Changing Times: Same ERA

Went the Distance at the Warrior Dash for ERA!

2012-01-29T04:35:00.000-08:00

Why Do We Need An Equal Rights Amendment?

2012-01-29T04:23:00.000-08:00

Only three states are needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and Florida should be one of them. Why?

Because women are guaranteed only one right under the United States Constitution, and that is the right to vote. This should be unacceptable to all Americans.

The 14th Amendment is often cited as giving women equal rights. It does not. It does not mention women at all but does specify that only men can vote. It is rather antiquated has been suggested that it be repealed.

American women enjoy many privileges today, but they are just that, privileges—not rights. Privileges are easily revoked while rights, on the other hand, are not.

American Women are forced to accept revocable privileges in exchange for rights because we do not enjoy the same level of protection under the United States Constitution that American men do.

Barry Goldstein stated in his Times article that 40 states have determined that gender bias against mothers exists in their family court systems. We need an Equal Rights Amendment to stop this discrimination against women and their children in our family court systems.

Florida Senate Committees have overwhelmingly passed the Equal Rights Amendment, but it is my understanding that the House has never granted even one hearing or vote. I am asking you to support this by granting hearings and by voting to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the state of Florida.

America is just three states away from ratifying an amendment that would guarantee Constitutional equality for all of its citizens, not just its male citizens.

Equal Rights Alliance Receives Susan B. Anthony Award

2012-01-29T04:13:00.000-08:00

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

St. Petersburg (FL) January 26, 2012: Founder-President of the National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance and former League of Women Voters member Sandy Oestreich of St. Petersburg will be honored with the "Failure is Impossible" Award for her Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) initiative on February 20, 2012.

Martin County League of Women Voters acknowledges Ms. Oestreich's enduring and pro bono effort to achieve passage of the ERA into the U.S. Constitution. Ms. Oestreich began her ERA career in the 1970s by marching in New York, Virginia and other states to bring the Equal Rights Amendment to full 38-states’ ratifications status so it could pass.

In 2001 she resumed her ERA campaign in partnership with Florida League of Voters while on their board and while in local elected office in 2001, speaking on the ERA issue regularly throughout Florida, the southeast, and in D.C. Sandy says, "We only need three (3) more states to ratify ERA for passage into the Constitution. Florida’s most influential state legislators refuse to hold hearings to vote on ERA because they say, "ERA will 'hurt' business". Not so. ERA language has raised the GDP in other countries by up to NINE PER CENT, boosts state tax revenues and cuts taxpayer expenses for food stamps, Medicaid, court costs and Public Assistance! And, ERA requires no funding."

Ms. Oestreich's non-profit corporations have grown to nearly 300,000 individual members in 326 major organizations, national and international. Her work has resulted in annual ERA ratification bill filings before the Florida legislature since 2003. She helps mentor some of the 6 other states as ERA leaders legislators file their ERA bills; they refer to the ERA www.2PassERA.org web site's documented "Facts for Legislators".

To clarify that ERA is "still viable and contemporaneous", Oestreich's ERA Inc. joined with 3 other states' ERA leaders and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) to create and file the brand-new U.S. Congressional HJRes 47 ERA bill on March 2011. This bill seeks to eliminate the time limit mentioned in the original Equal Rights Amendment's Proposing Clause that can sometimes cause unnecessary obstructions. "Substantive legal arguments exist to show that is a toothless objection. We want to discard this red herring so that ERA can pass, bringing Florida and the nation into the 21st century along with every nation since WWII", Oestreich said.

For details contact: Betty Paterson (772) 288-3283.

CONTACT: Lauren Hallahan, (727) 643-9063

###

Changing Times Same ERA: Ratify ERA: It's the RIGHT Thing to Do

2011-11-14T07:44:00.001-08:00

Changing Times Same ERA: Ratify ERA: It's the RIGHT Thing to Do: Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment is simply the right thing to do and we should need no other argument that than that to get it done. Unf...

Changing Times Same ERA: Why Don't Men Need a Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?...

2011-11-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Changing Times Same ERA: Why Don't Men Need a Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?...: Ever wonder why men are not protected by laws such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act? The answer to that is that American men do not need ...

We Just Lost Ground

2011-10-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

I am outraged that Kansas would repeal laws to protect women from aggravated assault at the hands of husbands and boyfriends. Women have fought so long and hard to make what progress we have only to hear that now we are not worth the money it takes to protects us from violence?

In case any of you have not heard, the Shawnee County District Attorney decided last month that he would no longer prosecute domestic violence cases in the city of Topeka. Outraged at the power play by the D.A.—not the threat to the safety of women—the Topeka City Council voted to reduce felony domestic violence cases to “misdemeanor domestic abuse.” They promptly released eighteen offenders without pressing any charges.

This was an issue of power and money between the Topeka City Council and the Shawnee County District Attorney. Women there are considered nothing more than pawns to be sacrificed on the altars of power and money.

We need three things. First we need an Equal Rights Amendment. What happened in Topeka can happen again and again in one city after another until women are reduced to the shape we were in 50 years ago. Don’t say it can’t happen. It just happened in Kansas! An Equal Rights Amendment is the only thing that cannot be changed by a City Council or a simple congressional vote.

Second, Women need to be declared victims of hate crimes. Hate Crime is a legal category used to describe bias motivated violence. Violence against women, especially when perpetrated by a spouse or boyfriend, should be categorized as a hate crime. In most domestic violence cases, women are assaulted because they are women. That makes domestic violence a hate crime.

Hate crime laws enhance penalties associated with conduct that is already criminal under other laws. Conversely, domestic violence laws, by virtue of the language itself, often have the effect of minimizing the severity of criminal conduct in the minds of the prosecutors—as the Shawnee D.A. just demonstrated!

But whether or not the crime was committed because of a generalized sense of male privilege or entitlement or because of a religiously motivated hatred of women due to deeply held complementarian beliefs, what happened in Topeka underscores the need for women to be declared victims of hate crimes as well as the need for an Equal Rights Amendment which would do far more to protect women than local laws which, as demonstrated in Topeka, are easily repealed.

Third, the term “domestic violence” needs to be purged from our legal vocabularies. There is nothing domestic about violence, and such language used to describe violence against women minimizes the severity of the violence in the minds of those who hear such watered down verbiage. A crowbar does less damage when it’s wielded by a husband or boyfriend and smashes into the face of a woman? Aggravated assault is aggravated assault!

Over the past several decades, there has been an appalling apathy concerning getting the Equal Rights Amendment ratified. I hope what happened in Topeka will serve as a wake-up call to us all.

I hope you will all subscribe to this newsletter and forward it to others (sign-up form the will have a permanent place in the side-bar of this blog). We really need to get together on this to stop this backward slide and get things moving forward again!

The Warrior Dash for ERA!

2011-06-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

On January 21, 2012, I will be running in the Warrior Dash, which is a 3.2 mile race from hell. I will be running in support of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment - ERA.

Why is a 55 year old grandmother of nine planning to compete in a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from hell?

Well, I’ll tell you.

I will be sludging through the murky waters of “Alligator Alley” in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which simply reads: Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex….

Do I think I might win? Not likely, but I will happily dash down river in the “Rio Run” in support of Florida families who are cheated of over $4000 per year in income because many Florida wives and mothers still make only 72 cents on the dollar as compared to men.

Do I think I will finish? You bet. I will trudge through waste deep water and over the logs in the "Dead-Weight Drifter" in support of all American children who are sentenced to the custody of abusive fathers and given limited contact with, or even denied contact with, loving mothers because of gender bias in the family courts (not saying that only fathers are abusive, but it is a fact that the majority of protective parents are mothers. 40 states have already identified gender-bias as a problem in family courts and are working to rectify it, but only an Equal Rights Amendment can really do that!)

As the daughter of a decorated veteran, I appreciate our military and will finish this race in support of U.S. Service-Women who protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, a document that does not protect and defend them.

I will gladly venture into unknown murky waters in the “Slithering Swamp” in support of every girl and boy who is living in an under-privileged home because their mothers do not receive fair salaries or career advancement opportunities simply because they are women.

I will joyously speed through hundreds of tires in “Knee High Hell” in support of the many retirement age women who must continue working or live in poverty because they were unable to pay enough into pension plans and social security due to equal pay laws not being enforced.

I will ecstatically scale my way through the thick palmettos in the “Palmetto Prison” in support of fair salaries and career advancement opportunities for women.

I will delightedly hustle up and over giant straw bales in “Hay Fever” in support of necessary protection from violence against women.

