Down the rabbit hole we go...

…and much like the world that Alice encounter, the world we live is starting to make very little sense.  Take this story which broke in February about a California High School senior who is named Pat (fitting name) who claims he is a girl trapped in a boy’s body.  In a normal world Pat’s claim would not be that big of deal, but in California his claim lands him a spot on his High School’s girls’ softball team. 

Under California’s newly enacted law Assembly Bill 1266 students will have access to facilities, sports teams and programs that are consistent with their gender identity, not necessarily their biological composition. 

So that’s it then; all a person has to do to have access to opposite gender facilities and teams is claim they are a girl or a boy.  Do you believe now that we are in a different world?  Are we not, in fact in a Bizzaro world here?  And the absolutely maddening part is that people in the media don’t even bat an eye.  In fact in few news stories I have read refer to Pat as ‘she’!!!

Take a more recent story of a family who was given an award because their daughter wanted to be a boy and the parents not only complied with their daughter’s instance, but e-mailed their friends to tell them the good news.  Insanity!  First, that the parents would cave into their child’s demand and second because there is an award for such things (of course the award is in honor of Harvey Milk so what do you expect?).

 

The parents claim that a large percentage of children with ‘gender identity’ issues end up committing suicide.  Which if you ask L. Kyle, it sounds like LGBT community bullied the parents into this.  The LGBT community wants us all to think that ‘transgender’ is a real thing rather than just an excuse for people to behave in whatever manner makes them feel good.

The champions of the gender identity issues have not stopped to think about the ramifications of these decisions.  All they see is perceived equality for sexually deviant behavior.  When I was growing up the big push was not to have sex before you were married, but it was always implied that boys would be married to girls.  Now days it’s not a question of having sex before you are married (that’s a given), but what gender you want to have sex with and even more, what gender do you want to be! 

The maddening part of all this is that people in our nation are just nodding their heads and going along with this garbage.  What was the school board discussion about Pat’s request like?  Did anyone stand up and say “No amount of make-up or frilly clothes will change this boy’s DNA?”  And that’s really the point; a person can lop off parts of their bodies and take hormone pills, but it will not change the fact that women have two X chromosomes and men have one X and one Y.

But we’ve gone nutty with perceived gender identity issues. TIME magazine this month has transgender issues as their front page cover.  People are getting awards for dressing their girl up as a boy.  And the speed at which these issues are being brought to the forefront of society is astonishing.  It’s almost as if there is an agenda beneath all of these actions. 

Oh wait, there is an agenda.  And this agenda is being built on the backs of young people like Ryland and Pat who are confused about life.  And this agenda is more sinister than it appears.  Simply put, this agenda is pure evil.  This agenda will stop at nothing short of stripping every last piece of morality from American culture. 

Oh, L. Kyle, you’re such a right wing loon!

That may be, but look where we have come from.  It wasn’t too long ago that sex was regarded as something only for marriage between a man and a woman.  I’m not naïve, sex outside of marriage has been around in America forever, but at the very least it wasn’t celebrated and at best it was discouraged.  Now days even the staunchest conservatives and many Christians see pre-marital sex as okay.  In fact in a recent poll 61% of Christians say that they would have sex before marriage.

Okay, so change the views about sex outside marriage, check. 

Now that the agenda had won that battle it moved on to homosexuality.  That one has been a little tougher, but through clever use of language and with a little help from science, homosexuality has become more widely accepted.  After all, if science can say that a person’s sexual orientation is part of their DNA then we can equate sexual preference to race, gender and eye color.

Homosexuality widely accepted, check.

The agenda hasn’t stopped there; after all homosexuals can blend into society and the agenda can’t have that.  Ah!  Transgender, that’s the next thing to have accepted.  Now, not only should we accept homosexual activity as normal we need to also accept men dressing and acting as women and women dressing and acting like men.  And we can see that the agenda is gaining ground.  So much so that boys like Pat are being called ‘her and she’ all because they say so.  Watch the first 30 seconds of this clip and tell me that this is not the same thing.  Lunacy!

So what is the next stop for the agenda?  Think about what’s left people!  Once we deviate from the standard of sexual relationships, which is one man, one woman in the bounds of marriage, everything will become acceptable.  How much further will the Godly people allow this to go before we rise up and challenge this agenda?

Sex with animals?  Will that be enough?  What happens when the agenda comes for our kids?  And it will.  Ney, it already has.  The agenda is already teaching our children in elementary school about sex and sexuality.  When our teachers should be teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, they are teaching our kids about sexuality. 

This agenda is winning and it is gaining ground and quickly.  It has already consumed pop culture, it’s taking over our education institutions and worst of all it’s sweeping through our churches. 

Edmund Burke said that all that has to happen for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.  So, good men and women are we going to do nothing and watch our children and this nation be consumed by an evil agenda?  Or are we going to stand up and fight.  That doesn’t mean holding signs that say, “God hates fags”, but it means getting our knees and praying for God’s mighty hand to work in this great nation.  It means evangelizing the lost and disciplining those who are Christians already.  It means setting aside our watered-down Christianity, which is more concerned with our own prosperity, and truly living for Christ, which means accomplishing the Great Commission.

