It turns out that there was a later time when Lot and Abraham had to split up. Lot went down near Sodom, because that was where the richest pastures were (they were herdsmen). It wasn't too many years later when Lot and his family lived there in the city itself, until its destruction. (Note: If the links do not work, edit them to remove "amp;" from "&".)
In the early years, Lot went where Abram/Abraham went. They worked together, guiding and protecting their flocks. They had to determine where there was adequate vegetation to feed the flocks and where there was water for their flocks to drink. They had to hire other herdsmen to help them in the task. While it is likely that there was some sort of authority structure in place, if Lot had never been allowed to make significant decisions--decisions which affected the future of both men's flocks--he could not have survived on his own once they parted ways.
As an uncle, Abram is not unaware of the necessity to train the next generation. I would imagine that Lot stood to inherit whatever Abram had until the point of division. And so it is with us.
It is in your best interest to take along one or more assistants who share your goals in business. Bring them in, give them the full spectrum of training, so they understand every facet of your business. Be prepared for the time when many of them find their own goals diverging from yours and let them go joyfully.
As Christ-followers, we really need to influence those who are willing to be influenced by our dedication and obedience to Jesus the Chosen One ("Messiah", "Christ"). Often, we think, "This dream is for me, not for <insert name here>". It may be, in the longer term, but <insert name here> may be there for training before he (or she) embarks on his/her own path. There is still room for one more laborer who is as committed to the goal as you are.
What should you do, then?
Articulate the target. You cannot find out whether the person's goal is compatible with yours if you have not made it clear just what you are trying to accomplish. I don't mean the generic (and usually ignored) "vision statement" that many businesses have. I mean the thing that motivates you, the thing that you see in your imagination that keeps you going through all the hardships that owning and running a business brings.
Paint most of the tasks to be performed in broad brush strokes, recognizing that each person will have some minor variation in the way they perform the job. You want them to be thinking about the task to be accomplished and its purpose, rather than mindlessly following some detailed step-by-step procedure.
Work to engage your employees, especially the "Lot" employees who share your vision and will go with you as you go for your promised land. By engage, I mean that you want them to be involved and invested in making the enterprise successful. This means, of course, that you cannot operate your business as just another soul-draining corporation. You have to invest in your employees, take responsibility for helping them to set and accomplish goals, including goals away from the workplace. People have the strange quality that they become most interested in those who are interested in them.
Be genuine. If you have to fake it, cut back on your work hours and get a new perspective. How? Spend more time with your family, reading, watching TV, or even playing video games. Join a gym and get some exercise. Find a local congregation and start attending more than once a week (and figure out how you can serve in a way that does not involve work-related tasks). The guys in the magazines who do nothing else but work are a pain to work for and a pain to be related to them. Do not be one of those people. It is not worth it, not to mention that you can only be effective for so many hours before you are just burning hours with little to show for it. You need other interests.
Schedule (on your end--"Lot" does not need to know that you have a formal plan in place) regular sessions where you and "Lot" just talk about your lives, your goals, and how well the two of you are doing in accomplishing them. Make a special effort to ensure that this is a two-way process. You might learn that you are going about something the wrong way, or that "Lot" has some problems bubbling beneath the surface that should be dealt with before they surface. Often, a trainee will see that something appears effortless when you do it, or that you do things a particular way, and will be frustrated that it is not working so well when he/she tries to duplicate the way you work. Practice will lead to improvement, but imitating your process may not always be the right choice.
Encourage "Lot" to have other interests and to pursue them. Chase "Lot" out of the building if necessary, but make sure he/she is not giving up too much for your business.
Do not be afraid to have more than one "Lot" in your business at the same time. Do not hide the fact that "Lot 2" exists. You may be able to team them up for some projects. Do not make them competitors for the same spot, because that is more like corporate America than a well-run SLOB.
Most importantly, your interest in developing your "Lot" should be spiritual first, and only after that should it be business and skills-related. Remember that Lot wound up fathering two sons in a drunken stupor with his own daughters as the mothers. Those sons produced their own nations, but they both followed idols, rather than following the One True God.
I went to church today. Not at the Foursquare church I tried last week. This week was an Assemblies of God I saw as I was driving to the other church. I do not quite know what to say about it. I liked it--they really seem friendly and welcoming. Like most of Lincoln, it seems to be almost all white, but not closed or hostile about it (as one church in Dublin, OH seemed to be).
