Ripped from the Headlines

Three news stories and one ad measured on the BO-radar today.
1) The Today show has changed its wedding contest rules to allow same-sex couples to participate. If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, then it's little wonder same-sex rights are becoming mainstream. The secular media and church denominations have become so accepting of such that it is eroding family values. Sorry, guys, family values are not "make your own family of whomever you want" and call it good. Sure, there is a human bond of people, but a family is still mom, dad, children. We've eliminated dads from the picture long ago, now we're working on the rest.
2) An article in today's Post-Dispatch outlines why a person has decided not to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The reason given is as follows:

I've been uneasy with it for awhile, ever since I genuinely paid attention to the fact that I've been making a loyalty oath to a political system. In my heart, my life, I want no king but Jesus, and I want no association--political, geographic, ethnic--that transcends the Kingdom of God. The tension goes far beyond a pledge, of course, The question, as Shane Claiborne says, is not whether we ARE political, but HOW we are political.

Luther reminds us in his Table of Duties that scripture says we are to submit to the governing authorities. It is not wrong to formally declare loyalty as a citizen to the United States, our government under which we live. We're not merely addressing niceties to a scrap of cloth, but saying that we will submit to the authority of "the Republic for which it stands." It's better than being deported to Russia.
3) Presbyterians in their convention supported a proposal to encourage the U.S. government to end aid to Israel if the country doesn't stop expansion into disputed territories. It's fine to be globally concerned as a church body, but maybe the Presbyterians should work on getting their doctrine and church body in order before worrying about international incidents which do not involve them. Work, instead to realign your doctrine and practice. I encourage all church bodies so to do.
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