, or are going to do.  We’ve done a “night out” on occasions, however, those nights are typically taken up with whatever urgent matters filled the day and talking about the kids.  Having several days alone together was really a nice change of pace and opportunity to reconnect.  We didn’t even have to use the “conversation cards” that our friend gave us.

During the course of our vacation, we both also did a lot of reading, at least compared to the snippets we typically sneak in while on family vacations.  I started reading A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  He brings to life the intrigues of royal court (in a fantasy genre).  He’s an excellent story-teller and developer of characters.  (It’s by no means a homeschooling book nor appropriate for family reading as the narrative is occasionally course and explicit.)  The story places a heavy emphasis on royal families and their maneuverings.  The women of the families play key roles, particularly the queens.  Affairs of family and of state largely overlap.

At some point, not too far into the novel, it occurred to me how at all levels of the story, from the peasant to the noble, the family was the basic operating or building block of the society, which is essentially the agrarian, pre-modern society.  Family came first and nearly everything orbited around the family.  How odd in comparison to our times, where families are fractured and spread across miles and even states.  Families don’t work together very often and it’s quite atypical for a mother to actually work for her own family.  To the contrary, to the liberalized western eye, it is sometimes used as a term of condescension to refer to someone as a “house wife,” ie someone whose business is the affairs of her family.  Although it’s contrary to thousands of years of societal history, we are quite often proud when we send our wives and mothers to work for someone else, to help another person profit.  Strange times. 

This historical oddity of sending our wives and mothers to work for others is the direct result of “liberation.”  Since woman may and can compete evenly with men in commerce, we conclude that they ought to value working for others more highly than working for their own families.  That reminds me of another questionable fruit of gender liberalization – abortion and how we view birth control.  While abortion is an ongoing moral tragedy, birth control is a mixed bag.  I heard Doug Phillips say some time ago that the Bible teaches children are a blessing from the Lord and that debt is a curse to be avoided.  In our modern culture, we work to prevent such blessings while we apply for the curses!  In any event, while woman have certainly made huge advances over the past half-century in the West for the right to equal treatment under the law, we have gone further and lost at least some of what was once such a valued and proud part of womanhood — being the foundation of the family.  We should not now be surprised at the pathologies that now plague the modern family.

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Atheism, agnostic, evolution, etc. culture

What is the best proof of creation?

There is an excellent article here about looking for convincing proof of creation.

There is a lot of talk about presuppositions.  When you start out with the presupposition that there is no God, then you are left with finding interpretation of the world around us as evidence of evolution.

However, when you believe that God exists and has provided us his word then the rest of creation shows us the evidence of his work.

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culture theology Uncategorized

Good at Heart?

I recently saw this quote on a popular TV show:

“That man…believes that everyone is corruptible because it is in their very nature to sin.  I bring people here to prove him wrong.”  (See the entire clip here).

This quote, as expressed by the “good guy” speaks to the essence of thought in our culture: man is basically good.

The democrats in life espouse the goodness of man by believing that people will do right if they are only educated properly, given the right opportunities, etc. When we build the proper “village”, people will be good.

The republicans in life espouse the goodness of man by believing that people do right if left alone.  When we stop meddling with others, people will be good.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible says that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).   This is further shown in the New Testament (using Old Testament quotes):

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together.
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.
Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,
The poison of asps is under their lips,
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness
Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

-Romans 3:10-18

Apart from God, we are all corrupt and worthless.  Even when we know God, we are not much better, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

We are all corruptible and sinners by nature.  Thankfully, God offers to cleanse us:

“Come now, and let us reason together, says The Lord,
Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.”
-Isaiah 1:18

Since God has forgiven us, we can thank him with the Apostle Paul, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” (Ephesians 1:7-8)

No, we are far from being good at heart.  But thanks to God that he forgives us and brings us back to him!

Categories
culture theology

Really, it’s not about you

What an uncool and unpopular sentiment.  Of course it’s about YOU.  I mean, if I heard anything as a kid, it was “Have it your way” and “You deserve a break today” and “If it doesn’t make you happy …”  The entire sentiment underpinning most marketing is that it’s all about you.  It’s an easy premise to accept.  If most people are anything like me, I find it extraordinarily easy to think of myself first.  I’m a natural at it.  Based on my tenure on this globe thus far, I think this might be the most commonly shared talent.

