The Christian duty to bear children
As Christians, we have an absolute duty, if married, to obey the biblical mandate to procreate, as given to both Adam and Eve and Noah and his family:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28)
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. (Genesis 9:1-3)
But how many children is too many? And is it immoral to use any kind of birth control? And is it immoral to overpopulate the earth?
The Benefits of Sex in Marriage
Because Christians are most often harping about immoral sex, and say little about the joys of sex within marriage, they are often viewed as “against sex.” David Wayne at jollyblogger makes a very good point when he writes
Somehow, those of us who want to preserve sex for marriage need to come up with a more compelling picture of marital sex than we are doing.
How to provoke your children
Scripture instructs us parents not to provoke our children to anger:
Ephesians 6:4
And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.Colossians 3:21
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
But what exactly do we do to hurt our children this way? John MacArthur gives us a nice list, which I’ve summarized below.
Christian Parenting – Part I
This sermon, based on the example of God the Father in the Baptism of Jesus (), includes the following points:
- Acceptance: I know you
- Affection: I love you
- Approval: believe in you
For you hardliners, don’t worry, I cover DISCIPLINE in the second part.
To download Christian Parenting I, please subscribe to our podcast feed.
Porn, Masturbation, and the Christian
Mark Driscoll, controversial preacher and pastor of the very successful Mars Hill Church, has written a great book on sex and the Christian entitled Porn Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography and Masturbation. You can actually read the book online or download a free PDF copy here. As you might expect, such a subject is handled with both seriousness and humor – here's one of my favorite humorous remarks:
Question: My wife wants sex more than I do, what should I do?
Answer:
Don’t tell your buddies or they will mock you incessantly for the rest
of your life after staring at you blankly without blinking for about an
hour in total silence. Do have sex with your wife as often as she likes
and thank God.
Study: Divorce damages long-term physical health
Much can be debated about the emotional impact that divorce has on the participants and any children involved, but physical results are much more difficult to explain away. A new study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that divorced people have 20% more chronic illnesses than those who are continually or never married.
Timely marriage
When I hear that one of the news magazines has done a cover story on marriage, I imagine a repeat of Lisa Miller's shoddy Newsweek essay on why Christians really don't know what the Bible teaches about marriage. However, Time's most recent cover story by Caitlin Flanagan details why the institution of marriage is vitally important to the health and sustainability of our society, while asking the inevitable question: Is there hope for the American marriage?
Sick of the idiots
Twice in the past few weeks I've had to write something along these lines on twitter: "You can't SAY you support traditional marriage politically and not LIVE support for traditional marriage personally." Yes, you Sen. Ensign. Yes, you Gov. Sanford.
Liberals, have at it. Supports of gay marriage, have at it. There is nothing I can or will say to defend such men, who lied at every turn and treated supporters, votes, their staffs and most importantly their families with such disdain and disregard.
There is personal grace and forgiveness, but there should be none politically for these two cowards and liars. Michelle Malkin said it best: Bastard.
It’s the only fitting word for a man who abandons his wife and four sons on Father’s Day weekend to indulge his “overdrive” on an Argentinian fling.
Mark Sanford: Bastard.
My only request is that you do not assume that every conservative is cheating on their wife, but at this point I can't blame you if you did.
UPDATE: Here's Gov. Sanford wife's eloquent and classy statement. She deserved and deserves better.
A civil compromise
The issue of abortion has long been one of the most contentious policy discussions in our nation, but perhaps gay marriage will (or already has) replaced it as the hot button culture issue. A simple reason for this may be that abortion survivors are few and far between, so no one is confronted with the personal side of the issue. That is not the case for gay marriage.
Because the issue of marriage is so contentious and yet vital to the existence of our nation, are there ways in which both sides can compromise or at least engage in the matter in a much more civil tone?
Essential Products for Babies I – Medicines and Ointments
As a father of three, I have tried many products for babies and toddlers. Here’s my best of list.
1. Baby Oil – great for cleaning crusty noses and faces, moisturizing dry scalps and skin, and a great massage and marital aid
8 Ways we provoke our children
John MacArthur has posted a nice article on Pulpit Magazine about the following scripture, discussing how we should NOT provoke our children to anger. I’ve created a shortened list (HT: Challies)
Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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.
Community Marriage Policies reduce divorce
Why has divorce in Kansas City dropped by 50%? Because the leaders of Marriage Savers, Mike and Harriet McManus, have gone into over 200 cities around the country, and asked as many church leaders as possible to refuse to marry couples without first making them go through Christian pre-marital counseling, and hooking them up with marriage mentors. These Community Marriage Policies spread a blanket across a geographic area, so couples within a city or county can’t just shop around for a pastor that will marry them without counseling. The statistics are encouraging.
The McManus’ have also written a book, Living Together: Myths, Risks & Answers.
Essays in defense of traditional marriage
Catholic scholars Robert P. George and Jean Elshtain have put together a collection of essays, from scholars from many disciplines, defending traditional marriage, entitled The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, And Morals. Table of Contents below.
This volume brings together the best of contemporary scholarship on
marriage from a variety of disciplines—history, ethics, economics, law
and public policy, philosophy, sociology, psychiatry, political
science—to inform, and reform, public debate. Rigorous yet accessible,
these studies aim to rethink and re-present the case for marriage as a
positive institution and ideal that is in the public interest and
serves the common good.
Keeping Marriage Public
In a nice article in First Things, Michael Fragoso responds to a NYT article which attacked the idea of public marriage by taking on these common anti-marriage claims:
- Why do people–gay or straight–need the state’s permission to marry? For
most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private
contract between two families. - The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity.
- For 16 centuries, Christianity also defined the validity of a marriage on the basis of a couple’s wishes.
- If two people claimed they had exchanged marital vows–even out alone by
the haystack–the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly
married. - In 1215, the Church decreed that a ‘licit’ marriage must take place in church.
- But people who married illicitly had the same rights and obligations as
a couple married in church: their children were legitimate; the wife
had the same inheritance rights; the couple was subject to the same
prohibitions against. - Not until the 16th century did European states begin to require that marriages be performed under legal auspices.
- In part, this was an attempt to prevent unions between young adults whose parents opposed their match.
Religion is good for kids
Or so says a new study by a Mississippi State University sociologist and reported by one the right-wing blogosphere’s leading atheists.
Non-Christian support for traditional marriage
Many feel that only the religous support continuing the traditional definition for marriage. However, some non-religious conservatives and even some on the left see the value in the government supporting traditional marriage.*
My Two Cents (01/11) – Sexuality
Ex-Gay Goes Ex-Ex – One of the main subjects of the Ex-Gay DVD I Do Exist has presumably returned to the gay life, providing more evidence that the reversibility of homosexuality may be a fundamentalist’s pipe dream. The publisher, Christian gay-recovery therapist Dr. Throckmorton has announced he is retiring the DVD in February.- Bisexual Marriage – In a thought-provoking article, progressive site Talk to Action discusses a new anti-gay marriage approach from the right – saying that if you want to push for equal marriage rights for gays, you should for bi-sexuals also. But this might force you to support triangle marriages (three people).
Christians and divorce
The oft repeated line that Christians are just as likely to divorce as non-Christians has taken a hit after a recent study showed a somewhat different story.
The Marks of Manhood
Al Mohler has written an excellent article on what biblical manhood looks like. I’ve summarized his main points below.
