UNCLE SAM OR UNCLE PERVERT?

December 3, 2015

Just when I think things have gotten about as crazy as they can, someone in a position of power in our government or judicial system shows that’s not the case.  Our own federal government is now pressuring a school district in Illinois to allow a transgender student (a male living as a female) to shower in the girl’s locker room (see Illinois District Violated Transgender Student’s Rights, U.S. Says - The New York Times).  

The perverse hypocrisy of this latest move is breathtaking.  If a male on the street was to expose his private parts to one of these girls he would be arrested for indecent exposure.  Yet, because this male claiming to be a female is being afforded not just protection, but outright advocacy, of his deviance, these same young girls will be compelled to accept his exposure or face the threat of punishment if they, or their school district, refuse to allow this travesty to take place.

How much more of this kind of perverse nonsense is going to be accepted before people rise up in arms and say enough is enough?  Do you really want your fourteen year old daughter forced to shower with males?  Only people whose sense of morality is absolutely non-existent could not only support but trumpet and pressure for something this bizarre.

What has happened to the rights of the majority when it comes to “sexual freedom”?  Since when did my daughter or yours lose her right to be embarrassed by being forced or coerced into showering with a male?  Since when did parent’s rights to protect their children from sexual deviancy cease?  I realized there is a segment of this country that is so perverted they are praising the actions of the government.  But I also believe the majority of Americans find such actions despicable.

We truly are finding ourselves living under government tyranny.  Not only is the right to freedom of religion being systematically stripped from us, but the right to protect our children from deviants is being stripped as well.  Where will it stop?  Who could have envisioned even a few years ago that this kind of immoral trash would be being enforced on our children by our government and courts?

The citizens of Houston just resoundingly defeated an ordinance which would have given transgender folks the right to use whichever bathroom they chose, regardless of their biological sex.  The progressives are moaning and groaning about the hatred and bigotry reflected in that vote.  But it is perfectly fine for them to shove their immorality down our throats in the name of individual freedom.  What about the freedom not to be embarrassed?  What about the freedom not to be shocked?  What about the freedom not to want your child exposed to others who are heartbreakingly confused morally and sexually and need help, not reinforcement of their confusion.  

I believe the citizens of Houston made it clear people are sick and tired of having perversity forced upon them.  They are tired of being ordered, in the name of equality, to accept situations and circumstances which they find immoral and embarrassing.  Despite what the main stream media has been trumpeting, it clearly is not the will of the people to allow this kind of thing to go on.  It is the federal government and the courts which are supporting and enforcing this bizarre nonsense, not average citizens.

It is downright embarrassing that our government is involved in promulgating perversity.  This government and its courts no longer speak for me or millions of others on moral issues.  As Christians, and as people who care about the troubling direction this country is taking, it is vital that we speak up and speak out about what is going on.  And, more than ever, we need to use the ballot box to let our government officials know just how disgusted we are that our country, which is now under systematic attack by Muslim extremists, struggling to handle millions of illegal aliens, and drowning in trillions of dollars of debt, has leaders who would choose to focus on forcing school age girls to view the private parts of young males.  Really?  On the scale of things that matter, should so-called “transgender rights” be right there at the top of the list as far as priorities go?

May God help us to protect our little girls from an Uncle Sam who has, unfortunately, become an Uncle Pervert.

BETRAYERS OF THE FAITH

October 15,2015

            One of the reasons this country is in such dismal moral and spiritual condition is because of the “clergy” in this country who have absolutely betrayed the One whose name they besmirch.  These so-called Christians embrace an agenda which smacks of humanism and atheism far more than it does of Jesus.  These progressive hacks who use Christianity as a cloak for their actions are despicable.  Paul will describe them in this way in Titus 1:16 – They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

 I realize these are harsh words, but the evil that is being prattled about by these shysters needs to be revealed.  They are gutting the heart of Christianity in this country.  For years they have been lining up to be interviewed by a liberal press, eager to get their fifteen minutes of fame as they degrade and decry the God they claim to serve, His people, and His word.  It really sticks in my craw when one of these hypocrites piously spout their tripe as they scrupulously defend the morally and spiritually indefensible.

The latest outrage, and I do not use that word lightly, occurred this month in Cleveland, Ohio.  There, a band of these misfits chose to bless a Cleveland abortion clinic – see Clergy group blesses Cleveland abortion clinic .  Yes, you read it right.  A place that murders babies was blessed by these quislings who, to their shame, claim to do so in the name of Christ.  Excuse me, but if that doesn’t border on blasphemy, what does? 

Quoting from the article:  “The Rev. Harry Knox, president of the national Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said the service was spurred by “renewed attacks on reproductive health rights” and the anti-abortion activities of “far too many religious people.”  Consider this bizarrely twisted idiocy with me for a moment.

