Tag Archives: poverty

Politics

Fatherless children are the biggest drain on society. Which party leads to having more of them?

4 Comments

Please read this closely and note how fatherless children are wildly more likely to:

  • End up in prison (and, of course, harm their neighbors in the process).
  • Murder
  • Rape
  • Dropout
  • Abuse drugs
  • Commit suicide
  • Run away
  • Be more promiscuous
  • Have divorces

The figures are staggering.  Cited by John Hawkins, “Five Consequences of America’s Moral Collapse,” with a hat tip to Glenn.

“Controlling for socioeconomic status, race, and place of residence, the strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is that he was raised by a single parent. By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy-two percent of juvenile murderers and 60 percent of rapists come from single-mother homes. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents, and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced. A 1990 study by the Progressive Policy Institute showed that after controlling for single motherhood, the difference between black and white crime rates disappeared.

Various studies have come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. According to the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, children from single-parent families account for 63 percent of all youth suicides, 70 percent of all teenage pregnancies, 71 percent of all adolescent chemical/substance abuse, 80 percent of all prison inmates, and 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children.

A study cited in the Village Voice produced similar numbers. It found that children brought up in single-mother homes ‘are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home.’ Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and social outcasts.”

And note that none of this is race-based.  Once you control for single motherhood “the difference between black and white crime rates disappeared.”  Got that, race-baiters?

So which party’s policies lead to more single mothers?  The Democrats, of course, including the “Christian” Left.  Churchgoers who support “same-sex marriage” have nearly identical views to the world. It shows who their real father is.  1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Roundup

Roundup

5 Comments

How Bad Is Violence in Chicago? Depends on Your Race — Chicago: Kinda like Detroit, with a slightly better financial outlook.  Dominated by Democrats in politics, schools and media.  America’s most segregated city.  America’s most violent city – but with the strongest anti-gun laws! 

—

Chicago Tribune Hosts Revealing Marriage Forum – More from Chicago – in a move that should surprise no one, many LGBTQX advocates are now saying publicly what they’ve said privately for years: The suppression of individual religious liberty and conscience protections is a design feature, not a bug or even a real issue.  Don’t be fooled.  Their actions aren’t just their Romans 1 rebellion against God, it is about forcing others to affirm their rebellion. Don’t be a part of it.

In a stunning public admission during a debate on the future of marriage in Illinois, the chief sponsor of SB 10, the proposed bill to legalize same-sex “marriage,” homosexual State Representative Greg Harris (D-Chicago) acknowledged that the bill does not provide religious liberty or conscience protections for individual Christian business owners. Further, it was clear that both he and homosexual Chicago Alderman Deb Mell (a former state representative and co-sponsor of of SB 10) oppose any such protections.

—

Devastating Arguments Against Christianity (Courtesy of the Internet) – A great takedown of some common objections to religion in general and Christianity in particular.  Here’s a sample. 

The Claim: “Religion has been the primary cause of war and oppression throughout the history of mankind.”

photo source: http://radiomankc.blogspot.com/

The Truth: In their comprehensive Encyclopedia of Wars, Phillips and Axelrod document the recorded history of warfare. Of the 1,763 wars presented, a mere 7% involved a religious cause. When Islam is subtracted from the equation, that number drops to 3.2%.

In terms of casualties, religious wars account for only 2% of all people killed by warfare. This pales in comparison to the number of people who have been killed by secular dictators in the 20th century alone.

—

CBS hails Davis’ “marathon defense of abortion rights” in handicapping TX race– Abortion Barbie runs for governor and media supports her with distorted fluff piece.

The bill Davis tried to block moved the bar on late-term abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks, and forced abortion clinics to meet the same regulatory health standards as all other ambulatory surgical offices in the state.  Those efforts had the support of 62% of all Texans, including 61% of women in the state.  (See page 416 of the crosstabs.)  Not only does Davis find herself in that minority, she refuses to contemplate limits on abortion at all, describing late-term abortions as her “sacred ground” in an echo of Nancy Pelosi.  Rather than report honestly on the actual issues of that bill, O’Donnell just characterizes her filibuster as marathon defense of abortion rights. 

