“The increasing complexity and precariousness of our economic life have forced Government to take over many spheres of activity once left to choice or chance. Our intellectuals have surrendered first to the slave-philosophy of Hegel, then to Marx, finally to the linguistic analysts.”
– C. S. Lewis from “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State”

Last fall, David Horowitz’s FrontPage Mag published an article by Mallory Millett titled “Marxist Feminism’s Ruined Lives.”   The article described what Millett saw as a young divorcée in the 1960’s at the birth of the modern (second-wave) feminist movement, and the toll it took on her and others.   Millett’s older sister Kate Millett was one of the key figures in the movement — Kate Millett and her book Sexual Politics deserve full credit for helping spawn women’s studies programs in nearly every American university.

It’s a trap!

The unholy litany

In her article, Mallory Millett describes a meeting she attended with her sister — a Marxist consciousness-raising event that included a call-and-response chant between the leader and those in attendance.  According to (Mallory) Millett, it went like this:

“‘Why are we here today?” she asked.
“To make revolution,” they answered.
“What kind of revolution?” she replied.
“The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted.
“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?” she demanded.
“By destroying the American family!” they answered.
“How do we destroy the family?” she came back.
“By destroying the American Patriarch,” they cried exuberantly.
“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she replied.
“By taking away his power!”
“How do we do that?”
“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted.
“How can we destroy monogamy?”

Their answer left me dumbstruck, breathless, disbelieving my ears.  Was I on planet earth?  Who were these people?

“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution and homosexuality!” they resounded.

Surprise! You’re a target

Did you understand that if you are or intend to be a husband and a father — a patriarch — that you are also a target?  According to the Marxist feminists, it would only be possible to supplant the culture of the United States by destroying the family as its central institution, and it would only be possible to destroy the family by destroying its spiritual head.  That would be you and me.

Why are we talking about this?

I recognize that this is a bit off the normal track for this blog, but we have discussed the ongoing crisis in masculinity, and the need for us to become men who live out of our masculine strength.  Now perhaps you see what is at stake.  We always want to offer practical encouragement here, and this post is no different.  If I sent you on an errand, and I knew there was danger along the route, I would tell you — consider this a friendly warning.

In the same way you wouldn’t enter a lacrosse game without your helmet, pads, gloves and stick (and, of course,  your cup), you must go into today’s classrooms, workplaces  and entertainments aware of the plan to destroy men.  So consider the aim is to take you out, to neutralize your masculine strength, to render you powerless, impotent, emasculated and ineffective.  Worst of all, the plan is not to overpower you, but to entice you into surrendering.

What time is it?

Men, it’s late.  If you are in doubt about the effectiveness of this strategy, consider your own opinions and attitudes concerning promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution and homosexuality — and how they may have changed in the past ten years.  Now consider the opinions and attitudes of your friends, classmates and colleagues.  Next consider the messages concerning these four forces that you’ve encountered in classrooms, news articles and reports, in movies and television programs and in social media.

As you see, America has undergone a cataclysmic change in its mores since the consciousness-raising event attended by Mallory Millett.

Is it hopeless? 

• Don’t take the bait — These weapons only work on you if you let them.  Sexual sin is tempting, but recognize what’s behind it and take the long view.
• Clean up your diet — Don’t feed your mind with stories and images that undermine your masculine strength, or that promote your destruction.
• Audit the institutions you’re part of — Use your freedom of association to find, found or fund organizations that promote and value authentic masculinity.  (This is why I’m on this corner of the internet, by the way.)   If you need to change churches, employers, schools, vote with your feet.  When you realize you’ve stepped onto the conveyor belt at the slaughterhouse, you have every right to step off of it.
• Enlist allies — find brothers who are committed to the same values.  Not all women are on board with the destruction of the family.  Find them.  As I pointed out previously, the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey — although promoting promiscuity and eroticism — repudiates Marxist feminism’s anti-masculine aims, since the audience seems keenly interested in a dominant man.
• Build your body and your mind — You are on your way to becoming the best possible version of yourself, aren’t you?  You need strength to withstand the allure of temptation in every form.
• Challenge the assumptions — As you encounter these anti-male ideas, be prepared to question their origins and their legitimacy.  Don’t be afraid to point out the consequences of four-plus decades of Marxist feminism and ask if we’re better off in any way.
• Reform your manners — English abolitionist, William Wilberforce, worked until the day he died for the abolition of slavery and for “the reformation of manners.”  As men, we should take up this cause and make it our own.   If you’re married, start by leading your family, even if it’s difficult.  Let’s reform our own character after that of Jesus, and work to liberate men and women in the clutches of these destructive forces.  Just by living fearlessly and unabashedly as a man, you’ll cause others to find their courage.  We can do this with God’s help.

So how about you?  In what ways have you gone along with the plan for your own destruction?  How do you intend to regain your strength?  Add your comments below.

“Well begun is half done.” – Aristotle

Throughout my life, I’ve found that I begin new tasks with great gusto. This is a good thing, and I have learned to take advantage of my enthusiasm to create momentum that will help carry me through the eventual letdown. The particulars vary from project to project, but it’s usually the result of higher-than-expected costs, missing parts, or delays. When the slog hits, it’s critically important to have built in some incentives to help keep your motivation and to keep you on track.

