APA shows signs of backing away from biological model of homosexuality
NARTH reports that a recent American Psychological Association (APA) brochure on homosexuality de-emphasizes the biological theory of homosexuality. The new pamphlet is a re-release of a similar one from 1998 entitled "Answers to Your Questions about Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality."
This revision shows that the APA may be recovering from it’s politization of the subject, and returning to good science, or as NARTH puts it:
The APA has now begun to acknowledge what most scientists have long known:
that a bio-psycho-social model of causation best fits the data.
When is a woman not a woman? When she takes testosterone
Tammy Thomas is a winning female cyclist. Too bad she’s been winning because of steroid use. Don’t believe it? Just ask the reporter who caught her shaving her face – better yet, just look at her before shaving!
What’s scary is that she is a biological woman, but her face shows signs of "severe virilization," as the doctor’s call it. I’ll say. What’s really funny is, this woman, who presumably has no gender issues, looks more masculine than the pregnant transgender woman being called a ‘pregnant man.’ Gender confusion and perversion are reaching new heights daily in our society, and it should alarm us. We need to pray harder, preach more, allow ourselves to be more transformed by Christ and His Word, and serve others more in order to help save our sick society.
Pregnant man? Nature resists transgender confusion
An Oregon ‘man’ (born a woman) who is partway through gender reassignment has gotten pregnant. So, after having ‘chest reconstruction’ to look like a man (basically, a mastectomy), and testosterone treatments so that she can grow facial hair and such, she got pregnant before they efeminized her private parts – that is, before they killed her vagina and gave her a ‘penis.’ What shall we say about this?
Al Mohler discusses it briefly in his latest podcast, and makes some interesting points about Christians needing to move past disgust into compassion for those caught in such dire confusion, and asks us to start thinking about how we can serve, love, and reach out to those who are caught in the gay/transgender self-concepts.
But I would like to add that we need to reaffirm the truth of biological and emotional gender norms, and resist the urge to accept the dysfunctional trans and gay identities being pushed as normative.
Defund Planned Parenthood now
The ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) has started a petition to defund Planned Parenthood, and support Senate Bill 351 (S.351), the Title X Family Planning Act, which basically prohibits federal funding to any organization that performs abortions. Sign the petition (over 10,000 people have so far), and if you are not convinced, try reading the succinct (2 page) Planned Parenthood Revealed (PDF).
My Two Cents #119 – Global Warming – or not
- Warmer planet can support glacial ice (UCSD) – New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial
ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm
climate events. The study by researchers at Scripps Institution of
Oceanography at UC San Diego provides strong evidence that a glacial
ice cap, about half the size of the modern day glacial ice sheet,
existed 91 million years ago during a period of intense global warming. - Global temperatures have plateaued (the Australian) – "Actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of
reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then
temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you’d expect if
carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels
have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down
over the last 10 years….The head of the IPCC has
actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in
temperatures so far this century. So he recognizes that in this
century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued …
This is not what you’d expect."
All’s fair in love and fake sniper fire
It seems like it has been all Obama, all the time, so I thought I would give Hillary a little attention. She finally decided to give her take on the Rev. Wright fiasco and accidentally I suppose it just happened to coincide with the breaking of her own little scandal – claiming she was dodging sniper fire in a war zone while she was actually hugging this little girl in a welcoming ceremony.
Software determines that Obama spins the most
David Skillicorn, a computing science professor at Queen’s University,
has devised a program that analyzes the candidates’ speeches to see who
is putting the most political spin on their message.
John McCain shoots the straightest, Barack Obama spins the most and Hillary Clinton falls somewhere in the middle.
Mr. Skillicorn created the software to look at the candidates’ speeches between January and mid-February this year.
By
examining how frequently various qualifiers, negative words, the
singular "I" versus "we," action words and "but" and "or" are used, the
software calculates the "spin" — defined as the way politicians
slightly alter what they say to appeal to the widest audience while
ensuring they aren’t crossing the line into fiction.
10 alarming facts about global warming
The Center for Research on Globalization has posted an article entitled Global Warming: A Convenient Lie, which gives a nice overview of the very real problems with the man-made CO2 global warming claims. I’ve summarized below.
My Two Cents #118 – Global Warming
Some of these are old news (like from December 2007), but I’ve been collecting links by subject for link dumps like this one. If there are updates on any of these issues, please post them! Thanks.
- What if everyone believes in global warmism only because everyone believes in global warmism? (WSJ) – "What if the heads being counted to certify an alleged "consensus" arrived at their positions by counting heads?
It may seem strange that scientists would participate in such a phenomenon. It shouldn’t. Scientists are human; they do not wait for proof; many devote their professional lives to seeking evidence for hypotheses (especially well-funded hypotheses) they’ve chosen to believe. Less surprising is the readiness of many prominent journalists to embrace the role of enforcer of an orthodoxy simply because it is the orthodoxy. For them, a consensus apparently suffices as proof of itself." - IPCC Falsifies Sea Level Data – (UK Telegraph)
- GM Chairman disses Global Warming – GM’s Bob Lutz called global warming a "total crock of sh*t"?