It’s not going to take $25 million to get these facts in front of Texas voters, but Greg Abbott already has that much in the bank, and he’s aggressively fundraising to build his coffers further.  He may need it if the mainstream media continues to toss hosannas at Davis for doing exactly what Cruz did in Washington — only without encouraging thugs to hijack a legislative session when it didn’t go her way.

—

Nothing Smart About Smart Water – Why pay $3 or so for a bottle of water?  It reminds me of the early days of bottled water, where someone noted that Evian spelled backwards is naïve.  Bottled water is handy for many things, but buy the inexpensive kind.

—

The LGBTQX lobby and the complicit media, entertainment, political and education establishments like to pretend that gays commit suicide because Christians quote God on the topic (as if we would ever get suicidal because false teachers insist that God thinks we are wrong.  Here are some sobering observations on this crucial topic via Homosexuality & Suicide:

However Joseph Sciambra, a former gay pornstar, points to a more plausible explanation:

…although, gay men may one day settle down and attempt monogamy, the vast majority, beforehand, had to travel through a wasteland of perversity and promiscuity. Because, every young boy, who just enters the lifestyle, is quickly set upon by a troop of eager older men ready to exploit new recruits. It sets you up for a life of bitterness and disappointment. Some survive and move on, many do not. But, they all reemerge damaged and untrusting. 

…the gay lifestyle has been “sanitized” by the media, and that was precisely what I wanted to fight against [by writing my book]; to show just how ugly, and yes dirty, the gay lifestyle is; but also how ultimately sad and tragic it seems to end for almost everyone involved. I especially wanted to reach modern parents who are so willing to offer their sons up to this horror – to explain what awaits their children, and to also give some dignity to those who fell into the life because of no fault of their own. 

…

Now, one of the main recruiting devices is porn. It gives a completely false view of gay relationships and gay sex. In porn, everyone is beautiful, happy and healthy. Its themes, often emphasizing supreme masculinity and sexualized father-son relationships aims at the very woundedness that sits at the center of every gay man’s malformed sense of masculinity. Porn preys upon their desires for healing. What you get, is a quick fix. That, later on, leaves you more damaged than before.

—

Via Crack, Meth, Addiction, and the Puritans – A fascinating analysis of how “addicts” have more control than we give them credit for.  We are constantly choosing what we see as the great fulfillment.   When we choose badly it is because we value the sin over Jesus.  Ouch.

In a fascinating piece in The New York Tim
es, “The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts,” Dr. Carl Hart presents his research on how crack and meth addicts choose future monetary rewards instead another high.

. . .

Because all men seek happiness, all of life is worship.

What you want is what you worship.

What you worship controls you.

How is your worship of God today?

—

An open letter to President Obama – a good read, even if just for this handy list of all the awful things he has done.

Sure, future generations will look at you with mockery and scorn because of bigger scandals — Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservatives, Obamacare, the birth control mandate and your attacks on religious liberty, spying on journalists, arming terrorists overseas, Fast and Furious, the green energy scams, the bailouts, your support for infanticide, the billions you’ve given to the abortion industry, your cowardice in refusing to address the Gosnell murders, your reckless exploitation of the Zimmerman trial, the out of control deficit spending, your refusal to enforce immigration laws, the massive expansion of the Welfare State, the lies, the broken promises, etc — but I think, in an understated way, what you’ve done this week is a better microcosm of your entire reign.

—

Poverty and Wealth Creation – Yes, we should help the truly poor – but with our own money.  But if you really want to help them, create jobs so they can have the dignity and pleasure of work.  Don’t trust the (hypocritically wealthy) false teachers who oppose it.

Wealth creation is a gift of the Creator – a spiritual gift. But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. (Deuteronomy 8:18) I have often heard sermons on the seductiveness of wealth and the corrupting influence of mammon, but I have yet to hear a sermon affirming the spiritual gift of wealth-creation. And yet it is this very gift that enables our society to flourish. And it is this gift that holds the key to the alleviation of poverty.

 

Pro-life

“But they might be poor!”

6 Comments

There are lots of bad pro-abortion arguments, but one of the worst is that the unborn might end up poor.  Here are a few things wrong with that.