Go therefore and make disciples (Matt 28:19).

Left overs enjoy,

L. Kyle 

The Truth

Here’s what I know to be true.

This world and all that is in it was created by an intelligent being.  There is no other explanation about how we came to be here.  Evolutionary theory is incorrect because there is less proof to support this theory than there is proof to support the existence of a Creator.  How do I know this?  Ask any evolutionary biologist where we came from and they cannot, nay, will not, give you a definitive answer.  Even the mighty Richard Dawkins when asked “where did we come from?” he simply said “I don’t know.”  Well, if Mr. Dawkins and the rest of them are unwilling to give a definitive answer then I am unwilling to believe them.

If I was created by an intelligent being then that being must be sought out.  There is no other choice.  The One who gave me life must be found so that I can bring Him worship.  If I was created then I cannot worship myself because the creation cannot worship itself.  So who created me? Certainly the One who created me would be divine, no He would be Holy, because if He was not Holy then He would be like me and I cannot worship something that is like me. 

 I was meant for worship.   I was given a voice to sing, hands to create, the ability to love; I was not just meant to worship, I was built expressly for it.  That is why celebrities are paid so much money and adorn magazines and billboards.  That’s why the manliest of men will worship NASCAR, or football or hunting or fishing.  They may not call it worship but they give it their time and attention, their thoughts and their actions.  All of those people, all of those things want my worship.

So if I was built for worship then who do I worship?  Do I worship Muhammad?  No, he was just a person like me.  Do I worship Buddha?  No, he too was a man just like me.  Zeus? Poseidon? All the Greek and Roman gods?  No, they were not divine, they were fallible just like me.  Joseph Smith?  No, he was just a man.  Mother Nature? No, she was created just like me and the creation cannot worship another part of creation.  So I cannot worship men or religions whose central character is a person.  I cannot worship nature or other created things because they are like me.

Who is worthy of my worship?  The God of the Bible; He is the only one who is Divine and Holy and worthy of my worship.  Because I must worship, I was created for it.  But God in His divinity did not create me to be a robot. He created me to worship Him and love Him.  The only true love is love freely given, which is why God created me with free will.  He wanted so much to love His creation and for His creation to love Him that He was willing to risk the creation not loving Him back.  He gave His creation free will so that His creation would give its love freely.  Without free will there is no true love.

God does not command His creation’s love.  He gave His creation a choice from the beginning.  He told His creation to follow Him to avoid evil and man would live in perfection, as God Himself is perfect.  Man was with God face to face; face to face with the Creator of the universe with no death, no pain, no tears, no war, no hurt, just perfect peace living in fellowship with a perfect God.  This is what He intended for us; this was His plan.  If only we would have followed His plan we would still be there.  But, alas, we choose poorly.  We gave up perfection for the knowledge of evil.  We gave up heaven for the chance to taste the forbidden.  We choose poorly.

We were banished from perfection.  We were no longer perfect so we could no longer dwell with perfection, just like the darkness cannot dwell with the light.  God is Holy and we are not, so our fellowship with God was broken.  With the knowledge of evil we gained the full understanding of all that is opposite a Holy God.  Not only did we gain knowledge of evil, but we now experience the full weight of evil.  God was perfect in His promise.  He promised that by obtaining knowledge of evil, we would certainly die. So we took on corruptible flesh; flesh that gets sick and diseased.  Flesh that puts its own lusts ahead of anything else. 

God loves His creation despite our poor choice.  His plan was for us to commune with Him for eternity because He is eternal.  He is, He was and He will always be.  His plan is still for us to be with Him for eternity, but we could not be with Him because He is Holy and we are not.   

He made a way.  He is perfect and in His perfection He made a way for us, His creation, to be with Him once again.  Our poor choice, our sin, caused death and the only way for us to know the cost of our choice would be the shedding of innocent blood.  Innocent blood covers our sin.  So God set aside a people who would know Him by His nature.  They would understand their sin through His written law.  They would receive atonement for their sin through the shedding of innocent blood.  They would forever know that their sin was covered because an innocent animal would be sacrificed and their blood spilled so that man could commune with a Holy God.

Shedding of animal blood was only a shadow of what was to come.  In order for us to truly be with God again a perfect Man would have to shed His blood so the sin would once and for all be forgiven.  But who?  Once the well of human life had been poisoned it will forever be poisoned and no man is perfect.  So God in His infinite Mercy stepped from eternity into time, from His perfection and put on corruptible flesh. 

Jesus.

He was able to do what no other man could do.  Jesus, the God Man, the embodiment of perfection in human form lived as God intended.  He was perfect in word and deed.  He had to be.  In order to fulfill the law, to live as God intended us to live, Jesus had to be perfect.  And in His perfection He would right the wrong done by man.  He would bring us back into fellowship with Father God.  He demonstrated God’s perfect love of humanity.  Jesus demonstrated that above all God wants communion with His creation.  God wants communion and fellowship with us so much that He sent His only Son to walk among us and lay down His life for us.