Wisdom from the ancient world

I’ve always liked the quotation above from Aristotle. For most of my existence, I’ve taken it to mean that a strong start is a great advantage. This is just one of the axioms I refer to to help me overcome procrastination — to begin now — especially on those difficult or unpleasant chores. But there’s another way to interpret it: a strong beginning is only half the battle. You and I are bound to run into what is known as the “muddle in the middle.”

This is true of books, blog posts, product launches — and it’s also true of life.

Solomon sacrifices his lineage on the altar of an idol — Don’t be that guy

Enter King Solomon

Let’s look at King Solomon to illustrate what I mean. Frequent readers will know that I refer often to the biblical book of Proverbs — written primarily by Solomon, the son of King David, who succeeded his father on the throne of ancient Israel. As king, Solomon was unparalleled. He was wise and wealthy because God had blessed him from the beginning of his reign.

In addition to these gifts, God chose Solomon to build the temple in Jerusalem — the center of worship for God’s chosen people. And his body of work also included three books of the Bible — part of the Bible’s wisdom literature — Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Clearly Solomon had an enviable collection of skills and used them to accomplish many good and enduring things.

It didn’t end well

However, as he grew comfortable in his achievements, apparently, Solomon became complacent. In the following passage from 1 Kings, Chapter 11, we see that Solomon squandered something essential:

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.  He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

What went wrong?

Notice the telltale signs. Like his father before him, Solomon got his head turned because of his sexual appetite. Despite God’s direct instruction to the contrary, he amassed a harem of 1,000 women — most from the idol-worshiping folk Solomon’s ancestors had conquered to inhabit the land of promise.

As I wrote in an earlier two-part post titled, “When You Marry a Mountain Girl, You Marry the Mountain,” you’re going to adopt the ways of the people you spend time with — this is especially true of one’s spouse. This is another reason it’s better to marry someone with similar beliefs and values. Failure to do this results in what the Bible calls “being unequally yoked.” In agricultural terms unequally yoked animals couldn’t  plow straight, as the stronger animal would always pull the weaker in its direction. In Solomon’s case, his wandering eye resulted in a wandering heart that worshiped inert idols in place of the living God. This ultimately led to the destruction of the temple Solomon built, but also to the captivity of God’s people.

How to avoid foolishness and failure

The objective here is to be a faithful steward of the gift that is your life. This means you don’t want to peak in high school, and it also means you don’t want to put it in neutral once you hit 50, 60, 70, whatever. To finish your life strong and satisfied, here’s what I recommend:

Begin with the end in mind – The late Stephen Covey coined this phrase in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  Having a mission — a purpose with a desired outcome — in front of you is paramount. It’s a challenge to remain as motivated at the end of your shift as you are when you clock in, but having a mission makes it easier. Notice that Solomon’s resolve weakened as he got older.

Count the cost – The funniest and yet saddest episodes of the TV show “American Idol” are the ones featuring the deluded contestants who swear they can sing — the judges just aren’t being fair. If you want to be a professional musician, you have to put in the time in solitary practice. The 10,000-hour rule is no joke — and you can only spend those hours on one thing, not multiple things. This is the definition of opportunity cost. What are you willing to do without to achieve at your peak? It’s your life, so do be honest with yourself.

Stay connected to your power source – To be the best possible version of yourself you need to be working at the intersection of your Passion, Purpose, and Potential. This is a quest, and it is easier for some than for others, but the effort is worth it. God made you and He knows His plans for you. Get out your spiritual shovel and dig with your eyes open. Don’t get discouraged if you have to do some living before it snaps into focus. It’s all training if you’re legitimately seeking. And when you find it, you’ll have to pray, study and reflect — alone and with others —  to stay on track.

Stay fresh – I know I’ve said it before: You’re either green and growing or you’re ripe and rotting. Are you an expert? A virtuoso? Not yet? You still have those challenges in front of you. If you are an expert or a virtuoso, consider the challenge of teaching what you’ve learned to other people. There’s always more to learn, more to do — and if you’re not dead, you’re not done.

Get some rest – Take care of your body by exercising, eating right, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep.

Get your mind right – The body goes where the head goes. Competitive divers learn this to enter the water with that minimal splash the judges reward. It’s the same in life. And we’ve talked about it before: thoughts lead to feelings; feelings lead to behaviors. If you’re not impaired, you can choose what to think about — good or bad.

But sometimes you’re vulnerable. Then what? As Dr. Charles Stanley advises, use the H.A.L.T. method to avoid giving in to the temptation to foolishness — whatever form that takes for you. Don’t do anything when you’re Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. Whether you’re tempted by an unlocked door, an unwholesome relationship, a bottle, a smoke, or a plate of fries, it’s much easier to resist when you recognize when and where your defenses are at their lowest, and you can see the larger goal beyond the moment.

Is it hopeless if I’ve wrecked it?

Not at all. If you live to tell the tale, you can still finish well. If you need a refresher on Grace and forgiveness or if the whole idea is new to you, you can read about it here. Your Father in Heaven made you, and He — with all His faithful ones — is cheering you on. You can be clean. You can be His. You can be faithful in fulfilling your mission and finish strong.

