Incomplete archive of recent columns by Ellen Makkai 

 

Get Naked, the ACLU is on your side!

(May 5, 2009) 

The ever-vigilant ACLU, notorious for defending indefensible fringe behaviors, has a new cause célèbre--public nudity. 

Last time I checked, my common sense said public nudity is not normal or practical. 

This latest ACLU lunacy stems from last year’s Halloween high jinks on the part of “Naked Pumpkin Runners,” 12 Boulder, CO pranksters running around nude with nothing but pumpkins on their heads. The pumpkin clad streakers were ticketed for indecent exposure. Due to the Colorado’s strict sex offender laws, these bare-bottom trotters could have landed on the state sex offender registry and been lumped together with bona-fide scumbags guilty of criminally obscene activity. 

Eleven of the 12 prancing pumpkins pled guilty to a lesser crime and pumpkin #12 beat the wrap altogether. 

Last week the Boulder chapter of the ACLU held a forum, “Naked in Boulder.” They hope to tweak the sex offender law and protect streakers, naked bike riders, protesters, etc. from the more serious criminal sex offender designation.  

But according to Boulder’s newspaper, The Daily Camera, the opportunistic Boulder ACLU is maxing out the streaker issue by lobbying to “protect nudity as a constitutionally sheltered freedom of expression.” 

Strange, I don’t recall “public nudity” in my eighth-grade civics class during discussion of our Constitutional freedoms of expression. 

“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

Nope, no nudity mentioned there. Probably because our founding fathers never imagined its citizen elites would rally around public nudity as a civil right. 

This newly suggested constitutional right defies logic. Even uninhibited three year-olds recognize propriety; they break into giggles, displaying a healthy embarrassment, when another tot cavorts in the raw. 

In contrast, many nudies convince themselves that they are progressively beyond us repressed, uptight prudes who don’t want to display our pimples, dimples and privates. Those of us who prefer apparel in public, are classified as “clothing-compulsive, nudo-phobes” by unclad libertines. 

The Naturist Society already considers public nudity a civil liberty asking members to “join in our struggle to preserve public land for nude use.” 

“We work for clothing-optionality, body acceptance, self-expression, civil liberties…” says the angry Senior Unlimited Nudes with brain-bending rhetoric. “We struggle against prudery, shame and censorship...” 

Even some Christians have been seduced to strip and gambol about sans clothes. They salad-bar the Bible by selecting some scriptures while ignoring others. The Naturist-Christians Organization equates clothing with shame, saying, “We all share… a common desire to live a shame free life--naked and unashamed, as our Creator, who formed us in His own image, intended for us.” 

Interesting twist. 

If the Almighty intended for us to walk around starkers why did He clothe formerly leafless Adam and Eve, post-Eden, once their innate modesty kicked in? And once Jesus delivered the naked demon-possessed wretch from his torment, clothing represented his return to sanity and society. 

Ironically, the same time “Naked In Boulder” promoted liaise faire laws for streakers and fellow birthday-suit aficionados, public nudity was banned in high Alpine hamlet Appenzell Outer Rhodes in Switzerland –that’s Europe, folks, where public nude bathing is practically de rigueur. 

The Associated Press reports that Appenzellers were fed up with buck-naked freedom of expression. Voters “passed legislation banning naked hiking after dozens of mostly German nudists started rambling through their picturesque region… citizens objected to encountering walkers wearing nothing but hiking boots and socks.”  

The ACLU also has a tough uphill hike if it hopes to secure constitutionally protected status for public nudity. Acknowledged or not, our sensible Creator mercifully hardwired us humans with inhibitions as a protective measure. Most of us prefer a dignified modesty for ourselves, and don’t want to be subjected to others’ bare bodies. 

But what can you do? There will always be those rebellious humanoid specimens who override their sophisticated divine circuitry and run around naked with nothing but pumpkins on their heads.

 

Obama schmoozes his pro-life prey 

(May 25, 2009)

Give the guy credit; he knows how to knead an audience. 

This past Sunday, Mr. Obama sashayed though a brilliant speech with customary grace at Notre Dame University’s graduation. It belied the big stink surrounding his visit to a severely compromised academic institution. 

Pro-life legions were stunned when Catholic Notre Dame invited the abortion-on-demand president to deliver the commencement address.  The Fifth Commandment of the Catholic catechism reads, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” 

Adding fuel to the inferno, unprincipled administrators bestowed on Obama an honorary law degree. Not one of moral law, I suppose. Catholic champions routinely condemn the bloody procedure that suctions, scrapes and dismembers unborn children. 

But forgive me, Mr. Obama, you requested that we excise explicit abortion vocabulary in favor of civility. Instead you prefer “open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words.” 

So what fair-minded words should we substitute when describing mutilated legs, arms, skulls and torsos? Perhaps, “components disconnected from the central processing unit” would suit you more, Sir. Better yet, Planned Parenthood’s phraseology is more palatable to your homogenized preferences. 

“Empty the uterus” replaces the blunt-force “abortion.” 

Our grandiloquent president suggests that the abortion dispute “discover at least the possibility of common ground.” Common ground implies agreement, an absurdity when faced with the slaughter of innocents. 

But for argument’s sake and in keeping with Notre Dame’s mission statement (“The University is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake.”), let’s ground-zero with truth. 

The Encyclopedia Britannica, National Right to Life, Alan Guttmacher Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Parent.com provide data for our righteous quest. 

Truth: The single-cell zygote, formed at conception, is a living organism containing all human chromosomes that determines sex, skin and hair color, etc.  Agreed? 

Truth: By day-22, the heart beats in our living organism. The backbone, nervous system, liver and kidneys are forming. By week-five, eyes, legs and hands begin developing and during week-six the mouth, lips, eyelids and nose are seen. Brain waves are detectable. Agreed? 

By week-nine most internal organs are in place. Fingerprints appear and the fetus (Latin: “young one”) begins to hear. Truth: In week-nine 61.3% of all abortions occur. 

By 17 weeks this life form can urinate, grasp objects, experience pain, dream and suck its thumb. Its heart already pumps 25 quarts of blood a day. By week-20, when partial birth abortions are first performed (a procedure Obama voted twice to protect), our “young one” recognizes its mother’s voice. 

Obama said we must “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion.” Just days after inauguration, he removed conscience clause protections for health care providers, potentially forcing abortion participation or job termination. 

“Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another to understand that we all seek…the same fulfillment of a life well lived,” he said. 

Talk is cheap and thousands cheered Obama’s dazzling oratory. 

Meanwhile, a small, noble coterie shunned Notre Dame’s disgrace. In protest, Harvard Law professor, Mary Ann Glendon, declined Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, which honors an exemplary Catholic layperson. Several principled graduates and parents held a mini-commencement elsewhere. 

I doubt we are still in agreement, Mr. President; abortion truth bursts the perimeter of your hypothetical “common ground.” You, Sir, seduce with the same “fair-minded words” and deceptive rhetoric that in 1973 effectively dehumanized our children and allowed the slaughter of over 50 million. 

Either you are ignorant of the truth, or would conceal it. In which case you are no better than a stylishly handsome, silver-tongued devil. 

 

Homosexuality hoodwinks the clergy

Many members of the clergy must be using the Bible like the old Sears catalogue--for toilet paper--because they obviously don’t read it. 

Last week, another once-great church succumbed to the relentless, media-savvy campaign of determined homosexuality. “Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted to lift the ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers,” reports the Associated Press. 

In July, the Episcopal House of Bishops and laity approved liturgies for same-sex couples and endorsed the right to elect gay bishops. Lutherans and Episcopalians join other denominational giants, Unitarians, Presbyterians and United Methodists, in their reckless moral compromise. 

All failed to do their homework on homosexuality, a lifestyle that can only be described as sexual and spiritual quicksand. 

This ecumenical green light, masquerading as enlightened sensitivity, is a hate crime of colossal proportions. It endangers those captured by a stubborn and perplexing sexual predilection, and reinforces the lie that all is well with their souls. 

“When God is alleged to sanction the abominable, a religious travesty is being played out, and boldly. The travesty is twofold. Not only are believers falling into homosexual sin and legitimizing it but uninformed heterosexual Christians are applauding them as they do!” writes ex-gay rights activist, Joe Dallas in his book, “The Gay Gospel?” 

“The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God, as are all of us,” purrs the Rev. Leslie Williamson of Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill. 

True, there are same-sex pairs who live in loving concert. But most do not. Domestic violence “is widespread among both gay and lesbian couples,” write Tod W. Burke and Stephen S. Owen, Professors of Criminal Justice at Radford University, in their paper “Same-sex domestic violence: is anyone listening?” 

As to Williamson’s claim of “faithfulness,” in the classic “Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women,” authors A. P. Bell and M. S. Weinberg, discovered that promiscuity is epidemic throughout the gay community. 

And Reverend Williamson, what “word of God” is proclaimed by homosexual sex? Not the Word heralded by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus. 

There are reasons why homosexuality is so thoroughly condemned in Scripture. A quick statistical scan of drug and alcohol addiction, violence, suicide, self-harm and disease rates among homosexuals should convince even the dimmest intellect that God’s stark condemnation is a cautionary paternal edict. 

“Sexual relationships between members of the same sex expose gays, lesbians and bisexuals to extreme risks of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), physical injuries, mental disorders and even a shortened life span,” writes internist Dr. John R. Diggs, Jr. in his report “The Health Risk of Gay Sex.” 

Tim Mumm, a gay Lutheran assembly delegate, dismisses Biblical admonitions as “written by mortals.” His outlook is no doubt promulgated by spiritually anemic pastors, priests and rabbis, who themselves discount Scripture and soft-pedal its bold commands. Their disregard reflects a shared ignorance of the text’s unique mystical properties long pondered by readers. 