Jesus gave his life freely.  No one took His life.  He was not surprised that the religious leaders wanted Him dead.  He was not ambushed.  He was not bamboozled, duped or tricked.  He gave His life freely.  He was beaten, bruised, nailed hands and feet to a Tree for His creation. For me.  The weight of all the sin committed against a perfect God was placed on the Son of God while He hung there.  Every sin every person has ever committed and will commit.  Murderers, rapists, tyrants, liars, thieves, fornicators, drunkards, gossipers; every person born and every sin committed, piled up Jesus’ shoulders.  The sin of the world was as much placed on Jesus as Him taking it on Himself.  His innocent blood made right all of the wrongs done to God. 

That is God; that is love.  God loves us so much. He wanted us to be where He is that He devised a plan to make us perfect once again.  He stepped down to us, did what we could not do.  He does not demand anything of us.  He has given us a gift.  He placed our salvation from this dying world within our grasp.  All we have to do is reach out and take it. Claim the gift as our own.  Accept the gift which God has given us through Jesus’ sacrifice.  Take it and we will be with Him in eternity at the end of this life.  Leave it and we will be forever separated from God.  God loves us so much that even after His Son’s sacrifice He offers free will. 

The choice is ours, we must claim this gift of salvation.  We must admit that we are hopelessly lost, condemned to die because we were born into sin, because we know evil and we have embraced evil. That makes us unclean; we are no longer Holy and perfect as God is perfect.  Only by accepting Christ’s sacrifice can we enter into God’s perfection at the end of this life.  We were meant to live with God eternally.  We are eternal beings, only this shell is dying, but the spirit inside this shell will last forever.  Christ died so that our spirits would live eternal with God in Perfection as God intended.

I have claimed that gift.  I accept what Jesus did for me. I had to.  I had to know the God who created me and in order for me to know that, I had to accept who I was.  I was a sinner.  I am a sinner.  Cut off from the God who created me.  I was cut off, until He came and took my place.  I was sentenced to die and Jesus took my place.  I owe Him my life. 

What can I do then?  Return to the prison from once I came?  Certainly not!  I must live a life which honors the life given in my place.  I must find out how Jesus lived, the things He spoke the deeds He did.  I must find them out and live my life according to His example.  Not because I must earn my way (that is already paid), but because of Love.  God’s love for me put His Son on that tree and so my love and my life is the only acceptable way to honor Him.  I will do what I was created to do.  I will worship the God who created me.  I will worship with my words and my deeds. 

And I will show all those around me that God wants to commune with them just as much as with me.  I must tell others about the gift.  That is what I am supposed to do.  I am supposed to wake the dead. I am not to condemn the dead.  Who am I to condemn the dead?  Was it I who created this world? Was it I who was perfect from the beginning?  No.  I was dead in my sin like everyone else.  Until I accepted the free gift, until I claimed Jesus’ death as my own death. 

Now I am alive, no longer dead in sin.  And because I am alive I must show those who are dead that they too can be alive.  God has shown me His compassion and therefore I must have compassion for those around me.  I was dead too.  My sin was no worse or better than theirs.  Who am I to judge their sin?  I cannot judge the sin of the dead?  I am only alive because of Jesus’ sacrifice.  But I cannot be silent.  I cannot sit by and let the dead perish without telling them about life.  I have to show them there is life, because what God gave me, He gives to all of His creation.

I know these things to be true.  God created me.  I was created to worship God.  I could not worship God because I was dead.  Jesus gave me life.  I will honor Jesus with nothing less than my life.  I will tell others about Jesus. 

Face of Evil

The events of this past week (April 15-20, 2013) have been exhausting and very frustrating.  I feel horrible for the people whose lives were lost in this senseless tragedy.  And I, like most, waited with baited breath to see these two men apprehended.  But watching the news coverage of these types of events is exhausting.  I don’t mean to be shallow, but I lament these events not only for the loss of life, but the also for the incessant news coverage and the tireless speculation. 

The events of this week bring into question the necessity for the 24-hour news.  Just because we have the technology to bring live coverage of a helicopter hovering over a Best Buy doesn’t really mean that we need to show a helicopter hovering over a Best Buy.  Although this was certainly the most visible news story of the week, what else did we miss this past week? 

There are two stories that failed to break into American homes amid the constant news about the Boston Bombings and the trip to Cuba by Jay-Z and Beyonce. 

Story 1: Scientists found life on Mars.  According to the report the Mars Rover identified a cluster of living cells multiplying rapidly.  It is unknown at this point if the living cells are human, animal or plant life.  Needless to say NASA and other agencies are scrambling a team of people who can make the journey to Mars to protect this life and study it.

Story 2: Police found the remains of what appeared to be thousands of human babies at a farm in rural Pennsylvania.  The suspects are still at large, but Federal Investigators are calling this a place where religious group sacrificed children to an unknown god.  The group and its leader have not been identified, but investigators have a few leads.

