A day worth waiting for

I spent a recent afternoon sitting in beautiful sunshine at the edge of a lake in the midst of peaceful countryside, wondering why people would want to shoot one another and blow themselves up.

I had been reading in the book of Revelation how things end up; how, while evil is finally vanquished, the faithful are at the marriage of the Lamb, dressed in robes they don't deserve.

I reckon Paul had it right:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.  2 Tim 4:7, 8.

There's a lot of pain in the world, and a lot more pain to come. But there's a day coming when Christ will appear. His reward is with Him.

If you're feeling discouraged, hold on. That's a day worth waiting for.

Evolution versus God

Evolution and Christianity are incompatible.

Richard Dawkins, the high priest of Darwinian evolution, rejects every form of religion out of hand and believes evolution is the answer.

"There is no doubt in Dawkins's mind." writes Marilynne Robinson, "that the evils of the world are to be laid at the doorstep of the church, mosque and synagogue, and that science must be our salvation. . . It is the 'God delusion,' which has afflicted almost everyone almost everywhere through the whole of recorded time, that has made us behave so badly. And Science (by which he really means his version of Darwinism) is our potential rescuer. He has a simple-as-that, plain-as-day approach to the grandest questions, unencumbered by doubt, consistency, or countervailing information."

Consider Henry Morris, director of the Institute for Creation Research:

"The evolutionary system has been entrenched for so long that many people who otherwise accept the Bible as infallible have deemed it expedient to compromise on this issue. Thus, evolution has been called, 'God's method of creation'; and the Genesis record of the six days of creation has been reinterpreted in terms of the evolutionary ages of historical geology. These geological ages themselves have been accommodated in Genesis either by placing them in an assumed 'gap' between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 or by changing the 'days' of creation into the 'ages' of evolution.

"Theories of this kind raise more problems than they solve, however. It is more productive to take the Bible literally and then to interpret the actual facts of science within its revelatory framework. If the Bible cannot be understood, it is useless as revelation. If it contains scientific fallacies, it could not have been given by inspiration. . .

"All such theories which seek to accommodate the Bible to evolutionary geology are invalid and, therefore, should be abandoned. . .

"It is impossible to devise a legitimate means of harmonizing the Bible with evolution. We must conclude, therefore, that if the Bible is really the Word of God (as its writers allege and as we believe) then evolution and its geological age-system must be completely false. Since the Bible cannot be reinterpreted to correlate with evolution, Christians must diligently proceed to correlate the facts of science so with the Bible."

A video, Evolution vs God, has had hundreds of thousands of views and prompted thousands of comments in a short space of time on YouTube.

"Darwinian evolution has nothing," says evangelist Ray Comfort, who made the video by interviewing scientists who claimed to be atheists. "It's unprovable. It's unproven. It's unscientific. It's unsubstantiated, and there's not an ounce of evidence. It was just amazing to watch these four experts in their field groping and grasping like fish on a hot desert floor."

Watch the video for yourself. You can see it here.

Doing away with the wrath of God

It's sad when churches begin to preach a powerless, ineffective, watered-down gospel.

The hymn In Christ Alone, by Irishman Keith Getty and Englishman Stuart Townend, has become a favourite with congregations on both sides of the Atlantic.

The hymnal committee of the Presbyterian Church USA wanted to include it in their new hymnal. But part of the second verse says

Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid -
Here in the death of Christ I live.

The committee wanted to  change "The wrath of God was satisfied" to "The love of God was magnified." They approached the hymn's authors, who declined to approve the alteration. The committee decided to drop the hymn from their new hymnal.  

Committee chairwoman Mary Louise Bringle wrote: "Arguments on the other side pointed out that a hymnal does not simply collect diverse views, but also selects to emphasize some over others as part of its mission to form the faith of coming generations; it would do a disservice to this educational mission, the argument ran, to perpetuate by way of a new (second) text the view that the cross is primarily about God's need to assuage God's anger. The final vote was six in favor of inclusion and nine against, giving the requisite two-thirds majority (which we required of all our decisions) to the no votes. The song has been removed from our contents list, with deep regret over losing its otherwise poignant and powerful witness."

Failing to recognise God's capacity for wrath can effectively trivialise God's power, said academic Timothy George. "God's love is not sentimental; it is holy. It is tender, but not squishy. It involves not only compassion, kindness and mercy beyond measure. . . but also indignation against injustice and unremitting opposition to all that is evil."

Someone pointed out that the committee's objections were scarcely in line with the Presbyterian Church USA's historic beliefs. The Westminster Confession in the current edition of the denomination's Book of Confessions says:

Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereto, doth, in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries spiritual, temporal and eternal. . .

and

The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father; and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him.

Mary Louise Bringle said later that people thought they had taken the wrath of God out of the hymnal. They hadn't; it was all over the hymnal. The issue was the word "satisfied."

Either way, it seems like the majority of the hymnal committee no longer believe in a substitutionary atonement.

The kindness of Anton Schmid

It's not clear whether Anton Schmid was a feldwebel - a sergeant - at the time, or whether he had already been commissioned. He was an Austrian from Vienna who had been drafted into the German Army during World War II. He was a quiet, thoughtful man.

