( Getty Images via @daylife)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry took time out from his busy presidential campaign in South Carolina to attend a prayer event. While there, without any fanfare or introduction he took the stage at the large prayer gathering called "The Response" in Greenville, S.C. and prayed for President Obama and his family:

“Perry led a prayer in which he asked God to grant safety to "our president" and his family. He also said that "we pray that you light his way" in dealing with national issues.”

Response: We all should be praying for our President and his family regardless of what we think about his policies and politics. It would be good if he did receive some ‘light’ from above on how to deal with the problems facing our nation right now and for the whole year of 2012 while he is President.            *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Obama Gets Daily Devotional on His BlackBerry
2. -The Inaugural Invocation by Rick Warren

                                         (Image via Wikipedia)

Today (Tuesday 1/17) the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case coming from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Appeals Court had ruled in a 2-1 panel decision last October in Joyner v. Forsyth County (North Carolina) that public legislative meetings could not begin with prayers in the “name of Jesus.” Therefore, the ruling stands within the jurisdiction of the 4th circuit.

Here’s a link to our post on the original case: -U.S. Circuit Court: Prayers ‘In Jesus Name’ are Unconstitutional

Response: It is a real disappointment that SCOTUS did not pick up this case and make a definitive ruling. This leaves the country legally divided over this prayer issue.

Meanwhile, Christian prayers are now limited in public forums within the jurisdiction of the 4th circuit which includes the states of Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The rest of the country should not be affected by this unfortunate ruling.

Congress is Constitutionally forbidden from making laws concerning religion but the 4th Circuit has in effect made a new law by putting the government in charge of deciding what prayers are acceptable and which ones aren’t –what is ‘sectarian’ and therefore offensive and what is not.

If a Muslim Imam was invited to say a prayer before a public legislative meeting in the 4th Circuit area would he be free to address his prayers to ‘Allah’ rather than God? The keepers of ‘political correctness’ would probably rule in the affirmative since ‘Allah’ is merely the Arabic form of God. Yet such a prayer would be just as sectarian as Christian prayers in Jesus name and offensive to many more for sure.

What government agency will now be in charge of determining what names for God are acceptable and which ones aren’t? So far only Christian prayers in ‘Jesus name’ have specifically been referenced in the ruling for censorship.                *Top

Related Posts?:

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(Ron Luce-Teen Mania)

A few years ago the expression -’Friends With Benefits’ became popular among 20 to 30 year old singles and beyond. A term which is supposed to represent casual sex among friends without any strings attached.

The popular culture latched upon this term and it reflects a new norm among career oriented young adults in America who are too busy for serious relationships or for marriage and families.

Dozens of movies have reflected that trend in the last 5 years or so. My real concern is not how it is being played out among adults but how it is now reaching down into the teenage culture and affecting our children as young as 12 years old.

Ron Luce, president of Teen Mania Ministries, is trying to minister to teens in the midst of this cultural trend that he refers to as an epidemic. Until I read an article about his ministry dealing with this issue I was quite unaware of how this was being played out among teens in America even among those going to Christian churches and attending youth groups.

Ron Luce says the following in this article about what he has observed among teens:

“At first it was just 20-somethings to 30-somethings, but now we have kids in junior high and high school participating. We have stories about kids as young as 12 years old,” Luce said.

"This has been a rage for the last two or three years”

Luce has observed that a growing number of kids in school now believe it is a taboo to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. The norm seems to be that “you just have lots of friends and have lots of sex with them,” he said.

Teens use names like “cuddle buddies” and “booty call” to classify friends willing to have casual sex. “It’s not uncommon that even if you do have a boyfriend or girlfriend you have five or six friends that you have sex with and if they don’t know about each other then it’s okay.”

“It seems like it’s everywhere. It’s happening in church and in youth groups,” he said. A common excuse used in order to have someone agree to sex is to say that they are “friends and they have needs.”

“It’s hard to find somebody that’s not doing ‘friends with benefits’ and if a student stands up against this in school they are mocked and ridiculed.”

“It’s not, oh, the kids are having sex because we know kids have been having sex for a long time. It’s so much more common now and the culture seems to own our kids more than Christ does.”

Luce suggests that parents need to be more involved with their kids to combat this cultural epidemic:

“Parents, need to decide that they are going to be a relationship-centric family rather than a media-centric family so that kids care about their relationships with their parents. What they are closest to relationally is going to influence them the most.

“In the middle of this cultural sewage, parents have to be very intent and proactive about parenting so they can help them see through the stories, the ‘friends with benefits’ lie and to make a pledge for purity until the day they are married. It’s not impossible. It just takes a massive amount of effort.”

Response: Wow, I had no idea this was going on. Everyone regardless of religion, worldview, or moral stance should be concerned about this trend among teens since some of the ‘benefits’ include teenage pregnancies, abortions, and STDs.

Since I have 2 grandchildren in that age group and with another soon to be, I now have a particular stake in this issue. The fact that Christian teens also seem to be affected by this practice is disturbing. One wonders about the future of the church when the culture dominates our youth in such a way.            *Top

Related Posts?:

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Here’s a great article by Craig Groeschel  who is the founder and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv an online ministry:

My Take: Wired pastor says unplug

Pastor Craig who is all about technology made a decision along with his wife Amy to ‘unplug’ their family 4 days a week. Here’s why:

“One day when I came home from the office a couple of years ago, …I had switched out of “work mode” and into “family mode,” prepared to give my undivided attention to my wife and our six kids for the evening. …

I started looking around for everybody, and what I discovered was a series of tiny islands, each person immersed in their own little world. My wife Amy was on her laptop writing curriculum for a Bible study. One daughter was listening to her iPod as she surfed Facebook, and another was checking e-mail. Two kids were playing Club Penguin and Webkinz — on separate computers. At least the last two I found were together, although they were playing Wii, so they were both transfixed on the screen.

