BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Cindy McCain rocks (I): And contra Barack Obama, she thinks babies born alive should live...

(Tim) Last night, Michele Peatie left a kind comment here in which she mentioned her blog, Unborn Word of the Day. My curiosity piqued, I went and read some of her posts including this on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of orthodox Roman Catholic French composer, Olivier Messiaen. If you're not familiar with Messiaen's music, try this.

Further down the page was this gem of a post, "Living Pro-Life - 3 Politicians." Here Mrs. Peatie tells the stories of two female politicians' response to their Down Syndrome children, as well as the adoption by Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, of a special needs child from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh.

A teenager now, the McCain's daughter, Bridget, would not have survived without surgery and years of rehabilitation. Cindy brought her home and, with her husband, provided her surgery, care, and love. Actually, Mrs. McCain brought back two babies: The other is also a teenager, now, and was adopted by one of McCain's aids, Wes Gullett, and his wife. Her name is Nicki. She too needed much medical care and Mr. Gullett says he "never saw a hospital bill" for her care, implying the McCain's paid for it all.

Turning to another politician who shows love for the poorest among us, this woman is a member of Feminists for Life and the Governor of Alaska...

A wedding sermon...

(Tim) From the Pulpit of Church of the Good Shepherd
Wedding of Lucas Weeks and Hannah Bayly
May 17, 2008

That He Might Sanctify Her

Ephesians 5: 21-33

Lucas and Hannah, it’s a curious thing that the God Who made us, the One who is our Creator and therefore knows us best, has not left us free to develop according to our own inclinations. He does not abandon us to our own sentiments and passions...

Joy tinged with sadness on a wedding day...

As I was in the prime of my days, When the friendship of God was over my tent; When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me; When my steps were bathed in butter, And the rock poured out for me streams of oil! (Job 29:4-6)

(Tim) Lord willing, in a few hours our third daughter, Hannah Marie, will be married to Lucas Dee Weeks, son of Ron and Doris Weeks. This will leave Mary Lee and me with one child still living at home--Taylor, our fifteen year old son.

As I sit here writing the wedding sermon, it occurs to me that the joyful sadness Mary Lee and I feel as our Hannah departs is a graceful sadness...

Something's fishy about David Beckham...

(Tim, w/thanks to Dan and Joel) For years, one of our men here at Church of the Good Shepherd who's spent his life dealing with superfund sites as a government employee has been telling me of this phenomena. He's always seen it as a precious irony.

In 2002, thanks to soccer star David Beckham, the world was introduced to the “metrosexual.” Two years later, and with less mainstream-media attention, we got our first exposure to “Intersex.” Intersex is not some new perversion or a weird combination of science fiction and pornography. It is an unfortunate condition that is affecting freshwater fish all over the developed world. It occurs when fish of one sex also exhibit sexual characteristics of the other sex.

So here's another consequence of our abandonment of God's command that a man and his wife make fruitful love. Isn't it priceless how God makes the discipline fit the crime?

Be spiritual and subtract...

(Tim, w/thanks to Todd Gwennap) Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity is an important book for those concerned about the church outside the confines our own denominational or geographical ghettos. It will set any western Christian back on his haunches thinking deep thoughts about God's thoughts being infinitely higher than our thoughts.

Anyhow, buried in Jenkin's work is this explanation of the multiple reasons demographers are concerned about population decline. The southern hemisphere is about to change--radically. And can we all admit that evangelical and reformed Christians have led the way in this change...

Brotherly love...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jim and Jon) Here's another reason not to separate the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage (as a small minority of Roman Catholics put it). Don't you wish you'd named your second son Charlie?

Tax policies and family life...

The impact tax policy has on marriage and family life in these United States is a very significant public policy issue that, too often, escapes the notice of Christians. The just state will avoid or repeal taxes that discourage marriage, a family wage, full-time motherhood, and childbearing. But who hopes for changes specifically designed to encourage these good things in the present day? What a dream, right?

Well, not to my friend Robert Patterson who today published a piece on NRO calling on presidential candidate John McCain to implement tax policies modeled after the historic tax cuts of 1948. Patterson describes the radical impact those cuts had on marriage and family in mid-century America...

Counting our blessings...

Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age.

And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.’ (Zechariah 8:3-5)

(Tim) When David and I speak privately, it's a rare conversation we don't speak of our gratitude to the Lord for the wonderful churches He has blessed us with. And this isn't the one-upmanship of two brothers who are both pastors. Trust us, we know about that. Rather, it's the true joy of men for whom the lines have fallen in pleasant places recognizing it's all of God.

My Scripture reading today reminds me of one of our principal joys--our congregations' great fruitfulness physically and spiritually. Physically?

Well, between Christ the Word in Toledo and Church of the Good Shephed here in Bloomington, Indiana, I'd estimate between thirty and forty children will be born or adopted by a Covenant family this year. And this happens year after year--fruit, fruit, and more fruit! Our aisles and nurseries and gym and hallways and cars and homes and fellowship halls are filled with boys and girls playing together...

"It's all about the kids..."

(Tim, w/thanks to Heidi) According to an article in the LA Times, Americans are "switching religious affiliation in ever-greater numbers or abandoning ties to organized denominations altogether (and) Protestants are on the cusp of becoming a minority..."

If you've ever wondered if there's something besides simple obedience of the Great Commission in all the buzz about being "missional," this is it. As Heidi put it, "(This article is) helping me realize that the U.S. Needs 'missionaries' as much as people overseas, and that the next generation will pretty much be completely unchurched unless we do something." Here's one good quote:

John Green, a senior research fellow and a principal author, attributed (the Protestant decline) to the decline in birthrates, the inability to retain people born into the churches and people raised mainline Protestant moving to the ranks of the unaffiliated. "You might sort of think of this as family problems -- both at the level of having children, and raising children," Green said.

Immigration, abortion, and fertility...

