Fortify Your Faith Blog

Gay Marriage Field Trip

One of the biggest issues on the California ballot this year is no doubt Proposition 8.

And yes … it will affect you in other states thanks to the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution.

The pro-homo wedding crowd has been running ads saying the pro-marriage ads are full of lies. That it won’t affect what your child is taught in school.

Here is one such ad the gays are saying is full of lies.

What’s the truth?

One little example. That big mouth, Gavin Newsome, performed a gay wedding this morning.

And guess what. A local school brought their first grade class on a field trip to participate in the wedding.

Here’s the story.

Emergency Broadcast: Assault on Families

Just received this video by email. It is a must see for all families concerned about the coming assault on our children.

It’s time to take the gloves off!

News From Polishing The Pulpit

I am in Sevierville, TN for the Polishing The Pulpit workshop.

This is my first time attending this event and so far it has been absolutely excellent.

The different sessions are practical and well planned.

Earlier I was able to attend the session by Matt Vega on Legal Issues in the church. His coverage and practical advice was excellent … especially his emphasis on the beginning for Christian mediation and arbitration. His coverage of current legal issues and protections were excellent as well.

I am currently in the session by Alan Highers on the Protestant Reformation. There is a real need to understand church history and its contribution to the religious landscape of today.

More later …

4 Quick Tips

Here are 4 quick tips I recorded with my screen cam video.

1 is an explanation why something doesn’t work.

1 is a pointer to another freebie.

1 is an improvement that many have been requesting.

1 is a helpful tip on the secret to finding what you want.

Enjoy.

NOTE: You must press the play arrow button on the video to play.

HOME-SCHOOLING: Teens challenged to do hard things

Michael Smith of the HSLDA writes in a Washington Times op-ed:

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “teenager”? For many, it is not positive.

Teenage rebellion has become commonplace, and our culture has responded by expecting less and less of teenagers. But is teenage rebellion inevitable, or are there new ways of thinking that could address the problem? Responsibility for teenage rebellion and underperformance must fall primarily at the feet of parents and other adults. This is because …

Here is the link to read the whole story.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/27/teens-challenged-to-do-hard-things/

Oldest New Testament Bible heads into cyberspace

Thanks to Sheila Cole for sending in this news tip.

More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.

From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide.

High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on www.codex-sinaiticus.net as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.

Are Your Teens Stripping For The Homeless?

Are you afraid your children will be labeled as nerds, wannabes, out-of-step, or uncool?

Then you’ve got big problems.

Nicholas and Matthew are home schooled. We’ve never doubted that decision.

But it’s good to be reassured.

Kristen Fyfe reminds us of the culture war that is broiling among America’s youth.

The Culture War is Being Waged in the Hearts and Minds of America’s Teens

Ms. Fyfe documents a number of startling statistics.

• One out of three girls in the United States get pregnant before age 20
• 38 percent of high school students have used marijuana
• 4,600 young people (ages 10 to 24) commit suicide each year
• 4 million teens contract a sexually transmitted disease each year
• 4 percent of high school students have used methamphetamines
• 8 percent of high school students have been physically forced to have sexual intercourse
• 17 percent of U.S. adolescents ages 12 to 19 are overweight
• 65 percent of high school students do not get enough exercise

Even more shocking is the recent national media campaign encouraging your teen to video himself/herself performing a strip-tease (full nudity not okay … but who’s in charge of censoring) as a way of raising donations for homeless youths.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on this exploitation of the worst kind in Striptease clothing drive enrages local charities

There are those who will complain, “Why post all this bad news?”

Folks, it’s time to wake up and realize … we have to make drastic choices.

Start eliminating media influence in your home.

“And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:16-17).

How About Some Good News

Okay, here’s the good news.

“When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there’s no place like home.”

In Ken Connor’s No Place Like Home, we see proof that those who “check out” of the government system of social engineering are getting better results—academically and behaviorally.

Abraham Lincoln reportedly said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.” If that’s true, let’s hope that in the future our government will be populated with plenty of homeschool grads.

