Conservative Post

Archive for March, 2009

John Rosemond: Lose the 1960s-style parenting

Posted by admin On March - 26 - 2009

March 17, 2009 @ 09:05 PM

The Herald-Dispatch

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the 1960s to be over and done with. That destructive decade has ruled American parenting for 40 years and pretty well ruined it in the process.

Before the ’60s, parents sought child rearing advice from their elders.

Since then, parents have sought advice from a professional class–which is to say, people like me. Courtesy of Dr. Joyce Brothers (Spock had nothing to do with it, really) we so-called “experts” were able to convince the American parent of a truly absurd proposition: to wit, that a 35-year-old who possesses a graduate degree in child psychology, has been married for five years and has one child, age 2, knows more about children and how to raise them properly than an 85-year-old woman who never finished the eighth-grade but who raised 10 kids into successful adulthoods. Like I said, absurd.

I was driving (creeping is more like it) down the 405 in Los Angeles the other day, getting really worked up about all this. Instead of road rage, which is justifiable in Los Angeles, I was having an attack of psychobabble rage. I started thinking about the really dumb things the babblers began telling parents in the 1960s.

Take, for example, “children need to be able to freely express their feelings.” In 1969, when Willie and I became parents, we believed that. It took three years for us to snap out of it, but by then our first child ruled our family with his habit of freely and loudly expressing his feelings whenever we failed to obey him.

It took a while, but I finally realized that children should not be allowed to freely express anything. The natural inclination of the child is anti-social, narcissistic. Children believe that what they want, they deserve to have, and because they deserve it, the ends justify the means.

Tyrants believe the same thing. Therefore, children are tyrants by nature.

Give a tyrant/child an inch, and the tyrant/child will demand a mile.

Parents show their love for their neighbors by forcing their children to subdue their “inner bullies” and show respect for the needs of others. And yes, force is required. You cannot talk a child into giving up his delusions of grandeur and omnipotence. Once force has succeeded in creating a child who will give his parents his undivided attention, then and only then can his parents teach.

Force is the horse that pulls the cart of teaching. And before the child abuse zealots go nuts, allow me to clarify: I ain’t talking about spanking (although I am not completely eliminating the option either). The most effective parenting force is applied calmly, but with steely resolve.

Just as a child should learn that certain behavior is inappropriate to certain situations, a child should learn that the expression of certain feelings in inappropriate to certain situations. Children should learn that it is just plain wrong to get mad when one loses a game, laugh when someone else trips or cry when one doesn’t get one’s way. Just as a child’s behavior must be disciplined, so must a child’s feelings.

So must a child’s thinking. Children should learn that certain thoughts are correct and other thoughts are wrong. After all, wrong thinking leads almost inevitably to wrong behavior. On all three counts –behavior, feelings and thinking– parents need to be unequivocal. They need to make themselves perfectly clear what they expect and what they will not tolerate.

Yes, American parents need to wake up from the 1960s, take the flowers out of their hair, roll up their shirtsleeves, and get back to the work of raising good citizens, defined simply as people who would rather serve than be served, people with more other-esteem than self-esteem.

Now there’s some change I could really believe in.

Family psychologist John Rosemond answers parents’ questions on his Web site at www.rosemond.com.

General

Everyone Against Abortion Raise Your Hand !

Posted by admin On March - 14 - 2009

Abortion, Doctrines, General, Politics, SBC Issues

Posted by admin On March - 14 - 2009

Politics

Church Tax Exempt Status Not What Most People Think It Is

Posted by admin On March - 12 - 2009

Because of the number of hits this article gets and the time of year I am re-posting this article.

“No church has ever lost its tax exempt status.” Matthew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel.

During this current election cycle it is important to consider what we can and cannot do with regards to preaching and teaching on political issues and how that may effect the churches tax exempt status.

“Recognition of Tax-Exempt Status

Automatic Exemption for Churches

Churches that meet the requirements of IRC section

501(c)(3) are automatically considered tax exempt and

are not required to apply for and obtain recognition of

tax-exempt status from the IRS.

Although there is no requirement to do so, many

churches seek recognition of tax-exempt status from the

IRS because such recognition assures church leaders,

members, and contributors that the church is recognized

as exempt and qualifies for related tax benefits.

For example, contributors to a church that has been

recognized as tax exempt would know that their contributions

generally are tax-deductible.”

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf

Most people assume that churches are required to apply for a non-profit 501 (c)3 tax exempt status. However, according to the tax code churches have a special status and do not need to apply for tax exempt status. For the purposes of tax exemption to do so is redundant and unnecessary. There are other benefits of being incorporated but tax exempt status is not one of them. I would encourage every church member and Pastor to get the publication created and distributed by Matthew Staver founder of Liberty Counsel that delivers a wealth of information that debunks some myths about what churches can and cannot do in dealing with political issues and candidates.

www.libertycounsel.org

What you will discover is that a churches tax exempt status cannot be pulled from the church on a permanent basis. Since the exemption is automatic and does not rely on a letter of recognition from the IRS the automatic exemption applies to the church everyday. If the IRS attempts to pull the status from the church today, then tomorrow is a new day and the exemption begin a new. Not one church has ever lost its tax exempt status in the history of IRS oversight. Many churches apply for tax exempt status because they feel it is required. There have been approximately 5 churches that the IRS has pulled this letter of recognition from. However, since the tax status is automatic and does not require this application or letter of recognition their tax exempt status remains in tact.