(David) Statistics suggest that twenty percent of Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, a record high immigration rate for America, eclipsing even the 1860-1920 immigration wave which peaked at fifteen percent of the American population foreign-born.

Despite conservative concern over illegal immigration, America needs immigrants. Immigration has provided a significant portion of the fuel for America's economic fire over the last thirty years. And as the baby boom generation ages, immigrants will become even more essential to American productivity. This means conservative Christians need to think about whether it's preferable to have immigrants coming legally from many non-Christian lands, or whether the illegal immigration of Roman Catholic workers from Mexico has actually been a moral boon.

Regardless, the great need of America in this realm is a reversal of the fertility-hating, child-killing philosophies that have driven our nation into this demographic rut. Christians should imitate the early Puritans by rejoicing in children, fertility, the blessings of the large and happy home and conjugal love.

And if we don't this is what our future will look like. (Thanks for the link, Marc)

Twin daughters save mother's life...

Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)

(Tim, w/thanks to Denver) This is a wonderful story of God's grace.

Diagnosed with cancer while pregnant...

There's a whole lotta faith goin on...

(Tim) Even unbelieving demographers will tell you that few things are as closely tied to faith and piety as having babies. Well, bragging unabashedly, three pregnancies were announced in our women's Bible study yesterday, bringing the total children we're preparing to welcome into our congregation to fourteen. We  now have twelve pregnancies (one of twins) and one couple well on their way to adopting a child from Ethiopia. During the past year or so, ten children were added to our nursery.

Look and see! Children are a gift from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is His reward. Like ammo in the hand of a soldier, so are the children of a man's youth. How blessed is the man whose mag is filled with them. Such men will not be ashamed when they and their wives are attacked by uber-hip evangelicals who despise fruitful sex, motherhood, and fatherhood.

The first and second childhood...

(Tim) Thinking about this comment, my dear brother David T. writes:

"There are certain things in life which just have to be done, including having children, raising them, educating them, and caring for the elderly. Someone has to do these things. When we set up our government, we must be very, very careful in the incentives we set up for individuals. When the government takes over the responsibility for doing something, that has long-term effects. Currently in our country, by guaranteeing people financial and health care support in their old age, we have significantly reduced their incentive to have children (who otherwise would be their primary financial and caretaker security). As a result, people are less likely to have children and care for them properly. Their own old age no longer depends upon it."

Sons and big bangs...

(Tim, thanks to Joel) My Dad loved firecrackers. So I grew up lighting fuses and dropping Cherry Bombs and M-80s off the bridge into the DuPage River half a mile from our house. Dad blew the match out and then came the boom and geyser. Splendid! Wonderful! Manly!

Right now, I can hear many thousands of mothers rising in protest against Dad's stupidity.

Not at all. He knew how to raise sons. He knew that taking the risk out of sonship was to lie about life and God.

Fathers, take back your sons from their mother and teach them the fear of God. Avoiding risk and danger is not the ultimate test of godly childrearing. And as a first step, watch this short talk. It's excellent, except that it's as gender-neutered as the TNIV.

Children are a blessing from the Lord...

(Tim) Some of you may remember our daughter Michal's testimony about how the Lord used the death of an orphan and two of her unborn children to strengthen her faith, and that this past year the Lord chose to bless Ben and Michal with a son. Well, a few weeks ago Ben sent us this pic of the three of them, and I thought some of you might want to see the rest of God's story. So here's Ben and Michal, and their firstborn son, Daniel Peregrine Crum.

Working mothers getting an unfair break? Hardly.

(Tim) On the way to Spokane, it's my third flight of the day, but we're delayed due to some thingamabobber on the front of the wing that's not responding to the watchamacallit. So more interesting tidbits from the Times.

In the business section, there's a short piece on singles in the corporate world who are whining about how unfair it is that parents get perks they don't get. If working mothers get time off or flex time to care for sick children and to give birth, why shouldn't they get time off to go to Jamaica?

Family friendly benefits are starting to generate a backlash among those people who do not have children. Childless singles feel put upon, taken for granted and exploited…by married and childrearing co-workers.

The article tells us "a growing number of childless workers are answering 'no' to questions like… 'Is it fair to offer a working mother a flexible schedule but not provide the same option to a woman without children?'"

Anyone care to answer their question?

For myself, I'd start by saying one of the great injustices of our country is the terrible burden working mothers are forced to bear, particularly those who are single...

There's no replacement for personal contact...

(Tim-not for the young ones) Explaining his reasoning behind instituting the holiday, Family Contact Day, the governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia, Sergei Morozov, tells us approximately what every loving husband already knows: "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits... so there'll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country...

Exactly nine months after Family Contact Day, Morozov will use a lottery to award a prize of a brand new SUV to one of the couples celebrating a new birth that day. "Contact," you know.

(Thanks, David Wegener.)

The glory of motherhood...

To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can imagine how this can exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. -G. K. Chesterton in What's Wrong with the World

(by Tim) If you want to be delighted, again, at the divine beauty of a mother and her children fending their way through this thing called LIFE, read this Ebay Item Description of a set of Pokemon cards being sold by a mother of six. Then check out her blog.

(Thanks, Heather and Hannah.)

Happy 11th, Tessy

(by David) Happy birthday to our little spitfire....

A very dear girl whose war between the old and the new is usually evident right on the surface.

May the new always win, Tessa.

Also, happy birthday to my dear Cheryl who kindly decided to share her own birthday with her daughter eleven years ago today.

First, get the marriage right...

(by Tim) A woman named Liz left this comment under our post, Be Fruitful and Evaporate, and I'd like to ask our kind readers to respond. What she says is perfectly in tune with the thinking across the church today and I'm hopeful some of you would be able to provide helpful direction to Liz, as well as the many others who, like her, are in churches where pastors, elders, and older women are equally confused on these matters. Here's what Liz wrote...

Be fruitless and evaporate...

(By Tim) With well over half our country claiming evangelical Christian faith, surveys such as this go a fair way to defining the nature of that faith. When did you last preach or hear a sermon aimed at this gap in the wall...

