Social Concerns Archives - Page 8 of 42

October 8, 2022October 4, 2022

Accepting God’s Gifts

Our nation has turned from being a nation looking to God and seeking to serve others to becoming one concerned with finding personal gratification. We have become a people who will accept any or no moral values as long as they don’t interfere with our individual rights. We approve of any lifestyle or alternative to God’s teaching in our homes and on television. We go to entertainment venues where any kind of conduct is portrayed and accepted. Has this push for acceptance brought peace, unity, and happiness? Has it eradicated racism, violence, mental illness, crime, poverty, and drug and alcohol abuse? No, but accepting God’s gifts can.

The Does God Exist? ministry stands for God’s Word, following what God teaches us, and accepting God’s gifts. We don’t promise pleasure, prosperity, sexual gratification, and all the answers. But, we do promise that you will have fulfillment, satisfaction, and peace with God. We can do that because God Himself has promised it. We want to remind you of the words of Andre Crouch in his song “Through it All.”

Through it all, Through it all.
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus.
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all, Through it all.
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.

I’ve been to lots of places.
I’ve seen a lot of faces.
There’s been times I felt so all alone
But in my lonely hours
Yes, those precious lonely hours
Jesus let me know I was His own

I thank God for the mountains.
And I thank Him for the valleys.
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.
For if I’d never had a problem
I wouldn’t know that God could solve them.
I’d never know what faith in God could do.

Through it all, Through it all.
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus.
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all, Through it all.
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.

We see nations, people, and even ourselves at times looking for a better way to live life. There is no better way than what we read about in God’s Word. We challenge you to depend on God’s Word and find the joy and peace they bring by accepting God’s gifts.

October 7, 2022October 4, 2022

Legalizing Destructive Behavior

The world is in the process of legalizing destructive behavior by allowing the recreational use of drugs that cause incredible suffering to all people. Skeptics say we should allow the use of recreational drugs by pointing to the “failure” of prohibition, which banned the sale of alcoholic drinks in the United States. However, prohibition saw a significant reduction in murder, divorce, drunk driving, and abuse of all kinds. The fact that alcohol promoters used underhanded ways to make alcohol available does not change the fact that prohibition positively affected society in general.

Now we are seeing the legalization of recreational marijuana. California led the way in 2016, and other states are following. We are not talking about the controlled use of cannabis in medical applications or the treatment of mental illness. One of the arguments for legalizing marijuana was that it would put illegal sellers out of business. But, the Los Angeles Times reports that “the exact opposite is happening now.” The newspaper said, “It has spread crime into rural areas and turned local politics across the state into a morass of corruption.”

The paper reported that local politicians are demanding six-figure bribes for growing licenses as the use of marijuana has become more widespread. “Illegal and completely unregulated” growing operations have popped up across California, overwhelming law enforcement. “Heavily armed camps filled with violent armed men, often tied to cartels, now dot the countryside.” In addition, the paper said that the legal trade is threatened because cannabis prices from illegal sources have dropped so low.

Satan is alive and well on planet Earth. The result is always catastrophic when Christians sit back in complacency while states are legalizing destructive behavior that hurts others and goes against God’s instructions for how we should live.

Reference: The Week for September 30, 2022, page 12.

October 6, 2022October 4, 2022

Knowing How to Die

One of the significant challenges of living in the present age is knowing how to die. That may sound crazy, but it really is a problem. Thanks to medical advancements, people who would have died quickly and perhaps even died in their sleep are now kept alive by machines, drugs, and demands for their organs. Unfortunately, in some cases, this has caused enormous pain.

Knowing how to die has also created a whole industry ranging from medical practitioners to organizations that major in helping people die. Compassion and Choices, Zero Population Growth, and various hospice programs are involved in this issue and have publications promoting their services. Switzerland and Holland have made assisted suicide legal, and France is struggling with the problem. Some states in the U.S. have legalized doctor-assisted suicide, and other state legislatures are wrestling with the concept.

There are many challenging issues in this question. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy and you are the temple of God.” Also, in that book, in chapter 6, verses 15-20, Paul condemns prostitution for the same reason.

The human body as a special creation of God is described beautifully in Psalms 139:14. Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that we are created in the image of God, referring to our spiritual makeup and not our physical bodies. However, the vehicle God created and in which His Spirit dwells is a wonderful creation we must protect. This principle prohibits suicide when the body can continue functioning if left alone. But if the body is dying and only medical intervention keeps it alive, that is certainly not the same as natural death.

