May 2, 2016

nmThe Bathroom Debate Is Just Plain Stupid

We’ve clearly hit rock bottom in the culture war when we are down to debating which bathroom people should be allowed to use. Everything has been running smoothly for hundreds of years, and now—all of a sudden, we have a group of people declaring they are not happy using the bathroom that matches their birth gender.

There are some very rare medical conditions where a person has traits of both sexes, but it doesn’t normally result in a person being in a limbo state. The vast majority of cases where people are classified as transgender is because the person rejects the gender with which they were naturally born.

The good people of North Carolina were only using common sense logic when they passed a law that required transgender people to use restrooms in public buildings and schools—that match the sex on their birth certificates. I would be abhorred to have my mother or sister confronted by some middle-aged man who thinks he can use the ladies room because he is dressed up in drag.

The lack of concern for the rights of women and children shows the demonic madness behind this agenda. There are far too many deviant men in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they seek to exploit.

The liberal media has applied the threat of boycott to get North Carolina to repeal its new law. When Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert to show his protest, I could only think that this was some type of joke.

Springsteen sees himself as standing with “freedom fighters” in his opposition to this measure. “Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry, which is happening as I write—is one of them,” he wrote. “It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backward instead of forward.”

If Springsteen had made this declaration a decade ago, he would have had to cancel all his concert dates in the remaining 49 states. His family would probably have placed him under the care of a psychiatrist. For Springsteen to be cheered as a hero, just shows how far and fast we’ve fallen in this nation.

I’m glad that the American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target after the retail giant announced, “We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.”

The AFA claims to have over 900,000 people who have pledged to avoid shopping at Target. If enough Christians join in the boycott, we might be able to give these liberals a taste of their own medicine.

A news outlet recently argued that conservative politicians and activists are without justification for their “prejudice and bigotry” because the Bible makes no mention of transgender people. While there is no direct mention of the word “transgender” in the Good Book, the Old Testament clearly takes a strong line on cross-dressing in Deuteronomy 22:5.

“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so an abomination to the Lord your God.”

There is nothing normal about the label “transgender.” A high rate of mental disorders among these people have been well-documented for fifty years. More than half have active suicidal thoughts and 45 percent have a major depressive episode.

Caitlyn Jenner has been portrayed as this wonderful example of a man who discovered he’s really a woman and now he’s found fulfillment by making the switch. The only transformation that has taken place is his name. Even if Jenner were to have a surgical female organ created biologically and genetically—he would still be a male. If Jenner’s body was discovered a thousand years from now, and a DNA test was run; he would be labeled as a male.

A key problem with liberalism is that it is only satisfied if it is pushing some new degenerate immoral boundary. Once conservatives and Christians give in to the transgender lobby, liberals will probably be singing the praises of beastiality. Bruce Springsteen will be cancelling shows in states that refuse to allow people to marry their dogs.

I constantly get emails from people who use math formulas to figure out when Jesus is coming back for His Church. The restriction on knowing the exact date (Matthew 25:13) should be the first reason why these types of speculation are unproductive. The understanding that wickedness would continue to get worse as we approach the Tribulation is all the warning we really need. Since the world is about maxed out in evil deeds, the Rapture must be very near.

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37-39).

–Todd


nmControl Means Everything

Road rage has always been something that has confounded me. My first exposure to the phenomenon came in a humorous fashion. It was presented on The Wonderful World of Disney in animation. One of Mickey Mouse’s close pals–the floppy-eared, buck-toothed Goofy–was the featured character.

The narrator talked about the Goofy character, while the human-like canine went about preparing for work one morning. The narrator told the viewer that this was the gentlest of creatures–a person who wouldn’t harm a fly. Goofy was polite to his wife and children; he peacefully read his newspaper at the breakfast table while sipping his coffee at a leisurely pace.

Goofy got up from the table, wiped his mug with a napkin, folded the newspaper, and put it beneath his arm. He grasped his briefcase, put his fedora on his head, kissed Mrs. Goofy goodbye, hugged the little Goofies, and opened the door to his garage.

