Dan and Jen's Blog » Culture

Haiti

Jen — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:00:36 +0000

I read this article on Haiti yesterday (it’s long, 14 of their internet pages, but it’s well-written) by Matt Labash and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s definitely not gospel-centered, but it shows the reality of the situation in brutal honesty. I’m horrified by the situation there and, I think, despairing for those people. I keep thinking about the difference in my life to so many of theirs and I feel guilty, but so very grateful. I do not want to change places. The idea of that makes my stomach lurch with fear. Here’s what I woke up thinking about:

My child has round cheeks and roly-poly arms.
Their children are starving to death and cry from hunger.

I sleep in a soft bed and nearly perfectly climate-controlled environment.
They sleep in the streets with cinder blocks around them so cars won’t run over them and their children.

We throw much of our leftover food in the trash.
They would eat food out of the trash if there was any food.

I will not complain that my life is hard today.

They have such devastating needs and there are so many of them. They desperately need a stable, helpful government, infrastructure, and commerce. Their immediate needs are food, clean water, medical care, and shelter. Their longer term needs are (paved) roads, sewers, stable structures, etc. And to not have any natural disasters for a while. Their economy is about 60% agriculture, and hopefully regardless of this recent disaster, they can still harvest and export their crops to us (the US buys 70% of their exports). They need engineers to rebuild their city soundly and companies to build manufacturing plants there (they have a labor force 3.5mm strong, but mostly unskilled as the country only has a 53% literacy rate).

But mostly they need the gospel. They need Jesus. They need him because the gospel of Christ isn’t just about eternity or Sunday mornings, it has the power to change daily life. In Christ there is hope; without him, there is none. Especially if you can’t feed your children.

One of the most impactful pro-life articles I’ve ever read

Jen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:47:12 +0000

I beg of you to read this article, especially if you’re pro-choice, for it displays with rawness the realities of the horror of abortion. Sometimes we get so weary of the constant bickering between the two camps that we forget what the battle is about. This reminds me why it’s so vital.

Another Example of Bad Marriage Practices in Culture

Jen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:59:57 +0000

I’m not the greatest wife in the world, but even I can see this is totally jacked up.

Here are some interesting excerpts:

Can a piece of paper save a marriage? One suburban Boston couple figured it was worth trying so they entered into a legal agreement to manage a major source of tension in their relationship – money.

and:

Postnups, while much less common than prenuptial agreements, are gaining in popularity. Nearly 50 percent of attorneys polled by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported an increase in the number of postnups from 2002 to 2007.

and:

Postnups might be used to determine who owns assets, set a budget for household expenses or remove a business from the table in the event of a divorce. Couples also have used them to decide such things as how often the mother-in-law gets to visit or how many boys-only weekends the husband gets to take.

The Rights of Religious Institutions

Jen — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:12:14 +0000

A female referee was not allowed to officiate a boys’ sporting event at a private Catholic school. Read the whole thing here. This is sure to spark a fierce debate and Christians who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible are sure to be demonized. While this is currently an issue of whether or not this school will get kicked out of the Activities Association, it will become an issue of whether or not private religious institutions have the right to practice what they believe regardless of the larger culture’s opposition. While this Catholic school has chosen a very peripheral issue to fight over, it certainly foreshadows how other religious institutions will have to battle to safeguard issues more central to the Christian faith. I don’t know anything about this school and I don’t know how it’s officials will handle it nor how they should because I don’t know everything about the situation, but I do know that Bible-believing Christians are required to live according to the Word of God regardless of the circumstances. A fiery furnace, a lion’s den, and a stoning all come to mind. But so does the cross of Jesus and the Gospel of salvation through Him. Jesus reminds us in the Gospels that the world will hate us because of him. They will not understand why we do what we do. There will be earthly consequences for living under the rule of King Jesus. But we can only have one master. As Christians, our job isn’t to have the right answer all the time; it’s to know the Scriptures, how they apply to our daily lives, and to speak the truth in love and kindness.

2 Tim 2:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent,equipped for every good work.