Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

CHRIS RUFO - "THE REAL STORY BEHIND DRAG QUEEN STORY HOUR"

Here's a 10 minute video full of insight and history.  Definitely worth your time.

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1750177876778143972

ROD DREHER AND THE STATE OF OUR TIMES

It's important to keep reading Rod Dreher.  I do not have time to offer additional or better comments on the three posts listed below, but perhaps I can do so at a later time.  Each is important reading.

 --  Here is a post on Trump's evangelical support and it's pervasive pessimism -- which reflects my own thinking.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/evangelicals-trump-shield-2020/

--  See also this on the religion of the New York Times:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/new-york-times-editorial-staff-meeting-racism-oberlin-faculty-senate/

And this on progressive education in California - https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/california-to-become-yugoslavia-ethnic-studies/

QUICK TAKES

From the Drudge Report:

-- Millennials looking to fix overpiercing, remove tattoos...

-- Pakistan airline mocked for goat sacrifice...

-- Title IX is “bureaucratic sex creep” gone wild

-- Hopeless Afghan struggle to save boy sex slaves...

From other sorces:

-- New York Times staff less diverse than Trump’s cabinet

-- IN PICTURES: WHAT AN ISLAMIC SUICIDE BOMBING LOOKS LIKE

QUOTES OF THE DAY

  Western powers have been fighting jihad for more than 1,300 years — but for the American trained in cultural relativism and silly university ideals of diversity, reality can be so shocking that it’s simply easier and more satisfying to deny its existence.  - David French

   Western elites remain constitutionally unable to acknowledge that there are greater forces of evil in the world than the West itself.  - Heather MacDonnald

   The sexual revolution. . .  is the centerpiece of a new orthodoxy and new morality that elevates pleasure and self-will to first principles. This has become, in effect, a rival religion.  - Mary Eberstadt

AMY AND LEON KASS - AN ATTEMPT TO REVIVE COURTSHIP

Two years ago Bill Kristol interviewed Amy and Leon Kass, wise and well-read leaders of Great Books discussion-type courses at the University of Chicago and elsewhere.  I found the conversation below worth my time listening to.  (I just discovered that Bill Kristol has a whole list of interesting conversations available for viewing).  Back in 2001 I remember President Bush chose Leon Kass to head up his Presidential Council on Bioethics.  I greatly respected Leon Kass' high regard for human life and therefore his out-of-favor position on embryonic stem cell research.  Consequently he has always loomed in my mind as one of the "good guys" of the modern era.  (A few years ago I was intrigued to see that he published a "big book" on The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (2006) in which he adopts a philosophical rather than a theological approach to Genesis.  I am finding it rewarding as I make my way through it).  

Below at the 43:50 to 1:19 spot one can listen in on a discussion of Amy and Leon's course on "courtship"    They subsequently produced a collection of readings related to the course titled Wing to Wing; Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying (2000).  It cemented in my mind the important role literature plays in the education of the sentiments.   

 

One reviewer  of Wing to Wing wrote:

“Reading this book is the next best thing to gaining a coveted seat in one of the University of Chicago seminars taught by Amy and Leon Kass. In an era when fashionable opinion speaks of courting and marrying in ironic tones or not at all, the Kasses do something unfashionable. They put us in touch with thinkers, past and present, who treat the task of finding and winning a marriage mate for what it is: a pursuit central to human life and happiness. At a time when young people are floundering and failing in their search for the right person to marry, this splendid selection of readings comes not a minute too soon.” —Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, author of The Divorce Culture: Rethinking Our Commitments to Marriage and the Family (1997)

Sean McMeekin wrote a personal essay on courtship based on the book.  Excerpts:

COLOGNE AND THE ISLAMIC DIVINE SANCTION OF THE RAPE OF NON-MUSLIM WOMEN

Robert Spencer instructs how the Muslim sex assaults in Cologne [latest report here] involved behavior sanctioned in Islamic teachings in his article, "The Migrant Sex Assaults: Uncovered Meat."

Not a single mainstream news outlet has identified the approximately 1,000 men who congregated by the main train station in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve and raped and sexually assaulted hundreds of women -- or their counterparts who did the same thing in Zurich, Helsinki, and elsewhere -- as Muslims. But there is little doubt that they were indeed Muslim, since they have been identified as migrants and most of the migrants are Muslims.

Most importantly, identifying the attackers as Muslim leads directly to understanding the attacks themselves, because the attackers were acting in accord with Islamic teachings.

Sexual assault plagues all cultures -- but only in Islam is it given divine sanction.

In 2006, then-Grand Mufti of Australia Taj Din al-Hilali sparked a controversy when he said:

  If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.

He was referring to women who get raped:

If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.

Al-Hilali further complained that judges in the West were too tough on young Muslims charged with sexual assault and rape, since unveiled Western women “sway suggestively”:

 

JOSH DUGGAR'S VICTIMS SPEAK OUT

What Duggar's sisters say may surprise you.  I found it an eye-opener.  It looks to me like the tabloids and media have hyped and distorted the story (out of a desire to smear a Christian family?) and not taken into consideration the victims, the subsequent remedies, and legal confidentiality.  John Jalsevac has written, "Dear Duggar critics: You can stop pretending to care about the victims now."  (This interview took place on 6/5/15).

 

CAN MEN FORM DEEP BONDS WITH OTHER MEN WITHOUT BEING LABELED HOMOSEXUAL?

Eric Metaxas has written a timely article that piggy-backs on other observations concerning the fear of men being accused of being gay if they form tight bonds with other men.  Metaxas writes:

LISTEN NOW | DOWNLOAD

 In January 1944, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in a Gestapo prison. He passed the time by writing, and in one of many letters to his dear friend Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer tenderly reflected on what Bethge meant to him.

Back then his missives didn’t raise eyebrows. They sounded like those of so many before him who, in moments of triumph and trial, had taken their greatest joy in the love of a friend of the same sex.