1. Even if that would be justification to kill an innocent but unwanted human being, that uses the wrong definition of poor.  There are very, very few truly poor people in this country.  Most of the poor (who, as Roxanne notes, are only poor because someone has to be on the left side of the Bell curve) live better than even royalty did 200 years ago.  Some people are so “poor” that they can’t afford to work because they’d be taking a pay cut from their benefits.

That definition of poor would mean that 90% of the world should have been aborted.  Ask anyone using that argument how many Third World countries they have visited.

2. Even if they really would be poor their entire lives and even if that would be justification to kill an innocent but unwanted human being, note the word “might.”  It is the sadly pessimistic but false view of Liberals that once your family is poor that you always stay that way.  But people often move between economic classes.  Hey, just graduate high school and don’t have sex out of wedlock and you are very unlikely to be poor, even by the U.S. definition.

Killing them because something “might” happen sounds like Dr. Nick Riviera from The Simpsons (“Just to be on the safe side, we better pull the plug.”)

3. As with nearly all pro-abortion arguments, it ignores the right to life of the unborn.

4. Using that logic we could do poor people a favor by killing them outside the womb, too.  After all, the size, location, level of development and degree of dependency have no bearing on the value of a human being.  The world just rationalizes it so they can kill unwanted human beings.

—

Sadly, many of those using this argument claim the name of Christ.  A woman in a Bible study once used that as her justification to be “pro-choice,” even though she had been in church her entire life.  The notion that the author of life (Acts 3:15) would be pro-abortion is ridiculous.

If you want to help poor people, that’s great.  But killing them is a dubious way of going about it.

Christian worldview

Liberalism and poverty: The cause, not the cure

4 Comments

False teacher Chuck Currie’s piece on How To End Homelessness: Fight Poverty reminded me of when Homer Simpson said, “Beer: The cause of . . . and cure for all life’s problems.”  Only in this case, Liberalism just causes poverty, it doesn’t cure it.  If people graduate high school and don’t have sex outside of marriage their odds of being poor are very low.  Yet Chuck et al are the cheerleaders for the anti-God Planned Parenthood-style sexual mores that are destroying this country.  If you really want to fight poverty you’ll spread the Gospel.  Transformed hearts and minds lead to a more moral society, which reduces poverty.

Ending homelessness, Currie says, will take a massive push on curbing poverty . . .

So there is a connection between people not having money and being homeless?  Who knew?!

— including not only creating jobs, but also preparing workers for those jobs —

So why do Liberals oppose all the ways we could create jobs in this country?  Why don’t they support more oil drilling and the Keystone Pipeline, which would reduce energy costs for everyone and make homes more affordable and provide jobs that would increase tax revenues?  Or how about merely not aggressively killing the coal industry? (Sadly, that is one promise Obama is keeping.)

and on making huge investments in affordable housing

Details, please.  What are these “huge” investments and how do they make housing affordable?  Is that code for taking from neighbor A by force to “give” to neighbor B?

and building up programs for in-home support of the elderly, those with physical disabilities and those suffering from other health, mental health and addiction problems.

Yes, many homeless have mental problems and will never be able to maintain a residence in their current state.  But try to institutionalize them and watch the lawsuits fly.

. . . The Half in Ten Campaign is advancing progressive economic policies to reduce poverty that stand in stark contrast to the budget proposal put forward by Paul Ryan and adopted this week by the U.S. House that would increase poverty and homelessness, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

And you can totally trust that source, especially when it is proven that Liberals fail at basic economics.

President Obama’s budget proposals move us in a much better direction.

Yes, and that’s why his budget didn’t get one single vote from Republicans OR Democrats.  I repeat: Not a single vote from Democrats!

I remain strongly convinced from the polls and my own experiences that we Americans are a compassionate people who want our government to advance policies that promote the common good over the needs of the special interests or the wealthiest and most powerful among us. We can end homelessness. We simply need to make the moral investment.

And we should all take seriously the moral claims from someone who thinks that one of our problems is that we don’t have enough abortions in this country. You see, fake Reverend Chuck is pro-taxpayer funded abortions.  As with most liberals, he thinks that killing unwanted human beings reduces poverty.  While pretending to oppose the powerful they think people should have the power to destroy the unwanted.

