Evangelicals increasingly follow the mainline churches and the world

“The irony of the reshaping of the spiritual landscape in America is that it represents a post-Christian reformation driven by people seeking to retain a Christian identity,” noted Dr. George Barna, Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center. “Unfortunately, the theology of this reformation is being driven by American culture rather than biblical truth."

Among those associated with evangelical churches.:

--44% claim the Bible is ambiguous in its teaching about abortion

--34% argue that abortion is morally acceptable if it spares the mother from financial or emotional discomfort or hardship

--34% reject the idea of legitimate marriage as one man and one woman

--40% accept lying as morally acceptable if it advances personal interests or protect one’s reputation

--39% identify the people they respect as being only those who have the same beliefs as their own

And it's even higher in charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

 https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/CRC_AWVI2020_Release11_Digital_04_20201006.pdf  American Worldview Inventory 2020

You haven’t seen anything yet

Wall Street Journal today opined "The left’s culture warriors always need new monsters to slay. Among their most improbable targets in recent years is the famously friendly restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, which this week appears to have surrendered.

In 2012 CEO Dan Cathy, a committed evangelical Christian, sinned against the progressive ethos by expressing support for the traditional view of marriage. That prompted a political campaign against Chick-fil-A."

Most of us who stood in front of a pastor, judge or someone with a mail-order license and daisies in her hair always believed marriage was between a man and woman. Even most homosexuals. But after activists succeeded in the insurance and work benefits demands, and told everyone it was just about love, things changed after the Supremes again made law and decided to change thousands of years of history. Now if you believe God had something in mind, or even if directionless evolution lurched forward to protect the human race, now you are a hater, bigot, and evil person. And an awful lot of gay guys ended up at the altar (and later in divorce court) who thought they were protected from all that their heterosexual friends and associates were going through.

But is wasn't enough, as we've seen from the growing transgender wars--which threaten homosexuals as much as heterosexuals and will destroy their movement. This Chick-fil-A thing is just one more hole in the wall through which the nation will be attacked at its base--the babies that are unnecessary and inconvenient; the easy divorce or no marriage at all putting generations of children at risk; the demand that we ignore biology and pretend men have periods and babies (which seems to be the only time the Left want babies to live); ignoring the child trafficking across the real border; performing drag queens during library story hour; the dropping birthrate to the place where our population can't be replaced without importing people like oxen to do the dirty work; and the required reeducation camps supplied by our "woke capitalists" and leftist universities. No one will be allowed to have a thought differing from the socialist/communist cabal that is controlling the government and academe.

It will not make any difference if in 2019 you were a social justice warrior who supported gay marriage or the chemical castration of little boys so they can pretend to be girls--eventually even YOU WILL FIND a split in the road and say you won't go down that path. You'll ask, "Where's my country?" Maybe it will be legalized pedophilia, or the redefinition of so much history you'll think you didn't go to school, or digital spying everywhere, or losing your job because you aren't a minority. Look out. Then they'll haul you off to the reeducation camp or the phony trial where you'll have no right to presumption of innocence because in 1850 your family came here from Germany or Ireland.

Religious organizations were shut out of child care by Obama; reversed by Trump

The Obama administration was anti-Christian from the start, early 2009 (when he undid the Bush executive order not to expand the embryonic cell experimentation) to the finish in early 2017 refusing children good care because the agency had the audacity to believe in real marriage.

Now Trump is reversing that last minute anti-child order.

“In the closing days of the Obama administration, the federal government handed down a regulation that effectively barred from federal child-welfare programs organizations that believe marriage is between a man and woman. This affected many Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant organizations. This misguided policy was rushed into effect right before President Trump’s inauguration."

"Communities of faith have a lot to offer to children in foster care. Barna research shows that practicing Christians may be more than twice as likely to adopt compared with the general population—with Catholics three times as likely and evangelicals five times as likely. That’s because Christians are eager to open their hearts and homes for children in foster care. They are commanded by the Bible to care for widows and orphans in their distress (James 1:20). One need not agree with these beliefs to see that it is self-defeating for government to bar the participation of thousands of religious Americans from serving children in need because of their theological convictions."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-reverses-obamas-anti-christian-decree-11572813718?

The Trump administration I hope will look out for what's best for the children, not what's best for a political sexual agenda.

Having THE TALK with children in the 21st century

Forty five years ago I was probably considering how to talk to my children about “where do babies come from.”  And as they got a little older I even asked my church for help as they neared those scary adolescent years (btw, got zip nada zilch).  It’s a little tougher today.

• Sex Outside of Marriage
• Same-Sex "Marriage"
• Divorce
• Contraception
• Abortion
• Reproductive Technologies
• Modesty
• Pornography
• Transgenderism
• Homosexuality

I can be fairly certain we talked about divorce.  That was all around them. Playmates. Cousins. TV and movie themes.  Even children’s books were addressing that trauma for children. And yes, modesty.  I’m sure they saw my disapproval at some of the 70s fashion when we went shopping or watched TV together.  But transgenderism?  Never.  In fact, until the Supreme Court decided to undo thousands of years of tradition for pagans and religious people alike, there was little said about that, but certain well funded groups needed a new challenge.  Same sex “marriage” in the 1970s was not an option—in fact, until the election of 2012, no responsible candidate for president would have even suggested it.

But there’s help today that wasn’t available then (in part there was no need for this title in the 70s).  Leila Miller and Trent Horn have co-authored, “Made This Way, How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues.”  Some churches are buying it in bulk ($5) and giving it to parents.

The authors are Catholic (I heard about the book on the podcast of Catholic Answers), but don’t let that deter you if you don’t share their faith.  Catholics are really the only Christians who have a well thought out, systematic teaching on sexuality.

