That’s Elbert With An E

I was reading a post on Outraged Richard on which he commented:

With divorce, gay marriage, teen sex, abortion, pornography, drugs, illegal immigrants, bankrupt governments, bursting prisons, and the wearing of cocktail dresses and logo T-shirts to church becoming the de facto standard of societal behavior, what is worth defending about the U.S.?

Readers, I must confess I’m a “liberal” on the church dress code. My son has worn this shirt to church:

Is this shirt inappropriate for church or a Christian religious service?

(I realize that The Outraged One’s post was not directed at t-shirts. I’m simply taking you down my rabbit trail, my thought pattern, etc.)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… (Ephesians 5:25 )

…husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church…(Ephesians 5:28-29)

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. (Colossians 3:20-22)

Simply put, love your wives and encourage your children.

A sad snippet, but something to remind us that separation from your children can hurt.

If you have never been separated from your children for long periods of time, you may not understand, though I’m sure you share a deep love for your children. However, if you’re one of the thousands of fathers who are separated, divorced or incarcerated, you know exactly what I’m saying.

We long for the opportunity to patch a scraped knee, soothe a hurting spirit, or chase away the monsters under the bed. These little, yet significant moments pass us by as our children seem to grow up much faster when we’re apart. We would like to be there at that moment when our children need us, perhaps just once when they’re hurt from a bicycle fall or sad because of a classmate’s unkind remark—just once. But for most of us, those moments pass us by.

Sure, we have our visits, and if our children get hurt we comfort them, but visits aren’t real day-to-day life. They’re condensed time capsules, crammed with an abundance of activities, trying to make up for lost time. Just when the visit begins to slow to a normal pace, it’s time to take them home. All that fills the silence after the good-byes is the sad sensation that so many things were left undone or unsaid. You pledge to do them during the next visit, but by then she has grown so much that you need to find your bearings and get over the initial discomfort, and your visit time flies. (Randell Turner, The Hug That Changed My Life)

An exhortation:

On this Father’s Day, then, may we not only count the blessings of fatherhood, but also commit to honoring those attendant obligations every day. May we also examine the job we are doing as husbands first, and then as fathers. (Mark Alexander, Patriot Post 08-24 Digest)

I also got a gift card to The Gospel Shop in Salisbury. It will probably be used on books but if not, music will work just fine.

Finally, I’m linking to my daughter’s page. She has written something for Father’s Day that deeply touched my wife and me. Click here to see the post.

Here at That’s Elbert, we pray for all men and women, political friend or foe. Over the weekend it was reported that Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts had two seizures and as a result was hospitalized. Tests were run and it was reported today that he has a malignant brain tumor. Pray for him and his family during this difficult time.

Former Ku Klux Klansman and current Democrat Senator Robert Byrd has endorsed Barack Obama. That’s certainly weird. Hillary has got to be really annoyed about that, considering she won his state, West Virginia, by a wide margin. I have to admit that I didn’t hear about this until Jay Leno joked about this Monday night.

Mark Beverly got fired. Who is this guy? He used to work for SuperAmerica, a convenience store owned by Marathon Petroleum Company. Beverly was fired due to helping a fellow employee during a robbery at the store. SuperAmerica says he violated store policy by getting involved. Essentially in this situation he should have just stood there and watched another employee getting assaulted by a crook. I disagree in this case. Read the story and decide yourself.

There is probably nothing to be added to the news about California’s Supreme Court overturning the will of the California people. What liberals can’t win in the ballot box they impose via the courts.

Californians passed Proposition 22 in March 2000, defining marriage as one man and one woman. This measure won with 61.4% of the vote. In real numbers, the spread between the yeas and nays was 1.7 million votes. That’s around two times the population of Delaware! The California Supreme Court said no to their decision.

Here are some widely varied stuff from around the internet.

James Dobson said in response to the decision:

“The will of the people has now arrogantly been declared null and void,” he said. “In so doing, the justices have undermined and endangered the basic building block of society, which has been honored and preserved in every nation on earth through most of human history.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins:

“The California Supreme Court assumed the powers of a legislative body by imposing same-sex ‘marriage.’

“This decision put marriage at risk all across the nation and again highlights the need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so that this divisive campaign for the oxymoron of ’same-sex marriage’ will be ended once and for all.”

From the decision:

…in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.

and a reply from Outraged Richard:

Except for the fact that there are innumerable studies and psychological, philosophical, and religious writings to show that children not raised in a loving home of a married man and woman is detrimental to them.

