Monday, December 31, 2012
Keeping things in perspective
In 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes - one every 53 minutes - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2012.
In 2010, 211 children were killed in drunk driving crashes. Out of those 211 deaths, 131 (62 percent) were riding with the drunk driver. - (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2010: Alcohol Impaired Driving” Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2011.)
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash. - Blincoe, Lawrence, et al. “The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000.” Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002. NHTSA FARS data, 2011.
The Centers for Disease Control says 11,493 people died from gun homicides.
The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) seminal study of preventable medical errors estimated as many as 98,000 people die every year at a cost of $29 billion. If the Centers for Disease Control were to include preventable medical errors as a category, these conclusions would make it the sixth leading cause of death in America. [1]
We need to keep things in perspective. According to the above statistics; the same fervor by many in dealing with the supposed gun problem, should also be replicated in dealing with other issues. I wonder why there isn’t an outcry concerning alcohol and its ills. Not only does it cause deaths on the highway but it breaks up marriages, perpetrates spousal abuse, child abuse, lack of performance on the job, and so on. Shouldn’t cars be restricted or handed in as a result of being the instrument used in these deaths?
Why isn’t there an outcry concerning the medical problems of prescribing the wrong medications, misdiagnosis’s, blatant malpractice, etc, that one report had said could reach 200,000 deaths a year.
This statistic is the most disturbing of them all. In 2008, approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.29 million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S. (AGI).[2]
The following verses are relevant for these times in America.
Psalm 11:3 (KJV)
3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Psalm 9:17 (KJV)
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Fathers don't matter??
Below is an excerpt from the article “Fathers Disappear from
Households across America” published in the Washington Times.
“America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but
more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this, said Vincent
DiCaro, vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative: Deal with absent
fathers, and the rest follows.
People “look at a child in need, in poverty or failing in school,
and ask, ‘What can we do to help?’ But what we do is ask, ‘Why does that child
need help in the first place?’ And the answer is often it’s because [the child
lacks] a responsible and involved father,” he said.
The near-total absence of male role models has ripped a hole the
size of half the population in urban areas.”[1]
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes -- U.S. D.H.H.S.,
Bureau of the Census
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from
fatherless homes –Center for Disease Control
80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless
homes –
Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14, p. 403-26
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes --National
Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools
70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from
fatherless homes --U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report Sept., 1988
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home
--Fulton County Georgia jail populations & Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992
Translated, this means that children from a fatherless home are:
5 times more likely to commit suicide
32 times more likely to run away
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
14 times more likely to commit rape
9 times more likely to drop out of school
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances
9 times more likely to end up in a state operated
institution
20 times more likely to
end up in prison
The word “father” means source, sustainer (Isaiah 9:6 – Col.1:17), foundation (founding
fathers), and one who nourishes. The Greek πατήρ, patḗr,
from the root pa, "nourisher," "protector,"
"upholder") according to the International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia.
Whatever it produces, it sustains. Just producing
a child does not qualify a male for being a father, it is whether he sustains
what he’s produced…
The culture must return to the biblical order of
the family and start taking the covenant of marriage seriously again. When the
foundation of fatherhood is destroyed, then society crumbles.
[1]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/25/fathers-disappear-from-households-across-america/
Friday, December 21, 2012
Who Will Define Sexual Morality
People will say that it is none
of our business what two people do behind closed doors when arguing for the
right of same-sex marriage. The argument continues that it has no bearing on
heterosexual marital unions, and that it is a right, just like the plight of
racial equality. We must understand that there is an enormous difference
between race and sexual preference. There is no way to bring about a moral equivalence
between the two. We no longer divide people by the color of their skin by
putting placards over the doors of restrooms “black restroom” and “white
restroom” based on the fact that there is no difference. However, we do
separate the sexes in sporting events, bathrooms, clothing departments, and the
list goes on. We make this discrimination based upon the fact that the male and
female sexes are different, and these differences warrant different treatment
when it comes to clothing, restrooms, and sporting events. This argument is
making a comparison between apples and oranges.
There is a problem that bothers
me more than the arguments being made for or against these unions, and it is
the government redefining the bedrock of society. If marriage is being
redefined by our lawmakers that will now include the covenant of two people of
the same sex, then what will stop them by eventually redefining it to include 3
or 4 people as marriage, or make marriage a renewable contract on a yearly
basis? Once we remove these standards, then who are the people who make the new
ones? The bible was our compass and standard bearer. Once we remove God and his
standards of behavior, we then take it upon ourselves to redefine the order of
conduct we will live by. In other words, who will replace God in setting
society’s order for our future? Just things we need to think about!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Abortion Logic
Those who cry out in support of abortion will say
that it is the woman’s moral right to choose.
However, when we hear of a house that burns down and three out of four
of the family dies. Those same people will say, “what kind of a moral God could
take three lives like that?” Making the inference that God is immoral in his
decision who lives and dies. Yet, when a woman who supports "choice"
gets to play God with another person’s life in her womb, she has no problem on
choosing who lives and who don’t. We must understand that when a woman aborts a
child, she does not become unpregnant, but rather the mother of a dead child.
American society is too willing to sacrifice morals to preserve convenience. An
unborn child should not be considered as an option or an obstacle on the road
of convenience. I’m afraid that our selfishness has perverted our vision,
destroyed our morals, and has moved us beyond the banks of rational reasoning.
To prove my point, we need to look no further than the following scenario.
Scientists look diligently on Mars for any sign of life. If they found a single-cell
organism there, they would exclaim they have found life. However, these
same people can’t acknowledge that a child in the womb fits the same criteria.
Pray for America!
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