I will cheerfully maneuver over the cargo nets in the “Cargo Climb” in support of a Constitutional Amendment which will secure the birthright of equal treatment for male and female alike. Laws, state ERAs, and the 14th Amendment are no guarantee.

I will enthusiastically fight my way through the water and gale force winds in the “Treacherous Typhoon” in support of mobilizing, organizing, and publicizing the swelling need for an Equal Rights Amendment which is already in place in every nation created since WWII!

I will zealously sprint to the summit on “Hell’s Hill” in support of propelling society forward by unleashing the talent and energies of ALL people, working together for a civilized society.

I will eagerly leap over the warrior fires of the “Warrior Roast” to enhance the dignity of all humankind by proclaiming equality of women and men under the law in perpetuity.

And I will humbly scramble beneath barbed wire in “Muddy Mayhem” in support of every American citizen who does not have equality under the Constitution based on his or her sex. Both sexes should be mentioned in the U.S. Constitution which represents the citizens’ contract with the United States of America.

The U.S. must finally declare that regardless of one's sex, human beings are equal under the law

Women's Rights + Men’s Rights = Equal Rights = Human Rights

What can you do?

Link to this post. Forward this post to your friends. Share this post on your facebook site. Sign the Petition in the sidebar of this blog.

Join the team, “Team ERA!” and support the Equal Rights Amendment by either by running in the race with me or by wearing the “Team ERA!” tee shirt and attending the race as a spectator. If you cannot do either, then buy a shirt and wear it to let others know that you support ERA. Shirt info is in the sidebar of this blog.

Get copies of this blog in brochure form
Mail it to State Representatives, Congressmen, and Senators
Add a short note letting them know that Ratifying ERA is important to you

Ratify the
Equal Rights Amendment
It’s the RIGHT Thing to Do!

**Many thanks to Sandy Oestreich, President of the Equal Rights Alliance, for allowing me to quote from her site.

For More Information Contact:

Jocelyn Andersen
Central Florida Director
Equal Rights Alliance
jocelynandersen@gmail.com
http://www.ratifyeraflorida.net/

Why is it important to Know about the Holocaust?

2011-05-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

My Son's Radio Interview with Hal Row on 1290 whky about the Holocaust:

Hal Row: Why is it important that we know so much about the Holocaust?

James Andersen: It is one of the most important events of the 20th century. It is one that has shaped our world, and a lot of people don’t realize that. It is important to understand how it happened, how the world allowed it to happen, and to raise awareness to ensure that genocide doesn’t happen, that we as a people can stop it from taking place. You know we have had several genocides in the past since the holocaust. It is lack of understanding, lack of knowing our history, and apathetic attitudes towards it that allowed it to happen. So by raising Holocaust awareness, we can teach our children to take a stand against this type of atrocity in the future.

Hal Row: We’re talking about the Holocaust. What are we talking about, a working definition?

James Andersen: The massacre and genocide of approximately 6 million Jews—state sponsored, systematic—that’s the key words, genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews between 1933 and 1945…

Every discussion about the Holocaust needs to begin with anti Semitism and understanding what motivated these people (the Nazi’s and their collaborators) to do this…

A lot of the killing was done by auxiliary police in Poland, Chekoslavakia, Lithuania. Prisoners of war from the Soviet army from the Ukraine were guards at the camps. When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they had the locals conduct a census to locate Jews. Local farmers would help, so these were the enemies of the Nazi’s helping to hunt down and identify Jews…

There are different ways to become collaborators…the US and Cuba, and the rest of the world would deny entry to refugee Jews. People who were trying to flee Nazi Germany had nowhere to go, because no one wanted them in their countries…That type of inaction of course, our almost out of sight out of mind attitude, that was a big role. That was what allowed Nazi Germany to carry this as far as they did…

ERA Holiday!

2010-11-29T12:40:00.000-08:00

Bev and I had a wonderful time resorting at St. Pete Beach with Sandy Oestreich, President and Founder of the large national organization, the EQUAL RIGHTS ALLIANCE.

Bev, Me, Sandy

Sandy offered me the position of Central Florida Outreach Director of ERA Florida which I gladly accepted. My hope is that equality will cease from being a fearful & divisive factor among women and serve to unite us as there is absolutely nothing to fear from equality but very much to fear from inequality.

Bev & Sandy

The Equal Rights Amendment has nothing to do with either abortion or same sex marriage. It does not regulate those things, in fact, states which have ratified the equal rights amendment have lower numbers of abortions than states which have not. On the other hand, both men and women suffer from inequality under the law from everything from unfair pay and job promotions to oppressive child support and custody rulings. A recent survey concluded that even men are discriminated against when it comes to job promotions and pay raises if they do not support traditional roles concerning men and women.

Sandy & myself (Sandy is the one in the pool)

Sandy (in the pool) & me

The Equal Rights Amendment simply states: "Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Quote from Sandy Oestreich:

"Click on http://www.ratifyeraflorida.net/ to see the video there of President Obama signing the Fair Pay Act and coming close to endorsing the ERA! Do know, though, that only the ERA would undergird that Law. Without ERA, that new Law can be ignored just like the 1964 Equal Pay Act was. Because it was ignored, business has been able to under pay women so that today's Florida working women are paid on average only 72 cents to a man's dollar for the same job! That puts 3 in 7 elderly women into poverty because they never put enough into Social Security nor into their pension earnings. It also robs working families of $4205 per year! Stinks, doesn't it?" End quote.

Some women's groups have chosen to merge their support of the Equal Rights Amendment with other issues such as abortion and same sex marriage (which ERA does not regulate or effect one way or another), but Sandy has chosen to take the high road with the Equal Rights Alliance and focus only on getting the amendment ratified. Kudos to Sandy!

In a few weeks Sandy and I will be attending state legislative sessions together and speaking up in favor of ratifying ERA in Florida. ERA is not a dead issue. Please feel free to contact me regardless of which state you live in if you are interested in becoming involved with the ongoing effort of gaining constitutional equality for all Americans.

Woman to Woman

2010-05-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

I love Woman to Woman! It's a local (Central Florida) online community. The local part makes it all the better! I get to meet women who live in my town or within just a few miles away. Do visit my page, though, even if you don't live in Central Florida. Just click on my WTW badge in the sidebar

Preparing My Heart: My Word for Today

2010-04-24T05:32:00.000-07:00

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him to a wise man which built his house on a rock. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. O LORD I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

What Awaits the U .S. Journalists in North Korea's Prisons?

2009-06-09T07:07:00.001-07:00

North Korea's prison system is the most brutal in the world. Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman by Soon Ok Lee describes in detail her six years in a North Korean prison. Tortured before her trial and told, as she entered the prison, to forget that she was human, JusticeWriter describes her story as "graphic in its details and shocking at the total lack of value given to human lives in North Korea." I read her story and concur wholeheartedly. I believed every word she wrote as she begged her readers to let the world know what was going on in North Korea. Eyes of the Tailless Animals

I Was a Defeated, Backslidden Christian!

2009-06-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

For many years I lived a defeated, backslidden Christian life, then one day, God sent a woman to knock on my door (one of those "visits" backslidden folks hate so much!) to tell me that if I would read just four chapters a day from the Bible, I would read the entire Bible through, in its entirety, once every year and the New Testament twice.

Her obedience, and wise counsel, changed my life

Since 1981, I have been reading my Bible every day, always picking up today where I left off yesterday.

I made a commitment back then, to establish time with the LORD every day—and have kept that commitment (it was much more difficult at first than it is now).

I always spend time in the Word of God (and visit with the Lord) first thing in the morning.

The first thing I reach for when I get up every day is my coffee cup—the second thing is my Bible.

As I enjoy my first cup of steaming coffee (I usually drink 1 to 2), the Word of God is seeping into my sleepy consciousness as I ease into to full wakefulness and the day ahead.

Without fail, after just a few minutes, Jesus and I are having a good visit (it is always more than just reading—It really is a deeply personal time with the Lord).

Some may object, claiming that getting up a secular job every day makes morning time for the Bible impossible.

I respond that you can't afford not to make time for Jesus first thing in the morning. Devotions for family later in the day or evening are wonderful and should be done, but that does not replace personal time in the mornings.

When my children were young, I had to be finished with my personal time with the Lord before 6am in order to get them ready for school. Then, for many years after that, I had to get up in time to be ready for work five mornings a week. Sometimes my job required me to travel extensively (I remember one period of time when I was on the road for six weeks of the eight!).

My morning visit with Jesus went with me—I did not leave my routine at home (that is value of establishing good habits).

