Chipping Away at Our Moral Foundation

Recently I was sorting my files and I came across an article written by my Father in 1980.  As I read it I realized how appropriately it speaks to contemporary social concerns.  I reproduce his concerns here.


THE RELIGION OF MORALISTIC CHIPS
                             by Weston Hare      March 20, 1980

The Thesis of this essay is:
 The inherent morality of the Christian religion has been, to a considerable degree, been put on the museum shelf and a superficial morality made up of "chips", slogans and decals has replaced it.

  A minor example would be the smiling face symbol.  A more general example would be the "Rights" explosion.  You may think that these are flowers and fruits of Christianity growing on the Christian tree.

Well, let us consider this.
The basis of the morals of Christianity and Judaism are the Commandments of God:  "Thou shalt not kill",  etc.      Start with that one.  The U.S. Supreme Court recently said:  It is proper to kill children before birth at the will of the mother.

Now, last I heard, we kill 1,200,000 babies each year by abortion.  Why would the Supreme Court undertake to become conspirators - before-the- fact - of annual  "Megamurder" (mega meaning a million)?
If God believes abortion to be killing, why should they legalize that?  Taking an awful chance, aren't they?

Well, the reason for doing so is clear from the next Commandment.
 "Thou shalt not commit adultery".
Clearly the Moralistic Chip religion has to squirm out of that one, because they have all sorts of ideas beyond THAT barrier. To rationalize these ideas, they invented birth control.  And they reason that if unwanted children do not result from disobeying this Commandment, surely God would excuse us for putting this also on the shelf.
Because, Love, they say is of God.

At this point, they have fallen into a trap invented hundreds of years ago, when the English language made the word - LOVE- much broader in meaning than Greek & Latin words.

The English word came to include three Greek words for lust, unselfish love and marital love.   The King James version of the Bible (370 years ago) avoided this trap by using the word "CHARITY" for unselfish love.

But, by the turn of the century and probably earlier 'love' often included all three.  So, now, at this date, in many high places, the word includes adultery and even homosexuality.

God disapproves of the former and according to the Bible (even newer versions) literally 'hates' the latter.

So I guess it is a trap, all right.  So they put that Commandment regarding adultery on the shelf and have many superficial chips or decals to take its place. 

Take another Commandment "Thou shalt not covet - anything that is thy neighbor's". 

That is a pretty good one for getting along together.  But it is too much for the 'chips' religion.

It has been substituted by the "Rights" explosion of moralistic chips.

Now we are told among other things that it is our Right (nay, duty) to sue anyone (especially large organizations or insurance companies) for millions of dollars, it any of our "Rights" defined by the chips are violated.

Clearly, if a person may gain more by having some "Rights" violated than he could earn by a lifetime of hard work, no-one would fail to covet things belonging to his neighbor.

Therefore, the Rights Explosion (Let the chips fall where they may) is nothing but a Pig Factory making the people more like pigs than people.  The word "Sue-ee"  has long been used to assemble pigs.  Ask any farmer.

The Rights explosion also destroys families and the normal passing along of social principles.

Children have 'rights' and need not obey their parents, they may sue their parents, or have contempt for them.  They are to call - 800 - numbers if they think they are abused in any way.  Therefore there must be a tendency to let the kids go uninstructed.  Good parents may produce unworthy children because they are talked out of  "bringing up children in the way they should go" and the children are talked out of believing them anyway.

So here we have another Commandment put on the museum shelf:  "Honor thy father and thy mother."

Enough of that for the present,
but of what does this situation - The Moralistic Chips Religion - remind one?

Clearly it reminds one of the legalistic "Chips Religion" taught, in place of the laws given to Moses, by the Pharisees when Jesus came to the earth.  Jesus went to great extremes to condemn the Pharisees (as children of Hell, sons of Satan, hypocrites, blind leaders of the blind, a generation of vipers, etc. etc.)

They had  made up a large number of replacement rules (chips) which essentially put the basic mosaic laws aside and substituted others, which often relieved the leaders from obeying them.

I have not studied them in detail but clearly they were offensive to Jesus.

It seems to me that we are now being given by the Moral Establishment a similar, substituted, superficial religion which may well be no more respected by Jesus than the Pharisee's religion was then. 

It would be wise to shy away from the Chips Religion and adhere to the more deeply seated program of the Bible. 

 Then, should Jesus return to the earth, we would be on His side, rather than on that of the Neo-Pharisees who seem to be in charge of much of the teaching today.

