Instead of common thinking that our kids need to "sow their wild oats" when they are young, research suggests that the behaviors, addictions, and poor choices of our developmental years stay with us. God can always help us to overcome the baggage, but it's never an easy process.
Unfortunately more information has come out about Josh Duggar. The media loves to shred people and— using information from a website, specifically built to help people have affairs, that was hacked and published online— have jumped on the story of Josh Duggar having an affair. This is horrible and a major hit to his integrity has a Christian, even more for it to be happening in the public square. Often times, these things come out behind closed doors and families deal with them and no one ever hears a word.
We need to realize that this family needs our prayers more than anything. Our God is a god of mercy and grace, forgiveness and love. The desires of the Lord are that this marriage stay together, that forgiveness is sought and given. The lions are circling and waiting, pushing and prodding to make the opposite happen. We need to pray that this family circles around this young couple in prayer and as wise counsel.
As for us, we need to be reminded if our sin and the wages of sin over time when not confronted. Our children today are not only encountering sexual sin much earlier, but be encouraged by their elders to partake in it much earlier. We must talk with our children earlier than ever and warn them, coach them, and parent them. We will be the weird ones of the world, but we always have been.
None of us can afford to sit idly by. We must be diligent to coach our kids on healthy sexuality. We must tell them that it is precious, beautiful, and worth saving for marriage. We must share with them about the addictive dangers of porn. Beyond the "just say no" language of many, we have to have frequent, relevant and usually awkward conversations about what it looks like to choose God's best in a world that commonly chooses poorly.
When the victims have been buried, when the murderer has been tried and justice has been served, we will still be praying. We will pray for the survivors. We will pray for the families. We will pray for the community. We will pray for racial peace and harmony. We will pray because that’s what we were doing. We will pray because we will not be silenced until we take our dying breath. And we will pray that we’ll be faithful to the end just like the nine of Mother Emanuel.
It didn’t take long for those that turn everything into a political issue to come out of the woodworks, even after a shooting at a prominent, historical church in the South. Whether it be about race, guns, or some other agenda, the talking heads are jabbering.
As Christians, though, we know all to be wicked, all to be depraved without Christ. While the young man that killed 9 people last night might have had a specific reason for doing what he did, it is sin at the heart of the matter and our need of a savior that needs to be remembered. Depravity knows no bounds.
For the members of this church and the community, the friends and family, we need to pray that the faith of those that have passed will not end there. No, they are in their eternal home, at peace today. No more tears and no more sorrow. But their family will mourn, and rightfully so. Pray that these men and women and their faith will carry on.
Rev. Clementa Pinckney
Rev. Sharonda Singleton
Myra Thompson
Tywanza Sanders
Ethel Lee Lance
Cynthia Hurd
Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr.
Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor
Susie Jackson
These 9, 3 men and 6 women, need to be remembered. Pray for Charleston. Pray that the hearts of Man are turned from wickedness to the light.
Anyone that has had the audacity to challenge gay marriage or any other of the hot topic sins of our day has heard this repeatedly: bigot! What does it even mean? Not what you think it does, actually, as discussed many times before. As I said a couple months back, we should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. These words are used to end debate instead of encourage it. Instead of asking questions and seeking truth, our culture has shut off entire arguments with hateful, derogatory terms like bigot, racist, misogynist, homophobic, and more. Our culture has become slow to hear, quick to speak, and very quick to anger. Step out of line and your ass will be chewed out. This isn’t tolerance, far less cordial conversation.
Asked by Kelly if they thought the backlash against the family had been greater because of what they stood for, including their Christian beliefs, Jim Bob replied, “I think, you know what, Christianity is not about being perfect or about being a perfect family, but it’s actually about being forgiven….
“People on the outside think, ‘well Christians are supposed to be perfect…’ No, you know what, all of us as Christians we struggle every day.”
Christianity is not about being perfect, but about being forgiven. That deserves an “amen” where I come from.
This family needs our prayers, Christians. The media loves when it gets a story like this. They love ripping apart a family. We need to pray that they can stand in the storm, through the power of Christ.
Some people act as if it was the Duggar’s responsibility to have made this sad episode in their family public knowledge. They are to be praised for not hiding this from the appropriate parties and eventually the police, but they owed it to no one else to publicize the sins of a minor child and the court agrees with that assessment, the judge now ordering that the police report be destroyed. But the cat is already out of the bag. How many of you would broadcast the sins of your children to the whole world? Would you be willing to publicize your own darkest moments? It is miserable indeed that someone was willing to illegally obtain a police investigation involving minor children and publish it for whatever nefarious purpose they had in mind.
Great post from the father-in-law of Jessa Seewald (née Duggar) addressing the recent news about Josh Duggar. The media is swarming around this like flies.
Did Lena Dunham get this kind of outrage when she published a book including information about her sexually molesting her younger sister? No, in fact the media came to her defense.
The overreaction to incidents like this only serves to reinforce sexual shame in our culture. “It makes many adults ashamed of what was very normal sexual play in their childhood,” she says. “And it makes people buy into this idea that children themselves aren’t sexual, which is totally wrong.”
