The race that counts

There is a fun Run/Walk race here at Lakeside this week-end. Don't forget the big one!

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God," (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV).

What does your church do about abortion?

Priests for Life lists 28 actions priests can take in their local parish. I looked through the list and found ONE thing our church (Lutheran) is doing--brochures (#17) in the ladies' room about a crisis pregnancy center. Some things, of course, we don't do at all--like special masses, holy-hours and rosaries, but we do have sermons, Bible Studies, guest speakers, committees, literature racks, memorials, plaques, newsletters, bulletin inserts, special prayer events, etc. Two things hobble us: 1) our collection plate, and 2) the IRS. I don't think we're that different than other churches.

http://www.exposeabortion.com/


1) Offer Masses for Pro-life intentions. This can either be a "special event" or a regularly scheduled Mass, the intention of which relates to pro-life.

2) Establish a pro-life prayer group in the parish, dedicated specifically to

prayers and teachings on the value of human life.

3) Offer Pro-life holy hours, Rosaries, Scripture Services. Priests for Life provides some devotional materials.

4) Promote the Be Not Afraid Family Holy Hours. For information, contact the Apostolate for Family Consecration, 3375 County Rd.36 Bloomingdale, OH 43910 Phone: 1-800-77-FAMILY.

5) Preach frequently on abortion, both by entire homilies on the topic and by reference to it in other homilies.

6) Include mention of abortion in the General Intercessions at Mass.

7) Place inserts into the bulletin about pro-life. These can be full-page inserts that can be given to the bulletin company in advance, or short (1-3 line) messages. These are available from Priests for Life. You can order a free monthly pro-life insert for your bulletin, which will be sent to you camera-ready. Call American Life League at 540-659-4171 and ask for the "Pro-life Bulletin Board."

8) Present pro-life topics in Bible Study, RCIA, meetings for school parents, marriage preparation, instructions for sponsors, etc.

9) Invite pro-life speakers to make presentations at meetings which people are required to attend, such as those for the parents of school or CCD children.

10) Have special educational evenings with speakers and/or videos.

11) Have a "Life Mission" with a guest speaker/workshops for several days.

12) Use the parish bookrack to make good pro-life literature and tapes available.

13) Use parish bulletin boards inside and outside the Church to convey a pro-life message. Set up a permanent pro-life sign on the property.

14) Make pro-life resources (Precious Feet Pins, Bumper stickers and Buttons, Pro-life Bank checks, etc.) available to the parishioners. You can get order information from Priests for Life (888-PFL-3448 or 718-980-4400)

15) Add the words "born and pre-born" to the Pledge of Allegiance when it is recited in the schools and at other functions.

16) Sponsor a pro-life essay/poster contest among the children of the school and CCD programs. Display winning posters in the school or in the Church vestibule, and print winning essays in the bulletin.

17) Have readily available at all times concrete information about alternatives to abortion. Place one of more of these numbers on the cover of your parish bulletin as a standard item. Get this information to women in need, to local doctors, and to the secular press. Some of the national hotlines ready to help women anywhere in the country are:

CARENET/HEARTBEAT 1-800-712-HELP

CRISIS PREGNANCY HELPLINE 1-888-4-OPTIONS

BIRTHRIGHT 800-550-4900

PREGNANCY HOTLINE 1-800-848-LOVE

BETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICES 1-800-238-4269

NURTURING NETWORK 1-800-TNN-4MOM

SEVERAL SOURCES FOUNDATION 1-800-NO-ABORT

AMERICA’S CRISIS PREGNANCY HELPLINE 800-67-BABY-6

GOOD COUNSEL HOMES 800 723-8331(Answering machine for this number after business hours.)

18) Have information available on post-abortion healing programs like Project Rachel. Call 414-483-4141 or 1-800-5-WE-CARE.

19) Bring people out for a Life Chain or peaceful prayer vigil on the street or at an abortion mill.

20) Encourage a parish pro-life committee to form and grow. Give it constant encouragement.

21) Commission the pro-life committee at a special liturgy. Priests for Life provides a suggested prayer for such a commissioning.

