Is Marriage for Buffoons?

There has been a shift in the western view of marriage. It used to be that young people looked forward to the prospect of finding “the one”, getting married, and having children. Nowadays I meet very few young people who are eager to get married. Just the other day, a young man I know said to me, “Me, get married? You kidding! Not this guy!” Seems as though a goodly number of young people today are either afraid of or have no interest in marriage. But why?

I suppose I don’t ultimately know. But I suspect that the media has some hand in this. After all, how many cool married people are on TV these days? Take a look at some of the more popular drama and comedy shows over the past number of years. Do shows like CSI New York, CSI Miami, Numbers, Law and Order, Seinfeld, Everybody Loved Raymond or King of Queens have any positive portrayals of marriage? No. Then there's John and Kate plus Eight who are now going through a nasty media-sponsored separation.

Most of these shows feature good-looking, successful, career-oriented cool professionals free wheeling it through life with no marital ties on the horizon. In shows where couples are married, the man or both are portrayed as buffoons (ladies would you want to be married to Ray???)! The implication for the viewer is that the single life offers freedom, fun and popularity, while married people are backward and weird.

Let’s not deceive ourselves, shows like these do more than entertain; they shape worldviews often without the viewer’s consent. Could it be that this is one of the reasons why marriage seems to be on the decline?

I’d like to hear from others on this blog post. Why do you think so many Westerners—both within and without the church—are delaying or neglecting marriage?

Do we love our dogs more than our children?

Which is more disgusting: a pit-bull being egged on to fight another pit-bull, or a 4 year old girl being molested by her father? According to North American jurisprudence, the dog deserves more sympathy than the child. Here are two scenarios:

>Michael Vick the disgraced NFLer was convicted of involvement in an illegal, multi-state dog-fighting ring. For his crime, he was:
• fined $1 million dollars,
• given a 23 month federal prison sentence,
• and a 3 year prison sentence in Virginia.

>An unnamed Ontario man logged onto a secretive website, and molested his four year old daughter live on the Internet for the pleasure of his sick viewers. He was sentenced to:
• 20 months in addition to the 14 months he had served during his trial period.

These convictions took place in two different countries, but on the same continent. As North Americans, it seems to me that we have lost sight of the idea that certain crimes are a greater expression of one’s depravity than others and that the punishment should fit the crime. So how might we reverse this troubling slide in justice?

First, we need to each do our part in educating our children and others we influence as to God’s views of justice. We need to confront the growing untruth that passivity to crime is the Christian calling, and regain our belief that punishment is part of biblical justice.

Second, we need to rid ourselves of the unbiblical viewpoint that all sin is equal. All sin is damnable, but Scripture clearly portrays certain sins of greater weight than others. Our justice systems must take this into account when sentencing offenders.

Third, we need to become voices for the voiceless. While animals surely need protection from abuse, so do the children, the disabled, and the weak among us. If we can rally thousands of people to strike over a cut in benefits, can we not do the same when a little girl is dealt injustice?

Fourth, we need to earnestly pray for the return of Christ. Evil will prevail until he comes and frees us from this world of sin and transgression.

The Power of Truth to Shape or Deform

I had a visit today from a man claiming to be “God’s divine messenger” and the “man with the measuring rod” (Rev 11:1) to call the church back to a sacrificial life. His application of what it meant to follow Jesus was very narrow—the total surrender of all of one’s goods with no provision for your children, no offerings to the church, and no savings. I told him that I was committed to a sacrificial lifestyle but that it included providing for my children (I referenced 1 Tim.5:8), giving to my church (I referenced 1 Cor.16:2) and saving (I referenced Prov. 13:11) rather than indebting myself to everyone. Sadly, he refused to take into consideration the broad teachings of Scripture because he only accepted the Gospels as authentic. Somewhere in his background he had been taught that the Old Testament and all the apostolic writings were false and filled with error. “Paul was the greatest heretic the church has ever seen,” he told me. He went on to tell me that salvation was by works rather than the grace of God, and the second coming of Christ was a lie. He was angered when I informed him that according to his words, if he had no use for the grace of God in salvation, that he was not a true Christian, but a false teacher. He ended the conversation and walked off.

This strange episode reminded me of the power of truth and lies to either shape or deform a person’s destiny. Discussions about biblical inerrancy are far from “mere academic questions”. The conclusions that one arrives at regarding the nature of Scripture affect our whole lives, including our understanding of how we manage our money, the means of salvation, and our eschatological hope. It was a good reminder to me of the need to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). These are truly words from God we need to pay attention to.