CHILDREN: SEXUAL COMMODITIES

Sarah Williams, lecturer at Regent College in Vancouver, reminded us several years ago that sexual liberation has normalized every sexual activity except rape and pedophilia. I have since commented that pedophilia will, by stages and with some limitations, also become acceptable.

Sexual permissiveness has spawned a vast increase of pornography, especially on the web and in particular promoting pedophilia and incest. This is driving an explosion of child abuse in real life, as illustrated by the following case of child abuse reported last week in Hamilton Ontario.

A 34-year-old Hamilton man is facing 40 sexual abuse-related charges. A mother’s boyfriend abused the seven-year-old daughter and made her available for abuse on Craigslist. Images of the seven-year-old were also distributed.

Investigators realized they were dealing with a network of people connected in arranging sexual abuse and distributing child pornography. To date, the investigation has executed 14 search warrants and 15 production orders, and has seized more than 100 electronic devices. 

This one example is only the tip of the iceberg. Hamilton police laid no charges for child pornography or child exploitation in 2005. By 2015, those numbers had risen to 42 for child pornography and peaked at 50 in 2014 for child violations.

Unfortunately, Hamilton is typical of what is happening throughout Ontario. Provincial police reported 358 Child pornography incidents in 2005, which rose to 1,292 in 2015. Child violations followed the trend, from 19 in 2005 to 894 in 2015.

We indicated previously, sexual pleasure is now a greater good than the welfare of the children produced by it, leading to the degrading of children as a commodity. This is the basis of abortion on demand, children without a parental legacy, but also the proliferation of children as sexual objects.

The normalization of sexual activities that were previously stigmatized gives tacit permission to practice other, still forbidden, sexual desires—and a greater cry for their recognition. Wide-open sexual permissiveness precludes ending the downward spiral from traditional marriage at some arbitrary point.

Studies consistently show low conflict families of two parents of opposite sex produce the mostly stable and secure children. We should expect this, as the
traditional family is the created means of human reproduction. Those children will be the future bedrock of a stable society. 

However, maintaining the traditional family concept in the current environment is not easy. We need to persevere in the Truth, to work at ensuring our children have the best upbringing we can give them, and stand up to the pressures currently bent on destroying the natural family order.

PS: Ann and Bryan are Showing the Truth Project in their home on Friday evenings. You are invited, call 403-328-3745.

AN UNLIKELY PRESIDENT?

Donald Trump has been cast aside as a possible president from the time he first made his bombastic appearance as a candidate, right through to Election Day. Even many in his own party opposed him as non-presidential material because of his highflying plans, questionable comments on current affairs, and insulting attacks on individuals and identifiable groups.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were the most disliked pair seeking the presidency in election memory. Democrats, politicians of various stripes, the media, and pollsters, favoured Hillary to win despite her record of deception and arrogance. While some democrats even voted for Trump, others voted for Hillary just to maintain a democratic presidency.

But some sound advice calls us to look beyond the person to the policies they espouse, and especially those who are behind them, supporting or even driving their agendas. On this basis, many Christian leaders championed Trump, while frequently voicing their dislike of him.

Christian commentators have paralleled Trump as the 45^th president of the United States with Isaiah 45. This amazing passage reveals God’s anointing of Cyrus, a heathen king, to restore Israel from exile back to their land. Especially noteworthy are verses 4–5 (my emphasis).
 

I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

Whether Donald Trump is currently a Christian or not is beside the point. He is sympathetic to the Christian cause as Cyrus was to the Jews in exile. Let’s remember that God is omnipotent, and works in mysterious ways—even causing the election of an unlikely president.

So, you may ask, what has this to do with a blog dedicated to one man, one woman marriage? The so-called “progressive” parties—the Democratic Party, and the liberal and NDP parties in Canada—are forcefully pursuing gender mainstreaming, which if successful, is designed to destroy heterosexual marriage and enshrine abortion.

Of course, gender mainstreaming is only one plank in globalization. The overriding goal is for a world order of interconnected nations. The European Union is an example of this pattern: a central governing body that sets the laws of member nations, and in so doing, increasingly reduces nationalism. This was the basic reason for brexit: a loss of British sovereignty.

This anti nationalist rule from Brussels is pressuring the transgender program on member nations. This is also becoming front and centre in North America. A similar reaction to that in the US may yet appear against left leaning “progressive” governments in Canada.

May God bless the Dominion of Canada.

FAMILY: MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE

Why is the traditional one woman, one man family so important?  Many reasons come to mind: It is the basis of a stable society; it is necessary for the nurture of children; it is the testing ground for friendship. We can readily determine other reasons why this family should endure. 

But the primary reason is that the nuclear, one woman, one man, family is a reflection of God Himself. Other patterns of family, particularly those put forth as part of the gender-mainstreaming lobby, are a lie about God, artificial fabrications that cannot last. 

The family mirrors the the Trinity, embedded in the fabric of creation. The following is adapted from our book, Happy Together: Daily Insight for Families from Scripture.

Scripture shows all three Persons of the Trinity existed and were present at creation, Genesis 1:1–4 and John 1:1–5. Thus we find evidence of the Trinity in the world we inhabit. For instance, there are three dimensions: length, width, and height. Matter has three forms, solid, liquid and gas, consider water: ice, and steam. Even time—part of creation—is divided into past, present, and future.

 

 The Trinity is also evident in us: body, mind, and spirit, and we determine our actions by intellect, emotions, and will. 

But male and female becoming one flesh, Genesis 2:23–24, implies a married couple are equal to Adam and Eve, made from the same lump of clay. They, together with the child—one or more, also part of that same flesh, mimics the Trinitarian God. Of course all analogies are limited. The roles of 

human family members are only similar to the Trinity; nor does human sin exist within the Trinity.

Family relationships find their meaning in the fundamental relationship of God himself—one of love and cooperation within the Trinity, so the idea of God in relationship within the Trinity prefigures the dependence we have on relationship with others. We need another person to reproduce children, and for the ongoing heritage of wider family companionship.

A stable family expresses itself in support for others outside the family, as God expressed His love for humankind by His sacrifice for those he created. Without these qualities, relationship is no longer companionship but simply a convenience. A disgruntled wife expressed this by complaining: “living with my husband is more like having a room-mate!”

To disparage the family is to dishonour the God who created it to reflect His own nature.
 

Check Happy Together with our other publications at www.pebblepress.ca.