So how about you? What steps are you taking now to finish well. Encourage your brothers by declaring it below.

Men:  We have to talk about sex. If there’s one area where this generation is stuck, this is it.

The Water Was Dirty Before You Got In

Now, before you conclude that I’m pointing my finger at you, please realize that the Boomer cohort gave us the sexual revolution and rampant divorce, and the Gen X cohort was equally careless about sex and marriage.  But it’s even worse than that.  These are the guys who grew up to convince you that everyone but you was sexually active, to urge the women you know to emulate the worst of promiscuous men, and to offer you pornography pretty much anywhere and anytime — and all so they could separate you from your money.  If you want poor examples, the generations ahead of you are shot through with them.

Applying wisdom — that’s a horse of a different color!

So if you’re a typical American male, you were probably exposed to pornography somewhere around age ten.  But even if you didn’t see any sexually explicit magazines, videos or websites in your youth, you’ve been awash in a culture that has turned sex into a commodity devoid of any spiritual significance.  As a man who has spent much of his career in and around sales, I say it’s lazy to use sex to sell.  As bad as that is, it’s worse to be so checked out that you allow it to influence you.  There is a better way.

Meet King Solomon

In the Old Testament (that’s the first 39 books of the Bible), we meet a king named Solomon.  He was the son of King David and Bathsheba (there’s a story about the misuse of sex, right there).  When Solomon succeeded his father as the king of Israel, God told Solomon to ask him for anything.  In reply, Solomon asked for wisdom to govern God’s people.  This pleased God and he promised Solomon that no one would be wiser or more honored than he.

In addition to building the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon reportedly had 1,000 wives and concubines.  (Here I should point out that just because the Bible describes something, it does not prescribe it.)  Solomon is also credited with several books of the Bible — Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, and Proverbs.  And that brings us to the purpose of this post.

In Proverbs 5 Solomon writes this:

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,

that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol;

she does not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

And now, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.”

Be the Gatekeeper

What Difference Does It Make?

The Rest of The Story

It Isn’t Easy

So how about you?  How are you applying God’s wisdom to help you lead a chaste life?  Add your comments below.

“I could never take a chance
Of losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman.”    -U2

As the saying goes, men think about sex roughly every seven seconds.  Sometimes it can seem like more frequently than that!  Whether that is the reason or not, our entertainment, our politics and even our spiritual life is influenced in some way by sex.  Everybody knows sex is a big deal, but why is this so?  Here are four reasons:

They were made for each other!

It’s Hard-wired Biology

The biological drive is an essential part of our design.  Human beings and animals alike have powerful urges to reproduce.  In our 21st century western abundance, we are less consciously concerned with passing along our genetic material, but we are still able to be influenced, even controlled by our ids.  Consider the number of ads that appeal to our curiosity or desire using sexual or suggestive images, and it’s clear we are in the grip of something powerful

It’s High-Stakes

Sex is a big deal because it has far-reaching consequences in nearly every case.  This is as it should be with anything so valuable.  Think first about the proper (i.e., moral) uses of sex.  First, procreation is not a bug; it’s a feature.  Anything that can result in new life is undeniably powerful.  Second, the marriage bed is intended to strengthen the bonds between a husband and wife.  Marriage as designed by God and explained in scripture is intended to be a covenant that lasts as long as he and she live.  Given all the ways two people can disagree, this unifying aspect of sex is necessarily strong.

Another facet of this unifying effect is the physiochemical bonding that occurs through sexual contact.  In intercourse, the man’s seed contains substances that cause the woman to bond with him.  Under ideal circumstances, her husband will be the only one to be sexually intimate with her, and she will bond only with him.  Also, their sexual union combines their microbiomes — the microorganisms that live in and on you, but aren’t you.

The misuse of sex doesn’t mean that it no longer has a legitimate purpose, but this misuse also carries significant consequences.  Out of wedlock births now account for 41% of live births in the US, and roughly half of US children are growing up in single-parent homes.  The resulting fatherlessness affects young men in ways we are only beginning to recognize.  All because of the misappropriation of sex.  Let’s also note that epidemics of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) mean that you have better odds playing Russian roulette.  The dangers of misusing sex also include stalkers and jealous lovers.

As I mentioned above, in addition to fertilizing an ovum, a man’s semen promotes pair bonding.  If however a woman has had multiple sex partners, this effect can be diminished, as she effectively becomes inoculated.  A study I have read suggests that a woman’s likelihood of divorcing her husband increases dramatically according to the number of her prior sex partners (her “N”). An N greater than two results in a 54% probability of divorce — and it increases from there.  Choose wisely, men.

It’s Transcendent

Sex as a part of marriage is an earthly — and earthy —  picture of divine love.  Theologically astute readers will recognize that the book of Revelation in the Bible refers to the wedding supper of the lamb at the end of days.  This describes the union of Christ and His bride, the church.  The physical union of a man and his wife is also a spiritual joining — of the two becoming one.  Their climax takes each beyond himself or herself, fulfilling not only the desire for release, but also the deep desire for transcendence itself.  No wonder it occupies so much of our thought life.

