If you have followed the Miss California vs. Perez Hilton saga, you probably won’t be surprised to know how frustrated I am with all of it. I could go on and on about the things I think need said, but Dennis Prager hits the nail on the head many times over in this debate on Larry King Live:
Whose argument to you find most compelling?
Today, public school children all over the nation will take time to celebrate Earth Day. They will plant seeds in potting soil in the hopes that their budding tree will grow big and strong and, one day, replace the ones cut down by money-hungry corporations. They will create “artwork” using items that would normally be discarded and sitting in a landfill somewhere. They will sit in school-wide assemblies and have adults warn them of all the things that we should be doing to in order to prevent an impending environmental crisis. They will hear of hybrid cars, carbon footprints, and climate change. They will learn that it is our moral imperative to reduce, reuse, recycle.
And on this day when teachers work to instill in them a deep respect for Mother Earth, many students will continue to show disregard for their fellow human beings.
They will take the styrofoam lunch tray from the cafeteria workers and think about how best to discard it for the good of nature, but — just like every other day — they will neglect to utter even a word of gratitude to the person who got up early this morning to begin preparing the lunch they are about to eat. They will brainstorm creative ways to reuse their plastic grocery bags, but they will still be deeply reluctant to be kind and give one of their pencils to a kid who forgot to bring his. They will wonder with disappointment why their family doesn’t drive a hybrid car, but they won’t give a second thought to the fact that Dad just worked a 10-hour shift and still made time to drive them to soccer practice in that evil, gas-guzzling Chevy Cavalier.
I am a public school teacher, and my class will be taking part in some of today’s Earth Day activities. And even though I want my students to appreciate the environment, I want them to appreciate their parents even more. While I want them to look for ways to reuse resources, I much prefer that they look for ways to show kindness. I want them to step over that piece of garbage on the floor to go help out a classmate pick up the books she just dropped all over the hallway. Instead of using their words to express outrage over environmental pollution, I wish I saw more students express outrage over the polluted language used in the hallways between classes.
For me, celebrating nature and preserving the environment is nowhere near as important as teaching kids to live lives of goodness. We celebrate Earth Day, but we don’t have a day set aside to celebrate kindness, generosity, or gratitude.
And I think that’s a travesty.
When exactly the mainstream television news outlets lose their minds?
As I think back on my childhood, I very vividly remember school days that began with a generous bowl of Lucky Charms and the calming sounds of Joan Lunden and Charlie Gibson on Good Morning America echoing through the house. Breakfast would vary on occasion — some days we’d eat bacon and eggs and on other days my mom made waffles — but the television was always tuned to Good Morning America. It was the American way.
Now I get the sickening feeling that the very show I watched every day as a kid has become nothing more than an pseudo-intellectualized version of the Jerry Springer Show. Take a moment to see what passes as relevant news on GMA now:
I’m just counting down the days until some college professor or coked-up movie star calls me a bigot when I say that I don’t believe that an adult woman has the right to marry an inanimate French landmark.
What do you think:
• Did Good Morning America legitimize this “new sexual orientation” by airing this piece? If not, then what was the point?
• What are your thoughts on the sexologist saying that an objectum sexual’s love is “no more and no less of value than other romantic relationships”? Who are we to judge, right?
After a long journey of disconnected solitude, I have decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon and go for a little ride. Those who have gone before me frequently and fervently sing Twitter’s praises — almost as if the little bird in the logo was the very dove that brought the olive branch back to Noah’s ark. By all accounts, I must prepare for the miraculous.
To be quite honest, I’m doing this for one purpose alone — to experiment and see if this technology truly does make me more connected with others. I am very much a face-to-face kind of guy and I have a hard time seeing how Twitter will give me anything even resembling the sort of connectedness that I get in a personal friendship.
Since its unfair for me to say I don’t like Twitter when I have never actually used it, I figure its worth a test drive. If you want to follow my 140-character-or-less musings, my Twitter name is MichaelSGray
This evening, Heidi and I walked to our community park to let Harrison play around a bit (his new favorite thing is going down slides). We also wanted to take an opportunity to get out of the house and enjoy some of this beautiful Phoenix weather. Unfortunately for us, our trip of fun and family time was contaminated by a particular behavior that I believe has gotten out of hand in America: public cursing.
The playground at our park is within earshot of the basketball court where a dozen or more kids — I’d say between the ages of 8 and 18 — were hanging out and shooting hoops. It was not difficult for Heidi and me to hear most of their conversations, and I’ll be honest in saying that I was shocked with a lot of what I heard. The language these kids used was disgusting, and they had no reservations about making their voices heard, despite the proximity of younger kids and other families.
I tried my best to ignore the language and to focus on enjoying the time with my family, and I was doing pretty well — that is until I heard the word “nigger”.
I hate that word.