22) Read good books and periodicals on the issue, consult with experts, and take advantage of resources provided by the local diocesan pro-life office, the Bishops' office for pro-life activities, and Priests for Life.

23) Have a plaque or monument erected in memory of the children in the community who died from abortion. Have a school yearbook dedicated to those killed by abortion.

24) Establish some sort of memorial to mothers who have been killed by their abortion. A list of the names of some of these women is available either in printout or poster form. Contact Priests for Life for information.

25) Call for special parish days of voluntary prayer and fasting to end abortion.

26) Establish a parish pro-life newsletter for the parish or community.

27) Participate as a parish in the National Night of Prayer, held each December across the country to pray for an increased respect for life. For information, call Anne in New York at 516-234-6921.

28) Take part in The Gabriel Project, a pastoral program whereby the local parish directly assists pregnant mothers. Contact Priests for Life for more information.

Bernadine of Siena, May 20

Whether you're Protestant or Catholic, a "saint of the day" book is an inspirational daily read. Most of these people lived and worshipped before the splits in the church. May 20 is Bernadine of Siena. I think what impressed me about him was he could draw crowds of 30,000 when preaching about sin and vice. No loud speakers, no apps on cell phones, no cameras held up to catch his photo. (no port-a-potties) When he told people to throw their gambling tools into a community bonfire, the manufacturers of playing cards complained he was ruining their livelihood. But in many of our churches we see his work on vestments and paraments. He's the one who promoted the IHS symbol, the first 3 letters of Jesus' name in Greek.

"Worship" is one of those pesky exceptions about not doubling the p. I have to look it up when I use it. The rule is, most verbs ending in ‘p’, like develop or gallop, after an unstressed vowel, have no doubling of that final consonant in standard received British English or American English. But there are exceptions: worship, handicap, kidnap.  I have no idea why.  Just one of the joys of our spelling system.

According to Wikipedia “A Parament or Parement; (from Late Latin paramentum, adornment, parare, to prepare, equip), a term applied by ancient writers to the hangings or ornaments of a room of state. Later it has referred to the liturgical hangings on and around the altar, as well as the cloths hanging from the pulpit and lectern, as well as the ecclesiastical vestments and mitres. In many usages, it is synonymous with altar cloth.”

You may recall (or not) there was a mini-scandal about the IHS being covered up and replaced by the Presidential symbols when Obama spoke at Georgetown (a Catholic university) in April 2009. Just the beginning of many such incidents involving religion. Factcheck confirms this.

Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage. The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches.

Very much the monarch.

From George Washington's speech to the Delaware Indians, May 12, 1779

Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly. This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethren of the United States. My ears hear with pleasure the other matters you mention. Congress will be glad to hear them too. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it.

Link

The ascension of Jesus in the creeds

Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after he rose from the dead (Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:1-11) , so that would be May 9, however, we're starting a new sermon series at UALC, so today's topic was the Ascension in the creeds (next Sunday is Ascension Sunday in the church calendar). There are three creeds accepted by all Christian churches (Apostles, Nicene and Athenasian), and the ascension of our Lord phrase is in all of them. " He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;" "and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;" "He ascended into heaven; He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty;".

http://www.rca.org/page.aspx?pid=2765

Creeds, Book of Concord

St. Cyprian, Ch. 27

Chapter 27

Let us rouse ourselves in so far as we can, most beloved brethren, and, breaking the sleep of old inertia let us awake to the observing and keeping of the Lord's precepts. Let us be such as He Himself ordered us to be when He said: 'Let your loins be girt, and your lamps brightly burning, and you yourself like to men waiting for their Lord, when He shall come from the wedding, that when He comes and knocks, they may open to Him. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He comes, shall find watching.' We ought to be girt, lest, when the day of departure come, it finds us burdened and entangled. Let our light shine forth in good works and glow, so that it may lead us from the night of this world to the light of eternal brightness. Let us always with solicitude and caution await the sudden coming of the Lord, so that, when He knocks, our faith may be vigilant, ready to receive from the Lord the reward of its vigilance. If these mandates are kept, if these warnings and precepts are maintained, we cannot be overtaken while sleeping by the deceit of the devil; we will reign as vigilant servants with Christ as our Lord.