In 1992 the church Pierce Creek in Binghamton NY did lose its letter after placing a full page add in USA Today and in the Washington Times. In this add expresslyÂ endorsedÂ Bill Clinton for President of the United States. As a result of this the IRS approached the church in 2002 long after the election was over. The IRS wanted to know if this church would promise not to do this again. However the church wanted to poke its finger in the eye of the IRS and simply told them to go away and to leave us alone. The IRS then revoked the churches letter of tax exempt status. At this point the church filed suit, not to get back its tax exempt status (since a letter is not required for churches) but to retain its letter. This case ended up at the federal court of appeals. This court said that the IRS could take the letter from the church, but it could not take the tax exempt status. This federal court of appeals specifically said the church does not lose its tax exempt status even though it ran full page adds endorsing aÂ political candidate in two national newspapers. The courts ruling was as follows: “Because of the churches unique tax exempt status the revocation of the letter is likely to be more symbolic than substantial.”

The federal government at the appellate court level recognizes that the churches tax exempt status is not to be lumped in with all other non-profit organizations. Its tax exempt status is outside of all others. Barry Lynn with the organization Americans United For Separation of Church and State has sent out countless numbers of warning letters to churches threatening to turn you in for any perceived political activity by the church. And to date he has not been successful in getting one single church prosecuted. Not one. His organization has been and remains today a complete failure in their endeavors. So why would we listen to men and organizations like these who are acting erroneously and unsuccessfully? They are not to be listened to or feared.

Preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ should preach boldly the message of a holy and righteous God. This requires that we speak to issues that are brought up in the product of campaigns. We should preach against the murder of unborn children, God ordained marriage between one man and one woman, we should preach against support of unbiblical religious and political positions. Let’s continue to proclaim the gospel with boldness.

Doctrines, General, Politics, SBC Issues

“Survey: Non-Religious Americans on the Rise in Every State”

Posted by admin On March - 10 - 2009

church-isle That is the title of a number of articles being published in the news in recent days. No doubt soon to follow will be the ever increasing “blame the church” bloggers, book writers, and church strategists who will use this perceived “crisis” to work to effect change in the church. Reminds me of a recent comment made by Rahm Emmanuel, the Presidents Chief of Staff who said “Never waste a good crisis”. You can bet your house and life savings that we will be hearing about how the church has failed to reach out to sub-cultures in an appropriate way. I have to admit that I am sick to death of the “if the lost are not acting like we want them to we must be doing something wrong” crowd. Recent observations of the decline of numbers in the convention have been linked to things like the conservative resurgence to individuals like Dr. Paige patterson.

Liberals either by doctrine or methodology are taking cues from ideologies similar to Rahm Emmanuels’ philosophy and beating the church up in order to further their agenda. And far to long now we are treating the church most like a secular organization rather than the church built by Christ. Turning to scripture to advance the kingdom is become less and less popular, while using philosophy, marketing tactics, and human behavior patterns are given all considerations. I was recently handed a couple of books on church strategy that have grown very popular within the convention’s DOM’s and church strategists. A great many things were considered in the books from culture to the appearance of the church. But what was not mentioned was the fact that Christ said “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!”. How sad and tragic that we forget Christ and His role in His church. The church today is emulating the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. Many have forgotten their first love and intentionally overlook Christ in the mix. This makes it easier to play the blame game and demonize those who some oppose adamantly on things like where women should serve in the church, the inerrancy of scripture, and any portion of the conservative resurgence.

What is also neglected in the recent writings is the role of the Holy Ghost. How can your conscience allow you to write a book of any sort on church polity or evangelical methodology and not consider nor add the role of Christ and the Holy Ghost? I submit that any such writing, book or otherwise, that is devoid of these scriptural facts have no value nor are they to be considered. The church is ever increasingly turning secular in nature as it is turning away from scripture for counsel on how to run the church and spending more time relying on polls, trends, and the latest and greatest methodologies to be handed down the pike from year to year.

And finally we fail to recognize a key scripture in all we do in the church. Ephesians 6:12 is never to be overlooked and is always to be considered. We need to know that in all we do we are being opposed by Satan, and this is to be considered when we move forward with the church. Looking at polls does very little to advance the church. Most often polls and surveys are beholden to the particular articulation of people who are lost and unable to identify the true reason for their lost estate. Their pontifications are based on unrealistic expectations of the church and selfish motivations. Yet we want to bypass the spiritual battle so we can take up these polls and surveys which is evidenced by the lack of any talk about the spiritual battle and all the rumination on all these secular considerations that may not even need to be given the time of day. The lost hate God and yet we want to give their view of the church more power and credibility and consideration than we do scripture. We forget that “the Jesus men want to see is not the Jesus men need to see” (G.Campbell Morgan). We forget that our power in the ministry is found on our knees not in polls and surveys. We are to busy to pray and so we are to busy to have power.

We live in a day and age when the church is accused of failing in evangelism because we don’t go far enough in man’s philosophy and culture. The truth is we have gone to far in it and that is why the church is failing. We no longer wait in weakness and fear on a true demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God. We spend more time trying to walk by sight and little to no time walking by faith. And so we wander around in the darkness of methodologies, philosophies,and surveys with no power from God accomplishing much without Him and nothing with Him. It would do the church well to remember what H. A Ironside said sometime ago “God is looking for men who have judged themselves in the light of Christ. When he wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves, but in God.” Maybe the church should start there instead of recent books, philosophies, surveys, and methodologies.