It’s Private and It’s Everybody’s Business

We hold sex in such high regard because it is the most intimate and exclusive of relationships..  In its particulars, it is absolutely meant to be shared only by the husband and the wife.  At the same time, their community has a vital interest in their proper use of sex.  This is because the formation of stable families is the best method for ensuring a stable and harmonious culture.  Applied faithfully and intentionally, the biblical model for the family is demonstrably better for the rearing of healthy, well-adjusted and moral children.

As I’ve said in a previous post, sex is like a river.  Within its banks, it can give life to an entire community.  If it exceeds its banks, the devastation that results can destroy individuals, families and communities, if not nations.

So how about you?  Recognizing that sex is a big deal, how do you intend to keep it in its proper place?  Share your thoughts below.

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” – Proverbs 13:11 (ESV)

Cryptocurrency is everywhere in the news these days. There are multiple ads on mainstream radio stations promotion this or that guru who will teach you how to make a fortune by investing as little as $100 (after you pay him $50, naturally).

What’s right with cryptocurrency?

There are aspects of cryptocurrency that are appealing. First, the underlying technology — blockchain — seems to have real promise as a method for ensuring better security for individuals and businesses, alike. Artists and musicians can potentially use the indelible ledger characteristics to prevent fraud and ensure they get paid for their own work. Medical records and other sensitive information can remain confidential, due to the fragmented distribution of encrypted database entries.

The small-l libertarian in me likes the individual liberty aspects of a completely anonymous electronic money that is not traceable by any government. You don’t have to be engaged in illegal activities to want your business to remain your business.

And I won’t deny that some people have likely made a fortune (on “paper” anyway) speculating on cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. Even so, I am skeptical. Here are my reasons:

Work that benefits others is noble

Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby!

A year or so ago, I read a book in which the author made the point that worthy work benefits someone in addition to the one doing it. Firefighters, nurses, assembly line workers, sales reps, and engineers — to name a few examples — do work that feeds their families, but also delivers good to others. By comparison, day traders and currency speculators move money around in hopes they get to keep some. Cryptocurrencies may turn out to be a convenient way of buying and selling goods securely, but the current activity is nearly 100% exchanging money in hopes of getting rich. This is not noble or worthy work — it’s rather like playing roulette.

Ever heard of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?

How about “Jack and the Beanstalk”? If you don’t recall either, note that in the former story, a couple of con men talked a king into humiliating himself by walking around naked in front of his subjects. Their strategy was to convince him that their virtual clothing was so rare and so fine that only people with refined taste could appreciate its beauty. In the latter story, the protagonist traded the family cow for a handful of magic beans — exchanging true value for a speculative promise of treasure. While it’s true that things turned out well for Jack in the end, I want to remind you that his story is a fairy tale.

Do you not think it’s a little strange that people selling cryptocurrencies want you to give up real money for virtual money? They will trade ones and zeros — and promises — for those wrinkled bills in your bank account. Seems legit.

The motivation seems all wrong

I once heard author and radio host Dave Ramsey advise a caller against buying gold. His counsel to the caller was that he should avoid buying or investing in anything motivated by fear or greed. Let’s be clear: profit is moral and generating a return on one’s talents is a biblical virtue, so what did Dave Ramsey mean? He meant that one should evaluate investment decisions as rationally as possible. Greed and fear engage the emotions at the expense of the mind. Math doesn’t have feelings. When you’re investing, math is your friend.

Besides, by the time everybody is talking about a

Cryptocurrencies are the Hotel California of investing

Let’s say you take some of your hard-earned cash out of the bank and buy Bitcoin or Ethereum. And let’s say your timing is perfect and you have become a millionaire. You now have a problem. The problem is not that you’re rich. The problem is that very few establishments accept payment in Bitcoin or Ethereum tokens, and many of the sellers of cryptocurrencies limit the amount of cash you can take out of your account. If you became a millionaire by speculating in cryptocurrencies and you wanted to buy your parents a million-dollar house for cash, it would take you almost three years to withdraw your purchase price. And that’s if the currency value doesn’t crash.

As the song says, “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”

You might prefer cash

Electronic anything can be hacked. The blockchain logic makes this much less likely, but it is still theoretically possible.  But even if your cryptocurrency isn’t stolen, your electronic keys could be corrupted or held by a ransomware attack. A thief doesn’t have to attack the entire database — just your e-wallet. On top of this, people in favor of individual liberty might be reluctant to sign on to an electronic currency of any kind. When all your money is on a computer — all binary code — it’s much easier for your government to access your assets — for taxation or simple convenience. Think negative interest rates in Greece and Cyprus, for example.

Full faith and credit

US dollars are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. They used to be backed by gold, then silver, then multiples of the tangible assets, then the verbal commitment of the US government to back their unit of currency. This is called “fiat money.”

The supposed benefit of cryptocurrency is that it is intended to be more stable than any one government. So, for example, if you’re holding Venezuelan Bolívars and Venezuela defaults, you aren’t wiped out. The comparative stability of the European Union and the US, respectively, make Euros and dollars attractive to investors and businesses around the world for this very reason. (The US dollar is still considered the world’s reserve currency despite challenges from the Euro and the Chinese RMB.)

Cryptos are supra-national, but they are not tied to anything other than the assertion of the members of the club that they have value. If your argument is against fiat currency, you have a logical inconsistency if you endorse cryptos as the antidote.