On another occasion I was required to work from 8:00 each morning to 10:00 or 11:00 each night for a short period of time (and had an hour commute each way on top of that). During that time my routine did not vary. So, do not ask me to sympathize with anyone who cannot make time for the Word of God—which is a vital component to our overall relationship with God—because of work schedules, business, or family obligations, or simply because you do not like to read.

Consider this a challenge to all who are serious about putting Jesus first in their lives.

Turn the television off a few hours earlier each night (better yet, turn it off completely) and make time for a family altar and get some much needed sleep. For certain do not allow the television to be what starts your day each morning! Let some of the housework wait—Is housework really more important than putting Jesus first?

Each one of us makes time for things that are truly important to us. If we do not make time for God and his Word in the mornings, it is because our relationship with Him is not important to us—It is as simple as that.

Out of India: A True Story about the New Age Movement by Caryl Matrisciana

2009-05-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Caryl's true Story of growing up in India, her whole-hearted embracing of a New Age lifestyle and her subsequent experience that her beliefs and practices utterly failed her, is absolutely riveting. Her story is full of insight and hope for those searching for truth and a faith that can be counted on both to live and die by.

For details visit: http://www.lighthousetrails.com/

Holocaust Remembrance Day

2009-04-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance day I recommend two excellent books published by Lighthouse Trails Publishing. The first is Anita Dittman's story of being a Jewish girl who was, TRAPPED IN HITLER'S HELL. And the second, a poignant love story entitled, THINGS WE COULDN'T SAY, is Diet Eman's story of the Christian Resistance in Holland.

Visit http://www.lighthousetrails.com for more details

Christian Women's History: What a Cloud of Witnesses!

2009-03-12T08:59:00.001-07:00

March is Women's History Month, and one of the things I am finding out about Christian women, is how woefully ignorant we are of our own history and heritage.

Now, that is not necessarily due to any deficiency on our part. During much of the twentieth century, in our public schools, other than Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale, many of us were taught very little about women's historical contributions to our cultures or about women's rights. And in our Churches and Sunday Schools, contributions to the Women's Rights movement from Christian women were, well, mum was definitely the word.

And mum is still the word in many evangelical circles, but added to that is misinformation connecting our Christian heritage and early Christian reformers with the more radical elements of the modern feminist movement. But records are too easily accessed for any of us to plead ignorance in this age of information, so it is time to sit up and take notice of the fact that Christians are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, both male and female, who believed that women's rights and complete equality with men in every area were biblical, and as urgent and valid issues in their day as it is in ours.

It is loudly touted among evangelical TRADITIONAL "ROLE" RELIGIONISTS (TRR'S) that women who desire equality with men are simply clamoring for selfish "rights" that do not belong to them, and that the more radical aspects of modern feminism, such as self/goddess worship and lesbianism, are the end result of pursuing more than a theoretical, non-tangible, equality between males and females. Men who allow their wives to live with them as equals are looked down upon and contemptuously called "passive" by evangelical leaders. Complementarian (TRR) writings are full of such things, but historical facts simply do not back their conclusions.

Credited with being the first woman in history to take a public stand for the right of women to proclaim the gospel and be involved in the leadership of the church, was Margaret Fell, co-founder of The Society of Friends, better known to us as the Quakers. In the 17th century, Fell wrote her treatise on, "Women's Speaking Justified...." Her argument was compelling and based entirely on scripture. Fell was not known as a "selfish" person, she never abandoned her faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, nor did she embrace a lesbian lifestyle--as women today are warned may very well happen if they begin to suspect that the Bible teaches equality between men and women--equality in fact, not the theoretical, philosophical equality preached from so many pulpits today.

Looking down the road a bit we see another Quaker named Elizabeth Fry campaigning for prison reform in England and eventually all over Europe. She advocated for the education of women prisoners as well, arguing that they could not better themselves and stay out of prison if they remained ignorant. Fry boldly stepped out of the accepted "role" of women for her day. Eventually becoming mother to 11 children, Fry based her activities and activism fully on scripture. If I am not mistaken, Fry's image graced British currency a few years back. Her contributions to the betterment of the lot of women are incalculable.

Men and Women, both black and white, have much for which to be grateful to the Society of Friends. Two of the most effective voices in the cause of abolishing slavery were Theodore Weld and the woman who became his wife, a Quaker at the time, Angelina Grimke. Angelina was the first women to appear before a legislative body in the United States. She did this, not to gain "selfish rights," for herself, but to gain the right of freedom on behalf of those who could not speak for themselves and were trapped in a heinous system of slavery based solely on the color of their skins.

During the course of Angelina's abolitionist activity, she was heavily criticized for speaking publicly--women simply did not do that. So she subsequently found herself advocating for the equality of women as well as freedom for slaves. Fortunately for her, the man she married was a man among men (being known as "The Most Mobbed Man in America" for his stand against slavery, he could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be called, "passive."), and he was in complete agreement with his wife and with his equally pious, independent, and vocal sister-in-law, Sarah Grimke.

Today, evangelical TRR leaders, such as Tim LaHaye, tell their followers that they have never seen a happy marriage where full equality was practiced between the couple. But the marriage of Rev. Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke refutes that statement. Allow me to go on record as well, in refuting such propaganda from my own personal experience. My husband, Butch Watkins, and I have a beautiful relationship based on full equality and for five years have lived in perfect harmony--without disagreement? of course not, but peacefully and harmoniously nonetheless.

Sarah Grimke, a Bible believing Christian, is known as the first woman in America to write and publish a fully developed theological argument defending the equality of men and women in the home, church and society. Was Sarah a "self-centered" person? Her brother-in-law, whose home she resided in for the duration of her life after the marriage of her sister, did not believe so. On her death certificate, in answer to the question "occupation?" Theodore Weld penned the words, "Doing Good."

Theodore and Angelina based their marriage on absolute equality. They lived their entire lives that way and, by all accounts, lived happily. Angelina's husband rose up to call her blessed in his writings about her after her death.

Fredrick Douglas, an escaped slave, an abolitionist, a man who rejected the religion of the slave-holders of the South and their Northern business partners, but an ordained minister of the gospel who highly praised the Jesus of the Bible,the "Christ of Christianity," not only seconded Elizabeth Cady Stanton's resolution at the first women's rights Convention, "that it was the duty of the women of this country to secure their sacred right to the elective franchise (right to vote)," but was also a friend of Harriet Tubman. Tubman advocated for the right of all women to enjoy equality with men. Both having experienced the oppression of slavery, Douglass and Tubman recognized the ungodly prejudice and oppression against women prevalent in both society and in the church. Tubman was personally responsible for making 19 trips back into the South to lead approximately 300 slaves to freedom. Those who knew her say that she never missed a women's rights meeting if she could help it.

Harriet Tubman was an American Hero and an incredible woman of God who spent her entire life advocating for the rights of blacks and women in addition to personally caring for the physical needs of others. Her integrity and Christian testimony remained unimpeachable until her death.

These are but a few examples of great Christians who believed in equality for all men and women, and much work still needs to done in regards to evangelicals and gender equality, but what a cloud of witnesses we are surrounded with! Women indeed have a rich history, and Christian women have nothing to be ashamed of, or to fear, by following in the footsteps of the men and women who began blazing the trail to equality for us.

Visit www.WomanSubmit.blogspot.com to read more articles on the subject of gender and evangelical Christians.

Parenting Today

2009-01-12T03:41:00.000-08:00

Parenting today appears to be a combination of positive affirmation/reinforcement along with manipulative outsmarting the kids (the goal being to produce obedience without the children being aware that they are obeying).

What is the end result of this style of parenting? Children who are rebellious against authority.

In extreme cases, the child will have no respect for the law and ultimately, no respect for God. In normal cases, the child may grow up to obey the law and general rules of conduct--even excel in their goals and chosen fields of endeavor, but, unless it is somehow curbed, that spirit of rebellion will continue to assert its destructive influence.

There is a reason why "Honor your mother and your father " is the first commandment with a promise. Honoring and obeying parents is the first step to honoring and obeying God. And our loving Father in Heaven knows that if we honor our earthly parents, then it increases the liklihood that we will submit ourselves to his ultimate, Heavenly authority and honor Him--that we will be saved.

And it always helps if we are given opportunities as children to make conscious decisions to obey the first legitimate authority in our lives--our parents.

The Falcon and the Sparrow by M. L. Tyndall

2008-10-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Jesus is the only way, truth and life, and God is still on his throne even when bad things happen to good people--or when we can't make sense of personal tragedy. And let's not forget that all things do work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.

M. L. Tyndall's newest novel sports a remarkably courageous heroine (even when she's terrified!), who finds out all of the above are true. I truly appreciate the biblical integrity with which Tyndall writes and, as always, her wit and imagination.

