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Mark Caserta: America should refocus on family

6 Sep

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Sep. 04, 2014 @ 12:00 AM
 

How important is the family unit in our society?

Of the family, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell once said, “When you have a godly husband, a godly wife, children who respect their parents and who are loved by their parents, who provide for those children their physical and spiritual and material needs, lovingly, you have the ideal unit.”

Now God must have felt family structure was pretty important for the growth and development of a successful society. The very fact that He created man gives us reason to believe that He, himself, understood the need for relationships and the importance of family.

God instituted the family in Genesis 2:18 when He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him.” He then formed Eve from a rib of Adam as told in verses 21-24, part of which says, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

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God’s purpose was to birth a family which would not only love each other, but with whom He would also enjoy a loving relationship. Psalm 103 says, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting … and his righteousness unto children’s children” by virtue of the family.

In Ephesians, God described “love” as the delineating “fruit of the Spirit” for nurturing a true family culture. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it … That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle …”

While unrealistic in man’s eyes, with God, all things are possible.

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But while God intended the family unit to be the foundation by which His people would acquire the propensity to lead healthy, prosperous, fruitful lives and have the ability to cope with life’s demands, the traditional family structure isn’t conducive to progressive ideology and is under siege by liberals seeking to undermine its Godly foundation.

Take for example, the “ABC Family” programming channel. Originally, The Christian Broadcasting Network “Family Channel,” the network was eventually sold to Disney in 2001 and renamed. The slogan, “A New Kind of Family,” denotes its intent to desensitize our youth to the troubled lifestyles of dysfunctional families.

Studies now show that less than half of American households now contain a traditional nuclear family — father, mother and children. And more than 40 percent of children are now born into households in which no father is present.

This decline of the family in America has compounded all of the other social problems plaguing our nation. Those who haven’t been nurtured in a loving family have a void that the world will gladly fill with dangerous alternatives. And for America, that’s spelled disaster.

Our nation’s tumult must be addressed at its very epicenter, the very nucleus of humanity — the family.

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Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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20 PERCENT OF FAMILIES HAVE NO ONE WORKING

29 Apr

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CNSNews.com) – In 20 percent of American families in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), not one member of the family worked.

A family, as defined by the BLS, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000—or 20 percent–no one had a job.

The BLS designates a person as “employed” if “during the survey reference week” they “(a) did any work at all as paid employees; (b) worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm; (c) or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family.”

Members of the 16,127,000 families in which no one held jobs could have been either unemployed or not in the labor force. BLS designates a person as unemployed if they did not have a job but were actively seeking one. BLS designates someone as not in the labor force if they did not have a job and were not actively seeking one. (An elderly couple, in which both the husband and wife are retired, would count as a family in which no one held a job.)

In 20% of American Families, No One Works-1

Of the 80,445,000 families in the United States in 2013, there were 7,685,000—or about 9.6 percent—in which at least one family member unemployed.

The BLS has been tracking data on employment in families since 1995. That year, the percent of families in which no one had a job was 18.8 percent. The percentage hit an all-time high of 20.2 percent in 2011. It held steady at 20 percent in in 2012 and 2013.

The data on employment in families is based on Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey of the civilian noninstitutional population, which includes people 16 and older, who are not on active duty in the military or in an institution such as a prison, nursing home or mental hospital.

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Mark Caserta: Have Republicans again abandoned abortion message?

24 Apr

abortionApr. 24, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

It appears that once again, abortion may be missing from the national debate in an election year. And Christian conservatives have a legitimate question for GOP candidates:

Will you continue to refuse to make the issue of life or death for the most vulnerable among us table stakes for your candidacy simply for fear of alienating voters?

Please understand that while Article VI of the Constitution clearly states there shall be “no religious test” qualifying a Congressional candidate for office, this does not exempt you from certain “qualifications in principle” that Christian conservatives will refuse to compromise in November — and abortion is one of them.

And burying your pro-life position deep in your on-line profile isn’t bringing the topic to the table for discussion. It’s unacceptable that progressives have been allowed to move the standard far beyond the provisions of Roe v. Wade.