A store of value?

Ah, the old store of value! Goldbugs argue that in turbulent times, precious metals, like gold, are preferable to government-issued money. Gold’s relative rarity is what makes it valuable. After all, there are few industrial uses for it, and apart from its occasional use as a garnish for conspicuous consumers, you can’t eat it. Gold is valuable due to a consensus — that is, enough people agree that it’s valuable, so it is. At least it has physical substance. Miners physically dig it out of the ground. The mining of Bitcoin and its cousins is essentially a puzzle that requires massive computer power to solve.

I’d add that a true store of value wouldn’t bounce around quite so much.

Perpetual motion snake oil

Basically this is the old desire to get something for nothing.

Perpetual motion machines are physical impossibilities because our universe is subject to physical laws. It takes energy to generate energy. This cost is referred to as energy loss. Energy loss is a part of every technology for generating energy.

Take nuclear power, for example. It’s true that the reactor vessel contains fissile material, and that the process of nuclear fission releases radioactive energy. But the power company doesn’t send radioactivity through the power lines. Instead, the intense heat of nuclear fission is used to heat water to its boiling point and to use the resulting steam to power a turbine, and the turbine drives the generator that produces the electricity that flows through the power lines. At every point in the process, energy escapes without being harnessed — from friction, from electrical resistance, from imperfect insulation.

While the energy losses associated with nuclear power generation are better than, say, coal-powered generators, these losses exist all the same. I’m skeptical of cryptos because money is subject to rules as well. And just as energy loss dooms perpetual motion machines to failure, I think the sum of negative attributes around cryptocurrencies dooms them — for now — for anything more than a hobby. If you can afford to speculate, I won’t tell you not to, but I would prefer to use the money I earn to invest in companies or buy products that put my neighbors to work.

Tell us how you really feel

Proponents of cryptocurrencies argue that their creators have democratized and distributed control of money to “the people” away from banks and governments. To the extent this is true, it is worth asking how anonymous and unaccountable creators of cryptocurrency are more to be trusted than governments who must answer to voters or bankers who are subject to laws. You can swim in piranha infested waters, but the fish are not obligated to give you a pass.

I was intrigued when I first learned about blockchain, and I may invest in companies or technologies that make use of it in the future. But I am not going to buy another currency — especially one with the many downsides I’ve listed here (and we haven’t even talked about the extraordinary electricity consumption required for mining Bitcoin).

Next time, let’s talk about a biblical view of money and how that fits into a biblical worldview. I’ll be here.

So how about you? What am I missing on cryptocurrencies? What is your strategy for building wealth in an ethical way? Add your comments below.

“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” – Hebrews 13:4-5 (NIV)

Hugh Hefner, the founder and publisher of Playboy Magazine died last week at the age of 91. If you wonder how our culture became tolerant of pornography of increasing explicitness and ubiquity, you can thank Mr. Hefner for his significant contributions.

Sign of the times — thanks, Hef.

Following Hefner’s death, it seemed nearly every news organization published a gushing tribute to the man and his legacy. If you want to read them, there’s this thing called the Internet and I’m sure you can find them. But in scanning the headlines that reported Hugh Hefner’s death, one headline caught my eye. It said, “Hugh Hefner’s first wife CHEATED on him — a betrayal which gave birth to his Playboy lifestyle.”

The article reports that Hefner and his fiancée had been saving themselves for marriage, but that while he was serving in the army during World War II, she confessed to him she’d had sex with another man. They married in spite of this, but their marriage ended in divorce four years later. About the infidelity, he said,”That was the most devastating moment in my life.”

Why are we talking about this?

If you’re a regular reader here (thank you!) you know I always have a reason. Hefner said his then-fiancée’s being with another man cast a shadow over his marriage. “After that, I always felt in a sense that the other guy was in bed with us, too.” And although his wife, guilt-ridden, encouraged/allowed him to sleep with other women, ultimately, Hugh Hefner became an enemy of sexual morality.

He started Playboy magazine in 1953 and sought to make eroticism socially acceptable by publishing photos of nude women alongside interviews, music reviews, essays, and short stories.  In addition to the magazine, Hefner promoted what he called the Playboy philosophy, which as you’d imagine took a dim view of monogamy.

So here we have a man whose woman was unfaithful, whose marriage didn’t last, and whose life’s work discouraged others from being faithful in marriage.

The wound and its interpretation

Brent Curtis and John Eldredge’s book The Sacred Romance, and Eldredge’s later book Wild at Heart discuss in some detail what they refer to as “the message of the arrows.”  Each of us, they say, receives a wound, and that wound pierces us in a vulnerable part of our heart and soul. We try to make sense of it, and we get a lot of “help” from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Most of us regard the wound as something shameful, and we internalize it and never take it to our Heavenly Father to let Him heal it. Instead we make a vow to never let ourselves get hurt that way again. And this gives way to the false self.

A man’s question

More from Wild at Heart: Eldredge explains that every boy longs to receive the masculine blessing — to know that he is a man and that he has what it takes. That blessing should come from a boy’s own father, or perhaps his grandfather, uncle, or godfather. It is the conferring of manhood, so it should come from men. But bad things happen when a man seeks to validate his masculinity in the arms of a woman, or women. To quote Eldredge verbatim:

“When a man takes his question to the woman what happens is either addiction or emasculation. Usually both.”