When people know they are about to die, they have many things to do. Taking care of their possessions, repairing relationships, and making provisions for the next stage of existence are all essential. What we neglect to a great degree is the one thing we all fear the most–pain. In this day of medical advancement, we should be able to control pain in the physical body. Restricting the use of drugs to relieve pain in a dying person is cruel and flies in the face of what God has told us.

Proverbs 31:4-7 makes it clear that the “strong drink” of that day was not for Kings because it would pervert their judgment. Instead, it should be “for him that is ready to perish … let him drink and remember his misery no more.” God determines when a person dies, but we can address the pain involved and leave the difficult question of knowing how to die to the Lord.

September 30, 2022September 29, 2022

Rapidly Increasing Drug Use Data from NIH

One of the consequences of our culture’s rejection of God and Christian teachings is that people are looking for other ways to deal with life’s stresses. The National Institutes of Health’s annual survey shows rapidly increasing drug use in the United States.

In 2011, 29% of those ages 19 to 30 used marijuana 20 or more times in the preceding year, and 6% said they were daily users. In 2021, 43% had used marijuana 20 or more times in the past year, and 11% indicated they were daily users. In 2011, 3% said they used psychedelics such as magic mushrooms or LSD, and that number is now 8%. Data also shows a significant increase in vaping and alcoholic drinks mixed with THC.

The increasing legalization of marijuana is part of the cause for rapidly increasing drug use. In that case, these numbers should quickly grow in the next year as marijuana legalization continues to expand. This is a complex issue because we don’t know the long-term consequences of using marijuana and the chemicals derived from it.

The Christian concept of the body as the dwelling place of the Spirit of God means that Christians should take care of the body. Recreational drugs have no value for the well-being of the physical body but can have value in particular situations. Proverbs 31 states the wisdom of leaders not drinking but suggests using strong drink to help at the time of death. “Give strong drink to him who is ready to perish and wine to those that be of heavy hearts. Let them drink and forget their poverty and misery” (Proverbs 31:4-7). In 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul tells Timothy not to drink the contaminated water prevalent in that day but use a little wine to avoid illnesses from the water.

James 5 encourages Christians to rely on each other and on God to handle life’s challenges. Using drugs as a social lubricant or an antidepressant will have long-term negative consequences. We are only beginning to see the collateral damage of rapidly increasing drug use in the world around us.

Reference: National Institutes of Health

September 29, 2022September 28, 2022

Clandestine Actions of Major Corporations

The dictionary defines clandestine actions as things done in secret or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception. For example, one of the issues facing us today is corporations and the government promoting ideas and values opposed to Christian principles. That is especially true of moral issues promoted in schools, the entertainment industry, and even the military.

The Family Research Council revealed the political activities of several corporations that most of us are unaware of because they are clandestine actions.

STATE FARM has joined efforts with GenderCool, which recruits children to be part of the transgender movement. In addition, state Farm has recruited employees to flood local libraries and schools with transgender books aimed at children as young as five.

PIZZA HUT has a program called “Book It,” which features a book about a young boy dressing in drag.

DICKS SPORTING GOODS has announced they will provide employees up to $4,000 to access abortion. AMAZON, BANK OF AMERICA, COMCAST, MACY’S, and PAY PAL are just a few of the companies offering abortion stipends and travel reimbursement.

THE CURRENT POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT is displaying rainbow flags over U.S. embassies.

MILITARY members can get transgender surgeries paid for by taxpayers. The U.S. Navy has produced a training video on how to use “inclusive language” and the proper use of pronouns. A similar program has begun in the Air Force Academy.

The Family Research Council says that their surveys show that 57% of all Americans want companies to stay out of cultural and social issues. America is becoming an atheist state where the government dictates what is morally acceptable or unacceptable. At the same time, major corporations use clandestine actions to promote immorality. History tells us that nations collapse when they leave God and embrace immorality. Will we learn from history or repeat it?

Reference: The Family Research Council August 2022 information letter

September 24, 2022September 15, 2022

The Hippocratic Oath No Longer Used

In the past, the Hippocratic Oath was a sworn agreement made by medical students when they became doctors. It includes a promise “to share knowledge, to help the ill and not cause harm, and to never give a deadly drug or help another to use one.” Hippocrates (460 to 370 B.C.), a Greek physician known as the “father of medicine,” was concerned with the methods and ethics of medical treatment.