Of course, times have changed. Years after Bonhoeffer’s death, while speaking publicly about their friendship, Bethge found himself facing an awkward question:

Surely, said one audience member, your friendship with Dietrich “must [have been] a homosexual partnership.” How else could Bethge explain the startling affection Bonhoeffer had for him?

Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s friendship was not an isolated victim of this kind of revisionism. Modern readers seem to be on a virtual crusade to open every closet in history.

Thus, we’re told, the bachelor Abraham Lincoln was obviously gay because he shared a bed with his best friend (a practice that was common with both sexes at that time). Ditto William Shakespeare, who wrote love sonnets for an unnamed male friend. The biblical David, who lamented Jonathan’s death, calling his friend’s love “finer than the love of women” was plainly gay, too, the reasoning goes. And the Apostle John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” has sparked speculation of his own.

You see, to the modern eye, all close love is sexual love. Deep friendship, especially between men, gives us an uneasy feeling. This leaves modern men with a tough choice: They can risk being pegged as gay for forming deep friendships with each other, or they can give up on making friends and just have “bros.”

ONE'S POSITION ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE MIRRORS OTHER BELIEFS

lISTEN NOW | DOWNLOAD

John Stonestreet writes:     

There are some Christians who, for understandable though mistaken reasons, believe that their fellow Christians should support or at least not oppose same-sex marriage.

Implicit in this position is the belief that supporting same-sex marriage is a position that can be held in isolation—that what you believe about the definition of marriage is unrelated to other issues regarding marriage and human sexuality.

Well, according to sociologist Mark Regnerus, that simply is not the case.

In a recent article at “The Public Discourse” Regnerus asked the question, “What is the sexual and relational morality of Christians who accept the moral legitimacy of same-sex marriages?”

To answer that question, he looked at data from a recent survey of nearly 16,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 60 entitled “relationships in America.” People responded to statements about viewing pornography, cohabitation, casual sex, divorce, adultery, polyamory, and abortion.

Regnerus compared the responses of five groups: churchgoing Christians who oppose same-sex marriage, churchgoing Christians who support it, the general population, and both gay and lesbian Christians and non-Christians.

What he found was eye-opening. A significant percentage of churchgoing Christians who supported same-sex marriage either agreed or strongly agreed with statements that approved of things like using pornography, cohabitation, casual sex, and abortion rights.

Surprise: Pro-Gay-Marriage Christians Reject the Rest of Christian Teaching about Sex and Marriage, Too

Andrew Walker reports on National Review Online:

Over at the Public Discourse, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus offers a preview of forthcoming data revealing how support for or opposition to same-sex marriage shapes a person’s larger worldview and beliefs about sexuality.

He asks: “What is the sexual and relational morality of Christians who accept the moral legitimacy of same-sex marriages?”

His data from the forthcoming Relationships in America Survey reveals an interesting, if not totally unexpected result: that church-attending Christians who support same-sex marriage look more worldly and less Christian. Churchgoing Christians who support same-sex marriage also register support for other beliefs about sexuality that Christianity has historically considered taboo.

According to Regnerus, churchgoing Christians (who were comparably much fewer in number as a pool of respondents), register much higher support for pornography, cohabitation, casual sex, and higher support than the general population for abortion rights.

Regnerus’ sampling method is worthy of praise. In contrast to blithe surveys that merely report the opinions of all those who identify with a particular religious affiliation regardless of observance, Regnerus does the important work of determining what those in the pews actually believe. A political poll that didn’t differentiate between likely and unlikely voters wouldn’t be an accurate representation of the electorate, and for the same reasons, a survey should distinguish between someone who merely answers “Catholic” or “Baptist” when asked for a religious identity and someone who actually shows up on Sunday.

SUPERBOWL HALFTIME - PURITY OUT THE WINDOW

I didn't watch the  Superbowl halftime program.  In fact I just got in on the final 3 minutes of the game, the most exciting part.  But knowing what I know of contemporary American culture, I have every confidence John Stonestreet got it right when he writes in Beyonce and the Super Bowl:

Rachel Campos-Duffy, a blogger on the Today Show’s “Moms” site, described Monday how watching the Super Bowl like millions of other families turned into a “parenting challenge” when the halftime show began.

That’s putting the performance of Beyonce and her similarly half-dressed dancers mildly. The hyper-sensual show left Mrs. Campos-Duffy’s kids with a quizzical look on their faces. The eight-year-old simply said, “She looks weird.”

If only all our kids were so confused. But sadly, so many of them are thoroughly familiar with sexuality packaged as music and performance. As Campos-Duffy wryly observed, “I half-expected a stripper pole to pop out of the platform, which was actually staged to look like a peep show.” Well, the commercial for the CBS sitcom “Broke Girls” that immediately followed half-time featured just that—a stripper-pole.

I mean, this was the Super Bowl, for cryin’ out loud. CBS and the NFL knew very well children and families would be watching. And what they gave America with this performance and many of the commercials was another chapter in the ongoing sexualization of American culture—and of our kids.

GETTING CAUGHT UP ON WINTERY KNIGHT POSTS

I scanned recent posts from Wintery Knight and wish to highlight the following:

     - How to respond to an atheist who complains about slavery in the Bible

     - Can atheists be moral?  Sean McDowell and James Corbett - debate-2

     - Jennifer Roback Morse lectures on sex and sexuality at Harvard University

"SHACKING UP" IS A TERRIBLE IDEA IF PERMANENT MARRIAGE IS ON YOUR MIND

La Shawn Barber writes in World Magazine: [my emphases]

The web is buzzing about an opinion article published by "The New York Times" last Saturday. “The Downside to Cohabitating Before Marriage” has been one of the most emailed and among the most viewed articles on the Times’ website this week, although it contains nothing new or groundbreaking. It merely confirms what most know or suspect: Living together before marriage increases the risk of divorce.

The Times article that Barber cites speaks of "Jennifer" who said she felt like she was on a “multiyear, never-ending audition to be his wife.”  Meg Jay, the clinical psychologist and author of the Times piece, says

“Women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone commitment, and this gender asymmetry is associated with negative interactions and lower levels of commitment even after the relationship progresses to marriage. One thing men and women do agree on … their standards for a live-in partner are lower than they are for a spouse.”

