Hear, Hear
Pieter and Ben went to a “wowwy” today (that’s a rally, for those of you who haven’t seen “An American Tail”) in Sacramento, in defense of traditional “mawwage” (that’s marriage, for those of you who haven’t seen “The Princess Bride”). The keynote speaker was Alan Keyes, and he gave a very inspiring talk, according to the boys.
Perhaps you’ve noticed me becoming a bit more cynical lately. In some ways, I hope it’s a phase I’m going through, and that I’ll snap out of it soon. But, as Ecclesiastes says, there’s a time to be cynical and a time to be Pollyanna (that’s my paraphrase, anyway). I’m glad there are still 1500 people in northern California who support traditional marriage. I doubt their speeches and flag-waving today are going to help save the God-ordained institution of marriage.
Read Doug Wilson’s observations on the latest cultural depravity. Pay special attention to what he says about the petitions floating around conservativedom. Remember how Aslan was described in the Chronicles of Narnia? “He’s not a a tame lion.” How much more can we say that our Lord is not the insipid and weak deity created in the image of man that is promoted by most of the evangelical churches of today? We must fall on our faces before our holy God and plead for His mercy on our families and our nation. We must stop mocking marriage by turning a blind eye to immorality in Christian relationships, and we must model vibrant and godly relationships in our own families.
And no more of this nonsense about God blessing America until we repent of our sins.
May 23rd, 2004 at 7:33 am
I got one of those petitions yesterday and it was stating that the future of Christian marriage for my children rested on me signing this to stop homosexual "marriage". Since when? Of course I agree that homosexual "marriage" affects our nation (I agree with Wilson and Romans 1) but I fail to see how what the perverts and godless government are doing is going to ruin true Christian marriage. Since when does my obediance to God depend on godless wicked people obeying God?
The problem with these petitions is two fold — A)Everything Wilson said and B)A failure to understand the difference between the civil and ecclesiatical governmental roles. They want the civil government to solve a problem which is mainly the role of the Church and Christians who are called to fulfill the Great Commission, through the blessing of God. They also deny the Civil magistrates responsiblity to deal with evil doers in the manner which God requires them to.
May 23rd, 2004 at 1:22 pm
"We must stop mocking marriage by turning a blind eye to immorality in Christian relationships, and we must model vibrant and godly relationships in our own families."
Amen to that. I can’t tell you how upset it makes me when I hear churches rallying and protesting about traditional marriage, while they carry merrily along encouraging divorce, re-marrying unrighteously divorced people, applauding immoral relationships among their youth, and disregarding modesty. I know your family doesn’t do those things, Carmon, so I don’t feel it’s bad for you to go to one of those rallies, but I really wish the majority of Christiandom would shut up and turn their eyes inward, cleansing the Body and removing each others’ planks before we start in on the non-believers. No wonder they turn away from the gospel in such total disgust.
It drives me nuts when believers say people struggle with Christianity because of their own hard hearts. That’s certainly not what I struggled with before I converted.
What was that verse about whitewashed sepulchers?
May 23rd, 2004 at 3:54 pm
Dear Carmon,
A bit from the Word for your weary heart…
He has told you, O Man what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
-Micah 6:8
May 23rd, 2004 at 5:06 pm
Right after 9/11, one of my husband’s co-workers pointed out her new "God Bless America" bumper sticker to him (you know he would like that because he is one of those religious types). He asked her what we wanted God to bless: Abortion? Homosexuality? Or some of the other horrible sins our nation is guilty of? Needless to say, that was not the answer she expected nor was it very popular.
Has any one else gotten those wonderful e-mails that are supposed to touch our hearts? You know the ones. The ones about how wonderful it is that Muslims, Jews and Christians are laying aside their differences and praying together. Now I am not into burning anyone at the stake (or other tortures for that matter) because of religious affiliation, but does it dawn on any one that we don’t worship the same God? We have friends that we can eat dinner together with(as long as it isn’t ham), but we cannot worship together. Those things touch my heart all right. They sure don’t make it feel warm and fuzzy, though.