An Open Letter to the Boy Scouts of America National Council

Dear Leaders and Friends of Boy Scouts of America;

I encourage the National Council of Boy Scouts of America to uphold the ban on gay leaders when it votes in May.  As a cub scout leader and scout mother in the 1970's and now a scout grandmother, I am concerned that this change in behavioral expectations for our sons will undermine the foundations of moral, religious and family values in our country.

As a professor of sociology, now retired, I have given considerable thought to examining this issue from the differing perspectives.  I am enclosing a paper presented at the Southwestern Sociological Association Meetings in 2010.

The PDF file of this paper - "Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America" is located on my website, www.wrestlingwithangels.com.  It can be downloaded on to electronic readers at no cost.

Concerns are summarized on page 1.  "The normalization of homosexuality in society will create profound changes in social organization, especially in the areas of social integration, social reproduction, social health and the inter-generational transfer of cultural values.  The social discourse has been rampant with charges of bigotry, hate mongering and charges of homophobia.  However, neither intimidation, tolerance nor back slapping love fests are appropriate means to bring about change in social behavior that has wide reaching consequences."

Personal concerns are outlined in two articles from my blogsite.  "On Telling Children to Play in the Traffic" (Sept. 3, 2012)  and "Prude Pride - Restoring Sexual Sanity" (Sept. 27, 2012).

"For God and Country" has been a foundational motto for the Boy Scouts.  The normalization of homosexuality would place the Boy Scouts at odds with religious family values, making it inappropriate to support and protect these values within the organization.

Thank you for your consideration of these concerns.

Marjorie L. Coppock, Ph.D.

Wrestling With Angels on the Web at No Cost

After retiring from teaching sociology in 2002, I was concerned about how quickly social and moral values and public legislation were changing from support for stable family relationships to sexual license and family dissolution.  I spent the next year pulling together information for my book  Wrestling With Angels - The Sexual Revolution Confronts the Church.

Wrestling With Angels, published in April of 2003, examines the last 60 years to document:
1) the influences that encouraged or resisted changes in sexual and family patterns;
2) the consequences for individuals and society;
3) how these changes in behavior affected Judeo/Christian policies and practices; and
4) how different religious organizations responded to these changing behaviors.

Organizations and individuals responsible for encouraging or resisting these changes are identified and discussed.  Chapters include discussions on radical feminism, sex education in the schools, childhood sexual abuse, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, sexual misconduct in the church, reproductive technologies, and changing influences within seminaries.

While each chapter is discussed sociologically, identifying different perspectives and how denominations are responding in various ways,  I conclude as a concerned Christian mother in regard to the consequences of these changing behaviors for individuals, families and religious practices.

The original printing of 2500 books has been sold and distributed.

** The PDF file of the book is now located on the website: www.wrestlingwithangels.com.
The book can be downloaded on to electronic readers at no cost.

You are welcome to do so.

*********************************************

Also available to be downloaded from this website at no cost are related professional papers I have presented at  meetings,  Including:

*Pornifying America: Rape of the Culture and What Can Be Done

*Over the Rainbow: The Gay Battle for Social Reorganization of America

*AmeriNazification: The Doubling of the American Soul

*Eugenics: The Ethical Dilemma of Reproductive Technology

* Who's Rocking the Cradle?  From Procreation to Production

*Abortion Divides the Nation

* Bias and Error in the Death Penalty

*Euthanasia Comes to the United States

*******************************************

You are invited  to consider these significant social issues and to invite your thoughtful family, friends and colleagues to join you.   

Having recently purchased an electronic reader, I have become aware of the convenience and efficiency of electronic books and reading material.

On Telling Children to Play in the Traffic

To tell a child to play in the traffic would be considered a criminal offense.  Parents who would engage in this advice would have their children taken by the state.

However, this is essentially the dangerous advice that is being directed toward children by homosexual activists and 'politically correct' educators who seek to portray homosexuality to children as an equally acceptable lifestyle.

QUEERING ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

In the early 1990's the gay agenda sought to promote tolerance of the gay/lesbian lifestyles in the public schools, pushing the schools to promote these lifestyles as equal to heterosexuality.  Under the guidance of its' founder, Kevin Jennings, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) registered more than 4,000 Gay-Straight Alliance clubs on junior and senior high school campuses. 1.

Kevin Jennings wrote the forward to the book, Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and School.  This book includes essays from gay and lesbian educators that advocate teaching acceptance of homosexuality, even in elementary school and kindergarten.

