Category: Culture

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Culture False Religions Media The World

Evangelists in the Cult of Technology

Religious Fanaticism of Apple

Imagine someone walking up to a stranger and saying: “Hi, my name is Robert and I’d like to share with you the good news.” The stranger replies: “No, thanks. I don’t want to hear anything about Jesus today.” The evangelist replies: “Oh, no! I wasn’t talking about Jesus …I wanted to tell you about he new iPhone.” In our consumerist society, this scenario is not all that hard to imagine. In many cities it is more culturally acceptable to be an evangelist for Microsoft, Google, Apple, or Adobe than it is to evangelize the true Gospel.

Continue reading “Evangelists in the Cult of Technology”
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Culture General Science The World

Scientists Are People, Too

Scientists routinely study people’s behavior as part of humanity’s quest to better understand ourselves and our universe.  Christian theologians use the Bible as their guide while traveling along that same quest.  Since the scientific community has a higher percentage of atheists and agnostics than the general population, they approach studies of humanity with a strikingly different worldview from Christians.  So, what happens when scientists and theologians try to go about understanding each other?

A recent article on PhysOrg, “God as a drug: The rise of American megachurches“, presents a study on the rise of American Megachurches.  Unlike many such studies on religious subjects, it is not an attack piece.  It does, of course, ignore God’s role in conversion and largely attributes the growth to sensory and emotional experiences – no surprise there.  From the article:

As part of their study, Wellman, Corcoran, and Stockly-Meyerdirk analyzed 470 interviews and about 16,000 surveys on megachurch members’ emotional experiences with their churches. Four themes emerged: salvation/spirituality, acceptance/belonging, admiration for and guidance from the leader, and morality and purpose through service.

 

Our modern perception of science is that it is an objective search for truth, but we often forget that science is conducted by people.  Those people are subject to the same influences and biases as everyone else.  While the application of certain methods can reduce the error caused by human imperfections, we cannot deny that paradigms, axioms, and presuppositions heavily influence the world of scientists.

To illustrate this, Creation-Evolution Headlines rewrote the PhysOrg article as though a theologian had conducted a study on the growth of Darwinism.  The result of this fictional study is a strikingly accurate description of how many Darwinian “evangelists” view their role.  Consider the same paragraph, above, re-imagined from the opposite perspective:

As part of their study, Weller, Corky, and Stocky analyzed 470 interviews and about 16,000 surveys on society members’ emotional experiences with the conferences. Four themes emerged: materialism/scientism, conformity/unity, admiration for and desire for acceptance from peers, and a sense of duty to fight creationism in public outreach.

Both articles are a good read, so check them out.  Do you agree that scientists can be influenced by each other in ways that affect their conclusions? How do you think this shapes the narrative of “religion vs. science?” Leave a comment below.

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Culture False Religions The World

Do Most Scientists Reject God?

“93% of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) are atheists,” boasts the social media proselytizer who is now all but certain he has presented inarguable evidence that rational, thinking people are drawn away from theism. It comes from a survey conducted in 1996 and published in the journal Nature. I have seen this statistic often enough that I decided to dig into it a bit further. It is now clearer than ever that this survey is an example of selection bias and further supports the assertion that the NAS is intolerant.

Right from the start, the 93% number is a little misleading. 72% disbelieve in God while 23% express doubt or agnosticism. Atheists routinely lump in agnostics in figures like this if it is to their advantage, but agnostics often describe themselves that way to separate their views from their understanding of atheism. But, this may be little more than semantics.

What if we looked at a different group of scientists? When surveyed in 2009, a slight majority (51%) or respondents from the American Association for the Advancement of Science expressed belief in God (or a “higher power”) and 41% indicated disbelief. It turns out this survey matches rather closely with a survey done 100 years ago, even showing a slight increase in theism among the scientists polled.

Still a different group, university professors, end up somewhere in the middle of these figures. A 2010 survey found 34% were atheists, 30% agnostic, and 27% expressed some level of belief in God.

So far it’s clear that while scientists are far more likely than the general population to be atheist, the 93% figure is simply not an accurate representation of scientists as a whole. Now, let’s extend the data even further.

In academia, the consequences for your conclusion being wrong is a retraction from an academic journal, a scathing peer review, or wider public scrutiny. In other environments, the cost of being wrong are people’s very lives. Certainly few people think that doctors work with anything other than an evidence-based evaluation and decision-making process. If they were to do otherwise, they face severe civil or criminal penalties while their patient suffers physically to varying degrees. Physicians must rely on science when it really counts.