First of all, are you as sick as I am of hearing this blather about “reproductive choice,” and “reproductive health rights”? Ripping babies to pieces to remove them from their mother’s wombs, or scalding them to death in saline solution within the womb, has absolutely NOTHING to do with reproductive rights. The reproductive right was exercised and enjoyed when the woman chose to have sex with a man.  The issue is whether that right was carried out in a moral and responsible manner, not whether the right was exercised. Choosing to slaughter an innocent human life in utero has NOTHING to do with reproductive choice.  It has to do with the cold-blooded choice to destroy the life of a helpless, defenseless, voiceless human being.  I am outraged by the callous word play these charlatans use in an attempt to sanitize and defend something that is unclean and indefensible.

Secondly, did you notice the usual condemnation by these jokers of “far too many religious people”?  Those of us who are Christians, who value human life, and who find abortion reprehensible and indefensible are classified by this enlightened piece of work as misguided, bigoted, zealots.  One of Rev. Knox’s cohorts in this sham, a United Methodist minister by the name of the Reverend Laura Young, put it this way: “We’re doing this because too many religious people are hurling shame and hate at women seeking abortion, when we should be offering compassion, care and spiritual healing.” So those of us who oppose murdering babies for profit with the excuse they’re inconvenient are haters and shamers?  I don’t know about you, but I am hurling shame at abortion and its providers.  Absolutely and unequivocally.  I hate that such a moral betrayal and travesty is occurring in our country.  I don’t hate the women who are aborting their babies.  I pity them.  And we should offer them compassion, care, and spiritual healing, BUT NOT A CONDONING OF THAT WHICH IS UNJUSTIFIABLE AND SINFUL!

Whether from the apologists for the LGBTQ crowd or these charlatans in religious garb with their fancy titles (and generally they are one and the same), you hear the same nonsense spouted over and over again.  They claim to be the voice of reason, of love, of acceptance, of inclusion.  Anyone who would condemn fornication or abortion is the voice of judgment and hatred and shame. They wear their crosses around their necks and insist that God will accept the unrepentant sinner in his or her sin. If one claims to be a Christian that is all that matters.  “Lifestyle” (another progressive code word for blatantly sinning) is irrelevant.  You can party and fornicate and obliterate the inconvenient results and God will welcome you with open arms.  That is literally a lie from the pit of Hell (see Rom 1:18-32; 1 Cor 6:9-20; Gal 5:19-21; 2 Pet 2:12-22; John 8:44). 

There is a picture that accompanies this article.  It shows several of the participants with their vestments and white collars joining hands with smiles on their faces as they demonstrate.  Signs behind them proclaim Pro-faith, Pro-family, Pro-choice.  Off to one side in the picture is a little child who doesn’t appear to be more than four or five years old holding one of those signs.  I just wonder if that child really knew what those adults beside her were advocating, that is, the right of her Mommy to have killed her before she was born, if she would agree?   The little girl appears to be black.  Do you suppose she is aware that in New York City, according to 2012 statistics from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, there were 31,328 black babies aborted and only 24,758 live births?  Does that cute little child have the slightest clue these smiling ogres in their vestments standing beside her are encouraging a genocidal elimination of her race in the name of love?  When she grows up is she really cognizant they hope she’ll “choose” to destroy one or more of her offspring in the name of “reproductive choice”?

We are witnessing a litany of “low” days in our culture.  This gathering in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 2015 to ask our God to bless an abortion clinic is definitely one of them.

             

A GENERATION OF BARBARIANS

October 12, 2015

            The Greeks thought the language of the people outside of their realm sounded nonsensical, strange, and ignorant.  They ridiculed it by referring to it as “barbarous,” mimicking with that term the coarseness they perceived in the language.  From this root would come our modern term “barbarian”: a word which speaks of the uncivilized and uncultured who would destroy whatever they encounter.

            Today, in this country, I believe we are now raising successive generations of barbarians.  I’m not using the term pejoratively, but rather descriptively.  The word very accurately describes the way our culture has gone.  And the trajectory towards barbarism has not been accidental.  It has taken years of concentrated effort on the part of many for us to reach this nadir in the existence of our country and culture.  But I believe we are here.  No longer, as the movie of a few years ago asserted, are the barbarians merely at the gates.  They are now among us.  They are us.  And I place no blame upon these barbarians.  It’s really not their fault.  They literally don’t know any better.  Raised in a coarse and vulgar environment in which evil is celebrated and perversity honored and praised, why should we expect anything else?

            Gangs of young males now roam the streets of our cities, slaughtering each other at a horrifying pace.  They have no conscience and evince little remorse when they are caught and punished for their crimes.  Daily they are breaking into our homes, hijacking our automobiles, raping our women, and robbing the innocent on the streets.  How else could one possibly describe them except as barbarians?  The only difference between them and their predecessors in history is location.  Their callousness to human suffering; their viciousness and rage against those around them is no different.

            Our colleges and universities have for years been training highly educated, technically sophisticated barbarians with business degrees and MBA’s.  These barbarians in fancy suits and thousand dollar shoes are destroying us financially as they pillage our banks and businesses.  Operating without moral or ethical boundaries, our government has been unable to write laws fast enough to stop them from grossly abusing the system.  They can afford to purchase a façade of civility.  They live in their ocean view estates, and have educated themselves to know which wine goes with what course, but they are still no more than barbarians feasting on the spoils of their carnage.