The death of orphans, unborn children, and Christian faith...

...(Jesus) said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14).

For well over a year, now, this testimony of Michal, Mary Lee’s and my middle child, has been quietly waiting on the desktop of my computer, neither filed nor read. It hovered in limbo, the place the Roman Catholic church teaches that the souls of dead little ones reside.

Knowing the document's subject matter, I couldn’t bear to read it. Someday, yes. But not yet.

Then, a few days ago, several things happened that gave me more faith. I spent a number of hours speaking to members of two families trying to help bring reconciliation between them. And our good God answered, pressed down and running over. There was humility, meekness, and therefore healing. My tears mingled with the tears of others and I knew this is the work that pleases God.

Pastors, elders, deacons, and older women: Never forget that He has given us this ministry of reconciliation and that this work must be front and center of our time and priorities as His undershepherds.

So this morning, having seen how God uses our weakness to glorify Himself and strengthen our faith in Him—not ourselves—I took up these words of my dear daughter, Michal, and read them. Finally. Of course, yesterday’s tears were renewed and I was weak once again, this time with Michal and Annie and Ben.

God is pleased to work through our weakness and I’ve asked Michal’s permission to share this with you. May God cause you, also, to benefit from this witness of Michal and her husband, Ben.

Lord willing, I'll soon post the rest of the story.

* * *

Truth in the Silence that Followed

by Mrs. Ben (Michal) Crum

Lying there in bed, I heard the phone ring downstairs. It was late—who would be calling at this time? Someone shuffled from a bedroom to answer the phone, and a voice called up the stairs. “Michal, dear, the telephone is for you.” My heart jumped. My family wouldn’t call me here at this time of night, unless…

Happy 16th

Our delightful second-born has reached age 16. Happy birthday, Elizabeth.

Children are a blessing from the Lord: Daniel Peregrine Crum...

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. (Psalms 127:3,4)

Daniel Peregrine Crum was born this morning, May 28, 2007, at 10:15 AM. He weighs 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and is twenty-two inches long. His mother, Michal, is recovering--very tired, but otherwise fine. Ben and Michal praise God for His wonderful gift.

(Obviously posted by Tim, the grateful-to-God grandpa.)

Children are a blessing: Bayly Grace Ummel...

Bayly Grace Ummel was born earlier this afternoon to our daughter, Heather, and her husband, Doug Ummel. She weighs 9 pounds, 15 ounces, and is 21 inches long. She joins three brothers--Jonathan, Nathan, and Josiah.

Bayly was born at home with Heather's sister, Hannah (in picture holding Bayly), and my dear wife, Mary Lee, in attendance. Heather was herself born at home, so Bayly is a second generation home birth. Join us in praising God for this, His latest blessing.

Children ARE a Blessing

I took this picture last night and posted it from the hospital room where my wife Cheryl and I were visiting dear friends Julie and Abigail Morgan.

Abigail (foreground, her mother directly behind her), a delightfully happy nearly-one-year-old, is now in her eleventh week of hospitalization for acute myelogenous leukemia. Though she turns one next Tuesday she'll be celebrating her birthday at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor rather than at home because she is in the midst of a third round of chemotherapy with a bone marrow transplant scheduled for next Friday.

Please remember Abigail in prayer as she nears this crucial stage of her treatment. And those of us who are part of the CTW family, let's be faithful not only in prayer (for Darren and Eliana as well as Abigail and Julie) but in making the 45-minute drive to Ann Arbor to encourage Julie and Abigail. Abigail and Julie will remain at Mott Childrern's Hospital four weeks after the transplant.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...

A young father of four, not in our congregation, sent me this picture to announce that he and his wife are now expecting their fifth. He added the following comments:

The bedside table just as I found it (okay, I turned the book around so I could read the cover) the day (my wife) phoned me with the news. God moves in mysterious ways.

The sad fruit of China's one-child policy...

This from an E-mail a close friend just received from his eldest son who, following his graduation last year from college, is working for a multinational for a year in China:

Got your letter today. I have never been more proud of my family than when I opened up that letter standing in the backroom at the end of my shift last night with about 10 of my fellow (workers). As soon as they saw a picture (of our family) they all crowded around and proceeded to pass it around each staring intently expressing surprise at our large family. They all thought we had such a handsome family and were so impressed that we had five boys. They all thought (the second son) was the oldest and that (two others) were twins. It was so funny to see them add up the number of people in our family on their fingers. I was just thinking today how I have never seen so many three member families and it's sad to talk to them about being an only child, every single one of them wishes they had siblings.

Steve Mosher was (and is) right about China. How unutterably sad this childless nation and all its only-children are.

BTW, the young man is listening to the David Crowder Band and Hillsong, and he's reading Chesterton's The Everlasting Man.

Headlines even we never thought we'd see: "Research links vasectomy with higher dementia risk"

Add this potential bit of natural revelation to the arguments against birth control from the Word.

Use NFP: It doesn't work, and that's good...

From David Talcott, here's a very funny article on natural family planning. After reading it, I noted its author, H. W. Crocker, is the author of an excellent book I've had my son and several other young men read, Robert E. Lee on Leadership: Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision. It's excellent.

Making love without making babies...

Note: This afternoon, I received the following E-mail from a young man in Church of the Good Shepherd. I've changed the text of his letter, slightly, to protect his and others' privacy. Following his question is my response.

Dear Tim,

Recently, I was speaking to a believer who does not currently share with his wife a desire to have children. I cited Malachi 2:15, where God joins man and wife so that they produce a godly seed. Surprisingly, I found there is a discrepancy in translations. The New American Standard Bible reads:

But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.

Compare the New International Version:

Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

There are major differences here in meaning, and I am perplexed. In the NASB, the rebellious man desires the godly seed, not God. The NASB then footnotes the standard translation. Can you shed any light on this?

