Halloween is a very popular holiday in the United States celebrated by both young and old, but especially the young. People are are pulled into the annual celebration by the opportunity to act silly and have fun without much obligation. When one studies Halloween and learns about its truth and origin the individual will learn that there really is not anything here to celebrate. Halloween originated with the Druids, in northwest Europe, in honor of Samhain, lord of the dead, whose festival fell on November 1. This was before the birth of Christ. The druids celebrated the souls of the dead while these souls were being held by the lord of the dead before allowing the better behaved ones were to be passed onto heaven. The druids, each October 31, celebrated the lord of the dead who kept the souls of individuals who had died within that year in the bodies of animals before deciding where he was going to place them. They felt that they could coax him with prayers to give their dead friends or relatives a lighter sentence. This day was called "all hollows eve". The day was the eve off "All Saints Day". It was the eve in which the lord of the dead would set all these souls loose to wonder around the earth. This day was held in celebration of the idea that the dead was not really dead. Of course when one reads the Word of God we know that when one dies his soul is either going to heaven or hell depending on whether or not the person accepted Christ as his Savior (John 3:3).
The Catholics, living amongst the Druids in places like Scotland and Ireland, adopted some of the Druid teaching in their culture. The Catholics also believed in a holding place for the dead called purgatory. They did not believe that people's eternity was already determined by their own life decisions, whether or not they had a relationship with God before they died. They believed that there was a place for people who needed to have some of their bad behavior and sins cleaned out of them before being allowed to enter into heaven. The Catholic church along with the Druids combined their belief and customs to form what is presently celebrated as Halloween.
The lord of the dead is Satan. He holds the key to the dead unless their souls are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:18-19). Every year people in the millions are wandering around the western part of the globe, traveling from house to house, dressed up as witches, ghosts, and goblins, smiling, laughing, not knowing that they are in fact celebrating the devil. Today is no different then what is was in the 1600s or 2000 plus years ago except that then neighbors were not passing out candies to little children and there was not any commercialization to pump more money out of the pockets of the civilians but the intent has not changed. The devil still has children and adults marching from house to house playing a role similar to an old ritual where a procession of men, led by a man wearing a white robe and a horse - headed mask, would knock on farmers' doors. Unless the group was rewarded with a treat their crops were threatened with curse for the whole, entire year of production. As children, teenagers, and adults play along with this reenactment they have no idea what they are celebrating and the role they are playing.
Regardless of what Halloween means to them people who celebrate this day are celebrating Satan. This is his day. He is the lord of the dead. People are dressing up like witches and goblins, commemorating evil while denying the power of the gift of Jesus Christ to give life to the dead, if the individual will only heed to Him while alive here on earth. The devil obtained the power of the dead when Adam and Eve sinned and sin entered the ground, bringing with it a curse. Jesus came to earth died on the cross, entered the ground, and came out alive and well. With His rebirth along came a cure for the curse on the ground, His blood. A person who has poured his soul into the Blood of Jesus is no longer held by Satan. His faith does not need to rely on old Catholic teachings. His soul does not need purgatory. He can have faith in Jesus that He will save him and carry his soul away to heaven whenever he either passes from earth or if he happens to be alive to experience the resurrection. Looking at the all the gifts and blessings this person is about to receive why would he want separate himself from Christ in order to take a jaunt with the devil?
Halloween is pure devil worship plain and simple. From the trick or treating, to the people dressing up like devils and angels, evil is being celebrated. Why would anyone want to celebrate the dead? We should want to celebrate the present. As Jesus Christ said in Matthews, let the dead bury their own dead, come follow Me (Matthew 8:22). Once a person is dead there is not anything we could do for that individual except give him or her a decent burial and treat his or her family with generosity and respect. The person is dead. God is going to take care of the rest. God wants us to be concerned about the living. No one should celebrate a holiday honoring the dead, especially not a Christian. Christians celebrate the Living Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus is not dead. He defeated death, paving a future and hope for those who follow and believe in Him.