            I walked into Walmart early in the morning a few Saturdays ago and encountered one of the most egregious examples of bizarre deliberate mutilation of the human body I have seen.  This poor barbarian couldn’t have been more than in his late twenties.  He was a big man both in height and girth.  From the top of his head to his feet every piece of flesh that was available for viewing was covered with multi-colored tattoos.  His earlobes hung nearly to his shoulders, pierced and filled with rings inches in diameter.  There were studs and rings protruding from his eyebrows, lips, cheeks, and ears.  He looked freakish.  I literally wondered if he hadn’t come early to avoid scaring small children, because I really think he would.  What would possess anyone to so deliberately mutilate themselves?  He is a poster child for the barbaric self-mutilation that a generation of barbarians have chosen to glorify.

The women are no less barbaric.  They have been brainwashed into believing that slut like dress and behavior is somehow glamorous and empowering.  At a funeral I conducted  the other day, I was shocked at the dress, or lack thereof, of several of the younger women in attendance.  They were dressed more like street walkers than mourners.  And lest I be accused of being old and cynical, I had several others in attendance, some of whom were contemporaries of these women, making the same comment.  Once again, I’m lamenting not blaming.  These poor young women are clueless as to how a lady is to dress.  Their mothers clearly have not taught or modeled modesty for them.  The example set before them in the media is by female barbarians who make their living by baring their flesh for a price.  All they are doing is mimicking what they see glorified instead of vilified daily.

            The church I’m privileged to preach for has a very active prison ministry at a women’s prison here in Oklahoma.  I’m out there an average of twice a month to preach and conduct baptisms.  My heart breaks at what I’m seeing.  Young women who ought to be in college or clerking at the local grocery store are behind bars.  They have been deemed too dangerous to be set loose in society.  At eighteen or twenty they are already hardened criminals.  Starving for love and hope in a world that has never offered them either, it is at once rewarding and heartbreaking to see them respond to the message that God loves them and their lives matter.  Raised as barbarians they have never been gifted with faith or hope.  Their view of life is too often that either you use others to get what you want or you get used.  Most have been abused physically, sexually, and emotionally.  They have no more concept of Biblical love than the man in the moon.

            As you listen to polls which show increasing tolerance and even approval for gay marriage, transgender rights, and legalized drug use there should be no surprise in light of the increasing number of barbarians who are now being polled.  After a concerted effort over the last fifty years to drive God out of our culture, we are now seeing the fruits of that effort.  Young people whose parents were raised with no moral or ethical standards are now being turned loose on the world without a clue as to a transcendent standard of right and wrong.  How could their parents teach them that of which they have no knowledge?  We have emptied our churches and driven God from our schools.  We have made heroes out of moral cretins and vilified anyone who would uphold a moral standard.  We have tethered our children to “smart” phones that are tools for the dissemination of a cesspool of information from pornography to Facebook.  Should we be shocked and surprised when they embrace and support that which stands in direct opposition to the will of Almighty God?

            The Bible makes it clear that we reap what we sow.  We have spent years in this country and culture sowing to the wind.  It should surprise none of us that we now reap the whirlwind. 

            Allow me to share a final illustration of the depths to which our culture has now descended.  I stood in one of the grocery aisles at Walmart awhile back (if you want a quick take on the barbarity that exists in our culture today just visit a Walmart) and listened to a foul-mouthed female who couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen inform the two young male barbarians who were with her that she wasn’t sure but what she was a (blank) lesbian!  What struck me, besides the vulgarity of the whole situation, was how totally comfortable the three of them were with their coarseness.  There was absolutely no shame or reticence about what was going on.  Quite the opposite.  They were obviously loud and proud in their barbarism.  That others were in the aisle meant absolutely nothing.  “Common decency” is a concept with which these young barbarians are totally unfamiliar.

            I take comfort in the knowledge that not all today are being raised as barbarians.  I see Christian parents doing their best to bring up their children in the ways of the Lord.  With great fortitude and courage, with tremendous sacrifice and love, they are seeking to pass on to their children a legacy of godly principles and values.  But it is undeniably true that they are seeking to raise their children in Sodom.

            I have heard candidates for President talk about making America great again.  I wish they would set their sights on something far more important – making America good again.  I’m afraid there’s not a chance in the world she will ever be great again until she is first good.  Barbarians know how to hate and do damage.  They know how to rob and take and cheat and intimidate.  They know how to destroy.  They don’t have a clue about how to build.   When judgment comes on this country, and it will, the only hope we will have is that enough Christians will have survived to have a moral basis for building back.  I pray for the sake of our country that will be so.   

     

           

ANOTHER NARCISSIST IN THE WHITE HOUSE, REALLY???

September 18, 2015

 

According to ancient Greek legend Narcissus was a god who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water.  So smitten was he by his own beauty that some versions say he pined away and died by the pool side rather than leave what he saw.

