As a Christian and a parent, I wish to both protect my children from the dangers of the world while at the same time educating them about the problems they will face in life.  Sometimes this comes by way of learning experiences when things happen to them, and other times it comes by way of an event they happen to witness.  Then there are those teachable moments when something happens outside of their perception, and you actually bring it to the attention of your child so they can see and understand.  Such was the case when I read an article yesterday.

I want my children to be aware of bullying, how and why it happens, and to be able to defend both themselves and others from the practice of bullying by others.  However, when I read the article yesterday, it kind of set the whole thing of bullying and intolerance in its proper perspective.  You can read the article here: "Anti-Bully Speaker Bullies Christians"

When you read the article, what strikes me most is that Dan Savage, the speaker invited to address specifically the topic of bullying, is a known homosexual, yet many Christians still went to hear him speak - not to judge him, hold up signs, heckle or protest, but to listen with an open mind.  They certainly didn't go there to be bullied.  The audience?  Teenagers.  Not a group of adults, but kids.  What happened next is all too typical of what happens by the same people who call Christians intolerant.

Dan Savage chose this moment to address his personal views about Christianity rather than talk about what he was actually there for.  Instead of talking about bullying, he cursed, name called, and generally bullied anyone in the audience who was a Christian.  Exactly what he was there to speak against, he began to do.  The Christian response?  They got up to simply walk away.  They did not scream, yell, protest, or anything.  They quietly rose up and walked out.  Dan Savage's response?  He name calls and bullies them even more.  Typical.

How does he justify this behavior?  He makes a claim leveled by many by saying "there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong."  This is wrong on two counts.  First, there are not "many people" doing anything even remotely like "gay bullying" and there is not one single account I have heard of where someone specifically used the Bible as their justification for bullying gays.  The Bible does say homosexuality is wrong, but as soon as some idiot bully happens to bully someone who is gay, it is people like Savage that assume the context must be the person was using the Bible condemnation of homosexuality as the cause of the gay bullying.  Again, typical.

Savage is but the tip of the ice-burg.  The situation in that moment all too clear.  Christians, when bullied, are expected to remain silent and are expected to take it, while if the same speech had been given anywhere in the nation by any Christian leader, that Christian speaker would have been labeled a "hate-monger" and accused of inciting "hate-crimes" against gays.  Savage is a hypocrite, and a bully.  Savage is also just one of many who persecute Christianity and Christians in general for no other reason than that they are Christian.  They like to lift their own banner of "free speech" while conveniently labeling any dissent "hate-speech not covered under free speech", and seek to remove the freedom of religion.

It is one more example I am going to use to educate my daughters about what they will face as a Christian.  It is a lesson about intolerant people claiming Christians are intolerant, bullying by those who claim to help the bullied, and hypocrisy from the same people who point the finger at others claiming they are hypocrites.  Dan Savage, as is the case with those who hate and do not understand Christianity, is simply ignorant.  My task in educating my children will be to teach them how to deal with that ignorance, intolerance and oppression, simply because they are Christians.

A few weeks ago I read an article on Fox News.  You can read the entire article here: INSIDERS.  In the article, they ask the question "But could all the Tinseltown-type attention jeopardize his game and wholesome Christian image?1"

Reposted from: MenRising

Rewind years ago when the nation didn't really know who Tim Tebow even was.  As an Alabama fan and a Christian (yes you Auburn fans, it IS possible!!), my first gut reaction to his public displays of faith were to shrug them off as meaningless.  How many times have I seen players kneel in the end-zone, point to heaven, thank God on TV, or make some other overt display of faith on the field only to be caught up later in some drug or immoral scandal later?  I thought he was a fake.  First impressions can be hard to shake.

As Tim Tebow grew into the role though, I began to pay attention more.  I read about his background as a home-schooled kid and missionary kid.  As a former missionary to China, I know how tough life can be on missionary kids, and now that we live in the states and home-school our two daughters, we see how the homeschooling movement is just now starting to be accepted even in largely conservative circles.  I can only imagine that it must have been tough for him growing up, and here he was experiencing success on levels most people will only dream of, and how does it affect him?  It doesn't even seem to register.  Nothing changes.  Tim Tebow is still the same person, and that is when I became interested.

I watched his last year in college with great fascination and wonder at the unprovoked hate that came from people who did not even know him and from the liberal media, and I found myself in the awkward position of rooting for him even though he played against Alabama.  I wanted Tim Tebow to win, but for Florida to lose.  It was an interesting year.  Then came graduation, and I assumed we'd heard the last from Tim Tebow.