My ears perked up and I listened more intently to what was going on. Just for the sake of clarity, it’s important to note that all of the kids in the group were black, so this was not a matter of a person from one race referring to someone of another race using a hateful term. The word was uttered at least a dozen times inside a minute and was said in the same casual, conversational tone you might expect to hear from people at the local grocery store. No one was being picked on, no one was trying to start a fight, they just used the word as if it were a punctuation mark — and they punctuated loudly.
Harrison is not old enough to understand or repeat the words he hears (and I doubt seriously that he heard them anyway), but I decided after hearing it a dozen times that we were done. I don’t want my child exposed to foul language no matter what his age and “the n-word” threw me over the top. I gave very serious thought to going over and expressing my opinion about them using that word with such abandon, but I am a product of modern American society, and society basically says that a middle-aged white man better never utter the n-word around a black person, even if he’s asking them to stop using it because he finds it so vile. I fear now that I missed an opportunity to stand up for what is right out of concern for how I might have been perceived.
As we walked home, I told Heidi how bothered I am by the fact that by far the place I hear the n-word the most is from the mouths of black people. I know of no one in my circle of acquaintances that ever uses that word, and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve witnessed a person of any other race say it publicly. Sadly, I do hear it all through the black culture — especially in rap/hip-hop music — and it’s disturbing for me to think that the primary reason that word is still a part of our lexicon is because many of the very people to whom the term is so offensive have nurtured it and allowed it to become a common and acceptable part of their everyday language.
Well I say shame on them.
Even though I did not cast my ballot for him, President Obama has my respect.
I always got sick of people saying that President Bush was not their president just because they disagreed with him or didn’t vote for him. I have seen such despicable behavior and heard such disrespectful language coming from the mouths of bitter dissenters over the last eight years, and I have long-since vowed never to be so vile toward someone in leadership over me (whether I put them there or not). I will definitely feel free to disagree, but I will never publicly disrespect my freely-elected president.
Many of Obama’s social and political views bother me. So does the fact that almost every celebrity in America endorses him (definitely not a group I put much stock in). It also rubs me wrong when I hear Obama’s name mentioned in some churches with more frequency and excitement than the name of Christ himself. But most of that is pure, unadulterated hype, and when it comes right down to it, President Obama now holds the reins of the greatest nation in history, and no amount of celebrity endorsement or child-sung anthems of allegiance or media anointing will take away the importance of the task before him now.
My prayer is that President Obama seeks Godly wisdom, leads with just and resolute determination, walks in quiet humility, and wakes each day with a deep passion for preserving this country and defending its Judeo-Christian values.
This is what I know…
People make mistakes. Consequences are inevitable and oftentimes they can be painful. When we mess up, we’d like nothing better than to move on, forget the past, and continue living without suffering the inevitable consequences. But that’s not life.
This is what I know…
My adopted son was a “mistake”. The day he was conceived, he became equal amounts baby and consequence. As he grew each day in his young mother’s womb, the world around him was waging war — not for land or money or power, but for the heartbeat that pounded life through his little chest.
This is what I know…
Some people wanted to eliminate his life. They didn’t see his existence as a choice that had already been made, instead they weighed his value in terms of a choice that was yet to be made. They didn’t see a self-inflicted consequence that needed to be faced, only an unjust punishment that should be avoided at any cost.
This is what I know…
Some people refuse to see beyond the immediate. To these people, the value of my son’s smile, his laughter, the way he kicks excitedly when I pick him up from his naps, were once on equal footing with a girl’s impulsive decision to avoid the inherent consequence of a choice she already made. Because he was of no value to them, in their eyes, he had no value at all.
This is what I know…
We almost lost him. Twice. The constant drumbeat of what some call a woman’s right to choose almost cost the world a beautiful child. This young mother sat in the waiting room of an abortion clinic two separate times. Each time she felt a tugging inside — a voice almost — that told her not to take the easy way out. We realize now with great gratitude that the tugging was done on our behalf.
This is what I know…
Some people saw a promise, not a punishment. Instead of telling her the fairytale that she could make it all just go away, they encouraged this young mother to turn her mistake into someone else’s blessing. They didn’t remove the consequence, they taught her how to find a way to make the best out of the outcome she brought upon herself. That is what life is about. Before we were ever in the picture, these people saved the life of my unborn son.
This is what I know…
In a world where hundreds of thousands of couples long to have the opportunity to adopt and make an unwanted child a part of their family, advocating abortion is possibly one of the cruelest social views one can have — both to the child and to potential parents.
This is what I know…
We may never conceive a child. Because of people who could see beyond the superficial morality of our day, and because the birth mom ultimately listened to the tugging inside her, our inability to get pregnant became a non-issue in our journey to have a child. We have been blessed by someone else’s biggest mistake — and we couldn’t be happier about it.
The Visiting Team
According to a 2006 study by the American Church Research Project, less than 14% of Arizonans attend a Christian church on any given weekend. That’s 86% of our friends and our neighbors who don’t have the time, energy, or most importantly, the desire to darken the door of a local church. The rest of the nation doesn’t fare much better.