Hippocrates lived at the same time as Socrates, who extolled the doctor. He was in a clan known as the Asklepiads, devotees of Asklepios, a Greek god of health. They swore to the gods to keep themselves “pure and holy,” help the sick, and avoid “wrongdoing and harm to patients.” They vowed not to breach patient confidentiality, perform surgery for which they had not been trained, cause an abortion, poison, euthanize, or sexually abuse a patient.”

The Hippocratic Oath appeared in a collection of some 70 texts called the Hippocratic Corpus. By the 10th century, Christians had replaced Greek divinities in the Hippocratic Oath with the God of the Bible, and medical schools used that version until modern times. By the early 20th century, that began to change. In 1928 only 14 of 79 medical schools required their students to swear the Hippocratic Oath. No medical school in America requires it today.

In recent years, the ethics of medicine has become a major issue. Special interest groups like “Compassion and Choices” advocate for physician-assisted suicide. Laws in several states now allow doctors to prescribe lethal amounts of drugs for use in suicide.

Is the morality of a doctor important when you or a loved one are in declining health? What is the difference between a doctor who believes the body is the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16) and one who believes in survival of the fittest? This is a significant issue for all of us dealing with end-of-life issues, as all eventually will.

Reference: “Bring Back Hippocrates” by Dr. Lydia S. Dugdale, a physician and ethicist at Columbia University in New York, in the Autumn issue of Plough Quarterly.

September 16, 2022September 12, 2022

The Cost of Raising a Child

The Brookings Institute writing in the Wall Street Journal reports that the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 17 has risen 9% over two years ago. The cost of raising a child is now $310,605 to feed, house, and provide primary care after birth. When you add to that the birthing cost, it becomes apparent that it is out of reach for many young couples and especially for young unmarried women.

In our materialistic and selfish society, many people are unwilling to sacrifice to spend that kind of money. That means they will push for an abortion, or they will neglect the child’s basic needs if the baby is born. Even worse, some parents pay the $18,271 a year cost of raising a child but resent it and let the child know they resent it. In my 41 years of public school teaching in South Bend, Indiana, I saw the consequences of kids facing physical, mental, and spiritual neglect.

Like many things wrong with society today, the problem is with the religious convictions of many adults. What is the result if you are convinced that humans are the product of blind mechanistic chance and don’t view a child as a unique creation of God with value and importance? You will not devote the resources or energy to ensuring your child is fully equipped to deal with life’s challenges.

The biblical plan for raising children is time-tested and proven to work. Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21 warn fathers, “…provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” God’s plan calls for protecting children as a product of love. The cost of raising a child is more than money. A child must be treasured and nurtured not only in secular matters but in the knowledge of their value and spiritual nature.

Kids are searching for adults who will value them as they are. Unfortunately, the gender changing and promiscuity of our young people today are a product of the failure of adults to be willing to pay the cost of raising a child, including financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

Reference: The Week for September 2, 2022, page 16.

August 27, 2022August 25, 2022

Parental Rights in Education

What rights should parents have concerning the education of their children and the environment they are forced to live in when they leave home? If you are involved in the current new theories about sexual identity, race, and learning, you know that parental rights and input have been shoved aside as schools struggle with pressure from special interest groups. This is especially true if parents want to give their children spiritual instruction at home that is not opposed by secular learning at school.

ParentalRights.org reports that 39 states have no statutes that expressly define and protect parental rights. In the late 1900s, I was head of the science department at Riley High School in South Bend, Indiana. At that time, we were required to have a parent participate in evaluating the textbooks we would use. The Goldwater Institute (January 2020) reports that 47 states do not grant parents the right to review the learning materials and activities before their use. The Heritage Foundation (May 2019) says that 12 states do not allow parents to be involved in their schools’ sex ed curriculum. As a result, schools are forcing many things on very young children without their parent’s consent or knowledge. That is the state of parental rights in education today.

The transgender movement in America has become a fad, with many children being pressured by school officials encouraging kids to change their gender identity. This is called “affirmative care” and can even involve the use of drugs to catalyze a child’s movement away from their birth sex. The long-term effect of this kind of counseling, especially the drugs and surgical procedures used, is destructive. We have had personal contact with situations where the parents were unaware that their child was being pushed to change.