Today there is a mental disorder that finds its name in the legend of Narcissus – it is called Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  A little research on this disorder will quickly reveal some common characteristics.  Narcissists have an inflated sense of self, a deep need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others.  If you have had the misfortune of dealing with someone with this disorder, you probably bear the scars to prove it.  They are often charming, can be very manipulative, and will destroy you without a second thought if you cross them.

Consider the above description of NPD and then think about those who have served recently as President or who are now seeking the office.  Bill Clinton and Barack Obama painfully fit the description of a narcissist.  Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could serve as textbook examples of this disorder. 

That a narcissist would lust for the office of the President of the United States goes without saying.  The recognition and approbation associated with the office will draw them like bees to honey. 

What really puzzles me is why the citizens of this country continue to elect these dysfunctional (and sometimes dangerous) individuals to the highest office in the land.  Allow me to share with you what I have come to suspect are at least some of the reasons why we continue to place narcissists in the White House.

One, narcissists are not hobbled by humility.  They are absolutely convinced they can do the job.  They come across as incredibly confident and competent.  Think in terms of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.  One thing neither lacks is self-confidence.  Each is convinced he is the most intelligent, capable person in the room.  I believe Americans, desperately searching for a kind of superhero to get us out of the mess we’re in, are drawn to someone who’s convinced he or she can fix what’s broken.  And narcissists are eager to share with anyone who will listen the absolute confidence they possess that ability.  So, they make wonderful campaigners, feeding off the adulation of the crowds and all the pomp and press attention that goes with running for President.    

Two, narcissists have a tendency to view everyone as either friends or enemies.  There is no in-between.  If you support them, you’re wonderful.  If you oppose them they will destroy you without hesitation.  That makes them very effective, if ruthless, campaigners for office.

President Obama has a history of destroying those who have run against him from the time he held state office, to his senatorial run, to his campaign for the presidency.  He showed no hesitation in doing whatever it took to eliminate his opposition.  His narcissism and “hard ball” no-holds-barred political warring go hand in hand.

Donald Trump is admired because of his straight talk.  But how about his constant denigrating and belittling of anyone who opposes him?  Just consider for a moment how he has dealt with his fellow Republican candidates.  That is classically narcissistic.  Anyone who opposes him, he has made abundantly clear by words and action, is an enemy that he will attack.  Trump, I believe, literally could care less about hurting the feelings of others.  The only thing that matters is his own success.  Anyone who stands in the way will be destroyed.

Three, narcissists have little or no empathy for the feelings of others.  That means they have no problem in lying to or manipulating others in order to reach their goals.  Look at the political corpses President Obama has littered the landscape with over the past six years. Dozens of senators and representatives have sacrificed their careers in politics to further his agenda.  Have your ever heard him express any genuine regret over this?  The only regret I’ve heard him express is that their defeat makes it more difficult for him to promote his agenda.

Four, rules are for the common people, not for the narcissist.  Hillary Clinton really does seem to struggle with why people would want to apply the same rules of conduct to her in matters of national security as everyone else.  She is Hillary Clinton!  If she wants her own private e-mail server, for whatever reason, why should she not be able to do so?  Narcissists struggle with accountability. 

President Obama has repeatedly shown his disdain for the law and the Constitution.  If he disagrees with it, he simply ignores it and proceeds to do as he wishes.  Some view this as idealism.  I’m sure that’s true.  I also believe it is a reflection of an inner conviction that he, unlike the more common people, is not bound by the rules.  As a narcissist, it is his way, or else.  And he’s got Obamacare, a treaty with Iran, and multiple executive actions to prove it.

Do we really want another narcissist in the White House?  Have we fallen so far that it takes an imbalanced personality to run this country?  Does it take a narcissist to deal with a House and Senate full of individuals suffering from the same delusions of superiority and grandeur?

I’m going to be watching with great interest the political machinations which will be occurring over the next year.  Will the citizens of this country choose as their leader a man or woman of faith and humility, or will they once again opt for someone who’s better at running for the office than actually filling it.

                                                                        Dan Rouse

 

  

FETAL "PARTS"

August 9, 2015

The horrors of the German concentration camps of WWII will forever haunt the conscience of mankind.  Not only were millions of lives deliberately destroyed, but the Nazis “harvested” and sold gold fillings and hair extracted from many of the corpses.  Such cold-blooded inhumanity is difficult to comprehend.  Yet, today we are seeing a similar holocaust occurring with Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby parts as “fetal tissue”.

Jesus strongly warned against dehumanizing others.  It is not uncommon to hear people today decry women being treated as “sex objects”.  This is exactly what Jesus warns against in the Sermon on the Mount when He says everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).  A woman is not an “object”, she is a person, and when one directs his lust toward someone he doesn’t know or have any connection with, he is treating her simply as something less than a human being of value.

The defenders of abortion have done a masterful job of dehumanizing a baby within the womb.  They have done so by deliberately changing the language describing an unborn child.  You will never hear a pro-abortion advocate speak of a child in the womb as either a child or a baby.  That instantly recognizes his or her inherent value as a human being .  The child is, instead, a “zygote”, a “fetus”, a “product of conception”.  You will never hear an advocate for abortion calling that baby a baby.