 “Every passage, every word, every number…is there for a specific reason. A skillful design pervades the whole,” says Chuck Missler, Annapolis alum, engineer and former corporate CEO. Missler, an expert in applied mathematics, advanced statistics and information sciences, adds, “The Bible is an integrated message system from outside our dimensions of space and time.” 

To validate homosexual sex, laissez-faire laity and clergy must invalidate the Bible’s claim to be “God-Breathed and… useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Or as Dostoyevsky says in his parable, “The Grand Inquisitor” (from “The Brothers Karamazov”), “If there is no God, all things are permissible.” 

Is it any wonder that congregants, spiritually in sync with the Almighty, abandon these apostate churches? 

There is bad news and Good News for gays. Bad news: homosexuality remains an abomination to our Father. The Good News: He provides a way of escape. Through godly counsel coupled with divine intervention and healing, there is a path out for those who yearn to live in the truth. 

Religious leaders would be wise to revisit their error. God does not suffer fools well. He will hold accountable those in authority who lead their flocks over the edge.

 

Unemployed? Swallow your pride and get to work!

(WorldNetDaily, July 25, 2009) 

Unemployment is tickling 10%. The once muscular American economy is beginning to buckle under the increasing threat of exorbitant government boondoggles.

Anyone who looks to Obama’s latest scheme to “save and create jobs” has a screw loose. 

Until we can dump this fiscally brash socialist and his congressional drones it’s up to us individually to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. Great Depression veterans know that the woe-is-me mode won’t cut it during unemployment. Swallow your pride and get going. 

The optimum word here is “hustle.” 

Our personal economic predicament is two-fold. First, we may go broke and land on the skids. Second, aside from economic strife, we are vulnerable to boredom and mischief when unemployed. “Idle hands are the devil’s tools.” 

Ancient Israel’s champion David succumbed to idleness when he shirked his kingly duties. While lollygagging on his rooftop terrace he spied a bathing Bathsheba. The result was adultery, murder and the eventual split of his magnificent kingdom. 

Work insulates us from all manner of ills. 

Ingenuity is a must, especially now that assumed vocational fields or income levels are temporarily unattainable. Skip career building for the next three years and five months of Obama’s pecuniary recklessness. Our goal isn’t prestige; it’s solvency.

There is no less dignity in honest pay for honest work, no matter how humble."You can't live in toys, or eat toys," says eleven year-old Zach McGuire of Ohio who is selling his toys to raise money for his family. "Even though they are fun, you don't need them."

Years ago, during Denver’s oil industry bust, focus groups became our family cash cows. My kids and I sampled pizza, beans, napkins, cereal, soda pop, cheese and virtual-reality games. My under-worked and rarely-paid lawyer husband was enlisted to test vodka and cameras. It kept us in groceries . 

If you suffer an unintended sabbatical, may I suggest some prospects I found while trolling through job-search sites? Chin up; jobs are waiting. 

It pays to be fat. A Dothan, Alabama study group will pay 17 tubbies to test weight-loss products. A Port Arthur, Texas enterprise will pay $1450 for two weeks of feedback on their weight-loss goods. Both are win-win deals; your newly svelte silhouette will undoubtedly boost job prospects in our thin-is-in culture. 

This ad for sewing skills appeared on the Biloxi, Mississippi Craig’s List: “I have a picture of the costume…I will pay well for quality. The dog is about 18 pounds, so you know about what size this [costume] will be. It is a scuba outfit.”  What? 

A fellow in Thief River Falls, Minnesota needs someone to straighten his listing barn. A Zionsville, Indiana hair-fashion show seeks models willing to allow a hair cut and style at $125 a head. A gal in Williamsport, Pennsylvania is “looking for a couple of tough guys…to take care of a job for me…Need a no nonsense, no bull***t bodyguard type.” A Portland, Maine club wants a tattoo artist to airbrush its go-go dancers. 

And if you’re a Sarah Palin friend or foe, an Alaskan jobsite reads: “West coast publication in California seeks a part-time writer to cover political events in Alaska.” 

Perhaps you need a getaway to ease the angst, but with no job you haven’t the dough. Here’s a combined employment and vacation freebee. Life’s Edge Productions seeks “Dysfunctional Families” to vacation together for a new reality series. It may be dicey but the perks are great. The gig keeps you and your unbearably obnoxious relatives fed, housed and entertained in a premium resort.  

If your family displays suitable volatility, fame might throw future cash your way. 

Creative employment wasn’t projected when we graduated from high school, trade school or MIT. But it makes for a colorful résumé, self-respect and survival. 

And someday hence, when dandling grandkids on your knee, it won’t be your stable life of investment banking that sparks their interest. What they’ll beg to hear about is this lean and hungry interlude when Gramps (or Granny) drove the ice rink Zamboni, cleaned zoo cages, taste-tested hot sauce and taught bungee jumping. 

Yep, paychecks are out there waiting.

 

Drop the apron, lady, you’re under arrest!

(WorldNetDaily April 20, 2009) 

I confess; I am a domestic right-wing extremist. As I read the Law Enforcement Sensitive Information (LES) from the Department of Homeland Security, I realized that the innocuous white van parked across the street isn’t the milkman. 

Superficially, my family fits the DHS domestic terrorist profile--not the sleeper-cell Islamic extremists, but the target-shooting, Bible-toting, baby-loving, troop-cheering, tax-paying, God and country types. 

A quick scan of the document makes us likely surveillance candidates. DHS provides law enforcement with a handy checklist. 

“Domestic rightwing extremists have feared…a cataclysmic economic collapse of the United States.” Check! I’m steamed about our enormous national debt, the lard-laden non-stimulus bill, impending tax increases and my family’s dim economic outlook. 

“Weapons rights and gun-control legislation are likely to be hotly contested subjects (George Mason and Patrick Henry would be proud)…many rightwing extremists perceive recent gun control legislation as a threat to their right to bear arms…” Check! Our nephew, the gunsmith, recently stopped by, sporting a nifty Ruger Redhawk .44 Magnum. When he moved here, his munitions briefly camped out in our guest room. Seven handguns, rifles and shotguns, and 3000 rounds of ammo were stacked against the ruffled bed skirt. 

“Fear of Communist regimes” Check! A cousin knows something about the tyrannical Communist threat. Fidel Castro nationalized her family’s plantation while she studied in the U.S. Her parents huddled atop a boxcar for three weeks before escaping Cuba. They landed here with more than most refugees. They smuggled out nine dimes. 

“Rightwing extremists have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action” Check! My Hungarian mother-in-law is thoroughly miffed that illegals choke schools and emergency rooms, spike crime stats, hatch anchor-babies and line-jump over legal immigrants who wait years. In 1905, her mother arrived alone at age 15, navigated Ellis Island and worked feverishly in factories until finally earning citizenship. 

“Rightwing extremist views bemoan the decline of U.S. stature” Check! What was Mr. Obama doing, bowing to Saudi King Abdullah, a repressive potentate who routinely trounces basic human rights? 

“Rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veteran” Check! I have an Army nephew, a Navy niece, a retired-Navy parent, a deployed-Navy brother in-law. Another camouflage-covered nephew is positioning himself for a military academy. 

“the Internet…has given domestic extremists greater access to information related to bomb-making” Check! My husband crossed the Wyoming border with explosive contraband on July 3, 1985. He left a mini-crater in our suburban street when illegal fireworks took a bizarre circuitous route before heading skyward. 

“Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration” Check! My extreme antagonism feeds off Obama’s abhorrent socialist agenda along with his flagrant hypocrisy. Examples from my checklist:   

“I am in favor of limits on late-term abortions,” candidate Obama said to Pastor Rick Warren. Using a convoluted excuse, he voted as an Illinois Senator against SB 230, a ban on partial-birth abortions. He was the lone vote against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which protected babies who inconveniently survived abortion. Obama’s candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, close crony of notorious partial-birth abortionist, George Tiller. 

“Let’s make clear what the facts are; I am a Christian,” he stated during a presidential debate. Last week, the small engraved letters IHS (symbolizing the name of Jesus) above the dais at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall, were covered by black painted plywood as per White House request before the president spoke. Consequently, IHS, along with "Ad majorem Dei gloriam"—"To the greater glory of God," disappeared. 

“…we’re the party that will guarantee every American an affordable, world-class, life-long, top-notch education,” said 2006 Obama. The Wall Street Journal reports that his Department of Education, always in obeisance to anti-voucher teachers’ unions, issued a gag order on a study that revealed great academic improvement among voucher children compared to poorer showings among those without vouchers. Obama only supports more dough to prop up our non-innovative and failing public school system. Sorry, kids. 

Come to think of it, my family should alarm Obama’s domestic surveillance team. The man is a compulsive and cutthroat political candidate. And we just could be among the tea-partying confederates who vote him and his highfalutin congress out of office--denying Mr. Obama a second term, the last political prize left to win. 

 

Recession’s unexpected casualty: divorce? 

WND  (April 14, 2009) 

Though numbskull congressional spendthrifts are throwing our money at everything these days, divorce is one institution that’s losing out. “Two can live cheaper than one” seems to be an upbeat offshoot of the present-day recession. 

“In these tough times many people are finding it's cheaper to stay together, even when they can't stand each other,” writes Marty Orgel for MarketWatch. “Circuit courts across the country report downturns in the number of divorce and separation filings.” 

With a tip of the oven mitt to home-making maven, Martha Stewart, “That is a very good thing.” 

Let’s hope that when happy days are here again those slumping divorce rates continue downward. In spite of the anti-marriage rhetoric of cantankerous hardcore feminists, marriage greatly benefits spouses, children, and society in general. A myriad of studies reveal that marriage better protects individuals from alcoholism, illness, suicide, accidents and murder. 

As to women specifically, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that married women enjoy greater personal safety, educational opportunities, have more creative outlets, sexual fulfillment and social connectedness. 

And married men need to quit with their proverbial ball-and-chain jokes.   

“Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord,” said Israel’s King Solomon. DHHS echoes Solomon with its research, finding that marriage lengthens men’s lives, improves their health, provides more frequent and satisfying sex. They have “increased employment stability,” stronger relationships with their kids and are less likely to contract those rude STDs or land in the drunk tank. 

Kids with married parents tend to be more socially and academically successful, say Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher in their book “The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.” These children are at vastly decreased risk of abuse, drug use, mental illness, criminal behavior, pre-marital sex and pregnancy. 

U.S. Bureau of the Census (2006) found that children in two-parent households are also less likely to experience poverty. “In the U.S., nearly 60% of the children from single-parent households live in poverty, as compared to only 11% of children from two-parent families.” The 2010 census will undoubtedly and unfortunately find more of a spike in the negatives for singly parented children. 

The often-used divorce myth--that children benefit if their incompatible parents split—doesn’t hold up. 

“In lower-conflict marriage…and as many as two-thirds of divorces are of this type, the situation of the children can be made much worse following a divorce. These children benefit if parents can stay together and work out their problems rather than get a divorce,” write Paul R. Amato and Alan Booth, in their book, “A Generation at Risk.” 

And who knows? Separate sleepers who fight for their marriage could very well end up back in the same bed. Linda Waite discovered in further research that 86% of unhappily married pairs who stuck with it were happier when re-interviewed five years hence. Sixty percent rated their unions as either “very happy” or “quite happy.” 

This recession is being wrongly compared to the Great Depression. Economic stats don’t support that claim. But one striking similarity can’t be ignored. Families then and now realize that it is cost-effective for spouses to tough it out together. 

A popular Depression-era ditty took that truth one step further by encouraging courtship. It sang in part, once together now…

“Potatoes are cheaper, tomatoes are cheaper

Now's the time to fall in love…

You'll find in some kind o' trouble

You're better off double

Now's the time to fall in love”

 

Sin Targets Colorado 

WorldNetDaily.com (March 3, 2009) 

Saints preserve us! We in Colorado have a new conversational no-no--another s-word. And it’s not an updated colloquialism for poop. If you want to toss a verbal hand grenade, the incendiary word-du-jour is “sin.” 

In 1973 George Carlin’s hilarious 12-minute monologue, “Filthy Words,” caused the FCC to quibble over “indecent but not obscene” speech. This year the Academy Awards crew was relieved that Mickey Rourke lost the Oscar race because of his penchant for dropping the F-bomb in his acceptance remarks. 

But this week “sin” looks to be the latest hot-button projectile. 

Colorado Republican State Senator Scott Renfroe caused indignant hysterics recently during a debate over extending health-care benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.  Renfroe had the cheek to call homosexuality “sin.” 

“We are taking sins and making them to be legally OK and that is wrong,” he said. Then, to add insult to insult, he quoted Leviticus 20:13, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death…” 

Fortunately, we live on the right side of the Cross, where repentance and forgiveness--not a death sentence—reign. But in this blindly progressive age, is it a cheap shot to call sodomy “sin?” Apparently yes. 

“These outrageously offensive comments warrant condemnation by all fair-minded people and should be ignored by the Colorado legislature…” says gay activist, Joe Solmonese, president of the euphemistically named Human Rights Campaign. 

Another Coloradoan, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, is getting pasted by bloggers also this week for his sin stance. He readily condemns the priest sex-abuse as “abhorrent,” but it’s his well-known confrontational posture toward abortion-as-sin that makes antagonistic bloggers especially crazy. 

 “We sin if we support candidates because they support a false right to abortion,” Chaput writes in his recent book, “Render Unto Caesar” 

In a February 23^rd speech at St. Basil’s Church on the University of Toronto campus, Chaput reiterated that position in reference to the messianic adulation of President Obama. “They [voters] gave nobody a mandate to retool American culture on the issues of marriage, and the family, sexuality, bioethics, religion in public life and abortion,” he said. 

Reaction flew through the blogosphere like a battleaxe. 

“Chaput is just another person who still bases his life on ‘fairy tales’ and 2000 year old myths, dresses up like Liberace complete with a phallic shaped hat on Sundays,” countered blogster “JMH.” 

“Sin is not a popular word (or idea) in a secular society.  A world that values diversity, inclusivism, and a non-judgmental spirit finds the word sin offensive,” says United Methodist Rev. Riley B. Case. 

During my promiscuous college days in the free-sex 60s, before I became a God-groupie, I smirked at an obnoxiously virginal freshman when she innocently asked if sex before marriage was a sin. 

“Get with it,” I chortled. “The word sin is archaic, outmoded. We’re beyond that.” 

And speaking of “promiscuity,” another volatile salvo, by the way, Colorado State Senator, Dave Shultheis was lambasted when he linked HIV-AIDS to promiscuous behavior. Oops. 

“What are they doing over there?” asked State Rep. Marsha Looper in reference to the senate sin flap. “I find their comments to be inappropriate and offensive…” 

It’s too bad George Carlin is gone. There is a whole new arsenal of filthy words he could fire at us. Modesty, justice, fidelity, righteousness and purity are just a few of the repugnant words at the ready to bombard the public. 

But for optimum response, load up your oratorical cannon with sin. It’s the uncontested, absolute worst. 

Reality TV fast becoming a blood sport

June 8, 2009

 If Reality TV degenerates at its current pace, families will soon tune in to a trendy new show, “You Bet Your Life.” But it won’t be a Groucho Marx game show re-run. Over TV dinners we’ll be watching some poor soul competitively killed--not a digitized cartoon, mind you, but gladiator-style and for real. 

We 21^st Century sophisticates fancy ourselves more civilized than the Roman hoards who packed arenas and roared their approval with every bloody collapse. But today’s Reality TV revenues disagree. The more perverse the program, the higher the viewership. 

"The show's ratings have grown consistently, as there has been interest in these real-life issues of this real-life family,” says cable network TLC about Reality TV’s latest calamity, “Jon and Kate Plus Eight.” 

The series chronicles the frantic life of the Gosselin parents, twins and sextuplets. After a promising 2005 start, the hit show spiraled downward amidst charges of adultery, greed, and child exploitation. 

Time to cancel? No Sir, bring it on! The Memorial Day season premier outranked every other broadcast network program thanks to promotional spots hinting at a televised marital collapse. 

Alan Funt gave us an early taste of unscripted TV in his popular prank-filled “Candid Camera,” a show that “"caught people in the act of being themselves." Popular peep-show, “The Newly-wed Game,” prompted young marrieds to titter about newly discovered intimacies. 

Incrementally, talk shows slid from high-brow chat featuring newsmakers and celebrities to ordinary folks peeling the skin off their lives. Dr. Phil recently yakked it up with “Teens pretending to be bisexual.” Jerry Springer’s chair-pitching, clothes-ripping combatants routinely bring audiences to their feet with Roman coliseum enthusiasm. As punches and teeth fly the applause reaches deafening decibel levels. 

The Parents Television Council found that between 2000 and 2004, Reality TV sex, violence and profanity increased 52%. And five years hence it’s worse.  Patti Blagojevich, wife of deposed Illinois governor, eats a tarantula, drug-addicted B-list actor, Jeff Conway, throws up into a wastebasket, and anti-social “Bad Girls” curse and slug it out on national TV. 

Human nature is hard pressed to shun the public humiliation of others and thus Reality TV established voyeurism as a primetime spectator sport. 

But Bret Michaels chewing the lips off his balloon-bosomed sex contestants now borders on boring. Our desensitized wits will soon demand heightened stimuli to satisfy entertainment appetites. 

The definitive personal indignity is death--nothing like real-life decapitation to fire up revenues. 

Jade Goody, a drunken strip teaser on “Big Brother,” later invited us on her grim video odyssey as she unsuccessfully battled cervical cancer. Recently, cancer-stricken Farah Fawcett trained a camera on herself as she lay dying. Will her final breath and death rattle become a Reality TV bonanza?

Jerry Springer came close to on-air murder in 2000 when Ralf Panitz murdered ex-wife, Nancy, just hours after their contentious TV appearance. Ringmaster Springer denied culpability for aggravating an already combustible situation. I bet ratings would have been stratospheric had Ralf wasted Nancy on screen.

Rome’s bloodlust entertainment lasted approximately 600 years. In A.D. 391, the monk, Telemachus, climbed into the arena and tried to halt the gruesome amusement. According to Fox’s Book of Martyrs, and Bishop Theodoret of Cyrhhus, he was fatally slashed by gladiators and stoned by the crowd.

“In the name of Christ, I beg you, stop!” Telemachus cried from the stadium floor. Upon hearing of Telemachus’ plea and martyrdom, Emperor Honorious put a final end to the games.

Today our arena is a flat-screen TV but the fare is equally wicked.  Decency codes are toothless and spineless politicians are silent. TV networks, perpetually hungry for ratings, know that audiences are primed for increased depravity and carnage. 

So who will protect us from…ourselves? Who will be our Telemachus? In spite of TV profiteers and a presumably indignant crowd, who among us has the guts to stand up in the 21^st Century arena and cry, “In the name of Christ, I beg you, stop!”

 

In a funk? Get off your keister and boogie! 

By Ellen Makkai

If you’re depressed, dance your way out of the dumps.

That’s what is working in a Philippine prison. Byron Garcia, Security Consultant for the Cebu provincial government, tapped into a unique anger-management strategy and he’s dealing with some severely bummed out, violent thugs. 

He has almost all 1600 inmates at the Cebu provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center dancing to old hits like “YMCA” and “In the Navy” by the Village People. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” also blasts from prison yard speakers while detainees hoof it in unison.

“Inmates say to me, ‘You have put my mind off revenge, foolishness, or thinking how to escape from jail or joining a gang,’” Garcia told the BBC. Behavior has improved “drastically.” Aggression and boredom are down; physical fitness and cooperation are up, way up, thanks to this unconventional compulsory jailhouse regimen.

Plus, they have their own internet hit on YouTube.