Hmm...  Yes.  

Barber has more to say on the different ways men and women view "cohabitation" (the euphemism for "shacking up"):

No offense to the men in the audience, but honestly, is anyone surprised that men tend to view living together without the benefit of marriage as a way to postpone marriage? Or that women, with their romantic notions, tend to view living together as a sort of marriage gamble, or a foot in the door, so to speak?

Hmmm.  "A foot in the door."  Yes, that makes sense, especially for a woman with marriage on her mind.

Barber cites Dr. Laura Schlessinger, radio host and marriage and family therapist, who

gets irritated when women call in to her program to complain that their shack-up boyfriends are seeing other women or aren’t treating them well. Schlessinger asks: Why shouldn’t he see other women? There is no commitment. The caller is just the “shack-up honey,” an “unpaid whore.” Schlessinger speaks roughly to make a point: Two people living and sleeping together outside marriage should not expect to be treated as a wife or a husband. There are no vows to be faithful, to honor, or to cherish.

Tough words.  Great point. 

Then there's the matter of children:

[...] Children in cohabiting homes are much more likely to suffer abuse than children in intact, married families or single-parent families. Adults can play house, but children need intact homes and a mother and father who love them.

Me: Read the whole article.  Commitment equals security, and represents the starting point in learning how to love, which is the whole point of the Christian life.

Update:

My friend Wintery Knight offers his usual tough-minded, realistic comments on the New York Times article.  He says, first quoting the Times article:

ERIC METAXES: "SPEAKING ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY: NO STONE THROWING"

I was sad to read this morning that Chuck Colson's family has been called to his bedside as he has taken a turn for the worse.  What a valiant, dedicated, inspiring life Colson has lived.  While Chuck has been in ICU after an operation to remove a pool of clotted blood on the surface of his brain, Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet have been filling in producing Breakpoint radio spots.  Eric Metaxes speaks well today on how easy it is to fall into a Pharisaical trap regarding opposition to same-sex behaviors.  You can listen here- Download

Or click through to read the transcript.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

On putting same-sex marriage, and heterosexual anarchy, and the destruction of society in proper perspective -

It isn’t completely true to say same-sex “marriage” will destroy civilization. Sexual brokenness and the collapse of marriage in any form destroy civilization. No-fault divorce, cohabitation, sexual addictions all undermine marriage. Heterosexual brokenness is just as dehumanizing as homosexual brokenness. As the old saying goes, “there are many ways to fall down, but only way to stand straight.”  - Charles Colson

QUICK TAKES

Items:

 - New paper in medical ethics journal argues for infanticide  - ( and it's not the first)  Memo: beware of "Bioethics" and "Medical ethics."  Contrary to expectations, quite often such forums employ high-flown rhetoric to justify the horrific.  Update:  Journal defends its publication of an article advocating "after-birth abortion"

- William J. Broad in NY Times - Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here  Broad writes:  

The wholesome image of  yoga took a hit in the past few weeks as a rising star of the discipline came tumbling back to earth. After accusations of sexual impropriety with female students, John Friend, the founder of Anusara, one of the world’s fastest-growing styles, told followers that he was stepping down for an indefinite period of “self-reflection, therapy and personal retreat.”  Seems he had a penchant for women. 

Read the article for a summary of former high-fliers in the yoga world who have crashed.

            - Did Obama ignore plea for help from Iranian opposition in 2009?  Final sentence:

Obama had no hesitation in demanding the ouster of nominal ally Hosni Mubarak just eight days after protests erupted in Egypt.  He still hasn’t demanded the ouster of the mullahs of Iran.

- Wyoming House advances doomsday bill  (Update 2/29/12) - Doomsday bill killed by legislators

FORM AND FUNCTION IN HUMAN SEXUALITY

Regis Nicoll's exellent article, God Made Me Gay, begins:

It includes celebrities (Ellen DeGeneres, Ricky Martin, Clay Aiken), politicians (Rep. Barney Frank, Gov. Jim McGreevey, John Berry), and Christian artists like Jennifer Knapp and Ray Boltz. It is the growing group of high-profile people who have broken the silence about their homosexuality. Many of their stories share telling similarities. . . .

... Setting aside the moral arguments about same-sex desire, from physiological considerations alone, it is disordered because it is contrary to the function its “form” is intended to serve.

Human sexuality is uniquely designed to satisfy an essential biological purpose: reproduction. In a very real way, when a husband and wife come together they form a single biological unit through their “hand-in-glove” complementarity. It is a function that same-sex individuals are incapable of accomplishing. They can only transmogrify the sex act to indulge in sensual gratification.

Sex involves pleasure but, as C.S. Lewis once pointed out, that is no more the purpose of sex than it is the purpose of eating. In both cases, sensual enjoyment is the byproduct of functions that are indispensible to life and the continuation of the species.

Nicoll covers a lot more ground, and he does it well. 

HAPPY ANONYMOUS FATHER'S DAY

Maggie Gallagher at NRO links to the video and says:  "A moving video on children who do not know, maybe cannot ever know, the man whose child they are."

 

ROSS DOUTHAT - "WEINER'S NARCISSISM: A STORY OF THE INTERNET AGE"

  Useful analysis.

  Update 6/16/11 - Chuck Colson responds positively to Douthat's article and adds comments of his own - "Narcissism, Therapy, and Us."

THE MORAL DEGRADATION OF THE AMERICAN LEFT

John Walsh describes Anthony Weiner as "The Face of the Modern Left":

In his combination of unctuousness, mendacity, mock-reasonableness, petulance, bullying, hypocrisy, overweening arrogance, brazen aggression, self-pity, victimhood, and bogus moral preening, it’s hard to beat Congressman Anthony Weiner. He’s the perfect face of the modern American Left in all its glorious pathology; why anyone takes these people seriously is utterly beyond me. . .  (my emphases)

Here he is with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, doing what lefties do best: lie, equivocate, lecture, browbeat, and implicitly threaten, even when they’re caught red-handed: 

 Me:  The chutzpah exhibited on the video (with text) linked above takes one's breath away.  Go see it!

