Last week we saw how ‘man’s politics’ was trying to replace God’s plan for humanity and how many males who God designed to form, support, and protect the family were being forced further and further from the ‘picture’ by a desire to ensure ‘equality’. Was that God’s plan in the beginning? Was ‘woman’ to be man’s helper and was man to protect, defend, honor, and respect woman? For either man or woman to honor anyone, they must first honor themselves. Is that happening in society today? That’s up to you to figure that out. Many today sense an approaching world crisis. A nervous, jittery stock market; a growing sense of cynicism and distrust of the political process; an increase in drug and alcohol dependency, with the resultant physical and mental toll in human lives; scientists tinkering with our genetic make-up and actually developing a business of selling human fetal tissues. Add to this the threat of disease, spread of famine in many countries, and the ever-present threat of nuclear warfare. Back in 1980 leaders from all over the Western world attended the First Global Conference on the Future held in Toronto, Canada. The chairman spoke these sobering words: “The bad news is that the world is coming to an end. The good news is, not yet”. Even earlier, in 1972, a group of international industrial leaders, called the Club of Rome, suggested six proposals that humanity must put into effect if we are to survive on this planet. One of those proposals simply said that if we cannot discover how to change people, there is no hope of saving the world from ultimate collapse. There is no way out unless society can find a means of fundamentally changing human beings. In the immortal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We have been given a way to make that change. The Gospel changes men and women. But have our Christian churches become so involved with inclusiveness and unity that they have lost track of their mission? Is the ‘message’ of the Bible so offensive that we fear losing out in a popularity contest? This is nothing new. The Jews of Thessalonica became so enraged at Paul’s teaching about Jesus that they created a riot…guess they were offended…and captured Paul’s host, Jason, holding him responsible for the apostle’s offensive behavior. Paul had to leave the city and was followed by the ‘offended’. Are we afraid of that today? Are we so afraid to let men be men by God’s plan and women be women by God’s plan that we are willing to let ‘man’s politics’ dictate to us man’s will vice God’s? Last week we saw how man’s ‘good intentions’ were eroding the foundations of our Judeo/Christian nation. Let’s continue.
We addressed the problems associated with male unemployment. Our current president is working on that problem but many injuries over the years are yet to be corrected and may take years to do so. Previous generations had to deal with this. Just two months after his inauguration in 1933…the same year Hitler came to power…President Roosevelt presented Congress with a response to the unprecedented joblessness of the Great Depression. He proposed a government employment program for married/unmarried young men called the Civilian Conservation Corps. He confined its work to “forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects.” (That was back in the days when Congress cared about the nation.) Just the year before President Hoover had to deploy soldiers to disperse jobless World War I veterans who were marching on Washington. Both presidents understood how dangerous millions of unemployed men could be. Within three months the CCC was up and functioning. They planted more than 3 billion trees, fought forest and prairie fires, built 125,000 miles of roads, 13,000 miles of walking trails, and strung 89,000 miles of phone lines. They built fish hatcheries and wildlife refuges, constructed cabins, and did stonework in hundreds of state parks. Each man earned about $30 a month and in a nod to the reality that men are providers, they were required to send all but $5 home to their families.
In the face of evidence that men are falling behind, the stated aim of most politicians is to raise women’s wages to parity or above men’s. On the surface there is nothing wrong with that, however, studies find most notably that most women strongly prefer to marry men who make more than they do. That’s the way God ‘wired’ us. Meanwhile, a lot of Americans have stopped getting married. This trend hurts every man, woman, and child. Between 1960 and 2016, the proportion of children living with both parents decreased by almost 20%. The percentage of children living with only their mothers nearly tripled. This is a change in peacetime that is rarely seen. But then, what can we expect? None of us are perfect and once the slightest imperfection surfaces ‘man’s politics’ has permitted marriage vowels to be tossed out. No wonder women feel so insecure and want to earn an income outside the home. With man in charge, no ‘tomorrow’ is guaranteed in a marriage. “No Fault” is a joke!
The statistics above actually understate the fatherlessness in America. In high-income neighborhoods, not much has changed. Most kids grow up at least knowing who their father and mother is. But in the rest of the country, intact families are disappearing. In a 2014 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, among younger parents without college degrees, “74% of the mothers and 70% of the fathers had at least one child outside of marriage”. Out-of-wedlock births are now the rule across the country, not the exception. Humans are ‘breeding’ like dogs.
In Deuteronomy 31:17 God is speaking to Israel on their disobedience: ” On that day I will become angry with them; I will hide my face from them and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?'” The final judgement would be a breakup of families: “Your sons and your daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand”. (Exodus 28:32). Isn’t that what is happening here in the United States, where one-half of all children today live with single parents? Families have been broken and children parceled out to strangers. It’s amazing how this could have been seen thousands of years ago, but then, the Bible is God’s inspired Word so it is really not amazing at all.
Why should we as a society care? Boys who grow up with a father at home earn much more as adults. Boys who grow up alone with their mothers tend to earn less. They have more disciplinary problems in school, read less well, are less likely to graduate from high school or go to college; are more likely to be unemployed and live in poverty; get married less often and when they do, they divorce more; are more likely to be obese and have asthma; are far more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, exhibit anti-social behavior, and commit acts of violence. They are twice as likely to go to prison. These outcomes hold across geography and ethnic groups: white, black, urban, rural. Boys raised without fathers are at serious risks. The breakup of families is becoming a national disaster. This is why we should care and this is why ‘God’s politics’ cannot and should not be divorced from ‘man’s politics’. The government’s failure to hold people strictly responsible for their actions is a major part of the problem and the churches’ failure to rise up and say anything is likewise a failure. No politician should rest comfortably as long as policies that support irresponsibility are put into place. In many cases tax money is being used to destroy this nation. Society had best wake up.
Those of you who know me have probably heard me say at one time or another that “silence to a politician is approval”. I thought that was just my theory. But in reading my Bible I found out that a wise man thousands of years ago recognized this. In Proverbs 26:4 we are told not to answer according to a foolish person’s folly…”Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.” Then in Proverbs 26:5 we read,”Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Here we are told to answer, lest by silence we become complicit in their harmful ideas and character. How many of us will not take the time to let our politicians know of our approval or disapproval of their decisions? How many Christians churches are also delinquent? Just recently the senate failed to pass a bill to protect the survivor of a failed abortion. Just let the human baby die on its own. That’s ‘man’s politics’ in action. Are we going to sit back and let ‘God’s politics’ just be an observer? Do we wait until ‘judgement day’ to be reminded of our inaction?
Some politicians have tried to change the tide of failure that is overcoming our land but they frequently get ‘shot down’ as being unsympathetic and uncaring. But then if ‘failure’ will get you votes from an uneducated voting public, why not go for it. More on this next week.
– Bob Munsey
“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.” – Helen Keller
Geezer Politics 