He was stationed in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, during the months in 1942 when 80,000 Jews there were done to death. He would walk in Vilnius Ghetto and see the Jews, many of them starving to death. In his pockets would be hidden bottles of milk for Jewish babies, bread and medicines. He would carry messages from Jews outside the ghetto to Jews inside the ghetto.

Schmid was asked to help five Jews who planned to escape the ghetto and hide in the woods outside. He agreed. He was found out, arrested and court martialled. He wrote to his wife:

I must tell you what fate awaits me, but please, be strong when you read on. . . I have just been sentenced to death by a court martial. There is nothing one can do except appeal for mercy, which I've done. It won't be decided until noon, but I believe it will be turned down. I am resigned to my fate. It has been decided from Above - by our dear Lord - and nothing can be done about it. I am so quiet that I can hardly believe it myself... 

I must tell you how it happened. There were so many Jews here who were driven together by the Lithuanian soldiers and were shot on a meadow outside the city - from 2,000 to 3,000 people at one time. They always threw the small children against the trees - can you imagine? I had orders. . . to take over the versprengtenstelle [dispersal place] where 140 Jews worked. They asked me to get them away from here. I let myself be persuaded - you know I have a soft heart. . . 

It will be hard for you, my dear Stefi and Gertha, but forgive me: I acted as a human being, and didn't want to hurt anyone. When you read this letter, I will no longer be on this earth. I won't be able to write to you again. But be sure that we shall meet again in a better world with our dear Lord. . . 

Four days later, on April 13, Schmid was shot with the five Jews he tried to help. Two days later, the priest, with whom he had left his letter, forwarded it to his widow in Vienna. "I was with him in the last hours," he said. "He prayed and remained strong to the very end. His last wish was to tell you that you too must remain strong. . ."

It was not popular to help the Jews in those days. It still isn't. But the Jews are exceedingly precious to God, because of His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God doesn't forget His promises. 

"They shall come with weeping,
And with supplications I will lead them.
I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters,
In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;
For I am a Father to Israel,
And Ephraim is my first-born"  Jer 31:9.

After the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, God will turn again to His Jewish people, and do whatever it takes to bring them to faith. He intends Israel to become a believing nation.

There is a blessing promised to the man who blesses Israel. But woe betide the man who persecutes the Jews.

Churches burn as hundreds die

After the Egyptian military attacked Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, leaving several hundred dead and almost 3,000 injured, Muslim Brotherhood supporters took out their anger on Christian churches.

Asia News reported that Islamists had attacked seven Catholic churches and 15 religious buildings belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Protestant church.

One of Egypt's oldest churches, the fourth-century Church of the Virgin Mary in Minya, was destroyed by fire. A second church in Minya was ablaze. Muslim Brotherhood supporters threw firebombs at Mer Gergiss Church in Solag. It was destroyed.

As though expecting trouble, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II had called on all Egyptians to prevent bloodshed. "With all compassion I urge everyone to conserve Egyptian blood and ask of every Egyptian to commit to self-restraint and avoid recklessness and assault on any person or property," he wrote.

In vain. Christians have been victims of Muslim attacks for years - but this, activists said, was "the worst co-ordinated attack on Egypt's Coptic community in modern history." 

The Maspero Youth Union, a Coptic activist group, said churches, houses, monasteries, orphanages, schools and businesses belonging to Copts were attacked, "causing panic, loss and destruction for no reason and no crimes they had committed apart from being Christians."

Two "beautiful, fully equipped" Bible Society bookshops were destroyed. There was little or no police or military protection.

You would have thought a little restraint might have helped. But any excuse to attack Christians seems to be good enough.

Suffering for their faith

Egypt's Coptic Christians - there are said to have been Coptic Christians in Egypt for more than 2,000 years - are suffering. When the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi was overthrown in July, Islamists chose to blame the Christians.

Al Qaeda's Egyptian leader Ayman Zawahiri said the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in government was a "crusader" campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II, whom he alleged was trying to form a Coptic state in Egypt.

Other Islamic leaders called for retribution against the Christians, and Muslims responded. Churches were attacked and badly damaged. Many are no longer holding regular services for fear of attack. Cars were set on fire. Homes and businesses owned by Christians were torched.
 
Many Christians fled their homes.  A Coptic priest was shot dead. A Christian man was found mutilated and beheaded. A 10-year-old girl was shot dead on her way home from a Bible class. There have been drive-by shootings and kidnappings.

Pope Tawadros cancelled his weekly sermons and is in hiding after death threats.

Twenty-two million people called for Morsi to be ousted. There are only eight million Christians all told. But blaming the Christians taps in to the feeling of contempt people have for non-Muslims and saves having to admit that Muslims wanted Morsi out too.

Remember those suffering for their faith.

Mr Cameron gets in trouble - again

Prime Minister David Cameron got himself into trouble this week. In Darwen, of all places. He was taking part in a question-and-answer session.
 
 "What would your response to Jesus be on His instruction to us to sell all our possessions and give the proceeds to the poor?" he was asked. (We are not all instructed to sell all our possessions and give to the poor, which rather spoils the question. That was for the rich young ruler, for whom his possessions came first.)

