ALERT!!! I am not making this up. Some Sunday School teacher is in trouble for telling a kid to write WWJD on his…..on his….well, let’ just say this idea probably has Zondervan developing a WWJD condom.

ANd this quote has me in disbelief: “”The Evil One has struck a tremendous blow to our congregation,” Gahagen wrote.

From the Corner: “Americans age 65 and over spend, on average, about $700 a year on prescription . This is a “crisis,” and Congress is tripping all over itself to pick up the tab.
But consider all the other senior-citizen “crises” that are going woefully unaddressed.
Seniors, on average, spend $1,200 a year on dining out. The elderly could save so much on “blue-plate” specials if only the government paid the tab.
Seniors drop $800 a year on furnishings. How many recliners—perfect for pushing back and watching the Golf Channel—go unbought because Congress refuses to help pay this bill?
65-and-overs spend $1,000 a year on entertainment. But we persist in forcing them to pay for their own subscriptions to large-print edition of Reader’s Digest�”

As I said, I have no problem with what Pre mil Christians do. They are obviously zealous. But the purest form of the system abandons the world to the evil one and checks out. It does not believe in the conversion of the nations in a way as optimistic as I think scripture does.

On the millenium: Obviously I am in a minority report. But Here is the short version on the start. I take every single number in Revelation as symbolic. Why is 1,000 an exception? (Someone needs to delete me before I fall into this!!!!) My best source is Michael Wilcock, I saw heaven Opened (Or Revelation in the IVP BST series).

Matthew’s post was on another list we both used to frequent. He was raptured out. I was left behind. (For my low view of scripture ;) ;-) It’s a JOKE.)

MatthewJ: Thank You. I will be devoting an essay to the notion of what it means to be a World Christian, and a big part of it will be stopping this nonsense that our need for a facility bigger than the Trump Taj Mahal even deserves to be considered alongside the possibility of shifting resources to the unreached world. I support Gospel for Asia and will be pushing it a bit more on here in the future. For about $100 a month, a missionary in India, Bangladesh, Nepal or 11 other nations can live an work for a month. 1200 a year. GFA has 11,000 missionaries doing this. All native. All living on the level with the people they reach. They start 6 churches a day. They 6,000 of them attended or are in 20+ Bible schools. They travel on bikes, worship in building that cost less than $1000. (This all sounds like Oneida Eric!) How could I build a gym for $750,000 when I could send 750 missionaries for a year?!!?

For all of you who think I never get treated like YOU….it appears that a post of mine was deleted over at Dialog Box. Some guy – Oddball for those who read over there- said Reagan was a butcher, while defending the North Vietnamese, Sandanistas and Castro as legitimate. I took exception, pointed out his America Bad, Communist ers good syllogism, and asked if he considered Al-Queda to be our fault as well?. Today the post is gone. So, for those of you who have prayed that God would do to me as I have done to others, your prayers were answered. Apparently lefty political speech is tolerable but noting the moral outrages involved is not. Too bad. I genuinely like and respect Rob and I hope it was just a boo boo in my posting, but I don’t think so as I saw my name up as last poster yesterday. It’s that KingdomNow side of things over there. Calvinism OK. Reagan a butcher OK. ???

Michael, you’d better watch it! 1st (insert denomination here) of (insert town name here) in the US of A needs that new gym! I don’t know if you remember, but I posted on the old Pipertalk message board that I thought it was ridiculous for churches to spend that kind of money on a place to play basketball instead of foreign missions. The “recreation director” (or something like that) at Piper’s church blistered me with a post because they use their’s to minister to inner city folk (Piper himself has said that there is no inner city in Minneapolis; he’s right.). Folks tend to get a little testy when it comes to their “Family Life Centers”. BTW, I appreciate the hope with which you see the world. That’s the kind of missiology that I learned from Let the Nations be Glad! and from our main missions prof here.