Wow!  Those stories didn’t make the cut, presumably because of the Boston Bombings and the whereabouts of Jay-Z.  Incredible really, life on Mars and some wackos sacrificing live babies!  How can this be?  Well I will tell you how it can be.  It didn’t get reported because I made up those stories; those stories are not real.  But do you know what story is real which has not yet made national headlines?  The story of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist and what is being deemed by the few media outlets that did pick up the story, as a “house of horrors.”

Face of Evil - Kermit Gosnell

The testimony, which is coming out in the trial, is that Mr. Gonsnel (I refuse to call him a doctor) performed late term abortions, nay, murder, by snipping the spinal cord of babies born, not “fetuses” in utero, but babies alive an on the table.  He is charged with 7 counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder of an adult patient. 

One of the clinic staff testified that a baby was still alive after a botched abortion and put into a toilet where she said it was swimming in the toilet trying to get out. Another clinic staff member grabbed the baby and snipped its spinal cord to kill it.    The prosecution also showed that the drain pipes were so clogged with discarded babies that the clinic had to remove the toilet to unclog the drain! 

So why haven’t news agencies covered this trial in more detail?  I’m mean, remember how much attention the chick from Florida received after being accused of murdering her daughter and burying her not far from her house?  This man is accused of murdering seven babies, one adult and the only thing we get are one and two minute segments from the big news networks.  The Boston Bombings killed 2 adults and one child and wounded more than 180 people.  Sad. Tragic. But this jack wagon murders hundreds of children and nothing?! 

Some news agencies claim that the details are far too horrific to cover.  Hogwash!  The news media showed hours of bombing footage and bloody people being treated by emergency workers.  They refuse to cover this trial because it’s about abortion, plain and simple.  It makes a woman’s right to choose convenience look like what it really is…murder.

The frustrating part is that if scientists did find a cluster of cells on Mars they would move heaven and hell to get there to save it, to study it, to protect it.  We would have CNN covering it painstaking detail.  Wolf Blizer would probably be flown to Mars himself to give us the play by play.

Could you imagine if there was a religious cult out there sacrificing children?  Wall-to-wall news coverage.  Wes Craven would turn it a feature film and Lifetime would turn it into a made-for-TV movie or even a mini series.  There would be public outcry and the Department of Justice would not rest until the cult was taken out and the leaders prosecuted to the fullest extent. 

But you see, this is happening.  Science has found a cluster of cells that are alive and go from a mass of living cells to become a full-grown human.  Only the cells are not on Mars, but in a woman’s womb.  And there is religious cult out there sacrificing babies by the millions all in the name of their god…themselves. 

Those people who choose not to follow an established religion can be categorized as Humanists.  Humanism is just a fancy term for saying “if it feels good, do it.”  And for some, abortion feels good.  Well, maybe not the procedure, but the sex that led to it, or the drug use, which led to the sex feels good.  Imagine a world where you can have as much sex as you want, with whomever you want without the pesky consequences of having a child.  Welcome to world brought to you by Planned Parenthood.

It is unfortunate that many of us have grown up hearing only about the risks and dangers of expressing ourselves sexually. While those risks are real, it is also true that having sex play — with or without a partner — can be a positive and powerful force in our lives. It helps us create connections to other people and it helps us enjoy our world.

- Planned Parenthood

Leftovers enjoy,

L. Kyle

Happy Holidays...

…is what terrorists say. Christmas has been cancelled this year and instead we will be celebrating December 25th.  So Happy December 25th everyone!

I use to cherish the Christmas season; it was truly my favorite time of year.  Besides celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, it seems that it’s one of the only times during the year where most people are friendly and kind and where charity seems to be the rule of the day.  Now, however , I find myself irritated at the retailers who push purchasing gifts for that non-descript winter holiday which falls on December 25.  What’s more, any mention of Christmas has been removed from our government square.  Want proof?  Go to the Smithsonian website and check their hours of operations.  They are open “every day except for December 25”, I kid you not, right there in broad daylight on their website.

My fist question is why December 25?  I can almost hear their answer:

 “Well Sir, that’s Christmas.”

“Then why don’t you say, closed on Christmas Day?”

“Well Sir, that might offend someone”

“Then don’t close on Christmas”

“We don’t close on Christmas, we close on December 25.”

Okay, so here’s the breakdown of religious affiliation in the U.S. of A. according to the CIA World Factbook: Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%.  So according to my underachieving high school education, more than 75% of Americans would claim to be affiliated with Christianity in some form or another.  Endo facto the overwhelming majority of Americans—one would think—support the celebration of Christmas rather than the celebration of December 25th.

Yet we continue as a nation to kowtow to the small minority of people who may or may not be offended that as a nation we celebrate Christmas.  Isn’t it true that we live in a democracy where the majority rules?  Yet the minority has hi-jacked Christmas and now my work is having a Holiday Party in the off chance that a Christmas party might offend someone.  If we followed this line of thinking out, shouldn’t have Romney won the election?  Shouldn’t the majority of voters be afraid of offending the minority of voters and concede? Ben Stein, famed presidential speechwriter, author, actor, game show host and economist wrote in 2005:

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was  Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I would venture to say that it is a small percentage of people who are offended by Christmas.  But, they are the ones who are antagonistic about this whole thing and yet we buckle under their attack.   How can this happen, how can the majority of Americans concede that December 25 should be celebrated, but not Christmas?  How can we concede and say “Happy Holidays” when have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year covers the bases.  What’s the worst thing that could happen?