What’s Taking So Long

Somebody wrote in to ask, “What’s taking so long?” about adding features and opening up the audio section, etc.

Because there are too many days like today. I’m spending hours of productive time trying to figure out why our internet isn’t working in the office.

Arrrrrrrrgh!

Hopefully we’ll be back online soon. Because I really needed to fix (improve) a change I made over the weekend.

The Real Agenda Behind “Gay” Marriage

While a lot of people are opposed in theory to the normalization of gay marriage, some are rather passive about this dangerous trend.

The real agenda behind the “gay” marriage lobby is to not only get acceptance for their pathetic lifestyle, but to get the government to back a wave of persecution against Christianity.

Here is what Chuck Colson of Breakpoint says:

It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else.

That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church.

As my friend Jennifer Roback Morse notes in the National Catholic Register, “Legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy . . . Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes.”

The bad news is these changes affect other liberties we take for granted, such as religious freedom and private property rights. Several recent cases give us a sobering picture of what we can expect if we do not actively embrace—and even promote—same-sex “marriage.”

You can read the rest of his article here: The Coming Persecution

By the way, it’s already starting.

Newsmax.com is reporting that one homosexual is suing Bible publishers for emotional distress and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, a gay man, claims his constitutional rights were infringed upon by Zondervan Publishing Co. and Thomas Nelson Publishing, both of which, he claims, deliberately caused homosexuals to suffer by misinterpretation of the Bible.

Bible Publishers Sued for Anti-Gay References

What can you do? You can let your voice be heard. Speak out. The wishy-washy politicians making policy are afraid of one thing only … the vocal citizen.

The ‘gay’ lobby knows this and is loud and in their faces.

My Redeemer Lives

I just got this in an email. What a remarkable contrast to the world’s model of the value of a single person.

What will a father do for his son?

A son asked his father, “Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?”

The father who, despite having a heart condition, says “Yes.”

They went on to complete the marathon together.

Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying “Yes” to his son’s request of going through the race together.

One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together’.

To which, his father said ‘Yes’ to.

For those who didn’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Father and son went on to complete the race together.

View this:

The Myth About Abortion and Crime

John R. Lott, Jr. debunks the myth proposed by elitists that abortion is actually good for society because it eliminates “unwanted” children who would just otherwise grow up to be little criminals.

It just hit me just how twisted the elitists are. They
are all for killing someone not yet born because they are likely to grow up to be criminals.

But should the unwanted child actually survive to his teenage years and beyond into adulthood, and rape a little girl (as per the recent Supreme Court decision), he shouldn’t be punished.

I think one of the most appalling arguments for abortion I have ever heard was made be H. Ross Perot in his 1992 presidential campaign. I remember that he supported abortion because it eliminated a criminal element from society that we would otherwise have to spend tax dollars to incarcerate.

Purely economics.

The Myth About Abortion and Crime by John R. Lott, Jr. thoroughly debunks the theory that society benefits from abortion.

In fact, a careful analysis reveals just the opposite.

“Legalizing abortion increased crime. Those born in the four years after Roe were much more likely to commit murder than those born in the four years prior. This was especially true when they were in their “criminal prime” ... Even if abortion did lower crime by culling out “unwanted” children (a conclusion derived from flawed statistics), this effect would be greatly outweighed by the rise in crime associated with the greater incidence of single-parent families that also follows from abortion liberalization. In short, more abortions have brought more crime.

Chuck Norris Documents America’s Founding Creationists

I recently came across this article by Chuck Norris.

America’s Founding Creationists

It is well written and contains several good quotations from America’s founding fathers and their views on creation.

Colorado Passes “Transgender” Protection Law

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Signs Transgender Bill

In the quadrennial marathon to see who can be the nation’s worst governor, Colorado’s Bill Ritter is in a full sprint. On Thursday, Ritter signed Senate Bill 200 which expands “anti-discrimination” law to cover sexual orientation, meaning not only homosexuality or bisexuality, but also “transgender status or another person’s perception thereof.”

George Carlin Remembered

In this article, Brent Bozell offers an objective presentation of who George Carlin really was.

Remembering George Carlin

Come On Down To The Farm

Here is a funny video in response to current events.

