Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Wilsons Enjoy Florida


Last week the Wilsons enjoyed some days in the sun at Daytona Beach Shores, Florida.  Here are a few pictures . . .









Thursday, May 19, 2016

Congressman Jeff Duncan


Jeff Duncan shared great thoughts this morning concerning the un-American way that President Obama tried to railroad his bathroom mandate last week . . .


"I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments on the transgender bathroom issue. In regards to what the President has done with his administrative restroom decree, I will do everything in my power (supporting lawsuits, signing letters, co-sponsoring legislation, defunding agencies) to stop this policy from ever being implemented. But I want to take a moment to explain why what President Obama is doing is so dangerous, and why regardless of how you may feel about the bathroom issue as a whole, you should be opposed to this executive action.

I hear from parents and teachers all the time who complain about testing requirements are regulations that constantly come down from Washington. This tends to be a fairly bipartisan complaint.

This restroom decree from President Obama is really no different. One man is attempting to overrule every parent, every school board, and every public school principal in the United States, without any vote or comment period. In order to enforce this edict, he is threatening to withhold money from your child's school (which happens to be your tax money, just to add insult to injury). The President's legal argument for being able to do this is to radically reinterpret a law that was passed Congress decades ago, long before "transgender" was even a point of discussion. Here's an example that follows the President's logic on this issue: Congress passing a bill giving everyone in the United States a free boat. The President years later, reinterprets the law to say that everyone gets a free house. Does the bill say anything about houses? No. By reinterpreting the law this way, did the President just circumvent Congress, and in turn, circumvent the will of voters of this country? Absolutely.
My point is this, we don't live in a democracy, we live in a Democratic Republic where people elect their representatives and their representatives (represent) them. But President Obama is pretending we live in an authoritarian dictatorship. Even if you agree with what President Obama's position on this issue, you should strongly oppose the way he did it. If he can unilaterally do this, imagine what else he could do, or any future President could do.

According to Gallup's most recent poll, 52% of Americans approve of President Obama's job performance. If you're one of those people, you have responsibility for this mess. The way President Obama is accomplishing his goals is unamerican. If you feel that boys (or men) should have access to the women's restroom, then run for Congress, pass a law, get elected to your local school board. I will stand against you and say that you're wrong, but that's our process. But when you support making our President a King, you are undermining our entire system of government, taking away our representation, and setting our country down a dangerous path. The way President Obama has gone about accomplishing his agenda should concern all of us. I will continue to speak out and do everything I can to stop this nonsense. But if you aren't concerned what the methods President Obama has adopted to achieve his agenda, you are part of the problem."

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Elijah Sermons


Several of my recent sermons from the series Elijah: A Man Like Us are now uploaded to my blog.  You can click on them on the left-hand column under FRESH BREAD -  SERMONS AND TEACHING.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Make Your Voice Heard #1: What You Can Do




Read the article by Michael Brown referenced in the video - A Call for National Civil Disobedience to Obama's Public School Transgender Bathroom Mandate.


Also, read  We Must Defy Obama's Transgender Decree - No Matter the Cost by Todd Starnes.

Make Your Voice Heard #2: Contact Your Local and State Schools and Legislators


Every Christian in America can contact at least four arenas regarding the Obama Bathroom Mandate: their local school board, their local schools, their state representatives, and their state Governor's office.

Click here to find your legislators in South Carolina.

I live in Laurens, South Carolina.  The following are the phone numbers for my locale:

Laurens County School District 55:

864-984-3568

Laurens Country School District 56:

864-833-0800


LAURENS COUNTY  STATE LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION:

SENATE DISTRICT #9

Daniel B. (Danny) Verdin, III
Republican - Laurens
District 9 - Greenville & Laurens Counties
Columbia Address:  404 Gressette Bldg. - Columbia, SC 29201
Business Phone:   (803) 212-6230
Business Phone:  (864) 984-4129


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Michael A. (Mike) Anthony
Democrat - Union
District 42 - Laurens & Union Counties
Columbia Address:   432D Blatt Building - Columbia, SC 29201
Business Phone (803) 734-3060