Walsh again:

As I said back on Election Night 2008:  ”This is an unlovely party filled with unlovely people, as America’s about to find out once the Obama pixie dust wears off.”

Me:  Extraordinary and repulsive is the fact that Democrats, caught in shameful situations, don't resign!  Jim Loft over at Gateway Pundit [a daily must read] expects Weiner to follow the standard Democrat precedent.   Loft writes:

Weiner may have bared all, but he will likely survive the disgusting scandal. After all, he’s a democrat.
And, Democrats don’t resign– Ever.

Whether they’re impeached in office for perjury or caught sleeping with drunk underage pages…
Democrats don’t resign.

KKK-Murder-Slandering Troops-Prostitution rings- In scandal after scandal…
Democrats don’t resign.

Did you hear about the guy busted with $90,000 in his freezer?… Yeah, he stayed in office.
Democrats don’t resign.

Drunken manslaughter?

Senator Kennedy’s car is dragged by a wrecker out of Poucha Pond. (Ytedk)

** Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) answered an ad placed in a Washington, D.C. homosexual paper, the Washington Blade, by Stephen Gobie, a male prostitute. Gobie became Barney Frank’s live-in sexual companion, and was soon running a male prostitution ring from Barney Frank’s condo. Last year Frank was chairing the Financial Services Committee.

** Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) has sex with underage male House page. Studds turns his back on the House when he is censured. He continued to serve in House for six more terms.

** Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plagued by scandals: Abramoff Scandal, Sons who are lobbyists, boxing tickets and other perks, land deal that made him $1 million, etc.- Serves as democratic Senate Majority Leader.

** Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-IL) was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer that began during the 1992 campaign. Despite the charges, he continued his campaign and was re-elected that November. Reynolds initially denied the charges, which he claimed were racially motivated. He was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography.

** Hillary Clinton (D-NY) Her husband is impeached and involved in a record number of scandals and convictions during his term in office. She herself takes money from FBI fugitive. Today she is Secretary of State.

** Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) kills girl . Leaves her in pond to drown. Until his death he was the second longest serving member (next to the former kleagle) in the Senate.

** Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) former Ku Klux Klan Kleagle (recruiter). Democrat Byrd was the longest serving member in the US Senate.

** Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt)- in a 1985 television appearance Leahy disclosed classified information that one of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s telephone conversations had been intercepted. The information that Leahy revealed had been used in the operation to capture the Arab terrorists who had hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed American citizens, and the Union-Tribune claimed that Leahy’s indiscretion may have cost the life of at least one of the Egyptian operatives involved in that operation. Because of his several leaks he was forced to step down from his seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Today he is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

** Democratic Iowan Senator Tom Harkin (and John Kerry D-MA) traveled to Managua, Nicaragua to assure Fidel Castro’s proxy Daniel Ortega that Senate Democrats were working overtime to thwart President Reagan’s efforts to bring Democracy to the region. Today he is head of Senate agriculture committee.

Are we starting to see the pattern???
Democrats don’t resign.

THE FRENCH WINK AT SEXUAL LICENSE; SO DO LIBERAL AMERICANS

Jonah Goldberg makes the point in his article, "French Should Feel Shame, But We're No Puritans."

THE LATEST "SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PRO-FAMILY NEWS" - JANUARY 20, 2011

These compilations of articles from a variety of sources by the Family Research Council continue to offer interested people a gold mine.  A new edition appears every two weeks.  Readers will find in each a wealth of information not readily found elsewhere. For previous reviews I've posted, click here.

ALBERT MOHLER - "SO, WHY IS INCEST WRONG?"

We are living in an age of sexual anarchy.  Albert Mohler interacts with the confusions of our time in this excellent blog post.  (HT: VirtueOnline)

There are certain questions now pressed upon us that previous generations would never believe could be asked. One of these is thrust upon us by events in New York City, where a well-known Ivy League professor has been arrested for the crime of incest. What makes the question urgent is not so much the arrest, but the controversy surrounding it.

David Epstein is a professor of political science at Columbia University, where his wife also teaches. He previously taught on the faculties of Harvard and Stanford. Last week, he was arraigned before a judge in Manhattan, charged with a single count of felony incest. According to authorities, Professor Epstein was for several years involved in a sexual relationship with his adult daughter, now age 24.

QUICK TAKES

I consider all of the following important reading:

- Ann Coulter - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Call Our Troops Homophobes"  [She makes crucial points not made elsewhere.  A MUST READ.]

- John Hawkins - "The 10 Biggest Conservative Stand-Outs of 2010"  [An excellent list, including the "honorable mentions."]   (HT: Atlas Shrugs)

- Kathryn Jean Lopez - The Birth Control Pill 50 years later  [The destructive path of a hurricane and the "New Feminism" taking root]

And from Jim Loft's Gateway Pundit: 

- "Michele Bachmann: New Congress Should Defund Planned Parenthood"

- Obama Officials Now Referring to Hezbollah Terrorist Organization As the “Armed Resistance"

CHUCK COLSON - HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS SEEK TO SHUT DOWN DEBATE

- Update 12/15/10 - Sign the "Start Debating/Stop Hating petition."

- To tar as "hateful" and "bigoted" any person or organization that continues to define marriage as one man and one woman is disgusting.  "Hate" is a word thrown around much too much, and especially as a tactic to shut down debate.   Anyone using it must now be regarded with suspicion, for in 9 times out of 10, the one doing the accusing turns out to be the genuine "hater."  Charles Colson spotlights the latest "hate" attack, this time by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Colson writes:

What’s the easiest way to shut down a debate? Well these days, just label your opponent a hate-filled bigot. . .

In its newly-released Winter Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center labels eighteen Christian organizations as “anti-gay groups.” The charges? “Pumping out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities.”

And which Christian organizations engage in those activities? None other than the American Family Association, the National Organization for Marriage, and the Family Research Council! For heaven’s sake! The report also announced that 13 of these organizations will be added this January to its list of official “hate groups.” They join the likes of Neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan!