When President Obama was making appointments to government positions, he appointed Kevin Jennings as the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Education, heading the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. 2.

Condoms, with a 14% failure rate, are handed out freely in schools, even at the junior high level with the implication that sex will be 'safe' if you 'protect' yourself with a condom.  3.

However, questions need to be raised at all levels about the wisdom of the normalization of homosexual behaviors, especially among the young. 

THE FACTS RELATED TO THE HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE TELL A DANGEROUS STORY.

Reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirm that homosexual behaviors, especially those involving men having sex with men,  are extraordinarily more dangerous than heterosexual behaviors.

SYPHILIS AND ANAL CANCER INCREASE.

Sexually transmitted diseases have been increasing among gay and bisexual men.  Syphilis was a disease that was on the verge of elimination.  In 2001 it re-emerged as a public health threat because of a resurgence of the disease among men who have sex with men (MSM).  In 2008 there were 13,500 reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis.  MSM accounted for 63% of these syphilis cases in the United States.

"Men who have sex with men are 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer than heterosexual men.  Men who are HIV-positive are even more likely than those who are uninfected to develop anal cancer." 4.

DEATHS FROM HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS virus is primarily spread by men having sex with men.  Blacks are particularly represented in this health epidemic.   A study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2008) documented that "Forty-five percent of infections were among black individuals and 53% among men who have sex with men."  5.

The estimated numbers of AIDS diagnoses, deaths, and persons living with AIDS, cumulative from the beginning of the epidemic (1981) through 2007, were reported  by the Center for Disease Control  and Prevention as 562,793 deaths from AIDS and 1,018,428 AIDS diagnoses.  6.

***HIV CASES INCREASE AMONG YOUTH.

While the number of new HIV cases remained relatively stable at 50,000 new cases each year "the number of new cases among people aged 13-29 years increased by 21% from 2006 to 2009.  The rise in HIV incidence among young adults was fueled by a 34 percent increase in HIV infections among young gay and bisexual men.  7.

STUDIES CONFIRM DANGEROUS SEXUAL BEHAVIORS

The Gay Report  8.

The Gay Report was published in 1979 by two homosexual researchers, feminist Karla Jay and journalist Allan Young.  The 850 page report summarized responses from 5,400 lesbians and gay men who completed a 16 page questionnaire about their sexual behaviors.  When the report was published, it was hailed as the "first comprehensive survey of the homosexual community."

The Gay Report was modeled after informal sex surveys in popular magazines of the 1970's and 1980's which encouraged readers to report their sexual activities.  The Gay Report was a similar survey of gays and lesbians.  While the report does not represent a scientifically designed sample - the responses represent only a small percentage of gays - the respondents and the authors of the study were surprisingly candid in describing behaviors and depicting a sexually-active society.

"35% of respondents admitted to having had 100 or more sexual partners throughout their lives...59% had taken part in orgies or group sex.  38% had partaken of sadomasochistic practices at least once"  9.

"Around 99% of homosexual males engage in oral sex; 91% engage in anal sex; 82% engage in 'rimming', touching the anus of one's partner with one's tongue and inserting the tongue into the anus;  22% engage in 'fisting', inserting one's fist into the rectum of the partner, 23% engage in 'golden showers', urinating on each other..."  10.

The responses to the survey were startling and the book became a popular resource for those concerned about the movement in society to normalize homosexual behaviors.

RISKY BEHAVIORS CAUSE CONCERN.  11.

Studies describing health risks associated with homosexual practices were highlighted in the June 2003 edition of the Journal of the American Public Health.  Bad news was reported in one article after another.

Beryl A. Koblan and associates reported on alarming data from Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, San Francisco and Seattle involving HIV-negative homosexual men who reported engaging in anal sex with one or more partners in the previous year.  Among 4,295 men, 48% reported unprotected receptive anal sex and 54.9%  reported unprotected insertive anal sex.   Drug and alcohol use were significantly associated with unprotected anal sex.

A study by Daniel H. Ciccarone and associates indicated that sex without disclosure of HIV status is common among persons living with HIV.  Their study reported that 45,300 gay or bisexual men, 8,000 heterosexual men and 7,500 women who were HIV infected, were also engaging in sex without disclosure of their HIV status.