Ronald: CAUTION- This computer may drop letters and words in posting. First, let me mildly clarify this matter of what post mils actually believe. The popular notion that a post mil eschatology is the arrival of a political golden age is a narrow 19th century interpretation. Today, the idea would have much more to do with the “puritan hope,” i.e. the conversion of the nations. (See Ian Murray, The Puritan Hope.) And this does not mean a process where oppostion suddenly vanishes. Scripture clearly teaches that the preaching of the gospel to ALL the nations goes on right alongside constant persecution. Dispy Pre mils read Mark 13 as all about the tribulation. Post and a mils read it as about history. The Gospel is preached to all nations and there is intense persecution at the same time. Yes, the greater hope is that the growth of the Kingdom will bear more and more fruit in history, and sure, shallow temporal notions of that in 19th century British and American Christianity did fold under the historical realities you mention. But that hasn’t dimmed my hope for the conversion of the nations. Read Revelation. it is the Nations in the New Jerusalem. Nations that I assume weren’t abandoned by missionary efforts.

And that really is the topic that must be explored. First, forget the number of missionaries represented by each view. Pre mils have more because pre mils te in the sending nations. The observation that there are more pre mil missionaries says nothing about pre mil as a system. It simply says pre mil tes in our ure, schools, books, etc. Second, pre mils do not believe in the conversion of the nations. They believe the nations are under and will be under the sway of the antiChrist. A pre mil view of the 10/40 window is “Yep. ’s stronghold.” My view is that God can turn the Muslim nations upside down in a day or a decade and we are to operate on that hope. There is a huge difference here!! Huge. Scofield pre mils look at history with pessimism, assuming all the nations are heading down the commode of history with a few souls plucked from the fire along the way. Post and optimistic A mils can look at history differently. Don’t tell me that pre mils saw the fall of communism as part of the plan. But Post mils see it as an example of what God can do.

I think this is why you see more post and a mil types in frontier missions like Frontiers and NTM. The overwhelming odds don’t seem overwhelming if you think history is going to see greater and greater manifestations of the triumph of the Gospel. Face it: American Christians are blaming their own sad and sorry decline on God by way of pre mil theology. According to the Pre mil Apostles, the chruch in America is in decline and apostasy because it is on the way to lining up with the RCC and the New Age and the AntiChrist. I see a world where Christianity is exploding!!! Literally exploding in Asia and Africa and South America. Europe and America are missing the party as the Gospel grows at a greater rate than ever before in history.

My old home church is building a $750,000 gym. Why aren’t they weeping and sending to the nations? Do they really believe the worldwide purpose of God is furthered by 3/4 million dollar gym? No- They have given up on the nations. Sure they do Lottie Moon, but they won’t even tithe that building program money to missions. That is American Christianity. Third world missionaries look at this as insanity because it is so inconsistent with scripture. And I think it grows in the soil of dispy pre mil’s accomodation to the world as it is, so let’s go shoot hoops. (I have an article on all this in the works.)

So, yeah, I do believe optimism FOR THE GOSPEL and the NATIONS is warranted and yeah I do believe that ultimately Scofieldism is detrimental to missions. Not to an individual Christian’s motives, but to the overall mindset of the church.

In other news… my celtic pagan cousin told me last night that he’s feeling that God is calling him back to some form of Christianity. The proof is in the pudding of course, but I’d like to ask for prayer for this yungin’.

About Tim Lahaye: I want to be really clear that everything I know about TLH says that he is a genuinely nice person with a wonderful Christian character and a real concern for the salvation of everyone he meets. I don’t at all begrudge TLH his success as an author and spokesman for his segment of the Christian community. My despondency over Left Behind is the embracing of this worldview by millions of Americans who have no idea what the Bible says and the vast majority of Christians who have abandoned the command of Jesus in the Great Commission for a wholesale embracing of extreme pessimism. I work with these people and it is a real thing. Missions requires optimism. The pessimism of Left Behind, and the pessimistic interpretative system that lies behind the books, is perfect fodder for a church and culture already wrapped up in materialism and not interested in seeing the nations come to Christ..

