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Greetings!
This month we're pausing from our customary marriage or parenting topic, as we're feeling a need to underscore a more serious concern.
Peace in the Home believes faith must permeate, inform, and be lived out in all aspects of our lives -- at home, in the workplace, and in the town square. When we compartmentalize, our faith is blunted, our voices are muted, suffering increases, and the fabric of our society begins to unravel. It seems we are further down that path today, than we were even two or three weeks ago.
As an organization passionate about marriage and family, we are not comfortable quietly standing by, when there's a need to speak up. Whether you agree with "Beneath an Engaging Smile" or not, please email your thoughts, as we always appreciate hearing from our subscribers.
Love, Robert & Melissa
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Beneath an Engaging Smile
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"It's hard to tell the nighttime from the day."
~ Eagles
I need to state the obvious: God's design for the family is under attack. When I say that, I usually get one of two responses: A knowing nod, or a look like I have three heads.
If God's design for the family wasn't under attack, Peace in the Home (and other pro-family organizations) wouldn't need to exist. Marriages wouldn't need as much shoring up; parents wouldn't need as much encouragement; children wouldn't need as much moral and physical protection; there wouldn't be such a shortage of babies for loving moms and dads to adopt; teenagers wouldn't need (quite) as much guidance; and pastors, priests and rabbis wouldn't need to be afraid to expound biblical texts on moral issues.
People have always had an internal problem. Depending on who you ask, man's nature varies from being incapable of not sinning, to having a tendency to make poor decisions from time-to-time.
What I'm writing about today, is something more external. "Attacks" are generally from without -- from an external foe.
"Did God really say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" ~ Genesis 3:1b
God's design for the family has always been under attack. Early in human history, Satan led a deceptive, one-creature attack, disrupting a harmonious home, dividing our first parents, and distancing them from their loving creator. Family was the original spiritual battleground. Little has changed since those early days.
Since attacks on the family are nothing new, Peace in the Home is accustomed to running into anti-family opposition from individuals and organizations whose values are grounded in non-biblical worldviews.
We're not, however, accustomed to anti-family opposition coming from a government we've entrusted with our votes, or from "Christian" denominations who should be the last beacons of hope for relational and spiritual brokenness.
From Peace in the Home's perspective, what does an attack on the family look like?
The family is under attack when society invests more resources into divorce than it does into keeping families intact.
The family is under attack when helping children to feel good about themselves becomes a more important goal than training them to be responsible, respectful and resourceful citizens.
The family is under attack when a teenage daughter may be lawfully forced by strangers over state lines for an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge.
The family is under attack when the birds and the bees and the trees become as important as babies.
The family is under attack when a gender disorder with eighty years of clinical history is extracted from its profession's diagnostic manual for purely political reasons, launching an era of therapeutic confusion and public misinformation. (The Journal of Psychohistory, 19(3), Winter 1992)
The family is under attack when parents rights over the discipline and education of their own precious children are eroded by activist courts.
The family is under attack when health care reform is a guise for universal access to taxpayer-funded abortion.
The family is under attack when girls and women are taught that their most valuable contributions to society don't include being a wife and mother.
The family is under attack when two same gender warm bodies are permitted to adopt innocent children, subsequently modelling brokenness to yet another generation.
The family is under attack when before-and-after-school programs make it easier for moms and dads to work longer hours, rather than maximizing their time with each other and their children.
The family is under attack when the popular media presents pre-marital sex and marital infidelity as acceptable, desirable and normative ways of being.
The family is under attack when online pornography is readily available on every smart phone or video iPod.
The family is under attack when governments invest more resources into organizations with nice names who promote promiscuity and abortion than they do into self-control and adoption.
The family is under attack when some formerly-respectable "Christian" denominations embrace theology and practice contrary to scripture, and simply drift with the culture on moral issues without any apparent limits.
"Contemporary churches need to hear again what the spirit says to the churches in the Book of Revelation."
~ Edmund P. Clowney
The family is under attack when government schools are used to advance social engineering agendas, influencing the hearts and minds of our children, without any heed to parental values.
The family is under attack when fully one-quarter of the next generation is murdered in the womb.
The family is under attack when the voting public doesn't see past an engaging smile to the anti-family agenda lurking beneath.
God's design for the family is under attack, big time.
To clarify, Peace in the Home is not a "political" organization. Don't miss this point: just because a moral issue has become politicised, doesn't mean that speaking out is taboo for faith-based organizations. If it concerns the family, then we're concerned too.
Peace in the Home is committed to fighting to keep God's design for the family intact, by strengthening marriages, preventing divorce, encouraging parents and by educating the public on gender and other moral issues. That's our mission.
One of my heroes of the faith is Daniel. He's Judaism's and Christianity's poster boy for genuine faith, and perhaps the best illustration of the Hebrew concept that a belief isn't a belief until it's acted upon. We can learn a lot by reading about how this courageous Hebrew lived in a culture that was radically opposed to God.
If you've done some nodding (in affirmation) in the last few moments, you probably agree that the family is under attack. We'd like you to think about being more of a Daniel in your world. Here are just a couple of ways ...
1. Think biblically. A good starting point is personal prayer and repentance. Like Daniel, begin from a posture of humility, and know your source of wisdom. Then seek an understanding of the biblical teaching on the issues of the day impacting the family. Often we turn our backs on emotionally-charged topics, or retreat out of fear or inadequacy. Getting equipped gives rise to courage. Resolve to think biblically.
2. Live biblically. Resolve never again to compartmentalize your life. Daniel's faith informed his diet, his politics, his friendships, what he was willing to speak up for, and whose precepts he was willing to die for. Living biblically means engaging the culture with compassion, clarity, confidence, respect and courage. Occasionally, it might mean dialing your senator or congressman. But it always means being a proponent of God-honouring change.
Please pray for the family. Blessings on your homes, rgp
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