On a personal note: Mary Lu, you fairly cracked me up more than once while I was reading The Falcon and the Sparrow. I loved it. I love surprises too, and that was a nice plot twist you threw in for us, your faithful readers. I love your books and can't wait for the next one!

For more info on M. L. Tyndall's The Falcon and the Sparrow visit http://www.mltyndall.com/

In Love With a Married Man

2008-06-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from an email I received:
I need some advice. I am a Christian woman who has been involved for the past 3 years in a relationship with a married man. I was 29 years old and still a virgin when I first met him. I did not know he was married. I fell into sin and began sleeping with him within a week of our first date. I found out later that he was married. It has been 3 years, we now have a child together, and my family thinks we are married. I am so angry with this man for lying to me, manipulating me, and causing me to lie to my family. I want more than anything, now, to hurt him for all the pain he has caused me. I feel that I have a right to hate him, because he is such a self centered human being who has no regard for the pain he causes others. Please give me some advice on how to deal with my distorted life.

The following is my reply...

Comment | Copy This

Book of Revelation Video Library

2008-06-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

New studies added to this playlist daily

Feeling Positive

2008-04-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

Mich Writes: >>What I'm saying is that positive mood is better for creativity than negative mood<<

Jocelyn Replies: Hi Mich, I found it interesting that you would mention the concepts of "positive and negative" because I have been writing about these for the past few days.

It seems we are increasingly “loading” our language and boxing ourselves in with slogans rather than engaging in real, honest to goodness communication with each other. And in the process are becoming somewhat mindless, rather thoughtless, automatons in our conversation with clouded understanding, shrunken vocabularies, and a vastly reduced capacity for critical thinking.

Using the words "positive and negative" in reference to emotions is an excellent example of this.

Look up these words in a dictionary, and see what they mean. They have to do with energy and electricity. They are polar opposites of each other. However, when we use them in reference to such things as emotions, conversation, being absolutely certain about something, good, bad, optimistic, pessimistic, affirming or non-affirming, we are using them as slang terms which can be extremely vague. After all, being absolutely certain about something is definitely not the same as being optimistic about something, and it would not be the polar opposite of pessimistic or bad. But we frequently use the words "positive and negative" (in slang usage) as polar opposites of each, an erroneous usage to say the least.

So, when you say that being in a "positive mood" is better for creativity, are you saying that feeling optimistic is better for creativity? Or are you saying that feeling absolutely certain about everything is better for creativity? And wouldn't the term "feeling absolutely certain" be somewhat oxymoronic, since absolute certainty would need to be based on facts and not something as biased and abstract as feeling an emotion?

Shouldn’t we just say what we mean using words relevant to the conversation, and leave the positives and the negatives to the electricians, and physicists?

U.S. Dept. of Justice Statistics on Family Violence

2008-01-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

http://momswithoutkids.blogspot.com/2008/07/family-violence-statistics-fact-sheet.html

Work Harder Day, January 12

2008-01-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

Susan Greenfield, in her book, Would the Real Church Please Stand Up!, shared her experience of giving birth then finding that her violent abusive husband would not permit her to accept any help with the new baby, cooking, cleaning, laundry etc during her recovery, even though it was offered to her.

In fact, she was not permitted any recovery time at all. She was told his mother kept up with everything [after giving birth], without help, and she was expected to do the same.

I guess he should know, he was there right?

If the shoe fits, please change shoes

Blame Someone Else Day, January 13

2008-01-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

I know I am running a bit behind here, but I will blame that on my travel schedule and the fact that I was temporarily traumatized by winter storms in the northeast that caused my flight home from Albany to be cancelled. I almost had to camp out at JFK in New York last weekend because my connecting flight was already boarding when the plane I was on touched down and taxied around for awhile. But thanks be to God, I made it home--almost on schedule.

Blame someone else day from a battered and abused wife's point of view...Not male bashing guys, just giving the facts.

"It wasn't me God; it was that woman you gave me!

Enough said.

If the shoe fits, please change shoes

Non-Custodial Protective Parents

2008-01-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

I attended the "Battered Mothers Custody Conference" in Albany New York, where I had the sad privilege of spending the weekend with around 200 non-Custodial Protective Parents (and advocates). Protective parents are parents who through their efforts to protect their children—lose custody of them to the abuser.

I met many Christian women at the conference who feel they cannot hold their heads up among their brothers and sisters in Christ, because of the shame attached to a mother losing custody of her children.

The prevailing stereotype is that good mothers do not lose custody.

I know this is not true.

A protective parent can be either a mother or a father who, in attempting to protect their child from abuse or sexual molestation by the other parent, experiences retaliation by the family court system in being accused of parental alienation (PAS) and having their child/children ripped from their arms and placed in the home of the abuser.

http://www.thedorcasnetwork.com/

Speak to the Hand

2008-01-10T04:56:00.000-08:00

Looking ahead a few days to January 12--National FAMILY COMMUNICATIONS DAY.

Engaging in family communications with an abusive spouse can be excruciating business. Men Stopping Violence lists some abusive behaviors that most anyone will agree would go a long way towards hampering family communications.

Take a few minutes and do a personal inventory:

____Yelling, swearing, being lewd, raising your voice, using angry expressions or gestures

____Criticism (name-calling, swearing, mocking, put-downs, ridicule, accusations, blaming, use of trivializing words or gestures)

____Interrupting, changing topics, not listening, not responding, twisting words, going on and on

____Lying, withholding information

____Emotional withholding (not expressing feelings, not giving support, validation, attention, compliments, respect for feelings, rights, and opinions)

If the shoe fits, please change shoes (Ephesians 4:29 (22-29), Peter 1:4-10).

National Law Enforcement Training Week

2008-01-05T08:09:00.000-08:00

The FIRST WEEK IN JANUARY is National Law Enforcement Training Week.

I, for one, would have appreciated the law inforcement in my hometown to have received better training in how to handle domestic violence incidents on one of the few occasions I called for help.

My abusive husband was not removed from the home via arrest and prosecution (which he should have been), and the police officer bluntly told me I should be the one to leave and threatened me with arrest if I lifted a finger to defend myself against the 200+ lb man I was married to (at the time I weighed in at about 100 lbs soaking wet).

My big question at the time--and still is--was, why should I have been the one to leave my home and go to a shelter when I was not the one breaking the law and engaging in physical violence against my spouse? And why should I have been the one to leave my home and go to a shelter when I was the one working to pay the house payment and all the other household bills?

My own experience is one reason I take it very seriously and personally when I read articles by hi-profile evangelicals misinforming the Church, and the public at large, about the reality and prevalence of domestic violence against women. The uninformed are convinced that all the talk of domestic violence stems not from reality, but rather from the hysterical rantings of radical feminists. And even worse, battered women are blamed for initiating the violence against themselves at least as often as their batterers initiate it.

Well I am not a radical feminist. And I have never read or listened to their "rantings." But I for one, from a very up close and personal perspective, would love to see some money spent training police officers in how to properly handle domestic violence calls.

And just for the record, I never--at any time--initiated any violence in my marriage. And I seriously doubt that most Christian women, who submit to, and continue to live with wife-beaters because they believe that is what God would have them do, initiate the violence either.

Not only did I not initiate any violence against my spouse because I sincerely cared about what God thought about my behavior, but I was very aware that any such action could very easily lead to my premature demise.To put it in a nutshell, I would have been scared to death to hit the man.

http://www.womansubmit.com/
http://www.thedorcasnetwork.com/

National Appendectomy Day

2008-01-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many knew that yesterday was National Appendectomy Day?

A burst appendix can be a serious thing. If not caught in time, when an appedix bursts, death can easily follow. That little appendix commands a great deal of respect during a crisis--all other problems pretty much recede and pale in comparison.

But what about after the crisis?

Well, after a successful appendectomy, the fortunate patient gets to go home and recover from the surgery. If the patient is a woman and she is married, her husband will very likely be quite relieved and grateful that his wife is alive and well.

But what if the whole thing turns out to be a false alarm? How is a husband to react who believes his wife is having an appendix attack and takes the day off work to rush her to the hospital...then finds out all the ado was about nothing?

I daresay the average husband would be relieved to hear his wife was all right. He would take his wife home from the hospital, then either go on into work or take the rest of the day off and putter around the house. He might moan and groan a little over lost pay, but, really, no big deal.

Things happen. That's life.

Not so if the husband is a typical abuser.

One woman related her "almost appendectomy" story to me, which ended quite differently than the above description of the possible outcome in a normal situation.