TV’s American Bandstand, which just celebrated its 50^th anniversary, proved that dance expertise isn’t necessary to cheer up a sad sack. Millions of teenage Baby Boomers perfected their jitter bug in front of the tube while ordinary South Philadelphia kids bunny-hopped on screen.

“We were just regular street kids from middle-class America who loved to dance,” says Bunny Gibson, who earned star status as a young teen on the show. Dancing became her “refuge” from family problems.  “Whatever was going on at home, you saw me dancing with a smile, and I was happy. I tell kids today, ‘No matter what, keep on dancing.’”

Dance is known to release endorphins, one of God’s gifts when we’re blue. All we have to do to activate the brain’s merry little mood boosters is walk, run, jump, jive, waltz, two-step or tango.

 Someone should have reminded Leonard Bernstein of that before he wrote his musical “West Side Story.” The climactic gang fight would have been a no-go. While dancing down the alleys, all those kids would have been too high on endorphins to mix it up. 

“Dance boosts mood more than does exercise alone,” says Elizabeth Svoboda writing for Psychology Today (2006). “Cardiac-rehab patients in a recent Italian study who enrolled in waltzing classes…were happier than participants who took up bicycle and treadmill training.”

“Before the dancing, our problems were really heavy to bear,” says Philippine inmate Crisanto Nierre. “Dancing takes our minds away from our problems. Our bodies became more healthy.”

Planetary friction may ease a bit as TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” began its new season September 24^th. Similar shows and films like “High School Musical” and “Hairspray” have prompted a resurgence of dance fever. Arthur Murray Dance Studios report a 30% bump in recruits. Folks are rolling up rugs and sashaying (or stomping) around the front parlor - and feeling great.

Perhaps we can fan these feel-good vibes toward the misery-choked Middle East. Dr. Salim Ahmad Salamah, of the Islamic University-Gaza, says dancing is not forbidden in Islam as long as men dance with men and women with women “in moderation.” 

If dancing can calm the savage in Filipino toughs, a weekly sock-hop with Sunnis and Shiites might start to defuse centuries-old animosities.  For cutthroats Osama Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad of Iran and Al-Assad of Syria the fierce Arabian “Ardha,” (sword dance) is fitting.

With a precipitous slip of weapons, they might dispatch each other. Then our troops could hot-foot it home and together we’d all be dancing in the streets.

Bible Byte: “And David danced before the LORD with all his might…” 2 Samuel 6:14

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

 

Naked neighbors

By Ellen Makkai

(First printed December 2001)

© 2009 Creators Syndicate, Inc. 

Traditional charities are in a cash-flow crunch as Sept. 11 relief siphons off funds. Maybe they should get naked.

"Will strip for cash" used to be an unemployed stripper's classified ad, but now it's a charity come-on. It's a bare-knuckle – not to mention bare-bottom – competition out there. If organizations want to compete, it's time to take it all off.

New calendars are out, and some groups are making big bucks being buck-naked in what is presumably a flameout fad.

I'm not talking time-honored cheesecake/beefcake calendars with Buffed Bob and Silicone Sally. There are no Sports Illustrated models here. I'm talking neighbors – yours and mine – and they ain't wearin' clothes.

This is serious stuff, these calendars. Butchers, bakers, grannies and gumshoes appear in the raw for worthy, and sometimes not so worthy, causes.

I bet many of them would do it just for grins … because that's all most are wearing.

Money from coast to coast is pouring in to the Vail Valley (Colorado) Charitable Trust. Skiers, chefs, doctors, firefighters and nurses joined other nude residents in "2002 Vail Undressed."

What in heaven's name does God think of His two-footed creatures peeling and posing for favorite charities? Who knows? But He must have a sense of humor: He made us in every shape, size and color. We're saggy, baggy, pimpled and dimpled – from what I've seen.

"I'll do just about anything ... to save this island," said Mallory Pred. She stripped with 32 other women, aged 18-74, from British Columbia's Salt Spring Island last year. They shed their duds outdoors in their "Preserve and Protect" environmental calendar to fight industrial logging.

"No one takes a blind bit of notice to what I say as a Ph.D.," says calendar girl Briony Penn, "But everybody listens when I take my clothes off." She later rode Lady Godiva-style on a horse through the streets of Vancouver. Her calendar compatriots walked alongside – topless.

Gee, my husband is environmentally minded. He and his Trout Unlimited cronies have wasted their altruisticenergy working the annual beg-a-thon auctions. All they had to do was show up starkers carrying a strategically placed creel or two.

These buck-naked benefits started in what I thought to be prim and proper Great Britain. Is there something in the water? One group after another rings up photographers to shoot them au naturel.

"The Ladies of Rylstone" calendar exposed the first famous blushing exhibitionists in 1999. Eleven North Yorkshire women, between the ages of 46 and 66, from the upscale Women's Institute, dumped their fund-raising calendar's traditional pastoral scenes.

They selected a theme "with greater moneymaking potential." The women, demurely obscured by pearls and teacups, raked in a whopping half-million dollars for cancer research.

"Beefy Butchers Show Prime Cuts for Charity" advertised an English meat cutter's calendar. They are still trying to decide on a charitable excuse for baring their chops, cutlets and rumps.

Sixteen burly Brits from the Cambridge Rugby Union Football Club did the Full Monty (that's nude, folks) on their calendar to benefit the Arthur Rank Hospice. My Calais, Vt., cousin produced "The Men of Maple Corner" with a few doing the "Full Vermonty." They've sold 35,000 so far.

Some undressed antics are more pragmatic than philanthropic.

A group of Tasmanian grandmothers in Canberra, Australia, needed new curtains for their community center. The result: the "Bare to be Different" calendar. All peeled "except for a couple of ladies whose husbands wouldn't let them," 70-year-old Dot Kelly told Reuters.

Neighboring sheep shearers in Southeast Australia shed their clothes to raise money for the dilapidated One Tree Hill Pub. Mr. April 2002, Justin Campbell, had "to be very careful with his clippers" during the photo shoot.

If this calendar fad doesn't fade fast, can we expect street-corner panhandlers in their birthday suits carrying signs saying, "Will dress for food?"

Come to think of it, our church has outgrown its building. "Bible Study Babes" at the mall calendar kiosk? Nah, I'll skip the Garden of Eden garb.

 

THE BIBLE IS OBSCENE? WHAT A GREAT MARKETING CONCEPT

by Ellen Makkai
September 15, 2007

The Almighty has worked tenaciously to put Scripture into the mind of man and now a surefire marketing ploy pops up in Hong Kong, of all places.

Special packaging and warning labels may soon be slapped on Bibles there. Tipped off by an anonymous website, folks are complaining to the Television and Licensing Authority that the Bible is obscene. Truthbible.net claims that the Bible is loaded with negative imagery, including incest, rape and cannibalism.

And by golly, it is. This fortuitous turn of events has the makings of a spectacular ad campaign.

We Bible hawkers tend to lean heavily on Scripture’s positive aspects—Father, Son, Holy Spirit and their power to inhabit and rehabilitate human debris.

In efforts to appeal to every possible demographic group, publishers print a plethora of editions--multi-lingual, modern-language, inter-linear, red-letter, new, old, international, revised, expanded, amplified and internet. Sales tactics include leather-bound, denim-clad, lace-trimmed, tie-dyed, acacia-wood and camouflage Bible covers.

An unnecessary effort, this book has what it takes to sell.

Forget Isaiah’s eloquence, Jeremiah’s pathos and the Resurrection. Go for the degradation to move those units. Human nature being what it is, “NC-17,” “Adults-only” or “XXX-rated” labels will shoot Bibles off the shelves. Never again will it be an undusted ornament in Grandma’s living room.

For the uninitiated, the Bible has dismemberment, incest, prostitution, deceit, insanity, child sacrifice, rape, witchcraft, voyeurism and hemorrhoids. The steamy Song of Solomon curls your hair. Jezebel was tossed from a window to hungry dogs. David alone provides lust, adultery, treachery and murder. And his kid is killed while hanging by his hair in a tree. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Talk about product placement; adult bookstores will park Bibles next to their smut. Grocery check-out aisles will stack Cosmo and Psalms. There will be Bible-sightings at Starbucks and Hollywood-types will vie for Bible-based scripts.

Public school sex-ed is big into porn so with any luck, the Bible could become a trendy text with an added bonus; avid readers will eventually run across cures for shame and rejection--after they’ve acted out what they learn in condom class.

Hong Kong’s attitude could boomerang for our benefit. With a little marketing savvy, we’ll successfully push the next must-have item. The gift-giving season is on the horizon and thanks to its sex and violence, the Bible is a great read on a cold winter’s night.

Bible Byte: “…he took his knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.” Judges 19:29 

 

The sex-change charade

January 11, 2003

Gender gymnastics are going on out there. Transsexuals disenchanted with their chromosomal selves are having parts lopped off or stitched on in attempts to change sexual identity.

They hope to override male XY or female XX hardwiring – thinking a newly configured appendage or cleft re-defines gender. And they enlist a surgeon to mutilate the body accordingly.

These tortured souls don't need draconian measures to align their physical exterior with confused gender suppositions – they need psychological and spiritual truth that frees them to celebrate the skin they're in.

Last month the legitimacy of so-called sex-change surgery was challenged. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a New York state employer, P & C Food Markets, was not required to pay for an employee's "gender reassignment."

Marc Mario, born Margo, argued that she suffered "gender dysphoria," a recently hatched phrase describing the sincere conviction that one's gender was a mistake – he or she should have been born as the opposite sex.

Could the Creator have flubbed it?

Former transsexual Gordon Babcock, who stopped short of surgery, says, "I used to pray, 'Lord, make me the same on the inside as on the outside. I don't care whether I wake up as a man or a woman, just as long I'm the same inside and out.'"

Margo Mario wanted out of her female physique and "transitioned" from female to male via voluntary double mastectomies, a hysterectomy and hormone therapy. The newly minted Marc then sought reimbursement through his employer's health-care plan.