Knowing the truth about Halloween how does one determined christian respond, while living within a world where the day of the dead is celebrated like a super mega Superbowl? I read several articles where writers advised readers to not be judgmental regarding how one celebrates the holiday while responding kindly to the people partying in the middle of the fest. I disagree. Yes you still want to be nice but a christian should stand his or her ground and let their friend, sibling, coworker, boss, etc. know that he or she does not celebrate the holiday because it goes against the teachings of Jesus Christ. You should still be nice and polite while stating your stance against Halloween but you should never agree to celebrate it. You don't want to celebrate Satan. This is a time one can take to share his or her faith about Jesus Christ and salvation. Don't be ashamed of your belief and faith in God. He was not ashamed of you when He suffered on the Cross for you.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Popular Media's Role In Same Sex Marriage
Gay Marriage has ran a long marathon as a media headliner. From the early 1970s until now the pro gay movement has given tremendous effort to turn the United States from a red and blue divided country into a completely pink nation. Christians, Republicans, traditionalists, even some of the Moderates and those leaning hard toward the left as well as their leaders fought hard to keep traditional marriage in this country pure and true. But the news continues to pour onto the public stories upon stories of judges granting victories to gay marriage seekers as each state bickers and fights over whether or not to make gay marriage legal. Just about each and everyday media members announces the new number of states allowing gay marriage. As of October 7, 2014 25 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. as well as the District of Columbia) have allowed marriage certificates to be granted to same sex couples. Nevada provides legal unions to same sex couples. States like Michigan, Idaho, Arkansas, Texas, and Kentucky are viciously fighting against the court judges from forcing them to accept gay marriage as legal but these states appear to be fighting against long odds. Florida and North Carolina have same sex marriage legalization pending but not yet in effect. The other states either have same sex marriage out right banned or find themselves somewhere in the middle.
Recently because of the Supreme Court avoiding the opportunity to make a decision on the legality of same sex marriage for all the states, individual state judges played the role as nation dictators by making that important decision themselves. Several judges arrogantly and likely illegally placed themselves as nation's lone decision makers by making gay marriage legal in their states and passing out marriage certificates to same sex partners. On Wednesday October 8, 2014 a Kansas judge ordered the state's most populated county to being issuing gay marriage certificates. Colorado has begun issuing gay marriage certificates. North Carolina and South Carolina will likely soon follow.
While watching the news on television, listening to the radio, and reading about these current events on the newspapers both in print and online, the stories make these events appear as if these gay marriage court victories is all good for America. The media describes this judicial swing toward gay marriage as a grand slam winning homer hit during the middle of the ninth inning for the home team. Gay marriage cases are forcefully assimilated with the Black Americans Civil Rights Movement. People like Pierce Brosnan, President Barak Obama, Kobe Bryant, Madonna, Clint Eastwood and many others have publically announced their support for gay marriage and homosexuality while giving the traditional responses: "it is not a big deal", "let people marry who they love", "people should be able to do whatever makes them happy", and as previously mentioned, the ever so famous comparisons to the racism and harsh treatment Black Americans received before and during the Civil Rights Movement.
A careful reader while poring through the news articles from media newspapers and listening to the commentaries on popular talk shows and current event discussions, will notice that much of popular media over glamorizes homosexuality and gay marriage, giving it constant affirmation, while never providing any information regarding the negative sides of homosexuality. People who disapprove of gay marriage are not given proper respect or careful attention to at least allow a chance to discover whether or not what they are saying is true. Homosexuals are told and preached to the world to be born that way even though many of them don't believe that themselves. There are many individuals who have currently state that they were once gay but have themselves experienced the process of changing their lives. The media simply ignores them. People often say that gay sex resembles sexual abuse and porn when shown to minors. They say that such scenes confuse minors while reducing their respect for the act of sex. Popular media calls those people "haters" and "bigots". Psychologists have come out to say that homosexuality is related to individuals who were sexually molested as children (1997 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association) . Researchers have shown that pedophilia and homosexuality is related (Fraternal Birth Order and Sexual Orientation in Pedophiles, " Archives of Sexual Behavior 29, pg 64) (also The Heterogeneity/Homogeneity of Pedophilia," Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa 13 pg 218). Such comments are laughed at by the media, often responding that heterosexuals molest children too. They don't pay attention to the actual numbers showing the relationship between homosexuality and child molestation that such a relationship does exist. But it seems that popular media has chosen to rather be friendly and supportive to the gay crowd then to hold people accountable for actions and sins that are terribly harmful to human beings.