The introduction of critical race theory to young children without the knowledge or consent of their parents is another issue of concern. Children are being taught that all white parents are racist or that all black parents feel that no matter how hard they work, their success will be limited by their skin color. That is simply not true. The terrible history of race relations in this country, neglected in the past, must be presented in history class. A first grader of any race should receive a positive picture of the American dream and that all humans are of equal value.

As a public school teacher with 41 years of experience, I know the challenges American schools face today. However, if public education is to survive, it must acknowledge parental rights, allowing parents to determine their children’s moral, sexual, and racial training. Parents must not be excluded from the process of making public schools neutral on these issues. Parents must have the right to raise their children in what they feel is best for them. As it is right now, America is becoming a police state where parents have no rights and children are forced into a framework that violates what public education is all about.

References: Faith and Justice magazine for August 2022, pages 5 – 7, and parentalrights.org

August 12, 2022August 10, 2022

Freedom of Moral Convictions

The political free-for-all that is going on in America now has all kinds of implications for people of faith. The problem is not whether people have the right to adopt any sort of moral stand but whether those people have the right to pass laws that discriminate against others who make different moral choices. Therefore, we must preserve the freedom of moral convictions in our words and actions.

In the past, laws made homosexual activity illegal, prohibited interracial marriage, and restricted people of Asian descent from owning a business or land. Outdated laws also declared that blacks were humans but not persons and therefore had no rights. Those laws have been removed, but there is a danger of new laws against Christain moral values.

According to the Washington Post, 55 transgender candidates are running for public office this election year. That source also says that 20 gender nonconforming and 18 non-binary candidates are running. They have every right to seek public office. An old cliché says, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Unfortunately, that is no longer true in many cases. Every day we read about public figures who express their opinion and are threatened with a lawsuit or physical harm by someone who feels offended.

We know first-hand about the threat to the freedom of moral convictions. We have pointed out many long-term negative consequences of the LGBTQ lifestyle, especially if drugs and/or surgery are involved. Stating those facts has resulted in threats of lawsuits as well as personal threats against your editor. Christians who openly say that they believe God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman are facing threats of violence or loss of employment in today’s America. If the LGBTQ community succeeds in getting enough representation in our government, will they pass laws outlawing Christian moral beliefs?

Jesus spoke loudly and clearly about the separation of Church and State. Both sides of this issue need to understand the consequences of allowing moral or religious beliefs to determine who makes and enforces the laws. We must not repeat history or expect recompense for past sins.

Reference: The Week for 8/14/22, page 16.

July 29, 2022July 27, 2022

Another Virus Is Spreading

Here we go again! Another virus is spreading and has begun to infect large numbers of people, and the LGBTQ community has borne the brunt of those infections. That data has led to hatred and polarization. This reminds us of the situation with AIDS in 1984 when over 7,700 people became infected with AIDS, and over 3,500 died. There was a great deal of finger pointing and some violence, as vividly displayed in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain.”

On May 7, 2022, British health officials discovered the monkeypox virus and announced it occurred primarily in LGBTQ men. In July of 2022, infections have been found in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. At this time, infections approach 1500, with California and Illinois having more than 100 cases and New York with more than 400. The virus spreads from person to person through direct contact with rash lesions or body fluids. Men having sex with men provide an easy pathway for the virus, so as another virus is spreading, some blame the LGBTQ community.

Those who delight in attacking Christianity have claimed that Christians are fueling hatred against the LGBTQ community, but that claim is simply incorrect. It is true that the Bible teaches us not to engage in sex outside of marriage, but it also tells us not to use alcohol or other substances harmful to the body. Christians are concerned about people doing things that hurt themselves or others. For Christians, the human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:15-20; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Therefore, we urge everyone not to engage in destructive lifestyles, including the use of all recreational drugs and the practice of aberrant sexual activity.

We also oppose any violence against others. Anyone who abuses, brings harm to, or verbally condemns others is not following Christ’s teaching. Instead, he told us to love our enemies, go the second mile, and turn the other cheek. (See Matthew 5:38-48.)The teachings of Christ are unambiguous, but not everyone who claims to be a Christian follows them.

Another virus is spreading as people engage in the activities of the LGBTQ community, putting themselves and others at risk. There is no question about the wisdom of the Bible’s teaching about sexual conduct. But unfortunately, every alternative to God’s way has caused injury to the participants and others, and monkeypox is just one more evidence of that truth.

Reference: USA Today by Boris Q’va for July 18, 2022. SouthBendTribune.com