Are You Still Here?

Go to my new blog!

 http://mikeensley.vox.com

 

Grace4Gays Website is Back

My Grace4gays website has been down for a few months, but I’ve finally got it up and running again. It’s got a new look, and while I’m still working on several of the content items, my testimony is updated and reposted. Check it out!

 

Exodus Youth Announces “Allies, Too” Campaign

This October 15-21, Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs in high schools across the US are promoting an event called “Ally Week,” in which they encourage non-LGBT-identifying teens to pledge their support for making schools safe for LGBT students.

Here at Exodus Youth, we want schools to be a safe and harassment-free place for all students, and we know that millions of Christian students share the same desire. While Ally Week is meant to have this effect, the pledge involved requires students to promise to “actively support safer school efforts” promoted by GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), which often involve policies and ethics which conflict with Christian beliefs concerning sexuality. This can leave many Christian students feeling as though they must choose between holding to their beliefs and looking like a bully.

Still, the fact that our beliefs are different doesn’t mean we can’t work together for safer schools for everyone. So, Exodus Youth is creating the Allies, Too campaign, in which Christian students can voice their support for safer schools without compromising their faith in God’s Word!

Read More >>

 

GLSEN: Sexual Identity Can be Chosen

I was perusing the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s website when I found a curriculum resource entitled Talking the Talk: A Glossary of LGBT Terminology, which contained this interesting definition:

Sexual Identity: This is how we perceive and what we call ourselves. Such labels include “lesbian,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “bi,” “queer,” “questioning,” “heterosexual,” “straight,” and others. Sexual Identity evolves through a developmental process that varies depending on the individual. Our sexual behavior and how we define ourselves (identity) can be chosen. Though some people claim their sexual orientation is also a choice, for others this does not seem to be the case. (emphasis added)

It’s good to see that at least some of the people in this organization are willing to concede to the fact of how human choice plays into our sexuality and the manner in which we live our lives. So the question remains: why do these gay groups descriminate against and defame those who have a homosexual orientation but choose to pursue a heterosexual identity?

It’a clear that the purpose of groups like GLSEN is not to disseminate “good information” about sexual orientation, but indeed to promote a lifestyle among our youth, while simultaneously blinding them to their alternatives because of the political connotations–not to mention the personal ones they’d rather not deal with.

 

Schwarzenegger Terminates CA Gay-Ed Bill

On September 6, Governor Schwarzenegger of California vetoed SB 1437, a bill that would have required K-12 schools to favorably present homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism through their curriculum, and also shut out any opposing viewpoints.

A requirement for schools to teach “gay history” was gutted from the bill as a last-minute effort to make it less controversial, but obviously it wasn’t enough.

The bill was authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl, who called the veto “inexplicable.” Kuehl also authored bill SB 71, which went into effect in California in 2004, sponsored by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. This bill removed all promotion of “abstinence until marriage” from California school sex ed instruction and materials, and also denies parents the right to opt their children out of “anti-bias” instruction concerning sexual orientation, or even to be notified that the training is taking place.

 

Exodus and NARTH Respond to Berger Statement

Recent statements from Dr. Joseph Berger caused an uproar across the blogosphere, as he seemed to encourage teasing and shaming of children with gender-identity issues. At the Exodus Live Out Loud Blog, Randy posted the following responses:

Berger’s Statement Generates Anger

Dr. Joseph Berger’s recent statements have caused a bit of anger in certain parts of the gay identified blogosphere.  Dr. Throckmorton also reports on this.

Dr. Joseph Berger is reported to have stated (original article removed from the NARTH website):

I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex – but not counselling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings. On the contrary, don’t interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world.  Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary.

After contacting NARTH about our concerns over this statement, Exodus received the following reply  from them explaining the organizational view of Dr. Berger’s advice.  They gave us permission to release this statement from them.

NARTH disagrees with Dr. Berger’s advice as we believe shaming, as distinct from correcting can only create greater harm.Too many of our clients experienced the often life long, harmful effects of peer shaming. We cannot encourage this.

continue reading–>

 

Archbishop Takes a Biblical Stand on Homosexuality

The archbishop of Canterbury has made what some are calling “an astonishing U-turn” on the issue of homosexuality:

Rowan Williams has distanced himself from his one-time liberal support of gay relationships and stressed that the tradition and teaching of the Church has in no way been altered by the Anglican Communion’s consecration of its first openly homosexual bishop.