Back to Hefner

Do you see this pattern playing out in the life of Hugh Hefner? Clearly, he wanted his wife to validate him as a man. Her sleeping with another man created a wound in that most vulnerable part of him. The false self that became his identity was that of the Lothario, the playboy, the stud — able to get any woman he wanted. This turned out to be partially true. He could get all the women he could bribe with plastic surgery. And he could keep all the ones who were willing to put out in exchange for an “allowance.” But ultimately, this wounded man sought to medicate himself with women’s bodies and Viagra. Pretty sad.

But the worst thing was that this man’s false self contaminated our culture and created massive stumbling blocks for generations of men. Each one of us is responsible for his own choices and actions, but notice how personal choices affect others. How many of our grandfathers, fathers, brothers — and how many of us — have given in to the temptation offered by Hugh Hefner and his imitators? How many of us grew up with absent dads imbued with the Playboy philosophy?  How many of us are in the chains of sexual addiction through promiscuity, pornography, or both?

May God grant us the grace to overcome the sorry legacy of Hugh Hefner and walk free in the glorious light of Christ Jesus. May we seek and find our identity in Him. And may we pass on a better legacy to our sons and daughters. If we truly believe God is for us and will never leave us, we can find contentment whether married or single.

So how about you? How have you gotten your question answered? Do you need a reboot? Share your story or add your comments below.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” – Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

Let’s continue our discussion from the previous two posts. In part I, I told how I recommended to a friend that he read the Old Testament story of Joseph, and how he didn’t expect to encounter the story of Judah and Tamar — a single chapter in the book of Genesis that appears in the middle of the story of Joseph. In Part II, I explained why the story appears in the Bible. Today, I want to explain why this seemingly random story matters, and what we can learn from it. But first, we have to state a most important premise:

Reading the book without getting the lesson leaves out something important.

The Bible is ultimately all about Jesus. (He said so.)

As surprising as it may seem, Judah and Tamar figure in His story, too. After all, Jesus is not the descendant of Levi, and even though Joseph’s story is magnificent, Joseph is not the direct ancestor of the Messiah. Judah is.

Look at Jesus’ family tree in the gospel of Matthew.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.” – Matthew 1:1-6 (NIV)

And, of course, this is just the first part. You can read the entire genealogy of Jesus here, or you can listen to Andrew Peterson’s song Matthew’s Begats below.

Lessons from Judah and Tamar

Here’s what I take away from this story and its presence in the Bible:

• It all fits together — The sacred and the profane, the glorious and the scandalous are part of the picture. This doesn’t justify the profane or inglorious, but it does illuminate the grace and generosity of God. The Japanese art of kintsugi made use of gold to repair broken cups and dishes, making the brokenness and the repair part of the beauty and the story of the vessel. God, the master craftsman, can take all the broken parts and communicate something eternal through each one of us.
• God’s purpose can’t be thwarted — If God were as dainty as we imagine, the slightest human frailty would derail His plans. Here we see God, like a master of jiu-jitsu, taking the fallibility of Judah and Tamar and using it to continue progress toward the advent of the promised Messiah.
• It all matters (even the bad stuff) — Again, I’m not advocating that we all go out and sin just so we can experience the joy of forgiveness. But recognize that every occasion of failure is a new opportunity to find comfort from our Father in Heaven, and to know His love more profoundly. Note that if Onan hadn’t rebelled, and if Judah and Tamar hadn’t conceived, Perez would not have been born.
• Nobody’s here by accident — If your parents ever described your birth — or worse, you — as an accident, it’s time to shake that off. As we see in this story and in the genealogy of Jesus, there are at least two births that technically shouldn’t have happened, yet they did. Perez and Solomon were both the sons born of liaisons that were not by the book, and yet each man had his role in bringing about the central fact of history, the birth of Jesus our Redeemer. None of us can tell from here what our life’s total contribution will be to the larger story, but isn’t it better to live in the expectation that one has such potential, and to aim for it?
• The Bible is true — The story of Judah and Tamar illustrates the space-time reality of the life of Jesus. He isn’t some cipher of unknown origin. The writers of scripture placed Jesus in direct descent from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David — and all of this in accordance with prophecy. These are additional reasons you can hang your hat on the reliability of the Bible.

A little more about that last point: If you and I were trying to start a religion from scratch, we wouldn’t include the flaws and failures of our founders. Yet that is exactly what the Bible shows again and again. Look at Tamar posing as a prostitute to get an heir, and look at Judah the lonely (and randy) widower who falls into the honey trap set by his scorned daughter-in-law.

Then look ahead to Rahab the harlot in the lineage of Jesus — King David’s great grandmother. And that’s not all. David famously betrayed loyal Uriah the Hittite to cover his adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Yet it was Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba who built the Temple in Jerusalem and carried the messianic line forward.

This frankness about the earthy nature of Jesus’ earthly ancestors shows that God is not faint of heart, nor squeamish when it comes to our preoccupation with sex. Nor is he put-off by our rebellion and resistance. Instead, He is patiently and persistently loving fallen and fallible people like you and me. You and I — broken as we are — can be and are redeemed and take our place in the Great Story God is telling. Even though you may feel far away from God based on something you’ve done or are doing, if you’re breathing it isn’t too late to turn to Him.