About Mary

The last few mornings I’ve been watching “Catholic Canvas” on EWTN which is an explanation of the art of the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museums. I had known about the restoration of the frescoes, but the restoration of the tapestries is less known (at least to me).   The cape that appears to surround God in the most famous panel of Michelangelo (God reaching to touch Adam’s finger with his other arm around the baby Jesus), says a doctor, is a model of the human brain.  My minimal understanding of perspective puts me in awe of the “foreshortening” of his style, where the viewer looks up and the figures move into our space, with arms and legs and clothing hanging down.  Michelangelo knew his Bible and Christian theology. But you can’t watch much EWTN without a lot of “Mary,” adoration and stories completely unfamiliar to Protestants—at least this Lutheran.  We Lutherans give Mary a lot of attention at Christmas as an obedient, chaste young woman, and some at Easter as a grieving follower of Christ, but otherwise, not so much.  I was looking up a quote of St. Leo today, one of the few Popes ever elected who was not a Bishop, who had to deal not only with barbarian invaders of the Roman empire, but terrible fights within the church.  I came across this interesting item about Mary as the Mother of God.

Pope Leo wrote many letters and instructions in his lifetime. 140 of these letters and numerous sermons he preached exist to this day. He is known as one of the prime witnesses for the Primacy of the Pope and his authority to lead the Catholic Church. This was a controversial fact and in great dispute in his day. One of his greatest writings is known as the "Tome of St. Leo" and was a defense of the belief that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. This defense of the Incarnation of Jesus also had implications on the Church's understanding of Mary. The Church Council of Ephesus had debated the identity of Jesus and it's discussion was based on the role of Mary, was she "Christokos", i.e., the mother of Jesus the man, or was she "Theotokos", i.e., the mother of God. The sway in the Council was about to declare that she could only be the mother of the human part of Jesus, but this would imply a split in the reality of Jesus. For this to be a fact, Jesus would have only been human until his birth when at that moment the divine took form in the newborn human. Thankfully, the people of Ephesus intervened and refused to allow the Bishops to conclude their vote. They had a powerful attachment to Mary as she had spent her last years of life on this world in their city. The Council was deadlocked until delegates from Leo arrived and announced by his letter that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. This belief, would later become a formal part of our Nicene Creed. When the letter was read the delegates declared that truly "St. Peter speaks though Leo."

http://www.stleo.com/Patron.htm

Today all Christians  agree on the Nicene Creed; those on the fringes who do not may still argue about the divinity and humanity of Jesus. That he was born human and became divine is just one of the many heresies still floating today. Thank you, Pope Leo, for battling both the outside evil and the inside fighting.

Why do we say Amen?

This is in the Catholic catechism, but seems to be the same for all Christians.

"Why do we say "Amen" to the profession of our faith?

We say Amen—“Yes”—to the profession of our faith because God appoints us witnesses to the faith. Anyone who says Amen assents freely and gladly to God’s work in creation and redemption.

The Hebrew word amen comes from a family of words that mean both “faith” and “steadfastness, reliability, fidelity”. “He who says amen writes his signature” (St. Augustine). We can pronounce this unconditional Yes only because Jesus in his death and Resurrection has proved to be faithful and trustworthy for us. He himself is the human Yes to all God’s promises, just as he is also God’s definitive Yes to us."

John MacArthur's anti-Catholicism

What's the current flap about John MacArthur, an evangelical pastor, I wondered? So I googled what he said about Catholics and the Pope. Actually, there were so many entries going back 7 or 8 years, I couldn't even find the reference I was looking for and had to go to his website and click on his blog. If Christians wonder why youth, gays, non-Christians and young families are leaving the sanctuary and Sunday classroom for feel-goodism, Eastern meditation routines and la-la spirituality, they only need to look at their own nasty in-fighting and name calling. And he calls his web site, "Grace to you?" I wonder if this Bible believing teacher/preacher has heard of St. Jerome? Does he know that before the canon, there was tradition, liturgy, priests, bishops? His rants are like people libeling their great grandparents whom they never met. Evangelicals believe in the pope--the one they see in the mirror every morning.