Said the Prime Minister: "I'm a Christian and I'm an active member of the Church of England" - he once likened his faith to the patchy reception of Magic FM in the Chilterns - "and like all Christians I think I sometimes struggle with some of the sayings and some of the instructions.

"But what I think is so good about Jesus’ teachings is there are lots of things that He said that you can still apply very directly to daily life and to bringing up your children. Simple things like do to others as you would be done by, love your neighbour as yourself, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount.

"To me they’re still pretty fresh and good instructions so I find those a set of instructions that I can grapple with. But the particular one that you mention, I find that a little bit more difficult.

"I've always felt the strength of the Christian faith is the basic core of moral guidance," he said. "You can find moral guidance from other sources but it's not a bad handbook."

He tries, he says, not to "pick and mix" the lessons he takes from the Bible. Ah, there's the rub. What if you vigorously propose something which is completely opposed to Bible teaching? Like same-sex marriage, perhaps. What then?

The idea of marriage is to bring a man and a woman together in faithfulness to each other to form a lifelong unit in which to bring up children. A sort of kingdom of God in miniature. But have you noticed the things that are being suggested since government dared to redefine marriage?

If you can have a couple, how about a "throuple"? A throuple is like a couple, but with three people. “As far back as I can remember," said one woman, "I felt that loving one person romantically did not preclude the possibility of loving another at the same time. It seemed natural and intuitive to me.”

Or how about "monogamish" marriage? A monogamish marriage is one where the partners would allow sexual infidelity provided there were honest admissions of it. A more flexible attitude within marriage might be just what was needed, said one of its proponents. After all, sexual exclusivity “gives people unrealistic expectations of themselves and their partners.”

Or instead of wedlock, how about "wedlease"? Wedlease is where a couple commit themselves to each other for a year, or two years, or three years. When the wedding contract runs out, it could be renewed. Or not. That would save messing with divorce: ending the marriage would be as simple as leaving a rented property.

And how many broken relationships would there be? And broken homes? And broken children?

Jesus was once asked about divorce. He took his questioners right back to Creation. "Have you not read," He said, "that he who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matt 19:4 - 6).

Being a Christian when it's convenient, Mr Cameron, isn't quite good enough. 

A last word on the LCP?

I have commented often (for instance here, here and here) on the shameful way the Liverpool Care Pathway has been used in the NHS, and I reported (here) that the use of the pathway in the NHS was to be scrapped.

Finally perhaps a few comments from Dr Patrick Pullicino, a consultant neurologist and professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Kent, one of the pathway's most serious (and much maligned) critics:

"The Liverpool Care Pathway was a genuine attempt to improve the management of patients who are thought to be at increased risk of dying. The fact that the Neuberger report found major problems with the LCP and recommended it is abandoned shows how difficult it is to treat this group of patients.

"Firstly, we have to abandon labelling any patient or patient group as 'dying.' The failure of the LCP has brought to light that the diagnosis of 'dying' cannot be made scientifically. To falsely label the patient as 'dying' is dangerous, as it leads  to self-fulfilling prophecies. . . 

"It is also important to initiate a lot more research in this area, as most of the research to date is on cancer patients in hospices and not applicable to general hospital patients."

Knowledge that a patient is in a poor prognostic group or at high risk of dying must immediately be shared with relatives, medical staff and the patient if he or she can understand it, says Dr Pullicino. Secondly, all possible ways of treating the patient to improve their clinical condition must be openly discussed and second opinions sought if necessary.

Thirdly, a decision has to be made whether to treat aggressively or not. The patient's consent should be sought on any change of care plan. A recurrence of the withholding of fluids or using sedatives as a "chemical cosh" must never be allowed to occur.

The failure of the LCP also reflected badly on using a multidisciplinary team to take a central clinical decision about a patient's care without their consent, says Dr Pullicino. This reflected the shortcomings of the Mental Capacity Act, on which the framework of multidisciplinary team decisions was based. Diagnosis by multidisciplinary team needed to be re-examined and the Mental Capacity Act needed to be reviewed.

"A fundamental issue on which the LCP fell down badly was the issue of 'dignity.' The LCP was 'sold' on the basis that it was the ultimate method of providing 'dignity' for the dying patient. . . 

"I think we have to look carefully again at what 'dignity' means for the patient him- or herself. 'Dignity' is defined as 'the state of being worthy of honour or respect.' To be worthy of respect a person must be able to make decisions for themselves as long as possible, particularly with regard to treatment.

"When my wife was very ill and dying of cancer, she repeatedly refused opiate infusions, despite the fact that she was in pain, as this clouded her ability to talk to her children for as long as possible. That to me showed much bravery, and more than anything else, allowed her to show her dignity."

Wise words.

A call to prayer

An international call to 40 days of prayer, fasting and repentance asks Christians around the world to pray for revival and transformation of the nations.

The Billion Souls Revival Prayer Call, originating in Australia and supported by Christian leaders in many countries, asks for prayer beginning today, August 6, and ending with an international day of prayer, fasting and repentance on Yom Kippur on September 14.