In Christ,

John Doe

* * *

Dear John,

The translation of Malachi 2:15 by the New American Standard Bible and its updated version, the New American Standard Version Updated (1995), is poor. The Revised Standard Version, the New Revised Standard Version, the New International Version, and the New King James Version all follow the King James Version which reads:

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

To defend the NASB95's choice, some lines of thinking from Jewish times believed this text to be a reference to Abraham's taking of Sarai's servant, Hagar, in order to gain the offspring Sarai was not providing him. Thus it would be Abraham who was desiring "a godly offspring" and becoming a polygamist to that end. So then Abraham is here reproved by the prophet, Malachi, for violating God's universal law that "two should become one," not three.

Historically, though, John Calvin is typical of the understanding of this Hebrew text shared by our church fathers:

The most wonderful Christmas gifts...

This Christmas, Mary Lee and I are full of joy that this past year little Josiah was added to our family, adopted by Doug (Archie) and Heather. Josiah is our third grandchild, unless you count little ones God chose to take to Heaven before they were born--then it's seven.

Actually, it's nine. Heather and Michal both are carrying little ones who, Lord willing, we'll meet this coming April (Heather) and May (Michal). Incidentally, Heather and Michal's little ones are the seventh and eighth great-grandchildren Mom Taylor is expecting this coming year. Heather and Michal have six cousins on the Taylor side expecting during 2007--so far, that is! This brings our Taylor family--Mom Taylor, her children (and spouses), grandchildren (and spouses), and great-grandchildren--to a blessed total of ninety-six.

Another reason to have more children...

Not that old yet....

I noticed Doug Wilson's picture of his eleventh grandchild on his blog. Tim also has posted pictures of his grandchildren here. It seems it's OK for barrel-chested bloggers to get all mushy over grandchildren.

I'm not there yet. I note for the record that Cheryl and I haven't yet given up hope of receiving our sixth. We've not entered the doting-on-the-grandkids stage of decline, our pulse still beats.

The fruitful womb: "Test me in this," says the Lord of Hosts...

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house,
Your children like olive plants around your table.
Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. (Psalm 128:3,4)

Dad used to say, "God is no man's debtor." We give ourselves to Him; we take up our cross; we sacrifice for His Kingdom; we obey His Word: It's never wasted--absolutely never.

God's people were being unfaithful in their tithing and He sent them this message:

"You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the LORD of hosts. All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land," says the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:9-12)

We're to run the numbers, aren't we? God Himself demands, "Test Me now in this."

Some of us have taken the challenge. We've brought the whole tithe to the Lord, we've run the numbers, and we've found--what?

That God is no man's debtor. Whatever we give to Him He gives back in spades. Unbelievable blessings pressed down and running over.

I'm guessing this truth (and likely even this text) have been preached in your church in the past year or two. It's a perennial favorite with pastors working to meet the budget. We're thankful for Malachi's crispness and clarity when we approach the financial needs of our congregations but we seem blind to its application elsewhere.

If God blesses those who honor Him with their money, won't He also bless those who honor Him with other treasures He's placed under their stewardship? Do we honor God with our land? Our home? Our cars? What about our academic degree or administrative ability? Our children? Does God receive His rightful portion of everything He's given us, or are we penurious, tight-fisted, stingy, and sterile?

Take sex.

All the melancholy birthdays of John Stuart Mill...

The May/June 2006 issue of Philosophy !Now!, a publication from the UK boasting a name only slightly less humorous than Christianity !Today!, has an article celebrating the 200th birthday of the humorless pleasure-freak, John Stuart Mill. The article consists of a listing of twenty-one lesser-known facts about Mill, introduced as follows:

It is worth remembering that this Victorian London gentleman helped radically to change the world, and to change the world for the better: no remote ivory tower for him. Those of us who value liberty, individuality, humanism--without recourse to God or gods--have much for which to thank him.

Then number one of twenty-one facts about Mill demanding our attention. And this is how they title and describe fact numero uno:

1 Feckless Breeding

John Stuart Mill was one of nine children. He notes in his Autobiography... that given his father James Mill's early impoverishment... marriage and having a large family was conduct that lacked good sense and possibly showed neglect of duty. ...Parenthood brings duties--to support and educate offspring well. If we cannot afford so to do, then having children is a moral crime...

The author of the article, Peter Cave, concludes item number one with this personal comment of his own:

(Mill) would, I suspect, oppose maternity and paternity pay: after all, people voluntarily embrace having children because they value family joys. I yearn for peaceful--hence childless--travelling experiences; yet no special travelling pay comes my way.

What a poor and pitiful cave this misanthrope writes from, and how fitting that he be the one penning Mill's birthday card.

Speaking of illegal aliens...

I know "illegal aliens" is a retro expression, but it's nevertheless correct. And Pat Buchanan has just written a book on the subject titled State of Emergency. The book is currently ranked number one at Amazon.com and Joe Sobran reviews the book here. When Buchanan and Sobran agree, it's worth noting.

Killing us softly with their song...

If any Christians still need convincing that fruitful apple trees and grain fields and dairy herds and women's wombs are God's blessings, and that He denies these blessings to those who defy His authority, this from today's Wall Street Journal concerning the growing crisis of sterility within the pro-baby-killing, pro-sodomy, pro-euthanasia, pro-sex education Democrat crowd. From which I take this priceless quote:

Maybe the scales are tipping to the neoconservative, homogenous right in our culture simply because they tend not to give much of a damn for the ramifications of wanton breeding and environmental destruction and pious sanctimony, whereas those on the left actually seem to give a whit for the health of the planet and the dire effects of overpopulation.

Reminds me of a cartoon in the latest New Yorker that hit my funny bone earlier today. The picture is of two modern-day prophets picketing the streets of New York City, one older man with wild hair and a long flowing beard and the other a middle-aged woman who appears frazzled and maybe neurotic. The title above the cartoon is "Turf War on West 49th Street." The man's sign says, "The end is near for religious reasons" and the woman's, "The end is near for ecological reasons."