Such word play is disgustingly effective in rendering the child as somehow less than human.  I am amazed and appalled at how educated, sophisticated adults who are doctors of medicine can calmly speak of harvesting organs from a child with no more emotion than a butcher would have in describing removing the internal organs of a turkey or chicken.  The only possible way this can occur is by convincing themselves that what they are deliberately dismembering and destroying is not human.

My youngest grandson, Henry, was born last February.  Melissa, my daughter, delighted in sending Carol and me pictures of Henry in utero via the wonders of modern sonograms.  I can understand why abortion advocates fight tooth and toenail against laws demanding that a mother see a sonogram of her child before she authorizes the death of that child via abortion.  A baby, in utero, is a baby.  Early in his development, you could identify Henry’s fingers and toes, see his little head.  We were viewing pictures of a baby, yet unborn, but still a clearly identifiable human being.  Calling Henry a fetus or a product of conception fails to do justice to the miracle of creation he was and is.

As I listen to very erudite, sophisticated women defend killing babies as a part of their “reproductive rights”, I once again am forced to shake my head in sheer frustration.  Abortion has nothing to do with a woman’s right to have sex.  It has everything to do with destroying the consequence of irresponsibly having sex.  If women’s rights to reproduce were truly being taken away, the “products of conception” they so cavalierly destroy would certainly be reduced in number.  Again, this has nothing to do with a woman’s right to reproduce.  It has everything to do with destroying the consequence of that action.

The cold-blooded sale of baby parts is horrifying to those whose conscience has not yet been “seared as with a hot iron.”  It is, to say the least, off-putting to read the defense of this activity by Planned Parenthood defenders.  They speak of the selling of baby parts in a kind of “well, why not?” way.  I guess they have so successfully convinced themselves that a baby is not a baby they can carve them up and sell them off like cattle.  As I listen to these defenders attacking those who shot the undercover videos as “extremists”, all I can think of is if it’s extreme to be horrified by what’s going on, then I pray there are still a lot of extremists out there. 

Perhaps the defense that repulses me most is the claim that nothing “illegal” has been proven.  “Sure, we chop up babies and sell their parts, but hey, it’s legal.”  If there was ever a demonstration of the truth that something can be deemed legal and also be grossly immoral, this fits the bill.  Increasingly in our sick culture we are seeing the immoral made legal.  That is a sick (I don’t know what other word to use) gamut to make the indefensible acceptable.  It never can and it never will.

I know of nothing that has occurred recently that could and should shock this nation into action like the videos that have been released showing the cold-blooded way in which dead babies are being marketed.  If this doesn’t touch the heart of this country, that heart is stone cold dead.

May God help us to be heart-broken and outraged over the horrors being masked by monsters playing word games.

Dan Rouse

A NEW GENRE OF SIN

July 7, 2015

I believe we are experiencing in this culture the birth of a new genre of sin.  I have decided to invent a term and call it the “uncriticizable”. 

There has always been discussion and disagreement about categorizing sins.  Are there really “big” and “little” sins?  Are some sins indeed “mortal”?  But I have never experienced what is occurring with the sin of homosexuality.  It has become not only legal, but uncriticizeable.

I can openly condemn adultery and not be threatened with prison or draconian fines.  I can address gluttony and not have to worry about lawsuits being brought for mental distress.  I can even criticize cohabitation without benefit of marriage without fear of punishment.

But when it comes to sodomy, we have now created a new genre of sin that enjoys a specially protected status.  Not only has it been sanctified in the media and the courts, it has been accorded protection from criticism.  I’m not a “troll” or a “bigot” if I criticize pedophilia or gambling.  My freedom of speech is not restricted if I choose to Biblically address those matters.  But if I dare critique homosexuality, I suddenly find myself open to not just vindictive condemnation, but the very real possibility of legal action.

If some drunks wanted to use our church building for a “kegger”, our refusal to allow its use for that purpose would be honored.  If a swinger’s convention wanted to use our facility, our refusal to allow them such usage would go unchallenged.  If some fellows wanted to use our fellowship hall to host a high stakes poker game, no one would think we were under legal compulsion to allow such usage.  But if two women want to get married in our facility, suddenly that is a whole new ballgame, with all kinds of condemnation and legal ramifications, if we refuse use of the facility.

We are absolutely seeing created, before our wondering eyes, a new category of sin.  You can’t forbid it.  You can’t publicly object to it.  You can’t publicly criticize it.  For the first time, a private conviction about a public sin has become prosecutable.  A Christian cannot exercise their right to refuse to condone homosexuality by word or action.  A couple in Oregon have been assessed a draconian $135,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding.  They are being punished, not for overtly threatening or harming these “gay” women, but simply for refusing to condone their lifestyle choice.  Because homosexuality has become the sin which is above criticism, it now enjoys a sanctified and protected status above any other.  You can criticize a Christian all you want.  You can demean and besmirch their beliefs and convictions.  They are fair game.  But hurt the feelings of two gay women, and the wrath of the government descends upon your head.

