by Brian Hobbs | Sep 12, 2013
The latest company to join the bandwagon of those extending employee benefits to same-sex couples just so happens to be the largest and highest profile. Walmart, the world-largest private employer announced in August, that couples “living together in an ongoing, exclusive, committed relationship — similar to marriage — for at least 12 months” now will receive health care benefits if their partner is a full-time employee.
The move, which reportedly came in response to pressure from so-called “gay rights” activists, was lauded as a “historic action.” Indeed it is. While it is unsure how many people this will affect (Walmart has more than 1 million workers, with half reported to be enrolled in its health care plan), the move is significant mostly in what it represents.
While many Christians who have faithfully shopped at Walmart for decades are alarmed at the company’s compliance with the push for “same-sex marriage,” what is going almost unnoticed is that the company is, perhaps inadvertently, undermining marriage in a much more direct way.
Walmart’s benefits for same-sex and married couples are available to those who are merely cohabiting. Therein lies the largest problem. The debate still rages whether homosexual couples can successfully raise children (though we who are approaching the issue from a Biblical standpoint know where it will necessarily lead). The debate is closed, however, on the matter of cohabitation. It is decidedly bad for children.
Children in homes of cohabitation are more likely to be abused, less likely to graduate from high school and are more likely to become sexually active (“Monkey see, monkey do”), as NPR reported as recently as 2011. This comes as little surprise, as cohabitation arrangements are inherently unstable.
According to the Baptist Press, “Walmart previously had offered benefits to domestic partners of employees,” but only in states that required the company to do so by law. In this latest policy move, Walmart has effectively made cohabitation an equal option to marriage.
Many believe Walmart founder Sam Walton would be ashamed to know that his company would do anything to harm children. And rewarding men and women who, to use an old term, “shack up,” with the same benefits of those who do not is tantamount to child mistreatment. Walmart should remember the law of unintended consequences. While the company many have scored some short-term political points and a publicity boost with this move, the long-term implications may likely cause the social fabric to tear apart even more quickly—like a cheaply made shirt.
by Jimmy Kinnaird | Aug 16, 2013
The lead story in the Oklahoma Gazette August 7, 2013 edition is on atheism. It specifically is on atheism’s growth in the Bible Belt. By Bible Belt, Carmen Snyder’s well-written piece referred to Oklahoma. The human interest side of the story lies in the memorable exchange between CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and Moore resident Rebecca Vitsmun. Blitzer asked if she thanked God for sparing her life in the May 20th tornadoes. Vitsmun’s response? “Actually,” she said, “I’m an atheist.”
The article goes on to give the depressing demographic trend for organized religion and for the growing number of those who don’t affiliate with any religion. It’s not a pretty picture for us who follow Christ and seek to show Him to others.
What interests me in this story is not so much the “what” of atheism but the “why.” Why is atheism increasingly finding a home in the Bible Belt? For Vitsmun, being raised a Catholic, I’ll give it to you in her own words: “I decided it was impossible for the god that I believed in to condemn billions of people in Asia, Africa, and across the world to eternal damnation for not knowing who Jesus was.” Her atheism was awakened by her compassion and sense of fairness.
Now, I’m not a Catholic, and I am not aware of all official Catholic teaching, but I don’t think the Catholic Church teaches what she said. I do know, to some extent, what the foundational document of the Christian church teaches.
The Holy Bible doesn’t teach that God condemns people for not knowing who Jesus was. Of course, this doesn’t mean that some, and perhaps even many people, won’t be condemned for something else, but it won’t be for not knowing who Jesus was.
How could she miss this? Jesus Himself said that He didn’t come to destroy people’s lives but to save them. People’s lives were already in ruin.
More condemnation is not the need of the day. Aren’t we to be about the same thing as Jesus? This is actually what the Bible does teach. Again, how could someone go from this to atheism? Someone who was raised Catholic. Of course it could happen to someone raised Baptist, and it has.