Facts are there are many people in the United States, in the world who are hurt. They are crying inside. Many of them do not know how to handle their feelings, emotions. They do not know what to do. It is true that many gays deal with psychological issues like depression and suicides. Suicide plays a major role within men who have sex with men. Sadly the media plays this reality off by simply stating that these men are responding to being hated by the world. Popular media is feeding the world this lie by portraying gay characters on television as people who are often bullied, mistreated, but are trying hard to live a normal life just like everyone else. The media produces programs displaying a typical gay man's life as normal, minus any problems the average human being would deal with. Yes gay men and women are people like you and your next door neighbor and deserve to be loved. They are human beings and no individual(s) should mistreat them. Their lifestyle though is wrong and not just wrong but is also an extremely risky, very dangerous lifestyle to live. What the media does not show is that the average gay man's life is very promiscuous. The average gay active man engages in sex with several partners. According to the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry 28% of homosexual men had more than 1000 partners. During a survey 79% of homosexual males said that over half of their sex partners are strangers. A 1978 study said that 78% of gay men had more than 100 partners, 28% more than 1000. These are huge numbers. Representing such large numbers no wonder men who have sex with men are the largest populating in America suffering with the HIV AIDS virus. But popular media will try to confuse listeners by always touting African Americans as being AIDS victims. Popular media and most of the educational institutions and leaders preach that AIDS is a black race problem. They confuse much of the world into believing hat only black men and women from African American centered US communities and African villages and cities receive AIDS. What many people in The western world do not understand is that gay men and women out number African Americans by far in being victimized by the AIDS/Virus. AIDS is sickening and killing people in large numbers in areas of the world like Thailand, India, The United Kingdom, Russia, China, Mexico, Ukraine. The disease is located all over the world. The sickness is hitting men of all colors, nations, and races. The situation is at a point where it can grow much worse. Imagine having AIDS and Ebola racing neck to neck hitting individuals here and there and the media wants us to simply worry about Africa.
Unfortunately popular media has lied to America and the world regarding the negative effects of homosexuality. Allowing same sex marriage to be legal throughout the country will only make the matter worse by painting a false picture on the behavior. Legalizing same sex marriage will further allow the act of men having sex with men and women with women appear normal. Approving same sex marriage in America will bolster popular media toward its mission to popularize homosexuality making the behavior seem positive. People who in other circumstances, maybe even in a previous generation may have never given the behavior a thought may become curious to try it because they see their famous celebrities (ex. Raven Symone, Cosby Show) and maybe even their own friends involved in it. Who knows how many individuals, celebrities have been enticed by the seemingly wonderful entrapment planted by pop culture. Peer pressure is a powerful tool used by the devil to entice people into getting themselves involved in activities they would have never done on their own. Bad influences can quickly steer a person down the wrong path. A lot of the people involved in gay relationships were once married or were sexually intimate with a partner from the opposite sex. Some kind of pattern presented itself in these people's lives that caused them to change. Popular media will simply state that they were born gay and realized this later in their lives. But popular media's explanation does not derive from pure evidence or unbiased research of such kind of report. Some of these people have been saved from their wrongful patterns and directed back into the right path. Popular media often refuses to acknowledge and make references to such occurrences that happen more often than many of the "experts" will like to admit.
A famous, popular media lure for enticing gay relationships is that the act in itself is okay and won't harm anyone. Such a wide acceptance given and approved via popular media with their attractive characters is similar to allowing cocaine and heroin to be distributed widely and freely throughout American cities and neighborhoods though popular sports characters. These people would have never become hooked into taking these drugs if not drawn by the opportunity and seeming attractiveness. But now that they are hooked, left to fend for themselves. They are often declared drug addicts, many spending much money and years attending chemical recovery classes and one-on-sessions with drug counselors. Think of the person who now has the HIV/AIDS virus, gonorrhea, or one of the many other sexually transmitted diseases. Each one has to spend thousands at times in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in treatment. Based on a 2010 figures the average annual per patient cost for HIV/AIDS treatment in the US is $19,912. That is a whopping amount of money. Many people living in the United States do not even make that amount of money per year. Popular media refuses to involved itself in any serious dialogue about these real financial problems facing the gay population. Television and news personalities hardly mentions the many individuals, both black and white, laying sick in hospital rooms, struggling because of having to shell out money to pay for these drugs the need in order to stay alive. The attention instead is placed on calling people who try to make useful discussions on these realities facing the gay population and America "bigots" and "haters". The media is a very powerful machinery within the US culture and much of the world. It has the ability to call people in arms to fight against the approach of sickness and disease amongst the gay population but it seems to have refused to instead of placing more emphasis and focus on legalizing gay marriage and gay rights. America has been given grace via the miraculous medications that has slowed down the quick successive deaths of the gay population that occurred back in the eighties. But though they are not dying as rapidly as they once were, they are still dying. And, as previously mentioned, many are only staying alive through paying out of pocket for expensive medications and treatment.