The authors’ approach “begins not with the Bible or Church teaching but with the natural law. In kid-friendly ways, Miller and Horn help you communicate how the right way to live is rooted in the way we're made. God's design for human nature is a blueprint or owner's manual for moral living that any child can grasp through reason and apply to modern controversies over sex, marriage, life and the quest for human fulfillment.”

Leila Miller and Trent Horn.  Made this way, How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues. Catholic Answers Press, 2018

Sample chapter

Small business owners being bullied

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMn3WycWJsg

This cake artist won't produce art for witchcraft, or bachelor parties, or a same sex wedding. He'll serve gays for any other event and has gay friends. But the LGBTQ community began to bully him. Sort of like the left is bullying any celebrity who would go against their Marxists principles and perform for the inauguration of Trump whom they hate. Even a blind opera singer. That hate crime is legal. Jack Phillips doesn't hate anyone, but big government is stepping on his first amendment rights, but it won't step in and stop the leftists harassing a president. Watch the video that follows this one with Neil Cavuto. Pay attention, America.

 https://www.adflegal.org/detailspages/client-stories-details/jack-phillips

Marriage won't fix these problems of disease and disorder

The CDC has reported that men who have sex with men contract HIV at 44x the rate of men who don’t.  New syphilis cases are 81.7%  MSM. During 2011–2015, the chlamydia rate in men increased 20.0%, compared with a 0.3% increase in women. Gonorrhea is increasing 3x faster among men than women.  Oral and anal sex, multiple sex partners including bisexual behavior with girlfriends or wives, and IV drug use will do that.  Men who have sex with men also have much higher rates of suicide, eating disorders, depression and addiction.  As any heterosexual couple can tell you, a marriage certificate issued by the state doesn’t fix you if you’re a mess.  Marriage doesn’t solve deep seated unhappiness, self esteem, career losses, unemployment, rejection by loved ones or distorted body image. Unfortunately, that’s the direction the LGBTQ torchbearers went--legal marriage intended for establishing families the foundation of society.  Rather than work for legal recognition for a lifestyle that fit their needs--perhaps a 5 year contract or unique financial regulations for support--they demanded complete acceptance from churches, government, society and family--a “just as if” marriage.  That became the goal; not the betterment of their followers.  And they got it. 

What about gay men and women who don’t have someone to love, or don’t have a toned and buff body to show off at the gym, or who don’t want to be political, or who don’t want to come out to mom and dad?  Too bad.  LGBTQ “leaders”  turned their vast war chest and efforts to the tiny fraction of vulnerable people, less than one percent, who are confused about their biology and birth certificates, victims of a fraud turning into a billion dollar industry.

Suggested reading: Alex P. Serritella, “Transgenda; abuse and regret in the sex-change industry,” Bookstand publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-1-63498-355-6.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/fact-sheet-on-hiv-estimates.pdf

 http://www.ncsddc.org/blog/not-moment-lose-extragenital-stds-and-gay-men%E2%80%99s-sexual-health

What's a baker, florist, candlestick maker to do?

 Recently, "the state" squeezed every penny, including donations, from a Christian couple and destroyed their livelihood because they wouldn't bake a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding.  They would serve them as customers every other way, just not that. Story.

They were ordered to “cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published, circulated, issued or displayed, any communication, notice, advertisement or sign of any kind to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of a place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination will be made against, any person on account of sexual orientation.”
“Within Oregon’s public accommodations law is the basic principle of human decency that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, has the freedom to fully participate in society,” the ruling states. “The ability to enter public places, to shop and dine, to move about unfettered by bigotry.”

Divorce cakes are quite popular. Just google images. Many Christians do not believe divorce is God's will. Gay couples get divorces.  Can a baker be required to bake one for Harry and George if he would not do it for Mary and George?




Can a Quaker pacifist bakery owner refuse to decorate a cake with guns by turning down a big job for the NRA? The military?
 

  
What about a West Virginia Democrat's celebration in memory of an Exalted Cyclops of the KKK who represented him in Congress? Is that OK to turn down? (There was such a story posted on the Internet which apparently was a hoax).
 
Does a female baker have to create pornographic images on cupcakes for male clients? Or yoga positions for the exercise club? Many of those pink breast cancer images were just porn, in my opinion.


These are all activities by Americans expressing their free speech; what about the religious and speech and assembly rights of the baker?

Humility is the queen of virtues

“. . . no one seems to know what just happened [decision of Supreme Court on same sex marriage in June 2015]. This wasn’t the legalization of a behavior—for the legal barriers to homosexual conduct were torn down decades ago. The rights to cohabitate, to share insurance benefits, tax status, and even call each other spouse—without discrimination—are hard fought gains that were achieved before last Friday. A new right has not been created, rather the Constitutional right for the rest of us to think and speak our minds, and to hold our own counsel has been severely curtailed. The right to do something impossible can’t be achieved, not by any court, only the right to demand everyone else be supportive of this masked ball, with legal penalties for refusing to join the dance. We’ve only lost the right to object.”

“. . . Christians shouting the word “sin” at something out there have failed to use this most powerful weapon we have by the Holy Spirit to counter forces beyond our human skill or strength. When an obstacle is too high, too strong, too wide for you to go over it, it is best to adopt humility and go under it. If language against a sin that’s been called a blessing can only draw fire and fill you full of verbal bullet holes, then use the stance that saints have long used in more trying circumstances and under worse governments: the language of humility. When saying, “You are sinners!” just won’t do—and I think this is one of those times—then freely speak the truth and say, “We are sinners and have failed God, but we’ve been found by Him and are happy to be new creatures in Christ.”
Humility: Queen of  Virtues