It has a four-point prayer focus:

1. Pray for a worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit for revival and transformations of the nations of the world.

2. Pray for a billion people to find Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

3. Pray for an end to abortion and for God to turn back the tide of death and immorality that is sweeping the nations of the world.

4. Pray for a multiplication of prayer, praise and worship to God across the world as never before, to bring great glory to God. 

As a writer puts it in the free 40-page prayer guide: "It is time for a new revolution, and it must begin in the household of faith; a revolt against ungodliness and a return to godly standards of pure and holy lives. There is a better way to live; righteous peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; it’s time that we showed the world it is possible."

You'll find details at billion-souls-revival-prayer-call.org and www.facebook.com/BillionSoulsRevivalPrayerCall.

Bending the truth about Jesus

Reza Aslan, brought up a Muslim, converted to evangelical Christianity in his teens, and later reverted to the Muslim faith. He has written a book, Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

Lauren Green used the occasion to interview him on Fox News.

"Is this the most embarrassing interview Fox News has ever done?" wrote someone. The interview was "absolutely demented," wrote the New Yorker's TV critic. "This may be the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview in Fox News history," wrote someone else.

The book rose to No 1 on the list of best-sellers on Amazon, allegedly on the strength of the interview.

Matthew J. Franck, writing at First Things, said Aslan misrepresented his credentials.

"I am a scholar of religions with four degrees including one in the New Testament," said Aslan. "I am an expert with a PhD in the history of religions . . . I am a professor of religions, including the New Testament - that’s what I do for a living, actually . . . To be clear, I want to emphasise one more time, I am a historian, I am a PhD in the history of religions. . . I’m actually quite a prominent Muslim thinker in the United States.”

Aslan does have four degrees: a BA in religion from Santa Clara University; a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard; a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Iowa; and a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"None of these degrees is in history, so Aslan’s repeated claims that he has 'a PhD in the history of religions' and that he is 'a historian' are false," writes Franck. "Nor is 'professor of religions' what he does 'for a living.' He is an associate professor in the creative writing program at the University of California, Riverside."

Some people just say that Aslan is dishonest.

He says Jesus made no messianic claim throughout the entire Gospel of Mark (Mark 14:61, 62 give the lie to that). "Every word ever written about the historical Jesus, every gospel story, every claim about Him made in the New Testament was written by people who didn't know Jesus while He was alive. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John..."

The important point is not that a man named Jesus lived and was crucified. The important point is that He was - and is - the Son of God, He died for your sin and mine, and after He died, He rose again from the dead.

A dead Saviour couldn't transform lives. A dead Saviour couldn't answer prayer. He said "Come to me. . . and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28).

Try it and see.

Churches face court challenge

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, one half of a well-known British homosexual couple, says he and his civil partner will go to court to force churches to host same-sex weddings.

The Government bill passed recently legalising homosexual marriage included measures to protect churches from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

"I am still not getting what I want," Mr Drewitt-Barlow told the Essex Chronicle. "The only way forward for us is to make a challenge in the courts against the church. It is a shame that we are forced to take Christians into a court. 

"It upsets me because I want it so much - a big lavish ceremony, the whole works."

The couple, who I understand have five surrogate children, were the first British same-sex couple to be named on their children's birth certificates in 1999.

The city council in San Antonio, Texas, the seventh largest city in the US, is considering an ordinance preventing anyone who disagrees with same-sex marriage from working for the city government.

And in Santiago, Chile, some 300 protesters for abortion rights stormed into the city's cathedral during mass, tore out pews and carried them into the street, destroyed a confessional, spray painted blasphemous texts and climbed on altars and undressed.

We live in dangerous days.

Exporting same-sex marriage

Prime Minister David Cameron told a reception for homosexuals in Downing Street of his pride in legalising homosexual marriage and his intention of exporting it around the world.

Britain, he said, was now "the best place to be gay, lesbian or transgender anywhere in Europe," but there was still a lot more work to be done.

"We’ve set something of an example of how to pass good legislation in good time," he said. "Many countries are going to want to copy this." He wanted to export same-sex marriage around the world so other countries could follow suit.

Meanwhile, Alan Craig tells of recent political adventures in his latest blog post.

His organisation GayMarriageNoThanks.com is concerned that children's welfare, at the heart of marriage for many people, has largely been ignored in the same-sex marriage debate. His organisation devised some posters with a picture of a homosexual couple, a separate picture of a young girl and the inscription "What about Sophie, Mr Cameron? Evidence shows children do best with married birth parents."

Two major billboard companies refused their business, evidently because of the posters' content, but a company named AdTrailers agreed to drive the posters around Central London on their truck for two days. On the first day, some same-sex marriage supporters shouted obscenities and ripped part of a poster from the truck.

On the morning of the second day came a phone call from AdTrailers saying they were cancelling the contract with immediate effect. They had received horrific threats to the driver, the staff and the company and for safety's sake couldn't let the truck go out again. "I've known nothing like it in 10 years," said the company representative.

 "More thoughtful observers," says Alan, "may pause to reflect on the implications for our society. The silencing of legitimate public debate through violent threats and fear are the hallmarks of autocracies and tyrannies.