Apparently, they had just had a community event (at a nearby park? or on the church grounds?) the past weekend, culminating with fireworks. About 400 people in the neighborhood, in addition to the church's own members, were there.
Today's sermon was a teaching out of 1 Cor. 12, discussing spiritual gifts. It was good teaching, but limited in that it did not stress that all Christ-followers are one church. Other than that, it is a message that all believers need to hear.
Spiritual gifts are not a reason to feel proud, nor a reason to be downcast. Any gift you are given is there for one purpose: to help the church to grow up, develop, and mature. Just as you can't write without your hands, you can't walk without your feet. So no person and no gift is more important than any other.
The list of gifts given in the first twelve verses appears to be a sampling, as the list is somewhat different further down in the chapter, and again in the book of Romans, chapter 12. We need to understand that we are all ministers (the word means servants) of Christ, and all responsible to build and mature the church and to reach out into a dying world and bring people into the church.
One thing I would like to see is for this church ("Christ's Place") to get involved with the Lincoln Foursquare Church. They are in different parts of town (and their denominations are similar). The two could learn from one another, and in the process, become more effective at being Christ's representatives on earth, both to other believers and to the world around us.
All in all, it was a good experience to visit this church. I plan on going back before I leave Nebraska.
One of the things that led God to choose Abram/Abraham as his co-worker on earth was Abram's likelihood of passing his relationship with God down to succeeding generations. Genesis 18:19 shows us how important that was in God's eyes.
Right now, in your own home, you can begin to carry out God's desire to have a co-worker in the earth who will pass down to succeeding generations a relationship with God. It doesn't come primarily by lecturing them. It comes by living the relationship, exploring God's Word (the Bible) and putting it into practice in your daily life, and by sharing with them your genuine interest in the things of God. We will not convince our children and grandchildren to pursue God, except by example.
I hear a sound of Christian pacifism arising in the young adults of today. Partly as a reaction to a war that they do not support, I imagine, younger believers are starting to examine the concept of pacifism. The one at home does not use that word, believing it to be synonymous with passivity. But he, like many others, is experimenting with the idea that physical violence is never justified for any cause or reason.
'Doesn't the Bible say "Thou shalt not kill"?' Without being a Hebrew scholar, I will not try to appeal to the original language here, but a simple look through the Old Testament tells us that even after the commandments were given, God still required his people to kill other people. Thus, it seems clear that there are times when taking a human life is justified. In fact, God required the death penalty for certain crimes.
'Look at what Jesus did. He loved the Pharisees and let them kill him.' Indeed he did, after he had angrily confronted them and called them a bunch of snakes--about the worst thing one could say to religious leaders in their society, alluding to the devil inhabiting the snake and using it to tempt Eve to sin--and took a whip and beat people in the Temple until they fled. Yes, Jesus sacrificed himself for their sins, but he did not start out being all lovey-dovey with them.
It almost seems as though he picked up where John the baptizer left off. Remember, when they came to be baptized, John called them names and asked who had warned them to flee the coming wrath. Well, John did, when he said "Repent, for the kingdom of God is coming soon." But they did not accept John as a prophet, yet they wanted to appear righteous before the people, so they came to seek baptism.
With Jesus, they start up with "Where did you get the authority to do these things?" As if to say that he was not allowed to preach, teach, heal, or raise the dead without their stamp of approval. Jesus did not accept it meekly, saying "I am doing what I saw my father in heaven doing." So he immediately establishes that his authority comes from a higher source than theirs, a public challenge to their legitimacy. Jesus did not "accept" and "show love" to them. He continually challenged them, pointing out their sin and showing where they had departed from the ways of God. He did this publicly, which must have inflamed their anger, even as certain of them (including Nicodemus in John chapter 3) privately admitted that he was right and that he was sent by God. It was this constant challenging of ungodly actions that led to the death of John the baptizer, and it also led to the death of Jesus.