Perhaps we are making it too easy to be an atheist these days. Christians are increasingly painted by society as intolerant hate-mongers. What can we do to make it more difficult for our next generations to turn to atheism?
I believe the words of Jesus have at least a sliver of the answer. Jesus said, “May they be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me” (John 17:22-23, HCSB). Jesus said that if we are “one” the world will know that God the Father sent Jesus. It’s a oneness that is found only between true Christians. He even gives the parameters of that oneness, and it is deep, tough, full of grace and complete.
Jesus elsewhere said, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35, HCSB). Perhaps if we work more at love for one another, through the ups and downs, then people, even our own people will believe in the God who sent Jesus.
Perhaps they will even believe that we are His disciples. It would be harder for Rebecca to fall into atheism when people around her are holding up a safety net of love. The kind of love that Jesus wants us to share all around.
by Ashley Haupt | Aug 13, 2013
The cover article for Time Magazine last week showed a cozy couple lounging lazily on the beach with the caption: “When having it all means not having kids.”
My first reaction to this image and message is a brief feeling of envy for the carefree couple–as my three kids swarm around me and my magazine reading moments come swiftly to an end.
Then I was sad.
The article highlights the growing number of people who chose to remain childless. (Please note: this article does not, in any way, speak to couples struggling with infertility. Its scope is limited to those choosing to skip the fertility route altogether.) According to the article, there’s just enough archaic American thinking left in our nation to make these couples or individuals feel alienated and persecuted for their lack of offspring.
Poor them. But perhaps they’ll find consolation in their hefty bank accounts and luxury vacations, eh? Any isolation will surely dissipate as they survey their living rooms full of beautiful, spotless quality furniture unstained by greasy little fingers (she writes as she spots a sticky fragment of lollypop ground into the carpet nearby).
First, let me say that having children does not in any way make anyone instantly more righteous or virtuous. But the assumption that skipping out on child-rearing will result in “having it all” cuts against the heart of the Christian belief: to find our lives, we lay them down in sacrifice for others. The Gospel is the slayer of self-indulgence. If someone chooses to remain unmarried or childless for the sake of kingdom work, Paul would applaud them, and so should we. But the images included in the Time article don’t show couples with their sleeves rolled up in volunteer work, free to serve others unhindered, but rather shows them in luxury surroundings, pursuing their favorite interests and hobbies. This, apparently, is having it all.
In his post, “Are We Ready for Christians Considering Childlessness?” Steve Watters challenges us to be prepared to see this attitude reflected in the church, and to be ready to respond to it.
When I consider the logical conclusions of unbelievers, I totally get the childless life. Stay young, stay beautiful, get wealthy, seek pleasure in sex without consequences. But Watters wants to know if we are ready to respond to believers who have bought into the world’s self-serving message?
I can’t say that I am fully ready. Each situation is unique and fraught with complexity. But maybe it’s not about stocking an arsenal of arguments for child-rearing. The Gospel we preach, teach, and share is a paradigm-shifting, perspective-changing, worldview-turning Gospel. We cannot love Him, trust Him, or study His Word without being changed. When we believe we were created, rather than evolved, we find a new purpose in looking to the design of the Creator in reproduction. We read the words of Christ that “whoever loses his life will find it,” and we consider the implications for our lives.
For the unmarried, the single, and the infertile couple, we must tread carefully; they are being sanctified for glory by their Father apart from the mortar and pestle of parenting. We teach Truth, preach the Word, and trust the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the people of God–Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
The child-free life is a Gospel issue. But the heart-change necessary is Spirit-work, the softening of self-will to the will of God and the sacrificial example of Christ. We might be more effective if we continue in prayer, in service, in the work of the ministry, and let this glorious Gospel take root. The outworking will come.
by Kasey Chapman | Aug 8, 2013
Beneath the political battle in Washington, away from the drone of cable news vitriol and behind the scenes of America’s raging illegal immigration debate is a fact that oftentimes goes unnoticed. In a world in which Facebook statuses, Twitter posts and six-second videos garner more attention than meaningful discussion, it becomes easy to forget what, or rather, who, lies at the center of this entire debate: people.
