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Morality and Decency Conference Speakers
  

 UPDATES

  December 3, 2007

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     Chasing Excitement

 

   

Police have found another young woman’s body. They think it’s Emily Sander, a missing college student in Kansas. The 18-year-old community college student apparently led a double life. She appears to be the young teenager who was also known as Zoey Zane, who posted nude photos online, appeared in two live cam shows a week and recently signed a contract for pornographic work on the Internet. She was last seen leaving a bar with a 24-year-old man whose room was later found in disarray and drenched in blood. A friend told reporters that Emily “enjoyed” posing for the pictures because “she wanted to be in the movies and she needed the extra money.” There is an ugly thread linking Emily’s apparent death to Natalee Holloway’s disappearance while on her senior trip to Aruba and to the unimaginably gruesome death in New York City last year of Imette St. Guillen after she left a bar at 4 a.m. These sorts of tragedies bring us grief –– but our grief is mixed with rage that such a thing could happen to such beautiful young women with the potential of bright futures ahead of them. Are young women not aware that there are sick, cruel, evil, perverted people in this world? Do they imagine that the mere threat of arrest or a lawsuit will protect them from these predators? Do they think that drunk or sick guys will respect a “no?” Where do they come up with the insane idea that they could “take care of themselves” in a struggle with a 250 pound brute or someone with a knife or gun or steel bar to force submission — someone who would, in addition, take pleasure in the pain inflicted by the attack. Some young people seem to have a desperate need to live life “on the edge” — to chase excitement and engage in behavior that flouts death. When they are “liquored up” they make foolish decisions to drive too fast, to take foolish risks, to go where they wouldn’t otherwise venture, to associate with dangerous people — in short, to engage in perilous activities that could, and often do, end in disaster. Those who push the idea that kids are miniature adults are not dealing with reality. Chasing Excitement, Cheating Death

 
     
   
AFTER DARK, WHAT? A bill that would strengthen a tough broadcast indecency policy is stuck in a Senate committee. Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, co-sponsored the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act to restore regulation of sex, profanity and violence on broadcast TV. But now they are dragging their feet.In June, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to strike down the Federal Communications Commission's nearly zero-tolerance policy on the broadcast of certain expletives, including so-called "fleeting uses." Networks cannot air indecent content during the "safe harbor" hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when millions of children and families are watching. The 2nd Circuit ruling could change that. Daniel Weiss, senior analyst of media and sexuality for Focus on the Family Action, said Stevens and Inouye need to be held accountable.“The entertainment industry is essentially suing for use of the f-word,” he said. “If we lose the ability to keep indecency from the airwaves, television as we know it will be finished. Instead of quality programming, we will have a stinking cesspool at all hours of the day.” Dan Isett, director of corporate and government affairs for the Parents Television Council, said FCC fines are meaningless if it doesn’t have the ability to enforce the law. “What’s really at stake today is the continued ability of the FCC to have any sort of broadcast decency enforcement," he told Family News in Focus. "The broadcast networks are asserting the 'right' to air the s- and the f-word and have even said things like the Janet Jackson incident — a strip tease in the middle of the Super Bowl — are somehow not indecent. Clearly, it’s an industry that’s lost its way and needs to be reigned in.”Weiss urges people, no matter what state they live in, to flood the senators’ state offices with calls.“We feel confident," he said, "that if we can get the bill to the floor for a vote by the full Senate, it will pass with ease."
  
 
   
   

Family Concerns

 

EFFECTIVE LIVING The Bible teaches that faith produces answered prayer. Jesus said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). I find it easier to have faith for answered prayers when I realize the magnificent power of the One to whom I'm talking. In the Book of Acts the disciples prayed, "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is" (Acts 4:24). When you pray you're actually talking to the divine Creator of this entire universe. Remember that! Too often we carry our own limitations over to God. Sometimes we know too much about the circumstances of a situation, and we have difficulty praying with faith. For example, I have a mechanical mind. Therefore, it's very difficult for me to pray for a miracle when the engine in my car won't run. I just lack the faith that God can start the car when I know quite well that the coil is weak, the points are bad, and the battery has been run down. There's no way I can pray, "O God, help this car to start!" However, my wife doesn't know a thing about mechanics. She's rarely looked under the hood of a car. She doesn't know a distributor from a carburetor or an oil dipstick from a radiator cap. So she can have great faith whenever we have trouble getting the car started. I'll say, "What are we going to do?" She'll say, "Let's pray." Effective Prayer


 
 
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