“I don’t celebrate Christmas L. Kyle.”

“Oh…okay, well have a Happy New Year.”

Do people really go home in a huff, kick their dogs and tell their wives “Well honey it happened four times today! Merry Christmas!  Where do they think they live? This is America, I’m calling the ACLU!”

Upon further investigation there appears to be other forces at work trying to steal Christmas.  For the sake of argument we will call this force “The Grinch” as people generally have an easier time believing in green men living caves above Whoville than they do believing in spiritual forces (either heavenly or demonic). 

The Grinch has devised a two-prong approach to steal Christmas from us.  The first prong is to attack the very day itself.  The Grinch has gotten people’s focus off of the true meaning of Christmas, which is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Instead we are caught up in gift-giving and eating lavish meals to the point we forget that while the wise men brought Jesus gifts, they did so to worship Him.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy both the giving and receiving of gifts on Christmas morning.  But as a nation our focus is too much on the retail aspect of Christmas.  For Pete’s sake retailers are now open Thanksgiving Day rather than the day after Thanksgiving!

The Grinch has not only succeeded in getting non-Christian’s attention focused on gifts, but they majority of Christians put their attention toward decorating, baking, shopping and parties rather than celebrating their Savior’s birth.  It’s been an effective strategy for the Grinch.  Get people distracted with ancillary items so much they no longer have the strength to fight for Christmas.  If people are so busy shopping, and decorating  and cooking they won't notice that any mention of Christmas at Target has been substituted for “Holidays.”  Distracted people won’t notice that in a predominately Christian society one of their marquee holidays has been removed and replaced with some non-descript winter holiday celebrated on December 25th.

The Grinch’s success rate with this first prong is pretty dang high.  Sure there are a few hold-outs, some boycotts, but really at the end of the day the attack is too widespread, the Christmas supporters are too weak to fight (well with all that midnight shopping and what not).  The destroying of Christmas, however, is really just the by-product of the Grinch’s overall plan of eradicating Christianity as a whole from the public sphere in America. 

Oh come on L. Kyle, why would anyone want to take Christianity away in America?

Because Christianity my dear, is the only religion which claims to be the Truth and the Truth is a threat.  The truth threatens our very selfish way of life; it threatens our in-born desire to do what we want to do.  Christians get called prudes all the time because we seem to put a damper on people’s sinful behavior.  How many times, as kids were we willing to do something bad as long as our parents weren’t around?  That is what Christians are in the rest of the world’s eyes; we are the parent in the room disapproving of bad behavior.

Of course, adults are just grown up kids.  The responsibility level may change, but like kids, adults want to rebel against the moral good.  And that is where the Grinch is succeeding right now.  He’s lied to us.  He has said that temporary pleasure has no ill consequences.  And as a society we have bought into this lie and are rebelling against what we know (or should know) to be harmful all in the name of self-gratification, greed, lust and gluttony. 

So the Grinch’s plan is simple. Eliminate Christianity from America and do so, in part, by stealing Christmas and replacing it with a non-descript winter holiday celebrated on December 25th. 

So don’t be a terrorist, say Merry Christmas this year.  Keep the true Spirit of this Holy Day alive by telling people the real reason why we celebrate Christmas…Jesus Christ.

Leftovers, enjoy

L. Kyle 

Dearly beloved …

… we are gathered here today to witness the decay of the American society. 

Really L. Kyle?  Why are you always so negative? 

Hey I call ‘em like I see ‘em (unlike the replacement refs in the NFL this year).  I had the opportunity to witness a marriage ceremony recently which prompted my negative brooding; not because the wedding was bad, because it really was a nice wedding and not because marriage is bad, because marriage is a noble institution.  No, what prompted my negative brooding about marriage is the lack of commitment with which people enter into marriage, which is directly linked to the demise of the American family, which is linked to the decline of the great nation.

Demise of the family L. Kyle? There’s no such thing.

Sure there is. Some people don’t see it because they have been duped into believing that family is intact, just in a different form.  So just to be sure that we are all on the same page here, for the purposes of this blog post, family will be defined as the traditional nuclear family (dad, mom, and children). 

The pastor performing the ceremony stated a couple of times that the couple was entering into a covenant with each other.  The word covenant means roughly the same thing as a contract, but has more religious connotations (or is at least more religious sounding).  Marriage takes commitment, it takes work; it takes perseverance.  Families are, or at least should be, born out of this noble institution and the family is the basic building block of our society.

When constructing a building the most important aspect of the building is its foundation.  Without a sure foundation the building is susceptible to the elements, to shifting ground and will eventually topple over.  As an example, did you know the foundation which supports the Empire State Building is 55 feet deep.  The bigger the building, the deeper and more rigid the foundation needs to be to support its weight. 