A U.S. metropolitan study of six sites reported that 93% of African American men who were HIV infected did not know they had the virus.  This study by David J. Malebranche contradicted the view that 'coming out' is associated with better mental health, responsible behavior and lower rates of HIV infection.  African-American men who disclosed their homosexuality had a higher HIV prevalence (24%) and engaged in more unprotected anal sex (41%) than those who did not disclose (14% and 32% respectively).

J. Michael Bailey discussed the research on homosexuality and mental illness in the Archives of General Psychiatry.  He concluded that "Homosexual people are at substantially higher risk for some forms of emotional problems, including suicidality, major depression and anxiety disorder".

This conclusion was corroborated by a large, well-conducted study from the Netherlands that was published in Archives of Psychiatry, 2001.  The Dutch society is recognized as one of the most gay tolerant in the world.  Yet the risk for mental illness by those engaging in homosexuality is significantly higher than among heterosexuals in that country.

LIFE EXPECTANCY REDUCED 12.

A study published in 1997 examined vital statistics data for a large Canadian urban center from 1987 to 1992.  "The main outcome measures of interest were age-specific patterns of death, life expectancy, and life expectancy lost due to HIV/AIDS at exact age 20 years, and the probability of living from age 20 to 65 years."  Three groups were studied with proportions of gay and bisexual men of 3%, 6% and 9%.

Results confirmed that "age-specific mortality was significantly higher for gay and bisexual men than all men aged 30-44.  Life expectancy at age 20 for gay and bisexual men ranged from 34.0 years to 46.3 years for the 3% and 9% scenarios respectively.  These were lower than the 54.3 year life expectancy at 20 for all men."  It was concluded that "life expectancy at age 20 is 8 to 20 years less than for all men" and that nearly half of gay and bisexual men aged 20 would not reach their 65th birthday.

This study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, concluded that "under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871." 

FACING THE FACTS

The  facts related to health concerns of homosexual behaviors demonstrate dangers as significant as smoking and drinking.

We are being asked, even required, to accept the normalization of homosexual behaviors in our society.  Schools are teaching the acceptance of these behaviors to our children in the name of tolerance.  However the dangerous facts related to consequences are swept under the rug.

Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.  Dangerous facts ignored return to destroy.

If we cannot face the facts and protect our children from dangerous behaviors, our future and our children's futures will be stabbed in the back by our carelessness.

PROTECTING THE CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL ABUSE

"...we now live in a sexually tolerant society whose members are willing to live and let live.  But one idea remains sacrosanct.  In all public discourse, agreement exists that children are to be kept innocent of the sexual interests of adults, because they will be inevitably and irreparably damaged if exposed to them." 13.

"Passing out condoms to teenagers is like issuing squirt guns for a four-alarm blaze.  Condoms just don't hack it.  We should stop kidding ourselves."  14.

A  responsible society must protect the children from behaviors that will endanger them. Childhood is a time to learn directions for living and growing into mature citizens and healthy and responsible adults.

To teach children that homosexual behaviors are equivalent to heterosexual behaviors jeopardizes their ability to move into responsible heterosexual and family relationships.

Children have neither the maturity nor background to understand and evaluate this information.

To teach children that dangerous sexual behaviors are normative and acceptable behaviors is equivalent to sexual child abuse.



REFERENCES:
1. GLSEN. "Our Mission, Our History". http://www.glsen/org/chi-bin/iowa/all/about/history/index.html.  
    1/21/2012.
2.  Lucas, Fred.  "Obama's Safe Schools Czar Advocated 'Queering Elementary Education'"
     www.cnsnews.com/node/56196.  October 27, 2009.
3.  Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
     June 12-13, 2000. http://www.3.nlaid.nih.gov/about/organization/dmid/PDF/condomreport.
4.  "Sexually Transmitted Diseases." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
     www.cdcgov/msmhealth/STD.htm.  August 7, 2012.
5.  "Estimation of HIV Incidence in the United States".  JAMA - The Journal of the American Medical
     Association.  http://jama.ama-asso.org/cgi/content/short/300/5/520.
6.  "HIV/AIDS in the United States"  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  October 17, 2009.
     www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/us.htm.
7.  "HIV/AIDS"  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/HIV.htm.
     August 7, 2012.
8.  Burroway, Jim.  "The Gay Report".  Box Turtle Bulletin. October 15, 2006.
     www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,005.htm.
     Fox, F. Earle.  "The Homosexual Debate - in the Public Arena."
     http://www.earstohear.net/Separation/facts.html. Page 11.  10/18/2009.
9.  Ibid, Burroway, Jim
10.Ibid. Fox, F. Earle
11. Byrd, A. Dean.  "The American Journal of Public Health Highlights Risks of Homosexual
      Practices."  NARTH.  http://www.narth.com/docs/risks.html. 1/10/2010.
12. Hogg,R.S., S.A.Strathdee, K.J. Craib, M.V.O'Shaughnessy, J.S. Montaner and M.T.Schecter.
      "Modelling the impact of HIV disease on mortality in gay and bisexual men."  International
      Journal of Epidemiology (1997) 26 (3): 657-661. www.ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/3/657.
      abstract.
13. Ericksen, Julia.  "Sexual liberation's last frontier."  Society. Vol. 37, No. 4 (May/June) 2000:22.
14. Quotation by Dr. Robert C. Noble of the University of Kentucky. Quoted in: "Pastoral letter
      chides safe sex stance." by Bishop Rene H. Gracida. Laredo Morning Times. Nov. 23, 1991.
      Editorial page.

