Posted on 09/24/2003 8:21:32 AM PDT by xzins
In January of this year, 2003, a bill was introduced both in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives which would re-institute the military draft. This bill would not only allow the government to draft our sons however (as bad as that is itself), but it would also allow the government to draft our daughters into the military for two years. Recently, I was listening to a Christian radio talk show discussing this bill. The question laid out to the Christian men was - what do you think about the government wanting to draft your daughters into the military for two years? I was appalled and amazed by the responses I heard. All of the callers except one thought it would be just fine for the government to take their daughters for two years. A few of the common responses given for such thinking were - “We live in different times now” and “The women wanted this equality, so it’s only fair” and “With all the government does for us, we should be willing to let them (our daughters) give two years of their life for them.” As I listened to caller after caller, Christian man after Christian man, declare how willing they were to give up their daughters to the government for two years, I realized how far gone we are as a nation. When Christian men can speak this way about their daughters they have lost a godly affection for their daughters. When you hear this kind of perverse talk, American men have forgotten their God-given function as fathers. What has made American men this way? Why do they no longer have a godly affection for their daughters? Why don’t they know how to function as fathers? There are two main causes. Number One: American men no longer have a godly affection for their daughters and have forgotten their roles as father because the way that Americans raise their children causes an unnatural separation between parent and child. This is seen from an early age. Many men have their wives return to work after their maternal leave time expires after giving birth to their child. So the child is taken away from the parents and goes to daycare. When the child turns four or five, they are off to the government school. Again, the child is separated from the parents, and this continues to adulthood. Most men send their children away from them at church too. They don’t act as priests in their homes and instruct their children in the faith, rather they dump them off on the church with it’s host of kiddy programs to supposedly do the job. This bill would allow the government to draft our daughters into the military for two years. When the child gets older, most men allow their daughters to date. They send them away with a young man alone, rather than establishing some form of godly courtship, hence denying their role as protector. Finally, most men want their daughters out of the house once they turn eighteen. Most do so by sending their daughters away to the university. This is how most American men raise their children and rule their homes. This is how most Christian men raise their children and rule their homes. My point is that this causes an unnatural separation between parent and child. Because of the separation which has been occurring since a young age and throughout the child’s life, it is easy for a man to say - “With all the government does for us, of course I’m willing to let them have my daughter for two years.” It’s easy because he’s already been separated from her all his life! Number Two: American men no longer have a godly affection for their daughters and have forgotten their roles as father because the State has become father. Men are to be providers, protectors, and priests to their homes. Most men no longer know or exercise these roles as father because the State has assumed the role of father. Herbert Schlossberg, in his book Idols for Destruction, best defines my assertion here. Schlossberg states: Rulers have ever been tempted to play the role of father to their people. The father is the symbol not only of authority but also of provision. “Our Father who art in heaven...Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt.6:9,11). Looking to the State for sustenance is a cultic act [an act of worship]; we learn to expect food from parents, and when we regard the State as the source of physical provision we render to it the obeisance of idolatry. The crowds who had fed on the multiplied loaves and fishes were ready to receive Christ as their ruler, not because of who He was but because of the provision. John Howard Yoder has rightly interpreted that scene: “The distribution of the bread moved the crowd to acclaim Jesus as the new Moses, the provider, the Welfare King whom they had been waiting for.” This statement by Schlossberg encapsulates what I mean when I say the State has become father. Men no longer know what it means to be men or fathers anymore because the State has become father. They’re still dependent little boys who’ve never grown up. All is taken care of for them. They’ve never learned what responsibility means because the State takes care of every desire, whim and need. Men have a duty as fathers to be providers, protectors, and priests to their homes, The draft is the ultimate expression and evidence that the State has assumed the role of father. and the State wants to take that out of men’s hands and assume the roles of father. Schlossberg goes on to state: The tyrant Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, in 301 A.D., declared the State to be “the watchful parents of the whole human race.” The State wanting to take our daughters away and draft them into the military is the ultimate expression and evidence that the State believes it is father, and has assumed the role of father. When Christian men allow the State to get away with this, they have abrogated their God-given duty and roles as fathers.
The paternal State not only feeds its children, but nurtures, educates, comforts, and disciplines them, providing all they need for their security. Once we sink to that level, as C.S. Lewis says, there is no point in telling state officials to mind their own business. “Our lives are their business.” The paternalism of the State is that of a bad parent who wants his children dependent on him forever. That is an evil impulse. The good parent prepares his children for independence, trains them to make responsible decisions, knows that he harms them by not helping them to break loose. The paternal State thrives on dependency. When the dependents free themselves, it loses power. It is, therefore, parasitic on the very persons whom it turns into parasites. Thus, the State and its dependents march symbiotically to destruction.
Sorry, wrong guy. Never had a daughter.
I think your replying to the wrong person...
'Serving "BIG MOTHER" is at the 'welfare'......Rules........very own Altar.
Welcome to Pagan 'statism'.
:-(
Maranatha!!
(Romans 10:17)
Nevertheless, males are irrelevant to the equation. Women are the ones "throwing the switch" for women.
You mean, God Forbid, performing tasks like sorting mail and manning switchboards? Stuff like that? Man, that is chilling!
Hey, you been out of the house lately? More than half the students in med school are women. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!
I would be interested in his Biblical references for what constitutes godly or ungodly courtship.
I'd have to disagree. For a very long time, men held all the political power (and still hold an awful lot of it). It is primarily men who have changed public policy and law which facilitated the movement along the 'feminist' line. At the time, they probably thought they were doing the right thing.
When men who profess Christ express the ideas in this article, we can fall no farther; we are the mud at the bottom of the cesspool.
American men are not culpable for what American women demanded. You might as well blame the homeowner for allowing himself to be burgled. That those same women didn't comprehend the full implications of what they demanded still has nothing to do with men.
And your rationale for that statement is...?
Like it or not, submission is a two way street. Men can not lead when women won't follow.
Wrong. Women have been told they want to supplant men. And weak women, young women and idiot women have believed them.
This benefits men, primarily.
Enter the pill; exit men's responsibility.
Enter no-fault divorce; exit men's responsibility.
Enter women in combat; exit men's responsibility.
Enter welfare; exit men's responsibility.
Enter women in the work force; exit men's responsibility.
See a pattern here?
The powers that be, whomever, want all these things in order to keep everyone busy, anxious, tied to the state, easily-distracted, exhausted and pliable.
And it begins in the cradle. When women leave the child-rearing to strangers, they raise strangers.
Yes. I see a pattern of you advocating a doctrine to absolve women of responsibility for their corporate actions.
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