A true follower of Jesus is not going to be some nebulous, squishy, formless blob that fits in anywhere, giving hugs and "sharing God's love" without condemnation. A true follower of Jesus is required to be judgmental and condemning of sinful behavior, while being compassionate toward the person who is trapped in sin. Judah is right when he says that we are mistaken when we portray Jesus and his followers as the kind of people that today's anti-God sinners would feel comfortable with.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that salvation was of the Jews. Jesus told the Syro-Phoenician woman that he could not take blessing from God's children and give it to dogs. Jesus told the Saducees that they could know about the resurrection from reading the portion of scriptures that they accepted, if they cared to learn. Jesus told the rich young ruler that he was too greedy and needed to disperse his goods among the poor. He did these things publicly, without concern for how much shame and embarrassment he was causing them. Why? Because people who are headed in the wrong direction need to be confronted with their error before the lovey-dovey side can ever cause them to change. Until then, lovey-dovey makes people feel that they are alright in their sins.
This is why we have whole denominations formed around "accepting" gay relationships. What they are really doing is approving something that God expressly disapproves. We have large "mainline" denominations debating over whether to believe the Bible and whether to accept practicing gay people into their ministerial staffs, as though God had not said that such behavior so disgusts him that those who practice those things would not be admitted into his kingdom.
And, no, it is not just gay relationships that God disapproves. Any sexual relationships outside of marriage (and let me make it clear that marriage is always a heterosexual relationship in God's eyes) fall into the same bracket. That President who taught Sunday school, yet is believed to have had serial affairs had better get right before he meets his maker. And likewise, anyone who participates in occultism, or who abuses recreational intoxicants is in a seriously bad spot.
So you see, a Christianity that does not confront people with their error and its effects on their lives is not a Christianity that will ever have an effect on the world around it. We have to confront first, so that people know that they will face judgment for their misdeeds. Only then can we come along with the Barney song to bring comfort.
Reading the Bible, there is a balance between love and judgment, between pacifism and violent retribution. I leave it to each reader to find that balance for himself or herself, but it can only come through intense Bible study and prayer, seeking to find the balance God has chosen for you.
I bought a camera yesterday. It was on the clearance table for $99. I thought it was the digital camera that I've been looking at for months, but it turns out to be a 35mm film camera. The thing is, having this camera inspired me to take a little photo walk today.
I noticed that nearly every business has the same golden-yellow daffodils. I don't think I had noticed them, but they are beautiful. I really enjoyed those flowers (even though I did wish that some businesses had chosen a different shade or an entirely different kind of flower).
Here's my point. I have been walking and driving past those very beautiful flowers every day without noticing them. It took changing my perspective or "opening my eyes" to make me see them.
We are bombarded with bad news. The economy, crime, drug abuse, bad weather, and environmental news come at us day after day. We deal with bosses, teachers, spouses, and others who may not be easy-to-please, but whose pleasure is deeply connected with our own happiness. Is it any wonder that we are so frequently negative? So often focused on the task at hand that we have no time or energy left over to stop and enjoy God's creation?
We have to make it a priority to take a small amount of time and use it to find beauty and grace. Think of it as observing the working of God's hand in situations where he may not otherwise be visible.
AMMAN, Jordan - Archaeologists in Jordan have discovered a cave underneath one of the world's oldest churches and say it may have been an even more ancient site of Christian worship. But outside experts expressed caution about the claim.
Archaeologist Abdel-Qader al-Housan, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, said this week that the cave was unearthed in the northern Jordanian city of Rihab after three months of excavation and shows evidence of early Christian rituals.
This is interesting news, but not conclusive at all. It is important in that it could show us a little more of how believers lived and worshipped in the earliest days of the Church. But it should not become a central part of one's faith, nor should it be revered as a relic, the way the shroud of Turin is revered.
I look at it this way. As a believer, I am not depending upon earthly, physical things as a basis for my faith in God. If you can see it, you don't need faith to believe it. Faith is about believing things that you have no earthly way to test and verify. That is the problem with "scientific creationism". If your faith in God is dependent upon finding some earthly artifact which verifies that God made everything, you are in deep trouble. Science is an ever-changing field, and even things that were "proven" true may proven false decades later.
Can you imagine if they found Adam's bones with a firepit with dinosaur bones in it nearby? Suddenly, everyone would become creationists. And then, when someone inevitably found flaws in the theory, all those whose faith was based on earthly things will lose their faith.
Say it with me: If you can see it, it isn't faith. I do not want or need relics to prove to me that God exists and that he rewards those who make the effort to seek him and get to know him. If anything, I want purer, simpler faith--it was once okay to say, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." Now, if God said it, I know it is settled, whether I choose to believe or not.