Thanks to Phil Rembleski for sending it in.

Bad Hair Day

Okay, after I recorded this video for the 5th time and got it ready to upload, it was too late. It looks like I’ve been pulling on my hair. Anyway, I went to get a haircut after work.

By the way, one guy was offended that this video wasn’t really about my hair. I guess it wasn’t bad enough for him. Instead, it is an instructional video about how to download a free book.

Oh, well. I guess perception is everything. I’m the one who looks at my hair every day. Looked bad to me.

So if you’re more interested in seeing my bad hair than making sure you are able to download a free book that hundreds of other people are EXTREMELY happy about getting … please, stop reading right now and go do something else.

Also, I realize this video is formatted a little wide for this layout, but I wanted you to be able to see what I was doing.

Take care,

Jared

P.S. – Here’s the link to visit from the video.

Download Free Book

Heinz Pulls ‘Gay’ Mayonnaise Ad

With the recent overturn of California’s ban on ‘gay’ marriage, corporate homosexuals are beginning to flex their muscles.

They have positioned themselves in places of power. Recently in England, they ran the following TV ad for Heinz New York Deli Mayonnaise.

At first I thought it was only a video made by a contestant in a recent contest.

But no, this ad actually ran in England and received quite some protest. The ONLY way to turn back the tide is to let your voice be heard.

• Heinz Pulls Mayonnaise Ad Over Gay Kiss Furore
• Heinz ad pushes gay marriage and family, features homosexuals kissing

UPDATE: CA Homos Threaten Religious Freedom

Alliance Defense Fund reports on Friday’s lawsuit by homosexuals trying to prevent the California Marriage Protection Act from appearing on the ballot this November.

In May, the California Supreme Court nullified the will of 61 percent of California voters by striking down Proposition 22, that state’s Defense of Marriage Act (supported by 4.6 million Californians in March 2000).

Now, more than a million Californians have signed a petition to put the California Marriage Protection Act onto the ballot in November, 2008.

But homosexuals filed a lawsuit on Friday to prevent Californians from voting on the volatile issue.

What are they afraid of?

At the same time, those who do not support so-called “gay” marriage are being punished.

One New Mexico photographer, who refused based on religious conviction to photograph a lesbian “wedding,” was fined $6,600.

Then this for churches. What will you do when a “gay” couple want to be “married” in your worship facilities?

Last summer, one religious organization refused a “gay wedding” at one of its facilities. They were placed under investigation for a violation of civil rights by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office.

How far will they go?

What Are They Smokin’ in Gloucester, MA?

What are they smokin’ in Gloucester, MA?

Seventeen teenage girls (sixteen and under) are pregnant. And more are on the way.

TIME Magazine is reporting that the girls all made a pact to get pregnant and “raise their babies together.”

One of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless fellow.

Some are blaming recent movies and Hollywood icons for “glamorizing young unwed moms.”

Others just shake their heads and blame it on rampant stupidity.

New Release for ChristianCourier.com

Yesterday I released a major update to the ChristianCourier.com web site. This release was a long time in coming with more than 100 revisions. However, once released a bunch of bugs surfaced. Fortunately, I was able to patch several critical ones last night.

Most of today was spent working on replacing the search engine. A critical word in software development is “dependencies.” You find out quickly that a whole bunch of stuff is dependent on other stuff that is dependent on other stuff. One by one, you have to resolve these issues until everything is working again.

I hope to have the search engine back online soon.

In the mean time, you can search using google.

Type in the google search box:

holy spirit site:christiancourier.com

You should get usable search results.

Survey Says …

Hi folks,

Last week I posted a link to a survey asking my FYF Priority readers about who should have access to the new FortifyYourFaith.org web site.

Thank you to every one who participated in the survey. The feedback I received was VERY helpful in making a decision about how to proceed with the development of FortifyYourFaith.org.

Here are the results from our FortifyYourFaith.org membership survey.

• 4.1% said that the site should only be accessible by those who are currently monthly supporters of the Christian Courier.
• 11.5% said that the site should be strictly limited on a subscription basis.
• 84.4% said that it should be available on a subscription basis AND to monthly supporters.