J.S. Bach Day

Today may be Presidents' Day (Washington's Birthday Observed), but yesterday at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (UALC), Lytham Road, it must have been JS Bach day. For the Prelude we enjoyed Prelude in F Minor; the Offertory was In thee O Lord have I put my trust; and the Postlude as we left the sanctuary was Salvation unto us has come. Allan Willis, organist, Paul Ulring, Senior Pastor, preaching at the traditional services.

Eat your hearts out contemporary service worshippers.

Why did Catholics support Obama

Fifty seven percent of practicing Catholics (attend mass at least once a week) voted for Romney.  Forty three percent who call themselves Catholic but rarely attend services, voted for Obama, the pro-abortion president. Every U.S. Bishop opposed the HHS mandate,  and it clearly looked like Obama stabbed them in the back after they’d supported him on immigration, taxes, etc.  But they just couldn't fight the fact that Catholics have been primarily Democrats for way too long.  I can’t imagine that they couldn’t see this coming when they supported a pro-abortion candidate in 2008.  So that also means that 43% of practicing Catholics think it is OK for Catholic charities and schools and hospitals to go under because of Obama's mandates.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/02/15/why-did-so-many-faithful-catholics-vote-for-obama-again/

The Book of Judith films

Protestant Bibles don’t contain the book of Judith, although it was part of canon for the Eastern and Western Church until the Reformation.  (and still is for Caholics and Orthodox Christians). It seems, though, St. Jerome had a bit of a struggle—I looked it up and he had to translate from the Chaldean texts to Latin.  (We saw his cell when we were in the Holy Land.)

There is a web site that focuses just on Biblical films, Bible Films Blog. It is amazing, or maybe not, how many films have been made about Judith.  The author, Matt Page (UK), is going to be writing about Judith the next week or so, and begins with a collation of all the films he could find, and the first 3 are silent films.

He lists 13 films about Judith—it has everything for today’s audience; religion, sex, violence, and politics.

Instead of tossing a garter

Try footwashing.

"Matt and Julie married last week, and when the time came for the garter to be removed, Matt did something unexpected. As Julie sat in her chair, Matt approached her with a water basin and a towel. With perfect tenderness, he humbled himself and made a beautiful gesture of his service to her.
As husbands and the spiritual head of our households, we are called by Christ to imitate the same dedication of service to our wives. Service doesn’t simply mean helping out, but means humbling ourselves, putting our wives before us always, and heroically attending to her needs."

Abby Johnson on the Sandy Hook murders

"I watched a child fight for his life in his mother's womb. I watched him curl up his body in an attempt to protect himself from the abortion instrument. I watched him attempt to move away and try to get find a safe place. Then I watched his body twist and turn like you would ring out a dishcloth. I watched his arms and legs detach from his body. I watched as his perfectly formed backbone crumbled underneath the powerful suction.

How can I compare the shootings in Connecticut with abortion? Because just like these children who were killed violently in their school, thousands of children are killed violently in their mother's wombs. These unborn children are frantically trying to save their lives before they are killed. There is no difference...except for the number that are killed EVERY DAY.

20 children are killed and it is called a massacre. 1.2 million children are killed in a year and it is called a "medical procedure" and labeled as "choice."

Yes, what I am saying may not be comfortable. But the tragedy of abortion is very real to me. I have seen the terror of the unborn. It is time for us to stop being so uncomfortable with the truth and start shouting it from the rooftops."


Abby formerly worked for Planned Parenthood and now is a Pro-Life Advocate.

Baptism

I heard today on Catholic radio that a baptism administered "in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier" is not valid. So I looked it up; it was decided in 2008. Liberal Christians who are afraid of words like Father and Son or masculine pronouns, have invented this.

Even the Pope gets edited and corrected

I was reading Joan's Blog from Rome (she comments on EWTN and Catholic radio) and noticed this comment, and realized that even the Pope gets edited.