And so it is with this cave and the church built above it. Everything in the story may be proven false tomorrow. Let us not make the mistake of making our faith based upon today's earthly theories, because they'll change tomorrow. Instead, the foundation of our faith must be God's revealed message as found in the Bible.
I am over 2,100 miles away from home (driving distance according to Yahoo! Maps). So it is only natural that MJ is not walking the 14 miles round-trip (driving distance according to Google Maps) to attend church meetings. If he is not at work and one of his friends decides to attend, he goes. Otherwise, he does not. We are also actively looking for another congregation, possibly in another state. (I am in the midst of trying to relocate away from Southern California, although I am trying to get other family members to join us in the other area, and the response has been pretty poor thus far.)
He was contacted by one of the pastoral staff at HDC because he "hasn't been coming to church". Now, whenever that topic comes up, someone will refer to Hebrews 10:25, or verses 23 - 29 if they prefer to read it in context.
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God?s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God?s mercy to us.
"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another ...." (Heb. 10:25, NLT) This is the specific verse that we use to force people to passively sit in an organization's "services" or meetings. Reading the verse itself and its context, we can see that this may not necessarily be what it means.
Is "church" supposed to be a building? The organization or group of people that meet in that building? Or people whose lives are transformed by repentance from sins and joining in a relationship with God the father and his son Jesus through Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice and the working of the Holy Spirit?
The Church As A Building Or The Group That Meets There
If "the church" is a building, then church attendance should confer salvation. We know that it does not work that way. We can all point to some individual who is or was a regular church attender, but whose life away from the building does not reflect the influence of God. We can all point to groups who meet in particular buildings whose theologies are anything but God-inspired, even groups who were much closer in the past.
"Going to church" does not make you a Christian, any more than going into the garage makes you a car. Becoming a member of an organization or not becoming a member does not make you a Christian or keep you from becoming one. This is self-evident. Anyone who looks at it will know that this is true.
So what is the purpose of church (in the sense of a group of people meeting in a certain building)? Well, it is for us to meet together to encourage one another, strengthen one another in faith and commitment, and to challenge one another to continued spiritual growth, the same purposes that any meeting of believers should have. Jesus said that wherever we gather together in his name, he is present. And so it is, or should be, primarily a time to build up for the challenges ahead.
The Church As Believers, Not Organizations
I think we are missing something in our emphasis on organizations. Have you noticed that most pastors' favorite verse seems to be Malachi 3:8? You may be working at Big Blue, that large discount retailer, trying to pay your rent and your utilities, your car payment and insurance, and maybe even have a little left over to buy food and clothing, but don't even think of putting less than a tenth of your earnings into the collection plate. While you hope your abusive neighbor doesn't knock his girlfriend through the paper-thin walls separating his apartment from yours, the "church" is about to break ground on a million-dollar Sunday school building.
We have to remember that our nation is getting more and more hostile to Christianity in any form. What happens when the government dissolves our organizations and seizes our buildings? It happened to some degree in Russia, as well as China, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and North Korea. It can happen here. Are we prepared for that? Are we building our faith and commitment to God the father and Jesus the son and to one another, or are we building our faith and commitment to pastor so-and-so and his church organization?
Look at the purpose of meeting together again. While your pastor does do some encouraging (exhorting or preaching) and some teaching, the hallmark of any good teacher is that his/her students become equal to the teacher. "Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher" (Luke 6:40, NLT) If your pastor's teaching does not produce strong believers who can take his place, he is not teaching correctly. We have this idea that those who wish to know more about God and our Christian faith become theologians and seminary graduates, but that is clearly not the way it is supposed to be.
Again, rather than a single strong individual with a large group of people that are dependent upon him, the goal of the church is for all individuals to be strong, so that there is no single point of failure. Can you imagine how it would have affected Christianity if everything fell apart after the executions of the earliest apostles? What happened instead? Believers fled the persecution, carrying their faith with them wherever they went and winning converts among the local populace of their new homes. It wasn't someone with umpteen years of specific training. It was everyday people who were repentant and full of faith in God that carried the church to Antioch and other places. Paul and other missionary apostles spread the gospel into other parts of the Roman Empire and beyond, but even there, everyday believers carried on the work after as little as a few weeks with the apostles.
