Marriage Equality, the Sexual Revolution, and Uncle Cephas

Now that I'm being bombarded by Facebook messages urging me to support Maryland's Question on homosexual marriage, I've decided to speak out.

Uncle Cephas will not stand for normalizing homosexual marriage for three reasons; two secular, one religious.

The religious one's easy.  The Old Testament found homosexuality an abomination worthy of the death penalty (Leviticus 20:13), while the New Testament calls it one of the corrupt fruits of idolatry (Romans 1:26-27).  I know there are many high-minded, "progressive" Christians out there who believe we should be as solicitous for the feelings of practicing homosexuals as we are for those of everyone else (including the chronically bad tempered? violent? thieving?), but between them and the Scriptures, the Scriptures win.

The secular ones are twofold: one is immediate, the other concerns the future.

Regarding the future, we won't know if I'm right or wrong until after I'm dead.  But I suspect that after a generation of young men grows up after being raised by two "daddies" ("fathers" doesn't seem appropriate), a lot of the younger lawyers now arguing so passionately for "marriage equality", adoption by homosexuals, and the like will sympathetically take the class action cases of unhappy young men  and sail off into comfortable retirement after suing the pants off of every institution that made their future clients' tales of growing up buggered an unhappy reality. And, of course, the courts will be clogged with such cases.

But the more immediate reason I oppose the LGBT agenda is one that can't be talked about in mixed company, so I request the ladies to skip a few paragraphs.

Having reached the age when the Doc wants to look at my prostate now and again, I simply can't believe that someone who likes getting the moral equivalent of a rectal exam is healthy; and I can't help believing that whoever gets his kicks giving it isn't more than just a little bit cruel.

Frankly, the whole sexual revolution should've soured long ago.  Back in the Silly 'Sixties and Sillier 'Seventies, we were all assured that utter openness and freedom about sexual matters would prevent marriage breakup, make out children healthier and happier, and be generally good for society and even for the fishes in the sea (well, maybe not them).  However, a generation later, our marriages are failing at a higher rate, and even MSNBC reports that one in four teenaged girls has an STD. We have growing underclasses of all demographics growing up fatherless, and all the social pathologies that follow such a phenomenon.

Now, I doubt that what I say will be taken seriously by very many.  Most modern Americans, in their hearts of hearts, doubt that there will be a real judgment for them after they die, and believe that you only go around once in life and have to grad for all the gusto you can.  Hence, what earlier generations called irresponsibility or even sin will be eagerly pursued until we either go extinct, or have a Reconstructionist or Islamic revolution forcing better behavior.

Unless, of course, God decides to be merciful.

Some Favorites

The Thanksgiving Season always gets me thinking about good hymns. 1. Nun danket alle Gott Mit Herzen, Mund und Händen, Der große Dinge tut An uns und allen Enden, Der uns von Mutterleib Und Kindesbeinen an Unzählig viel zu gut Bis hier her hat getan.  2. Der ewig reiche Gott Woll uns bei unsrem Leben Ein immer fröhlich Herz Und edlen Frieden geben, Und uns in seiner Gnad, Erhalten fort und fort Und uns aus aller Not Erlösen hier und dort.

3. Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott, Dem Vater und dem Sohne Und dem, der beiden gleich Im höchsten Himmelsthrone, Dem einig höchsten Gott, Als er anfänglich war Und ist und bleiben wird Jetzt und immerdar. 1. Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his world rejoices; Who from our mother's arms Hath blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today. 2. O may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us, With ever-joyful hearts And blessed peace to cheer us, And keep us in his grace, And guide us when perplexed, And free us from all ills In this world and the next. 3. All praise and thanks to God The Father now be given, The Son, and him who reigns With them in highest heaven, The one eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore; For thus it was, is now, And shall be evermore. M. Rinkart, 1586-1649 - trans. C. Winkworth, 1827-1878 Here’s a good one for the Thanksgiving season. Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor from Saxony.  During the  Thirty Years’ War, his village suffered the depredations of both  the Imperial and  Swedish armies—and this in the days when armies  lived by pillaging.  Worse, the plague visited the town, and carried  off more than half the population,  including Rinkart’s wife and several of his numerous children.  Prior to these disasters, Rinkart had a   reputation for helping the poor and sick in  his community. Johann Sebastian Bach played around with the original tune—as he did with so many other tunes used by the Lutheran churches in the  German lands (there was no Germany then; only a welter of statelets called the Holy Roman Empire). Catherine Winkworth was a 19th century English translator of the older German hymnody. This hymn has always left a deep impression on me, due to the fact that even when I live a blessed life, I tend to be a complainer.  Yet then I think of poor Brother Rinkart having a rough life during an exceptionally rough  time in history, yet somehow he managed to make beautiful music unto the Lord. Here’s another Thanksgiving favorite that might have been sung by the  Plymouth colonists themselves.  It’s the 100th Psalm in metrical version.  The Puritans, after all, and most Reformed churches,originally  limited their hymnody to metrical versions of the Psalms and other Scriptural material  (such as the Lord's Prayer, Song of Zachariah, and Magnificat). Some of  you may know the tune as a Doxology. 1. All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice; Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come ye before him, and rejoice. 2. The Lord, ye know, is God indeed, Without our aid he did us make; We are his folk, he doth us feed, And for his sheep he doth us take. 3. O enter then his gates with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless his name always, For it is seemly so to do. 4. For why? the Lord our God is good: His mercy is for ever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure.

The Boy Scout Scandal

[Disclaimer: Uncle Cephas has never been a boy scout, nor has he had any connection to the Boy Scouts of America]

So, it now appears that a court in Oregon ordered files unsealed, and, lo and behold, the Boy Scouts of America stands revealed as having dropped a lot of scoutmasters for molesting kids. The pundits are self-righteously gloating over how the wholesome image of the BSA is now tarnished beyond repair.  And, of course, in the background is smirking about how the BSA have long been unwilling to let wonderful, caring homosexual men take charge of scout troops.  What typical bourgeois hypocrisy!

However, to Uncle Cephas, this list of abusers who were disallowed from serving as scoutmasters makes the BSA's unwillingness to accept known and open homosexuals all the more understandable.  Sure, they aren't perfect at keeping a danger to their clients out, but the BSA seems aware of possible dangers to their charges, and are making an honest attempt at keeping possible predators away from the vulnerable young.

As a teacher, Uncle Cephas is well aware of the sexual temptations that might be presented to someone with authority over children and youth, and knows of colleagues who've fallen afoul of laws against pederasty.  Further, Uncle Cephas approves of such disciplinary action, if only because he is a Christian who believes that the place for sex is monogamous, heterosexual marriage. 

But, let's now call for a bit of honesty about pedophelia scandals.

Are we willing to call it a problem, rather than a chance for self-styled "progressives" to hurl charges of hypocrisy at traditionalist institutions that they don't like?

Will our loud advocates of the LGBT lifestyles please explain something:  are you truly sincere in your protestations that you also oppose pedophilia?  For decades, you have been telling us that the exploration of various forms of sexuality is a beautiful thing; indeed the most fundamental element of your identity.  Can you long resist presenting pedophilia as a legitimate means of initiating the young?

The DiploMad 2.0: Joe "Sardonicus" Biden

The DiploMad 2.0: Joe "Sardonicus" Biden

America's Most Brilliant President

So, the local media in my deep indigo part of the USA are saying that Romney won Debate Number One.

I'm not surprised.  I recall the debates between McCain and Obama in 2008, during which the media anointed the O as "brilliant".  But the portion I saw had McCain trotting out facts, figures, and arguments, while Obama merely said "hope...change...hope...change..." like some kind of wind-up toy.  it was then and there that I decided that this President is a media-generated image, possibly even a hologram, but definitely not the "most brilliant president ever" that he's been touted to be.

Given the subservience of the MSM, and its unwillingness to probe during in age in which it seems that the ONLY secret American can keep is its "most brilliant president's" academic record, I foresee another four years of the O (Groooooaaaaaan!).  I foresee the economy gaining, but only because Rejep Erdogan's neo-Ottomanist ambitions and our misadministration's (hat tip to Diplomad 2.0) unwise support of the Syrian rebels will probably suck us into a general Sunni v. Shi'ah conflagration in the Middle East--and hence we'll get a strong wartime economy growing while the government again goes deeper into debt.

However, we do have a great God who is most wise and gracious.  But I fear that it won't be this generation seeing how in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.