The “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented workers” in our country are more than props for political grandstanding; more than labels and inappropriate stereotypes; and more than chess pieces in the game of United States politics. They are, in fact, real people – people who, like all of us, just want what is best for their families. We see them at the mall, in the park and during our trips to Wal-Mart. These people are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles.
Yet in the heat of our passionate debates, I fear we oftentimes diminish an entire group of people to easily-digestible terms and politically-sanitized phrases. As believers, we must avoid the all-too-easy trap of reducing individuals to such dehumanized language; instead, we must see them for who they truly are – our neighbors, and people created in the very image of our God.
Jesus’ words two millennia ago still ring true today, as He told those around Him to love their neighbors just as they loved themselves.
Jesus went on to define that word with the parable of the Good Samaritan, ending His story with these words in Luke 10:36-37:
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
How grateful I am that Jesus Himself proved to be the Greatest Neighbor of all, taking mercy to such an extent that He laid down His life for us. And because of our designation as sons and daughters of the King, we as believers are even described as temporary residents and exiles (e.g., 1 Peter 2:11) – aliens who are on our own pathways to citizenship in a Kingdom not of this world.
If there is anyone we should relate to, it should be to those around us who are in a country that is not their own, facing head-on real-life struggles and difficulties. In the end, this is not an issue of politics or philosophy; it’s an issue of humanity.
The end of the illegal immigration fight may not yet be in sight, but parameters of the Christian stance should be clear: Be merciful. Show love. And reach the vast mission field around us.
So as the protest signs go up and the Facebook posts come out, let us be reminded of the words of Jesus who, in Matthew 25, described the final judgment:
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,you did it to me.’ ”
Some may call it a pathway to citizenship; others may say it’s amnesty. But whatever the solution in this debate, may we all call it mercy and remind ourselves that, like legal citizens, illegal immigrants are our neighbors, too.
by Ryan Polk | Jul 24, 2013
It has been an interesting few weeks surrounding the Texas legislature. The Texas House of Representatives passed a sweeping anti-abortion law several weeks ago only to see it fail to move forward because of a highly publicized Senate filibuster and the end of the legislative session. Thankfully, pro-life governor Rick Perry brought the legislature back for a special session that allowed a pro-life bill to once again be given a chance to advance. The pro-life bill has currently passed through the House and its fate once again depends on the Texas Senate.
As would be expected, supporters and opponents of the bill descended to the Texas state capitol in droves expressing their opinions about the issue in a variety of ways. The manner in which these opinions and arguments were made, however, was drastically different. The issue is one that understandably generates intense passion on both sides but how arguments are made and the content of the arguments are telling.
Pro-lifers from around the country came to Texas and protested and rallied in Austin and I am sure that not all that was said and done by pro-lifers was above board. It is interesting, however, to reflect on behavior that is documented. As pro-choice advocates filled the legislature, legislators, on-lookers, and others were greeted with chants of “Hail Satan.” Interesting. The pro-life advocates responded by singing “Amazing Grace.” Later, during a rally to support the bill that was attended by thousands of pro-life supporters including many churches and Christians, bill opponents decided that a useful response chant would be “—- the church.” Telling.
The pro-life argument, while not uniform by any stretch, usually comes together in agreement in that we believe in the dignity of all human life from conception and that all humanity has the right to this life even and especially those who do not have the voice to speak for it. We are absolutely for the freedom to make individual choices but we also believe those choices have consequences and we are to live with the consequences of the choices we make. We would also strongly hold that our freedom of choice is not more important than the freedom of others including the unborn. We believe that abortion unequivocally harms the unborn, but that it is not good for the women who choose this (and especially not for those women in the womb).