In our culture, there is nothing unusual about this scenario. It plays out this same way in countless homes every evening. But this episode brought it home for me: Although I was comfortable that everyone in our family loved each other, I realized we were gradually allowing the flicker of little screens to draw us away, running the risk of ultimately becoming isolated from one another.

That night, Amy and I had a long talk that led to what would become a controversial decision: We limited technology use in our home to just three days a week. That meant that for four days, there would be no television, no iPods, no Facebooking, …”

Sounds a whole lot like our family. It wasn’t an easy choice for them obviously and it was hard at first I am sure. However it has turned out to be better for their family life and their relationships together and with their children.

A great example for the rest of us to consider.

Presently we have one family night a week when we pray together and then play board games or cards for the remainder of the evening. The grandkids living with me now actually look forward to it and it has been a blessing for our entire family.            *Top

Related Posts?:

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(Talmud via Wikipedia)

The Jewish Talmud is a best seller in South Korea. Not only that, it is also required reading in Korean public schools and most Koreans have The Talmud prominently displayed in their homes.

At the same time there are no Synagogues and it is extremely difficult to practice Judaism in S. Korea which has a historical Buddhist background and where over 30% regularly attend Christian churches.

However, there also is no anti-Semitism to speak of. Quite to the contrary, Judaism is held in high regard but it is not the religion that is sought after, but the example of Jewish family practices which lead to continual success in education and business.

The Koreans are turning to The Talmud and other Jewish teachings for principles of success.  Noting that Jews have been successful even under the most trying of cultural conditions for thousands of years. The Koreans see some parallels in their own history and want to emulate that success and particularly want to apply some of those principles in training and encouraging their own children to seek higher education and better occupational opportunities.

One Korean mother, Lee San-sook, explains  that Jews raise their children are viewed as positive in Korea:

“The stereotype of Jews here is that they are ultra-intelligent people. Jews have come out of nowhere to become business chiefs, media bosses, Nobel Prize winners – we want our children to do the same. If that means studying Talmud, Torah, whatever, so be it.”

Response: The South Koreans have been a success story in the last couple of generations. It is interesting the role that Jewish teaching has played in their success along with the conversion of nearly half of the population to Christianity.

While most of the world is backing away from support from Israel, the South Koreans are far more supportive than anyone might expect. The influence of The Talmud in Korean society also brings some unexpected implications for Korean foreign policy.           *Top

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(Image by via Flickr)

Today (Sunday) in Croatia – Pope Benedict XVI denounced the “disintegration” of family life in Europe and called for couples to make a commitment to officially marry and have children.

The Pope reaffirmed traditional Catholic family values and also voiced the church’s continued opposition to abortion before a crowd of nearly 300,000 in Zagreb’s hippodrome. Benedict lamented the “increasing disintegration of the family, especially in Europe” and urged young couples to resist secularization of the family:

(resist) “that secularized mentality which proposes living together as a preparation, or even a substitute for marriage.”

“Do not be afraid to make a commitment to another person!”

“Dear families, rejoice in fatherhood and motherhood!”

He also urged them to back legislation that supports families:

“in the task of giving birth to children and educating them.”

While Croatia is nearly 90% Catholic, Fewer young couples are getting married and having children –a trend that in reflected all over Europe.

Response: Western culture and society in Europe is threatened by the current trends that show less young people are officially getting married and having children. More are living together instead or remaining single.

Meanwhile, immigrants (many are Muslim) to many European countries are getting married and on the average having far more children that the domestic population. What this means is that if these demographic trends continue, Europe could be dominated by the Muslim religion within a generation or so.  Already huge cathedrals all over Europe are nearly empty on Sundays while larger and larger mosques are being built to accommodate the increasing Muslim population.

It is no wonder that the Pope is concerned. Some are saying that the Vatican could well be an island surrounded by a country dominated by Islam in 25 years or so.            *Top

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                                           (Image via Wikipedia)

New research shows that Marriage plays a major role in the well-being of the American economy.

The Family Research Council’s Marriage and Religion Research Institute released new findings that indicate stable married-couples economically outperform other family types, including: remarried families, divorced families, single-parent families, and cohabiting families.

Basically the stats show that stable married families face less economic difficulties in the areas of employment, income, net value, and net worth. Also, they are less likely to be in poverty or to be receiving some kind of government assistance like welfare.

Divorced families on the other hand experience a sharp decline in income following separation. Divorced women are affected the most and are far more likely (2.83 times) to be living in poverty than women who remain married.

According to Pat Fagan, Ph.D (MARRI Director), couples that remain stably married can provide a better environment for raising children with less dependency upon government programs:

“This research clearly documents why marriage is an important and fundamental part of society."

"Divorce has torn our nation apart, and led to the bloated government systems we can no longer afford. We cannot solve our nation’s fiscal woes until we address the breakdown of the family. If the government pledged to reduce family breakdown by just one percent, taxpayers would save around $1.1 billion dollars each year.”

Response: This is precisely why I was happy to see research a week or so ago that showed that marriages were lasting longer with less divorce in America. For whatever reason this is real progress and that it positively affects the economy is just frosting on the cake.

The best part are the affects on the raising of children. The research also shows that the next generation does better coming out of two parent homes rather than any of the alternatives.             *Top

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