Are these rational-minded professionals also inclined to be atheists? Not quite. As of 2005, 76% expressed belief in God.  While this is still lower than the general population, it turns out that doctors are actually more likely to attend religious services – 90% of them vs. only 81% of Americans as a whole. If we were to accept that the majority opinion of an evidence-based profession proves that thinking people should accept their view, we may hold this up as a persuasive argument for converting to theism. I do not recommend that approach for the reasons explained throughout this article.

What might explain these differences in beliefs across a range of scientists? As an engineer who also relies heavily on facts to form conclusions, I prefer not to speculate too far without doing more extensive research. Allow me to offer two possible causes to consider: indoctrination and culture. American universities are now breeding grounds for anti-religious minds. Over time our culture has trended the same direction, and the sub-culture in academic circles is likely to influence the distribution of religious beliefs in that group.

In earlier times, higher institutes of learning we’re built by Christians and Western society was far more deeply committed to biblical truth. Indeed, the greatest scientific minds who pioneered most of the major branches of science were theists. This fact alone indicates that theistic belief is no detriment to the advancement of scientific inquiry, if not the very basis for science itself.

When we consider the full range of data and look at it objectively, we find every good reason to reject the “majority of scientists are atheists” argument so often presented. The wide disparity among different groups of scientists also shows that they are human like everyone else, subject to the same influences and pressures that shape our ideas about the world. This is why we must always look to a higher standard than ourselves. Let us trust instead in the words of an all-knowing being, not in the wisdom of men with limited knowledge or understanding (1 Cor 2:5).

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Culture History The Bible The World Translation

The Kings English – 100 phrases in 3 Minutes

Glen Scrivener, an evangelist in Eastbourne, UK and blogger at KingsEnglish.info, masterfully works through 100 phrases we commonly use in the English language which came from the King James version of the Holy Bible. Read his blog for a new phrase each day to celebrate its 400th anniversary.

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Culture History Politics The World

180 Movie

Evangelist Ray Comfort takes people from being “pro-choice” to “pro-life” in a matter of seconds by drawing parallels between the Nazi Holocaust and the American abortion industry. This 33-minute film will truly open your eyes to this horror and what we can do to end it.

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Culture Politics The World

Analyzing the Abortion-Racism Connection

Abortion Mosaic

As if charges of infanticide were not enough to convict them, abortionists are now increasingly facing allegations of racism.  A recent report by Life Dynamics, Inc.  carries on this trend by seeking to bolster their claims in a 2009 film, Maafa 21, that Planned Parenthood and others are targeting minority neighborhoods.  Once this news broke nationally, the Guttmacher Institute (a research spin-off of Planned Parenthood, still funded by them despite the “divorce” attempt) predictably tried to spin the data by pointing out it bolsters their claims made in January of this year.  Finding myself initially skeptical that both of these advocacy groups were engaged in the kind of data distortion we find too frequently in the political arena, I set out to conduct my own analysis.  In the interest of full transparency, readers can explore the data themselves using the interactive tool below.

The basic claim made in the Life Dynamics report is that abortion providers and advocates choose to locate their facilities in minority areas to limit their population growth.  They highlight clinics located in areas with black or Hispanic populations at least 125% of the state’s overall demographics.  Guttmacher takes exception to this definition and instead chooses to point out that fewer than 1 in 10 clinics are in “predominately” minority ZIP codes, or those with greater than 50% black or other minority demographic.  Also at issue is what should constitute an “abortion clinic”: is it just those that perform more than 400 abortions annually, all abortion-providing clinics, or abortion providers plus any other clinic operated by Planned Parenthood?  As this analysis will show, virtually any methodology one accepts will still result in the same conclusion: the demographics of neighborhoods blighted by abortion advocates are overwhelmingly “blacker” than the nation as a whole or the particular state in question.  In all candor, however, I must point out that this correlation does not prove causation when studied alone.  Other factors must be taken into account which I will address in a moment.