THE LATEST "SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PRO-FAMILY NEWS" - NOVEMBER 19, 2010

  These compilations of articles from a variety of sources by the Family Research Council continue to offer interested people a gold mine.  A new edition appears every two weeks.  Readers will find in each a wealth of information not readily found elsewhere. For previous reviews I've posted, click here.

 Here is a brief sampling from the current edition:

• "The Best Sex of Your Life," Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council

• "Nordic Neighbors Differ on Key Human Rights Issue," Home School Legal Defense Association

In northern Europe, two nordic countries strongly differ in their response to homeschooling. Finland provides a warm reception to parents who chose to educate their children at home, while neighboring Sweden continues down an increasingly dangerous path of ostracizing and persecuting families who seek to exercise their right to homeschool.

• "Saturday People, Sunday People," Lela Gilbert, The Weekly Standard

The “Saturday People” are, of course, Jews, today nearly gone from Muslim lands. Now the Sunday people”—Christians— are in the crosshairs, and they, too, are fleeing at an alarming rate. Both religions are unwelcome in many Muslim-majority lands for reasons of Islamist ideology—the declaration of jihad, or holy war, against infidels.

• "U.S. Scientists Commit Most Research Fraud: Study," Jenifer Goodwin, HealthDay

A new study finds that nearly 800 research papers were retracted by medical journals for serious errors or faked data over the past decade, many of them authored by U.S. researchers.

Click the "Continue reading..." line below for the complete list of articles.

PIPER AND TAYLOR: "SEX AND THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST"

"Desiring God" has made available online as a free PDF book John Piper's and Justin Taylor's edited volume, "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ."  (HT: Between Two Worlds)  Amazing.  It came out in 2005.  Is this a trend?  Publish online a book that is five years old?  I'm all for it!!  I haven't read the book yet, but I respect the contributors and find it incredible that the entire book is now available FREE online.   

Endorsements:

"This is the rare book that delivers more than it promises. Pick it up to learn about the true joy of sex: you will, and you'll also learn about the joy of God."
—Marvin Olasky, Editor-in-chief, World; Provost, The King's College, New York City

"This book is a glorious start to forming a Christian mind that expresses delight in God's gift of marital intimacy-a Christian mind that so desires to delight in that which God delights in that it revels in rejecting the cheap substitutes pawned off on this passing age as true pleasure. Instead, it only finds satisfaction in what is purest and highest and noblest and best."
—J. Ligon Duncan, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi; President, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

"Sex is a wonderful gift from God, but it makes a terrible idol, brutal and unyielding in the misery it inflicts. These authors are a breath of fresh air, because unlike our culture's self-proclaimed 'sexperts,' they respect biblical authority and warmly embrace the Lordship of Christ. Hence, they can lift up the torch of divine truth and expose the enemy's lies about sex that have penetrated not only the darkest corners of our culture, but of our churches."

—Randy Alcorn, author, If God is Good and Heaven

"CHRIST ON CAMPUS INITIATIVE" FROM TRINITY EVANGELICAL DIVINITY SCHOOL

TEDS recently announced the following essays can now be accessed on the internet.  Trinity is one of the foremost Christian seminaries in the world today.  The editorial team of CCI is led by Dr. D.A. Carson.  Here are the essays published to date.  More will follow.

• Human Flourishing - Danielle Sallade
  
• Sin: Not the Way It's Supposed to Be  -  Cornelius Platinga Jr.
  
• Five Arguments for God  -    William Lane Craig
  
• Christianity and Sexuality  -    Christopher Ash
  
• Naturalism and the Biblical Worldview   -  Kristen Birkett
  
• Jesus Christ and Religious Diversity   -  Harold A. Netland
  
• Do Christians Have a Worldview?  -   Graham Cole
  
• Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why it Matters  -   Craig L. Blomberg
  
• A Christian Perspective on Islam   -   Chawkat Moucarry
  

 

C. S. LEWIS - RESPONSE TO AN INQUIRY ON MASTURBATION

This is another of the "lost posts" accidentally deleted yesterday.  It's not the same post, which vanished into cyberspace, but the Lewis quote is the same.  In a sex saturated society, it's useful to sample the thought of C.S. Lewis, one of the wisest of men, who is worth consulting on most any subject.  (See his book, The Four Loves, and the chapters "Sexual Morality" and "Christian Marriage" in Mere Christianity).  In answer to an in quiry on masturbation, Lewis writes:

"For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back; sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.  And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman.  For the harem is always

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE ON THE ROCKS

Update 2/11/15:

   Courting vs. Dating: What's the Difference? - Wyatt Fischer, Psy.D.

Original Post: Chuck Colson weighs in and links to the following:

The End of Courtship - Leon R. Kass

The Good Christian Girl: A Fable
Gina R. Dalfonzo | Christianity Today | July 19, 2010

The Institute for Marriage and Public Policy
"Strengthening Marriage for a New Generation"

The Ruth Institute
"One Man, One Woman, for Life"

Marriage Savers
"Preparing, Strengthening and Restoring Marriages"

 

FREUD, FREE SEX, AND HUMAN COURTS

Glenn Sunshine's brief essay explains a lot.   The excerpt below is only a small part of the argument.  It is important to read the whole thing.  (HT: Charles Colson) Emphases in the original.

. . . Freud believed that psychological illness was a result of social repression of our sex drive. Although Freud himself had a generally conventional lifestyle and developed psychoanalysis as a means of dealing with problems arising from sexual repression, the implication of his theory was clear: to enable people to live happy, fulfilled lives, society needed to drop restraints on sexual activity. Hence the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies.

This idea is deeply embedded in the American worldview. This explains the vehement opposition to abstinence-only sex education despite the studies that show it is more effective in reducing sexual activity than “comprehensive” sex education. The real object isn’t to reduce sexual activity, but to minimize the consequences. Why would you even want to reduce sexual activity if that’s the route to freedom and fulfillment?

