Dishonoring Parents

The church will soon find itself in the midst of a looming storm. This storm is a battle between generations; adult children versus parents. As a self-centered generation of baby boomers are faced with the "inconvenience" of caring for their parents, cultural clouds will darken. Read more about how lay leadership and pastors can prepare for the darkening sky in this article found at our sister site.

In Private

As Microsoft prepares to release their new Explorer 8, the benefits of the new "In Private" mode for searching stealthily through the online world are hinting to some morally distracting features.

"The feature, called InPrivate, has been dubbed in some blog postings as 'porn mode', because it also hides the browsing history from other people using the same computer." - newspaper article

Buried within the benefit of hiding one's presence from the ever lurking Google ad machinery, the new Explorer 8 release reminds us that the already cancerous impact of online porn will become even more difficult for parents, spouses and friends to discover. Morality will never be enforced by online screening tools, however, an early detection system can be helpful in fighting this growing moral plague.

Encourage your church leadership to stay ever vigilant in the battle for the mind. There are many lives at stake that depend on your insistence.

Connecting the Financial Dots of Divorce

The breakdown of marriage in America costs at least $112 billion a year, owing to costs of health care, criminal justice, welfare programs and lost income-tax revenue, according to a study released today.

"This study documents for the first time that divorce and unwed childbearing — besides being bad for children — are also costing taxpayers a ton of money," says David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values (IAV), one of four sponsors of today's study.
Even a small improvement in marriage rates — for example, a 1 percent reduction in the rate of "fragmented families" — would save more than $1 billion, Mr. Blankenhorn says.

The $112 billion — which is equivalent to the state budget for New York — stems from "increased taxpayer expenditures" for anti-poverty, criminal justice and education programs, and lower levels of taxes paid by people whose "adult productivity has been negatively affected by increased childhood poverty caused by family fragmentation," says Benjamin Scafidi, an economics professor at Georgia College & State University and principal investigator of the report. - Washington Times article

We have long known the "cost" of divorce is high, however, we have typically measured it as an emotional or spiritual cost. The IAV study validates a significant financial cost as well. The inter-related nature of spiritual, social and financial matters is a constant reminder of the intricate work of the Creator. Often labeled as "irrelevant" the teachings of the church have the opportunity to "connect the dots" for an increasingly "practical" society that is more concerned with polls and research than with personal convictions and inspired scripture. Be the bridge.