Bible Challenge Test

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Concerning Personal Responsibility

Free Speech

All too often, news reports are just commentaries on the current state of human affairs, functioning as a societal thermometer. Such is the case with the story about a proposed anarchy club in a West Virginia school. A judge ruled that a fifteen year old student could not form an anarchy club or wear anti-bombing t-shirts that protested the US approved war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The school had already suspended the student for promoting the club. She and her mother began crying "free speech" and filed a complaint.

Are there any limits to free speech? YES! Anything out of control is dangerous. Everything must have limits and boundaries. Controlled fire provides warmth, light and the ability to cook food. Fire out of control destroys. An automobile under the control of a competent driver provides efficient transportation. A vehicle out of control can produce mayhem and death. Everything must function within limits, even free speech.

The judge made his "intolerant" ruling because he claimed the allowance of the club would disrupt the school. Anarchy means, "state of being without rule; political confusion" according to the dictionary. Pluralism has lulled people into the notion that EVERYTHING must be accepted and allowed, without question. Don't you dare exhibit intolerance(except, maybe against Christianity). Yet, blind pluralism cannot be the rule. Absolute pluralism, with the absence of common sense restraints, can rob freedom from all.

Here's why there should be no absolute free speech for anarchists: anarchy destroys the system which supports it. It bites the hand that feeds it. Notice, even radical free speech proponents will not tolerate everything, such as racial slurs and epitaphs. Concerned parents will not allow their children to feed on a steady diet of rebellion, via ungodly music, TV, and videos. They want to squelch rebellion against parental authority, civil laws, and God. Kids who are taught submission to authority make good citizens. Why in the world would parents or a school encourage rebellion while teaching against it? This does not mean no dissenting view should ever be allowed. Let's just use common sense.

We have swallowed the pluralistic toleration lie and ended up believing that if we are allowed to preach the Gospel, we must give smut equal time, so now pornography flourishes. And all in the name of free speech. Ditto with profanities, vulgarities, and obscenities on the radio, TV, and in public. Blind pluralism allows the existence of NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, a group of perverts (free speech allows me to say that) that promotes homosexual relationships between men and underage boys. Who in their right mind even believes this group should exist? Whether the issue is anarchy or abomination, limits must exist. The line must be drawn.

Oh my soul! When will we awake from our pluralistic drugged sleep which fosters a one sided free speech? We have lived in the dark for so long, we have forgotten how to turn on the light. The proverbial frog in the pot of water is now boiling. Joseph Harris www.miniedition.net

Road Rage

We have all heard stories about road rage and air rage. I recall reading a story about a 31 year old driver who punched another driver, a 73 year old man, in the face because of road rage. Here is what caused it. The younger driver zoomed past the elderly man, crossing double yellow lines, only to be stopped ahead at a red light behind a line of cars. The seventy three year old driver shook his head and made a gesture (though not obscene), as if to say, "What a dumb thing to do" and it certainly was. This "look and gesture" so enraged the younger driver, he got out of his car and punched the elderly gentleman through his open window. Sounds like a "real man" to me, beating up on senior citizens. What would the news report have been if the assailant had emerged from his car with a gun?

The news media usually excuses this kind of behavior, attributing the problem to some abstract thing called road rage, claiming the perpetrator is a victim, unable to cope with pressure and stress in daily life.

Let me label and identify road ragers. They are self centered, spoiled hotheads with no self control, who think they are the only ones on the road with a destination. Ditto for air ragers who lose their temper on airplanes. The problem is an out of control temper that can be controlled. Each person is an accountable being, responsible for his or her own actions, with few exceptions. If we all acted out our anger when we got mad at other drivers, there would be mass murder on the highways daily.

Funny, but I never heard the old timers speak of this disorder. They never mentioned "Plow Rage", "Barn Raising Rage", or "Outhouse Rage". But then they were from an age where individuals were taught self control and personal responsibility. Out- of-control people in the old days were called criminals and went to jail.