Michael A. (Mike) Pitts
Republican - Laurens
District 14 - Greenwood & Laurens Counties
Columbia Address:   327C Blatt Bldg. - Columbia, SC  29201
Business Phone:   (803) 734-2830
Business Phone: (864) 681-0238Res



Mark N. (Mark) Willis
Republican - Greenville
District 16 - Greenville & Laurens Counties
Columbia Address:  326B Blatt Bldg - Columbia, SC 29201
Business Phone: (803) 212-6882
Business Phone: (864) 230-0135



SC GOVERNOR'S OFFICE

Governor Nikki R. Haley

803-734-2100

Mailing Address:
The Honorable Nikki R. Haley
Office of the Governor
1205 Pendleton Street
Columbia, South Carolina 29201




EXAMPLE OF WHAT TO SAY


Hello.  My name is XXXX.

I am deeply troubled over the bathroom mandate that President Barack Obama's administration released last Friday concerning transgenders.

First, the President has overstepped his boundaries.  He is not a king nor emperor, and it is not his nor his administration's place to make such rulings for schools in this country.  If such matters ever had to be decided, they should be done at a state level with individual citizens voting.

This is but another act in a long string of behaviors by our President when he continues to ignore the Constitution and the due course of law.  Such actions must be resisted forcefully.

Second, it is unwise and foolish to allow men into women's restrooms and women into men's.  Since the beginning of time, civilizations have recognized and applauded the differences between men and women.  A biological male should be required to use the men's restroom.  A biological female should be required to use the women's.

Radical LGBT activism has gone too far this time in the United States of America.

I applaud the efforts of legislators like Lt. Gov. Dan Forest of North Carolina and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas who have sent clear words out the past few days that their states will not be bullied by the President nor his administration.  

I want to see the leadership of our state [or you could substitute your county, your child's school, etc.] to make a similar statement.  I want Gov. Haley [or your school 's principle, your school board's leadership, etc.] to clearly state that they will not abide by this mandate.

As Lt. Gov. Don Patrick of Texas said that "he can keep his 30 pieces of silver."

I am praying for and asking that you take strong, clear action against this tyranny.

Very sincerely,

XXXX     

Make Your Voice Heard #3: Example of Leaders and Legislators


Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest released the following statement in response to President Obama's bathroom policy directive:

"North Carolina will not stand by and let our locker rooms and high school showers be used for social experimentation at the expense of the privacy and protection of our young boys and girls. I do not think it is appropriate for teenage boys and girls to share the same bathroom. I don't think it appropriate for teenage boys and girls to shower next to each other. I don't think it is appropriate for male coaches and male teachers to have access to girls' locker rooms and showers while the young girls are naked and exposed. I feel confident, the vast majority of North Carolina parents feel the same.

The President needs a reminder that the United States Constitution grants education decision authority to the states and localities not to the President of the United States. Our current state policy protects our children by maintaining bathrooms and restrooms consistent with the biological sex of the child and already gives schools, should special circumstances arise, the freedom to grant private single stall - single shower bathroom accommodations to individuals who might not otherwise be comfortable using the bathroom of their biological sex or a bathroom shared with other people. This is the only reasonable response to the situation that exists today. Opening all showers and all restrooms to all sexes at all times as the President is suggesting, is not a reasonable solution, but an invitation for violations of privacy and personal safety.

North Carolina public schools in receipt of the President's letter are reminded that there is a binding state law on the books governing bathroom policy and the President's non-binding directive is merely his attempt to push his version of a social policy on our state with no Constitutional authority to do so. It should be rejected as a matter of principle and policy."




Read the following article from the Family Research Council to see how other legislators are standing up to the Obama Bathroom Mandate:

GOP Puts a Lid on Bathroom Crisis


Make Your Voice Heard #4: Contact Your Local Target


Target made a bold move several weeks ago and thrust themselves to the forefront of the transgender fiasco in our nation.  Here's what you can do.  Read the following and then scroll down to see how to contact your local Target.

Click here to Read the article 5 Reasons Target's Trans Bathroom Policy Really Stepped In It by Glenn Stanton.

Click here to read the Action Alert about the AFA delivering the petition with over 1 million names to Target executives.