This woman's husband became very alarmed at the acute lower abdominal pain she was experiencing one morning. He decided she might possibly be having an appendix attack. He urged her to allow him to take her to the emergency room. He called in to work and arranged to take the day off. They got to the hospital, she was examined and found out her appendix was just fine. Her problem turned out to be something relatively minor that would resolve itself on its own without medical intervention.

That was good news.

But in the car, all the way home from the hospital, this relieved, but still in severe pain, woman was cussed out by her furious husband for not having an inflamed appendix.

She spent a miserable day enduring his wrath for committing the unpardonable sin of causing him to miss a day of work when her life was not really in danger after all. That made her scum in his eyes.

On another occassion, when she was very ill--retching and vomiting most of the night--she was told by her unconcerned husband to, "Stop being so melodramatic."

Question: How did I start out writing about National Appendectomy Day and end up writing about abuse?

Answer: It is my hope, that by looking, through the eyes of an abuse victim, at some of the nationally and internationally recognized days, weeks and months in 2008, that I might be successful in raising awareness and compassion for battered and abused women during the course of this coming year.

I recognize that women are not the only victims of abuse--even domestic violence. And my sympathy and compassion are extended to any man who is a victim of abuse. I am not a female chauvinist nor am I a male-basher. And I refuse to engage in the gendar wars that so many are being drawn into these days. Abuse and physical violence is wrong no matter who the perpetrator is. But I make no apologies for advocating for women. In spite of those who claim otherwise, domestic violence is the number one cause of injury to women worldwide. Between 30 and 40% of women who are murdered each year, die as a result of domestic Violence. It is women who are primarily dying as a direct result of domestic violence. No one denies that. And, believe me, domestic violence does not happen without verbal and emotional abuse taking place, so it would behoove us all to learn what constitutes verbal and emotional abuse.

Even without physical violence, few would argue that verbal and emotion abuse is not trivial or harmless. But there are many who do not really understand what constitutes verbal or emotional abuse. It is my hope to bring some understanding, and shed a little light into this very dark arena.

So, hang with me this year; ask the Lord to open eyes, and give understanding and compassion, while exploring the world of marital abuse--a world where everyday, even normally mundane, things can take on devastating, even frightening, aspects when experienced through the crucible of abuse.

Subscribe to this blog as we go on a journey in 2008, exploring a world that we would all prefer did not exist.

http://www.womansubmit.com/

Battered Mothers Custody Conference

2008-01-03T06:55:00.000-08:00

In just a few weeks, I will be attending the Battered Mothers Custody Conference in Albany, NY with two women who are currently engaged in custody battles with their former batterers.

Since it is frequently the mother who has temporary custody of the children when a couple separates, what does the father really have to lose in suing for custody? The mother, on the other hand, stands to lose a great deal.

There are many cases in which parents separate and, fathers, out of a sincere desire for what is best for their children, sue for custody or joint custody. But such unselfish motives are often not the case with wife-beaters.

Men who beat their wives are certainly not taking into account the immeasurable harm they are inflicting on their children who are often witnesses to the violence. Wife-beaters are men who are much more likely to use the court systems in a last ditch effort to abuse their victims rather than out of any such high motive as sincere, unselfish, desire for their children's happiness and best interest.

Ok, that's my rant for the day. I'll post details of the conference on my return.

Link to Opening Statement From Guest Blog Appearance

2007-10-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

The issue of domestic violence among Christians is an emotionally charged subject, fraught with conflicting convictions and opinions. My stance begins and ends with the conviction that the Bible teaches that life should be chosen over any possibility, however remotely, of being theologically incorrect. Read More….

Direct Hits to the Eyeballs

2007-09-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

Today is thankful Thursday. Can I slow down enough to stop for a few minutes and be thankful?

I'd better.

I'm thankful today because Butch's eyes are just fine after two direct hits to the eyeballs when he got drenched in hydraulic fluid on his job (a hose above his head exploded).

I'm thankful for a ton of other things too, but that will do for now

The Dorcas Network

Recent Survey Shows Christians Too Busy for God

2007-08-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I was appalled but not surprised that a recent survey showed that Christians are too busy for God. According to those surveyed, they run from task to task and simply do not have time to go deeper into the things of God.

I propose that it is not so difficult and time consuming as people think.
http://www.hungryheartsministries.com/id209.html

Original One News Now Article
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/study_shows_many_christians_to.php

The Flying Scroll --Zechariah 5:2

2007-05-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Israir Airlines Introduces the 'Sky-Torah'
Dec 29, 06 10:10 am
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=A10519_0_1_0_M

First Ever Torah Scroll to Fly the Skies - Grand Welcome Parade and Celebration at JFK VALLEY STREAM, N.Y., Dec./ --

Israir Airlines will soon become the first airline to maintain an authentic Torah Scroll on board its aircraft.

The "Sky-Torah," handwritten according to Jewish custom by a professional Jewish Scribe especially for the airline, is the first of its kind. The Torah will enhance the prayers of those who are in the skies, praying in the closest place to God in the world.

Keeping a traditional Torah Scroll*, on an aircraft is the idea of Rabbi Shlomo Elharar, Chief Rabbi of Colombia, South America. After years of hard work towards this dream, the Torah is finally ready to be installed permanently on board one of Israir's aircrafts.The Torah will be completed December 27 in Aventura, Florida, and will be escorted to JFK Airport in New York for a welcome celebration, and then to Israel.

The Torah will be welcomed on its way to Israel with a grand celebration in JFK Airport, Terminal 4, December 28, 12:00 pm. The Torah will be carried under a traditional "chuppah," with singing, dancing, live music, children and important Rabbis and dignitaries in attendance.

The Torah is dedicated to the Chief Rabbi of Colombia and to the fallen soldiers of Israel, and those still in captivity.The event will take place December 28, 2006, at 12:00pm at JFK Airport. For more information or to RSVP: Yossi Soffer -- +1-917-428-6317A Torah Scroll is the holiest book within Judaism, made up of the five books of Moses. It must be written by a specially trained scribe called a sofer.

A sofer must know more than 4,000 Judaic laws before writing aTorah, which takes about a year. A single missing or misshapen letter invalidates the entire Torah. The Torah we use today is written exactly the same way the Torah was written the first time by Moses 3,300 yearsago.

About Israir AirlinesEstablished in 1996, Israir Airlines is the second largest airline in Israel. Its elite fleet of Boeing 767-300 and 757-200 aircraft offers international flights between Israel and New York, the Mediterranean and Europe, as well as domestic flights between Ben Gurion and Eilat.

Woman Submit! Christians and Domestic Violence, Is A Book That Could Save Lives

2007-04-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

The Christian woman whose spirit is being crushed and life endangered by domestic Abuse or domestic violence often deals with church sanctioned oppression through unscriptural counsel to submit to her husband regardless of the circumstances. She is faced with a unique burden and needs straight answers -- not unrealistic expectations or cliched, stereotypical platitudes. In the book Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, by Jocelyn Andersen, she will get straight answers, clear scriptural direction, and some tough challenges from one who has been there but is there no longer.

For additional information:
Contact:
Jocelyn Andersen
(863) 614-0439

Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence
Available April 1, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794293-0-9, ISBN-10: 0-9794293-0-7
Paperback, $12.99, 156 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2

Release Source
One Way Cafe Press, Media Relations

Web sites: http://womansubmit.com/

Shades of Nazi Germany?

2007-02-27T04:32:00.000-08:00

Associated Press Article

Anti-Jewish cartoon angers L.A. Koreans
Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:05 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Korean-American community leaders said they plan to launch a protest against the publisher of a popular South Korean comic book that contains anti-Semitic images.

One comic strip in the book shows a man climbing a hill and then facing a brick wall with a Star of David and "STOP" sign in front. "The final obstacle to success is always a fortress called Jews," a translation says.

Another strip shows a newspaper, magazine, TV and radio with the description: "In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews, and it's no exaggeration to say that U.S. media are the voice of the Jews."

Yohngsohk Choe, co-chairman of the Korean American Patriotic Action Movement in the USA, said, "I don't have words to describe the outrage I feel."

The group met Friday with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group. Cooper said he would travel to Seoul on March 15 to raise concerns about the book.

The book, written by South Korean university professor Lee Won-bok, is part of a series called "Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries," which is intended to teach youngsters about other countries. The series has sold more than 10 million copies.

Eun-Ju Park, chief executive of Seoul publisher Gimm-Young, said in an e-mail that the author sent an apology to Charles Kim, national president of the Los Angeles-based Korean-American Coalition.

Park wrote that she would look into the matter "more closely and correct what needs to be corrected."