Adding to the inanity all around us, I say "Make love, not war." Glad I got that off my chest.

(Thanks, Dave.)

Turn and face the strange...

On our way home from the ordination and installation of Andy Halsey several weeks ago, Mary Lee and I stopped in Nashville, TN, to overnight with Doug and Heather and their three sons. Monday we decided to have tacos before leaving for Bloomington and so we drove down a couple blocks from their house to the intersection of Nolensville Pike and Elysian Fields, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the zoo. While we ate, we noticed this sign. No one would bat an eye if it read, "We speak Spanish." But instead, it announces the extraordinary fact that, if they have to, they can do English!

We whites of northern european extraction have chosen money over babies, drugging our marital beds into sterility. We've aborted some forty million or so of our children. Meanwhile, Roman Catholic hispanics make fruitful love and our nation is becoming their nation. Graciously, though, they reassure their elderly Protestant friends who are dying out, "We speak English."

Almost, I don't mind.

The Measure of our Faith....

The story of Peter's failed attempt to walk on water is a Christian fable of faithlessness. Yet consider it more closely....

Matthew 14:28-33 Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." 29 And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" 32 When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!"

What does Peter do immediately before Christ challenges his faithlessness? He cries out to Christ, "Lord, save me!", a statement that to most Christians sounds like the essence of faith.

How much more faithful can we be than to look to Jesus for help in our hour of need? Peter looks to Jesus trusting He will rescue him from trouble.

Jesus responds, "You of little faith..."

Unfortunately, Peter's little faith, his doubting faith, is far too many Christians' high point of faith--their strongest impulse of faith is to turn to Christ when all else has failed.

The faith by which Peter cries out is true faith. It looks to Christ for deliverance. But it is pitiful faith, as Christ makes clear. Why? Because true faith takes the command of God, the promise of God, and doesn't look back. True faith doesn't constantly return in pain and doubt to Christ for balm. True faith conquers rather than sinks.

How often we act on doubting faith, faith sufficient only to look to Christ in the crisis; not conquering faith, but faith that is pleased simply not to go down in flames.

Augustine on Onan...

Genesis 38:8-10 Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.

And why has Paul said: 'If he cannot control himself, let him marry?' Surely, to prevent incontinence from constraining him to adultery. If, then, he practices continence, neither let him marry nor beget children. However, if he does not control himself, let him enter into lawful wedlock, so that he may not beget children in disgrace or avoid having offspring by a more degraded form of intercourse. There are some lawfully wedded couples who resort to this last, for intercourse, even with one's lawfully wedded spouse, can take place in an unlawful and shameful manner, whenever the conception of offspring is avoided. Onan, the son of Judah, did this very thing, and the Lord slew him on that account. Therefore, the procreation of children is itself the primary, natural, legitimate purpose of marriage. Whence it follows that those who marry because of their inability to remain continent ought not to so temper their vice that they preclude the good of marriage, which is the procreation of children.

Augustine of Hippo, De adulterinis coniugiis ad Pollentium 1b.II c.12 (PL 40 [1887] 479B). Quoted from Pius XI, Casti Connubii (1930)

Calvin on Onan

Genesis 38:8-10 Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.

I will content myself with briefly mentioning this, as far as the sense of shame allows to discuss it. It is a horrible thing to pour out seed besides the intercourse of man and woman. Deliberately avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is doubly horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born. This wickedness is now as severely as is possible condemned by the Spirit, through Moses, that Onan, as it were, through a violent and untimely birth, tore away the seed of his brother out the womb, and as cruel as shamefully was thrown on the earth. Moreover he thus has, as much as was in his power, tried to destroy a part of the human race. When a woman in some way drives away the seed out the womb, through aids, then this is rightly seen as an unforgivable crime. Onan was guilty of a similar crime, by defiling the earth with his seed, so that Tamar would not receive a future inheritor.

John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis

Contempt for motherhood...

Here's an excellent piece pointing to the contempt for motherhood so pervasive within our culture. May the Church be free of such contempt, instead honoring those godly women who follow their mothers-in-Israel in giving themselves to their husbands, children, and homes, presenting their "bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is (our) spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1).

(Thanks, Kevin.)

The return of patriarchy...

Foreign Policy has an article titled, "The Return of Patriarchy," by Phillip Longman treating the subject of human fruitfulness in the context of the political world. Isn't it fascinating to read a liberal who recognizes the benefits of bearing children for completely secular purposes while so many Christians remain oblivious to God's command that we propagate a godly seed? And speaking of human fruitfulness, this same issue of Foreign Policy has another article on the imbalance of the sexes that continues to grow in countries where baby girls are aborted in favor of baby boys. It's one of the least discussed, but most serious geopolitical issues facing us tomorrow.

Luther on Onan....

Genesis 38:9. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.

10. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and He slew him also.

Onan must have been a malicious and incorrigible scoundrel. This is a most disgraceful sin. It is far more atrocious than incest and adultery. We call it unchastity, yes, a Sodomitic sin. For Onan goes in to her; that is, he lies with her and copulates, and when it comes to the point of insemination, spills the semen, lest the woman conceive. Surely at such a time the order of nature established by God in procreation should be followed. Accordingly, it was a most disgraceful crime to produce semen and excite the woman, and to frustrate her at that very moment. He was inflamed with the basest spite and hatred. Therefore he did not allow himself to be compelled to bear that intolerable slavery. Consequently, he deserved to be killed by God. He committed an evil deed. Therefore God punished him.

And this is what I meant when I said that the probity of those who kept this law was outstanding. For it is a great burden to serve another by raising up and preserving descendants and heirs, to beget children for others, to rear and nourish them, and to leave them a patrimony--and all this in the name of a dead brother. The world knows nothing at all of such love. It is a great annoyance to be only a guardian and tutor of wards, which customarily takes place nowadays according to Roman law. How many complaints and what perfidy are found there throughout the whole world! For it is a difficult task and a mark of outstanding love to be faithful and diligent in protecting the goods of others. Accordingly, this law includes the most ardent love. That worthless fellow refused to exercise it. He preferred polluting himself with a most disgraceful sin to raising up offspring for his brother.

