Countering the lie of same-sex attractions~Rebecca Grace

Countering the lie of same-sex attractions

Rebecca Grace - Guest Columnist - 7/4/2009 4:00:00 AM

Homosexuality is becoming a way of life for many young people who are buying the lie that they are born homosexuals. The world equates same-sex attraction with an innate homosexual identity, so those who struggle with homosexual feelings are told it must be who they are.

But Scott Davis, vice president of education for Exodus International -- the leading ministry aimed at men and women tempted by unwanted same-sex attraction -- sets the record straight in the powerful DVD titled The Question of Homosexuality: A Conversation for Youth About Same-Sex Attraction.

The DVD, which can be used in an individual or group setting, combines intriguing testimonies and insightful teaching about homosexuality and the impact it is having on teens and young adults. It is 100 minutes in length and addresses the hard-hitting questions that today’s youth are asking, provides Biblical instruction about God’s design for sexuality, and moves viewers’ hearts to compassion for their gay-identified peers and loved ones.

In the interview below, Davis reflects on the contents of the DVD, which is available at http://store.afa.net.

(Note: The DVD contains frank and detailed discussions about homosexuality.)

AFA Journal: How did this DVD project come about?

Scott Davis: As a campus leader [a number of years ago], I saw a tremendous need for resources for youth and campus ministers on the topic of homosexuality. I found this out when I had a large number of friends coming to me and saying, “Scott, I struggle with homosexual feelings. I don’t want to be gay, and I don’t know what to do about it. Can you help me with it?” This was sort of my introduction to the issue.

This DVD -- a product of many years -- grew out of my experience as a campus minister, finding great resources from Exodus and then coming on staff and creating a tool that youth leaders and campus ministers could use in talking to their students about homosexuality.

AFAJ: Why is homosexuality so problematic for young people?

SD: Many students find themselves experiencing these feelings and trying to figure out why and what to do with them. They’ve been told that if they experience the homosexual feeling – a feeling of attraction to someone of the same gender – then that defines them as a homosexual. That is their identity. They are told that they have those feelings because they were born gay, they’ll always be gay, and their only option is to accept and to pursue a homosexual lifestyle.

AFAJ: How can the church help?

SD: It really is the church’s battle. The key is to be actively involved in all students’ lives, teaching them in word and in deed what healthy sexuality looks like. One of the most damaging things for students, especially those growing up in Christian homes, is they will experience these confusing sexual feelings at a young age, which is very common, but they don’t feel like they can talk about it. They don’t feel like they can talk to their parents, church or youth minister about it, so really all that’s left is a school counselor who will likely tell them that this means they’re gay.

So it’s very important for youth pastors to talk about this topic in a compassionate and loving way so that a student who is listening and struggling with this knows this is a safe person with whom he can talk to get help.

AFAJ: Why are love and compassion significant when ministering to students struggling with homosexuality?

SD: Obviously love and compassion are extremely important in every avenue of life, especially in the Christian life and ministry. They are just plain effective. But in addition to that, the need that lies at the root of homosexuality isn’t the need to have sex with people of the same gender. The need is for love, affirmation and acceptance, specifically from family, church and peers.

AFAJ: How did you come to this understanding?

SD: What really affected me as a young man in ministry who began to address this topic of homosexuality was really looking at Christ and the Gospels and how He responded to sinners of all sorts. The Gospels are full of stories of Jesus interacting with sexual sinners and people who were apart from God in all sorts of ways. Seeing him interact with these people who were really outcasts in their own day, helps me understand how I should respond in my own day. Interacting with Christ and the Gospels moved my heart to compassion and changed me inside.

Rebecca Grace is a staff writer for the AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association. This article, printed with permission, appears in the July 2009 issue. The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.

Opinions expressed in 'Features' columns published by OneNewsNow.com are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, OneNewsNow.com, our parent organization or its other affiliates.

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think~MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think

The average length of unemployment is higher than it's been since government began tracking the data in 1948

By MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN

The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.

Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:

David Klein

- June's total assumed 185,000 people at work who probably were not. The government could not identify them; it made an assumption about trends. But many of the mythical jobs are in industries that have absolutely no job creation, e.g., finance. When the official numbers are adjusted over the next several months, June will look worse.

- More companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave. These people don't count on the unemployment roll.