Jewish Rabbi Speaks Out Against Anti-Christian Propoganda

2007-02-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

A rabbi's warning to U.S. ChristiansPosted:
January 13, 2007
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin

I am certainly not a Churchill. I am not even a Revel. I am having enough trouble just trying to be a Lapin. But I am issuing a very serious warning about deep consequences, just as they did.

It is a warning about the earliest stages of what could become a cataract of disasters if not resisted now.

During the 1930s, Winston Churchill desperately tried to persuade the English people and their government to see that Hitler meant to end their way of life. The British ignored Churchill, which gave Hitler nearly 10 years to build up his military forces. It wasn't until Hitler actually drew blood that the British realized they had a war on their hands. It turned out to be a far longer and more destructive war than it needed to be had Churchill's early warning been heeded.

In 1983, a brave French writer, Jean-Francois Revel, wrote a book called "How Democracies Perish." In this remarkable volume, he described how communism's aim is world conquest. For decades he had been trying to warn of communism's very real threat. Yet in January 1982, a high State Department official said: "We Americans are not solving problems, we are the problem." (Some things never change.)

A good portion of the planet fell to communism, which brought misery and death to millions because we failed to recognize in time that others meant to harm us. Heaven knows there was enough warning during the 1980s of the intention of part of the Islamic world to take yet another crack at world domination. Yet instead of seeing each deadly assault on our interests around the world as a test of our resolve, we ignored it. We failed the test and lost 3,000 Americans in two unforgettable hours.

I am not going to argue that what is happening now is on the same scale as the examples I cite above, but a serious war is being waged against a group of Americans. I am certain that if we lose this war, the consequences for American civilization will be dire.

Phase one of this war I describe is a propaganda blitzkrieg that is eerily reminiscent of how effectively the Goebbels propaganda machine softened up the German people for what was to come. There is no better term than propaganda blitzkrieg to describe what has been unleashed against Christian conservatives recently.

Consider the long list of anti-Christian books that have been published in recent months.

Here are just a few samples of more than 30 similar titles, all from mainstream publishers:

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Piety & Politics: The Right-wing Assault on Religious Freedom
Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism
Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America
Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right

What is truly alarming is that there are more of these books for sale at your local large book store warning against the perils of fervent Christianity than those warning against the perils of fervent Islam.

Does anyone seriously think America is more seriously jeopardized by Christian conservatives than by Islamic zealots? I fear that many Americans believe just that in the same way that many pre-World War II Westerners considered Churchill a bigger threat than Hitler.

Some may say that today's proliferation of anti-Christian print propaganda is nothing to become worried about. To them I ask two questions: First, would you be so sanguine if the target of this loathsome library were Jewish? Just try changing the titles in some of the books I mention above to reflect anti-Semitism instead of rampant anti-Christianism and you'll see what I mean.

Second, major movements that changed the way Americans felt and acted came about through books, often only one book. Think of Rachel Carson's 1962 error-filled "Silent Spring" that resulted in the pointless banning of the insecticide DDT and many unnecessary deaths.

Other books that caused upheavals in our nation were Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," many of Ayn Rand's books and of course "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

No, I would advise you not to underestimate the power of books to alter the behavior of the American public, and I fear for an America influenced to detest Christianity by this hate-filled catalog.

It is not just books but popular entertainment also that beams the most lurid anti-Christian propaganda into the hearts and minds of viewers. One need only think of who the real targets of the recent hit movie "Borat" are.

The brilliant Jewish moviemaker Sacha Baron Cohen, as his title character, using borderline dishonest wiles, lures some innocent but unsophisticated country folk, obviously Christians, to join him in his outrageously anti-Semitic antics. Cohen then triumphantly claims to have exposed anti-Semitism. In fact, he has revealed nothing other than the latent anti-Christianism of America's social, economic and academic secular elites.

Even the recent PBS documentary, "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," managed to do more attacking Christianity than defending Judaism.

Richard Dawkins, an Oxford University professor, is one of the generals in the anti-Christian army of the secular left. American academia treats him with reverence and hangs on his every word when he insists that "religious myths ought not to be tolerated."

For those with a slightly more tolerant outlook, he asks, "It's one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free impose their beliefs on their children?"

He suggests that the state should intervene to protect children from their parents' religious beliefs. Needless to say, he means Christian beliefs, of course. Muslim beliefs add to England's charmingly diverse cultural landscape.

The war is against those who regard the Bible to be God's revelation to humanity and the Ten Commandments to be His set of rules for all time. Phase one in this war is to make Christianity, well, sort of socially unacceptable. Something only foolish, poor and ugly people could turn to.

We have seen how a carefully constructed campaign pretty much made it socially unacceptable to drink and drive. For years, there had been stringent laws against drunk driving. They achieved little. In the end, the practice was all but eliminated by groups allied with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and their effective ways of changing the way Americans thought about it. We have seen how a carefully constructed campaign has pretty much made it socially unacceptable to smoke. In the face of a relentless campaign (dare one call it propaganda?), Americans became docile and forfeited the right to make their own decisions. Nobody was willing to stand up to the no-smoking tyrants. Nobody even asked whether health was sufficient grounds for freedom to be reduced. Now, entire cities and even states have banned smoking, not only in public places but even in privately owned restaurants.

Tyranny comes when citizens are seduced into trading freedom for the promise of safety and security. Considerably more intellectual energy is being pumped into the propaganda campaign against Christianity than was ever delivered to the anti-smoking or anti-drunk-driving campaigns.

Fervent zealots of secularism are flinging themselves into this anti-Christian war with enormous fanaticism. If they succeed, Christianity will be driven underground, and its benign influence on the character of America will be lost.

In its place we shall see a sinister secularism that menaces Bible believers of all faiths.

Once the voice of the Bible has been silenced, the war on Western Civilization can begin and we shall see a long night of barbarism descend on the West.

Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed.

Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah and Israel, am so terrified of American Christianity caving in.

Many of us Jews are ready to stand with you. But you must lead. You must replace your timidity with nerve and your diffidence with daring and determination. You are under attack. Now is the time to resist it.

Courageous Critic

2007-02-11T03:55:00.000-08:00

An Article I found interesting:

By WILLIAM C. MANN, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 10, 10:14 AM ET
WASHINGTON - As a child, Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled violence in Somalia with her family. As an adult she fled Kenya to escape an arranged marriage. She left her adopted Holland after she was caught up in political turmoil and had her life threatened.

Now Hirsi Ali — a brave critic of Islam to her supporters, a bigot to her critics — has found refuge in the intellectual bastion of leading U.S. conservatives.
Hirsi Ali joined the American Enterprise Institute last September, after a sometimes stormy 14 years in the Netherlands, where she was a member of parliament and became a central figure in two events that jolted the nation.

First, after she wrote a script for a film that depicted naked women with Quranic verses scrawled on their bodies, a Dutch-born Muslim gunned down the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh. A letter threatening Hirsi Ali was left on a knife plunged into van Gogh's chest.

Next, a fight within Hirsi Ali's political party over her Dutch citizenship brought down the government.

These days, Hirsi Ali is promoting her autobiography, "Infidel." It gives a graphic account of how she rejected her faith and the violence she says was inflicted on her in the name of Islam.

"I'm an apostate. That's why the book is called 'Infidel,'" she said in a telephone interview from New York.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations thinks Hirsi Ali's campaign amounts to slander and bigotry.

"We believe that she will bring an increase to the level of anti-Muslim bias in this country that we saw her bring to the situation in Europe," the council's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said in an interview Saturday. "Unfortunately her message is one of bigotry, not one of mutual understanding."

Her new colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute laud Ali Hirsi as a brave voice taking on a taboo subject.

"She's very original, a very courageous thinker, and she has independence of mind," said Christina Hoff Sommers, an institute fellow who specializes, among other things, in feminism.

At the institute, Hirsi Ali's studies will involve Islam and women: the relationship between the West and Islam; women's rights in Islam; violence against women propagated by religious and cultural arguments; and Islam in Europe.

Many institute scholars have had a close relationship with the Bush administration. Among its senior fellows are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney.

It may seem like odd company for a woman born in a Mogadishu hospital 37 years ago.

"I've been accused of selling out," she said. "I've been told, 'You're hanging the dirty laundry outside.'"

Ali Hirsi's book provides a graphic account of how her grandmother had her subjected to genital mutilation, sometimes called female circumcision, when she was 5 years old. The practice began in Africa, before Islam, but some African Muslim societies still see it as a requirement of religion.

She also describes a time when she was a teenager in Kenya, a majority Christian country with many Muslim Somali refugees, and a Quran teacher cracked her skull after she challenged his insistence that students write Quranic verses on wooden boards and memorize them.