"The UK is not yet Putin’s Russia or Taleban-controlled Pakistan. But inch by inch our free speech is being closed down, our liberties are being curtailed and our democratic space is shrinking. So maybe, just maybe, we are on the way."

Widow forgives husband's killers

You may remember Alan Greaves, the 68-year-old church organist from Sheffield beaten to death as he walked to a church service on Christmas Eve.

His widow Maureen told this story at her church on the Sunday after her husband died:
  

In the midst of our deep grief, I was sitting in the [hospital] waiting room and a lady came in, and it irritated me, because I wanted to be by myself. I suddenly looked at her and thought "She's grieving like me." So I went over to her, and I said "What's wrong?"

She said "My husband's got a brain tumour."

I said "How are you feeling about that?"

She said "I don't believe in a God at all that could allow this to happen."

God gave me a wonderful moment, when I was able to say that "I believe in a God, because at Christmas time He sent us a Saviour, and He can be your Saviour too through all of the grief that you're going through."

Later on she got her results for her husband, and it was a benign tumour. She came to me and she hugged me. She said "I'll leave this place thinking about the fact that there's a Saviour of this world."

And for me that was a great joy in the midst of my pain, because Alan only died a few hours later.

At her husband's funeral, Mrs Greaves said she had decided to forgive the two men who were responsible for his death, as it was what her husband would have wanted: 

It has to be a daily act of saying "I place them in your hands, God," so that I don't have to worry about them. I don't have to hate them. After the massive shock and heartbreak, this was probably the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. . . I have to do it every day so I don't lapse. It's not an easy journey to look two men in the face who have killed the person you love most in the world.

One thing I have comforted myself with is that the God I believe in had a Son who was beaten as Alan was beaten. The God I believe in was resurrected as I believe Alan will be resurrected.

Last week as Ashley Foster was found guilty of manslaughter - Jonathan Bowling had already pleaded guilty to murder - Mrs Greaves wept in the public gallery. Foster was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment and Bowling was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years.

After the hearing Mrs Greaves said:

Alan was a man who was driven by love and compassion and he would not want any of us to hold on to feelings of hate and unforgiveness. So in honour of Alan and in honour of the God we both love, my prayer is that this story doesn’t end today. 

My prayer is that Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster will come to understand and experience the love and kindness of the God who made them in His own image and that God’s great mercy will inspire both of them to true repentance.

She added:  "I am so truly thankful to have loved and been loved by Alan. I am so proud of the man he was and of the life he lived."

Saving sex for marriage

Some days ago I published some worthwhile advice for teenagers who wanted to live an abstinent lifestyle. Here (from the same source) are some tips for parents who want to see their teenage children abstinent outside of marriage:

1. Maintain a healthy marriage and loving relationship with spouse.

2. Get involved in a healthy religious organisation.
 
3. Hang out with other families who share your values and who have children the approximate age of your children.
 
4. Use authoritative discipline.
 
5. Provide your children with warmth and emotional support.
 
6. Foster your teenager’s religious involvement.
 
7. Regulate and monitor your teen’s exposure to the entertainment media including TV, videos, movies, magazines, and the internet.
 
8. Define and explain sexual behaviours explicitly so terms, sexual concepts and words are clearly understood.
 
9. Communicate your expectations to your teen that he or she should be abstinent - but do not preach.
 
10. Implement dating rules based upon the age and maturity of the teen.
 
11. Monitor your teen’s extra-curricular activities. Know where the teen is, what he or she is doing, and how to contact the teen.
 
12. Teach teen refusal skills.
 
13. Discuss potential risk of premarital sex, but do not preach or threaten.
 
14. Encourage your teen to hang out with other teens that are abstinent.
 
15. Prepare a precocious teen for sexual advances by friends and classmates.
 
16. Help the teen make plans for the future beyond high school. Set goals. Discuss hopes and dreams for the future.
 
17. Prohibit alcohol use.
 
18. If the teen has been sexually abused in any way, get the teen into competent counselling.
 
19. Start sex education at an early age and keep the conversation running over the years of development.

Language is important

While the world held its breath, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to the third in line to the throne. Our congratulations and best wishes.

But did you notice how the royal baby was described?

The language manipulators who support abortion might have called it the product of conception, a blob of tissue, or a potential person. But no. This was always a baby.

From the announcement of the Duchess's pregnancy, the Guardian talked about the couple "expecting their first child," who would be "the Queen's third great-grandchild," who would "become third in line to the throne" and was "destined to wear the crown one day."

Archbishop Cranmer, the blogger who hides his identity behind the name of the 16th century prelate who was burned at the stake, noticed.

Asked Cranmer, tongue in cheek, "Surely such 'pro-choice' newspapers and journals (and people) should be talking about a bunch of pluripotent stem cells, an embryo or a fetus? For reports suggest that the Duchess is still in her first trimester, so this is not yet a baby, and certainly nothing with any kind of destiny. At this stage, surely, it is a non-person, just like the other 201,931 non-persons who last year were evacuated from wombs in England, Scotland and Wales."