- No fewer than 1.4 million people wanted or were available for work in the last 12 months but were not counted. Why? Because they hadn't searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

- The number of workers taking part-time jobs due to the slack economy, a kind of stealth underemployment, has doubled in this recession to about nine million, or 5.8% of the work force. Add those whose hours have been cut to those who cannot find a full-time job and the total unemployed rises to 16.5%, putting the number of involuntarily idle in the range of 25 million.

- The average work week for rank-and-file employees in the private sector, roughly 80% of the work force, slipped to 33 hours. That's 48 minutes a week less than before the recession began, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data 45 years ago. Full-time workers are being downgraded to part time as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water, and factories are operating at only 65% of capacity. If Americans were still clocking those extra 48 minutes a week now, the same aggregate amount of work would get done with 3.3 million fewer employees, which means that if it were not for the shorter work week the jobless rate would be 11.7%, not 9.5% (which far exceeds the 8% rate projected by the Obama administration).

- The average length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest since government began tracking this data in 1948. The number of long-term unemployed (i.e., for 27 weeks or more) has now jumped to 4.4 million, an all-time high.

- The average worker saw no wage gains in June, with average compensation running flat at $18.53 an hour.

- The goods producing sector is losing the most jobs -- 223,000 in the last report alone.

- The prospects for job creation are equally distressing. The likelihood is that when economic activity picks up, employers will first choose to increase hours for existing workers and bring part-time workers back to full time. Many unemployed workers looking for jobs once the recovery begins will discover that jobs as good as the ones they lost are almost impossible to find because many layoffs have been permanent. Instead of shrinking operations, companies have shut down whole business units or made sweeping structural changes in the way they conduct business. General Motors and Chrysler, closed hundreds of dealerships and reduced brands. Citigroup and Bank of America cut tens of thousands of positions and exited many parts of the world of finance.

Job losses may last well into 2010 to hit an unemployment peak close to 11%. That unemployment rate may be sustained for an extended period.

Can we find comfort in the fact that employment has long been considered a lagging indicator? It is conventionally seen as having limited predictive power since employment reflects decisions taken earlier in the business cycle. But today is different. Unemployment has doubled to 9.5% from 4.8% in only 16 months, a rate so fast it may influence future economic behavior and outlook.

How could this happen when Washington has thrown trillions of dollars into the pot, including the famous $787 billion in stimulus spending that was supposed to yield $1.50 in growth for every dollar spent? For a start, too much of the money went to transfer payments such as Medicaid, jobless benefits and the like that do nothing for jobs and growth. The spending that creates new jobs is new spending, particularly on infrastructure. It amounts to less than 10% of the stimulus package today.

About 40% of U.S. workers believe the recession will continue for another full year, and their pessimism is justified. As paychecks shrink and disappear, consumers are more hesitant to spend and won't lead the economy out of the doldrums quickly enough.

It may have made him unpopular in parts of the Obama administration, but Vice President Joe Biden was right when he said a week ago that the administration misread how bad the economy was and how effective the stimulus would be. It was supposed to be about jobs but it wasn't. The Recovery Act was a single piece of legislation but it included thousands of funding schemes for tens of thousands of projects, and those programs are stuck in the bureaucracy as the government releases the funds with typical inefficiency.

Another $150 billion, which was allocated to state coffers to continue programs like Medicaid, did not add new jobs; hundreds of billions were set aside for tax cuts and for new benefits for the poor and the unemployed, and they did not add new jobs. Now state budgets are drowning in red ink as jobless claims and Medicaid bills climb.

Next year state budgets will have depleted their initial rescue dollars. Absent another rescue plan, they will have no choice but to slash spending, raise taxes, or both. State and local governments, representing about 15% of the economy, are beginning the worst contraction in postwar history amid a deficit of $166 billion for fiscal 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and a gap of $350 billion in fiscal 2011.

Households overburdened with historic levels of debt will also be saving more. The savings rate has already jumped to almost 7% of after-tax income from 0% in 2007, and it is still going up. Every dollar of saving comes out of consumption. Since consumer spending is the economy's main driver, we are going to have a weak consumer sector and many businesses simply won't have the means or the need to hire employees. After the 1990-91 recessions, consumers went out and bought houses, cars and other expensive goods. This time, the combination of a weak job picture and a severe credit crunch means that people won't be able to get the financing for big expenditures, and those who can borrow will be reluctant to do so. The paycheck has returned as the primary source of spending.

This process is nowhere near complete and, until it is, the economy will barely grow if it does at all, and it may well oscillate between sluggish growth and modest decline for the next several years until the rebalancing of excessive debt has been completed. Until then, the economy will be deprived of adequate profits and cash flow, and businesses will not start to hire nor race to make capital expenditures when they have vast idle capacity.