My initial skepticism of both reports comes from each group’s tendency to only present data which supports their claims and omit that which does not.  Life Dynamics only lists variances significantly higher than the State’s percentage and leaves blank any which are lower.  The Guttmacher Institute only tells us the percentage of abortion clinics in majority black areas but chooses not to compare it to national statistics.  Both of them also highlight extreme outliers to dress things up with hype.  I propose something in the middle – more precisely, the exact middle, or “median.”  Compare the median percentage of blacks in ZIP codes with clinics versus all ZIP codes in the nation or a particular state (using filters provided on the interactive chart above).  As of the 2000 census, exactly half of all ZIP codes had black populations of more than 0.9% (the median value).  Compare that to the median percent black among clinic locations of 4.4%.  This type of comparison also shows that 83% of clinics are in places with more blacks than the national median.  Had they been totally unbiased in their location choices, one would find little difference in the two medians.   These facts alone show that the abortion industry predominantly picks areas with abnormally high black populations.

What if we “move the goalposts,” as Guttmacher’s Joerg Dreweke says, back from “disproportionately black” to “majority black?”  They point out that roughly 9% of clinics are in predominately black neighborhoods.  But, how does that compare to other ZIP codes?  Of the 26,481 ZIP codes in the census data, 1,067 of them were more than half black.  In other words, an unbiased location choice should have around 4% of their clinics in majority black areas, when in fact there are over twice that many!  With pro-abort statistics again being overwhelmingly higher than what is normal elsewhere, I can guess why Guttmacher’s representative chose to overlook it.

Now, I have so far not defined what sort of clinic should be included.  Guttmacher limits their list to those which perform over 400 abortions per year.  Life Dynamics extends this to any clinic listed with the National Abortion Federation of the National Council of Abortion Providers.  They additionally include all Planed Parenthood facilities, regardless of whether abortions are provided on-site.  Their rationale is that “every Planned Parenthood facility in America either does abortions or refers for them.”  If we are to trust the Planned Parenthood website listing clinics and services, there are in fact some clinics that advertise neither abortions on-site nor official referrals.  I contend that in the final analysis, it makes little difference which clinics one includes in their data.  I compared the above data for multiple types of services offered (and by whom) and found the same conclusions hold true in all cases.  I would encourage readers not to simply take my word for it, but examine the differences on your own using the “Abortion Services” filter options above.

As stated before, this correlation (no matter how strong) cannot conclusively demonstrate Planned Parenthood’s motives.  One could reasonably argue that the abnormal percentages of minorities are an unintentional byproduct of other choices.  Perhaps they target urban areas, or want to provide free services to low-income women – both of which tend to be dominated by minorities.  Maybe they’re simply responding to demand (which is far higher among minorities) and are color blind as to where the demand originates.  All of these may deserve further analysis, but I prefer to judge motives by the history of actions and statements made.  Those points have been made and argued elsewhere and it goes far beyond the limited scope of this article.  Instead I suggest watching the excellent film Maafa 21 by Life Dynamics mentioned at the beginning.  It extensively documents the eugenicist history of the entire abortion movement, carrying through from its very origins to our modern day.

What are we to do about all this?  If it has not been enough to illustrate the millions of unborn children being picked apart limb-from-limb, can we expect charges of racism to work in favor of the pro-life cause?  As a Christian, I suggest that our political efforts, though noble, may not be the most effective approach.  Instead, I share the advice given in Psalm 19:7: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”  It is the law of the Lord which will convert the souls of the evildoers.

The giver of life is also the giver of justice and of mercy.  If we are to see justice done and mercy shown on these unnamed victims, we must seek the Lord to do so.  As you ponder and pray about this, let me point you to an upcoming film which is sure to aid us in learning how we may someday end the atrocity.  It is called 180, featuring well-known evangelist Ray Comfort.  One trailer for the film shows him doing his signature “man on the street” interviews.  He gets several people to not only change their mind about being “pro-choice” but manages to do it in a matter of minutes or even seconds.  Surely God is with this man.  To reiterate: if we are to end the genocide, we must seek the kind of wisdom Jesus has given to Ray Comfort and others like him.  Instead of relying only on our own ability to persuade through the lens of pop-culture definitions of morality, we must pray that God will change hearts and minds through us and through his words.

 

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Culture Media The World

Media Conceal True Nature of “Flash Mob” Racial Violence

A recent wave of racially motivated violence in the form of “flash mobs” is sweeping the nation, but most of us are not getting the real story. The AIM Center for Investigative Journalism shares documents and findings from their Freedom of Information Act request in this special report.

EXCLUSIVE: Media Conceal True Nature of “Flash Mob” Racial Violence.