Language is important. George Orwell said political language "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

Philosopher Peter Kreeft says "the personhood of the fetus is clearly the crucial issue for abortion, for if the fetus is not a person, abortion is not the deliberate killing of an innocent person. Persons have a 'right to life,' but non-persons (eg cells, tissues, organs and animals) do not."

As Christian writer Eric Metaxas points out, "our greatest weapon in the defence of human dignity is not bombs or bullets, but the truth. Let's wield it."

Same-sex marriage: 'Contrived deadlines'

Only minor changes were allowed in the same-sex marriage bill, passed in the House of Lords on Monday, approved in the House of Commons on Tuesday and given royal assent on Wednesday.

Why all the intransigence, and why all the haste? What can be the explanation for the rush?

In Monday's third reading debate in the Lords, Lord Framlingham said: "The questions that many are asking are: why now and why the haste? 

"The simple truth is that the coalition Government have colluded with equal love campaigners and the European Court of Human Rights in bringing a case - an appeal - against our country’s long-established and settled position on marriage. There was a suggestion - some would call it a threat - that if legislation were not brought forward by June this year then changes would be forced on us.

"The House of Lords library tells me that as legislation is proceeding the case in the European Court of Human Rights will probably not now be pursued. What outrageous, behind-the-scenes arm-twisting.

"The result is that not one meaningful amendment has been accepted, not because none has been worthwhile but for the sake of entirely contrived deadlines, which suit campaigners in a hurry and a Government who want it off their plate well before the next general election. How cynical and how dangerous.

"Given the huge effect the bill, if passed, will have on millions of people, what an abuse of the parliamentary system to put speed before truth. So many important issues causing great concern have been left unresolved and hanging in the air, such as the effect on teachers, faith schools, the issue of adultery, consummation, the effect on registrars, which has already been referred to, and the use of premises - issues touching the lives of thousands every day, not to mention the effect on marriage itself.

“Those of us who have sat through all the stages of the bill and have watched the Government knock down amendment after amendment have despaired at their intransigence. This House prides itself on being a revising chamber. On this bill it has been a bulldozer. We are being used to bulldoze through an ill thought through bill, the ramifications of which the people have not begun to understand.

"All great issues are essentially very simple. We make them complicated when we do not want to face them or when we are anxious to hide their true meaning and purpose. This bill is built entirely on pretence. It pretends that there is no difference between a man and a woman. From this deceit have sprung all the problems we have been wrestling with - problems we have failed to resolve and which will bedevil generations to come. How can we possibly give our blessing to legislation built on pretence?”

In France there have been massive demonstrations in protest at the approval of same-sex marriage. Complaints about police violence, including the use of tear gas against peaceful demonstrators, have been made to the UN Human Rights Council. Videos show police using tear gas and clubs against elderly, women and children.

Le Figaro estimates that police have brutalised and arrested 1,000 pro-family demonstrators, with 500 detentions. Police were said to be increasingly complaining at being used to oppress pro-family demonstrators.

The two abortions of Penelope Trunk

A blog post by David French tells the story of the two abortions of Penelope Trunk, who appears to be a journalist specialising in career advice.

Says Penelope:

The first one was when I was twenty-seven. I was playing professional beach volleyball. I was playing volleyball eight hours a day and I spent two hours a day at the gym. 

When she found she was pregnant, she was 14 weeks.

 I told my mom I was pregnant. She said, “Get an abortion.”

I didn't say anything. I wasn't really thinking I had any choices. I didn't have a job that could support a child. And I wasn't sure if I was planning to marry my boyfriend, although we were living together. I knew that I had big ideas for my life and I hadn't figured things out yet.

My mom got militant. “You'll destroy your career possibilities.”

Here's what else happened: Other women called. It turned out that many, many women I knew had had an abortion. This is not something women talk about. I mean, I had no idea how ubiquitous the procedure was, at least in my big-city, liberal, Jewish world.

Each of those women told me that I should get an abortion so that I could keep my options open. “You're a smart girl. You can do anything with your life right now. Don't ruin it.”

She went to Planned Parenthood. You had to go once to set up the appointment, and then go back.

When I went back, I had a panic attack. I was on the table, in a hospital gown, screaming.

The nurse asked me if I was a religious Christian.

The boyfriend asked me if I was aware that my abortion would be basically illegal in seven more days.

I couldn't stop screaming. I was too scared. I felt absolutely sick that I was going to kill a baby. And, now that I know more about being a mother, I understand that hormones had already kicked in to make me want to keep the baby. We left. No abortion.

But she persisted.

I scheduled another abortion. But it was past the time when Planned Parenthood will do an abortion. Now it was a very expensive one at a clinic that seemed to cater to women coming from Christian countries in South America. I knew that if I did not go through with it this time, no one would do the abortion. I was too far along.

So I did it.

I went to sleep with a baby and woke up without one. Groggy. Unsure about everything. Everything in the whole world.

People think abortion is such an easy choice - they say, “Don't use abortion as birth control.” Any woman who has had one will tell you how that is such crazy talk. Because an abortion is terrible. You never stop thinking about the baby you killed. 