Steve- I am no friend of the left, and IM has called them promoters of tyranny from the first day I published. But I don’t automatically call Ellen Goodman a liar because I disagree with her politics. From all I know, she is an established and respected journalist. The Boston Globe, her home paper, has quite a reputation for fact checking its columnists. Ask Mike Barnacle. And besides, I don’t see any reason to attack the messenger in this instance. Sure, her analysis is from the left, but what she is describing is going on. I know lots of these kinds of people in public schools here in KY. My point is- assuming the basic factual truthfulness of the problem (allowing for an exaggeration factor)- advocates of Abstinence Education owe it to all of us to keep explicit Christianity out of the public school arena and to do what they promised with these programs.

I agree that NASA has become a management mess. I am echoing Brother Mcfarland’s basic sentiment. I think the great quest would be worth it.

In talking with a lot of letter writers about the Vine’s article, I pointed out that marriage at age 13 or 14 has been part of mountain culture for years. My point was that Vines’ characterization of Mohammed as a pedophile was an ignorant claim.

When the SBC did a similar resolution several years ago- with a specific apology to African Americans- a lot of SBs went ballistic, but I thought it was appropriate and removed at least one frequent rhetorical stone that was frequently hurled at us.

Hey everybody read this! Ellen Goodman on Christians going overboard in public school “Abstinence Sex Ed” programs in Louisiana. My first observation is that when Christians fight for these $$$ programs and then abuse them along these lines- turning them into fundamentalist parties and mind games- they are inviting the media, ACLU and others to come running. Are these Louisiana Christians so stupid as to not understand that going to an abortion clinic for a prayer vigil or memorizing Bible verses ain’t gonna fly in a public school? The other thing I will say is that there is a public health issue in the sexual behavior of teenagers. I don’t care how many fundamentalists want to lecture us about keeping sex ed at home- which I totally believe is correct- we all still have a stake in whether Boy and Girl have an out of wed lockchild. Illegitimacy is a national problem- a huge contribution to crime, povertry and many other social ills. PART- not all, but PART of the response from a reasonable public must be the availability of straightforward birth control information. I know, I know, I know- I don’t want the public schools giving my kid or anyone’s kid a condom and a bananna, but the abstinence approach can’t be the only or complete response. There has to be a modest component of sound contraceptive information in public schools, starting at least at grade 6. Go ahead. Kill me. I’ll close my eyes.

It ain’t pedophilia. It’s just unbelievable: “Iran is raising the age at which a girl can get married without her parents’ consent—to 13. The old age of consent, Reuters reports, was nine. The age of consent for boys is also rising, to 15 from 14. Nine-year-old girls will still be able to marry, but only with their parents’ permission and “approval of a ‘righteous court.’ ”

Good article on why the environmentalists are to blame for the fires. Also, Best of the Web Today is extra good today.

An e-mail posted over at the Corner, dealing with whether the U.S. should declare war.: “E-mail: “You quoted an e-mail to you in The Corner recently: “The United States has not actually declared war since the declaration of war against the Axis powers in 1941.” This is true, but in international law a state does not have to declare war if another recognized and constituted sovereign declares war on it. Thus although we reciprocated the German and Italian declarations of war on the US, the US did not declare war on other minor Axis powers which did declare war on it, e.g. Hungary, Romania, etc. This did not mean that legaly speaking a state of war was not recognized to exist between the United States and Hungary or Romania. (An interesting side case is that of Siam, now Thailand: its’ pro-Axis government actually did declare war on the US, but the Siamese charge d’affairs, an Allied sympathizer, refused to deliver the declaration to the State Dept., and the State Dept. decided to ignore this, in order to preserve the legal fiction that the United States and Siam were not at war.) It is a forgotten fact that Panama’s National Assembly (controlled by Noriega but legitmately constituted) declared war on the US at the time of Operation Just Cause. Thus although the last time Congress declared war was in December 1941, the last time the US was legally in a state of war was December 1989!”

