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Community Topics

Author’s Note: It seems to me that our society as a whole is at a tipping place as 2019 turns to 2020 in the way it handles a number of spiritually and morally charged matters. In the course of studying about the wide-ranging aspects of the Kingdom of God and how they apply to topics of community interest and involvement, I’ve come across a number of articles that I found to be particularly interesting or noteworthy in this regard, not necessarily because I believe what they say in whole or in part but because of the thoughts they stimulate and the points of view they present. I’ve taken the liberty of posting many of them here for your interest. Let me know if you have any you’d like me to read and add to the lists below.

Abortion

Abortion became an increasingly pressing topic in the United States during the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s when sexual intimacy publicly burst the boundaries of marriage and was “liberated” into widespread promiscuity. The issue came to a head in January 1973 when the Supreme Court concluded in the case of Roe vs. Wade that the U.S. Constitution provides a “right to privacy” that protects a pregnant woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. Since then opinions have remained deeply divided between the “pro-choice” camp who agree with Roe vs. Wade and would like to extend its coverage and those in the “pro-life” camp who continue to uphold the sanctity of human life from conception onward. Since about 2018 more strident voices have taken the stage who advocate for abortion as a positive good that should be supported by public mandate and funding as a moral imperative in a woman’s “right” to decide what to do with her own body. The following articles are a sample of the current debate.

Addiction

The subject of addiction has grown along with our understanding of how people develop attachments. We all know that people can become addicted to drugs like alcohol and opiates, and even to nicotene and other substances. But we’re becoming more and more aware that other activities can become addictive like gambling, overeating, getting tattoos, and even using social media. The list now includes compulsively viewing pornography, pursuing sex, accumulating wealth and possessions, shopping, and getting hooked on exercise or excitement. We become slaves to watching the news, stoking political aggravation, and even inflicting pain on ourselves or others. In short, apart from God we all become dependent upon and in many ways addicted to the desires of our flesh and the fallen, endlessly tempting world we live in. The only way out is to become a slave of His righteousness.

Awakening

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Climate Change

Education

Health

Israel and the Middle East

Life and Death

Politics

Poverty

Prayer

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Sexuality

For the past 60 years the social mores guiding sexual attraction and behavior in Western civilization have been drifting farther and farther from those advocated by the Judeo-Christian moral ethic it has held for the past 1,500 years or more. Other faiths that also espouse personal moral responsibility, like Islam, have held similar views. After a rapid shift in the 1960s and ’70s, the trend seemed to slow down for a while, but the most recent decade has seen a dramatic change, a virtual about face from the past. In the 1st Century a complaint was raised about the Apostle Paul and others advancing the new Christian faith throughout the Gentile world: “Who are these men who are turning the world upside down?” It appears that the world is in the process of trying to return to its previous stance, however. Read these articles with discrimination: several have been listed for contrast, not agreement.

 

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