I still have my sticker.
Even got another compliment on it today at the gas station.
Posted on 01/17/2006 1:31:49 PM PST by WKB
Rev. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says it's "an absolute revolt against God's design" if husbands and wives purposely avoid bearing children.
On his Web site and other articles and interviews, Mohler argues that "marriage, sex and children are part of one package" and that "to deny any part of this wholeness is to reject God's intention in creation and his mandate revealed in the Bible."
In a CNN interview, the Baptist leader added, “We grow up by having children. Without that responsibility, we have a generation of perpetual adolescents just growing old."
"petitfour you are in the clear ping"
LOL!
I was just gonna ping her with the same comment. ;o)
These are the kinds of heartless and broad-sweeping statements that continue to move thoughtful Christians away from organized religion. Of all the needy things he could have said....he chose this? Sad.
I have all the money I will ever need, but because my relationships last an average of a month or two before my charm is overwhelmed by my selfishness, I will certainly never have children.
Part of me knows I could be a parent, but that part of me grows smaller every day as I play with my adult toys. I am truly having a second childhood in my semi-retirement, and I have to catch myself sometimes from doing things even more irresponsible than I do now. I don't think I am unique, in that left without the responsibilities that most adults have to deal with, I am always in danger of going too far. I think it is possible to become addicted to fun.
And if I had written it, it would say "Nosey Baptist Preacher Sticks His Nose Where it Doesn't Belong." :)
There is that as well :)
I still have my sticker.
Even got another compliment on it today at the gas station.
I find Deuteronomy somewhat challenging, especially in the King James.
I find most all of the OT challenging in the KJV.
That's why I use the NIV.
There ARE intelligent reason for not having children: hereditary diseases, etc. But just to have more money to spend is just plain selfishness....
If we don't reproduce the BEST of our society who will populate the earth?
Yes, just like they did back in Mexico. And we know how wonderful things are in that very fertile country. We really should try to be more like them < /s>
It's his suggestion that ALL voluntarily childfree people (Including those who are fertile but who have genetic disorders?????) are immature, and (at least by insinuation) ALL people who've reproduced are automatically mature that raises my hackles. I see too many "parents" who're as irresponsible and immature as any teenager to believe that!
Hardly :o)
They're children. A parent that can't figure out how to get the upper hand deserves the misery they can inflict.
Endless self-amusement is not the only alternative to having children. Ask Condi Rice.
I'm a law student. I use my personality as a contraceptive.
I guess according to the reverend, Condi Rice is an immature child. But my niece, who has never been married, has had three children by three different men, and who went on welfare at age 18 and stayed there for years till she was forced to come off it by the welfare reform act-she's a sterling example of maturity, and far more valuable to society than Rice.
What percentage of these folks do you believe would listen to anything the good reverand has to say?
The overwhelming majority of child abusers/neglecters don't know Christ and won't listen to anything a man of God has to say. (Not to mention my skepticism toward those abusers who say they know Christ) So as far as your statement goes, those folks really aren't his target audience are they?
>> Children are definately a blessing from God but I would not go so far as to say that childlessness is a sin.
I think you state it best. GENERALLY, self-imposed, purposeful childlessness is a willful blockade against the blessing of God that is a child. GENERALLY. BUT, that having been stated, to go all the way and make it an "eleventh commandment" that married couples must never avoid the possibility of having a child...now you've gone over into legalism; a sin in and of itself.
Plainly, scripture speaks to all mankind to "be fruitful and multiply". Plainly, also, scripture notes that "children are a blessing from God". These are both true statements, but they do not construct a mandate for the married couple UNLESS God gives the couple the conviction that it is a mandate for them.
So, while I could say, "Yes, God has convicted us that it would be sin for I and my wife to purposefully avoid having children", I cannot, on that basis, transform the conviction we have into a universally applicable scriptural mandate and try to impose it on others. It just isn't there.
This whole discussion is illustrative of the mechanism by which so many foolish arguments and schisms have arisen in the ranks of Christians; individuals having been convicted of God to do a certain thing according to a certain scripture illegitimately trying to impose that conviction on everyone else.
Simply put, any attempt to transform a legitimate, God-given personal conviction into a universally applicable spiritual law will result in conflict and dissention, and ought rightly be regarded as sinful. God convicted YOU about x-y-z, not everyone. If God wants everyone to have that same conviction, let Him do the convicting; you stay out of it and mind your own business and stick to the non-negotiables of scripture.
The message of the gospel is already "a rock of offense" and "a stone that causes men to stumble", there's certainly no need to go and manufacture more offenses.
There are lots of little ones out there who could use parents that aren't half-wits, you know!!!
It ain't over till it's over.
I expect you provided your foster children with a lot more parenting, stability, and consistency than they'd had in their former homes. And no doubt some of those homes featured a married mother and father.
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