Unfortunately, Freud was wrong. Sexual “freedom” has resulted in an epidemic of depression among young women, an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, rampant out of wedlock births and the associated poverty that comes from single parent households, a sky-high divorce rate, and on and on and on. And it has not made people happier or better adjusted. None of which makes any difference, of course, because as is all too often the case, ideology trumps evidence.

The primary human right

Since in this worldview salvation comes through sex, and since personal fulfillment and happiness is fundamentally about sexual expression, the freedom to express whatever you think of as your sexual identity is our most essential human right.  (more . . .)

WHAT EXPLAINS THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF LESBIANISM AMONG YOUNG WOMEN?

Answer:  Pornography among men.  Men prefer their imagination to a real person.  At least that's one explanation.    The Family Research Council posts the following:

When a person's sex drive is properly channeled in the bounds of traditional marriage, it's a powerful force for good. It bonds the husband and wife to one another and gives life to a new generation. It's the foundation of the family, which is why groups like FRC cannot address issues of family structure without addressing issues of sexuality, and vice versa. But when the sexual drive isn't properly contained, it can be highly destructive--to the emotional and physical health of individuals, and to the quality of relationships themselves. A powerful illustration of how the elements of the "sexual revolution" are all interconnected was explained in a recent article in the liberal magazine Psychology Today. Dr. Leonard Sax wrote that a recent survey showed young women are almost three times as likely to consider themselves homosexual or bisexual as young men are.

Why? Well, for women, sexuality is much more "malleable" or "plastic" than for men (so much for the "born gay" theory!). While Dr. Sax doesn't address it, much of the trend lies with our culture of sexual experimentation. This "anything goes" mentality is leading to a disillusionment with traditional sexuality and, in turn, breeding more experimentation. Also, a lot of women conclude that "all the guys she knows are losers." Why are they "losers?" Because virtually all of them use pornography, and according to Dr. Sax, they prefer the fantasy world of pornography to relationships with real women. I don't think that even FRC has ever suggested that heterosexual pornography could lead to an increase in homosexuality--but when one part of our culture of sexuality becomes degraded, every part does.

In the Psychology Today article referenced above, I found the statistics about young women surprising and sad:

Psychologist John Buss estimates that for most of human history, perhaps 2% of women have been lesbian or bisexual (see note 1, below). Not any more. Recent surveys of teenage girls and young women find that roughly 15% of young females today self-identify as lesbian or bisexual, compared with about 5% of young males who identify as gay or bisexual . . .

NEW EXTENSIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY JUST RELEASED

Press release:

Washington D.C. - Family Research Council (FRC) released a new study today that comprehensively details the effects of pornography on marriages, children, communities and individuals. Pat Fagan, Ph.D. authored the study and serves as FRC's Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion.

Dr. Fagan made the following comments:

"This is a ground-breaking review of what pornography costs families trying to create a life together. Men, women and sometimes even children are saturated by sexual content, and more significantly, are told that it has no real effect. It's just a little amusement.

"Pornography corrodes the conscience, promotes distrust between husbands and wives and debases untold thousands of young women. It is not harmless escapism but relational and emotional poison.

DALE KUEHNE - "SEX AND THE iWORLD" (CAN WE BE HAPPY WITHOUT SEX?)

Big subject.   Discussion needed.  Enter Dale Kuehne's  Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationships beyond an Age of Individualism.   Reviewers  of this book (including Chuck Colson and Mark Earley), give the book rave reviews.  From what I can tell, the book looks like "must reading" to counter the propaganda that is ruining lives.  A few introductory pages (worth reading) are available here.

DENNIS PRAGER -- "JUDAISM'S SEXUAL REVOLUTION: WHY JUDAISM REJECTED HOMOSEXUALITY"

Prager's article appeared many years ago, but remains one of the best.  It's a "must read" on homosexuality:  "Judaism's Sexual Revolutuion: Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality."  It begins:

When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world.  The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible.

Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity.

This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened male-female love and sexuality (and thereby almost alone created the possibility of love and eroticism within marriage), and began the arduous task of elevating the status of women.

It is probably impossible for us, who live thousands of years after Judaism began this process, to perceive the extent to which undisciplined sex can dominate man's life and the life of society. Throughout the ancient world, and up to the recent past in many parts of the world, sexuality infused virtually all of society.

Read the whole thing...

SHOULD EARLY MARRIAGE BE ENCOURAGED?

Christianity Today magazine in its August, 2009 issue published a bombshell cover story on "The Case for Early Marriage."  Gene Veith agrees with the article (here and here).  Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, similarly agrees and offers extensive (favorable) commentary.  He writes:

Shifts in a culture are often signaled by unexpected developments that represent far more than may first meet the eye. The cover story in the August 2009 edition of Christianity Today may signal such a shift among American evangelicals. In this case the cultural shift is nothing less than an awakening to the priority of marriage. At the very least, it represents a public airing of the question of the delay of marriage among evangelical young people. In that sense, it is a bombshell.   [more. . ]

THE ONE ARTICLE YOU SHOULD READ CONCERNING "GAY MARRIAGE"

I am referring to Princeton University professor Robert George's article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.  (HT: Wintery Knight who regards it as the best single article he has read on same-sex marriage.  I tend to agree.)  The article needs to be read in full.  For those who won't, some excerpts: 

Opponents of racist laws in "Loving" ["Loving v. Virginia" which invalidated laws against interracial marriages] did not question the idea, deeply embodied in our law and its shaping philosophical tradition, of marriage as a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life. This unity is why marriage, in our legal tradition, is consummated only by acts that are generative in kind. Such acts unite husband and wife at the most fundamental level and thus legally consummate marriage whether or not they are generative in effect, and even when conception is not sought.

Of course, marital intercourse often does produce babies, and marriage is the form of relationship that is uniquely apt for childrearing (which is why, unlike baptisms and bar mitzvahs, it is a matter of vital public concern). But as a comprehensive sharing of life—an emotional and biological union—marriage has value in itself and not merely as a means to procreation. This explains why our law has historically permitted annulment of marriage for non-consummation, but not for infertility; and why acts of sodomy, even between legally wed spouses, have never been recognized as consummating marriages.

