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Friday, December 31, 2010

Marriage/Family/Sexuality Headline Archives (2010)

For the most part, the articles/columns linked below appear in chronological order, beginning with the earliest. 


2010:



Abortion/Pro-Life Headline Archives (2010)


For the most part, the articles/columns linked below appear in chronological order, beginning with the earliest. 


2010:



Saturday, December 18, 2010

His Peace

Job, in the middle of being rebuked by his “friends,” declared, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” In other words, from Job’s point of view, life is rather short and sour. Who could blame him for such an observation? Job had just lost virtually all of his worldly possessions, including every one of his children.

Certainly few, if any, of us have suffered or are suffering as Job did. Nevertheless, these are difficult days for many. Trying times such as these make it quite apparent that this life is “full of trouble.” Currently, for most, the source of such trouble is financial. Virtually every opinion poll that surveys Americans on national priorities reveals that U.S. citizens overwhelmingly see the economy as the number one priority. Nothing reveals the harshness of life quite as clearly as financial difficulties. After all, as the Book of Job describes, when Satan was given permission to test Job, his first strike was against Job’s financial well being.

Satan then took Job’s children from him. Is there any heavier burden in this world than the one carried by the parent who must bury his child? Job had to bury many. Being a “righteous man,” and having the proper perspective on life and possessions, upon hearing of the death of his children, Job’s prior losses almost certainly vanished from his mind. All of his other sufferings surely paled in comparison. Yet, Job persevered. He fell down and worshipped God, declaring, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Unemployment, business failure, divorce, sickness, hunger, poverty, pain, death—there is virtually no limit to the tribulations facing us in this dark world. This should come as no surprise, as Scripture frequently reveals. The Apostle John tells us that “the world around us is under control of the evil one.” As C.S. Lewis, a veteran of World War I, put it, “Enemy-occupied territory—that is what the world is.” Jesus Himself noted that, “In this world (we) will have trouble.”

However, Christ also tells us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” In spite of what this world will bring us, Christ tells us that we have no reason to fear or doubt. Whatever our circumstances or situation, He will give us His peace.

Peace. Isn’t that what so many of us are searching for? As we pursue money, relationships, good health, notoriety, retirement, and so on, are we not really striving for that “peace… that passes all understanding”? Whatever trials, whatever evil may come our way, don’t we really just want to know that everything is going to be alright?

As Job and others reveal, human beings can be amazingly resilient, able to cope with most anything—even death—as long as we have peace about it. And there is no peace like God’s peace.

Of course, God’s peace is nothing like the hippy-liberal-Code Pink-flower child idea of peace. God never tells us that following Him will mean an end to all conflict and struggle in this fallen world. His peace comes as a result of His righteousness and justice, and as with all good things, His love.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” sang the angels announcing the coming of the Christ child. Thus God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy and righteousness, decided to invade this “enemy-occupied” territory and make things right.

However, Jesus didn’t simply come into the world “to make bad people good,” notes Ravi Zacharias. “He came into the world to make dead people live.” What greater comfort, what greater peace, is there than to know that, even if the valley of the shadow of death overcomes us, we will yet live? “Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?”

What a reason for a celebration! What a time for a holiday! As Christmas approaches, may the “Prince of Peace” give you all that you truly need and are longing for.

Copyright 2010, Trevor Grant Thomas

Monday, November 22, 2010

Giving Thanks

Sir Walter Raleigh’s first attempts at settling the New World were disastrous. The English, who were now trying to gain a foothold on the New World, were succumbing to the same greed that had earlier blinded the Spaniards. Starvation, disease, hostile Indians, and other hardships, including a whole colony lost (the Lost Colony of Roanoke), led to dampened enthusiasm for New World expeditions.

It would be nearly 20 years after Raleigh’s initial ventures before enough English interest could again be sparked for more New World adventure. In 1602, one of Raleigh’s captains, Bartholomew Gosnold, sailed to what is now Maine with 32 men. Fearing the natives, disease, and the coming winter, they returned to England less than four months after leaving.

Undeterred, Gosnold obtained an exclusive charter from King James I to form The Virginia Company with the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in North America. He and his fellow adventurers on December 16, 1606 again sailed for North America.

Despite recruiting “sermons” that contained messages of evangelical outreach, and the preamble of the Company’s charter, written by King James I, which contained the words, “…propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages, living in these parts, to human civility and to a settled and quiet government,” the lust for gold was, again, what drove the men of this expedition.

Evidence of this fact was that this first expedition sent by The Virginia Company contained exclusively men, 144 of them. Among them were no women or families, nor were these men heads of households going to prepare a homestead. Also, among these 144 was only one minister. In the words of David Marshall and Peter Manuel, these 144 men “were interested in one thing: getting their gold chamber pots and returning to England as soon as possible.”