But how could they do this? "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles? teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord?s Supper), and to prayer." (Acts 2:42, NLT) Did you see that? They devoted themselves to the teachings and to building relationships with one another and to prayer. They were not waiting for the pastor to stop talking so they could go see how the 49ers were doing. As a consequence, they were able to continue the work without the apostles presence. Ask yourself this: if your pastor was taken away from your congregation, could the members not only maintain things but also spread the message to nearby areas?
This is NOT an anti-church rant. I arrived in Ohio six weeks ago today. Three of the six weeks, I was in church. Two of those weeks were at a very good church, Radiant Life Church in Dublin, Ohio. I recommend this church for anyone visiting central Ohio. I already wrote about the other church. However, church as an organization can only cover a small part of what church is supposed to be, because they are inherently focused on the organization's needs rather than on building up believers to endure and even thrive in hardship.
Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. -- Proverbs 22:6, NLT
You see, your city or state or even the federal government was not given this instruction, as one can see by reading chapter 22 for context. These are generic instructions, meant to be given to a young individual by an older individual who is influential in his or her life. Many of these are the kinds of things that grandparents want to share with their grandchildren. It is almost like one who reflects back on missed opportunities and mistakes wanting to help someone else avoid these pitfalls.
For example, you want to tell your children the truth about the birds and bees early on. You especially want to teach them to delay "reproductive activities" until they are grown and married. Follow that up by discussing ways to avoid getting into pressure situations. If you wait until they already have hormones, you will be raising your grandchildren while your children complete middle school and high school. If you wait and let them hear from the schools, they'll believe that everything is okay as long as they use "protection".
Proverbs 22:7 tells us about financial training: "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender." I recently saw an online video where someone was talking about teaching biblical financial principles to our children. Only, the woman said that parents should get credit cards for their children, supposedly to teach them to manage credit. That is so far wrong, that it should be considered child abuse! Teaching your children to voluntarily accept slavery to big, unfeeling, out-of-area banks? How is that biblical? If anything, you and I should be looking at ways to reduce or eliminate the influence of those banks in our lives and our society. If you missed it, let me repeat it: Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.
As for education, you should be in charge of your children's schooling, not some agency in the state or national capital. It starts when they are very young--if you let television or DVDs become your babysitter, you have abdicated your responsibility. You should not be surprised when your 17 year old accepts the "word of the world" that life originated from a chance collision of chemical molecules, rather than the Word of God that God himself planned and organized the arrangement of chemical molecules that make up living beings. You should not be surprised when your teen accepts all sorts of lifestyles as "normal", while rejecting a lifestyle of commitment and responsibility (to God, your family, your church, and society). You should not be surprised when your teen accepts the anti-life viewpoint, either--that is what happens when you fail to do your job as a parent and let people whose spiritual father is the devil step in to do your job. I recently wrote about some of the failings of the school system and some suggestions that may help to improve it.
As Christians in business, it is important that we institute these things in our own lives and families, as well as helping our co-workers and employees understand the need to find a congregation where they can learn to apply the Bible to their lives. We need to advocate for changes in our schools and society that make it easier for parents and other family members to take the lead in training up the family's children. And we need to, within the limits of our authority, run our businesses in a family-friendly manner, including things like scheduling, policies, and benefits. We can and should be in the forefront here, being examples to other firms around us.
By now, everyone has heard of the recent California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the state. California already has a state "domestic partners registry", which grants many of the same rights and priveleges under state law.
The decision is wrong-headed on multiple levels. For example, while we are pushing more and more public recognition of homosexuality and other variant practices, Islamic terrorists want to kill us because of our immorality and decadence. One of the reasons Islamic fanatics hate us is because we were widely perceived as "Christian", yet we honor and celebrate many activities that are inconsistent with Christianity, historical Judaism, or Islam. Public recognition of homosexual relationships in spite of a long cultural history assigning such behavior to the realm of immorality is just another wedge in an already fiercely-divided society. As the political statements about a certain candidate's appeal to "working Americans, white Americans" show, we are not one big happy family, and in fact are in danger of following India and a number of African nations into the abyss of inter-religious, inter-political party, and inter-ethnic conflict. Homosexual practices do, in fact, violate the beliefs and practices of both historical Judaism and Christianity. Given an understanding of the whole purpose for governmental recognition of marriage, there is no justification to add homosexual relationships to the list.