May 23rd, 2004 at 6:06 pm
I’d like to see a bumper sticker that says, "God be merciful to America and grant us repentance." Not likely to see one of those though, is it?
(From your fellow cynic.)
May 24th, 2004 at 8:13 pm
Carmon
What do you make of the plan to have South Carolina secede over this issue?
May 25th, 2004 at 3:07 am
Robin, I read about that and am thinking it’s never going to happen. These people are glad to sign their email address to a petition and click it off somewhere into cyberspace but 12,000 people getting up and moving to S.C.? I doubt it. People want to do what is easy for themselves. What do they plan to do if it actually works? Set up a biblical state or another "clean" America?
I think the biblical solution to this issue is two fold — 1)Call on the people and governing magistrates of our nation to repent and seek the Lordship of Christ in all area’s.
2)Repent ourselves and obey God’s commands regarding marriage and the fruitful function of the marriage bed and the raising of our children.
If God is pleased to bless either of these efforts I believe we will see a dramatic decrease in the homosexual agenda and other such sins - either through conversion or domination.
If we continue to refuse to repent of our sins then we can expect to continue to look more like Sodom and Gommorah and I am not sure how seceding one small state is going to stop that.
May 25th, 2004 at 7:57 am
Robin, did you have to ask me that during my cynical phase?
Well, my dime-a-dozen opinion is that while I consider myself a theonomist (one who believes that God’s law, excluding ceremonial law fulfilled by Christ’s death and resurrection, still applies and should the only basis for civil law, as long as biblical jurisdictional spheres are maintained), it can’t work right now.
First, there’s no way the federal government is going to let it happen. Remember Waco? Those people really appeared to be wacko, but after the smear campaign against them to make them look like dangerous child molesters, who was going to complain about them getting torched? My cynical self can imagine something similar (the smear campaign, I haven’t gotten quite cynical enough to foresee the torching) happening in South Carolina. The Lincoln-worshipping public, which has been brainwashed into believing "North good, South bad," won’t be very supportive of a group of people taking over a southern state and just asking to be left alone.
Also, as Steve says (though he is much more cynical than I), intentional communities rarely work. Our old friend Kevin Johnson (hi, Kevin!) had an astute evaluation of the new show (I haven’t seen it) "Colonial House." He noted that the people who voluntarily signed up to live in the 17th century wanted to maintain their 21st century attitudes and morals. Go figure. I’m afraid that most Christians today cling to their very unchristian attitudes and find all sorts of justifications for it. Just moving to South Carolina with a group of like-minded folk and implementing some "good laws" doesn’t mean such a community will be successful. Unless people’s hearts are truly changed and they are willing to commit to biblical principles, it can’t work (which is what good reconstructionists know and teach, btw). I’ve noticed that even those who are Prairie Muffin types are struggling with the concept of submission (something I need to address sometime, as you may be surprised at what I have to say about it!), and submission and hierarchy are integral to the proper functioning of biblical government if it’s not going to degenerate into tyranny.
May 25th, 2004 at 9:36 am
Valerie (Kyriosity) this’ll have more Colonial House spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet!
The Colonial House people certainly brought their own "agendas" to the show:
* Feminism (the second Govenor’s wife has it bad)
* Gay "Rights" (One guy "came out" … at CHURCH!)
* "We aren’t Christian, we’re spiritual" so don’t have to obey the Sabbath Laws. Then complain that they’re "persecuted" for their "beliefs"(the husband resigns from the council because the wife won’t attend services)
* Then, there was the Black man who left the show because he could easily see how the slippery slope of slavery would happen and he felt he couldn’t be a part of it.
The participants in the show certainly seem to be hard workers, they simply are wearing the clothes, eating the food, and living simply, but certainly not thinking/acting like 1628 Colonists. They take way too much offense at every little thing.
Hmmmm … I might have to flesh this out and actually blog it. Perhaps later.
May 25th, 2004 at 2:03 pm
Carmon, you said, "I’ve noticed that even those who are Prairie Muffin types are struggling with the concept of submission (something I need to address sometime, as you may be surprised at what I have to say about it!)…"
I’m looking forward to your discussion of submission and I hope I’m _not_ surprised at what you have to say!