No wonder poll after poll shows a steady erosion of confidence in the stimulus. So what kind of second-act stimulus should we look for? Something that might have a real multiplier effect, not a congressional wish list of pet programs. It is critical that the Obama administration not play politics with the issue. The time to get ready for a serious infrastructure program is now. It's a shame Washington didn't get it right the first time.

Mr. Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.

I am a gay Christian. What do I do?

Question posted on Yahoo! Answers: I’m gay and am Christian. I have tried so hard to pray to God, counseling, etc. and nothing works! I still have gay tendencies! Why isn’t God healing me of my sickness? What do I do? I don’t want to go to Hell, I’m so scared!

When you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you confessed you were a sinner and could not stop sinning. Remember that?

Remember when you closed your eyes and asked the Creator of the Universe to take over your life and lead you?

How did you feel back then when you realized God the Father so loved you He gave his only Son for you and promised he would never leave you nor forsake you?

What was it like the first time you realized you had the Holy Spirit to comfort you and to lead you as well as teach you how to read the Bible daily?

Was it fun when you read your first psalm, your first proverb, the book of John?

I can tell you for me it was just like yesterday and I have been saved for 35 years and I still sin.
I admit, I am getting better, but you know the bible says everyday we are sinners until the Lord Jesus takes this body I live in away.

When He does, we ALL will be perfect.

Till then, in time, day by day, God promised he would work on us till one day HE would present us, present you, to his Father faultless.

You will suffer, as he promised we all would, but one day, when it is time, your tendencies will be to rejoice,

That once you were lost, now you are found, was blind but now you see.

You will. You'll See. It just takes God time.

Michael James Stone

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Stubbornness Cuts Us Off From Others, and From God~Billy Graham

Stubbornness Cuts Us Off From Others, and From God

By Billy Graham

Christian Post Guest Columnist

Mon, Jul. 13 2009 02:40 PM EDT

Q: How can you help someone who doesn't want your help, and won't even admit they have a problem? My cousin is like this. His life is falling apart because he can't get along with people but he refuses to face it. What can I do? - R.H.

Have you ever thought about how stubborn we often are - and how much it hurts us? Stubbornness makes us do things we shouldn't do, and cuts us off from others (even those who want to help us) - simply because we insist on our own way and won't admit we might be wrong.

But stubbornness also cuts us off from God, because it makes us refuse to seek His will or listen to His Word. Instead, we insist on going our own way - regardless of the consequences. I often think of the people of Jeremiah's day, who stubbornly refused to listen to his warnings and told him, "It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart" (Jeremiah 18:12).

Is there anything you can do to help your cousin? The most important thing you can do is to pray for him. You can't break through his stubbornness - but God can. Pray that he'll be willing to face his problems and listen to the advice of people who care about him. Pray most of all that he will realize his need for God's forgiveness, and humbly submit his life to Jesus.

Stubbornness has its roots in pride - and because of this, it's ultimately a spiritual problem. Make sure of your own commitment to Christ, and then ask Him to help you show His love to your cousin. The Bible says, "Love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).

________________________________________________

Affectionately known as the "World's Preacher" for more than 60 years, the Rev. Billy Graham is one of the most influential and respected spiritual leaders of the 20th century. He has been a friend and spiritual adviser to ten American presidents and has preached the Gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history - nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories - through various meetings. Hundreds of millions more have been reached through television, video, film, and webcasts. Send your queries to "My Answer," c/o Billy Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C., 28201; call 1-(877) 2-GRAHAM, or visit the Web site for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: www.billygraham.org.

Why Homosexual Behavior Is More like Consensual Incest~

Why Homosexual Behavior Is More like Consensual Incest and Polyamory than Race or Gender - Part 1

A Reasoned and Reasonable Case for Secular Society

By CP Guest Contributor

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.

Thu, May. 21 2009 09:12 AM EDT

Part 1: The Initial Case

On Apr. 29 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act” which places “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” “real or perceived,” alongside of “race,” “national origin,” “gender,” and “disability” as benign conditions for which society should provide special protections in federal law. Those who oppose homosexual practice are, by analogy, implicitly identified in law as discriminatory bigots, akin to racists and misogynists.

