What is Free Speech???

This "free speech" thing with high school student Emily Sullivan is under my skin!  Lets talk about it, shall we?  First, lets review what happened according to news reports.  This student was at a school sponsored field trip to the capital.  While on this field trip Miss Sullivan reportedly "tweeted" that she made a disrespectful remark to Governor Sam Brownback.  Reportedly the governors staff saw the tweet and contacted the school district to have the student apologize for making the remark.  By the way, the remark was so out of line I will not repeat it here, but all of the major news outlets have reported on it; so you can see it there.  After being confronted by the school district Miss Sullivan refused to apologize stating she has the "right to free speech".  After much more news coverage than is necessary both the governor and the school district apologized to the student for infringing on her right to free speech.

Now, first of all.  The company I work for has a document that states that when we are on company time, or at a company sponsored event we are to represent the company in a positive and professional manner.  Miss Sullivan was at a school sponsored event to the capital building.  Does the Shawnee Mission School District have such a policy in place?  After reviewing the SMSD website I found the policies to be vague at best.  The use of electronic devices is prohibited during the school day as defined by the building administration.  I found no policy in place for the use of such devices during school activities.  I found this statement under the heading student conduct.  The Superintendent of Schools, or his designee, is hereby authorized to promulgate and enforce reasonable guidelines, procedures and rules governing student management and conduct in the schools.  Procedures and guidelines shall be established to assist all school employees in proper student management.  Those procedures and guidelines are printed and distributed annually and are available in the principal's office.  The Board favors all possible measures for the reform of delinquent or misbehaving students and their retention in school.  However, the welfare of other students and the best interests of the School District must also be considered.  Once again, very vague.  And that is by design I am sure.  But according to this statement it is up to the superintendent or his/her designee to enforce reasonable guidelines.  Would you say that it is a reasonable guideline not to insult a sitting governor?  If while I was at my company sponsored event and I made a disrespectful remark about my company or it's leadership, it could be concluded that I did not represent my company in a professional manner.  I am on their time and under their rules for my conduct, so I should suffer the penalties that would be enforced for that conduct.  Even if I made such a remark on a social networking site or not.  Just because I type it on a site doesn't remove my responsibility for obeying the rules that are in place, free speech or not.


The topic of discussion seems to be the use of social networking.  If that is the case, then it's just like me actually saying something.  So if she actually spoke to the governor and said what she said, that would be wrong; but if she posts the same remark on a social networking site that's OK because of our right to free speech.  This could not be further from the truth!  


Now, according to the news reports she never actually told the governor anything.  This entire mess is predicated on a lie!  The one thing that is missing from this mess is, where are the parents?  Since when is it OK for our children to insult anyone, either with the use of social networking or not!  This entire thing is a terrible display of free speech.  Kind of like that cult in Topeka that picket military funerals, of which I will not even speak their name.  And now this student is hailed as a hero, a champion for free speech.  Are you kidding me.  

Listen, we do have the right as citizens of this country to say what we want, when we want.  That being said, that doesn't mean we should.  This student verbally insulted the sitting governor of a state, while on a school trip to the capital.  I don't believe she has the right to do that.  I do not like President Obama, I don't like anything he stands for.  I don't like one thing he has done while in office.  But it bothers me when people and especially those in the media that refer to him as Obama.  The man is the President of the United States and you may not like the man, you may not like his politics, but you will respect the position that he holds.  This student, or any other student should be subject to the rules that are in place; even if it is done through a social site or not.  The fact is, she broke the rules; plain and simple in my view.  But the district didn't have the backbone to enforce "reasonable guidelines, procedures and rules governing student management and conduct".  And that is a shame.

I'm still alive

I find a bit of irony in the fact that in my last post I spoke of trying to be more diligent in my blogging.  Fact is life happens!  In the search and eventually moving into a new home, pregant wife and a child having surgery; time is very valuable. 

Having said that, my study time has suffered.  I will need to go back and read the first few chapters of the book again.  And the stinker about that is I was already ahead two or three chapters so I would have time to pray about what to say about what I have read.  Go through the Bible passages and see if I would agree or not with what was said in the book. 

So hopefully I can be more consistent about studying, and posting about this very important subject.

PF

Chapter 1 continued

     In an effort to complete this book study before I expire, I have committed myself to update my blog at least every other week.  Just as I type this my daughter comes downstairs and asks me to make her some breakfast.  A daddy's work is never done.  :)

      In my last post the book talked about not being unequally yoked with another in marriage, and nothing could be more true.  But there are plenty of other things that a Christian husband must be.  He must be committed to biblical headship (Ephesians 5:23), he must welcome children (Psalm 127:3-5), he must be a suitable priest (Joshua 24:15), prophet (Ephesians 6:4), protector (Nehemiah 4:13-14), and provider (1 Timothy 5:8, Titus 2:5).  As I read ahead in the book, the author goes into greater detail on each of these areas.  So in an effort to complete the first chapter, we continue.

     The chapter continues with a burden for multigenerational legacy.  A burden for our daughters to stop being "thrown to the wolves", as the author says.  I have witnessed this first hand in some of my co-workers.  These men wonder why their daughters cannot find a good man, when the father hasn't taught them what to look for.  Not only that, the father admits that he doesn't want his daughter with a man like him!!  What ever happened to being the example!  These young women have suffered physical and emotional abuse and financial ruin, and their fathers are clueless.  Lord help us!

       The fact is that every family has a multigenerational legacy, I just desire to change mine.  I know of so many families that divorce is present, children born out of wedlock; drugs and booze are the norm.  I have witnessed this in my own family.  The author goes into detail of the ravages of sin that has made it's way through his family.  It's very sad, but very much the norm.  It is my prayer that through Christ I can be better at being a father.  At being a better husband, and most importantly being what God has for me to be; and giving Him the glory.

