A Spoon in Their Underwear

8/25/2013

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WARNING: if what you need right about now is a light, airy, fluffy story with a silly smile attached,
                                                      DO NOT READ WHAT FOLLOWS

Fox News recently ran a story with the same headline as this blog. I suspect “A Spoon in Their Underwear” caught your attention. But it probably perplexed you too. What could it possibly mean? Is it just some sort of sick joke? Has the Un–Sermon Blog gone too far this
time?
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According to the Fox News online story (the website URL is listed at the end of this blog), officials at Heathrow Airport west of London and airports in Liverpool and Glasgow, Scotland, have been put on alert to watch for young kids, mostly girls, who are going through the airport scanners which can pick up the presence of a spoon that the kids have hidden in their  underwear. It’s no joke. In fact, it’s so sad it could make you cry.

These British youths are being taken out of the country by their
parents, ostensibly for a summer trip abroad, where their parents are then
forcing them to marry someone they have never met, often a much older man
(frequently a relative of the girl) who already has one or more wives. Too often
the girls are destined for virtual slavery, including sexual slavery. Apparently the practice accelerates after Ramadan, which ended this year on August 7.

Youths being forced to marry are urged to secretly hide a spoon in their underclothing, so that when they go through a scanner and the spoon is seen, the airport personnel can then take them to a secure site, off–limits to their parents, where the teens can ask for help to be delivered from forced marriage.

The British Foreign Office has a section known as the Forced Marriage Unit. It reports that last year 82 percent of the individuals facing forced marriage were female. Fully half of the young people taken out of Britain and forced to marry abroad are headed for Pakistan. One in ten goes to Bangladesh, almost one in ten to India; plus Afghanistan, Somalia, Turkey, Iraq and more than 50 other countries.

As a father who raised three daughters (successfully, might I add—yes, their mother did a great job), I can hardly fathom the cultural and religious pressures brought to bear on a young girl, that would pressure her to acquiesce to this practice of domination and disappear into the black hole of . . .

. . . an unwanted marriage to a person they have never met 
in a country they have never seen to be treated in 
unspeakable ways for obscure reasons.

I always thought I had lived and raised my daughters in the real world, but the “real” real world out there is filled with evil and danger and misery. Some people like to blame all that pain and suffering on God. But the wickedness perpetrated on humankind is easily found, if we’ll just look in the mirror.

How thankful I am that God is in the forgiveness business! Without His grace–gift of pardon, we would all be lost and hopeless.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/15/spoon-in-underwear-saving-youths-from-forced-marriage/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2cAuwku3H

*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
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Encouraged by Depression

8/19/2013

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Everybody agrees that our economy has had a tough five years. The biggest insurance company in America almost went under. The government took over General Motors and Chrysler. Real estate lost billions of dollars in value. The stock market tanked. Millions were laid off or fired. The “recovery” has spawned historic deficits and a $13–trillion  national debt. Worries about terrorism have had us holding onto money economists said would fix everything, if only we would spend, spend, spend! 
 
It all makes me think back to a different time, the recession of 1991–92, the one that cost George H.W. Bush his job as President. I read a New York Times political column that year by Anna Quindlen who was covering the 1992 election—the one that spawned the phrase,
“It’s the economy, stupid!” One thing she claimed was that Ronald Reagan (who had been out of office less than four years) had led the U.S. into “the economic abyss that dominated this [1992] election.” She made it sound like the second coming of the Great Depression.

I remember looking at the photo of this 30–something writer and wondering how she could compare 1992 with 1929. Maybe she was dyslexic. 1992 was a bad year, as 2008 was. But I’d be surprised if anyone who experienced 1929–1941 would agree with Quindlen’s assessment of the “economic abyss” of 1992 or even 2008. 

During the Great Depression (“Great” because of its size, not because it was wonderful), thousands of men left  their hungry families and became hobos, bumming and hitchhiking and jumping freight trains across the United States, just looking for any kind of job that would put food on the table for their children back home. If you lived through that time (and I didn’t), you know that neither 1992—or 2008, for that matter—qualified as “the economic  abyss.”