Strengthens the appeal of anti-American terror groups: When Osama bin Laden decided to launch his war against America, part of his motivation was our presence in Saudi Arabia. It seems that Americans consume alcoholic beverages, participate in sexual relations outside of marriage, eat pork, and worship on Sunday instead of Friday. We don't accept Mohammed's words as the truth from God, and we certainly don't base our laws on the Koran. We allow our banks to charge interest on their loans. We allow women to appear in public without veils. All of these things already motivate our nation's enemies. Adding public backing for homosexual marriages will just boost the recruiting of groups like al-Qaeda.
Violates America's historic Judeo-Christian beliefs and practices: America has always been a nation in which was based upon the principles of Christianity and historic Judaism. Most of our citizens have been regular church attenders until the 1960s. We were widely revered as a Christian nation (and although we are no longer revered, we are still perceived as a Christian nation). Homosexuality violates our historic and biblical principles no less than "plural marriage" or beastiality do. To endorse homosexual marriage is to lend the state's influence to those who wish to silence those who declare the truth that homosexual behavior, like other forms of sexual immorality, will destroy both our society and on judgment day the practitioner. The approval of this practice can have no other effect on our world-wide reputation than to brand us as hormone-charged adolescents.
Worsens divisions in an already-divided nation: America is increasingly polarized and intolerant. Democrats and Republicans can barely speak to one another in a civil manner. Discussions between individual citizens about the important issues of our time are impossible, because someone always gets angry. Whites are angry at blacks and other ethnic groups. Blacks are angry at whites and other ethnic groups. Jews are angry at Christians, Islamics are angry at everyone. Extremists have taken over every conversation, on every issue. These extremists snipe at one another and polarize every issue, so that moderation and common sense are actually punished.
I heard a short, but heated conversation about whether a certain political candidate should quit the race. The two individuals in the conversation quickly got to the point where I fled to avoid the conflict. Why? Because we in this country believe that anyone who disagrees with us must be stupid. Surely, if people were at all intelligent, they would all agree with us, right?
Other issues should have priority: Here in the United States, as in many other multi-ethnic societies, we have some conflicts, including some long-standing grievances, that acrue on account of someone's ancestry. We keep sweeping it under the rug, rather than dealing with the legacy of racism. Sure, we have made some large strides forward, but we have failed to make it a society-wide priority to cure the disparities that came about because nearly all the benefits of our society were set aside for members of one ethnic group, while much of the work to produce those benefits was done by members of other ethnic groups. But rather than fix that problem, we suddenly jump onto a whole different issue. The fact is, if you have dark skin, everyone who sees you knows it, while you and I probably know dozens of people who practice homosexual behavior, but we don't know it or see it. What this means is that anyone who feels that they are "oppressed" as a gay person can duck many of the effects merely by peeling off their pink triangle stickers, while a person with dark skin cannot just put on a whiteness cream.
When a major candidate for one of the two largest political parties can make her ancestry and plumbing an issue in the campaign and convince people to vote for her because of those things, we certainly have too many things going wrong already. We don't need to make
Marriage Not About You: As surprising as it may seem, society's reasons for recognizing and honoring marriage have nothing to do with you or your feelings. Society recognizes marriage because married couples are more stable, more productive, and less likely to threaten the established order. That is, heterosexual marriages are proven to be beneficial in improving social stability. In contrast, even in places like California's Bay Area, where homosexuality is celebrated and protected, relationships tend to be short-term and selfish, being mostly about sex. Even the insurance industry, hardly a bastion of charity, recognizes that marriage (at least heterosexual marriage) produces stability. Further, heterosexual marriages and their stability have been proven to be outstanding places for the generation and training of the next generation. Children who grow up in a stable two-parent heterosexual family tend to become productive and stable members of society themselves, while many of today's unconventional domestic units are not proven to do the same.
What can we do for gay couples? I think that providing certain benefits to couples who are not able or willing to marry can be socially beneficial. For example, visitation rights should one partner become ill. There are certainly enough cases in which a couple has been together for some time, but upon one of them becoming ill, relatives took custody and banned the other partner from communicating with or visiting the ill person. Inheritance: our inheritance laws are already a mess. During a cleanup of the mess, we need to consider what to do about inheritance for long-term committed unmarried couples who may not have a current will.
Finally, we have to recognize that God's Word is true. All of it. We have a chance to make some right choices. This is a chance that we have avoided taking before. For the sake of our state and our nation, I hope that we make the right choice here.