The court nixed it, saying costs were not "medically necessary." P&C Food Markets also cited conflict in the medical community over whether or not gender dysphoria is a legitimate illness worthy of such severe medical intervention.

"I had misgivings at first," says James J. Reardon, M.D., a Manhattan surgeon who specializes in female-to-male transitions. "But I did research and found that gender dysphoria is an acknowledged condition."

Acknowledged, perhaps, but valid?

"Some people consider it mutilating. And, of course, the scientific side of it is pretty damn weak," said Chester Schmidt, M.D., one of the founders of the Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

In 1960, Johns Hopkins was the first U.S. medical facility involved in sex reassignment procedures. The program was discontinued in 1979 after Dr. Jon Meyer published his long-term follow-up report of adult transsexuals treated at Johns Hopkins. None of the post-operatives showed measurable improvement in their lives.

"Sex re-assignment surgery confers no objective advantage …" Meyer concluded.

Dr. Paul McHugh, chairman of the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry, criticized the procedures as "the most radical therapy ever encouraged by 20th-century psychiatrists," comparing it to the discredited frontal lobotomy.

Surgery will not silence Margo/Marc Mario's torment. Transsexual and medical doctor Gregory Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway, went through sex-change surgery. But the sought-after serenity escaped him – he died an alcoholic shortly after his arrest for indecent exposure in October 2001.

"I would have been better off staying the way I was," said tennis star Renee Richards, the high-profile sex-change recipient. "Today, there are better choices … for dealing with the compulsion to cross dress and the depression that comes with gender confusion."

"How can outward physical change bring about the needed change within? [After surgery] there is still a painful void," says a regretful Joseph Cluse, who in 1979 had surgery in Trinidad, Colo. "Relationships are destroyed and everyday I have to live with scars. The mirror is ever before me."

Cluse and Gordon Babcock point to acute psychological wounding in earliest childhood as pivotal to their severe rejection of masculinity. Both say they then heard the reoccurring lie, "No hope."

And both credit powerful divine assistance for their rescue, saying that the Creator – through counseling, revelation and unconditional acceptance – rewires and heals the damaged psyche.

"God touched my heart and showed me truth," says Cluse. Babcock initially thought his impending sex switch was God's will, but now says, "Jesus led me out of the prison I'd been in for more than 40 years."

Transsexuality signals a deceptively fierce disorder. Elective castration, mastectomy, hysterectomy, etc. are futile non-solutions. The cruel, permanent disfigurement of so-called gender reassignment is not the answer.

Fortunately there looks to be a better way.

 

Christopher Hitchens – mission impossible?

By Ellen Makkai

Do we have any prayer volunteers for Christopher Hitchens? He’s the self -proclaimed “atheist/anti-theist,” and stunningly clever wordsmith. He leapfrogged puzzled agnosticism to a pledged rebellion against God.

He’ll be a tough turn-around, so thick is his iron-clad ignorance of the divine.

In a recent Newsweek he cynically dissects Mother Teresa’s dark theological struggles, a postscript to his derisive 1995 book, “The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice.” A week ago he was a featured speaker for an Atheist Alliance conference in Washington DC.

Hitchens’ latest book, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” maligns the devoted, be their god Creator or counterfeit. “Holy books,” including the Bible, are “mythological morality tales” and he suggests any religious training is child-abuse.

“The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species,” Hitchens says, putting Christians such as Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce and 1997 Nobel Prize winner (Physics) William D. Phillips, on par with prokaryotes, single-celled bacteria.

To his credit, Hitchens writes with an articulate panache. He dismisses God with such alacrity that before a defender inhales, Hitchens has embroidered an impenetrable semantic tapestry. And his self-deprecating narrative in Vanity Fair’s October issue about his stint at a chic California spa is a genuine belly-laugh.

But this engaging literary acrobat is doomed to the blazing repository unless someone arrests his decent. And the only ones who can pray him out of his self-determined fate are the very ones he pillories.

No, Christopher, whose name, ironically, means “Christ-bearer,” is not an appealing prayer candidate. Then again, neither are most infidels.

“During the time I was engaged in the slave trade, I never had the least scruple as to its lawfulness,” said prosperous atheist and slave-trader John Newton. “It is accounted a genteel employment…very profitable.” But through the undeserved kindness of a fellow ship’s captain, Newton’s spiritual blindness was reversed and he went on to write, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me...”

Simon Greenleaf, one of the founders of Harvard Law School, severely ridiculed Christianity and determined through judicial evidentiary methods to debunk the resurrection “myth.” Coming to the opposite conclusion, Greenleaf embraced the faith and spent the rest of his life writing extensively in defense of Biblical accuracy. 

Werner von Braun, Third Reich wunderkind and father of the United States Space Program was known in his early years as a “merry heathen,” having no interest in religion, the church or its Bible. The genius von Braun epitomized what Christopher Hitchens idolizes - science, logic, and over-all smarts. However, von Braun did a religious about-face and became unabashedly evangelical whenever asked about his faith.

“In fact God deliberately reduced Himself to the stature of humanity in order to visit the earth in person …” von Braun wrote in 1976. “The universe as revealed through scientific inquiry is the living witness that God has indeed been at work.”

Geneticist Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, thought faith “was a carryover from an earlier, irrational time…we didn’t need it anymore.” But Collins did a u-turn to Christ and says now, “God’s creation is majestic, awesome, intricate, and beautiful – and it cannot contradict itself. He is the same God, whether you find him in the cathedral or in the laboratory. He is in the laws of physics, but he is also the ultimate source of love and forgiveness.”

For all Christopher Hitchens’ cantankerous ramblings, it is undeniably plain that his pedantic snobbery has acutely stunted his spiritual aptitude. His denunciation of all things religious reflects a brain crammed with data but devoid of wisdom.

Though it is easier to leave Christopher to his stultified self, we “religious crackpots” must heed the directive to pray for prodigals. And time’s a-wasting; the man is a sot and tobacco addict with an abbreviated life-expectancy. This theological curmudgeon will sink below the flames before we know it.

And God will grieve the loss of a brilliant man.

 

Calling Emily Post…           

Queen Elizabeth II of England just came to call. In preparation, etiquette pros crash-coursed us colonials in protocol, hoping we wouldn’t betray our social inaptitude. It’s not a question of a curtsey or a bow, but rather, “Do we hold our forks in our fist or in our fingers?”

Etiquette used to be part of our social fabric. As kids, we were spit and polished endlessly so that an impoverished background was no limit in this self-made, up-by-our-bootstraps nation.

“Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot,” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas.

If we minded Mom, said “please” and “thank-you,” washed for dinner, muffled a burp, chewed with mouths closed and smiled at a poor joke, we’d be comfy in a White House gala (Oh, and elbows off the table, don’t slouch and do send thank-you notes).

No more.  Four decades ago, etiquette became lumped with snobbery and restraint - neither being popular with naughty Baby Boomers (of which I am one). Earth-children devolved into Desmond Morris’ myth, “The Naked Ape.” Off with bras and decorum!

In our goal to “let it all hang out,” we counter-cultured our culture into slob-hood. And, although Boomers have matured to reclaim some sanity in clothing, the laid-back, easy-rider still haunts our collective attitude. Etiquette, once essential childhood training, is frequently ignored.

Plus, the time-crunch of over-scheduled families sabotages the teaching of good manners. Almost two generations, lamentably, have arrived untutored in the refinements of social affairs.

Case in point: Paris Hilton. She may be an heiress, but her conduct says piss-clam.

“Thus ‘Best Society’ is not a fellowship of the wealthy...” said etiquette champion, Emily Post. “But it is an association of gentle-folk, of which good form in speech, charm of manner, knowledge of the social amenities, and instinctive consideration for the feelings of others, are the credentials by which society…recognizes its chosen members.”

In ancient Israel, Jehovah laid out rules for both spiritual and social interaction to provide the best hope for a peaceable kingdom. The wisest Hebrew parents adhered closely to the requirements.

 

Be caught with your pants up--leave an undefiled legacy 

WorldNetDaily.com 2003, 2009

July 15, 2009 Note: The recent untimely and controversial deaths of actor David Carradine, mega-star Michael Jackson and football great Steve McNair beg a re-reading of a column posted in October 2003. Stellar professional careers, as well as ordinary lives, can be sullied, overshadowed and devalued by circumstances surrounding our deaths. It’s essential that we end well.

          In death, Justyn Rosen was caught with his pants down. An alleged adulterous affair erupted and killed him. Few would have suspected his dalliance with Teresa Perez, 40, had she not reacted so murderously when the 79 year-old Denver businessman tried to end their seven year-long relationship. Perez carjacked him and then shot him when he escaped and dashed toward help at a police station.

          Scandal undoubtedly commandeered the thoughts of mourners while Rosen was being rightfully eulogized by Rabbi Stephen Foster as a respected, philanthropic “businessman with a heart.” The ancient edict, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” crystallized at Rosen’s death.

          And now an ugly addendum stains an otherwise sterling legacy. Before embarking on this reckless entanglement it is doubtful he surmised so public a reckoning. 

          He’s not alone. Many an illustrious life has been overshadowed by a deplorable exit, leaving loved ones behind with tandem grief--for the personal loss and for an unexpected and often embarrassing final exclamation point.

         The late four-term New York governor and U.S. Vice-President, Nelson Rockefeller, was a personally engaging art aficionado, successful politician and beneficiary of one of America’s great success stories.

          But, according to Dr. Michael M. Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, at age 71, Rockefeller suffered a most inglorious departure during the passionate throes of a sexual encounter. It took his female “staff assistant”--45 years his junior and possibly concerned about political repercussions--an hour before she called in vain for emergency help.

          “Rocky” never foresaw the fatal interlude as part of his biographical sketch, yet there it is. He was survived by children, grandchildren, an angry wife and a diminished dignity.