Then came his chance to shine yet again.  After a losing start to the 2011 season, Tim Tebow was put in to replace Kyle Orton at halftime and quarterbacked the Denver Broncos on a wild ride taking them almost to victory against a 16 point deficit.  The rest of his season, as they say, is history but nothing short of inspiring.  The whole time, the media kept touting his style as awkward and that he'd never find real success, yet he kept winning.  His win streak was only broken by the New England Patriots weeks later, and again the Patriots handed him the defeat that would take his team out of the playoffs.

What was Tim Tebow's reaction to all this?  He was still Tim Tebow.  Nothing had changed.  Meanwhile, the rest of the nation had heard about him by now, and they couldn't seem to make up their minds about him.  Was he a good football player or not?  Was his Christianity real or not?  Who is this guy really?  And why does he have to keep making public displays of his Christianity?

Let me at least answer the last question for everyone.  The reason he keeps making public displays of his Christianity is simple: he is a Christian.  Would that all Christians had his courage.  Then comes this article and I think to myself, "Hollywood just doesn't get it".  Maybe the nation at large just doesn't get it.  Now, I've never met Tim Tebow, and I'm not his best friend or have any close relationships, but I've seen him enough over the years to realize one thing: Tim Tebow is legit.

As for the worryings of the media over how Hollywood will affect him, all I have to say is "Hollywood, Tim Tebow is not your type."  While Tim Tebow is only human and prone to failings and mistakes just like the rest of us, I tend to think he'll take the world on the same way he always has - by just being himself.  If he'll do that, then we'll never hear of a drug or immoral scandal unless one is manufactured, and we'll never even have to wonder if Tinseltown will ever jeopardize his Christian image.

He's a great example of a Christian man simply being a Christian man.  Maybe the real question isn't why the world thinks he's so odd, but rather why, in the public Christian community, his consistent example as a Christan man is so rare.

While prime time news outlets devoted at least some of their broadcasting to the record-breaking lottery jackpot that ended with several winners last night, I must say it was a bit of fun conversation between my wife and I about what we would do with so much money.  To be honest, my main thoughts seemed to keep navigating toward finding a way to preserve both my anonymity and my sanity, and the best way I could think of to do this would be to take a very long vacation out of the country - maybe for a year.  By the time I came back from vacation, it would be hoped, another world issue/problem will have found its way to center stage.

All that money is kinda fun and scary to think about at the same time.  Fun to think about what you'd do with it, and scary to think about all the problems it would inevitably bring.  I can just imagine the number of people who would suddenly become your friend asking for "just $1 million" out of "all those hundreds of millions of dollars" you'd have.  Within days you'd have every worthy cause and crackpot at your door looking for a donation, and then fingering you as a heartless miser (or worse) if you turned any one of them down.  Then there are those out there who would seek to find some creatively exploitative reason, however trivial, to sue just in the hopes that you'd settle out of court.  After all that, then there are the relatives . . .

Besides the ones you actually know and have anything to do with, you'd have relatives you never knew, and those sudden relatives who are related because you have the same last name, or maybe just the same first name would be enough.  To be sure, winning $640 million would start a parade of long-lost acquaintances and friends from all over, and makes me think that year-long vacation I was thinking about would need to stretch out a little longer, like maybe over the rest of my life.

So what would you do with $640 million?  It's just a question, but one worth asking if only to think of what could be, and as you do remind yourself of what will be.  You see, for those people who won the $640 million, they will have a lot of decisions to make, and I'd love to be one of them, but in the end, both the winners of the $640 million and I will have one thing in common with you.  Whatever we have now in this life, we must leave it all behind when we die.

Kinda depressing, but a reality check is in order here.  I love dreaming about what I'd do with $640 million if only because of the circumstances I face every day in my life right now.  To be sure, I'd be substituting one set of problems for another, but at this moment I'd like to see what handling the problems of having $640 million looks like.  However, life is, and always has been, one of the great equalizers.  Whether it is money, or problems, which you have in plenty, you will one day leave them all behind.

With the end of March and the end of a record lottery jackpot, tomorrow turns to a new month, and thoughts turn to a new day.  As we approach the Easter season, I think of the greatest prize in all of history - that of heaven.  The price of that ticket?  Paid in full.  Availability?  Free for all who choose to accept and believe.  It is safe to assume I will never know the life of a millionaire on this earth, but with all the potential problems it can bring, I like to think my life is quite a wonderful blessing as it stands right now, and all the dreams I might have of living the life of a millionaire will simply never compare to the coming eternity in heaven.  How about you?  Did you get your ticket?