Proselytizing compared to rape? Really?

Rachel Allison

There are bombs going off on more fronts than I can name.  The attacks are relentless and escalating.

Abortion—Now the truth is coming out about the “safety” and “compassion” of abortion clinics.  And we thought the supposed “back-alley abortions” were bad?

Euthanasia—being legalized and accepted as “killing with compassion.”

Marriage—If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, marriage, completely severed from its original purpose, might never pull out of its death spiral.  Religious freedom and rights of conscience will be severely compromised.

Educational decline—we have all witnessed its decline, and with Common Core being rammed through at break-neck speed, it will continue to be an agenda driven program run by non-elected federal agencies.

And there’s so much more…

What’s most alarming, a majority of the people seem to be totally unaware and even apathetic to the bombardment.

The most recent bombshell: Court marshals for those who proselyte  in the military.

I quote Bethany Monk from CitizenLink

The Pentagon has released a statement, confirming its policy that would punish service members who share their religious beliefs.

That follows a private meeting last week between Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Pentagon. Weinstein said military personnel who proselytize are guilty of sedition and “treason.” He said they should be punished to quell a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  

“If this policy goes forward, Christians within the military who speak their faith could now be prosecuted as enemies of the states,” according to the Family Research Council. “This has potential to destroy military recruiting across the services as Americans realize that their faith will be suppressed by joining the military. Our brave troops deserve better. If chaplains and other personnel are censored from offering the full solace of the Gospel, there is not religious freedom in the military.”

As I have studied this and other relevant reporting it looks like the Department of Defense has had this particular regulation in place prior to Weinstein’s demands.

“Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012.

Section 2.11 requires “government neutrality regarding religion.”

“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states.

Military leaders were admonished not to use their position to “promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council has said Weinstein’s hands are all over this work.  I wish I understood better whether MRFF could actually have had imput into the writing of the militaries’ regulations. Weinstein, an avid atheist is now demanding that the DOD start implementing it.

I quote Todd Starnes from Fox News

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein demanded to Fox News.  “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.” He compared the act of proselytizing to rape.

“It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators,” he told Fox News.

He said there is a time and a place for those in uniform to share their faith – but he took issues with fundamentalism that he says is causing widespread problems in the military.

Perkins and members of the Family Research Council were stunned that the Pentagon would be taking counsel and advice from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” Perkins said. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”

If Weinstein has his way, and apparently he has the attention of military leaders “it threatens to treat service members caught witnessing as enemies of the state.”  “Non-compliance,” the Pentagon suggests, “even from ordained chaplains could result in court-martialing on a case-by-case basis.”

Does this sound like something that should be happening in the United States of America…or Hitler’s Germany?

With all the social, moral, and religious bombardment taking place we need to choose our battles wisely…but for America’s sake let us choose to fight! Apathy is a killer.

The FRC has launched a petition drive urging Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel to protect the religious freedom of troops “and not to proceed with the purge of religion within the ranks called for by anti-Christian activists.”

Life’s Regrets or Life’s Satisfactions: We Choose

Rachel Allison

I recently heard a speaker tell of a nurse of the terminally ill who often asked her patients, “Do you have any regrets?”

This nurse’s question has given me pause to reflect, and I’m not even sick.  Her patients’ most frequent responses?

1.  I wish I had spent more time with the people I love.

2.  I wish I had lived up to my potential.

3.  I wish I had let myself be happier.

The question should not be saved for the terminally ill.  As healthy adults we should ask ourselves the question, and then go about making our regrets satisfying successes.

Because the #1 response is at the top of my “If I could go back and live life over again,” it’s this response that I would like to address.

I have heard it said repeatedly that our families should be our A#1 priority in life.  I have heard it, I have tried to live it, and I have observed what happens to families where this principle is embraced.    If our lives are too busy for positive family time and conversation, then we need to carefully and even prayerfully examine why our B#2 and C#3’s are pushing our time and attention away from A#1.  The choice is ours to make.

My husband recently chose to bow out of a project that he had been committed to for the past four years.  He spent countless hours at his office meeting with people, reading/answering emails, and studying to keep informed on all that this project required. His intentions were admirable, and the praise he received was ego inflating, but about 3 ½ years into this obligation he realized that what he was accomplishing was not worth the time spent away from our family and me.  When he announced that he would be “passing the torch” many were surprised and even protested his decision.  But each time when he responded with, “I want to spend more time with my wife,” each of his associates immediately stopped protesting.

In case you are concerned, this project was not putting bread on our table or a roof over our head.  It was a passion he had developed, and he had CHOSEN to get involved.

I know many men and women who have their own passions: Golf, sports, Facebook, the Internet, friends, and politics to name a few.  And there’s nothing wrong with having a passion as long as we keep them in their place…behind A#1… the family. When we put as much time and effort into creative time and meaningful conversation with our family members as we do some of our passions, at the end of the day we will have no regrets…and at the end of our lives only satisfaction in knowing we gave our best time and attention to our families.

Epidemic of Suicide on its way?

Ann Bailey

Much is written and discussed about the youth suicide rate – be it from bullying or from the general stress of being young in today’s society.  But little attention is given to individuals on the other end of the spectrum – the age 60+ crowd.  More than 7,000 Americans age 60 or older commit suicide each year.  “As the population continues to age, the number of suicides by older adults is expected to climb as the ‘baby boomers’ reach older adulthood,” warns researcher Debra Karch.

What else factors into such a warning?  Karch has parsed the suicide data from 17 U.S. states during the years 2007 to 2009.  She found that the characteristic of “unmarried’ was over-represented in the numbers of seniors who commit suicide.  Of those who committed suicide during the years studied, almost two-thirds of women (63 percent) and almost half of men (47 percent) were single, divorced or widowed.   Marital status reveals itself as a highly significant predictor of suicide among older Americans. (p<0.001)

As the number of individuals who never marry or are divorced continues to rise, it is not a stretch to extrapolate that the relative number of seniors who commit suicide will also rise.  Is an epidemic of suicide on its way?  The sheer number of baby boomers who are rapidly turning gray tells us that this is a distinct possibility.  A crucial preventative measure appears to be the need to re-instill into society the importance of getting married and staying married.  The biological clock is definitely ticking.

Debra Karch, “Sex Differences in Suicide Incident Characteristics and Circumstances among Older Adults:  Surveillance Data from the National Violent Death Reporting System:  17 U.S. States, 2007-2009,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8.8 (August 23, 2011):  3470-3495.