PF

      

Chapter 1 continued

     In my last post I talked about having a multigenerational vision and Exodus 20:5-6.  Coming from a broken home, being saved by grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and having a great conviction for my children's lives; how do I teach them what to look for in a suitable husband or wife?  The answer is I must be what they are looking for.  I must be the example of what my sons must become.  I must become what my daughter should look for in a suitable husband.  My greatest ministry to my children is thru my marriage to their mother. 

     In my home growing up, I don't remember an example of love being present.  What I mean is, I don't ever remember my step father showing any kind of affection to my mother; at least where we could see it.  And there was no fatherly love shown toward any of my brothers or step sisters.  Raising us was looked at, and I hear this alot from unsaved parents in my own family; as an 18 year sentence to be endured.   Lord help us!!  Children are the greatest gift that God can give us outside of salvation.  If I can't minister to them or to their mother, then how am I supposed to minister to anyone else?   It is the lack of fatherly love in the home that has resulted in the statistics listed in my last post.  We cannot send our sons and daughters out into the world and hope they find someone good.  So how do I become the example of a father with a biblical view of marriage, love and fatherhood?  Thankfully God has clearly spelled this out in His Word.

     You, and therefore a suitable husband or wife;  must be a Christian (2 Corinthians 6:14).  "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?  and what communion hath light with darkness?"  This was a reference to teaming animals together of unequal strength and size.  Deuteronomy 22:10 " Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together."  This was unworkable and most often resulted in injury to the weaker or smaller animal.  But the reference to light and darkness is clearly spiritual.  We are not to join ourselves together with unbelievers in the union of marriage.  We live in a world that is filled with unbelievers, all the more important to teach our children 2 Corinthians 6:14.  If they cannot be united together in Christ, how can they be united together in raising and training their children?  Being unequally yoked together is wrong, inconsistent and unscriptural. 

     It is my prayer that I can "cast of the works of darkness..", the darkness that has filled my life growing up.  That I can keep that darkness from filling the childhood of my children, and that I can train them to "put on the armour of light."  Amen.

Chapter 1 - Multigenerational Vision

Just take a moment and think about the gravity of that statement, multigenerational vision.  Then read from God's word Exodus 20:5-6.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (6) And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Do you now realize the gravity of having a multigenerational vision.  I have to admit when I first read it I said to myself "OK, that sounds good."  But after reading God's word on the subject I am now aware of the results of not having a multigenerational vision.  Most importantly one centered on Christ.  The following is taken from "Understanding the Bible".

generation of them

God is jealous of His

honor and glory. No other in the universe deserves the glory due

to God and He is jealous (in a holy fashion) when wicked men

divert the glory due His name to a false or demonic god. It is in

that context that God vowed to visit “the iniquity of the fathers

upon the children unto the third and fourth

that hate me.” God does not punish the children for the sins of

the fathers. However, the sins of the fathers will influence and

affect their children to three and four generations. God therefore

announced that the sins of the fathers, reproduced in their

children, would extend to three and four generations and God

would deal accordingly with each generation. A sober principle

is at hand how that sin will influence children, grandchildren,

and even great grandchildren.

How's that for conviction!  If verse 5 and the following commentary doesn't grab you by the shirt collar and scream "WAKE UP!!", I'm not sure what else will.  Our country is rotting from the inside out.  Families by the generations are being consumed by the sins that this world so freely offers us.  The idols of sport and reality television, divorce and infidelity are killing our children by the generations.  Statistics show that 70% of all males serving long term prison sentences are products of fatherless homes.  Also a fact, 75% of all children from fatherless homes will experience poverty before the age of 11.   Fathers, or soon to be fathers; WAKE UP!!  "...for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;"  

But praise the Lord we have verse 6 - "And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." 

Father, it is my prayer that anyone who reads this will trust in your saving grace today.  That they will come to know that their sins will send them to the second death, the lake of fire.  But if they confess their sins, and trust in the death, burial and ressurection of your son Jesus Christ that their souls will forever be secured by You.  Lord, give every christian father the strength to "...cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."  Amen.

More to come on chapter 1,

PF  

WOW!! It's been a while.

     I didn't think it would take this long to post something else.  Actually I have been busy with family things and winter sickness that happens when you have little ones in the house. 
     So what have I been doing?  I am currently studying a book by Voddie Baucham titled "What he must be if he wants to marry my daughter".  So I know what your thinking, Phil, your daughter is three years old, isn't it kind of early to be thinking about that.  I guess you would be right if you look at it that way.  But as you might guess if you know me, I don't look at it that way.  My son is eight, so if this book contains teaching about what a man must be to marry my daughter, then it contains what my son must be if he is to find a suitable wife.  And if this book contains direction for my son, then it contains teaching for me to be the example that I must be in order to teach him those things.  And if that is the case, then it can teach me what I am to be for my wife.  There's more than one way to read a book!  I have read the book through once, but now I am going back and actually studying it.  I am only on chapter 3, but it is going well so far.  I find it easier to read a book through first and then go back and study it, taking notes, asking questions and so forth.  
     So what else is new?  My schedule has changed at work so I plan on posting something every week about this time.  At least that is my plan anyway.  Hopefully next post I will have something prepared from my study to share with you.  Not that there is anyone else but my wife that even knows about this blog.  My one and only follower, love you!! 

PF
 

I have started a blog

I am just playing with this.  This is to see how the text and layout look like when I put them on the page.  I have now idea how to do this.  It seems complicated, but I am sure that I can figure it out.  I guess we are getting ready to find out!!