- Weather Channel Founder Blasts Network; Claims It Is ‘Telling Us What to Think’ – "Coleman also told the audience his strategy for exposing what he called “the fraud of global warming.” He advocated suing those who sell carbon credits, which would force global warming alarmists to give a more honest account of the policies they propose."
My Two Cents #117 – Marriage and Family
Why wives should submit
- Tim Challies has a nice list of "ten proofs that submission precedes
the Fall and is part of God’s natural order", taken from Wayne Grudem’s
Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth.- Temporary Divorce for the children
- couples in Spain are gaming the educational system by divorcing so
that their children can get to the top of the list for entry into good
schools. - Japan’s population problem caused by pornography – A new study shows that the declining population in Japan is due in large part to men abandoning sex with women for masturbation and sex toys. "Pornography, masturbation aids, Internet porn sites and social networks that lead to "virtual relationships", soaplands and Japan’s widespread prostitution industry all allow men outlets for sexual fulfillment while not fulfilling other needs, such as procreation. The alarming trend has led medical experts in Japan to coin a new term for a condition they call "vaginal ejaculation dysfunctional disorder." Perhaps Planned Parenthood can add this to their family planning regimen – might be cheaper than condoms.
You didn’t see me. I was never here.
Just in case, if my boss asks you – No, I am not watching the NCAA tournament live on the internet at work. I would never subscribe to be a March Madness On Demand VIP, so that I can get into watching the games even faster online. I’m not doing that.
I repeat – I am not watching basketball on my computer right now. Just thought you should now that.
2008 Masters Seminary Faculty Lecture Series – Homosexuality
Each year at the seminary founded and chaired by John MacArthur has a faculty lecture series. This year, the series is entitled The Truth About Homosexuality. Here’s the audio of those lectures:
- Dr. John MacArthur: "The Bible on Sexuality and Homosexuality"
- Dr. Michael Grisanti: "Cultural and Medical Myths about Homosexuality"
- Dr. Irv Busenitz: "Marriage and Homosexuality"
- Dr. Rick Holland: "Parenting and Homosexuality"
- Professor Alex Montoya: "The Church’s Biblical Response to Homosexuals"
Related Posts:
’24′ fix coming sooner than expected
I had been heart broken over the fact that ’24′ didn’t start this year due to the writers’ strike. I was even more heart broken to discover that Jack Bauer would not be returning with his new season until 2009. But FOX has decided to not keep us waiting that long – a two-hour prequel to the upcoming seventh season will air this fall.
The Church’s homosexual sin
A few days ago I heard an excellent message from Joe Dallas about how poorly the church responded to the AIDS crisis and to the homosexual community. As a former gay activists, he said at that point gay men were faced with their own mortality, opening the door for the church to show compassion and point them to hope in Christ.
Not only did the church fail to respond in that loving manner, many leaders and spokespersons for our faith openly celebrated the disease. How completely opposite from the first century church that ran into disease infected areas in the Roman Empire while everyone else was leaving. How unChristlike. He said that was a message the gay community would never forget.
The race toward principles
After Sen. Barack Obama gave his anticipated speech in which he non-apologized for Rev. Wright’s inflammatory racial comments, Hillary Clinton’s campaign had this to say:
“I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that [Sen. Obama] ends up having that same attitude.”
Obama is now the victim of a bigger stink – black liberation theology exposed
Joe Carter at the EO has a really great, detailed post on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s real problem – and by extension, Obama’s problem – the fact that Black Liberation theology has it’s roots in hateful racism and biblical heresy. And although Obama is not racist, it is too late to save his candidacy – he should have had the judgment to get out years ago, and the fact that he did not is troubling. His speech today, though pretty good, was still tepid, and too little too late. So long Obama, we barely knew ye. Select quotes from Joe’s post below.
Understanding Our Mormon Neighbors
Probe Ministries had an excellent series of short commentaries on how Christians should view and interact with Mormons and Mormonism. It was very forward thinking. You can read Understanding Our Mormon Neighbors, or go there and listen to the mp3 podcast.
Racism, conspiracies, and hyperbole in the black church
I have not really wanted to post on the debacle of Baraq Obama’s pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, whose anti-white, anti-America, and conspiratorial preaching has at least embarrassed the Obama campaign, if not driven it’s recent 5 percentage point loss in the last week.
But Bill O’Reilly has been running shows for three days on the subject, and not to run Obama into the ground, but because the reaction of black Americans is surprisingly supportive of Wright’s rhetoric, and because this reflects on Obama’s lack of judgment, the key attribute that he is running his campaign on. So here’s what I’ve learned.
The 7 Signs of the American Religious Left
Catholic Priest, writer, and founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty Robert Sirico, recently gave a nice lecture entitled The Rise (And Eventual Downfall) of the New Religious Left (audio). In it, he listed the seven characteristic errors of the religious left, as well as some interesting discussion of the historic origins of the ‘left’ and ‘right’ labels. You can also read his writing on this subject from a 2002 article in First Things. He is, however, often a critic of the religious right as well.
Sirico has also been a long time critic of the Vatican and its alignment with liberal politics (except abortion, see How Partisan Are the Bishops?), i.e. the same errors he lists above. I’ve summarized his seven points below, but his discussion is really interesting. Also decent is his discussion of the same subject matter in a radio interview with Kresta in the Afternoon.