"I remember one of the first times that Benedict XVI spoke off-the-cuff in a general audience. It was January 31, 2007. He had dedicated the general audience catechesis that day to, in his words, the “three of the most important companions of St. Paul in his missionary teaching of the Gospel: Barnabas, Silas and Apollos.”

In the column I wrote on that day’s general audience, I wrote: “Benedict XVI noted that there were differences, contrasts, between Paul and Barnabas at the start of the second missionary journey because Barnabas wanted John Mark as a companion, whereas Paul did not, and the two separated.

“Then, briefly putting his prepared speech, he said, in impromptu remarks, ‘Even between saints there are differences, lack of harmony, controversies. I find this very consoling because we see that saints don’t just ‘fall from heaven’. They are like us, with complicated problems. Holiness is not never having made a mistake or sinned. Holiness grows with the capacity for conversion, penitence, the willingness to start over, above all in the capacity for reconciliation and pardon’.”

As we watched the Pope on television, all of us in the press office were taking notes, recording, etc. I remember sitting with Daniela Simpson of AP that day (I was writing, she was recording) and when the Pope said those words, we just looked at each other, and commented, “Didn’t the Holy Father have a remarkable way with words when he ad-libbed!”

Not long afterwards, when the Holy See Press Office official bulletin came out, none of the off-the-cuff remarks could be found. We asked the director, Fr. Lombardi, what to do and he said we had an obligation to report what we saw and heard and had recorded. We also knew that Vatican Television (and anyone subscribing to CTV feed, like EWTN) would have the full story.

We later learned that staff in the Secretariat of State watch the papal audience each week and “clean up” his ad-libbed remarks – sometimes to make them “more grammatically correct,” at other times, to simple “better” or improve on the papal phrasing.

But there are two things wrong with that.

One, how can you “better” or improve on Pope Benedict’s off-the-cuff phrases?

Two, in changing the Pope’s words, you change what he said, you change the truth. In addition, you do an injustice to a brilliant theologian, thinker and speaker."

What to pay your church musicians

Check here for details.

WEDDINGS

Service fees are $100-$350 (service only)
Wedding rehearsal with bridal party is $50-$100/hour.
Additional rehearsals are $30-$50/hour.
The current, federally approved business standard mileage rate for reimbursement of business travel is charged if visits to church for practice, rehearsal, and service exceed 20 miles per round trip.
The charge for contracting singers/instrumentalists is $15-$35/person hired.

FUNERALS

Service fees are $100-$225 (service only)
Rehearsals $25-$100/hour, depending on the difficulty of the music and the participation of choirs, soloists, or instrumentalists.
The current, federally approved business standard mileage rate for reimbursement of business travel is charged if visits to church for practice, rehearsal, and service exceed 20 miles per round trip.
The charge for contracting singers/instrumentalists is $15-$35/person hired.

Thanks to our pastors at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church: Brodie Taphorn, Eric Waters, Buff Delcamp, Paul Ulring, Dave Mann, Dan Clark, Scott Ford, and David Drumel. We appreciate you.

Guest blogger Michael Levin on Zig Ziglar

The next-to-last time I saw Zig Ziglar, I was one of 17,000 in attendance at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, where he was speaking as part of a program of superstars, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Joe Montana. He was onstage accompanied by his daughter, Julie Ziglar Norman, because Zig had suffered a fall a couple of years before that and nobody wanted him to fall again, especially onstage, and especially in front of 17,000 people.

On April 15, 2011, I saw Zig again, this time for lunch, with his daughter Julie and his son Tom. From 17,000 down to four. If you love Zig Ziglar as I do, you can readily understand it was one of the greatest thrills of my life.

Zig Ziglar is one of the greatest motivators, authors, sales trainers, and inspiring figures the world has known. Millions have read his books and listened to his recordings, and they became, as a result, better salespeople, better spouses, better parents, better people. His mellifluous baritone echoes through the mind of anyone who has listened to him speak. His values harken back to a better world, where integrity was the watchword, where faith mattered, and where sales was a profession in search of a champion.