Click here to sign the Boycott Target Pledge.


Contact your local Target store either in person, in writing, or on the telephone. Here is an example of what you could say.  If you talk in person or on the phone, make sure that you remain respectful while stating your convictions.

For the upstate of South Carolina, here are the local Targets:

Greenville - Woodruff Road.    286-3689 

Simpsonville - Fairview Road.   963-7251

Spartanburg - Warren Abernathy HW.    574-1211  

Clemson - Clemson Blvd.   224-9772 


Dear XXXX

My name is Rhett Wilson.  My wife and I have shopped at your store for many years.  We have shopped at various Target stores for more than twenty years.  We have spent thousands of dollars through those years on household items, clothes, and Christmas presents.

However, because of your new transgender bathroom policy, our family will no longer shop at any Target stores.  

This unwise and unnecessary policy violates the basic biological reality that men are men and women are women.  Men should not be allowed in women's restrooms, nor women in men's.  This is not about hating anyone, but about acknowledging truth.

Allowing men in women's restrooms is unsafe and unwise and opens the door for predators and other wrongful behavior.

Your company is making a very inappropriate choice at this time, and I can no longer support you with my money.

Very sincerely,

XXXXX







6 States Defy Emperor Obama's Orders


The ink was barely dry on President Obama’s guidance regarding gender-neutral bathrooms – the administration told U.S. public schools on Friday to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms according to gender identity – when opposing voices started shouting.


And at least 7 of those voices in 6 states—so far—belonged to high-ranking state officials, beginning with North Carolina, where HB2 brought the controversy to the forefront:

 

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R)

– Says the U.S. Justice Department is displaying “overreach” by warning legal action and withholding federal funds unless HB2—which limits bathroom/locker room use to the gender on an individual’s birth certificate—is scrapped.

Read the entire article by Virginia Kruta at The Independent Journal here.

A Former Transgender Person’s Take on Obama’s Bathroom Directive


"President Barack Obama, the titular head of the LGBT movement, has added to the firestorm of confusion, misunderstanding, and fury surrounding the transgender bathroom debate by threatening schools with loss of federal funding unless they allow students to join the sex-segregated restroom, locker room, and sports teams of their chosen gender, without regard to biological reality.

His action comes after weeks of protests against the state of North Carolina for its so-called anti-LGBT bathroom bill. 

As someone who underwent surgery from male to female and lived as a female for eight years before returning to living as a man, I know firsthand what it’s like to be a transgender person—and how misguided it is to think one can change gender through hormones and surgery."

Read the entire article by Walt Heyer at The Daily Signal here.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

A Call for National Civil Disobedience to Obama’s Public School Transgender Bathroom Mandate


The following is the best article I have come across regarding Emperor Obama's bathroom mandate . . .

There are times in history when obedience to God means disobedience to man. This is one of those times.

Now that the Obama administration has announced that public schools must allow boys who identify as girls to use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms – meaning, in effect, that teenage girls must undress and shower in the presence of biological males – it is time to say, “With all respect to the authority of the federal government, we refuse to comply with your mandate.”

Across the nation, parents, school boards, principles, administrators and teachers must say no to President Obama and his administration. They must do it for the sake of the children. They must do it for the sake of moral sanity. They must do it to honor the Lord.

Read the entire article here by Michael Brown.

Friday, May 13, 2016

What the Transgender Bathroom Debate Means For You


Excellent article today from Russel Moore, President of The Ethics and Religious Commission of The Southern Baptist Convention . . .

"Last night the New York Times reported that the Obama Administration would issue a decree directing every public school in the nation to allow bathroom access on the basis of self-identity, not biological sex. I’m quite aware of the White House’s place in our culture wars, and even I am surprised. If anyone had suggested in 2009 that the new President’s administration would seek to target children’s bathrooms for the sake of transgender ideology, the White house would have ridiculed it as a crazy conspiracy theory. So, for those suggesting that state legislatures seeking to define such questions were working on 'solutions without a problem,' well, here’s your problem. So why is this important, and what should the church do?