Christian worldview, Politics

Epic fail on ending homelessness

17 Comments

False teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie wrote an op-ed in The Onion (oops, I meant the Oregonian) about Ending Homelessness.  While I appreciated his concession in the title (“Plan after well-meaning plan in the region misses the mark, failing to address root causes”), the piece reads like a self-parody.  Here’s my paraphrase: “We’ve had several expensive, decade-long programs to end homelessness and the situation keeps getting worse, but the programs really helped a lot, and we just need to spend lots more and then everything will be fixed!  Oh, and we need to take other people’s money by force to make that happen, because Jesus said to!”

Read it yourself and see what I mean.

He appealed to our need to be our “brother’s keeper.” But does that apply here?  That term occurs in Genesis 4:9 (Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”).  Most people will note that Cain was referring to his literal brother, not all of humanity. Also, he didn’t say it in reference to being his brother’s caretaker. He had murdered Abel and was basically giving the original version of the smart-aleck response, “It wasn’t my day to watch him.”

So once again Chuck mangles the Bible to advance his politics-disguised-as-religion agenda.  He picks a verse that he thinks backs up his point, but he has already mocked the Bible in whole and in part, so why should we take him seriously when he takes a verse out of context to use as a trump card?

This comment seemed a bit hypocritical, considering how Chuck mocks the traditional (read: real and biblical) view of marriage and is pro-legalized abortion:

This rhetoric has found expression in the tea party movement, which rejects traditional religious understandings of justice and compassion and has left even progressive politicians timid.

Yeah, theological liberals are all about traditional religious understandings!  Didn’t the early church fathers take their 6 yr. old girls to gay pride parades, just like Chuck describes on his blog?  Weren’t they pro-legalized abortion and pro-taxpayer funded abortions, just like Chuck & Co.?

I’m all for helping widows and orphans and the truly needy, but I prefer to do it with my own money (We’ve supported the Star of Hope homeless ministry for years, among other things).  And if I cite Bible verses to support my views, I use them in context, and I don’t force them on non-believers. Chuck did the opposite of all of that.

Chuck’s version of Jesus has him telling us to ask Caesar to take from neighbor A by force (i.e., taxes) to “give” to neighbor B, even if it puts neighbor B and his descendants in semi-permanent bondage to the government.

One of the common sound bites pro-legalized abortionists like Chuck use against pro-lifers is this: “You shouldn’t complain about abortion if you aren’t going to adopt all the kids!” That argument fails on many levels, but it only seems fair to ask Chuck how many formerly homeless people he is currently housing.

I wonder why Chuck doesn’t apply the “brother’s keeper” line of thinking to the unborn?

If Chuck really wants to solve homelessness he needs to switch political parties. One example: We need to drill for more oil. That not only provides lots of high paying jobs but it lowers energy costs and the costs of nearly everything else people buy — thus helping them stay in their own homes!

Also, the increase in the minimum wage always reduces jobs for young black men, whose unemployment rate sits at 40%. Thanks, Chuck & Co.!

We also need to teach comprehensive sex education, but not in the way Chuck & Co. use that term. I mean telling kids that if they don’t have sex out of wedlock and get a high school degree, their chances of being poor or homeless are very, very low. But if they do the opposite their odds skyrocket. But the Left is too busy supporting Planned Parenthood’s failed program of encouraging kids to have allegedly consequence-free sex when they are “ready,” which, shockingly enough, is right about the time when they want to have sex!

Oh, and you could teach the Biblical model — again, the opposite of what Chuck teaches — and tell them that God designed sex for one man and one woman in a life-long commitment. The odds of that resulting in homelessness is also very, very low.

Side note: I like Oregon Live for allowing an actual discussion. Chuck also writes at the Huffington Post and they censor opposing views, regardless of how politely they are expressed.  I was very encouraged by how the other commenters took Chuck to task — there is hope for Oregon!

We’d all like to reduce homelessness.  The question is whether we’ll come up with adult solutions that actually improve the situation, or whether we’ll ignore those and just tell the government to fix it — with someone else’s money, of course.

Uncategorized

Jim Wallis’ new strawman

Leave a comment

See Wanted: 1,000 Pastors For the Poor – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog, where Wallis wants to debunk the “myth” based on the political assertion that government doesn’t have any responsibility to poor people.  It is a classic example of arguing a point that wasn’t made.