More from the Outraged one:

The error of equating race and gender discrimination with sexual orientation discrimination is an exceptionally glaring one. Race and gender are genetically and biologically based standards that establish a human being, while sexual orientation, or more precisely, non-heterosexual sexual activity, is an extremely vague characteristic that has no immutable genetic or biological foundation.

An American Indian or a female can never stop being of that race or gender, and because those are integral unchanging human qualities there should be no discrimination against them because of it. In contrast, sexual activity, especially non-heterosexual activity, is an action that is performed, like hanging tinsel, and is subject to the same scrutiny that other acts are under—some of which have been declared unlawful.

Some pages of note: Hot Air | Prop 22 on Wikipedia | Citizen Link | Protect Marriage (CA)

Today is April 20 or, in numerical form, 4/20. I have heard that this is unofficially National Smoke Weed Day. The reason: “420″ is a code-word for smoking marijuana, thus 4/20 would be the best day for inhaling an illegal substance. Wikipedia has some historical information on “420″:

Although many diverse theories exist to explain the origin of the term, one central root of the phrase stems from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California in 1971; the teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke cannabis at the Louis Pasteur statue. The term became part of their group’s salute, “420 Louis!”, and became popularized in the late 1980s by fans of The Grateful Dead. Many North American cannabis users continue to observe 4:20 as a time to smoke communally. By extension April 20 (”4/20″ in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.

And here’s the charm to the Wikipedia entry:

In some locations this celebration coincides with Earth Week.

That speaks volumes!

There is some information posted here about marijuana. The web site provides a list of dangers which include:

• Impaired perception
• Diminished short-term memory
• Loss of concentration and coordination
• Impaired judgement
• Increased risk of accidents
• Loss of motivation
• Diminished inhibitions
• Increased heart rate
• Anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia
• Hallucinations
• Damage to the respiratory, reproductive, and immune systems
• Increased risk of cancer
• Psychological dependency

The article also points out:

Although dangers exist for marijuana users of all ages, risk is greatest for the young. For them, the impact of marijuana on learning is critical, and pot often proves pivotal in the failure to master vital interpersonal coping skills or make appropriate life-style choices. Thus, marijuana can inhibit maturity.

So maybe the best thing to do on 4/20 is don’t smoke weed.

I swiped this from WGMD’s Talk of Delmarva blog. Click here and take The Yankee or Dixie Quiz. My score:

50% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category.

Aw man, if it would have been 50% Dixie I would feel a little better. Southern people are cooler.

When my family lived in Pensacola, we made friends with many people from Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. To them, we were northerners or Yankees. To friends in Pennsylvania, we were southerners. We felt like outcasts, people without a region or something. I thought we had more in common with our southern friends, or at least we felt more at home.

Well, let me ask this: how many of my readers have drank wooter from the zink? If someone asked you how you were, did you ever say “fair ta mid’lin?”

UPDATE: I didn’t see the notes at the top of the test. You can’t change your answers during the test or it will throw your score. So, I took the test again and came up with this score:

63% (Dixie). A definitive Southern score!

OK, I feel better now.

donviti at DelawareLiberal.net pointed out a Today Show story that says…

For one species of flatworm that lives in the gills of freshwater fish, monogamy is the rule. But for humans and every other living creature, biologists believe nature prefers that man and beast have multiple sexual partners.

It would appear that they are trying to come up with excuses for the former Democrat Governor Eliot Spitzer:

With that in mind, some biologists say we shouldn’t be too surprised when public figures like former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and others get caught cheating on their mates.

We may just be wired that way.

I would guess that someone can’t help it if he/she were to cheat on their spouse. It’s in the genes so they have to do it. They have no choice. Right?

We all have choices to make. From the report:

…humans do have the ability to override their genetic and biological programming. And, studies show, most people do…

and further:

Both agreed that “biology made me do it” isn’t an excuse for infidelity.

“We have to be realistic about our human nature. We have these impulses to stray,” said Buss. “But we also have inhibitions against straying and the ability to choose whether or not we do.”

Those “impulses” are part of that thing known as the “sin nature” in man. All of mankind is under this curse of the “sin nature” because we sinned against God. Believing in Jesus, who came to earth to rescue us from this sin nature curse, allows us to tap into the power to overcome those impulses.

And to all this, I add Romans 8:12-14 (NIV):

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Let me close this with one additional thought. With regard to sexual behavior, I don’t think that you can compare humans with animals and other creatures. Humans are unique in the earth in that they are created in God’s image:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27, NIV)