Marriage Matters - Cohabitation Creates Unstable Lives for Children

While the divorce rate for couples with children has dropped almost to what it was before the "divorce revolution" in the 1970's, co-habitation has now become a bigger threat to the well-being of children than divorce. Cohabiting partners are more than twice as likely to break up, putting children at risk of unstable circumstances.

Since 1970 the number of Americans living together outside of marriage has increased twelvefold. Children are now more likely to have unmarried parents than even divorced ones, creating a growing risk for children. Forty-one percent of all births are now out-of-wedlock.

WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS

These concerns were published in August of 2011 in a report, "Why Marriage Matters: Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences." The report was co-sponsored by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Institute for American Values, whose mission is the strengthening of marriage and family life.

W Bradford Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia, chaired the report which is co-authored by 18 family scholars from leading institutions. More than 250 journal articles on marriage and family were surveyed in forming the conclusions. Wilcox says, "We're moving into a pattern where we're seeing more instability, more adults moving in and out of the household in this relationship carousel."

Children at Risk

The report concludes that the children of cohabiting parents are at risk for a wide range of problems - drug use, depression, psychological problems, dropping out of high school, physical abuse and poverty. Children living in cohabiting households are three times more likely to be physically, sexually or emotionally abused compared to children in intact, biological married parents homes.

Cohabitation more harmful than divorce

Cohabitation is even more harmful to children than divorce, according to Elizabeth Marquardt, director of the Center for Marriage & Families at the Institute for American Values. She is a child of divorce and knows the pain involved in not having a father at home, but Marquardt says that "children of divorce are the lucky ones". She contends that divorce is an institution. It has norms. But cohabitation has no norms. "We can't describe what is happening or what happened... In cohabitation a child's mother and father are not able to form a bond. We don't have names for all of this." There are no norms, rituals or roles that bring stability to the relationships as there is in marriage.

Cohabitation carries with it a breakdown in responsibility and authority. There is no clarity as to the lines of responsibility and authority. Children don't know who is responsible and who will be there to help them.

Cultural shifts lead to retreat from marriage

Cultural shifts are outlined as the most significant factors in the retreat from marriage. The culture has shifted toward a short term, hedonistic focus with the goal of immediate gratification.

Amy L. Wax, Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, agrees that the most important causative factors of changing behaviors are cultural not economic concerns. She contends that the demoralization of sexuality and the deregulation of the family that began in the 1960's led to a divergence in class and race in regard to family relationships. While educated whites generally lived traditional lives, minorities, low income and those less educated were hit hard by the demoralization of sexuality.

Wax says that people need guidelines to focus their lives. It used to be that being an adult meant establishing a household. We taught that there are steps we need to take to get from here to there. Now the elite movement toward 'anything goes' and the 'celebration of diversity' contends that we dare not make judgments. They argue that you can't expect the working class to get married.

Cohabitation moves into the Middle Class

Out-of-wedlock births have previously been primarily among the poor, but high school educated whites are now as likely to have children out of marriage. The demoralization of sexuality is moving into the middle class at a rapid pace. Wilcox notes that "family instability is on the rise for American children as a whole."

Why Marriage Matters - Three Conclusions

The authors presenting the new data offer three conclusions regarding marriage and families in America today.

1. The intact, biological, married family remains the gold standard for family life in the United States. Children are most likely to thrive - economically, socially and psychologically - in this family form.

2. Marriage is an important public good, associated with a range of economic, health, educational and safety benefits that help local, state and federal governments serve the public common good.