Keeping America’s recessions in mind, it’s wonderful to be able to count on God’s promise that, as the Sermon on the Mount says, if we put him first, he’ll take care of our needs.

I lost some money in 2008. It was a lot less than many lost, but it was a lot to me, and I couldn't afford it. But I think economic recession can have good results, if nothing more than a little glimpse of how people in the third world live every day of their lives. That, and the reminder that Jesus focused so much of his energies on helping the poor.

See, I told you so: depression can be encouraging.

*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.

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The Minister who Cried Wolf!

8/12/2013

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Everyone knows Aesop’s Fable of
the boy who cried “Wolf!” It was known as far back as Greek classical times. Its lesson is about truthfulness.

The central figure is a bored shepherd who entertained himself by shouting “Wolf, wolf!” Nearby villagers who came to his rescue found that the alarms were false and they had wasted their time. When the boy
was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers didn’t believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock. In some versions, when the villagers ignore him the wolf eats the shepherd; in other versions it simply mocks the boy, saying now no one will help him, and that it serves him right for being untruthful. The moral is stated at the end of the fable: “Even when liars
tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.” 
 
This paints a striking picture of a watchman, someone who is given the responsibility of looking out for the wolf, or the dangerous enemy, or a threatening shoal or even a serious storm. When they see a threat, they have the responsibility to warn those who are not
watching.

The wooden stockade at Fort Michilimackinac, looking out over the beautiful Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan, has guard towers for soldiers to watch for attackers. Sailors are still posted to watch for coral reefs, or for lighthouses marking the dangerous rocks. WW–II ships had watchmen in “crow’s nests” who watched for the telltale streak of a torpedo in the water. For millennia, armies have sent scouts ahead to watch the movements of the enemy and warn commanders if an attack was imminent. Watchmen are among the most important people in the world.

Some self–appointed watchmen cry “Wolf!” Harold Camping predicted that Christ would come back on May 21, 2011. He didn’t. Then Camping moved the impending event five months—October 21, 2011. Wrong again! 

Of course, the Bible says no one can know “the day nor the hour” of Jesus’ coming (Matthew 25:13).

While many scoffed at Camping’s prediction, Christians worldwide who believe the Bible expect Christ’s return, even if they don’t know when. 

So, laugh if you want, but never laugh at the idea of his return. The best way to discern whether the watchman is really sounding an alarm or just crying “Wolf!” is to examine how specific the warning of Christ’s return is. If it cites a date, it’s false. But he who belittles the
warning that Christ will someday return does so at his own peril.

Maranatha: Even so, Lord Jesus, come soon!

*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
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Carpe Diem—Seize the Day

8/5/2013

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During World War–I, a young sergeant accompanied his commanding officer on a journey by rail. And this young soldier was a Carpe Diem (that’s Latin for “seize the day”)
sort of guy—he loved to seize opportunities as they came his way.

The colonel and his aide were seated side–by–side, facing a young woman, who was traveling with her grandmother. The seats were arranged so that the two soldiers were facing the
two women. It was soon obvious that the young soldier and the young woman were very attracted to each other.

The train chugged through the golden sunshine, then entered a long tunnel, and everything went momentarily
pitch–black. Immediately everyone in their compartment heard two sounds— the light “smack” of a kiss, and the heavy “whack” of a slap across the face.

The grandmother thought, “I can’t believe that young soldier kissed my granddaughter, but I’m glad she gave him the slap he deserved.”

The Commanding Officer thought, “I don’t blame the lad for kissing the pretty girl, but I wish she hadn’t slapped me by mistake.”

The young lady thought, “I’m very glad the handsome young soldier kissed me, but I wish grandmother hadn’t slapped his face for doing it.”

As the train flashed through the tunnel and into the sunlight, the young soldier smiled to himself and thought, “I’m sure glad I seized the opportunity to kiss this lovely young woman and slap my commanding officer across the face at the same time.”

Life promises many opportunities. So, Carpe Diem! “Seize the Day!” Seize every opportunity you get to fulfill God’s purpose for your life. There is no way to know yet what those opportunities will be. But decide right now to be a Carpe Diem kind of person. Make the most of every opportunity. God loves to help people who live with that worldview.
  
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander
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