"I started to call him uncivilized and backward and said he lived in the time of ignorance before Islam had come around and this was an outrageous system," she said. The man bashed her head against the wall.

She lied to be accepted as a refugee in Holland, became a Dutch citizen, graduated from prestigious Leiden University and won a seat in the Dutch parliament for a party that was tough on immigration. She became known as a firebrand.

That led to her collaboration with van Gogh on the short television movie, "Submission." In 2004, a man enraged by the movie shot van Gogh seven times and slit his throat on an Amsterdam street, leaving the note threatening Hirsi Ali.

Her lie when she entered the country — she used an assumed name — caught up with her last year. By that time her falsehood was widely known, even to her good friend Rita Verdonk, the immigration minister. Because of a notorious similar case in which Verdonk expelled a young woman, she came under pressure to cancel Hirsi Ali's citizenship. She did, and the six members of the government's smallest coalition party resigned in protest. The government fell, although Verdonk had used a technicality to restore Hirsi Ali's Dutch citizenship.

Considering van Gogh's death, and her continuing outspokenness about Islam, Hirsi Ali said she no longer can feel safe without bodyguards in the presence of even moderate Muslims.

Unlike many world leaders, including Bush, who say Muslim terrorists are distorting the peaceful Islamic religion, Hirsi Ali said the terrorists in large part have truth on their side: The violence is in the Quran and the hadith, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, she said.

Islam today, she said, "is not my grandmother's amulet-wearing, superstitious sort of Islam that is just comforting for the believer." Today's Islam sees the world as its enemy, she said. "And you wage war against your enemies."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Hooper contends that she exaggerates to further her agenda.

"She is just one more Muslim-basher on the lecture circuit," he said.

Ecumenism--The Big "One"

2007-02-10T03:44:00.000-08:00

Islam
>>Queen Rania urged "all moderates to
stand up and let their voices be heard."
She added: "Many people are frustrated
in the Arab world. Many give in to the anger
because they are accused of violence. But
instead we should get up, explain who we are
and what we believe in.

"Over the last three years, most victims of terrorism
have been Muslim. So there's not a war between
Muslims and non-Muslims, but between extremists
and moderates of all the religions," the queen said.<<

Christianity
Rick Warren said essentially the same thing when
According to a news story in the January 8th edition of
the Philadelphia Inquirer, he said Christian
fundamentalism will be an enemy of the 21st century. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/rwfundamentalism.htm

Excerpt from article:"Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all varieties, will
be 'one of the big enemies of the 21st century.' 'Muslim
fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish
fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism - they're all motivated
by fear. Fear of each other.'"

These statements are popular sentiments these days
and are precursers of what is to come. They are paving
the way for the antichrist and his one world, New Age,
religion.

Everyone has an agenda, and what we need to
realize is that our enemy, Satan, is carefully using
the limited agendas of some in order to orchestrate
events that will bring about the reality of his own
personal agenda--which is him ruling the world
and receiving worship through his man--the Man
of Sin.

We have those with a political, global, "one world"
agenda. For some this agenda is based on lust
for power and greed--for others simply ignorance.

We have the Vatican with their ecumenical agenda,
which goal is essentially to bring all wayward, protestant,
prodigals back into the Roman Catholic fold.

We have an example, in this article, of Christian / Muslim
agreement between two people that most likely do not
even know one another personally, Christian Rick Warren
and Islamic Queen Rania of Jordan.

This is not coincidental--this is a sign of the noose
tightening around the neck of individualism and the
necks of those with strong convictions.

We see much dialogue taking place these days
between Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews.
The Pope is very busy building bridges and alliances
with leaders in every religion.

And Queen Rania and Rick Warren are correct. The
thing that is standing between ecumenists and their
Globalist goals are those with sincere fundamental
convictions.

There will be no place in the New World Order for
anyone who has strong convictions of any sort.

One of the miracles the Man of Sin will seemingly
perform, will be the miracle of reconciling formerly
unreconcilable groups, i.e., Christian, Muslim, Jews.

How will the Man of Sin perform this smoke and
mirror trick of reconciliation?

How he'll handle the Islamic-Jewish end of things
I have a good idea which I'm still meditating on.
(more on that later)

But I feel I have a very good picture of what will be
happening within the "Christian" faction. (we must
understand that aside from faith, the designation of
Christian, Jew or Muslim is also a political designation
in most parts of the world).

I say, seemingly, in regards to this miracle because
God will actually make that possible by removing the
true believers (those who belong to him) when the
present time of "Christ In You" is over--at the rapture
of the Church--that will only leave unsaved, albeit
"religious" so-called Christians.

The Whore of Babylon, which is the Roman Catholic
Church will then step in to fill the void--assisting the
Man of Sin considerably with the "Christian" aspect of
things.

This will be possible only because all true believers
will be removed at the rapture.

Many of those who remain, both protestant and Catholic,
will continue to rally around the Pope (many protestants
are already doing that now) and will continue to
embrace the New Age mystical--contemplative spirituality
that originated with the Roman Catholic Mystics and is now
being promoted heavily once again by Roman
Catholicism--and is spreading like wildfire throughout
Christendom.

When there are no more differences between Protestant
and Catholic--after everyone is properly programmed, the
Whore will no longer be needed and be unceremoniously
dumped--but right now, and until then, she is serving her
purpose well.

And people like Queen Rania and Rick Warren are
playing right into her, or should I say "his" hands.

Competition is Killing Independent Bookstores

2006-12-27T02:44:00.000-08:00

By Mark Porter Tue Dec 26, 2:42 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) -

Empty shelves line a back wall of Coliseum Books in midtown Manhattan and a few customers flip through the remaining stock for bargains.

After more than three decades the independent bookseller is closing its doors -- one of many bookshops across the United States that have fallen victim to the Internet, chain stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, and large discounters.

Since the early 1990s the number of independent bookstores in the United States has halved to about 2,500, according to a report in The New York Times.

Coliseum owner George Leibson said that while a lot of people were coming into the store to browse, they were not buying. Coliseum has spent the past four years on 42nd Street after moving from its home on 57th Street.

"We searched high and low for a high-traffic area, but it hasn't worked out," he said. "Chain-store sales and the Internet are far more practical. People will go to places closer to them. Places like Barnes & Noble."

Leibson also said that -- like the toy industry -- discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target have taken a big bite out of the bottom line of independent booksellers.

Maryann Wlock, a business manager, was a loyal customer of Coliseum when the store was located at 57th Street.

"I did all my shopping at Coliseum. But I never went to the new one on 42nd Street," she said. "I am loyal to Borders in the Time Life Building -- I get some great coupons and also get a credit based upon the money I spend with them each month."

Kate Bearce is closing her bookstore, Main Street Books, in Pella, Iowa, after 12 years of business.

"We have a Wal-Mart supercenter opening nearby soon. ... The Internet certainly takes a lot of sales" also, she said.

According to the most recent figures from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, retail sales at bookstores -- independent and chain stores -- were below 2005 levels in October for the fourth month in a row. At the end of October retail sales were down 1.8 percent for the year.

Bearce said the U.S. consumer needed to be educated about the importance of small businesses in the local economy. She said the customer will ultimately lose.

"Customer service is not the same. When somebody walks in this store I know them, their kids, their parents, their grandparents. I put books in their hands. That's what my customers really like," she said.

"I have many customers that tell me, 'If I send my kids to you, I know you will provide them with appropriate titles,"' said Bearce, adding that that kind of service cannot be duplicated at the bigger bookstores and discount outlets.

Deb Andolino, who is shutting Aliens & Alibis in Columbia, South Carolina, said lesser-known authors would suffer from the closures.

"If there's no one to recommend them to customers, they may not get their next book. And there's some really, really good mid-list authors out there," he said.

In New York, the closure of Coliseum has upset loyal customers.

"It's sad to see these little bookstores disappearing. I'm sorry to see it go. I used to go when it was on the West Side. ... I'm not happy," said a woman, who declined to give her name, as she searched for a bargain.

The Voice of Silence

2006-12-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

We could all use some SILENCE in our lives.

And, no, I am not referring to the silence of meditation, centering or contemplative prayer. These counterfeits only serve as doorways to deception.

I am talking about physically reducing the noise levels—deliberately curbing the levels of input we bring into our environments. I am talking about turning off the voices.

Turn off the television!
Turn off the radio!
Leave the CD’s in their cases!

…at least the majority of the time—and certainly in the mornings.

How can we possibly hear the voice of God when we are deliberately bombarding our consciousness, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, with every other voice but his!

No wonder God’s people are falling for the counterfeit. They are making NO ROOM in their lives for the real. Our Lord was born in a feeding trough because there was NO ROOM to be found for him the night his mother gave birth to him. It seems things have not changed much in 2000 years.