Luther, M. (1999, c1965). Vol. 7: Luther's works, vol. 7 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 38-44 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Our new grandson, Henock Josiah Ummel...

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. -Psalm 36:7

Late Saturday night, our two eldest daughters, Mrs. Doug (Heather) Ummel, and Mrs. Ben (Michal) Crum, arrived at the Indianapolis Airport with two Ethiopian babies, August Jacob Eskiya ("AJ") Plag and Henock Josiah Ummel. Above is a picture of Heather, Michal, and their two infants rounding the bend within sight of their loved ones for the first time in two long weeks. Tears were abundant and Heather and Michal were quickly in their husbands' arms...

Jaded San Franciscan says Christians are asexual--what a hoot!

From my wife, Mary Lee: On Friday night I read the blasphemous article by Mark Morford from SFGate.com that David links to on his Oct 28 post "America's Fertility Hatred." Then Saturday morning I attended a wedding shower for a young couple in our church. If Mr. Morford thinks Christians are asexual, it's clear he's never attended a bridal shower full of healthy, fun-loving Christian women. The jokes, laughter and frivolity are infectious, but no doubt Mr Morford would be disgusted by a blushing young bride, so obviously a virgin.

Here are some more adjectives that Mr Morford uses to describe Christians; creepy, unhinged, sad, lost, troubling, bizarre, weird, pathological, homophobic, wanton breeders, neoconservative and environmentally destructive. Would all of you who resemble this description please stand up?

America's Fertility Hatred

This profane rant against Christian fertility is worth recommending for two reasons: 1) It demonstrates the level of hatred permissible in liberal culture when aimed against Christians and their God, and; 2) It reveals the increasing insecurity of those who watch Christians embrace God's gift of children. Bravo to this simple Arkansas family for causing such angst in San Francisco. (Thanks to Tim Varner)

Birth control--from the mouths of babes revisited...

In a recent post titled, "Birth control; from the mouths of babes...," I told of my daughter Hannah's wise observation that since Satan is completely evil, he can't have children. Then I wrote of the precious promises God gives to those who belong to Him--specifically that "He'll bless us with fruitful wombs..." And as just one among many hundreds of such promises strewn liberally throughout God's Word, I quoted Deuteronomy 28:

The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.

The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. (Deuteronomy 28:9-11)

To which a reader responded:

Tim Bayly's point, after all the math is done, is that bearing children serves as a defining mark of somebody's membership in the Covenant. I know Tim Bayly personally and doubt that he believes the above, but his post seems to indicate this. Furthermore, I don't see how Tim's scripture citation serves to establish his point.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it's hard for me to understand how the above statement has any connection to what I wrote. I simply stated a truism, that God promises to bless the godly with the fruitfulness of their crops, cattle, wives, and lives. I stated nothing even remotely approaching the statement that bearing children is the defining mark of membership in the Covenant.

The promise of God is His promise--not ours. And His promise is not that every single individual believer will give proof of their membership in the Covenant by bearing children, but rather that He will bless the righteous with fruitfulness...

Birth control--from the mouths of babes...

A few years back, I was preaching through the first few chapters of Genesis and we'd been studying the Fall for several weeks. Our daughter, Hannah, was ten at the time and she had been impressed with Satan's evil nature. At dinner one night she asked, "Daddy, Satan is all evil, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Then Satan can't have children, can he?" she responded.

I told her about Jesus telling the scribes and Pharisees that they were children of the Devil, but also affirmed her quite-correct instinct, that Satan is incapable of creating life--only destroying it.

Think about it: Satan can't have children. But what precious promises God gives to those who belong to Him--He'll bless us with fruitful wombs. How we rejoice in each of the children He has blessed Mary Lee and me with. I wouldn't want to put the word in my dignified wife's mouth, but there's no question I'm gaga over our children!

The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.

The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. (Deuteronomy 28:9-14)

The cold logic of blue-bloods: Egypt revisited...

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, (and will) fight against us...." ...so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. (Exodus 1:8-10a,12b)

The Egyptians were afraid of the Israelite's fecundity and their leader, Pharaoh, came up with an idea which he thought would solve the problem. This solution was intended to protect the wealth and privilege of his subjects from what he perceived to be the serious threat of the burgeoning population of Hebrew slaves. Though, like Herod's slaughter of the innocents, Pharoah's final solution has since become a symbol throughout Judeo-Christian culture of pagan cruelty and oppression, today his solution bears a striking resemblance to the strategies International Planned Parenthood Federation (I.P.P.F.) and the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (R.C.A.R.) propose to hold off what they refer to as "the population crisis."

What was Pharaoh's solution?

He ordered all male children born to the poor Hebrew slave women to be killed immediately. At first this was to be the duty of their midwives but when the godly midwives subverted his strategy, Pharaoh proclaimed that this responsibility was now on the shoulders of all Egyptians.

The connection between our world and the world of Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews of Old Testament times is obvious when we take a look at the attitudes and political solutions put forward by our own ruling elite...

Happy Mother's Day...

For a slightly different way of celebrating Mother's Day, go here and press the refresh button on your browser a few times. (Thanks, Michal.)

Happy the Man...

This poem came from a little, battered volume owned by a friend. Edgar Guest was known as the "People's Poet." His poems were sentimental, but this one rings forever true...

Rich

Who has a troop of romping youth
About his parlor floor,
Who nightly hears a round of cheers,
When he is at the door,
Who is attacked on every side
By eager little hands
That reach to tug his grizzled mug,
The wealth of earth commands.

Who knows the joys of girls and boys,
His lads and lassies, too,
Who's pounced upon and bounced upon
When his day's work is through,
Whose trousers know the gentle tug
Of some glad little tot,
The baby of his crew of love,
Is wealthier than a lot.