If one will allow him or herself to blank out all the accusations of Christians or right wingers hating gay people or simply naming everyone unsympathetic to the gay movement a "homophobe". If one would take a deep breath and just listen to the facts. Forget about people like Rosie O'Donnell. She is a celebrity who, like Cyndi Lauper, is a committed Leftist, who will pretty much accept anything approved of by Major Hollywood moguls and popular, rich, atheist individuals. These are people who don't believe in God as being the Father, the Creator of mankind, the Almighty. They don't believe in Jesus Christ being the Redeemer of this World. The Howard Stern's of this world will only regurgitate explanations given to them by Satan. Look at reality. Peer your eyes beyond what is shown on television and in the news. Does the gay population look alright? Do they appear physically and mentally healthy? Are the majority of them doing well financially? Can one honestly agree that even if all of them were allowed to marry in this country that many of the current physical and financial problems they currently face will decrease? And if they don't can one honestly blame it on a homophobic society?
Recently because of the Supreme Court avoiding the opportunity to make a decision on the legality of same sex marriage for all the states, individual state judges played the role as nation dictators by making that important decision themselves. Several judges arrogantly and likely illegally placed themselves as nation's lone decision makers by making gay marriage legal in their states and passing out marriage certificates to same sex partners. On Wednesday October 8, 2014 a Kansas judge ordered the state's most populated county to being issuing gay marriage certificates. Colorado has begun issuing gay marriage certificates. North Carolina and South Carolina will likely soon follow.
While watching the news on television, listening to the radio, and reading about these current events on the newspapers both in print and online, the stories make these events appear as if these gay marriage court victories is all good for America. The media describes this judicial swing toward gay marriage as a grand slam winning homer hit during the middle of the ninth inning for the home team. Gay marriage cases are forcefully assimilated with the Black Americans Civil Rights Movement. People like Pierce Brosnan, President Barak Obama, Kobe Bryant, Madonna, Clint Eastwood and many others have publically announced their support for gay marriage and homosexuality while giving the traditional responses: "it is not a big deal", "let people marry who they love", "people should be able to do whatever makes them happy", and as previously mentioned, the ever so famous comparisons to the racism and harsh treatment Black Americans received before and during the Civil Rights Movement.
A careful reader while poring through the news articles from media newspapers and listening to the commentaries on popular talk shows and current event discussions, will notice that much of popular media over glamorizes homosexuality and gay marriage, giving it constant affirmation, while never providing any information regarding the negative sides of homosexuality. People who disapprove of gay marriage are not given proper respect or careful attention to at least allow a chance to discover whether or not what they are saying is true. Homosexuals are told and preached to the world to be born that way even though many of them don't believe that themselves. There are many individuals who have currently state that they were once gay but have themselves experienced the process of changing their lives. The media simply ignores them. People often say that gay sex resembles sexual abuse and porn when shown to minors. They say that such scenes confuse minors while reducing their respect for the act of sex. Popular media calls those people "haters" and "bigots". Psychologists have come out to say that homosexuality is related to individuals who were sexually molested as children (1997 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association) . Researchers have shown that pedophilia and homosexuality is related (Fraternal Birth Order and Sexual Orientation in Pedophiles, " Archives of Sexual Behavior 29, pg 64) (also The Heterogeneity/Homogeneity of Pedophilia," Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa 13 pg 218). Such comments are laughed at by the media, often responding that heterosexuals molest children too. They don't pay attention to the actual numbers showing the relationship between homosexuality and child molestation that such a relationship does exist. But it seems that popular media has chosen to rather be friendly and supportive to the gay crowd then to hold people accountable for actions and sins that are terribly harmful to human beings.
Facts are there are many people in the United States, in the world who are hurt. They are crying inside. Many of them do not know how to handle their feelings, emotions. They do not know what to do. It is true that many gays deal with psychological issues like depression and suicides. Suicide plays a major role within men who have sex with men. Sadly the media plays this reality off by simply stating that these men are responding to being hated by the world. Popular media is feeding the world this lie by portraying gay characters on television as people who are often bullied, mistreated, but are trying hard to live a normal life just like everyone else. The media produces programs displaying a typical gay man's life as normal, minus any problems the average human being would deal with. Yes gay men and women are people like you and your next door neighbor and deserve to be loved. They are human beings and no individual(s) should mistreat them. Their lifestyle though is wrong and not just wrong but is also an extremely risky, very dangerous lifestyle to live. What the media does not show is that the average gay man's life is very promiscuous. The average gay active man engages in sex with several partners. According to the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry 28% of homosexual men had more than 1000 partners. During a survey 79% of homosexual males said that over half of their sex partners are strangers. A 1978 study said that 78% of gay men had more than 100 partners, 28% more than 1000. These are huge numbers. Representing such large numbers no wonder men who have sex with men are the largest populating in America suffering with the HIV AIDS virus. But popular media will try to confuse listeners by always touting African Americans as being AIDS victims. Popular media and most of the educational institutions and leaders preach that AIDS is a black race problem. They confuse much of the world into believing hat only black men and women from African American centered US communities and African villages and cities receive AIDS. What many people in The western world do not understand is that gay men and women out number African Americans by far in being victimized by the AIDS/Virus. AIDS is sickening and killing people in large numbers in areas of the world like Thailand, India, The United Kingdom, Russia, China, Mexico, Ukraine. The disease is located all over the world. The sickness is hitting men of all colors, nations, and races. The situation is at a point where it can grow much worse. Imagine having AIDS and Ebola racing neck to neck hitting individuals here and there and the media wants us to simply worry about Africa.