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Culture The Savior The World Traditions

Mother’s Day

Christians, how was your Mother’s Day?  Did you celebrate it with flowers, fine dining, and gifts?  Did your mother have a good time being the center of attention for a day?  How about the family?  Did everyone enjoy honoring the family matriarch?  Now that the festivities are over, have you ever stopped to ask why we celebrate Mother’s Day?  Is it really just another innocent holiday (holy-day) celebrated by Christian families?  Or have you considered it may just another piece of nostalgic Americana that has been hijacked by materialistic greed (especially within greeting card and restaurant industries).

Admittedly, as a Bible believer, I find the ecumenical holy days like Mother’s Day a bit uncomfortable because I can’t escape the paganism at our Local Churches.  Sadly, even local churches that believe on Jesus Christ for their Salvation are so taken up by the world that they have no problem celebrating pagan holy days such as:  Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas.  It seems the only people not caught up in this madness are the Jehovah’s Witnesses as they’re too busy witnessing to the world (like Christians should be doing).

Now Mr. Worldly Wiseman (the character in Pilgrim’s Progress) will remind us that Paul says inRomans 14:5 “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”  However, as a self-proclaimed Pharisee (Acts 23:6), Paul is referring to the Sabbath and Jewish holy days. He is not referring to the pagan worship of Zeus, Santa Claus, or the local spring fertility goddess orgy.  Proof of this is seen in Acts 19 when the pagans burn all their pagan books and the silversmiths (the greeting card and chocolate purveyors of their day) see their nostalgic “holiday” (and its associated profit) collapsing all around them.

Next Ignorance (another Pilgrim’s Progress character) will object:  “But we aren’t worshiping Mother on Mother’s Day!”  Are you sure about that?  In new-age America, the two biggest “gods” that anybody worships are “self” and “money.”  Mother’s Day (like Valentine’s Day and Christmas) is an excuse for our feminist-influenced mothers to worship self and to “enjoy” materialism for a day.  If you don’t believe this, try not participating in the Mother’s Day mania next year and see what kind of scorn you endure.  You will be criticized by both the “non-honored” mother and the Church-attending-pew-warmers attempting to salve their burning consciences for joining in the festivities of the world.

Try this experiment:  Honor your mother on a different day than “Mother’s Day” or even honor her with something other than a greeting card, phone call, or Sunday dinner.  As a Christian, you could send her a Bible, a tract, or even take her out soul-winning.  See how well the non-materialism goes over.  You will notice that many mothers caught up in Mother’s Day could care less about true honor; they are really looking for an excuse to brag/gossip to their friends about how wonderful their child is.  On this note, Mother’s Day (like Father’s Day) is a bit like Easter:  If you truly honor your mother and father (and Our Lord Jesus Christ) then you would honor your parents every day (Ex 20:12,Deut 5:16).  Anybody who honors mother and father only once a year during a non-Christian Holy Day is a self-righteous fraud (a bit like Christians who only say “He is Risen” while munching on chocolate eggs on one Sunday in April).

Now putting the soapbox aside:  If you claim the name of Jesus Christ, yet have never compared Mother’s Day to Scripture, I urge you to dust the cobwebs off your King James Bible and follow in the footsteps of the Bereans: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

Where did we get Mother’s Day?  Typing, “Where did we get Mother’s Day?” into an Internet search engine brings up Wikipedia in the top 10 results.  Since Wikipedia is a shining example of anti-Christian ideology and rhetoric, it will be a fine starting point for our research (thus avoiding our natural Christian bias).  According to Wikipedia, while Julia Ward Howe started Mother’s Day in America, worldwide it is linked to Catholic, Muslim, and Greek/Roman pagan traditions.  So what does this mean for us as Bible Believers? We will answer this by addressing the 5 major Mother’s Day themes described by Wikipedia.

“The modern Mother’s Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May as a day to honor mothers and motherhood….  One of the early calls to celebrate a Mother’s Day in the United States was the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” by Julia Ward Howe. Written in 1870, it was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe’s feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.”

To begin this study, we must ask the question:  “Who was Julia Ward Howe?”  Again, according toWikipedia:  “Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet, most famous as the author of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’.”  Juliawardhowe.org reveals that “Julia called together the first convention of women ministers attended by figures like the Universalist Lorenza Haynes and Unitarians Mary Graves, and Eliza Tupper Wilkes.”  Finally, About.com claims that both she and her husband were Unitarians, which makes sense in light of the fact that she called a conference of women preachers attended by both Unitarians and Universalists.  To sum it up:  Julia was a Feminist Unitarian Preacher.