I used to work in a ministry where we would visit church visitors.  Part of the visit was to see where they were spiritually.  One of the key questions we would ask was, “If you were to stand before God and he were to ask, ‘Why should I let you into my Heaven?’, how would you answer?”  So many church people talked about how they tried to live their lives like Jesus. The most common answer was about how they had lived.

Those responses remind me of what Jesus foretold as recalled by Matthew in chapter 7 of his book:

21Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

God wants for us to rely upon him and what he has done for us.  Our “goodness” will spring from that faith, from trusting in Christ for our strength, and from desiring to please the God that has given us everything.  Those who try to justify themselves based on their own actions will be rejected — even called “evil.”  Again, Paul warned the Corinthians (2 Cor. 10) that all glory is to God, not man:

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Woe to the men and women who stand before God at judgement and try to explain how well they’ve lived their lives and what tragedy for them to hear, “away from me” …  Again, Paul explained to the Ephesians in chapter 2 of his letter, “8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.”  And to the Romans, “9That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Rom. 10)

All glory, honor, and power shall be to our lord and God forever and ever.

That is the way it is.  It’s not because God begrudges us attention, to the contrary, in the context of holiness, it’s a mystery why he has anything to do with our rebellion.  He is pure love.  As stated, as the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, we naturally love ourselves.  The foundation of the law is to love God with all we are and to love others as we love ourselves.  Every time we fail to do that, we rebel against God.  Hah!  I am a natural-born rebel.  On rare occasions when I selflessly love through the power of Christ in me, then, I am living as God intended.  Regardless of my rebel nature in the flesh, he covers my sin in the blood sacrifice of his son … Why?  It’s unwarranted.  I don’t know why God did it.  It’s amazing grace.  It’s all about him and what he’s done for us – our creator, our redeemer, and our perfector.  All glory and honor to Jesus Christ.  It’s not about us.  Amen.

Categories
culture video

A symbol of freedom

Categories
culture encouragement entertainment

Christian Horoscope

I’ve been surprised by the increasing numbers of horoscopes that friends post to their Facebook pages and FB “horoscope” application invites I’ve received.  Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.  The daily horoscope is as fundamental a part of the American daily newspaper as is the funnies and editorial page.  I seem to recall that many papers used to list the page number of daily horoscopes on the front page.  Horoscopes are an accepted part of modern American culture.

So here’s a Christian horoscope, good for any day and any sign:  Today is a day you should shout for JOY to the Lord and worship the Lord with gladness.  Come before him with grateful hearts and enter his gates with thanksgiving.  Know that the Lord is good and his love endures forever.  Take every opportunity today to pray and to bless others with love and grace.  Look for an opportunity to serve, particularly those that wouldn’t expect that from you.  Tell somebody about Jesus today.  You don’t have a lucky number or color.  Finally, don’t be afraid to shout “God is great!”, particularly in a crowded area.  If you follow this advice and place your trust and faith in Christ, a peace that transcends understanding will be yours.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: this isn’t a “horoscope.” Bye definition a horoscope is a prediction of events based on a diagram of the stars and planets.  My forecast is not based on astrology but is based entirely on

Continue reading “Christian Horoscope”
Categories
culture

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

It wasn’t until we started homeschooling that I learned the marvelous testimony of St. Patrick and why he’s celebrated.  Turns out it’s not because he turned beer green.  In his sixteenth year, he was kidnapped, taken to Ireland, and sold into slavery.  After six years, he heard God call him to flee, which he did.  After several days of wandering, he called down from a cliff to a boat at sea, who agreed to take him aboard, despite being famished themselves, and just happened to be sailing back to Patrick’s Britain.  After returning to Britain, Patrick had a vision of an angel or saint relaying the cries of the lost pagan Irish.  Patrick returned and spent the rest of his life, a difficult life, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to the very people who had enslaved him.  A life well lived.

It’s not often we have a holiday for someone just because he was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ!