Unfortunately popular media has lied to America and the world regarding the negative effects of homosexuality. Allowing same sex marriage to be legal throughout the country will only make the matter worse by painting a false picture on the behavior. Legalizing same sex marriage will further allow the act of men having sex with men and women with women appear normal. Approving same sex marriage in America will bolster popular media toward its mission to popularize homosexuality making the behavior seem positive. People who in other circumstances, maybe even in a previous generation may have never given the behavior a thought may become curious to try it because they see their famous celebrities (ex. Raven Symone, Cosby Show) and maybe even their own friends involved in it. Who knows how many individuals, celebrities have been enticed by the seemingly wonderful entrapment planted by pop culture. Peer pressure is a powerful tool used by the devil to entice people into getting themselves involved in activities they would have never done on their own. Bad influences can quickly steer a person down the wrong path. A lot of the people involved in gay relationships were once married or were sexually intimate with a partner from the opposite sex. Some kind of pattern presented itself in these people's lives that caused them to change. Popular media will simply state that they were born gay and realized this later in their lives. But popular media's explanation does not derive from pure evidence or unbiased research of such kind of report. Some of these people have been saved from their wrongful patterns and directed back into the right path. Popular media often refuses to acknowledge and make references to such occurrences that happen more often than many of the "experts" will like to admit.
A famous, popular media lure for enticing gay relationships is that the act in itself is okay and won't harm anyone. Such a wide acceptance given and approved via popular media with their attractive characters is similar to allowing cocaine and heroin to be distributed widely and freely throughout American cities and neighborhoods though popular sports characters. These people would have never become hooked into taking these drugs if not drawn by the opportunity and seeming attractiveness. But now that they are hooked, left to fend for themselves. They are often declared drug addicts, many spending much money and years attending chemical recovery classes and one-on-sessions with drug counselors. Think of the person who now has the HIV/AIDS virus, gonorrhea, or one of the many other sexually transmitted diseases. Each one has to spend thousands at times in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in treatment. Based on a 2010 figures the average annual per patient cost for HIV/AIDS treatment in the US is $19,912. That is a whopping amount of money. Many people living in the United States do not even make that amount of money per year. Popular media refuses to involved itself in any serious dialogue about these real financial problems facing the gay population. Television and news personalities hardly mentions the many individuals, both black and white, laying sick in hospital rooms, struggling because of having to shell out money to pay for these drugs the need in order to stay alive. The attention instead is placed on calling people who try to make useful discussions on these realities facing the gay population and America "bigots" and "haters". The media is a very powerful machinery within the US culture and much of the world. It has the ability to call people in arms to fight against the approach of sickness and disease amongst the gay population but it seems to have refused to instead of placing more emphasis and focus on legalizing gay marriage and gay rights. America has been given grace via the miraculous medications that has slowed down the quick successive deaths of the gay population that occurred back in the eighties. But though they are not dying as rapidly as they once were, they are still dying. And, as previously mentioned, many are only staying alive through paying out of pocket for expensive medications and treatment.
If one will allow him or herself to blank out all the accusations of Christians or right wingers hating gay people or simply naming everyone unsympathetic to the gay movement a "homophobe". If one would take a deep breath and just listen to the facts. Forget about people like Rosie O'Donnell. She is a celebrity who, like Cyndi Lauper, is a committed Leftist, who will pretty much accept anything approved of by Major Hollywood moguls and popular, rich, atheist individuals. These are people who don't believe in God as being the Father, the Creator of mankind, the Almighty. They don't believe in Jesus Christ being the Redeemer of this World. The Howard Stern's of this world will only regurgitate explanations given to them by Satan. Look at reality. Peer your eyes beyond what is shown on television and in the news. Does the gay population look alright? Do they appear physically and mentally healthy? Are the majority of them doing well financially? Can one honestly agree that even if all of them were allowed to marry in this country that many of the current physical and financial problems they currently face will decrease? And if they don't can one honestly blame it on a homophobic society?
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