 In the years after the Mother’s Day Proclamation, Ann Jarvis founded five Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to improve sanitary and health conditions. In 1907, two years after Ann Jarvis’ death, her daughter Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother and began a campaign to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday in the US. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s.

While Julia Ward Howe made the first Mother’s Day Proclamation, it was really Anna Jarvis who was the force behind the modern American celebration.  As is usually the case in America, Anna’s attempts at good works were usurped by the love of money less than 10 years after she foisted Mother’s Day upon us.  If the roots in paganism and feminism weren’t bad enough, its crass materialism would be enough to discredit this holiday in the eyes of an honest observer.  While not a Feminist/Unitarian, Anna was also not somebody a Christian should follow.  She wasted her life and fortune suing and fighting everybody from Eleanor Roosevelt to the “The American War Mothers” in a vain attempt (Col 2:8, Php 2:16, 1 Tim 1:16) to perpetually honor her earthly mother instead of spending her life honoring her Lord and Creator Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 3:11-13 tells us that Christian works will be tried by fire and only those founded on Jesus Christ will survive.  If we spend our time fighting for non-Christian “good causes” such as saving the whales, the environment, or Mother’s Day, we will suffer loss in Heaven (1 Corinthians 3:15) as we entangle ourselves in the world (1 Timothy 2:4).

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world; many of these can be traced back to ancient festivals, like the Greek cult to Cybele or the Roman festival of Hilaria. The modern US holiday is not directly related to these.

 

The historical background of Mother’s Day can aptly be summed up with Jeremiah 10:2 “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen…” Jeremiah specifically told the Jews not to fall into idolatry with 5 verses warning not to worship the “Queen of Heaven” as doing so provokes God to anger.  Jeremiah 7:18 “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”

 In some countries it was changed to dates that were significant to the majority religion, like the Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries, or the birthday of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic countries.

 

Sadly, many people are caught up in the Mary-worship of the Catholics and are ignorant of what the Bible says on the matter.  Paul informs us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”  This means that while Jeremiah wrote to the Jews of his day, his message is still to be taken seriously by us today.  It is no surprise that Muslims are also caught up in Mother’s Day since they are essentially a cultic offshoot of Roman Catholicism in the same way that Mormonism is an outgrowth of Christianity.

As we can see from our cursory examination, Mother’s Day is an overly commercialized modern holy day rooted in Idolatry (Anna Jarvis), Feminism/Unitarianism (Julia Ward Howe), and Paganism (Queen of Heaven, Greek/Roman Mythology, Catholic/Muslim Idolatry).  As a pagan holy day, it offers nothing to a Christian save a worldly compromise to pacify women seeking to usurp the authority and honor of both God and their husbands (see Genesis 2:18 and 1 Corinthians 11:7).  If after studying all this information, you still feel compelled to celebrate Mother’s Day in the manner of the world, consider this: instead of sending your mother chocolate that will only ruin her health, you could edify her soul by sending your father a Bible study on Proverbs 31, Titus 2,1 Corinthians 11, and 1 Corinthians 14:35. These may help regain his role as the spiritual leader of the family who will insist on his children honoring his wife each and every day according to godly wisdom in place of materialistic foolishness.

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Culture History Medicine The World

The #1 Cause of Death Worldwide

Abortion Mosaic

Pro-Life advocates have widely reported shockingly high abortion statistics recently released from New York City.  But, how does abortion compare to leading causes of death in America?  How does it compare to mass murder campaigns throughout history?  In all areas, the data prove that the mother’s womb is indeed the most dangerous place in the world.

Live Action, a group that has gained national prominence with their undercover videos exposing illegal activity within Planned Parenthood, reported that New Yorkers had 52% more abortions than died from all other causes combined in 2008[1].

 NYC causes of death

This insight led me to investigate further: how does abortion compare to leading causes of death in America?  We hear a lot about heart disease being at the top of that list, especially when big-government politicians call for legislation protecting us from known risk factors in popular foods.  As it turns out, the abortion rate in our country is nearly twice as high as the death rate from heart disease[2].

