Month: July 2024 (Page 1 of 4)

A new pro-life song by singer Rachel Holt was a surprising success recently on the  country music charts.  According to the song’s sponsor, Patriot Mobile, “The single was released Friday and quickly soared to Top 10 on ITunes Country Charts and reached #5 Sunday Evening.  It reached #1 on PopVortex’s most downloaded music videos and today remains in the top two.”

The song was composed by songwriter Chris Wallen.  He wrote it from the perspective of a baby that never had a chance to be born.  Wallen said, “I just wanted people to hear the voice of the voiceless.”   Wallen had his doubts about any artist having the courage to sing the song.  But a relatively unknown teenage artist, Rachel Holt took  the project on even though she was warned about the attacks she would face.  

The first verse goes like this: “Some don’t believe I’m a livin’ soul / Just a bad mistake that needs to go / If my momma could’ve just seen my face / Then maybe she would’ve had me anyway.”   The chorus is as follows. “And all I wanted was a chance / To learn to love, and laugh, and dance / Oh, but I was gone before I arrived / Sent back to Heaven on a starlight flight / Yeah, I was gonna change the world /  And I was gonna be a girl.”  

I agree with the comments made in the Daily Citizen.  “Every abortion is a great tragedy because every abortion ends the life of a baby……. Reaching more women with the message that their preborn child is just that – a child – is vitally important.  Songs like the one above are just one way to influence the culture and save lives of preborn babies.”

Abortion calls into question the value of each human soul.  I take to heart God’s words to Jeremiah, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world” (Jer. 1:5).  In a similar manner God spoke to Isaiah about his birth. “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.” ( Is. 49:1).  Men, never forget you are not an accident.  God called you into being before you were born.  You are intended to flourish in the sphere of influence God has given you.  

Know that you are not a mistake.  You were planned from all eternity. This will go a long way in motivating you to take a stand for the defenseless unborn.  Learn to celebrate the joy and privilege God has given you to shepherd and nurture your children.  “How happy are those who fear the Lord – all who follow his ways!  You will enjoy the fruit of your labor.  How happy you will be!  How rich your life!” (Ps 128:1-2). 

Learn to see your children as gifts from the Lord.  “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.  Children born to a young man are like  sharp arrows in a warrior’s hands.  How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them!  He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.” (Ps 127:3-5). 

If God has blessed you with children, see them as God’s gift not as a burden or mistake.  They are like “sharp arrows.”  A  godly man  raising his children does not have to apologize but rather see himself as following God’s call to be fruitful and multiply.  Then you will not subscribe to the words of the song, “Some don’t believe I’m a livin’ soul \ Just a bad mistake that needs to go.”  

Bard  Wilcox’s new book, “Get Married” has caused quite a discussion regarding the state of marriage in American  culture.  Wilcox points out the single best predictor of long-term happiness is marriage.  “Americans,” notes Wilcox, “who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.”  In fact, there is a, “startling 30-percentage-point happiness divide between married and unmarried Americans.”  

In an interview given to “Public Discourse,” Wilcox listed five forces behind the diminution of marriage in American life.  These factors, “have been championed by the elites who control the commanding heights of our culture, economy and government,” notes Wilcox.  Here are the five dynamics identified by Wilcox.

First – Expressive individualism – living for the desires and ambitions of the self, rather than for family and community.

Second – Secularization – the decline of religious authority and practice, which has diminished the normative power of marriage and the social supports that sustain marriage.

Third –  the rise of a post-industrial economy – making disadvantaged non-college-educated men, less “marriageable.’

Fourth – Statism – “the modern state’s tendency to supplant many of the functions and much of the authority once held by the family.”

Fifth – Electronic opiates – “Big Tech’s products have left too many young women anxious and depressed and too many men bereft of drive and ambition.”

He adds this observation, “Dominant elites have advanced ideas that devalue and demean marriage, cast aside the normative guardrails that forge strong families, passed laws that penalize marriage for the poor and working class, and superintended the rise of a new economy that benefits them but puts marriage and family out of reach for millions of their fellow Americans.”  He worries that we are facing a “closing of the American Heart,” in a nation where a large number of young adults will never marry and-or never have children. 

Demographer Lyman Stone projects that as many as one in three young adults will never marry and as many as one in four will never have kids.  Wilcox declares, “That’s a lot of kinless Americans.”  So where does this leave us as men who want to make a difference, as followers of Jesus?  Here are some suggestions.

1) God’s view of reality.  I strongly exhort men to view  marriage and family as the foundation of our society.  Don’t listen to the voice of the crowd, “the empty-headed, mindless crowd” (Eph. 4:17 MSG).  Paul says, “They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God, but with reality itself.  They can’t think straight anymore.  Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion” (Eph. 4:18-19 MSG).  

2) Commit yourself to be an exemplar in your marriage.  Pope John Paul IV considered marriage to be prophetic in its expression of the body and sex, proclaiming  “a profound mystery” of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32).  Visualize your marriage as a prophetic expression of God’s love expressed in Christ.  Your marriage can stand as a light in a very dark world.

3)  Know that you are in a fight with the enemy of our souls.  The Pope noted, the union of the sexes, “is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love.”  As we commit to our marriages, we will be fighting a significant battle against the enemy

4) Be joined to and committed to a group of believers who will encourage, support and interceded for your marriage.  

5) Commit to be available to younger men, who so desperately need exemplars in their lives.