DUTCH TREAT- Cal Fox's Blog - Social Issues

WHO IS BEING JUDGMENTAL AND UNFAIR?

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:05:43 -0400

The local cause célèbre du jour is the resignation of a long time Teacher and very popular Dean of Students and Athletic Director at the local Roman Catholic High School because she publicly married her partner. The Diocese knew she was a lesbian, but that did not violate the Rules of Employment. Entering into a "Gay marriage" does. The woman, by all accounts is a very likable and gifted person, doing good work with the students. She also knew the consequences of her decision to "marry" and accepts full responsibility for loss of her job. She is not suing the Diocese and agrees they were within their legal rights. Admirable.

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THE CELEBRIFICATION OF AMERICAN CULTURE

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:53:06 -0400

I have written in other places about a cultural trend that is getting, I believe, far too little attention. Its been termed the celebrification of culture an awkward term, perhaps, but like industrialization and bureaucratization, it speaks to a broad and historical trend: the increasing centrality of celebrities to the culture.

Movie and television stars, professional athletes and musicians, business moguls and journalists, have captured our attention as never before. Joseph Epstein writes that a received opinion about America in the early twenty-first century is that our culture values only two things: money and celebrity. From this, celebrities have become our cultural commentators, charity spokespersons, role models, and political candidates. They have become the arbiters of taste, morality and public opinion. Richard Schickel, who has written for Time magazine since 1972, reflects, No issue or idea in our culture can gain any traction with the general population unless it has celebrity names attached to it.

Comments by James White on his blog today at http://www.churchandculture.org

Could all this be said of today's Church Culture?

WHAT IS IGNORED BUT CRUCIAL TO IMPROVING SCHOOLS

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:55:12 -0400

The Springfield School District (in which I live) has recently been awarded 19 million dollars from our Federal taxes to improve education here. Most of the students of our City do not graduate from High School. Most live below the poverty line. Most of these children are Black or Hispanic. Most of them live in single parent families. Most of them are illegitimate (70% of all Black children) and the males who helped produce them do not live in their homes.

The new grant money, which follows millions more that have been given in recent years, will keep Teachers employed a little longer and new programs will be developed to aide "Learning" and buildings will be upgraded. All that, of course, is good. I do not expect it will really change the education of most of the students having problems with "school". Why? The money is not going to deal with the five factors that are crucial-

"Two decades, five factors. Two decades have passed since Barton wrote "America's Smallest School: The Family." He has estimated that about 90 percent of the difference in schools' proficiencies can be explained by five factors: the number of days students are absent from school, the number of hours students spend watching television, the number of pages read for homework, the quantity and quality of reading material in the students' homes -- and, much the most important, the presence of two parents in the home. Public policies can have little purchase on these five, and least of all on the fifth."

Please read the entire article by George Will- content/article/

WHY WE MUST OPPOSE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:57:17 -0400

We support stem cell research! We oppose embryonic stem cell research! The latter involves the destruction of embryos and that means destroying human beings. Here is the main reason for believing that.

Since there is normally a continuum from conception to birth, it can be said that the zygote, blastocyst, fetus and the embryo are a human being at different developmental stages. Every human child and adult began his or her life at conception. The adult is a zygote fully developed. To destroy a zygote (or a blastocyst, fetus and the embryo) is to destroy a specific human being.

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KRAUTHAMMER HITS NAIL ON HEAD

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:08:25 -0400

Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed. Just yesterday it was all hope and change and returning power to the people. But the people have proved so disappointing. Their recalcitrance has, in only 19 months, turned the predicted 40-year liberal ascendancy (James Carville) into a full retreat. Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the "bitter" people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging "to guns or religion or" -- this part is less remembered -- "antipathy toward people who aren't like them."

That's a polite way of saying: clinging to bigotry. And promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.

/content/article/

EMBRYOS: DISCARDED OR DESTROYED?

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:19:27 -0400

Embryonic stem cell research is in the news again this week content/article/

Conservative Christians oppose such research because it involves destruction of embryos, which we consider to be (at least potential) human beings. However, we must be honest and realistic. There are more than 100,000 embryos frozen and being kept for family planning purposes. Many (most) of them will eventually die and be discarded. Are those who oppose the research being consistent?

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9038/index1.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_inco.htm

WHAT THE US CONSTITUTION REALLY SAYS ABOUT CITIZENSHIP

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:52:16 -0400

14th Amendment- Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside

HERE IS THE PHRASE BEING DEBATED TODAY: "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"

"Yes, the courts -- so far -- have generally deferred to an interpretation of the provision which holds that it means "The U.S. Constitution grants citizenship to any person born on U.S. soil." But saying the courts have so far interpreted the amendment that way is quite different from pretending that's what the amendment actually says. ...there is no automatic citizenship for a baby born to an illegal alien who willfully evaded the jurisdiction of American immigration laws."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/

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SACRILEGE

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:43:05 -0400

Here is another excellent article about the Moslem Center at ground Zero. I agree with the reasoning and, as you will see, it applies to far more than this proposed building.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081204996.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

HAVE THEY NO SHAME?

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:24:51 -0400

Money is for ministry. That is what the Bible teaches. Make all you can (legally and ethically, of course) but use it to serve others. Here is an article about some people who are shameless with how they spend their money on themselves in "these tough economic times".

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/08/13/an_embarrassment_of_riches/

ARGUMENTS AGAINST "TRADITIONAL" MARRIAGE

nospam@example.com (Cal) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:01:15 -0400

The author of this article in Slate magazine slashs and burns, with great animus, all the major arguments made to support "traditional" Marriage, while supporting "Gay Marriage". She makes some valid points, especially as she describes many negative things about "traditional" Marriage as it has been practiced through the centuries.

http://www.slate.com/id/2263346/

Christians must stop getting sucked into these arguments. We must advocate for Marriage only as God instituted it in His Law (That is not what most Evangelicals or the world are debating about) And then we must demonstrate in our own lives what such a Marriage is in practice (and most of us do not do that). See my article about Biblical Marriage biblical-basics-for-marriage-