Your voice is loud and clear. And I will proceed as dictated by the survey.

I will be releasing more details on how this will be implemented within the next week or so.

Other News

By the way, if you are a long-time reader of the Christian Courier on the web, you may remember when we used to post news items on the home page.

Well, I have decided to revive that feature (it was very popular), but on the FYF.org web site. In fact, right here on this blog. Check out some of the latest posts in the Blog box to the left.

Well, back to coding.

Agenda For The Week

As my main goal for this week, I will be deploying an updated version of the main ChristianCourier.com web site. I still have several coding items to finish up, but it should be ready to go soon.

Second goal will be finalizing the FortifyYourFaith.org subscription model based on our recent survey. Results will be emailed today.

Third is to add more content to FortifyYourFaith.org.

Fourth, get the printed Courier proofed for July.

You Just Don’t Know Whether To Be Happy Or Sad

Sometimes you come across an article and you just don’t know whether you should be happy … or sad.

Such is the case with this article.

Baby Survives Abortion, Expected to Live ‘Normal’ Life

My sons frequently ask us to rehearse their “birth stories” to them. We tell them of how we could see them roll around in mommy’s tummy. We tell them of how I would talk to them at night. All those good memories.

I wonder if this mom will explain, “Well, when you were in my tummy, I thought you might get sick and die. And that made me sad. So I decided to kill you … so I wouldn’t have to suffer through that again. But you survived. So I decided to keep you.”

It’s gotta be just a couple notches below telling a kid, “You were an accident.”

I Need Your Help

Hi folks,

Things are moving along. I am only a few solid days of coding away from opening this site up for initial user access.

When I initially announced this site on the FYFNews mailing list several months back, I said that I needed only about 50 testers. I immediately received email from more than 320 readers who wanted to among the first to test this new site.

In the meantime, I had hired a fellow to do most of the programming. I learned through that process that hiring a software contractor is much like hiring any other contractor.

The time frame went 6 weeks beyond what we had originally agreed to, and it didn’t work exactly as I needed. Partly my fault for not being as specific as I should have been. But even the code that was delivered didn’t work.

The contractor finally delivered working code. But I am still rewriting it to work as I intended. So far, everything on this site is 100% my work.

Anyway, I have come to a bottleneck and need your input. I am having a difficult time deciding how to proceed.

Here’s the dilemma.

This is going to be a subscription based web site. The monthly subscription fee will help fund our work and cover the expenses related to this web site.

The dilemma is that we have many who are already supporting us on a monthly basis. It is my intention to provide this web site as a gift to those already supporting our work.

But, should new users be required to be supporters also? Or should there be a simple subscription rate?

I have decided to punt the question to you.

Please use the link below to have your say in how we proceed. I will tally up the results by Monday and let you know what the group decision is.

Okay, here’s the link.

Click here to let your voice be heard.

Still Plugging Away

Just a quick update.

I’ve been working for several days on some of the back end programming. Tough stuff. Anyway, I hope to be able to have some initial testing ready very soon.

New Blog Panel

I was able to add a panel in the left-hand sidebar. You would not believe how something so small can eat up hours of programming time to solve one small problem or provide one small feature.

Anyway, I will be keep you updated on the progress using this blog.

As soon as possible, I will be opening up the site for limited testing. When I first announced that I would be developing an audio web site, I said that I would need about 50 testers to put the site through its paces.

We are nearing that point very soon. It has taken longer than I anticipated, mainly because some of the programming was being hired out. That part is finally done (6 weeks overdue).

As soon as I get a few more knotty problems taken care of, I will be sending out a note to my volunteer testers. I still want to keep it around 50 people, and there will be some requirements. So stay tuned.

Welcome to Fortify Your Faith

Hi there.

Welcome to FortifyYourFaith.org.

This is the new media web site for ChristianCourier.com.

As you can see, we are still in construction. But with any luck, we’ll be completely functional before very long.

Feel free to look around. More than likely, you’ll find things that don’t work. And some that do.

That’s it for now.