USA causes of death

Now, let’s take the next logical step and compare the number of babies killed in America since Roe vs. Wade to the top five multicides (which includes genocide and any other mass murder campaigns) throughout history.

top 5 multicides

We can see that the number of abortions in America secures our place as being more murderous than all the regimes we invoke to compare against our political enemies du jour[3].  Yet, this rate is still fairly low when matched up with the rest of the world.  Global abortions in 2003 were at a whopping rate of 41.6 million annually, down from 45.6 million in 1995[4].  At that rate, there would be over one billion babies murdered in the span of 25 years.  By a wide margin, the pro-life mantra: “The most dangerous place in the world is the mother’s womb” rings true.

So, what are we to do?  Protest at abortion clinics?  Lobby state and national legislatures?  Appoint pro-life judges?  All of these things help to varying degrees but ignore the root of our problem: SIN.  You see, I’ve left out the most important statistic of all: 100% of all deaths result from Original Sin. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” Rom 5:12

We as individuals and as a nation must repent – turn from our wickedness – to escape God’s certain judgement.  Jeremiah 18:8 outlines our only hope for saving our country: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”  Our best weapons against the evil of abortion are not the courts or the voting booth.  It is the Sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).  I pray God through his humble and obedient servants will send this Spirit to all peoples, tribes, and nations to deliver us from death and Hell before our time runs out.

[2] Abortion data from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html#2

Causes of death from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

*Excludes deaths from medical errors which likely fall somewhere within the top 10 (estimates vary widely)

 

[3] Abortion data from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

Multicide data from http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm

*Estimates vary widely

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Culture Current Events History The Last Days The World

Worshiping Moloch

When we read the Bible and come across Moloch, the God to which people offered babies as a sacrifice, we seldom think it has anything to do with people of our time. You’ll be surprised to discover we’re really not all that different.

Worshiping Moloch.

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Anthropology Culture The First Days The World

Where Did the Races Come From?

The Bible teaches the only true NON-racist version of human history. We are all descendants of Adam. We are all genetically related. Contrast this with the racist theory of Evolution that promotes the ideas that those who are more evolved or superior.

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Culture Media The World

Hollywood Unmasked

Is it true that an “antichrist agenda” dominates the mindset of those who run the Hollywood media machine? Journey with us as we explore the dark recesses of the entertainment industry and pull back the curtain on the most powerful mind-shaping institution in the world.

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Culture Fruits Gifts Personal stories The Christian The World

Experience at a Homeless Shelter

Not long after moving away from the Midwest, I volunteered at a homeless and battered women’s shelter in East Texas for about 6 months. In that time I made a handful of observations about how things were run and how these women were being helped. Since I was a psychology major in college and worked in a few challenging situations with troubled college students as a missionary in the US, I had a little bit of experience going in.

The shelter was an old storefront like building and was fully dependent upon donations as a 501(c)(3) organization. They received no government funds, just the help of churches and individual Christians in the area. They were (of course) under funded and the living situation was a run-down sorority type environment, not to mention that it was full of drama. There were fifty beds in the back of the building all in one open room and another ten or so ladies slept on air mattresses and couches. They shared two bathrooms and two showers every day.

While the housing situation was challenging, I was very much struck by how the Lord had provided for them. They had three hot meals a day and all were required to shower routinely. Shampoo, clothes, bedding, and “extras” were all offered for each and every woman for free. Their bed became their closet, shopping cart, and comfort zone all in one. I was amazed by how much stuff they had — stuff that they brought with them off the street and stuff they had collected while there. Some of their belongings they purchased with their own money, but most were given to them at no cost. They had more abundance and possessions than any homeless person you would ever find overseas. They were not in need because the Lord has always promised to meet all our needs. (Matthew 6:31-32)

Their social and spiritual desires were being met as well. With around fifty ladies all in one small space they had plenty of opportunities to share their stories, griefs, and frustrations. Gossip ran rampant: if one woman was having a bad day everyone knew about it. Daily Bible studies led by local pastors gave them good relief from all the spectacles and crises. Everyone gathered in the dining room area multiple times of day to hear someone preach the Word. Sometimes topics dealt with overcoming conflict, pain, and the past. Other times they were taught hygiene, social skills, and responsibility.

As I watched and observed over a 6 month period of time, I noticed there were only three or four out of those fifty who really considered the shelter a short term place to stay to help them recover and deal with their problems. Only these few wanted to get the help they needed in order to start over again and get back on their feet. I began to ask myself: why so few? Why weren’t more women taking advantage of the free and helpful resources that were right there in front of them? Why wasn’t the leadership really pushing these ladies to deal with their tribulations and grow? I’m not naïve in thinking that you could fix there struggles of drug abuse, physical and sexual abuse, illiteracy, major family troubles, marital problems…the list goes on and on.

