Happy 4th!

Happy July 4th everyone! Whether you are enjoying fireworks, BBQ, family, friends, or none of the above, remember freedom is bought with blood. The most obvious example of this is Christ dying for our spiritual/eternal freedom. Many have died to protect our right to enjoy physical freedom in our country. May we always remember to be grateful.

Planned Parenthood Closes Doors in El Paso

As of 2 days ago, all 37 Planned Parenthood locations are now closed in El Paso, TX. This thrills my soul. I fully expect more locations to close across the nation. They will claim financial problems, but I think that it is the power of prayer.

An Hour Worth Watching

Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis did a speech a while ago about the state of Christianity in America. It is worth the hour to watch. In it, he shares some of the information from his book Already Gone. The book is titled that because many parents fear that kids will loose their way in college. Yet the statistics show that most kids that leave the Church fell away in middle school and high school. There parents just weren't aware of it until the kid left for college. Some of the most striking statistics are these.

The results are shocking:

• Those who faithfully attend Sunday School are more likely to leave the church than those who do not.
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are more likely to believe that the Bible is less true.
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are actually more likely to defend that abortion and gay marriage should be legal.
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are actually more likely to defend premarital sex.

Mr. Ham states that he feels these things are true because kids go to Sunday School and get entertainment instead of answers. They aren't told how the Bible relates to real life. If they ask a question about evolution (for example), they are told something ambiguous. The focus is on trusting Jesus, but how can you trust Jesus if you can't trust the whole book that points to him? All of this makes them more sour on religion than those who were not involved in religion much.

I feel the online video is worth the hour it takes to watch it. I have ordered the book, but haven't gotten it yet. If it is good, maybe I will give one away.

Abusive

Apparently I would make a terrible judge in child abuse cases.

Let's take case number one.
Woman caught breastfeeding baby while drinking alcohol. I would have said this was unwise behavior. I might have the woman sign up with AA or rehab. But I wouldn't likely remove her child from her or charge her with a felony or send her to jail for 5 years.

Let's look at situation number two.
Parents raise child as genderless. They never tell the child whether he/she is a boy or girl. They never tell anyone else. The child is supposed to "decide". I would say that this is abuse because the few previous cases that exist where kids have been raised in whacky gender experiments messed the person up for life. Take the boy raised as a girl for example. I do think that the kid is likely to "figure it out" correctly if he/she goes to public school. Other kids are blunt enough to say show me your parts and I'll tell you. Though I doubt the parents would accept that decision based on what they would see as flimsy evidence. Good grief.

This is where parental rights get tricky. What is damaging or dangerous? And who gets to decide? I think even in this case I wouldn't take the kid away from the parents. I would just order them to tell the physical gender of the kid.

Cap and Trade Goes to the Senate

I have already received an e-mail from John Cornyn saying that he is against this bill and I plan on contacting Kay Bailey-Hutchinson. Please make the effort to contact your Senators about this bill.

Every person who voted for this bill (including the 8 Republicans) is horrifyingly irresponsible to me. For one thing, THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE FINAL BILL before they voted on it. There was no official copy available to read had they wanted to read all 1390 pages. Only 1090 pages were available at the time of the vote.

Caffeinated Thoughts shares this quote from Stephen Green:
“Never have so few stolen so much from so many to achieve so little.”
I completely agree.

Oh, and here's one more thing. Read Pres. Obama's lips saying, "No New Taxes". Then watch him admit that his Cap and Trade plan will tax us all about$1500 a year.