So how about you? How does the story of Judah and Tamar encourage you? Add your comments below.

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” – Psalm 103:13-14 (ESV)

In part I, I told how I recommended to a friend that he read the Old Testament story of Joseph, and how he didn’t expect to encounter the story of Judah and Tamar — a single chapter in the book of Genesis that appears in the middle of the story of Joseph. In this story Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons and Joseph’s older brother, deceives and deprives his daughter-in-law Tamar of her rights. Let me recap briefly.

By custom, if a man died childless, his brother had an obligation to conceive children with his widowed sister-in-law so his brother’s family line could continue. Tamar was the wife of Er, Judah’s son, but Er died. Judah told his middle son, Onan, to sleep with Tamar to fulfill the family obligation. Onan slept with Tamar, but never completed the act of conception, instead he spilled his seed on the ground. This provoked God’s judgment, so Onan paid with his life. Although Judah promised his third son to Tamar when he came of age, he didn’t keep his promise to her.

Not everything that is pretty is good for you. Look and think deeply.

To even the score, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her widowed father-in-law, taking his identification as collateral for the transaction. Three months later, Judah got news that Tamar was pregnant, bringing shame on the family, so he ordered her execution. But before she accepted her sentence, she explained that the man who got her pregnant is the man who owned Judah’s staff, cord, and seal — oops!

The story ends with Judah’s saying that Tamar was more righteous than he. And she gives birth two twin boys, Perez and Zerah.

Why is that in there?

For those of you unfamiliar with the Bible, you may be wondering if this is some kind of a joke. It isn’t. The story is in the Bible, and I invite you to read it for yourself (you can link to it here). There are lots of good reasons why this story appears in scripture, and my purpose in this post is to explain those reasons and, by explaining them, to encourage you.

About Onan

Let’s talk for a minute about Onan. This part of the story is the source of a lot of mistaken teaching about masturbation. I’m not advocating it — I discourage it, in fact — but there is no specific scriptural prohibition against it, and it is not a capital offense. Jesus taught that adultery was sinful, and then raised the stakes by saying that to lust after a woman was to commit adultery in one’s heart. The purpose of this teaching was to illustrate that sin is more a matter of the heart than of the flesh. That is, the inclinations of the heart reveal more about our spiritual condition than our outward behaviors. It also demonstrates that God wants to preserve the sacredness of sex, by warning us to avoid even the thought of sexual sin.

God gave the gift of sex. It was His idea. And in this case, Judah told his son to provide an heir for his late brother. Onan didn’t go off by himself to think lustful thoughts about Tamar while pleasuring himself. Instead, he took advantage of her, enjoying her body — consuming her — but withdrawing at the last moment and denying her the life-giving seed that would have fulfilled his obligation to his sister-in-law and his deceased brother. The sin of Onan was the sin of selfishness. The scripture says he knew the child wouldn’t be his, so every time he slept with Tamar, he spilled his semen on the ground. God demanded Onan’s life for his selfishness and rebellion, not for masturbation.

But what’s the big deal about not conceiving?

Context

The larger picture of this filial obligation was that God had chosen a people for himself when He established the covenant with Abraham. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, so it was important for every household to have children. If a man died without having conceived a child, his brother had to take on the responsibility to do his part to fulfill the covenant.

This is also the reason for a lot of the ceremonial law that appears later in the Old Testament. God’s people were to be distinct in their life and conduct, so they were to keep themselves separate from neighboring tribes that worshiped other gods.

In the case of Judah and Tamar, we were only into the third generation of Abraham’s descendants, and you could say they were still a long way from stars-in-the-sky numerous. Judah’s fear that his third son might also die, caused him to be stingy toward Tamar. But this also was contrary to God’s will, as Judah withheld his seed from God — just in a way that was different from his son, Onan.

Description vs. Prescription

What about Tamar? Should a wronged woman dress up like a harlot and use sex to get what she wants? The short answer is no. I have to explain here that the Bible describes a lot of things that it doesn’t command or endorse. Tamar’s behavior is one such example. Slavery and child sacrifice are two more. One cannot judge the rightness of a thing simply because “it’s in the Bible.”

We can understand some of Tamar’s motivation, since in her time, to be barren and a widow was to be an outcast as well as desperately poor. In this light, Onan didn’t just deny her a child, he denied her redemption and life. Given that she was in Judah’s household, she was entitled to her rights. But when Judah failed to keep his word to her, she acted according to her flesh, rather than seeking God’s wisdom. And speaking of God’s wisdom, we need to consider something important. We’ll get into that in Part III.

So how about you? How does the story of Judah and Tamar challenge your ideas about the Bible? Add your comments below.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (ESV)

Today, I want to tell you a story that contains another story. A young friend of mine texted and asked me to recommend some Bible verses to encourage him because he was lonely. I understood why. He had broken up with his girlfriend and, because he had just returned to our area after a year’s absence, most of his friends were two states away.

Judah and Tamar as depicted in “The Bible and Its Story”

The cure for loneliness

I commend this young man’s approach, since so many of us look for comfort everywhere else but to God. And the Bible has plenty of comfort and encouragement to offer, along with more than your minimum daily requirement of Vitamin W — wisdom.