A nation is a collection of people and the basic unit of a nation, the foundation, is the family.  The purpose of the family is to reproduce citizens.  The future of any nation is dependent on the quality of future citizens.  If the quality of citizens is poor then the quality of the foundation which supports a nation becomes compromised.  Much like a building with a compromised foundation will eventually collapse, nations with compromised foundations will collapse.

America, despite its immense resources, is in danger of collapse because we are no longer producing quality citizens.  Do not mistake a person’s worth for their quality of citizenship.  All human life should be valued from the baby in the womb to the elderly.  There are unfortunately some people who are lousy citizens, which is to say that they are not contributing to the greater goals of society. They are in essence not putting back what they are taking from the rest of society.

That is where family is so important and why the collapse of the family spells the end of this nation.  My job as a parent is to make sure that when my children leave my home I have equipped them with the proper tools to get and hold a job, pay taxes, have a family and ultimately make other productive citizens. 

Recently presidential candidate Mitt Romney made the comment that 47% of Americans are on some form of government assistance.  He has been skewered for his comment, but according to a February 2012 article on CNN.Money it is true that nearly half of America is on some sort of government assistance, the bulk of that is Medicaid.  That means that nearly half of this nation is not self-sustaining, and if they are not self-sustaining they are not really producing and contributing to the nation. 

If it is the family’s job to produce productive, aka self-sustaining citizens, then the family is failing at is job if nearly half of America is not self-sufficient.  The family is failing at its job because the idea of family has failed in this country.  Ward and June Cleaver look draconian in our modern world.  The idea of dad, mom and children has been attacked and discredited to the point that the Leave it to Beaver world is now the punch line in joke. 

The idea of the nuclear family has been replaced with ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s The New Normal.  Both shows celebrate different forms of family. Both of these programs celebrate the fact that a family can raise children despite not being the traditional nuclear family. This notion in Hollywood is not new. Some might remember with the television character Murphy Brown became pregnant and raised her child by herself.  Very controversial for the times.  Can single mothers produce productive members of society?  Absolutely!

However, I could write pages and present research to back up my position that the breakdown of the family has negative effects on children.  I could show you the data that children from broken homes, blended families and single parent homes are at a greater risk of becoming juvenile delinquents, drug addicts, and teen parents (if you want the research leave a comment I will get it for you). But at the end of the day most people cannot deny that a stable family with a father and mother living in the same house produces more well-adjusted children than other family situations.

So if it is undeniable that stable families produce more productive citizens why are we not fighting  to defend the nuclear family structure?  Quite simply it is because our society’s acceptance of casual sexual relationships.  We no longer hold, or maybe we never did, the virtue of chastity or respect the fact that the sexual relationship was, nay is, intended for marriage. We celebrate on television, in the movies and in music the idea of casual sex, sex merely for pleasure and sex for self satisfaction only. Recent studies have shown that 90% of Americans have engaged in premarital sex. 

So what L. Kyle, everyone’s doing it and besides what people do in private is their business not yours!

But I ask what is wrong with sex only inside a marriage relationship?  If two people wait to get married to have sex, stay married “until death do us part”, what then is the ramification?  No adultery, no sexually transmitted diseases, fewer unintended pregnancies.  Gosh you’re right that does sound terrible. 

In the book of Hosea God warns His prophet about what will befall the nation of Israel “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7a).  This means that what they have sown they will reap in abundance.  The apostle Paul expounded on this principle and wrote in the book of Galatians “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7).

You do not have to be a Christian or believe in God to understand the principle that if you plant an apple tree you will reap apples.  What works in nature also works in society.  If we sow the seeds of casual sexual relationships we will reap in abundance the product of those seeds.  The produce of casual sex is not just disease, unwanted babies and broken hearts.  A line can be drawn directly from our acceptance of casual sex to decayed families and a line can be drawn from decayed families to eventual downfall of this great nation. 

Yes I am being so bold as to say that the acceptance of casual sex will be directly linked to the downfall of America. God did not command us not to commit adultery simply because He is a killjoy.  God created the sexual relationship and we have innate sexual desires and appetites, but God gave us boundaries in which to fulfill those desires.  And those boundaries are there for a reason, our protection.  Without boundaries we are like kids in the Willy Wonka factory without any supervision.  We are bound to get into trouble. 

Maybe some don’t know, but children are a byproduct of sex.  It appears that there are a whole slew of people this nation that either missed that day in biology class or weren’t paying attention.  Maybe we could have Bill Nye explain it to them.  Sex is directly related to pregnancy.  Sure there are other ways of getting pregnant, but sex is still the number one cause.  That is why God intended to have sex inside the marriage relationship only. Because if a man and women happened to get pregnant during sexual intercourse then there is already a family unit in place to raise the child.  And when the family is intact raising a child they become more productive members of society, better quality citizens.   Better quality of citizens is tied to a better nation.

But we’re so smart aren’t we.  We think “God, you have no idea what you’re doing, we should be free to have sex all the time with whomever we want. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Well, I guess we will get to find out.