          Palm Beach socialite Liza Pulitzer was blind-sided last month by a post-mortem triple whammy bequeathed by her husband Philip Roome. Roome, whose business was plagued by an SEC investigation, jumped to his death from a New York City building. Then his obituary read “beloved husband of Anne.” Roome was a bigamist who never divorced his first wife before marrying Liza

          Life-long family friend, Dr. Francis D. Moore, was described by Atul Gawande, M.D. in The New Yorker magazine (5-5-03) as “one of the most important surgeons of the twentieth century. He discovered the chemical composition of the human body…[He spearheaded] experiments that established, among other things, organ transplantation, heart valve surgery, and the use of hormonal therapy against breast cancer.”

          “His findings probably saved tens of thousands of lives a year—an impact on the scale of vaccines and antibiotics,” says Gawande.

          I never knew Dr. Moore as this trail-blazing medical giant but I do remember his Christmas roast carved into paper-thin slices. And shortly before my mother’s death he respectfully stopped by to “check on your mum’s progress.”

          In 2000 chronic heart failure eclipsed Dr. Moore’s active lifestyle which, over 88 years included horses, sailing, hunting, fishing, music and theatre. But he chose not to face his decline with the steadfast courage that distinguished his career. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2001, he put a gun in his mouth.

          He was the patriarch of a large thriving family and left behind a medical legacy of incalculable value, but with it a final image impossible to erase.

          “He shot himself with his wife in the house—to hear it, to find him with his brains sprayed all over the study,” writes Gawande. “There was…a characteristic degree of obliviousness of the pain he could and did cause others.”

          So, too, it must have been for Justyn Rosen at the outset of his marital transgression, obliviousness to the potential for pain he caused family, friends and his wife of 60 years.    

          “I hope that the lasting memory of Justyn’s life will be the way that he tried to live and not the way he died,” said Rabbi Foster.

          Sorry, that’s not the way it works. The same human nature that enticed Rosen into moral compromise will side-trip memories and auto-focus on his indiscretion, if only momentarily.

          Teresa Perez was said to be a wonderful mother but her children will be hard pressed to remember the chocolate chip cookies and bedtime stories in light of her homicidal finale.

          As a prosperous businessman, Justyn Rosen undoubtedly left a hefty financial estate, but he denied his family the one thing they would have valued more-- a legacy undefiled by an appalling footnote.

          We need to end well. The most generous bequest of all is the sweet, untainted recollection left behind with those we love. 

 

Collateral kids: unwelcome stats in pro sports

by Ellen Makkai

Those guffaws floating over Colorado on Sunday morning didn’t come from the comic strips in The Denver Post but from the Sports section. With stunning velocity, Denver Bronco Travis Henry is racking up statistics not usually charted in professional sports; he has scored nine illegitimate kids with nine different women.

Henry is outdistanced, however, by former NBA Houston Rocket Calvin Murphy who had 14 out-of-wedlock children by nine women. Of course both are lapped by super-stud and premier athlete Seattle Slew, the Triple Crown winner who begat 1,066.

But in contrast, Slew’s progeny were planned and a source of pride celebrated by enthusiastic owners. Not so for the 23 children from Murphy and Henry’s dalliances. They were unexpected intruders - the offspring of feel-good micro-moments in the lives of men who treat women and sex like a carnival ride. 

These youngsters won’t be cuddled and favored by a proud papa. Their unintended arrival makes them little more than irritating monthly support-checks and fodder for stand-up comedians.

It’s not easy being a collateral kid. You’ll never see Dad’s smile at a dance recital or on a soccer game sideline. Thanksgiving dinner, if you’re invited, is awkward. A birthday gift might show up if Dad remembers the date…and your name.

Pro athletes are always screwing around. Sports Illustrated reminded us in May, 1998 of the burgeoning number of illegitimate kids born to sports superstars. Visit an airport before game day and witness the cleavage that awaits a team’s arrival. There are countless vulnerable and/or stupid females dazzled by the money, muscles and glamour accompanying these modern-day gladiators. They willingly spread their legs in the vain hope of elevated status and a secure connection with their chosen professional hot-shots.

Former NBA star Shawn Kemp has sired seven illegitimate children by six different women, boxing champ Evander Holyfield has at least nine by seven, National League Baseball great Steve Garvey fathered two illegitimate kids by two different mothers. Former Buffalo Bill Willis McGahee faced three paternity suits in two years. New England Quarterback Tom Brady recently dumped pregnant Bridget Moynahan, his main squeeze of three years, for supermodel Gisele Bündchen. Little Jonathan Brady arrived last week anyway.

“No matter how much love or money Brady showers upon this son…the child will remain separate, an asterisk, alongside the family [Brady] will eventually have,” writes Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis.

So just how do you train fatherless kids? What’s included in their game prep? They compete with a distinct disadvantage and no previous experience. Rejection makes for a brutal coach. Injury is assured and sibling rivalry is expected to be fierce, not to mention the nasty posturing between various mothers. Odds for personal one-on-one time with Pop – zero.

As these reckless fathers mature and move on to focus on legitimate families, their misbegotten children warm the bench. Unfortunately the wait will be long and participation isn’t guaranteed. In the long run, Dad will never consider them better than second-string, - an unearned designation received before they ever had a chance to play.

 

Comeuppance for gossip

by Ellen Makkai

Four town employees were canned recently in Hooksett, NH, a community of 13,000. Gossip did them in. These prattlers picked the wrong target. He fought back. 

The “Hooksett Four,” Sandra Piper, Michelle Bonsteel, Joanne Drewniak and Jessica Skorupski, chewed and regurgitated rumors that Town Administrator, David Jodoin, was involved with another female employee. Jodoin, married with two children, complained that the backbiting would destroy his marriage and livelihood. 

“He does not want his family life to be threatened and does not want his career to be tainted by a false accusation,” says fact-finder Lauren Irwin who was hired by the Town Council. An investigation found the rumor untrue and that the chit-chat was excessive. 

“Gossip, whispering, and an unfriendly environment are causing poor morale and interfering with the efficient performance of town Business,” said the report.  The Council voted 8-1 to fire the four. 

“I really don’t think it’s fair,” says resident Claudette Burbank. “We all know everyone gossips about their bosses.” 

Gossip is delicious and who can resist dishing the dirt? Millions, nay, billions of dollars are spent on gossip rags, a grocery-store staple. 

“If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me,” said socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy’s daughter and gossip connoisseur. Late humorist Erma Bombeck adds, “Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip.”

“Gossip bonds the people who engage in it. Talking about a common enemy or problem brings us closer together,” says Michael Zigarelli is the Dean of the Regent University School of Business. 

“More often, gossip is destructive. It can ruin lives, assassinate personalities, split family, alienate friends, and bankrupt businesses…Gossip is one of the world's most destructive habits…” says business author and former sales manager, Bob Burg, co-author of “Gossip: Ten Pathways to Eliminate It from Your Life and Transform Your Soul.” 

Mark Twain notes that gossip can’t be squelched once dispatched. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still putting on its shoes,” he wrote. 

Warp-speed tattle can become deadly. A well-greased and ghastly rumor mill padded the guillotine procession during the French Reign of Terror (1793-94). One hundred years earlier, across the pond, a teenage grapevine lit the incendiary Salem witchcraft trials. 

Up the road from Salem, New Hampshire’s newly unemployed quartet, have launched a campaign - complete with t-shirts - to be reinstated. The “Hooksett Four” have even captured national media. 

“We didn’t start the rumor,” Joanne Drewniak says in defense. Ironically, these New England gabsters have found themselves the latest fodder to be composted by idle chatter. 

Bible Byte:  “And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity…and is set on fire by hell.”   James 3:6

 

Victory for life in a deadly week

by Ellen Makkai

The shocking deaths at Virginia Tech overshadowed a stunning decision for life. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on infanticide, a.k.a. partial birth abortion.

PBA is a grisly procedure whereby two little legs are gripped, then pulled out of a mother’s womb, enabling the abortionist to access and stab the baby’s head. The collapsed skull no longer resists, and the dying and dismembered child is fully removed and discarded.

Planned Parenthood (PPA), with its enormous revenues threatened, is marshalling its troops for a counter attack. Violence is its strong suit. Their weapons are dilators, laminarias, forceps, saline, suction, curettes, deception, rhetoric, burgeoning immorality, media cooperation, and an indifferent public.

The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) was quick at the switch, responding with, “The Court has given anti-choice state lawmakers the green light to open the flood gates and launch additional attacks on safe, legal abortion.” 

In reality, the bloody floodgates have been closed an inch.

According to The Guttmacher Institute (a special affiliate to Planned Parenthood), one baby is aborted every 24 seconds, 47 babies are aborted every hour, 3,542 babies are aborted every day, 24,865 babies are aborted every week, and 107,750 babies are aborted every month. 48,589,993 babies were aborted between the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and 2005.

So this precious Supreme Court ruling is but a mini-triumph for the once-civilized USA. PPA and NARAL should relax. Their revenues and agenda are jeopardized barely a pinch.

Bible Byte: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death… If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does He who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will He not requite man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).

 

Alec Baldwin is hot!

by Ellen Makkai

No, not that kind of hot (he was--before alcohol blistered his beautiful blue eyes). We are talking hot under the collar, when he left a scorching voicemail to be heard ‘round the world.

Baldwin wasn’t just over the top; he cleared Everest with this one because the target of his vitriol wasn’t an adversarial politico, but his eleven year-old daughter, Ireland.  I gather, from the few intelligible phrases, that he was heatedly frustrated when she wasn’t available for a phone chat with Dad. Divorce does that.

If his message is any indication of their father-daughter relationship, the life of this poor little rich girl will see more grief than that caused by a parent’s self-absorbed diatribe.

“A daughter is profoundly affected by the kind of relationship she has with her father—often more so than by her relationship with her mother,” writes Linda Nielsen, Ed.D, a nationally recognized expert on father-daughter relationships. Poor academics, low income, abusive relationships, pre-marital sex and pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse, bullying, depression, etc. frequently harken back to absent, neglectful or abusive fathers.