The problem is that the analogy to race and gender doesn’t work well. Race and gender are 100% heritable, absolutely immutable, and primarily non-behavioral conditions of life, and therefore, intrinsically benign. Homosexuality and transsexuality are none of these things. While there probably are some biological risk factors for some homosexual development and even transgenderism, science has failed to establish that homosexuality and transsexuality develop deterministically like race and gender. Even the Kinsey Institute has acknowledged that at least one shift in the Kinsey spectrum of 0 to 6 is the norm over the course of life for those who identity as homosexual (75%). Most importantly, unlike race and gender, homosexuality and transsexuality are in the first instance impulses to engage in behavior that is structurally discordant with embodied existence (as male and female). They are therefore not intrinsically benign conditions.

I contend that a better analogy (i.e., with more points of substantive correspondence) can be made between homosexuality and transsexuality on the one hand and polysexuality (an orientation toward multiple sexual partners) and incest (here I am thinking of an adult-committed sort) on the other hand. The latter are, after all, two other sexual behaviors that are incongruent with embodied existence that, despite such incongruence, can still be conducted as committed, caring relationships between adults. If incest and polyamory are indeed better analogues to homosexuality and transgenderism, then it is clear that placing the latter alongside race and gender as conditions worthy of special protections and benefits becomes, well, misplaced.

In making these remarks, I trust that people of faith know that it is just as wrong to hate and commit violence against persons who engage in adult-consensual relationships with close kin or with multiple partners as it is to hate persons who engage in same-sex intercourse or who otherwise attempt to override their sex or gender given at birth. It is not right to hate anyone or commit violence against anyone.

As regards a logical connection to polyamory, the limitation of the number of persons in a valid sexual union to two persons at any one time is predicated on the natural “twoness” of the sexes, “male and female” or “man and woman.” This was certainly Jesus’ view in Mark 10 and Matthew 19, where he cited “God made them male and female” as the reason for overthrowing concurrent and serial polygamy). Polyamorous behavior and homosexual behavior alike violate the natural pair constituted by the existence of two primary, complementary sexes, even when they are conducted in the context of consensual, adult-committed relationships. The very sex act itself, which accommodates only one act of penetration at a time, illustrates the essential sexual “twoness” of a sexual bond predicated on two (and only two) complementary sexes

As regards a logical connection to incest, incestuous behavior and homosexual behavior alike violate a requisite principle of embodied otherness within embodied sameness, even when such sexual behaviors are conducted consensually between committed adults. Incest is sex between persons who are too much structurally or formally alike as regards kinship. The high risk of birth defects that attend incestuous births is the symptom of the root problem: too much identity on the level of kinship between the sexual partners. That is why society rejects incestuous sexual relationships even when it occurs between consenting adults who either cannot procreate (whether because one partner is infertile or because both partners are of the same sex) or take active birth-control precautions. The structural impossibility of births arising from homosexual intercourse is likewise not so much the problem as the symptom of the root problem: namely, too much formal or structural identity between the participants and not enough complementary otherness, here as regards sex or gender.

In Part 2 I will look at what disproportionately high rates of measurable harms associated with homosexual relationships indicate for the unnatural character of homosexual relations.

__________________________________________

Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D. is associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Abingdon Press) and co-author of Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views (Fortress Press). His website www.robgagnon.net contains new material and updates to published work.

A Religious Scientist?~Chuck Colson

• • A Religious Scientist?

  Dr. Francis Collins Picked for NIH

By Chuck Colson

Christian Post Guest Columnist

Tue, Jul. 14 2009 06:55 PM EDT

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It was good news when I picked up the New York Times and read that a good friend of mine, Francis Collins, was picked by President Obama to become the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

You’ve probably heard of Collins, who led the Human Genome Project, which actually sequenced the human genome. For this, President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His nomination has been applauded, as the Times reports, by “top scientists and research advocacy organizations.”

But as I read the article, my delight turned to dismay. After citing Collins’s significant achievements, the Times darkly warned, “But praise for Dr. Collins was not universal or entirely enthusiastic.”

The chief reason for this-hold on to your hats, folks-is that Collins has (gasp) publicly “embraced religion.”

The Times reports that he has even written a book entitled The Language of God. Scandalous! Even worse, he has, quote, “given many talks and interviews in which he described his conversion to Christianity as a 27-year-old medical student.”

And the Times warns its readers, “Religion and genetic research have long had a fraught relationship, and some in the field complain about what they see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism.”

This is ignorance and bias at its worst.

While his confirmation by the Senate “is all but certain,” I can only imagine what awaits him during the confirmation hearings. He is sure to face hostile questions about his faith in Christ.

