Imagine

I knew that this commercial existed but hadn't seen it on YouTube until today. It is a great one that plugs adoption as an option.

Homosexual Indoctrination of Kindergarteners

On district in California (Alameda Unified) is making it mandatory that kindergartners attend "anti-homophobia" classes. The classes are supposedly designed to stop bullying of "gay" and "transsexual" classmates. Yet they do not have classes to stop the bullying of different races or religions or fatness or ability to run fast, etc. even though I am sure that these kinds of bullying are far more common.

Parents are angry. There is no opt out for this program. The Pacific Justice Institute is defending their rights in a court case.

I would be angry for about 5 minutes or as long as it took to withdraw my kids. Are you ready to homeschool yet?

HT: One News Now

Critter Corner V. 2

Fort Worth Low Cost Spay and Neuter

Today the kids and I took our dogs to the Fort Worth Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic for their shots. Last year they were neutered there also. If you live in the Fort Worth Area (they also have a clinic in Denton), I highly recommend it. Here is a schedule of the costs for dogs (cats are similar).

Rabies: $5
DHLPP: $10
Bordetella:$10
Heartworm Test: $20
Frontline: $10
Heartworm Preventative: $20-30

Spay
Under 50 lbs. $50
50-80 lbs. $55
Over 80 lbs. $80

Neuter
Under 50 lbs. $40
50-80 lbs. $50
Over 80 lbs. $70

The other advantage of going here is the short time it takes. We were in and out in probably 10 minutes with two dogs.

Obama's "Responsible Fatherhood" Means Changing the "Heteronormative"?

According to LifeSiteNews. . .
A member of Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships advisory board (Mr. Knox) has stated that one of the main challenges in promoting "responsible fatherhood" in America will be to dismantle a perception that fatherhood is "heteronormative" - i.e., that heterosexuality is the norm.

Mr. Knox stated this opinion on a PBS show. You can watch the interview at the PBS website.

How can purposely raising children without a mother and a father be considered a model for responsible parenting? I understand that sometimes raising a child with only a mother or a father is unavoidable as in death or an unwanted divorce. But too often in this country we accept unwed parenting and homosexual parenting as a suitable alternative. It flies in the face of every God wants for our childern. It is a very sad time in America. I hope that the sadness of the time will drive us to our knees.

Call 2 Fall

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that national confession is important to me. So I was excited to hear of the new movement Call 2 Fall. It is encouraging people and churches to fall to their knees and ask the Lord for forgiveness and heal our land. They are encouraging a nation-wide effort on July 5th.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I encourage you to sign up at their website and encourage your church to sign up. I will try to get my church to sign up, but at a megachurch it is hard to get anything going that didn't come from the top. I will try to post if I make any progress.

Critter Corner V. 1

I am adding a new feature to the blog. In it, I hope to discuss small pets of all sorts. Today we will start with an introduction to our current pets in order of adoption/purchase.

We own two small dogs named Shadow and Little Dog. They are brothers from a litter of my mother-in-law's dogs. They are poodle, Maltese, Chihuahua dogs that we call yapperdoodle. Watching the Dog Whisperer (on DVD) has helped us get them past many of their fears (culverts for example) and their fearful barking at every dog or person they meet. They still love to bark, but at least company and walks are great.

Cheep-Cheep (yellow) and Pete (Blue) are our two parakeets. Cheep-Cheep will sit on my daughter's finger, but Pete (a newer arrival) is still very skittish. We leave their cage door open when we are here, but they hardly ever want to go anywhere. When they do, they are quite funny to watch exploring.

Two crawdads (crayfish) live in a large plastic container in our kitchen. The boy only has one claw and the girl has no antenna. They were the control animals in an experiment where my husband works. When the experiment was over, my husband brought them home. They molt every few months. This makes them vulnerable. In fact, that is how the boy lost his claw. He had just molted when he got in a fight with the big one (who later died). They had babies once but they all died and we never knew why.

Fuzzy the guinea pig is quite the treat aficionado. He loves to eat lettuce (not iceberg), carrots, parsley, apple cores, etc. If he hears the refrigerator door open, he starts the whistling just in case you forgot that he loves to eat.

Ollie Pumpkin is our male high-energy, miniature lop rabbit. We let him and Fuzzy out in the hall on an old table cloth every day. He loves to run and jump over Fuzzy and do twisting jumps. He is a very sweet boy, but he does not enjoy snuggling and being held.

The kids and I recently made Fuzzy and Pumpkin Ollie a C and C cage. It took us a while, but was worth the effort. The entire 2'x7' cage cost about $20 because we found the metal parts at a garage sale for $5.

Last and probably least, is my son's new acquisition. A snail. We owned a really great snail named Jesse Brown (in the picture) for about 2 years before it died. This new one is a different kind so we will have to see if we keep it our not. So far it seems to be doing great in its little plastic home.

Well, I hope you guys enjoy the new Critter Corner. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them.

New Ecclesiology

Sorry for the long absence. I have been out of town. When I got back, I had 80 or so e-mails to go through. One of them was an article from the Center for Christ & Culture about the "if you build it, they will come" ecclesiology.

It is about consumer-driven churches. The idea behind these churches is to make the visitor experience as pleasant as possible. Non of the teaching is too pointed or too deep. That might turn people off or confuse them.

This seems to be in direct contrast with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:24 where he encourages the Corinthians to seek the gift of prophecy so that the unbeliever "will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judge by all".

An interesting point is made in this paragraph.
Given the massive numbers of people that this model attracts, there is the practical requirement for countless volunteers just to manage operations. Add to this the need for hundreds of Bible study leaders, Sunday school teachers, and children’s workers, and standards begin to drop in order to fill practical needs. Business models and strategies are emphasized over and against theological depth. I have sat in such churches, attended Bible study classes only to be shocked by the ignorance of those teaching. Many are completely ignorant of church history and the most basic theological terms and concepts and those responsible for providing oversight and guidance are mostly unaware of what is missing. It is often the blind leading the blind.

The idea of standards for Bible class/Sunday school teachers is an interesting one to me. I don't know what if any standards there are for the ones at our church. I know that you have to pass a criminal background check in order to be a teacher assistant (as I am one). I think that all of our elementary age teachers are employees of the church. But I have no idea if they were given some kind of a quiz about the Bible before being hired. For small groups, anyone can sign up to be a leader and no questions are asked of them. I don't really know how Bible class teachers for the adult classes are chosen.

So I would love hear your thoughts and comments. What role does the prophet play at your church? What standards are used for teachers?