The PCA has made a public statement of repentance as a denomination. I know some of you don’t think this sort of this is good, but I think it is a good “offense by defence” tactic that allows a response when we are accused of supporting racism and oppresion.

Rosie O just said she can’t stand Clinton because he lied and pined the Scarlet A on Monica. How delightfully Catty. Scratch him Rosie.

Gregory: I know that pastors are often eccentric, but imo, your interim pastor is more eccentric than most. The gaffs and errors you have cited go beyond an occaisonal slip to just plain wrong, and a couple of elders need to kindly, charitably point out to him that some of his proclamations are unsupportable from scripture or good pastroal practice. The Paul witnessed to by Barnabbas story is an outright perversion of scripture. You can’t preach Bible stories from pure invention. Reasonable implication is one thing. Invention is another. I would take time to remind the deacons that the job of an interim is to bring the congregation to unity on the way to a new shepherd. This fellow is on the way to dividing the congregation. The Jezebel sermon shows a real lack of pastoral temperament and a desire to be combative and divisive over a minor matter. Hijacking that Biblical language to argue about literature is nuts and counterproductive to his calling in this instance. I would tell your elders time to trade in for another interim if a new pastor isn’t in the pipeline.

Steve/Judd/Space Cadets: I think that NASA’s moon shot was a good investment. I know the current libertarian/conservative take is to say no government spending, but I think some government spending is worth the hassle for the potential and actual returns. For me, the space quest is beyond dollars and cents, and beyond commercial interests. It is like arguing about Columbus’ voyages or the exploration of the New World. There is something important here to the human spirit and the human imagination. We need a journey into the unknown. We need it. Yeah, we can debate this in the budget books and tax policies, but calling it “flags and footprints” could only be said by someone who didn’t live through it and experience what it did to all of us in that generation. As one who was in the middle of that era, I know what Steve Mcfarland is writing about. it was magnificent and mythic. This was a humanizing, elevating quest that affected our view of ourselves and impacted the human spirit around the world. It united our world and ignited our minds and imaginations. It was worth it. Privatize it or whatever, but do it and make it the great quest our civilization needs. (Send Al-Queda on the test shots.)

Ronald: Your brand of denominationalism is what I grew up with, and I have commented on my own journey through and away from it elsewhere. I have great respect for journeys that are different from mine so its cool.

By reading my article on PK, you are aware that I am not a lemming for PK. Having said that, I find most of the internet criticism of PK to be insubstantial and inaccurate at best, and blithering idiocy at worst. It tends to come from the kind of people who find John Macarthur and John Piper heretical. (Most of these sites are people who light up a fire anytime someone befriended anyone related to psychology or counseling. It’s like playing Kevin Bacon, only using Larry Crabb as a link to Sigmund Freud and Satan.)

PK, as a parachurch, is not obligated to have the confessional standards of a local church. That is the difference between anything that is not a local church and what is a church. Its evangelical credentials do not require specific historic confession or doctrinal statements. Laundering the speakers at PK would be like laundering the speakers at a Billy Graham school of evangelism. What’s the point? It’s not a church, and anyone is free to take it or leave it. This may seem silly, but it’s like a grocery store you choose to patronize. Does Kroger need a doctrinal statement?

I believe denominationalism has many positive aspects, especially in preserving historic distinctives. On the other hand, denominations often need correctives from outside themselves. (The abolition movement, or the pro-life movement would be good examples.) PK is a reaction to the feminization of the culture and the church. Sure, its extremely generic doctrinally, and charismatics tend to float to the top of the leadership and worship ladder, but it is a viable and spiritually vital, Christ honoring, Gospel preaching movement. I find it to be much more doctrinally explicit than most churches and the vast majority of Christian publishing. I won’t even venture into how it compares doctrinally to CCM.

