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Peter Tatchell and "Outrage!"

Is it just me, or are Peter Tatchell & his militant homosexual friends somewhat disturbing?

I read on his website the following quotations, which are, I warn you, unpleasant and graphic. As with the post dealing with abortion, perhaps not everyone should read it. Anyway, here they are:

OutRage! advocates an age of consent of 14 for everyone, both gay and straight.

The maximum sentence for consensual gay male sex with a boy under 16 is ten years for touching, kissing, sucking or w*****g, and life imprisonment for anal sex. These penalties apply where one partner is under 16 and the other is over 16, and also where both partners are below the age of 16. This legal barbarism doesn't protect young people; it victimises them.

...different people mature sexually at different ages. A few are ready for sex at 12...

My glossy coffee table book, "Safer Sexy", has close-up, full-colour photos of 65 hard-ons, 23 images of oral and anal penetration and, on page 68, a glorious fisting pic next to the slogan: "FIST...whatever turns you on, enjoy it safely".

Doesn't anybody else find that even marginally worrying? After the repeal of Section 28, and the European obsession with homosexuality and its acceptability/desirability, we appear to be incubating a time bomb.

With respect to Henry Fielding and Bernard Miles' 1969 play - it is no longer only our daughters that we must lock up...

A Philosophical Parable

It is likely that I will lose several 'holiness points' after reproducing this from Wicked Thoughts.

Ah well. Bite me.

A PARABLE

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar........and the beer.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favourite passions - good things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked," he said. "It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Cause of Homosexuality?

In my lastest Bloglines addition, Louis suggests, in his May 28th entry, that one explanation for human homosexuality may be that it is no more than "a biological feedback mechanism for species having no natural predators to regulate population numbers".

Wonder what Peter Tatchell would make of that?

The Five Points of Calvinism

Bought your book (or exhausted your book budget) for this month yet?

You have? What did you buy?

If you haven't, let me suggest one to you. I have decided to buy this one:

The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended and Documented
2nd Edition : David Steele, Curtis Thomas, and Lance Quinn.
ISBN 0875528279

The afterword by John MacArthur reads like this:

I am thankful for this timely revision of wonderful classic that has already been an immense blessing to countless thousands. Notwithstanding its success over the years, the only question that ultimately matters about the "five points of Calvinism" is whether these doctrines are biblical. This book has demonstrated (conclusively, in my judgment) that the "five points" are nothing more or less than what the Bible teaches. The doctrines of grace and divine sovereignty are the very lifeblood of the full and free salvation promised in the gospel.

Today Calvinism is being subjected to constant attack. Several recent, popular, published critiques have tried to discredit John Calvin the man, or they have unfairly blamed Calvinism for the dubious politics of the Reformation era. But the doctrines of Calvinistic soteriology must stand or fall by the test of Scripture, period.

Scripture speaks with absolute, unmistakable clarity on these vital issues: (1) Sinners are utterly helpless to redeem themselves or to contribute anything meritorious toward their own salvation (Rom 8:7-8). (2) God is sovereign in the exercise of His saving Will (Eph 1:4-5). (3) Christ died as a substitute who bore the full weight of God's wrath on behalf of His people, and his atoning work is efficacious for their salvation (Isa. 53:5). (4) God's saving purpose cannot be thwarted (John 6:37), meaning none of Christ's true sheep will ever be lost (John 10:27-29). That is because (5) God assures the perseverance of His elect (Jude 24; Phil 1:6; 1 Peter 1:5).

Those are the five points of Calvinism. I believe them not because of their historical pedigree, but because that is what Scripture teaches.

Hooyah, Mr MacArthur!

It almost makes me want to forgive his bizarre dispensationalism. Almost.

Food for Thought

"Give me a handful of men with the doctrines of grace in their mind, and the fire of God in their heart, and I will win the world."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Views from my study (5)

There is not a square inch of this darkened world over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry “Mine.” Not a square inch of art, music, science, humanities, psychology, education, business, or any other academic discipline over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!” There is not one square inch of the UK, not one part of Cheshire, not one man, woman or child over whom Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!”

Views from my study (4)

Yesterday you had a chance to see what I see from my study. Today you get to see how I see from my study.

Pardon the photographic quality. I am hardly David Bailey.

Views from my study (3)

Today began at 6.50am with a meeting for prayer with one of the men from the church. As I didn't finish my elders' meeting until after 11pm yesterday (my day incidentally having also begun at 6.30am praying in Crewe for an hour with another local pastor), I was feeling a little limp. After seeing a couple of folk and then coming to the study to engage in ministry prep, by mid afternoon I had decided that I needed a break.

You know, sitting out here on the fire escape with a cup of coffee, hearing the birds, feeling the sun on my face and listening to Al Mohler preaching from Deuteronomy made me realise something:

However tiring or demanding our respective ministries or spheres of service may be, there are SO many blessings in God's world. I just thought I would share my view with you as I snatch a break.

Thanks for listening...

Views from my study (2)

Views from my study (1)

Visual Sermons in The Life of Moses (2)

Visual Sermons in The Life of Moses

D-Day

(c) FreeFoto.com

Futility

Move him into the sun--
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds,--
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved-- still warm,-- too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
-- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

Wilfred Owen

Now Playing: Eduard Tubin - Symphony No.4

New Entry

Hmmm. Just added new link to 'Wicked Thoughts' on my sidebar. Not sure how long it will stay there, as some of it is really amusing, while some is a bit inappropriate.

We'll see.

Funniest so far?

Q: Why do Episcopalians never win at chess?

A: They can't tell the difference between a bishop and a queen.

By the way, I quite liked Ronald Reagan, and am sorry he is dead.

United States Clickable Map

If by any chance you know anybody moving to the USA (*coughs quietly*), it may be handy to have a clickable map that tells you which state is which. Of course, it may be of no interest or value whatsoever, but at least you will be able to sound intelligent when asked to locate one of the 50 states.

Either one of these websites will do it for you:

1. Handy clickable map.

2. General Information on just about everything.

Little quiz:

1. Which was the 17th State to enter the Union?
2. Which is the 'Buckeye' State?
3. Which State is represented by the cardinal (bird)?
4. Which State name is derived from an Iroquoian word meaning 'great river'?
5. Which State has the scarlet carnation as its 'special' flower?

Answers on a postcard.

Euro 2004

In anticipation of England's impending involvement in Euro 2004, this strangely catchy video had my attention for far longer than it should.

Abortion - Woman's right to choose?

Often we are presented with abortion as the clinical removal of an unwanted 'foetus'. Rarely do we see the consequences portrayed.

If you have a weak stomach or have difficulty purging painful images from your mind, I suggest that you take it as read that abortion is not as simple as certain folk would have us believe.

These images are graphic and painful to look at.