(This is a twelve year old article but I find it relevant for today so post it.)
I write this under the
date of March 6, 2012. By now virtually
everyone who follows the news at all has heard of Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown
University law student, who testified before a portion of Congress recently
arguing that birth control pills should be covered by her employer's health
care plan. She argued that it is just
too expensive for students to purchase the pills on their own.
As you know the
President's health care plan has a contraception mandate in it requiring
employers or their insurance companies to cover the cost of
contraceptives. This has aroused a fight
between the President and the leaders of the Catholic Church whose church
doctrine opposes the use of contraceptives.
They argue his mandate is a matter of the violation of the church and
state relationship whereby the state is trying to force upon the church a requirement
that they provide a service or pay for it that is directly contrary to their
church doctrine while the President and his party argue it is a matter of
women's rights and health care.
Rush Limbaugh, the well-known
conservative talk radio personality, got involved last week by calling Ms.
Fluke a slut. Here is a part of
Limbaugh's monologue quoted from the March 2nd ABC News Web Site
online from the blog posted there by Mary Bruce.
"'What does it say
about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee
and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make
her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute,' Limbaugh said
Wednesday. 'She wants to be paid to have
sex. She's having so much sex she can't
afford the contraception. She wants you
and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.'"
The President then became
involved making a phone call to Ms. Fluke to offer his support to her,
commending her for her testimony, and expressing his disappointment that she
had been subjected to these personal attacks.
I have written all of the
above so you the reader have the necessary background information before you to
see where I am coming from in the remarks I am about to make. First, I want to tell you what this article
is not about. It is not about the use of
contraceptives. It is not about whether
or not the government should mandate that health care plans cover
contraceptives. It is not about the
Catholic Church or any of its doctrines.
It is not about Rush Limbaugh and whether or not he should have said what
he said. What it is about is defending
that which is scripturally indefensible, fornication.
What kind of a country do
we live in when we have national leaders that go to bat for unmarried college
women, commending them, for basically committing fornication? Now I fully understand that some women have
health issues that may require birth control pills for reasons other than birth
control. I am fine with that but do not
be misled or so naïve that you think that Ms. Fluke was advocating for that
reason and for that small group of college-age women that fit into that
category. She had in mind birth control
pills for college coeds who needed them for birth control pure and simple. President Obama was not so naïve that he did
not know that and yet his desire was to render support.
Paul guided by the Holy
Spirit said, "Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor.
6:9 KJV) Paul spoke of these acts as
being unrighteous. He says those who do
such things "shall not inherit the
kingdom of God."
He says in 1 Cor. 6:18,
"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the
body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."
(KJV) Did you get that? The Bible calls fornication a sin. Now who is worse—Rush Limbaugh for calling
names or our national leaders whose desire it is to defend the indefensible, defend
sin? God will decide.
In an article entitled
"Rush Limbaugh Apologies for Calling Sandra Fluke a 'Slut,'" dated
Sat., Mar 3, 2012, by Dean Schabner and Matt Negrin on the ABC NEWS online site,
President Obama is said to have called Ms. Fluke "to tell her that her
parents should be proud of her for speaking out for women." I can tell you had that been my sister in the
1960’s testifying before Congress, unmarried, a single college student, that
she needed insurance coverage for her birth control pills I don't know what
would have happened at home at our house but it would not have been pretty and
"proud" is the last thing in the world my parents would have been and
they would have been right. Don’t
confound the holding of high political office with holiness and righteousness.
It is past time to quit
calling this country a Christian nation.
It has aborted millions of babies (a holocaust), every year we have more
and more states legalizing gay marriages which involve the sexual act the Bible
refers to as an abomination (Lev. 18:22), we are slowly but surely destroying
God's definition of marriage, and now we think it is wonderful that a college
student advocate for birth control for fornication and commend her for taking
such a stand.
As I write this piece I am
65 just having had a birthday about 3 weeks ago. I think back on the days of my childhood and
youth and how the morals of this country have changed. The big push toward massive national
immorality came in my college years in the late 60's with the hippie
generation, the sexual revolution, Woodstock, drugs, etc. I came from a very tiny rural community and
graduated from high school in a class of 10 students. A big class for our community was 16 which is
what the class ahead of me had. But, the
point I want to make is I never knew of but one kid who came from a divorced
family. Nearly every child lived with
their biological family. I graduated
from high school in 1965.
Children today do not have
parents. They have live-ins, here today,
gone tomorrow. It is mom's boyfriend,
not dad. It is dad's girlfriend, not
mom. What a life we live today but I
thought everything was supposed to get better with time. I thought it was called progress and was
inevitable. Man was to be his own
master. Maybe we just need a few more
laws passed by our legislatures or a few more mandates to make us what we ought
to be. Maybe a little more ignoring of
God would help (hope you recognize satire).
This article was not
written with the intent to condemn or attack Ms. Fluke. The truth is "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom.
3:23 KJV) Furthermore, if people would
study up on the Greek word translated fornication (the Greek being the word
porneia) they would quickly learn why most modern translations have dropped the
word fornication and replaced it with the more general term "sexual
immorality." Some want to argue
that "sexual immorality" is too broad a term and covers too much
ground for the Greek. That is wishful
thinking and reflects a lack of in-depth study.
The best study I have ever come across on the subject is a 20-page
article by Oscar Miles in Faith and Facts
Quarterly, April 2008, Vol 36, Number
2, pages 36-56. It is a scholarly work
with in-depth research with 39 footnotes reflecting that research.
The purpose of what I just
said was to make the point that there are a lot more people guilty of
fornication (Greek "porneia") than ever thought they were. One does not have to be involved in the act
of procreation to commit the sin of fornication for all sexual immorality is
covered by the Greek word as accurately reflected by the more modern day Bible
translations. People commit fornication,
sexual immorality, who have no need of birth control pills.
So the article is not
about Ms. Fluke specifically or even about a particular sin or group of sins
but it is about a so-called Christian nation that has lost its way and no
longer has any use for the Bible; a nation whose desire is to become a secular
state and discard religion. It is about
government and government officials who would not know what a sin was if it
slapped them in the face and who promote sin and applaud it. We get what we want, what we desire. We also get to reap the consequences; we get
to reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7).
People on the one hand do
not want to obey God and want to ridicule his outdated commandments, as they
see them, but on the other hand, when tragedy strikes they want to think it
could not possibly be God punishing this great righteous nation. It is foolish for a man to say any one event
is an act of God in punishment of a nation for no man can know that. However, is it not also foolishness to think
God is just going to continue endlessly to put up with our sins?
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Psalm 9:17 NKJV) We have forgotten God in our morality and our government. We govern ourselves by the men and women we vote into office. We have no one to blame but ourselves for what happens to us as a nation. I hope I am not here when God decides the day has come for our punishment. We are surely not a righteous nation.
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