In this case, I thought it might be more helpful for my friend to engage with a story instead of a to-do list. Great songwriters will teach you that it’s better to show rather than tell, so I suggested to my friend that he might find some comfort in the stories of Daniel and Joseph in the Old Testament. Both are accounts of young men taken away from everything familiar and persevering in faithfulness. He said he’d like to read about Joseph, so I gave him the scriptural coordinates.

Joseph’s story as inspiration

If you’re interested, you can read Joseph’s story in the book of Genesis — the first book of the Bible — starting in chapter 37. The story is worth your time — a tale of a favored son who is betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, experiences several highs and lows, and ends up providentially positioned to demonstrate faithfulness and forgiveness. I wrote about one episode from Joseph’s life here a couple of years ago.

We interrupt this program…

I thought my friend would enjoy the story of Joseph and find some comfort in relating to Joseph’s periods of loneliness and how he remained resilient. I forgot that just as the story of Joseph gets rolling, the writer of Genesis breaks in to tell the story of Judah and Tamar. You can read it in Genesis 38 — it’s just one chapter long — but let me summarize it.

Judah and Tamar

Joseph’s brother Judah got married and had three sons. The oldest, named Er, married a girl named Tamar but died childless. Judah told his second son, Onan, to sleep with his sister-in-law to give her children and preserve his brother’s family line. Onan slept with her, all right, but instead of inseminating Tamar, every time he had sexual relations with her, he released his semen outside her. Some Bible translations say, “he spilled his seed on the ground.” This disobedience invited God’s judgment on Onan, so God took his life.

Judah said his third son was too young to get married, so he invited Tamar to live as a widow in his house until the boy was old enough. Eventually,Tamar noticed that the promised son was old enough to be her husband but that Judah apparently wasn’t going to keep his word.

So Tamar did what any godly woman would do: she disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced the recently widowed Judah. In the heat of his passion, he told the supposed prostitute that he left his wallet in his other robe. She said he could pay her later, but that she would take his staff, his seal, and his sash — the unmistakable signifiers of his identity and status — as collateral.

They do it. The next day Judah sends a servant to pay the lady, but the locals say there are no prostitutes working in their neighborhood. Judah shrugs it off, rationalizing that at least he tried to pay her.

Then Judah hears that his widowed daughter-in-law has disgraced the family by becoming pregnant. He orders her execution, commanding that she be burned alive. She tells him that the man who put her in this condition is the owner of the staff, cord, and seal. Judah says she is more righteous than he is, and he does not take her into his bed again.

The story ends with the birth of twins named Perez and Zerah. Then we get right back to the story of Joseph already in progress.

What was that all about?

Judah and Tamar’s story is like those occasions where a tv station inadvertently runs adult programming during a kid’s show. My friend wondered, as you might, why that story appears in the Bible.

I’m going to provide my thoughts on why this story appears as it does, and the lessons and encouragement we can all take from it. Go ahead and subscribe via the bar at the top of this page, and you’ll get an email from me as soon as I hit “Publish” on Part II.

So how about you? What do you make of the story of Judah and Tamar? Add your comments below.

Men:  We have to talk about sex. If there’s one area where this generation is stuck, this is it.

The Water Was Dirty Before You Got In

Now, before you conclude that I’m pointing my finger at you, please realize that the Boomer cohort gave us the sexual revolution and rampant divorce, and the Gen X cohort was equally careless about sex and marriage.  But it’s even worse than that.  These are the guys who grew up to convince you that everyone but you was sexually active, to urge the women you know to emulate the worst of promiscuous men, and to offer you pornography pretty much anywhere and anytime — and all so they could separate you from your money.  If you want poor examples, the generations ahead of you are shot through with them.

Applying wisdom — that’s a horse of a different color!

So if you’re a typical American male, you were probably exposed to pornography somewhere around age ten.  But even if you didn’t see any sexually explicit magazines, videos or websites in your youth, you’ve been awash in a culture that has turned sex into a commodity devoid of any spiritual significance.  As a man who has spent much of his career in and around sales, I say it’s lazy to use sex to sell.  As bad as that is, it’s worse to be so checked out that you allow it to influence you.  There is a better way.

Meet King Solomon

In the Old Testament (that’s the first 39 books of the Bible), we meet a king named Solomon.  He was the son of King David and Bathsheba (there’s a story about the misuse of sex, right there).  When Solomon succeeded his father as the king of Israel, God told Solomon to ask him for anything.  In reply, Solomon asked for wisdom to govern God’s people.  This pleased God and he promised Solomon that no one would be wiser or more honored than he.

In addition to building the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon reportedly had 1,000 wives and concubines.  (Here I should point out that just because the Bible describes something, it does not prescribe it.)  Solomon is also credited with several books of the Bible — Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon, and Proverbs.  And that brings us to the purpose of this post.

In Proverbs 5 Solomon writes this:

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,

that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol;

she does not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

And now, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.”

Be the Gatekeeper

What Difference Does It Make?

The Rest of The Story

It Isn’t Easy

So how about you?  How are you applying God’s wisdom to help you lead a chaste life?  Add your comments below.