These girls are vulnerable and seek validation, as well as emotional restoration; however it’s offered—good or bad. Hopefully, Ireland has another important male role model to neutralize childhood damage evidenced by this outburst.

In his post-explosion interviews, Baldwin secures his status as a selfish clod. Words pierce; he barely apologized and displayed little recognition of the injury his tirade inflicted. He needs help to empty that internal reservoir of rage. Otherwise it’s doubtful he’ll ever recover the natural adoration every daughter initially has for her daddy.

Bible Byte: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”   Proverbs 18:21a

 

Tattoo taboo trumped by Iraqis’ plight

by Ellen Makkai

Today everyone and his grandmother have a tattoo.  It’s no longer just homesick sailors, convicts, Holocaust survivors, Hell’s Angels, and the tattooed lady at the circus.

Tattoos have been around as long as there’s been skin. Smithsonian Magazine (January- 2007) states, “Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years.”

Trend-setting Hollywood is plastered with them. Historical icons had tattoos, including Teddy Roosevelt, Queen Victoria, Egyptian high-priestess Amunet, JFK, Jr., Richard the Lionhearted, even assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Nestled in the Jewish Scriptures (Leviticus 19:28) is a warning against body art as it related to idol-worship. Secularized attitudes have muted that directive. Only Islam resists the needles. The Quran expressly forbids tattoos.

The Quran also forbids personal mutilation or maiming of bodies. Ironically, it’s the mutilation of others’ bodies by Islamic terrorists that forces Iraqi’s to breach Islamic law. Tattoos are now the ultimate form of identification. Murder by mutilation and decapitation generates tremendous fear that next-of-kin will search in vain for missing relatives.

“The idea came to me after seeing these daily incidents during which some corpses are mutilated…even headless, and the fact that identity cards are either lost or destroyed,” Baghdad worker, Firas Adil Saadi told the Los Angeles Times. “I thought about an irremovable identity card, the tattoo.” His information is tattooed on his right upper arm.

Readers of those Jewish Scriptures would readily shift Iraqi focus away from Muhammad and the Quran--to introduce them to the Author of their faith, and dispel Iraqi fears of anonymity in death.

Whether lost at sea, in a fire, or blown to smithereens in Iraq--where not even a tattoo survives—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob doesn’t need our body art to find His family members. To avoid any identity crisis, He uses His own “tattoo.”

Bible Byte: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! I have engraved you on the palm of my hand…” Isaiah 49:15-16a

 

Cindy Sheehan, rest in peace

by Ellen Makkai

Anti-war agitator Cindy Sheehan is burned out and it’s time to let her be.

Before she could fully mourn her son Casey’s death in Iraq, Sheehan’s grief was commandeered by quick-on-the-trigger anti-war factions. Ultimately, Cindy donated her son’s death to the cause and relentlessly hurled political epithets at the Bush administration.

Of course, Hollywood called. Anti-war rallies included peacenik regulars such as Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Mike Farrell. Bush antagonist Michael Moore was an early cheerleader, posting her screeds on MoveOn.org. Media opportunists Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were swift to sidle up to Cindy.

Socialists, communists and anarchists snaked their way into the Sheehan spotlight. “Cindy Sheehan” became a battering ram for every reactionary with an ax to grind on the American anvil.

Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart - whose clients include the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army and murderous Muslim cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman - is a confidante. 

Marxist chum Medea Benjamin, organized Cindy’s Cuban trip this past January. A year before, in January 2006, Cindy was flamboyantly welcomed by U.S. adversary Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela. 

Last week, Sheehan, acutely bitter, resigned as “the face of the American anti-war movement.” Infighting and insults from liberal confederates and the bi-partisan Congressional vote to extend war funding caused her to throw down the bullhorn.

“I am going to take whatever I have left and go home…and try to regain some of what I have lost,” she blogged. And she’s lost plenty, including a 29-year marriage. Many extended-family members are at odds with her dogmatic stance. One wonders what her three younger children lost while Mom globe-trotted for peace?

“Her politics have hurt a lot of people…but most of us who support the war on terror understand she is hurt very deeply, says Kristinn Taylor, spokesman for FreeRepublic.com, which countered anti-war demonstrations with pro-troop rallies. “Those she got involved with in the anti-war movement realize it was to their benefit to keep her at that stage of anger.”

Radical pals did little to assuage her pain and now Sheehan’s political capitol is zilch with leftists thanks to her recent abdication. Professional protestors will soon anoint a new victim-candidate, at which time Cindy is effectively abandoned to the grief she held at bay during her ferocious three-year campaign.

Hopefully she’ll reclaim and revisit her son’s life. Casey, a respected Bronze Star recipient, took Combat Lifesaver training and wanted to be a chaplain’s assistant when, during his second enlistment, he volunteered for the deadly rescue mission.

As a true believer, odds are Casey Sheehan sang the gospel classic, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” a song Joseph Scriven wrote for his mother in 1855. Two lines are particularly apropos for a woman who’s burned too many bridges: 

“Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer.

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there.”

 

A fate worse than death for deserters…  

 

The Iraq War has its own generation of deserters. Today’s runaway soldiers are victims of two relentless voices--those of their own fear and of others’ doubts.

At sign up, health and education benefits should be partnered with a reality check: the bloody baggage of war. These youngsters could then inventory themselves and judge if they can attack their fear. 

America’s present-day “Neville Chamberlains” account for another shrill voice. They are naïve and blind to evil’s intent, which has always been the subjugation or destruction of others. Their constant public yammering undercuts the mental focus effectively harnessed by soldiers during World War II.

The greatest tragedy is that, apart from the loss of country, today’s runaways know that when tested, they failed in their duty to face down fear, death and political caterwauling. No matter where their sanctuary, the deserters will suffer a unique and festering self-inflicted wound--the nagging awareness that unlike their comrades, they fled the crucible.

Bible Byte: “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heartn all ye that hope in the Lord.”   Psalm 31:24  

 

 Stolen prestige backfires

Another pretender was unmasked and disgraced last week.

Marilee Jones, Dean of Admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, resigned after confessing to an inflated resume submitted 28 years earlier. The woman evaluating credentials of MIT hopefuls fabricated her own; she earned no advanced degrees and had only two years of college.

Every discipline has its fakes. Someone always takes a shortcut to the spotlight. And it’s usually the spotlight that reveals the pretense.

Military phonies routinely parade around with unearned medals.  Illinois District Judge Michael O'Brien displayed two counterfeit Medals of Honor. L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of Scientology, claimed fraudulently to have earned 27 military medals, including two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.

Legendary imposter, Frank Abagnale, often went the accolades-without-achievement route. His masquerades included a Pan Am pilot, a pediatrician and a Harvard-educated lawyer. Milli Vanilli carted off the music industry’s Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990 though they sang nary a note on their records. Richard Gere’s new movie, “The Hoax,” profiles Clifford Irving who tricked us briefly with his false biography of  recluse Howard Hughes.

We’re all capable of a little puffery. Take name-dropping; it associates us ordinary folks with the illustrious. Cubic zirconia (simulated diamonds) pretends, like faux fur, prosperity. Alumni are notorious for arriving at reunions in rented luxury autos.

Decades ago, I leaned heavily against an enormous yacht docked in Nantucket hoping other warf-walkers would assume I’d sailed in on her. A cursory look at the boat’s home port, imprinted on the stern, proved me the fool. It was unlikely this pale-faced blonde arrived from Mauritius, an island off the eastern coast of Africa.

In Marlee Jones acclaimed book “Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond,” she warns against “making up information to present yourself as something you are not…You must always be completely honest about who you are.”

It had been Jones’ privilege to select one out of every seven applicants for admission to MIT but her own dishonesty finally backfired. Regrettably, the ensuing years of award-winning service have been swallowed by her initial deception.

Bible Byte: “…and be sure, your sin will find you out.”    Numbers 32:23b

 

If a guy like Paul Potts can sing, perhaps you can too…

by Ellen Makkai 

If you are a dufus, take heart. There is undoubtedly something you can do well, very well. The winner of Great Britain’s version of American Idol (“Britain’s Got Talent”) should encourage everyday people to determine their passion and run with it. 

Amateur singer, Paul Potts, 36, a mobile car-phone salesman from Port Talbot in South Wales, is a dumpy looking fellow but in that dumpy exterior burns the heart of a Pavarotti. 

“My dream is to spend my life doing what I feel I was born to do.” With that said, Paul announced to very skeptical judges - including the acerbically blunt Simon Cowell - that he was going “to sing opera.” 

And sing he did!

Who would have thought such a sound would come through those crooked teeth and out of that mouth to ignite the audience and astound the judges? This ordinary vessel contains an extraordinary voice.

Another unlikely success story arrived in 1452 to Caterina, an unmarried Italian peasant woman. Her low-born infant proved exceptional, becoming a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and a scholar in the natural sciences, medicine and philosophy.

“Whatever he does, every action is so divine that he distances all other men, and clearly displays how his genius is the gift of God and not an acquirement of human art,” was written about Leonardo DaVinci by Renaissance author Giorgio Vasari in his book "The Lives of the Artists." 

“The gift of God” is a Biblical assumption that’s often dismissed by secularists as the vague “natural aptitude.”

Theological antagonist Mark Twain, however, was compelled to acknowledge the divine when describing the spectacularly talented slave, Thomas Wiggins (1849-1908), a blind, autistic savant. “Blind Tom,” gifted with a phenomenal musical memory and skill, became a world- renowned composer and concert pianist.

“Some archangel,” said Twain. “It is not Blind Tom that does these wonderful things and plays this wonderful music--it is the other party.”

“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?” said Benjamin Franklin in a rhyme that suggests everyone has a knack for something. 