Well, I can assure you that Dr. Collins will not back down. He is a solid follower of Christ and an articulate defender of his views-both religious and scientific. Converted by reading C.S. Lewis, he became a fellow at the C.S. Lewis Institute and studied there. He and I have spent long hours together discussing Scripture and particularly the works of St. Augustine.

I should mention that he and I have some profound disagreements. He is an evolutionary theist who believes in the common descent of all life. His book, The Language of God, tries to harmonize evolution and Christianity in a way that I simply cannot agree with (and so I couldn’t endorse the book). He also is in favor of certain kinds of embryonic stem cell research. Again, I could not disagree with him more.

Nonetheless, I for one hold him in high esteem-both as a scientist and as a brother in Christ, living proof that one can be a great scientist and a serious Christian.

Several years ago, he gave the address at the National Prayer Breakfast. It was a powerful testimony. When he finished, he picked up a guitar and asked the crowd to sing with him a hymn he had composed. He then led 3,000 dignitaries from around the world, worshiping the God of the Bible. It was an amazing morning.

Some years ago, Supreme Court Justice Scalia told a Christian audience to “have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity . . . and the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

I know Dr. Francis Collins has that courage-and that he’ll soon have the opportunity to show it to the so-called wise of the world. Just as he did that morning at the National Prayer Breakfast.

_______________________________________________________

From BreakPoint, July 13, 2009, Copyright 2009, Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with the permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or distributed without the express written permission of Prison Fellowship Ministries. “BreakPoint®”� and “Prison Fellowship Ministries®”� are registered trademarks of Prison Fellowship

Could this be it? Blair could become Europe’s first president~ Future Anti-Christ?

Blair could become Europe’s first president

Tony Blair was formally confirmed last night as the UK Government's official candidate to be Europe's first president - if he wants the job.

Baroness Kinnock, the ex-Labour MEP and now Gordon Brown's Europe Minister, made official the unofficial line that the Prime Minister's predecessor would get the backing of the government should he throw his hat in the ring.

However, the SNP claimed the Prime Minister would be making a huge mistake in backing a "warmonger" for the role, which the party said needed a unifier. "Putting forward Tony Blair for this job would be divisive and damaging for the EU institutions," claimed Ian Hudghton, the SNP MEP.

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The new role of president, expected to carry a pay and perks package of £200,000, is due to be created as part of reforms under the Lisbon Treaty, which has yet to come into force largely due to public resistance in Ireland, where voters face a second referendum on it in October.

The Whitehall line before yesterday was that talking of who would be EU president was premature when the prestigious post had not yet been created.

However, at a briefing in Strasbourg, Lady Kinnock declared: "The UK Government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature for President of the Council."

She insisted Mr Blair, 56, who is currently a Middle East envoy, had the "strength of character" and "status" to take on the job. Asked if the issue had been discussed with the ex-PM, she said: "It is the government's position. I am sure they would not do that without asking him."

She added: "People know who he is and he could step into this new role with a lot of respect and he would be generally welcomed."

Mr Brown's spokesman confirmed Lady Kinnock's statement, saying: "It's the Prime Minister's view that Tony Blair would be a good candidate for any big international job.

"If Tony Blair decides to stand as President of the European Council, once that job has been created, then, of course, we will support him."

William Hague for the Conservatives, who oppose the creation of an EU President, claimed Mr Blair, like any holder of the post, would be "likely to centralise power for themselves in Brussels and dominate national foreign policies.".

He added: "In the hands of an operator as ambitious as Tony Blair, that is a near certainty."

Last night, Mr Blair was keeping his options open. His spokesman said: "There is no campaign. As we have said, time and again on this, there is nothing to be a candidate for since the job doesn't actually exist."

If the post were to be created and if the ex-PM were to seek the post, then he is likely to run up against opposition from some of Britain's EU fellow member states.

His role in the Iraq war is likely to put off some heads of government. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, a onetime supporter of Mr Blair's, is now said to favour Felipe Gonzalez, the 67-year-old former Spanish Prime Minister. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is also said to have cooled on Mr Blair's potential candidacy, but Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has described the former premier as the "ideal personality" to be president.

Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited.

------------------

Future Anti-Christ?

WOW...,

1. The post has not been created "yet" but they are campaigning it.
2. All parties agree on a EU "President of the Council"
3. Tony Blair is strong fore front leader

With his personality and profiles recently done on PBS, History channel and several documentaries, it is almost biblically impossible to make President Obama ever be the anti-christ no matter what he does.

But the shoe size seems to fir Mr Blair very well....

Michael James Stone