All the while the narrator was telling the viewer just how soft-hearted and, indeed, how wonderful a husband, father, and citizen was our about-to-be work-commuter. Mr. Goofy opened the driver-side door to his sedan, sat in the seat–all the while a tranquil, most pleasant half-smile on his mug.

Then it happened! The moment he grasped the steering wheel, a profound transformation took place. His mug contorted into a vicious, snarling countenance. His smile became a fang-bearing scowl of evil. His eyes widened and became red with bulging blood-veins popping to the surface, his black eyes shifting angrily while drool seeped from the sides of the jowls and he snorted flames and smoke from his big snout.

Goofy became the supreme picture of rage. The narrator described the transformation and gave the viewer the complete account of Goofy the maniac’s trip into the city of his workplace.

Soon after that program aired, I became a regular driver, having reached the age of getting a driver’s license. However, I can’t recall at the time having experienced road rage myself, or even having seen it take place in the real world. But, the creators of that Disney program obviously had experienced the phenomenon.

A little later in life I certainly witnessed the fact that road rage exists. The phenomenon seems to be less and less a phenomenon–rather, has turned into a “new normal” for driver comportment.

The latest incident we might recall is when a former NFL football player was shot to death while he and a female passenger were on a city street. The former player apparently bumped a car in front of him for blocking him from proceeding. He then steered the car around the car he had bumped.

The driver of the car that was bumped sped after the offending vehicle. When he caught up with the former player’s car, the offended driver fired several shots into the other car, resulting in the former player being fatally wounded.

Such reports are not at all uncommon today. It’s as if the human mind has lost all control of reasoning ability while behind the wheel. I believe the phenomenon–now the new normal–might be part of the apostle Paul’s perilous times of 2 Timothy chapter 3. There seems little doubt that today men (and women) drivers are increasingly “fierce” and “incontinent,” as the KJV puts it. That people are without ability to govern their tempers is a bottom-line characterization of the human condition that could legitimately be concluded. Angers flare out of control over the slightest perceived personal disrespect. Too often, such incidents end with bloodshed.

All of the above is but representation in microcosm of the larger manifestation of the ferocity and incontinence (lack of control) that is raging across the world at present.

On a much more profound scale of uncontrolled fury, a corpulent little tyrant In North Korea starves his people, while pouring money into military and nuclear technology with which to threaten the world. The mullahs of Islam incite hatred, encouraging all-out jihad against Israel and all who won’t bow the knee to Allah. In American inner cities, organizations devoted to anarchy and mayhem for the sake of acquiring and/or maintaining power over their ethnic masses go about tearing down the societal fiber of America’s culture. Total chaos appears to be but a major crisis away–perhaps in the very near future. Deteriorating economic conditions on a national and global scale could well be the catalyst for producing such crisis, many experts warn.

Everything looks to be out of control, while those elitists who want to bring all peoples back to Babel and a one-world order of absolute rule search for avenues to reach their utopian goals.

Uncertainty is the disorder of the day, however, no matter how far reaching are the programs and manipulations of the would-be globalist masters. This world, with its myriad building troubles, should have by now imploded from untenable, economic pressures or else exploded in nuclear fire because of road rage-like insanity in planetary conflict.

But, planet earth wags on. The uncontrollable is for some reason still under control.

God raises up kings and nations, and He brings them down. Nothing within all of creation is ever beyond His controlling hand.

Whether considering worries about the upcoming presidential election, fear of North Korea and its nukes, ISIS and its barbarous terrorism, or the fearful diagnosis of a devastating illness or loss of those we love on a personal basis, all is under control at all times. There is no situation, no matter how profound or how personal, that the Lord of Heaven doesn’t control.

The key to being at peace within the safety and assurance of God’s control of all circumstance is to be within the heavenly Father’s family. This relationship is achieved, of course, only through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 10: 9-10). The Lord appeals to all of mankind to consider the matter of His absolute control and authority over all that exists.

“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” (Isaiah 40:21-26)

–Terry