You know, this has possibilities. The next time I get mad at my wife at meal time, VOILA!, "Dining Rage". "Sorry Honey, I just couldn't help what I said about your Elly May Clampett biscuits. You know how D R is."

We could also have Wal-Mart rage and (my favorite) computer rage. The sky is the limit for irresponsible individuals who want to scapegoat someone or something for their own choices. We did not have a voice when we inherited depravity from Adam, but we do have a choice in the way we conduct ourselves. Joseph Harris www.miniedition.net

Racial Reparations?

How do you make racial reparations? Can reparations be made for atrocities performed from 100 to 200 years ago? If so, then when and where do you stop? A few years ago some U. S. Government officials refused to attend a United Nations World Conference on Racism because some topics of focus included reparations for African slavery in this country and a denouncement of Zionism in Israel. The idea, put in layman's terms, was for the UN to receive monetary reparation payments from all countries who participated in slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. These officials said they believed focusing on the future would be more productive.

I now risk being misunderstand by my Black friends. So now let me make my statement about reparation: RIDICULOUS. Believe me, I have never been for the dehumanizing of any racial branch of humanity, since we are all created in God's image, but neither am I for forcing innocent individuals who never owned slaves, to make payment to innocent humans who were never slaves themselves. If we spend our time trying to "make right" or "repair" every injustice ever performed against us, we would constantly live in the past and never progress forward.

I believe there is a scriptural principle for guidance. The Apostle Paul said, "...this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13,14. If anyone had a right to cry "reparation", it was the apostle Paul. He was beaten, stoned and left for dead, starved, imprisoned, slandered, persecuted, wrongfully accused, etc, etc. He never sued the Sanhedrin or the Roman government or complained about all his mistreatments. Nor did he demand payment from Egypt for the slavery of his forefathers from centuries before. He simply focused on going forward for Christ.

Slavery was wrong! Our forefathers who participated in it were wrong! The indigenous tribes in Africa who sold slaves to slave traders were wrong! I regret it ever happened and I'm sorry for all the people who suffered, but I can't change one second of history. I can, however, affect the present and future by being Christ-like in treating everyone equally, by looking not at skin color, heritage, or class, but by looking at them as a human being God loves as much as He loves me. If all Christians would live out God's love, it would make more "repairs" than any UN or US government reparation mandate than man could ever dream up. Joseph Harris www.miniedition.net

The Blame Game

Have you ever played the blame game? You probably did when you were a kid, and you probably have as an adult. Placing blame on others is a sign of immaturity among kids and a sign of depravity among adults. We dodge and duck at every chance to get away from being responsible when we get caught.

It usually goes something like this: "Your honor, my client cannot be considered responsible for the horrible crime of decapitating and filleting his family members. His dad yelled at him and took away his toy trucks when he was five and he has been in trauma ever since." Or "The Arabs hate America because the great Satan has oppressed them" (Go figure that one out). Or "The reason unwanted pregnancies continue and AIDS is still spreading is because moralists do not want sex education and condom distribution." And then there is the original classic, "The woman thou gavest me..." When all else fails, blame God, as Adam did.

Whatever happened to personal, individual responsibility? Scapegoating is easier and hurts less. Being responsible means facing up to our own sins, failures, and weaknesses, but exposure through truth is necessary. Admittance of guilt is a must for salvation. Our own sinful state of depravity reveals our desperate need for God. Atheists exist because it is more comfortable for them to not believe in God, because if there is a God, they must one day face Him, and that means accountability. Solution? Get rid of God by denying His existence.

When we ignore or reject the truth or place blame on someone else, the sin or the crime doesn't go away, and the real problem remains. The problem is ME. I choose to lie or tell the truth. I choose to be faithful or unfaithful to my spouse. I choose to steal or be honest. And so on. I realize this is a novel approach for some and may sound too simplistic to the humanistic psychologist, but if everyone began to shoulder his or her own responsibility for his or her own choices, the world might be a lot different tomorrow. Joseph Harris www.miniedition.net