Leftovers, enjoy

L. Kyle

The Showdown

Recently famed scientific prognosticator, William Nye, aka Bill Nye “The Science Guy”, spoke out about the foolishness in denying evolutionary theory.  Some may remember Mr. Nye and his science show geared toward children, which ran from 1993 to 1998 on Disney and PBS.  The crux of Mr. Nye’s comments is that adults can choose to not believe in evolution, but should not dissuade their children from believing in evolution because “we need them to believe in science.”  To be fair to Mr. Nye, he has defended his comments on CBS This Morning and said he was not attacking religion but said that we cannot abandon provable science. 

Provable science?  Let us come back to that comment in a minute. 

Another famed scientist, Richard Dawkins, has also made the news when he did an interview in a certain “gentlemen’s” magazine (as reported by the Blaze.com).  Dawkins, not to be confused with Richard Dawson of hit game show “Family Feud”, has been an opponent of religion on creationism for many years, perhaps most his most notable work was his book “The God Delusion (2006).”  Unlike Nye, however, Dawkins is not ashamed to outright bash on people’s religious beliefs.

I am certainly no Rhodes Scholar and probably couldn’t hold my own with these two science giants in an intellectual grudge match, but I thought it would be interesting to try.

The Champions 

Richard Dawkins – famed evolutionary biologist, author and evolutionary pundit
Stats
-        PhD from Balliol College in Oxford, England, in Zoology.
-        Published 12 books, and dozens of published articles and academic papers the world over.
-        Hates God and religion as a whole
-        Born in England
 William Nye – famed television actor and science educator
Stats:
-        Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University in Mechanical Engineering
-        Educated young children from 1993-1998 on his own PBS show
-        Has several movie and television show credits including being “Speedwalker” a speed walking superhero
-        Has a full head of really nice hair 

The Challenger 

L Kyle – amateur blogger and winner of two of my last three Words with Friends games
Stats:
-        Public school education and PhD in common sense
-        Nine published blogs
-        Fired from a job by Willie Aames-        Former community college adjunct faculty member (not trying to toot my own horn folks, just stating the facts)

Okay, turns out that Mr. Ney and PhD Dawkins were not immediately available for the challenge so I guess I will have to just use their published and or spoken words for their side of this intellectual showdown. 

Round 1 – Evolution is Scientific Fact

PhD Dawkins – “We are highly evolved apes.” 

Mr. Nye – “If you are an adult and don’t want to believe in evolution and live in your…your world that is completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, just don’t make your kids do it because we need them to be science literate.”

Rebuttal: These to chaps want us to believe evolution is science fact and not just a theory.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Evolution is merely a theory; nothing has been proven to be fact.  Gravity is fact.  Newton’s three laws of motion are scientific fact.  Evolution is not.  Science is defined as “the state of knowing” by Merriam Webster’s.  It is also defined as: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method. 

So using that definition let’s see what else Mr. Nye and PhD Dawkins have to say.

In an episode of “Bill Nye the Science Guy” on evolution Mr. Nye is trying to explain to children where evolution started and he says “As near as we can figure.”  That doesn’t sound like knowing to me.  That sounds like figuring. 

In an interview PhD Dawkins was asked how did the evolutionary process began. His response was “Well nobody knows how is began.” 

Yet both men would have us believe that evolution is science fact, not just a theory.  But at the same time they cannot say for certain how evolution began nor can they replicate the process.  And in scientific terms if something cannot be observed and repeated then it is nothing more than a theory or hypothesis.  It is not proven as Mr. Nye stated it was.  Evolution is just a hypothesis taught as fact.

Round 2 – Belief in evolution is necessary to accept the rest of science

Mr. Nye – “Your world becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution .”

Rebuttal – It’s funny that William uses the word believe when talking about evolution.   The word believe means to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.  No one has to believe in gravity because gravity happens to us, even if you don’t understand how it happens; you understand that it is there.  But evolutionary science is very much a belief system.  Which is why William Nye and PhD Dawkins cannot wrap their heads around the fact that people don’t believe.  They are so sold out to their belief that they cannot comprehend anything else.  Much like the Christian doesn’t understand how when presented with the facts of their religion that other people don’t believe as they do.

Fortunately for the evolutionary scientist they have the full weight of the scientific community which is to say they have virtually unlimited resources.  This translates into unfettered access to our education system.  Once the scientific community and certain groups were successful in removing Christianity from our education system it has allowed any mention of creation or a Creator to also be removed.  Mr. Nye and PhD Dawkins want you to buy into their belief system rather than a religious belief system, but both require faith.

Round 3 – Science and Religious belief are not compatible

Mr. Nye – ““If you are an adult and don’t want to believe in evolution and live in your…your world that is completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, just don’t make your kids do it because we need them to be science literate.”

PhD Dawkins – “It’s not that I shun [religious people]. It’s that the circles I move in tend to be educated, intelligent circles, and there aren’t any religious people among them that I know of.” Emphasis mine

Rebuttal – So pretty much PhD Dawkins and the Science Guy think that religious people are stupid or at least ignorant.  Nye rebuke’s parents for teaching their children that evolution is false.  He believes that children who believe in Creation will not be productive members of society.  That their mere unbelief in evolution will hamper their ability to be literate in scientific matters.  I wonder what these two gentlemen think about the hundreds of scientists who belong to the American Scientific Affiliation,  or the Christians in Science, societies for those who are both Christians and scientists  Most of the people are far more qualified on scientific matters than Mr. Nye, minus of course the acting credentials. 