Only this understanding makes sense of all the norms—annulability for non-consummation, the pledge of permanence, monogamy, sexual exclusivity—that shape marriage as we know it and

"STIMULUS" EARMARKS FOR NANCY PELOSI'S DISTRICT - SAN FRANCISCO

Update 7/30/09 - Michelle Malkin  lists National Endowment of the Arts "smut-ulus" projects, some of which are included in the original post below.

(Original Post) - You won't believe this.  It gives a new meaning to Naked Politics.  Drawing on Mark Kelly's research, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council reports:

Mark Kelly of the Heritage Foundation did some digging on where the House Speaker funneled her District's dollars, and the list of projects is enough to send taxpayers through the roof. Let me put it this way: Nancy Pelosi is trying to stimulate a lot more than San Francisco's economy. While the average American is worried about losing his shirt, Congress is funding actors who aren't wearing any!

According to Kelly, $50,000 was sent to an initiative called CounterPulse in San Francisco that just sponsored a "Perverts [Sleep Around]" event on July 25, urging people to "Join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun!" Another $50,000 went directly to an entertainment group called Frameline that concentrates on promoting the "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community" in the arts.

Over at "San Francisco Cinematheque," organizers raked in $25,000 to promote documentaries like "Thundercrack," of which a reviewer writes, "Witness if you dare, the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla." A company called Jess Curtis/Gravity, Inc. will receive $25,000, presumably to help boost their Symmetry Project, which features nude couples in compromising positions.

Other programs are too crude and embarrassing to even mention. But shouldn't that say something to the third most powerful leader in America? If these projects are too obscene to talk about, what business does the U.S. government have funding them? This isn't just waste--it's reckless, indecent garbage sponsored by Congress and paid for by you. If these are the priorities of America's new leadership, then we should definitely get a second opinion on their vision for an issue as significant as health care. For more on Pelosi's "waste" line, visit Mark's blog at markkelly.posterous.com.

Additional Resources
Mark Kelly: Stimulus spending links for Speaker Pelosi's district. 

G.K. CHESTERTON ON "THE INNOCENCE OF SEX"

I've been having a friendly little go-round with a recent post from Wintery Knight Blog.   My latest reply is to quote a passage from G.K. Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi in which GKC offers some astute observations on the "innocence" of sex.  GKC writes:

“What had happened to the human imagination, as a whole, was that the whole world was coloured by dangerous and rapidly deteriorating passions; by natural passions becoming unnatural passions. Thus the effect of treating sex as only one innocent natural thing was that every other innocent natural thing became soaked and sodden with sex. For sex cannot be admitted to a mere equality among elementary emotions or experiences like eating and sleeping. The moment sex ceases to be a servant it becomes a tyrant. There is something dangerous and disproportionate in its place in human nature, for whatever reason; and it does really need a special purification and dedication. The modern talk about sex being free like any other sense, about the body being beautiful like any tree or flower, is either a description of the Garden of Eden or a piece of thoroughly bad psychology, of which the world grew weary two thousand years ago.” (From ch. 2, “The World St. Francis Found")

GOV. MARK SANFORD -- STAR-CRAZED TEENAGER?

What is going on with Gov. Sanford and his continual "yammering" as Michelle Malkin puts it?  He seems to be acting like a star-crazed teenager.  Malkin suggests he buy a one-way ticket to Argentina already and be gone. Mark Steyn regards Sanford as a narcissist buffoon.  But the man, by his own admission, remains in love.  Unfortunately it's not with his wife.  And that, coupled with a sincere (I think) confessional streak and a (perhaps sincere?) recognition of violating his own and God's ethical standards, means he remains in a state of verbal, mental and emotional disarray. 

It could have been avoided if he had recognized what Sheldon Vanauken calls "The (False) Sanction of Eros."  Vanauken writes about it in his book, Under the Mercy, currently out of print.  I know of no better commentary on Mark Sanford's "inloveness" than this.  Consequently, I have been sending google documents of the relevant pages to friends via e-mail.  I urge you, gentle reader, to click here and print out the pages for easier reading.  You, or someone you know, will benefit greatly from Vanauken's insight.  It's a "must" for all pastors and counselors. 

[Note: I'm having trouble making the links work.  Sorry..  For the quote, see Under the Mercy, pp. 143-49.  If you e-mail me, I will send you a link to the google docs pdf pages for reading.]

VIDEO OF JENNY SANFORD RESPONDING TO REPORTERS' QUESTIONS

Update 6/27/09 - AP print interview with Jenny Sanford

- (Original post) It's only about 46 seconds long, but worth viewing.  Click here.  The comments from viewers are interesting.  One says:

Good for her. Wow. The republicans sure have some strong women:  Palin, Lynn Cheney,  Jerie Thompson, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachman,  Jenny Sanford   --  Proud. Loud. STRONG

Update: I think readers will be interested in Cal Thomas' column, "Should we forgive him?"   Excerpt:

I once asked evangelist Billy Graham if he experienced temptations of the flesh when he was young. He said, "of course." How did he deal with them? With passion he responded, "I asked God to strike me dead before He ever allowed me to dishonor Him in that way."  [more . .]

Update #2 - I think readers will also want to read Charles Colson's reflections on the Mark Sanford affair.  Colson is disappointed, pained and angered.   He warns and admonishes:

Nearly every grave moral failure begins with a small sin. Because there comes a time, after we toy with sin, when one pull of the flesh causes us to cross the line, to disengage from reason, and to follow our appetites wherever they may lead. . . [more . . ]

ITEMS WORTH NOTING . . .

- Andy McCarthy - Judge Sotomayor would not qualify for jury duty   // She wouldn't.  Read the article.  

- PRAVDA:   American descent into Marxism happening with breathtaking speed  (HT: Drudge)

- Robert A. J. Gagnon - Why Homosexual Behavior Is More Like Consensual Incest and Polyamory than Race or Gender: A Reasoned and Reasonable Case for Secular Society

      For Part 2: What Disproportionately High Rates of Harm Mean go here.