Where I differ the most is this: I believe I must have convictions, but I also think I have to have the humility to treat those who differ with me as my equals, and to love them as part of the body of Christ. I grew up in a church that consigned everyone who wasn’t a Southern Baptist to hell. (Even Independent Baptists. They didn’t give to the CP or use our literature.) This resulted in treating other Christians with disrespect. (More like lepers really.) For example, I was taught to fear and despise Methodists because they drank. I think conviction is fine, but that should not stop us from worshipping and working together with others.

(There is a flap in the LCMS because some pastor participated in a post 9/11 event with some liberals, New Agers and secularists. It may be silly, but on a human level, what’s the big deal? Why not take my faith in Christ and pray a prayer with Jesus’ name in it wherever I can get in the door? Missionaries can go to savages, but a pastor can’t pray with Oprah?) No compromise, but treating every other person as person whose spiritual journey is worthy of respect. I know your comments were not going down that road, but this is where I would differ.

BTW, since most Southern Baptist Churches have no confession of their own beliefs that member must affirm, on what basis do they make any criticism of other movements doctrinally?

GROUP: Just read all of Time’s current issue on the end of the world, which is primarily about LEFT BEHIND and Tim Lahaye. It is thoroughly depressing, but Time does a good job. That Lahaye is the most significant Christian of our times is profoundly sad. Here is a man who has and absolutely pessimistic worldview. I need to avoid the topic.

Greg: After much debate and thought, I think Michael has provided the deep, thoughtful answer as to why you can’t understand your pastor. Frankly, he sounds like the type of guy that edits the Bible to fit his own personal opinions. Should fit right in with most congregations today.

Steve: Ayn Rand’s particular type of messed-up philosophy is called Objectivism.

Ronald: I do not have a problem with approval. It has even been suggested, and summarily vetoed, that we put together a list of acceptable curriculum, as well as means of putting materials up for approval. That is why we hired him. But, the answer to this compromise was “Lifeway or nothing.”

This has had the greatest impact in Sunday School, where teachers that have been teaching for years are willing to stop teaching rather than teach Lifeway. The curricula they currently use was approved by the church, prior to the minister of education getting his position. He is, at present, unwilling to allow them to teach the old curricula, or even take a look at it.

As for the pastor, I have had previous issues with his teaching. According to the pastor:

• John, the disciple, carried off the body of Jesus to the gravesite of Joseph of Arimethea. (contrary to John 19:38-40). This is, of course, a minor issue, but was used to fit the fact that the passion play we did had John carrying off the body with Joseph of Arimethea.
  
• The bible says children shall lead us (used when a child got up during an altar call). At best I can assume he was meaning we have to come as children to Christ (Mt 18:3).
  
• Paul became a Christian when Barnabas witnessed to him in Damascus. In Acts, Barnabas was a friend, but he did not appear in the conversion story, as did Ananias, and it was unlikely Paul needed a witness at this particular moment, as he had just had an encounter with God almighty. As the sermon was on friends, I assume the friendship of Paul and Barnabas was his core issue here.
  
• Murder and adultery are the only sins which cannot be atoned for. I have searched for anything that fits this, but have yet to come up with anything where I can even
  

To sum up, I am not certain this is the man who should be preaching to us about our inability to pick good material. In addition, I believe there should be a method in place to have other types of material preached.

It is unfortunate that we are in this position now. Church membership has falled to almost half over the past year. Of the current church members, many only attend Sunday school and avoid the service. The financial consequences are easy to figure out, as collections are down over 1/3. It is likely that more people will join the exodus if the hard line stance is continued. I have not yet made a decision to leave, but if the new pastor is as sloppy as the transitional pastor, it is likely I will find another church home.

Koffi Anan rises to the podium of the UN, looks at his notes, and closes his eyes briefly. For prayer? For effect? We will never know. He then lifts his head and begins to address the delegates. “Ladies and Gentlemen… have you all filled out your forms to buy some of my daughter’s delicious Girl Scout cookies? Try the Thin Mints – they’re wonderful.” Anan sits. The delagates mumble in agreement.

