California Marriage Amendment and the Mormons

A little good news today, as it has been reported that the California Supreme Court has unanimously thrown out a suit to strike Proposition 8 from California's ballot in November.

At least now the future of marriage in California is up to the citizens, and not the courts!

Also, in related news, Mormon church leaders will ask its California members to join the amendment effort in California. According to AP:

A June 20 letter sent to Mormon congregation bishops and signed by
church president Thomas S. Monson and his two top counselors calls upon
Mormons to donate "means and time" to the ballot measure.

The church will work with a coalition of churches and other
conservative groups that put the California Marriage Protection Act on
the Nov. 4 ballot to assure its passage, the letter states.

"The church's teachings and position on this moral issue are
unequivocal. Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and
the formation of families is central to the Creator's plan for His
children," the four paragraph letter states.

I may have some fundamental issues with the Mormon church, but this is good news that more people are banding together to preserve marriage.

The McDonald's Boycott

It's time to put your dollar where your faith is! The AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald's for throwing their full corporate might into promoting the same sex marriage agenda. If you want your money to go into helping same sex couples gain legal marriage status, then keep on ordering those Big Macs. As for me and my house...we will go to Wendy's.

From AFA:

"Throwing out any pretense of being neutral in the culture war, McDonald's has taken up the rhetoric of gay activists, suggesting those who oppose same sex marriage (SSM) are motivated by hate. AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald's"

Visit http://www.boycottmcdonalds.com/ to get in on the action.

Economy and the Family Part 2: Adventures in the Mundane

Many of us take for granted that we can just hop in the car and go get anything we pretty much want. From electronics to food, for must of us, every possible distraction is just a few minutes away.

Now that the price of gas has skyrocketed, I think it's time to review the age-old pastime of walking. I'll give you an example from our own life.

Last night we decided to walk to Walgreens to pick up some...personal items, shall we say.

So we decide to make an evening out of it. First, I walked with my son and wife to Dairy Queen for some cold, smooth ice cream, where we had a nice chat about something that I can't remember and then we walked from Dairy Queen to Walgreens for the other stuff. Then we walked back, weaving through rush hour traffic, and ended the night by looking up through the telescope to watch the moon.

What made this little adventure so nice was that it was no adventure at all. Here we were, doing the most mundane of things, like eating ice cream and picking up toilet paper (yes, toilet paper, now you have it), and it was some of the best family bonding time we've had in a while. Why?

1. We spent over an hour together without a single electronic gadget. When was the last time the average family could say that?

2. Our conversations were about nothing significant. We reviewed our vacation and played walking games (like "red light, green light"). We sang songs from our son's favorite TV show, The Backyardigans. We tested his reading ability by picking out words on signs. We talked about cars. Families need lots of insignificant talk, not just morsels of meaningful dialogue. When it comes to family, quantity is better.

3. We sweated together. That may sound gross, but families who toil together (though a walk can hardly be considered work) stay together. That's my theory. Our walk was a shared experience. Each of had to look out for cars, we had to tell each other when it was safe to cross. We all saw the same ducks swimming across the canal. There's a certain simple beauty in walking up to your doorstep and seeing the same sweaty face on that of your family's.

If we were to write a movie in the fashion of Indiana Jones (the old ones, at least) about our family adventures, they would have titles like "The Plumey Family and the Curse of the Broken Walk Signal" or "The Plumey Family: Raiders of the Dairy Queen Bathroom".

Don't pass up the simple pleasure of spending what may seem to be meaningless time with your family. No matter what age your kids or your parents, these mundane adventures will be lasting memories in your family for years to come and you will be drawn closer in ways you never expected.

Economy and the Family Part 1: Strip clubs

This is the first post on the impact of a slow economy on family values. And I'll admit this is an interesting place to start: strip clubs.

I can't tell you how many fathers I have met in the course of my travels that actively go to strip clubs, with or without their spouse's awareness. For some it's just a distraction, but for others it's an addiction. Either way, husbands and fathers who go to strip clubs are putting into jeopardy their marriages and their families.

So it appears that the downturn in the US economy is also impacting strip clubs, at least here in South Florida where I live. This is from the Sun Sentinel:

Angelina Spencer is national executive director of the Association of
Club Executives, a group that represents adult entertainment clubs. She
says she fields calls every day from strip club owners around the
country feeling the pinch of a bad economy.

Spencer says entertainment is a luxury item and ``one of the first things people give up.''

Fathers and husbands spending less time at strip clubs is a good thing, even if the reasons for their absence have more to do with their wallet than their ideas of sexuality and respect for their wives.

On the flip side, a down economy also means that there are more women who are willing to try strip teasing as a form of income, which is why we should be helping groups like XXXChurch to reach out to men and women in the adult entertainment industry.

Not to turn this post into a discussion of this organization, but despite their lack of orthodox methodologies and teachings, they really are doing something really interesting to reach out to those afflicted by addictions to pornography and the "adult entertainment" lifestyle.

Bad Economy is good for family values

This is the first of a multi-part post in which I will discuss the impact of a soft economy on the family. A soft economy often means scaling back some extravagances in the family budget. Things like movies, dinners at restaurants, the buying of new toys and gadgets, etc. are often the first thing to go in a family budget. In many cases, this is a blessing in disguise. An attentive parent can see opportunities to spend more time with their kids and for their family to grow together.

Over the next few posts I will focus on opportunities that can be gained to help families to spend more time together and grow stronger during an economic slow down. I'll also focus on external things happening outside the family that are impacted by a sagging economy that can turn out to improving family values within the United States.

Stay tuned!

The first steps to a pornographic mindset

Another example of the kind of thinking that leads our young people to think and experiment at shockingly early ages.

I know she's in it for the money, but can Beyoncé really be that ignorant of the damage she's causing to young girls?

Check out the article, you'll see what I mean:

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/05/12/beyonce-sexing-up-childrens-clothing/