Further more belief in God does not mean that one cannot find science extraordinary or the findings of science study fascinating.  One can believe in God and still look at the stars and still be amazed by their beauty.  Belief in God just means that there is a different starting point when thinking about creation. 

That is really the rub between science and Christianity and the reason why Bill Nye and Richard Dawkins want so desperately bad to have evolution be the right answer.  If we are just a cosmic accident, a happenstance, a convergence of chemicals then what is our purpose?  Who are we accountable to?  Their answer is no one.  In the end they don’t want there to be a God, not because God and science don’t mix, but because they don’t want to answer to someone higher than themselves. 

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle

 

You Say Tomato...

The English language is a strange language and I’ve been told one of the toughest to learn as a second language (I'm barely learning it as a first language!).  It is true that we have some strange words and at times hard to understand rules.  We have to, too, two or even hair and hare, or mouse and mice, but not moose and… You get the point. 

One thing Americans are great at doing creating slang words.  Not being a world-traveler myself I’m not sure to what extent other countries do this, but if creating slang was an Olympic event (instead of say synchronized trampoline jumping), we would take the gold.  Think of all the ways to describe something good.  You could call it cool, rad, radical, awesome, neat-o, sweet, dope, off the hook, off the chain, sick, wicked and so on.  You can even call something good, bad (shamon’, shamon…).

Not only do we have slang words, but also depending on where you live or where you were raised different words mean different things.  A shopping cart in the North is called a buggy in the South.  Do you want soda, or a pop, or even just a Coke?  In most places a bra is women’s supportive device, but in Southern California it’s a fellow surfer.  These are only three examples of the differences in American culture and language. 

Despite some differences in our language and some strange usages, language does carry power.  Our words have the power to encourage as well as the power to discourage.  They have the power to lift up and the power to take down.  In the Bible, James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes that no one can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison (James 3:8 NKJV).  In all of James chapter three he writes about the tongue and how deadly language can be.  James knows, as many of do, that words do have power.

Unfortunately there are those in our society who are using the power of words for evil pursuits. If you study Nazi Germany you will see how the Holocaust happened.  Unthinkable really, that so many well-meaning people would sit by while millions of their countrymen were tortured and killed.  Hitler did not start out just gassing Jews; he first had to make them out to be the root of the problem, lesser people in everyone else’s eyes.  He did that with propaganda.  Using words and language.

What Hitler did is not new, it’s been done before by many groups, governments and religious leaders.  We are seeing the power of words right now in this election season.  Every word that a candidate says is scrutinized.  Every gaffe is made into fodder for the evening news.  So words have the power to make or break political careers. 

Two words in particular have garnered much power in our society and are used by some groups to hold other groups hostage.  The two words?  Love and hate. 

Love and hate have divided this country because these two words are morally opposed.  Forget the fact that we have skewed the definitions.  We say “I love my wife” and we also say “I love pizza” or “I hate abortion” and “I hate mushrooms”.  So we use these words flippantly, which aides in the division because we do not have solid definitions for love and hate. 

But the biggest reason why love and hate have divided this country is because we have reversed the definitions of the two words.  Love is no longer looking out for someone’s best interests even if that means disagreeing with them.  Love today is letting people do whatever feels good to them and supporting their decisions even if it hurts them in the end or worse, hurts all of us.

Hate is defined in our society as disagreeing with someone’s position.  Far too often we hear “stop being hateful” or “that person is a hatemonger” or “how’s your hate sandwich taste”.  Hate sandwich really? 

Oh come on L. Kyle, this doesn’t mean anything!

Oh really.  If  someone is going to brand you as hateful just because you don’t agree with the popular thought of the day what are you likely to do?  Not speak you mind for starters, because many see it as not worth the fight it will cause.  Instead people whisper their true opinion or change their public opinion as to not draw attention to themselves.

It’s like that scene from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil’s son tries to speak and Dr. Evil keeps ‘shhhshing’ him.  “I’ve got a whole bag full of shhhsh with your name on it.”  Except instead of a shhshh people start screaming “Hatemonger!” “Hateful bigot!” 

There’s an old adage in journalism that goes “Never get into a fight with the guy that buys ink by the barrel.”  Why? Because they own the media.  And if the media is calling people hatemongers then it won’t be long before the masses start believing that they are hatemongers.  Most Americans are like lemmings in the fact that they will choose a belief system because Oprah tells them to. 

Real love though tells people that they are on thin ice, even it means if it makes that person mad.  Real love is honest even if it is not popular.  Real love is telling a child that the stove is hot and not to touch it even though the child really wants to. 

Some say love is like a river…wait…no, some say love is blind, but in reality love never turns a blind eye to wrongdoing.  God says to really love then you must hate evil. 

The prophet Isaiah said “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isa 5:20).  Woe to us.

Leftovers enjoy.

L. Kyle