All of these are contributing factors in their own right, but to me the two biggest reasons we are losing the hearts and minds of the American public are:
2.) This deep-seeded fear of labels has changed our focus. Christians are increasingly more concerned with whether or not we’re culturally relevant than whether or not we’re Biblically relevant. You see, biblical relevance has a higher tendency to cause people to be labeled intolerant or hateful because the Bible is a counter-cultural text. Cultural relevance, however, concerns itself more with how we are viewed by society and prompts us to avoid being counter-cultural so that we can be in good standing with them.
What happens in response to this can only be explained as Christians shooting themselves in the foot. Instead of standing up and making it clear to the world that our stance is nothing like the stance of Phelps, many Christians treat his worldview as if it were a legitimate and embarrassing segment of our religion — because that is what the media says. So instead of saying plainly that those views are in direct opposition to our beliefs, we validate society’s accusation of our homophobic status by believing ourselves that Christians by and large are gay-haters.
As an example, here’s an exact quote from Derrick’s recent post: “You see… for Christians… homosexuality is like the plague. We stay so far from it, like we’ll get Satan coodies [sic] if we actually meet a gay person. The thought of having gay friends makes us feel dirty… kinda like listening to a “secular” song and liking it. “ (Read it in complete context)
While I do not for a second doubt Derrick’s heart behind this, it makes me cringe a bit because it sounds exactly like what one might hear on a college campus or from the lips of Bill Maher. Derrick says it to challenge his fellow Christians to consider their attitude toward gays, and I love that. What kills me is that the ever-growing non-Christian world doesn’t make that distinction, but instead uses this sort of statement as “proof” that they were right about us in the first place — and the stigma of homophobic Christians sinks deeper into the mindset of society.
Unfortunately, the average American isn’t likely to experience another perspective on Christianity unless they attend a church, which they’re far less likely to do now because who would want to spend their weekend hanging around a bunch of judgmental gay-haters anyway?
A Christian’s understanding of right and wrong is supposed to be determined by the Bible, while Secularists are — within themselves — the ultimate source for right and wrong. This worldview of moral relativism has slowly crept into mainstream Christian thought as evidenced by the popular notion that Christ says plainly that we are never to judge others, just love them (“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” ~Matthew 7:1). Non-Christians love to cherry-pick this verse, and most Christians tend to shrink back when they hear it for fear that the words “intolerant”, “unloving”, or “judgmental” will be thrown around next.
Christians, does Jesus really command us to refrain from holding people to any standards? Taking this verse alone and out of a broader Biblical context might suggest just that. But what, then, do you do with John 7:24 where Jesus says, “ Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment”? This verse taken alone seems to argue that he does call us to judge. So what’s the deal?
What I believe the verses on judging teach is that if you say to someone, “I’m going to hold you to such-and-such standard,” then you need to be ready and willing to be held to that same standard. Let me give you a personal illustration of this:
I’ll be honest – I’m about 50 pounds overweight and I rarely eat healthy or exercise. If a friend of mine is also overweight and I constantly badger him about the fattening foods he eats or the exercises he should be doing, but don’t put those standards into practice myself, what good am I? Before I hold my friend to a standard (judge him), I need to prepare myself to be judged by the same standard. Using my fitness illustration, this verse might sound more like, “Don’t criticize your buddy’s love handles, or he’ll have the right to criticize your man-boobs.”
I don’t think Christians can avoid having to uphold standards, but I think its clear that we need to promote our Biblical values while remembering to live them out (and we need to be ready to be judged by them as well). We need to worry less about cultural relevance where each person is his own value system, and worry more about the values given to mankind through the Bible.
This Post is Long!
Yeah, sorry about that.
I could honestly keep going for another ten paragraphs because there are so many tangents and details that I could discuss. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to consolidate my thoughts and still communicate clearly. I have very deep convictions on the Christian worldview and the reasons why I think were losing the fight for the hearts, minds, and souls of the American people. For the sake of my fingers and your eyes, I’ll have to leave this post as it stands now and hope that it has caused some people to think twice about their views.
If you have any comments, rebuttals, or criticisms, I welcome them — though I’m not prepared to accept any workout or dieting advice at this time 
.
Thanks for reading.
Today we had the dedication ceremony for Harrison at our church. Below is the text of a letter that I read aloud to him at the beginning of the private ceremony. Heidi wrote these words last week, and I believe that they are among of the most powerful and inspired words I will ever read:
Harrison,
A few months ago, we adopted you into our family. We don’t know why God didn’t allow mommy to carry you in her tummy, but we do know that God designed you specifically to be a part of our family. You were intended from the very start to be with us, and we have prayed for you for many years. But, our adoption of you is not the most important one you will ever have. We pray that one day you will be adopted into the family of God, by accepting the gift of Jesus Christ as your Heavenly Father. And one day, we pray you understand, that we are united by a bond that cannot be broken — not because of the blood that flows through our veins, but because of the blood that flowed down the cross.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
Photos from the dedication and more thoughts from Heidi can be found here.