What I oppose, along with many others, are false teachers like Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis and Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie distorting what the Bible teaches and asking for a virtual blank check for their counterproductive social programs.

How about if Wallis, Currie et al sign letters asking the government to stop letting people crush and dismember innocent but unwanted human beings?  That would be worthwhile.

Uncategorized

Reducing poverty

Leave a comment

How can we win the war on poverty? This is a very important and not-that-complicated lesson.  The greatest and saddest irony is that those most vocal about injustice and reducing poverty are the ones who caused the problem to begin with: The theological liberals like false teachers Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis and race-baiting Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie.  They continually advance programs that make the problems worse.  They teach the opposite of what God’s word said on human sexuality and we see the devastating consequences every day.

And it isn’t just poverty.  I see the impacts of this in prison ministry and pregnancy center ministries as well.  The liberal policies increase the number of victims and are the opposite of “social justice.”

What could be the problem? Well, think of welfare as a cash payment given to women who have have babies with men who they chose knowing that those men were not interested in becoming fathers or husbands. Women are having sex with men and having babies with men who have not married them and have no intention of marrying them. And the government is paying them to do this. The government is paying them to oppose chastity. The government is paying them to avoid courting. The government is paying them to avoid chivalry. The government is paying them to avoid marriage.

Uncategorized

“Faith leaders” demonstrate their spiritual gift of coveting

Leave a comment

But . . . uh . . . didn’t that used to be a sin? See Faith Leaders To President Obama: End The Bush Tax Cuts For The Most Fortunate.

False teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie and the like can’t convince their members to give more, so they have devised a way to take it by force.  How Christ-like of them.

They also beg the question and assume that all poverty comes from oppression:

“He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich–both come to poverty” (Prov 22:16 NIV).

I bet all or nearly all of the “faith leaders” think it is OK to destroy the poor in the womb.  That’s Chucks goal: Taxpayer-funded abortions to kill more potentially poor people (who just happen to be mostly black).

Uncategorized

False teachers profit from poverty

Leave a comment

First, let me be clear that I care a lot about the poor.  I’m pretty sure I donate more to help them than false teachers like Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie (unless his giving is 20x the typical Liberal politician).  I taught Junior Achievement classes for 13 years.  I support CareNet, which provides life skills training in addition to saving the weak (the ones Chuck thinks it is OK to kill).  And so on.

But as usual, the types that cause the poverty make their living off “curing” it.

Half of Americans state that someone in their close family is poor, and over 50 million Americans are living in a household struggling against hunger. We need your help now more than ever to build a grassroots movement to cut poverty in half in 10 years.

via : “Tell Congress Not to Scrooge the Jobless This Holiday Season!”.

These “grassroots movement” types don’t understand what reduces poverty: Jobs!!  They fight for job-killing legislation like the Cap and Trade nonsense and ridiculous ventures like ethanol that only help people like Al Gore.

They will never be able to help the poor in the long run because they are Democratic shills and glorified poverty pimps.

It has been proven that Liberals fail at economics.  They don’t know how jobs are created.

Uncategorized

Another NCC self-parody

Leave a comment

See Fighting Poverty With Faith Mobilization Concludes with Capitol Hill Briefing by false teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie.

The National Council of Churches (NCC) calls this “Fighting Poverty with Faith,” but virtually all their actions are political.  It is like saying, “I’m going to show my faith in God by appealing to Caesar.”

This effort is too large for any single church or religion, which is why the member communions of the National Council of Churches are so pleased to join with the Jewish Council on Public Affairs and Catholic Charities in Fighting Poverty with Faith.

Note how weak their faith is: Their “god” (apparently not the one of the Bible) is so impotent that they need other religions to help out.

If they really wanted to help, they’d go teach Junior Achievement classes.

Or they’d just encourage kids to finish high school and not have sex before marriage.  If you do that you are very, very unlikely to end up poor.  But the fakes are too busy pushing Planned Parenthood-style “have sex whenever you are ready — and you get to decide when you are ready!” programs.

Does anyone know where the NCC funding breakout is?  My understanding is that as churches give less they have turned to Liberal political groups for funding, sort of like pro-abortion atheist George Soros helps fund false teacher Jim “the Gospel is all about wealth redistribution” Wallis.