So the second time I got pregnant, I thought of killing myself. My career was soaring. I was 30 and I felt like I had everything going for me - great job, great boyfriend, and finally, for the first time ever, I had enough money to support myself. I hated that I put myself in the position of either losing all that or killing a baby.

I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant. I knew what they'd say.

So I completely checked out emotionally. I scheduled the abortion like I was on autopilot. I told my boyfriend at the last minute and told him not to come with me.

He said forget it. He's coming with me.

I remember staring at the wall. Telling myself to stop thinking of anything.

The doctor asked me, “Do you understand what's going to happen?”

I said yes. That's all I remember.

I got two abortions to preserve my career. To keep my options open. To keep my aspirations within reach.

I bought into the idea that kids undermine your ability to build an amazing career.

And here I am, with the amazing career.

But also, here I am with two kids. So I know a bit about having kids and a career. And I want to tell you something: You don't need to get an abortion to have a big career. Women who want big careers want them because something deep inside you drives you to change the world, lead a revolution, break new barriers.

It doesn't matter whether you have kids now or later, because they will always make your career more difficult. There is no time in your life when you are so stable in your work that kids won't create an earthquake underneath that confidence. 

French comments:

"The abortion debate is conducted on dishonest terms, with one side working mightily to confine the debate to cases of rape, incest, and desperate women facing desperate circumstances. But there’s another side of abortion - mass-scale killings for the sake of simple ambition to advance personal careers. In other words, here’s one woman’s 'choice' - to hire a doctor to kill her own baby for the sake of volleyball.

"It is striking how completely the idea of such act inverts Judeo-Christian morality, which is saturated with an ethic of care, where self-denial is a prime virtue. Christians are quite directly called to 'deny self' even to the point of taking up one’s figurative cross to follow Christ. Yet the ethic of 'choice' is simple: Kill others to pursue self-interest. I suppose if you want to make a career omelet, you have to break a few eggs.

"In less than two generations even the most 'soaring' career will mean virtually nothing. At best, most of us will be a fond memory for surviving family and close friends. In three generations, even those memories will fade. In four generations we’re simply a name on a family tree. But hundreds of thousands of Americans see that wisp of a career as important enough to kill a child to preserve.

"May God have mercy on our nation."

Getting it right

When man gets to his lowest ebb, God sometimes shows him a vision of Himself, seated on a throne. Just to remind him that He exists, and He is still in charge.

Isaiah saw it (Isa 6:1); Ezekiel saw it (Eze 1:26); Daniel saw it (Dan 9:7); the apostle John saw it (Rev 4:2).

 Men who have no time for God would like to tear Him from His throne:

The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
"Let us break their bonds in pieces
And cast away their cords from us."
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh, 
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
Then he shall speak to them in his wrath,
And distress them in his deep displeasure.  Psa 2:2 - 5.

Such men sanctify that which God hates, and legalise that which He says is an abomination.

But they won't succeed:

Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever;
A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of your Kingdom.  Heb 1:8.

He created all things, "and by your will they exist and were created."  Rev 4:11.

He is worthy to be worshipped.

Edmund Clowney says: "God is the centre of all things. We worship so that we live in response to and from this centre, the living God. Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction. If there is no centre there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness. . . with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose."

The man whose life is right is the man who worships God.

Death pathway to go

The Liverpool Care Pathway is to be scrapped by the NHS, it was announced yesterday.

Stories in the media of patients being appallingly treated led to an independent review. The review heard allegations of patients placed on the pathway without relatives' knowledge, being unnecessarily sedated and being denied food and water.

The pathway will be phased out in the next few months and individual care packages introduced, approved by senior clinicians.

The LCP was largely the responsibility of Professor John Ellershaw, medical director of the Marie Curie Hospice in Liverpool and clinical director of palliative care at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, a man with a genuine concern for excellent care for the dying. The LCP, carefully used, can be of help where the patient is properly monitored.

But who in the world authorised the LCP to be rolled out across the NHS, where it can be so easily abused? And who thought up the idea of paying bonuses for the number of patients placed on the pathway?

'Undemocratic first and last'

The British people have been betrayed by the parliamentary system. Same-sex marriage, though the majority of people do not want it, looks like becoming law.

The third reading in the Lords today appears to be a formality. It is suggested there will not be a vote.

When the bill was debated at report stage in the Lords on Monday and Wednesday last week, an amendment making clear distinctions between opposite-sex  marriage and same-sex marriage was defeated by 314 to 119. An amendment providing space for conscientious objection for a registrar was defeated by 278 to 103.

An amendment providing that no teacher would be obliged to endorse same-sex marriage was defeated by 163 to 32. An amendment that schools "of a religious character" would be able to teach marriage according to the tenets of their faith was withdrawn. An amendment providing for a referendum on same-sex marriage was rejected.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Justin Welby, and the bishops, noting the strength of the opposition, are said to have decided not to oppose the bill, but to concentrate on amendments. Some people believe they failed to take a Christian stand. Only two bishops were present when the bill was debated on Monday.