The blatant hypocrisy of the whole matter is breathtaking.  One who claims to have been born gay and is openly practicing their sexual preference is to be celebrated and carried about on a feather pillow – above questioning and criticism of any kind.  But one who is unfortunately born heterosexual and acts out on that by committing adultery is subject to public condemnation of the strongest sort – I cite the experience of a certain Tiger Woods as an example.  Tiger simply made the mistake of sexually sinning heterosexually instead of homosexually.  Had he been having a series of gay affairs, he would now be a hero and above criticism.

I anxiously await to see what sin will join homosexuality in this special coveted status of uncriticizeable.  Will it be incest?  Polygamy?  Polyamory?  Will I soon be a troll and a bigot for refusing to conduct a wedding for the groom and his two brides? 

More than ever, I feel I am indeed and alien and stranger in this world…

The Bruce Jenner Fiasco

May 5, 2015

          I remember when Bruce Jenner won the Olympic Decathlon in 1976.  He was handsome and photogenic – a national hero and instant celebrity.  The gold medal winner’s picture would soon grace boxes of Wheaties, at that time one of the ultimate testaments to an athlete’s status.  But that was also pretty much the pinnacle of Jenner’s fame.  Since then he has been a b-list actor, making a living mainly off his celebrity.

          After two failed marriages, Jenner married his third wife, the former Kris Kardashian (once married to the famous lawyer, Robert Kardashian) in 1991.  Since 2007 he has been involved in the TV reality series “Keeping up with the Kardashians.”  This show has come to be the poster child for how to milk a dollar out of celebrity.  Jenner’s stepdaughters, Kim and Khloe, have become famous (or notorious) for their shameless marketing of themselves.

Last year, after a period of separation, Kris filed for divorce from Bruce Jenner citing “irreconcilable differences.”  For months prior to this the celebrity press had been speculating on Bruce’s confused sexual identity.  Images of him in makeup and dresses had been circulating, receiving obsessive attention from publications and television shows which make their living off publicizing the bizarre and weird.  So it came as no surprise (in fact, I believe it was all a carefully orchestrated “coming out”), when Jenner did his already infamous interview with a sycophantic Diane Sawyer and shared that he is really a woman trapped in a man’s body.  He declared he has now decided to live his life as a woman.

If anyone needed proof that this country, both morally and logically, has driven off a cliff, this has to be it.  A fawning press and LGBTQ advocates have been incessantly praising Jenner’s willingness to reveal his identity struggles and his “trans” formation.   Tweets from his children and stepchildren revealing their support for their Dad (Mom?) are being published to show how nobly and lovingly the family is reacting under the circumstances.  Conveniently, and I believe far from accidentally, it’s been announced that an eight part documentary is to be filmed recording the events in Jenner’s transition.  This two-bit former athlete, who hasn’t accomplished a thing of significance since he cashed in on his Olympic fame, is being held up as an example of honesty and courage to all.  He is being put forward as living proof of the kind of openness and transparency and acceptance this society needs to evince in dealing with transgender individuals.

Please allow me to posit a contrarian take.  Bruce Jenner is living proof, not of nobility and courage, but of the depths to which the desperate will descend in order to keep their name in the tabloids and the money rolling in.  A heartbreakingly dysfunctional and miserable man is using and being used by an immoral and cynical press to push an LGBTQ agenda that has been searching for a poster boy (girl?) for some time.  This pathetic sixty five year old has-been stands to make millions off his new found notoriety.

What we’re also seeing in this farce, I believe, is another determined attack by the God-haters, Christian-despisers, and anti-moralists who have come out of the woodwork in the last six years.  They now feel safe to spew their venom and vilify anyone who would challenge their sick and twisted views on morality and relationships.  Their defense and glorifying of Jenner isn’t about defending a man who is “coming out.”  It is about the opportunity to sneer at and denigrate anyone who would criticize the LGBTQ lifestyle.  When an aging man in a dress with makeup on his face is made a symbol of a movement, what does that say about the movement?

What kind of alternate universe do these people inhabit?  Jenner has been married to three women.  At least one of those marriages ended because of an affair he was having with the woman who would become his second wife.  He has fathered four children.  Does that really sound like a man who has struggled all his life with his sexual identity?  Are we really supposed to buy into the fact that this man who lived for decades as a heterosexual wasn’t?  Really?  Just because he says so (and we’re supposed to conveniently forget the last thirty years of his life or we’re bigoted)?

How long are these LGBTQ moral terrorists going to be allowed to have it both ways?  On the one hand, they’re whining that gays are born with homosexual desires and they can’t help themselves.  We narrow-minded Biblical moralists are denying them the right to follow their natural inclinations.  But  on the other hand, they are holding up as heroes examples of individuals who clearly have made choices in regard to sexual lifestyles.  All the posturing and pleading in the world will not undo the fact that Bruce Jenner is a straight male who, for whatever variety of bizarre reasons, has chosen to comport himself as a female.  Bill DeBlasio’s wife, Chirlane, was a self-declared lesbian, until she married DeBlasio and they have since had two children together and appear to be in a happy relationship.  Both Bruce Jenner and Chirlane DeBlasio have made clear sexual choices that are contradictory to those by which they had lived for years.  Both are proof that one’s sexual expression is a choice, not a force of nature which cannot be overcome.