      For Part 3: The Illogic of Homosexual Unions go here.

      For Part 4: Responses to Counterarguments go here.

TEENS: ORAL SEX AND CASUAL PROSTITUTION NO BIGGIE

Watching the collapse of a culture is wrenching.  ABC News (Good Morning America) carries the story.  Because it's so sickening and disheartening, not to mention degrading, I don't wish to provide excerpts.   Unfortunately, I think it's required reading.

Update 5/31/09: Wintery Knight Blog offers perspective and commentary.

THE DESPERATE STATE OF MARRIAGE IN THE UNITED STATES

Ed Morrissey reports:  (my emphases)

The National Marriage Project at Rutgers University report in 2001 describes a social institution under siege, and its updated statistics in 2008 clearly showed that things are getting worse. Not only did the marriage rate drop by almost half from 1960 to 2007, but also the percentage of divorced adults has skyrocketed. The percentage of divorced adult women in the US went from 2.6% in 1960 to 11% in 2007, and for men, it went from 1.8% to 8.6%. Both numbers are all-time highs.

In 2006, 64% of high-school boys and 58% of high school girls believed that living together is good practice for marriage. Cohabitation has increased in this period from 439,000 people to well over 6 million, despite evidence that couples who cohabitate are more likely to divorce. Fifty-two percent say that they see so few successful marriages that it causes them to question marriage as “a way of life.”

Marriages are less happy today than in past decades, and the damage that divorce does to children has created a vicious cycle of pessimistic expectations. From 1976 to 2004, the percentage of high-school girls who said that childbirth out of wedlock is

ROBERT P. GEORGE - STUDENTS AVERSE TO THE "HOOK-UP CULTURE" NEED COLLEGE CAMPUS SUPPORT

Students who want to resist the "new norm" on college campuses --  the "hookup culture" -- need centers on campus offering support.  So contend Robert P. George and John B. Londregan in their article surveying the need.

Me:  The fact that promiscuous sex reigns as the "new norm" is utterly saddening, providing as it does, yet another indication of the extraordinary moral deterioration of America.  

BEN WITHERINGTON ON JESUS' ALLEGED TOLERATION OF HOMOSEXUAL PRACTICE - "THE ARGUMENT FROM SILENCE"

Dr. Witherington, New Testament professor at Asbury Seminary, says in a critique of Rob Bell's position, 

. . . Rob then makes an argument from silence which is in fact misleading. The argument is this--- "Jesus never said anything about homosexuality". This is not quite true. Jesus took all sorts of sexual sin very seriously, even adultery of the heart, as Rob admits, and so it is no surprise then  that we find Jesus telling his disciples in Mt. 19 that they have only two legitimate options: 1) marital fidelity (with marriage being defined as a relationship between one man and one woman joined together by God which leads to a one flesh union), or 2) being a eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom.

The term 'eunuch' here whether taken literally (as in a castrated person who is incapable of normal sexual intercourse), or simply morally (as in a person who never engages in sexual intercourse, remaining celibate in singleness, though he or she is capable of such an act), makes very evident that for single persons, any single persons, celibacy in singleness is the standard Jesus holds up for the unmarried.

Nor, in view of the way Jesus talks about marriage in the context with the discussion of the original Genesis story about the creation order-- the creation of woman for man (and their interdependency), could one ever imagine Jesus redefining marriage to include same-sex sexual

Disappointing: Bristol Palin Says Abstinence "Not Realistic"

Excerpt from Greta Van Susteren's video interview here.

Blurring Lines Between the Decent and the Repulsive

One of my blog post categories is "Collapse of the West."  (See the column on the right side of this blog for other categories).   I think what L. Brent Bozell III reports fits that category.   He begins his article by saying,

Daniel Bergner isn’t the devil’s advocate, but he is a pervert’s apologist. This author and contributor to the New York Times Magazine has a new book titled "The Other Side of Desire," which argues it is unfair to judge bizarre, harmful, and disgusting sexual attractions as bizarre, harmful, and disgusting.

Bozell says further,

It’s natural that a New York Times contributor would draw praise in the New York Times Book Review, but the reviewer, National Public Radio commentator Lori Gottlieb, went beyond the call of duty in her February 8 piece. She aggressively touted Bergner’s literary and journalistic gifts, then took up the banner of his libertine crusade to blur all lines between the decent and the repulsive.  [my emphasis]

Me: And that's my cue for categorizing this book and its favorable reception as yet another sign of the "collapse of the West."  When a culture can't distinguish between "the decent and the repulsive," it is done for, barring some sort of supernatural Christian revival.  "Repulsive" is a word one rarely hears.  It's a good, strong word that needs to find its way back into appropriate usage.

- After posting the material above, I came across a symposium, "Islamic Terror and Sexual Mutilation," which expands the discussion of "repulsive"considerably.  It probably deserves a separate blog post, but I'll just note the symposium for now. 

During the horrifying siege of the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Islamic terrorists sexually humiliated and mutilated the guests before shooting them dead. Why? Frontpage has assembled a distinguished panel to discuss this question with us today.

Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia

This organization does high-level work. The Center's website lists their Fall 2008 Faith & Life lectures available for listening:

The Biblical Practice of Prayer, Tony Monaghan
The Abuse of Sex, Roger Scruton
What is the Bible, and Where Did It Come From?, Drew Trotter
Saturday Seminar, Understanding the Bible, Bill Wilder
Love and Justice, Nicholas Wolterstorff
Ken Myers, Mars Hill Audio
Dr. Robert Wilken, University of Virginia
Prayer and Art, Gene Veith

I receive the Center's newsletter, Praxis (available at the website).  An undergraduate student is quoted there as saying of Scruton's lecture, "The Abuse of Sex": "I thought it was absolutely amazing... Among professional philosophers alive today, he now is by far the one whom I respect most." 

Other lectures from the Center can be found here.

I WISH I HAD STAYED A VIRGIN

After losing her virginity at 14, youth leader is now committed to abstinence.  Click here.  (HT: VirtueOnline)