Juneteenth is our newest federal holiday and it is a welcome one. How appropriate to have a day that honors fatherhood coincide with a day that honors equal protection under the law. These are both values that trace back to Scripture and are building blocks of a just and free society.

A few months ago, our family went to a Civil War reenactment in Redlands and the volunteers said they are having a harder time recruiting new actors. Some venues have canceled their civil war re-enactments altogether because it has become too politicized. People don’t want to talk about the civil war and emancipation. But we need history books, memorials, and special holidays to remind us of what it took to obtain the freedom Americans enjoy today. All history is tainted by sin, but we can rejoice where we see evidence of God’s common grace.

Dean Nelson writes, “Juneteenth is also referred to as ‘Jubilee Day’ or ‘Freedom Day,’ and both have their root in the Biblical tradition of forgiving debts, freeing slaves (in the context of Hebrew culture, slaves had typically indentured themselves to pay off debts), and releasing prisoners every 50 years. This demonstration of forgiveness is viewed by Christians as a precursor to the ultimate forgiveness and payment of the debt of sin by Jesus on the cross. Christians in America should find it easy and natural to embrace Juneteenth as an extension of this idea.”

I read an article this morning in the HSLDA Home School Court Report about the academic achievement gap between white and minority students in the US. Some of the stats are heartbreaking.

One study shows that “Black high school students suffer significantly higher drop-out and suspension rates as compared to their White counterparts, and, in many cities, Black students were more likely to attend the cities’ lowest-scoring schools.”

In my opinion, part of this is due to a broken public school system, and part of this has to do with missing dads (Afro.com reports that sadly only 38.7% of African-American minors have both parents living at home.)

At any rate, there is good news, especially within the homeschool movement. “Black homeschooled children rank significantly higher in reading, language, and math than Black public schooled students did and are at an equal or higher rank than all public schooled students as a group are.” That is an amazing report!

Lastly, I loved this statement about homeschooling in general: “Homeschooling returns power to parents. It frees their children from detrimental school environments, tired educational approaches, and neglected opportunities, and opens up a door of possibilities, protection, and positive influences.”

Here’s the full story: https://hslda.org/post/homeschooling-bridging-the-academic-achievement-gap

#homeschooling

This morning, I got a frustrating report from Russell Moore and the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission:

For more than a month, pro-life supporters have been eagerly anticipating this day. While hundreds of thousands of us participate today in the March for Life, a newly elected, majority pro-life Congress was to vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36). This bill would have ended the legal killing of unborn children 20 weeks and older. This is the age at which unborn children are known to experience pain. The bill would have protected them from the agony of abortion. The only exceptions would have been in the cases of rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s life, the standard exceptions Congress has accepted for years.

Last night, however, in response to objections from some of their members, Republican House leadership decided to pull the bill from consideration.

What is Congress thinking?? Rape is a horrific crime, but it is no reason to kill an innocent, unborn child. Two wrongs never make a right. As Christians, we are particularly interested in the care and protection of human life. We believe that all people are created in the image of God and thus have inherent dignity and value. Proverbs 24:11-12 says, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, \’Behold, we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?” We cannot turn a blind eye, but have a duty to preserve and celebrate life whenever possible.

In response to this news, I immediately located my Representative and called and emailed his office. Here is the message I sent him. The whole thing took less than five minutes. Will you take a moment and do the same?

On Wednesday, June 26, the Supreme Court made two rulings on marriage that will profoundly impact our culture. First, they dismissed Proposition 8 for lack of legal standing and sent it back to the State of California for further review. Second, they reversed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and now offer full federal benefits to same sex couples.

Writing the Majority Opinion for United States v. Windsor, Justice Kennedy said DOMA “demeans” same sex couples and “humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same sex couples.” He implies that any opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in animus or hatred.

This poses a real problem for Christians. We are not out to “hate” or “humiliate” anyone. Yet the Bible stipulates that marriage is created by God as a permanent union between one man and one woman:

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

(See also Gen. 1:27; Ps. 128:3-4; Mt. 19:4-9; Heb. 13:4)

Furthermore, the Bible says that even the slightest drift away from God’s law is “sin”:

James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Thus, any departure from God’s holy standard of monogamous, heterosexual marriage is sin. This includes fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bisexuality, incest, polygamy, polyamory, bestiality, etc.

So here’s the dilemma. In striking down DOMA, the Supreme Court has declared same sex marriage to be a moral virtue and a constitutional right. Yet our conscience and convictions, informed by Scripture, dictate that same sex marriage is a moral evil and dishonoring to God. How should we respond?

When forced to choose between the two, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Written by God, the Bible holds the trump card, and is the final arbiter of good and evil, right and wrong. When civil authorities declare something wrong to be right, we respectfully disagree and reserve our highest allegiance for God. Unlike human governments, His laws are always good, and His laws will never change.

Related posts:

• One Flesh: God’s Design for Marriage
• Defining Marriage, pt. 2