The Pastor’s Pen By Rev. Joel Cochran The Chapel in Marlboro Your Kids Matter The words “marriage” and “family” are being redefined for us. I think it is unfortunate and confusing, especially for children. You may be expecting a column on sexual propriety. But this is about the kids. Propaganda, angry rhetoric and passion preferences aside, serious studies indicate that children raised by a man and a woman in a monogamous relationship called “marriage” benefit. Being raised in a home with both a mom and a dad is healthy. I refer you to a booklet published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is entitled The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children and is one in the Child Abuse and Neglect User Manual Series. The redefining of marriage and family is part of a radical agenda to change America. So let’s be frank: the original push for homosexual rights was about stopping discrimination and persecution, which are worthy of any person’s support. But now the agenda seems to be about abolishing the traditional understanding of marriage and family, and I think the unintended consequences will have a harmful effect upon society and children especially. The present agenda is opening the door to fatherless and motherless homes, because the homes are those of same-sex married couples. Some of these homes will seek to adopt children. With the terms marriage and family redefined, adoptions will occur with small children placed into homes with either two fathers or two mothers. They will be denied the benefit of having both a male and female parent. In 2008, then Senator Barack Obama (yes, the same one who is today President) gave a Father’s Day speech in which he said, “We know the statistics – that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.” Look, there is a point I am making: children benefit most from living in a home with a man and woman who are married. It is time to consider what is best for children, especially those hoping for adoption. Is the political agenda for children weak because they are too young to vote? Just as someone needs to speak for the unborn baby in the womb, who would cry out if she could, “Hey! Don’t abort me. I am not an inconvenience. I am your child! At 20 weeks old I feel pain!” So omeone needs to speak for the child waiting to be adopted, “Hey! Please put me in a home where I can have a good mom and a good dad, and understand what those terms mean.” This is also an appeal to traditional couples who have a child or children. Be committed to each other. Be a good dad. Be a good mom. Let your child see what it means to be male or female, and how the sexes are to interact in love and respect. The value of moms and dads living together in marriage is immeasurable in the lives of children. The statistics back this up. Common experience backs it up. Traditional marriage and family provide a strong social structure. The one man-one woman with children concept stands as the Biblical model for marriage and family. This Judeo-Christian marriage ethic is unsurpassed in providing a positive, instructive environment for raising children. This is how we are to properly understand the terms “marriage” and “family.” It was Barack Obama who emphasized that kids need dads in their lives. They also need moms. They need to learn to relate to both sexes. Be a good mom. Be a good dad. Have a committed marriage. Build a home where love and mutual respect prevails, and where God is honored. Your kids deserve it because… your kids matter.

Don’t Take That Chance The June 13, 2013 newspaper reported that a court has upheld the Obama administration’s effort to make the “morning after” pill available to youngsters (Akron Beacon Journal, page A-2). This abortifacient (abortion causing chemical/drug) is known as the Plan B Contraceptive and anyone at any age may purchase it off the shelf – or soon will be able to do so. Until now it was available without prescription only to women age 17 and older. Since some girls mature and develop reproductive ability by age 9, you may one day hear a clerk at the local drug store telling a little girl, “You will find the morning after pill down Aisle 8, between the Flintstone vitamins and Crayola crayons, Honey.” Please don’t underestimate the power of this drug: it is a killer drug. It will kill new life found within the womb and no one really knows how it will affect the youngster as her body continues to develop. It makes one wonder, “Is Doctor Frankenstein behind this?” Well no, he isn’t. But unrealized by many Americans, there are Frankenstein-like social theorists working (under camouflage banners – this one of “women’s rights”) to undermine the role of parents and their teaching of morals and values to their children. Some in government have bought into this idea. Having seen where some parents fail to properly teach their children, the assumption is that most have failed to teach their children. The solution is to let the government do it. That way, all the children of America will be taught the same things and, presumably, will think the same way. This is not a new theory. It is indoctrination through propaganda. It shuts out opposing ideas, like teaching Intelligent Design alongside materialistic Evolution as an explanation of the origin of life. But back to the Plan B Contraceptive: when the news that any girl of any age (“Mommy, I want to go to the store and buy a lollipop and a morning after pill”) was broadcast on the Today Show, Al Roker acted stunned. The friendly weatherman soberly stated, “A little disturbing. I’ve got a 14 year old daughter and I’m not comfortable with the idea that you just go and buy this. It goes to obviously other issues as well, but I think it kind of almost in a way removes the parent from part of the process.” Did you catch the essence of Mr. Roker’s concern? “It… removes the parent from … the process.” Hey Al, guess what? You got it right! Melissa Harris-Perry of the MSNBC network recently provided this insightful remark on the subtle power struggle between statists (who want to raise your child) and parents (most of whom know nothing about this relatively new effort of sabotage), “We have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.” The “whole community” is left undefined, but any one with common sense knows she means government bureaucrats and the social theorists who influence policy. How do you like knowing your son or daughter may soon be their guinea pig? Who is going to teach my son or daughter morals in this “whole community”? Hollywood film makers? Politicians? Umm, okay – I thought about it and my answer is “No, thanks.” Long ago the Lord Himself gave to parents the responsibility of providing moral and spiritual instruction to their children. “And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons (and daughters) and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up” – Deuteronomy 6:6-7. If you don’t teach your son or daughter what is morally right, then others will teach them what may be morally wrong. Don’t take that chance!