Oh, be he poor and sore distressed
And weary with the fight,
If with a whoop his healthy troop
Run, welcoming at night,
And kisses greet him at the end
Of all his toiling grim,
With what is best in life he's blest
And rich men envy him.

...Edgar Guest

Babies for Bush...

Sunday's Washington Post carried a piece by Phillip Longman comparing the fertility of states that went for Bush and Gore in the 2000 election. Not surprisingly, Bush supporters have children while Gore supporters don't:

What's the difference between the protesters who were outside the Republican convention and the delegates inside?

...It's the divide between who is having children and who isn't.

Of the top 10 most fertile states, all but one voted for the president in 2000. Among the 17 states that still produce enough children to replace their populations, all but two - Iowa and Minnesota - voted for Bush in the last election. Conversely, the least fertile states - a list that includes Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut - went overwhelmingly for Al Gore. ...if the Gore states seceded from the Bush states and formed a new nation, it would have the same fertility rate, and the same rapidly aging population, as France - that bastion of "old Europe."

If Gore's America (and, presumably, John Kerry's) is reproducing at a slower pace than Bush's America, what does this imply for the future? Well, as the comedian Dick Cavett remarked, "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either."

Some time back, when I was heading up the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the religion reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune asked whether I ever worried that people might think I was a chauvinist?

"Oh, I don't worry about it--I know that's what they think," I responded. "But it doesn't bother me because ninety-nine percent of the people who have ever lived believed the same thing we teach (that men are to carry the primary burden of leadership and protection). And no matter who's winning the battle for public opinion, we're the ones getting married and having babies; and we're the ones teaching our children to think and read and write; and it's our children who are going to grow up and lead this nation."

Do sodomite couples have a right to children...

As every Christian should know, in vitro fertilization (IVF) normally involves, in Jerome Lejeune's apt phrase, keeping little babies in the fridge awaiting implantation in the mother's womb; and then, eventually, disposing of those babies who turn out to be extraneous.

For this reason I am opposed to IVF. Why would followers of Jesus create multiple living babies, keeping them in the fridge, so that one or two of them could win the lottery and be implanted in their mother's womb (while their siblings who lose that lottery are killed)?

But take IVF and add to it sodomite marriage and national health care and you produce a witches brew.

It's reported in The London Observer that there's a growing debate in the UK over whether the national health care system must provide these new sodomite couples with the same fertility assistance provided heterosexual couples already; and specifically, whether the old criterion of an IVF child having both mother and father in the home has now been rendered obsolete? Suzi Leather, head of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, says, "The debate over whether IVF children need a father is controversial, with the British Medical Association's ethics committee understood to be divided."

Smartdykes.com reports:

Campaigner Ben Summerskill...said, "There is no evidence that this legislation (requiring the presence of a father) ... has actually protected anyone from anything, and there is a range of US research which suggests that children who grow up in gay families are just as well balanced and developed as children who grow up in heterosexual families."

...Professor Alison Murdoch said, "We have to stand back from it and say, what is the evidence that there is any harm to anybody from them having a child? Children need to be brought up in a loving, caring environment: it's the loving care that is important, not the sexuality of the parent," she said.

I do wonder whether PCA teaching elders who publicly called for the repeal of anti-sodomy laws have arrived at remorse yet? Sadly, I bet not. Rather, they're likely denying any necessary connection between...

the legalization of sodomy, and

the legalization of sodomite marriages, and

the necessary provision of IVF to sodomite couples, and

the intentional and state-sanctioned robbing of children of their father?

Preparing for motherhood...

My mother-in-law studied for her degree in Home Economics during the late '30s and early '40s, graduating summa cum laude from Oregon State University. After marrying her childhood sweetheart, she gave birth to 10 children in 14 years. Her husband, engaged for most of the years when the family was young as editorial director of a religious publishing house, brought home low wages, so frugality was a necessity and the degree served this young mother and her family well.

Food preservation, hygiene, cooking, sewing, and home budgeting were part of the home ec curriculum and, along with the liberal arts training which came with every bachelor's degree at the time, these young women graduated with specialized training for their profession of choice--motherhood. Other women took similarly helpful majors in Elementary Education, Bible, Christian Education (my own mother's major), and Nursing.

Then came the frontal assault on housewifery and motherhood carried out largely by a new and powerful aristocracy, the "Information Class." (Footnote 1) During the late '60s and early '70s this assault reached fever pitch and the academy was ground zero. College and university students were assigned propagandistic tracts such as Ibsen's, A Doll's House, and joined the ranks of those determined to liberate the "Noras" of the world. (Footnote 2) Oxford historian Paul Johnson provides interesting historical details on A Doll's House, noting that both Karl Marx's youngest daughter, Eleanor, and George Bernard Shaw took part in its first private reading in London, Eleanor playing the title role of Nora. Johnson writes, the "clear message" of A Doll's House was that "marriage is not sacrosanct, the husband's authority is open to challenge, [and] self-discovery matters more than anything else." Johnson concludes, "[Ibsen] really started the women's movement." (Footnote 3)

The discipline of home economics (also known as "household arts") was an early casualty. Traditionally, home ec had enjoyed a comfortably apolitical niche in the world of higher education, and the guardians of this discipline had every reason to trust their academic peers would continue to be favorably disposed toward a curriculum so integrally tied to domestic tranquility. It was taken for granted that a dignified and competent wife and mother, devoted to her home and family, was a highly desirable constant in American culture.

To the feminists, home ec was anything but apolitical, so they attacked...

Postponing motherhood: eggs in the fridge...

So now Slate runs a piece informing us that professional women who are hesitant to derail their high-octane careers for the sake of motherhood will be able to pay to have good eggs from their young ovaries set aside in the freezer, to be used later when they decide it's safe to take a break for (sort of) motherhood.

