I can't help it. I read this at least a year ago, but it's still making the rounds. Why? Because it explains so much.When I try to tell my liberal acquaintances something religious, some immediately tell me to shut up, in so many words. I should push back a little. That attitude has sidelined any talk about truth, God, discipline, et al into the margins.
In order to save "relationships" many Christians have stopped being salt and light in their communities. The result, the pagans have taken over.
I love the line below about how Dr. Spock told us to stop spanking our children because they'd have low self-esteem... and then how Dr. Spock's kid kills himself. Smart man. But we were stupid to believe him.
I know of more than one kid who has ended up in a psychiatric hospital because their parents were afraid to spank their kids, gave them more than they should have had, gave in to their demands. As parents we spanked our kids only enough to break their will but never their spirit. The spanking was minimal and never in anger. Our kids knew we loved them through it all. They all grew up to be productive citizens, have kids of their own, and love God and us. They have self-esteem because they learned where the limits were to natural law.
What Stein doesn't say below is the obvious. Kids are killing each other because parents have been killing the kids by the millions through abortion. The kids know that society sees kids as disposable, and so they make the logical transistion that others are dispoable. All it takes it "not wanting" someone around, and the law has give parents the right to kill. So, what's wrong with other kids killing parents or anhyone else they don't want around? Wake up my liberal "friends." Now, here's Ben.
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a Church it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away .
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says . Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards .
Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
The first (and better) half of this rant is accurately attributed to Ben Stein. The second half is nothing more than internet glurge, fraught with misattributions, misrepresentation, and booming rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteDocumentation is available on Snopes.com, and you can read the actual text of Mr. Stein's commentary on his own web site.
Specifically -- and particularly relevant to the argument you are trying to support -- Benjamin Spock's son did not commit suicide. You and I differ about the efficacy of using violence as a means of childrearing. I have done quite well without it, both as a child, raised into an upstanding, moral member of society, and as a parent. Perhaps your position has merit, but the fate of Dr. Spock's son has no bearing on the case.
My simple recommendation would be that, if you wish to be taken seriously as a commentator, a modicum of responsible scholarship would go a long way. We differ on whether your article represents that which is "good" or "beautiful," which are matters of opinion, but I can objectively report that it is not entirely true.
Respectfully,
Scott Snyder
Allentown, Pa.
Dear Scott:
ReplyDeleteI commend you on using your name and location. It is for that respect you showed me that I posted your comment, out of respect for you.
In spite of the issues you raise, the letter accurately describes the position of many, including myself. Spanking, when done with love in order to break the "will" of a child and never the "spirit," is never violent. It can be a very intimate affair that draws parent and child together, and works wonders. I guaranteed that a child that learns to respect authority will never find him or herself in prison or on Jerry Springer. Luckily, many kids do not need physical discipline. Some do. My sister didn't, but I required it a lot because of my strong will. Of my three kids, only 2 required it, and only 4 times between them. And they are "upstanding, moral members of society" raising 8 kids of their own. Because you didn't need it, doesn't mean I didn't need it.
Few opinions and some facts are not entirely true in every respect, especially to others (as you suggest). But the moral teaching that my post represents is more likely to be psychologically and spiritual true.
I will agree with you: as you've rightly point out, just because it's on the Internet surely doesn't mean its true... including what you find on Scopes.com. They've been wrong and left-leaning more than once.
Thus, I stand by my comments, wrong as some of the facts may, or may not, be.