3. The benefits of marriage extend to poor, working-class and minority communities, despite the fact that marriage has weakened in these communities in the last four decades.

REFERENCES:

1. Marriage Matters - Conclusions from the Social Sciences.

By Press Release: August 16, 2011: University of Virginia - The National Marriage Project

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/579647/?sc=rsin.

2. Institute for American Values.

Why Marriage Matters : Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences.

Why Marriage Matters, The Conversation -Conversation on Blip TV. August 24, 2011.

With Elizabeth Marquardt, Amy L. Wax and W. Bradford Wilcox.

"For the Beauty of the Earth" - Additional Verses

Retirement brings opportunities for involvement in new experiences of appreciation. Throughout his life my husband, Carl, has enjoyed singing and playing the beautiful hymns of the Christian faith.

Recently Carl has been inspired to write additional verses to the popular Hymn: "For the Beauty of the Earth."

The original text, published by Folliot S. Pierpoint in 1864, praises God for the beauty of the earth and skies, for the joy of ear and eye, for the joy of human love, and for the church "that evermore lifteth holy hands above". Each verse concludes with the response, "Lord of all to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise."

Following are 8 verses that Carl has scripted to continue this antiphony of praise.

***********************

(Carl E. Coppock - July 2, 2011)

Each verse concludes with the refrain from the original hymn;

"Lord of all to thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise."

Verse 1.

For the beauty of the morn, Sunlight bright on dew adorns;

Glorious gift is this new day, Ours to use in some special way.

Refrain

Verse 2.

For the joy of night's good rest, A prize for which we're richly blest;

Restores, refreshes body and soul; A quest which always is our goal.

Refrain

Verse 3.

For the blessing of good health, Better far than fame or wealth;

Good health care and genes combine, To give this blessed gift divine.

Refrain

Verse 4.

For the blessing of the rain, Falls on hill and vale and plain;

Lakes and streams, trees, flowers and grass, All things living nourished at last.

Refrain

Verse 5.

For the beauty of the spring, Buds and blossoms, flowers it brings;

Red and yellow, pink and blue, All nature sings of life anew.

Refrain

Verse 6.

For the beauty of the Fall, Autumn's chill cools one and all;

Summer's heat has come and gone, Thanksgiving soon will bid us call.

Refrain

Verse 7.

For the beauty of the sun, Pours its warmth on everyone;

Source of light and source of life, Its radiant beams for our delight.

Refrain

Verse 8.

For the blessing of warm coats, They keep us warm, secure as toast;

Those we wear and those we share, Thankful always for Thy care.

Refrain

*****************

As the years go by I suspect Carl will continue to add verses of thankful praise for the blessings of life, and health and strength.

Including Dad in Parenting: Fathers are Important Too

With the increase in out of wedlock births and divorce many men are failing to experience the important role of fatherhood and many children are growing up without a father for support, nurture and protection.

"A good society celebrates the ideal of the man who puts his family first." 1.

However our society is moving in the opposite direction. Never before in our country have so many children grown up without a father to protect and guide them. A caring father has traditionally provided economic, educational, moral, social, and psychological support for his family.

Today many fathers have abandoned their children or have been left out of the family experience.

Single motherhood is a long, hard journey for both mother and children. Single mothers have less time for each child and little time for themselves.

Children living without a father are 7 times more likely to experience poverty.

Fathers are important in helping a child grow emotionally and socially. Girls without a father often experience difficulty in developing a realistic view of men. Boys without a father fail to have a role model for responsible ways to relate in society as a man. Friends and gangs become their role models. 2.

Research studies have found that more than 70% of juveniles in reform institutions come from fatherless homes.

Our schools, churches and community centers need to provide learning opportunities to turn young men into responsible fathers for the support of their families and community.

Some women prefer to raise their children alone because the father is abusive, destructive and overbearing with the family. The social welfare system generally ignores the role of young fathers. However, helping young men learn the responsible, nurturing, and supportive roles of fatherhood is an essential need for our communities.

Fatherhood is the most important role for men because it helps them become pro-social.

An effective father accepts and affirms his children and helps them to grow in responsible and positive ways. An effective father supports and cares for his children's mother.

References:

1. Blankenhorn, David. Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem. Harper Perennial. 1995:5.

2. Gibbs, Nancy R. "Bringing Up Father." Time. Vol. 141, No.26. June 28, 1993:52-61.