I’m sure over the next few months we are going to be shown and told, ad nauseum, about the grace and character of Bruce Jenner as he “transitions” from male to female.  Any criticism of this bizarre rite will be met with horror and derision.  Deviancy will be defended and upheld as honorable and good.  Any attack upon it as narrow-minded and mean.  The LGBTQ crowd will embrace their darling and Bruce Jenner will have a new, and very lucrative, source of income.  The “normalization” of the abnormal will continue apace.

If it weren’t so blasphemously grotesque, the whole charade would be laughable.  However, it is very difficult to find any humor in it.  The unholy alliance that has been formed between those who are willing to debase themselves for cash, and those with an agenda to promote, goes on.  As this tour of the moral sewer continues and even picks up steam, I figure an incest based reality show is just around the corner.  After all, who’s to judge, right???  And if there’s a few bucks to be made on the side…

Dan Rouse

            

A PROPER PERSPECTIVE

April 22, 2015

                I’m a firm believer in the importance of having a proper perspective on life.  Bad things can happen when you lose it.  Consider Elijah as an example.  As recorded in 1 Kings 19 he is  suicidal when he flees to Horeb to escape the wrath of Jezebel.  After laying his life on the line at Mount Carmel, and seeing the power of God demonstrated in an incredible way, he has watched triumph devolve into disaster.  He is once again on the lam.  In the loneliness and desolation of the wilderness, he will moan he is the only one left in Israel who is still faithful to God – and he is dead wrong.  In verse 18 of that chapter God will tell Elijah there are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.  He is not the only faithful one in Israel.  He’s certainly not the only one afraid and distressed about what is happening.  In the midst of this heartbreaking trial, he has lost perspective. 

            Through over forty years of full time ministry, I’ve wrestled with keeping a proper perspective on life.  It’s easy to allow the critical voices of a few to drown out the loving affirmations of many.  Focusing on those who have quit instead of those who have persevered can bring discouragement leading to depression.  It sometimes seems as if the victories are few and the defeats many.  What has allowed me to persevere through decades of this has been the ability to stop and put things in perspective.

            Jesus repeatedly touched on this in His ministry.  The Parable of the Soils recorded in Matthew 13:1-23 is an important teaching on putting people’s response to the gospel in perspective.  Our Lord is telling us in the clearest way possible that three out of four responses to the gospel message are going to be negative – outright rejection, acceptance followed by a quick falling away, and fruitlessness.  Isn’t Jesus, if we’ll but listen, preparing us for the fact that most responses to the gospel are ultimately going to be a disappointment?  That’s not cynicism, that’s the Lord’s reality.  If I accept His teaching, it places in proper perspective how much sowing is going to have to be done to harvest a crop of fruitful plants.  If I find myself getting discouraged by people’s response to the gospel, maybe the problem is my failure to accept the Lord’s perspective on that response. 

            The same thing holds true with trials in our lives.  James will tell us in James 1:2 to “count it all joy” when trials come our way.  Peter will urge household servants who are being beaten by their masters to view this as being called by God to walk in the steps of Christ in their unjust suffering (1 Peter 2:21).  Paul will call all that he gave up when he chose to follow Christ “rubbish” (Philippians 3:8).  A proper perspective changes everything.

            I really believe this truth is more important today than ever.  It appears as if the United States is heading down the road toward destruction.  The global situation is a chaotic, violence wracked mess.   Churches who claim to be followers of God are blatantly rejecting His word and siding with the moral relativists who blaspheme His name.  Do we throw our hands up and give up in despair?  Are we the only ones left?

            Please keep the following truths in mind as you consider what is happening around us:

            YHWH is in control.  He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  The Creator and Sustainer of this universe is very aware of everything that is going on.  He has neither forgotten what is right nor forgotten His people. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar all learned the hard way who truly reigns in this world – just as Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein did.  Israel, Judah, Assyria, Babylonia, and Rome are left as examples, if we’ll only pay attention, of what happens when people turn their backs on the Creator.  Where are the French, British, or Spanish empires now? Remember the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? God still rules and He still reigns.

            What if the drought in the Southwest and the repeated storms in the Northeast are ongoing judgments from God?  They certainly have a Biblical precedent.  What if the sudden collapse of oil prices is directed by a divine Hand?  It has had a worldwide impact on a host of very bad people. What if we have been given a President we deserve who, unfortunately, reflects the moral values of the majority?  God gave Israel king Saul.  What if God has given this country up to the chicanery of a Congress we freely elected?  Again, I cite the example of Israel and king Saul.  What if ISIL, like ancient Assyria, is the rod of God’s anger (Isaiah 10:5).   What if AIDS and Ebola are but warning shots across the bow from our King?  It wouldn’t be the first time He had used plagues to punish and awaken.  What if His hand is, indeed, mightily stirring in ways we, with our limited vision and understanding, cannot yet fully comprehend or understand?  Are we so egotistical as to really believe that unless we grasp what is going on somehow God’s hand is slipping on the rudder?  Really???    