On May 14, 1607, headed by a seven-man council, which included John Smith, these 144 men settled Jamestown. Because of their misguided efforts it was a disaster from the beginning. These men battled the elements, disease (including malaria), Indians, starvation, and one another. The lone minister on the adventure, Robert Hunt, did his best to keep the others focused on God. His sermons went mostly unheeded; however, he persevered. By February of 1608 only 38 of the 144 remained alive.

News of what was really happening in Virginia began to get back to England. To counteract this news The Virginia Company increased its propaganda campaign. They were successful for a while, and therefore investors continued to invest and settlers continued to settle. According to Marshall and Manuel, “The death rate in Virginia that second year was—incredibly—even higher than the first: out of every ten people that embarked for the New World, nine would die!”

The death rate did not abate with time. Marshall and Manuel add, “For example, of the 1,200 people who went out to Virginia in 1619, only 200 were left alive by 1620. Why this horrible continuing death rate? There is no logical explanation, except one: year after year they steadfastly refused to trust God—or indeed to include Him in any of their deliberations.”

The next settlers to cross the Atlantic would not make the same mistakes. They were not seeking wealth and prosperity, but a new home. They believed that America was their destiny. The Pilgrims, and the Puritans who followed them, knew better than to undertake anything without God.

On November 11, 1620, after dropping anchor in Cape Cod, the Pilgrims drafted a compact that would embody the same principles of government upon which American Democracy would rest. It read,

“In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under-written…Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic…constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony…the 11th of November…Anno Domini 1620.”

On November 29, 1623, two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving. In it Governor Bradford thanked God for their abundant harvest, bountiful game, protection from “the ravages of savages…and disease,” and for the “freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.”

The Pilgrims, and the Puritans who followed them, had the proper perspective. As Bradford would so discernibly note, “As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shown unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation…We have noted these things so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship.”

On June 11, 1630, aboard the Arbella, John Winthrop, the leader of the first Puritans, wrote A Model of Christian Charity, which became a model for future constitutional covenants of the Colonies. It reads:

“We are a Company, professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, (and thus) we ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love…For the work we have in mind, it is by a mutual consent through a special overruling providence, and a more than an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ to seek out a place of Cohabitation and Consortship under a due form of Government both civil and ecclesiastical…

“Thus stands the cause between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a Commission; the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles…

“We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, ‘The Lord make it like that of New England.’

“For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.”

As we sit down this Thanksgiving Day, we should recognize and remember, as did the Puritans and the Pilgrims before them, the One who is most deserving of our thanks. Let us not lose sight of Him who is the giver of all good things. Scripture says that, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” He created us and everything around us. He gave us life, and through His Son, salvation. As the Psalmist notes, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”

Have truly happy and memorable Thanksgiving.
 
Copyright 2010, Trevor Grant Thomas

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Inconvenient Science

For decades now, liberals have been preaching to us the “science” behind “global warming”—I mean “climate change”—I mean “global climate disruption.” (It’s hard to keep up. Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) has had almost as many labels as Al Gore has private jets!) “The science is settled,” we’ve been told. Those of us who doubt are branded with numerous labels as well: “deniers,” “flat-earthers,” “anti-science,” “know-nothings,” and so on.

The name-calling is even worse when it comes to “deniers” of Darwinian evolution (D.E.). Here, the ridicule is truly rampant. Of course, this is to be expected when it comes to the holiest of all liberal doctrines—the guiding philosophy of their prevailing worldview. (Nothing gets a liberal more worked up than a creationist!)

It is quite unsurprising, then, that liberals have united behind both the “science” of AGW and D.E. The worldview behind D.E. in almost every way agrees with those who have turned their eyes toward “Mother Earth”—worshipping and serving “created things rather than the Creator.”

After all, D.E. teaches that, since all life sprang from the same single-celled source, all living things are related. Darwinian evolutionists see humans, along with all other living things, strictly as a product of nature and natural processes. Therefore, to see humans on equal footing with all other life and owing our very existence to the earth are very logical conclusions for such a philosophy. Thus, the earth-worshipping environmentalist is almost always a Darwinist, as well.

As much as liberals disparage religion, especially Christianity, how ironic it is that D.E. and AGW inspire such a religious-like following. Eminent geologist, Ian Plimer, a Professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (University of Adelaide), Emeritus Professor in the School of Earth Sciences (University of Melbourne), and ardent atheist, is also a vehement opponent of AGW.

Plimer calls AGW “the new religion of First World urban elites,” adding that “Environmentalism has many of the hallmarks of failed European socialism and Western (failed) Christianity. It has a holy book which few have read (IPCC reports), has prophets (Gore) who cannot be challenged, relies on dogma, ignores contrary evidence, has armies of wide-eyed missionaries...; imposes guilt, has a catastrophist view of the planet, and seeks indulgences.”

D.E. also has many of the marks of religion. Evolutionists, themselves, admit as much. Dr. Michael Ruse, a philosopher of biology at Florida State University, previously a philosopher of science, especially evolutionary science, at the University of Guelph in Ontario, has authored several books on Darwinism and evolutionary theory. Ruse, also an atheist, regularly debates, and has testified in federal court, in support of D.E. In a May, 2000 article in the National Post he wrote, “Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion—a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. . . . Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.”