In a 7-2 opinion, the court ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees a woman’s right to an abortion. The due process clause protects a broad right to privacy that is also found in the Ninth Amendment and the penumbras of the Bill of Rights. This “substantive due process” right to privacy permits a woman to terminate her pregnancy for any reason during the first trimester. However, subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester (about 3 months) the state may reasonably regulate abortions in ways related to maternal health.

Our nation has dreadfully exceeded the parameters set by the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, according to a recent report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the United States has one of the most permissive abortion policies in the world (7 out of 198 countries) and is one of seven countries in which late-term abortions after 20 weeks (about 5 months) are allowed.

Sadly, many studies have shown that by this stage of development, a child is capable of feeling pain and women are at a greater health risk.

Often we hear pro-choice activists espouse rape, incest, genetic disability or health of the mother as primary consideration for supporting abortion on demand. But of 1,260 women surveyed in a 2004 study by The Guttmacher Institute, only 7 percent cited health concerns as their most important reason for choosing to abort their child. The majority of women actually stated a financial or lifestyle challenge as a top reason for their choice.

Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requests voluntary abortion data from across the country. While 756,651 abortions were reported in 2010, many suspect the number to be closer to 1 million babies aborted every year in the United States.

How many of God’s children who were destined to become world changers were never given the chance? How many brilliant scientists, skilled physicians or prominent leaders never escaped the womb?

Human life is a frail and precious gift of God. If GOP candidates refuse to re-introduce abortion into the discussion, then who will?

It’s time to stand up for life.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

2 Apr

A famous quote I once heard seems apropos to a movement in our nation today.

“Society’s needs come before the individual’s needs.”

For the past 50 years our society has been undergoing a transformation perpetrated by free-spirited liberals describing themselves as “progressives” and who somehow feel this moniker “more expressly” depicts their intellectual capability to adapt to our changing times.

It’s simply “second star to the right, and straight on till morning” for these unbridled Lost Boy liberals whose intent is to fundamentally change the value system of Americans by gradually tipping the scales of morality from right to left.

These self-ordained avant-gardes aspire to carry the torch of liberalism across America and into the lives of each and every family — even if it means redefining the family as we know it.

What liberals refer to as the “progressive movement” is actually the strategic desensitizing of America to the boundless immorality of the left by methodically pushing the limit on our nation’s social value system until resistance begins to waver.

Once the boundary has been destabilized, a subsequent relentless attack ensues designed to eradicate the influence of Christianity from every culpable faction in America.

Christians must also share in the blame.

When Christian conservatives fail to put their faith into action by asserting their belief system with an equal amount of fervor, they’re as guilty for relinquishing their rights as liberals are for pillaging them.

The success of the progressive movement is predicated on the understanding that the elimination of morality cannot be achieved expeditiously, but sequentially.

When Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, the restrictions on abortion varied with trimesters and the viability of the fetus in the womb. In subsequent years, we saw liberals gradually challenge these restrictions until an infant could be murdered during any period of the pregnancy — or even afterward in the case of a “botched” abortion.

Movies that now air in prime time on the ABC Family Channel, in my youth, would have been rated “R” or restricted. However, via a gradual desensitization to strategically increased levels of violence and promiscuity on television, images which would have created an outrage 20 years ago are now generally accepted.

The ABC Family programming slogan, “a new kind of family,” aptly describes what liberals refer to as “progress.”

Another prerequisite for the progressive approach to be successful is for the liberal flag to be bolstered by those who would outwardly appear as educated, well-spoken, even “spiritual” individuals.

The Gospel of Matthew warns us about these “false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Liberals understand their deception and manipulation must be disguised.

The progressive movement thrives on an incessant tenacity which does not perceive defeat as a setback, rather another step toward the metamorphosis of our society.

Liberals value this societal change over an individual’s moral compass.

Oh, the aforementioned quote: Adolf Hitler, April 12, 1921

– Mark Caserta

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