Zig was their champion. He grew up one of twelve children during the Depression, on a farm in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and his father passed away when he was five years old. By age six, Zig was earning his own money, and selling, mowing lawns. He used that money to buy his first suit, which he wore to church. By the time I met Zig face to face, he had been selling—lawn mowing services, pots and pans, sales training, personal development, and the ideas of his Holy Bible, for 79 years. “You must be married,” Zig said, as we were introduced. “I can tell by how nicely you’re dressed. Only a married man could dress that nicely.”

At lunch, Zig leaned over to me and said, quite seriously, “Never say anything negative about yourself.” It sounds so obvious, but we all do it all the time. If we don’t see ourselves as wondrously made, as Zig likes to quote from the Bible, who will?

I asked Zig what caused him to make the transition from sales training to motivational speaking. His son Tom explained that Zig studied the success of his students, and he realized that only 20 percent of it was due to technique. The other 80 percent was due to reputation and character. So that’s when Zig began to focus on those issues and not just talk about selling.

But don’t estimate old Zig on sales. He’s forgotten more about sales than most of us will ever know. One of his most enduring stories involves his son Tom, who at the time was contemplating a career as a professional golfer. Zig and Tom were playing a competitive round of golf and Tom needed a long putt to drop in order to win the hole. He made the putt, and then he asked his father, “Dad, were you rooting for me?”

As only Zig can say, in that honeyed Southern drawl, “Son, I’m always rooting for you.”

As massive as Zig’s audience was, the publishing industry didn’t think him worth a shot when he wrote the book I found many years later in that furniture store, See You At The Top. By then, Zig had been providing sales training to the Mary Kay Company. Mary Kay Ash was such a devotee of his, Tom told me at lunch, that she told Zig that if he were to self-publish the book, she would buy the first 10,000 copies. Those initial 10,000 sales mushroomed into millions upon millions of books, since Zig has now authored 26 books in all.

I had the extraordinary privilege of editing Zig’s last book Born To Win. I’ve edited or coached hundreds of writers, and it was an uncanny, almost out-of-body experience instead of quoting Zig to people, talking directly to Zig, and making suggestions—how dare I?—to improve his manuscript.

It means the world to me that I was able to meet him face to face at lunch with just him, his two grown children who work with him, and me, and tell him that he made me a better salesperson, a better husband, a better father, a better believer, and a better man.

As I headed out to drive to the airport, Zig took me by the hand and cautioned me to drive carefully.

“After all, most people are caused by accidents,” he warned, with mock solemnity.

New York Times best selling author and Shark Tank survivor Michael Levin runs www.BusinessGhost.com, and is a nationally acknowledged thought leader on the future of book publishing.

Observed at the coffee shop today

“What do you say!” she barked loudly to her small daughter who had just received her do-nut. “Thank you,” the little one meekly replied.

I know I did that to my kids too back in the 1970s, which is probably why I noticed (could hear myself) but gosh, it grates on my old ears now. It kind of smacks of “Everyone look at me, I’m teaching my kid good manners (by being rude to her in public).”

We had a lot of help becoming the crass, rude, it’s-all-about-me people we are today. Here’s my own assessment.

Prayer and Bible reading were taken out of schools incrementally, which removed any thought that there was an over arching system of justice or wisdom above Me. Today you can’t even pass out red and green M&Ms at a school “holiday party.”

A War on Poverty was launched which drove men out of their children’s lives and diminished respect for marriage, which in turn removed tacit authority of parents. A single mom making $29,000 a year, can boost her income to about $69,000 through government benefits like housing allowances, EITC, SNAP, etc.

Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) took the Catholic church in a different direction, with much misunderstanding and craziness, and the Protestants just followed along. Happy clappy songs and sloppy loopy teachings have replaced sound doctrine and good liturgy in all Christian denominations.

With falling standards among Christians in the 60s and 70s, divorce, contraception and abortion became the trinity of free and/or marital sex and shacking up. What’s the point of modeling good behavior?

Boomers came of age—got themselves into all sorts of messes, including war protests and Marxism. Resulted in a lot of them becoming academics and passing it along to Gen-Xers and Next-Gen. They became sappy grandparents with low to no standards.

That’s a lot to read into a rude parenting style, but words have consequences to the 3rd and 4th generation.