Saturday, June 27, 2015

The Less Than Supreme Court

by Ed Evans
          Many people are now saying the U.S. Supreme Court made a mistake in their ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.  I contend it was no mistake.  The Justices deliberately made themselves enablers to immoral behavior and accomplices to the coming persecution and prosecution of Christian ministers who will, in accordance with holy scripture, refuse to perform such marriages. 
          Members of the Southern Baptist Convention, at their recent annual meeting, affirmed their intention not to perform such ceremonies.  Other ministers have affirmed the same.  The town of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, already has on its books a law that will jail any minister who refuses to marry a homosexual couple.
          A Smithsonian.com article of two years ago said, “According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, about 20 percent of the population is attracted to their own gender. That’s nearly double the usual estimates of about 10 percent.”  The article went on to say the difference may lay in survey methodology.
          If the figures from that survey were still true today, that would still leave 80% of Americans who are not homosexual.  Now, those figures must have changed with time, but they can’t be far off in just two years.  So the question arises, why would the justices of the Supreme Court force on 80% of the people what pleases only 20%; something that goes against the religious beliefs and training of most of that majority; something so repugnant it was illegal only a short time ago; so repugnant it is called an abomination to God in scripture.
          Recently there was a break-in at a home in Texas that carries a message for us regarding this recent judicial decision.  A 30-year-old burglar was shot coming through a window in a home belonging to a senior citizen.  The senior citizen had a .357 Magnum pistol and the intruder died inside the home he came to rob.  When the police notified the burglar’s relatives, they were irate that the senior citizen did not fire a warning shot. This Supreme Court travesty of claiming legality for what is wrong is a warning shot to those pure of heart.
          There are things that are right, and there are things that are wrong.  And claiming that wrong things are right, because doing them gives you pleasure, will never make them right. Such things are wrong for very valid reasons.
          Even the learned opinion of highly educated legal judges on the U.S. Supreme Court cannot make actions that are wrong … right.  Attempting to change or justify wrongness into rightness will only prove to set in motion Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Physics, i.e., “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  We have yet to see the Pandora’s box of justified evils to be set into motion by the legal precedent this latest decision establishes.
          There may be reasons beyond our human understanding as to why God set marriage up to be one man and one woman, something beyond creating the kind of family that can procreate and raise children.  But we do know that at least one of those reasons alone is reason enough for marriage to involve a male and a female.  Whatever His reasons, Biblical marriage involves one man and one woman, although the Bible does document instances where men took multiple wives.  But even those unions were male and female. 
          On the other hand, holy scripture has plenty to say against same sex relationships.
          Some will say it is nothing personal by the Justices, they are merely weighing judicial precedent, merely following the law.  But as C.S. Lewis pointed out, “You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society.”  It also follows that the law without justice is simply unjust. 
          And that is what the Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have done, as they ignored the needs of the primary building block of the nation – the family – and blindly allowed political correctness to warp their sense of justice.  They have acted unjustly, and become both enablers to and accomplices with those who for selfish and transitory entertainment would destroy that which is good and right and unselfish. 

          There is no good way to do a wrong thing.  What the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have done is eternally wrong.  

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Get Ready for Social Martyrdom

 With American ethics and morals descending into cultural Marxism and the family unit -- the building block of democracy -- being destroyed, as the Supreme Court prepares to redefine marriage, Christians may as well prepare spiritually for a kind of social martyrdom; social shunning, the Christian ethics and organizations, the Church, attacked in courts, maybe job loss.  We're already seeing businesses like bakeries and florists forced out of business because they won't compromise their ethics and morals. 
The late Cardinal George of Chicago saw it coming, as does, apparently, Pope Francis. He sees where the world is headed. He talked about it a couple of weeks ago in a homily that did not get much media attention.  But then, the news media today reports only gossip, not news, anymore.  http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-get-ready-to-be-martyrs-even-in-the-little-things-67893/

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Yes, For Such As This

            Men and women join the Marine Corps for many reasons.  Not being female I will not speak for the ladies, but young men often join either hoping the Marine Corps will make a man of them, or because they believe it is the manly thing to do.  And of course, there is a bit of patriotism mixed in there, too.  Along the way the desire to be the man they eventually realize they are becomes less important, and patriotism begins to play a much bigger role in our lives.
            As we grow older, speaking just for myself now, the ideals we fought for, and the high price of the lives who paid for protecting those ideals comes back to me more and more.  I, like you probably, know by name many of those who paid the price to ensure you and I are still here today.  And it becomes more and more important to us to support and protect those original ideals of what freedom, individual liberty, and this nation are all about.
            After all, we fought for those ideals, those freedoms, and we know the names of those who not here to enjoy the freedoms they paid dearly for.  So when we see corruption, on a local or national scale, when we see the law being twisted to favor this one and impinge on the freedoms of that one, we are not pleased.  Let’s face it, we are a very diverse people, coming from many different backgrounds, seeking many different things.  Even when we wore the Marine Corps uniform, we didn’t get along with everyone.  We had their back, and they had ours, but that didn’t mean we liked all of them.  We were brothers.
            So now later we must admit to ourselves and others, we don’t like everything we see going on around us.  There is sadness, anger, frustration to be worked out among us.  But if we dwell on those things, we find only more sadness, anger, frustration. That is not where the answers lie.
            But as we might expect, our God knows where those answers lie.  We find a strong hint about that in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter four, verse eight: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
            In a week when many of the things I see going wrong all about us seemed to climb on a tall pedestal and shout at me, suddenly out of the stinking fog that surrounded me came a reminder of Philippians 4:8.  It came in the form of a YouTube video, a fantastic combination of what using computers should be about, with the highest talents of individual strangers, and music.
            It’s actually been around for a while, so perhaps you’ve already seen it.  It is Eric Whitacre: A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong.
            As I watched this presentation of how it all came about, how it came together, and the final product, and then a preview of the next version to come, it occurred to me that of such is the human race intended, glorifying God with who and what they are, as individuals and in consonance.  Listen to what he has to say when he talks about "human beings will go to any lengths to connect...."
            Throughout the video, God was never mentioned, and yet it was the culmination of all the technical, creative, imaginative abilities with which He gifted us.
            It is for such beauty that we exist, not to glorify ourselves, not to get over on one another, not to merely exist, not to do violence to one another to impose our beliefs on others, not even to be the best or the brightest.
            Watch this when you have a chance, listen, notice what is happening.  Even as an experienced writer I find it difficult to pull together the right words to adequately describe how good and fulfilled I feel when I watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NENlXsW4pM 
            May God richly bless them, even as their shared efforts have blessed us.