Said the Coalition for Marriage: "The bill was undemocratic from the start, introduced without a mandate from the voters and after a sham consultation which threw 500,000 legitimate responses in the bin. The bill has been undemocratic to the very end, with the parties using their power to apply exceptional pressure on MPs and peers. Whatever the parties may say, we know the votes on civil liberty protections were not truly free.

"There is a very good case for reasonable and necessary safeguards to protect the civil liberties of people like you - people that believe in traditional marriage. Several courageous peers tabled good civil liberty amendments, which we supported. But the bill's backers - including the leadership of the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and Labour - saw to it that none of them were voted into the bill."

Since marriage can only be between one man and one woman, marriage certificates issued by the Government for same-sex couples next year would be perfectly lawful, but actually fake. "We should also remember that the Government said, during debates, that fidelity was not important in marriage and same-sex couples make better parents."

The Maranatha Community said while the bill was before those responsible for the government of the nation, it was vital that we continued to engage in the battle by praying and speaking out for truth, justice and righteousness.

"Our attitude should not be based on whether we think we can make a difference, but rather upon God's call to us to sound the alarm in the face of what is happening in the nation. We are answerable to Him. Remember the Lord said to Ezekiel, 'You must speak my words unto them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious' (Ezek 2.7)."

'Faith illiteracy' at the BBC?

Krish Kandiah, Christian author, pastor and lecturer, complains of a lack of faith literacy among BBC researchers and sometimes BBC journalists.

Told by a researcher that they were "doing a special on the Bible" and wanted someone who believed the Bible was true to put opposite someone who thought it wasn't, he asked the researcher a basic question about which parts of the Bible she had read. She said she had never read the Bible. This, he says, is inadequate for a researcher on a religious programme about the Bible.

I mention this because the BBC has just published a new report on the breadth of opinion reflected in its output in key areas, including its treatment of religion.

Peter Hitchens says "The BBC does implicitly take a side on whether Britain is a Christan country - that it is not a Christian country and should be multicultural. Both Christianity and Islam are statements of opinion with which anyone is entitled to disagree, but on Radio 4's Sunday programme, Islam gets a free ride compared to the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, which are endlessly bombarded on that programme with stories about paedophilia, homosexuality and women priests."

BBC presenter Roger Bolton says "If a Christian is interviewed by the BBC about their objections to abortion on religious grounds, they are treated as though they are just a bit barmy."

Theologian Robert Beckford says "Worship is not aimed at or structured around the dominance of black Pentecostalism. More black people go to church in central London than any other ethnic group."

Replying to secularists' arguments that the BBC spends too much time on religious programmes, the BBC's Christine Morgan says more and more young people are interested in religion whether or not they are religious, because it is arguable that they cannot understand the modern world unless they understand religion.

The report is largely favourable. It says "The BBC's services of worship, news and analysis produced by its Religion and Ethics team is comprehensive and impressive. I found no convincing evidence that voices which could and should have been heard had not been heard,  and no convincing evidence that the BBC had not reflected an appropriate balance between different religions"

but 

"BBC journalists  need. . .  to examine their own assumptions about 'shared consensus' before embarking on interviews involving deeply held beliefs."

There is intelligent comment on the report at God and Politics' blog. It says if the BBC is to remain a credible broadcaster it needs to work hard to keep the trust of its audiences, and treating those who hold religious beliefs with respect is integral to that.

What comes with same-sex marriage

Legalising same-sex marriage won't affect the daily lives of heterosexuals? Don't believe it, says an article at LifeSiteNews.

After same-sex marriage was legalised in Canada, hundreds of marriage commissioners were ordered to violate their consciences and perform same-sex marriages or be fired. A Christian pastor and a Catholic bishop were hauled before a human rights tribunal for repeating 2,000-year-old Christian doctrine on homosexuality.

A Catholic magazine was almost forced into bankruptcy after being targetted with a frivolous "hate speech" complaint. A teacher was suspended and threatened with removal of his teaching licence for writing a letter to the editor in defence of traditional marriage.

A Catholic city councillor had a death threat spray painted on his business after stating his beliefs that homosexual acts were "not natural." Other individuals had lifetime speech bans placed on them to prohibit them from ever writing or speaking critically about the homosexual lifestyle.

In schools, homosexual topics were woven into all subjects and all grades, starting in kindergarten. Some school boards refuse to give parents advance notice of lessons dealing with sexual orientation, and deny rights of parents to opt-out children from such lessons.

A TV sports broadcaster was fired for tweeting support for the traditional definition of marriage after work hours, from home, on his personal Twitter account. A real estate brokerage fired  a Catholic agent for promoting the idea that children do better with a mother and father, as against homosexual parenting.

"Though you may be battle weary," the author says, "it's worth the fight to escape the yoke of tyranny Canada already wears."

After same-sex marriage, another writer warns, comes the intense transgender agenda. In Massachusetts, a series of bills filed by the homosexual lobby and the radical left were being considered at a public hearing before the Joint Judiciary Committee yesterday.

They include bills to repeal laws against bestiality, "unnatural and lascivious acts," soliciting in taverns for immoral purposes, public blasphemy, fornication and teaching virtues to children. Pro-family organisations were countering with pro-family bills.