What’s been up D?? I’ve been checking in looking for new articles!
I’ve been real busy lately, but I’m still putting in at least 3 a week.
3?? Today’s Tuesday and you haven’t posted since this past Friday.
That’s not true.
It’s not?? I haven’t seen anything since Thug Life!??
What do you think about the Isle of Patmos?
The Isle of what??
Patmos..the island that the Apostle John was banished on when God revealed the book of Revelations to him.
I don’t know anything about that.
It’s in the Sunday School Lesson that was posted Monday morning.
Oh..I don’t really look through the Sunday School Lessons.
You don’t?? Why not?
I dunno..I mean, I like your writing and stuff, but I don’t have time to get all into the Bible like that.
But you just told me you‘ve been looking for a servin’ to read since Friday??
Yeah..but I mean funny stuff, or that thug stuff you wrote. I like that. I don’t need all that ‘Holy-Holy’ God-Jesus stuff.
Oh..well,you’re really missing out on the BEST part of the website.
I’m sure it’s good though, I’m just not into learning about the Bible right now, I’ve got too many other serious things on my plate I’m dealing with already.
Salvation and where you spend eternity is the most serious thing there is if you ask me. Eschatology is what it’s all about.
Eschatology?? What is that?
It means ‘Last Things’, it’s basically whatever theory or faith you believe in concerning death and life thereafter.
What do you believe?
I believe what the Bible says. Daniel, Isaiah and all throughout the Old and New Testament God's prophets describe the end times. It’s really all broken down by the Apostle John’s writings in Revelations.
What did he write??
It’s in the Sunday School Lessons mane, I can serve it up to you, but I can’t make you read it.
_________________________________
I’ve already detailed how much books and reading have played a vital part in my upbringing and level of awareness. I can remember flipping through Judy Blume’s adult novel Wifey and reading all the passages that had highlighted curse words. Since I was only in elementary school, I had no idea what she meant by ‘persistent vaginal itching’ and having to go to the gynecologist, I just knew I had never seen the word vagina in a book before and I was mesmerized. Of course this thirst for adult material didn’t get any better as I grew older. I read V.C. Andrews Flowers In the Attic trilogy and I knew that there were a lot of things going on in the world that I knew NOTHING about. The capper was when I happened across a rated X-adult short story book that one of my classmates had brought to school. It didn’t have any pictures, but it had the raunchiest, most sexually graphic words I had ever read, stuff like..
When Tasha came back from lunch with Ret, she didn’t have any panties on under her miniskirt and she had a glow. Each time she recalled Ret’s hard throbbing shaft, her crotch tingled.
Of course this isn’t the type of material that elementary school kids should be reading, but we all have our own first dip into the world of carnal pleasures. As mature as the material was, I always knew that I wasn’t SUPPOSED to be reading it. Now that the time has come for me to be a parent, I often contemplate how much guidance and censorship my wife and I should impose on the material our children read.
Our son is a big Harry Potter fan. A lot of ‘church’ folks don’t allow their children to read such works of ‘sorcery’ and ‘witchcraft’ since it’s practice is specifically condemned and forbidden in the Bible. I was just happy to have a book that got my son interested in reading. Although we allow him to read Harry Potter, we make sure he understands that witchcraft is not to be practiced or worshipped in the Christian belief. We’re living in a world now where it’s easier to spread stories of carnage or sorcery or sex, and it’s a lot harder to distribute material which exalts the name of Jesus. Mel Gibson pitched the script for The Passion throughout Hollywood and not one major studio would pick it up, ‘too graphic‘. But movies that detail bloody battles and graphic sex are being pushed down our throats non stop.
I never dreamed I would be in favor of book censorship until after I became a parent. One particular story that caught my eye was the story that came out of North Carolina almost 2 months ago. There was a 1st grade girl who brought a book home called King and King She had gotten the book from her school’s library and in the book, two male princes end up getting married, sharing a kiss and living happily ever after. Two guys falling in love, kissing and living happily ever after in a CHILDREN'S book??! Uhhh…Houston, we have a problem. When I read through the story I couldn’t believe that some people would actually believe that having children embrace the homosexual lifestyle was a good thing. I understand that there are thousands of same sex couples out there raising children, but that doesn’t mean I want my kids exposed to it. My hypocrite alarm started ringing when I realized that everybody doesn’t want their children reading Christian based material either..so what do we do?
When I first read Bradbury’s classic, Fahrenheit 451 novel, I instantly became a big Guy Montag fan. If there was a governing body that restrained free thought, and made everyone think and believe as one, we’d quickly become a ‘Big Brother is watching YOU‘ society. Everyone should be allowed to believe what they want to believe, write what they want to write, read what they want to read. Once we start suppressing individual thought, it would only be a matter of time before something WE believe in was burned. Of that I was sure. But once I started reading the Bible, and I got stronger in the Word and understanding eschatology (last things) and God’s plan for man, I started to gravitate from my more liberal, ‘Everybody should be allowed to do what they want to do’ mentality. Because as I grew older, I realized that rules are only made for people who want to abide by them. There’s a large band of society that is completely lawless and immoral. From murders, to embezzlers, whoremongers, child abusers, there’s a lot more thugs who NEED to be in jail, than there are actual thugs IN jail.
So now that we’re here, in 2004, training our kids, it’s very important for God fearing parents to equip our children with this same reverence for the Almighty Lord. Because if we don’t train our children with what’s right in the eyes of God, they will be a lot more susceptible to fall prey to the multitude of traps that Satan and his legion of angels have laid out to devour as many souls as possible. I recognize that there are thousands of same-sex parents across the country that are anxious for more media that is more accepting of the gay lifestyle. My wife chides me for being homophobic, but we all have our things that bother us. I think we all have the freedom to make our own choices in lifestyle and I’m understanding of that. But once this ‘alternative lifestyle’ is being affronted to our children as a natural and blessed union, then I have a big problem with that. Obviously there’s a large faction of readers who want to read this material, because once that story broke into the media, the sales of the book skyrocketed. A later book was released entitled King and King and Family. Now do you see what I’m getting at??
Call it homophobia, call it heterosexual double standard, I don’t care what you call it, but I just can’t sit back and be quiet and not speak out against it. I’m not endorsing burning books, I’m not trying to deny all writers their right to express themselves, I just don’t want my kids reading homosexual material. Period. In the end the burden of guidance and censorship falls on the parents. We all have to make the effort to get into our children’s worlds and see what they’re reading, what they’re watching on TV, what they’re listening to on the radio and offer as much guidance as we can. But between all the bloodthirsty warmongers running the world and all the alternative lifestyle activist that are pushing their agendas through the media to our kids, it’s only a matter of time before God is going to see all the immoral behaviour that He can stand. The King of Babylon has fallen and Israel is surrounded by her enemies, the Revelations of John are all starting to come true. Are you ready for that trumpet blow? Or are you ‘jus chillin’ with your salvation, waiting on a sign from God for you to believe? Whatever it is you’re doing, if you’re not striving to grow closer to the Lord, you’re doing the wrong thing, and that’s uncensored.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/031804_APstate_gaybook.htm