Leave it to atheists to recognize a religion when they see one!

Darwinian evolution attempts to explain the past. Global warming alarmists speculate about the future. But what about the science of the here-and-now? Surely those who hold themselves up as “champions for science” would not ignore what they can see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears. Surely someone so reliant on and trusting of what “science” reveals to us would not allow himself to be led astray by elegant language, foolish logic, and downright propaganda.

Oh, but they have—for as zealously as liberals believe in AGW and D.E., they also passionately support the “right” of a woman to end the life of her unborn child and are enthusiastically behind the homosexual agenda.

Life in the womb for a child is as well documented as anything in science. With ultrasound and Doppler machines, as well as other technology, one can monitor the life of a baby in the womb from very near the beginning until birth.

Moments after conception (hardly a serious biologist in the world would argue that life does not begin at conception), the resulting single cell contains all 46 chromosomes necessary to grow into an adult human being. Within 48 hours of conception, the mother’s body starts producing a hormone to let her know that she is pregnant. In the beginning of the third week, the baby’s heart begins to beat with a blood type that is often different from its mother’s.

During week five, eyes, legs, and hands have begun to develop. By week six, brain waves are detectable. Week eight, has every organ in place, bones begin to replace cartilage, and the baby can begin to hear. By week 12, the baby is nearing the end of the first trimester. She has all the necessary parts to experience pain, including her nerves, spinal cord, and thalamus. She can grasp objects placed in her hand and has fingerprints, a skeletal structure, and circulation.

By week 15, she has an adult’s taste buds. Week 20, the earliest stage at which partial-birth abortion is performed, the child can recognize her mother’s voice. She is within one or two weeks of the stage where babies can routinely be saved outside the womb.

Yet, in spite of all that science clearly reveals here, for decades now, liberals, driven by their (usually) godless philosophy of Darwinian evolution, have denied or ignored the science of the human womb. In the name of money—Planned Parenthood is a billion dollar-plus industry, not to mention the other capitalistic forces that profit from abortion—and sexual “freedom,” liberals have placed their wallets and their libidos above science and morality.

Speaking of a liberal’s libido, real science does no favors for the homosexual movement either. As White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett recently learned, even well established liberals can draw the ire of the homosexual community by simply implying that homosexuality is not innate (meaning genetic), but is rather a “lifestyle choice.” (Of course, Jarrett quickly back-tracked and apologized.) We’ve been told for nearly 20 years now that homosexuality is a genetic and unchangeable behavior—that people are born gay.

In 1993, when the journal Science published a study by Dean Hamer (et al) which strongly suggested there was a gene for homosexuality, an eager and complicit media celebrated. National Public Radio trumpeted the findings. Newsweek’s cover asked, “Gay Gene?” The Wall Street Journal announced, “Research Points Toward a Gay Gene…” The New York Times noted, “Report Suggests Homosexuality Is Linked to Genes.”

However, noted psychiatrist, physicist, and author (Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth) Jeffrey Satinover concluded that “the Hamer study is seriously flawed.” Many genetic researchers also quickly took issue with Hamer’s study. However, the myth grew.

Today, it is commonplace for liberals in the media, Hollywood, and like-minded politicians again to ignore the real science and continue to perpetuate the falsehood that homosexuality is strictly genetic.

Dr. Satinover notes that, “The notion that ‘homosexuals’ are in effect a ‘different species’ (different genes) is ludicrous beyond belief. There is not the slightest evidence for that as anyone who actually reads the studies (not reports on the studies) knows.” What science does reveal is that homosexuality is a rather unhealthy and quite dangerous lifestyle.

According to the CDC, gay and bisexual men account for more than 60 percent of all syphilis cases, and more than 82 percent of all known sexually-transmitted AIDS cases in 2006 were the result of male-to-male sexual contact. During its 2010 National STD Prevention Conference, the CDC revealed that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women. Also, the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women.

According to Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, “While the heavy toll of HIV and syphilis among gay and bisexual men has been long recognized, this analysis shows just how stark the health disparities are between this and other populations.” Just weeks ago, a CDC study revealed that 1 in 5 gay men in U.S. cities has HIV.

Also occurring at a much higher rate among MSM are gonorrhea, various forms of hepatitis, and anal and genital warts. In 2007 the Los Angeles Times reported the frequency of methamphetamine use is 20 times greater among MSM than in the general population. What’s more, homosexuals have a twenty-five to thirty-year decrease in life expectancy and a much higher than usual incidence of suicide.

All of this, and I haven’t even mentioned the shaky science that is behind AGW and D.E.! So, the next time you hear or read of someone holding up liberalism as a bastion of science and reason, remember it is their side that is blinded by ideology and their “religion.” Perhaps even point out some of the “inconvenient truths” mentioned above.

Copyright 2015, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com