Mohatma Ghandi will speak briefly this afternoon on the following topics: The Mideast situation and its effects on worldwide oil supply; The continuing animosity between Muslims and Hindus and the nuclear threat they now present; flossing properly; and the Global Pandemic of AIDS and its effects on India.

Vladamir Putin, halfway through his recent speach on the economic hardships faced by Russians in the post-communist reality, breaks into a Kazoo rendition of “Freebird”.

Have another wonderful church issue. As some of you know, we are with a transitional pastor at the moment. We also have a minister of education that was hired after the last pastor left. Two weeks ago, we got a mandate that it was Lifeway or nothing (Sunday School curicula from birth to death). Last week, our leaders protested. On Sunday, the pastor preached about the church at Thyatira. In the middle, he talked about false prophets in the church (Mary Baker Eddy, et al) and then subtly compared those that do not wish to go to Lifeway to Jezebel. Having heard both sides of the argument, I believe he has overstepped his bounds on this one, esp. as I am included in the Jezebel crowd. I am going to write a letter and see where it lands. Pray for me.

Michael: It could be worse than a steak upside the head. In India, if you are a waiter and serve a vegetarian any meat, you could go to jail. Talk about a bad day.

Steve, you’re a libertarian, aren’t you? (I am, so the question wasn’t meant as a slam). I think what turned me against the space program (slightly) was being in third grade and watching the Challenger explode. I didn’t want to be an astronaut after that.

Please pray for my grandmother, Edith. She had a stroke yesterday and is in the hospital indefinitely. She and I are very close so this is really difficult for me. Also, my sister just moved out to Denver and she’s there by herself with no friends and family and she’s taken this pretty hard.

Steve S.- Re: your question about last Lord’s Day’s message. I believe that we humans are designed for far more than the sum of all that life on earth can muster. God has set eternity in our hearts, which is why we long for, search for, scheme for, feel for, workaholic ourselves for…more. That “more” is found in the life Jesus offers, or in the words of John 10:10- ” I have come that you might have life and life to the full”. If that life can’t be derived or produced from what earth offers (as history & experience clearly demonstrate), then this must be life of another kind, from another place. Only when we are “born from above” ( John 3:3), or as I phrased it, receive ” heaven’s life”, can we know soul satisfaction and begin to experience human life as it was meant to be. And that brings deep and intense joy. Hope that translates a little better….

John Ashcroft calls a news conference to warn Americans about dangerous feminine hygiene products.

Abraham Lincoln, speaking at Gettysburg Cemetery, urges all Americans to consider the joys of knitting.

Do any of you guys think the Apollo 13 incident planted the seeds of the end of the space program’s appeal?

Well, this is a photograph that should earn some kind of award, maybe the “Teabag” award or something like that. Man alive!!! Talk about a bad day.

Are you aware that if your wife gets hit in the face with a steak it diminishs your sex life by 75%?

The whole story on the 38 year old second grade teacher and the 14 year old boy. She got five years mandatory. (I have a friend who got three for the same thing. He was a single teacher and got involved with a student, who talked four years later.) Do you think that is an appropriate punishment? Some will say that a 14 year old boy isn’t being sexually abused- he’s doing what boys dream of doing.

The environmentalists are taking a beating in these Colorado fires. No roads built during the Clinton years.

Marie Antoinette distributes brochures on nutrition, while reminding children of the pitfalls of eating too many sweets. After all, they can’t just eat cake, can they?

Steve: AMEN!! on your space article. I share your theory that an innumerable amount of benefits in the last five decades are direct spinoffs from the space race. (I also happen to believe that the invention of the 401k plan is the second half of the dynamic duo which has created so much technological prosperity for the U.S. in general… but that’s another topic).