The declaration by the archbishop – rebutting the idea that homosexuals should be included in the church unconditionally – marks a significant development in the church’s crisis over homosexuals…

The revelations came in a newspaper interview last week in which the archbishop denied that it was time for the church to accept homosexual relationships, suggesting that it should be welcoming rather than inclusive. “I don’t believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don’t say ‘Come in and we ask no questions’. I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviours, ideas, emotions,” he told a Dutch journalist.

“Ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics.”

This is a huge breakthrough, and I commend archbishop Williams for the courage and compassion he simultaneously displayed in this interview.

The article goes on to quote Giles Goddard, chairman of the Inclusive Church, who tries to skew Williams’ statement:

“The implication is that there is no justification in scripture for the welcome of lesbian and gay people. It appears that he has moved into the conservative camp.”

Williams said that inclusion is not a value in itself, but welcome is. Jesus welcoms all as they are, but requires His followers to deny themselves and take up their cross. Based on what this article says, Williams seems to be taking an ideal stance on this issue: truth with love.

 

I Have Decided

Vox is my favorite. Thanks for the good times, WordPress. All my fans (*laugh*) come find me at my new blog, A Sociospiritual Oddity.

 

Dark Matter: a modern myth?

So-called “scientifically minded” people often discount God (especially in His Creator role) as the leftover beliefs of our ancestors who, unable to explain the universe around them, made up crazy stories. But is modern science engaged in this very thing?
Some scientists are now claiming to have found direct evidence of “Dark Matter,” a theoretical substance which astronomers made up in order to explain what they were seeing in the cosmos. From People’s Daily:

“Astronomers have known since the 1930s that most of the universe must be made up of something other than normal matter, which makes stars, planets, all things and creatures. It has been theorized that the universe must contain about five times more dark matter than normal matter given the way that galaxies move through space and scientists’ understanding of gravity.

But for the past 70 years, no one had any direct persuasive evidence that dark matter even exists, until a research team at the University of Arizona observed a galaxy cluster named 1E0657-56 with the Chandra telescope.” (emphasis added)

Supposedly, this phenomenon known as the Bullet Cluster got its bullet-shape from the collision of two galaxies. The scientists observing it claim to have found ‘evidence’ of their theoretical black stuff, but in the article, Dark Matter only appears as something already assumed to be there. Tell me if this makes perfect sense:

“The hot gas in this collision was slowed by a drag force similar to air resistance, the astronomer found. In contrast, the dark matter was not slowed by the impact, because it does not interact directly with itself or the gas except through gravity.”

To me, this doesn’t look like something I’d call ‘evidence,’ but rather another instance of inserting a scientific-sounding theory where there’s a shortage of real answers. Also, they are basing much of this on “scientists’ understanding of gravity” which is also full of theoretical ideas.

It’s also suspect to me how astronomers, solely by looking through their telescopes, are always able to tell how far away these celestial bodies are, precisely how fast they’re moving and which way, what exact materials they are made of, and what exactly they’ve been doing for the last few billion years.

What amazes me is that what scientists do know, as they state above, is that there must be something other than what we see in the universe; the very existence of what is here requires it–and requires that this unseen force be bigger than the universe itself. Sounds like you-know-Who.

I’m thinking of writing to the people at Webster’s with a definition for their next addition:

Scientific Theory – Something made up by someone who doesn’t believe in God.

 

Imprisoned by Prison Break

Okay, I didn’t watch this show at all last year. I saw plenty of promos and commercials, but I thought it looked lame. Then, when my friend M called me last week and invited me over to watch season 1 on DVD, though I sighed initially, I was quickly hooked.

I haven’t been this gripped by a television show since the X-Files, and now I think I am more so. This is a very intense, thoroughly well-done drama. All I can say is, I’m hooked. I just don’t know if I’ll survive having to watch one episode per week now, with commercials. Arrggh!