The media claimed that her groping her sister’s genitalia was normal childhood play, but the same publication says this of Josh Duggar:
“This is why I never use softening, minimizing language,” Field writes. “I say assault and rape and abuse. And, if it comes to light that Josh digitally penetrated his victims, I’m going to start saying Joshua Duggar is a rapist.”
So if feminist hero Lena Dunham “digitally penetrates” her sister, it is “normal sexual play,” but if right-wing Christian Josh Duggar does so he is a rapist. Got it. And we are the hypocrites. Christians say that both are wrong. Horribly wrong. In the case of Dunham, she plays it off as normal and shameless. In the case of Duggar, he seeks help from the Church and forgiveness from his victims and the incidents were reported to the authorities.
Here’s the thing. We all have a sin problem. Often times we make mistakes that directly affect others. While sexual sins are often considered the worst, we must recognize that as Christ has forgiven our sins, so must we forgive others. If things are the way they appear to have been, 14-year-old Josh Duggar made some bad choices. Instead of taking this public and ruining his life, the family dealt with it in a biblical manner, seeking wise council and help from the Church. Forgiveness was sought and given. This was now 10 years ago.
As a church, we should applaud the way that this was dealt with– if this proves to be accurate— and see this as a model way of running our families when sin rears it’s ugly head.
We should also, as a church, pray for this family in this hard time. The world loves to drag out our sins and call us hypocrites. It makes it all the more important for Christians to publicly declare that we are not perfect, sinless, Jesus freaks. No, we are broken, weary men and women that have recognized our need of a savior. We need to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters that they stay strong under this attack and show what Christ would want.
If evangelical Christianity is growing, or at the very least remaining steady, why is Christianity as a whole shrinking and why are those who claim no religious affiliation increasing at such a rapid rate? In short, nominals — people whose religious affiliation is in name only — are becoming nones — people who check "none of the above" box on a survey.
Those who value their faith enough to wake up on Sunday morning and head to their local church are mostly still going. What I have described as "convictional Christianity" will continue. Those who say their faith is very important to their lives are not suddenly jettisoning those beliefs to become atheists.
This makes sense in regards to what Glenn Beck said yesterday:
It’s no surprise people are saying, “Christian, I’m not Christian.” Why would you call yourself Christian? Those numbers continue to dwindle for good reason. You define yourself as a Christian, and you’re going to be defined by society as narrow-minded, hateful, judgmental.
Believing marriage between a man and woman used to be ammunition or still is used as ammunition to say you hate gays.
Saying prayer in school is akin to forcing nonbelievers to conform against their will.
Teaching intelligent design is literally likened to child abuse now, mocked as anti-science.
Virginity is mocked.
Being pro-life is being spun as a war on women
So growing up today as a millennial, that is damn near impossible. Who would intentionally put themselves in a crowd that society has deemed anti-gay, anti-women, anti-science? I mean, sign me up. It’s a harder sell to young people in a culture that bombards them with anti-Christian messaging, but I honestly don’t think that’s the problem. I think that’s part of the problem, but I don’t think that’s the real problem.
Those that in the past have identified as Christians because of a cultural affiliation— grew up going to church and still attend a couple times a year— are seeing what Christians are associated with today and are being forthright and honest: they’re atheists or agnostics. People are not leaving the Church in troves, they are just being honest that they are not Christians and likely never were. That said, evangelical Christianity is on the rise, though marginally. “[W]eekly religious attendance as a percentage of the U.S. population is about where it was in the 1940s.” Nothing to see here except news fodder, people. Nothing to see.
It’s no surprise people are saying, “Christian, I’m not Christian.” Why would you call yourself Christian? Those numbers continue to dwindle for good reason. You define yourself as a Christian, and you’re going to be defined by society as narrow-minded, hateful, judgmental.
Believing marriage between a man and woman used to be ammunition or still is used as ammunition to say you hate gays.
Saying prayer in school is akin to forcing nonbelievers to conform against their will.
Teaching intelligent design is literally likened to child abuse now, mocked as anti-science.
Virginity is mocked.
Being pro-life is being spun as a war on women
So growing up today as a millennial, that is damn near impossible. Who would intentionally put themselves in a crowd that society has deemed anti-gay, anti-women, anti-science? I mean, sign me up. It’s a harder sell to young people in a culture that bombards them with anti-Christian messaging, but I honestly don’t think that’s the problem. I think that’s part of the problem, but I don’t think that’s the real problem.
All great reasons, but then he points out how from the outside we appear to be hypocritical, argumentative, and worse. One might agree or disagree, but this point is solid:
The reason for this is, as every believer knows, we’re all human beings. We’re all flawed. We’re all liars and cheats and thieves to some extent. We’re at church, at least I am, because it’s a hospital. It’s a spiritual hospital, and we don’t recognize it as that.
I’ve made this point as often as I can, but again we should always make people aware. I am not perfect. I am not righteous, pious, or good. I am the wretch the song refers to. That is why I go to church. That is why I need Jesus Christ. Yes, my faith is a crutch. The difference between the Christian and the sinner is that the Christian recognizes that leaning on Christ is better than hobbling around all day. We are not better than anyone and we don’t want people to follow our lead. We want them to follow our leader, Jesus Christ.