One of NASA’s problems is that they don’t toot their own horn loudly enough. They don’t have much of a PR machine, and what’s there just doesn’t push themselves with enough fervor (for my taste). That may just be an institutional thing… and may be unavoidable. I’m not sure what kind of bureaucratic restrictions, conflict-of-interest issues may be at work there. Just my opinion.

My hyper-capable wife Amy is a manager in the ISS (International Space Station). She has spent her career making sure that EVAs (extravehicular activities—or spacewalks) go smoothly; that the astronauts have the right tools, the right safety equipment, the right training (she dives a lot in the NBL- Neutral Buoyancy Lab, or the big swimming pool where astronauts train). As ISS “crew”, she’s been to Moscow four times to coordinate EVAs with our Russian partners.

Also a pet theory of mine—any good detente between the US and Russia may probably be traced directly back to the hard, thankless work of people like Amy, who get to konw and like their Russian counterparts while engaged in the quixotic task of building (yes, it’s still growing) and running a huge orbiting community, in the face of cultural, linguistic, and mainly, POLITICAL obstacles.

I agree that the languishing of the space program is a good sign that we Americans have lost “the fire in the belly”.

Ron: My sympathies to your church. May God put mercy in the hole where words used to be.

Here’s the website many of you have been praying for. (Particularly the band ;-) ChristiansForCannabis.com.

Does anyone else think Prez Bush lecturing the country on fitness is Clinton-esque? This is the kind of thing Clinton called great leadership. I thought it sucked. The idea of the leader of the free world lecturing us on exercise is nuts. I mean nuts nuts nuts. SO HERE IS THE CONTEST: WHAT BIZARRE COMBINATION OF WORLD LEADERS AND TRIVIAL SUBJECTS CAN YOU CREATE?

Winston Churchill speaks to the nation about the need for everyone to wash thoroughly, especially in some of those places we tend to miss.
Franklin Roosevelt pauses from planning WWII to address the nation on the importance of giving everyone you meet a cheery greeting.

“Stephen Boyd, author of Men We Long to Be.” This is a sentence waiting to be slightly altered.

You know, it sounds like Boyd has some unresolved issues himself. Either that, or he thinks that American Beauty is real life.

I have just updated IM with two new articles. My article on PK, and Steve’s article on the need for a new space race.

I am about to post my IM article on PK. Listen to this from the Detroit News. The Next step for PK!

” Theologians and men’s studies experts say Promise Keepers has done a phenomenal job in reaching out to men, who have been taught that masculinity means repressing some emotions. Stephen Boyd, author of Men We Long to Be, says Promise Keepers has opened up an avenue for men to be fully human by crying, hugging and expressing their emotions not only to their wives and families, but also to other men.
Boyd, who is also a professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, believes one of the biggest reasons for the Promise Keepers’ decline is its failure to continue nurturing men’s passion to follow Jesus and to go all the way in breaking down traditional masculinity by dismantling sexism and homophobia.
He said around the time of its financial crisis, Promise Keepers cut back on its materials and staff for the small men’s groups that began to form. It also planned events without consulting with some of the churches who were working with the organization. That failure to communicate created friction.
Meanwhile, Promise Keepers continues to reinforce some norms of traditional masculinity, such as being the head of the household. And that leads to men continuing to stay disconnected from their feelings, their wives and other men, the exact opposite of what the Promise Keepers hope to foster.
“Until you deal with sexism and homophobia,” Boyd said, “you’re not going to have small groups between men that really work.”

At the next PK, we will resign as the head of our families and become homosexual. That will take care of business.

My prayers are with them.

Here’s info on the bus crash, courtesy of CNN.

Have been keeping up with the story. Terrible. Will pray as often as I can. Our school travels hundreds of thousands of miles with our students each year and in 102 years we have never lost a teacher or kid in an accident. Lord, have mercy on us because we don’t deserve such kindness. Then we lost a student to suicide in November and that is still shaking me and others. So I will pray and I know others will as well.