Categories
culture encouragement entertainment Ministry

I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – massive campaign

Answers in Genesis has rolled out the “I Am Not Ashamed” campaign, featuring “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” message.  It’s a media blitz – television, YouTube, blog, internet, Facebook, Twitter, TV, newspaper, billboards … it’s a massive campaign.  You can see it all here.  I encourage you to email the YouTube videos and post them on your FB account.  At the center of it is a “living” Bible where people contribute their rendition of Biblical passages.  Submit a video of you and/or your family reciting your favorite (or most obscure) chapter in the Bible.  There are really cool billboards, see them here, that feature “The Bible speaks for itself on _____,” where the blank may be abortion, racism, marriage, etc.  You can sponsor a billboard to include listing your church or ministry on it.  All very cool stuff.  Pray that this media blitz introduces millions to the Gospel and that souls are saved, and please spread the word!

Categories
culture entertainment

Set Nothing Vile Before Your Eyes – Psalm 101:3

Pornography exploits and cheapens the most intimate of human relations and one of God’s greatest blessings for marriage.  It perverts and obfuscates the purpose of sex — the creation of new life.  It also damages relationships – see here, here and  here.  Oh yeah, the girls performing in porn are most often repeating in front of the cameras the abuse they suffered as children and later as prostitutes.  See here.  Finally, children know and pick up quite a bit about what their parents are really about.  It’s my belief that children are prone to follow in the path of a parent’s “secret” sin because it really was not that secret.  No doubt, porn harms.

Categories
culture

This website deserve a Klondike!

Kudos to the new website PORNOGRAPHY HARMS launched by Patrick Trueman, the former chief attorney for the Child Exploitation and Obscentity Section in DOJ.  Porn should be the next products liability lawsuit area.  Porn purveyors have been selling and giving this stuff away, knowing that it’s addictive and harmful. The porn industry has made hundreds of millions if not billions over the net.  As every parent knows, porn is instantly available, even to the most innocent eyes that had no idea what that link would bring …  The imperical evidence is growing that pornography causes lasting harm to individuals and families and that it is highly addictive, like many other stimulants.  This is one area where I’ll be cheering for the trial attorney bar to descend en masse on an industry …

Categories
culture

Planned Parenthood

Dear Abby, should I trust planned parenthood? 

Categories
culture entertainment

Addicted to devices

Breakpoint has an interesting article about a recent study showing the incredible amount of time kids today spend on electronic “stimulation” — TV, computers, PDAs.  The New York Times titles the results: If your kids are awake, they’re probably online.  Addiction to continual stimulation prevents contemplation and is counterproductive to the development of creative minds.  We need to unplug more and, as Breakpoint observes, dare to be bored.

Categories
culture Ministry politics, economy, etc.

Ken Ham’s State of the Nation Address

This should be a good watch Feb. 16 at 8pm est.

Categories
culture marriage and family

Rush Hour Focus

My brother alerted me to an article published by WaPo in 2007 that captures how our focus on the current rush causes us to completely miss spectacular beauty around us.  WaPo convinced the world class violinist Joshua Bell to play some of the most beautiful and intricate classical music using one of the finest available violins … at a subway station during rush hour.  With one exception, only the children paid attention and wanted to watch, which the parental guardians dutifully prevented. 

I need to pray more for God to give me the eyes of a child to better see and enjoy the beauty and blessings God places all around us.

Categories
culture

Says who?

Joel Belz has a good reminder in the most recent edition of World magazine to not accept the presupposition that religious views should not be publicly aired or discussed in polite company.  Belz uses the recent spat over Brit Hume and the “politeness police” to question this conventional wisdom that we can debate practically anything in polite society, except religion.  Because a topic might touch upon deeply felt beliefs mitigates toward sensitivity and tact, however, deeply felt emotions are not a basis for excluding something from discourse.  To the contrary, nothing should be more important and relevant for a free and civilized people to openly debate than questions of ultimate meaning and purpose.  Belz is correct, we should challenge the assumption.  I’m afraid that too often those that waive the banner of sensitiviy for purposes of limiting religious dialogue are more interested in suppressing religious dialogue and public analysis.