Despairing teens, especially, need the assurance that they are embedded with latent talent. That reality could ground them in hopeful expectancy, and offset both the internal and external harangues of an insufferably awkward transitional season. 

“If I was having problems with bullies,” says Paul Potts, “I always had my voice to fall back on…when I sing, I feel like I’m where I should be.” 

Both the Old and New Testament recognize the tandem truth of God’s non-discrimination policy. First, no one is forgotten during the gift-giving. And second, innate ability is no fluke, but rather is purposed, designed and endowed by Him. 

Bible Byte(s): “and in the hearts of all who are skillful, I have put skill” Exodus 31:6 --“But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us.” I Corinthians 12:11 (CEV)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA  Paul Potts sings!

 

Killing kids boomerangs

by Ellen Makkai

Infanticide has boomeranged fiercely. News out of Washington D.C. and China this week makes it obvious that abortion is, apart from being savage, reckless social policy.

Parents who kill their unborn children often report emotional and spiritual decay, but now it appears that society takes a hit demographically and financially as well.

Party-hearty Baby Boomers embraced the pill and abortion which allowed us to screw around without unwanted offspring. Forty million children, or one third of an entire U.S. generation were wiped out by abortionists since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

In our shortsighted self-absorption, it never occurred to us that those aborted babies might one day come in handy.

A report released Tuesday by demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institute in Washington D.C. details how many retiring Boomers face delayed retirement and insecure financial futures. Contributing to retirement angst was our choice to have fewer kids, and thus produce fewer taxpayers.

Remaining children will have to support the huge number of retiring Boomers in the Social Security system. In 1950, 16 workers supported each retiree; today, three workers support one. According to Social Security’s Board of Directors, benefits paid out will exceed taxpayer input by 2012.

Result: higher taxes and decreased benefits with many Boomers, who tend to be spenders not savers, falling back on what children made it out of the womb intact.

“That one child they had will be very valuable,” says Frey. And let’s hope we are on good terms with that one child - if we need dough to tide us over until our demise.

China’s abortion backlash results from its one-child per family policy. That, coupled with its culture’s preference for boys, killed off millions of baby girls through abortion and post-birth infanticide. Now, their marriage-minded male counterparts have little hope for wives.

USA-TODAY reports that the 1995 sex ratio in central Hubei Province was 130.3 boys for every 100 girls. In all of China there will be an estimated 40 million young bachelors - known in Chinese as guang guan, “bare branches” or “bare sticks” - by 2020, “more than the current female populations of Taiwan and South Korea combined.” 

USA TODAY further highlights a 1997 report in the Chinese magazine Beijing Luntan that “predicted forced marriages, girls stolen for wives, bigamy, visiting prostitutes, rape, adultery, homosexuality, and weird sexual habits. Prostitution…is epidemic in Chinese cities. Bride-trafficking (kidnapping) is common in the countryside.”

2007 will witness 3800 deaths per day in the United States. Immorality and inconvenient pregnancies still demand abortion’s easy out, and kids are being trained accordingly.

Last week a Manchester, NH middle school chose the local Planned Parenthood facility for a spring field trip. That not-so-subtle abortion OK could ultimately spell an end to Social Security before those students turn gray.

Bible Byte: “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them…”  Psalm 127:3-5a  

Open season on young souls

by Ellen Makkai

Children are once again pinned to the cultural dart board as Lucifer targets their souls. Hollywood remains the satanic toady of choice with the latest weapon being “The Golden Compass,” a polished and clever bit of celluloid starring the fetching Nicole Kidman. It is due out just in time to insult both Hanukkah and Christmas.

Concerns arise at the stealth nature of the movie, a dumbed-down version of book-one in “His Dark Materials,” the award-winning British trilogy for children by atheist Phillip Pullman who said in 2003, “My books are about killing God.” He purposes that youngsters “decide against God and the kingdom of heaven.”

“The film is based on the least offensive of the three books…the producers are watering down the most despicable elements.” says William Donohue, President of the Catholic League. “The fact remains that the movie is bait for the books.”

Odds are that Tinsel-town buzz will propel kids to the movie; they will love it and beg for the books in which Christianity is labeled “a powerful and convincing mistake.” The legitimate fear is that children’s righteous trajectory and fledgling faith, which innately gravitate toward belief, will be compromised - even axed.

What’s a devout parent to do?

E-mails already circumnavigate the globe alerting families to this latest soul assault. Some theologians are calling for a boycott which is every marketer’s dream, a surefire revenue booster as the forbidden-fruit dynamic kicks in.

Families must shun obvious anti-God maliciousness, but efforts on behalf of children should focus more on “prepare and equip” than on “protect.” We can’t shield our tykes from every pedagogue and playmate used by Apollyon in his ongoing campaign to dethrone God.

Scripture exhorts us that all hell will incrementally break loose until it becomes a deluge but El Shaddai never called us to raise kids as cloistered hot-house flowers. Rather, they are to be trained as stout defenders of truth and opponents of blasphemy – an achievable goal when families work in tandem with the Holy Spirit.

Pivotal in children’s spiritual schooling is an intimate relationship with God. If we are to offset the no-God lie, kids need to know God - not in theory but in reality.

A recent Associated Press/MTV poll among 13-24 year-olds reinforced the obvious fact that dedicated parents outpace peers, school and media in terms of influence. So it follows that folks who honor God in worship, attitude, word and behavior model Him before their children.

Prayer is another vehicle by which God makes Himself known. Praying children are soon immune to the suggestio falsi that heaven doesn’t hear.

God also speaks from the Bible. It is a user-friendly, divinely inspired manual that should be every child’s primary text. Scripture is replete with time-tested directives for abundant life coupled with warnings against reckless folly. Included is the history of exemplary lives and calamitous rebels. The Bible is an analytical study of ignorance, defeat, rescue and triumph. It strengthens the young and the old, wise or simple.

And with a little practice, kids discover power in the name of Jesus.

Almost three decades back, a night terror announced its presence via the screams of our very small daughter. “Jesus, Jesus,” was her quivering response, followed by silence then sleep. Late the next night, a barely-audible refrain of “Jesus loves me, this I know” alerted us that she was again enlisting the Almighty in her mini spiritual skirmish. Soon the spook, real or imagined, abandoned her bedroom.

To survive this increasingly perverse and recalcitrant culture, only children raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord will thrive. And in years hence, when a sour, ignorant soul or institution says, “There is no God,” more than one such child of God will enthusiastically reply, “Oh, but you’re wrong, He lives. I know him personally. Let me introduce you.”

Bible Byte: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”  Mark 9:42

 

Elvis lives?

By Ellen Makkai 

Thirty years ago, fast living, drugs and heart disease buried quintessential entertainment icon, Elvis Presley. Ever since, admirers have tried in vain to recapture the heart-palpitating moments they experienced when the King of Rock and Roll was alive.

Devoted fans drag him out of the grave via trashy memorabilia, movies, CDs, postage stamps, tattoos and Elvis impersonators. Just yesterday, -after years of snubbing the impersonation concept, Elvis Presley's estate capitulated and held a contest to find the “Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist.”

To commemorate this week’s 30^th anniversary of his death, Elvis’s only child, Lisa Marie who was nine when he died, recorded a posthumous twosome with her father. She laid down vocals over her father's original 1969 classic “In the Ghetto."

Supposed Elvis sightings energize Elvis apostles who hope that perhaps, just perhaps, the coroner was wrong and their idol is alive somewhere in secret.

“I would give anything to be able to go back in time and see him live on stage,” said internet writer identified simply as “Adrian from the UK” in 2002 on the 25^th anniversary postmortem. 

Maybe you will see him again - live. But Adrian, fast-forward mentally rather than back. If the theology of Elvis Presley’s confessed faith is real, Elvis lives. He’s just playing a better venue - Paradise.

Fundamentalist Baptist writer Davis Cloud disagrees and thinks hell is home to Elvis due to Elvis’s hedonistic life of sex and drug use. 

“Elvis was a fornicator and adulterer…Elvis’s music was reflective of his lifestyle: sensual and licentious…He abused barbiturates and narcotics so heavily that he destroyed himself,” writes Cloud. “Elvis prayed a lot in his last days, asking God for forgiveness, but the evidence points to a Judas type of remorse instead of godly repentance.” 

That’s a rigid verdict by one who never counseled Elvis personally. After all, Scripture reminds us that faith, not works, is the ticket to Glory.

“I believe in the Bible…all good things come from God,” Elvis said. The only three Grammy Awards he ever won were for gospel music. In the last year of his life, though bloated and wasted from unrestrained excess, he sang more Gospel songs and often read from the Bible while on stage.

“Somewhere, beyond all the dazzling lights and the flashy capes and the limousines and the throngs of screaming fans, his mind and heart returned again and again to the simple [Christian] tenets taught to him at an early age by his mother,” says Joe Moscheo, in his new book, “The Gospel Side of Elvis.” Moscheo, a former member of the Imperials, began in studios with Elvis in 1967, later sang back-up at concerts and remained friends until Elvis’s death. 

Elvis’s favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” became his vehicle to unwind in the early morning after Las Vegas shows. He prompted his entourage repeatedly to sing the verses until he decompressed. 

“I could see him going into preaching because that's something he really actually wanted to do from a very young age,” said Elvis’s former wife Priscilla. So deep was his faith, she believes, that had he escaped his addictions and career demands, he would have eventually quit showbiz to become a preacher. 

When concert fans called out, "Elvis you're the King!" he would reply, "No honey, there is only one King and that is Jesus Christ, I’m just an entertainer". 

So perhaps Elvis lives. If we are heaven-bound and Elvis went up, not down, we can garage-sale the Elvis memorabilia. 

Once beyond the veil, our rapt attention will on the Redeemer. But a sweet bonus could be standing off to the side; a Tennessee country-boy, restored in body, soul and voice, singing back-up with his favorite hymn, “Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, how great Thou art…” 

Bible Byte: "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."   John 11:25