Well here's an idea: God created our bodies with a view to ordering our work (including pregnancy, childbearing, and child-rearing) in a way that fits our age, and those who seek to overrule that order by means of technological fixes will learn something of God's wisdom and man's foolishness. I mean, let me put it this way: although I know children are a blessing--one of the principal sources of joy in our lives--I do feel a tinge of sympathy for the many older women I see here in this university community who are out and about with their toddlers makng what seems evident as their first foray into motherhood.

Think about getting broken into pregnancy and delivery and nursing and diapers and all that STUFF when you're forty-four and you've spent the previous two decades of your life in the antiseptic corporate world, getting breakfast from the Starbucks drive-in, lunch from your company cafeteria, and dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill.

Might it not be that God our Creator has made us in such a way that the best time to have and raise babies is when our bodies are most fertile, not when we need fertility assistance?

God blesses the poor with children...

Here's an excerpt from a reader's comment under another of my posts:

From my understanding, poor nations have higher birth rates because they see more economic support for the parents when they are old, and because they know there is a higher risk of their children dying before they can support the parents. I don't think they are necessarily trying to "obey God's command to be fruitful and multiply."

It's hard for the western world not to think about actions solely in monetary terms. And although I agree there is some truth to the statement that children in poor countries are understood to provide parents pensioner security, to reduce the motivation of the poor to this level is both a first-world habit, and utterly wrong-headed.

Across time and nations, the poor have children because "children are a blessing from the Lord" and "happy is the man whose quiver is full" (Psalm 127). The fact that many of these souls do not know the True God is no contradiction of this truth--God's goodness is such that He makes the rain to fall both "on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). To reduce this blessing to a monetary matter demonstrates a quite uncharitable judgment, similar to those feminists who claim that traditional heterosexual marriage is simply the exchange of sexual favors on the part of the woman for financial security--prostitution with society's imprimatur.

Back in April of 1992, First Things published an article by John Coons titled, "School Choice as Simple Justice" arguing that the provision of school choice is a matter of simple justice, particularly for the poor, given that it is through their children that the poor have their principal influence on the world. I've never forgotten the article because it helped me come to an understanding of the glory of large families in Third World slums and First world inner cities. A professor at Boalt Hall, the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, whose expertise is in education history and law, Coons wrote:

The machinery of public monopoly was chosen specifically by Brahmins like Horace Mann and James Blaine to coax the children from the religious superstition of their barbarian parents. Today, that antique machinery continues its designated role, and if this function was ever benign, it has long since ceased to be so. What has endured is the public school system's peculiar legacy of intolerance, racial segregation, religious bigotry, discrimination against the poor...[and] the careful buffering of the freedom of the rich to decide for themselves.

The rich pit kids against uninterrupted television and decide to go with the tube; the poor are blessed by God with right thinking about the fruit of the womb and have never been willing to defer to the browbeating of the rich that they limit their reproduction. About the only thing that changes the poor in this regard is their coming into wealth, at which time they too choose the tube.

InterVarsity Press: Calling good evil...

Reading the book reviews in the latest (June 2004) issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, I came across a review of a recent issue by InterVarsity Press titled, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, by Stassen and Gushee. Here is a quote from the work:

...limiting family size not to what the family can afford but to what the world can afford is a clear moral duty.... Ethically appropriate birth control and practices of sexual responsibility are needed ecological practices in our age.

To speak of the use of birth control as "ethically appropriate" is to claim it to be a spiritual duty, and this is wicked, setting on its head the command of God to "be fruitful and multiply," as well as His command to His Church to "propagage a godly seed."

But much less, does anyone at IVP know or care how boring they are, now that they hawk stuff that was on the op-ed pages of the New York Times years ago--stuff that the Times has long since left behind now producing pieces on the dire straits the world is in due to the birth-shortage that prevails across the western world and is quickly overtaking the southern hemisphere, also?

I mean, you'd think that a 500 page volume on evangelical ethics could at least have checked with the secular demographers before writing such nonsense, not to mention checking with the Word of God and the Author of that Word, the Holy Spirit.

Here's a suggestion that I've been following for years, although not absolutely consistently: Only buy from publishers that honor God and His Word, unless you're buying the books used or remaindered.

Yes, IVP has a good back list and occasionally issues a good new work, but God-fearing Christians ought not to patronize them given their worldliness. I have no problem patronizing Marriott properties owned by Mormons, but I will not make common cause with men who claim to be under the authority of God's Word, yet call evil good and good evil.

(I might mention that my dad, Joe Bayly, was director of IVP from 1951 to 1960, so I take IVP's unfaithfulness to Scripture quite personally, viewing it as an attack upon my patrimony--not to mention our Patrimony.)

Chesterton on birth control...

Often I've used this Chesterton quote to great effect:

We can always convict such people of sentimentalism by their weakness for euphemism. The phrase they use is always softened and suited for journalistic appeals. They talk of free love when they mean something quite different, better defined as free lust. But being sentimentalists they feel bound to simper and coo over the word "love." They insist on talking about Birth Control when they mean less birth and no control. We could smash them to atoms, if we could be as indecent in our language as they are immoral in their conclusions. (G. K. Chesterton, "Obstinate Orthodoxy" in The Thing).

Birth control and divorce...

Although I'm not a Limbaugh listener, I'm sad to hear of another failure in his life and hope there will many praying for him. Meanwhile, his pending divorce is the occasion for another wise piece on the harm birth control causes to family life, and particularly marriage.

Contra the author of this piece (and most orthodox Roman Catholics), I am not of the opinion that NFP (natural family planning) is categorically different than other forms of birth control, although I can appreciate the sincerity of some of the arguments in that direction. Still, this piece does a good job bringing to the fore several aspects of the debate over birth control that ought to be considered.

Birth control and Matinicus...

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune carried an article on a tiny island of lobstermen and crabmen twenty-five miles off the coast of Maine called Matinicus. The piece explained that the island's population peaked at 270 souls in the late 19th century when "Birth control was unknown and children, the principal crop."

Presently, Manicus has a year-round population of twenty-five or so, and the elementary school has one student.