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Dr. Ralph Kerr with the “Teaching and Learning Institute” is discussing this week…
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Dark are the days ahead… What are Christians supposed to do?
Bible Verses: Ecclesiastes 1:9, Genesis 6:5, Jonah 1, Genesis 18, Romans 12:21, Matthew 5:38, 1st Peter 2:12, Philippians 2:15.
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Family Life’s “Capital Connection“
PA House Bills Infringe on Religious Freedom / Pregnancy Care Centers subject to Discrimination / A Rocky Rollout to Marijuana Inc.
Christian Watchdogs Jason McGuire and Michael Geer work everyday to preserve faith and freedom in the public square. They’re also talking about it on the radio. Here’s what’s happening this week in Albany and Harrisburg.
For their voters guides, banquet information, position papers, issues updates and banquet information:
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The so-called “Cancel Culture” seeks to silence divergent voices, and among those who are being squeezed are today’s humorists.
Comedy outlets — from television shows to magazines to stand-up clubs to websites — are facing increasing pressure to “toe the line” drawn by the “powers that be”.
One proponent of free speech is the leader of the satirical humor website The Babylon Bee. CEO Seth Dillon talks about political speech, social commentary, and the context of public dialogue in our culture. In this special Family Life Interview, Dillon tells about how The Bee was booted off of what was then called Twitter, after it posted a joke about a White House advisor.
Dillon talks about:
Seth Dillon says his experience with deplatforming and censorship has placed him on the front lines of the battle for free speech in the public square. In addition to owning and writing for The Bee, Dillon travels the country to speak at conferences and college campuses about the effectiveness of humor, the “moral imperative of mockery”, and the dangers of silencing competing voices. Some of his videos are posted here. The website started as a Christian satire e-publication.
Dillon is in Pennsylvania next week to speak at the “Friends of the Family” Banquet of the Pennsylvania Family Institute. His presentation is Monday, November 6, at Hershey.
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We develop our way of looking at the world—our worldview—before we turn 13.
Remarkably, new research finds that fewer than one in ten parents think through how to guide their children spiritually during those critical years.
Dr. George Barna directs the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University and includes these findings in his new book Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind and Soul. “Everybody has a worldview. You need a worldview to get through the day,” Barna says. “So children are going to develop a worldview whether their parents are involved in it or not. That is a vacuum that has to be filled.”
If parents don’t work toward developing their children’s spiritual life, other worldviews will fill that void. “Without their parents being there to help guide them, they’re just doing the best they can to make sense of it all.” Barna offers ways to help parents to live out their roles as disciple-makers. “The first of those is to recognize that God gave them these children to raise up to be disciples,” he says. So it’s important to be intentional and not outsource this critical part of parenting.
“They have to have not only a commitment, but a plan to take in these children during those formative 12 years, and do everything they can to lead them down the right path.” That begins by knowing what beliefs you as a parent want your children to embrace. “Why? Because we do what we believe. In essence, your worldview is based on your beliefs, that then gets translated into behavior,” he says.
“The only way that you can be Christlike is to think like Jesus so that you can live like Jesus.”
Children see when stated beliefs are not reflected in behavior. “Kids don’t trust their parents anymore because their parents say one thing and do another. You want to get to your kids? Model the beliefs that you’re trying to teach them. When they see you live it out, then they’re going to say, ‘Okay, I see it. It works. My parents believe it. I’m going to run with it.’”
Underlying all of this, Dr. George Barna recommends that Christian parents bear in mind the context of all of their parenting. “Parenting is a vital battle in the spiritual war in which we live,” he says. “We have to be aware of the nature of that battle if we’re going to fight it well.”
Follow-up links for more information and inspiration:
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Riley Gaines has been one of the prominent speakers on issues of trans-gender inclusion in women’s sports. The University of Kentucky graduate put her grad school and future dental career on hold, and now travels the country to advocate for women’s sports. She tells Family Life’s Greg Gillispie that her message is not about personal attacks on people who transition to the opposite gender. Rather, she is standing up for safety, dignity and fairness among women and girls — be that in single-sex locker rooms, athletic competition, and dangers when stronger trans athletes share the arena with women. Her advocacy extended beyond sports. She is concerned about men who swap genders going into women’s prisons, safety and decorum in public restrooms, and the lack of truth expressed as this debate roars along.
In this Family Life interview, she also previews her upcoming presentation at Hershey, Pennsylvania, on November 6 (well over 1,000 people are expected to attend). She talks about how her Christian faith has strengthened her calling. She tells how her identity from the Lord helped her face the opposition, cancellations and even a few confrontations she has experienced from those who hold other views.
Riley Gaines Barker won five SEC swimming titles and has been named an All-American 12 times. At a 2022 NCAA Championship, she tied (down to the exact 1/100th of a second) with swimmer Lia Thomas who was born male, and who shared a locker room with born-female athletes. Thomas was awarded that trophy, despite the tie, because a meet official saw the occasion as an opportunity to support trans athletes succeeding in women’s competitions.
She has testified at the U.S. House and Senate, speaks to college audiences and state legislatures, and is a frequent guest on national and local media outlets. She also started a podcast on women’s rights, sports, and faith. Riley Gaines commends to her supporters this report on Single-Sex Competition in American Sports in our time.
For information (and tickets availability) for her keynote speech at the Pennsylvania Family Institute’s Annual Banquet on Monday, November 6, go to PAFamily.org
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There’s a lot going on in our schools these days. Christian education watchdog Ralph Kerr does a “deep dive” into all of it on Family Life’s “Issues in Education” news feature.
Dr. Ralph Kerr is a former teacher, school district administrator, and current President of the Teaching and Learning Institute. Dr. Kerr is a guest on the Family Life Noon Report most Mondays. Those interviews also are available for listening, subscribing and downloading on FamilyLife.org