Where was the desire to contribute to the world or even the environment they lived in? Where was any desire for that matter? And then I began to ask, where are all these women getting money to buy cigarettes, sodas, and useless trinkets? As I listened and talked with these ladies I began to learn that many were on welfare, food stamps, social security or disability. I then began to ask them for their prayer requests and many requested I pray for God to provide via their government appeals for a disability. Some shared stories of claiming disability because they couldn’t read, but when I sat down with them to study the bible out loud, they could read. They struggled given their third or fourth grade reading level, but they could do it well enough.

Why were they praying and asking the government to meet their needs instead of God? I was baffled and frustrated. As I inquired some more I discovered many were being encouraged to apply for disability by other women in the shelter and the leadership. After they received the money I watched what they did with it. Some sent it to the kids they left or had to place in the care of relatives. Some squandered it on useless things and stayed in the shelter for years and years. Few had any desire to leave other than those whose drug addition was too much to kick. Those women just went back to where they came from until another bump in the road forced them to return.

The longer I was there the more and more questions I had. Most who were on disability or Social Security responded that it wasn’t enough to live off of to rent an apartment, pay for cable TV, have a cell phone, get furniture, and pay for groceries. I then asked about seeking employment or rooming together with one of the ladies at the shelter that they trusted. Their answer was they couldn’t get a job because then they’d loose their government check and would no longer qualify.

What is going on here! Since when did the God of the Bible encourage people to stop working? Since when did government take the place of God in providing for people’s needs? Since when did government programs become the Lord’s answer to prayer instead of the people in the Body of Christ loving their neighbor and being that answer? And since when did so-called leaders and ministers of the Gospel start training their disciples to seek worldly authorities for their needs and think that it’s biblical? Where have we gone wrong?

If you look at the Bible, Jesus shows a great deal of attention to the poor and needy of the times. For instance, few of his disciples had any education to speak of and weren’t considered the elite. They were mostly low-class Jews. Some could read and some could not, but all could work and did work. The Word of God was simple enough for these ordinary men to understand, so much so that while they didn’t get it all right, they followed Jesus because they recognized him as the Messiah.

You don’t have to be able to read at a college level or even a high school level to know and understand that God is the giver of all things. He is our provider – not a government or a king. Jesus asked these disciples to give up their work and treasures and follow him. Never once did they petition Caesar to provide financially for their families while they were unemployed. They trusted that God would meet all their needs and He did. How did God do this for them after Jesus was crucified? He did it through the church. It is our job as the Body of Christ to supply for the poor and needy yet we have allowed our worldly authorities to step in and play that role and be that so-called answer to prayer.

This has hurt the homeless men and women like the ones I met and it has hurt the Church. These women now believe the lie that God doesn’t want them to work because if He did He wouldn’t have provided the checks and answered their prayers. It has hurt the Church because we are just holding on to more of our “stuff” because we think we need it instead of giving up our treasures. It has weakened the maturity of Christians and stunted the growth of the poor and needy nationwide.Isaiah 30:12-13 speaks of this clearly.

Because shelters just like this one have trusted in ruling worldly powers and believed the lie that they don’t need to work, they have allowed government to become their oppressor. If these women had absolutely nothing and no government to go to, where would they go? They would get on their knees and cry out to God whether they believed in a god or not. God would prove Himself to them in their times of desperation and show that He is the one true God, the giver of all things. Instead they have chosen to trust in a god that oppresses them and continues to keep them poor. I believe this choice has hindered the effectiveness of this ministry and the women’s God-given ability from to be truly free.

And what about us, those who have much, who have an education and can read? Do we minimize the power of the Word of God and what He could really do in our hearts and the lives of others because we have settled for thinking it’s the world’s job to meet the needs of others? Why have we made God so small and principalities, kings, the rulers of darkness so big? We are as much at fault as the men and women filing out government applications for a handout. We are letting the powers of this world be the definer of freedom instead of our Almighty God. As a result, our ministry to the homeless and poor isn’t as effective and doesn’t bear as much fruit as it could if we truly trusted in God. Christ came to set us free from these evils and this is the freedom we need to teach.