First of all, we should recognize what’s really happening here, and it’s much bigger than the symbol of the bathrooms. The Department of Education’s actions here mean that 'gender' itself in terms of admission for all colleges accepting federal funds is ultimately a matter of identification, not biological sex. The state here wishes to use its coercive power not simply to stop mistreatment of people but to rescript the most basic human intuitions about humanity as male and female. How, after all, does one win a culture war against one of the most basic facts of science and life: that there are two sexes? One does so by withholding the funds and recognition necessary to operate in public space, unless institutions get in line. Children, then, become pawns of the state for the state to teach what is ultimately a theological lesson, not a scientific one.

This, ultimately, won’t work. There are good reasons to put boys and girls in different bathrooms and locker rooms and sometimes sports teams, reasons that don’t impugn the dignity of people but uphold it. Sex-differentiated bathrooms and sports teams and dormitories for men and women aren’t the equivalent of, say, a terrorist Jim Crow state unnaturally forcing people apart based on a fiction, useful to the powerful, that skin color is about superiority and inferiority. Every human being knows that there are important, and necessary, differences between men and women. Without such recognition, women are harmed and men are coarsened."

Read the entire article here.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Crisis in American Democracy



"For nearly two and a half centuries, Americans have enjoyed the enormous privilege and responsibility of forming our own government—a privilege rarely experienced throughout most of human history. For most of history, humanity has struggled with the question of how to respond to a government that was essentially forced upon them. But Americans have often struggled with a very different reality; how do we rightly respond to the government that we choose? 

To put all of this in historical perspective, the Framers of the American experiment understood that a representative democracy built on the principle of limited government would require certain virtues of its citizens. These would include a restraint of passions and an upholding of traditional moral virtues, without which democracy would not be possible. As the idea of limited government implies, the citizenry would be required to carry out the social responsibilities of the community without the intrusion of government and, thus, citizens would be expected to have the moral integrity necessary for such an arrangement. The Framers of the American Republic also agreed that it would be impossible to have a representative democracy and a limited government if the people did not elect leaders who embodied the virtues of the citizenry while also respecting and protecting society’s pre-political institutions: marriage and family, the church, and the local community.

Thus, the idea of a limited government requires that society uphold and pursue the health of its most basic institutions. When a civil society is weak, government becomes strong. When the family breaks down, government grows stronger. When the essential institutions of society are no longer respected, government demands that respect for itself. That is a recipe for tyranny."

Read the entire article by Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, here.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Reality is at Stake


"Make no mistake about this, the issue of transgenderism, which affects only three tenths of one percent of the nation, is just the cover for this new front in the culture war. Really, what is at stake here is reality itself. If the left can convince courts and the American people that boys can be girls and girls can be boys, they can convince you that right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down, down is up, and anything else they can get a judge to decide.

Conservatives never wanted to fight about bathrooms. The left has demanded it. And in so doing, the left is declaring common sense is akin to Jim Crow."

Read the entire article, Ladies, Keeping Men Out of Your Bathroom is Jim Crow Style Discrimination, by Erick Erickson here.

Quote of the Day



Monday, May 9, 2016

Loss of Civil Discourse


"We are also witnessing the death of civil discourse and even the loss of any ability to make a real argument. Insults are not an argument."  - R. Albert Mohler

This is one of the tragedies of this election cycle.

What Do Social Conservatives Do Now?


Bryan Fischer offers an excellent commentary for social conservatives like myself.  After Donald Trump seemingly secured the Republican nomination last week, I have been grieved, perplexed, and frustrated.  Fischer offers great perspective and challenges us to not feel sorry for ourselves.  There is work to do.

"For social conservatives, Senator Ted Cruz was the ideal candidate. He was an unapologetic convictional conservative who had demonstrated his commitment to fight for our shared values against all comers. But he’s out of the race. What happens now? 

The GOP establishment will find a way to rally behind Trump immediately. Expect the rapprochement to be complete by this weekend. Why? Because despite all their fulminations, they will quickly come to see that Donald is one of them. He has the same love for big government that they do and the same distaste for social issues. And they have fiefdoms to protect and will join forces with Trump in the hopes that he will be their protector. 

Here are the choices facing social conservatives."

Read the entire article, What Do Social Conservatives Do Now?, here by Bryan Fischer.