            I love the message of the book of Revelation.  Few would argue that at its core Revelation is all about the fact that God is in control and, ultimately, His faithful will triumph.  That message is as true today as it was in the days when John penned it.  Those were dark days.  It appeared the Dragon and his two beasts were on the verge of victory.   Persecution, apathy, and worldliness threatened to tear the heart out of the church (read Revelation chapters two and three and the letters to the seven churches).  I believe Revelation was written to give Christians a godly perspective on what was happening, to allow them to see that not all was lost.  It wasn’t then, and it’s not now.

            Please don’t lose your perspective on what is happening around us.  Is it distressing and discouraging?  It certainly can be.  But that doesn’t mean God is not working just as mightily and effectively today as He always has.  It doesn’t mean it’s over till it’s over.  If you’ve lived any time at all, you know God delights in surprises. As the old saying goes, we may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.  Please allow that truth to shape your perspective.  It will let you sleep at night.

Dan Rouse

                    

                  

              

 

WHAT'S THE REAL AGENDA?

March 10, 2015

            In June the Supreme Court will render a critical decision concerning the legality of gay marriage.  I’m convinced that the push for this court decision has implications far greater than merely the legalization of gay marriage.  I believe the real agenda is to begin to legally muzzle the Christian voice in America.

            The LGBTQ crowd has long made clear their hatred of, and disdain for, Christians.  The lawsuits over cakes and wedding photographs are far more attempts to intimidate Christians than they are legitimate concerns over discrimination.  They know if they can quiet the voice of Christians, they will have won the battle over basing law on Biblical morality rather than cultural mores.

            The whole brouhaha over legislation in Indiana and Arkansas concerning the protection of religious freedoms has been distorted beyond belief.  As has been repeatedly stated, and studiously ignored by the MSM, that legislation is not directed at punishing or discriminating against gays or transgenders or any other variety of sexual deviance.  It is far more about seeking to proactively protect Christian people from the inevitable onslaught of attacks that will come if the Supreme Court ruling goes in favor of gay rights.  More than a few are seeing the handwriting on the wall in this regard – and it is frightening.

             Using courts that have been stacked for decades now with liberal judges the LGBTQ bunch have forced gay marriage down the throats of millions of Americans from the bench rather than the ballot box.  Contrary to their claims, Americans are not turning in droves to support gay marriage, which is why they are using the sympathetic courts to further their agenda.  But their goals extend far beyond merely forcing the legalization of gay marriages.  Again, they want the power of the government available to force the normalization and acceptance of their lifestyle.  They can’t coerce with threats of prison and fines.  The government can, and will.

            The whole “hate speech” canard has just begun to be played.  If LGBTQ proclivities are given the same protections against discrimination as race and gender, the PC crowd will undoubtedly redouble the push to characterize Biblical injunctions against sexual immorality as hate speech.  That is already occurring in Canada and Great Britain, among other places, so it is not some theoretical possibility, rather it is an inevitability.  Merely reading the Biblical teaching on sexual morality not only could be, but will be, “hate speech”.   When that occurs, prepare for the jackboots to enter our church buildings.

            There are some who say the goal of the LGBTQ lobby is merely to shut us up inside our buildings, to prevent us from saying what we believe in public. (This, by the way, is how Christians are being treated right now in many Muslim countries.)  I disagree.  I believe their ultimate goal is much more ambitious.  It is to shut us up – period.

Limiting our expressions of religious belief in certain areas to the confines of a house of worship would be, in and of itself, a heinous violation of both our right to free speech and freedom of religion – a direct violation of the first amendment.  However, the Constitution has been so blithely ignored of late by the courts and the present administration that I see little or no protection for Christians appealing on that basis.  Consider this: How will “public” speech begin to be defined?  Is not a group of people gathering for worship at a church building or even in a home also a public gathering?  If that be the case, then am I being overly paranoid to think that shutting us up will involve not only controlling our speech on the streets and in private conversation, but also in our houses of worship? Will my standing before the congregation and merely reading the words of Leviticus 18:22 be deemed publicly “hateful”?  If not, why not?

            I genuinely believe as Christians we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to what is to come.  Secular courts, secular legislators, and a secular majority are going to have little sympathy for speech based in what they view as an ancient, outmoded, narrow-minded, bigoted point of view – the Biblical point of view.  Marginalizing Christians as bigots and systematically criminalizing their views of sexual morality is really what is going on here.  If we don’t pull together and fight this effort tooth and nail, a holocaust rests in our future.  May God help us to have the courage to speak up and fight for what is right while we still have the freedom to do so.  I really don’t know how long it will be before that freedom is but a cherished, but fading, memory.

Dan Rouse