Normally, we hear from the pro-abortion side that it is all about women’s rights and a woman’s ability to make decisions regarding her body without the intrusion of government. But recently on a website called Burnt Orange Report (a progressive Texas politics blog) I came across a little more honest assessment of the pro-abortion position. The author of the blog post, Ben Sherman, is adamantly against the House bill and instead argues for what he calls ‘Bro-choice.’ ‘Bro-choice’ is Sherman’s plea for men to be against the bill and by extension staunchly pro-abortion, not for the rights of women, but rather for the inconveniences a pro-life bill would cause to men if the option of abortion was taken off the table. Sherman outlines four primary reasons he believes the bill is a bad one including that it would cause a dangerous black market abortion industry, men would lose their freedom to make sexual decisions, and individuals would lose the freedom to determine when they choose to have kids. These three arguments are foolish enough in their own right but it is Sherman’s fourth reason that is unbelievable to sensible people. He writes,
“Your sex life is at stake. Can you think of anything that kills the vibe faster than a woman fearing a back-alley abortion? Making abortion essentially inaccessible in Texas will add an anxiety to sex that will drastically undercut its joys. And don’t be surprised if casual sex outside of relationships becomes far more difficult to come by.”
Classy, but refreshingly honest. Sherman expresses much of the heart of the pro-abortion argument: self-interest. It is the desire to live free lives without consequence or inconvenience.
As believers there are a couple of things to learn from this. First, it is so clear by their chants and the attitudes demonstrated that this is an intensely spiritual battle. This is bigger than pro-life and pro-abortion. Secondly, we need to be thankful for the step that has been taken in Texas. This is a good law. No abortions after 20 weeks and holding abortion clinics to surgical standards.
We should be praying that bills like this would be passed in every state…but we should be ready for classy chants and selfish arguments from the open-minded pro-aborts.
by Ryan Polk | Jul 20, 2013
No one wants to be left out. Everyone likes a winner and everyone loves to be a winner. To be on the right side of a massive culture shift is very enticing even to those who should be leery of these cultural phenomenon’s. This is exactly what we are seeing to take place before our very eyes. The past two months have not been especially encouraging to evangelical conservatives standing on the truth of the scripture in regards to the marriage issue. The first major assault began with the Boy Scouts and their decision that seems to not only allow homosexual members but will assuredly open the door for homosexual leaders in the near future. The Supreme Court, led by justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion, struck down key components of DOMA and opened the door of precedent for not only gay marriage but possible serious repercussion for those who oppose this definition of what marriage actually is. As the dominoes continued to fall, Exodus International, a leading ministry offering healing and change from homosexual practice and lifestyle suddenly closed their doors with a shocking announcement and apology for all the damage they had caused over the past 30 years. What was the damage? Appealing to the Gospel as a change agent for all sin including homosexuality.
Unfortunately, this seems to be more and more of a common practice. Popular culture’s capitulation on this issue was a given. Following that, it was not difficult to predict that our politicians and government leaders would follow suit. The court has now weighed in and the line in the sand has been drawn. The only question that remains is what will the church do? Here are some ideas of what we can do…
- Remember, the light shines brightest in darkness. As the culture gets darker, the more faithful we live the more we will stand out.
- Hateful and fearful language does not represent Christ well. We do not hate homosexuals and we are not afraid of them. We are to love them and seek to minister to them with the power of the Gospel.
- Capitulation (lowering the biblical standard) does not solve anything. Living a life that truly loves people, even those we disagree with, will have more influence that walking away from our convictions and God’s Word.
- God is sovereign and powerful and is not on the run from the Boy Scouts, the Supreme Court, or Exodus International. We shouldn’t be either.
- We are all missionaries. All of us. This means taking the Gospel to difficult and dark places is normal and expected.
- The Gospel is the road to freedom in Christ. Capitulation is the road that allows people back to the bondage that sin always employs.
What will the church do?