If we love this world and the things in it, then serving Christ, in a real way, will seem a drab and grievous thing. If we serve this world and the things in it, we may still want a taste of the spiritual in our lives, but the real will fall far short of giving us the experiential spiritual fix we are looking for.

Disdaining the true silence, and whoring after the counterfeit touted by the mystics will only open the adulterous Christian to whichever spirit wants to waltz in and claim to be god. Be careful, it just might become your god.

We do not need constant input in our lives in the form of T.V., radio and stereo. Constant input can be detrimental to our spiritual growth.

But if the addiction to input is so strong that DT’s seriously set in when noise is stopped, then get a Bible CD and listen to that—let that be your Methadone—not so-called “Christian” T.V. or Radio.

Allow the Word of God, without commentary, to detox an input-ravaged mind and spirit.

Clean up your personal environment.
Get rid of the noise pollution.

Hear the voice of God.

C. S. Lewis & Mere Christianity: Another View

2006-12-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

With accolades, throughout the evangelical world, of C. S. Lewis' work ringing in my ears, I began reading "Mere Christianity."

I found myself alternately impressed with some of the incredibly insightful things he wrote, then, often in the same chapter, flabbergasted at some of the really asinine things he wrote.

I went from flabbergasted to horrified when I read some of the heretical things he wrote.

It was obvious from just reading the introduction to Mere Christianity that C.S. Lewis, at the very least, was quite liberal and most decidedly ecumenical. I do not mean that as a compliment.

In his introduction, while making clear that Mere Christianity is written as an effort to introduce unbelievers to the concept of God, I questioned his motives for addressing the church at all. I wondered at his criticism towards Christians who contend for the faith. He made absolutely no difference between those who contend for the faith, as the scriptures command, and those who are simply contentious and divisive. He lumped all who had strong convictions into the contentious divisive camp. He even had the audacity to say that most who disagree with what he wrote in Mere Christianity were “borderline” people—those disobedient to any communion (i.e., rebels). That’s a strong accusation, and it is simply wrong.

He also discouraged contending for the faith by implying that Bible reading and believing Christians are not capable at all of really understanding the faith and should leave matters of what he calls “high theology” (does that mean whatever is not found in the Bible?) to the "experts."

I found Lewis to be subtle in his barbs and very good at aiming his darts.

His occult training not only shows up in his Narnia Chronicles (which I have been researching), but also in the many statements he makes in Mere Christianity about ignoring anything he says that doesn't suit and simply finding a way at looking at things that does suit. I challenge anyone to find a Witch or New Ager who does not have the same mindset and encourage the same thing.

And if he doesn't have the discernment to know that the Roman Catholic Church is not simply just another "denomination," I am forced to take anything else he has to say with a grain of salt.

We cannot find anywhere in scripture where we are incorporated fully into the Body of Christ by partaking of the Roman Mass. But that is the statement of the Roman Catholic Church as found on page 112 of Documents of the Vatican 2 (which is the Vatican's official statement of faith and dogma). Participation in the Roman Mass is as close to salvation as you can find, anywhere, in Roman Catholic dogma--so how does C.S. Lewis get the idea that Roman Catholicism is just another denomination of Christianity (pg 6 Mere Christianity)?

Roman Catholicism is a heretical Christian Cult, the largest cult in the history of the world, and no salvation can be found within its dogma. It is very telling that a Roman Catholic Priest who critiqued the manuscript of Mere Christianity before its publication had no problems whatsoever with anything Lewis wrote in it. We find that on page 8.

Couple that with his statement (from Pg 43): "If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all [these] religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of truth." That is stretching things a bit if you ask me.

So far, I am less than impressed with C. S. Lewis being held up as the evangelical world's chief apologist and finest example of a Christian.

As I said, as I continued to read, I went from flabbergasted to horrified. Lewis graduated from liberal to heretical when on pages 62 and 63 he saw no difference between the Lord's Supper and the idolatrous Roman Mass. He dug deeper into heresy when he proclaimed that Jesus taught life was imparted through baptism and the Mass (pg 63).

My question to evangelical leaders is this, ‘Where is your discernment!?’

I will digress here and share that in the introduction of Mere Christianity, Lewis made it very clear that he was a member of the Church of England (Anglican to us Americans) and that his doctrine could be found, in its entirety, within the pages of the Book of Common Prayer.

I wonder that he finds nothing significant in the fact that Thomas Cranmer, the writer of the very first Book of Common Prayer was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for refusing to admit that the Lord's Supper was the same as the Roman Mass, for refusing to admit that it was anything more than symbolic of our Lord's death and that the ordinance was given as a commemorative, a memorial, a remembrance only.

The Roman Mass, on the other hand, is the doctrine of transubstantiation which says the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ after it is blessed. The wafer/eucharist is held up during a Mass to be worshipped. The eucharist is help up during processionals to be worshipped.

This is blatant idolatry.

Millions of god-fearing men and women died cruel deaths at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church for refusing to acknowledge that the doctrine of transubstantiation is anything but a heretical perversion of the commerative ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

In view of Lewis' stubborn disregard of what the Bible clearly says about The Lord's Supper (and many other things I’m finding), I conclude that he does not know his Bible very well nor does he hold it in high esteem. I seriously doubt much of his doctrine actually comes from the Bible, and in view of Thomas Cranmer's death by burning, because of the that same issue, I also question the truthfulness of his statement that he found his doctrine in the Book of Common Prayer either.

But I do find it interesting that he apparently remained an enthusiastic student of Greek Mythology his entire life. We find evidence of this when he is quoted on page 276 of C.S. Lewis: A Biography, by Roger Lancelyn Green as saying, "I had some ado to prevent Joy (his wife) and myself from relapsing into Paganism in Attica! At Daphni it was hard not to pray to Apollo the Healer. But somehow one didn't feel it would have been very wrong--would have only been addressing Christ sub-specie Apollinis (emphasis mine)."

Apollinis is a Christ sub-specie? Lewis could barely restrain himself from praying to Apollo?(?) The Bible is very clear that the false Gods worshipped by the Greeks were demons. And here we have highly recommened, foremost apologist for the Christian faith telling us that he was almost unable to restrain himself from praying to a demon!

In his book The World’s Last Night and Other Essays on pages 98-99, Lewis called Matthew 24:34 (“Verily, I say to you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled)… the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. He went on to say, "The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side. That they stood thus in the mouth of Jesus himself and were not merely placed thus by the reporter, we surely need not doubt… The facts, then, are these: that Jesus professed himself (in some sense) ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so.”

I say it is C. S. Lewis who shows his ignorance—not my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Lewis was converted from atheism to a belief in God by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien is loudly touted as being a Christian. In actuality, Tolkien was a Roman Catholic--which is rarely synonyomous with being saved. But modern evangelicals, along with C. S. Lewis leading apparently leading the charge, rarely make the distinction. In earlier, not so distant, times, evangelicals did not have a problem with speaking up about it. They made certain the distinctions between Roman Catholicism and evangelical Christianity remained in sharp focus.

But in these last days, we find ourselves hurtling at lightening speed towards The Day of the Lord, and the conditions are quickly ripening for the introduction of a world religion that will be facilitated by the Man of Sin. The scriptures warn about this in many places. The fruit cannot take much more ripening. It is obviously almost rotten as it is.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus....

Links to Articles I've Had Published On Contemplative Spirituality and New Age Occult Connection

2006-12-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Lighthouse Trails Research Center

From the Lighthouse Blog

Christian Mystics & The Sacred Romance

2006-11-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

>>God was surprised when Adam and Eve rejected Him. He was dismayed when humans continued to reject Him and the authors say that “in the 400-year period between the Old and New Testaments you can almost imagine [God] nursing his wounds, wondering where it all went wrong…” (??!)<< The above quote comes from a review of the Book “Sacred Romance” by Eldridge and Curtis.

Is that true? Do the scriptures teach that God was surprised and dismayed when Adam and Eve betrayed him? Did God really spend 400 years nursing his wounds and wondering where it all went wrong?

The scriptures say God knows the end from the beginning. The scriptures say Jesus is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the World.

That tells me that God not only knew well ahead of time what Adam and Eve were going to do, but already had a plan in place to counteract their sin in his risen son, Jesus.

The “Christian Mystics” bite the dust again. They are long on emotion (and vain imagination) and short on sound doctrine—which they refuse to endure.

Changes Changes

2006-11-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of transferring all book reviews to The Hungry Hearts Book Review blogspot. I'm not really sure what I'll do with this space after that, but I am sure I'll think of something.

Jocelyn